58              The Maryland Constitution of 1851.           [436

which four of the members of the committee concurred.
The report provided that the General Assembly should
submit to the voters of the State a proposition relative to
the call of a convention every ten years. If the majority
of the voters so determined the convention was to meet at
its earliest convenience.⁵⁹ Mr. Brent, of Baltimore City,
offered a substitute for the above report, by making it
obligatory on the governor of the State to issue a procla-
mation every ten years for the taking of the vote of the
people in reference to a convention.⁶⁰ The difference be-
tween Mr. Brent's proposition and the majority of the com-
mittee's report was that the former guaranteed independ-
ence of the legislature, while the other left to the legisla-
ture the right of authorizing the vote to be taken on the
question of a convention.

Mr. Sollers said that he did not know how rapid were
the strides of Baltimore City in the cause of abolition; but
he knew the insecurity of slave property in southern Mary-
land. Slave property was insecure just in proportion as
the counties surrendered their control over the govern-
ment of the State. He was not willing to trust the main-
tenance of slavery under a constitutional provision which
would enable the majority of the voters to call a conven-
tion.⁶¹

Mr. Jenifer, of Charles county, in a speech before the
convention on the 29th of January, 1851, referring to the
article in the constitution prohibiting the legislature from
passing any law affecting the relation of master and slave
as then existing in the State, said: That article was
intended to put to rest the fanaticism as regards slavery in
Maryland, and would do so, so long as the constitution and
laws were respected. But if the right of a bare majority
was recognized to abolish the existing system of govern-
ment, and establish a new one, that provision was no guar-

⁵⁹ Ibid., p. 245.

⁶⁰ Debates, vol. ii, p. 360.                      * Debates, vol. ii, p. 364.