THE CHARTER was very different from that granted to Virginia, since it gave to all freemen a voice in making the laws. An Assembly, called in accordance with this provision, passed (1649) the celebrated Toleration Act, which secured to all Christians liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Maryland, like Rhode Island, became an asylum for the persecuted.
[Footnote: Two years before, Rhode Island had passed an act protecting every kind of religious faith and worship. Maryland extended protection to all forms of Christianity alone.]
CIVIL WARS.
1. Clayborne's Rebellion (1635).—The Virginia colony claimed that Lord Baltimore's grant covered territory belonging to them. Clayborne, a member of the Jamestown council, was especially obstinate in the matter. He had already established two trading posts in Maryland, which he prepared to defend by force of arms. A bloody skirmish ensued, in which his party was beaten. He, himself, had fled to Virginia, on the eve of battle, but being accused of treason, was sent to England for trial. He was, however, acquitted of this charge. Ten years afterward he came back, raised a rebellion, and drove Calvert, then governor of Maryland, out of the colony. The governor returned at last with a strong force, and Clayborne fled. This ended the contest.
2. The Protestants and the Catholics.—The Protestants, having obtained a majority in the Assembly, made a most ungrateful use of their power. They refused to acknowledge the hereditary rights of the proprietor, assailed his religion, excluded Catholics from the Assembly, and even declared them outside the protection of the law. Civil war ensued. For years the victory alternated. At one time two governments, one Protestant, the other Catholic, were sustained. In 1691, Lord Baltimore was entirely deprived of his rights as proprietor, and Maryland became a royal province. The Church of England was established, and the Catholics were again disfranchised in the very province they had planted. In 1715, the fourth Lord Baltimore recovered the government, and religious toleration was again restored. Maryland remained under this administration until the Revolution.
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THE CAROLINAS.
SETTLEMENT.—Lord Clarendon and several other noblemen obtained (1663) from Charles II. a grant of a vast tract south of Virginia, which was termed in honor of the king, Carolina. Two permanent settlements were soon made.
[Footnote: This in Latin is Carolus II.]
[Footnote: Both colonies were named after prominent proprietors of the grant.]