7-4 
SOME  PUPILS   OF  LISZT. 
A    FAR    CRY   TO    HEAVEN. 
XT7HAT  !  dost  thou  pray  that  the  outgone  tide  be  rolled  back  on  the  strand, 
\  V  The  flame  be  rekindled  that  mounted  away  from  the  smoldering  brand, 
The  past-summer  harvest  flow  golden  through  stubble-lands  naked  and  sear, 
The  winter-gray  woods  up-gather  and  quicken  the  leaves  of  last  year?  — 
Thy  prayers  are  as  clouds  in  a  drouth;  regardless,  unfruitful,  they  roll; 
For  this,  that  thou  prayest  vain  things,  't  is  a  far  cry  to  Heaven,  my  soul, — 
Oh,  a  far  cry  to  Heaven! 
Thou  dreamest  the  word  shall  return,  shot  arrow-like  into  the  air, 
The  wound  in  the  breast  where  it  lodged  be  balmed  and  closed  for  thy  prayer, 
The  ear  of  the  dead  be  unsealed  till  thou  whisper  a  boon  once  denied, 
Thy  white  hour  of  life  be  restored,  that  passed  thee  unprized,  undescried !  — 
For  this,  that  thou  prayest  fond  things,  thy  prayers  shall  fall  wide  of  the  goal ; 
God  bloweth  them  back  with  a  breath,  't  is  a  far  cry  to  Heaven,  my  soul, — 
Oh,  a  far  cry  to  Heaven ! 
And  cravest  thou  fondly  the  quivering  sands  shall  be  firm  to  thy  feet, 
The  brackish  pool  of  the  waste  to  thy  lips  be  made  wholesome  and  sweet  ? 
And  cravest  thou  subtly  the  bane  thou  desirest  be  wrought  to  thy  good, 
As  forth  from  a  poisonous  flower  a  bee  convey eth  safe  food  ?  — 
For  this,  that  thou  prayest  ill  things,  thy  prayers  are  an  anger-rent  scroll ; 
The  chamber  of  audit  is  closed, — 't  is  a  far  cry  to  Heaven,  my  soul, — 
Oh,  a  far  cry  to  Heaven  ! 
Edith  M.  Thomas, 
SOME  PUPILS  OF  LISZT. 
NE  sultry  noonday  in  July, 
1885,  a  small  group  of  mu- 
sical celebrities  from  Ber- 
lin stood  hatless  —  having 
converted  their  head-cov- 
ering into  temporary  fans 
—  in  the  shade  of  a  low,  un- 
even row  of  ancient  houses 
in  the  city  of  Weimar  and  expectantly  watched 
the  nearest  turn  in  the  street.  Just  as  the  heat 
was  pronounced  insupportable  two  well-known 
figures  sauntered  arm-in-arm  around  the  cor- 
ner—  one,  the  venerable  form  of  Franz  Liszt, 
his  flowing  white  locks  surmounted  by  an  old- 
fashioned  tile  hat,  his  shirt-collar  thrown  open 
revealing  a  throat  which  rivaled  in  color  the 
high  flush  of  his  visage ;  and  the  other,  Eugene 
d'Albert,  a  short  youth  with  a  round  face  and 
small  black  eyes,  whose  heavy  shock  of  dark 
brown  hair  fell  about  his  neck  a  la  Liszt  and 
was  topped  by  an  artist's  wide-brimmed  slouch 
hat,  the  crown  of  which  just  brushed  the  mas- 
ter's shoulder.  It  was  not  the  odd  contrasting 
couple  which  so  forcibly  impressed  all  be- 
holders alike.  It  was  the  two  great  men  of 
genius  walking  side  by  side  —  a  tottering  old 
man  with  one  foot  already  in  the  grave,  and 
his  pupil,  the  younger  by  half  a  century  and 
in  the  very  spring-time  of  life  :  one,  the  great- 
est piano  virtuoso  of  any  time,  behind  whom 
lay  an  unprecedentedly  brilliant  career  of  more 
than  three-score  years;  the  other,  though 
scarcely  more  than  a  lad,  the  most  famous  mu- 
sical artist  of  his  generation,  with  a  future  of 
unlimited  possibilities  just  opening  up  for  him. 
Little  D'Albert  had  only  three  years  previously 
severed  his  leading  strings,  and  now  with  half 
Europe  at  his  feet,  the  central  figure  in  the 
musical  world  that  his  genius  had  conquered, 
he  had  returned  to  the  guide  and  counselor 
of  his  student  days.  These  two  exchanged 
greetings  with  the  gentlemen  who  had  come, 
with  D'Albert,  on  a  twenty-four-hours'  visit  to 
the  city,  and  then  they  crossed  the  stony  way 
in  a  body  to  the  cooler  shade  of  Chemmtiuss' 
restaurant  garden  to  partake  of  a  dinner  in 
Liszt's  honor. 
This  noteworthy  meeting  of  master  and  pu- 
pil always  recurs  to  my  mind  when  asked, 
"  Do  any  of  Liszt's  later  pupils  give  promise 
of  greatness,  or  at  least  of  proving  themselves 
eminently  worthy  such  a  teacher?"  If  in 
reply  I  begin  with  Eugene  d'Albert,  it  is  be- 
cause he  was  the  first  of  the  group  to  come 
prominently  before  the  public ;  and  justice  to 
others  compels  me  to  add  in  the  same  sen- 
tence Arthur  Friedheim,  Alfred  Reisenauer, 
Alexander  Siloti,  and  Adele  aus  der  Ohe.    It
Well,  suh,  he  made  dat  tailor  meek  ev'ything  bran'  new; 
He  would  n'  wear  one  stitch  he  had  on  han' — 
Jes  th'owed  'em  in  de  chip-box,  an'  says,  "  Sam,  dem  's  for  you  "- 
Marse  Phil,  I  tell  you,  wuz  a  gentleman  ! 
So  Marse  Phil  cotes  de  mistis,  an'  Sam  he  cotes  de  maid  — 
We  al'ays  sot  we  traps  upon  one  parf; 
An'  when  ole  marster  hear  we  bofe  wuz  gwine,  he  say'd, 
"  All  right ;  we  '11  have  to  kill  de  fatted  calf." 
An'  dat  wuz  what  dee  did,  suh ;  de  Prodigal  was  home ; — 
Dee  put  de  ring  an'  robe  upon  you'  ma ; 
Den  you  wuz  born,  young  marster,  an'  den  de  storm  hit  come  — 
An'  den  de  darkness  settled  from  afar. 
De  storm  hit  corned,  an'  wrenchted  de  branches  from  de  tree, 
De  war, —  you'  pa, —  he  's  sleep  dyah  on  de  hill ; 
An'  dough  I  know,  young  marster,  de  war  hit  sot  me  free, 
I  jes  says,  "  Yes,  but  tell  me,  whar  's  Marse  Phil  ?  " 
—  "  A  dollar" —  thankee,  marster,  you  sutney  is  his  son  ; 
His  ve'y  spi't-an'-image,  I  declar' ! 
What  say,  young  marster  ?  Yes,  suh,  you  say,  it's  "Jibe,  not  one 
You  favors,  honey,  bofe  you'  Pa  an'  Ma ! 
Thomas  Nelson  Page. 
Vol.  XXXV.— 122.
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN:     A    HISTORY.* 
THE    NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
BY    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
THE     NATIONAL     UPRISING. 
THE  guns  of  the  Sumter  bombard- 
JL  merit  awoke  the  country  from 
the  political  nightmare  which  had  so 
long  tormented  and  paralyzed  it. 
The  lion  of  the  North  was  fully 
roused.  Betrayed,  insulted,  outraged, 
the  free  States  arose  as  with  a  cry  of 
pain  and  vengeance.  War  sermons 
from  pulpits;  war  speeches  in  every 
assemblage;  tenders  of  troops;  offers 
of  money;  military  proclamations  and 
orders  in  every  newspaper;  every 
city  radiant  with  bunting;  every  vil- 
lage-green a  mustering-ground ;  war 
appropriations  in  every  legislature 
and  in  every  city  or  town  council ; 
war  preparations  in  every  public  or 
private  workshop  ;  gun- casting  in  the 
great  foundries;  cartridge-making  in 
the  principal  towns  ;  camps  and  drills 
m  the  fields;  parades,  drums,  flags, 
and  bayonets  in  the  streets;  knitting, 
bandage-rolling,  and  lint-scraping  in 
nearly  every  household.  Before  the 
lapse  of  forty-eight  hours  a  Massachu- 
setts regiment,  armed  and  equipped, 
was  on  its  way  to  Washington ;  within 
the  space  of  a  month  the  energy  and  intelli- 
gence of  the  country  were  almost  completely 
turned  from  the  industries  of  peace  to  the  ac- 
tivities of  war.  The  very  children  abandoned 
their  old-time  school-games,  and  played  only 
at  soldiering. 
From  every  governor  of  every  free  State  to 
whom  the  President's  proclamation  and  the 
requisition  of  the  Secretary  of  War  were  ad- 
dressed, most  gratifying  and  loyal  answers 
were  promptly  returned.  They  not  only  prom- 
ised to  obey  the  call  and  furnish  the  regi- 
ments asked  for,  but  in  their  replies  reflected 
the  unanimity  with  which  their  people  rallied 
to  the  defense  of  the  assaulted  Union.  "The 
governor's  call  was  published  on  yesterday,  and 
he  has  already  received  the  tender  of  forty  com- 
panies," f  said  Illinois.   "  Our  citizens  through- 
t  Governor  Yates  and  others  to  Lincoln,  April  17,  §  Governor  Kirkwood  to  Cameron,  April  18,  1861. 
1 86 1.    War  Record-.  War  Records. 
+  Governor  Fairbanks  to  Cameron,  April  18,  1861.  ||  Governor    Morton    to   Cameron,   April  23,    1861. 
War  Records.  War  Records. 
*  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886.     All  rights  reserved. 
JOHN 
ANDREW,    GOVERNOR     OF     MASSACHUSETTS     (1861-66). 
out  the  State  will  respond  with  great  enthusi- 
asm to  any  call  for  sustaining  the  Government 
against  the  designs  of  the  conspirators,"  J  said 
Vermont.  "  Ten  days  ago  we  had  two  parties 
in  this  State;  to-day  we  have  but  one,  and  that 
one  is  for  the  Constitution  and  Union  uncon- 
ditionally,'^ said  Iowa.  The  war  spirit  rose 
above  all  anticipation,  and  the  offer  of  volun- 
teers went  far  beyond  the  call.  "  We  have  6000 
men  in  camp  here  and  will  have  8ooq  men  by 
to-morrow  night.  .  .  .  I  have  also  made  a  ten- 
der of  six  additional  regiments  to  which  I  have 
received  no  answer.  I  shall  put  the  six  addi- 
tional regiments  in  camp  and  under  discipline, 
and  hold  them  subject  to  the  Government's 
order  at  least  for  a  time."  ||  Such  was  the; 
greeting  from  Indiana.  A  no  less  inspiring  re- 
port was  made  by  her  sister  State.    "  I  find
THE   NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
that  I  have  already  accepted  and  have  in 
camp,  or  ready  to  march  instantly  to  it,  a 
larger  force  than  the  thirteen  regiments  named 
as  the  contingent  of  Ohio  under  the  late  req- 
uisition of  the  President.  Indeed,  without 
seriously  repressing  the  ardor  of  the  people,  I 
can  hardly  stop  short  of  twenty  regiments."* 
The  telegrams  and  letters  here  quoted  from 
are  fair  samples  of  the  language  and  spirit, 
the  promptness  and  devotion,  with  which,  the 
people  of  the  North  answered  the  President's 
official  summons.  Especial  mention  deserves 
to  be  made  of  the  untiring  zeal  and  labors  of 
the  various  executives  of  the  free  States  in  or- 
ganizing and  equipping  troops,  which  earned 
for  them  the  popular  and  honorable  title  of 
[  the  "  war  governors." 
If  we  would  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  dramatic 
forms  in  which  popular  fervor  manifested  it- 
self in  the  President's  own  State,  we  need  but 
read  how  the  town  of  Quincy,  Illinois,  sent 
\  away  her  first  company  : 
Yesterday,  Sunday,  Captain  Prentiss  left  with  his 
command  for  Springfield.  At  12  m.  all  the  pastors  of 
the  city,  with  their  congregations,  met  the  gallant  cap- 
tain and  his  loyal  company  in  Washington  Square,  to 
give  them  a  parting  benediction.  Six  or  seven  thousand 
persons  were  present.  A  banner  was  presented,  a  hymn 
was  sung,  prayer  was  made,  and  the  soldiers  addressed 
by  one  of  the  clergymen  and  myself.  We  then  marched 
with  them  to  the  depot,  where  the  "  Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner "  was  sung,  many  thousands  joining  in  the  chorus. 
The  scene  altogether  was  the  most  solemn  and  im- 
pressive I  have  ever  witnessed,  and  showed  unmistak- 
ably how  intensely  the  fires  of  patriotism  are  burning 
in  the  hearts  of  our  people,  t 
In  the  Gulf  States  the  revolutionary  excite- 
ment rose  to  a  similar  height,  but  with  contrary 
sentiment.  All  Union  feeling  and  utterance 
instantly  vanished;  and,  overawed  by  a  terror- 
ism which  now  found  its  culmination,  no  one 
dared  breathe  a  thought  or  scarcely  entertain 
a  hope  for  the  old  flag.  The  so-called  Govern- 
ment of  the  Confederate  States,  finally  con- 
vinced that  it  must  at  length  confront  actual 
'  war,  made  such  haste  as  it  could  to  put  an 
army  in  the  field,  manifesting  meanwhile  an 
outward  gayety  at  the  prospect  which  its  mem- 
bers could  hardly  have  felt  at  heart.  Mont- 
gomery telegrams  stated  that  the  cabinet  of 
the  Confederate  States  read  President  Lin- 
coln's proclamation  "  amid  bursts  of  laugh- 
ter." %  Mr.  A.  H.  Stephens  was  reported  as 
saying  in  an  Atlanta  speech  that  it  would  re- 
quire 75  times  75,000  men  to  intimidate  the 
South.  In  addition  to  the  21,000  volunteers 
conditionally  asked  for  on  April  8,  the  rebel 
*  Governor  Dennison  to  Cameron,  April  22,  1861. 
War  Records. 
t  Browning  to  Lincoln,  April  22, 1861.    Unpublished 
MS. 
X  Press  telegrams. 
Secretary  of  War  notified  the  governors  of  the 
seven  cotton-States  that  32,000  more  must  be 
immediately  got  ready  to  take  the  field, §  and 
also  asked  that  the  forts  and  military  posts  in 
their  limits  be  formally  turned  over  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  Montgomery  authorities.  ||  Arkan- 
sas and  Tennessee  not  yet  being  members  of 
the  Confederacy,  permission  was  asked  of  their 
executives  to  plant  batteries  to  blockade  the 
Mississippi. 51  Spare  guns  from  the  captured 
Charleston  forts  were  sent  South,  and  extraor- 
dinary efforts  were  made  to  concentrate  an 
army  at  Pensacola  for  the  reduction  of  Port 
Pickens. 
It  was  at  this  time  (April  17)  that  Jefferson 
Davis  issued  a  proclamation,  inviting  applica- 
tions for  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  under 
which  privateers  were  offered  the  opportunity 
to  roam  the  high  seas  and  ravage  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  "  under  the  seal 
of  these  Confederate  States."  The  final  hope 
of  the  rebel  leaders  was  in  cotton  and  free 
trade;  and  they  believed  that  privateering  was 
the  easy  stepping-stone  to  European  interven- 
tion. The  reasoning  was  plausible,  and  the 
time  not  ill-chosen ;  but  the  proclamation 
found  itself  confronted  by  the  prompt  precau- 
tionary act  of  the  United  States  Government. 
Two  days  later  (April  19)  President  Lincoln 
issued  a  counter-proclamation,  setting  on  foot 
a  blockade  of  the  rebel  ports  "  in  pursuance 
of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
laws  of  nations,"  and  declaring  that  offenders 
under  the  pretended  letters  of  marque  would 
be  held  amenable  to  the  laws  against  piracy. 
Thus  sixteen  States  in  the  North  and  seven 
States  in  the  South  stood  opposed  in  the  atti- 
tude and  preparation  of  war.  Between  these 
two  extremes  of  sentiment  lay  the  debatable 
land  of  the  border  slave-States,  the  greater 
portion  of  their  citizens  tormented  with  anxi- 
ety, with  doubt,  with  their  affections  evenly 
balanced  between  the  Union  on  one  hand  and 
slavery  on  the  other ;  with  ties  of  consanguin- 
ity permeating  alike  the  North  and  the  South ; 
with  the  horrible  realization  that  in  the  im- 
pending conflict  they  were  between  the  upper 
and  the  nether  millstones.  To  a  certain  extent 
the  governors  of  these  States  had  hitherto  pro- 
fessed to  share  the  irresolution  of  their  people. 
Openly  they  had  still  expostulated  with  the 
cotton-States  against  precipitate  disunion,  and 
urged  instead  that  all  the  slave  States  should 
join  in  a  convention  and  demand  constitu- 
tional guarantees  from  the  North.  All  this, 
however,  was  largely  a  mere  pretext,  because 
§  Walker  to  the  governors,  April  16,  1S61.  War 
Records. 
||  Walker  to  Brown,  April  17,  1S61.    War  Records. 
1[  Walker  to  Governor  Rector,  April  1 7,  and  Gov- 
ernor Harris,  April  19,  1S61.    War  Records.
ANDREV/    C    CURTIN,    PENNSYLVANIA. 
OLIVER   P.    MORTON,    INDIANA. 
SOME     WAR     GOVERNORS.
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
901 
they  very  well  knew  that  the  extreme  demands 
which  they  formulated  would  not  be  granted. 
Secretly,  most  of  them  were  in  the  revolution- 
ary plot ;  and  when,  by  the  assault  on  Sumter 
and  President  Lincoln's  call  for  troops,  they 
were  compelled  to  take  sides,  all  save  two  im- 
mediately gave  their  voice  and  help  more  or 
less  actively  in  aid  of  rebellion. 
This  course  they  began  by  refusing  the  regi- 
ments called  for  under  the  President's  procla- 
mation. "  Kentucky  will  furnish  no  troops  for 
the  wicked  purpose  of  subduing  her  sister 
Southern  States,"  answered  Governor  Ma- 
goffin. "  I  can  be  no  party  to  this  wicked 
violation  of  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  to 
this  war  upon  the  liberties  of  a  free  people. 
You  can  get  no  troops  from  North  Caro- 
lina." So  ran  the  response  from  Governor 
Ellis.  "  The  people  of  this  commonwealth  are 
freemen,  not  slaves,  and  will  defend  to  the 
last  extremity  their  honor,  lives,  and  property 
against  Northern  mendacity  and  usurpation," 
was  the  reply  from  Governor  Rector  of  Ar- 
kansas. "  In  such  unholy  crusade  no  gallant 
son  of  Tennessee  will  ever  draw  his  sword," 
wrote  Governor  Harris.  "  Your  requisition,  in 
my  judgment,  is  illegal,  unconstitutional,  and 
revolutionary  in  its  object,  inhuman  and  dia- 
bolical, and  cannot  be  complied  with,"  said 
Governor  Jackson  of  Missouri. 
Chief  among  the  plotting  border-State  ex- 
ecutives was  Governor  Letcher  of  Virginia. 
A  former  chapter  has  set  forth  the  drift  of 
that  State  towards  revolution  under  his  lead- 
ership and  inspiration.  The  apparent  Union 
majority  in  the  Virginia  convention  had  some- 
what restrained  and  baffled  him  and  his  coad- 
jutors; but  now  they  adroitly  turned  the  fresh 
war  excitement  to  their  own  advantage.  The 
Virginia  Unionists,  like  those  of  the  other 
border  States,  had  illogically  aided  secession 
by  clamoring  for  the  unconditional  evacuation 
of  Sumter  and  other  forts.  Now  that  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  North  resolved  to  repel  force 
by  force,  the  ground  necessarily  sank  from 
under  them.  They  were  overwhelmed  with  ar- 
guments and  reproaches.  One  or  two  vainly 
essayed  to  stem  the  tide.  But  when  Ander- 
son's flag  went  down  even  their  measured  and 
conditional  patriotism  withered  in  Richmond 
like  Jonah's  gourd.  There  was  nothing  more 
but  brass-bands,  meetings,  war  speeches,  and 
torchlight  processions.  The  Virginia  com- 
missioners reported  Lincoln's  answer  to  the 
convention  without  comment,  and  shrinking 
Unionists  admitted  that  "if  the  President 
meant  subjugation  of  the  South,  Virginia  had 
*  Letcher  to  Cameron,  April  16, 1S61.  War  Records, 
t  It  would  seem  from  the  following  that  Delaware 
was  not  altogether  free  from  the  taint  of  rebellion : 
"  I  sent  to  New  Castle  a  regiment  with  which  I  de- 
Vol.  XXXV.—  123-124. 
but  one  course  to  pursue."  Governor  Letcher 
did  not  need  any  stronger  hint.  With  a  dra- 
matic affectation  of  incredulity  and  delibera- 
tion, to  impress  not  only  public  opinion,  but 
especially  the  wavering,  dissolving  majority, 
he  waited  a  day  before  telegraphing  his  re- 
fusal to  furnish  troops  —  repeating  the  staple 
phrase  about "  subjugation."  Then,  in  the  face 
of  his  own  avowed  project  to  capture  Fort 
Monroe,  and  with  the  assaulting  guns  of 
Beauregard  still  ringing  in  his  ears,  he  replied 
to  Cameron,  "  You  have  chosen  to  inaugurate 
civil  war."* 
Meanwhile,  the  fever  heat  of  the  populace 
communicated  itself  to  the  convention.  An 
outside  "  States  Rights"  assemblage  of  promi- 
nent Virginia  politicians,  which  thronged  into 
Richmond  at  this  juncture,  added  its  not  in- 
considerable tribute  of  pressure  to  the  sweep- 
ing tide  of  treason.  Under  such  impulses 
the  convention  went  into  secret  session  on 
Wednesday,  April  17,  and  by  a  vote  of  88  to 
55  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession  —  or,  as 
they  softly  phrased  it,  "  An  ordinance  to  re- 
peal the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States."  On  the  same  day  Governor 
Letcher  signed  a  proclamation  announcing 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union  and  the  exist- 
ence of  the  rebel  Provisional  Government,  and 
calling  on  all  the  armed  regiments  and  com- 
panies of  volunteers  in  the  State  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  for  orders.  Nor  did  his  zeal 
confine  itself  to  paper  edicts.  Under  his  in- 
structions, doubtless  matured  and  prepared  in 
advance,  seizures  of  the  custom-house  and 
Government  buildings  in  Richmond,  of  a  pri- 
vate powder  depot  in  Lynchburg,  and  of  a 
number  of  steamers  in  the  James  River  were 
hurriedly  made,  and  military  movements  set 
on  foot  to  capture  the  United  States  arsenal 
at  Harper's  Ferry  and  the  United  States  navy 
yard  at  Norfolk. 
Of  the  two  remaining  border  slave-States, 
Delaware  lay  in  such  an  isolated  geographical 
position,  and  had  withal  so  few  slaves  within 
her  limits,  that  she  was  practically  a  part  of 
the  North,  though  still  dominated  in  her  local 
politics  by  pro-slavery  influence,  t  Allied  to 
the  South  rather  by  tradition  than  by  pres- 
ent interest,  her  executive  took  refuge  in  a 
course  of  inaction.  He  replied  by  saying  that 
the  laws  of  Delaware  gave  him  no  authority 
to  comply  with  the  requisition  of  the  Secretary 
of  War,  and  that  the  organized  volunteer  com- 
panies of  the  State  might  at  their  option  ten- 
der their  sendees  to  the  LTnited  States:  %  and 
to  this  effect  he  issued  his  official  proclama- 
sign  seizing  the  arms  of  four  companies  of  secession- 
ists now  drilling  in  that  place  and  Wilmington." —  Pat- 
terson to  Townsend,  May  27,  1S61.     War  Records. 
%  Burton  to  Cameron,  April  25,  1S61.  War  Records.
9o. 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
tion.*  The  people  took  him  at  his  word,  and 
by  their  own  action  bore  a  patriotic  and  hon- 
orable part  in  the  dangers  and  achievements 
of  the  Union  army. 
Of  more  immediate  and  vital  importance, 
however,  than  that  of  any  other  border  slave- 
State,  was  the  course  of  Maryland  in  this  cri- 
sis, between  that  State  and  Virginia  lay  the 
District  of  Columbia,  originally  ten  miles 
square  of  Federal  territory,  containing  the 
capital,  the  Government,  and  the  public 
archives.  In  her  chief  city,  Baltimore,  cen- 
tered three  of  the  great  railroad  routes  by 
which  troops  must  approach  Washington.  It 
was  a  piece  of  exceptional  good  fortune  that 
the  governor  of  Maryland  was  a  friend  of  the 
Union,  though  hardly  of  that  unflinching 
fearlessness  needed  in  revolutionary  emergen- 
cies. Whatever  of  hesitancy  or  vacillation  he 
sometimes  gave  way  to  resulted  from  a  con- 
stitutional timidity  rather  than  from  a  want  of 
patriotism';  and,  with  brief  exceptions,  to  be 
more  fully  narrated,  he  was  active  and  ener- 
getic in  behalf  of  the  Government.  The  pop- 
ulation of  the  State  was  divided  by  a  sharp 
antagonism,  the  Unionists  having  the  larger 
numbers,  the  secessionists  the  greater  persist- 
ence and  daring.  The  city  of  Baltimore  was 
so  far  corrupted  by  treasonable  influences 
that  Wigfall  had  established  a  successful  re- 
cruiting office  there  for  the  rebel  armies. f  As 
yet,  disunion  was  working  secretly;  but  this 
for  the  present  increased  rather  than  dimin- 
ished its  effectiveness. 
