MARYLAND. 



443 



United States, and upon a platform of principles 

 destructive of our constitutional rights, which 

 calls for prompt and decisive action for the 

 purpose of protection and future security." To 

 the views expressed by the Commissioner sent 

 upon such an occasion, the Governor replied on 

 the 19th of December. In this reply he de- 

 clared his purpose to act in full concert with 

 the other Border States, " and I do not doubt," 

 he adds, " the people of Maryland are ready to 

 go with the people of those States for weal or 

 woe." He fully agreed in the opinion as to 

 the necessity for protection to the rights of the 

 South, and while his sympathies were with the 

 gallant people of Mississippi, he hoped they 

 would act with prudence as well as with cour- 

 age. 



From this time unparalleled efforts were 

 made to induce the Governor to call an extra 

 session of the Legislature. The success of this 

 movement involved, among its consequences, 

 the possession of Washington by the Southern 

 Confederacy, the prevention of the inauguration 

 of the President-elect, and the prominence that 

 would be given to the Southern Government in 

 the eyes of the world, by actually supplanting 

 that of the United States in its very citadel. 

 Another consequence of immediate importance 

 to the citizens of Maryland would also follow, 

 and that was whether the State should form a 

 part of the United States or of the Southern 

 Confederacy. With a single eye to this con- 

 sideration, the Governor appears to have been 

 controlled. 



Nevertheless, the friends of the Southern 

 States were strenuous in their efforts to over- 

 come the opposition of the Governor. The 

 action of the Legislature was necessary, to ob- 

 tain a legal State Convention. Through the 

 decision of such a body it was hoped to place 

 the State side by side with her Southern sis- 

 ters. Twelve members of the twenty -two, who 

 composed the State Senate, met, and adopted 

 an address to the Governor, urging the neces- 

 sity of an extra session. Preliminary steps 

 were contemplated for calling an informal State 

 Convention of prominent citizens of all political 

 parties, in order to obtain from that body an 

 expression of the sentiment of the people in 

 favor of an extra session of the Legislature. 

 On the other side, the friends of the Union 

 memorialized the Governor in opposition to 

 such a measure. They said his course of re- 

 fusal received their full approval, and they 

 hoped he would steadily refuse, unless there 

 should appear to his calm and deliberate judg- 

 ment just cause to do so. In answer to these 

 appeals he issued an address, stating very fully 

 his views, in which he said : 



I firmly believe that a division of this Government 

 would inevitably produce civil war. The secession 

 leaders in South Carolina, and the fanatical dema- 

 gogues of the North have alike proclaimed that such 

 would be the result, and no man of sense, in my opin- 

 ion, can question it. What could the Legislature do 

 in this crisis, if convened, to remove the present 

 troubles which beset the Union ? We are told by the 



leading spirits of the South Carolina Convention that 

 neither the election of Mr. Lincoln nor the non-execu- 

 tion of the Fugitive Slave law, nor both combined, 

 constitute their grievances. They declare that the 

 real cause of their discontent dates as far back as 1833. 

 Maryland and every other State in the Union, with a 

 united voice, then declared the cause insufficient to 

 justify the course of South Carolina. Can it be that 

 this people who then unanimously supported the cause 

 of General Jackson, will now yield their opinions at 

 the bidding of modern secessionists? I have been 

 told that the position of Maryland should be defined 

 so that both sections can understand it. Do any really 

 understand her position ? Who that wishes to under- 

 stand it can fail to do so? If the action of the Legisla- 

 ture would be simply to declare that Maryland is with 

 the South in sympathy and feeling; that 'she demands 

 from the North the repeal of offensive, unconstitutional 

 statutes, and appeals to it for new guarantees , that she 

 will wait a reasonable time for the North to purge her 

 statute-books, as to do justice to her Southern brethren, 

 and, if her appeals are vain, will make her common 

 cause with her sister border States in resistance to tyr- 

 anny if need be, it would only be saying what the 

 whole country well knows, and what may be said much 

 more effectually by her people themselves, in their 

 meetings, than by the Legislature, chosen eighteen 

 months since, when none of these questions were raised 

 before them. That Maryland is a conservative South- 

 ern State all know who know any thing of her people 

 or her history. The business and agricultural classes, 

 planters, merchants, mechanics, and laboring men, 

 those who have a real stake in the community, who 

 would be forced to pay the taxes and do the fighting, 

 are the persons who should be heard in preference to 

 excited politicians, many of whom having nothing to 

 lose from the destruction of the Government, may 

 hope to derive some gain from the ruin of the State. 

 Such men will naturally urge you to pnll down the 

 pillars of this " accursed Union," which their allies at 

 the North have denominated a "covenant with hell." 

 The people of Maryland, if left to themselves, would 

 decide, with scarcely an exception, that there is noth- 

 ing in the present causes of complaint to justify imme- 

 diate secession ; and yet, against our judgments and 

 solemn convictions of duty, we are to be precipitated 

 into this revolution, because South Carolina thinks 

 differently. Are we not equals? Or shall her opin- 

 ions control our actions ? After we have solemnly de- 

 clared for ourselves, as every man must do, are we to 

 be forced to yield our opinions to those of another State, 

 and thus in "effect obey her mandates? She refuses to 

 wait for our counsels. Are we bound to obey her com- 

 mands? The men who have embarked in this scheme 

 to convene the Legislature, will spare no pains to carry 

 their point. The whole plan of operations, in the event 

 of the assembling of the Legislature, is, as I have been 

 informed, already marked ont, the list of ambassadors 

 who are to visit the other States is agreed on, and the 

 resolutions which they hope will be passed by the Leg- 

 islature, fully committing this State to secession, are 

 said to be already prepared. In the course of nature, 

 I cannot have long to live, and I fervently trust to be 

 allowed to end my days a citizen of this glorious Union. 

 But should I be compelled to witness the downfall of 

 that Government inherited from our fathers, establish- 

 ed, as it were, by the special favor of God, I will at 

 least have the consolation, at my dying hour, that I 

 neither by word nor deed assisted" in hastening its dis- 

 ruption. THOMAS H. HICKS. 



As time passed on, it became apparent that 

 the approval of the policy of Gov. Hicks was 

 almost unanimous on the eastern shore, and 

 that in the western part of the State the same 

 sentiment prevailed. A meeting for a counter 

 movement, called under favorable circumstances 

 in Baltimore, was attended by only a few hun- 

 dred persons. On the 18th and 19th of Febru- 



