my position with his, forty-seven years before. The flag which he had then so proudly hailed, I saw waving at the same place over the victims of as vulgar and brutal a despotism as modern times have witnessed. Howard died while in London in 1872. Background Maryland was considered one of the five border states at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. On April 27, 1861 Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland partially as a response to the Baltimore riot of 1861, and in portions of midwestern states such as southern Indiana. The first person to be arrested after this order was issued was Lieutenant John Merryman of the newly formed (1861) Baltimore County Horse Guards, a unit composed of southern sympathizers. Merryman was accused of treason for destroying bridges and telegraph wires to prevent Union troops from marching through Baltimore to reinforce Washington, D.C. Lincoln's action was challenged in court and overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court in Maryland (led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who was incidentally married to Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, Francis Scott Key's sister) in Ex Parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861). Lincoln, citing the actions of prior U.S. President Andrew Jackson, chose to ignore the ruling. It was for criticizing Lincoln's actions in the editorial section of the Baltimore Exchange that Howard was arrested. References External links 1826 births 1872 deaths 19th-century American newspaper editors Editors of Maryland newspapers Key family of Maryland People of Maryland in the American Civil War Howard family of Maryland