siderations, and towering vastly above them in
importance, are other arguments and reasons
that place the policy now under discussion upon
very different grounds, and render annual sessions
of the Legislature an absolute essential to the per-
fection and harmony of the sew system under
which we are soon to begin our onward progress
With much apparent earnestness, we had been
referred to our present financial condition and to
the immense revenues that were yearly collected
and disbursed through the various offices of the
government, and with great force and ability it
was argued, that at least one careful revision was
annually required, both to keep the whole com-
plicated system working in perfect harmony and
to secure strict fidelity in the discharge of every
duty, to the State. Sir, it was indeed a fact,
that the closest vigilance and the most rigid scru-
tiny should be exercised overall who had our
revenue in charge. The great arteries of inter-
nal improvement were just beginning to develop
themselves and immense as was the sum that al-
ready flowed weekly, monthly and yearly into
the public coffers. No one could safely predict
the extent and magnitude of our resources when
' once those mighty commercial highways were in
full vigor and action. The day, perhaps, was not
distant, when, under wise legislation, the patient
tax-payer might reap the full harvest of past toil-
ing. The question, however, that now presented
itself was not as to the amount or future dispo-
sition of the finances, but as to the best and most
economical method of guarding them against dishonest
appropriation and improvident squandering.
Surely for such a purpose it was not essential to
assemble together toe whole legislative body of
the State at an expense enormous and extravagant,
when compared with the hundred simpler meth-
ods that might be easily devised, better effecting
the same purpose and with less than ahundredth
part of the expenditure.
As had been suggested by the gentleman from
Frederick, (Mr. Thomas,) a committee, (and a
legislature only acted after all through a commit-
tee,) might be provided by law, whose duty it
should be to make the annual investigation at the
close of that alternate fiscal year, when the Gen-
eral Assembly was not in session. If this mode
was not acceptable, and it was merely suggested
as an example, there was not a gentleman pre-
sent who could not originate a scheme that would
accomplish all the purposes desired, and in a
manner much more likely to secure full integrity
from all the officers, and full justice to the State,
than that general supervision, which from the
very nature and composition of Legislatures,
could only be formally and carelessly effected. It
had been well and wisely said, that the cheapest
policy was not always the most economical; but
surely a measure, commended both by reason
and economy, could not fail to address itself with
convincing power, to the judgment and prudence
of ill. Extravagance was the mother of corrup-
tion, and the warning page of history had shown
that corruption was the poisonous bane that had
worked out the downfal of the strongest govern-
ments of the earth. Such solemn teachings of
the past, could not and, would not be without its le-
35

gitimate influence upon this body and he entertained
the hope that the most wholesome and proper
economy would be every where applied. Not
relying, however, entirely upon the argument to
which he had just replied, the friends of annual
sessions urged against the biennial policy, "the
want of time" necessary to the consideration and
wise formation of all the laws, which the public
and private interests might demand. He regard-
ed this as the most unfortunate and untenable
position, which could, by possibility, be assumed.
Law-making was the veriest, crying vice of the
age, and throughout the whole State, there was
complaint, universal, loud and deep, against the
countless statutes with which our books are al-
ready filled. The familiar maxim, that every one
is presumed to know the law, had, in point of
fact, long since become obsolete, and no man now
dared to express an opinion upon the simplest
subject, without the most patient, painful and
laborious investigation. Why has order after
order been submitted to our consideration asking
for a codification and a new arrangement of the
laws. Because, sir, our statutes have been one
mighty mass of enactment, and repeal, re-enact-
ment and re-repeal—supplement, and supplement
upon supplement, until the very brain grows
dizzy, in the almost vain attempt to gather from
the profound medley what really is the law. We
have been told that courts and jurists, alike had
been baffled as well in the search as in giving a
true construction to the mystic line when once dis-
covered.
Such obscurity could only have resulted from
too much and too frequent legislation. Ere an
enactment had been permitted to test its efficacy,
it was ruthlessly assailed, and it might be by a
"tinkering" hand, that at once defeated and destroyed
its whole original design and object. But
beside this reply to the argument alleging "a
want of time," it was well known that a very
large period of each past session had been occu-
pied and consumed in the passage of private laws
—in the consideration and granting of divorces,
and in a vast deal of local legislation, which so
far as the judgment of the Convention had been
shaddowed forth, was designed to be removed
entirely from this hall, and given to other and
more appropriate jurisdiction. Under such an
arrangement, the whole "time" would be given
exclusively to the great public wants, and with
but little industry and energy, every subject
might receive that calm and earnest deliberation
so essential to wise and wholesome provisions.
Let the Legislature hereafter busy itself, as
well in the beginning as at the end of the session.
Let it proceed earnestly and at once, in the labor
before it, and on the day fixed by the Constitu-
tion for its final adjournment, every petition will
have been heard and every real want been grati-
fied. He was unwilling to detain the Convention
longer with the refutation of an argument which
seemed unsustained by reason, and utterly desti-
tute of every principle of propriety. But it had
been said, by the zealous opponents of the mea-
sure, he was now advocating, and with an air
triumphant, that it was anti-democratic in its
tendency, and in direct and open violation of the