deed will be the doom of him who shoulders the
responsibility.
As an agricultural interest, part and parcel, of
the State itself, fixed and permanent, or voice
should be heard. If we had grown numerous,
we should not ask for power at your expense.
You expend millions upon millions to reach the
coal beds of Allegany, and tap the commerce
and travel of the Western States—for what? To
benefit the great agricultural interests of the
State? Oh, no. Suppose this money had been
expended in the different counties of the State, to
promote that great source of wealth which lies
at the foundation of all others; then we should
have met here to-day, from the counties, representing
a dense population with towns and ham-
lets dotted all over the length and breadth of the
land, with wealth and prosperity diffused through
all the arteries of the State. But we have lived
by your neglect. You have prospered at our ex-
pense—and now you ask us to surrender up the
last vestage of that patrimony guaranteed to us
by our ancestors and become tributaries to a
city! A city of numbers, to become an oasis!
Let others do as they may I can never consent
to it; and if Worcester county wishes to enter a
crusade against her own best interests, she must
select another agent; I cannot serve her in that
capacity.
Having been indulged by the Convention so
long, I will conclude my remarks by briefly enumerating
those reforms which I believe the people
of Worcester desire.
A majority, as I believe, are in favor of elect-
ing, by the people, all officers, from an overseer
of the road, up to the Judges on the bench. On
the mode of appointing this last class of officers,
there is a difference of opinion; some for electing,
some for appointing; my vote will depend upon the
details of the system They are in favor of an
efficient and economical judiciary system— the
high court of chancery and the orphans' court
system to be abolished. Hold but one election
in two years, and have biennial sessions of the
Legislature. Sell the Governor's house and
lands, and permit the Governor to live at home,
with a moderate salary; his term of office to be
four years, and strip him of the appointing power,
except for vacancies happening interim. Pre-
serve the ration, but reduce the number of dele-
gates in the House. Restrict the Legislature
from borrowing money on the faith of the State,
and from appropriating any money out of the
treasury for any purpose whatever, except for
administration of government, for war, or suppression
of insurrectionary movements. The
present financial system of the State to be inviolate
until the State debt is fully paid, after which
provide for a distribution of the revenues from
works of internal improvement amongst the seve-
ral counties and city of Baltimore, in the same
proportion, as by taxation, they shall have contributed
to, them. Elect a board of commissioners
of works of internal improvement. A stated
and regular codification of the laws
Give us these reforms and retrenchments, and
on the representation question we need not di- |
verge to the right or left, when the straight path
of duty and safety lies open before us.
Those are the views that have controlled my
votes in this Convention up to the present time.
and will continue to do so down to the last hour
or our sittings here. If they are not sufficiently
popular to control a majority of this body, I
shall the more regret it, because, on this plat-
form, the counties must stand, if they would re-
tain their present political power in this hall
otherwise, they must abandon themselves to a
shifting, uncertain, declining scale of power,
that will consign then to nonentity, and their
rights to the tender mercies of a populous city.
But I perceive the spirit of compromise is abroad ;
I shall do my duty, let the record tell to future
generations who they are that surrender our an-
cient birth-rights to tyrant numbers.
I shall vote for the substitute of the gentleman
from Dorchester, (Mr. Phelps,) because it will
leave the relative political power of the counties
and Baltimore city where it now is, at the
same time it will take from each county and city
one delegate, thereby reducing the number in
the House to 61—this will be retrenchment and
reform.
Mr. J. having concluded,
Mr. KILGOUR look the floor, but waived the
motion at the request of
Mr. RANDALL, who gave notice of his inten-
tion at the proper time to offer the following
amendment, which he desired should be entered
upon the record.
Article 1st. The House of Delegates shall, until
altered by the Legislature after every deceni-
al census hereafter, consist of eighty-three members,
and in order that each portion of the State
may be fairly represented and its various interest
protected in the Legislature, the whole State
shall be divided into separate single election districts,
the city of Baltimore shall henceforth be
divided into ten districts as follows, viz: The
first and second wards as now laid off, shall constitute
district No.1; the third and fourth wards
district No 2; the fifth and sixth wards, district
No. 3, the seventh and eighth wards, district
No. 4; the ninth and tenth wards, district No. 5;
the eleventh and twelfth wards, district No. 6;
the thirteenth and fourteenth wards, district No.
7: the fifteenth and sixteenth wards, district No.
8; the seventeenth and eighteenth wards, district
No. 9; and the nineteenth and twentieth wards
district No. 10, and the several counties shall be
divided by the Legislature at its first session after
the adoption of this Constitution, into districts
of compact contiguous territory, equal in
number to the number of delegates to which they
may respectively hereby be entitled; no one dis-
trict to elect more than one delegate; and every
district in each county to be as nearly as practicable
of equal population with the other districts
of that county. The qualified voters in each of
the said districts shall, at the time, and in the
manner in which delegates are chosen elect one
delegate, who has been for year next before his
election, a resident of the ward or district from
which he shall be elected; and has, in all other |
