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after that the Chair would like to make
a statement.
Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. President
and ladies and gentlemen of the Conven-
tion: I did not come to make a speech to-
day. In fact, if I had know the gracious
attitude of the people who have just spoken
I would perhaps have slept more easily
last night.
Nevertheless, I should make this state-
ment as Chairman of the Personal Rights
and Preamble Committee because this is
where all of this started. This Committee,
and you met them all before, and may I
ask will those members of the Committee
please stand just briefly so people can see
who you are? Please stand just a moment.
(Applause.)
You will see that they represent all walks
of life. There are wealthy people in this
group, they are from the inner city and
from the broader and more favored coun-
tryside. We found, ladies and gentlemen,
that we started out with what we thought
were many differences...As we debated and
we talked we found we had fewer and
fewer differences in basic philosophy. After
all, we have the same love for our children
and the same love for our g-randchildren
and for the people with whom we work and
with whom we live.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is just not
an idle question. There are many things
we have been divided upon, but this Com-
mittee managed after serious debate and
discussion to come up with what it thought
were proper answers.
I call your attention to one thing that
was overlooked by this group, but which I
believe more basically sounds the philosophy
that many of these people are talking about
and which they Committee advocated. That
is Section 9 of its Recommendation No. 2,
"It shall be the policy of this State that
all", and I underline "all", "persons shall
have economic security, the opportunity for
employment, and the means to provide for
themselves and their families a standard
of living based upon decency, dignity, and
health."
I believe we have done a good job. I
think we have something that this Conven-
tion and this State will be proud of, but I
want to close only with one expression
which this Committee developed after hard
work and which as far as I can see this
Convention adopted almost unanimously.
Let me read to you the banner on which
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we shall go forward together, the preamble.
It has meaning.
"We, the people of the State of Mary-
land, grateful to Almighty God for our
civil and religious freedom, recognizing
that all political power originates in the
people and that all government is insti-
tuted to secure their right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, and acknowl-
edging our duty and responsibility to pos-
terity, do establish and ordain this Con-
stitution."
Let us all go forward together and do
exactly that.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: On several occa-
sions from this rostrum I have stated that
I am very, very proud of this Convention
and every delegate in it. On many more
occasions, off of this rostrum and away
from this State House, I have made the
same statement in greater detail and with
much more emphasis.
All of us on September 12, 1967, entered
upon a new experience regardless of
whether we had previous legislative ex-
perience, because we were embarking upon
the drafting of a Constitution for the
State of Maryland, not in the eighteenth
or nineteenth century but in the twentieth
century. We had no guidelines. We had no
clear course marked out for us. We had
only the good will, the abilities, and the
intense desire of every delegate to work to
his utmost to achieve the same end.
In the course of these past four months
during which it has been my honor to be
President, I have as you know talked pri-
vately on numerous occasions with many
delegates when issues appeared to develop
that were divisive, that could create fac-
tions and destroy the fellowship that had
grown up about us.
We succeeded in every instance in weath-
ering the gale with results, compromises if
you will, but results that if they were not
completely satisfactory to all delegates were
certainly not unsatisfactory. It was very
unfortunate that as we neared the end of
our labors there developed a severe division
over this one issue and as I am sure all of
you know, the most intense efforts were
made in the past few weeks to arrive in
this instance also at a solution which if not
completely satisfactory to everyone was at
least not unsatisfactory.
This has not been achieved. However, I
am struck by two things which have been
driven upon me with increasing force in
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