The Great Republic by the Master Historians The Settlement of Maryland byBancroft, Hubert H.
[The country near the head of Chesapeake Bay was first explored by Captain John
Smith. It afterwards formed part of the grant that was made by Charles I. to Sir
George Calvert, by title Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic nobleman. Inspired by
the same feeling that had moved the Puritans, he sought to establish a refuge in
America for men of his religious faith, who were persecuted in England. With
this purpose he planted, in 1621, a Catholic colony in Newfoundland. But the
unfavorable soil and climate, and annoyances from the hostile French, soon ended
his hopes in that quarter. He next visited Virginia, but found there a religious
intolerance hostile to his purposes. The territory finally granted him extended
from the upper Chesapeake to the fortieth degree, the latitude of Philadelphia.
The charter given to Lord Baltimore, unlike any previously granted, secured to
the emigrants equality in religious rights and civil freedom, and an independent
share in the legislation of the province. The colony was formed in 1634 by two
hundred emigrants, mostly Roman Catholics, who entered the Potomac and purchased
of the Indians a village on the St. Mary's River, about ten miles from its
junction with the Potomac. The policy of paying the Indians for their land, and
their subsequent equitable treatment, inaugurated peaceful relations, though
these did not remain long undisturbed. The treaty of Calvert with the Indians,
though less dramatic, resembled in principle the celebrated one made many years
afterwards by William Penn. Its character is clearly stated by J.T. Scharf in
his excellent "History of Maryland."]
Instead of treating the aborigines as wild beasts, or savages towards whom no
moral law was binding, he dealt with them as with men whose rights had a claim
to respect. He raised no sophistical question whether savages could acquire or
transfer any rights in the soil, or whether it was worth while to pay them any
price for what they were preparing to abandon. The quantity of goods given them
is not known; but the compensation was satisfactory, and there is no reason for
alleging that it was not ample. The land ceded was mostly forest hunting-
grounds; and the former possessors left them only to remove to others chosen in
the boundless wilderness. The articles given in exchange were not trinkets and
cheap gewgaws to pamper savage vanity, nor the maddening draught that has been
the bane of the race, nor the arms that would render their internal wars more
deadly and hasten their extermination; they were not merely of intrinsic worth,
but of absolutely inestimable value to the Indian, who could procure nothing
comparable to them, and was at once raised a degree in civilization by their
acquisition. The possession of an axe of steel instead of his rude tool of stone
multiplied his strength and efficiency a hundredfold. If the whites occupied his
fields, they gave him, in improved implements, the means of raising larger
crops, with less labor, in his new abode; if they restricted his hunting-
grounds, they taught him to dispense with his rude garment of skin, and clothed
him in the warmer fabric of the loom.
The Indians, on their side, faithfully performed their part of the contract.
They shared at once their cabins with the strangers and prepared to abandon them
and the cultivated fields as soon as the corn was harvested. In the mean time
they mingled freely with the colonists, who employed many of their women and
children in their families. From them the wives and daughters of the settlers
learned the modes of preparing maize and other products of the soil. While the
colonist of New England ploughed his field with his musket on his back, or was
aroused from his slumber by the hideous war-whoop to find his dwelling in
flames, the settlers of St. Mary's accompanied the red warrior to the chase and
learned his arts of woodcraft; and the Indian coming to the settlement with wild
turkeys or venison found a friendly reception and an honest market, and, if
belated, wrapped himself in his mantle of skins or duffield cloth and lay down
to sleep by the white man's fireside, unsuspecting and unsuspected.
Such were the happy results of the truly Christian spirit that animated the
first Maryland colonists.
[Trouble with the Indians began as early as 1641, in the incursions of the
Susquehannoughs, a fierce tribe, which had always been hostile to the colonists.
These savages had now acquired the possession and learned the use of fire-arms.
The sale of arms and ammunition to them had been made penal in the colony, but
the Swedes and Dutch on the Delaware freely supplied them with these dangerous
articles. There resulted a war with the Indians, which extended from 1642 to
1644. In the mean time Calvert was given great trouble by William Claiborne, a
Virginian who had in 1631 establishing a trading-station on the island of Kent
and one near the mouth of the Susquehanna, and who for years continued to
contest the rights of the lord proprietary. He even organized a rebellion, and
for a time drove the governor from the province.
Maryland has the honor of being the first country to establish the principle of
religious toleration to people of all faiths. George Calvert "was the first,"
says Bancroft, "in the history of the Christian world, to seek for religious
security and peace by the practice of justice and not by the exercise of power;
to plan the establishment of popular institutions with the enjoyment of liberty
of conscience; to advance the career of civilization by recognizing the rightful
equality of all Christian sects." The religious toleration which already existed
by charter was further established by a law of the Maryland Assembly, of April
2, 1649. Rhode Island had previously passed a similar law. We quote the
significant section of this important enactment.]
"And whereas the inforcing of the conscience in matters of religion hath
frequently fallen out to bee of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths
where it hath beene practiced, and for the more quiet and peaceable government
of this province, and the better to preserve mutuall love and unity among the
inhabitants here, Bee it, therefore, also by the lord proprietary, with the
advice and assent of this assembly, ordained and enacted, .. that no person or
persons whatsoever within this province or the islands, ports, harbours, creeks,
or havens thereunto belonging, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from
henceforth be any waies troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for or in
respect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof within this
province or the islands thereunto belonging, nor any way compelled to the
beliefe or exercise of any other religion against his or her consent, so as they
be not unfaithfull to the lord proprietary, or molest or conspire against the
civil government, estabblished or to be estabblished in this province under him
or his heyres; and that all and every person or persons that shall presume
contrary to this act and the true intent and meaning thereof, directly or
indirectly, eyther in person or estate, wilfully to wrong, disturbe, or trouble,
or molest any person or persons whatsoever within this province, professing to
believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of his or her religion, or the free
exercise thereof within this province, .. shall be compelled to pay treble
damages to the party so wronged or molested, and for every such offence shall
also forfeit 20s. sterling in money or the value thereof, .. or if the party so
offending as aforesaid, shall refuse or bee unable to recompence the party so
wronged or to satisfie such fine or forfeiture, then such offender shall be
severely punished by publick whipping and imprisonment during the pleasure of
the lord proprietary or his lieutenant or chiefe governour of this province for
the time being, without baile or mainprise."
