of slave property, when it had depreciated
before this Convention met, before it was
called, before any action was taken upon the
subject in Maryland.
Now, there may be a double claim for
compensation. But those gentlemen who
have had control of the State of Maryland so
long, do not think the claim of the poor
man for compensation to be we I founded
What is it that has brought the State of Mary-
land into the condition she is now in? Take
passage on any one of our steamboats that
ply up and down the Chesapeake Bay, and
you will find on either hand what was origi-
nally as fine a soil as the sun ever shone
upon, and yet when I came to this city on
the 26th day of April, it was as utterly des-
titute of verdure as the sands of Arabia.
A MEMBER. What has made it so ?
Mr. SCOTT. The improvident, wasteful
system of slave agriculture. The State of
Maryland, within a few miles, any part of it,
of the capital of the country; within easy
reach of the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Washington, where every article of pro-
duce can be easily disposed of at paying
prices; with easy access to all the ports of
the world; with a climate as salubrious as any
in the country, where it is rarely too cold to
work; with a soil as productive as any in the
United States, and a market close at hand
where all that is raised can be sold, and all
that is desired can be obtained. Yet Mary-
land has thousands and thousands of acres
to-day that are not worth the taxes levied
upon them; while in poor, starved New
England, every foot of land is made availa-
ble. And it can be from no other cause than
that slavery has prevailed in Maryland, and
has prevented the proper cultivation of the
land; has driven away the best part of our
population to find other fields of enterprise,
finding none at home. You have denied the
poor while man of Maryland his equal share
in the advantages of government; you have
cut off his children from the proper means of
education. And what compensation have
you to offer him for these wrongs and these
losses? You have hi Id the land in large
tracts beyond his means to purchase a foot
of it for a house for himself and his family.
Mr. BELT. Under whose authority was it
held in large tracts ?
Mr. SCOTT. Under whose authority? It
has been the policy of the slaveholding popu-
lation to hold it in large tracts.
Mr. BELT. Do the slaveholders of Mary-
land rule this State, or do the people of the
State rule it?
Mr. SCOTT. The slaveholders have ruled
the people. I put it to the gentleman if they
have not, by means of an unequal distribu-
tion of the representation in this ball, had
the 'control of this State? Their personal
chattels have given them a, representation to
which they were not entitled upon any other |
principle; and they have had the control,
and the majority in this hall, and in the other
end of the capitol. That is the plain fact.
Baltimore city, with more than one-third of
the white population of the State, comes down
here with but ten representatives, while the
smallest county in the State, Calvert county,
has two representatives ;a county that had
only 800 men enrolled for the last draft, of
whom more than 700 were exempted for phy-
sical disability. [Laughter.]
Much of this land is held in these large
tracts, so that the poor man can neither bay
nor lease it. It is perfectly valueless to the
State, for it pays no taxes; whereas, if it
were divided up into small farms and culti-
vated as it might be, and ought to be, it
would pay ten times as much taxes as now,
and make the burdens of the State lighter and
furnish a fund for educating the poor.
I know one gentleman in my county, who
has a manufacturing establishment which he
set up there with more than $100,000 worth
of machinery in it. Yet it is perfectly idle
and useless, in place of making him $25,000
or $30,000 a year of profits, it has not for
two years turned around. That is in conse-
quence of this war, and the high price of cot-
ton. Who is going to compensate that man
for that? That I think is a fair offset to the
case of one of those children, whose property
was left in the shape of slaves, the value of
which has been depreciated from the same
cause. Who is going to compensate that poor
lone widow, whose only son, inspired by the
patriotic emotions of his heart, rallied to the
support of the flag of his country when the
capitol was in danger, and on the first battle-
field was slain? Who is going to compensate
her for that loss? Who is going to compensate
for the loss of the thousands and thousands
of valuable lives that have been lost in this
war; for all the desolated homes from one
end of the country to the other? Where is
the compensation for that to come from?
Every one of these gallant men who have
fallen in this war—and I will say, on both
sides—every one of these men who bias fallen
in this war on both sides, in both armies, is
a murdered man, and the guilt of that mur-
der is on the hands of the men who have in-
stigated this rebellion. There are just as
honest, and good, and well-meaning men in
the rebel army as in the Union army. And
every man in either army who has fallen in
this war is a murdered man, and the men
who have instigated this rebellion are the
chief murderers.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. Introduce
an article into the Constitution to establish a
tribunal for the trial of those murderers
Mr. SCOTT. We have a tribunal already
established, and we will try them when we get
hold of them.
The gentleman from St. Mary's (Mr. Bil-
lingsley) complained bitterly about the gov. |
