24               The Maryland Constitution of 1864.            [370

conflicting authority and such an uncertain and complicated
state of affairs were as might easily have been foreseen.

The election took place, as stated above, on Wednesday,
November 4, 1863, and resulted in an overwhelming victory
for the Union ticket.

Goldsborough, for Comptroller, received 36,360 votes,
and Maffitt, 15,984, an Unconditional Union majority of
nearly 20,000. -In Baltimore City, the vote was 10,545 for
Goldsborough, and 367 for Maffitt. A majority of the
state Legislature also was in favor of the Constitutionl
Convention and emancipation. John A. J. Creswell, Ed-
win H. Webster, Henry Winter Davis, and Francis
Thomas, the Unconditional Union candidates in the first
four districts respectively, were elected to Congress, Web-
ster and Davis with practically no opposition, but the Fifth
District went Democratic, Benjamin G. Harris being suc-
cessful against his Conditional and Unconditional Union
opponents. Goldsborough's majority was about ten thou-
sand less than that of Governor Bradford in 1861, but the
Democratic votes cannot be compared, as that party had
no candidates for state officers in 1863. The entire Union
vote (of both parties) was practically the same in 1863 as in
1861, although the total vote was only about half that of
the Presidential election of 1860. Part of this decrease
was of course caused by lack of Democratic nominations
and also the numbers of secession sympathizers who had
gone South to enter the Confederate service; but fear of
the military at the polls, or the intimidation practiced by it
(of which there is absolute proof) were the greatest causes,
the number not voting at this election for these latter rea-
sons being estimated at about one-third of the total vote
in many districts of the state.²⁸ Allowing absolute fairness
at the polls, and even this entire amount throughout the
state as going solidly for Maffitt, Goldsborough would still
likely have won by a good round majority, so that the mili-

²⁸ See evidence in contested election cases, House Documents,
1864; also contemporary newspapers.