389]           The Maryland Constitution of 1864.              43

main argument on the desire to expedite business. It
should be added, that during the consideration of the re-
port the minority made every possible attempt to have a
large vote of those elected to the Convention required on all
important questions, but their amendments to that effect
were regularly voted down.¹⁹ They thus lost all oppor-
tunity for delaying proceedings by absence from the Con-
vention and like expedients.

Almost two months were consumed before the Conven-
tion had perfected its organization and passed the Declara-
tion of Rights which contained the very important provi-
sions in regard to slavery and allegiance. During the first
five weeks of the session the debate was unlimited, both
sides indulging in speeches of great length, but on June 2
the time was limited to one hour, the minority voting in the
negative, as it seems to have been particularly desired that
absolute freedom be allowed until the Declaration of Rights
was disposed of.²⁰ The majority again urged expediency,
and the usual arguments were successively brought up later,
when the debate was further restricted, on July 7,²¹ to thirty
minutes, a two-thirds vote of the members present being
necessary to allow the speaker to proceed. On July 29 a
limit of fifteen minutes during the discussion of a basis of
representation was imposed,²² and definitely placed at twenty
minutes on all questions on August 24.²³ On August 31
the absurdly small limit of five minutes was attempted but
voted down, the negative vote being cast by the solid
minority and several majority members. On July 7, Mr.
Belt, of Prince George's, had offered the sarcastic motion
that "there shall be no debate on any subject whatever,"
which was of course lost.²⁴

The Convention adjourned over from June 4 to the
9th, on account of the Republican National Convention, to
which several of its members were delegates. That body

¹⁹ Proc., 75-6.                             ²⁰ Proc., 146-7; Deb., i, 293-300.

²¹ Proc., 230-2. ²² Proc., 356. ²³ Proc., 562. ²⁴ Proc., 232.