E 440 |y ;i|i,i!iV,;;!.f'r;,,. ; , LIBRARY OF CONGRESS K'tVl!.''!''"''- \ 0DDD174SE7A. WW ^^ ^^ o^ • ■ « a9 ^^ * • » 1 • ,V^ «<: . »* ^ ^ 'o , » * /V 'bV •^O^ 'bV" ^^0^ vv *•_•«% v-^^ .*^^-\ .-^^^ "^^^ • • * • o^ ^o. ^~ .r '^ %, V-o" '>d' :1 -«;^n^ ■*-.,^* .V^ AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF MARYLAND, B y WILLIAM H. COLLINS, OF B A L T I M R E. BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY JAMES YOUNG, lU WEST BALTIMORE STREET. 1861. E4- »C1 iN SXCHA^NQft I trust the condition of })ulDlic affairs will secure your par- don for the language I venture to address to you on the mo- mentous questions which agitate the public mind. My life, and the lives of those from whom I sprung, have been passed on your soil. Though I have never sought office at your hands, or at those of the General Government, I trust I need not say to those of you who know me, that my whole circle of influence (small as it may have been) has been in favor of the welftire and continuance of the Union of the States, and of the Avelfare and honor of the State of Maryland. If asked whether I love the Union or the State of Mary- land most, my reply is prompt and frank. I love the Union most. Born under the Union — my heart has leapt at that glorious name from the earliest recollections of my childhood to the frosty years of an age which, though it has impaired my health and activity, has not diminished the intensity of the love I bear my country. Her glory, her honor, her power, her union, her happiness and welfare, now and for- ever, are dearer to me than life. As a bright gem set in the bosom of this glorious Union, Maryland has my strong and loyal affections. I have watched her prosperity with the fondest solicitude from my earliest life, and yet I say to you I love the Union more than Maryland. If I wished to recall to your recollection the Triumvirate in my own day which has stood most deeply rooted in the American heart, I need hardly pronounce the names of Jack- son, Clay and Webster. Each diflPering from the others, they 4 An Addrefs to the stood before their country the unflinching supporters of our glorious Union. Each and all of them loomed up before the country as the colossal guardians of the Union of the States forever. Differing on other questions, on this they agreed. If any one say that Jackson, or Clay, or Webster, ever placed his devotion to the continuance of the Union on an {f or a hut, or a contingency , let him produce the proof. No such proof exists. The most confidential conversations of the Hermitage and of Ashland, and of Marshfield, never whis- pered a thought disloyal to the perpetuity of our Union ; but were full of that deep and undying love which such great hearts only feel for the country which gave them life, and for the welfare and honor of which they deliglited to employ the high gifts nature bestowed on them in her bounty. About thirty years ago threats of resistance to tlie laws of the country startled the ears of many for the first time who are still in the vigor of life. That deep seated love of country which was the strongest feeling in the breast of An- drew Jackson, honored, aided and shared by Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, averted the dire calamity then threatened. For Ihe conduct of these three illustrious men on this trying occasion, the country owes an eternal debt of gratitude. It has pointed out a path to their successors, Avhich, if followed, leads to glory and renown. Never, on any occasion has the heart of this great country beat more freely than in the ap- proval it gave to the firm and wise measures then pursued. In eighteen hundred and fifty the cry of resistance was again raised in consequence of the dissatisfaction of some por- tions of the country with the Compromise Measures so ably proposed and carried under the lead of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Fortunately this was stifled in the j)laces where it begun. No more was heard of the cry of disunion until the wicked and miserable raid of John Brown. Efibrts were then made to use this attempt as the basis of another disunion move- ment. Fortunately, however, the country saw that the raid of John Brown was as utterly powerless and unsuccessful as People of Maryland. 