USA > Maryland > Saint Mary's County > Saint Mary's City > Civil and religious equality : an oration delivered at the fourth commenoration of the landing of the pilgrims at Maryland. > Part 2
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More then two centuries have passed away since the voices of the Pilgrims of Maryland were lifted up from the shore of "old St. Mary's," to celebrate the joyous occasion of the first landing and settlement of the infant colony. The wisdom, justice, moderation, and charity which characterised the colonists of Maryland, in all their intercourse with the savage tribes around them, and the heroism displayed, under privations and amid the trying and perilous scenes
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through which they passed, have not been surpassed by any people of whom history gives us an account, and furnish the occasion of just pride and exulta- tion to the entire people of the State.
A visit at any time to this consecrated spot, where the fathers and founders of the State laid broad and deep the foundations of our government, would be an occasion of the deepest interest ; but at the present time, when the spirit of intolerance and bigotry seem so rife in the land, and when so large a portion of our countrymen seem ready to ignore the very principles and objects for which, under Providence, our Government was established, it is particularly appropriate to recur to these primitive times, and to commemorate an event especially dear to the people of Maryland, and held in grateful remembrance and veneration by all who appreciate the blessings of civil and religious freedom. In the language of a distinguished son and faithful historian of Maryland,* "surely such a birthday of a free people is worthy of commemoration to the latest period of their existence."
I beg you to acquaint the Committee with the cause of my absence, and to thank them for the honor they have done me.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
T. WATKINS LIGON.
To GEORGE S. KING, Esq.,
Secretary of Committee of Arrangements, Leonardtown, St. Mary's county.
The following are letters, among others, received by George S. King, Esq., of Leonardtown, Secretary of the Committee of Arrange- ments of St. Mary's county, from those of the other counties who had been chosen Vice Presidents for the day, and were not able to be present :-
Baltimore, April 27, 1855.
GEORGE S. KING, Esq., Secretary, g.c.
Sir :- I have to thank you for your letter of the 25th inst., informing me of my election as one of the Vice Presidents for the celebration of the Landing of the Maryland Pilgrims, and am deeply indebted to the Committee of Arrange- ments for the honor they have done me. I regard the occasion as one of high and just pride to us as Marylanders, and of profound interest to all who cherish those principles of religious liberty which seem at present to be in temporary eclipse. While, therefore, I fear that imperative professional engagements may render it difficult for me to meet you, I shall certainly do so, if I am able.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. T. WALLIS.
* J. V. L. McMahon.
J
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Snow Hill, May 8, 1855.
Dear Sir :- Your letter announcing my selection as one of the Vice Presidents upon the occasion of the "Celebration of the Landing of the Maryland Pil- grims," to take place on the 15th of May inst., reached me to-day. Few things would give me more pleasure than to be with you. I know I should receive the kindly greetings of many friends, and enjoy a hospitality as cordial as it is un- bounded; but the session of my court commencing upon the same day, will compel me to be absent. I regret this the more, because I think there is more than ordinary reason, at the present time, for recurring to the early history of our State. The mind and heart will both be benefitted by reverting to the com- mon persecution which drove the Massachusetts and the Maryland Pilgrims to seek a home in the Western Continent, the common perils and oppressions which they endured, and their common glorious emancipation.
Hoping that you may be favored in all things which may tend to render your celebration agreeable, and regretting my own inability to attend,
I remain your obedient servant,
. J. R. FRANKLIN. GEORGE S. KING, Secretary.
Elkton, Md., May 2, 1855.
Dear Sir :- I have just received your letter, informing me that the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of the Landing of the Maryland Pilgrims, on the 15th inst., has done me the honor to elect me one of the Vice Presidents for the occasion, and inviting me to attend on that day. It would afford me very great pleasure, I assure you, to unite in commemorating an event which has been followed by so many civil and religious blessings, and in doing honor to the memories of men who, far in the advance of the spirit of the age in which they lived, laid the foundation of a prosperous and happy colony, by granting security to property and liberty of conscience. But I cannot promise to be certainly with you; for even if the Circuit Court, which has been ad- journed to meet on Monday next, should no; remain in session until the 15th inst., I have a particular engagement for that day, which I fear may require my presence elsewhere. I will attend, however, if I can do so without too much in- convenience.
