Harford In The Revolution Several things conspired to cause the people of Harford County to be especially active and interested in public affairs at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. In the first place, the County had been formed but a year before Lexington and Concord were fought; our people had all the zest and interest in public matters which always characterize newly organized govern- mental agencies, and the same feeling which made them restless under the removal of their County seat and led to the formation of the new County, was manifest in the spirit that actuated them under the wrongs inflicted by the mother country. One of the first duties imposed upon the new County was to send delegates to the Provincial Convention at Annapolis, which pro- tested against the Stamp Act. The situation of the County seat at Harford Town, or Bush, on the route to and from Philadelphia and New York, the early national capitals, was particularly favorable to our ancestors keeping thoroughly in touch with the spirit of the times. There were several hotels at Bush at the time of which we write, and when our people in those days would repair to the County seat on court business, or whatever might be their errand, it was an usual occurrence for them to meet with and enjoy the acquaintance of such men as Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Randolph, Patrick Henry, the Lees and other great men of those days who lived in the South and who would pass that way in their journeys to and from the large cities of the North. It is not too much to assume that something of the same spirit and feeling that actuated Washington, who commanded our armies, and Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and Madison, the father of the Constitution, and the other prominent men who were in the habit of stopping at Bush, was infused into our own people, and to the extent of their association with these great men, which, as indicated, was considerable, to the same extent our ancestors had the advantage in public information, knowledge and public spirit over those sections not so favorably situated. The politics of the day would be discussed and the latest views of the leading men of the times would be freely given to the guests thus gathered together. This association, with the leading men of the colonies, bore fruit in the passage of a resolution by the committee of Harford County on the 22nd day of March, 1775, which may properly be called the first Declaration of Independence made by any representative body in America. The committee of Harford County was not in any sense a mass-meeting. Its members were duly elected by the ten thousand white people of the County; the thirty-four names signed to the resolution were the leading men of the new County, and their descendants are justly proud of this signal evidence of the courage and patriotism of their ancestors. The terms of the resolution, even without the aid of the knowledge of the resolves and the association of the Continental Congress and the resolves of the Provincial Convention, indicate beyond a doubt that the signers realized that they were not dealing in mere glittering generalities, but that it was necessary for them to hang together, so that they might thereby avoid the unpleasant alternative of hanging separately. When it was considered necessary to close the resolution with these words, We do most solemnly pledge ourselves to each other, and to our country, and engage ourselves by every tie held sacred among mankind, to perform the same at the risque of our lives and fortunes, we may know that the signers had a full realization of the meaning of their famous declaration and of the work in which they were about to engage. The following is the language of the declaration: We, the Committee of Harford County, having most seriously and maturely considered the Resolves and Association of the Continental Congress and the Resolves of the Provincial Convention, do most heartily approve of the same, and as we esteem ourselves in a more particular manner intrusted by our Constituents to see them carried into Execution, we do most solemnly pledge ourselves to each other, and to our country, and engage ourselves by every tie held sacred among mankind, to perform the same at the risque of our lives and fortunes. Aquila Hall, Jos. Carvel Hall, Geo. Patterson, Wm. Morgan, Frans. Holland, Saml. Caldwell, Aquila Paca, James Lytle, Aquila Hall, Jr., Robt. Morgan, Robt. Lemmon, Thos. Brice, Thos. Johnson, Alex. Rigdon, Edward Ward, Abm.Whitaker, Charles Anderson, William Fisher,Richd. Dallam, John Durham, James McComas, William Bradford, Sen., Wm. Smithson, John Donohuy, John Patrick, Daniel Scott,Benj. Bradford Norris, James Harris, Edward Pratt, Greenberry Dorsey, John Archer, W. Smithe, W. Webb, John Taylor In this declaration is foreshadowed Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and Long Island, Trenton, Monmouth and Princeton, and the final triumph at Yorktown. History of Harford County, Maryland, from 1608 (the year of Smiths expedition) to the close of the War of 1812, by Walter W. Preston (pp. 97-102).
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 17:23:36 +0000
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