on the part of the convention upon this ques-
tion for the benefit of the executive com-
mittee. If the house will give that, and my
amendment is adopted. I will move a recon-
sideration of the vote adopting it, and with-
draw the amendment altogether. I merely
want an expression of opinion on the part
of the house as to the propriety of conferring
the veto power upon the Governor.
Mr. BELT. I would suggest that the gen-
tleman . by general consent can introduce
an order instructing the committee to report
a provision giving the Governor the veto
power.
Mr. STIRLING. If yon put in the provision
proposed by my colleague (Mr. Cushing, ) you
still leave the first part of the section to stand
as it now reads. But as I understand it, the
signature there provided for is only for the
purpose of verification. The Governor can
certify as before, after he has approved the
bills. This provision is merely for the pur-
pose of evidencing the laws, and therefore I
would suggest to the president that there
will be no inconsistency.
Mr. MILLER. The section now reads:—
" Every bill when passed by the legislature,
shall be presented to the Governor, who shall
sign it," &c.
Mr. STIRLING. The gentleman leaves out
one important provision—" when sealed with
the great seal."
Mr. CUSHING. I ask leave to withdraw the
amendment I submitted to this section, and
offer the following:
"Ordered, That the committee on the ex-
ecutive department be instructed to report a
provision to be incorporated into the consti-
tution, conferring the veto power upon the
executive of this State."
No objection being made, the amendment
was withdrawn, and the order received.
The question was upon agreeing to the
order.
Mr. DANIEL. I hope we will hear this or-
der discussed. If it is to be taken as the
sense of, this house, and to embody instruc-
tions to the committee on the executive de-
partment, I think we should have the reasons
for and against it. I am like the gentleman
from Washington county (Mr. Negley, ) I
have not made up my mind about this mat-
ter. I do not want, after I may vote to give
certain instructions to a committee, to change
my vote after the committee has reported in
pursuance to those instructions. If we are
to vote now, I want to have our vote con-
sistent with the one we shall give after the re-
port of the committee is received. I would
prefer to bear at this time the reasons for and
against this veto power.
Mr. STIRLING. I do not think there is any
necessity for discussing this proposition now.
The change ought certainly not to be made
unless there is a general concurrence of the
convention in favor of it. If this order shall |
pass by but a small majority, then I suppose
the committee will not report this change in
the constitution.
Mr. CHAMBERS. I do not agree to the sug-
gestion made by the gentleman from Balti-
more city (Mr. Stirling,) that we are to give
expression now without much regard to very
decided opinions. This is not an order in-
structing the committee to inquire into the
expediency of a proposition to be hereafter
submitted to the convention for discussion.
If we vote these instructions to the committee
we are pledged to adopt the proposition when
submitted by the committee; or else we will
place upon our journal decidedly contradic-
tory votes. A motion to instruct is consid-
ered by all parliamentary usage as committing
the body to the adoption of whatever report
is made in pursuance to those instructions.
To order the committee to do a thing, and
then repudiate their work when done, is not
consistent.
I say this is the proper time to discuss
these instructions. If we instruct the com-
mittee to do so and so, they have no discre-
tion. They must bring in their report in
pursuance of those instructions, like every
other agency. The committee is our agent ;
and if the principal instructs his agent to do
a particular thing, the agent must do it.
I think, myself, that the proposed change
is very unnecessary. We have never had any
such power in this State. I have never heard
any word of complaint from any quarter,
from politician or anybody else, of our pre-
sent system. Our business in the legislature
is not the kind of business in Congress. The
time and attention of our legislature is usu-
ally devoted to local affairs. There are very
few highly important abstract political ques-.
tions which come before our legislature for
action. And I should certainly regret to see
any such encroachment upon the usages and
practice of this State. And I would admon-
ish my friends on all sides not to commit
themselves to this proposition, unless they
are prepared to accept it when reported by the
committee.
Mr. CUSHING, While I shall vote for the
instructions I am utterly indifferent whether
the governor has the veto power or not; and
I shall not consider myself bound for one in-
stant to vote for it. Nor do I consider that
any member voting for these instructions
will consider himself bound to vote to give
this power to the governor, if upon reflection
he shall deem it inexpedient to do so. I
merely wish to ascertain the sense of the
convention. I shall vote for the instruc-
tions, holding myself ready, should the argu-
ment convince me that it is inexpedient, to
vote against granting any such power to the
governor.
Mr. RIDGELY. Under that view of the sub-
ject we are certainly frittering away our
time in considering a subject, when it makes |
