USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 8
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 8
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BALTIMORE, December ist, 1851. To AUGUSTUS W. BRADFORD, EsQ., Clerk of Baltimore County Court.
SIR : Having this day made a careful and thorough ex- amination of the papers and records of the office of the clerk of the County Court, such as the law requires, and the Judges of this Court have performed from time to time, we avail ourselves, on this, the last occasion, and the one which closes our official relations, to convey to you in terms of unqualified approbation, our feeble attestation to your upright and perfect discharge of the responsible duties which the law imposed upon your office.
We only thus reiterate what we had frequent occasion to certify, that now, as heretofore, we have uniformly found the voluminous papers and records under your charge, arranged and preserved in perfect order and with all the advantage of economy and convenience of access so indis- pensable to its successful administration.
In our repeated examinations, we have never yet dis- covercd the slightest trace of omission or neglect. Through the whole period of your official action not the smallest complaint has ever been breathed to the court from a sin- gle individual of that vast public whose business is daily connected with your office. Your subordinates have been efficient and competent men, and with such assistants and the perfect order and arrangement of your office, its adinin- istration by you could not but challenge the confidence of the court and the community.
That these salutary ends should be attained and certified to the public, was in the view and design of the law which imposed the visitorial power over the office upon the court,
All Martin
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and it is with unfeigned pleasure we now record the fact that you have not disappointed them.
lu offering this just tribute of commendation to your offi- cial conduct, we should still fail of our purpose, if we were not permitted to add our personal and individual acknowl- edgments to yourself and the clerks more immediately con- nected with the functions of the court, for the patient and obliging discharge of their laborious and important duties. Their thorough familiarity with and knowledge of practice and duty, justified at all times our unreserved confidence, and we need hardly say essentially advanced the business of the court.
In return for your courteous and gentlemanly bearing, in all your relations with the court, we can only wish you in your retirement, years of happiness and continued pros- perity ; and as a testimonial of our just appreciation of your public service, we have directed a copy of this paper to be recorded in the archives, as the last act of the Judges of Baltimore County Court, and as a proper appendage to this their final report.
Sincerely and respectfully yours, etc., WILLIAM FRICK, JOHN PURVIANCE, JOHN C. LE GRAND.
In January, 1861, Governor Hicks appointed Mr. Bradford, as one of the representatives from Maryland, to the " Peace Conference," then about to assemble in Washington, and upon the first manifestation of a disunion sentiment in the South, and even before any overt act of rebellion had been yet committed, he so conspicuously sup- ported the cause of the Union, that upon the organization of the Union party in Maryland, and the assembling of its Gubernatorial Convention, in Baltimore, in the summer of 1861, Mr. Bradford, on the first ballot of that Convention, was nominated as their candidate for Governor, and after thoroughly canvassing the entire State, was elected by the unprecedented majority of 31,000 votes, over one of the most popular and influential citizens of the State, nominated by the opposition. He was inaugurated as Governor of Maryland, in January, 1862, and continued in that office until January, 1866, during all which time he was the ardent advocate of the Union, and exerting whatever power he possessed for its restoration. These exertions, however, cost him a ruinous personal sacrifice. In July, 1864, during a raid made into the State by the insurgent forces, a squad of them, detailed for the purpose, from their camp, in the neighborhood of Reisterstown, visited his dwelling, situated about four miles from Baltimore, and in his absence, set fire to it and burnt it to the ground, with all that it con- tained, including furniture, books and private papers. They left a note with the female members of his family, who at the time were its sole occupants, stating that the act was committed by order of Brigadier-General Bradley T. Johnson, in retaliation for the burning by General Hunter,
