Yeas—Messrs. Abbott, Billingsley, Briscoe,
Dennis, Dent, Duvall, Edelen, Gale, Hatch,
Henkle, Hodson, Horsey. Johnson, Lansdale,
Mitchell, Miller, Morgan, Parran, Peter—19.
Nays—Messrs. Goldsborough, President;
Annan, Audoun, Blackiston, Bond, Brooks,
Brown, Carter, Chambers, Cunningham,
Cushing, Daniel, Davis, of Washington, Del-
linger, Farrow, Galloway, Greene, Hebb,
Hoffman, Hollyday, Hopkins, Hopper, Keefer,
Kennard, King, Lee, Markey, McComas,
Murray, Nyman, Parker, Pugh, Purnell,
Ridgely, Robinette, Russell, Sands, Schley,
Schlosser, Smith, of Carroll, Smith, of Wor-
cester, Stirling, Swope, Sykes, Thomas,
Thruston, Todd, Wickard, Wilmer, Wooden
—50.
When his name was called,
Mr. ABBOTT said: My motion was for
$2,000 all round, and I shall therefore vote
"aye."
The amendment was accordingly rejected.
No further amendment was offered.
The convention resumed the consideration
of the twenty-third section as follows :
"Sec. 23. There shall be a clerk of the
Circuit Court for each county, who shall be
elected by a plurality vote of the qualified
voters of said county; he shall hold his office
for the term of six years from the time of his
.election, and until a new election is held and
his successor duly qualified; he shall be re-eli-
gible at the end of his term, and shall at any
time-be subject to removal for wilful neglect
of duly, or other misdemeanor in office, on
conviction in a court of law."
Mr. THRUSTON. I move to add the words,
"He shall give his personal attention exclu-
sively to the duties of said office." I wish
to prevent offices from being farmed out.
Mr. EDELEN. What does the gentleman
.mean by the word " exclusively? "
Mr. THRUSTON. That be shall not attend
to any other trade; that that shall be his oc-
cupation.
Mr. EDELEN, And that a man becoming a
clerk shall give up all other business?
Mr. THRUSTON. Yes, sir; and attend to the
duties of his office daily, and not carry on
another business, and farm his office out to
deputies.
Mr. THOMAS. Suppose the clerk happens
'to be a farmer. This would preclude him
from attending to his farm. Suppose he
owns a store, he cannot attend to that,
Mr. THRUSTON. It only excludes him dur-
ing the time be is required to attend to the
duties of his office.
Mr. THOMAS. I should think it did.
Mr. MILLER. I think the amendment is a
good one and ought to be adopted. Men in
the counties get elected to the office of clerk
or register, and they never see the office from
the time they are elected until their term
expires. They just hire somebody to go there
and do their duty for them. |
Mr. THRUSTON. I put in the word " exclu-
sively" for this purpose. He might go and
stay there half an hour a day, and give his
personal attention for that time, and direct
his deputy, and never take a pen in his hand.
The PRESIDENT, Why not say "during
office hours?"
Mr. THRUSTON. I will add " during busi-
ness hours."
Mr. THOMAS What is the necessity of put-
ting it in at all? What if the clerk does ap-
point a deputy, who does the work properly?
Mr. THRUSTON. The people do not elect the
deputy but the clerk. He is the man they
want, and not any one that be may choose to
take his place,
Mr. THOMAS, He might get sick sometimes.
Mr. BRISCOE. I should be very willing to
sustain the proposition of the gentleman over
the way, but that I believe the purposes of the
proposition can be better accomplished byleg-
islative action. I believe there is already an
act of assembly requiring the clerks of each
county to attend so many days in the week to
the duties of their office; but whether there
be or not, I think it is perfectly competent for
the legislative to pass such a. law; and it is
hardly necessary to incorporate it here. 1
should be in favor of a proposition of that
kind, mating the bondman of the clerk re-
sponsible for his personal attendance to his
duties.
Mr. THRUSTON, My object was this: The
latter part of the section is that " he shall be
subject to removal by the said court for incom-
petency, neglect of duty, misdemeanor in office,
or such other cause or causes as may be pre-
scribed by law." I want to impose the duties
upon him personally insuch a way that it shall
be a wilful neglect of duty for him to trans-
fer them to another person. I think this is
the proper place for it.
Mr. PUGH. I think this is more properly a
question between the officer who is elected and
the people who elect him. The great difficul-
ty in the constitution is in adopting phraseol-
ogy that is liable to some misinterpretation.
The gentleman has varied his amendment, so
as to read not only "exclusively," lint "du-
ring business hours." That is liable to objec-
tion; because if the officer was not there du-
ring all the business hours, he would not ful-
fil the constitutional provision, I do not see
how it is possible to prevent it from being ob-
jectionable in that respect. If the people
think a man does not attend to his duty,
that he is an unfaithful public servant, they
should not vote for him, I shall always be
careful to vote for men whom I expect faith-
fully to discharge their duties. I do not in-
tend to vote for a man who will avoid the du-
ties of his office, it seems to me that being
elected to an office like this, it is properly a
question between the officer and the people.
Mr. THOMAS. I would suggest that a pro-
position came from my colleague from Balti- |
