Introduction. lvii

(p. 212). Sharp had written Hamersley on June 15, 1766, that public excite-
ment had so subsided that "even our Stamp Master, M^r Hood, who kept away
so long, has ventured back & keeps Store again in this city" (Arch. Md.
XIV, 313).

ADDRESSES OF BOTH HOUSES TO THE KING, 1766

Addresses from the two houses of the Assembly to the King were no doubt
prompted by a wish expressed in a letter to Sharpe, dated May 1, 1766, from
Hugh Hamersley, the Proprietary's Secretary for Maryland in England, saying
that, if other American Provinces should address the Throne with their thanks-
givings upon repeal of the Stamp Act, he hoped Maryland would not be the
last to do so. To this Sharpe replied that "I shall in Consequence of the Inti-
mations you give me prompt some of the Assembly when we meet in Nov^r to
express their Loyalty, gratitude & Attachm^t to His Majesty & the Parliament
in a becoming Address" (Arch. Md. XIV, 302-303, 326). Hamersley, in a
subsequent letter to Sharpe, dated November 8, 1766, said that he awaited
with impatience the Maryland address of gratitude to his Majesty (ibid, 347).

On November 19, 1766, the Lower House ordered that a message to
the Governor and Upper House be prepared and sent, requesting them to
join with the lower chamber in an address to the King, and a committee headed
by Thomas Ringgold was appointed to draw it up (pp. 176, 177). That such
a message was actually sent is not recorded in the journal, but on December 4,
Murdock brought in an address to the King, which was approved and ordered
engrossed, but which, for some unknown reason, is not recorded in the journal
(p. 206), as was the address of the Upper House in its journal (p. 134). Nor
has the Lower House address been found in the Maryland Gazette or elsewhere.
It looks as if informal conferences had shown that the two houses could not
agree upon the form of a joint address, and that was the reason each sent a
separate one. That separate addresses from both houses were actually pre-
sented to the King is revealed by a letter from Frederick, Lord Baltimore, to
Sharpe, dated February 19, 1767, which reads: "I presented myself the address
of the Upp. House to the King; his Majesty received it very graciously; I had
previously requested the Secretary of State to observe it & he pronounced it an
Exceedingly good one. The Lower Houses address had been presented a few
days before because it arrived first. But that's immaterial" (Arch. Md. XIV,
371). That the Lower House address was to be transmitted to the King
through Charles Garth is learned from a letter from Sharpe to Hamersley
(Arch. Md. XIV, 356).

The address of the Upper House is duly recorded in its journal. On Decem-
ber 6, 1766, the house adopted a formal address to the King, expressing deep
gratitude to him for the "recent and signal instance" of his attention to the
welfare of his American colonies, and assured him that they would continue
to give "Proofs of Our Zeal, Loyalty and Respect to your Majesty and the
Parliament of great Britain." The address concluded with the hope that "your
Majesty may live long to enjoy the pleasure, it must afford you, to see all your
Subjects, throughout your extensive Dominions, perfectly happy under your