Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-05-26
State Constitutional Convention


This Sovereign Body appears to be drag
cling its length along in the most leisure.
ly manner without an apparent thought
as to what they are costing the people
their constituents. All the real work
for which they were assembled that they
have done was the submission by the Com
mittcc on the Declaration cfRights ola re-
port on that subject. The hill reported
is n very considerable improvement on the
present one, but there is room for yet
more improvement. The first section is
the cnunciation of principles much more
Democratic than anything we have seen
in the politics of the State since we first
heard the word Democracy, it is the first
open acknowledgement of tile unqualified
right of the people to change their organ
ic law and rs such as great step towards
true Democracy 1t is the greatest step
yet taken to plant the State of Maryland
on the the platform ofpriuciplcs embodied
in the Declaration of independence. We
could wish the Committee had made their
bill of Rights conform yet more closely
to the Declaration of Independence. In
section fourteen they have retained an
old fossil dogma which is utterly at war
with the spirit and necessities of the times.
If the Convention will strike out the first
sentence of that section, they will enable
the Legislature to do n big work in the
establishment and maintenance OF a sys-
tenn of public education which the pro-
rress of the times and the change in So
eial and political events makes matter
of primary Importance to the prosperity,
safety and progress of the State. Every
man who is entitled to vote ought and
would willingly contribute something to
a general system of education, and the
prohibition is only worth the feudal old
togv,sm of the age in which it originated.
Nothing has yet been done toward the
adoption of the report, discussion it does
not need amendment ii may. Nor has
anySother committee made a report that
we have seen one whole month frittered
away in parliamentary etiquette totally
Inappropriate in that body.
Gentlemen of the majority, the people
of the State hold you responsible for eve
ry,hing done as we'll as for all things IN
done BY that convention and the manner
in which these actions are done. The
minority are too pocerlsss TO be held to
any accountability, you and YOU alone
must answer. for you have ample power
to do. Ifyoa do not change your place,
Grant will be in Richmond, and the re-
bellion ended before you wake up to
realizing sense Of what you were sent to
do. What can you do: Act gag and re'e!
Spend much less time in discussions in
the House act more in committees; report
b n vote. The tax paying loyal people
id net send you to Annapolis to squandcr
thousands of their .oney that you might
allow the disloyol to ventilate their sym
pathies with rebellion postpone ana per-
haps defeat the work entrusted TO your
hands.
Perhaps the Vaccinations of the anti
progrcss'uss have already made some
weak knecd among the faithful If so,
the sooner you apply the gag and finish
your work the more successful YOU will
be likely to be. If they have By their
talking already placed you in minority
the sooner you make tina; fact apparent &c
the people the better for you, and the
sooner you adjourn the better for the peo
pie, and the more money will be saved
for better purposes. Again We say work
and work with speed.