bly, " and that will exclude any office coming
from the executive, the general assembly, or
the people.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. It is not in order to
propose more than one amendment at a time.
or I should have proposed more than I did
propose, I did design, if the pending amend-
ment was adopted, to propose a farther amend-
ment. It seems to me that the amendment
which I have proposed accomplishes precisely
the object which I had in view. That is,
that no senator or delegate shall, during the
time for which he was elected, hold any office
which may be created, or the compensation
of which may be modified while be was such
senator or delegate; nor shall he, so long as
he may be such senator or delegate, hold
any other office whatever. If he desires to
hold any other office which has not been
created during bin term, and which he had
no hand in originating, then he must resign
his position as senator or delegate, to re-
move the difficulty, just as in the case to
which my friend has referred. Had this
amendment been incorporated in the present
Constitution, then the moment that person
resigned, he was clearly competent to accept
that appointment. It was not an office cre-
ated while he was a, senator or delegate, nor
had the compensation or emoluments of that
office been increased or diminished in any
way during his term. The only question
was whether he could accept the office at all
during the time for which he had been elected
to the Legislature; construing this phrase
"said term," to mean "the whole period of
time for which he had been elected."
Mr. MILLER. The object the gentleman
from Baltimore city (Mr. Stockbridge) has
in view, is accomplished by the thirty-fourth
section of the bill of rights, which declares—
''That no person ought to hold at the
same time more than one office of profit,
created by the Constitution or laws of this
State."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I wish to go as far as
that provision of!' the declaration of lights
goes. I do not see any propriety in excluding
a senator or delegate, if his character and
qualifications are such as to entitle him to a
seat upon the bench of the Court of Appeals,
or any other court, from being appointed by
the Governor, if a vacancy occurs. And I
think he is excluded, by a fair construction
of this article as it now stands.
Mr. ABBOTT. Are judges appointed by the
Governor ?
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. In cases of vacancy
they are. Suppose a judge dies or resigns.
A judge resigned in one of the districts, on
the eastern shore, thereby creating a vacancy.
A senator was appointed to fill that vacancy.
The question arose, could be hold that ap-
pointment? I do not think he could, under
a fair construction of this section. Now, I
think the Constitution should be freed from |
all doubts, and remove all occasion for this
distorting of constitutional restrictions to
meet special cases, I think it is demoralizing
to public sentiment at all events. Let us
have this provision as it should be, and then
let us stand by it as we have it.
Mr. CHAMBERS. This proposition involves
a principle of the highest importance. It
has heretofore been thought that it was best
to avoid any inducement upon the part of
any member of the Legislature to make him-
self peculiarly acceptable to any of the pow-
ers of the government, to the executive de-
partment. This is non' a very decided inroad
upon that doctrine. It strikes me that there
are quite candidates enough for any office
that may become vacant, without going
within the halls of legislation to find some
person to occupy it. It there was a scarcity
of candidates of that sort, then there might
be some propriety in this amendment. But
heretofore there has been no injury resalting
to the community from this provision. I
knew one instance very early in my experi-
ence, of a member elect to the Senate of 1832
who declined to accept the place in expecta-
tion of receiving, as he afterwards did re-
ceive, ajudicial appointment, which he filled
for many years most creditably to himself
and most usefully to the State.
I do not think there is any propriety in
undertaking now to make an encroachment
upon a principle long sanctioned by time,
and verified by experience, and its infraction
being every day less and less necessary as a
matter of convenience and discretion. With
reward to the prohibition to bold any other
office by appointment during the term for
which they are elected, that is the whole
scope of the section—I submit these few re-
marks, and will leave the matter to the com-
mittee who have reported this section. I
only tender them my vote to support the prin-
ciple which they have adopted. Let the
Halls of legislation be kept free from suspicion.
I do not know that we are becoming
much better, more virtuous, less susceptible
to the allurements of office, than were those
of former times. It does not appear to me
that these are times when we should open
the door more widely to matters of this kind.
I, however, leave these matters to the com-
mittee who have reported this section. My
own opinion is very decided that it is not
expedient to encourage any species of illicit
intercourse between the executive and legis-
lative departments of the State.
Mr. STIRLING, I believe it is not in order
to offer an amendment now.
The PRESIDENT. An amendment to the
amendment is in order.
Mr. STIRLING. The one I desire to offer
would hardly be applicable to the amendment
now pending. I entirely agree with the
view expressed by the gentleman from Kent
(Mr. Chambers;) that certainly was the view, |
