on the Treasury department, would doubtless
take all these thing's under their consideration
and report proper safe-guards. In other States,
however, whose Legislatures convene but once in
two years, we hear of no frauds upon their
Treasuries, and no difficulty in regulating pro-
perly their finances; yet it is contended, that for
these purposes we must hold annual sessions. Is
it possible, that we are so much inferior to
them? It could not be—for surely the people of
Maryland, are as able to govern themselves as
any other people; and if others can regulate and
properly conduct their fiscal officers under the
biennial system and thus effect a considerable
saving of the money of the people, we can do the
same,
In regard to the economy of this matter, he
would say something. He believed that the
rights and liberties of all would be, at least, as
well Becured and protected by the present system,
as by any other: while, at the same time, it
would save to the tax payers of this State, some
thirty or forty thousand dollars annually. No
one would be less willing for the sake of saving
money, to sacrifice the rights of the humblest
citizen; but firmly believing, as he did, that
the rights of all would be well defined and pro-
tected, he could not withhold his support from
that system which would economize the public
money.
Annual sessions of the Legislature were pro-
ductive of one of the greatest curses that could
befal a people—instability of the laws. That
people are indeed afflicted, whose laws, like the
quicksands of the ocean, are not to be relied on.
Where the people are unable to tell what their
legal rights are, how can the order and interest
of society be preserved ? Yet, under the annual
system, all must admit, that the changes, by
amendments and supplements, were so frequent,
that even the wisest might be ignorant. Continue
the present system, and there would be fewer
changes and more stability, because more time
would exist to ascertain the precise wants of the
people, and if laws worked evil, their defects
and the required remedy could be better ascer-
tained before the law making power was again
convened.
He could see no good reason to return to an-
nual sessions. Whatever might be the opinion
elsewhere, the people of the county he represent-
ed, were satisfied with the present system. Change
it to annual sessions, and if it does not doom the
new Constitution, we may, at least, have some
fears of its rejection by the people.
Mr. THOMAS said he came here, believing that
if any question was settled, it was the very ques-
tion now under discussion; and the manifestation
on this floor, proves how different is the attitude
of the man who has been a legislator and the at-
titude of the people. The discussion has been all
on one side. He had been led to anticipate di-
rectly the reverse, and he had gathered this opin-
ion from the expression of the people in his sec-
tion of the State; for he did not know, in the
community from which he came, a single man
who had supposed that we were about to disturb
this question, which was regarded as the founda-
33 |
lion stone of this Convention; and he could not
believe that those who were anxious to devise
any plan by which annual sessions of the Legis-
lature might be fastened on us for ever, as stand-
ing in any other position than that of enemies to
the new Constitution. This question is looked at
differently by the people and legislators. While,
on the one aide it is believed that the citadel is
not safe, unless the sentinel is always on the tow-
er; on the other, it was the sentiment throughout
his part of the country, that there was too much
legislation, and the people were all disposed to
regard the proceedings of the Legislature as re-
sembling the witches' cauldron in Macbeth :
" Double, double,
Toil and trouble,
Fire burn
And cauldron bubble."
He did not stand here to censure the Legisla-
ture without cause. Laws were speedily re-
pealed, because they were hastily enacted, and
led to the multiplying of suits and other evils.
He intended no charge against gentlemen who
were members of the Legislature. He was
aware that the mass of public men were unable,
without great sacrifices, to leave their private
and professional business, and that they were on-
ly induced to come to the Assembly from a dispo-
sition to benefit their fellow citizens. Scarcely
had a law passed and gone into operation, when
lawyers have just begun to settle down on the
true construction of its provisions, before some
philanthropist gets a supplementary law enacted,
which has the effect of perplexing the lawyers
and dividing public opinion. He believed the
great evil we have to complain of is too much
legislation, and on coming into this body to meet
it, he found gentlemen clogging the question us
to a remedy for the evil, with all kinds of matter
the most relevant. He came first to the Legis-
lature in 1823, and he would ask, whether from
that period up to the time when the biennial sys-
tem was established, it had not always occurred,
that a budget of bills was brought forward at the
close of every session. He had been a member
of the Legislature three times, and he had always
found this to be the case This pressure of busi-
ness was not the result of the biennial system, but
was owing to the indisposition of members them-
selves, at the beginning of a session, to go to bu-
siness. During the last four days of the session,
mere business has been done, than in a month at
the commencement. This fact then can be no
argument against biennial sessions. If gentle-
men who think that the biennial system will not
allow sufficient time for legislation, when they
come to the proper section which fixes sixty days
as the length of the session, should be so disposed,
.hey may so amend it, as to make it ninety days.
He would vote against such extension. But he
did not wish this section to be put in peril by re-
ferring to questions which have nothing to do
with it. He would leave them to be considered
in their proper place,
He did see some difficulty growing out of the
financial condition of the State, until now. The
remedy proposed, that the Legislature shall as- |
