Emancipation's Close Call

Emancipation's Close Call. Did Union Troops Suppress the Vote?. , The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation did not free Maryland's enslaved people, as states that remained in the Union were excluded from the proclamation's provisions. It was Maryland's new constitution, adopted by the narrow margin of 291 votes out of almost 60,000 cast on November 2, 1864, that ended slavery in the state. Maryland's voluntary abolition of slavery boosted President Abraham Lincoln's reelection campaign., Caroline County was divided in its loyalties, and while Union supporters hailed emancipation, those with Southern sympathies believed the new constitution resulted from suspicious circumstances. Albert Gullett, editor of the Denton Journal, declared the process to have been full of "outrages and frauds" that disenfranchised at least 1,000 county voters., Gullett asserted that more than half of the eligible voters in Caroline County did not attempt to vote for fear of arrest by Union soldiers, potential opponents of the constitution were closely interrogated and forced to prove their loyalty, and that many were denied the right to vote. Gullett also claimed protesters were arrested and half the votes against the state constitution in Denton were deliberately destroyed. Eighty-nine men signed an affidavit supporting the latter assertion., When county citizens filed legal actions claiming they were disenfranchised, a Union general ordered their arrest. Gullett was ultimately forced from his newspaper and later committed suicide.