taken by counties, and not by districts; and that
therefore the number in each district could not
be ascertained without the expense of a State
census That objection does not exist now, for
now, as the recent census returns on our desks
prove, they are taken by election districts separately,
as well as by the aggregate in the several
counties.
What Mr, Gaston desired should he effected in
Congress, has been realized—that members should
be elected by single districts He [Mr J.,] was
in Congress at the time, and advocated the plan,
and he well remembered that there were as many
alarm speeches made there then, as have been
made in this Convention, and as much evil to
the nation threatened, as mischief to this State,
if a change were made. It had been made and
approved by the good sense and rational judg-
ment of every good citizen in the nation; and
if any member were now to offer to repeal the
law, he did not believe that he could get a hearing
for a speech, or a dozen votes for it.
But, the young, the populous and growing
State of Ohio, has recently (as he learned by the
newspapers,) engrafted this feature of single dis-
trict representation upon its Constitution. And
he doubted not, that sooner or later, almost every
State in the Union would follow that republican,
that judicious, that wise plan. The district sys-
tem would greatly weaken the political strength
of the large counties, and the city of Baltimore ;
but as the principle was just and republican, he
advocated it, although he represented the most
populous county in the State, He believed that
it would be agreeable to the people of that coun-
ty, and of all the counties. Not one voter in
twenty, in his county, ever saw all the delegates
that they voted for, and most of them had never
heard of their names until nominated by some
central caucus, of which they were not mem-
bers; and they were forced to vote for whomever
their few active party leaders selected.
The plan would bring the representative and
the electors into intimate relation, and it would
increase responsibility and usefulness of the dele-
gate. as the eye of his constituency would rest
upon him, and detect incompetency or neglect of
duty. It would, in a word, make all the counties
virtually small counties, and would secure a fair
representation from all the local interests of the
great and growing city of Baltimore. Upon the
basis of representation, he would like to sec
some principle laid down and made uniform
throughout, in the Senate and House of Dele-
gates. In the Senate, the smallest county stands
equal with the largest; in the House of Dele-
gates, the difference is very slight.
If you will reject the white basis, then will
you agree to the mixed federal basis? If you
reject that. will you he governed by the value of
the property in each county as a standard of
representation—the amount of taxes paid into the
Treasury from each county? He wanted some
settled basis, and not arbitrary caprice and whim.
Every State in the Union has some principle laid
down upon which their House of Delegates is, |
based. Maryland alone here is mongrel-hybred,
in relation to this subject. He would not go into
the statistics on the subject, to show the dis-
parity of the States in population, in wealth, in
taxation, in representation; that has been, and
doubtless would again be shown.
He knew no advantage in repealing what others
had said It would be but to turn the prism
without increasing the primitive colors, and but
make a prismatic display to amuse the attention
without enlightening the judgment.
He would make a passing remark to repeated
allusions made on this floor in regard to the feelings
of his section of the State in relation to sla-
very :
Gentlemen assert, that if the western section
has its just political weight, it may endanger the
slave property of the State. This Convention,
by a unanimous vote, had passed the most strin-
gent section on that subject ever passed by any
State in the Union; and, as a slaveholder, he was
free to say, it was stronger than met his judgment;
he would have preferred the clause in the Mis-
souri Constitution.
In the west we are not as noisy on that subject
as some of the small peninsular counties on the
Eastern and Western shore of the Chesapeake,
because we live too near to the Pennsylvania
line to be all the time preaching political sermons
on that subject. Our negroes run away—yours
do not You can talk like South Carolina, be-
cause you are not harmed, and scold your slave-
holding brethren and make as much political
capital as you can, and persuade your people to
believe, what I very much doubt whether you
do yourselves believe, that your negroes are in
danger from the Western counties. It is a good
subject for anatomy, with a fanciful imagination,
and I have listened to several impassioned ap-
peals and vehement declamations.
He was willing to vote for some equitable com-
promise for the present, in hopes that Conven-
tions, hereafter, would do equal justice to all
parts of the State. The small counties might
rest assured, if this Convention failed to realise
much of the wishes of the great majority of the
people, that it would not be long before there
would be another Convention,
The people now elect their Governor, and he
has enormous patronage. Both the Whig and
Democratic candidates in the last contest avowed
themselves radical reformers, and were sustained
by their parlies. If no reform takes place before
the next gubernatorial election. I will venture a
prediction that no candidate will be elected who
will not only avow himself a radical reformer,
but who will not pledge himself publicly not to
place in any office within his gift any man who
is not a radical reformer.
But, he trusted that the moderation and good
judgment of this Convention might agree upon
some rational basis of adjustment which would
meet with the approbation of a majority of its
members and a majority of electors of the State
at the ballot-box in June. |
