The Case of the Baltimore Board of Police. CASE OF THE BALTIMORE POLICE BOARD. necessarily selected by the Provost Marshal for its protection, and hold subject to their orders now and hereafter the old police force, a large body of armed men, for some purpose not known to the Government, and inconsistent with its peace and security. To anticipate any intentions or orders on their part, I have placed temporarily a portion of the force under my command within the city. I disclaim, on the part of the Government I represent, all desire, intention and purpose to interfere in any manner whatever with the ordinary municipal affairs of the city of Baltimore. Whenever a loyal citizen can be named who will execute its police laws with impartiality and in good faith to the United States, the military force will be withdrawn from the central parts of the municipality at once. No soldiers will be permitted in the city ex matter," and to enable the 369 The Case of the Baltimore Board of Police. an attachment was issued for his arrest. The Sheriff was not allowed to execute the writ, however; upon which, under threat of an attachment against himself for contempt of court, he went through the form of inquiring of General Duryea what force of militia was at his disposal to aid him in executing the writ. On the General informing him that he was quite destitute of artillery, while the force of infantry was also inadequate for so serious a task, Judge Garrison decided that the Sheriff, in endeavoring to execute the writ in good faith, had not laid himself open to the consequences of a contempt, and that cept under regulations satisfactory to the Marshal, the power of the Court was exhausted. Thus and if any so admitted violate the municipal law, they shall be punished by the civil law and by the civil tribunal. NATHANIEL P. BANKS, "Major-General Commanding." At the same time several leading citizens of active secession proclivities were "restrained of their liberty" and given close quarters in the Fort. The Commissioners remained at Fort McHenry about a month, when it was deemed advisable to transfer them to Fort Lafayette, for safer keeping, and to prevent the further excitement growing out of attempts for their release by civil process. They arrived, by sea, in New York harbor, August 1st, and were placed in close quarters within the Fort. Their friends, however, nothing daunted by the transfer, followed to the vicinity, and, August 6th, succeeded, on the formal petition of the imprisoned men, in obtaining the issue of a writ of habeas corpus, by Judge Garrison, of Brooklyn. The writ required Colonel Burke, commandant of the Fort, to produce the prisoners before the King's County Court. The officer immediately telegraphed to the War Department for instructions and received a reply from General Scott, General-in-Chief, forbidding him to produce the prisoners. On the 9th the writ was returned to Court, stating that Colonel Burke deeply regretted that, pending the existing troubles, he could not comply with the requisition of the honorable Judge. Upon which Judge Garrison postponed the case to the following Monday, to allow Colonel Burke time to "reconsider the ended the proceedings, which were instituted with a full knowledge of their certain result. The case was gone through pro forma for the purpose of a precedent and evidence, in event of a future investigation into the conduct of the Adminisiration. The case for the complainants would have been stronger had the treason of their clients been less rank. From the hour of the attack by the mob on the Massachusetts men, the Chief of Police and the Commissioners were tireless in their efforts to annoy and imperil the General Government. Kane, as Chief of a large body of disloyal men, on the day of the assault (April 19th, 1861,) telegraphed to Bradley T. Johnson, of Frederick, (afterwards an officer in the rebel army,) as follows, in reply to Bradley's offer of men to repel the "Northern invaders :" "Thank you for your offer. Bring your men by the first train, and we will arrange with the railroad afterwards. Streets red with Maryland blood. "Send expresses over the mountains and vallies of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without delay. Fresh hordes will be down upon us to-morrow. We will fight them and whip thein, or die. a 1 amenable to the gallows or to exile, but that feature of the protecting instrument those conservators of Government did not care to impress. Their rallying cry was that of the raven, cawing for its food, rather than the noble outburst of men jealous of their liberties. vile as were their purposes-tainted as they | every rebel who assailed the United States were with treason-the Chief of Police and authority guilty of treason, and therefore the Police Board found, in the North, friends and defenders, who, under the cry of "the Union as it was the Constitution as it is," purposely designed to befriend treason and to give the revolutionists protection. It is true, "the Constitution as it is" rendered *Kane was released in November, 1862, when he returned to Baltimore. He was held in confinement until the hour was past when his freedom could result in "aid and comfort to the enemy." After his return he published his views and feelings as follows: To my Fellow-Citizens of the State of Maryland: "After an incarceration of seventeen months in four of the forts of the United States, now converted by the Government into prisons, which have no similitude but in the Bastile of France, I avail