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 18
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February 8th, the States Rights City Convention convened at the Law Building and debated the calling of the Legislature in special session.
S. Teackle Wallis: "Governor Hicks as- sumes to act for the people without their authority."
H. Clay Dallam: "Maryland's voice
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shall no longer be stifled by the usurpa- tions of her executive. She must declare in no uncertain sounds that if the crisis must come, that then her destinies are with the Southern States."
Henry May wrote: "The course of Gov- ernor Hicks in denying the sovereignty of the people in this crisis is an abuse of pub- lic trust and a violation of the cardinal prin- ciples of free government."
Tuesday, March 12th, the State Confer- ence Convention resumed its sessions in the city; few of its delegates were present. Resolutions defining the position of the body were presented, discussed and passed.
On the second day of the session, a pro- position was reported for a Border State Convention; the delegates to be elected by Congressional Districts or State Conven- tions. A committee of five was appointed to visit the Virginia Convention and assure them of the cordiality and sympathy of Maryland.
The 18th of April, a Union mass meeting was called for the 22nd of that month, in Monument Square. It never assembled. The exciting events of the 19th created a riot and an uproar that subdued every ves- tige of Union sentiment. At a meeting in1 Monument Square on the 19th, the Mayor, George W. Brown, uttered in his speech these words: "I do not wish my position misunderstood. I deplore the unhappy oc- currances of to-day. Disagreeing with the spirit and object of the President's call for troops, Maryland being yet a member of the United States, regularly summoned to the National Capitol, I have felt it my duty to protect them at the risk of my life." The last declaration of the Mayor was received with a storm of groans.
William P. Preston: "Let no more troops pass through Baltimore." The crowd thundered in response, "We won't, indeed. Never."
Severn Teackle Wallis: "If the blood of our brethren shed in the streets of Balti- more to-day does not speak to the heart of every man in Maryland, then the human voice may well be dumb."
A Mr. Wetherd, an ex-member of Con- gress, in his remarks informed the palpi- tating crowd "that the 7th Regiment of New York was on the way to fight through Baltimore." The announcement set it wild and shouts of defiance caused the air to shake and tremble at the vehemence dis- played.
Judge William L. Marshall (he was after- wards elected by the Unionists judge of the Court of Common Pleas), condescend- ingly announced "that he was ready to do whatever Mr. McLane thought he ought to do."
Mr. Robert M. McLane was regarded as a warrior on the scent for rivers of blood and bent on extracting it from Yankee veins. He had let the troops slip over the Susquehanna without procuring a drop of the precious elixir. He now informed the . town "that he stood pledged to resist the passage of troops through Baltimore," when he heard "blood was being shed in the streets of Baltimore," he visited the Mayor's office "to offer his services."
And asked the Governor, whom he met there, whether he would lead them ? Where- upon the crowd showed its sympathetic feel- ings for that official by asking why Mr. McLane did not choke him? To which he replied, believing the Governor "intend- ed to place the State in an official attitude
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of honor," he had told him he stood ready "to fight under him as a lieutenant."
[The name of Mr. McLane nowhere ap- pears in the captured roster of the army of the Confederate States. His postoffice ad- dress during the war was Paris, France.]
At this juncture, William L. Marshall, the gentleman above alluded to, a Ken- tuckian, a brother of Thomas F. Marshall, and a professing Republican, in great ex- uberance of soul was moved to exclaim: "Oh! we'll fight 'em without arms. They ran from our stones to-day!" His declara- tion was greeted with laughter and vocifer- ous cheering. They were possibly laugh- ing at the remark, more likely at the man who made it.
George M. Gill was about pronouncing one of his ponderous solemn orations when a body guard of citizens appeared with Gov- ernor Hicks. The Governor informed the audience "that he had ever been devotedly attached to the Union. The Union was now apparently broken, but he trusted its reconstruction might be brought about."
He had stirred up the hornets; vehement shouts of "Never!" "Never!" groans and hisses darkened council and interrupted · free speech.
The Governor regained his breath and changed his tactics, resuming, he meekly added, "But if otherwise, I bow in submis- sion to the mandate of the people. [Cheers.] If separate we must, in God's name, let us separate in peace, for I would rather this right arm should be separated from my body than raise it against a brother."
