its power. Sweep it out at once, and wipe
your hands, and say the abolition party is the
party of the State of Maryland, and no other
man within the bounds of this State shall
have the light to exercise that great privilege
of freemen ait the ballot box.
Let us examine this law closely, which I
understand gentlemen have relied upon for
the power which they propose to exercise,
the law calling this convention together;
and let us tee if it will bear any such inter-
pretation.
In the first place, on whom does the require-
ment of the oath, as it is set forth in this call
of the convention, rest? it does not rest on
the voter of this State at nil. I will refer to
the fourth section:
"Sec. 4. And be it enacted. That before
any member or officer of said convention
shall enter upon the discharge of his duties,
he shall take find subscribe before the gov-
ernor of this State, who is hereby authorized
to administer the same, the following oath or
affirmation."
Does it say one word there to the effect that
any man hereafter that may think proper to
vote for or against this constitution, shall
take this oath before he can vote? We must
have had a grand set of fools in our last
legislature if they could have supposed for
one instant that they could have incorporated
into (his law such a complete violation of the
constitution as It existed. I presume we
had here men of some sense at least, who
knew that in what they were doing they had
no power to destroy the organic law of the
State as it existed. The oath, as it exists in
this law, was applicable alone to the members
of this convention and its officers; and to no
person outside.
Having ascertained by the law to whom
the oath was applicable as passed by the
legislature, let us see what the legislature
really did intend, and what they did do in
the enactment of this law, which should have
any effect upon the votes to be cast upon this
constitution hereafter. That is to be found
in the sixth section, which I will read :
"Section 6. And be it enacted, That the
constitution and form of government adopted
by the said convention as aforesaid, shall be
submitted to the legal and qualified voters of
the State, for their adoption or rejection, at
such time, in such manner, and subject to
such rules and regulations as said conven
tion may prescribe; and the provisions here-
inbefore contained for the qualification of
voters and the holding of elections provided
in the previous section of this act, shall be
applicable to the election to be held under
this section."
To understand the law properly we must
fake all its parts. We must not say that
the sixth section shall have effect and the
first section have none. The sixth sec-
tion refers to the '' provisions hereinbefore
|
contained for the qualification of voters, and
the holding of elections provided in the pre-
vious section of this act." This refers back
to the first section. Let us see then what the
first section contains; because I think the
legislature has made it so plain that the way-
faring man, though he be a fool, need not err
therein,
' 'Section 1. Be it enacted, by the General
Assembly of Maryland, That on the first
Wednesday of April next, ait the same places
where the polls are by law he'd in the several
counties and the city of Baltimore, for the
election of delegates to the general assembly,
every person entitled to vote for delegates to
the general assembly shall vote upon the
question of the call of a convention to frame
a new constitution and form of government,
by expressing in writing, or in printed form,
on the same ballot he may cast for delegates
to said convention the words 'for a conven-
tion' or 'against a convention,' as the case
may be," &c.
The only qualification in this first section
then is that voters shall he "entitled to vote
for delegates to the general assembly." 1
suppose gentlemen will say, "subject to such
rules and regulations an said convention may
prescribe." Has the convention any right to
make any rules or regulations altering the
organic law? Did the legislature of this
State presume for one moment that this con-
vention would attempt any such thing? No
person dreamed of it; no person thought of
it. It did not enter the mind, or cross the
brain of one of the legislators who passed
that law, that this convention would attempt
to frame an organic law of this State to take
effect upon the people of the State until it
had been submitted to them, and until the
legal voters, those properly qualified to vote
for members of the general assembly, should
have exercised the right to cast their votes
for or against the proposed constitution.
Another question naturally arises in the
minds of all of us. What are we to accom-
plish by test oaths? Whenever the morals of
a people become so degraded, whenever a
people are so debased that it is necessary" to
apply test Oaths to them, to apply all the
means that you can use, and put police de-
tectives, and everything else around them,
what are their oaths good for? if those
oaths are for the prevention of crime, to
have effect upon parties who beat for them
would be guilty of crime, would those par-
ties regard the oath? If their morals are so
debased that it would be necessary to apply
test oaths to them, would they not be base
enough to take the oath and to disregard it?
Mr. CLARKE, I hoped that some gentlemen
upon the other side would halve been ready to
speak upon the sec ion now under considera-
tion. I shall be very brief in the remarks which
1 shall make. I should not in fact now tres-
pass upon the indulgence of the house, at this |