[The act here given also punishes with fine whoever shall denominate any person
as "an Heretick, Schismatick, Idolater, Puritan, Presbyterian, Independent,
Popish Priest, Jesuit, Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist,
Brownist, Antinomian, Barrowist, Roundhead, Separatist, or other name or terme
in a reproachful manner, relating to matters of religion," or shall blaspheme or
deny any of the persons of the Holy Trinity, or speak reproachfully of the
Virgin Mary, or shall break the Sabbath by drunkenness, swearing, disorderly
recreation, or work except when absolutely necessary.
The enactment here described was one worthy to be printed in letters of gold, as
an example of remarkable breadth of view and spirit of tolerance for the age of
religious bigotry in which it was passed. Its principle was not long permitted
to continue in force. During the Puritan ascendency in England the government
was taken from the proprietor, and the Catholics of Maryland were disfranchised,
excluded from the Assembly, and declared not entitled to the protection of the
law. In January of the following year (1655), Stone, the lieutenant of Lord
Baltimore, resumed his office, and a civil war ensued, which is worth
describing, as the first instance of civil war in America.]
Lord Baltimore, learning the surrender of Governor Stone, and that the affairs
of the province were administered by commissioners appointed by Claiborne, and
his associates, in the latter part of 1654, despatched a special messenger..
with a severe rebuke to the governor for so tamely yielding his authority, and
an order to him to resume it immediately.
The ship arrived in January, 1655, N. S., and Captain Stone proceeded to issue
commissions to officers, and to organize an armed force in the county of St.
Mary's. In a short time he found himself at the head of about one hundred and
thirty men.
[With this force he recovered the records of the province, and captured a
magazine of arms and ammunition from the Puritans.]
About the twentieth of March, Stone set out with his little army for Providence.
He had pressed into his service eleven or twelve small vessels for the
transportation of part of his forces, and part marched by land along the bay
shore.. Governor Stone, with his little fleet and army, entered the outer harbor
of Providence (Annapolis harbor) late in the evening of March 24..
Stone had no sooner drawn up his force in array upon the shore, than the Golden
Lyon and Captain Cut's vessel opened fire upon them, killing one man, and
compelling him to retire a little up the neck of land. In the mean time, Captain
Fuller, at the head of one hundred and seventy men, embarked in boats, and,
having gone "over the river some six miles distant from the enemy," landed, and
made a circuit around the head of the creek, proposing to take Stone's force in
flank and rear. On their approach the sentry fired a gun, and an engagement
followed, which is thus described by Leonard Strong, one of Fuller's council, in
his pamphlet, "Babylon's Fall."
"Captain Fuller, still expecting that then, at last, possibly they might give a
reason of their coming, commanded his men, on pain of death, not to shoot a gun,
or give the first onset; setting up the standard of the commonwealth of England,
against which the enemy shot five or six guns and killed one man in the front
before a shot was made by the other. Then the word was given: In the name of
God, fall on; God is our strength -- that was the word for Providence: the
Marylanders' word was Hey for Saint Maries. The charge was fierce and sharp for
the time; but, through the glorious presence of the Lord of hosts manifested in
and towards his poor oppressed people, the enemy could not endure, but gave
back, and were so effectually charged home that they were all routed, turned
their backs, threw down their arms, and begged mercy. After the first volley of
shot, a small company of the enemy, from behind a great tree fallen, galled us,
and wounded divers of our men, but were soon beaten off. Of the whole company of
the Marylanders there escaped only four or five, who ran away out of the army to
carry news to their confederates. Captain Stone, Colonel Price, Captain Gerrard,
Captain Lewis, Captain Kendall, Captain Guither, Major Chandler, and all the
rest of the councillors, officers, and soldiers of the Lord Baltimore, among
whom, both commanders and souldiers, a great number being Papists, were taken,
and so were all their vessels, arms, ammunition, provision; about fifty men
slain and wounded. We lost only two in the field; but two died since of their
wounds. God did appear wonderful in the field and in the hearts of the people;
all confessing Him to be the only worker of this victory and deliverance."
Strong's pamphlet is, no doubt, strongly colored by partisanship, but, whatever
the exact details, the Puritans were completely victorious.. "Two or three days
after the victors condemned ten to death, and executed foure, and had executed
all, had not the incessant petitioning and begging of some good women saved
some, and the souldiers others; the governor himself being condemned by them,
and since beg'd by the souldiers; some being saved just as they were leading out
to execution."
[In 1658, on the restoration of monarchy in England, the proprietor regained his
authority in Maryland. A new disturbance between Protestants and Catholics
occurred in 1689, at the period of the English revolution, and Lord Baltimore
was deprived of his rights by the king in 1691. Religious toleration was
abolished, and the Church of England established as the state religion. After
more than twenty years, the infant heir of Lord Baltimore, then a Protestant,
was restored to his proprietorship, and Maryland remained a proprietary
government until the Revolution.]