adopted late in that year. The document, which replaced the Maryland Constitution of 1851, was pressed by Unionists who had secured control of the state, and was framed by a Convention which met at Annapolis in April 1864. Article 24 of the constitution at last outlawed the practice of slavery. Special motion launches campaign to end slavery in the state On December 16, 1863, a special meeting of the Central Committee of the Union Party of Maryland was called on the issue of slavery in the state (the Union Party was the most powerful legalized political party in the state at the time). At the meeting, Thomas Swann, a state politician, put forward a motion calling for the party to work for "Immediate emancipation (of all slaves) in Maryland". John Pendleton Kennedy seconded the motion. Since Kennedy was the former speaker of the Maryland General Assembly, as well as being a respected Maryland author, his support carried enormous weight in the party. A vote was taken and the motion passed. However, the people of Maryland as a whole were by then divided on the issue, and so twelve months of campaigning and lobbying on the issue followed throughout the state. During this effort, Kennedy signed his name to a party pamphlet, calling for "immediate emancipation" of all slaves that was widely circulated. On November 1, 1864, after a year-long debate, a state referendum was put forth on the slavery question: although tied to the larger referendum on changes to the state constitution, the slavery component was extremely well known and hotly debated. The citizens of Maryland voted to abolish slavery, but only by a 1,000 vote margin, as the southern part of the state was heavily dependent on the slave economy. Details of final vote The constitution was submitted for ratification on October 13, 1864 and was narrowly approved by a vote of 30,174 to 29,799 (50.3% to 49.7%) in a referendum widely characterised by intimidation and fraud. The vote was carried only after Maryland's soldiers' votes were included in the count. Marylanders serving in the Union Army were overwhelmingly in favor (2,633 to 263). The institution of slavery in Maryland had lasted just over 200 years, since the Assembly had first granted it formal legal status in 1663. See also African Americans in Maryland Maryland in the American Civil War Maryland State Colonization Society Province of Maryland Republic of