of the house of Governor Letcher, of Virginia. Although, as before stated, the Government had no more ardent or consistent supporter in its efforts to subdue the Rebellion than Governor Bradford, he was throughout impelled to that course, not so much from any political hostility to ex- isting of pre-existing parties, as the conscientious convic- tion that nothing but a determined adherence to the Union could preserve the Nation, and was especially essential to the salvation of such a State as Maryland. Her conserva- tive attachments were traditional, and kept her at all times so safely anchored to the Union cable, that no State Rights or slavery heresies had ever yet been able to weaken that tie. Governor Bradford adhered to these conservative principles to the end as well as at the very beginning of the Rebellion, and his confidence in the loyalty of Maryland, at both these periods, rested chiefly upon her well-known conservatism ; but that conservatism never for a moment caused either him or his constituents to hesi- tate, when the question of slavery was interposed, and the issue at some moments might have seemed to be, whether it or the Union should be sacrificed. HIe and they had both been long since convinced that this ancient institu- tion was in no respect adapted to her geographical posi- tion or her industrial pursuits, and that but for the officious and unwarranted interposition of Northern enthusiasts, a generation ago, it would have disappeared from our terri- tory. Now, however, other enthusiasts, nearer home- now made zealots in the cause of emancipation-struggling as such zealots are apt to do, to excel their prototypes, and to make themselves the most conspicuous of any in their partisan aspirations, were seeking for ascendency as leaders in the matter of emancipation, and willing, apparently, to accept it on any terms, provided, only, that it could be ac- complished promptly. Governor Bradford was already sedulously employed in securing the accomplishment of emancipation in a more legitimate and the only Constitu- tional manner. On the meeting of the Legislature, early in January, 1864, having called their attention to that anomalous provision in their existing Constitution, prohib- iting the abolition of slavery, and pointing out how that clause might be abrogated, and a new Constitution abol- ishing slavery be adopted before the end of the coming summer, he had the satisfaction of seeing the Legislature adopt his advice, and all things promising the results he had predicted. The new demonstrations made by the radical emancipationists, and which first attracted attention in the latter part of 1863, and seemed at times almost to indicate that they would favor emancipation on almost any terms, though for a while they alarmed the Constitutional friends of emancipation, then seeking its accomplishment by a change of the organic law, were wholly insufficient to bafile or delay their object. The vote of the people sustained the call of the Convention which did its work, and its Con- stitution was ratified. That Convention, by one of the clauses in the new Constitution, gave authority to the
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soldiers absent from home, at the time fixed for its adoption by the vote of the people, to join in that vote, and pointed out the process by which that vote, should be ascertained and reported. It also enjoined upon the Governor " to make known to the officers of the State regiments the pro- visions of this article, and request them to exercise the right hereby conferred upon them, and to take all means proper to secure the soldiers' vote." In pursuance of this direction, and the discretion thereby confided in him, Gov- ernor Bradford, at the proper time, appointed agents to visit the different regiments in the field, to receive and deliver to him the returns of the votes of the different companies, furnished these agents with printed instructions, pointing out in the most particular and precise manner how the officers charged with the duty of taking the votes of the soldiers were to proceed, the rules they should observe in ascertaining the legality of the votes offered, and in- closed copies of the forms of return which the returning officers should observe, and other instructions designed to make the course to be taken by the soldiers in the taking and return of their vote so perspicuous, that no one could well go astray. He did this in the apprehension -- well founded as the result proved-that the opponents of the new Constitution, possessing abundant means for the pur- pose, would use them liberally in subjeeting the returns of these soldiers' votes to the severest scrutiny. When these military returns were made to the Executive office, one of the most distinguished and astute counsel in the State ap- peared there and asked the liberty to inspect them. This was immediately granted, and the Governor's consent given to the appointment of a day when the counsel should ap- pear before him, file any exceptions he might make to the legality or sufficiency of these returns, and argue them at length before him. The day was appointed, and the argu- ments made before the Governor consumed two days. There were upwards of sixty points of exceptions made to the different returns of the soldiers' votes. Without pausing here to note them, the reader, curious on that subject, may find their purport in the " Opinion of the Governor," set forth at length in the Appendix to Debates of Constitutional Convention, of 1864, volume iii, page 1919. The new Constitution went into effect in Maryland on the Ist of November, 1864, and thus to a great extent by the action and influence of its then Governor was slavery thenceforth abolished in Maryland, by the direct action of its own people, without military interference or Constitutional ag- gression of any kind, some time before it disappeared else- where under the provisions of the National Legislature. But though Governor Bradford, by thus adhering to the only Constitutional mode by which slavery could be abolished in Maryland, manifested his readiness to see it so abolished, and by his consistent and persistent course, did as much to- wards its abolishment as any other citizen of the State, it was evident from the whole tenor of his addresses and writ- ings upon the subject during the progress of the war, that the
