The Revolutionary War resulted in independence from British rule and also a social and political transformation in the newly independent states. The conflict grew out of a combination of idealistic theories of the rights of the governed and specific interests of particular people living under British rule in North America. In Baltimore, as elsewhere, the decision to fight for independence rather than mere reform of the imperial system evolved through agonizing debate and the leadership of a fairly small group of men, many of whom had concrete stakes in the outcome.
In Baltimore, as in the colonies generally, the first widespread expression of discontent came in the wake of the French and Indian War which ended in 1763. The British chose the time when their troops were no longer needed for defense to commence programs of taxation to raise money to defray colonial expenses and regulation of trade and manufacturing to help bolster the troubled British economy. Colonists resented these intrusions, in part because of their effect on trade and manufacturing and in part because the regulations were new. Before Britain's warring with France and domestic economic and political problems prompted the interference, the colonies had been free, in reality if not in theory, to go their own way, largely unhampered by the mother country.
The post-1763 grievances generally exacerbated those already held by segments of the population of Baltimore and Maryland. A number of people were already dissatisfied with the enormous power held by the proprietor. The proprietors, Frederick Calvert, 1751-71, and his illegitimate son Henry Harford, 1771-76, and their governors, Horatio Sharpe, 1753-69, and Robert Eden, 1769-76, could exercise absolute veto power over the colonial assembly. This procedure was seldom necessary as the members of the Upper House of the legislature received their appointment by the governor on the advice of the proprietor. Generally, these representatives came from the great landholding families. The most lucrative appointive governmental offices went to these same men. By the 1760s, the governor could distribute over 12,000 pounds a year in patronage positions. Kickbacks from these salaries were customary. The proprietor himself received an income of over 13,000 pounds from quit-rents, land offices, and trade duties, Especially during down cycles of the economy, this situation was hard for the many Marylanders who were not part of the proprietor's inner circle to accept.
In addition to money paid to the proprietor and his colonial officials, funds raised by a general tax went to support the Church of England. While many of the large landowners did belong to the Anglican Church, some were Catholics, Quakers, or members of other non-established churches. Many of the prosperous merchants of Baltimore Town were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians or Germans who belonged to the Reformed Church or the Lutheran Church. Most non-Anglicans resented being forced to support a church to which they did not belong. Furthermore, many Anglican clergymen not only failed to perform their duties but were known to be corrupt. One particularly notorious priest absented himself frequently to run a bawdy house in Philadelphia.
Roman Catholics held the additional grievance of having been disenfranchised and barred from public office and the practice of law since 1718. During the French and Indian War, Catholics had to pay double taxes. For a while, they were forbidden to construct churches and could say masses only in private homes. Unlike the very small number of Jews who faced similar political restrictions and the large number of blacks who faced even harsher restraints, the Roman Catholics numbered among their leaders some men of wealth and position, including Charles Carroll of Annapolis and, later, his son Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
To these and other existing grievances was added an economic crisis in the mid-1760s. This precipitated a dry run for the final battle which was joined a decade later. Economic events propelled Baltimore's merchants and those of other Maryland towns to undertake a protest, in which other troubled groups joined, against both proprietary rule and imperial regulation. By the 1760s, Baltimore's political leaders came predominantly from the merchant group. Even the owners of nearby large tracts of land were involved in commercial undertakings. Therefore, any events which affected mercantile interests in genera! had a particularly powerful impact on Baltimore Town.
A brief economic explanation must precede any comprehensible account of the political reaction. Maryland, like all the colonies, exported raw materials to England and imported manufactured goods and commodities, such as tea, not available locally. The most important cargoes loaded at the port of Baltimore and other Maryland docks included tobacco, grain, lumber and iron. Maryland currency and British pounds sterling were exchangeable at a rate that varied according to general economic stability and the import-export balance. When Maryland imported more than it exported, Maryland merchants owed British merchants and bankers the difference between the value of the imports and that of the exports. When Marylanders owed a lot of money to their British creditors and those creditors demanded payment, the exchange rate went against the Maryland currency and more Maryland money was required to satisfy the debt in pounds sterling. in 1764-65 tobacco prices sank. This meant that Americans received less money with which they could buy British manufactured goods. Many merchants owed money on manufactured goods already received. British creditors demanded payments which American merchants could not meet. Britishers then withdrew credit or raised the interest rates charged to Americans. Baltimore merchant William Lux had his credit cutoff in 1765. Charles Ridgely became involved in a long dispute over the amount of interest he owed. Merchants whose credit was cut off or limited could not import the goods they wanted and thus could not sell them here. Both merchants and the growers of exportable agricultural staples felt the squeeze.
This troubled economic situation prevailed when the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March, 1765. The Stamp Act levied the first direct, internal tax ever imposed on the colonies by Parliament. And it was a heavy tax: 3 shillings on every kind of legal paper such as contracts or wills; 2 pounds on school or college diplomas; 1-4 pounds for a liquor license; 10 pounds for a license to practice law; 1/2 pence a sheet on every copy (not issue) of a newspaper; 2 shillings an issue for each advertisement in a newspaper; 1 shilling per pack of playing cards; and so on. Furthermore, every document or sheet of paper subject to this duty had to bear a stamp sold by official distributors, whose jobs only added to the already high number of officials whose salaries colonists did not want to pay. Reaction in Baltimore, Annapolis and throughout the colonies came immediately. In Annapolis, a crowd chased the newly appointed stamp distributor, Zachariah Hood, from the colony and tore down his house. Maryland Attorney General Daniel Dulany wrote in the Maryland Gazette that Parliament should not tax Americans and suggested a peaceful boycott of English goods to remind England of the importance of the colonies to the imperial economy.
Baltimore merchants, like others throughout the colonies, met to protest and in November 1765, implemented a program of non-importation of British goods. It must be noted that the poor exchange rate and the cutting off of credit had already reduced imports to the town. In February 1766, Baltimore merchants William Lux and Robert Adair organized the first Maryland chapter of the Sons of Liberty by converting the Mechanical Company, which since 1763 had been responsible not only for fire protection but also for policing, drilling, and mustering in Baltimore. Mechanical Company members came from the merchant and tradesman classes in Baltimore. This group provided the core of resistance both at this time and later. Lux and Annapolis radical leader Samuel Chase formed an alliance which proved powerful in the years to come. Sons of Liberty delegates from all counties assembled in Annapolis in early March to try to get officials to agree to transact business without using stamped paper. Protests like these finally resulted in the official repeal of the Stamp Act on March 18, 1766. With repeal, the outbursts quieted, but the leaders particularly did not forget their wider-ranging grievances and were unwilling to let others forget or to allow their organization's collapse. Governor Robert Eden, after he took office in 1769, called the Baltimore Sons of Liberty the most "pronounced rebellious and mischievious organization in the province of Maryland." Yet things did quiet down for a while. Both wheat and tobacco rose in price. Exports increased, and that meant that imports also could increase and credit was easier to obtain. In the fall of 1766 an emission of currency in Maryland further eased the monetary situation by putting more currency in circulation. Baltimore's merchants did not forget, but prosperity assuaged their immediate distress.
The contrast in the reaction to taxation by Britain can be seen in Baltimore's response to the Townshend Acts of 1767, which imposed a tax on popular imports such as paper, glass, tea, and paint. At the behest of Philadelphia's merchants, Baltimoreans finally met in March, 1769. Leaders of the Sons of Liberty like William Lux, John Moale and Alexander Lawson won another non-importation agreement. This time, however, such a long list of exceptions were attached to the agreement that its impact was slight. In Baltimore, most merchants considered business too good to ruin for the sake of political protest. Because of the strength of protests elsewhere, Britain repealed all the duties except that on tea in April, 1770.
