First—The undersigned recommend, instead
of the 40th section of the majority report,
the adoption of the following section, viz :—
The General Assembly shall have power to
pass such laws, and make such appropria-
tions, as may be necessary to compensate
owners of such slaves asshall be emancipated
from servitude by the adoption of this Constitution.
The undersigned also differ with the ma-
jority, as to the propriety of adopting the
46th and 47th sections as reported, and they
recommend that those sections be rejected.
Respectfully submitted,
GEO. J, HOLLYDAY,
W. H. GALE,
JOHN TURNER.
Read the first time, and ordered to be
printed.
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS—EMANCIPATION.
The Convention then resumed the consid-
eration of the order of the day, being the re-
port of the Committee on the Declaration of
Rights, which was on its second reading,
The 23d article was under consideration,
being as follows:
"That hereafter, in this State, there shall
be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except in punishment of crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted; and
all persons held to service or labor as slaves
are hereby declared free."
Mr. MARBURY. Mr. President, the time,
the place, and the object for which this Con-
vention assembled, afford ample scope for
philosophizing on the vicissitudes of fortune,
which spares neither man nor the proudest of
his works, which buries empires and cities in
a common grave. The time was when this
now ancient commonwealth was the hunting
ground of the Indian, and commerce and
manufactures and all the arts and advantages
of civilization would have been then looked
upon as innovations upon the rights of man.
Civilization came; behold the change. Beau-
tiful cities and towns have grown up in the
wilderness. The hum of business is heard all
around. Refining influences are gathered
about the hearthstone. The temples of God
point their spires toward Heaven, where the
people have been accustomed from time im-
memorial to pray to God for civil and reli-
gious liberty. Now, when we look upon
these mighty changes that have taken place
from the early history of the country, when
we consider all the great improvements that
have been made in art, in science, in agricul-
ture, when we consider that at this time we
are brought together here in Convention for
the purpose of legislating for the general weal
of the State, it becomes us, it seems to me, as
sensible men not to disregard the history of
the past in making bistory for the future.
And not only does the time, not only do the
improvements and operations of the past re- |
quire that we search history to ascertain the
operations of the past policy of the govern-
ment before we act upon this question; but
the place where we are gathered together
should be considered by us also, for it is of
vital importance in the determination of this
question; and not only that, but the object for
which this Convention ought to have assem-
bled, if not the object for which it has assem-
bled, is another matter of vital consideration,
of paramount importance.
Why, sir, look at the position of the State
of Maryland. I mean not only her social,
moral, intellectual, and physical condition ;
but look at her geographical position. Situ-
ated in the very centre of the old Union, she
has been very appropriately called the heart
of the Confederacy; and every pulsation of
her heart in all time past has been for the
glory and the general prosperity of this
country. She has been guided in her policy,
in her acts of statesmanship, by no obsequi-
ous truckling to power in any shape or form.
She has in all times past considered the honor,
the dignity, the prosperity of every State in
this Union as partially within her keeping.
And she has scorned every aspersion upon the
honor, the character, the interests, and the
position of every State in this Union. Removed
from the influences of the two extremes of the
country, removed from the influence of the
fanaticism of New England, and from the in-
fluence of the extreme fire-eaters of the South,
it has been her pride to receive as her charter
the Constitution of the United States, and
that Constitution alone—a Constitution de-
claring the equality of the States. The place
then, the geographical position of Maryland,
is such that in approaching the discussion of
these vital questions—questions which have
divided parties from the foundation of the
government down to the present day, and
which have always been settled by gaining
the influence and support of one section,
either through interested or other motives
equally selfish—in approaching the discussion
of these questions we must consider the fact
that a State which occupies the position
which the State of Maryland does at the pre-
sent time, surrounding the capital of the
country, is a State not to be rudely and roughly
treated in the present condition of the coun-
try. Her past history does not justify it;
her present position will not permit it.
Would you have congregated in your
cities, as now about Washington; would you
have upon every thoroughfare in your State
vast armies of paupers, men, women, and
children, thrown upon the cold charities of
the world without any sort of provision for
their future welfare? Would you plant in
the bosoms of all that host an eternal bate,
which time might to some extent ameliorate,
but which time never could extinguish? If
yon would have the affection of the people of
the State of Maryland, if yon would have her |
