1916] OF THE SENATE. 161

INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTIONS.
By the President, by request:

Senate Joint Resolution of the Senate and House of Dele-
gates of Maryland expressing the sense of the people of the
State in favor of adequate naval and military preparation.

WHEREAS, The preamble to the Constitution of the United
States declares that the Constitution was ordained and estab-
lished to provide for the common defense and promote the
general welfare of the people of these United States, and to
secure the blessings of liberty to them and to their property;
and

WHEREAS, The Constitution specifically provides that the
government of the United States shall protect each State in
this Union, against invasion, and declares the Constitution to
be the supreme law of the land; and

WHEREAS, One of the first duties of government is to protect
the liberties and lives of its citizens wheresoever they may law-
fully be; and

WHEREAS, The wealth and importance of the State of Mary-
land and the City of Baltimore, their vital strategic position
and their proximity to the Capital of the Union render a hostile
invasion, or an attempt at a hostile invasion, extremely prob-
able in the event of war with a foreign power of the first
class; and

WHEREAS, Under modern conditions of warfare it is plain
that proper provisions for defense against any first class mili-
tary power cannot be made upon short notice, unless there
be available a strong, well balanced and effective navy and an
adequate army thoroughly prepared, both in men and in mu-
nitions; therefore, be it

Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That it is,
the sense of the people of Maryland, expressed through their
representatives herein, that their representatives in the Congress
of the United States advocate with their most earnest efforts
that provisions be made at once for such increase in the naval
and military forces available for the defense of the Union as.
will provide ample safeguards against a hostile invasion of
our soil and enable the United States to perform its solemnly
undertaken obligation to each of the States which it may
otherwise be unable to perform, and will further enable the
11'.