366 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Aug. 5

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, pre-
sentment of a Grand Jury, or lawful cause disclosed or trial
had, have since been removed, 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 pleas-
ure of the President of the United States and the officers un-
der 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
solemnly protest, in the name of the State and her people,
against the proceedings aforesaid, in all their parts, pro-
nouncing the same, so far as they affect individuals, a gross
end unconstitutional abuse of power which nothing can palli-
ate 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 the rescue of the free institutions of the Repub-
lic, so that whatever may be the issue of the melancholy con-
flict which is now covering the land with sacrifice and sor-
row, and threatens to overwhelm it with debt and ruin, there
may at least survive to us, when it is over, the republican
form of government 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 Spea-
ker of the House be and they are hereby requested to cause
copies of these Resolutions 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,

On motion of Mr. Gordon,
The rules were suspended, and

The resolutions read the second time, and adopted by
yeas and nays as follow: