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 25
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Excitement prevailed during the canvass; it was remarkable that no breaches of the peace occurred. Arrangements to preserve order were amply provided for under the National and State laws.
The vote in the seven lower wards of Bal- timore City was: Marine, Republican, 4,- 835; Archer, Democrat, 8,859. In the Third Congressional District Booth, Re- publican, received in the thirteen upper wards 10,414; Swann, Democrat, 15,137. The strength of the colored vote was in the upper wards, which gave Mr. Booth a larger proportionate vote than that received by Mr. Marine.
The tickets used in the Second District by the Republicans had printed on them the
bust of Abraham Lincoln, which has con- tinued the party emblem, and above it the words, "Republican Ticket;" beneath were the additional words, "With malice towards none-with charity for all." Below the bust was the name of the district, the candidate's name and date of election. The Democratic ticket was headed, "White Man's Ticket." Below it was an eagle perched upon a rock; in its back a streamer, on which was in- scribed the word "Constitution." In the left hand corner was a moving train; in the right a plow and a sheaf of garnered wheat ; below was a line which read "For Con- gress, 2d Congressional District," and un- derneath it another line, "Hon. Stevenson Archer."
The Baltimore American said editorially of the result: "The prejudice which is en- tertained against the voting of the colored people contributed more to our defeat than all other causes combined. The negro has proven to be an element of weakness and not of strength, and it will take time to educate the masses up to an appreciation of the justice of his enfranchisement."
1871.
Wednesday evening, October 23d, a Democratic mass meeting favorable to the election of Joshua Vansant for Mayor took place in Monument Square. Mr. Vansant declared his devotion "to the Constitution of the United States, as it was handed down by the patriots, statesmen and sages of the Revolution. The days of the radical party should be numbered and they not many, because it was necessary to restore the economy of the Government and to reassert the principles that underlie the Constitu- tion and the glory of the people. The pres-
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ent administration treated the Southern States as a barbarous power would treat their conquered provinces."
The Mayoralty election was held Wed- nesday, October the 25th. Mr. Vansant was opposed by Charles Dunlap, Independ- ent and Reformer, who polled most of the Republican vote. Vansant received 18,31I votes and Dunlap 10,973.
1872.
Horace Greeley, Democratic candidate for President, delivered an address at Pimlico Fair, Thursday afternoon, October 10th. On the evening of that day he was sere- naded at the Carrollton Hotel and made a speech. A letter of welcome from Mayor Vansant and a special commitee of the City Council was presented to Mr. Greeley, after which he said: "People differ radically in ideas. It was this difference which led to the Civil War.
"They fought it out gallantly and when the end came I was very anxious that peace should be restored as speedily as possible. My life since then has been given to this work. I have been most grossly abused for the efforts I have made to procure a last- ing peace. The country should be cemented together by reconciliation, not by subjuga- tion. Peace is only war in another shape unless the country is reconciled on this ba- sis. It cannot be done at once. If it takes years to accomplish it people must not be impatient. I do not judge harshly those who differ with me in opinion. I think them honest. I have been anxious that this people should be in heart united, and they will be some day. The time will come when we shall hold conventions to exult at the consummation of this result. Those who
fought against the Union were gallant men, but they were mistaken. Let us be friends again."
The mass meetings held in Baltimore during the campaign were spiritless on the part of the Democrats. Those of the Re- publicans were more lively and energetic. The Democrats held their last grand rally in Monument Square on the night of Thurs- day, October 31st. The principal speaker was William Pinkney Whyte, who excused Democrats voting for Mr. Greeley on the ground "that the wisest statesmanship is that which forgets the past and uses the les- sons learned to mould the future for those who may come after them." The speaker further said: "Let us accept the circum- stances of to-day as they are. It makes no difference what Horace Greeley was, we all know what he is now, and we take him be- cause the radicals have always taught us that he was honest; because he has been honest enough to come out of bad company and join the Democrats." The Republi- cans held their last meeting of consequence in Monument Square, Friday night, No- vember Ist. Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massa- chusetts, said he had "been held up as an enemy to the South, but he had never had an unkind word towards that section." Postmaster Creswell said he "was once a Democrat, but he thanked no man to re- mind him of those the five meanest years of his life. He was amazed to see that gal -. lant old party that had carried the flag of the country through all its wars with for- eign States with success and glory, which once had a Jefferson and a Jackson, who left as a legacy to it the immortal words, "The Union-it must and shall bepreserved,' now led by Horace Greeley and Charles
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Sumner, who had taken a bail bond of it to keep the peace." As for him, like the French knight, he would pass it by without a blow, but with a prayer that more kindly elements would shed their influences on it."
