3. All fines which may be collected for a
violation of the provisions of this article, or
any law which may hereafter be passed for the
purpose of carrying the same into execution
shall be set apart and appropriated tor the col-
onization or removal beyond the limits of the
State of such negroes and mulattoes and their
descendants as may be in the State at the adop-
tion of this Constitution, and may be willing
to emigrate.
4. The General Assembly shall have full
power, and it is hereby made the duty of the
same to pass all laws necessary to carry out
effectually the provisions of this article.
The question was upon agreeing to the
order.
Mr. ABBOTT. I presume the gentleman from
Prince George's (Mr Clarke) in offering this
order, could hardly have been in earnest
Upon looking over the order, and considering
the section of the State from which the gen-
tleman comes, and that at this time they are
more in want of labor than anything else, .
can hardly think the gentleman was in earnest
in offering this order, if, however, he is in
earnest, I can only say that I must vote
against it, unless he will permit some amend-
ments to be made to it.
One reason he gave yesterday for offering
this order, was that the people in his section
of the county were afraid that they were go-
ing to be overrun by this class of free labor
Now I can tell him that the people in the city
of Baltimore are afraid of no such thing
We have in our city in the neighborhood of
30,000 people of that description, and they
make some of the best laborers we have
They are industrious, and I do not know that
they have given us any more trouble, in re-
gard to breaking our laws, than any other
class of our community. And I believe that
as a general tiling they are quite as indus-
trious. It is true they will steal a little at times,
but then only a meal of victuals, a ham, or
something of that kind, I certainly do not
think we are in any danger from those we now
have among us, and I apprehend that we will
be in no dauber from any number of them
that would be likely to come among us; cer-
tainly not in near so much danger from them
as we are from another class of people, whom
I wish to include in this order. I, therefore
move to amend by inserting in the proper
place the words, " or any person who sympa-
thises with the rebellion of the Southern
States " so as to include them' among those to
be hereafter prohibited from coming into this
State. If the gentleman will accept that
amendment I will vote for his proposition;
otherwise I must vote against it.
Mr. CLARKE. In reply to the gentleman
from Baltimore city (Mr. Abbott), I will sim-
ply state that although my acquaintance with
the members of this Convention has been
very short, they will find that it is not my
habit, and will not be my habit, to engage |
the attention of this body with any proposi-
tion not of a serious character: and that in
offering this proposition I did it in real and
true earnest, and as embodying what, in my
humble judgment) I regard as the true policy
to be pursued by the State of Maryland in
reference to the class of persons referred to in
these proposed articles.
The gentleman intimates that it is the
height of folly for gentlemen coming from
our section of the State to offer and advocate
such a proposition as this. Now, as I re-
marked yesterday, I had not intended to
open my month upon this subject, but ex-
pected that, just as has been done with. all
other orders of inquiry, it would have gone
to its appropriate committee the Committee
on the Legislative Department. Still, if gen-
tlemen wish to make a contest upon this ques-
tion at this stage of it, I am as willing to
meet it now as at any other time, although 1
did not propose to discuss the question now
at all.
I would say further, in reply to the gen-
tleman, that this does not contemplate the
removal from the State of Maryland, except
by his own consent, of a single free negro
now in this State; nor does it contemplate
the removal from the State of a single one
who may be freed, if a Constitution freeing
negroes should be adopted, unless be may
hereafter be willing to emigrate from the
State. And under this article, if it should
be adopted, you would still have remaining
in the State, and without the State under-
taking to remove one of them save by their
voluntary consent, something like 150 000 or
more free negroes and mulattoes.
Now in reference to their stealing, and all
that, I will not go into a discussion of that
subject now. In Baltimore city it is proba-
ble that they steal only a little ham and ba-
con. But then they have their clerks in
their stores to watch their property, and they
also have their police on the lockout. But in
the country we are a little more unfortunate.
They steal there something more than a little
ham and bacon. They will go off to Wash-
ington city and take along with them 15 or
20 or more valuable sheep, and put them-
selves under the protection of the military
authorities. They drive off your horses, and
carry off wagon-loads of tobacco; they go
into your corn-fields at night and pillage
them, and if we are overrun with this class
of people, the free negro will have an oppor-
tunity to destroy more in the night than the
' white man can make in the day.
Not only that, but there is this other re-
flection, No danger at all ! How many free
negroes now—or how many negroes, I do
not know whether they are free or not—
that is a question upon which I do not now
propose to express any opinion—but how
many negroes are there now within the com-
pass of ten miles around Washington city? 1 |
