USA > Maryland > The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations > Part 97
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Notes,-that these names "were appellations designating the tribes in the con- federacy,-that those persons were not Powhatan's real brothers, but the chiefs of different tribes, and that the Sachem or chief of the tribe seemed to be by election,"-appears to be repugnant to the latter part of the above quotation from Smith, which Mr. Thompson has not fully stated, having omitted the ma- terial word-"heirs," &c., which, in the English language, here used by Smith, always intimates inheritance by blood. This rule of inheritance, spoken of by Smith as to Powhatan, is recognized also by Beverly, (who wrote when many tribes of Indians were still known as then existing in Virginia,-see his Hist. of Virg. p. 163,) as a general rule of inheritance among them as to their regal power. This he attributes to their jealousy of their wives, "always respecting the descent by the female as the surer side." The same rule of inheritance is recognized also by William Penn, as prevalent with the Indians of Pennsylvania, when he first made his settlement there, for which he has assigned the same rea- son as Beverly. See Proud's Hist. Pennsylv. vol. i. p. 257.
NOTE (III.) p. 30.
It said by Chalmers in his Annals, (ch. ix. p. 207,) where he speaks of the arrival of the Maryland colony, that "animated by very different principles, Cal- vert, their leader, pursued a very different conduct from those who first planted the shores of James river. He purchased the rights of the aborigines for a con- sideration which seems to have given them satisfaction; and with their free con- sent, in the subsequent March, he took possession of their town, which he called Saint Mary's. Prudence as well as justice dictated the continuation of this salutary policy, with regard to that people ; and, having carefully cultivated their friendship, he lived with them on terms of perfect amity, till it was interrupted by the interested intrigues of an individual,"-William Clayborne.
As philanthropists have been excessively clamorous in the praises of William Penn for his ostentatious purchase of the lands of the aborigines, particularly at the time of his supposed treaty with the Indians under the great elm at Shacka- maxon, (so brilliantly illustrated by the pencil of his Britannic majesty's histori- cal painter,) it is here thought, that the conduct of Leonard Calvert, on a simi- lar occasion, will not shrink from a comparison with that of William Penn. It will not be fully admitted, that William Penn or any other European colonist, or even the United States at this day, can with perfect honesty and integrity pur- chase the lands of the aboriginal natives of America ; for several reasons ;- first, it is not a clear proposition, that savages can, for any consideration, enter into a contract obligatory upon them. They stand by the laws of nations, when traf- ficking with the civilized part of mankind, in the situation of infants, incapable of entering into contracts, especially for the sale of their country. Should this be denied, it may be then asserted, that no monarch of a nation, (that is no sa- chem, chief, or head men, or assemblage of sachems, &c.) has a power to trans- fer by sale the country, that is, the soil, of the nation over which they rule. But neither did William Penn, make, nor has any other European since made, a pur- chase of lands from any tribe or nation of Indians through the agency of any others than their sachems or head men ; who certainly could have no more right to sell their country, than any European monarch has to sell theirs. But should it be contended, that savages are capable of entering into contracts, and that their sachems have a power to transfer by sale the country of the people over whom they rule, it may be safely asked,-what could William Penn, or at least what did he give, which could be considered, in any point of view, as a consi. deration or compensation to those poor ignorant aborigines for their lands ? If we are to follow Mr. West's imagination, (in his celebrated picture of "Penn's treaty with the Indians ;") for, history recognises no such treaty, and the late biogra-
VOL. II .-- 72
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pher of William Penn, (Clarkson,) fairly acknowledges, that "in no historian could he find any account of it ;" but from " traditions in Quaker families," and "relations in Indian speeches," it might be inferred, that there was such a treaty ; if then, the pencil of the artist is correctly warranted by " tradition," William Penn gave nothing more than some English broad cloth, or perhaps some beads or other trinkets, which might have been contained in the trunk displayed in the fore-ground of the picture, for all the lands, on which he built his city, including also a large portion of his province ; and this he seems to have been induced to do, not from his own original perception of the justice of the thing, but, as he acknowledges in his letter to the lords of the council composing the committee- of Plantations, dated August 14th, 1683, "that he might exactly follow the bishop of London's counsel, by buying, and not taking away, the native's land." (See this letter at length in Chalmers's Annals, ch. xxi. note 38.) Now, the presents of Leonard Calvert really seem to have been of greater value ; for, besides broad cloth, history says, that he gave them "axes and hoes ;" thereby endeavouring to introduce among them, as it were the first rudiments of civilization-the imple- ments of agriculture. With this, it seems, they were as well satisfied to give up the lands of St. Mary's, as the Indians of Shackamaxon were to give up those where Philadelphia stands.
