"
With a muttered explosion of wrath Gilbert Winter shook the dust of the
White House floor from his feet and solemnly promised God it would be
many moons before he degraded himself by again entering its portals.
The President had need of all his patience and caution in dealing with
Maryland. The next protest demanded that troops should not pass by way
of Annapolis or over any other spot of the soil of the State.
He calmly but firmly replied:
"My troops must reach Washington. They can neither fly over the State of
Maryland nor burrow under it: therefore, they must cross it, and your
people must learn that there is no piece of American soil too good to be
pressed by the foot of a loyal soldier on his march to the defense of
the Capital and his country."
During these anxious days while the fate of Maryland hung in the balance
the Government was given a startling revelation of what it would mean to
have Maryland hostile territory.
For a week the President and his Cabinet were in a state of siege. They
got no news. They could send none save by courier. The maddest rumors
were daily afloat. The President was supposed to be governing a country
from which he was completely isolated.
The tension at last became unbearable. The giant figure stood for hours
alone before his window in the White House, his sombre hazel-grey eyes
fixed on the hills beyond the Potomac.
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