 When the Union was hurrying to raise its army from only 15,000 troops to several hundred thousand, it incentivized people to raise regiments by giving those who did officers commissions. This wasn't an unusual practice at the time, and it was a policy used in both the Union and Confederacy, but as can be expected, it allowed highly unqualified people to earn officer commissions at the outset of the Civil War. One such man was Andrew Sheehan, who was part of the New York City Underworld. He was a professional gambler and boxer. In the world of New York City sports betting, Sheehan was considered crooked by many people, including a man named Marcus Stanley. Stanley was a Union man, and he also wanted to recruit people for the Union cause, but he didn't trust Andrew Sheehan. The men who raised regiments and gained officers commissions were trusted with respectable sums of money to be used to feed and provision their men, but there was little in the way of oversight as to how regimental officers might use the money. For a corrupt opportunist, which is exactly how Stanley viewed Sheehan, raising a regiment was an easy path to self-enrichment at the expense of the recruits under his command. So Stanley actually offered bonuses to volunteers in order to lure them into regiments other than Sheehan's Empire City Regiment, as it was called. In fact, Stanley made it clear to Sheehan that this was his goal. He was vocal about his distrust of Sheehan, and he said that he was hoping to thwart his ability to raise a regiment, even if he personally went broke to do so. Whether or not Stanley's judgment of Sheehan was fair, it does seem clear that Stanley was sincerely motivated and had honest intentions. But Sheehan wasn't happy about this, and by the middle of 1861, there was an easy avenue to take for recourse against personal enemies such as Marcus Stanley for people who were dishonest enough to use them. Sheehan wrote out a statement swearing that Marcus Stanley was an avowed secessionist and a union spy. He claimed that Stanley was deliberately undermining his recruitment efforts as a way of sabotaging the union cause. None of this held water for anybody who conducted even a cursory investigation of the matter, of course. Stanley was simply paying volunteers to join other union regiments. But Sheehan did everything he could to paint Stanley as a traitor to the North. Sheehan's statement was sent to Washington, where it was put in the hands of William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state. Seward was the chief engineer of the policy of political arrests, and he cared little about having reasonable suspicion before ordering a citizen arrest. When he received the report about Marcus Stanley, Seward gave the order to have him arrested and imprisoned at Fort Lafayette. After his arrest, the superintendent of the New York police wrote to Seward to vouch for Stanley, not only offering assurance that Stanley was a union man inside and out, but also that, quote, what he did in breaking up the empire regiment, he deserves the thanks of the community for, end quote. Further investigation determined that this testimony was correct and Stanley was released from prison, still loyal to the union cause, but the arbitrary nature of arrests was such that many baseless arrests were made all throughout the loyal states, as far north as Maine. Political prisoners were often shuffled quickly through prison, being released after only a few days or weeks, but others were held for months at a time. Political arrests became so commonplace that pro-war editorials in the second half of 1861 would refer to people as quote, unquote, good candidates for Fort Lafayette, when they wanted to attack them for their anti-war stances. In fact, anybody who expressed any desire for peace, regardless of their actual views on unionism, were seen as southern sympathizers, secessionists, and traitors to their government, and it took nothing more than an empty accusation to get somebody arrested. It was this policy of martial law, even in free states, and the widespread acceptance of and support for political arrests that started the Civil War era centralization of power in which the federal government superseded the individual states and laid the foundation for later controversial laws such as the 1863 draft and the income tax, neither of which had federal precedent in the country before the war. It is for these reasons that the northern policy of oppression deserves more attention than it typically receives. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. We recently finished looking at the union's policies in the border state of Missouri, which was dangerously close to joining the Confederacy. In addition to initiating the second large-scale battle of the war, the battle of Wilson's Creek, the union military imposed martial law throughout the state, mimicking the policies that had already been imposed in Maryland. But by August, these policies were being spread all the way throughout the north, driven primarily by William Seward, but with the tacit hands-off approval of President Lincoln. After union defeat in the Battle of Bull Run and even more so after Wilson's Creek, more and more people in the north started to question the union cause. One pro-union newspaper editor wrote a letter to William Seward that was of significant concern for the Lincoln administration. He said, quote, There is no longer observable that feeling of unanimity in support of the administration or that confidence in the war and its ultimate issue, which pervaded the popular heart a few weeks ago. There is an anti-war party slowly but surely forming all over the north. End quote. For pro-war politicians, this was an