The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-07-01
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, JULY /, 1861.

Either the people OF the North have deliberately
resored to falsehood and sef-deception to sustain
the President in the outrageous course which ne
has adopted at their dictaion, or else the excite
ment of the hour has deprived the vast majority
of them of the capacity TO reason or TO dlscriml-
nate between right and wrong. In no other way
can the extraordinary confusion OF ideas which
apparently prevails throughout that section be
accounted for Up to the period of Mr.. LINcoLN's
Inauguration the position of the country, the
dangers which threatened it, and the means by
which these might be averted, discussed by
a multitude of speakers and writers in the North
with great ability and fairness. Bat from the
moment when he initiated the arbitrary and
illegal measures which have thus far characterized
his official career, the Northern mind appears TO
have become completely bewildered. In their
efforts to sustain the Administration and the
time to find some plausible apology for so doing,
the people of the free States have been talking for
weeks past the most incomprehensible jargon.
They have been defending the most palpable
violations Of the fundamental statutes of the land
on the ground that they were contending for the
enforcement of the laws; they have justified the
most fragrant usurpations by the President, on the
theory that they were upholding the Constitution;
they have advocated bloody and remorseless
war upon the South for the reason that they de-
sired to preserve fraternal relations, and the old
political connections between the inhabitants
of the free and the slave States. They
have continually denounced all opposition to
the despotic DEGREES of the Cabinet as treason,
and all unfavorable structures upon the acts of the
Federal authorities seditious. The citizens of
Baltimore, and more especially one or two Of the
daily journals of this city, have been the constant
objects of This insensate clamor. Because we con-
denim the policy of the Administration, and repu-
date its iuiquitous proceedings, and endeavor to
countervail its unwarrantable schemes, we are
stigma.ized as traitors to our country, whose lips
should be closed and whose liberties should be
curtaled by the strong hand of power. The alb
surdty of the views and sentiments Of the North
people upon these points is not less manifest
than their dishonest subserviency. There is not
schoolboy in the land who does not know that it
is neither reasonable nor seditious to oppose or
resist those acts Of the authorities which are
in palpabe violation of the laws and the Constitu-
ton. The instant the President disregards the
clear provisions Of tie great charter by virtue of
which he holds his Office that instant it ceases also
to be binding upon the people. When be steps
beyond the sphere within which bis duties and his
prerogatives are by that instrument defined and
limited, he forteits at that moment all claim to
obedience and respect. Any other proposition
than this is but reiteration of the doctrine of
abject Submission to the established Government.
1t is an affirmation of The principles which the most
devoted adherents of the most absolute of the
B)urbons were wont to avow. 1t is at war with
the teachings of our fathers, with the spirit Of our
Institutions and with the cherished convictions of
the American people.
Maryland has, therefore, the right, if she SO
peases, to resist, at any time, and in any manner
the arbitrary measures of the Administration. If
she thought proper she might, consistently with
the obligations which she assumed hen she be-
came a member of the Confederacy, dispute, at
the swords point the passage across her borders
e. tIe rresIuent mas so unlawfully |
called into the field. She would, in that event,
be conending against Mr. LINCOLN and his le-
gons but she would not be in rebellion against
the Government nor would her attitude be one of
dsloyalty to the Constitution. If Congress, re-
fusing to recognize the right Of secession had au-
thorzed the President to enforce the Federal laws
IN every rebeIlious State; OR if, admitting the
right Of the States to secede, it had determined to
enter upon a for the subjugation of the South
it would then have remained for Mary land to de-
eide whether she would support or revolt against
the Government. But in the present case it would
be preposterous to stigmatize any mode of oppos-
ton to the Administration which she could adopt
as reasonable, illegal, or improper. Mr.. LINCOLN
is not the Government of the United States; and
in opposing, in all ways and at every hazard, his
unconstitutional proceedings, she would do what
the laws of the land and the opinion of mankind
would justify, and what every individual in the
North would, six months ago, have said was
simple duty, if the question are now consider
ing had then been presented to him. But times have
sadly changed, and though Maryland has, as yet
Only exercised the privilege of free speech in oppo
sition to Mr.. LINCoLNs manifest and outrageous |
usurpations, she is denounced for treason TO the
Government and disloyalty to the Constitution