the committee on the legislative department of
the government.
The question pending before the Convention on
yesterday, being on the adoption of the amend-
ment offered by Mr. CONSTABLE, and amended on
the motion of Mr. MCHENRY.
Mr. BROWN moved to strike out the words "or
to meet the just liabilities of the State incurred
previously to the adoption of this Constitu-
tion."
[These words were yesterday proposed by Mr.
MCHENRY and accepted by Mr. CONSTABLE, as a
modification of his proposition.]
Mr. MCHENRY said, he did not desire to de-
tain the Convention, nor was he so arrogant as lo
suppose that any remarks which he could submit,
would counter-balance the force of the opposition
which the distinguished gentleman from Frede-
rick, (Mr. Thomas,) had yesterday made. He,
(Mr. McH..) must, however, be permitted to
disclaim any intention to authorise the State to
borrow money far schemes of stock-jobbing. He
doubted whether the words of the amendment
convened any such signification. No man in the
State, or out of it, was more opposed than him-
self, to the corruption and iniquity of stock-jobbing
and trading with the public money. He
read and explained his amendment. In the event
of such a convulsion as had swept over the
country in 1837, again occurring, it was probable
that a. deficit in the treasury of the state far ex-
ceeding fifty thousand dollars, might take place.
It was to meet a case of that kind, as any other
case in which the faith of the State was justly
and properly pledged, that he had offered his
amendment If any gentleman of more experi-
ence than himself, would suggest a form of words
which would meet the object he bad in view,
and would not be liable to the exceptions taken
to his own, he, (Mr. McH.,) would cheerfully
adopt it. They had all the same object at heart—
the maintenance untarnished of the faith and
honor of the State.
Mr. BROWN said, that no man would question
the purity of the motive, or the singleness of the
object of the gentleman from Harford, (Mr.
McHenry.) But in his, (Mr. B.'s) judgment,
the amendment would bear a construction which
the gentleman himself did nut intend should be
put upon it. It seemed to him, (Mr. B ,) that
the amendment have to the Legislature the power
to adopt the very course indicated in the amend-
ment of the gentleman from Charles, (Mr. Mer-
rick,) and which had been voted down by the
Convention,
He, (Mr. B.,) could not vote for the proposi-
tion of the gentleman from Cecil, [Mr. Consta-
ble.] so long as this provision remained in it. If
the gentleman would strike out this provision, he
[Mr. H.,] would vole for the amendment rather
than for the proposition of the gentleman from
Queen Anne, [Mr. George.]
Mr, CON-TABLE expressed his desire again to
modify his amendment, by striking out the provi-
sion offered by the gentleman from Harford,
[Mr. McHenry,] yesterday, and accepted by him-
self. He, [Mr. C.,] would withdraw that branch
of the amendment, if no objection was made. |
Mr. McHENRY said, there would be no objec-
tion on his part.
Some conversation followed, after which
Mr. CONSTABLE modified his proposition by
striking out the words "or to meet the just liabili-
ties of the State, incurred previously to the adop-
tion of this Constitution ".
Mr. MCHENRY now moved to amend the
amendment of Mr. CONSTABLE, by inserting the
following in place of the words just stricken
out:
"Or absolutely necessary to enable the State
to discharge in good faith its just liabilities in-
curred previously to the adoption of this consti-
tution."
Mr. McH. said, it seemed to him that if there
was any force in the meaning of words, the
amendment as now modified by him, could not be
liable to the objections urged against it yester-
day by the distinguished gentleman from Fred-
erick, (Mr. Thomas.)
Mr. THOMAS remarked that, as special refer-
ence had been made to him by the gentleman
from Harford, (Mr. McHenry,) he, [Mr. T.,]
would respond simply by paying, that he could
not vote in favor of the proposition. He did not
deem it necessary to enter again upon a state-
ment of the objections which he had indicated.
He preferred the amendment of the gentleman
from Queen Anne's, [Mr. George.]
Mr. MCHENRY said:
He had hoped that the gentleman from Frede-
rick, (Mr. Thomas,) would find that the amend-
ment, as now modified, was free from the objec-
tion which had been urged yesterday. He was
sorry that so important a proposition had BO fee-
ble an advocate as himself. He could only ex-
press the hope that it would recommend itself to
the favor of the Convention, and he would ask the
yeas and nays on its adoption.
Mr. GRASON rose, he said, to call the attention
of the Convention to the question as it now
stood. It would be remembered that the two
articles submitted by his colleague, [Mr George]
had been adopted by an almost unanimous vole.
But many members of the body, upon reflection,
were apprehensive that the restraints placed up-
on the legislature were not sufficient, and, there-
fore. it was suggested to his colleague, that it
might be advantageous that the articles might be
reconsidered, with a view so to amend them, as
to prevent the legislature in the most positive
terms, from again embarkirg in any wild or extravagant
schemes. For his own part, he was satis-
fied with the two articles in the form in which
they had been adopted; because, in the course of
his experience, he had found that when men
were anxious to obtain too much, they were apt
to obtain less than they originally asked.
It seemed to him that the restrictions imposed
by the amendment of his colleague, were suffici-
ent to secure the people from the imposition of
further burthens. He was satisfied that, if these
articles had been a part of the original Constitu-
tion, the state would not at this day have been
incumbered with one cent of debt.
But as it was a matter of great importance to
prevent the legislature from contracting a large |
