have under this bill, she was then to be entitled
to two Delegates and a Senator. He asked gen-
tlemen on all sides of the House not to pass this
bill, but to reject it.
Mr. THOMAS regretted very much the course
this discussion had taken, and also regretted
what had fallen from the gentleman from Prince
George's. He asked the Convention to reflect
upon this aspect of the case—how far it would
be prudent to deny to a portion of the State a
reasonable and just right on the grounds that
gentleman had urged.
The gentleman from Charles (Mr. Jenifer)
had moved that the bill should be so amended
that all this section of Maryland—some seven
hundred and one thousand square miles—should
not, until after the next census, have a repre-
sentation for two counties greater than if they
were one county. Of course, there was no great
cause to fear an avalanche from the mountains
in this respect.
How stood the constitution as adopted? That
after 1860, after the next census returns, there
should be a new apportionment among the whole
of the counties of Maryland, in representation
in the House of Delegates, upon the same prin-
ciple of apportionment established in the con-
stitution we are now about to adopt. If the
county should be divided or nut divided, would
there not be located in that section precisely
the same vote that would be in one event in
another? If the population of the whole county re-
mains entire, they will have acertain represent-
ation upon that flour. If they are divided, they
could get no more. He considered this a simple
question to give them aconvenient seat of jus-
tice. If the proposition was modified so as to
give that section the right to a court of justice,
so far as he was concerned, he would be satis-
fied. He did not feel imperatively called upon
to engage in the discussion on this occasion, or
that branch of the subject alluded to by the
gentleman from Prince George's, and he hoped
the day was far distant when he would be called
upon to do so.
Mr. TUCK availed himself of this opportunity
to submit a few remarks in explanation of his
course on this subject. He attempted to gain the
floor yesterday, but was prevented by the previous
question. Gentlemen had then expressed regret
at the course of discussion on the representation
question, and seemed to think that there had been
no reason for the introduction of sectional topics.
He [Mr. T.] was among the last to suggest any
thing calculated '' to alienate any portion of the
State from the rest, or to disturb the unity of
government which ought to constitute us one
people.'' He was not the first to introduce into
this body allusions to the several sections of the
State, and to distinguish between federal numbers
and gross numbers as the basis of representation.
But, as he first introduced those topics into this
debate, he desired to remind the Convention of the
circumstances under which it was done. When
the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Fiery) of-
fered his proposition, some days ago, he distinctly
said it was tendered as a compromise based on
federal numbers. For the first time (as far as |
Mr. T. remembered) the word "compromise," as
applied to the slave question, was then used in
this body. Another gentleman from Washington
(Mr. Schley) offered his substitute, and when
asked by Mr. Tuck on what basis his motion was
made, he distinctly said on federal numbers, as a
compromise. A compromise of what? Upon the
slave question. Up to this time Mr. T. had not
felt a moment's apprehension that there was any
portion of the people of Maryland who would not,
under all circumstances, render to the slave coun-
ties the fullest protection of their rights. He had
seen the unanimity with which the resolutions of
10th December were passed. We had adopted a
clause in the Constitution expressly protecting
this institution, and lie hoped that when the rep-
resentation question came up we should have had
similar feelings exhibited towards the slave coun-
ties. To say that he was disappointed, but half
expressed his feelings. Compromise implies discrepancy
—wide discrepancy, of views and opin-
ions. The opinions and feelings of the people in
his section of the State were well known; and
when a measure was tendered by the other section
as a compromise, it signified that very opposite
views were entertained in that quarter. It was
under the apprehension which this state of things
was calculated to excite, that he rose at the time
and urged the members from his section to set
their faces against any thing that savored of com-
promise of a question, to yield any portion of
which was to abandon the whole principle in-
volved.
Gentlemen say that we have no cause of alarm.
Perhaps they judge the people by themselves.
All is sound here, and hence gentlemen say all is
sound beyond these walls. But we cannot mis-
take the meaning of words. The course of mem-
bers too plainly indicates the feelings that prevail
among their people, if they are correctly repre-
sented. Besides these offers from the county of
Washington, which, by the way, are compromises
made for the slave counties by the upper counties,
and to which our section was no party in any
sense, (having been expressly excluded from the
arrangements that preceded the plan,) we have
had similar views stated by a gentleman from
Allegany. He told us that his own preference
was for the white basis—that his people were for
that basis—that for the sake of doing justice to
Prince George's county, which was heavily taxed
for their benefit, he was willing to take whole
numbers; but as there was a feeling among his
people on the subject of slavery, to which their
Delegates must respond, he thought federal num-
bers would be a fair compromise; and, therefore,
he should support that basis.
Here we had the idea of compromise sug-
gested by Washington and Allegany counties;
upon a subject to which no Marylander would
be willing to compromise with a Northern State
in any case where the two States came in con-
flict. Maryland had evidently taken her stand
with the South. The temperate, yet decided
tone of our resolutions had commended them to
the friends of the Union every where. How
then was it possible for a member from a slave
county to be otherwise than alarmed when pro- |
