American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1858-01-22


They tend TO render alien TO each
other, those who ought to be bound
together by frnternai affection" These
words have ever been tho true expires
sion Of the opinions, and the policy Of,
tho people of Maryland or that great
subject Of sectional agitation.
A slave-holding State by inherit.
ance, b. her traditions, usages andlaw;
border State between those now for
bidding slavery and those retaining it;
allied to all the States with equal sym.
pathies, and by her various interests,
nothing can be indifferent to her PEG.
pie which tends to disturb their Union.
10 that Union she is indissolubly bound
by every tie; by every interest in the
present, by every association and mem
DRY Of the past. Her people there
fore have always refused to take part
in the struggles for sectional power.
Her voice has always been raised for
peace and compromise, from the day
of the first great settlement of this dis
turbance down to its objectionable re-
newal, and the violation of the sacred
compact, by which it was settled and
silcnced. =.
The people of Maryland have never
listened to suggestions of disunion from
| Southern States, and have denied all
appeals to her sympathies from them,
as steadily as they have refused all
sectional association with States in the
North, whose misguided councils have
forgotten their allegiance to the Union.
or attempted to deny the constitutional
! rights of their equals. The people of
this State yet know of no grievance,
for which disunion is u remedy, and
they have always in the words of Wash
ington discountenancedw whatever light
suggest even the slightest suspicion
that the Union can, an any event, be
abandoned. .. .''.... ........
Her people will harkcn to no sug-
gcstion inimical to the slave holding
States, for she herself is one of them.
They will listen to no suggestion mi
mical to union with the non -slavehold-
ing States, for she also has interests
identical with theirs; and more than
any other State, by reason of her po-
| sitiQn and the variety of her interests,
is deeply concerned in the preservation
of the Federal Union. Ever ready to
defend by arms her own rights and lib.
critics from any aggression from with
in or without, she has not yet begun to
consider the chances of disunion. Her
people are content with the conviction
that however designing men may
have taught the contrary, no right of
any State, North or South, Atlantic or
Western, has yet been infringed by the
common Government of all. And the
attempts Of certain partizans to make
them think otherwise, arc by them
looked upon as only zone Of the expo
dents of party, to acquire influence
within particular districts, by misrep-
resenting the opinions and views of
other districts They regard such
alarmists as political adventurers, who
live by substituting the fears, and en-
listing the prejudices of a sectional
party whose hopes they arc the first to
betray when they have gained place
and power by the cheat.
Holding these views, the people of
Maryland have always looked with
pride OH their share in the great COM
promises of 1920 and 1850; aud with
very different feelings on the fragrant
violation of those compromises, & their
destruction by "desjgning men" in
1854. The name of one of Maryland's
ablest sons is forever associated with
the Missouri Compromise, which made
a just partition of tho common terrific
ry between those States which main
tanned and those which had abolished
the institution Of domestic slavery; x
further established the great principle
that each new State added to the Union
must be admitted equal and sovereign
as all the rest, without contract, or re-
striction, or limitation upon the right
Of self government. The act of 1920
drew line through the territories, to
the south of which slavery was estab'
lishod, and to the north Of which it was
prohibited by Congress, during the
territorial condition; but it equally
provided for the right of the people of
every territory, north or south of the
line, to establish or forbid slavery in
their State Constitution. And this it
did by asserting the absolute right Of
the people to form their own Constitu-
ton, and exclusively control their own
domestic policy; and by denying any
power in Congress to impose any con-
dition of admission. .......'.. ...
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