THE BLAIR RESOLUTIONS.

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the fall elections for mayor and members of the Legislature. The democratic nominee was George P. Kane; that of the "Workingmen," Joseph Thompson, and of the "Reformers," Henry M. Warfield. The municipal election passed off very quietly, in October, 1877, and resulted in the election of George P. Kane and the entire regular democratic nominees for both branches of the City Council by overwhelming majorities. Kane carried all the wards of the city excepting the 13th and 20th, in which Thompson had small majorities. The total vote of the city was 51,091, of which Kane received 33,188, Thompson 17,367, and Warfield 536. Mayor Kane died on June 23d, 1878, and a new election was ordered to fill the vacancy, which resulted in the election, on July 11th, of Ferdinand C. Latrobe, democrat, by a majority of 13,214, over R. Henry Smith, candidate of the "Greenback" and "workingmen's" parties. The total vote was 16,002, of which Latrobe received 14,608, and Smith 1,394.

The political complexion of the Legislature of 1878, was as follows: Delegates, sixty-five democrats to seventeen opposition; Senate, eighteen democrats to seven opposition. On the 18th of January, the Hon. James Black Groome, of Cecil, was elected United States Senator for the term of six years, beginning March 4th, 1879.1 Hon. Barnes Compton was re-elected treasurer, and Hon. George Colton was elected State printer. John Milroy was elected Police Commissioner for Baltimore City.

The Legislature was organized by the election of Edward Lloyd, of Talbot County, as president of the Senate, and Fetter S. Hoblitzell of Baltimore City, as speaker of the House.

Among the many important measures passed at this session of the Legislature, was the following resolution introduced in the House of Delegates, by Hon. Montgomery Blair: 2

1 The result of the election in the several congressional districts was as follows: First district - Henry, dem., 11,419; Graham, rep., 10,338-majority for Henry, 1,081. Second district-Talbot, dem., 9,818; Milligan, ind.. 3,594; McCombs, green'k, 1,271-majority for Talbot over all, 4,843. Third district-Kimmel, dem., 11,676; Thompson, labor green'k, 4,908-majority for Kimmel, 6,768. Fourth district-McLane, dem., 11,064; Holland, rep., 6,671; Quigley, labor green'k, 627; Gittings, ind. dem., 398majority for McLane over all, 3,368. Fifth district-Henkle, dem., 11,558; Crane, rep., 9,679; Calvert, green'k, 179-majority for Henkle, 1,700. Sixth district - Peter, dem., 12,437; Urner, rep., 14,168, Resley, green'k, 1,107majority for Urner over Peter, 1,731.

2 This resolution was a substitute both for an original memorial and a previous set of resolutions which had been introduced by Mr. Blair, in advocacy of which he spoke in the House. The resolution was without the qualifying clause "in case Congress shall provide for expediting the action." These words were added

by the Judiciary Committee of the House. The writer of this, as chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations, to whom the original memorial and resolutions of Mr. Blair were submitted, reported them unfavorably, and, in support of his report, said: "The prayer of the proposed memorial of the gentleman from Montgomery is, 'that needful legislation may be adopted to ascertain, judicially, who was elected President at the recent election, and to give effect to the will of the people.' After careful consideration which the grave importance of the subject demanded, a large majority of the Committee on Federal Relations, on the 7th of February, reported them unfavorably. Although differing from the distinguished author of the memorial as to the character of the action which Congress ought to be called upon to take in the premises, nevertheless, as the matter is before us, it is entitled to consideration. In my judgment, whatever influence this State may claim to exercise upon Congress, may be brought to bear more effectually than by asking for legislation to try the title of Mr. Hayes or Mr Wheeler

"Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the Attorney General of the State be, and he is hereby instructed, in case Congress shall provide for expediting the action, to exhibit a bill in the Supreme Court of the United States, on behalf of the State of Maryland, with proper parties thereto, setting forth the fact that due effect has not been given to the electoral vote cast by this State on the 6th day of December, 1876, by reason of fraudulent returns made from other States, and allowed to be counted provisionally, by the Electoral Commission, and subject to judicial revision; and praying said court to make the revision contemplated by the act establishing said commission; and upon such revision, to declare the returns from the States of Louisiana and Florida, which were counted for Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler, fraudulent and void, and that the legal electoral votes of said States were cast for Samuel J. Tilden, as president, and Thomas A. Hendricks, as vice-president; and that by virtue thereof, and of 184 votes cast by other States, of which eight were cast by the State of Maryland, the said Tilden and Hendricks were duly elected; and praying said court to decree accordingly."

