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 71

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344

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 71

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Chicago, and nominated Benjamin Harrison for President; he voted for his nomination on each of the eight ballots required for a selection. After Major Mckinley had re- ported and read the platform, delegates in the auditorium from all parts of it clamored for recognition; Mr. Marine, through the efforts of friends, was recognized. The American in its report said: "At the morn- ing session Mr. William M. Marine by a timely hailing of the chair succeeded in getting off a speech on the platform, a feat attempted by several others, but which the Marylander alone succeeded in accomplish- ing. It was just after Mckinley had fin- ished reading the resolution and Warner, of Missouri, had aired himself for a great ef- fort-so also, by the way, had the delegate from Harford. Both Marine and Warner demanded recognition. The gentleman from Maryland obtained the floor, and he at once launched his peroration, prefacing his speech with the motion to adopt the report of the Committee on Resolutions. The convention thought the motion would wind up the matter, but to their surprise the rotund Marylander went right on and made a rattling good speech. Quite often he was interrupted by the applause of the audience, and when he concluded he re- ceived an ovation. His splendid tribute to the platform enthused the audience and stamped out threatened opposition from those who favored a temperance plank. Some trouble was expected on this question and to prevent further discussion the pre- vious question followed Mr. Marine's speech."

Senator Hoar remarked to James A. Gary: "It was a brave act; it succeeded and saved the convention from a tangle;

had he failed he would have been mortified." Mr. Marine was assigned on the committee to notify the candidates of their nomina- tions. He was present in Indianapolis in the performance of that duty. Chairman Estee selected him to draft the notification to Mr. Morton, the Vice-Presidential can- didate, which draft was accepted. Subse- quently Mr. Marine was invited to partici- pate in the Indiana canvass which was one of the greatest in modern American cam- paigns. He spent two weeks daily speak- ing, traveling long distances, frequently throughout the night, to reach his appoint- ments the following day. Often he spoke twice a day. The People's Paper, Coving- ton, had the following kind words to say of him: "His speech was a splendid one, lasting for two and one-half hours, holding the vast audience spell-bound from begin- ning to end; he attracted the attention so closely he could have held them until the rising of the sun. His arguments were new and his eloquence stamped him as one of America's greatest champions." Upon his return to Baltimore he was given a public reception in the New Assembly Rooms by the Logan Invincibles.

In the Presidential campaign of 1892 he was recalled to Indiana; he was assigned to speak at Fort Wayne with Robert T. Lin- coln, Minister to England. Mr. Lincoln spoke at noon and Mr. Marine at night. The Rink was packed with fifteen thousand people at each of those meetings. A paper on the following day said his "speech was one of the ablest ever delivered in Fort Wayne." At Covington, a mam- moth meeting had been called together to hear him; he spoke and left im- mediately for home in obedience to a

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telegram, and reached there to find his daughter Susie dead. The People's Paper said: "Few realized the great strain he labored under; he was speaking at a disad- vantage." After his daughter's funeral, so urgent was the demand for his services that he returned to Indiana and remained until Saturday before the election. The Indian- apolis Journal styled him "one of the best speakers on the stump." In 1894 he was summoned to Indiana to participate in the Congressional campaign. In the Presiden- tial contest of 1896 he spent two weeks in East Tennessee, and left with the regret of the State Central Committee, to return to Maryland to assist in finishing the campaign in that State. Five appointments were ar- ranged for him in Indiana, but he was not informed of them in time to fill them. While General Grant's funeral services were held at Mount McGregor, a large memorial meeting was held at noon at the New As- sembly Rooms, Baltimore, Md., and was addressed by Mr. Marine. On the Sunday after President Garfield's death, in the after- noon of that day, he spoke in the M. E. Church in Havre de Grace. In 1873 at the North Point battle-field he addressed the Defenders' Association of the War of 1812; afterwards, with a few exceptions, he was annually the orator of the association. He delivered orations before them on their visit to the Centennial in Philadelphia, and also when they made their final visit to An- napolis. The last oration to which, as an association, they ever listened, he delivered to them on the north portico of the mansion in Druid Hill Park, September 13, 1882. Twelve members were living, eight of whom were present. In 1883 the last annual meet- ing was held, but the yearly oration was

omitted; short addresses were delivered by Gen. R. H. Carr and Mr. Marine.

