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Gc 975.2 М365р v. 3,no. 5 1753459
M. L
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02243 6395
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/marylandtwohundr35stre
563
MARYLAND.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO:
A DISCOURSE
BY
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S. F. STREETER.
DELIVERED IN BALTIMORE,
BEFORE THE
MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
ON ITS SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION;
MAY 20, 1×52.
563 2
1753459
MARYLAND Historical Society.
Annual Election, 1876.
PRESIDENT.
JOHN H. B. LATROBE.
VICE-PRESIDENTS. HON GEO. WM. BROWN, REV. J. G. MORRIS, D. D., HENRY STOCKBRIDGE. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. REV. E. A. DALRYMPLE, D. D. RECORDING SECRETARY. WILLIAM H. CORNER.
TREASURER. C. L. OUDESLUYS. LIBRARIAN. JOHN J. JACOBSEN.
TRUSTEES OF THE ATHEN.EUM.
N. H. MORISON, LL. D.
GEO. B. COLE, HIRAM WOODS
ENOCH PRATT. HON. WM J. ALBERT. JOSEPH MERREFIELD.
COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT.
JOSEPH MERREFIELD. HON. ISAAC D. JONES.
ED. G. LIND. JOHN T. MORRIS
COMMITTEE ON HONORARY MEMBERSHIP.
HENRY JANES. HON. GEORGE W'M. BROWN
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE.
HENRY JANES. HON. A. W. BRADFORD. COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY.
HON. WILLIAM F. GILES. JOHN J. THOMSEN.
REV. E. A. DALRYMPLE, D. D. FREDK. J. BROWN.
REV. JOHN G. MORRIS. D. D. WM. J. MCCLELLAN.
WILLIAM H. CORNER. JOHN J. JACOBSEN.
P. R. LOVEJOY. JOSEPH M. CUsmsG. WILLIAM ELLIOTT. THOMAS J. MORRIS.
JOHN H. B. LATROBE. JOSEPH H. MEREDITH. GEORGE B. COALE. J. STRICKER JENKINS. REV. GEO. A. LEAKIN.
CURATOR OF THE CABINET. JOHN G. GATCHELL ..
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COMMITTEE ON THE GALLERY.
EDWARD M. KEITH.
C. L. OUDESLUYS.
Xeroxed 1973- Road. 522.75
TRUSTEES OF THE PEABODY FUND.
MARYLAND,
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
1
EVENING TRANSORIE
WABERSDAY KVKNING AUG. 81. 14
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION - MARYLAND RHODE ISLAND. Our columns lest evening tained an elaborate review of the claims of : land to the high compliment paid to her Prezilent in his speech at Baltimore. I first notice of this historical allusion we re ged : "The compliment paid by the Preside Maryland, justly belongs to Rhode Island. Baptists, sed not the Catholics, should be mended for their early religions toleration." Our Washington correspondent claims f Dutch Calvinists the honor of being the e asserters of religious toleration in this co We think he utterly disproves the statemi Mr. Bancroft in reference to religions libe "Maryland, who says : "Every other country world had persecuting laws."
We spoke of the claim of the Bapt Rhode Island to commendation, "for their religions toleration." Roger Williams drei simple instrument, when he founded the ( Providence, which was signed by those wha to the Rhode Taland Calone
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EVENING TRANSCRIPT.
WEDNESDAY KVKNING AUG. 81. 1653.
1 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION - MARYLAND AND RHODE ISLAND. Our columns lest evening con- taiuel an elaborate review of the claims of Mary- Innd to the high compliment paid to her by the Frezi lent In his speech at Baltimore. In our Best notice of this historical allnsiun we remark- fed : "The compliment paid by the President to Maryland, justly helongs to Rhode Island. The Baptiste, and not the Catholics, should be com- mended for their early religions toleration."
Ocr Wesbiegton correspondent cisims for the Dutch Calviniats the honor of being the earliest assertera of religious toleration in this country. "We think he utterly disproves' the statement of Mr. Bancroft in reference to religions liberty in! ¡Meryland, who says : "Every other country in the {world had persecuting laws."
We speke of the claim of the Baptists of Rhode Island to commerdatien, "for their early ! ¡ religions toleration." Reger Williams drew ve sy simple instrument, when he founded the city of Providence, which was signed by those who came to the Rhode Island Colony. This document ¡combined the principles of a pure Democracy and . fof narestricted religions liberty. Roger Williams Fonid -hihiself that after he had satisfied the In- disto and roade a covenant of peaceful neighbor- [hned, "and having a senso of Ged's merciful ¡Providence nnto me in my distress, called the [plece PROVIDENCE, I desired it might be for o shelter for pereens distressed for conscience." The settlers of the colony agreed to submit to the will of the majority "only in civil things."
