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North America

A >> Anthony Trollope >> North America




On the 10th of May, the Maryland legislature, having received the
report of their Commissioners above mentioned, passed the following
resolution:--

"Whereas, the war against the Confederate States is
unconstitutional and repugnant to civilization, and will result in
a bloody and shameful overthrow of our constitution, and while
recognizing the obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sympathize
with the South in the struggle for their rights; for the sake of
humanity we are for peace and reconciliation, and solemnly protest
against this war, and will take no part in it.

"RESOLVED, That Maryland implores the President, in the name of
God, to cease this unholy war, at least until Congress assembles"--
a period of above six months. "That Maryland desires and consents
to the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States.
The military occupation of Maryland is unconstitutional, and she
protests against it, though the violent interference with the
transit of the Federal troops is discountenanced. That the
vindication of her rights be left to time and reason, and that a
convention under existing circumstances is inexpedient." From
which it is plain that Maryland would have seceded as effectually
as Georgia seceded, had she not been prevented by the interposition
of Washington between her and the Confederate States--the happy
intervention, seeing that she has thus been saved from becoming the
battle-ground of the contest. But the legislature had to pay for
its rashness. On the 13th of September thirteen of its members
were arrested, as were also two editors of newspapers presumed to
be secessionists. A member of Congress was also arrested at the
same time, and a candidate for Governor Hicks's place, who belonged
to the secessionist party. Previously, in the last days of June
and beginning of July, the chief of the police at Baltimore and the
members of the Board of Police had been arrested by General Banks,
who then held Baltimore in his power.

I should be sorry to be construed as saying that republican
institutions, or what may more properly be called democratic
institutions, have been broken down in the States of America. I am
far from thinking that they have broken down. Taking them and
their work as a whole, I think that they have shown and still show
vitality of the best order. But the written Constitution of the
United States and of the several States, as bearing upon each
other, are not equal to the requirements made upon them. That, I
think, is the conclusion to which a spectator should come. It is
in that doctrine of finality that our friends have broken down--a
doctrine not expressed in their constitutions, and indeed expressly
denied in the Constitution of the United States, which provides the
mode in which amendments shall be made--but appearing plainly
enough in every word of self-gratulation which comes from them.
Political finality has ever proved a delusion--as has the idea of
finality in all human institutions. I do not doubt but that the
republican form of government will remain and make progress in
North America, but such prolonged existence and progress must be
based on an acknowledgment of the necessity for change, and must
much depend on the facilities for change which shall be afforded.

I have described the condition of Baltimore as it was early in May,
1861. I reached that city just seven months later, and its
condition was considerably altered. There was no question then
whether troops should pass through Baltimore, or by an awkward
round through Annapolis, or not pass at all through Maryland.
General Dix, who had succeeded General Banks, was holding the city
in his grip, and martial law prevailed. In such times as those, it
was bootless to inquire as to that promise that no troops should
pass southward through Baltimore. What have such assurances ever
been worth in such days? Baltimore was now a military depot in the
hands of the Northern army, and General Dix was not a man to stand
any trifling. He did me the honor to take me to the top of Federal
Hill, a suburb of the city, on which he had raised great earthworks
and planted mighty cannons, and built tents and barracks for his
soldiery, and to show me how instantaneously he could destroy the
town from his exalted position. "This hill was made for the very
purpose," said General Dix; and no doubt he thought so. Generals,
when they have fine positions and big guns and prostrate people
lying under their thumbs, are inclined to think that God's
providence has specially ordained them and their points of vantage.
It is a good thing in the mind of a general so circumstanced that
200,000 men should be made subject to a dozen big guns. I confess
that to me, having had no military education, the matter appeared
in a different light, and I could not work up my enthusiasm to a
pitch which would have been suitable to the general's courtesy.
That hill, on which many of the poor of Baltimore had lived, was
desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads. The neat earth-works
were ugly, as looked upon by me; and though I regarded General Dix
as energetic, and no doubt skillful in the work assigned to him, I
could not sympathize with his exultation.

Previously to the days of secession Baltimore had been guarded by
Fort McHenry, which lies on a spit of land running out into the bay
just below the town. Hither I went with General Dix, and he
explained to me how the cannon had heretofore been pointed solely
toward the sea; that, however, now was all changed, and the mouths
of his bombs and great artillery were turned all the other way.
The commandant of the fort was with us, and other officers, and
they all spoke of this martial tenure as a great blessing. Hearing
them, one could hardly fail to suppose that they had lived their
forty, fifty, or sixty years of life in full reliance on the powers
of a military despotism. But not the less were they American
republicans, who, twelve months since, would have dilated on the
all-sufficiency of their republican institutions, and on the
absence of any military restraint in their country, with that
peculiar pride which characterizes the citizens of the States.
There are, however, some lessons which may be learned with singular
rapidity!

