THE DEBATABLE GROUND.
There is one very vexed question, the importance of which, both in the
present and for the future, can hardly be over-estimated. It does not
depend on the vicissitudes, the duration, or even the termination of the
war: rather it will become more gravely complicated as prospects of
peace dawn clearer.
In which direction do the sympathies and interests of the _Border_
States actually tend? Let it be understood that the point to be decided
is--not whether the Democrats in those parts are politically stronger
than their Republican opponents; but whether the popular feeling
identifies itself with North or South; whether an uncoerced vote of the
majority would be in favor of or hostile to the Union; finally, on which
side of the frontier-line, in case of separation, the State would fain
abide.
It seems to me that only personal knowledge and experience can enable an
alien to form any accurate opinion on these points; even where the press
is not forced to grumble out discontent with bated breath, under terror
of martial law, party spirit runs so high as to render statements,
written or spoken, barely reliable; sound, deeply as you will, into
these turbid wells, it is a rare chance if you touch truth, after all.
So, of Tennessee, Missouri, or Kentucky, I will not say a word, but for
the same reasons I _may_ venture to hazard more than a guess at the
sympathies of Maryland.
Notwithstanding her superficial extent is comparatively small, there can
be no question which of the Border States enters most importantly into
the calculations of both the belligerent powers; the weight of interests
and wealth of resources that Maryland carries with her--to say nothing
of her local advantages--are such that she cannot eventually be allowed
to adhere to either side with a lukewarm or divided fidelity.
The position I am about to advance will meet with a certain amount of
dissent, if not of incredulity, and some one will probably point at
recent events as furnishing an unanswerable contradiction to much that I
affirm. I will only pray my readers to believe that I have tried hard to
cast prejudice aside in listening, in marking, and in recording; my
opportunities of forming a deliberate judgment on the sympathies of all
classes in this especial State were such as have fallen to the lot of
very few strangers; and my observations _ought_, certainly, to have been
the more accurate, from their field having been necessarily narrowed.
Perhaps I can hardly do better than reprint here the larger portion of a
letter, written in the middle of last March, to the "Morning Post;"
nothing that has occurred since induces me materially to modify any one
of the opinions expressed therein. Though, in common with many others, I
may have regretted the disappointment of our anticipations with regard
to a general rising, in co-operation with the Southern invaders; I think
it is easy to show that there were reasons sufficient to account for, if
not excuse, this second apparent supineness.
"I believe that at home people have a very faint--perhaps a very
false--idea of how men think, and act, and suffer, in this same Border
State. Your impression may be that a lethargy prevails, where, in
reality, dangerous fever is the disease--a fever that must one day break
out violently, in spite of the quack medicines administered by an
incapable Government--in spite of the restrictions unsparingly employed,
by that grim sick-nurse, martial law.
"I fancy the world is hardly aware of the hearty sympathy with the
South--the intense antipathy to the North--which animates at this moment
the vast majority of Marylanders. I have heard more than one assert that
of the two alternatives, he would infinitely prefer becoming again a
colonial subject of England to remaining a member of the Federal Union.
This sounds like an exaggeration; I believe it to have been simply the
truth, strongly stated. I believe that the partisan spirit is as rife
and as bitter in many parts of this State, as it can be in South
Carolina or Georgia.
"A remarkable instance of this popular feeling occurred last week, at a
large sale in Howard county. The late proprietor, an Irishman by
descent, belonging to one of the old Roman Catholic families that have
been territorial magnates here for generations, had a great fancy for
dividing his land into small holdings, rented by men of proportionately
small means, so as to establish a sort of English tenant-system,
involving, of course, much free labor. It would have been hard to select
a spot in that country where the abolition feeling would be more likely
to prevail. On the present occasion about six hundred farmers and others
were assembled. They were Southerners to a man; at least, no one hinted
at dissent when Jefferson Davis's health and more violent Southern
toasts were drunk amidst a storm of cheers.
"Twice has Maryland been taunted with her inaction, if not charged with
deliberate treachery; first when, at the outbreak of the war, she did
not openly secede; again, when she did not second by a general rising
Lee's invasion of her boundary. It would be well to remember that for
Maryland to declare herself, before Virginia had actually done so, would
have been the insanity of rashness. She could hardly be expected to defy
the vengeance of the North, while cut off by a neutral State from
Southern aid, especially since Governor Hicks' measures of disarmament,
by which not only the militia but private individuals were deprived of
their firelocks. Virginia has fought so gallantly since then, that it is
easy to forget her tardiness in drawing the sword; but it would be vain
to deny that on the southern bank of the Potomac there does exist a
certain jealousy, arising probably from conflicting commercial
interests, which has led to suspicion and misconception already, and may
lead to more harm yet. General Lee issued his proclamation inviting
Maryland to rise only one day before he commenced his retreat--short
notice, surely, for a revolution involving not only the temporary ruin
of many interests, but the certainty of collision with a Federal army of
one hundred and twenty thousand men then within the border of the State.