In 1885-6-7-8 Robert Rennert annually, on the 12th of September, gave a dinner to James Morford, the surviving Defender. Mr. Marine was present as Mr. Morford requested, "to remind him of the past."

The Defenders were greatly attached to Mr. Marine and he to them. They made frequent visits to his office calling on him to chat. After the membership of the So- ciety of Defenders were dead, Mr. Marine was spoken of as "the last of the old De- fenders."

The Society of the Sons of the War of 1812 succeeded the Old Defenders; at its first observance of the battle of North Point and the defense of Fort McHenry, Mr. Ma- rine was their orator. At the one-hundredth anniversary of the existence of the fort, he spoke with others from a platform on the southern wall of the fort to a large audi- ence and on each recurring occasion he has addressed them. May 20, 1891, the St. Johns Lodge of Masons, Baltimore, enter- tained at a banquet in the Court room of the United States Court House, the Leb- anon Lodge, of Washington. Leading Masons of both cities were present. Mr. Marine was assigned the toast "Masonry Socially and Fraternally." The St. Johns Lodge adopted a flattering resolution of thanks to the speaker, elaborately en- grossed and framed, with the emblems of Masonry attached, which was presented to Mr. Marine, testifying appreciation of his speech.

He has been in demand on the 4th of July, 22nd of February and Union Memo- rial Day ; he is a frequent guest at banquets. A Baltimore weekly newspaper said: "The

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secret of his popularity as a public speaker is that he feels the patriotism he expresses."

He was the personal selection of Presi- dent Benjamin Harrison-backed up by a powerful influence-who appointed him Collector of the Port of Baltimore March 15th, 1890; he held that office four years and two months; one year and two months of which he served under President Cleveland. He ranked among the most efficient of col- lectors; his decisions were rarely reversed and he was generally sustained when re- versed by the Treasury Department offi- cials; he never expended his appropriations and materially reduced the expenses of col- lecting the duties at his port.

On the 28th of January, 1891, during his term as collector, the Maryland State oyster-force's steamers, Governor Thomas and Governor McLane were reported for violation of a Federal statute in not keeping a correct list of passengers when running as ferry boats between Bay Ridge and Clai- borne. The McLane was also reported for carrying an excess of passengers. Governor Jackson, then Executive of the State, and J. B. Seth, commander of the oyster force, were officials of the Eastern Shore Railroad. The railroad steamer used between the points named were disabled, and the two State officials innocently made use of the State steamers to carry railroad passengers. The collector imposed a fine of $100.00 on the captain of the Governor Thomas; $400.00 on the captain of the Governor Mc- Lane, and on the State of Maryland a fine of $2,500.00 The Governor and Commo- dore Seth were present at the hearing. Sub- sequently the fines were remitted, the col- lector, whose course was under statute im-

perative in imposing fines joining in the recommendation.

Mr. Marine has a fondness for literature; he is the author of articles that would fill several large volumes. He sent his first contribution to the Clipper when seventeen years of age, advocating the election of John Bell and Edward Everett, President and Vice-President. He was so radical in his Union proclivities as to evoke from Mr. Walsh, his friend and law preceptor, the re- mark that "there was no blacker abolitionist in Massachusetts." During the Presiden- tial campaign of 1860, he nailed a pole to the yard fence of his home and hoisted a small flag with Bell and Everett's names thereon.

Throughout all the dreary days that fol- lowed the 19th of April that flag floated from its staff. When excitement was at its height, his father said: "William, you had better take down your flag." The answer was: "Father, I put it there and you will have to haul it down." The father had not the inclination to do so and it remained.

His second communication appeared in the Clipper, the purport of which was that "peace parties in the loyal States were a cloak for secession." Thereafter he was a frequent contributor to the American. He wrote four controversial articles on "Eman- cipation," and among other articles, "John Minor Botts," "Southern Sympathy for Maryland," "William L. Yancey," "Charles- ton," "Lt. Col. Henry Howard," "General Jas. Cooper," "The Nominations" and "Di- visions in the Union Party."