Like  the  other  border-State  executives, 
Governor  Hicks  had  urged  concession,  com- 
promise, peace,  and  joint  border-State  action 
to  maintain  the  Union.  In  this,  while  his  col- 
leagues for  the  greater  part  merely  used  such 
talk  to  cover  their  meditated  treachery,  he 
was  entirely  sincere  and  patriotic.  When  Lin- 
coln's call  for  troops  reached  him,  he  had  no 
thought  of  refusing  or  resisting,  but  neverthe- 
less hurried  over  to  Washington  to  deprecate 
civil  war,  and  to  ask  that  Maryland  soldiers 
should  not  be  sent  to  subjugate  the  South.  J 
Since  the  President  had  never  entertained 
any  purpose  of  "  subjugation,"  he  readily 
promised  that  the  Maryland  regiments  should 
be  employed  to  defend  Maryland  itself  and 
the  Federal  district  and  capital.  The  gover- 
nor thereupon  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War : 
"  The  condition  of  affairs  in  this  State  at  this 
time  requires  that  arms  shall  be  placed  in 
the  hands  of  true  men  and  loyal  to  the  Uni- 
ted States  Government  alone,"  and  requested 
arms  "  for  arming  four  regiments  of  militia  for 
the  service  of  the  United  States  and  the  Fed- 
*  Burton,  April  26,  1861.  "  Rebellion  Record." 
t  War  Records. 
X  Hicks  to  Lincoln,  April  17, 1861.    War  Records. 
eral  Government."  §  Other  prominent  Mary- 
landers  were  already  combining  for  demon- 
strative action  to  sustain  the  Government.  A 
congressional  election  in  the  State  was  near 
at  hand.  On  the  day  of  the  President's  proc- 
lamation Henry  Winter  Davis  announced 
himself,  in  a  Baltimore  evening  paper,  as  a 
candidate  for  Congress  "  upon  the  basis  of  the 
unconditional  maintenance  of  the  Union." 
But  the  official  announcements  and  the  excit- 
ing rumors  with  which  the  newspapers  were 
filled  had  also  stirred  the  disunion  elements 
of  Maryland  into  unwonted  activity,  and  the 
pressure  of  sentiment  hostile  to  Federal  au- 
thority was  quickly  brought  to  bear  on  Gov- 
ernor Hicks,  and  developed  the  timid  and 
hesitating  qualities  of  his  character.  He  issued 
his  proclamation  April  18,  containing,  among 
many  sage  counsels  in  behalf  of  quiet  and 
peace,  two  paragraphs  doubtless  meant  by  him 
for  good,  but  which  were  well  calculated  to 
furnish  the  disunionists  hope  and  encourage- 
ment: 
I  assure  the  people  that  no  troops  will  be  sent  from 
Maryland,  unless  it  may  be  for  the  defense  of  the 
national  capital.  .  .  .  The  people  of  the  State 
will  in  a  short  time  have  the  opportunity  afforded 
them,  in  a  special  election  for  members  of  the  Con-  * 
gress  of  the  United  States,  to  express  their  devotion 
to  the  Union,  or  their  desire  to  see  it  broken  up.  || 
With  this  outline  view  of  the  political  con- 
dition of  the  country  at  large,  and  especially 
of  the  border  States  of  Virginia  and  Mary- 
land, let  us  follow  events  at  the  Federal  cap- 
ital as  recorded  in  the  daily  reports  of  General 
Scott  to  the  President.  On  April  15,  the  day 
on  which  Lincoln  issued  his  first  call  for  75,000 
troops,  the  general  says,  in  his  report  No.  13  : 
I  have  but  little  of  special  interest  to  report  to-day, 
except  that  Colonel  Smith,  the  commander  of  the  De- 
partment of  Washington,  like  myself,  thinks  our  means 
of  defense,  with  vigilance,  are  sufficient  to  hold  this 
city  till  reinforcements  arrive.  I  have  telegraphed 
the  commander  at  Harper's  Ferry  armory  to  say 
whether  he  can  station,  to  advantage,  for  the  defense 
of  that  establishment,  additional  recruits  from  Carlisle. 
The  ground  about  the  armory  is  very  contracted  and 
rocky.  If 
General  Scott's  daily  report,  No.  14,  April 
i 6,  then  proceeds: 
For  the  President.  He  has  no  doubt  been  infor- 
mally made  acquainted  with  the  reply  of  the  officer 
commanding  at  Harper's  Ferry,  yesterday,  viz.:  that 
he  wants  no  reenforcement.  Nevertheless,  as  soon  as 
the  capita],  the  railroad  to  the  Delaware  at  Wilming- 
ton, and  Fort  Monroe  are  made  secure,  my  next  ob- 
ject of  attention  will  be  the  security  of  Harper's  Ferry 
—  proposing,  in  the  mean  time,  or  rather  suggesting 
that  the  spare  marines  from  the  navy  yards  of  Phila- 
delphia, Brooklyn,  and  Boston   be  promptly  sent  to 
%  Hicks  to  Cameron,  April  17, 1861.    War  Records. 
||  Hicks,  April  18,  1861".  "Rebellion  Record." 
5[  Unpublished  MS.
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
9°3 
the  Gosport  navy  yard.  This  relief  may  serve,  by 
compelling  the  secessionists  to  enlarge  their  prepara- 
tions, to  give  us  time  to  send  a  regiment  of  volunteers 
to  that  important  point,  in  advance  of  any  formidable 
attack  upon  it.  With  the  authority  of  the  Secretary 
of  War  we  are  engaged  in  mustering  into  the  service 
eight  additional  companies  of  District  volunteers. 
These,  I  think,  place  the  capital  a  little  ahead  of  im- 
pending dangers,  and  we  will  maintain,  at  least,  that 
advantage,  till  by  the  arrival  (in  a  week)  of  regulars 
and  abundant  volunteers  our  relative  advantage  will,  I 
trust,  be  more  than  doubled.* 
General  Scott's  daily  report,  No.  15,  April 
17,  1861  : 
I  repeat  in  writing  some  details  which  I  had  the 
honor  to  submit  verbally  to  the  President  this  fore- 
noon. Three  or  four  regiments  from  Massachusetts 
(believed  to  be  the  first  ready  under  the  recent  call) 
may  be  expected  (three  of  them)  to  arrive  here,  and 
(one  of  them)  at  Fort  Monroe  in  two  or  three  days. 
One  of  the  three  may,  I  think,  be  safely  spared  for 
Harper's  Ferry,  if  the  danger  there  (and  I  shall  know 
to-morrow)  shall  seem  imminent.  Captain  Kingsbury, 
a  most  capable  officer  of  the  Ordnance  Department, 
goes  up  this  afternoon  for  that  purpose,  and  to  act  a 
few  days  as  superintendent;  that  is,  till  a  new  ap- 
pointment (of  a  civilian)  can  be  made.  Two  of  the 
Massachusetts  regiments  are  needed  here;  one  of 
them  I  shall  endeavor  to  intercept  at  Baltimore  and 
direct  it  to  Harper's  Ferry.  As  soon  as  one  of  the 
four  reaches  Fort  Monroe,  it  perhaps  may  be  safe  to 
detach  thence  for  the  Gosport  Navy  Yard  two  or  three 
companies  of  regulars  to  assist  in  the  defense  of  that 
establishment.  By  to-morrow,  or  certainly  the  next 
day,  we  shall  have  Colonel  Delafield  here,  an  excel- 
lent engineer,  to  send  to  Gosport  (with  a  letter  from 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  giving  the  necessary  author- 
ity) to  devise,  in  conjunction  with  the  naval  commander 
there,  a  plan  of  defense.  Colonel  Delafield  will  take 
instructions  to  call  for  the  two  or  three  companies  of 
regulars  as  mentioned  above.  Excepting  the  rein- 
forcement of  marines  suggested  yesterday,  and  until 
the  arrival  of  more  volunteers,  I  know  not  what  else 
can  be  done  for  the  security  of  the  Gosport  Navy 
Yard.  To-night  all  the  important  avenues  leading  into 
Washington  shall  be  well  guarded.* 
General  Scott's  daily  report,  No.  16,  April 
18,  1 86 1,  shows  how  the  undefined  yet  thick- 
ening dangers  made  themselves  felt  at  head- 
quarters : 
For  the  President.  I  am  (placed  between  many  fires, 
Fort  Monroe,  Harper's  Ferry,  Gosport  Navy  Yard, 
etc.,  etc.)  much  embarrassed  by  the  non-arrival  of 
troops.  Monday,  the  15th  instant,  Senator  Wilson 
had  the  quota  of  Massachusetts  doubled,  and  on  the 
ground  of  being  entirely  ready  (as  I  understood)  got 
permission  that  it  should  be  at  once  pushed  (farthest) 
to  the  South.  Though  equal  to  any  volunteers  in  the 
world,  the  preference  of  being  in  the  advance  must 
have  been  given  on  that  ground.  In  reply  to  Gov- 
ernor Andrew's  telegram,  I  said  (Tuesday  night,  the 
16th)  "  Send  first  regiment  which  is  ready  by  rail 
here.  The  second  by  rail  or  sea,  as  you  prefer, 
to  Fort  Monroe."  (I  had  but  an  hour  before  pointed 
out  the  route  via  Baltimore  and  the  Chesapeake.) 
When  I  sent  those  telegrams  (late  in  the  night)  I  did 
not  know  that  the  War  Department  had  already  tele- 
*  Unpublished  MS. 
t  This  rumor  proved  incorrect.  Such  an  occurrence, 
however,  took  place  two  days  later,  as  we  shall  see. 
graphed  the  governor  for  one  of  his  regiment*  to  take 
a  fast  steamer  to  Fort  Monroe  and  to  send  the  other 
three  here  by  rail. 
Two  and  a  half  o'clock  P.  If.  I  have  not  heard 
anything  further  respecting  the  Massachusetts  quota. 
At  this  instant  the  War  Department  has  a  telegrai., 
from  Philadelphia  saying  that  "  The  Massachusetts 
troops  are  here  this  afternoon.  Leave  to-morrow 
(Friday)  morning  early."  Also  another  telegram  to 
this  effect:  "Tell  General  Cameron  [we]  think  thai 
troops  must  go  through  from  here  to  Washington,  t  y 
day,  in  numbers  of  about  2000  at  a  time,  so  as  to  be 
ready  to  meet  any  emergency  on  the  way."  The  Phila- 
delphia [dispatch]  does  not  say  whether  three  or  four 
regiments  are  there.  I  hope  but  three,  and  that  the 
fourth  will  be  to-night  in  Fort  Monroe. 
Last  night  I  received  a  telegram  from  Major-Gen - 
eral  Sandford  (of  the  city  of  New  York)  saying  that 
"Under  the  orders  of  the  governor,  the  7th  regiment 
(a  crack  corps)  is  ready  to  report  to  me.  How  shalL 
it  be  sent?"  I  instantly  replied,  by  rail,  and  added, 
"Telegraph  me  the  hour  of  departure."  I  have  as  yet 
heard  nothing  further  from  Gen.  S. 
In  respect  to  Harper's  Ferry  and  the  Gosport  Navy 
Yard,  both  of  which  are  in  great  peril,  I  can  do  noth- 
ing before  the  arrival  of  troops,  beyond  the  instruc- 
tions given  this  morning  to  send  the  third  regiment  that 
might  arrive  at  Baltimore  to  Harper's  Ferry —  the  first 
and  second  to  continue  on  to  Washington. 
(Here  a  report  reaches  me  that  the  railroad  bridge 
over  the  Gunpowder,  28  miles  beyond  Baltimore,  has 
been  burned,  t) 
Colonel  Delafield,  whom  I  intended  to  send  to  Fort 
Monroe  and  the  Gosport  Navy  Yard,  has  not  arrived. 
If  he  comes  to-night  I  shall  send  him  to-morrow, 
hoping  that  he  will  find  a  Massachusetts  regiment  in 
position. 
If  land  batteries  should  be  planted  on  the  Potomac 
to  cut  off  our  water  communication,  we  must  send  an 
expedition  and  capture  them.* 
The  current  demoralization  of  politics  in  the 
country  had  infected  the  army  and  the  navy ; 
deadened  the  energy  of  Anderson,  misdirected 
the  zeal  of  Adams,  caused  the  dishonor  of 
Twiggs;  had  struck  high  and  low  —  in  New 
Orleans  as  in  Charleston,  in  Texas  as  in  Wash- 
ington, carrying  off  now  a  paymaster  or  a 
lieutenant,  now  the  quartermaster- general  and 
the  adjutant-general  of  the  army.  Amorg 
these  victims  of  the  States  Rights  heresy  was 
yet  another  individual  destined  to  a  melan- 
choly prominence  in  the  rebellion,  whom  a 
pitiless  fate  called  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
principle  and  a  policy,  not  only  of  itself  false 
and  monstrous,  but  by  him  so  recognized  and 
acknowledged.  This  was  Robert  E.  Lee,  a 
West  Point  graduate,  an  accomplished  and 
experienced  soldier,  frequently  recognized 
and  promoted,  the  captor  of  John  Brown  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  and  recently  (March  16,  186 1) 
made  colonel  of  the  First  Cavalry  by  the 
Lincoln  administration ;  of  fine  presence,  ripe 
judgment,  and  mature  manhood,  being  then 
about  two  years  older  than  President  Lincoln. 
Lee  was  a  favorite  of  Scott :  under  the  call 
for  troops  the  General-in-Chief  at  once  se- 
lected him  in  his  own  mind  as  the  most  capa- 
ble and  promising  officer  in  the  service  to
9°4 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
become  the  principal  commander  in  the  field; 
and  of  this  intention  he  spoke  at  the  time  to 
many  without  reserve,  having  no  misgiving  as 
to  his  loyalty. 
Scott's  confidence  proved  to  be  sadly  mis- 
placed. Repeated  resignations  and  defections 
had  very  naturally  engendered  in  the  minds 
of  President  and  Cabinet  a  distrust  of  every 
officer  of  Southern  birth.  Lincoln  therefore 
requested  F.  P.  Blair,  senior,  an  intimate  friend, 
to  ascertain  Lee's  feelings  and  intentions.  On 
the  1 8th  of  April,  the  third  day  after  the  Presi- 
dent's call  for  troops,  the  day  after  Virginia's 
secret  secession  ordinance,  and  the  day  be- 
fore the  Baltimore  riot,  Mr.  Blair  invited  Lee 
to  an  interview,  informed  him  of  the  promo- 
tion and  duties  to  which  he  was  soon  likely 
to  be  called,  and  thus  unofficially  offered  him 
the  command  of  the  Union  army.  A  flat  con- 
tradiction exists  as  to  the  character  of  Lee's 
answer.  Cameron,  then  Secretary  of  War,  says 
he  accepted  the  offer.*  Montgomery  Blair, 
then  Postmaster-General,  says  he  was  unde- 
cided what  he  would  do.f  Both  these  gen- 
tlemen apparently  derived  their  information 
from  the  elder  Blair.  On  the  other  hand,  Lee 
himself  asserts  that  he  declined  the  proposi- 
tion, because,  "  though  opposed  to  secession 
and  deprecating  war,  I  could  take  no  part  in 
an  invasion  of  the  Southern  States."  |  He 
further  explains  his  motive  to  have  been  an 
unwillingness  to  "  take  part  against  my  native 
State,"  or  to  "raise  my  hand  against  my  re- 
latives, my  children,  my  home."  §  But  in  his 
interview  with  Blair  he  also  affirmed  that  se- 
cession was  anarchy;  that  if  he  owned  the 
whole  four  million  slaves  of  the  South  he 
would  sacrifice  them  all  to  the  Union;  and 
he  appears  to  have  substantially  repeated  the 
sentiment  written  to  his  son  a  few  weeks  be- 
fore, as  follows : 
Secession  is  nothing  but  revolution.  The  framers 
of  our  Constitution  never  exhausted  so  much  labor, 
wisdom,  and   forbearance  in  its   formation,  and  sur- 
*  General  Lee  called  on  a  gentleman  who  had  my 
entire  confidence,  and  intimated  that  he  would  like  to 
have  the  command  of  the  army.  He  assured  that  gen- 
tli  man,  who  was  a  man  in  the  confidence  of  the  Ad- 
ministration, of  his  entire  loyalty,  and  his  devotion  to 
the  interests  of  the  Administration  and  of  the  country. 
I  consulted  with  General  Scott,  and  General  Scott  ap- 
proved of  placing  him  at  the  head  of  the  army.  The 
place  was  offered  to  him  unofficially  with  my  approba- 
tion, and  with  the  approbation  of  General  Scott.  It 
was  accepted  by  him  verbally,  with  the  promise  that 
he  would  go  into  Virginia  and  settle  his  business,  and 
then  come  back  to  take  command. — [Hon.  Simon 
Cameron,  debate  in  U.  S.  Senate,  Feb.  19,  1868.] 
t  General  Lee  said  to  my  father  when  he  was  sounded 
by  him,  at  the  request  of  President  Lincoln,  about  tak- 
ing command  of  our  army  against  the  rebellion,  then 
hanging  upon  the  decision  of  the  Virginia  convention, 
"  Mr.  Blair,  I  look  upon  secession  as  anarchy.  If  I 
owned  four  millions  of  slaves  in  the  South,  I  would 
sacrifice  them  all  to  the  Union ;  but  how  can  I  draw 
rounded  it  with  so  many  guards  and  securities,  if  it 
was  intended  to  be  broken  by  every  member  of  the 
confederacy  at  will.  It  was  intended  for  "  Perpetual 
Union,"  so  expressed  in  the  preamble,  and  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  government,  not  a  compact,  which 
can  only  be  dissolved  by  revolution,  or  the  consent  of 
all  the  people  in  convention  assembled.  It  is  idle  to 
talk  of  secession.  Anarchy  would  have  been  estab- 
lished, and  not  a  government,  by  Washington,  Hamil- 
ton, Jefferson,  Madison,  and  the  other  patriots  of  the 
Revolution.|| 
Under  a  liberal  interpretation,  Lee's  person- 
al denial  must  be  accepted:  but  the  times, 
the  circumstances,  his  qualifying  declara- 
tions, and  the  strong  statements  of  Cameron 
and  Blair  clearly  reveal  his  hesitation  and  in- 
decision. After  his  interview  with  Blair,  Lee 
sought  an  interview  with  Scott,  where  the 
topics  which  filled  men's  hearts  and  occupied 
men's  lips —  Union,  secession,  Virginia,  sub- 
jugation, duty  and  honor,  defection  and  trea- 
son—  were  once  more,  we  may  be  quite  sure, 
thoroughly  discussed.  It  is  morally  certain 
that  Scott,  also  a  Virginian,  gave  Lee  a  lesson 
in  patriotism;  but  he  caught  no  generous 
emulation  from  the  voice  and  example  of  his 
great  chief.  From  Scott's  presence  Lee  seems 
to  have  retired  to  his  home  and  family  at  Ar- 
lington, to  wrestle  with  the  haunting  shadows 
of  duty.  Pregnant  news  came  to  him,  thick 
and  fast.  The  secession  of  Virginia  was  veri- 
fied in  Washington  that  same  evening.  The 
next  evening  the  Massachusetts  6th  marched 
in  mingled  pride  and  sorrow  to  the  Capitol, 
having  an  immortal  record  of  service  to  their 
country.  Here  were  new  and  important  ele- 
ments to  influence  his  decision.  Virginia 
seceded,  Maryland  in  revolt,  Washington 
threatened,  Sumter  lost,  the  border  States  de- 
fiant, the  Confederate  States  arming,  and  ut- 
tering a  half-official  threat  that  the  rebel  flag 
should  float  over  the  Capitol  by  the  1st  of 
May.  If  the  walls  of  Arlington  heard  secret 
or  open  conferences  with  conspirators  from 
Washington,  or  conspirators  from  Richmond, 
my  sword  upon  Virginia,  my  native  State  ?  "  He  could 
not  determine  then ;  said  he  would  consult  with  his 
friend  General  Scott,  and  went  on  the  same  day  to 
Richmond,  probably  to  arbitrate  difficulties ;  and  we 
see  the  result. — [Hon.  Montgomery  Blair  to  Bryant, 
"National  Intelligencer,"  August  9,  1866.] 
%  I  never  intimated  to  any  one  that  I  desired  the  com- 
mand of  the  United  States  army,  nor  did  I  ever  have 
a  conversation  but  with  one  gentleman,  Mr.  Francis 
Preston  Blair,  on  the  subject,  which  was  at  his  invita- 
tion, and,  as  I  understood,  at  the  instance  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln.  After  listening  to  his  remarks,  I  de- 
clined the  offer  he  made  me,  to  take  command  of  the 
army  that  was  to  be  brought  into  the  field,  stating,  as 
candidly  and  as  courteously  as  I  could,  that,  though 
opposed  to  secession  and  deprecating  war,  I  could  take 
no  part  in  an  invasion  of  the  Southern  States. —  [Lee 
to  Reverdy  Johnson,  Feb.  25,  1868.  Jones,  "  Life  of 
Lee,"  p.  141.] 
§  Lee  to  his  sister,  April  20,  1861.    Ibid.,  p.  139. 
||  Lee  to  his  son,  Jan.  23,  1861.    Ibid.,  p.  137.
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
9°5 
no  record  of  them  has  come  to  light ;  but  Sat- 
urday, April  20,  Lee  wrote  to  his  old  com- 
mander : 
General  :  Since  my  interview  with  you  on  the  18th 
instant,  I  have  felt  that  I  ought  not  longer  to  retain 
my  commission  in  the  army.  I  therefore  tender  my 
resignation,  which  I  request  you  will  recommend  for 
acceptance.  It  would  have  been  presented  at  once,  but 
for  the  struggle  it  has  cost  me  to  separate  myself  from 
a  service  to  which  I  have  devoted  all  the  best  years  of 
my  life  and  all  the  ability  I  possessed.  .  .  .  Save  in 
defense  of  my  native  State,  I  never  desire  again  to 
draw  my  sword. 
Lee  was  at  the  time,  in  military  phrase,  "  on 
leave  of  absence  " ;  and  without  waiting  to 
hear  whether  his  resignation  had  been  accept- 
ed, or  even  recommended  for  acceptance,  as 
he  himself  had  urged  —  without  awaiting  fur- 
ther orders,  or  permission,  or  discharge,  or 
dismissal  from  service,  on  the  2 2d  of  April 
he  was,  by  the  governor  and  the  convention 
of  Virginia,  appointed  to,  and  on  the  23d,  in 
Richmond,  publicly  invested  with,  chief  com- 
mand of  the  Virginia  Confederate  forces  under 
the  secret  secession  ordinance  and  Letcher's 
revolutionary  proclamation,  with  all  his  mili- 
tary obligations  to  the  United  States  intact 
and  uncanceled ;  thus  rendering  himself  guilty 
of  desertion  and  treason.*  No  danger  what- 
ever menaced  his  "  native  State  "  —  the  Presi- 
dent had  positively  disclaimed  all  intention 
to  invade  it.  In  due  course  of  events  we  find 
him  not  alone  defending  his  native  State,  to 
which  he  owed  nothing,  but  seeking  to  destroy 
the  Union,  which  had  done  everything  for  him; 
opposing  war  by  promoting  "  revolution,"  and 
redressing  grievances  by  endeavoring  to  estab- 
lish "  anarchy." 
In  instructive  contrast  with  the  weakness 
and  defects  of  Lee,  we  have  the  honorable 
conduct  and  example  of  General  Scott.  He, 
too,  was  a  Virginian  who  loved  his  native  State. 
He,  too,  was  opposed  to  secession  and  depre- 
cated war.  He,  too,  as  officer,  commander, 
diplomatist,  and  statesman,  had  learned  from 
books  and  from  men  the  principles  and  prac- 
tice of  loyalty,  and  perhaps  better  than  any 
American  exemplar  was  competent  to  inter- 
pret a  soldier's  oath,  a  soldier's  duty,  a  sol- 
dier's honor.  His  sympathies  were  at  least  as 
earnestly  with  the  South  as  with  the  North. 
*  The  Army  Regulations  of  1857,  having  the  author- 
ity and  force  of  law,  contained  the  following  provisions  : 
"  24.  No  officer  will  be  considered  out  of  service  on 
the  tender  of  his  resignation,  until  it  shall  have  been 
duly  accepted  by  the  proper  authority. 
"  28.  In  time  of  war,  or  with  an  army  in  the  field, 
resignations  shall  take  effect  within  thirty  days  from 
the  date  of  the  order  of  acceptance." 
For  the  offense  thus  defined  by  the  Regulations  of 
1857,  the  Act  of  August  5, 1861,  provided  specific  pun- 
ishment, as  follows : 
"  Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  any  com- 
To  avoid  bloodshed  he  had  declared  his  indi- 
vidual willingness  to  say  to  the  seceded  States, 
"  Wayward  sisters,  depart  in  peace."  Eut  un- 
derneath pride  of  home,  affection  of  kindred, 
and  horror  of  war,  on  the  solid  substratum  of 
consistency  and  character,  lay  his  recognition 
of  the  principle  of  government,  his  real,  not 
simulated,  veneration  of  the  Constitution,  his 
acceptance  of  the  binding  force  of  law,  his  un- 
swerving fidelity  to  his  oath,  his  undying  devo- 
tion to  his  flag.  The  conspirators  had  long 
hoped  for  the  assistance  of  his  great  name 
and  authority.  They  filled  the  air  with  rumors 
of  his  disaffection.  Since  its  abrupt  secession 
ordinance,  the  Virginia  convention  had  sat  with 
closed  doors;  but  through  a  responsible  wit- 
ness, we  know  that  on  the  day  on  which  Lee 
wrote  his  resignation  (April  20)  a  committee  of 
that  convention  called  on  General  Scott  to 
tempt  him  with  the  offer  of  the  command 
of  the  Virginia  forces.  Senator  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  on  his  way  home  to  arouse  the 
great  West  in  aid  of  Lincoln's  proclamation, 
told  the  circumstance  in  graphic  language  to 
excited  listeners: 
I  have  been  asked  whether  there  is  any  truth  in  the 
rumor  that  General  Scott  was  about  to  retire  from  the 
American  army.  It  is  almost  profanity  to  ask  that  ques- 
tion. I  saw  him  only  last  Saturday.  He  was  at  his 
desk,  pen  in  hand,  writing  his  orders  for  the  defense 
and  safety  of  the  American  capital.  Walking  down  the 
street  I  met  a  distinguished  gentleman,  a  member  of 
the  Virginia  convention,  whom  I  knew  personally,  and 
had  a  few  minutes'  conversation  with  him.  He  told 
me  that  he  had  just  had  an  interview  with  Lieutenant- 
General  Scott ;  that  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee 
appointed  by  the  Virginia  convention  to  wait  upon 
General  Scott  and  tender  him  the  command  of  the  forces 
of  Virginia  in  this  struggle.  General  Scott  received 
him  kindly,  listened  to  him  patiently,  and  then  said  to 
him,  "I have  served  my  country  under  the  flag  of  the 
Union  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  as  long  as  God 
permits  me  to  live  I  will  defend  that  flag  with  my 
sword,  even  if  my  own  native  State  assails  it." 
