Maryland joined with the other colonies in repudiating the Stamp Act, and forced the stamp distributor to resign his office and flee from the province. The general assembly passed bold resolves, refusing to admit taxa tion without representation, and claiming that the provincial legislature had the ((sole right to lay taxes, or impositions, on the inhabitants of their province, or their property or effects.* When the day arrived on which the Stamp Act should go into operation there was no stamped paper in the province. How could business be i transacted, if unstamped paper was illegal? The Frederick County Court took a bold but sensible course, and declared that its business should be carried on without stamps, and the other courts of the province followed it in that course. Maryland was represented in the Continental Stamp Act Congress and took part in the non-importation agreement and in the correspondence with the other colonies, so as to present an united front against the British acts.
The people of Annapolis burnt a vessel, The Peggy Stewart, laden with tea. Yet the prov ince was conservative, and, in Sharpe and Eden, had two governors of unusual popular ity. In 1774 Eden went to England for a few months. In June, during his absence, there met at Annapolis a *general congress of deputies from all the counties,* to consider measures of opposition to England. This body was the first of a series of conventions, which chose dele gates to continental congresses and appointed a Committee of Safety to act as an executive committee during the intervals between con ventions; which enlisted troops and sent them to fight the British in Massachusetts; which directed the choice by each county of a Com mittee of Observation to care for local matters; and which, by the Association, a document of fered in 1775 for subscription by the freemen of the province, expressed approval of the measures adopted by the Continental Congress in opposition to Great Britain, and united the people *in maintenance of good order and the public peace.* Eden had not only difficulties to contend with in connection with the British revenue acts, but also had to meet two local troubles. A strong party declared that the act, which provided for the support of the clergy, had not been properly passed, and so was void. A struggle over officers' fees caused great excite ment. The acts fixing these fees were tem porary, so that the legislature might readjust their rates every few years. The councillors held the chief offices and naturally desired large fees. When the fee act expired in 1770 all attempts to pass a new law failed, because of dissensions between the two houses of the assembly. What should be done in this emer gency? Eden issued a proclamation forbidding any officer to take fees greater than those al lowed in the old law. Of course, he was
thereby virtually authorized to take fees at the old rate, and so the proclamation fixed the fees. A fierce controversy followed over the governor's right to do this; in which contro versy, Daniel Dulany, the younger, who had attacked the Stamp Act, defended the governor, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a young Roman Catholic, who was the wealthiest land owner in the province, attacked him. The ma jority of the people undoubtedly agreed with Carroll, but the governor held the whip hand and fees were collected at the old rate, until British rule was overthrown.
In 1771 Frederick, sixth and last Lord Baltimore, died, and the title became extinct. He left the province to his illegitimate son, Henry Harford, the sixth and last lord proprietary. In his honor, Harford County, on the west side of the Susquehanna, was named, and, at the same time, Caroline County, the only inland one on the Eastern Shore, was created and named in honor of Lady Eden.
Eden's influence could not prevent acts of lawlessness from time to time, but his tact and good-fellowship with the colonial leaders, and. the conservatism which had always showed itself in Maryland, kept the *ostensible form of government* intact, so that on 17 May 1776, the Provincial Convention denied that it was necessary to suppress the royal government, and, on 21 May, expressed the hope for a *re union with Great Britain on constitutional principles.° Eden saw that the provincials would 'snot long be able to stem the torrents which, in several provinces," ran "strongly to ward independence." He declined to accept the proposition of the convention that he remain as governor of Maryland, promising to take °no active hostile part, nor to correspond with the British government.° Instead, he embarked on a British man-of-war on 23 June 1776, and sailed for England, where, in August, he was created Baronet of Maryland, an honor still worn by his descendants, in return for his skil ful administration of the affairs of the province. Baltimore town and Frederick County eagerly sought independence. Samuel Chase, like a flame of fire, preached it throughout Maryland, Matthew Tilghman, William Paca, Charles Car roll the barrister and Charles Carroll of Car rollton urged it. So the convention voted on 21 June, to allow its deputies in the Continental Congress to unite with delegates from other colonies, in declaring independence and forming a confederation. On 3 July, the convention adopted her own declaration of independence, and, thereafter, began to prepare a permanent written constitution for the new State.