Maryland Changed Its Mind in a Week.
For most of the spring of 1776, Maryland had been the most stubborn holdout in the Continental Congress. Its delegates had been explicitly instructed by the Maryland Convention in January to oppose any move toward independence. As recently as May 21, the Convention had reaffirmed those instructions, declaring that a reunion with Britain "on constitutional principles" was still the goal.
Then Samuel Chase went home.
Between June 20 and June 28, 1776, Chase rode through the Maryland countryside, through Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Charles, and Calvert counties, speaking at county meeting after county meeting. His pitch was direct. Maryland's reluctance was now the only thing standing between the Continental Congress and a unanimous declaration of independence. He wanted each county to send new instructions to the Convention meeting in Annapolis.
On June 28, 1776, the Maryland Convention reversed its position. It unanimously authorized its delegates to vote for independence.
The Chesapeake Tidewater
Maryland in 1776 was a Chesapeake Bay society. Its wealth came from tobacco plantations worked by enslaved Africans. Its politics were dominated by a tight-knit group of planter families (the Carrolls, the Pacas, the Stones, the Chases) who had governed the colony for generations. Unlike Virginia, Maryland had a large Catholic minority, including one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
That wealthy establishment had initially been cautious about independence. Maryland's economy depended on selling tobacco to British buyers. The planter class had personal and commercial relationships across the Atlantic that stretched back generations. A break with Britain meant a break with credit, with markets, with a way of life.
But by June 1776, even the tobacco planters could see the tide had turned. The Continental Army was in the field. Eleven other colonies were either moving toward independence or had already authorized it. Maryland was not going to be able to sit this out.
Samuel Chase and the County Instructions
Samuel Chase was a 35-year-old lawyer from Annapolis, a big and loud man whose political enemies called him "Bacon Face" because of his ruddy complexion. John Adams described him as "violent and boisterous," which Chase took as a compliment. He had been elected to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and was one of the earliest Maryland voices for independence.
In June 1776, Chase and Charles Carroll of Carrollton had just returned from Canada, where they had been part of a doomed diplomatic mission to try to bring the province into the American cause. The mission failed. But the trip radicalized Chase. He arrived home determined to change Maryland's instructions before the Continental Congress voted on the Lee Resolution.
His week-long tour of the Maryland countryside was political theater at its most effective. He spoke in churchyards and outside county courthouses. He read aloud letters from Virginia and North Carolina describing their colonies' votes for independence. He argued that the question was no longer whether independence was desirable, but whether Maryland would be remembered as one of the twelve who had voted yes or the one who had voted no.
Every county he visited sent new instructions to Annapolis. By June 28, the Maryland Convention had no choice. The counties had spoken. The old instructions were repealed and replaced.
The Four Signers
Maryland sent four delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Carroll was the richest man in the colonies, his signature wealth estimated in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the only Catholic to sign the Declaration. He reportedly signed his name "Charles Carroll of Carrollton" precisely so there would be no confusion about which Charles Carroll was signing. Someone asked him if he was afraid the British would hang him. He is said to have replied that there were many Charles Carrolls in Maryland and the British would have to be sure they got the right one. The version with "of Carrollton" made his identity specific.
The Old Line State
Maryland's nickname is the "Old Line State." It comes from the Maryland Line, the regiments of the Continental Army that Washington called "the Old Line" because of their discipline and their reliability in battle. The Maryland 400, a unit of Maryland soldiers who fought a famous rearguard action at the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776, saved most of Washington's army from capture and allowed the retreat that kept the Revolution alive.
None of that happens if Maryland's Convention had not reversed course on June 28. The men who would fight at Brooklyn were the neighbors and kin of the delegates who voted that week in Annapolis. Maryland changed its mind, and then it paid for the change in blood.
We commemorate Maryland on our 50 State Heritage Collection ornament.