excellent man he was, but unfortunately he
had an attack of paralysis, that drew one
corner of his mouth almost around to his ear.
One day be was coming down on the cars to
the city of Annapolis. A stranger came into
the car where he was; my friend here (Mr,
Hopkins) knows very well who he was, A
stranger got in, took a good look at him, and
said—"You can't do it." He then tamed
away and walked off. A little while after
he came back again, took another look, and
said—"I tell you, you can't do it." He
then went away, and again returned, and
said the third time—"I tell you, you can't
doit." [Laughter.] "Why," said the old
gentleman, who began to be a little vexed,
" why, sir, what do you mean? " Said the
stranger—"You have been trying to bite
that left ear off for the last half hour, and I
tell you, you can't do it." [Loud laughter ]
Now, I want to say to my democratic friends,
you may galvanize the old corpse; you may
throw its limbs into all sorts of convulsions
and contortions; you may make it grin hor-
ribly; but if you dream or hope that you
can bring it to life again, I tell you, "you
can't do it." [Renewed laughter.] You may
as well give it up. Yet that is about what
all this talk amounts to, in my opinion.
Now, let us be serious for a moment. I
am an emancipationist. I have printed my
platform, and I circulated it all around my
county, I have a copy of it here, which I
will read to my democratic friends :
"To the voters of Howard county; * * *
we are in favor of a Convention."
Well, we are here to-night. Our friends,
the peace democracy, and half and half Union
men, and all of that ilk, tried lo prevent us
from coming here, but they could not do it.
" We are in favor of emancipation."
Of course gentlemen know now bow we
are going to vote. We are pledged; we did
not do this thing behind the bush; we told
our people exactly what we meant to do, and
they sent us here to do what we promised.
And I should be unfit for a place here or any-
where else among honest and honorable men,
if I failed to keep my pledges to the people
who sent me here.
" We pledge ourselves to use all honorable
means to secure from the General Govern-
ment just and adequate compensation to all
who may be entitled to it for the liberated
slaves."
And that pledge is going to be kept so far
as I am concerned,
" We are unalterably opposed to the mo-
dern doctrine of State compensation."
Or course, gentlemen, yon know now where
we and the people are on this question.
" For this opposition we assign our rea-
sons."
Now, I want you to listen to these reasons;
they are very brief, but they are my reasons.
I want yon to understand that I have not |
what yon call fanaticism. No, sir; no mo-
dern philanthropy upon the subject with me.
" All that our State now wants to make it
almost an empire, is capital, enterprise,
labor."
Now, who doubts that proposition? We
have the material for a splendid little empire
within our limits. And all we want to de-
velop them are capital, enterprise and labor.
" To burden the State with a new debt of
ten or twenty millions of dollars—the prin-
cipal and interest of which would have to be
provided for by a fearful augmentation of our
taxes; would deter capital from coming to
the State; would cripple enterprise in the
State; would drive labor from the State. It
would keep Maryland half a desert when she
might be altogether a garden. Another and
weighty reason is, that in undertaking to
pay for the slaves, the State would be virtu-
ally creating an immense corporation with a
capital of not less than ten millions of dol-
lars; stockholdership in which corporation
would be attainable only by those who owned
negroes. It would give to those who now
own slaves a moneyed power, which would
lord it over the people as absolutely as ever
the defunct oligarchy did. Let the people
beware ! "
Poor workingmen, who are to come out in
such swarms to vote for the peace democracy,
better think about that as well as other things.
The next is local, which you do not under-
stand, but I do.
"Nor do we profess to be waiting for any
new light."
I understand that also.
"We proclaim unreservedly our principles,
and are willing to stand or fall with them."
(Signed,) JOEL HOPKINS, M. D.,
JAMES SYKES,"
and your humble servant, P. P., Clerk of
the Parish. [Laughter.]
Now, how shall I vote under these circum-
stances? Break my pledges to the people?
Vote against emancipation? Vote for com-
pensation? You are honorable gentlemen,
and you would not ask me to do that, any
more than I would ask you to vote against
your pledges, which I do not intend to do.
One word more and I have done. Operand
above all I have urged on this subject, there
comes up one grand, supreme, overshadow-
ing idea. I think next to my mother I love
my country. It is said we should love oar
country first. But I had such a good mother,
she was so kind and indulgent to me, wayward
and good-for-nothing as I was, that I believe
I love her best. But after her, I love my
country, its history, its progress, its freedom,
its power, its glory; they are all to me living,
vital, lovely and beloved things. And the con-
viction has gone down into the very depths
of my soul that the great enemy of my coun-
try, the enemy at whose door I lay all the |
