Maryland, the slave state

It’s obvious the Democratic Party is all for “feel good” legislation, but this one probably takes the cake. I received a press release today from State Senator Brian Frosh, who has the ambition to be our next Attorney General. I won’t bore you with the whole story, but here is the upshot:

Senator Brian Frosh (D-16) and Delegate Curt Anderson (D-43) have introduced legislation to rescind Maryland’s ratification of a constitutional amendment to preserve slavery in America.

In January of 1862, the General Assembly of Maryland ratified an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, proposed by Thomas Corwin of Ohio, that would have prohibited any future abolition of slavery. After its adoption by Congress, only the Ohio and Maryland state legislatures ratified the Corwin Amendment before the Civil War made further state action irrelevant.

Ohio rescinded its ratification in 1864, but Maryland alone has allowed its approval to stand for 152 years.

(snip)

Senator Frosh said, “Ratification of the Corwin Amendment is a stain on our state’s history. I think the legislature owes it to the victims of slavery and to those who marched, fought, and died for freedom to set it right.”

This sort of meaningless legislation is nothing new. Two years ago Maryland finally got around to ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, which (sadly) became law in 1913, with only a handful of Delegates (and no Senators) properly objecting.

I’m sure these bills sponsored by Senator Frosh and Delegate Anderson will pass unanimously – after all, who wants to be on record as supporting slavery? – but what I really want to know is: which party supported the ratification in the first place? Secondly, and since we’re talking about cleaning up a few Constitutional loose ends here, will Frosh be as circumspect about the Second Amendment should he become Attorney General? I doubt that.