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Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1866
Volume 107, Page 5   View pdf image (33K)
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1866.] OF THE SENATE. 5
for restored concord, and a faithful adherence to that policy
which best promotes this end, are not compatible with a hearty
detestation of treason and a stern resistance to its slightest
demonstrations. A skillful surgeon, after using freely the
scalpel and cautery upon a diseased limb, does not, when
these painful agents have done their work and the angry
malady has given place to a subdued reaction, continue to
probe and irritate the tender point, lighting up fresh inflam-
mation, and starting newly festering sinuses; but by sooth-
ing applications and remedies endeavors to restore health and
vigor to the crippled and disordered member. War is sur-
gery—heroic, primary and exhaustive: Peace is conserva-
tism, and good, careful, judicious nursing.
It is not to be presumed that so sudden a collapse of a vast,
continued, and bloody civil war, marked by unusual vindic-
tiveness, should be immediately succeeded by a thorough and
universal reversion of opinion and conduct. There are doubt-
less those who still swagger and bluster, indulging in silly
and offensive speeches, which injure only themselves.—Let
such simmer down into amiable moods if they will, or fret
and chafe themselves into increasing fits of harmless and im-
potent rage. Either condition is quite material. They are
not worth a moment's serious consideration. The results of
State action in the South unmistakably indicate that the peo-
ple accept the situation, and are resolved to make the best of
it. The prejudices of the sections must and will give way—
old things will yield to new—the dead past will be buried—
and, "heart within and God o'erhead," the country will take
a bolder step onward and upward in the march of empire.
It is our duty, then, to adapt ourselves to the new order of
events, and to act together in establishing upon a more per-
manent foundation the glorious institutions which so long
rendered the name of the republic honored at home and re-
spected abroad. In the language of William L. Goggin, of
Virginia, and late of the Confederate army : "Let us be de-
termined, ever hereafter, to bind the stars and stripes upon
the ramparts of the Constitution, and in sunshine or in storm,
in peace or in war, to hail them alone as the true emblems of
the land of our fathers, as they shall ever be of the home of
our children!"
As citizens of this old State of Maryland we have much to
feel proud of—much to thank God for. Upon the very bord-
er—with hostile armies surging back and forth over our soil,
year after year—connected by blood and social ties with those
who lifted the arm of rebellion—our faith and loyalty have
continued inviolate; and if, during a short reign of terror, the
polar star of duty seemed to be hidden from view, it was but
the drifting of a cloud over its fair surface, leaving its radiance
purer and clearer for the momentary obscuration. No State

 
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Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1866
Volume 107, Page 5   View pdf image (33K)
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