[1] In a letter dated the 4th of April 1882, referring to the
publication of his drama _Mary Stuart_, Swinburne wrote to Edmund
Clarence Stedman: "_Mary Stuart_ has procured me two satisfactions
which I prefer infinitely to six columns of adulation in The Times
and any profit thence resulting. (1) A letter from Sir Henry Taylor
... (2) An application from the editor of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_--who might, I suppose, as in Macaulay's time, almost
command the services of the most eminent scholars and historians of
the country--to me, a mere poet, proposing that I should contribute
to that great repository of erudition the biography of Mary Queen of
Scots. I doubt if the like compliment was ever paid before to one of
our 'idle trade.'" The present article is the biography contributed
by the poet to the 9th ed. in response to the invitation referred to
in this letter.
[2] It is to be observed that the above conclusion as to the
authenticity of the Casket Letters is the same as that arrived at
upon different grounds by the most recent research on the
subject.--ED. E. B.
MARY (1457-1482), duchess of Burgundy, only child of Charles the Bold,
duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, was born on the 13th
of February 1457. As heiress of the rich Burgundian domains her hand was
eagerly sought by a number of princes. When her father fell upon the
field of Nancy, on the 5th of January 1477, Mary was not yet twenty
years of age. Louis XI. of France seized the opportunity afforded by his
rival's defeat and death to take possession of the duchy of Burgundy as
a fief lapsed to the French crown, and also of Franche Comté, Picardy
and Artois. He was anxious that Mary should marry the Dauphin Charles
and thus secure the inheritance of the Netherlands for his descendants.
Mary, however, distrusted Louis; declined the French alliance, and
turned to her Netherland subjects for help. She obtained the help only
at the price of great concessions. On the 11th of February 1477 she was
compelled to sign a charter of rights, known as "the Great Privilege,"
by which the provinces and towns of the Netherlands recovered all the
local and communal rights which had been abolished by the arbitrary
decrees of the dukes of Burgundy in their efforts to create in the Low
Countries a centralized state. Mary had to undertake not to declare war,
make peace, or raise taxes without the consent of the States, and not to
employ any but natives in official posts. Such was the hatred of the
people to the old regime that two influential councillors of Charles the
Bold, the Chancellor Hugonet and the Sire d'Humbercourt, having been
discovered in correspondence with the French king, were executed at
Ghent despite the tears and entreaties of the youthful duchess. Mary now
made her choice among the many suitors for her hand, and selected the
archduke Maximilian of Austria, afterwards the emperor Maximilian I.,
and the marriage took place at Ghent on the 18th of August 1477. Affairs
now went more smoothly in the Netherlands, the French aggression was
checked, and internal peace was in a large measure restored, when the
duchess met her death by a fall from her horse on the 27th of March
1482. Three children had been the issue of her marriage, and her elder
son, Philip, succeeded to her dominions under the guardianship of his
father.
See E. Münch, _Maria von Burgund, nebst d. Leben v. Margaretha v.
York_ (2 vols., Leipzig, 1832), and the _Cambridge Mod. Hist._ (vol.
i., c. xii., bibliography, 1903).
MARY (1496-1533), queen of France, was the daughter of Henry VII. of
England and Elizabeth of York. At first it was intended to marry her to
Charles of Austria, the future emperor Charles V., and by the treaty of
Calais (Dec. 21, 1507) it was agreed that the marriage should take place
when Charles should have attained the age of fourteen, the contract
being secured by bonds taken from various princes and cities in the Low
Countries. On the 17th of December 1508 the Sieur de Bergues, who had
come over as Charles's representative at the head of a magnificent
embassy, married the princess by proxy. The contract, originally made by
Henry VII., was renewed on the 17th of October 1513 by Henry VIII. at a
meeting with Margaret of Savoy at Lille, the wedding being fixed for the
following year. But the emperor Maximilian I., to whom Louis XII. had
proposed his daughter Renée as wife for Charles, with Brittany for
dowry, postponed the match with the English princess in a way that left
no doubt of his intention to withdraw from the contract altogether. He
was forestalled by the diplomacy of Wolsey, at whose instance peace was
signed with France on the 7th of August 1514, and on the same date a
treaty was concluded for the marriage of Mary Tudor with Louis XII., who
had recently lost his wife Anne of Brittany. The marriage was celebrated
at Abbeville on the 9th of October. The bridegroom was a broken man of
fifty-two; the bride a beautiful, well-educated and charming girl of
eighteen, whose heart was already engaged to Charles Brandon, duke of
Suffolk, her future husband. The political marriage was, however, no
long one. Mary was crowned queen of France on the 5th of November 1514;
on the 1st of January following King Louis died. Mary had only been
induced to consent to the marriage with Louis by the promise that, on
his death, she should be allowed to marry the man of her choice. But
there was danger that the agreement would not be kept. In France the
dukes of Lorraine and Savoy were mentioned as possible suitors, and
meanwhile the new king, Francis I., was making advances to her, and only
desisted when she confessed to him her previous attachment to Suffolk.
The duke himself was at the head of the embassy which came from England
to congratulate the new king, and to the detriment of his political
mission he used the opportunity to win the hand of the queen. Francis
good-naturedly promised to use his influence in his favour; Henry VIII.
himself was not averse to the match, but Mary feared the opposition of
the lords of the council, and, in spite of Suffolk's promise to the king
not to take any steps in the matter until after his return, she
persuaded him to marry her secretly before he left Paris. On their
return to England in April, Suffolk was for a while in serious danger
from the king's indignation, but was ultimately pardoned through
Wolsey's intercession, on payment of a heavy fine and the surrender of
all the queen's jewels and plate. The marriage was publicly solemnized
at Greenwich on the 13th of May 1515. Suffolk had been already twice
married, and his first wife was still alive. He thought it necessary
later on (1528) to obtain a bull from Pope Clement VII. declaring his
marriage with his first wife invalid and his union with Mary therefore
canonical. Mary's life after this was comparatively uneventful. She
lived mainly in the retirement of the country, but shared from time to
time in the festivities of the court, and was present at the Field of
the Cloth of Gold. She died on the 24th of June 1533. By the duke of
Suffolk she had three children: Henry, born on the 11th of March 1516,
created earl of Lincoln (1525), who died young; Frances, born on the
16th of July 1517, the wife of Henry Grey, marquess of Northampton, and
mother of Lady Jane Grey (q.v.); and Eleanor.
See _Lettres de Louis XII. et du cardinal Géorges d'Amboise_
(Brussels, 1712); _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ (Cal. State
Pap.); M. A. E. Green, _Lives of the Princesses of England_ (vol. v.,
1849-1855); Life by James Gairdner in _Dict. Nat. Biog._
MARY OF LORRAINE (1515-1560), generally known as MARY OF GUISE, queen of
James V. and afterwards regent of Scotland, was born at Bar on the 22nd
of November 1515. She was the eldest child of Claude of Guise and
Antoinette of Bourbon, and married in 1534 Louis II. of Orleans, duke of
Longueville, to whom in 1535 she bore a son, Francis (d. 1551). The duke
died in June 1537, and Mary was sought in marriage by James V., whose
wife Magdalene died in July, and by Henry VIII. after the death of Jane
Seymour. Henry persisted in his offers after the announcement of her
betrothal to James V. Mary, who was made by adoption a daughter of
France, received a papal dispensation for her marriage with James, which
was celebrated by proxy in Paris (May 1538) and at St Andrews on her
arrival in Scotland. Her two sons, James (b. May 1540) and Robert or
Arthur (b. April 1541), died within a few days of one another in April
1541, and her husband died in December 1542, within a week of the birth
of his daughter and heiress, Mary, Queen of Scots. Cardinal David Beton,
the head of the French and Catholic party and therefore Mary of
Lorraine's friend and ally, produced a will of the late king in which
the primacy in the regency was assigned to himself. John Knox accused
the queen of undue intimacy with Beton, and a popular report of a
similar nature, probably unfounded, was revived in 1543 by Sir Ralph
Sadler, the English envoy. Beton was arrested and the regency fell to
the heir presumptive James, earl of Arran, whose inclinations were
towards England and the Protestant party, and who hoped to secure the
hand of the infant princess for his own son. Mary of Lorraine was
approached by the English commissioner, Sir Ralph Sadler, to induce her
to further her daughter's marriage contract with Edward VI. She informed
Sadler that Arran had asked her whether Henry had made propositions of
marriage to herself, and that she had stated that "if Henry should mind
or offer her such an honour she must account herself much bounden."
Sadler further learnt that she was "singularly well affected to Henry's
desires." The marriage treaty between Mary, not then one year old, and
Edward VI. was signed on the 1st of July at Greenwich, and guaranteed
that Mary should be placed in Henry's keeping when she was ten years
old. The queen dowager and her daughter were carefully watched at
Linlithgow, but on the 23rd of July 1543 they escaped, with the help of
Cardinal Beton, to the safer walls of Stirling castle. After the queen's
coronation in September Mary of Lorraine was made principal member of
the council appointed to direct the affairs of the kingdom. She was
constantly in communication with her kinsmen in France, and was already
planning to secure for her daughter a French alliance, which was opposed
on different grounds by all her advisers. She made fresh alliances with
the earl of Angus and Sir George Douglas, and in 1544 she made a
premature attempt to seize the regency; but a reconciliation with Arran
was brought about by Cardinal Beton. The assassination of Beton left her
the cleverest politician in Scotland. The English invasions of 1547,
undertaken with a view to enforcing the English marriage, gave Mary the
desired pretext for a French alliance. In June 1548 a French fleet, with
provisions and 5000 soldiers on board, under the command of André de
Montalembert, seigneur d'Essé, landed at Leith to reinforce the Scots
army, and laid siege to Haddington, then in the hands of the English.
The Scottish parliament agreed to the marriage of the young queen with
the dauphin of France, and, on the plea of securing her safety from
English designs, she set sail from Dumbarton in August 1548 to complete
her education at the French court.
Mary of Lorraine now gave her energies to the expulsion of the English
and to the difficult task of keeping the peace between the Scots and
their French auxiliaries. In September 1550 she visited France and
obtained from Henry II. the confirmation of the dukedom and revenues of
Châtelherault for the earl of Arran, in the hope of inducing him to
resign the regency. On her way back to Scotland she was driven by storms
to Portsmouth harbour and paid a friendly visit to Edward VI. Arran
refused, however, to relinquish the regency until April 1554, when he
resigned after receiving an assurance of his rights to the succession.
The new regent had to deal with an empty exchequer and with a strong
opposition to her daughter's marriage with the dauphin. The gift of high
offices of state to Frenchmen lent to the Protestant opposition the
aspect of a national resistance to foreign domination. The hostility of
Arran and his brother Archbishop Hamilton forced Mary into friendly
relations with the lords who favoured the Protestant party. Soon after
her marriage miners had been brought from Lorraine to dig for gold at
Crawford Moor, and she now carried on successful mining enterprises for
coal and lead, which enabled her to meet the expenses of her government.
In 1554 she took into her service William Maitland of Lethington, who as
secretary of state gained very great influence over her. She also
provoked a dangerous enemy in John Knox by her expressed contempt for a
letter which he had written to her, but the first revolt against her
authority arose from an attempt to establish a standing army. When she
provoked a war with England in 1557 the nobles refused to cross the
border. In matters of religion she at first tried to hold the balance
between the Catholic and Protestant factions and allowed the
Presbyterian preachers the practice of their religion so long as they
refrained from public preachings in Edinburgh and Leith. The marriage of
Francis II. and her daughter Mary in 1558 strengthened her position, and
in 1559 she relinquished her conciliatory tactics to submit to the
dictation of her relatives, the Guises, by falling more into line with
their religious policy. She was reconciled with Archbishop Hamilton, and
took up arms against the Protestants of Perth, who, incited by Knox,
had destroyed the Charterhouse, where many of the Scottish kings were
buried. The reformers submitted on condition that no foreign garrison
was to be imposed on Perth and that the religious questions in dispute
should be brought before the Scottish parliament. Mary of Lorraine broke
the spirit of this agreement by garrisoning Perth with Scottish troops
in the pay of France. The lords of the Congregation soon assembled in
considerable force on Cupar Muir. Mary retreated to Edinburgh and thence
to Dunbar, while Edinburgh opened its gates to the reformers, who issued
a proclamation (Oct. 21, 1559) claiming that the regent was deposed. The
lords of the Congregation sought help from Elizabeth, while the regent
had recourse to France, where an expedition under her brother, René of
Lorraine, marquis of Elbeuf, was already in preparation. Mary, with the
assistance of a French contingent, began to fortify Leith. The strength
of her opponents was increased by the defection of Châtelherault and his
son Arran; and an even more serious danger was the treachery of her
secretary Maitland, who betrayed her plans to the lords of the
Congregation. In October 1559 they made an unsuccessful attack on Leith
and the seizure of an English convoy on the way to their army by James
Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, increased their difficulties. Mary entered
Edinburgh and conducted a campaign in Fife. Meanwhile Maitland of
Lethington had been at the English court, and an English fleet under
William Winter was sent to the Forth in January 1560 to waylay Elbeuf's
fleet, which was, however, driven back by a storm to Calais. Elbeuf had
been commissioned by Francis I. and Mary to take over Mary's regency on
account of her failing health. An English army under Lord Grey entered
Scotland on the 29th of March 1560, and the regent received an asylum in
Edinburgh castle, which was held strictly neutral by John Erskine. When
she knew that she was dying Mary sent for the lords of the Congregation,
with whom she pleaded for the maintenance of the French alliance. She
even consented to listen to the exhortations of the preacher John
Willock. She died on the 11th of June 1560. Her body was taken to Reims
and buried in the church of the nunnery of St Peter, of which her sister
was abbess.
The chief sources for her history are the Calendar of State Papers for
the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. in the Rolls Series; A.
Teulet, _Papiers d état ... relatifs à l'histoire de l'Écosse au XVI^e
siècle_ (Paris, 3 vols., 1851), for the Bannatyne Club; _Hamilton
Papers_, ed. J. Bain (Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1890-1899); _Calendar of
State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots, 1547-1603_
(Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1898-1900), &c. There is a Life in Miss
Strickland's _Queens of Scotland_ (vols. i.-ii.) based on original
documents.
MARY OF MODENA [MARIA BEATRICE ANNE MARGARET ISABEL D'ESTE] (1658-1718),
queen of the English king James II., was the daughter of Alphonso IV.,
duke of Modena, and the Duchess Laura, of the Roman family Martinozzi.
She was born at Modena on the 5th of October 1658. Her education was
strict, and her own wish was to be a nun in a convent of the order of
the Visitation founded by her mother. As a princess she was not free to
choose for herself, and was selected, mainly by the king of France,
Louis XIV., as the wife of James, duke of York, heir-presumptive to the
English throne. The duke had become a Roman Catholic, and it was a point
of policy with the French king to provide him with a Roman Catholic
wife. Mary Beatrice of Este was chosen partly on the ground of her known
religious zeal, but also because of her beauty. The marriage was
celebrated by proxy on the 30th of September 1673. She reached England
in November. In later life she confessed that her first feelings towards
her husband could only be expressed by tears. In England the duchess,
who was commonly spoken of as Madam East, was supposed to be an agent of
the pope, who had indeed exerted himself to secure her consent. Her
beauty and her fine manners secured her the respect of her
brother-in-law, Charles II., and she lived on good terms with her
husband's daughters by his first marriage, but she was always disliked
by the nation. The birth of her first son (who died in infancy) on the
16th of January 1675 was regretted. During the Popish Plot, to which
her secretary Coleman was a victim, she went abroad with her husband.
After her husband's accession she suffered much domestic misery through
his infidelity. Her influence on him was unfortunate, for she was a
strong supporter of the Jesuit party which was in favour of extreme
measures. Her second son, James Francis Edward, was born on the 10th of
June (o.s.) 1688. The public refused to believe that the baby was Mary's
child, and declared that a fraud had been perpetrated to secure a Roman
Catholic heir. When the revolution had broken out she made the
disastrous mistake of consenting to escape to France (Dec. 10, 1688)
with her son. She urged her husband to follow her to France when it was
his manifest interest to stay in England, and when he went to Ireland
she pressed incessantly for his return. Her daughter, Louisa Maria, was
born at St Germain on the 28th of June 1692. When her husband died on
the 6th of September 1701, she succeeded in inducing King Louis to
recognize her son as king of England, an act which precipitated the war
of the Spanish Succession. Queen Mary survived her husband for seventeen
years and her daughter for two. She received a pension of 100,000
crowns, which was largely spent in supporting Jacobite exiles. At the
close of her life she had some success in obtaining payment of her
jointure. She lived at St Germain or at Chaillot, a religious house of
the Visitation. Her death occurred on the 7th of May 1718, and is said
by Saint-Simon to have been that of a saint.
See Miss Strickland, _Queens of England_ (vols. 9 and 10, London,
1846); Campana di Cavelli, _Les Derniers Stuarts à Saint-Germain
en-Laye_ (London, 1871); and Martin Haile, _Mary of Modena_ (London,
1905).
