USA > Maryland > Genealogical and memorial encyclopedia of the state of Maryland, a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume II > Part 14
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Mr. Knott, though not reared as a Democrat, allied him- self at a meeting held in Annapolis with that party; and when, in February, 1864, it was decided to make an effort to reor- ganize the Democratic party in Maryland in the interest of constitutional government, Colonel (afterward Governor) Oden Bowie was made chairman, and A. Leo Knott secretary of the State Central Committee, a position which he held for several years. In that year Mr. Knott was sent as a delegate to the convention which met in Chicago and nominated Gen- eral George B. McClellan as the Democratic candidate for president. The Democratic party, however, was defeated.
The next three years were years of stress and turmoil in Maryland. The constitution of 1864, fathered by the extreme wing of the Republican party, had been forced upon the people in a manner which all men now know to have been illegal, and despite the whole power of the federal govern- ment, inspired and directed by President Lincoln personally, this instrument was only "counted in" and proclaimed by Gov- ernor Bradford a fundamental law of the State by the slender
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majority of 218 votes. Vast numbers of the Democrats were practically disfranchised. It was carried by what was known as the soldier vote, taken in the camps. The majority of the home vote against it was about two thousand.
Undismayed by the powers arrayed against them, the Democrats determined to put a full ticket in the field, and Mr. Knott was the nominee for Congress in the third district. He was charged with being a rebel sympathizer and a war- rant was made out for his arrest at the polls, but on the remonstrance of one of the judges it was not served, and Mr. Knott was dismissed, but without voting. By methods now well understood, the State was carried for Lincoln. The Democrats continued to fight and they began to get recruits from moderate men who had been co-operating with the Republicans. Among these were the Governor, Thomas Swann; Montgomery Blair, Lincoln's first postmaster-gen- eral; Edwin Webster, collector of the port of Baltimore; W. H. Purnell, postmaster of Baltimore, and others of similar character. Naturally such influential men brought a consider- able following to the reorganized Democracy, and in the last desperate battle, fought the 6th of November, 1866, the Demo- crats carried every legislative district in Baltimore City, which, with their majority in the State at large, gave them two-thirds of each house of the General Assembly, and enabled them thereby to formulate a call for the new constitutional convention. The main fight was in the city of Baltimore. In this connection the following letter of congratulation to Mr. Knott from Governor Oden Bowie, written the day after the election of November 6, 1866, is indispensable as showing the acknowledged importance of the result in Baltimore, with- out which there would not have been the present institution of 1867:
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Collington, Prince George's Co., Md.
Nov. 8, 1866.
My dear Knott,
You have covered yourselves all over with glory. Most heartily do I congratulate you.
It seems to me the occasion is worthy of and calls for an address from our committee. I am too much engaged just now, however, in railroad matters to go up and consult you all about the matter, and, as at this distance from the real battlefield (Baltimore City), I might make a mistake in the kind of address our allies might think best. I write to ask you to prepare such a one as on consultation you think best and publish it as coming from ourselves. In haste,
Yours very truly, ODEN BOWIE.
In accordance with the request of Governor Bowie, Mr. Knott prepared and issued an address to the Democratic con- servative voters of the State, congratulating them on the bril- liant victory they had won over overwhelming Radical Re- publicans, and the redemption of Maryland from the tyran- nical rule of a Radical Republican oligarchy.
Governor Swann had removed the two Republican police commissioners, Messrs. Woods and Hindes, after trial, on the ground of gross misconduct in conducting the municipal election in the previous October and had appointed in their places Messrs. Valiant and Young. The removed commis- sioners refused to surrender their offices and, with the aid of the mayor, Judge Bond, the State's Attorney and the police force, resisted the execution of the order of the Governor.
