Led by Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks (1798-1865), the Maryland General Assembly votes 53-13 that it does not have the power to secede and join the Confederacy. The vote, one of most significant in the entire Civil War, is a mighty assist to President Lincoln. It means that the U.S. Capital is not surrounded by Confederate States in rebellion.
Governor Hicks, both pro-slavery and anti-secession, represents the dilemma of a border state. After serving as sheriff and in other offices in Dorchester County, Hicks is elected governor in the disputed 1858 election as the Know Nothing Party candidate.
As a member of the Know Nothing party he is both anti-immigration and anti-Catholic and is also an enslaver. He opposes much of the Lincoln administration platform and tries to prevent federal troops from being transported through Maryland to the national capital.
He refuses, however, to let Maryland secede because he believes that the Constitution does not permit it. He moves the General Assembly away from the secessionists in Annapolis to Frederick. The Assembly then votes to agree to stay in the Union by a wide margin.
Maryland Board of Censors goes out of business
Maryland closes the country’s longest surviving state censorship board (1916-1981) as a cost cutting measure. Board member Mary Avara (on right) becomes well known for policing violence, language and sex content in films and for admonishing John Waters.