Another economic crisis preceded the final phase of the colonial rebellion which resulted in the outbreak of war and the declaration of independence. In 1771 and 1772 prices paid for American wheat, tobacco and corn began to decline. A general European depression in 1773 led English creditors to try to collect on all their American debts, just when the Americans did not have currency with which to pay. Economic chaos resulted. This led to the emergence in Maryland of a new political coalition whose quest for local economic stability resulted in their support for independence several years later. Leaders among the Baltimore merchants included William Lux, Charles Ridgely, and a newcomer to town, Samuel Purviance. Samuel Chase resurrected the Baltimore-Annapolis coalition around the leadership of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Several general points are crucial to understanding what went on in Baltimore in the 1770s. One is that by that decade the protest movement and the issues that moved its leaders had to be viewed as American, not local. Grievances about economic instability, the established church, and the corruption and wealth of colonial officials existed throughout the colonies. Certain groups in all the colonies sought a change in government in order to democratize political power, to bring the franchise or governmental control to groups who had been excluded because of property requirements or religious faith. Furthermore, throughout the years of conflict, an ideology had been put together which would find its ultimate expression in 1776 in the Declaration of Independence. Colonists from Massachusetts to Georgia read and talked about ideas of natural rights of all men, ideas that certain privileges and inequalities were wrong, theories of government that declared that all individuals had the right to choose their governors, the idea that people could be taxed only by representatives whom they had chosen. These theories went beyond specific complaints about taxes or the state of the economy and invoked a higher morality on the side of the rebellion. This mixture of economic strife and ideological protest took place throughout the colonies. The leaders, the decisions, the conflicts and the activities in Baltimore all formed a part of this national pattern.
Communication among the colonies played a vital role in forming the unity that was necessary for the ultimate victory. Baltimorean William Goddard, editor of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, made a major contribution to this communication when in 1774 he undertook the organization of a colonial postal system which would be free of the espionage practiced by royal postal officials. In Baltimore, the mails were collected and distributed at the Journal office by Postmistress Mary Katherine Goddard, William's sister. ommunication among the revolutionary eaders meant that Baltimoreans could know and )bject to British policies not only in Maryland but throughout the colonies
After Boston radicals dumped a boatload of taxed tea in their harbor in December 1773, the British closed the port of Boston until such time as the tea was paid for. Bostonians met and agreed to forego trade with Britain and passed a resolution urging other colonies to do the same. Sam Adams wrote to sympathizers throughout the colonies requcsting support and aid. He wrote to William Lux in Baltimore,
As the very being of every colony, considered as a free people, depends upon the event, a thought so dishonorable to our brethren cannot be entertained as that this town will now be left to struggle alone. The town of Boston is now suffering the stroke of vengeance, in the common cause of America. I hope they will sustain the blow with a becoming fortitude, and that the efforts of this cruel act, intended to intimidate and subdue the spirits of all America, will by the joint efforts of all, be frustrated.
Baltimoreans met at the courthouse on May 25, 1774 and appointed a Committee of Correspondence to be in charge of inter-colonial communication. A second meeting held on May 31 resulted in a resolution to end trade with Britain and the West Indies. The group also called for a meeting in Annapolis of delegates from all Maryland and for a meeting of delegates from all the colonies in a general assembly. An enlarged Committee of Correspondence was appointed with Samuel Purviance as chairman. In June and July of 1774, Baltimoreans collected funds for the relief of Boston and Charlestown, Massachusetts and sent several vessels with gifts and provisions.
In June 1774 each county chose delegates to attend the general convention in Annapolis. Seven men represented Baltimore Town and County: Captain Charles Ridgely, Thomas Cockey Deye, Walter Tolley, Jr., Robert Alexander, William Lux, Samuel Purviance, and George Risteau. This Maryland Convention entered into general non-importation agreements, made further collections for the relief of Boston, and appointed delegates to the all-colony First Continental Congress which would meet in Philadelphia in September. The convention chose Matthew Tilghman, Samuel Chase, William Paca and Robert Goldsborough. Although none of these men came from Baltimore, they represented the faction led by Charles Carroll of Carroilton which worked closely with the town's mercantile revolutionary leadership.
The Continental Congress recommended the appointment of committees in towns and counties throughout the colonies to enforce the non-importation agreements on which that general congress had also resolved. Baltimoreans assembled at the courthouse once again. All freeholders and others eligible to vote elected twenty-nine members to the town's Committee of Observation. The Committee predictably included Samuel Purviance who became chairman, William Lux who became deputy chairman, Robert Alexander, John Moale, William Buchanan, and Jeremiah Townley Chase. James Calhoun, who would later serve as first mayor of Baltimore, Mordecai Gist, William Spear, Dr. John Boyd, John Merryman and many others were also elected. Two Germans, Barnet Fichelberger and George Lindenberger, joined the predominantly Scotch-Irish and English merchants on the Committee of Observation.
One major effect the Revolution had on Baltimore was the integration of the German population into the political life of the town. Until this time, except for several members of the Mechanical Company and the Sons of Liberty, the Germans had formed a community apart from the English-speaking elite, valued for their skills, but not included in the power establishment and, for the most part, without the franchise. The pre-war protest marked the beginning of change in their position.
By the fall of 1774, violent incidents began to erupt throughout the colonies. The perpetrators and the opponents of violence reflected the division between radicals and conservatives within the protest movement. Although Maryland's leaders were generally cautious, the violent incidents were beginning to polarize the various factions. The Maryland incident which received the most attention was the burning of the ship Peggy Stewart in October, 1774. The Peggy Stewart, owned by James Dick and his son-in-law Anthony Stewart, arrived in Annapolis carrying seventeen chests of tea. In rampant violation of the anti-importation agreements (but well within the law), Stewart paid the duty on the tea, preparatory to unloading it. The local committee suggested a general meeting of the citizenry to determine what action should be taken. Baltimoreans Charles Ridgely, Mordecai Gist, and John Deaver attended. The group decided to burn the tea and the vessel, which they did. The action represented a victory for the Annapolitan radical faction led by John Hall, Matthias Hammond, and Rezin Hammond. Charles Ridgely moved into the radical faction in his support of the burning. The more moderate Carroll-led group wanted to burn only the tea. From this time on, open splits between the conservatives, moderates, and radicals continued, with individuals frequently shifting sides. The moderates generally held the greater power and, except for isolated incidents, prevailed in Maryland throughout the Revolutionary period.
By the end of 1774, the Maryland Provincial Convention and local revolutionary groups clearly held control of the colony, despite the continuing nominal existence of the proprietary government. In December, the Convention undertook military preparations. All white males aged 15 to 60 were to be enrolled in companies, armed, equipped and drilled. A levy on the counties was to raise 10,000 pounds to furnish the militia with arms and ammunition. Baltimore County's share amounted to 930 pounds of which 72 pounds 7 shillings 6 pence was to come from Baltimore Town West and 26 pounds 12 shillings 6 pence from Baltimore Town East (Fells Point). These were the first of numerous similar levies. In January 1775 the Convention decreed that all who refused to support the militia would be considered "an enemy to America' and their names published in the Maryland Gazette. The first company raised in Baltimore called itself the "Baltimore Independent Cadets." Its captain was Mordeca Gist. By July 1775, three months after the fight at Lexington and Concord, seven companies were under arms in Baltimore. In the following year, two all-German companies were formed.
Clearly, confusion was a predominant characteristic of this period. A Continental Congress of delegates chosen by various revolutionary groups met in Philadelphia. The proprietary colonial government continued to exist in Maryland and to perform a host of routine functions, but the real power lay in the hands of a revolutionary convention and local committees of observation whose vast numbers precluded any centralized decision-making. Committee membership changed frequently. Militia companies springing up throughout the colony elected their own captains. On all levels, something had to be done.
During the spring of 1775, the Second Continental Congress began to organize its powers and lines of authority. One major step came in the appointment of George Washington as commander of the revolutionary forces. Washington passed through Baltimore en route to receive his command, spending the night at the Fountain Inn, Baltimore's most famous hostelry of the period. Even at that early date, an appearance by Washington drew out large cheering crowds.
During July 1775, the Maryland Provincial Convention began to bring some order locally. The Convention declared itself an official provisional government and adopted the "Articles of Association of the Freemen of Maryland" as its governing document. The Convention created a Committee of Safety to serve as its executive arm. This committee and its local branches were charged with the responsibility for military preparations and the administration of government. County Committees of Observation were to be elected to see that the orders of the Convention were enforced. In September, Baltimore County chose 37 members of its Committee of Observation as well as five new delegates to serve ? one-year term in the Provincial Convention.
By the middle of 1775, the revolutionary leaders in Baltimore had established their positions. The men already mentioned as members of the various committees and as delegates to the Provincial Convention continued as political leaders for the duration of the war. Titles changed, the names of organizations changed, individuals differed on specific issues and on the extremity of measures to enforce loyalty, but the same men continued in power for the next decade.
From the middle of 1775 through 1776, several important developments took place. As fighting intensified, the army units became more tightly organized. In Maryland, during the summer of 1775, the Convention began to appoint battalion and field grade officers. At the session in December 1775-January 1776 the decision was made to appoint company officers as well. Many militiamen objected to the loss of the power to elect their captains. Service in the army already was a vehicle of upward mobility, politically if not economically. Because of their pressure and the necessity for loyal troops, the Convention finally granted the franchise to all militiamen.
