The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-03-10

Chief by Thomas Johnson-The Peggy
Stewart Not the Only Vessel Burned in the
Chesapeake Bay.
Annapolis Correspondence of the Baltimore Sunday
Herald, February %.
On the occasion of the unveiing of the
memorial tablet presented by the members oi
the Society of the Daughters of the Revolu-
ton, at the Naval Academy, on Thursday,
Eihu S. Riley, of this city, delivered the fol
lowing interesting address on Maryland in
the Revolution :"
Men and women are the sums total of their
ancestors. Environment, education and he
redity are the factors in molding character
and the greatest of these is heredity. This
assemblage stands for the potential power OF
an honorable and patriotic ancestry. II
speaks for those who live in the heroic work
they achieved in life and in the heredity and
heritage that they handed down to posterity-
the one as priceless to the invidual as the
other is matchless to the country.
A people cannot be nation, nor man a
factor in the progress of the finite to the inf
mite, until they have history behind them.
That history of the individual need not be
written in blood d-red letters across the scroll
of time, but it must, at least, be recorded in
heart, and which have ended in triumph OF
right and principle over self and wrong in the
dictum ofthe wisest of fcodes-''He that ruleth
his own spirit is better than he that taketh a
city,"
HOME FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
Today we come in touch with men who
have changed maps and made history. In
that embryo Maryland that the Dove and the
Ark brought came the olive branch of peace
to new world and for the first time in all
ages was established home for religious lib
erty, and this Commonwealth became ''the
land of the sanctuary This was the best
page written in American history, for il
taught mankind once for all that men could
differ in religious faith and yet be friends and
patriots.
At st. Mary's the Catholic Marylandel
raised his standard, and at Annapolis ouI
Puritan forefathers reared their altars, and,
with naturalness quite in keeping with their
history, said to the armed forces of st. Mary's
as they approached the town: "We are re
solved to submit ourselves ipto the hands O
God, and rather die like men than be made
slaves r' From this commingling of chivalry
and sternness sprang this Maryland Common
wealth, whose predominant virtues are ex
emplifed in the legend of its State seal =
'tManly deeds, womanly words courtesy
and courage in indissoluble wedlock joined.
As citizens of Maryland, we feel that An
napols is, of truth, fitting spot for the
creative force of the United States Navy
the Naval Academy. 1t was honored by the
love and frequent visits of him whose birth
we celebrate today. In yonder building
whose shadow falls on this house of prayer
Washington was often guest; within these
grounds the Peggy Stewart and her obnox.
ious tea chests were burned, and here, in all
probability, lived the greatest lawyer of the
Colonies, Daniel Dulany, whose "Consider.
ations," written against the first stamp act,
furnished William Pitt with his armor of at
tack in his defense of American rights against
Lord North and George ILL.,, and here the
right of asylum in 1649 was given 10 Puritan
refugees. Events have transpired in this city
and State that have left their Indelible index
upon the life of the nation and have impressed
their molding hand upon its form and come
illness.
Here, in 1862, treaty of peace was made
with the powerful Susquehannocks-a league
that was never broken, and not one heartless
war against the aboriginal settlers stains the
spotless escutcheon of Maryland.
THE PURITAN FOUNDERS.
Here the Puritan founders of Annapolis, in
1865, right or wrong. showed that American
Engiishmen could defend their faith and
principles with the same vigor and success
that Cromwel's Roundheais had displayed
against the flower Of the English aristocracy.
Here, over and over again, the Lower
House of the General Assembly of Maryland,
the elect of the people, fought many severe
and successful Legislative battle for their rights
against the English Governor and the Upper
House, the appointees Of the Proprietary or
Crown-struggles that eliminated in l770
and l773, when, in the former year, Cover
nor Eden undertook to revive by proclama-
ton an act of Assembly that had expired by
limitation, and which conflict ended in a
complete triumph of the people.
COURAGE AND CONSERVATISM.
If the Colonial period Of Annapolilan his
tory was marked with a patriotic and inde-
pendent spirit, its Revolutionary annals are
still more emphatic in their proof of the deter
mination of the people of this "ancient capi-
tall to maintain all their just rights and priv
ileges. The Revolutionary epoch begins with
the passage of the first stamp act in 1865.
It is noticeable here how readily the Mary
land character for courage and conservatism
was happily combined-the one Appealed
with arguments TO the sense of justice in The
English people in Dulany's pamphlet, and the
other met determination to commit the
wrong by force by a counter demonstration
in force.
When Zachariah Hood, the stamp collec
tor, arrived with his stamps in Annapolis,
about the latter part of August, 1865, he was
met at the dock by the citizens of this rsiace,
and the first blow struck for American liber-
ties was delivered ON the wharf at Annapolis
and resounded around the colonies. This
initial resistance to British aggressions in
America was successful. The ship and Hood
were driven away, but the conflict had been
SO severe that Thomas McNeir, "a hero in
the STRIFE" suffered fracture Of his thigh.
The names of three of the patriotic partici-
pants in this contest have been handed down
by Mr. David Ridgely in his "Annals OF
Annapolis. They are Abraham Claude,
Charles Farris and Thomas McNeir, who de-
serve a memorial tablet in gold to perpetuate
to the latest generation the memory of the
men who hit the first blow in the struggle for
American liberties. Ii was simple step OF
progress, when Boston groaned under the
beeI heel of the oppressor, for Maryland to make
the next patriotic movement in civil or mill
tary action.
THE FIRST STAMP ACT.
On March %, 1866, the first stamp act was
passed. This was no sooner known than the
people Of America began their opposition 10
II. The Maryland Legislature could only
convene by the will of the English Governor.
When he directed,them to at assemble Annap-
oils in September one of their first acts was TO
call him to account for not convening them
sooner, in order that they might express their
to make common cause with
the other colonies to protect their common
liberties.
The Frederick County Court, when it as
sembled and found itself face 10 face with
the stamp act that forbade it conduct the bus
iness of the term without the English stamps,
braveIy decided that thai act Of Parliament
had no validity in Maryland, and coolly pro
ceeded To work without the stamps.