Caroline county two, Calvert county two, Cecil
county three, Charles county two, Dorchester
county three, Frederick county seven, Harford
county three, Kent county two, Montgomery
county two, Prince George's county three, Queen
Anne's county two, St. Mary's county two, Som-
erset county three, Talbot county two, Washing-
ton five and Worcester county three. Provided,
nevertheless, that each county and city shall be
divided into separate election districts of com-
pact, contiguous territory, in the manner hereaf-
ter to be provided in this Constitution; the quali-
fied voters in each of which districts shall at the
time and in the manner in which delegates are
chosen, elect one delegate, who has for one year
next before his election been a resident of the
district from which he shall be elected, and the
residence in a district requisite to give a right of
of suffrage, shall be six months next preceding
the election; but in case any voter otherwise
qualified shall have less than six months resi-
dence in the district of his then residence, he
shall not thereby lose his right to vote in the dis-
trict in which he may have resided for the six
months next preceding his removal.
Mr. JOHNSON remarked that he voted to recon-
sider the proposition or amendment offered by
the gentleman from Washington county now un-
der consideration, and he might possibly vote for
it on its final passage. If he did so, it would not
.be because he preferred the plan which the gentle-
man had laid down. He was free to confess
that the basis which he was willing to vote for
was in the fifth column of the printed schedule ;
which gave seventy-five members to the House of
Delegates. The Constitution of Maryland, as it
now stood, looked forward to future representa-
tion in populous counties; and under the present
census Frederick county would be entitled to
precisely the number of delegates which the plan
of the gentleman, (Mr Harbine,) as modified by
himself, would now afford her. His object now
was to submit to the Convention whether it would
not be well to consider the propriety of subdivi-
ding not only Baltimore city, but the large coun-
ties and the small counties in such manner as
would place the larger by the side of the smaller,
and make the larger counties but small ones. To
take away from these large counties and the city
of Baltimore the power of throwing one mass of
delegates here, speaking one sentiment, breathing
one atmosphere and having one unity of thought
and action. His object, therefore, in offering
this proposition, was not so much as to force a
vote on the question now, because he saw a great
many gentlemen were very anxious that they
should make some progress, and that that should
be upon the isolated subject of representation
alone, lie was, therefore, in doubt whether he
was acting wisely and in accordance with the
general sentiment of the Convention when he
brought this question in advance of the question
of representation. His chief object was to call
the attention of the Convention to the subject, so
that they might not be taken by surprise if he
should vote for the proposition of the gentleman
from Washington county. Alter doing so should
move to reconsider it. |
[The Chairman's hammer fell—the gentleman's
five minutes having expired ]
Mr. JOHNSON said that he would withdraw his
proposition for the present, as he would like to
have consultation.
Mr. MERRICK offered, as a substitute for the
amendment of Mr. FIERY, the following:
"The House of Delegates shall consist of
members to be apportioned to the several coun-
ties of the State and the city of Baltimore, accor-
ding to the following rule, that is to say. Each of
said counties and the city aforesaid, shall elect
one delegate for every four thousand souls it
may contain up to twenty thousand, and for any
excess in the number of population in any of said
counties or in the city of Baltimore above twenty
thousand, and of not less than eight thousand,
there shall be allowed to each county or city
having such excess one additional delegate; and
for any excess of population in any of the coun-
ties or city aforesaid, above twenty-eight thou-
sand and of not less than sixteen thousand, one
other additional delegate shall beallowed to each
of the counties or to the city having such excess;
and so on, duplicating the number of souls re-
quired to be in excess, above the last number
upon which an additional delegate was allowed,
for the allowance of each further additional del-
egate, to which by such duplicating ratio, any of
the counties or the city of Baltimore, may be en-
titled for the whole number of its population-
provided that no county shall have less than three
delegates, nor shall any county or city have more
than ten delegates. By which rule, and until
otherwise apportioned by the legislature as here-
inafter provided, the number of delegates from
each of the counties and the city of Baltimore,
shall be as follows; Allegany shall elect five;
Anne Arundel shall elect five; Howard three;
Baltimore county six; Carroll five; Caroline
three; Calvert three; Cecil four; Charles four;
Dorchester four; Frederick six; Harford four;
Kent three; Montgomery four; Prince George's
five; Queen Anne's three; Saint Mary's three;
Somerset five; Talbot three; Washington six;
Worcester four, and the city of Baltimore ten.
And the legislature shall in future at their first
regular session after the authoritative promulga-
tion of each decenial census of the people of the
United States, reapportion the representatives in
the House of Delegates according to the above
rules, and the then state of the population in
the several counties and the city of Baltimore."
Mr. MERRICK begged gentlemen to reflect
upon the great and striking injustice which would
be done to the slaveholding counties of the State
by apportioning representation in the Legislature
according to federal numbers, Every one knew
that mode of apportioning representation in the
Congress of the United States was the result of
compromise, it being provided in that govern-
ment, that taxation and representation should be
apportioned equally, consequently the slave-
holding States received as a compensation for the
non enumeration of a portion of their slaves in
the apportionment of representatives, an exemp- |