myself of the first moment of my return to my native soil to address a brief word to you. "In this imprisonment I am understood to have been the special victim of Mr. Secretary Seward, who, in concert with his hired minions, has omitted no occasion to heap upon me accusations which he knew to be false, and therefore dared not bring to the ordeal of a public trial. "To these charges the despotic censorship of the prisons in which I have been kept allowed me no reply; and I can only now promise that in due time and upon a proper occasion Mr. Seward shall hear from me, in a way which will procure for him, if he has not already acquired it, the contempt of every honest man and woman in the land. "Without having been held upon any specific charge, I am turned out of prison without any reason being assigned for it; and thus, in my arbitrary arrest and release, I illustrate the most flagrant violation of constitutional liberty. "It would be unbecoming the dignity of the subject to cast abusive epithets upon the author of this gross outrage; but when allowed the opportunity, I pledge myself, under pain of the forfeiture of the good opinion you have always honor. ed me with, to show that all that is bad in a man, unpatri. otic in a citizen, and corrupt in an officer, finds itself concentrated in this individual. GEORGE P. KANE "Baltimore, Nov. 29th, 1862." CHAPTER XIII. KENTUCKY LOYAL. то ACTION OF THE LEGISLATURE. ITS ADDRESS 1861.) PER SHER THE PEOPLE. MILITARY SITUATION (SEPTEMBER, GENERALS JOHNSTON'S AND BUCKNER'S PROCLAMATIONS. SECUTIONS OF LOYAL MEN. ANDERSON'S RETIREMENT. MAN'S ASSUMPTION OF COMMAND. TREASON IN A "CASTLE" OF C. G'S. BRECKENRIDGE'S FLIGHT. HIS "ADDRESS.' MILITARY OPERATIONS UP TO NOV. FIRST. BATTLE OF WILD CAT. THE K. Kentucky for the Kentucky for the As detailed in Chapter Legislature was a crushing It sent John C. VIII. [pages 317-321], blow. Kentucky safely passed the Breckenridge, Simon Buckcrisis of "neutrality" and entered into the ner and other secession emissaries over to the war for the suppression of the rebellion with enemy. It drew the lines rigidly, and left zeal. The test resolves adopted by the Legis- no choice but to uphold the Constitution and lature [see page 320] rang out with the spirit the laws or to oppose them. The resolves of Old Bell Roland, sending their alarum were quickly followed by legislation for their notes over hills and through vallies to awaken enforcement as well as for making the State in the bosoms of loyal men all the enthusi- assume its share of the National tax. asm of the Kentuckian heart. To the dis- history of that session of the State legislative loyal element of her people the action of the body is full of interest, and ever will afford The Kentucky for the ADDRESS OF THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATORS. 371 Address of Legislators. the patriotic mind a pleas- | Legislature met, on the first ant subject for contempla- Monday in September. We still tion. Upon adjournment, hoped to avoid war on our own soil. We were met a committee was named to prepare by assurances from the President of the Confederate and pubStates that our position should be respected; but lish an Address to the people, setting forth a the ink was scarcely dry with which the promise correct view of affairs, and adjuring citizens was written, when we were startled by the news of the Commonwealth to loyalty to the Union. that our soil was invaded, and towns in the southWe shall quote the Address to indicate the west of our State occupied by Confederate armies. tenor of public opinion at the date of its is- The Governor of Tennessee disavowed the act, and sue-early in October: protested his innocence of it. His commissioners at Frankfort professed the same innocence of the admitted wrong; but our warnings to leave were only answered by another invasion in the southeast of the State, and a still more direct and deadly assault upon the very heart of the State by way of the Nashville road. These sudden irruptions of such magnitude skilfully directed, show that the assault on Kentucky was preconcerted, prepared and intended, long before. The excuses made by any of them but add insult to injury. We shall not repeat them. They are but excuses for acts intended, without any "In this extraordinary crisis Address of Legislators we deem it a duty we, your representatives, owe to you and ourselves, to say a few words to you as to the condition of the Commonwealth and the duties we have had to perform. "We have ardently desired peace, and hoped to save Kentucky from the calamities of war. When the Federal authorities deemed it necessary to employ force in self-defense, and to execute the laws of the Government, we assured our Southern neighbors of our purpose not to take up arms voluntarily against them, notwithstanding their wicked attempt to destroy the Government from which we and our fathers have received the greatest benefits. Every effort was made, both before and after the employment of force, to effect some compromise and settlement that would restore the Union and prevent the effusion of blood. "The Federal Government did not insist upon our active aid in furnishing troops, seeming content if we obeyed the laws and executed them upon our own soil. excuse. "The purpose is to remove the theatre of the war from the homes of those who wickedly originated it to those of Kentucky, and to involve this State in the rebellion. This purpose appeared to be well understood in the seceded States. They need the territory of