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Mr. DIRICKSON resumed. He was still unable
to perceive the nice distinction which the honora-
ble gentleman had in fancy drawn. To his mind
the terms compact, contract, and agreement had
one common and general meaning, conveyed one
general and common idea. If there was the
least distinction, it was certainly too slight to hang
an argument upon. The same reasoning would
apply as properly to the one as the other. Among
men, as individuals, an agreement was styled a
contract, and it only assumed the more dignified
and sounding appellation of compact, when in-
serted in the more solemn instrument that bound
together a sovereign people. Sir, we are not
here to discuss such slight and trifling distinctions
— but for the higher and loftier purpose of fram-
ing a Constitution for a prosperous and growing
people. And what, he asked, is the object and
end of all Constitutions? To draw men together
by a closer bond of union — to harmonise the
social world — to secure individual rights, and
more than all, to protect minorities from the
strong arm of the many. This was its hallowed
purpose and glorious design. Are gentlemen
then willing to give countenance to a principle,
that must defeat its every object — recognize with-
out limitation the power of a lawless majority,
which may set at defiance every right by us pre-
scribed? If this new doctrine is to meet your
sanction and approval, why are we here to rea-
son together? Why has every community and
section of Maryland, sent forth its Delegate to
this high and wise conclave ? Why have the
venerable and the venerated been invoked to per-
fect our councils by their experience and matu-
rity? Why, in short, this most expensive and
"solemn farce," if you are about to recognize a
principle which may — though the instrument
you are now perfecting, receives the sanction of
the people — tear it asunder and rend it into a
thousand fragments, in its own time, in its own
way — above all Constitution, and beyond all law?
Such was not the sort of power he had been
taught to respect and cling to, as the great fea-
ture of republican institutions. He believed that
Constitutions were devised mainly to protect
minorities, and that to adopt any political vagary
which over-rode and tended to their entire sub-
version, was to make them little less than the
merest mockery. Talk of organic and statute
laws — where was their efficacy ? Where were
minorities to look for protection ? Solely to the
clemency of the majority, and with uplifted
hands, ask as a boon what they should demand as
a right! Such innovation upon the science of
government, could not well be tolerated in the
nineteenth century. The day, (if ever it existed,)
had gone by when the power of numbers alone
was intended to govern the world.
But there seems to be some gentlemen, who
regard the amendment as asserting, harmlessly,
nothing more than a mere abstract right; and, as
such, avow their willingness to support it. Sir,
abstractions are dangerous things to insert in the
great organic law. Upon them new theories
may be built, and around them novel doctrines
generated, which may, in time, destroy all the
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fair proportions and harmony of the law itself,
and finally war with Us very vitality. He de-
sired that the instrument, which should be sub-
mitted for ratification, should be clear and ex-
plicit — free from all abstraction — free from all
doubt and obscurity — so plain that he "who runs
might read," and at a glance comprehend all its
simple provisions. But he did not consider the
amendment as a mere abstraction, however cun-
ningly cloaked. An idea lurked amid its folds,
which might speedily and easily develop itself
into that doctrine, so acceptable to those sections
and communities now clamoring for power.
There was in it the admission of a lawless might
and an overwhelming right, to which this Con-
vention would hardly be willing to give its en-
dorsement. There was about it the ghostly sha-
dow of another Convention, called by a different
power from that by which the present had its
origin, and upon a basis ensuring a result not now
anticipated. Gentlemen, when too late, would
learn that so far from being an unmeaning ab-
straction, it was, in truth, a stern and practical
reality; offered with deep design and significant
meaning; that upon it, as a basisjncw and start-
ling systems might be wakened into life and
energy. He trusted no such supicious and un-
certain feature, would be written upon the pages
of our future Constitution. Let its mode of
change and alteration be prescribed clear, expli*
cit, and direct. The interest of every commu-
nity, and individual, eminently demands that the
manner of changing the organic law, under which
their lives, their honor, and their property are
secured and protected, should be, without doubt
and without obscurity. Mystery should not
shroud with darkness, a single word or line of
that instrument, under which a free people are
to live and exercise their inestimable privileges.
In his judgment, the gentleman from Caroline,
(Mr. Stewart,) had in a slight degree at least mis-
apprehened the real issue now under discussion.
He had argued the question as though it was one
of mere physical strength — and not solely of con-
stitutional right. No one doubted but that power
was the prerogative of numbers — nor denied but
,that they might exercise it in its wildest and
most destructive form. That was revolution,
soaring above all order — and far from the idea
sought to be established by the amendment at
present occupying our attention . The effort now
made was not only to elevate the majority power
to a lawless position, but to give it form, and place,
and constitutional being in this very instrument
we are framing. It was ourduty to recognize the
power, and at the same time to guard and secure
j it by proper moral and legal restrictions; and in
the solemn compact, now to be ordained, we
could not be too careful to so distribute this in-
herent power, that whilst the rights of none are
j crushed, the general interests of the whole Slate
i and community should be placed in the happiest
and most prosperous condition. There was a
great morbid and feverish excitement pervading
every quarter of Maryland, and he respectfully
warned gentlemen to abstain from startling and
terrifying! doctrines, lest by their unpr o pi tions
introduction they should discolor the whole public
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