The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-01-19
The Meeting on Tuesday.

There was general response on the part
of our citizens to the call for mass meet
ing on Tuesday to take some action in re-
gard to our national affairs, and our people
seemed to be thoroughly imbucd with that
true Maryland sentiment of excrtipg every
effort to promote and restore harmony and
Cancellation between North and South, and
thereby create a Union both listing and
happy, and on such basis as ambitious
politicians cannot disturb; but that if after
every effort has failed to induce the North
crn people to retrace their steps, and they
shall continue to persist in their attempts
to force upon the people of the South that
"irrepressible conflict" which their leaders
have said is inevitable, that then Mary
land will make common cause with the
rest of the South against the common cne-
my; and the sooner the people Of the North
break their sullen silence, and show some
disposition to retract the better, for cir
cumstances arc fast hurrying the Southern
States into Union into which fanaticism
and selishness can never find foothold.
The Maryland sentiment we have refer
cd to above we have always endeavored to
inculcate and impress upon our readers as
the one which would comport with the
true interests and dignity of our State in
a crisis such as the present, and our col
umns will testify that, before and since
Lincoln's election, we have strivcn to the
utmost Of our humble abilities to bring our
people upon q common platform, which we
believed to be the one that, if sustained,
would prove the salvation Of our country
that we should discard former animosi-
ties and prejudices, and forgetting party
feuds, all unite in opposing the fearful
combination Of northern political elements,
which, if successful, might prove so COM
pletely ruinous to our prosperity as a ma
ton, and so entirely destructive to that
Union which all had so many reasons to
cherish and uphold; and we still continue
to believe that this question must be treat
cd in spirit free from party trammels Or
influences of every kind
The proceedings which we publish be-
low, will speak for themselves. 1t will be
perceived that they express fealty to the
American Union, and that it should be
preserved-meaning, of course, such an
Union as would be enduring through the
fact of the equality and rights of all the
States being guaranteed, in such terms as
would admit of no equivocation, and such
an Union in which the institution of slav-
cry, the assaults upon which have been
the main cause of the present troubles
cannot in the hereafter be assailcd The
Crittenden compromise is recommended,
end nothing less efficient should be consid-
cred as satisfactory to Maryland. The fed
eral government is requested to abstain
from coercion, and State convention is
recommended.
The language of the resolutions is not
as strong as we would have wished. We
would have preferred, also, more direct
expression of sympathy with the South;
still, the spirit of them is good; they breathe
in moderate words the Maryland idea, and
therefore they meet our appreciation, rar-
ticuarly as they foreshadow a union of the
people of Hartford on great issues far above
all party considerations.
We would like to furnish our readers
with synopsis of the ablc, eloquent and