MARYLAND. 



Shore, precluded his election. That lav. 

 repealed. and immediate! 



:'nm from the 1st iif April 



folloum-, and Mr. Swan t!n-n received the 



s.-nator. 11.- tendered hi- n-si^na- 



!' tlio office of Governor, but before the 



.riiDi- was inaugurated in his 



In- \\itlnhv\v that resignation and de- 



i tin- sciiatorship, on account of numerous 



requests from prominent citizens that he should 



IID; lea\v the Executive chair. Subsequently 



ii.itoi-ial vacancy was filled by the elec- 



tion of Philip F. Thomas, the Republican can- 



didate. 



Th<> following resolutions, addressed to the 

 ( 'i ui^re-i of the United States, exhibit the senti- 

 ments of a majority of the Legislature on the 

 leading questions of the day : 



Resolved, That the Union being restored, all the 

 States of the Union are coequal States under the 

 broad aegis of the Constitution, each entitled to all 

 the rights and immunities of every other, and all 

 having an equal right to participate in the adminis- 

 tration of the Government on the terms and in the 

 manner prescribed by its provisions. 



Resolved, That the right of elective franchise rests 

 with the people of the State, and that they alone 

 luivu the authority to regulate and control its e.v 

 in tlu'ir respective limits ; that any attempt on the 

 part of the Congress of the United States to desig- 

 nate those to whom the right of suffrage should be 

 1 would be in direct and flagrant violation of 

 the spirit of the Constitution and the usages under 

 it, an encroachment on the rights of the States, and, 

 to their great detriment, would contribute to a con- 

 solidation of power in the hands of the General Gov- 



Jteaolved, That we regard the abolishment of negro 

 shivery as a fact achieved, to which the peace and 

 quiet of the country require that wo should bow in 

 submission ; that the weakness and perpetual child- 

 hood of the negro will in the future, as in the past, 

 command our kindest sympathies ; that if our lajvs 

 do not already, they should provide the amplest pro- 

 tection for his person and the acquisitions of his la- 

 bor ; but we do most solemnly and earnestly protest 

 against any action by the Congress of the United 

 States to assign the negro a social status, or endow 

 him with the elective franchise, as unwarranted by 

 the laws of his nature, and as a direct and unconsti- 

 tutional interference with the rights of the States, 

 which ought not and should not be tolerated by a 

 free and sovereign people. 



The amendment to the Constitution of the 

 Tinted States, submitted by Congress to the 

 Legislatures of the several States, was rejected 

 in Maryland by the Lower House, after an in- 

 teresting debate, but the Senate took no action 

 in the matter. An act was passed abolishing 

 the provision in the State code which permit- 

 ted the sale of negroes into slavery as a punish- 

 ment for crime. Resolutions were adopted 

 declaring that the loss of private property oc- 

 casioned by the emancipation of slaves, consti- 

 tuted a valid claim upon the Federal Govern- 

 ment for compensation, and that the General 

 Assembly ought to provide for ascertaining the 

 extent of such loss, with a view to pressing the 

 claim at an early day. A measure was intro- 

 duced modifying the law of evidence in the 

 State so as to allow the testimony of colored 



persona to be received in the courts, and was 

 earnestly advocated, but failed to pass the Sen- 

 ate, although it n-reived a considerable major- 

 ity df the \-o!-s of the other branch of the 

 lature. Among other measures which 

 I'aih-d of adoption was a bill providing for the 

 elections in Baltimore, the intent of which was 

 to make an immediate change in the adminis- 

 tration of that city, and a proposition to modify 

 the stringency of the law relating to the ob- 

 servance of Sunday. The ijiiestinn of allowing 

 the street cars to run on Sunday in the city of 

 IJaltimorecame before the Assembly, and it was 

 decided to submit it to a vote of the people of 

 that city at their next election. When this 

 vote was afterward taken, it resulted in favor 

 of permitting the cars to make their usual trips 

 on that day, by a vote of 10,915 to 9,153. 



The question of restoring the franchise to 

 the large class of persons who were deprived 

 of that right by the operation of the constitu- 

 tion adopted in 1864, occtfpied the attention of 

 the Legislature for some time, and a law was 

 finally passed restoring " to full citizenship and 

 the right to vote and hold office all persons 

 who may be deprived thereof by the provisions 

 contained in the fourth section of the first arti- 

 cle of the constitution" of the State. The 

 constitutional provision restricting the suffrage 

 was designed to be temporary, and authorized 

 its own repeal by a two-thirds vote of the 

 General Assembly. The reasons for such re- 

 striction were declared to have ceased with the 

 return of peace, and it was therefore enacted 

 that all the rights of citizenship should again 

 be given to those who were required to bear 

 the burdens imposed upon citizens. The gen- 

 eral dissatisfaction which existed in the Legis- 

 lative body, with the provisions of the constitu- 

 tion framed in 1864, resulted at length in a bill 

 to provide for the calling of a convention to 

 revise and frame anew the organic law of the 

 State. The measure having this object in view 

 was introduced by Richard B. Carmichael early 

 in the session, and provided for submitting the 

 question of holding the proposed convention to 

 a vote of the people on the second "Wednesday 

 in April, and, in case the vote was favorable, 

 appointed the second Wednesday in May as the 

 day on which the convention should meet at 

 the city of Annapolis. The existing constitu- 

 tion of the State provided that " whenever two- 

 thirds of the members elected to each branch 

 of the General Assembly shall think it neces- 

 sary to call a convention to revise, amend, or 

 change this constitution, they shall recommend 

 to the electors to vote, at the next election for 

 members of the General Assembly, for or 

 against a convention; and if a majority of all 

 tiie electors voting at said election shall have 

 voted for a convention, the General Assembly 

 shall, at their next session, provide by law for 

 calling the same." As the next election for 

 members of the General Assembly would not 

 occur for upward of eighteen months, the pro- 

 visions of Judge Carmichael's bill were in evi- 



