MARYLAND

Maryland was one of four of the original 13 English colonies that was specifically chartered for religious freedom, as a refuge from religious persecution. Lord Baltimore George Calvert was secretary of state for King James I and converted to Catholicism in 1625. He resigned upon succession by the son Charles I rather than swear allegiance to the Anglican Church of England. However, Charles I repaid the Calverts for loyal service, and granted Lord Baltimore a proprietary charter for Catholics. When the first Lord Baltimore George Calvert died on April 15, 1632, the Charter was granted to his son Cecil Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore, on June 20, 1632 to land north of the Potomac River to the 40th Parallel. The Calverts wanted a refuge for Catholics but also believed in religious toleration for all Christians. King Charles named the Colony Terra Mariae, or Maryland. The Charter written in Latin does not specify for whom the Territory is named.

With Catholics and Protestants aboard, Leonard Calvert, Cecil's younger brother, sailed 123 days on the Ark and the Dove and crossed the Atlantic; after sailing through the Chesapeake Bay and into the Potomac River, they landed on St. Clement's island on March 25, 1634, the feast of the Annunciation. They put up a cross there in honor of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The same day the Catholics gathered on shore for a Mass celebrated by fellow passenger Father Andrew White SJ - the first Roman Catholic Mass in the thirteen English-speaking colonies. To this day March 25 is celebrated as Maryland Day by the State of Maryland. ^1-3
The seafarers then headed 17 miles downstream on the Potomac River and traveled up an inlet and landed at a village of the Yaocamico Indians. Leonard Calvert purchased the village and adjacent land from the Indians on March 27, 1634, and this became St. Mary's City. St. Mary's County was founded in 1637. The settlers named the City, the County, and, according to a tradition among Maryland Catholics, the Maryland Territory in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Leonard Calvert was the first governor of the Maryland Colony and lived in St. Mary's City, the County Seat. St. Mary's City became the first capital of Maryland and remained so until 1695. ^{2, 4}

The colonial history of Maryland was intertwined with events in England. King Charles I (1625-1649) was the second Stuart King, and followed his father King James l. King Charles married the devout Henrietta Maria, the Catholic Princess of France in 1625. Protestant England was distressed with the Royal Family, because of the King's benevolence to Catholics, and because the Queen took the royal children and her courtiers to Mass at her private chapel. Charles struggled with Parliament's demand for greater power throughout his reign; he did sign the Petition of Right in 1628. When the King and William Laud, his Archbishop of Canterbury, tried to impose the Anglican Book of Common Prayer on the Scottish Presbyterian Church, Scotland rose up in rebellion against the King, and his relationship with Parliament worsened. English Civil War broke out in 1642 and Parliament won, led by the Puritan Oliver Cromwell and the extreme Puritans known as the Independents. King Charles was beheaded January 30, 1649. ^5-8
Leonard Calvert and the Catholics had a difficult time in Maryland from the very beginning, as religious tension in England spilled over to the American colonies. Maryland Catholics were outnumbered and conflict increased between Catholics and Protestants, especially after the Puritans, at the invitation of the Calverts, settled in Providence (now Annapolis) in 1648. Some claimed that Maryland was named after Charles' Catholic wife. To prevent strife, Cecil Calvert and the Maryland General Assembly formalized his original intent and passed the historic Toleration Act on April 21, 1649, a law to provide religious harmony among Christians. An Act Concerning Religion, which became known as The Toleration Act of Maryland, proved to be a compromise between Catholics and Protestants for toleration of all Christian religions.



Both Catholics and the Toleration Act of Maryland continued to suffer a rocky road throughout the colonial history of Maryland, especially after the Glorious Revolution of England in 1688, when the Catholic King James II was deposed by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. The Toleration Act of Maryland was repealed in 1692. Subsequently, Catholics in Maryland were not allowed to vote or hold public office, and at times, not even allowed to openly practice their faith! Jesuit missionaries in particular, who had converted both Indians and Protestants alike, suffered persecution. The Capital of Maryland was even moved from St. Mary's City to Annapolis in 1695! However, Catholics maintained a presence through it all. Several Catholic families seeking religious freedom left St. Mary's County and traveled northwest in 1728 to what is now Emmitsburg in Frederick County, Maryland. They named the mountain there St. Mary's and the valley St. Joseph's Valley.

