1861.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 127

Your committee, therefore, recommend the enactment of a
law making valid the qualification of the said Tench Tilgh-
man, and the acts done by him as Major General of the 2nd
Division of Maryland Malitia, and for this purpose, beg leave
to submit the following bill.

In regard to the 2nd enquiry in said memorial, viz: whether
a military officer can be deprived of his commission by an
Executive Proclamation, or in any other mode than by the
sentence of a Court Martial, your committee would refer to
the 15th section of IInd Article of the Constitution, which is
in these words:—"The Governor may suspend or arrest any
military officer of the State for disobedience of orders or other
military offence, and may remove him in pursuance of the
sentence of a Court Martial." The Governor had in this in-
stance given the best evidence of his recognition of General
Tilghman, as Major General, by the appointment, on the 21st
of January, 1861, of Col. Rubard Thomas, of Easton, as
Brigadier General of the 12th Brigade of Maryland Militia,
a position which had been held by General Tilghman since
the 8th day of August, 1837, and had not he vacated it the
position of General Tilghman to the position of Major Gen-
eral, had not been legally consummated.

If therefore, the Governor entertained the opinion that
there was any want of legality in the case of General Tilgh-
man, your committee think that the proper course of proceed-
ing would have been through a Court of Inquiry or a Court
Martial, and not through the odious process of a Proclama-
tion, conveying to the people of a State a charge of the gra-
vest character against an officer of the highest rank, who had
served in the army of the United States, from the year 1828,
until the close of the Black Hawk war, and has held a com-
mission from the State of Maryland from that time to the
present; and who has in his possession, a letter from the Gov-
ernor through the Adjutant General, on the occasion of the
John Brown raid in December, 1859, assuring him of his
confidence in his judgment and discretion, and his sanction
of whatever measures he might find it necessarry to adopt,
and who on the 27th of July, 1860, was considered by the
Executive the most proper person for the military commander
of one of the largest Divisions of the State .

BARNES COMPTON, Chairman,

ROSS WINANS,

B. MILLS,

THOS. C. WORTHINGTON.

Which was adopted.