JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor History is past Politics and Politics are present History.-Freeman THE MARYLAND CONSTITUTION OF 1864 BY WILLIAM STARR MYERS, PH. D. Master of History, Country School for Boys, Baltimore BALTIMORE AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 1901 COPYRIGHT 1901, BY JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS The Lord Baltimore Press THE FRIEDENWALD COMPANY PREFACE This study was undertaken at the suggestion of Dr. Bernard C. Steiner, of the Johns Hopkins University, and is an attempt to trace one of the most important movements in Maryland history. Although obscured and complicated by the momentous events which were then rending the life of the nation to its very foundations, its most important phase was the effort to bring about the total abolition of slavery in the state. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, did not apply to Maryland, as this state was not in rebellion, hence the local movement was necessary in order to carry out the policy of the National Government, and the Constitution of 1864, with its prohibitory clause in regard to slavery, was the result. The subject is divided as follows: Part I. treats of the political movement leading to the call of the Constitutional Convention; Part II. gives an account of the sittings of that Convention and the formation of a new Constitution; Part III. tells of the acceptance of the Constitution by the state. The Proceedings and Debates of the Convention, the State Documents and Legislative Proceedings of the period, and the contemporary newspapers have been my chief sources, supplemented in part by personal conversation with some of those who took part in the movement. Baltimore, May, 1901. W. S. M. |