48               The Maryland Constitution of 1864.            [394

war than that declared in 1861, in which state's rights had
been guaranteed and the desire expressed to preserve the
Union according to the ante-bellum conditions.³⁴ Mr.
Sands, of Howard, well expressed the position of the ma-
jority members by saying: "It comes to the question
whether you will give to the loyal people of the state of
Maryland the power of the state, or whether you will allow
the secessionists to force them to the wall and make them
give up all their rights under the Constitution and the
government or drive them from the state. For one, as a
Union man, holding my allegiance to the government
straight through, I prefer to be one of the men that shall
live in Maryland."³⁵

On August 5, Mr. Chambers, on behalf of the thirty-five
minority members, presented a protest signed by all of
them, in which they strongly condemned these various
resolutions. In this protest they stated that the delegates
to the Convention "were elected under a law of the state,
to form a new constitution of civil government to be sub-
mitted to the people, and not to invite the inauguration of
an unlimited military despotism in the state." The resolu-
tions were condemned as being in direct conflict with many
provisions of the Declaration of Rights as lately adopted.
The protest closed by saying: "In behalf of the people
we represent and of all the peace-loving and law-abiding
people of Maryland, and in behalf of all the fundamental
principles of civil liberty and constitutional government,
we enter this, our formal protest, against the said action of
the said delegates to this Convention."³⁶

The majority stigmatized this protest as discourteous to
the Convention, and it was refused a place upon the journal
by a vote of 42 to 26, although several of the Union mem-
bers opposed this latter action, and five of them voted with
the Democrats.³⁷ This closed the incident.

³⁴ Proc., 273-5.

³⁵ Deb., ii, 826. For debate on the various resolutions, see Deb.,
ii, 800-1, 820-31.

³⁶ Deb., ii, 1128.                           ³⁷ Proc, 397; Deb., ii, 1126-38.