VOTES and PROCEEDINGS, November Session, 1800.
77
Mr. Mercer, from the committee, delivers to the speaker
the following report:
THE committee to whom were referred the petitions
of sundry inhabitants of Kent, Queen-Anne's, Talbot,
Caroline and Dorchester counties, praying that a law may pass prohibiting
the transportation of slaves out of this
state, having given the same that serious consideration which the importance
of the subject merits, submit the
following report: They consider the property acquired in slaves
by the citizens of Maryland, under the faith of
laws existing before the revolution, and sanctioned by experts compact
on the dissolution of the old, and adoption
of the new, government, as resting on the general basis of property,
secured by society to its individual members,
under limitations, one of the most essential of which is, that where
the rights of the individual are to be resumed
by the public for the general advantage, a reasonable compensation
should be made. They presumed not to
meddle with abstract questions on natural right, or to deny the legislative
competency to meet any great and
general regulation of civil policy, which the uncertain events attending
every social institution, (particularly one
so circumstanced as your own,) may at any time hereafter render indispensable;
but as they are not aware of the
propriety or necessity of such at present, they cannot consent generally
to prohibit that use of their property,
which the necessity of owners may render indispensable, necessities
that must continually arise under the obligations
of those laws which contemplate the legality and value of that species
of property; nor do they believe
that the transportation of the blacks to a warmer climate, more congenial
to their physical constitution, is either
inhuman as it respects themselves, or impolitic as it regards the state;
they consider the gradual diminution of
the number of those persons, so distinguished by nature from the rest
of the community, and a proportional supply
in their place, by the substitution of white yeomanry, as an object
highly desirable, and worthy of promotion.
They are also impressed, that the security and quiet
of our constituents, and even motives of humanity to the
slaves, impose on this legislature the imperative duty of discountenancing
all representations to this body, which
inculcate or admit an idea of apprehension to be entertained from this
unfortunate race, who were found to be
wholly insignificant, even during the revolution, when the union and the
power of the United States were feeble,
and when powerful hostile foreign armies, aided by domestic enemies, afforded
means and temptation that cannot,
in the nature of things, recur; and to repress, with severity, all public
discourses tending to encourage a spirit
that may eventuate, in the first instance, in partial and momentary outrages,
calamitous perhaps to a few citizens,
but which ultimately must terminate in the ruin of the hopes, and aggravation
of all the disadvantages, to which
this race are now exposed.
But your committee, impressed as they are with these
considerations, cannot for a moment doubt that the right
of property in slaves, as exercised in this state, is, and ought to
be, a limitted right--limitted by the laws of
humanity and Christianity. The legislature are bound to repress the
vices of cruelty and inhumanity, and to
encourage the virtues of philanthropy, benevolence and Christian charity;
and whilst they would refuse to
prohibit generally the sale and transportation of slaves to the southern
states, they are willing so far to restrain
the same, as to prevent the violation of those ties of nature which even
savage man respects, and which civilised
society should protect with a religious reverence; they therefore submit
the following resolution:
RESOLVED, That a law should pass, prohibiting, under
sufficient penalties, the sale of any slave or slaves for
the purpose of transporting him, her or them, out of this state, and from
transporting the same, whereby an
acknowledged husband or wife, according to the customary relations that
obtain among slaves, may be separated
from each other, or whereby a mother may be separated from her child or
children under ----- years of age,
unless it be in consequence of the commission of some crime or offence.
By order,
J. S. BETTON, clk.
Which was read.
The bill to lay out and open a road from the town of
Westminster, in Frederick county, to the city of Washington,
was read the second time, and the question put, That the said bill
do pass? The yeas and nays being
required, appeared as follow:
A F F I
R M A T
I V E.
Messieurs
Neale,
Hebb,
Angier,
Parker,
Chambers,
Carcaud, |
Estep,
Stuart,
Chapman,
McPherson,
Jones,
Hyland, |
Edmondson,
Dashiell,
Holbrook,
Steele,
Sheredine, |
Miller,
Marbury,
Lowrey,
Purnell,
Shriver,
|
Hawkins,
Nelson,
Kemp,
E. Davis,
Montgomery,
|
Clarke,
Douglas,
Smith, of Balt.
Smith, of Wash.
Magruder,
|
T. Davis,
Veatch,
Cresap,
Cresap, of Mich.
Gebhart.
37.
|
N E G A
T I V E.
Messieurs
Harwood,
Mercer,
Dorsey, |
Parran,
Lemmon,
Stansbury, |
Love,
Denny,
Quynn, |
Johnson,
Thompson,
Street, |
Bond,
Mason,
|
Orrell,
Geoghegan, |
Cromwell,
Simkins.
18.
|
So it was resolved in the affirmative.
Sent to the senate by the clerk.
On the second reading of the supplement to the act
for the relief of sundry insolvent debtors, the question was
put, That the clauses imposing a tax of five dollars on each insolvent
debtor, to be paid to the register, and by
him paid over to the treasurer as other taxes, which shall be paid
by the treasurer to the chancellor in addition
to his salary, be struck out of the said bill? The yeas and nays
being required, appeared as follow:
V
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