St. Mary's beacon., 1862-07-03
SAINT MARY's BEACON
LEONARD TOWN MD.
THURSDAY. MORNING. JULY ,. 1862.


..var far the Union" no portion of the
remaining territory Of the United States
has been regarded With SO much disfavor
hv the Lincoln Government as Saint Ma
rvs County Constituting the extreme
Southern section Of State regarded ms
hostile to the purposes Of the present adj
niuis.r..iou. and proverbial. alike. far
the unity Of its sentiment and its detesta-
,l,u Of Sexxr.lisu. it Inns stood match
less for iniqui.y in the eye Of dcspot'sm,
If powerlrs. for misclsief beneath the heel
Of the despot 1t is looked upon As the
Charles,ou Ut the North and as mod
eru Sodo,n VI Gomorrah in wickedness.
Its people are band Of Infamous trail
tors" ct. subjects alone for the halter or
the dungeon. 1t il the bead and front
Of rebellion aud conspiracy. "a depot for
concealed arms" and - camp Of instruc-
ton for rebel soldiers" In short, We
have been guilty Of every conceivable 'pe-
cies of treasou--even under the new deh-
nitious--and We are only astonished. that
rapine and u'urder are not added to the
catalogue. Nor it. it to this quarter alone,
We are to look for our traducers. The
leading loyal" journals Of our State have
more than once honored US with pass
ing notice. Epi,het after epithct has
been applied to u~. until the English
vocabulary has been well uigh exhausted
More than q year ago. when our people
we're strenuou.l. urging the adoption Of
the Crittenden compromise or some kin
dred measure, under which the rights of
the South and the Union might be pre-
served. We we're denounced BY cotempo-
rary rs 1.-The South Carolina of Mary
land" Since then, the terms Of frank
secession holc," the ''hcadquarsers Of re-
b.Liom," "nest Of vip-rs'' aud others Of
similar import have been frequently ap-
piled to Us. Less than q month since.
a Mr.. Dukchart, Of Baltimore city, desig
mated our county, as "a dark spot upon
the pages Of tue future history of Mary
land" These opprobriums, however.
which seem to have fallen SO lightly fron
the lips and pcus Of Mr.. Lincolu's sup
Portcrs, have fallen ,qually lightly upon
the ears of our people. They have had .
sacred aud manly duty to perform, and
most nobly have they performed it. The
threats Of bridlcd and mercenary press,
the arrest and imprisonment of our citi-
sens. the military occupation Of our soil
and even the rccrcancy Of a lincal descen-
dant of the origiu.l founders of our State,
have failed in their attempts to over
ave or unaerve US. Aud why have
We thus stood forth. bidding open def
ancs to Government possessing both the
omnipntcnce aud the will to trammel and
oppress US? We will answer. We had
certain fixed principles to maintain and
too much msnliness to desert them. Our
position has not been that of faction.
noisy in he Consciousness OF it's weakness
Bat that of n determined and obstinate
p.ople. numerically weak, it is true, but
strong in unity of sentiment and fixed
ness Of purpose. We fixed our stand
point of right in the beginning and have
never devisted from it, We have made
neither open nor covert warfare upon the
Government, nor have We been guilty Of
= grade of disloyality above the condem-
nation Of its policy. This We have done
openly aud in a manly spirit. We can
neither agree to nor endorse either the
justice or the policy of the war Mr..
Lincoln has waged. ner can he either
persuade or coerce US into an active sup
port of such measure. We have viola
lated neither the Constitution nor the
laws Of the land, and we stood BY the
Government 50 long as it was admins
tered in accordance with them. We
neither advocated nor approved the ear
lier secession movements. but occupied
Numerically opposite position. We IA
vored concession and compromise to the
latest moment, and were it practicable
and We were satisfied that is results
would be satisfactory and permanent, We
should still occupy eur old position. War.
We are sati,6rd, whilst it may result in
the Impeachment Of both North and
South and, mayhap. in the destruction Of
our liberties. can never unite us again un-
der the Constitution of our fathers
Then, why should We favor this war, or
advocate its continuance? If the result
s"r which it il wagcd-pu.ting full faith
in the honesty Of the early declarations Of
Mr. Lincoln-is not attainable, why may
We not advocate its cessation? Certain
ly it is not treason to do so, nor can it
be shown that We are traitors for SO do