1844.

RESOLUTIONS.

No. 16

Passed Feb.

21, 1845.

Preamble and Resolution in relation to the Fourth Instal-
ment of the Surplus Revenue of the General Govern-
ment.

Preamble.

WHEREAS, the fourth instalment of the surplus revenues
of the general government of the United States, ordered to
be deposited with the several States of this Union, by an
act of Congress, passed at the session of eighteen hundred
and thirty-five and six, has not yet been paid as directed
by the act of Congress; AND WHEREAS, the State of Ma-
ryland is deeply involved in debts contracted for works of
internal improvement, one of the most important of which
is still unfinished, and is therefore totally unproductive,
and the State has in consequence been compelled to resort
to high taxation to sustain her credit; AND WHEREAS, the
proportion which Maryland is entitled to receive, under
the provisions of the said act of Congress, would, if it
could be made available at this time, would greatly re-
lieve the people from the burdens under which they labor
—Therefore,
Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That
our Senators and Representatives in Congress, be and they
are hereby requested to call the attention of the general
government to this subject, at the earliest practicable mo-
ment, and to urge upon that government the necessity of
such prompt and efficient action as will place the States in
the early possession of the withheld instalment.

No. 17.

Passed Feb.
10, 1845.

Preamble and Resolutions in relation to the issue of Two
Hundred Millions of Government Stock, for the Re-
lief of the Stales.

Preamble.

WHEREAS, by the adoption of the constitution of the
United Slates, the respective States surrendered to the
general government the power to lay impost duties, and
to regulate commerce; AND WHEREAS, the States surren-
dered to the general government the public lands as a trust
property, to be disposed of for the benefit of all the States;
AND WHEREAS, in seventeen hundred and ninety, the gen-
eral government assumed the debts of the States, and
pledged all the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to
the payment thereof, which debt has long since been dis-