Volume I Part 17 (1/2)
On the 18th of April, 1860, Governor Hicks issued a proclamation to the people of Maryland, begging them to be quiet, the chief object of which, however, was that of promising that no troops should be sent out from their State, unless with the object of guarding the neighbouring city of Was.h.i.+ngton,--a promise which he had no means of fulfilling, seeing that the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the nation and can summon the militia of the several States. This proclamation by the Governor to the State was immediately backed up by one from the Mayor of Baltimore to the city, in which he congratulates the citizens on the Governor's promise that none of their troops are to be sent to another State; and then he tells them that they shall be preserved from the horrors of civil war.
But on the very next day the horrors of civil war began in Baltimore.
By this time President Lincoln was collecting troops at Was.h.i.+ngton for the protection of the capital; and that army of the Potomac, which has ever since occupied the Virginian side of the river, was in course of construction. To join this, certain troops from Ma.s.sachusetts were sent down by the usual route, via New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; but on their reaching Baltimore by railway, the mob of that town refused to allow them to pa.s.s through,--and a fight began. Nine citizens were killed and two soldiers, and as many more were wounded. This, I think, was the first blood spilt in the civil war; and the attack was first made by the mob of the first slave city reached by the northern soldiers. This goes far to show, not that the border States desired secession, but that, when compelled to choose between secession and union,--when not allowed by circ.u.mstances to remain neutral,--their sympathies were with their sister slave States rather than with the North.
Then there was a great running about of official men between Baltimore and Was.h.i.+ngton, and the President was besieged with entreaties that no troops should be sent through Baltimore. Now this was hard enough upon President Lincoln, seeing that he was bound to defend his capital, that he could get no troops from the South, and that Baltimore is on the high road from Was.h.i.+ngton, both to the West and to the North; but, nevertheless, he gave way. Had he not done so, all Baltimore would have been in a blaze of rebellion, and the scene of the coming contest must have been removed from Virginia to Maryland, and Congress and the Government must have travelled from Was.h.i.+ngton north to Philadelphia. ”They shall not come through Baltimore,” said Mr. Lincoln. ”But they shall come through the State of Maryland. They shall be pa.s.sed over Chesapeake Bay by water to Annapolis, and shall come up by rail from thence.” This arrangement was as distasteful to the State of Maryland as the other; but Annapolis is a small town without a mob, and the Marylanders had no means of preventing the pa.s.sage of the troops. Attempts were made to refuse the use of the Annapolis branch railway, but General Butler had the arranging of that. General Butler was a lawyer from Boston, and by no means inclined to indulge the scruples of the Marylanders who had so roughly treated his fellow-citizens from Ma.s.sachusetts.
The troops did therefore pa.s.s through Annapolis, much to the disgust of the State. On the 27th of April Governor Hicks, having now had a sufficiency of individual responsibility, summoned the legislature of which he had expressed so bad an opinion; but on this occasion he omitted to repeat that opinion, and submitted his views in very proper terms to the wisdom of the senators and representatives. He entertained, as he said, an honest conviction that the safety of Maryland lay in preserving a neutral position between the North and the South. Certainly, Governor Hicks, if it were only possible! The legislature again went to work to prevent, if it might be prevented, the pa.s.sage of troops through their State; but luckily for them, they failed. The President was bound to defend Was.h.i.+ngton, and the Marylanders were denied their wish of having their own fields made the fighting ground of the civil war.
That which appears to me to be the most remarkable feature in all this is the antagonism between United States law and individual State feeling. Through the whole proceeding the Governor and the State of Maryland seemed to have considered it legal and reasonable to oppose the const.i.tutional power of the President and his Government. It is argued in all the speeches and written doc.u.ments that were produced in Maryland at the time, that Maryland was true to the Union; and yet she put herself in opposition to the const.i.tutional military power of the President! Certain commissioners went from the State legislature to Was.h.i.+ngton, in May, and from their report, it appears that the President had expressed himself of opinion that Maryland might do this or that, as long ”as she had not taken and was not about to take a hostile att.i.tude to the Federal Government!” From which we are to gather that a denial of that military power given to the President by the const.i.tution was not considered as an att.i.tude hostile to the Federal Government. At any rate, it was direct disobedience of federal law. I cannot but revert from this to the condition of the fugitive slave law. Federal law, and indeed the original const.i.tution, plainly declare that fugitive slaves shall be given up by the free-soil States. Ma.s.sachusetts proclaims herself to be specially a federal, law-loving State. But every man in Ma.s.sachusetts knows that no judge, no sheriff, no magistrate, no policeman in that State would at this time, or then, when that civil war was beginning, have lent a hand in any way to the rendition of a fugitive slave. The Federal law requires the State to give up the fugitive, but the State law does not require judge, sheriff, magistrate, or policeman to engage in such work, and no judge, sheriff, or magistrate will do so; consequently that Federal law is dead in Ma.s.sachusetts, as it is also in every free-soil State,--dead, except inasmuch as there was life in it to create ill-blood as long as the North and South remained together, and would be life in it for the same effect if they should again be brought under the same flag.
