USA > Maryland > The Day-star of American freedom, or, The birth and early growth of toleration, in the province of Maryland : with a sketch of the colonization upon the Chesapeake and its trobutaries, preceding the removal of the government from St. Mary's to Annapolis > Part 2
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' The case of Lewis has so often been published (see, e. g., Boz- iban, vol. 2, pp. 83-85, and 596-598), that it is necessary only to add, the proclamation of Governor Calvert prohibited " all unsea-
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THE DAY-STAR.
was the test of an Anglo-Catholic's rights, under the earliest practice of the government. Such was the doctrine in the case which has been cited ; such the opinion of Mr. Secretary Lewger, a justice of the Supreme Court; and such the decision of Leonard Calvert, the lieutenant gene- ral or governor, and the chief justice of the pro- vince. "Holy." as well as " Catholic," we know also, is used in creeds common to the English and to the Roman church. And " Catholic" is a term not unfrequently applied, upon the provincial records, to the Church of England.1 The little chapel also, near the Fort at St. Mary's, the place for the worship of the Anglo-Catholic colonists before the arrival of any of their ministers, and
sonable disputations, in point of religion, tending to the disturb- ance of the public peace and quiet of the colony, and to the opening of faction in religion." See 2 Bozman, p. 83.
1 In 1642, "the Protestant Catholics of Maryland " are men- tioned upon the Records-intended, no doubt, for the members of the English Church. See their petition to the Assembly, in 2 Boz- man, p. 199. In some, also, of the early wills, "Catholic " is applied to the Church of England. Sce the one of Thos. Banks, in 1684, Lib. G., p. 126.
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THE CONCORDAT.
given by most writers to the Protestants, was pro- bably not their property exclusively, but erected with the joint funds or contributions of the Roman and of the Anglican Catholics. The key to it was seized, in 1642, by Doctor Gerrard, a promi- nent Roman Catholic,' and upon the ground of some claim, if we may judge from an expression in the decision against him. In the proposal, about the same year, for a transfer of the premises to Lord Baltimore (an arrangement not immediately, if ever at all, effected), another Roman Catholic gentleman was the ostensible owner or represen- tative of the title. And there is evidence to show, that at a very early period, the graveyard was the usual burial-place of the Roman Catholics.ª Some also of the colonists, who held land, under Doctor Gerrard, as the lord of St. Clement's Manor, as
1 See the case of Thos. Gerrard, in 2 Bozman, pp. 199-200.
" Sach, it seems, was the fact, from the will of John Lloyd, of St. Mary's-a Roman Catholic, who expressed the wish to be interred "in ye ordinary burying-place, in St. Mary's chapel- yard." See his will of 1658, in Lib. S., 1658 to 1662, Judgments, pp. 74-75.
2*
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THE DAY-STAR.
well as the Doctor's wife,1 were Protestants. And he, and other Roman Catholics, it is not unreason- able to suppose, were partly instrumental in build- ing this little temple, in token of the concord ? between the English and the Roman Catholic ; and where each, at his own appropriate hour, might offer up his sacrifice to the Most High.
Faithfully did Cecilius, the proprietary, execute the pledge he had given to the members of the Eng- lish church. How intoxicating is the taste of power! How apt are we to forget the obligation we owe to those whom we command! How easy was it for the proprietary, in an obscure and remote part of the world, beyond the immediate eye of the Crown,
1 The case of the Rev. Francis Fitzherbert develops the faith of Doctor Gerrard and his wife.
" My theory respecting the object and ownership of the chapel, is by no means essential to the support of the interpretation given to the charter. But under every aspect, it is, in itself, highly probable. And I suggest it as one of the evidences that the har- mony existed, barring a few individual cases, as a living reality, independently even of the action of the Proprietary's govern- ment. For negotiations respecting the purchase, see Bozman, vol. 2, pp. 203, and 627-628.
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THE HONOR DUE TO CECILIUS.
to commit acts of petty cruelty and oppression towards those who differed with him on points of faith, not only by excluding them from civil offices but also in many other respects! How often do we deny to others, what we have so earnestly claimed for ourselves ! And how great is the reproach to human nature-to peasants as well as princes, in that and in every other age-arising from the disregard so often manifested for the obligation of promises, or for the sacredness of treaties! The singular fidelity with which the second baron of Baltimore kept his pledge, pre- sents one of the best examples upon the record, one of the purest lessons of history, one of the strongest claims to the gratitude of Maryland, and to the admiration of the world.
