did not provide as it ought to do. He concurred
with the gentleman from Queen Anne, (Mr.
Spencer,) that the fifth section of the report of
the committee was faulty, and required some
amendment. It read, in substance, thus.
"No person shall be eligible to the office of
Prosecuting Attorney, who has not been admit-
ted to practice the law in this State, and who has
not resided for at least one year in the county,
Howard district, or the city of Baltimore, in
which he may be a candidate forelection."
There should be some residence mentioned in
it, and he ought to he a person somewhat acquain-
ted with the conducting of criminal trials. An-
other objection he had, was to the sixth section ;
"All elections for Prosecuting Attorneys shall
be certified to, and returns made thereof by the
clerks of the respective counties "
Now, there was nothing contained in the Con-
stitution, respecting the tribunal to which the re-
turns were to be made made, or bow the Attor-
ney was to beadmitted to the performance of his
duties, if the returns were not made "to the
judge or judges of the court having criminal
jurisdiction in said counties, by whom the oath of
office shall be administered." It was right that
the oath of office should be administered.
The seventh section also provided that "the
election of Prosecuting Attorneys shall take place
throughout the State, on the first Wednesday of
October next, and on the same day every third
year thereafter; and, in case of a tie between two
or more persons for paid office, then, the judge
or judges of the court having criminal jurisdic-
tion in the county in which said tie may happen,
shall designate which of said persons shall qualify
as Prosecuting Attorney."
Now, some provision of this kind should be
made, for two or more persons having the same
number of votes, could not be qualified to per-
form the duties of the office. He doubted whether
the amendment provided in a part of the fourth
section would answer the purpose intended,
"when the plurality vote of the qualified voters
of the county, in which said vacany shall occur,
shall elect a suitable person for the residue of
the term thus made vacant."
The reasons for his amendment were in re-
gard to the fifth, sixth, and seventh clauses of
the report of the committee, therefore he had
made the motion to strike out,
Mr. HOWARD said:
That the gentleman from Anne Arundel and
himself might probably agree on minor points,
but for the fact, that they differed as to the car-
dinal principle on which he had started.
In framing a Constitution he thought it altogether
unnecessary to introduce all the matters
of detail, when we ought to content ourselves
with laying down certain general rules or princi-
ples for the guidance of the legislature. If we
are to go on in this way, it will end in making
a book which the people will no more understand
than they do the old Constitution itself, and after
all, it will be found impossible for us to provide
for all contingencies.
To specify that a man who is elected to the |
office of prosecuting attorney must be a practi-
tioner of laws is entirely superfluous. It is pre-
posterous to fill the the Constitution with details
of this sort. He presumed it was generally un-
derstood that the applicant for the office must
know something of the business, that he must be
a practitioner of law. If we are apprehensive
that the people may elect some one who is en-
tirely incompetent to perform the duties of the
office, it will be better that we should not give
them the right to elect.
In regard to what was said by the gentleman
from Queen Anne's, (Mr. Spencer,) he had only
to say, that that gentleman may have a better
knowledge of some of the counties, and of the
condition of things there, than he had.
But he, [Mr. H.,] as very certain, that the
elections for members of the House of Delegates
are much influenced by political considerations,
and that they never turn entirely on the internal
affairs of the State, More or less, they are al-
ways connected with national politics, mixed
up with questions concerning public lands, and
God knows what, on which candidates try to get
themselves elected. The party lines of whig
and democrat are distinctly marked.
He thought there was great force in what the
gentleman from Baltimore city, (Mr. Sherwood)
had said, on the subject of fixing the day for the
election of these officers. The people do not
like to be drawn away too frequently from their
occupations. They cannot spare the time, and
they will not thank us for drawing them away
from their business oftener than is necessary.
Mr. CHAMBERS said he had intended to sustain
the amendment proposed by the gentleman from
Baltimore county, [Mr. Howard,] until he had
altered it.
The committee, by their report, had presented
a scheme with the details so expanded as to form
a system which they supposed could go at once
into operation. He thought our appropriate du-
ty here, was to enact principles, leaving details
and minutiae to the Legislature The proposition
of the gentleman from Baltimore was originally
one of that character. It left all the machinery
necessary to put his scheme into practical opera-
tion, to be hereafter provided by the Legislature.
In this he had concurred. But now the gentle-
man has altered his proposition, by naming a day
for the election of these officers before these de-
tails can be supplied, that is to say, before the
session of the Legislature by which the necessary
machinery was to he furnished, to set his system
to work. He could, of course, no longer support
it.
Mr. DORSEY said:
The gentleman from Baltimore county, (Mr.
Howard,) and he differed more widely than that
gentleman seemed to imagine. When a judge is
to be appointed, the Constitution does and should
declare that a lawyer should be chosen. If an
an Attorney General is to be chosen he ought to
be a lawyer, and if a prosecuting attorney is to be
chosen, it is important that he too should be a
lawyer.
The gentleman from Baltimore county thinks
we should leave all the details to the legislature |