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We give a few extracts frem different historiane !to show the light in which the Rhode Island Col- oby has been regarded hy writers ef high repute. . Banking, the historian of the Raptiets of New Ergland, in giving a deteiled secount of the set- tlement of Rhode Island, says, page 91, vol 1:
I trust the reader will excuse the length of this account, when he considers that these were the foundations of a now fionriahing colony, which was laid on such principles, as no other civil gov. ¡ croient ever had heen, as we know of, since auti. christ's first appearance, "and Roger Williams sjustiv claims the b-ner of having been the first legislator in the world, in its letter ages, that fully and effectually provided and established a free, full and absolute Liberty of Censcience."
Io Callender's Century Discourse on the Celo ny of Rhode Island, delivered in 1738, (high au- thority.) he says, page 103:
Liberty of conscience wey the basis of this ( f''sale Inlaud ) Colony. Our fathers thought no mian bwi power over the spirit of God; and that the Inty of the ringistrate was to have every on. to follow the light of his conscience. They were willy ; to exhibit to the werld, an instance that Ibert. of conscience was consistent with the pub the peace, and the flourishing of a civil Common wealth, as well as that of Chuistianity, could sub- Sint vihout compulsion, and that bearing one is !ari us was to folal tt . Ix of their. L
me And my Dreams of Ar ...
city i ht I saidruin, we und the following pas- Asige respecting Rhode Island, vol. 1, page 200 : The principle upon which the Colony w48 first | « !*** A www. that every man who submits to the Po rionis, may face the te. chip Prod, A.
[' d turin I' ; by the four united Colonies, "to Jan trein in taht.g , Hactual niethody to suppress ti .- 4; 18! - 19, And present their pernicious doc
arteda mi Ter, was & areti Colony was first sertie? " Principle to which this
In September, loll, when several persona 2 . Dasmanchmal the Colonists said, "The law- wirad liberty of conscience in point of doe- Erme is perpetuated."
In the first volume of the collections of the 2chode Island Historical Society, page In, it is stated that-
Pre world will ever regard him ( Roger Wil- liens) as the earliest and holdert champion of in- rights of ell men, "fell, to have and enjoy ileir own judgments and consciences, in matters ut religions concerniente '
Mr Savage, in a note in his recently published e ut:ou of Winthrop, (vol. 1, page 50,) in allud- ing te Reger Williams, calls him "this great ear- Z :s: assertor of religions freedom."
In ad litien to the authoritice quoted above, we coby tee following pertinent passage from the 459th page of "The Hundred Boston Oraters."! 'It occurs in & notice of Rev. James D. Knowles, tbe biographer of Roger Williams: .
· I= 1643, Williams proc-eded to Eogland, and .obtained, by the aid of Sir Henry Vane, & charter For the colony of Rhode Island. It Was at this pe- Tiod that he wrote his celebrated werk, entitled " The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cense of [Conscience," etc, in whien he maintsived the ab. isolate right of every rasu to a fall liberty in relig- 1 1016 Concernmenta. Mr. Knewles says that Wil- ' Maria Is entitled to the Love of being the first ,writer, in modern times, who decidedly supported this opinion. Bishep Ileter concedes this point to Jeremy Taylor, in the Liberty of Prophesying ; but all the toleration urged by Taylor was for +bone Christians only who unite in the confession of the spostles' creed. There is a passage, Lowev- Jer, in Moore's Utopia, written one hundred yeste , before Williama's day, which is said to anticipate everything included in the principles of civil and religious liberty et the present day. But then Str !James Mackintosh questioned whother extrava- gancos were not introduced, in etber parts of Uto- pla, to screen the bold idea, and call the whole & } rare sport of wit. Even Locke, in his Essay vijf Toleration, goes only for & limited liberty ; and !! ¡we runst siell the palm to Roger Williams, us thì first decid.d' advocate,
Whether we award the honor of being the! Wanted defenders of "unqualified religious telera df "tion" to the Dutch Calvioists, or the Rhode Is-f Isni Baprists, we think it is quite evident that Maryland has but little claim to the worm culo- giam prenenneel her for toleration by Mr. Bon- croft, and repested by President Picree. Mr. Ban- craft once preached religiões doctrines for which the"tolerant laws of Maryland" would have con-j signed bim to death and bis property to confisca-
The Post says, "the principles of Roger Wil- Hamis were grossly violated hy excluding Catholics from office." It also says, the law of exclusion da'sy back as far as IngJ. The statement of Chel- . us, relating to this charge of excluding Roman CALelies fcora the right. of citizens in 1003-4, his icen denied by niony writers.
