USA > Maryland > Biographical sketches of distinguished Marylanders > Part 3
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From two gentlemen, one the lineal descendant of Daniel Dulany the elder, the other coming from Daniel the younger, the following authentic informa- tion is obtained. That culled from the leaves of a " family history," is quoted first: "The Dulanys of Maryland, were the Delaneys in Ireland, whence their ancestor came. He was in some way related to the well-known Dr. Patrick Delaney, the friend of Swift, whose name often appears in contemporary literature. The story is, that young Delaney ran away from his friends without money and 'indentured himself,' as it was called, for passage money-in plain English he agreed to be sold into servitude for a time on his arrival on this side to pay his way. His time was bought by a gentleman, a lawyer, in one of the lower
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DANIEL DULANY.
counties and he went into service at his master's resi- dence. It was proved, however, that he was seen read- ing Latin by the fire-light in the servants' quarter, which fact led to an investigation, when it was dis- covered that he was master of what was considered a fine education in those days. His studiousness and erudition so wrought on his master, that he took him into his office, and after making him a lawyer, bestowed upon him his daughter in marriage." So runs the family story; and it was thus that Daniel Dulany, the Irish servant, became the great barrister, and the pro- genitor of one of the most aristocratic families of the Colony of Maryland.
This romantic story from the pen of an honorable representative of the " great barrister," gives a twofold interest to the hero, who in a false position, and under difficulties, still preserved his noble ambition. In the account given by the second gentleman referred to, as the descendent of the younger Daniel, the youthful emigrant's departure from home without "a leave of absence" is partly explained: The elder Daniel Dulany was born in Queen's county, Ireland. He was cousin- german to Patrick Delaney, mentioned frequently in con- nection with Dean Swift. The old remembered couplet of Swift's is familiar to many a reader,
" Delaney sends a silver standish
· When I no more a pen can brandish.
Patrick was born in Ireland in 1686, and died in 1768. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, where he was educated. He afterward became Chancellor of Christ Church, and Prebendary of Saint Patrick's, in Dublin. He was Dean of Down in 1744. He was a man of great learning, as well as an author of note. He wrote some strictures upon Lord Orrery regarding his " Remarks on the Life and Writings of Swift."
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DANIEL DULANY.
The name of Dulany, like many others, and especially those of Ireland, has undergone the changes of time and circumstance. After the Siege of Athlone, where the Prince of Orange was defeated, in 1690, a portion of the Delaney family left Ireland and settled in London. Two of the name, said to be cousins, were engaged in this battle, one a Colonel Delany, the other a Captain Dullany.
The arms of this family are registered about the period above-named at London. The crest is an up- lifted arm and dagger. The arms a lion rampant in quartered shield.
One of this family, in 1178, was Felix O'Dullany, (Roman Catholic) Bishop of Ossory, in Ireland.
The Dulanys of Maryland were Protestants, however, having left the ancient faith. From the same great clan in the Kings and Queens' counties came the O'Delans and the Delanos; of the same race also is the present distinguished editor of the London Times, Mr. Delane. O'Hart thus refers to the name :- " O'Dubhlaine, or Delaney, Chiefs of Tuath-an- Toraidh : and a clan of note in the barony of Upper Ossory, Queens County, and also in Kilkenny."
Daniel Dulany was entered at the University of Dublin; but in consequence of his father having married a second time, he left the college without taking his degree.
In 1710 he was admitted to the Bar of Maryland.
His first wife was a daughter of Colonel Carter, of Calvert county, Maryland,-by her he had no children. His second wife was Rebecca, daughter of Colonel Walter Smith, of Calvert county. His third wife was the sister of Governor Edward Lloyd, of Maryland.
He died at Annapolis, December the 5th, 1750, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He was honorably 3*
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DANIEL DULANY.
interred in the vault near the north entrance of Saint Anne's Church at Annapolis. His pall was supported by his Excellency, the Governor of Maryland, four of the Honorable Council and the Worshipful Mayor of Annapolis.
Daniel Dulany "the greater " was the son of Daniel Dulany the first, by the second marriage. He was edu- cated at Eton, and at Clare Hall, Cambridge, England. He was afterward of the Temple. He was admitted to the Bar of Maryland in the year 1740. His wife was Miss Tasker, the sister of Col. Benjamin Tasker, Jr. He died in the city of Baltimore, March the 19th, 1797, aged 75 years and 8 months.
In Saint Paul's church, Baltimore, there is a monu- ment erected to his memory. His mortal remains are supposed to be interred elsewhere, however, as upon the stone there is no hic jacet. A statue of this great man once stood in the Episcopal Church of Saint Anne, at Annapolis. An accidental fire destroyed this venera- ble building in 1856, and the statue was reduced to lime. This church was named in commemoration of Queen Anne, of England. In the lofty steeple of the church hung a deep-toned bell, presented by that royal lady. At the time of the destructive fire mentioned, the bell which was made to sway to and fro by the up- ward rush of the heated air, rang out a solemn and dirge-like strain, recalling by turns to the minds of the assembled multitude the peals that had rung through long generations of ye olden time, for the Coming and the Going which we know as Life and Death ; finally it descended with a mighty crash into the leaping flames that illumined the darkness of the night, ringing thenceforth only in memory through the silence, the dust, and the ashes, of the unreturning Past.
THE RAVEN.
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE. OF BALTIMORE, MD.
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NCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore ; While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping-rapping at my chamber door. "' Tis some visitor," I muttered, tapping at my chamber door ; "Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow ; vainly I bad sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore, For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore- Nameless here forevermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating: " "Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door- Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door ; This it is, and nothing more."
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EDGAR ALLAN POE.
Presently my soul grew stronger ; hesitating then no longer, " Sir," said I, " or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is, I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping-tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you : " here I opened wide the door :-
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before ;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word "Lenore !"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word " Lenore !"
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before. "Surely," said I, " surely that is something at my window lattice ; Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore- Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore : "Tis the wind, and nothing more."
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore. Not the least obeisance made he ; not a minute stopped or stayed he ;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door, Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -- Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebon bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore; " Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, " art sure no craven ;
Ghastly, grim, and ancient Raven, wandering from the Nightly shore ;
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian Shore," Quoth the Raven, " Nevermore."
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Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though ils answer little meaning, little relevancy bore ; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber-door, With such a name as " Nevermore."
But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour ; Nothing further then he uttered ; not a feather then he fluttered. Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before ;
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, "Doubtless," said I, " what it utters is its only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster Followed fast, and followed faster till his songs one burden bore; Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of "Never-nevermore."
But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore- What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking " Nevermore."
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloating o'er ; But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er, She shall press, ah, nevermore !
Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
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" Wretch," I cried, " thy God bath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite-respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore ! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore !" Quoth the Raven, " Nevermore."
"Prophet !" said I, "thing of evil !- prophet still, if bird or devil !-
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted- On this Home by Honor haunted-tell me truly, I implore- Is there-is there balm in Gilead ?- tell me, tell me, I implore." Quoth the Raven, " Nevermore."
" Prophet !" said I, "thing of evil !- prophet still, if bird or devil !
By that heaven that bends above us-by that God we both adore-
Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore ?"' Quoth the Raven, " Nevermore."
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend !" I shrieked upstarting-
" Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian Shore ! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken !
Leave my loneliness unbroken !- quit the bust above my door ! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door !"
Quoth the Raven, " Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door;
· And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him stealing throws his shadow on the floor ;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Sliall be lifted-nevermore !
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THOMAS JOHNSON,
THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND.
T HE ABBE ROBIN, one of the Chaplains of the French Army in North America, thus writes of Annapolis as it appeared during the progress of the Revolution : "In that very inconsiderable town standing at the mouth of the Severn, where it falls into the bay, of the few buildings it contains, at least three-fourths may be styled elegant and grand. Female luxury here exceeds what is known in the provinces of France. A. French hair-dresser is a man of importance amongst them, and it is said a certain dame here hires one of that craft at one thousand crowns a year. The State House is a very beautiful building; I think the most so of any I have seen in America." From the "gossiping" letter of the Abbe, we learn of the customs prevailing in what was then known as the Athens of America. McMahon, the historian, says of it: "Long before the era of the American Revolution it was conspicuous as the seat of wealth and fashion; and the luxurious habits, elegant accomplishments, and profuse hospitality of its inhabi- tants were proverbially known throughout the Colonies.
. . It was the seat of a wealthy government, and of its principal institutions, and as such congre- gated around it many whose liberal attainments emi-
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THOMAS JOHNSON.
nently qualified them for society, and the endorsements of whose offices enabled them to keep pace even with the extravagances of fashion."
The seat of the government of Maryland was trans- ferred from Saint Mary's to Annapolis, then called the Port of Annapolis, in the winter of 1694-1695. Erected into a city, it was invested with the privileges of send- ing delegates to the Assembly in 1708. In this favored city sat a court of general jurisdiction, in matters of a certain grade, over the whole State. This was called the Provincial Court, and the Court of Appeals. In these two courts all the leading lawyers of the State practiced. Here greatness found utterance, and through its appealing eloquence the Bar of Maryland developed its strength.
