lature of Maryland, to inaugurate a military despot- | troops in camp at Harrisburg, Chambersburg isin, by the enactment of the bill to create a Com- and York, could be thrown forward at any mittee of Public Safety, which, under a profession | moment to Cockeysville and Hagerstown. of providing for the protection, safety, peace and defense of the State, would, if enacted into a law, confer on an irresponsible body powers which are unconstitutional and tyrannical in principle, and The occupation of the railroad from Phiiadelphia to the Susquehanna, completed the Union cordon by which revolution in Maryland was slowly but most surely pressed into which, by withdrawing from the citizen all guaran- its hiding-places. May 9th, the Baltimoreans ties now enjoyed for his individual security, must endanger the public peace, and in the event of the enactment of that bill, we shall esteem it our duty to avail ourselves of all constitutional remedies for defeating its execution, and vindicating public liberty. Resolved, secondly, That the measures enacted and enacting by the Legislature, are indications of a purpose on the part of a majority thereof to precipitate Maryland into a struggle with the Constitutional authorities of the Union, and to effect by indirect action a result which they acknowledge they are unable to accomplish by direct legislation on the subject, and that we deprecate any effort to change the relations at present existing between the Union| and this State, by any authority whatsoever." A committee was appointed to proceed to Frederick. At Frederick the feeling aroused was anything but promising of peace to the Legislators. A "Home Guard" was organized, composed of some of the best citizens of the place. To the Guard the ladies presented a United States flag. Reverdy Johnson acted as spokesman for the donors, and delivered, to a large crowd, a masterly oration, sustaining the cause of the Union. General Scott was on the qui vive, too, to inaugurate a checkmate for any further treason contemplated, and to open the railway routes to the North. At noon of May 5th, the New York Eighth, and, later in the day, the Massachusetts Sixth, appeared, unannounced, at the Relay House Station, at the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio with the Washington and Baltimore railway. This occupation, executed under command of General Butler, commanded all communication between Harper's Ferry, Frederick and Baltimore, and menaced the latter city.* The * General Butler's order of May 8th, detailed the circumstances of the occupation, giving the assigned position of the several camps. He also related several incidents illustrative of the devilish spirit which possessed those in Maryland imbued with the seces were surprised to learn that their city had "ThroughBaltimore." | At three o'clock on the afternoon of that day, transports from Perryville arrived off Locust Point, within the city limits, having on board thirteen hundred troops, consisting of one battery of Sherman's artillery (six pieces and seventy horses) under command of Major Sherman; five companies (420 men) of the Third U. S. (regular) infantry, under command of Major Shepherd; the First Pennsylvania artillery (800 men), under command of Colonel Patterson. The debarkation was made under cover of the Harriet Lane, which lay off the Point, with shotted guns and open ports. The city was intensely excited, but there was no mistaking the new order of things. Any violence offered would have been the signal for the bombardment of the city, both by the vessel of war and Fort Mccity, both by the vessel of war and Fort McHenry-then strongly garrisoned. The entire debarkation was made in order and quiet. The Mayor, with his two hundred special police, was in attendance as soon as he was made aware of the landing; but, his services were not required—the United States officers showed that they were quite able to "keep the peace" themselves. The entire detachment took cars for the Relay House and the Capital. The Maryland Legislature continued in session, during these movements of the General Government to forestall any act of treason and revolution which might be attempted. Thwarted in their effort to subvert the State Executive, the Legislators were powerless for harm, and contented themselves with preaching treason when they had not the power or sion virus. One of the Massachusetts men was poi soned by strychnine mixed in cakes, which a peddler was allowed to sell to the soldiers. The miscreant es caped, and all communication with unauthorized persons was immediately cut off. VIR EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS. Extraordinary Session of the Confederate Congress. great calamity which was to hurry them all into one common ruin. It became such men to talk of the usurpations of the Lincoln Government! Incomparable hypocrisy ! The Message of Upon assembling, the Congress was informed of the purpose of its re-convention, and of the designs of the Confederate Administration, in the following message in many respects one of the most singular and remarkable documents of the rebellion : "Gentlemen of the Congress : THE Confederate Congress reassembled in extraordinary session, April 30th. A full attendance was had of the States' delegates for the "Congress" was still composed of the delegates elected by the several State Conventions. As these Conventions had been elected by the people simply to consider the question of secession, leaving it for the people to decide upon the act and to prescribe the future course of proceeding, their assumption of supreme power had been a most astounding usurpation; but, what was a usurpation within the State became a tyranny when the Convention appointed delegates to a "Congress of the Seceded States"; and when those delegates assembled, adopted a Constitution for the Confederated States of North America, sat in secret and unlimited session, enacted laws, elected a President and Vice-President, and installed the entire machinery of a Central power, the tyranny became an absolute despotism. After legislat-ples and community of interests with these which ing into active operation this Central power, the Congress adjourned, subject to the call of the President-a call he soon made, as above stated. The self-elected delegates came together, and immediately proceeded to legislate the Confederacy into a state of war, with all its terrible consequences. Civilized society never before witnessed a more unauthorized exercise of such power over a people. In all that revolution the people had only had a voice in the primary election of delegates to a transient and unempowered State Convention. Out of that, by the daring and defiance of a few ambitious men, sprang the "It is my pleasing duty to announce to you that the Constitution framed for the establishment of a permanent Government for the Confederate States has been ratified by Conventions in each of those States to which it was referred. To inaugurate the Government in its full proportions and upon its own substantial basis of the popular will, it only remains that elections should be held for the designation of the officers to administer it. "There is every reason to believe that at no distant day, other States, identified in political princi you represent, will join this Confederacy: giving to its typical constellation increased splendor-to its government of free, equal, and sovereign States a wider sphere of usefulness-and to the friends of constitutional liberty a greater security for its harmonious and perpetual existence. "It was not, however, for the purpose of making this announcement that I have deemed it my duty to convoke you at an earlier day than that fixed by yourselves for your meeting. The declaration of war made against this Confederacy by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, in his proclamation issued on the fifteenth day of the present month, rendered it necessary, in my judgment, that you should