The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-01-30
AN IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE.

We have been furnished with copy
of the following letter, which we lay
before our readers, lest the well-known
modesty of the proprietor of THE DEM
oCRAT should induce him to withhold it
from the public:
WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. %, 1859.
G. w. CRUIKsHANK, ESQ, Editor &C.:
DEAR SIR :-Presuming that we may
not be entire strangers to you-although
we have not the presumption to claim
such an honor from any merit of our
own; but the position which our noble
State has seen fit to accord to us, in
choosing us to represent her in that
august body of the assembled wisdom
of the nation-the United States Sen
ate-may have been the means of bring
ing our unworthy names incidentally to
your notice. We acknowledge ourselves
to be but humble citizens of this great
Republic, and rely more upon the mag
nanimity which always accompanies a
chivalric nature, to accord us Il patio mt
hearing in behalf of our-excuse us for
styling it-noble State We have long
been readers of your matchless paper
THE CECIL DEMOCRAT. Since the APP
pearance of Junius' Letters, there has
been nothing in English literature that
would anyway compare with your az
ticles in scathing sarcasm and wither-
ing invectivc, and our alarm and appre-
hension cannot well be conceived, when
The CECIL WIG, in blissful ignorance
of its danger, and the unreasonable
distance between the ability which scin-
tillates from your columns, and the
humble efforts which usher it weekly
before the reading world, by its ramb-
ling and uncouth remarks, brought
down the lightnings of your pen upon
our devoted State Freely acknowledge
ing our inability to cope with you in
argument, or measure swords with the
sharp intellectual weapons of your wit,
we approach you as humble petitioners,
pleading with you as with one endowed
with mighty powers to smitc, to spare
our barren and inhospitablc State,
which, Boosting of no great chivalric
names and scholars, has to seek among
her mechanics for representatives in
Congress. One of us, as you are
doubtless aware, has been taken from
the shoemaker's bench, and the other
but an unknown lawyer, we feel most
sensibly our utter weakness and expo
sure to that dreaded classical quotation,
"lct the shoemaker stick to his last"
Maryland has much to be proud of in
one of her noble sons, who can win his
heritage to dcathlcss fame, by penning
such immortal sentiments as the follow
ing, extracted from one of your late
articles:
Massachusetts, has schools-thcrc-
fore schools are good thing. Massa-
chusetts has paupers-thercforc pau
pers arc good thinge. Massachusetts
has institutions for the destruction of
youth-thercfore the destruction of
youth is a good thing. Massachusetts,
has f9ticidcs in Observation-Disclosures
fGticide is good thing"
We confess our utter powcrlcssness
before such logic as this. AVON and
AYRE have been made classic by the
genius of song. SAssAFRAs-you own
native Sassafras, is destined to bear as
deathless a name among rivers.
But in pity spare oh, spare our help
less State from humiliation, by calling
down the scorn and ridicule of the
whole civilized world upon her! Have
charity for our heinous faults. We ac-
knowledge our ignorance, our immoral
itv, our poverty. We behold in the
mulatto crop of southern Maryland and
Virginia rcbukc to our miscegenation
hercsics, and in the tolerance of the
kuklux, reproof of our abridgmcnt of
the freedom of speech. The curse of
our public schools is put to shame by
the troops of happy people in the late
slave States in blissful ignorance of A.
b. c. If mercifully spared, in future,
from your terrible anathcmaS, we will
recommend to our benightcd people the
study of the slave codes, still in opera
ton, to the full measure of the power
of the chivalry to enforce them from
Delaware to Texas, and the beautiful
civilzing process of the cat o'ninc tails
Trusting that YOU will condescend to
consider our petition, and not allow the
equilibrium of Your god-likc mind to be
disturbed by the lilliputian attacks OF
that Indifferent fellow of our party, THE
WING, we beg of you once more to
spare our State, and accept our most
distinguished consideration.
Your obedt scrv'ts,
CHARLES SUMNER,
HENRY WILSON.