S : h an net would, indeed, have been an BHot- . We legislation of Tarde Island, e: 1 i+ h . des An . ... net of Livustairway 10 ; I. . . r Williams and the colony. The subject has, fSerefere, been examined with great care. The Hon. Samuel Eddy; for many years the Secretary , we in Rhode Island, declares : "I Love for.
n', was a view to historical a.m . i. n. , ul letely from ] ' 13 to 1719, with e par ler view to this law es laling Roman Com . n ''e privil we. of r .. . 1, ar l can mi. 1 a i: { 'hat bas ty relere! ce to it, for styti1 ; ton: gives any preference or privileges to men of one bet uf religious opinioos over those of another, un.l the revision of 1745."
Mr Knowles, in his admirable Meuvoir of Roger Vi.v.s, in alluding tu the above certificate of . the S ... etary of Stete in Thedo Island, romorks, PA. 0.1:
i'm testimony might, alone, be sufficient to 31-11. vy the allegation, though it is possible, that sich an act might be passed, and not be recorded. f But 1: is not probable, and when the uniforma pol- Tiey of the colony from the beginning, and other cireouitances, are considered, it beconny morally certain, that no such att err. received the sanction of the Legislature of Extensie Lai'd.
It the statements qnoted above frota the Rhode Islund Secretary of State ned from the biegra. pher of Roger Williams, are to be relied upun, the Post is in error in regard to the Ihodo Island statuto of exclusion of Roman Catholics in 10; 1. As far as we have been able to make an investiga. tion wo find tho presumptive evidence quite otre g against the alleged eusetmont of 1003. No Anch doubt, however, exists reapcoring tho fearly solution of the principles of religious tole- fiation, by the Colony of Maryland.
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Baltimore , Maryland , It's the badsh thert , 11. March 1876. I. Wingate Rombon, Ele. 40 Water fr Biton: Dear fin, The Reverend For Ralmapaple, Corresponding Secretary, last night read to the Th anyloud Historical Society a letter from you of the 20th 3.64, in which you say"! Journ ous brothers to print that portion www. "Streeter's Phys. that was omitted is the published Maryland two maiores years ago . This is a publication, made by our Loudly, of an Aremaal a direpire ad before it As the late Mw. S. F. Streeter , ou th 20 ". Thay 1852; - our tweeth ammer Chi gentleman wasone ofour most enseful munters and greatbestand for his industrious devotion to the society's interests and pucepores up to the time of his death , some ten or hombre years age . The society was much touched by your announcement. it seemed quite evident to not that the author did not individ to wake public at all " hatiens he personally Omitted from the published haber; so that your voluntary statement to Eur acercary, gave rise to the unanimous Concerne of the Masters Who were present. @The 18% depour o con social distancithat:" All nature, the iniquit or transfeld , read before the act , bo inumbers things, shall be this "property of the decity; and no papers or manuscript, belonging to il stallo 1
" fruttisted , or in anyway given be the public , without the consent of
the society . A resolution , according ver acofted , having the under , "Signed, Chiphusten Brown, her A Palryngle, a limit with you , and, hust respectfully request that, under the Circumstances, con will develop to ow decide the questions on Mon Stration contrages you propose fronting, and the Voice from which they came into war to prefion. I. il trailer's life had not been so suddenly I unexpectedly wider, it isprobable that. there papers would have been deposited as they should be , in the archives of Ane Society for no one way more systematic in the observance and enforcement of the rules.
thermo, that you will hause in the proposed publication until We har tu pleasure to receive and consider is in auteir. On behalf of y Cy dirección os the Bomullen . _ Jan dear isi, Very respectively, green chedent forante, & DEcute Mayer, Chairman répocit Come M.N.V. factura to offer it the you for that pampers, these berusting in:
respção Jums obedient deraño 2 mingatos 5 minutos_
Copy.
876
Proutz may
ofthe 14th instrumenty of i Www. Streetens ago, Sent to me ote on page
- publication , till you called attente was mit "Lead lepre Chauty.
Bring greatly Furt Pris martely thous 26, 10620 and had Enden mes wil again ti letregio milioni, in ouimanca This / me time manuscript & the detto
City.
