USA > Maryland > Governors of Maryland : from the Revolution to the year 1908 > Part 14
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the University of Virginia and later attended Yale Law School, where he prepared for the profession which he had determined to pursue. Upon his return to Virginia, he was examined for admission to the bar and authorized to practice law; but the home county of Mr. Ligon did not present many inducements for an ambitious lawyer, and the young man began to look about for a promising town in which to open an office. In 1833, at the age of twenty-one, he came to Baltimore, where in a very modest way he made it known that he was bent upon practicing law and desired clients. .
In 1840 Thomas Ligon was married to Miss Sallie Dorsey, of that portion of Baltimore county which later was in- cluded in Howard county, and thereafter he had his residence at Ellicott's Mill-now known as Ellicott City- although he continued his law practice in Baltimore. Mr. Ligon's wife was a daughter of Charles Worthington Dorsey, and after her death the governor was married to Mary Tolly Dorsey, another daughter of the Marylander, and a sister to the first Mrs. Ligon. Several years after his first marriage Mr. Ligon made his initial appearance as an office- seeker. He had been invited in 1841 to accept the nomina- tion for member of the legislature, but declined the honor. Two years later, however, he consented to become a candi- date and was elected. Mr. Ligon's success prompted his fellow-democrats to nominate him in 1844 as the party's candidate for congress, to which body he was elected by a fair majority, which was somewhat increased two years later when he appeared for reelection. He was a member of the twenty-ninth and thirtieth congresses, serving from December 1, 1845, to March 3, 1849.
Early in the fifties there came into being the know- nothing, party which, though short-lived, was very strong in Maryland. In the gubernatorial campaign of 1853 the
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know-nothing party nominated Richard J. Bowie, of. Mont- gomery county; the democrats named as standard-bearer ex-Congressman Ligon. The election was bitterly con- tested and, although Mr. Ligon was chosen by a small majority, the opponents of the democrats were given a con- siderable majority in both the state senate and the house of delegates. When Mr. Ligon, therefore, was inaugurated governor of Maryland, on January 11, 1854, he was well aware of the fact that the executive department, if it pur- sued a partisan course, would be pitted against the legisla- tive branch of the government. Knowing, as he did, the great odds against him upon a partisan vote, and also realizing how bitterly the know-nothing party, with its aim at secrecy, would defend its position against any hostile demonstration from the almost helpless state executive, the new governor nevertheless, almost immediately after his assumption of the executive duties, began his war upon his political enemies.
The antagonism of Governor Ligon to the know-nothing party did not bear immediate fruit. In the state election of 1855-the year following his inauguration-the know- nothing candidates won a complete victory, and for several years thereafter they ruled the state, though in much the same way that bandits govern a wild or desert country. In time, however, the labor of Governor Ligon began to show results, and a reform movement, which had as its object the casting off of the yoke of ruffian rule, made its appearance, and once more political affairs in the state were separated from crime. When Governor Ligon in his message of January, 1856, called the attention of the legislature to the existence of a secret political organization founded upon religious prejudice, and warned them of the dangers of poli- tics based on race or sect, the general assembly appointed a committee to investigate the charges. Although the
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majority of this committee refused to serve, because it thought such an investigation would be an insult to the intelligence of a large majority of the people, the minority reported: "That there arose in this state and country within the last two or three years a political society * * * binding its members by forms of oaths to proscribe from all offices by their votes or otherwise, if possessed of political power, all persons not of native birth, and all members of the Catholic religion."
The stronghold of the know-nothing party was in Balti- more, where for several years the members of this organi- zation ran things in a reckless way. The voters of other political faith were intimidated, waylaid, and even killed, so that election day became a time for ruffian warfare. At the presidential election of 1856, eight men were killed or mortally wounded, while more than 250 people were reported wounded. And as an indication of the extent to which ruffianism succeeded in disfranchising by force those hold- ing opposite views, the sworn returns in the Baltimore election of 1857 record 11,896 know-nothing votes to 2830 democratic ballots, or a majority of 9066; whereas in the previous election for mayor the know-nothing party had been given a majority of but 1567 ballots.