ominous observation. In an early episode, I cited a letter that the anti-slavery newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, wrote to the president after the defeat at Bull Run, encouraging him to make peace with the Confederates, even if it was on their terms. If this trend continued, Lincoln's effort to maintain the union by force of arms would be defeated from within. But even as many people in the north were abandoning their support for the war, others were doubling down out of anger at the secessionists, who they blamed for all the troubles. Some Democrat newspapers published stories criticizing the behavior of certain union regiments and even spread false propaganda about the immoral behavior of union soldiers. One paper from New Hampshire claimed that, quote, Our southern papers are filled with heart-sickening accounts of the murders and robberies, which individuals in old Abe's mob are perpetrating on the southern people. Innocent women and children are shot on their own doorsteps. No wonder the northern people run when the honest men of the south march toward them. End quote. Despite the looting that was conducted by soldiers from both armies, this editorial was far from accurate. The claim that union soldiers were executing women and children in their homes was ridiculous. And when people, especially soldiers, read this editorial, they grew riotous. An angry mob formed in Concord, New Hampshire, and they stormed to the building where the paper was printed. The newspaper's office was on the third floor of the building, and they'd locked the mob out, but a handful of the printers showed up at the windows of the building, armed with the revolvers, and one of them allegedly yelled to the mob that they'd defend themselves to the death. Somebody in the mob shouted back at him, quote, Fire, you traitor, you rebel, you secessionist. Angry soldiers in the mob moved back up the stairs to the locked doors and started to break it open. In the chaos, gunfire was exchanged, and a handful of people were wounded, though nobody died. Before the mob successfully broke in, the printers locked inside escaped through the attic. But once inside, the mob turned on the equipment, throwing everything that could fit out the window to be smashed on the sidewalk below. Then they set the place on fire and left to find the printers who'd escaped. Some citizens had shown up to try to protect the printers, and they'd escorted them to the local police station while the mob was destroying the office. As the mob moved toward the police station, they shouted, Lynch them, Lynch them! The printers spent the night in prison and then moved to the state prison, not under arrest, but to keep them safe from the violent mob. Outside the building of their destroyed office, the mob hung a flag that read, The Doom of the Traders. In Bangor, Maine, a similar riot occurred on the 12th of August, and in this case, the printer was captured by the mob. Marcellus Emery published the Bangor Democrat, and his anti-war editorials were not kindly received. When he was at home eating lunch on the 12th, he heard the city's fire bells ringing, and he went to see what was going on, only to find that the fire bells were bringing attention to his newspaper office, where he now found that, like the office in Concord, all of his equipment had been tossed out of the upstairs windows and smashed against the street below. The mob around his building was almost 2,000 large, and they were surrounding a bonfire that had been set from Emery's papers and flammable equipment. He went inside the building to inspect his personal office and found that it had been broken into with crowbars, and when he returned back outside, the mob turned their attention to him, with people yelling, hang him, tar and feather him! Emery was saved by the intervention of friends in the community who escorted him to safety, but his livelihood had already been destroyed. He said of the event, thus had freedom of the press been stricken down here in Maine. But Emery was fortunate to escape being tarred and feathered, and other printers were not so lucky. A week after Emery's office was destroyed, another mob formed in Haver Hill, Massachusetts and directed its anger against three different newspaper offices, all of which were destroyed. One of the three papers was the Essex County Democrat, and its editor was Ambrose Kimball. On the night of the 19th, as he was walking down the streets of the town, the angry mob swarmed on him. Kimball had friends with him who tried to get him to safety, quickly finding him a carriage and taking off from his home. But the mob chased him, and when the carriage arrived at Kimball's home, the mob was right on his tail. They shouted for Kimball to come out of his home, and when he refused, they broke in, grabbed the editor, and dragged him outside. He was then carried by the mob to the town center, where he was asked if he regretted his anti-war publications. Kimball said nothing. He was then asked if he would admit to being wrong and promised to cease printing anything that would anger his community. To this, Kimball said no, and the mob responded by asking him to remove his clothing. Wearing nothing but his underwear, the mob painted Kimball with tar and covered him with feathers, then following a customary punishment for the time, they put him on a fence rail held on the shoulders of some men in the mob, and they carried him around town so that his humiliation could be on full display. Finally, after the parade was over, they asked him once again if he regretted his actions, and Kimball answered that he did. They forced him to kneel and give an oath, saying, quote, I am sorry that I have published what I have, and