| Volume 48, Preface 11 View pdf image (33K) |
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Letter of Transmittal. xi
intention of laying the matter before the General Assembly for its determina
tion. It is of interest to note that the Assembly at the next session passed an
act upholding Paca's contention, but we are not told what was the fate of the
prisoner.
Congress held its session in the State House at Annapolis from November 26,
1783 to June 3, 1784. The proceedings of the Council contain only casual
references to this session, made notable by the circumstance that it was then
that Washington came to Annapolis to relinquish his military command and
to deliver his celebrated addfess on December 23, 1783. The Governor and
Council under date of December 20, had sent him an address expressing their
warm appreciation of his services, to which he made appropriate answer. Both
of these addresses are entered in the records. An entry also appears in the
proceedings of the Council that pursuant to a resolution of the Assembly,
the Chevalier d'Annemours, or d'Anmour as it is usually spelled in contempo
rary American records, recently receive4 by Congress as Consul General of
France to the United States, should likewise be recognized as Consul General
to the State of Maryland.
At this period the Governor and Council were elected annually by the General
Assembly. The Council journal opens with the selection, November 19, 1781,
of Thomas Sim Lee as governor. A year later William Paca became governor,
and he was reelected in 1784. The Council, in addition to the Governor, was
made up of a president and five members The members of the Council during
the three years covered by this volume were as a rule men of ability and
distinction. We find the names of John Hoskins Stone, later a governor,
James Brice, a distinguished Annapolis lawyer, Jeremiah Townley Chase,
afterwards the Chief Judge of Maryland Court of Appeals, William Paca, the
“signer,” Gabriel Duvall, later a justice of the United States Supreme Court,
Benjamin Ogle, afterwards governor, Benjamin Stoddert, Secretary of the
Navy under Adams, Samuel Turbutt Wright, Charles Wallace, and John David
son. During this three year period from time to time we find members
resigning because of disapproval of the action of the majority of their
colleagues.
With the conclusion of the peace the amount of business transacted by the
Council shows a rapid decrease. The proceedings and correspondence for 1784
in amount is scarcely a fourth of that transacted in each of the two preceding
years. The records here presented are to be found in manuscript form in
Liber C. B. No. 24 of the Journal of the Council and in Liber No. 78 of the
Letters from the Council. The contents of these two books, as in the pre
vious volumes of this Revolutionary sub-series, have been combined so that
the entries from both of them are here brought together and arranged ac
cording to dates. It is to be regretted that the letters addressed to the Council
during the same period cannot be included in this volume in a similar way.
Their number is so great and so many of them do not relate to the business of
the Council as shown by its own journals, however, that it seems wise to
continue the publication in separate volumes of such of these letters as seem
of special historical value.
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Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784
| Volume 48, Preface 11 View pdf image (33K) |
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