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The motion was agreed to, and then, on motion of Mr.
Page, the committee asked to be discharged from the
further consideration of the subject.
The report was concurred in, and the Convention then
took up the first section of the supplementary legislative
report, as follows:
"No person shall be deemed incompetent as a witness
on account of race or color, unless hereafter so declared
by act of the General Assembly. "
Mr. Peters moved to amend by providing that no per-
son shall be deemed incompetent, &c., after the year 1967.
Mr. Peters would not have offered the amendment but
that he and those who were opposed to this section had
been denied the courtesies of debate. He proposed, how-
ever, not to speak of this, but to give the fundamental
objections which he had to this provision. It was a mean
cringing to the Yankee Congress, and the high-toned
people of this State would not countenance them in the
act. It was a carrying out of the infamous civil rights
bill.
Mr. Nelson would not rise to address the Convention on
this subject if it was not one of greatest moment to the
people of Maryland. He thought he was not mistaken in
saying that his constituents were opposed to negro suf-
frage. This question had not been submitted to the peo-
ple; and although there were those who counseled that
this Convention should rise superior to the people and do
what was right, but whether right or not, he could not
vote for the measure without instructions from his con-
stituents, or until they have had a chance to let their
sentiments be known.
He (Mr. N. ) was in a minority here on this subject,
and the gentleman from Somerset (Mr. Jones) charged
that their opposition was founded on prejudice only, but
if the fifteen minutes' rule did not shut him off he thought
he would be able to convince the gentleman that this op-
position was not founded on prejudice. The gentleman in
his researches had gone back to 1638, and had asserted
that there was no distinction on account of color in the
common law of England. He granted that there was no
distinction so far as a witness was concerned as to color,
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