USA > Maryland > Studies in the civil, social and ecclesiastical history of early Maryland; lectures delivered to the young men of the Agricultural College of Maryland > Part 14
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Nor did they have much more faith in attorneys than they had in the parties in a suit or in the jurymen. As
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the whole administration of justice was in Lord Bal- timore's hands in virtue of his patent, we are not so sure as to their faith in his judges, for all such were appointed by him. In respect to the attorneys, they expressed themselves freely. In 1669, incident to the impeachment of a lawyer for receiving a fee for furthering the cause of the plaintiff till he had recovered his property, and then receiving a further fee from the defendant to replevin the same, a joint committee was appointed by a con- ference of the two houses of the Assembly to report on the grievances of the colony, the fourth clause of which was " that the privileged attorneys are one of the grand grievances of the country."
Nor was this only a spasmodic burst. Five years after an act was passed by the Assembly, in which it was declared that many of the good people of this province are much burthened and their causes much delayed by the abuse of persons practising as attorneys and by the excessive fees exacted; and also by the great number of attorneys, whereby many and unnecessary and trouble- some suits are raised and fomented. The act was entitled an Act to reform attorneys, councillors, etc. And then the act went on to provide that a certain number of honest and able attorneys be admitted, nominated and sworn by his excellency the captain-general to be at- torneys, councillors, etc .; all others being forbidden to practise.
And the further provision was made for the highest fees allowable for each and any case in the several courts of the province; that for the court of chancery being eight hundred pounds of tobacco, for the pro- vincial court four hundred pounds, for the county court
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two hundred pounds. Further provision was also made for the heavy punishment of any attorney that should receive fees beyond the amount allowed, the fine being two thousand pounds of tobacco and the disbarring of the offender in the courts of the province. Lawyers, however, have never been a favorite, though maybe a favored class with the people, being a necessary evil in the present disjointed world whom the people cannot do without and do not want to do with; and they. the people have consequently avenged themselves by. abus- ing them upon every occasion.
.. Among the laws of the colony there are frequently found enactments providing for the observance of Sun- day, for temperance; for morality. As regards the first, they never went as far as was done in the Puritan colonies of the North, though the desecration of the day by fishing, gunning, drinking and kindred methods of indulgence was always reprobated. Kissing one's wife was not regarded as a heinous violation, and con- sequently was not visited either with fine or flogging. In this the Maryland code was more liberal. At one time an attempt was made to compel church-going, but that soon came to nothing; for the churches were inac- cessible to the great body of the people, and, besides, there was not enough of them to accommodate even a fourth of the people.
The temperance laws, however, were of a practical character, and were probably to a large extent enforced; that is, temperance, not total abstinence. For this at the time was an unknown question in the colonies as well as in the mother country. Liquor was used almost univer- sally, and, as we would say, almost excessively in all
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classes of society. In Maryland we find a church vestry adopting a standing order for one quart of rum and lemons and sugar equivalent, for every vestry meeting, to be paid for out of the church funds; and in England, in the palmiest days of Queen Anne, the best men of the day thought it no disgrace to drink themselves under the table, and that regularly; and long since that time " drunk for a penny and dead drunk for twopence " was the attractive sign over the gin-shops of London.
Still in Maryland they tried to restrain. And they began with the drinker. Drunkenness was punished, one of the first laws of the province providing that for " drunkenness, which is drinking to excess to the notable perturbation of any organ of sense or motion," the offender shall forfeit to the lord proprietary thirty pounds of tobacco or five shillings sterling, or otherwise shall be whipped or by some other corporal shame or pun- ishment corrected for every such excess at the discretion of the judge. If the man was a servant, and not able to pay the fine, he was to be imprisoned or set in the stocks or bilbos, fasting, for twenty-four hours. Subsequent laws made the punishment even more severe; that of 1658 providing that for the first offense the punishment should be six hours in the stocks or a fine of one hun- dred pounds of tobacco; for the second, whipping or three hundred pounds; and for the third offense and conviction the offender was to be adjudged a person infamous, and as such incapable of voting or bearing office for the space of three years. That such a law was not a brutum fulmen one of his lordship's councillors, Thomas Gerard, discovered; for it being proven that he was intoxicated, he was banished the province and all his
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property, real and personal, forfeited. The governor remitted the banishment, but his other losses were allowed to stand.
Beside treating the drunkard in this way, they tried also to restrain liquor-selling. Ordinaries were opened in various parts of the colony, one being in the State House itself; but care was taken that only persons of good character should be licensed to keep them. This is different from the present rule in Maryland and in most other places; for nothing is easier than for any man to secure a license. If he abuses his opportunity, and his ordinary becomes a nuisance, his license may be taken away. Though this rarely prevents a man from going on, some one being found to take out a license in his own name for the other's use. Attempt was also made to restrict the number, and limit by name, the places where the ordinaries could be kept. They looked upon liquors as they looked upon lawyers, as above noted, as a necessity, believing that danger existed only in the superabundance, whether of drink or drinking houses, and that it became them to provide against the excess.
