{"id":49780,"date":"2013-01-28T16:34:14","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T21:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/supreme\/documents\/fathers\/maryland.html"},"modified":"2013-01-28T16:34:14","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T21:34:14","slug":"maryland","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/documents\/fathers\/maryland.html","title":{"rendered":"MARYLAND"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MARYLAND<\/h1>\n<\/b>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Daniel Carroll (1730-1796)<\/strong>
\n Maryland<\/center>

\n\n Image: The Maryland Historical Society \n\n <\/p>

I. EARLY LIFE<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

Daniel Carroll was born into a prominent Maryland family of Irish descent. Another branch of the Carroll family was led by\n Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Daniel’s older brother was John Carroll, the first\n Roman Catholic bishop in the United States. \n\n <\/p>

Daniel was born in 1730 at Upper Marlboro, MD. As was befitting the son of a wealthy Roman Catholic family, he studied\n for 6 years (1742-48) under the Jesuits at St. Omer’s in Flanders. Then, after a tour of Europe, he returned home and married\n Eleanor Carroll, apparently a first cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Not much is known about the next two decades of his\n life except that he reluctantly supported the War for Independence and remained out of the public eye.\n\n <\/p>

II. CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

Carroll entered the political arena in 1781, when he was\n elected as a Federalist to the Continental Congress and the\n Maryland State senate. He carried to Philadelphia the news that\n Maryland was at last ready to accede to the Articles of\n Confederation, a document to which he soon penned his name. He\n began a tour in the Maryland senate that would span his lifetime\n and helped George Washington promote the Patowmack Company \u2013 a\n scheme to canalize the Potomac River so as to provide a\n transportation link between the East and the trans-Appalachian\n West. \n\n <\/p>

Carroll did not arrive at the Constitutional Convention until\n July 9, but thereafter he attended quite regularly. He served on\n the Committee on Postponed Matters. Returning to Maryland after\n the convention, he campaigned for ratification of the\n Constitution but was not a delegate to the state convention. \n\n <\/p>

III. GOVERNMENT OFFICES<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

In 1789 Carroll won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he voted for locating the Nation’s Capital\n on the banks of the Potomac and for Hamilton’s program for the federal assumption of state debts. Carroll was known for his\n criticism of the House for the slowness of its actions and continual procrastination. He is “recorded as urging prompt\n action and quick settlement” of whatever business was at hand. He played a part in the drafting of the First and Tenth\n Amendments to the Constitution. Carroll was also appointed to a committee to decide the time, place, and manner in which the\n President took oath.\n\n <\/p>

In 1791 George Washington named his friend Carroll as one of three commissioners to survey and define the District of Columbia,\n where Carroll owned much land. Ill health caused him to resign this post 4 years later, and he died the next year at the age of\n 65, at his home near Rock Creek in Forest Glen, MD. He was buried there in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery. <\/p>

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Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723-1790)<\/strong>
\n Maryland<\/center>

\n\n Image: The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution \n\n <\/p>

I. EARLY LIFE<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

Jenifer was born in 1723 to parents of Swedish and English\n descent at Coates Retirement (now Ellerslie) estate, near Port\n Tobacco in Charles County, Md. Little is known about his\n childhood or education, but as an adult he came into possession\n of a large estate near Annapolis, called Stepney, where he lived\n for most of his life. Jenifer never married. The web of his far-reaching\n friendships included such illustrious personages as George\n Washington. \n\n <\/p>

As a young man, Jenifer served as agent and receiver-general\n for the last two proprietors of Maryland. He served as justice of\n the peace in Charles County and later for the western circuit of\n Maryland. In 1760 he sat on a boundary commission that settled\n disputes between Pennsylvania and Delaware. Six years later, he\n became a member of the provincial court and from 1773 to 1776\n Jenifer sat on the Maryland royal governor’s council. \n\n <\/p>

II. CONTINENTAL CONGRESS<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

Despite his association with conservative proprietary politics,\n Jenifer supported the Revolutionary movement, albeit at first\n reluctantly. He served as president of the Maryland Council of\n Safety (1775-77), then as president of the first state senate (1777-80).\n He sat in the Continental Congress (1778-82) holding the position\n of state revenue and financial manager (1782-85). His bids for\n the governorship of Maryland in 1782 and 1785 were both\n unsuccessful.\n\n <\/p>

A conservative nationalist, Jenifer favored a strong and\n permanent union of the states and a Congress with taxation power.\n In 1785 he represented Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference.\n Although he was one of 29 delegates who attended nearly every\n session of the Constitutional Convention, he spoke only rarely\n but backed Madison and the nationalist element. \n\n <\/p>