The know-nothing leaders had over-estimated their ability to block the governor's endeavors to free the common- wealth from its burden of ruffianism. They were able to oppose Mr. Ligon in the legislature, and never thought that he would step outside of the conventional office of chief magistrate and assume the position of actual executive of the entire state. The outcome of the city election of Balti- more in 1857 caused Governor Ligon much uneasiness regarding the state election which was to be held shortly thereafter. He went to Baltimore, and on October 27, 1857, wrote Mayor Swann a letter inviting him to cooperate
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with the governor in endeavoring to have the approaching election kept free of the disgrace and rowdyism which had characterized the several preceding ones. But Mr. Swann was not altogether pleased with the governor's move toward interference and replied that as mayor of Baltimore he held his commission directly from the people, and was accountable to them for the manner in which he discharged his trust.
In his determination that the election should be fair, Governor Ligon then issued a proclamation in which he announced that the city of Baltimore would be placed under military guard on the approaching election day. This announcement caused great excitement, and imme- diately efforts were made to have the proclamation recalled. The know-nothing leaders advised Mr. Ligon that arrange- ments would be made for ample police service in the city on election day. Upon this the governor was persuaded to issue another proclamation in which he declared that he did not contemplate the use upon election day of the military force which he had ordered enrolled and organized. The truth, however, is that the arrangements were by no means adequate, and the election was but a repetition of its predecessors. The same overwhelming know-nothing majority was won by force of fists and firearms, and Mr. Hicks, the know-nothing nominee for governor, was elected.
When the legislature convened at Annapolis, Governor Ligon had the boldness to write in his annual message: "I record my deliberate opinion that the election was fraudu- lently conducted; that in the exclusion of thousands of people from the polls, there has been no expression of the popular will, and that the whole of the returns from that city are vicious, without a decent claim to official recogni- tion anywhere, and in all their character, a gross insult to our institutions and laws, and a most offensive mockery
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of the great principle of political independence and popu- lar suffrage." The legislature declared the message an insult to its highly honorable members and voted to refuse to receive it; and a short while thereafter, or on January 13, 1858, Governor Ligon surrendered the executive office to Mr. Hicks, and retired to his Howard county estate of Chat- ham.
For the remaining years of hislife Mr. Ligon lived in retire- ment, taking no active part in politics. He farmed his land and passed his days in peaceable meditation, and lived to see the seed he had sown spring up in a reformation of the political affairs of the state and of Baltimore city. He did not resume his law practice in Baltimore, which had been discontinued at the time of his election in 1853, but occasionally he emerged from his farmer life to take part in the deliberations of certain boards concerned in the manage- ment of charitable and educational institutions, in a number of which he was interested. He died on January 12, 1881, and was buried on January 14 from St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, near Ellicott City. No sermon was preached, nor were there any flowers or other display, all ostentation being distasteful to Mr. Ligon, as evidenced in his life, which was marked by severe simplicity, both as a public official and as a private citizen.
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY H. E. BUCHHOLZ.
