USA > Maryland > An historical view of the government of Maryland : from its colonization to the present day > Part 21
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Cecilius Calrert, although not animated by the same personal views which governed his father, inherited all his energy and general designs, as to the colonization of the province, As
(4) See antea, page 9, note 11; and the facts there stated, and the autho- rities referred to : which furnish a full account of his visit to Virginia, and of the manner in which he was received there.
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HISTORY FROM THE COLONIZATION [Hist. View.
.. Establishment of the first colon under the char- ler of Maryland.
soon as the grant was passed, he commenced his preparations for the establishment of a colony ; and originally intended to have accompanied it in per- son. Abandoning this intention, he confided the conduct of the settlers to his brother, Leonard Calvert ; whom he constitu- ted his lieutenant general or governor. The colony was soon formed and prepared for embarkation ; and on the 22d of Novem- ber, 1633, it departed from the Isle of Wight, on its voyage to the province. The emigrants consisted of about two hundred persons, principally Roman Catholics; of whom, many are said to have been gentlemen of family and fortune. (5) They reached Point Comfort, in Virginia, on the 24th of February following ; whence, after a short stay, they sailed up the Potomac in search of a site for their colony. After having taken formal possession of the province at an island which they called St. Clement's, and
(5) These, and the following details, relative to the equipment, embarka- tion, and settlement of the colony, are principally collected from a work, pub- lished early in the last century, entitled, The British Empire in America. Although one of the fullest accounts of the province which has been published and transmitted to us, it contains little else than these details ; and a general and imperfect account of the government and condition of the colony, at the pe- riod when it was written. The writer, himself, (Mr. Oldmixon, ) was sensible of the imperfection of his work as to the history of Maryland, although he pro- Bounces it the most perfect account of that province which had ever been pub- Jished. He offers an apology for the meagreness of the history, in the fact, that the gentlemen of the province and elsewhere, to whom he had applied for infor- mation and assistance, had not furnished it, as those of the other colonies ; and concludes with the consolatory remark : "Perhaps these gentlemen would be as angry with themselves as with us, when they see how industrious we have been in the histories of those countries that we were fully informed about ; and what a figure they make in the British Empire in America : where Mary_ Jand is far from being the least considerable portion of it." Even we of this day, can feel some of his indignation ; for the work was then practicable, and had they complied with his wishes, we might have had a copious and authentic history of the province up to that period. The work was written in 1708 and 1709, whilst Seymour was governor of Maryland. The royal government then prevailed here ; and the materials for its history could have been collected with more facility than during the proprietary government. Proprietary governments of rich provinces were never much admired by the crown ; and hence it was neither the policy nor the disposition of the proprie- taries, to publish the transactions, or reveal fully the resources of their colonies.
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Chap. II.]
having proceeded, according to their estimate, upwards of forty leagues up the river to an Indian town called Piscataway, the go- vernor deemed it prudent to return, in search of a location e nearer to the mouth of the river. His intercourse with the sava- ges at Piscataway, although he was kindly received by them, not only there but throughout his progress up the river, had excited his apprehensions as to the location of his colony at so high a point, where in the event of attack it might be cut off from re- treat. Returning down the Potomac, they entered one of its tri- butary rivers, running into it from the north near to its mouth. This river, upon which they bestowed the name of St. George's river, is known at this day by the name of St. Mary's river. It flows into the Potomac between ten and twelve miles above its mouth ; and alike most of the other rivers arising in the cham- paign country adjacent to the bay, at its mouth, and for several miles above it,'it is a bold, deep, and wide stream. Sailing up this river about six or seven miles, they came to an Indian town on the eastern side of the river, called " Yaocomoco," situa- ted immediately upon the river. The site of this town, the im- provements already made around it by the Indians, and the depth and security of the navigation from the Potomac to that point, presented every facility which the governor could desire for the settlement of his colony. His first act was one of justice and humanity towards the aborigines, which presents a striking con- trast to the first establishment of the other colonies. What is now termed by some an act of cruelty, was at that day consider- ed an act of almost unexampled humanity. He purchased the town from the Indians, and established his colony within it by their consent. In pursuance of his agreement with the natives, the colony was disembarked at the town of Yaocomoco, on the 27th of March, 1631, and took possession of it by the name of St. Mary's. Then and thus landed the Pilgrims of Maryland, and then and thus were laid the foundations of the old city of St. Mary's, and of our present State. (6)
(6) The arrival and establishment of the colony at St. Mary's, were welcomed with general rejoicing on the part of the natives: " The first thing that Mr. Calvert (the governor) did, (says the author of the British Empire of America) was to fix a court of guard and erect a store house; and he had not been there many days, before Sir John Harvey, governor of Virginia, came
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JUSTORY FROM THE COLONIZATION
[Hist. View.
