rational for an instant to suppose, that any gentleman
could be selected for so exalted a position
without some permanent residence, and wherever
that abiding spot might be, within the limits of
our commonwealth, there might he, under all
emergencies, be sought and found with as much
certainty as though his home, as now directed.
was at the very capitol itself. It was true, as
bad been said, that we had just imposed addi-
tional duties upon the office, by requiring that its
future occupant should make certain periodical
examinations of the accounts of the treasurer;
but so long was the interval between these prescribed
examinations, and so small would be the
portion of time consumed in the investigations,
that the objection to the proposition now under
discussion, based upon that fact, seemed really of
the slightest possible importance, and he was sure
could not bear a feathers weight against the many
benefits that would necessarily flow from its adop-
tion.
Should the Convention concur in these views
and desire to assimilate in this respect the in-
strument we are framing, to those that are
working so happily around us the treasury would
not only be relieved from the large expenditure
now essential to the preservation of the govern-
ment house, and adjacent property, but, that very
property itself from being a burthen would doubt-
less be disposed of, and the proceeds added to
the profitable capital of the State.
Trifling and insignificant as this economy might
seem, it was due to a patient and patriotic peo-
ple, that the spirit of retrenchment should be
every where felt, consistent with the proper and
faithful discharge of all the public interests, and
he should gladly co-operate with reformers at
all times in applying it to every department of
the government.
Some there were who might regard the con-
tinuance of this gubernatorial residence and es-
tablishment as in some sort essential alike, to the
dignity and to that character of hospitality which
our noble old State had ever borne. He did not
so regard it.
He believed the exalted reputation of Mary-
land could not be so easily marred. It was above
and beyond any influence which could spring by
possibility from such a source And thus believ-
ing no feeling of false pride could turn him aside
from that clear and unswerving line of duty owed
to that constituency, who had so generously con-
fided their interests in part to his keeping.
But the substitute under consideration proposes
not only the abolition of the restriction as to res-
idence, but the reduction of the salary of our Ex-
ecutive from the present extravagant compensation,
to the more moderate and yet liberal sum
of two thousand dollars annually. Strange as
it may seem, a careful examination tests the fact
that Maryland with a limited territory, with a
sparse and small population—with a debt of mil-
lions—with enormous taxation clinging to every
species of property—still continues recklessly to
pay her Governor a salary equalled by but few
of her sister States, however superior they may
be in all the elements and resources of wealth
|
Look to Connecticut giving to her chief magis-
trate the annual sum of eleven hundred dollars,
and then for a moment glance your eye over the
long line of distinguished names that have graced
that position and guided her destiny with such
unexampled success.
Turn to the Constitution of Massachusetts and
to those of the thriving communities around her
—or if unwilling to learn lessons of wisdom from
the North, open the volume that contains the or-
ganic code of our own Southern sisters, and even
there, with but few exceptions, our liberality
seems, indeed, the grossest extravagance.
If we invoke the wisdom of the West, the same
result becomes still more manifest. The great
and growing State of Illinois with an area of
square miles more than five times our own; and
with a rapidly increasing population, amounting
already to well nigh a million—rewards her Ex-
ecutive with the sum of fifteen hundred dol-
lars.
Why, then, in view of all these examples, this
enormous and most unwise extravagance upon
our part? Other communities are as well gov-
erned—as prosperous and as happy' Why not
like them let our liberality be ever tempered
with a proper and wholesome economy—aye,
sir, with an economy in character with our con-
dition.
But we have been told by those who wage un-
compromising warfare against this substitute,
that its adoption as part of the organic law has
the direct and unavoidable tendency of placing
this high position entirely in the hands of the
wealthy and the opulent. Was such indeed the
case, he should have been the last to have desired
to foster such a provision upon the Constitution.
Respect for himself—respect for his own posi-
tion, and for all simularly situated, would alike
have forbidden it. Happily such an argument,
or rather mere assertion, was sustained neither
by reason, nor by past experience or present
observation. All, around us, in every section of
the country, there had been, and were now
bright and shining examples, utterly refuting, and
with a power which language cannot express,
such an objection. However successful we had
been in linking the names of the pure and the
intellectual with our own executive chair, jus-
tice requires us to say that' other communities
have not perhaps been less fortunate, even where
the salaries were much inferior to the sum spe-
cified in the substitute. It was a fact well known
to every member of the Convention, and to well-
nigh every individual in the State, that it was
this very provision requiring a permanent resi-
dence at the capital, which had attached to the
Gubernatorial station such enormous expenditure,
by surrounding it with extravagant cus-
toms, scarcely consistent with the simplicity of
our republican institutions. And when he sought
its abolition, he was influenced not only by a de-
sire to effect a wholesome retrenchment, but to
bring that exalted position within the reach of
merit and intellect, however humble their pecu-
niary condition, if as seemed to be abundantly
shown by the practical workings of other States,
every official act could be discharged without |
