PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION.
VOLUME II.
BY BENSON J. LOSSING
1850.
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CHAPTER VII.
Baltimore and its Associations. – Washington’s Monument. – Maryland Historical Society. – Pulaski’s Banner. – Moravian Nuns at Bethlehem. – "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns." – Patriotism in Baltimore. – Committees of Correspondence and Observation. – Treatment of Loyalists. – Meeting of Congress in Baltimore. – La Fayette in Baltimore. – Journey to Annapolis. – Departure from the Right Road. – Hospitality. – City of Annapolis. – Founding of Annapolis. – First Lord Baltimore. – Exploration of the Chesapeake. – Maryland Charter. – Character of the first Maryland Charter. – Toleration its chief Glory. – Baltimore’s Policy. – Baltimore’s Toleration. – First Settlers. – Leonard Calvert. – Settlement at St. Mary’s. – First Legislative Assembly. – Religious Animosity. – Toleration of the Roman Catholics. – Civil Commotions. – Baltimore a Courtier. – Civil War. – Maryland a Royal Province. – Republican Constitution. – Annapolis. – Stamp-master’s Effigy hanged and burned. – The Sons of Liberty. – Statue of the King and Portrait of Camden. – Governor Eden. – Arrival of a Tea Ship. – Burning of the Vessel and Cargo. – Treatment of John Parks. – Maryland and Independence. – The State House and its Associations. – The Senate Chamber where Washington resigned his Commission. – Portraits. – Departure of Rochambeau.
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"Hear the holy Sabbath bells,
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Sunday was as mild and bright in Baltimore as a Sabbath in May, although it was the 3d of December. That city has no old churches hallowed by the presence of the patriots of the Revolution. Annapolis was the only city in Maryland, except little St. Mary’s, on its western border, when the battles for independence were fought; and "Baltimore towne," though laid out as early as 1729, contained, in 1776, less than one hundred houses. It is a city of the present; and yet, in extent, commerce, and population, it is the third city of the republic, numbering now about one hundred and sixty-five thousand inhabitants.
1I passed half an hour in the Roman Catholic cathedral during the matin services. Toward noon I listened to a persuasive sermon from the lips of Doctor Johns, of Christ Church (brother of the Virginia bishop), predicated upon the words of Moses to Hobah;
2 employed the remainder of the day in reading; and, early on Monday morning, started out, with portfolio and pencil, to visit the celebrities of the city.
WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
3The noble monument erected by the State of Maryland in honor of Washington is the object of first and greatest attraction to visitors. It stands in the center of a small square, at the intersection of Monument and Charles Streets, in the fashionable quarter of the city, one hundred and fifty feet above tide-water. It is composed of a base of white marble, fifty feet square, and twenty feet in height, with a Doric column, one hundred and sixty feet in height, and twenty feet in diameter at the base, gradually tapering upward to a handsomely-formed capital.
Upon the top is a statue of Washington, by Causici, sixteen feet in height, which is reached by a winding stair-way on the interior. It represents the chief in the act of resigning his commission. The statue cost nine thousand dollars. The ground on which the monument stands was given for the purpose by
John Eager Howard, the "hero of the Cowpens." The corner stone of the monument was laid on the 4th of July, 1815, with imposing ceremonies. This view is from Monument Street, looking northeast. The Battle Monument, near Barnum’s Hotel, erected to the memory of those who fell in defense of Baltimore in 1814, is beautiful and chaste in design and execution, and is an ornament to the city. It cost about sixty thousand dollars. A description of this structure, and copies of the inscriptions upon it, are given in a note on page 182 {original text has 188.}.After sketching these mementoes, I visited the rooms of the Maryland Historical Society, bearing a letter of introduction to its president, General Smith, a son of
Colonel Samuel Smith, the hero of Fort Mifflin, portrayed on page 90. To that gentleman, and to President N. C. Brooks, of the Baltimore Female College, I am indebted for kind attentions and local information. The Historical Society is young, but vigorous and flourishing. Its collection contains but few relics of the Revolution worthy of special notice. There is an old painting representing Yorktown, in Virginia, in 1781, and also a portrait of Governor John Eager Howard, a copy of which will be found in another part of this work. One of the most interesting relics which I saw during my tour is carefully preserved in the library of the society – the crimson banner of the Count Pulaski, beautifully wrought by the Moravian sisters, at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. Count Pulaski (whose portrait and biography will be hereafter given) was appointed a brigadier in the Continental army on the 15th of September, 1777, just after the battle on the Brandywine, in which he participated, and was honored with the command of the cavalry. He resigned this honor within a few months, and asked and obtained permission from Congress to raise and command an independent corps, to consist of sixty-eight horse and two hundred foot. The mode of raising these was left to the direction of General Washington. 4 This corps was chiefly raised, and fully organized in Baltimore in 1778. Pulaski visited La Fayette while that wounded officer was a recipient of the pious care and hospitality of the Moravians at Bethlehem. His presence, and eventful history, made a deep impression upon the minds of that community. When it was known that the brave Pole was organizing a corps of cavalry in Baltimore, the nuns, 5 or single women of Bethlehem, prepared a banner of crimson silk, with designs beautifully wrought with the needle by their own hands, and sent it to Pulaski, with their blessing.
PULASKI’S BANNER.
6The memory of this event is embalmed in verse by Longfellow, in the following beautiful
"HYMN OF THE MORAVIAN NUNS AT THE CONSECRATION OF PULASKI’S BANNER.
Pulaski received the banner with grateful acknowledgments, and bore it gallantly through many a martial scene, until he fell in conflict at Savannah in the autumn of 1779. His banner was saved by his first lieutenant (who received fourteen wounds), and delivered to Captain Bentalon, who, on retiring from the army, took the banner home with him to Baltimore.
