118 RESOLUTIONS.

of money for the compensation of the said unlawful Police force, so
that the members thereof arc maintained thereby in daily and oppres-
sive hostility to the laws of Maryland and the rights of its citizens,
and constitute in fact a civil government, established by Congress
over the chief city of this State, and

WHEREAS, Charles Howard, William H. Gatchell and John W. Davis,
Police Commissioners aforesaid, having been arrested by order of the
General commanding the army of the United States, and imprisoned
in Fort McHenry, under frivolous and arbitrary pretexts, without
oath, warrant, presentment of a Grand Jury or lawful cause disclosed
or trial had, have since been removed, by military force, under the
same orders, to Fort Lafayette, in New York, where they are now
held, as "prisoners of State" at the arbitrary pleasure of the Pre-
sident of the United States and the officers under him, at a distance
from their homes and families, in utter defiance of law and Constitu-
tion, and in criminal violation of the plainest and dearest rights to
which American citizens are born, now

Therefore, It is resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That
we solemnly protest in the name of. the State and her people, against
the proceedings aforesaid in all their parts, pronouncing the same, so
far as they affect individuals, gross and unconstitutional abuse of power
which nothing can palliate or excuse, and in their bearing upon the
authority and constitutional powers and privileges of the State herself,
a revolutionary subversion of the federal compact.

Resolved, That we appeal in the most earnest manner to the whole
people of the country, of all parties, sections and opinions, to take warn-
ing by the usurpations aforementioned, and come to the rescue of the
free institutions of the Republic so that whatever may be the issue of
the melancholy conflict which is now covering the land with sacrifice
and sorrow, and threatens to overwhelm it with debt and ruin, there
may at least survive to us, when it is over, the republican form of Gov-
ernment, which our fathers bequeathed to us, and the inestimable rights
which they framed it to perpetuate.

Resolved, That the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House be and they are hereby requested to cause copies of these resolu-
tions to be transmitted to our Senators and Representatives in Congress,
and to the Governors of the several States with the request that they
be submitted by the latter to their respective legislatures.

NUMBER 16.

RESOLUTION relating to the adjournment and re-assembling of the Legislature.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Delegates, That when the
Senate and House of Delegates, adjourn on Wednesday, the seventh
of August, instant, 1861, they stand adjourned until Tuesday the
seventeenth of September; 1861, at one o'clock, P. M., and shall then
meet at the City of Frederick.