USA > Maryland > Chronicles of colonial Maryland, with illustrations > Part 27
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Maryland, now assured of the strength of her position and the success of her contention and that the great domain of the Northwest would become the commonwealth of the Confed- erated States, on the first of March following signed the Arti- cles of Confederation, and thus completed the circle within which was formed the union of the states. The delegates to the Continental Congress from Maryland during this eventful period were, John Hanson, George Plater, William Paca, Sam-
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uel Chase, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Wil- liam Carmichael, James Forbes, Daniel Carroll, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Benjamin Rumsey and Robert Alexander.
It has been naively suggested that it was not really the Maryland policy that ultimately prevailed in obtaining the Northwest territory for the new Confederation, but that it was the result of plans formulated by the Continental Congress.1 The truth, if it must be revealed, is that the Continental Con- gress did not, directly or indirectly, make a single movement or even a suggestion, as far as its records disclose, on the subject of the Northwest territory until the 6th of September, 1780, when a general land cession was recommended. But this was seven months after New York, convinced that Mary- land's course was right and would inevitably prevail, surren- dered her claim and thus through the strength of her position and the force of her example had virtually settled the question. The motive which prompted New York, as alleged by her General Assembly in yielding to the demands of Maryland, was to "facilitate the completion of the Articles of Confedera- tion", and as Maryland was the only state whose assent it was necessary to obtain in order to accomplish that end, and as the surrender of the western lands by the claimant states was a condition precedent to the obtaining of her consent, as she had so long and vigorously asserted, it necessarily followed that it was the Maryland policy and not that of Congress that brought it about. Both the Maryland resolution of 1777 and the Maryland instructions of 1778 boldly asserted title to the Northwest territory in the new Confederation, and they both demanded that it be nationalized, but to do so, control of it must first be obtained as against the claimant states, and it was to get this control that Maryland directed her efforts and bent her energies in prevailing upon the states in control to surrender it.
The importance of this action of Maryland in thus obtain- ing for the new Confederation this vast domain of country can
1 Notably by Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, in his work The Old North West, Page 198.
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not be measured alone by its commercial value, or even by its economic bearing upon industrial development. True it is, its great commercial value should not be lost sight of for it was a magnificent empire within itself. It contained 265,878 square miles of territory or 170,000,000 acres-a larger area of land than that of the entire German Empire, or the Republic of France. It was regarded even as early as the American Revolution as being fully adequate in value to the total cost of that war. Of it commercially, it has been well said, "Tri- angular in form, its sides are washed by about 3,000 miles of navigable water, the great lakes, one of which reaches its very center, contains nearly one half of the fresh water of the globe. The volume of the waters of the Mississippi is equal to that of three Ganges, of nine Rhones, twenty seven Seines, eighty Ti- bers, or of all the rivers of Europe exclusive of the Volga. The Ohio, 1,000 miles in length, is one of the largest affluents of the Mississippi. The rivers flowing to these three water ways render every part of the interior of the Northwest easily accessible ; and some of them, as the Wabash, Illinois and the Wisconsin, are small streams only because they appear in such noble company.1
Such are the exceptional resources enjoyed by the splendid domain, which through the influence of Maryland passed to the new Confederation and out of which has since been carved the states of. Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and the greater part of Minnesota, that important galaxy in the sisterhood of American commonwealths.
One of the first things which it accomplished was to avert that fearful inequality both in territory and in resources be- tween the claimant and the non-claimant states, and which as plainly pointed out by Maryland, would mean inevitably that the smaller states would not only be drained of their popula- tion and their wealth, but would so far sink in importance in the scale of the confederacy as to leave them absolutely under the domination and at the mercy of the larger states.
But the higher and greater importance of this acquisition lay in the fact that it led directly to the formation of the Fed-
1 Hinsdale, p. 270.
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eral Union, furnished the foundation for a constitutional gov- ernment and thus became the key stone in the great archway of the American Republic.
Upon the acquisition of this national commonwealth-the domain in which all of the thirteen states had a common in- terest-it became necessary that a territorial government be promptly provided for it. This was done by the ordinance of 1786, and as amended and strengthened by that of 1787, by which the territory was brought under the immediate jur- isdiction and control of the Confederation. This was the first time the United States had ever exercised the right of sovereignty in the form of eminent domain. It was, indeed, the first subject matter it ever had the right to exercise it upon, for it had no such power over the Confederated States and the western territory was the only domain it owned. It was this question of national jurisdiction-this right of eminent domain-as the basis of national sovereignty for which Mary- land made her determined and successful fight. But for this, the struggle might have been a much shorter and easier one, for while Maryland was the only state that voted for her resolution when it was first introduced in the Continental Con- gress, Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island were soon ready to support it, except upon the question of national juris- diction. Those states, particularly New Jersey and Rhode Island, wanted the territory vested in the new Confederation, but they urged that jurisdiction over it be exercised by the respective states ceding it. The significance of Maryland's position becomes more apparent as its results are more closely followed out. Now that the new Confederation had a common- wealth-a folk land or territory belonging to the whole com- munity-Washington was impressed with the extreme impor- tance of establishing domestic and commercial relations with it. The East and the West he says, "must be cemented together by interests in common, otherwise they will break asunder. Without commercial intercourse, they will cease to understand each other and will thus be ripe for disagreement. It is easy for mental habits as well as merchandise to glide down stream,
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and the connection of the settlers beyond the mountains would all center in New Orleans, which is in the hands of a foreign and hostile power. No one can tell what complications may arise from this. Let us bind these people to us by a chain that can never be broken", and to that end he at once began to bend his energies.
It should at this point be remembered, that the Articles of Confederation had been proven ineffective and utterly inad- equate, with the result that the states were rapidly drifting apart. Formulated amid the vicissitudes and excitement of war, they did not as a constitution measure up to a high state of efficiency, however strong as a bond for mutual defense of the states against internal or external invasion. Under them the Con- federation had no power to levy taxes, lay customs or duties on imports, or indeed raise money in any way, except by requi- sition upon the states and which it had no power whatever to enforce.s. It had no power to regulate commerce between the states and as a consequence, the states, in attempting to regulate it as between themselves, had been so influenced by selfish and petty local interests and so actuated by the spirit of retaliation as to bring about a state of commercial distress almost bordering upon anarchy. Worst of all, these and many other of its elements of inherent weakness could not be reme- died by amendment, except by the unanimous consent of the thirteen Confederated states, which, of course, was a practical impossibility, with the aversion on the part of the states at that early date, to delegate powers.
Such were some of the conditions existing at the time Washington assumed the task of providing a means of bind- ing together "by a chain that can never be broken" the old states of the East and new commonwealth of the West. The plan he worked out was to extend the navigation of the Potomac far enough to make the East and the West more easily accessible. To do this it was necessary for Maryland and Virginia to co-operate in the movement. He suggested that commissioners from the two states be ap- pointed to meet in Alexandria. Early in 1785 this was done, though the meeting seems to have been at Mount Vernon
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rather than in Alexandria. During the conference Washington suggested that, in addition to considering a waterway or a roadway between the East and the West, the two states also agree upon a system of commercial relations between them and which Congress had no power to regulate. The result of this conference was referred to the Legislature of the two states and was duly ratified. Maryland in communicating her action to Virginia, suggested that, as the scheme of navigation "con- template connecting the headwaters of the Potomac with the waters of the Ohio", it would be necessary to bring Pennsyl- vania into the Conference, and as a canal should be built to connect the Chesapeake with the Delaware Bay, the state of Delaware should also be invited. And if, in addition to the question of "navigation", that of commerce between some of the states was to be considered, why not invite all of the thir- teen states into a joint conference and take up as well the ques- tion of a uniform system of imports and duties. Virginia at once responded by passing a resolution that commissioners from all the states be appointed for this meeting, to discuss "the best method of securing a uniform treatment of commercial questions". The invitation was issued by the Governor of Vir- ginia to meet on the first Monday of September, 1786, at the city of Annapolis. Curious as it may seem, when it was time for the conference to be held, it was found that Maryland had neglected to appoint her commissioners, as had Georgia, South Carolina and Connecticut, and those appointed from Massachu- setts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and North Carolina did not attend. Representatives from Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York only were present and with but five states to discuss the questions, it was deemed best to defer action upon them and call another meeting. They accordingly adopted a resolution to be sent to all the states urging that com- missioners be appointed to meet in Philadelphia on the second Monday of May, 1787, to "devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union". Virginia took the initiative step and appointed among her delegates to the convention, George Washington, which
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gave immediate impetus to the movement. When the second Monday of May, 1787, took its position in the calendar of time, the delegates from all the thirteen states (except Rhode Island) were at their posts and prepared to set aside the old Articles of Confederation, no longer of force and value, and to formu- late in its stead, what has been aptly described as "The most wonderful work ever struck off in a given time by the brain and purpose of man"-the American Constitution. Big oaks from little acorns grow, and thus it was. At first it was only a meeting of commissioners from two states to discuss the navigation of the upper Potomac and its connection with the Ohio, as a means of cementing more closely the East and the West. This led to a discussion as to better commercial rela- tions between states, and later to the suggestion that a uniform system be also considered and that all the states be invited to send commissioners to the Annapolis meeting, and the latter resulting in a call for another convention to discuss these and other matters important to and bearing upon the public interest, and which proved to be that powerful assem- bly of constructive statesmen-the Federal Convention of 1787.
It is not intimated that Maryland foresaw the Federal Constitution as one of the far-reaching results of her policy upon the land question. Such colossal monuments to the power and wisdom of statesmanship are usually the result of gradual development, and while the convention of 1787 stands in bold relief as an exception to this rule, it is nowhere in evidence that such a masterpiece of constructive workmanship in state craft was contemplated by Maryland even on the date of the convening of the convention. But the fact remains, that it was Maryland that first suggested national control of and national sovereignty over the Northwest territory and that it was her persistent and unfailing efforts that brought it to the Confederation : that the Federal Convention was the direct outgrowth of the plans of Washington to bind by a "chain that can never be broken" that commonwealth to the union to which it belonged, and that thus it became the keystone in the great archway of the American Constitutional Government.
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It was the first commonwealth which came to the union of states; it was the basis for the first exercise by that union of states of national sovereignty, in the form of eminent domain and its industrial development and the desire to irrevocably cement it to that union of states, furnished the reasons for the first steps which led to the Federal Convention, and the dis- tinction for preparing the way for it, belongs to Maryland, and to Maryland alone.
Authorities : Journals of Continental Congress; Acts of Maryland Legislature; Washington Crawford Letters; Herbert B. Adams' Mary- land's Influence in founding the National Commonwealth; John Fiske's The Critical Period.
CHAPTER XV
Chronicles of Saint Mary's County
AS the oldest County organization in the State; as the place
of first landing of the Maryland Colony; as the seat of Maryland's first provincial capital; as the theatre of her infant struggles, and the cradle of her civil and religious liberty. the colonial history of Saint Mary's County is vested with peculiar interest and special inspiration.
That the colonists landed there amid enthusiastic admira- tion of that section of the country, may well be understood, for it presented to them a profile of forest and plain, of hill and dale, traversed by bold, deep and picturesque rivers, bays and tide water tributaries, with high rugged banks and gently slop- ing shores, combining a variety and richness of scenery, prob- ably the finest in Maryland and perhaps nowhere surpassed.