MARY OF ORANGE (1631-1660), eldest daughter of the English king Charles
I., was born in London on the 4th of November 1631. Her father wished
her to marry a son of Philip IV., king of Spain, while her cousin, the
elector palatine, Charles Louis, was also a suitor for her hand, but
both proposals fell through and she became the wife of a Dutch prince,
William, son of Frederick Henry, prince of Orange. The marriage took
place in London on the 2nd of May 1641, but owing to the tender years of
the bride it was not consummated for several years. However in 1642 Mary
crossed over to Holland with her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, and in
1644, as the daughter-in-law of the stadtholder, she began to take her
place in public life. In 1647 her husband, William II., succeeded his
father as stadtholder, but three years later, just after his attempt to
capture Amsterdam, he died; a son, afterwards the English king William
III., being born to him a few days later (Nov. 14, 1650). Mary was
obliged to share the guardianship of her infant son with his grandmother
Amelia, the widow of Frederick Henry, and with Frederick William,
elector of Brandenburg; moreover, she was unpopular with the Dutch owing
to her sympathies with her kinsfolk, the Stuarts, and at length public
opinion having been further angered by the hospitality which she showed
to her brothers, Charles II. and James, duke of York, she was forbidden
to receive her relatives. From 1654 to 1657 the princess passed most of
her time away from Holland. In 1657 she was appointed regent on behalf
of her son for the principality of Orange, but the difficulties of her
position led her to implore the assistance of Louis XIV., and the French
king answered by seizing Orange himself. The position both of Mary and
of her son in Holland was greatly bettered through the restoration of
Charles II. in Great Britain. In September 1660 Mary journeyed to
England. She was taken ill of small-pox, and died in London on the 24th
of December 1660, her death, says Bishop Burnet, being "not much
lamented."
MARYBOROUGH, a market town and the county town of Queen's County,
Ireland. Pop. (1901), 2957. It lies in the broad lowland east of the
Slieve Bloom mountains, on the river Triogue, an affluent of the Barrow,
and on the main line of the Great Southern & Western railway, by which
it is 51 m. W.S.W. of Dublin. The town was chosen as county town in the
reign of Mary (1556), in whose honour both town and county received
their names. Its charter was granted in 1570, but its present
appearance, save a bastion of the ancient castle, is wholly modern.
There are flour-mills and a considerable general trade. Maryborough
returned two members to the Irish parliament from 1585 until the union
in 1800. The singular lofty rock of Dunamase or Dunmall, about 3 m. from
the town, bears on its summit extensive ruins of a castle, originally
belonging to the kings of Leinster, but probably built in the main by
William Bruce (c. 1200) and dismantled in 1650 by Cromwell's troops.
MARYBOROUGH, a town of March county, Queensland, Australia, on the left
bank and 25 m. from the mouth of the Mary river, 180 m. by rail N. of
Brisbane. Pop. (1901), 10,159. Besides a handsome court-house and town
hall, the principal buildings are the hospital, a technical college, a
library, the Anglican Church of St Paul with a fine tower and peal of
bells, and the grammar schools. There is a large shipbuilding yard, and
breweries, distilleries, a tannery, boot factories, soap works,
saw-mills, flour-mills, carriage works and iron foundries, besides
extensive sugar factories in the neighbourhood. The largest smelting
works in Australia are 5 m. distant, in which ore from all the states is
treated. Maryborough is the port of shipment for a wide agricultural
district yielding maize and sugar, and also for the Gympie gold-fields.
Timber abounds in the neighbourhood and is exported. Maryborough is also
the second coaling port in Queensland, the government railway wharf
being in direct communication with the Burrum coal-fields.
MARYBOROUGH, a municipal town of Talbot county, Victoria, Australia, 112
m. by rail N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901), 5633. It has fine government
buildings, a town hall, a botanical garden, and numerous park lands. It
is an important railway centre, and has extensive railway workshops, as
well as coach factories, breweries and foundries. The gold mining of the
district is deep alluvial. Wheat, oats and wine are the chief
agricultural products of the neighbourhood.
MARYLAND, a South Atlantic state of the United States, and one of the
original thirteen, situated between latitudes 37° 53´ and 39° 44´ N. and
longitudes 75° 4´ and 79° 33´ W. (the precise western boundary has not
been determined). It is bounded N. by Pennsylvania and Delaware; E. by
Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean; S. and W. by the Potomac river and its
north branch, which separate it, except on the extreme W. border, from
Virginia and West Virginia; W., also, by West Virginia. It is one of the
small states of the Union--only seven are smaller--its total area being
12,327 sq. m. of which 2386 sq. m. are water surface.
_Physical Features._--Maryland is crossed from north to south by each
of the leading topographical regions of the east section of the United
States--the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, the Appalachian
Mountains, and the Appalachian Plateau--hence its great diversity of
surface. The portion within the Coastal Plain embraces nearly the
whole of the south-east half of the state and is commonly known as
tide-water Maryland. It is marked off from the Piedmont Plateau by a
"Fall Line" extending from Washington (D.C.) north-east through
Baltimore to a point a little south of the north-east corner of the
state, and is divided by the Chesapeake Bay into two parts known as
the East Shore and the West Shore. The East Shore is a low level
plain, the least elevated section of the state. Along its entire
Atlantic border extends the narrow sandy Sinepuxent Beach, which
encloses a shallow lagoon or bay also called Sinepuxent at the north,
where, except in the extreme north, it is very narrow, and
Chincoteague at the south, where its width is in most places from 4 to
5 m. Between this and the Chesapeake to the west and north-west there
is a slight general rise, a height of about 100 ft. being reached in
the extreme north. A water-parting extending from north-east to
south-west and close to the Atlantic border separates the East Shore
into two drainage systems, though that next to the Atlantic is
insignificant. That on the Chesapeake side is drained chiefly by the
Pocomoke, Nanticoke, Choptank and Chester rivers, together with their
numerous branches, the general direction of all of which is
south-west. The branches as well as the upper parts of the main
streams flow through broad and shallow valleys; the middle courses of
the main streams wind their way through reed-covered marshes, the
water ebbing and flowing with the tide; in their lower courses they
become estuarine and the water flows between low banks. The West Shore
is somewhat more undulating than the East and also more elevated. Its
general slope is from north-west to south-east; along the west border
are points 300 ft. or more in height. The principal rivers crossing
this section are the Patuxent, Patapsco and Gunpowder, with which may
be grouped the Potomac, forming the state's southern boundary. These
rivers, lined in most instances with terraces 30 to 40 ft. high on one
or both sides, flow south-east into the Chesapeake Bay through valleys
bounded by low hills. The Fall Line, which forms the boundary between
the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau, is a zone in which a
descent of about 100 ft. or more is made in many places within a few
miles and in consequence is marked by waterfalls, cascades and rapids.
The part of Maryland within the Piedmont Plateau extends west from the
Fall Line to the base of Catoctin Mountain, or the west border of
Frederick county, and has an area of about 2500 sq. m. In general it
has a broad rolling surface. It is divided into two sections by an
elevated strip known as Parr's Ridge, which extends from north-east to
south-west a short distance west of the middle. The east section rises
from about 450 ft. along the Fall Line to from 850 to 900 ft. along
the summit of Parr's Ridge. Its principal streams are those that cross
the West Shore of the Coastal Plain and here wind their way from
Parr's Ridge rapidly toward the south-east in narrow steep-sided
gorges through broad limestone valleys. To the west of Parr's Ridge
the surface for the most part slopes gently down to the east bank of
the Monocacy river (which flows nearly at a right angle with the
streams east of the Ridge), and then from the opposite bank rises
rapidly toward the Catoctin Mountain; but just above the mouth of the
Monocacy on the east side of the valley is Sugar Loaf Mountain, which
makes a steep ascent of 1250 ft.
The portion of the state lying within the Appalachian Region is
commonly known as Western Maryland. To the eastward it abounds in
mountains and valleys; to the westward it is a rolling plateau. West
of Catoctin Mountain (1800 ft.) is Middletown Valley, with Catoctin
Creek running through it from north to south, and the Blue Ridge
Mountains (2400 ft.), near the Pennsylvania border, forming its west
slope. Farther west the serrated crests of the Blue Ridge overlook the
Greater Appalachian Valley, here 73 m. in width, the broad
gently-rolling slopes of the Great Cumberland or Hagerstown Valley
occupying its eastern and the Appalachian Ridges its western portion.