Such was the state of Baltimore when I visited that city. I found,
nevertheless, that cakes and ale still prevailed there. I am
inclined to think that cakes and ale prevail most freely in times
that are perilous, and when sources of sorrow abound. I have seen
more reckless joviality in a town stricken by pestilence than I
ever encountered elsewhere. There was General Dix seated on
Federal Hill with his cannon; and there, beneath his artillery,
were gentlemen hotly professing themselves to be secessionists, men
whose sons and brothers were in the Southern army, and women, alas!
whose brothers would be in one army, and their sons in another.
That was the part of it which was most heartrending in this border
land. In New England and New York men's minds at any rate were
bent all in the same direction--as doubtless they were also in
Georgia and Alabama. But here fathers were divided from sons, and
mothers from daughters. Terrible tales were told of threats
uttered by one member of a family against another. Old ties of
friendship were broken up. Society had so divided itself that one
side could hold no terms of courtesy with the other. "When this is
over," one gentleman said to me, "every man in Baltimore will have
a quarrel to the death on his hands with some friend whom he used
to love." The complaints made on both sides were eager and open-
mouthed against the other.

Late in the autumn an election for a new legislature of the State
had taken place, and the members returned were all supposed to be
Unionists. That they were prepared to support the government is
certain. But no known or presumed secessionist was allowed to vote
without first taking the oath of allegiance. The election,
therefore, even if the numbers were true, cannot be looked upon as
a free election. Voters were stopped at the poll and not allowed
to vote unless they would take an oath which would, on their parts,
undoubtedly have been false. It was also declared in Baltimore
that men engaged to promote the Northern party were permitted to
vote five or six times over, and the enormous number of votes
polled on the government side gave some coloring to the statement.
At any rate, an election carried under General Dix's guns cannot be
regarded as an open election. It was out of the question that any
election taken under such circumstances should be worth anything as
expressing the minds of the people. Red and white had been
declared to be the colors of the Confederates, and red and white
had of course become the favorite colors of the Baltimore ladies.
Then it was given out that red and white would not be allowed in
the streets. Ladies wearing red and white were requested to return
home. Children decorated with red and white ribbons were stripped
of their bits of finery--much to their infantile disgust and
dismay. Ladies would put red and white ornaments in their windows,
and the police would insist on the withdrawal of the colors. Such
was the condition of Baltimore during the past winter.
Nevertheless cakes and ale abounded; and though there was deep
grief in the city, and wailing in the recesses of many houses, and
a feeling that the good times were gone, never to return within the
days of many of them, still there existed an excitement and a
consciousness of the importance of the crisis which was not
altogether unsatisfactory. Men and women can endure to be ruined,
to be torn from their friends, to be overwhelmed with avalanches of
misfortune, better than they can endure to be dull.

Baltimore is, or at any rate was, an aspiring city, proud of its
commerce and proud of its society. It has regarded itself as the
New York of the South, and to some extent has forced others so to
regard it also. In many respects it is more like an English town
than most of its Transatlantic brethren, and the ways of its
inhabitants are English. In old days a pack of fox hounds was kept
here--or indeed in days that are not yet very old, for I was told
of their doings by a gentleman who had long been a member of the
hunt. The country looks as a hunting country should look, whereas
no man that ever crossed a field after a pack of hounds would feel
the slightest wish to attempt that process in New England or New
York. There is in Baltimore an old inn with an old sign, standing
at the corner of Eutaw and Franklin Streets, just such as may still
be seen in the towns of Somersetshire, and before it there are to
be seen old wagons, covered and soiled and battered, about to
return from the city to the country, just as the wagons do in our
own agricultural counties. I have seen nothing so thoroughly
English in any other part of the Union.

But canvas-back ducks and terrapins are the great glories of
Baltimore. Of the nature of the former bird I believe all the
world knows something. It is a wild duck which obtains the
peculiarity of its flavor from the wild celery on which it feeds.
This celery grows on the Chesapeake Bay, and I believe on the
Chesapeake Bay only. At any rate, Baltimore is the headquarters of
the canvas-backs, and it is on the Chesapeake Bay that they are
shot. I was kindly invited to go down on a shooting-party; but
when I learned that I should have to ensconce myself alone for
hours in a wet wooden box on the water's edge, waiting there for
the chance of a duck to come to me, I declined. The fact of my
never having as yet been successful in shooting a bird of any kind
conduced somewhat, perhaps, to my decision. I must acknowledge that
the canvas-back duck fully deserves all the reputation it has
acquired. As to the terrapin, I have not so much to say. The
terrapin is a small turtle, found on the shores of Maryland and
Virginia, out of which a very rich soup is made. It is cooked with
wines and spices, and is served in the shape of a hash, with heaps
of little bones mixed through it. It is held in great repute, and
the guest is expected as a matter of course to be helped twice.
The man who did not eat twice of terrapin would be held in small
repute, as the Londoner is held who at a city banquet does not
partake of both thick and thin turtle. I must, however, confess
that the terrapin for me had no surpassing charms.

Maryland was so called from Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles
I., by which king, in 1632, the territory was conceded to the Roman
Catholic Lord Baltimore. It was chiefly peopled by Roman
Catholics, but I do not think that there is now any such specialty
attaching to the State. There are in it two or three old Roman
Catholic families, but the people have come down from the North,
and have no peculiar religious tendencies. Some of Lord
Baltimore's descendants remained in the State up to the time of the
Revolution. From Baltimore I went on to Washington.


END OF VOL. I.

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