Court Opinion

ID: 9701747
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:35:55.588262+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:28.431442
License: Public Domain

Hammond, C. J.,
delivered the majority opinion of the Court. Barnes, J., dissents. Dissenting opinion at page 445, infra.
In June of 1965 Governor Tawes appointed a Commission to. study the necessity for revision of the Constitution of Maryland, *422to determine whether a convention should be held to prepare the revision and to suggest the procedures for the calling and holding of such a convention. The Commission concluded that a completely new constitution should be prepared by delegates to a convention and submitted to the voters of the State for adoption.
Pursuant to the recommendations of the Commission the Legislature by Ch. 501 of the Laws of 1966 provided for a special election to be held at the same time as the primary election of 1966 to take the sense of the voters on whether a convention should be convened, not earlier than September 1, 1967, and not later than September 1, 1968, to frame a new Constitution. By Ch. 500 of the Laws of 1966 it was provided that if a majority of those voting at the special election voted for a convention it should assemble on September 12, 1967, at such place and for such time as might thereafter be prescribed by law. Chapter 500 also provided that each County and each of the legislative districts of Baltimore City should have the same number of delegates in the convention as Ch. 2 of the Laws of the Special Session of October 11, 1965, prescribed for election to the House of Delegates at the General Election of 1966 from such county and legislative district.
The special election proposed by Ch. 501 was held on September 13, 1966, concurrently with the primary election. The vote was 160,280 for a constitutional convention and 31,680 against. Although the number of. favorable votes was more than a majority of the total votes cast in the special election, that number was a minority of the total votes cast in the primary election.
When the General Assembly of 1967 began consideration of legislation to provide for the qualifications of delegates to the convention, the manner of their election, their compensation and the duration of and other matters relating to the convention, almost immediately it was confronted with problems, most of which stemmed from the prohibitions of the existing constitution against the holding of more than one office of profit or trust under the constitution or laws of the State. These legal questions, which included (1) the validity of Chs. 500 and 501 of the Laws of 1966, both of which were enacted as emergency *423measures, even though § 2 of Art. XVI of the Constitution provides that no law creating an office shall be enacted as an emergency law, and (2) the eligibility of members of the Legislature and other public officers to serve as delegates to the convention, caused grave concern to- the General Assembly and to the Secretary of State, in his case for their bearing on the performance of bis functions in relation to the elective process.
To obtain a solution to the dilemma, the Legislature enacted Ch. 1 of the Laws of 1967 which authorized the Attorney General, on behalf of the General Assembly and the Secretary of State, to institute a declaratory judgment proceeding under Art. 31A of the Code in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County against the Board of Supervisors of Elections of Anne Arundel County and such other defendants as the Attorney General deemed appropriate to obtain a declaration of the correct answer to nine questions, lettered (a) to (i) (several of the questions having various subdivisions). Question (a) was: “Would a delegate to the constitutional convention be the holder of an office within the meaning of Articles 33 and 35 of the Declaration of Rights and Section 6- of Article I and Sections 11 and 17 of Article III of the Constitution of Maryland?” Questions (b) through (g) all were based on the premise that a delegate to the constitutional convention would be an officer and if it were held that he was not these questions, it was, and is, agreed, would not have to be answered. Question (h) was: “In light of the fact that those voting ‘for’ the calling of a convention did not constitute a majority of those voting in the election, is the calling of a convention at this time mandatory?” Question (i) was: “Can the calling of a convention be delayed by a period of two years ?” 1
*424On February 17, 1967, suit was filed by the Attorney General in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County on behalf *425of the Legislature and the Secretary of State against the individuals constituting the Supervisors of Elections of Anne Arundel Cottnty. On February 21, a petition to intervene as plaintiff was filed by the Maryland State Bar Association, Inc. (which had been designated in Ch. 1 as an interested entity) and granted, and on February 23 an individual taxpayer was allowed to intervene as a defendant.
The Attorney General and the Bar Association asked, inter alia, for a declaration that (1) a delegate is not the holder of an office, (2) a majority of persons voting at the election of September 13, 1966, voted in favor of calling a Constitutional Convention, and (3) the assembling of a convention may not be delayed. The Supervisors, on the contrary, answered and prayed the court to declare a delegate to be the holder of an office, that although a majority of those voting in the special election favored a convention, its calling either on September 12, 1967, or between September 1, 1967, and September 1, 1968, is not mandatory, and that the calling of a convention can be delayed for two years.
The intervening defendant urged that a delegate is the holder of an office, that the calling of a convention on September 12, 1967, is not mandatory, the matter being in the sole discretion *426of the General Assembly, that no special election was properly held for lack of adequate notice, particularly to independent voters and others not interested in the primary election, and since the General Assembly alone has the responsibility of determining whether to call a convention in 1967, the calling of such a convention may be delayed for two years.2
The court (Evans, J.) declared on February 28 that (1) a delegate to the convention is not the holder of an office within the meaning of Articles 33 and 35 of the Declaration of Rights or the meaning of § 6 of Article I or §§ 11 and 17 of Article III of the Constitution of Maryland; (2) adequate notice of the special election was given; (3) a majority of the persons voting at the special election of September 13, 1966, voted in favor of a constitutional convention; (4) the assembling of a constitutional convention may not be delayed; and (5) by reason of the adjudication and declaration that a delegate would not be an officer, the remaining issues became moot.
