USA > Maryland > Anne Arundel County > Annapolis > The Ancient City.: A History of Annapolis, in Maryland, 1649-1887 > Part 30
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"The friends of reform in Maryland have sought repeatedly to obtain from the Legislature, by an exertion of the powers confided to that body by the fifty-ninth section of the Constitution, such amendments of that instrument as are indispensable, and it is with regret we say that all their applications were in vain, and indeed it may be said, they were not even treated with that respectful deference to which the remonstrances of a large majority of the people are justly entitled. It would be needless for us here to spread out in detail, the several ap- plications for reform which have been made.
"You know the history of many petitions which have been preser.ted to the Legislature ; and we have felt the manner of their rejection. Each instant is fresh in the recollection of our constituents, and they believe as we do, that no redress of grievances can be had through the ordinary forms which the framers of our Constitution provided. Under this solemn consideration, we have determined not to be willingly in- strumental in perpetuating institutions that work such bitter injus- tice, and if, gentlemen, you will give us your pledge of honour to ac- cede to our proposal, and give to the majority of the people a majority of one branch of the Legislature to prevent future violations of their rights and privileges, it will afford us great pleasure to meet you in the Electoral College today. Should, however, your views as to our relative rights and duties not accord with ours, we shall most deeply regret it, and be compelled by a high and holy sense of duty to our constituentsand to the whole State, not to meet you in College, and thereby, we shall entirely avoid the odious responsibility of assisting to form a Senate obnoxious to the people we represent.
"We are aware that your rejection of this proposition, and the State o." things which may grow out of it, will give some alarm to the
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timorons. But upon the most calm and deliberate examination of the whole subject in all its bearings, we can discover none of those causes for deep and lasting excitement, which endanger the peace and good order of the community, if the legislative functions of the government should cease for a season, that will be found to arise, should we assist to organize a Senate, which would perpetuate, possibly, all existing evils, and secure for five years, at least, that oppressive dominion, of a small minority over the majority, which has been so long reluctantly endured by the people of Maryland. We perceive no cause for ap- prehensions and alarm in the temporary suspension of the powers of the Senate. Thereby, the whole Constitution would not be abrogated. The Governor would remain in office long enough to afford time to form a new Constitution, and perform the function of the Executive Department.
"The Judiciary and the officers connected with the Courts would ex- perience no interruption of their powers, and all the officers who de- rive their appointments annually from the Executive are impowered under the forty-ninth article of the Constitution, to hold their offices until they are superseded by the appointments of others.
"The laws, therefore, would be administered-civil rights and private property properly protected, and the peace of the community pre- served, by all the means now employed for that purpose. In the mean time the powers which have been delegated to us, will revert to the people, in whose integrity, virtue, patriotism, and intelligence, we have the most entire confidence ; and we doubt not but that they, guided by the spirit that animated our fathers in seventy-six, will pro- vide for every exigency that may arise. Before any inconvenience can be experienced, the sovereign power of the people of Maryland will be employed, by means of a convention to reform our Constitu- tion, so as not to justify a recurrence of a similar contingency, by bas- ing all its departments on sound Republican principles, so as to secure equality of political rights, and a just responsibility in all public offi- cers, to popular will.
"To prevent misapprehensions, we have submitted our propositions in writing, and its manifest justice gives us every reason to expect that you yield to it, a ready assent. We hope you do not desire to leave the State without a Senate, unless you are permitted to select all its members,-as well for counties you represent as those counties and cities represented by us. Nor can we believe that you will ask us to join you in the Electoral College, and be passive spectators of your proceedings, merely to witness the degredation of our constituents, by your choice of a Senate for 205,922 people, whose representatives you are not. We ask only what we think is right, and are determined to submit to nothing that is wrong. To our propositions we respect- fully ask an answer at your earliest convenience.
"And whatever may be your response, we cannot doubt your con- currence with us in the perfect conviction of the competency of the people to accept a surrender of the Legislative functions of the Gov- ernment, and that deeply embued with the spirit of patriotism and justice, and guided by the lights of experience they will, through the instrumentality of a Convention, so adjust and apportion them as to
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secure the inestimable blessings of a republican government. We are, very respectfully,
Gentlemen, Yours, &c.,
Charles Macgill,
Ephraim Bel!,
Robert Wason,
Robert T. Keene,
Caspar Quynn, John Fisher,
M. Fountain,
Joshua Vansant,
John B. Thomas,
Thomas Hope,
Sprigg Harwood,
Samuel Sutton,
John S. Sellman,
John Evans,
Wesley Linthicum,
George A. Thomas, George Ellicott,
Wash'n. Duvall,
"To Messrs. Heard, Leigh, Vickers, Gale, Gaither, Kent, Dalrymple, Williams, Handy, Spence, Franklin, Dickinson, Dudley, Hicks, Lake, Pratt, Duvall, Merrick, Brawner, Bruce, and Beall."
