Chronicles of Baltimore - Part 13



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1829. William Wirt, Esq., late Attorney-General of the United

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States, moves to and settles with his family in this city in April, where 
he had often displayed his talents at the bar before.

The Baltimore bar, at that date, exhibited in its composition a somewhat 
remarkable aspect. It had but very recently been distinguished by an 
extraordinary assemblage of the highest order of talent: men who, singly, 
would have shed lustre upon any professional assemblage in the country, 
and who, united on this theatre, composed a constellation which attracted 
universal notice. Luther Martin, William Pinkney, Robert Goodloe Harper, 
Roger B. Taney and William H. Winder were all names of commanding 
eminence. William Wirt came in amongst these to add new radiance to a 
galaxy already of the brightest. For a season they were all 
contemporaries; but for a brief season only. Nearly all these lights went 
out together. Of the six, Mr. Wirt and Mr. Taney were all that remained 
within the year of Mr. Wirt's settlement in Baltimore. A younger 
generation stood between them. A long interval, we may say without 
depreciation of the merits of the successors, separated the present from 
the past. Meredith, Johnson, Glenn, McMahon, Mayer, and others kindred in 
character and ability, were comparatively young men, and were now to step 
into the places of their file-leaders who had fallen in the battle of 
life. That column has since advanced to occupy an honorable ground in the 
van of a large array of talent and worth. Mr. Wirt and Mr. Taney stood 
amongst them and at their head, instructors to guide, models to be 
imitated, gifted with all qualities to stimulate the ambition of generous 
minds striving after an honorable fame.

On the 8th of August, 1729, an Act of Assembly was passed, entitled "An 
Act for creating a town on the north side of Patapsco, in Baltimore 
county, and for laying out into lots 60 acres of land, in and about the 
place where one John Fleming now lives." And Saturday being the centenary 
anniversary of this interesting event, which the citizens had resolved to 
celebrate with proper ceremonies, it was embraced by the directors of the 
Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad company as a proper occasion to lay the 
cornerstone of the great work, thus adding another to the many facilities 
which have contributed to advance Baltimore from the brief period of her 
existence, with a population of 43 inhabitants and a boundary of 60 acres, 
to the third city in the Union, containing at this time a population of 80,
000, and an area of 9,300 acres.

The ceremonies of the day were commenced by an assemblage of citizens at 
seven o'clock in Monument Square, where seats in front of the Court-House 
had been provided for the Revolutionary soldiers, Governor and other 
officers of the State, city, navy, army, and foreigners of distinction, 
sheltered by a canopy decorated in the most tasteful manner; when, after 
an appropriate and impressive prayer by the Rev. Mr. Snethen, they were 
addressed by Geo. W. Read, Esq., the orator selected for the occasion, in 
an eloquent and patriotic speech, in which he took a rapid and interesting 
view

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of the rise and progress of the city. At the conclusion of the oration, a 
procession was formed at the Masonic Hall, under the direction of the 
Grand Lodge of Maryland, which had been requested by the directors of the 
railroad company to lay the cornerstone, consisting of the grand and 
subordinate lodges, the grand R. A. Chapter, the Knights Templar, the 
directors and engineers of the railroad, and several youthful 
associations. The procession moved at about half-past nine o'clock, and 
passed through several of the principal streets. Having arrived at the 
site selected for laying the stone, the Governor, etc., took seats on an 
elegant platform erected for their accommodation. The chaplain of the 
Grand Lodge, the Rev. Dr. Williams, then addressed the Throne of Grace and 
begged a blessing on the great undertaking. George Winchester, the 
president of the company, then delivered an address explanatory of its 
objects and views; and having concluded, Colonel Win. Steuart, the Deputy-
Grand Master, in the presence of the Masonic brethren and the thousands 
assembled to witness it, performed the ceremony of laying the corner-
stone. The mallet or gavel employed on this occasion was the one used by 
the Father of his Country in laying the corner-stone of the Capitol at 
Washington. The Rev. Mr. Reynolds, of Harrisburg, Pa., next offered up a 
beautiful and impressive prayer. He was followed by the Grand Marshall, 
who read the inscription on the composition plate. On one side were 
engraved these words: "In commemoration of the commencement of the 
Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad, this stone was placed, on the 8th day 
of August, A. D. 1829, by the Grand Lodge of Maryland, under the direction 
of the president and directors of the railroad company, being the first 
hundredth anniversary of Baltimore, which was laid under an act of 
assembly of the province of Maryland, passed on the 8th day of August, A. 
D. 1729." On the other side was inscribed the following: "In the 54th year 
of the Independence of the United States. Andrew Jackson, President of the 
United States; Daniel Martin, Governor of Maryland; Jacob Small, Mayor of 
the city of Baltimore; Geo. Winchester, President of the railroad company. 
Directors: James L. Hawkins, Sheppard C. Leakin, Justus Hoppe, James B. 
Stunsbury, Robert Purviance, John Kelso, Thomas Finlay, Jas. Howard, 
William Jenkins, James C. Gittings, Henry Didier. William F. Small, 
Engineer. Engraved by J. Pratt." When the Grand Marshal had finished 
reading the plate, a glass jar containing the newspapers of the day and 
the current American coins, was deposited in the stone, which was properly 
cemented. The ceremonies were closed by an oration from E. L. Finley, 
Esq., which was worthy of the occasion, and delivered with such power and 
effect as elicited the most intense attention from the numerous auditors, 
who expressed the highest gratification at the able manner in which he 
fulfilled the duty assigned him. The procession returned to the city about 
4 o'clock, and at night a splendid display of fire-works terminated the 
ceremonies.

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On the 29th of October, the Roman Catholic Council being then in session 
in this city, pursuant to a resolution, the prelates who composed the 
council went in a body to pay their respects to the venerable Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton, the surviving signer of the glorious charter of 
their country's freedom, and one of the most aged and exemplary members of 
their church. They were most hospitably entertained, and delighted with 
the good old patriot and his amiable family.

On appropriating to State purposes the proceeds of licensed lotteries 
generally, the Legislature granted certain portions, amounting, with the 
profits of former lotteries, to $178,000, for the completion of the 
Washington monument in this city; enacting that the structure should be 
considered the property of the State, and that it should have an 
inscription expressive of the gratitude of Maryland to the hero and 
statesman whose honor and memory the monument was intended to perpetuate. 
This enabled the managers to proceed with the work, and on the 25th of 
November was raised the last piece of the statue, comprising the bust, 
&c., to the summit of the monument. It was cut out of fine white marble 
from the quarries on the York road, and presented by Mrs. F. T. D. Taylor, 
of Baltimore County, that lady having patriotically given it without 
charge. The statue is 16 feet high, and was wrought in three separate 
pieces from one block of 36 tons, by Henrico Cancici, Esq., an Italian 
sculptor of merit, each block weighing about 51/2 tons when worked; it was 
elevated successfully. by means of a pair of shears attached to the cap of 
the column by pulleys and capstan, planned and directed by Capt. James D. 
Woodside, of Washington.

Charters are granted for a congregation of Jews; the Baltimore and 
Rappahanock Steam Packet Company, the Sugar Refining Company, and the 
Howard Fire Company, thus increasing the number of hose and fire companies 
in the city to fourteen.

In December, Charles Carroll of Carrollton performed the ceremony of 
laying the last stone of the viaduct at Gwynn's Falls, and the president 
and directors unanimously resolved that this noble structure be named "The 
Carrollton Viaduct." And on the 4th of December the magnificent bridge 
over the Patapsco was made passable, and the compliment of first crossing 
it on horseback was reserved for the venerable and valued citizen William 
Patterson, who preceded the president and directors and a number of other 
citizens assembled on the interesting occasion. On this occasion twenty-
seven persons were drawn in one car by a single horse at the rate of 9 or 
10 miles an hour, to the end of the rail line. Another car, one of 
Winans', in returning carried thirty-seven persons, among them several 
ladies,--one horse being used. Some interesting experiments took place on 
the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. on the 28th of December, and were continued 
during the week. Among the number we find the following:--Two dogs 
attached to a car

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trotted off with a load of six persons. A car was fitted with a sail, and 
though the breeze was gentle, six persons were carried in it at a rapid 
rate. On the 22d of January, 1830, a car which had been constructed to be 
propelled by a sail, was carried along at the rate of 20 miles an hour, 
the whole length of the rail.

The following letter was written by Mrs. Mary Barney to Gen. Jackson, 
which will show the "politics of the day." Mrs. Barney was the wife of the 
naval officer at Baltimore, removed, whose place was supplanted by the 
appointment of Mr. Carr, at that time editor of the Baltimore Republican, 
whose nomination was confirmed in the Senate by a majority of one vote 
only. This letter was so much thought of at the time, that large editions 
of it were printed on satin and circulated throughout the United States:

"Baltimore, June 13th, 1829.