The foregoing remarks would, perhaps, not have been made, had they not been drawn forth by a part of a speech, which the before mentioned biographer of William Penn has dressed up for him, on the occasion of this celebrated treaty, entirely from "tradition," as he acknowledges, in which he makes him to say to. the Indians ;- "that he would not do as the Marylanders did, that is, call them children or brothers only ; for, often parents were apt to whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes would differ : but he should consider them as: the same flesh and blood with the christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts." It is to be observed, that Penn had then but a few days prior to this supposed treaty returned from Maryland, whither he had gone on a visit to Charles, lord Baltimore, son and heir of Cecilius, to consult about the boundaries of their respective provinces, and where he had been "very kindly received, not only by his host, but by the principal inhabitants of the pro- vince." Setting aside this ungrateful return for the hospitality of the Mary- landers just shewn to him, and notwithstanding these proprietaries could not agree about their bounds, there seems to have been, in the above mentioned in- sinuation, some small want of generosity, if not of humanity, in endeavouring to instil into the minds of the Indians prejudices against the Marylanders, who were certainly as much of "the same flesh and blood with the christians," as the Indians or Pennsylvanians were. Had he excited the Indians to war upon the inhabitants of Maryland, as he appears to have endeavoured to do, it would cer- tainly not have comported with his pacific principles of christianity. But, not- withstanding the boasted effects of this celebrated treaty, it is to these "whip- pings" given by the Marylanders to their children-the Indians, together with the similar usage of them by the inhabitants of New York and Virginia, that the Quakers of Pennsylvania owe their existence as a colony, until through their pacific principles they were obliged to surrender up the affairs of their province into other hands.
NOTE (IV.) p. 30.
It is proper here to inform the reader, that in a few days after the Maryland colony had left Point Comfortin Virginia, the governor and council of that pro- vince, on the 14th of March, 1633-4, held a consultation concerning the mode of conduct they were to observe towards the Maryland colony. The result of this consultation, as it is published by Chalmers, in his Annals, ch. ix. note 17, from Maryland Papers, vol. 1, bundle C. is here subjoined.
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" PRESENT,
Sir John Harvey, governor, Capt. Clayborne, Capt. Tho. Purfry,
Capt. John West, Mr. Wm. Farrer, Capt. Jos. Bullock,
Capt. Sam. Matthews, Capt. John Uty, Capt. Win. Perry.
Captain William Clayborne requested the opinion of the board, how he should demean himself in respect of lord Baltimore's patent, and his deputies now seat- ed in the bay ; for that they had signified to captain Clayborne, that he was now a member of that plantation, and therefore should relinquish all relation and de- pendence on this colony. It was answered by the board, that they wonder why any such question was made ; that they knew no reason why they should render up the rights of that place of the isle of Kent, more than any other formerly given to this colony by his majesty's patent; and that, the right of my lord's grant being yet undetermined in England, we are bound in duty and by our oaths to maintain the rights and privileges of this colony. Nevertheless, in all hum- ble submission to his majesty's pleasure, we resolve to keep and observe all good correspondence with them, no way doubting that they on their parts will not en- trench upon the interests of this his majesty's plantation."
It is probable, that the discontents, which had been excited in Virginia, prin- cipally on account of lord Baltimore's charter, together with the foregoing mani- festation of the opinions of a majority of the provincial council of Virginia thereon : occasioned the following letter from the committee of the king's coun- ci!, in England, for the colonies, to the governor and council of Virginia, pub- lished in Chalmer's Annals, (ch. v. note 16,) from Virg. Ent. 1 v. p. 211.
