ejiv -?-r jr.- i -5;-jpt.rrs1 t ;
'4y
A'
7-
THE BLESSINGS OF aOVEEHMENT, T-TTTTC THE DEWS OP HEAVEN, SHOULD BE DISTBIBTTTED ALIKE TOON THE HIGH AND THE LOW, THE BICH AND THE POOE.
It.... - J.
EBENSBURG, MAY 30, 1855.
VOL. 2. ISO. 33.
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Anniversary Celebration of the Landing of
t the Pilgrims of Maryland, at the site of
St. Mary's City, May 15th, 1855.
Dear Sentinel: On our arrival in good old
Baltimore a " few days" ago, we were iarited by
a friend to attend the above captioned celebration.
And being a descendant of the old Maryland Pil
grims, one of whom came over on the Ark,"
Hother on tha Dove," (for it took " two thipt"
to bring them over) we were much gratified at the
opportunity afforded us, to not only see the place
where our ancestors had landed, (those who did
mat " leave their country for their country's good,"
but who came to establish and found a Republic
where dU could worship Ood as to them might
seem meet,,) but also to have the opportunity of
hearing the Anniversary Oration of lion. Joseph
R. Chandler. His address speaks for itself. No
feeble eulogy of ours could add aught to its mer
its. We send it to you for publication, believing
that nothing could be laid before your readers,
more interesting to the liberal minded patrons of
your honest Democratic sheet.
" Truth is powerful, and will prevail," when
disseminated to the people through that powerful
medium the press. This speech of Mr. Chan
dler's should be read, and that too carefully by
very one, as in it he brings up facts in relation
to the early colonization of this Continent, which
are suppressed by Know-Nothings and their ad
juncts, for the furtherance of their sinister ends.
T , . .' .7 ' ... BOLIVAR,
r Mr. Chandler said : . '
" The desire to make commemoration of dis
- tinguished iavors, is among the best impulses
c ox the human heart, lhe justification or the
desire has marked domestic, social, and even
national movements in all ages, and has had
for its sanction not only the spirit of -pures
gratitude lor the benehts of the past, but a
hope of connecting tbe fayors and the spirit
they suggest with the future. '
Gratitude," says a French satirist, is a
strong sense of favors to come, and the apo
thegm conveys more of truth than at first flush
it seems to imply; and, correctly received, it
has less that is offensive than at first strikes
the ear, or perhaps was intended by the au
thor. -.
- Nothing merely present deeply concerns a
human being. His nature, his instincts, his
impulses, lead him to look away from the pre-
sent and connect himself . with the realities of
the past, to strengthen hishopes and his en
joyments of the future. This is no accident
of position, it is the gift of God. " He made
us with such large discourse looking before
and after."
Scarcely a festival, domestic or national,
among the Hebrews was unconnected with
the past. Gratitude for special providences,
er sorrows for peculiar offences, were the mo
tives of the feasts and fasts of the chosen peo
ple, and the sanctity of the weekly sabbath,
was commemorative of the rest of the Most
High. Their;, passovers preserved the recol
lection of the sparing mercies of God towards
the male born of their tribes in Egypt, and
their Porim kept bright the remembrances of
salvation from the destructive edict of the As
syrian moaarch
. Tear by year pagan nations, pagan muni
eiplities, and pagan individuals, made memo
rial of important events. Marathon, Leuctra,
ThermopelsB, were remembered, and the obli
gations cf the present and hopes of tbe fature
were cemented with the illustrious past, f- It
was the great work of the orator and the poet, -to
leave the lustre of eloquence and son upon .
