oil of Maryland, amid the
wilderness of America, they planted that seed which has since become a
tree of life to the nation, extending its branches and casting its
shadows across a whole continent. The records have been carefully
searched. No case of persecution occurred during the administration of
Governor Leonard Calvert, from the foundation of the settlement of St.
Mary's to the year 1647. His policy included the humblest as well as the
most exalted; and his maxim was, "Peace to all--proscription of none."
Religious liberty was a vital part of the earliest common law of the
province.

At the date of the charter (1632) toleration existed in the heart of the
Proprietary; and it appeared in the earliest administration of the
affairs of the province. But an oath was soon prepared by him, including
a pledge from the Governor and the privy counsellors, "directly or
indirectly," to "trouble, molest, or discountenance" no "person
whatever," in the province, "professing to believe in Jesus Christ." Its
date is still an open question; some writers supposing it was imposed in
1637, and others in 1648. I am inclined to think the oath of the latter
was but "an augmented edition" of the one in the former year.

The grant of the charter marks the era of a special toleration. But the
earliest practice of the government presents the first; the official
oath, the second; the action of the Assembly in 1649, the third, and, to
advocates of a republican government, the most important _phasis_, in
the history of the general toleration. The oath of 1648 is worthy of
attention in another particular. It contained a special pledge in favor
of the Roman Catholics--a feature which might have been deemed
requisite, in consideration of the fact that the Proprietary had
appointed a Protestant gentleman for the post of lieutenant-general or
governor. Some also of the privy counsellors were of the same faith.

The little provincial Parliament of Maryland assembled at St. Mary's, in
the month of April, during the year 1649. This was about fifteen years
after the landing of the Pilgrims, under Governor Calvert; about thirty
years later than the settlement of the Puritans at Plymouth; and more
than forty subsequently to the arrival of the Anglo-Catholics at
Jamestown, in Virginia. The members of the assembly at St. Mary's met in
a spirit of moderation, but seldom the characteristic of a dominant
party. The province was at peace with the aboriginal t