Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-01-31
Ghe Grisis.
BY REQUEST.
Truths Struck from Rlacksmith's Anvil.

SIR: These are pcrilous times, and among
others of our distinguished and respected
citizens, you have assumed to offer your ad
vice in regard to them. This is proper and
but part Of the discharge of the duty which
j you owe to. your State. LAS one of your
4 Every bumhieO fellow citizens" conclude
4 that the of my duty to ''the State
Of my BIRTH lis as obligatory upon me as
. iours is upod you,.- Feeling my response
'kBility then, as,IcazanQf the Commonwealth
sy9. Maryland, | deep It my privilege, if not
4 drnnauty to oppose gomes s9f your views as
ttsheS apYeaf in your, ppbfJked letter in the
fIttaars Sun oft5 1t6R;inst. It is true
th9 lgtsF sas sysed to Hon; Rev.
lit was Pl fofsH ,tqr public benefit, and is
stherefore pdyr property. Therefore, ii
IS my buaHesa, asoaeof the people, very
Estespeetfuly yeste. examine your position. In
.tthe 6rstsplascyoa eensure Mr.. johnson for
not having: pfoposed.sa plan for the adjust
ment of our National difficulties, and yet
throughout> your long letter, you make no
proposition of skinl yourself. You think
that Mr.. Jokhsoh ought to have ''lifted
Himself xbove'3lie mere rhetoric of the ordi-
nary polisica1 declaimer. and to have pointed
out some plan of reconciliation for the adop-
| tion of those who value the Constitution. "
Let me ask, my dear sir, who you mean by
those who value the Constitution ?" Do
yousmean Mr.. johnson and those brave and
heroic men all over our country who are
fighting SO nobly for ats preservation and
that of 1.-THE Union which it made p From
the tenor Of your language l judge you do
not. Do you then mean those men (aboli-
tionists and traitors) of the North, and those
men (secessionists and traitors) Of the South
who have been and are now moving heaven
and earth and hell to ouerthro,0 that Consti-
tuition and to destroy thut ''Inion which 1t
made? p There are, sir, but the two class
es, patriots and traitors, and both classes
will be found more Or less in every State in
our Union. In the great majority of States
the former class largely predomnates, while
in small minority of the States the latter
sm to predominate ,hese sssos
!NowNslr. which of .ss sns sne i = arc neS
in open rebellion against the Federal Gov
ernment, and who have determined to ianj
dorm the Constutntton and the laws, certain
ly do not ''value the Constitution" If
they do, they have strange way of testing
that value! No, sir, the man or set of men
who will raise their hands to disjoint this
Union and to strike down our temple Of lib
erty, together with the best hopes of humani-
ty throughout the world, do not "value the
Constitution but do hate it and have so
declared. But the other class (patriots)
are the men who "value the Constitution
and the Union which it made"
And I may be- permitted here, without
aattery to Mr.. johnson, to recognize him
as one of the "most distinguished of those
men. His great speech, to which your let
ter is reply, or which is rather intended
to be reply, is enough to give Mr.. John
son, if he had never said another word for
his country, a lofty position among the real
patriots and benefactors of our great Repub-
lie. [, and [ may say the great mass of the
free citizens Of Maryland, will not be able
to find the first symptoms of "clap trap" as
you say, in that speech. From end to end
it is succession Of powerful sentences, big
with truth, logic and patriotism
You say that those ''who composed the
great meeting at which Mr.. johnson spoke
are again dispersed" and you ask chow it
tended in any way to settle our difficulties p
[ should think your acknowledged sagacity
would enable you to see the tendency Of the
expression of public sentiment at that meet
ing is on the side Of the Constitution, and
if you will look over the broad acres of our
noble old Commonwealth, you will see that
in every town and hamlet there has been
just such an expression of public sentiment
as was manifested at the great Baltimore
meeting, and, sir, you will acknowledge
that if this public sentiment does not tend
to adjust ''our difficulties" according to the
e;ctren,e ideas of some, that it does tend to
prove that our good old State is not going
to be driven out of the Union by Abolition
lists of the North or dragged out of it by
Secessionists of the South. 1t proves that
our people know no North, no South, no
East, no West under the Constitution, and
that they will not surrender their eonstitu-
tional liberties for any prospective monarchy,
such as is now in Southern embryo! Your
assertion, that the great Union meeting was
'.ridtcmus mus" cannot be sustained =
You ask-''What said the meeting on the
all-important question whether, with their
consent and approval, Southern cities should
be demolished and confagrated, and South
ern homes made desolate by the slaughter
Of fathers and brothers-their natural pro-
tectors p Now. my dear sir, you know
that "question' was not before the meeting!
If you, sir, had have put that question be-
fore that meeting there would not have been
among the assembled thousands single
man, think, who would have answered in
the affirmative. / have attended several
Union meetings aud have never heard that
question brought up; nor do think it like
| ly that it will be- AS for ''the humiliation
and subjugation Of our Southern brethren, :"
the people Of Maryland will never acknow-
ledge. No. sir, our sntjugation cannot be
accomplished either by abolitionists of the