Mr. BAKER moved to amend by substituting
Tuesday.
Mr. VALLIANT. I hope that will not be
adopted, for it will not accommodate more
than half the members of the Convention.
If we are to adjourn for the accommodation
of the Convention, I think we ought to
adjourn to-day. A very large number of
gentlemen composing this Convention are
farmers, and we adjourn now because the
Whitsuntide holidays are so near at hand,
and it is desirable that those engaged in
agricultural pursuits should be at home at
least one day during those holidays, if we
adjourn until Tuesday gentlemen must take
up Monday, the first day of the holidays in
coming here, so that they will spend none of
the holidays at home. I hope gentlemen will see
the propriety of adopting the order as it stands.
Mr. KENNARD. I do not think we are now
prepared to act on adjournment, and I suggest
that the subject of adjournment to a day certain
be postponed until we have finished the busi-
ness of the day, and then we shall be better
able to determine to what day we shall ad-
journ. I move the following amendment :
Ordered, That the subject of adjournment
to a day certain be postponed until after the
regular business of the day shall have passed.
Mr. BERRY of Baltimore county. How are
we to know that the regular business of the
day has passed? We cannot know this until we
shall have adjourned, and then of course it
will be too late to act upon this subject.
Mr. NEGLEY. I shall vote for the proposi-
tion; but really this is too indefinite, for
there does not seem to be any regular business
before the Convention.
The amendment submitted by Mr. KENNARD
was rejected.
The question recurred upon the original
order, that containing the longest time.
Mr. HEBB demanded the yeas and nays, and
they were ordered.
The question being taken, the result was—
yeas 44; nays 37— as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Harwood, Bond, Henkle,
Brooks, Barron, Berry of Baltimore county
Ridgely, King, Larsh, Swope, Jones of Cecil,
Turner, Edelen, Mitchell, Todd, Dail, John-
son, Smith of Dorchester, Markey, Cunning-
ham, Schlosser, Hopkins, Sands, Sykes,
Chambers, Blackiston, Hollyday, Landsdale,
Peter, Duval, Clarke, Belt Marbury, Lee,
Brown, Wilmer, Morgan, Jones of Somerset,
Crawford, Horsey, Valliant, Mayhugh, Davis,
Sneary—44.
Nays—Messrs. Goldsborough, President;
Hebb, Thruston, Wickard, Robinette, Miller,
Kennard, Stockbridge, Stirling, Daniel, Ab-
bott, Cushing, Thomas, Parker, Smith of
Carroll, Ecker, Wooden, Earle, Scott, Pugh,
Davis of Charles, Carter, Noble, Keefer,
Schley, Annan, Baker, Galloway, McComas
Hopper, Russell, Mullikin, Nyman, Negley,
Smith of Worcester, Purnell, Murray—37. |
So the order was agreed to.
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
Mr. STIRLING, from the majority of the
Committee on the Declaration of Rights, sub-
mitted the following report, which was read:
THE DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
We, the people of the State of Maryland,
grateful to Almighty God for our civil and
religious liberty, and taking into our serious
consideration the best means of establishing
a good Constitution in this State for the sure
foundation and more permanent security
thereof, declare:
Article 1. That all government of right
originates from the people, is founded in
compact only, and instituted solely for the
good of the whole; and they have at all
times the inalienable right to alter, reformer
abolish their form of government in such
manner as they may deem expedient,
Art. 2. That the people of this State ought
to have the sole and exclusive right of regu-
lating the internal government and police
thereof.
Art. 3. That the inhabitants of Maryland
are entitled to the common law of England,
and the trial byjury according to the course
of that law, and to the benefit, of such of the
English statutes as existed on the fourth day
of July, seventeen hundred and seventy-six,
and which by experience, have been found
applicable to their local and other circum-
stances, and have been introduced, used and
practiced by the courts of law or equity, and
also of Acts of Assembly in force on the first
day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-four,
except such as may have since expired or may
be inconsistent with the provisions of this
Constitution, subject, nevertheless, to the re-
vision of and amendment or repeal by the
Legislature of this State; and the inhabitants
of Maryland are also entitled to all property
derived to them from or under the charter
granted by his Majesty, Charles the First, to
Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore.
Art. 4. The Constitution of the United
States and the laws made in pursuance there-
of being the supreme law of the land, every
citizen of this State owes paramount allegiance
to the Constitution and Government of the
United States, and is not bound by any law
or ordinance of this State in contravention or
subversion thereof.
Art. 5. That all persons invested with the
Legislative or Executive powers of govern-
ment are the trustees of the public, and as
such, accountable for their conduct; where-
fore, whenever the ends of the Government
are perverted, and public liberty manifestly
endangered, and all other means of redress
are ineffectual, the people may and of right
ought to reform the old or establish a new
Government. The doctrine of non-resistance
against arbitrary power and oppression is
absurd; slavish and destructive of the good
and happiness of mankind. |
