USA > Maryland > Baltimore County > Baltimore City > History of Baltimore, Maryland, from its founding as a town to the current year, 1729-1898, including its early settlement and development; a description of its historic and interesting localities; political, military, civil, and religious statistcs; biographies of representative citizens, etc., etc > Part 16
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way of doing things. I believe as stern a patriotism prevails among the Brecken- ridge men as in other parties. I believe all have one common end." The disorderly part of the audience was determined on dis- agreeing, so they shouted "No! No!" and raised a storm of hisses. Changing his tac- tics, the speaker went on to say: "I stand here to-night to reason with you. I stand here as a Southern man." The declaration was thought to be funny and provoked im- mediate laughter, with a repetition of a vol- ley of hisses, some irreverent scamp shout- ing, "The old grey-headed -. " His next sentences being met with similar interrup- tions, Mr. Evans folded his arms and pa- theticaly exclaimed, "Father, forgive them; oh! forgive them, they know not what they do." A renewal of the disorderly scenes followed. The speaker persisted in getting off his speech to its finish; he went on to say: "You cannot make me angry, I will not reply to you in harsh terms." Then, after uttering a few more sentences, he came to a dead halt for several minutes. A rotten egg had been thrown from the up- per lobby through a half opened door and instead of falling upon the head of the speaker, as was intended, it struck upon one of the columns supporting the third tier and broke, splattering over a large number of people, who upon the instant scattered as if a bomb had exploded. The disorderly hissed and shouted. The speaker attempted to go on. His remarks for several minutes could not be heard, and when he sought to resume he was interfered with by coughs, laughter, shouts and the blowing of noses. At this hour the Wide Awakes entered the building, greeted with groans and "bahs" for "Lincoln" and "down with the Wide
Awakes." The galleries groaned and the Wide Awakes cheered, shouting aloud to drown the hisses. Finally the rivalry died out and Mr. Evans attempted to resume his address, but was unable to go on. He asked them to look at his grey hairs, but was answered by the question, "Is your sister white?" Exhausted and disgusted he gave up the struggle and retired.
The Hon. E. Joy Morris, of Philadelphia, next ran the gauntlet, when hisses and groans were indulged in. Cheers for Breck- enridge and Lane rang through the build- ing; three groans for Lincoln were given; there were cries of "Woolly heads and nig- gers" in the pit. The Wide Awakes, goaded to madness, started to invade the galleries where the disorderlies were stationed, but abandoned the movement. The Brecken- ridge contingent in the house were deter- mined to suppress the speaking, and for ten minutes they succeeded in their .pur- pose. At the end of that time Mr. Morris succeeded in uttering a few further sen- tences, when shouts and jeers broke forth again. A. C. Williams, a Wide Awake who enjoyed a reputation among the old volun- teer firemen as a man of grit and personal courage, appeared on the stage and cried out to his comrades: "On 'em and turn 'em out. Put every - out." With a shout the Wide Awakes leaped over the barriers out into the lobby; the Breckenridgetes swarmed downstairs and the advance guard of both parties became engaged. Williams was early disposed of, being pitched down- stairs. The police stationed themselves be- tween the contesting parties, when with shouts and imprecations the combatants re- tired to their former positions. Williams had an inconsistent career in politics; dur-
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ing the Union war he was pronounced in his advocacy of it, and usually a member of his party's conventions. He held office un- der Governor Swann and followed him into the Democratic fold, and died a member in good standing in that organization.
Mr. Morris made one more ineffectual ef- fort to be heard; his gesticulations could be seen, but his voice was inaudible. A cry arose, "Wade in Republicans;" Gregory Barrett and four others, Barrett flourishing a revolver, leaped into a stage box. The police were again successful in quelling the movement; they cleared the upper galleries. The lobbies were occupied and hootings re- commenced. Mr. McTavish undertook to be heard; he was called "a d-d English- man" and commanded to sit down and hush up. A song service was introduced, when the police drove every person in the build- ing outdoors but the Wide Awakes. It was a late hour and no further effort was at- tempted at speech-making. And this is the history of the first effort of the Republican party to hold a public meeting in the city of Baltimore, in behalf of "free speech, free soil and free press."
