lawyers were appointed, who were required to
hear the case and 'to make an award thereon—
they entered upon the discharge of their duties,
the claimants appeared by counsel, and the State
was represented by the Attorney General and after
a laborious investigation of some month or more
a full hearing of argument upon both sides, they
made their award, and up to this day although
these commissioners have knocked at the doors
of the legislature for a just compensation for the
services which, by law, they had imposed upon
them, not one dollar have they received.
Now, he would ask the gentleman from Cecil,
if that was a proper body to adjust the claims of
lawyers, who might be sent to prosecute a case
in any State or before the Supreme Court of the
United States? He must say that in his opinion
he thought it was not. He meant no disrespect
to the Legislature, but the duties of an Attorney
and the impossibility of having correct informa-
tion belore them in reference to those duties, made
them not the proper sources to apply to for com-
pensation. He also objected to the Governor
having an unlimited, use of the funds of the State
for that purpose—and was in favor of making
this an office under the Constitution with a fixed
salary, that the Legislature might know, that the
people might know, what amount the Attorney
received for his services.
Again, it had been said by the gentleman from
Cecil [Mr. McLane,] that we should not make
the Government we were about to frame more
expensive by affixing a salary to the office by
Attorney General; that such a salary was un-
known to the existing Constitution. Was such
an argument sound on the score of economy ? In
that view it made no difference whether the mo-
ney was taken from the Treasury of the State by
constitutional provision or by appropriation of
law, if the amount fur the same services appro-
priated by law was equal to the amount fixed by
the Constitution. If the Governor had hereto-
fore paid Attorneys nothing, if the Legislature
had paid them nothing, if unlike all past experi-
ence in the Government of the State, their ser-
vices could be dispensed with, then the gentle-
man's argument was correct. But what are the
facts ? Gentlemen have now upon their desks a
statement of moneys paid to Attorneys for the
last twelve years, amounting in the aggregate to
twenty-one thousand dollars and upwards, and if,
as is proposed under this bill. the opinions requi-
red by the various Governors during that time,
and which were furnished free of charge by the
Attorney General had been paid for, this sum
would possibly have been doubled—so that the
system itself is infinitely more expensive in
its demands upon the Treasury than the one con-
tended for by him, (Mr. M.,) for it is admitted
on all sides that these Attorneys will be required
and that they must be paid in some manner—no
one has intimated that they could be dispensed
with.
But, (said Mr.M.,) we should have an Attorney
General, for the very reason which the gentle-
man from Cecil gives that we should not—that
of economy.. Without paying for any advice |
during the last twelve years given to the Gover-
nors by the Attorney General, it has cost the
State, as he before said upwards of twenty thou-
sand dollars in fees for the legal profession, it is
fair to assume that the average cost will be the
same hereafter. To this sum you must add sim-
ilar fees for every opinion required by the Go-
vernor in the execution of every law upon which
he has a doubt, the aggregate of which would be
larger than a salary per annum, that would com-
mand the best legal talent of the State. He con-
tended, therefore, that in the practical operation
of the government, it was not subject to the ob-
jection of being more expensive, but would be a
saving to the treasury—would inform the people
how and in what manner their money was drawn
from it, and divest the Legislature and the Governor,
of the power to reward or disallow, at the
public expense, the claims of either friend or
foe.
The gentleman from Cecil had asked, what
salary should be given this officer? He seemed
to think that such talent could not be obtained as
should be, for the salary proposed. He would
undertake to say that for two thousand dollars, or
fur twenty-eight hundred dollars, the services of
the most able men could be procured. It was a
duty not at all inconsistent with the business of
any lawyer, and one which would, by no means,
occupy his time to the neglect of other profes-
sional duties; but would he cavil upon a grave
constitutional question, about one or two hun-
dred dollars in the salary of an officer? He
thought not. It was argued that the Governor
must necessarily employ the services of deputy
attorneys, and that he could require their opinions
when advice was needed. Could gentlemen be
serious, when addressing this argument in the
hearing of this Convention? Were these deputies
so skilled, so eminent, so profound, that no
doubt has occurred to the mind of any one as to
their capacity to give advice to the chief officer
of your Slate, in the discharge of his high, diffi-
cult and important duties ? Next fall each coun-
ty in the Slate and Baltimore city, will elect an
officer of this description, not one of whom the
Governor would possibly place the value of an
iota upon his opinion, and yet you would make
them his advisers in your organic law. And thus
you would deprive the Governor of any efficient
counsel, so that if he should not be a lawyer him-
self, he could not with any confidence in his
course, know what course to pursue upon all
cases of doubtful action. The result would be
that the people of Maryland, would have to select
fur their Governors none but lawyers, as no other
class could bring the learning you require to a
discharge of the duties of Governor. This, to
his mind, was an objection which gentleman had
not and could not answer.
Under the existing laws of the State, there
was an Attorney General. The amount of fees
paid to this officer for the last two or three years
was excessive to which the gentleman from Cecil
had objected. That gentleman had argued as if
the present laws were to continue in force here-
after. And had brought to bear all the evils of
the old system, to defeat the one proposed in the |