The two gentlemen appointed by the Governor and Mr. Thompson, the sheriff of the city, were arrested and confined in the city jail without bail on Saturday, November 3, 1866, before the election, by order of Judge Bond of the Criminal Court, on the charge of riot wrongfully preferred against them by the State's Attorney. They were kept in jail until
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after the election. Subsequently, under habeas corpus pro- ceedings, this action of the Judge and the State's Attorney was declared by Chief Justice Bartol of the Court of Appeals to be illegal, and the gentlemen so unjustly arrested and im- prisoned were discharged. It was the desperate effort of a faction, unscrupulous in means, but insignificant in numbers, to perpetuate its ill-gotten power in the State.
Governor Swann then called on President Johnson for the aid of the federal government in suppressing this insur- rectionary movement against the authority of the State. Gen- erals Grant and Canby were dispatched one after the other by the President to Baltimore to examine into and report upon the condition of things in the city. Before calling on Gov- ernor Swann both these gentlemen held interviews with the leaders of the Republican insurgents, and, returning to Wash- ington, reported against any interference on part of the gov- ernment. Nor, after the visits of Generals Grant and Canby and their conduct while in the city, did the Democratic con- servatives desire any interference of the federal government, for they felt convinced that if any interference should take place it would, under the influence of Secretary Stanton, the unrelenting enemy of the South, be exerted to support the recalcitrant police commissioners and the Republican party, and not to sustain Governor Swann and the oppressed people of Maryland. All these occurrences tended to dismay, but not to discourage the Democratic conservatives, who entered on the election held on the 6th of November, 1866, without a single judge or clerk, although these had been assured to them by both Grant and Canby, and against the combined and violent opposition of the city authorities, the judge of the Criminal Court, the State's Attorney's office, and the police force, supplemented by five hundred special officers collected from the canaille of the city, achieved a brilliant victory, car-
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rying the three legislative districts, assuring thereby a ma- jority of two-thirds of each house of the General Assembly, and the passage of a bill for the call of a constitutional con- vention.
Of the House of Delegates of that General Assembly Mr. Knott was a member from the second legislative district of Baltimore. He was active in the proceedings, being a mem- ber of the joint committee of the Senate and House, of which Judge Carmichael, of Queen Anne's, was chairman, to report a bill for a call for a convention to frame a new constitution in the place of the constitution of 1864 adopted by the Repub- lican party during the war. He was also a member of the Committee on Federal Relations, which reported a resolution refusing the assent of Maryland to the Fourteenth Amend- ment to the Constitution. He was the chairman of the Com- mittee on Internal Improvements that reported the bill for the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad, and served on other committees.
The General Assembly was now within three weeks of the close of the session and neither the convention bill nor the military bill had been passed, both necessary and vital meas- ures. The former had encountered unexpected opposition from some of the more timid members of the Democratic conservative party, who, alarmed by the threats of the Repub- licans, thought we should be content with a general enfran- chisement act passed early in the session. There were grave doubts as to the constitutionality of this act enfranchising the people en bloc under the 4th Section, Article I, of the con- stitution of 1864, and this course therefore would have left the question of the emancipation of the people open to the construction of a hostile judiciary. To this course there were insuperable objections. A caucus of the party was called, at which Mr. Knott offered and advocated the following resolu-
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tion : "Resolved, That, laying aside all private and public bills, the Democratic conservatives hereby pledge themselves to devote the remainder of the session to the passage of the convention bill and the military bill."
During the session of the Legislature violent threats had been made and resolutions adopted at meetings of Republi- cans in the city and throughout the State against the course pursued in that body by the Democratic conservatives in restor- ing the people to their rights, even to the extent of declaring that the federal government would be invoked to suppress "the rebels and traitors" who were trying to gain possession of the State and renew the rebellion.
To meet any such contingencies as were threatened, should they arise, and admonished by the weakness of the State author- ities in the events preceding the election of November 6, 1866, it was deemed necessary to provide, arm and equip an ade- quate military force and place it in the hands of the Governor. The resolutions offered by Mr. Knott were unanimously adopted by the caucus; and these two measures were imme- diately taken up and passed by the General Assembly. The election of November 6, 1866, thus accomplished its work. The people of Maryland, after a long and arduous struggle, had at length come into their own. It was under the military bill then passed that the Fifth Regiment, now the pride of Baltimore City, was organized in the spring and summer of 1867. Maryland was free.