The vote in Baltimore City resulted: Greeley, 24,702 votes, and Gen. Grant, 19,- 523 votes. William O'Brien, Democrat, de- feated Robert Turner, Independent, in the Third Congressional District by a vote for the former of 9,675 over 8,346 for the latter. In the Fourth District Thomas Swann re- ceived 12,148 votes and Elias Griswold, In- dependent, 10,916 votes.
I873.
The contest this year was waged in the city of Baltimore between the Reformers, who nominated Mr. David Carson for Mayor, and the Democrats, who renomi- nated Joshua Vansant. The Republicans made no nominations; a part of that organi- zation, under the leadership of Collector of the Port, Washington Booth, supported Mr. Carson. The city campaign had no life in- fused into it. Several meetings were held, but were poorly attended. The election took place Wednesday, October 22d. Car- son received 12,657 votes and Vansant 22,- 751. A Reformer was elected from the First Ward to the First Branch of the City Coun- cil; the others in both branches were Demo- crats.
The Republicans nominated a regular State ticket for Comptroller and Clerk of the Court of Appeals. They were voted for November 4th. At the same time the clerks of the various courts, the sheriff, city sur- veyor and members of the Legislature were elected. Otis Spear, Reform candidate for Clerk of the City Court, died two days prior
to the election; he received 8,389 votes, though dead.
In Baltimore City Henry Goldsborough, Republican candidate for Comptroller, re- ceived 13,637 votes, against 28,221 cast for Levin Woolford.
Postmaster General Creswell, in a po- litical speech, referred to the rottenness and corruption existing in municipal affairs, an attack which elicited a vigorous reply from Governor Whyte, who paid his respects to the Postmaster General in this manner: "If brass should be made a legal tender and Creswell be used up, the national embar- rassments for want of currency might be speedily cured. Creswell's speech in the New Assembly Rooms recalled to many an aged negro the old Mississippi song of
" 'Wheel about, and turn about and do just so, And every time you jump about, you jump Jim Crow.'
"Monbaddo has said that man is such an imitative animal that he must have been at one time a monkey, and it seems very likely now that Maryland will imitate Ohio. The Custom House army and reform recruits will scarcely be able to stop it. This bal- loon party will be torn into more tatters than Inskip's tent. The Reform party, swaddled in the Custom House and nursed by the United States District Attorney, is an infant that will not live long."
The Governor said "a boy had been sent to a doctor's shop; he got scared at a skele- ton and ran across the street. The doctor called the boy back, but he kept running away, saying, 'You are the same old skele- ton, only you have clothes on.' We have now the Custom House Radical party with its Reform clothes on."
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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
1874.
On Thursday, September 17th, Thomas Swann was again nominated for Congress in the upper Baltimore district, and William J. O'Brien in the lower one. The chairman of the convention announced Mr. O'Brien nomination for the Forty-fifth Congress, when it should have been the Forty-fourth. Mr. O'Brien's opponents amused them- selves by saying there was no Democratic nomination for the Forty-fifth Congress.
In the upper Baltimore district the Re- publicans nominated John R. Cox and in the lower James S. Suter for Congress. Neither of the candidates were speech- makers. It was in all probability as dull a political campaign as ever was held in modern times. The Democrats did not hold any grand rallies, and only one was held
by the Republicans. That meeting was on Friday night, October 30th, in the New Assembly Rooms. Mr. R. Stockett Ma- thews, in the course of his speech, said, "no one had seen an explanation of the creation of the floating debt of $3,000,000 that we were called on to fund. Who can tell of the costs of that monstrous City Hall, with its monstrously ugly dome? Who can tell of the bills paid to the most aristocratic up- holsterer outside of New York? Who can tell why it was necessary to increase the taxes in Baltimore, which are already oner- ous? The streets are badly paved and but for the rains of heaven the city would be decimated by pestilence."
