MARYLAND. 



623 



lerence in the condition of our State between that 

 time and now. Her present condition requires no 

 comment; but then, I beg leave to remind you, she 

 was hovering upon the brink' of secession. Her 

 legislators had been arrested but a short time before, 

 to prevent them passing an ordinance for that pur- 

 pose; and at the election referred to there was an 

 organized secession party, under the guise of a peace 

 party, with a nominated ticket in every county, and 

 believed to be then actuated with the determination 

 to carry the State into rebellion. 



Under these circumstances, what was the order 

 issued by Gen. Dix? It was issued on the 1st No- 

 vember, 1861, and referring to the authority vested in 

 him "to arrest all persons in rebellion- against the 

 United States," proceeded to direct the arrest of 

 persons appearing at the polls "known to have been 

 recently in Virginia bearing arms against the author- 

 ity and forces of the United States, and who have 

 returned to their former homes with the view of 

 taking part in the election;" as also of "other in- 

 dividuals, lately residents of Maryland, who have 

 been engaged in similar acts of hostility, or actively 

 engaged in aiding and abetting those in arms." 



The class of persons to be arrested, it will be ob- 

 served, is much more distinctly marked by the order 

 of General Schenck, and there is consequently much 

 less margin for mistake or abuse of authority. Not 

 only so, but the order does not seem to have applied 

 to the proper residents of the State, but only to re- 

 turning Rebels; and so far from being " precisely " 

 what Gen. Schenck has now directed, it not only 

 contains no expression which can by any implication 

 be tortured into a menace of the judges of election, 

 but prescribes no oath of allegiance or any other 

 oath to be taken by any one. 



I find no allusion in your Excellency's letter to the 

 fact adverted to in mine, that no military interven- 

 tion or test oath was ordered in either of the late 

 important elections that have taken place in Penn- 

 sylvania and Ohio. If your Excellency cannot, as 

 you say, confidently rely even upon loyal men 

 "whose election may have depended upon disloyal 

 votes," and therefore cannot recognize the force of 

 my suggestion that nearly all our candidates are 

 loyal, it is difficult to see what reliance you could 

 have reposed in such a candidate as Mr. Vallandig- 

 ham, and quite as difficult for us to understand why 

 such a discrimination has been allowed against a 

 State whose citizens claim to be, if not as numerous, 

 at least as loyal as those of any other. 



I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 

 A. W. BRADFORD. 



The principal issue at the election was stated 

 by Mr. Henry Winter Davis in a speech deliv- 

 ered in Baltimore on the evening of Oct. 28th, 

 thus : 



Our great questions now are, not whether we shall 

 maintain the Republic by force of arms. No man 

 now calling himself a Union man dares to moot that 

 question. It is not now a matter of opprobrium to 

 'say that we are for the Union unconditionally. That 

 now is the cry and watchword. [Great applause.] 

 The time has passed beyond those old landmarks. 

 The Peace men have no candidate in Maryland. The 

 traitors do not recognize the United States Govern- 

 ment, and cannot cast a vote in Maryland. That the 

 men of Maryland are resolved to abide by the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, now no man doubts; for 

 twice she has cast two-thirds of her whole vote in 

 favor of unconditionally maintaining the Union. 

 [Great applause.] 



Those things are of the past. We march forward 

 to the future. Having secured the permanent con- 

 solidation of Maryland with the United States, we 

 now go on to secure the consolidation of Maryland 

 in principle, feeling, and institution with our great 

 free sisters of the North. We have opened resolutely 



the question of emancipation, and on the 4th of 

 November twenty thousand majority will ratify in 

 advance the opinion of the people of Maryland. 

 [Applause.] 



For Comptroller: Goldsborough, Uncondi- 

 tional Union, 36,360. For Maffit, Union, 15,984. 

 Total vote, 52,344. Total vote in 1860, 92,502. 



The Legislature elected was as follows : 



Senate. House. Total. 



Union and Emancipation 10 47 57 



Union pledged to a Convention. 358 



Union unpledged 6 4 10 



Democrats 3 18 21 



22 74 96 



For members of Congress the vote was as 

 follows : 1st District, Cresswell, Unconditional 

 Union, 6,742. Crisfield, Union, 5,482. 2d Dis- 

 trict, Webster, 7,736 ; no other candidate. 3d 

 District, Davis, 6,200 ; no other candidate. 

 4th District, Thomas, 13,462 ; no other candi- 

 date. 5th District, Holland, Unconditional 

 Union, 3,352; Calvert, Union, 2,237; Harris, 

 Democrat, 4,939. 



The political position of the members of 

 Congress is thus stated in the New York 

 " Tribune " : 



In four out of the five Congressional Districts the 

 candidates of the Unconditional Union and Emanci- 

 pation party are elected. The successful candidates 

 have taken the solemn pledge to support the policy 

 of the President, including his Emancipation Proc- 

 lamation, and they will, therefore, retnforce the 

 Union majority in Congress. The number of Con- 

 gressmen hitherto elected is 185 ; of these, if we in- 

 clude the three members for Western Virginia, 94 

 are pledged to support the measures which the Ad- 

 ministration has used, for the suppression of the 

 rebellion. The Maryland election increases this 

 number to, at least, 98, giving the Administration 

 a majority of eleven. 



Governor Bradford in his message to the 

 Legislature on Jan. 7th, 1864, refers to the 

 State election in November preceding. He 

 mentions the order of Gen. Schenck, and says : 



I, therefore, on Monday evening preceding the 

 election, issued a Proclamation giving them (the 

 Judges of Election) the assurance of the protection 

 of the State to the extent of its ability. Before the 

 following morning orders were sent to the Eastern 

 Shore, directing its circulation to be suppressed, the 

 public papers were forbidden to publish it, and an 

 embargo laid on all the steamers in port trading with 

 that part of the State, lest they might carry it. * * * 



How far it accomplished the purpose claimed for 

 it, or how far my anticipations of the consequences 

 of the order and the abuses to which it would lead 

 were realized, will appear by a brief reference to 

 some of the transactions connected with its execu- 

 tion. These abuses commenced even before the 

 opening of the polls. On the day preceding the 

 election, the officer in command of the regiment 

 which had been distributed among the counties of 

 the Eastern Shore, and who had nimself landed in 

 Kent County, commenced his operations by arresting 

 and sending across the bay some ten or more of the 

 most estimable and distinguished of its citizens, in- 

 cluding several of the most steadfast and uncom- 

 promising loyalists of the Shore. The jail of the 

 county was entered, the jailer seized, imprisoned, 

 and afterwards sent to Baltimore, and prisoners con- 

 fined therein under indictment were set at liberty. 

 The commanding officer referred to gave the first 

 clue to the character of the disloyalty against which 