the loftiest deeds of the departed and it was
the delight and honor of an admiring people,
to mark the names of the mighty dead, as they
left the shadows of the past, to grow lustrous
in the praise and gratitude of tbe present as
the ' summit peaks of tho mouutams are kept
risible and beautiful by the posthumous ravs
of that sun whickhas gone to enlighten other
World.; ; -s ;;'u.zm -A ;.rT
But I hare said that gratitude for the past
eanects itself with the' enjoyments pf the pre
sent and the hopes of the future. - No event
erT special commemoration that does not
ppeal U the present for evils avoided or ben-
jwewed; and that anniversary which is
met sanctified by a commemoration of whit be
longs to the present and relates to the future
IS nnworthy of. general or individual obser
Tanco. .- ; i
YI? Tt?na the landing, in
1634, of the emigrantafrom Great Britain on
the very spot on which we stand. Their ad
rent has been deemed of consequence sufficient
for special memorial. In these times, every
ay brings to our coast more than a thousand
Caropean emigrants, who are crowding our
cities, peopling our plains, felling oar forests,
swelling oar comveree, and augmenting oar
national resources and national importance -Lei
the rVare commemorate the benefit which
they shall hive derived from these their ances
tors. But to-day the shadows of the past are
ntredan4 the arrival of only two boat loads
of men, women, and children, is selected for
VtooaemoraUon in which science and the
patriotism and religion, are deemed to
aa interest. What claim hare the im
figoawd ooWuation of Calvert and hu
jTrwrT"Bej. women and children upon
or fraUBio for a commemoration 1 Is it
tt w tar. dascccisd from the stock ef t i
educated, high-minded and generous emi
grants, and would do honor to the families of
which we are a part J Probably not half of
this assembly can trace their ancestral line to
any of that compnny. '" Is it that these Pil
grims fled away from religious persecution at
home and thus became confessors in the cause
of Christian truth?- Why. almost "every one
of the original colonies of this country owes
its foundation to the same spirit of religious
intolerance on one side and religions indepen
dence on the other: . Massachusetts, Ithode
Island, and Pennsylvania, present strong in
stances of attachment to, creeds, and of sacri
fices for their enjoyment Isit that they who
fled from: intolerance at home and sought reli
gious liberty here, were of our own creed, and
thus appeal to our denominational sympathies
for grateful remembrance and ceremonious
commemoration? ! - ,
We may safely say as members of that
chnrch of "which those immigrants foimed a
part,1 that mere endurance of persecution for
conscience sake is too general for special com
memoration; and the bare profession of Ca
tholicity is no enforcement of an appeal to per
petual distinction. "
Mr. Chandler then proceeded to say, that
considered only -as J of and for themselves,'
the pilgrims of St. Mary's though demanding
our admiration for purity of character, lofti
ness of purpose, and clear, well-defined sense
of justice in their aims ; yet considered as only
for themselves and their own times, these pil
grims entitled themselves to no special com
memoration, and they established as certainly
they preferred, no claim upon the gratitude of
of succeeding ages. The past and the present
must be concerned to give character or effect
to a public celebration. That it would be his
aim on the present occasion to invite and lead
his audience to a consideration of certain im
portant and distinguished characteristics in the
early movements of the colony of Maryland ;
and incidentally institute a comparison of the
conduct, laws and customs of some of the other
colonies with those of - Lord Baltimore, espe
cially with regard to the influences of creed
upon the pursuits of the colonists ; of the effect
of that creed upon the treatment of the abor
iginal inhabitants, the owners and occupants
of the soil, which the colonists desired to pos
sess, and, above all, because connected with
the motive which influenced their emigration
from Europe. Mr. Chandler said that the
character or the St. Mary colonists could be
judged of by their intercourse with the Indians,
and their legislation with regard to that people
whose existence and rights seem to have been
a stumbling block to the most of the colonies.
The acquisition of territory by the various bo
dies of the . colonists was made by different
modes Borac by a distribution of miserable
trinkets which lost their value as soon as the
Indian found he had bartered away the reali
ties of power for the worthless insignia of con
dition some by debasing the appetites of tbe
aborigines others by treaties which had nei
ther reason nor right, and for the breaking of
which the colonists exterminated the aborigi
nes with vengeance, and md even Christi
anity terrible to these worshippers of tbe
Great Spirit by the vindictiveness of its pro
fessors. . - -?
