by a harbor where five hundred sail might ride securely at anchor; they proposed to obviate all the objections, as to the want of accommodations and the difficulty of coming there, by keeping up, at their own expense, a coach or caravan, or both, to run daily during the session of the legislature and the provincial courts, between that city and the Patuxent, and weekly, at other times; and at least six horses, with suitable furniture for all persons having occasion to ride post. The reply of the lower house, is a specimen of the style, wit and temper of the day. Ridiculing the notion that they were bound by what the proprietary might have done, they remark: "As to the great expenditure of money in improving the place and country around, it is against the fact, for more money has been spent here by the rest of the province, than its inhabitants, and all the people for ten miles round are worth; and yet, after sixty years experience, and almost a fourth of the province devoured by them, they still, like Pharoah's kine, remain as lean as at first; and we are unwilling to add any more of our substance to such ill improvers. The place we propose, is a more central part; and as well watered, and in every respect as commodious as St. Mary's, which has hitherto served only to cast a blemish upon the rest of the province, in the eyes of all discerning men, who, perceiving the meanness of the head, must judge proportionably of the body; and as to the proposition for coaches, &c. the general welfare of the province ought to take the place of that sugar-plum, and of all the mayor's coaches, who as yet never had one." (25) seat of govern ment. The place selected as the new site of the government, was a point of land at the mouth of the Severn river, called "Proctor's," or "The town land at Severn." Before that period, Place selected in it appears to have been one of that class of towns, its stead, as the which had the three necessary unities already alluded to; and is described in the act of 1783, chap. 83, relative to the ports and places of trade in the province, as the "Town at Proctor's;" but it had not attained to that elevated privilege, given by the 23d section of that act; which, in its wise designs to keep the towns it created off the parish, denied to them the right of sending a citizen or citizens to the Assem (25) Upper House proceedings of 1694, Liber F F, 765 and 771. bly, until they were inhabited by as many families, as were able to defray the expenses of their delegates, "without being chargeable to the county." At the period of removal, it was described as "The town land at Severn, where the town was formerly;" and as preliminary to the removal, it was now erected into a port of entry and discharge for the commerce of the province, under the name of Anne Arundel town; and an act passed for the establishment at it, of the Assembly and provincial courts. (26) The final removal of these from St. Mary's, took place in the winter of 16941695, and the first Assembly was held at Anne Arundel town, on the 28th February, 1694, (old style.) At the next session, it acquired the name of the Port of Annapolis, and became also the place of sessions for the courts of Anne Arundel county. (27) ry's. 4 It was not erected into a city, invested with the privilege of sending delegates to the Assembly, until 1708. From the moment of its establishment, no efforts were spared by the new governGrowth of An- ment to enlarge its population, and improve its napolis, and downfall of the accommodations, so as to give it a permanent hold city of St. Ma upon the province; yet with all these aids, it at first increased but slowly. A person writing from Maryland, within four or five years after the removal of the legislature to this place, remarks: "There are indeed several places for towns, but hitherto they are only titular ones, except Annapolis, where the governor resides. Col. Nicholson has done his endeavor to make a town of that place. There are about forty dwelling houses in it; seven or eight of which can afford a good lodging and accommodations for strangers. There are also a state house and a free school, built of brick, which make a great show among a parcel of wooden houses; and the foundation of a church is laid, the only brick church in Maryland. They have two market days in a week; and had Governor Nicholson continued there a few months longer, he had brought it to perfection." (28) A later account of it, represents it as in nearly the same condition, during governor Seymour's administration in 1708. (29) It yet (26) Acts of 1694, chapters 8 and 9. (27) Acts of 1695, chapters 2 and 7. wanted the rank and privilege of a city; and it received these, just as they were dropping from the expiring city of St. Mary's. That ancient place, once so venerable in the eyes of the colonists, and yet memorable in its connexion with the foundation of a free and happy state, after ceasing to be the capital, did not long retain the rank which only mocked its downfall. It lost its privilege of sending delegates in 1708; and soon expired from mere inanition. One by one, all its relics have disappeared; and in the very State to which it gave birth, and the land it redeemed from the wilderness, it now stands a solitary spot, dedicated to God, and a fit memento of perishable man. charter. Its more fortunate successor was erected into a city by a charter granted on the 16th day of August, 1708, by the honorable John Seymour, then the royal governor of the province. (30) It Annapolis erect appears to have been one of his favorite designs, and ed into a city was proposed by him to the Assembly, as early as 1704. No measures being adopted by the latter to carry his wishes into effect, he at length conferred the charter, by virtue of the prerogatives of his office. Under this charter, besides the powers and privileges relative to the organization and exercise of its municipal government, the city of Annapolis