On Being a First Citizen
Remarks by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, State Archivist
on the occasion of the presentation of the First Citizen Awards to Benjamin C. Bradlee, William H. Cardinal Keeler, and, posthumously, to Howard "Pete" Rawlings. Wednesday, March 11, 2004

 

President Miller, members of the Senate, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: I am honored to be here again today to present, on your behalf, the First Citizen Awards of the Maryland Senate, in this the one hundredth anniversary year of this chamber.

In January 1904, the Maryland Senate first convened here, somewhat reluctantly giving up the historic Old Senate Chamber, but desperately in need of more space. It was a time when the General Assembly met every other year and it would be a session marked by extraordinary stress.

Within a month, the central business district of Baltimore City would burn to the ground in one of the most spectacular fires ever to visit an American City. But that first day of session in 1904 was, like this one today, a time of celebration and reflection, one in which the newly elected President of the Senate, the Honorable Spencer C. Jones, took time to wax eloquent about the old State House built in the midst of the Revolutionary War, and defend the expenditures on this, the Senate's new chamber:

“The simple ceremonies in the organization of the two branches of the General Assembly this day are the dedication of this new building to the serious and holy purposes of elevating the character, preserving the rights and protecting the liberty of the people. Standing upon the threshold of a new era and looking back to the time when this structure was first erected, one can not but exclaim with the Prophet of old, "What hath God wrought!"

A hundred and thirty years ago a comparatively small body of sturdy pioneers, with arms in their hands to guard against savage foes, faint with the toil of subduing the virgin wilderness, oppressed by the stifling atmosphere of the fast approaching conflict for the preservation of their liberties against the foremost power of the world, reared the beautiful old structure not only as a meeting place for their deliberations, but as an altar to the Goddess of Liberty and an expression of their longing for the beautiful. So it has stood, a memorial of their labors and a crystallized expression of their ideal of beauty and art...

           

Today we are [opening a necessary addition]. We do not dare to try to improve upon their work. Preserving the model in all its essential features, we only add what the increasing needs of the State demand.

Today, permit me to echo the words of President Jones. We are here this morning for the purposes of honoring those who, in concert with you and your predecessors, have elevated the character, preserved the rights and protected the liberty of the people.

The text of the First Citizen Award says best what it means to be a First Citizen:

"First Citizen is the name that Charles Carroll of Carrollton chose to sign a series of articles published by Ann Catherine 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 1800, 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."

Although not yet fully articulated in the First Citizen letters, Carroll was beginning to ask all citizens to think about much needed changes in government, changes that would allow people like him "freedom of speech and thought," changes that would separate the powers of the Executive and the Legislature, and that would ensure that taxation could not be imposed by anyone not subject to the laws passed by the Legislature.

Carroll was among the first people in the colonies to advance a new concept of government based on the advice and consent of the people. This led to one of the most creative experiments in defining self-government that the world has ever witnessed and which abides well with us still.

To Carroll, and to others such as his distant cousin, Charles Carroll the Barrister, Samuel Chase, and William Paca, all of whom served in the Maryland Senate, making government work for the good of the whole meant a thoughtful reworking of the structure of government by writing it all down, debating the results, and crafting the final product in committees separately and of the whole. Carroll as First Citizen, saw government much as every citizen should see it today, in constant need of attention and thoughtful legislative action.

This morning it is my distinct privilege to present on your behalf the first Citizen Award to three individuals. All are noted for their tireless advocacy of principles Charles Carroll of Carrollton held most dear, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and Freedom of Religion.

The first award is given posthumously to a man who tied freedom of speech  to a well-educated and informed mind..

Howard Rawlings, known to all as Pete, profoundly influenced public policy and the state budget process in Maryland for more than a decade as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. With his death last November 14, Maryland lost a leader who, in his own words, insisted on a state budget that was "fiscally prudent and socially responsible."

A mathematician by training, Pete never hesitated to ask the most difficult questions and make the most difficult decisions when it came to spending Maryland's taxpayers' money. He was especially fearless in his pursuit of excellence in education in Maryland's public schools. He knew from his own life experience that education is the way out of poverty. A teacher himself, Pete had a vision of how the State's and Baltimore City's educational system should work. He never stopped fighting for it and the children it serves.

What most people probably do not know is that Pete Rawlings also had the gift of turning a negative into a positive. When some elements were clamoring for the removal of the statue of Justice Taney from the State House grounds, it was suggested to him that the State build a memorial plaza at the base of the State House steps to Thurgood Marshall, where the voice of the people could be heard in the shadow of a man who spent his whole life in the advocacy of Simple Justice within the law, for one and all.

