ular and gradual-slope, to the general districting
of the State including Baltimore city for the
benefit of Baltimore city. How was it for the
interest of the smaller counties that the State
should be districted? If the Convention engraft-
ed this provision upon the Constitution, it would
strike out the county lines. There was now giv-
en to each county, eo nomine, those counties
which had always been known to the State, a direct
representation, some more and some less,
a representation in that character only. A pro-
vision was now attempted to be incorporated
upon it, by which they were to be cut down
into districts. The delegates would not be the
representatives of counties; but merely of dis-
tricts. Could any man conceive of the idea of
the representative of a constituency which had
never voted for him? Could a man taken from a
district of Charles county be considered a repre-
sentative of that part of Charles county which
never voted for him, and which had not the con-
stitutional right to vote for him? He would ask
the gentleman from Charles if he knew that he
had been supposed to be in favor of the doctrine
of representation according to population?
Mr. MERRICK.. I did not know it.
Mr. BOWIE had something to tell him, then.
He would not quarrel with the sentiments of
that gentlemen. He had no doubt that they were
as sincere as those of the gentleman from Balti-
more city. It was a bold proposition, never
thought of before by any one from that section
of the country; and it would not be likely to
meet with favor there. The proposition now was
to district the whole State. The unity and indivi-
duality of the counties was to be last by common
consent. Upon that ground could any distinc-
tion be drawn between district No. 1, district No.
1000, which might happen to be located in the ci-
ty of Baltimore. The whole population would be
amalgamated into one mass of human beings,
with equal powers. The 500 voters in district
No. 1, would send a delegate; and upon what
principal would the district No. 1000, which
happened to he in Baltimore city, and which
contained 3000 voters, send but one delegate?
Mr. MERRICK. Will the gentleman permit me
to ask him a question? The point he makes is,
that a member elected from a district could not
represent a county. Does he not now consider
himself as representing the whole people of
Maryland, although elected from Prince George's
county? I will ask him further, if be were elect-
ed a member of the Congress of the United
States, would he not consider himself a repre-
sentative of the whole State of Maryland, al-
though elected from a particular district?
Mr. BOWIE replied in the negative. Under
the provisions of the Constitution of the United
States, Congress had laid off the districts, but
it was beyond the power of Congress to make
the member elected from one of those districts
a representation of the whole State. He was a
representative of the Congressional districts, and
of the very district that the Congress of the
United States, under the Constitution of the Uni-
91 |
ted States made him a representative of. He
would be a citizen of the State, but would not
be elected by the State. Exactly so would it be
with reference to membership in this body.
Wherever there was a representative, there must
be a constituency to elect and to be repre-
sented.
When the whole State was divided into dis-
tricts, it necessarily led to the principle of re-
presentation according to population, a principle
retarded by the people, as more than any other
"a raw head and bloody bones," the amalgama-
tion of Baltimore city with the entire people of
the State. There had been disclaimers from va-
rious quarters. The gentleman from Queen
Ann's was undoubtedly honest and true to the
will and interests and wishes of the people; but
had said that no such desire or feeling animated
his bosom or theirs So with gentlemen from
Talbot, Caroline, and Carroll. So of Frederick
and Washington; and the tops of the Alleganies
had capped the whole with a loud thundering
voice that no such principle should ever be tol-
erated in Maryland as representation according
to population. Yet this very principle, so abhorred,
so deprecated, so studiously avoided, was
now attempted in an insidious mode to be en-
grafted upon the Constitution. He would not
say it was intended, but this districting of the
State would necessarily lead to it in the course
of time. What where ten years in the life of a
State; and if this principle should be adopted it
would be but' ten years before there would be
another reorganization of the Constitution, upon
the very principle that there ought to be repre-
sentation according to population. No fatality
could prevent it. When another cycle of ten
years should pass over. it would be done. The
present Constitution declared that it should he
done excepting in relation to Baltimore city.
Let Baltimore city succeed in breaking down
now these county limits, this county unity, this
county pride, and then she will be erect, tower-
ing to the skies in all the potency of this great
doctrine of representation according to popula-
tion. There never was a nation, there never
was a time and there never would be a time,
when from the masses of the people, if all mixed
together, would emanate any thing else than
mere tyranny. The writings of Hamilton, Mad-
ison, Jefferson, and all the early writers on this
subject, all proved that the tyranny of numbers
congregated together, were just as oppressive as
as the tyranny of a solitary individual. It would
be worse, because the individual might be enti-
tled, while the multitude could not. He would
now appeal to this Convention and to the people
not to adopt this principle; and if they had hon-
est hearts uncorrupted and unpolluted by all par-
ty feeling, they could not resist the appeal.
Mr. BRENT, of Baltimore city, said:
That the gentleman from Prince George's had
intimated, when discussing the inspection laws,
and called to order, that it was a mere ruse on
the part of Mr. BRENT, to throw him off the
track.
He, (Mr. Brent.) was incapable of that; for
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