THOMAS HOLLIDAY HICKS
When pour denng the Civil War period of Maryland Lichory, bisore an attempt ismade to drew conclusions as to Le web of this public oficial ar of that, bill account must 1- balm of the peculiar condition juch existed in the Oli Live etate in ante-bellion days and during the first mon nicithe conflict. Part of the popminties was prepared to saypas the southern cause, should the po dera which WETS cal thế milion be brought thấp thug số Mont, sed on equal emaker of Marylandera were un ou mb wab the osrs Both of these elements were, Accontiily to their coseme, in the right and Maryland has honored each alike for QIH YAOLLICH, PALQHT |. Thomas. who served his state as Chiapas gistrate responded to the attack on Fort Sumter by raising a regiment of 3000 soldiers and offering its service to Lincoln, On the other hand Enoch Louis Lowe, who also served as governor, openly Avb & dt MarylandI should secede and join the Con
Parson
But Mn Fakt min At best was a umporizer, was state executive
In Approaching fick's life the bitterness with which certain dhu votergerard, judged his course must not influence tou greally the student's judgment; nor must the excessive flattery włoch, bir obvious reasons, was poured
THOMAS HOLLIDAY HICKS 185.8-1862
XXXI THOMAS HOLLIDAY HICKS
When considering the Civil War period of Maryland history, before an attempt is made to draw conclusions as to the worth of this public official or of that, full account must be taken of the peculiar conditions which existed in the Old Line state in ante-bellum days and during the first months of the conflict. Part of the population was prepared to support the southern cause, should the problems which were agitating the nation be brought to an issue of arms, and an equal number of Marylanders were unconditionally with the north. Both of these elements were, according to their conscience, in the right, and Maryland has honored each alike for the course which it pursued. Francis Thomas, who served his state as chief magistrate, responded to the attack on Fort Sumter by raising a regiment of 3000 soldiers and offering its service to Lincoln. On the other hand Enoch Louis Lowe, who also served as governor, openly advocated that Maryland should secede and join the Con- federacy. Had Francis Thomas been governor of Maryland in 1861, the state might have known the sway of a second Parson Brownlow; or had Mr. Lowe been chief magistrate, then Governor Letcher, of Virginia, would possibly have had an official co-laborer for secession in the borderland. But Mr. Hicks, who at best was a temporizer, was state executive.
In approaching Hick's life the bitterness with which certain of his contemporaries judged his course must not influence too greatly the student's judgment; nor must the excessive flattery which, for obvious reasons, was poured
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forth by northern orators at the time of his death be accepted at its face value. Mr. Hicks was governor of Mary- land during the most critical days of the state's history and he had, in a greater measure than was ever accorded another chief magistrate of the state, an opportunity to engrave in glorious and indelible letters his name upon the com- monwealth's history as well as upon that of the nation at large. But, at a time when to falter was to blunder fatally, Hicks faltered. Although his early sentiments seemed favorable to secession, it is possible that at the outbreak of the war he was opposed to the cause of the south; never- theless, when called upon to decide on which side be stood, Hicks revealed what might be termed a border allegiance, and permitted the militia of the federal government to assume the rôle of converting him, by force, into a unionist. Posterity has less cause to find fault with him for this than he himself might have had to regret his action. If he was as strongly unionist as he later professed, then by having uttered the same sentiments before Butler came to Baltimore that he did after the arrival of that Union general, he might have vied with Mr. Andrew, of Massa- chusetts, for the place of first honor among the Union "war governors."
Thomas Holliday Hicks was almost sixty years of age when he became governor. He was born on September 2, 1798, the eldest boy in the large family reared by Henry C. and Mary (Sewell) Hicks, who lived on a farm in Dor- chester county several miles from East New Market. Hicks attended a subscription school in the neighborhood of his home until he had reached an age when he desired to go out into the world for himself . He made his initial appearance as a public official in the humble capacity of town constable. But that he filled this position satisfactorily would seem to receive certification from the fact that in 1824, at the age
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of twenty-five, Mr. Hicks was elected sheriff of his county. Later he purchased a farm on the Choptank river and sub- sequently abandoned the plow and removed to the southern part of the county, where, in 1833, he entered upon a mer- cantile career at Vienna.
Mr. Hicks was a member of the 1836 senatorial electoral college-that famous body made up of the so-called "glori- ous 19 Van Buren electors" and 21 whigs-he, of course, being among the latter. In the same year he was chosen a member of the general assembly; and the legislature, in 1837, named him and Mr. Pratt as members of the last governor's council in Maryland. In the next year, when the council was abolished by the reform act, Mr. Hicks was appointed register of wills for Dorchester county. From 1838, when he became register, until 1851, when under the new constitution the office was made elective, he served by successive appointments in this position. In 1850 he was one of the representatives from Dorchester county to the constitutional convention which was to devise a new form of government for the commonwealth. He again assumed the duties of register of wills in 1855, and con- tinued in the office until his election as governor.
