PREFACE.
The unlawful and oppressive acts of Mr. Lincoln, his
advisers, and subordinates, during the war between this
Government and that of the Confederate States, will here-
after constitute no insignificant portion of the history of
these times. As one of the victims of the despotism, which
he succeeded in maintaining, in the Northern and Border
States, for so long a period, I desire to add my testimony to that which has been heretofore furnished, in relation to the outrages perpetrated under his Administration; and I give publicity to this statement now, while the facts are fresh in the recollection of the public, lest any one should at some remoter period venture to doubt its accuracy. I do not propose to discuss the absurdity of the theories on which Mr. Lincoln claimed to exercise arbitrary power, nor the imbecility of his course. It is proper, however, in giving an account of the treatment to which, in common with hundreds of other men, I was subjected, to refer briefly to the position of affairs in Maryland, and the object of Mr. Lincoln in inflicting on myself and my fellow sufferers the indignities and wrongs which we so long endured. Up to the time when the dissolution of the Union became, to most intelligent men, a patent fact, the people of Maryland had unanimously desired and striven for its perpetuation. Though they feared that the aggressive principles and growing power of the Republican party would, before many years, bring about a separation of the two sections of the country, and though they believed that the conduct of Mr. Lincoln and his party justified the action of the South, they still hoped and labored for the
