USA > Maryland > An historical view of the government of Maryland : from its colonization to the present day > Part 37
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His son, Daniel Dulany, the greater, (if we may use such a term) is said to
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New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South C' ... rolina; and amongst them were present all the commissioners appointed on the part of Maryland. The proceedings of that Congress have already been recorded by abler pens. Their de- claration of the rights and grievances of the colonies, their ad- dress to the crown, and their petition to the parliament, are doc- uments which would confer imperishable honor upon any age, or any people. Denying the right, and, exposing the impolicy, of measures destructive of the dearest interests of the colonies, their
have been educated in England, and was admitted to the bar of the provincial court in 1747. In 1757, he was appointed one of the Council, and in 1761, the Secretary of the Province, which offices he held in conjunction from the latter period until the American revolution. For many years before the downfall of the proprietary government, he stood confessedly without a rival in this colony, as a lawyer, a scholar, and an orator ; and we may safely hazard the assertion, that in the high and varied accomplishments which constitute these, he has had, amongst the sons of Maryland, but one equal and no superior. We may admit, that tradition is a magnifier, and that men seen through its medium and the obscurity of half a century, like objects in a misty morning, loom largely in the distance. Yet with regard to Mr. Du- lany, there is no room for such illusion. " You may tell Hercules by his fool," says the proverb ; and this truth is as just, when applied to the proportions of the mind, as to those of the body. The legal arguments and opinions of Mr. Dulany, which yet remain to us, bear the impress of abilities too com- manding, and of learning too profound, to admit of question. Had we but these fragments, like the remains of splendor which linger around some of the ruins of antiquity, they would be enough for admiration. Yet they fall very far short of furnishing just conceptions of the character and accom- plishments of his mind. We have higher attestations of these, in the testi- mony of cotemporaries. For many years before the revolution, he was re- garded as an oracle of the law. It was the constant practice of the courts of the province, to submit to his opinion every question of difficulty which came before them ; and so infallible were his opinions considered, that he who hoped to reverse them was regarded "as hoping against hope." Nor was his professional reputation limited to the colony. I have been credibly informed, that he was occasionally consulted from England upon questions of magnitude : and that in the southern counties of Virginia adjacent to Mary- land, it was not unfrequent to withdraw questions from their courts and even from the Chancellor of England, to submit them to his award. Thus unrivalled in professional learning, according to the representations of his co- temporaries, he added to it all the power of the orator, the accomplish_ ments of the scholar, the graces of the person, and the suavity of the gentle- man. Mr. Pinkney, himself the wonder of his age, who saw but the setting
Chap. V.]
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eloquent vindication of colonial rights is fraught with appeals, to the reason, the justice, and the sympathies of their proud rulers, full of that manly expostulation which made him of old tremble upon his throne. If the English people and government had hitherto considered the movements in the colonies, as the off- spring of a temporary excitement, which their power would soon awe or influence into submission; there was enough' in these papers alone, to dispel the illusion, and to teach them, that they had now to deal with a people cool and sagacious, who knew the value of their rights, and were prepared for every hazard in their defence. By their constituents, their proceedings were hailed with exultation and pride. At the ensuing session of 1765, they were submitted to the Assembly of Maryland by its commission- ers ; when after full examination, they were unanimously approv- ed; and the speaker of the house directed, by its unanimous vote, to present its thanks to the commissioners, for their con- duct in the execution of the trust reposed in them, which was done in the most flattering manner. (20)
The stamp paper had now arrived; and the governor again applying to the lower house for advice, they informed him, that Policy of the it would not be agrecable to the sentiments of. their English ministry
at this period. constituents, to give him any advice upon the sub- ject ; and the consequence was, that acting again under the di- rection of the upper house, it was ordered to be retained on board the vessel, as the only mode of securing it from destruc- tion. (21) A more resolute course was suggested by, and would
splendor of Mr. Dulany's talents, is reputed to have said of him, "that even amongst such men as Fox, Pitt, and Sheridan, he had not found his superior."