"ANNAPOLIS, September 16th, 1826, P. M.
"Gentlemen, We are anxious to elect a Senate, and for the promo- tion of this object. we sent certain propositions to you, for your con- sideration, and selected Colonel Heard as the organ of communica- tion, knowing him to be an old member of the Legislature, and an Elector returned for the County of St. Mary's which is always first called from priority. Colonel Heard returned this paper stating that he had no authority to act, and, therefore, declined presenting it to his political associates. We have, therefore, to request of you, whether you will receive any communication from us-and to indicate the manner in which you would prefer to receive communications from us.
We are Gentlemen,
Very Respectfully Yours, &c.
Charles Macgill,
Robert T. Keene,
Robert Wason,
M. Fountain,
Casper Quynn,
John Evans,
John Fisher,
George Ellicott,
George A. Thomas, Washington Duvall,
Ephraim Bell,
John B. Thomas,
Joshua Vansant,
Enoch George,
Sprigg Harwood,
John S. Sellman,
Thomas Hope, Samuel Sutton,
Wesley Linthicum,
"To Messrs. Heard, Leigh, Vickers, Gale, Gaither, Kent, Dalrymple, Williams, Handy, Spence, Franklin, Dickinson, Dudley, Hicks, Lake, Pratt, Duvall, Merrick, Brawner, Bruce, and Beall."
"ANNAPOLIS, September 21st, 1836.
"At one o'clock, p. m., the Democratic Republican members of the Electoral College again assembled, when Charles McGill, of Washing- ton county, resumed the Chair, and George A. Thomas, of Cecil county, acted as Secretary, whereupon the following proceedings were had :
Enoch George,
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HISTORY OF ANNAPOLIS.
"Contrary to our reasonable hopes and expectations, the other Elec- tors having refused even to receive or reply to the propositions which we have thought proper to submit, formally and informally, in letters addressed to all of them, and in conversations held by individual mem- bers of this meeting, with individual members of the other branch of the Electoral College, and other Electors having moreover, made to us, or to any one of us, no propositions whatever, calculated to restore to the people of Maryland, through the medium of the Legislature, the right to revise and amend the constitution ; and this meeting being fully convinced that we have no alternative left but to ad journ, or to submit to the selection of a Senate opposed to those reforms, both of the constitution and of the administration of the government of the State, which our constituents desire to see accomplished-Therefore, "Resolve this meeting do now adjourn.
CHARLES McGILL, President. GEORGE A. THOMAS, Secretary."
The calm at Annapolis whilst this peaceful revolution was in pro- gress was in strong contrast with the excitement prevailing in other parts of the State. People generally felt a political catastrophe was at hand which threatened the destruction of property and govern- ment, and with these direful forebodings the timid saw impending and overwhelming evil, whilst the courageous prepared to meet the coming danger with heroic effort.
In many places in the State public meetings were held. At Balti- more, an immense gathering of citizens denounced the nineteen in forcible terms, and similar meetings followed in Washington, Freder- ick, and Allegany counties, at which all pledged themselves to sustain the supremacy of the law. On the 18th of October, the grand jury of Allegany county presented the nineteen electors "as unfaithful public agents and disturbers of the public peace."
In the interim, whilst the whig electors remained out of the College, and awaited events, the presidential election was held. On the day following, November 8th, Governor Thomas W. Veazey issued a pro- clamation denouncing in severe terms the conduct of the "recusant electors and their abettors," calling on the civil and military authori- ties to be in readiness to maintain the law, and convening the old Senate and House of Delegates to assemble on the 21st of November.
The proclamation added greatly to the excitement in the State, and was responded to cordially. One company, the Planter's Guards, tendered their services to the executive to support the authority of law. Happily their aid was never required.