Had Maryland joined the Confederacy a year ago, I believe her entire
territory would be desolate now, as are most great battlefields. With
the immense means of naval transport at the Federals' command, it would
be easy for them to land any number of troops in almost any part of the
western division, for the whole country is intersected by the creeks of
the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers. One glance at the map will
show this more plainly than verbal description, and make it needless to
remark on the still more exposed and isolated position of the Eastern
Shore.
"In spite of all this, men say that if the opportunity were once more
given, the blade would be drawn in earnest, and the scabbard thrown
away. It may well be so; there has been oppression and provocation
enough of late to make the scale turn once and forever.
"Meantime, Maryland has not confined herself to a suppressed sympathy
with the South. We may guess, perhaps, but no one will ever know, the
extent of the covert assistance already rendered by this State to the
Confederacy. I am not referring to the constant reinforcements of her
best and bravest--over twelve thousand, it is said--that have never
ceased to feed the ranks of the Southern armies.
"One significant fact is worth mentioning, drawn from the reports of
Federal officers--viz., out of nine thousand Marylanders drafted into
the service, there are scarcely one hundred now remaining in the ranks;
they deserted, literally, by bands.
"I speak of supplies of all sorts, especially medicines, furnished
perpetually; of valuable information forwarded as to the enemy's
movements and intentions; of Confederate prisoners tended with every
care, and supplied with every comfort that womanly tenderness could
devise; of a hundred other marks of substantial friendship that could
not only be rendered by a nominal neutral, but a real ally. It would be
hard, indeed, if any miserable jealousies were to prevent all this from
being appreciated and rewarded some day.
"The Federal Government, at least, does ample justice to the
proclivities of Maryland. The system of coercion, hourly more and more
stringent, speaks for itself. The State is at this moment subjected to a
military despotism more irritating and oppressive than was ever
exercised by Austria in her Italian dependencies; more irritating,
because domestic interference and all sorts of petty annoyances are more
frequent here; more oppressive, because it is considered unnecessary to
indulge a political prisoner with even the mockery of a trial. Nothing
is too small for the gripe of the Provost Marshal's myrmidons. There was
a general order last week for the seizure of all Southern songs and
photographs of Confederate celebrities. One convivial cheer for
Jefferson Davis brought the 'strayed reveler' the following morning into
the awful presence of Colonel Fish, there to be favored with one of his
characteristic diatribes. The duties of that truculent potentate are
doubtless both difficult and disagreeable, yet one would think, it
possible for an officer to act; energetically without ignoring the
common courtesies of life, and to maintain rigid discipline without
constantly emulating the army that swore terribly in Flanders. The oath
of allegiance--that is the touchstone whose mark gives everything its
marketable value. The Union flag must wave over every spot--chapel,
mart, institute, or ball-room--where two or three may meet together; and
beyond the shadow of the enforced ensign there is little safety or
comfort for man, woman, or child--for women least of all.
"During the past week two ladies of this city have been arraigned on the
charge of aiding and abetting deserters from the Federal army. In the
first case, the offense was having given a very trifling alms, after
much solicitation and many refusals, to a man who represented himself
and his family as literally starving. The fugitive made his way to
Canada, and thence wrote two begging letters, threatening, if money were
not sent, to denounce his benefactress. Eventually he did so. This lady
is to be separated from her husband and family, with whom she is now
residing, and sent across the lines in a few days. In the second case I
am justified in mentioning names, as from the peculiar circumstances it
will probably become more public. Mrs. Grace is the widow of a Havana
merchant, and a naturalized subject of Spain, to whose Minister she has
since appealed. She was summoned before the Provost Marshal on the same
charge, but was too ill to attend in person. Her daughter went to the
office, and found that the evidence against her mother was an
intercepted letter from some person (whose name was equally unknown to
Mrs. Grace as to the officials), telling his wife 'to go to that lady,
who would take care of her.' Miss Grace represented the extreme hardship
of the case; they had no friends or connections in the South, and her
mother's health was far from strong. Finally, she gave her own positive
assurance that there was not the faintest foundation for the charge.
Colonel Fish did not scruple to reply 'that he considered an anonymous
document evidence' strong enough to bear down a lady's proffered word of
honor. If, after this provocation, the spirit of the fair pleader was
roused, and she spoke somewhat unadvisedly with her lips, few will be
disposed to impute to her anything more than imprudence. The Provost
Marshal closed the discussion very promptly and decidedly--'Your mother
will go South within the fortnight; and you, for your insolence, will
accompany her.' When women and weaklings are before them, the
_argumentum bacculinum_ seems favored by the Republican chivalry.
