before this committee, because they allege the Governor has made
a charge against them, and the majority of the members of the
Legislature, as members of the "American Party," and that they
the party here in the Legislature, are better acquainted with and
were competent to state their own principles, which are those con-
tained in the platform published by the Philadelphia convention in
June last, and by which they are bound, than any other persons; and
they consider, and must treat as an indignity to them, any attempt
to introduce other persons to give testimony as to the said party.

Messrs. Merrick and Smith dissented from this, and insisted that
the letter and spirit of the resolutions of the House, creating the
Committee, enjoins upon them a full and searching investigation
into the several points stated in said resolutions, and by its very
terms, authorizes and requires witnesses to be summoned, such as
they have before proposed.

Mr. Hall then offered the following resolution :

Resolved, That the Governor in his reply to the Committee of
investigation, clearly points out and identifies the American party
of the Philadelphia platform, published in June, 1856, as the object
of his animadversion.

The yeas and nays being required, were as follows :

Yeas—Messrs. Kennedy, Hall, Merrick, Smith and Goldsbor-
ough. Nays—None.

Mr. Hall then offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That this Committee deem the summoning of witness-
es before it, to prove the statement or description of the principles,
objects and purposes of the American party of the Philadelphia
platform, published in June, 1855, as an insult to the intelligence
of a large majority of the people of Maryland, through their repre-
sentatives. The yeas and nays being required, were as follows:

Yeas—Messrs. Kennedy, Hall and Goldsborough. Nays—
Messrs. Merrick and Smith.

Mr. Hall then offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That this Committee in the investigation of the prin-
ciples, objects and purposes of the American parly, deem it unne-
cessary to send for persons and papers, as the people of Maryland
in the majesty of their power, have furnished the Legislature with
abundant testimony of the purity of its principles by the large and

73