Mr. DORSEY said:
That there seemed to be a sufficient guard
against the too ready division of counties in the
provision that the population to form the new
county, must be at least fifteen thousand, and
that the remaining population shall not be less
than twenty thousand. The expenses also in the
new county would be five or six times as great as
in the old one, at first, on account of the necessi-
ty of erecting new buildings, etc. They would
not go lightly and give up all their interest in the
public buildings, the court house, jail, etc.—
There was danger, however, that the old coun-
ties would wish to retain them. For example,
if the old county or counties should happen to be
whig and the new county democratic, or
vice versa, there would be a political objection.
It ought not to be put in the power of the old
counties, to retain those who desired to establish
a new county, against their will.
Mr. BROWN demanded the yeas and nays,
Which were ordered,
And being taken,
Resulted yeas 9, nays 45, as follows:
Affirmative—Messrs. John Dennis, James U.
Dennis, Hicks, Phelps, McMaster, Biser, Ste-
phenson, Schley and John Newcomer,—9.
Negative—Messrs. Chapman, President, Mor-
gan, Blakistone, Hopewell, Ricaud, Chambers,
of Kent, Mitchell, Donaldson, Dorsey, Wells,
Randall, Sellman, Sollers, Howard, Buchanan,
Welch, Sherwood of Talbot, Dashiell, Williams,
Bowie, Sprigg, George, Dirickson, Hearn,
Annan, McHenry, Nelson, Thawley, Gwinn,
Brent, of Baltimore city, Sherwood, of Baltimore
city, Ware, Fiery, Michael Newcomer, Davis,
Kilgour, Waters, Anderson, Weber, Hollyday,
Slicer, Fitzpatrick, Shower, Cockey and Brown
—45.
So the twenty-third section as amended was
rejected.
The Convention then proceeded to consider
the following amendment offered by Mr. BLAKIS-
TONE, on the 7th of March, as the 43d section to
the legislative report:
"Section 43. That it shall be the duty of the
Legislature, so soon as the public debt shall have
been fully paid off, to cause to be transferred to
the several counties and the city of Baltimore,
stock in the internal improvement companies
equal to the amount respectively paid by each
towards the erection and completion of said
works, at the then market value of said stock.
It shall further be the duty of the Legislature,
after the public debt shall have been fully paid
off, and the sinking fund shall be sufficient to re
deem the same at maturity, to appropriate such
portions of the annual revenue of the State stocks
in the internal improvement companies in this
State, (after deducting so much, together with
the other annual revenues of the State, as may be
necessary to meet the current expenses and
any sudden exigencies that may arise,) equally
among the said counties and the city of Balti-
more, having a just regard to the several amounts
paid by each into the State Treasury, and the
advantages and disadvantages resulting to each
respectively from the construction of said works |
of internal improvement—the said stocks and re-
venue, when paid over, to be under the direction
and control of the county authorities of the sev-
eral counties and the Mayor and the City Coun-
cil of Baltimore respectively, to be by then ap-
plied to purposes of education, and such other
purposes as the said county and State authorities
may deem proper."
Mr. BLAKISTONE said, that when this clause
was up before, objection seemed to be urged
from some quarters to it, from the fact that it
proposed to transfer to the counties and the city
of Baltimore, stock in internal improvements,
with a view of obviating the objection then urg-
ed against the section, he had endeavored to
modify it by substituting another in lieu thereof.
He had endeavored to examine, so fur as he
could, the various acts of Assembly which hail
been adopted in relation to this subject, so as to
modify the clause which he had proposed to in-
troduce, that it might embrace each and every
act of Assembly, and the various reasons which
had been adopted, having reference to this sub-
ject.
The first act of the Legislature making any large
appropriation of the public fund for works of
internal improvement in Maryland, passed in the
year 1834. Previous, however, to 1834, in 1833,
a resolution was passed by the General Assem-
bly, providing for the particular mode in which
the school funds should be distributed. It was
number 47, session of 1833, He would read it:
Resolution relative to the Common School Fund,
passed 1833.
" Resolved by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That the treasurer of the western shore be,
and he is hereby, authorised to distribute and
pay over to each of the several counties of this
State, and to the city of Baltimore, or to the per-
son or authorities in each now authorised to
draw for and and receive their respective quotas
of the free schools fund, to be ascertained by dis-
tributing the one half of said fund among the
said counties and the city of Baltimore in exact
proportion to the amount of the white population
of each respectively, as ascertained by the last
census of the United States; and by dividing the
other half of said fund into twenty equal parts,
and allotting to each county and the city of Bal-
timore one of said parts."
Thus it would be perceived that he had refer-
ence to the school fund which had been created
from a bonus arising from the incorporation of
banks, and that it was anterior to the passage of
the appropriation by the General Assembly of
1834, an appropriation, he believed, of some two
or three millions of dollars to aid in the con-
struction of the Baltimore and Ohio rail road. of
the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, and of the Susquehanna
rail road in the Act of 1834, making
appropriations for these works of internal im-
provement, reference was had to the resolution
of December session, 1833, and it also provided,
that in certain contingencies, when the public
debt should be paid off, when there would be no
longer use fertile sinking fund, the works of improvement
being so profitable, [they looked to |
