the Congress of the United
States will remedy it; and that none exists which revolution would
not aggravate.

"Mr. Speaker, I am here this day to speak, and I say that I do
speak, for the people of Maryland, who are loyal to the United
States; and that when my judgment is contested, I appeal to the
people for its accuracy, and I am ready to maintain it before them.

"In Maryland we are dull, and cannot comprehend the right of
secession. We do not recognize the right to make a revolution by a
vote. We do not recognize the right of Maryland to repeal the
Constitution of the United States, and if any convention there,
called by whatever authority, under whatever auspices, undertake to
inaugurate revolution in Maryland, their authority will be resisted
and defied in arms on the soil of Maryland, in the name and by the
authority of the Constitution of the United States."

In January, 1861, the ensign of the Republic, while covering a mission
of mercy, was fired on by traitors. In February Jefferson Davis said, at
Stevenson, Alabama, "We will carry war where it is easy to advance,
where food for the sword and torch await our armies in the densely
populated cities." In March the thirty-sixth Congress, after vainly
passing conciliatory resolutions by the score, among other things
recommending the repeal of all personal liberty bills, declaring that
there was no authority outside of the States where slavery was
recognized to interfere with slaves or slavery therein, and proposing by
two-thirds votes of both houses an amendment of the Constitution
prohibiting any future amendment giving Congress power over slavery in
the States, adjourned amid general terror and distress.

Abraham Lincoln, having passed through the midst of his enemies,
appeared at Washington in due time and delivered his inaugural, closing
with these memorable words:

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine,
is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail
you.

"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.
You can have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the
government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve,
protect, and defend' it.

"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not
be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not