HISTORICAL SKETCH. 91

equipments. After the battle of Lexington, the Convention
prepared a declaration and pledge, declaring the purpose of
the people to resist force by force, and warlike preparations
went on rapidly. The militia was drilled and kept in readi-
ness; minute-men were enlisted, and Maryland's contingent
known as the Maryland Line, placed at the disposition of
Congress.

Governor Eden, finding that his presence in the colony
was worse than useless, left the province on June 24, 1776,
and the last phanton of proprietary government vanished.
Maryland was now a self-governed republic, and the Conven-
tion emphasized the fact by issuing a formal Declaration of
Independence on the third of July.

The Convention had always recognized itself to be a
merely provisional government, uniting functions and powers
which in a free State should be kept distinct. It, therefore,
drew up a Bill of Rights and Constitution, to be submitted
to the people, and then abdicated its authority by a simple
adjournment, leaving the directions of affairs in the hands of
the Council of Safety, and thus the wisest and most patriotic
body that ever governed Maryland ceased to exist.

The Constitution provided for a government consisting of
a Governor and Council, a legislative body consisting of a
Senate and House of Delegates, and other inferior executive
officers. It was adopted by the people and ratified at the
elections. Thomas Johnson, the first elected Governor, was
inaugurated in March, 1777, and the Council of Safety dis-
solved itself. Maryland thus became a sovereign and inde-
pendent State, but she did not enter the Confederation until
1781, when she came in as the thirteenth and last State.

After the successful close of the war, General Washington
resigned his commission to Congress in the Senate Chamber
of the State House, at Annapolis, on December 23,1783.

Maryland ratified the Federal Constitution, April 28,
1787, and entered the Federal Union, being the seventh State
in the ratification Of that instrument.

In 1791 Maryland ceded to the United States the present
District of Columbia, to be the permanent seat of the Federal
Government.

Important changes were made by the Legislature in the
organic law of the State in the year 1837. Amongst these
changes was the election of the Governor by the people.

The second Constitution of the State was reported and
adopted by the Convention which assembled at Annapolis,
November 4, 1850, and which Constitution was ratified by
the people on the first Wednesday of June, 1851.