fuse to impose any limitation whatever." I do
not think it is a very difficult matter to decide
where the inconsistency is. In truth, sir, this
doctrine of retrenchment is very elastic; it can
be stretched to cover any case, where it affects
political adversaries but it contracts at once
when the case is presented of a political friend—
it can't reach him.
Mr. BOWIE said, that lie had not been actuated
by any party motives whatever, and did not sup-
pose that any gentleman upon this floor had been
so actuated. He had not voted to refer this
whole matter to the Legislature, because the
present incumbents belonged to his political par-
ty. He had thought it best to leave the whole
matter to the Legislature, and had voted against
the introduction of any such office into the Constitution;
but he had been overruled. The Con-
vention had thought proper to engraft that office
upon the Constitution. Was there any thing
wrong in attempting to define and fix the salary
of offices which were created by the Constitution?
Was it inconsistent for them to refuse to raise
the salary, because the new Board might perhaps
belong to a different political party from those
now in office? He did not wish the salary to be
too low. The officers ought to be well and lib-
erally paid; hut it was right that the salary
should be fixed in the Constitution if by the Con-
stitution the office itself was created. He could
see no propriety in leaving the compensation to
be fixed by the law. Thus far the action of the
Convention had been final in regard to all offices
created by the Constitution. This had been done
as a matter of precaution and of honest retrench-
ment. The Convention had been very cautious
to create the office; and was it too much to ask
that the same instrument which created the office
should affix the salary. He did not regard the
sum of $200 as enough, and he should therefore
vote against this proposition. But whatever
might be the amount, it ought now to be fixed,
and not left to the fluctuating influences brought
to hear upon a future Legislature. The gentle-
man from Anne Arundel (Mr. Dorsey,) seemed
to think that the Board would have very many
duties besides those now performed by the State
agents, to superintend the accounts, to go up and
down the Canal, &c., and that they should be
handsomely compensated. He (Mr. B.) was not
willing to trust that question to the Legislature,
They might give too little; or under a state of
excitement, from party influence and party ma-
chinery, raise the amount up to $2,500 or $3000.
It had already been said that this was the most
important office in the State, and that $3,000
would not be too high a compensation; and it had
been said that thousands of dollars might, he
saved by the vigilence of the Board to the Trea-
sury of the State. Influences and opinions of
that kind might be brought to bear upon the
Legislature, and especially if prominent, gentle-
men should be elected by the people to this office
Perhaps the gentleman from Frederick, [Mr
Thomas,] himself might be elected to that station
If the precaution was not now taken to provide
the salary in the Constitution, it would spring up
|
from two or three hundred dollars to three or
four thousand. It mattered not what sum the
first Legislature should fix. So long as the sala-
ry was in the hands of the Legislature, subject
to change, the process of augmentation would be
continually going on. He wished to guard
against this. If, as the gentleman from Frederick
had said, the honor would be looked to more
than the compensation, why should that gentle-
man oppose any limitation of the salary? Why
leave this as a casus omissus in the Constitution?
it might do for casuicts or for special pleaders,
to make an argument out of the inconsistency of
others; but he would ask the gentleman from
Frederick to answer the objections he (Mr. B.)
had urged; and to show why such a provision
should not be introduced into the Constitution as
would fix the salary and place it forever out of
the reach of political influence and machinery.
Mr. THOMAS said, from the very commence-
ment of the discussion, he had explained his rea-
son for not wishing to fix the compensation in the
Constitution. It was because the Legislature
had power to extend the powers and duties of
the board, and being unable to foresee the extent
of those duties, it would be impossible to affix a
just compensation. He had said that the Legis-
lature need not, in his opinion, superadd the duties
imposed by the amendments of the gentlemen
from Baltimore and Anne Arundel, and Mont-
gomery. These duties belonged to the Presi-
dent and Directors of the Company, and not to
the State's Agents. But the Legislature might
think fit to superadd those duties. With the
present duties, he bad said that a salary of one
or two hundred dollars would be sufficient.
As to any aspirations he might have, they cer-
tainly would not be, as the gentleman had intima-
ted, to be elected to the control of any corpora-
tion in Maryland. It would be a wider sphere
which he should seek. But he did not intend to
fill hereafter any political office that this Con-
vention would create.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I will be perfectly candid, Mr.
President, as I wish always to be. I believe,
and have no cause to doubt, that the gentleman
is sincere, when he says he does not now intend
or desire to fill any political office. No doubt,
he thinks, at this moment, he never will intend
or desire it. But I must go further, and remark,
that I have known as great and as good men, and
men of as firm resolution as that gentleman, who
have expressed, and no doubt at the time sincere-
ly expressed, the same opinion; and yet they have
yielded to the wishes of friends and the interests
of the country. Sir, General Jackson told me,
at his own table, that when the Florida war was
at an end, he hailed with a glad heart the pros-
pect of getting to the Hermitage, to pass the
residue of his life in the enjoyment of all the
blessings of social and domestic life, resolved to
retire forever from the cares and anxieties of pub-
lic station. And yet, sir, when this conversation
occurred, he was the Chief Magistrate of this
great Nation, deeply involved in all the perplex-
ing duties and toils of a politician. He had been
called out by ardent friends, he had become |