5 it was wicked and traitorous ; and the whole affair was pro- perly turned over to the courts and the hangman as the best and wisest termination of that most insane adventure. In eighteen hundred and sixty an election for the Presi- dency occurred under the provisions of the Constitution. A conservative portion of the country North and South pre- sented the name of an eminent Southern statesman for the Presidency , and of an equally eminent Northern statesman for the Vice-Presidency. The Democratic party failed to agree, and the result was, that party divided and two sets of can- didates were presented hy it. The Republican party made its nominations also. It is extremely probable, if not absolutely certain, if the Democratic party had presented but one set of candidates, and those known to be conservative and union men, reliable and true, that those candidates would have been elected. In that event it is equally certain that under high patriotic mo- tives a very large portion of the votes given to the statesmen of Tennessee and Massachusetts would have been cast for the Democratic nominees. On the other hand, I deem it perfectly certain, if the Dem- ocratic party, finding itself unable to agree on candidates of its own, had agreed to adopt tlie nomination already before the country, of the distinguished statesmen of Tennessee and Massachusetts — that in that event John Bell and Edward Everett would now be the President and Vice-President elect of this great country. The truth is, and it should be kept in view always, that the Republican party has succeeded not by its own strength, but by the divisions of its opponents. It stood as a unit whilst its opponents were divided amongst three sets of candidates. Its triumph and their defeat were just as certain at the beginning as at the close of the contest. What then must be the surprise and condemnation of the Union-loving and Law-abiding citizens of the State of Mary- land when they kftSethecries of secession, rebellion, dis- union, borne upon the winds in strains louder, fiercer, and more appalling than when they struck the ear of Andrew 6 An Addrefs to the Jackson and roused his lion heart to resolve that "The Union, It must he preserved." Why these cries? What reason is assigned for them ? The election of Abraham Lincoln is the cause assigned. This is strange, passing strange, when it is remembered tliat these ominous cries come from the Sunny South — which in fact secured Mr. Lincoln's election through divisions created by herself. The Soutli might, if she had so pleased, have defeated Mr. Lincoln by nominating either Bell or Douglas. It seems she preferred the election of Lin- coln to either ; for to put her candidate in the field was to insure the success of the Republican nominees. I desire to place before you, citizens of Maryland, some of tiie horrible results which must flow from your abandonment of the Union and going off into a new government with no matter whom. I Avish to show you that the ancient and uni- form fidelity of the people of Maryland to the Union, is not the result only of a lofty patriotism — which I trust will be immortal with you and your descendants — but that your safety, your freedom, your very existence depend on the con- tinuance of that Union "now and forever, one and insepa- rable." I do not deny that various States at the North have passed laws tn violation of our constitutional rights, and of the sacred obligations they owe to our common country. I do not deny that those States owe it to our common brotherhood — to the clear provisions of the Constitution, and to the most sacred ties which bind them to their country — to repeal those laws. I do not deny that you have suffered from those laws in loss of your property — more, probably manifold more, than all the cotton States of the South. All this you know full well, and have waited patiently and patriotically for the returning reason and honor of the North to do you justice. And 3'et under these wrongs, good, honest, brave, dear old Maryland, has never dreamed of breaking u£^oi^r^^rious Union. She has trusted, and still trusts, to thepatriotfg^i, the justice and the honor of the Northern States for the repeal of all laws passed by them inconsistent with the clear provisions of the People of Maryland. 7 Constitution of the United States. This trust, I am sure, will, at no distant day, be redeemed and justified. People of Maryland, if you are asked " What is the Union worth?" would you not with one outburst reply, It is a thing to love ; it is a thing to worship, if anything deserves such liomage except the great God wlio rules the world. Its eagle, its stars, and its stripes, have ever been proudly borne before the nations of the earth. They have often been bap- tised in blood upon the land and upon the sea — but never dislionored. That ensign is known throughout the world, and in every clime the name American ensures respect. Born under the Union, we have shared its countless bless- ings. Come what may, we mean to abide in it and by it. If others leave it we will stand by it. We devote ourselves and our children, and our children's children to its maintenance, now and forever. So long as Ameri-. can blood flows in American veins, we pray and beseech the great ruler of the world to give our countrymen courage, devotion, patriotism and strength, to uidiold the sacred ban- ner of our liberties on every land and on every sea Avhere it may be unfurled, with a firm resolve never to allow a Star to be struck from its ensign — but to upliold and maintain and defend our American Union against every foe. Such, people of Maryland, I am sure would be your answer. I now propose to present to you what would be your con- dition if in any mad hour you abandon