Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 2.djvu/35

Rh boat to Annapolis and thence by rail to Washington. The President and General Scott both seemed to take it for granted that the Potomac would be blockaded. Mayor Brown returned from Washington with the assurance that the detachment at Cockeysville would be ordered back, and that no troops should attempt to pass through Baltimore. The wires were all cut north of the city and all communication by rail or telegraph between the capital and the Northern States was absolutely closed for several days. The Eighth Massachusetts, with Brig.-Gen. B. F. Butler, arrived at Perryville on the 20th, took the steamboat Maryland, and arrived at Annapolis on the 21st. On the 22d, the governor called an extra session of the general assembly to meet at Annapolis on the 26th. On the 24th the governor, "in consequence of the extraordinary state of affairs," changed the place of meeting to Frederick. On its meeting there the Hon. James Murray Mason appeared before it, as a commissioner from the State of Virginia authorized to conclude a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, between the two States. The legislature had been elected in 1859 and was charged with no mandate for revolutionary times. Ten members from Baltimore were elected at a special election held in that city on the 24th, in the place of the delegation returned as elected in 1859, but unseated on account of fraud and violence at the election. The new members were the leading men of the town—merchants, lawyers, representatives of the great business of commerce and trade of a great city. They were John C. Brune, Ross Winans, Henry M. Warfield, J. Hanson Thomas, T. Parkin Scott, H. Mason Morfit, S. Teakle Wallis, Charles H. Pitts, William G. Harrison, and Lawrence Langston. It was evident in twenty-four hours that "conservatism" would rule the councils of the general assembly, as it had done those of the governor, and that all the influence of that body would be exerted against any action by the