Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-17
Military Interference with the Mary
land Elections.
Extract from the Message of
Governor Bradford, of
Maryland.


Maryland.
avail myself of this occasion to adver
to certain events connected with our recen
election which deserve your most serious
consideration. 1t would be much NOR,
agreeable to me to avoid all allusion tt
them. | cannot, however, do so consistent.
lily with my sense of what is due to the
rights and honor of the State, to the office
( which by the favor of its citizens occupy,
or-I may with sincerity add--to the cause
of the Union ITSELF in my opinion SO inti-
mately blended with the cause of the law
md Constitution that any outrage inflicted.
especially in its name, upon them neces-
isarilyto some extent recoils upon it. A few
! days before that election, military order
was issued from the army headuuai tiers ut
Baltimore, which In effect placed the polls
under the surveillance and at the command
of the military authorities. | was the less
prepared for any such order from the fact
that though in frequent personal commu-
nicatioL with the military authorities Of
the department, had received no informa-
tion whatever of it.. In that part of the
State against which the movement seemed
TO be more particularly directed (the east
ern shore) there would seem to have been
less necessity, as there certainly was less
semblance of authority than elsewhere: for
whilst marial law had been proclaimed up
on the western shore of the State in June
last, land had not been repealed up to the
day of election, upon the eastern shore it
had never been proclaimed at all. Youwill
be furnished with copy of this order, and
it is not necessary further to recite it than
10 state in general terms that it was
20 be executed by the military, aided
by the provost marshals. They were
to arrest voters whom they might
consider disloyal, in approaching or
hanging about the polls; prescribed form
of oath was furnished, without taking
which no one, if challenged, could vote:
and the several commanding officers were
charged to report to headquarters any Judge
of election who should refuse to administer
That oath, or to aid in carrying out that Or
der The President modified the first part
Of the order on the Monday preceding the
election; but even that modification seemed
to receive no attention from those intrusted
with its execution. and was in some instanc-
es openly disregarded. Prominent among
the provost marshals to whom the execu-
tion of this order was in part committed
were several who were themselves candi-
dates for important offices. These marshals,
appointed for the purpose of the militia
enrolment and draft, were placed by the
law creating them under the control of the
provOst-mashal general, but to insure the
right to employ them about this election
order, special authority was obtained from
Washington to place them for the time be-
Ing under the orders of the military author
tiles. IT. with these facts before me, and
seeing the judges of election, sworn to
conduct it according to the laws Ofthe State,
openly menaced with arrest unless they rec
Ognized the military authority and conduct
ed it by the rules which that authority pre-
scribed, | had stood silently by and failed
TO assure them of the protection of the State
TO the extent of its ability, should have
felt myself utterly unworthy of the place
of its chief magistrate. |, therefore, on the
Monday evening preceding the election, is
sued proclamation giving them this as
surance, a copy of which is herewith sub
mitted. Before the following military Or
ders were sent to the eastern shore, direct
ing its circulation to be suppressed, the
public papers were forbidden to publish it,
hnd an embargo laid on all the steamers in
port trading with that part of the State,
lest they might carry it. An attempt has
been made to Justify the military order up
on the ground that its only purpose was to
exclude disloyal voters who had by their
conduct justly forfeited their franchise. An
examination of the oath, however, which it
prescribed, will show that even had it ema-
mated from undoubted authority, it would
accomplish no such end. No matter what
had been the conduct of the voter, there
was nothing in the oath calculated to ex-
clude him; it had no reference to his past
conduct; and every traitor who had left the
State and had but just returned from
ha r.aha mi ifrht hou tal- x,,,t i,
impunity. 1t contained only promise of
good behavior--a promise which, as very
Slight atonement, many rebel sympathizer
might and doubtless did very readily make,
whilst the loyal citizen who had stood al
ways faithful to his allegiance would feel
justly indignant at having his loyalty chal-
lenged, or being required to give any guar
antee for his future conduct or to enable
him to exercise a privilege he had never for
feited. How far it accomplished the purpose
claimed for it, or how far my anticipations
of the consequences of the order and the
abuses to which it would lead were realized,
will appear by a brief reference to some of
the transactions connected with its eXecu-
ton. These abuses commenced even before
the opening of the polls. On the day pre-
ceeding the election, the officer in command
of the regiment which had been distributed
among the counties of the Eastern Shore,
and who had himself landed in Kent coun-
ty, commenced his operations by arresting
and sending across the bay some ten or
more of the most estmable and distinguish
ed of its citizens, including several of the
most steadfast and uucompromising loyal
( lists of the Shore. The jail of the county
was entered, the jailer seized, imprisoned
!, ind afterward sent to Baltimore, and pris-
:, )ners confined therein under Indictment,
set at liberty. The commanding officer re-
ferred to gave the first clue to the character
of disloyalty against which he considered
himself as particularly commissioned by
printing aud publishing proclamation in
which referring to the election to take
! place next day, he invited all truly loyal to
avail themselves of that opportunity and
establish their loyalty "by giving full and
ardent support to the whole government
ticket upon the platform adopted by the
Union League Convention" declaring that
s'none other is recognized by the federal
authorities as loyal or worthy of support