MEMORIAL.

To the Honorable,                                                               

The General Assembly of Maryland.           

The undersigned, a citizen of Maryland, at the last meeting
of the Legislature, in common with thousands of citizens of the
State presented a memorial, representing to the General Assem-
bly a grievance of which they had just cause to complain, and
which they felt it their duty as well as privilege, to present to
the Legislature and to seek such action as would secure the end
concerning which they petitioned.

It is due to your petitioner, and the great principles which
were involved in the petition, to say that the committee to
whom they were referred, greatly misapprehended the memorial,
as will be seen by reference to the report of the committee up-
on it.

The memorial set forth the fact, that there were private pri-
sons in the State, belonging to and under the control of a des-
potic foreign power, with rules and laws established in the time,
when the most despotic principles prevailed in Europe, that have
ever crushed the liberty of man; that these rules are the estab-
lished rules in all these prisons in this country, that the same
despotism prevails in them now in our midst that did in Europe,
when this despotic power trampled upon the rights and liber-
ties of the people, and made even kings and kingdoms bow and
obey their despotic command.

These prisons under these rules and laws have quietly, and
without suspicion on the part of many, grown up in our country,
beginning with great modesty, and containing very quietly, until
they were planted in many of our States, and with funds furnish-
ed from different sources, they have acquired a size and present
as formidable an institution as any of our county jails or State
prisons.