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departments that were held by the superintendent. He
would read from the report of the superintendent of Anne
Arundel county that "in former times a teacher could be
appointed by the influence of friends, and if incompetent
would waste the school money, but this could not occur
under the present system. "
In reply to this, he held in his hand a petition which
had been signed by the parents and guardians of 48 school
districts of Anne Arundel, protesting against the appoint-
ment as a teacher of a young man who was well known to
them, having grown up among them, and they knew his
moral and intellectual attainments, and yet in the face of
this protest this young man had been appointed.
His people wanted this system gotten rid of, and had
the same right to come here and ask it of this Convention
as Baltimore had to ask her separate system.
Mr. K. read from the report of the superintendent for
Kent county that the opposition to the system was found-
ed on prejudice, not on reason, &c.
Mr. Massey said it was false.
Mr. Kilbourn said the system was obnoxious to the
whole people of Maryland, it had its origin in the same
body which disfranchised the best citizens of the State,
and was a part of the same scheme.
The reports from other counties were also read by Mr.
K., who said that the great burden of them all was to
raise more money and to build more schoolhouses, and al-
luded to the power vested in the school boards of each
county to borrow money, and asked whether they were
willing to give this power. It was the system he was
speaking of, not the officers. He only attacked the sys-
tem, and he asked the gentlemen from Baltimore city if
they were willing to suffer the counties to run the risk
of being impoverished, and appealed to the Convention to
terminate the existence of this system forever.
Mr. McMaster rose to say that there was at least one
county in the State of Maryland that was in favor of the
present school system. In his county, (Worcester, ) when
this system was first introduced, it was unpopular, and
this was doubtless owing somewhat to prejudice, but this
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