property without it becomes absolutely ne-
cessary to maintain your institutions? Had
you not just as well take my life? My life
and my property are held equally sacred un-
der the laws.
The PRESIDENT. The time of the gentle-
man has expired.
Mr. BERRY, of Baltimore county. I move
that the gentleman's time be extended.
Mr. DANIEL. I move to limit the extension
to fifteen minutes.
Mr. BERRY, of Baltimore county. I accept
that.
Mr. MILLER. I hope no limit will be put upon
the gentleman's time, but that the precedent
set in the case of the gentleman from Cecil
(Mr. Scott) will be followed, and that the
gentleman will be allowed to go on and finish
his speech.
Mr. ABBOTT. The gentleman from Cecil
(Mr. Scott) did not use over fifteen minutes.
Mr. DANIEL. Others of us upon this floor
have been confined to that limit, and as the
appeal is upon the ground of courtesy, I may
say that we have allowed one of the gentle-
men from Prince George's (Mr. Clarke) about
three hours for one speech and two hours and
a half for another.
Mr. CLARKE. I beg the gentleman's par-
don; not quite two hours. I commenced at
twenty minutes after eight o'clock, and con-
cluded a few minutes, before ten o'clock.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. There
seems to be no disposition on the part of
the Convention to extend tome this courtesy.
Mr. SANDS. I trust the gentleman from
Prince George's (Mr. Berry) will not take
this as any mark of discourtesy. I at least
do not oppose any motion to give any amount
of time to him or to any other gentleman,
because I wish to be discourteous to him.
But there are a large number of gentlemen
here who wish to be heard, and our time is
limited. I hope the gentleman will under-
stand this, and not think us discourteous, we
certainly do not mean it in that way,
The question was taken upon, extending
the time for fifteen minutes, and it was
agreed to.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. I am very
sorry indeed to trespass for so long a time
upon the attention of this Convention. But
I was induced to do so, supposing that the
members of the Convention desired that every-
thing that could be said in the way of argu-
ment as peculiarly applicable to this ques-
tion, should be heard by the Convention from
any of its members I shall, however, abridge
my remarks, and try to conclude what I
have to say within the fifteen minutes.
I ask the question, whether the gentlemen
on the other side have either precedent or
law for this proposed action against slavery ?
I deny that they have either precedent or
law. They do not propose to do it under the
war power. The General Government has |
the right to take slaves under, the war power,
but they in that case are taken as property,
and they should take only those who are ca-
pable of bearing arms.
Many gentlemen have said we must look to
the General Government for compensation
for servants liberated under the action of this
Convention. Now, is there any reason in
this? If they are liberated by this Conven-
tion, which I denounce as an outrage against
our rights, the State will be responsible to
the owners, and for those freed by any action
of the General Government the General Gov-
ernment is responsible; but responsible to
whom? responsible to the individual citizen.
No, but they are responsible for all they have
taken under the war power, to the master,
through the Government of the State of Ma-
ryland. The Governor of this State has
sworn to support the Constitution and laws
of this State, and he is bound to protect the
rights and interests of every citizen, even if
it requires the whole force of the State to do
so. He is required to pursue the same course
for the protection of the citizen of the State,
that the General Government is required to
afford any citizen of any State when in a
foreign country. But will they pretend to
say that the Government of the United States
is responsible for the slaves liberated by this
Convention? Has the Government of the
United States anything to do with the ac-
tion of this Convention? If it has, I would
like very much to know it, because I might
then understand this pandering to popular
opinion; this crouching at the feet of the
powers that be; this seeking to lower the
standard of true citizenship; this disposition
to bow at the feet of the President.
The PRESIDENT. The Chair must say to
the gentleman from Prince George's (Mr.
Berry) that he is rather transcending the
rules in thus reflecting upon the members of
this Convention.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. I did not
suppose I was transcending the rules. I did.
not intend to do so. I use strong language
because I feel that this is an important ques-
tion, and one that should be heard and dis-
cussed in plain language. I do not mean to
offend gentlemen. I cannot control their
actions here, and do not propose to do it If
I were to speak here for a week: and could
bring to bear all the wisdom of Solomon, I
could not inspire your minds with my stan-
dard of patriotism, or a spirit in which you
would listen to and receive those teachings
in the spirit in which I give them, nor do
I suppose that a vote would be changed. But,
as one of the gentlemen said yesterday, I in-
tend to put myself right on the record.
Then, I say, do you suppose the General
Government can be looked to to pay us for the
negroes now held by their owners? The
General Government has taken a large number
of them for military purposes, or under |