And as of liquors so of morality in general. Lewdness was suppressed as far as possible. There were among the immigrants to the province from the beginning some who were low in morals as they were in intelligence. Even the marriage of white women with negro men was not unknown, but was looked upon with such horror that any woman so doing became by the marriage a slave during the life of her husband, and the children slaves for life, as their father was. Law, not anarchy, was predominant in Maryland from the start, but it had
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a heavy load to carry. It did wonderfully well to main- tain its balance as it did, with the constant incoming tide, often of the offscourings of the old world. But though with difficulty, yet it struggled along, and at last was able to hand over into better times a people taught so to recognize law that for its maintenance they would give up all beside.
What was the bearing of Maryland toward the Quakers? I ask this question because it is a crucial one in determining the spirit of Maryland in regard to religious liberty and religious prejudice. We know how they were treated in New England, beaten and hanged, imprisoned and compelled to suffer cold and hunger to a degree almost beyond belief; while their persecutors were not the brutal mob who in their ignorance would do anything for excitement's sake or to gratify a savage passion. Those who persecuted the Quakers in New England were the best and most honored in the land. Why did Marylanders not do the same? Did they love religion less? Not by any means. Though the great majority did not enjoy religious privileges as they were possessed in the Northern colonies, yet that was their misfortune, not their fault. The revenues of the province went into the pockets of a man who claimed them as his right, and who by his religious creed and private interests combined, was constrained wholly to neglect the religious welfare of the people, save of the few of his own faith. The people also were so scattered that combination was almost impossible, while also even among the majority there was such diversity of religious belief that voluntary association for the support of any one church was impossible. But as soon as opportunity
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was offered on the Protestant Revolution, we see their longing and resolute desire to have all the facilities for religious worship.
Maryland differed from the New England colonies in her treatment of the Quakers, because a political and not a religious basis was that on which she stood. It was with the eyes of statesmanship, and not of narrow religious bigotry that she looked at the question. And her claim to religious toleration rests far more on such a spirit as exhibited in such circumstances, than on the mere Act Concerning Religion, that is filled rather with curses than benedictions. She had been, and was, and continued to be, tolerant of all classes and names of Christians, when that law was promulgated. It only expressed what was the political faith of Maryland from the beginning.
It is true, as was stated in the beginning of this lecture, that Maryland passed her laws, or rather orders, for it was the work of the Council and not of the Assembly, against Quakers; for it was with them as with the early Christians, a sect that was "everywhere spoken against." It is also to be remembered that in 1658, when the greatest jealousy of the Quakers was manifested, the Puritan influence was predominant in Maryland, and that Governor Fendall, who was the adherent and mouthpiece of that influence, was the executive of the colony during the period when the various orders were passed. It was at this time the extreme violence raged in Massachusetts, three victims having perished in 1659 and 1660, and the last one on March the fourteenth, 1661. It is doubtful, however, whether even such persistent offenders as Thomas Thur- ston and Josias Cole ever felt the lash, against whom chiefly were the orders issued. The chief complaint also
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against them was not concerning their religious belief, but their contempt of court, in that they would not remove their hats, and would not take the oath in legal proceed- ings. Also, they would not, according to the require- ments of the law, make their engagement faithfully to obey the laws of the province, an obligation required to be made by every one coming to reside within it.
On the other hand, in 1665, we find three Quakers in a board of seven land commissioners of one of the counties, appointed to this office by the governor and council. This was the same year when Massachusetts, under Gov- ernor Bellingham, renewed in a milder way its persecution of the five years previous. In 1676, or about that time, Wenlock Christison, famous for his fortitude and suffer- ings, who had now finally come to Maryland, where he ended his days in peace and prosperity, was elected to the lower house of the Assembly. After him others were found holding the same office, as well as that of justice of the peace in their various counties. Maryland's record, thereafter, in this stands eminent.
Nor does it stand less so when we look at the subject of witchcraft. However it may be argued, whether Mary- land did not fear the Devil so much, or whether it was less loyal to the Almighty than her New England contempo- raries, cannot be determined. Maryland people believed in witches, as all the world did. It was deeply imbedded in the religious consciousness of the day the world over. Even John Wesley said, long after this time, that he who would give up witchcraft must give up the Bible. Even the witches believed in witchcraft, and would confess they were witches, in spite of all the penalties. Nor is the old belief entirely out of date now, but many, we hope only
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among the ignorant, regard with awe and hatred those whom they regard as the ministers of Satan. But every- body believed in witches two hundred years ago, and grave and learned divines led in the crusade against these Devil's ministers.
