The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1906-03-30

NaaAJ ihhd tiOOpSs AC SldSpCh SOi. ledLlSSJ ny
the hand saying, IF you can stop the British
ten minutes till l form, you will save my
army" Col. Ramsey replied, 81 will stop
them or fall,' and he did stop them-ten
minutes, twenty minutes, aye, thirty minutes,
until surrounded by the British he fell in the
thickest of the fight. He fell, but the Mary
landers had saved the army. Washington
formed his lines and drove the British from
the field.
When the war center moved southwark the
Marylanders were there to display even greater
heroism. They, in short, played the decisive
part in many hard fought battle, and it is a
fitting tribute to the patriotism of this State
that the last blood shed in the American Rev
olution flowed from the wounds of the Mary
land troops in the attack by Captain Wilmot
on James Island. What is said of her patri-
otism on land may be said with equal truth
fulness on sea, as is evidenced by the numer-
Gus privateers that went out of Chesapeake
Bay to prey upon British shipping and COM
meree.
While there was no lack of patriotism, yet
Mary yand withheld ratification of the Articles
Of Confederation that she might win more
perfect and enduring union in time to come
She refused ratification until the lands west
of the mountains that had been won from
Great Britain might become nationalized
rather than be held by a few States that
claimed them by the shadowy rights of certain
early colonial charters.
As early as October 80, 1776, the conven.
ton called to draft a constitution for the State
of Maryland unanimously resolved:
That it is the opinion of this convention,
that the very extensive claims of the State of
Virginia to the back lands hath no foundation
in justice; and that if the same or any like
claim is admitted. the freedom of the smaller
States and the liberties of America may be
thereby greatly endangered; this convention
being firmly persuaded, that if the dominion
over those lands should be established by the
blood and treasure of the United States, such
lands ought to be considered as a common
stock, to be parcelled out at proper times into
convenient, free and independent govern
ments. ~
Thus we see that Maryland was determined
that no union of the States should be com.
pleted until the western lands we're turned
over to the States as whole. Furthermore,
it was her desire that this vast territory should
be made up into free and independent States
like the original ones. During the next four
years Maryland, time and again, urged the
cessiou of the western lands. In congress, in
the State legislature. in the instructions issued
to her delegates, she reiterated the demand.
Some hotheads we're for destroying the little
State, for wiping her name out of existence,
because she did not ratify; but what cared
She The early strife of Leah and Rachel had
toughened her. Like her brave soldiers al the
trout she knew no fear.
Once more right won against might; the
States yielded. New York lead the way in
1880, by giving up her somewhat shadowy
claim to the lands above the Ohio and east of
the Miami which she bad based on treaty
rights made with the Iroquois Indians. Then
followed Virginia, l7sl-l7s4. Besides her
early charter claims of 1909 extending west
and northwest from sea TO sea, she had a real
claim by actual conquest during the Revolu-
ton: the defeat of the Shawnees, l774, the
Cherokees, 17T6, and the famous George
Rover Clark expedition of IT'S Q. Virginia
actually held the country under force of arms,
and il was most generous and patriotic of her
to give up such rich prize. But she did,
and Maryland, now that her policy was ac-
cepted, fell in line, and, like the patriot State
that she is, ratified the Articles of Confedera-
ton March l, 1871. The union was now
complete.
The land cessions once begun went on.
Massachusetts, in 1875, added her claims,
based on early charters, and Connecticut did
likewise in 1885. South Carolina followed in
1887, North Carolina in 1890 and Georgia in
1902. The policy Sc persistently but rightly
pursued by Maryland found its elimination in
the ordinance Of 1887 that created the North
west Territory.
Maryland laid the foundation principles of
our national union and expansion. To her
we owe, in no small measure, the best colonial
policy OF all hisiory-the policy of creating
our territories into free and independent gov.
ernments, and then taking them into the
union on equal terms with the original states.
This is why |, a native of Minnesota, can
come here today and join with you in singing
the praises of the patriotic and liberty loving
State of Maryland.
In whatever light we view this Sts;e, whether
from the point of view of religious toleration,
or representative government, or national
union. or territorial expansion, Maryland holds
unique place among that brilliant galaxy of
states that forms the best and most illustrious
nation of the world. In the development of
freedom this grand Republic has had strife
and contention. 1t has been storm swept
twice with England, once that we might be
free and once that our sei.men might be free.
Then came the whirlwind of civil war that
we might be free from slavery, and again,
the Spanish war that others might be free.
Ia the future we may be storm swept again
in behalf of freedom. The elements of strife
and contention seem approaching, the conflict
of labor and capital, the masses against cor
porate greed. But we need not fear. Mary
land laid deep the foundation rock of freedom
and the nation shall survive.
Some two thousand years ago ''Divine
flower closed its petals on the cross of CAL
vary That was the flower of Divine man
hood-the proof that man was created in the
image Of the Divine. And this Republic, so
divinely planted on the rock of freedom, and
so providentially nurtured shall never cease
until every man within her borders, no mat
ter how low his estate, shall reach his divine
inheritance-shal be made free. politically
free, relgiously Free socially free, industrially
free and morally free.
Can You Define Them9