Library of Congress Narrative of events which occured in Baltimore town during the revolutionary war. COPYRIGHT 18 ??? NARRATIVE OF EVENTS WHICH OCCURRED IN BALTIMORE TOWN DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. TO WHICH ARE APPENDED, VARIOUS DOCUMENTS AND LETTERS, THE GREATER PART OF WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN HERETOFORE PUBLISHED. BY ROBERT PURVIANCE. LC LIBRARY OF BALTIMORE: PRINTD BY JOS. ROBINSON 1849. G? [Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine, by Robert Purviance, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Maryland.] LC F189 .B1P9 PREFACE. Narrative of events which occured in Baltimore town during the revolutionary war. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.03471 Library of Congress The following narrative was read before the Historical Society of Maryland, at their sitting in January, 1847. It has been compiled principally from documents which had been in the possession of my father, the late Robert Purviance, from the date of the events to which they refer. His family knew nothing of their existence until two years ago, when in a general search for papers in the custom house, they were found amid a vast collection of old documents, which had been the accumulation of more than half of a century. As they treated of events which had occurred in Baltimore during the Revolutionary war, of which few memorials had been preserved, I thought I would collect from them such as might be considered worthy of preserving, and present them, which I now do, in a publication, to the community, of whose early patriotism they bear so honorable a testimonial. ROBERT PURVIANCE. Baltimore, January 15 th, 1849. A NARRATIVE OF EVENTS, &c. CHAPTER I. Mr. Hume has remarked that “the curiosity entertained by all civilized nations, of enquiring into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty and contradiction.” In the indulgence of this natural curiosity, the American people have no regrets to experience, that their history is involved in obscurity, uncertainty and contradiction. The records which have been preserved of the planting of the different colonies, which were afterwards united as a great whole, and are now known as the United States, bear testimony to the pure and upright sentiments which directed the colonists in the building up of these great communities. Whether right or wrong in the crown of England undertaking to appropriate to itself the great wastes of a large portion of the North American continent, and allotting to such persons as might solicit of it, such Narrative of events which occured in Baltimore town during the revolutionary war. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.03471 Library of Congress of the vacant lands as they might require, is not now a question; for the principle seems to have been established from the earliest ages of civilization, that territories, 2 2 either inhabited by savages, or destitute of any kind of population, belonged of right to the first discoverer; and that if he followed up his discovery by an actual occupation, his claim was good to it against all the world. That this principle, which has contributed to the civilization of the world, cannot be vindicated on the ground of natural right, will be admitted, when we reflect on the manner in which the great Creator has permitted the human race to be scattered over the earth. When man came from the hand of his Maker, he was endowed with all the powers requisite to fit him for the purpose for which he was created. To him was given dominion over the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea:—“to subdue the earth,” to “increase and multiply.” As the race of man increased, it became necessary for them to extend the dominion they had at first occupied, in order to satisfy their increasing wants. A larger portion of the earth became necessarily occupied, and with the steadiness of the advancing wave, this increase of dominion continued. In the course of time, the tide of emigration reached the shores of Western America, and this vast continent became the dwelling-place of the descendants of those who began this emigration. Man seems early to have lost the knowledge of his Creator, but the impression that he is the creature of a superior power, has never been completely eradicated from his mind. If he had forgotten that the power to subdue the earth was an attribute which emanated from God, he has always felt that he had such a power, and he has not failed to exercise it. When this continent was first discovered, such a race of men as we have 3 spoken of, were found to be in possession of it. As society advanced in civilization, to preserve such an intercourse between its parts, as would promote the great purposes for which it was created, it became necessary to establish such principles as would best secure this end. These principles, as established by the consent of the civilized portion of mankind, are what are now known by the familiar name of the laws of nations. They suppose a general civilization among nations, and provide for the intercourse of each with the other, upon principles adapted to such a state. Where, however, a people exist who are not yet formed into nations, but are still of so wandering a character, that the principles Narrative of events which occured in Baltimore town during the revolutionary war. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.03471 Library of Congress which bind those who are civilized, do not govern them in their intercourse with each other, they treat these wandering people in their intercourse with them, as mere tenants at will of the soil they occupy, and assume a right of dispossessing them, whenever they think the cause of civilization demands that its advocates should possess the nomadic land. After the discovery of America by Columbus, many of the nations of Europe became awakened by the success of his daring enterprise, and they, in their turn, fitted out ships to traverse the unfrequented seas, under the hope, that new discoveries would give to them, also, a rich harvest of glory. These new expeditions resulted in a discovery of the whole continent of North and South America,; of a passage to India, and all Eastern Asia, by the Cape of Good Hope. These discoveries opened to Europe the fairest field of enterprise which had ever invited the industry and the skill of man. Heretofore, Europe, in the pursuit of maritime commerce, 4 had been confined to the seas which wash her shores on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Her commerce with India was by land and the Mediterranean sea; and the expense with which such a trade would be necessarily burthened, would greatly diminish the benefits which otherwise must have attended its prosecution. After the discovery of the Eastern parts of America, England commenced her settlements in various parts of that portion of the continent. The charters granted to different persons for the purpose of making these settlements, were as various in the rights bestowed, as the views of the different applicants who succeeded in obtaining them. The colony which was planted in Massachusetts sprung from the persecutions experienced in England by the puritans, a class of people who had been distinguished by their opposition to the religious principles of the government. They sought an asylum where they thought they would be enabled to worship their Creator according to the dictates of their conscience, and not in conformity to the prescribed rules of the monarch. That asylum they found on Plymouth rock, and from this small spot of the earth, arose the colony of Massachusetts, the great leader in the war of our revolution. In the course of time, other colonies were planted, so that in the great war of 1754, which England waged against France, they numbered thirteen; and having obtained a population so numerous as to give them a mighty weight in the scale of power, they were called upon by the mother Narrative of events which occured in Baltimore town during the revolutionary war. http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.03471 Library of Congress country to aid in destroying the power of France on this continent. That aid was furnished, and the history of their exertions reveals the illustrious fact, that to these, Great 5 Britain was mainly indebted for her exclusive dominion of all the territory which France had hitherto occupied. One would have thought, that the recollection of such services could never be obliterated from the mind of any recipient of the favor, be that recipient either an Empire, or an individual sovereign. The colony of Maryland, which had been planted by Lord Baltimore, in virtue of a grant made to him by Charles the First, had, at the time when this French war broke out, so far advanced in prosperity, that her population had reached to one hundred and fifty thousand persons, and her trade, with such parts of the world as her dependent character allowed her to have, was very extensive. And it is remarkable, that, so completely had the crown deprived itself of the power of taxation over the colony, that “it was covenanted on the part of the king, that neither he nor his successors should ever impose customs, taxes, quotas, or contributions whatsoever upon the people, their property, or their merchantable commodities laden within the province.” In the war which began in 1754, Maryland does not appear to have heartily entered.