On behalf of the President and the members of the Senate it is my privilege to present you with the First Citizen Award.

First Citizen was the name that Charles Carroll of Carrollton chose to sign a series of articles published by Ann Catharine Green in the Annapolis Maryland Gazette in 1773. They form a strong defense of an independent legislature and were among the earliest arguments for a new concept of government based upon traditional community rights and liberties that protected its citizens from arbitrary rule. At the time, Carroll, as a Roman Catholic, could neither vote nor hold public office. With the publication of these articles, Carroll launched a career of public service that would not end until his death at the age of 95 in 1832. In addition to helping draft Maryland's first Constitution and signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Carroll served as President of the Maryland Senate, of which he was a member from 1777 to 1801, and as one of the first United States Senators from Maryland (1789-1792). To be a First Citizen is to be a dedicated and effective participant in the process of making government work for the benefit of all.

You and Charles Carroll, in whose honor this award is given, have much in common. Carroll was so devoted to his role as a State Senator that when dual office holding became unconstitutional in 1792, he chose the Maryland Senate over being a United States Senator. You too, have chosen to serve this body with a devotion that has few parallels, furthering the integrity of the institution in a style and manner befitting a recipient of the First Citizen award.

Charles Carroll was also concerned about art, especially portraits that documented the contributions of those in public life. Your tenure as Chairman of the Artistic Properties Commission led to the first effective inventory of the art collection in the Annapolis Complex and the hiring of the first professional curator whose exhibit 'In Grateful Remembrance' was one of the finest exhibits ever held in the State House and resulted in a printed catalogue that is still used as a standard reference book. You have even contributed materially to a project that is dear to the heart of the present First Lady, Mrs. Glendening, by providing the collection with a lovely image of your grandmother, First Lady Alice Carter Bowie.

Working with artists is not easy, as we all know. Indeed we once thought that it would be nice to convert the book award to a medal until we discovered how long it took to get the original made. The original version of the medal from which this image is taken was commissioned in 1826 to commemorate the 90th year of Carroll's life. It was meant to be presented on his 89th birthday, September 19, 1826. The artist was commissioned. The designs were approved, and then the delays began. It took the artist another two years to finish the commission. Fortunately Carroll was of a strong constitution and was able to wait (he did not die until his 95th year). Finally on August 30, 1828 a letter came announcing that the medal was finally done and asking for money. The response was one which you yourself might have authored: "it will be better not to pay him until the medals are received, as it may relax his energies...." Sometimes sticking with tradition proves the better part of valor. In the political world two years is an eternity.

Besides, as a responsible Senate Secretary and as a concerned Citizen with a wonderful collection of family records of your own, you have spent your public life sending paper worth saving to the Archives. Indeed, in my second year as State Archivist you gave us a remarkable collection of papers relating to your grandfather's term as Governor, as well as a carefully annotated copy of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. So it is that the least the Senate can do for you as you leave office is to give you paper in return, both a book and a certificate for your personal archives.

In doing so, permit me to quote from your copy of the Ancient Mariner which is found in the last folder of the collection that you gave us in 1977:

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell

To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!

He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,

Whose beard with age is hoar,

Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest

Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,

And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man,

He rose the morrow morn.
 

Back to Biographical Page.