44               The Maryland Constitution of 1851.             [422

tion humorously offered an amendment to the above by
adding, " provided we can get any State to accept us."

This attempt of the Eastern Shore to secede from the
Western Shore was not a new feature in the history of
Maryland. The prevalence of shore jealousy was very
strong in the convention which framed the constitution of
1776. A proposition was then made in that convention to
insert an article in the Declaration of Rights, acknowledg-
ing the right of either shore to separate from the other
whenever their interest and happiness so required. This
proposition in the convention of 1776 received the support
of sixteen out of the twenty-one members from the Eastern
Shore.¹⁵

The amendment offered by Mr. Hicks was lost by a vote
of fifty-one to twenty-seven.¹⁸ It received the support of
fifteen out of the twenty-seven votes cast from the Eastern
Shore. The counties of Dorchester and Worcester voted
unanimously for secession. Queen Anne's county cast a
solid vote against it, and the other counties of the Eastern
Shore were divided in their vote.¹⁷ Mr. Hicks made a sec-
ond unsuccessful attempt to have his amendment adopted
when the convention was considering future amendments.¹⁸

It was the deep interest in the maintenance of slavery
in the southern counties of both shores that caused those
sections of the State to view with alarm the demands of
Baltimore City and western Maryland for representation
based on population.

A provision was placed in the constitution intended to
remove the apprehensions of the southern counties in re-
gard to the protection of slave property, by prohibiting

¹⁵ McMahon's History of Md., p. 466.

¹⁶ Debates, vol. i, p. 156.

¹⁷ Mr. Hicks, a number of years later, declared that he had intro-
duced the resolutions, not to declare an " inherent right," but to
give the people an opportunity to vote on the question. [See
Radcliffe: Governor Hicks of Maryland and the Civil War, p. 13,
note.]

¹⁸ Debates, vol. ii, p. 851.