Other  eye-witnesses  report  that  the  rebuke 
contained  an  additional  feature  of  unusual 
impressiveness.  When  the  spokesman  of  the 
committee,  a  man  of  venerable  years  and 
presence,  had  vaguely  and  cautiously  so  far 
unfolded  the  glittering  lure  of  wealth  and 
honor  which  Virginia  held  out  that  the  gen- 
eral could  catch  the  drift  of  the  humiliating 
missioned  officer  of  the  army,  navy,  or  marine  corps, 
who,  having  tendered  his  resignation,  shall,  prior  to 
due  notice  of  acceptance  of  the  same  by  the  proper  au- 
thority, and,  without  leave,  quit  his  post  or  proper 
duties  with  the  intent  to  remain  permanently  absent 
therefrom,  shall  be  registered  as  a  deserter,  and  pun- 
ished as  such." 
If  it  be  contended  that  Lee's  offense  was  committed 
prior  to  this  last  statute,  the  answer  is  that  his  trans- 
gression was  a  much  graver  one,  for  he  not  only  ab- 
sented himself  with  intent  to  remain,  but  immediately 
entered  into  hostile  service,  an  act  punishable  under 
the  broad  principles  of  general  military  law.
906 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
proposal,  Scott  held  up  his  hand  and  said 
emphatically,  "  Friend  Robertson,  go  no 
farther.  It  is  best  that  we  part  here  before 
you  compel  me  to  resent  a  mortal  insult."  * 
That  same  afternoon  Scott  also  telegraphed 
to  Senator  Crittenden,  in  response  to  an 
anxious  inquiry  based  on  the  false  rumors 
set  afloat  about  him,  "  I  have  not  changed. 
I  have  not  thought  of  changing.  Always 
a  Union  man.''  And  in  that  unshaken  mood 
of  sublime  patriotism  he  lived  and  died, 
beloved  of  his  country,  and  honored  by  the 
world. 
The  Virginia  secession  ordinance,  though 
secretly  adopted  on  the  17th,  became  quickly 
known  to  the  people  of  Richmond.  It  was 
immediately  announced  to  the  States  Rights 
convention  in  session  in  another  hall,  and 
Governor  Letcher,  Senator  Mason,  ex-Presi- 
dent Tyler,  and  ex- Governor  Wise,  from 
the  convention,  soon  appeared  there  and 
glorified  the  event  with  speeches  —  the  latter 
lamenting  the  "  blindness  which  had  pre- 
vented Virginia  from  seizing  Washington  be- 
fore the  Republican  hordes  got  possession  of 
it."  Nevertheless,  an  effort  was  still  made  to 
prevent  the  news  from  going  North.f  But  that 
evening  some  of  the  unconditional  Union 
delegates  from  West  Virginia  —  then  yet  a 
part  of  the  Old  Dominion  —  deemed  it  pru- 
dent to  shake  the  Richmond  dust  from  their 
feet  and  secure  their  personal  safety  by 
prompt  departure.  Delegates  Carlisle  and 
Dent  were  in  Washington  on  the  i8th,  and 
in  all  probability  informed  Mr.  Seward  and 
the  President  how  irretrievably  Virginia  was 
committed  to  rebellion,  even  if  Governor 
Letcher's  reply  and  proclamation  had  left  any 
doubt  on  that  point.  Ominous  rumors  came 
from  Harper's  Ferry,  and  also  (as  we  have 
seen)  a  premature  report  of  the  burning  of 
the  railroad  bridges  beyond  Baltimore.  On 
that  day,  too,  a  detachment  of  460  Pennsyl- 
vania volunteers,  "  almost  entirely  without 
arms,"  and  a  company  of  regulars  from  Min- 
nesota had  been  hurriedly  forwarded  from 
Harrisburg  to  Washington.  J  The  unruly  ele- 
ments of  Baltimore  were  already  in  commo- 
tion, the  cars  containing  these  men  being  in 
their  passage  through  that  city  cheered  by  the 
crowd  at  some  points  and  hooted  and  stoned 
at  others,  though  no  casualties  occurred.  § 
Noting  all  these  rumors  and  acts  of  hostility, 
Secretary  Cameron  telegraphed  to  Governor 
Hicks  that  "  the  President  is  informed  that 
threats  are  made  and  measures  taken  by  un- 
lawful combinations  of  misguided  citizens  of 
.Maryland  to  prevent  by  force  the  transit  of 
United  States  troops  across  Maryland  on 
their  way,  pursuant  to  orders,  for  the  defense 
of  this  capital  "  —  and  strongly  intimated  to 
the  governor   that   the   loyal  authorities  of 
Maryland  ought  to  put  them  down.|| 
The  events  of  the  week — the  daily  mus- 
tering of  volunteers,  the  preparations  for  de- 
fense, the  telegrams  from  the  various  State 
capitals  - —  had  thrown  Washington  into  a 
military  fever.  All  the  social  sympathies  of 
the  permanent  population  of  Washington,  and 
especially  of  its  suburbs,  Georgetown  and 
Alexandria,  were  strongly  Southern ;  but  the 
personal  interests  of  its  inhabitants  and  prop- 
erty holders  were  necessarily  bound  up  with 
the  course  and  fate  of  the  existing  Govern- 
ment. The  Union  manifestations  were  for 
the  moment  dominant,  and  volunteers  came 
forward  readily,  even  somewhat  enthusi- 
astically, to  fill  up  the  District  quota.  The 
city  was  also  yet  full  of  office- seekers  from 
various  States  north  and  west.  Cassius  M. 
Clay  of  Kentucky,  and  Senator-elect  James 
H.  Lane  of  Kansas,  both  men  of  mark  and 
courage,  after  an  evening  or  two  of  flaming 
speech-making,  organized  them  into  respect- 
ively the  "  Clay  Battalion  "  and  the  "  Frontier 
Guards."  These  companies,  of  from  thirty  to 
sixty  men  each,  were  what  might  be  called  ir- 
regular volunteers  — recruits  from  East  and 
West,  of  all  ranks  in  the  great  army  of  poli- 
tics, who  came  forward  to  shoulder  a  musket 
without  enlistment,  commission,  paymaster, 
or  commissariat.  By  this  time  the  danger  had 
become  so  threatening  that  every  scrap  and 
show  of  military  force  was  welcome  and  really 
useful.  The  Government  furnished  them  arms, 
and  gave  them  in  charge  of  Major  (after- 
wards General)  David  Hunter,  who,  on  the 
evening  of  the  18th,  stationed  Clay's  company 
in  Willard's  Hall,  with  orders  to  patrol  the 
streets,  and  took  Lane's  Frontier  Guards  to 
the  post  of  honor  at  the  Executive  Mansion. 
At  dusk  they  filed  into  the  famous  East 
Room,  clad  in  citizens'  dress,  but  carrying 
very  new,  untarnished  muskets,  and  following 
Lane,  brandishing  a  sword  of  irreproachable 
brightness.  Here  ammunition-boxes  were 
opened  and  cartridges  dealt  out;  and  after 
spending  the  evening  in  an  exceedingly  rudi- 
mentary squad  drill,  under  the  light  of  the 
gorgeous  gas  chandeliers,  they  disposed  them- 
selves in  picturesque  bivouac  on  the  brilliant- 
patterned  velvet  carpet  —  perhaps  the  most 
luxurious  cantonment  which  American  soldiers 
have  ever  enjoyed.  Their  motley  composition, 
their  too  transparent  motive,  their  anomalous 
surroundings,  the  extraordinary  emergency, 
their  mingled  awkwardness  and  earnestness, 
*  Townsend,  "Anecdotes  of  the  Civil  War,"  p.  5. 
t  Jones,  "  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  23. 
%  J.  D.  C.  to  Cameron,  April  18,  1861. 
§  Scharf,  "  History  of  Maryland." 
||  Cameron  to  Hicks,  April  18,  1861.   War  Records.
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
907 
rendered  the  scene  a  medley  of  bizarre  con- 
tradictions,—  a  blending  of  masquerade  and 
tragedy,  of  grim  humor  and  realistic  serious- 
ness,—  a  combination  of  Don  Quixote  and 
Daniel  Boone  altogether  impossible  to  de- 
scribe. However,  their  special  guardianship 
of  the  East  Room  lasted  only  for  a  night  or 
two,  until  more  suitable  quarters  could  be  ex- 
temporized ;  and  for  many  days  they  lent  an 
important  moral  influence  in  repressing  and 
overawing  the  lurking  treason  still  present  in 
a  considerable  fraction  among  the  Washing- 
ton inhabitants. 
The  graphic  pen  of  Bayard  Taylor,  who 
happened  to  be  in  Washington  on  this  same 
afternoon  of  April  18,  has  left  us  a  sharp 
and  strong  historical  picture  of  the  city  at 
the  time  : 
Everywhere  around  me  the  flag  of  the  Union  was 
waving ;  troops  were  patrolling  the  streets,  and  yon- 
der the  watchful  Marshal  Lamon  was  galloping  on  the 
second  horse  he  had  tired  out  since  morning.  Every- 
body seemed  to  be  wide  awake,  alert,  and  active.  On 
reaching  Willard's  Hotel,  the  scene  changed.  The 
passages  were  so  crammed  that  I  had  some  difficulty 
in  reaching  the  office.  To  my  surprise,  half  the  faces 
were  Southern  —  especially  Virginian  —  and  the  con- 
versation was  carried  on  in  whispers.  Presently  I  was 
hailed  by  several  Northern  friends,  and  heard  their 
loud,  outspoken  expressions  of  attachment  to  the  Un- 
ion. The  whisperers  near  us  became  silent  and  lis- 
tened attentively.  I  was  earnestly  questioned  as  to 
whether  the  delay  of  the  mails  was  occasioned  by  rails 
being  torn  up  or  bridges  destroyed.  Every  one  seemed 
to  suspect  that  a  treasonable  demonstration  had  taken 
place  in  or  near  Baltimore.  The  most  exciting  rumors 
were  afloat.  Harper's  Ferry  was  taken  —  Virginia 
had  secretly  seceded  —  Wise  was  marching  on  Wash- 
ington —  always  winding  up  with  the  impatient  ques- 
tion, "  Why  don't  the  troops  come  on  ?  " 
From  Willard's  Bayard  Taylor  went  to  the 
State  Department,  and  afterwards  to  make  a 
call  on  Lincoln.    He  continues : 
I  need  not  describe  the  President's  personal  ap- 
pearance, for  nearly  everybody  has  seen  him.  Hon- 
esty, firmness,  and  sound  common  sense  were  the 
characteristics  with  which  personally  he  impressed  me. 
I  was  very  glad  to  notice  the  tough,  enduring  vitality 
of  his  temperament  —  he  needs  it  all.  He  does  not 
appear  to  be  worn  or  ill,  as  I  have  heard,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  very  fresh  and  vigorous.  His  demeanor  was 
thoroughly  calm  and  collected,  and  he  spoke  of  the 
present  crisis  with  that  solemn,  earnest  composure 
which  is  the  sign  of  a  soul  not  easily  perturbed.  I 
came  away  from  his  presence  cheered  and  encouraged. 
BALTIMORE. 
Baltimore,  in  1861,  was  the  great  gateway 
of  military  approach  from  the  Northern  States 
to  Washington.  Lying  at  the  head  of  the 
magnificent  Chesapeake  Bay,  impossible  to 
close  by  forts,  it  was  also  the  common  cen- 
ter and  terminus  of  three  principal  railroad 
*  Cameron  to  Thomson,  April  17,  1861.  War  Rec- 
ords. 
routes  —  respectively,  from  the  Ohio  River  and 
the  west;  from  Harrisburgand  the  lake  region 
northward;  from  Philadelphia,  covering  New 
York  and  New  England.  With  the  South  in 
rebellion,  Washington  had  but  two  established 
routes  of  transportation  left  her — the  Potomac 
River,  afine  water  highway,  but  flowing  through 
hostile  territory,  and  liable  to  be  quickly  ob- 
structed by  land  batteries  at  narrow  points; 
and  a  single  line  of  railway,  a  distance  of  forty 
miles  to  Baltimore,  subject  entirely  to  the  will 
or  caprice  of  that  great  city  of  over  two  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  somewhat  notorious  for 
disorderly  tendencies.  It  is  therefore  no  mar- 
vel that  the  authorities,  both  State  and  Fed- 
eral, watched  the  temper  of  her  people  with 
anxious  solicitude.  Two  days  after  the  Presi- 
dent's call,  Cameron  asked  the  president  of 
the  great  Pennsylvania  road  to  take  charge 
of  the  military  transportation,*  who,  going 
personally  to  Baltimore,  reported  the  seces- 
sion feeling  very  strong,  and  expressed  fears 
lest  the  secession  of  Virginia  might  carry 
Maryland  with  her.f 
The  Massachusetts  men  were  the  first  un- 
der arms.  Governor  AndrewT  of  that  State  had 
quietly  organized  and  equipped  a  few  regiments 
of  militia  in  view  of  possible  emergencies. 
The  President's  proclamation  was  published 
in  the  Boston  morning  papers  on  Monday, 
April  15;  on  Tuesday  forenoon  the  6th  Mas- 
sachusetts began  mustering  on  Boston  Com- 
mon; on  Wednesday  evening,  April  17,  the 
completed  regiment,  with  new  rifles  and  filled 
cartridge-boxes,  with  benedictions  on  the  regi- 
mental flag  and  amid  the  silent  blessings  of  the 
multitude,  embarked  in  railroad  cars.  As  they 
sped  southward  they  witnessed  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  popular  uprising  in  the  New  Eng- 
land towns,  the  literally  packed  streets  and  the 
demonstrations  of  honor  in  New  York,  and  the 
crowning  enthusiasm  in  Philadelphia,  where 
they  arrived  on  the  evening  of  the  18th.  Here 
Colonel  Jones,  commanding  the  regiment, 
found  General  Robert  Patterson  organizing 
the  Pennsylvania  militia,  and  received  from 
the  military  and  railroad  officers  warning  of 
apprehended  danger  in  Baltimore;  but,  in 
obedience  to  what  he  deemed  imperative  or- 
ders from  his  governor,  he  determined  to  go 
forward  —  only  delaying  his  progress  that  his 
somewhat  wearied  men  might  bivouac  until 
after  midnight,  which  arrangement  would  also 
permit  them  to  pass  through  Baltimore  by  day. 
Before  daylight  the  men  were  roused,  and 
the  train  started  from  Philadelphia.  Reach- 
ing the  Susquehanna  River,  it  overtook  a 
corps  of  Pennsylvania  volunteers  —  Small's 
brigade,  over   a  thousand  men  —  which,  by 
t  Thomson  to  Cameron,  April  17,  1S61.  War  Rec- 
ords.
90S 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
some  neglect  or  disobedience  of  orders,  had  latter  station.  Accordingly,  it  was  at  this  point 
started  for  Washington  without  uniforms  or  that  danger  was  apprehended,  and  protection 
arms.  This  corps  was  also  attached  to  the  of  the  police  had  been  asked.  The  Baltimore 
tram,  which  thus  numbered  more  than  thirty  authorities  assert  that,  though  they  only  re- 
cars.  The  railroad  officials,  to  guard  against  ceived  about  half  an  hour's  notice,  they  re- 
accident  or  treachery,  sent  a  pilot  engine  ahead,  sponded  promptly,  and  the  mayor,  chief  of 
and  had  arranged  an  interchange  of  cipher  police,  and  a  considerable  force  were  on  hand 
messages  with  their  Baltimore  office,  from  and  rendered  effective  service  in  protecting 
which,  at  succeeding  stations  as  the  train  the  transfer  of  the  troops  at  the  Washington 
safely  approached   the   city,  repeated    assur-  station. 
ances  were  received  that  all  was  quiet,  and 
no  trouble  need  be  feared.  Nevertheless,  with 
due  soldierly  caution,  Colonel  Jones  made 
deliberate  preparation;  his  command  loaded 
and  capped  their  rifles,  while  he  went  per- 
sonally through  the  cars  and  issued  the  fol- 
lowing explicit  order: 
The  regiment  will  march  through  Baltimore  in  col- 
umn of  sections,  arms  at  will.  You  will  undoubtedly 
be  insulted,  abased,  and  perhaps  assaulted,  to  which 
you  must  pay  no  attention  whatever,  but  march  with 
your  faces  square  to  the  front,  and  pay  no  attention  to 
the  mob,  even  if  they  throw  stones,  bricks,  or  other 
missiles ;  but  if  you  are  fired  upon,  and  any  one  of  you 
When,  therefore,  the  train  first  halted  at  the 
Philadelphia  or  President  street  station  on  its 
arrival,  Colonel  Jones,  instead  of  being  noti- 
fied to  form  his  regiment  for  a  march,  as  he 
expected,  was  astonished  to  find  the  first  few 
cars  drawn  rapidly  and  separately  through  the 
streets  by  horses,  which  had  been  attached  be- 
fore he  was  well  aware  of  what  was  going  on. 
His  own  and  seven  or  eight  succeeding  cars 
thus  made  the  transit  safely,  and  arriving  at 
the  Washington  station  the  troops  began  to 
change  cars.  Here  an  immense  crowd  was 
gathered,  and  demonstrations  of  hostility  im- 
is  hit,  your  officers  will  order  you  to  fire.    Do  not  fire    mediately  began.   Says  a  newspaper  account : 
into  any  promiscuous    crowds;     but   select  any  man 
The  scene,  while  the  troops  were  changing  cars, 
was  indescribably  fearful.  Taunts  clothed  in  the  most 
outrageous  language  were  hurled  at  them  by  the  pant- 
ing crowd,  who,  almost  breathless  with  running,  pressed 
up  to  the  car  windows,  presenting  knives  and  revolvers, 
and  cursed  up  into  the  faces  of  the  soldiers.  The  police 
were  thrown  in  between  the  cars,  and  forming  a  bar- 
1dm 
their  muskets  as  they  stepped  on  the  platform. 
The  peaceful  passage  of  the  cars  through 
the  streets  was  not,  however,  of  long  duration. 
When  the  ninth  f  car,  containing  the  seventh 
company,  issued 
from  the  Philadel- 
phia depot,  it  was 
greeted  with  riotous 
insults  by  the  crowd 
which  had,  during 
the  unavoidable  de- 
lay, rapidly  gath- 
ered; andwhilepass- 
ing  over  a  portion  of 
Pratt  street,  where 
certain  street  re- 
pairs were  going  on, 
the  mob  gathered 
up  a  pile  of  loose 
Washington  or  Camden  station.  The  two  de-  paving-stones  which  they  hurled  at  the  car, 
pots  were  perhaps  a  mile  apart,  the  track  con-  smashing  in  the  windows  and  blinds,  and 
necting  them  running  for  the  greater  distance  adding  to  this  method  of  assault  an  occa- 
straight  westward  along  Pratt  street,  excepting  sional  shot  from  a  pistol  or  a  gun.  Says  a 
a  short  bend  to  the  north  at  the  beginning,  and  trustworthy  account : 
a  corresponding  short  bend  to  the  south  near 
whom  you  may  see  aiming  at  you,  and  be  sure  you 
drop  him. 
This   order  clearly  contemplated  a  march 
through  the  city  by  the  regiment  in  a  body, 
which  by  some  misunderstanding  or  change  of 
plan  on  the  part  of  the  railroad  managers  was    rier' the  trooPs  changed  cars,  many  of  them  cock 
not  carried  out. 
The  train  arrived  at  the  Philadelphia  or 
President  street  station,  and  the  troops  were 
again  to    take    cars  for  Washington    at   the 
Ji   ILJUULJI   I 
PRATT  STREET       ;>-T!,lT^,hT;„T^T^.,'^^. 
Da 
] 
Zi 3w 
□  CZDLHLZZ1 
□  □□LZZ1 
□  CZ3L 
— l  nnnnnnr 
CAMDEN    STATION 
(WASHINGTON    DEPOT) 
FROM    THE    PHILADELPHIA    TO    THE    CAMDEN    STATION. 
the  end.  It  seems  at  the  last  moment  to  have 
been  decided  to  follow  the  ordinary  method  of 
hauling  the  loaded  cars  from  the  Philadelphia 
depot  to  the  Washington  depot  with  horses, 
The  men  were  very  anxious  to  fire  on  their  assailants, 
but  Major  Watson  forbade  them.    One  or  two  soldiers 
and  to   make  the  troops  change  cars  at  the    accounts. 
"Baltimore  Sun,"  April  20,  1861. 
t  There   are    discrepancies   between 
the    different
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
909 
were  wounded  by  paving-stones  and  bricks,  and  at 
length  one  man's  thumb  was  shot,  when,  holding  up 
the  wounded  hand  to  the  major,  he  asked  leave  to  fire 
in  return.  Orders  were  then  given  to  lie  on  the  bot- 
tom of  the  car  and  load,  and  rising  to  fire  from  the 
windows  at  will.   These  orders  were  promptly  obeyed.  * 
Three  times  during  the  passage  obstruc- 
tions were  laid  on  the  track,  requiring  the  car 
to  be  stopped  till  they  could  be  removed. 
Under  such  repeated  attacks  this  car  reached 
the  Washington  depot.  It  had  been  a  fight 
at  long  range,  and  in  the  shelter  of  the  car 
no  death  had  resulted  to  the  troops.  It  is 
apparently  at  this  juncture  that  the  various 
authorities  at  the  Washington  depot  became 
aware  of  the  serious  character  of  the  riot. 
Colonel  Jones  was  informed  by  the  railroad 
superintendent  that  cars  could  no  longer  be 
hauled  across  the  city,  and  he  hurriedly  wrote 
an  order  to  the  missing  companies  to  join  him 
by  a  forced  march.* 
Mayor  Brown  started  immediately  on  foot 
for  the  scene  of  the  disturbance.  Marshal 
Kane,  Chief  of  Police,  devolved  his  command 
on  a  subordinate,  and,  collecting  as  many  po- 
licemen as  could  be  spared,  also  hastened  east- 
ward to  join  the  mayor. 
Exciting  scenes  were  meanwhile  enacted 
about  the  Philadelphia  depot.  The  car  of 
the  seventh  company  having  escaped  their 
clutches  as  described,  the  rioters  bethought 
themselves  of  permanently  breaking  communi- 
cation between  the  two  stations.  Certain  street 
repairs  were  at  the  time  in  progress  along  a 
portion  of  Pratt  street.  They  seized  the  la- 
borers' picks  and  shovels  and  tried  to  pry  up 
the  rails,  but  without  success.  Then  they  piled 
loose  stones,  and  at  another  place  a  load  of 
sand,  on  the  track.  Elsewhere  they  laid  on 
the  rails  a  number  of  heavy  anchors  dragged 
from  a  neighboring  wharf.  At  still  another 
place,  they  partly  tore  up  a  bridge.  While 
the  remaining  four  companies  were  waiting 
their  turn  to  proceed,  two  of  the  railroad  men 
informed  them  of  the  condition  of  affairs.  Col- 
onel Jones's  order  had  failed  to  reach  them  \ 
but  the  officers  consulted  together  and,  plac- 
ing Captain  Follansbee  in  command,  resolved 
to  go  forward.  The  companies  filed  out  of 
their  cars,  formed  deliberately  on  the  side- 
walk, and,  calling  a  policeman  to  lead  the  way, 
started  on  the  perilous  march.  Almost  at  the 
very  outset  they  encountered  a  hastily  impro- 
vised procession,  following  a  secession  flag  and 
marching  directly  towards  them,  which  refused 
to  yield  the  way.  In  an  instant  there  were 
crowding,  hustling,  confusion,  groans,  hooting, 
*  Hanson,  "The  Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment." 
t  Mayor's  message,  July  11,  1861.     War  Records. 
X  In  his  volume,  "  Baltimore  and  the  19th  of  April, 
186 1,"  published  in  1887,  ex-Mayor  Brown  says  (p. 
51)  '•  "The  statement  in  Colonel  Jones's  report  that 
cries  of  "nigger  thieves,"  and  a  struggle  for  the 
capture  and  possession  of  the  rebel  flag.  'I  be 
soldiers  pushed  doggedly  ahead,  and,  thinking 
to  pass  the  crowd,  broke  into  a  double-quick. 
This  encouraged  the  rioters,  who  took  it  as  a 
sign  of  fear.  They  redoubled  their  yells,  called 
them  cowards,  and  followed  them  with  showers 
of  clubs  and  stones.  After  two  or  three  blocks 
of  such  progress  the  soldiers  reached  the  torn- 
up  bridge.  "  We  had  to  play  '  Scotch-hop '  to 
get  over  it,"  says  Captain  Follansbee.  "  As 
soon  as  we  had  crossed  the  bridge,  they  com- 
menced to  fire  upon  us  from  the  street  and 
houses.  I  ordered  the  men  to  protect  them- 
selves, and  then  we  returned  their  fire  and  laid 
a  great  many  of  them  away."  At  this  point 
Mayor  Brown  met  the  advancing  column. 
He  writes : 
An  attack  on  them  had  begun,  and  the  noise  and 
excitement  were  great.  I  ran  at  once  to  the  head  of 
the  column,  some  persons  in  the  crowd  shouting  as 
I  approached,  "  Here  comes  the  mayor."  I  shook 
hands  with  the  officer  in  command,  saying,  as  I  did 
so,  "I  am  the  mayor  of  Baltimore."  I  then  placed 
myself  at  his  side  and  marched  with  him  as  far  as  the 
head  of  Light  street  wharf,  doing  what  I  could  by  my 
presence  and  personal  efforts  to  allay  the  tumult.  The 
mob  grew  bolder  and  the  attack  became  more  violent. 
Various  persons  were  killed  and  wounded  on  both 
sides.  The  troops  had  some  time  previously  begun  to 
fire  in  self-defense ;  and  the  firing,  as  the  attack  in- 
creased in  violence,  became  more  general,  t 
Captain  Follansbee  confirms  this  statement : 
The  mayor  of  the  city  met  us  almost  half-way.  He 
said  there  would  be  no  trouble,  and  that  we  could  get 
through,  and  kept  with  me  for  about  a  hundred  yards  ; 
but  the  stones  and  balls  whistled  too  near  his  head,  and 
he  left.    .    .    .    That  was  the  last  I  saw  of  him.*| 
The  mayor's  separation  from  the  troops 
was  probably  caused  by  an  important  diversion 
which  occurred  at  this  point  in  their  progress. 
Marshal  Kane,  hurrying  to  the  rescue  at  the 
head  of  about  fifty  policemen,  met  the  strug- 
gling and  fighting  column  of  soldiers,  with 
Captain  Follansbee  and  Mayor  Brown  at  their 
head ;  and,  taking  in  the  situation  and  remedy 
at  a  glance,  executed  a  movement  which  was 
evidently  the  turning-point  in  the  affray.  By 
his  order  the  line  of  policemen  opened  their 
ranks,  and,  having  allowed  the  column  of 
troops  to  pass  through,  immediately  closed 
again  behind  them,  forming  a  firm  line  across 
the  street.  The  marshal  directed  his  men  ,;to 
draw  their  revolvers  and  shoot  down  any  man 
who  dared  to  break  their  line."  §  This  opposed 
an  effectual  barrier  to  the  farther  advance  of 
this  portion  of  the  mob,  which  the  police  con- 
tinued to  hold  in  check,  while  the  column  of 
I  seized  a  musket  and  killed  one  of  the  rioters  is  en- 
tirely incorrect." 
§  Report  of  Marshal  Kane,  May  3,  1S61.  "  Con- 
gressional Globe,"  July  18,  1 86 1.
IO 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
troops  pursued  its  way  to  the  Washington  de- 
pot with  only  one  or  two  further  attacks. 
Arrived  there,  the  four  companies  were  hurried 
into  cars.  The  trouble,  however,  was  not  yet 
over.  The  immense  crowd  gathered  here  man- 
ifested a  dangerous  turbulence.  Their  savage 
temper  had  only  grown  during  the  delay,  the 
receipt  of  news  and  rumors,  and  by  the  final 
arrival  of  the  harried  rear-guard.  More  threat- 
ening than  all,  the  crowd  repeatedly  rushed 
ahead  of  the  standing  train  and  piled  heavy 
stones,  telegraph  poles,  and  other  objects  on 
the  traek.  which  the  police  as  often  succeeded 
in  removing.  Colonel  Jones  and  his  officers 
had  their  men  well  under  control;  they  kept 
them  still,  the  blinds  of  the  cars  well  drawn 
down,  and  thus  prevented  any  unnecessary 
challenge  or  irritation  to  the  mob.  All  being 
at  length  ready,  the  train  moved  slowly  and 
cautiously  away;  but  as  it  did  so,  a  discharge 
of  muskets  blazed  from  a  window  of  the  rear 
car,  and  a  prominent  citizen  of  Baltimore  fell 
dying  to  the  ground.  The  bystanders  declared 
the  act  was  without  provocation ;  the  soldiers 
and  their  officers  maintained  that  it  was  in  re- 
sponse to  a  volley  of  stones  or  a  shot.  The 
total  casualties  of  the  day  were  never  accu- 
rately ascertained  or  published.  The  soldiers 
lost  4  men  killed  and  36  wounded;  the  citizens 
perhaps  two  or  three  times  that  number.  The 
single  death  which  thus  occurred  as  the  train 
moved  out,  however,  created  more  subsequent 
excitement  in  Baltimore  than  the  scores  who 
were  slain  and  wounded  in  the  melee  on 
Pratt  street. 
Marshal  Kane,  having  stopped  the  prog- 
ress of  the  mob  along  Pratt  street,  had 
marched  his  policemen  back  to  the  Washing- 
ton depot,  where  he  learned  that  the  train 
was  gone ;  and,  supposing  that  all  danger  was 
at  last  over,  dismissed  his  force  and  was  pro- 
ceeding to  his  office  when  he  was  notified 
that  there  were  yet  other  troops  at  the  Phil- 
ad  :lphia  depot.  These  proved  to  be  the  reg- 
imental band  of  the  Massachusetts  men,  and 
Small's  Pennsylvania  brigade,  all  unarmed, 
it  is  probable  that  the  great  length  of  the 
train  had  compelled  the  halting,  at  a  consid- 
le  distance  from  the  depot,  of  the  cars  in 
which  they  were,  and  that  they  had  remained 
in  ignorance  of  the  occurrences  described. 
When  Marshal  Kane  arrived  there,  he  found 
■  Reporl  of  Marshal  Kane,  May  3,  1861. 
tin  response  to  a  request  from  Governor  Andrew, 
of  Massachusetts,  the  mayor  and  authorities  of  Balti- 
more took  immediate  steps  to  care  for  the  wounded 
and  to  pay  respect  to  the  dead  of  the  Massachusetts 
regiment,  a  courtesy  which  was  properly  acknowl- 
edged. One  year  later  the  legislature  of  Maryland 
ted  $7000  for  the  families  of  Massachusetts 
rs  killed  or  disabled  by  wounds  in  the  riot. 
+  "  Baltimore  Sun,"  April  20,  1861.  The  "  Baltimore 
American  "  gives  a  slightly  different  version   of  the 
that  the  members  of  the  band  were  already 
driven  from  their  car  and  dispersed,  and  that 
the  Pennsylvania  men  were  just  coming  into 
the  depot.  "  Some  of  these  troops,"  he  says, 
"  commenced  jumping  from  the  train  just  as 
I  got  there,  and  were  immediately  set  upon 
by  an  infuriated  populace.  I  fought  hard  for 
their  protection;  at  first  almost  alone,  but 
soon  had  the  assistance  of  a  part  of  my  force 
who  hurried  from  the  neighboring  beats."* 
Meanwhile  the  railroad  officials  at  Philadel- 
phia were  hastily  consulted  by  telegraph,  and 
orders  soon  came  to  have  the  remainder  of 
the  train  and  troops  withdrawn  from  Balti- 
more without  unloading,  and  carried  back  on 
the  railroad  towards  Philadelphia  as  far  as 
the  Susquehanna  River.  The  dispersed  mem- 
bers of  the  band  and  other  stragglers  for  the 
most  part  found  sympathy,  shelter,  and  con- 
cealment among  humane  Baltimoreans  not 
engaged  in  the  riot,  until  rescued  and  sent 
home  by  the  police,  f 
All  this  rioting  occurred  in  the  forenoon 
between  10  and  12  o'clock.  During  the  re- 
mainder of  the  day  mob  feeling,  if  not  mob 
violence,  controlled  the  city  of  Baltimore.  The 
military  companies  were  ordered  out,  and  a 
mass  meeting  called  to  meet  at  4  o'clock 
in  Monument  Square.  At  the  appointed  time 
a  huge  gathering  assembled  :  the  speakers,  for 
the  greater  part,  delivered  strong  anti-coercion 
speeches;  instead  of  the  national  banner,  a  flag 
was  displayed  bearing  the  arms  of  Maryland. 
In  substance,  the  occasion  was  a  great  seces- 
sion meeting.  Mayor  Brown  and  Governor 
Hicks  were  called  to  the  rostrum  and  made 
professions  and  promises  in  the  prevailing  tone, 
the  governor  declaring  that  he  bowed  in  sub- 
mission to  the  people.  "  I  am  a  Marylander," 
said  he,  "  and  I  love  my  State,  and  I  love  the 
Union ;  but  I  will  suffer  my  right  arm  to  be 
torn  from  my  body  before  I  will  raise  it  to 
strike  a  sister  State."  J  How  completely  the 
city  was  in  revolt  is  told  by  Governor  Hicks 
in  a  dispatch  sent  on  the  following  day  to 
Secretary  Cameron : 
Up  to  yesterday  there  appeared  promise,  but  the 
outburst  came ;  the  turbulent  passions  of  the  riotous 
element  prevailed;  fear  for  safety  became  reality;  what 
they  had  endeavored  to  conceal,  but  what  was  known 
to  us,  was  no  longer  concealed,  but  made  manifest ;  the 
rebellious  element  had  the  control  of  things.  We  were 
arranging  and  organizing  forces  to  protect  the  city  and 
governor's  remarks.  It  is  probable  that  both  reports 
are  somewhat  inaccurate : 
The  Union  was  now  apparently  broken,  but  he 
trusted  that  its  reconstruction  may  yet  be  brought 
about  [cries  of  "Never  "].  Resuming,  he  said:  "But  if 
otherwise,  I  bow  in  submission  to  the  mandate  of  the 
people.  If  submit  we  must,  in  God's  name  let  us  sub- 
mit in  peace ;  for  I  would  rather  this  right  arm  should 
be  separated  from  my  body  than  raise  it  against  a 
brother." —  [Speech  of  Governor  Hicks,  April  19, 1861, 
as  reported  in  the  "  Baltimore  American  "  of  April  20.  ]
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
Q]  I 
preserve  order,  but  want  of  organization  and  of  arms 
prevented  success.  They  had  arms ;  they  had  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  organized  military  forces  with  them  ; 
and  for  us  to  have  made  the  effort,  under  the  circum- 
stances, would  have  had  the  effect  to  aid  the  disorderly 
element.  They  took  possession  of  the  armories,  have 
the  arms  and  ammunition,  and  I  therefore  think  it 
prudent  to  decline  (for  the  present)  responding  affirm- 
atively to  the  requisition  made  by  President  Lincoln 
for  four  regiments  of  infantry.* 
This  temporary  bending  before  the  storm 
of  riot  by  the  powerless  authorities  might  have 
been  pardoned  under  the  emergency ;  but  now 
they  proceeded  to  stultify  their  courageous 
conduct  of  the  forenoon  by  an  act,  if  not  of 
treason,  at  least  of  cowardice.  At  midnight 
Mayor  Brown,  Marshal  Kane,  and  the  Board 
of  Police,  and,  as  these  assert,  also  Governor 
Hicks,  consulted  together,  and  deliberately 
ordered  the  destruction  of  the  railroad  bridges 
between  Baltimore  and  both  Harrisburg  and 
Philadelphia.f  Two  strong  parties  of  men  were 
sent  out,  one  of  them  headed  by  Marshal  Kane, 
who  before  daylight  burned  the  bridges  at  Mel- 
vale,  Relay  House,  and  Cockeysville  on  the 
Harrisburg  road,  and  over  the  Bush  and  Gun- 
powder rivers  and  Harris  Creek  on  the  Phila- 
delphia road.  Governor  Hicks  soon  after 
totally  denied  his  consent  to,  or  complicity 
in,  the  business,  while  the  others  insist  that  he 
was  equally  responsible  with  themselves.^  The 
fact  remained  that  the  authorities  had,  by  an 
act  of  war,  completely  cut  off  the  national 
capital  from  railroad  communication  with  the 
North. 
The  authors  of  this  destruction  attempt  to 
justify  their  conduct  by  the  excuse  that  they 
were  informed  of  the  approach  of  another 
large  body  of  Northern  troops,  and  they  feared 
that  under  prevailing  excitement  the  troops 
would  wreak  vengeance  on  the  city  for  that 
day's  attack  on  the  Massachusetts  6th.  They 
however  cite  nothing  in  the  form  of  such  a 
threat  reaching  them  before  their  order,  ex- 
cept a  telegram  from  the  railroad  officer  at 
Philadelphia,  "  that  it  was  impossible  to  pre- 
vent these  troops  from  going  through  Balti- 
more; the  Union  men  must  be  aroused  to 
resist  the  mob."  Angry  and  ugly  threats  did 
soon  come  from  the  North ;  but  not  till  after 
the  burning,  and  largely  excited  by  that  act 
itself.  It  is  impossible  to  resist  the  convic- 
tion that  Mayor  Brown  and  Marshal  Kane 
were  secessionists  at  heart;  and  while  they 
were  too  sagacious  to  have  prompted  or  en- 
couraged the  mob  of  April  19,  they  were  quite 
ready  to  join  in  any  sweeping  popular  move- 
*  Hicks  to  Cameron,  April  20,  1S61.  War  Rec- 
ords. 
t  Mayor's  message,  Report  of  Marshal  Kane,  and 
Report  Board  of  Police,  May  3,  1861  ;  War  Rec- 
ords. Also  Brown,  "  Baltimore  and  the  19th  of  April, 
1861." 
ment  to  precipitate  Maryland  into  rebellion, 
even  if  they  were  not  actually  then  in  a 
conspiracy  to  that  end.    While  on  his  way  to 
burn  the  bridges,  Marshal  Kane  sent  a  tele- 
gram to  a  kindred    spirit,   which    1' 
doubt  of  his  then  treasonable  intent: 
Thank  you  for  your  offer.  Bring  your  men  in  by 
the  first  train, and  we  will  arrange  with  the  railroad 
afterwards.  Streets  red  with  Maryland  blood, 
expresses  over  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Maryland 
and  Virginia  for  the  riflemen  to  come  without  delay. 
Fresh  hordes  will  be  down  on  us  to-morrow  (the 
20th).   We  will  fight  them,  and  whip  them  or  die.  § 
General  Scott's  report  and  Cameron's  dis- 
patch of  the  1 8th,  quoted  in  the  last  chapter, 
show  the  already  serious  apprehensions  of  the 
Administration  about  the  condition  of  Marx- 
land,  and  particularly  Baltimore.  The  rumors 
and  news  received  on  the  19th  made  the  out- 
look still  worse.  It  was  definitely  ascertained 
in  the  forenoon  that  Harper's  Ferry  had  been 
so  threatened  by  the  Virginia  rebels  as  to  in- 
duce Lieutenant  Jones  to  burn  the  arsenal  and 
armory  and  retreat  into  Maryland  with  his 
little  handful  of  soldiers.  Other  news  con- 
vinced the  authorities  that  there  was  no  rea- 
sonable prospect  of  saving  the  Gosport  navy 
yard  at  Norfolk,  Virginia ;  and  that  night  the 
war  steamer  Pawnee  was  started  on  her  mis- 
sion, with  discretionary  authority  to  destroy 
that  immense  establishment  with  its  millions' 
worth  of  Government  property.  Shortly  after 
noon  there  came,  both  by  telegraph  and  mes- 
senger, the  dreaded  dispatch  from  Governor 
Hicks  and  Mayor  Brown : 
A  collision  between  the  citizens  and  the  Northern 
troops  has  taken  place  in  Baltimore,  and  the  excitement 
is  fearful.  Send  no  more  troops  here.  We  will  en- 
deavor to  prevent  all  bloodshed.  A  public  meeting  of 
citizens  has  been  called,  and  the  troops  of  the  State 
and  the  city  have  been  called  out  to  preserve  the  peace. 
They  will  be  enough. 
Carefully  scrutinized,  this  dispatch  was 
found  to  be,  like  an  ancient  oracle,  capable 
of  a  twofold  meaning.  The  President  and 
part  of  the  Cabinet  supposed  Hicks  meant  to 
say  he  needed  no  troops  to  put  down  the  riot. 
On  the  other  hand,  General  Scott  and  Mr. 
Seward,  usually  so  hopeful,  thought  they  could 
read  between  the  lines  that  it  was  desired  no 
more  troops  should  be  passed  through  Balti- 
more. The  arrival  of  the  assaulted  Massachu- 
setts 6th  about  5  o'clock  added  nothing  to 
the  current  information  except  -to  demon- 
strate the  seriousness  of  the  day's  occurrences. 
A  crowd  of  live  thousand  people  received  the 
t  Mayor  Brown  to  the  Maryland  legislature.  May 
10,  1 861.    War  Records. 
§  Kane  to  Tohnson,  April  10.  1861.  MarshalKanej 
in  "his  official  report  of  May  3,  1861,  admits  the  lan- 
guage of  the  dispatch,  and  offers  no  explanation  of  it 
but  undue  excitement.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
regiment  at  the  depot  with  enthusiastic  cheers 
of  welcome,  and  escorted  its  march  to  the  ro- 
tunda o(  the  Capitol,  whence  it  went  to  quar- 
ters in  the  Senate  Chamber.  After  tea  that 
evening  special  messengers  came  from  Gov- 
ernor Hicks  to  say  that  the  Pikesville  arsenal, 
eight  miles  from  Baltimore,  having  been  aban- 
1  by  the  army  officer  in  charge,  the 
governor  had  caused  it  to  be  occupied  and 
protected  for  the  United  States.  The  President 
showed  them  the  dispatch;  but  they  could 
no  explanation  beyond  reiterating  the 
governor's  and  their  own  loyalty.  The  true 
interpretation  soon  came,  though  in  a  round- 
about  way.  The  riot  had  thrown  all  the 
railroad  companies  into  a  panic.  Hicks  and 
Brown  had  advised,  and  the  Board  of  Police 
ordered,  all  troops  en  route  to  be  sent  back 
towards  Pennsylvania.*  To  its  compliance 
with  this  advice  and  order  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  road  added  a  refusal  to  undertake  any 
further  transportation;!  and  to  this  refusal 
the  Philadelphia  and  Wilmington  road  had 
also  given  its  assent.  $  A  few  hours'  reflection 
showed  the  Philadelphia  railroad  officials  the 
suicidal  nature  of  such  refusal,  not  only  to 
the  Government,  but  especially  to  their  own 
business,  and  they  now  telegraphed  to  Wash- 
ington to  know  what  was  to  be  done  —  laying 
the  blame  rather  more  heavily  than  he  deserved 
at  the  door  of  Governor  Hicks.  At  Washing- 
ton the  question  was  pretty  fully  debated  by 
the  President,  Cabinet,  and  General  Scott, and 
a  sharp  dispatch  in  cipher  sent  back  to  Phila- 
delphia : 
Governor  Hicks  has  neither  right  nor  authority  to 
stop  troops  coming  to  Washington.  Send  them  on,  pre- 
pared to  fight  their  way  through,  if  necessary.  § 
This  decision  having  been  reached,  the  Pres- 
ident  and  various  officials  sought  their  rest  for 
the  night,  not  by  any  means  assured  of  a  tran- 
quil sleep.  The  possible  contingencies  of  the 
hour  are  briefly  expressed  in  a  memorandum 
made  on  the  night  of  the  Baltimore  riot  by  an 
occupant  of  the  Executive  Mansion  : 
We  arc  expecting  more  troops  here  by  way  of  Bal- 
,  but  are  also  fearful  that  the  secessionists  may 
at  any  hour  cut  the  telegraph  wires,  tear  up  the  rail- 
road track,  or  burn  the  bridges,  and  thus  prevent  their 
reaching  us  and  cut  off  all  communication.  We  have 
rumors  that  1500  men  are  under  arms  at  Alexandria, 
seven  miles  below  here,  supposed  to  have  hostile  de- 
signs against  this  city;  and  an  additional  report  that 
a  vessel  was  late  tins  evening  seen  landing  men  on 
iaryland  Side  of  the  river.  All  these  things  indi- 
cate that  if  we  are  to  be  attacked  at  all  soon,  it  will 
happen  to-night  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  some 
1  five  thousand  men  under  arms  in  the  city,  and 
a  very  vigilant  watch  out  in  all  the  probable  directions 
*"  Rebellion  Record." 
t  Hicks,  Brown,  and  Howard  to  Garrett,  April  19, 
1861.     Garrett,  reply,  April  19,  1861. 
+  Felton  to  Hicks  and  Brown,  April  19,  1861. 
of  approach.  The  public  buildings  are  strongly 
guarded  ;  the  Secretary  of  War  will  remain  all  night 
in  his  Department,  and  General  Scott  is  within  con- 
venient reach.  I  do  not  think  any  force  could  be 
brought  against  the  city  to-night  which  our  men  could 
not  easily  repel.  || 
Soon  after  midnight  a  special  train  brought 
a  committee  of  Baltimoreans.  The  authori- 
ties of  that  unhappy  city  were,  first  by  the 
riot,  and  afterwards  by  the  public  meeting 
and  the  popular  demonstrations  in  the  streets, 
worked  into  a  high  state  of  excitement.  About 
an  hour  before  their  determination  and  order 
to  burn  the  bridges,  Mayor  Brown  wrote  a 
request  to  the  President  to  stop  the  transit  of 
troops,  saying,  "It  is  my  solemn  duty  to  in- 
form you  that  it  is  not  possible  for  more  sol- 
diers to  pass  through  Baltimore,  unless  they 
fight  their  way  at  every  step."^}  Being  by  this 
time  in  one  of  his  yielding  moods,  Governor 
Hicks  concurred  in  the  request  by  a  written 
note.**  It  was  too  late  to  see  the  President 
when  the  committee  bearing  the  letter  arrived ; 
they  therefore  applied  to  Cameron  at  the  War 
Department,  who  refused  flatly  to  entertain 
their  request,  turning  over  on  his  sofa  for  an- 
other nap.  From  the  chief  clerk  they  learned 
that  no  troops  were  then  actually  on  the  way, 
and  with  this  bit  of  relief  they  contented  them- 
selves till  daylight. 
Next  morning  (April  20)  the  President  had 
just  finished  his  breakfast  when  General  Scott's 
carriage  stopped  under  the  White  House  por- 
tico. The  general  was  suffering  from  gout, 
which  made  it  painful  for  him  to  mount  to  the 
Executive  chamber;  and  to  save  him  this  ex- 
ertion, Lincoln  came  down  to  exchange  a  word 
with  him  at  the  door.  At  the  foot  of  the  stair- 
case the  President  encountered  the  Baltimore 
committee,  read  their  brief  letter,  and  took 
them  at  once  to  General  Scott's  carriage, 
where  they  rehearsed  their  errand,  eloquently 
portraying  the  danger  —  nay,  the  impossibility 
—  of  bringing  soldiers  through  Baltimore; 
whereupon  the  general,  looking  solely  to  the 
extreme  urgency  of  getting  troops  to  the  capi- 
tal, and  perceiving  no  present  advantage  in 
fighting  a  battle  in  that  city,  suggested 
promptly, "  March  them  around  " — the  change 
from  the  dispatch  sent  the  previous  evening 
to  Philadelphia  being  purely  one  of  expediency 
under  an  alleged  state  of  facts.  The  commit- 
tee returned  with  the  President  to  his  office, 
where  he  wrote  them  a  reply  to  Governor 
Hicks's  and  Mayor  Brown's  letters : 
For  the  future  troops  must  be  brought  here,  but  I 
make  no  point  of  bringing  them  through  Baltimore. 
Without  any  military  knowledge  myself,  of  course  I 
$  Thomas  to  Felton,  April  19,  1861.  War  Records. 
||  J.  G.  N.,  personal  memoranda.  Unpublished  MS. 
If  Brown  to  Lincoln,  April  19,  1861.  War  Records. 
**  Hicks  to  Lincoln.     War  Records.
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
9*3 
must  leave  details  to  General  Scott.  He  hastily  said 
this  morning,  in  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen, 
"  March  them  around  Baltimore,  and  not  through  it." 
I  sincerely  hope  the  general,  on  fuller  reflection,  will 
consider  this  practical  and  proper,  and  that  you  will 
not  object  to  it.  By  this  a  collision  of  the  people  of 
Baltimore  with  the  troops  will  be  avoided,  unless  they 
go  out  of  the  way  to  seek  it.* 
This  arrangement  was,  on  being  communi- 
cated to  the  governor,  duly  accepted  by  him. 
He  wrote : 
I  hoped  they  would  send  no  more  troops  through 
Maryland ;  but  as  we  have  no  right  to  demand  that, 
I  am  glad  no  more  are  to  be  sent  through  Baltimore.! 
"  Give  an  inch,  he  '11  take  an  ell."  The  prov- 
erb is  especially  applicable  in  times  of  revo- 
lution, when  men  act  under  impulse,  and  not 
on  judgment.  President  Lincoln  did  not  lose 
sight  of  this  human  weakness  while  dealing 
with  the  Baltimore  committee.  When  about  to 
write  his  letter  for  them,  he  said  half  playfully, 
"  If  I  grant  you  this  concession,  that  no  troops 
shall  pass  through  the  city,  you  will  be  back 
here  to-morrow  demanding  that  none  shall  be 
marched  around  it."  |  They  protested  to  the 
contrary ;  but  the  President's  words  were  lit- 
erally verified.  When  the  committee  returned 
to  Baltimore,  the  alleged  popular  dread  of  in- 
vasion had  already  changed  to  extensive  prep- 
aration for  meditated  but  not  yet  avowed 
insurrection.  So  far  from  being  thankful  for 
their  success  in  changing  the  march  of  Union 
troops,  the  incensed  secessionists  upbraided 
the  committee  for  consenting  to  allow  them 
to  pollute  the  soil  of  Maryland.  Two  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  were  sent  back  to  the 
President  §  to  formulate  new  demands.  This, 
with  the  governor's  withdrawal  of  his  offer  to 
furnish  the  four  regiments,  already  cited,  and 
the  scattering  sensational  telegrams  received, 
induced  Lincoln,  on  the  afternoon  of  Saturday, 
April  20,  to  telegraph  to  Governor  Hicks  and 
Mayor  Brown  to  come  by  special  train,  as  he 
desired  to  consult  them  "  relative  to  preserv- 
ing the  peace  of  Maryland."  The  governor 
had  gone  to  Annapolis,  and  after  the  inter- 
change of  various  messages,  the  mayor  him- 
self was  asked  to  come. 
So  soon  as  the  Baltimore  route  was  closed 
by  the  riot  of  the  19th  of  April,  the  railroad 
authorities  ||  at  Philadelphia  had  with  com- 
mendable energy  devised  and  prepared  a  new 
*  Lincoln  to  Hicks  and  Brown,  April  20,  1861. 
t  Hicks  to  Brown,  April  20,  1861.    War  Records. 
X  J.  G.  N.,  personal  memoranda.    Unpublished  MS. 
§  Scharf,  "  History  of  Maryland." 
||  Great  credit  is  due  to  Mr.  S.  M.  Felton,  then 
president  of  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington,  and  Balti- 
more Railroad,  the  same  who  devised  the  precautions 
at  the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  night  journey  through 
Baltimore.  Mr.  Felton,  heartily  seconded  by  J.  Ed- 
gar Thomson,   then   president    of  the   Pennsylvania 
-**«.> 
UTttMu>» 
aettytburg 
Sr^a    Xailroa*  *  1 
'8ST. 