In strong and beautiful contrast, continued
'Mr. Chandler, with these various modes of
transferring the possessions of the nations, and
of alienating their affections, is the plan adop
ted by the Catholic Pilgrims of Maryland,
who acknowledge "the poor Indian to be the
proprietor of the soil, and recognised in him
the form of tbe Creator and the object of : the
sacrifice and redemption-of the Saviour. -:
They purchased the lands and paid for them.
They offered peace and peaceful associations,
and they presented the most attractive points
of the Christian religion for the admiration
and confidence of tho Indians, vis : peace
among themselves an 1 kindness and justice
towards others. - ' if
The only operative difference in the circum
stances of the colonists of Maryland, and those
of Virginia and. New Eugland, Mr Chandler
thought, consisted in their religious creed and
the educational influences immediately and
necessarily resulting therefrom , combined
with the painful experience to which that creed
has exposed them, and the lofty motives of
purity and justice which the Christian religion
supplies to all , its followers, at all times, but
which it suggest with great cogency when it
also exposes them to the persecution of a ty
rant king, or a thoughtless infuriated popu
lace. There is scarcely a more beautiful page
in history, sacred or profane, than that which
records the dealing of Leonard .Calvert and
his followers with the aborigines, who tilled
vuy sou on wuy?n we stanu. je janac-. 2.2.
as a proprietor,, but as a visitor.- fle addres
sed the native chief, not as one who comes to
conquer, but as one who came to purchase.- Ilia
manners were not those which offended first
and then irritated to hostility. They awaken
ed caution, but they conciliated esteem and
secured confidence. When tbe intrigue of an
enemy in disguised provoked a portion of the
savages to a war, tbe followers of Calvert
made it a duty of the colonists to restore lands
acquired by conquest, and made it a penal of
fence to kidnap or sell a friendly Indian, and
a high misdemeanor to supply them with in
toxicatiug liquor. Surely in these arrange
ments not only is there manifested tbe true
spirit of Christianity with the fruits of charity
and justice, but we most find in them some
thing which appeals to our approval more than
does the conduct of some of tbe other colo
nist; and I may as well add that tbe differ
ence in the conduct of Calvert and that of the
Governors of the other colonies was noticed
at the time, and an old contemporary writer
says. "Justice Popham and Sir Georee Cal
vert agreed not more unanimously in the pub
lie design of planting than they differed in the
private way of it The first was for extirpa
ting heathens ; the second for converting them.
He sent away tbe lewdest, this, the soberest
people. The one was fjr present profit the
other for reasonable expectation. The first
et sp a comaon stock out of which, the peo
ple should be provided by proportions. The
second left every one to provide for him3elfw"
Mr. Chandler then continued as follows: -r
There are personal rights so sacred to every
man that even tha form of protection is an
outrage. There are things too Banctified in
their character or uses, for protection x or der
fence ; so blended with the character of one
Government as to be inoperative or. offensive
in another, aud yet above all assault from
abroad, as they are above all defence at home
as the Jewish ark brought disease and dis
asters to the Philistines, who dared assault it,
and deatn to the Hebrews who reached forth
in its support. That sanctity belongs to reli
gious creeds in our country, and is tally, rec
ognised in tbe Constitution, in tho first place
by withholding from the Government the right
to apply any religious test to candidates for
office, and thus are the professors of any single'
creed saved from . the outrage of direct pros
cription And in the becond place, it is pro
vided for in that sacred instrument that no
legislation shall be had by which individuals
of any creed shall be especially favored, nor
any form of worship established or prescribed.
