and their interests, and I should be recreant
to the high trust they have reposed in me die
I not to the utmost of my ability, however
bumble it may be, do what I can to stem the
torrent that is now overrunning our country
and State. It is for them, and in their be-
half, as well as representing my own views
and sentiments, that I desire to place myself
upon record here, and give an evidence of
the faith that is in me which will not be dis-
puted hereafter.
It is proposed to emancipate the slaves of
Maryland, and forever hereafter abolish the
legal status of slavery within the limits of
this State, in one short sentence, at one
dash of the pen, suddenly, boldly, absolutely
without any previous preparation, without'
any qualification, without any kind of com-
pensation, forcibly if necessary, by the strong
arm of the law, and in the name of the gov-
ernment that was instituted for the security
and prolection of the lives and property of
the citizens of the State and of the country—
to strike from the hands of the rightful own-
ers all lawful claim to forty million dollars'
worth of property. There is no parallel to
this in all the annals of the past; certainly
there is none in the history of our own coun-
try.
I know that emancipation has been adopted
in portions of our own country, and in other
countries during the past century. But never
has it been attempted or accomplished in our
own, or in any other country, in the violent,
unjust, and atrocious manner in which it is
now proposed to be accomplished in the State
of Maryland. When it was accomplished in
the Northern States of our republic, it was
done in times of peace, when there was no
terrible war agitating our country from its
centre to its circumference, threatening its
dissolution, and convulsing interests of every
kind throughout the land. It was effected
gradually, and with compensation in every
case, without a solitary exception, it was
effected at a time when those who were not
willing to suffer loss by the execution of the
law could dispose of their property in an ad-
vantageous market; and those who were dis-
posed to do so did so and pocketed the pro-
ceeds.
When the British Government abolished
slavery in their West Indian dependencies,
did they do it suddenly? Did they violently
strike from the hands of the lawful owners
this property without any compensation?
No, sir; they made the abolition of slavery
both gradual and compensated. The British
Parliament appropriated £20,000,000 ster-
ling, or $100,000,000, to remunerate the own-
era of slaves, and to compensate them for the
loss of their property. And in addition to
that there were five years of apprenticeship
before emanicpation went into full operation.
I do not know what the French Govern-
ment did. I know not if they emancipated |
without compensation. If they did so "it was
a grievous fault, and grievously have they
answered it," as the destruction, and devas-
tation, and waste, and poverty of all those
islands so manifestly testify.
Slavery exists to-day in the State of Mary-
land, it is not fur us to go back and inquire
into or argue, concerning the whys and
wherefores of it. It was no act of ours or of
our immediate ancestors, that imposed the
institution upon us. The history of the past
fully teaches us that people outside of the
limits of the then colony of Maryland, had
more to do with the introduction of slavery
into Maryland, than the people of the colony
itself. It is a fact upon the pages of history,
as plain as day-light, that New England and
Old England were the influences and the
power that introduced this institution, now
so much abused, into the Southern section of
our country. Influenced by the greed of gain
consequent upon the traffic which they now
term so atrocious, they forced the institution
upon the South, and now their descendants,
from greed of power and place, and personal
aggrandizement, wage a war of extermina-
tion upon the institution.
This institution is now established in our
midst. There are between 80,000 and 90,000
slaves in Maryland. We have to recognize
as a fact, we have to treat as a fact—the
question is forced upon us, whether we are
willing to consider it or not—whether, at the
bidding of the people or not, the question is
brought here forcibly upon us, and we have
to dispose of it; we have no election in the
matter; we have to do something, and now
what shall we do? I am opposed to emanci-
pation upon principle, upon broad principle,
and I am opposed to it as being in its effects
contrary to the interests of both races.
What are the objections to the institution of
slavery? They have been paraded here with
great force by gentlemen on the other side.
It is first objected that it is unchristian in its
nature; that it is contrary to the spirit of the
Bible and the teachings of Christianity, it is
said that there is no justifying precedent for
it in Holy Writ; that the teaching of God's
holy book are entirely against it. Now, I am
not going to argue the Bible view of the
question here, for I have no idea whatever
that the people of the State of Maryland have
suddenly been seized with a fit of conscien-
tious remorse upon this subject, and are now
desirous of clearing their skirts of this "sum
of all villainies," as it has been called, I do
not believe a word of that: and without in-
tending any personal reflection. I do not be-
lieve that gentlemen upon the other side be-
lieve it. I cannot believe that those gentle-
men believe that the people of the State of
Maryland have undergone a radical change
of sentiment as regards the morality and pro-
priety and Christianity of slaveholding.
When our Convention assembled in 1850, |
