USA > Maryland > Governors of Maryland : from the Revolution to the year 1908 > Part 6
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Then there was a break of ten years in Bowie's political ser- vice, during which time, however, he filled the post of major of militia and also that of justice of the peace in Prince George's county. When Maryland began to experiment with things democratic, Mr. Bowie was again given a place in the council halls, being in the lower house of the general assembly from 1801 to 1803. During this period Governor Mercer, the first republican state executive, directed the affairs of the commonwealth, and his administration witnessed a breaking away from those old ideas which denied to a man who had not been born in a silk-stocking or fat-pursed family the capacity for thinking or acting upon affairs of government. But the pendulum of public sentiment was not to pause halfway between the extremes of federalism
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and democracy. Mercer was not radical enough for the masses who then, for the first time, were feeling the effects of equality theories which they had freely imbibed until they were in a state of intoxication. Mercer was democratic, but he was not radically democratic, and therefore the people clamored for someone who should stand for radi- calism and Mr. Bowie seemed the man.
On November 17, 1803, the general assembly cast a majority of its votes in favor of Mr. Bowie as successor to Governor Mercer. At this time he was a member of the general assembly, but on the following day he presented his resignation to the house of delegates that he might assume charge of the gubernatorial office. Governor Bowie was reelected for a one year term in 1804 and again in 1805, which made his first administration cover the period from the fall of 1803 to the fall of 1806, the full three years for which he was eligible. The first Bowie administration was noteworthy on account of two national events of moment. The one was the reelection of Thomas Jefferson The other was the beginning of foreign interference with American com- merce. While the European nations had been engaged generally in warring with one another, the maritime inter- ests of the United States had grown considerably, until the new nation came to assume a position of no little impor- tance in the commerce of the world. As soon, however, as England and France laid aside their weapons of war long enough to realize that a commercial competitor had arisen, there was born a determination to crush the shipping industry of the United States by whatever means would produce most quickly the desired results. Thus began the depredations of the mother country upon the commerce of her late colonies, and on this hinged the War of 1812-1815, as well as the bitter conflict to the death between the feder- alists and the republicans. Although the full effect of this
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conflict between the two political bodies that came to pose as the "war party" and the " peace party" was not felt until some years after the close of Bowie's first administration, nevertheless the widening of the gap between these two organizations bore fruit during his initial service as gover- nor in a struggle which resulted in the impeachment of Judge Samuel Chase-as strictly partisan a bit of work as the bringing to trial of Andrew Johnson at the close of the Civil War, and fully as undignified a proceeding.
After his retirement in 1807, Governor Bowie was ap- pointed a justice of the peace. The following year he was named as a member of the levy court of his county, and he was a presidential elector in 1809, for Madison. But it was not until the year 1811-the eve of the second war with England-that he once more came into prominence as the state champion of the republican party of Maryland. The federalists were then fighting bitterly against the advocates of war with England, and the federalists, while not in control of the state affairs, were still a considerable factor in Maryland politics. The party was strong enough to defeat Bowie when he was brought forward as a candi- date for senatorial elector, but the republicans had a strong hand in the general assembly and succeeded, on November II, 18II, in again electing him chief magistrate. At this time there were practically only two political divisions in the state and the distance between the two was vast. The federalists were, with few exceptions, against a declaration of hostilities with England. The republican party, almost unanimously, was for war.
In June, 1812, congress declared war, and the news, · reaching Annapolis, fired the heart of the "war" executive. The Annapolis Gazette of that date records that "the Gov- ernor was so rejoiced when he heard the news that he did not wait for his hat, but proceeded through the streets
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bareheaded to the state house, where he congratulated the leaders upon the welcome news." When the governor of the state could show such uncontrolled enthusiasm, it is not to be wondered at that the less cultured people of the state who were of his own political faith should also have been deeply stirred. Throughout Maryland the supporters of Bowie were aroused to a high pitch of excitement. Unfor- tunately, at this very moment the editor of a Baltimore paper was indiscreet enough to print an article that angered those against whom it was directed. It was a red rag cast before the face of an already maddened bull, and the bull, true to his nature, gored the tormentor. The people of the city turned out and killed a few federalists and beat a few others, and then returned home to gloat over the fact that the nation had actually entered upon a foreign war.
