between the Governor of the State and the Mayor of Balti more: Baltimore, November 1, 1857. TO THE HON. Thomas SwaNN, Mayor of Baltimore. SIR: It is a matter of extreme gratification to me that you have communicated to me the extraordinary and additional arrangements by which you propose to preserve order at the coming election. Seeing in these the composition of a special police, which affords to all citizens the promise of personal protection, and also of a fairness and impartiality calculated to remove all distrust as to the freedom of the elective franchise on that day, it gives me great pleasure to say that I now contemplate no use of the military force which I have ordered to be enrolled and organized. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, T. WATKINS LIGON.' MAYOR'S OFFICE, CITY HALL, Baltimore, November 1, 1857. TO HIS EXCELLency, T. Watkins Ligon, Governor of Maryland. SIR: I have the honor to receive your letter of this date. It affords me pleasure to know that your Excellency is satisfied with my arrangements for preserving order at the coming election. The assurance which you have given me that you do not now contemplate the use of the military force, which you have ordered to be enrolled and organized, enables me to anticipate a quiet and peaceable election, which, I am sure, will be as agreeable to your Excellency as myself. I have the honor to be, with great respect, etc., The withdrawal of the Governor quieted the excitement to some extent, and the elèction was marked by neither riot nor bloodshed. But while these factors were absent, fraud and intimidation were carried on in a manner only equalled by the later elections of this same party. The police made no attempt to protect voters, and when men were assaulted the police either arrested them or took Ibid., 46. 'Governor's Message, 45. 231] Height of Know Nothing Success, 1857-1858. them aside and endeavored to persuade them to leave the was the At this election the Know Nothings again made use of the device they had learned from the Democrats in the Imunicipal election in 1854. The Know Nothing ticket had a red or pink stripe down the back and the voter did not have this ticket had a hard time in getting to window. The roughs at the polls had a regular syster signals to indicate the reception to be accorded to voter. that the of the As the voter approached the polls he was solicited by the party workers, and if he voted the Know Nothing ticket they would cry out: "Clear the way, let the vo come up." Having thus been vouched for he was ters allowed to vote. But if he declined the red-striped ticket, they would shout: "Meet him on the ice," and then the voter was generally pushed away from the window and into the street. The polling places were also situated in many cases away from the most populous parts of the ward and in the neighborhood of political headquarters and disreputable grog at shops. At one polling place a cannon was mounted the curb as a dire menace to the opponents of the Know Nothings. Not only was intimidation resorted to, but a 1 more positive means of fraud was practiced by minors and repeaters.1 Indeed in many cases the judges, knowing the votes to be illegal, received the ballots, and then threw them on the floor as the only means of getting rid of these importunate voters.2 The Eighth ward the Know Nothings seem to have tacitly surrendered to their opponents, and the latter did not hesitate to drive the Know Nothing ticket holder away. That fraud was practiced here is evident from the fact that the total vote in 1860 was only 1266, while the Democratic vote in 1857 was 2135. The absence of serious riot is probably due to the fact that this ward was left in undisputed sway of the Democrats. With such intimidation, it is almost needless to state the result of the election. Hicks, the Know Nothing candidate for Governor, received in the city 17,850 votes, as against 8211 for his opponent, Groome. It was well for him that the city gave him such a majority, for the rest of the State gave his opponent a clear majority of 1179. The other State officials and four Congressmen out of six were also elected by the Know Nothings. The Legislature also continued in the control of the Know Nothings, the latter having a clear majority in both houses." An election conducted in such a manner was not to pass unquestioned. On November 25, Mr. William Pinckney Whyte, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the third district, notified his successful opponent, Mr. J. Morrison Harris, of his intention to contest the election. On February 25, 1858, the papers in the case were presented to the House of Representatives and referred to the Committee on Elections. After considering the thousand printed pages of testimony offered, the committee reported "Maryland Contested Election," 127, 128. Ibid., 25. 'Ibid., 876. Vide election returns in "Tribune Almanac, 1858.” Senate: Know Nothings 15, Democrats 7. House: Know Nothings 44, Democrats 29. 'Maryland Contested Election,” 1. * Cong. Globe, 35th Congress, 1st Session, 102. 233] Height of Know Nothing Success, 1857-1858. the unanimously in favor of denying the seat to Mr. Whyte,1 but by a strict party vote of five to four it recommended that the election be declared void and the seat vacant. On December 15, 1858, the report was presented to House. The House was Democratic, but some of Southern members were afraid to unseat the sitting member, as the Know Nothing leaders said that the contestant could not be elected, and that if the sitting member the was ousted an anti-slavery man would be sent from the district. The Kansas question was then uppermost, and the Southern men were endeavoring to have Kansas admitted under the Lecompton Constitution. The threat of the Know Nothing leaders had the desired effect, and when the question the table by a vote of one hundred and six to ninety-seven. came up in the House the whole subject was ordered laid on The Southern Democrats thus showed that they were willing to sacrifice everything, even the freedom of elections, the very four da and no further action was taken upon it. tion of republican government, in order to further the terests of slavery. In justice to Mr. Harris it should inbe stated that neither Mr. Whyte nor the Committee on Elections connected him in any way with the fraud and disorder. Later in the sesion the House allowed Mr. Whyte pay and mileage up to the time the case was disposed of. This how ever, was not accepted. Henry P. Brooks also contested the seat of Henry Winter Davis, in the Fourth Congressional District. The contestant did not claim the seat, but merely asked that it be declared vacant, and asked that the House make a special investigation of his statements. This the House refused to 'American, June 7, 1858. 3 Cong. Globe, 35th Congress, 2d Session, 102. 4 Ibid. Cong. Globe, Part I, 2d Session, 35th Congress, 102-3, 120. "Report of the Committee on Elections," 38. Bartlett: "Contested Election Case in Congress." House Miscellaneous Documents, No. 57, 38th Congress, 2d Session, 245. do, declaring that the contestant must take his testimony before a local magistrate as provided for by the Act of 1851.1 The defeated candidates for the House of Delegates from Baltimore also contested the seats of the members as returned by the election officials. On January 21, 1858, the House received the memorial, and after refusing to have it printed in any form, referred it to the Committee on Elections. On February 16 the committee reported against any investigation of the election in Baltimore, saying that all the trouble was caused by the action of the Governor. The minority of the committee made a dissenting report, but the report of the majority was adopted by the House by a strict party vote of thirty-nine to twenty-six.® The second Legislature controlled by the Know Nothing party met at Annapolis on January 6, 1858. The previous Legislature had failed to carry out the demands of the party, and consequently many new faces were seen upon the Know Nothing side of the House of Delegates. In fact, there were only two members of the dominant party who had also been members at the previous session. The remainder were mainly raw and inexperienced, very few of the minority ever having had any legislative experience." The House organized by electing J. Summerfield Berry, of Baltimore County, as Speaker," and the Senate chose as its presiding officer Edwin H. Webster, of Harford County. At this session, as at the previous one, the Governor's message was the occasion of the first disturbance of the even tenor of legislation. The Governor committed the indiscretion of giving his message to the newspapers before it had been presented to the House.10 Accordingly when 'Bartlett: "Contested Election Case in Congress." House Miscellaneous Documents, 38th Congress, 2d Session, 246. House Journal, 1858, 101. 10 Sun, January 9, 1858. 4 'Ibid., 102. |