HISTORICAL SKETCH. 18

The stamp tax, imposed in 1765, met with violent oppo-
sition in Maryland, the stamp distributor being compelled
to fly the province, and the stamps were shipped back to
England, as no one would use them.

About this time the long-standing dispute about the
northern boundary was finally settled, and two eminent
English mathematicians, Charles Mason and Jeremiah
Dixon, were engaged by the Proprietaries of Maryland and
Pennsylvania to run the line between the provinces and
mark it by suitable monuments. They began their labors
in 1763 and continued them for four years. The line thus
run is the famous Mason and Dixon's line, dividing the
Northern from the Southern States.

Frederick, the sixth and last Baron of Baltimore, died in
1771, leaving the province to his illegitimate eon, Henry
Harford, a minor.

The opposition to the tea tax, first laid in 1767, was
fierce and revolutionary, and associations were formed
throughout the province to prevent the introduction of tea.
A firm of Annapolis merchants, having in defiance of the
public sentiment, imported a consignment of that com-
modity, popular indignation rose so high that a town
meeting was held, and the owner of the brig that had
brought it, to avert further mischief, publicly burned his
vessel, the Peggy Stewart, with its obnoxious cargo, in the
sight of a large concourse of spectators, on October 19,
1774.

The associations were felt to embody the spirit of resist-
ance to the tyrannous pretensions of England, but some-
thing more organic was seen to be necessary if the struggle
was to be carried on with any hope of success, and dele-
gates were chosen to a Convention which met in Annapolis.
This Convention became the organ of the sovereign power
of the people of Maryland. It appointed the deputies to
the Continental Congress and instructed them from time to
time. As it was too large to remain in permanent session,
a portion of its members were appointed a Council of
Safety, which sat in Annapolis, and was the executive hand
of the Convention, assisted by committees of correspond-
ence in the counties.

The Council of Safety soon began military preparations,
organizing the militia and providing them with military