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What change would be made in political economy by
making a smaller county? The lines would be changed,
and that was all; the protecting hand of the State would
not extend further into a small county than in a large one.
Was there any reason why wealth and prosperity should
accrue to a smaller county than a large one? Howard
county was not wealthy because it had been made into a
small county; not so; it was made into a small county
because it was wealthy. Why were not Caroline and Tal-
bot and St. Mary's—all small counties—why were they
not wealthy? Why was Baltimore county—the largest
county in the State—the most wealthy in the State, and
this, too, in proportion to its extent and population ? The
wealth and prosperity of a county, small or large, de-
pended on the character of the people, the agricultural
resources, and the facilities of transportation. His col-
league, as the last argument, had said that he and the
people of his section had been hewers of wood and drawers
of water for the rest of the county long enough, and that
they wanted this change. His colleague (Mr. Rider) was
not yet in the prime of life, and had represented Somerset
county in this hall more than any other man in the county
of his age, and the district from which he came had fur-
nished as many officeholders as any other district of the
State, and in view of this it was hard to understand
what his colleague meant by hewers of wood and drawers
of water. Did his colleague, when he got his new county,
want a life tenure of office ?
Mr. P. then gave a statement of the relative black and
white population of the counties of Somerset and Wor-
cester, and said if the new county was formed it would
leave in each of those counties less than 10, 000 of white
population, and a preponderance of black, and if negro
suffrage was enforced, it would hand over the control cf
that section of the State to the tender mercies of negro-
loving abolitionists, and he asked if this Convention was
prepared to do this ?
Mr. Rider said if there was any party to be interested
it was those who lived within the proposed limits of the
new county, and who were to be effected by the increased
taxation. It had never been proposed to form a new
county which did not meet with a storm of opposition
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