"Sir:--Your note of the 22d April, addressed to me through your private 
secretary, accompanying the return of my papers, which expresses your 
'sincere regret that the rules which you had felt bound to adopt for the 
government of such cases did not permit the gratification of my wishes,' 
affords no palliation of the injury you have inflicted on a meritorious 
officer and his helpless family: it is dark and ambiguous. Knowing that 
the possession was not alone sufficient justification for the exercise of 
power, unwilling that your character for firmness should suffer by the 
imputation of caprice, or that your reputation for humanity should be 
tarnished by an act of wanton cruelty, you insinuate a cause, you hint at 
a binding rule, and lament that my husband is within its operation. If it 
were not unworthy the character of Gen. Jackson, I ask you, was it not 
beneath the dignity of the President of these United States to insinuate, 
if bold assertion had been in his power? When you had adopted for your 
government this inexorable rule, was it not cruel in you to conceal it 
from those on whom it was to operate the most terrible calamities? Why 
should the President of a free country be governed by secret rules? Why 
should he wrap himself up in the black robes of mystery, and, like a 
volcano, be seen and felt in his effects, while the secret causes which 
work the ruin that surrounds are hid within his bosom? Is this rule of 
which you speak a law of the land; is it a construction drawn from any 
article of the Constitution; or is it a section of the articles of war? Is 
it a rule of practice which, having been acted upon by any of your 
illustrious predecessors, comes down with the force of authority upon you? 
Did it govern the conduct of that great man in whose mould (according to 
your flatterers) you were formed? If so, why should you conceal it? The 
Constitution, and the laws, civil and military, will justify you and all 
who obey them; and the robes of power which you wear cannot be stained by 
an act which finds a precedent in the conduct of any of your predecessors. 
Is it any old principle of new application

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in the art of government, which, having escaped the searching mind of 
Washington and the keen vision of succeeding Presidents, has been grasped 
by your gigantic mind? Or is it a new, wholesome principle patented to 
you, and for which you alone are to receive all the rewards (of glory at 
least)which succeeding ages never fail to bestow on the first inventor of 
a public blessing?

"The office harpies who haunted your public walks and your retired moments 
from the very dawn of your administration, and whose avidity for office 
and power made them utterly reckless of the honorable feeling and just 
rights of others, cried aloud for rotation in office, Is that magical 
phrase, so familiar to the demagogues of all nations and of all times, 
your great and much-vaunted principle of reform? If it be, by what kind of 
rotary motion is it that men who have been but a few years or a few months 
in office are swept from the boards, while others (your friends) remain, 
who date their official calends perhaps from the time of Washington? What 
sort of adaptation of skill to machinery is that which brushes away those 
only who were opposed to your election, and leaves your friends in full 
possession?

"Your official organ would impose upon the public the belief that you had 
adopted the Jeffersonian rule of honesty and capacity, and that incumbents 
as well as applicants were tested by that infallible touchstone. The 
alleged delinquencies of one or two public officers have for this been a 
color, and the dye of their avowed iniquity has been spread with 
industrious cunning over the skirts of every innocent victim; even of 
those few who have been thus charged, their misconduct (reported) was 
unsuspected until the prying eyes of their successors came to inspect the 
official records of their proceedings, when their delegated ingenuity, as 
in duty bound, could do no less than find them guilty, and therefore could 
not have been the cause of their dismissal. Yours, therefore, is not the 
Jeffersonian rule. You ask, respecting incumbents and applicants, other 
questions than 'is he honest, is he capable?' and the answer to your 
question decides the applicability of your rule. By thus ascertaining what 
your secret rule is not, we may easily come to the discovery of what it 
is. Supposing you serious when you say you are controlled by a rule, and 
that you do not move blindly like other storms, but that you have eyes 
which see and ears which hear, and hence that I have not yet described 
your rule, there remains, however, but one motive which could possibly 
have governed you--punishment of your political opponents and rewards for 
your friends. This is your rule, and however you may wish to disguise it, 
or to deceive the world into the belief that your secret principle is 
something of a nobler sort, the true one is visible to every eye, and like 
a red meteor beams through your midnight administration, portending and 
working mischief and ruin. It was prescribed to you before you had the 
power to pursue it by one to whom you are allied by happy congeniality, 
whom you have

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neither the ability nor the wish to disobey, before whose omnipotent 
breath your presidential strength lies nerveless as infancy; who, while he 
suffers your heart to pursue its wonted palpitations, seems to have locked 
up the closet which confines your intellect. In this imprisonment of your 
mental powers you see with his eyes and hear with his ears. It is a 
misfortune for this great nation that you were born for him and he for 
you. At one and the same time he is your minion and your monarch, your 
priest and your demon, your public counsellor and your bosom friend. I 
blush for my country when I see such unnatural formations, such a 
cancerous excrescence fastened upon the body politic, and the footstool of 
the President converted into a throne for a slave.

"The injustice of your new principle of 'reform' would have been too 
glaring had it been at once boldly unfolded, and hence is it that it was 
brought out by degrees. At first it was pretended that those only who had 
made use of office as an engine for electioneering purposes were to be 
'reformed away.' But when it was discovered that there were in place very 
many of your own friends who had been guilty of this unconstitutional 
impropriety, as you have been pleased to call it, who, contrary to any 
feeling of gratitude or sense of duty, had stung the bosom which warmed 
and the hand which fed them, making use of their office in the gift of Mr. 
Adams as the means of furthering your designs upon the Presidency to his 
exclusion, and that your rule was a 'two-edged sword' which, if honestly 
borne, would 'cut upon both sides,' it was so carefully withheld, and 
finally gave way to a much more comprehensive scheme of reform.

"It was next declared that those in office who, in violence of opposition, 
had offended you in one particular (I need not name it) should meet with 
condign punishment. Indeed, you intimated in your private conversation 
with my husband that those who had passed that Rubicon had sealed their 
destruction. But the misfortune attending this rule was that there were 
none in office upon whom it could operate. Has the charge alluded to been 
fixed upon any individual of the multitude of those who have been reformed 
away? Was it ever even whispered in regard to my unfortunate husband? You 
know that it was not.

"But I boldly declare that such a rule is altogether unworthy of the 
presidential office of a magnanimous nation! What! wield the public 
vengeance for your private wrongs! Hurl from the armory of the nation the 
bolt of destruction on your private foes! Was the power, dignity, and 
wealth of the Union concentrated in your person so misused? Had a foreign 
prince or minister committed a like offence, with the same propriety might 
you have made it a cause of public quarrel, and sent from the ocean and 
the land hecatombs of appeasing ghosts.

"The whole circumference of your rule at length expanded itself full to 
the public view; the reign of terror was unfolded, and

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a principle, unprecedented even in the annals of tyranny, like a 
destroying angel ranged through the land, blowing the breath of pestilence 
and famine into the habitations of your enemies.

"Your enemies, sir? No; your political opponents. You called them enemies; 
but were they so? Can there be no difference of opinion without enmity? Do 
you believe that every man who voted for Mr. Adams, and who had not 
received from you some personal injury, preferred him because he hated 
you? Think you, sir, that there is no medium between idolatry and hate? It 
is not because you think there is no such medium, but because your 
elevated ambition will allow of none. This makes you look upon all those 
who voted against you as your bitter foes. I most firmly believe that, 
saving those whom you had personally made your enemies, every honest man 
in giving his suffrage to Mr. Adams obeyed the dictates of his judgment, 
and that many did so in violence to their warmer feelings towards you.

"My husband, sir, never was your enemy. In the overflowing patriotism of 
his heart he gave you the full measure of his love for your military 
services. He preferred Mr. Adams for the Presidency, because he thought 
him qualified, and you unqualified for the station. He would have been a 
traitor to his country, he would have had even my scorn, and have deserved 
yours, had he supported you under such circumstances.

"He used no means to oppose you. He did a patriot's duty in a patriot's 
way. For this he is proscribed--punished! Oh, how punished! My heart 
bleeds as I write. Cruel sir, did he commit any offence worthy of 
punishment against God or against his country, or even against you? Blush 
while you read this question; speak not, but let the crimson negative 
mantle on your cheek! No, Sir; on the contrary, it was one of the best 
acts of his life. When he bared his bosom to the hostile bayonets of his 
enemies, he was not more in the line of his duty than when he voted 
against you; and had he fallen a martyr on the field of fight, he would 
not more have deserved a monument than he now deserves, for having been 
worse than martyred in support of the dearest privilege and chartered 
right of American freemen.

