a Supreme Council or the General Assembly of the
States, prohibited, by the constitution of that
government.
The non-intercourse Act of 13th July, 1861,
fixed the legal relations between the United States
and the Confederate States. The Supreme Court
of the United States, in the decision of the cases
necessarily involving those relations and depend-
ing upon them, expressly assert that since that
time there has existed between the United States
and the Confederate Slates, civil, territorial war.
After the passage of the non-intercourse Act by
Congress, and after the civil war existed, as de-
cided by the Supreme Court, Congress, by a unan-
imous vote in one House and with but two nega-
tives in the other, declared to the people of the
United States and to the world, the object of the
war.
In January, 1862, the Legislature of Maryland
adopted a preamble and resolutions in reference to
•the war. They declared, this war is prosecuted
by the Nation with but one object, that, namely,
of a restoration of the Union just as it was when
the rebellion broke nut; the rebellious States are
to be brought back to their places in the Union
without change or diminution of their Constitu-
tional rights. In the language of the resolution
adopted by both Houses of Congress, at its extra
session in July last, with remarkable unanimity,
" This war is declared to be prosecuted not in any
spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest
or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or
interfering with the rights or established institu-
tions of those States; but to defend and maintain
the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve
the Union with all the dignity, equality and
rights of the several States unimpaired, and that
as soon as those objects are accomplished, the war
ought to cease." And resolved as follows, viz.,
iv. : Resolved, That Maryland is ready to fulfil all
her Constitutional obligations to the General
Government as a loyal State of the Union, and
desires that the integrity of the Union may be
preserved and the supremacy of the Constitution
restored.

Report of the
Committee.