The colony, which was thus established, was supplied for its establishment, by the kind providence of the proprietary, not only with all the necessaries, but even with many of the con- Sagacious policy veniences adapted to an infant settlement. AL_ . of the preprieta- ry in the estab- lishment of the colony. though many of the first emigrants were gentlemen of fortune, he did not, therefore, throw the colony on its resources, and leave it dependent for its subsistence upon the casual supplies of an unreclaimed country, and a sa- vage people. At the embarkation of the colony, it was pro- vided, at his expense, with stores of provisions and clothing, implements of hasbandry, and the means of erecting habita-
thither to visit him, as did several Indian Werowanees, and many other Indians from several parts of the continent. Amongst other Indians came the king of Patuxent, &c. After the store house was finished, and the ship un- laden, Mr. Calvert ordered the colours to be brought on shore, which was done with great solemnity, the gentlemen and their servants attending in armas ; several vollies of -hot were fired on ship-board and ashore, as also the cannon, at which the natives were struck with admiration. The kings of Peturent and Yaocomoco were present at this ceremony, with many other Indians of Yaocomoco ; and the Werowanee of Patuxent, took that occasion to advise the ludiaus of Yaocomoco, to be careful to keep the league they had made with the English. He staid in the town several days, and was full of his Indian compli- ments ; and when he went away, he made this speech to the governor : "I love the English so well, that if they should go about to kill me, if I had so much breath as to speak, I would command the people not to revenge my death ; for I know they would not do such a thing, except it were through my own fault." British Em- pire in America, vol. I, 327.
It was an event worthy of celebration ; and the manner of its celebration attests most forcibly the liberal and humane policy observed by the colonists of Maryland, in their earliest intercourse with the natives. The artless, untutored sarage, had not yet learned to dread the approaches of civilization, as the precursors of his expulsion from the home of his forefathers. He saw, in the colonists, only a gentle and conciliating people, without the power or the will to injure; and gifted with all that could excite his wonder or tempt his desires ; and in the fullness of his joy, he hailed their coming as the work of the Great Spirit, in kindness to himself. To the feeble emigrants, it was an occasion for joy, more rational and profound. Preferring all privations to the privation of the liberty of conscience, they had forsaken the endearments of their native land, to cast themselves, in reliance on divine protection, upon all the perils of an unknown country, inhabited by a savage people. They came prepared for the worst ; and fancy lent all its illusions to heighten the dangers of the adventure. But the God whom they had trusted was with
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tions; and for the first two or three years after its establish- ment, he spared no expense which was necessary to promote its interests. It appears not only from the petition preferred in 1715, to the English parliament, by Charles lord Baltimore ; but. also from the concurring testimony of all the historians who treat of the settlement of this colony, that during the first two or three years of its establishment, Cecilius, the proprietary, expended upon
them ; and He in whose hand are all hearts, seemed to have moulded the savage nature into kindness and courtesy for their coming. They came ; they who were retreating from the persecution of their christian brethren, to be welcomed by the confidence and affection of the savage : and their peaceful and secure establishment in the wilderness, was enough to have called forth grateful aspirations from the coldest heart, and to have put into every mouth the song of joy.
