in the next place, it is far too short a time for
any man, whoever he may be, unacquainted
as he must be with the wants of the countie
and the system of school education, as it ha
been conducted in this State—it is far toe
short a time for any man to devise and per
feet a system of education. I therefor
propose to amend this section, so as to re
quire the governor to appoint within ten
days after the commencement of the first ses
sion of the general assembly under this con
stitution. This will give the governor the
time intervening between the adoption of
this constitution and the first of January
when the general assembly will meet, in which
to receive applications and to inquire into the
merits of the various parties who may apply
for this office. Ten days, it seems to me, is
too short a time for the governor to do that
in.
And then I would amend the other part of
this section so as not to require this superin-
tendent to make his report to the legislature
within thirty days after the commencement
of its first session, but I would allow him
more time to make up that system which is
to become the law of the land if the general
assembly should not adopt it. I would give
him at least a year to do it in. We have
gone on for some time with the system of
public schools we now have, and have got
along tolerably well under it. There need
not be this hot haste. If a year elapses, and
we then pet a better system by it, the people
of the State will be benefited.
The PRESIDENT. I cannot see what au-
thority this convention has to prescribe any
system without the interposition of the legis-
lature. According to this report, if the legis-
lature shall fail to act, this system devised by
the superintendent becomes the system.
Mr, MILLER. The fifth section provides
that this system shall be reported by the State
superintendent to the general assembly. And
if they do not adopt that system, or provide
another in its place, then "the system re-
ported to it by the State superintendent of
public instruction shall become a law, and
have full effect as if enacted by the genera]
assembly. The views which seem to be en-
tertained by the committee of education are
that this superintendent might do this im-
portant work at this time within this limited
period of time, thirty days. I hold that the
best man in the United States, being ap-
pointed to the office within ten days after the
ratification of this constitution, could not in
thirty days get up a proper system of school
education. I therefore move to strike out
the words "ratification by the people of this
constitution," and insert the words "com-
mencement of the first session of the general
assembly under this constitution,"
Mr. CUSHING. That amendment will en-
tirely destroy the whole object of the report,
or at least many of its most prominent feat- |
ures. It will throw back the whole system
of public school education to where it is now,
and there is no probability that during any
reasonable time the State of Maryland will
have a public school system. The whole ob-
ject of making this appointment of the State
superintendent before the meeting of the
legislature is that be may have time to pre-
pare a report to present to that legislature.
This amendment entirely defeats that object.
The object of making this appointment so
soon was that he should have the three or
four months which may intervene between
his appointment and the meeting of the legis-
lature to digest and prepare a report for the
legislature, so that the legislature should halve
some data upon which to go to work, should
have the information which this State super-
intendent may have collected during these
four months. But according to the amend-
ment of the gentlemen from Anne Arundel
(Mr. Miller) you throw the legislature at once
into a discussion of the system without any
data whatever, and without any report to
work upon; and the legislature would not
agree upon anything, as they have not done
heretofore. The only practical difficulty is
the construction which the governor would
put upon the words " by and with the advice
and consent of the senate." And if yon in-
sert after the word " senate," the words " at
its first session thereafter," then it might be
held to mean that the governor should not
appoint until the senate had commenced that
first session.
Mr. SANDS. I think there is something
eminently wise in the suggestion of my friend
from Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller) touching
this time of ten days; unless we are to sup-
pose that in the executive mind the individual
who is to be intrusted with this office has
already been selected; and that the people
from the State at large are not to present their
claims, and the evidences of their qualifica-
tions, I think thirty days would be better ;
ten days are too short. The executive would
want time to give public notification that he
was ready to receive applications, and hear
evidences of qualifications in regard to par-
ties applying. Or the constitution would
perhaps notify the parties of the State who
intended to apply for this office that they
would have to do so in thirty days. Then
their applications would be made, and ought
to be accompanied in every case by testimo-
nials of character and capability. We are
not to suppose that the executive of the State
is himself qualified to look around in the
crowd and at once say—" that is the man for
the place." He wants to hear from the peo-
ple of the State, through the testimonials
they send, of the proper qualifications of the
applicants. I therefore move to strike out
" ten" and insert "thirty."
Mr. SCHLEY. I should like to have this
read a little more regularly, which can be |
