Comments on Maryland's New Government
1) Thomas Stone of Maryland writing to John Dickinson of Pennsylvania who had opposed the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution. Stone wanted Dickinson to come to the Maryland constitutional convention to warn the delegate about what had happened in Maryland
"It is my earnest wish that you should spend a few days at Annapolis while the government of Maryland is under consideration, being satisfied you would render essential most service to that state by the assistance you are able to give in forming a constitution upon permanent first principles & I think it not improbably that a well-formed government in a state so near as Maryland might lend to restore the affairs of this (Pennsylvania] from that anarchy and confusion which must attend any attempt to execute their present no plan of polity."
2) Anne Arundel County Militia, 885 Freemen Instructions to Delegates to Constitutional Convention. This is a list of alternative proposals that ordinary people in Anne Arundel County offered to the proposed 1776 Maryland Constitution:
No veto for governor
People vote for both houses and for all judges
Elections over appointment for local officials
No lawsuits for unpaid debts until the end of “this time of public calamity.”
Taxes raised by “a fair and equal assessment in proportion to every person’s
estate and that the unjust mode of taxation heretofore used be abolished”
All adult white
men who pay taxes may vote
3) The following two documents (labeled A and B) are reports from the Revolutionary committees that enforced law and order for Maryland's new Revolutionary government:
A) "In Committee, Baltimore Town May 7th 1776. Gentlemen. The inclosed paper contains opinions, and Sentiments of a certain Alexander Magee, an Inhabitant of this County, which appear to this Commee to be dangerous and inimical to the cause in which America is now embarked on Examining the man, he avowed some of them, and Equivocated as to others, and as he appears to have some influence among the Common people, the Committee thought it their duty to order him into Custody, and to be kept safe till your further directions can be obtained." [Magee had said]: "That the American opposition to great Britain is not calculated or designed for the defence of American Liberty or Property, but for the purpose of enslaving the Poor People thereof."
Source: Archives of Maryland, vol. 11: 415-16
B) " The Committee then taking into Consideration the Charge exhibited and proved against Mr Robert Gassaway by his own Confession, and being of Opinion that his Offence is of a high and dangerous nature, and that his Behaviour tended as far as his Influence would extend, to disunite the Inhabitants of this Province in their present Opposition." " Resolved That the said Robert Gassaway be immediately sent to the Council of Safety at Annapolis under a Guard of four men, and that Capt Philip Smith and three men to be procured by him, be a Guard for that Purpose."
“The following is the Charge exhibited against him. — " On the twenty sixth Day of February One thousand seven hundred and seventy six, at a meeting of Capt. Valentine Creagar and Philip Smith's Companies of Militia, the said Robert Gassaway when at Exercise as a private man in Capt Smith's Company, stepped out of his Rank, and publicly and loudly declared before the aforesaid two Companies, and in the Presence of several other Spectators, that it was better for the Poor People to lay down their Arms, and pay the Duties and Taxes laid upon them by the King and Parliament, than to be brought into Slavery and to be commanded and ordered about as they were, he was asked who he meant had brought the People into [slavery, he said it] was a Parcel of great men."
Source: Archives of Maryland, vol. 11: 309
4) Dorchester County, White Artisan named Simmons, when asked if he was going to militia muster, Simmons replied:
“Yes but not to muster for he had other business, and further said to the deponent that he understood that the gentlemen were intending to make us all fight for their lands and negroes, and then said damn them (meaning the gentlemen) if I had a few more white people to join me I could get all the negroes in the county to back us, and they would do more good in the night than the while people could do in the day on which this deponent said suppose it was so, where could they get the ammunition from. He the said Simmons answered where they could find it, and further added that if all the gentlemen were killed we should have the best of the land to tend and besides could get money enough while they were about it as they have got all the money in their hands. There is Robert Goldsborough and Colonel William Ennals. I’ll be bound has money enough by them. I wish I had one of William Ennals bags, I would put it to better use than he does damn him would I, and from the whole tenor of the conversation that passed between them, this deponent declared that the said Simmons appeared to be in earnest and desirous that the negroes should get the better of the white people.”
Source: Dorchester County Court Papers, Gilmor Papers, MHS, quoted in Ronald Hoffman, Spirit of Dissension, 147.