Chapter 1 of the Laws of 1967 conferred jurisdiction on the Court of Appeals to review the judgment and determination of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County and provided that “the decision of the Court of Appeals of Maryland upon such review shall have the same force and effect as any other final decision of the Court * * An appeal was taken from Judge Evans’ order and we advanced the case, hearing argument on March 6. On March 7 we affirmed the adjudications and declarations below by per curiam order, all the judges but Judge Barnes concurring. We now set out the reasons for our affirmance.
No question was raised below or on appeal as to the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court and the Court of Appeals to hear and decide the matter. We think it appropriate to say that in our opinion the Circuit Court had jurisdiction under §§ 1, 2, 5 and 6 of Art. 31A of the Code, the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act. Under § 1 courts have power “to declare rights, status and other legal relations” whether or not further relief *427is or could be claimed. In the case filed in the Circuit Court there were conflicting claims and the parties were legally, although not personally, hostile. Section 6 of Art. 31A authorizes granting of relief in all cases in which there is an actual controversy between contending parties or in which the court is satisfied “that antagonistic claims are present between the parties involved which indicate imminent and inevitable litigation, or * * * that a party asserts a legal relation, status, right, or privilege in which he has a concrete interest and that there is a challenge or denial of such asserted relation, status, right, or privilege by an adverse party who also has or asserts a concrete interest therein, and the court is satisfied also that a declaratory judgment or decree shall serve to' terminate the uncertainty or controversy giving rise to the proceedings.” The proceeding in which the Circuit Court granted declaratory relief met the tests of Art. 31A. Md. Committee v. Tawes, 228 Md. 412.
Chapter 1 of the Laws of 1967 gave the Court of Appeals its. ordinary jurisdiction upon appeal to review the judgment and determination of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. The Court of Appeals exercises appellate jurisdiction only and' the Legislature cannot confer original jurisdiction on the Court, Sevinskey v. Wagus, 76 Md. 335, 336, nor require it to decide a moot question or an abstract proposition, State v. Shields, 49 Md. 301, 305, but the Legislature may confer the right on this Court to hear appeals in special cases provided appellate judicial functions and powers are left untrammeled. State v. Northern Central Railway Co., 18 Md. 193, 210 ; Prout v. Berry, 2 Gill 147, 150. In the present case, as in Northern Central, the appellate review authorized by Ch. 1 was the customary review of live, concrete questions fairly presented by the transcript, all of which necessarily were involved in the decision of the trial court, and therefore was permissible.
We pass to the merits. Article 33 of the Declaration of Rights states that no judge shall hold any other office, “civil or military, or political trust, or employment of any kind, whatsoever, under the Constitution or Laws of this State * * *.” Article 35 follows to provide that “no person shall hold, at the same time, more than one office of profit, created by the Constitution, *428or Laws of this State * * *.” Section 6 of Art. I of the Constitution recites that “every person elected, or appointed, to any office of profit or trust, under this Constitution, or under the Laws, made pursuant thereto,” shall take a prescribed oath of office under which he swears that he will not receive the profits “of any other office” during the term of his acting in the office for which he is qualifying. Section 11 of Art. Ill declares ineligible as a senator or a delegate all ministers and all other persons holding “any civil office of profit, or trust, under this State” (except justices of the peace). Section 17 of Art. Ill prohibits a member of the General Assembly during the term for which he was elected, from serving in “any office, which shall have been created, or the salary, or profits of which shall have been increased, during such term.” (All emphasis has been supplied.)
The need for and purpose of these provisions manifestly was to protect against conflicts of interest, self aggrandizement, concentration of power, and the blurring or obliteration of the doctrine of separation of powers, in the performance by the agents of the people of their delegated authorities to exercise the executive, legislative and judicial functions of the organized government. We think the incompatible and barred offices were intended to be only those created by the Constitution or by the laws enacted pursuant to the Constitution in the exercise of some part of so much of the sovereignty of the people as was delegated to the formal organization which the people of Maryland constituted the current government of the State by the adoption of the Constitution. Section 56 of Art. Ill of the Constitution of Maryland confers upon the General Assembly ■“power to pass all such Laws as may be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested, by this Constitution, in any Department, or office of the Government, and the duties imposed upon them thereby.” The delegated legislative powers of the General Assembly are plenary, except as limited by the Federal and State Constitutions. Md. Committee v. Tawes, 228 Md. 412, 439.
