Introduction. xvii

To the message of the Governor the Upper House in its address promised
to do all in its power to enact a Supply bill and to repay Forbes his advances
for the support of the troops, and expressed its regret that "any Occasion has
been given for an odious Distinction to be made Between the Inhabitants of
Maryland and those of the Neighboring Colonies". It thanked the Governor
for his care of the frontier inhabitants during the summer just passed, "a
Service discouraged by so many Disagreeable Circumstances and attended
with so much Hardship and Fatigue that very few in your Scituation would
have undertaken it with the alacrity and Sustained it with the Firmness your
Excellency has done ..... as they [the militia] enabled the General to draw
into the Field those Troops which would have been Necessarily left for the
Defense of Fort Cumberland, had not your Excellency undertaken to garrison
that place with Volunteers, whose Spirit on this Occasion cant be too much
Commended" (pp. 7-8). These rather cryptic references, laudable to Sharpe
who had actually been with Maryland troops on the frontier during the sum-
mer, become clear when we read his letters to Frederick, Lord Baltimore and
to Baltimore's secretary in England, Cecilius Calvert, and their replies to
Sharpe. Under date of July 8, 1758, and of August 28, the Governor wrote
to Baltimore that when a considerable number of Maryland troops had gone
from Fort Frederick as rangers with Forbes on the expedition to the Ohio,
he had been obliged to send two companies of militia to garrison that Fort, and
that they had marched voluntarily, notwithstanding the fact that a former
Assembly had resolved that calling out the militia by the Governor for the
defense of the frontier was without warrant of law; and he added that later
two hundred Frederick County milita had voluntarily gone from Fort Frederick
to Fort Cumberland for a month for garrison service (Arch. Md. IX, 252-257,
269).

The Lower House in its reply to the Governor declared that it had given
"no Occasion for the odious Distinction that has been made between the
Inhabitants of Maryland and those of Neighboring Colonies; and that his
Majesty's Generals, when they shall have an Opportunity and Curiosity to
peruse and consider them [the house journals], will be induced to entertain
a favourable Opinion of the Inhabitants of this Province .... and [we]
rejoice to find your Excellency now expressing Hope that the like differences
[as to the methods of raising money] may not happen at this or any future
Session" (p. 21-22). The house concluded by promising to give immediate
consideration to the recommendations made by the Governor and by Forbes,
but instead of doing so, spent most of its time wrangling over the disputed
Annapolis election case.

On October 28, the Lower House resolved that it would, out of the funds
raised under the Supply Bill, make provision to pay arrears due to Maryland
troops, to reimburse Forbes for the money he had advanced for the pay of
the Maryland soldiers taken into the service of the Crown, and to raise a force
to serve in the coming campaign. It was then ordered by a vote of 27 to 19 that
a Supply bill be drawn up in conformity with these resolves which it had
adopted (p. 26), the money to be raised by "an equal assessment on all estates,