"Careless as you are about the effects of your conduct, it would be idle 
to inform you of the depth and quality of that misery which you have 
worked in the bosom of my family: else would I tell a tale that would 
provoke sympathy in anything that had a heart, or gentle drops of pity 
from every eye not accustomed to look upon scenes of human cruelty 'with 
composure.' Besides, you were appraised of our poverty, you knew the 
dependence of eight little children for food and raiment upon my husband's 
salary. You knew that advanced in years as he was, without the means to 
prosecute any regular business, and without friends able to assist him, 
the world would be to him a barren heath, an inhospitable wild. You were 
able, therefore, to anticipate the heart-rending

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scene which you may now realize as the sole work of your hand. The 
sickness and debility of my husband now call upon me to vindicate his and 
his children's wrongs. The natural timidity of my sex vanishes before the 
necessity of my situation; and a spirit, Sir, as proud as yours, although 
in a female bosom, demands justice. At your hands I ask it. Return to him 
what you have rudely torn from his possession; give back to his children 
their former means of securing their food and raiment; show that you can 
relent, and that your rule has had at least one exception. The severity 
practised by you in this instance is heightened because accompanied by a 
breach of your faith solemnly pledged to my husband. He called upon you, 
told you frankly that he had not voted for you. What was your reply? It 
was, in substance, this: 'that every citizen of the United States had a 
right to express his political sentiments by his vote; that no charges had 
been made against Major Barney: if any should be made, he should have 
justice done, he should not be condemned unheard.' Then, holding him by 
the hand with apparent warmth, you concluded--'Be assured, Sir, I shall be 
particularly cautious how I listen to assertions of applicants for 
office.' With these assurances from you, Sir, the President of the United 
States, my husband returned to the bosom of his family. With these 
rehearsed, he wiped away the tears of apprehension. The President was not 
the monster he had been represented. They would not be reduced to beggary; 
haggard want would not be permitted to enter the mansion where he had 
always been a stranger. The husband and the father had done nothing in 
violation of his duty as an officer. If any malicious slanderer should 
arise to pour his poisonous breath into the ears of the President, the 
accused would not be condemned unheard, and his innocence would be 
triumphant--they would still be happy. It was presumable also that, 
possessing the confidence of three successive administrations (whose 
testimony in his favor I presented to you) that he was not unworthy the 
office he held, besides the signatures of a hundred of our first 
mercantile houses, established the fact of his having given perfect 
satisfaction in the manner he transacted the business of his office. In 
this state of calm security, without a moment's warning, like a clap of 
thunder in a clear sky your dismissal came, and in a moment the house of 
joy was converted into one of mourning.

"Sir, was not this the refinement of cruelty? But this was not all. The 
wife whom you have thus agonized drew her being from the illustrious 
Chase, whose voice of thunder early broke the spell of British allegiance, 
when, in the American Senate, he swore by Heaven that he owed no 
allegiance to the British crown--one, too, whose signature was broadly 
before your eyes, affixed to the charter of Independence. The husband and 
the father whom yea have thus wronged was the first-born son of a hero 
whose naval and military renown brightens the page of your country's 
history

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from '76 to 1815, with whose achievements posterity will not condescend to 
compare yours; for he fought amidst greater dangers, and he fought for 
Independence. By the side of that father, in the second British war, 
fought the son; and the glorious 12th of September bears testimony to his 
unshaken intrepidity. A wife, a husband, thus derived; a family of 
children drawing their existence from this double Revolutionary fountain, 
you have recklessly, causelessly, perfidiously, and therefore inhumanly, 
cast helpless and destitute upon the icy bosom of the world; and the 
children and grandchildren of Judge Chase and Commodore Barney are poverty-
stricken upon the soil which owes its freedom and fertility, in part, to 
their heroic patriotism.

"Sir, I would be unworthy the title of an American matron, or an American 
wife, if I did not vindicate his and my children's wrongs. In this happy 
land the panoply of liberty protects all, without distinction of age or of 
sex. In the severity practised towards my husband (confessedly without 
cause), you have injured me and my children; you have grievously injured 
them, without achieving any correspondent good to individuals, to your 
country, or yourself. Silence, therefore, would be criminal even in me; 
and when the honest and regular feelings of the people of this country 
(who cannot be long deluded) shall have been restored, and when party 
frenzy, that poison to our national happiness, liberties and honor, shall 
have subsided, I have no doubt that the exterminating system of 'reform' 
will be regarded as the greatest of tyranny, though now masked under 
specious names and executed with some of the formalities of patriotism and 
of liberty. It is possible this communication from an unhappy mother, and 
from a female, who, until now, had many reasons to love her country, will 
be regarded by you as unworthy of notice; if otherwise, and your 
inclination corresponds with your power, you have still the means of 
repairing the injury you have done.

"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
"Mary Barney."

The "New Theatre and Circus," (now called Front Street,) was first opened 
on Thursday evening, September 10th, under the most favorable 
circumstances. The assemblage of spectators was "larger than previous 
experience led persons to believe Baltimore could supply," the number of 
those present being estimated at about 3,000 persons. It was opened under 
the management of Mr. W. Blanchard, a gentleman at the time well-known 
throughout this country and Canada as the manager of a first-class 
equestrian corps. The performances were opened with a prize address, 
written by Mrs. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, and read by Mrs. Hill, of 
the company, from the London and New York theatres. After the equestrian 
performances, there was performed a musical farce entitled "The Spoiled 
Child." Doors opened at half-past six, and the

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curtain rose at quarter-past seven. Boxes 50 cents, pit 25, and colored 
gallery 25 cents. The following actors and actresses made their first 
appearance at this theatre: Miss Addle Anderson for the first time as 
Mazeppa. Mrs. Frank Drew was born near Belair, Md., and made her debut 
here in 1842 as Duke of York to the elder Booth's "Richard Third." Mrs. 
Henry Eberle made her debut in December, 1840, as Peggy in "Raising the 
Wind." Mr. J. K. Field made his first appearance in America here in 1838; 
Mr. Samuel W. Glenn made his first appearance here on November 20th, 1848, 
as John Jones in the farce of that name. Mr. John S. Goodman made his 
first appearance here. J. Adams Graver also in 1853. Miss Cornelia 
Jefferson also as the Duke of York. Henry Charles Jordan, who was born in 
Baltimore, made his debut here May 1st, 1841, as Marlin Spike in the 
"Scourge of the Ocean." Mr. James Wills in 1831.

At a meeting held on Thursday, October the 6th, at the Athenæum, in the 
city of Baltimore, for the purpose of forming a Temperance Society, the 
Hon. Judge Brice was called to the chair, and Mr. Francis H. Smith 
appointed secretary. Doctor Bond presented and read a report from the 
committee appointed at a former meeting, to draft a constitution for the 
society. On motion, the preamble and each article of the constitution were 
severally read, discussed and adopted, and the whole finally passed 
unanimously.

A most gratifying spectacle was witnessed in Baltimore on the afternoon of 
Monday, August 17th, in the assemblage "of the teachers and scholars 
belonging to the Sunday-schools attached to the different churches in the 
city. They amounted in all to about 5000, and proceeded to Howard's Park," 
where addresses were delivered, after which the children sang several 
hymns.

Died on the 18th of April, Edward Johnson, Esq., in the 62d year of his 
age, one of the most benevolent men that ever lived, remarkable for his 
fidelity to his friends, though kind unto all men. He filled the office of 
a delegate to the General Assembly, was twice or thrice an elector of our 
Senate, and as often an elector of President and Vice-president of the 
United States, and six or seven times chosen Mayor of the city, the duties 
of all which be performed much to the satisfaction of the people, and 
without the suspicion of one improper motive. And on the 17th of July, 
Gen. Charles Ridgely of Hampton, in the 70th year of his age. He was 
lately Governor of Maryland. From early age possessed of a princely 
estate, few individuals, perhaps, ever more enjoyed what are called the 
good things of this life and abused them so little. He emancipated all his 
numerous slaves who had not reached the age of 45, but the males under 27 
and the females under 25 were to remain until they arrived at these ages.

On the 29th of December, the Steam Sugar Refinery of D. L. Thomas, Esq., 
was destroyed by fire, bringing ruin and desolation on a worthy citizen 
and family.

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The Sisters of Providence, a religious society of Catholic colored women, 
established a school for colored girls in Baltimore on the 5th of June. 
Their school and St. Francis' chapel stood in Richmond street on the site 
of Park street extended, and were pulled down to make way for the new 
avenue in 1871.

In August several disgraceful riots occurred among the laborers of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. On Friday, August 14th, one man was 
killed near the city and several wounded in a broil; and on Sunday the 
dwelling of Thomas Elliott, one of the contractors, was broken up by a 
body of men, and Mr. E. severely wounded.

1830. The "Old Baltimore Museum" may be styled one of the old landmarks of 
Baltimore, and possesses reminiscences connected with remarkable events. 
This institution, which, like most of the other museums in this country, 
owed its formation to the indefatigable efforts of a member of the Peale 
family, is situated at the northwest corner of Baltimore and Calvert 
streets, and occupied the upper part of the late large building that has 
recently been damaged by fire. In September 1828 the site was occupied by 
three frame stores and dwellings, which were sold at public auction and 
purchased by Mr. John Clark, a prominent lottery broker, for the sum of 
$27,200. The lot at the corner, fronting 19 feet on Baltimore street and 
63 feet on Calvert street, sold for $12,400; the adjoining lot, 21 feet 
front on Baltimore street, sold for $7,500; and the lot immediately 
adjoining the last mentioned, 21 feet on Baltimore street, sold for $7,
300. Mr. Clark soon after tore down the old buildings and erected the 
present Museum building. The marble front of the first story and the large 
arched window were put in by him, as an ornamental façade to his banking-
house. The Cohens at that time had their banking-house on the opposite or 
north-east corner, and these were the most prominent banking-houses. The 
post-office was close by, on Calvert street, under Barnum's Hotel. In 
December, 1829, Mr. Clark rented the upper part of the Museum building to 
Mr. Peale as a museum, who removed from the old building on Holliday 
street, now occupied by the City Council, where he had for many years 
carried on a museum and a gallery of the fine arts. Peale's Museum was 
reopened in the new building for the first time on Friday evening, January 
1st, 1830. The following prices of admission were charged: Tickets for a 
family, $10 per year; for a gentleman and lady per year, $5; single 
admission, 25 cents; children half-price.

