that time, wielded by the deputies of proprieta-
ries or companies in England.
In consequence of this it was, in the first place,
omitted by many States, which since in altering
their constitutions, have adopted it, gathering
wisdom from the experience of their sister com-
munities, of whose fundamental law it originally
formed a part. I have a list of the States in
which the power at present exists in one form or
another. I find that in the twelve States of
Maine Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Michigan, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Georgia
the veto power is lodged in the bands of the
Governor, subject to be over ruled by two-thirds
of both houses of the Legislature. In ten other
States, viz: Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey,
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri,
Florida and Arkansas the Governor possesses
the suspensory veto, requiring the concurrence
of a majority of all the members elected to each
branch of the Legislature to over ride ii. Of
the remaining eight States, (excluding California,
the provision of whose constitution, in this respect,
I am not apprised of,) four, until a very
recent period, confided the election of their Go-
vernors to the Legislatures—and of course, for
the reasons already given, it would have been
inconsistent with all sound principles of govern-
ment, had these clothed their executives, so cho-
sen, with the veto power. So that, in this Union.
there are but four States where the Governor was
not, till a late period, dependant on the Legisla-
ture, in which this suspensive check is not vested
in him. I by no means assert, sir, that we ought
blindly to imitate the institutions of our con-
federates, but only wish to show, by these prece-
dents what American Statesmen have, with such
few exceptions, considered an indispensable ele-
ment of an executive power constituted as we
have already determined to form oars. We pro-
fess the same doctrines, we advocate the same
theories of government! Should not our deductions
be similar and lead to like results?
But, sir, besides those considerations, applicable
alike to this and the other States of this Union,
it does seem to me that there are additional reasons
peculiar to Maryland, why we should vest
in our Chief Magistrate this conservative check
In no one of the other States, so far as my observation
has extended, does there exist so deep
seated a sectional jealousy, leading to conflicts
for power, and strife, for local aggrandisement,
as that which has long prevailed here, and the
extirpation of which will require all the appli-
ances which foresight and patriotism can devise.
Whence has arisen this deplorable state of things,
and what are the appropriate remedies?
In almost every other State—I may say, that
virtually in every other State of this Union—the
principle of requiring not less than a majority of
the electors to sanction, through their representa-
tives, all laws, has been practically adopted. It
may be, that in some of the States, the apportionment
of representatives is more or less arbi-
trary, or has become unequal in the lapse of time,
through the changes of relative population. But
in none other does the disproportion between po- |
pulation and representatives at all approach that
which exists here. And where the departure
from the principle is furthest except in Mary-
land. either through difference in the mode of
electing the two branches of the Legislature, or
by the investment in the Governor of the limited
negative, it has been rendered almost inevitable
that every law should have received the approba-
tion of the representatives of the larger portion
of the people if there are any States, beside
our own, in which this is not the case. Virginia
and South Carolina are those. Discontent pre-
vails in both, not probably to the same extent as
here, because the departure from the principle
is not so wide. In Virginia, however, the popular
feeling on the subject has been sufficient to
give birth to a Convention like ours, and in that
Convention this subject, like Aaron's rod, has
swallowed up the rest. In South Carolina the
upheavings of public discontent are already very
palpable, and a Constitutional Convention there
is pretty certain to ensue, so soon as the external
relations of that bellicose commonwealth permit
her to turn her attention to her internal con-
cerns.
In Maryland alone, there has been a deter-
mined and successful (I will not say unjustifiable,)
resistance to every attempt to engrail upon its
Constitution any principle as the basis of representation.
It is certain that very few of us come
here, whatever may have been our abstract doc-
trines on this subject, with the slightest expecta-
tion that any such principle would be admitted
into the new Constitution. Most of us, indeed,
were hampered by positive or implied pledges to
our constituents, which did not allow us to follow
the dictates of our own sense of right, or to yield
to convictions which interchange of views may
have produced. Under these circumstances, a
compromise was inevitable, and it has taken
place. We have adopted a basil of representa-
tion by which the inequality formerly existing, is
much diminished, although the basis itself is, in
part, entirely arbitrary and not such as will ren-
der the concurrence of the representatives of near
a majority of the people, necessary to the enact-
ment of laws. This cause of discontent, though
much diminished in force, still remains. The
popular majority will still feel that they are un-
der the control, and subject to the oppression of
the minority.
That feeling will grow and gather strength in
the nature of things, and finally bear down all
opposition, unless that popular majority is armed
with some defence on which it can rely as a safe-
guard against the abuse of its rule by the minori-
ty. In this way it has become the interest of
both sections, as well of the small counties as of
the large, counties and the city of Baltimore, to
engraft the feature which I am advocating, on
the Constitution. It will protect the latter against
all overt action, all oppressive legislation on the
art of the minority; while it will save the small
counties from the probability of the loss of that
disproportionate representation which they still
retain and consider essential to their security--perhaps
by a revolutionary movement, peaceable,
but possibly attended by the violence which has |
