the City Council of Baltimore. The Conven-
tion will now listen to that communication.
Mr. EVANS, chairman of the committee,
said: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the
Convention: We are here, as has already
been suggested, as a committee of both
branches of the City Council of Baltimore,
sent here for the purpose of presenting to this
body an invitation to transfer your sittings
to our city. It is comprised in a series of
resolutions which unanimously passed both
branches of the City Council, which I shall
have the honor of sending to the Chair. In
addition to that it is perhaps scarcely neces-
sary to make any statement: but I will observe
that both resolutions passed both branches
unanimously, receiving not merely a formal
but the hearty assent of every member of the
City Council. I am authorized to assure the
Convention that if they should think proper
to accept the invitation, they will find that
sort of welcome which a body of this kind is
entitled to receive from such a body as the
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. They
will be provided with a suitable hall, and
everything will be done to make them
comfortable and enable them to conduct the
deliberations which we hope will result so
much to the advantage of the State, in the
most efficient manner. I have now the honor
to send to the Chair the resolutions.
The resolutions were read as follows :
RESOLUTION OF INVITATION TO THE
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION TO TRANSFER
ITS SESSIONS FROM
ANNAPOLIS TO BALTIMORE.
Resolved by the Mayor and City Council of
Baltimore, That an invitation be extended to
the Constitutional Convention, now in session
at Annapolis, to transfer its sessions from
that city to Baltimore.
Besolved, That a joint committee of three
members from each Branch be appointed to
obtain a suitable hall and accommodations
for said Convention, without delay, and that
they be authorized and instructed to extend
as soon as a suitable place of meeting can be
engaged, an invitation to the Constitutional
Convention, to transfer its sessions to the city
of Baltimore, and to occupy the ball so pro-
vided, at the expense of the city.
COUNCIL CHAMBER,
Baltimore, April 29th, 1864.
We hereby certify that the foregoing is a
true copy of a resolution which was adopted
unanimously by the First and Second Branches
of the City Council of Baltimore, at their
session of this date.
ANDREW J. BANDELL,
Clerk First Branch.
WM. S. CROWLEY,
Clerk of the Second Branch.
The Convention proceeded to the considera-
tion of the following order, offered yesterday
by Mr. SCOTT :
WHEREAS, The City Council of Baltimore |
have tendered to this Convention, free of cost,
a Hall fur our sessions; therefore,
Ordered, That we accept their generous
offer, and adjourn to that city as soon as the
Convention are in receipt of information that
a suitable hall is ready for our reception.
Mr. MILLER. I am opposed to the adoption
of that order. I have heard no reason as-
signed by any member who has advocated its
passage why we should transfer the sittings
of this body to the city of Baltimore. It
seems to me that the question which this body
is called upon to determine for itself, is not
whether Baltimore city will be a more con-
venient place for members individually to
attend to their private business, or whether
it will furnish them with more facilities to
go to their homes, or whether it will be less
expensive to them in the way of board or ac-
commodation, or anything of that kind.
The question is whether Baltimore city, or
Annapolis the capital of the State, is the best
and most convenient place in which to do the
duty which the people sent us here to per-
form. Personal convenience or personal
emolument, whether we shall put into our
pockets the difference between the $5 per
diem granted by the bill under which we
have assembled and cur expenses, never en-
tered into the consideration of the people who
sent us here. It was a high public trust
which we were to assume, under the bill
which called us together, and the people who
sent us here supposed we would accept that
trust and go to the capital of the State and
there perform the duties which they entrusted
us to perform.
What does that law say? The third sec-
tion of it provides:
"That in case a majority of the ballots
cast shall be in favor of the call of a Con-
vention as aforesaid, then the said Convention
shall meet at the city of Annapolis on the
last Wednesday of April, in the year 1864,
and shall continue in session from day today
until the business for which said Convention
shall have been assembled shall be fully com-
pleted and finished."
When the people voted under that law, they
voted to send us here to the Capital of the
State, to meet here, and to continue our ses-
sions from day to day until the business for
which we were called together has been fully
completed and finished. It is in every way
fitting and proper that we should meet and
hold our sessions here. Why are we assem-
bled at this time? It is for the purpose of
framing a new Constitution, a new organic
law for the State of Maryland. What has
been the precedent in such cases? Our pre-
decessors in 1776 met here, in the State capital,
and continued their sessions, working
from early in the morning until late at night,
and framed and adopted here. in the Capital
of the State, a Constitution which lasted for
more than half a century. Our predecessors |