Local committees began enforcing loyalty among the civilian population. In Baltimore, the Committee of Observation began a series of actions against people suspected of pro-British leanings. When merchant James Christie wrote in a letter to his brother that British troops should be kept in the colonies to maintain order, a guard was stationed at his house. He was then taken before the Convention for discipline and finally he was banished from Maryland.
Samuel Purviance led in the formation of the Whig Club, the aim of which was the expulsion of anyone not favoring the "American cause." The Whig Club's activities were confined to the immediate area of Baltimore and did lead directly or indirectly to the departure not only of people loyal to England but also of those who took neither side in the war and those wrongly suspected of misdeeds. Dr. Henry Stevenson, founder of the inoculating hospital and brother of Dr. John Stevenson who sat on the Baltimore Committee of Observation, left Baltimore and joined the British Navy as a surgeon. He did not return until 1786, when passions had finally calmed. The Whig Club's most noted undertaking was the expulsion of editor William Goddard from the city for printing a controversial letter. It turned out later that Samuel Chase had planted the letter in order to publish a particularly strong rebuttal. The later safe return of Goddard could not undo the severe beating he received or the destruction of his offices and equipment. It is quite clear from this and other incidents that even the appearance of disloyalty to the patriot cause could be dangerous in Revolutionary Baltimore.
The Declaration of Independence was printed on page one of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser of July 10,1776. The official proclamation of independence took place at the courthouse on July 29. Baltimoreans illuminated the town that night and paraded through the streets bearing an effigy of King George Ill which they then burned.
Independence meant that all the states were obliged to write new constitutions. Maryland's Constitutional Convention met in August, 1776 and produced a rather interesting document. Each county sent four representatives to the Convention. Annapolis, as always, and Baltimore, in a tribute to its rising importance, were allowed to send two. Baltimore County sent radicals Charles Ridgely, Thomas Cockey Deye, John Stevenson and Peter Shepherd. Baltimore Town's delegates, Jeremiah Townley Chase and John Smith, as moderates were part of the political faction led by Charles Carroll of Carrollton. The moderates prevailed. The hottest issue was the franchise. Some radicals proposed universal manhood suffrage. The more conservative leaders of the state believed that only property owners had a stake in society sufficient to make likely their choice of capable rulers. The constitution of 1776 changed the property requirement for voting from 50 acres or 40 pounds sterling of visible property to 50 acres or 30 pounds current money or visible property. It established property requirements for officeholders: 500 pounds for members of the Lower House; 1000 pounds for members of the Upper House; and 5000 pounds for the governor. Of these, voters could elect directly only members of the Lower House. More than any other factor, this maintenance of control of the machinery of government by an economic elite rendered the Maryland Constitution a very conservative document.
Despite its conservatism, the Convention incorporated several democratic reforms into the document. It made the office of county sheriff elective, by a direct vote. It disestablished the Church of England, which meant that no one church had greater privileges than all the others. It granted religious freedom to all Christians. (Jews remained disenfranchised, much as Catholics had been earlier.) It gave representation to Baltimore in allowing the town to join Annapolis in electing two delegates each to the Lower House. And, perhaps most surprisingly of all, the document placed no racial restrictions on the franchise with the result that free Negroes who met the property requirements, and a few did, could vote in Maryland until 1810 when a law limited voting and office-holding to white persons. On November 3, 1776, a Bill of Rights was passed. On November 8 the Constitution was accepted. Elections took place. In March, the legislature elected Thomas Johnson Maryland's first governor and, the following day, the Committee of Safety officially surrendered its powers. Military victory was necessary to assure the permanence of the independent states, and that would follow after several years.
Articles in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser reflect the wartime society in which Baltimoreans lived until British General Charles Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. News from the battlefront and lists of the dead appeared prominently. When the state began confiscating Loyalists' property, advertisements for its sale appeared regularly. Pleas for enlistment, aid, provisions and equipment recurred frequently. Announcements of amusements such as fairs and theatrical performances disappeared during the Revolution. Such frivolities had been outlawed by the Congress so that energies and resources might be directed towards the war effort.
Maryland troops fought in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. The Maryland Line gained national fame as an effective fighting unit. Baltimore merchant and landowner John Eager Howard was one of the best known field commanders. Another Baltimorean, James McHenry, received an appointment to General Washington's staff and later served as adviser to the French General Lafayette. Local militia units played the largest role in the defense of Baltimore, which luckily saw very little military action.
The first war scare hit Baltimore in March 1776 when the British sloop "Otter" approached, bringing some captured American ships with her. Baltimoreans feared a bombardment of the town. Captain Samuel Smith's company boarded the Maryland ship "Defense" under the command of Captain James Nicholson. Their surprise attack succeeded in chasing the "Otter" and recapturing the prizes. The incident hastened the completion of the city's defenses. Two hundred and fifty blacks were employed to erect a boom between Whetstone Point and the Lazaretto and to build batteries and mount guns. Beacons and signal stations were constructed along the banks of the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay. Colonel Mordecai Gist took command of Fort Whetstone (later renamed Fort McHenry.)
The closest the fighting came to Baltimore occurred in August 1777, when the British fleet sailed up the Bay and anchored in the Elk River. Baltimore and Harford Counties summoned over 1000 militiamen. The British landed and began to march toward Joppa, but their goal was Philadelphia, not Baltimore.
The last scare took place in May 1779, when the British squadron entered the Chesapeake Bay and took possession of Portsmouth, Virginia. Baltimoreans, on full alert, removed records and portable valuables from town and waited. The British did not come, but sailed towards New York instead.
In the Revolution, as in most American wars, the army took in all able-bodied men and tended to level out some of the differences between them. The need for brawn overpowered considerations of race, religion and class, at least to some extent. Baltimore's German companies have already been mentioned. Germans also served in English-speaking units. Nathaniel Levy, son of Baltimore's first Jewish residents, Benjamin and Rachel Levy, enlisted in the Baltimore cavalry and served under Lafayette. As enlistments slackened off around 1780, Maryland became the only southern state to recruit black soldiers. Before then, a number of black pilots sailed ships on the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland's rivers. It should be noted that many Maryland blacks supported the Loyalists because of Britain's promise of freedom to all slaves who served. Although some states further north matched this offer, Maryland never did. Financial encouragement was held out in a law of 1780 to lure all freemen, white and black, to enlist. Men who volunteered for three years service were to receive $200, fifty acres of land, and exemption from paying taxes while in uniform and for four years afterwards. A law of 1781 required the drafting of all able-bodied vagrants.
The army needed supplies and provisions almost as badly as it needed troops. Baltimore merchants sold grain and other necessities to the army and eventually made a good profit from those sales. Urgent situations called forth contributions without pay. Probably the greatest single outpouring of donations went to General Lafayette's forces as they moved towards Virginia for the final battles of 1781. In February, the army commandeered all wagons, carriages, teams of horses, drivers and vessels available in the Baltimore area to transport Lafayette's troops southward. Major James McHenry suggested that the French general seek the aid of local merchants. They established a procurement committee. Lafayette asked for loans of money and backed his request with a pledge of his personal fortune. Newcomers like Irish immigrant William Patterson and jewish merchant Jacob Hart joined with merchants bearing such names as Rogers, Purviance, Carroll, Calhoun and McHenry in proffering money.
Before Lafayette's departure, Baltimoreans gave a grand ball in his honor. He took advantage of the occasion to extract one further contribution from the town's residents. An early historian wrote that when one elegantly attired lady observed that he looked sad, Lafayette replied that "I cannot enjoy the gayety of the scene while so many of the poor soldiers are in want of clothes." He gained his objective when, the next morning, the very ballroom became a clothing factory where many of Baltimore's most prominent women sewed uniforms for the French general who had charmed them all.
The Continental Congress met in Baltimore from December 1776 through February 1777. When Washington retreated across the Delaware River to Trenton, he left Philadelphia without defenses. The Congress, fearing an attack, moved to Baltimore and set up headquarters in a large inn built by a recent German immigrant, Jacob Fite, at the corner of Baltimore and Sharp Streets. The Congress elected two local ministers, Rev. Patrick Allison of the Presbyterian Church and Rev. William West of St. Paul's, to serve as chaplains. It appointed numerous Baltimoreans to perform functional and administrative jobs for the duration of the sojourn here. Many of the Congressmen objected to Baltimore's lack of paved streets and other amenities to which they had become accustomed in the well established city of Philadelphia. John Adams, however, wrote that he liked the town's spirited inhabitants. After two months, the Congress-men's own longing for Philadelphia and their hope to boost public morale led them to return to that city.
