ferred upon them? You make them an ex-
cluded class when your basis of representa-
tion comes to be considered.
According to the langunge of the gentle-
man from Cecil (Mr. Pugh,) they are to be
set free among their enemies. If that be true
where is the sympathy and the feeling for
them, and the protection for them which
their friends, the majority of this convention,
have manifested? They are to be set free
among their enemies I among those who will
oppress them, who will not care for them !
Then what is to become of the helpless, the
aged, the poor, the weak, the hungry and
starving, the houseless and homeless—what
is to become of them? A proposition was
made here in the spirit of humanity that
provision should be made out of the State
treasury for their comfortable maintenance
and support; but it was voted down. Who
are their friends, then? What is the friend-
ship manifested for them by those who have
contented themselves with severing the rela-
tion of master and slave, taking them away
from their natural protectors, those whom
Providence has hitherto assigned to them?
They are taken under your protection, and
the protection you extend to them is permis-
sion to die of starvation, of cold and hunger.
And that is the liberty extended to them
throughout the whole of this mad scheme of
emancipation which has been inaugurated
by the administration, which has been
forced unwillingly upon Mr. Lincoln by the
clamor of the demon abolition of the north.
1 regret, with all my heart, that he had not
the firmness to adhere to his own good sense
as manifested in his repeated refusals to re-
cognize that policy. And when finally he
was driven to it by what he says was the in-
evitable necessity of his position, he said—
'' I trust in God, I have not made a mistake."
You could see the misgivings with which he
was forced into it by this mad spirit of abo-
litionism.
And what has been the result of that pol-
icy? You can see it in the accounts written
from the camps, from the whole region of the
Mississippi, in which it is stated that the ne-
groes are forced to live in a few log huts, not
a sufficient shelter to keep out the rain;
nothing in the world to protect them, dying;
by hundreds around Vicksburg after the fed-
eral control was extended over it; dying of
all sorts of diseases and of starvation, for it
was impossible to feed so many.
Well, these people are here in our State,
and they are not to be represented in any
shape, manner, or form. They are to be left
to their ''enemies!" Their "enemies" will
take care of them as far as they are able, if
they conduct themselves with any sort of
propriety, if they show any sort of disposi-
tion to labor, as I trust they will. Those
who have been brought up to habits of labor
will not, I trust, so readily fall into habits of |
idleness, especially if they are not in the
neighborhood of grog-shops and other places
of temptation. But I fear that thousands of
them will fall into this temptation and be-
come a burden to society.
Sir, Ohio early protected herself by pass-
ing a law that every free negro who entered
her State should give bond and security that
he would not become a burden on the State,
and hence those who could not give this
bond and security had to leave her borders.
Indiana and Illinois had to adopt a similar
policy, so that they are not burdened- with
this population. We will have to keep them
and take care of them. They will keep white
labor out; they will keep down our white
population.
And the result of it will be that the smaller
counties which have interests to protect, and
whose interests are not identical with those
of the great city of Baltimore; but which
have contributed to build up and enrich Bal-
timore in all her magnificence, splendor,
wealth and power—these counties will be
stripped of their political influence, and their
power to protect themselves, and be bound
hand and foot. This is the very last oppor-
tunity they will ever have to protect them-
selves. They lost largely in the last conven-
tion; their influence was then shorn down
to a very small comparative amount.
Sir, I not only have no desire that the city
of Baltimore should not, in the councils of
the State, have her full influence, such as in
a well regulated community a very large city
ought to have in the legislature of the State.
I rejoice in her numbers, in her wealth, as
much as any can. When I represented in
the legislature the county I now represent
here, one of the small counties in no way
whatever to be benefitted by the great works
of internal improvement, it was my pleasure
to advocate upon this floor those great works,
and to give Baltimore city the aid of my
voice and my vote for the appropriations
necessary to build them. They have en-
riched her. And she has been enriched by
every production of our counties; our to-
bacco, wheat, corn, all the products of the
western shore have gone to enrich her. Oats,
corn, wheat, wood, lumber, all the products
of the eastern shore have gone to enrich her.
Her merchants have had our exclusive trade.
And when the time comes that we shall be
shorn of our power to protect ourselves,
what will be the result? Sell-interest gov-
erns communities, as well as and even more
intensely than individuals. You may talk
as you plea-e about the sentiment of patriot-
ism, and liberality, and principle and all that
sort of thing; of justice, moderation, pru-
dence, and all the virtues that may be ap-
pealed to in the affairs of government and of
communities. But I have never known it to
fail that when masses of men get together,
their self-interest, heedless of their views as |
