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many previous occasions by Delegate
Dorothy Scott Murray. Mrs. Murray, we
thank you very much.
(Applause.)
TliE PRESIDENT: The flowers on the
rostrum to my left have been placed there
by Delegate Mrs. Beatrice Miller, Dele-
gate Maurer, and Mrs. Koss, the ladies
from Montgomery County, and we thank
them also.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: It is a real privi-
lege to welcome today and to recognize
the presence in the chamber of so many
distinguished guests, although I do not
have a complete list of the names of those
present.
Chief Judge Robert Murphy of the In-
termediate Court of Appeals; Deputy At-
torney General Robert F. Sweeney; Sena-
tor Blair Lee, the Majority Leader of the
House of Delegates; Senator Edward Hall,
Minority Leader in the Senate; Senator
Edward Conroy.
Unavoidably, the Governor could not be
present. He has sent me a message and
he has asked me in addition to express his
sincere regrets that prior commitments in
Baltimore made it impossible for him to be
present this morning.
The Clerk will read this message from
the Governor.
READING CLERK: "To the Delegates
of the Constitutional Convention of Mary-
land :
"Upon the convocation of this Conven-
tion, I expressed my hope that you would
draft a document designed to endure; a
Constitution which adhered to great
principles and still assured flexibility for
the future. The Constitution which you
sign today more than fulfills my hopes.
"Maryland owes a debt to you, the
forefathers of the future, for you have
created a Constitution which I believe is
without parallel in this nation. Through-
out the past months you have labored
conscientiously, subordinating" personal
and partisan interests to achieve the best
interests of Maryland. The 1968 Con-
stitution reveals in its brevity and hon-
est simplicity the success of your en-
deavors.
"I am grateful to have served as Gov-
ernor during this historic convention, and
I look forward with confidence to the
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day of ratification. You have created a
superb Constitution. It is one in which
all Marylanders can take pride, an en-
during document truly able to sustain
our State in this century and serve as
our heritage for the next one hundred
years. I congratulate you and I salute
you.
"Spiro T. Agnew."
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Let me interrupt
the formal proceedings to continue with
several announcements which I interrupted
in recognizing the presence of guests.
Judge Mathias and Judge Shirley Jones
who is one of the first women to be ap-
pointed to the bench in the State of Mary-
land.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Another announce-
ment, really not a part of the proceeding,
but it may be the only way we can have
the message delivered promptly.
Delegate John Moser found a pearl
earring" at the Governor's party. If any of
you ladies dropped a pearl earring, you
can retrieve it from Mrs. Agnew. It is in
Mrs. Agnew's possession.
On behalf of the entire convention — and
I cannot say and their ladies — I have to
say and their spouses — the Chair wants to
extend the very sincere thanks of all of
us to Governor and Mrs. Agnew for a
memorable occasion last evening in the
newly decorated mansion Government
House. All of us had a delightful time.
(Applause.)
I have a letter which I have had handed
to me this morning. I am going to ask the
Reading Clerk to read it.
Those of you in the galleries who are
here for the first time perhaps will not
fully understand this and it therefore may
not be remiss for me to take a moment to
say a word about the delight which the
Convention has had in the service rendered
by the pages to this Convention. They are
a group of high school youngsters, seventy-
six in all, who have served, each one of
them, for a period of four weeks in periods
of two weeks each. They are far enough
advanced in their studies that they have
been able to leave school this past term for
that length of time. This has been an ex-
periment with us. Its success really out-
does that of the Convention itself. We
have all been delighted, and I would like
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