Evening star., 1934-03-26
MARYLAND'S BIRTH.
IS RE-ENACTED At.
ISLAND CEREMONY.
Governor Accepts Cross
Symbolic of That Erected
300 Years Ago.
STATE REMAINS HOME
OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
$500 Attend Exercises at Which
Historic Events and March of
Progress Are Reviewed.
BY CHARLES b. DEGGES,
STAFF Correspondent of The Star.

ST. CLEMENTS ISLAND. Md,
March 26.-Standing bareheaded be-
meath the white arms of a monu-
mental cross. Gov Albert c. Ritchie
yesterday proclaimed this gentle isle
Maryland's religious liberty and po-
litical freedom.
Three hundred years ago to the
day Leonard Calvert. first Governor
of the Maryland province, stood be-
meath the rough-hewn timber arms
of another cross, reared on the same
spot. and invoked Divine aid in the
founding of these principles.
Gov. Ritchie addressed a gathering
Of $500 men. women and children
who had journeyed here to celebrate
Maryland's tercentenary, asking for
"a rededication to the simple and
With him prayed a Jesuit father,
Very Rev. Edward c. Phillips, pro-
vincial of the order in the New York
Maryland province, and an Episcopal
clergyman, Rev. DR.. Edwin B. Niver
of Washington Cathedral
Gov. Calvert, at the other end of
the tri-century span. knelt with his
little band of 300-odd settlers who
had journeyed out of England. and
with him was Father Andrew White,
who celebrated on this same mound
of earth the first mass in Maryland.
Gov. Ritchie's Arrival.
Like his predecessor, Gov. Ritchie
70 Tel
known widely as Blackstone Island
by water He boarded the Maryland
conservation steamer Gov. Mclean at
Annapolis Saturday night and landed
yesterday afternoon. He came 20 ac-
cept on behalf of the State of Mary
land, the huge cross, erected this
month as permanent monument to
the initial landing Of the Calverts.
March Is. 1884 Judge T. Scott
Offutt of the Maryland Court Of Ap-
pealS made the presentation.
Calling acceptance "a high and
inspiring honor for him" Gov Ritchie
declared that it was on this little
island that the Calvert settlers cele-
brated the overcoming of all the
obstacles which had beset them.
The great adventure ITSELF" he
said, the promise of a land where
freedom should prevail and
a self-governing people should live,
was, Of course. still for the future,
but the difficulties which for so long
had beset the undertaking and de-
layed the voyage to this land of
promise. were all behind the intrepid
travellers who had finally embarked
upon the adventure"
The Governor reviewed the histori-
cal incidents of the arrival of the
settlers in the Chesapeake
Bay country in 1884. He read from |
Father Whites own account of that |
Feast of the Annunciation, in which
was described the fashioning Of
great cross out of a tree" and its
erection here. He paid tribute to
the character of George Calvert. the |
first Lord Baltimore, who conceived
and determined to put into official ,
practice the ideal that the way to get
tolerance for ones own beliefs is to
grant tolerance to the beliefs of
others. and so make of his province,
Maryland. a place where peoples OF all
beliefs and all creeds might worship
in peace and harmony
The founding OF religious tolerance
in Maryland was cited by Judge Ofutt
in his address of presentation. AS he
concluded his speech and as Gov.
Ritchie was being acclaimed by the
throng at the foot of the cross, Swep-
son Earle, Maryland State conserva-
ton commissioner and member OF
the Maryland Tercentenary Commis-
sion, unveiled the bronze PLAGUE on
the base of the monument.
R. Bennett Darnall of the Tercen-
tenary Commission presided over the
exercises In his Introductory Mr..
Donald referred to the acceptance Of
March 25 as the anniversary of the
Calverts landing from their two little
ships, the Ark and Dove. He said it
was quite probable" that the COM
pany was in Potomac River waters
for several days, but that March 25,
1884, is given in Father Whites ac-
count as the day on which the initial
landing on this island was made prior
to the establishment of ST. Marys
City, further down the Potomac.
Mr.. Darnall presented Father Phil |
lips, the Jesuit provincial, who offered
the invocation.
Peace and Harmony Aim.
State Senator j. Allan Coad of st. !
Marys County was the next speaker.
Senator Coad pointed out that the
Calverts came to this land, not to seek |
wealth and adventure, but peace and i
harmony among men. !
Judge Offutt's speech followed Sena-
tor Coad.
Pricr to the dedication of the cross, |
the Southern Maryland Society of |
Colonial Danes dedicated the me-
mortal gardens which are to blossom
at the foot of the cross. Mrs. Francis |
j. Parran, president of the society, !
conducted the dedication. Partici-
pants on this program with Mrs. |
Parran were Robert Gwathmey |
Merritt of Washington, vice president !
of the Maryland Society of Washing