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they shall be retained until further directions are received from you. The wounded are tenderly cared for. I appreciate your offer; but Baltimore will claim it as her right to pay all expenses incurred.
Gov. Andrew promptly rejoined:
dear Sir: I appreciate your kind attention to our wounded and our dead, and trust that, at the earliest moment, the remains of our fallen will return to us. I am overwhelmed with surprise that a peaceful march of American citizens over the highway to the defense of our common capital should be deemed aggressive to Baltimoreans.
Through New York, the march was triumphal.
At 3 A. M., on Sunday, April 21st,
Mayor Brown received a message from the
President, requesting
Gov. Hicks and himself to proceed immediately to
Washington for consultation.
Gov. Hicks being no longer in the city,
Mayor Brown, on further conference, went without him, taking three friends — whereof, at least two were ardent Secessionists — to bear him company.
They reached
Washington at 10 A. M., and were admitted to an immediate interview with the
President, attended by the
Cabinet and
Gen. Scott.
Mr. Lincoln urged, with abundant reason, that he had no choice between bringing troops through
Maryland and surrendering the capital to armed treason.
He finally appealed to
Gen. Scott, who gave his military opinion that troops might be brought through
Maryland by way of
Annapolis or the
Relay House, without passing through
Baltimore.
The
Mayor dilated on the fearful excitement of the Baltimoreans, and the impossibility of his answering for the consequences, if more Northern troops should appear in that city.
He adroitly added that his jurisdiction was confined to the city, and that he could make no promises as to the behavior of the Marylanders on either side of it. In his official report of the interview,
Mr. Brown says:
The Mayor and his companions availed themselves of the President's full discussion of the questions of the day to urge upon him respectfully, but in the most earnest manner, a course of policy which would give peace to the country, and especially the withdrawal of all orders contemplating the passage of troops through any part of Maryland.
On returning to the cars, the
Mayor received a dispatch from railroad
President Garrett, announcing the approach of troops (Pennsylvanians) by railroad from
Harrisburg to
Cockeysville, a few miles north of
Baltimore, and that the city was greatly excited thereby; whereupon,
Messrs. Brown & Co. returned to the
President, and demanded a further audience, which was granted.
The dispatch was submitted; and the
President and
Gen. Scott agreed that the
Pennsylvania soldiers, who had thus unwittingly profaned the soil of
Maryland by daring to advance over it to the defense of the
National Metropolis, should be turned back to
Harrisburg.
There is not much more of this nature to be recorded; but, among the Baltimoreans who, next day, visited
Washington to second the demands of
Messrs. Brown & Co., and confirm the impression which it was hoped they had made, was a Committee from the Young Men's Christian Association, who modestly petitioned that the
President should put an end to the unnatural conflict now imminent by yielding to the demands of the
South.
To this end, they advised that the
Federal forces already in
Washington should be disbanded; but, at all events, that no more should be marched across the territory of