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CHAPTER IV.
The Toleration under the first Governor.
SUCH is the meaning of the charter historically interpreted ; and such the earliest principle and practice of the government-freedom to the Angli- can and freedom to the Roman Catholic-a free- dom of conscience, not allowed but exacted. A freedom, however, of a wider sort springs forth at . the birth of the colony-not demanded by that instrument, but permitted by it-not graven upon the tables of stone, or written upon the pages of the statute-book-but conceived in the very bosom of the proprietary, and of the original Pilgrims- not a formal or constructive, but a living freedom -a freedom of the most practical sort. It is the freedom, which it remained for them, and for them alone, either to grant or to deny-a freedom embracing within its range, and protecting under its banner, all those who were believers in JESUS
الـ
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PRACTICAL TOLERATION IN 1634.
CHRIST. And the grant of this freedom is that which has placed the proprietary among the first law-reformers of the world, and Maryland in advance of every State upon the continent. Our ancestors had seen the evils of intolerance; they had tasted the bitter cup of persecution. Happy is he whose moral sense has not been corrupted by bigotry, whose heart is not hardened by misfor- tune, whose soul-(the spring of generous impulse) has never been dried up by the parching adversi- ties of life ! They brought with them, in "The Ark," and "The Dove," the elements of that liberty they had so much desired, themselves, in the Old World, and which to others in the New, of a different faith, they were too good and too just to deny. Upon the banks of the St. Mary's, in the soil of Maryland, amid the wilderness of America, they planted that seed which has since become a tree of life to the nation, extending its branches and casting its shadows across a whole continent. The records have been carefully searched. No case of persecution occurred during the adminis- tration of Governor Leonard Calvert, from the foundation of the settlement at St. Mary's to the
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THE DAY-STAR.
year 1647. His policy included the humblest as well as the most exalted; and his maxim was, PEACE TO ALL-PROSCRIPTION OF NONE.1 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY Was a VITAL PART of the earliest common- law of the province.
1 The inference from a careful search of the Records is con- firmed by the testimony of Langford, whose "Refutation of Babylon's Fall" was published very soon after the battle of 1655 ; and by the authority of Bancroft and other historians. Mr. Bancroft says (see vol. 1, p. 257) that the government, in conformity with strict and repeated injunctions, had never given . disturbance to any persons in Maryland "for matter of reli- gion." The Protestant declaration of 1650, also contains evi- dence independently of that, which relates to the Act of 1649.
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1
THE OFFICIAL OATH.
CHAPTER V.
Toleration Implied in the Official Oath.
AT the date of the charter, Toleration existed in the heart of the proprietary. And it appeared, in the earliest administration of the affairs of the province. But an oath was soon prepared by him, including a pledge from the governor and the privy counsellors, "directly or indirectly," to " trouble, molest, or discountenance " no "person whatever," in the province, " professing to believe in Jesus Christ." Its date is still an open question -- some writers supposing it was imposed in 1637; and others, in 1648. I am inclined to think the oath of the latter was but " an augmented edition "1
' See Brantz Mayer's "Calvert and Penn," pp. 46-47; Chal- mers's Annals ; and the authorities quoted by Mr. Mayer. See also Langford's "Refutation of Babylon's Fall." I do not, however, conceive there is anything material in the exact date, or in the formal imposition.
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of the one in the former year. The grant of the charter marks the era of a special Toleration. But the earliest practice of the government presents the first; the official oath, the second; the action of the Assembly in 1649, the third, and, to advo- cates of a republican government, the most impor -. tant phasis, in the history of the general Tolera- tion. The oath of 1648 is worthy of attention, in another particular. It contained a special pledge, in favor of the Roman Catholics-a feature, which might have been deemed requisite, in consideration of the fact, that the proprietary had appointed a Protestant gentleman ' for the post of lieutenant- general, or governor. Some also of the privy counsellors were of the same faith.
1 This view is confirmed by Langford, and accepted by Streeter, who certainly manifests no partiality for the proprietary.
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ASSEMBLY OF 1649.
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CHAPTER VI.
The Assembly of 1649-Kent and St. Mary's Represented- Sketch of their Early History-Passage of the Toleration Act.
