Maryland Legislature.
In the Senate of Maryland, on Monday, the committee appointed to wait on the
President made their report.
It corresponds generally with the account given in the dispatch from
Washington, published yesterday.
They remonstrated with him against the occupation of
Maryland, and the forcible seizure of the railroads and lines of travel, &c. He replied in substance, that it was a ‘"necessity,"’ in order to get troops to
Washington.
The committee think
some modification of the existing relations between the
Government and
Maryland will be made, but they express the opinion ‘"that a war is to be waged to reduce all the seceding States to allegiance to the
Federal Government; and that the whole military power of the
Federal Government will be exerted to accomplish that purpose."’
In the House of Delegates, numerous memorials against the passage of a bill for a Board of Public Safety were presented.
A caucus of all the members of the Legislature was held in the
Chamber of the House of Delegates with closed doors, in reference to our Federal relations.
The caucus was addressed for one hour and a half by
the Hon. R. M. McLane, in relation to the details of the interview of the
Commissioners to
Washington with the
President and the
Federal Cabinet.
He said he thought it was the intention of the
Cabinet to subjugate the seceding States by gradual approaches of troops to sustain the
Union men of
Virginia and
Tennessee especially, and by whose aid the
Cabinet expected that the secessionists of those States would be overcome without bloodshed.
The District of Columbia and
Maryland would be necessarily occupied to some extent as a rendezvous for troops, and a depot for munitions of war.
Various inquiries were made of the
Commissioners whether a regiment could not be marched through
Baltimore with the assent of the
State, to which the
Commissioners did not feel authorized to reply affirmatively.
It was remarked incidentally by
Mr. McLane that the troops which were prevented from reaching
Baltimore by the destruction of the bridges, left
Philadelphia without orders, and would have been, therefore, intruders, which the
Government admitted gave a new aspect to the position they occupied with respect to the
Maryland authorities.
The main point of
Mr. McLane's appeal to the Legislature was that members should unite without reference to their partizan associations, and devote themselves exclusively to the preservation of the peace and safety of
Maryland in the present crisis.
He said that men who desired to confederate with the
Southern States may readily in this crisis unite with those who have insisted on maintaining the existing Union, because, whilst the
State is occupied by the
Federal troops, it would be physically impossible to relieve her from political association with the
Federal Government.
Honorable and true-hearted men, he said, will never consent to maintain the
Union by shedding the blood of the
Southern people and subjugating the
Southern States.
Therefore such men can never again support the Administration of
Mr. Lincoln, which has now abandoned the defensive policy of maintaining the
Federal Capital, heretofore declared in
Mr. Seward's letter to
Gov. Hicks Gov. Hicks himself might sustain the
Government when it adhered to its defensive policy, but now that it has avowed a policy of subjugation he will be bound, in honor, to occupy himself exclusively with the protection of his own people.
Mr. McLane read
Mr. Seward's letter to
Mr. Dayton, our Minister to
France, dated May 4, the day of the
Commissioners' visit to
Washington, declaring the new war policy of the
Government, and acknowledging the radical change in it, and in this connection he argued how widely
Governor Hicks was now separated from the Administration, if he remained true to his own professions.
It was, said
Mr. McLane, a great crisis in his life, and the
Governor ought to thank God that he had lost the confidence of the
Lincoln Administration, which he certainly had.
Mr. McLane said he was quite responsible for the entire accuracy of this opinion, and added that
Gov. Hicks could not recover that confidence.