224 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS June 10,

of our citizens, and by the military power kept and still keeps
them in confinement against and in contempt of all civil pro-
cess. Now therefore, be it

Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That re-
cognizing our relations to the Federal Government, we feel
that whilst 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 usurpa-
tion, unjust, oppressive, tyrannical and in utter violation of
common right and of the plain provisions of the Constitution.

Resolved, 2.—That the right of a State to secede, is not a
constitutional right, but an act of revolution, and any State
seceding does so at its own peril; neither do we believe that
the Federal Government has any power under the Constitu-
tion to wage war against a State for the purpose of subjuga-
tion or conquest.

Resolved, 3.—That prudence and policy demand, that the
war now being 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, 4.—That we deem the Writ of Habeas Corpus,
the great safe-guard of personal liberty, and we view with the
utmost alarm and indignation, the exercise of the despotic
power, that has dared to suspend it in the case of John Mer-
ryman, now confined in Fort McHenry.

Said resolutions being upon their second reading,

Mr. Scott proposed the following amendment as a substi-
tute for resolution two:

Resolved, 2.—That the right of any State to secede from the
confederacy, formed under the constitution of 1789, is a reserv-
ed right, and grows out of the right of every people to have
a government which is both able and willing to protect the
rights of its citizens, and does do so; and because the Federal
Government and the Northern States and people have denied
and invaded the rights of the Southern States and of the
Southern people, therefore the Southern States rightfully and
properly seceded from the said confederacy, and ought to de-