USA > Maryland > Governors of Maryland : from the Revolution to the year 1908 > Part 16
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19I
THOMAS SWANN
of representatives in 1869, and after serving an initial term was four times reëlected, carrying his congressional career through to 1879. It is probable that as a member of congress he found the most congenial public office to which he had been called during his busy life. He was not a great public speaker, for his voice lacked the volume essen- tial to effective oratory; nor was he formidable in debate, since he had too deeply ingrained in him a courtesy of man- ner that left his adversary unharmed; but as an executive he was far above most of the men with whom he was thrown in public affairs. His executive ability won for him a place upon the house's committee on foreign affairs, and during his ten years in congress he continued a member of this body. In this connection he exerted much influence in the national legislature. The position, moreover, brought him in intimate relations with the most distinguished foreigners in Washington. He entertained generously and was enter- tained lavishly in return.
Very late in life, Governor Swann made a second venture into matrimony. On June 20, 1878, when he had reached the age of seventy-one or seventy-two, he married Mrs. John R. Thompson, a social leader of the national capital, who, as Miss Josephine Ward, had been a famous belle in New York society. The marriage did not bring much joy to the aged statesman and the couple soon separated. Gov- ernor Swann, who had become a resident of Baltimore in the thirties, removed to his old home, Morven Park, near Lees- burg, Va., after the close of his congressional career, and it was there that he died on July 24, 1883. Although a native- of the Old Dominion, his body was brought for burial to the city and state that he had adopted as his own. He lies buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore.
XXXIV ODEN BOWIE
A certain sentimental interest attaches itself to the first born. This is so not only in the family, or in the social world, but in the world political as well, for just as seniority is no little factor in determining the consideration to be shown those born of woman, so also a large amount of honor, based solely upon the fact of priority in office, is given to the first child of a political parent. For instance, had Thomas Johnson lacked the discernment essential to a successful statesman or the wisdom necessary to a capable legislator, he would still find a place of peculiar distinction in the pages of Maryland history as the first governor created under the constitution of 1776. Following after him William Grason, regardless of the intrinsic worth which he so largely possessed, would have been set down as entitled to some recognition from posterity on account of having been the first state executive chosen by the direct vote of the people. And still later there appears Oden Bowie, to whose name attaches considerable interest because he was the first governor under the constitution of 1867. It must not be supposed, of course, that Governor Bowie is dependent upon so trivial a thing as his position in the line of state executives for fame. Within his body there was housed a personality that would have won for him dis- tinction independent of all such external aids. There is, nevertheless, a great deal of pleasure in contemplating the Prince George's countian as the initial one of Maryland's truly representative governors.
ODEN BOWIE 1869-1872
XXXIV UDEN BOWIE
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state executive chosen by the direct And still later there appears Oden nårne atisches consideradointerest because Und governor under the ensuration of 1867. wul wirpoled, of course Niet Governor Bowie wo trivial a thing at lus positiva in the Wwwin his body there i wy that wo It bive won for him dis- 5 0 Auch esimo aids. There Is, of Measure in contemplating the . The as the initial one of Maryland's
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COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY H. E. BUCHHOLZ.
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ODEN BOWIE
Oden Bowie was born in Prince George's county on No- vember 10, 1826, the eldest son of Colonel William D. and Mary Eliza (Oden) Bowie. His father, who had served in both houses of the legislature, farmed the 1000-acre estate of Fairview where the governor spent the greater part of his life. Young Bowie studied at home under a private tutor until his tenth year, when, upon the death of his mother, he was sent to the preparatory school attached to St. John's, Annapolis. He remained there for three years, and then entered St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, from which he was graduated in 1845. Shortly after leaving college the difficulties between the United States and Mexico fired his patriotism and he enlisted as a private in the battal- ion contributed by Baltimore and Washington to the army of invasion. During his stay in the south he took part in several of the more important encounters. For his bravery at Monterey he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and subsequently was commissioned a captain in the Voltigeur Regiment. The climate of Mexico, however, put an end to Mr Bowie's military career, for his services in the army, begun under such auspicious conditions, were brought to a unexpected close by sickness. Captain Bowie was forced to resign his commission and returned home before the war had been brought to its successful close.
Immediately upon his arrival in Prince George's, Mr. Bowie appeared as a candidate for member of the house of delegates. His opponents made much of the youth of the warrior-candidate, who was not yet of age, although he would have attained his majority before being called upon to assume his seat if elected; and in consequence of the doubt as to his eligibility Mr. Bowie was defeated, but by ten votes only. In 1849 he once more came before the people as a candidate for the lower branch of the general assembly. and was elected. Two years later. December 3, 1851, he
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was married to Miss Alice Carter, daughter of Charles H. Carter-a fellow-countian. The Bowies lived at "Fairview," the ancestral estate of the governor. While Mr. Bowie devoted much time thereafter to his business interests in Baltimore, and also to politics, he managed to maintain his Prince George's county estate as "home." He lived there, and while business might call him away through the day, evening invariably found him back on the farm.