Nearly two hundred years have rolled by, since the voices of our forefathers were lifted up in the wilderness, to celebrate the joyous occasion of their landing and peaceful establishment, in this then desert province. The close of the second century since that event, is now near at hand ; and why should not the return of the day, which commemorates the landing of these pilgrims, be an occasion of jubilee to us ? Every nation has had its festivals, to recall in pride the recollections of its history, and to fashion and sustain the spirit and character of its people by the example of their ancestors. Yet where shall we find, in the history of any people, an occasion more worthy of commemora- tion, than that of the landing of the colony of Maryland ? It is identified with the origin of a free and happy state. It exhibits to us the foundations of our government, laid broad and deep in the principles of civil and religious liberty : It points us with pride to the founders of this State, as men who, for the secure enjoyment of their liberties, exchanged the pleasures of affluence, the society of friends, and all the endearments of civilized life, for the privations and dangers of the wilderness. In an age, when perfidy and barbarity but too often marked the advances of civilization upon the savage, it exhibits them to us displaying in their intercourse with the natives, all the kindnesses of human nature, and the charities of their religion. Thus characterising this colony, as one established under the purest principles, and by the noblest feelings which can animate the human heart ; it presents to us, in its after-history, a people true to the principles of their origin. At a period when religious bigotry and intolerance seemed to be the badges of every christian sect ; and those who had dwelt under their oppressions, instead of learning tolerance by their experience, had but imbibed the spirit of their oppressors ; and when the howlings of religious persecution were heard every where around them, the Catholic and Protestant of Maryland were seen mingling in harmony, in the discharge of all their public and private duties, under a free government, which assured the rights of conscience to all. Conducting us through all the
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HISTORY FROM THE COLONIZATION [list. View.
it upwards of £10,000 sterling. (7) Nor did his care stop here. He governed, it with a policy more efficacious than his means, in giving strength and confidence to the colony, and happiness to the settlers. The lands of the province were held up as a premium to emigrants. The freemen were convened in Assembly : and thus made to feel that they were dwelling under their own govern- ment> . Religious liberty was subject only to the restraints of conscience-courts of justice were established ; and the laws of the mother country, securative 'of the rights of person and proper- ty, were introduced in their full operation. The laws of justice and humanity were observed towards the natives. The results of so sagacious a policy were soon perceived. During the first se- ven years of the colony, its prosperity was wholly uninterrupted; and when the interruption came, it proceeded from causes which no policy could have averted.
The dissatisfaction of the colony of Virginia with the dis- memberment of its province by the grant of Maryland, and the unsuccessful issue of their efforts to reclaim it, have already
changes in the government and condition of that colony, until that proud period, when it assumed the rank of a free and independent State ; it shows us still, a people who knew their rights as freemen, and who had the courage to assert, and the power to maintain them : a people, whose history is without a recollection of slavish submission to call up a blush upon the cheeks of their frec descendants. Surely such a birth-day of a free people, is worthy of com- memoration to the latest period of their existence. .
The landing of the Pilgrims of New England, has been the burden of many a story, and the theme of many an oration. The very Rock on which their feet were first planted, is consecrated in the estimation of their descendants; and its relics are enshrined as objects of holy regard. They were freemen in search of freedom : They found it, and transmitted it to their posterity. It becomes us, therefore, to tread lightly upon their ashes. Yet whilst we would avoid all invidious contrasts, and forget the stern spirit of the Puritan, which so fre- quently mistook religious intolerance for holy zeal; we can turn with exulta- tion to the Pilgrims of Maryland, as the founders of religious liberty in the new world. They erected the first altar to it on this continent ; and the fires first kindled on it ascended to heaven amid the blessings of the savage. Should the memory of such a people pass away from their descendants as an idle dream ?
(7) Chalmers, 203, British Empire in America, vol. 1st, 230. 2d Ander- son's Ilistory of Commerce, 476.
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Chap. II.]
