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30 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Jan. 17, citizenship all persons disqualified by the fourth section of ar- ticle first of the Constitution, from voting or holding any office of honor, profit or trust, under the laws of the State. On motion of Mr. Trail, Leave was granted Messrs. Trail, Stephenson and Lans- dale, to report a bill entitled, an Act for the protection of Fish in the waters of the Monacacy River. Mr. Earle submitted the following Resolutions: WHEREAS, the subject of free suffrage and Negro equality, is being discussed in various parts of the country, and es- pecially in those portions which would not be sensibly af- fected by legislation, which should secure such supposed blessings to the colored race; And, Whereas, views on these topics have taken form and found expression in Resolutions introduced in the Senate of the United States, by Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, which propose as an additional test oath that shall extort from those to whom it is admin- istered, an obligation to discountenance all laws which make any distinctions between the white and the colored race; and in other resolutions by members, both in the Senate and House of Representatives, scarcely less objec- tionable; And, whereas, such course of legislation is not only calculated to beget inimical and unkind feelings, to keep alive dissensions, and retard a restoration of harmo- nious relations among the States, but is also rife with the worse consequences to the negro race; therefore— Be it Resolved, as the sense' of the General Assembly of Maryland, that the subject of the elective franchise rests with the States, and that they alone have the right to re- gulate and control its exercise in their respective limits ; that any attempt on the part of the Congress of the United States, to designate those to whom the benefits of suffrage should be secured, would be in direct violation of the spirit of the Constitution and the usages under it, an encroach- ment on the rights of the States, and would, to their great detriment, contribute to a consolidation of power in the hands of the General Government. Resolved, That any legislation which shall attempt to do away with those distinctions, which God, in His infinite wisdom, has decreed among the several races of men, should be discountenanced and opposed, as not only subversive of the laws of nature and good government, but as impious and wicked in resisting and endeavoring to counteract the ordi- nances of the Almighty, as read in His works. |
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Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1866
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