the vital interests of the country must necessarily
rise or fall with the triumph or defeat of any
party. He had lived long enough to consider all
party triumphs secondary objects. And. although
he had not lived, by many years, so long as the
gentleman in his eye, (Mr Dorsey,) he thought
if any man had served too long an apprenticeship
to mere parly shackles, he [Mr. T.] had done it.
But, us he had seen the party with which he was
identified triumph, and alternately be defeated,
and had seen our beloved country in either event
moving steadily onward in its career of glory and
power, he was satisfied that the great interests of
the country were not unavoidably dependent on
the fate of any political combination that hail yet
been formed. He may have thought otherwise
once, and his party zeal was in proposition to the
strength of that conviction. More than that, he
had lived long enough to know that many of our
anticipations about the effects of party struggles
were never realized. He had never stood in the
front ranks, but he had been near enough to the
front to have a view of the whole field after a
party victory. And he was ready to admit that
such events, in nine cases out of ten, sent into
retirement a large proportion of public functiona-
ries whose continuance in office was required by
the public interests, and brought into station oth-
ers who, for the public good, ought to have con-
tinued in retirement.
He would assure the gentleman (and he hoped
that he would believe him) that his political partialities
—his political principles, were unchanged;
they might be eternal as his own being—but they
could not influence him to move in this Conven-
tion with a view to give undue advantages to any
party. He had supposed that the very circum-
stances under which he came to this Convention
would have sheltered him from the remotest suspicion
that he had any such objects in view. He
had declined a party nomination, because ho did
not wish to come into a body like under what
might be considered pledges to promote purely
party purposes. He said this without meaning
to say that his position was one of more personal
independence than that of any other member. It
was well known in the county from which he
came) that he had no reason of a personal charac-
ter to separate from old party friends. His relations
to them were, and had always been, kind.
He had been influenced by considerations of pub-
lic usefulness altogether. But, allow him to say,
he was amused that a gentleman of so high intel-
ligence us the Representative of the county of
Anne Arundel was, could suppose that there was
to be found in a proposition of this kind any tiling
of a personal or of a party character. What had
he [Mr. T] done? Had he not separated the
county in winch the gentleman resided from the
connection in which it was placed under the old
constitution?
The county in which the gentleman resides
constitutes, with other counties and the city of
Baltimore, under the old Constitution, a Gubernatorial
district. This union with Baltimore the
gentleman now proposes to dissolve, by establish-
ing a district to be formed of Baltimore city with
Baltimore and Harford counties. The gentleman |
was very willing to get rid of all connection with
Baltimore by attaching that city to other counties.
He [Mr. T.] desired to do justice to Baltimore
and to all the counties by making the city a dis-
trict. of itself; and did not see how in so doing he
could have justly imputed to him mere party
purposes. When he had proposed to separate—to
draw lines of demarcation, and require the select-
ing of the candidates from the same district, he
had not proposed to have the votes of that district
alone cast at the election. The candidates are to
reside in a particular district, but the people of
the whole State are to vote. No matter where
you may locate your candidates when any party
machinery is to be brought to bear on the nomi-
nation, and any convention to be got up fur the
purposes of the election, is it not to be constituted
precisely in the same mode as if Baltimore was a
separate district? Would there not be the same
nominating conventions—the same apportionments
of delegates to such conventions, whether
Baltimore was or was not connected with the
counties? Now when the venerable gentleman
reflected that he [Mr. T.] had a right to expect
that he would admit that no mere parly purposes
could be aimed at in the formation of districts
within which the candidates for the office of Gov-
ernor were required to reside.
Mr, SOLLERS said—In my humble judgment,
after the eloquent speech of the gentleman who
has just taken his seat, and from the peculiar feel-
ings produced by it, we are unfit to listen to any
thing more at present; I therefore move that we
now adjourn.
The question was taken and decided in the
affirmative.
So the Convention adjourned until to-morrow
at ten o'clock.
THURSDAY, April 3,1851.
The Convention met at ten o'clock.
Prayer was made by the Rev. Mr. Griffith.
The Journal of yesterday was read.
The President laid before the Convention the
following communication from the Hon. Louis
McLane:
To the Hon. JOHN G. CHAPMAN,
President of the Convention:
SIR: In consequence of the state of my health,
which absolutely requires relaxation from my
constant attendance upon the Convention, I have
the honor to ask that leave of absence for two
weeks may be granted to me?
I am, sir, with great respect,
LOUIS MCLANE.
April 2,1851.
which was read.
On the question being put,
"Will the Convention grant the leave of ab-
sence asked?" it was
Determined in the affirmative.
Mr. BISER presented a petition of 45 citizens
of Hauver's District, in Frederick county, ask-
ing that a clause be inserted in the constitution,
restricting the sale of intoxicating liquors, ex- |