For many years the Museum was used for the exhibition of curiosities, 
stuffed birds and animals, wax figures, pictures, &c., &c., and was known 
as Peale's Museum. As an investment the enterprise did not prove a 
success, and the collection passed into the hands of stockholders. In 1833 
it was under the control of trustees, and managed immediately by Mr. J. E. 
Walker, who was considered at the time an untiring and able caterer for 
the amusement

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of the public. In 1844 Mr. Edmund Peale took the management of the 
concern, and meeting with more success than his predecessors, he was 
enabled in a short time to purchase part of the stock, and eventually the 
whole of it. He instituted dramatic entertainments, which previous to his 
management were but occasional. The institution soon became very popular, 
though not greatly profitable, for the capacity of the Saloon, as the 
theatrical part of the Museum was then called, was quite small and in the 
fourth story of the building. It seated not more than five hundred 
persons. The stage was managed by Messrs Sefton and Chipendale. Mr. John 
E. Owens was the comedian, Messrs. Gallagher, Johnston, Gamen, Henry, 
Machin, -- Russell (now Mrs. John Hoey, of New York), Wilkinson, Watts, 
Gannon, who was a great favorite, Ludlow St. Clair, Misses Fanny and Emma 
Juce, formed the stock company. T. D. Rice, familiarly called Daddy Rice, 
Barney Williams, Walcot, Brougham, and the great Western were the stars.

In 1845 Mr. P. T. Barnum, the great showman, through the agency of Mr. 
Fordyce Hitchcock, purchased the Museum from Mr. Peale, and placed it 
under the management of his uncle, Mr. Alonson Taylor. Mr. Taylor only 
lived six months after. At his death the place was put in charge of Mr. 
Charles S. Getz, at present our renowned scenic painter, who painted his 
first scene for this building, and who conducted it until it was purchased 
by Mr. Albert N. Hann, in behalf of the "Orphean Family," a musical 
troupe, who during their management produced a number of English operas. 
Josh Silsbee, the "Yankee comedian," formed a partnership with Hann in the 
spring of 1847, and the place was remodelled and brought one story lower, 
giving it a much greater capacity, enabling the management then to engage 
a larger number of actors and to produce a much finer entertainment. In 
1849 Silsbee was induced to start a similar place in Philadelphia, when he 
sold his share to Mr. John E. Owens; the firm then was Hann & Owens.

In 1850 Mr. Owens became the sole proprietor. In 1851 he sold his interest 
to Mr. Henry C. Jarrett, now one of the most successful theatrical 
managers in the country, at present running Niblo's Theatre in New York, 
under the firm name of Jarrett & Palmer. In 1856 Mr. Jarrett sold out to 
Mr. Geo. Zeigler. By this time the Museum had become a wreck, the 
collection was purchased by Mr. Charles S. Getz, who distributed the works 
of art and the curiosities that were left among different institutions 
throughout the country. In the financial storm which swept the country in 
1835 Mr. Clark ceased to become the owner of the building. It passed into 
the hands of the United States General Insurance Company, which failed in 
company with many other institutions. The affairs of this company were 
wound up by the late Judge John Glenn, who bought up most of the stock 
jointly for himself and Mr. Josiah Lee, banker. After the death of these 
two

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gentlemen, the interest of Mr. Josiah Lee was bought about 1854 by W. W. 
Glenn, Esq. The building in the rear, formerly occupied by the Farmers' 
and Merchants' Bank, had also been purchased in joint account, thus making 
the size of the whole lot 61 by 104 feet. The whole property was purchased 
by Mr. Glenn for $80,000 in fee. In March, 1874, he sold the entire 
property to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company for $225,000, who 
intend erecting on the site a magnificent building for the Company's use.

Among the stars who performed at the Museum were the elder J. B. Booth, 
James W. Wallack, Jos. E. Murdoch, J. R. Scott, Charles Webb, Geo. Famen, 
Edwin Dean, Joe Cowell, Chas. Burke, Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Adams and 
John S. Clarke, played in the stock. The lady stars were Miss Charlotte 
Cushman, Mrs. Famen, Miss Julia Dean, Mrs. Bowers (in the stock), Miss 
Davenport, Agnes Robertson, Mrs. Sinclair, Forrest, the Batemans, and many 
others of note. The following actors and actresses made their first 
appearance here: John W. Albaugh, February 1st, 1855, as Brutus, under the 
management of Mr. Joseph Jefferson. His first regular season commenced at 
the Holliday Street Theatre, August 22d, 1855. Charles Boniface had his 
regular engagement here in 1849. Mr. S. K. Chester, whose right name is S. 
C. Knapp, made his debut here November 12th, 1856, as Lehaire in "Eustace 
Baudin." Mrs. Fred. B. Conway made her first appearance here in 1849. Mr. 
A. H. Davenport made his debut in November, 1848, as Willis in "Paul Pry," 
at the Athenæum, where he played for two months, and then went to the 
Museum. Miss Mary Ann Graham was connected with the Museum in 1856, and 
married Mr. Clifton W. Tayleure, when she retired from the stage. Mrs. 
John Hoey made her first appearance in America on the stage of the Museum 
in 1839, which was then under the management of De Selden, as Eliza in 
"Nature and Philosophy," her sister Charlotte playing Colin. Mr. Henry C. 
Jarrett's first essay at management was made in the purchase of the Museum 
in December, 1851, from John E. Owens. Mr. George Clifford Jordon, who was 
born in Baltimore, made his debut at the Museum under the management of 
John E. Owens. Mr. John E. Owens was born in England, and was brought by 
his parents when three years of age to Baltimore. After a residence here 
of ten years he removed to Philadelphia. In 1849 he became joint manager 
of the Museum with Mr. Hann, and the succeeding year assumed control of 
the establishment. Before this he played at the Museum for $15 a week. On 
the 8th of December, 1845, he made his first appearance in the Museum as a 
star in Gretna Green and State Secrets to a $70.50 house. On his benefit 
night, December 13th, he played to a $124.62 house. James Wallack, Mrs. 
Wallack, and J. B. Booth the elder, played one night to a $30 house. On 
the 19th of April, 1845, Mr. Booth played Beauty and the Beast for his 
benefit to a $102 house. Barney Williams was far from a success at his 
commencement. On the 16th of December,

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1845, he made his first appearance in Baltimore on this stage in the play 
of "Bumpology and the Irish Tutor," to a $46.50 house, and at his benefit 
the receipts were only $55.87. The stars usually played on shares; if they 
had a bad run, the proceeds of a benefit generally gave them money enough 
to get away from the city with their wardrobe. Mr. John Brougham also made 
his first appearance in Baltimore on the Museum stage. He played on the 
16th of September, 1845, to a $45 house, and at his benefit his receipts 
were only $70.

On the 22d of May, the president and directors of the Baltimore and Ohio 
R. R. Co. invited the members of the Legislature and other officers of the 
State, with the Mayor and City Council, the editorial corps, and some 
distinguished strangers and others, to proceed with them on their road to 
Ellicott's Mills. There were about 100 in all, in four carriages each 
drawn by one horse. In one of them Mr. Charles Carroll of Carrollton 
returned as far as Elk Ridge, where he took the stage and proceeded to 
Washington, being the first person who used this road as on a journey for 
business not connected with its immediate concerns. On the 24th of May the 
cars commenced their regular journeys for business, charging for the round 
trip 75 cents. On the 28th day of August, the main key-stone of the arches 
of the fine granite structure passing over the Frederick turnpike road at 
Ellicott's Mills, was adjusted in the presence of the directors of the 
company and many citizens assembled to witness the ceremony. Robert Oliver 
was called upon by the master-builder to assist in adjusting the stone; 
after which, the president of the company, Philip E. Thomas, addressed the 
spectators in a happy manner, during which he said:--"The directors of the 
Baltimore & O. R. R. Co., having deemed it advisable to dignify the 
several most important structures upon the road by the names of those 
citizens under whose influence and patronage this great work has been 
sustained, the first viaduct was honored with the name of the oldest and 
most revered of our citizens, the last survivor of that illustrious band 
who signed the instrument which declared us an independent nation. To the 
second was assigned the name of a liberal, patriotic, and highly esteemed 
fellow-citizen, William Patterson. The noble edifice of which we have just 
witnessed the completion, I have been instructed to designate by the name 
of a fellow-citizen no less distinguished for his liberality, public 
spirit, and generous support of the magnificent enterprise in which we 
have embarked. This structure will accordingly hereafter be distinguished 
by the name of the Oliver Viaduct."

Died in Baltimore, on the 8th of May, Samuel Hollingsworth, Esq., in his 
74th year, a native of Maryland, and the last survivor of eleven sons and 
two daughters, all of whom lived to an advanced age. Mr. Hollingsworth 
took up arms at an early period of the Revolution; was in the battles of 
Trenton, Princeton, &c., and as first lieutenant of a troop of horse, 
rendered many subsequent

Page 445

services. He was a much valued and high-spirited citizen and a zealous 
patriot.

