In February 1863, former Maryland Governor Hicks who had requested that Lincoln not transport troops through the state was now a U.S. Senator, and claimed: "I believe that arrests and arrests alone saved the State of Maryland not only from greater degradation than she suffered, but from everlasting destruction. ... I approved them arrests then, and I approve them now; and the only thing for which I condemn the Administration in regard to that matter is that they let some of these men out."