Dissatisfaction of been described. (8) Yet although the title of Lord the Virginia set- ters with the grant of Mary- manent influence upon the reta- tions between the two colonies. Baltimore was fully sustained by the decision of land, and its per-, the crown, and its injunctions to the government of Virginia, to keep up a' good correspondence with his colony ; the circumstances under which it was obtained, were yet fresh in the minds of the Virginia settlers, and created heart-burnings and jealousies, which were for a time prejudicial to the interests of both. Had no such causes of discord existed, their common origin, their connexion with a common, country, and the privations and dangers common to both settlements, surrounded as they were by the savages, would soon have produced union and harmony in their efforts. The dangers of either would have been the dangers of both; and the result would probably have been, the formation of a confederacy as distinguished in colonial history as that of "the united colo- mies of New England." (9) The idea of union and harmonious effort once made familiar to them in their infancy, they would most probably ever afterwards have clung together in every mo- ment of difficulty or oppression. Yet although they were ad- joining colonies, claiming the same liberties, open to the attacks of the same internal enemy, having the same navigable outlet, and in general raising the same staple commodities, their history is marked by none of those unions of power, and communications of assistance, which are so conspicuous in the transactions of the New England colonies. It exhibits nothing but the friendly and commercial intercourse, common to adjoining provinces in a state of peace. The primary causes of this may be traced to the dissatisfaction which the grant excited; and in the progress
(8) Sce supra, page 10.
(9) This confederacy was formed in 1643, and originally embraced the colonies of Massachusetts, New Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven. It was productive of the happiest results, by preserving harmony amongst the colonies, and concentrating their energies for defence against the wily enemies by whom they were surrounded. As the archetype of the system of confederation adopted by the colonies during the revolutionary war, these articles of confederacy are full of interest to the explorer of our national history. They may be seen at large in 2d Hazard's State Papers, 1 to 6; and a synopsis of them is given in Ist Pitkin's U. States, 50, and Ist Marshall's Life of Washington, 137.
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HISTORY FROM THE COLONIZATION
[Hist. View.
of a few years, the growth and permanent establishment of the two colonies, and the differences in their governments, institu- tions, and manners, removed most of the inducements which were calculated to inculcate the idea of such an union.
The dissatisfaction of the Virginians did not spring entirely fiom the loss of territory to their colony. They had amongst them an agitator, bold, energetic, and clamorous This dissatisfac- linn Increased and the tranquil- ity of the pro- vince: first inter- map d.by the in- trigues of Clay- bernex of his private griefs, in which not only the colony, but even the government of Virginia, in some measure participated. William Clayborne, whosc name is identified with the rebellion of 1645-46, and with almost every act of hostility to the province of Mary- land, during the first twenty-five years of its settlement, has already been introduced to the notice of the reader, as the founder of the settlements on Kent Island, which existed anterior to the charter of Maryland. The character and temper of that individual, the circumstances under which his settlement was made, and the causes of his deep-rooted hostility to the province, have been unfolded. Deprived of his settlement, expelled the province, and attainted, he sought refuge in Virginia, and threw himself upon the protection of Harvey, its tyrannical governor; who was believed to have connived at, if not assisted his acts of violence in Maryland. There he was followed by commission- ers deputed by the governor of Maryland to demand his surren- der; but Harvey, too critically situated to afford him open countenance, yet declined compliance with the demand, and transmitted him and his case to England, for the adjudication of the English privy council. There arrived, Clayborne again as- sumed the attitude of a complainant, and prayed the restoration of his settlements, and the grant of a new and more extensive territory within the limits of Maryland. The results of his peti- tion have been detailed. He was unsuccessful in his attack upon the claims of Lord Baltimore; and now that force, fraud, and complaint, had all failed in effecting his purposes, there remained to him but the spirit of deadly animosity towards the colony, waiting only the opportunity of revenge. (10) The circumstances
(10) For the origin of Clayborne's settlements, and the results of his va- rious efforts to regain them, see supra, pages 6th to 8th, and 14th to 18th.