I have the honor to be,
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
GEORGE S. KING, Esq. 2
JOHN C. GROOME.
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Chestertown, May 10, 1855.
Sir :- I acknowledge the receipt of your letter, informing me that I had been elected a Vice President of the meeting to be held on the 15th inst., for the celebration of the Landing of the Maryland Pilgrims. An indisposition of more than a week, from which I am not yet relieved, will excuse this tardy reply.
It will also make it impossible for me to attend on the occasion, which I regard as abounding in historic interest, and in remembrances to which our State pride may justly cling.
Very respectfully. Your obedient servant,
GEORGE S. KING, Esq.
J. A. PEARCE.
Riversdale, May 3d, 1855.
Sir :- Your favor, informing me of my election as a Vice-President for the celebration of the landing of the Maryland Pilgrims, has been received, and I regret extremely that I shall be unable to attend, as it would give me peculiar pleasure to join in any manifestation of respect and veneration for the memory of those who were the first to proclaim religious toleration to all denominations. It would be most fortunate if every citizen of Maryland could be present, and have distilled into him the principles of the good men whom you desire to honor by this celebration, and I should be particularly pleased to be present on this occasion, in order that I might, on the ground first trodden by that Holy Band, enter my protest against the monstrous doctrines and practices of a party which is endeavoring to blot out from the escutcheon of our glorious old State, its brightest ornament. With many thanks to the committee of arrangements for the honor conferred on me,
I have the honor to be, Respectfully, Your obedient servant, CHAS. W. CALVERT.
To GEORGE S. KING, EsQ., Secretary of Committee of Arrangements.
We annex the following letter, received by the Committee of Invita- tion of the Catholic Institute of Baltimore:
May 3d, 1855.
Gentlemen :- Accept my sincere thanks for your kind invitation to be the guest of the members of the Catholic Institute on their excursion to St. Mary's city, to celebrate the landing of the Maryland Pilgrims. My age and infirm health
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put it out of my power to avail myself of the invitation with which you have honored me. I truly regret it, for under a more favorable condition of health and strength, it would have given me real pleasure to accompany the members of the Catholic Institute to a spot, and to celebrate an event, in which I have ever felt the deepest interest.
With great respect, I am gentlemen,
Your obedient servant, R. B. TANEY.
A letter was also received from Gen. Spear Smith, assigning previous engagements as the cause of his non-acceptance of the invitation with which he felt himself highly honored.
Letters were also received from Hon. Judges W. L. Marshall, and W. F. Giles, of Baltimore; Judges P. B. Hopper, of Queen Anne's county ; Judges J. B. Eccleston and Tuck, of the State Court of Appeals ; Hon. Wm. T. Goldsborough, of Dorcester (one of the Vice- Presidents); Hon. J. R. Franklin, of Worcester, ditto; Col. Charles Carroll, of Howard county, ditto; Hon. Edward Lloyd, Speaker of the last Senate of Maryland; and Thomas Swann, Esq., of Baltimore, in acknowledgment of an invitation to attend, but regretting their inability to do so, the Judges on account of court sessions, and the others by business engagements.
The historical ground which formed the site of the old city of St. Mary's, attracted much interest, and the vestiges of that early settle- ment were pointed out to numerous parties of the visitors. The Pro- testant Episcopal Church and graveyard of St. Mary's parish now occupy the headland upon which the town stood, whilst another portion has upon it a seminary which is supported by the State. The church is a plain, square building, and is constructed of bricks taken from the old State House at the time of its removal. The cruciform remains of the foundation of the old State House are still to be seen not far from the church. Near the river there is shown a mammoth mulberry-tree, which its size and appearance attest that it has flourished there for centuries, and under which, tradition says, Lord Baltimore concluded his equitable treaty with the Indian tribes who then inhabited this region of country. The trunk of this tree cannot be less than thirty feet in circumference. With the exception of one branch, which still gives evidence of vigorous life, the old veteran of the forest appears to
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be rapidly going to decay, whilst a creeping oak has forced its way up through its trunk, and waves in green luxuriance over it. In a field some distance from the landing, are the remains of the vaults of the first Governor's house, the masonry of which is still in an excellent state of preservation.