The Governor on concluding his address received slight cheers. He immediately proceeded to the Fountain Hotel. On his way he was followed by a crowd who held
him in slight regard. Those composing it eyed him unfavorably but did not commit any overt acts.
Governor Hicks called the Legislature in special session at Annapolis, Friday, April 26th. "For the safety and comfort of the members,“ a change was made in the desig- nated place, and Frederick was named by proclamation of the Governor, dated April 24th. While "safety and comfort" were al- leged, the real reason was to surround the Legislature by the influences of the Union sentiment of Frederick.
The Know Nothing members from Balti- more City, in the Legislature, had been, on the last day of its session, deprived of their seats, and a special election was held to fill those vacancies. The Constitution required ten days' notice of an extra session, and the code three weeks' notice of all special elec- tions. The sheriff, by authority of the war- rant of the Democratic speaker of the House of Delegates, gave notice of the elec- tion. The Board of Police directed the holding of the polls and a revolutionary election in defiance of law was conducted.
John C. Brun, Ross Winans, Henry W. Warfield, J. Hanson Thomas, S. Teackle Wallis, Charles H. Pitts, William G. Har- rison, Lawrence Sangston, T. Parkin Scott and Henry M. Morfit, a few days before the "called election" had been placed in nomi- nation by the Democratic party. On the day of election they received 9,249 votes out of a total voting population of 30,148. They were unopposed and took the seats of men in the Legislature whose title ad- mitting its taint was better than their own.
The meagerness of the vote encouraged and emboldened the Union men of the city, April 30, Union meetings were addressed by
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Dr. Joseph Roberts, Baltus H. Kennard, J. M. Kimberly and William Price. The Federal appointees returned from hiding. Henry W. Hoffman, Collector of the Port; William H. Purnell, Postmaster, and Franklin Corkran, Naval officer, took the places to which they had previously been appointed by President Lincoln.
In answer to an invitation of Lambert Gittings, W. H. C. Wright and G. L. Dula- ney, who had addressed a communication to Henry May, asking him to become a candidate for Congress in the Fourth Dis- trict. Mr. May responded affirmatively un- der date of May 13th. On the 17th of the same month, Henry Winter Davis was nominated over John P. Kennedy, the Un- ion candidate, to oppose Mr. May. Davis received in the convention 41 votes, and Kennedy 18 votes. Mr. Davis, in accept- ing his nomination, made this denial: "Those who charge me with having en- couraged rowdyism at the polls were ma- licious and deliberate libellers."
An effort was made to induce Mr. Ken- nedy to become an Independent Union can- didate for Congress. It was encouraged by Mr. C. C. Fulton, editor of the "Ameri- can" Mr. Kennedy declined, saying, "There are already two candidates before the peo- ple to distract the vote of the district-a decision sufficiently perilous to the hopes of the friends of the Union."
May 21st, the Union Convention of the Third Congressional District reassembled in Temperance Temple. It had adjourned to enable the rival candidates for the nomi- nation, who were John B. Seidenstricker, Robert Turner, A. W. Bradford, C. L. L. Leary and J. Morrison Harris, to communi- cate in writing to the convention their views
on the issues of the hour. Mr. Harris' let- ter was objected to as non-committal, and Dr. Brooks offered a resolution "That we will nominate no man for Congress who is not willing to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States by force of arms or by any other Constitutional or lawful measures which may be deemed necessary."
Mr. Harris had set forth in his letter "The idea of subjugating and holding the seced- ing States, I believe to be neither prac- ticable nor wise. While, at the same time, I would sustain the general Government against aggression and defend the Capitol of the country against assault."
C. L. L. Leary, whose letter was a ring- ing declaration pledging himself to support the Federal Government in every emer- gency, was nominated on the sixth ballot. In his speech before the Convention Mr. Leary said: "So long as there remains a single thread of the flag to hang to, there will I be found."
A Maryland Union Convention, ignoring party lines, consisting of delegates from the counties and city of Baltimore, assembled in the latter city in the large audience hall of the Maryland Institute. It was com- posed of leading and influential citizens of the Commonwealth, among whom were Hugh Ely, Robert S. Rogers, S. Morris Cochran, Gen. Edward Shriver, James T. Mccullough, William A. McKillip, J. D. Gough, S. A. Gray, J. B. Ricand, Anthony. Kimmel, A. Bowis Davis, William P. Mauls- by, Joshua Lynch, C. L. L. Leary, James L. McDougal, Dr. Perry Kinneman, Wil- liam S. Reese, James L. Parr, Job Smith, Robert Turner, Rev. Fletcher E. Marine, William Silverwood, Benjamin Deford, R. S. Matthews, John W. Woods, John C.