Kentucky, and are determined to have it, if it must be, by blood and conquest. to join them in their unwarrantable rebellion, become accessory to their crimes, and consent to sacrifice the last hope of permanently upholding repub lican institutions, or meet their invasions as becomes Kentuckians. "Thus forced into war, we had no choice but to call on the strong arms and brave hearts of KenThose engaged in rebellion, however, tucky to expel the invader from our soil, and to call with hypocritical professions of friendship and re- for the aid of the Federal Government, as we had a spect, planted camps of soldiers all along our South-right to do under the Federal Constitution. ern border; seized, by military power, the stock on "Our foes would dictate terms to a brave people our railroad within their reach, in defiance of char-upon which we can have peace. We are required tered rights; impudently enlisted soldiers upon our soil for their camps, whom they ostentatiously marched through their territory. They made constant raids into this State, robbed us of our property, insulted our people, seized some of our citizens and carried them away as prisoners into the Confederate States. Our military was demoralized by the treachery of its chief officer in command, and many of its subordinates. until it became more an arm of the Confederate States than a guard of the State of Kentucky. Thus exposed to wrongs and indignities, with no power prepared to prevent or resent them, some of the citizens of this State formed camps under the Federal Government for the defense and protection of the State of Kentucky. Whatever Light have been thought of the policy once, recent events have proved that they were formed none too "We believe we have done our duty to a chivalric people who have forborne long, but will never fail as a last resort to resent an injury and punish an insult. We should hold ourselves unworthy to represent you if we had done less. The only error, we fear is, that we have not been as prompt, you may think, as the occasion demanded. "Thrice have the revolutionists appealed to the ballot box in this State, and thrice have the people expressed, by overwhelming majorities, their determination to stand by the Union and its Government. They have not been active in this war, not from indifference or want of loyalty, but in the hope of bet. ter promoting a restoration of the Union, and course. checking the rebellion by that Address of Legislators. Our hope of amicable adjustment, and a desire for peace, led us to forbear, until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. The attempt to destroy the union of these States we believe to be a crime, not only against Kentucky, but against all mankind. But up to this time we have lef it to others to vindicate, by arms, the integrity of the Government. The Union is not only assailed now, but Kentucky is herself threatened with subjugation by a lawless usurpation. The invasion is carried on with a ruthless destruction of property, and the lives and liberties of our people, that belong only to savage warfare. The Situation. and chief control was re- "We have no choice but action-prompt and de-ening that city; but the strength of Sher cided. Let us show the insolent invaders that Ken tucky belongs to Kentuckians, and that Kentucky valor will vindicate Kentucky's honor. We were unprepared because unsuspecting. An insolent and treacherous invader tells the people that their legislators have betrayed them, and he comes with fire and sword to correct their error, by a crusade against property, liberty and life. Young men of Kentucky, to arms! to protect the home of your fathers, mothers and sisters. Sound the tocsin on every hill and in every valley, until Kentucky shall drive the insolent invader from her soil." Under the resolves referThe Situation. red to, General Robert Anderson-the hero of Fort Sumter-was called to the command of the loyal forces in the State. The "Department of Kentucky" was created, and Brigadier-General Anderson assumed its management, by proclamation dated September 21st,* though its general This proclamation read as follows: "Ken uckians: Called by the Legislature of this, my native State, I hereby assume command of this Department. I come to enforce, not to make laws, and, God willing, to protect your property and your lives. The enemies of the coun try have dared to invade our soil. Kentucky is in danger. She has vainly striven to keep peace with her neighbors. Our State is now invaded by those who professed to be her friends, but who now seek to conquer her. No true son of Kentucky can longer hesitate as to his duty to his State and country. The invaders must, and, God wifling, will be ex pelled. The leader of the hostile forces who now approach, is, I regret to say, a Kentuckian, making war on Kentucky and Kentuckians. Let all past differences of opinion be over looked. Every one who now rallies to the support of our Union and our State is a friend. Rally then, my country. man's position compelled the rebels to make their permanent base of operations along the line of the railroads diverging at Bowling Green. General Felix Zollicoffer, with six thousand Confederate troops, occupied Cumberland Gap, and advanced to Barboursville, to compel, as he said, the abandonment of the Unionist camp, forming in that section of the State; but, this pretext only covered the real design of retaining that avenue of approach into East Tennessee. A secession journal (the Kentucky Yeoman) thus descanted upon