But I Do
Not Think That Any Such Accident Would Have Caused Very Much
Attention.
Life and limbs are not held to be so precious here as
they are in England.
It may be a question whether with us they are
not almost too precious. Regarding railways in America generally,
as to the relative safety of which, when compared with our own, we
have not in England a high opinion, I must say that I never saw any
accident or in any way became conversant with one. It is said that
large numbers of men and women are slaughtered from time to time on
different lines; but if it be so, the newspapers make very light of
such cases. I myself have seen no such slaughter, nor have I even
found myself in the vicinity of a broken bone. Beyond the
Susquehanna we passed over a creek of Chesapeake Bay on a long
bridge. The whole scenery here is very pretty, and the view up the
Susquehanna is fine. This is the bay which divides the State of
Maryland into two parts, and which is blessed beyond all other bays
by the possession of canvas-back ducks. Nature has done a great
deal for the State of Maryland, but in nothing more than in sending
thither these webfooted birds of Paradise.
Nature has done a great deal for Maryland; and Fortune also has
done much for it in these latter days in directing the war from its
territory. But for the peculiar position of Washington as the
capital, all that is now being done in Virginia would have been
done in Maryland, and I must say that the Marylanders did their
best to bring about such a result. Had the presence of the war
been regarded by the men of Baltimore as an unalloyed benefit, they
could not have made a greater struggle to bring it close to them.
Nevertheless fate has so far spared them.
As the position of Maryland and the course of events as they took
place in Baltimore on the commencement of secession had
considerable influence both in the North and in the South, I will
endeavor to explain how that State was affected, and how the
question was affected by that State. Maryland, as I have said
before, is a slave State lying immediately south of Mason and
Dixon's line. Small portions both of Virginia and of Delaware do
run north of Maryland, but practically Maryland is the frontier
State of the slave States. It was therefore of much importance to
know which way Maryland would go in the event of secession among
the slave States becoming general; and of much also to ascertain
whether it could secede if desirous of doing so. I am inclined to
think that as a State it was desirous of following Virginia, though
there are many in Maryland who deny this very stoutly. But it was
at once evident that if loyalty to the North could not be had in
Maryland of its own free will, adherence to the North must be
enforced upon Maryland. Otherwise the City of Washington could not
be maintained as the existing capital of the nation.
The question of the fidelity of the State to the Union was first
tried by the arrival at Baltimore of a certain Commissioner from
the State of Mississippi, who visited that city with the object of
inducing secession. It must be understood that Baltimore is the
commercial capital of Maryland, whereas Annapolis is the seat of
government and the legislature - or is, in other terms, the
political capital. Baltimore is a city containing 230,000
inhabitants, and is considered to have as strong and perhaps as
violent a mob as any city in the Union. Of the above number 30,000
are negroes and 2000 are slaves. The Commissioner made his appeal,
telling his tale of Southern grievances, declaring, among other
things, that secession was not intended to break up the government
but to perpetuate it, and asked for the assistance and sympathy of
Maryland. This was in December, 1860. The Commissioner was
answered by Governor Hicks, who was placed in a somewhat difficult
position. The existing legislature of the State was presumed to be
secessionist, but the legislature was not sitting, nor in the
ordinary course of things would that legislature have been called
on to sit again. The legislature of Maryland is elected every
other year, and in the ordinary course sits only once in the two
years. That session had been held, and the existing legislature
was therefore exempt from further work - unless specially summoned
for an extraordinary session. To do this is within the power of
the Governor. But Governor Hicks, who seems to have been mainly
anxious to keep things quiet, and whose individual politics did not
come out strongly, was not inclined to issue the summons. "Let us
show moderation as well as firmness," he said; and that was about
all he did say to the Commissioner from Mississippi. The Governor
after that was directly called on to convene the legislature; but
this he refused to do, alleging that it would not be safe to trust
the discussion of such a subject as secession to "excited
politicians, many of whom, having nothing to lose from the
destruction of the government, may hope to derive some gain from
the ruin of the State!" I quote these words, coming from the head
of the executive of the State and spoken with reference to the
legislature of the State, with the object of showing in what light
the political leaders of a State may be held in that very State to
which they belong. If we are to judge of these legislators from
the opinion expressed by Governor Hicks, they could hardly have
been fit for their places. That plan of governing by the little
men has certainly not answered. It need hardly be said that
Governor Hicks, having expressed such an opinion of his State's
legislature, refused to call them to an extraordinary session.
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