USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 31
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ture of the state of religion, not only in his own parish, but throughout the province. It shows how that owing to the protracted decrepitude of Mr. Manadier, and the humiliating example of Mr. Whittaker certain evils had crept into and gained strength among his people, and that he was called upon to combat, under discouraging circumstances, not only the ordinary depravity of men but also the solicitations of a pleasing and insidious superstition, the vagaries of an enthusiastic pietism, and the suggestions of plausible scepticism. These considerations will probably excuse its insertion here, notwithstanding its length.
MARYLAND, 4th August, 1750.
REVEREND SIR: Your favor of the 31st March, together with a box containing 200 Mr. West's Littleton's Discourses in defence of Chris- tianity, I have received, and am thankful to the new Society for that distinguished mark of their confidence in making me the instrument of distributing those valuable tracts in this province, where, Gods knows, such were greatly wanting. I shall in this, as in all other commands they shall think fit to honor me with, endeavor to acquit myself to the best of my power and the furtherance of their pious intentions.
Infidelity has indeed arrived to an amazing and shocking growth in these parts, and 'tis hard to say whether it is more owing to the ignor- ance of the common people, the fancied knowledge of such as have got a little smattering of learning, or the misconduct of too many of the clergy, especially in this province. Religion among us seems to wear the face of the country; part moderately cultivated, the greater part wild and savage. Where diligent conscientious pastors are seated, there improvement is to be seen, in proportion to their time and labors. Where others are fixed all things appear with a desert aspect, or overrunning with a useless growth of weeds and brush sprung up since the decease of the last laborious husbandman.
Tindal's Christianity &c., has got into most houses where any body reads: but his confused obscurity and the want of learning among the generality of our readers, make him of little more service to the cause, than to possess them with a conceit that there is something very deep in him against revelation, tho' they don't understand him. So that few of our real or would be infidels are able to support even a show of argu- ment. They appear most formidable in the way of ridicule as best suited to their capacities and most taking with the vulgar, in which they receive their main strength from the Independent Whig, a book every where to be met with. But this with Lord Shaftebury's politer way of banter unassisted by the irregularities of the clergy, would be of little force. Here indeed they seem to triumph, and the misbehavior of some weak and (I wish I could not say) scandalous brethren lies open to the eyes and understanding of the meanest and most illiterate, furnishes the evil minded among them with a plausible objection to the truth of Christianity drawn from the open practice of its professed defenders,
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makes others careless about the knowledge or means of religion; leads many of them into corrupt or at least sceptical principles, and leaves some simple and well meaning people a prey to the emissaries of the church of Rome or to the enthusiasm of new-light or other itinerant preachers, who not long ago were very numerous, especially in the parts bordering on Pennsylvania: which multiplies the labors and afflictions of the more regular, honest pastors, who are grieved to see the kingdom of satan and separation from the church thus promoted and their mouths stopped from any reply to such scandalous notorious matters as are every day to be objected from that quarter. In this unhappy province, where we have no ecclesiastical government, where every clergyman may do whatever is right in his own eyes, without fear, or probability of being called to account, and where some of them have got beyond the consideration even of common decency, vice and immor- ality, as well as infidelity must make large advances; and only the ap- pearance of a Bishop or officer armed with proper powers of suspension &c., seems capable of giving a check to their further progress.
Your orders to me have occasioned you a trouble of another sort which Dr. Wilson will communicate to you, and which from the goodness of your heart and sincere desires of promoting the knowledge and fear of God, I doubt not you will readily pardon. So bold an advance from an obscure and unknown person needs great apology. But the sincerity and well meaning of the design must plead in its excuse, for indeed I have no other to offer.10
(Lord Baltimore appoints all the clergy in Maryland, and will not consult either with the Bishop of London or the Society.)
I request the prayers of the Society in my behalf, and particularly recommend myself to your own. That Almighty God may grant a blessing upon all their truly Christian pious endeavors, is the hearty and earnest prayer of, Reverend Sir, your most obedient humble serv- ant and brother in Christ, THOMAS BACON.11
To the Secretary.
