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our serious consideration;" And whereas, the
Senate and House of Delegates agree with His
Excellency in reference to the importance of
the matter; and entertaining a high regard for
the dignity, power and honor of the office
which he holds, the checks and balances main-
tained in our Constitution and Form of Go-
vernment, and the peace and quiet of the com-
munity, on the one side, and the freedom and
personal rights of the citizens on the other; and
as they have been addressed by His Excellen-
cy, upon the subject, and their opinions in-
voked, a due sense of respect for themselves
and people of the State of Maryland, whom
they represent, imperatively demands of them
that they should speak upon the subject, There-
fore,
Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That we condemn all frauds upon the ballot-box,
by whomsoever perpetrated; and all violence,
hinderance or intimidation of the citizens, wheth-
er actually threatened in the exercise of his elec-
tive franchises; and we proclaim it as the unal-
terable opinion of the people we represent, that
the freedom and purity of the ballot-box is essen-
tial to the existence of our free Institutions, and
the peace of this 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 Excellency, 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 commu-
nity were then and there committed; and that an
ubiquitous organization 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 per-
petrated 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," unsus-
tained as it is by any evidence we condemn as a
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