At five o'clock, the visiters again re-assembled on board their respec- tive boats, and, amidst parting cheers, the music of the bands, and the roar of a salute of thirteen guns from the Baltimore boat, bid farewell to St. Mary's.
Returning to the Potomac, the excursionists in a short time were landed at Piney Point, where the Washington visitors designed remain- ing over night, the Baltimoreans only intending to stop for a few hours. After spending some time, enjoying the promenade, listening to the music of the bands, and joining in the ball that was in animated pro- gress, the Baltimoreans at ten o'clock returned to their boat, and at six o'clock next morning were landed at Baltimore, the Georgia having made the trip of one hundred and thirty miles in eight hours."
Thus closed the united celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims of Maryland. Those who lingered a few moments upon the broad plain upon which was to be built the city of St. Mary's, and looked down upon the beautiful river, enjoyed a sight rarely exhibited in this country. The wide expanse of water, above and below, was crowded with steamers, sailing vessels, and boats, all filled with joyous beings, returning from the out-of-door celebration, and many of them to contri- bute to and share in the in-door gaiety which was to close the festivities of the day. Few scenes exceed in beauty that which meets the eye from this eminence. It is a continual testimony of the taste of the Pilgrims : it is an ample reward to the man of taste, who might travel days to see it. But seen as it was then, in the beautiful light of a declining sun, and in the exercise of the most delightful feelings of the human heart, -joy in the association of the joyful, newly-awakened pride in the honor of ancestry, and gratitude to God for his abundance of favors, favors renewed in their remembrance,-it wanted no roseate hue like that of Naples, to give it beauty, nor mouldering palaces like that of Bæia, to give it interest. It was lovely in itself, and rich in all the re- miniscences which give pride to patriotism and confidence to religion.
ORATION,
BY HON. JOSEPH R. CHANDLER.
THE desire to make a commemoration of distinguished favors, is among the best impulses of the human heart. The gratifica- tion of the desire has marked domestic, social and even national movements in all ages, and has had for its sanction not only the spirit of purest gratitude for the benefits of the past, but a hope of connecting the favors, and the spirit they suggest with the experience of the future.
"Gratitude," says a French satirist, "is a strong sense of favors to come," and the apothegm conveys more of truth than at first blush it seems to imply; and, correctly received, it has less that is offensive than at first strikes the ear, or perhaps was intended by the author.
Nothing merely present deeply concerns a human being. His nature, his instincts, his impulses, lead him to look away from the present and connect himself with the realities of the past, to strengthen his hopes and his enjoyments of the future. This is no accident of position, it is the gift of God. "He made us with such large discourse looking before and after."
Scarcely a festival, domestic or national, among the Hebrews was unconnected with the past. Gratitude for special providen- ces, or sorrows for peculiar offences were the motives of the feasts and fasts of the chosen people; and the sanctity of the weekly Sabbath was commemorative of the rest of the Most High .- Their passovers preserved the recollection of the sparing mercies of God towards the male born of their tribes in Egypt, and their Purim kept bright the remembrances of salvation from the destructive edict of the Assyrian monarch.
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Year by year pagan nations, pagan municipalities, and pagan individuals, made memorial of important events. Marathon, Leuctra, Thermopola, were remembered, and the obligations of the present and hopes of the future were connected with the illustrious past It was the great work of the orator and the poet to pour the lustre of eloquence and song upon the loftiest deeds of the departed, and it was the delight and honor of an admiring people, to mark the names of the mighty dead, as they left the shadows of the past, to grow lustrous in the praise and gratitude of the present. As the summit peaks of the mountains are kept visible and beautiful by the posthumous rays of that sun which has gone to enlighten other worlds.
