"The Maryland State Constitution is the only comprehensive analysis of Maryland's constitution. Dan Friedman provides an outstanding historical account of the state's governing charter along with an in-depth, section-by-section analysis of the entire constitution, detailing the many signifigant changes that have been made since its initial drafting in 1867. In-depth commentary on the constitutional interpretation offers tremendous political and economic insight into each of the constitution's provisions. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important new series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents"--

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. The book looks at the political movement leading to the call of the Constitutional Convention; gives an account of the sittings of that Convention and the formation of a new Constitution; and tells of the acceptance of the Constitution by the state. --From preface.

In its history, Maryland has had four constitutions. Each was adopted by a constitutional convention that was, at least in some regard, not permitted under the previous form of government. The first Maryland Constitution was adopted in 1776 by a self-proclaimed convention that was also the de facto government of the state. The second constitution was adopted in 1851 principally to reapportion the state legislature. In 1864, the third constitution was adopted and was concerned primarily with the issues of the Civil War--emancipation and preservation of the Union. The fourth constitution was adopted in 1867, soon after the Civil War and the changes made served largely to repudiate the 1864 constitution. The 1867 constitution continues in force but has been significantly amended particularly in response to the defeated constitutional convention of 1967. This history, along with an analysis of each provision of the Maryland Constitution are covered within.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.