If Mr. Bacon was held in "great esteem" by "all the great people from the Governor to the parish clerk," he commended himself to the rever- ence and grateful affection of the lowly, or more properly the lowest. Immediately upon his arrival in Maryland the peculiar structure of society as it existed here, owing to the presence of negro slavery, must have impressed him strongly and not favorably. He was too intelligent not to perceive, and too conscientious not to feel, that other duties than those the parish priest was usually called upon to perform were
10 This doubtless was an appeal for the aid of the Society in the publication of his Sermons to Masters and Mistresses.
11 From the Historical Collections relating to the American Colonial Church, by Will Stevens Perry, vol. iv. Maryland.
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demanded of him. While, therefore, he was bringing into order the affairs of his parish; while he was enlarging his church to accommodate the increased number of people who were glad to attend upon his minis- try; while he was restoring services in places where they had once been heard but were now silent; while he was counteracting the influence of a sceptical literature by the circulating books of Christian apologetics; he was not forgetful of a large class of people who were religiously and intellectually destitute-the negro slaves.12 He himself says in one of his published sermons:
Upon being appointed your minister I began seriously and carefully to examine into the state of religion in the parish, and I found a great many poor negro slaves belonging to Christian masters and mistresses yet living in as profound ignorance of what Christianity really is as if they had remained in the midst of those barbarous and heathen coun-
tries from whence they or their parents were imported.
*
*
*
I began seriously to consider in what manner I could best discharge my duty toward them, and deliver my own soul from the guilt of their blood, lest they should perish through my negligence. My first attempts towards it consisted in occasional conversation and advice, as often as I happened to meet with any of them at my own house, or at a neigh- bor's, or upon the road, &c., and in short familiar exhortations, as oppor- tunity brought a number of them together at any quarter where I visited their sick, or at their funerals or marriages. I then determined to preach to them on particular Sundays and Holy days.
This determination he faithfully carried into execution, of which there remains evidence in two printed sermons preached to "a congregation of black slaves." These sermons are mere draughts or sketches, which were to be enlarged upon and filled out in his public ministrations to these people. He himself says his motive for their publication was that they
might raise a spirit of emulation among his brethren to attempt some- thing in their respective parishes towards bringing home so great a number of wandering souls to Christ.
He further says:
In setting this scheme for the better instruction of the negroes on foot in my parish, I consulted nothing but conscience and had no other
12 In ethical development, as measured by his opinions of the rightfullness of slavery, Mr. Bacon does not appear to have been in advance of his time, for he had no hesitancy about holding slaves. These, or some of them at least, when he removed to Frederick where such property was precarious, he sold to purchasers in this county, as shown by the public records.
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view than the discharge of that duty I so solemnly took upon me at my being admitted to holy orders.
But the services he rendered to this helpless and despised class were not confined to his direct religious instruction of the slaves themselves. He saw that the most effectual and pervasive benefits were to be conferred upon them by those persons with whom they came in daily contact- their masters and their mistresses. He saw, too, that these masters and mistresses held a novel relation to these dependents, such as was unknown in the old christian countries of Europe, and that these rela- tions implied new duties and responsibilities. He therefore addressed himself earnestly to those holding these relations, to awaken in them a sense of their obligations to those over whom they were placed, and a wish to discharge those obligations, where there was no compulsion. Some of his sermons directed to this end, "upon the great and indis- pensable duty of all Christian masters and mistresses to bring up their negro slaves in the knowledge and fear of God" were published in Lon- don, for distribution in America; and they were honored by being placed upon the list of books sent out by the venerable "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." These sermons were subsequently reprinted, in a mutilated form however, in 1817, by the Rev. Dr. William Meade, afterwards Bishop of Virginia.18 These sermons which had for their text,
Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven,
argued affirmatively of the negro's belonging to the human species, and of his having a soul equally capable with that of the white man of salva- tion; that if he held no other relation to the superior race than that of belonging to the common brotherhood of humanity, it would be the duty of all to labor for his conversion and for the good of his soul, but that he is "a part of our families and substance and absolutely under our power
13 The republication of these sermons with certain parts excluded, presents a cu- rious exemplification of that jealousy of discussing matters relating to the amelio- ration of the condition of slaves which existed in a portion of this country, and no where more prevalently than in Talbot, up to the time when slavery ceased to exist : and a further exemplification of the humiliating subservience of many re- ligious teachers to prevailing opinions upon a subject as nearly related to morals as to politics. The wonder is, this deference which ministers were apt to show did not impel Dr. Meade to eliminate the very text of Scripture that formed the motive or theme of these discourses, which of itself was a more severe arraignment of the whole system of slavery than any words Mr. Bacon employed.
