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THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN MARYLAND - THE POSITIONS OF GOVERNO[R] SWANN AND EX-GOVERNOR BRADFOR[D]

We can do nothing that will more enhance th[e] public gratification from the course of Govern[or] Swan than by prefacing by passages from [an] editorial from the intolerant Baltimore America.
Of course it expatiates upon the mercenary consideration of Mr. Swann's prospects for high official position hereafter, and asserts that most of the presses that support the proscriptive test-oath system in Maryland, which, under the start-chambe[r] measure of Mr. Stevens, will cut off half of the representation in Congress of the 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 influences of those who were supposed to [be] best informed as to his sentiments that the resolution whi[ch] he complains of misrepresenting him have been adopted the various meeting held in Baltimore and other sections [of] the State.
We speak plainly and emphatically on the subject in f[ull] confidence that we are but expressing the view of those w[ho] were heretofore the most earnest of the most political and person[al] friends of the Governor. The time has arrived when [the] Union party must have no concealments of its view and p[ur]poses. What has heretofore been in doubt is now made st[u]born fact by this definition of the view of the [Go]vernor, and as he has thrown his influence into the scale w[ith] those who are endeavoring to sell out the party in Marylan[d] the issue must be accepted and manfully met at the thresho[ld]. We must now go into the coming contest with new leaders, most of those whom we have hitherto delighted to honor h[ave] 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 Conventi[on] to meet in Baltimore on the 6th of June. In most of [the] counties the preparatory movements have been made for a f[air] and effective representation, and we have every confiden[ce] that the convention will plant the Union party of the St[ate] firmly on the platform of the Union party of the nation. 

A Card from Governor Swann. 

We last evening received the following card from Go[v]ernor Swann:
To the Editors of the Baltimore American:
GENTLEMEN: In the Hagerstown Herald and Torch of t[he] 9th instant, noticed in the American of the morning I f[ind] my name announced as one of those expected to be prese[nt] with Hon. J. A. J. Creswell, Hon. Francis Thomas, Hon. J. Thomas, General Garfield, Hon. Archibald Sterling, H[on]. Henry Stockbridge, and William Daniel, Esq., at a mass me[et]ing to elect ten delegates for each district to meet in Cou[ncil] Convention on Tuesday, May 29, for the purpose of choosi[ng] six delegates to represent Washington county in the Uni[on] State Convention, called to assemble in Baltimore on Wed[nes]day, the 6th of June. In the call of the meeting, signed by Mobley, president, it is with extreme regret that I wit[ness] some of the most useful and reliable Union men of Baltim[ore] belonging to the State Central Committee, characterized [by] disunionists.
It may be proper for me to say that I recognize the Unc[on]ditional Union State Central Committee as the only org[anization] authorized to call a convention of the Union party of t[he] State, and I am not aware by what authority, under form[er] party usage, this call of a convention is appointed to t[ake] place. The recognized Chairman of the Unconditional Un[ion] State Central Committee, with the acquiescence of a major of the Executive Committee of that body, having calle[d] general meeting of the committee, to take place on the 2[cut] May, which will result in a call for a similar convention of [the] people, we have the Union party of the State of Maryl[and] thus 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, a[nd] shall await the action of the recognized State Central Com[m]ittee under the call now pending, the convention of people which shall come together under that call. 
I gave no authority for the use of my name at the Hag[ers]town meeting, and am sorry to say that I differ very wid[ely] from many of the distinguished gentlemen announce to sp[eak] on that occasion.
As I am daily placed in a false position in the meeti[ngs] which are being held in this State, and am appealed to in ma[cut] quarters by persons desirous of knowing my present politi[cal] status, I will avail myself of this occassion to say that [cut] opinions expressed by me in my annual message to the Leg[is]lature in January last, and which received the endorsem[ent] of the popular branch of that body, have undergone no chang[e.] It may be proper, however, that I should be a little more [ex]plicit.
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 t[hey] elect men of undoubted loyalty prepared to take the oath requi[red] by that body. 
The masses of the Southern people I am prepared to  t[rust] because I believe they have been deceived by ambitious [cut] designing leaders. With Congress will rest the power to p[ro]tect itself and the country against disloyal candidates seek[ing] admission into our National Councils.
I am for maintaining the integrity of the Unconditio[nal] Union party, which sustained the Government in its effort [to] put down this rebellion, and am [cut]