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The
Stamp Act was repealed, but in its place came ever more repugnant and repressive
laws passed by a Parliament in which Americans had no vote. By September
1775 the citizens of Annapolis, like their counterparts in the other twelve
colonies, returned to their liberty trees to condemn the oppression and
launch a resistance that would end in independence. This time a
new
song was composed by Thomas Paine, the author of "Common Sense,"
which again was instantly popular. Called The Liberty Tree, one verse
in particular resonates the meaning of liberty as succeeding generations
of Americans have come to define it:
The celestial exotic struck
deep in the ground,
Like a native it flourish'd
and bore;
The fame of its fruit,
drew the nations around,
To seek out its peaceable
shore.
Unmindful of names or
distinction they came,
For freemen like brothers
agree:
With one spirit endowe'd
they one friendship pursued,
And their temple was
Liberty Tree.
The British so hated Liberty
Trees that when they occupied the seaports of Boston and Charleston they
cut their Liberty trees down. The Boston Liberty Elm became 14 cords of
wood to fuel the British campfires, while the stump of the Charleston Liberty
Oak was burned to remove any trace of its existence only to have its roots
made into heads of canes, one of which was presented to Thomas Jefferson.
Annapolis was never occupied
and its Liberty Tree would become the town's oldest living survivor of
the Revolutionary era, ultimately playing a role in our nation's history,
not unlike that of Annapolitan Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who became
the revered last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.
As a symbol and shelter to Liberty, the history of this Liberty Tree did
not end with Washington's resignation as Commander in Chief, or with the
ratification of the Treaty of Peach, both of which occurred but |
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a
short distance away in the historic Old Senate Chamber of the State House.
Over time it was visited by a number of distinguished citizens and became
the site of celebrations, including the 4th of July.
In
December 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette returned from his home in France
to speak in its shadow, having witnessed a revolution in his own country
in which over 60,000 Liberty Trees were planted, and in which the Liberty
Tree became a general symbol of adherence to its principles. Lafayette
came to Annapolis to thank Maryland for the citizenship bestowed upon him
some forty years before, and to receive, once again, the accolades of a
grateful people for the part he had played at Washington's side during
the Revolution. A hundred and four years later, in 1928, even President
Calvin Coolidge would speak here in tribute to the principles for which
this tree stands.
Beginning
its life as a sapling 400 or so years ago, and now nearly 100 feet
tall with branches spreading 60 feet wide, this magnificent tree
proudly symbolizes the constant struggle to define and defend what is meant
by 'Liberty.' It has weathered debilitating storms that cast
its limbs on the sleeping Civil War soldiers encamped beneath it.
A fire in its trunk renewed its life but required tons of concrete and
reinforcement bars to keep it standing. To keep it alive requires
careful and constant care. An offspring today flourishes on English soil
at Kew Gardens. Soon each of the original 13 states will have a genetic
duplicate, fulfilling in fact the historic motto of the Maryland General
Assembly which dates back to the time of the Revolution: Crescite
et Multiplicamini, Grow and Multiply.
In its most recent history,
however, lies the most meaningful testimony to this tree's distinguished
past. Under its branches successive generations of St. John's students
have debated and discussed the great books of the world, held |
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