In his conscience he knows that he has not
violated the law of the land.
But that is not all. The oath proposed by
the gentleman from Cecil (Mr, Scott) contains
the most extraordinary proposition that ever
was made in a legislative hall since the world
was governed, not even among the Hotten-
tots, Hindoos, Seminoles, or barbarians. A
man is obliged to swear to his thoughts be-
fore he can be permitted to exercise a civil
right. It is a proposition only fit to govern
demons in the infernal regions. It is an in-
sult in my opinion to the house, to ask them
to require a man to swear to the thoughts of
all his past life before he can be permitted to
enjoy the common privilege of a citizen any-
where except in a dungeon.
I am glad the gentleman from Baltimore
city (Mr. Stirling) has not thought proper to
introduce such an outrage in the form which
he has submitted to the house. There is no
appeal here to a man's conscience—not a par-
ticle of it. He swears that he has been
"truly and loyally on the side of the United
States against those in armed rebellion
against the United States," and that he has
"never directly or indirectly by word, act,
or deed given any aid, comfort or encourage-
ment to those in rebellion against the United
States or the lawful authorities thereof."
I must agree that this is a very dangerous
experiment for some gentlemen to take; for
it not only involves the necessity of a man's
changing his doctrine every month or two,
in order to avoid the violation of his oath—
for what is loyalty and support of the gov-
ernment to-day, is disloyalty to-morrow, but
it amounts to this. It is but the other day
that the President authorized a most distin-
guished man of his party, the man that made
him President of the United States, to enter
into correspondence with rebels upon terms of
settlement, to see whether upon consultation
any arrangement could be made. Under
this oath he could not have begun even to
correspond with them.
Do gentlemen want not only a nation with-
out slavery, but a constitution better than
that venerable instrument our fathers trans-
mitted to us, a constitution which is to be in
operation after the extradition of every hu-
man being south of Mason and Dixon's line ?
Is no man to be permitted to attempt to stop
the war? Is the war to he waged until there
is not a southern man left under the canopy
of heaven? Has not. blood enough flowed
already? Have not myriads of the dead
bodies of our fellow-citizens on both sides
fallen? Have cot hecatombs enough been
slain to gratify the demon of desolation?
Were the President to send to-morrow a
commission to propose terms of peace, your
answer must necessarily be, I cannot accept
terms of peace. The oath which I have taken
forbids me to do anything under any circumstances
which can possibly interrupt or form |
in any way political combinations having for
their object the dissolution or destruction of
the Union. And strange to say, the oath is
that they shall not allow the Union to be
broken up and dissolved or the government
thereof to be destroyed.
What is the government? I ask gentlemen
here to put passion and feeling out of the ques-
tion, and candidly, freely and quietly—I ask
them in this temper and wish them to answer
in this temper—I appeal to their consciences
and ask them to consider what is the oath,
what is our obligation, and what does our
allegiance require of us? Is there any gov-
ernment in this country except that which
the constitution and laws of the United States
have formed for us in pursuance of power
delegated to them by the people of the United
States? What other government is there?
It is a question you are bound to answer.
You are asking us to swear to support it?
You are asking us to swear that we never did
anything but support it; and further, that
we never will do anything but support it; or
anything having for its object the destruction
of it,
How can this be justified when a gentle-
man rises here and tells you that the great
labor of his past life, that the great object of
his solicitude has been to abolish the consti-
tution, in other words the government, be-
cause it sustained slavery? it is a very se-
rious question. It is not enough to go home
and talk like the brawling politicians who
sing out "negro," without knowing why or
wherefore. It is not enough to go to the
hustings and there in a state of excitement
and passion to throw out some generalities,
as the gentleman from Howard (Mr. Sands)
has done. You must answer for these mat-
ters before posterity. You must answer for
them to your own consciences before they get
beyond you. You must answer for them to
the people hereafter to be without passion,
who will be calm, sober, whether they forget
and forgive or whether they do not, not un-
der the excitement of the present hour, and
who will discover what it is that tears this
country to its vitals. I wish with all my
heart that that calm and thoughtful period
may find that your conduct upon this occa-
sion has merited the commendation which I
am sure all of us would desire to receive,
I know of no obligation to the government
of the United States. I know of no obliga-
tion to the State of Maryland, except those
obligations which the charters constituting
those governments have imposed. These I am
ready to assume. There is not one of them that
I am not willing to be bound by. But when
additional claims are made, of a higher law,
when principles are supported by which we
are called to sustain the government outside
of the constitution, a government never made
by the people of the United States, a govern-
ment the sole power of which is in the hands |
