which excited 80 much discussion wag under
consideration, this protest was submitted by
Mr. Yellott, who was then on the right side
of the question. I read from the journal of
the senate:
" Mr. Yellott submitted the following pro-
teat:
"The senate having been in session this
day, from eleven o'clock A. M. until three P.
M., and from four P, M. until twenty min-
utes past nine at night; and the printed
copies of three of the important bills reported
from the judiciary committee, and made the
special order for this day, having been laid
upon our desks but a few minutes since, and
while we were much engaged with the con-
sideration of the two other important meas-
ures, just ordered to be engrossed for a third
reading; and for the above reasons we have
had no opportunity of knowing the exact
provisions of the three bills now proposed to
be put upon their second reading, or to pre-
pare amendments to either of said three bills ;
and we have several times moved an adjourn-
ment for the purpose of obtaining a reason-
able opportunity for the examination of said
three bills, and said adjournments have been
refused by the majority ;
"Now, therefore, we do protest against
said three bills, above referred to, being put
upon their second reading at the session of
the senate of this evening, as such a course
of proceedings will practically deny to us
any reasonable opportunity of understanding
the exact provisions of said three important
bills."
[Signed] ANTHONY KIMMEL,
S. J, BRADLEY,
THOMAS J. GRAHAME,
TILGHMAN NUTTLE,
JAMES F. DASHIELL,
JNO. E. SMITH,
JOHN J. STONE,
CHAS. F. GOLDSBOROUGH,
COLEMAN YELLOTT, and
FRANKLIN WHITAKER.
" Mr. McKaig submitted the following
order:
"Ordered, that the protest signed by
Anthony Kimmel, and nine other senators,
be entered upon the journal: but such entry
is not to be construed as an admission, by
the majority, of the entire correctness of all
the statements made in said protest.
"Which was adopted."
An order similar in character to this has
just been offered by the gentleman from Bal-
timore county (Mr Ridgely,) which it seems
to me will answer every purpose.
An earlier protest is found in the journal
of the senate of 1842. There was then, as
we are all aware there is now, no previous
question in the senate. The senate was
aboat passing a number of very important
bills, which were being pressed through to a |
vote. An order was adopted that at a cer-
tain time those bills should be put upon their
passage. This protest was submitted, and
which seems to have been entered upon the
journal without any particular motion to
that effect,
" Mr. Frick submitted the following ;
" The undersigned, senators of Maryland,
hereby proteat against the order submitted by
the senator from Frederick, and adopted by
the senate to proceed to act upon the bills and
resolutions before them without debate, while
the amendments offered to the bill before the
senate providing for the sale of the State's in-
terest in the several internal improvement
companies were under debate.
" The effect of the order is to deny the un-
dersigned the right of debate on a bill more
important than any other proposed during
the session; and it is in the judgment of the
undersigned wholly subversive of the consti-
tutional rights of themselves and their con-
stituents.
" We further proteat against the extraordi-
nary course of the majority of the senate ill
forcing the said bill on the senate for their
action; and in offering this protest to been-
tered on the journal, they reserve to them-
selves their privilege of expressing in any
other mode to their constituents, the deep
sense which they entertain of the wrong to
which they have been subjected,"
Signed by Otho Scott, William Frick, and
six other members of the senate.
Immediately afterwards, on the part of the
majority—
" Mr. Ricaud submitted the following :
" The undersigned, a majority of the sen-
ate of Maryland, feel it due to the constitu-
tional obligation under which they act, and
that responsibility which they acknowledge
to the people of the State whom they repre-
sent, to explain the groundwork of their
action upon which the order of the senator
of Frederick was submitted. There were
many and various bills and of great magni-
tude to the State, which had been received
from the house of delegates and which,
under the constitutional duty and the uniform
practice of the body required, should be defin-
itively acted upon—the same question as that
presented in the bill under debate had been
discussed in the senate for an entire day pre-
ceding the day of final adjournment, and the
notice had been distinctly given and the de-
termination expressed to defeat the action of
the senate upon the said bill by protracted
debate. Under these circumstances the pres-
ident called the senator from Harford to
order, who was then and for more than one
hour and a half bad been discussing a useless
question of order, and called the attention of
the senate to the uniform and constant prac-
tice of the senate, and the constitutional
duty of the senate to act definitively upon all
bills received from the house, and then an- |
