ADDRESS OF ARTHUR GEORGE BROWN Commemorative Entertainment OF THE I Maryland Society of Colonial Dames OF AMERICA Tuesday, March 27th 1894 ADDRESS ARTHUR GEORGE BROWN Commemorative Entertainment Maryland Society of Colonial Dames OF AMERICA Tuesday, March 27th 1894 rRINTED KV TUK SOCIETY. CRESS OK JNO. H. WILLIAMS COMPANY, liALTIMOKK. Ladiks AM) CjF.x ri.i:Mi:x : Oil this 27th clay of March — selected because it is the 260th anni\ersary of the foundin*;- of the now vanished town of Saint NFary's — we have met here, at the invitation of the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America. That Society, incorporated in 1S91. is a member of tlie National Society, which has sub-divisions in the thirteen ori- o;inal States and the District of Columbia. Its constitution eloquently says : " Whereas, History shows that successive g'enerations are awakened to truer patriotism ' and stimulated to nobler endeavour by the contemplation of the heroic deeds of their forefathers, and that the remem- brance of a nation's glory in the past is essential to national greatness in the future ; therefore, recognizing the responsi- bility which rests upon the decendants of those men and women who in the Colonial period and in the struggle which secured • for us our liberty and our Constitution sacrificed their all for their country, to emulate the virtues of our forefathers, we do hereby associate ourselves under the title of " The Colo- nial Dames of America." " Its object shall be" '•- '•- * * "to diffuse health- ful and intelligent information in whatever concerns the past and tends to create popular interest in American history, and with a true spirit of patriotism seek to inspire genuine love of country in ex'cry heart within its range of influence ; and to teach the young" that it is a sacred obligation to do justice and honor to heroic ancestors whose ability, valor, sufferings and achievements are beyond all praise." .Such an undertaking, in the hands of the good and able women who have formed this association, with such objects, is certain of success, and we men must be content to follow afar off, (as in these latter davs we have learned to do,) and aid our betters only with svmpathy and encouragement ; e\en at the risk of throwing serious discredit upon that high sound- ing motto, " Fatti Maschij Parole P'emine," which forms a part of the heraldic blazonry of the State. But then, in extenuation for that ancient and now obsolete phrase, we must not forget that it was attached to the Calvert arms centuries ago, in England ; and without opportunity for acquaintance with the fair and capa])le daughters of Mary- land, who constitute to-day, the world over, as they ha\e ever done, her highest title to honor and distinction. Therefore, by command of these ladies of the Maryland Society of Colonial Dames, I shall have the honor of saying a few words, intended to be appropriate to this day and occasion. In the library of the Maryland Historical Society — on the same frame which sustains the portraits of those lordly mem- bers of the House of Calvert, who were almost kings, and owned and ruled, in succession, their Province of Maryland — hangs an old engraving, the history of which is as curious as it is interesting. These explanatory words appear, engraved upon the margin of the picture: "In the Elysium one of the series of pictures on Human Culture in the great room of the Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts, etc., at the Adelphi, a mistake was committed, owing to the delusion which has been so generally spread concerning William Penn as the first colonizer who estab- lished equal laws of Religious and Civil Liberty. This design is therefore added to the Series, in order to rectify the mis- take in the groupe of Legislators, by making Lycurgus look- ing at those exemplary laws as placed in the hands of Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, who was the original establisher of them in his colony of Maryland, many years before William Penn and his colony arrived in America to copy the worthy examjile. Designed, engraved and published by James Barry. R. A., Professor of Painting to the Ro}-al Academy, Eebruary 28, 1793." That artist, who painted, in the building called the Adelphi in London, the elaborate and cxtcnsi\-e series of pictures referred to, in the second xolume of his published works, thus refers to and further ex])lains his engraving: " I shall, to the best of my power, make honoral)le amends to Lord Baltimore for my error : it is not now ])()ssil)le to alter that part of tlie picture of Elysium, nor of the print, they must remain as they are, a monument of the j^eneral dekision in which I ha\'e participated. But I have made a new design for that part, where the mattei" is as it should be, and I shall, with (iod's hlessinc;', publish a print of it \'ery shortly." This high estimate of Cecilius, written a century ago, and often since in many forms and by many writers expressed, is amply confirmed by the latest historian of Maryland, and biographer of her founders. Dr. William Hand Browne, of lohns Hopkins University, whose labors and researches have illumined, more than those of any other