While we admire the beautiful theory of the
Government which thus manifests itself in the
fundamental law of the nation, we may, with
out inquiring into the neglect or violation of
these principles and provisions, look back and
find in tho theory and practice of the first col
onial Government of Maryland the only pre
cedents for such provisions precedents I
mean, not merely in the idle declamation ; not
merely in pompous assertion, Ut opian schemes
but precedents which rest on the plan and
ample fulfilment of that plan : by men who
knew that the theory which they promulgated
was unfashionable,. who knew that while the
opposite plans of Government were excluding
them from the protection and political benfits
of all the other colonic, their own plan was
exposing them to the imminent risk of perse
cution and disfranchisement in their own col
ony. ' " "' ; v : 'i -
It is to be ' remarked of the history of the
colonies of which our Union was formed, that
almost every one claims to have owed its exis
tence to persecution, at. home,, and almost
every one made intolerance a leading feature
of its own Government. And it is still more
remarkable that not one of those colonies was
formed by immigrants who had left their coun
try on account of the intolorance of Roman
Catholics. Nor is this all : while almost every
colony owes its existence to Protestant intol
erance, none but Maryland, the only Catholic
colony of them all, attempted to practice reli
gious liberty. She proclaimed universal lib
erty to every sect and division of sect that
professed a belief in Jesus Christ, and knowing
that France bad contributed to the amouut of
our colonial population by the violence of a
Catholic Government against its Protestant
subjects, she opened her heart, and her field
also to their ingress, and as the peculiarity of
their position might make them doubtful of
their welcome, she passed a special law invi
ting fugitive Huguenots to come and enjoy in
Catholic Maryland the freedom to worship
God,' which had been denied to them in
France. . : .-
At the present moment, when it is the object
of political proscriptionists to conceal or deny
the existence or display of virtues in members
of the Catholic Church, we hear it gravely as
serted that the tolerance, the Christian liberty
that distinguished the laws and government
of the Maryland colony, was due to tho respect
which those colonists and the noble proprieta
ry owed to the feelings and wishes of the
Protestant monarch of England.. If such an
explanation of the motives of the various colo
nies with regard to tolerance or intolerance
be admitted, it will prove to much.' It may,'
indeed, deprive the Catholics of some portion
of the credit for voluntary tolerance claimed
in their behalf, but it makes it fairly inferable
that tbe Protestant Governments made it not
only a sine gwt non that Catholics should not
disturb Protestants, but - that Protestants
should persecute Catholics, as some of the
Protestant colonics enacted laws against sects
differing from the dominant religious party,
and most of them, even when a little charita
ble to Protestants of different views, fixed
their Cannons against Boman Catholics, and
some of the children of persecution themselves
assigned as a reason for intolerance, the speci
al hostility of the British Government to the
Papists, and the necessity of accommodating
themselves and their laws to the wishes of the
King and the home government. .
" - The Catholic colony, according to a certain
class of modern commentators,' was charitable
and tolerant out of fear of the Kinir wiU K
Y'JZZZl CClCHiCi Intolerant and prose
cuting from love of the King. I admit of
neither. I demand that each colony be
judged by its own acts, without any reference
to the imaginary wishes of the parent govern
ment, and I do this the more earnestly because
I know that, whenever it suits the purposes of
certain writers, they will make the state of the
British government and the British King,
daring the early part of the seventeenth eea
tury, the means and the motive for conduct
exactly opposite to that imputed to the respec
tive Catholic and Protestant colonies. It u
just to all parties to allow to each that amount
of credit for moGves which is fairly dcducible
from their acts, and in a period of much reli
gious intolerance a colony hedges itself about
with edicts of the most persecuting character,
and inflicts penalties, pains and death on those
whose views of Christian requirement differ
from those of the majority, it Is but just to
suppose that they left the parent country with
no disrelish for intolerance itself, but only as
it affected their, non-conformity ; and it is no
less fair to believe that a colony which, leav
in
en intolerant country, gives freedom to
t;.mna n4 make ' it criminal to
interfere with the differences of men s bc.ief,
nay, that not only admits to equality all that
are within its borders, but invites to itself, as
to an asylum for the oppressed, the sufferers
in other colonies , - - " '
It is fair, I say, to eoaoludt that sdeh a
colony has in itself a better appreciation of
human rights and Christian freedom than
exists among its intolerant neighbors. And
I shall not, I hope, be considered as departing
from the proprieties of these exercises, if I ask
to present the facts of the tolerauce or intoler
ance of the colonies in another light.
. It is a favorite mode of attack with some
writers of all recent times, and especially with
certain demagogues of the present day, and
in our own country, to sieze upon the facts of
history . and deduce therefrom argt ments
against the Catholic creed which these facts in
no way sustain which thy scarcely suggest.