Through the eastern portion Antietam Creek to the east and
Conococheague Creek to the west flow rapidly in meandering trenches
that in places exceed 75 ft. in depth. The Appalachian Ridges of the
western portion begin with North Mountain on the east and end with
Wills Mountain on the west. They are long, narrow, uniformly-sloping
and level-crested mountains, extending along parallel lines from
north-east to south-west, and reaching a maximum height in Martin's
Ridge of more than 2000 ft. Overlooking them from the west are the
higher ranges of the Alleghenies, among which the Savage, Backbone and
Negro Mountains reach elevations of 3000 ft. or more. In the extreme
west part of the state these mountains merge, as it were, into a
rolling plateau, the Appalachian Plateau, having an average elevation
of 2500 ft. All rivers of Western Maryland flow south into the Potomac
except in the extreme west, where the waters of the Youghiogheny and
its tributaries flow north into the Monongahela.
_Fauna and Flora._--In primitive times deer, ducks, turkeys, fish and
oysters were especially numerous, and wolves, squirrels and crows were
a source of annoyance to the early settlers. Deer, black bears and
wild cats (lynx) are still found in some uncultivated sections. Much
more numerous are squirrels, rabbits, "groundhogs" (woodchucks),
opossums, skunks, weasels and minks. Many species of ducks are also
still found; and the reed-bird (bobolink), "partridge" (elsewhere
called quail or "Bob White"), ruffed grouse (elsewhere called
partridge), woodcock, snipe, plover and Carolina rail still abound.
The waters of the Chesapeake Bay are especially rich in oysters and
crabs, and there, also, shad, alewives, "striped" (commonly called
"rock") bass, menhaden, white perch and weak-fish ("sea-trout") occur
in large numbers. Among the more common trees are several species of
oak, pine, hickory, gums and maple, and the chestnut, the poplar, the
beech, the cypress and the red cedar; the merchantable pine has been
cut, but the chestnut and other hard woods of West Maryland are still
a product of considerable value. Among wild fruit-trees are the
persimmon and Chickasaw plum; grape-vines and a large variety of
berry-bushes grow wild and in abundance.
_Climate._--The climate of Maryland in the south-east is influenced by
ocean and bay--perhaps also by the sandy soil--while in the west it is
influenced by the mountains. The prevailing winds are westerly; but
generally north-west in winter in the west section and south-west in
summer in the south section. In the south the normal winter is mild,
the normal summer rather hot; in the west the normal winter is cold,
the normal summer cool. The normal average annual temperature for the
entire state is between 53° and 54° F., ranging from 48° at
Grantsville in the north-west to 53° at Darlington in the north-east,
and to 57° at Princess Anne in the south-east. The normal temperature
for the state during July (the warmest month) is 75.2° F., and during
January (the coldest month) 32.14° F. Although the west section is
generally much the cooler in summer, yet both of the greatest extremes
recorded since 1891 were at points not far apart in Western Maryland:
109° F. at Boettcherville and -26° F. at Sunnyside. The normal annual
precipitation for the state is about 43 in. It is greatest, about 53
in., on the east slope of Catoctin Mountain, owing to the elevations
which obstruct the moisture-bearing winds, and is above the average
along the middle of the shores of the Chesapeake. It is least, from 25
to 35 in., in the Greater Appalachian Valley, in the south on the West
Shore, and along the Atlantic border. During spring and summer the
precipitation throughout the state is about 2 in. more than during
autumn and winter.
_Soils and Agriculture._--The great variety of soils is one of the
more marked features of Maryland. On the East Shore to the north is a
marly loam overlying a yellowish-red clay sub-soil, to the south is a
soil quite stiff with light coloured clay, while here and there,
especially in the middle and south, are considerable areas both of
light sandy soils and tidal marsh loams. On the West Shore the soils
range from a light sandy loam in the lower levels south from Baltimore
to rather heavy loams overlying a yellowish clay on the rolling
uplands and on the terraces along the Potomac and Patuxent. Crossing
the state along the lower edge of the Fall Line is a belt heavy with
clay, but so impervious to water as to be of little value for
agricultural purposes. The soils of the Piedmont Plateau east of
Parr's Ridge are, like the underlying rocks, exceptionally variable in
composition, texture and colour. For the most part they are
considerably heavier with clay than are those of the Coastal Plain,
and better adapted to general agricultural purposes. Light loams,
however, are found both in the north-east and south-east. A soil of
very close texture, the gabbro, is found, most largely in the
north-east. Alluvial loams occupy the narrow river valleys; but the
most common soil of the section is that formed from gneiss with a
large per cent. of clay in the subsoil. West of Parr's Ridge in the
Piedmont, the principal soils are those the character of which is
determined either by decomposed red sandstone or by decomposed
limestone. In the east portion of the mountainous region the soil so
well adapted to peach culture contains much clay, together with
particles of Cambrian sandstone. In Hagerstown Valley are rich red or
yellow limestone-clay soils. The Allegheny ridges have only a thin
stony soil; but good limestone, sandstone, shale and alluvial soils,
occur in the valleys and in some of the plateaus of the extreme west.
Of the total land surface of the state 82% was in 1900 included in
farms and 68% of the farmland was improved. There were 46,012 farms,
of which 15,833 contained less than 50 acres, 3940 contained 260 acres
or more, and 79 contained 1,000 acres or more--the average size being
112.4 acres. In 1890, 69% of the farms were worked by the owners or
their managers, in 1900 only 66.4%; but share tenants outnumber cash
tenants by almost three to one. Of the total number of farms about
seven times as many are operated by white as by negro farmers, though
the number of farms operated by white share tenants outnumber those
operated by negro share tenants by only about five to one. Of all the
inhabitants of the state, at least ten years old, who in 1900 were
engaged in gainful occupations, 20.8% were farmers. The leading
agricultural pursuits are the growing of Indian corn and wheat and the
raising of livestock, yet it is in the production of fruits,
vegetables and tobacco, that Maryland ranks highest as an agricultural
state, and in no other state except South Carolina is so large a per
cent. of the value of the crop expended for fertilizers. In 1907,
according to the _Year Book_ of the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the Indian corn crop was 22,196,000 bushels, valued at $11,986,000;
the wheat crop was 14,763,000 bushels, valued at $14,172,000; the oat
crop was 825,000 bushels, valued at $404,000; and the crop of rye was
315,000 bushels, valued at $236,000. Of the livestock, hogs were the
most numerous in 1900, cattle next, sheep third, and horses fourth.
The hay and forage crop of 1899 (exclusive of corn-stalks) grew on
374,848 acres. Until after the middle of the 18th century tobacco was
the staple crop of Maryland, and the total yield did not reach its
maximum until 1860 when the crop amounted to 51,000 hhds.; from this
it decreased to 14,000 hhds., or 12,356,838 lb. in 1889; in 1899 it
rose again to 24,589,480 lb., in 1907 the crop was only 16,962,000
lb., less than that of nine other states. In market-garden products,
including small fruits, Maryland ranked in 1899 sixth among the states
of the Union, the crop being valued at $4,766,760, an increase of
350.9% over that of 1889. In the yield both of strawberries and of
tomatoes it ranked first; the yield of raspberries and blackberries is
also large. In its crop of green-peas Maryland was exceeded (1899) by
New York only; in sweet Indian corn it ranked fifth; in kale, second;
in spinach, third; in cabbages, ninth. The number of peach-trees,
especially in the west part of the state, where the quality is of the
best, is rapidly increasing, and in the yield of peaches and
nectarines the state ranked thirteenth in 1899; in the yield of pears
it ranked fifth; in apples seventeenth.
The Indian-corn, wheat and livestock sections of the state, are in the
Piedmont Plateau, the Hagerstown Valley and the central portion of the
East Shore. Garrett county in the extreme north-west, however, raises
the largest number of sheep. Most of the tobacco is grown in the south
counties of the West Shore. The great centre for vegetables and small
fruits is in the counties bordering on the north-west shore of the
Chesapeake, and in Howard, Frederick and Washington counties, directly
west, Anne Arundel county producing the second largest quantity of
strawberries of all the counties in the Union in 1899. Peaches and
pears grow in large quantities in Kent and neighbouring counties on
the East Shore and in Washington and Frederick counties; apples grow
in abundance in all parts of the Piedmont Plateau.
The woodland area of the state in 1900 was 4400 sq. m., about 44%
(estimated in 1907 to be 3450 sq. m., about 35%) of the total land
area, but with the exception of considerable oak and chestnut, some
maple and other hard woods in west Maryland, about all of the
merchantable timber has been cut. The lumber industry, nevertheless,
has steadily increased in importance, the value of the product in 1860
amounting to only $605,864, that in 1890 to $1,600,472, and that in
1900 to $2,650,082, of which sum $2,495,169 was the value of products
under the factory system; in 1905 the value of the factory product was
$2,750,339.