polar star which guided his course during the towering gloom of the Rebellion, was his paramount attachment to the Union, and that sooner than surrender it, he was ever ready to sacrifice every other interest or institution. This he made most emphatically manifest in an address which be de- livered before the citizens of Baltimore, in the midst of the most exciting agitation, to which we have just alluded, growing out of the discussions upon the question of eman- cipation in Maryland. The occasion was a banquet given to welcome the advent of General Schenck to the command of the Middle Military Department, which took place in January, 1863, and over which the Governor presided. We give the following extract from his opening address :
" The loyal men of Maryland, my friends, have no par- ties to sustain, no parties to create, no parties to revive. They have no presidents to make, no presidents to recom- mend. Were the presidential election to come off in a month, Maryland's loyal men would not rest their hopes on the Republican party, or the Democratic party, or the old line Whig party. They would propose no candidate but a pure Pro Patria, Anti-rebellion honest man, and that alone would fill up the measure of their candidate for the presidency. They know full well that however much any one party may have had to do in tearing down the fair fabric which was once such a pride of all of us, that no one party can of themselves ever build it up again. My gal- lant friend here to-night belonged to an old national con- servative party that I am sure, he as well as myself, if we spoke our honest thoughts, would say compared most fa- vorably with any that ever preceded or survived it; but yet I am sure I speak his sentiments, as well as my own, when I say that if we could, by a single word of ours, re- vive that old party to-morrow we would not do it until we had first reconstructed that old family mansion now so fearfully shaken by the whirlwind of Rebellion. Such, my friends, I would have our guests and others believe is the loyalty of Maryland's loyal men. Such I believe it to be, such I know it should be, and I have confidence it will continue to be. It will repudiate all local, all sec- tional, all subordinate, all selfish considerations-every consideration in fact that has the power or possibility of diverting its hand from the great work that occupies its heart. The loyal men of Maryland have but one purpose and one hope, but one ambition and one thought, and that is the Union, its restoration, its preservation, its per- petuity. We would save it at all hazards, and if not with all the improvements that some of us might suggest, then with all the interests and institutions that have ever found shelter beneath it. We would then, at least, be saving it in the identical shape in which our fathers themselves received it from their own patriotic ancestry. We would, therefore, save the ark and all that it contains, every bird, and every beast, and every creeping thing that ever found refuge be- neath its roof. But if this be not possible, and some must be thrown overboard, then let them go. I say-saered,
7:1
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patriarchal, though some may regard them-go to the very depths of the sea, so that we may save the ark itself with its precious freight of popular government, public liberty, republican institutions, religious toleration, the home of our children, the hope of the universe. All -- all to be annihilated whenever it goes down."
Governor Bradford attended the meeting and was called to preside over the deliberations of the Loyal Governors, held at Altoona, Pa., in the month of September, 1862-in many respects a most interesting assemblage. Ile was ap- pointed by President Johnson, in 1867, the Surveyor of the Port of Baltimore, an office which he held only until April, 1869, when General Grant removed him, although one of his supporters in the election of 1868; appointing in his place Eddington Fulton, Esq., brother of the editor of the Baltimore American. Ile never sought office, how- ever, with any inordinate solicitude. In 1874, during General Grant's last term, he offered Governor Bradford the appointment of Appraiser in the Baltimore Custom House, and as soon as the papers of next morning apprised him of the fact, and before receiving any official communication of it, he hurried to Washington to decline the appointment. After calling on the President and making known to, him the reasons which compelled him to decline the position, he, at the instance and request of the President to put those reasons in writing, wrote the following letter, to which others in like circumstances would do well to refer :
1912249
WASHINGTON, December 22, 1874. TO PRESIDENT GRANT.