The intolerance of certain Governments of
Europe, in which the Catholic religion is a
part of the State, is made an argument against
that religion, as if Catholicity leaned upon the
State for support, and required intolerance
for its maintenance. . -Though equal intoler
ance exercised by .a Protestant Government
connected with a State religion is passed over
without coronetit, or as if sut plying no argu
ment against the requirement of that creed.
Denying, as we of the Catholic Church must
deny, and as I do now deny, that there is aught
of political intolerance in the creed - of the
Catholic Church, and asserting, as I do. assert,
that political man, and not the religious creed,
is responsibly for the evils done in the name
of the Catholic faith, I look to no combination
of Church and State to sustain my assertion in
behalf of Catholicity, and I appeal to no such
destructive or deteroiating association to prove
that Protestaaisai has been bellicose .and in
tolerant : ' ': 1
; The colonies, whence sprang the States that
constitute this nation, afford admirable means
of judging of the character of the religious
creeds transplanted to this soil, as no necessity
was laid upon any colony to enact laws iutol
erent of religious sects, no commands of the
parent government fixed the religious creed of
any association or rendered necessary the ob
servance of. prescribed forms and ceremonies.
The whole were in a remarkable degree inde
pendent and therefore each may well be sup
posed to act upon the impulses or suggestions
most naturally springing from its religious
principles without regard to considerations, of
State or municipal benefits. . Nothing can be
more evident than that the emigrants who left
England to establish these colonies (the more
needy adventurer, the money-loving and the
involuntary immigrant excepted,) made it a
part of their plan to divest their new govern
ment of all that seemed to theni oppressive in
its character and disagreeable in its operation
at home, to place themselves, where . neither
proscription nor. habit rendered necessary a
countenance of custom and laws that operate
unequally, . or .that seemed, by a change of
circumstances Ao hare out-lived the necessities
of time in which they originated, or the char
acter of the age that rendered them appropriate
or tolerable. . , -. ,
It does not appear that all had definite
.views of all that would result from their new
arrangements, or that they fully anticipated
the harvest that was to be gathered from their
planting. But great changes certainly were
contemplated by the leading minds impor
tant corrections of painful abuses. ' The tyr
anny of a few over the rights of the many
was to hare a remedy in the political associa
tion in Plymouth, and no one can doubt that
Lord Baltimore fore-ordained the religious
tolerance that distinguished his colonists, and
planned for careful observation the scheme of
justice, kindness and equality with which his
people dealt with the. Indians. - What, then,
is the course adopted by the leaders of vari
ous colonies with regard to this recurrence to
first principles, this divesting: themselves of !
th? conventionalisms of age., under so:iil and
political circumstances that need have no ope
ration on this side of ,the Atlantic? . Where
each religious creed was allowed to present
itself and its suggestions withoutthe interven
tion of political influences, and to stand forth
unaffected by any concessions to temporal pow
er ot the influences of persecution or favoritism !
I invite the curious in history, I'invite the
searcher after truth to investigate the subject,
and to see what was the effect of the divers
creeds upon tbe different colonies ; - that they
may determine which colony (regarded as a
political body and an exponent -of certain
iewsof forms of Government) manifested a
practice which involved not merely the great
est good of the greatest number, but which
invited tbe greatest portion of its members to
direct action in all legislation that concerned
the whole ; and which colony as the professor
and exponent of a particular religious creed,
manifested tbe most of Christian chanty the
. " .uvw t M.uers: wucu aiowa i
the exercise of the largest liberty to all with
out making the possession or profession of
the various creeds (which even at that day
distinguished the Christian world) a claim fT
special fav.r, or a bar to domestic quiet, so
cial equality and political preferment.
. It appears to mo that this is a view of the
subject that ought to be taken ; and as we seek
fur truth, and truth only, we ought not to
neglect the suggestion which the facts of the
history of such a remarkable juncture present.
