we had already increased the salary of one
subordinate State officer at least five hundred
dollars, and another has been increased more
than that in my judgment; that is, the salary
of the commissioner of the land office. Now,
either the one or the other of two propo-
sitions must be adopted, or else this conven-
tion will subject itself to a burning disgrace.
It is not proper to keep, as fixed by the pres-.
ent constitution, the salaries of these high fis-
cal officers of your State, having control of
your entire treasury; while the salaries of
the State librarian and the commissioner of
the land office have been increased, if we do
that, we shall at once subject ourselves to the
imputation of having been under the influence
of lobyists. These high and important offi-
cers, the governor, comptroller and treasurer,
as well as your judges, are above any such
thing as coming here and attempting to influ-
ence this convention to increase their salaries.
And if we increase the salaries of other offi-
cers, and let the salaries of those officers
remain as under the present constitution, it
will be a disgrace to this convention. I do
not care which proposition is adopted, wheth-
er the one proposed by the gentleman from Ce-
cil (Mr. Scott, ) or the one proposed by the gen-
tleman from Carroll (Mr. Smith.) But we
should adopt the one or the other, in order to
be consistent.
Mr. STIRLING. I think the convention has
been perfectly consistent. It has raised the
salary of the librarian because it considered'
the present salary insufficient. It has not in-
creased the compensation of the commissioner
of the land office; it has merely given him
a uniform, fixed compensation, instead of
the fees at present allowed, and the report of
the committee shows that that uniform com-
pensation is not quite as much as the aver-
age amount which the commissioner of the
land office has made out of his fees.
Now, there is a manifest distinction be-
tween the condition of those officers and the
two officers named by the gentleman from
Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller.) if a man is li-
brarian he must live out of his salary as li-
brarian; be cannot do anything else—his
salary must be his support. These financial
officers of the State have always had ample
salaries. The salaries of our comptroller
and treasurer are larger than are generally
paid to such officers. They are not ob-
liged to live upon their salaries; it is no-
torious that they do not live upon their sala-
ries. My estimable friend, the treasurer of
the State, does not live out of his salary,
but he finds time enough, as any man in that
office, whether merchant or lawyer can, to
attend to other business by which to make a
living.
The comptrollers of the State have gener-
ally been members of the bar. It is true
their official duties interfere with their prac-
tice, but it does not destroy it. On the con- |
trary, their office gives them a prominence
and reputation in the State, which enables
them ultimately to rebuild their practice and
to extend it. And they actually attend to
their business as lawyers while holding that
office, and I think twenty-five hundred dol-
lars is ample compensation for that officer.
He is responsible for the duties of the office,
and ought to be well paid. But he does not
perform all the labors of the office himself;
he has other officers under him who perform
a great part of the labor. But the com-
missioner of the land office performs all the
duties of that office himself, and the libra-
rian does the same, except those duties which
are merely duties of hand and which an as-
sistant performs.
1 submit that the salaries fixed by the pre-
sent constitution for these officers are large
enough. The treasurer of the State gets as
much salary as ajudge, and does not do any-
thing like the amount of work. He does
not work every day, and I know that for-
mer comptrollers of the State have not even
lived in Annapolis. I knew one comptrol-
ler who exercised the functions of this office
very creditably indeed, who did not reside ill
Annapolis at all; who kept up his residence
and office at home, coming down here occa-
sionally to attend to his official duties. There
is no parallel between the cases referred to.
The question being then taken upon the
motion to reconsider, it was not agreed to,
No further amendment being offered to the
report upon the treasury department, it was
ordered to» be engrossed for its third reading,
and to be printed.
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
Mr. AUDOUN moved that the convention
proceed to consider the report of the com-
mittee upon the elective franchise.
Mr. ECKER. I hope the gentleman will
withdraw that motion. The chairman of
that committee (Mr. Sands) is absent to-day,
and although I am a member of that com-
mittee, there are some things in that report
that I do not feel able to defend.
Mr. MILLER. And another consideration
is, that the report of the minority of that
committee is not yet on our files, not having
been printed.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. It is printed in the
journal. We may as well look this matter
full in the face. There seemed on yesterday
to be a great indisposition to take up the re-
port of the judiciary committee. We have
now but two reports before us undisposed of
—the report on the judiciary department and
the report upon the elective franchise.
Mr. HEBB. There is the report of the
committee on the executive department.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. That has not yet been
printed.
Mr. HEBB. It is printed upon the journal.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. It is not printed for |
