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proscriptive test-oath system in Maryland, which, under the star-chamber measure of Mr. Stevens, will cut off half of the representation in Congress of that State, still adhere to the abhorrent privileged features respecting electors:

From the Baltimore American.
The Position of Governor Swann.

The letter which we published this morning from Governor Swann, defining his position on national and State politics, has been received by his warmest personal and political friends in this city with astonishment and outspoken mortification. They had insisted, up to the last moment, that those who doubted the position of the Governor were in error, and it was through the influence of those who were supposed to be best informed as to his sentiments that the resolutions which he complains of misrepresenting him have been adopted by the various meetings held in Baltimore and other sections of the State.

We speak plainly and emphatically on this subject, in full confidence that we are but expressing the views of those who were heretofore the most earnest of the political and personal friends of the Governor. The time has arrived when the Union party must have no concealments of its views and purposes. What has heretofore been in doubt is now made stubborn fact by this definition of the views of the Governor, and as he has thrown his influence into the scale with those who are endeavoring to sell out the party in Maryland, the issue must be accepted and manfully met at the threshold. We must now go into the coming contest with new leaders, as most of those whom we have hitherto delighted to honor have proved faithless to the trust reposed in them.

We call upon the Union men of the State to organize at once, and send their best men to the Union Mass Convention, to meet in Baltimore on the 6th of June. In most of the counties the preparatory movements have been made for a full and effective representation, and we have every confidence that the convention will plant the Union party of the State firmly on the platform of the Union party of the nation.

A Card from Governor Swann.
We last evening received the following card from Governor Swann:

To the Editors of the Baltimore American:
GENTLEMEN: In the Hagerstown Herald and Torch, of the 9th instant, noticed in the American of this morning, I find my name announced as one of the expected to be present, with Hon. J. A. J. Creswell, Hon. Francis Thomas, Hon. J. L. Thomas, General Garfield, Hon. Archibald Sterling, Hon. Henry Stockbridge, and William Daniel, Esq., at a mass meeting to elect ten delegates for each district to meet in County Convention on Tuesday, May 29, for the purpose of choosing six delegates to represent Washington county in the Union State Convention, called to assemble in Baltimore on Wednesday, the 6th June. In the call of that meeting, signed by E. Mobley, president, it is with extreme regret that I witness some of the most useful and reliable Union men of Baltimore, belonging to the State Central Committee, characterized as disunionists.

It may be proper for me to say that I recognize the Unconditional Union State Central Committee as the only organ authorized to call a convention of the Union party of this state, and I am not aware by what authority, under former party usage, this call of a convention is appointed to take place. The recognized Chairman of the Unconditional Union of the Executive Committee of that body, having called a general meeting of the committee, to take place on the 29th May, which will result in a call for a similar convention of the people, we have the Union party of the State of Maryland this hopelessly divided. What are we to gain by this? I deem it due to myself to say that I shall advise my friends to adhere to the regular organization of the Union party, and shall await the action of the recognized State Central Committee under the call now pending, and the convention of the people which shall come together under that call. 

I gave no authority for the use of my name at the Hagerstown meeting, and am sorry to say that I differ very widely from many of the distinguished gentlemen announced to speak on that occasion.

As I am daily placed in a false position in the meetings which are being held in this State, and am appealed to in many quarters by persons desirous of knowing my present political status, I will avail myself of this occasion to say that the opinions expressed by me in my annual message to the Legislature in January last, and which received the endorsement of the popular branch of that body, have undergone no change. It may be proper, however, that I should be a little more explicit. 

I am for keeping the control of this Government in the hands of loyal men exclusively, now and at all times.

I am for the reconstruction of the Union by admitting the revolted States to representation in Congress, provided they elect men of undoubted loyalty prepared to take the oath required by that body. 

The masses of the Southern people I am prepared to trust, because I believe they have been deceived by ambitious and designing leaders. With Congress will rest the power to protect itself and the country against disloyal candidates seeking admission into our National Councils.

I am for maintaining the integrity of the Unconditional Union party, which sustained the Government in its efforts to put down this rebellion, and am for adjusting our domestic differences within our own lines. I am utterly opposed to universal negro suffrage and the extreme radicalism of certain men in Congress and in our own State, who have been striving to shape the platform of the Union party in the interests of negro suffrage. 

I look upon negro suffrage and the recognition of the power in Congress to control suffrage within the States as the virtual subordination of the white race to the [[cut off]] domination of the negro in the State of Maryland; and in view of the action of certain extreme men in Congress, for view of the action of certain extreme men in Congress, for three months past, upon the bill to introduce universal negro suffrage into the District of Columbia, against the unanimous voice of the people-the enlarged Freedmen's Bureau bill——

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