I need not tell this audience again what were
the statutes and ordinances of the .Eastern
colonies with regard to those who professed
ret-'gious opinions at variance with the creed
of the dominant sect. . llutory furnUh-s the
record; and there are none to deny or doubt
it correctoeas. . And while quakeriam, ana
baptism. anti-nomianUiu, unitarianisin or any
other ism, than that which was the distinctive
ism of the re ajority, was made the catLe of
imprisonment, stripes, banishment, and death
in one colony, it is a lamentable, truth that
the colony formed by the persecuted,' r the
whipped and the banished excepted from the
operation of its enforced toleration, the reli
gious denomination, that included the largest
part of Christendom. Kay. leveled its can
ons of intolerance and prohibition against that
Christian denomination- which all cf those
gathered in this New World had, by special
enactmcntf proclaimed equality to all other
sects, aud which gave laws indeed to almost
the only colony in which the persecuted . per
secutors could have had a " resting place out
of their own narrow confines; aye, llhode Is
land, tbe child of persecution, persecuted.
The little colony. , whos-e inhabitants were
drawn together y-the-sound of the wLip,
and the threats' of the rrtpeV menaced other
Christians with banishment, and devised in
struments of persecution ; and if it did not
banish, it was because by its threats, it preclu
ded admission to those who, by entering the
colony, would have become obnoxious to the
penalties of her uncharitable statutes.
. It seems then as if the spirit of intolerance
was a part of the creed that influenced souk.
of the colonies; and.' without going into de
tails, we may say,' that jast in proportion ' as
religion was made prominent in some of the
colonies, did the hostility to those-of other
sects manifest itself in the laws and customs
of the people And ; whatever exception
Pennsylvania may have formed to the evidence
of general hatred of denomination, it is evi
dent that the founder and proprietary of that
colony yielded up to fear and expediency,
what others pacriuced with a hearty good will,
and his dread of Mass house' was superior
to his love of tolerance.
While the colonies in " general were mani
festing this settled hostility against those who
refused to conform to the religious creed ; of
the majority, and especially against the Ro
man Catholics. Lord Baltimore's colony took
possession of the grant on' the Chesapeake,
and commenced the work . of government.
Free from the trammels of foreign influences,
unfettered by any laws of conformity, and, as
yet without the vexations of inconvenient cus
toms, he had no bad precedents to embarass
him, he had no favorites to re ward, and no
enemies to defeat, or punish. The people
who followed his brother understood the object
of their mission, and had received lessons of
political wrongs and religious persecutions to
make them love with tolerance, and they pos
sessed too much of the spirit of Christianity
to deny to others what they coYeted for them
selves. - . -
The world had seen in other colonies the
effect of dominant sectaries yielding themselves
to the suggestion of their creeds, and it was
evident that nothing bad been gained by ma
king any sect the repository of power. It
was, therefore, evidently the intention of
Lord Baltimore to give anew feature to colo
nization, by allowing his own creed to suggest
the treatment to ctLers and to make Catholic
ity, uutrampclled by State dependence, the
exponent of religious rights and the minister
of political equality llcnco the Protestant
Historian is enabled to say with a p!icy
the wisdom of which waa the more remarkable,
as it was far in advance of th: spirit of the
age (that is because it was not derived from
the spirit of the age but from the spirit of the
gospel.) Lord Baltimore laid the foundation
of his province on the broad basis, of free
dom in religion aud security to property,
Christianity as a part cf the old common law
of England, was established by the proprie
tary, without allowing any pre-eminence to
any particular form of its exhibition
How truly christian, as we all understand
Christianity, as we hear it cited around us,
every day, are tbe views thns imputed to
Lord Baltimore thus entering into and influ
encing all his plans for the colonial govern
ment. . . But I know it may be said, nay. ; it
will be said, that the profession of a fouuder
of a colony may be truly admirable while the
experience of his colouists may be very differ
ent from the hopes which thct-e professions
warranted. ' That the real intentious, indeed,
of the founder ami proprietor may be neglec
ted by his secular officers, and tbe administra
tion of affairs be in entire opposition to his
plans. Such it may be supported was the case
in some of the colonies. Such it is certain
was not the case in Maryland, while the reli
gion of which .the founder and most of the
colonists were professors, was allowed its op
eration in tbe legislation of the inchoate state,
and with a view of securing and perpetrating
that freedom of conscience for which belabor
ed, Cecil Calvert prescribed for the Governor
of bis proviuce from 1C36 onward the follow
ins oath of office: -
I will not, by myself, or any other direct
ly or iudirectly, trouble or molest, or discunv
brance any person professing to Lvlieve in
Jesus Christ, for, or in respect to religion; I
will make no difference of persona in wafer-
ring offices, favors or rewards, for or in mpett
, e ,. . A . " , ' , I early crcua.staes ; auo a !ate f 'i:,,.,
of religion, but merely as they fchall be fuuud . i rf -
fauhful and well deserting, aud endued withT ,. mm , . . irt.unm T
moral virtues and abilities; tax anij kJ,a
and if
lT'0
prvfeng to be.ce
iLt of Lis rt l.g. I '
thall nile-t any person
in Jc?ux Christ on account
will protect the person molested end roih
the offender.