But I have said that gratitude for the past connects itself with the enjoyments of the present and the hopes of the future. No event deserves special commemoration that does not appeal to the present for evils avoided or benefits procured ; and that anni- versary which is not sanctified by a commemoration of what belongs to the present, and relates to the future is unworthy.of general or individual observance.
We commemorate to day the landing in 1634 of the emigrants from Great Britain on the very spot on which we stand. Their advent has been deemed of consequence sufficient for special memorial. In these times, every day brings to our coast more than a thousand European emigrants, who are crowding our cities, peopling our plains, felling our forests, swelling our com- merce and augmenting our national resources and national im- portance. Let the future commemorate the benefits which they shall have derived from these their ancestors. But to-day the shadows of the past are entered, and the arrival of only two ship loads of human beings is selected for a commemoration in which science and the arts, patriotism and religion are deemed to have an interest. What claim have the immigration and colonization of Calvert and his followers upon our gratitude for a commemo- ration ? Is it that we have descended from the stock of those educated, high minded and generous emigrants, and would do
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honor to the families of which we are a part ?. Probably not half of this assembly can trace their ancestral line to any of that company. Is it that those Pilgrims fled away from religious persecution at home and thus became confessors in the cause of Christian truth ? Why, almost every one of the original colonies of this country owes its foundation to the same spirit of religious intolerance on one side, and religious independence on the other. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania present strong instances of attachment to creeds and of sacrifices for their free enjoyment. Is it that they, who fled from intolerance at home and sought religious liberty here, were of our own creed, and thus appeal to our denominational sympathies for grateful remem- brance and ceremonious commemoration. We may safely say, as members of that church of which these immigrants formed a part, that mere endurance of persecution for conscience sake, is too general for special commemoration ; and the bare profes- sion of Catholicity is no enforcement of an appeal for perpetual distinction.
Religion-Christianity-is a personal concern with each individual, and man adopts and practices it for his own salvation. He endures the present for the sake of its effect on his own future, and he may abide amidst the embarrassments and fears of legal persecution in a belief that it is more endurable than the perils of removal. Or he may hasten to hide himself away from the storm in the hope of reaching and enjoying the sun- shine and calm of a situation that is exempted from those annoy- ances.
Does he confess or does he apostatise amid antagonistic influ- ences, his confession or his apostacy is his own, and the greatest consequences are his. Thousands, amid the terror of carly pagan persecution, gave fortune and life for the faith they pro- fessed, and many shrunk from the anguish of the torture and the terrors of the amphitheatre. Neither party from the simple act appeals to us for commemoration of its proceedings. The strength of faith and the hope of immortal salvation were the
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prevailing motives, with one portion ; and weakness, that made the present hide the mighty future, prevailed with the other. In both cases personal feelings and views, attachments to the present or trust in the future, merely individual considerations, predominated, and if unconnected with subsequent events, by indirect influence, none of those martyrs or apostates have a claim upon consideration beyond their bare connection with the history of the times of which they constitute a part.
And considered only as of and for themselves, the pilgrims of St. Mary's, though demanding our admiration for purity of character, loftiness of purpose, and clear, well defined sense of justice in their aims ; yet considered as only for themselves and their own times, these pilgrims entitled themselves to no special commemoration, and they established as certainly they pre- ferred, no claim upon the gratitude of succeeding ages. The past and the present must be concerned to give character or effect to a public celebration.
Who does not feel that the great current of human events gives to the latter the influence and character of the former ages, and the present catches and displays the characteristics of the past, as the lower waters of the Mississippi owe a portion of their quality and their depth to the sources and the streams above.
The claim of the past upon the present is then founded upon the beneficial influence of the former on the latter ; and the pro- priety and importance of the celebration, this day, are referable to what the celebrants most value in what the celebrated in- tended and performed.
It will be my aim, on the present occasion, to invite and lead you to a consideration of certain important and distinguishing characteristics in the early movements of the colony of Mary- land; and I shall, perhaps incidentally institute a comparison of the conduct, laws and customs of some of the other colonies with those of Lord Baltimore, especially with regard to the influence of creed upon the pursuits of the colonists, of the effect of that creed upon their treatment of the aboriginal inhabitants, the
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owners and occupants of the soil which the colonists desired to possess, and, above all, because connected with the motives which influenced their emigration from Europe, the effect of that creed on the regulations and enactments of the executive and legislative bodies of those colonists, with regard to the freedom of worship by different denominations and the entire political and social equality of men of different religious creeds.
