16 MARYLAND MANUAL

largely Virginian in character, the Maryland Assembly
was stern against Governor Horatio Sharpe and refused to
vote funds or raise troops. Edward Braddock, the British
general deputed to drive back the French, operated within
Western Maryland, but even his rout and death in 1756
failed to spur Maryland.

Prelude to Revolution

The accession in 1751 of Frederick Calvert, a "gay young
blade", to the title of Lord Baltimore meant less interfer-
ence from the Proprietor, therefore Marylanders trans-
ferred their complaints against the Proprietary to the Brit-
ish Government. Conflict between French and English only
sharpened the point. Debts to English merchants, lack of
a proper colonial currency, and taxes on imports led Mary-
land, this time in common with other colonies, to take
drastic action. Maryland takes credit for first refusing to
pay taxes under the Stamp Act; actual repudiation took
place in Frederick County on November 23, 1765. The
Townshend Acts were repealed in 1770 but a strong feeling
of rebellion remained. Support of Boston was vigorous
after that port was closed; and the Boston Tea Party of
December 16, 1773 had its Maryland counterpart when a
tea ship, the Peggy Stewart, was burned in Annapolis har-
bor on October 19, 1774.

Maryland played leading roles in both the First and
Second Continental Congresses and in the signing of the
Declaration of Independence. Revolutionary action on a
National scale had been foreshadowed by the Maryland
"Association of Freemen."

The Revolutionary War

From the first skirmish in Boston to the surrender at
Yorktown, Maryland soldiers saw service. Despite alarms,
only once did the British.by water at Vienna.invade
Maryland soil. Pulaski's Legion was organized in Baltimore,
Baron de Kalb and Lafayette spent some time in Maryland,
and here it was that in 1783 the Continental Congress met.
George Washington passed into civilian life in the Senate
Chamber of the State House at Annapolis on December 23,
1783. The Treaty of Paris ending the war, was ratified in
Annapolis three weeks later on January 14, 1784.

Second British Conflict

On April 28, 1788 Maryland became the seventh state to
ratify a constitution which, through her leadership in the