The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1861-10-19

minority of the people Would not the
vigi.ant eye of the opposing majority,
ncrved by party discipline and courage,
have ever been stcrnly fixed on every
act of the Executive and his Cabinet .
What, then, was there in the election of
a President of opposite politics, chosen,
it is true, by small majority of
States, but confronted by large and
hostile majority of voters, to disturb the
patience of any man 1t is no novelty
for US to endure four years of an adverse
administration. We have borne it often;
nay, some of us have never had Presi-
dent of our choice yet no man, hitherto,
thought of making it at least the occa-
sion, If not the motive, of revolt. No
man thought of it with moro fear for the
stars Of our Union than he did of the
disturbance Of the stars in heaven by the
intrusive comet which recently swept the
earth with its luminous tail
| a candidate was defeated, and Seces-
sion, by States, began! They we're loyal
until the sceptre departed, and then COM
menced to rebel peacefully! But to
rebel against WHAT Against alleged
constructions of the Constitution, not
against the Constitution ITSELF "We
have changed" said Mr.. Jefferson Davis,
in his inaugural as President of the
so-called Confederacy, at Montgomery,
We have changed the constituent parts,
but not the system of our Government
The Constitution, formed by our fathers,
is that of these Confederate States. In
their exposition of it, and in the judicial
construction it has received, we have a
! light which reveals its true meaning"
Yet, what is there in mere apprehen-
ded danger of the possibility of a future,
and probably remote, attempt to change
the received law according to the United
States Supreme Court, to justify COM
bination to destroy The Union of the
States How, fellow-citizens of Mary
land, can you be candidly asked by
the South to abandon the very instru-
ment of our organic national law which
you now hold in common with the other
loyal States, and which that South itself
has substantially re-adoptcd for it's Gov
ernmeutl Does not the mere narration
Of events exhaust even the pretenccs
upon which this uprising is founded p
Does not the alleged change of econ
stltucnt parts" simply and alone, signify
constituent men," who now appeal to
a loyal country to be "lct alone" in
their usurpcd power!
We are not unacquainted with the fact
| md do no 10, ~ -,
paper, that the South has had cause for
irritation, and perhaps some alarm, from
partisan interference with its rights over
that species of property on which it is
mainly dependent. We do not ignore
the fact that the famous :slibcrty bills
(whosc admitted unconstitutionalty rem
dcrcd them not worth the paper they
stained were made one of the causes of
separation by South Carolina in her
Declaration. Yet, with all these facts,
tending as they really did to disturb
confidence and good ncighborship, we
hold them inadequate, as intolcrablc pro-
vocations, to justify the destruction of
our National Confederacy. The essence
of II Republic is free discussion, and free
discussion may annoy, but it assists in
attaining right conclusions. The great
commercial, financial, manufacturing, and
navigating interests of the North, are,
from necessity, too vitally protective OF
Southern agriculture to Go anything but
sustain it. Every interest of the North
is really the soldier of Southern industry:
and if Observation-Disclosures England
can be solicited and expected to war
with the United States for commodity
founded on slave labor and it's chief sup
port, what candid belief is there in the
voluntary abandonment, by the North, of
its looms, its ships, its exchange, its vast
and lucrative commerce, all drawn from
and dependent on the identical basis
Who can be so illogical or dcluded as to
believe it
But, in your adherence to the Consti-
tuition and the Union under it, adroit
politicians seek to bewilder you by side
Issues, which, whatever may be their
merit as independent propositions in time
of peace, must now be kept in strict sub
ordination to the great National issue.
They seek thus to confuse your ideas and
pervert your Judgment. They approach
you in turns by rhetoric and sophistry =
They assall the tender side of your
nature by your sympathies. They even
venture on indirect appeals to your fears;
and, ifall these fail, so far forget them
selves occasionally as to attempt intimi-
dation.
Re firm; heed them not. Names arc
not things. You are not an Abolitionist
because you Loyalty love the Constitutu-
ton which Mr.. Jefferson Davis says is
the same as that of the Confederate
States! 1t is nothing more than the
Constitution which he swore to protect
and obey when he served the Union in
the field and in the Senate. You con-
strue it as your fathers construed it,
Let no man put words in your mouth
You belong to none Of the dismal catcgo-
rics in which they would place you.-
Tell them, Marylandcrs, that you defend
nothing but what you announce, and
frankly, that you announce nothing but
Union under the Constitution. If they
ask you what you meant? answer: cad
ministration like Washington's and con-
struction like Marshall's" Tell them,
you will, at all times, preserve a just
and manly balance between your SYM