The Wide Awakes returned to their headquarters, Gay and Fayette streets. Stormy scenes would have taken place but for the intervention of the police. When the line was broken, cheers were given for Lincoln and Hamlin, and the members dis- persed.
A union, or Bell and Everett mass meet- ing was held Saturday, November 3d. John V. L. Findlay spoke, and in the course of his remarks said: "By next Tuesday the Breckenridge party will be dead, and on that day we will place this epitaph on its stone, 'Here lies the Democracy, it lied
during life, and here still it lies. The party was so discredited and dead, that even Spauldin's glue, which has the merit of hav- ing mended a dog which had been cut to pieces could not again cement its shattered fragments."
J. Morrison Harris: "There is a black cloud hanging over our country like a pall which will give great trouble if Lincoln is elected. If Breckenridge is elected there will be a continuance of the agitation, but if Bell should be elected the whole country will have cause for rejoicing."
At the Presidential election in Baltimore, Bell received 12,619 votes; Breckenridge, 14,850 votes; Douglas, 1,502 votes, and Lincoln, 1,084 votes.
Wednesday, November 26th, a Palmetto flag was displayed by the Southern Volun- teers' Association at the Liberty Engine House. It was unfurled amid hisses and groans. The association was pledged to go to the assistance of South Carolina when that State should secede. Mr. Frank Pannel Brooke made a speech, in which he said, "That a force of at least five thousand brave souls should be organized at once, and in a little while it would amount to fif- teen thousand, to resist the invasion of the peoples rights."
Saturday night, December Ist, Robert C. Barry delivered a speech concluding as follows: "The light of the sun on his bright passage from the golden portal of the Orient until he sinks amidst the gorgeous radiance of declining day, streams on no land more lovely, more blest with every- good perfect gift than ours. By the conse- crated memories of the past, by the blood of our patriotic fathers that has fertilized, by their dust that has hallowed to us this
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soil of liberty, I conjure each one and all, at all times and under all circumstances, to use every fair and honorable effort to ad- vance its interests and elevate its destiny. Let us pledge each to the other 'our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honors,' that in the hour of National darkness and Na- tional danger, if need be, the blood cham- bered in our hearts shall flow in one com- mingled stream in defense and preservation of our liberties and the Federal Constitu- tion, the rock whereon is builded the glor- ious fabric of our National prosperity, greatness and union."
Hon. A. H. Handy, a native Marylander, who had located in Mississippi, was ac- credited by the Governor of that State to call on the Governor of Maryland, in ad- vocacy of concerted action between all the Southern States. Governor Hicks declined to receive him. Mr. Handy visited Balti- more, and on the night of December 19th, 1860, delivered an address to fifteen hun- dred people in the Maryland Institute. On the rostrum were Zenas Barnum, Beal H. Richardson, William G. Harrison, George W. Herring, William D. Hughes, William H. Purnell, William Nelson and Coleman Yellott. Mr. Harrison presided. Mr. Han- dy was received with three cheers. The purport of his speech was "that he had been appointed by the State of Mississippi a com- missioner to the State of Maryland to coun- sel with the authorities in the present crisis. Not for the purpose of rousing or exciting the feeling of the Marylanders upon the great questions pending. His father and grandfather were Marylanders and he was born upon her soil. He wished to secure the co-operation of Maryland and Missis- sippi to defend those sacred institutions left
by the fathers to the people of the South. Mississippi, as heretofore, was for the pres- ervation of the Union and the maintenance . of the Constitution. If any man said that Mississippi is disloyal, that man he would brand a libeller. Should Mr. Lincoln be elected the institutions of the South would be prostituted and subverted. In Missis- sippi the people believed that the institu- tion of slavery was ordained by God and sanctioned by humanity.
"It was an institution ordained for the amelioration of the condition of the slave, and there is a moral duty imposed upon the slave-holder to protect his slave. Those at the North say slavery is forbidden by God- is not sanctioned by humanity, and that slaves cannot be held without sin. These ideas have long been entertained and in- stilled into the Northern mind until they now believe such teachings to be the truth. They have agitated the subject and de- nounced the institution until the country is shrouded in gloom. Commerce and every source of prosperity has been submerged by the 'irrepressible conflict,' which has de- termined that all States must either be free or slave. The South cannot do without slavery; the cotton and other interests will not admit of it, and we do not intend to be without it.