MR. PRESIDENT: The morning papers of to-day have brought to my notice the fact that you yesterday did me the honor to nominate me to the Senate for the office of Ap- praiser-General of Merchandise in the Baltimore Custom House, Whilst tendering you my cordial thanks for the nomination, I consider it as due to you, as well as to my- self, to state why I feel constrained to decline it.
The office is one that seems to me to require the services of an experienced and judicious merchant, and my own past pursuits have been so entirely outside of such a sphere, without either mercantile education or experience, that 1 cannot but feel, that for me to undertake to discharge the duties of such an office, would make me entirely dependent upon deputies or assistants. To accept any office, under such circumstances, would be altogether repugnant to my notions of official qualification and responsibility, and I beg, therefore, sir, that you will withdraw my name from the consideration of the Senate and substitute some other.
Whilst I have thus expressed the chief, if not the only reason that prompts me to this course, I trust I shall be understood that in coming to this conclusion, nothing like hostility or opposition, either to yourself or your adminis- tration, has mingled with the motives that have actuated me; on the contrary, I beg leave to assure you, that for the one as for the other, I cherish nothing but the best wishes
and the kindliest feelings. I have the honor to be, with highest regard, your obedient servant,
A. W. BRADFORD.
The President appointed Judge Goldsborough, of the Eastern Shore, after Governor Bradford's declension, and the latter has held no office since. We have already re- ferred to the destruction of Governor Bradford's property, which was costly and valuable, and although as we under- stand, many are under the impression that for that loss he has been indemnified, it may be as well to state the fact that not a dollar in the way of such indemnity has ever yet been paid or promised to him, either by the State or Federal Government. The last reference we have to make to Governor Bradford's executive career, is a brief impromptu address, called from him during the festivities attending the inauguration of his successor, Governor Swann, in January, 1866, on the day upon which he sur- rendered the State Government to that gentleman. Brief though it be, and delivered upon the spur of the moment, yet considered as his valedictory to his State, it seems to be an appropriate conclusion to this sketch of his career. Governor Bradford spoke as follows: " I thank you, my friends, for the kindly feeling expressed in this call, and as I am sure you would not have me interrupt the festivities of this occasion by anything in the way of a long speech, I will 'endeavor not to chisappoint that expectation. The occasion is well calculated to call to mind the time when and circumstances under which I entered upon the execu- tive duties, which I this day surrender with unaffected pleasure to my distinguished successor. After a retirement of fifteen years from all political and professional life, and whilst engaged in the quiet rural pursuits to which early predilections inclined me, in August, 1861, the Conven- tion of the Union party of Maryland did me the honor to nominate me for Governor of my native State, an honor none the less distinguished, and I assure you not the less appreciated, because it came unsought. I would not have you believe that I am less sensible of the distinction of such a position than the rest of my fellow-citizens, and yet I can with truth declare there is no man living who can say that I ever directly or indirectly, by word or deed, solicited or sought the situation. I was absent from the State when the nomination was made, and had been for some weeks, and when you call to mind the circumstances of that period, the gloom that then enveloped us, the insurrection that, having mastered the South, was spreading around us, gloating over the transient triumphs then but recently achieved-the Bull Run battle and the battle of Spring- field but then just over -- and when you remember the state of things in our own State,-society shaken to its very centre, an old and influential party very generally sympa- thizing with the rebellion, aided and assisted by many of the old leaders of another party, with all of whom I had previously maintained the most intimate social and politi.