Although the nineteen, Major Sprigg Harwood, who lived at An- napolis, alone excepted, had left the capital, steamboat load after steamboat load of people came to the city, in the spirit of some vague knight errantry, hopeful that they might by some means influence the nineteen to absolve their resolve.
The strain, as shown by Major Harwood's statement. proved too great for the nerves of John S. Sellman, of Anne Arundel, or else the specific promises he received were inducement enough to make him re- pent, early in October, his determination not to take part in the elec- tion of a Senate. He was followed by Wesley Linthicum, of the same county, on November 12th. Sellman signified this intention by letter
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to his associates in the communication of the 19th of September to the twenty-one whig electors.
The election of Delegates to the House hastened the dissolution of the combination. Sixty whigs and but nineteen Van Buren, or demo- cratic delegates, were returned. The Anne Arundel, Queen Anne's, and Caroline county electors regarded the elections in their counties, as instructions from their constituents, and November 19th, Mr. Wesley Linthicum, of Anne Arundel county, Dr. Enoch George and John B. Thomas, of Queen Anne's county, and Marcy Fountain, of Caroline county, all of "the glorious nineteen," appeared, and also qualified as Senatorial electors. The College, then composed of twenty-six members, proceeded to elect a Senate.
On the 25th of November, Governor Veazey sent a special message to the General Assembly on this subject in which he declared "the an- nals of party contention and political errors and aberations from duty" * * * "would be searched in vain for a case of such plain and pal- pable violation of constitutional duty and moral obligations as the conduct of the recusant electors of the Senate of Maryland exhibits." He regretted no statue existed to meet such an emergency and sug- gested the passage of one.
But the revolt had crystalized public opinion on the subject of the needed reforms in State government and the measures for which the democrats contended were generally conceded by the Legislature. One was the election of the Governor by the people. The democrats thereupon held this office, with but one exception, from that date down to 1857. There being no statutory punishment for their offence, the whigs who generally had control of the Senate, visited an unwrit- ten penalty on "the glorious nineteen." No matter to what office .one of them was ever appointed by the Governor, a whig Senate would invariably reject the appointment.
CHAPTER LI. "JOE MORGUE."
The Maryland Republican, of August, 1836, contained the obitu- ary of a very remarkable character. The article read :
"Mr. Joseph Simmons, the oldest inhabitant of this city, departed this life on Sunday evening last, at the moment the church bell tolled for three o'clock-that bell which from time immemorial he had him- self tolled regularly five or six times every day. There lives not this day a native of Annapolis, nay, hardly any one that has ever dwelt amongst, or sojourned within our borders, that will not on meeting this melancholy note, recall the well known sound of our church bell and the striking figure of the old man that has so punctually attended to the precise moment of ringing the hour ever since the oldest of us can remember. 'Ere the church was a ruin,' on the spot where the
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present venerable edifice now stands, old Joseph was bell ringer. Not one man that ever has been a member of the Legislature, Executive, or Superior Judiciary of the State of Maryland, not a student of St. John's College, or a scholar of our humbler schools, but will remem- ber the well known summons which his bell gave them alternately to duties and to relaxation. Alas! old Joseph rings no more.
"Whether it was by the influence of association that he had ac- quired the habit of punctuality, we pretend not to determine, but Mr. S. had deservedly obtained the reputation of being one of the most punctual of men.
"This estimable quality he carried into the several departments of his pursuits in life. As a collector of accounts, which before he be- came too infirm he was considerably employed in, he was proverbial for recollecting and attending to the very moment appointed.
"The same valuable precision was carried by him into the perfor- mances of the duties of Sexton, which he filled perhaps for the last forty years.
"But it was at grave digging, that the deceased enjoved the dis- tinction of having held an office longer than perhaps any man ever did, nay, possibly ever will do, in this State. Undisturbed by the violence of those party contentions which would seem to spare no place however humble, unmoved even by the tide of revolution itself, by which allegiance was dissolved and a new and glorious nation was created, he held the prerogatives and performed the duties of grave digger to our community ; for with honest pride we record it, we have here but one general receptable for the dead. In that single field is buried all social distinctions. Long before this field, now studded over with grave stones, on many of which the thick moss of a former cen- tury has accumulated, was disturbed to deposit the relics of the dead, was this old man our grave digger. Of all the vast concourse in this grave yard reposing, his hand has prepared and rounded the graves. At length, sinking under the accumulated weight of nearly one hun- dred years, he is quietly deposited as one amongst the multitude his labours had gathered together. Accordingly to his last, and often repeated injunction, he is laid close by the side of him that in this life he loved the most, and, at whose death, was well known all over America, fifty years ago, as the famous inn keeper at Annapolis, and for whose ample table, it was the province of this, his then faithful steward, to market and provide.
