379]           The Maryland Constitution of 1864.              33

ditional" and "Conservative" Union and Democratic.
As in the previous election, the Democrats were not organ-
ized throughout the state, their nominations for Conven-
tion delegates being mainly in the lower counties. They
had no candidates in Baltimore City, and those in Balti-
more County were withdrawn before the election, leaving
the Union nominees alone in the field. Wherever there
were Democratic party organizations, they generally de-
clared themselves opposed to emancipation on any terms.⁴²
In fact, the declared tactics of those opposed to the Un-
conditional Union program were to delay the call of a
Convention till "all the people of the state could vote,"
claiming that they would then defeat the movement. Fail-
ing that, they fought for compensation for slaves and some
system of negro apprenticeship.

General Schenck had resigned his command soon after
the election in the fall of 1863, in order to accept the seat in
Congress to which he had been elected as a representative
from Ohio. Brigadier-General Lockwood temporarily
filled the position of commanding general till Major-Gen-
eral Lew Wallace was appointed to the command of the
Middle Department on March 17, 1864.

General Wallace was, on the whole, more aggressive
than General Schenck in the administration of his depart-
ment, boldly taking his stand at the outset on the public
declaration that a "rebel and a traitor had no political
rights" whatever. However, on March 30, 1864, he wrote
a letter to Governor Bradford, saying that he was anxious
to frustrate the attempts of disloyal persons (some of them
candidates) to vote on April 6, and asking if there were
state laws and legislative action sufficient to prevent it.
The Governor answered the next day, saying that the laws
were entirely sufficient, if faithfully executed, as he had
every reason to hope they would be, to exclude disloyal
voters from the polls. Therefore General Wallace issued

⁴³ Also see p. 63.
26