The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-12
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, AUGUST IL, 1861.

Sad and humiliating as is the present situation
of Maryland, her people have, nevertheless, before
them still more gloomy future. If the objects OF
the present war were merely what the Govern
ment declares them TO be, we might be content 10
await, with something like patience the results OF
the campaign. If the reconstruction of the Con-
federacy was what the Administration really ex-
nected 10 accomplish by means of its fleets and
armies. we might endure our present position, for
the little time that will elapse before the final sue
cess or failure of the enterprise in which the Gov
ernment processes to be engaged We could man
ACE. perhaps, to bear the wrongs to which we are
now subjected, if we could but have the consola-
tion ofknoving that we should be allowed to pur
sue our own course in peace, as soon as all ques-
ton about the possibility of preserving the Union
is settled one way Or the other. But it is very
evident that the Administration is now contend
ing for something else besides reconstruction OF
the Union. 1t realizes the fact that the restora-
ton of the Republic is at BEST doubtful matter;
and it is looking towards the contingencies
which will present themselves, when the
recognition of the independence of the Con-
iederate States becomes inevitable. The Gov
eminent has manifestly made up its mind
that, if it cannot reduce all the seeded States
10 obedience, it can at least subjugate and hold
some of them, together with Maryland Kentucky
and Missouri and this it will desperately attempt
TO do. Although by the withdrawal of eleven
States, and the organization OF separate Con
federacy, the Union would be so completely de-
stroyed as to leave ali of its original members
at liberty to consult their own wishes and inter-
ests, in participating in such new political arrange
ments as would necessarily be made, it is clear that
the present Administration will attempt to dis
pute this right. Indifferent alike to the sympa-
thies or welfare of the people of this State Mr..
LINCOLN and his army will, in case of the utter
and final destruction of the Republic, endeavor to
force as many States as they can, at the point of
the bayonet, into an alliance with the North.
They WILL in that event, seek to retain possession
of every foot of ground which the Confederate
States have not wrested from Them; and to do
this, they will not hesitate to occupy the land
with their legions, and to reduce the people to
absolute subsection.
Now, if the Union is to be dissolved, there can
be no gansaying the right of Maryland to choose
between the new Confederacies. If, through no
agency of hers, the Government to which she
plighted her allegiance is overhrown, neither sec
ton is justified in expecting, and still less in
compelling, her to share its fortunes. In such
contingency she is warranted by every interpre-
tatiOn of the Constituton-by every theory on
which American freedom rests-in determin-
ing for herself her future position. But the Gov
eminent at Washington will not scrupe to violate
the plainest rights Of her citizens and to disregard
the fundamental principles of Republican instiu-
tions, in order to attain its ends. The possession
of the Chesapeake Bay would be of incaculable
advantage to the South, and this city would, as
the commercial and manufacturing emporium of
that section, almost rival New York in the course
of few years, and the North, conscious of these
facts will seek to prevent such result by the en-
slavement of this people. Although if the Potomac
were the boundary line between the two sections,
the North would not allow its Capital to remain
for twelve months on the frontier of a foreign
country it would probably assert the necessity of
protecting Washington as the pretext for con-
quering Maryland. But with or without pre-
text it is evidently determined to treat our rights
with contempt. Nor will it hesitate at any step
which will advance its purposes. What it has
already done is but earnest Of what it will do.
We may expect as the time approaches when the
recognition of the Southern Confederacy can be
no longer delayed. to find our city surrounded with
batteries, our county-towns occupied by troops,
and our rivers swarming with gunboats. In
addition to these measures, the civil officers of the
State will be removed, and their places filled with
the creatures of the Administration; and the old
clubs reorganized and armed, and paid by its
agents, will begin again their old work of vio-
lence and intimidation. Such is palpaby the
plan of the Government, and the "Union men,
of this State are consciously or unconsciously"
lending their aid to consummate it.. The North
ern people, and those who represent them in
Washington, bent upon subjugating and
holding Maryland even if the Union is shattered
forever into hundred fragments, although the
consolidation of Maryland with the North would
work her inevitable ruin; and for the success of
this project many of her own sons are blindly or
unscrupulously aboring.