June 7, 1861
Baltimore Correspondence
Baltimore, May 27, 1861
To the Editors of the Advertiser & Register:
Dear Sirs- Well knowing the deep interest you take in the welfare of our little State, and this “devoted” city, for the instant destruction of which our Northern “brethren” are so clamorous, and feeling sincerely desirous that our true position should be understood by our friends at the South, I take the liberty of addressing a few lines to you.
My belief is, that a large majority of the people of Maryland are not only opposed to the wicked war policy of the Administration at Washington, but earnestly desire to cast their lot with the South, and hope, ‘ere this contest is over, to be useful citizens of the Confederate States.
Our misfortune has been, in having a Governor elevated to his present position by fraud, who not only would not listen to the petitions of our best citizens, (who foreseeing to some extent the trouble now upon us, besought him to convene the Legislature in extra session, and thereby give us an opportunity of putting ourselves in a state of defense), but in the face of the most earnest protestations of his soundness upon the issues of the day, has been in criminal collusion with Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet since the 4th of March, and has purposely placed the State at the mercy of her despotic rulers. We are at present effectually controlled by military power- a bitter humiliation to a people professedly free- but do not suppose for a moment that the friends of the South are fewer in number, or to be the long relied upon ???? of this. The ??? say to the doubting and the skeptical, that Maryland never will CONSENT to wear the yoke of the Union from which you have escaped, unless she continues, through all time, to be invested with Lincoln’s troops and guarded from every hillside by his Columbiads! E.g.- whatever she can, lion-like, shake these dewdrops from her name, either singlehanded or aided by her sympathising friends of the South. She will THEN assert her emancipation from this Union with fanatics and agrarians!
BALTIMORE
[Transcribed by: Sharon Strout]