The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-09-08
IN MEMORIAM.
JOSEPH BAILEY pUGH,

early colonial times. His father was a tan
ner, and Joseph spent part of his youth
full years in his fathers tannery at Union
vile. 1t was his duty to run the engine in
the tannery, and lie being fond of mechan-
les, became proficient as an engineer
could take the engine to pieces, when it
was necessary to do so, and reconstruct it.
He obtained his education mainly at
Unionville, where Jonathan Cause kept
classical school for the education of young
men. Mr.. Cause had good reputation as
an instructor of youth, and under his tut
ton the subject of this sketch became a
thorough scholar. He was very studious
and thoughtful when boy, and then, as
we'll as in after life, close and laborious
student, often pursuing his studies far into
the night.
He was of a practical turn of mind and
took delight in studying the solid and use
full rather than the ornamental parts of sci
ence and literature. He was great ad-
mirer of Shakespeare and took much de-
light in reading the works of the great mas
ter of English literature.
Mr.. Pugh, when quite young man,
John NJ. Reed, and was admitted to the
bar of that city after passing a highly
creditable examination. He appears to
have had but little taste for the practice of
the profession, there being some things
necessarily connected with it that were
distasteful to man of his temperament.
So he accepted the position of Attorney and
Manager for a mining company in the Lake
Superior copper region and spent year
there in that capacity. His knowledge of
mining and mineralogy made him quite
competent to fill the position with credit to
himself and satisfactorily to the company.
Mr.. Pugh afterwards removed to Pied
mont, Va, and was Attorney and Manager
of the New Creek Coal Co. located at that
place. While there, in order to attend to
the legal business of the Company, he was
admitted to the bar in Romney, the county
town of Hampshire county, Va.
Though Mr.. Pugh lived in Virginia, he
was only separated from Maryland by the
Potomac river; and while at Piedmont he
was thrown in contact with the miners and
and other hardy sons of toll in Western
Maryland. Being a working man himself,
he became very popular among them, and
probably had more influence over them
than any other person. They would go
further and stay longer to listen TO him.
to any other person.
Mr.. Pugh removed from Piedmont to
Port Deposit, in 1860, as agent of the execu-
tors of the estate of the late E. J. Rine-
hart, whose widow he married in 1864
In 1862 he entered into a partnership
with Mr.. James A. Davis, and from that
time to the present the firm has been largely
engaged in the lumber and grain business,
having branches at Lapidum and North
East. He thus became we'll and extern
sively known throughout Cecil county, and
was universally respected as man of the
brightest honor and strictest integrity.
He first came among the people of this
county in the troublesome times immedi
ately preceding the late war
Mr.. Pugh was Republican in the strict
est and broadcast sense of the word from
his early boyhood, and, as was very natu-
raj, took an active part in favor of the
principles of the Republican party. In
this, as in all other things, he acted as an
honest and conscientious man. He was,
although at the time comparatively a
stranger in this county, elected to repre-
sent it in the Constitutional Convention,
which met in May, 1864. lie was lead
ing member of that body and took an ac-
tive part in its debates and proceedings.
AS indicative of the character and politi,
cal feelings of the man, we make few ex-
tracts from the speech he delivered before
the Convention, on the 23rd day of June,
1864, the subject under discussion being
the 23rd article of the Bill of Rights:
The spirit of hatred against the race and
which extends to all the opponents of the
system of slavery, is as much to be depre
Gated as any other development of the
institution; and this leads me to some in
quiry into the causes Of that spirit and the
nature and character of its expression 1t
is founded, in my judgement, in the i'm
properly cultivated pride of our nature,
and was manifested In all times. 1t has
been the source of more evils to the human
family than probably any other one cause.
allude to the idea that some men are
born superior to others--that idea, the
tendency of which has always been to
create a pricileged class; that teach the
doctrine that some men are better,
higher in the scale of being, by reason of
their birth Alone. that some are at once
illuStrous because their ancestors were
ilustriouS.
Now, sir, stand here as a plebian in
this fight. In the readings of my boyhood.
[ always took sides with the plebians
against the patricians; suffered with them
in their sufferings; resented with them the
indignities offered to their class by their
assumed superiors followed them to the
wars of the Roundheads against the Cava-
liers, and joined them in their death cry
against Charles |, the crowned representa-
tive Of their oppressors, and the stricken
and defeated exemplar of their vindcation. -
"The final argument that l shall urge in
: favor of the abolition of slavery in Mary
land is that which has been repeatedly used
in this debate. Slavery is the link that
connects us with the rebellion, and it must
be severed. Loss of property may ensue;
what matter? immense loss of property
has ensued from this rebellion throughout
the whole of the State. make the charge
and challenge refutation that slavery was
the cause of this rebellion; that the rebel
lion is to day nothing more nor moth
ing less than slavery fighting for power;
and that inasmuch as we sympathize with,
or attempt to bolster up, or defer the oblit-
Grafton of slavery in this State, by Just so
much do we add to the burdens of our
already overburdened country struggling
for life. Not for an instant of time, not by
a breath from my nostrils will now or
ever while God gives me life, approach or
seem to approach by hairs BREADTH
toward even the imagined commission of
that damnng deed.
Gentlemen are in favor of return to
the Union; there is but one road to that
goal. 1t lies through universal emaucipa
ton in America.