At the election in November Swann had 10,024 votes and Cox had 6,910 votes. O'Brien had 9,287 votes and Suter had 4,834.
CHAPTER VIII.
EVENTS FROM 1875 TO 1895 INCLUSIVE; OR, REFORMERS AND REPUBLICANS
IN ALLIANCE DEFEATING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The dissensions in the Democratic party on the subject of bossism and corruption made a serious break in its ranks. The dis- senters, led by men of influence, of whom were ex-Confederate soldiers, raised the standard of revolt against the regulars in the cause of good government, and allied themselves with the Republicans. The facts as succeedingly presented exemplifies that there is no peril in a false ballot that can overtake the State, when the masses are incorruptible.
This chapter sets forth the dislodgement of the Democratic party from power and the installation of the Republican party in its place, after defeats and discouragements without a parallel in the history of local politics.
The first serious attempt at reform in State and municipal methods was inaugu- rated in Baltimore this year. Tuesday, Sep- tember 7th, a meeting of Independent Dem- ocratic and Conservative voters was held in the Masonic Temple, H. Clay Smith pre- siding. He submitted a statement of the enormous increase in taxation, declaring there was a demand for reform in every branch of municipal government. John S. Reese said: "The object of the meeting is to rebuke the leaders of the Democratic party because they have nominated men for the office of the City Council, and the Legisla-
ture of the State, who by common and uni- versal consent are utterly unfit." Mr. Reese asked, "Who is the Democratic party?" when a voice answered, "Thomas Swann," amid laughter and applause.
Skipwith Wilmer: "We are tired of see- ing men intrusted with the management of the finances of the State whom we would not trust around the corner with a five dol- lar bill."
Judge William P. Malsby: "The Demo- cratic Conservative party has been in con- trol of the State since 1866." Here he was interrupted by some one saying, "And they always will be," to which he replied: "I trust for my country's sake they always will be, but for my country's and party's sake that it will no longer continue under the present leadership."
Henry M. Warfield was nominated for Mayor of Baltimore by Reformers and en- dorsed by Republicans. A committee ap- pointed by the State Republican Conven- tion met a similar committee appointed by Reformers, and J. Morrison Harris was agreed upon as nominee for Governor, S. Teackle Wallis for Attorney General, and Edward Wilkins for Comptroller.
The campaign was aggressive on the part of both parties. The Democrats nominated for Governor John Lee Carroll; Attorney General, Charles J. M. Gwinn; Comptroller,
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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
Levin Woolford, and Mayor of Baltimore, Ferdinand C. Latrobe. The first grand rally of the Democrats was held Friday, September 17th. Hon. Reverdy Johnson presided. He was on account of blindness unable to read his speech, which act was performed for him by J. A. McClure.
The speech was a defense of the nominees and of the right to organize rings, which constituted the first division of his remarks. His second division was "the particular ob- jection to Mr. Carroll is that he is a Roman Catholic." On that point Mr. Johnson said: "But what is the religious faith whose followers would consign to political servi- tude. It is the religion of Jesus. Every Roman Catholic believes in it as firmly as any one belonging to other religious sects. They have different mode of worship. So have other sects. But the essentials of the faith are common to all. They believe in the divinity of Jesus, in the Trinity and the Atonement. Let all Christians believe in those essentials of faith. Have Catholics ever failed to be good citizens?"
The third part of Mr. Johnson's speech was a defense of the municipal government. His closing paragraph was: "Do, then, as I am sure you will, roll up such majorities for your candidates as was recently done by your Democratic associates in California for theirs, thus carrying dismay and assur- ing a signal defeat to the enemies of the dominant party and satisfying the good men of all parties that our institutions will be preserved from farther encroachment and enlightened liberty maintained."
John Lee Carroll closed his speech with these sentences: "Who can deny that the administration of our laws has been faith- ful and impartial, that the credit of the State
has been firmly maintained in the midst of financial storms, that education has been dispensed with a liberal hand, and that or- der and good government have everywhere prevailed."
