representation. And the gentleman from
Baltimore (Mr. Stirling) does not apply even
to his own section of the State, and to the
city of Baltimore the naked principle of rep-
resentation according to population, and is
unwilling to make an application to apply
that principle; but he is in favor of an arbi-
trary rule, and its relaxation in a single coun-
ty of the State. He has intimated that he
should like to know why a man in the city of
Baltimore is not equal to the man that lives in
the old fields in the county of Prince George's
or of Calvert. Now, sir, some wise men have
said, and I believe it to be a solemn and
indisputable truth, it was no less a statesman
than Thomas Jefferson who said it, that in a
republic, large Cities are sores upon the body
politic. He has displayed wisdom in other
things. I leave that question between the
gentleman from Baltimore city and Mr, Jef-
ferson.
I will tell the gentleman why I hold that a
man in the city of Baltimore is not entitled to
be fully represented here in population the
same as a citizen of my own county or the
county of Prince George's. There is no State
in the Union situated like the State of Mary-
land, We have here a small State, in popu-
lation and territory, and a large, progressive,
and powerful city. I am in many things
proud of that city. I am willing, so far as I
am concerned, when participating in the leg-
islation of the State, and I think what I have
done in the past will bear me out in the as-
sertion, to contribute, so far as I think con-
sistent with the public welfare, to the ad-
vancement of that great city. But when you
come to the question of representative power;
when the gentleman asks me why the men in
the city of Baltimore should not in represen-
tative power in the State rank head by head
with the men in the rural districts of the
State, I will tell him that the citizen in the
rural districts of the State is a permanent
inhabitant; but when you come to a large
city like the city of Baltimore, there is always
a floating population passing away, migra-
ting, having in fact no identity of interest
with the population of the State. I have
nothing to say to the suggestion of the gen-
tleman who drew a comparison between men
living in the city and in old fields, further
than to say to him that there are some other
sections of the State besides old fields. I
leave it to the sound judgment and good
sense of the convention to determine whether,
these things being so, as they are undeniably,
I think, it would not be fair in making this
rule, because yon have not adopted a princi-
ple, for us to permit the counties to protect
themselves in their apportionment.
The principle, which is no principle hut an
arbitrary rule, which yon have established,
gives to the city of Baltimore eighteen repre-
sentatives. The gentleman has very frankly
said that is all he can get, and he is satisfied. |
They took particular pains however to ex-
clude some three or four of the counties from
what they said was the rule or principle,
They departed from the rule or principle for
the city of Baltimore.
Mr, STIRLING. We restricted it.
Mr. BRISCOE. They restricted the rule, and
made the representation less than the rule re-
quired; and when they came to my county,
the small county of Calvert, they restricted it
to one delegate. I was .about to offer a prop-
osition to the convention that no county
should have less than two, but the previous
question cut me off. Now I say that 80 far
as the rule applies to any theory of represen-
tation, under no government on God's earth
can you reach a true and exact representation
as to numbers. Under the rule here, an ex-
cess of 2,500 over the 5,000 will allow an ad-
ditional representative. We have a white
population of upwards of 6,000*
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. The census says 3,997 ;
three less than 4,000.
Mr. BRISCOE. Very well; that is the stan-
dard so far as the principle of representation
is concerned; bull know the population is
about 6,000. This matter of representation
has never under our government been reduced
to any well settled principle. And if the
principle always has been departed from, 1
think you cannot make a rule which will not
require to be restricted in some particular
instances. I ask if there is a State in the Union
which has established a rule, from which
they have not departed for the protection of
some section or the smaller counties of the
State? I think that the gentlemen represent-
ing the counties should look to it that in the
advancing stride of power in the city of Bal-
timore, it does not absorb all the political
power of the State. I do not believe the peo-
ple of the city of Baltimore demand, and I do
not presume these gentlemen came here pre-
pared to demand for them) or to say that we
have any authentic voice from the city of Bal-
timore demanding a representation according
to their numbers. '
Mr. STIRLING. I should like to ask the gen-
tleman whether every political party repre-
senting the city of Baltimore in this ball does
not express the same thing? I should like to
hear the gentleman say whether he conceives
that his political friends in Baltimore are op-
posed to being represented here?
Mr. BRISCOE. I know that they opposed it
.in 1850; for in the convention which met
here, we had the power, and they did not
then demand representation according to pop-
ulation, That is a historical fact in which
the proceedings of that convention will bear
me out.
Mr. STIRLING. They were in the same po-
sition that we are—not fools enough to de-
mand what they knew they could not obtain.
Mr. BRISCOE. You may imagine that; but
1 refer to the remarks of Mr. Brent, of the city |