7When oppression began to awaken a spirit of general resistance throughout the colonies, "Baltimore towne" was not behind its sister communities in zeal and action. A meeting was held there in 1774
[May 27.], 8 when the people generally agreed to support non-intercourse measures. Afterward they elected a Committee of Observation [November 12.], 9 and also appointed a committee of correspondence. 10 These committees were exceedingly vigilant and active in watching the disaffected, giving information of importance to their brethren abroad, and in passing intelligence between the patriots of the North and the South. They were no respecter of persons, and Loyalists of every grade came under their surveillance. The Reverend Mr. Edmiston, pastor of St. Thomas’s parish, was arraigned before the Committee of Observation, on a charge of being favorable to the Quebec Act. He pleaded guilty, apologized, and was forgiven. Other suspected Loyalists, of equal standing, were arraigned, and middlemen soon became scarce. 11
THE CONGRESS HOUSE.
12I have mentioned the fact (page 18) that, on the approach of the royal troops toward the Delaware, in 1776,
Congress, then in session in Philadelphia, adjourned to Baltimore. Their first meeting in that city, pursuant to adjournment, was on the 20th of December [1776.]. They met, and continued their session in the spacious brick building yet standing on Baltimore, Sharpe, and Liberty Streets. The Reverend Patrick Allison, first minister of the Presbyterian church of Baltimore, and Reverend W. White, were appointed chaplains on the 23d. It was there, on the 27th of December, two days after the battle at Trenton, that Congress, by resolution, delegated so much of their powers to Washington, for six months, as made him a military dictator, a fact already noticed on page 25. Through a local committee of Congress, left in Philadelphia, efficient cooperation with the army was secured, and the whole military establishment, as we have seen (page 34), was placed in a higher and more effective condition than it had been since the organization of the army. Congress continued in session in Baltimore until Friday, the 27th of February, when it adjourned to Philadelphia, where the delegates met on the following Wednesday, the 4th of March.When La Fayette passed through Baltimore on his way to the field of his conflicts at the South, he was greeted with the greatest respect by the people. A ball was given in his honor, at which the marquis appeared sad. "Why so gloomy at a ball?" asked one of the gay belles. "I can not enjoy the gayety of the scene," replied La Fayette, "while so many of the poor soldiers are without shirts and other necessaries." "We will supply them," was the noble reply of the ladies; and the gayety of the ball-room was exchanged for the sober but earnest services of the needle. They assembled the next day in great numbers to make up clothing for the soldiers, of materials furnished by fathers and husbands.
13 One gentleman, out of his limited means, gave La Fayette five hundred dollars to aid him in clothing his soldiers. His wife, with her own hands, cut out five hundred pairs of pantaloons, and superintended the making of them. 14In the passage of troops between the Northern and Southern States, Baltimore was often the scene of activity and excitement; beyond this, it has but little military history connected with our subject. Its statesmen and soldiers did good service in the forum and in the field, and their names and deeds are conspicuously recorded in various portions of these volumes. We will make Annapolis, the old capital of Maryland, our point of view, in taking a survey of the general history of the state, for that city was the soul and center of action during the Revolution.
I left Baltimore for Annapolis, thirty miles southward, at a little after three o’clock
[December 4, 1848.], crossing the Patapsco River at sunset, upon a long, rickety draw-bridge, having a toll-gatherer at the southern end. The sky was clear, and the moon being sufficiently advanced in illumination to promise a fair degree of light, I resolved to push forward as far as the "half-way house," fifteen miles from Baltimore, before halting. Soon after leaving the bridge, the road penetrated a forest of oaks and chestnuts, filled with those beautiful evergreens, the laurel and the holly. Passing several cultivated openings where the country was rolling, I reached a level, sandy region, and at dark entered a forest of pines, its deep shadows relieved occasionally by small openings recently made by the woodman’s ax. I had passed only two small houses in a journey of six miles, and without seeing the face of a living creature, when I met a negro man and woman, and inquired for the "half way house." The woman assured me that it was two miles ahead; and, in the plenitude of her kind feelings, promised that I should find "plenty o’ liquor dar." After driving at least four miles, I perceived that I had "run off the track," mistaking one of the numerous branches of the main road for the highway itself. After traversing the deep, sandy way, in the gloom, until almost eight o’clock, when traveler and horse were thoroughly wearied, I was cheered by the barking of a dog, and in a few moments crossed a stream, and came in sight of a spacious mansion, surrounded by many broad acres of cultivation. The merry voices of children, who were playing in the lane, were hushed as I halted at the gate and hailed. A servant swung it wide open for my entrance, and when I asked for entertainment for the night, the kindest hospitality was extended. The proprietor of the plantation was the widow of a Methodist clergyman, who was drowned in the Severn a few years ago. Her mother, residing with her, had been, in former years, a parishioner of my own pastor, the Reverend Stephen H. Tyng, D. D. This fact was a sympathetic link; and a home feeling, with its gentle influence, came over me as the evening passed away in pleasant conversation. I left the mansion of Mrs. Robinson, the next morning, with real regret. I had there a foretaste of that open hospitality which I experienced every where at the South, and must ever remember with gratitude.Under the guidance of a servant, I traversed a private road, to the public one leading to Annapolis. The highway passes through a barren region until within two miles of the town, relieved, occasionally, by a few cultivated spots; and so sinuous was its course, that I crossed the Baltimore and Annapolis rail-way seven times in a distance of thirteen miles. The deep sand made the journey toilsome, and extended its duration until almost an hour past meridian.
Annapolis is apparently and really an old town. Many of its houses are of the hip-roofed style of an earlier generation, with the distinctive features of Southern houses, so odd in appearance to the eyes of a Northern man – the chimneys projecting from the gable, from the ground to their tops. The city is beautifully located on the south branch of the River Severn, upon a peninsula formed by Acton’s and Covey’s Creeks, which rise within half a mile of each other. It commands an extensive view of the Chesapeake Bay and the surrounding country, where almost every diversity of picturesque scenery is exhibited, except the grandeur of lofty mountains.
Annapolis was erected into a town, port, and place of trade in 1683, under the name of the "Town land at Proctor’s," or "The Town land at Severn." Eleven years afterward it received the name of "Anne Arundle Town," and was made the naval station of the infant colony, and the seat of government. It received the name of Annapolis (Anne’s city) in 1703, which was given in honor of Queen Anne, the reigning sovereign of England. Before noticing the associations which give peculiar interest to the history of Annapolis, let us consult the chronicles of the state.
