RESOLUTIONS.

" convenient diligence in endeavours to procure a speedy relief from the operation of the aforesaid act, and the
" several acts supplementary thereto: " And whereas " the public will" has been lately expressed by " the pub-
" lic voice itself" in the election for the immediate representative branch of this legislature, so as to leave no
doubt what the real, true and unveiled sentiments of the people of Maryland are, relative to that important
and politic measure of our government, so fur as their sentiments at this time can be ascertained by their sup-
porting a policy of a similar nature, and by their electing, as members of this body, men who were the warm
advocates and active friends of every leading measure of the late administration: And whereas the late " public
" voice" has shewn, conclusively, to every unprejudiced and impartial mind, that the success so much boasted
of, in the said resolutions, by the majority of the late " house of delegates, " must have proceeded from the ma-
ny misrepresentations and deceptions made and used to deceive and ensnare the unguarded voter, and not from
any real change in the political tenets of the state: And whereas to correct and counteract the false impressions
which may have been made upon the public mind by the proceedings of the majority in the " house of delegates"
at their last November session, touching a measure so extensively interesting to the whole American people,
and in order to remove the unfavourable opinion of the politics of this state, which the false colouring of the
majority in the last " house of delegates" may have created in our sister states, it is a duty which the members
of the present assembly owe to their country, their constituents and themselves, to express a true and solemn
declaration of their sentiments, as to the measures of the late and present administrations of the general govern-
ment, and to set forth those feelings of unqualified disapprobation which the said resolutions have excited;
therefore, RESOLVED, That it is the conscientious belief, and unbiassed conviction, of this legislature, repre-
senting the interests and speaking the sentiments of the independent freemen of Maryland, that the aforesaid
act imposing an embargo, and the several acts supplementary thereto, were wise, efficient and dignified measures,
rendered indispensably necessary by the unjust and illegal proceedings of the belligerents of Europe, and the
convulsed and unprecedented state of the world, as the only adviseable alternatives between a destructive and
calamitous war, and the humiliating surrender of our national honour and independence; that the many evils
which were stated to have flowed from the adoption of the said embargo, and the gloomy picture of its conse-
quences, pourtrayed by the aforesaid resolutions, were contrary to the good opinion, and to the general senti-
ments, of a large majority of the free and independent voters of this state; that so far from proscribing and
spinning away " the existence of commercial enterprise, " it must be obvious to every reflecting and dispassion-
ate mind, that the object of our government was to secure it ultimately to the citizens of these United States,
by contending for principles, and demanding acknowledgments of those just rights, without which our commerce
will always be precarious and exposed; that the very policy, so much censured, protected and promoted the in-
terests of our country, by withdrawing from the rapacious and piratical plunderers of the ocean, our property to
an immense and incalculable amount, by rescuing from seizure and bondage our " brave and hardy tars, " by di-
verting a portion of our wealth and attention to the establishment of those manufactories, which are necessary
to our subsistence, essential to our independence, and which have, in the short lapse of two years, succeeded to
an extent surpassing the most sanguine calculations of the many honest, ingenious and industrious mechanics,
with which the United States abound; that the " jealousies, " and " discontent, distrust, suspicion and alarm, "
and the violation of " the sovereignty of the laws, " may with more correctness be attributed to the opponents of
the late administration, who have united into one body, and particularly to their leaders, who by their feigned
and uniform disapprobation of every measure pursued by the late administration, however wise and virtuous,
have shewn and evinced a determination not to " sheath the sword of opposition" until it had reached its de-
struction and overthrow, and that their opposition has been aided by the specious misrepresentations and insi-
dious exertions of the friends of the great belligerents of Europe, and by the conduct of artful and designing men,
who seek their own aggrandizement through the distresses of their fellow-citizens and the commotions of their
native country; that the insolent boastings of the British ministry originated not so much from a disregard of
the operation of the embargo, as from a confident hope of its speedy removal, and a desire to promote the suc-
cess, to further the views, and to verify the predictions, of that party in this country, which it conceived most
compliant to its wishes, and most friendly to its interests; that the adoption of the said resolutions by a majo-
rity of the late " house of delegates" may have had the most injurious tendency; that it is feared, by some un-
fortunate concurrence of circumstances, (which the great wisdom of the majority of the late " house of dele-
" gates" might not have foreseen, ) they have gone in aid of the system of measures adopted by both England
and France, and particularly of England, to embarrass the government of our country, and to effect its down-
fall and humiliation, for they were entered into and passed the house of delegates at the very moment when that
system of measures, if they could succeed, would have had their effect; that as serious and as awful as the de-
claration is, it is our firm belief our differences with the two great belligerents might have been settled long be-
fore this, had it not been for the opposition made to the late great leading measures of our government by " a
" party within ourselves; " that the late treacherous and dishonourable conduct upon the part of one of the great
and powerful nations of Europe, in disavowing the acts of her minister with the government of our own coun-
try, must have been instigated in part by the differences existing amongst our citizens, and from a hope that, she
might find friends in our national councils, or by the many resolutions which have been entered into by the oppo-
nents to the late administration of the general government, similar to, and advancing the same sentiments con-
tained in, the resolutions adopted by a majority of the late " house of delegates" at the last November session;