Marylanders became united because of British oppression after the Seven Years War (1756-1763).
The Maryland regulars performed bravely during the Revolutionary War. Their finest hour occurred at Brooklyn on Long Island, New York, when George Washington and the Continental Army were overwhelmed by the British. Washington knew he had to retreat and escape with his army to Manhattan on August 29, 1776. It was felt the hand of Providence aided their effort. Five British warships were unable to sail upriver and block the Army's escape because of a shift in winds. A daring overnight escape over the East River was not enough to evacuate all the troops, but a thick morning fog rolled in and covered the boats. 250 Marylanders attacked General Cornwallis and the British redcoats to cover the retreat, risking capture or death. George Washington exclaimed, "Good God, what brave fellows I must lose this day." He named the Maryland troops The Old Line, the name by which our state is still known - The Old Line State. ^{2, 5, 9}
Charles Carroll migrated to Maryland in 1688 and became the Attorney General of Maryland. Three of his grandsons made important contributions to the formation of our young Nation. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a strong advocate for American Independence and was elected in 1776 to represent Maryland at the Continental Congress; he was the only Catholic signer of the U. S. Declaration of Independence. His cousin Daniel Carroll signed the Articles of Confederation for Maryland on March 1, 1781, and also attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and was a signer of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787. Maryland became the seventh State of the Union when it ratified the U. S. Constitution on April 28, 1788. Daniel Carroll also was appointed by George Washington as one of three surveyors for the District of Columbia, and donated a farm as the site for the building of our Capital, Washington, D. C. And John Carroll, Daniel's brother, became the first American Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Baltimore in 1789, a diocese which included the entire United States. Bishop Carroll founded Georgetown College in 1791. In 1806, he laid the cornerstone for the first American Cathedral, the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. During his tenure as Archbishop, Elizabeth Ann Seton opened the first Catholic school in Baltimore and Father John Dubois founded Mount St. Mary's College and Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, both in 1808. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American Saint, also founded the Sisters of Charity at St. Joseph's Valley in Emmitsburg in 1809.
The War of 1812 against Britain was spurred on by the expansionist War Hawks of Congress, in response to the British Orders in Council of 1806, an embargo which crippled the American economy, and the British support of Tecumseh and the Indian Confederation. The War was a difficult one for the Americans, especially the British invasion via the Chesapeake Bay in 1814. The British arrived in Washington, D. C. on August 24, 1814. President James Madison rode to the front of the resistance, and wrote his wife Dolley Madison to flee the city. Fortunately our Freedom Documents and other valuables were saved during the evacuation. The British burned the Executive Mansion, the Capitol Building, and the Library of Congress. They then sailed back up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore and attacked Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814. Following the 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key was so moved to see the American Flag still flying at dawn of September 14 that he wrote The Star-Spangled Banner. The War effectively ended at the Battle of New Orleans, won by Andrew Jackson on January 8, 1815.

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
September 14, 1814

Maryland has fluorished through the years. The Maryland Act of Toleration is significant as the first law towards the establishment of religious freedom in the history of our nation, and historians consider the Act the historical prelude to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. In fact, the guarantee of religious freedom in the first Amendment of the U. S. Bill of Rights uses the same phrase as the Act: free exercise thereof. And The Star-Spangled Banner written in Baltimore served as the military Anthem until it was officially signed into law as the National Anthem of the United States of America on March 3, 1931.¹⁰


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REFERENCES
1 Treacy WP. Old Catholic Maryland and Early Jesuit Missionaries. Bibliolife, Charleston, South Carolina, 1889, 2009.
2 Bennett WJ. America - The Last Best Hope. Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Volume l, page 43, 87-88, 2006; Volume ll, 2007.
3 Alvarez R. First and Forever - The Archdiocese of Baltimore. Editions du Signe, Strasbourg, France, 2006.
4 Personal Communication, St. Mary's County Government, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 2009.
5 Marck JT. Maryland The Seventh State - A History. Fourth Edition, Creative Impressions, Glen Arm, Maryland, 1998.
6 Spielvogel JJ. Western Civilization, Sixth Combined Edition, Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, California, 2006.
7 Morrill J (ed). Oxford History of Tudor and Stuart Britain. Oxford University Press, New York, 1996.
8 Berkin C, Miller CL, Cherny RW, Gormly JL. Making America. Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2007.
9 McCullough, D. 1776 - The Illustrated Edition. Simon & Schuster, New York, page 161 and following, 2007.
10 Noonan JT. The Lustre of Our Country, The American Experience of Religious Freedom. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1998.