389]                             Introduction.                                11

pie to change their constitution in the manner in which a
majority of the people desired. They claimed that, as the
authority to change, alter, or abolish their form of govern-
ment was guaranteed to the people in the Declaration of
Rights/ and that as a convention was neither prohibited
by the constitution, nor the mode of its organization pre-
scribed, the General Assembly could constitutionally pro-
vide for a convention.

The struggle between these two parties, representing
roughly the agricultural and the commercial interests of
the State, extended over a period of some twenty-five
years. The agitation finally resulted in a call of a consti-
tutional convention by the General Assembly, known as
the " Reform Convention of 1850."

It is the purpose of the writer to trace the growth of the
idea of " conventional reform" in the State. It includes
the history of the Convention of 1850 and the character of
the constitution which it gave to the people of the State
for their ratification, or rejection.

³ Md. Const, of 1776, Dec. of Rights, secs. 1, 2, 4.