_Fisheries._--In 1897 the value of the fishery product of Maryland was
exceeded only by that of Massachusetts, but by 1901, although it had
increased somewhat during the four years, it was exceeded by the
product of New Jersey, of Virginia and of New York. Oysters constitute
more than 80% of the total value, the product in 1901 amounting to
5,685,561 bushels, and being valued at $3,031,518. The supply on
natural beds has been diminishing, but the planting of private beds
promises a large increase. Crabs are next in value and are caught
chiefly along the East Shore and in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties
on the West Shore. Shad, to the number of 3,111,181 and valued at
$120,602, were caught during 1901. In Somerset and Worcester counties
clams are a source of considerable value. The terrapin catch decreased
in value from $22,333 in 1891 to $1,139 in 1901. The total value of
the fish product of 1901 was $3,767,461. The state laws for the
protection of fish and shell-fish were long carelessly enforced
because of the fishermen's strong feeling against them, but this
sentiment has slowly changed and enforcement has become more vigorous.
_Minerals and Manufactures._--The coal deposits, which form a part of
the well-known Cumberland field, furnish by far the most important
mineral product of the state; more than 98% of this, in 1901, was
mined in Allegany county from a bed about 20 m. long and 5 m. wide and
the remainder in Garrett county, whose deposits, though undeveloped,
are of great value. The coal is of two varieties: bituminous and
semi-bituminous. The bituminous is of excellent quality for the
manufacture of coke and gas, but up to 1902 had been mined only in
small quantities. Most of the product has been of the semi-bituminous
variety and of the best quality in the country for the generation of
steam. Nearly all the high grade blacksmithing coal mined in the
United States comes from Maryland. The deposits were discovered early
in the 19th century (probably first in 1804 near the present
Frostburg), but were not exploited until railway transport became
available in 1842, and the output was not large until after the close
of the Civil War; in 1865 it was 1,025,208 short tons, from which it
steadily increased to 5,532,628 short tons in 1907. From 1722 until
the War of Independence the iron-ore product of North and West
Maryland was greater than that of any of the other colonies, but since
then ores of superior quality have been discovered in other states and
the output in Maryland, taken chiefly from the west border of the
Coastal Plain in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, has become
comparatively of little importance--24,367 long tons in 1902 and only
8269 tons in 1905. Gold, silver and copper ores, have been found in
the state, and attempts have been made to mine them, without much
success. The Maryland building stone, of which there is an abundance
of good quality, consists chiefly of granites, limestones, slate,
marble and sandstones, the greater part of which is quarried in the
east section of the Piedmont Plateau especially in Cecil county,
though some limestones, including those from which hydraulic cement is
manufactured, and some sandstones are obtained from the western part
of the Piedmont Plateau and the east section of the Appalachian
region; the value of stone quarried in the state in 1907 was
$1,439,355, of which $1,183,753 was the value of granite, $142,825
that of limestone, $98,918 that of marble, and $13,859 that of
sandstone. Brick, potter's and tile clays are obtained most largely
along the west border of the Coastal Plain, and fire-clay from the
coal region of West Maryland; in 1907 the value of clay products was
$1,886,362. Materials for porcelain, including flint, feldspar and
kaolin, abound in the east portion of the Piedmont, the kaolin chiefly
in Cecil county, and material for mineral paint in Anne Arundel and
Prince George's counties, as well as farther north-west.
[Illustration: Map of Maryland and Delaware.]
Between 1850 and 1900, while the population increased 103.8%, the
average number of wage-earners employed in manufacturing
establishments increased 258.5%, constituting 5.2% of the total
population in 1850 and 9.1% in 1900. In 1900 the total value of
manufactured goods was $242,552,990, an increase of 41.1% over that of
1890. Of the total given for 1900, $211,076,143 was the value of
products under the factory system; and in 1905 the value of factory
products was $243,375,996, being 15.3% more than in 1900. The products
of greatest value in 1905 were: custom-made men's clothing; fruits and
vegetables and oysters, canned and preserved; iron and steel; foundry
and machine-shop products, including stoves and furnaces; flour and
grist mill products; tinware, coppersmithing and sheet iron working;
fertilizers; slaughtering and meat-packing; cars and repairs by
steam railways; shirts; cotton goods; malt liquors; and cigars and
cigarettes. In the value of fertilizers manufactured, and in that of
oysters canned and preserved, Maryland was first among the states in
1900 and second in 1905; in 1900 and in 1905 it was fourth among the
states in the value of men's clothing. Baltimore is still the great
manufacturing centre, but of the state's total product the percentage
in value of that manufactured there decreased from 82.5 in 1890 to
66.5 in 1900, and to 62.3 (of the factory product) in 1905. The
largest secondary centres are Cumberland, Hagerstown and Frederick the
total value of whose factory products in 1905 was less than
$10,000,000.
_Communications._--Tide-water Maryland is afforded rather unusual
facilities of water transportation by the Chesapeake Bay, with its
deep channel, numerous deep inlets and navigable tributaries, together
with the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which crosses the state of
Delaware and connects its waters with those of the Delaware river and
bay. As early as 1783 steps were taken to extend these facilities to
the navigable waters of the Ohio, chiefly by improving the navigation
of the Potomac above Georgetown. By 1820 this project was merged into
a movement for a Chesapeake and Ohio canal along the same line. Ground
was broken in 1828 and in 1850 the canal was opened to navigation from
Georgetown to Cumberland, a distance of 186 m. In 1878 and again in
1889 it was wrecked by a freshet, and since then has been of little
service.[1] However, on the same day that ground was broken for this
canal, ground was also broken for the Baltimore & Ohio railway, of
which 15 m. was built in 1828-1830 and which was one of the first
steam railway lines in operation in the United States. Since then
railway building has progressed steadily. In Maryland (and including
the District of Columbia) there were 259 m. of railway in 1850, 386 m.
in 1860, 671 m. in 1870, and 1040 m. in 1880; in 1890, in Maryland
alone, the mileage was 1270.04 m., and in 1909 it was 1394.19 m. The
more important railway lines are the Baltimore & Ohio, the
Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington (controlled by the Pennsylvania
and a consolidation of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, and
the Baltimore & Potomac), the Western Maryland, the West Virginia
Central & Pittsburg (leased by the Western Maryland), the Northern
Central, the Maryland electric railways (including what was formerly
the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line), and the Washington, Baltimore &
Annapolis electric railway. Baltimore is the chief railway centre and
its harbour is one of the most important in the country.
_Inhabitants._--The population of Maryland in 1880 was 934,943; in 1890,
1,042,390, an increase of 11.5%; in 1900, 1,188,044 (14%); in 1910,
1,295,346 (increase 9%).[2] Of the total population in 1900 there were
952,424 whites, 235,064 negroes, 544 Chinese, 9 Japanese and 3 Indians,
the increase in the white population from 1890 to 1900 being 15.2%,
while that of the negroes was only 9%. In 1900 there were 1,094,110
native born to 93,934 foreign-born, and of the foreign-born 44,990 were
natives of Germany and 68,600 were residents of the city of Baltimore.
The urban population, i.e. total population of cities of 4000 or more
inhabitants, in 1900, was 572,795, or 48.2% of the total and an increase
of 16.6% over that of 1890; while the rural population, i.e. population
outside of incorporated places, was 539,685, an increase of about 8%
over that of 1890. There are about 59 religious sects, of which the
members of the Roman Catholic Church, which was prominent in the early
history of Maryland, are far the most numerous, having in 1906 166,941
members out of 473,257 communicants of all denominations; in the same
year there were 137,156 Methodists, 34,965 Protestant Episcopalians,
32,246 Lutherans, 30,928 Baptists, 17,895 Presbyterians and 13,442
members of the Reformed Church in the United States. The chief cities
are Baltimore, pop. (1910) 558,485, Cumberland 21,839, Hagerstown
16,507, Frederick 10,411 and Annapolis 8609.
_Government._--The state constitution of 1867, the one now in force, has
been frequently amended, all that is required for its amendment being a
three-fifths vote of all of the members elected to each of the two
houses of the General Assembly, followed by a majority vote of the state
electorate, and it is further provided that once in twenty years,
beginning with 1887, the wish of the people in regard to calling a
convention for altering the constitution shall be ascertained by a poll.
Any constitution or constitutional amendment proposed by such
constitutional convention comes into effect only if approved by a
majority of the votes cast in a popular election. Since 1870 suffrage
has been the right of all male citizens (including negroes) twenty-one
years of age or over who shall have lived within the state for one year
and within the county or the legislative district of the city of
Baltimore in which they may offer to vote for six months immediately
preceding an election; persons convicted of larceny or other infamous
crime and not since pardoned by the governor, as well as lunatics or
those who have been convicted of bribery at a previous election are
excepted. In 1908 the General Assembly passed a law providing for annual
direct primary elections (outside of Baltimore; and making the Baltimore
special primary law applicable to state as well as city officials), but,
as regards state officers, making only a slight improvement upon
previous conditions inasmuch as the county or district is the unit and
the vote of county or district merely "instructs" delegates to the
party's state nominating convention, representation in which is not
strictly in proportion to population, the rural counties having an
advantage over Baltimore; no nomination petition is required. In the
same year a separate law was passed providing for primary elections for
the choice of United States senators; but here also the method is not
that of nomination by a plurality throughout the state, but by the vote
of counties and legislative districts, so that this measure, like the
other primary law, is not sufficiently direct to give Baltimore a vote
proportional to its population.