In pursuance of the resolution, Mr. Kimmel, of Maryland, introduced in the House of Representatives a bill to provide a form of action and mode of proceeding by which the title to the office of president and vice-president may be tried before the Supreme Court upon a bill filed for the purpose in the name of any of the States of the Union. The bill was a general one, and the provision which it proposed to make was for all future time, so that the

to the Presidency or vice-Presidency of the United States. If the object is to secure the creation of some especial tribunal, there is no reasonable ground for believing that any such tribunal organized by the present Congress would, so far as the impartiality and freedom from partisan bias of its members is concerned, be any improvement upon the Electoral Commission. Besides, I consider that it would be as uncalled for as unwise for the General Assembly of Maryland to commit itself to the proposition that, under existing law, there is no adequate legal remedy now open to Mr. Tilden, to contest upon its merits the title of Mr. Hayes to the Presidency of the United States. It is very clear that the General Assembly would distinctly commit itself to such a proposition by formally praying, in the language of the memorial, that the needful legislation may be adopted to ascertain, judicially, who was elected President. To assert that legislation is needed to give a remedy, is to admit that, under existing law, there is no remedy. And the question as to whether, under existing law in the District of Columbia, there is not such a remedy, is still an open question. That it is so, and was so considered by Congress, is clear from the terms of the Act establishing the Electoral Commission, quoted in the very memorial, which provided that no decision of the Presidential election, under that Act, should preclude a judicial decision of the question. If this question should happen to be judicially raised, by the appro priate form of proceeding, in the proper court

of the District of Columbia, its determination might, and probably would be found to depend, in part, upon the laws of the State of Maryland in force at the date of cession. The judicial interpretation of those laws should, in that event, be unembarrassed by a subsequent legislative interpretation volunteered by this General Assembly. Such an expression of opinion as would be implied in the adoption of this memorial, would not, of course, be binding upon the courts, but it would furnish a specious and dangerous argument against the remedy. It would be said that the Legislature of the very State whose ancient laws are invoked to redress, denies that any redress is given by those laws. So far as a mere protest against the successful consummation of a stupendous fraud (by which the constitutional majority were defeated by the minority, a result never likely to occur in any free country without imminent danger of domestic violence and civil war, and only averted by the moderation and patriotic forbearance of the insulted majority) can avail, the voice of Maryland has already been heard through her representatives in Congress, in the resolutions passed by the House of Representatives, on the 3d of March, 1877, declaring, after a recital of the facts in the case, that, as the sense of the House, Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks were duly elected President and vicePresident of the United States, for the term of four years, commencing on the 4th of March, 1877.

ELECTION OF GOVERNOR HAMILTON.

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title of any President could be litigated before the Supreme Court upon the application of any single State. The bill, however, failed to become a law, and thus the matter ended.

In the political campaign of 1879, the contest was narrowed down to a mere struggle between the democrats and republicans. The municipal election for Mayor and City Council in Baltimore City, on the 22d of October, resulted in the re-election of Mayor F. C. Latrobe, by a majority of 5,899 votes, and the election of eighteen democratic and two republican members of the First Branch of the City Council, and nine democratic and one republican member of the Second Branch. Mayor Latrobe, the democratic nominee, received 25,729, William J. Hooper, the republican nominee, 19,830, and Mathiot, the greenback nominee polled 95 votes. The democratic majority was smaller than it had ever been since 1866, in a straightout political contest between democrats and republicans; the contest in 1875, being a fusion of reform democrats and republicans.

The election for Governor and other State officers on the 4th of November, resulted in the election of the entire democratic State ticket by very heavy majorities. The issues of the campaign were above the level of personal altercations or attacks upon individual character as there was no personal objection against either of the candidates for governor. Hon. William T. Hamilton,' the democratic nominee for governor, had been long and favorably known to the people of Maryland, and in every position of public trust that he had occupied he had proven himself to be not only a man of high ability, but of the strictest personal honor and integrity. Mr. James A. Gary, the republican nominee, was known to the people of the State principally as a large manufacturer, and an eminently respectable gentleman. The issues of the campaign WILLIAM T. HAMILTON. were distinctively conservative, and the response proved "that our citizens have not forgotten the past, and have no intention of returning to its disorders and its general discreditableness." The democrats elected Hon. Wm. T. Hamilton for Governor; Thomas J. Keating, Comptroller, C. J. M. Gwinn, Attorney General, and Spencer C. Jones, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and a large majority in both Houses of the Legislature.

1 William T. Hamilton was born in Hagerstown, Washington County, September 8, 1820. His parents were residents of Boonsboro, in which town, under the tuition of James Brown, Esq., former surveyor of Washington County, the foundation of his education was laid. His mother died when he was six years of age, and his father-Henry Hamilton-some two years afterward. He was adopted by his maternal uncles, and his education was continued at the Hagerstown Academy, and completed at Jeffer

son College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. Upon his return to Hagerstown, he studied law under the Hon. John Thomson Mason, and was admitted to the bar of Washington County in 1845. In 1846, he was nominated and elected to the House of Delegates by the democratic party. He supported Governor Pratt in the payment of the interest on the State debt, and in 1847 he was again nominated upon the democratic ticket for the House of Delegates, but was defeated by the whigs, although he ran largely ahead of his

The democrats carried for governor Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Dorchester, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico and Worcester Counties, and Baltimore City. Mr. Hamilton received 90,820 votes, and Mr. Gary, 68,612 votes.