Mr. Hicks was the American or know-nothing candidate for governor in 1857. The democrats nominated as their standard-bearer John C. Groome. Under the arbitrary rule of the know-nothings, however, the democratic can- didate had little chance of success, since Baltimore was overwhelmingly against him. Although Ligon had been assured that everything would be done to prevent any conflict between the voters, the election was but a repetition of the earlier disgraceful affair when municipal officers were chosen. And not only did the know-nothing party carry the city for Hicks, but the state also gave him a majority, and the general assembly, as a result of the election, was strongly know-nothing.
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Mr. Hicks became governor on January 13, 1858. His administration witnessed the period of preparation for the Civil War and the beginning of that conflict; and his own service to the state is remembered chiefly in so far as Mary- land affairs were affected by the seccession movement. Had Governor Hicks sincerely and fearlessly opposed secession, not even the southern historian could find fault with his anti-secession sentiments; or had he been favorable to the south, he would have needed no apologies for his choice. The questions, however, arise-and upon their solution must depend the regard in which Marylander's generally will hold Mr. Hicks-whether his professions throughout were insincere and if, at the crucial moment, he was guilty of cowardice, no matter what his real convictions. Al- though he was opposed to any move which would precip- itate the nation into a sectional conflict, he gave expression on December 6, 1860, in a letter to a Prince George's coun- tian, to the following secessionist sentiments: "If the Union must be dissolved let it be done calmly, deliberately and after full reflection on the part of the united south. * After allowing a reasonable time for action on the part of the northern states, if they shall neglect or refuse to observe the plain requirements of the constitution, then, in my judgment, we shall be fully warranted in demanding a division of the country." Governor Hicks was in Baltimore when the Massachusetts troops, passing through the city on April 19, 1861, were set upon by the people of the city. After the close of that day of violence and bloodshed the state executive and Mayor Brown of Baltimore were visited by Marshal Kane and ex-Governor Lowe, who wished to have the railroad bridges leading into Baltimore burned, that they might thereby prevent a repetition of the day's tragedy, should the federal government seek to send the several thousand troops then reported near Cockeysville through Baltimore.
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Governor Hicks, Lowe recorded in his report of the interview, said: " 'Well, I suppose it must be done,' or words of precisely that import, to which the mayor replied, substantially: 'Governor, I have no authority to act be- yond the city limits, and can do nothing in this matter except by your direction. Shall the bridges be destroyed?' Governor Hicks emphatically and distinctly replied in the affirmative."
But in later days, when Governor Hicks wished to clear himself of the charge of having countenanced a burning of the bridges, he denied absolutely the testimony of Lowe, Kane and Mayor Brown, and sought to make himself out a good and unconditional Union man. And yet he left proof of how closely he approached an approval of secession, for in his communication to Lincoln, April 22, 1861, he wrote: "I feel it my duty most respectfully to advise you that no more troops be ordered or allowed to pass through Maryland, and that the troops now off Annapolis be sent elsewhere; and I most respectfully urge that a truce be offered by you so that the effusion of blood may be prevented. I respect- fully suggest that Lord Lyons be requested to act as mediator between the contending parties of our country."
This wasin April, 1861, and in October, 1863, Mr. Hicks, in a letter to Governor Bradford could find the courage to pen the words: "My God! How unfortunate it is that men in high places should say one thing one day and another the next day. * * Oh! what unfortunate times we have fallen on, and yet amid our perplexity we must not relax our efforts to do good. I feel sometimes like giving it up, but then I know it is what these unprincipled men desire and I determine anew that, if fall I must, I will fall fighting for the right. I publicly and privately proclaim myself for an emancipationist. I am honestly. My judgment is so -policy leads to it. I am in favor of putting the slaves in
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the army, but cannot approve of their mode of doing it. I am in favor of letting everything but principle go to save the Union by crushing out the accursed rebellion that brought all our national and individual woes upon us." And this from a man who, according to Ex-Governor Lowe, "went into Monument Square on the afternoon of the memorable nineteenth of April last [1861], while the blood of the heroic youths of Baltimore * was still fresh upon the pave- ments, and there called God to witness his loyalty to the south, and prayed that his right arm might rot from the socket if he ever raised it against his southern brethren."
