cost so much of men and treasure, privation
and sorrow, and the enhanced price of every-
thing essential to the subsistence and com-
fort of the people, that we shall prove un-
faithful to our trust if we fail to strike a
blow at the cause of it to the extent of our
power. That power is confined, as you
know, to the State of Maryland. Further
than this we cannot go. Slavery being that
cause, it behooves all who would save the
country from a similar sanguinary and de-
structive strife in years that are to come, to
remove it as speedily as possible. Regarding
its removal as a thing already determined
upon by a majority of the people, upon a full
and a fair vote, we are next to consider
whether our people will, in the end, be gain-
ers or losers by it.
The disturbance of the relations between
masters and slaves, traceable to nothing but
this causeless rebellion, has necessarily greatly
diminished, for the time being, the products
of the soil of our otherwise highly favored
State. The loss of labor caused by the with-
drawal of so many slaves from their long-
accustomed fields of operation, may not be
fully remedied till the close of the present
war. TIME, that great corrective of all in-
conveniences and evils, will, in good season,
bring to us thousands of farm laborers from
the ranks of the army and future European
immigration, in spite of all the casualties of
the numerous battle-fields. The non-slave-
holding States, ever ready to meet all emer-
gencies, have sent to their fields and forests,
during this war, a heavy laboring force,
which, previously, might beclassed as par-
tially unproductive. They, therefore, suffer
but little from the drain of men required for
the prosecution of the war. They are be-
coming accustomed to the dispensing with
the labor of the latter. Consequently, when
this cruel secession war ceases, there must be
thousands and tens of thousands of appli-
cants for labor on the farms of Maryland and
other BORDER=0. States, from the ranks of our
discharged soldiers and the foreign immi-
grants seeking more happy and prosperous
homes in the United States,
Now, that is common-sense; that is the
way I look at it. The question is not what
people away back in the world did then, but
what am I to do to-day. I have no business
with what a long line of ancestors did; my
business here to-day is to do what I have to
do, without regard to what my grandfathers
and grandmothers did away back ever so
many years ago.
Why, then, should any of our people in-
dulge in feelings of bitterness and malignity
towards the Government, because of the tem-
porary inconveniences to themselves growing
out of the determination of that Government
to get entirely rid of the cause of such a war
with the war itself? if they will have a
little patience, they will, in quite a brief pe- |
riod of time, be more than compensated for
their present losses and inconveniences, in a
supply of a more reliable and productive
laboring force, and in the. increased value of
all their real estate,
Now, Mr. President, let us see about that;
let us take Washington city for an example.
Whilst entirely under the control of the
slaveholding interest, if not a slaveholding
people, its increase in population was slow,
and there were but few signs of activity and
enterprise in its business circles. Since the
inauguration of President Lincoln, and the
commencement of this slaveholders' war,
hundreds of the hardy sons of the North and
Northwest have gone there, and not all in
pursuit of office, by any means, but quite a
large number to engage in business opera-
tions. I grant that this war, with its hun-
dreds of thousands of combatants who tarried
so long in Washington, or not very far from
it, has had much to do in imparting new life
and activity to that once sluggish place, hut
it must be remembered that the trade with
these large armies is very limited in Wash-
ington compared to that of New York and
Philadelphia, and even Boston and Balti-
more. Its population hag, therefore, been
more than doubled within three years, and
its business operations increased fully ten
fold within the same time by the introduc-
tion of the enterprising element of the North
and the progressive spirit which exists in all
quarters where freedom is general. Real
property has advanced in value there to a de-
gree which utterly surprises some of the
youngest as well as the oldest inhabitants
who claim that city as the place of their
nativity. Houses and tenements command
rents which sound fabulous, and though this
may be unwelcome to the laboring popula-
tion, it is a source of immense profit to that
class of her people who occupy a rank in so-
ciety similar to the leaders in this rebellion
against our Government. It was the prop-
erty holders—the aristocracy—of the South
who gave birth to this wicked rebellion, and
it is almost entirely that class of men in
Maryland who sympathize with the rebellion
and hope for its success. The friends of the
Government are anxious to see every section
of this State ''flourishing and blossoming"
like Washington. We do not wish to see all
the signs of progress and improvement con-
fined to the northern tier of our counties.
We are tired of looking upon the antiquated,
unprogressing and often decaying towns and
villages of a State which nature basso highly
favored. Nearly all along the line of that
greatest public thoroughfare of its country—
the Baltimore and Washington Railroad—
very lew signs or tasty and productive farm-
ing and gardening are to be seen, and travel-
lers from all "live countries" notice it and
speak of it to our reproach. Every acre of
land on that road for at least a mile or two |