THE little provincial parliament of Maryland assembled, at St. Mary's, in the month of April,1 during the year 1649. This was about fifteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims, under Governor Calvert; about thirty later than the set- tlement of the Puritans at Plymouth ; and more than forty, subsequently to the arrival of the Anglo-Catholics at Jamestown, in Virginia. The members of the Assembly at St. Mary's met in a spirit of moderation but seldom the characteristic of a dominant party. The province was at peace with the aboriginal tribes within its limits. The unhappy contest with Col. Wm. Clayborne had
1 The Assembly met about the 14th of April, according to the present calendar, or the 2d of that month, Old Style. For the Julian, or Old Style, see 2 Bozman, p. 384.
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been virtually terminated; the rebellions of Capt. Richard Ingle, and other Protestant enemies, effectively suppressed ; the reins of government recovered ; and the principles of order once more established. Governor Calvert, the chief of the Maryland Pilgrims, after a trying, but heroic, and honorable administration, had died, amid the prayers and blessings of his friends, without a stain upon his memory. Thos. Green had, also, for a short period, been the governor. And the principal key of authority was then held by Capt. Wm. Stone.
The Assembly was composed of the governor, the privy counsellors and the burgesses. In many particulars, its model was not unlike that of the primitive parliaments of England.1 The governor and the privy counsellors were appointed by Cecilius, the feudal prince or proprietary of the province ; the burgesses, who were chosen by the freemen, represented the democratic element in the original constitution of Maryland. The dele-
' The Assembly was sometimes called " Parliament." See the Records ; also 2 Bosman, p. 185, note.
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KENT.
gates were sent by Kent and by St. Mary's, the only two counties at that time within the limits of the principality ; the former upon the east, the latter upon the west side of "The Great Bay." And while there is no reason for asserting the want of harmony upon the business of this Assem- bly, it is a remarkable fact, that for more than two centuries the most strongly marked differences have existed between the shores of the Chesa- peake, not only of a geographical, but also of a political character.
Kent, in the midst of many sad reverses, had grown out of a settlement founded as early as 1630, by Col. Clayborne, in the spirit of a truly heroic adventure, under the jurisdiction established at Jamestown, and during the administration (it is supposed) of Governor Harvey, upon an island of the Chesapeake called Kent, but then the "Isle of Kent ;"' a purchase (to quote the colonel's own
1 It is supposed by some that the island derived its name from the birthplace of Clayborne. There were families of his name in Westmoreland and York. But there is no trace of him in Phil- pot's " Villare," or any other work I have seen relating to Kent. The island, I think, was named in honor of the governor under
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words) from " the kings of that country ;"1 and the original centre of the county represented at St. Mary's, though now included within the limits
whose administration, or auspices, the settlement was founded, and who was probably a native of the English county of Kent.
1 Bozman, vol. ii. pp. 67 and 582.
2 The seat of Clayborne's settlement was at Kent Point. There also was the "Mill," several of which (that is, windmills) can still be seen. There is not a single water-fall upon the island, and the records mention the "vane," and other things, which prove the wind was the motive power.
Near the " Mill" was Fort Kent. Fort Crayford stood near Craney Creek, now a pond, and is frequently noticed upon the old records at Chestertown, especially in the deeds containing the boundary lines to tracts of land. It is not named in any of our histories ; but the recorded evidence is as strong as that relating to the site of the other fort.
Kent Fort Manor included Kent Mill and Kent Fort. It was given by the proprietary to Gov. Calvert as a reward for his ser- vices in the conquest of the island ; but assigned to Capt. Giles Brent, whose family, for many generations, held the title. From the testimony of Mr. Bryan, a soldier of 1776, and at the time of my interview nearly ninety-five years old, I learn that the manor- house was burnt during his childhood ; but another, upon the same foundation, soon afterwards built. The spot is easily desig- nated, being but a few hundred yards from the vault, and still nearer to a small clump of old and dwarfish damascene-trees. The
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KENT.
of Queen Anne's1-an island still noted for the beauty of its scenery, and the wealth of its wa- ters in fish and fowl; and the only dwelling-place of the colonists upon the eastern shore, at the time of this Assembly ; the seat, also, of opulence and elegance at a period anterior to the American Revolution ;2 and represented in the Virginia piece of a mill-stone, the fragment of an oven-lid, and a few other relics, may now be picked up. In the examination of these inte- resting localities, I was kindly aided by several intelligent gen- tlemen, especially by Doctor Samuel Harper, of Easton.
