right of suffrage, unwarranted by any princi-
ple of law, equity or justice. It is well calcula-
ted to produce in the minds of the manly and
independent citizens throughout the State, a
feeling of hatred towards the powers that
rule, and to engender in the heart a bitterness
of venom which may breakout some of these
days, if persisted in, in something worse—
something more gloomy and sad than any-
thing which has occurred within the limits of
our State. I would read a declaration of an
illustrious citizen of the past; because we of
the present day seem to have forgotten that
such men ever existed in those days which
tried men's souls. We seem to have forgot-
ten the lessons which they taught us, and
which the history of those days teaches us.
We seem to have forgotten entirely the great
principles upon which the government they
established was founded. I read from a speech
of John Hancock, delivered in Boston, as long
ago as 1774:
" It is to the last degree vicious and infa-
mous to attempt to support a government
which manifestly tends to render the persons
and property of the governed insecure. Some
boast of being friends to government; lam
a friend to righteous government, to a gov-
ernment founded on reason and justice; but
I glory in .publicly avowing my eternal en-
mity to tyranny."
Such, sir, may have to be the open declara-
tions of some of our own fellow-citizens. I
would avert anything of the kind if I had
power to do it; but it seems impossible to stem
or to check in the slightest degree the torrent of
oppression which is sweeping down the rights
of the citizens of the State, unless they fall
into one current, that current represented by
the majority controlling this convention.
"The paramount question," as has been asserted
here over and over again, upon which
the people of Maryland were called to decide,
when voting for or against the convention,
was the abolition of slavery. The abolition
of slavery is a small loss to the citizens who
sustain it, in comparison to the privation of
the exercise of the elective franchise right.—
But small as it is, there might have been some
thing like a show of justice exhibited in the
determination of that question by providing
that those who had been deprived of their
property might receive some compensation for
it in the future, if there is an inability to do it
in the present. The failure to do this calls to
my mind the character of the abolitionists, a
portrayed by the great Clay, as read by my
friend on my left (Mr. Briscoe) last night. I
cannot be too often repeated. Its truth ha
been verified. It has been realized so strongly
in the present day that we are surprised a
the prescience and foreknowledge of the great
statesman who uttered these sentiments. I will
read that paragraph again. it is from
speech delivered by Henry Clay against the
insidious policy of the abolitionists : |
"Abolitionism! With abolitionists the
rights of property are nothing; the deficiency
of the powers of the general government is
nothing; the acknowledged and incontesta-
ble powers of the States are nothing; a dis-
' solution of the Union and the overthrow of a
government in which are concentrated the
hopes of a civilized world are nothing. A
single idea has taken possession of their minds
and onward they pursue it, overleaping all
barriers, reckless and regardless of all conse-
quences."
Such has been the history of abolitionism
for the last few years Such is the history of
abolitionism in its present stage. Such has
been the history of abolitionism in the action
of this convention. How well he understood
their character this paragraph clearly shows,
The effort upon the part of this convention
at consolidation is so manifest, from the de-
bates in the discussion of various questions,
and from the acts of this body on various pro-
visions incorporated in this constitution, that
we are forewarned to look with fear and ap-
prehension upon the consequences of such
centralization of power as seems to be conce-
ded to the federal government by the major-
ity of this convention. This is but another
step to that end.
There must be, I opine, some apprehension
existing in the minds of gentlemen here that
their work will not take so well with the peo-
ple after all; and that therefore it is necessary
to hedge them in, or to keep them out from the
ballot-box, the great last refuge of the free man
—not the last, I hope, but the great refuge of
the free man; thereby to enable them the more
securely to take the step towards centraliza-
tion of power, as has been frequently indica-
ted in the debate, and strongly indicated in
some of the provisions of the constitution.
it arises from a dread of a free people and a
love of power. We should not forget that a
free ballot, freedom of speech, and freedom of
the press, as appeared to that great man, Jef-
ferson is formidable to tyrants only. They
alone dread the effects of a free ballot, free
speech and a free press. I am drawn to infer
from the action of this convention—because
I know it will be their conclusion, as we have
been so advertised by a member upon this
floor that it is the operation of such appre
hension that their work will fail to commend
itself to the majority of the people of the
State, which leads them to throw these re-
straints about the ballot-box, and prohibit the
free exercise of that great right which I have
been taught to esteem as a heritage inestima-
ble in value, transmitted by a long line of ancestors,
dating back to nearly two hundred
years ago, and one which I had hoped to be
able to transmit as a part of our constitution
untarnished to those who may come after us.
[The twenty minutes having expired, the
hammer fell.]
Mr. PETER. I regret that I was absent from |
