If
the Secessionists had once fairly risen against their oppressors and not
prevailed, it is difficult to say where the measures of savage
retaliation would have ended. I do not like to think of the possible
brutality that might have lighted on many hospitable households in
blood-shedding or rapine.
So much for the city. I have mentioned above some of the reasons that
make an up-rising throughout the State so exceedingly difficult and
dangerous to organize. That no active aid was rendered to Lee's army
upon the last occasion of its crossing the frontier, is, I think, easily
explained, when the peculiar circumstances of time and place are
considered.
Southern proclivity is by no means so general in the northwestern
counties of Maryland as in the eastern region, or on the seaboard. The
farmers in the former parts suffer greatly from the ceaseless incursions
over the border. When cattle are to be driven away, it is feared that
even regular "raiders" and guerrillas are not over-careful to ascertain
the sympathies of the owner. The horse-thieves, of course, are
absolutely indifferent whether they plunder friend or foe. Now, though
the Marylander is far from being imbued with the exclusively commercial
spirit of the Yankee, it is not unnatural that he should chafe under
these repeated assaults on his purse, if not on his person.
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