Lucas et al. vs. McBlair et al.-1841. conferred by said act. And your orators pray reference to said original and supplemental acts, as they appear in the printed compilations of the acts of the aforesaid sessions, and that they be deemed and taken as part of this their bill. Your orators now further state, that the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, whose property and interest are to be availed of, and to be affected by the said acts, and by the structure by the same required, did, in consideration that said structures should be made, become a party to said acts of Assembly, and grant their assent, and the privilege and control to the said commissioners in respect of the use of the ground and property of said corporation, which are contemplated in the fourth section of the said original act. And your orators state, that thereupon, and to accomplish the project so devised and ordained by the State of Maryland, and through the said assent and concession of said corporation, so stipulated for by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, the commissioners aforesaid proceeded to make contracts with persons for purchase of schemes of lotteries so authorised, which contracts were performed; and finally to cause schemes of lotteries to be drawn under their own direction, they by their agents selling the tickets therein. And your orators aver, that as commissioners under the acts aforesaid, they are now engaged in carrying out the objects of said acts, by sales in manner aforesaid, with reference to the said purpose of the General Assembly, and of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. And your orators give your honor to know, that Solomon Hillen, who by said original act was appointed one of said commissioners, resigned his said office, and that Oliver Holmes, your orator, was duly appointed a commissioner in his place, giving bond with approved security, as did each of your orators, according to the requirements. of said acts of Assembly. And your orators suggest, that being thus the constituted agents of an undertaking of much public importance, and which it is the view of the State of Maryland and of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to have accomplished as promptly as may be, and for which it is the policy and intent of said acts, that means should be pro Lucas et al. vs. McBlair et al.-1841. cured as largely and surely as practicable, your orators are specially interested in seeing maintained all the restrictive provisions of the law and Constitution of Maryland touching the privilege of lotteries. And now your orators show, that certain officers, by virtue of enactments of the General Assembly of Maryland, have been from time to time appointed, and now are officiating, called commissioners of lotteries, representing the State in reference to the revenue derivable to her from drawings of lotteries and sales of schemes, and licenses for selling lottery tickets, whose duties however, are particularly defined and prescribed in the several relevant acts of Assembly, to which in that respect your orators refer; your orators showing, that the actual commissioners now are, Michael Mc Blair and George Cooke. Your orators further show, that by the first section of the acts of the General Assembly of Maryland, passed at December session 1831, chap. 79, entitled, An additional supplement to an act to amend the lottery system, the said commissioners are empowered to grant at any time after the passage of said act, a license or licenses to any person or persons, to be in force for one year from the date of the grant thereof, to sell not only tickets in any scheme or schemes of a lottery or lotteries which the said commissioners shall form and dispose of, or authorise for the benefit of the State, but also to sell tickets in any scheme or schemes of a lottery or lotteries granted by any of the States of the Union, or by the United States of America, and submitted to and approved by said commissioners, it being further provided, that the person or persons so licensed, shall at or before the obtaining of the licenses, contract with the commissioners aforesaid, for the right to draw a scheme or schemes of a lottery or lotteries within the year for which the license shall be granted, which scheme or schemes shall produce to the State, at least the sum of fifteen thousand dollars within said year. And your orators now state, that in pursuance of the provision of law just recited, the commissioners of lotteries have habitually made contracts with certain individuals, for the benefit of such individuals, of certain schemes of lotteries, devised or approved by Lucas et al. vs. McBlair et al.-1841. the commissioners in behalf of the State; and with reference to the yearly profit of at least fifteen thousand dollars, contemplated to be assured to the State by the terms of the act referred to; such schemes being thus created and operative for the benefit of the State of Maryland; and the fruit and profit thereof commuted by the contracts aforesaid, made by the commissioners as aforesaid, with certain individuals. And your orators show further, that conformably to said acts of Assembly, the commissioners of lotteries have been accustomed to grant licenses to said contracting individuals, authorising them or their assignees of the licenses, to sell tickets of lotteries of the State as aforesaid, or of foreign lotteries of other States, or of the United States, within the scope of the provision already herein before set forth, as to those licenses. And your orators state and charge, that under licenses so granted by the commissioners of lotteries, and under colour of the said act of Assembly, tickets have ever since the passage of said act been sold, and are now selling within the city of Baltimore and in the State of Maryland at