Year: 1862

population. Traced by that1eep current, Mary
lands sentiment has never varied, and there was
never a time when her people, upon the same
issues recently presented, would not have re-
corded their verdict in the same emphatic terms.


That this has been effected by any collateral
circumstances or, in the favorte phrase Of Sc
cessionists, is the result of "Maryland's subjuga-
tion, is an insult to the intelligence and patriot
ism Of her people, which it scarcely becomes me
to refute. Any one who will recur to the his
tory of this rebellion, the assumption on which
it is founded, and the objects it avows, and then
in connection with them advert to the character
of our people, the geographical position of our
State, and the effect of disunion upon her most
important interests, the value and very exist
ence of material part Of her property and her
own security and peace, can come to no other
conclusion than that for her people to declare
Internationally for the Union is much an in
stinct Of self-preservation, of patriotic attach
n1ent to the principles Of the Constitution.


1t is not my purpose to dctan you with a
discussion of that fanc;ful theory invoked to the
aid of those who have inauguarated the existing
revolution, and which, under the title of ''seces-
sion, claims the right of any State. at any time,
and for any cause which she may declare suffi-
cient, to cancel all her obligations to the Federal
Constitution, aud assume the exercise of power
which it emphaticalIy prohibits.


The notorious fact that even among those who
most openly avow their sympathy with secession
there are few anywhere to be found who do not
indignantly repndiate its name, ought Of itself
to be sufficient to show that in Maryland, at
least, no argument is necessary to overthrow
this fallacy Maryland has long since defined
her position on this subject with clearness and
unanimity that should have assured all Of what
might be expected Of her now. When South
CAROLINA, thirty years ago, by her notification
ordinance, first formally put forth that pernici-
Gus dogma of States supremacy, the Legislature
of Maryland, as soon as it was brought to their
attention at their session of 1882, adopted reso.
lutions clearly showing that we repudiated il
then not less distinctly than we do to-day
These resolutions declare "that the right to annu
law of the General Government, assumed by
one State, is incompatible with the existence o
the Union. contradicted expressly by the letter
Of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit
inconsistent with every principle on which il
was founded, and destructive of the great object
for which it was formed; and that if any State
regardless of the constitutional remedies which
are afforded for every grievance and oppression
should attempt to withdraw from the Union, il
is the right and duty of the General Govern.
ment to protect itself and the other States from
the fatal consequences Of any such attempt"


And, although we had but just emerged from
an animated Presidential contest, in which the
people of Maryland were nearly equally divided
and party spirit displayed its usual influence in
our Legislative Assemblies no such spirit ir
fSTS0se= uay was suffered to encourage blow
aimed at the integrity Of the Union, and the
House of Delegates passed these resolutions with
but one dissenting vote. The manifest aversion
therefore, of Southern sympathzers to the title
of secesslonlsts is but proper acknowledgment
of that practical common sense which, with but
few exceptions, has heretofore marked the course
of our public men in their construction of the
Constitution.


We have been at all times, and are still. as
jealousy alive as any people to all the rights
which, under our system of government, Justly
belong to our State but we cannot shut our
eyes to the fact that there are other rights from,
which all the States are as positively excluded
and when the Constitution provides, as it does
that ''no State shall enter into any allegiance
treaty or confederation, "'grant letters Of marque
or reprisal," center into any agreement or COM
pact with another State" and 'that the Consti.
tuition ard laws made in pursuance of it shall
be the supreme law of the land, and the judges
of every State be bound thereby, anything in
the Constitution or laws of any State to the con-
trary Notwithstanding" no sophistry has been
ever yet invented, under the guise of State sove-
reignty or supreme State allegiance that could
SO distort these plain provisions as to make them
in our view susceptible Of two interpretations


Standing, therefore, secession does, in the
face of objections unanswerable that its &C.
knowledged allies are constrained to disavow it
it can hardly surprise us to see it seek to estab.
lish its power by resort to means even more
Objectionable still.


Such has been Systematically its course. 1t,
leaders, not content with involving us in tht
| unavoidable caamities of cauSeless and un


natural war, have aggravated these calamtie
by the manner in which they wage it. Private
property on land and sea has been seized ant
sacrificed under circumstances that must char
acterize the proceedings as mere acts of wantor
spoation. Our own State has suffered serious
| ly by injuries thus inflicted, aud our great line:
of internal improvement have not only beer
effectually interrupted, but when that Interrupt


ton was completed. and the necessities of wa


no longer palIiated the proceedings, the work o
destruction has been continued until property t.


the amount Of many thousands has been ruth


lesSly sacrificed. Not only the property but th
| persons of our citizens have been made the sub


ject of these unprovoked aggressions and at th,


very time that hundreds of refugees-late citi


zens of Virginia, driven by the most remorsees


prosecutions from their own State for no othe


cause than that they loved the Union too wei


to abjure it-sought and found shelter within
our borders, our own citizens, wholly unconnec


ted with any military organization. charged witt


no offence whatever. have been seized in the


quiet homes by armed bands from the othc


side of the Potomac, put in irons carried out o


the State and committed to fellon's prison.
should hardly think it necessary to adver
to these outrages, now of such common occur
renee wherever secession bears sway but for the
fact that the Chief Magistrate Of the State, the
principal theatre Of these enormities-the once
proud, now devastated Commonwealth Of Vir.
ginla-in a recent remarkable message to he1
Legislature, INDUCED in lamentations over the
condition of Maryland, and ventures to pronnis


his aid ''in effecting the deliverance of the peo-
pie from the tyranny that now oppresses them.
Well Informed. as we all are of the regions where
in tyranny has been busiest with its expressions
for the last nine months, notorious is to every
one the comparative condition at this moment
Of ths people on the opposite side of the PotO.