The visiting Congressmen had noted the lack of amenities in Baltimore. Not all of them had been as perceptive as john Adams, who understood that the town's development had been cut off abruptly by the outbreak of the Revolution. The war effort precluded the large-scale use of money or manpower for local building. Once peace came, Baltimoreans could turn their attention to their unpaved streets, the housing shortage caused by the town's rapid wartime growth, and the massive financial and social disarrangements that had developed over the preceding decade.
Seeming contradictions appear in reports on Baltimore in the early 1780s. The local economy was confused at best. Wartime inflation had resulted in a distrust of paper money. The state of Maryland was bankrupt and could not pay its soldiers nor pay for internal improvements (public works). Individuals, who had not received their salaries as soldiers nor been paid for goods they sold to the army, could not pay their taxes. The sale of confiscated property, which was supposed to put cash into the state treasury, led primarily to lists of buyers owing Maryland for their new possessions. Debtors had no money to pay old or new debts. British ports remained closed to American traders. The severe winter of 1784-85 left the port of Baltimore iced in until March.
Despite all the confusion, Baltimore prospered. In 1782 its population had grown to approximately 8000. Grain exports had made Baltimore a boom town. In October 1783, American Revolutionary hero, General Nathaniel Greene wrote in his diary during a visit to the town: "Baltimore is a most thriving place. Trade flourishes and the spirit of building exceeds belief. Not less than three hundred houses are put up in a year. Ground rents is [sic] little short of what they are in London . . . ."
The building boom extended to more than houses. Baltimore's first brick theater was erected on East Market Street, and that street was laid with cobblestones. A board of special commissioners was appointed by the legislature to oversee the paving of streets and the construction and repairing of bridges. The commission assessed landowners to pay the bill. The town commissioners put up street lights and established a permanent police force of three constables on duty during the day and fourteen watchmen at night. They levied a property tax to support them. The legislature appointed a board of port wardens to oversee harbor operations and the construction of new piers
By 1784, the city had grown so large that Calvert Street had to be extended northward. The townsfolk saved their handsome courthouse, which stood at the top of Calvert Street, by taking up a subscription to pay for the underpinning of the building. The courthouse then stood twenty feet in the air and Calvert Street ran underneath. In that same year, the town built three new markets: Center Market, known as Marsh Market because it stood on the site of Harrison's Marsh; the Hanover Market at Hanover and Camden Streets for the convenience of the residents of Howard's Hill in the western part of town; and the original Broadway Market for the people of Fells Point.
The national government during the years 1781 to 1789 bore the title of the Confederation. The states were joined together only loosely and had no chief executive. Fear of creating a tyrannical government like the one they had just revolted against held Americans back from vesting any great power in a central government. This lack of any central authority made post-war reconstruction difficult. The economic problems that existed in Maryland plagued the other states as well. Both the Confederation and the state governments were bankrupt and in debt to foreigners and American citizens alike. The states tried to collect taxes from citizens who had no money. Many soldiers still had not been paid or had been paid in worthless paper money. Many had had to borrow to get started again after the war. Since more money in circulation would make debts easier to pay off, debtors agitated for relief in the form of the issuance of paper money and also laws to stay foreclosures on mortgages. These same debtors were outraged that a few people were in a position to accumulate fortunes during this period. Men lucky enough to have hard cash speculated by buying up both the paper money "Continentals " in which soldiers had been paid and land confiscated from Loyalists at reduced prices. Local speculators included Jeremiah Townley Chase and Charles Ridgely. Creditors wanted debts paid off at full value. The financial conservatives feared the power of the masses. Even more importantly, they believed that economic stability was necessary if the new country was to succeed. Therefore, throughout the 1780s, a group of people who came to be called Federalists pressed for a stronger central government with a stringent sense of financial responsibility. Their opponents, who feared that a strong central government would become a dictatorship or a monarchy and who wanted economic relief for the ordinary people, soon were called anti-Federalists.
In Baltimore County, the demand for paper money led to control by anti-Federalists. Charles Ridgely, espousing the paper money position, became the political leader of the county. Thomas Cockey Deye, elected as an anti-Federalist legislator from Baltimore County, became Speaker of the House of Delegates for a brief time. The leaders of the radical Revolutionary faction tended to fall into the anti-Federalist camp. The moderate forces tended to lean towards the stability of a stronger government. Most of the merchants of Baltimore Town hoped for a stronger government which would foster trade and manufacturing as well as control the potential for violence that all recognized was possible because of the financial plight of many veterans and other debtors.
In 1787 a group of delegates from all the states met in Philadelphia to consider ways to revise and strengthen the Articles of Confederation. They ended by writing a new Federal Constitution which provided for a much stronger central government. The document, as it still stands, but without the amendments, was signed on September 17, 1787 and submitted to the states for ratification. The text appeared eight days later in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser and touched off widespread local debate. Baltimore Town, Annapolis, and all the Maryland counties witnessed campaigns by candidates who wanted to be delegates to the state convention which would ratify or reject the new constitution. Baltimore Town sent two Federalists who favored the Constitution, James McHenry and Dr. John Coulter, to the convention. The election was marred by frauds and violence on both sides. In Baltimore, where only 1,047 people were eligible to vote, 671 of those did not vote, and yet 1,050 votes were recorded. The Federalists won both in Baltimore Town as well as state-wide. The convention ratified the new Constitution, as did those of the other states, and the document stood as the basis for a new and stronger federal government. Baltimore celebrated ratification with a parade of some 3000 people. The procession terminated at Federal Hill, specially named for the occasion, where the marchers held a feast.
Federalist policies prevailed in the national government as it began to function under the presidency of George Washington. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, successfully undertook a program to stabilize the economy and foster trade and industry. Baltimore benefitted from the national policies and Federalism received strong support. Baltimorcan John Eager Howard, a Federalist, became governor of Maryland from 1788 to 1791. Federalist policies dominated the city and state.
Peace, stability, and prosperity brought a resumption of growth in the cultural life of Baltimore. Schools, libraries, and theaters sprang up during the post-Revolutionary years. The cultural expansion was not particularly systematic and was, for the most part, the result of the work of individuals and private institutions, not of the town's government.
Various religious groups and leaders worked at improving the town's educational offerings and made the most effective contributions. The Quaker Yearly Meeting voted in 1784 to support a school. In 1786 three local clergymen, Rev. John Carroll who would soon become America's first Roman Catholic bishop, Rev. William West of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and Rev. Patrick Allison of the First Presbyterian Church, joined forces to establish a school to teach natural philosophy and classics and other higher level subjects. But by the end of 1787 the effort was abandoned. More successful schools were opened by the Zion Lutheran Church and the German Reformed Congregation. These taught German-speaking students in their own language.
By the first decade of the nineteenth century, several churches had organized schools which children could attend without paying the customary tuition. The Methodists began the Male Free School in the parsonage of a church on Light Street. St. Peter's Episcopal Church also operated a free school. The women of St. Paul's parish formed the "Benevolent Society of the City and County of Baltimore" to provide a free school for girls, especially orphans. Subjects included reading, writing, "cyphering," and needlework. The Society for the Abolition of Slavery and Protection of Free People of Color sponsored a school for black students. After the formation of the Sharp Street congregation of Negro Methodists, that church ran the school supported by a combination of tuition monies, donations from all the black churches, and gifts from Quakers and other abolitionists.
Several institutions of higher learning originated during the post-Revolutionary period. In 1791, Baltimore Roman Catholics established St. Mary's Seminary on Paca Street. In 1807 the College of Medicine of Maryland was opened, the first medical school in the state. From this partial listing, it is clear that a wide variety of individuals and institutions offered instruction in basic education and some fields of higher learning. Despite this, until the city's public school system was established in 1829, schooling was not available to more than a small percentage of students who could not pay their way.
