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Essay Subject: Founding of the state; its role in founding of a U.S. Government & democratic rule.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Founding of the state; its role in founding of a U.S. Government & democratic rule. Paper Introduction: This paper is an account of the founding of the state of Maryland, the first colony in North America to attempt to create a government dictated by the will of the people. Established originally as a haven from religious persecution, Maryland went through its own growing pains in its early history. The colony played a significant role in the development of what would become the democratic experiment known as the United States of America. In 1632, George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, was given a land grant in the New World by Charles I of England for an area that eventually became the states of Maryland and Delaware. Calvert died before the charter could be issued that year, and the grant passed to his son, Cecilius, 2nd Baron, who organized an expedition the next year to establish a colony within the grant Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Thepamphlet begins by noting, "Maryland is a province situated upon the largeextending bowels of America."[iv] Written by George Alsop, this modestpublication exaggerated only slightly in its attempts to lure pioneers.Carl Bode notes, "He made a reasonably accurate report. Four years later, fighting against theBoston Port Tax, Maryland became the first plantation colony to join theprotest and to join the newly formed Continental Association, precursor tothe writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.Maryland held to its nonimportation agreements, even to the point ofdestroying a tombstone that a ship's captain attempted to smuggle into thecolony from an English ship. Established originally as a haven from religiouspersecution, Maryland went through its own growing pains in its earlyhistory. The colony played a significant role in the development of whatwould become the democratic experiment known as the United States ofAmerica. The new rulers' first act was toimpose a tax on tobacco, to be used to support the Church of England.Under Protestant rule, "there was no intention of abandoning generaltoleration, but the activities of Catholic supporters of the Stuartsbrought suspicion and oppression upon Catholics in general."[vii] Thecolony which had originally been founded as a religious haven by a RomanCatholic was now a hostile place to follow its founder's religion. Since 1681, when William Penn had received the charter for what wouldbecome Pennsylvania, Maryland had been involved in a bitter boundarydispute regarding its northern geography. This paper is an account of the founding of the state of Maryland, thefirst colony in North America to attempt to create a government dictated bythe will of the people. Annapolis, originally founded in1643 by Protestants, became the state capital. New York: W. What they didn't own already theycould buy for a pittance."[vi] The vast tobacco plantations took up mostof the region; Maryland consisted almost entirely of farms, with virtuallyno towns in between. The colony wasn'tthe Garden of Eden but it wasn't the Pilgrim's stern and rockbound coasteither. Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State. British AdmiralHowe's forces landed an army at the head of the Elk River in late summer,1777. By1638, the colony had conceded the right to initiate laws to the people andpassed the first statutes of the province.[i] Leonard Calvert becameMaryland's first governor. In November of 1633, under command of his brother, Leonard, 2 colonists set sail from Gravesend. Theact also tried to establish church and state as separate entities, thoughthat concept proved too radical for the era. Claiborne had a trading license in thearea and disputed Lord Baltimore's jurisdiction over Kent Island, a tradingpost in Chesapeake Bay. Between 1763 and 1767, theborder was finally established by British surveyors Charles Mason andJeremiah Dixon, who laid out the Mason-Dixon line separating what wouldeventually become the North and South. The response of Maryland troops and other forces of the ContinentalArmy resulted in the Battle of Brandywine, a skirmish which opened the wayfor the British to capture Philadelphia before eventually being defeated. The English Revolution began in 1642 and had a more serious impact onMaryland than on any other New World colony. Maryland: A Bicentennial History. W.Norton, 1978), 3.[v]...Ibid., 5.[vi]...Ibid., 12.[vii]...Writer's Program, 33.[viii]...Ibid., 37.[ix]...Ibid.[x]...Ibid., 39.[xi]...Ibid., 25. Baltimore, named for its founder, became the state'slargest city and an important seaport. By this time, tobacco had become Maryland's chief source of economicstrength. Growing tobacco used up land quickly, exhaustingmost farms after four growing seasons, after which "planters movedcheerfully to other acres they owned. Papenfuse, Jr., "Citizen Legislators and Toleration"(Maryland State Archives, 24 March 1999), 2.[iv]...Carl Bode, Maryland: A Bicentennial History (New York: W. "Citizen Legislators and Toleration." Maryland State Archives, 24 March 1999, 1-4.Writer's Program of the Works Progress Administration in the State of Maryland. Calvert died before the charter couldbe issued that year, and the grant passed to his son, Cecilius, 2nd Baron,who organized an expedition the next year to establish a colony within thegrant. LordBaltimore also retained the power of veto over any laws that were passed,but the idea of creating a government which functioned with the advice andconsent of a significant part of the populace was still a radical one forits time.[ii]...Writer's Program of the Works Progress Administration in the Stateof Maryland, Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 194 ), 25.