from 1806 to 1851 151

judge each, to circulate among the county courts
and preside at sessions successively held in them.
All judges were to hold office for terms of ten
years, and be eligible for election thereafter
until they attained the age of seventy years. One
of the judges of the Court of Appeals was to be
designated Chief Justice, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate. The Court of Appeals
was given power to appoint its clerks, but now
only for terms of six years. Upon motion, orig-
inally of John W. Crisfield, a clause was inserted
in the constitution providing that an opinion in
writing should be filed in each case decided.³¹
That was an innovation. And another innova-
tion was a clause that provision should be made
by law for publishing reports of cases argued
and determined by the court.³² It was provided
in the same section, also, that the terms of the
court should be in June and December, as they
had previously been, and that the sessions should
all be held at Annapolis. The court was to have
all the appellate jurisdiction of ,the previous
court, and such additional jurisdiction as might
thereafter be conferred upon it by law.

The debate on this proposed judicial system
was continued by the public before the popular
vote on the newly-framed constitution was taken,
the objection to changes in the judicial system
having been the ground of much of the opposition
to the whole constitution. The final vote was
29,025 for adoption, and 18,616 against adoption.
The southern Maryland counties, Kent and
Somerset voted against adoption.

31. Article IV, sec. 2.

32. Ibid.