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The petition of James T. Dwyer, Springfield, Illinois,
United States, North America, asking, on behalf of the
Irish people, that the Constitutional Convention now- con-
vened at Annapolis, for the amendment of the present Con-
stitution of the State of Maryland, make the official recogni-
tion of " The National Flag and the National Seal'' of the king-
dom of Ireland, as known and acknowledged by contemporary
nations previous to the year 1800, part of the proceedings of
its body, by inserting in the amended Constitution, general or
special provisions causing such recognition, and also declar-
ing belligerent rights to the Irish people and for other pur-
poses :
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SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS,
May 25, 1867.
To the President and members of the Constitutional Conven-
tion convened at Annapolis for the amendment of the present
Constitution of the State of Maryland:
Your petitioner would respectfully represent to your Hon-
orable Body that he is a native of Ireland and a citizen of the
O cited States and of the State of Illinois, that he owes no
allegiance add never did owe any but compulsory allegiance,
to the Crown of Great Britain, acting through the unlawful
dictation of the Imperial Parliament. On the contrary he
claims that the so-called Union between England and Scot-
land, and Ireland, dating from the year 1800, having trans-
ferred by violence, fraud and corruption to English soil,
without any sanction or authority from the Irish people, the
whole of their legislative rights, as existing up to that pe-
riod, and that iu defiance not only of the local laws and Con-
stitution of Ireland, but also in direct violation of the well
settled "law of nations," which substantially declares:
"That no voluntary transfer from one nation to another of
National or Legislative rights or powers can be accomplished
so as to make it binding on the transferred Nation unless it
can be shown to the satisfaction of the acknowledged govern-
ment and for their future peace and 'security, that the people
of the transferred nationality have been, called on to vote/or
or against the transfer, and that the question of transfer has
gone through the form of casting the popular vote for and
against the measure, and .that in case of refusal or omission to
attach this imperative qualification to the change, the trans-
fer is watt and void, and the transferred parties are fully
clothed with belligerent rights for the arrest of the transfer,
or the restoration of their original condition, regardless of
the time which may have elapsed, before they have the mili-
tary ability to place themselves in a belligerent position."
And by which it will be seen that this law of nations com-
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