It was this excess of the republicans that did most at that time to take from them their lately acquired power in Maryland affairs. Since the governor was a republican · and the members of the Baltimore mob were republicans, the inference was made that the deeds of violence per- formed were not altogether distasteful to the state's execu- tive. Bowie was requested to apprehend the instigators of the riot, and because he failed the federalists accused him of shielding criminals. Whatever blame was chargeable to Bowie, either for the uprising against the federalists or for the escape of their assailants, he was made to suffer greatly for the affair. The most positive result was the terminating of his political career, for thereafter, although all his energies were concentrated upon a series of endeavors to regain his former hold upon the political machinery of the state, he was not a considerable factor in Maryland. At the close of his term he was succeeded by a federalist, Levin Winder.
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From 1812 until his death Mr. Bowie fought to be returned to the executive chair, and in his endeavors he was ably seconded by the unbroken rank of the republi- can party. In 1813 and again in 1814 he opposed Winder and 1815 and in 1816, he was the republican candidate against Ridgely, federalist, but at all of these elections his followers were unable to count enough ballots to bring him the coveted vindication. In 1817 an effort was made to elect him United States senator, but once more the labors of his followers were futile. He was a man of remark- able determination, as is shown by his unceasing struggle to regain his authority in the state, and he was a man who held unwaveringly the confidence of his fellow-men, as is attested by the continued support of his followers despite re- peated defeats. What his tenacity and the hearty support of his friends might have finally accomplished for Bowie must forever remain an unsolved problem, for in the winter of 1817 he was attacked by pneumonia, which resulted in his death on January 8, 1818.
XII ROBERT WRIGHT
A source of no little bewilderment to the average reader of early national history is the almost endless array of "great" statesmen who then administered the affairs of federal and state governments. Every commonwealth, according to the chroniclers of its early state history, would appear to have contributed an amazingly large quota of masters in the art of statecraft, so that it may seem as if the bulk of genius for statesmanship that has been cultured by American soil was concentrated in the half century begin- ning about 1765. But this apparent disproportionateness between the ratio of "great" statesmen to the population a hundred or more years ago and today does not really extend beneath the surface of things. The reader who follows his- tory as a pastime rather than as a study must keep fully in mind two conditions which have tended to give undue prominence to the labors of the early participants in public affairs in Maryland and the other sections of the United States. The first of these conditions is the result of a practice of American historians in general, which may be regarded as either a crime or a virtue according to the views of the individual, of stressing unduly all early history and slighting indiscriminately all later history. The second condition which has tended to exaggerate the importance of national and state laborers of early years in American affairs is a natural one. The extent of the nation from north to south was almost as great in those years as it is today, while the borders stretched far to the westward. At the same time there had not been introduced any modes
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COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY H. E. BUCHHOLZ.
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ROBERT WRIGHT
of rapid transportation, and, therefore, figuratively speak- ing, the expanse of the United States was greater a century ago than in 1908, for in the mind of the average early citizen Boston was farther removed from Baltimore than is San Francisco today. In addition to this, the land was sparsely populated, and these two natural circumstances were bound to dilate in the eyes of the masses the importance of any residents in their own neighborhood who attained to even a small degree of prominence in strictly local affairs.
Some readjustment of the standards of measurement is essential before approaching the public career of Governor Wright, who succeeded Robert Bowie, so that the true worth of his services to state and nation can be ascertained. Mr. Wright was, first of all, a man free of shams and one who did not indulge in heroics for the applause of the gallery. He was, at the proper time, as much a cavalier as any of his fellow-citizens, and countenanced the meeting of two men upon a field of honor to engage in shooting at one another's anatomy. He was also, at the proper time, as ready as any of his fellow-citizens to engage in popular discussions of the day, but, not altogether in keeping with the majority of his fellows, he made such debate a battle of arguments and well-thought-out conclusions instead of a word-juggling exhibition with flowers of speech and mock sentiments. He was, nevertheless, both a rhetorician and an orator. In brief Mr. Wright possessed to a very considerable degree the qualities of a statesman, though it were wrong to class him as a "great" statesman both for truth's sake and the fact that the term has been so long abused in connection with those not richly endowed, that it means decidedly less than simply statesman.
