Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Maryland
MARYLAND
Copyright, 1882, by W. T. Brantly.
Plate VIII. MARYLAND, one of the thirteen original States of the American Union, lies between the parallels of 37° 53' and 39° 43' 26" N. lat., and 75° 4' and 79° 33' W. long. It is bounded on the N. by Pennsylvania and Delaware; E. by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean; and S. and W. by Virginia and West Virginia. The total area of the State is 12,210 square miles, of which about 2350 square miles are covered by the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and of the Potomac and other rivers.
Topography.—The configuration of the State is very irregular. Its extreme length east and west is about 200 miles, and its breadth varies from 4 to 120 miles. The coast-line has no harbours, but a narrow beach and a shallow lagoon, called Sinepuxent Bay, extend along its entire length. The central geographical feature of the State is the Chesapeake Bay, the greatest inlet in the United States, and one which is navigable throughout for the largest vessels. The bay at its ocean mouth, between Cape Charles and Cape Henry, is 12 miles wide; it extends north and south about 200 miles; its breadth at the widest point is 40 miles, and its average breadth is 10 miles. It contains many islands, and its shore-line, which is extremely irregular, is deeply indented with estuaries. That part of the State which lies between the bay on the west and the State of Delaware and the ocean on the east is locally known as the Eastern Shore. The surface of this region is for the most part level, and but little raised above the sea. The peninsula between the Potomac river and the west shore of the bay constitutes another geographical division similar in its general features to the Eastern Shore. Its surface, however, is more undulating, and on the north-west it rises to a ledge of Primitive rocks which runs from the Potomac river at a point about 10 miles above Washington city north-east to the Susquehanna river, and separates the tide-water portion of the State from the third division. This latter region gradually rises as it extends westward until it culminates in the mountains of the great Appalachian range, which are called, in Maryland, the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. The principal rivers of the Eastern Shore are the Pocomoke, Nanticoke, Choptank, and Elk. These are rather estuaries than rivers, and are not navigable for any distance from their mouths. The Susquehanna flows into the bay at its head, and is navigable for a few miles. On the western shore are the Potomac, navigable for 125 miles, to Washington city, the Patuxent, the largest river which is altogether within the State, navigable for small vessels for 40 miles, and the Patapsco, on which Baltimore city is situated, navigable for 22 miles. The tide rises and falls in all these rivers. With the exception of the Youghiogheny, all the Maryland streams flow into the Chesapeake Bay.
Geology and Minerals.—A great diversity of geological formation is found in Maryland. The lower part of the Eastern Shore is an alluvial plain, and the numerous islands in the bay are composed of similar alluvial deposits. The northern part of the Eastern Shore, beginning at the Choptank river, is a Tertiary formation, whose strata of sands and clays overspread deposits of marl, which is of great value as a fertilizer. The peninsula on the western shore of the bay belongs to the same Tertiary formation, which, towards the north-west, gives place to a range of metamorphic rocks. This belt of rocks, which includes a strip of New Red Sandstone, enters the State near the head of the bay, and extends south-west to the Potomac, with an average breadth of about 20 miles. The principal rocks are gneiss, talc-slates, limestone, granite, serpentine, and divers hydrated magnesian silicates. The limestone supplies a marble highly valued as a building material, and the serpentine rocks yield the valuable metallic element of chromium, which has been extensively and profitably worked. Oxides of iron occur in gneiss, and the Jurassic clays contain the brown hæmatite ores from which iron is manufactured. These ores were worked even during the colonial period, and in 1751 Maryland exported 2950 tons of pig iron to England. Bog iron ore is also found on the Eastern Shore. Beds of different kinds of clays which are used in the manufacture of bricks, porcelain, &c., are abundant, and veins of copper ore are also worked. Passing westward of the metamorphic rocks, we meet a wide belt of Silurian and Devonian formation, and the first ridge of the Appalachian range, beyond which lies the broad Hagerstown valley resting upon Trenton limestone. Numerous parallel ridges, enclosing valleys of great fertility, and belonging to the Middle Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous formations, follow. This belt of lines of elevation nearly parallel with the ocean, which is a characteristic of the Appalachian chain, has, in Maryland, an average breadth of about 40 miles, and trends to the south west. The mountainous region, which extends to the western extremity of the State, but with elevations rarely exceeding 2500 feet, begins at Cumberland, and here the Silurian and Devonian formations give place to the Carboniferous. This portion of Maryland is one of the most important bituminous coal regions in America. There are several coal-fields with horizontal seams lying near the surface, but the most considerable is that of the George's Creek valley between Dan's Mountain on the east and Savage Mountain on the west. This narrow valley, about 20 miles long, contains the “big seam” of bituminous coal, of the extraordinary thickness of 14 feet. The Maryland coal is unequalled in the manufacture of iron and the generation of steam. The number of tons mined in 1881 was 2,261,918, and it is estimated that 550 square miles of Coal-measures remain. This Carboniferous formation also contains deposits of iron ore which are extensively worked.