Now, what is Maryland's record? There is no use or pleasure in reviewing the world's record. It is too awful, too sad. As far as is known, never a witch suffered within the Maryland borders. In the year 1654, during a stormy passage to Maryland, the sailors on board the ship " Charity " (a misnomer in this case) became con- vinced that they must have a witch on board who was the cause of the storm; and choosing a little old woman, they forthwith proceeded to examine her, and, of course, to find reason for condemning her. For in such cases, as in many others in all the ways of life, examination is con- demnation. Moved either by malignity or fear, we can find what we are looking for. They put her to death and cast her body and all that belonged to her into the sca, and still the storm blew on with undiminished violence.
There was one case in Maryland itself, when a certain John Connor was convicted of witchcraft. But instead of his being executed, at the strong urgency of the lower house of the Assembly, he was reprieved and his death sentence changed into indefinite service to the governor and council, apparently to do such chores as came to hand, during the pleasure of the governor.
That ends the whole witchcraft episode, and what a contrast to what was seen everywhere else! Why was it? They all believed in witches, and in the charges given from time to time to justices of the peace and other officers, was this of enquiring about witchcrafts, enchant-
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ments, sorceries, and magic arts. But, somchow, the faith and the practice did not agree. This was in 1675. It was in 1692, it will be remembered, that the Salem tragedy was enacted at which the mind revolts. Why was it that Maryland differed so from the rest of the world? The reason probably is the same as in the case of the treatment of the Quakers. The policy of the colony rested upon a broader basis, statesmanlike politics and not religious bigotry, a policy that was observed in the colony to the end of the colonial period.
There is one subject it would be pleasant to be able to omit: Maryland's treatment of the Indians. For in this she was not better than the other colonies. Injustice, cruelty, brutality too frequently inspired her legislation and her conduct. She feared the Indians, and her fear blinded the eyes of her administrators to their rights and to the commonest principles of justice and humanity. This policy was pursued until even the small band of peaceful Indians who sought to dwell on good terms within the territory, which had once been all their own, gradually disappeared. Whether God's vengeance has yet overtaken this nation for all its barbarity to the aborigines of the country, is a problem which the coming time will have to solve.
Another subject also I would be glad to omit, the legis- lation concerning the Roman Catholics after the days of the Protestant Revolution. They were but a small min- ority of the people, dividing with the members of the Church of England one-fourth of the whole population. This was the testimony of Lord Baltimore. Still, how- ever, though so small a fraction, they were feared. Anxiety was from time to time expressed that they would rise and,
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combining with the Indians or with the French, would work havoc in the province. And the consequence was, they were always repressed and the means sought to pre- vent their increase in numbers.
Thus they were defranchised by the Test Oath, after Maryland became a royal colony, a disavowal of transub- stantiation being requisite for the enjoyment of the political privileges of citizenship. In 1704, by an act of the Assem- bly, it was sought to prevent the growth of popery by for- bidding the exercise of spiritual functions by the Roman priesthood. Also members of that church were forbidden to engage in teaching the youth of the colony. At the same session, however, this severity was mitigated by per- mission granted for spiritual ministrations in private families and private chapels. In 1715 a severe law was passed, by which if a Protestant father died, and his widow should be a Roman Catholic, the children should be removed from her custody, "to save them from popery." The expense of their education was to be borne by their father's estate. In 1716 and 1718, after the rising in Eng- land in behalf of the Pretender, the sensitiveness and fears of the people of the colony were indicated by a renewal of the restrictive laws, so that if a person was suspected of being a Roman Catholic, the Test Oath could be administered as a qualification for voting.
Also, carly in the century, dread was excited by the introduction of Roman Catholics from abroad, and a tax was imposed by the legislature of 1708, of twenty shillings upon all Irish servants of that faith brought in. Down later in the century, at the beginning of the French War, an attempt was made, in providing for the expenses of the war, to lay a double tax upon the Roman Catholics. The
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upper house would not consent to this, and so it never became a law. But it shows the animus of the people. The motives for this attempt are said to have been two- fold; first, that the French and the Roman Catholics were associated in the people's minds as equally enemies of the province, because of their common religion; secondly, that certain persons were specially offensive to the lower house, whom it was its desire to reach.
Such things, however painful, are facts, growing out of the suspicions and bitter feelings of the day. The Revo- lution, both in England and Maryland, had its origin in the dread and abhorrence of Romanism as exhibited in the despotism of James the Second and the persecuting zeal of Louis the Fourteenth in the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and the horrible sufferings of the Hugue- nots. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at, though it is to be deplored, that the people stood in constant dread and vented their fears in acts of injustice and violence.
