Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-03-15
Saint Maru's Beacon
CONTINUED from lst page

province. Its officers consisted of
a mayor, recorder, six aldermen and
ten councilmen, and among its
special prerogatives were those of a
weekly market and an annual fair.
Legislative Rights.
"The first General Assembly held
in Maryland met at st. Mary's on
the 26th Of February, 1885. The
acts Of this session Baltimore re-
fused to approve. because, as he
claimed, the right to originate laws
resided, under the charter, exclu-
siyely in himself, the power Of the
Assembly being limited to assent
and dissent to such as he PROFOUND
ed. The freemen of Maryland,
convinced that they possessed equal
and coordinate rights in matters of
legislation with the proprietary,
with the courage Of their conviction,
vindicated their position by reject
ing at the next session Of the As
sembly the whole body of bills
drafted and submitted BY him for
their adoption, and enacted in their
stead a code which emanated from
themselves, though substantially
the same as the one that he had
propounded.
ssAfter this the right Of the AS
sembly to initiate legislation was
not contested. and the right of the
proprietary was, in practice, limited
to his veto.
cit should here be said that the
legislation enacted at this and the
succeeding sessions of the Assembly
during the sixty-one years in which
st. Mary's was the seat of govern
ment forms, to a great extent, the
foundation and outlines of the pres
sent legal, civil and social structure
Of Maryland and some Of its most
cherished institutions.
cit was then and there that the
great struggle for popular sover-
eighty between the bold and cour-
ageous yeomanry of Maryland and
the lord proprietary was inaugu-
rated, and which resulted in setting
upon firm foundation that princi-
pie which formed the basis of Mary
lands early system Of free self
government, and which, in process
of time and in course of events,
developed into a reality the sublime
doctrine of constitutional liberty.
Ths federation Act.
cit was also, by the legislation
then and there enacted, that the
famous federation Act, giving legal
sanction to liberty of conscience,
which shed such brilliant renown
upon the legislative annals of Mary
land, and won for it the name of
the Land OF the Sanctuary, and
which extended to all, whatever
their religious belief or form of wor-
ship, shelter, protection and repose,
became engrafted by law upon its
government.
''Though religious liberation had
existed in practice in Maryland from
its earliest settlement, it had never
been made the subject of legislative
enactment, and to the General As
sembly of 1649 does this, the proud
est memorial of Maryland's colonial
history, belong.
"Higher than all titles and badges
of honor and more exalted than
royal nobility is the imperishable
distinction which the passage of this
broad and liberal act won for Mary
land and for the members of that
never-to-be-forgotten session, anG
sacred forerer be the haHowed SPOT
schich gaze IL birth!
Foundations Of Government.
"But, besides being the historic
battlefield of Marylaud's early
struggles for political freedom and
the scene of its first legislative con-
firmation Of religious peace, st.
Mary's presents in its history, as
the capital and metropolis of the
province, all the glowing incidents
and martial virtues which charac-
terized and gave inspiration to that
eyentful and herioc period-the
period in Maryland's history which
has truly been styled the golden age
OF its colonial existence; the period
In which the foundations of its gov
eminent were being broadly and
deeply laid; the period of its great
political turmoils and religious agi-
tations; the period in which the de- |
fiant spirit aud persistent rebellion |
of Clayborne; the artful sedition aud |
destructive warfare of Ingle; the |
reflex action upon Maryland of |