majority report can be right; for I judge the
tree by its fruits. Here are some figures
taken from the census report, showing the
white and colored population of some of the
counties:
Total White Colored.
Charles.............. 16,517 5,726 10,721
Calvert.............. 10,447 3,997 6,450
Prince George's... 23,327 9,650 13,677
St. Mary's.......... 15,213 6,798 8,415
Talbot............... 14,795 8,106 6,689
Worcester........... 20,661 13,442 1,219
In Talbot county the colored population is
nearly one. half; in Worcester over one-third,
and in the other counties named over one-balf
of the total population. Now, these people are
among us. We are not responsible for it.
Were it necessary for me to argue this ques-
tion. I might point you to the high authority
of the President of the United States, who
said in his message to the 39th Congress that
the south is no more responsible for the
existence of slavery in any part of this coun-
try than the North. The gentlemen from
Baltimore city who sat in these halls to make
& constitution fifteen years ago, by a unani-
mous vole recognized the existence of this
institution, and said that for all future time
the legislature should not lay its unholy
bands upon this institution. These people
are in our midst. Now, just see the operation
of it. If we have a colored population does
it not displace to that extent an equal number
of white people? In other words, if these
colored people were not among us would we
not hare an equal or larger number of white
inhabitants ?
Yon may say it is our fault. I say it is
not my fault, or the fault of my constituents,
or the fault of your constituents of Talbot or
Worcester county, or of the people of any
other portion of this State. Can any member
upon this floor, who sits here not alone to
represent the county to which he particularly
belongs, but as the representative of the whole
State of Maryland, to do justice to each and
every part of it, to Baltimore city as well as to
Charles county, to Allegany as well as to Wor-
cester—can he, as a man of enlarged and com-
prehensive views, disposed to mete out justice
freely and impartially, fully without any
denial, adopt a rule which in my county,
out of a population of 16,517, places oat of
the reckoning 10,721? and which in Culvert
county, Prince George's, St. Mary's, Talbot,
and Worcester, throws out of the enumeration
one-half of their whole population?
Are we to fix representation upon white
population, when we know that in Baltimore
city the census table tells us there are 52,497
aliens, besides a large floating population,
who are like birds of passage, there the day
the census-taker went round and gone the
next, with no more interest, no more right
to be counted in this enumeration than the
men who live in Ireland and Kamschatka? |
If Maryland was a State over which slavery
was equally and generally distributed, we
would not care whether you counted the col-
ored population or left it entirely out of the
enumeration; for the result would be the
same in either case. But I say that men
coming here to a constitutional convention
cannot ignore these solemn facts. They
must look them in the face. They cannot
thrust them out of the account without doing
gross injustice to the people of a large portion
of the State, The object and design of all
government? is to protect the weak against
the strong. The object of us all should be to
extend the protecting aegis of this constitution
alike over every part and parcel of the State,
recognizing and taking into consideration all
its different and diversified interests. See
how this operate here. In Baltimore city you
count 52,497 aliens, but in Charles county
58, and in Talbot county 45, and a corre-
spondingly small proportion in many of the
other counties.
Mr. STIRLING. Does the gentleman refer to
the foreign-born or the unnaturalized?
Mr. EDELEN. The foreign-born. I have
not been able to find any table approximating
more nearly to what I wanted; and I appre-
hend that those coming under the general
designation of foreign-born, while many of
them may have become naturalized citizens,
still in a very large majority of instances
have no sort of interest in our government.
Now, let me call attention to another portion
of the State, and see what proportion of their
population they lose by fixing representation
on the white basin.
Here is a table showing the white and col-
ored population of Baltimore city and some
of the western counties, from which it will
be seen that in the enumeration Allegany
county, out of an aggregate population of
28,348, loses only 1,133; Washington county
out of a population of 31,417, loses only 3,112;
Carroll county, out of a population of 24,533,
loses only 2,008; Cecil, out of a population
of 23,862, loses only 3,868; while Baltimore
city, with a population of 212,418, loses only
27,898, and is amply compensated for such
loss by having her foreign-born population
of 52,697 brought into the account:
Total. White Col'd.
Allegany.......... 28,348 27,215 1,133
Washington...... 31,417 28,305 3,112
Carroll............. 24,533 22,525 2,008
Cecil................ 23,862 19,994 3,868
Baltimore city...212,418 184,520 27,898
When I came here as a delegate from Charles
county I was prepared for the scene? which
have transpired upon the consideration of the
bill of rights; I was prepared, by what I had
seen in the public prints, to believe that the
majority would strip my people of five mil-
lions of dollars worth of property. Butt must
say that I was not prepared to see the conven- |