Mr. John V. L. Findlay defended Mr. Latrobe and Mr. Carroll from the imputa- tion of belonging to a ring. He said: "When it becomes necessary to nominate candidates in secret, by a body or council selected in secret, the genius of free Amer- ica will no longer rule. What weapon shall we use to fight this enemy with, who screens himself with darkness? Hatched in the re- cesses of the jungle, its origin is stamped with the primeval curse. The Republicans and Potato Bugs had nothing to say in support of reform when the Louisiana out- rage was being perpetrated, when Sheridan marched rough shod through the Legisla- ture of that State. What has been the re- sult of Republican reform? Bankruptcy in the South and panic and failures in the North. This is the reform these men have given us with which to start the new cen- . tury. I prefer to follow under the lead of the illustrious descendant of Charles Car- roll, of Carrollton. After investing the col- ored citizens with the right to theatres, ho- tels and graveyards, they put them in cir- culation stamped on one side with the God- dess of Liberty and on the other with the American eagle. They taught them to save moneyand built them a bank of Seneca sand stone in Washington. Soon the millions flowed in from the cotton-fields of the South and from the toiling colored people all over the country to the institution built of the primitive rock and watched over by the eye of the Christian statesman. The reformers then took this fund and divided it among
2.R. Claudinei
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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
themselves. The Republican party to re- form the land; if the Republican party re- forms itself it will have enough to do.
"The American claims credit for the Re- publican party's administration of affairs of the city and State in 1864. It was the Union party; the Republican party was not in power in this city and State in 1864. In May, 1866, the party split-one portion coalescing with the Democratic Conserva- tive party and the other with the Republi- can party. Therefore the credit claimed must be divided between the Republicans and that large portion of the Union party that joined with the Democrats.
"The radical party never had an existence in this State until the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted. Before that it was only a ring of Federal office holders. In 1866 they ap- propriated $20,000 of the city's money to corrupt the Legislature of the State and made an assessment of $15,000 more on the salaries of all the office holders for the same purpose. The cry is for reform. Then let it begin where it belongs. Let new life be- gin where death took its start. Begin at Washington; until it is purified it will be useless to attempt any reform. Remember this, Democrats, and inscribe it on your banners that a vote for the bugs is a vote for the rads."
Mr. F. C. Latrobe railed against secret organizations, exclaiming: "Why not come out in the open light of day and let us know what oaths and obligations you require of your candidates before admitting them to your lodges. They are initiated and then nominated, and then you tell us the veil of secrecy is thrown aside. Give us the names of the members of your supreme council- give us the tests required of your candidates
-let us know who and what is the power that crouches in the corner as soon as the door is thrown open."
A merchants' meeting in support of the reform ticket was held in the Masonic Tem- ple, Tuesday evening, September 28th. Mr. W. W. Spence, the president, made a speech and read a report of a committee of twenty- five citizens who submitted the State Re- form ticket.
J. Morrison Harris, the Reform Guberna- torial candidate, said: "Now, gentlemen, I come before you clothed by your kindly act with responsibilities of gravity and moment and I am ready to assume their weight earn- estly and honestly and as fully as my ability will permit, to justify your confidence in my discharge of them. You are going to test in this State that great omnipotent, demo- cratic principle of the right of the many and not of the few. We are going to teach the individuals who have been manipulating to their interest and your wrong, the adminis- trative government of this city and State, that behind them has ever sat and is now rising in its might their masters.
"Men who heretofore have been most literally antagonistic in political opinions and contests are coming together in honest and patriotic and all powerful union for the purpose of vindicating the rights of the peo- ple against administrative corruption and fraud."
Mr. S. Teackle Wallis forwarded from New York where he was being treated for throat disease, a lengthy letter, which was read. He expressed himself caustically on one point in Mr. Reverdy Johnson's speech. Mr. Wallis wrote: "I am not a Catholic, and consequently have no per- sonal interest in vindicating the rights of
13
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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
Catholics. The demagogism that bids for Catholic votes is quite as despicable in my eyes as that which panders to anti-Catholic intolerance.
"Since 1867 the Democratic party has been practically reigning without opposi- tion. It has made and marred what it has pleased to make or mar.
