Snapshot: Four Views of Music, Government, and Politics

There had never been a parade quite like this one. Revolutionary War vintage artillery headed the gathering. Following behind was the carriage of Daniel Webster , some one thousand banners, eight log cabin floats (one with a working chimney, another that had traveled—delegates inside—from Pennsylvania), an assortment of marching bands, plenty of hard cider, and other sundry paraphernalia. In all, as many as twenty-five thousand people may have marched through the Baltimore streets on that...