in 1850 met here and adopted the present Constitution of the State. The Legislature, The Legislature, when they passed the bill at the last session, presumed that the Constitution which this body was to frame would be framed here, in this ancient city, the place where Constitutions have always been framed for the State of Maryland. What is our charter? Our commission from the people is to come here and make a Constitution here.

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we are to act, are here. We have ready communication with them, which we cannot have, with such facility, if we remove to the city of Baltimore.

Besides that, as I have said before, it is a departure from the law under which we are assembled. The people, when they sent us here, intended that we should meet in the city of Annapolis and hold our sessions from day to day until we had completed our work. The people said to us that we were not to consult our own convenience. When we came before the people as candidates for this high public trust we accepted the position knowing that under this law the people had directed that we should come here and hold our sessions, and continue here until our

What conveniences have we here for the performance of the duties which the people have imposed upon us? We have a hall here, fitted up in the most convenient manner, for the accommodation of the members. We have the rooms in which our various committees can assemble and deliberate upon the various subjects committed to their care. | work was completed. We have our State Library, State Library, containing the records and journals of the proceedings of the former Convention and former legislative bodies that have been held here, to which we have ready access; and books to which reference can be made in the argument and examination of any question which may come before the body are all right at our hands. Now I know that in the city of Baltimore we cannot be accommodated with these things unless our Library be removed. There is no library there that we can have access to. They have a Law Library, to which members of the bar are only admitted. A removal of this Convention to Baltimore would necessitate, in order that we may carry out properly the objects for which the people sent us here, the removal of almost all the archives of the Government to that city. Our committee rooms have been fitted up and we have access to them. If we go into a hall in the city of Baltimore, any which has been mentioned by the gentleman from Baltimore city (Mr. BARRON) yesterday, we shall probably have to look for the accommodation of our committees to rooms in a different building.

But the question is not whether it may be more convenient to members, in giving them railroad facilities to their homes, and their families, or to attend to their own private business; but the immediate purpose to which we should look is the duty which the people sent us here to perform.

Mr. BARRON. I will state to the gentleman, with his permission, that Odd Fellows' Hall has committee rooms far superior to what we have here.

Mr. MILLER resumed. The gentleman says that there are committee rooms there. But even if they have halls and committee rooms, every facility for performing the work which the people sent us here to do is in the city of Annapolis. It is the capital of the State. All the records, and archives, of the government of the State are here; all the departments of the government, from which we shall wish to obtain information on the subjects on which

The facility of carrying on the business of the Convention, apart from those matters to which I have referred, would be greatly increased by remaining in the city of Annapolis. Baltimore is a city in which there are various allurements which would perhaps attract members from the duties which they are required to perform; and I venture to predict that if we go to the city of Baltimore we shall not complete the labors of this Con-v vention with in so short a time, by a month, as we should if we stayed here. I know a little about Baltimore city, and if gentlemen choose to absent themselves and leave the Convention without a quorum, and if a call of the Convention is ordered, and the Sergeant-atArms is sent out for absent members, I should like to know how long it would take to get them present in the hall. The Sergeant-at Arms might hunt over the city of Baltimore for a week before he could find an absent member and bring him into the holy. But this, our ancient city, where Constitutions have been formed, where the seat of government is established, is comparatively small, the residences of members are known, and it can be known at once whether a member has left the city or is here; the absent members can be summoned without delay to participate in the deliberations of the body and made to perform their duties.

The dignity of the body also, it seems to me, would be preserved by following the precedents which have been set by those who have framed our previous Constitutions. Let us not, in the very opening of our session, do an act which would seem to disregard the will of the people who sent us here, as expressed in the law under which we are convened.

I will not allude to many other things which might possibly occur in the city of Baltimore. I wish, and I have no doubt it is the wish of the majority of this Convention, that there shall be full and free and frank debate on all questions that may arise in this body. We can have it here. Can we at all times without interruption have it in the city

of Baltimore? If the history of that city is to be looked to, we shall find that sometimes not law prevails there, and that freedom of debate in deliberative bodies has been interfered with. I do not know that any such thing will happen if this Convention goes there; but it may happen; and we should avoid as far as possible every chance of such an interference. We are to frame a new Constitution. Great and important changes are to be adopted by this body. We ought to deliberate upon them calmly. We ought to have the privilege of debating them fairly. We ought to have a calm, full, fair, and open discussion of all those subjects. In my judgment this above all others is the fitting place in which to hold this assembly; and I am opposed to the order for removing to the city of Baltimore.

Mr. SANDS. If it be proper to do so, I will premise what I have to say by tendering my grateful thanks to the gentlemen of Baltimore for their kind invitation; and I, for one, feel inclined to accept it, not because, as the gentleman from Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller) suggests, I want to pocket any part of my per diem as a member of this body. Being named after our good old George Washington, I am willing to follow his example, keep strict account of my expenses and pay the balance to whomsoever may choose to accept it, Baltimore city, Annapolis, or anybody else. That is not one of my considerations at all. Neither am I influenced by any particular love for Baltimore city, or any particular disregard of the good old city of Annapolis. I like Baltimore city for some things, and dislike it for others. I have had individually greater cause to dislike Baltimore city than Annapolis. I am very much, too, in favor of giving all due deference to old things, old laws, old customs, old habits, anything that time has tried and proved good. Stiil, if I believe that the public good requires a move, no matter in what direction that move is to be made, I for one feel disposed to accept the responsibility of making it.

people to represent them would stand by and see an act of wrong, or injustice, or maltreatment, committed upon any fellow member.

I think then upon those two points, the question of convenience, and the question of free debate, I am authorized to say that the convenience will be greater, and the order just as great, and debate just as full, and fair and free. I turn then to the other points. I agree with the gentleman from Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller) that no private interest ought to be allowed to stand in the way of the public good; but I allege, from the experience of a single week, that it is my conviction that the business of this Convention will be expedited, instead of delayed, by going to Baltimore. I take it that the objection founded upon the difficulty of the duties of the Sergeant-at-Arms in Baltimore city rather proceeded upon the ground that this Convention, school-boy like, is going to saunter out at any and every opportunity, and that it will be the constant duty of the Sergeantat-Arms to go out and hunt up its members and drive them in. I have a very different idea of members of this body. I think they came here to discharge a high responsibility-a great trust. Until I find any one of my fellow members delinquent, I am perfectly willing to assume that he will faithfully discharge his duty.

What, then, is that duty? To frame the organic law of the State-to frame a new Constitution for the State of Maryland. If that Constitution pleases the people in its provisions, if it embodies the reforms that the people demand, does it make any difference to A, B, and C, of Anne Arundel ör Howard county, where that Constitution is framed? I am one of the people who under this act voted that this Convention should meet and frame a new Constitution. I had not the remotest idea, in voting for a Convention and a new Constitution, that I was tying the Convention down to any given point or place. Neither had the people. The people care nothing at all about that. On the contrary, so far as I had the opportunity of mixing with the people at home, since this matter of removal has been talked about, it has met with universal favor there, from the conviction on their part that the business of the Convention will be expedited.

I thought the gentleman from Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller) in the course of his remarks tacitly admitted that he was setting up objections to the acceptance of this invitation simply that they might be knocked down. For instance, "could we have the same accommodations there?" "Yes," says the gentle- I claim to be as patriotic as most gentleman from Baltimore, "and better." "Can men, and as willing to make all reasonable we have free debate there?" Now I pre-sacrifices as most gentlemen. But I say that sume that every individual member of this Convention, no matter what be the shade of his. political opinions, stands bound as a gentleman to guaranty the rights of every other individual member of this Convention. He stands so pledged and will never fail. Free and full debate can be had just as well in the city of Baltimore as here; for I take it for granted that no gentleman sent here by the

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no gentleman has a right to ask of me an unnecessary sacrifice. All needful ones I will make freely; all I ask is that I shall not be required to make a useless sacrifice. How then am I situated, and how are the members from Western Maryland generally situated with regard to the place of meeting? I say that holding our sessions in Annapolis will keep these members out of this body at least

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two days in every week unless they make up, suppose that if they had they were so ignotheir minds to abandon everything at home. rant of the use of language as not to know It takes me just three days to make a round how to effect their end is to suppose that trip of some 60 miles. To get here on Mon- legislative To get here on Mon- legislative body to have been composed of a day morning, I must leave my home at Elli- very dull set of gentlemen. If it had been cott's Mills at 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon; the purpose of that Legislature to bind us go to Baltimore; lodge there over night; and here, I know there were legal gentlemen memcome down here the next morning to attend bers of that body who would have known exto my duties. If I want to go home, I must actly how to put the fetters around us. I go to Baltimore city, lay there over nigbt, say that it was not contemplated. The very and then go up to Ellicott's Mills. The ex- phraseology of the act makes that fact patent; perience of a week has taught me that one of for I repeat that to suppose the Legislature two things is almost a necessity. I must did not know enough to put in these little abandon my position here or at home. words "in said city," if that was their meaning, is to suppose them a very dull lot of gentiemen indeed. I know they were not dull. I know there were legal gentlemen among them of great acumen and ability; and if they had desired to keep us here it would have been provided for.

As to the precedents for removal, we have had some very remarkable precedents in late years. We have had the precedent of removing from Montgomery to Richmond; and it is thought by many people that General Grant contemplates another movement; so that we shall not lack for precedents.

Now I say that the public good is very often involved in the private individual interest. I can serve the State of Maryland six days out of seven in Baltimore city; but if we meet here, I may do my best, and unless I turn Sabbath-breaker I cannot serve it more than four. I believe that if we remove This is a matter then in which there is no to Baltimore the session will be shorter, and law and no principle in the way. If it can money will be saved to the State, for the be shown that we violate any principle or any reason that we shall be able to save the de-law by going away, I will not vote to go. liberations, and debates, and action of two But if it cannot be shown that we are violatdays in the week, for those who pay the ex- ing any principle, or doing anything upon a penses of this Convention. The per diem is wrong principle, the whole matter refers itself considerable, of course. back to the ground of the convenience of members and the facilities for the transaction of business. There it rests, on those two grounds. Is it more convenient to the majority of the members of this body to meet in Baltimore than here? I think there could be scarcely two opinions about it-that it would be more convenient for us to meet in Baltimore. If that is so, if you settle the question that it is more convenient for the majority of the members to meet in Baltimore city than here, then I say we ought to move, unless you can make this other point that it will delay the proceedings of this body, and thereby entail upon the people of the State an undue amount of taxation to pay expenses. If you can make that point, then 1 will vote with you; for I will do nothing unnecessarily to encumber the State with taxation. But if, as I believe, not only will the convenience of members be subserved by removal, but the business of the body will be expedited, then what stands in the way of the acceptance of the generous and gracious invitation of our great commercial emporium? Nothing at all.

In the third section of the bill under which we have met, I find this:

"And be it enacted, That in case a majority of the ballots cast shall be in favor of the call of a Convention as aforesaid, then the said Convention shall meet at the city of Annapolis on the last Wednesday of April in the year 1864, and shall continue in session from day to day until the business for which said Convention shall have been assembled shall be fully completed and finished."

That we should continue here under all circumstances, against the interests of the members and against the interests of the body politic, was not even contemplated by those who framed this act and made it a law. If they had contemplated it, and desired it, if they had intended to strip us of all power to consult our own convenience and the public interest in this matter, how easy it would have been to insert the little words "in said city "' thus:

"shall meet at the city of Annapolis on the last Wednesday of April, 1864, and shall continue in session in said city from day to day."

