shall, therefore, vote in favor of the motion to
lay the order on the table.
The call of the roll having been completed,
The result of the vote was announced as fol-
lows :
Affirmative—Messrs. Morgan, Ricaud, Lee,
Chambers, of Kent, Mitchell, Wells, Weems,
Dalrymple, Bond, Howard, Buchanan, James
U. Dennis, Crisfield, Dashiell, Williams, Hicks,
Hodson, Goldsborough, Eccleston, Spencer,
Wright, Dirickson, Hearn, Jacobs, Sappington,
Brent, of Balt. city, Schley, Brewer, Anderson
and Smith—30.
Negative—Messrs. Chapman, Pres't, Blakis-
tone, Dent, Sellman, Bell, Ridgely, Dickinson,
Colston, Chambers, of Cecil, Miller, McLane,
McMaster, Gaither, Biser, Annan, Stephenson,
Magraw, Nelson, Carter, Thawley, Stewart, of
Caroline, Gwinn, Stewart, of Bait. city, Sher-
wood, of Balt. city. Ware, Fiery, John New-
comer, Harbine, Michael Newcomer, Weber,
Slicer, Fitzpatrick, Parke, Shower, Cockey and
Brown—36,
So the Convention determined that the order
should not be laid on the table,
The question then again recurred on the
amendment of Mr. Buchanan.
Mr. HICKS. I should very much like to offer
a substitute for the resolution, if it is in order
for me to do so.
The PRESIDENT said: The chair would decide
the point when the substitute had been read.
The substitute was then read as follows;
Ordered, that when this Convention adjourn,
it stand adjourned to eight o'clock to morrow,
(Thursday,) and that eight o'clock be the hour
of meeting until otherwise ordered; take a re-
cess at two o'clock until four o'clock, P. M.
The PRESIDENT ruled the substitute to be in
order.
Mr. BRENT, of Balt. city, (to the chair.) Will
it be ill order to offer an amendment to the
amendment of the gentleman from Baltimore
county, (Mr. Buchanan.)
The PRESIDENT. The chair does not think
that the amendment of the gentleman from Bal-
timore county, (Mr. Buchanan,) is exactly rele-
vant to the proposition before the Convention.
Mr. BUCHANAN. I beg pardon of the chair,
but I thought my amendment had been disposed
of by amendment some time ago, I consider
gentlemen, negatives and affirmatives, as pledged
to come here and stay all the time.
Mr. JOHN NEWCOMER, (to the chair.) Will an
amendment to the substitute of the gentleman
from Dorchester, (Mr. Hicks,) be in order.
The PRESIDENT. It will be in order.
Mr. JOHN NEWCOMER. I move to amend the
substitute, by inserting from eight until two, and
then taking a recess until four o'clock.
Mr. BRENT, of Bait. city, (to the chair.) is it
in order to make any remarks ?
The PRESIDENT. It is.
Mr. BRENT. Well, sir, I only desire to say
that I have always voted in favor of the evening
sessions. We have given them a trial. They
have failed to accomplish any good result, and I |
shall, therefore vote against them. I believe that
if we meet here at nine o'clock, sit till three, and
labor between these hours with a bona fide inten-
tion to dispatch the business before us, we can do
more work, and do it better, than by meeting again
in the evening, and sitting until twelve o'clock.
We had an evening session on Monday, and
what was the result ? Five hours of the session
of yesterday were taken up in undoing the work
of the previous afternoon; yes, sir, in undoing
it. We had another afternoon session some time
ago. We adjourned at two, and lost two hours
of 'the working portion of the day; came here
in the evening, and consumed the whole of the
session in fruitless motions to adjourn, for calls
of the Convention, and for yeas and nays. From
the experience of these two instances—which
constitute all the experience we have had—I set
my face against evening sessions, and am pre-
pared to take the consequences of voting stead-
fastly against them. It we go ahead steadily,
we can, I think, get through with our labors in
a reasonable time.
Gentlemen near me say that we have been
engaged in motions to reconsider during the
whole session. There was much truth in this;
but we have not always undone what we had
previously done, as was the case on the occa-
sions to which I have referred. On these occa-
sions, as I have said, the Convention actually
undid what it had previously done,
Mr. BISER, (to the chair.) Is a motion to
amend in order? If so, I move an amendment
providing that the Convention shall sit until
twelve o'clock at night. [Laughter.]
The PRESIDENT. The motion will not be in
order. There are already two amendments
pending.
Mr. WRIGHT. I have had some experience
in this matter of night sessions. I have often
served in them. I am altogether opposed to
them. I never knew any result to follow that
was sufficient to pay the expense of candle-
light.
Mr. BLAKISTON thought the Convention was
as competent to transact business in an after-
noon as any other part of the day, and that they
could do even more business then than in the
previous hours of the day, because they had
the experience of the morning to aid them in
their labors. It had been said that members
would not be in a condition to do business in an
afternoon, (laughter,) but that was an entire
mistake, for they had come here on several oc-
casions fully able and qualified, as much so as
in a morning, to discharge their duties. There
were but four or five working days remaining to
the Convention before the day of final adjourn-
ment, and as he understood—having been absent
a few days—that scarcely a single proposition,
except that which related to the executive de-
partment of the Government, had been finally
disposed of it was certainly very important that
gentlemen should forego their afternoon walks
in order to complete the work which they had
begun. The time would come when it would be
utterly impossible to keep men in their seats, as |