scholar, the archi\es of his natixe State. In his history, Dr. Browne says : "Baltimore was no indifferentist in matters ol religion. That he was a sincere Catholic is shown by the fact that all the attacks upon his rights were aimed at his faith, as the most vulnerable point. That he was a papist, and Maryland a papist colony, a nursery of Jesuits and plotters against Protestantism, was the endless burden of his enemies' charges. He had only to declare himself a Protestant to be ])laced in an unassailable position ; yet that step he never took, even when ruin seemed certain. But he was singularly free from l)igotry, and he had had bitter knowledge of the fruits of religious dissension ; and he meant from the first, so far as in him lay, to secure his colonists from them. His brother Leonard, and those who were associated with him in the gov- ernment, shared his spirit, and from the fouiulation of the colony no man was molested under Baltimore's rule on account of religion. Whenever the Proprietary's power was over- thrown, religious persecution began, and was checked so soon as he was reinstated." Formerly, as you are well aware, there was much discus- sion as to the resi)c(tive shares of the ]K-()plc through their Assembly, and of Lord Baltimore, in the famous and noble Maryland Act of Toleration which was ])assed in 1649 and became part of the .Statute law of the Colony ; and comment has Ijecn made and detraction founded u])on the fact that it was not ado])te(l until llflcen \-cMrs after the landing at .St. Mary's. But happily now, for the truth of history and for the just reputations of illustrious men, all excuse for question or criti- cism on that subject has been removed by the recent remark- able discovery of some of the long--lost Calvert papers. Among- them is the original draft, in Lord Baltimore's writ- ing, with his own erasures and corrections, of the instructions to his brother Leonard for the conduct of the expedition which was then about to set sail in the "Ark" and the " r)o\e," and for the government of the colony. First, and especially, " His Lordship recjuires his said Go\'ernor and Commissioners that in their voyage to Mary Land they be very careful to preser\e unity and peace amongst all the passengers on Shipp-board, and that they Suffer no scandall nor offence to be given to any of the Pro- testants," * ^= -'^ * "and that they instruct all the Roman Catholiques to be silent upon all occasions of dis- course concerning matters of Religion ; and that the said Governor and Commissioners treate the Protestants with as much mildness and favor as Justice will permitt. And this to be observed at Land as well as at Sea." This, preceded in England by the Proprietary's published inx'itation to colonists, and followed in Maryland by his pro- clamation prohibiting "all unseasonable disputations in point of religion tending to the disturbance of the public peace and quiet of the colony, and to the opening of faction in religion," and the sentence and punishment in 1638 and in 1642 of certain Roman Catholics who were guilty of offen- sive words or acts towards Protestants — of which the judicial records now remain — and by the strict and searching oaths ol office which, beginning in 1636, were administered to the ( Governor and to the Judges of the Courts, establish l^eyond' question the fact that religious liberty and toleration, and consequent unity and peace, existed in and after the year 1634 in the colony of Maryland, and nowhere else, simply because Cecilius Calvert — whose sovereign title, as one of the rulers of the earth, was Absolute Lord of the Land of Mary and of Avalon, Baron of Baltimore — was a wise, just and clement ruler, who feared (iod and lo\ed his fellow men, and a statesman who was far, vcrv far iiuleed, in adxance of his time and his nati\-e country. Let us, therefore, never weary of recalHui;' that threat fact ; and, in so doiny-, let us never fail to lift our hearts in grateful acknowledgement to him who, having finished his course more than two centuries ago, ceased to be the Absolute Lord of Maryland, but who has e\'er since been and will ever be one of "the dead, but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule our spirits from their urns." Truly ma}' we now say of him : " Those whom thou should" st call thy peers. Sit on the sjilendid benches of all time." Such, then, were the conditions under which Christian cixilization was founded here, on land which had been honestly purchased from the Indian owners and with their favor. And well may we so characterize the polity of the Raltimores, for it included not only toleration in matters of religion, but the first go\'ernment ever established in a British pfovince in which the people were regularly and formally called upon to aid through their assembly : and it not only protected and conciliated the whites, but — in a measure therefore unknown — the Indians also. It is e\en recorded that the first printing press ever worked in any British colony was set up in Maryland, where it was early used by the devoted Jesuit Fathers to ])rint a gram- mar, vocabulary and catechism, the last in se\eral Indian dialects, which the learned Father