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and of the South.
We have violated no right of either section.
We have been loyal to the Union.
The unhappy contest between the two sections has not been commenced or encouraged by us, although we have suffered from it in the past.
The impending war has not come by any act or wish of ours.
We have done all we could to avert it. We have hoped that Maryland and other Border Slave States, by their conservative position and love for the Union, might have acted as mediators between the extremes of both sections, and thus have prevented the terrible evils of a prolonged civil war. Entertaining these views, I cannot counsel Maryland to take sides against the General Government, until it shall commit outrages upon us which would justify us in resisting its authority.
As a consequence, I can give no other counsel than that we shall array ourselves for Union and peace, and thus preserve our soil from being polluted with the blood of brethren.
Thus, if war must be between the North and South, we may force the contending parties to transfer the field of battle from our soil, so that our lives and property may be secure.
The Legislature, thus instructed, decided
not to secede from the
Union--unanimously in the Senate--53 to 13 in the
House; but proceeded to pass an act to provide for the public safety, constituting a “ State Board” of seven, whereof all were rank Secessionists but
Gov. Hicks; which Board was to have full control over the organization and direction of the military forces of
Maryland; appointing all officers above the rank of captain.
This Board was to have full power to adopt measures for the safety, peace and defense of the
State; and was directed to proscribe no officer for “his political opinions.”
Its oath of office included no promise of allegiance to the
Federal Constitution or Government.
The purpose of this measure was more fully developed by a report from the
Committee on Federal Relations, in which the
President was charged with acts of tyranny and schemes of subjugation; and the attempt to bring the
State, step by step, into collision with the
Federal Government clearly revealed.
But by this time the strength and resolution of the
Free States had been demonstrated, and the sober second thought of
Maryland began to assert its ascendency.
The violence and preternatural activity of the Secessionists had, for a time, concealed the paucity of their numbers; but it was now evident that they were scarcely a third of the entire white population, and less than a fourth in all that major portion of the
State lying north and west of
Baltimore.
A Home Guard of
Unionists was organized in
Frederick, comprising her most substantial citizens.
A great Union meeting was held in
Baltimore on the evening of May 4th; whereat the creation of the Board of Public Safety, and all kindred measures, were unsparingly denounced.
Next day,
Gen. Butler pushed forward two regiments from the
Annapolis Junction to the
Relay House, nine miles from
Baltimore, and controlling the communications between that city and
Frederick.
On the 9th, a force of 1,300 men from
Perryville debarked at
Locust Point,
Baltimore, under cover of the guns of the
Harriet Lane, and quietly opened the railroad route through that city to the
Relay House and
Washington, encountering no opposition.
Gen. Butler took permanent military possession of the city on the 13th, while a force of Pennsylvanians from
Harrisburg advanced to
Cockeysville, reopening the Northern Central railroad.
The Legislature adopted, on the 10th, the following:
Whereas, The war against the Confederate States is unconstitutional and repugnant to civilization, and will result in a bloody
