Critical Situation of the Capital

The troops from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts were not too soon in the National capital; for all communication between Washington and the North, by railway and telegraph, was cut off for a week after the affray in Baltimore. On the night of the riot the bridges of the railway running northward from that city were burned, and the telegraph wires were cut, under the sanction of its mayor and chief of police; and the President of the United States and other officers of government, civil and military, at the capital, were virtually prisoners in the hands of the enemies of their country. The capital was swarming with them; and these, with the Minute-men of Maryland, were barely restrained from violence by the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts soldiers in Washington.

The Maryland Secessionists now declared that no more troops should pass through that State to Washington; and the mayor of Baltimore, with the sanction of Governor Hicks, sent a committee to President Lincoln to tell him of this decision. The President received them courteously, and yielded much for the sake of peace, proposing to have the troops go by water to Annapolis, and thence march through the sparsely settled country to the capital. The Secessionists would not yield an iota of their demand that "no United States soldier should tread the soil of Maryland." Governor Hicks, a sincere Unionist, but not in robust bodily health and almost seventy years of age, was overborne by the violent Secessionists in official position, and was made their passive instrument in some degree. He was induced to make the degrading proposition that Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, "be requested to act as mediator between the contending parties in our country." In the name of the President, Mr. Seward reminded the governor that when the capital was in danger in 1814, as it was now, his State gladly welcomed the United States troops everywhere on its soil, for the defence of Washington. This mildly drawn but stinging rebuke of the chief magistrate of a State that professed to be a member of the Union, gave the Secessionists notice that no degrading propositions would, for a moment, be entertained by the Government.

Still another delegation went from Baltimore to the President to give him advice in the interest of the Secessionists. They represented the theological element of Baltimore society, and were led by Rev. Dr. Fuller of the Baptist Church. When that gentleman assured the President that he might secure peace by recognizing the independence of the "seceded" States; that they would never be a part of the Union again, and expressed a hope that no more troops would be allowed to pass through Maryland, the President listened patiently, and then said significantly: "I must have troops for the defence of the capital. The Carolinians are now marching across Virginia to seize the capital, and hang me. What am I to do? I must have troops, I say; and as they can neither crawl under Maryland nor fly over it, they must come across it." The deputation returned to Baltimore, and the Secessionists of that city never afterward gave suggestions or advice to President Lincoln.

The critical situation of the capital created intense anxiety throughout the free-labor States. All communication between Washington and the rest of the world was cut off. General Scott could not send an order anywhere. What was to be done? That question was promptly answered by the veteran General John E. Wool. He hastened from his headquarters in Troy, New York, to the presence of the governor of the State (Morgan) at Albany, and they went immediately to the city of New York. Wool was the commander of the Eastern Department of the Army, which included the whole country eastward of the Mississippi River. He and the governor held a conference with the "Union Defence Committee," composed of some of the leading citizens of New York, with General John A. Dix as chairman and William M. Evarts as secretary. A plan of action for the relief of the capital was formed and put into immediate operation. Wool, unable to communicate with the General-in-Chief (Scott), assumed the responsibility of ordering the movements of troops, providing for the safety of Fortress Monroe, and sending forward immediate military relief and supplies for the menaced capital. The governors of a dozen States applied to him for relief and munitions of war, as he was the highest military authority then accessioble; and he assisted in arming no less than nine States. By his prodigious and judicious labors in connection with the liberal "Union Defence Committee" of New York, the capital was saved.