USA > Maryland > The origin and growth of civil liberty in Maryland : a discourse > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Immediately on the arrival of a vessel at the port of Baltimore, the
* This committee, however, was not appointed by the committee of observation, but at the public meeting, before mentioned, held in Baltimore previously to the election of the latter .- See Purviance's Narrative, p. 13. The incident is referred to here only as an instance of the efficient action of the revolutionary committees of correspondence.
-
ERRATUM.
On page 23, beginning at line 12, read : " but suchi was the patriotism of her citizens, that they cheerfully submitted to the measure, and fairly carried it out. It is to the credit especially, of the mercantile part of the community, who were the greatest sufferers, that they were among its most prominent supporters."
-
.
23
master was required to appear before the committee, and state, on oath, whether or not he had imported goods contrary to the resolve of Con- gress, which prohibited all trade with Great Britain. If such goods were discovered, as they sometimes were, they were taken possession of by the committee and sold. The cost of the goods and charges, were, out of the proceeds of sale, paid to the importer, and the profits, if any there were, were, in conformity with the recommendation of Congress, remitted to Boston, for the benefit of the poor of that town, who were suffering under the oppression of the Boston port bill. Bal- timore, although then a small town containing only about five thousand inhabitants, was engaged in a large and profitable commerce, the inter- ruption of which inflicted a heavy blow on her growing prosperity ; but such was the patriotism of her citizens that they cheerfully submitted to it, and fairly carried it out. It is to the credit especially of the mercan- tile part of the community, who were the greatest sufferers, that they were among the most prominent supporters of the measure: but their sacrifices have not received from posterity the gratitude to which they are justly entitled. The merchant princes of Tyre and of Florence, are inseparably associated in the memories of all, with the former glories of those cities, but the merchant patriots of Baltimore are already almost forgotten in the city where their ashes repose, and by whose fortunes they stood so steadfastly in the hour of her greatest need.
If it was reported that a trader had taken advantage of the necessities of the times to demand exorbitant prices for his goods, he was summoned to appear before the committee, and the matter was inves- tigated. If the charge was proved, and a satisfactory atonement was not at once made, the offender was liable to be published to the world as an enemy of his country ; and this was no trivial punishment, for it was equivalent to civil and social excommunication. No good citizen would associate or deal with one who in the time of trial had deserted the cause of American liberty.
The colonies were engaging with fearful odds against them, in a war with the leading power of the world, and it seemed to many here, as well as in Great Britain, that they would be annihilated at a single blow. They had more than a foreign enemy to contend with. In every part of the country there were intelligent and conscientious men, occupying the highest places in society and public office, who could not sympathize with the popular movement, and who held it to be their duty to oppose it as far as they dared. Many were bound to the parent
-
24
country by the closest ties of relationship and affection, and there was then, moreover, as there always is in every community, a strong con- servative force which upholds the established order of things whatever it may be, because it is established. To this class belong the timid, the prudent, the selfish and unenterprising, and not a few of those who have much to lose and little to gain by change. There is always beside a baser crew, which on the first outbreak joins the popular side, but in the hour of danger can only be kept in the ranks by the fear of the fate which awaits deserters. Some, but not many of all these classes there were in Baltimore, and with them the committee had to deal. In a war like that of the revolution, whoever is not for it is against it, and the most dangerous enemies are those, who while they take no active part in the strife, occupy themselves in sowing seeds of disaffection and discontent, and by their influence and example, operate on the fears and scruples of the timid and vacillating. An un- published letter of General Washington, which has been placed in my hands by a gentleman of this city,* contains some pointed remarks on this subject. It is dated on the 6th of June, 1777, from his head quar- ters at Middlebrook, and is addressed to Major Apollos Morris, of Phila- delphia, who appears to have been what was called in the language of that day, a neutral character, but which was generally understood to mean an enemy in disguise. " I must," says General Washington, " tell you in plain terms, that at this time a neutral character is looked upon as a suspicious one; and I would therefore advise you to leave a country, with the majority of whom you cannot agree in sentiment, and who are determined to assert their liberties by the ways and means which necessity, and not the love of war, has obliged them to adopt."
