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Proceedings and Debates of the 1850 Constitutional Convention
Volume 101, Volume 1, Debates 125   View pdf image
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125

lets a meeting of the General Assembly maj in-
tervene, or the vacancy shall occur during the
session of the General Assembly, the election to
fill the same shall take place on the day of the
ensuing general el es tion.
Sec 3] st. The senators and delegates shall re-
ceive inch compensation for their services as
may be allowed by law; but no law increasing
or diminishing the compensation shall be made
to take effect until after the general elections
next ensuing the passage thereof. No book or oth-
er printed matter not appertaining to the business
of the session, shall be subscribed for, for the use
of the members, or be distributed among them.
Sec. S2nd. No law passed by the General As-
sembly shall lake effect until the expiration of
days, from the closing of the ses-
sions at which it may be passed, unless it be ex-
pressly declared on the face of the law, that it
shall take effect on or after a different day; and
no law of a public nature shall take effect until the
same shall be published.
Sec. 33rd. The General Assembly shall have
full power to exclude from the privilege of vot-
inj at elections, or of being elected to either
House, or of being elected or appointed to any
civil or military office in this State, any person
convicted of perjury, bribery, or other infamous
crime.
Sec. 34th. The General Assembly may confer
upon of the several
counties such powers of local legislation and ad-
ministration as they may prescribe, provided
however, that all laws conferring such powers
shall be general in their nature, and shall extend
to all the counties of the State.
Sec. 35th. Every bill passed by the General
Assembly, when engrossed, shall be presented by
the Speaker of the House of Delegates, in the
Senate chamber, to the Governor for the time
being, who shall sign the same, and thereto affix
the great seal in the presence of the members of
both Houses; every law shall be recorded in the
office of the court of Appeals of the Western
Shore, and in due time be printed, published and
certified under the great seal to the several
county courts in the same manner as has been
heretofore usual in this State.
Sec. 36th. No person who may hereafter be
a collector, receiver or holder of public moneys,
shall have a seat in either House of the General
Assembly or be eligible to any office of profit or
trust under this State until he shall have ac-
counted for agd paid into the Treasury all sums
for which he may be liable.
Sec. 37th. All laws and parts of laws not in-
consistent with this' constitution, shall con-
tinue in force according to their respective pro-
visions, subject nevertheless to be altered,
amended or repealed by the General Assembly.

MASTER AND SLAVE-

Mr. JENIFER rose, he said, to make a report
from Committee No. 14, (being the Committee
to consider and report such provisions proper to
be embodied in a Constitution for the State, as
had not been embraced in resolutions referred to
other Committees.)

He was not in his seat yesterday, at the time
the gentleman from Baltimore city, (Mr. PRESST-
MAN,) offered a resolution in the following words:
"Resolvtd, That the Legislature shall not pass
any law to abolish the relation of master and
slave, as it now exists in this State, and that the
Committee on the Legislative Department be in-
structed to report an article to carry out this
provision."
I take it for granted [continued Mr. J.] that
my friend from Baltimore city was not aware of
the fact, that a similar resolution which I will
now read, was ottered by myself some time since,
and referred to the Committee No. 14. It is in
these words :
"Resolved, That Committee No. 14, consider and
report upon the expediency of engraftisg in the
new Constitution, the same or a similar article
as is contained in the present Constitution, res-
pecting the relation of roaster and slave." [See
Journal, Dec. 16, page 173.]
Mr. PRESSTMAN. Mine was an entirely differ-
ent proposition
Mr. JENIFER (apparently not hearing the in-
terruption) proceeded to say, that the Commit-
tee had had the subject under consideration, and
had instructed him to make a report.
Mr. J. presented the following report:
"The relation of master and slave in this State
shall not be abolished, unless a bill to abolish the
same, shall be passed by a unanimous vote of the
members of each branch of the General Assem-
bly, and shall be published at least three months
before a new election of Delegates, and shall be
confirmed by a unanimous vote of the members
of each branch of the General Assembly, at the
next regular constitutional session, after such
new election, nor then without full compensation
to the master for the property of which he shall
be thereby deprived.'1
Mr. PRESSTMAN explained, that the subject
matter had, in the first place, been referred to the
Committee on the Legislative Department and
had subsequently, on the gentleman's own mo-
tion, been sent to the Committee of which the gen-
tleman himself was Chairman, and, besides that,
the resolution which he, [Mr. PRESSTMAN,] had
yesterday introduced, was not similar either in
principle or phraseology to the order which the
gentleman had read. His [Mr. P's.] resolution did
not propose to engraft upon the new Constitu-
tion a provision similar to that which now exist-
ed, but went a great deal further and declared
that there should be no alteration by the Legisla-
tive Department in the relation of master and
slave.
Some conversation passed between Mr. JENI-
FER and Mr. PRESSTMAN, of which the Reporter
[having been interrupted] knows nothing.
On motion of Mr. JENIFER, the report was
made the order of the day tor Monday the third
day of February.

BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS.

Mr. JENIFER also referred to the resolution
which had yesterday been adopted on motion of
Mr. MERRICK, directing Committee No. 14, to



 

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Proceedings and Debates of the 1850 Constitutional Convention
Volume 101, Volume 1, Debates 125   View pdf image
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