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===Civil War===
===Civil War===
Baltimore was torn by the Civil War. Much of the social and political elite favored the Confederacy--and indeed owned house slaves. However the fierce politics of the 1850s had galvanized the white workers, most of them German, who opposed slavery. working-class political consciousness to the workplace and deftly reconstructs the breakdown of what he terms urban paternalism over the antebellum decades. Baltimore in the [[Third Party System]] had two-party competitive elections, with powerful bosses, carefully orchestrated political violence, and an emerging working-class consciousness at the polls. The American Party emerged in the mid 1850s to represent Protestants and to counter the Democratic Party, which was increasingly controlled by [[Catholic Irish]]. When Baltimore erupted in violence at the time of Lincoln's inauguration, for example, the pro-Union "Blood Tubs" that took to the streets were veterans of political rioting.<ref>Frank Towers, ''The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2004)</ref>
Baltimore was torn by the Civil War. Much of the social and political elite favored the Confederacy--and indeed owned house slaves. However the fierce politics of the 1850s had galvanized the white workers, most of them German, who opposed slavery. working-class political consciousness to the workplace and deftly reconstructs the breakdown of what he terms urban paternalism over the antebellum decades. Baltimore in the [[Third Party System]] had two-party competitive elections, with powerful bosses, carefully orchestrated political violence, and an emerging working-class consciousness at the polls. The American Party emerged in the mid 1850s to represent Protestants and to counter the Democratic Party, which was increasingly controlled by [[Catholic Irish]]. When Baltimore erupted in violence at the time of Lincoln's inauguration, for example, the pro-Union "Blood Tubs" that took to the streets were veterans of political rioting.<ref>Frank Towers, ''The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2004)</ref>
In the 1860 election the city's large German element voted not for Lincoln but for Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. They were less concerned with the abolition of slavery, an issue emphasized by Republicans, and much more with nativism, temperance, and religious beliefs, associated with the Know-Nothing Party and strongly opposed by the Democrats.
When Massachusetts troops marched through the city on April 19, 1861, en route to Washington, a rebel mob attacked; 4 soldiers and 12 rioters were dead, and 36 soldiers and uncounted rioters had been injured. Governor Thomas Hicks realized action was needed. He convened a special session of the General Assembly but moved its location to a site in Frederick, a distance from the secessionist groups. In doing this and by other actions, Hicks managed to neutralize the General Assembly to avoid Maryland's secession from the Union, becoming a hero in the eyes of the Unionists in the state. Meanwhile pro-Confederate gangs burned the bridges connecting Baltimore and Washington to the North, and cut the telegraph lines. Lincoln sent in federal troops under Gen. [[Ben Butler]]; they seized the city, imposed martial law, and arrested leading Confederate spokesmen. The prisoners were later released and the rail lines reopened, making Baltimore a major Union base during the war.
When Massachusetts troops marched through the city on April 19, 1861, en route to Washington, a rebel mob attacked; 4 soldiers and 12 rioters were dead, and 36 soldiers and uncounted rioters had been injured. Governor Thomas Hicks realized action was needed. He convened a special session of the General Assembly but moved its location to a site in Frederick, a distance from the secessionist groups. In doing this and by other actions, Hicks managed to neutralize the General Assembly to avoid Maryland's secession from the Union, becoming a hero in the eyes of the Unionists in the state. Meanwhile pro-Confederate gangs burned the bridges connecting Baltimore and Washington to the North, and cut the telegraph lines. Lincoln sent in federal troops under Gen. [[Ben Butler]]; they seized the city, imposed martial law, and arrested leading Confederate spokesmen. The prisoners were later released and the rail lines reopened, making Baltimore a major Union base during the war.
In 1806-21 Catholics constructed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based on a neoclassical design by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. A $34-million restoration was based on Latrobe's original plans and was completed in 2006.
In 1806-21 Catholics constructed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based on a neoclassical design by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. A $34-million restoration was based on Latrobe's original plans and was completed in 2006.
The Methodists were well received in Maryland in the 1760-1840 era, and Baltimore became an important center.<ref> Dee E. Andrews, ''The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800: The Shaping of an Evangelical Culture'' (2000)</ref>
The Methodists were well received in Maryland in the 1760-1840 era, and Baltimore became an important center.<ref> Dee E. Andrews, ''The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800: The Shaping of an Evangelical Culture'' (2000)</ref> Sutton (1998) looks at Methodist artisans and craftsmen, showing they embraced an evangelical identity, Protestant ethic, and complex organizational structure. This enabled them to express their anti-elitist or populist "producerist" values of self-discipline, honesty, frugality, and industry; they denounced greed, and sought an interdependent common good. Such producerist views drew on aspects of the Wesleyan ethic, appropriated the commonweal traditions of eighteenth-century [[republicanism]], and initially resisted those of classical liberal, individualistic, self-interested capitalism. They also accorded well with and helped produce the emerging amalgam of American populist, restorationist, biblicistic, revivalistic activism that Sutton terms "Arminianized Calvinism."
Inside the Methodist Church the artisans were reforemers who focused on three substantive and symbolic targets, each of which would democratize Methodist conferences: lay suffrage and representation; inclusion of the local preachers, who constituted two-thirds of Methodist leadership; and election of the officers who carried the administrative, personnel, and supervisory power, the presiding elders. The appeals made on behalf of these democratizations, Sutton shows, drew imaginatively on both producerist and Wesleyan rhetoric. By the 1850s Sutton shows that the corporate ideals and individual disciplines of religious producerism were expressed in trade unionism, in evangelical missions to workers, in factory preaching, in workers' congregations, in temperance and Sabbatarianism, in the Sunday school movement, and in the politics of Protestant communal hegemony.
==Scandals==
==Scandals==
Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat, was forced to resign in 2010 as part of a plea bargain; already convicted of a misdemeanor for stealing donated gift cards intended for poor children, she was facing yet another trial on perjury charges.
Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat, was forced to resign in 2010 as part of a plea bargain; already convicted of a misdemeanor for stealing donated gift cards intended for poor children, she was facing yet another trial on perjury charges.
* Elfenbein, Jessica I.''The Making of a Modern City: Philanthropy, Civic Culture, and the Baltimore YMCA'' (2001) 192 pp.
* Elfenbein, Jessica I.''The Making of a Modern City: Philanthropy, Civic Culture, and the Baltimore YMCA'' (2001) 192 pp.
* Hayward, Mary Ellen and Shivers, Frank R., Jr., eds. ''The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History'' (2004). 408 pp.
* Hayward, Mary Ellen and Shivers, Frank R., Jr., eds. ''The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History'' (2004). 408 pp.
* Phillips, Christopher. ''Freedom's Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860''
* Rockman, Seth. ''Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore'' (2009), 368 pp. social history [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=24171 online review]
* Rockman, Seth. ''Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore'' (2009), 368 pp. social history [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=24171 online review]
* Steffen, Charles. ''Mechanics of Baltimore''
* Sutton, William R. ''Journeymen for Jesus: Evangelical Artisans Confront Capitalism in Jacksonian Baltimore'' (1998) 351 pp.
* Sutton, William R. ''Journeymen for Jesus: Evangelical Artisans Confront Capitalism in Jacksonian Baltimore'' (1998) 351 pp.
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