As in times of public commotion, martial law may rightfully super- cede the office of the civil magistrate, so, on occasions of extreme peril, even liberty of speech may have to yield to the exigency of public safety. The Baltimore committee did not hesitate to act on this prin- ciple, and for the first application of it they selected a man who occupied a prominent position in the community. Information was given to them that the Rev. Mr. Edmistont had publicly approved of the Quebec bill, and had also publicly asserted that all persons who mustered were guilty of treason, and that such of them as had taken the oath of alle-
* Brantz Mayer, Esq.
t Mr. Edmiston was the pastor of St. Thomas' Parish, in Garrison Forest, Bal- timore county.
1
25
giance to the king of Great Britain, and afterwards took up arms, were guilty of perjury. The committee decided that such declarations had a tendency to defeat the measures recommended for the preservation of America, and that it was their duty to take notice of persons guilty of such offences. Whereupon, a copy of the charge was sent to Mr. Edmis- ton, and he was summoned to appear before them, which he accordingly did. After taking two hours to consider the matter, he admitted that he had spoken the words, but excused himself by alleging that they were uttered in the heat of political excitement. He explained away, as well as he could, the offensive charge contained in them, and solemnly prom- ised in writing, to avoid, for the future, all similar cause of offence. The committee were satisfied with the apology and promise, and Mr. Edmiston was effectually silenced.
Soon afterwards the case of a man named James Dalgleish was brought before the committee. He had, on different occasions, mani- fested, in offensive language, his hostility to the country, and expressed an intention of joining the British forces. The committee "resolved that he had discovered an incurable enmity to his country, and that it was dangerous to the common cause to encourage a person of such principles ;" and they accordingly " published him to the world, as an enemy of the liberties of Americans." After this we hear no more of James Dalgleish. A man thus stigmatized, was stripped of the power to harm. Further punishment was unnecessary. A stain was im- printed on his name which he carried with him wherever he might go.
But the committee did not rely wholly on moral suasion, or the force of public opinion, though it was seldom that any thing more efficient was required. If other means became necessary, it was not difficult to obtain a file of soldiers to enforce their decisions. And the name of a young officer, on whom special reliance seems to have been placed, ap- pears more than once on the records of the committee. When its bold and able chairman, Mr. Samuel Purviance, undertook, on his own re- sponsibility, and rather irregularly it must be confessed, to seize the person and papers of Governor Eden, the last proprietary governor of Maryland who was still living at Annapolis, though no longer in the exercise of his office, this young officer was selected to take charge of the enterprise. It failed through no fault of his, but because the zeal of the chairman of the Baltimore committee, overran the limits of pru- dence marked out by the authorities at Annapolis. They suffered the governor to depart in peace. The officer to whom I allude, was then
-
4
26
Captain Samuel Smith. Subsequently, he earned for himself an honor- able place in his country's history, and his name is inseparably con- nected with the annals of this city, which he defended in 1814, as com- mander-in-chief against the British forces, and of which he was subse- quently elected chief-magistrate. Those among us who marked the courage and fire which, at the advanced age of eighty-three, the veteran General Smith, then a private citizen, displayed, when in 1835 he was summoned in haste from Montebello, his country residence, to quell a frightful mob which had well nigh obtained possession of the city of Baltimore,* will know that in the youthful Captain Smith, the Baltimore committee had one to rely on who could not be turned aside from his purpose by fear or favor, while he was engaged in the service of his country.
The committee felt it especially incumbent on them to denounce the use of tea, but to banish this article was a work on which they required the 'co-operation of those against whom neither their best soldiers, nor public denunciation could avail. As wise and experienced men they knew that conciliation will often prevail where a command would only offend, and, therefore, they mildly and persuasively address the ladies of Baltimore, as follows: "Ilowever difficult," say the committee, . "may be the disuse of any article which custom has rendered familiar and almost necessary, yet they are induced to hope that the ladies will cheerfully acquiesce in this self-denial, and thereby evince to the world a love to their friends, their posterity and their country." It is to be feared, however, that this advice was not always followed, for there is a tradition, which I have often heard, current in the family of a sturdy patriot, an ancestor of my own, who was a member of the committee, that the forbidden beverage frequently made its appearance even at his table, but, as it was always served in the coffee pot and poured out under the name of coffee, which he did not drink, and as he took instead of tea a cup of milk and water which was provided for him, neither the committee man, nor the community was the wiser, and his daughters thought that no great harm was done. It must not be supposed, how- ever, that these ladies were deficient in patriotism. On the contrary, they cheerfully bore their share of the hardships and privations of the war, and, in common with the rest of the ladies of Baltimore, helped
· See Appendix, Note 2.