Maryland was settled at a little later period than New England. The London Company, of which Sir George Calvert (Lord Baltimore), the first proprietor of Maryland, was a member, claimed, under its charter
[1609.], the whole of the vast region from the head of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays – the boundary line of the Dutch settlements in New Netherlands – to an undefined boundary south and west. Calvert was a young man of good birth and fine talents. He attracted the attention and won the friendship of Sir Robert Cecil (afterward Earl of Salisbury), first lord of the Treasury under James the First. Calvert was appointed by Cecil his private secretary [1606.], which office he held for several years. Cecil died in 1612. Calvert appears to have won the esteem of his king, for, in 1617, James conferred the honor of knighthood upon him, appointed him clerk of the Privy Council, and, two years later, made him principal secretary of state, as successor to Sir Thomas Lake. In 1624, Calvert resigned his office, not, as Fuller says, because "he freely confessed himself to the king that he was become a Roman Catholic, so that he must be wanting to his trust, or violate his conscience in discharging his office," 15 for he was doubtless a Roman Catholic from his earliest youth, if not born in the bosom of that Church, but probably for the purpose of giving his personal attention to schemes of foreign colonization, in which he was interested. On retiring from the secretary’s office, the king continued him a privy counselor, granted him a tract of land in Longford, Ireland [1621.], with a pension of one thousand pounds, and created him "Lord Baltimore, of Baltimore, Ireland." He already had a patent as absolute lord and proprietor of the province of Avalon, in Newfoundland. After the death of James, in 1625, Lord Baltimore went to Avalon, where, with his family, he resided for some time, and then returned to England. He visited Virginia in 1628; and, although a member of the London Company, and high in the confidence of Charles, the successor of James, he was required by the local authorities of that colony to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. 16 Baltimore was offended, for he considered the requisition as an intended insult, he being a Roman Catholic. He refused to take the oaths himself, or allow his attendants to do so; and soon afterward departed from the James River, and made a voyage up the Chesapeake. He entered the Potomac, was pleased with the appearance of the country, projected a settlement upon the upper portions of the Chesapeake Bay, and then returned to England.The London Company dissolved in the mean while. Baltimore successfully applied to Charles for a grant of the unoccupied land on the Chesapeake, and in 1632 the king gave him permission to frame a charter for a province, to suit himself. The grant included the present area of Maryland, notwithstanding the territory was clearly within the limits of the Virginia charter, and Kent Island, opposite the site of Annapolis, was already occupied. It is believed that the Maryland charter was penned by Lord Baltimore himself. Before it passed the seals, Calvert died
[April 25, 1632.], leaving his son Cecil heir to his title and fortune.
The charter was executed about two months afterward [June 20.], and signed by Cecil, with no alteration from the original except in the name of the province. It was called Maryland, in honor of Henrietta Maria, the queen of Charles the First, instead of Crescentia, as the first Lord Baltimore named it. This charter was full of the ideas of absolutism and royal prerogatives which distinguished the character and career of James and his son Charles. It made the proprietor absolute lord of the province – "Absolutus Dominus et Proprietarius" – with the royalties of a count palatine. Theoretically, he was not inferior in rights and privileges to the king himself. He could make laws with the advice of the freemen, and withhold his assent from such as he did not approve. He claimed, and sometimes practiced, the right to dispense with the laws, in accordance with the principles and occasional practice of King James. He was authorized to create manorial lordships; to bestow titles upon the meritorious of his subjects; to summon, by writs, any freemen he chose, to take a seat in a legislative Assembly without election; to make ordinances of equal force with the laws without the confirmation of the Assembly; to declare martial law at his pleasure – for he had absolute control of the military and naval force of the colony – and to present ministers to the parishes. Such were the extensive powers which the charter of Maryland conferred upon the proprietor; yet the absolute authority of the "Baron of Baltimore" was conceded rather with reference to the crown than the colonists, for the charter contained concessions and grants to the people sufficient to guarantee them against oppression. The privileges, liberties, and franchises of liege subjects of England, born within the realm, were secured to them; they were protected against the operation of all laws repugnant to the statutes and customs of England; and they were forever exempted, by an express covenant in the charter, from all "impositions, customs, or other taxations, quotas, or contributions whatever," to be levied by the king or his successors. The sovereign did not reserve to himself even the right of superintendence of the affairs of the colony, or the power to interfere, in any way, with its laws. In fact, the province of Maryland was, by its royal charter, made independent of the crown from the beginning; it was what the proprietor termed it, "a separate monarchy." The dependence was acknowledged only by the provision of the charter which obliged the proprietor to acknowledge fealty by paying a tribute to the king of two Indian arrows yearly, and a fifth of all gold or silver ore which might be found.
The true glory of the first Maryland charter consists in the religious freedom which it recognizes; a freedom reasserted and enforced by an act of the Assembly in 1649, seventeen years after the charter passed the seals, when the whole realm of England was in commotion on account of the execution of the king and establishment of the commonwealth under Cromwell. To Lord Baltimore belongs the honor of being the first lawgiver in Christendom who made freedom of conscience the basis of a state constitution. There seems to be something paradoxical in the fact that an absolutist in political affairs should have been so democratic in matters of religion. But Baltimore was a latitudinarian; sagacious, farsighted, and awake to the best temporal interests of himself and his successors. He clearly perceived that the growth of his colony depended greatly upon the extent of religious freedom which might be guaranteed to emigrants. Persecution was overturning many peaceful homes in Great Britain; and, to wherever the light of toleration was seen, thousands of the oppressed made their way. He was exceedingly tolerant himself, or he never would have retained the friendship of James; and therefore his feelings and interests were coincident. His Catholic brethren were more or less persecuted in England; while the Puritans, who were peopling the coasts of Massachusetts Bay, had also been "harried out of the land" by the hierarchy. Maryland was made the asylum for the persecuted; not for Roman Catholics alone, but for the English Puritans, and the equally harassed reformers of Virginia, under the administration of the bigoted Berkeley.
