I for one, Mr. President, am unwilling
thus to make the debt of the State of
Maryland amount to almost $35,000,000.
I believe when we receive the information
already asked for by an order of this
Convention, from the Treasurer, it will be
found that the debt of the State would
exceed this sum if she assumes to compen-
sate for the slaves liberated by this article.
This debt added to our present heavy
taxation, Federal and county, would impose
a burden upon this and coming generations.
which I should shudder to require them to
pay, and from which their only escape
would be repudiation. In fact the landed
interest of the State will in a short time
have the larger portion to pay, and the
slaveholder, with his large real estate, will
find in the end he had only taken from one
pocket to pay into the other. But what
follows from this? That the State should
emancipate without compensation? By no
means. I have already endeavored to show
that the State had no right to destroy this
property without compensation, and that
such action would also be unconstitutional.
It therefore results from the fact that she
cannot compensate, that she should not
Emancipate, and that the status of slavery
should remain unchanged, unless she can
receive from some other source full and fair
compensation for the property of her citi-
zens.
And this brings me, Mr. President, to
the plan proposed in the amendment
which I had the honor to offer, and which
was to-day withdrawn. I shall only base
my argument upon it. I shall not, Mr.
President, bring the Convention to a vote
upon it. The fact that a proposition comes
from this side of the House, independent of
all consideration of its merits, seems suffi-
cient to consign it to defeat. I shall now
merely read it, and leave it to go on the
journal, to be dealt with hereafter, before
this Convention adjourns, as a majority of
this body may deem due to the cause of jus-
tice, and the protection of the people of the
State. It is in these words:
Amend article 23d by striking out all
after the word " that," in line 1st, and
insert:
"From and after the first day of Janua-
ry, 1865, there shall in this State be nei-
ther slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex-
cept in punishment of crime, where of the
party shall have been duly convicted, and
all persons held to service or labor as slaves
are hereby declared free, from and after the |
first day of January, 1866, provided the
Congress of the United States shall, before
the 1st day of January, 1865, make an ap-
propriation to the State of Maryland, of
not less than twenty millions of dollars,
to aid the State of Maryland in providing
compensation to the owners of slave prop-
erty, and the Secretary of the Treasury of
the United States shall certify to the Gov-
ernor of this State that the said sum of money
is subject to the draft of the Treasurer
of the State of Maryland, to be dispersed of
by the Legislature of the State, to pay the
owners of slaves for their slave's hereby de-
clared free; and provided further, that un-
less Congress shall make the said appropri-
ation as hereinbefore provided, this section
shall be null and void, and it is hereby de-
clared that it shall be of no effect what-
ever."
This is the only mode, which, in my
opinion, can be adopted to carry out the
scheme of emancipation in a just manner,
and which thereby avoids the commission
of the wrongs I have referred to—both le-
gal, constitutional, and moral. It is, what
may be termed emancipation conditioned
upon an appropriation being made by the
Federal Government to the State to aid,
and to enable her to compensate her citizens
for property taken from them. Is it not
right that the Government which is really
and directly benefited should pay an equi-
valent? Is not the abolition of slavery in
Maryland chiefly urged upon the theory
that it will advance the national cause, and
tend to an almost illimitable extent too the
suppression of the rebellion? Suppose
the Government says, to suppress this re-
bellion, I must have all the horses in Penn-
sylvania, New York and Massachusetts—
Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Balti-
more must, strip themselves of their sup-
plies of bacon, flour, medicines, hay, corn,
&c., and forthwith place them at the dispo-
sal of the Government. Or suppose the edict
should go forth, that as the manufacturers
of Massachusetts have made all their wealth
from cotton, the product of slave labor, (and
therefore founded on wrong as gentlemen
argue here,) the magnificent factories must
be razed to the ground, the stocks of goods
must be delivered up or thrown out gratu-
itously to the public, and the wealth thus
accumulated must be subdivided for the
general good among the poorer classes of
the citizens. Suppose the same argument
should be urged there, as is urged here by-
supporters of this emancipation policy, |
