conclude that I am not the man who would
wantonly say a word to wound his tenderest
sensibilities—I hate that sort of thing—before
God and all humanity I affirm and de-
clare it my solemn conviction that the only
salvation of you, sir, and you, sir, and of me,
the only salvation of our State, is that we
shall on all occasions join heartily in con-
demning rebellion, and letting it be known to
all the world that whenever our State is in-
vaded, we stand ready to meet and repel the
invader.
Then, sir, you will have no more such
panics as swept the land a week or two
ago, and you will never have such an order
as this. The present condition of things,
let it be understood, cannot continue. It is
ruin to us all. To every man that has a foot
of land or a house to shelter him, I say it
is destruction to us all. It is that worst of
all conditions of society, when neighbor will
be taking redress against neighbor, friend
against friend, brother against brother. Let
us avoid it for God's sake.
The rebels knew this matter from the be-
ginning and they acted upon it. What was
the language of Mason, before a gun had been
fired, to the Union men of Virginia, and
there were vast numbers of them there, good
and true men as ever drew the breath of life ?
"If you cannot vote for secession you
mast go out of the State."
They acted upon that. They followed it
up. Their Congress, their State legislature,
their executive, their armies, every one
clothed with a little brief authority, acted
upon it. That is all that has prevented in
the Southern States the condition of things
which is to be apprehended here, a strife
between neighbor and neighbor, friend and
friend.
I repeat that I did not rise to discuss the
merits of the order which has been adopted.
The order which I offer simply looks to lay-
ing it, as adopted, before the President of the
United States, the Governor of Maryland, and
the commandants of the military departments
of which Maryland is a part. That is what I
am for; and upon that I have said what I
have, after a couple of weeks of very bitter
experience since I last had the pleasure of
opening my lips in this hall. I have heard
the calls from the lips of faint and dying men,
and I have helped to bury men who died in
defence of my State. I promised myself then
and there, that by the help of God, I would
play the man's part hereafter. If strangers
were willing to come here, from Maine to Cali-
fornia, and die in defence of my State, I felt
that it was my duty to do something, and that
is why I make these remarks this morning.
If my country cannot be served without mus-
ket and ball, I am willing to serve her in
that way. I want my friends to understand
me as saying what I say in the spirit growing
out of the experience I have had since I was |
last here, by what I have seen, by what others
have suffered and fell.
I beg now to appeal to gentlemen, if their
convictions do not go just to this end and re-
sult, that the only safety of Maryland is in
her own people; that' she, acting as a State,
must take a position which will say to all fu-
ture comers: We are united against yon ;
whatever our own differences, we are united
against you; and with all the means and ap-
pliances God gives us we will push you back.
That some abases may occur under military
administration I will not deny, because I
choose always to be candid and truthful. I
know that abuses do occur, but I say that the
evils under which our people are laboring are
infinitely worse, ten thousand times worse
than the abuses to which my friend alludes.
He refers to one of our brother inembers, who,
I believe, suffered to the extent of six hun-
dred dollars. I would like members to com-
pute the losses to Maryland for the last two
weeks. You will not count them by hun-
dreds or thousands but by millions of dollars;
and all this, besides the precious blood that
has been shed and the terrible suffering that
has been endured. I admit that abuses might
occur under this order. I do not deny it.
But I say they bear no manner of compari-
son with the terrible abuses that have been
visited upon this State within the last two
weeks. For that reason, I hope the Conven-
tion will order that certified copies of the
order, adopted yesterday, with regard to
known rebel sympathizers, be sent to the
President of the United States, the Governor
of the State, and the military commandants
of the departments of which Maryland consti-
tutes a part.
Mr. CUSHING. I do not rise to justify now the
order adopted yesterday. I do not think, if
we voted for that order in good faith, that
we should be unwilling or unable to give a
reason for its adoption, so clearly within the
province of this Convention, so unmistak-
ably its duty. We were, at the time of the
occurrence of this raid, the only representa-
tive body of the people of Maryland, through
whom they could give any expression of
what we believe to be the sentiment of the
loyal people of the State. Unless we had
taken the opportunity to give that expression
upon this particular point there could have
been no expression of the people until the
election of the next Legislature. For myself,
I have no doubt that that order expressed
conclusively the desire of the loyal people of
Maryland, in reference to the assessment of
the losses sustained by loyal men during this
raid, on the known sympathizers with the
rebellion in this State.
The argument of the gentleman from Kent
(Mr. Chambers.) in a time of profound peace,
without a single right or privilege disturbed,
would have been good and valid. The
theory is correct. Yet I hold that peculiar |
