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Frederick and Samuel Green, Printers at Annapolis
conventions, and the proceedings of the convention that framed the constitution, at the public
expence, and subject to the disposal of the general assembly; and that the intendant of the revenue
be directed to advance Mr. Green such a sum of money as he may think proper, to assist him in the
execution of the work."2
Samuel Chase withdrew from the undertaking because of other duties
which occupied all of his energies. Alexander Contee Hanson, to whom
fell the responsibility for preparing the compilation for the press, was
ably fitted for that task. He was born at Annapolis on October 22, 1749,
the son of John Hanson who was so prominent a figure in Maryland dur-
ing the Revolution. He was educated at the college of Philadelphia and
was probably admitted to the Maryland bar shortly before the Revolu-
tion. In August 1776, he was appointed assistant secretary to General
Washington, but was forced to resign from this position because of ill
health. On March 9, 1778, at the age of twenty-eight, he became an
associate judge of the general court of Maryland. Shortly before he gave
up this position he sentenced seven men to be hanged, drawn and quar-
tered for plotting to release some British prisoners of war who were
being held at Frederick.
Like his father, he took a great interest in the affairs of the State.
In 1784 he wrote Political Schemes and Calculations3 in which he urged
that the confused financial situation of Maryland be relieved by con-
solidating all state debts including the bills of credit into one account
which would be equalized by the sale of the confiscated estates of the
Tories and the annual revenue from taxes. He also suggested a land tax
in addition to the five per cent duty on imports recommended by Con-
gress in order to pay Maryland's share of the national debt. In conclud-
ing, he reminded those who protested against the cost of government
that they spent more every year at the theatre than they paid in taxes
for the salaries of the state officials. His Considerations on the Proposed
Removal of the Seat of Government,4 printed in 1786, was a spirited defense
of Annapolis as the state capital in preference to Baltimore. His most
important political pamphlet was Remarks on the Proposed Plan of a
Federal Government,5 printed in 1787. It does not, of course, rank with
the Federalist Papers in the literature of the constitution but it contains
a significant discussion of the salient points of the new plan of govern-
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2 Preface of Laws of Maryland, made since M,DCC,LXIII.
3 Bibliography of Imprints, 313.
4 Bibliography of Imprints, 400.
5 Bibliography of Imprints, 431.
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[67]
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