Messrs. Goldsborough, President; Abbott,
Annan, Baker, Berry, of Baltimore county,
Berry, of Prince George's, Billingsley, Black-
iston, Bond, Briscoe, Brown, Clarke, Cunning-
ham, Cushing, Daniel, Davis, of Washing-
ton, Duvall, Earle, Ecker, Edelen, Farrow,
Galloway, Green, Harwood, Hebb, Hollyday,
Hopper, Horsey, Keefer, King, Lee, Marbury,
Markey, McComas, Mitchell, Miller, Morgan,
Mullikin, Murray, Negley, Nyman, Parker
Pugh, Purnell, Ridgely, Robinette, Russell,
Sands, Schley, Schlosser, Scott, Smith, of
Carroll, Smith, of Worcester, Sneary, Stir-
ling, Stockbridge, Sykes, Thruston, Turner
—59.
The Convention resumed the consideration
of the 23d article of the Declaration of
Rights, emancipating the slave's and abolish-
ing slavery in Maryland.
Mr. PUGH moved that the consideration of
the Declaration of Rights be postponed until
to-morrow at 10 o'clock, A. M.
The motion was rejected.
The amendment placed upon the journal by
Mr. Clarke was read, for information.
Mr. CLARKE. I will state that that propo-
sition was not offered by me as an amend-
ment, but was submilted as a proposition tor
the consideration of the Convention, which
at some proper time I thought might be of-
fered. I do not desire myself to offer it as an
amendment, as I learn it will be rejected,
coming from this side of the House.
There being no amendment pending, the
article was read.
Art. 23. That hereafter, in this State,
there shall be neither slavery nor involun-
tary 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 de-
clared free.
Mr. CLARKE said:
Mr. PRESIDENT. AEneas during the
gloomy hours of that sad night in which
Troy tell, after performing unexampled
prodigies of heroism, left the ill-fated city,
carrying his aged father upon his shoul-
ders, and leading his little son tenderly by
the hand. When just approaching the
shores of Italy, where he was to found a
splendid empire, the goddess Juno, cher-
ishing an undying resentment against him,
in the pride and majesty of her divine
nature, thus reasons: " Shall I who move
in state the queen of the gods, and am
both the sister and wife of Jove, wage
war for so many years with one nation ?
If I satiate nut my revenge, who any
longer will adore the divinity of Juno, or
as a suppliant honor the altars erected for
my worship ?" She seeks AEotia—the coun-
try of storms—where king AEolous governs |
the sighing winds and sonorous tempests,
and curbs them in chains and prison balls.
She invokes his aid to unfetter the force
of the tempest, and shipwreck this founder
of empire with all his companions. Ha
listens—he responds—he hearkens to her
commands. Forthwith the storm broods
darkly upon the sea, and—
"Una Eurusque, Notusque ruunt, creberque
procellis
Africus, ct vastos volvunt ad litora fluctus."
Presently AEneas shudders, and viewing
the possibility of meeting this inglorious
death, he groaned, and extending his sup-
pliant hands to sidereal realms, thus ad-
dresses the powers of the sky :
—" O terque, quaterque beati
Queis ante ora pateum, Trojae sub moruibus
altis
Contigit oppetere ! O !Danaum fortissime
gentis
Yydide, mene Iliacis occumbere campis
Non potuisse, tuaque animam hauc effundere
dextra ?
Salvus ubi AEcidae telo jacet Hector ubi in-
gens
Sarpedon: ubi tot Siniois correpta sub undis
Scuta virum, galeas que, et lortia corpora
volvit."
Mr. President, when I review the past
history of the United States, and see
how the Mighty One who inhabiteth Eter-
nity has carried the people of the several
States safely through the trials of the Rev-
olutionary struggle—through the difficul-
ties which attended the days of the Con-
federation—through the party struggles
of Federalism against Republicanism—
through the war of 1812—through the
agitations which ended in 1820 in the
adoption of the Missouri Compromise—
through the dark days of South Carolina
Nullification—through victory and glori-
ous conquest in the Mexican war—through
the terribly threatening agitations which
preceded the adoption of the Compromise
measures of 1850—and at last appeared
to vouchsafe, by the annunciation of the
Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court
as the basis of settlement of a lung vexed
question, a final and lasting peace to
this favored land—when I review all these
periods of national salvation, and at a time
when everything promised such a future
of glorious progress, and such a reign of
uninterrupted freedom under the folds of
the Constitution, I suddenly behold this
splendid fabric of governmental structure
reel and rend asunder in civil war—broth- |