The first two hundred settlers, who came with Leonard Calvert [1633.] (brother of Cecil, and first governor of the province), were principally Roman Catholics, but in a few years Protestants became almost as numerous as they. These settled upon the unoccupied territory north of the Patuxent, and formed a new county which they called Severn, or Anne Arundel, extending nearly to the present site of Baltimore. "All the world outside of these portals [St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s, as the first emigrants denominated the two headlands at the mouth of the Potomac, now Point Lookout, and Smith’s Point] was intolerant, proscriptive, vengeful against the children of a dissenting faith. Only in Maryland, throughout this wide world of Christendom, was there an altar erected, and truly dedicated to the freedom of Christian worship." 17 Yet it must not be forgotten that, fifteen months before the charter of Maryland was executed, Roger Williams had sounded the trumpet of intellectual freedom in New England, and "it became his glory to found a state upon that principle, and to stamp himself upon its rising institutions, in characters so deep that the impress has remained to this day." 18
It is not within the scope of my design to notice in detail the progress of the Maryland colony. The first settlement was made by Leonard Calvert, who, in February, 1634, arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia, with about two hundred Roman Catholics. The Virginians had remonstrated against the grant to Baltimore, but, by express commands of the king, Harvey, then governor, received Calvert with courtesy. Early in March he sailed up the Potomac, and, casting anchor under an island which he called St. Clement, he fired his first cannon, erected a cross, and took possession "in the name of the Savior of the world and the King of Great Britain."
19 He then proceeded up the Potomac to the mouth of the Piscataway Creek, opposite Mount Vernon, and near the site of the present Fort Washington, fifteen miles south of Washington City. The chief of the Indian village at that place was friendly; but Calvert, deeming it unsafe to settle so high up the river, returned, and entered the stream now called St. Mary’s. He purchased a village of the Indians, and commenced a settlement [April, 1634.]. Founded upon religious toleration and the practice of justice, 20 the colony rapidly increased in population and resources; and peace, except during the troubles arising from the refusal of Clayborne, an original settler, to acknowledge the authority of the governor, reigned within its borders until 1642, when petty hostilities were carried on against the Indians. Leonard Calvert was appointed governor 21 of the province, as the proprietor’s lieutenant; and in 1635 the first Legislative Assembly convened at St. Mary’s. A representative government was established in 1639, the people being allowed to send as many delegates to the General Assembly as they pleased. At the same time, a declaration of rights was adopted, the powers of the proprietor were defined, and all the privileges enjoyed by English subjects were confirmed to the colonists The Indian hostilities closed in 1644, and the next year a rebellion under Clayborne involved the province in a civil war. The revolt was suppressed in August the following year.Religious animosity between the Protestants and Roman Catholics finally became a source of great trouble, and in 1649 the Assembly adopted the Toleration Act. This allayed party strife for a while. At this time Charles the First was beheaded, and Cromwell became the chief magistrate of Great Britain. Lord Baltimore, who was warm in his professions of attachment to the king while his affairs were prosperous, when he saw the downfall of royalty inevitable, was equally loud in proclaiming his attachment to the Republicans. Thomas Green, his governor, who had hastily proclaimed Charles the Second, on hearing of the execution of his father, was removed, and his place was filled by William Stone, a Protestant, who "was always zealously affected to the Parliament."
In 1650, the legislative body was first divided into two branches, an Upper and a Lower house; the former consisting of the governor and his council, appointed by the proprietor, and the latter of the representatives chosen by the people. At that session, all taxes were prohibited except by the consent of the freemen.
In 1651, the Long Parliament, which had established its supremacy in England, appointed commissioners to govern Maryland. Stone, Lord Baltimore’s lieutenant, was removed; but, on the dissolution of that Parliament by Cromwell in 1654, he was restored to his full powers. The commissioners, however (who had retired to Virginia), entered Maryland, and compelled Stone to surrender his warrant into their hands. The Protestants, who acknowledged the authority of Cromwell, and had the power, by majority, in their own hands, questioned the rights and privileges of an hereditary proprietor. They stoutly contended for religious liberty, yet they actually disfranchised those who differed from them in religious opinions. Roman Catholics were excluded from the Assembly and an act was passed toward the close of 1654, declaring that they were not entitled to the protection of the laws of Maryland
Early in 1655, Stone, with greater loyally to his master, the proprietor, than to his religious profession, organized an armed body of Catholics, and seized the provincial records. Civil war raged with fury, and was intensified by the heat of religions acrimony. The Catholics were finally defeated, Stone was made prisoner, and four of the principal men of the province, attached to Baltimore’s party, were executed.
Josiah Fendall, who had actively supported Stone, and headed an insurrection, was appointed governor, by Lord Baltimore, in 1656, but he was soon arrested by the Protestant party. He was a man of good address, and finally succeeded in having himself acknowledged as governor
[1658.]. The proprietor was restored to all his rights, but he did not long enjoy them, for, on the restoration of Charles the Second, the Assembly, knowing the animosity of the king against Lord Baltimore, dissolved the Upper House, and assumed to itself the whole legislative power of the state [March, 1660.]. They declared that no power should be recognized in Maryland except their own and the king’s. Fendall then surrendered his trust to Lord Baltimore, and accepted from the Assembly a new commission as governor. Charles, however, forgave Baltimore for his homage to the Republicans, for he was assured by that courtier that his partialities had always been really in favor of the royal cause. The same year the rights of the proprietor were restored, and Philip Calvert appointed governor. Fendall was arrested upon a charge of treason, was tried, and found guilty, but, under a general pardon to political offenders, wisely proclaimed by Lord Baltimore, he escaped death. He was only fined a trifling sum, and declared ineligible for office forever. 22Cecil, Lord Baltimore, died in 1675, and was succeeded in title and fortune by his son Charles, who had been his lieutenant in Maryland from 1662 to 1668. The new proprietor caused the government to be administered by Thomas Notley, who governed with equity, and he became very popular with all parties. Tranquillity prevailed in the province until the Revolution in England in 1688, which drove James the Second from the throne, and shook every colony in America. False rumors, alleging that the Catholics and Indians had coalesced for the purpose of massacreing the Protestants, aroused all the fire of religious animosity which had been slumbering for years, and caused the formation of an armed association for the alleged defense of the Protestant faith, and of the rights of William and Mary, the successors of James. A compromise was finally effected, and the Catholic party surrendered the powers of government to the association, by capitulation. A convention of the associates assumed the government, and exercised its functions until 1691, when the king, by an arbitrary act, deprived Charles, Lord Baltimore, of his political rights as proprietor, and constituted Maryland, for the first time, a royal government. Sir Lionel Copley was appointed governor, and, on his arrival
[1692.], the principles of the proprietary government were overturned; religious toleration, so freely conceded and so firmly maintained when the Catholic proprietors held sway, was abolished, and the Church of England was established as the religion of the state, and demanding support from general taxation.Maryland continued a royal province under the successive administrations of Copley, Nicholson, Blackstone, Seymore, Lloyd, and Hart, until 1720, and tranquillity prevailed. The inheritance of the proprietorship having fallen to Charles, infant heir of Lord Baltimore
[1716.], who, on attaining his majority [1720.], professed the Protestant faith, George the First restored the patent to the family. It remained a proprietary government until our Revolution, 23 when, as an independent state, it adopted a constitution [August 14, 1776.], and took its place (the fourth in the point of time) in the confederation of states. A large number of Presbyterians from the north of Ireland had settled in the province, and the principles of their ecclesiastical polity being favorable to republicanism, they exerted a powerful influence in casting off the royal yoke.Annapolis being the capital of the province, it was the heart of political action. In common with the people of the other colonies, Maryland took a bold stand against the oppressive measures of the mother government, commencing with the Stamp Act. On the 27th of August, 1765, a meeting of "Assertors of British American privileges" met at Annapolis, "to show their detestation of and abhorrence to some late tremendous attacks on liberty, and their dislike to a certain late arrived officer, a native of this province."
