lieve I have planted myself upon a foundation of
right and justice, and
"These pillars, walls, and all, shall fly
From their firm base as soon as I."
As long as there is one base left, I would die
struggling for that base, boldly maintaining, in
the face of Maryland, the great principle of equal
rights and equal privileges.
And I tell you my friend, [speaking to Mr
Morgan,] that if the true sentiment and feeling
of Montgomery were fully represented on this
floor, old St. Mary's would have five instead of
three votes from that county, to help her out in
this hour of need. upon this important and vital
question.
Mr. BREWER laid:
That it had been his intention to occupy but
an humble position in this body; and he had entertained
no intention to address the Convention
upon any subject, believing that he could as well
define his position by his votes as by his speeches.
But, the unexpected attack made upon him
by one of his colleagues, [Mr. Kilgour,] com-
pelled him to place himself right before the Convention,
his immediate constituents, and the
citizens of Maryland. He was but an bumble
delegate, he admitted, from Montgomery, and in
his campaigne for a seat in this hall, before the
citizens of his county, he took the bold and daring
ground, (if it were so to be termed,) that
representation according to population, in the
popular branch, was the only true basis of a re-
publican form of government, and although be
was from a county of two hundred and fifty
strong against him, politically, he appeared upon
that floor a delegate, only seven behind the fore-
most gentleman, and but three behind the sec-
ond. The people of his county knew well his
sentiments; they knew that he held the ultra
doctrine of representation according to population.
He believed the principal in itself right;
it was the basis upon which this free institution
of our general government rested. He would
here assimilate the State government with the
general government of these United States. The
small State of Delaware with her one delegate
in the representative hall, with her two senators,
was as safe and secure in the government, as
the great and growing State of New York, with
her overwhelming majority in the popular
branch, and her two senators in the conservative
branch. What was the meaning of a representative
form of government? It was that in one
branch of the Legislature the voice of the ma-
jority of the people should be heard through their
delegates. The conservative branch of the gov-
ernment was the Senate, and it was upon this
basis he stood upon that floor, and that he at least
was willing to give to the city of Baltimore an
honorable and just representation in the House
of Delegates. He had no disposition to silence
the voice in the councils of our State. He ad-
mired her for her monuments, her learning, and
14 |
her wealth; and she was justly the pride and the
glory of the State.
But this Convention had been called upon to
mourn over the Constitution of 1776, Permit
me to refer lo that Constitution. Bat before do-
ing so, he would say that no one upon that floor,
could venerate the deeds of the revolution, more
than ha did, nor the fathers who framed that
Constitution. Doubtless, at the time the Consti-
tution was adopted, the restrictions therein con-
tained, were necessary and proper for the pre-
servation of the institution of the State. He
would, in all human probability, have been in
favor of the same restrictions, had he lived in
the days of 1776. But in the nineteenth cen-
tury, could any gentleman upon that floor, rise in
his place, and declare to this Convention, that he
venerated and respected all the articles of that
Constitution, when the very second article re-
quired thirty pounds worth of property to entitle
a freeman to vote for a delegate fur the House
of Representatives. See 2nd sec., Constitution.
Would any gentleman, in his place, dare assert
that he advocated, upon this floor, such doctrines
as contained in the article just read ? Would he
dare go to his constituents, and inform them,
that he had advocated such a principle and de-
sired it to be inserted in the new Constitution?
If there was, he was not that delegate.
Let us examine further into this Constitution,
upon which we had heard such an eulogy, from
the gentleman from Montgomery, in the thir-
tieth article is contained the following sentiment:
"No person, unless above twenty-five years of
age, a resident in this State above five years,
next preceding the election, (and having in the
State real and personal property, above tin; value
of five thousand pounds current money, one thou-
sand pounds whereof at least, to be of freehold es-
tate.) shall be eligible as Governor."
He would ask again, could any individual in
this age of civilization and science, be willing to
insert such a provision as that just read in this
organic law, which we are now endeavoring to
frame. Again, in the forty-second article to
which he would call the attention of this Convention,
would be found in the following language
"All freemen above the age of twenty-one
years, having a freehold of fifty acres of land in
the county in which they other to ballot and re-
siding therein, shall have a right of suffrage."
These were some of the features of that old
Constitution, upon which we had heard such an
eloquent eulogy. He would ask the gentleman
from Montgomery, if these were his views, and
if he were willing now to have these restric-
tions inserted in the new Constitution, about be-
ing made fur the citizens of Maryland. These
qualifications, doubtless, were necessary at that
period of our political existence. But when this
State became peopled by our own citizens, per-
sons horn among us, with interest identical, it
became necessary to erase those restrictions from
the Constitution; and yet in this, the nineteenth
century, when science, literature and the fine
arts, were so rapidly progressing, we were informed
that this Convention ought to adopt such mea- |
