There was here the less trouble
owing to Baltimore's foresight in appointing to the office of Governor
William Stone, whose opinions, political and religious, accorded with those
of revolutionary England. Yet the Governor could not bring himself to
forget his oath to Lord Baltimore and agree to the demand of the
Commissioners that he should administer the Government in the name of "the
Keepers of the Liberties of England." After some hesitation the
Commissioners decided to respect his scruples and allow him to govern in
the name of the Lord Proprietary, as he had solemnly promised.
In Virginia and in Maryland the Commonwealth and the Lord Protector stand
where stood the Kingdom and the King. Many are far better satisfied than
they were before; and the confirmed royalist consumes his grumbling in his
own circle. The old, exhausting quarrel seems laid to rest. But within this
wider peace breaks out suddenly an interior strife. Virginia would, if she
could, have back all her old northward territory. In 1652 Bennett's
Government goes so far as to petition Parliament to unseat the Catholic
Proprietary of Maryland and make whole again the ancient Virginia. The hand
of Claiborne, that remarkable and persistent man, may be seen in this.
In Maryland, Puritans and Independents were settled chiefly about the
rivers Severn and Patuxent and in a village called Providence, afterwards
Annapolis. These now saw their chance to throw off the Proprietary's rule
and to come directly under that of the Commonwealth.
Pages:
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133