Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-08-08
STORY OF THE CHARTER
Its Granting Involved Another
Illustration OF Liberty-Loving,
Tyranny Resisting Settlers.
THE QUEEN ANNE CHARTER"
Annapolis Again Was The Medium
For The Maintenance OF Popular
Rights.
Mr. Randail's Paper on Historic Annhp-
oils" Series VIII

volved another illustration of the man
ly, liberty-loving, tyranny-resisting
characteristics of our first settlers,
which is well worthy Of commemora-
ton:
John Seymour became Royal Cover
nor of Maryland in 1908 and he took
up energetically the improvement of
the Provincial Capital. He suggested
in 1904 that it should be granted
charter and made a self-governing
city; and not succeeding in interest
ing the Provincial Assembly in his
suggestion, he took the matter into
his own hands and on the 10th day of
August 170S he issued under his hand
and under the Great Seal of the Prov
ince and in the name of his Royal
Sovereign Queen Anne the first char
ter of the City of Annapolis.
That charter is recorded among the
| Chancery Records of the Province in
Liber p. c. page 500 etc. Here again
Annapolis illustrated even in its bap-
tism the struggle to maintain a great
| principle-one even then considered
the foundation of liberty-destined
more and more to become a vital prin-
| ciple until we went to war with the
Mother Country to maintain it,; and
maintaining it established our indie
| pendence. The charter which Cover
nor Seymour issued to Annapolis was
an attempt to govern by Royal preroga-
tive, by Divine right and was a denial
of self-government.
| The Tudor and Stewart monarchs
had claimed that prerogative and Lord
Baltimore charter conferred upon
him among other royal rights the
| right ito erect cities" 1t was a
right which in England had been sub
| ject to great abuses under the Tudor
and Stewart sovereigns, for the pur-
pose of enabling them to fill their ex-
| hausted Golfers without the aid of Par
| lament. But it was no longer a royal
prerogative in England since the
reign of the deposed James II. and
the passage of the English Bill of
Rights; and Maryland in I708 was not
governed by Lord Baltimore any longer
but by Royal Governor.
Moreover, Governor Seymour's Aug
ust Charter named the Recorder and
Aldermen for the city and gave them
perpetual succession, with the right
| indefinitely to fill all vacancies in
their number land, worst of all. author
lied them to select and to send two
Burgesses or Delegates to the General
Assemblies of the Province to repre-
sent the city; thus giving the citizens
| no voice whatever in the selection or
election of either their municipal
officers or of their delegates to the
| assemblies. That charter raised a
| tempest in the little town prac-
tically every citizen protested against
it by petition to the Assembly
and when the delegates from Anna
polls under the Governors charter
presented themselves to that next
Assembly, which was convened there
September q, 1908, they were re-
fused seats; the Assembly denied the
right of the Governor to grant the
charter. The Governor stormed and
summoned the House to attend him
Immediately in the Council Chamber.
The Legislative Record quantity
proceeds as. follows: "Whereupon
the House adjourned to the Council
Chamber accordingly and his Excel
lency was pleased to acquaint Mr..
Speaker and the House that he was
informed this House had taken upon
them an extra judicial way of constru-
ing Her Majesty's commission to him,
which he took to be an infringement
upon Her Majesty's prerogative; and
had turned out those members that
were sent to sit among them for the
City of Annapolis by the same com
mission proceeding from the same
fountain of Clemency as the House
now sits; and he wished them to re-
pair to their own House and there
seriously to reflect thereon"
The House did seriously reflect
thereon" but refused to change its
mind and the Governor thereupon dis
solved the Assembly. No other bust
ness was transacted at that session.
We can readily understand the deter
mined position of the House and of the
people of Annapolis. If this power
were to be conceded and so exercised.
the House of Burgesses might be
packed with men who would be prac-
tically the appointees and creatures
Va biiC ANONdi 0ONSAllOds 1lGu WHdI
would become of the rights of Free
men? Says the English historian,
Bryce: THE two main processes
which turned the government of Eng
land from the Monarchy of the Tudors
to the Democracy of today, have been
the limitation of the royal prerogative
and the extension of the suffrage from
the few to the multitude.
Both of these ''processes" had been
from its settlement going on in Mary
land, in the struggle between the Lord
Proprietary and our Provincial Assem-
blies over his claims of royal preroga-
tive under his charter. In the main,
it had been a more successful struggle
here than in England, and one more
speedily ended; for, aside from the
liberal character of Cecilius Calvert,
the delicate position which he nd
his charter occupied at home, pre-
vented him from desiring a breach
with his Provincial Assemblies. But
what the Maryland Assembly would
not probably have conceded to Lord
Baltimore unde- his Stewart charter,
they certainly would never concede
to John Seymour, Royal Governor
shorn, after the English Bill of Rights,
of Divine Right and Prerogatives.