the aggregate vote of the people, and was liable
to impeachment. And, as he was thus liable,
he, (Mr B.,) would confide in so high an officer
as the Governor. But the Legislature was not
liable, and therefore he would not trust a Legis-
lature formed upon a territorial and not a popu-
lar basis, for he regarded the present basis as
nothing but a mitigation of inequality and injus-
tice. And, he would not agree to leave that
question to the Legislature. What, he asked.
would be said by that Legislature ten years
hence? He knew what would he said. He had
already shown in a speech which he submitted
the other day, that the minority of the people
would then, as now, have a majority in the
House of Delegates and in the Senate. What
would be said by the Legislature ? Men would
get up then, and say, "if you carry out the
injunction of the Constitution and call a Con-
vention, you deprive the counties of power
by the new Constitution." They would say.
shamelessly and openly, that they would nullify
the Constitution.
Now he, (Mr. B.,) would rather make it the
duly of the Governor, acting under his solemn
obligations to the people of Maryland, lo take the
vote of the people and call the Convention. He
would rather confide to him the authority to issue
his proclamation, making it. a ministerial duty on
his part, which he must perform; whereas, by
corrupt influences in the Legislature, we might
find the constitutional provision nullified, and no
remedy provided fur the people For that rea-
son, and that reason only, did he, (Mr. B..) dis-
sent from the gentleman and the majority of the
Convention, and he believed that the Legislature
would never call another Convention, if left to
them in a new Constitution, such as we are adop-
ting. The gentleman had done him the honor to
say the party—that portion of the people of Bal-
timore, with which he was politically connected,
and of whom the gentleman had represented him
as being their leader, had determined to go
against the adoption of the Constitution. He,
(Mr. B,) would say that he did not consider himself
to be the leader of any party, he only held
himself lo be an humble member of a great party in
which there were no leaders. In that political
temple, he was but a pillar. He did not, and
never had aspired to leadership of a party He
had no right to dictate to any one. If there was
an individual in that city, suffering at the hands
of this Convention, and who were determined to
rebel against this Convention, it was their own
business, and their right to say so. For himself,
he avowed that he would not be prepared to ex-
press his opinion or to act until he saw the Con-
stitution come from the hands of this Convention,
and then he would not shrink from the responsibility
of passing his judgment for or against the
new Constitution.
Mr. SOLLERS said that he was sure when he
said the gentleman (Mr. Brent,) was character-
ized in Baltimore as being the leader of a party
opposed to the adoption of the new Constitution
he only meant to give him that name which his,
friends in that city had bestowed upon him. He
(Mr. S.) certainly fell bound lo declare that he; |
had never heard the gentleman say any thing
that would indicate that he was a leader, but
such was the situation assigned him by his poli-
tical friends. Now, he (Mr. S.) knew that there
was something more than appeared on the out-
side—on the surface—against particular clauses
that he had the honor to submit to the Conven-
tion. And he must say, and he said it with great
truth, that he had never beard a more candid and
fair statement than the gentleman had made of
his real objections to his (Mr. Sollers') proposi-
tion; but the gentleman had shown, at the same
time. that the political parly to which he be-
longed, was not content with the power they
already possessed, but even grasped at more, with
that cormorant-like rapacity, (laughter,) which
seemed to be unappeasible and insatiable. It was
for this, and other reasons, he (Mr. S.) did not
want this question of reform agitated every ten
years, and disturbing the whole State from one
end of it to the other,
Mr. BRENT, of Baltimore city, said he had pre-
sented his substitute without consultation with
any one. As lo being a cormorant, he was a
cormorant for equal rights, and would be as long
as he lived.
Mr. SOLLERS replied, that so far as equal rights
were concerned, he was as great a champion of
them as the gentleman himself, but he was a
very different cormorant from that gentleman.
The gentleman had develope, becaused it was
impossible for him to repress the feeling—the
true reasons why he opposed his (Mr. Sollers')
proposition. He (Mr. B.) desired that the
Legislature should have nothing to do with calling
a Convention, and that the people should have
the subject of reform before them every ten
years. And, he told us candidly why. it was
because the present basis of representation was
'oppressive, and that the people of Maryland
should be appealed to every ten years to correct
the evil. What, he would ask, was to become
of us gentlemen from the counties?
Was the city of Baltimore never to be satisfied?
Were we. to be subject to downright vassalage?
What had we done? And. he might ask,
what had they not done? We had, from the
sweat of our brows, contributed to the wealth
and prosperity of the city of Baltimore, and now,
in the day other pride and strength, she sought
to strip us of the little we had left us. It was a
common observation made by the people of Bal-
timore, or some of them, that they, for the most
part, contributed lo pay all the taxes, and to
construct the public works—the internal im-
provements of the State.
Now, he [Mr. S] utterly denied that there
was any truth in the statement, and he could
show to the satisfaction of twelve men on oath,
that it had been mainly through the aid and in-
fluence of the interior counties of the State, the
improvements in question were made. A man
who had not been in the city of Baltimore for
two years and who were to visit it now, would
be perfectly amazed to see how immensely it
had increased in size, wealth and population —
The fact was, that Baltimore had flourished and |