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and direction" he has an additional claim, which no one should wish to evade. Dr. Allen in his criticism of these sermons says:
To say that his language is classical yet plain; his thoughts fresh yet clear; his positions sustained ably, conclusively and sometimes eloquent- ly; and that the Gospel is distinctly and faithfully presented; and all with the most intrepid yet affectionate and christian spirit,-is saying only what is true, simply true.
Although Mr. Bacon may have considered it his prime duty to in- culcate upon all, high or low, the observance of the principles and the practices of the church to which he belonged; and however positive he may have been in his opinions of the salutary influence of religion upon the character of the individual and of society he betrayed none of that zealotry which makes a merit of despising human knowledge, and which thus sanctions the sentiment of the sceptical and the cynical, that ignorance is the parent of devotion. The religious destitution of the poor and of the enslaved which he had observed, and which had given him so much concern, when he first arrived in Talbot, was paralleled by the intellectual poverty of the same classes, and this also awakened his solicitude. Having instituted measures for the remedying the first of these evils, as far as in him lay, he, in the year 1750, inaugurated another undertaking for the removal of the latter. This was the establishment or "setting up" of a "Charity Working School" within his parish. A full account of this benevolent work has already been given in these contributions. (See the Easton Star of February 24th and March 2nd, 1880.) In a sermon preached in behalf of this charity, at White Marsh in the parish church, Oct. 14, 1750, he thus speaks of his scheme:
A proposal has been made, and is already considerably advanced, for setting up a Charity Working School in this parish, wherein such a number of poor children are to clothed, fed, lodged and taught as the pious voluntary benefactions of well disposed people will educate and maintain. This being the first attempt of the kind in this province, must needs labour under greater difficulties than any other succeeding ones, as well from a mistaken apprehension of a vast insupportable expence, which has discouraged many from contributing, as from the nature of such schools being hitherto unknown among us. * * The present proposal has, as yet, been carried on only in a private way, and the suc- cess has hitherto far exceeded the hopes of the promoters of it. * You will find that the intent of it is to rescue a number of poor children from ignorance, idleness, vice, immorality and infidelity; and enable them to be more useful to themselves and the community they belong to. Were the advantages to stop here, and to extend no further than
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our own neighborhood, it would be a considerable work; but it may be hoped with great reason that this school once settled ...... will raise a spirit of emulation among the adjacent counties for setting up schools of the like sort among themselves; and thus shall we have the honour and satisfaction of giving a shining example, and to be followed in time by the rest of the inhabitants of this province, to the general good of society, the advancement of God's glory, the maintanence of true reli- gion and the spreading of piety and useful knowledge and industry among the children of the poor, who again will communicate to their children, etc., so the rising generations will have cause to bless us, and late posterity gratefully own, that Talbot county laid the foundation of lasting blessings to the whole province. God only knows the necessity of such a work in this province, where education is hardly to be attained to, at any rate, by the children of the poor-much greater than can be apprehended by the general complaint, or even discovered by the particular inquiry of such as are put upon it by the duties of their station. Many poor white children have I found (I speak from sad experience), and many more undoubtedly there are, as ignorant as the children of the poor benighted negroes. Yet even negroes ought not to be neglected.