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King, Joshua Harvey, August Mathiot, J. Faris Moore, Samuel T. Hatch, Robert Tyson, P. G. Sauerwein, John J. Danaker, Edmund Wolf, Henry Stockbridge, John E. Smith, Col. J. Merrick, James A. Gary, Gayson Eichelberger, Lawrence J. Brengle, James Cooper, Frederick Schley, Charles E. Trail, Thomas Gorsuch, Upton Burman, George Vickers, James M. Vickers, Jesse K. Hines, Howes Goldsborough, George R. Goldsborough, John S. Sellman, William Mead Addison, Alexander B. Hagner, Wil- liam L. Seabrook, Frank H. Stocket, George M. Russum, P. W. Downs, John W. Wilson, Augustus W. Bradford, Rich- ard J. Gettings, William B. Hill, Dr. Thomas Fisher, James L. Ridgley, Dr. D. S. Gittings, Dr. William H. Mace, John C. Holland, Christian Gore, Rev. John T. Von Bokkelin, Pleasant Hunter, William Kirk- wood, Malcolm Wilson, Henry W. Arch- er, John Silver, George W. Kenley, J. J. Michael, Edwin H. Webster, Samuel S. Moffit, William J. Jones, James W. Clay- ton, Alexander Evans and John B. Seiden- stricker. It is apparent from the forego- ing names that it was a representative gath- ering of leading citizens of standing and notable from the fact that it was the initia- tory of the organization of the Union party which existed in Maryland throughout the war.
Hon. J. B. Ricand in accepting the per- manent presidency, in his speech said: "We have met in troublous times, our once happy country has been rent, divided, sun- dered; State after State has withdrawn from the Union until eleven have gone from us, and left to the remainder the noble duty of doing all they can for the Constitution and the Union." "Let the spirit of compromise
actuate us that we may speak words of peace to our distracted country. We are one of the old thirteen; one of the seven States yet composing the Union, and by our efforts, seconded by old Kentucky, Mis- souri and Delaware, peace and unity may yet be restored."
The Convention adopted an address to the people of Maryland, written by S. S. Moffit, strongly denunciatory of secession and declaring that the violated law must be vindicated. The resolutions adopted declared that the revolution in progress "was without excuse or palliation;" that it had "in view one object-the destruc- tion of the Government and the division of our country into two or more fragments- and that the redress of actual or supposed wrongs in connection with the slavery ques- tion forms no part of their views or pur- poses." The resolutions expressed a dis- belief "that the masses of people" in the bounds of "the so-called seceded States are justly chargeable with the crime of revo- lution" and affirmed "that the people of Maryland are unalterably determined to maintain and defend the Government of the United States of America," and to that end "will support the Government of the United States in all legal and Constitutional meas- ures, the adoption of which may be neces- sary to resist the revolutionists in the States." The previous Legislature was ar- raigned for charging that the people of Maryland were "humiliated" or "subju- gated," that intimation was characterized as a "gratuitous insult to the people." The ninth resolution set forth "that whilst the people of this State will sustain the Govern- ment in the most efficient, active and thor- ough measures necessary for the suppres-
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sion of the rebellion," yet "they will insist that no spirit of animosity or vindictiveness towards the seceded States shall enter into those measures. They will insist on the people of those States being recognized and treated as brethren and fellow-citizens of a common country, whose errors must be re- strained, but in a spirit of fraternal kind- ness, whenever and as soon as that spirit shall be enabled to find an opportunity for its ministrations." The position of the Un- ion men of Maryland was defined in the fol- lowing resolution: "While they concur with the present executive of the United States that the unity and integrity of the National Union must be preserved, their view of the nature and true principles of the Constitution, of the powers which it confers, and of the duties which it enjoins, and the rights which it secures, as it re- lates to and affects the question of slavery in many of its essential bearings, is directly opposite to the view of that executive. They are fixed in their convictions amongst oth- ers, that a just comprehension of the true principles of the Constitution forbids utterly the formation of political parties on the foundation of the slavery question. The Union men of Maryland will oppose to the utmost of their ability all attempts of the Federal Government to commingle in any manner its peculiar views on the slavery question with that of maintaining and de- fending the just powers of the Government. It is at the same time just to declare that these avowals are induced by a jealous anx- iety to avoid further difficulties and com- plications rather than by a conviction that anything to which they relate has occurred in the history of the Government since the
assumption of power by the present execu- tive."