Whatever were the errors of his course during the revolution, I have never heard them ascribed, either to opposition to the rights of America, or to a ser- vile submission to the views of the ministry : and I have been credibly inform- ed, that he adhered, throughout life, to the principles advanced by him in opposition to the stamp act. The conjecture may be hazarded, that had he not been thrown into collision with the leaders of the revolution in this State, by the proclamation controversy ; and thus involved in discussions with them, which excited high resentment on both sides, and kept him at a dis- tance from them until the revolution began ; he would most probably have been found by their side, in support of the measures which led to it.
(20) Journals of Lower House, 27th November, 1765.
(21) Journals of Lower House, 6th November, 1765, W. II. 11th Dec'r.
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have been more acceptable to, the English ministry ; but if the governor's inclinations had even approved of the course suggest- ed, he knew too well his own weakness, and the temper of the. peo- ple with whom he had to deal, even to attempt the execution of the act. In a letter of the 24th Oct. 1765, addressed to him by. Mr. Secretary Conway, he received instructions contemplating the use of military force even at that early period. "If (says the secretary,) by lenient and persuasive methods, you can con- tribute to restore that peace and tranquillity to the provinces, on which their welfare and happiness depend, you will do a most acceptable and essential service to your country. But having taken every step, which the utmost prudence and lenity can dictate, in compassion to the folly and ignorance of some mis- guided people, you will not, on the other hand, fail to use your utmost efforts, for the repelling all acts of outrage and violence, and to provide the maintenance of peace and good order in the province, by such a timely exertion of force as the occasion may ri quire; for which purpose you will make the proper applica- tions to general Gage, or Jord Colville, commanders of his ma- jesty's land and naval forces in America. For however unwil- lingly his majesty may consent to the execution of such pow- ers, as may endanger the safety of a single subject; yet can he not permit his own dignity and the authority of the British legis- lature, to be trampled on by force and violence, and in avowed contempt of all order, duty, and decorum." (22) How tender the mercy which kindly assured the subject, that if he would but lie still and be trampled upon, he should not be dragooned into submission !!! The reply of governor Sharpe to this letter ap- prised the secretary, that his majesty's subjects in the colony of Maryland, preferred their own powers of defence even to his ten- der mercies. 'He assured the secretary, that although the distur- bances in the province had not mounted as high as in some of the other colonies, he believed that this was owing entirely to the early and precipitate flight of the stamp distributor, and to his own prudent policy in preventing the landing of the stamp paper ; and that had Mr. Hood attempted to execute his office, it would not have been in his power to protect him. "Had I
(22) Council Proceedings, Liber S. R. and U. S. 402.
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not been convinced, (says he in conclusion) that it would be impossible, without a considerable military force, to carry the act of parliament into execution here, while it was 'opposed so . violently in the other colonies, I should have called upon Mr. Hood to execute his office, and have promised to support him in discharge of his duty; but after the proceedings of the peo- ple of New York, in the presence of general Gage and a body . of his majesty's forces, I presume that nothing more could be expected from me under such circumstances, than to preserve peace and good order in the province until I could receive his majesty's instructions."
Hence it may be truly said, that the province of Maryland was never polluted, even by the attempt to execute the stamp act. All the majesty of the crown and of the parliament, was insufficient to give it even a foothold in this colony. Yet al- Actual operation though never permitted to have any direct opera- of the stamp act
in Maryland. tion, it indirectly produced, for a short time, a par- tial cessation of the public business, where stamps were made necessary for its transaction. Upon the commerce of the pro- vince, it appears to have had but very little operation : for in the beginning of the year 1766, the collectors generally, relying upon the impossibility of procuring stamps, were in the constant practice of granting clearances without them. (23) The county court of Frederick county, in November, 1765, had solemnly decided, that the act was unconstitutional and void, and had proceeded to the transaction of their business, without paying the least regard to its requisitions. (21) And there is reason to
(23) Green's Gazette of 30th January, 1766.
(24) This decision of the county court of Frederick, was celebrated in Frederick town, on the 30th of November, 1765, in a manner most character- istic of the times. We regret that the limits of this work will not permit us to give, at large, the very amusing description of it published in Green's Gazette of 16th December, 1765. The mode of celebration, was a funeral procession, in honor of the death of the stamp act, terminating with a ball ! the persons in procession were the Sons of Liberty ; the principal mourner, Zachariah Hood ; and the personification of the stamp act, a coffin, with the inscription on the lid, " The stamp act, expired of a mortal stab received from the Genius of Liberty in Frederick County court, 23d November, 1765, aged 22 days."
The proceedings of some of the other counties at this period, manifest ths highest indignation. At a meeting of the freemen of Talbot county, held on
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believe, that this course was generally pursued in the counties. But it was otherwise as to the provincial court, and the principal state offices.
The same energy which repelled the introduction of the act, was soon elicited to correct its indirect operation in putting a stop to the public business. On the 24th February, 1766, a large Origin and re- number of the principal inhabitants of Baltimore
sults of the As- sociation of the
county, assembled in Baltimore town, and organi-
Sons of Liberty. zedt hemselves, as an association for the mainten- ance of order, and the protection of American liberty, under the name of the Sons of Liberty. Thus associated, they entered into a resolution to meet at Annapolis, on the first of March ensuing, for the purpose of compelling the officers there, to open their - offices, and to transact business without stamped paper. This design was immediately communicated to the inhabitants of the neighboring counties, who were invited to co-operate in it, by the formation of similar associations. (25) The officers, at whom their resolutions were aimed, were afterwards notified, in very polite terms, of their intended coming, and advised to be in rea- diness to receive them. (26) True to their promise, on the first of March, they assembled at Annapolis in considerable number;
. the 25th of November, 1765, the following amongst other resolves were enter- ed into: " Resolved, that we will detest, abhor, and hold in the utmost contempt, all and every person or persons, who shall meanly accept of any employment or office relating to the stamp act, or shall take any shelter or advantage from the same ; and all and every stamp pimp, informer or favorer of the said act ; and that we will have no communication with any such persons, nor speak to them on any occasion, except it be to upbraid them with their baseness. And in testimony of this, our fixed resolution, we have this day erected a gibbet, twenty feet high, before the court house door, and hung in chains thereon, the effigy of a stamp informer, there to remain in terrorem, until the stamp act is repealed." . Green's Gazette of 1st December, 1765.
(25) Green's Gazette of 6th March, 1766.
(25) One of these very polite notifications is preserved in the Council Records. It runs thus :
Sir, the shutting up of the public offices, and thereby impeding justice, be- ing of the greatest consequence to the community, the Sons of Liberty have resolved to assemble at the city of Annapolis, on Friday, the 28th inst., in or- der to obtain that justice which has been so long withheld; and of this you are to take notice, and be at home to receive them. Hereof fail not, at your - Your obedient servants,-Sons of Liberty.
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the associators of Anne Arundel and Baltimore being personally present, and those of Kent appearing by deputy. Upon their organization, it was resolved, that a written application should be preferred, to the chief justice of the provincial court, the secreta- ry, the commissary general, and the judges of the land office, re- quiring them to open their respective offices on the 31st March, or earlier, if a majority of the supreme courts of the northern governments should proceed in their business before that period : and that in the event of their acceding to this request, they should receive a written indemnification, signed by the Sons of Liberty. The replies which they received, although not direct refusals, were not entirely satisfactory ; and the associators, after issuing invitations to the other counties to unite with them, by forming similar associations, adjourned to meet again at Annapo- lis, on the day assigned to the officers, for the purpose of witnes- sing the issue of their application. (27) On the day appointed, " they again assembled, and repaired in a body to the provincial . court, to present and enforce their petition. It was at first per- emptorily refused by the court; but the Sons of Liberty were not now to be denied. " It was again earnestly insisted upon, and demanded, by the Sons of Liberty, (says the writer of that day in giving his account of that transaction) with united hearts and voices;" and such applications, at that period, were too well under- stood to be resisted. The court yielded, and passed an order in conformity to their petition ; of which an attested copy was de- livered to the associators. The other officers immediately acce- ded, without further opposition. Thus was consummated, in Ma- ryland, the nullification of the stamp act. (28)
At this period the stamp act was virtually dead, throughout the whole American colonies. It had been buried alive ; and the liberty pole was every where planted upon its grave. There
(27) Green's Gazette of 6th March, 1766.