The constitutional convention submitted the new consti- tution, which was ratified, and in the fall of 1867, Oden Bowie, who during three years had led the struggle as chairman of the committee of which Mr. Knott was secretary, was nom- inated and elected Governor by forty thousand majority. Mr. Knott was nominated and elected State's Attorney of Balti- more by a majority of twenty thousand, and was re-elected
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to this office in 1871 and again in 1875, making three terms, covering a period of twelve years. On Mr. Knott's nomina- tion as State's Attorney he received the following letter from the late Judge Richard B. Carmichael, clarum et venerabile nomen, with whom he served in the Legislature of 1866-1867:
Belle View, Md., Oct. 6, 1867.
A. Leo Knott, Esq.,
My dear Sir :
I have only a word to convey my congratulations on your nomination and to express my pleasure at it.
Perhaps you will permit me "entre nous" to remind you that the duties of the place will require all the emphasis which drew down upon you last winter the fierce retort of the "honorable member" from Dochester.
This allusion to the "fierce retort" of the member from Dorchester refers to a personal incident which occurred be- tween Francis P. Phelps and Mr. Knott in the discussion for a State appropriation to the Baltimore ice boat bill, which was strongly antagonized by "the honorable member" from Dorchester. The incident was settled by the intervention of mutual friends.
Mr. Knott was an active and leading member of the House of Delegates in the Legislature of Maryland, which assembled January 1, 1867, and was particularly earnest in his efforts to have the new constitution adopted, which was done in November, 1867. Many other measures of reform were put through in this session, and Mr. Knott was a member of a number of special committees, among them being: Joint committee of the Senate and the House to report a bill for the call of a convention to frame a new constitution for the State, member of the Judiciary Committee, chairman of the Committee on Elections and of the Committee on Internal Improvements. As chairman of the last named committee he was instrumental in having some amendments to the old
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charter of the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Company passed, by means of which a new railway was established between Baltimore and Washington. In the National Demo- cratic Conventions of 1864 and 1872 Mr. Knott represented his State, and was a member of the National Democratic Executive Committee from 1872 until 1876. He was promi- nently identified in 1884 with the campaign which resulted in the election of Grover Cleveland, making speeches in Mary- land, West Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. One year later he was offered and accepted the position of Second Assist- ant Postmaster-General, which he filled until the close of the first administration of President Cleveland. When Mr. Knott was appointed to this office "The Baltimore Sun" contained the following editorial :
The appointment of Mr. A. Leo Knott to be second assistant postmaster- general is in every respect one of the best that could have been made. It is as honorable to the president and Mr. Vilas, the postmaster-general, as it is gratifying not only to Maryland, but to all who are acquainted with Mr. Knott, and who know with what conspicuous ability he filled for twelve years the office of state's attorney for the city of Baltimore. During the three successive terms for which he was elected he proved himself to be one of the most fearless and energetic prosecuting officers that Baltimore has ever had ; and, on his retirement from a position that was both delicate and arduous, the thoroughly noble manner in which his official duties had been performed was made the subject of the warmest approval from the press of the city. Mr. Knott has been lieartily in accord with the principles of the Democratic party ever since the time when, in 1858, he first began to take an active part in political affairs. He has not been a blind partisan, but, while holding to his party, has shown on occasions a conservatism and a spirit of independence that won for him the respect even of those with whom he differed on points of policy or methods of action. He has filled various places of honor in the party, being a member of the legislature, of the state Democratic convention of 1864, and was a delegate to the national Democratic conventions of 1864 and 1872. As an eloquent public speaker his services have frequently been in request at home and in other states. His appointment as second assistant postmaster-general has, therefore, been well earned, and to Maryland it is MD .- 34
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especially welcome, as it is intimately connected with that branch of the ser- vice which concerns the transmission of the mails. We have no doubt that Mr. Knott will bring to the work that is before him the same zeal and thoroughness for which he was distinguished as state's attorney, and which has been a marked feature of his political and professional career.