"After our hearty commendations : we have thought fit to let you know, that his majesty, of his royal favour, and for the better encouragement of the planters there, doth let you know, that 'tis not intended, that interests, which men have settled when you were a corporation, should be impeached, that for the present they may enjoy their estates with the same freedom and privilege as they did be- fore the recalling of their patents ; to which purpose also, in pursuance of his majesty's gracious intention, we do hereby authorise you to dispose of such pro- portions of lands to all those planters, being freemen, as you had power to do, before the year 1625. Whitehall, 22d July, 1634.
Manchester, Kelley, E. Newburg, T. Coventry, F. Cottington, T. Germini, F. Windebank.
To our loving friends, the governor and council in Virginia."
Although this letter was written subsequent to governor Hervey's visit to St. Mary's, and probably did not arrive in Virginia until the autumn of this year 1634, yet, as it appertains to the events of the present year, and serves to de- monstrate, that no invasion of any individual right of any Virginian was intend- ed by lord Baltimore's grant, it is inserted in this place.
NOTE (V.) p. 35.
Supplementary to the before mentioned events of the year 1635, an incident of that time, apparently trivial, but, being connected with an awful misfortune, which the state of Maryland seems to be destined to experience at some future day, demands some notice. In a memorandum, (recorded in p. 37, of the oldest land record book of the province of Maryland, marked No. 1,) relative to "rights of land," accruing to those, who should bring in persons to settle in the province, agreeably to the first "conditions of plantation," prescribed by the lord proprie- tary, mention is made, that "Francisco a molato was brought in by Andrew White in the year 1635;" and right to land thereupon claimed. Subsequent en- tries of the same tenor appear in other parts of the land records ; as "for trans- porting negro Phillis in the year 1648." (See Liber A. B. & H. p. 9.) It is an event, recorded by most of the historians of Virginia, that negroes were first im- ported or introduced into that province in the year 1620, by a Dutch ship bound
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homeward from the coast of Guinea, from which the Virginia colonists bought twenty of that wretched race of people. It may be proper, however, to mention, that Smith (in his Hist. Virg. vol. ii. p. 391, edit. of 1819,) seems to have placed this event in the year 1619 ; where he states, under the date of 1619, as follows : "About the last of August came in a Dutch man-of-warre that sold vs twenty nagars." The example of a sister colony, so nearly situated to Maryland, would naturally be soon adopted by the latter. From the name " Francisco,"-it is probable, he was brought from the Spanish West Indies. The English, however, had commenced the slave trade, under a charter for that purpose from king James the first, as early as the year 1618 ; but, the profits not being found to answer expectation, the charter was suffered to expire. However, in 1631, when the English had begun the settlement of plantations in the West Indies, negroes be- ing in much demand, a second company for the African slave trade was erected by Charles the first. (See Edwards's Hist. of the West Indies, B. 4, ch. 2.) So that the regular importation of negro slaves into Maryland might perhaps have been lawful, immediately in its first settlement in 1634. The importation of "Francisco" seems, to be the first notice on record of the introduction of this race of people into the province.
It may be further remarked, that if the "Conditions of Plantation," which are supposed to have been issued prior to the embarkation of the first colonists in 1633, were the same, at least as to this particular, as those subsequently issued in 1636, (which will appear in the proceedings of the next year,) the owner of " Francisco" was entitled to one hundred'acres of land for his "transportation into the province," under the denomination of a "servant." This instance, and more particularly that of " Negro Phillis," seem to prove, that negroes were then con- sidered more as legitimate population than property.
NOTE (VI.) p. 42.
