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Cast your votes.
Has every delegate voted? Does any
delegate desire to change his vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 118 votes in the affirmative
and 2 in the negative, the motion carries.
The amendment is adopted.
Delegate Jett, do you desire to offer your
amendment E?
DELEGATE JETT: I should like to off er
my Amendment C, first.
THE CHAIRMAN: Very well, Pages
will distribute amendment C — "G" for
Charlie.
This will be Amendment No. 4. The
Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 4
to Committee Recommendation EB-2 by
Delegate Jett:
On page 1 section 4, Attorney General,
strike out all of lines 7 through 17, inclu-
sive, and insert in lieu thereof the fol-
lowing:
"There shall be an attorney general,
who shall be appointed by the governor
for an indefinite term to serve at the
pleasure of the governor. To be eligible
for appointment as attorney general, a
person must be a citizen of the State and
a member of the bar of the State for at
least five years immediately prior to his
appointment."
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment is
submitted by Delegate Jett. Is there a
second?
Delegate Byrnes, are you seconding the
amendment? Delegate Byrnes seconds the
amendment.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Jett.
DELEGATE JETT: Mr. Chairman and
fellow delegates: I have submitted this
amendment so that the matter could be
fully and squarely brought out and de-
cided on the floor of this Convention.
I have heard it said that this matter
has been substantially decided. I have heard
is said for all substantial purposes the issue
is closed.
On the other hand, I must say to this
Convention that I think at this stage of
the proceedings we have got to stop and ask
ourselves by whom is this Constitution be-
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ing written and for whom is it being
written.
We have gone full circle on this question
of attorney general, and we have come
back, it seems to me, to the point that we
must face up to. We have had the little
Hoover Commission work on this point, and
they recommended an appointed attorney
general.
We have had the Constitutional Commis-
sion work on this, and they recommended
an appointed attorney general.
We have had the Executive Committee of
this Convention work on it, and they have
recommended an appointed attorney
general.
Now we have before us an attempt to
find some other solution to this problem.
I would like to remind you all that
Maryland has a wonderful history as re-
spects our attorney general. The first at-
torneys general of this State were men of
the highest magnitude and the brightest
stars in the legal firmament.
I would like to remind this Convention
that in the first formative years of this
State we had appointed attorneys general,
such men as Luther Martin, William Pink-
ney, Roger Brooke Taney, men who stood
out for their legal learning and their abil-
ity and their attainment as appointed men
and men who served this State well and
helped to build the image of Maryland, men
who had the courage of their convictions
— not popular men, men who went to the
Constitutional Convention of the federal
Government and refused to accept it until
they had written into it the Bill of Rights
under which we all live and about which
we feel so strongly today, men who had
the courage to stand on their convictions,
men like Taney who served this State and
then went on to serve on the Supreme
Court of the United States for 28 years,
men who were known as lawyers, able
lawyers, fearless lawyers, and lawyers in
every sense of the word.
I say to you that we have got to look
at the duties, now, that are suggested for
the attorney general. It seems to me, and
I say this humbly, that Solomon in all his
wisdom, and possibly assisted by his thou-
sand wives, could not go on and carry out
the duties that are here suggested for the
attorney general.
I go further and say, as an attorney,
that I am concerned, gravely concerned,
over the colloquy that we had here as to
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