I promise that I will never again write or publish articles against the North and in favor of secession, so help me God. End quote. These kinds of riots were taking place all over the North. A mob in Pennsylvania burned a pro-union congressman in effigy for making statements that were only mildly anti-war. In Connecticut, a fight broke out between a mob of union men and a mob of peace men for the crime of hoisting a peace flag, not a Confederate flag, just a flag advocating the end of war. The union men outnumbered the peace men and they won the fight and replaced the peace flag with a union flag. Later, the ladies of the town held a meeting and raised their own flag that said, peace and our country. And during the meeting, they passed a resolution that said, quote, Civil war is now raging in our midst, laying waste to our land, demoralizing our people, prostrating our business, and should be brought to an immediate close. We cannot believe that a war like the present can ever reconstruct the union. End quote. These people were unionists. They just saw the destruction of the war and didn't believe that any good could come from it. But to many unionists, even this type of anti-war statement was tantamount to treason. Stories such as these were rioting mobs, destroy newspapers, and threaten anti-war editors and peace activists were more common than I can adequately relate to here. The editorials that sparked the mobs ranged from genuinely false smears of union soldiers to modestly anti-war statements from people who would have preferred the reunion of the southern states but either thought that war was not the best means to achieve that end or that the cost of war was too high to justify it. In Maine, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey, at least such riots took place in various towns throughout the month of August. And the solution to these riots by the federal government was not to take action against the people engaging in the violence and property destruction, but to take action against the anti-war editors so that civilian rioters would no longer have to do so themselves. Action by the Lincoln administration took place gradually, eventually evolving into the policy of arbitrary arrests and political prisoners. At first, newspapers who published anti-war editorials were prohibited from delivering their papers through the Postal Service. This policy was instituted by Montgomery Blair, Lincoln's postmaster general, and initially directed against the anti-war newspapers operating in New York City, such as the Journal of Commerce and the New York Daily News, in addition to some smaller publications. Prohibition of distribution through the Post Office may not sound very severe in my modern standards, but this was the way subscribers received their papers at the time. Newsboys could still sell the anti-war papers, at least for the moment, but this only made up a small percentage of the distribution. By denying access to the Postal Service, the government could almost guarantee the death of a newspaper. This policy affected numerous papers, but I'll briefly detail the reaction by five different papers who were affected, each with a different response and a different outcome. That can tell us a great deal about the political goings-on of the Lincoln administration. For some papers, the move worked, at least from the perspective of the administration. One relatively large paper was the Brooklyn Eagle, and this is the most clear-cut case of the policy of repression working the way the administration wanted it to. The editor of the paper immediately promised to stop publishing any anti-war writings, and they were allowed to go back to business, now reporting only unsafe, government-approved stories. This was the way most newspapers responded to the policy, though in many cases it was only after examples were made in regards to what happened to those who resisted. The policy worked for the Journal of Commerce as well. The editor and part owner, Gerard Hallock, recognized that the policy would bankrupt him, and he entered into negotiations with the Postal Authorities, in which the journal would be allowed access to the Postal Network on the condition that Hallock sell his share of the paper and resign his position. Basically, the federal government said to Hallock that either he could retire, or he could be economically destroyed. Hallock agreed to retire, and the paper survived, having learned of the lesson about publishing anything that could be interpreted as being anti-war. The editor of the New York Daily News, Ben Wood, took a different approach, deciding to fight against the repressive policy. This paper was smaller than the journal, and the journal came from advertisements for the mayor of New York City, Fernanda Wood, who was not only sympathetic to the Confederate cause, but had previously advocated the secession of New York City to form its own country, and depended from both the Union and the Confederacy. So the Daily News was an even more of a bind. If it stopped printing anti-war editorials, it could lose its most important revenue stream, but if it continued, the postal policy would likely destroy it through a lack of distribution. But Ben Wood fought back, writing an editorial that accused Congress of, quote, endorsing the most stupendous series of frauds, political villainies, and usurpations of power that have been perpetrated in any civilized country since the days of Henry VIII, end quote. By allowing the executive branch to continue its unconstitutional policies, Congress had, quote, given sanctions to murders, massacres, illegal imprisonments, and robberies of the treasury, end quote. Wood went on to refer to President Lincoln