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Disunion Plot in Maryland

Summary

Editorial stating plot to get Gov. Hicks to call legislature to session is aimed at declaring Union no longer binding, and reclaiming District of Columbia for Maryland. MD then takes Capital and prevents inauguration of Lincoln. Includes recent opinions of the Baltimore Republican, Republican Citizen, Washington Star, and several other newspapers which side with breaking up the United States and not allowing Lincoln to be inaugurated as President. Much of image illegible.

Transcript

Disunion Plot in Maryland
There is but little doubt now, that the star[?] of the press, who sympathize with the succession treason, is to “dress[?]” Maryland and every other border[?] slave holding state after South Carolina, and the National Intelligence admonishes us that every effort will be made to move them, and especially the people of Maryland from their steadfastness and loyalty to the Union. The evidences of this pressure are not only shown in the intending of Gov. Hicks to drive Lincoln from his patriotic resolve, but in the revelations of the telegraph and press. The plot is to involve Maryland in rebellion, through her legislature and without consulting the people, to place her as a barrier against the North, and make her now peaceful fields the Flanders to Civil war, and she is instigated[?] by the ore[?] of the reversion of retrogression of the District of Columbia – Read and Reflect!
A Washington dispatch says,
“The Disunionists are pressing Governor Hicks, of Maryland, to call the Legislature of that State together, with the secret purpose of passing a bill declaring the Union to be no longer binding, and demanding back the District of Columbia. If this purpose is accomplished, they propose to take possession of the capitol, and prevent Lincoln’s inauguration.”
With unflinching ____, the Richmond Enquirer forges[?] a combination between Maryland and Virginia to seize the National Capitol, take up arms against the government, and forcibly prevent Lincoln’s inauguration. Hear it!
“That South Carolina will either prohibit altogether the collection of such duties or will collect them for her own use, no reasonable man can doubt. Then, as Mr. Lincoln’s Springfield organ ___, when comes the tug of war.
“And when it comes, every Southern ___ will ready to meet it. Some, doubtless, will already have seceded. The others will have Conventions in session. From Maryland to Texas, force will be promptly met with force, and especially will this “tug of war” be felt in the Border States. And when war shall thus be forced upon us, if not before, Mr. Lincoln will be forced to relinquish Washington. The first effort of Maryland and Virginia, as soon as they shall appeal to arms, will be for the armed occupation of the Federal Capitol. Thus it is clear that much bloodshed might be saved, and the Northern States more speedily brought to terms, should Maryland and Virginia promptly interpose to prevent Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration at Washington, by taking possession of the Capitol without delay. From present indications, such a step will be unavoidable sooner or later.”
That unscrupulous sheet, the Baltimore Republican, which would hesitate at nothing to restore the corrupt democracy to power, endorses the proposed treason, and on Friday next we may expect its echo, the Republican Citizen of this place, to follow suit. The Republican says:
“We endorse the proposition of the Enquirer. If the Cotton States are driven out of the Union by the hostile acts of the North – the Union being dissolved, the District of Columbia reverts back to Maryland, and we endorse the proposal of the Enquirer, that Virginia and Maryland jointly take possession of it, and forbid the inauguration of Lincoln upon our soil.”
The Washington Star comments as follows:
“The Richmond Enquirer and Examiner, intruse[?] disunion per se sheets, are busy with efforts to induce a mob proposed to be composed of armed men from Maryland and Virginia, to seize this city ere the 4th of March next. Fortunately for the lives of any such mob, the Gubernatorial authorities of both Virginia and Maryland are prepared to dispense any such mob, congregated for any such purpose. Governor Letcher is open and loud in his denunciations of the advice of the Enquirer and Examiner, and says that no such expedition shall leave the Old Dominion while he is its Chief Magistrate and thus commands its regular military force.”
There are ten thousand men, if not more, i