The chief executive authority is vested in a governor elected by
popular vote for a term of four years. Since becoming a state Maryland
has had no lieutenant-governor except under the constitution of 1864;
and the office of governor is to be filled in case of a vacancy by
such person as the General Assembly may elect.[3] Any citizen of
Maryland may be elected to the office who is thirty years of age or
over, who has been for ten years a citizen of the state, who has lived
in the state for five years immediately preceding election, and who is
at the time of his election a qualified voter therein. Until 1838 the
governor had a rather large appointing power, but since that date most
of the more important offices have been filled by popular election.
He, however, still appoints, subject to the confirmation of the
senate, the secretary of state, the superintendent of public
education, the commissioner of the land office, the adjutant-general,
justices of the peace, notaries public, the members of numerous
administrative boards, and other administrative officers. He is
himself one of the board of education, of the board of public works,
and of the board for the management of the house of correction. No
veto power whatever was given to the governor until 1867, when, in the
present constitution, it was provided that no bill vetoed by him
should become a law unless passed over his veto by a three-fifths vote
of the members elected to each house, and an amendment of 1890
(ratified by the people in 1891) further provides that any item of a
money bill may likewise be separately vetoed. The governor's salary is
fixed by the constitution at $4500 a year. Other executive officers
are a treasurer, elected by joint ballot of the General Assembly for a
term of two years, a comptroller elected by popular vote for a similar
term, and an attorney-general elected by popular vote for four years.
The legislature, or General Assembly, meets biennially in
even-numbered years, at Annapolis, and consists of a Senate and a
House of Delegates. Senators are elected, one from each of the
twenty-three counties and one from each of the four legislative
districts of the city of Baltimore, for a term of four years, the
terms of one-half expiring every two years. Delegates are elected for
a term of two years, from each county and from each legislative
district of Baltimore, according to population, as follows: for a
population of 18,000 or less, two delegates; 18,000 to 28,000, three;
28,000 to 40,000, four; 40,000 to 55,000, five; 55,000 and upwards,
six. Each legislative district of Baltimore is entitled to the number
of delegates to which the largest county shall or may be entitled
under the foregoing apportionment, and the General Assembly may from
time to time alter the boundaries of Baltimore city districts in order
to equalize their population. This system of apportionment gives to
the rural counties a considerable political advantage over the city of
Baltimore, which, with 42.8% of the total population according to the
census of 1900, has only 4 out of 27 members of the Senate and only 24
out of 101 members of the House of Delegates. Since far back in the
colonial era, no minister, preacher, or priest has been eligible to a
seat in either house. A senator must be twenty-five years of age or
over, and both senators and delegates must have lived within the state
at least three years and in their county or legislative district at
least one year immediately preceding their election.
The constitution provides that no bill or joint resolution shall pass
either house except by an affirmative vote of a majority of all the
members elected to that house and requires that on the final vote the
yeas and nays be recorded.
_Justice, &c._--The administration of justice is entrusted to a court
of appeals, circuit courts, special courts for the city of Baltimore,
orphans' courts, and justices of the peace. Exclusive of the city of
Baltimore, the state is divided into seven judicial circuits, in each
of which are elected for a term of fifteen years one chief judge and
two associate judges, who at the time of their election must be
members of the Maryland bar, between the ages of thirty and seventy,
and must have been residents of the state for at least five years. The
seven chief judges so elected, together with one elected from the city
of Baltimore, constitute the court of appeals, the governor with the
advice and consent of the senate designating one of the eight as chief
judge of that court. The court has appellate jurisdiction only. The
three judges elected in each circuit constitute the circuit court of
each of the several counties in such circuit. The courts have both
original and appellate jurisdiction and are required to hold at least
two sessions to which jurors shall be summoned every year in each
county of its circuit, and if only two such terms are held, there must
be two other and intermediate terms to which jurors shall not be
summoned. Three other judges are elected for four-year terms, in each
county and in the city of Baltimore to constitute an orphans' court.
The number of justices of the peace for each county is fixed by local
law; they are appointed by the governor, subject to the confirmation
of the Senate, for a term of two years.
In the colonial era Maryland had an interesting list of governmental
subdivisions--the manor, the hundred, the parish, the county, and the
city--but the two last are about all that remain and even these are in
considerable measure subject to the special local acts of the General
Assembly. In general, each county has from three to seven
commissioners--the number is fixed by county laws--elected on a
general ticket of each county for a term of from two to six years,
entrusted with the charge and control of property owned by the county,
empowered to appoint constables, judges of elections, collectors of
taxes, trustees of the poor, and road supervisors, to levy taxes, to
revise taxable valuations of real property, and open or close public
roads.
In Maryland a wife holds her property as if single except that she can
convey real estate only by a joint deed with her husband (this
requirement being for the purpose of effecting a release of the
husband's "dower interest"), neither husband nor wife is liable for
the separate debts of the other, and on the death of either the rights
of the survivor in the estate of the other are about equal.
Wife-beating is made punishable by whipping in gaol, not exceeding
forty lashes. Prior to 1841 a divorce was granted by the legislature
only, from then until 1851 it could be granted by either the
legislature or the equity courts, since 1851 by the courts only. The
grounds for a divorce _a mensa et thoro_, which may be granted for
ever or for a limited time only, are cruelty, excessively vicious
conduct, or desertion; for a divorce _a vinculo matrimonii_ the chief
grounds are impotence at the time of marriage, adultery or deliberate
abandonment for three years. There is no homestead exemption law and
exemptions from levy for the satisfaction of debts extend only to $100
worth of property, besides wearing apparel and books and tools used by
the debtor in his profession or trade, and to all money payable in the
nature of insurance. Employers of workmen in a clay or coal mine,
stone quarry, or on a steam or street railway are liable for damage in
case of an injury to any of their workmen where such injury is caused
by the negligence of the employer or of any servant or employee of the
employer. The chief of the bureau of labour statistics is directed in
case of danger of a strike or lockout to seek to mediate between the
parties and if unsuccessful in that, then to endeavour to secure their
consent to the formation of a board of arbitration.
The state penal and charitable institutions include a penitentiary at
Baltimore; a house of correction at Jessups, two houses of refuge at
Baltimore; a house of reformation in Prince George's county; St Mary's
industrial school for boys at Baltimore; an industrial home for negro
girls at Melvale; an asylum and training school for the feeble-minded
at Owings Mills; an infirmary at Cumberland; the Maryland hospital for
the insane at Catonsville; the Springfield state hospital for the
insane; the Maryland school for the deaf and dumb at Frederick city;
and the Maryland school for the blind at Baltimore. Each of these is
under the management of a board appointed by the governor subject to
the confirmation of the senate. Besides these there are a large number
of state-aided charitable institutions. In 1900 there was created a
board of state aid and charities, composed of seven members appointed
by the governor for a term of two years, not more than four to be
reappointed. There is also a state lunacy commission of four members,
who are appointed for terms of four years, one annually, by the
governor.
