The national Republican., 1861-06-07
ADDRESS OF CHARLES B. CALVERT


10 tile Voters Of the Sirth Congressional Dis.
trict Of Maryland.
FELLOW CITIZENS: Having been nominated
by the Union Convention of this district as a
candidate to represent your interests in the next
Congress Of the United States, it becomes proper
for me to define my position in the present con.
test, by addressing you through this medium,
as the time is too limited for me to appear per.
sonaly before you. My first vote, in 1929, was
given in favor of Wing principles. and from
that day to the present time have always been
a Whig of the Henry Clay school, and have
endeavored, in the various changes of parties,
to support the one which | believed came near.
est to the principles and policy advocated by
that great, good, and patriOiic leader, who never
gave a vote or advocated policy which he
considered prejudicial to the Union. In the
election of 1856, supported Mr.. Fillmore, not
because he was the American candidate, las
never united myself with that party, on account
of some Of its issues, but most particularly be-
cause of its want of toleration in religious
opinions,) but on account of his conservative
character and his patriotic sacrifice of himself
in behalf of the just rights of the South in
1850. In the contest of 1860, | urged upon
the voters OF my own county, in an address
published in the Marlboro Gazette on the 29th
August, 1860, the necessity of defeating both
the sectional parties in order to preserve the
Union, as it was clear to my mind that certain
leaders in the South designed to break up the
Union, if they failed in eecting their candidate.
| did all in my power to defeat the present
Administration, by giving my hearty support
to that candidate who, discarding all sectional
issues, stood on the broad platform of "the
Union, the Constitution and the enforcement
of the laws aud AIN not disposed now to de.
sert those principles because q majority of the
people refused to coincide with me in the SC.
lection of a proper head for the Government
SO long as those principles are faithfully car.
ried out cannot conceive how any patriotic
citizen, who sincerely desires the prosperity of
the whole country and all its parts, can unite
in an effort to overthrow the best Government
when honestly administered, that ever was or
ever can be established. The right of one
State to peaceably secede from the residue
when the Constitution required that at least
nine States should unite in its provisions before
it could be adopted, is modern heresy, iraught
with destruction to all government, and is tan
tamount to declaration that a minority shall
govern. Examine, fellow.citizens, for your.
selves, without being led away by the specious
arguments of political tricksters the necessary
and inevitable consequences Of adopting such
an unsound doctrine, and l feel assured you
will discard it as utterly untenable. 1t is
urged by some that Maryland should Sc.
cede and unite with the Southern Confed
eracy, but can any good and sufficient rea.
son be given for either doing it herself or rec
ognising the right of any other State to do
it? l say, emphatically, none; and this is the
whole question which you have to decide in this
contest viii you suffer all your property and
interests to be destroyed, by either breaking up
yourselves or suffering others to destroy this
Union, which is the only safeguard for your
lives and property Do you not believe that
the present Constitution, if justly administered,
affords the best security for those interests
What act of the last Administration was so ut.
terly repugnant to the people as to justify those
Southern States in fOrswearing their allegiance
to the Government of the United States? u hat
acts of the present Administration are so op.
pressive upon the people OF Maryland as to
Justify them in renouncing the Union, which
has conferred such innumerable blessings, and
associating themselves with Government es.