Surely the rpirit of entire equality never
did a more perfect work, than that pr&po-d
by Lord Baltimore, and carried at I-J hla
colonists. Persecuted at borne; oppressed
with legal disabilities, and still wore c-lr-rasaed
with the annoying anUg-iia f a
-dominant party, .and the iuit'atory hoatilify cf
numerous tftarif, agreeing only in that
hostility, those colonists roaeifoMd fpirit of
Christian kindness that dues inSnite credit to
the creed which tber rrofi-saed. And if sub
sequent observation enables torn to say thst
It was the true mode of perpetuating the calo
ry, by securing iintnigraUon to the opr.rrgied
and suffering of other creeds, it ma be said
in reply that the dictates of Christianity arc
always the most expedient in a full experi
ment ; and we have advanced in our argument
.
it we snow a periect consistency in the practice t
of those elements and tbe dictates of Chris
tianity, and mode apparent the coincidence of
their creed,' with tbeir beautiful practice; :
t I have felt called on to prepout the aitio?v
of the early colonists of Maryland with regard
to religious liberty as a 6trobg contrast with
the facts which history presents in its record of
the proceedings of the colonies, not because ;
Chalmers as qnoted by XIawkes.
it is agreeable to throw a shadow over th
glory of tbe settlers of other portions of this
country, or that under ordinary circumstances,
such comparisons are expedient, it would b
more agreeable to dwell on the sterling virtu
of other colonists, and they Lad stern and ster
ling virtues, and to give them credit for a sub
sequent adoption of that practice which di
tinguished the Pilgrim Fathers of St Mary's.
But we do not, and we ought not, to conceal
from ourselves, or atten.pt to deny to others,
that we celebrate the landing m these Pil
grims the advent of men of a certain creed
and that the circumstances of the people of
the various colonies at that time render it easy
to compare the character of lb motives by
which each community was influenced, and to -jndge
of the nature and propriety of the lead
ing principle of all, by the effects which that
principle wrought upon the conduct, wisbca,
and legislation of the several bodies.
. And let me add, that the circumstance of
the present times, fully justify the inquiry.
Nay more, those circumstances render such
an inquiry, and such a comparison,1 a solemn
duty to ourselves and our creed, and we may
regard this celebration as one of providential
occurrence, supplying the opportunity and tha
means of a deserved and triumphant vindica
tion. . Aof for tAe triumphautVut for th
dicotion. :' f
Id the particular instance of religion tol
erance the comparison is presented, net - by
the records of men of the creed of the early
colonists of St. Mary's not by men who from
education, association or interest could be snr4
posed to lean towards that unfriended creed.
The history of all those events is from writer
who are strongly hostile to the creed of which.
Lord Baltimore had adopted, and in one in
stance it is presented by a Listoriant whoa
life is dedicated to the promulgation of th
doctrines of another church. His work does
honor to himself and his principles, and ap
peals to judgment against tho prejudices cf
the ignorant and the erring.
