9

ing contest which ensued, after the violation of that great com-
promise, and notwithstanding her feelings and prejudices, Mary-
land remained firm in her conviction and policy, and refused to
lend herself to either faction. She preferred to entrust the desti-
nies of the nation to one who had been tried and found not want-
ing, rather than confide to either of those whose success was
only the temporary triumph of a section, and a signal for the re-
newal and continuance of a fruitless and embittered agitation.
She is ready again, and again, to cast her influence and her vote
in favor of the party and of the man who shall represent the na-
tion against the factions, and the Union against those who at-
tempt to pick it to pieces.

As her patriotic men in her revolutionary 'Line' sacrificed all
private interests and sectional feelings to the common cause,
their sons now recognise the union of these States as the first po-
litical necessity; the only reliance and hope for each and all, and
the thing which they are resolved to maintain at every hazard,
and to the last extremity.

Such have been, and are, the opinions of the people of Mary-
land upon these great questions of national concern. Such has
ever been her attitude to the Federal Government of these States,
and such her unalterable devotion to their Union.

But her people have quite lately been called upon to express
their opinions upon matters which have transpired within her own
borders, and which peculiarly affect her domestic tranquility, and
the rights and liberties of her citizens.

The people of this State have always regarded the military
power as dangerous to the public liberty, and yet indispensable,
when properly guarded, to the public safety. A proper means to
suppress rebellion or repel invasion; utterly unfitted as the in-
strument of a government of law and order Regarding it a
thing dangerous in the hand of even constituted authority, they
have always been careful to subordinate it to the civil arm. It is
when this, and the power of the country, is used and exhausted
in vain, that the law permits a resort to a means of compulsion so
utterly repugnant to the spirit and feelings of our people.

The people of Maryland have beheld, with a just alarm, these
fundamental principles of republican liberty infringed, for the
first time, amongst us, in the year that has passed, and in the
most populous portion of the State.

It has heretofore become necessary to call out the military to
repel invasion, and to protect the lives and property of our citi-
zens against the outrage of a mob; but never before, in our his-
tory, has the humiliating spectacle been shown of an enrollment
and calling out of the military force of the State with a determi-
nation to use it on the day, and at the places where her peaceful
citizens were exercising the highest functions of citizenship.

The result of our last election has emphatically expressed the