369]           The Maryland Constitution of 1864.              23

that it would not have been approved by him if he had
known it [beforehand?] and that it is, therefore, all the
more reprehensible."

A postscript was added containing the modification by
the President of General Order No. 53, as has been already
stated..

Military orders were immediately sent to the Eastern
Shore, against which it was claimed the General Order
had been especially directed (as martial law had never been
declared in this part of the state) ordering that the circula-
tion of the Proclamation be suppressed. An embargo was
laid on all steamers trading with that part of the state, and the
newspapers were forbidden to publish it.²⁶ However, Gover-
nor Bradford issued it in pamphlet form on the same day,²⁷
and it was finally permitted to appear in the Baltimore papers
pn the morning of the election (November 4). This action
on the part of the military authorities is explained by Gen-
eral Schenck in a reply published by him on November 3,
in which he stated that he desired that there should go out
with the Governor's proclamation the letter from President
Lincoln to Governor Bradford on the subject of the action
of the military. He added that the simple purpose of the
order was "to prevent traitorous persons from controlling
in any degree by their votes, or taking part in the coming
election." Further, in order to secure peace and good
order at the polls, the officers entrusted with this duty were
in every case furnished with written or printed instructions
containing the following: "The officers and men are cau-
tioned not to commit or permit any unlawful violence.
They must not enter into political discussions, and are to
remember that while protecting the polls from rebel sym-
pathizers, they are conservators of the peace, and are there
to support the judges of election."

This public controversy ended here, but the results of

²⁶ Governor's Message, Senate and House Documents, 1864.
²⁷ "Sun," November 4.