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429] The Convention. 51
would be imposed upon the General Assembly, by reason
of the necessity of enacting laws to carry out the provisions
of the new constitution. They claimed that biennial ses-
sions were anti-democratic in their tendency; and were an
indirect and open violation of the spirit of the clause in
the Declaration of Rights which declared that elections
ought to be free and frequent. As a proof that annual
sessions were necessary they referred to the states of New
York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other states,
which had annual sessions. They claimed that the rela-
tion which cities bear to the rest of the State, because of
the great concentration of population and capital in the
cities, rendered annual sessions of the legislature abso-
lutely necessary for the preservation of the equilibrium be-
tween the diversified interests. The convention finally
agreed to annual sessions for three years; thereafter the
sessions of the legislature were to be biennial.
The committee on the Declaration of Rights, Mr. Dor-
sey, of Anne Arundel county, chairman, submitted their
report on the nth of January, which was taken up by the
convention for discussion on the 28th.40 As reported by
the committee the preamble to the Declaration of Rights
read as follows: "We, the Delegates of Maryland, in
convention assembled, taking into our most serious con-
sideration the best means of establishing a good consti-
tution in this State, declare," etc. The words of the pre-
amble were substantially the same as those adopted in
1776.
Mr. Dashiell, of Somerset county, moved to amend the
preamble by inserting after the word " Maryland" the
words " representing the counties, and city of Baltimore."41
The object of the amendment was to assert the theory that
the counties and the city of Baltimore were parties to the
compact in their municipal capacities.
This theory of political individuality of the counties had
40 Debates, vol. i, p. 140. 41 Debates, vol. i, p. 235.
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