nition of the natural right of property in man,
I deny that any one man has a natural right
to hold another as a slave. My principle rea-
son, and I think I may safely say my only
reason, for voting in favor of this proposi-
tion is, that I stand pledged to my constitu-
ents to do it. I am indifferent as to whether
this resolution is adopted or not. If I have
any feeling one way more than the other, I
believe it is against it, I think it would be
gratifying to my feelings to have it rejected,
.But standing pledged to my constituents to
vote for a proposition of this character in case
it came up, I feel bound to comply with that
promise; and therefore I vote " aye. "
The PRESIDENT subsequently announced the
folio following committee in accordance with the
above order:
Messrs. Goldsborough, (chairman,) Berry,
of Baltimore county, Purnell, Negley, Todd,
Smith) of Carroll, and Hopper.
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS EXTRA MILEAGE.
Mr. BELT. Last night there was an order
under consideration providing for the com-
pensation of the president of this convention,
as one of the officers of this house, to which
an amendment was offered looking to the in-
struction of the committee on accounts in re-
lation to the mileage of members. They were
defeated by a small vote. I now move to re-
consider the vote by which they were rejected,
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. That matter has been
pretty thoroughly canvassed a dozen times
in this convention. I therefore move that
this whole matter be indefinitely postponed.
The PRESIDENT. The question before the
house is the motion to reconsider. Rule for-
ty-four says: " No motion for reconsidera-
tion shall be postponed or laid on the table."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE, Then I call for the yeas
and nays on the motion to reconsider.
The yeas and nays were .accordingly or-
dered.
The question was then taken by yeas and
nays, and resulted—yeas 39, nays 29—as fol-
lows:
Yeas—Messrs. Abbott, Audoun, Barron,
Belt, Berry, of Baltimore county, Bond,
Brooks, Carter, Chambers, Crawford, Dail,
Dellinger, Dent, Duvall, Gale, Hatch, Henkle,
Hodson, Hollyday, Jones, of Cecil, Jones, of
Somerset, King, Lansdale, Larsh, Lee, Mar-
bury, Mayhugh, Miller, Morgan, Negley, Pe-
ter, Ridgely, Smith, of Dorchester, Swope,
Sykes, Turner, Wickard, Wilmer, Wood-
en—39.
Nays—Messrs. Annan, Baker, Cunning-
ham, Cushing, Daniel, Davis, of Charles,
Ecker Farrow, Greene, Harwood, Hebb,,
Hoffman, Horsey', Keefer, Kennard, Markey,
McComas, Mitchell, Mullikin, Parker, Pugh,
Purnell, Russell, Schley, Schlosser, Scott,
Stirling, Stockbridge, Thomas—29.
The motion to reconsider was accordingly
agreed to. |
Pending the calling of the yeas and nays,
the following explanations were made by mem-
bers as their names were called ;
Mr. ECKER. As I understand it, this is a
motion to reconsider the vote by which the
convention refused to allow each of its mem-
bers to steal a hundred dollars. Now I have
nothing to say more than I have already said
on this subject. This question has been al-
ready decided by the convention two or three
times. I have the floor now, and if the chair
decides that I can hold it until eleven o'clock
(the hour for the special order, the reading of
of the constitution,) I shall most certainly
do it.
The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Purnell.) The gentle-
man cannot do that. He must vote.
Mr. ECKER Then I vote " no."
Mr. JONES, of Somerset. I changed my
vote to the negative last night, because there
was a very thin house, and there seemed to be
a very great indisposition upon the part of
some gentlemen to vote in the affirmative, al-
though many of them avowed that, after the
exposition of the law as it stood, they had no
sort of question but the law fixed the mileage
at one hundred dollars in addition to the usual
mileage. That, I admit, is a very unequal
distribution of the mileage. But it Is the
law. And those who think they ought not
to take the money can leave it in the treasury,
where it .ought to be left. I trust they
will not withdraw it from the treasury,
and then bolster up a character for charity by
giving it to somebody else. The committee
on accounts, as I understand, are embarrassed
to know what the law is in reference to mile-
age, and they want the instruction of the
house upon the question. The house must
either say that the committee shall disregard
this part of the law fixing the mileage, and
act as if it did not exist; or else they must af-
firm this to be a part of the law regulating
mileage, and instruct the committee on ac-
counts accordingly. The committee certainly
ought to have some expression of the opinion
of the house upon this subject. I shall there-
fore vote for the reconsideration, in order
that we may have an opportunity of fixing
what the committee on accounts shall regard
as the mileage of members. I vote "aye."
Mr. SCHLEY. This appeal to the cupidity
of members, for I regard this proposition in
no other light, has been solemnly decided ad-
versely three times by this convention. I had
hoped that there was an end to it. I had
hoped that we had arrived at something like
a definite decision of this matter. I had hoped
that the temptation to appropriate this money
would be finally resisted. I was very much
surprised last night to hear it laid down as
law, by gentlemen learned in the law, that
we bad a clear right to this appropriation.—
With all deference to their arguments, and 1
do defer to gentlemen of the law, I must in-
sist that it is at least not just to take this |
