The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-01-28

Governor Hicks has appointed the Hon. Reverdy John
son, Hon Augustus W. Bradford Hon. William r. Colds
borough, Hon. John W. Crisfed and Hon. j. Dixon Ro
man. Commissioners on the part of Maryland to meet the
Commissioners appointed by Legislature of Virginia
in Washington the 4th day ofFebruary consider and
cooperate in the adoption and of elf
cen to adjust the present unhappy
sizes in the spirit in which the Constitution originally
formed.
Under what provisions of the Constitution or
laws of Maryland, Governor Hicks has assumed |
to act con the part of Maryland" in the pre-
misses, we have found no one who has been able
to inform us. 1t is of course quite competent for
any number of private citizens TO step forward or
appoint others to speak for them, on occasions o.
public interest. In such cases, has any right
to complain, so long as there is no attempt to
transgress the limits of merely individual action.
When, however, the color of official authority is
sought to be given 10 what is wholly individual and
unauthorized, it is not only natural but eminently
proper, that some protest should be entered, by
those whomit is proposed to represent and bind
in spite Of themselves. In the present instance
and in view of what has gone before, we think il a
matter fsheer selfrespec the part of the people
of Maryland, to make such protest. instantly and
plainly. We say this without intending the slight.
est reflection upon the prominent citizens whom the
to pre- judge any course which they may adopt or
to depreciate any beneficial results which may flow
from it. We make the point, as a matter of right
and of principle, which ought not to be yielded
The invitation of the Legislature of Virginia is an
official one, to which Governor Hicks has no right
to respond except officially. The gentlemen whom
he has designated occupy no position whatever in
response to that invitation, except an Off
clal one. The Governor and his friends
may say what they please about his not as
Stunning to give them an official standing, but
they will be understood, nevertheless, as having
that standing, or none at all. Governor Hicks
cannot separate himself from his office, so long as
he fills it, and the appointments which he makes,
while Governor, and in response to an appeal
made to him as Governor, will be taken, every
where, to have been made in virtue of his official
powers. He knows this, perfectly WELL and he
acts, so knowing it. Whether therefore he com.
missions his appointees as public officers or merely
recommends them as distinguished and patriotic
citizens, to act "on the part of Maryland" he
gives them his passport-official or quasi-offical-
to the discharge of functions, which amount to
nothing If they are not representative. He has
no right to do this, in any shape or under any
pretence, and his assuming to do it, under existing
circumstances, is usurpation, not only gross but
dlsrespectfu in the extreme, to the people whose
servant he is Let us look, for moment, at the
circumstances to which we allude.
Large numbers of the citizens of MARYLAND
claiming to represent majority of her people,
have pelitioned the Governor, over and again, 10
convoke the Legislature, with a view to the cleo
ton OF State Convention. They believe, as they
have respectfully informed his Excellency that the
position of Maryland, in the present crisis of the
country, has been without dignity or influence
perilous to herself and of no avail to the Republic
They have represented, in the strongest language,
their conviction that the State should a. once take
steps for The selection of an authorized body, to
represent the will and control the destinies of her
people body of most respectable and conser-
vatiVe gentlemen of all parties assembled in this
city short time ago, from all quarters of the
State, deferring TO the Governors declared obiec-
ton to the convocation of the Legislature, unani-
mousy memorialized him to afford the people
an opportunity, at all events, Of expressing,
through the ballot-boX, their own direct opinion
upon the propriety Of convention being assem-
bed. They urged, and it seems to lis with unan-
swerable force, that if the people differed with the
Governor, it was but proper he should surrender
his views and that it was his duty to give them
chance of settling that question, in the only way
that admits of no dispute. As everybody knows,
the Governor rejected all these propositions. First
for one reason, and then for another he declined
to act, settling down at last upon the simple pro-
position, that the true policy of Maryland is to say
nothing and do nothing--to let her position and
not her people speak for her. From the begin
ning he has assumed that all " no desire the State
to move an inch from the ground which il has
pleased him that she should occupy, are disunion-
lists, secessonists and disorganizers Nothing was
safe, in his Judgment but silence and immobility,
and nobody was a safe counsellor who suggested
anything else. If the opinion of the people should
be expressed in any authorized way, he took it for
granted that it would amount to secesson; and he
therefore determined that no opinions should be
expressed, if he could prevent it, in any form that
might carry authority or produce results. Of a
sudden he has changed his mind He has deter
mined that the time ha. come for Maryland to
speak; but he has determined, likewise that he
and not the people of Maryland ought to name the
spokesman. The nomination of the Commission
ers in question has been the result of this two-oId
determination.
Now, one Of two things is certain The inter-
ests, dignity and honor of Maryland, and her in
calcuable stake in the preservation of the Union,
either demand that her voice should be heard or
they do not Ifthey do not, neither the Governor |
nor any one else ought to speak for her. If they |
do, it is for the people and not the Governor to
say who shall represent her. To appoint Com |
missioners to aid in averting the national catas-
trophe, is to abandon the doctrine of 'mastery |
inactivity" To have resisted all action of the
people, expressly on the strength of that doctrine,
and then to desert the doctrine without PERMITTING
the people to act, is TO say, as defnitivey as it
could be said in words that the people are not to
be trusted with their own destinies or the express
sion OF their wishes, and that Governor Hicks and
his advisers constitute Maryland. 1t may be that
this Is all true. The Governor and the clique
who unite with him in declaring the State non
compos nnentis and appointing themselves its COM
mittee, may possibly be filter to govern Maryland |
than the people of Maryland themselves are They
may know more, "from sources not accessible to
'the people of the State, " than the people them
selves can find out They may have all the wis
dom all the purity, all the patriotism all the love
for the Union that is to be found in the Common
wealth. But we humbly submit that such is not
the theory ofrepublcan institutions, howeverit may
be true in fact. We respectfully suggest that the
form OF government will have to be changed openly
and at once in order to get rid of the foolish pre-
JUDGES, obnoxious opinions and insubordinate
circumstances, which stand in the way of
so much Intelligence and manly virtue.n
We do not see that Governor HICKS has apy
less right, under the laws and Constitution, to
appoint Legislature or Convention, to suit him.
than he has to send Commissioners to Washing
ton, con the part of Maryland" We therefore,
propose that he finish the business at once in a
straight forward way. Doubtless there will be
another Committee from Harrisburgh, TO congra-
tuate him on having preserved the Union by so
doing, and there will be further tributes of admit
ration from the Legislature of New York and
the Tribune with fresh .feur de joie from Norris.
town and elsewhere North, in his honor Until
however, his Exceency shall have vouchsafed this
fundamental change in our institutions we re.
to him to study some decent conformity
with them, as they exist. We hope at all events
we shall hear nothing more from him, about the
desire of the Legislature, ''to send as Ambassadors
to the Southern States, gentlemen who have been