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Marylands position.
In the meantime, as is well known, the friends of the Union in Maryland had rallied. Hon. Henry Winter Davis' strong hand was exerted, and Governor Hicks was, almost by force, compelled to take sides with the North. His course resulted in the stay of proceedings by which the Southern sympathizers had expected to swing Maryland into the column of seceding States. These are, however, well known historical facts. The correspondence to which Governor Hicks makes reference would be interesting, if it could be found. The archives at Annapolis, Richmond, Trenton, Albany and Columbus should contain the letters in which are fully outlined plans for this new Confederacy. The language of the report of Mr. Wright gives rise to the belief that other States than those named were involved in the project, and, hence, an extension of the field of inquiry. It is very evident, however, that in the darkest and gloomiest days of the Union, when the cotton-growing States of the South had formed a powerful combination, there arose another sceptre, powerful in resources of men, arms, munitions and wealth, which, if directed against the Union, simultaneously with the blow from the South, would have crushed it, and, instead of one Union, ‘inseparable forever,’ the map of the United States would to-day show at least three, if not more, combinations of States. Mr. Wright, in his report to Mr. Crawford, President of the Georgia convention, says:On the 25th of February (1861), I visited for the third time Annapolis, the seat of government (having failed, while there on a former visit on the 21st, to meet the Executive), and waited upon Governor Hicks, and after a personal interview and pretty free interchange of opinion with His Excellency, I handed to him the ordinance of secession with which I was entrusted, and also a written communication, in which I endeavored to justify and explain the action of the State of Georgia, and attempted to show that the material interests of Maryland would be greatly promoted and advanced by her co-operation with the seceding States. To this communication I have received no reply, although, upon a suggestion of Governor Hicks that he would favor me with a reply at his earliest convenience, I have waited for two days to receive such communication as he should be pleased to make to your body. In the absence of any written reply to my note of the 25th ultimo, I can only give your honorable body the result of the personal
