Mr. SANDS. If I have wronged the gentle
man in classing him with the gentleman from
Kent (Mr. Chambers) I beg his pardon.
But I must beg him not to burden my
shoulders with any sins committed by my
predecessors.
Mr. CLARKE. I had heard Gov. Bradford's
argument, but thought that he had erected a
great many castles in the air, which be was
trying to overthrow, which nobody ever
supposed until then existed.
Mr SANDS. Not being the Secretary of
State, or Gov. Bradford's Private Secretary,
I cannot be called upon to answer that. I
will now read from page 26 of House Docu-
ments for 1864 what the Governor said upon
that occasion: .
"The first point involved in its considera-
tion is one of constitutional power,"
And right here let me say, as I have said
before, that while I have all due reverence
for Constitutions, I am determined not to
perish, as I have known some men to do, of
"constitution on the brain." Now as to
what the Governor says in his message :
" The first point involved in its considera-
tion is one of constitutional power. It has
been supposed by some, that inasmuch as the
Constitution provides that the question of
its amendment shall he submitted to the peo-
ple by the Legislature which assembles first
after the talking of each census, that such
question can be submitted at no other time
and by no other body, and that the last
Legislature, having failed to perform that
constitutional duty, it cannot be discharged
by the present."
Now, if the objection to the calling of this
Convention by the last Legislature is not
clearly and distinctly stated in this executive
document, I do not know what is clearly
stated. And, in contradistinction to the
opinion of the gentleman from Prince George's
(Mr. Clarke) I think the Governor's logic on
this matter is just as sound as it is possible
for reasoning to be. Hear it :
"The error of such a theory is in failing
to discriminate between a question of duty
and one of right, for though the duty imposed
by the Constitution of submitting the sub-
ject of amendment to the people at stated
times attaches only to the Legislature imme-
diately succeeding the returns of the census,
yet the right of submitting such a question
and providing for a Convention belongs as
unquestionably to you as it did to your im-
mediate predecessors, or to any preceding
Legislature."
There is the true distinction between the
duty of the Legislature which convened next
after the taking of the census, and the right
of any subsequent Legislature to do what the
last Legislature did; that is, to give the peo-
ple an opportunity of reforming their organic
law.
Now there is another point I must briefly
11 |
notice. My friend, the gentleman from
Prince George's, (Mr. Clarke,) by the man-
ner in which he adverted to the meagreness
of the vote at the election for this Conven-
tion, hinted, I thought, that it was scarcely
coming up to the dignity of sovereign State
action, inasmuch, I understood him to say,
only some 30,000 votes were cast at that elec-
tion.
Mr. CLARKE. For the Convention; not at
the election; 50,000 votes were cast at the
election; 30,000 in favor of a Convention.
Mr. SANDS. The gentleman is a thousand
votes or more out of the way.
Mr. CLARKE. Well; 31,000.
Mr. SANDS. The vote cast at the election
was between 51,000 and 52,000, of which
31,000 and more were in favor of the Con-
vention. And we were sent here by almost
two-thirds of nearly 52.000 votes. If, for
the reason that only 31,000 and some hun-
dreds of the qualified electors of the State
voted for us, we are not here in a position to
act as the representatives of the sovereign
State of Maryland, then I ask what, on this
same doctrine, becomes of that Convention
which assembled in this hall in 1850? Burns
put a very good sentiment into homely
Scotch jingle, when he said:
" Facts are chiels wha winnading,
And darena be disputed."
It is always best to rely upon facts, and if
we do so, then if this objection holds good as
to us, we will see bow it applies to the Con-
vention of 1850. If gentlemen will turn to
the proceedings of the Maryland State Con-
vention of 1850, they will find on the page
immediately succeeding the index, that the
total vote cast at the election for calling that
Convention, all parties included, tor and
against, amounted to only 29,463 votes; not
as many votes cast then, both for and against
a Convention, by some thousands as were
cast in favor of the assembling of this Conven-
tion. Then what becomes of the objection to
this Convention, or its status as the represen-
tative of the sovereign people of Maryland,
in the face of the fact, that the Constitution
under which we have been living since 1851,
was made by a Convention called together by
a vote of less than 29,000 citizens of the State,
of Maryland.
The gentleman may ask, where, after you.,
have counted the 52,000 votes cast at this.
election, are the balance of the 90,000 voters
of this State? Now, sir, I have an answer
to that in part. Some of them were abroad
on land and at sea, upholding the banner of
their country—God bless them for doing that.
Gentlemen may suggest bayonets. But
where were the absentees of 3850? Bayonets
were unknown things at that time. Gentlemen
say—why did not the people torn. out in
force in 1864? I ask, why did they not turn
out in force in 1850? There .was agreater |
