The situation differed greatly in other parts of the North American
colony. In the North, the Puritans drove the Episcopalians out of
their colony. The peaceful Quakers, as we have seen, were bound to
the whipping post—had their tongues slit or their ears bored. In Vir-
ginia, the Catholics and the Puritans alike were banished. Even in
Rhode Island, founded by the gentle Roger Williams, Catholics were not
given the political rights assured to all others. Only in Maryland was
there true toleration and liberty of conscience, which won for her the
name, "land of the sanctuary. "

We know, of course, that the Religious Toleration Act passed by the
freemen in St. Mary's City in 1649, was, in effect, nullified a few years
later and that the darkness of religious bigotry and intolerance was
not swept away until our Constitution was adopted more than a century
later. But the step taken in St. Mary's City was an important part in the
movement that culminated in the adoption of the First Amendment to
our Constitution in 1791, which says, in part, that "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof. "

George and Cecil Calvert began an experiment which reached fruition
a century and a half later when their ideas of religious toleration
became a part of the basic law of the new Republic and of the states
constituting the federation. When the freemen of Maryland, assem-
bled in St. Mary's City, "assented" to the Toleration Act of 1649, they
set a course for this nation and other nations to follow in the unending
quest of civilized men for freedom and peace.

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