as, quote, unquote, unscrupulous chief magistrate, who had delivered to Congress a message that amounted to, quote, ocean of falsehood and deceit, end quote. Although some patriotic readers abandoned the Daily News, circulation in the border states increased as a result of Wood's defiance of the administration's repressive policies. Private distributors tried to make up for the loss of postal access, even hiring news boys to make deliveries, but it didn't become a standard practice until the Great Depression. But Washington doubled down, ordering U.S. Marshals to find and confiscate any copies of the Daily News. Before the war, postal service refusal to deliver certain publications was not unusual, especially in the South, where local postal authorities refused distribution of any anti-slavery writings. But now, with the orders to confiscate privately distributed papers, the authority of the executive branch extended in an unprecedented way. Newsstands were told that they no longer could sell the paper, and at least one news boy, which means an impoverished child working for a meager living, was arrested in Connecticut for selling the paper. By September, Ben Wood gave up. The government had won. He wrote a final editorial, saying that his paper had been, quote, confiscated by government officials, acting without warrant or process of law, end quote. He resigned as editor. Pro-Union newspaper celebrated the demise of the Daily News. The New York Times ran an editorial saying that Wood should just be happy that he was still allowed to, quote, walk the streets with as much impunity as if he were a true man, end quote. It is important, and I think just as relevant to today's media, to remember that the arms of the press that support whatever the current administration is will rarely have the principles or moral character to stand up for the rights of the people with whom they disagree. Another interesting example of a repressed paper was The Daybrook, which was published in New York, but had circulation as far away as Oregon. When the post office refused to distribute its papers, the editor proposed a compromise solution. It would no longer write anything in opposition to the war, and instead its editorials would focus on the issue of slavery. Its motto would be borrowed from Stephen Douglas, quote, I hold that this government is based on the white basis by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, end quote. Because slavery was not the issue upon which the Union government was waging the war, this compromise was acceptable and the paper was allowed to resume business so long as it only published pro-slavery articles rather than anti-war articles. When it resumed operations, the paper changed its name to the weekly Caucasian and it saw no further harassment from the federal government. The final example I want to give is that of the small religious paper called The Freeman's Journal, edited by James McMasters and ran only by him and two other people. Now the name of the paper shouldn't mislead you. McMasters was a supporter of slavery, but the controversy wasn't about slavery, of course, it was about his support of secession and his religious opposition to the war. When he was informed that he would no longer have access to the postal network, he refused to back down. He changed the name of the paper to Freeman's Appeal and he promised that he would continue publishing until the country once again saw freedom of the press. Even with a reduced circulation, he kept printing for several weeks, but eventually a copy of his paper was put on the desk of William Seward and the person who brought it to him asked Seward, quote, What is your opinion in regard to McMasters' arrest? Seward replied, You will arrest and send him to Fort Lafayette. Shortly after this, four deputies were sent to McMasters' office to arrest him. He was uncooperative, demanding to see a warrant. They didn't have one, but they said they were under direct orders from the Secretary of State. To this, McMasters said that if Seward were present, he would shoot him. Then he said that he would submit to the arrest but only on the condition that he be handcuffed and escorted down Broadway to be on full display to everyone he passed. Every time he passed somebody he knew, McMasters held up his shackled wrists and yelled out, This is Seward's work. He was held in prison for more than a month. While he was in prison, his wife continued to publish the paper, though she agreed to do so without any anti-war editorials and the postal authorities agreed and renewed access to the postal service. These are not the only examples I could give, of course. They're just some choice anecdotes, but by the end of September, the Journal of Commerce, now operating without Halleck as the editor, reported that, quote, there is no opposition press, end quote. It wasn't wrong. Government repression works. After demonstrating the success of these policies in New York City, the same tactics were extended to New York State and then to other Union states. By September, there was no longer any need for angry mobs to form and destroy printing offices, as all anybody had to do was to inform Washington of any anti-war editorials and the federal government would exact its own punishment. The policy pattern followed that used in New York City. First, deny access to the postal service, Montgomery Blair's policy. And if this didn't work, arrest the editors, William Seward's policy. But Seward's pinching for arrests increased to the point that it wasn't long before it became standard practice to just arrest an opposition editor right off the bat. In some cases, such as the Philadelphia Christian Observer, the government seized the paper entirely