642 State Papers and Addresses'

MARYLAND DAY
WESTMINSTER INTRA-CLUB BANQUET

March 24, 1942
Westminster

THIS is a day of commemoration. The people of Maryland have set apart
the 25th of March in each year for the purpose of calling to mind the ideals,
the men, and the achievements which have distinguished the history of our
past. Maryland Day is designed to cause and help us to remember the notable
contributions made to the common good by illustrious characters amongst those
who have preceded us, thereby nurturing and stimulating that patriotism with-
out which no people can be, or remain great. Such an institution deserves the
fullest recognition and appreciation. Through such an agency our children
will be trained. Through the full observance of the day and its signficance
our whole people are led to rededicate themselves to those causes for which our
ancestors struggled, and many of them died.

It cannot be emphasized too often that the quality of a people finds no
better measure than is found in the quality of the men and things to which they
pay honor. The chief benefit to be derived from the celebration of an occasion
such as this is found, not in the fact that it tends to encourage the average
citizen in the emulation of the transactions of a noble past, but in the fact that
such celebrations emphasize the importance of a fuller knowledge of that past,
and works a complete remembrance thereof.

After all, one of the chief qualities distinguishing man from the balance
of the animal world, lays in his capacity to remember—and hence reason. It
may be said to follow that one of the characteristics most distinguishing men
amongst men is that some, in the larger sense, remember better than do the
others.

The catalog of men and things to be known and remembered amongst those
Marylanders and achievements of first rank, we are proud to say, is a long one
—too long for any attempted recitation here. However, some of the contribu-
tions made to our history, and by our people to the Nation at large, will bear
enumeration on every Maryland Day.

A vivid idea of the magnitude of the contribution made by our forefathers
towards the gaining of our National Freedom, and the setting up of our Na-
tional Government, will always be brought to mind by the mention of the names
of Carroll, Chase, and Martin in the Council—Barney, Nicholson and Wickes
on the sea—Smallwood, Gist, the Maryland Line and Howard on the land—
while a few years later, that other Marylander, Stephen Decatur, carried to
victory on the shores of the Mediterranean itself, the defiant challenge of our
infant Nation.

Maryland's contribution to the National good in statecraft, law, letters,