Climate, Soil, &c.—The climate of Maryland is equable and salubrious, except in some of the lower counties on the bay, which, in summer, are subject to malarious exhalations. The mean annual temperature in the southern part of the State is 56°, in the middle 54°, and in the western 50°. The mean temperature at Baltimore is in spring 53°.8, in summer 76°.2, in autumn 57°.1, in winter 36°.2. The mean annual temperature is 55°.9. The mean annual barometer is 30.064 inches, and the annual rainfall 41.94 inches. The death-rate in the State is 1.81 per cent. In Baltimore city it was 19.34 per 1000 in 1879, and 24.7 in 1880.
The soil of the Eastern Shore, and of the peninsula on the western shore of the bay, is composed of sand and clay, and when properly cultivated is very productive. Much attention is there bestowed upon the growth of peaches and other fruits. The land in the central part of the State, and in the valleys of the mountainous part, is of great fertility. The original forest still covers a considerable area of the western portion. There are about one hundred species of trees in the State. The deciduous oaks, hickory, chestnut, walnut, cedar, and beech trees are especially abundant. The bay and its estuaries contain inexhaustible beds of the finest oysters, yielding many thousand bushels annually.[1] There are several kinds of tortoises, the most highly esteemed of which are the Malaclemys palustris and the Ptychemys rugosa. At least eighty kinds of edible fishes abound in the waters of the State, and swimming birds are very numerous.
Population, Divisions.—The State is divided into twenty-three counties and the corporation of Baltimore city. The counties are—Alleghany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George's, Queen Anne, St Mary's, Somerset, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico, and Worcester. There are five cities—Baltimore, the metropolis of the State, and the seventh city in the United States (population in 1880, 332,313; in 1870, 267,354), Cumberland (population in 1880, 10,693), Frederick (8659), Hagerstown (6627), and Annapolis (6498), the capital of the State, and the seat of the naval academy of the United States.
The body of 200 emigrants who colonized Maryland in 1634 had increased twenty-five years later to 12,000. In 1671 the population was 20,000; in 1715, 30,000; in 1748, 130,000, of whom 36,000 were negroes; in 1761, 164,007 (including 49,675 negroes); in 1775, 200,000; in 1782. 254,050 (including 83,362 negroes). The growth of population as exhibited by the decennial census returns of the United States is as follows:—
| Years. | White. | Free Coloured. | Slaves. | Total. |
| 1790 | 208,649 | 8,043 | 103,036 | 319,728 |
| 1800 | 216,326 | 19,587 | 105,635 | 341,548 |
| 1810 | 235,117 | 33,927 | 111,502 | 380,546 |
| 1820 | 260,223 | 39,730 | 107,397 | 407,350 |
| 1830 | 291,108 | 52,938 | 102,994 | 447,040 |
| 1840 | 318,204 | 62,078 | 89,737 | 470,019 |
| 1850 | 417,943 | 74,723 | 90,368 | 583,034 |
| 1860 | 515,918 | 83,942 | 87,180 | 687,049 |
| 1870 | 605,497 | 175,397 | ... | 780,894 |
| 1880 | 724,693 | 210,250 | ... | 934,943 |
In 1880 the native-born were 852,137, and the foreign-born 82,806. There were 10,569 more females than males. The number of males of twenty-one years of age and over was 232,106, of whom 144,586 were native white, 38,936 foreign white, and 48,584 coloured. The number of persons over the age of ten years who were unable to read and write was 134,488. The number of families in Maryland was 175,318; dwellings, 155,070; persons to a square mile (land surface), 94.82; families to a square mile, 17.78; dwellings to a square mile, 15.73; acres to a person, 6.75; acres to a family, 35.99; persons to a dwelling, 6.03; persons to a family, 5.33.
Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce.—The following statistics relating to agricultural labour in Maryland are those of the census of 1880. The number of farms was 40,517 (the rate of increase since 1870 being 50 per cent.); 27,978 farms were occupied by the owners, 3878 were rented for a fixed money rental, and 8661 were rented for shares of produce. In 19,920 farms the number of acres under cultivation was less than 100, and only 805 farms were of or above 500 acres' extent. The staple crops are tobacco, maize, and wheat, and the average cash value per acre of crops was $17.82. In the production of tobacco Maryland ranks as the seventh State in the Union. The acreage devoted to it was 38,174; the production was 26,082,147 ℔; and the value of the crop in the farmers hands was $1,825,750. The cereal production was as follows:—Barley, 226 acres, 6097 bushels; buckwheat, 10,294 acres, 136,667 bushels; Indian corn, 664,928 acres, 15,968,533 bushels; oats, 101,127 acres, 1,794,872 bushels; rye, 32,405 acres, 288,067 bushels; wheat, 569,296 acres, 8,004,864 bushels. The live stock on the farms, June 1, 1880, was as follows:—horses, 117,796; mules and asses, 12,561; working oxen, 22,246; milch cows, 122,907; other cattle, 117,387; sheep, 171,184; swine, 335,408.
The statistics of the iron and steel industries for 1880 showed that the number of establishments in Maryland was twenty-three; capital, $4,962,125; number of hands, 2763; wages paid, $905,090; value of materials, $2,888,574; value of products, $4,470,050. The production of pig iron was 59,664 tons. The cotton manufactures had 2325 looms, 125,014 spindles, used 46,947 bales of cotton, and employed 4159 hands. Baltimore stands eighth in the list of manufacturing cities in the United States. The number of establishments in that city is 3596; capital $35,760,108; average number of hands employed 55,201; annual product $75,621,388.
The large foreign commerce of the State is conducted almost wholly through the port of Baltimore, although there are two other ports of entry. In 1881 the number of foreign vessels arriving was 1307; in 1880, 1508. The number of foreign clearances in 1881 was 1179; in 1880, 1633. The number of vessels registered in the State is 1788. The chief imports are iron, coffee, and salt; the chief exports, tobacco, petroleum, and grain. The grain elevators at Baltimore have a capacity of 6,150,000 bushels. In 1880 the value of the foreign imports was $18,643,245, and that of the foreign exports $74,398,971. The aggregate exchanges at the Baltimore clearing house in 1881 were $732,448,141. There are one hundred and fifty-two fire and marine insurance companies doing business in the State. In 1881 these received $1,680,109 in premiums, and paid losses amounting to $1,015,658. The twenty-nine life insurance companies in the State received in 1881 $1,116,540 in premiums, and paid losses amounting to $895,092.
Railways and Canals.—The Baltimore and Ohio Railway, incorporated in 1827, is one of the chief lines of communication between the seaboard and the Western States. The number of miles of all railways in operation wholly within the State is 1048. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, begun in 1828, and completed in 1845, at a cost of $11,375,000, extends from Cumberland, along the left bank of the Potomac, to Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, a distance of 184 miles. It there crosses the river by an aqueduct and continues to Alexandria, Va. Its depth is 6 feet, and its width varies from 52 to 70 feet. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, connecting the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, is 12 miles long, 66 feet wide, 10 feet deep, and cost $3,547,561.
Revenue, Debts, Taxation.—The total amount of the funded debt of the State on September 30, 1881, was $11,257,560. About one-half of this debt bears interest at 5 per cent., and the remainder at 6 per cent. As an offset to this debt the State owns interest-paying securities amounting to $3,461,085, and non-productive property valued at 25 million dollars. The property assessed for purposes of State taxation in 1881 was valued at $461,459,939, and the State
tax was 18¾ cents on each $100. The total receipts of the State from all sources were $1,996,041. The debt of Baltimore city, on January 1, 1882, was $36,381,351. The city owns productive property worth $15,304,596, and unproductive property valued at $5,150,780. The property assessed for city taxation was valued afc $247,230,189, and the city tax was $1.37 on each $100. The debts of the cities and counties, exclusive of Baltimore, amount to nearly two million dollars.