large, in schemes of lotteries for the State's use as aforesaid, and of lotteries granted and sanctioned by only other States of this Union, or by the United States of America, such sales being made not only by the contracting individuals, and the grantees of the State of the said licenses, by numerous assignees of said licenses, under transfer of them respectively from said contractors. And your orators further show, that the contractors aforesaid, for the disposal of said licenses, and the sale of tickets to those using the licenses aforesaid, as grantees of said contractors, have customarily had, and now have, agents in the city of Baltimore, such agents receiving from the commissioners of lotteries the tickets of the various schemes; that the commissioners have approved for the dealing of said contractors and the holders of said licenses, the tickets so delivered, being stamped by said commissioners in token of the approval of the schemes, as required by the act of Assembly aforesaid, of the year 1831. And your orators state, that the persons who have contracted as aforesaid with the commissioners of lotteries, and have so contracted since the tenth day Lucas et al. vs. McBlair et al.-1841. of March, in the year 1841, the day of the passage by the said General Assembly of the act hereinafter mentioned, entitled An act to confirm an act entitled, an act to alter and amend the Constitution, so far as it relates to the power of the Legislature to grant lotteries, passed at December session 1839, chap. 31, are J. G. Gregory and other persons, to your orators unknown, composing the partnership of J. G. Gregory and Company; and that the agents aforesaid of said contractors, acting and managing for them, in manner aforesaid, in the city of Baltimore, are Samuel Scribner, and William Pyfer and Henry M. Bash, doing business as such agents and managers, under the style of partnership, of S. Scribner and Company. And your orators state and charge, that at the December session of the year 1839, the General Assembly of Maryland, contemplating the evils of unlimited lottery dealings, and of the multiplied lotteries agitating and alarming the community, and absorbing their means in many instances, to be diverted to objects of other States, and to be accomplished beyond the borders of Maryland, and repudiating as a source of revenue to the State, the fruits of such inordinate dealing, struck from the ordinary powers of legislature the sanction of lotteries, by passing the act entitled, An act to alter and amend the Constitution, so far as relates to the power of the Legislature to grant lotteries, declaring, that from and after the confirmation of that act by the succeeding Legislature, "no new grant should be made to authorise the drawing of any lottery, or the traffic or dealing in lottery tickets, or schemes or devices in the nature of lotteries, or the distribution of money or property by chance ;" and your orators state, at the next succeeding session of the Legislature, on the tenth day of March, in the year 1841, by an act entitled as above, an act to confirm the aforesaid act of the session of 1839, chap. 31; the act aforesaid forbidding to the Legislature the power of lottery grants, was confirmed and made part of the Constitution of Maryland; and the State itself, disabled from continuing the practice of lottery dealing, and drawing to the treasury the premium of the mischief which the Constitution thus marked and denounced. But your orators charge, that Lucas et al. vs. McBlair et al.-1841. notwithstanding this constitutional condemnation and inhibition, the commissioners of lotteries, although the agents of the State, who has thus interdicted herself the privilege and profits of lotteries, have nevertheless, in continuance of the evil repudiated by the constitution, entered into contracts of the same scope as those permitted before this Constitutional ordinance, and have approved and allowed to be availed of, (and allowed tickets therein to be sold under licenses as aforesaid,) schemes of lotteries for the State of Maryland, and schemes of lotteries granted and authorised above by other States, and have stamped as aforesaid tickets in such schemes, and issued them to the contractors or their agents aforesaid, which contractors and agents your orators have above named. And your orators aver and charge, that by sanction as aforesaid by said commissioners of lotteries, and by the instrumentality of said contractors and said agents, and under pretext of the licenses aforesaid, emanating from said commissioners of lotteries, schemes are every week approved for State lotteries aforesaid, and of lotteries granted and authorised above by other States, and tickets are largely and busily sold under many licenses issued as aforesaid, by said commissioners of lotteries to said contractors, and from them passing to the numerous grantees of the licenses, said commissioners stamping and authenticating thus, or by signature, the tickets so set afloat; and thus affording every ostensible warrant and all encouragement to a transgression of a solemn constitutional rule, and misinterpreting and exceeding the limits of their constitutional duty, as agents of the State. And your orators aver and charge, that by such action of said commissioners of lotteries and of the agents and persons aforesaid, not only is that social injury done which the Constitution so studiously sought to avert, but the undertaking to which, as aforesaid, your orators have been appointed as representatives of important purposes of the State and of the city of Baltimore, and which the State seeks to promote, has been seriously retarded, and its interests much prejudiced; and your orators aver and charge, that the project aforesaid of the State, over which they, as aforesaid, preside, must be long delayed, if not |