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404 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 15,
Constitutional construction, that the special enumeration of
one class of cases is the exclusion of all others. But the case
of the Governor does not depend upon even this plain princi-
ple alone. It is expressly provided by the 4th Section, of Art,
2, of the Constitution, that "all questions in relation to the
eligibility of Governor, and the returns of said election, and
to the number and legality of votes therein given, shall be
determined by the House of Delegates." In Section 3rd, of
the same Article, which prescribes the manner in which the
returns of the election for Governor shall be opened, and de-
clares that the person having the highest number of votes
shall be the Governor, there is not one word prescribing his
immediate qualification or installation, in case his election or
eligibility should have been previously put in question before
the House. On the contrary, the very direction that he shall
qualify on the second Wednesday of January next ensuing,
is enlarged to meet the case of any difficulty by the words,
"or as soon thereafter as may be practicable." And to avoid
the possibility of any vacancy occurring in the office of Gov-
ernor, it is further provided by Section 1, of Article 2, of the
Constitution, that the term of office of Governor shall "con-
tinue for four years, and until his successor shall have qual-
ified." Indeed, it is hardly just to the ability and exper-
ience of the framers of the Constitution to suggest it as possi-
ble, that they iptended to direct the immediate installation of
a gentleman as Governor, when his election or his qualifica-
tions might be actually in dispute before them at this time,
and when it might be their duty to depose him the week or
even the day after. They could hardly have meant that any
candidate should be clothed with the dignity, to say nothing
of the influence and patronage of the Chief Executive office,
while it was still in doubt whether he had the slightest title
to assume them.
The facts to which these observations apply in the pres-
ent case, are indisputably the following: Immediately after
the organization of the House, the memorial of Mr. Harris
was presented. As it pleased the majority of the House to deny
to it a place among the printed proceedings, the undersigned
are compelled to insert it here, in order that its tenor may be
recalled to the recollection of the Honoroble Body to which
it was presented. It is in these words :
To the Honorable, the House of Delegates of Maryland:
The memorial and protest of J. Morrison Harris, of Balti-
more county, respectfully represents:
That he was a candidate for the office of Governor at the
election held on the second of November last, for which
office the Hon. John Lee Carroll was also a candidate.
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