the importance of that point to both parties-uttering views that were conceded forcible and just by those cognizant of the position at that time: "It is for the use of Anderson's column that muskets, artillery and munitions of war are now pouring into Kentucky over the railroads converging from Covington and Louisville. It is for this (the seizure of Cumberland Gap) that camps are commenced at Hoskins' and Crab Orchard and elsewhere; for this that Rousseau's brigade has moved from Indiana into Kentucky; for this that Green Adams is attempting by speeches to rouse the people of the mountains; for this that Lieutenant Nelson, of the navy, is detached for on-shore duty, to distribute arms in Kentucky, and thus by all these means, by a march through Kentucky, sustained by the Union party of Kentucky, a march of Federal troops from the North, protected in their rear by encampments in Kentucky, composed nominally if not fully, of Kentuckians, that the Federal Government expects General Anderson to achieve the object of obtaining possession of the great line in question. That would be a The Situation. GENERAL JOHNSTON'S sore calamity to the South, and, in the end, to the North, also; for it would only result in prolonging the war for the pretended but unattainable object of reconstructing a shattered Union. Is it asked why the possession of this line from Cumberland Gap to Chattanoga is of so much importance? We answer, because it divides the connection of the parts of the South from each other, separates the Carolinas from Tennessee, Virginia from Tennessee and the Southwestern States, and renders the Confederate States into bundles of fragments, not one of which could support or sustain the other, and of which each, in its turu, may be overwhelmed by a vastly supesior force to any it can, by its own resources, command. With that line in possession, the Federal hope is that East Tennessee will revolt against the State Government and the Confederate States; and in that event the game of John Carlisle & Co. played in Western Virginia, of setting up a bogus State Government, would be played out on a second theatre, inevitably causing civil war in Tennessee, and giving to Scott's basis line and depot of munitions of war all the support derivable from a people as thoroughly subjugated as he could desire. If he can occupy that line he can strike each Slave State east of the Mississippi on both flanks at the same time. With East Tennessee in hand, he can command a column upon Nashville or Memphis by the navigation of the Cumberland or Mississippi, and at the same time by rail to Clarksville, and to Nashville itself from several directions." Militia and State Guards Called Out. The Kentucky State Guard and Militia were called out by act of the Legislature. Brigadier-General Tho's L. Crittenden* issued his proclamation, Sept. 22d, convening them The Crittenden family afforded an illustration of the painful results of the war. John J. Crittenden, the venerable Congressman, was loyal and true; his son, Thomas L., assumed command of the State militia called out under act of the Legislature; while a second son, became a Brigadier in the rebel service, leading the forces operating against his native State. He eventually was created a Major-General. Several times during the progress of the war, the two brothers led opposing columns. at the several Union camps forming at Louisville, Frankfort, Camp Dick Robinson, Sherman's brigade quarters, New Haven and Henderson. General Johnston's Rebel Proclamation. The rebels were very active pending the progress of the Federal occupation. General Albert S. Johnston, the Confederate commander of the Western Department, issued his proclamation, Sept. 22d, from Memphis, addressed to the people of Kentucky, setting forth the motives which impelled the Confederate armies to occupy the State. He stated that, as the Federal Government had shown its intention to invade the Confederacy over Kentucky soil, in self-defense he was compelled to "enter the State and meet the invasion upon the best line for military operations." He further declared that they (the Confederate authorities) "have thus marched their troops into Kentucky with no hostile intention towards its people; nor do they de sire to seek to control their choice in regard to their union with either of the Confederacies, or to subjugate their State or hold its soil against their wishes. On the contrary, they deem it to be the right of the people of Kentucky to determine their own position in regard to the belligerents.” It was then stated that the Confederate occupation should be limited by the exigencies of self-defensethat if the State desired to remain neutral the Confederate army should aid it to drive out the lawless intruders, &c., &c. In view of the fact that the last election held (July 1st), gave a clear Union majority of over fifty-five thousand-in view of the unconstrained proceedings of the Legislature and the endorsement of its action by the people this whole document would read strangely, were duplicity and disingenuousness not stamped upon almost every document issued to influence the sentiments and action of the Southern people. General Johnston had a well-won reputation for courage and probity; yet, both were powerless before the demoralization upon which the revolution was founded. He is the severest censor who is most conversant with sin: in the general tone of public papers issued by the rebellion's directors, we have the unwitting confession of their own madness. |