The Union party in Harford county in 1866 started an organ called "The Bel Air American." Mr. Marine wrote many of its editorials and its Baltimore correspondence

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during its short-lived existence. The Cour- ier, a Baltimore weekly, drafted on his pen for articles. About this same period he wrote essays and letters which were printed in various papers. William J. Graham took charge of the Baltimore Presbyterian about 1885; the two became such fast friends that Mr. Marine was relied on by Graham to help him out; he furnished editorials, criti- cisms, a series of letters (fourteen in num- ber), on slave times ; essays, descriptive let- ters and stories for that paper. Graham was the soul of genuineness; he left Mary- land and took up his residence in Macon county, Tenn., at the town of Lafayette. There he edited the Progress. The follow- ing editorial was the first knowledge Mr. Marine had that his friend had gone so far from him:

"Marine, of Maryland, a cup of gladness to you on the appointment of your ancient friend, 'Uncle Jerry' Rusk, to a high posi- tion of trust and honor, whose acquaintance you made when orating on the prairies of Wisconsin, when twenty-four years of age. May you reach a high position of trust and honor is our wish and hope, for your faith- ful services as an original Harrison man, voting all the time in the Chicago Conven- tion for him, and for doing yeoman ser- vice for him among the Hoosiers, in the closing month of the campaign. These faithful services will secure for you a title clear to a first-class position under the new administration.

"When a stripling, without a vote, you shouted for Bell and Everett. You showed the National colors when Pratt street was filled with a howling mob, crying for the blood of the Yankee soldiers. In behalf of colored education, you took the stump, with

Judge Hugh Bond, when the opposition witheringly spoke of you as 'Master Ma- rine.' You have twice ran for Congress, three times been on the Presidential elec- toral ticket, and a candidate of your party for Clerk of the Court of Appeals. You have been a leader of a forlorn hope on many a well-contested battle-field. You were the genial "Scraps" of the Presby- terian Observer-the chosen orator, year after year, of the 'Old Defenders,' and their spokesman in the Centennial Hall. You, the jovial companion, the true friend and faithful adviser-may the sun of your politi- cal fortunes reach the soaring heights of a worthy ambition. Comfort and prosperity be yours, down to green old age!

"Many of the dreams of our youth have vanished as unsubstantial visions. Here and there one of the little party of friends that traveled daily (Sunday excepted) to and from Port Deposit and intermediate points to the Monumental City, have stopped for ever, and you now are the last traveler, the sole member of Captain Gilli- gan's 'boys.' But our hopes, tempered by experience, are as buoyant now as then, and we as eagerly press forward to reap, sub- stantially, the fruits of future labors. Our lives still run along in the same old channels -- law, literature and politics with you; jour- nalism and literature with me."

The Golden Hours, a youths' paper, and The Oriole Tidings, a story paper, both ephemeral, contained tales contributed by Mr. Marine. In 1886 he visited Europe and wrote for The Baltimorean forty let- ters, descriptive of what he saw in Eng- land, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Swit- zerland, Germany and Belgium. His chief work is an unpublished history of the

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invasion of Maryland during the War of 1812. Besides prose, he has writ- ten verse in profusion, having developed that inclination when at Irving College. After leaving school it was a dormant fac- ulty for years; at last it burst forth again. A poem entitled "My First Grey Hair," and another, "Our Seven Little Ones," have had extensive circulation.

Mr. Marine is of a retiring disposition and unostentatious in person and habits; he is a member of the Maryland His- torical Society, the Sons of the Sol- diers of the Maryland Society War of 1812, its historian, and a member of its Executive Committee; a Mason-being a Past Master of Susquehanna Lodge, No. 130-and an honorary member of the Junior Order American Mechanics. He was married to Harriet Perkins Hall, daughter of Richard D. Hall and Susanna, his wife, of Prince George's county, Md., November 9, 1871. The father of Susanna was John Perkins, dry goods merchant, of Baltimore, who was at Bladensburg and North Point battles ; a private in the Balti- more United Volunteers. Mr. and Mrs. Marine have two children dead, Matthew Harrison and Mary Susannah; five children are living, viz .: Madison, a member of the bar of Baltimore; Richard Elliott, Harriet P., Amelia Eleanor, and Frances Elizabeth.

Mr. Marine bears a striking resemblance to the late Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, of London; in Quebec and also in England the resemblance was commented upon. Con- sul General King, when at Paris, after the great divine's death, thus wrote to Mr. Ma- rine: "I think you must have sat for the portrait of Spurgeon in the American, and doubtless had you paid as much attention

to religion as you have to politics, you would have resembled him in other re- spects."

