The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-13
REPORT
CUNMlITEE On FEDERAL RELATIONS
IN REGARD TO THE
CALllAG OF A SOVEREIGN CONVENTION.
To the Honorable,

| SOVtrelgn COnVentiOn. Nc Nc N
leaTe Tt respectfully to report, as follows:
A. Ihr message of his Excellency the Governor demand,
me consideration of the Legislature from two points o.
Il df IN regard to the state of public affairs which
us5ioses, and secondly, the remedy which II suc
Eess 10 The people of the State for the perious contn
sencleS winch surround them.
90 ar as we can ascertain the views of the Governor
80 ~ e orei presentation of them, which the haste OF
annaar .i nao as he states permitted him make il
pPsa's tha he regards the circumstances which have
aspred since the attack upon the Massachusetts rer
m ~ m baitmore on the 18th of pril as constituting
az e acts TO which it is necessary your attention should
De "rawn Your Committee, of course recognize tbq
prrptlsIy OF avoiding at this unnecessary re
10 discussions which have already far over
Of h nv .e rapid progress of events; but they find it
~ 'e same tlne, quite impossible do ustice to the
questions before Them without frank explicit re
80 ~ " al east portion of the public events which
u preceded and were closely connected with the oc
curfence alluded to.
The President of the United States nv his ti
S the lota Of April had called upon portion of the
states TO place at his disposal body militia to the
nuHoer ir OF Seventy-hve thousand The proclama
oh was directed against the people the
uhern Contederacy, and its purposes policy were
obvious, although its terms Technically shaned in
conformity with the act of Congress 1896 1t reced
WIN formal precision, in the language of the act THAI
the laws of the United States were opnosed and the
cuton thereof obsructed," in the seven seceded
by combinations too powerful to be suppressed
ny te ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the
powers vested in the Marshas and it called forth tbe
militia of the other States further language Of
10 suppress such combinations, and to the
In pursuance of another section the law it then
manded the insurgents to dsperse retire peaceaby
l" thelr respective abOdes' within twenty days If there
Is any proposition clear beyond dispute must be that
# the occasion which authorizes the President to call ONT
e mlla under the Act Of 1885, existed at all it wa
aecared by the explicit terms of the Proclamation TO
exist only in the States of the Southern Confederacy
mhch were therein enumerated. 1t equally indsputa
be as matter of Jaw that militia if called out law
iuiy at ALL were lawfully empowered to execute the laws
and suppress unlawful combinations in the seven
named, and in none other
Sueh conclusion of law is not only obvious and un
aYona1e as matter of construction but equally to be
h upon as matter Of principle and se-protection on
the part OF the people, for exercise of the military
Epwer' In free government, is to be permitted
except within the limits and under the severest rastrc
tons and checks of the law If Pres dent of the
states under the fraudulent pretence suppressing un
lawful combinations in Louisiana and Flo, ida coriJ b.
permitted to call out troops, used for anv
IN maryland or Virginia soil of any State w6uId he
free from INVASION and no right of the citizen snh
! would be secure against overthrow
IL was not however, because of any that
.e militia which were called out by the President wouId
ne used In other than the designated quarters that III
created an intense and imme iiate excite.
ment in the Southern and Border Slave States On tba
~ wa, the very purpose announced by Mr. Lin
coin which kndled so intense flame of resentment and
resistance His Proclamation was regarded as decara
uon oi war against the Southern Coufederacy-as de.
prate summons to the people two SECTIONS in IN
which his party and its principles had so hopeessv di
Vded the land, to shed each others blood. in wan
toBness and hate. A scheme SO full of wickedness
so utterly subversive of every princple mon
! which our government founded, and so sure
TO involve the destruction of that oov.rrrnrt it
Ihe fortune OF war be what it might-could not but
excite almost to frenzy every feeling of those who
Pathzed with the people against whom was Illuminated
]
1t was felt and known to be gross violation
sututlon and without color of lawful authority The
people OF the seeded States whether constitutona
uhcohsututlonaly had separated themselves from this
government and established federal government of
their own, with all the forms of a constitution and ali
! the substantial attributes Of actual indepandepca
Through their constituted authorities and in their coIler
i've capacity as communities they had withdrawn them
serves from the tnion-repudiaed its laws and eyc,u
its officers of all sorts exercise of ALI functions
and jurisdiction The United Government no lon
ger mad among them either courts to ISSUE or marshas
| to execute process.
They had substituted their own courts and their own
processes to which they yielded cheerful obedience The
authsrty of the Federal Government was in fact dead
within their limits They in an attitude towards
not only of independence but of frcbe resistance for
e mad repeed the assertion Of its authority over any
portion OF their soil and had suhdued for their own pro
tecton one Of its Qualifications within their borders The
Conederae Government and that of the United State.
SeLe IN hhe' peSertnts engaged in actual, though un
declared war; and with all the rights and responsibilities
whch gives and entails This last is none the less
ue because o their being engaged in civil war for that
Is like any other war, when waged among civilized peo.
Pile Vattel defines the relations which exist in such
cases in terms too clear to be misunderstood and too
well recognized TO be disputed.
