The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-27
From the EreniRg Day Book
n :

From our inmost soul we pity the who does
not look with sorrow and shame upon the presen Mt
humiliated condition Of Maryland. The man that
rejoice in the sight of a sovereign STATE of the
American Union degraded and desp0iled OF her
ancient honors, is filter to be the subject of some
despotic government like that of Austria than a
citizen of free and enlightened Republic. There
are proud memories lingering around the Capitol
of Maryland which have made its history dear to
every patriotic heart this continent. 1t was in
that Capitol that the Continental Congress once
found a sanitary in the days OF the revolution and
it was there that Washington resigned his com
mission.
1t will evermore bring a blush on the check of
every man in this land who is not lost to shame
to think that from the very chamber where w ash
ington ress ned his commission, the Representatives
of sovereign State were driven out by soldiers in
the paw of the Federal Government, and that they
were threatened with being followed to Frederick
and dispersed at the point of the bayonet. Alas
for Maryland 1t is to this State that our country
owes the first example of freedom and religious
liberation. The Puritans of New England called
themselves 'iends of civil and relg gious libertv;"
but more impudent assumption, a more false
claim to honor, was never made-for, on the first
appearance Of man among them who was not of
the Puritan faith even though he was a harmless
Quaker, these ''friends of civil and religious ber
ty" set upa war-cry (more savage than the Indians
ever had ased on these shores before) OF Danish
ment and death.
Even the first women who arrived in their colony
who were not Puritans, were committed to prison,
and stripped naked under pretsnce of seeing
whether they were witches. and such bnrbarites
were practised upon the decencv forbids us to
repeat The historian says, "On the 22d Of Decem-
Der, 1867, Ann Coleman, Mary Tompkins and Alice
Ambrose, for being Quakers, were sentenced to be
stripped naked, fastened to a cart-tail and whipped
on their naked backs, through eleven towns, dis
tance of eighty miles" (SewePs History of the
Quakers, page Ill For being Quakers both men
and women exposed naked in the streets
of Boston, and publicity whipned from Bos-
ton to Dedham. As early as 1858, law was
passed by the "riends of civil and relig-
liberty only to whip every man
and woman who were not Puritans, but also to cut
off their ears, and bore holes through their tongues
with red hot iron! Hanging and drowning
also among the penalties of refusing to embrace
the Puritan faith of Massachusetts,. The heart
sickens and humanity hides its face in shame at
the bare thought of the horrible cruelties which
these "iriends of civil and religious liberty" inict-
ed upon every soul who not of their own faith.
The reader who has the courage to peruse the
damning record, can find it in Hinton's History of
the United States, or in SewelPs History of the
Quakers.
While the Puritans of New England were enact
ing these scenes of tyranny and cruelty the colon
lists of Maryland were peacefully laying the foun-
datiOns of genuine ciUH and religious WertY. 1t
was here, in Maryland, that freedom began it's
march on this continent. As early as 1912 Lord
Baltimore offered even the Puritans of Massachu-
setts asylum, grantin them .'ree liberty of re-
hgion,' and the people of all beliefs were allowed
unrestricted freedom of opinion and of speech:
and it from the seed of equal rights thus sown
by the colOnisrs of Maryland, that the tree of b-
erty on this continent grew up, until it trans
planted into the Constitution of the United States
which delares that Congress shall make no law
respecting establishment of religion, prohibit
ing the free exercise thereof abridgng the free
dom of speech, or Of the press" When this clause
added to the Constitution, the Puritans of New
England raved against the ''centiousness of the
document, and declared that the Convention had
''voted Amightv God out of the Constitution"
By the adoption of the Constitution the princi-
OF fret sohIi aha6 b,-th tha
of Maryland, were inaugurated as the basis of our
government and the PuritanSm of the Massachu-
sets Colonists deprived of its weapons of op.
preston and persecution. But, though cast down
Puritanism not destroyed. Though crushed, it
was not conquered. And now what do see, af-
ter seventy five wears have elapsed? sight which
painfully reminds us Of the mutability OF human
affairs-even of the institutions of freedom and
selfgovernment. We soldiers from the old
Puritan stock of Massachusetts encamped upon the
soil of Maryland The decendents of the Endicots,
the Mathers, and the whippers of Slassachu-
sets, have their bayones at the throats of the Cal
verts, the iIowards and the CAROLS OF, f,Maryand-
What a picture of ''selEgovernment' is that
What commentary upon Sour fathers" doctrines
oil estate sovereignty, and of co-equal States !"
what StupendOus lie it would make even the Con-
stituton itself! A sovereign State" "governing
ITSELF with 10000 bayones the hearts its peo-
ple is a suggestive sight.
The occupation, for military purposes, of the
cities, towns and soil of a State against the will of
its people-the military invasion of a State and
the seizure OF private property, and the Interrupt
'tion of business, in violation of private rights-the
appropriation Of horses, wagons and the occupa-
ton of houses and farms for 'military barracks
and fortified camps'-all this mar ching and tread
of hostile armies the soil of Maryland, the old
mother of civil and religious liberty on this Con
tinent. and against her consent, what does it all
mean? Why, il means that the Puritans could
never be st--could never let the domestic nstitu-
tions of other States alone-could mind their
own business; but must fight, intrigue, and agitate
about negroes, until they goaded co-equa sister
States to madness. That is what it all means. Had
it not been for Puritanc Abolitonism, these States
would still be going prosperousy and happily
as they were started by our forefathers. Every
effort to unite them and to bring back peace while
the cause of all the mischief Abolitionism is left
intact, is simply to tamper with the Providence of
Almighty God who has made mmutabe the ir ex-
orabe laws that exists between cause and effect
Invading the soil of Southern States will never
bring peace. Invasion must stop. before peace can
begin. Shooting men in the South will never re-.
store the Union, but will only drive the dismem-
bered fragments farther and farther apart. This
Union may still be saved-not by invading armies
but by calling off the Puritan bloodhounds who
have driven one-half of it into desperation and
madness.