I bow reverentially, Senators of Maryland, in this glorious hall, the sanctuary of immortal deeds, hallowed by immortal names.

Before I thank the living, let me look to those dead whose spirits dwell within these walls [looking at the portraits that hung upon the walls], living an imperishable life in the glory, freedom, and happiness of your great United Republic, which is destined, as I confidently hope, to become the corner-stone of the future of Humanity.

Yes, there they are, the glorious architects of the independence of this Republic.

There is Thomas Stone; there, your Demosthenes, Samuel Chase; there, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who designedly added that epithet to the significance of his name, that nobody should be mistaken about who was the Carroll who dared the noble deed, and was rewarded by being the last of his illustrious companions, whom God called to the Heavenly Paradise, after he had long enjoyed the paradise of freedom on earth; and here, William Paca;—­all of them signers of the Declaration of American Independence—­that noblest, happiest page in mankind’s history.

How happy that man must have been [pointing to the portrait of Governor Paca] having to govern this sovereign State on that day when, within these very halls the act was ratified which, by the recognition of your very enemy, raised your country to an independent nation.

Ye spirits of the departed! cast a ray of consolation by the voice of your nation over that injured land, whose elected chief, a wandering exile for having dared to imitate you, lays the trembling hopes of an oppressed continent before the generous heart of your people—­now not only an independent nation but also a mighty and glorious power.

Alas! what a difference in the success of two like deeds!  Have we not done what ye did?  Yes, we have.  Was the cause for which we did it not alike sacred and just as yours?  It was.  Or have we not fought to sustain it with equal resolution as your brethren did?  Bold though it be to claim a glory such as America has, I am bold to claim, and say—­yes, we did.  And yet what a difference in the result!  And whence this difference?  Only out of that single circumstance that, while you, in your struggle, meet with assistance, we in ours met not even with "fair play:" since, when we fought, there was nobody on earth to maintain “the laws of nature’s God.”

During our struggle, America was silent and England did not stir; and while you were assisted by a French King, we were forsaken by a French Republic—­itself now trodden down because it has forsaken us?

Well, we are not broken yet.  There is hope for us, because there is a God in heaven and an America on earth.  May be that our nameless woes were necessary, that the glorious destiny of America may be fulfilled; that after it had been an asylum for the oppressed, it should become, by regenerating Europe, the pillar of manhood’s liberty.