It was not, however, the fact alone that Saint Mary's was thus "graced by the natural beauties of God's own handi- work", which gave it the distinction of having been selected as the seat of the Maryland settlement but it was due also to its superior commercial position, connected as it is by the noble Chesapeake, the broad Potomac and the majestic Patuxent with so large an area of inland country, and by the same waters with the world which lay beyond the ocean.
The Chesapeake bay and its tributaries gave to the people of tide-water Maryland, it has been well said by an eminent historian,1 "a facility of communication with one another and with the outside world not possessed by any other colony on the continent * * The bay was to the early colonists of Mary- land, much more than the railroad is to the present settler in the western wilderness; and from the first they regarded it as
1 Scharf, 2, pp. 2, 3, 4.
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the most valuable private possession of the Province. They traded and travelled on it, fought and frolicked on it, and its inlets and estuaries were so numerous and so accommodating, that nearly every planter had navigable salt water within a rifle's shot of his front door * * In the colonial times, the planter had the still further advantage that the ships that brought out his supplies from Bristol and London, and took his tobacco in exchange, anchored, so to speak, within sight of his tobacco-houses, and the same barges and lighters which carried his tobacco hogsheads to the ship, returned freighted with his groceries and osnaburgs, with the things which were needed to supply his cellar and pantry, and his wife's kitchen and work basket. It was this free, open, safe and pleasant navigation of the Chesapeake and its many inlets, which not only gave to the people a freedom and facility of intercourse not enjoyed by any other agricultural community, but shaped their manners and regulated their customs to an extent which it is difficult to exaggerate".
They furnished too the means of a luxurious and indepen- dent living, and one, which to all was "as free as grace", for they were alive with innumerable water-fowl and shell fish. "Every point that jutted out was an oyster bar, where the most delicious bivalves known to the epicure might be had for the taking. Every cove and every mat of seaweed in all the channels abounded in crabs, which shedding five months in every year, yielded the delicate soft crab, and at any point on salt water, it was only necessary to dig along shore in order to bring forth as many soft shell clams, as one needed. They abounded also "in an almost incalculable number and variety of water fowl, from the lordly swan and the heavy goose to the wee fat dipper". While there is "no evidence earlier than the beginning of the present century that the diamond-back terrapin was appreciated, the more famous canvas-back duck certainly was known, and its qualities appreciated at a much earlier date". They were filled too with the finny denizens "and these, as was the case with both the flora and farma ot the State generally, embraced northern and southern species
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at once. The bass and the blue fish did not exclude the pom- pano and the bonito; the shad and the sturgeon on their journey to fresh water, met the cat-fish and the perch ; and the cost of a weir, or the trouble of staking out a net, was repaid to planters all the year round in a full supply of the most delicate sorts of table fish".1
It was this land of rich topography, delightful streams, and hospitable estuaries, that the Maryland colony selected, as the place of "peace and hope", where "conscience might find breathing room", and where the foundations of a con- monwealth might be securely laid.
The name first bestowed upon the territory which Gover- nor Calvert purchased of the Yaocomico Indians, (for the details of which see chapter on The Landing), and which, for several years constituted the whole district settled by the, Maryland Colonists, was called "Augusta Carolina""-a name presumably given in honor of King Charles.3
The district was thirty miles long, and was embraced within the present limits of Saint Mary's County. It did not however, long retain that name, though just when, or by what authority it was changed, the records do not show. As late as September, 1635, it was still called "Augusta Carolina"," but in January, 1637, the same territory was officially denom- inated "Saint Maries County"," the name it, with additional domain, has ever since retained.
For sixteen years after the colonization of Maryland, there were but two civil divisions in the Province-Kent and Saint Mary's-the former embracing the entire settlement on the Eastern, and the latter, the entire settlement on the Western Shore. These limits were not curtailed until April, 1650, when Anne Arundel County-"all that part of the Province over against the Isle of Kent"-was enacted."
1 Ibid.
2 Relatio Itineris.
3 It was Baltimore's desire to call Maryland Carolina, but was prevented by the fact, that the territory lying south of Virginia, had in 1629, been patented to Sir Robert Heath under that name.
