THE "STAMP ACT" IN TALBOT It is a matter of regret to every one who takes an interest in our local annals that we possess so few memorials of events that preceded our revolutionary trouble, and of those that transpired during our war of Independence. Newspapers, those repositories so invaluable to the local historian or annalist, had not begun to be published within our bounds nor did they begin until 1790, when the Maryland Herald first appeared. The journals printed within the Province, prior to the war, numbering only two, the Maryland Gazette, of Annapolis, dating from 1745, and the Maryland Journal, of Baltimore dating from 1773, gave little space to what occurred in the distant sections of the province, and noticed only what transpired within their own precinct as it were, or what was of most general interest. The other public sources of local information, our Court and Church records, are almost entirely silent upon politics, confining themselves, the one to matters relating to the administration of justice, and the other to affairs ecclesiastical. Reading them, one ignorant of history would suppose the current of society from 1765 to 1782 was hardly disturbed by a ripple, much less broken into furious rapids by a great political revolution, and bloody To be sure, the formation of our State Constitution in 1776, which brought about a change and re-organization of our Courts, was noted in our county records, yet only, obscurely: for this change was so accordant with the demands of the growing commonwealth and so necessary for the ends of justice, that it seemed to be the result rather of a natural transition than of a violent catastrophe, so noiselessly did the old system of judicature merge into the new. As for the church, but for the interruption of the collection of its legal dues, caused by the new form of government, the historical student would hardly learn from the record of her vestries, anything more of our political affairs than that she had passed from condition of humiliating vassalage to the Provincial government, to a state of noble dependence upon the loving bounty of her children, In short, our public records say almost nothing of events within this county that antedated, or were coincident with our Revolutionary war. Of private memoranda of this stirring period in our history, there exists almost if not absolutely none. Not a private journal nor collection of letters can be found. The papers of that gentleman who was most prominent and active in Talbot anterior war. to and during the war, Mr. Matthew Tilghman, of Bay-Side, were destroyed, it is thought, by fire when the house at "The Hermitage," Queen Anne county, was burned, not many years ago. Had this distinguished gentleman's papers been preserved, they no doubt would have elucidated those obscurities in our political affairs which now, it is to be feared, must ever remain in darkness. Such being the case, every memorandum relating to these times in our county that may be discovered, is cherished, by the annalist and antiquary, as a precious memorial; and what would be regarded as quite insignificant, if our historical treasures were richer, is now looked upon as invaluable. Recently there have fallen into the hands of the writer two documents relating to that extremely interesting period in our history, the time of the passage of the "Stamp Act." The first was found among the proceedings of the Court, in a book of Civil Judgments from Aug. 1765 to 1768, now in the Clerk's office of Talbot county. For the other the writer is indebted to the courtesy of Oswald Tilghman, Esq., great great grand-son of the gentleman mentioned above, who discovered it in a bound volume of old pamphlets among which was a single number of Carey's Museum—that for July, 1788, in which it was printed probably for the first time. These documents derived from such diverse sources, have a very natural connection. The first is the expression of the sentiments of the highest civil tribunal in the county, while the second is a declaration of the sentiments of the body of freemen assembled in public meeting, upon a subject then intently engaging the attention of the people of America. There is little doubt that the account of the refusal of our Court to comply with the Act, and that of the meeting of our citizens, reached the hands of the ministry and the King together, and that they had their weight, small it might be, in determining the subsequent action of Parliament. They served to show to the ruling powers in England, as they still show to us, that the fires of patriotic indignation glowed with no less ardor down in this remote and secluded corner of his Majesty's dominions than they did in Virginia or Massachusetts, and that the detestation of the odious "Stamp Act," in as much as it was expressed in pretty much the same words, and shown in almost precisely the same manner, was as hearty here as in centres of political influence or the great marts of commerce. The observant reader, will not fail to notice that the resolutions of the public meeting reveal a condition of feeling closely resembling that which existed during our recent troubles. The intolerance of the majority in 1765 is quite as conspicuous as that manifested in any meet ing of Unionists in the North or of Secessionists in the South, in 1861. And this majority was ready to visit the same kind of punishments upon the minority, as were threatened to be visited in more recent times. We have canonized our revolutionary forefathers, but these documents plainly show they were possessed of the same frailties as we their children are, and that they are no more entitled to political saintship than many a blatant Rebel or Union shrieker, of more modern date, to make use of the epithets the opposing parties applied to each other. With a change of a few words the fifth resolution might have been adopted at some of the political meetings of one or the other side in 1861 or 1862. It must be remembered, however, that social ostracism, with which this resolution threatens the agents of the British Government, had a significance and a weight, that do not belong to it now. The persons who were appointed