State History.— Maryland was equal to any other of the 13 original States in her zeal and fidelity to the common cause. On 2 Aug. 1776, her delegates to the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, and, in November, elections were held for officers in the new government, which was finally insti tuted, when the convention adjourned sine die in March 1777, and Thomas Johnson was inaugurated as the first governor. The State constitution was not submitted to the people. It provided for changes by passage of the amend ment at two successive assembly sessions. The constitution contained a bill of rights and a frame of government, consisting of a governor, chosen annually by the legislature, and a gen eral assembly of two chambers; a House of Delegates, elected annually, consisting of four Delegates from each of the 19 counties and two each from Annapolis and Baltimore; and a Senate of 15 members, chosen quinquennially by an electoral college, consisting of two members from each county and one from Annapolis and Baltimore. A governor's council was also pro vided, to be chosen annually by the legislature and to act upon his nominations. The judiciary was to be appointed by the governor. Suffrage was based upon the possession of property, and so there were a few negro voters.
Maryland entered into the Revolutionary War with zeal, and her troops were the only ones which were found in every campaign. At the battle of Long Island, on 27 Aug. 1776, the Maryland line won its first renown, and that renown was heightened in the' Southern cam paigns by its bravery in the battles of Camden, 16 Aug. 1780; the Cowpens. 11 Jan. 1781; Guil ford Court House, 15 March 1781; and Eutaw Spring, 8 Sept. 1781. General William Small wood, their commander, Gen. Mordecai Gist, and Col. John Eager Howard especially dis tinguished themselves. Tench Tilghman, a Marylander, bore the news of the surrender of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown, on 19 Oct. 1781, from General Washington to the Congress at Philadelphia, and Dr. James McHenry of Baltimore, afterward Washington's Secretary of War, was one of the general's aides, or military family.
While Maryland was full of alacrity for the common cause, for a long time she refused to sign the Articles of Confederation, fearing danger from the claims of the great States, notably Virginia, to vast tracts of land west of the Allegheny Mountains. Maryland proposed to the Continental Congress that this far-ex tending territory be granted to the Union, and held as the common property of all the States, and refused to accede to the articles until this proposal was adopted, and Virginia, the most important of the claimants and the only one who had reduced her claims into possession, had made such a cession. This perseverance won, the desired cessions were made, the Western lands became the nation's domain and Maryland entered the Confederation as the 13th State on 1 March 1781. One of her delegates,
John Hanson of Frederick County, was the first presiding officer of Congress under the new government. During the war, the State had confiscated the proprietary's lands and those of some of the Tories, who had among their num ber some men of wealth and some of the yeo men, especially on the lower Eastern Shore. In 1776 Frederick County was divided, the middle portion keeping the old name, the eastern one becoming Montgomery County, named after Gen. Richard Montgomery of the Revolutionary army, who was killed at Quebec, and the western portion becoming Washing ton County.
In November 1783, by invitation of Mary land, the Congress met in her State House at Annapolis, and in the senate chamber there General Washington resigned his commission on 23 Dec. 1783.
Maryland and Virginia had a common inter est in the commerce of the Chesapeake and the Potomac, and, to arrange for its regulation, commissioners were appointed, who met at Alexandria and Mount Vernon in 1785. At that meeting, the desirability of uniform com mercial regulations throughout the Union was considered and a convention for the discussion of such questions was called to meet at An napolis in 1786. Only five States were then represented, and, through dissensions in the Maryland legislature, there were no Maryland delegates. Alexander Hamilton was a delegate, and, through his efforts, a second convention was summoned to meet in Philadelphia sin 1787, which gathering drafted the Federal Constitu tion. Maryland's delegation to the convention divided, Luther Martin (an able lawyer and subsequently an ardent Federalist) and John Francis Mercer refusing to sign the document ; while James McHenry, Daniel Carroll and Daniel of Saint Thomas Jenifer, did so. The people of the State elected delegates of strong Federal inclination to the convention called to consider the constitution, which ratified it 28 April 1788, by a large majority,— a vote which was considered to have had a considerable effect in Virginia.
In 1791 Maryland ceded to the Federal government, as a site for the seat of govern ment, about 61 square miles on the north bank of the Potomac River at the head of navigation, and this, with a cession from Virginia, formed the District of Columbia. The nortion taken from Virginia was later retroceded to her, so that the territory of the present district was once entirely a part of Maryland. In 1796 Allegany County was formed from the western part of Washington County. During the early part of the 19th century, thed its party in the State became organized, ts leaders being two brothers: Gen. Samuel Smith, who sat in the United States Senate, and Robert Smith, who became Secretary of State.