Year: 1859

colonze Africa &c., aud everything that can be done nv
unequal taxation and by the nction of petty hardshps
and gross indgutes, Is done drive them out of the
State into fatal Offences Maryland has been conspi-
above perhaps every other State In the frantic
aeter Of her recent autinegro agitation Her position is
awkward and difficult one requiring the utmost pru-
dence, moderation and forecast aud her citizens have
acted like demented rants in the very crisis Of her for
tunes. Her territory Is small Her slaves are more bur-
deusome than protable and they are running away in
greater numbers every year. They make such poor
figure n cultvators of the soil In the pre-
sence of constant influx Of industrious Germans and
other free laborers that they otherwise employed
whenever they be let out on hire Fugitiyes from
the South roopng through on their way into Penn
sylvana aud il Is well known all along the road that
they going Join the twenty thousand free
in Canada who have travelled by the same underground
railroad" Every negro in the little State of MARYLAND
is surrounded by excitements There is Washington
close by-standng soil yielded by MARYLAND and Vr-
gnia; and for months of every year slavery is quar-.
relied about there by the first in the republic There
IA Batmore-prone TO slave traic-known to send out
vessels every year trade between the African coasts
and Cuba. There Is Annapolis where the Legislature
holds its sttngs aud where stringent restraints on the
free blacks proposed with yehemence from
sion 10 session till hear of proposals to sell into
slavery eyery free negro who is found In the State ,er
certain date There is Pennsylvania close at hand from
the rural districts with its thriving class Of free blacks
who own ships aud rows OF houses in Philadelphia aud
known 10y their good deeds in aiding wanderers from
the South There is the broad Potomac with its abun
dant shipping and its snug berths for many more fugi
tives than the cruel vigilance





tier, and not little of it Is Western Virginia where sla
very has long been condemned aud abhorred Nowhere
slavery more unpopular than the tabe-ands of Vr-
gnia where the farmers talking Of abolishing il
before the abolonsts entered upon their enterprise


Harpers Ferry particularly well and very daringly
chosen, II chosen at ALL the of insurrecton-
On the frontier between Nirginl and Maryland at the
confluence OF great rivers, and the junction Of State rail-
ways, and the centre of of teegraphic wires il
would have been post Importance even there
had not been arsenal from which great negro popu-
laon might be armed If the recent moods Of the mas
tiers and the State politicians had been less fierce and
their language and acts less oppressive might have
hoped that the parties might to fair terms before
much mischief Is done. As is We cannot but dread
the reflection Of the yrannca temper of the masters in
the vindctive conduct Of the slaves The nsgros ha,
sho'sH cnHdrfd patience, aud occasion q reYv re-
Ddrk0be gcHrosfy but the Maryland slave traders and
free negro haters have appealed the best but to
the worst part OF human nature in their dealings
with their precarous human property and there may
well be apprehension Of the result We mean only as TO
what may have been done in the first outbreak No
doubt the rising would be Immediately put down by the
federal and State forces This to be hoped on every
account for s doom Of sidrery ia the republic espei-
ally ~ the frontier Stdfss and ADORE all in Maryland
s so clear and closely impending that ersy JreGck Of
der is likely 10 BE- Iaischici-o impairment and
1io f'rtheTdHcs. II the masters wise, thew would
know how to turn the occasion advantage for getting
rid OF their burden and curse but Maryland savehod-
who cannot endure the presence of the free negro
foot of soil In the State not wise and they
will doubtless make the worst Of their own case.