having influences upon elections ought not to be
promoted to offices ? How far that was carried out
by him was another matter. The sentiment was
generally approved of by the country. He was
speaking of the general desire of the public to
protect themselves from the improper influences
of their representatives, it was to remove from
them all inducements to act against what the
public good required. Is was to prevent agna-
tion and change for the sake of the personal ad-
vancement of agitators.
They saw a remarkable instance of this at the
last session of Congress, in passing a bill, which
which he believed disposed of more of the pub-
lic domain than any law which Congress has ever
passed—he referred to the bounty land bill—Con-
gress declared in that law, that no member of
either House should derive any benefit from it,
Was this intended to show that they believed
themselves more corrupt than any other men?
Certainly not. They did it, because they want-
ed the public to know that they were nut influ-
enced, (many of them having served in the Mex-
ican and other wars,) by any personal motives.
This principle he would like to have incorpora-
ted upon our new Constitution. He would like
to have it so inserted, that those who formed
Constitutions hereafter, should feel that they
were entirely without bias and improper motive;
and that the public knew it to be so. There
was no foundation for the apprehension that such
a provision as this would exclude too many from
such public trusts There was no difficulty in
obtaining a sufficient number. He believed,
however, that if this Convention had been composed
of half its number, it would have perform-
ed its duty in one-half of the time. But if you
require twice the number they can be had. He
had no doubt that the gentlemen who were their
opponents, their competitors for seats in this
body were just as able, would have been just as
useful as themselves, and if the tables bad been
turned and those gentleman elected, they might
have made just as good a Constitution as them-
selves, within the whole State of Maryland, there
were hundreds of citizens, he believed, just as
competent as they were to fill seals in this Convention.
Let any man reflect for one moment,
and he would find in his own neighborhood, a
dozen men just as capable as himself to reform
our Constitution. There was no scarcity of such
men in the State of Maryland, He would say
it with respect—and he had too much self-respect
to say any thing that would detract from the
character of this Convention—that upon this
point there was no danger to the public interest
if they disqualified one, two, three, or five hun-
dred men from holding office—enough were to
be found in our State for ten times the number
of offices every way qualified to fill them. He had
no such apprehension.
What was to be the obligatory effect of such
an article incorporated into their present Consti-
tution? Some had said that it would have no effect
upon those who may be elected to form a Con-
stitution in 1860; because they might, if they
chose, exclude from it any article rendering them-
selves incompetent to hold office under it. Now |
his response to that was this. If they incorpor-
ated into this Constitution such an article as was
proposed, and if these future Conventions to form
new Constitutions were called in pursuance of
this article, he respectfully submitted that all the
members of the new Convention thus called,
would take an oath to support this Constitution,
under whose authority they acted. The members
of the present Convention could not lake
that oath, because they were not assembled in
accordance with the Constitution. But those
who would follow them, in pursuance of the ar-
ticle adopted yesterday, would take an oath to
support the Constitution of the State, therefore,
it would be utterly inconsistent with this oath,
and the duty which they would owe to the Slate
of Maryland, not to incorporate in their propo-
sed Constitution an article to exclude themselves
from holding office under its provisions. They
might decline to perpetuate this disqualification in
succeeding Constitutions, but as regarded themselves,
they would be bound by this solemn obligation.
It had been supposed that no man who had
become a successful candidate for membership
in such Convention, if the Constitution which they
would frame should disqualify him from holding
office under it. He. (Mr. R.,) apprehended that
no man would stand up in his place and insist
that he was qualified to hold office under that
Constitution, when he had been elected expressly
on the ground that he should not be so qualified.
He did not believe any man could do this—cer-
tainly not with impunity.
He could see no injury that could result from
this restriction; but he saw much good in it. Un-
der it, the Conventions hereafter to be formed
would he composed of men who have a single
eye to the public good, and have the unbounded
confidence of the people.
Mr. TUCK understood the proposition before
the Convention to apply solely to members of
future Conventions. He could not agree with
his friend as to its efficacy. If he would change
his amendment so as to prevent any member of
this Convention from holding any offices created
by this body, he would vote for it. He did nut
think that they could bind future Conventions.
The argument of the gentleman was this. That
the members of the present Convention did not
take an oath to support the Constitution, because
they were assembled here in contravention to
that very instrument. He [Mr. T.] thought it
immaterial whether this was so or not. It
seemed to him not to be altogether right when
a Convention was assembling for the purpose of
changing a Constitution, to require that its mem-
bers should take an oath to support it, which
meant that they should not alter it; for the mo-
ment they attempted to change it, they violated
their oath of office. He was decidedly of
opinion that in Conventions as well as legisla-
tive bodies, persons who created offices should
not enjoy them. By the present Constitution
members of the legislature could not hold offices
created during their terms of service. The rea-
sons was obvious enough. It was to prevent |
