had to do. Let them send this to the committee
to engross it, and then he would ask the Conven-
tion if there was any other question now pre-
sented to it than a choice between the committee
proposed by the gentleman from Baltimore coun-
ty, and the one proposed, as he understood from
what had been said to-night from one of the committee's
own members, by the committee on Re-
vision?
It had had been said to-night, and not contra-
dicted, that one of the members of the commit-
tee did himself propose that that Constitution
should be sent back to the committee for the pur-
pose of being engrossed. Might they not send it
back to any two members who were equally en-
titled to the confidence of this House and of the
State at large? As between a choice of the whole
committee, in whom he had perfect confidence,
he had no particular preference; but he would
not take the responsibility of leaving this instru-
ment in the hands of the committee, who were
to revise, with authority to transpose or change
its phraseology in any way. He was for adopt-
ing the Constitution here to-night, and for sending
it to the committee to engross it, but he would
give them no authority to dot an i or cross a t.
He wished to say another word, for a good
deal had been said to-night that implied more
than was intended. He was not going to make
any profession of duty; for it was a very easy
matter to make high sounding expressions about
the discharge of public duty—or what men
deemed to be public duty. It was a very easy
matter to say that here was a line of duty
and they would stand upon it. He had no pro-
fessions of duty to make. They had been here
long enough to be well known to all those with
whom they had been dealing, and he had been
long enough here, so far as he had taken any
part in the deliberations of this body, to be pret-
ty well understood, and he was perfectly willing
to abide judgment here and elsewhere, so far as
he had performed his duty. He would say that
if it was the pleasure of this Convention that it
would not adjourn until the Constitution should
be engrossed, lead here, and signed by the Presi-
dent, be the personal sacrifice what it might, he
would be at his post. He did not suppose that
any one would be less sensible of his duty than
himself, but when he said that he was not going
to undertake to say that a man neglected his
duty to his constituents if he after having done
all he could to make the Constitution, should
chose to entrust two or five members of the Con-
vention to engross that Constitution and put it
upon record. They had no authority to do it.
He denied that any man thwarted his duty or
was insensible to it when he chose to take such a
coarse. What was engrossment? Who ever
heard of the engrossment of a Constitution being
necessary to its validity? He certainly never had
heard such a thing. The validity of the Consti-
tution arose from its adoption, and the best evi-
dence of that was the Journal of this Conven-
tion. The attestations, &c., were matters for
the Convention itself to prescribe.
When be said this was his line of duty, be con- |
sulted the convenience of this body, and would
allow them to go to their families and relieve
themselves from the burden of public duty in
which they had been so long engaged, and in a
moment they could do it, without any sacrifice
of public duty. in a moment they could go;
there would be no necessity for them to remain
here; they had a right to go, and it would be
wrong to detain them.
He admitted that the regular mode of doing
this thing would be to wait here quietly for some
days more, and perform every formality which
the greatest ingenuity could devise. But they
were not in a situation to take such a course.
The law under which they were acting made it
necessary that the Constitution should be sub-
mitted to the people in about three weeks, and
they should give it to the people in time to afford
them an opportunity to examine it, and this was
the reason why they were not at liberty to go
through these details. If there was no irregu-
larity, the sooner they presented the Constitu-
tion to the people the better, and in diverting
from these forms, they were consulting the in-
terests of the people.
He would be perfectly willing to adopt the or-
der if the gentleman would so modify it as to re-
fer the matter for engrossment, and not for revi-
sion. He did not stand on the matter of three
or five gentlemen. It was his opinion, that they
should refer the Constitution to this committee,
without any other authority than to see that it
was properly engrossed.
Mr. SPENCER said:
He knew the gentleman had no allusion to
him. The gentleman referred only to the gentle-
man from Queen Anne's, and proposed to refer
it to the committee for engrossment. His whole
argument was on what he, (Mr. S„) had sub-
mitted, namely, to send the Constitution back to
the committee to be engrossed.
New, he had said, if his proposition was car-
ried, there would be no danger of the committee
disturbing it in any shape. So be also would
now repeat, and declare that there had been
threats made in that ball to-night, that members
would not remain here till to-morrow—that they
would leave the city. Those threats, however,
did not intimidate him in the discharge of what
tie regarded as his duty. If gentlemen chose to
take their departure without finishing this impor-
tent work, let them take the responsibility. He
had no doubt that they would be able to recon-
cile their conduct to themselves. He would not
attack them, but so help him God, he would not
leave the Convention until the work was com-
pleted.
Mr. CHAMBERS observed that some things had
been said which required correction, to make
them conform to the correct history of the mat-
ter. If it was intended to intimate that he (Mr.
C.,) was the author of the idea to delegate the
authority of the Convention to any one commit-
tee, clerk, or any body else, nothing was more
untrue. The idea did not originate with him,
most certainly, and he had at last come into it
reluctantly. Some days ago, when we had a full |
