revision of the Articles of Confederacy, done much to form-
ulate. Serious agricultural problems remained with ex-
haustion of the tobacco lands. Slavery was becoming a
burden, and currency problems vexed Maryland's economic
life. In the formation of a new nation, Maryland did its
part by sacrificing its territory and advancing money for
public buildings to form the District of Columbia (1791).
To offset some of the difficulties, Baltimore had grown
until it was five times as great as the flourishing port of
the "Golden Age", Annapolis. Early in the new century
exports from Maryland ports reached the $14,000,000 mark..

The shipping such figures represented was seriously
hampered by British policy. The American protest was the
War of 1812. In this conflict Maryland began by assisting
the nation in Canada; but British naval supremacy soon
took the war south. From 1813 Maryland stood the brunt
of the war, and for a time England had all its own. way.
British forces routed Marylanders on their own territory
at the Battle of Bladensburg and burned the public build-
ings of Washington. But the later attacks on North Point
(Baltimore) and Fort McHenry failed. In the latter bom-
bardment, a Marylander, Francis Scott Key, had the inspir-
ation for the "Star Spangled Banner"..

The War Between The States.

After 1815 the state went on more vigorous than ever. A
national "pike" was completed to Ohio, two canals and a
railroad were put in operation, and Baltimore 1ncreased
enormously in population. By sharing the industrial and
commercial interests of the North and West, Marylanders
were put in a peculiar position when the secessionist move-
ment began. Though the very first action of the state
was suppression of the rebellion at Harper's Ferry ("John
Brown's Raid") ; two years later the Baltimoreans showed
a different spirit when they attacked the Sixth Massachu-
setts Regiment on its way to relieve Washington. Enraged
poetical comment on this event by a Marylander resident
in the deep South produced the state song, "Maryland, My
Maryland"..

Maryland remained in the Union, but many a Confederate
soldier was also recruited in the state. Lee occupied Fred-
erick, and later in the war occurred the Battles of South
Mountain Antietam and Monocacy. Unionist sympathizers
held the state government in line, and, in 1864, modified the
Constitution to abolish slavery..