Former U.S. Congressman Henry May had been a sitting member of the 37th Congress representing Maryland when he was arrested and imprisoned without trial for several months in late 1861, suspected of disloyalty to the Union.  He resumed his seat and agitated for a bill which would require the federal government to either indict or release accused traitors and other political prisoners.  This feature, in fact, was included in the later 1863 Habeas Corpus Act.  May was not elected to the 38th Congress. He died at his home in Baltimore, aged fifty-five years.  (By John Osborne) 

The fall elections in Massachusetts saw the Republicans strengthen their domination of state politics.  Governor A.H. Bullock won re-election, taking almost three-quarters of the votes cast.  The new state legislature saw forty Republicans and no Democrats in the Senate and a majority of 229 to eleven in the lower house.  Elected there were two African-Americans, Edward Garrison Walker and Charles L. Mitchell, a United States Colored Troops veteran with the 55th Massachusetts Regiment.  (By John Osborne)  

Around 1,800 members of the National Union Party of Massachusetts, made up largely of conservative Republicans supporting President Johnson's policies, met in Boston.  The Massachusetts Democrats met the same day in the city and voted to support the candidates the National Union put forward for the fall state elections. These included Theodore H. Sweetzer for governor and Brigadier General Horace Lee for lieutenant-governor.  The ticket was completely defeated in November by large margins.  (By John Osborne)  

The Massachusetts Republicans met in Boston to nominate candidates for the upcoming election.  The Convention selected sitting governor Alexander Bullock for re-election, along with the other Republicans in his administration.  They then launched into a heated denuncination of President Johnson and his policies, decrying "the stronge spectacle of the President of the United States placing himself at the head of a combination of half-reconstructed Rebels and their defeated Northern allies" and warning of "the most imminent danger of losing every thint that we won by successful war on land and sea."  (By John Osborne)

The Massachusetts State Legislature adjourned on this day after 147 busy days of legislating. With Republicans Joseph A. Pond the Senate and James A. Stone the House, the body passed 301 of 351 pieces of legislation and passed another 105 resolutions. Much of the action leaned towards the encouragement of business and the rejection of new state regulations but also passed a law giving Civil War disabled or widows a $6 a month stipend. (By John Osborne)

Three weeks before, municipal elections in Baltimore, Maryland saw Republican Mayor John Crawford re-elected with a vote of just 5,405 to 2,840 in a city with an estimated 35,000 eligible voters. This caused consternation amongst Democrats who blamed the Baltimore Police Commissioners who were responsible for voter registration and who had long wiped from the rolls anyone remotely connected with the former Confederacy.  The uproar resulted in Maryland Governor Thomas Swann, a Democrat, removing the entire board of commissioners on this day and replacing them. (By John Osborne)

Municipal elections in Baltimore, Maryland saw Republican Mayor John Crawford re-elected with a vote of 5,405 to 2,840.  The total vote of just over eight thousand in a city where there were an estimated 35,000 eligible voters caused consternation amongst Democrats.  The fault, they said, was the Baltimore Police Commissioners who were responsible for voter registration and who for years had wiped from the rolls anyone remotely connected with the Confederacy.  The uproar resulted in the governor of the state removing the entire board of commissioners and replacing them three weeks later.  (By John Osborne)