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395] Constitutional Reform Agitation. 17
the subject of " conventional reform" again into promi-
nence.
As the evils of having a constitution so completely in
the power of the legislature became apparent in the ex-
travagant use of the State's credit, it was seen that there
must be some effectual check to prevent the legislature in
the future from involving the State in financial ruin. Each
succeeding election found the subject of constitutional re-
form a topic of increasing excitement and agitation, and
augmented the number of those who advocated the calling
of a constitutional convention. The subject came regularly
before the legislature, and the governors in their messages
to the General Assembly repeatedly called the attention of
that body to the necessity of calling a convention.
The most important alterations in the constitution con-
templated were: a change in the system of representation in
the House of Delegates; limitation upon the power of the
General Assembly to contract debts, or pledge the public
credit; reduction in governmental expenses; the right to
elect all local county officers; a reform of the judicial sys-
tem, and especially a constitutional convention, elected
directly by the people for the express purpose of framing a
new constitution.
The rapid growth of population in the northern and
western sections of the State, especially in Baltimore City,
rendered necessary the reapportioning of representatives
in the General Assembly. The smaller counties of south-
ern Maryland, and of the Eastern Shore, fearing the pre-
ponderance of Baltimore City's influence in the legislature,
fixed an arbitrary and unjust limitation upon her representa-
tion. Although with a population including considerably
over one-fourth of the entire population of the State, the
representation of Baltimore City embraced only about one-
sixteenth of the total representation in the House of Dele-
gates.
Representation in Maryland from colonial days down to
1836 had been based upon territory. In the year 1659 the
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