meat of Mr. Stirling, and being taken, the
amendment was agreed to.
Mr. CLARKE. I move to further amend this
article by adding these words :
"And no other oath or qualification of
voting ought to be required as a condition of
the exercise of elective franchise, than such
oath or qualification as may be prescribed by
this Constitution."
Mr. RIDGELY. That is hardly germain to
the article under consideration, which relates
to oaths of office.
Mr. CLARKE. We are upon the question of
test oaths and qualifications—
Mr. RIDGELY. For office.
Mr. CLARKE. It may be a question whether
the subject under consideration is one of test
oaths and qualifications, or the one of hold-
ing office. It may be considered that this ar-
ticle 36, relates to tests and qualifications in
respect to one thing, and I propose to extend
it to another. However, if gentlemen prefer
to pass it over now, I will not press my
amendment, but will withdraw it, and pre-
sent it at another time, perhaps as an inde-
pendent article.
The amendment wag accordingly with-
drawn.
No further amendment was offered to arti-
cle 36.
RELIGIOUS BEQUESTS, &C.
Article 37 was then read as follows:
" That every gift, sale or devise of land, to
any minister, public teacher or preacher of
the gospel, as such, or to any religious sect,
order or denomination, or to or for the sup-
port, use or benefit of, or in trust for any
minister, public teacher or preacher of the
gospel as such, or any religious sect, order or
denomination, and every gift or sale of goods
or chattels to go in succession, or to take
place after the death of the seller or donor,
to or for such support, use or benefit; and
also, every devise of goods or chattels, to or
for the support, use or benefit of any minis-
ter, public teacher or preacher of the gospel,
as such; or any religious sect, order de-
nomination, without the leave of the Legis-
lature, shall be void; except always, any
sale, gift, lease or devise of any quantity of
land not exceeding five acres, for a church,
meeting house or other house of worship, or
parsonage, or for a burying ground, which
shall be improved, enjoyed or used only for
such purpose; or such sale, gift, lease or de-
vise shall be void."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE, I move to strike out
this article altogether.
Mr. CLARKE. And restore mortmain ?
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. And restore anything.
This article is a part of the original Declaration
of Rights of 1776, and was incorporated
in the bill of rights at that time, I presume,
under the impression that some danger might
arise from the establishment of large church
establishments in this State. If there ever |
was any such danger, the time has certainly
long passed when there was anything to be
apprehended from that source. The chief
practical effect of such a provision at this
time is to prevent the enjoyment of small
gifts and small legacies by those for whom
they were intended; and to prevent a person
from disposing of his property by will or
gift, as he may see fit to dispose of it. I do
not know that we have had a session of the
legislature for a long time, that there have
not been applications, and special laws passed
to authorize gifts of this kind. And I do not
think there ever has been any objection raised
to granting the application, except perhaps
technical objections; I think the Legislature
has always granted it, where they found it
possible to do so. Sometimes between the
making of the will and the making the ap-
plication to the Legislature, rights of heirs
have attached, and it has become impossible
to give effect to the purpose of the testator.
Seeing no harm in striking out this article,
but much inconvenience resulting from re-
taining it, I hope the article will be stricken
out, so as to permit gifts to be made to the
small churches in the country.
Mr. MILLER. I hope this article will not
be stricken out. This article but carries out
the policy adopted in this country of making
divorce between the Church and State final
and eternal. The danger which this article
guards against, is a danger which had ex-
isted in England for many years, the dying
out of estates by what is called mortmain,
and giving them to church establishments,
and making those estates inalienable ever
after. The same danger exists here to-day
as existed there then. If you strike out this
article you will allow teachers of religion,
and especially those of a certain church, to
get around the death-beds of persons and in-
duce them to give their property to churches
and ministers of the gospel, and when it
shall once become vested in that church, it
will be inalienable for ever after. They will
hold on to it, be It ever so little, and go, to
work and get somebody else to give a little
more, until we shall have an overgrown es-
tablishment holding fast a large portion of
the property in this State. I am opposed to
any such tiling as that, and in order to pre-
vent it for all time to come, I am in favor of
retaining this article.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I will add but a few
words to what I said before. The object
which the gentleman from Anne Arundel
(Mr. Miller) proposes to accomplish, by re-
taining this article, almost always will fail
of being attained with this article in our
Declaration of Rights. It is very well un-
derstood by the persons to whom he refers
that such an article as this exists: but they
have ways of evading its operations, and it
is evaded every day. The chief hardship
falls upon the small churches; some obscure |
