turn he became an unflinching and able advocate for freedom. He possessed a clear head and discriminating mind. In action he was cool, deliberate, firm and decisive. His writing talent was of a high order. This was admirably developed in 1772. The governor had issued a proclamation derogatory to the constitutional rights of the people. In a series of essays published in the public papers, Mr. Car roll triumphantly vindicated the cause of his insulted constituents-conclusively answering and confuting the combined arguments of the governor and his cabinet in favor of the unwarranted pretensions of their master. So fully did these essays convince the people that the governor aimed at illegitimate power that they hung his proclamation upon a gallows and bid defiance to the minions of despotism. Before the writer was known the people instructed their representatives to record a vote of thanks to the author. When it was ascertained that Mr. Carroll was the champion who had bearded the British lion, they repaired to his house in great numbers and made the welkin ring with plaudits of thankful praise.

From that time he became a prominent leader of the liberal partyan espouser of equal rights-a stern opposer of ministerial wrongs. His benign influence radiated its genial rays upon the hearts and confirmed the wavering minds of many in the glorious cause of LIBERTY. In bold and glowing colors he portrayed the aggressions of the king, the corrupt designs of his ministers and the humiliating consequences of tame submission to their arbitrary demands. He was among the first to kindle the flame of resistance and light up the torch of Independence. He was among the first to sanction the Declaration of Rightsthe last of the noble band of sages who signed it who lived to see

1832.

On the 18th of July 1776 he was a member of the Maryland Convention convened to elect delegates to the Continental Congress. He was selected for that important station-took his seat on the 2d of August and signed the Declaration of Independence. His talents and zeal were highly appreciated by the members of Congress. He had previously endeared himself to them by a voluntary mission to Canada in conjunction with Franklin, Chase and Bishop Carroll. The object of their visit was to persuade the people of the Canadas to unite with the Colonies in throwing off the yoke of bondage imposed by the mother country. The Messrs. Carrolls were Roman Catholics, the prevailing religion of the Canadians. The other two gentlemen entertained universal charity for all good men irrespective of manufactured creeds. It was fondly hoped their mission would be crowned with

sucus.

The defeat of the American troops at Quebec and the death of Gen. Montgomery had thrown so much darkness over the future prospects of the American cause that they refused to enter the compact. The consequences of that course have been fearfully developed for years and the time is not far distant when the Canadas will be free from England to the mutual benefit of both countries.

On his return he was surprised to find that the Maryland delegates in Congress had been instructed by a vote of the Assembly to oppose the Declaration of Independence. His influence caused the rescinding of that vote and a reversal of the instructions. He felt a strong desire that his native state should do full service in the cause of freedom. To effect this he spent more time in her legislative hall than in Congress. In the formation of her constitution and laws he rendered efficient aid. From 1788 to 1791 he was a member of the U. S. Senate. From that year to 1801 he served in the senate of his own state. Hc then retired from the great theatre of public action in the rich enjoyment of the esteem of a nation of freemen. For thirty years he was spared to enjoy the cheering comforts of domestic felicity and survived all the others who had placed their names upon the Chart of our liberty.

In his retirement he delighted in beholding the onward march of this favored country, prospering under the care of an all-wise Providence-populated by a free and independent people-in rank second to no nation on earth-in enterprise traversing the globe-in genius eclipsing the old world-in talent equal to the best. Like a majestic oak that had long braved the raging tempest, he stood alone as a signer of our Magna Charta calmly awaiting the time when he should be riven and gathered to his fathers. Gradually the world lost its former charms. More and more his mind became fixed on anticipated scenes of future and purer bliss. He seemed to ascend the ladder of faith and reach out his hand for that crown of unfading glory prepared for him by his Lord and Master. In this beatific state his soul was summoned from its tottering, trembling, falling tenement of clay on the 14th of November 1832. Calm and resigned he entered Jordan's flood-angels escorted his immortal spirit to Immanuel's peaceful shores whilst his grateful country deeply mourned and strongly felt the loss of one of her noblest sons-society one of its brightest ornaments-his relatives one of their dearest kinsmen.

Charles Carroll was a man of consistency in everything. He was a devoted Christian in communion with the Roman Catholic Church but decidedly opposed to a want of charity and kind feeling. He deprecated

a spirit of persecution by one sect of Christians towards another. He was one of the few who reasoned correctly and acted wisely upon this important subject. It is a fact known to but few at this late day that the Roman Catholics of Maryland were the first who placed religious toleration on a statute book in America. [See laws of Maryland 1647.] It is also a fact that the Protestants first introduced proscription there. After the restoration of Charles II. in 1761, they obtained an order from him prohibiting all Roman Catholics from holding any office, which was in violation of the charter granted to Lord Baltimore by Charles I. upon which the colony was based. Still more. The Protestants having become the bride of the state, continued to draw more tightly the cords of persecution by authority from William III. The Catholics were taxed to support the churches of their oppressors. By an act passed in 1704, the celebration of mass or the instruction of youth by a Catholic insured him transportation to England. In the land of the Puritans, the Baptist and Quaker sects were treated more rigorous, being persecuted even unto death and by those too who fled from the very persecution they practised the moment they obtained the power. So it ever has been-so it ever will be until mankind become fully and feelingly sensible that sectarianism is not religion—is not a child of Heaven-that charity is the crowning attribute of Deity-the brightest star in the Christian's diadem.

