taining the office if he is defeated. I hold
that if a man wishes to be elected to the
Legislature, if he holds an office of profit, or
profit and trust, he must strip himself of
that before he asks the people for their votes
I am therefore opposed to the amendment
Mr. BELT. Let me suggest a practical
difficulty. The section now reads :
"No personal holding any civil office of
profit, or profit and trust, under this State,
except justices of the peace, shall beeligible
to the office of senator or delegate."
Take the case of a senator or delegate
himself. Under a proper construction of
that clause is any member of either house
eligible unless he resigns ?
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. The remark of the
gentleman from Prince George's (Mr. Belt)
covers precisely the point to which I was
about to refer. In many other offices the
same thing occurs. A gentleman is State's
Attorney, his term of office to expire after
the election takes place. Is he eligible for
another term? The amendment of my friend
does not perhaps quite cover the difficulty.
It provides that he shall resign. Is it not
sufficient if the office becomes vacant? Does
not his amendment need a slight modifi-
cation to cover the purpose intended?
Mr. MILLER. As to the difficulty suggested
by the gentleman last up, the same provision
has existed in the old Constitution down to
this time, and the point never was started
before.
Mr. STIRLING I believe the gentleman is
correct about the fact that this construction
has not been placed upon it. Gentlemen
have been re-elected to various offices time
and time again, when the term of his
office has expired after the election but be-
fore he is qualified. You will recollect, Mr.
President, that your namesake, Charles
Goldsborough, was a senator here at the
time he was elected. I certainly have no
right to hold any seat here under that con-
struction; but I do not think that construc-
tion was ever placed upon it.
Mr. MILLER. I never heard such a con-
struction placed upon it; and it is precisely
the language in the present Constitution
of the State. I think the only class of per-
sons lo whom this applies is persons who
hold other civil appointments, such as a judge
upon the bench, or office of profit and trust
under the Constitution and laws of the State.
It docs not mean a candidate fur re election,
because in most of the provisions of the Con-
stitution, as in the case of the office of Comp-
troller, State's Attorney, and such other
offices, it expressly provides that the incum-
bent shall be re-eligible to the office. The
difficulty therefore in that respect is got rid
of. This is only for the purpose of preventing
a man who desires an office entirely different
from the office which he holds, and to which
under the Constitution he is re-eligible, from |
retaining his office while a candidate for the
other.
The amendment was rejected.
No further amendments being offered to
section 9,
Sections 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 were read,
and no amendment offered.
Section 15 was read as follows :
"Section 15. The style of all laws of this
State shall be, 'Be it enacted by the General
Assembly of Maryland,' and all laws shall
be passed by original bill; and every law
enacted by the General Assembly shall em-
brace but one subject, and that shall be de-
scribed in the title, and no law or section of
law shall be revived, amended or repealed by
reference to its title or section only; and it
shall be the duty of the General Assembly in
amending any article or section of the Code
of Laws of this State, to enact the same as
the said article or section would read when
amended; and whenever the General As-
sembly shall enact any Public General Law,
not amendatory of any section or article in
the said Code it shall be the duty of the Gen-
eral Assembly, to enact the same in articles
and sections, in the same manner as the said
Code is arranged, and to provide fur the pub-
lication of all additions and alterations
which may be made to the said Code.''
Mr. MILLER moved to strike out the words
''or repealed" and to insert "or" before
"amended," so that the clause should read:
"No law or section of law shall be revived
or amended by reference to its title or section
only."
Mr. MILLER said: I wish to leave it in the
power of the Legislature to repeal a law by
reference to the title or section only; so that
the provision may apply only to cases where
a law is amended or revived having once ex-
isted and expired by lapse of time. Most of the
laws to which this will apply will be local laws.
Our system of codification is such that when-
ever a clause of the Code is touched it comes
under a different provision of this section.
Under the existing provision of the Consti-
tution when you want to repeal a law, a
merely local law, you must recite not only
its title but all the provisions of the law,
which I think is useless in a repeating act.
No quorum voting, the Sergeant-at-Arms
was sent out after absent members.
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. BELT submitted the following amend-
ment;
Section 15, add the words: " And it shall
be the duty of the General Assembly, at every
regular session, to provide by law for the pub-
lication of a new edition of the Code of
Public General Laws, which shall embrace all
the alterations made in the same by law up
to the time of such publication."
Mr. BELT said: The object I desire to ac-
complish by this amendment is the same in-
dicated by the order which the Convention |