There was a court-house upon the island ; the first on the east side of the Chesapeake. It stood, I am inclined to think, upon the eastern part of the island.
The Matapeakes are the only Indians whose residence upon the island, or whose name can be traced. They lived at one time near Indian Spring ; and at another, in Matapax Neck. See my paper presented to the MId. Hist. Society.
' The island, first of all, was under the jurisdiction of Virginia ; then the subject of contest between Lord Baltimore and Colonel Clayborne ; subsequently annexed as a hundred to St. Mary's; and next erected into a county. At a later period, it belonged to Talbot. But before the year 1695, it was again, though for a short time, erected into a county.
2 See Eddis's Letters-an instructive, well-written volume -- where the reader will find an interesting sketch of a visit to the island.
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THE DAY-STAR.
House of Burgesses, before the settlement at St. Mary's;1 but, above all, distinguished as the first focal point of Anglo-American civilization' within the present boundaries of our State.
St. Mary's, which also had been purchased from the Indians-how honorable to the memory of . those who took part in that transaction !'-and
' " The Virginians," says Chalmers, " boasted, with their wonted pride, that the colonists of Kent sent burgesses to their Assembly, and were subjected to their jurisdiction, before Maryland had a name." Nor was the boast without foundation. Their early legislative journals (see Henning's Collection) show conclusively, that the island was represented by Capt. Nicholas Martin.
2 The date of the settlement cannot be accurately given. The Rev. Ethan Allen supposes it was during the year 1629. See Allen's Maryland Toleration, p. 8.
' The following extract will show the manner in which Gover- nor Calvert proceeded, soon after his arrival :-
"To make his entry peaceable and safe, he thought fit to present ye Werowance and Wisoes of the town (so they call ye chief men of account among them), with some English cloth (such as is used in trade with ye Indiaus), axes, hoes, and knives, which they accepted very kindly, and freely gave consent to his company, that he and they should dwell in one part of their town, and reserve the other for themselves : and those Indians that dwelt in that part of ye town which was allotted for ye English, freely left them their houses and some corn that they had begun to plant.
ST. MARY'S. 47
which had borne the appellation of Augusta- Carolina,' included a territory of thirty miles, extending towards the mouth of the Potomac, and embracing the St. Mary's, which flows into that river. Within this county was also the small city, which had been founded upon the site an abori -.
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It was also agreed between them, that at ye end of ye harvest, they should have ye whole town, which they did accordingly. And they made mutual promises to each other to live peaceably and friendly together ; and if any injury should happen to be done, on any part, that satisfaction should be made for ye same ; and thus, on ye 27th day of March, A.D. 1634, ye governor took possession of ye place, and named ye town St. Maries.
" There was an occasion that much facilitated their treaty with these Indians, which was this : the Susquehanocks (a warlike peo- ple that inhabit between Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay) did usually make wars and incursions upon ye neighboring Indians, partly for superiority, partly for to get their women, and what other purchase they could meet with ; which the Indians of You- comaco fearing, had, ye year before our arrival there, made a resolution, for their safety, to remove themselves higher into ye country, where it was more populous, and many of them were gone there when ye English arrived." See " A Relation of Mary- land, 1635."
1 In honor, we may suppose of King Charles. Augusta was not borne by any member of the royal family ; nor was Caroline. The former may be regarded as an adjoctive, or epithet.
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4
ginal village;1 and which, like the river upon which it stood, derived its beautiful name from the Blessed Virgin ; the chief star in a constellation of little settlements and plantations ; and for a period of about sixty years, the provincial capital of Maryland-a city of which nothing now remains, deserving the dignity of ruins, and a few relics only are preserved-the records and everything belong- ing to the government having long since been removed to Annapolis-but a spot still consecrated in the affections of the country-one which is visited upon anniversary and other occasions by the well-bred sons of Maryland, and to which patriots of other States may look with pride and pleasure-where also the pilgrim of the future, in approaching. the shrine already dedicated by the voice of history, will ever rejoice to pour out his feelings in expressions of profound gratitude to God.
The principle of compensation for services, it is proper to state, was not adopted by the memor- able Assembly of 1640. The only consideration
Yacomico.
