1861.

RESOLUTIONS.

NUMBER 15

Confederacy and an acknowledgment of its govern-
ment.
Resolved, That we deem the writ of Habeas
Corpus the great safe-guard of personal liber-
ty, and we view with the utmost alarm and
indignation the exercise of the despotic power, that
has dared to suspend it in the case of John Merry-
man now confined in Fort McHenry.

NUMBER 15.

RESOLUTIONS protesting against the unconstitu-
tional and illegal acts of President Lincoln.

Assented to
Aug. 7, 1861.

WHEREAS, The military authorities of the Gov-
ernment of the United States in Baltimore have as-
sumed to remove from office the Marshal of Police
of that city, an officer of the State of Maryland, and
to appoint his successor; and have further assumed
to dismiss from office the Board of Police of Balti-
more, a body clothed with high powers by the State
of Maryland for the protection of its citizens; and
have actually put an end by force, to the exercise
by said Board, of its lawful and important func-
tions; and have appointed sundry individuals, in
large numbers, to govern the said city, as police-
men, in contempt of the constitutional rights of the
State of Maryland and in open and flagrant viola-
tion of its laws, and
WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States in-
stead of rebuking the wrong and usurpation afore-
said, has justified and approved the same, under
color of "Military necessity, " not known to the
institutions of the country and fatal to its liberties,
and has appropriated large sums of money for the
compensation of the said unlawful Police force, so
that the members thereof are maintained thereby
in daily and oppressive hostility to the laws of Ma-
ryland and the rights of its citizens, and constitute
in fact a civil government, established by Congress
over the chief city of this State, and
WHEREAS, Charles Howard, William H. Gatch-