they were accordingly transported to Washington by way of Annapolis. But great danger existed to Baltimore form large bodies of unauthorized men at the North, who threatened to cut their way through the city, and visit upon it terrible vengeance for the acts of the 19th of April.

As soon as this danger had passed away, and the excitement among our own citizens had sufficiently subsided, the military were dismissed, and the citizens who enrolled were disbanded by order of the board of police. The peace of the city had been preserved, and its safety and the persons and property of men, and men of all parties, protected under the circumstances of great peril and the most intense excitement, and it was hoped that affairs would be allowed to return as nearly as possible to their previous condition. Large bodies of troops from the North have ever since passed through the city without molestation, and every proper precaution to accomplish that object was taken by the board of police, and carried out by the force.

But civil was had begun on the immediate border of our Spate. A great division of opinion in regard to it existed among the people, and the events which had occurred in the city, and their consequences, seem to have made an indelible impression on the minds of the authorities at Washington that the police force of the city of Baltimore was prepared to engage in hostility against the General Government whenever an opportunity should occur.

The result has been very unfortunate. On the ground of military necessity, of the existence of which and of the measures required of it the Federal officers claim to be the sole judges, our city has been occupied by large bodies of troops in its central points; picket guards have been stationed along many of our streets; the arms provided by the city for its defense and those left by private individuals with the authorities for safe-keeping, the station-houses and other property of the city have been displaced and others substituted in their stead; the marshal of police and the board of police, with the exception of myself, have been arrested and are now imprisoned in Fort McHenry, one only, who is in bad health, has been released on his parole; the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended; the police, without authority of law, has been established under the control of a marshal appointed by the commanding general, and all power to hold elections in the city has been for the present set aside by suspending the functions of the board under which alone elections can lawfully be held. The grounds taken by Major-General Banks as a justification for these proceedings, and the position assumed by the boards of police, respectively, will be found in the proclamations of the general an the protest of the board, which I inclose.*

The hidden deposits of arms and ammunition referred to in the proclamation of June 27 are, I suppose, those found in the city hall, in reference to which a few words of explanation may be made. The arms consisted in part of muskets which belonged to the old police, established under the administration of Mr. Swann; of revolvers procured for the police, and of some rifles, carbines, &c., lately procured in part for the use of the police and in part for the defense of the city. The board of police considered it proper that there should be a sufficient

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*See "Arrest of the Baltimore Police Commissioners," July 1, pp.141, 143.

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