Although Mr. Bowie served in both the house of dele- gates and the state senate prior to 1860, it was not until after that time that he loomed up big in the public affairs of his native state. In 1860 he was chosen president of the recently organized Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, and his energy and good management were largely instrumental in the success of carrying to completion this line. He met with serious opposition from the Baltimore and Ohio and had to war with this company unceasingly to prevent it from succeeding in its efforts to keep its prospective rival from finishing the work undertaken. After the Baltimore and Potomac had become a part of the Pennsylvania sys- tem Mr. Bowie was retained as its president. The office, however, had become merely a nominal one, and the Mary- lander was continued as a means of showing the company's appreciation for the great service he had rendered and the interest he had shown in the building of the line, for the actual management was in the hands of the Philadelphia office of the railway company.
Oden Bowie appeared as a candidate for the state senate from Prince George's county in 1861. He was a "peace" democrat, but certain defeat was read for his campaign by the interference of the federal forces in the state elec- tion. Although an ardent democrat and also a warm sympathizer with the south, he was opposed to the radical course of the secessionists. He was chairman of the state
195
ODEN BOWIE
central committee during the war and was a delegate to the democratic national convention of 1864, which nominated General Mcclellan for president. The state constitution of 1864 provided for a governor and lieutenant-governor, and in the election under the operation of this governmental instrument Mr. Bowie was named as the democratic nomi- nee for the second position on the ticket. Mr. Cox, the union candidate for lieutenant-governor, who had the war forces with him, polled in Maryland 41,828 votes as against 32,178 for Mr. Bowie. Mr. Bowie was elected to the state senate in 1867, where he served upon several important committees, including that upon federal rela- tions. Early in this year began the agitation for a constitu- tional convention, and when the people of Maryland who were then eligible to vote were asked to decide if a conven- tion should be called, out of the 58,718 votes cast on the 13th of April, 34,534 were for a convention and 24,136 against it.
The convention met on May 8, 1867, and continued in session until August 17, and the document which it devised was submitted to the people of Maryland on September 18, 1867, when it was adopted by a small majority. This con- stitution restored to thousands of disfranchised Maryland- ers the right to vote, and at the state election on November 5, 1867, the democrats carried everything before them. Mr. Bowie, who had been largely instrumental in bringing about the change, was the nominee for governor on the democratic ticket and of the 85,744 votes cast 63,694 were given to him, while the legislature chosen for the following year presented the unusual spectacle of a general assembly without an opposition-every member elected being a democrat.
Under the constitution of 1867 the first state executive elected was to serve for only three years, but all subse-
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quent governors were to be chosen for a four-year term. Mr. Bowie qualified as Swann's successor on January 8, 1868, although he did not become governor de facto until a year later, or January 13, 1869. He remained in office until January 10, 1872.
The greatest task of Mr. Bowie's administration was the readjustment of a host of state affairs after the disarrange- ment consequent upon the troubled times of the conflict between the North and South. By the adoption of the constitution under which he served as governor the polit- ical machinery of the state had been restored to the proper authority and Governor Bowie was, therefore, little troubled with political affairs. To him came rather the great business problems of the commonwealth, such as a settlement of the dispute with Virginia regarding oyster beds, the collec- tion of arrears from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and adjustment of Maryland's war claims against the federal government and kindred subjects. He courageously opposed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in its endeavors to block the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad; he exerted a great influence upon the management of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, which began to fulfill promises which had been made for it in the days when it was first projected; he took the initiative in providing for Maryland a general improvement of its roads, and he was active in the interest of public education.
With the close of his administration, when he retired from politics, began his direction of the affairs of the Baltimore City Passenger Railway. Mr. Bowie was elected president of the street railway company in 1873, when its stock, with a par value of $25, was selling at $14; when no dividends had been paid for several years, and when the city held a claim against it for $100,000 for park tax arrears. Further- more, the equipment and trackage were in wretched condi-
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tion. Under his management the city's claim was paid, the horse-car lines operated by the company were changed to rapid transit and the stock was greatly enhanced in value. Governor Bowie's presidency of the company con- tinued until his death in 1894, and it was through his efficient management, in a large measure, that the great strides made by the City Passenger Railway were accomplished.
