RESOLUTIONS. 117

for trial upon charges or pretended charges, has taken the private
property of our citizens, has caused peaceable travellers to be stopped
and their persons, trunks and papers to be searched, has arrested and
caused to be imprisoned without any civil process whatever, the per-
sons of our citizens, and by the military power kept and still keeps
them in confinement against and in contempt of all civil process ;

Now, therefore be it resolved by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That recognizing our relation to the Federal Government, we feel
that while we cannot do more we can do no less than enter this our
solemn protest, against the said acts of the President of the United
States, and declare the same to be gross usurpation, unjust, oppressive,
tyrannical and in utter violation of common right and of the plain pro-
visions of the constitution.

Resolved, That the right of separation from the Federal Union is a
right neither arising under, nor prohibited by the Constitution, but a
sovereign right, independent of the Constitution, to be exercised by the
several States upon their own responsibility, neither do we believe that
the Federal Government has any power under the Constitution to wage
war against a State for the purpose of subjugation or conquest.

Resolved, That prudence and policy demand that the war now waged
shall cease, that if persisted in, it will result in the ruin and destruction
of both sections, and a longer continuance of it will utterly annihilate
the last hope of a reconstruction of this Union ; therefore we want
peace, and are in favor of a recognition of the Southern Confederacy
and an acknowledgment of its government.

Resolved, That we deem the writ of Habeas Corpus the great safe-
guard of personal liberty, and we view with the utmost alarm and in-
dignation the exercise of the despotic power, that has dared to suspend
it in the case of John Merryman now confined in Fort McHenry.

NUMBER 15.

RESOLUTIONS protesting against the unconstitutional and illegal acts of President

Lincoln.

WHEREAS, The military authorities of the Government of the United
States in Baltimore have assumed to remove from office the Marshal
of Police of that city, an officer of the State of Maryland, and to
appoint his successor ; and have further assumed to dismiss from office
the Board of Police of Baltimore, a body clothed with high powers
by the State of Maryland for the protection of its citizens ; and have
actually put an end by force, to the exercise by said Board, of its
lawful and important functions; and have appointed sundry indivi-
duals, in large numbers, to govern the said city, as policemen, in con-
tempt of the constitutional rights of the State of Maryland and in
open and flagrant violation of its laws, and

WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States instead of rebuking the
wrong and usurpation aforesaid, has justified and approved the same

under color of "Military necessity," not known to the institutions of
the country and fatal to its liberties, and has appropriated large sums