the vote he should feel compelled to give.
When the proposition of the gentleman from
Prince George's (Mr. Bowie) was first intro-
duced, it proposed to divide the State into six
senatorial districts; as now modified, it proposes
two districts, one consisting of the Eastern and
one of the Western Shore. Mr, D. had op-
posed it in the first instance for various reasons,
one of which was, because he conceived it to be
entirely inconsistent with the theory of our
Government. The little reading he had of con-
stitutional history has taught him that in the
House of Representatives of the United States
the people are represented, whilst the Senate
was the representative of the sovereignty of the
States. The effect of the original proposition,
he thought, would be to have the State of Mary-
land represented in the Senate of the United
States, not as a soverign, independent State, not
as a whole, not as an entirety—but by a sec-
tional, fragmentary representation, influenced by
local and sectional prejudices and feelings. The
proposition now under consideration was in prin-
ciple the same, it still retained the same local,
sectional features, only those features were a
little enlarged and more extended. Instead of
six districts it is now proposed to have two.
The same objections he had to the first he had
to the present proposition, and notwithstanding
the very eloquent appeal of the gentleman from
Dorchester (Mr. Hicks) to his Eastern Shore
friends, notwithstanding that he also was an
Eastern Shoreman in all his thoughts, in all his
feelings, and even in all his prejudices, not-
withstanding that every thing he had, or had to
expect, was fully, thoroughly and entirely iden-
tified with the Eastern Shore, notwithstanding
his very heart beat with a throb responsive to
all the remarks of the gentleman from Dorches-
ter, still he was not here to indulge his own per-
sonal feelings—he was here to legislate for no
one particular locality, but to aid and assist in
making a constitution coextensive with and as
broad as the limits of the whole State. Much,
Mr. President, has been said in this Convention
of party and of party purposes. Sir, said Mr.
D., there are times when I would go all honor-
able lengths with my party friends, but there
are also occasions when all party feelings should
be buried. We are here engaged in forming
anew our Constitution, and he humbly conceiv-
ed this to be such an occasion. For himself,
upon this floor he knew no party—his action
was influenced by no party considerations He
believed that a desire for an increase of power
in our legislative halls was the great motive for
calling this Convention, and we have been en-
gaged here for a long time in a contest for the
loaves and fishes, and this proposition is but
another branch of the struggle—it seeks to pro-
cure for particular sections the United States
Senators.
The Constitution of the United States pre-
scribes the qualifications of Senators. The third
section of the first article says, "No person shall
be a Senator, who shall not have attained to the
age of thirty years, and been nine years a citi-
zen of the United States, and who shall not, |
when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for
which he shall be chosen." Here are the qual-
ifications requisite for the office of Senators.
Mr. D. thought that for the Legislature to im-
pose an additional qualification and make ineli-
gible all persons living without a particular dis-
trict, would be to superadd a qualification by an
inferior tribunal, to those that the supreme pow-
er has declared to be sufficient, and therefore
would be null and void. He was, therefore,
unwilling to see engrafted upon the Constitu-
tion of the State, a provision he believed the
Senate of the United States would disregard ill
the very first case that would be brought before it.
Mr. D. would unite with the gentleman from
Dorchester in any and every effort to protect the
interests of the Eastern Shore whenever he be-
lieved he could do so consistently with the obedi-
ence he owed to the Constitution of the U. States
—the journal of the Convention, would bear
him out in saying that he had gone with him
who had gone furthest, in every instance when
the rights of the Eastern Shore were at stake,
throughout the whole agitating, trying struggle
attendant upon the adjustment of the represen-
tation question. His ground had been taken and
maintained with an eye single to the interests of
that section; he had voted against the so-called
compromise, and would continue to vote against
all such compromises—because he did not re-
gard it as any compromise—the gain was all on
one side and the loss all upon the other. Does
any man suppose that any adjustment we may
make here, will be adhered to for any consider-
able period. The history and observance of
the compromise of 1836, show the fallacy of
any such idea. Sir, this is no compromise, it is
no final settlement, it is no fixed and permanent
adjustment; it is but a plan that strengthens the
arms already upraised and ready to strike down to
the earth the small counties. The proposition un-
der consideration is a different matter, it is a
call upon the Eastern Shore, as a section, to
engraft upon the Constitution a provision which
he believed to be contrary to the spirit of the
Federal Constitution, and therefore he could not
consent to it.
Mr. PHELPS said that as he had understood the
argument, it had not been contended that if this
provision would be introduced into the Consti-
tution, and if the Legislature should regard it,
the Senate of the United States could reject a
Senator elected under it. He would there-
fore vote for the proposition. It would do no
harm, and would at least stand as an expression
of the opinion of the people of the State, that
the Senators ought to be elected one from the
Eastern and the other from the Western Shore
of Maryland.
Mr. RANDALL asked what must be the neces-
sary consequence of acting in this matter, either
through the Legislature or this Constitution? It
was, to concede to the Congress of the United
States the very power which you claim for your-
selves, the power of making or changing those
election districts. And, he would ask his friend
from Prince George's, (Mr. Bowie,) who spoke
with so much emphasis and propriety about State |
