8 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Jan. 3,

and seek to indulge the wrath of a measureless vengeance,
are not friends to the best interests of the country, nor loyal
to the Constitution and form of Government which our fathers
established for the preservation of republican liberty.

Of all the dangers of the times, the one in my judgment
most to be dreaded, is that fatal tendency in the public mind
towards the subversion of our old form of Government, and
the substitution in its place, of a grand consolidated central
power, which wielded by the mere will of a majority, will soon
disregard every constitutional check, trample upon their
reserved rights, and in time annihilate the States and utterly
destroy the Constitution.

Every one at all familiar with the history of the formation
and adoption of that instrument, or even with its language,
knows that the Federal Government thereby created is a
Government of limited powers, and that "the powers not dele-
gated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States are reserved to the States respectively or to
the people; " that under it no powers can be rightfully exer-
cised by the General Government, or any department thereof,
save those expressly delegated, or those necessary and proper
to carry the delegated powers into full effect. Such was the
construction put upon it by its authors and friends, and such
has been its received and authoritative construction for more
than three-fourths of a century. It recognizes the continued
existence of the States as numbers, as units, not as fractions or
districts of the "more perfect Union" thereby formed. It
teaches us that the General Government, whilst absolute and
supreme in its sphere, must still keep within the limits of its
powers, and that the dignity, equality and all the rightful
power and authority of the States must be preserved. This
is the system of Government, State and Federal, which our
fathers thought would secure to themselves and their posterity
the blessings of liberty. If that Constitution is to be over-
thrown, it is fitting it should find its last defenders in Mary-
land, and find them here in this very Hall where the first
steps towards its formation were taken.

But we must not indulge such gloomy anticipations. There
is ground for a more cheerful view. Our great Republic will
yet, we confidently hope, escape the rocks on which all former
republics have been wrecked. In time a better feeling will
pervade the Country. Reason must resume its sway over the
minds of menj and the blessings of a perfect peace again smile
upon a restored Union and a united people. Humbly appeal-
ing for our guidance to the Supreme Ruler of States and of
Nations, let us do what lies in our power to accomplish such
results. Throwing aside all past political differences, let us
unite with a firm determination to preserve the welfare of our
State; to maintain our cherished Constitutional liberty, and