MARYLAND. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



473 



counsel argued that the warrant waa illegal under 

 UM law* ul Maryland, no negro or mulatto ' 



in. Th'-jus- 



! i xv lniil been abrogated and 

 <edud, aud waa null and void, under the law 

 recently paaaed by Congress known an tli 



mill miairad Mr. Somers to give bail \'<>r 



before tin- circuit court. Smncrs 



i the justice committed him to jail, where- 



upon 1 applied to Chief-Justice Bowie for 



tin- writ i-t' h<ib*<u eorpvt, which his honor refused, 



prim; u \x riiti'ii ojiiuioii sustaining the action of the 



Taatici-, und iii:ii!it..iniii^ tin: constitutionality of the 



lights bill, so far as it relates to the question 



in di 



Liberal provision has been made for the cause 

 nf p\il.lif rdtiration in the State, and the whole 

 system is under the charge of a Superintendent 

 of I'tiblii- Instruction, who reports ft most en- 

 couraging and gratifying progress. By the able 

 and untiring efforts of the officer in charge, a 

 preat work has already been accomplished, and 

 i no appropriation is likely to result in more 

 practical and substantial benefits to all classes 

 of the citizens, than the money devoted to this 

 department St. John's College, after a long 

 period of suspension, has been reopened again 

 under the most favorable auspices. Few insti- 

 tutions in the country offer greater inducements 

 to the youth of the State, and it is believed 

 that its means of usefulness will be greatly ex- 

 tonded by the encouraging aid and liberal 

 patronage of the people of Maryland. An 

 agricultural college has also been reorganized, 

 and will go into operation early in the ensuing 

 spring. 



The geographical position of the city of Bal- 

 timore is attracting renewed attention, since 

 the close of the war, among capitalists and 

 business men throughout the country. Large 

 accessions to her population are being realized 

 through a steady current of immigration from 

 other States. Her real property has greatly 

 enhanced in value, and the applications for 

 dwellings and places of business are already 

 largely in excess of the ability of the people to 

 supply them. 



The experiment of a line of ocean steamers, 

 under the auspices of the Baltimore and Ohio 

 Railroad Company, has proved entirely success- 

 ful, and similar lines have been established and 

 are now iu operation with some of the most 

 prominent points upon the Southern coast, 

 promising at no distant day a complete renewal 

 of trade and intercourse from that section. In 

 the mean time, her manufacturing capital has 

 been largely increased, and the amplest prep- 

 aration made for a profitable interchange of 

 the varied products of her manufactories, for 

 the great staples of the South, which find hero 

 their most convenient point of shipment and 

 conversion. 



The act passed March 10, 1864, to provide for 

 the organization and discipline of the militia of 

 the State, expired by limitation on the 1st Marck, 

 1866, and the State is now without any uiilitiu 

 eystoin whatever. 



At an early day this State directed its atten- 



tion and contributed its means toward on en 

 larged system of internal improvements, result- 

 in:r in the construction of the Chesapeake and 

 < >hi<> canal and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. 

 Under able management, this latter work H 

 making steady and rapid progress toward the 

 accomplishment of its great destiny, and the 

 realization of the most sanguine hopes of its 

 founders. In his annual message to the Legis- 

 lature, the Governor thus refers to this great 

 work, and others within the limits of the State : 



Within the past year it has paid into the treasury 

 of the State $760,088.70. Controlling without a rival 

 the wealth of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the 

 value of this road to the State of Maryland cannot 

 be too highly estimated. A large amount pf capital 

 has been expended, and much work done since the 

 first annual report, in giving increased power and 

 efficiency to the road. The second track has steadily 

 advanced. Some of the most important tunnels on the 

 northwestern branch have been permanently arched, 

 the control of the Winchester road has been secured, 

 and a most valuable arrangement, mutually advan- 

 tageous to both roads, entered into with the Central 

 Ohio Railroad Company, for the future working of 

 that important line, affording increased inducements 

 for the most favorable combinations with the leading 

 roads converging at Columbus, and the centre of the 

 rich table lands of Ohio. With the Pittsburg and 

 Connellsville road complete, which I look for at no 

 distant day, in spite of the jealousies which have 

 heretofore retarded its advance the intersection of 

 the Ohio River at Wheeling and Parkersburg already 

 accomplished, and the certain occupation of the 

 valley of Virginia, and the appropriation, at a still 

 lower point, of the great arteries of the Southwest, 

 I shall look with renewed pride, not only upon the 

 energy and perseverance of our people, to which we 

 are indebted for all this, but to the impregnable posi- 

 tion in which, through their indomitable efforts and 

 wise foresight, they nave placed the great commer- 

 cial centre of our State. In connection with this 

 subject, it affords me pleasure to note the active prep- 

 arations in progress to complete the Metropolitan 

 road from Washington to the Point of Rocks, and 

 the probable opening of the branch to Hagerstown aa 

 early as September next. 



MASSACHUSETTS. The Legislature met 

 at Boston, on January 3d, and was organized 

 by the election of Joseph A. Pond as President 

 of the Senate, and James A. Stone as Speaker of 

 the House of Representatives, both of whom 

 were Republicans. On the same day Governor 

 Andrew, the retiring Governor, sent to the 

 Senate a special message covering several im- 

 portant documents of local interest, and con- 

 taining an elaborate statement of the financial 

 and military operations of the State as con- 

 nected with the late war. On the 4th ho de- 

 livered a valedictory address to both branches of 

 the Legislature, urging that the Government of 

 the United States ought to require of the States 

 lately in insurrection to reform their consti- 

 tutions in such a manner as to give civil rights 

 to the freedmen, and afford guaranties against 

 a future outbreak. No reorganization bethought 

 would be effective without a popular vote of the 

 white race in favor of the guaranties required. 

 u I am not," he said, ' in favor of a surrender 

 of the present rights of the Union to a stru^lo 

 between a white minority, aided by the freed- 



