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NUMBER 4,
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and anxiously desires the restoration of peace
between the beligerent sections of the country, and
the President, authorities and people of the Con-
federate States, having over and over officially and
unofficially, declared that they seek only peace and
self-defence and to be let alone, and that they are
willing to throw down the sword the instant that
the sword now drawn against them shall be sheath-
ed. The Senators and Delegates of Maryland do
fervently beseech and implore the President of the
United States, to accept the olive branch which is
thus held out to him, and in the name of God and
of humanity, to cease this unholy and most wretched
and unprofitable strife, at least until the assembling
of the Congress at Washington shall have given
time for the prevalence of cooler and better coun-
sels.
Resolved, That the State of Maryland desires the
peaceful and immediate recognition of the indepen-
dence of the Confederate States, and hereby gives
her cordial consent thereunto, as a member of the
Union, entertaining the profound conviction that
the willing return of the Southern people to their
former federal relations, is a thing beyond hope,
and that the attempt to coerce them will only add
slaughter and hate to impossibility.
Resolved, That the present military occupation
of Maryland, being for purposes which, in the
opinion of this Legislature, are in flagrant viola-
tion of the Constitution; the General Assembly of
the State, in the name of her people, does hereby
protest against the same, against the arbitrary re-
strictions and illegalities with which it is attended,
calling upon all good citizens at the same time, in
the most earnest and authoritative manner to abstain
from all violent and unlawful interference of every
sort, with the troops in transit through our terri-
tory or quartered among us, and patiently and
peacefully to leave to time and reason, the ultimate
and certain re-establishment and vindication of the
right.
Resolved, That under existing circumstances, it
is inexpedient to call a Sovereign Convention of the
State at this time, or to take any measures for the
immediate organization for arming of the Militia.
And be it further resolved, That a committee be
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