(28) Green's Gazette of 3d April, 1766. The Provincial court adjourned immediately, without transacting any business. It is somewhat remarkable, that although this order was made and published in the paper of the day, noentry of it was made upon the minutes of the court. Perhaps the court did not consider that there was perfect security in the indemnification of the Sons of Liberty, and prudently resolved to have no record-evidence of their submis- sion, for there is no averring, saith my Lord Coke, against the verity of a record.
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Inefficacy of the stamp act in the colonies general- ly. was no power in mere legislation to resuscitate it. The colonists had already set that at naught. Roy- al instructions and persuasions would not avail. They too had fallen lifeless. Yet in the midst of this great moral triumph of public sentiment over law, the resolves, addresses, and declarations of the colonies, abound with expressions of attach- ment to the government and constitution of England. Like him of old, avowing his allegiance to truth, their language was, "we love our king, we love our country, but we love our liberties bet- ter." Near as it was, they did not yet look to a state of indepen- dence. The alternatives of independence or unqualified submis- sion, were not yet distinctly presented to their minds. They still hoped and believed, that there was no deliberate design to enslave them ; and that the late measures were the projects of a temporary ministry, which would ultimately be disowned by the English nation, when the rights and feelings of the colonists were fully presented to its view, and its own interests in connex- ion with them dispassionately considered. In these opinions they were encouraged, by the opposition to the measures which existed in England itself, and the exhortations to constancy which they occasionally received from their friends there.
The commercial interests of England, were principally on the side of the colonies ; upon the prosperity of whose commerce, their own so largely depended. (29) The anti-ministerialists in in some measure espoused the same cause, which was, Opposition England. in their hands, not a weapon of defence for the colo- nies, but one of offence against the ministry. When measures are unsuccessful, they are seldom able to withstand such an opposition. A change in the ministry, to the advantage of the colonies, had taken place as early as July, 1765. The Rockingham admi- nistration then came into power, freed from the odium which attached to the Grenville ministry, for having projected this system of taxation ; and although they continued to lend their aid to it, as a system established by law, which they were bound to carry into effect as far as practicable ; they did not enter with
(2)) See the letters of a committee on the part of the merchants of London, to Daniel Dulany and the merchants of Maryland, of 28th February, 1766, announcing the probable repeal of the stamp act, in Green's Gazette of May 15th, 1766.
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eagerness into its support, as proper to be continued and enforced upon the colonics. Their intended course as to the stamp act, appears to have been at first doubtful; but the ensuing session of Parliament presented accumulated evidences of hostility to it, sufficient to satisfy them, that military force alone could carry it into effect. The great Commoner, Mr. Pitt, now brought the whole force of his influence, and yet undiminished eloquence, to the side of the colonists: and the ministry prudently resolved upon a compromise.
Upon the motion of one of their members, a series of resolu- tions were now adopted, as salvos to the concession they were Absolute repeal about to make. Some of these reprobated, in severe of the act. language, the resolves, addresses, and procced- ings of the colonies, in resistance to the act; and one of them asserted, in the broadest terms, the right of the English parlia- ment " to make laws to bind the colonies, and people of Ame- rica, as subjects of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." The sovereignty of parliament being thus reserved in paper by protes- tando, the stamp act was fully and absolutely repealed, on the 18th of March, 1766, for the ostensible reason, " that its further continuance might be productive of consequences greatly det- rimental to the commercial interests of Great Britain." The van- quished Lion of England could yet roar. The colonies, how- ever, were content with the act of repeal; and regarded but lit- tle, the reasons in which it was wrapped, and the protestations by which it was surrounded. They knew full well, that their own energies had accomplished their deliverance; and they were but little troubled with the assertion of parliamentary supre- macy, so long as it rested on mere assertion. They wore the victory, as became the cause in which it was won. It was fol- lowed by no idle exultation, to mock the power they had foiled, no menaces to provoke afresh the injuries they had escaped. The oil of kindness and joy was poured over the resentments of the past; and an indignant people, almost prepared to burst the bonds of colonial dependance, became again the willing, obedient, and grateful subjects of England. It required but kindness, and continued respect for their rights, on the part of the mother country, to have restored, in all its original fresh- ness and vigor, their returning attachment. But the spirit of
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arbitrary power had not yet departed from the colonial policy of England. It slept, soon to wake; and it awoke, only to con- summate the liberties of the colonies. The history of its last struggle but adds another proof, that the lessons which such a spirit learns in adversity, are never remembered for its instruc- tion,
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CHAPTER VI.
