out important results, for the conven-
tion went on to draft a constitutional
provision, which was eventually ratified,
empowering the legislature to reappor-
tion the House of Delegates after each
decennial census on the basis of popula-
tion within the restrictions that no
county should have less than two dele-
gates, that Baltimore City — which was
made independent of Baltimore County
— should be restricted to four more dele-
gates than the most populous county
(although it was already over four times
more populous than the most populous
county) , and that the whole number of
delegates should not be less than sixty-
five nor more than eighty.53 Further,
in determining population, slaves were
to be counted as full persons even
though this was vigorously opposed by
the Baltimore representatives who found
it especially objectionable after the rep-
resentation of that city had been arbi-
trarily limited.54 The 1837 reform with
respect to the composition of the Senate
was carried forward unchanged. Each
county and Baltimore City was given
the right to elect one senator.
For the interim period of over ten
years until the results of the 1860 census
became available, the following tempo-
rary apportionment was provided: Bal-
timore City, 10 delegates; Baltimore and
Frederick counties, 6 delegates each;
Washington, 5 delegates; Allegany and
Somerset, 4 delegates; Anne Arundel,
Carroll, Cecil, Dorchester, Harford,
Prince George's, and Worcester, 3 dele-
gates; and Calvert, Caroline, Charles,
Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Queen
Anne's, Saint Mary's, and Talbot, 2
delegates.55 This interim apportition-
ment was itself a significant step for
53 Mb. const, art. III, § 3 (1851).
54 debates and proceedings supra note
50, at 297.
55 md. const, art. III, § 3 (1851).
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ward. Whereas before the 1851 Consti-
tution a representative from Baltimore
had represented 8.7 times as many per-
sons as a representative from Caroline,
the temporary apportionment reduced
this ratio to 5.2.
The permanent apportionment sys-
tems provided by the 1851 Constitution
had an extremely serious weakness. This
was the provision that restricted the size
of the House of Delegates to a maximum
of 80, guaranteed each of the twenty-
one counties at least two delegates, and
limited Baltimore City's representation.
The continued uneven growth of popu-
lation — for example, from 1850 to 1860
Caroline County increased its popula-
tion by less than 1,500 while Baltimore
City increased its population by over
43,300, the increase alone in Baltimore's
population being about four times as
much as Caroline's total population —
made inevitable serious distortion of the
basic provision that House seats should
be apportioned according to population.
This weakness of the 1851 Constitution
did not have time to develop, though,
for the permanent apportionment pro-
visions took effect only when the results
of the 1860 census became available.
THE 1864 CONSTITUTION
The Civil War broke out in January
1861. Although the Maryland legisla-
ture voted against secession, there was
strong popular support for the Confed-
erate cause. As a consequence the
Union army occupied Maryland in order
to ensure its continued adherence to and
support of the Union. The military
sought to translate its domination of
the State into a corresponding political
domination of the unionist forces.56
Consequently, "test oaths" of allegiance
were imposed as a condition for voting
56 Brief for Appellants, at 49, Maryland
Committee v. Tawes, 377 U.S. 656 (1964).
141
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