Governor Hamilton's majority was 22,208, showing a large increase over the vote for Governor Carroll in 1875 of 9,294 votes.

There is no country, however insignificant, whose history is not instructive; there is no history, however feebly written, if it be but a faithful record. of facts, but is fraught with profitable lessons. And whatever may be the defects of the present work-and the writer is conscious that they are many— the mere events that it recites are full of warning, of encouragement, and of admonition. Many considerations of this kind have been pressed upon the writer's mind during the performance of his task, but he has forborne to dwell upon them, leaving the thoughtful reader to make his own reflections. One point alone will he touch.

It has been often said that history repeats itself; and this has been conspicuously the case in the History of Maryland. More than once or twice, in her two centuries and a half of existence, has an unscrupulous faction arisen, stimulated by hostile external influences, has trampled on the rights of the people, and, for a while at least, exercised arbitrary and oppressive power. In every case the proceeding has been the same: first, the disfranchisement of the great body of the citizens, and, secondly, an eager haste to lay the

ticket in the county. In 1848, he was placed upon the Cass electoral ticket for his congressional district, and in the year 1849 he received from the democratic party his first nomination for Congress, and was elected in a close and very animated contest, although the district had, the year before, given a large majority for General Taylor. During his first term in Congress, Mr. Hamilton gave steady support to the compromise measures of 1850, introduced by Mr. Clay. In 1851, he was re-elected to Congress for his second term. In 1853, Mr. Hamilton desired to withdraw from public life, and declined to be a candidate, but, at the urgent solicitation of prominent gentlemen throughout the district, he was, for the third time, nominated a candidate for Congress by the regular democracy, and again elected over the Hon. Francis Thomas, who ran as an independent candidate against him. This was one of the most animated and exciting contests ever had in the district, involving joint discussions between the candidates in every county, and resulting in a majority of upwards of one thousand for Mr. Hamilton over his eloquent and veteran competitor. In 1855, Mr. Hamilton again determined to withdraw from public life, but the American or know-nothing party having come into power, he was once more induced to bear the standard of the democratic party, but was defeated.

From that time to the adoption of the constitution of 1867, Mr. Hamilton persistently declined all nominations to office, including that of Governor in 1861, and devoted himself exclusively to his profession. During his congressional career, Mr. Hamilton had associated with him in his practice of the law, the Hon. Richard H. Alvey, now (1879), chief judge of the Circuit Court of Washington County, and judge of the Court of Appeals. After his retirement from Congress, and up to his election to the United States Senate on the 4th of March, 1868, he applied himself to his profession, in the prosecution of which he has been signally successful, and very soon became one of the leading members of the bar of Western Maryland, which, in point of ability, is not exceeded by any in the State. His practice has of late years frequently carried him to the Court of Appeals in the trial of important cases, where his standing as a lawyer has been as clearly defined as at home. His term of office, as United States Senator having expired in 1875, Mr. Hamilton, in⚫ that year, was a prominent candidate for governor at the democratic convention, and came within a few votes of receiving the nomination. On August 8, 1879, however, he was rewarded with the nomination by the unanimous voice of his party, and was elected by a majority of 22,208 votes over his competitor, James A. Gary.

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF.

747

rights, liberties, and franchises of Maryland itself at the feet of some external power. Claiborne and his party handed the province over to Parliament; Coode and the Associators handed it over to King William. And wisely they did so, for they knew that so long as Maryland was self governed and independent, there was no hope of success for their schemes.

So now, in the freedom, sovereignty and independence of his State, lies the chief bulwark of every citizen against arbitrary power, the only guaranty of his personal freedom. Every attempt to impair these, or to weaken the general attachment to them, should be resisted to the utmost, unless, indeed, in the very madness of folly, we are willing to sell our birthright for a mess of poisonous pottage, and fling away what our ancestors prized so inestimably, and for which they paid so dear a price.

No man is better known in Maryland than Mr. Hamilton, and none certainly more respected for high courage, rectitude of principle and thorough honesty. He is at all times and in all places, fearless and outspoken, and into all the offices which he has deservedly honored, he has carried the same unyielding devotion to what he believes to be just and upright. As a member of the Legislature, Congressman and United States Senator, his governing principle has been

to perform the duties that were devolved upon him, that, entering the office without stain, he should leave it at the end of his term without reproach. Sincere, frank and generous, he combines in most unwonted harmony the dignity, grace and reserve of a thoroughbred gentleman, with that winning good humor, that generous approachableness and that cheerful courtesy, which are so needed in a governor, and yet so seldom witnessed.