|
|
|
ants, or any of them, have or has been or will be damni-
fied by any of the acts or undertakings of these respond-
ents in the premises, or by "the carrying out of the un-
dertakings" in said bill alleged to these respondents with
respect to the election aforementioned. If the said com-
plainants are qualified voters and will vote against the
call of said convention, they will not be under the neces-
sity of procuring any person to act as delegate to said
convention, or be compelled to vote for any such delegate,
and their fears of exposure to the risk of criminal prose-
cution for "seditious conduct" will thereby be greatly re-
lieved, if not entirely dissipated. If they should, unfor-
tunately, be in the minority, and the majority of the vot-
ers of the State should vote for the holding of said con-
vention, and also for delegates thereto differing from said
complainants in political opinion, it will, perhaps, have
been a grievous error on the part of said majority not to
have been governed by the wiser views of the complain-
ants; but it will, nevertheless, be one of those errors neces-
sarily incidental to popular governments, and which, how-
ever unfortunate, have not heretofore been considered as
within the preventive jurisdiction of courts of chancery.
And as to the charge of confederacy, combination and
conspiracy in the said bill made against these respond-
ents, they deny that there is any foundation for the same
except in so far as these respondents, constituting the
Board of Police, as alleged, have officially and collectively
acted in the discharge of their duty. That they have
"confederated" therein with any other person or persons
is wholly false. These respondents have sworn and un-
dertaken to discharge their official obligations themselves,
and propose to do so. The allegation that they have wast-
ed or expended, or intended to waste or expend, moneys of
the State of Maryland, in furtherance of the election
aforesaid, is also false and gratuitous. These respondents
have no moneys of the State in their hands, and are not
officially entitled or able to expend any. Their requisitions
are by law required to be made on the Mayor and City
Council of Baltimore, and the slightest examination would
have disclosed this fact to the complainants, if they had
desired to confine their allegations to the truth.
These respondents, further answering, say that even if
18
|
|
|
|
 |
