earth but hostility to slavery and to slave-
holders.
Slavery is abolished; those who were
slaves are entitled to all the rights of freemen.
What is to he done with them? Do yon sup-
pose these men will not ask or think what is
the next thing to be done? Will they not
think that they ought to have some interest
in the land? that they should have something
to say about what is to be done? They be-
gin to talk now about the land being divided
up among them; that idea has been preached
to them for many days. And it is raising a
spirit of insurrection and insubordination;
they have no respect for the white man; no
indulgence for the powers that be, except as
they may be used for the purpose of carrying
out their own ignorant views of what is right
. for themselves.
Now I say you cannot in justice either to
the slaveholder or to the slave himself, turn
him loose upon the community; take away
all this property; weaken the force and
strength and influence of these counties in
the legislature of the State. You cannot in
fairness and honesty do all this injustice un-
less you give the slaveholder the means of
being heard by the whole State. And the
only way he can be heard, the only hope I
see left for him, the only possible hope is con-
tained in the proposition of my colleague
(Mr. Clarke.) Give him a voice and let him
be heard freely and fairly; and he will always,
as he has always been, be willing to submit
to an issue presented fairly to the people of
the State, because he has never demanded
anything that the people of the State have
not always seen the justice of.
I appeal to yon not to run hastily through
this matter; not to apply your fifteen min-
ute rule to the consideration of a principle
which has been contended for for years and
years. There is a great deal in it that I have
not been able to investigate; a great deal in
it of which I know nothing, because it was
the last principle that I thought the gentle-
men of the majority would reject. I thought
it was something that we could all rally
around, if there was any proposition that
could be preseated to as which would meet
the views of all parties. I thought that upon
this there could be no division of opinion.
If, however, I am mistaken, if it has been
predetermined in secret conclave that all fair
propositions shall be voted down if they come
from slave counties and from slaveholders—
that all such propositions must be treated as
if there was some design in them, something
wrong, something unjust, no matter how
fair they may appear upon their face—if, I
say, all this has been predetermined upon,
then there if no other course, it seems to me,
left fur the minority of this convention but
to leave it.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I really am at a loss to-
day to know whether I am a conservative or |
a radical. It seems to me that what has
plumed itself as conservatism heretofore now
out-radicalizes radicalism by a great many
degrees. And what is now the proposition
for which conservatism contends I do no?
clearly understand. I had supposed that the
minority report was their view of what was
fair and just and right. But this morning
we are told that a very different thing, in the
shape of the proposition of the gentleman
from Prince George's (Mr. Clarke,) is that
which is just and right. Those two things
read very unlike one another.
Now this question of representation is one
which seems never to have been clearly and
distinctly understood. Representation means
representation, not a substitution of an agent
for any person against the will of that per-
son; but a representation where the person
represented selects the person to represent
him; and where the person so selected goes
to represent the person who has selected him,
not to represent somebody else. Now what
is the true method of arriving at a correct
result in a representative body? The only
true method, as I apprehend, is just this :
first determine what is to constitute your
government, who is to govern. In other
words, fix the elective franchise, and say who
has the right to vote. Then every man who
has the right to vote, who possesses the quali-
fications which you have fixed, is the peer of
every other man possessing your designated
qualifications.
The only really fair method, the only cor-
rect principle, in my humble judgment, is
enunciated ill neither of the propositions be-
fore the house. The only really correct
principle, the only invariable one, and one
which will give a permanent government is
one based upon the voting population. A
certain number of voters are entitled to be
represented by a representative.
Then this difficulty springs up; what be-
comes of your minorities? There must be
minorities everywhere. There will always
he fractions when you come to make divisions
of your voting population. There will al-
ways be minorities when you come to take
your vote. And it has always been the great
study of political philosophers to ascertain
how, without trampling upon the rights of
the majority, you can give some voice to the
minority. Every one I suppose is familiar
with the plan proposed by Lord John Rus-
sell so as always to give a minority a voice.
The idea was this: that the voters should
be divided into such classes or divisions that
there should always be three delegates elected
for each election district; then each voter was
to be allowed to vote for, not three delegates,
but two, in which case the minority would
always have a chance to elect one, if it was
a minority equal to one-third of the voters of
the district.
But when we come to fix it in this State, |