The availability of books increased at about the same rate as that of schooling. While wealthy men had private libraries, circulating libraries to which readers subscribed made books available to far larger numbers of readers. Before the Revolution, Baltimoreans had to borrow books from a library in Annapolis. Then in December 1780, William Prichard advertised in the Maryland Journal that he was opening a bookstore and a circulating library of 1000 volumes. Four years later, William Murphy established a circulating library located on Market Street. The biggest library venture was another joint enterprise undertaken by three clergymen: Rev. John Carroll, Rev. Patrick Allison, and the new rector of St. Paul's, Rev. Joseph Bend, along with Dr. George Brown and several other wealthy citizens. In 1796 they incorporated the Baltimore Library Company. Members bought a share of stock in the library for $20 and thereafter paid $4 a year. The membership grew from 60 original subscribers to 300 by 1798. By 1809 the library had over 400 members and 7000 volumes. In 1799 the Society of Friends established a library by appropriating $100 for books and appointing a librarian.
Newspapers also increased in number. Baltimore's first daily newspaper, The Baltimore Daily Repository, appeared in 1791. Publisher Alexander Martin brought out the first issue of the Baltimore American and Daily Advertiser in 1799 from his shop in Fells Point. Unlike most early nineteenth century newspapers, the Baltimore American merged with other newspapers and has survived down to the present day. Most of the local papers that people read between the Revolution and the War of 1812 were short-lived. Most took clearly partisan political positions and were known to be strongly Federalist or strongly anti-Federalist. Their editors campaigned actively during elections and presented blunt opinions on major controversies. Objectivity was not even a goal for most editors.
Theaters, popular places of amusement in Baltimore before the Revolution, resumed operations as soon as peace permitted. In January 1782, the first brick theater in town opened on East Baltimore Street with a production of Shakespeare's Richard III As was customary, a short farce, entitled Miss In Her Teens, preceded the program attraction. Box scat tickets sold for $1, seats in the pit ( now orchestra) for 5 shillings and gallery seats for 9 pence.
In 1786, Lewis Hallam built the New Theater where his company performed. Seven years later, in 1793, William Godwin and Christopher Charles McGrath, managers of the Maryland Company, took over the building. Their opening year program included She Stoops to Conquer, The Beaux Stratagem, School for Scandal, Romeo and Juliet, and at least three American plays: The Contrast by Royall Tyler, The Father by William Dunlap, and A School for Soldiers by John Henry. Wignell and Reinagle, well-known producers, opened the Holliday Street Theater in 1794. Throughout this period, Baltimoreans could see most of the popular British plays and some American ones as well. Baltimore was a good "theater town."
Another art form that enjoyed widespread popular patronage was portraiture. Families of moderate means often commissioned miniatures, which were far less costly than the full sized portraits painted of wealthier subjects. Several Baltimore portrait painters achieved renown during the post-Revolutionary period. Joshua Johnston, a black artist, produced portraits of many Baltimore merchants and their families, including the John Moales. Another portrait painter, Rembrandt Peale, achieved his greatest tame through the museum he opened on Holliday Street. In it he exhibited portraits of Revolutionary heroes and all sorts of artifacts: preserved birds, beasts, fish, Indian dresses and ornaments and, most notably, one of the mastadon skeletons that his father, Charles Willson Peale, had excavated near Newburg, New York in 1801. The famous architect Robert Carey Long designed the museum on Holliday Street, Baltimore's first Lectures and the ever-popular flashy scientific experiments were presented several times a week. Band concerts and other performances were given on the intervening nights to draw an audience that paid an admission of 25 cents per adult and 12 1/2 cents per child.
The years after the Revolution saw a rebirth of a bright and widely varied social life in Baltimore. Horse-racing drew crowds of all classes. More elite patrons attended the meets of the Hunt Cluh. The Baltimore Dancing Assembly attracted most of the town's upper class residents to its balls held at the Fountain Inn. Probably the most sensational social event of the entire period was the 1803 Christmas Eve marriage of Betsy Patterson to Jerome Bonaparte. Although Napoleon found the belle of Baltimore an unsuitable wife for his brother, annulled the marriage and summoned Jerome home to Europe, Betsy and her son, Jerome, stayed in town and Baltimoreans talked and wrote about the marriage for a long time afterwards.
Epidemics and fevers played havoc with life during this period, killing oft large numbers of people with each recurrence. Many people moved to the country during the summer months in the belief that they could escape contagious diseases like yellow fever and influenza in the less densely populated areas.
Another preventive measure, generally unsuccessful, was the imposition of a quarantine against infected areas. A yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 evoked a quarantine on all vessels entering the port of Baltimore from that city. Any intercourse with Philadelphia was forbidden. Companies of the Maryland militia were stationed along the northern boundary of the state and at the major intersections of roads leading from Philadelphia. The militiamen turned away at gun point any traveller who might be carrying yellow fever. Despite the precautions the disease spread to Baltimore and recurred for a number of years. A hospital was opened on the site where the Johns Hopkins Hospital now stands to treat fever victims. The newspaper The Federal Gazette reported on one case where the doctor in treating a fever patient took 130 ounces of blood, gave 35 grains of mercury and rubbed in 12 ounces of mercurial ointment. In 1800, a Dr. J. J. Gireaud published his formula for the prevention and cure of yellow fever: ipecac, rhubarb, columba, magnesia, kermes mineral, camphor, and nitre.
Despite the rather peculiar variety of treatments for yellow fever and other diseases as well, Baltimore's physicians undertook several projects that pointed the way towards the city's future leadership in medicine. In 1788, Dr. Charles Wiesenthal issued an appeal to the doctors of Maryland to put together a plan for the regulation of medical practices, to suppress quackery and restrict the profession to those who were qualified. As a result, a city Medical Society was organized and Wiesenthal elected president. Shortly thereafter, Maryland's doctors organized a State Medical Society. Local physicians conducted classes in their own homes and offices. Lectures predominated. In 1790, for example, the Medical Faculty announced the following lecture program: Andrew Wiesenthal (son of Charles) on Anatomy, George Brown on the Practice of Medicine, Lyde Goodwin on Surgery, S. S. Coale on Chemistry and Materia Medica, and George Buchanan on Midwifery. An attempt to teach anatomy by dissecting a cadaver failed. In 1788, when the city donated for research the body of Patrick Cassidy, an executed murderer, a mob snatched it away.
Permanent institutions began to appear in 1799 with the organization of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland. Then in 1807 the College of Medicine of Maryland was incorporated. The college hired a faculty. Dr. John Beale Davidge erected an Anatomical Hall at Liberty and Saratoga Streets as a lecture and dissecting room. Once again the populace objected and showed it by tearing down the hall.
Along with their interest in teaching and regulating the practice of medicine, the town's doctors showed concern that medical care be available to the poor as well as the rich. Early in 1798, with the support of Baltimore's doctors, the state legislature appropriated $8000 and later another $3000 for the construction of a City Hospital for the "sick and lunatics." A city council committee chose a site at Broadway and Monument Streets and the Baltimore General Dispensary opened there. The city and state augmented their responsibility for the poor in other ways. The poor laws became more specific. A law of 1793 allowed children of vagrants, of destitute persons and of convicted criminals to be apprenticed within Maryland. A law of 1799 provided for a payment of pensions to a limited number of persons in each county whose situation made the almshouse particularly unsuitable. Between the Revolution and the years of the War of 1812, the almshouse provided shelter to an average of 230 people a year.
In 1793 a group of refugees who required an especially large amount of assistance arrived from Santo Domingo. Approximately fifteen hundred people who had opposed Toussaint L'Ouverture's rebellion against both slavery and French rule left when he won. One thousand whites and 500 blacks landed in 53 vessels, many of the refugees penniless. A benefit theater performance was given to raise money for their relief. A general subscription yielded $12,000 to help the destitute. Churches grew along with the population of the city. Most denominations built either larger or additional churches during the years following the Revolution. In 1791 the Presbyterians erected a new larger church with two steeples on the lot of their old church on Fayette Street. When they installed an organ in 1811, a few families left the congregation in protest against the playing of music. The Baptists opened a second church in 1797, on Broadway near Pratt Street. In 1808 the Zion Lutheran congregation moved to its current location on North Gay Street.
The German Reformed Church experienced several crises during the iZZOs and 1780s. The first resulted in a split in the congregation when one group tried to replace the original pastor, the Rev. john Christian Faber, with a new minister, Benedict Swope. The followers of Swope finally withdrew and built a Second Reformed Church on Conway Street at Sharp. In 1774, Mr. Swope was succeeded by the Rev. Philip Otterbein, a German who came to Baltimore from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Otterbein's congregation in 1785 constructed the church which now bears his name and is the oldest in Baltimore. They built the two-foot thick walls with bricks discarded by ships which had used them for ballast. Otterbein led his congregation into the new Church of the United Brethren of which he was a founder. This denomination later merged with the Methodists.
