USA > Maryland > Men of mark in Maryland biographies of leading men in the state, Volume I > Part 2
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During the second war with England (1812-1814) more privateers
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sailed from the city of Baltimore than from any other American port. In the history of that conflict the names of Commodore Jesse D. Elliott and Major Nathan Towson are recorded as those of brave leaders. A mob in Baltimore disgraced the city in the very year of the opening of the war, by its attack on the Federal Republican news- paper. Later, Admiral Cockburn and the British fleet plundered the farms along the shores of the Bay and burned Havre de Grace. At Caulk's Field, Philip Reed repelled a British force, whose leader, Sir Peter Parker, was there killed. In the disgraceful rout of Bladens- burg, which was followed by the British capture of Washington, Joshua Barney, a Maryland man, and his marines were the only Americans to conduct themselves creditably. In September, 1814, desirous of seizing that "nest of privateers," a British expedition attacked Baltimore. The land force disembarked at North Point and advanced toward the city under the leadership of General Ross, the victor at Bladensburg. The American militia under General Stricker opposed his advance and General Ross was killed in the con- flict that ensued, but the militia retired to the outskirts of the city leaving the field of battle in the hands of the British. Before the enemy could approach the city, it was necessary to demolish Fort McHenry, commanded by Colonel Armistead, and silence its guns. A night bombardment was ineffectual in accomplishing this, and a flank attack by a force in whale boats against Fort Covington was also a failure. During the bombardment, Francis Scott Key, a Maryland lawyer, was detained on board one of the British vessels whither he had gone under a flag of truce, and there wrote the National anthem, the " Star Spangled Banner." The British failed to silence Fort McHenry, and withdrew and the city was saved.
From 1825 to 1855, may be called the era of internal improve- ment and constitutional reform in the State's history. The western part of the State was rapidly settling and men coveted the trade of the Mississippi Valley. The Potomac Navigation Company of 1785 was succeeded by the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company in 1825. Three years later the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad received a charter, which it still enjoys, the oldest one used by any railroad in the world. In 1844, S. F. B. Morse strung the first telegraph line in the world from Baltimore to Washington. But the aid the State gave the canal, the railroad, and kindred projects of internal improvement nearly brought it to bankruptcy. From this disaster, the integrity
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and high moral standard of Thomas G. Pratt, who was governor from 1844 to 1847, and the help of George Peabody, who had spent a number of his carlier years in Baltimore, saved the State.
In Constitutional reform, the great grievance was the inequality of representation, through which the smaller counties had more than an equitable share of members in the Legislature. The electoral college for the Senate in 1837 had just enough Van Buren electors to break the quorum and they refused to come into an organization unless their party were allowed representation in the upper house of assem- bly. Though they failed in their main contention, the agitation then aroused led to important Constitutional Amendments in 1838, whereby the Governor and Senate for the future should be elected by popular vote and one Senator should be chosen from each county and from Baltimore City. The reform agitation continued until the old Constitution had been so amended as to be scarcely intelligible and a new one was adopted in 1851. This slightly changed the basis of representation and made nearly all offices elective. It was a poorly- made instrument of government, but was accepted as better than a continuance of the old system.
In the middle period of the nineteenth century, Roger B. Taney served as Attorney-General and Chief Justice of the United States and adorned both positions by his probity and his remarkable judicial acumen. John Nelson served as attorney-general in 1843; Reverdy Johnson, who was later a minister to Great Britain, was Attorney-General in 1849; and, in 1852, John P. Kennedy, the author, became Secretary of the Navy, and, as such, sent forth Commodore Perry to force open to the world the ports of Japan. In the Mexican war, a small force of Maryland volunteers distinguished themselves; among their officers were Lieutenant-Colonel Win. H. Watson and Major Ringgold
The Native American party, or Know Nothings, were very strong in Baltimore and, indeed, throughout the State; and just before the Civil War both the Governor, Thomas H. Hicks, and the Mayor of Baltimore, Thomas Swann, were of that party, and the State was the only one which voted for Fillmore in 1856. This vote for Fillmore, was cast, however, largely because he was the candidate of the remnant of the Whig party and because that party had been very strong in Maryland. Mayor Swann's administration is noteworthy for the charter granted to the first street railway and the purchase of
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Druid Hill Park. The two events had a close connection. The rail- way company asked for a franchise empowering it to collect a four- cent fare, and Swann refused to sign an ordinance for this franchise, but agreed to one by which the railway was permitted to charge five cents, paying the extra cent to the city for the purchase and main- tenance of parks.