along with arresting the editor. For the pro-administration papers, all of these actions were laudatory. The New York Tribune wrote that these policies, quote, helped public confidence in believing that the government means something, end quote. In the month of September, political arrests had ceased in Baltimore, though prisoners from elsewhere in the north were being frequently sent to Fort Lafayette. By this time, the Union general put in charge of Maryland was John Adams' dicks. While political arrests were heating up throughout the rest of the country, the pro-war northern papers were attacking dicks for treating Maryland with quote, unquote, kid gloves. There weren't any secessionist uprising taking place in Baltimore since May, but the northern papers never doubted the inevitability of a Confederate invasion of Maryland and a secessionist uprising in Baltimore. This was quite literally a conspiracy theory driven largely by a document that was circulating in Washington that was allegedly written by Jefferson Davis detailing the plan for the Confederate invasion of Maryland, though the reality is that we don't know who wrote it. It's currently archived as part of the Lincoln papers. The letter said that the signal to invade Maryland would come after the Maryland legislature passed an ordinance of secession. Then, quoting from the letter, after the act of secession, I will claim Maryland and make good her state action at all hazards and cross two columns over the Potomac, one above and one below Washington, not attacking Washington unless McClellan divides his forces. It would be a political heir to attack Washington until Maryland has re-assumed control over the soil of that city and would weaken the cause. We contend for state's rights. The eastern shore of Maryland is thoroughly secession and the lower two counties of Delaware are pledged to civil war. The upper column will march on Chambersburg, the lower on Annapolis. Baltimore must burn the bridges. We have over 300,000 men in Virginia all told, 232,000 are fully armed and efficient. The rest are without arms and are in camps of instruction at Lynchburg and elsewhere. I fully appreciate the risk of advance, but we need the stores now in Baltimore and must take the risk, end quote. The story of this plan spread through the Union press and as it spread, so did panic in the north, especially in Washington, D.C. In the nation's capital, a political witch hunt was taking place to try to root out secessionists who were employed by the Union government. It's known as the Potter Investigation Committee, this being different from the Potter Committee that took place in the 1870s that is more well known. The 1861 Potter Committee took witness testimonies against other government employees who were suspected of being disloyal. This meant things like government employees who opposed the use of military force against the South. Opposing war was treason. A September 18th article of the New York Times reported on the committee saying, quote, Mr. John Fox Potter is doing the utmost man can do to ferret out the traitors and all their hiding places, but vain his labor and thankless his sacrifices if these scenes are to continue, end quote. The evidence they used was often weak and Congress's meddling in the matters of cabinet employment was enough to annoy even such radical Republicans as Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase who was given a list of 74 of his employees who were suspected of disloyalty with recommendations to fire them. Chase himself did not consider the evidence from the investigating committee to be reliable. I'd actually like to talk more about the Potter investigation which sounds a lot like the Cold War era Red Scare, but there is surprisingly little written about this. But this was the state of paranoia that surrounded Washington DC and the fears about the secession and invasion of Maryland did not subside even after the May rioters had been quiet for several months and with the supposed plan of the Confederacy to invade Maryland being signaled by the state's ordinance of secession which by the way is kind of an odd plan considering it wouldn't really be an invasion by the Confederacy if the state joined them. But such logical problems mattered little when Washington was in a grip of paranoia and they believed they had to do everything they could to prevent Maryland from seceding. In early September Lincoln took a carriage ride with General McClellan, Secretary of State William Seward and his son Frederick Seward who was also the Assistant Secretary of State. They were riding to Rockville to meet with General Nathaniel Banks who was at this time still in charge of the Union operations in Maryland though he'd been ordered out of Baltimore so that he could guard the Potomac River. When the President and others with him met with General Banks, Lincoln made clear that it was now Banks' responsibility to prevent the Maryland legislature from meeting on September 17th. His orders were to not bother federal members of the legislature but anybody who either favored secession or opposed the war two issues that were treated as one and the same for all intents and purposes were to be quote, quietly turned back toward their homes end quote. Lincoln referred to it as quote unquote separating the sheep from the goats. On September 11th, Secretary of War Cameron sent General Banks further orders to step the plan up a bit. The order read quote General, the passage of any act of secession by the legislature of Maryland must be prevented if necessary all or any part of the members must be arrested. Exercise your own judgment as to the time and manner but do the work effectively end quote. Cameron also