"The country is not much better off than the city. The same system of
espionage and coercion prevails there; especially since that fatal
proclamation has sown distrust between master and slave, it is hard to
say how many spies there may be in any man's household. Large landed
proprietors, who have shown no sign of Southern proclivity, beyond
abstaining from taking the oath, cannot obtain the commonest
necessaries, such as groceries, &c., without resorting to shifts and
stratagems that would be absurd, if they were not so painful. Such
trammels are far more galling to the purely agricultural class than they
are to the inhabitants of a city like this, where commerce has
introduced a large mixed element, embracing not only Northerners, but
almost every European race.
"But, in spite of all privations and annoyances, there is in the
Marylander just now an honest earnestness of purpose, a readiness for
self-sacrifice, a patient hardihood, a brave, hopeful spirit, quick to
chafe but slow to complain, that might make Anglo-Saxons feel proud of
their common blood. There is plenty of the stuff left out of which
Buchanan, Semmes, Maffit (of the Florida), Hollins, and Kelso are
made--Marylanders all--who are doing their _devoir_ gallantly on the
decks of Southern war-ships. I cannot believe that the day is far
distant when both moral and physical energy will have free and fair
play.
"The ties of mutual interest that bind this State to the Confederacy are
too obvious to need much explanation, but it may be well to touch upon
them briefly. Her extensive water-power marks out Maryland as eminently
adapted for the produce of all kinds of manufactures. That very
accessibility from seaward, which is her weak point in war time, is her
strength in time of peace. The Chesapeake and its tributaries are
natural high roads for the transport of freight to the ports of
Virginia, and thence into the interior. Before these troubles, the trade
of Maryland was almost exclusively with the South; and, unless violently
diverted, it must always remain so. The South is now straining every
nerve to establish a formidable steam-navy. It is not too much to say
that the adhesion of Maryland is absolutely indispensable if this object
is to be attained. She can not only offer superb harbors, in which the
South is palpably deficient, but her natural productions--ship timber,
iron ore (the largest and toughest plates in the United States are
hammered here), and bituminous coal, the best for steam purposes south
of Nova Scotia--would be invaluable."
With this State the South would retain all the material advantages that
the restoration of the Union could offer; without her, neither would the
territorial line be complete, nor the internal resources adequate to the
requirements of a powerful nation. President Davis has repeatedly
promised that the free vote of Maryland as to her future shall be one of
the prime conditions of any treaty whatsoever, and the Southern Congress
have confirmed this by a nearly unanimous vote. On this point there
surely ought to be no doubt or wavering. A single concession to the
arbitrary tendencies of Lincoln's Cabinet, so as to allow interference
with the free expression of Maryland's will when the crisis shall
arrive, would not only, I believe, crush the hopes of the vast majority
of this State's inhabitants, but also betray the vital interest of the
Southern Confederacy in days to come.
If further proof were needed of the Southern sympathy prevalent in
Baltimore, such would be found in the measures of coercion and
prevention employed by General Schenck, when Lee's army was thought
dangerously near. A private letter dispatched to me in the height of the
panic, more than confirmed the accounts in public prints of the
stringency of the martial law. The Federal officers were, perhaps, not
sorry to have such a chance of repaying, with aggravated oppression, the
tacit contumely which must have galled them for a year and more. The
Maryland Club, whose members are Southerners to a man (for the Unionist
element was eliminated long ago), is now the headquarters of a New
England regiment, and even Colonel Fish may now wander at will through
the cool, pleasant chambers that, before comparative liberty was
stifled, he would have found not more accessible than the lost paradise
of Sultan Zim. I greatly fear that some of those daring dames and
damsels, so careless in dissembling their antipathies, may, ere this,
have been made to pay a heavy price for the indulgence of past disdain.
The position of a Federal officer, in Baltimore, was certainly far from
enviable; many men would have preferred the lash of a cutting whip, or
even a slight flesh-wound, to the sidelong glances that, when a
dark-blue uniform passed by, interpreted so eloquently the fair
Secessionists' repugnance and scorn. Neither were words always wanting
to convey a covert insult. I heard rather an amusing instance of this
while I was in prison.
It was at the time when Brigadier-Generals were being created by scores
(I myself counted over sixty names sent down by the President to
Congress in one batch), when, according to some Washington Pasquin, a
stone, thrown at a night-prowling dog in Pennsylvania avenue, struck
three of these fresh-fledged eagles: a Baltimorian _lionne_ entered one
of the street railway cars, in which two or three Federal officers were
already seated. An infantry soldier got in immediately afterwards, and,
in taking his place, set his boot accidentally on the silken verge of a
far-flowing robe. The lady gazed on the unconscious offender for a
minute or so, and spake no word; then, looking beyond him as though he
had never been, she addressed the conductor with the pretty
plaintiveness affected by those languid Southern beauties:
"Sir, won't you ask that Brigadier-General to take his foot off the
skirt of my dress?"
