1861.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 49

peace of Maryland. Your committee are not able .to perceive
how tins result can be attained, without some communication
with the Federal Authorities at Washington ; and, in their
judgment, it is due to the people of this State, whose lives and
property are involved so deeply in the contingencies of the
unhappy strife which has sundered the Republic, that some
such communications should be forthwith opened by the
General Assembly.

There are other and independent reasons which render such
a course indispensible at this time, to the dignity and inter-
ests of the State. Two works of internal improvement, in
which she is largely interested, have been seized, in whole
or in part, by the general government for military purposes,
to the exclusion of the rights of the State and her citizens.
Upon one of those works (the Washington Branch of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad,) the share of the passage mo-
neys belonging specifically to the State and constituting an
important portion of her revenue, has been diverted from its legi-
timate channels by the strong hand. A part of the soil of the
State has been appropriated to the erection of fortifications,
without even the form of asking her consent. Her seat of
government has been converted into a military depot, to the
exclusion of the representatives of her people. Martial law
has been proclaimed, and the jurisdiction of her courts ousted,
along the whole line of the road which has been dedicated to
federal purposes through her territory. So far as this com-
mittee are advised, she has been dealt with, in these regards,
as a conquered province, without any respect whatever to the
relation which she bears to the Union, or to the constitution-
al and legal rights which that relation confers upon her citi-
zens.

It is, therefore, the manifest duty of this Legislature to as-
certain, by direct enquiry, through intelligent and accredited
agents, the precise position which the general government has
determined to occupy towards the State, and to seek, by all
means consistent with official and personal self-respect, to
modify the embarrassments and diminish the perils with
which the existing state of things is fraught.

The committee would feign persuade themselves that such
an application will be received with the respectful considera-
tion it deserves, but, at all events, it will have placed the re-
sponsibilities of the future where they belong. They, there-
fore, respectfully recommend the adoption of the following
joint resolution.

S. T. WALLIS,
EDWARD LONG,
JAMES T. BRISCOE,
J. H. GORDON,
G. W. GOLDSBOROUGH
7