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 1755
tailed to spur Maryland during the final 5 years of the war.

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Townshend Acts were repealed in 1770 but a strong feeling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. The
Maryland capital again played a part in the national scene
by entertaining delegates from New York, New Jersey,
Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia who met in what
was to be the Constitutional Convention that formulated
the historic document in Philadelphia. On April 28, 1788,
Maryland ratified the constitution, the seventh state to