Robert Wright was the son of Judge Solomon Wright, whose ancestors for several generations back had been prom- inent in the affairs of Queen Anne's county and the Eastern
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Shore of Maryland. Judge Solomon Wright served his county in the Maryland conventions which met during the period from 1771 to the beginning of the Revolution, and was a member of the first court of appeals of the state, and so continued till his death. Robert Wright was born on November 20, 1752. He received his preparatory training at such schools as his native county afforded, while the finish- ing touches to his academic education were obtained at Washington College. Subsequently he studied for the bar, and was about to set up as an attorney in Chestertown when the American colonies took up arms against the mother country. He promptly joined Capt. James Kent's com- pany of Queen Anne's "minute men," and took part in a short campaign against Lord Drummond's legion of tories in Virginia. Subsequently he was commissioned second lieu- tenant in the militia, and later by resolution of congress was made a captain in the Continental army, in which capa- city he served at Brandywine, Paoli, and other battlefields. That his military performances were creditable may be taken for granted, since the later career of the man proved his spirit of thinking no duty too small to be performed well; but had he been dependent upon his military exploits alone for fame, his name would have been honored by no greater recognition, perhaps, than that of being printed upon the carefully guarded and seldom read records of the Con- tinental forces. Although Mr. Wright was not a signal success as a military leader, he had coursing through his veins that old spirit of militarism which fostered the duello. On one occasion he had a disagreement with Edward Lloyd, who in after years became prominent as a legislator and was elected as Wright's successor in the gubernatorial office. The disagreement led to a challenge. In the duel which fol- lowed, neither principal, fortunately, was fatally wounded, but Mr. Wright for some time thereafter limped in public and in private nursed a bullet hole in his toe,
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Governor Wright began his political career early in the eighties. About this time he was married to Miss Sarah De Courcy, the daughter of Col. William De Courcy, a man of prominence in colonial days. From the close of the Revolu- tion up to the first year of the nineteenth century Mr. Wright was several times called upon to serve his county in the general assembly. In accordance with the required qualifications of candidates for the legislature he was presented by his father with 250 acres of land, which remained in his pos- session throughout his lifetime. This, together with some 1750 additional acres of his landed property was skillfully managed by him, for he was a student of agriculture and a breeder of the thoroughbred horse and other animals.
Governor Wright's services as a member of the legisla- ture were sufficiently meritorious to win for him a seat in the senate of the United States in 1801. It was at the time of the republican upheaval, and Mr. Wright won office as one of the forerunners of the great republican party, which in later years was changed in name if not in principle and became the democratic party of the United States. The term for which he was elected senator was for six years, or from 1801 to 1807. It was, however, while serving in the upper house of the national legislature that he was chosen governor of Maryland. This was on November 10, 1806, and he promptly resigned his seat in the senate.
In accepting the gubernatorial office Wright sketched as comprehensively as possible his stand upon great national issues during the years that he had been in congress. "I have most cordially cooperated, " he said, " with a virtuous administration in promoting the best interests of our com- mon country; in repealing such laws as imposed odious and unnecessary taxes on our fellow-citizens; in restoring the national judiciary to the state it had obtained in the time of our Washington; in the purchase of Louisiana, and there-
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fore extending to our western brethren the great advan- tages of the important port of Orleans, and the navigation of the Missouri, with all its tributary streams; in the meas- ures adopted to acquire the Floridas that the American empire might be consolidated and a risk of collisions with a colony of Spain avoided; in the cultivation of the arts of peace with all our foreign relations, with temper and good faith; in an honest neutrality with all the belligerent powers, and in an exact discharge of every duty imposed on us by existing treaties or by the law of nations, and in the laudable attention that has been paid to our native brethren, the savage tribes, in instructing them in the culture of the soil and domestic manufactures, and thereby inducing them to convert their scalping knives into pruning hooks and their tomahawks into implements of husbandry, and both by precepts and examples teaching them to prefer the pacific olive to the bloody laurel."
The affairs of the state executive department were di- rected by Governor Wright for almost three years. He was elected in November, 1806, and reelected in 1807 and 1808. During this period the most important task performed by the executive office was the preparation of the state for the conflict with England, which was then threatened. The governor stood firmly by the administration of President Jefferson, and when the founder of democracy declined to become a candidate for a third term Governor Wright, with other followers of the president, sought to influence him to reconsider the matter. During the third year of Governor Wright's administration a judicial post that he had long coveted became vacant, and in the hope of being elected judge he resigned the governorship. Early in May, 1807, James Butcher issued a proclamation as acting gov- ernor, in which announcement was made of the resignation of Mr. Wright on May 6, and a session of the legislature was
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called for the election of a successor. Governor Wright was entitled to serve until November of the year in which he resigned, but realizing that he would then be ineligible for reelection, and hoping to obtain the desired judgeship, he let go the bird in hand for the two in the bush. But the latter were not captured then, though many years later Mr. Wright was appointed an associate judge in the dis- trict of which his friends had hoped to make him chief judge.
