The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-13
:. IN THE SUNNY SOUTH.
PICTURES OF COLONIAL M8RY-
 LAND.
Paper Read nt Annual Meeting of Ruth Hart Chapter, ID. A. H., by Mrs. w, II. Goddard, of WaIlingford.

Hart Chapter, ID. A. H., by Mrs. W. II
 Godd ard, of WaIlingford.
 The life of tpe more southern colonies
 of Virginia and Maryland appeals to us
 of the Puritan mold in a peculiar sense
 partly, suppose. because of the envi- ronlnent and the dashing picture of the
 cavaliers which we call up in imagina-
 ton, and the absence of that strenuous
 endeavor which was necessary in New
 England in order to obtain a mere live lihood.
 It may be well in starting to consider
 the colonial history of Maryland-to re-
 mind you that a distinguished writer has said of the early history of this col
 ony that 1t offers only two points of
 special interest. Maryland lays claim
 to the distinction of having been the
 first state where religious toleration not
 only prevailed in practice, but was es-
 tablished by law. Maryland also had the first proprietary government in
 America, being ruled with almost obso-
 lute power by successive Calverts, un- < der the title of Lord Baltimore.
 Tn regard to the religious tolerat tion
 well known writer on the subject has
 shown that it was after all only a mat
 Ter of self-interest. The founder of the
 colony was George Calvert, first Lord
 Baltimore, who left England ostensibly
 on account of his Catholic sympathies,
 to found this colony of Maryland.
 There is no doubt of the fact of reli-
 gious toleration at the outset, and there were two very good reasons for its ex-
 istence. The all-powerful lord propri-
 etory and the principal men in Mary
 land were Catholics, and Catholicism
 was oppressed and hated in England.
 To oppress Catholics would have been
 gross folly on the part of the Protestant
 colonists, and to oppress Protestants
 would have been ruin to the proprieta- ny. About one-twelfth part of the pop ulation were Catholics. One-sixth be-
 longed to the Church of England and
 threefourths were dissenting Puri- tans. To most of the people the en- forced toleration of Papists must have seemed like keeping on terms of polite familiarity with the devil.
 There is an extremely loose and inac- curate habit of alluding to the old Cav alier society of England, as if it were characteristic of the southern states in general Equally loose and ignorant is the habit of alluding to Puritanism as If 1t were peculiar to England In point ,F 4fo1 1+ duced nowhere save on Chesapeake Bay; on the other hand, the English or Independent phase of Puritanism was, by no means, confined to the New Eng land colonies. Three -fourths or the people of Maryland were Puritans. In the south to-day there is much more 3Puritanism surviving than in New England At the period of the revolu- ton the Catholics who founded the col ony formed comparatively small mi nority of the population, but were still a numerous and respectable body, com prising many of the best, oldest and most important families in the prov ince. Were it not for this question of 1 federation, the history of Maryland | would be one of the most uninteresting, | although not the least instructive of the l colonies. Therefore, apart frem reli- zion, Maryland history is almost per l fectly featureess. The period of settle ] ment was undistnguished by hardships , or perils Yet the same forces were gathering there as in Massachusetts, | and the sturdy Independence of char deter and love of local self government | Innate in the English race, did their work as surely in Maryland as among her more powerful and more turbulent neighbors. The settlers of New Eng land and Maryland were opposed to each other in many ways, but they | both belonged to one and the same stratum of society. Men of conscience and principle. Such men were the Cav alters of Maryland and the Puritans of New England; men who having once themselves to cause are picked men for character and ability. The early settlers of New England came to live in townships, and there the town meeting attains it's greatest The inhabitant of New England town is perpetually reminded hat tthe government is the people, md in this there is political training ]I no SIIldiI VHIuS. AS LHe HHCl6Il ILIlS- ish town meeting reached high de- felOprnent in New England, so the old English Manor was best preserved in Maryland. Manors of two thousand lcres or more were scattered all over { ide-wnter Maryland. In the life upon ( hese manors there was a kind of patri- { Erphal completeness; each was little world in, itself. There was the great lpuse with it's generous dining hall it's ,aneled wainscot, and it's family por- z raits; there was the chapel, with it's l raves of the lords family beneath it's ( avement, and the graves of common | olks out in the churchyard there were I he smoke houses and the cabins of ne- f TO slaves. In establishing these mon- i IS Lord Baltimore had an eye to the r military defense of his colony. It was V nacted in 1641 that the grant of man. c r should be the reward for every set 4 a Ter. who should bring with him from l. ,ngland twenty able-bodied men, each c rmed with musket. a sword and belt e
 bandelier and flask, ten pounds of C owder and forty pounds of bullets and h aot. n We may then sum up the Maryland O ristocrat in these words: Leading a W fe which alternated between intense le adily activity and the most profound D ldolence addicted to coarse indul- |