Eastern Shore. To equal the district, and make
Baltimore one of them, we must have four dis-
tricts instead of three. He did not perceive
how any party purpose could be subserved by
dividing the State into four districts instead of
three. It was not proposed to give to the peo-
ple of any one district a right to elect the Gov-
ernor. The candidates to be nominated were
both to reside in the same, but they were to be
elected by a majority of all the qualified voters
of the State.
Mr. DORSEY said, if the gentleman had heard
him out, he would not have found It necessary
to make any explanation. He (Mr. D.) did not
mean to contradict what the gentleman said—
that he in his proceedings in this Convention
would be influenced by no party political mo-
tives—but he would say that the division of an
election district furnished so good an opportu-
nity and so great a temptation corruptly to per-
petrate unjust political objects, that he was un-
willing to furnish an occasion fur such a perpe-
tration but from unavoidable necessity; and it
could not be pretended that any such necessity
at present existed.
The gentleman said he could not see how;
but he (Mr. D.) thought he could easily demon-
strate it; and it seemed to have entered into the
combination of the arrangement .made in 1836.
Baltimore, the gentleman said, would have the
largest population of any gubernatorial district;
and he (Mr. D.) would say, that as the popula-
tion now stands, gross injustice was done to the
Baltimore district, including the six lower coun-
ties attached to it. That district now contained
a population of upwards of 278,000, whilst the
other Western Shore gubernatorial district con-
tained but about 176,000—a case of crying in-
justice since 1836, when it was settled by our
constitution that the Governor was the repre-
sentative of popular numbers only.
After a few remarks by Mr. THOMAS,
Mr. DORSEY said, he did before. He perfectly
understood the gentleman that Baltimore was the
great commercial emporium of Maryland—that
her interests were separate and distinct. Now,
his [Mr. D's] opinion was, that Baltimore was
connected with a large portion of Maryland, and
that the interests of those counties were so insep-
arably connected that they depend more upon
Baltimore than Baltimore did upon them. He
thought that a portion of Baltimore city was so
connected with Harford, that the proper division
would be to put Baltimore city and county and
Harford into the Baltimore district, and by that
means a better division could be made between
the Eastern and the Western Shores, upon the
three districts system, than by the adoption of
any other plan. There existed so much sympa-
thy between them, and their interests were so
identified, that no objection, he apprehended,
could be made on that score. The population it
that district would then be 329,966. As it now
stood, one district contained 176,078, and the
other 278,271 inhabitants, which he thought a
very unjust division of the city of Baltimore and
the counties. It was unjust to them, because if
the laying off of Gubernatorial districts had any |
object or principle in it, it meant that those districts
should be, as nearly as may be, of equal
population. He, therefore) looked around to see
how an equalization of the population was attain-
able. He saw what would make a most compact
and beautiful district, with the strongest social
and political ties and unity of interests, and that
was by uniting Harford county to the city and
county of Baltimore, thus forming the third Gu-
bernatorial district. All the other counties on
the Western Shore, which together contain a pop-
ulation of about 225,000 would compose the
second district. This arrangement would form
the most natural and convenient division of the
population of the Western Shore that could be
made, and approximated as nearly to a perfect
equalization of the districts on the basis of popu-
lation as could be obtained or made essentially
desirable.
An exact equality they could not get, unless by
gerrymandering the counties. It appeared to him
that this was a just and reasonable proposition,
and ought to be adopted, it then gave the East-
ern Shore an opportunity of having a Governor
from that shore. It gave, also, to Baltimore and
Baltimore county and Harford county, so insep-
arably connected, a right to a Governor; and it
gave to all the other counties, with a population
that amounted to as near as may be, 225,000, the
right to have a Governor taken from amongst
them. He had stated why he was unwilling that
Baltimore city and county should be separated.
He did not put Baltimore with the western coun-
ties, for this reason: because it had a large num-
ber of such distinguished and eminent citizens
who were qualified to fill the Gubernatorial chair,
that the counties could not enter into the compe-
tition with it; and if common rumors were true—
he personally having no knowledge—that a num-
ber of gentlemen had, for some years past, been
colonized in Baltimore county, just over the city
limits; not with a view to a permanent residence
there, but for the purpose of acquiring such a
residence for the time being as would render them
eligible to the office of Governor. The persona
so removing continuing the transaction in the
city of all their business as if no such removal
had never taken place, all their interests remaining
an much identified with Baltimore as before their
change of residence. Such colonization, as it is
called, is certainly an indirect and covert fraud
upon the Constitution, and would be effectually
put an end to, by the arrangement proposed for
the Baltimore district. By tolerating its existence,
the city of Baltimore might in substance, though
not in form, always from its own citizens elect the
Governor for both the Western Shore districts.
By the division of districts, as proposed by him,
justice would be done to the lest of the counties,
and doubtless they would be much better satisfied
if placed in a district by themselves.
From the prompt and impassioned manner in
which the gentleman from Baltimore county had
replied to his remarks as to Gubernatorial aspir-
ants, though the fact was unknown to him before,
but for the positive disclaimer of the gentleman,
he should have suspected him of having indulged |
