The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-09-07
GRANGER NOTES AT ANNAPOLIS.

Having accompanied the Changers upon
their excursion to the Ancient CITY," al
the mouth of the Severn on Wednesday OF
last week, and being obliged to spend a
short time there upon business, we visited
the old State House, and were surprised
upon entering the rotunda the other parts
OF the building were not open to find it in
much the same condition that it was a wear
ago. Why this is SO we cannot tell, but
Iuasmuch rs the carpenter shop used when
1t was being repaired, year ago, is still
allowed To remain upon the public ground.
we suppose somebody is awaiting for an.
other chance to deplete the treasury to tie
extent Of many thousands Of dollars for
completing the repairs.
Many memories of the almost forgotten
scenes of the past came crowding upon us
as we stood beneath the spacious dome. II
was in the Senate Chamber in this bnild.
ing that General Washington resigned his
commission to the Continental Congress.
al the close of tn, War of Independence,
aud the very spot on which he stood can
yet be pointed out. We do not mean To
say that we remembered this, for our
grandfather was too young a man when il
happened To have taken part in that strug-
gle; bu; the scenes and incidents of the
late struggle for the Independence and in
teg.lty uf the nation were revived by the
position IN which We stood, and we recol-
lected how we had laid upon a pile Of car
pet one night, on the floor of the Rotunda.
IN company with Tom Carter, who, in
1864, at the time of the rebel raid around
baltimore, was Private Secretary to Gov
crnor Bradford, who was detained in Balti-
more for several days because the railroad
track WAS torn up. Tom Was a good icl-
low, and for two or three days during the
raid represented his Excelieucy ut Aunap-
OILS, aud being arprchensive that some of
the rebel SymrathIZrrs might do some mis-
chief or set fire To the building, asked the
writer 10 sp nd the night with him aud as
Sist III watching the premises. Sometime
after midnight the CHATTER of two horses
hnois upon the pavement aroused lis from a
siumber into which we had fallen, aud we
hastened out To see what it meant Who
the horscmcn were that, Jshu.lke, rode so
fuIio':siy through the town was never as
certalned. II list they were thought to
be two rebels that had returned to town to
cities, Annapolis was well represented in
the Southern army. The theory was after
ward adopted that they we're rebel ennis
saries on their way TO communicate with
their brethren then near Washington.
Having got through with our business in
the Capitol, IN the evening we walked
around the city aud visited the places of
interest with which We were familiar four
teen years ago. Principal among them
was the ditch on the outskirts of the CITY,
extending from Spa creek TO the Severn
liver. which was hastily digged one night
in July, 1864, i'll order to repel the antic-
pated rebel raid before mentioned. The
frusts Of fourteen Winters have wrought
but little change upon 1t, and 1t is likely to
remain till some couvulsIon in the moral or
political world awakeus the owners of the
land through which il runs from the Rip
Van Wrinkle sleep into which they seem to
have fallen. \ few struggling houses are
to be seen along the only road that leads
out of the city that were not there when
the ditch was made, but they only serve to
remind the spectator of what might be- but
has not yet been, accomplshed-the exten.
sion and Improvement of Annapolis. \
few sheep and a flock of gabbl3ng geese
that seemed TO have a hard battle with
starvation, were cropping the Stuutcd grass.
while 4 locust or two in au orchard OF
stunted apple trees near by, made the best
music they could.
y few PAGES further along this solitary
road We came to the National Cemetery.
where more than 1000 solders-most of
whom died in the Naval School buildings,
which, at the time We write OF, were used
for hOspi;als-arc inferred. A block of
ma III ha . and i'll E 10
deceased, has been placed at each of their
grases, and the enclosure III which they lie
is surrounded with a substantial granite
wall.
The cemetery Is in charge of a supern-
,endent employed by the National Govern
ment, and Is kept III 4 neat and crcditable
condition, i'll striking contrast with other
things around aud about the dormant old
town, that once was the Paris Of America,
but sank To sleep about a century ago in
the embrace of slavery, and only awoke
when Ben Butler guns sounded the death
kncll of the institution in 1861. But the
fatal embrace of the peculiar institution
left its mark upon the Ancient City. To
labor with the hands was not considered
respectable by its inhabitants, and when
the mourniul dirge that told of the inter
mcut of each one of the noble 1000 dead
soldiers died away 1T the end of the war,
the old aristocrats and their children quietly
went to sleep again, and left the negroes to
do the work; and now they cultivate the
cantaloupes and catch the crabs, without
which the others could not subsist
They build and repair the houses also.
and we saw gang of them percked upon the
roof of a house, which they were Singing,
that looked much like a ilock of buzzards
and appeared to work about as fast as a
like number Of buZZards would.
We then dropped into the office Of the
iHHt -irHndti .idrcrtiser, and were sur
prised tn find two staIwart pressmcn print
ing the paper upon an old lever press much
like the one with which Benjamin Frank
lin printed century and a half ago. We
more than once thought OF asking them if
they had ever heard Of 4 rotary press; but
we bcthought ourself that we were con.
siderable distance from home and in a
strange place, and not knowing low they
would take the matter, held our peace and
left them sweltering away with the Their
mometer at about ninety degrees
We also took a stroll through the classic
shades of -. Johns College. and SAW the
venerable old poplar tree. under whose
shade part of the American army, under
Gen. Lafayette, encamped near the close
of the Revolutionary War II is tree
that the citizens are proud of, but which.
like Penn's elm and the charter oak, will
soon cease TO exist.
With all its lazincss and aristocracv.
Annapolis is 4 nice old town. and its citi-
zens are hospitablc and kind, and being
rich IN historical assncIat IONS and rarniuts.