stamp agents by the Crown, were generally men of character and good position, and for them to be banished from society, particularly from the polite society of a community essentially aristocratic in its structure, as ours was in Talbot in 1765, was a penalty few of their condition were prepared to encounter. On the contrary in our democratic society of the present day, in which there is either an actual approximation to equality or less regard paid to social distinctions, often arbitrary or conventional, to be excluded from intercourse with any clique or coterie on account of political differences is only a matter of amusement to any man of good repute and true independence, or at worst it is only an inconvenience which is shared by the excluding as well as the excluded. It will be remembered, or those who do not remember may refresh their recollection by consulting any manual of American history, that in 1765 the famous "Stamp Act" was passed by the British Parliament. By this act every legal document, newspaper, pamphlet, &c., was required to pay a stamp tax, which varied in amount from three pence to a guinea. The inhabitants of the American Colonies objected not to the amount of the tax but to the political principle in obedience to which the tax was laid. Probably at no period in our whole history, was there more feeling aroused, than at the time when the passage of this obnoxious act was announced in America. Legislatures, that of this province included, passed resolutions of condemnation, and indignation meetings of the citizens were held in many of the provinces, those of Virginia and Massachusetts being notable for the warmth of the expressions of reprobation of the taxing a free people without representation. A Congress, composed of delegates from nine of the thirteen colonies, of which Maryland was one, assembled at New York in October 1765, which drew up a declaration of rights and grievances for presentation to Parliament and the King. This was the precursor of that other and greater declaration of July, 1776, and the Union then born, developed into that "more perfect" and glorious Union of 1788. The act was to go into operation November 1, 1765. Before that day had arrived the packages containing the stamps that had been sent over for distribution among the Crown's agents, were seized in some of the ports, and their contents destroyed. Those intended for distribution. in Maryland arrived at New Castle, Delaware, but by request of Governor Horatio Sharpe, they were retained on board the ship, and never reached their destination. The agents themselves were warned that their life and property were endangered if they attempted to enforce the law. Before Nov. 1st had arrived every agent had either resigned his post, or had fled from the country. The story of Zachary Hood, the stamp agent for the province of Maryland, who was burned in effigy at Annapolis, his house torn down, and he himself compelled to flee to New York, is familiar to all. It was just about this time that the Court of Talbot county met—namely on the 1st Tuesday in November 1765— and of its proceedings we have this record: november "At a County Court of the Right Honourable Frederick Lord & Prop'ry of the Province of Maryland & Avalon. Lord Baron of Baltimore, held for Talbot County, at the Court House in the same County, the 1st Tuesday in November Anno Dom. Seventeen Hundred and Sixtyfive, before the same Lord Prop'ry his Justices of the Peace for the County af'd., of whom were present The Worshipful John Bozman—Sheriff, MAJOR RISDON BOZMAN, Justices. The Justices aforesaid taking into consideration An Act of Parliament lately made, entitled An Act for granting and applying certain Stamp duties, and other duties in the British Colonies and plantations in America, towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting and securing (?) the same and for amending such parts of the several acts of Parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the s'd colonies and plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned, and finding it impossible at this time to comply with the said Act, adjourned their court until the 1st Tuesday in March, seventeen hundred, and sixty-six. At which s'd first Tuesday in March, seventeen hundred, and sixtysix, the Justices above mentioned (having since the adjournment of the former court taken into consideration the mischievous consequences that might arise from proceeding to do business in the manner prescribed by the above mentioned Act of Parliament, and as it would be highly penal to do anything contrary to the directions of the Act) would not open nor hold any Court. Between the time of the adjournment of the Court in November, 1765, and its meeting again in March, 1766, public sentiment in the county had been clearly and emphatically expressed. This may in some measure account for the phrase, "mischievous consequences that might arise from proceeding to business" in the above recital. The Court was unwilling to place itself between two fires—popular indignation, and legal penalties. It therefore, wisely adjourned. The expression of the sentiments of the people of our county respecting the execution of the "Stamp Act," was made at a public meeting of the freemen, which doubtless had been advertised, by posting notices at the Court House door and at the Churches, as was customary at that time, before the introduction of newspapers. We are fortunate in finding, as above related, an account of the proceedings of this meeting in Carey's Museum, for July 1788, to which it was probably furnished by some former resident of the county, then having his home in Philadelphia, who had been present at the meeting and had preserved a copy of the spirited resolutions, then passed: Resolutions of the Freemen of Talbot Co. Maryland, November 25, 1765 The Freemen of Talbot County assembled at the Court House of said County, do in the most solemn manner declare to the world: I. That they bear faith and true allegiance to his Majesty King George III. II. That they are most affectionately and zealously attached to his person and family; and are fully determined, to the utmost of their |