grown rich, while the counties had not been
benefitted to the amount of a dollar. Now, this
was the true state of things, and yet we were
constantly taunted that they must have repre-
sentation according to population, and all be-
cause they had done so much for the people of
Maryland! It was not so, and it was time that
the people at large, should understand it, and he
earnestly called the attention of gentlemen from
the counties) to the fact. She was doing all she
could in various ways, to strip us of our politi-
cal power. He did not know how rapid were
her strides In the cause of abolition) but he
knew sufficient to satisfy him and others of the
insecurity of their slave property, and were not
willing to trust it under such a constitutional
provision as that which had been presented for
the sanction of this Convention. He would not
trust Baltimore two, twenty years hence on that
point, for those movement? were always onward,
Slave property was, therefore, insecure on that
account. Just in proportion as you rid your-
selves of the means of protection, to that extent
did you lessen your hold and maintainance of
that which belonged to you. And he supposed
that in ten years more, we should have another
Convention, and finally we would be stripped of
all that we now possessed. He trusted, and he
hoped, he would not appeal to the members from
the counties in vain. That they would vote
against a proposition to strip them of what little
remnant of property was left to them.
Mr. PHELPS said, he was opposed throughout
to the proposition of the gentleman from the city
of Baltimore, [Mr, Brent.] He regarded it as
radically wrong, both in principle, and in detail,
and if engrafted in the Constitution without pro-
per restrictions, it would place it in the power of
even a meagre minority to overrule the funda-
mental law of the land. In examining the differ-
ent Constitutions of the several States of the
Union it will be found that whenever it is provi-
ded the people at the ballot box shall have the
right to call a Convention, it requires the vote of
the majority of all the people in the State, as com-
pared with some general election But, Mr.
President, if this amendment prevail, a bare plu-
rality vote, of perhaps a small minority of the
people, may every ten years call a Convention,
and re-enact the scenes which we have been
witnessing in these Halls for the last six months
The experience of the past, should have some
influence upon the future, and it becomes our
duty, so to construct the Constitution of this
State, that the rights of the majority, should not
be overthrown by the action of the. minority.
This Convention, Mr. President, has been called
by the vote of a small minority of the people of
Maryland. There are over sixty thousand votes
in this State, and at the last May election, held
to determine the question of holding this Conven-
tion, only about twenty thousand votes were
cast. About one-third only of the popular vote
was cast, and this Convention is now assembled
by virtue of a majority of the votes, not of the
sixty-thousand electors of the State, but of
twenty thousand only. Again, Mr. President, |
when this Constitution shall be submitted to the
people of Maryland for their adoption, or rejec-
tion, it may, and probably will so happen, that a
mere plurality vole will decide the contest, if
this should he so, and the Constitution be ratified
by less than a majority of all the votes in Mary-
land, he would ask gentlemen of this Convention,
whether this would be in accordance with the
great principles of our republican institutions?
He would respectfully inquire whether this would
not be in direct conflict with the well establish-
ed doctrine? of the entire republican party
throughout the whole country? He would in-
quire whether any gentleman upon this floor was
prepared to rise in his place and sustain this doc-
trine? Gentlemen must perceive the position to
which these principles when practically applied,
must lead. If once solemnly recognized by Con-
stitutional law, the rights of majorities will no
longer be secure, but it will frequently happen
that the minorities will triumph, and may even
overthrow the government itself.
The proposition now under debate would lead to
this precise result. If the proposition of the gen-
tleman from Baltimore city is to prevail, he de-
sired to see it so modified as noticing less than a
majority of the popular vote of the whole State
as compared with some general, and full election,
should be competent to call a Convention to re-
organized the Constitution, and he would like to
see the proposition farther amended so as to re-
quire a majority of all the votes of the State to
adopt the Constitution after it shall have been
formed.
He could not well see how any gentleman
could object to these modifications. Surely no
Democratic reformer can gainsay these princi-
ples. None will pretend to deny that the will of
the majority constitutionally and legally ex-
pressed, should triumph in mere matters of law,
over the minority. Whether majorities, much
less minorities, from mere caprice, or from love
of change, should be privileged at any time and
in any manner, to upset the government, and
subvert the Constitution itself, is a different
question. For himself, he was free to confess he
would like to see some restriction thrown around
the exercise of this. power. Circumstanced as
Maryland is, if this proposition be even modified
as proposed, candor compelled him to say he
should then vote against it. He greatly prefer-
red some other mode of changing the Constitu-
tion of the State from that proposed by the Hon-
able gentleman from the city of Baltimore, He
was opposed, in the first place, to the continued
and never ending agitation He desired above
all things, a fixed and stable government. The
mind required repose. If this amendment pre-
vail, every ten years agitators and demagogues
will be seen traversing the whole State, spread-
ing broadcast through the land the doctrines of
Conventional Reform, and the people made discontented
with their government however whole-
some its provisions may be. Again, Mr. Presi-
dent, in ten years more the city of Baltimore will
contain a majority of the popular vote of the
whole State, and will therefore have it completely |