In 1861, the storm of Civil War broke on the country and, on April 19, the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, the 6th Massa- chusetts regiment tried to pass through Baltimore on its way to Washington in response to a call for troops issued by President Lin- coln. A mob attacked the soldiers and, though the Mayor of the City, George William Brown, marched at the head of the troops, shots were fired and a number of soldiers and citizens were killed or wounded. Governor Hicks promptly called the legislature to meet in extra session at Frederick, and it was a question for some weeks whether Maryland would pass an ordinance of secession or remain a member of the Federal Union. The latter course was finally pursued though many Maryland men went South and fought in the Confed- erate army. The tune known as the State's anthem was taken from a German students' song and fitted to words written to express the sympathy of Marylanders with the Confederacy.
In May, 1861, General B. F. Butler occupied Federal Hill and commanded Baltimore, and thereafter the only aid furnished the South from Maryland was that given by stealth. The Federal soldiery did not always regard the decisions of the civil officers: a notable instance of this occurred when the commandant of Fort McHenry refused to give up John Merryman on a writ of habeas corpus from Chief Justice Taney. In 1862, Augustus W. Bradford was inaugu- rated as governor and, in the autumn of that year occurred the first invasion of the State from the South by the Army of Northern Vir- ginia under General Robert E. Lee, when Western Maryland, the most Union-loving part of the State, was entered. Disappointed at not receiving greater support, the Confederate Army fought the battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg with the Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan, and then retired into Virginia.
Maryland witnessed no other important military movements on her soil, until Lee crossed the State in June, 1863, on his way to invade Pennsylvania. In 1864, Early entered Maryland and defeated the Federal forces under General Lew Wallace at the battle of the
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Monocacy. But tarrying to demand an indemnity from Frederick for permitting the town to escape conflagration, he neglected an oppor- tunity to take Washington, which was unprepared for his approach. During this invasion of the State, Colonel Harry Gilmor, himself a Marylander, made a dashing raid to the very outskirts of Baltimore City and burned the Baltimore County Courthouse at Towson. At the time a Constitutional Convention was sitting at Annapolis and the stern realities of war so embittered the minds of the Union majority of the Convention that they placed in the Constitution an iron-clad oath of suffrage, which no sympathizer with the South could take. The Constitution prepared by this Convention had two great outstanding merits: It increased the representation of Baltimore in the Legislature threefold and it provided for the establishment of a State system of public instruction. The Constitution also provided for the emancipation of slaves whose status had not been touched in Maryland by Lincoln's proclamation, inasmuch as the State had remained in the Union. The Constitution of 1864 was declared adopted by the aid of the soldiers' vote. Shortly after came the close of the war and Lincoln's assassination at the hands of Booth, a native of Harford County and a member of a distinguished family of actors.
Thomas Swann and Doctor C. C. Cox were elected governor and lieutenant-governor under the new Constitution on the Union ticket, for there was no Republican party, properly so-called, in Maryland during the war. At the close of the conflict, Swann and the conserva- tive members of the Union party became Democrats, insisted on the registration of voters who had been non-Union men, and took an important part in the political struggle which resulted in turning over the State to Democratie control, adopting the present Constitu- tion-that of 1567-and electing Oden Bowie as governor. In National polities during this period, we find Philip Francis Thomas as Buchanan's secretary of the treasury, Montgomery Blair as Lincoln's postmaster-general, and John A. J. Creswell as the postmaster- general under Grant, while Henry Winter Davis, a most eloquent orator, stood among the strongest unconditional Union men in Congress.
