Some four or five cents a copy would be the en-
the charge.
Mr. WEEMS took the floor but yielded for the
moment, to,
Mr. RANDALL, who referred to an order which
be had offered heretofore. It was his object, he
said, to elect through districts, and that could
only be accomplished by successfully carrying
out the motion of the gentleman from Frederick,
(Mr. THOMAS.) He :(Mr. R.) submitted to the
Convention that this mode of electing delegates
was more truly in accordance with the plan and
the spirit of representation gentlemen, than an
election by the consolidated vote of the counties.
It accorded also with the plan adopted by Congress
for (he election of Representatives to that
Mr. WEEMS said, it was not his object to oppose
the procurement of this information. But
it struck him that it was altogether impractica-
ble to give a correct district line upon the map
which was in progress. He believed also, that
it was altogether impracticable to obtain another
item of the information sought for—namely, the
population of the several election districts in the
respective counties, without incurring a very
large expense.
Mr. THOMAS said, that since his return to Annapolis,
the Clerk had suggested the difficulty of
executing the order in the particular to which
the gentleman (Mr. WEEMS) had referred. He
(Mr. T.) had been under the impression, until
otherwise informed, that in the Executive De-
partment of the Government, would be found
returns of the population in each of the election
districts, but he had been told that the Marshal
in taking the census for Maryland, had sometimes
disregarded the boundaries of election districts,
and that, therefore, definite information could
not be had.
He (Mr. T.) had suggested a remedy for this
difficulty which it seemed to him, would be satisfactory.
The Secretary had sent a circular to
the .several Clerks of the County Courts asking
them to report the aggregate vote in the election
districts at the recent election for Governor.
Although, upon this information, we could not
have & precise account of the inhabitants of the
several districts, we could approximate sufficient-
ly near to it for any purposes which the Conven-
tion might desire to accomplish.
Mr. WEEMS. All 1 intended to say was, that
1 considered it impracticable to obtain the population
of the election districts in the county from
the returns of the census—that there was no
data upon which that population could be ascer-
tained. 1 withdraw the motion to reconsider.
So the motion was withdrawn.
Mr. MCHENRY. Will) great diffidence and
some misgiving, 1 offer the following order:.
Ordered, That the debate on the article of the
constitution, reported by the committee on the
el—the franchise, shall terminate in committee
of the whale on Wednesday the 22d inst., at two
o'clock, P. M., when each amendment pending,
or which may be offered shall be passed upon,
without any further discussion than explanatory |
remarks, not extending beyond five minutes , by
the several proposers of such amendments.
The resolution having been read—
Mr. MCHENRY said, he desired to make one
remark.
Some conversation followed between Messrs.
RANDALL and MCHENRY, when the latter gentle-
man, on a suggestion to that effect made by Mr.
CHAMBERS, of Kent, and in which Mr. MCHENRY
acquiesced, the consideration of the order was
postponed until to-morrow.
THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
On motion of Mr. PHELPS, the Convention re-
solved itself into committee of the whole, Mr.
BLAKISTONE in the chair, and resumed the consideration
of the report of the committee on the
Elective Franchise.
Mr. KILGOUR was entitled to the floor, having
oil Saturday indicated his intention to offer an
amendment of which lie had given notice.
Mr. SOLLERS stated that Mr. KILGOUR was
confined to his room by indisposition.
Mr. TUCK then look the floor. He had done
so, he said, for the purpose of submitting a mo-
tion which would be the means, he thought, of
saving much time. He had reflected upon it a
good deal. It was that the committee rise and
report the bill under consideration to the Con-
vention, together with all such amendments as
had been adopted. And lie would state briefly his
views for this course of proceeding. It was very
well known that if the committee sat a month
longer on this bill, all these clauses would have
to come up again iii Convention. Until a day or
two ago, a call for the yeas and nays in commit-
tee had been in order. Gentlemen could have
the same latitude in Convention that they had in
committee. He took it for granted that gentle-
men would not travel beyond the legitimate range
of debate in Convention any more than in commit-
tee, and he was free to say that, as yet, he had
heard nothing that was very wide of the legiti-
mate mark.
Mr. T. further enforced the propriety of his
motion, showing that double votes would be
saved, and much lime in other respects saved ;
and concluded by moving that the Committee
rise.
But Mr. T. withdrew the motion on a sugges-
tion by Mr. MCHENRY, that he (Mr. McH.) had
waived his resolution, because the Chairman of
the Committee on .Elections was not present, and
that reason applied still more forcibly to the pre-
sent proposition than to the other.
So the motion was withdrawn.
REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.
The question was now stated to be on the
amendment heretofore offered by Mr. RICAUD
to the amendment of Mr. JENIFER, which last
named amendment provides for a registration of
the names of voters within the State, &c.
The amendment of Mr. RICAUD was as fol-
lows, (Mr. JENIFER having accepted the first
part of the amendment as a modification of his
own. Add the following words to the end
of the amendment.: |