24 The landing of that officer was at first opposed and prevented, but he was finally permitted to enter the town. They made an effigy of him, dressed it curiously, placed it in a cart, like a malefactor, with some sheets of paper before it, and, while the bell was tolling, paraded it through the town. They proceeded to a hill, where, after punishing it at the whipping-post and pillory, they hung it upon a gibbet, set fire to a tar-barrel underneath, and burned it. 25 Governor Sharpe informed the colonial secretary of the proceedings, and plainly told him that, such was the temper of the people, that any stamped paper which might arrive would doubtless be burned. Some of the proscribed paper, which arrived in December [1765.], was sent back by Governor Sharpe. The people refused to use the odious stamps, and all legal business was suspended for a while. The Maryland Gazette, like the Pennsylvania Journal (see page 53 {original text has "63".}), appeared in mourning on the 31st of October, declaring, like its cotemporary, that "The times are Dreadful, Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous, and Dollarless." The editor issued "an apparition of the late Maryland Gazette" on the 10th of December, and expressed his "belief that the odious Stamp Act would never be carried into operation."On the 1st of March, 1766, the Sons of Liberty of Baltimore, Kent, and Anne Arundel counties held their first formal meeting at the court-house in Annapolis. The Reverend Andrew Lendrum was appointed moderator, and William Paca (afterward a signer of the Declaration of Independence) was chosen secretary. Joseph Nicholson, from Kent county, presented an address from that district, signed by twenty-three of the leading men.
26 It was an application to the chief justice of the provincial court, the secretary and commissary general, and judges of the land-offices, asking them to resume the business of their respective offices regardless of the law. The Anne Arundel and Baltimore committees also signed the request, 27 which, being forwarded to those officers, was complied with. The Stamp Act thus virtually became a nullity a month before the intelligence of its repeal arrived. That intelligence reached Annapolis at noon on the 5th of April [1766.], and diffused unusual joy through the city. The remainder of the day was spent by the people in mirth and festivity, and at an assemblage in the evening, "all loyal and patriotic toasts were drank."
LORD CAMDEN.
28From an English Print.
The Assembly of Maryland voted a statue to the king, and ordered a portrait of Lord Camden, a parliamentary friend of the Americans, to be painted for the State House. On the 11 th of June, great rejoicings were again held at Annapolis, that day having been appointed for the purpose by the mayor. A large concourse of people from the neighboring counties were assembled, and in the evening the city was brilliantly illuminated.
Robert Eden was the last royal governor of Maryland. He arrived at Annapolis on the 6th of June, 1769, and continued in office during the stormy period preceding the actual hostilities of the Revolution, and until the colonies had declared themselves independent, when he returned to England. Governor Eden was respected by all for his urbanity and kindness of heart, but his duty to his king brought him into collision with the leading minds in the colony as the Revolution advanced, and at length, in consequence of several intercepted letters, Congress recommended the Council of Safety of Maryland to put him under arrest, and to take possession of his papers
[April 16, 1776.]. 29 The Baltimore committee volunteered to carry out the recommendation of Congress, and, in consequence, became involved in difficulty with the Maryland convention. 30 A committee of the convention, before whom Eden’s letters were laid, reported that, in such correspondence as the governor had carried on with the ministry, he did not evince hostility to the colonists; and the matter ended by signifying to Eden that the public safety and quiet required him to leave the province.Annapolis was a scene of great excitement in the autumn of 1774. Already public sentiment had been expressed against the Boston Port Bill at a general meeting
[May 12, 1774.], and the people were ripe for rebellion. On Saturday, the 15th of October, the ship Peggy, Captain Stewart, arrived from London, bringing, among other things, seventeen packages of tea, consigned to T. C. Williams & Co., of Annapolis. This was the first arrival of the proscribed article at that port. As soon as the fact was known, the citizens were summoned to a general meeting. It was ascertained that the consignees had imported the tea, and that Anthony Stewart, proprietor of the vessel, had paid the duty upon it. This was deemed an acquiescence in the justice of the claim of Great Britain to tax the colonies, and it was resolved that the tea should not be landed. The people of the surrounding country were summoned to a public meeting in Annapolis the following Wednesday. Mr. Stewart issued a handbill explaining the transaction, and disclaiming all intention to violate the non-importation pledge; and expressed his regret that the article had been placed on board his ship. But the people, too often cajoled by the whining of men when their bad conduct had brought them into trouble, were more disposed to punish than to forgive, and they resolved, at the Wednesday meeting, to destroy the vessel, with its packages of tea. To prevent raising a tempest that might not be allayed by the simple destruction of the vessel, and to soften the asperity of public feeling toward him, Mr. Stewart, under the advice of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and others, consented to burn the vessel himself. Accompanied by some friends, he ran her aground near Windmill Point, and set her on fire. The people were satisfied, and the crowd dispersed. "The tea burning at Boston," says M‘Mahon, "has acquired renown, as an act of unexampled daring at that day in the defense of American liberties; but the tea burning of Annapolis, which occurred in the ensuing fall, far surpasses it, in the apparent deliberation, and utter carelessness of concealment, attending the bold measures which led to its accomplishment." 31At Elizabethtown (now Hagerstown, in Washington county) the committee of vigilance of the district caused one John Parks to go with his hat off, with a lighted torch, and set fire to a chest of tea in his possession. The committee recommended entire non-intercourse with Parks; but the populace, thinking the committee too lenient, satisfied themselves by breaking the doors and windows of his dwelling. Tar and feathers were freely used in various places, and the town committees exercised supreme authority in all local matters having a relation to the great subject which engrossed the public mind.