27
with their own hands to clothe the destitute soldiers whom, in 1781, La Fayette was leading to take part in the Virginia campaign."
The committee sat, as I have said, for more than two years, during which period they exercised a large and somewhat indefinite power over the persons and property of the people, encountered and overcame domestic opposition, gave a powerful impulse to the war, and, when the town was threatened by the enemy, were mainly instrumental in putting it in a state of defence. Their records are not stained by a single act of violence or oppression. The highest fine which they inflicted, did not exceed £10 and seldom reached that amount, and only in a few in- stances did they exercise their power of making arrests, or of publish- ing in the newspapers the names of those who had manifested hostility to the cause of the country. Their proceedings, when contrasted with the bloody atrocities which characterized the revolutionary tribunals of France in the last century, demonstrate, as forcibly as any thing can, the wide difference between the people of the two countries, in their fitness for the enjoyment of civil liberty.f
The citizens of Baltimore, on their part, submitted with alacrity and cheerfulness to the control exercised by the committee, and, throughout the war, were honorably distinguished for their devotion to the cause of their country. They performed their full share in achieving its inde- pendence and in the establishment of the free institutions, state and na- tional, under which we live.
* La Fayette, on his way to Virginia, passed through Baltimore, where he was hos- pitably entertained. The incident alluded to is thus related in McSherry's History of Maryland, p. 299. " Being invited to a ball, he was there remarked to be grave and sad. On being questioned by the ladies, as to the cause of his gloom, he replied, that he could not enjoy the gaiety of the scene, whilst his poor soldiers were with- out shirts and destitute of the necessaries of a campaign. 'We will supply them,' exclaimed these patriotic women. The pleasures of the ball-room were exchanged for the needle, and. on the next day, they assembled in great numbers to make up clothing for the soldiers out of materials advanced by their fathers and husbands."
General La Fayette preserved through life a grateful sense of the assistance thus generously rendered. On his visit to Baltimore in 1524, when the surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution were introduced to him, he remarked to a gentleman near him, " I have not seen among these, my friendly and patriotic commissary, Mr. David Poe, who resided in Baltimore when I was here, and out of his own very limited means supplied me with five hundred dollars to aid in clothing my troops, and whose wife, with her own hands, cut out five hundred pairs of pantaloons and superintended the making of them for the use of my men." On being informed that Mr. Poe was dead, but that his widow was still living, the General expressed an anxious desire to see her. The venerable lady heard this with tears of joy, and, on the next day, an interesting and touching interview took place between them .- Niles' Register of 24th October, 1824.
t See Appendix, Note 3.
-
28
We, of this generation, have received those institutions by direct inher- itance, but like ungrateful heirs we too often forget the source from which they were derived. Towards such institutions the human race, through centuries of toil, has been gradually struggling upward and onward against oppressions, discouragements and disappointments innumerable. Every inch of ground has been won by hard contest against steady op- position, and whole generations have passed away without perceptible progress having been made. In vain efforts to hasten their advent, thou- sands of brave hearts have shed their blood in battle, or, less fortunate, have broken in dungeons in despair. To us they have descended by the accident of birth, not as our own property which we may waste or destroy, but as a sacred trust which posterity will demand at our hands, in all their integrity as we have received them.
They are not perfect, because they are the work of imperfect men and by such are administered; but it is one of their chief excellences that they are not cast in an unalterable mould, and that they embody no evils which time may not remedy. Time, according to Lord Bacon, is the greatest of all innovators, and he who would innovate wisely, must imitate time. The Creator himself deals thus with evil, an enemy and intruder though it be in his universe, patiently he bears with it, and is content to banish it at last by slow degrees and by the beneficent agency of good. But fanaticism will not wait a single day nor hour. Driven onward by the suggestions of its own ungoverned passions, which it mistakes for the whisperings of a divine voice, it engages in a fierce crusade against some one evil which it is determined to exterminate, although to do so it may first be necessary to perpetrate a crime. Thus a faction at the North would rend asunder the sacred ties which bind this people together for a senseless Wilmot Proviso, and a faction at the South would do the same thing for an equally senseless Slavery Proviso.