"Amidst the many peculiarities of character that distinguished the deceased, some of which no doubt grew out of an occupation that seventy or eighty years had made perfectly familiar to him, though spoken and even thought of with a strange superstition, awe and aversion by some "grown up children, "-amidst all his peculiarities we say, none were more distinct than his strict veracity, honesty, and sobriety."
This obituary of Simmons sharply defines the aged sexton's char- acter. There come down to us to color the silhouette, anecdotes of his oddities and peculiarities.
Simmons is yet remembered by some who live in Annapolis. When he had reached a centennarian's age, he was an object of interest to all. With his white hair flowing over his shoulders, his aged form tottering with the weight of years, his shackling step, and the som-
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breness of his occupation, he presented to the mind the apparition of Old Time himself, lacking only the emblematic scythe to make the- picture complete.
It was such a character that gave a thrill of terror to the juvenile- mind whenever he came in sight, for it was the belief of the children that if Simmons looked at one and said : "I want you," the day of doom for it was fixed. Having occasion then to pass the aged sex- ton, the children were wont to don their most courteous graces, and with unusual politeness to simper in softest accents-"How do, Mr. Morgue ?" This nickname, and that it was one the children were quite ignorant of, always infuriated Simmons, as the astonished chil- dren found by the sexton's vigorous replies that they had missed their mark, and had produced an effect just opposite from what they had intended.
The spirit of Simmons' occupation became more and more a part of him as his years grew apace. He had been known after somebody had offended him to pass an innocent gentleman on the street and to take a ghastly satisfaction in hissing at him, "I'll have you some day," in a tone that indicated that he thought, with him, remained the issues of life and death.
Simmons, however, had a genial side to that grim nature that made him a terror to young people and an offence to older folk. Amongst other duties that appertained to that of sexton ot St. Anne's, was the ringing of "the one o'clock bell." On one occasion, as he was going into church on that duty, a lady said to him, "Oh, Mr. Simmons, do not ring that bell until I get home. Mr. - - likes everybody to- be ready to sit down to dinner at one." "Well, then," replied Sim- mons brusquely, "walk fast." As the lady put her foot on the first step of the porch of her house which was in the extreme end of the town, the bell of Old St. Anne's rang out the hour of one. Simmons had arrested the march of time to please his fair petitioner.
It was Simmons' habit when the clergyman ended the service for the dead at the grave to give a hearty, "Amen." There lived at An- napolis at this period, the Rev. Mr. Wyatt. He was of the Episcopal Communion with strong Methodistic tendencies. On one occasion when Parson Wyatt, as he was familiarly known, was reading the service, some boys offended Simmons and he vented his wrath in language not permitted by the decalogue. The minister and sexton finished speak- ing together, and Simmons ejaculated "Amen." Parson Wyatt waited until the attendants at the funeral had departed, and, taking his cane in hand, shook it in Simmons' face, saying-"Don't you ever dare to stand along side of me again and say amen to any service I perform." Simmons, pointing to the other side of the grave as if the question at issue was one of position only, angrily retorted-"Well then go over on the other side."
Col. Mann, whom Simmons had faithfully served for years as caterer to Mann's Hotel, had touched the chords of his affection. Over his grave alone, of all the human dust he had interred, Simmons wept.
One incident has come down to us that does not reflect his charac- ter in an enviable light. There was in Annapolis one familliarly called, "Jeffrey Jig," (from whom Jeffrey's Point took its name, ) who with "Jinny Corncracker," his wife, lived at the foot of Duke of Glouces- ter street in a little hut so small they could not stand in it erect. Jef-
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HISTORY OF ANNAPOLIS.
frey periodically fell into a comatose state and was several times pre- pared for interment , but always awoke in time to prevent the funeral. On one occasion his resuscitation was deferred until he was placed in the grave. Then as the grim sexton threw in the clods of the val- ley, a noise was heard in the coffin. The bystanders said Jeffrey was alive. Hardly realizing, let us believe, that the dead was alive, Sim- mons continued to fill up the grave, tradition says with the remark : "He's got to die sometime ; and if he was not dead, he ought to be."
