The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-04-27

deputy of his Office in a scene which never
has been described, but which can be WILDLY
imagined. In spite of his prompt and energetic
disavowal of Governor Green's course. how
ever, the whirlwind descended about the ears
of the Protestant executive.
~
CONCERNING the direct cause of the uuheaval
which swept Governor Stone from power for
time, historians disagree. Some place the
responsibility directly at the door of Deputy
Governor Green and his hasty proclamation,
while others impute it wholly to the action
of the Virginia Assembly and the machina-
tons of Claiborne, who had been chatting for
the chance to strike another blow at Lord
Baltimore's palatinate
In any event, Parliament sent out commits
sioners for the reduction of Virginia to sub
mission. Charges against Maryland were
made, before they started, by Richard Ingle,
that flrebrand of no blessed memory in Lord
Baltimore's colony, who was one of Clai-
borne'S followers Ingle's charges we're so
easily refuted by Lord Baltimore that the
name of his province was not included in
the commission, but Claiborne obtained by
Suoterfuge what Ingle had failed to secure
by direct attack Having sufficient influence
with Parliament to secure his own nomination
as one of the commissioners, the willy Vir-
gilman was able to have the phraseology of
the commission so altered that, in place of
the word Virginia, it read, "All plantations
within the Bay of Chesapeake"
~
THIS PROVIDED HIM with his opening Hav-
ing quickly subdued Virginia, the commission
ers came to Maryland in March, 1862, re-
moved Governor Stone from office and re-
instated him only after they had wiped out
the lord proprietor's authority by naming
the members of the council, by requiring al
legiance to the Commonwealth and compel
ling all legal processes to be run 'in the name
of the Keepers of the Liberties of England
At this juncture the Puritans began really
to assert themselves. More than seventy of
those on the Severn, led by Edward Lloyd,
signed petition to the commissioners COM
planning of the Governor and asking to be
relieved of the oath of fidelity to Lord Bal
timore, which was contingent upon the for
Nfeiture of "all our lands for his Lordship's
Use if not taken within three months" This
was followed by similar petition from
Richard Preston and sixty others OF ''the
Housekeepers and Freemen of the Patuxent
river"
The commissioners, who signed themselves
the ''very loving Friends of the petitioners,
Immediately urged the latter to continue in
their due obedience to the Commonwealth
of England" regardless of their complete
lack of authority, proceeded a second time
: to grind Lord Baltimore's colony under their
heels Governor Stone rejected their offers
for q peaceful settlement, SO the Puritans,
under the command of Richard Bennett, who
had been most Hospitality received in Mary
land when he was exiled from Virginia,
marched to ST. Mary's, seized the records and
took them to the home of Richard Preston
on the Patuxent From there, on July IS,
1854, the commissioners issued another mani
iesto requiring all inhabitants of the province
to recognize the authority of Cromwell and,
incidentally, Of themselves.
W
GOVERNOR STONE resigned his post Eve days
later "for prevention of the effusion of blood,
and RUNE of the country and inhabitants by