Introduction. lxvii

payment of the claims of the late war. This offer was made on the last day
of the session, a few hours before adjournment. The desire of the delegates
to leave Annapolis on account of the smallpox epidemic, probably combined
with their wish to increase still further the indignation of the people towards
the Upper House because of its failure to pass the Journal of Accounts, doubt-
less influenced the Lower House to pay no attention to the belated offer of the
upper chamber to pass the bill.

APPENDIX

In the Appendix will be found reproduced a number of contemporary manu-
scripts and a few very rare printed pamphlets, bearing directly on General
Assembly affairs for the 1764-1765 period, which have either not previously
found their way into print, or if in existence in printed form, are available
to only a very limited number of students of Maryland history. These cover
the Stamp Act Congress and Maryland's part in it; several orders and instruc-
tions from Frederick, the Lord Proprietary, to Governor Sharpe directing him
how he was to act in various controversies with the Lower House; a letter from
Cecilius Calvert, the Provincial Secretary of Maryland in England, to the
Proprietary; and the pamphlets which figured in the pamphlet warfare between
the Proprietary interest and the Popular party as represented by the Lower
House, a war of pamphleteers, which had its origin in criticisms of the Pro-
prietary government of Maryland that had appeared in a London newspaper.

I. Stamp Act Congress. Although the Stamp Act Congress was held in
the city of New York in October, 1765, it was not until nearly a year later
that there came from a Maryland press a comprehensive account of the pro-
ceedings of that body, and more especially of the activities of the three Mary-
land "commissioners", Edward Tilghman, William Murdock, and Thomas
Ringgold, who represented the Province. This was the pamphlet of twenty-
eight pages, entitled Proceedings [of the] Congress at\ New York] Colophen:
Annapolis:] Printed by Jonas Green, Printer to the Province. MDCCLXVI\.
The 1765 journals of the Lower House record the letters from the Massa-
chusetts House of Representatives calling the Congress, the appointment by
the Maryland Lower House of its three commissioners, the appropriation by
both houses of £500 for their expenses, and upon their return, the formal
thanks of this house for their services, but for some reason the journal of the
house for the 1765 sessions does not include the record of the proceedings of the
Congress which had been laid before it at the November—December session by the
three Maryland representatives, the several addresses to the King, to the House
of Lords, and to the House of Commons; nor was there entered in the journal
the letter written by the Maryland commissioners to Charles Garth appointing
him Agent in England to represent Maryland there in Stamp Act affairs, nor the
expense accounts of the commissioners at the Congress. These omissions from
the 1765 journal, difficult to explain as they were matters of great public interest,
are supplied by this pamphlet.

It was not until after news of the repeal of the Stamp Act had reached
Maryland that the pamphlet appeared giving a full account of the Congress