your present resting place in the bosom of the Union, and make Mason and Dixon's line, which separates you from Pennsylvania, the Northern boundary of the new government into which you would enter. It seems to me too clear for question, that the government of the North, which, no doubt, would continue under the present Constitution and with the present name of the ' 'United States of America," would be superior in maritime power to that of the South into which you are sup[)osed to have entered. What then would be your condition ? Look at the map of your State — you will find there a straiglit line of about two hundred miles separating you from Pennsylvania. That line 8 An Addrefs to the is purely artificial, and can be defended only by your keep- ing a superior military force ready to take the field, trained and equipped for battle. On that line a rapid march of one or two hours would reach the Potomac at Cumberland. The possession of Cumberland by an enemy would cut off your coal fields on which a large part of your people depend for fuel— and would stop all trade and traffic on your principal railroad west of Cumberland. Your State is also divided by the Chesapeake Bay into two portions of unequal size, and if the North would, as she must, be the superior maritime power, she could by a few vessels of war command the Chesapeake Bay, control the mouth of the Patapsco, seal up the port of Baltimoi-e, and prevent aid or communication from the one shore to the other. On the Western Shore your State gradually narrows, with- out a single military point, to the mouth of the Potomac, where that noble stream meets the Chesapeake Bay. The tide-water of the Potomac extends a mile or so above George- town — below which is a noble stream incapable of being forded. If your brethren at the South were to send an army to defend you, no military man at the head of that army would ever allow himself to be placed in front of an enemy below the tide-waters of the Potomac. The first point in mili- tary strategy is to secure a safe retreat in the event of mis- fortune. This rule would imperiously demand that he should never allow himself to be forced below the tides, and in the event of defeat, he would be forced to cross the upper waters of the Potomac and to leave Maryland to her fate. Your commercial emporium is within some tliirty miles of this defenceless northern border without any obstruction to the march of an enemy except the brave hearts of Maryland Sons. Your white population is about six hundred thousand —and you would thus be brought face to face with a govern- ment, three of whose States nearest to you, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, contain a white population of near ten millions of people— to say nothing of other great and power- ful States of the supposed Northern government. Should you enter into a new confederacy of the South the People of Maryland. 9 first thing you would have to do would be to drive the General Grovernment out of Washington. I take it for granted that the government of the North would still claim to be, and bear the title of the "United States of America," acting under and governed by the present Constitution. Think you that this powerful government would slink away like a whipped hound, at your bidding, and retire from the prestige and ad- vantages it would enjoy from exercising its functions at our present Capital ? Never ! If human nature can ever be read in advance, I repeat it, never ! If you attempt to drive the President, elected according to the forms of the Constitution, from the place assigned him by that Constitution for the exercise of his high functions, think you that the teeming millions of the North would not rush to the rescue of the government ? The North may be slow to anger, but the gallant Southron may well look to his numbers, his armor, and his strength, when he meets the slower and cooler courage of the North fairly roused into action. People of Maryland, if you ever desert our present Union, remember that the cession of the District of Columbia to the General Government has left you no retreat except what you can hew with your swords. Your secession from the present Union is to close the gates of the Capitol and to refuse to allow Congress or the President to enter. It would be to surround the District of Columbia by a Foreign State. To do this would be to leave those who would still be in the estimation of the world the ' ' United States of America ' ' to abandon the Capital, and surrender the archives of the Gov- ernment and the noble buildings erected for its use, or to fight to maintain them. Can you question the choice? Can you doubt it ? It is the same blood that flows in the veins of the North as of the South ; and who ever knew Anglo- Saxon blood that did not know how to look calmly at the flash of the sword ! If that blood has been partly crossed by the German, the Scotch, the Irish, and the French, do you not know that those races have been up with the fore- lO An Addrefs to