Jenifer lived only 3 more years and never again held public\n office. He died at the age of 66 or 67 at Annapolis in 1790. The\n exact location of his grave, possibly at Ellerslie estate, is\n unknown. <\/p>

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Luther Martin (1748-1826)<\/strong>
\n Maryland <\/center>

\n\n Image: The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution \n\n <\/p>

I. EARLY LIFE<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

Like many of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention,\n Luther Martin attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton),\n graduating with honors in 1766. Born in Brunswick, NJ., in 1748,\n Luther Martin moved to Maryland after receiving his degree and\n taught there for 3 years. He then studied law and was admitted to\n the Virginia bar in 1771. \n\n <\/p>

An early advocate of American independence from Great Britain,\n Martin served on the patriot committee of Somerset County in\n March of 1774, and in December attended a convention of the\n Province of Maryland in Annapolis, convened to consider the\n recommendations of the Continental Congress. Maryland appointed\n Luther Martin its attorney general in early 1778. In this\n capacity, Martin vigorously prosecuted Loyalists, whose numbers\n were so strong that tensions had led to insurrection and open\n warfare in some counties. While still attorney general, Martin\n joined the Baltimore Light Dragoons. In July 1781 his unit joined\n Lafayette’s forces near Fredericksburg, VA., but Martin himself\n was recalled by the governor to prosecute a treason trial. \n\n <\/p>

II. CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

Martin married Maria Cresap on Christmas Day, 1783. Of their\n five children, three daughters lived to adulthood. His postwar\n law practice grew to become one of the largest and most\n successful in the country. In 1785 Martin was elected to the\n Continental Congress, but the appointment was purely honorary.\n His numerous public and private duties prevented him from\n traveling to Philadelphia. \n\n <\/p>

At the Constitutional Convention Martin opposed the idea of a\n strong central government. Upon his arrival on June 9, 1787, he\n expressed suspicion of the secrecy rule imposed on the\n proceedings. He consistently sided with the small states and\n voted against the Virginia Plan. On June 27, Martin spoke for\n over 3 hours in opposition to the Virginia Plan’s proposal for\n proportionate representation in both houses of the legislature.\n Martin served on a committee formed to seek a compromise on\n representation, where he supported the case for equal numbers of\n delegates in at least one house. Before the convention closed, he\n and another Maryland delegate, John Francis Mercer, had walked\n out. \n\n <\/p>

In an address to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1787 and\n in numerous newspaper articles, Martin attacked the proposed new\n form of government and continued to fight ratification of the\n Constitution through 1788. He lamented the ascension of the\n national government over the states and condemned what he saw as\n unequal representation in Congress. Martin opposed including\n slaves in determining representation and believed that the\n absence of a jury in the Supreme Court gravely endangered freedom.\n At the convention, Martin complained, the aggrandizement of\n certain states and individuals had often been pursued more avidly\n than the welfare of the country. The assumption of the term\n “federal” by those who favored a national government\n also irritated Martin. Around 1791, however, Martin turned to the\n Federalist party because of his animosity toward Thomas Jefferson.\n\n\n <\/p>

The first years of the 1800s saw Martin as defense counsel in\n two controversial national cases. In the first Martin won an\n acquittal for his close friend, Supreme Court Justice Samuel\n Chase, in his impeachment trial in 1805. Two years later Martin\n was one of Aaron Burr’s defense lawyers when Burr stood trial for\n treason in 1807. \n\n <\/p>

After a record 28 consecutive years as state attorney general,\n Luther Martin resigned in December of 1805. In 1813 he became\n chief judge of the court of oyer and terminer for the City and\n County of Baltimore. He was reappointed attorney general of\n Maryland in 1818, and in 1819 he argued Maryland’s position in\n the landmark Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland<\/a>.\n The plaintiff, represented by Daniel Webster, William Pinckney,\n and William Wirt, won the decision, which held that states could\n not tax federal institutions. \n\n <\/p>

Martin’s fortunes declined dramatically in his last years.\n Heavy drinking, illness, and poverty all took their toll.\n Paralysis, which had struck in 1819, forced him to retire as\n Maryland’s attorney general in 1822. In 1826, at the age of 78,\n Luther Martin died in Aaron Burr’s home in New York City and was\n buried in an unmarked grave in St. John’s churchyard. <\/p>

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James McHenry (1753-1816)<\/strong>
\n Maryland<\/center>

