Previous to the election a number of enemies to the Union in this State preliminated schemes for disturbing the peace of the various precincts. I had several of the most prominent actors in this, among whom was a candidate for senator, arrested before election and held until to-day. I had detailments from various companies of my regiment, with proper officers, stationed in Sandy Hook, Petersville, Jefferson, Urbana, New Market, Buckeyetown, Frederick City and other places where the polls were held. Owing to the presence of the troops everything progressed quietly and I am happy to report a Union victory in every place in my jurisdiction.These arbitrary arrests caused Lord Lyons, the English minister at Washington, to remonstrate with Mr. Lincoln. On November 4th he wrote Earl Russell that he had told Mr. Seward that ‘while the English people did not enter far into abstract questions of national dignity, they felt very strongly on the subject of the treatment of their fellow citizens abroad: nothing inspired them with so strong or lasting a resentment as injuries or indignities inflicted by foreign governments on her majesty's ’
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to General Banks, calling his attention to the alleged ‘apprehension among Union citizens in many parts of Maryland, of an attempt at interference with their rights of suffrage by disunion citizens.’
The wolves clearly perceived the intention of the lambs below them to muddy the stream.
He directed Banks to garrison the polls, and see ‘that no disunionists are allowed to intimidate them, or in any way interfere with their rights.’
Also to arrest all persons who have recently returned from Virginia and who show themselves at the polls.
General Dix, governing in Baltimore, directed the United States marshal and the provost marshal to arrest all disloyal persons and to hold them securely.
Col. John W. Geary, of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment, reported from Point of Rocks, Maryland, November 8, 1861, to Capt. R. Morris Copeland, assistant adjutant-general on Banks' staff:
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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