Report of the
Committee.

Subsequently, during the progress of the war,
its object was modified so as to include the aboli-
tion of slavery by Constitutional amendment..
The amendment was proposed by two-thirds of
both Houses of Congress, as then constituted,
eleven States by their own act having withdrawn
their representatives. Those States, after the
close of the war and the reorganization of their
State Governments, by their Legislatures, ratified
the amendment. The Thirty-Ninth Congress
recognized those State Governments as legal by
accepting the ratification of the amendment by
their Legislatures, and claiming and exercising
the power to pass the Civil Bights Bill and Freed-
man's Bureau Bill, in virtue of that amendment.
The faith of the Federal Government and of the
State of Maryland was thus solemnly pledged to
the Southern States and to the world, down to the
close of the war, that its object was to defend and
maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and
to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equal-
ity and. rights of the several States unimpaired,
and that as soon as those objects should be accom-
plished, the war ought to cease.
Whatever view of their duty in this regard may
be taken by those now entrusted with the power
of the Federal Government, the Legislature of
Maryland cannot hesitate to assert the purpose of
the State, to the utmost of her ability, to main-
tain her faith inviolate before the world.
We are therefore clearly of the opinion that the
amendment in question, having been proposed by
two-thirds of a Congress from which the Senators
and Representatives of eleven States of this Union
were forcibly and illegally excluded, was not pro-
posed in accordance with the requirements of the
Constitution, and that, that fact of itself, presents
an insuperable obstacle to the ratification of the
amendment by the Legislature of Maryland. But
if this fact were otherwise, your Committee are of
opinion that the State of Maryland could not vol-
untarily assent to any of the propositions con-
tained in the proposed amendment.
The passions of men, when highly excited, are
too apt to render them blind to, and reckless of,
consequences. In the midst of high political