have had great effect, as has been very ably
suggested by several gentlemen here, would
have had a very excellent effect if urged at the
propertime. But that time has passed. That
time was in 1861. That was the time when
the gentlemen should have come forward and
announced these principles and declared that
they were prepared to stand by them. That
was the time when in Washington the repre-
sentatives of these ideas should have acted as
they profess that they are willing to act to-day.
If they had done so then, I submit that there
has not been a word uttered or a sentence quo-
ted by either of the gentlemen, that I would
not have willingly and joyfully indorsed,
But study as yon will; sit in your closets
and con over laws and constitutions as you
may; you cannot as reasonable men overlook
the fact that there is a question overriding all
other questions, fiat there is a matter involved
here overwhelming every other matter, and that
is the question of your existence as a people.
Have gentleman of the convention forgotten
so soon the beautiful illustration of the gen-
tleman from Baltimore city (Mr. Stirling?)
I do not repeat the words, but the idea I shall
never forget—that the constitution is but pen,
ink and paper; that it is, as it were, the tab-
ernacle that contains the soul of the people;
and that as that soul may go on existing
through all eternity, even after the tabernacle
shall have passed away forever, so may this
people exist when every trace of the present
constitution shall have been scattered to the
winds, when there shall be no more of the old
bill of rights, the present one we are now
making, when no vestige shall remain of the
words, when no vestige shall remain of the
present written form of government, handed
down to us by our fathers, that even at that
day we may still exist as a people.
I part it to these gentlemen who are con-
tantly prating about the constitution—I re-
vere that instrument as much as any of these
gentlemen, but there is another and a higher
question in the matter, which must at the
same time be noticed—if it shall come to pass
that we, in order to protect and defend this
people, in order to preserve our existence, and
carry into the future with all its great history
the nation and the political form of government
that have been bequeathed to us by our fa-
thers,—if it shall become necessary hereafter,
in the prosecution of this war, and in defend-
ing our firesides from the foot of the invader,
and in order to bear aloft the flag which was
the gift of our fathers to us,—if it shall be-
come necessary to sweep out of existence ev-
ery vestige of the present written parchments
of the land, of any State or of all the States,
I for one am perfectly willing to take that al-
ternative.
We have a duty to perform in sustaining
the written form of government. But we
have another duty to perform which we should
not, in the contemplation of our duty in that |
direction, utterly forget, as the gentlemen, in
my judgment, are constantly doing.
Why then is it that we require of persons
who profess to be citizens of the State of Ma-
ryland that they shall make known to us and
to the world that they are on our side in this
matter? Not because it is our side, or because
we happen to be upon this side; but because
it is a question of the existence or destruction
of this nation as a people; because of the ne-
cessity of maintaining and carrying to all the,
lands of the earth that emblem of our nation-
ality—the flag of our country. It is because we
have these high aims in view, that we must, in
spite of every other consideration, know and
determine who are our enemies, at home as
well as abroad, without arms as well as with
them.
It has been ably suggested here that ballots
at home may do us a thousand fold more in-
jury than bullets in the hands of our ene-
mies, for the very reason that the enemy who
covertly acts at home is far more dangerous
than the open enemy in the field, because you
never know where to find him. Nine-tenths
of the men who at heart are rebels, are out-
wardly Union men. I do not charge this
upon any one who doe? not see fit to take it.
But I know and I say that the principal dan-
ger we have to dread from the ballots at
home is because we cannot tell under the
present system who ore loyal men and who
are rebels at home. This is one of the ways
to ascertain. If a man is not a rebel, if he
is not one of the enemies of his country, if
he is at heart in favor of sustaining our na-
tion as a nation, it is no hardship to him as
it is no hardship to me, to take the oath of
allegiance, it is no hardship to those who
are truly loyal, but it is necessary because
but a tithe of the real rebels are openly so,
while nine-tenths of them profess to be Union
men.
I do not mean to have it understood that
I am in favor of abandoning the constitution
or the laws in order to sustain the life of the
nation, so long as there is the faintest possi-
bility that they can be preserved. But I only
suggest to gentlemen, suppose we lose every-
thing but the constitution; suppose we pre-
serve that and lose everything else besides;
suppose in the course of human events, with
the constitution constantly before us and
misinterpreted, in the midst of war and the
devastation of the country, it should so hap-
pen that we should be left with nothing but
a constitution, with the people as a people
destroyed; will you go before the court of
high Heaven with that piece of parchment
and plead for pardon when the nation is de-
stroyed because the constitution is secured?
might talk a week, although I am not in
favor of long speeches; there have been so
many things paid, and wildly said, as it
seems to me, upon this question of what we
are incorporating into this constitution. If |