When Congress recommended
[May 10, 1776.] the several colonies to establish provisional governments, where it had not already been done, the Maryland convention, as we have noticed (page 76), did not at first concur with the resolution. On the contrary, they voted that it was not necessary to suppress every exercise of authority under the crown [May 20.]. Through the efforts of Samuel Chase and others in calling county conventions, a change of public sentiment was speedily wrought in Maryland, and on the 28th of June the convention empowered its delegates in Congress to vote for a resolution declaring the colonies "free and independent." Her representatives, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll, were among the most active of those who signed the great Declaration. A state Constitution was adopted on the 14th of August following, and from that period Maryland labored assiduously, shoulder to shoulder, with her sister colonies, in maintaining the independence which Congress had declared.Annapolis, like Baltimore, was frequently the scene of military displays, but not of sanguinary conflicts. When Washington, covered with all the glory which victory in battle can bestow, came fresh from the fields of Yorktown, on his way to Philadelphia, he passed through Annapolis
[November 21, 1781.]. On his arrival, all business was suspended, and crowds of eager gazers thronged the windows and the streets. A public address was presented by the citizens, and every manifestation of esteem for the great chief was exhibited. Again, late in 1783, when the war was ended, the Continental army was disbanded, and Great Britain had acknowledged the independence of the United States, the State House at Annapolis, now venerated, because of the glorious associations which cluster around it, was filled with the brave, the fair, and the patriotic of Maryland, to witness the sublime spectacle of that beloved chief resigning his military power, wielded with such mighty energy and glorious results for eight long years, into the hands of the civil authority which gave it [December 23, 1783.]. The Continental Congress having adjourned at Princeton [November 4.], to meet at Annapolis on the 26th of November, was then in session there.
THE STATE HOUSE AT ANNAPOLIS.
32In the Senate Chamber of the Capitol the interesting scene took place, so well delineated by the pens of Marshall and others, and the pencil of Trumbull. I shall here omit the details of that closing event of the war, for it is too closely connected with the departure of the last hostile foot from our shores, a month previously
[November 25, 1783.], to be separated from that narrative, without marring the sublime beauty of the picture. Never shall I forget the peculiar emotions which I felt while sitting in that room, copying the portraits of those patriots of Maryland who signed our Declaration of Independence. 33 The little gallery wherein stood Mrs. Washington and other distinguished ladies when the chief resigned his commission, is still there, and unchanged; and the doors, windows, cornices, and other architectural belongings are the same which echoed the voice of the Father of his Country on that occasion. The very spot where Mifflin, the president, and Thomson, the secretary of Congress sat, when the treaty of peace with Great Britain was ratified, was pointed out to me. Reflecting upon the events which consecrate it, that hall, to me, seemed the shrine wherein the purest spirit of patriotism should dwell, for there the victorious warrior for freedom laid his sword upon the altar of Peace – there the sages of a people just made free ratified a solemn covenant of peace, friendship, and political equality with the most powerful nation upon earth, wrung from its rulers by the virtues and prowess of men who scorned to be unrequited vassals. From that hall, like the dove from the ark, the spirit of peace and reconciliation went out, never to return disappointed; for the deluge of misery which war had brought upon the land was assuaged, the floods had returned to their proper boundaries, and the hills and valleys of the new republic were smiling with the blessings of returning prosperity and quiet. The gentle spirit found a resting-place every where throughout the broad land.I have little else to note concerning Annapolis, as connected with my subject. The French army was encamped upon the College green for a short time, while on its march northward in 1782, and it was from this port that Rochambeau and his suite embarked for France. Great rejoicings were held in April, 1783, on the receipt of the intelligence of a general cessation of hostilities. Three years after the treaty of peace was ratified, commissioners from the several states met at Annapolis, "to consider on the best means of remedying the defects of the Federal government
[September, 1786.]." This convention was the incipient step toward framing our Federal Constitution, a subject to be noticed in detail hereafter. From that period the city rather declined in commerce and general importance; for Baltimore, having been established as a port of entry, with a custom-house, and supported by a thriving agricultural population, soon outstripped it in trade. But Annapolis remains the political metropolis of Maryland.------------------------------
ENDNOTES
1 The census for 1850, which shows this result, also exhibits a case of remarkable longevity in Baltimore. Sukey Wright, a colored woman, whose age is well certified, was then 120 years old. She had a child twenty-five years of age when the Revolutionary war broke out in 1775.
2 "We are journeying toward the land of which the Lord said, I will give it you, and we will do thee good"- Numbers, x., 29.
3 The following are the inscriptions on the monument: East front. – "To GEORGE WASHINGTON, by the State of Maryland. Born 22d February, 1732. Died 14th December, 1799." South front. – "To GEORGE WASHINGTON, President of the United States, 4th March, 1789. Returned to Mount Vernon, 4th March, 1797." West front. – "To GEORGE WASHINGTON. Trenton, 25th December, 1776. Yorktown, 19th October, 1781." North front. – "To GEORGE WASHINGTON. Commander-in-chief of the American armies, 15th June, 1775. Commission resigned at Annapolis, 23d December, 1783."
