MINORITY REPORT.

Mr. Contee, from the Minority of the Committee on the Con-
tingent Fund, made the following Report:

To the Honorable,
                     The House of Delegates of Maryland:

The minority of your committee have the honor to report that

they have examined the vouchers for the years 1856 and 1857,

chargeable to the contingent fund, and agree with the majority in

testifying to their correctness, but take exception to their reflec-

tions on the conduct and course of the late Governor.

The Constitution, art. 2, sec. 9, says, "The Governor shall be

commander in chief of the land and naval forces of the State, and

may call out the militia to repel invasion, suppress insurrection,

and enforce the execution of the laws ;" again, section 10, "He

shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." These

then are clearly duties made obligatory on the Executive, made

so by the Constitution, which he takes an oath to support. His

judgment then must be left free, for it is to this judgment he is

to look when such emergencies; arise as require the interposition

of Executive authority.           

In his message, so unadvisedly, and in the opinion of the mi-
nority of your committee, so unjustly condemned by a strict par-
ty vote of this House, Governor Ligon sets forth in a plain, un-
varnished way, the condition of things in Baltimore city, the ne-
cessity, in his judgment, for his interposition, his mode of pro-
ceeding, and the results. To any one who reads this statement,
it is evident that the Governor was acting, and did act, under a
high sense of duty imposed upon him by his conscience, his posi-
tion, and the laws of the State.

In his judgment then, strengthened, too, by counsel with wise
and able men, he finds it necessary to call out and enroll certain
troops. Troops without arms are useless; it would be an unne-