So far from there being any truth in the idea that the people expected us to continue here from day to day, even their representatives who made the law under which we meet had no such thing in contemplation. To

I am in great antagonism myself with the idea that there is a natural antagonism between Baltimore city and the people of the State. There is no such thing. Their interests are identical. Let our great city grow to its largest limits, and our State will feel the benefit of it. If more brick and mortar go up in Baltimore city, more grass and grain will grow in Howard county. The benefits are mutual. I would like, if we could do it, to do some act which should authoritatively express the opinion that there is no natural autagonism between any part of this State and the centre or any other part of the State.

cised their judgment on every subject that they voted upon. When they voted for or against a Convention, they looked at that bill as a whole and not in part; and finding in that bill that a place was appointed for holding the Convention, that was a part of the inducement to them to vote for or against the calling of the Convention If it were not important, why put it in the bill? To illustrate the importance of having some such provision in the bill, had we assembled here to-day without any provision in the bill specifying any place where this Convention should be held, there might be a contest among members of the Convention to a much greater extent than there is as to what should be the place where this Convention should assemble. There might be gentlemen here from Frederick city contending that it would be more convenient to hold it in Frederick city; and even in the out-of-the-way county that I represent I do not know but that in the town of Upper Marlborough we might have found some inducements for bringing the Convention there.

This idea of antagonism is at the bottom of
all our modern troubles. We have had an-
tagonism and collision of State against State,
and Baltimore city against the counties, and
by and by we shall have county against
county, election district against election dis-
trict, and then will come shool district
against school district, until we shall have
universal antagonism, and be a race of Ish-
maelites, each man's hand against his neigh-
bor. If we had the right to it, I should
like to do some act which would set the seal
of disapprobation upon this modern idea that
my interests are naturally antagonistic to
yours, and that my right necessarily involves
the taking from you your right. There is
no sound political economy, no stable govern-
ment, no peace, no law, no order, no princi-
ple, nothing that men should prize, that can
be safely based upon this idea of antagonism.
Baltimore city does not want to harm the
counties, and I know the counties do not
want to harm Baltimore city. I believe that
if gentlemen will accept this gracious invita-
tion they will find that Baltimore is not an-
tagonistic to them. They will be as free
there as here to express whatever thought is sion in t
uppermost. I see nothing in the way of
principle to be sacrificed by the removal, and
I do believe the public good will be subserved
by it. I for one, and I have no doubt that
many gentlemen, will be able to serve the
State of Maryland six days out of seven there;
and here we could not serve it more than
four. This removal does not at all involve
the removal of the capital of the State. I
should vote against that as heartily as any
other gentleman; but I say that for the pur-
poses of this Convention we shall do better
there than here. For these reasons, Mr.
President, I shall vote to go there.

Mr. MILLER In order to bring the matter before the Convention more directly, I move the following as a substitute for the pending order :

Ordered, That this Convention, having received the invitation of the committee of the Mayor and City Councils of Baltimore to transfer our sessions to that city, we hereby express our grateful appreciation of that invitation, but most respectfully decline to accept the same.

Mr. MARBURY. I cordially endorse the substitute just offered. At the same time I desire to extend my thanks to the gentlemen from Baltimore city who have so courteously extended this invitation to the Convention. But, sir, on principle, on legal grounds, I must object to the acceptance of that invitation. The gentleman who last addressed this Convention has stated that the people of the State of Maryland did not have this matter under consideration when they sent us to this Convention. I beg leave very respectfully to differ with him on that subject. I consider the people of the State of Maryland as having exer

I consider this as a very important provibill; but I will not repeat the strong arguments which have been so ably presented by the gentleman from Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller.)

The gentleman from Howard (Mr. Sands) said that there was an antagonism between the people, and that there seemed to be a spirit of antagonism arising between different sections of the State. For my part I confess that I have no feeling of antagonism against any human being, or against any section of the State The only desire that we have in our section is that we may have a full, fair, calm expression of public opinion upon all these questions. We want to have the Convention held in this place, under such circumstances as will best ensure to the people a fair expression of public opinion.

What are the arguments for going to Baltimore city? The gentleman says that expense and inconvenience can be saved by so doing. Who come here at more expense, or at greater inconvenience, than the gentlemen who represent my portion of the State? At every hour of the day or night there are emissaries from some quarter or other who are ready to grab up a species of personal property in that section of the State. There are men at all times engaged in that work. It matters not to us, it is a matter of no more personal inconvenience to us, to attend the Convention, from our section of the State, at one place than at another; because the damage which is being done to us can be done in a day as well as in a week. It is of no sort of consideration, as to personal expense or inconvenience to us.

I do not deny that this Convention may have the constitutional power, having assembled, to adjourn to any place they may