312 RESOLUTIONS.

said General Assembly any opportunity of pro-
tecting the rights of the citizens of this State,
by due form of law enacted by the General As-
sembly thereof; and whereas, by the said bills
the exercise of the right of eminent domain is
vested in the corporations proposed to be organ-
ized thereby, subject only to the qualified super-
vision of a Justice of a Court of the United
States and to Commissioners by him named, and
not to a jury of the country formed and sworn
in accordance with the invariable usages and
laws of this State; and whereas, by the said
bills, jurisdiction over the rights and property
of the people of this State is practically with-
drawn from the judicial tribunals organized
therein, and in which the people of this State,
have a right to claim the adjudication of all
questions pertaining to their property in like
cases; and whereas, the effect of the bills now
proposed, would be, if the same became laws and
were carried into execution, to destroy the geo-
graphical advantages possessed by the city of Bal-
timore, and greatly to impair the value and
utility of those public works, in which the
means of the people of this State have been so
largely invested; Therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Dele-
gates of Maryland, That we do hereby earnestly
request the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States in Congress Assembled, not
to sanction or authorize the construction of any
railroad through this State without giving to the
General Assembly thereof, and to all persons in-
terested in such projected road, the fullest oppor-
tunity of presenting their views in relation thereto
before committees of the two Houses of Congress
duly charged with the office of examining the
same.

Resolved, That in order that this our resolution
heretofore adopted on the fourteenth day of Feb-
ruary, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and now
again declared as the judgment of this General
Assembly, be fitly presented to the Senate and
House of Representatives of the United States, that
a committee be appointed to consist of four Mem-
bers of the Senate, and Speaker and four Member
of the House, whose duty it shall be to proceed to