CHAPTER II
THE CONVENTION

The year 1850 was one of profound excitement through-
out the United States. The slavery question was now
agitating the country from one end to the other. The
dispute about freedom in the new territories acquired by
the Mexican War aroused sectional animosities and seces-
sion threatened. The article of the constitution and the
laws of Congress providing for the recapture of fugitive
slaves had been repeatedly disregarded, or set at defiance.

The government of the State of Maryland at that time
was in the hands of the Whigs, who represented the agri-
cultural and conservative element of the people. Although
the Whigs were in the minority in respect to popular num-
bers, they were enabled, by the system of representation
recognized by the constitution of the State, to have a ma-
jority in the General Assembly.

Representing the agricultural interest of the State, the
Whigs, as a political party, were opposed to a constitu-
tional convention. They were reluctant to surrender any
portion of their relative influence in the state legislature
to the growing population of the northern and western
sections of the State, especially to the rapidly increasing
population of Baltimore City. Self-protection, they con-
sidered, demanded the retention of the state government
in their own hands.

It was not until revolution threatened the State that the
counties of southern Maryland and of the Eastern Shore,
through their representatives in the General Assembly,
consented to submit to the voters of the State a proposi-
tion relative to a call of a constitutional convention.
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