xvi Introduction.

By a very close vote, twenty-four to twenty-three, the House voted that he was
not eligible. Hagar was called before the Delegates and told of their decision
(pp. 92-93). A new election was ordered in Frederick County to choose a
Delegate to serve in place of him (p. 94).

The Hagar case was not based on any personal opposition to him, but was
a question of interpreting the law. It appears that provisions of English statutes,
which Maryland laws had declared were in force in the province, rendered
Hagar, as a naturalized subject, ineligible to sit as a Delegate in the Lower
House of the Assembly. This was shown by the action taken by the House
of Delegates three days later when a bill was introduced allowing all naturalized
subjects the same rights and privileges as natural born subjects (p. 100),
which became a law a few days later (p. 107). Re-elected a Delegate from
Frederick County, Hagar was sworn in as a member of the Lower House on
November 16 (pp. 174-175, 176-177). For a discussion of the Hagar case,
see an article entitled "Jonathan Hagar, The Founder of Hagarstown," by
Basil Sellers, in Second Annual Report of the Society for the History of the
Germans in Maryland, 1887-1888, Baltimore, pp. 21-28. As we shall see,
Hagar was again elected a member of the new General Assembly which met
from June 15 to July 3, 1773.

In England the Naturalization Act passed by the Maryland Assembly (pp.
107, 238) was reported to be a violation of one of the Statutes of the Realm.
Apparently no decision was reached on this question prior to the Revolution
(Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, from Jan. 1768 to
Dec. 1775, pp. 339-340; Correspondence of Governor Eden, in Maryland His-
torical Magazine, Vol. II, 299, 301-303).

The Committee of Elections and Privileges reported that in Charles County
Joseph Hanson Harrison, Josias Hawkins, Francis Ware and William Small-
wood had been duly returned as Delegates (p. 88). Harrison and Hawkins
were present on October 2, when the General Assembly convened. Smallwood
was sworn in on October 4 (pp. 75, 84).

This election in Charles County was disputed by Robert Henly (or Henley)
Courts who complained of the "undue Election" of Francis Ware and Josias
Hawkins. As Ware had not come to the opening session on October 2, the
members of the Lower House ordered that he should be notified to appear before
them for a hearing on Courts' petition to be held on October 14 (p. 79). Courts
had been a Delegate for Charles County at the session which convened on
September 25, 1770 (Arch. Md. LXII, xvii).

When this case came up for consideration on October 14, the House moved
that the Resolves of the Lower House of June 22, 1768, for preventing charge
and expence in elections of members to serve in the General Assembly be read,
which was done. Then, after the examination of several witnesses, the Dele-
gates resolved that as both Ware and Hawkins were "guilty of treating" at the
recent election in Charles County, their elections were invalid. A new election
was ordered in the county to choose two Delegates in their place (pp. 102-103).
Apparently at this new election Ware and Hawkins were reelected Delegates
for Charles County as we find both men being later sworn in on November
18, 1771, in that capacity (p. 178; Maryland Gazette, Nov. 21, 1771).