40 Wata + Bastos - Parents maneres - Chairman To.
Denfin- Chave the hover to actualedge your power ofthe 14th instant in the receipt ywhich themes tommy copy of: Www. Street's admirable "Wayland two hundredgens ago, Sent to me by the Oule Low. 28. 1857 and head the mite on page 51, micro la Expressa"recours" in skatalofor future usa anda publication , the full biquificance derbich nagement aware of till you called attention to your 18th Voy low_ Evidentin the Sketch nasmit "lead lepre the first", and so camaine / ris cam private property. Being greatly interested in the Subject of his la pel and knowing Pris martele thonduzz in velatura ledie derroto tomin june 26.10620 and have anice his reply ( cip ) Only8 . The hervie man mes waves again to betren to his pevite studies; in source years later This michin, in coursnance This fourroses , institution his letter of July 8. 1862 gave me the manuscript. Con will Time de That we Stracho did not read the tutto before the Society tutie die. "recense" forfuture use and publication" That The did intend to place it atiny inspirat, and that he dying in the device his contin, his riceve did carry out his pourpre by placing it in my cinetips . Pont schaue dean ist a month fatomate and happy incidente of my cad : hal mention is the Path" should Readthe its publication by this Manland Frontinical Vicecity, and it affords se propone factory.
HISTO
AND
MIA
الجندمه
CRESCI
ET MULT
Rooms of the Manland Historical Society, Baltimore, Fele. 15ª 1876
Sur. requellizay, un' reply to your belleroche 4th mil, that I am not ett man your members who can supply you with The al formation 2you work about Dance
2000, traction 1649. 19 tila ation not promised- 25-28. Calvinism. 69
Rid Jan 28.185% Maltemon Jan. 25" /854 Minigate Thornton Bad Leon Via .
have just received your note, desiring one to forward y I you a Cefy of any address delivered before the And ! Poistorical Society Aban 20th 1852; and am happy to find that I have time cepuis remaining, one of which I take pleasure in forwarding to oyun address, by this mail.
1
UR. 5
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
A SCAFFOLD hung with black, and closely guarded by a strong military force,-a pale, trial-stricken man, bending his prematurely gray head to the block,-the rise and flash and fall of the executioner's axe, -- and the uplifting of that gory head before the eyes of the spell bound multitude, with the cry,-" This is the head of a traitor !"-these were the cen- tral and significant facts that saluted the eyes and absorbed the attention of the people of England, that thrilled Europe with horror, that startled kings on their thrones, that stirred new hopes in the hearts of the far-sighted among the people, a little more than two hundred years ago !
With his last breath, Charles 1. proclaimed his adherence to those principles, his endeavor to uphold which brought him finally to the scaffold ; asserting, as he knelt down for his last prayer, and with his hand alinost upon the axe which was to be the keen arbiter between him and his subjects, that his cause was just ; that a disregard of the sovereign's prero- gative had been the principal cause of the contest just con- cluded; that the people had no right to a share in the govern- ment ; and never, until this truth was distinctly recognized, would the country be blessed with liberty and peace. And that one warning word, addressed by him to his solitary com- panion, before he knelt to receive the fatal blow,-how full of mystery, yet how full of meaning ! " Remember," said he, -
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solemnly, to that faithful bishop, who had performed for him the last offices of religion, --- " Remember !" What he meant by that simple utterance, probably no man present of that gazing multitude knew,-no man since has ever known ; but like those words of Holy Writ, to which some believers attach a primary and higher, as well as a literal meaning, it carried with it a grand significance ;- and, though uttered with the faint whisper of a dying man, went out in trumpet tones to principalities and powers ; bidding oppressors to take heed to their ways, warning the people not to forget their rights as men and their slambering but mighty power, and calling on the civilized nations of the world to study and profit by the lesson, presented in that day's solemn and bloody spectacle.
Such was the termination of that great drama, in which Charles had been a prominent actor ; and in which, by his exaggerated estimate of the kingly prerogative, by his blind- ness to the spread of true ideas of political and religious liberty, by his weak subterfuges and despicable insincerity, by the bigotry of his religious and the obstinacy of his politi- cal advisers, he had been led into straits from which there was no escape ; and found, in the executioner's axe, the only means of unloosing the Gordian knot of difficulty and distress, in which he beheld himself entangled.
The seeds of this revolution had been planted long before the reign of Charles. For long years, the rulers of England had manifested a disposition to make the royal prerogative override the privileges of Parliament and the liberties of the people ; while the perception of public rights and the disposi- tion to assert them, seemed to bear an inverse ratio to the despotic acts of the sovereign and his bold assumption of regal immunities. But, when the weak, pedantic James came to the throne, those who had shrunk in silence from the frown of the imperious Elizabeth, began to regain a portion of their manhood and to assume the port of freemen. 'The House of Commons did not hesitate to tell him, that the "pre- rogatives of princes do daily grow," while " the privileges of the subject are at an everlasting stand ;" and declared that respect for the late queen's sex and age, and disinclination to
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stir up controversies that might endanger the succession, had alone made them pass over invasions of their rights, which they had hoped to see redressed ; but instead of having their expectations realized, "not privileges only, but the whole freedom of the Parliament and realm had been hewed from them."