Commentators, lay and judicial, concur almost unanimously in the view that the general power of a state legislature to make, alter and repeal laws, pursuant to the constitution by which *429the people created the legislature, does not include the power or the right to make or remake the fundamental law, the constitution. A state constitution may aptly be likened to a legislative act enacted directly by the people themselves in their sovereign capacity as a political entity (that is, by the voters, for “the original power of the people, in their aggregate political capacity, is delegated in the form of suffrage to such persons as they deem proper,” Anderson v. Baker, 23 Md. 531, 619), and therefore is the fundamental, extraordinary act by which the pepole establish the structure and mechanism of their government. Cooley, Constitutional Limitations (8th Ed.), p. 355 ; Jameson, Constitutional Conventions, pp. 84-86, 422 and 586 ; Hoar, Constitutional Conventions, pp. 80-82 ; 16 Am. Jur. 2d, Constitutional Law § 26 ; Staples v. Gilmer (Va.), 33 S. E. 2d 49, 53; Ellingham v. Dye (Ind.), 99 N. E. 1 ; State v. Cox, 8 Ark. 436, 444. Essentially, a constitution is fundamental legislation directly by the people acting politically in their sovereign capacity, while a law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the legislative agents of the people under and subject to the delegated limitations of the previously ordained superior legislation, the Constitution.
This Court has recognized that laws and legislative actions relating to amendment or revision of the constitution differ greatly and significantly from one another.
In Warfield v. Vandiver, 101 Md. 78, 113-116, the Legislature, acting under Art. XIV of the Constitution, proposed an amendment to Art. I of the Constitution relating to the elective franchise and directed that the proposed amendment be submitted to the voters of the State in a prescribed manner at the next general election. The governor refused to submit the amendment because the legislative proposal had not been submitted to him for signature or rejection as an ordinary bill would have had to be. The case was argued well and fully by leading lawyers of the time. Chief Judge McSherry, for the unanimous Court on this point, in holding that submission to the governor was not required of a proposed constitutional amendment because it was not a potential law enacted under the Constitution but a potential part of the Constitution, said (pp. 114-116 of 101 Md.) :
*430“The distinction between a bill and a law is carefully maintained throughout the aforegoing section [§ 17 of Art. II providing for the executive veto] ; and the plain and clear provisions of the section make it morally certain that it has no application to a proposed Constitutional Amendment. This is the only provision in the organic law except section thirty of Article three, which confers upon the Governor authority to sign or veto a bill. If a proposal to amend the Constitution is not embraced by either of those sections, then Article 14 is unaffected by them; and as its terms do not include the Governor he has no power to approve or veto a measure propounded under it. * * * A bill proposing an amendment to the Constitution and nothing more, would not become a law if signed by the Governor nor would it become a law if passed by three-fifths vote over his veto; because it is required to be submitted to the people for their adoption or rejection; and not until it shall appear that a majority of the votes cast at the polls on such proposed amendment are in favor thereof can the Governor proclaim that it has been ‘adopted by the people of Maryland as part of the Constitution It is not operative unless adopted by the people—it is a mere proposal to amend until sanctioned by them; and when adopted by their votes it becomes, not a law in the sense in which that word is used in the Constitution, but a part of the Constitution * * *
“The people are the source of power. It is they who make and abrogate written constitutions, and when in the organic law which they have chosen for themselves they have designated the General Assembly, consisting of a Senate and a House of Delegates and nothing more, to be the agency for propounding amendments to the Constitution; no Executive has the right to step in between that agency and the people themselves and to say that without his approval they shall not be permitted to express their views on measures amendatory of the organic law. * * * Whilst *431the Governor is entrusted with power to protect the people against hasty legislation, he is not given a prerogative to guard them against themselves in the matter of amending the organic law. He is not superior to them. It is their will which he must obey—it is not his will which they must subserve.
“Article 14 is a separate and distinct sub-division of the Constitution. It deals, in its first section, exclusively with the process of amending the Constitution and has no relation whatever to legislation. [It deals in its second section with taking the sense of the people every twenty years on calling a constitutional convention to undertake a general revision of the Constitution.] The other provisions in other articles to which allusion has been made are confined to law making— this article (emphasis supplied) is restricted to Constitution making; and the two subjects are widely disconnected in location and in substance.”
The interpretation Dodd in his book The Revision and Amendment of State Constitutions, p. 150', gives the Vmdiver decision is that “The Maryland Court said that the word ‘bill’ was used in the amending clause simply to express a proposal or project, and not in the same manner as the word was used elsewhere in the constitution to refer to bills which should become law by legislative enactment and executive approval.”
The Legislature may not make the effectiveness or validity of a general law depend on its approval by the voters of the State, Brawner v. Supervisors, 141 Md. 586, because the people bindingly delegated to the Legislature the power to make laws, reserving no part of such power to themselves (except by way of referendum), and the delegated power may not be redelegated. In contrast, neither piecemeal amendments of the Constitution nor total amendment by way of adoption of the recommendations of the constitutional convention can take effect until the voters have given their approval—to piecemeal revision in the manner provided in § 1 of Art. XIV, and for total revision as provided in § 2 of Art. XIV, and as the Legislature provided in Ch. 4 of the Laws of 1967, passed since the decision below and the affirmance by this Court, or, mayhap, as *432Anderson v. Baker, supra, at p. 616 of 23 Md. suggests, by acquiescence of the people, as happened in the case of the Constitution of 1776.