Social Statistics.—In 1881 the average number of convicts in the State penitentiary was 545, nearly one-half of whom were sentenced for larceny. The convicts are employed upon profitable labour, and the institution is not only self-supporting, but is a source of revenue to the State. The State house of correction received in 1881 414 prisoners, most of whom were sentenced for short terms. Provision is made for juvenile offenders in houses of reformation and similar establishments. The number of inmates in the almshouses in 1879 was 2384. The McDonogh Industrial School has an endowment of $861,968, and educates and supports about fifty poor boys annually. The State extends its aid to a hospital for the insane (with 400 inmates), an asylum for the blind, two deaf and dumb asylums, and other charitable institutions. In 1880 there were one hundred and thirty-eight periodicals published in the State. The principal religious denominations are the Methodist, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist.
Education and Libraries.—Maryland has an excellent system of free public schools supported by State, county, and municipal taxation. In 1881 the number of schools was 2039, the number of pupils 158,909, the number of teachers 3180, and the total expenses $1,604,580. The schools are managed by school com missioners who, in the counties, are appointed by the judges of the circuit courts, and in Baltimore city are elected by the city council. There is also a State board of education, invested with comprehensive visitorial powers. A number of higher educational institutions are maintained in part by the State. The principal of these are the normal school at Baltimore, St John's College at Annapolis (founded in 1783), the Western Maryland, Maryland Agricultural, Baltimore Female, Washington, and Frederick colleges. In 1881 these colleges had 723 students and 56 instructors, and received from the State $40,300. In Baltimore are two medical colleges—the college of physicians and surgeons, with 10 professors and 330 students, and the medical school of the university of Maryland, with 10 instructors and 200 students. There are also two dental colleges in the State. The law school of the university of Maryland has 4 instructors and 60 students. The Johns Hopkins University, at Baltimore, which has an endowment of more than 3 million dollars, was opened in 1876. It has 34 professors and associates, 20 fellows, 155 students, and 12,000 volumes in its library. The buildings of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which has a similar endowment of more than 3 million dollars, are now (1882) being erected. The Peabody Institute, which has $1,300,000 in productive funds, the gift of George Peabody, was founded in 1857. It embraces a lecture department, a conservatory of music, a gallery of fine arts, and a library. The library, containing 75,459 volumes in 1882, is designed to be a collection of such books as are not ordinarily accessible to scholars. The Pratt Public Library, endowed with one million dollars, was founded in 1882.
Administration.—The chief executive officer of the State is the governor, who is elected for the term of four years, and receives a salary of $4500 per annum. He is invested with power to grant pardons and reprieves except in cases of impeachment, and a three-fifths vote of the legislature is necessary to overcome his veto of an Act. The legislature, called the General Assembly, meets biennially, and its sessions are limited by the constitution to ninety days. It is composed of a senate, elected for four years (one-half being chosen every second year), and a house of delegates, elected for two years. The present number of senators is 26, and of delegates 91. The judicial power of the State is vested in a court of appeals, consisting of 8 judges, in a circuit court and an orphans' court for each county, in six courts of record for Baltimore city, and in justices of the peace. The judges are elected by the people for fifteen years, and retire upon attaining the age of seventy years. The justices of the peace are appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate. The law officers are an attorney-general for the State, and a State's attorney for each county, who is the prosecuting officer in all criminal cases. The local affairs of the counties are managed by county commissioners elected for two years, and those of each city by a mayor and city council. All elections are by ballot, and every male citizen of the United States who has been a resident of the State for one year and of the district in which he offers to vote for six months preceding the election is entitled to be registered as a voter. The present constitution was adopted in 1867. Maryland is represented in the national congress by two senators and six representatives. The arms of the State are those prescribed by Lord Baltimore for the province in 1648, viz.:—quarterly—1st and 4th, paly of six, or and sable, a bend counterchanged; 2d and 3d, quarterly, argent
and gules, a cross botonny, counterchanged; crest (which is placed upon a helmet, showing live bars, over a count palatine's coronet), on a ducal coronet proper two pennons, dexter or, the other sable, staves gules; motto, Fatti maschii parole femine; supporters, a ploughman and fisherman, proper. On the great seal a mantle doubled with ermine surrounds the arms and supporters, as above, and upon a border encircling the seal is engraven the legend, scuto bonæ voluntatis tuæ coronasti nos.
