or appointed to office; and he must swear
that be has not done so and so before the oath
was adopted. That is certainly ex post facto,
retrospective and retroactive, and so fair, it
is in violation of one of the first principles
not only of the constitution of Maryland, but
of the constitution of the United States.
Swearing has of late become so fashionable
in Maryland—the fashion having being inaug-
urated by the present federal administration,
that the State has become famous for oaths. I
will not say infamous; I do not mean that it
has become infamous; because the State of
Maryland has been powerless to protect itself
against the invader of her rights. Oaths
have been forced upon her citizens, when it
was the duty of the executive to protect
them. They have been incarcerated for re-
fusing to take them. They have been liber-
ated when they have taker, them. All kinds
of arbitrary acts and outrages have been
perpetrated against the citizens of the State,
in the clear and undoubted exercise of their
privileges and rights as citizens under the
constitution of the State and of the United
States.
Yet gentlemen get up here and defend the
administration with all the earnestness of
the advocate. No fault can be found. Ev-
ery act is justified. Every step taken they
say is of necessity. Everything is justified
by the plea of military necessity; because it
all comes back to that grand plea, that covers
every act of usurpation and outrage upon
the rights of the citizen.
That has been the plea of tyranny from
the earliest ages to the present time; and it
is now the only plea by which gentlemen ait-
tempt to justify many of the acts perpetrated
by the present administration. We of the
minority are found fault with and criticised
because we do not denounce the other side.
Now it happens that they are not within our
rule. They are beyond the reach of our cen-
sure or denunciation. Let us come a little
nearer home and point out defects and wrongs
and outrages, too numerous to mention, that
are constantly striking at our rights at home
Let us first cleanse our own stables, before
we go abroad. It is unnecessary to go be-
yond the Potomac to denounce acts of rebel-
lion against the government, when we have
so many glaring acts of usurpation at home
It is unnecessary for any man to go beyond
the Potomac, when we consider the rights
nearer and dearer to us at home, which we
wish to save and rescue from being aban
doned and lost forever.
We are upon the very verge of ruin now
and nothing but the hope held out in Novem-
ber next, can save us from the ruin which is
now almost engulphing us. There is no sal
vation for the country but by a change of
rulers. That salvation cannot come by there
election of the present incumbent of the pres
idential chair. His re-election cannot but |
result in the complete and utter destruc-
tion of everything valuable in our form
of government. That is my opinion. 1
believe it as firmly as I ever believed any
truth in my life, A peace President is
the only President who can save the liberties
which are left and restore what we
have lost. A peace President, during the
course of (he discussion this morning, has
been unsparingly denounced. " Peace upon
any terms," except the abject submission of
the South, has been denounced. I would
not have a dishonorable peace; nor do 1
suppose that a dishonorable peace would be
likely to be obtained. I could not point out
what peace could be obtained. I could not
pretend to indicate what negotiations might be
entered into. There are wise men, however—
great statesmen, still, I trust, in the country,
that are competent, whenever the people are
disposed to inaugurated such an effort, to carry
it successfully through.
Mr. SANDS. May I ask my friend one sin-
gle question upon the subject? Would he be
willing to accept any peace which involved
the destruction of American nationality ?
Mr, DENT. I would nut be willing to ac-
cept a peace which would involve the destruc-
tion of American nationality; but American
nationality does not consist in the lines
which surround the whole of these States, as
they once existed. We can have constitu-
tional liberty within the State of Maryland,
as free, as enjoyable, as if it embraced in
scope the globe. Constitutional liberty does
not apply to geographical lines. It may rip-
ply to half a dozen States, or a hundred
States. The principle of government would
be the same, whether in a small country or a,
large country. Constitutional liberty is the
grand object to be attained, and to be pre-
served, without special reference to geograph-
ical lines. Constitutional liberty and self-
government constitute the basis of Ameri-
can nationality.
With regard to the war, as a means of re-
storing the Union, which has been much dis-
cussed, I have taken the position from the
start, that the means resorted to by the fede-
ral administration for the purpose of restoring
the Union, are destructive of the government
as organized by the constitution. So I be-
lieve to-day. I will read by way of remin-
der. and not because gentlemen have not seen
it before, a paragraph from the letter of ac-
ceptance from Edward Everett when nominated
in 1856, as candidate for Vice-Presi-
dent in connection with Mr. Fillmore:
" The suggestion that the Union can be
maintained by the numerical predominance
and military prowess of one section, exerted
- to coerce the other into submission, is, in my
judgement, as self-contradictory, as it is dangerous.
it comes loaded with the death-smell
- from fields wet with brothers' blood. If the
vital principle of all republican governments |
