60                The Maryland Constitution of 1864.            [406

tendency of the present day is to cede more and more au-
thority to the National Administration, yet there is cer-
tainly no disposition to take away all inherent power from
the states as such, or vest in the Federal Government all
authority not absolutely guaranteed to the state by the
United States Constitution. This last is clearly the result
to which the article tended.

This movement on the part of the majority was the di-
rect outcome of the war as caused by the assertion of
state's rights on the part of the South, and as waged
according to the necessarily radical measures of Mr. Lin-
coln. Though evidently subject to the greatest abuse, it
was in reality an attempt to assert the absolute indivisi-
bility of the Union, and the paramount authority of the
National Government when acting within the letter of the
Constitution.

The members of the minority in the Convention, most
of whom were firm believers in the doctrine of state's
rights as held by the South, and in a large measure of
sovereignty vested in the states as such, in some cases
even went so far as to practically justify the South in its
action on the question. They were naturally much
aroused by this enunciation of paramount allegiance to
the National Government, and were unable to condemn
the article in sufficiently strong terms.⁸⁷ The debate on
the article was long and brilliant, consuming a large part
of the time for over two weeks, and was a careful treat-
ment of the history of our country from earliest colonial
times down to the causes of the war, as well as a review of
the growth of justice and freedom from the days of Run-
nymede to the present time. Although the question was
touched upon to some extent during the consideration of
other subjects throughout the entire session of the Con-
vention, Mr. Clarke on June 1 opened the regular debate

⁸⁷ A minority report from the committee condemned this article
in addition to the one embodying emancipation. (Proc., 63-4.)