JOINT

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS

PASSED JANUARY SESSION, 1858.

Whereas, His Excellency the Governor of the State of Mary-
land has transmitted to the Senate and House of Delegates, his
annual message and documents therewith, in which he has given
an account of his proceedings relative to calling forth the military
in the city of Baltimore, on the day of the last election in that
city;

And Whereas, It appears by his statement that he visited said
city on the 28th day of October last, and immediately addressed
a communication to the Mayor, stating "that representations
from a large number of most respectable citizens, of the condi-
tion of things in that city, added to his own conviction of his
constitutional duty, imposed upon him the obligations respect-
fully to consult the Mayor of the city, as to what provision
should be made by him, (the Mayor,) to guarantee personal secu-
rity and the free exercise of suffrage by the legal voters at the
approaching election;"

And Whereas, It appearing by said correspondence that the
Mayor, in reply, invited His Excellency "to furnish him with any
reliable evidence, upon which he could legally act, of a combi-
nation on the part of any of the citizens of said city, to ob-
struct the laws at the approaching election, and also informed His
Excellency, that he deemed his powers to preserve the peace to
be ample, and that in view of the emergency, he had "in addi-
tion to the usual compliment of officers, assigned to the sta-
tions, and various election precincts acting immediately in con-
cert with the judges, together with the details by which they
were to be regulated there would be what he deemed in his judg-
ment a force competent to insure to those who might be entitled
to vote, the free and untrammelled exercise of their right of suf-
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