Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/283

 April. 19th, 1861. 267

Baltimore of unparalleled ferocity and injustice, which continued until the war was over. Even then political persecution did not cease until the Constitutional Convention was called by the Legisla- ture, in January, 1867.

After the subsidence of the acute excitement of April 19 and the following days a reaction set in and the people divided in sentiment, some being for the Union, some for the South. As soon as the be- lief that the State could or would secede was abandoned thousands of the best young men of the State escaped across the Potomac and joined the Confederate Army. The number of them has been esti- mated as high as 20,000, and a great many joined the Northern Army.

It was not merely the attack on the Massachusetts regiment which made the North and the Federal Government hostile to the city. Before that event the people of the city had been maligned in the Northern press. A conspicuous instance of this was the story that the assasination of the President-elect as he passed through Baltimore was contemplated. There never was the slightest foundation for any such report, and yet Mr. Lincoln gave credence to it. It was pub- licly announced that Mr. Lincoln in going to Washington for his inauguration would go from Philadelphia to Harrisburg and thence to Baltimore by the Northern Central. The day fixed for his arrival in this city was Saturday, February 23, at 11:30 A. M.

LINCOLN'S TRIP TO WASHINGTON.

Mayor Brown was at Calvert Station, accompanied by the Police Commissioners and a strong force of policemen, at the appointed hour to meet Mr. Lincoln. The Mayor had a carnage in waiting in which, as he said, he was to have the honor of escorting Mr. Lincoln through the city to the Washington Station and of sharing in any danger which he might encounter. " It is hardly necessary to say I apprehended none," Judge Brown continues in his narrative. " When the train came it appeared, to my great astonishment, that Mrs. Lincoln and her three sons had arrived safely, and without hindrance or molestation of any kind, but that Mr. Lincoln could not be found. It was then announced that he had passed through the city incognito in the night train by the Philadelphia, Wilming- ton and Baltimore railroad, and had reached Washington in safety at the usual hour in the morning. For this signal deliverance from an imaginary peril those who devised the ingenious plan of escape were, of course, devoutly thankful, and they accordingly took to