'-ES 
MAP   OF   THE   APPROACHES   TO   WASHINGTON. 
route — by  rail  to  Perry ville  on  the  Susque- 
hanna; thence  by  water  on  Chesapeake  Bay  to 
Annapolis ;  thence  by  railroad,  or,  if  that  were 
destroyed,  common  wagon-roads  to  Washing- 
ton. This  they  suggested  to  General  Scott  on 
the  20th,  and  he  ordered  it  adopted  the  same 
day.  That  same  forenoon  Hon.  David  Wil- 
mot,  making  his  way  northward  from  Wash- 
ington as  best  he  could,  wrote  back  from 
Baltimore  to  the  General-in-Chief,  confirming 
the  rumor  that  some  of  the  bridges  of  the 
Philadelphia  road  had  been  destroyed,  the 
telegraph  interrupted,  and  rapid  communica- 
tion with  the  North  cut  off;  and  added, 
"Troops  coming  on  your  road  [from  Harris- 
burg  to  Baltimore]  could  leave  it  about  three 
miles  from  Baltimore,  and  by  a  march  of  five 
miles  reach  the  Washington  road  some  two 
Railroad,  by  intimate  knowledge  and  control  of  fa- 
cilities, railroad  cars,  and  steam  vessels,  was  able  at 
once  to  order  such  new  combinations  on  an  extensive 
scale  as  were  rendered  necessary  by  the  Baltimore 
riot  and  the  requirements  of  the  large  numbers  of 
troops  hurrying  to  the  defense  of  Washington.  For  this 
patriotic  service  the  Secretary  of  War  sent  his  official 
acknowledgment  to  these  gentlemen,  including  also 
Mr.  E.  S.  Sanford,  president  of  the  American  Tele- 
graph Company.
9T4 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
and  a  half  miles  from  the  city."*  It  was  with 
some  such  idea  that  General  Scott  had  first 
proposed  the  march  around  Baltimore ;  and 
strengthened  by  Wilmot's  suggestion,  he  on 
the  following  day  wrote  to  General  Patterson, 
who  held  command  in  Philadelphia,  that  this 
Harrisburg  and  Baltimore  route  was  perhaps 
the  most  important  military  avenue  to  Wash- 
ington, closing  with  the  injunction,  "Give 
your  attention  in  part  to  this  line."  f  The 
Washington  authorities  were,  however,  not 
long  in  finding  that  this  assumption  was  a 
vital  error.     General  Scott  wrote: 
In  my  Lette  r  to  you  yesterday,  I  intended  that  the  rail- 
road  via  Harrisburg  and  York  towards  Baltimore  was 
more  important,  perhaps,  for  reenforcing  Washington, 
than  that  from  Philadelphia  to  Perryville,  etc.  That 
supposition  was  founded  on  the  Secretary's  belief  that 
the  distance  from  a  certain  point  on  the  Harrisburg 
railroad  to  the  Relay  House,  eight  miles  this  side  of 
Baltimore,  was  but  some  seven  miles  by  a  good  wagon 
road,  whereas  there  is  no  good  common  road  between 
the  two  railroads  of  less  than  thirty  miles.  This  fact 
renders  the  railroad  from  Harrisburg  to  Baltimore  of 
no  value  to  us  here,  without  a  force  of  perhaps  ten 
thousand  men  to  hold  Baltimore,  to  protect  the  rails 
and  bridges  near  it.  % 
Bearing  in  mind  this  change  of  view,  let  us 
return  to  the  affairs  of  Baltimore.  Through 
various  delays  it  happened  that  Mayor  Brown 
did  not  reach  Washington  until  Sunday  morn- 
ing, April  21,  in  obedience  to  Lincoln's  re- 
quest of  the  previous  afternoon.  The  mayor 
brought  with  him  two  members  of  the  first 
Baltimore  committee,  and  besides  these  a 
prominent  and  active  secessionist.  Through 
all  of  Friday  night  and  Saturday  the  secession 
rig  steadily  rose  in  Baltimore  ;  the  city,  to 
the  full  extent  of  its  ability,  made  ready  to  resist 
the  further  passage  of  troops  by  force;  and  to 
a  considerable  degree  the  same  excitement, 
and  the  same  resolve  and  preparation,  spread 
like  wild-fire  to  the  country  villages  of  Mary- 
land. Naturally,  Mayor  Brown  and  his  com- 
mittee-men, while  they  carefully  kept  secret 
their  own  official  bridge-burning,  did  not  un- 
dercolor their  description  of  this  insurrection- 
ary mood  of  their  people.  The  discussion 
was  participated  in  by  General  Scott  and 
the  Cabinet,  and  took  a  wide  range,  lasting 
all  Sunday  forenoon  (April  21).  The  Presi- 
dent insisted  that  troops  must  come.  Gen- 
eral Scott  explained  that  they  could  only 
come  in  one  of  three  ways :  First,  through 
Baltimore ;  second,  by  the  Harrisburg  route 
and  a  march  round  Baltimore;  and  third,  by 
the  Annapolis  route.  The  last  two  routes  were 
therefore  agreed  upon. 
General  Scott  said  if  the  people  would  per- 
*  Wilmot  to  Scott,  April  20,  1861.  War  Records, 
t  Scott  to  Patterson,  April  21,  1861.   War  Records. 
X  Scott  to  Patterson,  April  22,  1861.  War  Records. 
mit  them  to  go  by  either  of  these  routes  un- 
interruptedly, the  necessity  of  their  passing 
through  Baltimore  would  be  avoided.  If  the 
people  would  not  permit  them  a  transit  thus 
remote  from  the  city,  they  must  select  their 
own  best  route,  and,  if  need  be,  fight  their 
way  through  Baltimore,  a  result  which  he 
earnestly  deprecated.  The  President  ex- 
pressed his  hearty  concurrence  in  the  desire 
to  avoid  a  collision,  and  said  that  no  more 
troops  should  be  ordered  through  Baltimore 
if  they  were  permitted  to  go  uninterrupted  by 
either  of  the  other  routes  suggested.  In  this 
disposition  the  Secretary  of  War  expressed 
his  participation.  Mayor  Brown  agreed  to 
this  arrangement,  and  promised  on  his  part 
"  that  the  city  authorities  would  use  all  law- 
ful means  to  prevent  their  citizens  from  leav- 
ing Baltimore  to  attack  the  troops  in  passing 
at  a  distance.  § 
With  this  agreement  the  committee  took 
their  leave,  and  the  President  proceeded  to 
other  pressing  business,  when,  to  his  aston- 
ishment, Mayor  Brown  and  his  companions 
once  more  made  their  appearance,  between  2 
and  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  They  brought 
a  highly  sensational  telegram  just  received  by 
them  at  the  depot  from  Mr.  Garrett,  president  of 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  which  read : 
Three  thousand  Northern  troops  are  reported  to  be 
at  Cockeysville;  intense  excitement  prevails  ;  churches 
have  been  dismissed,  and  the  people  are  arming  in 
mass.  To  prevent  terrific  bloodshed,  the  result  of  your 
interview  and  arrangement  is  awaited.  || 
Cockeysville  is  on  the  Harrisburg  route, 
fifteen  miles  from  Baltimore;  and  because 
they  had  no  previous  notice  of  such  approach, 
the  committee  now  intimated  that  advantage 
had  been  taken  of  their  presence  in  Washing- 
ton to  bring  these  forces  within  striking  dis- 
tance of  Baltimore.  The  Cabinet  and  Scott 
were  again  summoned,  and  the  whole  discus- 
sion was  opened  up  anew. 
The  President,  at  once,  in  the  most  decided  way 
urged  the  recall  of  the  troops,  saying  he  had  no  idea 
they  would  be  there  to-day,  and  lest  there  should  be 
the  slightest  suspicion  of  bad  faith  on  his  part  in  sum- 
moning the  mayor  to  Washington,  and  allowing  troops 
to  march  on  the  city  during  his  absence,  he  desired 
that  the  troops  should,  if  it  were  practicable,  be  sent 
back  at  once  to  York  or  Harrisburg.  § 
Orders  were  accordingly  issued  to  this  ef- 
fect, the  President,  however,  notifying  the  com- 
mittee that  he  should  not  again  in  any  wise 
interfere  with  the  military  arrangements. 
In  this,  as  in  his  Sumter  policy,  Lincoln 
interposed  his  authority  in  pursuance  of  his 
constant  exercise  not  alone  of  justice  and  firra- 
%  Mayor  Brown,  Report,  April  21, 1861.  "  Rebellion 
Record." 
||  Scharf,  "  Chronicles  of  Baltimore."
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
9*5 
ness,  but  of  the  very  utmost  liberality  and  for- 
bearance. He  did  not  expect  to  appease  the 
Maryland  rebels,  but  to  make  them  clearly 
responsible  for  further  bloodshed,  should  any 
occur,  and  thereby  to  hold  the  Maryland  Un- 
ionists; and  the  result  vindicated  his  judgment. 
These  were  sufficient  motives;  and  underlying 
them  he  had  yet  another,  still  more  conclusive. 
All  this  examination  of  maps  and  discussion 
had  brought  the  conviction  to  his  quick  pen- 
etration, in  advance  of  any  of  his  councilors, 
that  the  Harrisburg  route  was,  .in  the  present 
state  of  affairs,  entirely  impracticable  and  use- 
less, which  fact  General  Scott  so  fully  set  forth 
on  the  following  day  in  his  already  cited  let- 
ter to  General  Patterson. 
WASHINGTON    IN    DANGER. 
Thanks  to  the  preparations  and  prompt- 
ness of  Governor  Andrew,  the  Massachusetts 
8th  was  not  far  behind  the  6th.  It  assem- 
bled on  Boston  Common  on  Thursday  morn- 
ing, and  was  in  Philadelphia  on  Friday  evening, 
April  19,  just  in  time  to  hear  the  authentic 
reports  as  well  as  the  multiplied  and  exagger- 
ated rumors  of  that  day's  doings  of  the  Balti- 
more mob,  and  the  tragic  fate  of  some  of  their 
comrades  of  the  6th.  Massachusetts  having 
agreed  to  double  her  quota,  the  four  regiments 
thus  to  be  received  formed  a  brigadier-gen- 
eral's command,  and  for  this  command  Gov- 
ernor Andrew  designated  Benjamin  F.  Butler, 
who  already  held  that  office  and  rank  under 
the  State  militia  laws.  He  was  a  lawyer  by 
profession,  but  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree 
the  peculiarly  American  quality  of  ability  to 
adapt  himself  to  any  circumstance  or  duty, 
with  a  quick  perception  to  discover  and  a 
ready  courage  to  seize  opportunities.  It  must 
be  noted  in  passing  that  he  was  a  radical 
Democrat  in  politics,  and  could  boast  that  he 
had  voted  fifty  times  in  the  late  Charleston 
convention  to  make  Jefferson  Davis  the  Dem- 
ocratic candidate  for  President.  But  with  the 
same  positive  zeal  he  denounced  secession, 
and  helped  to  prepare  the  Massachusetts  reg- 
iments to  join  in  suppressing  it  by  the  author- 
ity and  with  the  power  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. Arrived  with  the  Massachusetts  8th 
at  Philadelphia,  General  Butler  that  night 
telegraphed  further  news  of  the  day's  disaster 
to  Governor  Andrew. 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  Colonel  Jones  has  gone 
through  to  Washington.  Two  killed  only  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts men.  We  shall  go  through  at  once.  The 
road  is  torn  up  through  Baltimore.  Will  telegraph 
again.* 
*  Butler  to  Andrew,  April  19,  1861. 
tLefferts   to  Cameron.  April  20,   1861.  War   Rec- 
ords. 
Later  and  more  definite  information  ca 
him  to  modify  his  intention  to  press  on:  first, 
the  Baltimore  railroad  refused  to  carrj  any 
more  troops  into  that  city  j  secondly ,  the  burn- 
ing of  the  bridges  made  it  impossible  for  I 
to  do  so.  In  this  dilemma,  the  Philadelphia 
railroad  authorities  had  bethought  then,  of  a 
new  route  —  that  by  Annapolis,  previousl] 
scribed.  This  plan  required  not  only  much 
discussion,  but  great  additional  preparation; 
and  Friday  night  and  a  part  of  Saturday- 
passed  before  it  was  pronounced  even  proba- 
bly feasible.  By  this  time  the  7th  regiment  of 
New  York  —  the  corps  d } elite  of  the  whole- 
Union,  which  on  Friday  afternoon  started  its 
march  down  Broadway  "through  that  tempest 
of  cheers  two  miles  long" — had  also  reached 
Philadelphia,  where  it  too,  like  the  Massachu- 
setts 8th,  was  obliged  seriously  to  study  the 
further  ways  and  means  of  getting  to  Wash- 
ington. The  various  railroad  and  military 
officials  of  Philadelphia  strongly  advised  the 
Annapolis  route,  and  Colonel  Lefferts,  com- 
manding the  New  York  7th,  telegraphed  to 
Cameron  asking  orders  to  go  that  way.t  There 
was  long  delay  in  transmitting  the  dispatch 
and  awaiting  a  reply ;  and  before  the  requested 
permission  came,  Colonel  Lefferts  changed  his 
purpose,  chartered  a  steamship,  placed  his  regi- 
ment on  board,  and  started  for  Washington  via 
the  Delaware  river  and  bay  and  the  Potomac 
River — this  decision  being  apparently  not  a 
little  hastened  by  certain  military  rivalries  and 
jealousies  which  instantly  sprang  up  between 
Colonel  Lefferts  and  Brigadier-General  But- 
ler, acting  as  yet  under  separate  State  au- 
thority, and  being  therefore  independent  of 
each  other's  control.  Scott's  reply  to  send 
troops  by  Havre  de  Grace  and  Annapolis.t 
as  suggested,  at  length  came  through  the 
somewhat  deranged  telegraph  offices :  and 
Lefferts  being  gone,  the  order  was  communi- 
cated to  Butler. §  While  the  New  York  7th, 
under  Lefferts,  was  steaming  down  Delaware 
Bay  on  the  transport  Boston,  the  Massachu- 
setts 8th,  under  Butler,  proceeded  by  cars  to 
Perryville  (opposite  Havre  de  Grace),  and.  em- 
barking on  the  ferry-boat  Maryland ^  steamed 
down  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  by  midnight  was 
anchored  off  Annapolis.  As  events  turned  out, 
this  division  of  forces  proved  an  advantage, 
since  neither  of  the  boats  was  capable  of  con- 
taining both  regiments;  and  twenty-four  hours 
later,  as  we  shall  see,  the  Boston  joined  the 
Maryland  at  Annapolis  before  either  regiment 
had  disembarked. 
The  small  and  antiquated  town  oi  Annapo- 
lis, the  capital  of  Maryland  and  the  seat  of 
t  Thomas  to  Patterson,  April  20, 1S61.  War  Records. 
§  Patterson  to  Thomas,  April  21,  1S61.    War  Rec- 
ords.
916 
the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  was  for 
the  moment  in  sympathy  with  secession.  Gov- 
ernor Hicks  had  returned  here  from  Baltimore, 
.it  being  his  official  residence,  to  make  ready 
for  the  coming  special  session  of  the  Mary- 
_  slature,  which,  in  one  of  his  moments 
of  timidity,  he  had  been  prevailed  upon  to  call 
ther  on  the  26th.  The  governor  and  the 
mayor  of  Annapolis  both  strongly  urged  But- 
ler not  to  land  his  men ;  to  which  he  replied 
that  he  must  land  to  get  provisions,  and  in 
turn  requested  the  governor's  formal  consent. 
Pending  this  diplomatic  small-talk,  he  found  a 
piece  of  work  to  do.    The  old  frigate  Constitu- 
of  historic  fame,  was  anchored  off  the 
grounds  of  the  Naval  Academy  as  a  training- 
ship  ;  a  few  boat-loads  of  Baltimore  roughs 
might  easily  cut  her  out  and  convert  her  into 
a  privateer.  Commandant  Blake,  who,  with 
the  majority  of  his  officers  and  cadets,  remained 
loyal,  asked  Butler  to  help  pull  her  farther  out 
into  the  bay  for  better  security  against  capture. 
In  this  enterprise  the  greater  part  of  Sunday, 
the  21st  of  April,  was  spent. 
The  two  Sunday  interviews  of  the  mayor 
of  Baltimore  with  President  Lincoln,  and  the 
resulting  arrangement  that  troops  should 
hereafter  come  by  the  Annapolis  route,  have 
been  detailed.  The  telegraph,  in  the  mean 
time,  was  still  working,  though  with  delays 
and  interruptions.  As  an  offset  to  the  disa- 
greeable necessity  of  ordering  the  Pennsyl- 
vania troops  back  from  Cockeysville,  the  cheer- 
ing news  of  Butler's  arrival  at  Annapolis  had 
come  directly  to  hand.  That  same  wSunday 
afternoon  President  Lincoln  and  his  cab- 
inet met  at  the  Navy  Department,  where  they 
might  deliberate  in  greater  seclusion,  and  the 
culminating  dangers  to  the  Government  un- 
derwent scrutinizing  inquiry  and  anxious  com- 
ment. The  events  of  Friday,  Saturday,  and 
Sunday,  as  developed  by  the  military  reports 
and  the  conferences  with  the  Baltimore  com- 
mittees, exhibited  a  degree  of  real  peril  such 
as  had  not  menaced  the  capital  since  the 
British  invasion  in  18 14.   Virginia  was  in  arms 
.<e  side,  Maryland  on  the  other;  the  rail- 
road was  broken  ;  the  Potomac  was  probably 
blockaded;  a  touch  would  sever  the  telegraph. 
Of  this  occasion  the  President  afterwards  said : 
came  necessary  for  me  to  choose  whether,  using 
only  the  existing  means,  agencies,  and  processes  which 
had  provider],  I  should  let  the  Government 
fall  into  ruin,  or  whether,  availing  myself  of  the  broader 
iferred  by  the  Constitution  in  cases  of  insur- 
rection, T  would  make  an  effort  to  save  it,  with  all  its 
blessings,  for  the  present  age  and  for  posterity.* 
Surveying  the  emergency  in  its  remote  as 
well  as  merely  present  aspects,  and  assuming 
without  hesitation  the  responsibilities  which 
*  Lincoln,  special  message,  May  27,  1862. 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
existing  laws  did  not  authorize,  but  which  the 
needs  of  the  hour  imperatively  demanded, 
Lincoln  made  a  series  of  orders  designed  to 
meet,  as  well  as  might  be,  the  new  crisis  in 
public  affairs.  A  convoy  was  ordered  out  to 
guard  the  California  steamers  bringing  heavy 
shipments  of  gold  ;  fifteen  merchant  steamers 
were  ordered  to  be  purchased  or  chartered, 
and  armed  at  the  navy  yards  of  Boston,  New 
York,  and  Philadelphia  for  coast  protection 
and  blockade  service;  two  million  dollars 
were  placed  jn  the  hands  of  three  eminent 
citizens  of  New  York,  John  A.  Dix,  George 
Opdyke,  and  Richard  M.  Blatchford,  to  be  in 
their  judgment  disbursed  for  the  public  de- 
fense; another  commission  of  leading  citizens 
of  New  York,  George  D.  Morgan,  William  M. 
Evarts,  Richard  M.  Blatchford,  and  Moses  H. 
Grinnell,  in  connection  with  Governor  Morgan, 
was  empowered  to  exercise  practically  the 
full  authority  of  the  War  and  Navy  Depart- 
ments in  organizing  troops  and  forwarding 
supplies ;  two  of  the  ablest  naval  officers  were 
authorized  each  to  arm  two  additional  mer- 
chant vessels  to  cruise  in  the  Potomac  River 
and  Chesapeake  Bay,  together  with  sundry 
minor  measures  and  precautions.  Before  these 
various  orders  could  even  be  prepared  for 
transmittal,  the  crowning  embarrassment  had 
already  come  upon  the  Government.  On  that 
Sunday  night  (April  21)  the  telegraph  operator 
at  Baltimore  reported  that  the  insurrectionary 
authorities  had  taken  possession  of  his  office ; 
to  which  the  Washington  telegraph  superin- 
tendent laconically  added,  "  Of  course  this 
stops  all." 
So  the  prospect  closed  on  Sunday  night. 
Monday  forenoon  brought,  not  relief,  but 
rather  an  exaggeration  of  the  symptoms  of 
danger.  Governor  Hicks,  influenced  by  his 
secession  surroundings  at  Annapolis,  neither 
having  consented  to  Butler's  landing  nor  yet 
having  dissuaded  him  from  that  purpose,  now 
turned  his  appeals  to  the  President.  "  I  feel 
it  my  duty,"  he  wrote,  "  most  respectfully  to 
advise  you  that  no  more  troops  be  ordered  or 
allowed  to  pass  through  Maryland,  and  that 
the  troops  now  off  Annapolis  be  sent  else- 
where ;  and  I  most  respectfully  urge  that  a 
truce  be  offered  by  you,  so  that  the  effusion  of 
blood  may  be  prevented.  I  respectfully  sug- 
gest that  Lord  Lyons  be  requested  to  act  as 
mediator  between  the  contending  parties  of 
our  country."  f  The  suggestion  was  not  only 
absurd  in  itself,  but  it  awakened  painful  appre- 
hension lest  his  hitherto  friendly  disposition 
might  suddenly  change  to  active  hostility. 
This  was  a  result  to  be  avoided  by  all  possible 
means ;  for,  even  in  his  present  neutral  mood, 
he  was  still  an  effective  breakwater  against 
t  Hicks  to  Lincoln,  April  22,  1861.  War  Records.
THE   NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
9*1 
those  who  were  striving  day  and  night  to 
force  Maryland  into  some  official  act  of  insur- 
rection. Mr.  Seward  therefore  wrote  the  gov- 
ernor a  very  kindly  worded  and  yet  dignified 
rebuke,  reminding  him  of  the  days  "  when  a 
general  of  the  American  Union  with  forces 
designed  for  the  defense  of  its  capital  was  not 
unwelcome  anywhere  in  the  State  of  Maryland, 
and  certainly  not  at  Annapolis " ;  and  sug- 
gesting at  its  close  "  that  no  domestic  con- 
tention that  may  arise  among  the  parties  of 
this  republic  ought  in  any  case  to  be  referred 
to  any  foreign  arbitrament,  least  of  all  to  the 
arbitrament  of  an  European  monarchy."  * 
Meanwhile,  as  an  additional  evidence  of 
the  yet  growing  discontent,  another  large 
Baltimore  committee  found  its  way  to  the 
President  —  this  time. from  one  of  the  relig- 
ious bodies  of  that  city,  with  a  Baptist  cler- 
gyman as  its  spokesman,  who  bluntly  pro- 
posed that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  "recognize 
the  independence  of  the  Southern  States." 
Though  such  audacity  greatly  taxed  his  pa- 
tience, he  kept  his  temper,  and  replied  that 
neither  the  President  nor  Congress  possessed 
the  power  or  authority  to  do  this;  and  to  the 
further  request  that  no  more  troops  be  sent 
through  Maryland,  he  answered  in  substance: 
You,  gentlemen,  come  here  to  me  and  ask  for  peace  on 
any  terms,  and  yet  have  no  word  of  condemnation  for 
those  who  are  making  war  on  us.  You  express  great 
horror  of  bloodshed,  and  yet  would  not  lay  a  straw  in  the 
way  of  those  who  are  organizing  in  Virginia  and  else- 
where to  capture  this  city.  The  rebels  attack  Fort 
Sumter,  and  your  citizens  attack  troops  sent  to  the 
defense  of  the  Government,  and  the  lives  and  property 
in  Washington,  and  yet  you  would  have  me  break  my 
oath  and  surrender  the  Government  without  a  blow. 
There  is  no  Washington  in  that  —  no  Jackson  in  that  — 
there  is  no  manhood  or  honor  in  that.  I  have  no  desire 
to  invade  the  South;  but  I  must  have  troops  to  defend 
this  capital.  Geographically  it  lies  surrounded  by  the 
soil  of  Maryland ;  and  mathematically  the  necessity 
exists  that  they  should  come  over  her  territory.  Our 
men  are  not  moles,  and  can't  dig  under  the  earth  ;  they 
are  not  birds,  and  can't  fly  through  the  air.  There  is  no 
way  but  to  march  across,  and  that  they  must  do.  But 
in  doing  this,  there  is  no  need  of  collision.  Keep  your 
rowdies  in  Baltimore,  and  there  will  be  no  bloodshed. 
Go  home  and  tell  your  people  that  if  they  will  not  at- 
tack us,  we  will  not  attack  them  ;  but  if  they  do  attack 
us,  we  will  return  it,  and  that  severely. 
Washington  now  began  to  take  on  some 
of  the  aspects  of  a  siege.  The  large  stores 
of  flour  and  grain  at  the  Georgetown  mills, 
and  even  that  already  loaded  for  shipment 
on  schooners,  were  seized,  and  long  trains 
of  carts  were  engaged  in  removing  it  to 
safer  storage  in  the  public  buildings.    Prices 
of  provisions  were  rising.  The  little  passenger 
steamers  plying  on  the  Potomac  were  taken 
possession  of  by  the  military  officers  to  be 
used  for  guard  and  picket  duty  on  the  river 
The  doors,  windows,  and  stairw  ays  of  the  pub- 
lic buildings  were  protected  by  barrio 
and  the  approaches  to  them  guarded  by  sen- 
tinels. All  travel  and  nearly  all  business  carne 
to  a  standstill,  and  theaters  and  places  oi 
amusement  were  closed.  With  the  first  notice 
of  the  burning  of  the  railroad  bridges,  the 
strangers,  visitors,  and  transient  sojourners 
in  the  city  became  possessed  of  an  uncon- 
trollable desire  to  get  away.  So  long  as  the 
trains  ran  to  Baltimore,  they  proceeded  to  that 
point;  from  there  they  sought  to  escape  north- 
ward by  whatever  stray  chances  of  transpor- 
tation offered  themselves.  By  some  of  these 
fugitives  the  Government  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  send  duplicates  of  important  orders 
and  dispatches  to  Northern  cities.  This  same 
qui  pent  quickly  denuded  Washington  of  its 
redundant  population.  While  the  Unionist 
non-combatants  were  flying  northward,  the 
latent  secessionists  were  making  quite  as  hur- 
ried an  escape  to  the  South ;  for  it  was  strongly 
rumored  that  the  Government  intended  to  im- 
press the  whole  male  population  of  Washing- 
ton into  military  service  for  the  defense  of 
the  city. 