Thomas Johnson was reared in the office of the Pro- vincial Court, learning the course of its procedure. He studied law in the office of Mr. Bordley, an eminent lawyer of the time; such were the advantages of his position. ·
Thomas Johnson, having settled at Annapolis, con- tinued attaining eminence at the Bar until the approach of the American Revolution.
The Stamp Act had now been passed by the English Parliament. The sole power to convene the General Assembly of Maryland was vested in the Governor of the State. In November, 1763, Governor Sharpe pro- rogued it, and by repeated prorogations postponed its session. The Assembly was, however, at length con- vened on the 23d of September, 1765.
The Stamp Act was the first subject discussed. To this Assembly Thomas Johnson was sent as a delegate from Anne Arundel county.
A circular from the Assembly of Massachusetts in- vited the other Colonies to unite with them in the
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appointment of Commissioners to a general Congress to be held at New York.
This was immediately taken up for consideration. On the second day of its session, the Assembly passing by all other business, concurred in the proposition and appointed Commissioners. A committee for drafting the instructions of the Commission was also appointed, and Thomas Johnson chosen as a member thereof.
The General Assembly adopted and ordered to be published on the 28th of September, 1765, a series of resolutions declaring the character and tendencies of the late measures of the English Parliment. Of this portion of Maryland's history, McMahon says: " Pre- eminent amongst all the legislative declarations of the Colonies for the lofty and dignified tone of their remonstrances, and for the entire unanimity with which they were adopted, they form one of the proud- est portions of our history."
The indignant expressions of the several Colonies caused the repeal of the offensive Stamp Act by the English Parliament, on the 18th day of March, 1766. The Colonies were unsatisfied. The claim to the right of revenue taxation had not been removed. Against this power involved in the Stamp Act the Colonies con- tended. Under an assumption of regulating the com- merce of the Colonies, said to be justified by the dis- tinction originally drawn by the colonists themselves, between internal and external taxation, the Parliament contemplated a new scheme in 1767. The Act was passed on the 2nd of July of that year. The Act was to take place after the 20th of November ensuing, by which new duties were imposed on tea and other of the most necessary articles of consumption. After the pas- Fage of this and other obnoxious acts, the Assembly of Maryland was not convened until May the 24th, 1768.
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THOMAS JOHNSON.
The Massachusetts Assembly of January, 1768, had issued a circular to the Colonial Assemblies generally, detailing its own operations and inviting concurrence.
The injunction of the Crown to the Governors of the Colonies generally, was to prorogue their Assemblies should any inclination be manifested to second the designs of the Massachusetts circular.
The Lower House of the Assembly of Maryland took the Massachusetts circular into consideration on the 8th of June, 1768.
A committee was appointed, consisting of gentlemen distinguished for ability, and devotion to the cause of the Colonies.
This committee was instructed to draft a petition of remonstrance to the King of England against the late impositions. Thomas Johnson was one of this com- mittee.
McMahon says: "Their petition to the King may safely challenge a comparison with any similar paper of that period, as an eloquent and affecting appeal to the justice of the crown."
The General Assembly of Maryland controlled by its right the officers of the province, and regulated their compensation for official services.
The fees of office had been prescribed by an act passed in the year 1763, and which had been unchanged until October 1770. In the session of September, 1770, the act had been presented for renewal.
There were no salaries. An officer was allowed a separate fee for each definite act of service.
The fees which were established by this act of 1763 had prevailed from a very early period in the Colony.
The excesses practiced under this system prevented the statute of 1763 from being re-enacted. Governor Eden resolved to regulate the fees under the preroga-
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tives of his office. On the 26th of November, 1770, he issued a proclamation to that effect. No measure of internal polity was ever more thoroughly discussed or more closely investigated. Parties were formed calling to their aid every man of influence or ability.
Green's Gazette, that common meeting-ground of the day, also served as a medium in the discussion. Op- posed to the proclamation of the Governor was Thomas Johnson, amongst the foremost.
McMahon, in his history, in treating of this discus- sion, says: "The reputation of Thomas Johnson does not rest alone upon the memorials of our colonial his- tory. It has a prouder record in the history of his State, in the councils of the American nation. Dis- tinguished as the first Governor of Maryland, after her elevation to the rank of an independent State, and as one of her ablest representatives in the Continental Congress, his efforts in this mere provincial controversy are adverted to, not as evidences of his character, but as the earnest of those virtues afterward so conspicuous in the discharge of his arduous and dangerous duties during the darkest hours of the Revolution. At this early period he held a professional rank, and enjoyed a degree of public respect in his own Colony, sufficient for enviable distinction."
