of my friend, the chairman of this com-
mittee (Mr. Schley,) will be met by this
amendment, because the first session, like all
other sessions, will be wholly unrestrained as
to time. The public will have an oppor-
tunity of approaching the Legislature more
frequently and more opportunely. The rules
which my friend from Baltimore city (Mr.
Stockbridge) desires to apply to the Legis-
lature, so as to limit the period of the intro-
duction of business, can be provided for by the
rules of the House of Delegates, as they are now
by the rules of the House of Representatives.
The Legislature can fix its own rules to regu-
late and govern its business, as to the period
within which it will permit new business to
be introduced. For these reasons I shall vote
against both those amendments, and at the
proper time, I will offer the amendment I
have rend to the Convention.
Mr. CUSHING. I shall vote against the
amendments offered to this section; first, be-
cause I am opposed to unlimited sessions of
the General Assembly. I think that un-
limited sessions have a tendency to produce
upon the minds of members of both houses
a neglect, for a long time after they are as-
sembled, of the business that is before them
I think it has been demonstrated to every
member of this Convention that unlimited
sessions are not favorable to the disposing of
work. I shall vote against the amendment
limiting the introduction of business, because
I do not think this is the section in which
that would properly be placed; but I propose,
when the 16th section shall be under consid-
eration, to offer the following amendment:
Strike out all after "other" in line 3d,
and insert the following; "No new business
shall be introduced in either House after
March 1st, except said business be reported
by ajoint committee of both houses."
By that means you will avoid cutting off
citizens of the State who may have important
interests to present to the consideration of
the Legislature, which interests may not have
been developed previous to the 20th of Feb-
ruary, or until near the end of the session
It their business is sufficiently important to be
presented to tine consideration of the two houses
by a report from a joint committee, it may
be acted upon; but unless there is some spe
cial reason for the consideration of that busi-
ness, or unless the General Assembly is dis-
posed to consider it, there will be no report
upon it by a joint committee, while by that
means you avoid cutting off citizens of the State
who may desire to present their wants to the
General Assembly, yon at the same time
prevent the great evil of all legislation, un-
limited sessions of a legislative body.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I think a little expe-
rience would satisfy that gentleman, as it has
every one who has had experience, that it is
not cutting off the citizens of the State from
an opportunity to present their business before |
the Legislature, which is the danger to be
feared. Those who have business to come
before the Legislature know it so soon that
the difference of time between the 20th of Feb-
ruary and the 1st of March is not appreciable.
The great difficulty is, as will appear when we
come to another article, that these private
matters override and crowd cut the public
business. Gentlemen who have ever been
in Annapolis when the Legislature is in
session, know that a perfect avalanche is
thrown upon the Legislature by some great
private interest to get it through before the
session adjourns; so that you can hardly pass
through the rotunda to reach your place in
the Hall. It is the constant importunity of
these men, made at, every point, which so
operates upon the minds of many men, that
in attending to their private business, they
utterly neglect the great public business, and
they pass upon that private business as the
only means, on the part of legislators, of rid-
ding themselves of the importunity,
The question really before us is; How can
we best secure the attention of the Legisla-
ture to the great public interests that come
before it? Usually it happens, especially
with those who are not very familiar with the
process, that ingetting measures through the
Legislature, the applications come in early
in the session, and they get an early position
on the calendar. If dealt with favorably by the
committees they are reported in the very ear-
liest days of the session, and come up in their
regular order, and are acted upon one way or
the other. Then those great public mea-
sures, which have no special engineer to pre-
pare them and urge them on, are taken up on
the motion of some gentleman whose public
spirit has led him to take the pains lo prepare
them and to bring them before the committees :
and these will come in about the middle of
the session, seldom earlier than that. There
is another class of men who, with an adroit-
ness not possessed by the first class, prepare
and digest their measures and come here
when the rush begins to come, towards the
close of the session, calculating that then
they can smuggle their measures through,
and get them acted upon by members with-
out their knowing upon what they are acting.
It often happens that men vote "aye" or
"no" upon important bills, without even
knowing the title of the bill. I have seen
measures of the most vital importance, inter-
esting certain sections . of this State, pre-
sented here at a late day of the session with
such a lobby influence thrown around them
that no member could be free wherever he
went, from the lobby agents of these great
private interests, who were as thick as the
frogs in Egypt in the olden time; and they
crowded out other business, so that fifty or
one hundred important bills, carefully di-
gested in committee, or sent from the
other house, were left over upon the |