While the power of remaking the constitution is not in the Legislature, nevertheless, the Legislature may act to provide the mechanics for changes of the constitution by the people. To use the Legislature, a body created by the constitution, to provide the mechanics and sinews for changing that constitution by ascertaining the will of the people, for the election of delegates and the submission of their work to the people and at the same time to class their legislative actions as not encompassed by the provisions of the constitution as to laws may at first thought seem so illogical as to be unsound. Yet it has been accepted generally as sound and proper. “A supraconstitutional right requiring the assistance of constitutional authority is certainly an anomaly, and yet that is what exists in the case of conventions.” Hoar, op. cit. p. 76. This technique is but part of the exercise of the fundamental right of the people to change their constitution whenever and however they deem fit; this right derives not from constitutions, but is a retained inherent right above and beyond the constitution, and therefore actions of the Legislature making available and supporting the exercise of that right—which with considerable perception and accuracy has been termed peaceful revolution3—are actions in ex*433ercise of the people’s reserved powers of sovereignty and not actions in exercise of powers delegated by the Constitution. The Court, in Anderson v. Baker, supra, suggested, if it did not hold, this when Judge Bowie said (p. 616 of 23 Md.) :
“The powers of a Convention of the people of a State assembled to frame a form of Government, are no where defined. It is the right of the people to alter or abolish, or institute a new Government, ‘laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.’ The Convention is the depository of the residuary or reserved sover*434eignty of the people, unlimited, except so far as restrained by the Constitution of the United States, and the moral law. Whether this action is dependent upon the subsequent ratification of the people or not, is not clearly established; but when ratified and adopted, or acquiesced in, their acts are unquestionably within the limits prescribed. The wisdom or wantonness of the act, its effect upon majorities or minorities, are not subjects of judicial cognizance. These are determined by their adoption.”
Maryland consistently has recognized and acted upon the principle enunciated in Anderson v. Baker that the people of the State have the fundamental right to alter, modify or abolish and replace their form of government according to their sovereign pleasure.
Maryland Constitution Conventional Proceedings of 1774, 1775 & 1776 (1836), pp. 184-89, reveals that on July 3, 1776, the Congress or Convention of Maryland, which had been the acting government for some two years, resolved “That a new convention be elected for the express purpose of forming a new government, by the authority of the people only, and enacting and ordering all things for the preservation, safety and general weal of this colony” and that all freemen above twenty-one, owning fifty acres of land or property “in this colony” of forty pounds sterling “be admitted to vote for representatives to serve in the said convention” and that “any person qualified as aforesaid to vote, may be elected a member of the intended convention” if he had resided in the colony for a year preceding the election. Members of the armed forces “of this province” were expressly disqualified.
The election was set for August 1, 1776, and the resolving Congress or convention dissolved itself and abrogated its powers and authority as of that date. The voters duly elected the delegates to the new convention, including a number who had been members of the previous convention.4 The constitution *435they produced, under which the State was governed until 1851, was not formally ratified by the people, but its making had been authorized by them and it was not finally adopted until their views were known and respected. Dodd, The Revision and Amendment of State Constitutions, pp. 12-13, indicates that there was direct popular influence on the forming and final adoption of the Constitution, saying:
“That some of the people of this state took a lively interest in the organization of government is shown by the fact that B. T. B. Worthington, Charles Carroll, barrister, and Samuel Chase, the two latter undoubted leaders and members of the committee to prepare a form of government, resigned from the convention because they had received ‘instructions from their constituents, enjoining them, in framing a government for this state, implicitly to adhere to points in their opinion incompatible with good government and the public 2')eace and happiness [Maryland Constitutional Convention Proceedings of 1774, 1775 & 1776, pp. 222 and 22S 5 ]. Although there was no formal reference of the first constitution of Maryland to the people, the action taken by the convention on September 17, 1776, probably served a similar purpose. The committee had reported to the convention a proposed bill of rights and constitution; action upon this report was postponed until September 30th, and it was resolved ‘that the said bill of rights and form of government be immediately printed for the consideration of the people at large, and that twelve copies thereof be sent without delay to each county in the state.’ [Id. at 258]”
The Constitution of 1776 provided in § 39 that members of *436the General Assembly could not hold any other office of profit, a provision proposed and adopted by a convention in which sat members of the prior legislative body. It also provided in Art. 59 that it could not be altered except by Act of two successive legislatures, the second of which had to be after a new election. Yet the Legislature in 1850 passed an act (Laws of 1849, Ch. 346) calling for an election to determine whether the people wanted a constitutional convention called and providing, if they did, for the election of delegates and a subsequent election at which the new constitution would be passed on by the people. Chapter 346 itself provided that members of the General Assembly “shall be eligible to a seat in the convention to assemble as hereinbefore prescribed, without affecting the tenure of their respective offices.” Some—certainly nine, perhaps eleven, members of the General Assembly served in the convention notwithstanding the provision of § 39 of the Constitution of 1776.6 The 1851 Constitution came into lawful and effective being by the action of the people, although not in the way prescribed in the then existing constitution. There seems to have been no challenge to the act calling the convention or the fact that members of the General Assembly sat as delegates.