"The project of the North is first to abol- ish slavery in all the new territories, at the military posts and in the District of Colum- bia. Thus slavery would be confined to the States where it now exists, and in a few years would be excluded altogether, be- cause the new States to be admitted as free will have such a preponderance, that they will overpower and crush out the last ves- tige of slavery.
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"Mr. Lincoln's position is, that slavery shall be kept where it now is, and no one will be permitted to travel beyond the lim- its of his own State with his slaves. We have as much right to sell them as we have to sell our horses and cows, or any other property. Another movement to be inau- gurated in Congress was, that Northerners shall be permitted to express their abolition views in Southern States-to send incen- diary publications throughout those States, calculated to incite insurrection and cause the slaves to cut the throats of their mas- ters.
"It is not their intention to interfere with slavery where it exists, but they intend to excite the minds of the slaves and make them so much dreaded that the States hold- ing them will be forced for their own safety to set them free. Abraham Lincoln would have postmasters and other officers throughout the South, to facilitate the cir- culation of those incendiary documents, and thus encourage slaves to rise and kill their masters.
"It is argued on the other hand that Lin- coln has yet done no overt act, and that it is to be hoped he will not perform any act contrary to the Constitution. That he will not dare to carry them out. Let me tell you that Abraham Lincoln is a brave and self-willed man, and will not betray the par- ties that elected him upon those pledges. We have his promise and pledge made when a member of Congress, and when he ran against Mr. Douglass in Illinois, that he will do so, and his acts will be violations of our rights.
"They have trampled under foot the Con- stitution by passing laws nullifying its pro- visions with regard to slavery, and we can
but expect that he as their representative will carry them out when in the Presiden- tial chair. The election of Abraham Lin- coln is a violation of the Constitution, and shall we wait until he acts?" [Cries of "No."] "Men are already elected to exe- cute their laws of oppression upon you, and will you submit?" [Cries of "No," "No."]
"Mr. Lincoln is approaching with the sword of office in his hands, and when he gets in, you may rest assured he will act. We have expostulated, prayed and be- seeched those people to recognize and ac- cord us our rights, but they have scorned and spoken of it only as Southern thunder. We of Mississippi are of one opinion that these things cannot longer be endured. We must now stand upon and demand our rights.
"It is said that Congress has power to set- tle the question. Why, they have appoint- ed a committee of thirty-three, and they are now busily engaged in doing nothing. This. committee consists chiefly of Northeners. One of them is from your State." [Hisses.] Referring to Henry Winter Davis.
A scene of wild excitement ensued, sev- eral persons who had been intently listening to the speaker rose from their seats and cheered for Henry Winter Davis, others re- sponded in hisses, some one crying out "Oh! he is a black Republican." Cheers rang out for Bell all over the hall, and there was counter-cheering for Breckenridge, mingled with cries of "put him out." After further cheering and hissing the disturb- ance calmed down.
Mr. Handy, proceeding, said: "This is no party matter, every son of the South was deeply interested in it. Some of the warm- est advocates of Mississippi's course were
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friends of Mr. Bell. This committee for the most part were black Republicans, and will never recognize slavery as a Constitu- tional right. Just put the question to them: Do you recognize slavery as a Constitu- tional right? and they will explode imme- diately. There is nothing to be expected from them except a delay that will ruin the country. The fugitive slave law has been disregarded and set aside. They won't believe in it, and if they won't believe in Moses and the prophets, they won't believe in any one, though he comes from the dead. "Mississippi was opposed to calling a con- vention of all the slave-holding States. There is not time for it between this and the 4th of March. Legislatures would have to be called together, and this could not be done in season. Maryland and Texas have difficulties in the way of an immediate con- vening of their Legislatures. But suppose the convention was called, was there any probability that they would agree before the 4th of March. Not at all. It would take longer time to deliberate. But there was a still stronger objection. It was con- trary to the Constitution.