I have referred in a previous lecture to the Act of Establishment of the Church, and to the subsequent acts passed, until the purpose of the people was consummated. . For it took the people ten years to frame an act that should be pleasing as well to the king of England as to the inhabitants of the province. As it was something, how- ever, which they were determined to have, they persisted. I only refer here to the matter again to call attention to certain minor features of the law, and to other laws sub- sequently passed bearing upon the same matter.
The purpose of that law was the moral and religious regeneration of the people, in which points the state of society was said to be extremely bad. Nor can there be a doubt but what it was true, and there was nothing to
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make the condition otherwise. Religion and education had both been grossly neglected, and as a consequence all the attempts that the Assembly had been making from the beginning to restrain blasphemy, profane language, drunkenness, and other forms of vice, and to promote a due or any observance of the First Day, had been utterly null and void. Pains and penalties are not qualified for moral or religious ends.
And the Church was effective for the end proposed, because the law armed it in every way for this purpose. For, first, the vestry as a body were the custodians of morality and had certain power to rebuke and warn, and . then to inform against if the warning were not heeded. The Church was also used to keep the laws bearing upon immorality constantly before the people, for it was made the duty of the rector of the parish, who was chief vestry- man, to read publicly, four times a year, the laws of the province forbidding swearing, drunkenness, and the viola- tion of the Sabbath Day by work, fishing and gunning; and if he failed to do this, he exposed himself to a fine. We can see what a salutary effect this must have had in preserving a knowledge and standard of morality. It compelled the people to remember what was law and duty, and it was a constant warning to all who could not be influenced by a sense of duty, but who might be by a sense of fear. It also made wickedness shameful. We have seen before what was the jurisdiction of the vestry in certain cases of immorality.
But the Church, as a political institution for the sup- pression of vice, went farther. Under the law as finally passed in 1702, the vestry and wardens were to meet monthly, and doing so, they could bring together the
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results of their observation since the last meeting, and report any violation of the laws that might have come to their notice. Vestries now have charge of the secular affairs of their churches, and often so little concern is felt for these things, that no one outside their own body knows or can readily find out who compose the body. But not so in those days. The vestry had its own pew in the church; they were supposed to sit together in a seat of honor and authority, and they were thus kept before the eyes and minds of the people as officers with certain defi- nite duties.
And their office they carried out with them into the parish daily life, as much as the minister carried his. This was strengthened by the law of 1723, which forbade swear- ing or drunkenness in the presence of a vestryman or churchwarden, under penalty of fine, whipping, or sitting in the stocks. The churchwardens had also the power of preserving the peace in and about the church, even to the point that if any one persisted in violating good order, he might then and there be arrested by the churchwardens and put in the stocks, of which, in some instances, a pair was set up near the church for such emergencies.
The ideal church establishment then, as the men of 1692 presented it, was an excellent one. That the ideal did not become a practical fact, is very true, as human ideals rarely or never do. The purpose, however, was worthy, and the need was imperative, and the success attained was highly beneficent to the moral and religious welfare of the whole community. The method would be strangely anomalous in our day, but the men of that day knew and adhered to what they saw was best for them.
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With this we close the review of the State's earliest his- tory. Much might have been said that has rot been, and some things, may be, left out that have been said. The purpose has been to give a series of pictures of the period, the century and a half from the founding of the colony to the time when England acknowledged that she could not longer call the colony her own. It was a growth from infancy to manhood, with the vicissitudes that belong to all transitional life. There were days of passion and violence, days of petulance and irritation. There were many acts of folly, and many of violence and injustice. Many things blur the glory and blot the page that might record them, especially as regards the Indian and the Roman Catholic. Sometimes a cringing spirit was mani- fested, as when in the extravagance of adulation they approached the throne of James the Second, on the birth of his son, and then with as enthusiastic adulation glorified William the Third as the defender of the Protestant faith and the liberties of the empire.
Still, these things were only incidental, not essential. The people were the victims of their times, while their true, robust character was indicated by their progress through the circumstances of their day always toward a higher and nobler manhood, vindicating their rights against those who, in the front or on either hand, would . retard their progress. King, proprietary, local influences in the province itself, all attempted to bar the way, to reduce the people to their will. The struggle also might be long; dissension, disputation, contention might last through years. The issue, however, was always the same. The consistent and courageous maintenance of principle always ensured success.
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For this reason the sons of the old commonwealth need not fear to scan closely. Their old parent is worthy of all honor. Whether as a lone province with peculiar institutions struggling toward her own broad conceptions of liberty; or whether as one of the galaxy of colonies, maintaining by cohesion with them the rights of free-born men to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, irrespec- tive of the dictation of any foreign potentate; or whether as a state making up, by voluntary surrender of all indi- vidual rights that might stand in bar, one great and glorious nation, along with all the other states of the per- fect union, it is the same: Maryland is worthy of the honor of her sons. Let it be the effort of her sons to preserve always inviolate the honor that has been transmitted to them by those that struggled and achieved in other days.
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