A military genius

by Sarah Ellen Blackwell

With Maryland out of the Union they expected to inaugurate their Southern Confederacy in the Capitol of the United States on the expiration of President Buchanan's term, on the 4th of March, and by divesting the North of the seat of Government and retaining possession of the public buildings and archives, they calculated with great confidence upon recognition of national independence by European powers. About the middle of December Miss Carroll communicated to Governor Hicks their designs on Maryland and suggested the propriety of a public announcement of his unalterable determination to hold Maryland to the Union.

After his address on the 3d of January, 1861, resolutions and letters from men and women endorsing his cause were received from Maryland and from all quarters of the United States.

Governor Hicks at that time was willing to abide by any terms of settlement that would save a conflict between the sections. He favored the compromise proposed by the border States committee, that slavery should not be forbidden, either by Federal or territorial legislation, south of 36° 30', and he was strongly inclined to base his action on the acceptance or rejection of the Crittenden resolutions by Congress.

On the 19th of January, 1861, he urged Miss Carroll to exert whatever influence she was able to induce Congress to adopt some measure of pacification; but she was soon satisfied that no compromise that Congress would adopt would be accepted by the cotton States, and, perceiving the danger should the Governor commit himself to any impossible condition, informed him on the 24th of January that the Crittenden proposition would by no possibility receive the sanction of Congress.

All efforts to move the steadfastness of the Governor having failed, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates issued their call to the people to act independently of him and elect delegates to a convention. This was a most daring and dangerous proceeding, and had the plan succeeded and a convention assembled they would immediately have deposed the Governor and passed an ordinance of secession. The Governor was powerless in such an emergency to defend the State against the revolutionary body, as the State militia were on their side and Mr. Buchanan had declared that the National Government could not coerce a sovereign State.

The gravity of the situation was appreciated by the Governor and the friends of the Union. Miss Carroll addressed articles through the press and wrote many letters to prepare the public mind in Maryland for the struggle. Fortunately the people (thus warned) failed to endorse this call; consequently the leading statesmen of the disunion party abandoned their cherished expectation of inaugurating their Government in the National Capitol.

Many of the conspirators, however, still sought to seize Washington and forcibly prevent the inauguration of the President elect on the 4th of March. The military organizations of the South were deemed sufficient for the enterprise, and a leader trained in the wars of Texas was solicited to lead them. The more sagacious of their party, however, discountenanced the mad scheme. They assured Miss Carroll that no attempt would be made to seize the Capitol and prevent the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, so long as Maryland remained in the Union.

The ruthless assault upon the Massachusetts troops in Baltimore, as they were passing through on their way to Washington, on the 19th of April, with the antecedent and attendant circumstances, roused to the highest degree the passions of all who sympathized with the secession movement, and the mob became for the time being the controlling force of that city. So largely in the ascendant was it and so confident were the disunionists in consequence that they, without warrant of law, assumed the responsibility of issuing a call for the Legislature of Maryland to convene in Baltimore. Governor Hicks, fearing that the Legislature would respond to the call, and that if it did it would yield to the predominant spirit, give voice to the purpose of the mob, and adopt an act of secession, resolved to forestall such action by convening that body to meet at Frederick City, away from the violent and menacing demonstrations of Baltimore.

The Legislature thus assembled contained a number of leading members who were ready at once for unconditional secession. There were also others who, with them, would constitute a majority and would vote for the measure could they be sustained by public sentiment, but who were not prepared to give that support without that assurance. The field of conflict was, therefore, transferred from the halls of legislation to the State at large, and to the homes of their constituents, and there the battle raged during the summer of 1861. In that conflict of ideas Miss Carroll bore an earnest and prominent part, and the most distinguished men have given repeated evidence that her labors were largely instrumental in thwarting the secessionists and saving Maryland to the Union. The objective point of the labors of the disunion leaders was a formal act of secession, by which Maryland would become an integral portion of the Confederacy, not only affording moral and material aid to the Southern cause, but relieving the rebel armies in crossing the Potomac from the charge, which at that stage of the conflict the leaders were anxious to avoid, of ignoring their vaunted doctrine of State rights by invading the territory of sovereign States. With the usual arguments that were urged to fire the Southern heart and to reconcile the people to the extreme remedy of revolution, special prominence was given to what was stigmatized as the arbitrary and unconstitutional acts of President Lincoln. To place the people in possession of the true theory of their institutions and to define and defend the war powers of the Government were the special purposes of Miss Carroll's labors during these eventful months."

It would not be possible in the compass of this paper to set forth circumstantially all the important questions that arose in the progress of the war, in the discussion of which Miss Carroll took part; but it is proper to say that on every material issue, from the inception of the rebellion to the final reconstruction of the seceded States, she contributed through the newspapers, in pamphlet form, and by private correspondence to the discussion of important subjects. Governor Hicks bore the brunt of this terrible conflict, greatly aided by Miss Carroll's public and private support, and stimulated by such inspiring letters as the following: