vention will fix the salaries of the judges in
Baltimore city at $4,000 a year, to provide
that the city of Baltimore shall pay the dif-
ference between that and the sum proposed to
bepaid them by the State. But I do not
like this unwise economy. Pay good judges
good salaries.
The question recurred upon the motion of
Mr. ABBOTT, to amend section thirty-two by
striking out the words "five hundred," so as
to leave the salaries of judges in the city of
Baltimore three thousand dollars
Upon this question Mr, ABBOTT called for
the yeas and nays, which were ordered.
The question was then taken, by yeas and
nays, and resulted—yeas 39, nays 12—as fol-
lows :
Yeas—Messrs. Goldsborough, President ;
Abbott, Annan, Audoun, Blackiston, Brooks,
Chambers, Cushing, Daniel, Davis, of Wash-
ington, Dellinger, Ecker, Farrow, Galloway,
Greene, Hebb, Hoffman, Hollyday, Hopper,
Horsey, Lansdale, Lee, Markey, Mitchell,
Mullikin. Murray, Nyman, Pugh, Purnell,
Russell, Sands, Scott, Smith, of Worcester,
Sneary, Stirling, Sykes, Thomas, Todd, Wil-
mer—39.
Nays—Messrs. Cunningham, Duvall, Hatch,
King, Negley, Parker, Ridgely, Smith, of
Dorchester, Stockbridge, Swope, Wickard,
Wooden—12.
The amendment was accordingly adopted.
Mr. RIDGELY, when his name was called,
said: I shall vote "no " on this proposition
for the reason that I am in favor of increasing
uniformly the salaries of all the judges
throughout the State to $500. That would
give the judges of Baltimore city $3,000,
except the judge of the criminal court, who
would get $2,500. This is increasing the
salary of one of these judges $1,000, I vote
''no."
Mr. STIRLING, when his name was called,
said: I shall support this amendment, not
because I think the salary is enough, but be-
cause I think it is about as much as the con-
vention is disposed to allow. And in deference
to the judgment of the convention I want to
come as near the temper and disposition of
the house as I can. I vote " aye."
Mr. THOMAS. I move to amend the section
by adding the following :
"Provided the mayor and city council of
Baltimore shall have the power to add the
additional sum of one thousand dollars to
the salaries of each of said judges, to be paid
by the mayor and city council of Baltimore."
Mr. ABBOTT. I do hope that amendment
will not prevail. If it does we shall have
three hundred and seventy lawyers eter-
nally boring the city council to get higher
salaries for the judges. It would be impossi-
ble for us to get good men to serve as members
of the city council under such circumstances
as that. |
Mr. STIRLING. What interest have the
lawyers of Baltimore in increasing the sala-
ries of the judges? It is none of their busi-
ness. It would be for the interest of those
who wanted their places to try and turn them
out.
The question was taken upon the amend-
ment of Mr. THOMAS, and it was rejected.
Mr. STIRLING. Gentlemen will not pay
good salaries to our judges out of the State
treasury, nor let us do so if we desire.
Mr. CUSHING. I move to amend by adding
the following:
"Provided, the mayor and city council of
Baltimore shall add the additional sum of one
thousand dollars to the salaries of each of said
judges, to be paid by the mayor and city
council."
1 do not see why the counties should not be
perfectly willing to allow the city of Balti-
more to pay this extra sum) which docs not
affect the State in any way. I desire to make
if obligatory upon the city, in order to pre-
vent the question going before the city coun-
cil, as my colleague (Mr. Abbott) so much ap-
prehends, and thus bring the question of
the salaries of the judges into politics, thus
rendering the judge dependent in some de-
gree upon his agreement of political views
with those of the majority of the city coun-
cil. My amendment avoids that; and the
question of the agreement of the personal
politics of any judge with those of the mayor
and city council will not enter into the
question.
Mr. RIDGELY. I would desire to be in-
formed where we derive our power to vote
money out of the city treasury of Baltimore?
Mr. CUSHING. If the legislature of Mary-
land, coming from the people, has the power
to vote money out of the treasury of the city
of Baltimore for police, &c., certainly the
people of the State, and the people of the
city of Baltimore in voting for the constitu-
tion, have exactly the same right to vote
money from the city of Baltimore. The
power resides in the people, and the people
exercise it. if the people can do it through
their legislature, they certainly can do it
through their convention. If this conven-
tion has any power to make any legislation
at all affecting the city of Baltimore, it has
also the power to make the city of Baltimore
provide for ifs share of that legislation.
There is certainly no question that if the
gentlemen of the counties brought in a pro-
position here that their counties should pay
an additional sum to their judges, there
would be no objection to it. There was a
proposition made by a gentleman upon the
HOOT of this house, and it met with the con-
currence of a number of members, that if we
adopted the system of taking a judge from
each county, the county should pay its own
judge. There was no objection made then
that this convention bad no power to insert |
