92 MARYLAND MANUAL.

The third Constitution of the State was reported and
adopted by the Convention which assembled at Annapolis,
April 27; 1864, and was ratified by the people on the 12th
and 13th of October, 1864. The fourth and present Con-
stitution of the State was formed and adopted by the Con-
vention which assembled at Annapolis, May 8, 1867, and
ratified by the people, September 18, 1867.

ANNAPOLIS.

The first white person to behold the site of Annapolis, the
present State capital, was Capt. John Smith, who saw it in
1608, in a voyage up the Chesapeake. It was settled in
1649, by a company of English Puritans seeking relief from
religious persecution, and called Providence. These men
were soon urged to take the oath of allegiance to Lord
Baltimore, but they refused, claiming that it were equiva-
lent to declaring their fealty to the Catholic Church, and
that Lord Baltimore was aiming at absolute dominion. How-
ever, by 1650, the courts of Anne Arundel county were
established, and Providence sent delegates to the General As-
sembly of Maryland.

In 1694, the capital of the State was removed to Annap-
olis. Annapolis, between this period and the Revolution, be-
came the center of refined and attractive society, noted for
its gayety and intelligence, and which gained for the city the
title of "The Athens of America."

The "Town of Anne Arundel" was surveyed and laid out
in 1694 by Richard Beard, and in 1696 this map and survey
was legalized by Act of Assembly. The original plat having
been destroyed with the State House in the fire of 1704, a
resurvey on the original lines ,was ordered by the Acts of
1718, Chapter 19, James Stoddart being employed for this
purpose. The Stoddart plat is now in the Land Office.

On September 3, 1765, Annapolis made the first forcible
and successful opposition to the Stamp Act. Zachariah
Hood, the stamp officer, was prevented from landing with
his stamps, and Thomas McNeir, one of the mob, had his
thigh broken in the first fight for American liberty on Ameri-
can soil.

In 1845, the United States Naval Academy was located at
Annapolis. It is claimed that the first building erected to
the dramatic art, and the first union of Federal and Con-
federate soldiers to decorate the graves of their common
dead, were at Annapolis. The last event took place in May,
1883.