Mr. HARBINE moved a reconsideration of the
vote.
The question was taken, and
The Convention refused to reconsider.
The PRESIDENT suggested to Mr. HARBINE,
that he could accomplish his object, (i.e. to have a
vote taken on his amendment,) by moving it
as an additional section.
Some conversation followed.
Mr. HARBINE said, that the ideas of some gen-
tlemen were very much inflated; and, that if
there was any meanness in such a proposition, it
was at least one which other states of the Union
had not thought it beneath their dignity to adopt.
He was not, however, tenacious about it. He
had introduced it for the purpose of arresting de-
bate in the legislature. He would, therefore,
withdraw it, not because he thought the propo-
sition too small to engage the attention of the
Convention, but because he was not tenacious
enough to adhere to it.
So the amendment was withdraw.
Some conversation followed on a point of or-
der, between Mr. PHELPS and the CHAIR.
Mr. DENT moved to amend said thirty-first sec-
tion, by striking out the last paragraph in said
section, from the word "thereof," in the fourth
line.
The motion was rejected.
The section, as amended, was then adopted.
CLERGYMEN) ETC.
Mr. THOMAS called the attention of the Con-
vention to the fact; that, on a former day, the
ninth section of the report of the legislative com-
mittee, had been informally laid over, owing to
the unavoidable absence of the gentleman from
Baltimore county, (Mr. Chandler.) That gen-
tleman being now in his seat, he, [Mr. T.] would
move that the Convention resume the consider-
ation of the section.
The motion was agreed to.
The section was read as follows :
Sec. 9th. No Priest, Clergyman or Teacher of
any religious persuasion, society or sect, and no
person holding any civil office of profit under this
State, except Justices of the Peace, shall be
capable of having a seat in the General Assem-
bly.
Mr. CHANDLER said:
Mr. President—Permit me, through you sir, to
thank this Convention for the courtesy which
they have been pleased to extend to me in defer-
ring action upon this article until my return.
Their kind feelings thus manifested towards one
as humble as I feel myself to be, I can assure
them is duly appreciated.
I propose sir, to strike out all in the ninth ar-
ticle, that refers to ministers, priests, and teach-
ers of religion, as entirely unnecessary and un-
just.
Sir, I offer this amendment with no little em-
barrassment,
First, because, having been detained from my
seat in this body for the last two weeks, by se-
rious illness in my family, I have had no oppor-
tunity whatever, for making the necessary pre-

paration, to support by proper argument the
amendment which I now propose.
Secondly, Because, of the unnecessary jeal-
ousy entertained by many in reference to ministers
of the gospel.
Thirdly, Last, though not least, the strong
feelings, prejudices, and talents, arrayed on the
other side of this question.
But feeling, as I do, that my position is just, I
shall, though I may stand alone, advocate this
amendment.
Mr. President, I believe, in these United States,
and in the States separately, we profess to ad-
mire a Democratic form of Government?
Sir, what are we to understand by a Democra-
tic form of government?
It guarantees, if I mistake not, equal rights and
privileges, to a favored few, but to the whole
people. Yet the article under consideration pro-
poses deliberately, to disfranchise a very large and
respectable class of our fellow-citizens.
Sir, if this self-denying, and self-sacrificing
class of our fellow-citizens are to he cut off with-
out ceremony from the right to participate in
the affairs of Government, then I trust, that in
your wisdom and magnanimity, you will intro-
duce some organic provision in the Constitution,
by which they shall forever hereafter, be exempt
from the burthen of taxation, to support a Gov-
ernment, in which you thus solemnly declare they
have no right to participate.
But sir, it seems strange, that from every quar-
ter of this House, we hear it proclaimed in lan-
guage beautiful and eloquent, by honorable gen-
tlemen of profound erudition—"Equal rights and
privileges to all." Then after this flourish of
trumpets in behalf of popular rights, we see
those same gentlemen calmly uniting their
strength, to blot from political existence a nu-
merous and influential class of our fellow-citizens,
as wholly unworthy of all confidence and
even dangerous to the Commonwealth.
Have gentlemen considered that twenty States
of this Union have never adopted this obnoxious
and oppressive provision in their Constitutions,
and that another has since stricken it from their
organic law—making in all, twenty-one States
that, at the present lime, have no such proscriptive
measure. And yet we have heard of no in-
ternal commotion, or threatened danger to these
States. On the contrary they get on as pros-
perously and as harmoniously, as States which
have adopted this anti-republican provision.
But, sir, what great offence, what high crime
have this class of our fellow-citizens committed,
that they should be deprived of one of the dear-
est privileges of American born citizen—that of
eligibility to office? Have they committed high
treason? Have they been guilty of highway
robbery ? Are they murderers ? No, sir; none of
these crimes have been alleged against them; still
in the opinion of the honorable committee, who
made and presented this report, they are guilty of
a crime, which should forever disfranchise them
as citizens of this enlightened Commonwealth?
Sir, what is that crime ? It is this. They
have bowed in humble adoration to the God who
made them; they have believed in his Son Jesus