Mr. Marine is engaged in his professional calling at the Baltimore bar, but finds time to deliver speeches on national occasions, one of his latest speeches of that character was on Decoration Day, at Mount Olivet Cemetery, May 30, 1898; an abstract fol- lows :

"The peaceful dove has forsaken the calm of the skies and fields, and the warlike eagle has descended upon our plains; his talons are poised to strike the semi-civilized Spaniard and to further the will of Him whose set purposes are accomplished by His chosen people.

"For the first time in thirty-three years the flag has been unfurled to the smoke of conflict ; the roll-call of beating drums and the preparation for deadly battle. The nation is in arms; the voice that speaks through our brothers' blood is crying out from the earth, stirring the sympathetic American heart. The republic is in mourn- ing for the loss of the "Maine" and its gal- lant crew. On the eve of eventualities it halts in its mission of death at this hour and before proceeding to expell the Spaniard from North America and adding another era of military conflict and triumph to the history of the United States, with perennial remembrance it awaits our strewing the tra- grant flowers upon the lowly mounds of the Federal dead, who are the ever-living, speaking evangels of 'liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever.'

"To-day those who wore the blue render holy offices of affectionate gratitude to comradeship. To-morrow they who wore the gray :nay perform like ceremonials of

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respect to those panoplied who on the en- sanguined field touched elbow amid the blaze of battle, falling out of the column into the arms of death, and thereafter in closed ranks that know only one flag, one uniform, and keeping step to the same strains of inspiring music, both shall march in the pathway of duty and honor.

"The soldiers whose sleeping dust be- longs to the nation, and over which it has set a vigilant guard to watch their mounds and keep them green with grasses of re- membrance and love, gave libations, service and death to perpetuate our fabric of gov- ernment, that mankind everywhere might have one protecting shield from the dread, untimely blast of tyranny and oppression; that it might gaze while in travail on one constitutional bulwark of freedom, over which no hirelings should march in their onslaughts on the natural rights of man, to deprive him of self-government.

"The sailor on shipboard and the soldier in the ranks will learn from the service of this hour of a heroism crowned with imper- ishable wreaths that will endure. The blos- soms of immortality springing from decked mounds, with above the flaming sky, a tab- let bearing for all time the achievement of the volunteers who made the nation proud, strong and indestructible, will speak their fame. Ah! ye, who shall advance with in- vincibility our banner and plant it in tri- umph wherever it goes, your proudest rec- ollection will prove that your fathers had the sublime courage of devotion to country to furnish you the unswerving example of allegiance to duty, and under such an in- spiration your deeds will correspond in brightness with the martial actions of the sleepers whom we are not here to awake,

but on a pilgrimage with hands as full of flowers as our hearts are of affection for them and their holy cause.

"No, we would not disturb their sleep, but hallow it. We will with reverent step walk by the narrow rooms where they dwell, and beautify them with our offerings. Perhaps their sleep will be deeper and sweeter for our having been here. Perhaps in the chancery of Heaven, in the great book of good deeds in which are recorded the names of the blessed dead, opposite theirs may be ours, who have done what we could in springtime to keep their memo- ries green where in winter all is withered and lifeless."

THE MARYLAND TIERNANS .- The family of Tiernan was originally associated with the County of Meath, Ireland. The origin of the name is Celtic, Tier signifying chief, and nan being merely a modifying suffix or termination. Some of the family immigrated to America during the last century. Pat- rick Tiernan, a cousin of Luke Tiernan, served in the army of the Revolution, and is represented in Rembrandt Peale's historic picture, "Washington before Yorktown," which is one of the attractions of Mount Vernon. The specific design of the paint- ing is to illustrate and commemorate Wash- ington's decision of character, as exhib- ited by the following incident: "Washing- ton, with his generals, having surveyed the ground and decided on the spot, rode to his tent, took a hasty meal, remounted with his staff and rode back to the ground, where he found nothing done. In a voice unusually loud, he called to Colonel Tiernan, who rode up to him, startled and pale. "Sir, said Washington, did I not order the entrench- ments to be begun here? If they are not

HISTORY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

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begun in ten minutes, I shall know the reason why." In ten minutes, there were two hundred men at work. Chief Justice Marshall said of the portrait: "I have never seen a portrait of that great man which ex- hibited so perfect a resemblance of him. The likeness in features is striking, and the character of the whole face is preserved and exhibited with wonderful accuracy. It is more Washington himself than any portrait of him I have ever seen."

