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None of the rights of the States is more impor-
tant to them than the right of representation in
the Senate of the Union. It is a vital part of the
Constitution guarded with peculiar care alone of
all its provisions made irrepealable and perpetual.
The qualifications of the Senators are ascertained
by clear and precise definition in the Constitution.
Congress has assumed to add others by legisla-
tive enactment thereby to create disqualifications
unknown to the Constitution, and abridge the
Constitutional freedom of election by the States.
The entire right is now imperilled, the proof which
the statute prescribes is rejected, and a majority in
the Senate denied by the Constitution any autho-
rity to expel a Senator, has assumed the powers to
exclude him.
By such means a mere majority of small States
may exclude from the Senate all the great States
of the Union.
A great wrong is done in this proceeding to the
State of Maryland, and to the Constitution of the
United States, but it is a wrong against which the
Constitution has no defence, and for which it
affords the State no remedy. The place of Senator
Thomas is vacant in the Senate of the United
States, and the law requires this General Assem-
bly to go into an election to supply the vacancy,
on Tuesday, the third of March next.
The Committee submit that the General Assem-
bly should enter the protest of the State against
this proceeding of the Senate of the United States.
They propose the following joint resolutions :
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Vindication.
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Resolved, That the foregoing statement and this
protest be transmitted to the Legislatures of the
other States now in session, that they may judge
what notice it merits from them in vindication of
the Law, the Constitution and the common rights
of all the States.
Resolved, That as the action of the Senate has
created a vacancy in the representation of this
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