John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion

On communicating with the shore, they were met by a protest from Governor Hicks, warning them not to land With all his stubborn and ingrained loyalty, the Governor was of a timid and somewhat vacillating nature, and for the moment the clamor of the Baltimore mob overawed his cooler judgment. In this conflict between lawful duty and popular pressure, he, too, caught at the flimsy plea of “State” supremacy, and, in addition to presuming to forbid the national flag on Maryland soil, wrote a letter to the President, asking that the troops be ordered elsewhere, and suggesting that Lord Lyons, the British Minister, be requested to mediate between the Government and the rebels, a proposal which was at once answered by a dignified rebuke from Mr. Seward.

The administration at Washington had not been unmindful of the dangerous condition of Maryland; but great reliance was placed upon the discretion and loyalty of Governor Hicks to avert danger. He had held several personal consultations with the President and Secretary of War; had agreed to hold his people in check, and furnish four Maryland regiments of picked Union men under the call; and to make his compliance easier, the authorities consented that these should not be ordered South, but kept on service in their own State, or in the District of Columbia. The Governor was frank enough to acknowledge his failure to keep his engagement. “We were arranging and organizing forces,” he wrote, “to protect the city and preserve order, but want of organization, of arms, prevented success. They had arms, they had the principal part of the organized military forces with them; and for us to have made the effort under the circumstances, would have had the effect to aid the disorderly ”