"A civil war he says, breaks the bands of society
and government least suspends their force and eS
feet 1t produces in the nation independent parties
who consider each other enemies and acknowledge
common judge. These two pa ties therefore mnst ne
cessay be considered henceforward constituting
least for time two separate bodies distinct soce
in breaking the unity of the State resisting the law
fu authority they not the less divided in fact Be
Sides who shall Judge them? Who shall nrononnca ~
which side the right the wrong lies? On earth they
have no common superior. They stand therefore, in pre-
cisely the same predicament nations who engag,
in contest and being unable to to an agreement
sase Escourse 10 arms" tNatteI Book B. ch IS
begerent people Act of Congress which was ma 40 q
as domestic remedy in aid of civil process and to
obedience to the laws under judicial proceeding-n state
sun recognizing the authority Of the Union and the
dction of its thunaswas trie with the understanJ
lngs of educated men. To issue proclamation to thre
millions OF free Americans, composing seven powerfu
States and asserting the sacred and ibe right
self government with arms in their hands and f,com
mand" them as "insurgents to ''retire peaceaby t,
their respective abodes like a mob at street corner
was an a0surdty too gross to be here respectfully dis
cuSsed. ~
No government would venture to palm such an imposi
ton upon people, except in the weassured confidence
OF absolute power. Nay in the passionate excitement
the moment the President forgot even the supreson
OF polite decorum and did hesitate TO al
possible constitutional limits, and confess purpose q
anmOsity and revenge by distinctly calIng On ~ S
pie, whom he summoned to the fed to redress wrong
already long enough endured' The proclamation there
fore, meant and nothing but war 1t could sigpi
nothing else. and to attempt TO cloak its meaning AM
purpose under the fimsy preteXt of eXecuting the
and "suppressing unlawful comhinations' was but t
, cover up fragrant u>urpation with words.
Neither the Constitution nor the laws Of the Unite,
States be tortured into comforting the warmakin
power upon the President in any contingency. Wher
oregh natons are concerned the plain language of th
, fundamental law entrusts it to Congress ONLY A
against the States of the Union the possibility of such
ihg IS not even contemplated, much less provided for
Like parricde at Athens it held heinous and i'm
possible to be named for the purpose of punish
ment AS early as the fifth day after the meeting of tn
Convention for the formation of the Federal Constitution
the use of force against State, by rest of tn
Union, contemplated in the plan of Mr. Randonh wa
denounced by Mr. Madison and on his motion the esou
on providing for it indefinitely POSTPONED bv imam
imous assent Mr. Madison announced il as his deiba
ate opinion that "a union of the States containing sue
an Ingredient, seemed to provide for its destruc
ton -
of the theory of those by whom the Constitution wa
framed When Gen Hamilton called to express hi
opinion upon it, he aske d. How this force be exer
ed on the States collectively? 1t is impossible:
amounts to a war upon the parties Foreign powers
also, will not be idle spectators. They will interpost
he CONFUSION VIII increase and dissolution of the Uno
viii ensue." The reasoning unanswerable and tn
constitution happily was not stained with the perilou
folly against which these two great statesmen carr
. esty protested There not discussion in the dc
bates on the Federal Constitution. whether in the Cor
vention which framed it the State Conventions whic
adopted it, that does not confirm tins of its spr
and purpose The ESSAYS of the Federalist pregnan
WI tn demonstrations to the effect and there is
constitutional lawyer who does not know that the whol
theory of the Government is act through the courts
upon individuals, and not through the Army and Nav
upon the States.
The brave and wise men who framed and upheld il
would have died in the breach before they would bay
= submitted themselves to it upon any ether basis
could never have been adopted it would never have bee
ratified, upon any other understanding The State
w0utd nave endured anarchy distracted counses an
an the evils OF the old Confederation, aggravated enfold
before they would have surrendered themselves to an
system in which the Federal Government and least of al
te feuera Executive, was clothed with the constitution
al power of coercing them by force arms They
into constitutional Union, depending its permanenc
upon the good faith and good feeling of its hers
deriving its strength from consent onIy They di
not abandon themselves to the bayones military de-
potism enthroned upon popular majority
But illegal and unconstitutional was the war hc
the Proclamation summoned one section of the countr
to wage against the other the and purposes
that made 1t chiefly obnoxious people of Ma
yland and of the Slave States of the Border 1t was
war OF propagandism and of sectional aggression am
domination. 1t Of the North upon the SoutI
1t was war in which the dominant section had seize
upon the name and flag, and powers of Il,
General Government and abusing them for its ow
ends and for the permanent establishment of its domr
ION over the other section 1t war to the IN
purposes OF which the sacred associations and memore
OF the mon were prosttuted and in which its honore
taken in vain
ltwas war waged against people of our own nam
and blood who sought peace kindly relations wit
US and who asked only TO be let alone and to be ne
mitted to govern themselves 1t could bring no good
Tor could end only in the defeat Of invaders or III
subugaon of the invaded and in either case the nio
winch our fathers left be at an end Subi,
gated Provinces could not be sister State. and EJ
Government profeSsedly Republican, maintaining its a,
thory by armies, could be other than the worst an
most unpncpled and uncomfortable despotisms I'll
South had entrenched itself upon the prncin NJ sol
government. 1t had offered to negotiate peaceaby an
honoraoy upon all matters of common property and
Vaed interest claiming only that three millions of peon
hau aFiehI 10 throw oil Government by which the
no longer desired to be ruled ami to live under nnob
Government of their choosing
Unless the American Revolution was crime tho do
claraton of American Independence a faIsebood an
every patriot and hero of 1776 traitor the South w.
t right and the North was wrong upon that issue TT
people of Maryland therefore, could have but one cb
In such contest and while devoted to the Union an
as loyal TO the constitution "a the people of any
thirteen States who had formed the one and pledge
themselves to the other they could not but throw m
whole weight of their sympathies upon that side
Which common interests and institutions inclined then
and with which they felt that the right and the tru,
e were Nor was ita matter of sympathy merely tn
o e involved in the coercive polio
OF te administration, breach their rights an
not less than an unlawful aggression upon the rights
the southern people 1t was overthrow of the primo
" pies of free government could end in nothing h,
an ignominous annihation of the noble institutions
s the Republic ~ ~
. The people of Maryland were summoned to take par
ri itizarS