clear space clear space clear space white space
A
 r c h i v e s   o f   M a r y l a n d   O n l i n e

PLEASE NOTE: The searchable text below was computer generated and may contain typographical errors. Numerical typos are particularly troubling. Click “View pdf” to see the original document.

  Maryland State Archives | Index | Help | Search
search for:
clear space
white space
Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784
Volume 48, Preface 10   View pdf image (33K)
 Jump to  
  << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
clear space clear space clear space white space
x Letter of Transmittal. peace was established Samuel Chase was sent to England to secure the trans fer to the State of the stock of the Bank of England which stood in the name of the old provincial government. It may be added that he not only succeeded in doing this but also secured for himself a second wife while on this visit to England. In 1783 a resident of Harford County brought sweeping charges against eight justices of that county, including malversation in office, perjury, drunkenness, and incompetency. The charges were not substantiated, however, and were dismissed by the Council. The late proprietary Governor, Sir Robert Eden, returned to Maryland after peace was established as the legal representa tive of Henry Harford, the last proprietary, with a view to securing from the State either recognition of the rights in Maryland lands which Harford still claimed, or compensation for his losses through their confiscation. Eden, who had always been personally popular and was the last of the British governors in the colonies to leave his post after the outbreak of the Revolution, presumed too much upon his former popularity, however, when soon after his arrival in Maryland he actually began in January, 1784, to issue and sign patents in the name of the former proprietary to vacant lands to which the latter still made claim. At once the State was in a turmoil, and February 21, we find the Gover nor and Council instructing Luther Martin, the attorney-general, to take im mediate steps to determine whether Eden should not be prosecuted for fraud and treason in this offence against the sovereignty and dignity of the State. These activities apparently ceased as we find no further reference to him in this connection, and he died in Maryland, September 3, 1784, while on this mission for Harford. At least two instances of disputes between Maryland and other states are recorded in these records. Under date of March 19, 1783, Governor Paca sent a stinging letter to the Governor of Rhode Island protesting against the capturc and confiscation by a Rhode Island schooner of a small Maryland sloop, which under a flag of truce was on the way to New York with food shipped by the Council for the relief of the one hundred and fifty or more wretched Marylanders confined there in British prison ships, and demanded redress and immediate release of the schooner. Another instance of interstate friction involved the extradition to Pennsylvania of a certain Captain Henry Carberry, a citizen of Maryland but lately a captain in the Pennsylvania Line, charged with “dangerous insurrection” in Philadelphia in June 1784, doubt less a disbanded soldier clamoring too vigorously for back pay. An inter minable correspondence arose involving at first the jurisdiction of the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania in what was deemed to be a case of treason, as well as the question of State or Confederation jurisdiction. The affair ends, however, in a lengthy and acrimonious dispute between Governor Paca and the General Court of Maryland as to the respective authority of the Governor and the Court in the matter, in which the governor insists in a long and heated letter that the authority to deliver up to another jurisdiction a person so charged is vested not in the judiciary but in the executive alone, and announces his

 
clear space
clear space
white space

Please view image to verify text. To report an error, please contact us.
Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784
Volume 48, Preface 10   View pdf image (33K)
 Jump to  
  << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>


This web site is presented for reference purposes under the doctrine of fair use. When this material is used, in whole or in part, proper citation and credit must be attributed to the Maryland State Archives. PLEASE NOTE: The site may contain material from other sources which may be under copyright. Rights assessment, and full originating source citation, is the responsibility of the user.


Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!



An Archives of Maryland electronic publication.
For information contact mdlegal@mdarchives.state.md.us.

©Copyright  October 06, 2023
Maryland State Archives