I had hoped that this convention would
have permitted its work—a work of such
grave and solemn importance—to go to the
people of Maryland apart from partisan con-
siderations to the decision of their free un-
stifled voice. But they fear that if they do
so, if they leave this work to the decision of
the free people of Maryland ait the polls, they
will tear to shreds the work of their hands,
and reject it. They know that they do not
even represent a respectable minority of the
90,000 voters of the State of Maryland. If
a man who has read and seen what has trans-
pired in the State of Maryland for the last
two or three years does not know that, I have
very little hope of his ever learning anything
in the future.
As to what the gentleman from Baltimore
city says in regard to the statutes passed by
the State of Maryland striking at disloyalty,
striking at men whom they conceived to be
untrue to the country, be read a statute from
the laws of Maryland, passed I believe before
any constitution of the State of Maryland had
been adopted. I call the attention of the
gentleman to the fact that the men who
passed that statute had no organic law, and
it does seem to me from the course these gen-
tlemen are pursuing, they have forgotten that
they have such athing as a constitution bind-
ing them in the State of Maryland.
We know the purposes of this. I tell the
convention that they may do this work; they
may submit this form of government to the
people; but there is a higher authority, a
sober second thoughts of the people of Maryland
which will undo their work, and treat
with contempt any effort emanating from any
source to throttle the free expression of their
will. You may pass this proposition, and
the vote may be called in Maryland. Yon
may, as you did upon the call of this conven-
tion, by your unconstitutional test oath, ex-
clude forty thousand high-toned and con-
scientious men from the ballot-box. But
there is a day of freedom to come. I thank
God that the military arm of the government
which intervened at the call of the legisla-
ture which brought you here; which made
you; which gave you life and being, cannot
live forever in this land. There is a return-
ing day when the forty thousand disfranchised
men of Maryland will speak in thunder tones
and tear your work into shreds and scatter
it to the four winds of heaven. If we could
have had the opportunities that you bad,
without the restriction of the oath, we could
have spoken with some degree of power. I
tell these gentlemen that there is still power
in the public voice, and the will of the peo-
ple which, when peace and calmness comes
upon the land, will return the judgment
upon them.
There was a time, in 1856, when your State
was lashed into a boiling cauldron by another
element of proscription, that of the Catholic, |
by a war raised against that religion. And
some men, floating upon that turbulent wave
that had been lashed into fury by the storm
came to your legislative halls. They went
back, and they never were beard of until
another storm came, and again they are here.
But they may see the hand writing on the
wall These men who have been raised up
floating on the current, in the turmoil of the
hour, will disappear (as the bubbles that chil-
dren blow for amusement, before the return-
ing sound sense of the majority of the peo-
ple of the State of Maryland.
You may ask for military power to come
here and aid you; you may arm your organ-
izations of plug-uglies, or any other such
clubs or associations, to give you temporary
power at the ballot-box, but in vain. The
• people of the State of Maryland, thank God
love liberty, and will have it. They will
have it in spite of your convention, in spite
of the interference of the military, in spite of
all obstructions. It will come sooner or later,
and I warn these gentlemen. It has been
said in the language of scripture that it is a
fearful thine; to tail into the hands of an
offended God. So I tell some of these gentle-
men, that so far as human punishment is con-
cerned, it is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of an outraged and offended people.
Yon may pursue this course; you may vio-
late justice; you may perpetrate outrages;
offences against the law and in violation of
personal liberty may be committed; but the
end will some day come.
A very few years ago, under the despotism
of Austria, there was a man whose name is
given to infamy and scorn for all time to
come, Haynau, the Austrian butcher. He
violated the sentiment of the civilized world.
He violated the principles of liberty and jus-
tice; and what was his fate? I thank God that
it was the privilege of a great American states-
man to arraign him before the bar of the civ-
ilized world for his injustice and his butchery.
He went, sir, finally, home to his infamy.
And why? Because he violated the instincts
of human right and human justice. He vio-
lated the instincts of mankind. And if you
by your action here, violate the principles of
justice, you will feel, sooner or later, the
scorn and contempt of the civilized world.
1 said last evening that I came to this con-
vention with very little hope of accomplishing
anything. I did not even participate in the
sanguine feelings of some of my friends that
we should he able by our intercourse with
gentlemen of this convention, in their intro-
ducing the measures that they term reform,
to produce this result, at least that it should
not be that repulsive sort of reform which
overrides all common justice. I did not par-
ticipate in any such hopes. I had seen that
the mandate had gone forth from the city of
Washington, emanating from the President,
following up his enunciation at Springfield, |