The Constitution of 1851 provided in Art. 32 of the Declaration of Rights that “no person ought to hold at the same time more than one office of profit, created by the Constitution or laws of this State * * In the midst of the dissension created on the one hand by Maryland’s allegiance to the Union and on the other by sympathy and loyalty to neighbors, friends and relatives of the South, the General Assembly enacted Ch. 5 of the Laws of 1864 providing for a special election “for the taking of the sense of the people upon the call of a Convention to frame a new Constitution and Form of Government for this State” and at the same election to provide for the election of delegates to the convention. This call for a convention was not under or in accord with the Constitution of 1851 which provided in Art. XI for the *437taking of a vote on the question of calling a constitutional convention after each ten-year federal census, the vote to be taken at the election for delegates to the General Assembly. If the vote turned out aye, the Legislature then was to provide for the election of delegates. There was no other provision for participation by the General Assembly in the amendatory process. The records show that fifteen members of the General Assembly were elected at a special election not provided for by the then constitution and sat as delegates. Chapter 5 of the Laws of 1864 provided that “any Senator or Delegate may be eligible to a seat in said Convention.” The constitution proposed by the convention was approved only by counting in the absent soldiers’ vole which was declared to be almost unanimous in approval. Andrews, History of Maryland 554.
The Declaration of Rights of the 1864 Constitution, Art. 35, prohibited any person from holding more than one office of profit. By Art. XI it provided three ways of amendment. One was by passage of particular amendments by the Legislature with submission to the voters for ratification. The second provided that, whenever two-thirds or more of the General Assembly thought a convention was necessary, the question be submitted to the people and, if the people agreed, there should be an election of delegates to the convention. The third provided for the taking of the sense of the people every twenty years on the point at a general election and a subsequent legislative response to a favorable vote by the calling of a convention and the election of delegates.
The 1867 convention came about largely from the desire of the people to do away with the test oath required for suffrage by the 1864 Constitution which was approved as to legality in Anderson v. Baker, supra. So great was the popular pressure for quick action that the Legislature again ignored the three ways of proceeding set out in the 1864 Constitution and by Ch. 327 of the Laws of 1867, called for a “vote on the question of a call of a Convention to frame a new Constitution and form of Government” and for the assembling of a convention and the election of delegates (in which clergymen, members of Congress, judges, state’s attorneys and other officers, but not legislators, could not seek election as delegates). Four members *438of the Legislature of 1867 served as delegates to the Convention of 1867 including the president of the Convention, Richard B. Carmichael, a resident of Queen Anne’s County, who had been dragged from his judicial bench in Talbot County in 1862 by Union soldiers and put in prison (having finally been released without being brought to trial).
The Convention of 1867 and the subsequent approval of the voters produced the constitution under which, with amendments, we have since lived. The three earlier constitutions each had provided for alteration or change as therein specified. Perhaps because these prior constitutional provisions had successively been honored in the breach more than in the observance, when the Constitution of 1867 was proposed and adopted, it made no provision for complete amendment save to provide (§ 2 of Art. XIV) that it should be the duty of the General Assembly “to provide by Raw” for taking at the general election of 1887 “and every twenty years thereafter” the sense of the people in regard to calling a convention for altering the constitution (the present section, amended in 1956, makes 1970 the next year for a taking of the sense of the people) and, if the people vote for a convention, to provide for its assembling and the election of delegates. The sense of the people to call a convention has on several occasions been ignored by the Legislature ostensibly, at least once, because of a legal opinion that a majority of the voters voting at the general election must ask for a convention and this had not occurred although a majority voting on the particular question of whether to call a convention had approved a call.
Instead of providing for required ways for complete revision or amendment under its terms, the Constitution of 1867 by Art. 1 of the Declaration of Rights set forth ringingly:
“That all government of right originates from the people, is founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole; and they have at all times, the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their Form of Government, in such manner as they may deem expedient.”
The people of Maryland from 1776 until today have shown ■ *439that they concur in the generally prevailing view, which we believe to be sound, that the people retain the sovereign power to rewrite their constitution, that the legislative processes which lead to and assist in the exercise of that power are not a part of the previously bindingly delegated powers conferred on the Legislature by the people, that those who are selected to sit in convention and do the rewriting of the Constitution are selected directly by the people and therefore are the direct agents of the people, rather than agents of the organized government, which is the State. The people also have shown that in their opinion, which we share, the offices which are rationed by the constitution one to a customer or the office which may not be held by one who helped create the office are offices which are established by the Constitution or by a law which implements or aids the execution of executive, legislative or judicial functions created by the Constitution, and that an agent of the people who helps create a new constitution does not hold an office within that category. These prior views and actions of the people are entitled to great respect and have aided us greatly in reaching the conclusion that a delegate is not a constitutional officer.
