1858.]          OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 397

beg leave most respectfully to submit this, their Minority
Report:                                            

They concur with the majority in their belief of the correct-
ness of the returns of said election, in a large majority of
cases, and are satisfied that there can be no reasonable doubt
of the right to their seats, of all the present sitting members,
with the exception, perhaps, of the members from Baltimore
city.

There was presented to the consideration of the committee,
a memorial from Jervis Spencer and others, protesting against
the right of the said members from Baltimore city, upon alle-
gations which touch the purity and fairness of the election
there. The memorialists solemnly state their belief, that their
rights, and the rights of great numbers of legal voters, have
been outraged and trampled under foot; and that the violence,
fraud, and wrong exhibited at the said election, was such as
to render the same a mere mockery of the elective franchise.
And they appeal to this House to give them an opportunity to
prove that this state of facts did really exist, and they profess
their willingness and ability to establish most fully and com-
pletely, all their allegations.

This memorial, being before the committee by an order of
the House, was proper to be considered by them in connexion
with their report upon the returns aforesaid; and a majority
of the committee having, for reasons best known to themselves,
concluded not to recommend an investigation of the aforesaid
allegations, but to report the sitting members from Baltimore
city as duly elected and entitled to their seats, the undersigned
most solemnly beg leave to enter their protest against such
action, and to state their belief that the course of a majority
is contrary to precedent, and that a concurrence therein by
the House, will be a very dangerous and improper step.

For the effect of such a concurrence will be to declare, for
the first time in the history of the State, that one of the,
branches of the General Assembly, (and that too which is the
established Grand Inquest of the State, authorized and consti-
tuted for the hearing and redress of all grievances and com-
plaints,) is willing to close its ears to investigation in a matter
wherein fraud is the allegation and the ground of complaint.
The calm, fair and open investigation of all proper matters of
grievance and complaint, is one of the greatest securities which
free government is supposed to guarantee; and assuredly no
higher duty can possibly be imposed on those in authority,
nor any whose imperative demands they are more bounden to
respect, than a solemn appeal for redress against fraudulent
and violent invasions of the rights of any portion of the
people. And if there be one instance of fraud that ought to
claim the attention of this House above every other, it is where