Introduction. liii

The Lower House then proceeded to discuss in detail various phases of the
dispute. It took a vote as to whether or not the Clerk should be allowed any-
thing for making out the commission to tobacco inspectors, and decided this
in the negative by a vote of 26 to 11. It also voted, 19 to 18, that no allowance
should be made him for the custody of the bonds of Naval Officers, as this
duty had been Imposed on him by act of the Assembly. The house also voted
that no allowance should be made to him for receiving and holding nominations
for tobacco inspectors, nor for the custody of the county levies. Other claims
for allowances were also rejected (pp. 225-226). These actions of the house
were adopted in the form of resolutions dated December 10, which were sent
to the Upper House with a short message, dated December 12, saying that
although it felt that the Clerk of the Council was entitled to some salary, it
was not for the house to fix the "quantum" of this, as he should not be paid
by public funds appropriated by the Assembly in the Journal of Accounts, but
from fines and forfeitures collected from the people by the "government",
which now went to the Lord Proprietary, or from the £1,400 sterling collected
annually by the export duty on tobacco appropriated to himself by the Pro-
prietary. It was hoped that the Journal would now be passed promptly by the
Upper House (pp. 228-229).

It was at this stage of the dispute between the two houses on the adoption
of the Journal of Accounts that threats of mob violence to enforce its adoption
by the Upper House reached Annapolis. No Journal had been adopted for
nine years, and the amount of the debts due to the public creditors had piled
up to such alarming proportions that public indignation was widespread. This
seems to have been particularly rampant in the back settlements of Frederick
County where the rumors of mob action arose. On December 10 Governor
Sharpe sent a message to the Lower House saying that he had just received in-
formation that between "three & four Hundred Men many of them Armed with
Guns & Tomahawks were assembled on Fryday last at Frederick T." Fredk.
Co.^ty and ab' to chuse Officers intend^g to march hither in Companies in Order
(as they express themselves) to settle the Disputes betwixt the two Houses
of Assembly in Relation to their passing the Journal and that such their
Proceedings were supposed to be owing to Col.^o Cresap's declaring as he lately
returned Home thro' the County that nothing would be done unless the People
did come down". The Governor also said that a great number of people who
lived in the neighborhood of Elk Ridge, Anne Arundel County, were said to
be coming to Annapolis to learn from the delegates of that county the status
of the Journal. He thought it his duty to communicate this information to the
house, and he recommended "it to you to consider seriously the Consequence
of large bodies of people being prompted to come hither on such Account or
assemble with a View to intimidate either Branch of the Legislature or to lay
them under any restraint" (p. 221). The Lower House replied that it was very
sensible of the bad consequences of bodies of men coming to intimidate either
house, and prayed the Governor to lay before it evidence of the assembling and
arming of men for this purpose. It also very much regretted the imputation
that a member of this house, Mr. Cresap, was a party to it, and thought that