9

REMOVAL OF THE POLICE COMMISSIONERS OF
BALTIMORE CITY.

On the 18th of October last, a memorial was submitted to
this Department, signed by four thousand three hundred citi-
zens of Baltimore, praying the removal of the Police Commis-
sioners of that city, on various charges stated by them. The
acts complained of occurred during the election for Mayor and
members of the City Council, which took place on the 10th of
October lust, resulting iu the election of the present incum-
bents, and throwing the government of the city into the hands
of officers, representing less than one-fourth of the registered
voters of that corporation. As serious apprehensions seemed
to bo entertained by many, of a probable outbreak on the day
of election, and as a contingency might have arisen, requiring
an application to the Executive of the State, I called upon the
Attorney General for his legal opinion upon the questions
then at issue,

This opinion, I deem it proper to state, was procured by
me, with no intention of taking any part in the municipal
election, but solely with a view to my own guidance, in case
the authorities of the State had been appealed to.

The act relating to the registration of the voters of the
State, passed March 24th, 1865, places the limitation within
which the returns of the officers of registration were required
to be made, beyond the period appointed by law for holding
the municipal elections of the City of Baltimore. This virtu-
ally disfranchised, according to the opinion of the Attorney
General of the State, more than one half of its voting popula-
tion. That the Legislature could Dot have contemplated any
such construction of the law, I am fully convinced; and the
omission to name an earlier day, for the leturns of the Officers of
Registration, so as to include the municipal election, strength-
ened the belief that the law was not meant to apply to cor-
porations, but only to general Slate elections. Some of the
most eminent jurisls iu the State entertained this view. In
an aggregate voting population of 24,000, duly qualified un-
der the act of registration, in the City of Baltimore, the suc-
cessful city officers, now in charge of the city and its property,
represent scarcely one-fourth of this registered vote. Such
flagrant injustice to the people of Baltimore could not fail to
result in the most embittered feeling; and coupled as it was,
with the extraordinary conduct of the Police Board, in the
selection of the Judges of election and special policemen, who
officiated on that occasion, it may be well doubted whether
my despotism could have been devised, more thorough and
complete, to retain by force and management, the power which
this combination so defiantly held in their grasp. The re-
port of the trial of these Commissioners, and the subsequent
proceedings in Baltimore, attending the arrest of the new
2