368 RELOSUTIONS.

fraught with danger and untold evils ; that the
loyal State of Maryland has a right to insist that
her voice be heard on this subject, in which she
has so great an interest at stake ; that the dissolu-
tion of this Union, however much to be deprecated
by other States, would fall with ten-fold weight
upon her, and that, in a spirit of conciliation, she
calls upon her sisters of the North to frown down
every attempt to revive a subject which has, in the
hands of wicked and ambitious men, contributed
so largely to produce the calamities that have be-
fallen the nation ; that she calls upon them as co-
inheritors of the great patrimony bequeathed to
us by our fathers, to remove from their statute
books every enactment calculated to disturb the
friendly feeling that should subsist between the
people of both sections of our country ; and to re-
buke, in an unmistakeable manner, those of their
Representatives in Congress who are wasting their
time in devising schemes for the abolition of Sla-
very in the rebellious States.

Resolved, That we believe the great body of
the people in the free States have no disposition
to interfere with the rights of the Slave States,
and that they are willing to permit those who
are alone responsible for, and have an interest
in the institution of Slavery, to manage it as they
in their wisdom, shall think best for their own
welfare, and that of their posterity ; that if they
will hearken to the voice of Maryland, and with a
magnanimity becoming the American character,
insist that their own conservative sense of justice
be heard and acted upon in the councils of the
nation, now that their section has entire control
of the Government, they will not only strengthen
the hands of the Government in its efforts to crush
the rebellion, but will prepare the way for a speedy
return to the protection of the Government of those
who have been led astray by their traitorous
leaders.

Resolved, That while our Government is now
preparing to strike down, with irresistable force,
parricidal hands which have been raised for its
destruction, it is meet and right that we should
welcome back with warm hearts and open arms,
those who have been seduced from their allegiance
by designing men.