854 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 29,

Senate bill entitled an Act to amend Section 1, of Article
1, of the Constitution of the State of Maryland.

Accompanied by the following

REPORT:

The Committee on Judicial Proceedings having had under
consideration Senate bills Nos. 209 and 210, beg leave to
report:

The object of both of said bills is, by Constitutional
amendment, to strike from the Declaration of Rights and from
the Constitution the word "white," so that there may be no
restriction upon the right of suffrage, as to any class of citi-
zens of this State. Your Committee deems it unnecessary to
involve the State in the expense incident to the proposed
change, and in view of the interest this subject has excited,
especially in the colored citizens of this State, the Committee
considers it proper to give, very briefly, the reasons for the
conclusions to which it has arrived.

It will be remembered that the present Constitution of the
State was adopted in the year 1867.

By Chapter 364, of the Acts of 1874, a Constitutional
amendment was submitted to the people of this State for their
adoption, and the Comptroller's Report shows that the cost
to the people amounted to the sum of $5,325.00.

The costs of the amendments now proposed would equal,
and probably exceed this sum, and in the present condition
of the Treasury of the State, your Committee is unwilling to
advise the expenditure of such a sum for said purpose, es-
pecially as we deem it utterly unnecessary, the object sought
by said bills being already fully attained. The second Ar-
ticle of the Bill of Rights of this State, declares "That the
Constitution of the United States, and the laws made, or
which shall be made, in pursuance thereof, and all treaties
made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the
United States, are the supreme law of the State, and the
Judges of this State, and all the people of this State are, and
shall be, bound thereby, anything in the laws or Constitu-
tion of this State to the contrary, notwithstanding."

It is well-known to everybody that on the 16th of June,
1866, what is called the 14th Amendment to the Federal
Constitution, was declared to be adopted, and that on the
30th of March, 1870, what is known as the 15th Amendment,
was declared to be a part of the same Constitution.

The effect of these two amendments to the Constitution of;