4 Ibid. 5 Will of Wm. Smith, 1635.
6 Archives (Pro. Cl. 1637) 61. 7 McMahon 80; old Kent, Act, 1650.
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In November of the same year, another County was formed out of Saint Mary's, with the following bounds: "beginning at Susquehannah Point (near the mouth of the Patuxent) and extending from thence southward into the middle of the woods towards Saint Mary's (City) ; thence westward along the middle of the woods, between the Patuxent and Potomac Rivers, (near the Three Notched Road), as far up as Mata- pania (creek) toward the head of the Patuxent, and from thence eastward along the river side to said Susquehannah Point". It was called Charles County, and Robert Brooke, Esq., of "De La Brooke", was made its commander.1
In September 1653, however, Robert Brooke, having actively associated himself with the Cromwell Party in Mary- land, as against the Proprietary, serving in the capacity of President of its Council and State, and thus, as acting Gover- nor of the Province, was deposed by Baltimore as Commander of this County,2 and soon thereafter, the order under which the County had been erected, was also annulled. The latter Act, was by order of Governor Stone and the Council, dated . July, 1654, and, while making void the order under which Charles County had been formed, provided also that a new County should be erected in its stead, embracing all of the former County with additional territory.
It was called Calvert County, and lay on both sides of the Patuxent, that part on the north side of the river being sepa- rated from Anne Arundel by a line from "Herring Creek" to the "head of the Patuxent", and the part on the south side of the river being separated from Saint Mary's by "Pyne Hill River or Creek to the head thereof, and from thence through the woods to the head of the Patuxent", which says the order constitute the northerly bound of Saint Mary's County.ยช
"Pyne Hill River or Creek", which thus partly separated Saint Mary's and Calvert, and which continued such dividing line for nearly half a century, empties into the Chesapeake Bay about three miles below "Cedar Point", its source or head
1 Archives (Pro. Cl. 1650) 260.
2 Bozman, pp. 442, 499. 3 Archives (Pro. Cl. 1654) p. 308.
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being westerly, and near Jarboesville on the Three Notched Road. It is no longer navigable, and though it retained for many years its original name, it has long since lost its identity as a river, and is now known as "Mill Run" except at its mouth, when it bears the name of Piney Creek".1
The question of the location of this stream has been one upon which historians have bestowed no little labor and in- dulged in much speculation, among them the careful and pains- taking Bozman, who, owing to the change in its name as well as in its character, was unable to locate it, and suggested that the "Pyne Hill River" referred to in the order of July, 1654, was Piney Creek which empties into the Eastern Branch of the Potomac, near Washington City - a physical impossibility, apart from the fact that the records clearly indicate that the Eastern Branch had not at that early day been explored, and hence that its tributaries had not been named.
In October, 1654, the name of Calvert was changed by Cromwell's Commissioners to Patuxent County, which it con- tinued to bear until 1658, when Baltimore's government was re-established, and its former name restored.2
In October, 1658, another County was carved out of Saint Mary's. It was called Charles (still so known), and was embraced within the following indefinite bounds: "the river Wicomico to its head, and from the mouth of that river up the Potomac as high as the settlements extends, and thence to the head of Wicomico".3
This limited Saint Mary's County to the territory lying between the Chesapeake Bay and the Calvert line on the one side, and the Potomac and Wicomico Rivers on the other, and extending from Point Lookout up the country indefinitely, except that which was embraced within the limits of Charles,
1 See Patents for "Smith's Discovery" to Richard Smith, March 9, 1705. This tract of land borders on the stream referred to in the text (Mill Run), and which is designated in the patent, as "the main branch of Pine Hill River or Creek."
2 McMahon, p. 86.
3 Liber, P. C. R. pp. 52, 54, Maryland Historical Society. Scharf, 2, p. 271; McMahon, 87.
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