sent additional orders to General Dixon Baltimore giving him orders to arrest specific members of the legislature keeping them in custody and not allowing any visitors as well as seizing their papers to search for evidence of treason the order was carried out the next night at around midnight Maryland congressman Henry May a conditional unionist was woken up by a knock on the door and he found his house surrounded by 13 policemen May wasn't unaware of what was going on by September political arrests were widespread so he set a quick goodbye to his wife before it being taken to Fort McHenry then the police moved on to other individuals including some not named in the orders such as Ross Winans who had been arrested before as I detailed in a previous episode on Baltimore and Mayor George Brown one by one the police moved through the city in the cover of darkness woke up the people on their list and loaded them in a carriage to be taken to Fort McHenry some of the people they intended to arrest were out of town on the night of the 12th but they were arrested immediately upon their return home the police also arrested newspaper editors who were still printing anti-war editorials in the city including Frank Key Howard grandson of Francis Scott Key who had also been arrested before the night of September 12th and 13th essentially saw a purge of any Baltimorean legislator editor or prominent citizen that was suspected of disloyalty to the Union the Unionist newspaper the Baltimore Clipper held the arrests as a wonderful thing editorializing quote the most stupendous and important arrest of the time occurred between 11 o'clock on Thursday night and 11 o'clock Friday morning the following parties to our recollection have been arrested on the charge of uttering and circulating treason and are now snugly enjoying themselves in Fort McHenry end quote that editorial then went on to name several of the legislators including Mayer Brown which the author sarcastically referred to as his royal heinous but these arrests only removed to the legislators who lived in Baltimore so there was an anti-war or procession legislators from other areas of the state who were set to meet in Frederick Maryland so as to avoid Baltimore altogether on September 17th the day before the legislature was scheduled to convene general banks sent an order to another subordinate Lieutenant Colonel Ruger that read quote it becomes necessary that any meeting of the legislature at any place or time shall be prevented you will hold yourself in your command in readiness to arrest the members of both houses a list of such as you are to detain will be enclosed to you here with among whom are to be specially included the presiding officers of the two houses secretaries clerks and all subordinate officials let the arrest be certain and allow no chance of failure the arrests should be made while they are in session I think the process of arrest should be to enter both houses at the same time announcing that they were arrested by orders from the government any resistance will be forcibly suppressed whatever the consequences end quote but the order didn't even need to be carried out when the time came on September 17th there were only three state senators who bothered to show up and they only did so because they were staunch unionists the rest of the 21 state senators had either already been arrested or they didn't show up out of fear of arrest the Maryland House of delegates wasn't much different with only 11 out of 74 delegates present neither house had a quorum so both sessions were adjourned until the next day the lack of attendance actually stressed Ruger out since he was expected to make all of the arrests at once he could hardly do that if nobody showed up in response he decided to barricade the entire town of Frederick nobody was allowed to enter or exit the town without written permission from the lieutenant colonel then with the town sealed a squad of federal police and a military escort started their search for the absentee legislators as well as their employees slowly but surely the hunted men were rooted out and arrested most importantly were the state senators general banks and a wire to William Seward while the search was still ongoing reporting that 12 of the state senators had already been arrested and the rest would probably join them before the night was over it was incorrect though the final arrest came at noon the next day the authorities decided that there was no need to keep anybody but the legislators themselves so all of the prisoners who were not actually elected officials were given a loyalty oath and released except for one assistant clerk who refused to take the oath and was sent to Fort McHenry with the legislators Lincoln defended the arrests by claiming that quote in all cases the government is in possession of tangible and unmistakable evidence which will when made public be satisfactory to every loyal citizen end quote no such evidence was ever released no matter almost every member of the opposition party in the Maryland legislature was now in prison and every newspaper that would have defended them had been suppressed arrests continued in Maryland with full force after this including the arrests of the final few straggling legislators who wisely chose not to show up in Frederick at all other arrests were carried out against prominent businessmen or lawyers and anybody deemed important enough who refused to take the loyalty oath anybody who uttered anything against the Lincoln administration Republicans the war or the union soldiers was subject to arrest and at one point general McClellan even sent a note to one of the officers in Maryland saying that he quote fully approves your course