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A bill, entitled, An act to lay out and open a road from the town of
Westminster, in Frederick county, to the state, passed at November session, seventeen hundred and ninety, after the first year, is inadequate to the services required of him, RESOLVED, That the said trustee shall be entitled to receive, as an additional compensation for his services for the present year, the sum of two hundred dollars. By order, W. HARWOOD, clk. and city council of Baltimore, the sum of two thousand dollars, to be applied by the said corporation to the relief of such persons as are or may be in a suffering condition from the effects of the yellow fever which has lately prevailed in said city. By order, W. HARWOOD, clk. Which were severally read the first time and ordered to lie on the table. The following messages and bills therein mentioned: WE disagree to the amendments proposed to the act to alter such parts of the constitution and form of government as relate to voters and qualification of voters, and particularly that to be inserted from the word "age" in the sixth line of the first page to the word "shall" in the eighth line of the same page, to wit: Having resided within this state two years, and in the county in which he offers to vote three months, next preceding the election, and having, within twelve months next preceding the election, been charged with a state or county tax in the assessment or tax book of such county, or, in case of removal from one county to another, having the time aforesaid been charged with such tax in the assessment or tax book of the county of his last residence. If we agree to your amendment, which makes it an indispensable qualification that the voter shall be charged with a state or county tax, or on the tax book of the county, the following consequence will ensue, many men, who are now under the constitution entitled to the right of suffrage, will then be excluded, because, many individuals possess the sum of thirty pounds who are not, nor cannot, agreeable to law, be assessed at all; then so far from extending the privileges of voting, it will tend to curtail it, and the object of the bill destroyed. When we consider ourselves the guardians of the rights and privileges of the people of this state, we cannot agree that the right of suffrage, a right inestimable to free men, should be dependent on any partial assessment law which any future legislature may think proper to adopt, which we conceive must be the case should we agree to the above amendments. We find that the framers of our constitution have wisely inserted the qualifications of voters in the constitution of this state, and in consequence of it, the qualification in some measure becomes permanent, and cannot be altered without the cool, deliberate and determinate concurrence of two succeeding legislatures; but if the qualifications be ascertained by an assessment bill, which may be altered without those formalities necessary to alter the constitution, the inestimable privilege of suffrage becomes then dependent on the sudden caprice and passion of future legislatures. Under those reflections, gentlemen, we have taken the liberty to address you, hoping, that on reconsideration you will be sensible of the propriety of the above observations, and will recede from the amendments. By order, W. HARWOOD, clk. WE have sent you back the bill, entitled, A supplement to the act for the promotion of literature in this state, for reconsideration; it contains provisions of great and serious importance, as it is predicated upon the unequivocal principle of promoting and disseminating useful knowledge. The delegation from the counties to which the bill extends, have but one opinion upon the propriety, the usefulness and preference of two seminaries, as contemplated by the bill, instead of one on the principle of the act passed in 1798. And they have no hesitation in making declaration that their sentiments on this subject will be approbated by them. |
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Proceedings of the Senate, 1800
| Volume 93, Page 36 View pdf image (33K) |
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