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cal relations-you will not wonder that I did not covet the position, and that I felt staggered at the thought of the re- sponsibilities it involved. But still I could not but feel, that at such a time and when the little mite that any of us possessed was so obviously due to the government under which we lived-a claim strengthened by the sight of so many proving recreant around us-to decline any responsi- bility, however onerous, would be a cowardly dereliction of duty, inconsistent with the course I had endeavored through life to pursue. With a grateful sense, therefore, of the honor done me by the convention, I accepted its nomination, and canvassed the State from Alleghany to Worcester. The loyal sons of Maryland, from no par- ticular effort or merit of mine, as I am well aware, but chiefly from that early and innate devotion to the Union which, throughout the late fearful struggle has been the crowning glory of the masses of our people, elected me by a majority of more than 31,000 votes-a majority, as I know, not so much given to Augustus W. Bradford, as to the candidate of the Union party pledged to aid in putting down the insurrection and restoring the Union, at any cost that human sacrifice could offer. With a trembling appre- hension that I might prove unequal to the task, I entered upon the discharge of my duties, and though I do not mean to relate a history of the last four years or pronounce any epilogue to my administration, you will excuse me for a brief allusion to the character of some of the difficulties of my situation. They far exceeded the estimate I had formed of them. It was not merely that the physical or clerical duties of the office were quadruple those of any preceding term, and with no addition to its clerical force, but such were the mental anxieties of the situation as at times to be almost overwhelming. Here permit me to say a word in justice to my assistants in the departments, and I owe the same tribute to all the other State officers with whom I have been officially associated. I found them at all times vigilant, industrious, and attentive, and consider it one of the fortunate circumstances of my official term that I was able to go through it without any change of subordinates. My earliest concern was that the State, though divided as she was in sentiment, should send forth to the Union army such a number of representatives as be- fitted the loyal State I knew she was. And so the people were to be stimulated to volunteer, and the secret influences extensively at work to discourage that proceeding, were to be thwarted or neutralized. Then they were to be pro- vided with the best officers, and out of twenty-five hundred applications, docketed and on file, these selections were made. Iowe them, too, the justice of saying, that with few if any exceptions, they not only fully met my expectations, but have, as I believe, fulfilled the highest hopes of their fellow- citizens. When volunteering flagged, the militia were to be enrolled and drafted ; and the people, all unaccustomed to coercion, and encouraged by so many around them to resist it, were to be reconciled to the proceeding. Other
and still more embarrassing difficulties were constantly springing up. On the one side were the secessionists and sympathizers, cloaking under an affected devotion to the rights and interests of the State, the most inveterate hos- tility to the Government, and a scarcely concealed attach- ment to the interests of the rebellion. On the other side were occasionally found politicians of an extreme type, who for some party end seemed disposed to rudely experi- ment with the well-known loyalty of the State, and appar- ently supposed that such were its interests or affections that it would submit to offensive discriminations against the State itself, rather than jeopardize the success of the Gov- ernment by any open collision with its rulers. Dark and difficult was the path by which your executive at times had to thread a way through these intricate mazes. That he could satisfy every one or even all the loyal ones was not to be expected. Others probably might have done better or done more ; might at least have found fewer difficulties, or reached the goal by some shorter if not safer route. But I can conscientiously say, that let them have travelled by whatever route they might, none could have sought that goal with a more earnest or honest purpose, of fulfilling the pledges with which he started, and reaching it, if possible, victoriously at last. I will not enter into any discussion of those political topics, National or State, now challenging public attention. They have in a great measure been in- trusted to political agents, in whom I, and as I believe, the people generally have entire confidence. From this day forth I have no other interest in or influence over these subjects than any other citizen in the private walks of life, and yet such has been my connection with some of them that I shall never cease to look with a lively concern to those ultimate results and developments which the prog- ress and conclusion of the war have so far but partially unfolded. The great object of that war was to conquer the rebellion, and preserve the Union; and now that the powers of the Government have so successfully asserted their supremacy-now that these detestable and dangerous heresies are so confessedly expunged from the textbooks of Southern politicians; now that the great blot upon our body politie, the fruitful source of all our strife, has been completely erased, Slavery being lifted from the land, and the Constitution of the United States as well as the most ultra of the Southern States themselves declaring that it shall never again pollute it-it seems to me that to fail to take advantage of these new and auspicious results-to fail to reunite the States for whose reunion we have so long and faithfully and successfully struggled-reunite them promptly and practically, would be to blindly bow to the behests of party rather than to respond as we should to the wants and claims of the country, and realize the substantial fruits of the situation as well as its incipient advantages. Of Maryland and her destiny I feel proud and I feel secure. She has vindicated her loyalty, and whilst passing through the struggle incident to that vindication, she has found
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