During the war Maryland had appropriated nearly half a million dollars to aid the Federal Government, while Baltimore alone had appropriated a million dollars for defense. President Madison recognized the justice of the claims of the State to repayment by the United States; but the people of other parts of the country cried out against it, and in the end Maryland received only a little over three hundred thousand dollars. Before the war the revenue from a fund of a million and a half dollars which the State possessed was enough to pay the

Beginning of the
State Debt, and

of the City Debt
in Baltimore.

ordinary expenses of the government, and in Baltimore the revenues sufficed for all current expenses; but so much money was paid out during the war that both the State and the city had to borrow, and this was the beginning of the present State and city debts.

CHAPTER IX.

AFTER THE WAR WITH ENGLAND: POLITICAL
HISTORY; INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS;
SOCIETY AND MANNERS.

Federalists and
Republicans.

It will be remembered that there were two political parties in the United States during the war of 1812: one, the Federalist, was in general opposed to the war; the other, the Republican, was in favor of it. This latter is not the same as the present Republican party, but is really the beginning of the party called Democratic. The question of the war was not the only one on which the parties differed the Federalists leaned to the side of England in the wars following the French Revolution, while the Republicans sympathized with France; the Federalists favored a strong central government in the United States, while the Republicans thought the separate States should be stronger and more independent. The Southern States were Republican, and the New England States, especially Massachusetts and Connecticut, were Federalist; though there were many of the latter party in the South, and some of the former in New England.

In Maryland, in the elections of 1814, the Federalists made considerable gains; but in those of 1815 the Republicans made such gains that the Federalists had a majority of only one vote in the General Assembly. The latter party gradually lost power in all the States, chiefly because of its opposition to the war, until in 1816 Mon

roe, the Republican candidate for President, received the electoral votes of all the States except Massachusetts, Connecticut and Delaware. In 1820 he received all the votes except one,* and the Federalist party fell to pieces completely. In this same year the Republicans gained complete control of the State Government of Maryland. It was in these years that much discussion arose in Maryland about the election of representatives to the As

Minority Rule in the State.

sembly. Annapolis and Baltimore each elected one elector of the Senate, the counties each elected two. Of the House of Delegates Baltimore City and county elected six members, but in proportion to their population and the taxes they paid they were entitled to twenty. In addition to this the executive, that is, the Governor and the officers he appointed under him, were elected, not by the people directly as is now the case, but by the Legislature; nor were Senators elected directly, but by a college of electors as is the case in electing the President of the United States. By this arrangement the portion of the State which had most population and paid most taxes had less voice in the government than the other part; or, as we say, a minority of the people was governing the majority. In 1818 an effort was made to alter the Constitution of the State in order to correct this evil, but the opposition in the counties was so strong that the bill could not be passed. Another matter of discussion in these years was the enfranchisement of the Jews. They were allowed to worship ac

Enfranchisement of the Jews, 1825.

*This vote was cast against him because it was thought that Washington should be the only President elected unanimously. † See ante, p. 65, and following.

cording to their belief, but were not allowed to hold any office under the State Government until, in 1825, a bill was passed giving them the same rights that every one else had.

The Federalist party was succeeded in time by the Whigs, and as we shall before long have to speak of their successors, the present Republicans, let us call the old Republican party by the name it now bears, Democratic. In 1828 the Democratic party, then, had elected Jackson to the presidency, and during the end of his second term. the old question of minority rule came up again in Maryland. In 1836 members of both political parties held a reform convention in Baltimore, and agreed to nominate Delegates who would pledge themselves to carry out the needed reforms. But it was the year of a presidential election, and party feeling was so strong that men of different parties, although they held the same views on this question, would not unite for the election of Delegates. Nevertheless, public opinion was so strongly in favor of these reforms that the newly-elected Assembly passed a law, which, among other changes, gave the people the power to elect directly the Governor and Senators, one from each county and one from Baltimore City. The number of Delegates from each county was to be proportional to the population of that county, and the city of Baltimore was to send as many Delegates as the county having the largest population.

Reforms in the
State Government.

The importance of opening up the Western country to trade and settlement was early recognized, and during the first half of the nineteenth century many schemes

for building roads and canals were started, some of which were carried through. Railroads had been in use in Eng

The State Encourages the Building of

land for some years, and in one or two places in America, when, on July 4, 1828, the corner stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was laid in Baltimore by Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. Canals and Railroads. The road ran from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, and the cars were drawn by horses. Two years later a locomo

tive, built by Peter Cooper, was run over the road, and made about fifteen miles an hour.

The road grew, and in 1835 the State subscribed three mil

8

OHIO RAILROAD.