One  incidental  benefit  grew  out  of  the 
panic  —  the  Government  was  quickly  relieved 
of  its  treasonable  servants.  Some  hundreds 
of  clerks  resigned  out  of  the  various  depart- 
ments on  this  Monday,  April  22d,  and  the 
impending  danger  not  only  brought  these  to 
final  decision,  but  also  many  officers  of  high 
grades  and  important  functions.  Commodore 
Buchanan,  in  charge  of  the  Washington  navy 
yard,  together  with  nearly  all  the  subordinate 
officers,  suddenly  discovered  their  unwilling- 
ness longer  to  keep  their  oaths  and  serve  the 
United  States ;  and  that  night  this  invaluable 
naval  depot,  with  all  its  vast  stores  of  mate- 
rial, its  immense  workshops  and  priceless 
machinery,  was  intrusted  solely  to  the  loy- 
alty and  watchfulness  of  Commander  John 
A.  Dahlgren  and  a  little  handful  of  marines. 
scarcely  enough  in  numbers  to  have  battled 
half  a  dozen  adroit  incendiaries,  or  to  ascer- 
tain the  street  gossip  outside  the  walls  of  the 
establishment.t"  Among  the  scores  of  army 
and  navy  resignations  reported  the  same  day 
was  that  of  Captain  John  B.  Magruder.  ist 
Artillery,  then  in  command  of  a  light  battery 
*  Seward  to  Hicks,  April  22,  1861. 
t  Mem.  for  the  War  Department.  The  Anacostia,  a 
small  Potomac  steamer,  anchored  off  Gilsboro'  Point, 
and  after  remaining  a  short  time  returned  down  the 
river.  The  Harriet  Lane,  supposed  revenue  cutter,  is 
now  off  the  Arsenal  and  has  been  there  a  short  time. 
Vol.  XXXV.— 125. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  communicate  with  her.  I 
should  wish  to  have  a  company  of  Massachusetts  or 
United  States  troops  in  the  yard  at  night  if  they  can 
be  spared. —  John  A.  Dahlgren,  Acting  Commandant. 
22d  April.     MS.
9  iS 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
on  which  General  Scott  had  placed  special 
reliance  for  the  defense  of  Washington.  No 
single  case  of  defection  gave  Lincoln  such  as- 
tonishment and  pain  as  this  one.  "  Only  three 
days  ago,"'  said  he.  when  the  fact  was  made 
known  to  him,  "  Magrnder  came  voluntarily 
to  me  in  this  room,  and  with  his  own  lips 
and  in  my  presence  repeated  over  and  over 
again  his  asseverations  and  protestations  of 
loyalty  and  fidelity."  *  It  was  not  merely  the 
of  an  officer,  valuable  and  necessary 
though  he  might  be  in  the  emergency,  but 
the  significance  of  this  crowning  act  of  per- 
fidy which  troubled  the  President,  and  to  the 
suggestiveness  of  which  he  could  not  close 
his  eves.  Was  there  not  only  no  patriotism 
left,  but  was  all  sense  of  personal  obligation,  of 
everv-day  honesty,  and  of  manliness  of  char- 
acter gone  also  ?  Was  everything  crumbling 
at  his  touch  ?  In  whom  should  he  place  con- 
fidence ?  To  whom  should  he  give  orders, 
if  clerks,  and  captains,  and  commodores, 
and  quartermaster-generals,  and  governors  of 
States,  and  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court 
proved  false  in  the  moment  of  need?  If  men 
of  the  character  and  rank  of  the  Magruders, 
the  Buchanans,  the  McCauleys,  the  Lees,  the 
Johnstons,  the  Coopers,  the  Campbells  were 
giving  way,  where  might  he  not  fear  treach- 
ery ?  There  was  certainly  no  danger  that  all 
the  officers  of  the  Government  would  thus 
prove  recreant;  but  might  not  the  failure  of  a 
single  one  bearing  an  important  trust  cause 
a  vital  and  irreparable  disaster? 
The  perplexities  and  uncertain  prospects  of 
the  hour  are  set  forth  with  frank  brevity  by 
General  Scott,  in  the  report  which  was  sent  to 
the  President  that  night  of  Monday,  April  22  : 
I  have  but  little  that  is  certain  to  report,  viz.  :  (1) 
That  there  are  three  or  four  steamers  off  Annapolis, 
with  volunteers  for  Washington ;  (2)  that  their  land- 
ing will  be  opposed  by  the  citizens,  reenforced  from 
Baltimore;  (3)  that  the  landing  may  be  effected  nev- 
ertheless l;y  good  management;  and  (4)  that  the 
rails  on  the  Annapolis  road  (20  miles)  have  been  taken 
up.  Several  efforts  to  communicate  with  those  troops 
to-day  have  failed  ;  but  three  other  detached  persons 
are  repeating  the  attempt,  and  one  or  more  of  them 
will,  I  think,  succeed.  Once  ashore,  the  regiments  (if 
but  two,  and  there  are  probably  more)  would  have  no 
difficulty  in  reaching  Washington  on  foot,  other  than 
the  want  of  wagons  to  transport  camp  equipage,  etc. 
The  quartermaster  that  I  have  sent  there  (I  do  not 
know  that  he  has  arrived)  has  orders  to  hire  wagons 
if  he  can,  and  if  not,  to  impress,  etc.  Of  rumors,  the 
following  are  probable,  viz.  :  (1)  That  from  1500  to 
2000  troops  are  at  the  White  House  (4  miles  below 
Mount  Vernon,  a  narrow  point  in  the  Potomac)  en- 
gaged in  erectinga  battery;  (2)  that  an  equal  force  is 
collected  or  in  progress  of  assemblage  on  the  two  sides 
of  the  river  to  attack  Fort  Washington  ;  and  (3)  that 
extra  cars  went  up  yesterday  to  bring  down  from 
Harper's  Ferry  about  2000  other   troops  to  join  in  a 
general  attack  on  this  capital  —  that  is,  on  many  of  its 
fronts  at  once.  I  feel  confident  that  with  our  pres- 
ent forces  we  can  defend  the  Capitol,  the  Arsenal,  and 
all  the  executive  buildings  (seven)  against  ten  thou- 
sand troops  not  better  than  our  district  volunteers. t 
Tuesday  morning  came,  but  no  news  from 
Annapolis,  no  volunteers  up  the  Potomac.  It 
was  Cabinet  day ;  and  about  noon,  after  the 
President  and  his  councilors  were  assembled, 
messengers  announced  the  arrival  of  two 
steamers  at  the  navy  yard.  There  was  a  mo- 
mentary hope  that  these  might  be  the  long- 
expected  ships  from  New  York ;  but  inquiries 
proved  them  to  be  the  Pawnee  and  a  trans- 
port on  their  return  from  the  expedition  to 
Norfolk.  The  worst  apprehensions  concerning 
that  important  post  were  soon  realized  —  it 
was  irretrievably  lost.  The  only  bit  of  comfort 
to  be  derived  from  the  affair  was  that  the  ves- 
sels brought  back  with  them  a  number  of 
marines  and  sailors,  who  would  now  add  a  lit- 
tle fraction  of  strength  to  the  defense  of  the 
capital.  The  officers  of  the  expedition  were 
soon  before  the  President  and  Cabinet,  and 
related  circumstantially  the  tale  of  disaster 
and  destruction  which  the  treachery  of  a  few 
officers  and  the  credulous  duplicity  of  the 
commandant  had  rendered  unavoidable. 
The  Gosport  navy  yard,  at  Norfolk,  Vir- 
ginia, was  of  such  value  and  importance  that 
its  safety,  from  the  very  beginning  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's administration,  had  neither  been  neg- 
lected nor  overlooked.  But,  like  every  other 
exposed  or  threatened  point, —  like  Sumter, 
Pickens,  Tortugas,  Key  West,  Fort  Mon- 
roe, Baltimore,  Harper's  Ferry,  and  Washing- 
ton itself, —  its  fate  was  involved  in  the  want 
of  an  army  and  navy  of  adequate  strength. 
On  the  day  that  the  President  resolved  on  the 
Sumter  expedition,  two  hundred  and  fifty  sea- 
men had  been  ordered  from  Brooklyn  to  Nor- 
folk to  render  Gosport  more  safe.  Instead  of 
going  there,  it  was  immediately  necessary  to 
change  their  destination  to  Sumter  and  Pick- 
ens. And  so,  though  the  danger  to  Gosport 
was  never  lost  sight  of,  the  reinforcements  to 
ward  it  off  were  never  available.  Officer  after 
officer  and  letter  after  letter  were  sent  by  the 
department  to  enjoin  vigilance,  to  prepare 
defenses,  and  to  remove  valuable  ships.  The 
officers  of  the  navy  yard  professed  loyalty; 
the  commandant  had  grown  gray  in  the  serv- 
ice of  his  country,  and  enjoyed  the  full  confi- 
dence of  his  equals  and  superiors.  It  was 
known  that  the  secessionists  had  designs  up- 
on the  post ;  but  it  was  believed  that  the 
watchfulness  which  had  been  ordered  and  the 
measures  of  precaution  which  had  been  ar- 
ranged under  the  special  supervision  of  two 
*  J.  H.,  Diary.    Unpublished  MS. 
t  Unpublished  MS.
THE  NATIONAL    (JPR/S/Nd. 
'j'-'j 
trusted  officers  of  the  Navy  Department,  who 
were  carrying  out  the  personal  instructions  of 
Secretary  Welles,  would  meet  the  clanger.  At 
a  critical  moment,  the  hitherto  correct  judg- 
ment of  Commandant  McCauley  committed 
a  fatal  mistake.  The  subordinate  officers  of 
the  yard,  professing  loyalty,  practiced  treason, 
and  lured  him  unwittingly  into  their  designs. 
Several  valuable  vessels  lay  at  the  navy 
yard.  To  secure  them  eventually  for  Vir- 
ginia, Governor  Letcher  had,  among  his  first 
acts  of  hostility,  attempted  to  obstruct  the 
channel  from  Norfolk  to  Fort  Monroe  by 
means  of  sunken  vessels.  But  the  effort  failed ; 
the  passage  still  remained  practicable.  Ascer- 
taining this,  Commodore  Alden  and  Chief 
Engineer  Isherwood,  specially  sent  for  the 
task  by  Secretary  Welles,  had,  with  the  help  of 
the  commandant  of  the  yard,  prepared  the 
best  ships  —  the  Merrimac,  the  Germantown, 
the  Plymouth,  and  the  Dolphiii  —  for  quick 
removal  to  Fort  Monroe.  The  engines  of 
the  Merrimac  were  put  in  order,  the  fires 
under  her  boilers  were  lighted,  the  moment 
of  her  departure  had  been  announced,  when 
suddenly  a  change  came  over  the  spirit  of 
Commandant  McCauley.  Virginia  passed  her 
ordinance  of  secession ;  the  traitorous  officers 
of  the  navy  yard  were  about  to  throw  off" 
their  mask  and  desert  their  flag;  and,  as  a 
parting  stroke  of  intrigue,  they  persuaded  the 
commandant  that  he  must  retain  the  Merri- 
mac for  the  security  of  the  yard.  Yielding 
to  this  treacherous  advice,  he  countermanded 
her  permission  to  depart  and  ordered  her  fires 
to  be  put  out.  Thus  baffled,  Isherwood  and 
Alden  hastened  back  to  Washington  to  obtain 
the  superior  orders  of  the  Secretary  over  this 
most  unexpected  and  astounding  action  of 
the  commandant. 
They  reached  Washington  on  this  errand 
respectively  on  the  18th  and  19th  of  April, 
just  at  the  culminating  point  of  insurrection 
and  danger.  Hasty  consultations  were  held 
and  energetic  orders  were  issued.  The  Paw- 
nee, just  returned  from  her  Sumter  cruise,  was 
again  coaled,  supplied,  and  fitted  out — proc- 
esses consuming  precious  hours,  but  which 
could  not  be  omitted.  On  the  evening  of 
April  19  she  steamed  down  the  Potomac  un- 
der command  of  Commodore  Paulding,  with 
discretionary  orders  to  defend  or  to  destroy. 
Next  evening,  April  20,  having  landed  at 
Fort  Monroe  and  taken  on  board  three  to 
five  hundred  men  of  the  3d  Massachusetts, 
only  that  morning  arrived  from  Boston,  and 
who  embarked  without  a  single  ration,  the 
Paw7iee  proceeded  to  Norfolk,  passing  with- 
out difficulty  through  the  seven  sunken  hulks 
in  the  Elizabeth  River.  But  Commodore  Paul- 
ding found  that  he  had  come  too  late   to 
save  anything.   The  commandant,  once  more 
successfully  plied  with  insidious  advice,  had 
yielded  to  the  second  suggestion  of  his  jui. 
and  had  scuttled  the  removable  ships - 
tensibly  to  prevent  their  being  seized 
used  by  the  rebels.  As  they  were  slowly  sink- 
ing, no  effort  to  remove  them  could  succeed, 
and  no  resource  was  left  but  to  destroy  every- 
thing so  far  as  could  be  done.  Accordingly, 
there  being  bright  moonlight,  the  greater  part 
of  that  Saturday  night  was  devoted  to  this  work 
of  destruction.  Several  parties  were  detailed 
to  fire  the  ships  and  the  buildings  and  to  lay 
a  mine  to  blow  up  the  dry-dock,  and  the  sky- 
was  soon  lighted  up  from  an  immense  confla- 
gration. Yet,  with  all  this  effort,  the  sacrifice 
was  left  incomplete.  Not  more  than  half  the 
buildings  were  consumed.  The  workshops, 
with  their  valuable  machinery,  escaped.  The 
1500  to  2000  heavy  cannon  in  the  yard  could 
neither  be  removed  nor  rendered  unservice- 
able. Some  unforeseen  accident  finally  pre- 
vented the  explosion  of  the  dry-dock.  Of  the 
seven  ships  burned  to  the  water's  edge,  the 
hull  of  the  Merrimac  was  soon  afterwards 
raised,  and  in  the  course  of  events  changed 
by  the  rebels  into  the  iron-clad  Merrimac,  or, 
as  they  named  her,  the  Virginia.  At  5  o'clock 
on  Sunday  morning  the  Pawnee  considered  her 
work  finished,  and  steamed  away  from  Gos- 
port,  followed  by  the  sailing-ship  Cumberland. 
No  point  of  peril  had  been  so  clearly  fore- 
seen, so  carefully  provided  for,  and  apparently 
so  securely  counteracted  as  the  loss  of  the 
three  or  four  valuable  ships  at  Norfolk;  and 
yet,  in  spite  of  foresight  and  precaution,  they 
had  gone  to  worse  than  ruin  through  the  same 
train  of  circumstances  which  had  lost  Sumter 
and  permitted  the  organization  of  the  Mont- 
gomery rebellion.  The  loss  of  ships  and  guns 
was,  however,  not  all ;  behind  these  was  the 
damaging  moral  effect  upon  the  Union  cause 
and  feeling.  For  four  consecutive  days  each 
day  had  brought  a  great  disaster  —  Virginia's 
secession  on  the  17th ;  the  burning  of  Harper's 
Ferry  on  the  18th;  the  Baltimore  riot  and  de- 
struction of  railroad  bridges  on  the  19th;  the 
abandonment  and  destruction  of  this  great 
navy  yard  and  its  ships  on  the  night  of  the 
20th/ This  began  to  look  like  an  irresistible 
current  of  fate.  No  popular  sentiment  could 
long  stem  such  a  tide  of  misfortune.  The 
rebels  of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  especially 
of  Washington  began  to  feel  that  Providence 
wrought  in  their  behalf,  and  that  their  cher- 
ished conspiracy  was  already  crowned  with 
success.  Evidently  with  such  a  feeling,  on 
this  same  Tuesday,  Associate  Justice  John 
A.  Campbell,  still  a  member  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  under  oath  to  support  the  Con- 
stitution of  the   United  States,  again  sent  a
920 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
lector  of  aid  and  comfort  to  Jefferson  Davis. 
He  wrote  : 
Marvland  is  the  object  of  chief  anxiety  with  the 
North  and  the  Administration.  Their  fondest  hope 
will  be  to  command  the  Chesapeake  and  relieve  the 
...  Their  pride  and  their  fanaticism  would  be  sadly 
depressed  by  a  contrary  issue.  This  will  be  the  great 
point  of  contest  in  all  negotiations. 
.  .  .  I  incline  to  think  that  they  are  prepared  to  aban- 
don the  south  of  the  Potomac.  But  not  beyond.  Mary- 
land is  weak.  She  has  no  military  men  of  talents,  and 
I  did  hear  that  Colonel  Huger  was  offered  command 
and  declined  it  — however,  his  resignation  had  not  been 
accepted.  Huger  is  plainly  not  competent  for  such  a 
purpose.  Lee  is  in  Virginia.  Think  of  the  condition 
of  Baltimore  and  provide  for  it,  for  there  is  the  place 
of  danger.  The  events  at  Baltimore  have  placed  a  new 
aspect  upon  everything  at  the  North.  There  is  a  per- 
fect storm  there.  While  it  has  to  be  met,  no  unnecessary 
addition  should  be  made  to  increase  it.* 
Another  night  of  feverish  public  unrest, 
another  day  of  anxiety  to  the  President  — 
Wednesday.  April  24.  There  was  indeed  no 
attack  on  the  city;  but,  on  the  other  hand, no 
arrival  of  troops  to  place  its  security  beyond 
doubt.  Repetition  of  routine  duties;  repeti- 
tion of  small,  unsubstantial  rumors ;  long  faces 
in  the  streets ;  a  holiday  quiet  over  the  city ; 
closed  shutters  and  locked  doors  of  business 
houses ;  the  occasional  clatter  of  a  squad  of 
cavalry  from  point  to  point ;  sentinels  about 
the  departments  ;  sentinels  about  the  Execu- 
tive Mansion;  Willard's  Hotel,  which  a  week 
before  was  swarming  with  busy  crowds,  now 
deserted  as  if  smitten  by  a  plague  —  with 
only  furtive  servants  to  wake  echoes  along 
the  vacant  corridors,  and  in  all  its  vast  array 
of  chambers  and  parlors  but  a  single  lady 
guest  to  recall  the  throng  of  fashion  and 
beauty  which  had  so  lately  made  it  a  scene 
of  unceasing  festivity  from  midday  to  midnight. 
Ever  since  the  telegraph  stopped  on  Sunday 
night  the  Washington  operators  had  been 
listening  for  the  ticking  of  their  instruments, 
and  had  occasionally  caught  fugitive  dis- 
patches passing  between  Maryland  secession- 
ists, which  were  for  the  greater  part  immediately 
known  to  be  unreliable;  for  General  Scott 
kept  up  a  series  of  military  scouts  along  the 
Baltimore  railroad  as  far  as  Annapolis  Junc- 
tion, twenty  miles  from  Washington,  from 
which  point  a  branch  railroad  ran  at  a  right 
angle  to  the  former,  twenty  miles  to  Annapolis, 
on  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  general  dared  not 
risk  a  detachment  permanently  to  hold  the 
junction  ;  no  considerable  secession  force  had 
been  encountered,  and  the  railroad  was  yet 
safe.  But  it  was  known,  or  at  least  strongly 
probable,  that  the  volunteers  from  the  North 
had  been  at  Annapolis  since  Sunday  morn- 
ing. Why  did  they  not  land  ?  Why  did  they 
not  advance  ?  The  Annapolis  road  was  known 
*  Campbell  to  Davis,  April  23,  1861.   MS. 
to  be  damaged;  but  could  they  not  march 
twenty  miles?  The  previous  day  (April  23) 
had,  by  some  lucky  chance,  brought  a  New 
York  mail  three  days  old.  The  newspapers 
in  it  contained  breezy  premonitions  of  the 
Northern  storm — Anderson's  enthusiastic  re- 
ception; the  departure  of  the  New  York  7th 
regiment;  the  sailing  of  Governor  Sprague 
with  his  Rhode  Islanders ;  the  monster  meet- 
ing in  Union  Square,  with  the  outpouring 
of  half  a  million  of  people  in  processions  and 
listening  to  speeches  from  half  a  dozen  differ- 
ent stands;  the  energetic  measures  of  the 
New  York  Common  Council;  the  formation 
of  the  Union  Defense  Committee;  whole 
columns  of  orders  and  proclamations;  the 
flag-raisings;  the  enlistments;  the  chartering 
and  freighting  of  ships;  and  from  all  quarters 
newrs  of  the  wild,  jubilant  uprising  of  the  whole 
immense  population  of  the  Free  States.  All 
this  was  gratifying,  pride-kindling,  reassuring; 
and  yet,  read  and  re-read  with  avidity  in 
Washington  that  day,  it  would  always  bring 
after  it  the  galling  reflection  that  all  this  mag- 
nificent outburst  of  patriotism  was  paralyzed 
by  the  obstacle  of  a  twenty  miles'  march  be- 
tween Annapolis  and  the  junction.  Had  the 
men  of  the  North  no  legs  ? 
Lincoln,  by  nature  and  habit  so  calm, 
so  equable,  so  undemonstrative,  nevertheless 
passed  this  period  of  interrupted  communica- 
tion and  isolation  from  the  North  in  a  state 
of  nervous  tension  which  put  all  his  great 
powers  of  mental  and  physical  endurance  to 
their  severest  trial.  General  Scott's  reports, 
though  invariably  expressing  his  confidence 
in  successful  defense,  frankly  admitted  the  evi- 
dent danger;  and  the  President,  with  his 
acuteness  of  observation  and  his  rapidity  and 
correctness  of  inference,  lost  no  single  one  of 
the  external  indications  of  doubt  and  appre- 
hension. Day  after  day  prediction  failed  and 
hope  was  deferred ;  troops  did  not  come,  ships 
did  not  arrive,  railroads  remained  broken, 
messengers  failed  to  reach  their  destination. 
That  fact  itself  demonstrated  that  he  was  en- 
vironed by  the  unknown  —  and  that  wdiether 
a  Union  or  a  Secession  army  would  first  reach 
the  capital  was  at  best  an  uncertainty.  To  a 
coarse  or  vulgar  nature  such  a  situation 
would  have  brought  only  one  of  two  feelings 
—  either  overpowering  personal  fear,  or  over- 
weening bravado.  But  Lincoln,  almost  a  giant 
in  physical  stature  and  strength,  combined  in 
his  intellectual  nature  a  masculine  courage 
and  power  of  logic  with  a  sentimental  ten- 
derness as  delicate  as  a  woman's,  and  an  ideal 
sensitiveness  of  conscience.  This  presidential 
trust  which  he  had  assumed  was  to  him  not 
a  mere  regalia  of  rank  and  honor.  Its  terrible 
duties  and  responsibilities  seemed  rather  a  coat
THE  NATIONAL    UPRISING. 
fj2I 
of  steel  armor,  not  only  heavy  to  bear,  but 
cutting  remorselessly  into  the  quick  flesh. 
That  one  of  the  successors  of  Washington 
should  find  himself  even  to  this  degree  in  the 
hands  of  his  enemies  was  personally  humili- 
ating; but  that  the  majesty  of  a  great  nation 
should  be  thus  insulted  and  its  visible  sym- 
bols of  authority  be  placed  in  jeopardy  ;  above 
all,  that  the  hitherto  glorious  example  of  the 
republic  to  other  nations  should  stand  in  this 
peril  of  surprise  and  possible  sudden  collapse, 
the  Constitution  be  scoffed  and  jeered,  and 
human  freedom  become  once  more  a  by- word 
and  reproach  —  this  must  have  begot  in  him 
an  anxiety  approaching  torture.  In  the  eyes 
of  his  countrymen  and  of  the  world  he  was 
holding  the  scales  of  national  destiny;  he 
alone  knew  that  for  the  moment  the  forces 
which  made  the  beam  vibrate  with  such  un- 
certainty were  beyond  his  control.  In  others' 
society  he  gave  no  sign  of  these  inner  emo- 
tions. But  once,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  23d, 
the  business  of  the  day  being  over,  the  Execu- 
tive office  deserted,  after  walking  the  floor 
alone  in  silent  thought  for  nearly  half  an  hour, 
he  stopped  and  gazed  long  and  -wistfully  out 
of  the  window  down  the  Potomac  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  expected  ships;  and,  uncon- 
scious of  any  presence  in  the  room,  at  length 
broke  out  with  irrepressible  anguish  in  the  re- 
peated exclamation,  "  Why  don't  they  come ! 
Why  don't  they  come!" 
One  additional  manifestation  of  this  bitter- 
ness of  soul  occurred  on  the  day  following 
(April  24),  though  in  a  more  subdued  man- 
ner. The  wounded  soldiers  of  the  Massachu- 
setts 6th,  including  several  officers,  came  to 
pay  a  visit  to  the  President.  They  were  a  little 
shy  when  they  entered  the  room  —  having  the 
traditional  New  England  awe  of  authorities 
and  rulers.  Lincoln  received  them  with  that 
sympathetic  kindness  and  equality  of  bearing 
which  put  them  at  ease  after  the  interchange 
of  the  first  greetings.  His  words  of  sincere 
thanks  for  their  patriotism  and  their  suffering, 
his  warm  praise  of  their  courage,  his  hearty 
recognition  of  their  great  service  to  the  pub- 
lic, and  his  earnestly  expressed  confidence  in 
their  further  devotion,  quickly  won  their  trust 
and  respect.  He  spoke  to  them  of  the  posi- 
tion and  prospect  of  the  city,  contrasting  their 
prompt  arrival  with  the  unexplained  delay 
which  seemed  to  have  befallen  the  regiments 
from  the  various  States  supposed  to  be  some- 
where on  the  wray.  Pursuing  this  theme,  he 
finally  fell  into  a  tone  of  irony  to  which  only 
intense  feeling  ever  drove  him.  "  I  begin  to 
believe,"  said  he,  "  that  there  is  no  North.  The 
7th  regiment  is  a  myth.  Rhode  Island  is  an- 
other. You  are  the  only  real  thing."*  There  are 
*  J.  H.,  Diary.    Unpublished  MS. 
few  parchment  brevets  as  precious  as  such  a 
compliment,  at  such  a  time,  from  such  a  man. 