The scheme thus set forth and earnestly advocated went into practi- cal operation a few years later, as has been fully stated in the article referred to above, a handsome endowment having been obtained by the indefatigable labors of this friend of universal education. From this school the children of colored people were not to be excluded. While every citizen of Talbot who values free schools should hold him, who established the first within her bounds, in lasting and grateful memory, the people of the African race should, in a special manner, cherish recol- lections of him as the first man, of whom we have any knowledge in this county who strove for their spiritual and their mental advancement.14
In the year 1747 Mr. Bacon removed from Oxford to Dover, on Chop- tank, as has before been noted. His friend, Mr. Callister had also been placed in charge of a factory or store belonging to the Messrs. Cunliffe,
14 Another helpless and destitute class of people, fortunately not a large one, received the compassionate notice of Mr. Bacon. In December, 1755, there arrived five vessels at Annapolis having on board "Neutral French," or Acadians. Of these one vessel was sent up Choptank, and arrived in Oxford on the 8th of the same month. These people fell under the care of Mr. Callister, then residing at this port, who interested himself in providing for their necessities. Mr. Bacon ordered a collection to be taken up in White Marsh Church Dec. 14th, in behalf of these enforced exiles, and it is not improbable he preached a sermon by way of recommending the charity. But his benevolence was not limited to good wishes or good words, for his own contribution was three times as much as that of his whole congregation .- [Scharf's History of Maryland, Vol. 1, p. 476.]
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his "masters" as he calls them, at the Head of Wye, at or near what is now called Wye Landing, but long known as Emerson's Landing. We have a friendly note of Mr. Bacon to Mr. Callister of the year 1748, which indicates his settlement at his new home at Dover. It says:
Dear Harry :- I was not at home when your messenger came or re- turned, else should have performed your commands. This is to summon you and Mrs. Callister to attend, according to promise, at my house warming. Should be glad if Mr. and Mrs. Emerson would bear you company. Yours, T. Bacon. His excellency of Oxford will be here with the facetious and merry magistrate Captain. Fail not to obey this summons, as you will answer the contrary at your peril.15
This cheerful note is quite in contrast with his subsequent communi- cations, when he began to feel the effects of the insalubrious situation which he had selected for his home. What were his motives for a change of residence from Oxford, which even then had a celebrity for healthful- ness, to Dover, which also must have had even then the opposite distinction, it is difficult to determine. His brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, who was in Talbot in 1748, and after forming a copartnership in trade with Mr. James Dickinson, a kinsman, living at Dover, was about to return to London, may have offered inducements to his brother to settle at that point. Or it may have been that Dover was nearer the chapel of ease, where he regularly officiated, while it was as conven- ient as Oxford to the parish church. . But whatever were his motives, he soon had reason to regret his change of place of residence, for being subjected to the malarial influences which infested that region of the county, not only his physical health was impaired but his naturally cheerful mind became clouded with despondency. But here he contin- ued to live, notwithstanding, until he finally removed from the county in 1758, and it was here that he entered upon, and possibly completed, the most important work of his life, the compilation of the Laws of Maryland, of which it is proposed now to give an account.
A mind as active in its energies and generous in its impulses as that of Bacon could not be contented, with the simple duties of a parish priest, nor find sufficient and satisfactory employment in labors, however serv- iceable, which were restricted in their benefits to narrow limits. Nor could the unfavorable circumstances of impaired health, and almost com- plete isolation in a remote and secluded section of an unsettled province,
15 His Excellency of Oxford was probably Mr. Robert Morris. The merry magistrate Captain was certainly Capt. Thomas Porter.
