ticeship, in the name of almighty God, I ask
why do they do it? The Union men and eman-
cipationists of the State thought this conven-
tion had left behind the old things and were
pressing forward to the new, on the day they
declared all men within the BORDER=0s of Mary-
land, and held to involuntary servitude, save
for crime, free; and proceeding further, de-
clared that all men had certain inalienable
rights, and that among these were the right
to the proceeds of their own labor; and still
further, that slavery was a thing which bad
in Maryland no claim for compensation and
forever prohibited the legislature of the State
from granting compensation. We thought
the thing was all foreclosed.
We little thought that upon the side of the
majority of this house there would be evidenc-
ed an eagerness to take back the principle of
this thing; not to put back all the blacks in-
to slavery, but to put the bone and sinew of
the race into slavery again, and throw upon
the community the helpless and infirm. It is
left, as my colleague (Mr. Stirling) told you,
to the discrimination of the men who hold the
slaves; for be only takes those he desires.—
He will leave them a burden upon the State
until they have attained such an age as to be
profitable; and then all the profitable years of
the young life of these negroes are to be given
to the benefit of the master.
Believing as I do that slavery is injurious
to the State of Maryland; believing that
it has cursed the State of Maryland from the
beginning of its history until now; believing
as I do and as I have told you before upon
the floor of this house that slavery has brought
on this war; believing that slavery has charg-
ed this country with a debt of 1,800,000,000,
and placed under the sod 500,000 human lives
from the north alone; believing that for every
single slave in the length and breadth of the
land a price has been paid to the slave owner:
that for every slave in Maryland freed by this
constitution, five men from the north have
gone beneath the sod; believing that the
price of blood has been paid for every slave,
and that the blood alone shed upon the soil
of this State is enough lo have washed away
every remnant of slavery; I am unwilling
that there should be placed in the constitution
of Maryland a provision beyond that which
stands upon the statute book to-day.
Therefore I offer this proposition which I
think is fair, and licensed in some degree by
the weight of the laws now existing in this
State. I think it is certainly all that any
member of the majority of this house should
vote for.
It is very easy for the charge to be made
upon the floor of this house that men are in-
stigated by hate of the slaveholders. It is a
charge easily made, because every man is
prone to make and believe such a charge who
is injuriously affected by the operation of the
acts we have passed. But the question (???) |
the slaveholder has hardly come into my
mind. I do abhor from the bottom of my
soul the system of slavery, because it
has brought this tide of war upon the land.
1 do abhor from the bottom of my sou], sla-
very, because it has depressed and degraded
the whole white population of the century in
which we live. I do abhor slavery, because
it has cursed my native State, and has ren-
dered her far behind the other States of the
Union which are free from it, in the race of
improvement. And finally, sir, I do abhor
slavery that we could never upon the floor of
this house advance any proposition looking
to the amelioration of the condition of the
enslaved race, without members being startled
from their propriety by some idea of negro
equality. Slavery for years in Maryland has
bound down human souls without one human
right. In Maryland to-day nearly a hundred
thousand men woman and children are held
as beasts.
1 wonder that after the eloquent argu-
ment of the gentleman from Caroline (Mr.
Todd) upon this subject, pouring down from
high heaven the indignation of an Omnipo-
tent God upon such foul wrong, and the
thunders of the Almighty upon those who
have made it the occasion of civil war—1
wonder that after proving to us by scriptu-
ral quotations that this was a crime with
which God could have no sympathy, in the
face of all that he could come and ask us to
put back into the constitution of this State
slavery up to the age of twenty-one years.
This proposition forces the orphans' court
to put back into slavery every minor freed by
this constitution. There is no discretion of
age, no discretion of condition. Under the
code of Maryland as it now is) the mere fact
of the black man being able to support him-
self does not free him from the action of the
apprenticeship laws of Maryland. I submit
that it is simply absurd that there should be
a law of Maryland which forces a man
abundantly able to maintain himself back
into the condition of an apprentice, to serve
a master and to receive no wages.
The gentleman from Washington (Mr.
Negley) inquired •what was to be done with
these people. A hundred thousand free
blacks in Maryland support themselves now.
The experience of counties and of the city of
Baltimore tells you that there is no more pros-
perous class of labor in the State of Mary-
land to-day than the free black labor. They
are abundantly able to support themselves by
their own exertions. There are no more of
them in the almshouses than of white people.
The other hundred thousand can equally do
it. What are the gentlemen of the lower
counties to do for labor? The slaves being
freed they must of necessity hire them or do
without labor. Human nature is human na-
ture, and although I can understand how,
(???????) man may not desire in the first ill- |
