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prevailed by violence to the exclusion of voters at will, and con-
trolled means and resources for the most pernicious and daring
frauds. It is beyond all question, that such wrongs were perpe-
trated on that election day, as have no parallel in the election
annals of our country, but in Baltimore itself; and this too, under
the official assurance of municipal power, and of a police organi-
zation, and a plan of operations adequate to the emergency.
Such a result has abundantly justified the movement I deemed it
proper to make, and proves that the execution of the laws for the
maintainance of civil and political rights, has been violently re-
sisted and stayed, while the Executive authority has been powerless
to enforce it.

This is anarchy; and the issue of such a condition of things un-
der our system of government is political confusion. The formal
power it creates is an essential tyranny. It sways a spurious
sceptre, over a people despoiled of their rights, and its career must
be in profligate antagonism with law, order, and good government.

Such is the outline of a political era, and its disgraceful charac-
ter, in the history of Maryland. A narrative of events transpiring
in the city of Baltimore, the commercial metropolis of our State;
and in the midst of a community graced by high culture, religion,
morality, social refinement, and all the excellencies and elegancies
of civilization.

Before I leave this branch of the subject I would take occasion
to remark, that under a sense of duty not left to my discretion, I
have issued Commissions to all those persona who appear by the
certified official returns from the city of Baltimore, to have been
elected to the various offices. At the same time I record my de-
liberate opinion that the election was fraudently conducted; that in
the exclusion of thousands of people from the polls, there has been
no expression of the popular will; and that the whole of the re-
turns from that city are vicious, without a decent claim to
official recognition any where, and in all their character, a gross
insult to our institutions and laws, and a most offensive mock-
ery of the great principles of political independence and popu-
lar suffrage.

Justice to myself, as the chief executive officer of the State, will
not merely allow, but demand, a brief review of the animadver-
sion, to which I have been exposed, for the purpose of correct-
ing baseless errors, seduously diffused by the press, and thrown
broad cast over the land.

Prominent among these and most flagrant was the assertion
that the Governor of Maryland had "declared Martial Law
in the City of Baltimore." That a statement so absurd,
should have been made at all, is almost unaccountable. But
that it should have found currency with any intelligent portion
of the press is inexplicable. I learned that the original state-
ment was dispatched from Baltimore by Telegraph, and this