The first German Reformed Church began a new building at Baltimore and Front Streets in 1785 with contributions collected from the membership. The following year, a flood of the jones Falls swept away the walls before the new church was finished. In an early display of ecumenism, Mr. West of St. Paul's, Mr. Allison of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Kurtz of Zion Lutheran Church, all took up collections to aid in rebuilding the destroyed edifice. The church later rebuilt on a new site on Holliday Street further away from dangers of the Jones Falls.
Baltimore was the scene of major developments in both the Catholic and Methodist churches. Several events of national importance took place here shortly after the Revolution.
When the Revolution began, Maryland Catholics were still disenfranchised. The Constitution of 1776 removed the restrictions on their voting and holding office. For many years they had not been allowed to build public houses of worship. In the early 1770s Baltimore Catholics began construction of their first church, St. Peter's, and worshipped there before the building was finished. When the builder, john McNabb, went bankrupt, the principal creditor locked up the Church. It was reopened during the war by a company of soldiers and remained in use. In 1784, the Rev. Charles Sewell became the first resident pastor. He was joined several years later by the Rev. john Carroll, cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. john Carroll held an almost unique position in the combination of his elite family background and his priesthood. When the American Roman Catholic clergy met in 1789 and decided to request the establishment of an Episcopal see in this country, they also asked that John Carroll be bishop. He did become the first American Roman Catholic bishop, was consecrated in London in 1790, and returned to Baltimore where he served not only as head of the nation's Catholic hierarchy but as a local civic leader as well. St. Mary's Seminary opened in 1791. Fells Point Catholics formed a second congregation in 1792 and worshipped in private homes until St. Patrick's Church on Apple Alley was completed in 1796. In 1806 the cornerstone of the new cathedral was laid on land that had belonged to john Eager Howard, now the corner of Cathedral and Mulberry Streets. Two years later, john Carroll became the first American archbishop. It was appropriate and logical that the foremost city of Maryland, the only one of the original colonies granted to a Catholic proprietor should be the home of the first Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States. Maryland's Catholics had been leaders in the revolutionary movement and now john Carroll from Baltimore led in the integration of Catholicism into the American religious mainstream.
Whereas Maryland's Catholics gained because of their association with the cause of independence, local Methodists frequently suffered because Methodism was often associated with the Tories. Although Francis Asbury favored the Americans, John Wesley spoke out against the Revolution. In addition, the known Methodist opposition to slavery led people to connect the denomination with the slave uprisings that took place during the Revolution. Despite all this, Baltimore, along with Philadelphia, was an acknowledged center of Methodism. After Baltimore Methodists built their second meeting house on Lovely Lane just south of Baltimore Street in 1774, Methodist preachers held several conferences in Baltimore culminating in the Christmas conference of 1764. At this meeting the American preachers voted to separate themselves from the Church of England and establish the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. This decision removed the taint of Toryism and also formally removed them from the jurisdiction of the new American Episcopal hierarchy. The Methodists chose Francis Asbury as their first American bishop at this same landmark conference.
The history of Methodists, Quakers, and American blacks is inextricably combined during this period. Methodists and Quakers had opposed slavery since before the Revolution. In Baltimore, both groups encouraged their members to free their slaves before and after the War for Independence. Quakers always stood in the vanguard of abolitionist activists, not only encouraging manumissions but donating substantial monies to schools for black students such as the African School opened on Sharp Street in 1793. The Baltimore Yearly Meeting several times enjoined individual members to educate Negroes.
Methodists, at a conference held in Baltimore in 1780, instructed their preachers to free their slaves and declared that Methodists should educate blacks and exert pressure for emancipation. Francis Asbury supported this. Methodists went a step further in establishing mixed congregations which sometimes heard black preachers. At the Christmas Conference of 1784, delegates passed a resolution declaring that slavery was "contrary to the Golden Law of God . . . as well as every principle of the Revolution." They declared that all Methodists should free their slaves. This proviso met strong opposition and was later revoked. Many manumissions did result, however
Nationally as well as locally, the ideals proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence led many Americans to recognize the paradox of talking about the rights of all men, for which they claimed to have fought, and the continuation of the institution of slavery. In the northern states, the acknowledgement of the disparity was a major factor in the passage of laws abolishing slavery shortly after the Revolution. Although a number of Marylanders desired to do the same, the state legislature voted against abolition. It did, however, enact legislation making it easier for individuals to free their slaves.
In Baltimore in 1789 a group whose members included Samuel Chase, Luther Martin and Gerard Hopkins founded the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Poor Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage. Its several hundred members assisted runaways and free blacks and helped support the school on Sharp Street. Opposition eventually led to the disbanding of this group, but other societies followed. The combined activities of abolitionist societies and the legislation which eased the manumission process led to a significant growth in Baltimore's free black population. In 1800, 2,771 free blacks and 2,843 slaves lived in the city. By 1810, tree blacks outnumbered slaves 3,973 to 3,713.
A large number of free blacks belonged to the Methodist Church. Methodist support for abolition and the presence of black preachers in the integrated churches encouraged this membership. However, although many Methodist preachers supported abolitionism and integrated worship, many individual Methodists did not. As early as the 1780s, some white Methodists began segregating black worshippers in galleries so white members did not have to sit next to them. As the discrimination became overt, blacks began withdrawing from the mixed congregations. Baltimore with its growing free black population played a major role in the development of independent black churches and the leadership they required.
As early as the mid 1780s, blacks began withdrawing from the Strawberry Lane and Lovely Lane Methodist meeting houses. One group organized themselves into a prayer group and gave themselves the name of Bethel. Jacob Fortie, Caleb Hyland, Stephen Hill and other leaders helped build the group until it was large enough in 1797 to purchase an old building on Fish Street (now Saratoga) for use as a church. In that same year they drew up a formal letter of separation and soon joined with a group in Philadelphia to form the African Methodist Episcopal Church. While these developments were taking place, a Methodist church with a black congregation and a white pastor was formed and stayed within the Methodist Conference. The Sharp Street Methodist Church took over operation of the African School. Church and school prospered together. An outstanding black preacher from Sharp Street, Daniel Coker, moved to the Bethel A. M. E. Church and became its first ordained preacher in 1811. Coker had been born in Maryland to an English indentured serving woman and a black slave. He himself escaped slavery by running away to New York, where he met Francis Asbury and converted to Methodism. He returned to Maryland where he remained hidden until he could raise the money to purchase his freedom. After rising to a position of prominence in Baltimore, he played a major role in the formal organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. The founding conference named Coker as first choice for bishop, but he declined and Richard Allen of Philadelphia was elected. The A. M. E. Church, which Baltimoreans had helped organize, has remained a major institution of the black community down to the present day.
Baltimore's jewish community was by far the smallest minority group in town. The first United States census, in 1790, reported only six jewish families, thirty-three individuals, living in Baltimore. By 1820 there were twenty-one Jewish families. One leader among these was Solomon Etting, who had opened a hardware store here in the early 1790s. In 1797 he and others petitioned the Maryland legislature for the right to vote and hold public office. Although Jews had participated in the patriot cause, the Maryland constitution of 1776 had limited suffrage to Christians and that restriction remained in force until 1826. Despite the limitation, Solomon Etting and his brother Reuben both were active Jeffersonians. In 1798 Reuben became captain of the Baltimore militia unit, the Independent Blues, and in 1801 President Thomas Jefferson appointed him federal marshal of Maryland, although he still could not vote. From the Ettings and others, it is clear that individual Jews were active in political and civic affairs. During this early period their numbers remained so small, however, that they had neither political clout nor enough men to form a synagogue or any other unifying institutions for the community.
During the post-Revolutionary period Baltimore's population remained heterogeneous. Residents spoke English, German, and some French. Several groups had become more fully integrated into politics and society because of the Revolution. Germans regularly were included in the economic and political power structure. Some Germans like Dr. Charles Wiesenthal began to move into positions of prominence based on their own individual skill and achievements. Catholics had gained full political rights. Bishop john Carroll, as a religious and civic leader, fostered Americanization of the Catholic church, cooperation with other local churches, and integration of individual Catholics into all phases of life in Baltimore. Other ethnic and religious groups did not gain such full inclusion atter the Revolution. Jews, who joined in the economic and social life of Baltimore, were forbidden to vote or hold public office by the constitution of the state of Maryland. Baltimore's black population faced even greater hardships. Roughly half were slaves. Free blacks, although not entirely disenfranchised on the basis of race until 1810, faced growing discrimination by the white majority and were beginning to establish separate institutions to avoid that discrimination and to put some of the rights of leadership in their own hands.