"It would be a meeting of the States held in the Union to deliberate on the dissolu- tion of the Union. This they cannot do. If the Union is to be broken up, each State must act in her sovereign capacity. They must go out of the Union one by one as they came into it. We of Mississippi do not see that there is to be anything gained by a convention of all the Southern States. Our views, as I present them for your con- sideration, are that each Southern State shall secede from the Union."
At this point further disorder transpired. There were hissings and cheerings and cries
of "put the black Republicans out." Then followed cheers for the Union; cheers for Governor Hicks; cheers for South Caro- lina, and hisses.
The speaker resumed when the confusion died out, saying "he was not there to arouse their passions. He was in his native State to speak the truth and he could not be de- terred by hisses. If the views he presented were not sound ones reject them. We have tried all expedients to secure our rights which the wits of man could devise, but have failed. We do not take this step for the purpose of breaking up the Union, but to have our rights guaranteed.
"Our fathers fought to make these States free and sovereign, and afterwards agreed to enter into a compact with the other States. This is the contract that has been trampled upon. We want our rights under the Constitution and we are determined to have them out of the Union if we cannot have them in. It is said the Constitution has nothing in it giving a State power to secede. This is true. It has nothing in it giving you the power to have a legis- lature or municipal government in your city, but all powers not given to the General Government and enumerated in the Constitution were reserved to the States, and they have the power to resume their sovereign rights whenever they shall see fit to do so.
"Suppose, for example, that the State of Maryland, for the preservation of her rights, should withdraw from the Union, would not the act of coercion to bring her back make her subjugated and disgraced, and not equal to the rest of the States by reason of her subjugation. Therefore, the act of coercion is, in itself, the destruction
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of the Union, because it destroys the equal- ity of the States. Permit me to say some- thing upon secession. We do not propose to go out of the Union for the purpose of breaking up the Union. We go out for the purpose of getting our rights in the Union. The withdrawing is to have amendments made by the Northern States, so that we may have guaranteed us our rights forever. We only want our rights protected, and we want the guarantee that they shall not again be trampled upon. We want them now and forever. If the question is not settled now and finally we will go out and form a pro- vincial government, and wait until it is set- tled, and then come back. If it is never set- tled we will stay out. We want no new laws, we are satisfied with the Constitu- tion and the Supreme Court, but we want those laws we have fully and faithfully en- forced. This is the position of Mississippi, and I think it is the position of Maryland.
"If the Southern States are severed from the Northern States-which I hope may not be the case-it will be as the amputation of an arm to save the body. He would not advise Maryland, but before Mr. Lincoln comes into power Mississippi will be out of the Union. We do not intend that Lincoln and his myrmidons shall have power and dominion over us, unless such amendments are made to the Constitution as will settle the question forever.
"It has been said that if the South secedes she will be overrun by troops. For this we are prepared, as is also South Carolina, and if Northern men are disposed to make a raid upon us like the John Brown raid or any other, we will say to them come on. But before they do so we would advise them to contemplate the bravery of South
Carolina troops at Cherubusco, and of the Mississippians at Monterey and Buena Vista, and then try to imagine how the sons of the South will stand when their homes are besieged and the lives of their wives, daughters and sisters are at stake."
A. K. Handy, subsequent to the Civil War, returned to Maryland and settled in Balti- more, where he practiced law. He did not live a great while after his return, but died and was buried in his native State.
Saturday, December 22d, a meeting was held at the Universalist Church on Calvert street to request Governor Hicks to con- vene the Legislature, in order that Mary- land's attitude in the pending trouble might be determined. Judge John C. Le Grand said: "Whether to convoke the Legislature is proper I know not. I entertain, myself, some doubts upon the subject. But I will say that no man whom it would be safe to trust outside of a lunatic asylum will doubt for a moment that the times are full of peril and alarm, and that the time for decided action has come."
William H. Ryan: "Maryland must be the great battle ground, and if Mr. Lincoln shall be inaugurated on the 4th day of March next, I see not how a disruption of the Government can be averted. The fear- ful calamity must come, but woe unto that man and party by whom it comes."
Mr. William H. Norris: "The leading ideas of the Republican party are free . speech, free press and free soil. The first meant the right of Beecher and Seward to go into Southern fields and preach insurrec- tion as a sacred duty, and the second meant the dissemination of documents which would incite a servile population to murder and rapine."
