George Washington loved Maryland and its capital city, Annapolis,
and that affection was reciprocated. As I stroll through the little city
which remains the seat of our State government, I see dozens of re-
minders that here George Washington dined, here he danced, here he
attended the theater, here he went to the races, here he talked with
friends, here he slept.

My own executive office in the old State House in Annapolis is just
above the legislative chamber in which occurred one of the most
dramatic events of George Washington's life and one of the really
significant events of the early history of our nation—his resignation
as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. And so, although
the memory of Washington is kept alive everywhere in this country,
we believe it survives with unusual vividness in Maryland.

From his home in Mount Vernon, Washington could look across
the Potomac River to the green shores of Maryland. As a young
man he made frequent trips across that river to Maryland. The record
itself shows 20 visits to Annapolis alone, and there is reason to
believe that there were many others not recorded.

Annapolis in Washington's day was a gay, charming and urbane
city—a "capital" in every sense of the word, although, of course, it was
a small city. There George Washington as a young man went seeking
diversion and recreation—to attend the races, a ball, the theater,
to talk with friends. Annapolis was his favorite stopping place in his
travels between Mount Vernon and Philadelphia, where the Congress
was meeting.

There were connections with other parts of Maryland too, and we
recall that as a young surveyor he was commissioned by Governor Din-
widdie, of Virginia, to survey the great Potomac Valley. At Fort
Mount Pleasant, later named Fort Cumberland, in what now is the
city of Cumberland, he first took command of troops as a young
officer in the Virginia militia in the French and Indian War. But there
are two events in his life which have made especially deep impressions
upon Marylanders—both of them occurring in Annapolis. One of them
came at the very apex of his military career. Cornwallis had sur-
rendered to the Continental Army at Yorktown. After all the many
frustrations he and the men under him had suffered in that struggle,
here at Valley Forge and elsewhere, he had won the war with the
British and established independence for the country he loved so much.
After he had completed the details of the surrender at Yorktown,
Washington set out for Philadelphia to appear in person before the
Congress and to receive its congratulations. To be sure, en route he

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