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James, on his part, affirmed that the wit of neither man nor angel could devise an answer satisfactory to those who thus addressed him, " unless he would pull the crown, not from his head only, but from those of his posterity, and lay it at their feet ;"' and swore, as God should be his judge, he would rather live a hermit, than reign over such a people as that " pack of Puritans," who formed the opposition in the House of Commons. Accordingly, the toil of his life was, to pre- serve intact that prerogative which he regarded as the corner stone of the throne ;- to strengthen that Church of which he was proud to be called the head ; to crush that Catholicism which denied his supremacy, and hatred to which, by long indulgence, had almost become an additional faculty of the - English mind ; and to eradicate that Puritanism, which was synonymous, not only with opposition to compulsory con- formity to the established church, but also with resistance, open or secret, to the encroachments of the crown upon the rights and liberties of the people. !
Hopeless of ever enjoying, in their native land, those civil, and more than all, those religious rights which to them were the essentials of life, companies of those who had been perse- cuted for faith's sake sought in a foreign land homes and places where they might worship undisturbed ; whence, after years of endurance, they again migrated, to find on the north- ern shores of the American continent a place of refuge ;- to make the rock of Plymouth one of the foundation stones of a v great temple of civil and religious liberty ;- to be themselves the seed of a nation, destined in after times to people a conti. nent, to become the beacon light of oppressed Humanity, the moral controllers of the destinies of nations.
Not less severe were the measures pursued by the king, and in this case with the hearty approbation of the great
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mass of the people, against the older branch of the Christian 28 church. To the Roman Catholics, was denied by law the public and even the private exercise of the rites of their religion, the privilege of having their children baptized by their own clergy, or of educating them at seminaries conduct- ed by teachers of their own faith ;- they were forbidden to come within a fixeri distance of the city of London, and their priests, found in the country, were liable to seizure, imprison- ment, and even death. To this policy James adhered, until a desire to obtain a fitting match for Prince Charles, a pros- pect of replenishing his empty coffers with a magnificent dowry, and the hope of thus effecting the restoration of his son-in-law to the Palatinate, led him to a negotiation with the king of Spain, for the purpose of bringing about the union of the Infanta with the Prince of Wales. Parliament and people were horror stricken at the idea of thus matching their prospective king with a princess of the proscribed faith ; but neither argument nor remonstrance could move the king from his purpose ;-- he continued the negotiation, sought a dispensation from the Pope, engaged that the princess should be unobstructed in the exercise of the rites of her own church, bound himself by secret articles to relieve the Roman Catholics from the oppressions under which they were groan- ing, and forbade the enforcement of existing penal laws against recusants, Jesuits, and Seminary priests.
At this period, when Charles made his romantic incognito expedition to Spain, and was expected soon to bring home the Infanta as his bride, the hopes of the Catholics were raised to the highest pitch. A revocation of all acts against that sect was confidently anticipated ; many of the prominent courtiers revealed their adherence to the Catholic faith ; and it was . foretold by one, familiar with the under-current of events in the court circle, that, at the Infanta's coming, many more " would fall away from the church of England, as fast as withered leaves in autumn."1
' Letter from John Chamberlain, Esq. to Sir Dudley Carleton, April 19th, 1623.
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Among those who steadily upheld the public policy of king James, and who earnestly promoted the Spanish match, was Sir GEORGE CALVERT, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. Bred a Protestant, he also was led to acknowledge the authority of the church of Rome, though, like many other courtiers, about that time converted, he did not at once avow the change that had taken place in his religious views.1 In private, however, he maintained the forms of worship peculiar to that faith, and instructed his children in its doctrines; facts which were without doubt known to his royal master, but were overlooked in considera- tion of the valuable services he had rendered in connection with the Spanish alliance, and in view of those articles in the marriage treaty, approved by both king and secretary, in which liberty of worship in private was to be conceded to the professors of the Roman Catholic faith.
In the midst of the joy occasioned in England by the announcement of the Prince's safe arrival in Spain, and his distinguished reception by the royal family and favorable regard by the Infanta, Sir George Calvert received a proof of the favor in which he was held by the king, in the form of a grant of a portion of the island of Newfoundland, of: which he was made by charter, (April 7th, 1623,) absolute
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