During the excitement in Maryland upon the unhallowed connection of church and state, the Carrolls used their best exertions to effect a reconciliation between the parties which was never fully done until the revolution compelled sectarianism to hide its hydra head by uniting all sects in the common cause against the common enemy and forever banishing its power from our land by the adoption of our Federal Constitution. Men are as prone to abuse power as the sparks are to fly upward.

In the life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, we have examples rich with instruction for youth, manhood and old age-for the lawyer, the statesman, the patriot and the Christian. His career was guided by prudence and virtue. His every action was marked with frankness and honesty. He richly merited and freely received the esteem and veneration of a nation of FREEMEN. His private and public career were prompted and directed by a purity of motive that never fails to render a man useful in life-triumphant in death.

SAMUEL CHASE.

OSTRACISM was the title of a law once in full and practical force in the Republic of Athens. It required the banishment of any citizen when six thousand of the people voted for his expulsion-there being about twenty thousand voters-thus violating the fundamental principle of a republican government-the majority must rule and be obeyed. Ruin was the natural result.

Each voter wrote the name of the citizen that was to be banished on a shell called in Greek-Ostrakon. These were deposited as are ballots at our elections and were counted by persons appointed by law. To the ruin of Athens, envy, jealousy and intrigue caused the banishment of several of her most illustrious sages and heroes who loved their country more than they did political corruption. Among them was Aristides-a noble patriot, statesman and general. When the people were voting in his case he mingled with the crowd and met an illiterate peasant who did not know him, who asked him to write Aristides upon his shell. What injury has Aristides done you? The peasant quickly answeredNone at all but I am tired of hearing him called the just. Without revealing himself the patriot wrote his own name upon the fatal shell and handed it back to the deluded voter. He bowed submissively to his sentence of banishment for ten years and invoked a blessing on his enemies as he departed.

A species of political persecution practically analogous to the law of ostracism commenced its career in our country as early as the American Revolution. Political cliques and venal presses have been the executioners. No one of the sages or heroes of that eventful period was so severely persecuted by party ostracism after the formation of our republic as Samuel Chase who was born in Somerset County, Maryland, on the 17th day of April, 1741. He was the son of Rev. Thomas Chase who came from England to that province and became pastor of St. Paul's Parish in Baltimore, then a new country village and destitute of good schools. At the age of two years Samuel was deprived of the tender care of his mother by her premature death. Under the instruction of his father he became an accomplished classical scholar. At the age of eighteen he commenced the study of law under the direction of John Hammond and John Hull of Annapolis. At the age of twenty he was admitted to the bar of the Mayor's Court and two years after to that of the County Court and the Court of Chancery. He located at Annapolis

and filled up the rib vacuum by marrying the worthy and intelligent Ann Baldwin-a very sensible and fair business transaction.

Mr. Chase was not long in acquiring the reputation of a sound lawyer and able advocate. He was of a sanguine temperament-bold, fearless, undisguised, independent in mind, language and action but honest, patriotic, and pure in his motives-immovable in his purposesqualities that dignify a man if prudently balanced and prepare him for just such times as the Revolution-qualities that often rouse the spirit of ostracism in those who aim to ruin those they cannot rule. These leading traits, constitutional with Samuel Chase, with the times and circumstances that influenced his judgment and governed his actions must be kept constantly in view to enable the reader to form a just estimate of his character which I will impartially and plainly portray.

On the flood tide of a prosperous business-celebrated for his legal acumen and forensic fame-in the full enjoyment of domestic felicity and social intercourse with friends-Mr. Chase glided smoothly along until his country began to writhe under kingly oppression. The Stamp Act, the first born of the scrofulous revenue system devised by the putrescent British ministry, met with a hostile reception at Annapolis. Mr. Chase and a band of kindred spirits under the cognomen of "Sons of Liberty," forcibly seized and destroyed the newly imported stamps and burned in effigy the stamp distributer. No further violence was then committed. The king's officers opened a newspaper battery against this "furious mob" directing their whole artillery against Mr. Chase complimenting him with the courtly names-" busy restless incendiary-ringleader of mobs-foul mouthed inflaming son of discord and faction-a common disturber of the public tranquillity-a promoter of the lawless excesses of the multitude" and other similar emphatic appellations-conferring upon the young patriot a diploma of distinction little anticipated by them. His answers to these vituperations were manly, charged with strong and conclusive logic-keen and withering sarcasm. The attack brought him fairly into the political field. So delighted were the people with the manner he handled the hirelings of the crown that they elected him to the colonial assembly. There he took a conspicuous part and became the uncompromising opposer of all measures that were not within the pale of the constitution or were tinctured with oppression. So strongly was he in favor of liberal principles that he gave his whole influence and vote in favor of the repeal of the law that compelled the people to support the clergy by which the stipend of his father was reduced one-half. Pursuant to the law of primogeniture then in force this was voting money out of his own pocket. His bold