CHAPTER XXX.

1861-1882.

War of 1861.-Governor Swann.-Governor Bowie.-Constitution of 1867.Public Schools.-Washington's Monument.--Public Buildings.-Parks.The Great Seal.—Maryland in 1880.

1. IN 1861 the states south of Maryland which border on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, including two others in the interior, withdrew from the Union, and between them and the general government a war ensued.

2. The people of Maryland took sides in this war according to their respective political opinions, but, owing to their conservative views and enlightened policy, the prosperity of the state during the continuance of the war was not materially retarded. She lost, however, the greater portion of her trade with the South, yet made up that loss through channels which opened from other directions almost as profitable as those which had been closed or diverted from her.

3. Invading armies marched in different directions over her soil, and several battles were fought upon it, yet she escaped the ravages of war to a remarkable degree. The government of the United States bore the great strain brought to bear upon it, its supremacy was maintained, and peace was declared in 1865.

4. In 1861 Augustus W. Bradford, of Baltimore, was elected governor.

5. In 1864 a new constitution was adopted, which introduced several important changes in the policy of the state.

6. It abolished the institution of slavery, which had been handed down to us by our colonial ancestors.

7. It provided for a uniform system of "free public schools," to be administered by a state board of education and a state superintendent of public instruction, and in 1865 an act was passed under which a uniform system of free public schools was organized throughout the state. Under this act a state normal school was established, for the education of teachers. It was at first located in temporary places in the city of Baltimore, but subsequently a handsome building for its accommodation was erected by the state in the northwestern part of the city.

8. In 1865 Thomas Swann, of Baltimore city, was elected governor. Prior to his election, he had been president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company, and during his administration the road was constructed over the most difficult part of the route toward the Great West, so that when it was finished as far as Wheeling, a distance of three hundred and seventy-nine miles from Baltimore, it was said that "Bonaparte conquered the Alps; Swann the Alleghanies."

9. In 1867 Oden Bowie was elected governor, and in the same year a new constitution for the state was adopted. Under this constitution the government consists of three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The state is divided into twenty-three counties, eight judicial districts, six congressional districts, and twenty-six senatorial districts. Each county is divided into election districts, and these are subdivided into school districts.

10. The legislative branch of the government consists of a senate and house of delegates. The senate is composed of twenty-six members, one from each county, and three from the city of Baltimore. The house of delegates consists of eighty-four members, elected every two years; the senators are elected for four, and the sessions are held bi

1

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.

281

ennially, or once in two years. not extend over ninety days.

The length of a session can

11. The executive power of the state is vested in a governor, who holds office for four years. He has power to veto bills passed by the general assembly, to grant pardons, and to appoint various state officers.

12. The judicial department consists of a court of appeals, circuit courts, special courts for the city of Baltimore, orphans' courts, and justices of the peace. Maryland is a part of the fourth judicial circuit of the United States, and a circuit and district court of the United States are held in Baltimore.

13. The laws of the state provide for the education of all children, white and colored, between the ages of six and twenty-one years. The present school system of the state was established in 1865, and consists at present of a state board of education, boards of county school commissioners, and school district trustees.

in

14. High as well as graded schools have been established many of the counties of the state, and Baltimore city has a special school system under the control of a city school board. This system embraces a city college, two female high schools, grammar, and primary schools. There is also a state normal school in Baltimore and a normal school for training colored teachers.

15. At the head of all the institutions of learning in the state stands the Johns Hopkins University, organized in 1876, and embracing schools of law, medicine, science, and the classics.

16. The Peabody Institute, named after its founder, George Peabody, located on Charles Street, in Baltimore, is devoted to fine arts, science, and literature; and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, established in the same city for the reception and treatment of indigent sick persons, will not fall behind any similar institution in the world.

17. Among the great objects of interest in Maryland is Washington's Monument, on North Charles Street, in the city of Baltimore. It is chaste, noble, and grand, always exciting the admiration of the beholder. From its upper balcony, near the statue of the great chief, is afforded the finest view of the city, the Chesapeake, and the surrounding country.

18. The Atheneum building, on the corner of St. Paul and Saratoga Streets, is another great object of interest, inasmuch as it contains the library and gallery of paintings of the Maryland Historical Society.

19. The Maryland Institute, for the promotion of the mechanic arts, is located on Baltimore Street. It contains one of the largest halls in the Union, a well selected library, schools of art and design, and a commercial depart

ment.

20. The state penitentiary is located on Madison Street, and the jail is on the same street, both large and complete structures of the kind.

21. The house of refuge, on the western side of the city, is a reformatory institution doing an excellent work in reclaiming juvenile offenders; and the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, at Spring Grove, is an institution of great usefulness.

22. Druid Hill Park, one of the most extensive and beautiful pleasure-grounds in the United States, is located at the northwestern suburbs of Baltimore city. It contains seven hundred acres of woodland, lake, and lawn, is noted for the beauty and variety of its scenery, and so bountifully has nature bestowed her beauties upon it that art has but little to do by way of improvement.

23. Patterson Park, in the eastern section of the city, contains fifty-five acres of ground, and commands a magnificent view of the harbor of Baltimore, the river, and Chesapeake Bay. A part of the ground for the park was donated

THE COUNTY OF GARRETT ERECTED.

283

to the city by William Patterson, a wealthy merchant of Baltimore in the olden time, whose daughter, in 1803, was married to Jerome Bonaparte, brother to Emperor Napoleon, of France.

24. The constitution of 1867 provided for the formation of a new county from parts of Worcester and Somerset Counties, which provision having been ratified by a vote of the people residing within the territory proposed for such new county, it was erected in the year 1867, and called Wicomico, after a river of the same name. Salisbury was made the county seat.

25. In 1871 William Pinkney Whyte, of Baltimore, was elected governor.

26. In 1872 all that part of Allegany County lying south and west of a line beginning at the summit of Big Backbone, or Savage Mountain, where that mountain is crossed by Mason and Dixon's line, and running thence by a straight line to the middle of Savage River where it empties into the Potomac River, thence by a straight line to the nearest point or boundary of West Virginia, was erected into a new county and called the county of Garrett, after John W. Garrett. Oakland, on the top of the Alleghany Mountains, is the county seat.

27. In 1874 James Black Groome was elected

governor. 28. In this year the legislature passed an act concerning the great seal of the state. This act authorized the governor to have the great seal of the state so altered as to make it conform to the arms of Lord Baltimore, as represented on the title-page of "Bacon's Laws of Maryland," printed at Annapolis in 1765 by Jonas Green.

29. The first great seal made after the Revolutionary war by order of the governor's .council was a hanging seal with impressions on each side. On one side was the figure of Justice elevating her well-balanced scales above her head with her left hand, while her right hand grasped an olive