Besides ethnic and religious groupings, Baltimore's population could be divided into two other major categories. Economically, a small group of wealthy men, many of whom by now could trace their families back several generations in Baltimore or the area nearby, stood above the ever growing numbers of craftsmen, mechanics, and shopkeepers who in turn outranked ordinary laborers. The Maryland constitution required the possession of a certain amount of property to enable a man to vote and an even larger amount of land or visible assets for a man to hold public office. This inequity and the problems of the economy in the immediate post-war period began to divide Baltimoreans into two political parties: the Federalists and the anti-Federalists who soon took on the name of their national leader and were called Jeffersonians and later Republicans. Any account of Baltimore during the years between the Revolution and the War of 1812 must include consideration of these divisions. They were of central concern in the process of establishing an incorporated city government. The eventual reconciliation of the factions allowed the efficient functioning of the city that helped make possible the military victory during the War of 1812
During the period of the Confederation, it will be recalled that most of Baltimore's leading merchants joined in the Federalist thrust for the new and stronger central government that they hoped would foster trade and manufacturing and sort out the financial chaos that had grown during the Revolution. In supporting the constitution, the Baltimoreans joined with the large land owners from the Eastern Shore and the area along the Potomac region who advocated Federalism as a bulwark against economic and social change. Once the economy had grown stable and Baltimore began to boom, it is not surprising that the alliance between the urban and rural politicians began to collapse. In fact, the two groups soon came into direct conflict.
The first big dispute centered on the location of the national capital. Baltimore, like many American cities, put in a bid to be chosen as the seat of the federal government. Merchants subscribed over 20,000 pounds in two weeks for public buildings. Baltimore's congressmen pushed their city. The Eastern Shore and Potomac leaders favored the site where Washington, D. C. is now located. After this time, Baltimore began to vie with the rural landed gentry for control of the state and to move out of the Federalist Party into the jeffersonian camp.
The growth of Jeffersonianism took place throughout the nation, partly because Alexander Hamilton's economic policies had brought stability and partly because the anti-democratic excesses of the Federalists elicited immediate opposition. People feared the elitism of the Federalists and believed that it might lead to a monarchical government. Furthermore, many Americans believed that Federalist policies would lead us into another war. By the end of the eighteenth century, when fighting broke out between England and France following the French Revolution, the Federalists openly favored the British, because the United States had reopened trade with that country. Jeffersonians favored neutrality or took the side of our recent French allies. The fear of war led to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. These controversial laws worked primarily against jeffersonians. They extended from 5 to 14 years the time that aliens had to live in this country to be eligible for citizenship at a time when immigrants tended to vote for the Jeffersonian party. They outlawed all writing and speaking against the government or any of its policies. The first man convicted under this Sedition Act was a Jeffersonian newspaper editor from Vermont. Many similar arrests followed. The atmosphere became ever more repressive as the national elections of 1800 approached.
Baltimoreans clearly noticed the connection between strong centralization of the federal government and loss of individual liberty. As early as the celebrations of President George Washington's birthday in 1795, even before the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, public speakers proclaimed different points of view. Everyone celebrated Washington's birthday with partying and drinking toasts. At the elegant Fountain Inn one patron offered a toast to "George Washington, the early, the uniform, the unshaken friend of his country." More typical was the toast offered at Winant's Tavern, where an obvious jeffersonian volunteered, "The Congress of the United States. May they never be influenced by Despotic Council." At Evans' Tavern one man said, "George Washington. May he retain the Applause of a Free People." In the 1800 presidential election, Baltimore voted overwhelmingly for the victor Thomas jefferson over Federalist john Adams.
Despite the widespread support of the national Jeffersonian party, Baltimoreans split on local issues, and the divisions tended to reflect people's economic status. The wealthy merchants fought to retain control against the opposition of those who wanted the power spread out among a wider range of citizens. The first big battle was fought over the issue of a charter of incorporation for Baltimore City.
Since the colonial period, Baltimore had been administered by commissioners appointed by the legislature. Residents could not elect local officials and had no legal control over them. During Baltimore's astonishingly rapid growth after the Revolution, when the town commissioners could not handle all the city's problems, special commissions and jobs proliferated. A commission on streets and bridges, a board of port wardens, and others shared the responsibility for running Baltimore. There was no central authority. Even such obvious undertakings as the building of a new market required a special act of the legislature. This system resulted in great inefficiencies.
In 1793, Baltimore's merchants began to work for a charter of incorporation which would allow the city to choose its own officials and set its own policies. The specific provisions would have consolidated power in the hands of the wealthy merchants. Under the proposed charter, citizens would vote only for a lower house of the city council. That group in turn would vote for an upper house, and the whole council would vote for mayor. This system of indirect elections was opposed by the artisans and shopkeepers who formed the majority in the Republican (jeffersonian) Society, and by the Mechanics and Carpenters' Societies. Most of the working class residents of Fells Point also opposed the charter. They had the additional worry that one of the primary programs of the Baltimore merchants was the deepening of the harbor basin to allow big ships to dock there. Fells Point, with its deep harbor, had profited from the shallowness of the basin. Fells Point residents certainly did not want to be taxed to pay for the dredging of a competitive anchorage. All this opposition combined led the legislature to abandon the plan for several years.
The charter that was finally passed in 1796 was once again a product of the merchant aristocracy and served to centralize power in the hands of that group. Under the charter, Baltimore City was to be governed by a mayor and a two-house city council. The charter divided Baltimore into eight wards. Voters from each ward would vote annually for two members of the First Branch of the City Council. Every two years they would choose an elector. The board of eight electors would vote for mayor and the Second Branch of the City Council. (Direct election of the Second Branch began in 1808 and of the mayor in 1833.) Members of the First Branch had to be rated on the assessor's books at $1000 and members of the Second Branch at $2000. This system clearly concentrated power in the hands of the men of means.
Despite its undemocratic features, the charter increased enormously the efficiency in governing Baltimore by placing in local hands the authority over police powers, levying of taxes, surveying the city, locating and bounding streets, the preservation and deepening of the harbor (Fells Point residents were exempted from taxation for markets and fire companies. For the first time in Baltimore, a locally chosen central government would be able to control and coordinate all these municipal functions
The city was divided into wards which gave the advantage to the neighborhoods around the basin where the wealthier men lived. The outlying wards took in both a larger area and more people. The results of the first elections held in 1797 gave the overwhelming majority of offices to merchants and upper class gentlemen. Baltimore's first mayor, James Calhoun, was president of the Chesapeake Insurance Company, an elder of the First Presbyterian Church, and son-in-law of William Gist. Most of the councilmen were men of means. Revolutionary War leaders were elected to other major offices as well. Colonel john Eager Howard and Charles Ridgely of Hampton were chosen to be state senators. Since Howard was appointed to the U. S. Senate, David McMechan succeeded him in Annapolis.
As this elite group solidified its power, the opposition in Baltimore joined with allies throughout the state and began to press for universal suffrage, by which they meant giving the vote to all white men, 21 years or older, regardless of the amount of property they owned. This continued struggle did not affect the jeffersonian alliance of either group within the city. In fact, the Federalists' national policies served only to strengthen Republicanism in Baltimore. An unsatisfactory treaty with England negotiated by John Jay drew opposition from residents of all ports. The Alien and Sedition Acts evoked a strong negative reaction from Baltimore's large numbers of emigrants from Germany, France and the French West Indies. Baltimoreans of Irish and Scottish backgrounds disliked the strong pro-British position of the Federalists. So, despite the feuding, Baltimore remained Republican.
One key factor in the endurance of the Republican sway in Baltimore was the enormous personal popularity of some of the men who became the city's political leaders. Men acceptable to both factions moved into positions of power and maintained party unity. Foremost among these stood General Samuel Smith. A wealthy merchant who cultivated and won over artisans and workers, he also maintained a staunch following among members of the militia. A significant lieutenant of Smith's was Edward Johnson, son of a Baltimore physician, and owner of a brewery in Old Town. Although his assessed value was $2,088 in 1798, he lived near his brewery and enjoyed close relations with many people in Old Town and Fells Point. Other Jeffersonian party leaders resembled johnson in that their financial worth was considerable but they came from outside the old merchant elite. Among these were: Robert Steuart, a stone-cutter; Adam Fonerden, a manufacturer of wool and cotton and president of the Mechanical Company; Joseph Biays, a shipjoiner; and Cumberland Dugan, a ropemaker and tanner. The political coalition oversaw the continuing growth of Baltimore that took place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It also successfully led the defense of the city the only time it ever faced foreign attack, during the War of 1812.