HISTORY FROM THE STAMP ACT TO THE REVOLUTION.
THE beginning of a design is half its accomplishment ; but this proverbial truth is justly applied, only when the beginning is
Character and followed up with energy and perseverance. The
results of the
repeal of the first step gives no vantage ground, to the timid or
stamp act. irresolute ; and if once retreated from, it can sel- dom be regained. Those who draw the sword upon the liber- ties of a people, jealous of their rights, and ready for resistance, must throw away the scabbard. To sheathe it in the face of their resistance, is an admission either of weakness or of appre- hension, which takes away from any future attempt the power to alarm into submission. Such was found to be the result of the first and futile effort of the English parliament against the liber- ties of the colonies, under the cover of the stamp act. The de- signs of that act were in contemplation, long before its passage. It was preceded by an advance guard of acts and resolves, an- nouncing its coming, and intended to test its reception in the colonies; and by a proffer to the latter of the choice of the tax, .as the condition of submission. Yet its coming was hailed by no friendly voice. The colonists denied its power, and spurned its alternatives. Still the lesson was lost upon a ministry, act- ing as if they wished to respect the feelings of the colonies, and yet disregarding them when ascertained. The purpose was ad- hered to, and the act passed. It fell upon the people at whom it was aimed, only to convert their entreaties and remonstran- ces into defiance, and their opposition into open rebellion. Professing all due submission to the mother country, they resist- ed its laws; and all due respect for their sovereign, they diso- beyed his commands and expelled his officers. Force, and that
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too a force adequate to the entire subjugation of this free and unyielding people, was all that remained to give efficacy to the law ; but the circumstances of the times concurred to prevent its exercise. A formidable opposition at home now came to the aid of colonial resistance; the arm of the English government seemed shortened that it could not save itself; and a new minis- try, conforming to the temper of the period, procured the repeal of the act. The power asserted by that act, was not, however, surrendered at discretion. The right to impose the tax was still asserted, but the tax was repealed; and such an assertion of right, was like a claim to victory established by a retreat. The character of the repeal could not be disguised. It was but the interment of a law, which had already become a dead letter ; and the epitaph proclaimed a motive for the repeal, which nobody believed. The act was recorded as a martyr to the commercial interests of England, whilst all knew that it had fallen before the resistance of America.
To the colonies, the triumph over this act, was more than the mere victory of the moment. It was the victory of a first effort. It was achieved over a measure adopted with deliberation, and Influence of the abandoned only when the energies of the English stamp act con- troversy upon government seemed unequal to its accomplishment. the colonies. It had rendered their people familiar with the extent, nature, and value of their political rights; and had given every man, a reason for the faith that was in him. It had rallied for the support of their liberties, in the very councils of the mother country, a body of English patriots, distinguished by their talents, and formidable by their power. But above all, it had revealed to them their own strength, and the means most efficient in its exer- cise. The French war had done much, to bring the people of the several colonies into close connection and more frequent intercourse. The stamp act effected more. It taught them to combine, as well for the protection of their liberties against ty- ranny, as of their territories against war. Such a combination naturally promoted amongst them, the most harmonious and un- restrained intercourse. The former apprehensions of danger from confederation were allayed ; mere provincial jealousies were dispelled ; conflicting customs and manners were reconciled ; American liberties became the watch word; and the colonists
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