Year: 1862




a remedy for existing evils. That we have en-
dured heavy losses of slave property, and that
these losses have frequently occurred under Cir
cumstances well calculated to irritate and pro-
woke our people, no one, we presume, will deny.
But even in moments Of greatest evaporation
growing out of these grievances it never entered
into the Imagination Of any man in Maryland
that such evils could be averted by a dissolution
of the Union. Of all the thirty -four States ours
should be the last to hearken to such counsels;
and of all the interests which we have at stake,
the one just referred to should be the first to de-
Iprecate them. will not pause to inquire into
the more extensive and universal classnf calami-
ties consequent upon a dissolution of the Union,
in which this continent, and the world, to some
extent would participate, but refer only to those
immediate household evils lying at the door Of
us in the border States.


AS this Union now exists, Maryland is its
very centre, connected by her railroads and riv-
ers with all points Of its extreme circumference.
but divide it by any line ever yet suggested, and
| from being the centre of great nation, destined
to become in time the mighty empire Of the
world, we are shifted to the outer verge of one
of two rival and wrangug Confederacies, har-
raised by perpetual causes of dispute, and neces-
sarily subjected by our position to bear the brunt
of evrry collision in which they must speedily
become involved.


But independently Of those ordinary border
feuds-the inseparable incident of all such con-
tiguous communties-what would be our con-
dition as Stare State upon the border?


One great ultimatum which the secessionists
propose to accomplish is separate Slave Con-
federacy embracing all the States where that
institution at present exists, and none others
And regarding the results of disunion in that
aspect, and the new relations it would at once
establish between US upon this and our neigh
bors upon the other side of the slave line, and
who can avoid the conclusion that all the per-


lis now supposed to threaten our slave pro-
perty, and which it is proposed to avert by
this division, would be multi piled thousand
fold the day that such separation was con-
summated ?


We are admonshed by our Southern advisers
that We must seek security for this property
we are entreated by others nearer home to lay
down our arms, accede to the proposals of the
South, and secure the blessings of lasting peace.
And so completely can secession delude its vic
tins that the means by which both these ends,
we are told, can be accomplished, is division
of the Republic. Not only so, but in running
the line Of that division we are sedulouslv to
keep in view, as an imperative call controlling
course and distance, natural boundaries and all
other considerations, that very subject matter
tie fruitful. seIrsS es eur prcseht troubles.


A subject so skilfully shaped already into
engines Of mischief-by medders on both sides
the line referred to-that common country
and Constitution for which We professed a
common reverence could not save US from the
implacable war which we now witness, is to
become, we are asked to believe, a subject Of
indifference as soon as the contending sections
are organized into separate governments. Mary
land and Pennsylvania, still as near together as
ever, but allies no longer--the same sensitive
subject Of discord between them, without any
common ties or Constitution by which that dis
cord may be restrained or adjusted-and yet the
imaginary line, which is still all that separates
them, is become, by some miraculous agency,
hereafter mighty barrier, across which the
emissary of northern fanaticism will never ven-
ture to set his foot!


Instead of then the widest Of all fancies being
ever realized. should such separation take
place, the mind recois from contemplation Of
the feuds which would inevitably follow such a
parting; feuds embittered by mutual crimina-
tions and "reminiscences perpetually ranking in
the minds Of each, the very first subject falling
a sacrifice to their influence would be the very
one for whose security this separation is pre-
scribed And whilst those naugurating the
reckless experiment would be comparatively
exempt from its disasters, we, upon whom they
will be precipitated, will furnish but another
illustration of the past history of the subject
They ever the loudcst in complaints Of aggres-
sion, and we the only ones to suffer by its infic
ton.


The institution of slavery, as we must be all
aware, finds no support in the sympathy Of for
eign nations on the contrary, We have had re-
peated proofs that public opinion there is stout
" arrayed against it, Its power to withstand
this opposition, as it has hitherto successfully
done, has been chiefly derived from the protec-
ton it has found under the shelter of the great
United National Government. Shall we, then
be guilty of the monstrous folly of dividing this
nation, and adding to the foreign element Of op-
position to this institution the still more danger.
Gus and approximate one incurred by the crea-
ton of a foreign government at our very thres.
hold, and whose people will claim to charge tc
it's account the national calamities to which II
has been made subservient I?


But it is giving to the rebellion consideration
to which it has no claim, to discuss its preten.
tions in connection with its assumed supervision
tons could have but little or no share among
tie motives Of those who inaugurated it; these
leaders were too intelligent and astute to have
lo'StioOnSA VIZ SoAA"S3uS"SSS w "ihCn 10 -
referred, and must nave forseen. too, that such
interests, above all others, would be most mate
rally affected in the Of war, let the wal
be conducted as it might. But the dsmember-
ment of this Union--the organization of q sepa-
rate Southern government. the introduction into
that government Of political principles well
known to be opposed to the long-established
sentiments and purposes Of vast majority Of
the nstion-made up the object the conspirators
had in view. These have formed SO long the
subject of their ambitious meditations that, after
having in form opposed but in effect promoted
the of political agitators at the North as
reckless as themselves, they have seized upon
that success, the result of their own contrivance
as the pretext for their premetlitate rebellion,
and thus to accomplish their selfish and ambi-
tious schemes has this contest been thrust upon
us and our beloved country, lately so prosperous,
peaceful aud happy, made the theatre Of a civil
war, prostrating every industrial pursuit, pcne-
trating every domestic circle aud involving all,
u,ore or less. in its calamitcs.


The question is frequently aske'l-an'i with