The first commission on record, for organizing the government of the province ; taken from the book entitled, "Council Proceedings from 1636 to 1657," p. 11. " Cecilius, by the grant and * of our sovereign lord Charles by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c., absolute lord and proprietary of the province and country of Mary- land in the parts of America, lord Baron of Baltimore, &c., to all and singular persons to whom this present writing shall come, greeting,-Know ye, that we, taking into our serious consideration the necessity of making a governor, ap- pointing a council, and other officers, and establishing of laws proper and con- venient for preservation of the peace, and support of the commonwealth of our province of Maryland, and likewise calling to mind the faithful and laudable service done by our dear brother Leonard Calvert, esqr., as well in the adven- ture of his person in the first descent and settling our colony there, as the or- dering and advancing the same by his personal residence within the same our said province, wherein he hath manifested, to the satisfaction of our self and of our colony there, such wisdom, fidelity, industry, and other virtues as render him capable and worthy of trust, hereby by us intended to be reposed in him ; and for divers other good causes and considerations us thereunto especially mov- ing, have nominated, constituted, ordained, authorized, and established, and by these presents do nominate, constitute, ordain, authorize, and establish the said Leonard Cal- Leonard Calvert, in the absence of us and our heirs, our lieutenant general, vert constitu- admiral, chief captain and commander, as well by sea as land, of our said pro - ted lieuten- ant general, vince of Maryland and the islands to the same belonging; and do, by these admiral, &c.
presents, give unto him the chief commandment and absolute authority about
* This and other blanks in this commission are so in the record.
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and in all matters of warfare by sea and land, to execute and administer the same, to the resistance of the enemy or suppression of mutinies and insolencies, as our said lieutenant shall think most commodious for the preservation of our said province, and to do all such things as do belong or appertain to the office of a general, admiral, captain or commander : to have, hold, and enjoy, and ad- minister the same, with such power and authority as any other lieutenant go- vernor, general, admiral, captain and commander of any other province may, His power might, or ought by the law of arms to do, until we shall signify our pleasure to; the contrary ; And, therefore, we do hereby further ordain and command all captains - and soldiers, as well by sea as by land, whom it may concern,
ty. and all such as are and shall of our council within our said province, all our officers, receivers, bailiffs, marshalls, magistrates, gentlemen, and all other inhabitants of our said province of what quality or condition soever, that they and every of them do acknowledge the said Leonard Calvert in the quality of our lieutenant general, admiral, chief captain, and commander of all our said province, and the islands and members of the same, and do honour, respect, and obey him, as they ought to do, upon pain of such punishment to be inflicted upon them and every of them, as such a high contempt shall deserve ; And to the end that no man there shall pretend ignorance, we do command this our ordinance to be proclaimed and published within our said province at the places This ordi- accustomed to proclaim and publish our edicts or ordinances, commanding him nance to be proclaimed our said lieutenant to proceed with rigour against all contemners and neglect- and publish- ors of the same, according to the order of punishment before maintained with- ed. out favour or -; And we do further by these presents make, constitute, ordain, and establish the said Leonard Calvert to be our chancellor, chief jus- Leonard Cal- tice, and chief magistrate within our said province, until we or our heirs shall vert appoint-
ed chancel- signify the contrary under our hand and seal, and from time to time to appoint lor, chief jus- and constitute officers and ministers for the preservation of the peace, adminis- tice, &c. tration, and execution of justice, and for doing and executing of all other things whatsoever which belong to the establishing and governing of a good and hap- py commonwealth within our said province ; And we do further give and grant to him our said lieutenant, chancellor, chief justice, and chief full and Power to call an assembly. absolute power and authority to assemble the freemen or their deputies at Saint Mary's within our said province upon the five and twentieth day of January next ensuing the date hereof, and then and there to signify to them, that we do To signify to disassent to all the laws by them heretofore or at any time made within our said them his dis- province, as we do hereby declare them to be void; and further to shew unto laws hereto- assent to the
fore made by them the draught or copy of all such laws and ordinances for the good govern- them. ment of our said province, as we shall before that time transmit to him our said lieutenant under our hand and seal, with our assent for enacting of the same ; and likewise, if the said freemen or their deputies so assembled shall approve and consent unto all the said draughts or copies of the said laws and ordinances in manner as we send them over, to publish the same as laws under the great seal of our province, that the people and inhabitants of our said province may take the better notice thereof; And we do further by these presents give and Power to the grant unto him our said lieutenant like absolute power and authority, after the governor to said assembly so called as aforesaid shall be by him dissolved, at all or any other solve assem- eall and dis- time or times, when and as often as he shall think fit, to call or summon one or blies. more general assembly or assemblies of the freemen within our said province, and to propound and prepare other wholesome laws and ordinances for the go- vernment and well ordering of the said province and people within the same, to be by us assented to and confirmed, if upon view and mature consideration had of the same, we shall in our judgment approve thereof; And we do by these presents give and grant full power and authority unto our said lieutenant to ad-
and authori-
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governor to make ordi- nances, &c.
