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62 The Maryland Constitution of 1864. [408
nothing less, for they evidently desired by this action to
strengthen the hands of the President and put Maryland
in the position of officially endorsing his administration.91
This political consideration should not be forgotten, es-
pecially as the contemporary excitement incident to Mr.
Lincoln's candidacy for a second term may have influ-
enced the Convention. The result was, that Mr. Clarke's
amendment was voted down, and also several others by
means of which the minority attempted to mitigate the
force of the article,92 and this latter was finally adopted
on June 16 by the party vote of 53 to 32.93
The third in importance and last of the new articles in-
corporated in the "Declaration of Rights" was that in-
troduced by Mr. Abbott of Baltimore City on June 11, and
adopted without debate on July 7, after a slight change of
phraseology.94 It declared—"That we hold it to be self-
evident that all men are created equally free; that they are
endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,
among which are life, liberty, the enjoyment of the pro-
ceeds of their own labor and the pursuit of happiness." It
was merely a broad statement of the principle involved in
the article abolishing slavery.
Another very interesting change was that made in Ar-
ticle 2, which declares the "unalienable right" of the people
to "alter, reform or abolish" the form of government
which originates from them. The words contained in the
old Constitution of 1850-195 which limited this popular
right to the "mode prescribed " in that document were
omitted. This action was riot taken on strict party lines,
for although nearly all the members opposing it were of
the minority, yet a number of them rose above the rigid
91 See Proc., 209, for an order introduced by Mr. Hatch, of Bal-
timore City, with this special end in view.
92 Proc., 150-1, 199-201.
93 Proc., 204. (Article 5 in the Constitution.)
94 Proc., 173, 233-4. (Article I in Constitution.)
95 Declaration of Rights, Article I.
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