Let me tell gentlemen when they talk about
the condition of Maryland to-day, to contrast
that condition with that of Eastern Tennes-
see. Let us compare for a moment the effect
of the supremacy of the Federal Government
which we are called upon here to-day to as-
sert, with the supremacy of a government
represented by tire commissioners who came
to the State of Maryland asking her co-ope-
ration in this nefarious scheme of rebellion
Peace men the gentleman called them. Lei
us see the practical working of these Staples
rights men in Tennessee, where a majority of
her peoples were in favor of remaining in the
old Union of these States, which majority
has never been denied, so far as I know, by
the strongest advocate of secession, never
denied even by Mr. Jeffersonian Davis himself.
There in Tennessee, under the so-called Con-
federate Government, we have a people manacled
and chained indeed; hunted like wild
belasts—let the gentleman think of it—white
men hunted to death by dog?, because they
dare to say that they are in favor of uphold-
ing the government which their fathers made
for them, and which for seventy-five years
they have lived peaceably and prosperously
under. Have gentlemen thought what it is
to be under the supremacy of the Federal
Government and under the supremacy of this
other? One is to be as Maryland is here to-
day; free, happy, her people in the enjoyment
of every comfort of life, their houses unin-
vaded and undisturbed. The either means
that the wife and the husband fly different
ways, if haply the husband may divert from
the steps of his flying wife, the murderous
scent of the remorseless blood-hound. Does
the gentleman think of this difference? That
we go out here to-day upon our highways
and breathe the sweet perfumes of spring
flowers and hear the voices of birds, instead
of being compelled, as those, to breathe an at-
mosphere tainted by the corpses of dang-
ling from the trees along the road side, be-
cause they were in favor of upholding the
government, of their fathers? That is the
difference between Federal supremacy and
Confederate supremacy, the difference between
happiness and misery, the difference between
heaven and hell, the difference of lying in the
lap of the All-Merciful and being goaded by
the tortures of the demons damned. That is
the difference between the supremacy of the
Federal Government and the supremacy of the
Confederate Government. And God pre
served the State of Maryland—(cries of
"Amen" from all sides of the House)—that
she may ever hold firmly to the faith of her
fathers, that government for which the)
fought, for which they bled, for which they
died. as a shield from every assault and from
every sorrow.
And for all this which we have received
from the federal Government, we are asked
to simply acknowledge our paramount alle- |
giance to that government. Would the gentleman
receive from the Federal Government
its protection and every benefit that it can
confer upon him, would he continue to live
cradled in the hip of comfort and safety, and
not even say to the power that guards and pro-
tecs ham—I yield yon my allegiance and due
obediance according to the Constitution and
laws? I think it is but little in return for
all that the Federal Government has done
for the State of Maryland, that in this her
first Convention since the breaking out of
this war, she should speak in terms so clear
and unequivocal that no man living can de-
ny their meaning; that the historian of the
future in looking over the record of to-day
shall see that after three years of the exper-
ience of disunion and civil war, the repre-
sentatives of Maryland in Convention assem-
bled, first and foremost in her Constitution,
did what the gentleman thinks to be sycophantic
and unworthy, hut what I know to
be a thing of honor, a thing of beauty and a
joy forever; that Maryland first of all the
States before the congregated world asserted
that she held her paramount allegiance to be
due to the Federal Government.
The gentleman says allegiance to the gov-
ernment is measured by the protection re-
ceived. Now Mr. Alexander H. Stephens,
some six weeks before he took the plaice
of Vice-President of the Southern Confeder-
acy, when addressing the people of his native
State, exclaimed: " Where, travelling the
circuit of the sun, will yon find a government
which so perfectly and completely protects
the right of every one of her citizens, as this
Government of the United States." I fear
me the temptation must indeed have been
strong that in six weeks could have under-
mined a nature that could have made that
statement. But he has left the words on
recurd, to the utter and eternal blackening of
his own fame. And .all repentance, through
all ages, may not wipe out the infamy of the
fact, that the government of which he could
truly say that it had committed no act of
aggression on any of the rights of its citizens,
he could basely assail and basely attempt to
destroy. Protection ! what is the protection
given by the State of Maryland? When the
gentleman is in a foreign land, to whom does
he apply for protection; the State of Mary-
land or the Government of the United States?
Why, they do not know there what the State
of Maryland is, even if they have ever heard
of it. They do not know our State bound-
aries. Their journals gravely inform their
readers that an election has been held in New
York for a governor of Pennsylvania. Should
the gentleman go into any part of the Mediterranean,
would we say that lie was a Mary-
lander " No, but that he was an American, a
word of significance wherever human foot
Has trod: a word of power wherever human
voice has uttered the English tongue. It is |