The next Assembly convened, after the proclamation of the Governor, was in October, 1771.
Every effort was made to procure the withdrawal of the proclamation in the Lower House during a session of something more than two months. The matter under controversy had no more eloquent discussor than Thomas Johnson. The right of taxation was declared to belong to the Assembly alone. The procla- mation, as well as the regulation of fees in the land, were declared illegal, the measures arbitrary.
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An address to the Governor, drawing attention to his illegal course, followed these resolutions from the Lower House.
The delegate from Anne Arundel County, Thomas Johnson, presented the address to the House.
It was adopted with but three dissenting voices.
In this manner concludes the appeal :-
" Permit us to entreat your Excellency to review this unconstitutional assumption of power, and consider its pernicious consequences. Applications to the public offices are not of choice, but necessity. Redress cannot otherwise be had for the smallest or most atrocious injuries ; and as surely as that necessity does exist, and a binding force in the proclamation or regulation of fees in the land office be admitted, so certainly must the fees thereby established be paid to obtain redress. In the sentiments of a much approved and admired writer, suppose the fees imposed by this proclamation could be paid by the good people of this Province with the utmost ease, and that they were the most exactly proportioned to the value of the officer's services; yet, even in such a supposed case, this proclamation ought to be regarded with abhorrence. For who are a free people? Not those over whom government is reason- able and equitably exercised ; but those who live under a government so constitutionally checked and con- trolled, that proper provision is made against its being otherwise exercised. This act of power is founded on the destruction of constitutional security. If the pro- clamation may rightfully regulate the fees, it has a right to fix any quantum. If it has a right to regulate, it has a right to regulate to a million ; for where does its right stop ? At any given point! To attempt to limit the right, after granting it to exist at all, is con- trary to justice. If it has a right to tax us, then,
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whether our money shall continue in our own pockets depends no longer on us, but on the prerogative."
Unavailing were these remonstrances. The views of the Governor remained unchanged. No compromise seemed possible, and the refractory Assembly was pro- rogued according to the order of the crown.
The year 1774 had arrived, and on the 31st day of March was passed in Parliament the Boston Port-Bill, taking from Boston all its privileges as a port of entry and discharge. Aroused by these measures, the Mary- land colonists met in General Convention in the city of Annapolis on the 22nd of June, 1774, the different counties being there represented by their most dis- tinguished men. Thomas Johnson appeared as a deputy from Anne Arundel county. At the meeting of the Convention it was agreed that any divided ques- tion should be settled by vote, each county having one vote, the majority settling the question.
By the 10th resolution, it was resolved, "That Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, Robert Golds- borough, William Paca, and Samuel Chase, Esquires, or any two or more of them, be deputies for this Pro- vince, to attend a general Congress of deputies from the Colonies, at such time and place as may be agreed on, to effect one general plan of conduct, operating on the commercial connection of the Colonies with the mother country, for the relief of Boston and the preservation of American liberty; and that the deputies of this pro- vince immediately correspond with Virginia and Penn- sylvania, and through thein with the other Colonies, to obtain a meeting of the general Congress, and to com- municate, as the opinion of this committee, that the twentieth day of September next will be the most con- venient time for a meeting, which time, to prevent delay, they are directed to propose." 4*
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On the 5th day of September, 1774, assembled the Continental Congress, toward which the gaze of all the Colonies was directed.
On the 2nd of October a resolution was passed by Congress that an address to the crown should be pre- pared. Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Thomas Johnson, and Patrick Henry, were appointed to pre- pare the address.
In the memoirs of Richard Henry Lee, by his grand- son, published in 1825, he mentions in a note referring to this committee Thomas Johnson in the following manner :-
"The author cannot pass the name of this gentle- man without a tribute to his memory, which every virtuous American must delight to bestow. He was one of the ablest men in the old Congress. There did not live in those times which "tried men's souls" a purer patriot or a more efficient citizen. He was Gov- ernor of Maryland during the darkest period of the Revolution. Under his administration, Maryland was distinguished for her devotion to the common cause. On one occasion when General Washington was retreat- ing through the Jerseys, he raised a large body of Maryland militia, and marched at their head to his camp, by whom he was received with the most marked respect. He was under the Federal government a judge of the United States Court. He was frequently in flattering terms invited by General Washington to ac- cept the appointment of Secretary of State. No Roman citizen ever loved his country more. His private virtues entitle him to veneration and love. Thomas Johnson was indeed an honor to the cause of liberty."
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