1861.] OF THE SENATE. 313

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 Mary-
land, 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 pro-
tection 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 individuals, in large numbers, to gov-
ern the said city, as policemen, in contempt to 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 re-
buking the wrong and usurpation aforesaid, has justified and ap-
proved the same, under color of a "military necessity" not known
to the institutions of the country and fatal to its liberties, and has
appropriated large sums of money for the compensation of the
said unlawful police force, so that the members thereof are main-
tained thereby in daily and oppressive 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 orders 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 re-
moved, by military force, under the same orders, to Fort La-
fayette, in New York, where they are now held, as "prisoners of
State," at the arbitrary pleasure of the President of the United
States and the officers under him, at a distance from their homes
and families, in utter defiance of law and constitution, 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 sol-
emnly 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, a gross and unconstitu-
tional 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 warning by the usurpations aforementioned, and come to