shall roll around, we may all look again with
fond delight upon the same gorgeous emblem
of our nationality still floating over us, af-
fording equal protection to the rights of all,
at home and abroad, not a star erased, nor a
stripe obscured.
Representatives of Maryland—Freemen of a
central State of a once proud galaxy of
States—citizens of a national government,
unequalled in its fostering protection by any
other upon earth, your bearts and mine I
know beat responsive to a wish for the resto-
ration of our federal government, and a
return of that period when we shall all, irre-
spective of geographical lines or sectional
parties, recognize "the constitution and the
laws and treaties made in pursuance thereof,
as the supreme !law of the land." Is there a
man so indifferent to the blessings of repub-
lican liberty, as not to cherish a hope of a
speedy realization of such a result? Who
does not desire a peace—permanent, sub-
stantial peace—a peace commanding the obe-
dience of all men, in all parts of our com
mon country, to those who have been or
may be chosen to administer the govern-
ment? Who will not bail with pleasure the
end of scenes of blood and desolation, it it
can be obtained by an unconditional submis-
sion of those proud domestic foes, wherever
located, who have been and are now engaged
in plotting our destruction, and whose trea-
sonable schemes, I hope, in the providence of
God, may be defeated, whether sought to be
accomplished by the sword or by a surrepti-
tious use of the ballot? "The union of the
States, the majority must govern, it is treason
to secede," is as truthful now as in the earlier
days of the republic, or even in the Madisonian
era of unsuspected State rights republi-
canism. The will of the people must be re-
spected. It must be enforced, and although
we may cry " peace, peace," there will be no
peace until every armed foe shall be made to
acknowledge the paramount authority of our
federal government.
In the momentous struggle which has for
the past three years agitated this State, your
president has not been an inactive partici-
pant. He has witnessed the rapid change of
public sentiment in relation to a domestic
institution heretofore protected by law to
such an extent as almost to suppress all free-
dom of speech and freedom of action. In an
evil hour, initiated by the loss of place, and
in the full-blown pride of power, its sup-
porters sought to extend and perpetuate its
rule, even though it involved the destruction
of the best government on earth. Scarcely
awaiting the announcement of the result of
the presidential canvass, they openly pro-
claimed their fixed determination to disre-
gard the popular will as expressed in the
choice of a chief magistrate, and mocking all
the ordinary restraints of law, proceeded in
their work of disintegration and dismember- |
ment, regardless of all consequences. Such
traitorous proceedings culminated, as might
have been expected and foreseen, in all the
horrors of civil war. In such acts are to be
discovered the true cause of all our trials and
sufferings, as well as the history of that de-
termined popular clamor for this convention,
as the most effectual means to check such
movements within our State. The draft of a
constitution now about to be submitted, is
but one of the legitimate fruits of rebellion,
to be followed by other similar enactments,
until the popular will shall be reflected in an
absolute extinguishment of this institution.
Slavery interwoven with our social and do-
mestic relations, and accustomed to control
our national policy, could not brook the an-
tagonism of free speech and free labor. In its
mad appeal to the dread arbitrament of the
sword, there has been disclosed the secret
history and ambitious designs of many party
leaders who have long sought to divide our
country by sectional lines for the gratifica-
tion of their own persona] ends. That God,
in the providence of His ways) will effectually
thwart the machinations of such schemers
and plotters of disunion, I have not a doubt.
Believing that He has permitted this state of
things for the accomplishment of some great
national good, I have an abiding faith that
the great mass of the American people, whose
generous patriotism, unflinching courage and
unselfish devotion to their country's cause is
without a parallel in the history of the world,
will emerge from this terrible ordeal, much
better prepared to appreciate the blessings of
free institutions, and to provide in a consti-
tutional mode for the removal of every ob-
stacle to the perpetuation of a united govern-
ment, constituting us one people, so dear to
every true American heart. This problem of
universal freedom is being fast wrought out
by the current events of the day, to the satisfaction
of every loyal man, while in the blood
of patriotic sons and sires will be found the
surest guarantees against all future enemies,
foreign or domestic, of that liberty and union
which should be one and inseparable, now
and forever.
In this State the institution of slavery is
dead. Those who have tears therefor, pre-
pare to shed them now. it is not now in
your power, or mine, or that of any living
mortal to revive or resuscitate it. I con-
gratulate you upon the accomplishment of
this work, which I doubt not tire people will
seal with their approbation. Even those of
your constituents who do not now coincide
with your views, after the asperities of the
day shall have ceased, will, I doubt not, hail
with pleasure this great social revolution,
opening as it does, the fair fields of Maryland
to the hand of honest industry, in all its diver-
sified forms, and enabling each and every man,
irrespective of color, to enjoy, as God intended,
the fruits of his own personal labor. The |
