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570 HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
and certificates which have been forwarded to me from different counties in that Congressional district, I have been furnished, I presume, with an account of part only of the
outrages to which their citizens were subjected. The ' Government ticket' above referred
to, was in several, if not all of these counties, designated by its color; it was a yellow
ticket, and armed with that, a voter could safely run the gauntlet of the sabres and carbines that guarded the entrance to the polls, and known sympathizers with the rebellion
were, as certified to me, allowed to vote unquestioned, if they would vote that ticket,
whilst loyal and respected citizens, ready to take the oath, were turned back by the
officers in charge without even allowing them to approach the polls.
" In one district, as appears by certificate from the judge, the military officer took his
stand at the polls before they were opened, declaring that none but ' the yellow ticket'
should be voted, and excluded all others throughout the day. In another district a similar officer caused every ballot offered to be examined, and unless it was the favored one,
the voter wras required to take the oath and not otherwise ; and in another again, after
one vote only had been given, the polls were closed, the judges all arrested and sent out
of the county, and military occupation taken of the town.
"But I will not detain you with a recapitulation of all the abuses that these statements disclose. I have caused copies of them to be transmitted to you and they cannot
fail to arrest your attention. They present a humiliating record, such as I had never
supposed we should be called upon to read in any State, still less in a loyal one like this.
Unless it be indeed a fallacy to suppose that any rights whatever remain in such a State,
or that any line whatever marks the limit of Federal power, a bolder stride across that
line that power never made even in a Rebel State than it did here on the 4th of last
November.
" A part of the army which a generous people had supplied for a very different purpose, was on that day engaged in stifling the freedom of election in a faithful State,
intimidating its sworn officers, violating the constitutional rights of its loyal citizens, and
obstructing the usual channels of communication between them and their Executive."l
Under the anti-slavery agitation, slave property which had been very
uncertain for some time, became almost valueless. This was strikingly
illustrated in July, when Colonel William Birney, of the bureau for the
organization of colored troops, liberated all the slaves in Campbell's slave
prison, on Pratt near Howard street, Baltimore. At this time there were
over fifty imprisoned " contrabands," as negroes were now jocosely called,
who had been sent there for safe keeping by their owners. This establishment with others was broken up, and during the civil war many a prominent
1 As the outrages of power upon liberty have resorted to. Popular institutions will not suffer,
never yet failed to find eminent and philan- for the copperhead element will have a much
thropic defenders, we cannot be surprised to larger number of members in both branches
find that the Boston Commonwealth, the organ of than it is entitled to by its popular vote. Ohio,
the Hon. Charles Sumner, senator from Massa- with its nine thousand republican majority, will
chusetts, thus justifying the military inter- be represented by five republicans and a dozen
f erence of the administration with the elections or more copperheads. It is fitting that this mis-
in Maryland and Delaware: "We do not find representation of popular sentiment in the great
fault with the machinery used to carry Mary- State of the West should be offset, if necessary,
land and Delaware. Having nearly lost control by a loyal delegation from Maryland and Dela-
of the House by its blunders in the conduct of ware, won even at the expense of military in-
the war from March, 1861, to the fall of 1862, terference. If laws are silent amid the clank
the administration owed it to the country to re- of arms, we must take care that the aggregate
cover that control somehow. To recover it reg- public opinion of the country obtains recogni-
ularly, was impossible; so irregularity had to be tion, somehow or other."
Object Description
| 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 |
Description
| Title | 00000605 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 570 HISTORY OF MARYLAND. and certificates which have been forwarded to me from different counties in that Congressional district, I have been furnished, I presume, with an account of part only of the outrages to which their citizens were subjected. The ' Government ticket' above referred to, was in several, if not all of these counties, designated by its color; it was a yellow ticket, and armed with that, a voter could safely run the gauntlet of the sabres and carbines that guarded the entrance to the polls, and known sympathizers with the rebellion were, as certified to me, allowed to vote unquestioned, if they would vote that ticket, whilst loyal and respected citizens, ready to take the oath, were turned back by the officers in charge without even allowing them to approach the polls. " In one district, as appears by certificate from the judge, the military officer took his stand at the polls before they were opened, declaring that none but ' the yellow ticket' should be voted, and excluded all others throughout the day. In another district a similar officer caused every ballot offered to be examined, and unless it was the favored one, the voter wras required to take the oath and not otherwise ; and in another again, after one vote only had been given, the polls were closed, the judges all arrested and sent out of the county, and military occupation taken of the town. "But I will not detain you with a recapitulation of all the abuses that these statements disclose. I have caused copies of them to be transmitted to you and they cannot fail to arrest your attention. They present a humiliating record, such as I had never supposed we should be called upon to read in any State, still less in a loyal one like this. Unless it be indeed a fallacy to suppose that any rights whatever remain in such a State, or that any line whatever marks the limit of Federal power, a bolder stride across that line that power never made even in a Rebel State than it did here on the 4th of last November. " A part of the army which a generous people had supplied for a very different purpose, was on that day engaged in stifling the freedom of election in a faithful State, intimidating its sworn officers, violating the constitutional rights of its loyal citizens, and obstructing the usual channels of communication between them and their Executive."l Under the anti-slavery agitation, slave property which had been very uncertain for some time, became almost valueless. This was strikingly illustrated in July, when Colonel William Birney, of the bureau for the organization of colored troops, liberated all the slaves in Campbell's slave prison, on Pratt near Howard street, Baltimore. At this time there were over fifty imprisoned " contrabands," as negroes were now jocosely called, who had been sent there for safe keeping by their owners. This establishment with others was broken up, and during the civil war many a prominent 1 As the outrages of power upon liberty have resorted to. Popular institutions will not suffer, never yet failed to find eminent and philan- for the copperhead element will have a much thropic defenders, we cannot be surprised to larger number of members in both branches find that the Boston Commonwealth, the organ of than it is entitled to by its popular vote. Ohio, the Hon. Charles Sumner, senator from Massa- with its nine thousand republican majority, will chusetts, thus justifying the military inter- be represented by five republicans and a dozen f erence of the administration with the elections or more copperheads. It is fitting that this mis- in Maryland and Delaware: "We do not find representation of popular sentiment in the great fault with the machinery used to carry Mary- State of the West should be offset, if necessary, land and Delaware. Having nearly lost control by a loyal delegation from Maryland and Dela- of the House by its blunders in the conduct of ware, won even at the expense of military in- the war from March, 1861, to the fall of 1862, terference. If laws are silent amid the clank the administration owed it to the country to re- of arms, we must take care that the aggregate cover that control somehow. To recover it reg- public opinion of the country obtains recogni- ularly, was impossible; so irregularity had to be tion, somehow or other." |