More support for that view is furnished by a consideration of the guiding standards that the cases have evolved to test whether a position is an office. These tests were reiterated in Moser v. Howard County Board, 235 Md. 279, 281, in this wise: 1. the position was created by law and casts upon the incumbent duties which are continuing in nature and not occasional; 2. the incumbent performs an important public duty; 3. the position calls for the exercise of some portion of the sovereign power of the State; 4. the position has a definite term, for which a commission is issued, a bond required and an oath required; 5. the position is one of dignity and importance.
Certainly a delegate to a constitutional convention performs a highly important public duty of great dignity. However, the position he holds was not, under the principles which we see as controlling, one created by law as the term law is used in the definition. The duties a delegate performs are in a sense “continuing in nature and not occasional” and in a way the position “has a definite term,” but only four constitutions have been adopted in Maryland in one hundred ninety-one years and *440the making of a constitution which, like the century plant, has taken a hundred years to bloom may fairly be said to' be occasional. A delegate to a convention, like the male honeybee who mates and dies (Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee (1964 Ed.), p. 194—“the unique kiss of an instant that shall wed him to death no less than to happiness”), performs his creative duty and then ceases to exist as a public functionary since the position of delegate to the convention of which he is a member ends with the convention. The idea of continuity contemplated by the ordinary test for an office is lacking in the case of a delegate to a convention.
Most importantly, a delegate does not exercise any part of the sovereign power of the State—-that is, any part of the sovereignty delegated by the people through their constitution to the executive, legislative or judicial branches of the government, even though, we may assume, he does exercise some part of the sovereign power retained by the people and by them committed to him to help create a new constitution.
Various courts have shared the concept we hold of the status of a delegate. In State v. Doyle (La.), 70 So. 322, 323, it was said:
“Such delegates [to constitutional conventions] are agents of the people chosen to represent their constituents for a particular public purpose. They have never been styled officers, and hold no office in the sense of the Constitution. A constitutional convention is not a co-ordinate branch of the government. It exercises no governmental power, but is a body raised by law, in aid of the popular desire to discuss and propose amendments, which have no governing force as long as they remain propositions.”
See also State v. Rogers (La.), 70 So. 863, and Baker v. Moorhead (Neb.), 174 N. W. 430, 432 (“They [the delegates] are not constitutional officers in a strict sense; they are officers who create a Constitution rather than officers who are created by the Constitution”). In Chenault v. Carter (Ky.), 322 S. W. 2d 623, 626, the Court held that the choice of whether a convention should be called rested ultimately entirely with the electorate and said: “The delegates to the convention are the agents *441not of the legislature, but of the people themselves.” Frantz v. Autry (Okla.), 91 Pac. 193, held that (p. 202) :
* * in a territory, the source of all power is Congress. But in the formation of a Constitution and state government the power emanates from the people. The delegates to the convention were not the agents or representatives of Congress [i.e., the existing government] but they were the immediate agents and representatives of the people of the two territories. They derived their power and authority from the people in their sovereign capacity.”
Hoar, op. cit. p. 186, in indicating disagreement with the position of Jameson (op. cit. pp. 317-20) that a delegate to a convention is an officer, says : 7
“The position of delegate to the Illinois convention was undoubtedly a position of public trust, and even a public office; but was not, if we regard such conventions as extraconstitutional, a position under the constitution. When a constitution refers to' the incompatibility of offices, such provisions should be construed as relating solely to positions under the constitution itself and not to apply to any other positions unless clearly sc stated.”
Hoar then quotes an opinion of an Attorney General of Massachusetts as follows (p. 187) :
“ Tt is my view that the word “office,” as used in article Vil 1 of the Amendments, refers to a position the incumbent of which exercises some power of government, and not to the position of a person selected to act in an advisory capacity in framing a scheme or change of government to be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection.’ ”
*442Hoar comments:
“It does not appear necessary to debase the convention in this way in order to reach his [the Attorney General’s] conclusion. It would be sufficient to hold that the word ‘officer’ in the constitution means constitutional officer.”
The disposition of the matters involved in questions (h) and (i) requires little discussion. The form of both questions shows that necessarily they were submitted by the Legislature on the premise that it, in its discretion, could either call or not call a convention “at this time” or delay the call for two years. The parties, we must assume, proceeded before the Circuit Court on the agreement that this premise which was irhplicit in questions (h) and (i) was correct for Judge Evans in his opinion said: “It is undisputed that the General Assembly has the inherent power to call a Constitutional Convention at any • time.8
In answering the claim that the calling of a convention was not mandatory because the number of voters favoring a convention was not a majority of all who voted on September 13, and therefore the vote was not in favor of a convention, Judge Evans pointed out that the election was not held pursuant to Article XIV, § 2, of the Constitution but by Chapters 500 and 501 of the Laws of 1966, enacted under the inherent power to call a convention at any time and the provisions of § 2 of Art. XIV did not apply, and that the election was a special elec*443tion at which the only issue presented was whether or not to call a convention and those favoring the call did constitute a majority of those voting at that election. He said:
“The use of the words ‘special election’ throughout these two Acts [Chapters 500 and 501 of the Laws of 1966] makes it clear that the referendum as to the calling of a Convention was not part of the primary election. It was an entirely separate election, at which only the one question was in issue. The majority vote on that one question constituted a majority vote at the entire election. Persons unaffiliated with either political party were permitted to vote on this one question; this makes inescapable the conclusion that it was not part of either party primary, but a separate special election.
