conform to the twelfth and fourteenth sections of
the report.
Mr. WEEMS said he had intended to offer a sub-
stitute for the eighteenth section, which he would
now read.
Mr. W. read his proposed amendment; but
Mr. DONALDSON having suggested that the sub-
stitute was properly an amendment to the twenty-first
and not to the eighteenth section,
Mr. WEEMS withdrew his substitute for the
present.
The question then recurred on the amendment
of Mr. PHELPS.
Mr. DONALDSON opposed the amendment. He
had thought, in looking over the report of the
legislative committee, that if any of its sections
met with the general approbation of the Conven-
tion, this certainly would. To his judgment it
was the most valuable provision in the whole re-
port.
There was in fact no inconsistency between
this section and the other sections to which the
gentleman from Dorchester, (Mr. Phelps,) had
referred. By the 12th section, a majority of
each House shall constitute a quorum for the
transaction of business; it is on the single ques-
tion of the final passage of the bill that this 18th
section requires the affirmative vote of a majori-
ty of all the members elected; all antecedent
questions may be decided by a majority of a quo-
rum. By the 14th section the yeas and nays must
be recorded on any question, on the demand of
five members; by the section under consideration,
the yeas and nays must be recorded on the final
passage of a bill, whether demanded or not.
He believed that no one who had had any expe-
rience in our State Legislature, could fail to have
observed the great evils which bad arisen from the
want of such provision. Hundreds of laws were
passed by the mere silent assent of the great body
of legislators, often passed by their titles, and of
their contents most of those who permitted them
to pass were utterly ignorant. Their first knowl-
edge of them was derived from the printed vol-
ume of the statutes; and no votes having been
recorded, every member was enabled to escape
from responsibility for the injurious results of
such legislation. The evil would be cured by
this provision. Under the present system, also,
members frequently absented themselves for the
very purpose of ensuring success to measures,
which they dared not vote in favor of; and this
was an important part of most of the log-rolling,
which had inflicted so much injury on our own,
as well as other States. He knew one case,
where, by such management, a most injurious,
and most unpopular change was made in the
Constitution of our State, by thirty-five votes of
the House of Delegates, little more than one-third
of the number elected, confirming the act of a
previous session. Adopt this 18th section and
such absenteeism, whether fraudulent or not,
could work no such evil effect; indeed, absenteeism,
which was one of the curses of our Mary-
land Legislatures, would itself be cured, for the
presence of members would be absolutely neces-
sary to carry through effectually the business of
legislation. It would also act as an admirable

check upon hasty and excessive legislation, of
which we had heard so much well-founded com-
plaint. He hoped there was no doubt of its adop-
tion.
Mr. SPENCER said, if he thought that the other
provisions, which, he took it for granted, were to
be inserted in the constitution, would not be
placed there, he should attach more weight to
the remarks of the gentleman from Anne Ar-
undel, (Mr. Donaldson,) than under present
circumstances he could attach to them. He
(Mr. S.) took it for granted that it was the in-
tention of the Convention to incorporate in the
Constitution provisions by which appropriations
of the public money, and pledges of the public
credit, for works of internal improvement, would
be arrested. If so, the direct effect would be to
arrest the system of combination and log-rolling
OB which the gentleman had based his argument,
that the vote of a majority of the whole body
ought to be required. He (Mr. S.) thought that
great inconveniencies would result from the
adoption of the section as it stood in the report.
The proposition of the gentleman from Dorches-
ter, (Mr. Phelps,) seemed to him a wise and salu-
tary provision, and he (Mr. S.) should vote for
it.
Mr. BROWN said, he did not like the language
of the section as it stood, and that he felt disposed
to vote for the amendment of the gentle-
man from Dorchester, (Mr. Phelps.) Gentle-
men were to bear in mind that combinations
were made against the passage of bills, as well
as in favor of their passage; and though the sec-
tion as it stood in the report might prevent some
bad legislation, yet, as a whole, he thought it
would do more harm than it would do good. As
at present advised, be should prefer to take the
language of the old Constitution, if he should
find that he was mistaken in his opinion, he should
change his vote accordingly.
Mr. JENIFER thought that if there was one
single section, in the whole bill under consider-
ation, which, more than another, was wholesome,
salutary, and conservative, it was this; and he
thought that if the section should be struck out,
and nothing of an equivalent character be insert-
ed, the legislation of the State would be worse
hereafter than it had been heretofore.
Mr. DONALDSON replied to the remarks of the
gentleman from Queen Anne's, (Mr. Spencer,)
and stated, that he did not mean to confine his
objections to the single class of bills, to which
that gentleman referred. Our dearest rights and
interests, and the welfare of the whole commu-
nity, were involved in a great many other laws
passed, or which might be passed by the legisla-
ture. The bill to which he himself had before
referred, as having passed by the votes of little
more than a third of the members elected to the
House of Delegates, was the incorporation of a
lottery grant into the Constitution. Often, too,
special acts were passed, which produced great
injustice to persons who knew nothing of any
purpose to apply for them.
In regard to the inconvenience of the section
proposed, he said, that the same provision was
in the New York Constitution, and he had never