Executive, your memorialist respectfully insist that the demands of the Constitution and of individual right and public liberty are very far above them, and they throw themselves therefore for redress and deliverance upon the justice and authority of the representatives of the people. They have no other recourse against arbitrary power and military force, and they demand as matter of right that their case be investigated by Congress or remitted to the tribunals of justice to be lawfully heard and determined.

CHARLES HOWARD.

WILLIAM H. GATCHELL.

JOHN W. DAVIS.

FORT McHENRY.

Numbers 6. Memorial of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

The mayor* and city council of Baltimore respectfully present this

their memorial:

The recent suspension of the functions of the board of police of this city makes it the duty of your memorialist to call your attention to certain consequences of that action which affect every citizen in this community. The memorial of the board of police already presented to your honorable bodies has given you full information of then nature and extent of their powers. A brief reference to certain leading features of thee law of Maryland under which they hold office, and with whose execution they are charged, will enable you to appreciate the embarrassments which now affect the due administration of the government of Baltimore.

The board of police is, under the laws of Maryland, the sole police authority of the city. It alone is competent to provide for the preservation of peace and order within our limits; to appoint subordinate police officers, to appoint judges of elections, and provide for the execution of the laws regulating elections; to enforce all ordinances of the mayor and city council of Baltimore for the preservation of health and the maintenance of peace and order.

By other provisions of the laws for the police government of this city, the organization of any permanent police force other than that organized by and acting under the orders of the board of police is distinctly prohibited.

To the due execution of the laws of their State for their local government, by legally-constituted officers, the free citizens of Baltimore have an unquestioned constitutional right. The manner in which that right has been respected will appear from the facts which we now recite:

The major-general commanding in the military department of which this city forms a part issued a proclamation, dated June 27, announcing the arrest of the marshal of police. With professions of respect for every municipal regulation and public statute, the proclamation further announces to the public that the official authority of the marshal of police and the board of police if superseded, and a "provost-marshal," an officer unknown to the civil law of Maryland, is appointed. No charge is preferred against the members of the board of police, nor is

---------------

*See also the mayor's message, pp. 15-20.

---------------