the sight of God and man, I have come to
this, and I much mistake the feeling of the
people I represent here if they have not come
to the conclusion, solely in view of their re-
sponsibility, that there is no alternative ex-
cept the preservation of this Union on the one
hand, or the subjugation of this Union to
the domination of the Southern confederacy
on the. other. If the lime' comes that this
State shall be brought within the limits of
another government, and the Union is de-
stroyed, then its provisions are killed by ex-
ternal force.
It would be unnecessary for me to refer to
this but for the suggestion expressed Here
that these things can be turned against us.
They never can be turned against us until
the Union is destroyed. There is no way in
which they can be turned against the major-
ity of this house except by a successful rebel-
lion, a disruption of the Union taking the
State into the Southern confederacy. And
after that is accomplished I care very little
what the result may be or which way the
tables may be turned. I suppose that we
have all made up our minds that we have got
to succeed in this matter or to lose. So far as I
am concerned, I have calmly and deliberately
made up my mind to risk everything in this
attempt to take the consequences, to save
everything or to lose everything.
There can be but one issue. The people in
this State who cannot sympathize with this
administration, who cannot honestly agree
to do these things, must wait until the progress
of events has determined either that the au-
thority of the Union shall be restored, or that
we shall come under the authority and control
of some other force than the Union.
People talk about spies and detectives. I
want to know how many spies and detectives
it would take to arrest twenty or twenty-five
thousand people? It is practically impossi-
ble. Yet there is not a man who lives in this
State that does not regard some of the people
who live along side of him as in favor of Jeff.
Davis, and only restrained from cutting his
throat from the natural goodness of their own
bearts, or possibly by the saving grace of God
Almighty. That is all true. Any man is a
fool who does not know that in civil war men
are only preserved from cutting each other's
throats by their personal respect for each other,
and their desire to do nothing contrary to the
moral law; and perhaps I should add the fear
that there may be another side to the knife, or
that if they did appeal to that they would find
the points of the knives turned in different
ways. is it possible, so long as one set of peo-
ple living under the constitution of the United
States in any State of the Union hold to the
view that the people should persist in their ad-
herence to the Union, and the other side de-
sire peace only if slavery is established and
perpetuated over the State, and re-established |
over all the rest of the country, that there can
be any harmony between them?
West Virginia has been cited. West Vir-
ginia was perfectly right in taking the course
it did. I assume that a State carved out of a
State in rebellion is under different circum-
stances from a State which has never been in
rebellion. It has got to reorganize a loyal
government in the seceded State, and to make
the men there swear that they have taken no
part in the rebellion would be to require them
to beperjurers, although they may have yield-
ed to superior force. We must make allow-
ances for a State of circumstances like that.
We are not in the same position with any
State of the south; for this State has remained
in the Union and has not violated its obligations
to the United States. We have not created
as they have a de facto government. We have
not two governments, one de facto and the
other de jure on our soil. But men here must
have been against there own State and volun-
tarily made war against it if they have taken
up arms against the United States. The south-
ern States have bad no authority here at all
during the three years of the war. The gov-
ernment here has been the federal government.
So far then from believing that these provis-
ions will produce discord in this State, I be-
lieve that they will do more to conciliate and
to unify—to use an expression of the gentle-
man from Howard (Mr. Sands)—the people
of this State than anything else that can be
done Those people who have been hesitating
about coming under the Union but have
been waiting the chances, will see that they
must come in, and those that will not, will be
so far marked off from those that will, that
they will be safe and harmless; unable to do
any injury to the rest of the community; and
sooner or later when the success of the Union
of these States shall have become assured, I hope
it will not be necessary to have asingle restric-
tion upon the statute; for I hope that every cit-
izen of Maryland will at some day be thorough-
ly loyal. I have no belief that these people
are permanently disaffected. In other nations
the people have been divided in their civil
wars, but have become united again against
some foreign foe. But until that state of things
does come, I believe there is no safety except
in this principle; and I shall support it as 1
have offered it, honestly and conscientiously
cherishing the firm conviction that it is not
only important, bat absolutely essential to the
salvation of our people.
Mr. ABBOTT moved the previous question.
• Mr, BELT. I would like to ask by what
measure the chair apportions the time; wheth-
er it is by the clock; for by that the gentle-
man has spoken thirty-five minutes.
The PRESIDENT. There are several gentlemen
for whom the chair has not made any
note of the time particularly.
The call for the previous question was sus-
tained. |
