what these counties have received back from
the State on account of the school fund and
otherwise, I judge the balance will not be
very large, against the State or the western
portion of it. I understand, moreover, that
some of these counties repudiated, or were
forced to pa. their taxes for these works. I
do not say this in any spirit of unkindness
but merely state it as a fact which bistory
will justify.
Mr. BILLINGSLEY. I am one of those gen-
tlemen who made the assertion that but for
the influence of the delegates from St. Mary's
and Charles counties, your works of internal
improvement never would have been consum-
mated; and I stated further that we had
cheerfully paid our taxes, and I speak now
for my county, when I say that no coercion
has ever been used there in order to compel
the people to pay their taxes,
Mr. CHAMBERS. And I am aware of no
such thing on the Eastern Shore.
Mr. DANIEL. Not in your county.
Mr. DENNIS. And I hope the gentleman
will except Somerset county.
Mr. EDELEN. And I hope the gentleman
means no allusion to the county which I have
the honor in part to represent.
Mr. DANIEL. I do not recollect the precise
counties. There is one on the Eastern Shore,
which one I do not recollect; and some on
the Western Shore, I believe; Calvert county,
I think, was one,
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. I will
state one fact, Allegany county for one has
never paid that tax, and we had a discussion
hero last year to release her from the tax.
Mr. BRISCOE. I hardly know what the gen-
tleman means by coercion.
Mr. DANIEL. I do not mean coercion by
the law; but the Governor had to go down
there and use some pretty strong language.
Mr. BRISCOE. There is no county in
the State that has been more faithful and
prompt in paying its dues into the treasury
of the State of Maryland. I deny that there
has eve." been any coercion used on the part
of the government towards my county. Can
the gentleman say as much about his own
county paying taxes? I beg the gentlemen's
pardon; but I believe he was formerly from
Somerset.
Mr. DENNIS. I believe that the only part
of our taxes in Somerset which have not
been paid. occurred while my friend was re-
siding in that county.
Mr. DANIEL. And I believe he was State's
Attorney at that time.
Mr. DAVIS, of Charles. Charles county
has always been among the first and foremost
in paying her taxes.
The PRESIDENT. The Comptroller does not
know who are in fault on this subject. He
only knows that there are taxes still due, and
hopes that all the counties will be prompt in
paying them. |
Mr. DANIEL Well, I will leave that mat-
ter to be decided by history.
A great deal has been said hire about the
disproportionate number of mulattoes in the
North. I have one or two remarks to make
in reference to that subject, simply in passing.
Now, I have only to say that it do's not fol-
low that all the mulattoes in the North are
born there. There is another reason for the
great number there, and that is that the mu-
lattoes being brighter or smarter than others
of their class, have found their wary to the
land of freedom. However, I will not allude
further to that subject now.
The gentleman says the people of Maryland
have undergone no change of opinions. I
do not know that they have so much under-
gone a change in this respect, as that a great
change has been undergone in the State in
now being allowed to utter their sentiments
on this subject. Doubtless, too, we have all
undergone great changes. For, as my friend
and colleague (Mr. Stirling) said the other
day, great truths are flashed out from the great
agitations and upheavings of revolutions.
In reply to the remark so often pressed,
that no State has heretofore ever manumitted
without compensating, I would say that no
State has heretofore manumitted in the midst
of civil war. Yet so far from opposing com-
pensation by the General Government, I de-
cidedly favor it to all those who can show a
clean record, but fear some gentlemen will
fail if their votes here be any criterion
to show such record.
I am for emancipation. First, because
I believe that slavery is a great moral
evil condemned alike by the spirit of
Christianity, the teachings of the Bible, and
the civilization of the age. I know that the
assertion of these views subjects one to the
charge of a fanatic, but I am not lo be de-
terred by any such epithets. It is the moral
and religious view that has operated most
powerfully upon my own mind. I shall
leave the material or economic views of
the question to be discussed by others,
they being the most popular ones, and having
been already so fully discussed throughout
the State in the recent campaigns.
I know that the Scriptures; both of the
Old and New Testament, have been forced
into this discussion to prove that slavery was
a divine institution. I deny that the Bible
proves any such thing.
I admit that slavery in some form has ex-
isted under every Bible dispensation. But I
insist that the system under the patriarchs,
the Jewish system, as well as under the pro-
phets, was very different from American
slavery.
Servants under the Jewish dispensation
were treated very much as children or mem-
bers of the family. They were admitted
alike to covenant rites. They were allowed
to attend on the three great feasts of the |