Other Baltimore papers also referred to the appointment in terms of high praise and satisfaction. The position to which Mr. Knott had been appointed was a very responsible and important one, and during the summer of 1885 he spent sev- eral months in examining and inspecting the service in order to familiarize himself with its manifold duties, traveling as far as Salt Lake City, Bismarck, Chicago, and Duluth. Dur- ing the entire length of time that he held this office it was the custom of Mr. Knott to devote one month each year to tours of inspection of this nature, and he thus acquired most valu- able information regarding the specific needs of the various sections of the country, which it would have been a difficult matter for him to obtain in any other manner. He made many important changes and improvements in the transportation system of the mails, some of which have been retained by his successors. In 1886 Mr. Knott prepared and submitted in his annual report to the postmaster-general and to Congress a plan for adjusting the pay of railroad companies for railway mail transportation and postal-car service, whereby the government would have been saved more than one million dollars annu- ally. The postmaster-general and Congress took no action in the matter, and the cost of this branch of the postal service is now more than fifty-four million dollars annually. In the same year Mr. Knott was sent by the President of the United States to the Governor-General of Cuba to arrange a convention with the Governor-General for the transmission of mails between Spain and Cuba by way of Key West, Tampa and New York, a mission in which he was highly successful.
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Upon the resignation of Judge William A. Fisher from the bench of Baltimore City, Governor Lloyd offered the appoint- ment to the vacancy to Mr. Knott, which the latter accepted. President Cleveland, however, having expressed a decided wish that Mr. Knott remain in office until the close of his administration, Mr. Knott declined the appointment, and upon his retirement from office, April, 1889, resumed his legal practice, with offices in Washington and Baltimore.
The following year he became associated with the late Linden Kent, R. Byrd Lewis, and Robert J. Washington in the management of the interests of the heirs of Henry Har- ford, the last lord proprietary of Maryland, in the suit insti- tuted by the United States government concerning the rights and titles to submerged lands in the Potomac, opposite Wash- ington. This case was argued before the Supreme Court in 1898. In the campaign in favor of Cleveland in 1892 Mr. Knott was an active participant, as he also was in the campaign in favor of Bryan in 1896. A fluent speaker, he gave on many occasions conclusive evidence of his ability to argue forcibly and convincingly. He was frequently requested to deliver addresses on historical and literary subjects before learned bodies in Baltimore, New York and Washington, among others, an address to the graduates of Manhattan College, New York; to the graduates of Loyola College and of Rock Hill College, Baltimore; of Washington College, Chester- town, and to the students and graduates of his alma mater, St. Mary's College and Seminary, on the celebration of her centenary in 1891. He also delivered the address on Christo- pher Columbus on the occasion of the dedication of the monu- ment erected by the Italian Societies of Baltimore to the great navigator. Mr. Knott was the author of the article "Maryland" in the Encyclopedia Americana, and of the arti- cle "The Roman Catholic Church in Maryland" in the Cath-
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olic Encyclopedia. He was a frequent contributor to the press on historical and political subjects. He was the author of a work entitled "A Relation of Some Political Transac- tions in Maryland, 1861-1867." In these transactions Mr. Knott took a prominent part as a member of the House of Delegates from Baltimore City in 1867. His book was well received by both press and public, many favorable notices being given it. "The Baltimore Sun" said, in part:
A biographical sketch of Hon. A. Leo Knott will prove of absorbing interest, not only to his many friends in Baltimore, but to all Marylanders who recall the memorable struggle in this state from 1861 to 1867 for political freedom. Mr. Knott is one of the most distinguished citizens of Baltimore, and was among those who led the fight for political liberty in this critical period in the history of Maryland. With the other distinguished men who were engaged in that bitter struggle he displayed an indomitable will, invincible courage, and ability of the highest order, entitling him to an honorable place among those who have served the state well and faithfully. It is believed that but for the intrigues and selfishness of some of those who subsequently secured the control of the Democratic party of Maryland, Mr. Knott would doubtless have been elevated to the bench, a position which he was well fitted to adorn. The volume is an invaluable compendium of the political history of that period, and it presents Mr. Knott and those who were associated with him in the struggle in the light of patriots who, regard- less of the consequences and unawed by power, made one of the most deter- mined fights in the history of the American republic for the constitutional rights and liberties of the citizen as against a minority sustained by Federal bavonets and ruling in defiance of the spirit of our institutions.