the most in a thousand hattle fiekls ? During our Revolution, it was a son of New England who nohly declared, when placed at the head of the Southern army, "I will re-conquer South Carolina or perish in the attempt ;" and he did it. Courage is a quality that belongs to our country — to the North as well as the South, to the East as well as the West. But suppose you succeed in driving the General Govern- ment out of Washington. What then ? Created and sup- ported hy the patronage of the General Government, it might revert to you as the original grantor. But wliat would it become ? Would it not be a waste and a ruin ? What would be the effect of the destruction of the city of Washing- ton on the adjoining counties of Maryland bordering on the Potomac? Just sucli, or nearly such, as the destruction of Baltimore would produce on the value of property in Balti- more county and other counties adjacent thereto. What would be the value of your railroad to Washington, now the most profitable of all our State investments ? If the city of Washington is to become a waste and crumb- ling ruin, may my eyes never again rest on the noble pile devoted to the government of our country ! May I never again behold the lofty monument being erected to the memory of the Father of his Country ! May my feet never hereafter tread the sacred soil of Mount Vernon ! No ! Before you destroy the Constitution and the Union, which are the true monuments of Washington's glory, let Virginia take his sacred ashes and commit them to the pure stream of the Po- tomac. Let Maryland destroy the lofty shaft on which stands the peerless form of the mighty dead ! Let Congress demolish the still loftier shaft now rising to his memory on the banks of the Potomac, and order the return of every block of marble which has been contributed by Foreign States in honor of his name, with the frank acknowledgment that his countrymen are not worthy to beliold a pile erected to his honor, because they have repudiated the work of his hands and broken to pieces the Government of Liberty and Law which he devoted his life to construct. People of Maryland. ii If Maryland were to join a new government of the South — I put it, people of Maryland, to your better judgment — liow long would she remain a Slave State ? With no right to demand from the North the surrender of the fugitive slave, except under a Union and Constitution which she is sup- posed to have abandoned, and witli the certainty that her soil would either be occupied by an enemy, or else be the battle field in all contests, wars and invasions by the North this side of the AUeghenies, would not policy, would not interest, would not safety, force those of you who own slaves to send them South for security, where the labor of the slave has long been more profitable than with you ? Under these circumstances would you not in a year or two, of necessity, cease to be slave owners ? And v/hat would be your condi- tion as a Free State in alliance with the Slave States of the South ? Would they trust you ? Would they love you ? V/ould they treat you as their equal ? I leave the answer to your calm and deliberate judgement. There is another matter I feel bound to state to you — though I do it with the deepest regret. I have the strongest conviction that the cotton States, if they throw off their allegiance to the Greneral Government, intend to form a gov- ernment of their own, and to refuse to pass any laws jirolii- l)iting the African slave trade, and thus, indirectly at least, to sanction that terrible traffic. This they well know would never be agreed to b}' North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Kentuchy, Tennessee and Missouri. I repeat, they well know that the reopening of the slave trade would be resisted to the last extremity by the grain growing States I have named. The dreams of the seceders of the cotton States look to far richer acquisitions and associations^ to be formed out of the provinces of Mexico and Central America, and perchance of some of the West India' islands, to be cultivated by hundreds of thousands of freshly and cheaply imported slaves from the coast of Africa. The grain growing States of the South would be more valuable to them as a friendly barrier against the North, as Mr. Yancey has frankly ad- L««fC 12 An Addrefs to the mitted in his famous letter to Slaughter. This is the true service to be rendered by the grain-growing States of the South to the cotton States. Beyond this the cotton States have interests and plans inconsistent with their union with you — unless you submit to terms dictated by them. In the event of secession by Maryland, what would Delaware do ? She is a small State, it is true, but her course would be of the greatest importance to Maryland in -her new asso- ciations, as the refusal of Delaware to go with us would add more than one hundred miles of free border to our State. Delaware has now less than two thousand slaves — a number scarce equal to that of single individuals in the South. Bor- dering