"People who have hitherto regarded vot- ing the ticket as almost the first duty of man have begun to talk seriously of invading its sacred precincts and striking off the names of nominated knaves."
Henry M. Warfield: "This blending to- gether of all classes and interests of our fair city augurs well for the successful issue of the reformation that is at hand. The ring Democracy has flaunted until the sturdy, the solid men of Baltimore, in their power, aye, in their majesty, have risen to displace them from their ruining rule. For the in- terest of our city we cast aside former dif- ferences and joining hands we protest at the ballot box against ring rule, against its broken promises of the past, even against the promises of the future."
At a meeting held Thursday, October Ist, in Monument Square, Col. Wilkins made this brief speech: "I will not detain you long. The great reform party of Mary- land having nominated me as their candi- date for the office of Comptroller, I appear before you this evening to express my thanks for the distinguished honor. Liv- ing as I have under my own vine and peach tree, cultivating their fruits for a livelihood, I have had no thought or care for the graces of oratory, and I will not attempt a speech. But I do, in all sincerity, pledge myself, if elected, to discharge the duties of the office faithfully and honestly, and I will,
to the best of my ability, endeavor to secure reform and retrenchment in the expendi- tures of the State."
On the same evening the Democrats held a meeting in the Maryland Institute. Wil- liam Pinkney Whyte, made the following pointed allusion to Mr. Wallis: "But the gentleman who professing certain strong political views, yet enters into association with the fag end of all parties and assents to a coalition with the enemies of his own party, with men holding political opinions widely at variance with his own and representing an organization as demoral- ized and corrupt as ever wielded power in the National Government, all allied for the common purpose of defeating the party to which he claims adhesion-such a gentle- man can inspire no confidence among re- flecting men, no matter how pretentious he may be in the assumption of a severe public virtue or in the monopoly of all the decency of political society.
"He may shoot his Parthian arrows, poi- soned with venom, at his associates whom he deserts, but a child may see and ap- preciate from the bitterness of his invective that he carries with him into the camp of the enemy the anger of a Tartar rather than the spirit of a Luther."
Mr. Carroll, under date of September 30th, addressed a letter to Mr. Wallis, say- ing: "In your letter of acceptance as a candidate for Attorney General, you have seen fit to say that under the combinations of the late Convention, no candidates could escape the pledges, the compromises and influences without which their nomination could not, and would not, have been ef- fected. I look upon this statement as di- rectly assailing my integrity and honor, and
4
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HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
the fact that its personal application is at- tempted by innuendo does not lessen the gravity of the assertion." The letter con- cluded by asking Mr. Wallis to verify his statement or stand convicted as a slanderer, who has refused to spare the wanton injury he has attempted to inflict.
Mr. Wallis replied by letter, under date of October Ist, saying: "Your letter of September 30th has just reached me by this morning's mail. Until you shall see fit to make suitable apology for the grossness of the language which you have so far for- gotten the commonest proprieties among gentlemen as to use in it, you will be pleased to consider this the only personal notice which I think it deserves."
Mr. Wallis, under date of October 9th, issued an address to the voters of Maryland, in which he reciprocated Mr. Whyte's com- pliments. After moralizing on the true spirit of reform, he said: "I am quite aware that this view of human and political nature is utterly repudiated by that eminent moral- ist, Mr. Pinkney Whyte. In the delightful discourse which was read by that illustrious person at the Maryland Institute, he treated the very suggestion of it as an evidence of my innate depravity. But I meant to speak only of the rule in humanity and not the exception. I had only in my mind the 'common run of men'-those who live and move in the plane of average intelligence and virtue. I know that they-and I as one of them-sin ninety and nine times daily; whereas, hardly a day passes that Mr. Whyte does not find himself compelled like Mr. Pecksniff to lay sudden hold on something heavy, to prevent himself as- cending into Heaven. * * If he had ever suspected that the election of Mr. Car-
roll as Governor could by possibility have the remotest influence in promoting his own re-election to the United States Senate, we all know that he would have taken off his coat (which, I believe, is his usual way of serving his country) to secure the nomina- tion of Mr. Hamilton, merely to win the ap- plause of his own conscience. I submit, therefore, that he is too far above what I am treating of to know anything about it."
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