id not scruple to reply 'that he considered an anonymous
document evidence' strong enough to bear down a lady's proffered word of
honor. If, after this provocation, the spirit of the fair pleader was
roused, and she spoke somewhat unadvisedly with her lips, few will be
disposed to impute to her anything more than imprudence. The Provost
Marshal closed the discussion very promptly and decidedly--'Your mother
will go South within the fortnight; and you, for your insolence, will
accompany her.' When women and weaklings are before them, the
_argumentum bacculinum_ seems favored by the Republican chivalry.

"The country is not much better off than the city. The same system of
espionage and coercion prevails there; especially since that fatal
proclamation has sown distrust between master and slave, it is hard to
say how many spies there may be in any man's household. Large landed
proprietors, who have shown no sign of Southern proclivity, beyond
abstaining from taking the oath, cannot obtain the commonest
necessaries, such as groceries, &c., without resorting to shifts and
stratagems that would be absurd, if they were not so painful. Such
trammels are far more galling to the purely agricultural class than they
are to the inhabitants of a city like this, where commerce has
introduced a large mixed element, embracing not only Northerners, but
almost every European race.

"But, in spite of all privations and annoyances, there is in the
Marylander just now an honest earnestness of purpose, a readiness for
self-sacrifice, a patient hardihood, a brave, hopeful spirit, quick to
chafe but slow to complain, that might make Anglo-Saxons feel proud of
their common blood. There is plenty of the stuff left out of which
Buchanan, Semmes, Maffit (of the Florida), Hollins, and Kelso are
made--Marylanders all--who are doing their _devoir_ gallantly on the
decks of Southern war-ships. I cannot believe that the day is far
distant when both moral and physical energy will have free and fair
play.

"The ties of mutual interest that bind this State to the Confederacy are
too obvious to need much explanation, but it may be well to touch upon
them briefly. Her extensive water-power marks out Maryland as eminently
adapted for the produce of all kinds of manufactures. That very
accessibility from seaward, which is her weak point in war time, is her
strength in time of peace. The Chesapeake and its tributaries are
natural high roads for the transport