7

maintained to the present time, whether in the field or in the
councils of the nations, Maryland has no cause but for pride,
in reviewing the records of her sons; their skill, bravery and
sacrifices in war, their ability, learning and talent as shown
at the bar, in medicine, in commerce, in mechanical pursuits,
in the literature and in the more retired but not less honor-
able walks of agriculture will bear favorable comparison with
the best of her sister States.

When the pen of the impartial historian shall hereafter
write the annals of our country, those of Maryland will be
found full of patient sacrifice, of honor and of glory. I make
these few remarks in relation to the past and present of the
people of our State, because we have been constantly held up
of late to the eyes of the world as an enervated, shiftless, selfish
and aggressive people, and this assumption, not a fact, has been
attempted to be explained philosophically by the influence of
a "peculiar institution," which once existed, but is now
abolished in our State. The fact does not now exist, and
never has existed, the explanation is worthless now, and ever
has been, so. In all the essentials of a great people, Mary-
land can justly claim equality at least with the very best of
her sister States. This is no time nor place for statistics, but
they show this fact. Let those who charge us with imferi-
ority, attempt to bring proof to sustain their idle declaration;
then it will be time enough to bring forth the facts to rebut
all such statements. Some may think that the above is for-
eign to a work like this, but intent on the present, we seem to
have forgotten that the great secret of a national advance-
ment consists in the cultivation of a proper national pride,
and that the elements of this pride exist in the associations
of a nations history, and in the devotion to her institutions
which springs from a knowledge of their nature and ends.
By these the citizen is identified with his country and sub-
jected to the influence of feelings and impulses, which in times
past have made men heroes and patriots, and conducted whole
nations to freedom. The welfare and advancement of the
State are thus made objects of individual interest; and iu the
engrossing desire to advance its character all petty jealousies
and rivalries are merged. If such is the nutural result of a
proper State pride, where is the State whom it behooves more
zealously to cultivate it than that in which we dwell.

I do not claim that Maryland has improved all of her
natural resources, so bountifully bestowed as to be without
parallel elsewhere. She has not developed a tithe of her min-
eral deposits, her commercial advantages, her water power,
her Mechanical and Manufacturing advantages, nor her un-
equalled "resourees for the improvement of her soil, in addition
to these her admirable and unequalled climate and great social
advantages have not been appreciated by ourselves, nor made
known to others. We have not done ourselves nor the coun-