A time for holding a State Convention was fixed for the 15th of the following Aug- ust, when candidates for Governor and Comptroller were to be nominated and the President of the Convention was charged with appointing a State Central Committee of ten persons from the city of Baltimore and two from each county in the State. How long the party was to subscribe in the language of Mr. Schley "to the beautiful platitudes" which it had promulgated we shall see in the course of this narrative. Mr. Bradford, in urging the adoption of the resolutions, said he "was no advocate of the present executive of the country." He had "for one week occupied a room adjoining his, yet had never had the curiosity even to look at him," but he was "bound to declare that the world had witnessed no such statesmanlike forbearance as that evinced in the course pursued by the pres- ent administration."
Thursday, August 15th, the Union Con- vention, William H. Collins presiding, nom- inated Augustus W. Bradford for Gover- nor. The vote stood Bradford, 54; Nesbit, 20; Pearce, 21, and Weisel, I. A change made in the vote gave Bradford 93, when he was unanimously nominated. The Con- vention resolved "that the Constitution of the United States and the Acts of Congress are the supreme laws of the land."
Thursday, September 10th, a State Peace Convention met in Baltimore. I. Nevitt Steele, in the chair. Henry W. Archer and Gen. Benjamin C. Howard were contestants for the Gubernatorial nomination; Howard was successful, receiving 71 votes to 25 cast for Archer.
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September 13th, Mayor Brown and the following members of the Legislature were arrested by order of the military authori- ties: Ross Winans, Henry M. Warfield, J. Hanson Thomas, T. Parkin Scott, Henry M. Morfit, S. Teackle Wallis, Charles H. Pitts, William G. Harrison, Lawrence Sangston and the following newspaper men: Thomas W. Hall, Frank Key How- ard, also Henry May, member of Congress; Leonard G. Quinlan and Mr. Dennison, delegates from Baltimore county. They were taken to Fort McHenry. September 18th, further arrests of members of the Leg- islature followed. They were incarcerated in Fort McHenry.
Wednesday evening, October 16th, Henry Winter Davis, at the request of a large num- ber of merchants, mechanics and business men, delivered an address at the New As- sembly Rooms, which was a marvel of logic and rhetoric. In the course of that address he said: "And Maryland, too, is she dis- loyal? ["No, no."] "There are those who say so in our midst; there are those who say so abroad; there are those in power who believe it, and there are those who are not in power, but who skulk about in the darkness of the alleys of this great city and carry whispering to the ear of power their slan- ders on their fellow-citizens, or spread them broadcast by the press all over the coun- try, until Maryland stands almost in as ill repute as if she had lifted her hand in arms against the Government that she adores and will maintain; and because of one deplor- able and humiliating event, the result of weakness in some of our rulers and of treachery in others, there are those in one great region of this country who treat the State of Maryland as the whole South late-
ly treated the whole North." * * * *
Is Maryland then disloyal? Has she ever for a moment, hesitated, even ? It is more than can be said for any other State south of Mason and Dixon's line, but Delaware. Have the people of Maryland ever hesitated as to the side they should take in this great struggle? Did she hesitate when the com- missioners from Alabama and from Missis- sippi sought to associate her to the plotting of their treason. Did she hesitate when her Governor resolutely for three decisive months refused to convene her traitorous Legislature, lest they might plunge her in the vortex of rebellion ? Did she ever hesi- tate when cunning politicians pestered him with their importunities, when committees swarmed from every disloyal quarter of the State, when men of the first position sought him and attempted to brow-beat him in his mansion? Did she swerve when they, fail- ing to compel him to call the Legislature, attempted the vain formality of a mock vote throughout the State to call a sovereign convention by the spontaneous voice of the traitors of Maryland? Did they hestitate when in almost every county, even in those counties which were strongly secession, at the election for that Convention, the dis- loyal candidates were either defeated or got votes so insignificant as to create nothing but disgust and laughter throughout the State? Did they hestitate when that wretch- ed remnant of a Convention met here amid the jeers and' the scoffs of the people of Baltimore at the Maryland Institute-to do nothing and go home? What was it that enabled the Governor to resist the perpetual applications for the convocation of the Leg- islature? Are we to suppose he had cour- age and resolution to face down and over-
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bear the will of the great majority of the people of Maryland ? or was it not because, knowing the people who had elected him, their temper and their purposes, he felt that however severe the pressure might be on him, where one person sought the meeting of the Legislature there were thousands who stood by him in his refusal to convene them." * * * "And had Maryland been then as people now presumptuously assert that she is, Abraham Lincoln might have taken the oath before a magistrate in the corner of some magistrate's office in Penn- sylvania, but he would not have been in- augurated where his predecessors were in- augurated in the august presence of the Capitol of the country."
