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Civil War Harper's Weekly, February 16, 1861

The February 16, 1861 edition of Harper's Weekly featured a vast array of news on Fort Sumter, and information related to the opening days of the Civil war.  Scroll down to see the entire page, or the newspaper thumbnails below will take you to the specific page of interest.

 

Civil War Valentine

Sally Port

Sally Port at Fort Sumter

Congressional Actions

Texas secedes

Texas Secession

New Orleans Custom House

New Orleans Custom House

New Orleans Customs House Story

columbiad

Columbiad at Fort Sumter

Slavery Cartoon

Slavery Cartoon

 

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY 16, 1861.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

109

GOVERNOR THOMAS H. HICKS, OF MARYLAND.

HON. JOSEPH HOLT, SECRETARY OF WAR.—[PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY.]

GOV. HICKS, OF MARYLAND.

WE know of no man who occupies a more prominent position at the present time than the Governor of the State of Maryland, whose portrait we publish herewith. To his wise and patriotic action, in firmly resisting the tide of partisan feeling in his State, he has so far averted civil war, and preserved Maryland as a nucleus about which, if politic counsels prevail, our glorious Union may be preserved. As a representative man of the times, he should be held up as worthy of imitation by all who desire to aid in the perpetuation of the liberties which have given us so prominent a place among the nations of the earth.

Thomas Holliday Hicks was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, on the second clay of September, 1798. His parents were plain, respectable people.

 His father was a mechanic, but late in life be-came a land-owner and farmer. Owing to his straitened circumstances, Governor Hicks, the eldest of a large family of children, was compelled to perform constant manual labor in the work-shop and on the farm. This mode of life lie followed until he reached the age of twenty-two years; in the mean while utterly deprived of the means of education now so freely offered to every one.

When he reached the age of twenty-two he was appointed a constable for one of the districts of his county ; which position He filled faithfully during two years, when he was, without his knowledge, nominated as a candidate for sheriff of the county by the Democratic party of that day. Though that party was then largely in the minority, Governor Hicks defeated his Federal opponent by a hand-some majority — that opponent being, too, one of the most popular men in the county, and himself being the youngest man

ever elected in that county to fill the important office of sheriff.

In 1829 the Adams party, to which he had attached himself, elected him to the Legislature ; and he was returned to that position in the following year. In 1831 he was elected a member of the Electoral College, the duties of which was to choose the State Senators. In 1836 he was again elected to that office ; and while in the discharge of his duties at Annapolis he was again elected to the Legislature. This was the exciting period when the nineteen Democratic Electors, by refusing to meet the Electoral College, came very near subverting the Government of the State. In the following year he was again elected to the Legislature, and was made a member of the Governor's Council, which position he held until the Council was abolished. He was then appointed Register

of Wills for Dorchester County. In 1844 he was reappointed to that office, and served six years. In the mean while he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, by which the office of Register of Wills was made elective. Subsequently, the incumbent of the office having died, he was induced to accept the appointment at the hands of the Orphans' Court, and at the next regular election he was elected Register of Wills, which office he held until 1857, when he was nominated for Governor by the American party, to which he had attached himself, and was elected by a large majority. It is not a little remarkable that, notwithstanding the fluctuations of party strength in his county and in the State, he never was defeated at a popular election but once—in 1851—when he was nominated, against his wishes, as the Whig candidate for Lottery Commissioner. In every election

at which he has been a candidate he has always led the poll in his own county. This fact is abundant evidence of the great popularity he has always enjoyed among those who knew him best.

In person he is about the medium height, thick-set, with iron-gray hair and side-whiskers, and a countenance and mien indicative of the utmost firmness of character. That he is possessed of an iron will is sufficiently indicated by his present position in reference to the crisis. It is that peculiarity which has so deservedly earned for him the soubriquet of " Old Caessar."

Although now the object of severe abuse among his political opponents, on account of his conservative position, he is cordially indorsed by a large majority of the best men in Maryland ; and when the smoke of the serious conflict in which we are now engaged shall roll, it will, we think, be difficult to find an unprejudiced

 man who will refuse to laud him for his honest efforts to avert the terrible calamities which over-shadow us.

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT NEW ORLEANS, SEIZED BY THE STATE.-

[SEE NEXT PAGE.]

JOSEPH HOLT,

SECRETARY OF WAR.

THE distinguished occupant of the War Department of the United States was born in 1807, in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. His parents were poor, but he managed, by great industry and energy, to obtain a good education. He was educated a part of the time at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, and the remainder of his college life was spent in Centre College. Danville. In 1828 he commenced the practice of law at Elizabethtown, Kentucky and he re-moved to Louisville in the winter of 1831-'32. In 1832, he was sent as a delegate to a Democratic Convention, held in Harrodsburg, Kentucky ; and in that body he made a speech that gave him a wide-spread reputation through-  (NEXT PAGE)

THE MINT AT NEW ORLEANS, SEIZED BY THE STATE.—[SEE NEXT PAGE.]

ST. CHARLES HOTEL, NEW ORLEANS.

FLOWER-GIRLS AT NEW ORLEANS.

Governor Thomas Hicks
Joseph Holt
New Orleans Custom House
The New Orleans Mint
Saint Charles Hotel
New Orleans Flower Girls

 

 

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