military, were loyal, and
the need of rapidly filling the many posts left vacant by unexpected
desertion. Meanwhile troops from New England, and also from New York,
which had utterly disappointed some natural expectations in the South
by the enthusiasm of its rally to the Union, quickly arrived near
Baltimore. They repaired for themselves the interrupted railway tracks
round the city, and by April 25 enough soldiers were in Washington to
put an end to any present alarm. In case of need, the law of "habeas
corpus" was suspended in Maryland. The President had no wish that
unnecessary recourse should be had to martial law. Naturally, however,
one of his generals summarily arrested a Southern recruiting agent in
Baltimore. The ordinary law would probably have sufficed, and Lincoln
is believed to have regretted this action, but it was obvious that he
must support it when done. Hence arose an occasion for the old Chief
Justice Taney to make a protest on behalf of legality, to which the
President, who had armed force on his side, could not give way, and
thus early began a controversy to which we must recur. It was gravely
urged upon Lincoln that he should forcibly prevent the Legislature of
Maryland from holding a formal sitting; he refused on the sensible
ground that the legislators could assemble in some way and had better
not assemble with a real grievance in constitutional law. Then a
strange alteration came over Baltimore. Within three weeks all active
demonstration in favour of the South had subsided; the disaffected
Legislature resolved upon neutrality; the Governor, loyal at heart--if
the brief epithet loyal may pass, as not begging any profound legal
question--carried on affairs in the interest of the Union; postal
communication and the passage of troops were free from interruption by
the middle of May; and the pressing alarm about Maryland was over.
These incidents of the first days of war have been recounted in some
detail, because they may illustrate the gravity of the issue in the
border States, in others of which the struggle, though further removed
from observation, lasted longer; and because, too, it is well to
realise the stress of agitation under which the Government had to make
far-reaching preparation for a larger struggle, while Lincoln, whose
will was decisive in all these measures, carried on all the while that
seemingly unimportant routine of a President's life which is in the
quietest times e