Andrew White jjrepared, to aid their missionarv work, after he had liimsclf mastered the Indian tongues. That eminent man, who has been well classed among the Apostles to the Indians, had meekly borne his Master's cross in many lands, before it became his high pri\ilege to raise it here, on Saint Clement's isle, as he himself narrates, "on the day of the Annunciation of the Most Holy X'irgin Mary in the year 1634;" and several times, before he was called to his reward, he came near attaining the transcendent glory . of the martyr's crown. I^'or what those, outside his order and beyond the pale of his own church, know of him, we are largely indebted to a learned clerg\nian, now deceased, of the Protestant E])isc()])al Churrh, the Re\erfnd Dr. Dal- rym])le of this city, who edited for the Maryland Historical Society, Father White's " Relatio Itineris in Mary landiani," and has traced the outlines of the life of his Jesuit brother — concerning whom Dr. Dalrymble says: "His self-denial, pri\'ations and sufferings, and the touching patience and cheerfulness, with which thcv were all endured, move our ])rofound respect and admiration. Father White deserves a high place of honor amongst the manv heroic missionaries of the Society of Jesus." Such, then, were the auspicious conditions under which the good seed of civilization was planted in the fertile soil of Maryland ; and now, after the lapse of two hundred and si.xty years, we must ask ourselves what has the harvest been ? That same Father White, in his Relatio, after describing, in words, which are as sim])lc as they are graceful and appropriate, the events to w hich we have only been able to give a passing glance, suddenly, and with an almost startling impressiveness, wrote this solemn declaration: " The finger of God is in this, and He purposes some great benefit to this nation. ' ' Has that remarkable prophecy been fulfilled ? Tra^•ersing that long stretch of intervening years, and halt- ing half way, we find a landmark set up at the year 1769, by William Eddis, Surveyor of the Customs, at Annapolis who published afterwards in London a book now somewhat rare, and not so widelv known as it deserves to be, entitled " Letters from America Historical and Descripti\e ; Comprising occur- rences from 1769 to 1777 Inclusive." In his "Introduction" Mr. Eddis said: "The author arrived on the American Continent in the year 1769, and settled at Annapolis, under the patronage and protection ot the then (iovernor of Maryland ; from his situation there, he became intimatelv acquainted with the leading characters of every ])art}' in that pro\ince, and with e\ery exent which occurred subsequent to his own arri\al, until the unfortunate luisunderstanding, which arose between thi^ parent state and the colonies, rendered it impossible for e\ery one, like him sincerely and steadily attached to the former, to continue in the countrv. " This intcllii;c'iit and kiiuUy obsener describes a c()iiinuinit\-, with varied })ursuits and interests, prosperous and enter|)ri.i;- ini;, and contented — until the Rex'olution was near at hand — and exhibiting' a degree of refinement which is remarkal)le, considering- the fact that less than one hundred and fortN' years had elapsed since the first settlement. A few extracts may be appropriate, ])resentin<4, as the\' do. pleasino- and authentic pictures of Maryland Colonial life. He said : "The colonists arc composed of adventurers, not only from every district of ( ireat Britain and Ireland, but from almost e\-ery other European oo\ernment, where tlie principles of liberty and commerce have operated with sj)irit anfl efficacy. Is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose, that the English lang-uage must be greatly corrupted by such a strange intermixture of \arious nations ? The rex'erse is, however, true. The language of the immediate decendants of such a promiscuous ancestry is perfectly uniform, and unadulterated ; nor has it borrowed any provincial, or national accent, from its British or foreign parentage. For my part, I confess myself totally at a loss to account for the apparent difierence, between the colonists and i)ersons under equal circumstclnces of education and fortune, resident in the mother country. " Referring to Annapolis he wrote: " In a former letter, 1 attempted to coii\ey some idea of the truly picturescjue and beautiful situation of our little capital. Several of the most opulent families ha\e here established their residence ; and hospitalit}- is the characteristic of the inhabitants. Parl\- l)rejudices ha\e little infiuence on social intercourse ; the grave and ancient enjoy the blessings of a respectable society, while the young and gay ha\'c \'arious amusements to engage their hours of relaxation, and to promote that nuitual con- nection so essential to their fiiture hap])iness." Describing the social life of pro\-incial Maryland, Mr. ICddis wrote on Christmas E\e in 1771 : "The quick importation ol fashions from the mother country is really astonishing. I am almost inclined to believe, that a new fashion is adoi)tc-d earlier by the polished and affiuent American, than b\- man\- opideiU persons in the great metropolis; n