After the war. Baltimore's commercial trade, which had suffered because intercourse with the South had been cut off. began to return to her. Disastrous trwals in the Patapsco Valley in 1868 and the
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great railroad riots of 1877 were slight checks in the onward career. In 18SO, the city celebrated her sesquicentennial. Though the 15th Amendment to the Federal Constitution gave the ballot to the negro, the Democratic supremacy in the State was not shaken until 1875, when the Republicans joined with a number of independents, headed by J. Morrison Harris and Severn T. Wallis, leaders of the Baltimore bar, on a platform demanding reform in the administra- tion of the State's affairs. Gross frauds were perpetrated at the election. On the face of the returns, John Lee Carroll, the Demo- cratic candidate, was declared elected and inaugurated as governor. The movement for reform, however, was only delayed in its progress. Wm. T. Hamilton, chosen governor in 1880, was an earnest friend of good government and considerable advance was made under his administration. His successor as governor was the Robert M. McLane, a most courtly gentleman, who was appointed United States Minister to France during his term.
The period extending from the Civil War to 1890 was remarkable not only for the organization of a State educational system, but also for the establishment of a number of important institutions for higher and special education. The McDonogh School for boys had been founded in 1859 by the will of a wealthy Louisianian, who was a native of Maryland; the Jesuits had opened Loyola College in 1852; and the Baltimore Dental College, founded in 1839, claims to be the oldest insititution of its kind in the world. But in general, we may say that the middle of the nineteenth century was not a period of great educational interest.
The last third of the century, however, was very different in this respect. The Methodist Protestants opened Western Maryland College at Westminster in 1867. Next the foundations of Johns Hopkins came into being. The University, which bears his name, „opened its philosophical department in 1876, under the far-seeing leadership of Daniel C. Gilman; and its Medical Department, which has the facilities of the great Johns Hopkins hospital at its command, was opened in 1893. When adversity came upon the University, the people of the city met the emergency by raising emergency and endowment funds for its support. John W. McCoy made the institu- tion his residuary legatee and William Wyman joined with others to provide a fitting site at Homewood in the city's suburbs. The City of Baltimore received a most generous gift for a public library from
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Enoch Pratt in 1882, and the Methodist Episcopal Church opened its Woman's College of Baltimore in 1886. These foundations, with the numerous institutions which have sprung up in Baltimore for educa- tion in law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy, have made that city a great student center, while the art galleries of Wm. T. Walters have given it fame amonglovers of paintings and ceramics. In 1894, Jacob Tome established, at Port Deposit, the institute which bears his name, as a marvelously well-endowed primary and secondary school.
During the governorship of Elihu E. Jackson, an Australian ballot law was passed in 1890, which was amended from time to time until, in 1896, the State secured a thoroughly good election law, by
adopting one the Baltimore Reforin League had drafted. In Gov- ernor Jackson's administration, the state treasurer proved to be a defaulter and the hardship felt because of the loss that fell upon his bondsmen led to the organization of several large bonding companies in Baltimore and made that city one of the chief centers of the bonding business in the United States.
For the first time in its history the Republican party of Mary- land, in 1894, elected the Congressional ticket; and, in 1895, Lloyd Lowndes, the Republican candidate, was chosen governor. At the close of his term of office, dissensions in the Republican party were among the causes of his defeat as a candidate for reelection, resulting in the choice of John Walter Smith, a Democrat. In Governor Smith's term of office, an extra session was called in 1901 to amend the election law and to provide for a State Census, as certain fraudu- lent returns, which were afterward corrected, had been made in the Federal Census. The new election law was designed to suppress the vote of men who could not read, but was so ambiguous in its terminology and technical in its provisions that its operation has proven extremely unsatisfactory. In 1903, the present Governor, Edwin Warfield, a Democrat, was elected. On national issues, the State proved its conservatism by supporting the Republican party on the currency question in 1896 and 1900. In 1904, the electoral vote was divided.