The causes of the War of 1812 have been debated since it was fought. Opponents said that a war fever had caught hold of a group of young Congressmen who used the war as an excuse for territorial aggrandizement and their own political advancement. Supporters of the war claimed that we had to fight England in order to reaffirm our rights as a truly independent nation. Certainly, most of the conflict that led up to the fighting took place because of the British failure to recognize American rights as neutrals while they were engaged in warfare against Napoleon.
Because of their war with France, the British tried to stop American ships and to impress into service in their navy sailors whom they claimed to be British subjects. More importantly, British and French efforts combined resulted in practical strangulation of American trade. American ships were seized by England if they sailed to the Continent without stopping in England first for inspection. They were seized by the French if they had any dealings with England, including stopping for inspection.
Discontent rose to war fever in june 1807, when the British ship, the H.M.S. Leopard, fired on the Baltimore-built sloop, the Chesapeake, whose Captain had refused the British permission to board. The British, having gained entry by force, proceeded to impress four sailors. In Baltimore, local leaders formed a Committee of Correspondence headed by General Samuel Smith. War did not come then, however. President Thomas Jefferson, believing that the young nation was not strong enough to wage war against Britain, persuaded Congress in December 1807 to invoke an embargo on all trade. This had the effect of removing American ships from places where they could be shot at or boarded
The Jeffersonian Embargo also inflicted huge damage on the American economy. Baltimore's exports sank from $ 7,601,300 in 1805 to $1,904,700 in 1808. Merchants tended to support the Embargo in hopes of gaining a permanent solution. Harder hit than the merchants, many of whom had substantial assets on which to fall back, were the farmers who had no market for their wheat. Even after the Embargo's repeal early in 1809, trade did not pick up to its former level.
The continuing conflict finally led to an American declaration of war against England on June 18, 1812. Ironically, the British government had repealed its orders in council on restrictions on neutral shipping two days before, but word of this had not yet reached the United States. By the time it did, the war had already begun. The war split the nation. Many Federalists continued to speak against the war down through its end in 1814. In Baltimore, on June 20, 1812, Alexander Contee Hanson, editor of the Federalist newspaper, the Federal Republican, wrote a scathing article against the war: "Thou hast done a deed whereat valour will weep. Without funds, without taxes, without an army, navy or adequate fortifications - with one hundred and fifty millions of our property in the hands of the declared enemy, without any of his in our power, and with a vast commerce afloat, our rulers have promulgated a war against the clear and decided sentiment of a vast majority of the nation."
Two days later, a mob of 300 to 400 people armed with axes, hooks, ropes and other makeshift weapons gathered in front of the newspaper's offices at Gay and Second Streets. They threw the presses, type, and paper into the street and levelled the building. Hanson took refuge in the house of his partner, Jacob Wagner, on South Charles Street. On June 27 the Federal Republican reappeared with a lead editorial that condemned the police, the town, and the mayor, Republican Edward Johnson, for conspiring to destroy Federalism with means as violent as those of the French Revolution. The mob verified his charges by attacking the house on South Charles Street. The following morning, Mayor Johnson and General john Stricker prevailed upon Hanson and the other Federalists inside the house to accept safe conduct to the jail where they could be protected. That night, the mob attacked the jail, killed Revolutionary General James Lignan, set one man on fire, and cut in two the nose of another. This series of events earned for Baltimore the nickname of Mobtown. Local reaction was so extreme that Federalist candidates won the elections in the fall of 1812, among them Alexander Contee Hanson who was sent to Congress. After this unhappy episode, Baltimore settled down to conduct its own wartime effort with great success and unanimity. When war broke out, Baltimoreans were convinced that the city would be subject to British attack. Naval and commercial vessels as well as government stores and local warehouses all offered tempting prizes. Furthermore, Baltimore was a center of privateering. Before the war ended, Baltimore sent out over sixty privateers that captured over 475 prizes. Privateers were commissioned by the government to sail the seas and seize the property of the enemy. They were unpaid, but kept the valuable prizes they captured and thus aided the war effort and their own fortunes at the same time. Captains like Thomas Boyle, who commanded the "Cornet" and then the "Chasseur," and Joshua Barney, who commanded the "Rossie," struck fear in the hearts of the Englishmen they encountered.
Baltimoreans knew their city would not be easy to defend. The unfortified shores of the Chesapeake Bay allowed attack from almost every direction. Fort McHenry lay in a state of severe decay, without sufficient manpower or weapons. The federal government, with its very limited resources, could not spare much aid for the Chesapeake region while the main battles were being fought along the northern frontier. Baltimore's fate thus rested in the hands of its own citizens.
The military commander put in charge of the forces around Baltimore was General Samuel Smith. A fortunate choice, Smith had good contacts in Washington and the loyal support of both the Maryland militia and Baltimore's citizenry. The General began by rebuilding Fort
McHenry, placing it under the command of Major George Armistead, and installing sixty large cannon. He set up a system of lookouts near the tip of North Point and a string of guard boats between North Point and the city. He put the militiamen from Baltimore City and County through rigorous training that made the citizen-soldiers ready for battle.
All these achievements were possible only because Baltimore gave Smith strong and unified support. A Committee of Public Safety appointed by Smith's old political ally Mayor Edward Johnson included Smith's business partner James A. Buchanan, and merchants William Patterson and Samuel Sterett. This committee provided the financial support which allowed the arming of all the local troops.
As the Napoleonic wars ended in Europe, large numbers of British troops were sent to the United States and the pace of the fighting increased. In August 1814 Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane trapped Commodore Joshua Barney's flotilla in the Chesapeake and forced him to burn his gunboats to prevent their capture. Major General Robert Ross smashed the American militia at Bladensburg and moved on to Washington where he proceeded to burn most of the public buildings and the naval yard.
At this same time in Baltimore, an elective Committee of Vigilance and Safety took over the operations of the Committee of Public Safety. Although its members still came from the merchant class, it enjoyed a broad popular constituency and loyally supported General Smith.
While the British paused in the Patuxent River, Smith secured the harbor and then turned his energies to land defenses. The General requested the Committee of Vigilance and Safety to mobilize work brigades. On August 27 all free Negroes and whites exempt from military service were ordered to report to Hampstead Hill (now the site of Patterson Park). Slaves also helped build the defenses. Smith asked the Committee of Vigilance and Safety to borrow $100,000 from the city's banks to buy arms and supplies. The money, raised from banks and private lenders as well, was collected within two days.
By September 10, the defenses stretched from Fells Point across to the flatlands north of the city's eastern hills. Troops numbering 15,000 waited for the attack. General Smith ordered General John Stricker and his crack third brigade to the western end of Patapsco Neck. Early on Monday, September 12, when Stricker learned that British troops were landing, he placed his troops on the narrow strip of land between Back River and Bear Creek and sent riflemen ahead to harass the British. Two of these men, generally acknowledged to be Daniel Wells and Henry McComas, shot and killed the British General Ross. That evening, after holding the British back for many hours, Stricker led his men back to Hampstead Hill.
On Tuesday morning, September 13, the British began their bombardment of Fort McHenry, and the troops that had come ashore at North Point began to march towards the fortifications on Hampstead Hill. They tried to go around the American left flank, but the defense there held. Smith then ordered a rearrangement of the American troops that would enable them to stop any direct attack on Hampstead Hill with a cross fire. The British saw this maneuver and retreated when night provided a cover. While the British troops were withdrawing from North Point, the American soldiers at Fort McHenry and other locations in the harbor repulsed the British effort there. Before British General Cochrane left the area, he released some American civilians, among them Francis Scott Key who had watched the battle at Fort McHenry and written the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner. "
Shortly after the Battle of Baltimore and another American victory at Plattsburg, the British gave up demands for territorial concessions from the United States. Finally, both sides perceived that the underlying cause of the war, the war between Britain and France, had disappeared with the defeat of Napoleon, and a peace treaty was signed.
Baltimore from the end of the Revolution through 1814 experienced two major victories. One was its military triumph at the end of the War of 1812. The other was its ascendancy as a major port. The town's population and economy boomed during the turn of the century decades, placing Baltimore in the ranks of the largest and most prosperous of American cities.
© Suzanne Ellery Greene 2/9/1997