Mr. CHAMBERS. Then I give that notice.
And if there be any member of the Conven-
tion on either side of the house who would
desire to address the Convention upon this
subject, it would rather be a relief to me than
an interruption to have the gentleman indulge
his wish at the present moment. I have been
indisposed for some time past, and hardly feel
in a condition to address this body. [A
pause.] in the absence of any purpose on
the part of any gentleman here to address
them, I must ask the indulgence of the Con-
vention until the arrival of a page that I
have sent to my rooms to get what few pa-
pers I have upon this subject
Mr. BRISCOE. Mr. President, I feel that in
offering to substitute myself in the stead of
the gentleman from Kent, (Mr. Chambers,)
even tor a very short time, and thereby obtrude
my remarks upon the attention of this Con-
vention, I am placing myself in a very deli-
cate position. Notwithstanding that, if I
am permitted to proceed, I will say a very few
words in advocacy of the amendment which
I have offered, and which is now pending be-
fore this body.
It seems to me that this is a question of
very great importance. Inlooking back upon
the course of argument that gentlemen have
pursued upon this subject; taking the range
of the whole political history of the country ;
discussing the merits of the men who are now
administering this government; discussing
the causes that produced the present civil
war; examining the circumstances that have
given rise to it; we are very clearly travel-
ling out of the legitimate range of the subject
before the Convention, and going into the
consideration of questions not pertinent to it.
If we enter upon a review of the acts of the
Legislature of Maryland at Frederick, it must
be seen that it will open up so wide a field of
debate that it becomes really a matter of some
difficulty for one addressing the Convention,
at this stage of the argument, to know how
to progress with the subject before us. Any
of us who will look to the times and circum-
stances upon us, who will look to the occur-
rences in the history of our country for the
last few years, and consider the actual con-
dition of the public mind even upon the ques-
tion oof calling this very Convention, will feel
but little encouraged to address himself to
a question of grave constitutional character
I believe it has come to be generally con-
sidered that the word "Constitution" con-
veys almost an obsolete idea. It has been said
by somebody that it is a word more talked
about and less understood than any other
word in the English language. I have thought
so, too, and would therefore approach the sub-
ject under any circumstances with very great
diffidence, indeed, Mr. President, it was de-
clared in the Senate of the United States, by
a man occupying a very high position in this
country, a few months ago in discussing the
33 |
relative powers of the Government of the
United States and the powers of the State
Governments, that he felt ashamed to men-
tion the word "Constitution." It had be-
come a word of derision. I refer to no less a
man than Mr. Collamer, a Senator from the
State of Vermont, a man who holds a very
high position, for his literary and political at-
tainments, as a statesman in this country. I
ask then with what encouragement can we
approach the discussion of this question, when
in the Senate of the United States, even one
of the high priests of the party represented
by the majority upon this floor, felt con-
strained to use such expressions as these: " I
do not wish to occupy the time of the Sen-
ate," said Mr. Collamer, "by making any
remarks about the Constitution of the United
States. I think it a subject almost of derision
here—with many gentleman it is an object of
derision. As it is so in a great measure, and
a man is sneered at for mentioning the Con-
stitution, and if he has a decent respect for
it and for his own oath, he is called a ' timid
man.' I do not wish to take up much of the
attention of a body where such a subject is
treated in such a manner." When our pub-
lic men at the bead of the Government so
speak, will we not hesitate here and feel hu-
miliated for our country?
When I first moved to amend this article
by striking out the word "paramount," I
did not expect that the discussion upon it in
this body would have taken this wide and ex-
tended range. It is true, I had some precon-
ceived ideas of the kind of government we had
lived under in the State of Maryland. I had
turned to the Declaration of Rights under
which we had lived, but had found no article
therein partaking of the character of the one
here proposed, I had also looked to the Con-
stitution of the United States. I had been
taught to believe, and had so acted in my
political career in the past, that the Constitu-
tion of the United States, and the laws of
Congress passed in pursuance thereof, and all
treaties made under the authority of the Uni-
ted States, were the supreme law of the land.
I had further found that the State of Mary-
land, in defining what the rights of her people
were, had said in the second article of this bill
of rights, which article this Convention has
already adopted, that the people of this State
ought to have the sole and exclusive right of
regulating the internal government and police
thereof.
Now, when this novel proposition came be-
fore this Convention, it seemed to me that, if
we determined to adopt it, it would tend in
all time to come, so far as the legislation of
the Federal Government could affect the fu-
ture administration of the affairs of this State,
to encourage the exercise of those broad and
enlarged powers of the Government of the
United States, which I believe has been the
Pandora's box whence have issued all the |