On February 7 and 8, 1904, the City of Baltimore was devastated by a terrible conflagration, which destroyed a large part of the mer- cantile district. The city recovered with amazing rapidity from this loss, and advantage was taken of the opportunity furnished by the fire to widen several of the streets in the business section and to buy
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and remodel the docks. A new sewage system is now being con- tructed and important additions are being made to the City's beautiful parks.
Among Maryland's representatives in the United States Senate, since 1870. have been William Pinkney Whyte, who has worthily filled nearly every office in the gift of the people; Arthur P. Gorman, who was a leader of the National Democratic party for twenty-five years. Louis E. McComas and Isidor Rayner. James A. Gary served as postmaster-general under McKinley's administration; and Charles J. Bonaparte, formerly secretary of the navy, is now attorney-gen- eral. In the Spanish war, although Maryland volunteers were granted no opportunity to distinguish themselves in active service, yet two men of Frederick birth gained high renown: Admiral W. Scott Schley and General Elwell S. Otis.
So much for the history of Maryland in the past. The future is secure, if the citizens are true to themselves and their best traditions. The chief city of the State has roused herself nobly after a great calamity. The counties are nearly everywhere progressive and prosperous. More attention is paid to education year by year, and higher standards of life are placed before the people. Let but the growth in moral character of Maryland men keep pace with their material advancement and there can be no failure for Maryland.
Mono Trigly Pombaliced C
EDWIN WARFIELD
W ARFIELD, EDWIN, Governor of Maryland, was born.on Oakdale farm, in Howard county, on May 7, 184S, the son of Albert G. and Margaret Gassaway (Watkins) War- field. His father was a courteous, refined gentleman of the old school, fond of music and poetry, possessing cultured tastes. He was a farmer or planter, who served for a term of four years as president of the county school board. His mother's influence was strong upon her son, both morally and intellectually. He writes of her: "She was a woman of superior mind and wonderful strength of character."
The Warfield family is descended from Richard Warfield, who came from England, settled in Anne Arundel county, near Annapolis, in 1660, and was vestryman of St. Ann's Protestant Episcopal Church in that town in 1692. Mrs. Warfield's father, Col. Gassaway Watkins, was a distinguished officer in the Maryland Line service throughout the whole of the Revolutionary War and also doing military duty in his elder years during the War of 1812. Col. Watkins, at the time of his death in 1840, was president of the Maryland State Society of the Cincinnati and the last surviving officer of the Maryland Line.
Edwin Warfield spent his youth on the paternal farm, which he now owns and on which he has his summer home. He was fond of reading poetry and history, and especially delighted in the poems of Burns, Goldsmith, Moore, Tennyson, Pope and Byron. American history, and especially the biographies of great Americans, inter- ested him. He attended St. Timothy's School at Catonsville for one term, but laid the foundations of his education chiefly in the public ' schools, especially helped by a highly educated and learned teacher, who was a graduate of Harvard and Yale.
After his father's slaves were freed, he worked on the farm and did all kinds of labor. This training, he feels, was beneficial in devel- oping robust physique and alertness of mind. He also had a train- ing in a country store as clerk, for a year and a half from the time he was fourteen years of age. During that time he would come, about every two weeks, to Baltimore with the market wagon of the merchant
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by whom he was employed, and purchase goods for his employer. In 1868 he began active life as a teacher of a public school in Howard county and continued in such teaching for six years. Of this period in his life he writes: "As I began teaching with but limited qualifi- cations, I was compelled to study to keep ahead of my advanced scholars. Thus I became interested in lines of reading that were helpful to me as a teacher."
In 1874, Mr. Warfield was appointed Register of Wills for How- ard county and served as such for a year and a half, after which he was elected on the Democratic ticket, to the same position, for a full term of six years. He declined a renomination, as he had completed the study of law and wished to enter upon the practice of that pro- fession. Mr. Warfield bought the "Ellicott City Times" in 1882, and edited this paper in connection with the practice of law, until 1886. In the latter year he originated the movement which led to the establishment of the Patapsco National Bank of Ellicott City, in which institution he was a director until 1890.
