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perpetrated, and all violence, hinderance, or intimidation of the
citizen, whether actually threatened in the exercise of his elec-
tive franchise; and we proclaim it, as the unalterable opinion of
the people we represent, that the freedom and purity of the ballot
box is essential to the existence of our free institutions, and the
peace of the Commonwealth; and that they should be preserved,
everywhere within her limits, and by all the power of the State.

And be it further Resolved, That the assertion of His Excel-
lency, that the state of society in the city of Baltimore, on the
eve of the last election, was verging upon the fiercest anarchy;
and that outrages, almost incredible in a civilized community,
were then and there committed; and that an ubiquitous organiza-
tion prevailed, by violence, to the exclusion of voters, at will,
and controlled means and resources for the most pernicious and
daring frauds; and "that such wrongs were perpetrated 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 organization, and a plan of operations
adequate to the emergency," unsustained as it is by evidence,
we condemn as a libel upon the people of that great commercial
metropolis of our State.

And be it further Resolved, That while we condemn ail frauds,
violence or intimidation on the part of any portion of the commu-
nity upon the rights of any citizen, however humble he may be, in
the exercise of his sovereign right of ballot, we deem it our duty
to hold to the strictest accountability those entrusted with the
execution of the laws for the manner in which they have executed
the trust committed to their keeping, and, fulfilling this duty, we
express our decided condemnation of the interposition of the
Governor in the affairs of the city of Baltimore before and on the
day of the late election in said City, because from the information
and reasons which he has communicated to us, and from facts
made apparent by the documents accompanying his Message, it
it was, under the circumstances, ill-advised, reckless, unnecessary
and dangerous to the peace of the city.

And be it further Resolved, That we regard the interposition
of the Executive, under the circumstances, as illegal, and his
commands to the military to interfere and preserve order, with-
out the requisition of the local civil power, and in direct oppo-
sition to the wish, advice and protest of the Mayor of the City,
who is invested by law with all power necessary for the preser-
vation of the peace and order of the city, and who had given
evidence, by his preliminary arrangements, of his ability and
determination to protect every citizen in the exercise of his rights,
as a manifest subordination of the civil to the military power,
an invasion of the rights of a chartered city, and an attempt to
interfere, by the bayonet, with the freedom of elections, and a
glaring violation of the constitution and laws of the State.