Howevermuch  the  tardiness  of  the  Annapo- 
lis reinforcements  justified  the  President's  sar- 
casm, they  were  at  last  actually  on  the  way.  We 
left  Butler  engaged  in  assisting  the  school-ship 
Constitution  to  a  more  secure  position.  'J  he- 
aid  proved  effectual;  but  the  day's  work  ended 
by  the  ferry-boat  Maryland —  the  Massachu- 
setts 8th  being  still  on  board —  getting  hard 
aground  in  the  shoal  water  of  Annapolis  Har- 
bor. In  this  helpless  predicament,  with  only 
hard  pilot-bread  and  raw  salt  pork  furnished 
from  the  Constitution  to  eat,  and  no  water  to 
drink,  the  regiment  passed  the  night  of  Sun- 
day. Early  next  morning  (Monday,  April  22) 
brought  the  arrival  of  another  ship,  which 
proved  to  be  the  Boston,  containing  the  New 
York  7th ;  and  thus  these  two  regiments,  so 
lately  parted  at  Philadelphia,  were  once  more 
united.  Colonel  Lefferts  had  proceeded  on  his 
independent  course  to  Fort  Monroe  ;  but  re- 
ceiving no  intelligence  concerning  the  Poto- 
mac route,  concluded,  after  all,  to  adopt  the 
more  prudent  plan  of  steaming  up  Chesapeake 
Bay  to  Annapolis. 
The  Boston  at  once  set  to  work,  but  with- 
out eventual  success,  to  pull  the  Maryland 
into  deeper  water.  Meanwhile  the  officers  of 
the  two  regiments  were  holding  interviews  and 
correspondence  with  Commandant  Blake  of 
the  Naval  School  on  the  one  hand,  and  with 
the  Maryland  authorities  on  the  other.  Gov- 
ernor Hicks,  in  punctilious  assertion  of  the 
paramount  State  sovereignty  of  Maryland,  pro- 
tested, in  writing,  against  landing  the  troops. 
The  mayor  of  Annapolis  joined  in  the  protest; 
though  privately  both  declared  Maryland  was 
loyal  to  the  Union,  and  that  they  would  make 
no  military  resistance.  That  afternoon  both 
regiments  were  landed.  There  was  still  a  cer- 
tain friction  of  military  jealousy  and  refusal 
to  cooperate  between  Butler  and  LefYerts  : 
both  were  eager  to  proceed  to  Washington, 
but  differed  in  their  plans;  and  the  many  and 
apparently  authentic  rumors  of  the  opposing 
force  that  would  meet  them  from  Baltimore 
caused  discussion  and  delay.  They  had  r.o 
transportation,  few  rations,  and  little  ammu- 
nition. Butler  took  the  first  practical  measures, 
by  ordering  the  railroad  depot  and  buildings 
to  be  occupied.  Here  an  old  locomotive  was 
found,  the  machinery  of  which  had  been  care- 
fully disarranged.  The  mechanical  skill  of  the 
Yankee  militiamen  now  asserted  its  value. 
Private  Charles  Homans,  of  the  Massachusetts 
8th,  at  once  recognized  the  locomotive  as 
having  been  built  in  "our  shop";  and  calling 
to  his  help  several  machinists  like  himself 
from  among  the  Massachusetts  boys,  they  had 
no  great  difficulty  in  putting  it  in  running  or-
922 
LOVE'S  IMAGINING. 
der.  Tuesday  morning  (April  2$)  showing  still 
DO  warlike  demonstrations  from  any  quarter, 
the  surroundings  ot  the  town  were  reconnoi- 
tered,  and  two  companies  of  the  Massachusetts 
8th  pushed  out  three  and  a  half  miles  along 
the  railroad.  A  beginning  was  also  made  to- 
wards repairing  the  track,  which  was  found 
torn  up  and  displaced  here  and  there.  In  this 
work,  and  in  testing  the  newly  repaired  loco- 
mo:  ive  and  improvising  a  train,  another  day 
slipped  by.  In  the  evening,  however,  two  of 
the  eight  messengers  sent  out  from  Washing- 
ton to  Annapolis  succeeded  in  reaching  there, 
the  second  one  bringing  the  definite  orders  of 
General  Scott  that  Butler  should  remain  and 
hold  the  place,  and  that  the  advancing  troops 
should  repair  the  railroad.  That  night,  also, 
came  four  or  more  steamships  with  as  many 
additional  regiments  of  volunteers. 
Wednesday  morning,  April  24,  being  the 
fourth  day  at  Annapolis  for  the  Massachu- 
setts Sth  and  the  third  for  the  New  York  7th, 
they  started  on  their  twenty  miles'  march  to 
the  junction.  A  couple  of  extemporized  plat- 
form cars  on  which  the  "7th  "  mounted  their 
little  brass  howitzers,  the  patched-up  loco- 
motive, and  two  rickety  passenger  cars  con- 
stituted their  artillery-baggage-supply-ambu- 
lance-and-construction  train  all  in  one.  Thus 
provided,  the  two  regiments  marched,  scouted, 
laid  track,  and  built  bridges  as  occasion  re- 
quired; now  fraternizing  and  cooperating 
with  hearty  good-will.  It  was  slow  and  te- 
dious work;  they  were  not  inured  to  nor 
provided  for  even  such  holiday  campaigning 
as  this.  Luckily  they  had  fine  weather — a 
warm,  sunny,  spring  day,  succeeded  by  a 
clear  night  with  a  full  moon  to  light  it.  So 
they  clung  pluckily  to  their  duty,  hungry  and 
sleepy  though  they  were,  all  day  and  all  night 
of  Wednesday,  and  arrived  at  the  junction 
about  daybreak  of  Thursday.  All  the  previous 
rumors  had  taught  them  that  here  they  might 
expect  a  rebel  force  and  a  fight.  The  antici- 
pation proved  groundless;  they  learned,  on 
the  contrary, that  a  train  from  Washington  had 
come  to  this  place  for  them  the  day  before.  It 
soon  again  made  its  appearance ;  and  quickly 
embarking  on  it,  by  noon  the  New  York  7th 
was  at  its  destination. 
Those  who  were  in  the  Federal  capital  on 
that  Thursday,  April  25,  will  never,  during  their 
lives,  forget  the  event.  An  indescribable  gloom 
and  doubt  had  hung  over  Washington  nearly 
a  week,  paralyzing  its  traffic  and  crushing  out 
its  very  life.  As  soon  as  their  coming  was 
known,  an  immense  crowd  gathered  at  the 
depot  to  obtain  ocular  evidence  that  relief  had 
at  length  reached  the  city.  Promptly  debark- 
ing and  forming,  the  7th  marched  from  the 
Capitol  up  Pennsylvania  Avenue  to  the  White 
House.  As  they  passed  up  the  magnificent 
street,  with  their  well-formed  ranks,  their  ex- 
act military  step,  their  soldierly  bearing,  their 
gayly  floating  flags,  and  the  inspiring  music 
of  their  splendid  regimental  band,  they  seemed 
to  sweep  all  thought  of  danger  and  all  taint 
of  treason  not  only  out  of  that  great  national 
thoroughfare,  but  out  of  every  human  heart 
in  the  Federal  city.  The  presence  of  this  sin- 
gle regiment  seemed  to  turn  the  scales  of  fate. 
Cheer  upon  cheer  greeted  them,  windows 
were  •  thrown  up,  houses  opened,  the  popu- 
lation came  forth  upon  the  streets  as  for  a 
holiday.  It  was  an  epoch  in  American  his- 
tory. For  the  first  time,  the  combined  spirit 
and  power  of  Liberty  entered  the  nation's 
capital.  __       ^ 
LOVE'S    IMAGINING. 
DEAR  Love,  I  sometimes  think  how  it  would  be 
If  thou  shouldst  love  me,  if,  on  such  a  day, 
0  day  of  wonder !   thou  shouldst  come  and  say 
1  love  thee,  or  but  let  me  guess  thy  plea  — 
If  once  thine  eyes  should  brighten  suddenly, 
If  once  thy  step  should  hasten  or  delay 
Because  of  me,  if  once  thy  hand  should  stay 
A  needless  instant  in  my  own!   Ah,  me! 
From  such  imaginings  I  wake  and  start, 
And  dull  and  worthless  life's  endeavors  seem 
Before  the  tender  beauty  of  my  dream  — 
And  then  I  whisper  my  impatient  heart, 
"  Be  still,  be  comforted,  O  heart  of  mine, 
Thou  art  not  all  bereft,  the  dream  is  thine." 
Hope  still  Goodwin.
MIL  TON. 
and   treated    it,  that   praise,  at   any  rate,  is 
assured  to  him. 
For  the  rest,  justice  is  not  at  present  done, 
in  my  opinion,  to  Milton's  management  of 
the  inevitable  matter  of  a  Puritan  epic,  a 
matter  full  of  difficulties,  for  a  poet.  Justice 
is  not  done  to  the  architectonics,  as  Goethe 
would  have  called  them,  of  "  Paradise  Lost "  ; 
in  these,  too,  the  power  of  Milton's  art  is 
remarkable.  But  this  may  be  a  proposition 
which  requires  discussion  and  development 
for  establishing  it,  and  they  are  impossible  on 
an  occasion  like  the  present. 
That  Milton,  of  all  our  English  race,  is  by 
his  diction  and  rhythm  the  one  artist  of  the 
highest  rank  in  the  great  style  whom  we  have ; 
this  I  take  as  requiring  no  discussion,  this  I 
take  as  certain. 
The  mighty  power  of  poetry  and  art  is  gen- 
erally admitted.  But  where  the  soul  of  this 
power,  of  this  power  at  its  best,  chiefly  resides, 
very  many  of  us  fail  to  see.  It  resides  chiefly 
in  the  refining  and  elevation  wrought  in  us 
by  the  high  and  rare  excellence  of  the  great 
style.  We  may  feel  the  effect  without  being 
able  to  give  ourselves  clear  account  of  its 
cause,  but  the  thing  is  so.  Now,  no  race  needs 
the  influences  mentioned,  the  influences  of 
refining  and  elevation,  more  than  ours;  and 
in  poetry  and  art  our  grand  source  for  them 
is  Milton. 
To  what  does  he  owe  this  supreme  distinc- 
tion ?  To  nature  first  and  foremost,  to  that 
bent  of  nature  for  inequality  which  to  the  wor- 
shipers of  the  average  man  is  so  unaccept- 
able ;  to  a  gift,  a  divine  favor.  "  The  older  one 
grows,"  says  Goethe,  "  the  more  one  prizes 
natural  gifts,  because  by  no  possibility  can 
they  be  procured  and  stuck  on."  Nature 
formed  Milton  to  be  a  great  poet.  But  what 
other  poet  has  shown  so  sincere  a  sense  of 
the  grandeur  of  his  vocation,  and  a  moral 
effort  so  constant  and  sublime  to  make  and 
keep  himself  worthy  of  it  ?  The  Milton  of  re- 
ligious and  political  controversy,  and  perhaps 
of  domestic  life  also,  is  not  seldom  disfigured 
by  want  of  amenity,  by  acerbity.  The  Milton 
of  poetry,  on  the  other  hand  is  one  of  those 
great  men, "  who  are  modest  "  —  to  quote  a  fine 
remark  of  Leopardi,  that  gifted  and  stricken 
young  Italian,  who  in  his  sense  for  poetic  style 
is  worthy  to  be  named  with  Dante  and  Mil- 
ton — "  who  are  modest,  because  they  con- 
tinually compare  themselves,  not  with  other 
men,  but  with  that  idea  of  the  perfect  which 
they  have  before  their  mind."  The  Milton  of 
poetry  is  the  man,  in  his  own  magnificent 
phrase,  of  "  devout  prayer  to  that  Eternal 
Spirit  that  can  enrich  with  all  utterance  and 
knowledge,  and  sends  out  his  Seraphim  with 
the  hallowed  fire  of  his  altar,  to  touch  and  pu- 
rify the  lips  of  whom  he  pleases."  And  finally, 
the  Milton  of  poetry  is,  in  his  own  words  again, 
the  man  of  "industrious  and  select  reading." 
Continually  he  lived  in  companionship  with 
high  and  rare  excellence,  with  the  great  He- 
brew poets  and  prophets,  with  the  great  poets 
of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  Hebrew  com] 
tions  were  not  in  verse,  and  can  be  not  inad- 
equately represented  by  the  grand,  measured 
prose  of  our  English  Bible.  The  verse  of  the 
poets  of  Greece  and  Rome  no  translation  can 
adequately  reproduce.  Prose  cannot  have  the 
power  of  verse;  verse-translation  may  give 
whatever  of  charm  is  in  the  soul  and  talent 
of  the  translator  himself,  but  never  the  specific 
charm  of  the  verse  and  poet  translated.  In 
our  race  are  thousands  of  readers,  presently 
there  will  be  millions,  who  know  not  a  word 
of  Greek  and  Latin  and  will  never  learn  those 
languages.  If  this  host  of  readers  are  ever  to 
gain  any  sense  of  the  power  and  charm  of  the 
great  poets  of  antiquity,  their  way  to  gain  it 
is  not  through  translations  of  the  ancients,  but 
through  the  original  poetry  of  Milton,  who 
has  the  like  power  and  charm,  because  he  has 
the  like  great  style. 
Through  Milton  they  may  gain  it,  for,  in 
conclusion,  Milton  is  English;  this  master  in 
the  great  style  of  the  ancients  is  English.  Vir- 
gil, whom  Milton  loved  and  honored,  has  at 
the  end  of  the  "  ^Eneid  "  a  noble  passage,  where 
Juno,  seeing  the  defeat  of  Turnus  and  the 
Italians  imminent,  the  victory  of  the  Trojan 
invaders  assured,  entreats  Jupiter  that  Italy 
may  nevertheless  survive  and  be  herself  still, 
may  retain  her  own  mind,  manners,  and  lan- 
guage, and  not  adopt  those  of  the  conqueror. 
Sit  Latium,  sint  Albani  per  secula  reges ! 
Jupiter  grants  the  prayer ;  he  promises  per- 
petuity and  the  future  to  Italy  —  Italy  reen- 
forced  by  whatever  virtue  the  Trojan  race  has, 
but  Italy,  not  Troy.  This  we  may  take  as  a 
sort  of  parable  suiting  ourselves.  All  the  An- 
glo-Saxon contagion,  all  the  flood  of  .Anglo- 
Saxon  commonness,  beats  vainly  against  the 
great  style  but  cannot  shake  it,  and  has  to  ac- 
cept its  triumph.  But  it  triumphs  in  Milton, 
in  one  of  our  own  race,  tongue,  faith,  and  mor- 
als. Milton  has  made  the  great  style  no  longer 
an  exotic  here :  he  has  made  it  an  inmate 
amongst  us,  a  leaven,  and  a  power.  Neverthe- 
less he,  and  his  hearers  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  are  English  and  will  remain  English  : 
Sermonem  Ausonii  patrinm  moresque  tenebunt. 
The  English  race  overspreads  the  world, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  ideal  of  an  excel- 
lence the  most  high  and  the  most  rare  abides 
a  possession  with  it  forever. 
Matthew  Arnold.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN:  A  HISTORY.* 
THE  BORDER  STATES. 
BY    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    A.ND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
REBELLIOUS     MARYLAND. 
10  sooner  had  the  secession 
ordinance  been  secretly 
passed  by  the  convention 
of  Virginia  than  Governor 
Letcher  notified  Jefferson 
Da\  is  of  the  event,  and 
(doubtless  by  preconcert) 
invited  him  to  send  a  com- 
missioner from  Montgomery  to  Richmond  to 
negotiate  an  alliance.  The  adhesion  of  Vir- 
ginia was  an  affair  of  such  magnitude  and  press- 
ing need  to  the  cotton-States,  that  Davis 
made  the  Vice-President  of  the  new  Confed- 
eracy, Alexander  H.  Stephens,  his  plenipoten- 
tiary, who  accordingly  arrived  at  Richmond  on 
the  22(1  of  April.  Here  he  found  everything 
as  favorable  to  his  mission  as  he  could  possibly 
wish.  The  convention  was  filled  with  a  new- 
born zeal  of  insurrection  ;  many  lately  stub- 
born Union  members  were  willingly  accepting 
offices  in  the  extemporized  army  of  the  State; 
the  governor  had  that  day  appointed  Robert 
E.  Lee  commander-in-chief  of  the  Virginia 
forces,  which  choice  the  convention  immedi- 
ately confirmed.  Stephens  was  shrewd  enough 
to  perceive  that  his  real  negotiation  lay  neither 
with  the  governor  nor  the  convention,  but  with 
this  newly  created  military  chieftain.  That 
very  evening  he  invited  Lee  to  a  conference, 
at  which  the  late  Federal  colonel  forgot  the 
sentiment  written  by  his  own  hand  two  days 
before,  that  he  never  again  desired  to  draw  his 
sword  except  in  defense  of  his  native  State,f 
and  now  expressed  great  eagerness  for  the 
proposed  alliance.  Lee  being  willing,  the 
remainder  of  the  negotiation  was  easy;  and 
two  days  afterward  (April  24)  Stephens  and 
certain  members  of  the  convention  signed  a 
formal  military  league,  making  Virginia  an 
immediate  member  of  the  "Confederate 
States,"  and  placing  her  armies  under  the 
imand  of  Jefferson  Davis — thus  treating 
with  contempt  the  convention  proviso  that 
the  secession  ordinance  should  only  take  ef- 
fect after  ratification  by  the  people,  the  vote 
on  which  had  been  set  for  the  fourth  Thurs- 
day of  May.  Lee  and  others  endured  this 
military  usurpation,  under  which  they  became 
t  Lee  to  General  Scott,  April  20,  1861. 
t  Bird  to  Walker,  April  20,  1861.   War  Records. 
*  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  Joh 
beneficiaries,  without  protest.  No  excuse  for 
it  could  be  urged.  Up  to  this  time  not  the 
slightest  sign  of  hostility  to  Virginia  had  been 
made  by  the  Lincoln  administration  —  no 
threats,  no  invasion,  no  blockade ;  the  burn- 
ing of  Harper's  Ferry  and  Gosport  were  in- 
duced by  the  hostile  action  of  Virginia  herself. 
On  the  contrary,  even  after  these,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln repeated  in  writing,  in  a  letter  to  Reverdy 
Johnson  which  will  be  presently  quoted,  the 
declarations  made  to  the  Virginia  commis- 
sioners on  the  1 3th,  that  he  intended  no  war, 
no  invasion,  no  subjugation  —  nothing  but 
defense  of  the  Government. 
At  the  time  of  the  Baltimore  riot  the  tele- 
graph was  still  undisturbed;  and  by  its  help, 
as  well  as  by  personal  information  and  pri- 
vate letters,  that  startling  occurrence  and 
the  succeeding  insurrectionary  uprising  were 
speedily  made  known  throughout  the  entire 
South,  where  they  excited  the  liveliest  satis- 
faction and  most  sanguine  hopes.  All  the 
Southern  newspapers  immediately  became 
clamorous  for  an  advance  on  Washington; 
some  of  the  most  pronounced  Richmond  con- 
spirators had  all  along  been  favorable  to  such 
an  enterprise;  and  extravagant  estimates  of 
possibilities  were  telegraphed  to  Montgomery. 
They  set  forth  that  Baltimore  was  in  arms. 
Maryland  rising,  Lincoln  in  a  trap,  and  not 
more  than  1 200  regulars  and  3000  volunteers  in 
Washington ;  that  the  rebels  had  3000  men  at 
Harper's  Ferry;  that  Governor  Letcher  had 
seized  three  to  five  steamers  on  the  James 
River ;  that  the  connecting  Southern  railroads 
could  carry  5000  to  7000  men  daily  at  the  rate 
of  350  miles  per  day. 
As  a  leader  we  want  Davis.  An  hour  now  is  worth 
years  of  common  fighting.  One  dash,  and  Lincoln  is 
taken,  the  country  saved,  and  the  leader  who  does  it  will 
be  immortalized.^ 
This,  from  a  railroad  superintendent  sup- 
posed to  have  practical  skill  in  transportation, 
looked  plausible.  The  Montgomery  cabinet 
caught  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment,  and 
on  April  22  Jefferson  Davis  telegraphed  to 
Governor  Letcher  at  Richmond  : 
In  addition  to  the  forces  heretofore  ordered,  requisi- 
tions have  been  made  for  13  regiments ;  8  to  rendez- 
vous at  Lynchburg,  4  at  Richmond,  and  1  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  Sustain  Baltimore,  if  practicable.  We  reen- 
force  you. 
n  Hay,  1886.     All  rights  reserved.
THE   BORDER    STATES. 
This  dispatch  shows  us  what  a  farce  even  the 
Virginia  military  league  was,  since  two  days 
before  its  conclusion  "  foreign  "  rebel  troops 
were  already  ordered  to  the  "  sacred  soil " 
of  the  Old  Dominion.  Governor  Letcher  was 
doubtless  willing  enough  to  respond  to  the  sug- 
gestion of  Davis,  but  apparently  had  neither 
the  necessary  troops  nor  preparation.  He  had 
as  yet  been  able  to  muster  but  a  shadowy  force 
on  the  line  of  the  Potomac,  notwithstanding 
his  adjutant-general's  pretentious  report  of  the 
previous  December.  Nevertheless, hoping  that 
events  might  ripen  the  opportunity  into  better 
conditions  for  success,  he  lost  no  time  in  send- 
ing such  encouragement  and  help  as  were  at 
his  control.  The  rebel  commander  at  Harp- 
er's Ferry  had  already  communicated  with  the 
Baltimore  authorities  and  effected  a  cordial 
understanding  with  them,  and  they  promised 
to  notify  him  of  hostile  menace  or  approach.* 
Mason,  late  senator,  appears  thereupon  to  have 
been  dispatched  to  Baltimore,  f  He  seems  to 
have  agreed  to  supply  the  Maryland  rebels 
with  such  arms  as  Virginia  could  spare;  and 
some  2000  muskets  actually  found  their  way  to 
Baltimore  from  this  source  during  the  follow- 
ing week,|  though  an  arrangement  to  send 
twenty  cannon  (32-pounders)  to  the  same  city 
from  the  Gosport  navy  yard  §  apparently  failed. 
But  it  would  appear  that  the  project  of  a 
dash  at  Washington  found  an  unexpected  ob- 
stacle in  the  counsels  of  Virginia's  new  mili- 
tary chief,  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  assumed  com- 
mand of  the  State  forces  April  23.  ||  He 
instructed  the  officers  at  Alexandria  and  along 
the  Potomac  to  act  on  the  defensive,  to  es- 
tablish camps  of  instruction,  and  collect  men 
and  provisions,  fl  This  course  was  little  to  the 
liking  of  some  of  the  more  ardent  rebels. 
They  telegraphed  (in  substance)  that  Davis's 
immediate  presence  at  Richmond  was  essen- 
tial ;  that  his  non-arrival  was  causing  dissatis- 
faction ;  that  the  troops  had  no  confidence  in 
Lee  and  were  murmuring;  that  there  were 
signs  of  temporizing,  hopes  of  a  settlement 
without  collision,  and  consequent  danger  of 
demoralization;  that  Lee  "dwelt  on  enthu- 
siasm North  and  against  aggression  from  us." 
Said  another  dispatch : 
Have  conversed  with  General  Robert  E.  Lee.  He 
wishes  to  repress  enthusiasm  of  our  people.  His 
troops  not  ready,  although  pouring  in  every  hour. 
They  remain  here.  General  Cocke  has  three  hundred 
and  no  more.  Corps  of  observation  on  Potomac  near 
Alexandria.  He  considers  Maryland  helpless,  need- 
ing encouragement  and  succor.  Believes  twenty  thou- 
sand men  in  and  near  Washington.** 
In  no  State   were  the   secession    plotti 
more  determined  or  continuous  than  in  v 
land.  From  the  first  a  small  but  able  and 
unwearying  knot  of  Baltimore   conspirators 
sought  to  commit  her  people  to  rebellion  by 
the  empty  form  of  a  secession  ordinance. 
They  made  speeches,  held  conventions,  be- 
sieged the  governor  with  committees;  they 
joined  the  Washington  conspirators  in  trea- 
sonable caucus;  they  sent  recruits  to  Charles- 
ton; they  incited  the  Baltimore  riot;  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  in  these  doings  they 
reflected  a  strong  minority  sentiment  in  the 
State.  With  such  a  man  as  Pickens  or  Letcher 
in  the  executive  chair  they  might  have  suc- 
ceeded, but  in  Governor  Hicks  they  found  a 
constant  stumbling-block  and  an  irremovable 
obstacle.  He  gave  Southern  commissioners 
the  cold  shoulder.  He  refused  at  first  to  call 
the  legislature.  He  declined  to  order  a  vote 
on  holding  a  convention.  He  informed  Gen- 
eral Scott  of  the  rebel  plots  of  Maryland,  and 
testified  of  the  treasonable  designs  before  the 
investigating  committee  of  Congress.  His  en- 
emies have  accused  him  of  treachery,  and  cite 
in  proof  a  letter  which  they  allege  he  wrote  a 
few  days  after  Lincoln's  election  in  which  he 
inquired  whether  a  certain  militia  company 
would  be  "  good  men  to  .send  out  to  kill  Lin- 
coln and  his  men."  If  the  letter  be  not  a 
forgery,  it  was  at  most  an  ill-judged  and  awk- 
ward piece  of  badinage;  for  his  repeated  dec- 
larations and  acts  leave  no  doubt  that  from 
first  to  last  his  heart  was  true  to  the  Union. 
He  had  the  serious  fault  of  timidity,  and  in 
several  instances  foolishly  gave  way  to  popular 
clamor;  but  in  every  case  he  soon  recovered 
and  resumed  his  hostility  to  secession. 
The  Baltimore  riot,  as  we  have  seen,  put  a 
stop  to  the  governor's  arrangements  to  raise 
and  arm  four  regiments  of  Maryland  volun- 
teers, of  picked  Union  men,  for  United  States 
service  within  the  State  or  at  Washington. 
Instead  of  this,  he,  in  the  flurry  of  the  upris- 
ing, called  out  the  existing  militia  companies, 
mainly  disloyal  in  sentiment  and  officered  by 
secessionists.  The  Baltimore  authorities  col- 
lected arms,  bought  munitions,  and  improvised 
companies  to  resist  the  passage  of  troops; 
they  forbade  the  export  of  provisions,  regu- 
lated the  departure  of  vessels,  controlled  the 
telegraph.  General  Stewart,  commanding  the 
State  militia,  established  posts  and  patrols,  and 
in  effect  Maryland  became  hostile  territory  to 
the  North  and  to  the  Government.  The  Union 
flag  disappeared  from  her  soil.    For  three  or 
*  Harper  to  Richardson,  April  21 
Records. 
t  Blanchard  to  Howard,  April  23,  1861. 
"History  of  the  Rebellion." 
X  Stuart  to  Police  Board,  May  2,  1861. 