The Carmelites or Teresian nuns, whose convent is on Aisquith street, is 
the oldest in the United States, excepting the Ursuline Convent at New 
Orleans. Rev. Charles Neale brought over four religious Sisters, April 19, 
1790, and built them a house at Port Tobacco at his own expense. They were 
Mother Bernadine Matthews, Superior, her sisters Aloysius and Eleanor 
Matthews, from Hogstraet, and Sister Mary Dickinson, from the convent at 
Antwerp. Mother Mary Dickinson became Superior in 1800, and remained so 
till her death, March 27th, 1830. The convent was then removed to 
Baltimore in September of the year following.

Baltimore has always been remarkable for enterprise; and from the 
beginning her enterprise never lost sight of the fact that she was nearer 
to the navigable waters of the West than any other of the Atlantic cities. 
This advantage was availed of in the construction, first of turnpikes, and 
then of canals, looking towards the setting sun. Although no one then 
anticipated the growth of the country beyond the Alleghanies, as it has 
since been developed, yet everybody felt that there were good things in 
store there; and New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore all essayed 
to grasp them. New York had her Erie Canal, which aimed at flanking the 
mountains in the country of the great lakes. Philadelphia bravely attacked 
them in front, and so did Baltimore. Boston watched for a place to pass 
them anyhow. Railroads were then not thought of. Canals were the means 
relied on; and besides the New York Canal, there was a canal constructed 
in Pennsylvania which actually afforded a water communication, imperfect 
it is true, but still a communication, between the East and West. 
Baltimore had a hope, at one time, of doing the same thing in the same 
way; but the report of General Bernard having proved that a canal in this 
direction was impracticable, except at a cost infinitely beyond our means, 
our people may be said to have sat down, like the Israelites of old by the 
waters of Babylon, and wept. Emigration was not only "spoken of" among the 
merchants, but emigration, in some cases, actually took place to New York 
and Philadelphia. We are speaking now of the years 1824 and 1825. The 
visit of La Fayette to Baltimore in 1824, and the gorgeous hospitality 
with which he was received, threatened to be the fitful flash of the last 
remnant of our enterprise, before its light, and its warmth were finally 
extinguished.

Prior to General Bernard's report, a great discussion before the people 
had been held at the Exchange as to the best canal route between Baltimore 
and the West; and two distinguished lawyers--the late General Robert 
Goodloe Harper and Mr. George Winchester--discussed the merits, 
respectively, of the Potomac and the Susquehanna. But the discussion 
proved to have been an idle one; inasmuch as, without the means of 
building a canal in either direction,

Page 446

it was of but little moment which was the best route. And so all became 
dispirited; and, if they did not actually see the grass growing in our 
streets, they at any rate began to fancy the spaces between the stones and 
the bricks in the pavements were becoming unnaturally green. Just about 
this time, however, railroads were first spoken of. During the fall of the 
year 1826, Philip E. Thomas, a gentleman of fortune, and president of the 
Mechanics' Bank of Baltimore, and George Brown, a director in that 
institution, had frequent conferences in relation to the loss that 
Baltimore had sustained in consequence of a large portion of its trade 
with the West having been drawn to the cities of Philadelphia and New York 
by the public works of Pennsylvania and the Erie Canal, and the result of 
their deliberations was a firm conviction that, unless some early means 
could be devised to draw back this trade, it would ultimately be lost to 
the city forever. Previous to these conversations between Messrs. Thomas 
and Brown, no railroad had been constructed either in Europe or this 
country for the general conveyance of passengers or produce between 
distant points. A few railroads had been constructed in England for local 
purposes, such as the conveyance of coal and other heavy articles from the 
mines or places of production to navigable water, but for general purposes 
of travel and transportation they were regarded as an untried experiment.

It is amusing, with the knowledge we now have of such things, to look back 
to the fancies of 1825 and 1826. In the latter year, a sufficient feeling 
had been gotten up by these enterprising and public-spirited citizens to 
invite some twenty-five of the most influential merchants of Baltimore, 
with some other citizens, to meet them at the residence of Mr. Brown on 
the 12th day of February, 1827, the call being "to take into consideration 
the best means of restoring to the city of Baltimore that portion of the 
Western trade which has lately been diverted from it by the introduction 
of steam navigation, and by other causes." The meeting accordingly 
assembled, and was well and influentially attended. William Patterson, 
Esq., was appointed chairman, and David Winchester secretary. Various 
documents and statements, illustrating the efficiency of railroads for the 
conveying of articles of heavy carriage at a small expense, were presented 
to the consideration of the meeting by Messrs. Thomas and Brown, and the 
superior advantage of this mode of transportation over turnpike roads or 
canals, being, according to these statements, satisfactorily shown, a 
resolution was adopted referring them to a committee, whose duty it should 
be to examine the same, together with such other facts and experiments as 
they might be able to collect, with instructions to report their opinion 
thereon, and recommend such a course as it might be deemed proper to 
pursue. The committee, appointed in accordance with this resolution, 
consisted of Philip E. Thomas, Benjamin C. Howard, George Brown, Talbot 
Jones, Joseph W. Patterson, Evan Thomas and John

Page 447

V. L. McMahon. The meeting adjourned, to meet again on the ensuing Monday, 
the 19th of February, when a report, comprising thirty-four closely 
printed pages, was presented for the consideration of the meeting by 
Philip E. Thomas, chairman of the committee, embracing much valuable 
information. The report was unanimously adopted, and on mature 
consideration a set of resolutions were also adopted by the meeting. The 
following gentlemen were then appointed a committee to prepare an 
application to the Legislature of Maryland for an act of incorporation: 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Philip E. Thomas, William Patterson, 
William Lorman, Isaac McKim, George Warner, Robert Oliver, Benjamin C. 
Howard, Charles Ridgely of Hampton, Solomon Etting, Thomas Tenant, W. W. 
Taylor, Alexander Brown, Alexander Fridge, John McKim, Jr., James L. 
Hawkins, Talbot Jones, John B. Morris, James Wilson, Luke Tiernan, Thomas 
Ellicott, Alexander McDonald, George Hoffman, Solomon Birckhead and 
William Steuart.

The distinguished Marylander and eminent lawyer, John V. L. McMahon, who 
was a delegate from the city of Baltimore in the Legislature of the State, 
drew up the original charter of the road, and through his indefatigable 
exertions he succeeded in obtaining its passage. This document, which is 
the first railroad charter obtained in the United States, indicates the 
penetrating knowledge and forethought of the author as to the powers that 
would be required by such a corporation; and has been used as a model for 
most of the subsequent charters obtained from the Legislatures of the 
various States for the construction of roads that were started as soon as 
the practicability of the railroad system was fully demonstrated by the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.

On the 24th day of April, 1827, the first railroad company in the United 
States was launched into existence, with a capital of one and a half 
million of dollars, with liberty to increase it; and the city of Baltimore 
and the State of Maryland were authorized to subscribe to the stock. The 
following gentlemen were elected as the first board of directors, by whom 
Philip E. Thomas was chosen president, and George Brown treasurer: Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton, George Hoffman, William Patterson, Philip E. 
Thomas, Robert Oliver, Thomas Ellicott, Alexander Brown, John B. Morris, 
Isaac McKim, Talbot Jones, William Lorman and William Steuart. Of this 
noble band of public benefactors, to whom Baltimore is so deeply indebted 
for their far-seeing enterprise, and the energy, perseverance and 
unflagging determination with which they prosecuted it, devoting their 
united labors and means to the undertaking, but one now survives, viz. 
John B. Morris, who has just cause to regard the work finished as a 
munificent legacy to the State and city, upon which he may safely, and 
with great and just pride, rest his reputation for future generations.

Then came a scene which almost beggars description. By this

Page 448

time public excitement had gone far beyond fever heat and reached the 
boiling point. Everybody wanted stock. The number of shares subscribed 
were to be apportioned if the limit of the capital should be exceeded; and 
every one set about obtaining proxies. Parents subscribed in the names of 
their children, and paid the dollar on each share that the rules 
prescribed. Before a survey had been made--before common sense had been 
consulted even, the possession of stock in any quantity was regarded as a 
provision for old age; and great was the scramble to obtain it. The 
excitement in Baltimore roused public attention elsewhere, and a railroad 
mania began to pervade the land. But Baltimore led all the rest--there can 
be no doubt of that.

Then came the surveys. A mission of engineers was sent to England while 
the surveys were going on at home. Everything was done with an eager 
enthusiasm that was unexampled even in our enterprising annals. The 
directors availing themselves of the public feeling, gratified their 
subscribers by permitting them to double their stock. And yet, with the 
best skill of the country at work, the vaguest ideas prevailed. Presently 
the surveys were so far completed that the choice of a route might be 
made. At this time the wise men of the City Council came to the aid of the 
company's engineering talent, and refused to pay a dollar of their 
subscription of $500,000 unless the road was located at an elevation of 
sixty-six feet above tide; and the railroad company--which would otherwise 
in all probability have brought the work in to the city line, which, after 
a lapse of forty years, it has just completed from the deep cut to Ostend 
street--was forced to come to Pratt street at its junction with Amity 
alley, where Mount Clare station now covers acres of ground with its shops 
and engine houses.