The members of the legislature, and influential men in the state generally, requested Governor Hicks time and time again to call the legislature in extra session that the state might go on record as opposed to secession, but still dis- satisfied with the attitude of the north toward the southern states. After the encounter between the people of Balti- more and the Massachusetts troops Governor Hicks called a special session of the legislature at Annapolis, but later changed the place of meeting to Frederick. In an address to the people of Maryland, this legislature, declared: "We cannot but know that a large proportion of the citizens of Maryland have been induced to believe that there is a prob- ability that our deliberations may result in the passage of some measure committing this state to secession. It is, therefore, our duty to declare that all such fears are with- out just foundation. We know that we have no consti- tutional authority to take such action. You need not fear that there is a possibility that we will do so." And this address was unanimously adopted. Nevertheless, the federal government, without opposition or protest from Mr. Hicks, assumed an attitude toward Maryland's general assembly similar to that which it might have assumed toward the legislature of Mississippi. Simon Cameron, Lincoln's
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secretary of war, wrote on September 11, 1861, that "the passage of any act of secession by the legislature of Mary- land must be prevented. If necessary, all or any part of the members must be arrested." And every member or employee of the legislature who was not heart and soul with every feature of the republican administration was arrested.
The administration of Governor Hicks came to a close on January 8, 1862, when Mr. Bradford was inaugurated. The new executive appointed his predecessor United States senator to fill the unexpired term of James Alfred Pearce, and Mr. Hicks was later elected by the legislature to fill the senatorial term which expired March 8, 1867. Before he had completed the term to which he was elected, how- ever, he died, at the Metropolitan Hotel, Washington, February 13, 1865. He had been three times married- first to Miss Anna Thompson, of Dorchester county; his second wife was Miss Leah Raleigh, of the same county; and the third Mrs. Hicks, who survived her husband, had been Mrs. Mary Wilcox, the widow of Hicks' cousin. The funeral of Senator Hicks was attended by a host of public officials. President Lincoln and his cabinet, the members of the supreme court, Governor Bradford of Maryland and Mayor Chapman of Baltimore-both accompanied by delegations, and a large number of senators and representatives attended the services held in the capitol at Washington. The body was first placed in a vault in the national capital, but later it was interred at the old Hicks farm in Dorchester county, and finally removed to Cambridge Cemetery, where the state erected a monument over the remains in 1868.
XXXII AUGUSTUS W. BRADFORD
While two separate gubernatorial administrations were experienced by the people of Maryland during the con- flict between the north and south, Mr. Bradford is by common consent accepted as the war-governor. The greater portion of Mr. Hicks' governorship was passed in the stormy days immediately preceding the conflict, al- though the tail-end of his term reached into the opening months of the war. But when Mr. Bradford came into office the struggle between the north and the slave states had settled down to a business basis. The harmless spectacle of earlier petty encounters had given place to the grim realities of war and with the progress of hostilities there was, naturally, a counter-advance toward positiveness in the political affairs of the state. The governmental ma- chinery, adapted to its newer requirements, was no longer run experimentally as it had been in the days of Gov- ernor Hicks, but a Union governor and a Union legislature were seeking to run the affairs of the commonwealth in a way that would stress the political and soften the military aspect of government in Maryland. For four years Mr. Bradford governed Maryland, and the one feature of his administration which stands out in strongest relief is the courage with which he upheld the dignity of the state's gov- ernment. In times such as those between 1861 and 1865, and in a commonwealth like Maryland, upon the border- land of conflict, there was bound to occur almost constantly friction between the military forces representing the United States and the political forces representing the authority
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