“Several courts have sustained the proposition that a special election may be held concurrent with a general election without losing its separate and special character. In Houston v. Boltz (1916), 169 Ky. 640, 185 S. W. 76, a special election to approve the issuance of bonds, though held simultaneously with a general election, was still declared to be special. The Court stated, at page 78:
‘It would seem, therefore, that holding the election on a day different from the regular election day is not one of the essentials of a special election. When, therefore, section 157a of the Constitution provided that the vote on the road-bond issue should be taken at a special election, held in such manner as may be provided by law, and the law upon the subject does not require the election to be held upon a day different from the general election day, it follows that the special election may be held upon the general election day. It is nevertheless a special election, because it has been specially called for the purpose of voting upon a proposition specially submitted. And we see no reason why the proposition submitted should not be printed upon the *444ballot used in the general election held upon the same day.’
See also Eberhardt Const. Co. v. Board of Com’rs. (1917), 100 Kan. 394, 164 Pac. 281 ; Munce v. O’Hara (1940), 340 Pa. 209, 16 A. 2d 532; Derryberry v. State Board of Election Com’rs. (1924), 150 Tenn. 525, 266 S. W. 102.
“One of the intervenors [the individual defendant] attacked the validity of the special election, contending it was not properly advertised and, therefore, there was only one election and Chapters 500 and 501 did not receive a majority of the votes cast at the election. [The intervenors’ argument goes on to say that] the issue not having received a majority of the votes cast, the General Assembly is not required to call a Constitutional Convention.
“Chapters 500 and 501, on their faces, show that they were to be voted on at a special election. The stipulation and exhibits clearly show that if the various advertisements did not meet with the letter of the law, it was substantially complied with and voters in every part of the State received actual notice of the special election. At this point, the law requires no more. [Dution v. Tawes, 225 Md. 484]
“The character of the referendum as a special election distinguishes it from the referenda held at general elections under Article XIV, Section 2, and makes the majority affirmative vote a direct mandate of the people.
“The final question to be considered is: (i) can the calling of the Constitutional Convention be delayed by a period of two years ?
“By enacting Chapter 501 of the Acts of 1966, the General Assembly put to the electorate the question 'whether there shall be called a Convention not earlier than 1 September 1967 and not later than 1 September 1968,’ and by enacting Chapter 500, put to the electorate the question whether the Convention shall be assembled on 13 September 1967. Both Chapters *445500 ancl 501 were approved by the voters by a 5-to-l vote. The convention was called by the Legislature and confirmed by the people. The General Assembly cannot ignore this mandate.
“It is true that the General Assembly did not have to take the sense oí the people in 1966. But having submitted the question to the people in proper legal fashion, it bound itself to the mandate expressed by them. The people have spoken in clear and unmistakable terms, and the Legislature is bound to obey. The only thing remaining to be done is to provide for the election of delegates.”
We agree generally with Judge Evans’ views on questions (h) and (i) and from this and what we have said earlier in this opinion it is apparent why we affirmed his order that it was mandatory that a convention be called at this time and that the call could not be delayed. Since the passage of the order below and the affirmance in this Court the Legislature by Ch. 4 of the Laws of 1967 has provided for the early call of a convention and established the mechanics for the election of delegates on June 13 of this year and their subsequent meeting on September 12. Questions (h) and (i) have in effect become moot and any further discussion of them would not, as we see it, be fruitful.

. The questions in full were:
“(a) Would a delegate to the constitutional convention be the holder of an office within the meaning of Articles 33 and 35 of the Declaration of Rights and Section 6 of Article I and Sections 11 and 17 of Article III of the Constitution of Maryland?
“(b) If a delegate to the constitutional convention would be the holder of such an office, was the office created by Chapter 500 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966?
“(c) If a delegate to the constitutional convention would *424be the holder of such an office and the office was created by Chapter 500 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966, is that Act valid and effective notwithstanding the fact that it was passed as an emergency act?
“(d) If Chapter 500 of the Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland of 1966 is null and void as an entirety because passed as an emergency act, is Chapter 501 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966 thereby rendered invalid, null and void?
“(e) If Chapter 500 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966 is null and void in its entirety, can the General Assembly at its 1967 session call a constitutional convention without another referendum to take the sense of the people on the calling of such a convention?
(1) if Chapter 501 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966 was and is unconstitutional, null and void?
(2) if Chapter 501 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966 was and is valid and effective?
“(f) If a delegate to the constitutional convention would be the holder of such an office and the office was created by Chapter 500 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966, may a person holding another office within the meaning of the Declaration of Rights and Constitution of Maryland also hold the office of delegate to the constitutional convention?
(1) if such a person does not, in fact, receive compensation as a delegate to the convention whether or not compensation be paid or provided for as to some or all of the delegates to the convention;
(2) if such person does not receive compensation but receives reimbursement of actual expenses incurred in serving as a delegate to the constitutional convention;
(3) if such person does not receive compensation but receives a per diem expense allowance for his service as a delegate to the constitutional convention without being required to account for the amount of such expense allowance?
