Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1861-05-31

is to act, through the courts, upon indi-
viduals, and not through the Army and
Navy upon the States The brave and
wise men who framed and upheld it,
would have died in the breach before they
would have submitted themselves to it
upon any other basis. 1t could never
have been adopted, it would never have
been ratified upon any other understand
ing. The States would have endured
anarchy, distracted counsels, and all the
evils of the old Confederation. aggrava-
ted tenfold, before they would have sur.
rendered themselves to any system in
which the Federal Government, and least
of all, the Federal Executive, was cloth
ed with the constitutional power of CO.
ercing them by force Of arms. They
entered into constitutional Union, de-
pending for its permanence upon the
good faith and good feeling of its mem
bers, and deriving its strength from their
consent only. They did not abandon
themselves to the bayonets of military
despotism enthroned upon popular ma
jorities.
But, illegal and unconstitutional as
was the war which the proclamation sum
moned one section of the country to wage
against the other, the causes and pur-
poses of that war, made it chiefly OBJ
noxious to the people of Maryland and
of the Slave States of the Border. 1t
was a war of propagandism and of sec
tional aggression and domination. 1t was
a war Of the North upon the South. 1t
was war in which the dominant section
had seized upon the name and flag. and
resources and powers. of the General
Government, and was abusing them for
its own ends, and for the permanent es-
adjustment Of its dominion over the
other section. 1t was a war, to the un-
holy purposes of which the sacv asso-
Citations and memories of the U on were
prostituted, and in which its honored
name was taken in vain. 1t was a war
waged against people of our own name
and blood who sought peace and kindly
relations with us, and who asked only to
be let alone and to be permitted to gov
ern themselves 1t could bring no good
for it could end only in the defeat Of the
invaders or the subjugation Of the invaded,
and in either case the Union, which our
fathers left to us, must be at an end -
Subjugated provinces could not be sister
States, and Federal Government, pro-
fassedly Republican, maintaining its au-
thority by armies, could not be other than
the worst and most unprinciped and
uncomfortable Of despotisms The South
had entrenched itself upon the principle
of self-goyernment. 1t had offered to
negotiate, peaceably and honorably, upon
all matters Of common property and di-
vided interest, claiming only that three
millions Of people had right to throw
off a government, by which they no lon.
ger desired to be ruled, and to live under
, another Government of their own ohoos-
ing. Unless the American Revolution
was crime, the declaration of Ameri-
can Independence falsehood, and every
patriot aud hero Of 1776 traitor, the
f South was right and the North was
wrong, upon that issue. The people Of
Maryland, therefore, could have but one
choice in such contest, and while as
, devoted to the Union and as loyal to the
Constitution, as the people Of any of the
thirteen States, who had formed the one
aud pledged themselves to the other,
they could not but throw the whole
weight Of their sympathics upon that
side to which common interests and in
stitutions inclined them, and with which
they felt that the right and the truth
were. Nor was it a matter of sympathy
merely. The breach Of tho Constitution
involved in the coercive policy Of the
Administration, was breach of their
rights, and not less than an unlawful ag-
gression upon the rights Of the Southern
people. 1t was an overthrow Of the
principles of free government, and could
end in nothing but an ignomiaious an
: Inhalation of the noble institutions Of the
Republic. The people of Maryland were
summoned to take part, as soldiers. 10
! the strife, and as citizens they we're asked
to contribute their means to its prosecu-
ton, and were to bear their share of It's
unconstitutional burdens their stake in
the struggle, therefore, was one Of po-
lisical individual self-preservation. They
were bound by every principle and press
ed forward by every impulse Of right and
self-respect, to make every protest against
the wrong to their brethren, and the OPP
preston to themselves, which their stu
alton and circumstances would permit.
To the requisition upon them for troops,
to take part upon the side of the Gov
eminent in such strife, their answer,
if they could have given it with their
own voice, would have been>an instant
and indignant refusal.
1t is deeply to be regretted that the
response Of bis Excellebcy, the Governor,
should have fallen so far short, in this
regard, Of the manly and patriotic spirit
with which the Governors Of Virginia
and North Carolina, Tennessee, Ken
lucky and Missouri, threw back the in
sulting proposition Of the Administration
Indeed, the Committee are unable TO
determine, from the correspondence with
which the Governor has furnished the
Legislature, whether bis Excellency does
not still contemplate complying with tho
requisition as made. His letter Of April
10th, to the Secretary Of War, is the
only one which gives a key TO bis inten-
tons, and 10 that he merely Announces
that he thinks it prudent to decline (for
the present mot because Of the lille.
galisy and wickcdness Of the demand,