on the Delaware river and bay for the larger and richer part of her State, Delaware is bound to Pennsylvania by all the ties of commercial, political and social interests. She has no heavy stake in slavery, and in a few years^ under any circumstances, will become a free State. This result would follow almost immediately if she were to go with the South, for reasons similar, but still stronger, than those which would press on Maryland. If she remain in the Union under the present Constitution, she would be protected (as would Maryland also be, under a similar course) by the guarantees of that Constitution as to her slave property — the passing off of which would, in that event, be scarcely accelerated in either State. Delaware was the first State to accept the Constitution, and I doubt not that her patriotism, her duty, as also her interests, Avill keep her steady at her post. If Maryland secedes, she must count on two hundred miles of free border separating lier from Pennsylvania, and a hundred miles of free border, soon to be, separating her from Dela- ware. People of Maryland — what is this right of a State to secede from the Union? Have you held it in former days, or your fathers before you ? Has it not been denied by a vast ma- jority of the powerful intellects of our country — of her best and ablest statesmen ? Whether it assume the form of nul- lification or secession, is it not rebellion? The noblest ora- People of Maryland. 13 tor of our country, iu the finest passage lie ever uttered, said : " For the gentleman to speak of nullification, and yet say that he would stop short of secession, rebellion, disunion, is as if he were to take the leap of Niagara and cry out that he would stop half way down." If secession means rebellion I understand it. If that rebellion fail, it is treason. If it succeed, it is revolution. This I also understand. Rebel- lion and revolution are ancient words, and have often been enacted under all the forms of government in the world. I deny, and the vast majority of you have always denied, any other mode of breaking up our government than by resort- ing to these ancient modes, which, for intolerable oppression, have been practised throughout the world. To the extent of the powers possessed by the General Gov- ernment, under the Constitution, she is a unit — as much so as any government in the woild. She can be destroyed only as other governments may be destroyed. If she be guilty of oppression and abuse we have, under the Constitution, the courts, the ballot-box, and the system of checks and balances growing out of the different construction of our Senate and House of Representatives. If these fail, outside of the Con- stitution, if the grievance be intolerable, and no other hope left, we have the universal right of rebellion. These are our safeguards, and I have the strong assurance that without resorting to the last terrible remedy, the former will, in the end, prove sufficient to secure all our rights. Maryland has no more right to secede from the Union than Florida, or Louisiana, or California. The rights of all the States, old and new, are equal. This is the admitted doc- trine. Shall Florida, or Louisiana, or California have the right to secede from the Union on the ground of State sov- ereigntj^, or of reserved state rights ? We bought the first two with the money of the General Government, and Cali- fornia we acquired by the old fashioned process of conquest. All that these three States have — their lands and all their rights — they got from the Government of the L^nited States. I admit they are equal to the old States, and no more ; and 14 An Addrefs to the the old States are etjual to them, and no more. But surely a right of secession cannot he claimed by any one of the three States named ; and if not by them — it cannot be claimed by any other State, because all the States are equal. I have heard much for some years past about the sovereign States of this Union. It is the fashion of the day to speak of our States as sovereign; though it is conceded that a State cannot have an army or a navy, or declare war or mahe peace, or make a treaty with a foreign power or with another State, or have ambassadors, or lay duties on imports, or coin money, or pass any laws in violation of the Constitution of the United States or the acts of Congress passed pursuant thereto. Tbe several States, no doubt, have reserved all rights of legisla- tion, &c., which have not been granted to the General Gov- ernment. But is it not an abuse of language to call the State sovereign f I call your attention to this view because I believe the contrary doctrine has prevented the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law by the strong hand of the national power. Tlie States most deeply intei'csted in the execution of that law have, for many years, had the executive of the country of their own selection ; but tliey were unwilling to enforce the law against the clearly void legislation of North- ern States, because, forsooth, the