fore us as evidence of their thrift and enter-
prise. Then look at the internal improve-
ments of Maryland. There is not a county in
Northern Maryland that is not bisected, some
of them in two or three directions, by rail-
roads and canals, affording means of develop-
ing all the internal wealth of that part of the
State. How many railroads and canals are
there running through Southern Maryland,
affording us facilities for travel and transpor-
tation ?
Who built all those internal improvements?
My worthy friend from St. Mary's (Mr. Bil-
lingsley) referred to those internal improve-
ments. He will pardon me for adverting to
the subject again. Who built those internal
improvements? They were built by the whole
State. There was no reluctance upon the
part of Southern Maryland to enter into those
enterprises. They have paid their portion of
the taxes to enrich, and develop, and make
populous the western and northern sections
of the State. And for those favors you turn
and rend her; this is gross ingratitude.
Having enriched you, having developed your
resources, having made you populous and
powerful, having given you a superiority of
numbers, you now make use of that superior-
ity of numbers to overwhelm us, and strip us
of our rights.
And then, again, in reference to the condi-
tion of our own State, and the difference be-
tween the two sections of the State, there is
another reason for that, besides the internal
improvements to which I have referred, is it
not known to you all that the southern sec-
tion of Maryland has a more barren and un-
productive soil than the northern and western
sections of the State? that we do not have those
fertilizers ready at hand by which we can
improve our soil and develop agricultural
wealth, and which are found all through the
western part of the State? . Is it not known
also that, the climate of Southern Maryland is
insalubrious and unhealthy? There are many
gentlemen on the floor of this Convention
who would not live in the county where I
live, perhaps would not live in the very domi-
cil which I occupy, even if I should make any
one of them a present of it, upon the condi-
tion that he should reside in it. These are
the causes for the difference between the two
sections of the State, and not the institution
of slaavery. I am willing to admit that the
western section of the State is very powerful
in numbers, that she has more resources, and
has developed them to a greater degree than
Southern Maryland. But I am not willing
to admit that the people, or any people are
superior, in all those attributes that make
men noble, virtuous, generous, brave, and
glorious, than are the people to be found in
Southern Maryland.
Sir, emancipation, especially sudden eman-
cipation, is injurious to the negro and to the
white races. The natural inclinations of the |
negro are to idleness, dissipation and vice,
and where they are in large numbers, and
suffered to follow their natural inclinations,
they will relapse into barbarism, and even
into idolatry. Emancipation has never been
tried in this country to the extent to which
it is now proposed to make the trial in Mary-
land. There are more slaves in Maryland
now—if my recollection serves me right,
there are twice as many slaves in Maryland
now—than were ever emancipated in all the
United States before. The numbers hereto-
fore emancipated in the Northern States have
borne such small proportion to the aggregate
population that it was impossible that it
should affect materially the interests of so-
ciety, or of trade or of commerce, or in any
other interest.. But it is not so in Maryland.
There are, or were at the beginning of these
troubles, perhaps 90,000 slaves in Maryland,
forming about one-eighth of the population
of the State. And we have to judge of the
effect of this wholesale emancipation by the
effect it has had elsewhere, in other countries
where emancipation has been practiced on a
large scale,
The British Government emancipated the
slaves in the West India Islands. Those
islands are among the most fertile parts of
God's earth. There is not a land anywhere
on earth with greater natural facilities for
cultivation, for mating the negro happy and
prosperous, for elevating his condition, and
enabling him to develop those wonderful
powers of mind and character which are at-
tributed to him by those who urge this scheme
of emancipation so warmly, it was repre-
sented by those who started this measure in
England, that the negro would develop him-
self in a manner unheard of in the history of
the world. Dr. Channing, the Dr. Cheever
of that day. made this prediction in 1833 of
the result of emancipation :
"The planters, in general, would suffer
little, if at all, from emancipation. This
change would make them richer rather than
poorer. One would think, indeed, from the
common language on the subject, that the
negroes were to be annihilated by being set
free; that the whole labor of the islands was
to be destroyed by a single blow. But the
colored man, once freed, will not vanish from
the soil. He will stand there with the same
muscles as before, only strung anew by lib-
erty; with the same limbs to toil, and with
stronger motives to toil than before. He will
work from hope, not fear; will work for him-
self, not for others; and unless all the prin-
ciples of human nature are reversed under a
black skin, he will work better than before.
We believe that agriculture will revive, our
worn-out soils will be revived, and the whole
country assume a brighter aspect under free
labor."
That is the prediction. Now, sir, what hag
the experience of many and many years shown |
