CHARTER OF MARYLAND. 243 VII. For the benefit of the colony, the statutes restraining CHAP. emigration were dispensed with; and, at the appointment of the Baron of Baltimore, all present and 1632. future liege people of the English king, except such as should be expressly forbidden, might freely transport themselves and their families to Maryland. Christianity was by the charter made the law of the land, but no preference was given to any sect; and equality in religious rights, not less than in civil freedom, was assured. A monopoly of the fisheries had formerly been earnestly resisted by the commons of England to avoid all dispute on this point, Calvert, in his charter, expressly renounced any similar claim. As a Catholic, he needed to be free from the jurisdiction of his neighbor; Maryland was carefully separated from Virginia, nor was he obliged to obtain the royal assent to the appointments or the legislation of his province, nor even to make a communication of the results. So far was the English monarch from reserving any right of superintendence in the colony, he left himself without the power to take cognizance of what transpired; and, by an express stipulation, covenanted, that neither he, nor his heirs, nor his successors, should ever, at any time thereafter, set any imposition, custom, or tax, whatsoever, upon the inhabitants of the province. Thus was conferred on Maryland an exemption from English taxation forever. Sir George Calvert was a man of sagacity, and an observing statesman. He had beheld the arbitrary administration of the colonies; and, against any danger of future oppression, he provided the strongest defence which the promise of a monarch could afford. Some other rights were conferred on the proprietary—the ad CHAP. Vowson of churches; the power of creating manors and VII. courts baron, and of establishing a colonial aristocracy 1632 on the system of sub-infeudation. But these things were practically of little moment. Even in Europe, feudal institutions appeared like the decrepitude of age amidst the vigor and enterprise of a new and more peaceful civilization, they could not be perpetuated in the lands of their origin; far less could they renew their youth in America. Sooner might the oldest oaks in Windsor forest be transplanted across the Atlantic, than the social forms, which Europe itself was beginning to reject as antiquated and rotten. But the seeds of popular liberty, contained in the charter, would find, in the New World, the very soil best suited to quicken them into life and fruitfulness. April 15. Calvert deserves to be ranked among the most wise and benevolent lawgivers of all ages. He was the first in the history of the Christian world to seek for religious security and peace by the practice of justice, and not by the exercise of power; to plan the establishment of popular institutions with the enjoyment of liberty of conscience; to advance the career of civilization by recognizing the rightful equality of all Christian sects. The asylum of Papists was the spot, where, in a remote corner of the world, on the banks of rivers which, as yet, had hardly been explored, the mild forbearance of a proprietary adopted religious freedom as the basis of the state. Before the patent could be finally adjusted and pass the great seal, Sir George Calvert died,' leaving a name against which the breath of calumny has hardly whispered a reproach. The petulance of his adversa 1 Chalmers, 201. OPPOSITION OF VIRGINIA. 245 VII. June ries could only taunt him with being "an Hispano- CHAP. lized Papist." His son, Cecil Calvert, succeeded to his honors and fortunes. For him, the heir of his fa- 1632. ther's intentions, not less than of his father's fortunes, the charter of Maryland was published and confirmed; 20. and he obtained the high distinction of successfully performing what the colonial companies had hardly been able to achieve. At a vast expense, he planted a colony, which for several generations descended as a patrimony to his heirs. Virginia regarded the severing of her territory with 1633. apprehension, and before any colonists had embarked under the charter of Baltimore, her commissioners had in England remonstrated against the grant as an invasion of her commercial rights, an infringement on her domains, and a discouragement to her planters. In Strafford, Lord Baltimore found a friend,-for Strafford had been the friend of the father,3-and the remonstrance was in vain; the privy council sustained the July proprietary charter, and, advising the parties to an amicable adjustment of all disputes, commanded a free commerce and a good correspondence between the respective colonies.1 3. Nor was it long before gentlemen of birth and quality resolved to adventure their lives and a good part of their fortunes in the enterprise of planting a colony under so favorable a charter. Lord Baltimore, who, for some unknown reason, abandoned his purpose of conducting the emigrants in person, appointed his brother to act as his lieutenant; and, on Friday, the Nov. twenty-second of November, with a small but favoring gale, Leonard Calvert, and about two hundred people, 1 Wilson, in Kennett, iii. 705. 2 The charter asserts it. 3 Chalmers, 209. 4 Hazard, i. 337. Bozman, 381 and 265. Chalmers, 231. 22. VII. Feb. CHAP. most of them Roman Catholic gentlemen and their servants, in the Ark and the Dove, a ship of large burden, and a pinnace, set sail for the northern bank of the Potomac. Having staid by the way in Barbadoes and 1634. St. Christopher, it was not till February of the follow24. ing year, that they arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia; where, in obedience to the express letters of King Charles, they were welcomed by Harvey with courtesy and humanity. Clayborne also appeared, but it was as a prophet of ill omen, to terrify the company by predicting the fixed hostility of the natives. Mar. Leaving Point Comfort, Calvert sailed into the Potomac; and with the pinnace ascended the stream. A cross was planted on an island, and the country claimed for Christ and for England. At about fortyseven leagues above the mouth of the river, he found the village of Piscataqua, an Indian settlement nearly opposite Mount Vernon. The chieftain of the tribe would neither bid him go nor stay; "he might use his own discretion." It did not seem safe for the English to plant the first settlement so high up the river; Calvert descended the stream, examining, in his barge, the creeks and estuaries nearer the Chesapeake; he entered the river which is now called St. Mary's, and which he named St. George's; and, about four leagues from its junction with the Potomac, he anchored at the Indian town of Yoacomoco. The native inhabitants, having suffered from the superior power of the Susquehannahs, who occupied the district between the bays, had already resolved to remove into places of more security in the interior; and many of them had begun to migrate before the English arrived. To Calvert, the spot seemed convenient for a plantation; it was easy, 1 Winthrop, i. 134. FIRST EMIGRATION TO MARYLAND. 247 VII. by presents of cloth and axes, of hoes and knives, to CHAP gain the good will of the natives, and to purchase their rights to the soil which they were preparing to aban- 1634. don. They readily gave consent that the English should immediately occupy one half of their town, and, after the harvest, should become the exclusive tenants of the whole. Mutual promises of friendship and peace were made; so that, upon the twenty-seventh Mar. day of March, the Catholics took quiet possession of the little place; and religious liberty obtained a home, its only home in the wide world, at the humble village which bore the name of St. Mary's. Three days after the landing of Calvert, the Ark and the Dove anchored in the harbor. Sir John Harvey soon arrived on a visit; the native chiefs, also, came to welcome or to watch the emigrants, and were so well received, that they resolved to give perpetuity to their league of amity with the English. The Indian women taught the wives of the new comers to make bread of maize; the warriors of the tribe instructed the huntsmen how rich were the forests of America in game, and joined them in the chase. And, as the season of the year invited to the pursuits of agriculture, and the English had come into possession of ground already subdued, they were able, at once, to possess cornfields and gardens, and prepare the wealth of successful husbandry. Virginia, from its surplus produce, could furnish a temporary supply of food, and all kinds of domestic cattle. No sufferings were endured; no fears of want were excited; the foundation of the colony of Maryland was peacefully and happily laid. Within six months, it had advanced more than Virginia had done in as many years. The proprietary continued with great liberality to provide every thing that was 27. |