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yet nevertheless, the President has raised and
quartered large standing armies upon her territory,
has occupied the houses of her citizens without
their consent, has made the military superior to,
and above the civil power, has assumed to regulate
the internal police and government of the State,
has seized upon and appropriated our railroads
and telegraphs, has seized and searched our vessels,
has forcibly opened our houses, has deprived our
people of their arms, has seized and transported
our citizens to other States for trial upon charges
or pretended charges, has taken the private proper-
ty of our citizens, has caused peaceable travellers to
be stopped and their persons, trunks and papers to
be searched, has arrested and caused to be impris-
oned without any civil process whatever, the per-
son of our citizens, and by the military power
kept and still keeps them in confinement against
and in contempt of all civil process;
Now, therefore be it resolved by the General As-
sembly of Maryland, That recognizing ours relation
to the Federal Government, we feel that while 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 usurpation, unjust, oppressive,
tyrannical and in utter violation of common right
and of the plain provisions of the constitution.
Resolved, That the right of separation from
the Federal Union is a right neither arising
under, nor prohibited by the Constitution, but a
sovereign right, independent of the Constitution to
be exercised by the several States upon their own
responsibility, neither do we believe that the Fede-
ral Government has any power under the Constitu-
tion to wage war against a State for the purpose of
subjugation or conquest.
Resolved, That prudence and policy demand
that the war now waged shall cease, that if
persisted in, it will result in the ruin and destruc-
tion of both sections, and a longer continuance of
it will utterly annihilate the last hope of a recon-
struction of this Union; therefore we want peace,
and are in favor of a recognition of the Southern
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NUMBER 14
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