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repress its natural vigor, which sought exercise in the performance of works of a broader utility than were demanded by mere parochial needs. Accordingly we find that he had hardly secured the success of his Charity School, indeed before the school had gone into actual opera- tion, when he projected a work of great and lasting value to the whole province, or it may be said to the whole sisterhood of provinces in Amer- ica. Upon this work, as it was ultimately completed, its original plan having been essentially modified, must rest his title to enduring memory, for in his Laws of Maryland he has erected for himself a monument that shall perpetuate his name while the State shall have existence. The first intimation that has reached the present time of Mr. Bacon's pur- pose to prepare a book of Maryland law, is given in a petition presented to the Talbot county court, at the November term of 1753. The follow- ing is an extract of the records:
Thomas Bacon to the Court here prefers the following petition: To the Worshipful, The Justices of Talbot county :- The petition of Thomas Bacon, Clerk, Rector of St. Peter's parish in this county most humbly sheweth: That your petitioner by approbation of his Excel- lency Horatio Sharpe, Esq., Governor, and thereunto encouraged by several eminent lawyers, and other gentlemen intends to form a com- plete abridgment of all the laws in force in this Province, digested alphabetically under proper heads, in the same manner as he formerly abridged the Laws of the Revenue in Ireland; that the printed copies of the several Acts of Assembly are so scarce, that your petitioner can- not without the assistance of the public procure a perfect collection of them. Your petitioner therefore humbly hopes that as a work of the proposed kind is judged to be of public utility your Worships will be pleased to grant him such recourse to the printed collection of laws, belonging to the county, as may enable him to carry his said undertaking into execution. And he, as in duty bound will pray &c.,
Dec. 10, 1753. THOMAS BACON. Which being read and heard, it is considered by the Court, that the said Thomas Bacon may apply to the Clerk of this County to have recourse to the Acts of Assembly, afor'd and that he shall not remove any of them out of the said Clerk's office.
It would seem that Mr. Bacon entered industriously upon his task and that by the middle of the year 1758 he had completed his work, for in the Maryland Gazette of June 22nd of that year he published the Prospectus or Proposals for the publication of an "Abridgment of the Laws of the Province distributed under alphabetical heads * with references to the Acts at large," which abridgment he speaks of as "compleated." He also proposed in the same advertisement to fur-
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nish to subscribers a "collection of useful precedents." He further says:
The subscriber did apply to the General Assembly, at their last session for encouragement to publish a Body of Laws, by authority, together with an Abridgment thereto annexed, the Charter of the Province, and other useful matters, which being referred to the consideration of a committee was, by a particular accident, necessarily postponed.
He invited subscriptions for the work and gave the names of gentle- men in the several counties who would receive the same-those of Mr. James Dickinson and Mr. William Goldsborough, of Talbot, being among them.
From the foregoing it is plain that the original plan of Mr. Bacon was to form merely an abridgment of the laws, but that he had it in contemplation to extend the scope of his work by giving the entire text of all the statutes that were at that time in force, and to render it still more valuable by other important additions. That such a publication was needed is evident from what he himself says in the preface to the volume as published, namely, that no full edition of the laws had been made since that issued by Parks in 1726, and that
the want of a body of Maryland Laws hath been for many years felt and complained of; and the uncertainty occasioned thereby hath often perplexed magistrates, officers and others, in the exercise of their res- pective duties to the public and themselves. From which period the Laws of each session have been separately published, but no complete collection of them can possibly now be made, most of them being long out of print, and the few remaining in private hands being torn and defaced, the common fate of stitched papers. And hence the difficulties under which many gentlemen labored, of knowing what laws were actual- ly in force, or what alterations might have been in such as did really exist, by explanatory, supplementary or other subsequent Acts.
Having fully determined to print the text of the laws and not the abridgment only, in the year 1759 he again issued proposals for the pub- lication of his work, and solicited subscribers. "These proposals," says Mr. Allen, whom it is necessary here to follow, "met with cold reception." At this time a warm political controversy existed, the parties to which . were the friends of the Lord Proprietary, including his representatives in the provincial government, and a portion of the people who were stigmatized as "patriots." These controlled the lower branch of the Assembly, while the government party controlled the upper. Mr. Bacon was a supporter of the Lord Proprietary and of Governor Sharpe.
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