\n\n Image: Independence National Historical Park\n\n\n <\/p>

I. EARLY LIFE<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

James McHenry was born at Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland,\n in 1753. He enjoyed a classical education at Dublin, and\n emigrated to Philadelphia in 1771. The following year, the rest\n of his family joined him in the colonies, and his brother and\n father established an import business at Baltimore. James\n continued his schooling at Newark Academy in Delaware, then\n studied medicine for 2 years under the well-known Dr. Benjamin\n Rush in Philadelphia. \n\n <\/p>

During the War for Independence, McHenry served as a military\n surgeon. Late in 1776, while on the staff of the 5th Pennsylvania\n Battalion, the British captured him at Fort Washington, NY. He\n was paroled early the next year and exchanged in March 1778.\n Returning immediately to duty, McHenry was assigned to Valley\n Forge, PA, and in May became secretary to George Washington. At\n about this time, McHenry quit the practice of medicine to devote\n himself to politics and administration; he apparently needed\n never return to it after the war because of his excellent\n financial circumstances. \n\n <\/p>

II. CONTINENTAL CONGRESS<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

McHenry stayed on Washington’s staff until 1780, when he\n joined that of the Marquis de Lafayette, and he remained in that\n assignment until he entered the Maryland Senate (1781-86). During\n part of this period, he served concurrently in the Continental\n Congress (1783-86). In 1784 he married Margaret Allison Caldwell.\n\n\n <\/p>

McHenry missed much of the Philadelphia convention, in part\n due to the illness of his brother, and he played an insubstantial\n part in the debates when he was present. He did, however,\n maintain a private journal that has been useful to posterity.\n McHenry campaigned strenuously for the Constitution in Maryland\n and attended the state ratifying convention. \n\n <\/p>

III. LATER OFFICES<\/b> \n\n <\/p>

From 1789 to 1791, McHenry sat in the state assembly and in\n the years 1791-96, he served again in the senate. A staunch\n Federalist, he then accepted Washington’s offer of the post of\n Secretary of War and held it into the administration of John\n Adams. McHenry looked to Hamilton rather than Adams for\n leadership. As time passed, the latter became increasingly\n dissatisfied with McHenry’s performance and distrustful of his\n political motives, ultimately forcing him to resign in 1800.\n Subsequently, the Democratic-Republicans accused him of\n maladministration, but a congressional committee vindicated him. \n\n <\/p>

McHenry returned to his estate near Baltimore and\n semiretirement. He remained a loyal Federalist and opposed the\n War of 1812. He also held the office of president of a Bible\n society. He died in 1816 at the age of 62, survived by two of his\n three children. His grave is in Baltimore’s Westminster\n Presbyterian Cemetery.<\/p>

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John Francis Mercer (1759-1821)<\/strong>
\n Maryland<\/center>

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Image: Independence National Historical Park\n\n <\/p>

I. EARLY LIFE<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

John Francis Mercer, born on May 17, 1759, was the fifth of\n nine children born to John and Ann Mercer of Stafford County, VA.\n Mercer attended the College of William and Mary, and in early\n 1776, joined the 3d Virginia Regiment. Mercer became Gen. Charles\n Lee’s aide-decamp in 1778, but resigned his commission after\n General Lee’s court-martial in October 1779. He spent the next\n year studying law at the College of William and Mary and then\n rejoined the army, where he served briefly under Lafayette.\n\n <\/p>

II. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

In 1782 Mercer was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.\n That December he became one of Virginia’s representatives to the\n Continental Congress. He later returned to the House of Delegates\n in 1785 and 1786. \n\n <\/p>

Mercer married Sophia Sprigg in 1785 and soon after moved to\n Anne Arundel County, MD. He attended the Constitutional\n Convention as part of Maryland’s delegation when he was only 28\n years old — the second youngest delegate in Philadelphia. Mercer\n was strongly opposed to centralization, and both spoke out and\n voted against the Constitution. He and fellow Marylander Luther\n Martin left the proceedings before they ended.\n\n <\/p>

III. LATER OFFICES<\/b>\n\n <\/p>

After the convention, Mercer continued in public service. He\n allied himself with the Republicans and served in the Maryland\n House of Delegates in 1778-89, 1791-92, 1800-1801, and 1803-1806.\n Between 1791 and 1794 he also sat in the U.S. House of\n Representatives for Maryland and was chosen governor of the state\n for two terms, 1801-1803. During Thomas Jefferson’s term as\n President, Mercer broke with the Republicans and joined the\n Federalist camp. \n\n <\/p>

Illness plagued Mercer during his final years. In 1821 he\n traveled to Philadelphia to seek medical attention, and he died\n there on August 30. His remains lay temporarily in a vault in St.\n Peter’s Church in Philadelphia and were reinterred on his estate,\n “Cedar Park” in Maryland. \n\n <\/p>

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