Mr. Knott was elected a member of the House of Dele- gates of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1899, took a prominent part in the proceedings and deliberations of that body, was chairman of the Committee on Corporations. He took an active and influential part in effecting a reduction in the price of gas to the people of Baltimore from $1.50 to $1.10 per thousand feet. In June, 1900, Mr. Knott was chosen by the Democratic State Convention as a delegate to the Dem-
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ocratic National Convention held at Kansas City, July 4, 1909.
Mr. Knott was a member of the Maryland Club, of the Maryland Historical Society, of the Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, and president of the Maryland Orig- inal Research Society. He was also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars in Maryland, of the General Society of the War of 1812, of which latter he was for many years the judge advocate general. By birth, education and conviction he was a member of the Roman Catholic church.
Mr. Knott married, 1873, Regina M., daughter of Anthony and Mary (Phelan) Keenan, old and respected citizens of Baltimore. The ancestors of Mary (Phelan) Keenan came from Waterford, Ireland, in 1776. John and Philip Phelan joined the American Army in Boston, 1776. Philip Phelan was a lieutenant of the Third Company of Colonel Henry Jackson's Sixteenth Regiment of the Massa- chusetts Line. Later he held the same rank in the Continental Army, was with General Greene in his southern campaigns, and fell at the battle of Eutaw Springs. John Phelan entered the army as an ensign and was promoted, January I, 1777, to the rank of lieutenant in Colonel Smith's Regiment of the Continental Army. He also was with General Greene in his southern campaigns, went through the Revolutionary struggle, remaining in the army until its disbandment at Newburg, October, 1783, attained the rank of captain, and that of major by brevet, and after the war settled in New York and engaged in a mercantile life. He made several voyages as a super- cargo, being wrecked in one and losing all his possessions. He removed to Baltimore upon his return to America, and opened and for many years conducted a classical and mathe- matical school on North Exeter street. Among his pupils who later became famous were: Christopher Hughes, an accom- plished diplomat, who was for a number of years the Ameri-
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can minister at The Hague; the late Hon. William H. Gat- chell; George W. Andrews, formerly a well-known chemist of Baltimore. Major Phelan, who was a member of the So- ciety of the Cincinnati, died in Baltimore, September 13, 1827, and was buried with military honors.
Mrs. Knott was a prominent and influential member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution from its formation, being a resident of the city of Wash- ington at that time, 1890. She was one of the fifteen honorary vice-presidents-general for life, a position conferred for dis- tinguished services rendered the society. On her removal to Baltimore Mrs. Knott instituted the Society of the Daughters in Maryland, March 4, 1891, and was the first State regent. She established the Baltimore Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and was its regent for ten years. Mrs. Knott was a graduate of the Visitation Convent, Mt. De Sales, Catonsville, and was the first president of the Alumna Society of that institution.
Mrs. Knott was a native of Baltimore, a member of the Roman Catholic faith, and active in the charitable and relig- ious work of that church. A woman not only of unusual sweet- ness and beauty of character, but possessed of great intel- lectuality, she was an ornament to Baltimore society, and her death, October 30, 1911, was the cause of great sorrow to many.
A loyal son of Maryland, Mr. Knott gave his best efforts to the advancement of the material prosperity of his State and ยท city, but over and above this he was a true and faithful citizen, maintaining the public-spirited traditions of the family from which he was descended. His death occurred April 12, 1918.
DANIEL MILLER
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