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BILL OF CHARGES.
allowed the representatives of the freemen, and paid in their usual currency, was twenty-six pounds · of tobacco each day-a quantity equivalent to seventy-eight pence in English, or a hundred and fifty-six cents in American money-and intended simply to cover the cost of "their diet," and the " loss of their time." One member, indeed, of the Lower House received a consideration for service, or " trouble ;" but three others only ten pounds of tobacco, respectively. The whole . "bill of charges," so far, at least, as regards the burgesses, was prepared with a special reference to the exhausted state of the province. And we may suppose, that some of them waived a part even of their right to the little allowance.
The members of our early provincial parlia- ments, unlike some of their English prototypes, generally, if not always, in entering the House took off their hats. They also stood when they addressed the chair. They seem, indeed, to have been distinguished, for their sense of modesty ; and for the strongest sentiments of respect and affec- tion for the person of the proprietary. But they lacked nothing of the spirit, or independence of
3
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THE DAY-STAB.
freemen. They were not under the proprietary's
dictation. The legislative annals are full of strik- ing and well-known illustrations of their manhood. If proof were needed, the very letter addressed him, by the Assembly of this year, and published in Bozman's History, would be sufficient.
In the Hall of Edward the Confessor, a picture has been presented of the primitive parliament, by one of England's most accurate historians. The Anglo-Saxon is giving his friendly explanations of the Assembly to the Norwegian stranger. "Haco," says he, "you well know how we call this Assembly ?- A Micel getheaht,1 or Great thought-a Witena-gemot, or Meeting of. the Wise -and at present it well deserves its name. Our Redes-men, or counsellors, the members of the legislature, ponder much before they come together, say little, and write less."? May it not, with a still greater truth, be affirmed, that our own early law-givers were the representatives of a 1 great and sublime conception ? And judging
1 From the Anglo-Saxon word, " micel" (big), is derived our English surname " Mitchel."
' Palgrave's History of the Anglo-Saxons, Preface, p. 25.
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THE WITENAGEMOT OF 1649.
from the number of wholesome laws enacted in 1649, as well as the shortness of their session (for it did not include twenty-five days), it would seem, the Assembly-men of this year were cer- tainly not very fond of talking or speech-making. It appears also, that some of them, like our Saxon forefathers,2 could neither read nor write. It can be proved from the records, that two of them, at least, were in the habit of making a signet mark.' But did they not leave a mark also upon the coun- try, and upon the world? In depth and earnest-
' " I hear," says the Anglo-Saxon, " that amongst the French they designate such assemblies as ours by the name of a ' collo- quium,' or, as we should say, a ' talk'-which they render, in their corrupted romance-jargon, by the word 'parlement;' and should our ' W'itenagemot,' our 'Micel-gethealt,' ever cease to be a 'meeting of the wise,' or 'great-thought,' and become a 'parle- ment,' or 'great-talk,' it will be worse for England than if a myriad of your northern pirates were to ravish the land from sea to sea." Palgrave, p. 26.
" Some even of the Anglo-Saxon kings made their mark. It is doubtful if William the Conqueror could write.
' Col. John Price, of the upper, and Mr. John Maunsell, of the lower House : the former a Protestant, the latter a Roman Catholic.
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ness, in real dignity and propriety, in profound views of human nature, and in true legislative wisdom, they were not a whit behind those earlier law-givers, who bore the appellation of "The Wise," and whose bright renown has come down to our own age. The laws of King Alfred, so celebrated in the history of English jurisprudence, do not excel the legislation of our own little Assembly, during the dominion of the first pro- prietary. The principle adopted by the Assembly of this year, respecting the purchase of Indian land-titles, has since been tested a thousand times; and is now a prominent feature in the policy of the federal government. But to the legislators of 1649, was it given, to discharge a much higher task-to execute a much nobler mission-to inau- gurate a much greater idea-an idea which had existed in the bosom of the proprietary, and been sanctioned by the earliest practice of the govern- ment ; but yet awaited a formal confirmation from the Roman Catholic and from the Protestant planters of the province. The time, at length, arrived for them also, to officiate at the altar of religious freedom; and to take their own rank
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THE NOBLE MISSION. 53
among the foremost spirits of the age. Near the close of the session, within the range of abo- riginal villages, and the blaze of Indian council fires, they took counsel, we may suppose, not only of each other, but also of the true "FATHER OF LIGHTS," and then, by a solemn act, they endorsed that policy, which ever since has shed the bright- est lustre upon the legislative annals of the province.
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