614 



MARYLAND. 



diligently engaged in searching the houses, particu- 

 larly those occupied by suspected parties. Furniture 

 wagons were provided the parties, and as soon as 

 arms of almost every description were discovered in 

 the dwellings, they were placed therein. In many in- 

 stances the residences of citizens known to be loyal to 

 the Government were not searched, but from others 

 were gathered muskets, carbines, rifles, revolvers of 

 all kinds, sabres, bayonets, swords, bird and ducking 

 guns, in considerable quantities. Some of the owners 

 took the precaution to attach their names to the weap- 

 ons taken, in order that they may recover them at no 

 distant day. In some instances parties refused to per- 

 mit the search, when they were arrested and held for 

 a further examination. 



On the 3d of July, Gen. Schenck issued the 

 following proclamation : 



HEADQUARTERS, MIDDLE DEPARTMENT, ) 



EIGHTH ABMY COBPS, > 



BALTIMORE, July 3d, 1863. ) 



To-morrow is the anniversary of our National Inde- 

 pendence. It will be celebrated here and elsewhere 

 throughout the land, with various forms of public ob- 

 servance. One single and appropriate demonstration 

 all can make. Let every man on that day show his 

 colors. I request and recommend, therefore, that every 

 house and place of business of every loyal citizen of 

 Baltimore shall have displayed upon it to-morrow, 

 from ten o'clock A. M. to- six p. M., the American flag. 

 Let this be done, the ensign being large or small, ac- 

 cording to the means and opportunities of each per- 

 son, and the city will be clothed with the glorious and 

 honored emblem of our nationality. If there be any 

 spot where it does not appear, its absence there will 

 only prove that patriotic hearts do not beat beneath 

 that roof. ROBERT C. SCHENCK, 



Major-General Commanding. 



Some resistance was made to the enrolling 

 officers under the acts of Congress providing 

 for a draft or conscription. In Harford county, 

 in July, the barn of an enrolling officer and 

 another citizen were burned. An assessment 

 was immediately ordered by Gen. Schenck of 

 three thousand dollars, upon "persons known 

 to be disaffected to the loya.1 Government of 

 the country and encouragers of rebellion, and 

 who reside within six miles from the points 

 where the barns were burnt." Fourteen hun- 

 dred dollars were assessed in like manner to pay 

 for the destruction of buildings in Anne Arun- 

 del county. 



The enlistment of colored men for the army 

 occasioned much excitement in the State. The 

 white male population of Maryland in 1860, 

 was 256,839 ; the free colored male 39,746, 

 and the male slaves, 44,313. Col. Birney was 

 authorized by the Secretary of War, in July, 

 to enlist the free negroes into the service. It 

 was decided by the War Department to credit 

 colored troops to the State, the same ns any 

 other troops. The enlistment occasioned the 

 absconding of slaves in large numbers, and led 

 to the discussion of various questions. By 

 those who were non-slaveholders it was urged, 

 that to take away from the State the hearty, 

 strong, and able free blacks who did the man- 

 ual labor on the farms of the seven compara- 

 tively free counties of the State and in the city 

 of Baltimore, would leave those sections of 

 the State without labor, or else compel them, 

 the most loyal sections of the State, to hire 

 slave labor. They said: "It is well known 



that free white labor will not enter the State 

 to supply the place of the free colored laborer 

 while slavery continues to exist here. This at 

 once gives a new value to the institution -which 

 no loyal man desires should be permanent, and 

 which it has been both hoped and conceded 

 the war would destroy, and which, likewise, 

 the Administration has taught us to believe it 

 was its policy to rid us of forever." 



It was also urged that the course pursued by 

 Col. Birney of enlisting none but free persons, 

 would double the value of slave property, and 

 indirectly put money into the hands of those 

 hostile to the Government. To avoid such a 

 result, they urged that slaves should bear their 

 proportion of the public burden, and should be 

 enlisted equally with the free persons of color. 

 The views of the expediency of such enlist- 

 ments brought up the question of its legality. 

 The affirmative was argued in the public press 

 by Judge Hugh L. Bond, and the negative by 

 Governor Bradford. The views of the Gov- 

 ernment were doubtless expressed in the fol- 

 lowing letter of Judge Advocate General Holt : 



JUDGE ADVOCATE GEJTERAL'S OFFICE, ) 

 August 26<A, 1863. J 



Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 



Sir I have read and carefully considered the letter 

 of the Hon. Hugh L. Bond, addressed to yourself un- 

 der date of the 15th inst., and mainly concur in his 

 views, which are certainly presented with much force. 



The right of the Government to employ for the sup- 

 pression of the rebellion persons of African descent 

 held to service or labor under the local law, rests firmly 

 on two distinct grounds : First, as PROPERTY : Both 

 our organic law, and the usages of our institutions 

 under it, recognize fully the authority of the Govern- 

 ment to seize and apply to public use private property, 

 on making compensation therefor. What the use may be 

 to which it is to be applied does not enter into the ques- 

 tion of the right to make the seizure, which is untram- 

 melled in its exercise save by the single condition men- 

 tioned. 



Secondly, as PERSONS : While those of African de- 

 scent held to service or labor in several of the States, 

 occupy under the laws of such States the status of 

 property, they occupy also under the Federal Govern- 

 ment the status of " persons." They are referred to 

 ao nomine in the Constitution of the United States, and 

 it is not as property but as " persons " that they are 

 represented on the floor of Congress, and thus form a 

 prominent constituent element alike in the organiza- 

 tion and in the practical administration of the Govern- 

 ment. 



The obligation of all persons irrespective of creed 

 or color to bear arms, if physically capable of doing 

 so, in defence of the Government under which they 

 live, and by which they are protected, is one that is 

 universally acknowledged and enforced. Correspond- 

 ing to this obligation is the duty resting on those 

 charged with the administration of the Government, 

 to employ such persons in the military service when- 

 ever the public safety may demand it. Congress rec- 

 ognized both this obligation on the one hand and this 

 duty on the other, when, by the 12th section of the act 

 of 17th July, 1862, it was enacted that "the President 

 be and he is hereby authorized to receive into the ser- 

 vice of the United States, for the purpose of construct- 

 ing intrenchments, or performing camp service, or any 

 other labor, or any military or naval service, for which 

 they may be found competent, persons of African de- 

 scent, and such persons shall be enrolled and organized 

 under such regulations, not inconsistent with the Con- 

 stitution and laws, as the President may prescribe." 



The terms of this act are without restriction, and no 