4 Journals of Congress, iv., 127.
5 The word nun, as applied to the single sisters of the Moravian sect, has a different meaning than when applied to the recluses of the Roman Catholic Church. De Chastellux, who visited Bethlehem in 1782, says of the community: "Their police, or discipline, is of the monastic kind, since they recommend celibacy, but without enjoining it, and keep the women separate from the men. There is a particular house, also, for the widows, which I did not visit. The two sexes being thus habitually separated, none of those familiar connections exist between them which lead to marriage; nay, it is even contrary to the spirit of the sect to marry from inclination. If a young man finds himself sufficiently at ease to keep house for himself, and maintain a wife and children, he presents himself to the commissary, and asks for a girl, who, after consulting with the superintendent of the women, proposes one to him, which he may, in fact, refuse to accept; but it is contrary to custom to choose a wife for himself. Accordingly, the Moravian colonies have not multiplied in any proportion to the other American colonies. That at Bethlehem is composed of about six hundred persons, more than half of whom live in a state of celibacy." De Chastellux visited the "house for single women," a spacious stone edifice, provided with well-heated rooms for working in, and a large vaulted chamber, well ventilated, where all the girls slept in single beds. He refers to their skill in embroidery. His whole account of his visit is an interesting picture of the simple habits of the Moravians. He says they "have no bishops, being governed by synods." They have had bishops from the beginning, but their office allows them no elevation of rank or pre-eminent authority; and the communities are, indeed, governed by councils, or synods, composed of deputies from the different congregations, who meet in conference once in seven years. There are two bishops in the United States at present. The principal Moravian establishments are at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, and Salem, in North Carolina. Their marriage and other customs have materially changed within the last thirty years.
Anburey and the Baroness Riedesel were also in Bethlehem, and speak in the highest terms of the Moravians.
6 On one side of the banner are the letters U. S., and, in a circle around them, the words UNITAS VIRTUS FORCIOR: "Union makes valor stronger." The letter C in the last word is incorrect; it should be T. On the other side, in the center, is the All-seeing Eye, with the words NON ALIUS REGIT: "No other governs."
7 It was used in the procession that welcomed La Fayette to that city in 1824, and was then deposited in Peale’s Museum. On that occasion, it was ceremoniously received by several young ladies. Mr. Edmund Peale presented it to the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, where it is now carefully preserved in a glass case. But little of its former beauty remains, It is composed of double crimson silk, now faded to a dull brownish red. The designs on each side, as represented
on the following page, are embroidered with yellow silk, the letters shaded with green. A deep green bullion fringe ornaments the edges. The size of the banner is twenty inches square. It was attached to a lance when borne to the field.8 Andrew Buchanan was chosen chairman, and Robert Alexander clerk or secretary.
9 This committee, consisting of twenty-nine of the leading men of Baltimore, was elected by the qualified voters, at a town meeting, regularly assembled at the court-house. They not only took cognizance of political matters, but assumed a general supervision of the public morals, not by coercive measures, but by advice. Among other things, they recommended the discontinuance of fairs in Baltimore, and denounced them as nuisances, conducive to "mischiefs and disorders," "serving no other purpose than debauching the morals of their children and servants," and "encouraging riots, drunkenness, gaming, and the vilest immoralities." Horse-racing, cock-fighting, general extravagance, and dissipation were inveighed against, not only as wrong, but as derogatory to the character of patriots at that solemn hour (1775).
10 The following are the names of this committee: Robert Alexander, Samuel Purviance, Jr., Andrew Buchanan, Doctor John Boyd, John Moale, Jeremiah Townly Chase, William Buchanan, and William Lux. Four members constituted a quorum for the transaction of business.
11 Purviance’s Narrative, pages 12-13.
12 This view is from Baltimore Street, looking southeast. The front on the left is on Baltimore Street; the other is on Liberty Street. Its first story is now used for commercial purposes; otherwise it exhibits the same external appearance as when Congress assembled there.
13 M‘Sherry’s History of Maryland, p. 229.
14 This gentleman was Mr. Poe. His widow, the lady who cut out the garments, was living when La Fayette visited Baltimore in 1824. The two patriots met, and the scene was one of peculiar interest. – See Niles’s Register, 24th October, 1824.
15 Fuller’s Worthies of England.
16 The Oath of Supremacy was one denying the supremacy of the pope in ecclesiastical or temporal affairs in England, which was required to be taken, along with the Oath of Allegiance, by persons, in order to qualify them for office.
17 Kennedy’s Discourse on the Life and Character of George Calvert, before the Maryland Historical Society, 1845, page 43.
18 Bancroft, i., 375.
19 Belknap.
20 As an instance of the determination to preserve peace within his borders, Leonard Calvert issued a proclamation in 1638, to prohibit "all unreasonable disputations in point of religion tending to the disturbance of the public peace and quiet of the colony, and to the opening of faction in religion." A Catholic gentleman (Captain Cornwaleys) had two Protestant servants. They were one day reading aloud, together, Smith’s Sermons, and were overheard by Cornwaleys’s overseer, a Roman Catholic, while reading a passage in which the pope was called anti-Christ, and the Jesuits anti-Christian ministers. The overseer abused them, and ordered them to read no more. The servants preferred a formal complaint against the overseer, and submitted it to the governor and council. Of the latter, Cornwaleys was one. The parties were heard. and the overseer was fined five hundred pounds of tobacco, and ordered to remain in prison until he should find sureties for his good behavior in future. This case shows the tolerant spirit of a Catholic administration. – Kennedy’s Discourse, page 45.
The act for religious liberty, passed in 1649, contained a clause authorizing the imposition of a fine of ten shillings for abusive expressions between the parties; such as idolater, popish priest, Jesuit, and Jesuited papist, on the one side, and, on the other, heretic, schismatic, round-head, and similar epithets – Langford, page 29.
The clause for religious freedom in the act of 1649 extended only to Christians. It was introduced by the proviso that, "whatsoever person shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or reproach the Holy Trinity, or any of the three persons thereof, shall be punished with death."
