Treason is Hard

A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina. Engraving by Philip Dawe, pub. London: Robert and John Bennet, 1775. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Anyone who has ever collaborated on any kind of project knows there's always the potential for someone to become a problem child. When the stakes are high, patience can be hard to come by and tempers can flare. Writing and approving the Declaration of Independence was the ultimate high-stakes group project (treason, anyone?) and Maryland was a problem child.

Resolving and Declaring

Richard Henry Lee launched Independence Summer on June 7, 1776 when he put forth a resolution for independence to the Second Continental Congress. Not everyone was immediately on board with the idea, so while colonies bickered over whether or not to break ties with England, a committee of five snuck off to take care of the paperwork. 

The committee charged with putting the resolution on paper included John Adams (MA), Benjamin Franklin (PA), Thomas Jefferson (VA), Roger Sherman (CT), and Robert R. Livingston (NY). Jefferson wrote the declaration with Adams and Franklin offering edits. 

Meanwhile, votes were happening in Congress. It took two rounds of voting, but finally everyone (except New York, who abstained) was bought-in to Independence. That vote took place on July 2nd, at which point Jefferson offered up his declaration. He was not prepared for the torture of a group edit. Congress debated the declaration for two days, finally approving it on July 4th. Happy Independence Day, y'all.

But what was Maryland doing gumming up the works?

Team Maryland

Maryland sent three delegates to the Second Continental Congress. William Paca was a lawyer who had led Annapolis' Stamp Act protests in 1765 and helped establish the Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sons of Liberty. Thomas Stone read the law under the tutelage of Annapolis lawyer Thomas Johnson. Stone would open his own law practice in Frederick, Maryland. John Rogers was a lawyer and judge from Upper Marlboro, Maryland and would be the only delegate to vote for Independence but not sign the Declaration of Independence. (He was sick at the time.)

Maryland's Trepidation...and a Big Ol' Pivot

According to John Adams, Maryland was "so excentric [sic] a colony - some times so hot, some times so cold - now so high, then so low - that I do not know what to say about it or expect from it." He continued, "When they get agoing I expect some wild extravagant fight or other from it. To be sure they must go beyond every body else, when they begin to go."  [Maier, p. 67]  

Maryland was determined to remain under the "mildness and equity of the English Constitution." [Maier, p. 30] The colony believed it had fared well under British rule and the Maryland Convention instructed its delegates at the Continental Congress to do everything they could to achieve reconciliation with England. Maryland delegates were specifically told not to vote for Independence or anything that could lead to separation from England without getting prior approval from the Maryland Convention. As late as May 1776, Maryland issued a proclamation stating, "that reunion with Great Britain on constitutional principles would most effectually secure the rights and liberties, and increase the strength and promote the happiness of the whole empire." [Maier, p. 67] And...Maryland saw a threat that the spirit of Independence and equality could lead to rebellion not just by societal elites, but also poor whites and the enslaved.

Advocates for Independence were becoming increasingly frustrated with Maryland and questioned whether the colony truly understood what its citizens wanted. Maryland's Congressional delegates pleaded with the Maryland Convention to get "the fair and uninfluenced Sense of the People." [Maier, p. 67] Samuel Chase noted that people were generally disappointed in the Convention's position on Independence. 

At the county level there were clear calls for Independence. Frederick county specifically denounced any decisions by the Maryland Convention that were not aligned with those of most of the colonies, declaring such decisions "destructive to our internal safety and big with publick ruin." [Maier, p. 76] 

Marylanders were reading Thomas Paine's Common Sense and it resonated. And they learned through a letter from George Germain, the King's Secretary to the American Colonies, that the King planned to use "vigorous measures" to bring rebellious colonists to obedience.

Finally the Maryland Convention chose Independence and released its Congressional delegates to vote accordingly. 

Maryland Signs

On June 28, 1776, Maryland's eighth convention gave its delegates in Philadelphia the mandate to vote for Independence. On July 2nd, they did just that, declaring that the colonies were "free and independent States" that were no longer under the control of Britain. On July 4th, they approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

While events were playing out in Philadelphia, Annapolis was engaging in its own Independence-minded activities. Delegates of the eighth convention wrote their own "Declaration of the Delegates of Maryland" which formally pronounced its separation from the King and Parliament as well as from its proprietor. This Declaration, made on July 6th, was printed in the Maryland Gazette on July 11th along with the Declaration of Independence being signed in Philadelphia. 

"DECLARATION of the Delegates of MARYLAND: We the Delegates of Maryland in Convention assembled do declare that the King of Great Britain has violated his compact with this people, and that they owe no allegiance to him."

It would take about a month for Jefferson's Declaration to be printed for signing. During that time Maryland elected two new delegates to the Continental Congress. Samuel Chase, nicknamed Old Bacon Face, would reunite with his good friend William Paca. Together they had led much of Maryland's revolutionary activities, co-founding Anne Arundel County's chapter of the Sons of Liberty and leading the fight against the 1765 Stamp Act. Joining Chase was Charles Carroll of Carrollton. One of the wealthiest and most formally educated of the signers of the Declaration, he had owned significant Maryland property and enslaved as many as 300 people. He served on the Annapolis Committee of Correspondence and Council Safety and was a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, which served as Maryland's revolutionary government leading up to Independence.

Both new delegates, along with Paca and Stone, would affix their signatures to the Declaration on August 2, 1776. For Paca and Chase this was the culmination of years of political protest. For Carroll it signaled faith in the possibilities of a new nation.

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Holton, Woody. Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2021.

Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York, Vintage Books, 1998.

McWilliams, Jane Wilson. Annapolis: City on the Severn, A History. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.