Year: 1869

A REVIEW OF THE SITUATION.
WASHINGTON, August :, 1869.


The condition of political affairs in Mary
land is rapidly assuming national import
ance. Underneath the apparent quiet, 4
sharp struggle is going on between the Re-
pubicans and a faction, for the control of
/ the State at the next Presidential election.
! AS Virginia and Tennessee have been sacri-
feed, and as Texas and Mississippi are
sure to be, through split in the Republi-
can party, seized upon by the Rebel De-
mocracy as their opportunity, SO is Mary
| land to be sold out to the enemy, if the
faction known as the Bond party can sue
ceed in its designs.


! There is this difference however, in the
trick as it is being played in Maryland. In
| Virginia and the other States already named
| it has been the conservative wing that has
formed the rallying point for the Democ-
racy. In Maryland the ultra Radicals are
deliberately planning to gain power enough
to turn the State over to the same COnser-
vative movement which is now sweeping
the South. And by the use of the term
ultra Radical it is not intended to convey
the idea that the main body against which
this faction is plotting is not Radical for
the standard of the party as represented
by its Republican committee, and supported
by the whole body of the party-these NAL
contents excepted-is as high as in any por-
| tion of the North.


ORIGIN OF THE BOND MOVEMENT.
| In its first stages it was struggle to Sc
cure the spoils of office for few men that
the mass of the party did not seem fit to
think worthy. But this feature of it is of
little public interest.


Next, it was an organized movement,
acting in connection with certain Govern
ment agents to prevent the nomination of
General Grant at Chicago in the interests
of Mr.. Chase. A similar organization I'M
der the auspices of the same class of agents
was discovered by the military authorities
at the time in Virginia, and traces of it
were then found further South.


The hostility of the Bond faction to Gen
eral Grant was freely acknowledged among
| themselves at the time, and the moment his
nominatian was secured at Chicago its
leaders urged Mr.. Chase to accept the
Democratic nomination. In the full ex-
| pectation that he would become the chosen
of Tammany, the so-called Border State
! Colored Convention was called at Baltimore
last summer, and everything arranged to
declare for Mr.. Chase upon the announce
ment of his nomination. When this failed,
the slrewd managers, who were few in
number, to cover up their past acts of hos
tility to General Grant, and to forward
their plans for the future, began to protest
loudly that they were and had been fast
friends of the Administration. Here at
Washington they had the assistance of some
very radical officials to help represent them
as the real Republicans of Maryland, and
at last, by constant and industrious mis-
representation, they have gained a stand
ing with at least two prominent members
of the Cabinet, and with one of these be-
fore the Cabinet was organized. What
success attended the effort will at once ap-
| pear.


MANIPULATING THE PATRONAGE.
Immediately after the result of the Pres
| idential election was known the Bond men
set about obtaining the offices in the State
for themselves. From the first they at
tempted to prevent Mr.. Creswell's selection
for the Cabinet. In this they failed. The
next stepwa to strengthen their movement
for the Federal offices by insisting that
| there were two influential wings in the Re-
publican party of the State, and that as
the Creswell men had Cabinet Minister,
| the other must have the prominent offices.
Several negroes, claimed as influential
among their fellows, were put forward as
| actors. The Government agents who were
| parties to the movement joined in endors-
ing the men whom Bond wanted in place,
| and so by dint of hard and unscrupulous
| work, and unscrupulous assistance, enough
offices were secured to render the disruption
of the party in the State, the defeat of the





success of the Democracy of the State quite
probable.


The United States Marshal was appointed
| against the wishes of all and the protest of
| most of the active and influential friends
| of President Grant in the State He has
been a warm political supporter of Mr..
| Chase, and with Judge Bond had arranged
to follow him into the Democratic ranks,
and opposed General Grant till after the
Tammany Convention failed to take up
Mr.. Chase. His appointment was obtained
chiefly by the influence exerted by Mr..
Chase upon Judge IIoar. This gives the
influence of the Marshal's Office directly to
the men who are now actively engaged in
arranging their forces so as to transfer the
State to a general Conservative party, which
they fully expect will grow out of such
successes as those in Virginia and Tennes-
see. The present expectation of the Bond
men is that Mr.. Chase will lead it.
| In the same way they have secured most
of the Treasury agents for Maryland, and
the whole machinery of the Appraisers
office for the county of Baltimore is in their
hands, and the majority of the Registers
in Bankruptcy are working with them.


General Grant was partially aware of the
real nature of this movement, and so far as
he understood it his influence was thrown
against it, but under his decision to refer
all appointments in each branch of the ser
vice to the heads of departments nearly the
whole of the offices of the Treasury and
those of the Attorney General were given
to the Bond men. An excessive display of
Hadicalism, backed by the statements of
few disaffected blacks and the whole State
organization of the Frcedmen's Bureau,
won Secretary Boutwell,, while Mr. Chase
was able to control the Attorney General
lal