If tbe peculiar characteristic of the orly
instirutions of the colony are found prt Tailing
in a superior degree the theory of our national
government, and the broad and expansive
liberality of the colonial legislature is, more
than the legislation or practice of any other
colony, reflected in the constitutional provi
sions of our general government, it may not
be an extravagant presumption to conclude
that these Institutions, and especially that
liberality, had much to do with the formation
and cultivation of a state of policy which lad
to the declaration and achievement of national
independence. I have no time now to trac
up these effects to their .natural causes, nor t
seize upon the admitted lirtuutttaLCts of th
Maryland colony, and follow them down with
their constantly augmenting effects, until they
connect themselves (as causes with results
with the movements of the colonies towards a
redress of wrongs, and then with these events
which led to our existence as a nation, and
the moulding of the government and th
adoption of the constitution is a form so troJr
democratic in its theory. - . . -.
It is the opinion of . many British writer
who have access to American anti-revolutionary
documents, that it was the fixed and well-arranged
purpose of the American colonists, at
an early age, to become independent of tha
parent government. , I do not possess th
means of arriving at such a conclusion ; but.
to me. it is rather evident that the democrat;
character of the colonial governments, th
various degrees of freedom recognized under
them, aud the habits of self-reliance inculcated
and formed, were certain to lead to that inde
pendence, whii h may. therefore, be regarded
as the inevitable result of peculiar circumstan
ces, rather than the accomplishment of any
freconcertcd plan. 'Surely it is more to th
sting honor of our ancestors of the early
colonies than the national independence and
national character were rather the natural
resultsof practical virtues of liberal principle,
adopted for tbe sake of their liberality, and cf
a lofty estimation of human rights, than the
effect of any idea of rebellion first, and Tictorr
afterwards. Both produce a nation, bst sack
proceeds from a separate class of motives, and
each, when successful, ia productive of decr
eet national claractru-tic. -
I do not deny that our ancestors very early
entertained an idra rf afparaticn from ti
mother country ; but rtill I dcul t it. It is te
quite cfnitrt.t with all tLrir przLftur
Our indprd-nee w th iaevitaLJe mtv tf
ai a !ate of 'j,):
n.t.ar (rfltn acl circumstance . ta J
that view. I tbii.k it eav i
rf.BelMfrim.tf Ft. Mar. e-riedVi
, tfe.t t c'u lut lflw
u r,,! n nwili xU fe.iurr of tUi
rei:t to ta-rariicu.if f, rr A ih,y prtmtcd ia
177G a l I7t?. anV. I,, xrj bate Urd iih
aatcltoration -f ?Hh wli, a, Uvoark t that
U was eooit-t wub j fft2B
of th pUc. wUdj reqamrd n cfct
inlta to th adTinct e'in ju l, ,r r'j. . . "
Wcitinut WfTr ovrr'.x-k tie Lr.r.trts. f-,l
that though truth is itri,uft ! ia iu .
ur. it i -Jttoth.r preresai?e in its inlu .
ces. ..ud good priacipies eperate n4
to tha extmt of their goodness ao n-.ee i
ta capabilities and f over cf their u'-wi;t. :J
different co-efScient express that per vn l-. f
different circumntances. He who aw n.. n
as trees walking was nicg tie fi!l mca" i:
of fcla perception., and the fulcet of the iucu
that had wrought tie miracle, as much a La
Was when he became enabled to direct, hi
vision to a proper estimate of forms and di-
i tances. It waa not tbe principle, it was not
tha power restoring the sight, that waa defici
ent; it waa the weakness of th unprepared
organ that was unable to accommodate ite!f
to thc l lcsting. that it wain itself to grasp
the full measure of the gift, buphad'fnr iu
own imperfection to await the roifof thos
principles which had bg iu operation. . 7
. Eo while I see, aoi 9Mn acaowkdgM3
tPr. Flswkea, II!.tar!an of the Eplaeopt! CLt -b
in M'uyland ao4 Vi-flai,