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The effort on the part of a class of extreme men, to turn to
party account occurrences so insignificant in themselves, and
susceptible of such conclusive explanation, is only to be
accounted for, as connected with the attempt already fore-
shadowed, to include Maryland in the list of revolted States,
awaiting the fiat of territorial subjugation. Maryland was
one of the origninal thirteen States. It was in this Capital
and almost on the very spot where you now stand, that the
Union was conceived. The loyalty of her sons has been the
pride and boast of her past history, from the period of the
revolution down to the present moment. She recognizes no
test of republican orthodoxy, but her rights and duties under
the Constitution. These she will defend by every means in
her power. In committing the unpardonable sin of denying
to the negro the privilege of suffrage, she stands by the side
of others of her sister States of the North, not less criminal
than herself and certainly as uncompromising and obstinate
in their settled convictions upon this subject. If, as is threat-
ened, a State which has sent one-tenth of her population into
the field to defend this Union, can be degraded and blotted
from existence, upon no otber pretext, than her fixed purpose
without interference, to regulate and control her domestic
affairs, we have only to regret that her patriotic sacrifices in
the past have been in vain, and that the Union has fallen into
hands more formidable than those against whom she has been
arrayed in this war. Maryland will continue to stand by the
Constitution, as she will fearlessly raise a warning voice,
which she does now, against usurpation, come from what
quarter it may. She will not presume to identify Congress
with a purpose to insist upon any such extreme and revolu-
tionary measure, so far as regards herself. The arrogance of
power may prevail for a season; but it cannot fail to occur to
all intelligent men, whether in Congress or elsewhere, that
power must always follow the fluctuations of party, and States
or individuals who to-day may combine to set aside constitu-
tional guarantees, may find themselves ere long, when left
without a guide, the deluded victims of their own short
sighted policy. If the time should ever come, which my
respect for the representatives of the people would make me
slow to anticipate, when in the face of the Constitution, and
of every principle governing the past relations of the States
to the Federal power, a majority in Congress shall succeed, in
usurping the functions, which the States have heretofore
rightfully exercised, we may count the duration of this Great
Republic by years instead of centuries, and read its certain
downfall in the history of nations, once as prosperous as our
own, but now remembered only in the record of their former
greatness and premature decay.