who have had opportunities to put them-
selves upon the record and to give the rea-
son.; which induced them to vote for or
against certain propositions that have already
been before the Convention, should allow
the same privilege to other gentlemen who
have not had that chance. Now, this order
of my colleague (Mr. Abbott) cuts off entire-
ly those members who have not spoken upon
these questions, from giving the views which
they entertain and which they may desire to
have put upon record. I do not think it is
fair or just that this should be done. I do
not think that when the Legislature provid-
ed a short-hand reporter for this Convention
they intended that that reporter should take
down the remarks of a few gentlemen and
not the remarks of all others who desire to
speak upon any subject. I do not think that
reporter is exclusively their property or the
property of any one member of this Conven-
tion. I, for one, am opposed to the adop-
tion of this order.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE called for a division of
the question,
The question was accordingly stated to be
upon the first branch of the order, limiting
the time for debate to fifteen minutes for each
member.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM moved to amend by strik-
ing out the word " fifteen" and inserting the
word "thirty" so as to allow a member
thirty minutes for debating a question.
Mr. CHAMBERS moved to lay the whole sub-
ject upon the table.
Upon this question, Mr. STIRLING called for
the yeas and nays, which were ordered.
The question being then taken, by yeas
and nays, upon the motion to lay upon the
table, it resulted—yeas 19, nays 39—as fol-
lows :
Yeas—Messrs. Goldsborough, President ;
Audoun, Belt, Bond, Briscoe, Brooks, Brown,
Chambers, Clarke, Dent, Edelen, Hollyday,
Lansdale, Larsh, Miller, Morgan, Parker,
Peter, Thomas—19.
Nays—Messrs. Abbott, Annan, Baker,
Carter, Cunningham, Cushing, Daniel, Davis,
of Washington, Earle, Ecker, Galloway,
Hatch, Hebb, Hopkins, Hopper, Jones, of
Cecil, Keefer, McComas, Mullikin, Murray,
Noble, Nyman, Pugh, Purnell, Ridgely, Rus-
sell, Sands, Schley, Schlosser, Scott, Smith,
of Carroll, Sneary, Stirling, Stockbridge,
Swope, Sykes, Todd, Wickard, Wooden—39,
The motion to lay on the table was accord-
ingly rejected.
The question then recurred upon the
amendment of Mr. CUNNINGHAM to strike out
"fifteen" and insert " thirty."
Mr. THOMAS. I offer the following as an
amendment to the amendment :
" On all questions connected with, the sub-
jects of representation and State compensa-
tion, every member who desire? to speak
shall be allowed one hour to address the
Convention." |
Mr. HEBB. Is that in order as an amend-
ment to the amendment ?
The PRESIDENT. The Chair is of opinion
that it is not germain to the pending propo-
sition.
Mr. CHAMBERS. The proposition of the
gentleman from Baltimore city (Mr. Thomas)
is simply an amendment to the amendment
offered to the original proposition. The
original proposition was to limit debate on
all subjects to fifteen minutes. An amend-
ment is proposed to that to allow debate on
all subjects to the extent of thirty minutes
for each member. The gentleman from Bal-
timore city (Mr. Thomas) proposes to amend
the amendment by allowing each member,
who desires to speak, one hour on the two
subjects embraced in his proposition, while
on all other questions debate shall be limited
to fifteen or thirty minutes as the Conven-
tion may determine. It seems to me that his
I proposition is perfectly germain.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I would suggest that
the amendment proposed by my colleague is
rather an amendment to the original propo-
sition than an amendment to the amendment
of the gentleman from Frederick (Mr. Cun-
ningham.)
The PRESIDENT. The gentleman is correct.
The question will first be taken upon the
amendment of the gentleman from Frederick.
The question being then taken upon the
amendment of Mr. CUNNINGHAM to strike out
the word "fifteen" and insert the word
" thirty," it was agreed to upon a division,
ayes 33, noes 22.
The question then recurred upon the
amendment of Mr. THOMAS, to add to the first
branch of the order submitted by Mr. AB-
BOTT, the following:
"On all questions connected with the sub-
jects of representation and State compensa-
tion, every member who desires to speak
shall be allowed one hour to address the
Convention."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I would suggest to my
colleague that his amendment as it now reads
does not fully express what he designs to ac-
complish. As it now reads it would seem to
allow one hour on all questions except those
connected with representation and .State
compensation.
Mr. THOMAS modified his amendment so as
to read as follows :
''Except on all questions connected with
the subjects of representation and State com-
pensation, upon which every member who
desires to speak shall be allowed one hour to
address the Convention."
Mr. BOND. There is another subject which
I think will claim at the hands of this Con-
vention as much deliberation and will call
for as much discussion as the subjects named
in the amendment of the gentleman from
Baltimore city (Mr. Thomas,) that is, the
subject of the judiciary. I know, and we all |