Patrick Tiernan married in Hagerstown, Md., in 1872, Margaret, daughter of Michael McKieman. His oldest son, Michael, lived in Pittsburg, Pa. Michael's daughter, Eliza Jane Tiernan, became religious and was the foundress of the order of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States.

Paul Tiernan, the father of Luke Tiernan, was born in the County of Meath, Ireland, in 1728; he died near Dublin in 1818.

Luke Tiernan, his son, was born on the River Boyne, near the scene of the famous battle of 1690. He came to America about 1783, and settled first in Hagerstown, Md., probably in consequence of the fact that some of the family had already found a home there.

Luke Tiernan removed to Baltimore in 1795, and entered into business as a com- mission merchant. He was the first person engaged in the shipping trade between Bal- timore and Liverpool.

During his long and active career, he occupied many positions of dignity, trust and responsibility, in civic as well as polit- ical life, and was brought into intimate rela- tion with some of the most brilliant and re- nowned characters that have illustrated the history of our country.

As a conspicuous illustration of this

statement, may be mentioned the fact that he was in 1824 one of the Presi- dential electors for John Quincy Adams, ·was a member of the National Republican Committee which met in Baltimore, De- cember 13, 1831, and unanimously nom- inated Henry Clay for the Presidency, the thanks of the convention being unan- imously tendered to Luke Tiernan and six others, members of the National Repub- lican Committee. He was a warm personal friend of Henry Clay, who was frequently his guest, and who pronounced him the "Pa- triarch of the Whig party in Maryland." In the account given by the Baltimore Sun, March 18, 1848, of the "Anniversary Supper of the Baltimore Hibernian So- ciety," at which Henry Clay was the guest of the society, we read: "The toast was given by Hugh Jenkins, president of the society, 'The Hon. Henry Clay, Amer- ica's distinguished son, the star of the West, like the glorious king of day, as he advances to his close, he casts a brighter radiance round his name.' Mr. Clay arose amid the most deafening cheers, and addressed the company: 'I have, during the course of a life by no means short, been honored with the respect, love and friendship of many Irishmen. A friendship that could never be broken, bounded by mutual love and es- teem, that still causes the fond remembrance of some that are no more to cling to my heartstrings, with still closer fervency as life speeds to its close. Another, whose friend- ship is fondly cherished, as it is also doubt- less by many of those now present, was the amiable and philanthropic friend of man, Luke Tiernan, of Baltimore, a man whose character I may hold up to your view as a true example of the generosity, the hos-

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pitality, and the noble devotion of Irishmen, wherever I have met them.'" Luke Tier- nan died November 10, 1839, his loss being deplored as a public calamity. Tributes and eulogies from all sources, accorded the full meed of praise to his varied excellences, his private and public virtues, his ardent and invincible patriotism. His children were: Maria, born in 1794, married David Wil- liamson; Rebecca, born 1795, married Henry V. Somerville; Charles, born 1797, married three times, first Helen Magruder; second, Gay Robertson Bernard, and third, Mary Spear Nicholas; Ann, born 1798, mar- ried Robert Coleman Brien ; and Catharine, born 1808, married Frederick Chatard; and six other children, who died unmarried.

His picture in this work is taken from a portrait of him, which was presented by C. B. Tiernan to the Hibernian Society, of which society Luke Tiernan was president for ten years, and which portrait is now de- posited in the Gallery of the Peabody Insti- tute.

The picture of Charles Tiernan is taken from a portrait of him by Chester Harding, painted in 1827.

Rebecca Tiernan married Henry V. Som- erville; she died in 1863. and was a cultured and accomplished lady in every sense. Among her friends from the earliest days, was the Hon. John P. Kennedy, eminent in public life, as well as a charming and fasci- nating novelist-and his wife, who de- scribed Mrs. Somerville as a woman of per- fect manners and handsome appearance, with a sweetness and kindness that graced and adorned her position. Mrs. Somer- ville was a generous benefactor of the Cath- olic Church, building the church of St. Agnes in Baltimore county, near Mt. de

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Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1344

Author: Shepherd, Henry Elliott, 1844-1929, ed. 4n
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Uniontown? Pa.] S.B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1344