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250 HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
Many good and respectable citizens in Baltimore, knowing these facts, and
that organized clubs were banded together to disfranchise the naturalized
voters, and that the police of the city were affiliated members of those clubs
and could not therefore be trusted to protect the constitutional right of that
proscribed class, made application to the mayor of the city, for some extraordinary provision to meet an extraordinary emergency, as the probabilities were
that the mayoralty election would be attended by more than the usual amount
of tumult and disorder, to the suppression of which it was feared, the civil
power would be found wholly inadequate. Acknowledging apparently the
jnstice of these apprehensions, which subsequent events proved to have been
but too well founded, Mayor Hinks requested General George H. Steuart, the
commanding officer of the city militia, to hold his force in readiness for
service upon election day. General Steuart with characteristic promptness,
issued his orders to the officers and men composing his division, requiring
them to assemble on the morning of the day of election at their usual places
of regimental muster, equipped and in readiness for duty. Scarcely had
these orders been made public, when for some unknown cause, the mayor
addressed a note to General Steuart, assuring him that he had entirely
misapprehended his meaning, and requesting him immediately to suspend
his military preparations. Under such circumstances, the general had no
alternative but to revoke his orders. No provision, consequently, was made
to meet the probable contingencies of the day. The election took place on
^H||^ October 8, 1856, the candidates being Thomas Swann,
1 ^H know-nothing, and Robert Clinton Wright, democrat.
W^^mft ^ was tended by bloodshed and disorder to an ex-
i/OT^SB^ ^ent wn0^y unprecedented in the annals of this or
^WmHn^ any other American city. In the vicinity of the
^^^^^^Blllfe Lexington market, and in the public squares sur-
^SsSSS^aStl^' rounding the Washington Monument, pitched battles
^^^^^^^^J^^^ were fought, in which muskets were freely used, and
^^^^^^^^^^p cannon even brought into the streets—which the
^^^^^^^^^^^ authorities made no attempt to quell, as they had
mayor "swann. made no provision to prevent—which lasted, with
out interruption, for hours, and finally only terminated with night-fall, and
in which, actually, more men were killed than fell on the American side
on the field of Palo Alto. The result of the election, if it may be so called,
was the almost entire disfranchisement of all naturalized citizens, who were,
nearly everywhere driven from the polls, and the consequent elevation of Mr.
Swann to the mayoralty by a majority of 1,567 votes.
In the meantime, the democratic party made their nominations for president and vice-president, at a national convention, held, at Cincinnati. It was
apprehended that it would nominate a sectional president; and when, on the
6th of June, the news of Mr. James Buchanan's nomination was announced
throughout the land, a sensation of relief and high gratification thrilled the
| Title | History of Maryland - 3 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000281 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 250 HISTORY OF MARYLAND. Many good and respectable citizens in Baltimore, knowing these facts, and that organized clubs were banded together to disfranchise the naturalized voters, and that the police of the city were affiliated members of those clubs and could not therefore be trusted to protect the constitutional right of that proscribed class, made application to the mayor of the city, for some extraordinary provision to meet an extraordinary emergency, as the probabilities were that the mayoralty election would be attended by more than the usual amount of tumult and disorder, to the suppression of which it was feared, the civil power would be found wholly inadequate. Acknowledging apparently the jnstice of these apprehensions, which subsequent events proved to have been but too well founded, Mayor Hinks requested General George H. Steuart, the commanding officer of the city militia, to hold his force in readiness for service upon election day. General Steuart with characteristic promptness, issued his orders to the officers and men composing his division, requiring them to assemble on the morning of the day of election at their usual places of regimental muster, equipped and in readiness for duty. Scarcely had these orders been made public, when for some unknown cause, the mayor addressed a note to General Steuart, assuring him that he had entirely misapprehended his meaning, and requesting him immediately to suspend his military preparations. Under such circumstances, the general had no alternative but to revoke his orders. No provision, consequently, was made to meet the probable contingencies of the day. The election took place on ^H||^ October 8, 1856, the candidates being Thomas Swann, 1 ^H know-nothing, and Robert Clinton Wright, democrat. W^^mft ^ was tended by bloodshed and disorder to an ex- i/OT^SB^ ^ent wn0^y unprecedented in the annals of this or ^WmHn^ any other American city. In the vicinity of the ^^^^^^Blllfe Lexington market, and in the public squares sur- ^SsSSS^aStl^' rounding the Washington Monument, pitched battles ^^^^^^^^J^^^ were fought, in which muskets were freely used, and ^^^^^^^^^^p cannon even brought into the streets—which the ^^^^^^^^^^^ authorities made no attempt to quell, as they had mayor "swann. made no provision to prevent—which lasted, with out interruption, for hours, and finally only terminated with night-fall, and in which, actually, more men were killed than fell on the American side on the field of Palo Alto. The result of the election, if it may be so called, was the almost entire disfranchisement of all naturalized citizens, who were, nearly everywhere driven from the polls, and the consequent elevation of Mr. Swann to the mayoralty by a majority of 1,567 votes. In the meantime, the democratic party made their nominations for president and vice-president, at a national convention, held, at Cincinnati. It was apprehended that it would nominate a sectional president; and when, on the 6th of June, the news of Mr. James Buchanan's nomination was announced throughout the land, a sensation of relief and high gratification thrilled the |