On the expiration of Governor Francis Thomas' term of office as Governor in 1850 he retired to the top of a high mountain in the Allegheny range beyond Cumberland, in consequence of domestic troubles. There he had built two log cabins; one of them he occupied and the other sheltered two men servants. When the Union question as- sumed fiery prominence he left his hermit- age and appeared among the people of western Maryland, thrilling them with his eloquent invocations to stand by the Fed- eral Government. He was nominated and elected to Congress, an honor he had pre- viously enjoyed for a period of years. He was invited to Baltimore to speak; his past prominence drew an immense turn- out to the Front Street Theatre, where he appeared on the evening of Tuesday, Octo- ber 29, 1861. Such parts of his speech as are given are personal to himself.
"Fifteen years of my life have been passed in seclusion and retirement. During that time events have transpired that have
brought about the terrible calamity with which the country is now afflicted. Old party associations have been broken up and the people have come out under new or- ganizations, formed under motives and in- ducements that I have had no opportunity to understand and properly judge.
"Yes, fellow-citizens, it was here in this hall that the first step in that terrific drama, in which we are all called to take a part, was taken.
"Their purpose was too transparent; I never could have been a blind tool in their hands to demoralize the great Democratic party and thus open the way for their ter- rific conspiracy, having for its purpose the destruction of our great and glorious Na- tion.
"All their clamor about Southern rights and the protection of slavery in the Terri- tories was the most shallow and miserable pretense in the world. We were told that the enforcement of the fugitive slave law was the essential element of Southern rights without which a dissolution was inevitable.
"During ten years of Congress I never joined in any debate on the subject of slavery. I always shunned it as a subject for demagogues, and clearly forsaw that it was introduced for the purpose of bringing about the designs of disloyal ambition. And I contend that this is a war of ambition-a war of plunder-a war for the destruction of the very institution we are called upon to draw our swords to defend.
When they ask me to sympathize in their rebellion because those engaged in it are slaveholders, I loath with contempt the im- putation of pecuniary motive conveyed by the plea. They might as well ask me to sympathize with them because they own
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horses. I am a Marylander and a slave- holder, but whilst I glory in being a Mary- lander I also glory in the revolutionary re- nown of our ancestors. I glory in the re- sult of their labors, because I am a citizen of this great Nation, with no sectional affini- ties, and no local animosities. My proudest title is to be considered an American citizen.
Although prepared myself for this rebel- lion, I ought not to be surprised that many Marylanders did not see the catastrophe. Being able to stand at the standpoint I have now reached, and looking down through the vista of the past, I hope it will not be tiresome to my hearers for me to repeat some of the reasons that impelled me long since to look forward to the consummation of the unholy purposes of these dema- gogues.
Full twenty years since, when occupying my seat in the House of Representatives, I was surprised one morning after the as- sembling of the House to observe that all the members from the slave-holding States were absent. Whilst reflecting on this strange occurrence, I was asked why I was not in attendance on the Southern caucus assembled in the room of the Committee of Claims? I replied that I had received no invitation.
I then proposed to go to the committee room to see what was being done. When I entered I found that little cock sparrow, Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, ad- dressing the meeting, and strutting about like a rooster around a barn-yard coop, dis- cussing the following resolution, which he was urging on the favorable consideration of the meeting:
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