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Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784
Volume 48, Preface 11   View pdf image (33K)
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Letter of Transmittal. xi intention of laying the matter before the General Assembly for its determina tion. It is of interest to note that the Assembly at the next session passed an act upholding Paca's contention, but we are not told what was the fate of the prisoner. Congress held its session in the State House at Annapolis from November 26, 1783 to June 3, 1784. The proceedings of the Council contain only casual references to this session, made notable by the circumstance that it was then that Washington came to Annapolis to relinquish his military command and to deliver his celebrated addfess on December 23, 1783. The Governor and Council under date of December 20, had sent him an address expressing their warm appreciation of his services, to which he made appropriate answer. Both of these addresses are entered in the records. An entry also appears in the proceedings of the Council that pursuant to a resolution of the Assembly, the Chevalier d'Annemours, or d'Anmour as it is usually spelled in contempo rary American records, recently receive4 by Congress as Consul General of France to the United States, should likewise be recognized as Consul General to the State of Maryland. At this period the Governor and Council were elected annually by the General Assembly. The Council journal opens with the selection, November 19, 1781, of Thomas Sim Lee as governor. A year later William Paca became governor, and he was reelected in 1784. The Council, in addition to the Governor, was made up of a president and five members The members of the Council during the three years covered by this volume were as a rule men of ability and distinction. We find the names of John Hoskins Stone, later a governor, James Brice, a distinguished Annapolis lawyer, Jeremiah Townley Chase, afterwards the Chief Judge of Maryland Court of Appeals, William Paca, the “signer,” Gabriel Duvall, later a justice of the United States Supreme Court, Benjamin Ogle, afterwards governor, Benjamin Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy under Adams, Samuel Turbutt Wright, Charles Wallace, and John David son. During this three year period from time to time we find members resigning because of disapproval of the action of the majority of their colleagues. With the conclusion of the peace the amount of business transacted by the Council shows a rapid decrease. The proceedings and correspondence for 1784 in amount is scarcely a fourth of that transacted in each of the two preceding years. The records here presented are to be found in manuscript form in Liber C. B. No. 24 of the Journal of the Council and in Liber No. 78 of the Letters from the Council. The contents of these two books, as in the pre vious volumes of this Revolutionary sub-series, have been combined so that the entries from both of them are here brought together and arranged ac cording to dates. It is to be regretted that the letters addressed to the Council during the same period cannot be included in this volume in a similar way. Their number is so great and so many of them do not relate to the business of the Council as shown by its own journals, however, that it seems wise to continue the publication in separate volumes of such of these letters as seem of special historical value.

 
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Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1781-1784
Volume 48, Preface 11   View pdf image (33K)
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