Mr. RIDGELY withdrew his motion to post-
pone.
The convention then proceeded to the con-
sideration of the majority report of the select
committee appointed to consider the thirty-
ninth section of the report of the committee
on the legislative department.
The report was read as following:
"The undersigned members of the special
committee, to whom was referred the thirty-
ninth section in the report of the committee
en the legislative department, and the pro-
posed amendments thereto, beg leave to sub-
mit the following majority report, recom-
mending the following as section thirty-nine
in the aforesaid report:
Section 39 The governor, comptroller,
and treasurer of the State, are hereby author'
ized conjointly, or any two of them, to ex-
change the State's interest in the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad company, for an equal
amount of the bonds or registered debt now
owing by the State, and subject to such regu-
lations and conditions as the general assem-
bly may from time to time prescribe, to sell
the State's interest in the other works of in-
ternal improvement, whether as a stock-
holder or a creditor, also the State's interest
in any banking corporation, and receive in
payment the bonds and registered debt, now
owing by the State, equal in amount to the
price obtained for the State's said interest;
provided, that the interest of the State in the
Washington branch of the Baltimore &nd
Ohio railroad be reserved and excepted from
sale; and that at the election to be held for
the adoption or rejection of this constitution,
the sense of the people shall be taken for or
against the selling of the State's interest in
all the works of internal improvement or
other corporations.
"All of which if respectfully submitted.
(Signed) PETER NEGLEY,
DANIEL, CLARKE,
JOS. H. AUDOUN,
ISAAC D. JONES,
C. S. PARRAN."
The question was upon concurring in the
report of the select committee.
Mr. CLARKE. Before the vote is taken I
would like to say that, as I said when the
report was presented, in giving my reasons
for signing it, that while the principles in-
volved in the report met with my concur-
rence, yet I preferred to leave out all that
part of the section which provided for sub-
mitting to the people the question of the sale
of those public works. I stated at that time-
that I was not only opposed to that being
done in this case, but I was opposed to having
this convention, which represented the people.
throwing any provision back to the people
for their vote in its favor before it could be
adopted into the organic law.
We are sent here for the purpose of fram-
ing a constitution, for the purpose of prepar- |
ing and adopting the various provisions to
be incorporated in it, and I think it is the
duty of the convention to take the responsi-
bility of all the questions that come before it,
and prepare a constitution to be submitted
to the people for them to vote upon as a
whole. If yon are to have a separate vote
of the people on any question, why not
have it upon the question of the abolition
of slavery? That is a matter involving the
destruction of many more millions of dollars'
worth of property in the State than are in-
volved in the question. This does not de-
stroy any property at all, but disposes of it
for an equivalent. If you are to take the
sense of the people upon this question, it should
certainly be taken upon questions of far more
vital importance. There is another question
of great importance which will come before
this convention; the mode of selecting the
judiciary; whether they shall be elected by
the people, or appointed by the governor, or
by the council. It has been suggested ia the
judiciary committee, to submit several plans
to the vote of the people, and let them chose
between them. It would be just as reasona-
ble to adopt such a provision as that, as it
would be to adopt this provision.
In other words, if we undertake to say
that we will frame an article or a section to
be incorporated into "this constitution, and
then do not take the responsibility of saying
whether it sball form a portion of the con-
stitution, but submit it to the vote of the peo-
ple, they will want to vote upon many other
questions, or the people will complain that
with the exception of one or two provisions,
yon have not allowed them to vote separately
on the difierent questions. Now my idea is
that the true theory is that this convention if
a representetive body. When the people
elected us and called this convention into be-
ing, they said—"We do not undertake to
vote directly upon any proposition, but we
delegate the power to you to frame a consti-
tution, upon the adoption or rejection of
which as a whole, we will vote.' '
With this view, I move to amend the sec-
tion reported by this select committee, by
striking out the following :
' 'And that at the election to be held for
the adoption or rejection of this constitution,
the sense of the people shall be taken tor or
against the selling of the State's interest in
all the works of internal improvement or
other corporations."
If, on the contrary, it should be the judg-
ment of this convention to retain that portion
of the proposed section, then I am willing to.
vote for it as reported by the select commit-
tee; and I go expressed myself in the com-
mittee. But I said at the same time that
when the section came up for consideration
in the convention, I should either vote for a
proposition to strike out this last clause, or
else submit such a proposition myself. |