It was a great idea in those days to tunnel under Howard street, come out 
in Centre street, then a part of Howard's Park, and crossing the Falls, 
reach the shipping at Fell's Point with the wealth-diffusing railroad, 
which people regarded as the rose of a vast watering-pot, the smallest of 
whose tricklings was to fertilize the spot it fell upon, whatever its 
previous desolation and aridity. The fact is, that almost every one seemed 
to be impressed with the idea that the closer the railroad could be 
brought to his alley gate the better for his property. People often ask 
now-a-days why the railroad did not take the route so lately adopted, and 
whose excellence was so apparent. Mr. Richard Caton once began to build a 
road out of his own means. They ask why the company made the great 
embankment west of Mount Clare; why it built that costly structure of hewn 
granite, the Carrollton Viaduct, and the almost equally costly but less 
imposing bridge across Gwynn's Run. The reason is here given. The 
conscript fathers of the city so ordained in their utter ignorance, and 
the company, hardly then much wiser, were too poor to make any efficient 
resistance

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to an ineffable absurdity, to which the conduct of the three wise men of 
Gotham affords the nearest parallel. And here, on the 4th of July, 1828, 
in bright sunshine, assembled the glittering procession which buried it in 
the ground. First came Masons with banners and music. Then came the trades 
with anvil-ringing, with type-setting, with vats smoking, with labor of 
all kinds in full operation, and with banners and music too. Then came the 
good ship the Constitution, with the sails all set, with streamers 
floating, and with guns run out, as if to war against the world that would 
assail the sacred instrument of which it was the emblem. Then came Charles 
Carroll of Carollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of 
Independence, a spare, attenuated old man, verging on his fourscore years 
and ten, small in size, but active in his movements, with eyes still 
bright and sparkling, with a voice thin now and feeble, but clear and 
distinct, as in emphatic utterances the venerable and venerated man 
prophesied the success of the great work on whose corner-stone he that day 
struck the gavel and applied the square.

Mr. John W. Garrett, the present head of the company, with broad and 
comprehensive intelligence, unequalled energy, and unfailing perseverance, 
has already carried the work which he controls far beyond its original 
confines, extending its power across the Ohio on the one side, and on the 
other side by a European organization, making the Old World even pay 
tribute to the energy and enterprise of this portion of the New.

As soon as the grading was completed for a mile west of Mount Clare, the 
iron strap, then called a rail, was laid down and a car was built, not 
unlike a country market-wagon, without a top, and mounted upon wheels 
whose flanges were on the outside. In this car Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton, Alexander Brown, William Patterson, Philip E. Thomas and 
others of the directors of the company, with some leading citizens of 
Baltimore, made trips backwards and forwards, drawn by a single horse, 
with the same elation that we now see among the boys who are lucky enough 
to secure a free ride on the platform of a passenger car as it passes 
along the streets. After the directors were served, the public were 
permitted to enjoy the same luxury, twelve and a half cents a head for the 
round trip. And this was the first money ever earned on a railroad, 
constructed for general purposes, in America. Maunch Chunk was a coal 
road, and Quincy a granite-quarry road; but the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad was, in every sense of the word, a railroad. In the beginning, no 
one dreamed of steam upon the road. Horses were to do the work; and even 
after the line was completed to Frederick, relays of horses trotted the 
cars from place to place. In this way the Relay House, at the junction of 
the Washington Branch, obtained its name. One great desideratum was to 
reduce the friction of the axles in their boxes; and about this time Mr. 
Ross Winans made his appearance in Baltimore, and instantly became a

Page 450

celebrity with his friction-wheel--unquestionably an ingenious and 
beautiful contrivance. Mr. Winans went to Europe with his invention and 
was there plundered of the most valuable portion of it--"the outside 
bearing"--through the bad faith of those whom he permitted to try it in 
public as an experiment. The outside bearing, of which he is 
unquestionably the inventor, in its application to railroad carriages, is 
now the only bearing used throughout the world. Not only was friction 
sought to be avoided by improving the machinery to be used on the road, 
but the road itself became the subject of experiment; and miles and miles 
of iron straps were laid on stone curbs, to the great edification of the 
public. To ride in a railroad car in those days was, literally, to go 
thundering along, the roll of the wheels on the combined rail of stone and 
iron being almost deafening. In due season, however, it was discovered 
that the wheels were hammering the iron straps out of existence.

When steam made its appearance on the Liverpool and Manchester railroad, 
it attracted great attention here. But there was this difficulty about 
introducing an English engine on an American road. An English road was 
virtually a straight road; an American road had curves sometimes of as 
small radius as two hundred feet. For a brief season it was believed that 
this feature of the early American roads would prevent the use of 
locomotive engines. The contrary was demonstrated by a gentleman still 
living in an active and ripe old age, honored and beloved, distinguished 
for his private worth and for his public benefactions; one of those to 
whom wealth seems to have been granted by Providence that men might know 
how wealth could be used to benefit one's fellow-creatures. We refer to 
Mr. Peter Cooper, of New York. Mr. Cooper was satisfied that steam might 
be adapted to the curved roads which he saw would be built in the United 
States, and he came to Baltimore, which then possessed the only one on 
which he could experiment, to vindicate his belief. He had another idea, 
which was that the crank could be dispensed with in the change from a 
reciprocating to a rotary motion; and he built an engine to demonstrate 
both articles of his faith. The machine was not larger than the handcars 
used by workmen to transfer themselves from place to place, and the boiler 
was not as large as the kitchen-boiler attached to many a range in modern 
mansions. It was of about the same diameter, but not much more than half 
as high. It stood upright in the car, and was filled, above the furnace, 
which occupied the lower section, with vertical tubes made of gun-barrels. 
The cylinder was but three and a half inches in diameter, and speed was 
gotten up by gearing. No natural draught could have been sufficient to 
keep up steam in so small a boiler, and Mr. Cooper therefore used a 
blowing-apparatus, driven by a drum attached to one of the carwheels, over 
which passed a cord that in its turn worked a pulley On the shaft of the 
blower. The contrivance for dispensing with a

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crank came to nothing. Among the first buildings erected at Mount Clare 
was a large car-house, in which railroad-tracks were laid at right angles 
with the road track, communicating with the latter by a turn-table--a 
liliputian affair indeed, compared to the revolving platforms, its 
successors, now in use. In this car-shop Mr. Cooper had his engine, and 
here steam was first raised, in the presence of Mr. George Brown, the 
treasurer of the company, his father Mr. Alexander Brown, Mr. Philip E. 
Thomas, and one or two more. Mr. Cooper with his own hands opened the 
throttle and admitted the steam into the cylinder, the crank-substitute 
operated successfully with a clacking noise, while the machine moved 
slowly forward, with some of the bystanders who had stepped upon it. And 
this was the first locomotive for railroad purposes ever built in America, 
and this was the first transportation of persons by steam that had ever 
taken place on this side of the Atlantic.

Mr. Cooper's success was such as to induce him to try a trip to Ellicott's 
Mills, and an open car, the first used upon the road already mentioned, 
having been attached to his engine, and filled with the directors and some 
friends, the first journey by steam in America was commenced. The trip was 
most interesting, The curves were passed without difficulty at a speed of 
fifteen miles an hour. The grades were ascended with comparative ease; the 
day was fine, and the company in the highest spirits. The return from the 
Mills--a distance of thirteen miles--was made in fifty-seven minutes. This 
was on the 28th or August, 1830. But the triumph of this "Tom Thumb" 
engine was not altogether without a drawback. The great stage-proprietors 
of the day were Stockton and Stokes; and on this occasion a gallant gray 
of great beauty and power was driven by them from town, attached to 
another car on the second track--for the company had begun by making two 
tracks to the Mills--and met the engine at the Relay House on its way 
back. From this point it was determined to have a race home; and, the 
start being even, away went horse and engine, the snort of the one and the 
puff of the other keeping time and tune. At first the gray had the best of 
it, for his steam could be applied to the greatest advantage on the 
instant, while the engine had to wait until the rotation of the wheels set 
the blower to work. The horse was perhaps a quarter of a mile ahead when 
the safety-valve of the engine lifted, and the thin blue vapor issuing 
from it showed an excess of steam. The blower whistled, the steam blew off 
in vapory clouds, the pace increased, the passengers shouted, the engine 
gained on the horse, soon it lapped him, the silk was plied, the race was 
neck and neck, nose and nose, then the engine passed the horse, and a 
great hurrah hailed the victory. But it was not repeated, for just at this 
time when the gray's master was about giving up, the band driving the 
pulley which drove the blower slipped from the drum, the safety-valve 
ceased to scream, and the engine for want of breath began to wheeze and 
pant. In vain Mr.

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Cooper, who was his own engineman and fireman, lacerated his hands in 
attempting to replace the band upon the wheel; in vain he tried to urge 
the fire with lightwood; the horse gained on the machine, and passed it; 
and although the band was presently replaced and steam again did its best, 
the horse was too far ahead to be overtaken, and came in the winner of the 
race. But the real victory was with Mr. Cooper notwithstanding.