21 Clayborne having obtained a royal license in 1631 to traffic with the Indians, had established two settlements, one on the island of Kent, and one other near the mouth of the Susquehanna. Clayborne not only refused to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, but sought to maintain his own claims by force of arms. He was defeated, and fled to Virginia, whence he was sent to England for trial as a traitor. He applied to the king for a redress of grievances, but, after a full hearing, the charter of Lord Baltimore was declared valid, against the earlier license of Clayborne. The latter returned to Maryland, got up a rebellion in 1645 and drove Governor Calvert into Virginia. For a year and a half the insurgents held the reins of government, and the horrors of civil war brooded over the infant colony. Clayborne afterward became one of the commissioners appointed by Parliament, under the Protectorate, to govern Maryland.
22 Fendall afterward became concerned in a rebellious movement, with an accomplice named Coode. He was arrested, fined four thousand pounds of tobacco, imprisoned for non-payment, and banished from the province.
23 The successive governors were Charles and Benedict Leonard Calvert; Samuel Ogle; Lord Baltimore; Ogle again; Thomas Bladen; Ogle again; Benjamin Tasker, acting governor; Horatio Sharpe, and Robert Eden. Thomas Johnson was the first republican governor.
24 This was a Mr. Hood, who had been appointed stamp-master, while in England, on the recommendation of Dr. Franklin. Such was the indignation of the people against him, that no one would purchase goods of him, though offered at a very low price. Just before the burning of his effigy he escaped to New York, in time to save himself from being presented with a coat of tar and feathers.
25 Ridgeley’s Annals of Annapolis, page 136.
26 The following are the names of the Sons of Liberty of Kent county, appended to the address: "Joseph Nicholson, William Ringgold, William Stephenson, Thomas Ringgold, Jr., Joseph M‘Hard, Gideon M‘Cauley, Daniel Fox, Benjamin Binning, William Bordley, Jarvis James, William Stukely, Joseph Nicholson. Jr., James Porter, Thomas Ringgold, James Anderson, Thomas Smyth, William Murray, George Garnet, S. Boardley, Jr., Peroy Frisby, Henry Vandike, and John Bolton."
27 The Anne Arundel committee consisted of William Paca, Samuel Chase (also a signer of the Declaration of Independence), and Thomas B. Hands. The Baltimore county committee were John Hall, Robert Alexander, Corbin Lee, James Heath, John Moale, and William Lux. The Baltimore town committee consisted of Thomas Chase, D. Chamier, Robert Adair, Reverend Patrick Allison, and W. Smith.
28 Charles Pratt, earl of Camden, was the third son of Chief-justice Pratt, of the King’s Bench. He was born in 1713, and educated at Eton and Cambridge. His fine talents as a legal scholar having been made known in a case wherein he defended Mr. Pitt, that gentleman, when chancellor in 1757, procured for Pratt the office of attorney general. He was raised to the dignity of chief justice of the Common Pleas in 1762, and had the manly courage, while in office, to pronounce in favor of John Wilkes, against the wishes of government. For this he was applauded throughout the kingdom. He was made a peer of the realm, with the title of Earl of Camden, in 1765, and in 1766 was advanced to the Seals. Throughout the struggle of the Americans for right and liberty, he was a consistent friend of the colonists. In 1782, he was appointed president of the Privy Council, which place he held, except for a short interim, until his death. He died on the 18th of April, 1794, aged eighty-one years.
29 These letters, which fell into the hands of the Baltimore committee, and were by them transmitted to Congress, were addressed to the colonial secretary and other members of the British cabinet, and were considered "highly dangerous to the liberties of America." – Journals of Congress, ii., 130.
30 General Charles Lee, who was then at Williamsburg, in Virginia, wrote to Samuel Purviance, chairman of the Baltimore committee, advising particular military action in respect to the seizure of Eden and his papers. For this the Council of Safety blamed him, and he was charged with unwarrantable interference. In an explanatory letter to Mr. Jenifer, chairman of the council, Lee fully justified himself, and uttered the noblest sentiments of patriotism.
31 History of Maryland.
32 This fine building is situated upon an elevation in the center of the city, and is admired by every visitor, not only for its style of architecture, but for the beauty of its location. The building is of brick. The superstructure consists of a spacious dome, surmounted by two smaller ones, with a cupola of wood. From the dome, a magnificent prospect opens to the eye. Around the spectator is spread out the city and harbor like a map, while far away to the southeast stretches the Chesapeake, with Kent Island and the eastern shore looming up in the distance. The edifice fronts Francis Street, and the hill on which it stands is surrounded by a substantial granite wall, surmounted by an iron railing, having three gateways. It was erected in 1772, upon the site of the old Court-house, built in 1706. The corner stone was laid by Governor Robert Eden. The dome was not built until after the Revolution. The architect was Joseph Clarke. Tradition relates that when Governor Eden struck the corner stone with a mallet, at the time of laying it, a severe clap of thunder burst over the city, though there was not a cloud in the sky. Thomas Dance, who executed the stucco work of the dome, fell from the scaffold, and was killed, just as he finished the center piece – See Ridgeley’s Annals of Annapolis.
33 Full-length portraits of Carroll, Chase, Paca, and Stone, grace the walls of the Senate Chamber. Copies of the heads of these will be found among those of the signers in the
frontispiece of the second volume of this work. Carroll and Stone were painted by Sully, the other two by Bordley – both native artists. It is worthy of remark that the four signers were then residents of Annapolis. The portrait of Paca is a fine picture of a fashionable gentleman of that day. His coat is a claret color, vest white silk, black silk breeches, and white silk stockings. Stone, who is sitting, has a graver appearance. His coat is brown, vest and breeches black silk, and white silk stockings. Carroll and Chase are both sitting. The former has an overcoat on, the skirt of which is thrown over his knee; the latter is dressed in his judicial robe, a simple black gown. In the same room is a portrait of John Eager Howard, and William Pitt, earl of Chatham. The latter a full-length, and in Roman costume, was painted by Charles Wilson Peale (who was also a native of Maryland), while in England, and presented by the artist to his native state in 1794. In the hall of the House of Delegates is a full-length likeness of Washington, attended by La Fayette and Colonel Tilghman – the Continental army passing in review. This picture, commemorative of the surrender at Yorktown, was also painted by Peale, pursuant to a resolution of the Assembly of Maryland. In Trumbull’s picture of this room, in which is represented the commander-in-chief resigning his commission, the artist for the purpose of having proper lights and shadows, has omitted the three large windows.----------------------------------------
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