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mous debt, I felt it to be my duty to resist, and I did resist its initiation. I was unable to see how the Union could be preserved if a large majority of the Southern people were bent upon a separation, and I said so. I was unable to comprehend how the President could, from the injunction which commanded him to see that the laws were faithfully executed, derive authority to supersede and violate the fundamental laws of the land, and I said so. I was equally unable to see how, upon the theory of upholding the Constitution, I was under an obligation to support those who were daily manifesting their contempt for all its provisions—nor could I conceive how this Government had any existence whatever outside of the charter which established it. All these political opinions I had the absolute right to entertain and promulgate. I choose to refer to them here, because they constitute the offences for which I am undergoing punishment. Notwithstanding the fact that many thousands of persons in the Northern States had entertained and expressed these views within a twelve-month, the Administration determined that it was criminal in me to continue to hold and utter them, and has, therefore, arbitrarily inflicted upon me the indignities and wrongs which I have mentioned.
"Although no direct offer has been made to me to release me upon any terms whatsoever, I, nevertheless, presume that mine was one of the cases which, either your Proclamation of February 14th, or your Order of February 27th, was intended to cover. Now, as I cannot accept a conditional discharge, coupled with a gracious amnesty for offences which it is assumed I have committed, and as I must equally refuse to appear at the bar of an irresponsible tribunal to justify my right to the ordinary privileges of a citizen of Maryland, it is due to myself, at least, that I should state the reasons which impel me to the course I «hall pursue. To the principles which govern my action now I shall appeal, when in the future I seek redress and enter upon my own vindication. It must be obvious to you, Sir, that I cannot, consistently with my own self-respect, accept any such conditional release as is referred to in your Proclamation, or avail myself of such amnesty. As I was despotically deprived of my freedom, I can make no compromise to regain it. As I am punished merely for venturing to dissent from the theories and policy of the Administration, I need and will ask no pardon. Nor, even if I should accept the terms mentioned, would I have any security that I would not, immediately after my release, be again subjected to precisely similar outrages to those which have already been inflicted upon me. As the Administration has once determined that I, by expressing my political sentiments, was giving 'aid and comfort to the enemies in hostility to the United States,' I could
