Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1886-02-12
is the wrong without Remedy7

the past year the manner and citcumst an
ces of the destruction of slave properly in
Maryland, by means of the revolutionary
measure known as the constitution OF
the bill Of rights Of the prescnt constitu-
ton Of the State, regularly adopted three
years later, that slavery in Maryland had
been established under the pc icy and au-
thority Of tie United States, and c0mpen-
sation in consideration thereof is due from
the United States" together with the
mandatory requirement in section 81 OF
article hat the Legislature shall adopt
some eSpedieut measures ito obtain from
the United States compensation for such
slaves and distribute the same equitsbly
to the persons entitled"
We endeavored then by an imperfect
review of the history of the question, to
show the facts upon which the Judgment
Of the people Of the State, SIS recorded in
the framing and adoption of the consti'u-
ton of 1867, was based
We referred 10 the message Of President
Lincoln to Congress in March. 1862. in
which he advocated the compensation OF
the owners of saves in the loyal States for
their property, and in which he used the
following language:
"The measure is both Just and economical.
In certain sense the liberation of slaves is The
destruction of preperty-pToperty acquired b'
descent or purchsse-the same aav o. her
property. Ii is ne less true for having been
often said that the people of the South are not
much more responsible for the original intro
duction of this propsrty than are the people OF
the North. If then fer a common object this
property is to be sacrificed, it is not just that il
be done at a common charge"
And to the resolution adopted by Con-
gress in pursuance hereof, which reads as
follows:
Resolred. That the United States ought to CO.
Operate with any State which NAV adopt grad
ual sbolishmeat of slavery, giriEsg such Stuts
pccUniGry aid, to be used BY such State iu its
disc' elton, to compensate for the nconvsni-n
ces, public and private. produced by such
change OF system.
1t was also pointed out that President
Lincoln, in conformity with he above
resolu ion, invited q conference with the
representatives of the loyal slave holding
Sta'es, with a view of carrying out the
policy of the resolution and quoted from
the formal reply OF the representatives. of
thes4 States at such conference, which
concluded as follows:
IF Congress by proper aud necessary legis
lation shall provide sufficient fuads aad place
them at your disposal, to be applied by YOU t.
the payment of any of our States or the citi gems
thereof, no shall adopt the adjustment OF
slavery. either gradual CT immediate, as the,
may determine. and the expense of deportation
aad colonization of the liberated slaves, then
will our State and people take this proposition
into carefuj consideration, for sucn decision a
ia their Judgment i demanded br their inter
est, their honor, and their duty to the whole
country"
A'tenl ion WAS directed also to the fac
that neither Mr Lincoln nor Congress had
taken any further action in the matter
but the resolution remained, land still re
mains unrescindsd, and the status of the
matter as above at the time when the
trump" Legislature of 1864 conceived the
scheme Of emsncipating the
slaves of the State by means OF a revolu-
tionary measure effsc ed by DISTINGUISHING.
in violation of every principe of our gov
ernmcnt large number Of the qualified
voters of lie State. by means OF an unwar-
rantad test oath, agd authorizing tue tax
ing of the votes of large numbers of Fed
eral soldiers outside the limits of The STATE
and many OF them citizens of other States
or foreign countries. We showed a'sc
that the trump" Legislature that hatched
this lawlsss plot owed its election to the
presence and iu'imidating influence of the
Federal military ct the polls in the State
and quoted from the message of Gov.
Bradford, to the General Assembly in
proof thereof, in which message he used
the following language:
"Bat will not dstain you with a recapitu-
tion of all the abuse. that these st.temsnts dis
close. have caused copies Of them to be rrsns
mittea to you and they cannot fail to arrui
your atteation. They present a humilia,ial
record. such as had never supposed wsssould
be called upon to read in any State, still less in
q legal oRe like this. Ualess il he indeed 8
fsllacy to suppose that any rights whatever re-
main in such State, or that any line " hatever
marks the limit Of Federal power, = boldsr
stride across that line that power never mad.
even in a Rebel State than it did here en- the
4th of last November
"A part OF the army which generous peo-
pie had supplied fer very different purpose
was on that day engaged in sitting the freedom
Of election in a faithful State, illuminating its
sworn officers, violating the constitutional
rights of its loyal citizens. and ohstructisy the
usual channels OF comm sication between them
and their Executive"
Reference was also made TO the fact that
the armed forces of the United States gov
eminent were present in several of the
counties of the State, and sufficiently lear
TO thepolls to exercise an intimidatiBg in
fuenc at the time of the alleged adoption
of the revolutionary measure; and that
The unlawful voting out
side Of the limits of the State, of many un-
qualified persons attached to Federal reg
iments accredited to Maryland, the rsvo-
lutionary measure was declared to be
adopted upon the votes OF only 27341
persons.
These historical facts are thought to be
valid and sufficient premises upon which
the convention in framing and the people
in adopting the constitution of 1867 had
based their judgment as recorded in arti-
Gle "a of the bill of rights, and while ex
pressing regrets that action had not been
taken earlier in the matter, we advanced
the opinion that it would be the unavoid-