1861.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 25

Resolved, That a law shall be passed by this Legislature,
authorizing the people to assemble in a convention, to be elec-
ted as members of the House of Delegates are elected, on a
day to be fixed in said law, to consider and determine the po-
litical condition of the State, and what her duty and inter-
est require shall be done in the present exigency.

Resolved, That such law shall require the decision of such
convention to be submitted to the legal voters of the State,
for their approval or rejection ; and that the same should
have no legal obligation whatever, unless the same shall be
approved by a majority of such voters.

Resolved, That in the meantime, the existing political re-
lations of the State as regulated by its own Government and
by the Constitution of the United States, shall remain as they
now are.

Resolved, That earnestly deprecating civil war, and though
almost despairing, yet still hoping that the unhappy differ-
ences now alienating one section of the country from the oth-
er, may yet be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to both, we
would earnestly entreat for a cessation of all hostilities,
whether by the States or the Federal Government, at least
until after the meeting of Congress, convened by the procla-
mation of the President, on the 4th of July ;

Which were read the first time and referred to the com-
mittee on Federal Relations.

Mr. Welch presented the following :
To the Honorable,

the General Assembly of Maryland:

The petition, of the undersigned, respectfully represents,
that at the January Session, 1860, on the 10th day of March,
as will be seen by reference to the journal of the Senate of
that date, and to his bond filed with the Treasurer of Mary-
land, he entered into a contract with the Joint Committee on
printing, for preparing an index to the Local Laws of said
session, for the sum of one hundred dollars.

That when the volume was placed in his hands, he found
that the Public, as well as the Local Laws, were embraced
therein ; that he could not separate the same, or if he at-
tempted it, the work would have been useless as a reference.
Under these circumstances, he determined to prepare an in-
dex to the volume, as printed—Public as well Local—and re-
ly upon the justice of the Legislature to remunerate Mm for
the portion of the work of indexing the Public Low, as his
contract only required an index to the Local Laws.
4