journ and dissolve the said assembly so authorized to be called on the five and twentieth day of January next ensuing the date hereof as aforesaid, and all Power to the other assemblies by him hereafter to be called, at his pleasure ; And, forasmuch as the calling of a general assembly of the said freemen, and the consulting about and enacting of laws will require long time and much consultation, and many times sudden and other necessary occasions may happen or fall out, which require -- a speedy remedy, We do, therefore, give and grant unto our said lieutenant full power and authority to make, constitute, ordain and publish in our name such reasonable and profitable ordinances, edicts, and proclamations, with reasonable pains and penalties therein to be expressed to be duly inflicted on all such offenders against the same as he our said lieutenant in his discretion shall think fit, Provided that such penalties do not extend to the taking away the right or interest of any person or persons of or in their life, members, or free- holds, goods or chattels ; All which ordinances, edicts, and proclamations shall stand in force only and until we or our heirs shall signify the contrary to him our said lieutenant general and the people there, or that he our said lieutenant Power to him shall in his discretion think fit to repeal the same; And further we do hereby to appoint public ports. give and grant full power and authority to him our said lieutenant to appoint fit places for public ports for lading, shipping, unlading, and discharging all goods and merchandizes, to be imported or exported into or out of our said province, and to prohibit the shipping or discharging of any goods or merchandizes what- soever in all other places or ports within our said province, and to appoint officers and ministers in the same places and ports, and also to erect and estab- lish convenient places for the holding and keeping of fairs and markets, and to establish markets and fairs there to be held upon certain days for that purpose to be by him appointed; And we do further by these presents give full power and authority to our said lieutenant, if he see cause, to pardon and remit, in part or in whole, all pains, forfeitures, and penalties, which any person or persons within our said province shall incur for any misdemeanor or offence against any of our laws, ordinances, or orders whatsoever, made or to be made for the good government of our said province, and to grant pardons to all and every such de- linquents in our name under our great seal of our said province, so that such pardon or pardons extend not to the pardoning of high treason ; And further we do by these presents commit the custody and keeping of our great seal of our said province unto him our said lieutenant ; and we do hereby give and grant unto him our said lieutenant absolute power and lawful authority for us and in our name to pass and grant under the same our great seal all writs and processes, all commissions for the execution of justice and for dividing and bounding of lands, all pardons, licences, and all public acts and deeds whatsoever, which shall at any time pass within our said province ; and we do further hereby give full power and authority unto him our said lieutenant, for us and in our name, to pass and grant under our great seal to such person or persons such quantity of land with- in our said province for such estate and interest and with such privileges and immunities as we have or from time to time shall give him our said lieutenant for warrant under our hand and seal, all which grants, so to be made, passed, and granted, after the same grants and the said warrants under our hand and seal for the passing thereof, shall be enrolled by our secretary of our said pro- vince for the time being and not before, we will and do hereby declare shall be effectual in law against us, and shall bind us and our heirs as firmly as if we ourselves had been present and had affixed our great seal to such grant or grants in proper person ; And for the better assistance of him our lieutenant in the ex- ecution of the premises and of the charge by us committed to him we have ap- Jerome Hawley, pointed and ordained, and by these presents do appoint and ordain our well be- loved Jerome Hawley, esqr., Thomas Cornwaleys, esqr., and John Lewger,
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