Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1861-01-17
5AiGrtllQnrOus.
-ADDEE&5
OF THE
HON. NEynY WINTER DAVIS
Voters of tie FowM Congressional o:a
trtck.

DiStIfct-lt is my right and my duty, as
your Representative, to warn you oi the dan
ger which threatens the destruction Of the
Government and to overwhelm you beneath
its ruins.
Tho first act of the draml of revolution
was opened in South Carolina.
Ambitious and restless men avaiing them
selves Of acttirus fear which they have in
f Spired, and sectional passions which they
have inIlame,!, are conspring the overthrow
OF the government. They hope to found a
Southern Contederacy, on the fragments Of
the United States Of Am0pca.
Maryland has been formally asked to Join
a Southern Confcderacy. The advocates of
ruin speciously disguise their reasonable
plans under the forms of Southern prejudice
and ask il Maryland will desert the South
and join the North. But that is not the
question which Maryland is called on to au-
swcr
Maryland is now joined to both the free
and the Slave States under the wlsest Cousti-
tuition and by the best Government the world
ever saw. That Government has never
wronged her, or tailed to protect her The
| formation of Southern Cunederacv must
he preceded by the destruction of that Gov
Ienment. Till it is broken up. and its armies
defeated there can be no Southern COriedpra-
| icy. Mary y.and is therefore asked, not whether
she prefers to enter Northern or u Southern
COn!Cderacy, but she is asked to form u coal
ilIon to break up and destroy the Constiu-
ton which Washington founded, and to
plunge into the horrors of civil war, for tue
purpose ol creating Southern Cunluderacy.
That is the true question you have to con-
sidcrj for peaceful secession is dcIusou and
il you yield to the arts now employed to de-
lude you, the soil Of Maryland will, in fow
months, be trampIcd By armies struggling
Tor the National Capital. Tho only question
is will yOu fight tn maintain or destroy
the existing Government.
The interest. Of Maj IgIaud are iniissulubiy
connected with the integrity of the United
ISt"tcs Of America. Any division of the
cnniodcracy is to her fatal.
Maryland has not an interest which will
survivc the Government under the Cunsttu-
ton. No matter what new combinations
arise, whether Maryland Stard alone, or
unite her fate to any new cou,edcracv on her
northern ur her southern border she is utter
| y ruined and PROSTATE, fUi this generation
at least. When she will revive God only
| knows.
| If the prc'ent Government be destroyed, Mar
yland Shareholders lose thei. only guaranty for
the return Of their slaves. Every commercial
| line of communication is severed Custom
house barriers arrest her merchants at every
frontier. Her commerce on the ocean is tho
prey of every pirate or the sport Of every mari.
time power Her great railroad cses every con
| ncXOn whit b makes it valuable. If two repub-
lies divide the territory of the United States,
| Maryland is ruined whichever sh5 Join. If the
| South. her slaves will walk over tho Iennsylva-
MIA line unm0!ested. The African slave trade
will reduce their market value below the cost of
raising or supporting them and if they did not
abscond they would be abar doncd by their mas
| tcrs,
Free trade will open every port, and cotton
ana woOlcn factories, and the iron and machine
works of Maryland would be PROSTATE before
| European competition. The expenses of Gov
ornment must be doubled by the Instant NJ cessi-
ty Of large standing army for ~ tho condi-
tons Of present security will be gone, and n
great Northern power divided from us by an air
line, will be IN over impending danger. In the
war of separation, and ever after Maryland will
bs an outgoing province without q lortfcation
or natural boundary, always overrun at the
first sound of arms, incapable of being defended
by the weaker power Of which she will be part
| whose natural line of defence must be the Po-
!
my would venture decisive battle.
| The hope that Baltimore will be the emporium
Of such republic is deluSiDn too riGiclUus to
need reiutatiDn. Nothing intended tor the
| South will ever pass Norfolk and from the West
we will be severed by custom houses, duties, and
political antipathies, in favor Of New York.
Is not Southern Republic new to Maryland
| Joining Northern one is equally so, il stated
| lines define the limits of the two republics. The
slave interest will be instantly destroyed; the
great railroad to the West is cut off ut IIarper's
| Ferry, and Baltimore becomes n tributary to the
Central Pennsylvania road. All her Southern
and South-W Western trade is gone, and her foreign
commerce can seek the ocean only by the favor
of Virginia or under the guns GC 30 woriul navy
In war still we are the frontier, ard our soil will
| be desolatcd by the cOutendirg armies.
| Our manufacturing industry will be better Sc
cured military frontier will BETTER prutec ted
| by the Potomac our foreign commerce will have
| the protection of a maritime power, and we shall
be free from the humilat or an European
| protectOrate but the sudden and absolute dc.
struction of the slave holding interest, and the
radical change in the relations of our population
will give shock 10 our internal quiet and pros.
perity that neither this nor the next generation
| will recover from.
| But there can be no such division of this con.
federacy by existing State lines. The present
territory has been acquired and divided to be
used as II whole, bound by the common ties oi
the Constitution, and the course of trade is ar.
ranged accordingly. Break it in any part, and
it will fly in IL thousand pieces like a Prince Ru.
pert's drop. Western Virginia belongs to the
valley of the Mississippi. Virginia can never
withraw from the existing coniederacy undivi-
dcd. Her western boundary will be the Blue
Ridge. Maryland will be swayed by adverse
forces, which will probably give her northern
and western counties to Pennsylvania, her pen.
in suar to Virginia unless II civil war shall ha ye
dcsolated and Subdued them
Whatever the sympathies of her commercial
emporium may be, present political heats, yet
when the conditions which gave rise to them
are gone with the present government, her inter
eets will find voice, and a decisive voice. in de
terminag her future relations.
What they shall be trust in God may never
be decided.
With these consequences before their cyos
there are yet men in Maryland who seoin madly
bent on revolution and cUnspirators beyond be-
limits instigae and aid their Efforts. To the sue
sess of their schemes the convocation Of the lie
gislatnre is essential. Ir securing that objcc
many unite who are strangers to their purpose
and blind to the consequences of what thoy ar,
doing-men who honestly .hnk there is no dan
ger it might avert or that there ought to be ar
agreement or understan ling with Virginia. o
who are moved by sympathy with neighborin;
Agitators, OF wish to gain party advantages, o.
play political game, or are interested il tn
corrupt and active lobby.
They are all the allies, conscious or uncon
soous, of the revolutiOnists.
The revolutionary agita.orS existing clserher
in the Republic, will be aggravated by call Q
The Maryland Legislf ture. 1t will look lik
sympathy with the evolutionary States. twill
dishearten the friendsof the Gouerentent in thos
States 1t will inspire the revolutionists, in til
central States. now in hopeless minority, witt
new hopes. 1t will tend to destroy the Inoderai
feelings of the free States in dealing with tn
existing discontents. 1t will greatly embarra
the President, who must maintain the authorit.
of the laws, and is entitled to tho undivided sup
port of the people of Maryland for that purpose
The halls of Legislation will Immediately be
come the fruit ofrev olutionary conspiracy. UI
der snccious nrete 1t. The rannln will be i'm MI