A Legend of the Chesapeake -Charles Calvert, Lord  Baltimore

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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.


Charles Calvert, Lord  Baltimore

Charles Calver, Lord Baltimore, the son of Cecilius, was according to the
testimony of all our annalists, a worthy gentleman and un upright ruler.  He
was Governor of Maryland, by the appointment of this father, from 1662 to
1675, and, after that, became the Lord Proprietary by inheritance, and
administered the public affairs in person.  His prudence and judgment won him
the esteem of the best portion of his people, and the province prospered in
his hands. All our histories will tell you of the troubles which beset the
closing years of his residence in Maryland.  They arose partly out of his
religion, and, in part, out of jealousy of the Crown against the privileges
of his charter.  He was a Roman Catholic, but, like his father, liberal and
tolerant in opinion and free from sectarian bias in the administration of his
government.  Apart from the influence of his father's example, the training of
his education, his real attachment to the interests of the province, and his
own natural inclination - all of which pointed out to him the duty as well as
the advantage of affording the utmost security to the freedom of religious
opinion - the condition under which he held his proprietary rights rendered a
departure from this policy the most improbable accusation that could be made
against him.  

The public mind of England at that period was fevered to a state of madness 
by domestic quarrel within the Kingdom against the Catholics.  The people 
were distracted with constant alarms of Popish plots for the overthrow
of the government.  The King, a heartless profligate, absorbed in frivolous
pleasures, scarcely entertained any grave question of state affairs that had
not some connection with his hatred and his fears of Catholics and dissenters.
Then, also, the province itself was composed, in far greater part, of a
Protestant population - computed by some contemporary writers at the
proportion of thirty to one - a population who were guarantied freedom of
conscience by the charter, and who possessed all necessary power, both legal
and physical, to enforce it.  Under such circumstances as those, how is it
possible to impute designs against the old established toleration which had
marked the history of Maryland from its first settlement to that day, to so
prudent and careful a ruler as Charles Calvert, without imputing to him, at
the same time, a folly so absurd as to belie every opinion that has ever been
uttered to his advantage? Yet, not-withstanding these improbabilities, the
accusation was made and affected to be believed by the King and his council.

The most plausible theory upon which I can account for this harsh proceeding
is suggested by the fact that parties in the province took the same complexion
with those in the mother country and ran parallel with them; that the same
excitement which agitated the minds of the people in England, were
industriously fomented here - where no similar reason for them existed - as
the volunteer work of demagogues, who was in them the means of promoting their
own interest; that, in fact this opposition to the Proprietary grew out of a
failing in our ancestors which has not yet been cured in their descendants - a
weakness in favor of the loaves and fishes.  The party in the majority carried
the elections, and felt, of course, as all parties do who perform such an
exploit - that they had made a very gigantic sacrifice for the good of the
country and deserved to be remunerated for such an act of heroism, and there-
upon set up and asserted that venerable doctrine which has been erroneously
and somewhat vain-gloriously claimed as the conception of a modern statesman,
namely -"that to the victor belong the spoils."  I rejoice in the discovery
that a dogma so profund and so convenient has the sanction of antiquity to
commend it to the platform of the patriots of our own time.  

I must, in a few words, notice another charge against Lord Baltimore which 
was even more serious than the first, and to which the cupidity of the King 
lent a willing ear.  Parliament had passed an act for levying certain duties 
on the trade of the Southern colonies, which were very oppressive to the 
commerce of Maryland, and of course offensive to those concerning in it.  
These duties were received by collectors holding their commission from the 
Crown, and who were placed at the several ports of entry of the province.  
They were often evaded, which gave rise to much ill-will between the 
collectors and the people.  Lord Baltimore was charged with having connived 
at these evasions and with obstructing the collection of the revenue. His 
chief accusers were the collectors, who, being Crown officers, seemed 
naturally to array themselves against him.. Although there was really no 
foundation for this charge, yet the King, who never threw away a chance to 
replenish his purse, compelled the Proprietary to pay, by way of retribution, 
a large sum into the Exchequer.


Mr. Ridgely's foray, however, into this domain of dust and darkness, has
happily rescued much useful matter to aid the future chronicler of the
progress of events in our State career.  Incidentally, his work has assisted
my story, for although the recovered folios did not touch the exact year of my
search, they led me to a discovery of my own.  I found what I could not say
was lost, but what, until Mr. Ridgely's exploration drew attention to the
condition of the records, might be said to have been secure against any but an
accidental recognition.  There was an unbound volume, without title page or
other outward designation of its contents, quietly reposing in the dust of one
of the old cases - where it had slept perhaps as long as the beauty in the
fairy tale - to the worm and "To dull forgetfulness a prey."

It was so loosely held together, that but for its undisturbed slumber, it
would have been, most probably, consigned in scattered leaves to one or more
of the dark prisons in which so many of its contemporaries were immured.  It
was now, in this day of revival, brought out from its hiding place, and upon
inspection, proved to be a Journal of the Council for some years, including
the very date of the death of the Collector on the Patuxent.  The record was
complete, neatly written in the peculiar manuscript character of that age, so
difficult for a modern reader to decipher; its quaint old spelling suggested
the idea that our ancestors considered both consonants and vowels too weak to
stand alone, and therefore doubled them as often as they could; and there was
such an actual identification of its antiquity in its exteriour aspect. as
well as in its form of speech, that when I have sat poring over it alone at
midnight in my study, as I have often done, I have turned my eye over my
shoulder, expecting to see the apparition of Master John Llewellin - who
subscribes his name with a very energetic flourish, as Clerk of the Council -
standing behind me in grave-colored doublet and trunk hose, with a starched
ruff, a wide-awake hat drawn over his brow, and a short black feather falling
amongst the locks of his dark hair toward his back.  This journal lets in a
blaze of light upon the old tradition of Talbot's Cave.

[Continued in Chesapeake5.txt]