He inherited an ambition "to serve the people." "This tend- ency," he writes, "was encouraged by my parents and the surround- ing family influence. Home environment had much to do with shaping my inclinations and bringing success in life. Contact with men in active public and professional life, especially kinsmen, had much to do with my development." In 1SS1, Mr. Warfield was elected to the State Senate to succeed Hon. Arthur P. Gorman, who had been elected United States Senator from Maryland. He filled the unexpired term and was reelected in 1883. During his first two sessions he was a member of the most important committees, and in 1886, he served with general acceptability as President of the Senate.
On April 5, 1886, President Cleveland appointed Mr. Warfield Surveyor of the Port of Baltimore. On November 24 of that year, he married Emma Nicodemus of that city, by whom he has had four children, all of whom are living. His mother was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church, in which he was reared, but, of recent years he has attended the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, of which his wife is a member. In 1SS7, while Surveyor of the Port, which position he held until May 1, 1890, Mr. Warfield bought the "Maryland Law Record," a legal paper published in Baltimore, and in 1SSS he made it a daily paper under the name of the
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"Daily Record," under which name it is still successfully carried on. Up to the close of his Surveyorship Mr. Warfield had been very active as a member of the Democratic party. In ISTS. he became a mem- ber of the State Central Committee, and in 1SS5, he was chairman of the State Executive Committee. After leaving the Surveyorship, he devoted himself exclusively to the newly organized Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland. Mr. Warfield had conceived the idea of forming this company and laid the foundation of its organization. The defalcation of public officials throughout the country, and especi- ally in Maryland, had awakened the attention of business men, and methods were being considered for the better protection of the public and the relief of individuals from the hazard of personal suretyship. At that time there were but two companies doing a purely surety business in the United States, and neither of these companies bonded public officials. Mr. Warfield's long experience in public office made him familiar with the need of a company which would enter this field; so in January, 1890, he prepared a charter and took active steps for the formation of the company, associating with him some of the lead- ing business men of Baltimore. The charter prepared by Mr. War- field was approved by them and through his earnest efforts and per- severance, was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor on April 3, 1890. At the beginning of the company's active existence, Mr. Warfield assumed the position of second vice-president and gen- eral manager. On April 26, 1892, he became first vice-president and on January 11, 1893, president, a position which he still holds. The company limited its field to Maryland at first, but soon extended its bonding of public officials to those empoyed by the Federal govern- ment, as well as to those of the other states. Mr. Warfield's exertions were very successful in removing misconceptions as to the company's nature and security. In 1901 a branch of the Company was organ- ized by him in London, England.
In 1896, Mr. Warfield was chosen as a delegate at large to the National Democratic Convention. As he participated in that con- vention, he felt that he was bound to support the party's nominee, and did so, though in the convention he had allied himself with the gold standard wing of the party. In 1899, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor and though unsuccessful at that time, he received the nomination in 1903 and was elected in November of that year, receiving a plurality of some twelve thousand
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votes. He was inaugurated for a four years' term in January, 1904, and then took up his official residence at Annapolis. As governor, his most conspicuous act has been his courageous refusal to sign an amendment to the State Constitution, limiting the right of suffrage, the provisions of which amendment he believed to be wrong, and therefore not to be approved by him, though it was supported by the members of his party in the General Assembly.
From 1892, until his election as governor, he was one of the directors of the Maryland Penitentiary. He is a prominent member of the Maryland Historical Society and of the Maryland Club. Among the directorships which Governor Warfield holds may be mentioned, those of the Central Savings Bank, the Farmers and Merchants National Bank. and the Maryland Dredging Company, of Baltimore. He has taken great interest in patriotic societies, especially in the Sons of the American Revolution, having been president of the Mary- land State Society and president-general of the National Society in 1902 and 1903. He is also a member of the Masonic Fraternity and of the Odd Fellows His favorite relaxations from business are found in farming and horseback riding.
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