History.—The charter of Maryland, which constituted the first proprietary government established in America, was obtained from Charles I. by Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, who had been one of the principal secretaries of state to James I. Lord Baltimore died before the patent passed the seals, and it was issued to his son the second Lord Baltimore on June 20, 1632. The name Maryland (Terra Mariæ) was bestowed upon the colony by Charles I. in honour of his queen Henrietta Maria. In 1633 Lord Baltimore despatched a number of emigrants, under the command of his brother Leonard Calvert, to colonize the territory. They settled at St Mary's on the 27th March 1634, and the first legislative assembly, which was composed of all the freemen of the province, met in February 1635. Before the grant of the charter a trading station had been established, by William Clayborne of Virginia, upon Kent Island, in Chesapeake Bay, and the early years of the colony were greatly disturbed by contests with him, in which, however, Lord Baltimore was finally successful. The Baltimores were Catholics, and Maryland was designed to be a place of refuge for English Catholics, but, from the earliest period, religious toleration for all Christians was proclaimed and practised. Maryland has always claimed the honour of having been the first government in which liberty in matters of faith was established by law. Under the charter by which Maryland was made a province of the empire Baltimore was the owner of the soil, and enjoyed all the rights that had ever been exercised by a count palatine. The laws of the provincial assemblies which received his assent were not subject to the revision of the crown. In 1652 the parliamentary commissioners deposed Lord Baltimore's officers, and appointed a Puritan council to govern the province. After several years of contest between the proprietary and Puritan parties, the power of the former was finally re-established. At the time of the Revolution of 1688 the failure of Lord Baltimore's deputies to proclaim William and Mary gave an opportunity to the disaffected Protestants in the province to incite a revolt, which resulted in the overthrow of their feudal lord. The king and queen approved of this colonial Protestant revolution, and Maryland was taken directly under the government of the crown. The Church of England was then established, and disabilities imposed upon Catholics and dissenters. Maryland remained a royal colony until 1714, when, upon the death of the third Lord Baltimore, his son, who was a Protestant, was recognized as the proprietary. The province was governed by the Baltimores until the revolution of 1776. The original charter limits included all the present State of Delaware and a large part of Pennsylvania. The grant to William Penn conflicted with that of Maryland, and a controversy between the two colonies began in 1682, and was not concluded until 1760, when the Penns, armed with a decision of the privy council and a decree in chancery, were successful. “Mason and Dixon's line”—famous in American politics—was established between the provinces in 1763-67. During the war for independence Maryland furnished her full quota of troops, but refused to ratify the articles of confederation until those colonies which had claims to western lands surrendered them to the general Government. Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief to the colonial congress at Annapolis in December 1783. Maryland ratified the constitution of the United States on the 28th April 1788, and in 1790 ceded to the United States 60 square miles of territory, where the national capital is situated. At the outbreak of the civil war Maryland was a slave-holding State, and popular sentiment was divided between the North and the South, but the decisive measures adopted by the Federal Government made it impossible for the State to leave the Union. The history of the State has been written by McMahon (1831), Bozman (1837), McSherry (1849), and Scharf (1879). The Maryland Historical Society at Baltimore has a large collection of colonial and revolutionary MSS., newspapers, and historical works, and has published numerous essays upon questions of local history. (W. T. B.)
- ↑ In 1880 the amount of capital invested in the Maryland oyster business was $6,245,876; the number of persons employed, 24,377; and the oysters taken, 10,569,012 bushels.
| VOL. XV. | MARYLAND | PLATE VIII. |
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| W. & A. K. Johnston Edinburgh | ||
| ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, NINTH EDITION | ||