1842 RESOLUTIONS.

all that part of the Territory of Columbia, lying in this
state, was acknowledged to be forever ceded and relinquish-
ed to the Congress and Government of the United States.
This was beyond doubt an absolute gift without considera-
tion, but well justified by the importance of having a conveni-
ent location for the seat of government, standing as it does,
in the records of the past, a monument of the liberal feel-
ings of Maryland, we would not that it should be robbed
of this character and remain a sale for value received.

It is cited as another instance of the early disposition of
Maryland to afford every facility within her power to the
advancement of the interest and the relief of the embar-
rassments of the Union, for the purpose too of showing that
to seek a restoration of the other, does not place Maryland
in a position obnoxious to the charge of recalling indiscri-
minately favors heretofore granted; in addition to this it
may be suggested that the cases are different in the princi-
ple, the one a cession of properly which however benefi-
cial to the general government and however a deprivation
of the means of the state, is not so clear a loss to her wealth,
or if it be the one being recalled, the other will remain an
ample proof of our generosity.

The donation of seventy-two thousand dollars of it was
a donation made at a period when the affairs of Maryland
was in a prosperous state, and when the resources of the
general government were not yet developed. The history of
the period will sufficiently demonstrate this proposition,
though it needs scarcely such a reference, since it may ea-
sily be presumed from the simple fact of the passage of the
resolution it were not respectful to suppose that in any other
case the offer would have been made, or if made, that it
would have been accepted; since that time there have been
almost countless variations in their relative position of pros-
perity and adversity, but the vibrations have not been on
the extreme, on either side, of a just medium, there has
been until now no time at which Maryland was so far de-
pressed as to make it proper to look beyond her ordinary
resources for the means of relief, a fact to which perhaps
it is to be attributed that the question before us has been
undisturbed in the records of the past.

But now Maryland is in deep debt, an emergency exists
which though not beyond her hope to remove without dis-
honor, it must yet be conceded present every possible in-
ducement to the most prudent husbandry of her resources
and excite the most intense desire to relieve the source of
supply from every unnecessary demand for that source,
is taxation of our people, a source always sought with hesi-
tation and only in the last resort, and then no further than