Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-01-05
gailg gutellioe11ter.
ADDRESS
OF THE
HON. HENRY WINTER DAVIS,
To his constituonts.
OF THE

To the Voters of the Fourth Congressional District Of
1t is my rigtten my duty, as your Rep.
resentatiVe, to warn you of the danger
which threatens the destruction of The
Government and to overw helm you beneath
its ruins.
The first act of the drama of revolution
was opened in South Carolina. 90
Ambitious and restless men, availing
themselves of factitiOus fear which they
have inspired, and sectional passions whicl,
they have intiNmed, are conspiring the
overthrow OF the Government. They hone
to found Southern COnfcderacy ON the
fragments of the United States of 1meric0:
Maryland hns been formally asked. to
join Southern Confederucy. The advo-
Gates ofruin spcciously disguise their trca-
sOnlble. plans under the forms of Southern
prejudice, and ask if Maryland will desert
the South and join the North, But that is
not the question which Maryland is called
ON to answer. "!3
Maryland is now Joined 10 both the free
and the slave States under the wisest Com
stitutiOn and by the best Government the
world ever SAW. That Government has
never wronged her, or failed to protect her.
The formation of II Southern Conledrr0cy
must be preceded hy the destruction Of
that Government. Till 1t is broken uD,
and its armies defeated, there can be no
Southern Gonfederncy. Maryland is there
fore asked, not whether she prefers to
enter II Northern or IL Southern Coufrder-
acy, but she is asked to :ornl IL coalition
to break up and destroy the Constitution
which Washington founded, and TO plunge
into the horrors Of civil war, tor the pur-
pose OF creating II Southern G0nfedcracy.
I'lat is.ihc true question you have to
consider; for peaceful secession is IL delu-
sion: and it you yield to the arts now tni-
ployed to delude you, tlie soil of Maryland
will, in few months, he trnmpled by
armies struggling for the National Capital.
The only question is-will you fight to
maintain or to destroy the existing Cow
ernmemt.
The interests Of Maryland are ndissolu-
bly, connected with the integrity of the
United States Uerica. Any division
of the confglency is 10 her Eltul
Maryland hns not Nnintcrcst which will
survive the Government under the Con-
stitution. No matter what new combina-
tlons arise, whether Maryland sthnd alone,
or unite her fate to any new cOnfederacy
on her northern or her southern border,
she is utterly ruined and PROSTATE, for this
generation at least. When she will revive
GOdionly knows. t9
If the present Government be destroyed,
Maryland Shareholders lose their 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 the prey of
every pirnte or the sport of every mari
time power. Her great railroad loses
every connection which makes ii valuable.
If two republics divide the territory of the
United States, Maryland is ruined which,
ever. she join. If The South, her slaves
will walk over the Pennsylvania line nm
molcstcd. The African slave trade will
reduce their market value below the cost
of raising or supporting them ! and if they
did not NbsCOnd they would be abandoned
by their masters.
Free trade will open every port, and
cotton and wOolen factories, and,the iron
and machine works OF Maryland would be
rostrale before European competition.
The expenses of Government must be
doubleday the instant necessity of a large
standing army; for all the conditions. Of
present security will be gone, and great
Northern power divided from us by IN ,lir
line, will be an ever impending dnpger.-
In the war of separation, and ever after,
Maryland will be an outgoing province
NlthbAG klOlNlASsAtIuu VI u uhluENL uOuQs
Diary, always overrun as the first s0untl.of
arms, incapable Uc being defended by tile
weaker power of which she will be a part,
whose natural line OF defence must be the
Potomac, and on this sideof which no
Southern army would venture adhesive
battle.
The hope that Baltimore will be the cm-
porium of such republic is ,delustou too
ridiculous to ueCd refntation. Nothing
intended for the South will ever pass Nor.
folk and from the West we will be sew
cred by custom houses, duties, and.poIiti-
cNl Nntipathicsr in favor of New York.
Is not Southern sRepdbiiG new to Ma
rylaad? .=.i.s l5.s,sl 81 & !, 81 8, =, 81.
Joining-a Northern one is equally so, Il
stated lines divide the limits of9the two
republics. The slnSe interest will be In
staptly destroyed; the great railroad to
the Westiis cut off at lIarpcr's Ferry, and
Baltimore becomes tributary to the Cen
tral, Pennsylvania road, All her SoutIlefu
and South Western 4Fhtle is gone, and her
foreign commerce eau seek the ocean only
by the'favof of Virginia OF 6ndeF the guns
of powerful navy In. war still we are
the frontier, aud Onr soil will he deBOlated
by thescoutendllg armies.i
rmanEfaeturipgipdn pdnstryw will be better
secured; our military frontier will be bet
ter protected IS tie Potomac, our foreign,
commerce will hare THE pt6tsrti6h s'oi a
maritime power, and Ne shall bc free from
the humiliation of an European proterto-
rate but the sudden and absolute destruc-
tion of the slaveholding interest, and the
radical change in the relations of, bur pop
ulatioa will give shock to our Internal
quiet and prosperity that neither this nor
the next generation witl-recover from
But there can be no such division Of this
contederacy by existing Stateiiines. The
present territory has been acquired aud
divided to be used rs whole, bound hy
the common ties of the Constitution, and
the course of tradeis arranged accordingly.
Break it in any Part,ahd II will fy into
thOnsand1 pieces like asRFince Rupcrtss
drop western Yirginih Belongs to the
valley os the Mississippi. Virginia .caP