409]              Constitutional Reform Agitation.                 31

nority of the committee. They demanded the immediate
enactment of a law authorizing the vote of the people to
be taken upon the question of a convention. After con-
siderable opposition, the bill reported by the majority of
the committee, but slightly amended, was passed by the
House by a vote of forty-three to thirty-five; and the
Senate without amendment or debate, except to a question
of postponement, passed the bill by a vote of eleven to
seven. The representatives from the following counties
voted unanimously to submit the bill to popular vote: Balti-
more, Harford, Cecil, Talbot, Frederick, Washington, Al-
legany, Carroll and Baltimore City. The counties of St.
Mary's, Calvert, Charles, Dorchester, Queen Anne's, Wor-
cester and Kent voted unanimously against the bill. The
remaining counties were divided in their vote.³⁶ The Bal-
timore Sun of May 7, 1850, in an editorial states " That it
was not until the popular sentiment turned very decidedly
towards a convention independent of the legislature, that
the convention was granted; and so decisively had this
purpose taken hold of the popular mind that there was
some disappointment when the Senate passed the bill."

The convention was to have complete power of framing
a new constitution, except that it was prohibited from
changing the relation of master and slave as then estab-
lished and sanctioned by the constitution. The act also
provided that the new constitution should be submitted to
the people for their ratification or rejection on the first
Wednesday in June, 1851. The representation in the con-
vention to be the same as each county and the city of Bal-
timore then had in both branches of the legislature.³⁷

The reform party did not rest with their success in the
legislature, but endeavored to secure the adoption of the
measure by the people. In Baltimore City a large meeting
was held without distinction of party on the 18th of April.
Addresses were made by several prominent reformers,

³⁶ House Journal, February 16, 1850.          ³⁷ Act 1849, ch. 346.