Evening star., 1863-04-02
SLAVERY IN MARYLAND

gomery Blair, himself citizen of Maryland
i'll will be remembered 10 Mr.. Richard Cham
bers, OF the same State:
Hr. Richard Chambers,
Greensborough, Caroline Couaty Nj:
Dear Sri have Yours of the 23d instant,
skIEg whether il would not be better for
not 10 nhke the question OF Emancipation in
our approac hing election.
IL, as You Ass sumo, 1t in our power to
make or Not to make the question, it might be
profitable to debate with ourselves whether
We would or would not make it. But, when
III point OF tact, 1t Is not tor us to say whether
the QUESTION shall or shall not be made, it
SCI ms 10 me TO be idle to discuss the policy of
making it. The Question is upon US, and all
fnat we can do Is 10 say on which side we shall
range ourselves. To be debating whether it is
better or worse for us to have it, is like debat-
ing whether the rain that is falling is needed.
know, indeed, that too many Of our friends
are so afraid of the lafery question, or rather
are go terrified at the Secession howl of ssAho-
litionists, that they persuade themselves that
Shey can dodge the issue and can even Join in
the howl, without helping the Secessionsts
hut the war now Grenching the land in blood,
which is due to this tmidity, should at least
teach us that to cover before traitors and adopt
their slang is alike inconsistent with patriotism
and self r. 6pect.
No one can doubt that if the men of the South
Uho dissented from MIR. C;.lhoun's monstrous
doctrines had stood up boldly against them we
should have extiDguished them without ylo-
aence But instead of making common cause
against the Euiiifier, they Joined in his cry
against the North. which utterly drowned the
feeble hotes they attempted to utter for .sthe
Union"
such have been the disastrous results of at
tempting to dodge the slavery question, which
Mr. Calhoun, as we find by his printed letters,
The ISSUE, he wrote to Mr. Percy Walker, and
accordingly 1t was forced upon Let
meet it like men.
Yours truly, M. BLAIR.
WASHINGTON. March 21th, 1863.
The Baltimore american, OF Saturday last
1,ada fha af drpIr
cling commentaries. which we ;rust may,
with the letter, reach every Maryland reader.
Secession has already virtually destroyed
slavery in that State Negroes there, which,
three years ago. readily sold for = $780, will not
now bring s $50 on the block. In fact, they are
utterly unsaleable. Such is the result OF seces-
sion upon the pockets of the secessionists of
Maryland; rs that treason has strength there
only where the value of the property of slave
holders has been destroyed one OF the posi-
tive and clearly forseen results of the exploita-
tion of the go extensive and long maturing con-
spiracy against the liberties of the whites of
the land involved in this rebellion in the in
terast OF the class, only, who hold slave proper
~, and the desperate band of broken down po-
hticaI hacks who sought by playing on the
ffars OF the South with reference to slavery to
destroy the Union, that they might continue to
control the public affairs in one section of it,
Long before the first gun fired at Fort
Sumter. We urged upon Maryland that if war
came out Of the attempt to secede its first cer-
tain result would be the utter destruction Of
slavery in the border States How fast that
prediction is being realized, the reader may
know from the facts concerning the money
value of slaves in Maryland mentioned above
1ndustrialiy, it always was a positive him
drance to the general progress OF Maryland; its
value being only the profits of negro breeding
with the former steady increase of the value of
negroes in the extreme South; profits accruing
altogether to class W no certainly did no more
Tor the States general prosperity than any other
class OF MarylandeIs-f as much as most
others. Though numerically. that class was
small, we struggled to ward off the anti slavery
result Of secession from them upon conserva-
tive principles up 10 the hour at which it be-
came obvious to Us that the great danger to the
complete and speedy assurance Of Maryland
to the Union existed only in the intrigues of
those who assumed TO be the guardians of the
rights and interests OF slavery in that State. On
r,aiizing that they Lao Internationally elected
Union with the oligarehy Of jefferson Davis,
and were willing 10 risk the lives and fortunes
OF all others in the State in the vain effort to tie
Maryland hand and foot, and TO east her help
less into poor Eirginias present condition, we
rejoiced that the line between the nominal in
terebts Of slavery in the State and those OF its
people at large in the preservation of the Union
at the point of the bayonet is being rapidly
drawn in the minds Of the Maryland public.z
The issue was started by John Q. Calhoun
His peculiar followers have pushed it to this
hour, with the avowaI OF the purpose of de.
stroyng the United States Government and
erecting slavehoding oligarchic despotism
In its stead. From Spratt, down to Pryor,
every one OF the conspirators who have put
them'elyes on the record eyow the ultimate
purpose of their rebellion TO be the obliteration
OF the civil rights OF the laboring white man.
The friends of the Union and civil liberty in
Maryland and all the other Border States,
now know precisely where and how to meet
them. And what are to be the grand results of
the contest? The suppression of the rebellion
on the one hand, with the speedy end Of slavery
IN the Border States. On the other hand, If the
Union cause fails, civil liberty will instantly
be extinct in all the Border States; to remain
so until other generations may in the Proyi-
dence of God beat down the oligarchy by such
means as those with which the latter now
seek to destroy civil liberty throughout the en-
tire South.
CHAnGEs IN THE CEasUs BUREAU.-Pro-