Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-08-04
BATTLE OF THE SEVERN
Another Event In The History OF
Annapolis Entitled To More
Than Passing Notice.
DEED DONE FOR FREEDOM.
Point OF View Taken By Our First
Settlers Justifies Their Conduct.
lMr. Randali's Address on Historic Anna
polis-Serial lN.l

polis-Serial lV.l
1t was a noble reply and noblv main
tained; for Governor Stones superior
forces We're altogether routed by
them; he and all of his officers and
most of his men were captured and
Lord Baltimore's Government, for the
time being, were overthrown.
When We consider that however adj
mirable Cecilius Calvert's private
character may have been and was I:
and however mild his government, vet
his charter was the most absolute and
monarchical ever granted a subject by
an English King; that it was issued
by the King of England, claiming as
his private property and part of his
royal prerogative, title to all the vast
expanse of the American Continent: /:
that it was issued during that period
of English history, characterized .by
many English historians as ''TheITyr-
amy; that is to say, the period of
eleven years, extending from 1929 to
1640, during which, Charles First.
having found his Parliament not sub
servient to his claims and demands.
but standing up for their rights as
Englishmen, had dissolved Parliament
and was undertaking to govern Eng
land as an absolute Monarch, without
any Parliament. When we consider
further that this same struggle against
Royal claims and prerogatives had
been, in some degree, going on be-
tween the people and the Proprietary
in this Province since it's first set
tlement in 1884; that the King and
the House of Lords had been alto
gether overthrown in England and the
King executed for numerous alleged
acts of tyranny; and when we remem-
ber that the Puritan settlers here
were really standing by their contract,
as made with Governor Stone, and re-
sisting the imposition of an oath,
which as they protested, would bind
them "to acknowledge and be subject
to Royal Jurisdiction and Absolute
Dominion of Lord Baltimore, and to
defend it and him against all power
whatsoever"-it is no wonder, as they
quantity expressed it, "that this was
thought far too high for him and too
much unsuitable to the present liberty
which God had given the English sub
jects from Arbitrary Government.
Furthermore, we must remember
that whatever rights, powers and priv
ileges his Charter granted the Lord
Proprietary, that same Charter ex-
pressly by it's terms secured to the
people of Maryland "all the priv
ileges, franchises, and liberties,'
which other English subjects enjoyed.
Viewed in the light of these circum-
stances and contemporaneous history,
that contest, that Battle of the Sew
ern, can be seen in very different
light, it becomes,
1.-The herald of fuller truth than yet
Had CLEANED upon the upraised face
of man,"
on this Continent. 1t was distinctly
and peculiarly and confessedly an ap-
peal to the God of Battles on behalf
of the same resistance to tyranny that
more than a century later convulsed
this whole land and establ lished these
free United States. 1t was this
lands Baptism of Freedom
For he who settles Freedoms princi.
pies
Writes the death-warrant of all tyr
amy.
have dwelt upon the Battle of
the Severn" because it so closely fol-
lowed our settlement and casts such
flood of light upon the character of
its founders, and also because | think
great injustice has been done those
Puritans by failing to give any con-
sideration to their side of the case.
Some years ago obtained copies of
series of pamphlets published in
England about the time of that battle,
by men who were engaged in it, or
who were deeply interested in it's re-
suits. These pamphlets are some
times referred to in Maryland histories
very briefly. One must read them to
understand the point of view taken by
our first settlers and the full signif-
canoe, not to say the justification, of
their conduct.
Continued