ing the improvements and prosperity which
will follow the banishment of slavery from
Maryland.
Now, a few words, Mr. President, if you
please, en the desolation which slavery has
brought upon its own special home by the war
which it commenced and still persists in, for
making ilself the controlling element of this
continent, as well us our own country. Ow-
ing to the self-reliant population which such
communities as Baltimore and many of the
Eastern cities had contributed to the South
during the previous twenty years, and the
emigrations thither of many skillful mechan-
ics from such portions of the old world as
Germany, England, Scotland and Ireland,
that section of our country was making quite
a rapid development of her manufacturing
resources, and beginning to take giant strides
in works of internal improvement. Mary-
land and Baltimore bad sent from our work-
shops machinists and mechanics by the hun-
dreds, to help her along in the new career
upon which she had started. Favored by
nature with a genial climate and productive
soil, immense deposits of iron and coal in all
her mountain ranges, and an unlimited wa-
ter power, flowing from these wooded heights
to her navigable streams, all the South want-
ed was a few more years of peace with all the
world and akind welcome to all settlers from
the land of ingenuity and enterprise to place
her foremost among the favored regions of the
earth. But, as I remarked at the beginning,
with evidences pouring in upon them from
every source, of an indisposition on the part
of the then triumphant anti-slavery party to
disturb their institution of slavery, the same
restless and insurrectionary spirits which
rudely dissolved their connection with most
of their party friends in the north-east and
north-west, heedless of warnings from all
friendly sides, madly rushed into this war for
the overthrow of the Government. They wished
no further connection with any State whose
people did not admire slavery. They sepa-
rated from their sister States and declared
and commenced war against this administra-
tion for the better security of slavery; but,
Mr. President, what has been the result thus
far? The blows which have been struck by
the government, purely in self-defence, have
depopulated large strips of their territory of
slaves, and the tread of our powerful and
conquering armies promises soon to liberate
the remainder. This, however, is a trifling
calamity, brought upon the South by the in-
sanity of her controlling politicians, compar-
ed with others In the neighboring State of
Virginia, we see on the east and on the north
and north-west an extensive region of coun
try devastated and desolated by the frequent
marchings and "restings" of contending
armies. The most luxuriant and fertile fields
of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Ten-
nessee no longer bring forth their rich abun- |
dance, and with these deprivations come the
destruction, whole or partial, of their works
of internal improvement, their commercial
marine, and their profitable commerce with
home and foreign States. Surely, this is not
the entertainment to which they invited their
deluded and now suffering people? How
thankful ought we of Maryland to be for our
escape from the destructiveness and personal
privations which are everywhere visible with-
in the domains of this slaveholders' rehel-
lion. Had they and their active sympathi-
zers in our midst succeeded in dragging
Maryland into line with the seceded States,
I am rather inclined to believe that the gen-
tlemen on the opposition side of this Con-
vention would have something much more
serious to complain of than our present de-
termination to make Maryland a free State
fear the future. Judging from what trans-
pired in Virginia; our farmers would scarce-
ly have been left with a single enclosed field
to cultivate, nor a single forest from which
to collect the material for re-enclosing them.
Slaves, farms, forests and fruit-trees would
all long since have been swept away, so far
as " turning either to useful account" is con-
cerned.
Slavery being the great offender which
insisted upon having this destructive and
desolating war, and subjected to so many
privations and losses thousands of women
and children of the South, in addition to the
hundreds of thousands of lives sacrificed,
or made useless, and countless families
clothed in mourning, and the anxious agent
for making Maryland the battle ground of the
war, and covering every acre of our territory
with darkness, desolation and blood, it is
meet and proper that it should be severely
punished, and the members of this Conven-
tion should take a part in inflicting the pun-
ishment. Its heinous and grievous sins,
whose tracks are visible in every part of the
South where its war has penetrated, have
earned the penalty of death, and that is its
doom in Maryland, which I wish to see
sealed at the earliest possible period. Not
only should we of the "Government party,"
as we are termed, sentence this offender to
death, but it strikes me that the members of
the opposition on this floor ought to raise
their hands in devout gratitude to God for
their escape from the desolation to which
Virginia has been subjected by the ambition
of slavery, and join with us in casting an
unanimous vote for the article of the Consti-
tution now engaging our attention. With
free labor once properly organized and dis-
tributed throughout the State, we shall un-
doubtedly soon flourish as other free States
have so long flourished; and though we may
have to endure a little reproach from men of
the present time for the temporary incon-
veniences arising from their delay in prepar-
ing for a change which they certainly long |
