was now to stand or fall with it. And yet for-
sooth that which we had struggled so hard to get
at twelve o'clock at night, the representatives of
the people of Maryland had to desert, and hasten
to their homes!
Was this conduct to be tolerated .by the people
of Maryland ? Would the people receive this
Constitution ? Let us remain here the few hours
that may yet be required to perfect it. How
could they expect the freemen of Maryland to
turn out en masse, and give it their support?
What they had done was nothing until it was
ratified by the people. He entreated all friends
of reform not thus to desert the Constitution; he
for one, would not do it. He thought the best
course to pursue was to adjourn to an early hour
in the morning, and then come together and have
the Constitution put in form, and signed in a pro-
per manner.
Mr. GRASON wished to adhere to forms, though
he deemed them of less importance than was at-
tached to them by the gentleman from Anne
Arundel. By attending to one form we might
be compelled to dispense with another. If we
wait till to-morrow for the engrossment of the
Constitution, we may then be without a quorum;
ill which case, the irregularity of signing the
Constitution would be greater than would be
committed at present. The engrossment is of
no importance, if the copy now reported to the
Convention is accurate. That copy is in print,
with the corrections made by the committee of
Revision and approved by the Convention, No-
thing more is necessary now, but to see that the
engrossed copy is completed, and placed in the
office of the Clerk of the Court of Appeals. This
duty can be performed by the committee of Re-
vision. If the Convention remained in session,
the inembers would be obliged to depend on that
committee, as they could not examine the copies
themselves. There appears, therefore, to be no
necessity for adding another day to the session,
merely to attend to the engrossment of the Con-
stitution, a correct copy of which was now ready
for the signature of the President.
Mr. SPENCER made some further remarks.
Mr. MCLANE was not going to trouble the
Convention with any detailed remarks. He
wished to make a suggestion or two to the gen-
tleman over the way, who bad offered this reso-
lution, and to ask him, if it comported with his
views, to alter it in one particular. If he un-
derstood the order as proposed, it continued the
committee on revision in the discharge of their
duties, as a committee of revision. He admitted
that after all, there was but a single point of
difference between this proposition and the one
submitted by the gentleman from Baltimore
county, (Mr. Howard.) The gentleman from
Baltimore county proposed to refer this constitution
to a committee of two, for the purpose of
engrossing it, and that he took to be a perfectly
proper order, involving no departure from form.
it was a perfectly proper order, because they
had a constitution, and it was not proposed, it
he understood the subject, to make any other
constitution than the one which they had formed. |
They had a constitution now, made as good as
it would be after it should be engrossed, and engrossed
upon parchment, and testified by any
formality which they might chose to prescribe.
The constitution which they had formed, stood
in the possession of this revisory committee,,
with the exception of two articles adopted to
night, and if there was any gentleman here who
supposed for one moment that he (Mr, McL.)
would be capable of excluding either of these
articles, he begged him to be undeceived. It
would seem that there was a design to exclude
from the constitution that which they had.
done tonight, and be was willing to adopt any
means by which they might form a part of
the constitution. They had made them a part
of the instrument, and if it should be sent out
without them, it would be committing a fraud
upon the public, and certainly no member here
was disposed lo do any such thing.
If these two articles should go to the committee
and it should report them as revised, and the
Convention should adopt the report, he would
ask every gentleman if that constitution, as they
had formed it would not be completed—comple-
ted in every particular? The evidence of its
adoption would be the journal of the Convention,
and if the President and Secretary were to die,
the Constitution would he good, so far as the
action of this body was concerned. It would go
out to the people under the law under which
they were assembled, and if they approved it, it
would be the constitution and law of the land.
If they should send it back to-night to the com-
mittee, and they should bring it in supervised,
and the convention should adopt their report,
then the constitution would be completed. What
more had that committee to do? The gentleman
from' Anne Arundel had proposed, after that
should be done, to send it back to the committee
on revision, to do what? Why, if he understood
it, to do with it as they had done with the arti-
cles heretofore in the discharge of their duty, to
change the phraseology when, in the opinion of
the committee, it could be perfected. He, how-
ever, was not willing to send it back to that com-
mittee, or any other committee, with authority
to change it from what they had established it
to be, and he hoped the convention would not
suppose that he was speaking in disparagement
of the committee. He had entire confidence in
them, and he had not the least doubt they would
take any improper liberty with it. All knew
that in sending the constitution to the commit-
tee, heretofore, they had sent it with instructions
that after revising it, they should bring it back
to them for their action, that they might ascer-
tain whether they had conformed it to the spirit
of the Convention. Could that duty be discharg-
ed after they had separated and gone away? Certainly
not.
They ought to form the Constitution for themselves
—form it through the agency of the revis-
ing committee, and when they had so formed it
and it was agreable to them, they should appoint
a committee to engross it. That was all they |