convene, at the earliest practicable THE MESSAGE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 123 The Message of Jefferson Davis. country. moment, to devise the measures The occasion is indeed an extraordinary one. It justifies me in a brief review of the relations heretofore existing between us and the States which | now unite in warfare against us, and in a succinct statement of the events which have resulted in this warfare, to the end that mankind may pass intelligent and impartial judgment on its motives and objects. During the war waged against Great Britain by her colonies on this continent, a common danger impelled them to a close alliance, and to the formation of a Confederation, by the terms of which the Colonies, styling themselves States, entered 'severally into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force of fered to, or attacks made upon them or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.' "In order to guard against any misconstruction of their compact, the several States made explicit declaration, in a distinct article, that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.' "Under this contract of alliance the war of the Revolution was successfully waged, and resulted in the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, by the terms of which the several States were, each by name, recognized to be independent. "The Articles of Confederation contained a clause whereby all alterations were prohibited, unless confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, after being agreed to by the Congress; and, in obedience to this provision, under the resolution of Congress of the 21st of February, 1787, the several States appointed delegates, who attended a Convention for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations and provi- | sions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union.' | shall be sufficient for the estab- The Message of "The Constitution of 1787 having, however, omitted the clause already recited from the articles of Confederation, which provided in explicit terms, that each State retained its sovereignty and independence, some alarm was felt in the States when invited to ratify the Constitution, lest this omission should be construed into an abandonment of their cherished principle, and they refused to be satisfied. until amendments were added to the Constitution, placing beyond any pretense of doubt, the reservation by the States of all their sovereign rights and powers, not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution. "I have italicised certain words in the quotations just made, for the purpose of attracting attention to the singular and marked caution with which the States endeavored, in every possible form, to exclude the idea that the separate and independent sovereignty of each State was merged into one common Government and nation, and the earnest desire they evinced to impress on the Constitution its true character-that of a compact between independent States. Strange indeed must it appear to the impartial observer, but it is none the less true, that all these carefully-worded clauses proved unavailing to prevent the rise and growth in the Northern States, of a political school which has persistently claimed that the Government thus formed was not a compact between States, but was in effect a National Government, set up above and over the States. An organization, created by the States to secure the blessings of liberty and independence against foreign aggression, has been gradually perverted into a machine for their control in their domestic affairs ; the creature has been exalted above its creators; the principals have been made subordinate to the agent appointed by themselves. "The people of the Southern States, whose almost exclusive occupation was agriculture, early perceived a tendency in the Northern States to render the common government subservient to their own purposes, by imposing burthens on commerce as a protection to their manufacturing and shipping interests. Long and angry controversy grew out of these attempts, often successful to benefit one section of the country at the expense of the other. And the danger of disruption arising from this cause was enhanced by the fact that the Northern population was increasing by immigration and other causes in a greater ratio than the population of the The ratification of the Conventions of nine States South. By degrees, as the Northern States gained "It was by the delegates chosen by the several States, under the resolution just quoted, that the Constitution of the United States was framed in 1787, and submitted to the several States for ratification, as shown by the seventh article, which is in these words: The Message of preponderance in the national | sulted their own interests by Congress, self-interest taught their people to yield ready assent to any plausible advocacy of their right as a majority to govern the minority without control; they learned to listen with impatience to the suggestion of any constitutional impediment to the exércise of their will; and so utterly have the principles of the Constitution been corrupted in the Northern mind, that in the inaugural address delivered by President Lincoln in March last, he asserts as an axiom which he plainly deems to be undeniable, that the theory of the Constitution requires that in all cases the majority shall govern; and in another memorable instance, the same Chief Magistrate did not hesitate to liken the relations between a State and the United States to those which exist between a County and the State in which it is situated, and by which it was created. This is the lamentable and fundamental error on which rests the policy that has culminated in his declaration of war against these Confederate States. "In addition to the long-continued and deep-seated resentment felt by the Southern States at the persistent abuse of the powers they had delegated to the Congress for the purpose of enriching the manufacturing and shipping classes of the North at the expense of the South, there has existed for nearly half a century another subject of discord involving interests of such transcendent magnitude as at all times to create the apprehension in the minds of many devoted lovers of the Union that its permanence was impossible. The Message of selling their slaves to the South, "As soon, however, as the Northern States that "When the several States delegated certain powers to the United States Congress, a large portion of the laboring population consisted of African slaves imported into colonies by the mother country. In twelve out of the thirteen States negro slavery existed, and the right of property in slaves was protected by law. This property was recognized in the Constitution, and provision was made against its loss by the escape of the slave. The increase in the number of slaves by further importation from Africa was also secured by a clause forbidding Congress to prohibit the slave-trade anterior to a certain date; and in no clause can there be found any delegation of power to the Congress authorizing it in any manner to legislate to the prejudice, detri-nation, whose chief title to this distinction consisted ment, or discouragement of the owners of that species of property, or excluding it from the protection of the Government. "The climate and soil of the Northern States soon proved unpropitious to the continuance of slave labor, whilst the converse was the case at the South. Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the two sections, the Northern States con in the display of a spirit of ultra fanaticism, and whose business was not 'to promote the general welfare or insure domestic tranquillity,' but to awaken the bitterest hatred against the citizens of sister States by violent denunciations of their institutions; the transaction of public affairs was impeded by repeated efforts to usurp powers not delegated by the Constitution, for the purpose of |