"concealed arsenal" at the marshal's office, they do not deem it necessary to allude to,further that to say that it is perfectly notorious, and has been fully shown by the message of the mayor to the city council of Baltimore,* that the arms in question were the lawful property of the city; that they were insignificant in quantity, constituting but little more than the customary armament of the force its public duties, and were lawfully concealed to prevent unlawful seizure. Your memorialist therefore respectfully represent that the grounds set up by General Banks, in his proclamation give to their arrest and imprisonment no color of justification or necessity.

And as to the proclamation of General Banks issued on the 27th of June, announcing the arrest of the marshal of police and declaring his official authority to have been superseded, these memorialist respectfully say that the charges against that officer contained therein are equally without foundation, so far as they believe or have any reason to suspect. They have personal knowledge of the fact, which is equally well known to all impartial citizens of Baltimore, that the official duties of Colonel Kane have been discharged throughout with singular ability, integrity, and courage, and never more conspicuously, or in better faith, or at more imminent risk of his own life, than in the protection of the troops of the Federal Government on the 19th of April. Of the police force placed under his command by these memorialist, and selected wholly without reference to their political opinions (as the law and the official oath of your memorialist require), your memorialist can say without exaggeration that they do not believe a body of men can be found anywhere more entirely devoted to the conscientious discharge of official duty, or less justly liable to the accusation of entering into unlawful combinations themselves, or encouraging such combinations themselves, or encouraging such combinations in others. Down to the moment of the suspension of the active duties of the force by General Banks, these memorialist have pride in asserting that no community ever acknowledged more universally than the citizens of Baltimore, and none ever had better reason to acknowledge, the successful operation of a police system in securing the strictest enforcement of the laws, the amplest protection of private rights, and the most rigid maintenance of public order.

Your memorialist further say that with every opportunity afforded by their official position, and every energy stimulated by their sense of duty to ascertain the existence of all unlawful combinations or associations within their jurisdiction, they have no reason whatever to suspect that any such combinations did, in fact, exist, as alleged by General Banks in his proclamation of June 27, and they confidently assert their conviction that his allegation to the contrary was founded upon false information, communicated to him by designing persons, and cannot be sustained or countenanced by credible evidence of any sort. But even if your memorialist were and are altogether mistaken in these particulars; if the marshal of police had been faithless to his obligations, as charged, and had been willing or able to seduce the men under his command from theirs also, it was still only necessary for General Banks to furnish the board of police with the slightest evidence to that effect, and your memorialist would have given to his suggestions the most prompt and respectful consideration. They would have suspended or removed the marshal, if such action had been proper, and would have placed beyond question their own disposition and ability to discharge the whole of their duty in the premises. If General Banks, even without advising them, had seen fit to arrest the marshal of police, upon any charge

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*See pp. 15-20.

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