Excerpt from A Reminiscence of the Troublous Times of April, 1861, Vol. 1: Based Upon Interviews With the Authorities at Washington, Touching the Movement of Troops Through Baltimore, a Paper Read Before the Maryland Historical Society, March 9th, 1891

The pivots upon which the aggrandizement or over throw of Empires turns are apt to be small and apparently unimportant, but he who traces the lines of historic sequence cannot so regard them. The passage of tr00ps enrolled for the protection of a beleaguered Capital and an imperilled Federal Government, through the territory of a State still in the Union would seem to be a matter of right simple enough in its nature, and which under ordi nary circumstances would neither have created comment nor excited Opposition. At the period we are considering, however, the circumstances were ih' a high degree extraordinary, and such transit was held by many to involve a vital principle and a. High political right. A significant importance attaches therefore to all the steps that were taken to claim for the special surroundings the fullest consideration on the part of the general government and involved the right to ask that existing arrange ments that threatened so much serious disaster should be wisely modified, so that the inevitable conflict between the troops then on the outskirts of the City and our own citizens armed to oppose them might be happily avoided. What was done therefore on this line has its special value, for by it the dreaded emergency was avoided, while at the same time the instant needs of the Government were met. But more than this was attained, for in my own opinion the result of such armed conflictwould have gone far towards pressing Maryland into the column of the seceding states, with the probable effect of making her the battle-field of the opening war and the burdenbearer of the lament able consequences that fell upon her neighboring and sister state.

I may here be allowed the briefest reference to the general condition of the country just antedating and immediately succeeding our local troubles. One month before their occurrence, the 36th Con gress terminated. South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Virginia have ceased to be States of the Union, and by N ovember, 1861, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ken tucky, and Missouri had also passed ordinances of secession.

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