[iii]...Edward C. Maryland's delegates to the Continental Congress - Samuel Chase,William Paca, Charles Carroll, and Thomas Stone - had already beenempowered to vote for independence, "provided the sole and exclusive rightof regulating the internal government and policy of this colony be reservedto the people thereof."[viii] The ideas inherent in the colony's firstcharter continued to be important in the newly established government. A six-state commission met in Annapolis inthe fall of 1786 "to consider the condition of the nation."[x] Ultimately,Maryland bequeathed several key concepts to the formation of the newdemocracy and, with Virginia, ceded land and money to help establish whatwould become the District of Columbia, the seat of the new United States ofAmerica. Although Maryland's citizens participated actively in the Revolution,their territory was only invaded once during the fighting. Authors from the WPA's Writer's Program, attempting to document thestate's peculiar individuality, wrote, "In the course of [its] first 144[years, Maryland] changed from wilderness thinly inhabited by people with aStone Age culture to an English feudal domain, then to an independentstate."[xi] The seeds of that independence were sown from theestablishment of Maryland's first charter. Claiborne was eventually replaced by GeorgeEvelin, who persuaded the island's residents of the economic benefits ofsubmitting to Maryland's authority in order to establish trade with thegrowing colony. Mary's in 1645. Troops favoring theparliamentary forces in England occupied St. On April 28, 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to join the13 original colonies. Despite the fact that the increasingly numerous Puritans hadtaken complete control, Lord Baltimore was eventually able to reach anagreement that began 3 years of relative peace and prosperity to theregion. Tobacco leaves replaced coined money, and the crop was theprovince's main export. Despite this temporary setback, Maryland's troops were widely admiredfor their discipline: "Military writers have stated that the troops of theold Maryland Line ranked among the finest in the Continental Army."[ix]This reputation eventually earned Maryland its nickname, the "Old LineState." Maryland is also known as the "Free State," the result of its long-standing reputation for fighting for freedom and tolerance. When the Protestant Revolution in English gave the throne to Williamand Mary, Protestants in Maryland again seized control and placed theprovince firmly under royal control. An account of the state's earliest years observes, "The key toMaryland history is compromise, involving enlightened toleration ofopposing interests and views for the sake of domestic peace andprosperity."[ii] One of the first laws to be enacted by the MarylandLegislature is titled "An Act Concerning Religion," and it imposes a fineof ten shillings sterling on anyone who openly criticizes any religiousbelief, be it "Heretick, Schismatick, Idolator, Puritan, IndependentPresbyterian, Antenomian, Barrowist, Roundhead, Seperatist, Popish Priest,Jesuit, Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvenist, Anabaptist, Brownist or anyother name or term,"[iii] a remarkable list, especially for its time. Theyestablished a settlement called Saint Mary's in 1634, and the firstassembly of freemen met there the following January for the first time. W. BibliographyBode, Carl. Maryland residents were becoming increasingly unhappy with Englishrule and the economics of dealing with a government that did little tosupport the welfare of its colonists. Norton, 1978.Papenfuse, Jr., Edward C. Although Maryland relied heavily onEnglish imports of goods to make up for the dearth of goods manufacturedwithin its borders, Marylanders were willing and eager to participate inbans on imports that would help send the message of their unhappiness.Maryland was among the first and the staunchest supporters of a movement tosupport revision of the Townshend Acts, which were ultimately repealed in177 , in the colonists' favor. It was ratified by the Congress of theFederation on January 14, 1784, in Annapolis, Maryland. It wasn't a theological Utopia but it began by setting a highstandard of religious toleration."[v] The colonists got on well with the local Indians but soon foundthemselves in conflict with other transplanted Englishmen, most notably aVirginian named William Claiborne. The king suggested it be named instead forhis wife, and Lord Baltimore recognized the political wisdom in thischoice. Independence did not solve all the problems of the newly-formed nationnor eliminate the difficulties within Maryland's borders that had broughton by a single-crop economy. A pamphlet published in 1666, A Character of the Province of Maryland,extolled the new province's virtues, hoping to attract settlers, especiallythose willing to indenture themselves to a master in the New World. However, whenOliver Cromwell became Lord Protector in 1653, after Charles I wasbeheaded, he sent word that he wished Lord Baltimore to retain control ofthe province. George Calvert had been a Roman Catholic, and his original idea was tofound a colony in which Catholics would be free of religious persecution.Yet more than half of the first colonists were Protestants. The treaty signifying the end of the Revolutionary War was signed inParis on January 2 , 1783. In 1632, George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, was given a land grantin the New World by Charles I of England for an area that eventually becamethe states of Maryland and Delaware. The province was named Maryland after Henrietta Maria, wife of CharlesI, although historians note that Cecilius originally proposed the nameCrescentia (Land of Increase). New York: Oxford University Press, 194 . Endnotes -----------------------[i]..."The people" at this time were all freemen within the colony, a groupwhich included only adult males not bound by indenture or slavery. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.