In 1870 Mr. Bowie became president of the Maryland Jockey Club, which was organized about that time, and in whose formation he was active. It was to him that chief credit was due for the acquisition of the Pimlico racetrack by the Maryland Jockey Club. His own stables were renowned throughout the land and his colors were seen upon every racetrack of note in the country, while his horses-among them Crickmore, Compensation, Oriole and Belle d'Or- brought to their breeder both pleasure and wealth. At his Prince George's county home Mr. Bowie had a three-quar- ter mile racetrack, and here he exercised the thorough- breds that found shelter in his five stables. In 1890 Mr. Bowie had a nervous breakdown, and the physician whom he consulted declared it imperative that he immediately cease his attendance upon races and also sell his horses. Governor Bowie thereupon retired from the turf, but he frankly admitted that the greatest sorrow that his life had known, or ever could know, was that moment when he con- cluded to part with his thoroughbreds. He died December 4, 1894, at Fairview, and his body was placed at rest in the family burial plot but a short distance from the home in which he had passed most of his life,
XXXV WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE
There is need to enter protest occasionally against the practice of crediting all virtues to ages past, a practice aris- ing from an unconscious, though harmful, pessimism. Cer- tain phrases that are in daily use by the people-such, for instance, as "gentleman of the old school" when applied to a man who is courteous in manner, dignified in bearing, and upright in life-are so employed as to intimate that in the dim days of yesteryear a better race of citizens was developed than is possible under existing conditions. Igno- rance is generally responsible for the blunders along this line. As a matter of fact, the righteous man is not good because his times are good, but because his conscience is untrammeled; the wise man does not procure breadth of mind, he develops it; and the truly brave man is not depend- ent upon those about him for courage to abide by the right. Commonplaceness in natural endowments, in conduct and in accomplishments may be general; but greatness invari- ably is individual. Mr. Whyte was constantly written down: "A democrat of the old school," a term which not only did the distinguished statesman a wrong, but was grossly unfair to modern democracy. The democratic party of the forties and fifties was not better, indeed, it was not as good as the democratic party of the twentieth century, and the same is true of the organization which late in the fifties assumed the name: republican. There was more wickedness and less righteousness in politics in those years, than at the
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WILLIAM PINKNEY-WHYTE 1872-1874
WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE
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COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY H. E. BUCHHOLZ.
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WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE
present time; and whatever distincton has been won by men in the class with Governor Whyte, came to them, not because of the times in which they were reared, but rather because they themselves were in large measure out of tune with their times.
William Pinkney Whyte was born in Baltimore, August 9, 1824, the son of Joseph White and Isabella Pinkney White. On his father's side he was a grandson of Dr. John Campbell White, who in 1798 came to America as the result of the failure of the Irish rebellion in which he had taken part; on his maternal side Governor Whyte was a grandson of William Pinkney, who served Maryland with much dis- tinction, and at the time of his death was a member of the United States senate. A disagreement upon a business matter between the father of Governor Whyte and his two uncles caused two of the former's sons to make such changes in their names as would distinguish them from their uncles' branches of the family: Governor Whyte sub- stituted the "y" in his surname in place of "i," but his brother became Campbell White Pinkney.
Although Governor Whyte received a thorough elemen- tary education, the need of earning his own living prevented him from going beyond the secondary schools. He was a student for some years at the school which R. M. McNally -sometime in the personal service of the great Napoleon- conducted in Baltimore after the downfall of the French monarch; but in 1842, when Mr. Whyte was eighteen years of age, he was forced to leave the studies, in which he was considerably engrossed, to take a position in the commercial world, for which he entertained no special affection. His first position was with the banking house of Peabody, Riggs and Company-founded by George Peabody-where he remained for two years. He then decided to study law, and resigned his position with the banking house, 1843,
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to enter the office of the law firm of Brown and Brune. He read law here for a year, and later entered Harvard Law School at Cambridge. Mr. Whyte returned to Baltimore in 1845, and for the next year continued his studies under Judge John Glenn. He was admitted to the bar in 1846. At this time he also made his appearance as a political factor, being one of the five democratic candidates for the house of delegates from Baltimore. In the fall of that year he was elected, beginning his service in January, 1847. This small experience whetted Mr. Whyte's appetite for larger things and he entered the congressional primaries two years later against John Nelson, former attorney- general of the United States. Although Mr. Whyte won the nomination, he was unable, in the election, to overcome the predominance of whig sentiment in the district and his chief gain from the campaign was the glory of having made a good fight. For several years thereafter he gave his time to his legal practice, declining a renomination for state delegate, but early in the fifties he was named for comptroller and elected. He served for the one term of two years during the first half of Governor Ligon's admin- istration, but refused to allow his name to be put up for another term in 1856.
