He (Mr. B.) liked that provision much better
than any he had seen.
The substitute was read.
Some conversation followed.
The question then recurred on the amendment
of Mr. BUCHANAN, inserting "five" years,
Mr. BISER asked the yeas and nays, which
were ordered, and being taken, resulted as follows:
Affirmative—Messrs. Blakistone, President, pro
tem, Dent, Hopewell, Ricaud, Lee, Chambers of
Kent, Donaldson, Dorsey, Wells, Randall, Kent,
Bond Sollers, Brent of Charles, Jenifer, Buchan-
an, Bell, Welch, Lloyd, Dickinson, Colston, Cris-
field, Dashiell, Hicks, Hodson, Goldsborough,
Eccleston, Constable, Chambers of Cecil, Me
Lane, Sprigg, McCubbin, Spencer, Grason, Dir-
ickson, McMaster, Fooks, Shriver, Gaither,
Biser, Annan, Sappington, Stephenson, Magraw,
Nelson, Hardcastle, Gwinn, Ware, Schley, Fiery,
Neill, John Newcomer, Michael Newcomer,
Davis. Kilgour, Hollyday, Parke, Cockey, and
Brown—61.
Negative—Messrs. Miller, McHenry, Stewart
of Baltimore city, Sherwood of Baltimore city,
Weber and Slicer—6.
So the amendment was agreed to, and the blank
was filled with "five."
Mr. GRASON moved to amend said section, by
striking out in the third line the word "seven,"
and inserting "five," and in the fourth line the
word "two," and inserting in lieu thereof
"three."
Mr. SPENCER in accordance with the notice
given, then moved to amend said sixth section,
by striking out from the word "year," in the se-
cond line, to the word ''and," in the fourth line,
and inserting in lieu thereof these words, "and
been for ten years a president citizen of this
State."
Some explanatory conversation as to the interpretation
of this amendment followed, on the
part of Messrs. SPENCER, DORSEY, and SOLLERS.
Mr. GWINN opposed the amendment of Mr,
SPENCER.
Mr. GWINN said, that he should vote against
the amendment of the gentleman from Queen
Anne's, [Mr. Spencer.] He could not agree to the
necessity of restricting the people of the state in
the selection of their chief executive officer. They
were not likely to overlook the claims of a native
citizen, and to honor with their confidence any
individual, recently naturalized, unless there ex-
ited strong reasons for the preference. And if
there were such, in the superior qualities or ser-
vices of such an individual, the people should be
left at liberty to confer on him what office they
pleased. Besides the whole theory of naturaliza-
tion, as understood in this country is, that it
places the foreigner, who has complied with the
requirements of the law on the same footing with
those who were native-born. And there was, in
truth, no reason for departing from the principle
which this establishes in the case of our chief
magistrate. It was true that there are certain
limitations in the Constitution of the United
59 |
States, which confine the choice of candidates
for the Presidency to natural born citizens..—
There may be an argument made in favor of this
limitation : because the President is, in fact, from
the existence of his veto power, one of the co-
ordinate branches of the National Legislature;
and upon his action may depend the integrity of
the whole system. And to prevent a possible,
though not probable danger, it was well to affix
this single limitation to the office.
Mr. SPENCER said, that after the views presented
by the gentleman from Baltimore city,
(Mr. Gwinn,) he [Mr. S.] wondered that the
gentleman did not offer an amendment.
Mr. GWINN said he would do so, and he offer-
ed an amendment.
MR. SPENCER suggested that the gentleman's
amendment did not sustain his argument.
MR. GWINN indicated the perfect consistency
of the two.
MR. DORSEY expressed his dissent from the
views of the gentleman from Queen Anne's,
[Mr. Spencer,] as well in his construction of
his amendment, as on the expediency of its
adoption.
Mr. SPENCER modified his amendment, by in-
serting before the word "citizen" the word
"resident" citizen.
An explanatory conversation passed between
Mr. SPENCER and Mr, GWINN, on the subject of
the amendment proposed by the latter.
Mr. DORSEY dissented both from the law and
the argument, of the gentleman from Queen
Anne's. He referred to the proceedings of the
Convention in an earlier period of the session,
when it was decided by an overwhelming
majority, that naturalization only conferred
civil rights, but did not impart political priv-
ileges. In the same way we may give the cit-
izen of another State, residing amongst us, who
is a native of the United States, civil rights, but
exclude him from political office. We can, if
we please, confer all these rights on unnaturalized
foreigners, as far as concerns our State gov-
ernment. He would be willing to take the
amendment, which made no difference between
naturalized foreigners, and the natives of other
States of the Union. He would fix the term of
five years for residence for each.
Suppose one of our distinguished citizens, of
other states, as for example. Clay, Cass, Dick-
inson, Webster, or any other eminent citizen,
should remove into our state, and it became the
wish of the people of this state to show their
gratitude for noble patriotic public services, and
to pay honor to them in their declining years, by
placing them in the Gubernatorial chair, would
you, by a Constitusional provision, say that they
should be ineligible unless they had resided in
the State for the term of ten years ? He thought
the amendment of the gentleman from Baltimore
county could not work any evil, and he believed
no one would refuse to honor so distinguished
citizen, because he had resided but five instead
of ten years in the State.
Mr. WEBER desired to ask a single question.
If he understood the amendment, it would re- |
