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a variety of stations of life, with varying philosophies,

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but with a unanimous thought in mind — that all of us

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would do that which was within our power to write the best

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Constitution we could devise for Maryland.

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Today we are signing a document — a good

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document. It is not an ideal Constitution, for one simple

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reason: There is no such thing as an ideal Constitution,

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for they are written by human beings, with human frailties.

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They are written by groups, so they must necessarily be

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group thinking, and cannot represent all the ideas of a

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single man. Each of us can find in this Constitution

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something which he would wish were not there.

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Far more important, each of us finds in this

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document much that we believe to be very good, much that

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will be of great benefit for our State and its people.

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On that good we must stake our hopes.

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There have been sharp differences on this floor,

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yet we have been able to resolve those differences and find

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in this document that which is acceptable to us, that

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which we can recommend wholeheartedly to the people of

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Maryland.