448 



MARYLAND. 



temperate declarations of a few members, but 

 ought to maintain the position of the State in 

 the Union, and should discountenance rebel- 

 lion in all its forms. This proposition was laid 

 over. 



No measures of importance to the State were 

 adopted, nor did the session serve any other pur- 

 pose than tend to keep alive the spirit of dissatis- 

 faction. An adjournment soon took place until 

 the 17th of September. The session was pre- 

 vented at that time by the military arrest of some 

 secession members of the House, (see HABEAS 

 CORPUS,) and the refusal of the Senate to as- 

 semble. This higb proceeding of arresting by 

 military force, members of a legislative body, 

 would, at any other time and under any other 

 circumstances, have been regarded as a most 

 flagrant offence. In this case, the Union mem- 

 bers were doubtless gratified, and returned to 

 their homes, while public sentiment had in- 

 clined to the side of peace and Union. None, 

 therefore, espoused the cause of the prisoners. 



The views of the President at the time, rela- 

 tive to these arrests, were understood to be to 

 the following effect : 



" The public safety renders it necessary that 

 the grounds of these arrests should at present 

 be withheld, but at the proper time they will 

 be made public. Of one thing the people of 

 Maryland may rest assured : that no arrest has 

 been made, or will be made, not based on sub- 

 stantial and unmistakable complicity with those 

 in armed rebellion against the Government of 

 the United States. In no case has an arrest 

 been made on mere suspicion, or through per- 

 sonal or partisan animosities, but in all cases 

 the Government is in possession of tangible and 

 unmistakable evidence, which will, when made 

 public, be satisfactory to every loyal citizen." 



The usual State election for Governor took 

 place on the 6th of November. A Union can- 

 didate and a State rights candidate were offered 

 for the choice of the voters, when the former 

 .was elected by an unusually large majority, and 

 the candidates of similar views, for other offices, 

 were elected by about the same majority. This 

 was regarded as such an overwhelming victory 

 for the Union, that all open movements of sym- 

 pathy for the Confederate States ceased. 



The Governor then issued a proclamation, 

 calling the Legislature of the State to assemble 

 in extra session, at Annapolis, on the 3d of De- 

 cember. In his proclamation he said, that 

 " as the people of the State had at their recent 

 election again expressed their unalterable devo- 

 tion to the Union and the Government of our 

 fathers, it is important that the Legisature 

 should, as speedily as possible, conform to and 

 carry into effect the will of the people so ex- 

 pressed, by furnishing all necessary aid to the 

 Government of the United States in its efforts 

 to suppress the unholy insurrection that seeks 

 the dissolution of that Union and the destruction 

 of that Government." He therefore called this 

 extra session, " to consider and determine the 

 steps necessary to be taken to enable the State 



of Maryland to take her place with the other 

 loyal States, in defence of the Constitution and 

 Union." 



This newly elected Legislature assembled at 

 Frederick, on the 3d of December. The Gov- 

 ernor, Hicks, in his final Message, delivered on 

 the same day, presents an explicit statement of 

 affairs in the State during the year. The ac- 

 tion of the last Legislature is thus described : 



The history of that Legislature is before the country. 

 Not onljdid it fail to do its duty, as representing a 

 loyal State, but it actually passed treasonable resolu- 

 tions, and attempted to take, unlawfully, into its hands 

 both the purse and the sword, whereby it might plunge 

 us into the vortex of secession. It was deterred from 

 doing this latter only by the unmistakable threats of 

 an aroused and indignant people. 



Restricted in the duration of its sessions by nothing 

 but the will of the majority of its members, it met 

 again and again ; squandered the people's money, and 

 made itself a mockery before the country. This con- 

 tinued until the General Government had ample reason 

 to believe it was about to go through the farce of en- 

 acting an ordinance of secession ; when the treason was 

 summarily stopped by the dispersion of the traitors. 



Inasmuch as the Legislature in ordinary times is 

 presumed to represent the people of a State, the trea- 

 sonable action of the late Senate and House of Dele- 

 gates has apparently placed Maryland in an attitude 

 of hostility to the General Government, and her Union- 

 loving people in a false and unwarrantable position. 

 I say apparently, because the votes of the people on 

 the 13th of June, and again on the Cth of November, 

 have declared in the most emphatic tones, what I have 

 never doubted, that Maryland has no sympathy with 

 rebellion, and desires to do her full share in the duty 

 of suppressing it. 



Under the tax bill passed at the session of 

 Congress in July, the proportion of Maryland 

 was $436,000, which it was proposed that the 

 State should assume. 



In consequence of the omission of the Legis- 

 lature, to provide money to pay the expense 

 of recruiting and equipping the quota of troops 

 required from the State by the Federal Govern- 

 ment, that number was not raised. 



Although a portion of the northwestern part 

 of the State was occupied by Federal troops 

 after the month of June, yet the Governor, in 

 his Message, says : 



" I congratulate you, and the people of the 

 State, upon the immunity we have enjoyed from 

 the dreadful evils which have fallen upon some 

 of the other States. While carnage and deso- 

 lation have stalked through Virginia, Kentucky, 

 and Missouri, we here, in Maryland, have had 

 no battle-fields, no wanton destruction of homes, 

 no outrages upon helpless women and children. 

 True, in every section of the State, rancor and 

 deadly hatred, and in some cases even judicial 

 persecution, have been openly indulged against 

 those whose only offence is loyalty to the Gov- 

 ernment. But this hatred, bitterness, and per- 

 secution have not yet culminated in bloodshed. 

 The tread of hostile armies has not interfered 

 with the calling of the husbandman, but the 

 earth has yielded more bountifully than ever 

 before." 



The only invasion of Maryland which took 

 place, from the Confederate States, was made 