It was somewhat in a spirit of patriotism that Mr. Whyte once more made a fight for election to congress in 1857. At this period know-nothingism was supreme in the Monu- mental city, and, while it required courage to be the sup- porter of an opponent of the know-nothing party, it called for absolute fearlessness to be such a candidate-opponent. But the friends of good government persuaded Mr. Whyte that by going into the contest, although his defeat was assured, he would be able to aid reform matters in Mary- land. J. Morrison Harris, the know-nothing candidate, was declared elected by Governor Hicks, himself a violent
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WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE
know-nothing; but Mr. Whyte, who had entered the cam- paign for the purpose of purifying politics, did not allow the matter to rest here, and he contested the seating of his opponent. Although the congressional committee which investigated the matter reported in favor of the unseating of Mr. Harris, certain leaders in congress succeeded upon a purely partisan vote in having the report laid upon the table.
From 1860 to 1868 Mr. Whyte was not much in the public eye. In sympathy with the south, his physical condition at that time was not such as to permit him to bear arms; and drafted for military service on one occasion by the federal troops he was declined as "unfit" by their medical examiner. With many another noncombatant he was deprived of his rights as a citizen in the reign of the more bitter reconstructionists, and during this period of tem- porary disenfranchisement he visited Europe with his sons. Upon the adoption of the constitution of 1867, however, Mr. Whyte was once more enabled to take a leading part in both state and national affairs. He was a delegate to the national democratic convention of 1868, and in the same year received his first appointment as a member of the United States senate. When Reverdy Johnson resigned his seat in the upper house of congress that he might accept from President Johnson the appointment of minister to the court of St. James, Governor Swann named Mr. Whyte to fill the unexpired term from July 10, 1868, till the fol- lowing year, when William T. Hamilton, who had been elected to the United States senate by the legislature prior to Mr. Whyte's appointment, took his seat. Brief as was that period, in it Senator Whyte found opportunity not only to distinguish himself, but to render a signal ser- vice in upholding the constitution. Congress was then at odds with the president, and when, on December 9, 1868,
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his annual message, in which he roundly scored his ene- mies, was received, the radicals interrupted its reading and moved to have it placed upon the table. Senator Whyte, one of a handful of congressmen who had not been infected with hatred for Andrew Johnson, calmly and fearlessly pointed out to his colleagues that the constitution instructed the president to send at prescribed periods a message to congress, and for congress to refuse to receive it would be a violation of the constitution, and the message was read.
Mr. Whyte was named on the democratic ticket for gover- nor in the spring of 1871, and in the campaign was opposed by Jacob Tome, republican. The campaign has interest outside of its general aspect inasmuch as it was the first Maryland state election in which the negro was permitted to exercise the elective franchise. This departure accounts for the falling off from 40,000 majority given Governor Bowie in 1867 to a little more than 15,000 for Mr. Whyte in 1871. Mr. Whyte was inaugurated governor on January IO, 1872, and for a little more than two years thereafter, he administered the affairs of the executive office. His admin- istration was efficient and fulfilled the most sanguine hopes of his supporters, and yet there was not much of distinction about it. Were his services as a legislator less conspicuous, it is possible that the governorship of Mr. Whyte might appear to greater advantage; but as a lawmaker his life had been so eventful, while as executive his administration was cast in a time so bare of incident, that Governor Whyte seems completely overshadowed by Senator Whyte. Fur- thermore, when the legislature which met in the early part of 1874 undertook to provide a successor for Senator Hamilton, its choice fell upon Governor Whyte, and thus was brought to a premature end his career as chief magis- trate of Maryland.
Governor Whyte, upon being elected United States sena-
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WILLIAM PINKNEY WHYTE
tor, immediately laid before the legislature his resignation as governor, although the term for which he was chosen was not to begin until full twelve months later. This course was taken in order that the legislature might duly select a successor. James Black Groome having been chosen for the unexpired term as governor, Mr. Whyte relinquished the office on March 4, 1874, and devoted the months until March 4, 1875, when he entered congress, to his legal practice and private affairs. During this period he served his state as special counsel in the boundary-dis- pute case between Maryland and Virginia, and, due to his energetic prosecution of the Old Line state's claim, his native commonwealth gained a signal victory.
From March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1881, Mr. Whyte rep- resented Maryland in the United States senate, and those six years mark, perhaps, the most brilliant period of his public career. He had stepped out of the executive man- sion to don the toga, and it was not long before evidence was given of the wisdom which prompted the change. In his earlier short term in the senate, Mr. Whyte had been called to perform vastly different service from what was now required of him. To war against popular prejudice, to champion an unloved president, was the most that he then could do; but his second term in the senate found the nation at that period of its life when the democratic party could become constructive once more; when it could, even though in the minority in congress, exert a mighty influence in the nation's affairs.
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