Which position was the most enviable at that moment--the "full
private's" or that of his silent superiors?
It was curious to remark how thoroughly the majority of clergymen, of
all denominations, but especially Roman Catholic priests, identified
themselves with the Southern sympathies of their flock. Arrests of these
reverend men were very common; but they held their way undauntedly, and
"kept silence even from good words" only under the pressure of actual
coercion. Another anecdote is worth relating.
One day there came forth an edict, peremptory as that which bade all
nations and languages bow down to a golden image, enjoining that, on a
certain day, Sabbath-prayers for the President should be offered up in
every church, chapel, and meetinghouse in Baltimore. There was an
ancient Episcopalian divine, who during nearly half a century had won
for himself much affection and respect by a zealous and kindly discharge
of his duties. A notorious Secessionist, he was wise and prudent withal,
so that many were curious to hear how he would execute or evade the
obnoxious order. He complied with it--in this wise:
"My brethren," said he, "we are commanded this day to intercede with the
Almighty for the President. Let us pray. May the Lord have mercy on
Abraham Lincoln's soul."
Did ever priest pronounce a blessing more grimly like a ban?
Perhaps it was well that Lee did not advance near enough to Baltimore to
bring things to a climax there, unless he could have succeeded in
capturing the place by a _coup de main_, and have held it permanently.
Independently of Schenck's avowed intention of shelling the town, on the
first symptoms of disaffection, from the forts of Constitution and
McHenry, there might have been wild work there in more ways than one. If
the Secessionists had once fairly risen against their oppressors and not
prevailed, it is difficult to say where the measures of savage
retaliation would have ended. I do not like to think of the possible
brutality that might have lighted on many hospitable households in
blood-shedding or rapine.
So much for the city. I have mentioned above some of the reasons that
make an up-rising throughout the State so exceedingly difficult and
dangerous to organize. That no active aid was rendered to Lee's army
upon the last occasion of its crossing the frontier, is, I think, easily
explained, when the peculiar circumstances of time and place are
considered.
Southern proclivity is by no means so general in the northwestern
counties of Maryland as in the eastern region, or on the seaboard. The
farmers in the former parts suffer greatly from the ceaseless incursions
over the border. When cattle are to be driven away, it is feared that
even regular "raiders" and guerrillas are not over-careful to ascertain
the sympathies of the owner. The horse-thieves, of course, are
absolutely indifferent whether they plunder friend or foe. Now, though
the Marylander is far from being imbued with the exclusively commercial
spirit of the Yankee, it is not unnatural that he should chafe under
these repeated assaults on his purse, if not on his person. All such
considerations vanish in the fierce energy of the thorough partisan,
who, without grudging or remorse, casts the axe-head after the helve;
but I speak, now, of men whose sympathies at the commencement of the war
were almost neutral, and who began to suffer in the way above described
before the bias of feeling had time to determine itself. It was surely
natural that the first angry impulses should turn the wavering scale;
more especially when the irritation was constantly being renewed.
Beyond these northwestern counties, in neither inroad, did the
Confederate army advance. I was not much surprised at reading in the
able letter of the Times correspondent, how the Southerners were
disappointed by meeting all along their brief line of march gloomy faces
and sullen dislike, instead of a hearty welcome; for I knew that in the
neighborhood of Hagerstown, Boonesborough, and all round South Mountain,
the majority of the inhabitants were--to use my Irishman's
expression--as "black as thunder."
One glance at the field of the recent operations will show, that the
isolated Secessionists in the southeastern counties could do little more
than pray for the success of the Confederate arms: even detached bodies
of such sympathizers could not have joined Lee, without running the
gauntlet of the Federal forces lying right across the path.
It should not be forgotten, that the stakes of the invader and of the
insurgent differ widely The former, if worsted, can fall back on his own
ground, with no other damage than the actual loss sustained. The latter,
if foiled, must calculate on absolute ruin--if not on worse miseries.
Even if he should himself escape scathless beyond the frontier, he must
leave homestead and family behind--to be dealt with as chattels and
kindred of traitors fare.
Thus, though I am disposed to think more despondingly than before of
Maryland's chances of aiding herself, for the present, with the armed
hand, my conviction remains unchanged as to the proclivities of the
majority of her population, both civic and agricultural. I do honestly
believe that, in despite of the tempting geographical water-line, the
natural place of the State is in the Southern Confederacy. And I do also
believe, that the denial of a free vote as to her future, and a coerced
adhesion to the Northern Union, would involve, not only the ruin of many
important interests, political and commercial, but an exodus of more
influential residents, than has occurred in any civilized land, since
the Revolutionary storm drove thousands of patrician emigrants over
every frontier of France.