On the 10th May the Maryland legislature, having received the report of their Commissioners above-mentioned, pa.s.sed the following resolution:--
”Whereas the war against the Confederate States is unconst.i.tutional and repugnant to civilization, and will result in a b.l.o.o.d.y and shameful overthrow of our const.i.tution, and whilst recognizing the obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sympathize with the South in the struggle for their rights; for the sake of humanity we are for peace and reconciliation, and solemnly protest against this war, and will take no part in it.
”Resolved,--That Maryland implores the President, in the name of G.o.d, to cease this unholy war, at least until Congress a.s.sembles”--a period of above six months. ”That Maryland desires and consents to the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States. The military occupation of Maryland is unconst.i.tutional, and she protests against it, though the violent interference with the transit of the Federal troops is discountenanced. That the vindication of her rights be left to time and reason, and that a convention under existing circ.u.mstances is inexpedient.”
From which it is plain that Maryland would have seceded as effectually as Georgia seceded, had she not been prevented by the interposition of Was.h.i.+ngton between her and the Confederate States,--the happy intervention, seeing that she has thus been saved from becoming the battle-ground of the contest. But the legislature had to pay for its rashness. On the 13th of September thirteen of its members were arrested, as were also two editors of newspapers presumed to be secessionists. A member of Congress was also arrested at the same time, and a candidate for Governor Hicks's place, who belonged to the secessionist party. Previously, in the last days of June and beginning of July, the chief of the police at Baltimore and the members of the Board of Police had been arrested by General Banks, who then held Baltimore in his power.
I should be sorry to be construed as saying that republican inst.i.tutions, or what may more properly be called democratic inst.i.tutions, have been broken down in the States of America. I am far from thinking that they have broken down. Taking them and their work as a whole, I think that they have shown, and still show, vitality of the best order. But the written const.i.tution of the United States and of the several States, as bearing upon each other, are not equal to the requirements made upon them. That, I think, is the conclusion to which a spectator should come. It is in that doctrine of finality that our friends have broken down,--a doctrine not expressed in their const.i.tutions, and indeed expressly denied in the const.i.tution of the United States, which provides the mode in which amendments shall be made--but appearing plainly enough in every word of self-gratulation which comes from them. Political finality has ever proved a delusion,--as has the idea of finality in all human inst.i.tutions. I do not doubt but that the republican form of government will remain and make progress in North America; but such prolonged existence and progress must be based on an acknowledgment of the necessity for change, and must in part depend on the facilities for change which shall be afforded.
I have described the condition of Baltimore as it was early in May, 1861. I reached that city just seven months later, and its condition was considerably altered. There was no question then whether troops should pa.s.s through Baltimore, or by an awkward round through Annapolis, or not pa.s.s at all through Maryland. General Dix, who had succeeded General Banks, was holding the city in his grip, and martial law prevailed. In such times as those, it was bootless to inquire as to that promise that no troops should pa.s.s southward through Baltimore. What have such a.s.surances ever been worth in such days! Baltimore was now a military depot in the hands of the northern army, and General Dix was not a man to stand any trifling. He did me the honour to take me to the top of Federal Hill, a suburb of the city, on which he had raised great earthworks and planted mighty cannons, and built tents and barracks for his soldiery, and to show me how instantaneously he could destroy the town from his exalted position. ”This hill was made for the very purpose,” said General Dix; and no doubt he thought so. Generals, when they have fine positions and big guns and prostrate people lying under their thumbs, are inclined to think that G.o.d's providence has specially ordained them and their points of vantage. It is a good thing in the mind of a general so circ.u.mstanced that 200,000 men should be made subject to a dozen big guns. I confess that to me, having had no military education, the matter appeared in a different light, and I could not work up my enthusiasm to a pitch which would have been suitable to the General's courtesy. That hill, on which many of the poor of Baltimore had lived, was desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads.
The neat earthworks were ugly, as looked upon by me; and though I regarded General Dix as energetic, and no doubt skilful in the work a.s.signed to him, I could not sympathize with his exultation.