Letter of Transmitted. xi

these records, but Dulany said that as to any specific records requested by the
gentlemen who formed the committee as individuals, he would be glad to
furnish them copies. It may be added that nothing further was heard of this
demand.

It has been said with some truth that Maryland did not react as violently
against the Stamp Act as did some of the northern colonies. This is un-
questionably true, but most of those who repeat this charge in a derogatory
way, lose sight of the fact that the people of Maryland were more immediately
interested in the century-old struggle against what they called Proprietary
exactions and pretensions, which affected them both spiritually and economi-
cally, and it was to the Crown alone that they could look for possible relief
from their grievances. The passage of the Stamp Act has been a jolt to this
shortsighted point of view, but when American protests so promptly brought
Parliamentary relief, Marylanders were ready to forget their grievances against
the mother country and to again take up their quarrels with the Proprietary.
Echoes of the Stamp Act excitement are to be found in the proceedings of
the Assembly in 1766. A bill to reimburse the Annapolis stamp distributor,
Zachariah Hood, who had been hanged in effigy, for damages done to his
property by the mob, and also for the payment of damages to the owner of
the house which he rented as an office, passed both houses apparently without
dissenting votes.

The Lower House bill, known as the "Act of Gratitude", in which was
expressed the appreciation of the Province to those leaders in Parliament who
had opposed the passage of the Stamp Act and helped to secure its repeal,
would certainly also have passed the Upper House, had there not been an
impasse between the two houses, not as to the principle involved, but because
under the bill the Lower House not only assumed exclusive control of its
administration, but refused to allow the upper chamber to make any amend-
ments whatever in it on the ground that it was a bill appropriating money.
Under the terms of the rejected "Act of Gratitude" a marble statue of Pitt,
Earl of Chatham, and a portrait of Platt, Lord Camden, were to be ordered
and set up in Annapolis; and incorporated in it were resolutions expressive
of the esteem in which were held certain other prominent members of Parlia-
ment named in the measure who aided repeal. Both houses, however, sent
separate addresses to George III, thanking him for his aid in furthering repeal.

Towards the close of our three-year period, Parliament passed the Town-
shend Acts, imposing import duties on tea and various other articles brought
into the colonies, but as these acts had not yet been enforced, their far reaching
significance was not appreciated, and little attention was paid to them until a
letter from the Massachusetts House of Representatives relating to them was