lar branch, the freedom of trade, religious toleration, exemption from foreign taxation, and the universal elective franchise. Whenever, at any subsequent time, there was deviation from these principles, it was the result of foreign authority and compulsion, not of the people's free will and consent.
| CHAPTER IX. |
1632—1660.
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF MARYLAND.
Peculiarity in the origin of Maryland—George Calvert, Lord Baltimore—His character—The charter—Its advantages—Boundary of the colony—Opposition of Clayborne—Leonard Calvert in command of the expedition—First settlers—St Mary's—Suspiciousness of Massachusetts—Clayborne's further efforts to do injury—Lord Baltimore's expenditure on the colony—First colonial assembly—Its acts—Dispute about initiative in legislation—Second and third assemblies—The first statutes enacted—Lord Baltimore's policy—Act toleration—Its limits—Insurrection of Ingle and Clayborne—Temporizing policy of the proprietary—Maryland claimed by different parties—Contest ensuing—Stone and his lot—Fendal's troubles and the result—Philip Calvert governor—Population and growth of Maryland in 1660.
The settlement of Maryland was in several respects different from that of Virginia or Massachusetts. The former had many perilous struggles before its existence and liberties were secured. The latter put forth many sincere but fruitless efforts, to establish itself on a foundation of theocracy, where private judgment and religious toleration should obtain no resting-place. In the case of Maryland, however, the advantages of a government in which the freemen of the colony were to bear a part, and where toleration in matters of conscience was to be allowed, were wisely provided for by its founder; so that its origin was peaceful, and its course prosperous from the beginning. And this deserves to be noted the rather, because the founder of Maryland was a sincere and liberal-spirited member of the Roman Catholic Church, a church whose principles, as is well known, are totally opposed to all toleration in religion, and when opportunity serves to carry them out, lead necessarily to persecution. The Romanists, at this period, from a variety of causes, found their position uncomfortable in England, for the Puritans, equally with others, were bent upon the full execution of the penal statutes against them; consequently they had even greater reason than the Puritans to desire to escape from their trials at home, by emigrating to the New World.
About the beginning of James First's reign, George Calvert, a native of Yorkshire, and a graduate of Oxford, was so popular in his own county, by far the largest in England, as to be chosen its representative in