_Education._--The basis of the present common school system was laid
in 1865, after which a marked development was accompanied by some
important changes in the system and its administration, and the
percentage of total illiteracy (i.e. inability to write among those
ten years old and over) decreased from 19.3 in 1800 to 11.1 in 1900,
while illiteracy among the native whites decreased during the same
period from 7.8 to 4.1 and among negroes from 59.6 to 35.2. At the
head of the system is a state board and a state superintendent, and
under these in each county is a county board which appoints a
superintendent for the county and a board of trustees for each school
district none of which is to be more than four miles square. The state
board is composed of the governor as its president, the state
superintendent as its secretary, six other members appointed by the
governor for a term of six years, and, as _ex-officio_ members without
the right to vote, the principals of the state and other normal
schools. Prior to 1900 the principal of the state normal was
_ex-officio_ state superintendent, but since then the superintendent
has been appointed by the governor for a term of four years. Each
county board is also appointed by the governor for a term of six
years. In both the state and the county boards at least one-third of
the members appointed by the governor are not to be of the dominant
political party and only one-third of the members are to be appointed
every two years. The state board enacts by-laws for the administration
of the system; its decision of controversies arising under the school
law is final; it may suspend or remove a county superintendent for
inefficiency or incompetency; it issues life state certificates, but
applicants must have had seven years of experience in teaching, five
in Maryland, and must hold a first-class certificate or a college or
normal school diploma; and it pensions teachers who have taught
successfully for twenty-five years in any of the public or normal
schools of the state, who have reached the age of sixty, and who have
become physically or mentally incapable of teaching longer, the
pension amounting to $200 a year. The legislature of 1908 passed a law
under which the minimum pay for a teacher holding a first-class
certificate should be $350 a year after three years' teaching, $400
after five years' teaching and $450 after eight years' teaching. By a
law of 1904 all teachers who taught an average of 15 pupils were to
receive at least $300. School books are purchased out of the proceeds
of the school tax, but parents may purchase if they prefer. In 1908
the average school year was nine and seven-tenths months--ten in the
cities and nine and four-tenths in the counties; the aim is ten months
throughout, and a law of 1904 provides that if a school is taught less
than nine months a portion of the funds set apart for it shall be
withheld. A compulsory education law of 1902--to operate, however,
only in the city of Baltimore and in Allegany county--requires the
attendance for the whole school year of children between the ages of
eight and twelve and also of those between the ages of twelve and
sixteen who are not employed at home or elsewhere. A separate school
for negro children is to be maintained in every election district in
which the population warrants it. The system is maintained by a state
tax of 16 cents on each $100 of taxable property.
The higher state educational institutions are two normal schools and
one agricultural college. One of the normal schools was opened in
Baltimore in 1866, the other at Frostburg in 1904. Both are under the
management of the state Board of Education, which appoints the
principals and teachers and prescribes the course of study. There is
besides, in Washington College at Chestertown, a normal department
supported by the state and under the supervision of the state Board of
Education. The Maryland Agricultural College, to which an experiment
station has been added, was opened in 1859; it is at College Park in
Prince George's county, and is largely under state management.
Maryland supports no state university, but Johns Hopkins University,
one of the leading institutions of its kind in the country, receives
$25,000 a year from the state; the medical department of the
university of Maryland receives an annual appropriation of about
$2500, and St John's College, the academic department of the
university of Maryland, receives from the state $13,000 annually and
gives for each county in the state one free scholarship and one
scholarship covering all expenses. Among the principal institutions in
the state are the university of Maryland, an outgrowth of the medical
college of Maryland (1807) in Baltimore, with a law school
(reorganized in 1869), a dental school (1882), a school of pharmacy
(1904), and, since 1907, a department of arts and science in St John's
College (non-sect., opened in 1789) at Annapolis; Washington College,
with a normal department (non-sect., opened in 1782) at Chestertown;
Mount St Mary's College (Roman Catholic, 1808) at Emmitsburg; New
Windsor College (Presbyterian, 1843) at New Windsor; St Charles
College (Roman Catholic, opened in 1848) and Rock Hill College (Roman
Catholic, 1857) near Ellicott City; Loyola College (Roman Catholic,
1852) at Baltimore; Western Maryland College (Methodist Protestant,
1867) at Westminster; Johns Hopkins University (non-sect., 1876) at
Baltimore; Morgan College (coloured, Methodist, 1876) at Baltimore;
Goucher College (Methodist, founded 1884, opened 1888) at Baltimore;
several professional schools mostly in Baltimore (q.v.); the Peabody
Institute at Baltimore; and the United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis.
_Revenue._--The state's revenue is derived from a general direct
property tax, a licence tax, corporation taxes, a collateral
inheritance tax, fines, forfeitures and fees; and the penitentiary
yields an annual net revenue of about $40,000. There is no provision
for a general periodic assessment, but a state tax commissioner
appointed by the governor, treasurer and comptroller assesses the
corporations, and the county commissioners (in the counties) and the
appeal tax court (in the city of Baltimore) revise valuations of real
property every two years. From 1820 to 1836 Maryland, in its
enthusiasm over internal improvements, incurred an indebtedness of
more than $16,000,000. To meet the interest, such heavy taxes were
levied that anti-tax associations were formed to resist the
collection, and in 1842 the state failed to pay what was due; but the
accumulated interest had been funded by 1848 and was paid soon
afterwards, the expenses of the government were curtailed by the
constitution of 1851, and after the Civil War the amount of
indebtedness steadily decreased until in 1902 the funded debt was
$6,909,326 and the net debt only $2,797,269.13, while on the 1st of
October 1908 the net debt was $366,643.91. As a result of incurring
the large debt, a clause in the constitution prohibits the legislature
from contracting a debt without providing by the imposition of taxes
for the payment of the interest annually and the principal within
fifteen years, except to meet a temporary deficiency not exceeding
$50,000. The first bank of the state was established in 1790, and by
1817 there was one in each of twelve counties and several in
Baltimore; in 1818-1820 and in 1837-1839 there were several serious
bank failures, but there have been no serious failures since. A
constitutional provision makes each stockholder in a state bank liable
to the amount of his share or shares for all the bank's debts and
liabilities. A savings bank is taxed on its deposits, and a state bank
is taxed on its capital-stock.
_History._--The history of Maryland begins in 1632 with the procedure of
Charles I. to grant a charter conveying almost unlimited territorial and
governmental rights therein to George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore
(1580?-1632), and styling him its absolute lord and proprietor. George
Calvert died before the charter had passed the great seal, but about two
months later in the same year it was issued to his eldest son, Cecilius.
In November 1633 two vessels, the "Ark" and the "Dove," carrying at
least two hundred colonists under Leonard Calvert (c. 1582-1647), a
brother of the proprietor, as governor, sailed from Gravesend and
arrived in Maryland late in March of the following year. Friendly
relations were at the outset established with the Indians, and the
province never had much trouble with that race; but with William
Claiborne (1589?-1676?), the arch-enemy of the province as long as he
lived, it was otherwise. He had opposed the grant of the Maryland
charter, had established a trading post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay
in 1631, and when commanded to submit to the new government he and his
followers offered armed resistance. A little later, during his temporary
absence in England, his followers on the island were reduced to
submission; but in 1644, while the Civil War in England was in progress,
he was back in the province assisting Richard Ingle, a pirate who
claimed to be acting in the interest of parliament, in raising an
insurrection which deprived Governor Calvert of his office for about a
year and a half. Finally, the lord proprietor was deprived of his
government from 1654 to 1658 in obedience to instructions from
parliament which were originally intended to affect only Virginia, but
were so modified, through the influence of Claiborne and some Puritan
exiles from Virginia who had settled in Maryland, as to apply also to
"the plantations within Chesapeake Bay." Then the long continued unrest
both in the mother country and in the province seems to have encouraged
Josias Fendall, the proprietor's own appointee as governor, to strike a
blow against the proprietary government and attempt to set up a
commonwealth in its place; but this revolt was easily suppressed and
order was generally preserved in the province from the English
Restoration of 1660 to the English Revolution of 1688.
Meanwhile an interesting internal development had been in progress. The
proprietor was a Roman Catholic and probably it was his intention that
Maryland should be an asylum for persecuted Roman Catholics, but it is
even more clear that he was desirous of having Protestant colonists
also. To this end he promised religious toleration from the beginning
and directed his officers accordingly; this led to the famous toleration
act passed by the assembly in 1649, which, however, extended its
protection only to sects of Trinitarian Christianity. Again, although
the charter reserved to the proprietor the right of calling an assembly
of the freemen or their delegates at such times and in such form and
manner as he should choose, he surrendered in 1638 his claim to the sole
right of initiating legislation. By 1650 the assembly had been divided
into two houses, in one of which sat only the representatives of the
freemen without whose consent no bill could become a law, and annual
sessions as well as triennial elections were coming to be the usual
order. When suffrage had thus come to be a thing really worth
possessing, the proprietor, in 1670, sought to check the opposition by
disfranchising all freemen who did not have a freehold of fifty acres or
a visible estate of forty pounds sterling. But this step was followed by
more and more impassioned complaints against him, such as: that he was
interfering with elections, that he was summoning only a part of the
delegates elected, that he was seeking to overawe those summoned, that
he was abusing his veto power, and that he was keeping the government in
the hands of Roman Catholics, who were mostly members of his own family.