We have studied the lessons of the past in vain, if they do not teach us that civil liberty and all that is most valuable in the institutions under which we live, rest for their surest support and protection on the pre- servation of the Union. But for it, this country would have continued to this day a remote and feeble dependency of the British empire. The thirteen disunited colonies have grown to be thirty united States. If union was necessary once as a defence against the oppression of the mother country, it is incalculably more necessary now as a protection against domestic commotion and fraternal strife. There are, happily,
-
29-30
some things which are felt to be degraded by an attempt to subject their worth to the cold process of calculation, and among these should be numbered all that pertains to the honor and welfare of our common country. Unless we have some standard by which we can estimate the loveliness of peace and the wretchedness of war, the glory of national honor and the shame of national disgrace, the gain of progress and the loss of decline, it is in vain for us to attempt to calculate the value of the Union.
With us, here, the effort has never yet been made, and we may hope that it never will be. Even although the love of others should grow cold, it is natural and fitting that Maryland, which has been called the Heart State, because her place is in the very bosom of the Union, should cherish in her heart of hearts a loyal devotion and an unchang- ing affection for that Union which has been to her the source of count- less blessings, by which the great achievements of the past have been accomplished, and through which alone the auspicious promises of the present can be fulfilled.
-
31
APPENDIX.
NOTE 1 TO PAGE 20.
A MEETING of the qualified voters of Baltimore county and town was assembled, after public notice, at the Court House, on Saturday the 12th of November, 1774.
Andrew Buchanan was chosen Chairman, and Robert Alexander, Clerk. The following persons were chosen the Committee of Observation :
FOR BALTIMORE TOWN.
Andrew Buchanan, Robert Alexander, William Lux, John Moale, John Merryman, Richard Moale, Jeremiah Townley Chase, Thomas Harrison, Archibald Buchanan, William Smith, James Calhoun, Benjamin Griffith, Gerard Hopkins, William Spear, John Smith, Barnet Eichelberger, George Woolsey, Hercules Courtenay, Isaac Griest, Mark Alexander, Samuel Pur- viance, Jun'r, Francis Sanderson, John Boyd, George Lindenberger, Isaac Vanbibber, Philip Rogers, David McMechen, Mordecai Gist, and John Deaver.
FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY.
Hundreds.
Patapsco, Lower-Charles Ridgely and Thomas Sollers.
Patapsco, Upper-Zachariah McCubbin, Charles Ridgely, son of William, and Thomas Lloyd.
Back River, Upper-Samuel Worthington, Benjamin Nicholson, T. C. Deye, John Cradock, Darby Lux and William Randall.
Back River, Lower-John Mercer and Job Garretson.
Middle River, Upper-Nicholas Merryman and William Worthington.
Middle River, Lower-HI. D. Gough and Walter Tolley, Sen'r.
Soldier's Delight-George Risteau, John Howard, Thomas Gist, Sen'r, Thomas Worthington, Nathan Cromwell and Nicholas Jones. Middlesex-Thomas Johnson and Maybury Helm.
Delaware-John Welsh, Rezin Hammond and John Elder.
North-Jeremiah Johnson and Elisha Dorsey.
Pipe Creek-Richard Richards, Frederick Decker and Mordecai Hammond. Gunpowder, Upper-Walter Tolley, Jun'r, Jas. Gittings and Thos. Franklin. Mine Run-Dixon Stansbury, Jun'r, and Josiah Slade.
-
32
And the following resolutions were passed :
Resolved, That the same, or any seven of them, have power to act in mat- ters within the town of Baltimore, and that any five may act in matters, without the said town, in the said county.
Resolved, That T. C. Deye, Capt. Charles Ridgely, Walter Tolley, Jun'r, Benjamin Nicholson, Samuel Worthington, John Moale, Doctor John Boyd, and William Buchanan, or any three of them, be a committee to attend the General Meeting at Annapolis, on Monday, the 24th of this month.
Resolved, That Robert Alexander, Samuel Purviance, Jun'r, Andrew Buchanan, Doctor John Boyd, John Moale, Jeremiah Townley Chase, Wil- liam Buchanan and William Lux, be a Committee of Correspondence for Baltimore county and Baltimore town, and that any four of them have power to act.
At a subsequent meeting of the voters of Baltimore county and town, held at the Court House on the 16th of January, 1775, the following persons were added to the Committee of Observation :
FOR BALTIMORE TOWN.
James Sterett, Charles Ridgely, Jun'r, William Goodwin, Dr. Charles Weisenthal and Thomas Ewing.
FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY.
Hundreds.
Patapsco, Lower-Charles Rogers, John Gorsuch, William McCubbin, Wil- liam Wilkinson, Thomas Todd.
