The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1861-08-17
t OF IHU CtCI " nIS.
A Letter to Henry W. Archer, Esq.

My DEAR FRIEND Il confess that have
experienced less Of surprise than regret at
the perusal Of your unfortunate letter. When
/ found: last February, that you had got
into your head the An,i-Cocrc,n crotchcs L
saw that you had begun TO hesitate and doubt
upon subject, about which to doubt is to
be damned. AS a Lawyer, you should have
known how fatal it is to depart from the line
Of safe preccdcnts. Had you kept steadily
in view the great, leading principle, that
the first duty Of every citizen is to preserve
intact the authority Of the Government, your
friends would have been spared the sadness
Of seeing you laundering in a dead sea OF
uncertainties and false issues.
You say, " we have in fact no legal pro-
lection here in Maryland, for life, liberty ar
property, but hold them al at the mercy of
Our military rulers We all know you do
not mean this as literally true it is merely
highly wrought figure of speech, intended
to refer to the measures which, the Govern
ment has deemed it necessary to take for the
maintenance Of its authority in Maryland
and the protection Of her loyal citizens from
the horrors of secession. You know that
previous to the nineteenth of April the Gov
eminent had never nterfered in the slightest
degree with our State. Although the most
violent efforts had been made to precipitate
her into Revolution, and her Incorporate
citizens had sworn that the Susq uehanna
should "run red wifi blood" it was not
oh, ,,,t In Il
resistance, that the Government intertrrcG
to restore the authority thus forcibly dcfcd
and tramplcd upon. You write as if the
people had forgotten the " military rulers :"
who rose up from among their own fellows,
and, for the time, absolutely destroyed all
"protcction for life, liberty and property
But you will find their memories are not so
false. They do not forget that the authori-
ties Of Baltimore city seized, in one brief
moment, all the power of the State, -Lcgis-
lativc, Judicial and Executive,-calledo out
troops from the rcmotcst counties, appro.
pratcd private property to arm, provision
and equip soldiers, prohibited the transmits
sion of all supplies and military stores,
created Major-Generalsw with unlimited power,
ordered the destruction OF Railroads, lighted
mp the very heavens with the red glare of
burning bridges in short, established a
reign of terror, to escape which the oldest
citizens flew like frightened sheep from their
native State. Nor was this confined to Bal
timorc. Bradley T. Johnson beat the noun
ta'ns for recruits, Tench Tilghman issued his
proclamation for the militia to arm in resist
ancc to The Government, many of the coun-
ties made heavy appropriations to advance
this object, and, in your own county of Har-
ford. disloyalty to the Government and dis
position to overthrow existing laws were
manifested 10 n most alarming degree. That
Maryland, by considerable majority, is
{" loyaI," do not doubt there is lust as
little, and even less, doubt that there are
thousands of her people who are ready at any
moment to defeat the Government by any
and every means in their power In April,
this disloyal element was dominant, Mary