have been called slaveholders may hereafter
be deprived of the little political power which
under a fair system of representation would
be properly apportioned and assigned to them
And not only do you deprive those slave-
holders and those counties of that representa-
tion which properly they are entitled to upon
a fair and just basis, but after having stricken
down this property and destroyed it, you
adopt a system which is to go into operation
for nine or ten years, to prevent this tide of
emigration of white men, which they say is
to overflow the State, from coming into these
sections of the State.
My county has now 20,000 of this colored
population, and with the large Influx from
Washington city and from other sections of
Maryland, we shall still have only two repre-
sentatives. You strike down our just political
rights, and for ten years expose us to a ban
which will keep back white men from settle-
ment in that section, it is to carry out this
principle of hatred against that section of
the State. Take the congressional district,
and instead of giving it one-fifth of the rep-
resentation of the State you say that we shall
have only one-eighth. We cannot have in
the legislature of our own State the voice
which the federal Congress accords to us.
That is the explanation of this departure from
principle.
As for myself I am willing and desire here
to say, that neither the majority nor the mi-
nority report being founded upon any true
or sound principle, they may properly be
compouned. If yon determine to have
proper forms of compromise, then I think
other modes should be suggested which
would do more justice to all portions of the
State. And I will adopt any system of com-
promise which I think will properly satisfy
the rights of all sections of the State.
You have two houses, the senate and the
lower house. The senate is the conservative
body. The senate preserves the idea of ter-
ritory, the idea of county lines, and carries
out the idea of the original equality of the
counties, and is the conservative body for
preserving and sustaining their rights. But
when we come to the house of delegates, the
true basis of representation is population.
Here men stand upon the same platform. Here
every man's rights will be measured alike
and equally. I am willing, if you will carry
out the principle of preserving the sena-
torial basis, to adopt the system of represen-
tation according to population throughout
the whole State, Baltimore city included
with the counties, and to stand upon that as
the true theory of representation in this body.
Not that you shall elect upon general ticket
in Baltimore city her thirty members, if she
is entitled to that number; but that you
shall district the State, and let each district
be parceled out with the same number of in-
habitants, and let each district elect a mem- |
ber to represent it upon this floor. Give us
in the lower house the true principle of rep-
resentation in one body, representation ac-
cording to population, and upon a basis
which will make every man the constituent of
one member of the house by dividing the
State into districts.
Mr. ABBOTT, Regardless of county lines ?
Mr, CLARKE. My idea is this, that you will
have to fix. to a certain extent, so many mem-
bers to each county, according to population,
and that then it might be provided in this
section, and would create very little incon-
venience, not that counties should run into
each other, but that counties should be di-
vided into as many districts as they have rep-
resentatives. There would be very little in-
accuracy in preserving the county lines. I
have not drawn it out fully; but I have sim-
ply drawn it up hastily, since I have seen the
disposition here to put the question through,
to express my views. I think the presumption
from the fact that no man has spoken upon
the other side, is that it has been determined
to adopt the majority report. My idea of
the true representative system, adapted to
the State, looking to the true interest of all
classes in the State, is this ;
"Section 1. Every county of the State
and the city of Baltimore shall be entitled to
elect one senator, who shall be elected by the
qualified voters of the counties and the city
of Baltimore respectively, and who shall
serve for four years from the day of election.
" Section 2. The legislature, at its first ses-
sion after the adoption of this constitution,
and at its first session after the returns of
each national census are published under the
authority of Congress, shall apportion the
members of the house of delegates among the
several counties of the State and the city of
Baltimore according to the population of
each, provided the whole number of delegates
shall never exceed eighty-five members, and.
provided that each county and said city shall
be divided into separate election districts of
compact, contiguous territory, the qualified
voters in each of which districts shall at the
time and in the manner in which delegates
are chosen, elect one delegate, who baa for
one year next before his election been a resi-
dent of the district from which be shall be
elected.
" Section 3. The apportionment of the dele-
gates among the several counties and the city
of Baltimore shall remain- the same as pro-
vided by the present constitution, until the
second election held for members of the house
of delegates after the adoption of this con-
stitution,
"Section 4. The general assembly shall here-
after elect United States senators and all offi-
cers who are elective by the legislature, by a
concurrent vote of the two houses and not
by joint ballot."
If that system is adopted, it will preserve, |