A competitor that steam had to contend with on the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad was a "horse power." A horse was placed in a car and made to walk 
on an endless apron or belt, and to communicate motion to the wheels, as 
in the horse-power machine of the present day. The machine worked after a 
fashion well enough, but on one occasion, when drawing a car filled with 
editors and representatives of the press, it ran into a cow, and the 
passengers being tilted out, rolled down an embankment, were naturally 
enough unanimous in condemning the contrivance. And so the horse-power 
car, after countless bad jokes had been perpetrated on the cowed editors, 
passed out of existence, and, until now, probably out of mind. Following 
the horse-power car came the Meteor. This was a sailing vehicle, the 
invention of Mr. Evan Thomas, who was perhaps the first person who "talked 
railroad" in Baltimore. It required a good gale to drive it, and would 
only run when the wind was what sailors call abaft or on the quarter. Head 
winds were fatal to it, and Mr. Thomas was afraid to trust a strong side-
wind, lest the Meteor might upset. So it rarely made its appearance, 
except a northwester was blowing, when it would be dragged out to the 
further end of the Mount Clare embankment, and come back literally with 
flying colors. It was an amusing toy, nothing more, and it is referred to 
now as an illustration of the crudity of the ideas prevailing forty-five 
years ago in reference to railroads.

An advertisement of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company offering a 
premium for the best locomotive adapted to its curved road, brought 
several competitors into the field, the best of whom was Mr. Phineas Davis 
of York, Pennsylvania, whose engine became the model of the first engines 
which were regularly used on the road. Mr. Davis' boiler was a double 
cylinder--the fireplace being on the inside, and the fire surface was 
increased by a cheese-like projection downwards above the fire. It was the 
first engine in this country whose wheels were coupled, so as to have a 
double and not a single pair of drivers. When the Peter Cooper boiler was 
put into this plan of engine, it made what are known as the "grasshopper 
engines," some of which are still in use after forty years of service, as 
regulators in the company's stations.

Space does not allow us to go over in detail the various attempts at 
locomotive enginery which came into existence only to disappear. As it was 
with engines, so it was with cars. Those who travel in the eight and 
sixteen-wheel cars of the present day, can scarcely believe the tedious 
process by which such results have been arrived

Page 453

at. As already said, the first car was like a market-cart on railroad 
wheels. The next car was a nine-passenger coach, similarly mounted, with 
the old-time leathern braces and C springs. For a long while this fashion 
prevailed; and gaudily painted vehicles, built by Mr. Richard Imlay, were 
occasionally exposed for public admiration in Monument Square before being 
placed upon the railroad. In winter these were lined with green baize 
curtains, and the seats, instead of being crosswise, were placed around 
them. And this continued till Mr. Ross Winans planned the first eight-
wheeled car ever built for passenger purposes, and called it by the 
appropriate name of the "Columbus." To him is unquestionably due the first 
organization of this sort made in the world. The Columbus was a large box, 
such as any competent mechanic, other than a coach-maker, could build. It 
was supported on trucks at either end--had seats on top, which were 
reached by a ladder at one of the corners of the car, which were cut off, 
so to speak, and where the doors were. It was followed by several 
extraordinary looking contrivances, one of which the workmen nicknamed 
"the sea serpent," while another was called the "dromedary." Each of these 
was an improvement on its predecessor. Then came a car which embodied the 
perfected idea called the "Winchester," and then came what was known as 
the "Washington" cars, which were the eight wheeled cars of the present 
day.

The question has sometimes been mooted whether Baltimore and its great 
Western railroad are really entitled to the credit of first using a 
locomotive engine in America. There can be, however, no doubt of the fact. 
Mr. John H. B. Latrobe is a living witness of it; and the testimony is 
documentary. It was after the demonstration by Peter Cooper that the 
Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad Company, now the Northern Central, 
imported the locomotive Herald from England. A volume might be written of 
such recollections as the foregoing.

In October, 1849, Mr. Louis McLane resigned his position as president of 
the road, over which he had presided for eleven years, and Thomas Swann, 
Esq., for several months previous one of the most active, energetic, and 
able of the Board of Directors, was immediately chosen his successor, with 
a unanimity that clearly evinced the high estimation in which he was held 
by his associates. Mr. Swann, as early as 1851, promised to stand with his 
guests of the city of Baltimore and the States of Virginia and Maryland on 
the banks of the Ohio, at Wheeling, on the 1st of January, 1853, and on 
that day, after years of delay, surrounded by embarrassments and 
staggering under the vastness of the undertaking--with a credit almost 
exhausted, its few remaining friends scattered and disheartened, a 
community over-taxed, and an opposition rendered formidable by the honesty 
of the convictions under which they acted--this great work entered upon 
its extension from Cumberland to the city of Wheeling, a distance of more 
than two hundred

Page 454

miles, which it soon accomplished, fulfilling his predictions to the 
letter.

Benjamin H. Latrobe, the chief engineer, has achieved--in tracking this 
great national highway through mountain gorges that were almost 
impenetrable to the foot of man--an imperishable renown. The work will 
stand through all future ages as a monument of his skill as an engineer, 
and of that indomitable perseverance which conceives nothing impossible, 
and that knows "no such word as fail." The undertaking was one of 
magnitude and boldness. Mr. Latrobe is as distinguished for his modesty, 
urbanity and social charms as for his eminence as an engineer. He was 
educated for a lawyer, but his inclinations were found after a few years' 
practice to run in a counter direction, and being already an accomplished 
draughtsman cud a mathematician, he first entered on his new profession 
under Jonathan Knight, who was the chief engineer of the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad daring the first fourteen years of its existence.

John H. B. Latrobe, Esq., the distinguished legal counsellor of the 
company, and brother of the chief engineer, was educated for an engineer, 
but maturity brought to him a taste for metaphysics and law, and they have 
both chosen the path intended for them as shining marks in their 
respective professions. The knowledge of law has, however, been of great 
service to the company in the performance of his duties by the first as an 
engineer, whilst the knowledge of engineering possessed by the other has 
been of equal advantage in protecting the varied interests of the company 
from encroachment. It was during the first year of the company's existence 
that John H. B. Latrobe was retained as its legal counsellor. He was at 
that time a very young man, and had just entered upon the practice of his 
profession. His manifold and important services, and his zealous devotion 
to the interests of the road, in whose behalf he bus so fully exercised 
his great abilities, have long slate established the wisdom that led to 
his appointment. The clearness of his perception, the systematic precision 
of his mind, and the untiring industry and almost military discipline with 
which he marches through his multifarious labors, have enabled him to 
bestow much attention to public interests as well as to perform his 
professional duties. Mr. Latrobe is known to possess the most varied 
abilities. As a lawyer, a mathematician, an artist, a man of liberal and 
enlarged views, a friend to public improvement, and a true philanthropist, 
he has everywhere met with the public recognition which he so richly 
deserves. Although constantly pressed with private professional pursuits 
of a more general and profitable character, Mr. Latrobe has always seemed 
to regard the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a favored client, sharing 
with its originators and thunders in the pride with which they have 
watched its progress and witnessed its completion.

Periods of the various openings of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad:

Page 455

Opened to Ellicott's Mills by horse power,   24th May, 1830. 
   "    " Ellicott's Mills by steam,   30th August, 1830. 
   "    " Frederick          "   1st Dec., 1831. 
   "    " Point of Rocks     "   1st April, 1832. 
   "    " Harper's Ferry     "   1st Dec., 1834. 
   "    " Bladensburg        "   20th July, 1834. 
   "    " Washington         "   25th August, 1834. 
   "    " oppos'e Hancock    "   1st June, 1842. 
   "    " Cumberland         "   5th Nov., 1842. 
   "    " Piedmont           "   21st July, 1851. 
   "    " Fairmount          "   22d June, 1852. 
   "    " Wheeling           "   1st Jan., 1853.

At this time the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the longest in the world.

The cause which led Mr. Peter Cooper to deviate from the path of his 
legitimate business to become the builder of the first American 
locomotive, is explained by the perusal of his letter to Mr. William H. 
Brown, in answer to some inquiries upon that subject:

"New York, May 18th, 1869.

"Mr. William H. Brown:

"My Dear Sir:--In reply to your kind favor of the 10th inst., I write to 
say that I am not sure that I have a drawing or sketch of the little 
locomotive placed by me on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer 
of 1829, to the best of my recollection.

"The engine was a very small and insignificant affair. It was made at a 
time when I had become the owner of all the land now belonging to the 
Canton Company, the value of which I believed depended almost entirely 
upon the success of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At that time an 
opinion had become prevalent that the road was ruined for steam 
locomotives by reason of the short curves found necessary to get around 
the various points of rocks found in their course. Under these 
discouraging circumstances many of the principal stockholders were about 
abandoning the work, and were only prevented from forfeiting their stock 
by my persuading them that a locomotive could be so made as to pass 
successfully around the short curves then found in the road, which only 
extended thirteen miles to Ellicott's Mills.

"When I had completed the engine I invited the directors to witness an 
experiment. Some thirty-six persons entered one of the passenger cars and 
four rode on the locomotive, which carried its own fuel and water, and 
made the first passage of thirteen miles, over an average ascending grade 
of eighteen feet to the mile, in one hour and twelve minutes. We made the 
return trip in fifty-seven minutes.

"I regret my inability to make such a sketch of the engine as I would be 
willing to send you at this moment without further time to do so.

"Yours with great respect,   Peter Cooper"

Page 456

On the 28th of June the ground of the old "City Hall," on the east side of 
Holliday street, was purchased by the city for the sum of $1610, subject 
to a ground rent of $306; the improvements cost $8,124.04.

