Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1862-01-10

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the temptations of patronage. and all
other base means so familiar to tyrants,
have been used with a zeal worthy Of a
less infamous cause, to extcrt from the
people of Maryland an expression Of
loyalty to the Union" as they still per-
sist in characterizing the decayed re,nans
Of the old Government and yet. their
bastilcs are filled to repletion with Mary
land martyrs; and they dare not for onc
instant withdraw from her soil the armed
mercenaries. who, ia their imbecile ter
ror, stand guard at the doors Of retel
women and arrest rebel boys for wenring
the obnoxious colors Of the Southern Gag.
more terrible to the tyrant's niinionsthan
anything on earth except tho Southern
steel which glittered around that flag on
an hundred fields Of vict ry No! They
well understand that Maryland is at heart
rebel" as she was in '76; and they
remember the history of her deeds and
the fate Of her tories.
1t would be an act of supererogaton in
me to undertake detailed explanation of
the canses which led to this temporary
subjugation Of Maryland 1t is duo to
her. however, that | should briefly alude
to certain prominent facts.
an, perfectly convinced that she would
have left the old Union Immediately, had
Moth Carolina and Virginia gone out
whsn'tii cotton States seeded Her
Executive had DOT the manhood to oppose
revelation which he feared and hated.
until he was surrounded by Northern
bdyonets. Covering under the storm of
popular Indignation, he wcntinto Monu.
ment square on the afternoon of the me-
morable 10Th of April last, whilst the
blood of the heroic youths Of Baltimore.
who had scornfully driven out of their
city twelve hundred armed abolitionists
from Massachusetts,. was still fresh upon
the pavements, and there called God to
witness his loyalty to the South. aud
prayed that his arm might rot from the
socket if he ever raised it against his
Southern brethren.
Such a man, as we well knew, would
not have dared to lift his finger against
secession in the month of February last
Ii was, however geographically and po-
litically impossible for Maryland to join
the cotton States whilst other great States
lying between her aud the new Confsde-
racy. remained even nominally in union
with the North. The delay from De-
cember to April was fatal to her; and
that del,y was beyond her control Lin
coin then came into power, with his navy
threatening the bay and rivers which
penetrate the State at every vital point,
and with his army gathering its mighty
columns from the North. professedly for
the protection of the Federal Capitol, but
in reality, as we have since witnessed +,
for the invasion of Virginia. Maryland
had no arms, no ammunition, no militia
ry organization. Her false-hearted Co
vernon had purposely left her in de-
fenceless condition, in order that he
might, without peril to himself, deliver
her up, at the suitable time, to be cruci-
fed, and receive his thirty pieces of sill
yer Us the price Of his unspeakable treach-
cry.
Then, as now, she required only arms,
ammunition, aud thirty days to organize
her rural population. Had she been so
fortunate as to have had her lot cast south
Of the Potomac, she would have accom-
plisbed her redemption long ago. Being
the only highway from the North TO the
Federal Capitol, her subjugation Of course
became a political and military necessity
with the Northern people; and as she
was separated by wide river from her
Southern brcthern, and'was wholly with
out expectation Of early assistance from
any quarter, it became evident that her
effort to resist invasion, however gallant
aud determined, would have resulted in
certain defeat and the consequent de.
struction Of Baltimore city. which cop
tains two fifths Of her whole population,
aud nearly all Of her commercial capital
and enterprise.
Baltimore then had less than thirty
five hundred rifles and lnuskcts, ten or a
dozen small field pieces, and not one can
non to defend the approaches to the city
She was surrounded by the flower Of the
hostile aRiDy, and cut of from all support
After the 10Th Of April, Philadelphia and
New York clamored for her destruction
under the mask Of patriotism, though il
reality instigatcd altogether by the in
tense hatred engendered by long stand
ing commercial rivalry Many loyal an,
gallant men refused TO precipitate so un
equal contest TO be followed by sucI
inevitable and calanitous results. The
would have been willing to carry tn
; State out Of the Union in February. 0
! even March, but in April aud May the
believed it TO DO impracticablc, unless a
J the sacrifice ofeyerything which consti
tutcd the material power Of the State
} They believe that time would afford al
e opportunity for tho accomplishment q
the great purpose, without demanding
Q such price as the destruction Of tbei
I commercial emporium.
t Nevertheless, these loyal and gallan
: men wero at all times ready 10 bring
. blaekcped ruin into the Southern Con