In 1810 Mr. Wright was elected to congress, this time serving in the lower house, where he continued until March 3, 1817. He was again elected in 1820, to the house of rep- resentatives and served for one term of two years. It was then that he finally gained an appointment as judge of the district court for the second judicial district of Maryland, which gave him jurisdiction over Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's and Talbot counties. In this position he continued until his death. Governor Wright was married twice, the second Mrs. Wright having been a Miss Ringgold, of Kent county, by whom he had one child, who was named after Lafayette. Governor Wright died at Blakeford, on September 7, 1826, and was buried at Chestor-on-Wye, a homestead of the De Courcy family from different branches of which came respectively his paternal grandmother and his first wife.
XIII EDWARD LLOYD
For the first thirty years of Maryland's statehood the executive mansion was filled by citizens who had witnessed the American colonies' struggle for independence. These governors had nearly all taken some part in the Revolution. Such men as Johnson, Paca and Lee, had not only followed the rupture between the mother country and the colonies from its beginning, but had also taken part many years be- fore the Revolution, in those contests which presaged serious trouble for England should she persist in ignoring the rights of the colonies. Of course not all of the state governors during these first thirty years had played as large a part in Maryland's last years as a colony as did Johnson, Paca and Lee, but their lives extended well back into colonial times, and they had come to be looked upon by the people as char- ter members of the commonwealth of Maryland. For this reason when the reader turns from the administration of Robert Wright to that of his successor he feels that he has advanced well into the life of the American Republic, and that Maryland in 1809 was no longer in its infancy as a state. Mr. Lloyd, who followed Governor Wright in office, was not a Revolutionary character, for it was not until well into the struggle that he was born. He is, therefore, the initial member of a new class in the gallery of Mary- land governors.
Edward Lloyd-the fifth of that name in Maryland his- tory-was born at Wye House, Talbot county, July 22, 1779. At that time the American Revolution had entered upon its fourth year, while the state government of Mary-
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COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY H. E. BUCHHOLZ.
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land had been in existence for almost as many years and Governor Johnson was bringing to a close the first admin- istration. Although the ancestry of the average man may not be of as much importance as the genealogically inclined would make believe, the family connection of Governor Lloyd is of considerable moment in a study of his public career, since it was, perhaps, due more to the family that he represented than to himself that he was so early in life afforded an opportunity to enter the public service. The father of the governor had been active in Maryland affairs during the years preceding the War of Independence, and was a member of the body which framed for the state its first constitution. The Lloyds were typical of the old southern landed families which during colonial and early state years exerted almost dictatorial authority in the state. The family in intellectual equipment was far above the average and in addition was possessed of the means which gave it, in the regard of the less fortunate citizens, the right to direct.
Edward Lloyd-the governor-was given such early training as could be provided for the sons of the better class of Marylanders. He went to a private school and studied under tutors until he had acquired sufficient knowledge to begin his public career. The real training of the man, however, was gained not at school nor from books, but by coming in contact with thinking men and in pondering over questions of public import. Mr. Lloyd was practically reared in public life. He was sent as a delegate to the state legislature in 1800. At that time he was just twenty-one years of age, or barely within the borders of the constitutional requirements. He served in the house of delegates from 1800 to 1805, and during that period his labors developed his talents and widened his popularity in his own section. His supporters determined to enlarge the scope of his ser-
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vices and he was elected a member of the house of repre- sentatives to fill the unexpired term of Joseph Hopper Nicholson, who had resigned upon being appointed judge of the Maryland courts of appeals. Mr. Lloyd's services in the lower house of the national legislature began in 1806 in the ninth congress. He was reelected a member of the tenth congress, but his congressional career was brought to a close by his election as the successor of Governor Wright, who had resigned the governorship in the hope of being elected chief district judge of Maryland. Governor Wright, gave up his office in May, 1809, and the general assembly, which was convened in extra session to choose a new execu- tive, elected Mr. Lloyd governor on Monday, June 5, 1809. The election was for the unexpired portion of Governor Wright's term-to November, 1809. And Mr. Lloyd was twice reelected for one year terms in November, 1809, and November, 1810.
His occupancy of the gubernatorial office witnessed the repeal of the embargo act, which had been passed while Governor Lloyd was a member of congress. During his administration a notable victory was scored for republican- ism. This triumph was the granting of the elective fran- chise to the people regardless of the question whether or not they were possessed of real estate or personal property to a considerable extent. The free ballot act, which repealed all property qualifications, was confirmed by an act of 1809 -the first year in which Mr. Lloyd was executive of the state. During Governor Lloyd's administration the two leading political parties seem to have been fairly well divided in Maryland. The balance of power-although the republicans had for some time controlled the gubernatorial office-did not seem to remain long with either party, and it was around the beginning of the second decade of the nineteenth century that the federalists regained direction
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