Maryland, As I Have Said
Before, Is A Slave State Lying Immediately South Of Mason And
Dixon's Line.
Small portions both of Virginia and of Delaware do
run north of Maryland, but practically Maryland is the frontier
State of the slave States.
It was therefore of much importance to
know which way Maryland would go in the event of secession among
the slave States becoming general; and of much also to ascertain
whether it could secede if desirous of doing so. I am inclined to
think that as a State it was desirous of following Virginia, though
there are many in Maryland who deny this very stoutly. But it was
at once evident that if loyalty to the North could not be had in
Maryland of its own free will, adherence to the North must be
enforced upon Maryland. Otherwise the City of Washington could not
be maintained as the existing capital of the nation.
The question of the fidelity of the State to the Union was first
tried by the arrival at Baltimore of a certain Commissioner from
the State of Mississippi, who visited that city with the object of
inducing secession. It must be understood that Baltimore is the
commercial capital of Maryland, whereas Annapolis is the seat of
government and the legislature - or is, in other terms, the
political capital. Baltimore is a city containing 230,000
inhabitants, and is considered to have as strong and perhaps as
violent a mob as any city in the Union. Of the above number 30,000
are negroes and 2000 are slaves. The Commissioner made his appeal,
telling his tale of Southern grievances, declaring, among other
things, that secession was not intended to break up the government
but to perpetuate it, and asked for the assistance and sympathy of
Maryland. This was in December, 1860. The Commissioner was
answered by Governor Hicks, who was placed in a somewhat difficult
position. The existing legislature of the State was presumed to be
secessionist, but the legislature was not sitting, nor in the
ordinary course of things would that legislature have been called
on to sit again. The legislature of Maryland is elected every
other year, and in the ordinary course sits only once in the two
years. That session had been held, and the existing legislature
was therefore exempt from further work - unless specially summoned
for an extraordinary session. To do this is within the power of
the Governor. But Governor Hicks, who seems to have been mainly
anxious to keep things quiet, and whose individual politics did not
come out strongly, was not inclined to issue the summons. "Let us
show moderation as well as firmness," he said; and that was about
all he did say to the Commissioner from Mississippi. The Governor
after that was directly called on to convene the legislature; but
this he refused to do, alleging that it would not be safe to trust
the discussion of such a subject as secession to "excited
politicians, many of whom, having nothing to lose from the
destruction of the government, may hope to derive some gain from
the ruin of the State!" I quote these words, coming from the head
of the executive of the State and spoken with reference to the
legislature of the State, with the object of showing in what light
the political leaders of a State may be held in that very State to
which they belong.
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