“(g) If a delegate to the constitutional convention would be the holder of such an office and the office was not created by Chapter 500 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1966, but will be created by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland enacted at its 1967 session, may a person holding another office within the meaning of the Declaration of *425Rights and Constitution of Maryland also hold the office of delegate to the constitutional convention?
(t) if such person does not, in fact, receive compensation as a delegate to the convention whether or not compensation be paid or provided for as to some or all of the delegates to the convention;
(3) if such person does not receive compensation but receives reimbursement of actual expenses incurred in serving as a delegate to the constitutional convention;
(3) if such person does not receive compensation but receives a per diem expense allowance for his service as a delegate to the constitutional convention without being required to account for the amount of such expense allowance?
“(h) In light of the fact that those voting ‘for’ the calling of a convention did not constitute a majority of those voting in the election, is the calling of a convention at this time mandatory?
“(i) Can the calling of the convention be delayed by a period of two years?”

. The plaintiffs and the defendants further disagreed as to the correct answers to questions (b) through (g) if it be declared that a delegate is the holder of an office under the Constitution or laws of Maryland.

. Jameson, Constitutional Conventions at p. 303 quotes George M. Dallas as saying in 1836 of the forthcoming convention in Pennsylvania: “A Convention is the provided machinery of peaceful revolution. It is the civilized substitute for intestine war. * * * When ours shall assemble, it will possess, within the territory of Pennsylvania, every attribute of absolute sovereignty, except such as may have been yielded and are embodied in the Constitution of the United States.”
Philip B. Perlman, an outstanding Maryland lawyer who was later Solicitor General of the United States, in addressing the Maryland Senate Committee on Amendments to the Constitution and the House Ways and Means Committee on March 19, 1931, Journal of Proceedings of the Senate of Maryand (1931) 517, 533, quoted another great Maryland lawyer Reverdy Johnson to the same effect. Mr. Perlman said:
“The Constitution of 1867 dropped the method of amending contained in Section 2 of Article XI of 1864, and so, at *433present we may amend the Constitution by Acts of the General Assembly submitting amendments to the people, or we may call a convention by the vote directed to be held every twenty years. These methods are set forth in the Constitution. But there is still another way to constitutional revision sanctioned by precedent in this State, because in Maryland the provisions in the Constitution limiting the methods of calling Constitutional Conventions have never been considered binding.
“Down through the years comes to us the voice of that great Maryland lawyer, Reverdy Johnson, who defended the legality of the Convention of 1851, called when the Constitution contained no authority for such a convention. And these are his views:
‘No man denies that the American principle is well settled, that all governments originate with the people, and may by like authority be abolished or modified; and it is not within the power of the people, even for themselves, to surrender this right, much less to surrender it for those who are to succeed them. A provision, therefore, in the Constitution of any one of the United States, limiting the right of the people to abolish or modify it, would be simply void. And it was upon this ground alone that our Constitution of ’76 was superseded by that of ’51.’
“Referring again to the American principle that the people have a right to change their government, he said:
‘In its nature it is revolutionary, but, notwithstanding that, it is a legal principle.’
Letter to Wm. D. Bowie and others, dated October 7, 1864.”

. Including, it would appear from the Maryland Constitutional Convention Proceedings of 1774, 1775 & 1776 (1836), Richard Barnes, Charles Carroll, barrister, Samuel Chase, Jeremiah T. Chase and *435Matthew Tilghman who presided over both the resolving Congress and the convention it called.

. It would appear that, although a special election was suggested to replace them, Worthington, Carroll and Chase reconsidered their resignations and either returned to or remained in the convention. Maryland Constitutional Convention Proceedings of 1774, 1775 & 1776 (1836), pp. 237, 241, 248.

. The roster of delegates elected to serve in the 1850 convention lists nine delegates with names identical to those of nine incumbent members of the 1849 General Assembly and two with the same surname.

. Jameson devoted his book to showing that the Illinois Legislature was superior to and supreme over the pending Illinois constitutional convention and this devoutly missionary point of view colored his reasoning and conclusions on many points.

. The authorities almost unanimously agree that a state legislature has the inherent power to call for a convention at any time, where the constitution is silent on the subject or where a permissive periodic interval for such a calling is established in the existing constitution. See Jameson, Constitutional Conventions, §§ 819, 394-403, 570, 571, 574; Dodd, The Revision and Amendment of State Constitutions, p. 44 (“It has now become the established rule that where the constitution contains no provision for the calling of a convention, but has no provision expressly confining amendment to a particular method, the legislature may provide by law for the calling of a convention”); Hoar, Constitutional Conventions, Ch. V; Cooley, Constitutional Limitations (8th Ed.), p. 85; In re Opinion to the Governor (R. I.), 178 Atl. 433; City of Bessemer v. Birmingham Electric Co. (Ala.), 40 So. 2d 193, 197.