The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1863-01-10

would be solved in different sense. -
For The resolution further debates the
State of Maryland owes it to her own
self-respcct to announce her reSolute
determination TO haue no part or lot,
directly or indirectly, in ITS prosecution.
And the reasoning of the report adds
to the significance of the resolution, for
it maintains that, if, as the Governor
thinks, the Constitution is still over
both State and General Government,
I" then the State of Maryland can hold
no neutrality when the Union is at war
She takes sades agninst 1t the instant
she fails to take sides with it. Neutral
ity in such case is notification, pure
and simple; and an armed neutrality is
merely rebellion and not Union" DIFF
tering from the Governor, however, "the
Committee have no hest alton in assert
ing and Maintaining the right of the
State, and its duty, to pro est against
the unconstitutional action of the Ad-
:ninistration, and refuse obedience TO its
uncoustitu ional Demands" that action
being its war on the rebellious States,
those demands being for troops from
Maryland. Tint is notification and
"rebellion I" by the confession of the
report formally declared by both Houses
of the Legislature.
Still, the report proceeds further to
say " The present and only possible
attitude Of the State toward the Federal
Government is an attitude of submission,
on the part of those who think and fecl''
as the Committee mauifesly do.
1t is frivolous to pretend that the
Legislature had abandoned the purpose
of calling a Sovereign Convon ion they
merely wanted the removal of the Fed
eral bun to clothe actual rebellion with
the forms of popular sanction by calling a
Convention TO amend the Cons itu lon.-
When they met on the 4th of June,
they felt the " Federal ban - still on
them snd adjourned from the 25th of
June till The 3Oth.
When they again met, the d" Federal
ban was still on them; but in the
meantime their confederate, Kane, had
been arrested by General Banks the
Police Commissioners had delivered the
city Of Baltimore to anarchy, and had
been rrestcd-bcing men IN arms, COM
handing armed men who had levied war
ON the United States. a joint Com
mittcc of ooh houses, on the 9Th of
August, presented a repor, which left
nothing for Sovereign Convention to
do, and resolutions which pronounced
the destruction of the bonds of the
Stae and Federal Governments for,
with full knowledge of the conduc
of the Police Board above detailed,
which they had screened by bill of
indemnity, the Legislature of Maryland
on the 18th of August solemnly declared
the arrest of Charles Howard, William
II. Gatchell and John w. Davis to have
been made g under trlroions and arbi-
frnry PretertS, a criminal violation of
the plainest and dearest rights to which
American citizens are born - and pro-
nounccd those arrests " IN their bearing
on the authority and constitutional
powers and privileges of the State
revolutionary subuers'on Of the Federal
compact.'
They dared do no more, for the
Fedora! ban was still on them; but
they adjourned GU that day to the Hi
Of September, not without hope that the
disaster of Bull Run might ere that day
remove the Federal Ian" and allow
them sateiy to end that " unwilling and
CALLING submission" in accordance with
their frequently ayowed purposes and
their persistent aflorts.
Before that day you were arrested
The only circums ance which could
justify the President in permitting the
assembling of such body-which had
already waged war against the Uni ed
States, asserted the revolutionary sub
version of the Cons tuition, and avowed-
ly adjourned from time to time to await
the removal of the federal ban " that
it might more formally array the State
in arms against the Government-would
hare been its entire significance or the
distinguished loyalty the people of
Maryland had exhibited in the elections
and in raising troops. These were con-
slderations of policy, and l am not
inclined to question the Presidents
judgment.
But the arrest was rigidly legal and
in the forms of law; for Congress had
authorized the President to use military
power to suppress the rebellion, and he
might lawfully seize any one engaged in
it, or whom he might have reasonable
cause to believe engaged in it.
The Joint Committee of the Lcgisla-
ture, of which you were one, declare
that 8" the true and only loyalty of a
free people consists in their reverence
for the laws and Constitution, and their
obedience to the tribunals by which they
are expounded." | cheerfully concur
in that definition; and those tribunals
of the highest resort have declared the
law as | have stated it.
The Supreme Court, by the mouth of
Chief Justice fancy, has decided that
where the established Government has
resorted to the rights and usages of war
to main tain itself and to overcome un-
lawful opposition, g the officers engaged
i'll its military service might lawfully
arrest any one who, from the iuforma-
ton before them, they had reasonable
grounds to believe was engaged in the
instruction, and might order house to
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