The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-03-20
GROWING
PAINS
BY MARIE O'DEA
MARYLAND Day

The approach OF Maryland Day,
March 25th, brings to mind that beau
tiful spring day, 307 years ago, when
the Ark and the Dove dropped anchor
in Maryland waters and a group of
settlers, with wondering eyes and
wobbly sea-legs, stepped ashore in
their promised land.
The colonys promoter, George Cal
vert, son of Leonard Calvert, York.
shire grazier, was educated at Oxford
and, as secretary to his classmate,
Sir Robert Cecil soon became an ex-
pert diplomatist.
In 1908, he was made clerk of the
Privy Council and, in 1909, member
of Parliament. He was then about 20
years of age. That was the year of his
joining the Virginia-L London Company
and, upon becoming interested in
American colonization, allied himself
with the royal faction out of loyalty
to King James l, who showed him
marked favor. In 1917, the king
dubbed him Sir George Calvert and
in 1919 he became Secretary Of State
in which office he acted as interme-
diary between the king and the col
onists.
1t was but natural that he should
want to try colony where he could
put his theoretical compromises Of
the kings attitude and the colonists'
problems into practice. His plans were
interrupted in 1922 by the death of
his first wife, the mother of his ten
children. But on April 7, 1923, he Sc
cured from the king charter for a
colony called Avalon in Newfound-
land.
Meanwhile, Calvert was concerned
with personal affairs at home His
eldest son, Cecil, had married Anne
Arundel, daughter of the Baron of
Wardour. He espoused the Catholic
faith in 1925. Realizing that this step
placed him in the same category with
the other Catholics who were hunted
down and prosecuted for not con-
forming. to the established religion,
Calvert Immediately resigned his po-
sition as Secretary of State.
But King James greatly loved this
most loyal subject. He accepted the
!, resignation but elevated Calvert to
he peerage, making him Baron Of
fillmore (Ireland).
DON afterwards, Lord Baltimore
out to Newfoundland. Avalon
suffered long hard winters and
e was trouble with the French.
imore sent his second wife with
of the children to Virginia to
e the rigorous climate. On Au-
10, 1929, he wrote to King
les, successor to James, describ-
he misfortunes and asking for a
It of land in Virginia A few
.eKs later he followed his family to
the warmer country.
Most of the Virginians treated him
civilly but a few remembered his pro-
royal activities and his recently
acquired Catholicism. Some of them
even tried to force upon him the oath
of supremacy in religion from which
both kings had dispensed him.
After passing the winter in Amer
lea he returned to England to push
for new grant of land south of Vir-
ginia, and when that met with resist
ance, one to the north. He spent
months evolving the charter and the
instructions that were to establish
colony superior to Avalon and Vir-
ginia.
Charles was more lenient with
Catholics than James had been and
chose to ignore Baltimore's obvious
plan of converting the Indians to
Catholicism. In fact, his was the most
generous charter ever given to the
founder of an English colony.
1t included not only the present
State of Maryland but also large sec
lions of Pennsylvania and West Vir-
ginia, the largest grant of land ever
made to one subject The king sug-
gested that it be called "Terra Ma
riae" or MARY Land" in honor of
Queen Henrietta Maria.
Lord Baltimore was given the land
outright, thus making him proprie-
tary, and everything in this territory
except 20 percent cut on the gold
and silver ore that might be found
and two Indian arrows, all of which