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The election was a thing of the past and a new era opened up. Governor Hicks re- fused to do the bidding of the "Peace Men;" "The Neutralists" or "Secessionists." He had been a Whig; a Native American and was undoubtedly a Union man. He was not a Republican, nor was he a Radical, but a Conservative, who had owned slaves, and while not wedded to that institution, he made no war upon it. He was determined to keep the State out of the Southern vor- tex, and his conduct applauded at the North was denounced at the South. The "Peace Men," "The Neutralists" and "The Seces- sionists" undertook to coax, flatter, cajole and to drive him, and were unsuccessful at each turn. An unwise letter, written in a vein of sarcasm and irony, was used to im- peach his fidelity and was the justification offered derisively by many a speech-maker for his secessionism. The history of that letter was this: Governor Hicks at the date of its writing, November 9, 1860, was doing all in his power to thwart the wishes of those who were against the Union. Edwin H. Webster, a Union man, intimate with the Governor, wrote to him about furnish- ing a Bel Air military company arms. Mr. Webster, on receiving the Governor's reply regarded the answer as pleasantry and handed it to the captain of the company. The letter follows:
"I have pleasure in acknowledging re- ceipt of your favor introducing a very clever gentleman to my acquaintance (though a Demo). I regret to say that we have at this time no arms on hand to distribute, but as- sure you that the earliest possible moment your company shall have arms; they have complied with all required of them on their part. We have some delay in consequence
of contracts of Georgia and Alabama ahead of us, and we expect at an early day an ad- ditional supply, and of the first received your people shall be furnished." Here was a good place for the Governor to have signed his name, but he broke off into lev- ity and furnished the means of wronging himself by his enemies. It was not dig- nified for a Governor to jocosely suggest of the company, "Will they be good men to send out to kill Lincoln and his men? If not, suppose the arms would be better sent South. How does the late election sit with you? "Tis too bad. Harford has nothing to reproach herself for."
That communication has been character- ized as of murderous and treasonable im- port by Mr. Scharf, who must have known better. Horace Greeley ignorantly quoted it seriously. Webster, to whom it was writ- ten, maintained it was a jest. He was a steadfast Unionist; he and the Governor voted for Bell and Everett. In the election referred to by the Governor, Harford coun- ty cast its vote for the Union ticket. Web- ster was an adviser of the Governor's against the cabalistic Southerners. He subsequently commanded a Federal regi- ment and was a Union Congressman-a queer sort of a man for any one to make a suggestion of a treasonable purpose.
1861.
Thursday, January Ioth, a mass meeting of the Union people of Baltimore was held in the Maryland Institute, at which Archi- bald Sterling, Sr., presided. Wm. H. Col- lins speaking, said: "Maryland is not our country, she is but a part of it, though a grand pageant part. She has but an area of 10,000 square miles, whilst our country
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contains 3,000,000. She has less than I,- 000,000 people, whilst our country numbers 30,000,000. The people of Baltimore know that our true country extends from the great lakes of the North to the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande and the sunny re- gions of the South, and from the resound- ing shores of the Atlantic over lowland and mountains, valley and hills and plains to the Pacific, where we look out upon China and Japan.
Augustus W . Bradford: "How shall Mary- land best act to avert the dangers of dis- union. Maryland is the heart of this Union so long as it can be preserved. Maryland, the Belgium of this Union, so soon as it shall be dissolved, her local position, the conservative character of her people, by a long and well known attachment to the Constitution and the Union, demand that they shall well consider the step that is so important to her weal or woe."
Reverdy Johnson: "Let it be our purpose and our ardent wish to take counsel with our countrymen, our brethren, East, West, North and South. Patriotism knows no latitudes when true to the teachings of a noble ancestry. It clings as we do with a loyal attachment to the Union of our fathers, which they gave and commended to us as the ark of our political safety. Let us be faithful to all the obligations which the Union imposes on States and citizens, and to all the rights and powers which it confers on the united whole. Let us resolve that prudent counsel, patriotic efforts, gratitude and reverence for the great dead, and solici- tude for the peace, honor and happiness of the living and love for the countless gener- ations that are to follow and respect for the "opinion of the world, already condemning
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