in arresting a man who used offensive language toward your regiment end quote arrests were based on such loose suspicion that some of the people arrested were later found after an investigation to be among the strongest supporters of the union in Maryland and the arrest of Marcus Stanley that I opened the episode with included in these arrests was a man named Timothy Webster who was actually one of the operatives working undercover for Alan Pinkerton for the purpose of infiltrating and rooting out secessionists in Baltimore after the arrest and his subsequent release Pinkerton himself said that Webster had to use more caution quote when inside northern lines than while touring anywhere below the Potomac end quote this gives a good illustration of the wage hunt environment in the north especially in Maryland at the time but the statement wouldn't age well as only a few months later Webster would be discovered as a union spy enrichment and hanged but with the Maryland peace party as opposition groups were collectively called throughout the north with the peace party effectively destroyed the coming November elections looked promising for the unionists still there were a few lingering members of the peace party who'd not yet been arrested and as the elections approached some nominees to oppose the Maryland Republicans so now the goal was to make sure that the Maryland elections were secure for the unionists on November 1st general Dicks issued orders to arrest voters who showed up to the polls to quote convert the elective franchise into an engine for the subversion of the government end quote he also instructed the election judges not to allow their ballot boxes to be quote polluted by treasonable votes end quote as the election drew near several more arrests were made against citizens who were expected to vote for opposition candidates just before the election posters were plastered all over Baltimore encouraging loyal citizens to point out anybody who'd taken part in the Pratt Street riot in April to the election judges and the police so their vote couldn't be counted and they could be arrested when the election came on November 6th union men in the city were happy to comply hanging out at the polling places in order to point out any disloyal voters unwise enough to show up one man John T. Robinson did his part for the union cause by accusing three of his neighbors of respectively inciting riot bearing arms against the United States and insulting union soldiers all three men were arrested on the spot Robinson wasn't the only one Samuel Deur if I'm pronouncing that right turned in his neighbor Charles Schwatka for being a secessionist another neighbor was arrested for having cheered for Jefferson Davis and so on as I can hardly detail all such arrests but I want to give examples of the various justifications for the arrest of voters on election day this election also took place before the secret ballot so peace party voters had no way of hiding their votes from election judges each political party printed its own ballot which could be identified by its own distinct color so as voters went to put their ballot in the box many people were arrested for having a ballot of the wrong color the arrest being justified on the orders to not allow the pollution of the ballot box in one case an election judge tried to uphold honest election practices and he was himself arrested for quote failing to bar accused secessionists from voting end quote by the end of the day roughly 170 peace democrats had been arrested and many more never attempted to vote at all especially after rumors started to spread before noon that the peace democrat candidates were withdrawing from the election entirely because of the fact that they were arrested were released at the end of the day when the polls were officially closed with a few exceptions of prisoners who were held for several more days for various reasons the results of the election weren't surprising every seat in baltimore that was up for election was won by a unionist candidate the union candidate for governor augustus bradford won by a landslide only losing in four counties where there were no federal troops in the house of delegates six peace democrats managed to make efforts without the presence of the military barring disloyal voters but a whopping 68 unionist delegates were elected one of the victims of these oppressive policies described the situation in maryland quote spies and informers abounded a rigid supervision was established disloyalty so-called of any kind was a punishable offense rebel colors the red and white were prohibited they were not allowed to appear in shop windows or on children's garments or anywhere to defend the union sentiment of a newspaper promulgated disloyal sentiments the paper was suppressed and the editor imprisoned very soon no one was allowed to vote unless he was a loyal man and soldiers at the polls assisted in settling the question of loyalty end quote with the opposition party almost completely ousted from the maryland legislature the state was finally completely secure for the union and the policy of oppression in the north had been fully established for the union over the course of the war in the next episode we will begin looking at the division between eastern and western virginia leading into the establishment of a new state historical controversies is a production of the ludwig von mesis institute if you would like to support the show please subscribe on itunes google play or stitcher and leave a positive review you can also support the show financially by donating at mesis.org slash support hc if you would like to explore the rest of our content please visit mesis.org that's m-i-s-e-s dot o-r-g