Patapsco, Upper-James Croxall, John Ellicot, Edward Norwood.
Back River, Upper-John Cockey, Edward Talbot, Joshua Stevenson, Edward Cockey and Ezekiel Towson.
Middle River, Upper-Benjamin Rogers, Robert Cummings, Benjamin Buck, Joshua Hall, Gist Vaughan, Benjamin Merryman.
-
Back River, Lower-George Mathews, John Buck.
Middle River, Lower-Moses Galloway George Goldsmith Presbury, Abra- ham Britton and Nicholas Britton.
Soldier's Delight-Thomas Cradock, Charles Walker, Samuel Owings, Jr. Christopher Randall, Jr. Benjamin Wells.
Middlesex-Jacob Myers, Richard Cromwell, Thomas Rutter. Delaware-Christopher Owings, Benjamin Lawrence, Nicholas Dorsey, Jr. North-John Hall, Stephen Gill, Jr.
Pipe Creek-John Showers, George Everhart.
Gunpowder, Upper-Samuel Young, Jesse Bussey, Thomas Gassaway Howard, James Bosley, William Cromwell, Zaccheus Bar- ret Onion.
Mine Run-Edmund Stansbury, John Stevenson, Daniel Shaw, William Slade, Jr. Joseph Sutton, John Stewart.
At a subsequent meeting, held on the 18th of May, 1775, the following per- sons were added to the Committee :
--
33
FOR BALTIMORE TOWN. Daniel Bowley.
FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY.
Hundreds.
Middle River, Lower-John German, William Andrews, Edward Day, William Allender.
Patapsco, Upper-Zachariah McCubbin.
Soldier's Delight-Doctor William Lyon.
This Committee served until the month of September in the following year, at which time a new election for Committees of Observation was held in the several counties throughout the Province, in pursuance of a resolution of the Provincial Convention, at Annapolis, which limited the number of the Baltimore Committee to thirty-seven.
The following is an extract from the records of the Committee:
"SATURDAY, 23 September, 1775.
"The poll for electing a Committee of Observation for this county, (Messrs. Robert Alexander, Jere. T. Chase, Thomas Harrison, John Moale and Win. Buchanan, five of the delegates for this county in the late Provincial Con- vention, being judges of the election,) was this day closed, and the following gentlemen declared duly elected, viz :
1. John Moale,
2. Jeremiah Townley Chase,
21. Zachariah McCubbin, Jun'r.
22. Capt. Charles Ridgely,
23. Thomas Harrison,
5. Andrew Buchanan,
24. Benjamin Griffith,
25. William Randall,
26. Thomas Gist, Sen'r.
27. Stephen Cromwell,
28. Isaac Griest,
29. Thomas Cockey Deye,
30. Mordecai Gist,
31. John Stevenson,
32. Ezekiel Towson,
33. Jeremiah Johnson,
31. William Asquith,
16. William Smith,
17. William Buchanan,
36. George Risteau,
18. William Lux,
19. John Boyd,
20. John Smith,
3. James Calhoun,
4. Benjamin Nicholson,
6. Thomas Sollers,
7. John Cradock,
8. James Gittings,
9. Robert Alexander,
10. Samuel Purviance, Jun'r,
11. William Wilkinson,
12. Charles Ridgely, son c_ Wm.
13. Walter Tolley, Jun'r,
14. Darby Lux,
15. John Cockey,
35. John Eager Howard,
37. Abraham Britton.
" And the following gentlemen were chosen Provincial Delegates, to continue for one year, viz :
Robert Alexander, Benjamin Nicholson, Jolın Moale, 5
Walter Tolley, Jun'r, Jeremiah Townley Chase.
-
34
"N. B .- The poll was kept open eleven days to give every freeholder and freeman full and sufficient time to vote."}
The following persons of those elected as above, declined to serve:
Thomas Cockey Deye, William Smith, Ezekiel Towson, William Randall, Stephen Cromwell and Jeremiah Johnson. Mordecai Gist became disqualified by the acceptance of a commission as Major in the regular forces, raised by order of the Convention.
The Committee, therefore, on the 4th of March, 1776, filled up the vacan- cies by electing the following persons :
John Gillis, Frederick Decker, John Merryman, Jr. John Sterrett, Gist Vaughan, Thomas Rutter, Samuel Worthington.
Capt. Charles Ridgely also resigned, but it does not appear that the vacancy thus created was filled by the appointment of another person in his place.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.