recognized as a protection so complete, that
no other government on earth has been able
to obtain from despotic governments that
measure of protection for its citizens which
the American Government by the inherent
power of the principles on which that govern-
ment is founded, has controlled for its citi-
zens. And yet, would gentlemen give that
up? Would they eschew it by saying that
their paramount allegiance is not due to that
government upon which they call when in a
foreign land and protection is most needed?
Do they call on the Governor of Maryland to
save them, when haply they need assistance?
Did the Governor of Maryland free American
citizens from the dungeons and prisons of
Morocco? It was to the Government of the
United States to which the cry for help was
borne up, and it was the Government of the
United States that stretched forth its arm to
save.
Yet the sovereign State of Maryland in
the sense which the gentleman gives to sov-
ereignty, is such as to overshadow the sover-
eignty of the General Government A sov-
ereign State which may not emit bills of
credit; which may not make war or peace at
its discretion; which may not coin money;
which may not enter into any treaty or
agreement with another State or power; a
sovereign State which is hound by treaties
made by a portion of the United States Gov-
ernment. It is sovereign in municipal af-
fairs, but in broad, national affairs It is not
sovereign. Why, sir, after the cessation of
the revolutionary war, before the Govern-
ment of the United States was established,
while the Staples retained their sovereignty,
and Great Britain had made a solemn treaty
to deliver up to the United States certain
forts and armed places, she refused to deliver
them up because there was no government
which she recognized ashaving authority to
receive them. And for that purpose, and to
form a more perfect union, " We the people
of the United States" decreed this sovereign
government which Great Britain could re-
cognize.
And the" gentleman scouts and scorns the
idea of any man calling this a consolidated
government. Now as for me, though I throw
myself under the crushing weight of the gen-
tleman's sarcasm; and though I may be
borne down by the weight of many tomes
which he may bring here of men whose au-
thority I do not recognize, yet I tell him that
the last three years has shown a consolida-
tion of government in this country, the like
of which the world has never before seen.
It has shown us thousands and hundreds of
thousands of armed men wielded and con-
trolled by that government for its purposes;
it has shown us the agents of that govern-
ment going into your house and mine and
drafting you and me as individuals—not as
portions of a State but as individuals—for |
the common defence of the country. Not
consolidated? Not strong? I tell you that
for three years there has been exhibited here
a consolidation and power which has been
the wonder and the fear of the world. So
consolidated that when you come to talk of
States, when you come to talk of the State of
Maryland, you dream of some glorious tradi-
tion of the past, and wonder where the State
of Maryland may be. How do we know it?
We know it because we have heard of South
Mountain and Antietam, because our homes
have not been made desolate, but the hosts of
the invader have been buried back foiled and
discomfited by the power of the General
Government. As for any power in the State
of Maryland to have saved us, we know it
not. For any consolidation of power we go
to the strong central government.
For seventy-four years we lived, hardly
knowing that we had a government. For
seventy-four long years we let our representatives
in Congress vapor as they would of
State sovereignty; it concerned us not.
Peace, happiness, prosperity, plenty, spread
all over our land, and we knew not that. we
had a central government. But the hand of
the heathen was laid on the ark of the Al-
mighty, and the enemies of the nation went
down. Then you knew you had a government,
the strong hand and the outstretched
arm which told you that your government
was not powerless to save—that it did not
recognize the principles which made it pro-
vide for its own self-destruction. It told yon
that the men who lived long ago, were not
utter fools and blind; but that they had
given an elasticity and comprehensiveness to
the government which they established, that
until it was necessary to be used we happily
knew not of. But when the time of emergency
came, we found that the alove was an
iron gauntlet; that the band which we had
been accustomed to see tremulously swayed
hither and thither by the voice of petty pol-
iticians became a strong cable which bound
the pood ship of State to the tug which
hauled it out of the stormy waters into
the harbor of peace and safety, from which
with the blessing of God, she will never de-
part. And every opponent shall be beaten
down until all shall declare what Maryland
declares to-day, that the paramount allegiance
of all her citizens is due to the Gov-
ernment of the United States.
Gentlemen start at the word "govern-
ment." But. why? What is government
hut the organized expression of a State. You
cannot hold allegiance to a State except
through its organization. It is not alone the
people of the State, or of the United States,
that constitute the government. All we can
recognize is the organized expression of the
people, which we find in the government.
And does the gentleman remember when he
talks of laws of the United States, not made |