About this time also the north and east boundaries of the province were
beginning to suffer from the aggressions of William Penn. The territory
now forming the state of Delaware was within the boundaries defined by
the Maryland charter, but in 1682 it was transferred by the duke of York
to William Penn and in 1685 Lord Baltimore's claim to it was denied by
an order in council, on the ground that it had been inhabited by
Christians before the Maryland charter was granted. In the next place,
although it was clear from the words of the charter that the parallel of
40° N. was intended for its north boundary, and although Penn's charter
prescribed that Pennsylvania should extend on the south to the
"beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern Latitude," a controversy
arose with regard to the boundary between the two provinces, and there
was a long period of litigation; in 1763-1767 Charles Mason and Jeremiah
Dixon, two English mathematicians, established the line named from them
(see MASON AND DIXON LINE), which runs along the parallel 39° 43´ 26´´.3
N. and later became famous as the dividing line between the free states
and the slave states. While the proprietor was absent defending his
claims against Penn the English Revolution of 1688 was started. Owing to
the death of a messenger there was long delay in proclaiming the new
monarchs in Maryland; this delay, together with a rumor of a Popish plot
to slaughter the Protestants, enabled the opposition to overthrow the
proprietary government, and then the crown, in the interest of its trade
policy, set up a royal government in its place, in 1692, without,
however, divesting the proprietor of his territorial rights. Under the
royal government the Church of England was established, the people
acquired a strong control of their branch of the legislature and they
were governed more by statute law and less by executive ordinance. The
proprietor having become a Protestant, the proprietary government was
restored in 1715. Roman Catholics were disfranchised immediately
afterward. In 1730 Germans began to settle in considerable numbers in
the west-central part of the colony, where they greatly promoted its
industrial development but at the same time added much strength to the
opposition. The first great dispute between proprietor and people after
the restoration of 1715 was with regard to the extension of the English
statutes to Maryland, the popular branch of the legislature vigorously
contending that all such statutes except those expressly excluded
extended to the province, and the lord proprietor contending that only
those in which the dominions were expressly mentioned were in force
there. Many other disputes speedily followed and when the final struggle
between the English and French for possession in America came, although
appropriations were made at its beginning to protect her own west
frontier from the attacks of the enemy, a dead-lock between the two
branches of the assembly prevented Maryland from responding to repeated
appeals from the mother country for aid in the latter part of that
struggle. This failure was used as an argument in favour of imposing the
famous Stamp Act. Nevertheless, popular clamour against parliament on
account of that measure was even greater than it had been against the
proprietor. The stamp distributor was driven out, and the arguments of
Daniel Dulany (1721-1797), the ablest lawyer in the province, against
the act were quoted by speakers in parliament for its repeal.
In the years immediately preceding the Declaration of Independence
Maryland pursued much the same course as did other leading colonies in
the struggle--a vessel with tea on board was even burned to the water's
edge--and yet when it came to the decisive act of declaring independence
there was hesitation. As the contest against the proprietor had been
nearly won, the majority of the best citizens desired the continuance of
the old government and it was not until the Maryland delegates in the
Continental Congress were found almost alone in holding back that their
instructions not to vote for independence were rescinded. The new
constitution drawn and adopted in 1776 to take the place of the charter
was of an aristocratic rather than a democratic nature. Under it the
property qualification for suffrage was a freehold of 50 acres or £30
current money, the property qualifications for delegates £500, for
senators £1000, and for governor £5000. Four delegates were chosen from
each county and two each from Baltimore and Annapolis, the same as under
the proprietary government, population not being taken into account.
Senators were chosen by a college of fifteen electors elected in the
same manner as the delegates, and the governor by a joint ballot of the
two houses of assembly. In 1802 negroes were disfranchised, and in 1810
property qualifications for suffrage and office were abolished. The
system of representation that, with the rapid growth of population in
the north-east sections, especially in the city of Baltimore, placed the
government in the hands of a decreasing minority also began to be
attacked about this time; but the fear of that minority which
represented the tobacco-raising and slave-holding counties of south
Maryland, with respect to the attitude of the majority toward slavery
prevented any changes until 1837, when the opposition awakened by the
enthusiasm over internal improvements effected the adoption of
amendments which provided for the election of the governor and senators
by a direct vote of the people, a slight increase in the representation
of the city of Baltimore and the larger counties, and a slight decrease
in that of the smaller counties. Scarcely had these amendments been
carried when the serious financial straits brought on by debt incurred
through the state's promotion of internal improvements gave rise to the
demand for a reduction of governmental expenses and a limitation of the
power of the General Assembly to contract debts. The result was the new
constitution of 1851, which fully established representation in the
counties on the basis of population and further increased that of
Baltimore. The constitution of 1851 was however chiefly a patchwork of
compromises. So, when during the Civil War Maryland was largely under
Federal control and the demand arose for the abolition of slavery by the
state, another constitutional convention was called, in 1864, which
framed a constitution providing that those who had given aid to the
Rebellion should be disfranchised and that only those qualified for
suffrage in accordance with the new document could vote on its adoption.
This was too revolutionary to stand long and in 1867 it was superseded
by the present constitution. In national affairs Maryland early took a
stand of perhaps far-reaching consequences in refusing to sign the
Articles of Confederation (which required the assent of all the states
before coming into effect), after all the other states had done so (in
1779), until those states claiming territory between the Alleghany
Mountains and the Mississippi and north of the Ohio--Virginia, New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut--should have surrendered such claims. As
those states finally yielded, the Union was strengthened by reason of a
greater equality and consequently less jealousy among the original
states, and the United States came into possession of the first
territory in which all the states had a common interest and out of which
new states were to be created. In the War of 1812 Frederick, Havre de
Grace, and Frenchtown were burned by the British; but particularly
noteworthy were the unsuccessful movements of the enemy by land and by
sea against Baltimore, in which General Robert Ross (c. 1766-1814), the
British commander of the land force, was killed before anything had been
accomplished and the failure of the fleet to take Fort McHenry after a
siege of a day and a night inspired the song _The Star-spangled Banner_,
composed by Francis Scott Key who had gone under a flag of truce to
secure from General Ross the release of a friend held as a prisoner by
the British and during the attack was detained on his vessel within the
British lines. In 1861 Maryland as a whole was opposed to secession but
also opposed to coercing the seceded states. During the war that
followed the west section was generally loyal to the north while the
south section favoured the Confederacy and furnished many soldiers for
its army; but most of the state was kept under Federal control, the writ
of habeas corpus being suspended. The only battle of much importance
fought on Maryland soil during the war was that of Sharpsburg or
Antietam on the 16th and 17th of September 1862. As between political
parties the state has usually been quite equally divided. From 1820 to
1860, however, the Whigs were in general a trifle the stronger; and from
1866 to 1895 the Democrats were triumphant; in 1895 a Republican
governor was elected; in 1896 Maryland gave McKinley 32,232 votes more
than it gave Bryan; and in 1904 seven Democratic electors and one
Republican were chosen; and in 1908 five Democratic and three
Republican.
The proprietors of Maryland were: Cecilius Calvert, second Lord
Baltimore (1605[?]-1675) from 1632 to 1675; Charles Calvert, third
Lord Baltimore (1629-1715) from 1675 to 1715; Benedict Leonard
Calvert, fourth Lord Baltimore (1684?-1715) 1715; Charles Calvert,
fifth Lord Baltimore (1699-1751) from 1715 to 1751; Frederick Calvert,
sixth and last Lord Baltimore (1731-1771) from 1751 to 1771; Henry
Harford, from 1771 to 1776.
_Governors of Maryland._
_Proprietary._
Leonard Calvert 1633-1645
Richard Ingle (usurper) 1645
Edward Hill (chosen by the council) 1646
Leonard Calvert 1646-1647
Thomas Greene 1647-1649
William Stone \ 1649-1652
Richard Bennett > (commissioners of \
Edmund Curtis | parliament) > 1652
William Claiborne / /
William Stone 1652-1654
William Fuller and others (appointed by the
commissioners of parliament) 1654-1658
Josias Fendall 1658-1660
Philip Calvert 1660-1661
Charles Calvert 1661-1675
Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore 1675-1676
Cecilius Calvert (titular) and Jesse Wharton (real) 1676
Thomas Notley 1676-1679
Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore 1679-1684
Benedict Leonard Calvert (titular) and council (real) 1684-1688
William Joseph (president of the council) 1688-1689
Protestant Associators under John Coode 1689-1692
_Royal._
Sir Lionel Copley 1692-1693
Sir Edmund Andros 1693-1694
Francis Nicholson 1694-1699
Nathaniel Blackistone 1699-1702
Thomas Tench (president of the council) 1702-1704
John Seymour 1704-1709
Edward Lloyd (president of the council) 1709-1714
John Hart 1714-1715
John Hart 1715-1720
Charles Calvert 1720-1727
Benedict Leonard Calvert 1727-1731
Samuel Ogle 1731-1732
Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore 1732-1733
Samuel Ogle 1733-1742
Thomas Bladen 1742-1747
Samuel Ogle 1747-1752
Benjamin Tasker (president of the council) 1752-1753
Horatio Sharpe 1752-1769
Robert Eden 1769-1774
Robert Eden (nominal) and Convention and Council
of Safety (real) 1774-1776