CHAPTER LII. CHRONICLES OF ANNAPOLIS FROM 1810 TO 1839.
[1810-12.] During the years 1810-12, tradition tells us George Frederick Cooke, the brilliant and dissolute English actor played in the Annapolis theatre.
[1813.] Rev. Ralph Higginbotham, vice-principal of St. John's College, died April 21.
In October, Dr. D. Claude and Lewis Duval were elected delegates from Annapolis to the Legislature. The vote was Dr. Claude 157 ; Lewis Duvall 157 ; T. H. Bowie 90. The two first were Democrats ; the last a Federalist.
[1814.] Dr. Upton Scott, aged 90 years, died in Annapolis, on the 23rd of February. He was a native of Ireland, but had resided in Annapolis 60 years. His career was one of unbroken virtue, dignity, and usefulness. He was the chosen friend of Gen. Wolfe.
[1815.] On Saturday, February 25, 1815, a company of Pennsyl- vanians, from the neighborhood of Brownsville, and commanded by Capt. Giesey, was honorably discharged from the service. They won a high reputation among the citizens of Annapolis for their good conduct and scrupulous regard for the rights of the citizens.
[1816.] On Saturday, the 16th of March, His Britannic Majesty's frigate Niger, of 32 guns, Capt. Jackson, arrived off Annapolis, with the Hon. Henry Bagot, Minister to the United States, his lady and suite. The frigate gave the town a salute of 17 guns, which was re- turned by the City Battery. The Ministerial party landed the next day, under a salute from the ship, and proceeded to Washington.
Public feeling ran very high in the spring of this year over an al- leged attempt on the part of the federalist to colonize the town with permanent residents of federal proclivities so as to carry the city for the Federalist Party. The democrats held a public meeting, in which the scheme was denounced in a string of resolutions. Party animosi- ties were so bitter when the pedagogue of the town, one Mr. Bassford, changed his politics from democrat to federalist, his school became so reduced in numbers he had to quit the town.
On Thursday, May 23, the U. S. S. Washington, 74 guns, Com. Chauncey arrived off Annapolis. President Madison and wife, the
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Secretary of the Navy, Commodores Rogers and Porter came to An- napolis. stopping at Caton's, (now the City Hotel, ) and visited the frigate. On June ?th, the Washington sailed, having on board the celebrated William Pinkney and his family. Mr. Pinkney went as minister to Naples.
At the election for delegates to the Legislature from Annapolis this year the federalists reduced the democratic majority. The vote was :
Federalists. Alex. C. Magruder, 91 : Richard Harwood, of Thos. 90. Democrats, Lewis Duvall 109 ; Dennis Claude 109.
[1817.] The question of removing the capital to Baltimore was agitated in the Legislature of 1817 and referred to the next assembly.
The strongest point made against proposed removal was the mob in Baltimore in 1812, when Lingan was killed.
Christopher Hohne, at the same session. was voted fifty dollars for venturing his life by going on the roof of the State House to extin- guish a fire.
Fort Severn at this period was put in an excellent state of repair under the supervision of Capt. James Reed, assisted by Lieuts. Bache and Smook. Fort Madison, at same time lay, in a state of dismantled desuetude.
On the 14th of August, Mrs. Ann Ogle, died at the advanced age of 94 years. Her remains were interred in the family vault at White Hall. at the seat of Horatio Ridout, Esq.
The quaint cut of a steamboat appears in the Gazette of September 18, 1817. It seems there was a very just suspicion in the minds of the public that steamboats were not altogether the safest mode of conveyance. So the proprietors, George Stiles & Son. of Baltimore, advertised that the Surprise's Foilers, which steamer ran betwee: Baltimore and Annapolis, "will be proved every month to bear double the pressure at which they are worked." It was propelled by an en- gine on the rotary motion. and moved "with more ease and swiftness than any steamboat in the United State."
The subject of a naval depot at Annapolis was agitated in Novem- ber, 1817. A committee, consisting of Messrs. Hughes and Stephen, was appointed by the corporation to memoralize the general govern- ment on the subject and the President of the United States was ad- dressed a long communication in which it was stated that "Annapolis is, from its situation, more accessible from the ocean than any other port within a convenient distance from the city of Washington. It has been spontaneously selected by the ministers from foreign provi- nces for their places of landing and our own envoys have generally made it the point of their departure."
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