obtained the privilege which she has ever since enjoyed, of electing two delegates to the General Assembly. As this charter still subsists, and principally determines, even at this day, the extent. of the elective franchise within the city of Annapolis, it is necessary to advert to its provisions, so far as they related to this right. The qualifications required by it for the delegate, were, that he should be an actual resident of the city, and have therein a freehold or visible estate, of the value of £20 sterling. The persons permitted to vote were, the mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common council men of the city; all freeholders oft he city, who are defined to be "all persons owning a whole lot of land, with a house built thereon according to law;" all persons actually resi ding and inhabiting in said city, having a visible estate of £20 sterling; and all persons having served an apprenticeship of five (30) The original charter has lately been discovered by Mr. Brewer, the register, amongst the records of the land office; and there is a record of it amongst the records of the chancery office, in Liber P C, page 590. years to a trade within the city, provided three months had elapsed since the obtention of their freedom, and they were also actual housekeepers and inhabitants within the city. The writ of election was to be directed to the mayor, recorder, and aldermen; who became, thereby, the judges of the election. ceedings as to its charter. The power of erecting cities, was one expressly granted to the proprietary by the charter of Maryland, and with great proAssembly pro- priety: as it was but the proper incident, of his commercial privileges, and of his general power of convéning assemblies. The royal governors, however, stood in a very different predicament; and the exercise of this prerogative, without an express authority from the crown, does not appear to have been warranted, either by the nature of their office, or the terms of their commissions. So thought the lower house of Assembly at that period; and hence, at the first session at which delegates appeared from that city, the session of September, 1708, it denied the right of the governor to confer the charter, and expelled the delegates elected under it. Astonished at a measure so bold and unexpected, the governor, at first, attempted to win it to his purposes by conciliation. Its members were summoned to the upper house, where they were addressed by him in language disclaiming all intention to interfere with their rights and privileges in determining the election of their own members, but claiming for himself also, the competency to judge of his own prerogatives: and they were urged to return to their house, and rescind their resolution. In justification of themselves, they replied, that the course pursued by them was founded upon the complaint of some of the freeholders and inhabitants of Annapolis, who conceived that it affected their rights as freemen, and particularly as to the privilege of voting for delegates; that the right to erect cities, was not expressly vested in the governor, and ought not therefore to be exercised until the queen's pleasure was known: but that they would cheerfully concur with him in granting the charter, if all the inhabitants and freeholders of the place desired it, and were secured, in their equal privileges as to the choice of delegates, and in all other privileges to which they were entitled by the laws of England, and, at the same time, the public lands and buildings secured to the uses for which they were purchased. The governor now tried the usual expedient with a refractory house. (31) The Assembly was dissolved: and a new house immediately summoned, which he at first found quite as unmanageable as the old. Their first message desired him to inform them, if he had received from her majesty any instructions authorising the grant of charters and the erection of cities, which were not contained in his commission: and if so, to communicate them. His brief reply was, "that he had no doubt of his own right and if the exercise of the power was unwarranted, he was answerable to her majesty, and not to them." To bring this difference to a close, a conference was now had between the two houses; which terminated in a compromise, and in the passage of the act of 1708, chap. 7th, to carry that compromise into effect. By this act, the charter of Annapolis was confirmed, under certain reservations as to the public buildings, and restrictions of the municipal power, which it is not necessary here to notice and with the reduction of the public allowance to its delegates for attendance in Assembly, to the one half of that granted to the several delegates from the counties. (32) and condition of government. From this period, this city was continually on the advance. It never acquired a large population, nor any great degree of Ultimate rank commercial consequence: but long before the era. Annapolis under of the American revolution, it was conspicuous as the proprietary the seat of wealth and fashion: and the luxurious habits, elegant accomplishments, and profuse hospitality of its inhabitants, were proverbially known throughout the colonies. It was the only place in the province affording the means of gratifying those luxurious longings and fastidious appetites, which belong to indolent wealth, striving to escape from the poverty of its internal resources by the novelty which it buys, and calling that "enjoyment" which relieves it from the ennui of the moment, even by occupation in trifles. It was the seat of a wealthy government, and of its principal institutions; and as such, congregated around it, many whose liberal attainments eminently qualified them for society, and the endowments of whose offices enabled them to keep pace even with the extravagance (31) Upper House Proceedings from 1699 to 1714, 945 to 956. (32) Act of November, 1708, chap. 7th. |