branch of reconciliation which may lead to an
harmonious adjustment. Do not, as the report of
the gentleman from Kent, ( Mr. Chambers, )
would counsel, shut your eyes and turn a deaf
ear to the claims of those, who by every princi-
ple of nature, sanctioned by nature's God, are
entitled to be considered your equals.
Mr. CHAMBERS said:
The gentleman has by way of boast, it would
seem, told us he represents 160,000 constituents.
Does he mean to claim any peculiar privilege on
this floor on that account ? If he expects this he
labors under a sad mistake. My constituents,
said Mr. C., are few in comparison, and he who
now speaks for them, one of the humblest of the
members on this floor. But if that gentleman or
any other, thinks proper to prefer claims of su-
periority on the score of a large constituency, he
had only to say he claimed a stand on the same
platform with the most important personage
here—aye, even if the other should represent one
hundred and sixty times the number of the gen-
tleman's 160,000. He claimed the same rights,
the same privileges, and the same authority here
for every individual member, no matter what
might be the amount of his constituency.
He hoped the measures of the Convention were
not to be carried by "authority"—above all, the
authority of numbers not here to speak for them-
selves, and for whom he assumed the privilege of
thinking, their delegates did not always exactly
present the true index of sentiment.
As little did he regard the declaration of the
gentleman, if designed as a threat.
Mr, PRESSTMAN said he did not so design it.
Mr. C. If the good people of Baltimore or any
other part of the State prefer the new Constitu-
tion to the old one, they will of course vote for
its ratification. Those who are not satisfied with
it will of course vote against its ratification. But
this would not make him adopt a principle he be-
lieved to be mischievous, nor abandon one he
believed calculated to promote the interest and
happiness of the people of the State.
He must be permitted again to say, he could
see no propriety in this premature attack upon
the report of the minority. Why not assail the
report of the Chairman ? It assumed the aggre-
gate population. Why not attack the report of
the two gentleman, (Mr. Lloyd and Mr. How-
ard,) who had united in discarding the principle
of federal numbers ? Federal numbers never had
been known as an element in our system of re-
presentation till 1836—never. Under such cir-
cumstances, he felt it a just cause of remark,
that this unreasonable mode of putting a black
mark upon the report, to go out with it, to pre-
judge and prejudice it, had been indulged.
Erratum.— In No. 17, page 118, first paragraph,
in the remarks of Mr. Buchanan in reply to Mr
Biser, substitute the words " although, (according
to his own account) he had. been a long time in
travail, he was most happily delivered at last" for
these words: "He has travailed, much and his new
born delivered," which, by a typographical error
found its way into the Register of that date.

TUESDAY, February 18,1851.
The Convention met at eleven o'clock.
Prayer was made by the Rev. Mr. GRIFFITH.
The roll of the members was called.
PERSONAL EXPLANATION.
Mr. THOMAS said, that before the House pro-
ceeded to the regular business for the day, he de-
sired to correct an error in our published debates,
to which his attention had been kindly turned by
a friend. He did not habitually read the debates.
He very seldom looked at the printed journal.
He relied upon his recollection of passing events
in this body, and would not have known; but for
the information derived from another, that in his
absence, language imputed to him without war-
rant, had been commented on in the course of de-
bate.
It would be remembered by the House, that
several days ago, when the subject of apportion-
ing representatives to the Legislature was under
consideration, he had said, that the distribution
of political power was the most difficult duty that
this Convention had to perform. This remark,
he supposed, did not admit of but one construc-
tion. And he was surprised to hear that the ob-
vious meaning of this language was not appre-
hended by every one in whose presence it had
been uttered.
Now, sir, what is meant by distributing politi-
cal power, when applied to the action of this
body engaged in apportioning representatives to
the Legislature? We propose to give to the Le-
gislature a law—making political power. We
propose then to give to the voters of the several
counties and to the city of Baltimore, the right to
elect representatives to this Legislature. And in
doing this, in authorising the voters, separately,
to direct, by their suffrages, how the political
power we are to give to the Legislature shall be
exerted, we distribute to each citizen at the polls,
in effect, a. portion of that political power which
the Constitution has conferred upon the Legisla-
ture. This, then, is the obvious meaning of his
language. He had said nothing about offices or
office-holders, and made no reference to the one
or to the other.
While he was speaking, immediately after he
had used the words he had now explained, he
heard the gentleman from Kent, (Mr. Chambers,)
say, " and offices." To that language, he made
no reply. He considered it at the time, to be one
of those jests that the gentleman pleases some-
times to indulge in, and did not turn from the
course of his remarks to notice it in any way.
Mr. T. referred to that part of the report of
our debates wherein he is represented to have
granted that the gentleman from Kent was right
in saying that we were engaged in distributing
offices, and said that he was authorised by the re-
porters, who were setting before him, to say,
that there was, in that part of these reports, an
error.
Mr. DONALDSON said it was proper for him to
say a word upon this subject, because he was one
of those who had referred to the expressions of
the gentleman from Frederick, (Mr. Thomas,)