1 86 1.  War 
McPherson, 
Ibid.,  p.  394. 
§  Watts  to  Lee,  April  2;,  1861.   MS. 
II  Lee,    General    Orders,    April    23,     1861. 
Records. 
5[  Lee  to  Cocke,  April  24,  1S61.  War  Records. 
**  Duncan  to  Walker,  April  26,  1S61.   MS. 
War
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
four  days  treason  was  rampant;  all  Union 
men  were  intimidated;  all  Union  expression 
or  manifestation  was  suppressed  by  mob  vio- 
lence. The  hitherto  tearless  Union  newspa- 
pers, in  order  to  save  their  offices  and  mate- 
rials from  destruction,  were  compelled  to  drift 
with  the  flood,  and  print  editorials  advising, 
in  vague  terms,  that  all  must  now  unite  in 
the  defense  oi  Maryland.  It  was  in  this  storm 
and  stress  of  insurrection  that  Governor  Hicks 
protested  against  Butler's  landing,  and  sent 
Lincoln  his  proposal  of  mediation;*  and  on 
the  same  day  (April  22),  and  by  the  same  in- 
fluence, he  was  prevailed  upon  to  notify  the 
legislature  to  meet  on  the  26th.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  the  seats  of  the  Baltimore  members 
were  vacant.  A  special  election,  dominated 
by  the  same  passions,  was  held  on  the  24th. 
Only  a "  States  Rights"  ticket  was  voted  for; 
and  of  the  30,000  electors  in  the  city  9244, 
without  opposition,  elected  the  little  knot  of 
secession  conspirators  —  the  Union  men  not 
daring  to  nominate  candidates  or  come  to 
the  polls. 
For  the  moment  the  leading  Unionists  of 
Maryland  deemed  their  true  role  one  of  pa- 
tience and  conciliation.  In  this  spirit  Reverdy 
Johnson,  a  lawyer  and  statesman  of  fame  and 
influence  both  at  home  and  abroad,  came  to 
Lincoln  upon  the  stereotyped  errand  to  ob- 
tain some  assurance  in  writing  that  he  medi- 
tated no  invasion  or  subjugation  of  the  South ; 
to  which  the  President  confidentially  re- 
plied : 
I  forebore  to  answer  yours  of  the  22d  because  of  my 
aversion  (which  I  thought  you  understood)  to  getting 
on  paper  and  furnishing  new  grounds  for  misunder- 
standing. I  do  say  the  sole  purpose  of  bringing  troops 
here  is  to  defend  this  Capital.  I  do  say  I  have  no 
purpose  to  invade  Virginia  with  them  or  any  other 
troops,  as  I  understand  the  word  invasion.  But  sup- 
pose Virginia  sends  her  troops,  or  admits  others 
through  her  borders,  to  assail  this  Capital,  am  I 
not  to  repel  them  even  to  the  crossing  of  the  Poto- 
mac, if  I  can  ?  Suppose  Virginia  erects,  or  permits  to 
be  erected,  batteries  on  the  opposite  shore  to  bombard 
the  city,  are  we  to  stand  still  and  see  it  done  ?  In  a 
word,  if  Virginia  strikes  us,  are  we  not  to  strike  back, 
and  as  effectively  as  we  can  ?  Again,  are  we  not  to 
hold  Fort  Monroe  (for  instance),  if  we  can?  I  have 
no 'objection  to  declare  a  thousand  times  that  I  have 
no  purpose  to  invade  Virginia  or  any  other  State,  but 
I  do  not  mean  to  let  them  invade  us  without  striking 
back.+ 
Mr.  Johnson  replied,  thanking  the  Presi- 
dent  for  his  frankness,  and  indorsing  all  his 
*  War  Records. 
t  Lincoln  to  Johnson,  April  24,  1861.  Unpublished 
MS. 
t  Johnson  to  Lincoln,  April  24,  1861.  Unpublished 
MS. 
§  Campbell  to  Davis,  April  28,  1861.  Unpublished 
MS. 
||  As  the  legislature,  at  its  last  session,  had  unseated 
policy.  "  In  a  word,"  said  he,  "  all  that  your 
note  suggests  would  be  my  purpose  were  I 
intrusted  with  your  high  office."  He  also 
promised  that  the  President's  note  should 
"  be  held  perfectly  confidential."  J  But  it  ap- 
pears that  Mr.  Johnson  chose  his  confidants 
with  very  poor  judgment ;  for  within  four 
days  its  substance  was  written  from  Wash- 
ington direct  to  Jefferson  Davis.§ 
By  no  means  the  least  of  the  difficult  prob- 
lems before  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet 
was  the  question  how  to  deal  with  the  Mary- 
land legislature,  so  unexpectedly  called  to 
assemble.  The  special  election  in  Baltimore,! | 
held  under  secession  terrorism,  had  resulted 
in  the  unopposed  choice  of  ten  delegates 
from  the  city,  all  believed  to  be  disloyal, 
and  several  of  them  known  to  be  conspicu- 
ous secessionists.  With  this  fresh  element  of 
treason  suddenly  added  to  a  legislative  body 
so  small  in  numbers,  it  seemed  morally  cer- 
tain that  its  first  act  would  be  to  arm  the 
State,  and  pass  something  equivalent  to  a 
secession  ordinance.  Should  this  be  per- 
mitted ?  How  could  it  best  be  prevented  ? 
Ought  the  legislature  to  be  arrested  ?  Should 
it  be  dispersed  by  force  ?  General  Butler  was 
at  Annapolis,  where  it  was  expected  that 
the  session  would  be  held,  and  signified  his 
more  than  willingness  to  act  in  the  matter. 
The  plans  wrere  discussed  in  Cabinet  with 
great  contrariety  of  opinion.  Some  of  the 
least  belligerent  of  the  President's  councilors 
were  by  this  time  in  hot  blood  over  the 
repeated  disasters  and  indignities  which  the 
Government  had  suffered,  and  began  to  in- 
dulge in  the  unreasoning  temper  and  impa- 
tience of  the  irritated  public  opinion  of  the 
North,  where  one  of  the  largest  and  most  in- 
fluential journals  had  already  declared  that 
the  country  needed  a  dictator.  Mr.  Bates  filed 
a  written  opinion — in  spirit  a  protest  —  de- 
claring that  the  treasonable  acts  in  Virginia 
and  Maryland  were  encouraged  by  the  fact 
that  "  we  frighten  nobody,  we  hurt  nobody  "; 
though  he  failed  to  suggest  any  other  than 
merely  vindictive  remedies  that  were  imme- 
diately feasible.  Mr.  Chase  also  partook  of 
this  frame  of  mind,  and  wrote  the  President 
a  curt  little  note  of  querulous  complaint, 
eminently  prophetic  of  his  future  feelings 
towards  and  relations  to  Mr.  Lincoln  : 
Let  me  beg  you  to  remember  that  the  disunionists 
have  anticipated  us  in  everything,  and  that  as  yet  we 
the  delegates  from  Baltimore,  a  special  election  was 
held  in  that  city  on  April  24.  But  one  ticket  was  pre- 
sented, and  9244  ballots  were  cast  for  Messrs.  John 
C.  Brune,  Ross  Winans,  Henry  M.  Warfield,  J. 
Hanson  Thomas,  T.  Parkin  Scott,  II.  M.  Morfitt, 
S.  Teackle  Wallis,  Charles  H.  Pitts,  Wm.  G.  Harrison, 
and  Lawrence  Sangston,  the  States  Rights  candidates. 
—  Scharf,  "  History  of  Maryland,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  424.
THE   BORDER   STATES. 
have  accomplished  nothing  but  the  destruction  of  our 
own  property.  Let  me  beg  you  to  remember  also  that 
it  has  been  a  darling  object  with  the  disunionists  to  se- 
cure the  passage  of  a  secession  ordinance  by  Maryland. 
The  passage  of  that  ordinance  will  be  the  signal  for 
the  entry  of  disunion  forces  into  Maryland.  It  will 
give  a  color  of  law  and  regularity  to  rebellion  and 
thereby  triple  its  strength.  The  custom-housejn  Balti- 
more will  be  seized  and  Fort  McHenry  attacked  — 
perhaps  taken.  What  next  ?  Do  not,  I  pray  you,  let 
this  new  success  of  treason  be  inaugurated  in  the  pres- 
ence of  American  troops.  Save  us  from  this  new 
humiliation.  A  word  to  the  brave  old  commanding 
general  will  do  the  work  of  prevention.  You  alone 
can  give  the  word.* 
The  bad  taste  and  injustice  of  such  lan- 
guage consisted  in  its  assumption  that  the 
President  was  somehow  culpable  for  what  had 
already  occurred,  whereas  Mr.  Chase  had  in 
the  beginning  been  more  conciliatory  towards 
the  rebels  than  had  Mr.  Lincoln. 
With  a  higher  conception  of  the  functions 
of  the  presidential  office,  Mr.  Lincoln  treated 
public  clamor  and  the  fretfulness  of  Cabinet 
ministers  with  the  same  quiet  toleration.  Again, 
as  before,  and  as  ever  afterward,  he  listened 
attentively  to  such  advice  as  his  Cabinet  had 
to  give,  but  reserved  the  decision  to  him- 
self. He  looked  over  the  Attorney-General's 
legal  notes,  weighed  the  points  of  political 
expediency,  canvassed  carefully  the  proba- 
bilities of  military  advantage,  and  embodied 
his  final  directions  in  a  letter  to  General 
Scott : 
My  Dear  Sir  :  The  Maryland  legislature  assem- 
bles to-morrow  at  Annapolis,  and  not  improbably  will 
take  action  to  arm  the  people  of  that  State  against  the 
United  States.  The  question  has  been  submitted  to 
and  considered  by  me,  whether  it  would  not  be  justifi- 
able, upon  the  ground  of  necessary  defense,  for  you,  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  United  States  Army,  to  ar- 
rest or  disperse  the  members  of  that  body.  I  think  it 
would  not  be  justifiable,  nor  efficient  for  the  desired 
object.  First,  they  have  a  clearly  legal  right  to  assem- 
ble ;  and  we  cannot  know  in  advance  that  their  action 
will  not  be  lawful  and  peaceful.  And  if  we  wait  until 
they  shall  have  acted,  their  arrest  or  dispersion  will 
not  lessen  the  effect  of  their  action. 
Secondly,  we  cannot  permanently  prevent  their  ac- 
tion. If  we  arrest  them,  we  cannot  long  hold  them  as 
prisoners  ;  and,  when  liberated,  they  will  immediately 
reassemble  and  take  their  action.  And  precisely  the 
same  if  we  simply  disperse  them.  They  will  immedi- 
ately reassemble  in  some  other  place. 
I  therefore  conclude  that  it  is  only  left  to  the  com- 
manding general  to  watch  and  await  their  action,  which, 
if  it  shall  be  to  arm  their  people  against  the  United 
States,  he  is  to  adopt  the  most  prompt  and  efficient 
means  to  counteract,  even  if  necessary  to  the  bom- 
bardment of  their  cities ;  and,  in  the  extremest  neces- 
sity, the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  t 
Thus  directed,  Genera]  Scott  wrote-  to  ( 
. 
eral  Butler  on  the  following  day: 
In  the  absence  of  the  undersigned, the  ton 
structions  are  turned  over  to  Brigadier-General   \',.  1  . 
Butler  of  the  Massachusetts  Volunteer   ,  or  Otbei 
cer  commanding  at  Annapolis,  who  will  carry  them  out 
in  a  right  spirit;  that  is,  with  moderation  and  firmi 
In  the  case  of  arrested  individuals  notorious  for  thi  i. 
hostility  to   the    United   States,  the   prisoners   will  be 
safely  kept  and  duly  cared  for,  but   not  surreri' 
except  on  the  order  of  the  commander  aforesaid  i. 
At  the  last  moment,  however,  conscious  of 
the  offenses  which  some  of  their  members  *  ere 
meditating  against  the  Government,  the  Mary- 
land legislature  abandoned  the  idea  of  meet- 
ing at  Annapolis,  and  induced  the  governor 
to  convene  their  special  session  at  the  town 
of  Frederick.  Here  Governor  Hicks  sent  them 
his  special  message  on  the  27th,  reciting  the 
recent  occurrences,  transmitting  his  corre- 
spondence with  the  various  Federal  authorities, 
and  expressing  the  conviction  "  that  the  only 
safety  of  Maryland  lies  in  preserving  a  neutral 
position  between  our  brethren  of  the  North- 
and  of  the  South."  At  the  same  time  he  ad- 
mitted the  right  of  transit  for  Federal  troops, 
and  counseled  "  that  we  shall  array  ourselves 
for  Union  and  peace."  §  The  lack  of  coherence 
and  consistency  in  the  message  was  atoned 
for  by  its  underlying  spirit  of  loyalty. 
Meanwhile  the  plentiful  arrival  of  volun- 
teers enabled  the  Government  to  strengthen 
its  hold  upon  Annapolis  and  the  railroad.  || 
The  military  "  Department  of  Annapolis  "  was 
created,  and  General  Butler  assigned  to  its 
command.  This  embraced  twenty  miles  on 
each  side  of  the  railroad  from  Annapolis  to 
Washington ;  f[  and  all  of  Maryland  not  in- 
cluded in  these  limits  was  left  in  General  Pat- 
terson's" Department  of  Pennsylvania."  Meas- 
ures were  taken  to  concentrate  sufficient  troops 
at  Harrisburg  and  at  Philadelphia  to  approach 
Baltimore  in  force  from  those  quarters  and 
permanently  to  occupy  the  city ;  and  to  give 
the  military  ample  authority  for  every  con- 
tingency, the  President  issued  the  following 
additional  order  to  General  Scott: 
You  are  engaged  in  suppressing  an  insurrection 
against  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  If  at  any  point 
on  or  in  the  vicinity  of  any  military  line  which  is  now 
or  which  shall  be  used  between  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia and  the  city  of  Washington  you  find  resistance 
which  renders  it  necessary  to  suspend  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  for  the  public  safety,  you  personally,  or 
through  the  officer  in  command  at  the  point  at  which  re- 
sistance occurs,  are  authorized  to  suspend  that  writ.*1* 
*  Chase  to    Lincoln,   April   24,   1861.     Schuckers, 
"Life  of  S.  P.  Chase." 
t  Lincoln  to  Scott,  April  25,  1861. 
X  Scott  to  Butler,  April  26,  1861. 
§  Hicks,  Special  Message,  April 
lion  Record." 
Unpublished  MS. 
War  Records. 
27,  1861.  "Rebel- 
||  Butler  to  Scott.  April 
51"  General  Orders,   No 
Records. 
**  Lincoln  to  Scott,  April 
"History  of  the  Rebellion." 
7,  1S61.    War  Records. 
12,  April  27.   1  So  1.    War 
1861.    McPherson,
6o 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Having  run  its  course  about  a  week  or  ten 
days,  the  recession  frenzy  of  Baltimore  rapidly 
subsided.  The  railroad  managers  of  that  city 
once  more  tendered  their  services  to  the  War 
Department ;  but  Secretary  Cameron,  instead 
of  giving  them  immediate  encouragement,  or- 
dered that  the  Annapolis  route  be  opened  for 
public  travel  and  traffic.  Their  isolation,  first 
created  by  the  bridge-burning,  was  thus  con- 
tinued and  soon  began  to  tell  seriously  upon 
their  business  interests,  as  well  as  upon  the 
general  industries  and  comfort  of  the  city. 
On  the  4th  of  May  General  Butler,  under 
Scott's  orders,  moved  forward  and  took  post 
with  two  regiments  at  the  Relay  House, 
eight  miles  from  Baltimore,  where  he  could 
control  the  westward  trains  and  cut  off  com- 
munication with  Harper's  Ferry.  The  signifi- 
cance of  all  these  circumstances  did  not  escape 
the  popular  observation  and  instinct.  The 
Union  newspapers  took  courage  and  once 
more  printed  bold  leaders;  the  city  govern- 
ment dismissed  the  rebel  militia  and  permitted 
bridges  and  telegraphs  to  be  repaired.  Gov- 
ernor Hicks  issued  a  proclamation  for  the 
election  of  members  of  Congress  to  attend  the 
coming  special  session  on  the  4th  of  July ;  and 
also,  by  special  message  to  the  legislature  and 
publication  in  the  newspapers,  repudiated  the 
charge  that  he  had  consented  to  the  bridge- 
burning.  More  than  all,  the  Unionists  of  both 
city  and  State,  gaining  confidence  with  the 
strong  evidences  of  reaction,  began  to  hold 
meetings  and  conventions  vigorously  to  de- 
nounce secession,  and  to  demonstrate  that 
they  were  in  a  decided  majority. 
Little  by  little  loyalty  and  authority  assert- 
ed themselves.  About  the  1st  of  May  Gen- 
eral Scott  began  preparing  to  reestablish  the 
transit  of  troops  drrough  Baltimore,  and  on 
the  9th  the  first  detachment  since  the  riot 
of  April  19  successfully  made  the  journey. 
Some  1300  men  in  all,  including  Sherman's 
regular  battery  from  Minnesota  and  500  reg- 
ulars from  Texas,  were  brought  in  transports 
from  Perryville  and  landed  at  Locust  Point 
under  the  guns  of  the  Harriet  Lane,  embarked 
in  cars,  and  carried  through  South  Baltimore. 
The  city  authorities,  police,  and  a  large  con- 
<  0  irse  of  people  were  present;  and  the  pre- 
cautions and  arrangements  were  so  thorough 
that  not  the  slightest  disturbance  occurred. 
Four  days  after  this  (May  13)  the  railroad 
brought  the  first  train  from  Philadelphia  over 
its  repaired  track  and  restored  bridges. 
The  Maryland  legislature,  finding  its  occu- 
patio  1  gone,  and  yet  nursing  an  obstinate  se- 
cession sympathy,  adjourned  on  May  14  to 
meet  again  on  the  4th  of  June.  About  the 
same  time  the  people  of  Baltimore  underwent 
a  surprise.     Late  on  the  evening  of  May  13, 
under  cover  of  an  opportune  thunder-storm, 
General  Butler  moved  from  the  Relay  House 
into  the  city  with  about  a  thousand  men,  the 
bulk  of  his  force  being  the  famous  Massachu- 
setts 6th,  which  had  been  mobbed  there  on  the 
19th  of  April.  The  movement  was  entirely  un- 
authorized and  called  forth  a  severe  rebuke 
from  General  Scott ;  but  it  met  no  opposition 
and  was  loudly  applauded  by  the  impatient 
public  opinion  of  the  North,  which  could 
ill  comprehend  the  serious  military  risk  it 
involved.  The  general  carried  his  spirit  of 
bravado  still  farther.  He  made  his  camp  on 
Federal  Hill,  which  he  proceeded  to  fortify ; 
and  on  the  afternoon  of  the  14th  sent  a  de- 
tachment of  only  thirty-five  men  to  seize  a  lot 
of  arms  stored  near  the  locality  of  the  riot. 
The  little  squad  of  volunteers  found  the  ware- 
house and  were  given  possession  of  the  arms, — 
2200  muskets  sent  from  Virginia,  and  4020 
pikes  of  the  John  Brown  pattern,  made  for  the 
city  by  the  Winans  establishment  during  the  riot 
week, — and  loading  them  on  thirty-five  wagons 
and  drays  started  for  Fort  McHenry  over  some 
of  the  identical  streets  where  the  Massachusetts 
men  had  been  murdered  by  the  mob.  It  was  al- 
ready late  when  this  long  procession  got  un- 
der way;  large  crowds  collected,  and  riotous 
demonstrations  of  a  threatening  character  were 
made  at  several  points.  Fortunately,  the  police 
gave  efficient  assistance,  and  what  might  eas- 
ily have  become  an  unnecessary  sacrifice  of 
life  was  by  their  vigilance  averted. 
Also  coincident  with  this,  the  Union  cause 
gained  another  signal  advantage  in  Maryland. 
Governor  Hicks's  courage  had  risen  with  the 
ebb  of  disloyalty  throughout  the  State;  and 
as  soon  as  the  legislature  was  adjourned  he 
issued  his  proclamation  calling  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States  the  four  regiments  he 
originally  promised  under  the  President's  call. 
These  were  rapidly  formed,  and  became  a 
part  of  the  Union  army  under  a  new  call. 
Amidst  these  fluctuations  the  more  belligerent 
Maryland  rebels  also  formed  companies  and 
went  South  —  some  to  Richmond,  some  to 
the  rebel  camp  at  Harper's  Ferry.  But  ^the 
fraction  of  military  aid  which  Maryland  finally 
gave  to  the  rebellion  rose  to  no  special  signifi- 
cance. 
Out  of  these  transactions,  however,  there 
arose  a  noteworthy  judicial  incident.  A  man 
named  John  Merryman,  found  recruiting  as  a 
lieutenant  for  one  of  these  rebel  companies,  wras 
arrested  (May  25)  and  imprisoned  in  Fort 
McHenry.  Chief-Justice  Taney,  then  in  Bal- 
timore, being  applied  to,  issued  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  to  bring  the  prisoner  before  him.*  Gen- 
eral  Cadwalader,  at  this  time  in  command, 
made  a  respectful  reply  to  the  writ,  alleging 
*  Tyler,  "  Memoir  R.  13.  Taney,"  pp.  640-642.
THE    BORDER    STATES, 
6i 
GOVERNOR   T.   H.  HICKS.       (FROM   A   PHOTOGRAPH    BY   BRADY.) 
Merryman's  treason,  and  stating  further  that 
the  President  had  authorized  him  to  suspend 
the  writ  in  such  cases ;  and  requested  the 
Chief- Justice  to  postpone  further  action  till 
the  matter  could  be  referred  to  the  President.* 
This  avowal  aroused  all  the  political  ire  of  the 
Chief-Justice ;  he  was  struck  with  a  judicial 
blindness  which  put  disloyalty,  conspiracy, 
treason,  and  rebellion  utterly  beyond  his  offi- 
cial contemplation.  He  saw  not  with  the  eye 
of  a  great  judge  the  offended  majesty  of  the 
law  commanding  the  obedience  of  all  citizens 
of  the  republic,  but  only,  with  a  lawyer's  mi- 
croscopic acuteness,  the  disregard  of  certain 
technical  forms  and  doubtful  professional 
dicta.  The  personal  restraint  of  one  traitor  in 
arms  became  of  more  concern  to  him  than  the 
endangered  fate  of  representative  government 
to  the  world. 
The  Chief-Justice  immediately  ordered  an 
attachment  to  issue  against  General  Cadwal- 
ader  for  contempt ;  upon  which  the  marshal 
made  return  that  he  was  unable  to  serve  it, 
being  denied  entrance  to  Fort  McHenry. 
Thereupon  the  Chief- Justice  admitted  the  ex- 
istence of  a  superior  military  force,  but  de- 
clared "  that  the  President,  under  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  cannot  suspend 
the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  nor 
authorize    a  military   officer   to   do   it,"  and 
*  Tyler,  "  Memoir  R.  B.  Taney, 
t  Ibid.,  pp.  644-659. 
Vol.  XXXVI.— 9. 
pp.  643,  644. 
that  Merryman  ought  therefore  to  be  im- 
mediately discharged;   and  wrent  on  to 
say  "that  he  should  cause  lus  opinion 
when  filed,  and  all  the  proceedings,  to  be 
laid  before  the  President,  in  order  that 
he  might  perform  his  constitutional  duty 
to  enforce  the  laws  by  securing  obedience 
to  the  process  of  the  United  States." 
To  this  general  purport  the  Chief-Jus- 
tice filed  his  written  opinion  on  the  1st  of 
June,f  and  caused  a  copy  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  President. 
Of  that  opinion  it  will  not  be  irrele- 
vant to  quote  the  criticism  of  one  of  the 
profoundest  and  most  impartial  jurists  of 
that  day: 
Chief-Justice  Taney's  opinion  in  Merryman's 
case  is  not  an  authority.  This,  of  course,  is 
said  in  the  judicial  sense.  But  it  is  not  even 
an  argument,  in  the  full  sense.  He  does  not 
argue  the  question  from  the  language  of  the 
clause,  nor  from  the  history  of  the  clause,  nor 
from  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  except 
by  an  elaborate  depreciation  of  the  President's 
office,  even  to  the  extent  of  making  him,  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  army,  called  from  the 
States  into  the  service  of  the  United  States,  no 
more  than  an  assistant  to  the  marshal's  posse  — 
the  deepest  plunge  of  judicial  rhetoric.  The  opin- 
ion, moreover,  has  a  tone,  not  to  say  a  ring,  of 
disaffection  to  the  President, andto  the  Northern 
and  Western  side  of  his  house,  which  is  not  com- 
fortable to  suppose  in  the  person  who  fills  the  central 
seat  of  impersonal  justice.  % 
To  this  estimate  of  the  spirit  of  Chief- Justice 
Taney's  view  we  may  properly,  by  way  of  an- 
ticipation, here  add  President  Lincoln's  own 
official  answer  to  its  substance.  No  attention 
was  of  course  paid  to  the  transmitted  papers; 
but  the  President  at  the  time  of  their  receipt 
was  already  engaged  in  preparing  his  message 
to  the  coming  special  session  of  Congress, 
and  in  that  document  he  presented  the  justi- 
fication of  his  act.  The  original  draft  of  the 
message,  in  Lincoln's  autograph  manuscript, 
thus  defines  the  executive  authority  with  that 
force  of  statement  and  strength  of  phraseology 
of  which  he  was  so  consummate  a  master: 
Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  I  felt  it  my  duty 
to  authorize  the  commanding  general,  in  proper  cases, 
according  to  his  discretion,  to  suspend  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  —  or,  in  other  words,  to 
arrest  and  detain,  without  resort  to  the  ordinary  proc- 
esses and  forms  of  law,  such  individuals  as  he  might 
deem  dangerous  to  the  public  safety.  At  my  verbal 
request,  as  well  as  by  the  general's  own  inclination, 
this  authority  has  been  exercised  but  very  sparingly. 
Nevertheless,  the  legality  and  propriety  of  what  has 
been  done  under  it  are  questioned  :  and  I  have  been 
reminded  from  a  high  quarter  that  one  who  is  sworn 
to  "take  care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed'' 
should  not  himself  be  one  to  violate  them.  Of  course  I 
gave  some  consideration  to  the  questions  of  power  and 
I  Horace  Binney,  "  The  Privilege  of  the  Writ  of 
Habeas  Corpus,"  Part  I.,  p.  36.