same results might be brouglit home to themselves, in regard to void legislation of a different description. The truth is, the General Govern- ment should enforce, if necessary, with the wliole power of the Union, all its laws passed in pursuance of the provis- ions of the Constitution, in the North and in the South, in the East and. in the West, without regard to the laws of any State passed in contravention thereof. This is the ancient doctrine — it is the true doctrine. It seems strange that the question of slavery in the Ter- ritories should at present convulse our country throughout its vast area ; when, in trutli, we liave no Teriitories in which slavery ever will or can exist. Why should the North press this question, when it is certain that all the present Territo- ries will be free, no matter what the legislation on the subject People of Maryland. 15 of slavery ? Ami why should the South take the Territorial question so niuch to heart when we have no Territory fitted for her institutions ? Climate and ])roduction will settle this question. We have no Territories fitted for the production of cotton, sugar and rice. Without tliese, or some of these products, slavery will never plant itself in a new country. With these products it will be sure to go, no matter what the legislation. Why then these angry feuds? Is it because we may acquire other Territory fitted for slavery ? Rather than have these feuds — these threats of rebellion — let us close the boundaries of the Republic and resolve to acquire no more. The peaceful breaking up of this great government with- out a struggle to maintain it, would be a miracle. It can never be. Whence tlien would come the sinews of war — money ? If the government were to divide on Mason and Dixon's line and ^le Ohio, and a contest ensues, would not the Southerrf^SiiB require during the war a vast annual out- lay — of some fifty or sixty millions of dollars at least? Besides the ordinary expenses of government, she would have to create navies and armies, and maintain them at a war-point. The States of the South only could borrow mo- ney, for the government of the South vrould be unknown, and unrecognized by the capital of the Avorld. Some of the largest and strongest of the Southern States have already, in their efforts at internal improvements, pressed their credit as far as it will reasonably bearseven in peace and in the Union. If this severance and contest take place, so far from being able to borrow other large sums, the existinfrstock of those States would not command fifty cents in tll^laollar in the markets of the world. The only alternative "^ould be a resort to heavy taxation. Wliat would the share of Mary- land be? Shall I say a twelfth or fourteenth part of the whole sum required ? This would make Maryland's share about three and a half or four millions of dollars over and above her State expenses, and that to be raised in the mid.?t of war, convulsion and desolation. People of Baltimore I — People of Maryland ! — You have 1 6 An Addrefs to the struggled hard to maintain the credit of the city of Balti- more, as well as of the State at large. In tliese efforts you have been most successful. If you leave the Union, what will become of the debt you owe, and of the pliglited faith of your city and State? Can you pay that debt and redeem your honor, and maintain at the same time war-expenses in an unnatural contest? Clearly you cannot. If you go out of our Union, you go into insolvency anth^ roar of cannon, wir-the threat of the rebel, ever startled iiis lofty soul from its nigh resolve, to maintain our Union and uphold our sacred flag, on every field, and in every contingency. With his sacred ashes resting in her soil — his form still familiar to her memory, and his bui-ning words still ringing in her ears, can Tennessee abandon the Union ? Never ! Never ! unless you tear away from her heart all her memo- ries of Andrew Jackson. And Ncirth Carolirui — Union-lov- ing, law-abiding, honest, faithful North Carolina — may we not count with certainty on her proving true to those patriotic instincts, for which she has ever been so dearly loved and so highly honored ! People of Maryland! pardon^ I pray you j^ardon, a faith- ful son, and none the less so that he acknowledges a higher and holier allegiance to his country, if he has ventured in this address beyond the modest proprieties of his humble station. If he dared hope tliat any word of his would give fresh resolution to any loyal American heart, or revive in fresher colors that true strength of a country — the patriotic love of her people — that hope would cheer him now; and if it prove true, would be to him a blessing and a consolation to the latest moment of his life. WILLIAM H. COLLINS. Baltimore, December 20, 1860. 54 ^ ^ ^o 9^. -^ ^^i^-f^* ^h < 0^ ^^ '» • » ^"•'t. 'o. '♦.T.' .,0- f;-'\/ V'^^*^^^ %^^''\4^^ V*^^*/ .0^ \ 9^ .•IV*. ^^^ V^ ^« -• ^^\. -.J \.<^" ^'i'Cr *v^^'y \.-?.^-\<^ v-?^\o** V- ^'.v ^co*.';-;^'>o ./.-^^jL'.v ./.•i.;«;i->o