The first fatal accident on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad occurred in 
September. The driver of a car laden with 37 persons, because of some bad 
conduct of the horse, which he was attempting to correct, lost his seat, 
and falling on one of the rails, was so dreadfully cut and bruised by the 
wheels that he immediately died. The receipts on the road for the first 
sixteen weeks amounted to nearly $17,000.

The events of the French revolution were celebrated by a military and 
civic procession in Baltimore, on Monday, October 25th. After having 
passed through several of the principal streets, the procession halted in 
Monument Square, where a beautiful oration was delivered by Mr. William 
Wirt. After he had taken his seat, Gen. Samuel Smith rose and delivered a 
short address. Mr. John S. Skinner, then, as secretary to the meeting, 
read certain resolutions, with an address to the people of France, all of 
which were concurred in, and the meeting adjourned.

After the ceremonies were concluded, the Typographical Association, to the 
number of about eighty persons, proceeded to the execution of a 
resolution, adopted on a former occasion, of depositing their own proper 
flag with Mr. Hezekiah Niles, editor of the Register, as the senior 
employer in the city, together with the tri-color, which they had provided 
and displayed in the procession by the side of the "Star Spangled Banner" 
of their own country. Capt. Hickman and his veteran company of the 5th 
Regiment, with Capt. Deems with his company of Baltimore Yagers, with the 
splendid military band attached, under the direction of Capt. Roundtree, 
honored the occasion by a tender of their services, which were gratefully 
accepted on the part of the craft by their Marshal. After being joined by 
the "Mechanical Volunteers" (This company, it is said, was the body-guard 
of Washington at the battle of Germantown, and honored with the same 
station in 1794, when engaged in the "Whiskey Insurrection,") who 
unexpectedly but very agreeably expressed a wish to unite in the 
ceremonies, proceeded to the Central Fountain in Calvert street, followed 
by the Printers' Association, headed by Mr. Niles, who was supported by 
Mr. Murphy, one of the editors of the American, and Mr. A. J. W. Jackson, 
one of the oldest journeymen of the profession, flanked by Mr. Samuel 
Sands, the Marshal, and his assistants, Messrs. J. N. Millington and 
Bailey, with the flag of the craft, and those of the United States and 
France floating in harmony. The whole marched to Mr. Niles' dwelling in 
St. Paul street, near which a large number of ladies and other persons had 
assembled. Mr. Niles, with Mr. Murphy on his right, and Mr. Jackson on his 
left, took a place on the lower step of entrance into his house, and, the 
parties

Page 457

being uncovered, Mr. Sands, bearing the flag of fraternity, and supported 
by his assistant marshals, advanced, and delivered a beautiful and 
eloquent address. Upon the conclusion of Mr. Sands' address the flags were 
presented, and being united formed a kind of arch over the head of Mr. 
Niles who descended from the step and replied in a long and eloquent 
address. The three flags were now passed into the second story of Mr. 
Niles' house, where they were received by the ladies of the family and 
others assembled to witness the ceremony, and with delicate kindness 
festooned them over his editorial chair. The printers and the military 
then, in numbers suited to the capacity of the room, entered and partook 
of some slight refreshments, during which some good toasts were given by 
several gentlemen. The printers then re-formed and marched to Barrett's 
tavern, where resolutions were adopted returning thanks to Mr. Niles, the 
military companies, Mr. Barrett for the use of his rooms, and Mr. Samuel 
Sands, the marshal.

1831. The "Odd-Fellows" of Baltimore celebrated their anniversary in this 
city on the 26th of April, and dedicated their new and magnificent hall in 
Gay street. About 500 were computed to be in the procession, with their 
banners and other ornaments, and made a very respectable and imposing 
show. One oration was delivered in Trinity Church by James L. Ridgely, and 
another after the dedication of the hall by T. Y. Walsh. The number of 
this association in Baltimore at this time was supposed to exceed 1500.

On the 29th and 30th of June, a contractor on the 3d division of the 
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, about twenty-five miles from the city, 
absconded, leaving his laborers unpaid. The laborers took the law into 
their own hands and commenced to destroy the property of the company, 
because their employer had wronged them! They were between 200 and 300 
strong, and with pick-axes, hammers and sledges, made a furious attack on 
the rails, sills and whatever else they could destroy. The sheriff of the 
county and his posse were resisted by these ignorant or wicked men, and a 
requisition was made on Brigadier-General Steuart for a detachment of the 
volunteers under his command; and, though it rained very hard, a 
sufficient number of soldiers started in the cars from the depot at about 
ten o'clock in the night of the 30th of June, and reached the scene of 
violence before daylight the next morning. The rioters suffered themselves 
to be arrested by the military without opposition, but some of them 
precipitately fled. In the afternoon forty of those reported to be 
principals were brought into Baltimore and lodged in jail, and eighteen or 
twenty were arrested and brought in next day by a detachment which 
remained behind for the purpose. The prisoners, being brought before Judge 
Hanson on a subsequent day, were severally examined and nearly all 
discharged.

The Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad was opened for public travel on the 
4th of July--the rails, on one track, being laid for more than six miles, 
through the valley of Jones Falls.

Page 458

Died on the 4th of July, James Madison, late President of the United 
States. Honors were paid to the memory of the deceased by hoisting the 
flags at half mast, the tolling of bells, firing of minute-guns, and the 
passage of resolutions by the local authorities and other bodies of 
citizens.

On the 8th of June, the following experiment was tried on the Susquehanna 
railroad: it consisted in placing the horses between two cars, where they 
were confined by means of shafts extending from one car to the other, 
resting at each end upon the pivot piece so as to allow them free play in 
passing the curves. The shafts were made of strong timber, so that the 
horse or horses "cannot possibly get off the road; and to guard against 
the horse stumbling, a broad belt of leather is passed from shaft to shaft 
underneath the animal, of sufficient strength to prevent his going down; 
for greater security, two bows of iron are made to pass from the shafts 
over the back of the horse. By all these means the horse, though entirely 
free in his action, is confined above, below and on each side, so that it 
is impossible for him to get off the track of the road."

The abduction of Morgan, and the extraordinary proceedings. which followed 
it, had produced remarkable excitement, especially in the Northern and 
Western States. It is a curious history which will ever occupy a notable 
page in the annals of the time, and is too well known to need repetition 
here. Like other exciting topics which have taken hold of the public mind 
in this country, it led to the organization of a distinct political party--
the "anti-Masonic." The zeal to destroy Masonry rose above all other 
subjects of public concern; and a large body of respectable and judicious 
men were found in several States, who were willing to forego all the 
ordinary inducements to the old political organization, and to embody 
themselves into a party to accomplish this one object. This "anti-Masonic" 
party, it was said, at the period to which we refer, supposed themselves 
able to command a vote of half a million in this country. Sincere and 
zealous in their purpose, unquestionably honest and patriotic in all that 
they contrived and intended to do, and, as we have already said, 
intelligent, thoughtful and able in the general complexion of the men, at 
their head, they had arranged a convention of delegates to be chosen from 
the several States, who were to meet by appointment in Baltimore in 
September, to select s candidate for the Presidency. In pursuance of this 
arrangement, about one hundred and twelve delegates assembled in Baltimore 
at the Athenæum, on Monday, the 26th of September. It was distinguished 
for its talent, and for the weight of character which it presented. It was 
looked upon with curious and deep interest throughout the whole country; 
with approbation by many, but with a settled and stern, though silent 
hostility, by that numerous and respectable class of citizens which, in 
every State, yet constituted the body of the Masonic fraternity. On the 
28th of September the convention tendered to Mr. William Wirt, then a 
resident

Page 459

of Baltimore, the nomination for the Presidency of the United States. Mr 
Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, was selected by them as the candidate for 
the Vice-Presidency. On the evening of the same day Mr. Wirt sent a 
communication to the convention accepting the nomination. This paper 
explained the grounds of his acceptance, and forms an important document 
in an interesting passage of political history. This letter was received 
with entire approbation by the convention, and a resolution was therefore 
adopted, recommending "to their fellow-citizens throughout the United 
States, a cordial and vigorous support of Mr. Wirt at the next election, 
as the anti-Masonic candidate for the office of President of the United 
States." The result of the election next year was that, out of two hundred 
and eighty-six electoral votes which were cast in the colleges, General 
Jackson received two hundred and nineteen, Mr. Clay forty-nine, Mr. Floyd, 
who took the vote of South Carolina, eleven, and Mr. Wirt seven--these 
seven being the votes of the State of Vermont.

The National Republican Convention met in the city of Baltimore at the 
Athenæum on Monday, December 12th, about 140 members in attendance. 
Governor Barbour, of Virginia, president. On Tuesday Henry Clay was 
unanimously nominated by the convention as a candidate for the office of 
President of the United States. On Wednesday Mr. John Sergeant, of 
Pennsylvania, was nominated as candidate for Vice-President. On motion of 
Mr. Halstead, of New Jersey, thanks were unanimously voted to Luke 
Tiernan, Hezekiah Niles, Nathaniel F. Williams, William H. Freeman, 
Charles F. Mayer, Joshua Medtart, and James Harwood, of the National 
Republican Committee, and to John B. Morris, Henry V. Sommerville, N. F. 
Williams and James Harwood, the committee of arrangements on the part of 
the citizens.