Augustus W. Bradford, a Union man, was chosen governor in 1861, and, under his ad ministration, was held the Constitutional Con vention of 1864, the result of whose delibera tions was declared adopted in October, by a very small majority, made up by the soldiers' vote. This constitution abolished slavery, in creased the representation of Baltimore, mak ing it equivalent to three counties, provided for a lieutenant-governor, instituted registration of voters and established a State system of public education. It also prohibited, in the strictest terms, any persons who had sympathized with the Confederate States from holding office or voting, and provided that all voters must take an oath that they "have been truly and loyally on the side of the United States? Thomas Swann was elected governor, and C. C. Cox, lieutenant-governor, on the Union ticket in November 1864. When the Civil Wd ended in 1865, the Union party, which had been a coalition one, fell into pieces. Governor Swann became a Democrat, while Lieutenant Governor Cox and Henry Winter Davis organ ized the Republican party, which was a minority one for 30 years. Reaction from the extreme loyal position of the constitution of 1864 led to the assembling of another Constitutional Convention in 1867, which drafted the constitu tion under which the State is still governed, the people having declined in 1887 and 1907 to call a Constitutional Convention —a proposition which the constitution directed to be laid be fore them every 20 years. This constitution abolished the office of lieutenant-governor and the "iron clad oath" of loyalty, and rearranged the judiciary. By this constitution, Wicomico County was established on the Eastern Shore, out of Dorchester and Somerset. In 1872 the western part of Allegany County was created into Garrett County, named for John W. Gar rett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail road. This is the last county to be organized.
Oden Bowie was the first governor under the new constitution, and he was succeeded in 1872 by William Pinkney Whyte, a lawyer of marked ability, who held, at one time or another, nearly every elective office in the gift of the people, and who was the head of the Democratic organization until about 1880. Then Arthur P. Gorman, who had been a prominent member of the legislature, succeeded him as the director of Democratic politics, and continued to keep the organization in the hands of himself and his friends until his death in 1906. During most of that quarter of a century, he was a member of the United States Senate. The legislatures of 1868 and 1870 were unanimously Democratic, but, in that of 1872, a small Repub lican minority appeared, under the leadership of Dr. Lewis H. Steiner of Frederick County.
A one-party State is apt to find that abuses creep in, and such became the condition in Maryland. An independent reform movement in the Democratic party led to refusal on the part of many to accept the nomination of John Lee Carroll of Howard County for governor in 1875. A reform ticket was nominated, headed by J. Morrison Harris, a Republican, and containing the name of S. Teackle Wallis, a Democrat and the leader of the Baltimore bar, as candidate for the attorney-generalship. This ticket carried the counties, but gross frauds in Baltimore city were sufficient to show Carroll's election on the face of the returns.
The Court of Appeals, in a decision welcomed as a precedent by Republicans in the Presiden tial contest of the succeeding year, decided that it could not go back of the returns, and Carroll became governor. The reform Democrats and independent Republicans then organized the Baltimore Reform League, and for 30 years waged an unparalleled conflict against the dominant party organization. Gradually, the independent voters came to hold the balance of power, especially in Baltimore. No independ ent ticket was nominated, but he League stead ily continued for good election laws, honestly administered and from time to time supported such Republican candidates as stood for the same purposes as the League. This policy led both parties to nominate better men and much improved political conditions.
In 1877 the most terrible strike of working men occurred, which Maryland has yet known, when a reduction in wages of the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad led to such rioting that the National Guard was insufficient to quell it, and the assistance of Federal soldiers was requested. The efforts of the reform ele ment led to the nomination, by the Democratic party in 1879, of William T. Hamilton of Wash= ington County, for the governorship. He was elected by a large majority, and, though ham pered by an unfriendly legislature, accomplished some reform. In 1882, the Reform League achieved its first victory in Baltimore, electing anew judges;i in coalition with the Republicans, over the old judges, who had been renominated by the Democrats.
Robert M. McLane was elected governor, in 1885, but, being appointed Minister to France, he did not complete his term. In 1::7 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ceased to pay dividends, and many citizens who were stock holders suffered severe losses. The road strug gled along until 1896, when it went into the hands of the receivers, John K. Cowen and Oscar G. Murray. They were two remarkable men; the one, an able lawyer; the other, a skilled railroad operator, and, by the daring issue of receiver's certificates, and by extensive re construction of the road, they were able, after a little more than three years, to return it to its stockholders under the original charter. Cowen became the first president of the reorganized road. A tunnel was dug under Baltimore, in order to secure direct connection between the lines on the east acid those oh the west of the city.
In 1::7 Elihu E. Jackson was elected gov ernor. In 1889 disastrous floods in western Maryland so damaged the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal that it was never afterward successfully operated. Fifteen years later, it was sold to the Western Maryland Railroad. In 1890 the financial interests of the State suffered a great shock, by the discovery of the misappropriation of over $100,000 of the State's funds by the State treasurer, a man who had been univer sally trusted. The loss to his bondsmen was heavy, and the incident gave an especial incen tive to the founding of bonding companies in Baltimore. The long-continued complaint of intimidation and fraud at elections, especially in Baltimore city, led to the passage of an Australian Ballot Law in 1890. This statute much improved the conditions, but was a measure which needed much later amendment.