A Legend of the Chesapeake - Unearthing the Records - The Council Journal

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A Legend of the Chesapeake
by John P. Kennedy
article from "Southern Literary Messenger, A Magazine Devoted To Literature,
Science and Art" VolXXIV-11  March, 1857.

The Fourth Link- Unearthing The Records- The Council Journal

After my return from this excursion I resolved to make a search among the
records at Annapolis, to ascertain whether any memorials existed which might
funish further information in regard to the events to which I had now got a
clue.  And here comes in a morsel of official history which will excuse a
short digression.  The legislature had, about this time directed the Executive
to cause a search through the government buildings with a view to the
discovery of old State papers and manuscripts, which having been consigned,
time out of mind, to neglect and oblivion, were only known as heaps of
promiscuous lumber, strewed over damp cellars and unfrequented garrets.

The careless and unappreciative spirit of the proper guardians of our 
archives in past years, had suffered many precious folios and separate papers 
to be disposed of as mere rubbish, and the not less culpable and incurious 
indolence of their successors, in our own times, had treated them with equal
indifference. The attention of the legislature was awakened to the importance
of this investigation by Mr. David Ridgely, the State Librarian, and he was
appointed by the Executive to undertake the labor.  Never did beagles pursue
the chase with more steady foot than did this eager and luadable champion of
the ancient fame of the State his chosen duty.  He rummaged old cuddies,
vaults and cock-lofts, and pryed into every recess of the Chancery, the Land
office, the committee rooms and Council Chamber- searching upstairs and
downstairs, wherever a deserted paper was supposed to lurk. Groping, with
lantern in hand, and body bent, he made his way through narrow passages,
starling the rats from their fastnesses where they had been entrenched for
half a century, and breaking down the thick drapery- the goblin tapestry I
might call it-woven by successive families of spiders from the days of the
last Lord Proprietary.  The very dust which was kicked up in Annapolis, as the
old newspapers tell us, at the passage of the Stamp Act, was once more set in
motion by the foot of this determined invader, and every where something was
found to reward the toil of the search.  

But the most valuable discoveries were made in the old Treasury- - made alas! 
too late for the full fruition of the Librarian's labor.  The Treasury, one 
of the most venereable structures in the State, is that lowly and quaint 
little edifice of brick which stands within the enclosure of the State House 
grounds. It was originally designed for the accommodation of the Governor 
and his Council, and for the sessions of the Upper House of the Provincial 
Legislature; the Burgesses, at that time, holding their meetings in the old 
State House, which occupied the site of the present more imposing and 
capacious building, this latter being erected about the year 1772.  

In one dark recess of the Treasury office Mr. Ridgely struck upon a mine 
of wealth, in a mouldy wooden box, which was found to contain many missing 
journals of the Provincial council, some of which bore date as far back 
as 1666. It was a sad disappointment to him when his eye was greeted with
the sight of these folios, to see them crumble, like the famed Dead Sea
Apples, into powder upon every attempt to handle them. The form of the books
was preserved and the character of the writing distinctly legible; but from
the effect of moisture the paper had lost its cohesion, and fell to pieces in
every effort to turn a leaf. I was myself a witness to the tantalizing
deception, and with the Librarian, read enough to show the date and character
of the perishing record.  

Through this accident the Council Journals of a most interesting period, 
embracing several years between 1666 and 1692, were irretrievably lost.  
Others sustained less damage and were parially preserved:some few survived 
in good condition.

Our Maryland historians have had frequent occasions to complain to the
deficiency of material to illustrate several epochs in the provincial
existence, owing to the loss of official records.  No reserach has supplied
the means of describing the public events of these intervals, beyond some few
inferences, which are only sufficent to show that these silent periods were
marked by incidents of important interest.  The most striking of these
privations occurs towards the end of the 17th century- precisely that period
to which the crumbling folios had reference. This loss of the records has been
ascribed to their frequent removals during periods of trouble, and to the
havoc made in the rage of parties.  

The province, like the great world from which it was so far remote, was 
distracted with what are sometimes called religious quarrels, but what I 
prefer to describe as exceeding irreligious quarrels, carried on by men 
professing to be Christians, and generated in the heat of disputes concerning 
the word of the great teacher of "peace on earth".  Out of these grew any 
quantity of rebellion and war, tinctured with their usual flavor of 
persecution.  For at this era the wars of Christendom were chiefly waged 
in support of dogmas and creeds, and took a savage hue from the fury of 
religious bigotry. 

It is since that era that the wars of Europe have arisen upon commercial 
and political questions, and religion has been freed from the dishonor of 
promoting these bloody strifes, so imcompatible with its high office. 
In these quarrels of the fathers of our province to which I have alluded, 
the archives of government were seized more than once and perhaps
destroyed. On one occasion they were burnt; and so amongst all these
disorders, it has fallen out that the full development of our State history
has been rendered impossible.

[Here Kennedy sets the stage for what follows by telling about Lord 
Baltimore and his struggles with political rivals.]
[Continued in Chesapeake4.txt]