APPENDIX IV.

On the 12th of July, 1861, I sent a message to the First and Second Branches of the City Council referring to the events of the 19th of April and those which followed. The first paragraph and the concluding paragraphs of this document are here inserted:

"The Mayor's Message.

"To the Honorable the Members of the First and Second Branches of the City Council.

"Gentlemen:—A great object of the reform movement was to separate municipal affairs entirely from national politics, and in accordance with this principle I have heretofore, in all my communications to the city council, carefully refrained from any allusion to national affairs. I shall not now depart from this rule further than is rendered absolutely necessary by the unprecedented condition of things at present existing in this city....

"After the board of police had been superseded, and its members arrested by the order of General Banks, I proposed, in order to relieve the serious complication which had arisen, to proceed, as the only member left free to act, to exercise the power of the board as far as an individual member could do so. Marshal Kane, while he objected to the propriety of this course, was prepared to place his resignation in my hands whenever I should request it, and the majority of the board interposed no objection to my pursuing such course as I might deem it right and proper to adopt in view of the existing circumstances, and upon my own responsibility, until the board should be enabled to resume the exercise of its functions.

"If this arrangement could have been effected, it would have continued in the exercise of their duties the police force which is lawfully enrolled, and which has won the confidence and applause of all good citizens by its fidelity and impartiality at all times and under all circumstances. But the arrangement was not satisfactory to the Federal authorities.

"As the men of the police force, through no fault of theirs, are now prevented from discharging their duty, their pay constitutes a legal claim on the city from which, in my opinion, it cannot be relieved.

"The force which has been enrolled is in direct violation of the law of the State, and no money can be appropriated by the city for its support without incurring the heavy penalties provided by the Act of Assembly.

"Officers in the Fire Alarm and Police Telegraph Department who are appointed by the mayor and city council, and not by the board of police, have been discharged and others have been substituted in their place.

"I mention these facts with profound sorrow, and with no purpose whatever of increasing the difficulties unfortunately existing in this city, but because it is your right to be acquainted with the true condition of affairs, and because I cannot help entertaining the hope that redress will yet be afforded by the authorities of the United States upon a proper representation made by you. I am entirely satisfied that the suspicion entertained of any meditated hostility on the part of the city authorities against the General Government is wholly unfounded, and with the best means of knowledge express the confident belief and conviction that there is no organization of any kind among the people for such a purpose. I have no doubt that the officers of the United States have acted on information which they deemed reliable, obtained from our own citizens, some of whom may be deluded by their fears, while others are actuated by baser motives; but suspicions thus derived can, in my judgment, form no sufficient justification for what I deem to be grave and alarming violations of the rights of individual citizens of the city of Baltimore and of the State of Maryland.

"Very respectfully,

"Geo. Wm. Brown, Mayor."