The Daily Dispatch: April 30, 1861., [Electronic resource]

---

---

Maryland Legislature--Message of Governor
Hicks.

In the General Assembly of Maryland, on Saturday, the Governor's Message was received, and the Senate adopted an address to the people of Maryland, stating that the Legislature will not pass an act of secession; but if they believe the people desire it, they will give them an opportunity of declaring for themselves their future destiny. The House had not, at 1 o'clock on Saturday, acted on the address, but had appointed a committee to report an act for the call of a Convention of the people.

In his message, Gov. Hicks briefly details the startling events which induced him to assemble the Legislature. He said he labored earnestly to induce the President to forego his purpose of passing troops through Maryland, but the reply was that a military necessity rendered it unavoidable.

He says he refused Gen. Butler his consent to land his forces. He protested against his taking possession of the Annapolis Railroad, and in this connection says:

‘ "Notwithstanding that our most learned and intelligent citizens admit the right of the Government to transport its troops over the railroad, it is evident that a portion of the people of Maryland are opposed to the exercise of the right."

He says:--"I honestly and most earnestly entertain the conviction that the only safety of Maryland lies in preserving a neutral position between our brethren of the North and of the South. We have violated no rights of either section. We have been loyal to the Union. The unhappy contest between the two sections has not been lamented or encouraged by us, although we have suffered from it in the past. The impending war has not come by any act or any wish of ours. We have done all we could to avert it. We have hoped that Maryland, and the 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 the 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 — It seems to me that, independently of all other considerations, our geographical position forces us to this, unless we are willing to see our State the theater of a long and bloody civil war, and the consequent utter destruction of every material interest of our people, to say nothing of the blood of brave men and innocent women and children which will cry out from our soil for vengeance upon us if we fail to do all that in us lies to avert the impending calamity."

’ He appeals to the Legislature not to be swayed by passion, but to act with prudence and Christian-like temper.

All the Governor's correspondence with the Administration and Government officers accompanies the message.