I shall endeavor, also, to institute an inquiry as to the connec- tion between the character of our present form of national government, its exclusion and protections, and the plans and objects of those who were the founders of the colony whence sprung the State of Maryland.
As patriots loving our country above all countries ; as philan- thropists feeling for man in every relation of life, and respecting the rights of man, however they may be exposed to injury and neglect ; as Christians believing in the doctrines and loving the example of the founder of our creed, and as Catholics interested in all that concerns the history of our church, and all that illus- trates its graces and its influences, the inquiry is one of deep concern, and we have only to lament that the time and the pecu- liarity of the celebration allow only a hasty reference to the great and the most salient points of consideration, and compel us to refer to future celebrations and more accomplished orators the completion of a task that as much concerns the future as the present ; a task always growing.
Who shall record the whole glories, the sufferings and triumphs of the Church of Christ ? Who shall make mention of the ex- perience of its members, which is that Church's history here, its glories and its merits hereafter ? Who shall declare all the pro- gress of that religion which, rising on imperial pagan Rome, sustained the shock of its public contempt and the terrible inflic- tion of its hatred-tamed the wild beasts of the amphitheatre- shamed the persecutors till it poured its influence over their hearts -- moulded them to Christian graces, and prepared them for those high responsibilities as Christians which they might not
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have incurred as heathens ;- responsibilities that brought down the pagan hordes upon the mistress of the conquered world, and gave her to desolation and ruin ;- that religion which paused in awe amid the inflictions which a just God had sent, and while the infidel victor was filling the palaces of the Cæsars, or stalking among the ruins of pagan pride and Christian ingenuity, con- quered the conqueror, and led captivity captive, sending back the ruthless invaders, missionaries of Christian truth and Chris- tian peace. This is a theme that demands the inspiration of poetry to begin on earth, and which the redeemed will perpetuate in heaven.
The course which I am about to pursue, though it will not admit, and I hope will not be regarded as requiring much atten- tion to order, is favorable to a candid investigation of the subject, inasmuch as it calls for a judgment upon the character and motives of a people-a judgment to be founded upon their earli- est public acts, with regard to others, and especially their legis- lation for themselves, and for those who might come into connection with them by commerce, war, social intercourse, or political relations.
The history of the planting of the colony of Maryland, is within the reach of all; its events must be so familiar to most of you, that I shall not occupy my time with even such an abstract thereof as would, under ordinary circumstances, be deemed ne- cessary to a proper understanding of the course of the argument. I shall suppose you familiar with the record, and hence I shall rarely quote, except in support of a direct assertion.
The philosophical historian, or -the careful observer of events in nations, must be often struck with the fidelity with which the early laws of a people become the exponents of their views and feelings. Those laws originate rather in their authors' general train of thought, than in any particular circumstances or require- ments of the people. They are often made to prevent difficulties of which the anticipation is due rather to the habits of people's minds, than to events that really occur ; or if they are suggested
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by errors or wants at home, those errors or wants spring natu- rally from the mode of thinking common to the people.
Later laws are made to suit a state of society that is conse- quent upon enlarged intercourse, rival efforts, and emulous minds. They prevent or correct evils that could scarcely have come from the simplicity of early associations, and present less the real state of a community than a portion of the inconve- niences and evils to which that community has been exposed by age and enlarged association. These later laws denote the extent of trade, the change of manners, and the necessities of a mixed community. They seem to be a sort of estimate of what good qualities a people ought to have, by providing punishment for the evil qualities which they exhibit ; while the earlier enact- ments speak the general feelings and wishes, and denote the exact state of the community. The enactments of older society show what effect vice or error has had upon the general morals, while the laws of a young community bear testimony to the influences of the religious creed. The late enactments show the deficiency of the moral code; the former the suggestions of the religious sentiment.
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