Billingsley, Briscoe, Dennis, Jones of Somer-
set, Lee, Miller, Parran, Scott, Smith of
Dorchester, Wilmer—11.
So the remainder of the first article was
adopted.
Mr. CHAMBERS, when his name was called,
said: I consider this a declaration of the
right to reform the Constitution in such man-
ner as they may deem expedient, to refer to a
mode prescribed by the people, as meaning a
previous direction; and I vote—aye.
Mr. MILLER, when his name wag called,
said: I shall vote against this latter clause,
because I wish to vote for the 44th section of
this article, and I think the two are utterly
inconsistent. Not denying the right of the
people to revolutionize and frame their gov-
ernment differently from what it is, to alter,
reform or abolish their form of government
in such manner as they may deem expedient
I am in favor of the Constitution itself restricting
that right, as it does in the 44th article. I
vote—no.
Mr. PARRAN, when his name was called,
said; For the reason assigned by the gentle-
man from Anne Arundel, (Mr. Miller) being
in favor of the 44th article, I vote—no,
Mr. SCOTT, when his name was called,
said: I desire to be excused from voting upon
this, because it contains two distinct proposi-
tions, one of which is undoubtedly true, but
the other is very doubtful.
The Convention refused to grant the excuse.
The result of the vote having been an-
nounced,
Mr. THOMAS moved to adjourn, but with-
drew the motion at the request of
Mr. CHAMBERS, who said; A number of
gentlemen belonging to this Convention will
be absent at a Convention, not political, which
holds its session to-morrow, and may be oc-
cupied a part of the second day; and some
of them, like myself, are exceedingly anxious
to be present at the discussion of two of these
articles of the Declaration of Rights, the 4th
and the 23d. I care very little about the
rest, myself. I therefore move that the order
of the day be postponed until Friday at 12
o'clock. I ask it as a matter of favor to those
who must be absent.
Mr. DANIEL. I will sustain that motion, be
cause other committees are ready to report—
I know one committee is ready to report;
and we can go right on and lose no time,
Mr. STIRLING. I do not wish to interpose
an objection; but I should like to know bow
many members are going up to this Conven-
tion. We adjourned over last week, and the
discussion of this question was postponed two
days for gentlemen to go home for the Whit-
suntide holidays, to attend to their farms and
the special relations those holidays bore to
their farms. We came back and the report
was not discussed until the day after that set
down. If now, because two or three gentlemen
are to be absent, we are to postpone the mat- |
ter two or three days, it may very well hap-
pen that then two or three more will want
to be absent. Besides, Friday is the day be-
fore Saturday, and we do not always have a
quorum on Saturday; so that this motion
may involve a loss of three days. If there are
many gentlemen going, and if there is any
other business to transact, I should not object;
but if it means that we are to stay here and do
nothing for two days, I shall feel compelled
to vote against the motion.
Mr. DANIEL. A committee of which I am
a member, and the gentleman from Prince
George's (Mr. Clarke) is chairman, will be
ready to report to-morrow.
Mr. CLARKE. It is in the hands of the clerk
to draw up the report.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. In reply
to the question asked, I will state, I under-
stand that there are 14 or 15 members of this
Convention who desire to attend the .Episco-
pal) Convention to-morrow, and who are dele-
gate? to that Convention.
Mr. PURNELL. I hope the motion of the
gentleman from Kent (Mr. Chambers) will
prevail. I should be unwilling to make the
Declaration of Rights the order of the clay
for a future day if there were no other busi-'
ness to occupy the attention of the Conven-
tion in the interim. But I am aware of the
fact, as stated by the chairman of a commit-
tee of which I am a member, that there will
too a report before the Convention tomorrow
which will perhaps occupy the attention of
the Convention for the two days gentlemen
desire to be absent at the Episcopal Conven-
tion. I think, therefore, that no injury will
result from granting the request implied in
the motion of the gentleman from Kent. Al-
though not a member of that Convention, 1
know there are gentlemen present who are
members of that Convention, and who de-
sire to be present with us during the discus-
sion upon the Declaration of 'Rights; and
am very much inclined to give them the op-
portunity.
Mr. PUGH. I am in favor of the postpone-
ment for the reason that I do not wish to see
this bill of rights adopted by the Conven-
tion without giving all the gentlemen who
have been elected from any part of the State
an opportunity to say all they can say upon
it. I should be very sorry, indeed, to give
them the opportunity to go home and say
that we had adopted the Declaration of
Rights without giving them the right lo be
heard in reference to whatever they may have
against it.
Mr. HEBB. I would suggest that inasmuch
as there are a considerable number of arti-
cles in the bill of rights upon which these
gentlemen will not desire to be heard, we
agree to pass over the articles upon which
they desire to speak, reserving those two articles
until they return, with the understand-
ing that the vote shall be taken on Saturday |
