The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-10-26

viduals, may prevent redress, but
cannot justify the transgression, nor
Impair the rights of those who main
tain the fundamental law.
IF any administration, arrogates
to itself powers not delegated, or
without law harnesses or Cypress
es the humblest of her citizens, it is
the duty of the State to hold up the
Constitution, and in its name and
in behalf of civil liberty and repub-
lican institutions to declare the usur-
patton and invoke its vindication. A
free sovereign State she entered the
Union through the Constitution she
adopted. To this only she assented.
She cannot be coerced into a new
Constitution or a different Union,
by Executive Interpolation. When
the compact is, by force or fraud, alb
rogated, and the Union disrupted,
she stands freed from her compact,
free to choose and establish a new
National position.
Whether that point is reached, it
is useless to discuss. Neither the
people Of Maryland nor it's Govern
ment have taken any step towards
changing their National relations.
AS yet she is within the Constitu-
ton, fulfilling its requirements, and
asking only the privileges it pro-
tesses to guarantee. Her Governor
is "loyal" to the utmost the Leg
islature has declared that it would
not, and could not pass an "ordi-
nance of secession" and has done
nothing in contravention of the Con-
stitution or any known law. 1t has
protested against what it deemed
the arbitrary, illegal, and danger
Gus policy of the administration,
and, if in error, it was responsible
only to the people of Maryland, and
not amenable to reproof or pun
ishment by the General Govern
ment.
Within our borders the Federal
Courts have always been open, their
process unobstructed, their orders
never resisted (but by Federal Off
cials,) Through their ordinary &C
ton every law of Congress could be
enforced and every offence known to
the Code punished.
Yet Maryland, by deliberate acts
of the Administration has been out
lawed: her Government subverted;
her laws disregarded and defed ;
her officers displaced her munich
pal and police systems overthrow,
her property seized, and force, un-
der the name of martial law, has
superseded the civil power. Her
citizens are arrested without war
CANT; the security of their papers and
effects violated their right "to keep
and bear arms" infringed, and ..ree-
dom of speech and of the press not
only abridged, but suppressed.
Every man knows that these
things are done in our midst; no
honest man can deny that they are
palpable breaches of the Constitu-
ton, for no man can point to one
line in that Constitution or to any
law that authorizes, justifies or >ex-
cuses them. Acts not so sanctioned
are encroachments upon the re-
served rights of the States and the
people, and, if prohibited, are revo-
lutionary.. When the Government
is not controlled by the paramount
law, when it can do, and does, what
that law does not permit or forbids,
it is unrestrained and absolute.
Wherever the law is superior
to the ruler, civil liberty exists
when the ruler is superior to the
law, where, at his discretion, he can
supersede, suspend or disobey it, he
is, by whatever name he may be
called, despotic.
Believing that powers fatal to her
rights as State, and destructive Of
the liberty of her citizens, are exer.
, cised by those administering the
General Government, Maryland asks
whence they are derived, asks to be
shown the grant, and she is told that
South Carolina has seeded and the
cotton States are in rebellion.
, But Maryland has not seeded
and unless its reputation by South