American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-02-20

more just and respectful treatment.
Your memonalists beg leave to refer part-
cularly to the report made to the House on the
18th inst. by the city delegates, and to the re-
cent proceedings of the Convention itself, all
published in the daily newspapers of the city
of Baltimore.
Your memorialists regret to find their own
Delegates in an antagonist position to their i'm
mediate constituents, and keeping in view
what is due to themselves, they will repress all
expression of feeling other than of regret at
the course which their Delegates have thought
proper to pursue on this occasion. They will
however claim the privilege guaranteed to all
alike by the constitution of Maryland, of max
ing known to your Honorable Body the ear
nest and general wish of the citizens of Balti-
more that you should without delay (and espe-
cially in reference to the disturbed state of our
foreign relations and the unprotected condition
of Baltimore) take up for consideration the
bill which was before the militia committee of
the House of Delegates and afterwards refer
red to, and unfavorably reported on, by the
Baltimore Delegates, that you will closely ex-
anime the provisions of that bill and compare
them with the more stringent provisions of the
militia laws now IN force in the city of Balt-
more, and that you will bear in mind the
ghtforwardness and integrity of purpose of
your memorialists in recommending for adOp-
ton an extremely mild and practicable system,
rather than all adherence (aS the Baltimore De-
legdteS strangely reeommend) TO the rigorous
and almost impractcable system now on our
statute book, but which cannot be enforced -
Your memorialists looking with confidence TO
your Honorable Body for justice, (even on APP
peal from the decision of their immediate De-
legates) are willing and prepared to meet the
issue that may be raised between them-to
wit: whether it is wiser to get from the Legs-
lature, if practicable, good and serviceable
law that can be enforced with advantage and
without discomfort to the citizens at large-or
to remain trammeled with an old system SO
odious that it cannot easily be enforced, though
tine officers h lding commissions are disposed
to do their duty and are bound by the solemni-
ties of an oath to carry out that impracticabo
system.
Your memoriaIists respectfully warn your
honorable body against the gratuitous and I'M
tenable ground assumed by the Baltimore dele
gates, when they intimate that the existing mi
hta laws are sufficient for all legitimate pur-
poses, and have been Intentionally u0tc n i0rced
by the Executive officers OF the State, because
Of their indspositjOn to harrass the people with
any the slightest militia service in lime of
peace, wherefore, they, the delegates, are to be
excused ''lor doclnn4 the responsibility of
disturbing the existing system" Your memo
ralists are prepared and could now prove by
innumerable aud unimpelchabIc witnesses, Gf
it had not been admitted, } that the CITY dele
gates know as well as your memoriaIists the
defects of the existing laws which render them
a dead letter; and if in reference TO the chief
Executive officer of the State making recon-
n1apHaiipp FIR ihn Of 4 b., To-,
city delegates intended, as is believed they
did, TO Confne the privilege ofsuch recommen-
dation to the Governor of the State, your
memoralsts Indignantly protest against that
slavish doctrine, coming from whom il may,
and they apply this remark to any Governor, no
matter of what party or vi what eminent claims
to public confidence, for it must be confessed
we have fallen LOto indeed, if it has come to
pass that the officers of the District Militia, and
the officers and prvates regularly delegated by
the Volunteer corps to consider amendments of
militia laws in reference to themselves and the |
military population of the city of Baltimore, /
are incompetent, (eUen under that high poplllal'
authortty,) to propose such amendments Of the |
laws without being rebuked and nsultngly |
reminded that the Governor of the State alone
has right to say when the laws ought to be
amended.
Your memoralists have been born and bred |,
in very different school, and have inherited !
from their Republican ancestors far different
notions of the rights of Republican citizens
under Republican government.
The city of Baltimore has always been fam
Gus for the high discipline, public spirit and |
excellence Of its citizen soldiers, and the char
acter of that soldiery is so written down in tho
history of the Defence of Baltimore during the
late war, that nothing need now be said on that
subject. 1t may, however, not be out of place
to remark that the same gallant and patriotic
spirit which has made the people of Baltimore
good soldiers in the face Of an enemy, has also
made them good citizens in time of peace, and
that they have ever dscountenanced and ,ciH
neuer tolerate in any public agent military or
civil, )that moral tmidity which holds back from
the discharge of PLAN and obvious duty in
stead Of performing ii. They will no more re-
spect the man, who, when called upon, hest
tates to act or to declare his sentiments (until
he has ascertained he can do so with impuni-
ty,) than the recreant who should emerge from
his hiding place to fire at a retreating enemy
lohen he ,Oas perfectly sure they wsre out reach.
Some OF your memoriasts have been for
more than thirty years actively and intimately
connected with the District Militia and the
Volunteer corps of the city of Baltimore, and
they aver that among all the Military Associa-
tons Of the United States, few, if any, have
uniformly exhibited such esprit de corps and
such disinterested and self-sacrificng temper.
Through all the discouragment of caprcious
legislation, at some times too lax, at others too
rigorous on the subject of the militia, they have
Perseverngly held on and always appeared at
their posts, when called upon to obey and sup
port the civil authorities. At the present mo-
ment, sensible of the great difficulties and the
responsibility of their position, (should sudden
emergency call them into service,) they ask
your honorable body TO listen to their petition
embodied in the bill now in the House of Dele
gates. They ask this not as matter of favor,