Today, in the 50th anniversary year of Brown versus Board of Education, Pete also should be remembered for advocating a place for peaceful protest in the capital where he devoted so much of his time and energy to good government.

As a measure of his stature, two days after his death, the Sun ran an editorial entitled simply "Pete." In it, his career was aptly summed up with these words: "With the death of Del. Howard P. "Pete" Rawlings, Maryland lost an extraordinarily gifted leader and one of the most accomplished politicians of his era - known for both a tight fist and a caring heart."

It is my privilege on behalf of the President and the Senate of Maryland to present Nina Rawlings with the First Citizen award in honor of her distinguished husband, Howard "Pete" Rawlings.

The next First Citizen award is presented to a man whose accomplishments and contributions to the course of United States history in defense of the freedom of the press are well-known. Even though, as a lowly gopher on capital hill, I read his work every day, I first really learned about him in the movies, as the brave editor of a former cub reporter from Montgomery County who with a colleague uncovered the cover-up of the century, and precipitated the downfall of one of America's most powerful politicians.

As Executive Editor of the Washington Post from 1968 - 1991, Benjamin C. Bradlee made that newspaper into one of the most influential and authoritative voices in the country. He oversaw such watershed events as the publication of the Pentagon Papers and the investigation into Watergate, for which the paper won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for public service, one of 18 Pulitzers awarded to the Post during his stewardship.

As monumental as these achievements are, we are here today to honor Ben Bradlee for his service to Maryland and to Maryland history. When he retired from active news management of the Post in 1991, Ben Bradlee assumed the chairmanship of the Historic St. Mary's City Commission, a post from which he has only recently retired to the status of Chairman Emeritus.

As a resident of St. Mary's County, Ben Bradlee took an active interest in the rich historic fabric of the area and devoted his considerable energy and management skills to the work of the Commission, reversing its declining budgetary fortunes, and linking it to the future of an independent St. Mary's College. He did so in the knowledge that the considerable intellectual and interpretive accomplishments of the St. Mary's Commission staff would be a rich addition to the educational offerings of the College. It would also continue to be the premier source of interpretation of the founding of Maryland at St. Mary's as place, not only of religious and intellectual freedom, but the home of the first printing press, the first of three in the history of the colony to be owned an operated by a woman. For his tireless devotion to ensuring that the early history Maryland not be forgotten, but relived and retold at the place where it began, the First Citizen Award is presented to Ben Bradlee.

Finally, it is my pleasure to present the First Citizen award to a man who has devoted his life to the principles of religious freedom so well articulated by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, his eminence William Cardinal Keeler. On April 11, 1989, Keeler was installed as the Archbishop of Baltimore and the 14th Ordinary of our country's oldest Catholic See. In 1994, he was appointed to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II. He has held many prominent positions within the Catholic church, including a term as President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

During his years as Archbishop of Baltimore, Cardinal Keeler has worked to strengthen the system of Catholic schools and has worked tirelessly to preserve and promote the principles of religious toleration that were first set forth in Maryland's 1649 Act of Toleration.

Maryland's ties to the Catholic church go back to its very beginnings, to the faith of the founding family, the Lords Baltimore. Cardinal Keeler exemplifies a tradition of service to his country, his state, and his church that includes Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and in whose honor this award is given, and John Carroll, Charles Carroll of Carrollton's cousin who, in 1789, was appointed the first American bishop of the Catholic church.

Cardinal Keeler, speaking in Lublin, Poland in November 2000, on the occasion of being awarded a degree by the university, invoked the Maryland experience in discussing the importance, and the fragility, of toleration. He said of the settlers who arrived on our shores in 1634: “…within a short five years, colonists still unaccustomed to their new land had organized themselves into a political assembly and asserted claims which were unthinkable in England at that time. Not only did they substitute a representative government for royal absolutism, they also replaced an established church, accompanied by the suppression of religious dissidents, with a society which allowed for religious differences….More than a century later, these Maryland initiatives would provide a principal model for the drafters of our Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and our Constitution’s Bill of Rights.”

Cardinal Keeler then went on to say: “But the history of the Maryland colony also demonstrates that good things once obtained must be carefully guarded and nurtured.”  He reminded us that “in genuine democratic discourse, tolerance does not mean avoiding differences. It means engaging differences within the bonds of civil and civic friendship.  Will this lead to debate, even vigorous debate?  Of course. But vigorous public moral argument is the lifeblood of democracy.”

 It is indeed an honor to present this award to such a distinguished successor to and guardian of this proud tradition of faith and service, His Eminence William Cardinal Keeler.