Chap. II.]
TO THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. 201
of the times soon presented that opportunity. The ferments of the parent country were rapidly approaching their acme; and the spirit of insubordination and anarchy, which they brought in their train, soon extended itself to the colonies. Royal and parlia -. ment parties were already forming in them, to react in reference to their colonial governments, the scenes of the revolution which was going on in England. Clayborne espoused the parliament cause, for which he was well fitted, both by his natural temper, and his deep sense of his unredressed wrongs.
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His first efforts, however, were made under the cover of Indian .. grievances. The intercourse between the colonists and the The Indian war Indians had hithe. to been of the most friendly na of 1042. ture; yet the engrossing effects of the settlement upon the possessions of the latter, were inevitable. They found their own consequence in the land diminishing; and the general liberty to purchase their possessions, enabled the colo- nists to obtain them often for petty compensations, which the natives were prompted to accept, by the wants or temptation of the moment. These purchases were gradually driving them from the graves and hunting grounds of their forefathers; and come as this might, the Indian spirit could not but grieve over it. Clay- borne found it a ready minister to his vengeance. He succeeded in persuading the Indians, that the colonists of Maryland were not Englishmen, nor the brethren of Virginians, whose power they either respected or feared; but Spaniards and enemies, who would soon drive them from the land; and at length, in the be- ginning of the year 1612, their indignation, fanned by his per- suasions, broke out into open war, which endured for some time, and appears to have produced considerable expense and distress to the province. (11)
Peace had scarcely been restored, when Clayborne came in person, as the leader of rebellion in the colony. The distrac-
Clayborne and tions of the times, consequent upon the movements Jugle's rebellion, of the people against the crown in the mother in 1641. country, provided him fit agents and associates. Of these, the most prominent was Richard Ingle, whose name has
(11) British Empire in America, vol. Ist. 323; Chalmers, 216; and Act of 1642, chap. 54.
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HISTORY FROM THE COLONIZATION [Niet. View.
ever since been associated with that of Clayborne, in giving a name to the rebellion which they excited. One of the results of Clayborne and Ingle's rebellion, as it is called, was the destruc- tion or loss of the greater part of the records of the province ; and those which remain to us, neither show us in what manner this rebellion was fomented and accomplished its triumph, nor give us any insight into the conduct and administration of the confederates, whilst they held the rule of the province. From Clayborne's known character as an adherent to the parliament, and the fact of Ingle's previous flight from the province as a proclaimed traitor to the king, it seems probable that the insur- rection was carried on under the name, and for the support of the parliament cause. The records of that day inform us only, that it commenced in the year 1644: that early in the year 1645 the rebels were triumphant, and succeeded in driving the gover- nor. Leonard Calvert, from the province to Virginia : and that the government of the proprietary was not restored until August, 1616. If the representations made by that government, after its restoration, be correct, the administration of these confede- rates, during their ascendancy, was one of misrule, rapacity, and general distress to the province ; and this seems quite probable, fixun the fact of their carly expulsion from it, notwithstanding the triumphs of the parliament party in England. Their domi- nion is now remembered, only because it is identified with the loss of the greater part of the records of the province before that period. (12)
Tranquillity was restored by a general amnesty, from which only Clayborne, Ingle and Durnford were excepted; (13) and for some years after the restoration, the colony was wholly occu- The course of the pied in re-establishing the affairs of the province, ( ** ) Cament and Ly of Mary land, with nofer- es ? to the con- Mlernation of the mether country. and rescuing it from the distresses which had been occasioned by the rebellion. Unlike many of the other colonies, its course towards the contending parties in England, was one of neutrality. Its transactions before the execution of Charles I. are silent as to the revolutionary
(12) Preface to Bacon's edition of the Laws of Maryland, 2d Burke's Vir- ginia, 112; Chalmers, 217; Assembly Proceedings from 1636 to '57, from page 341 to 353.
(13) Council Proceedings from 1636 to 1657, 168 to 184.
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