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50 HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
lawyers' fees. Every lawyer of any standing at Annapolis got rich early in
life, and the quantity of land which they all owned might lead one to suppose
that they sometimes took a client's plantation—faute de mieux—for a retaining fee. That so learned a profession should not only take tobacco, but the
very land upon which it was grown, not in lieu of money but as money, is
testimony of the most convincing sort to the hold which the " sot-weed " had
acquired upon the confidence of the community.
It had been Lord Baltimore's plan to found a truly aristocratic State,
upon the basis of manorial holdings, the law of entail, long leases and
many difficulties in the way of transferring land. The tenure of land
was cheap and easy, especially for him who took it in large tracts, and
land was not taxed. Privileges were bestowed upon the privileged classes.
The lords of the manors could hold courts-leet and courts-baron on their
own estates, and this was done, sometimes, upon some of the larger manors.
The members of the privy council, together with the Lord Proprietary or
Governor, could sit upon the bench of the high Provincial Court, whose
functions were analogous to that of the British King's Bench. Gentlemen
were also distinctly recognized as a class, and from them the county court
judges must be selected, the sheriffs and the upper magistracy. They were
entitled to be addressed as Esquire, and were expected to be holders of
landed estate. The smaller land-holders and tenants were styled master,
and were either freeholders or tenants on the manors. All the landless,
under Calvert's original plans and arrangements, were people in servitude.
Redemptioners and indentured apprentices, when their terms were served,
were expected to buy or rent land, to hire servants, and become tax-payers.
The distinction between taxables and tax-payers was an important one,
entirely aristocratic in its intentions. Every productive head in the colony
was taxed, or rated, but only the employing classes and land-holders paid
the taxes. Each employer and land-holder was assessed per poll according
to the number of taxables he had in his care, and it was Calvert's original
plan to have each tax-payer vote also as many polls as he was assessed
for.1 But, as we have seen, this system failed from the beginning. Calvert's
lords of the manor and burgesses repudiated at the start his borough system.
They did not believe in* conducting a free State upon the joint-stock principle, so that a man's consequence in it was to be measured by the number
of shares (i. e. polls), which he held in it. And, if the system had not
broken down then, it would have certainly done so later, when the negroes
began to be largely imported, and the planter, with a hundred black slaves,
could cast ten times as many votes as the sturdy backwoodsman, who was
cutting his path through the wilderness with nine stalwart "buckskins,"
his own sons, swinging axes by his side.
But tobacco did Lord Baltimore's system a worse hurt yet. It converted
what he meant to be an aristocracy of land, and hoped would become one of
1 See Davis' Day-Star, pp. 143-44, note 4.
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000075 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 50 HISTORY OF MARYLAND. lawyers' fees. Every lawyer of any standing at Annapolis got rich early in life, and the quantity of land which they all owned might lead one to suppose that they sometimes took a client's plantation—faute de mieux—for a retaining fee. That so learned a profession should not only take tobacco, but the very land upon which it was grown, not in lieu of money but as money, is testimony of the most convincing sort to the hold which the " sot-weed " had acquired upon the confidence of the community. It had been Lord Baltimore's plan to found a truly aristocratic State, upon the basis of manorial holdings, the law of entail, long leases and many difficulties in the way of transferring land. The tenure of land was cheap and easy, especially for him who took it in large tracts, and land was not taxed. Privileges were bestowed upon the privileged classes. The lords of the manors could hold courts-leet and courts-baron on their own estates, and this was done, sometimes, upon some of the larger manors. The members of the privy council, together with the Lord Proprietary or Governor, could sit upon the bench of the high Provincial Court, whose functions were analogous to that of the British King's Bench. Gentlemen were also distinctly recognized as a class, and from them the county court judges must be selected, the sheriffs and the upper magistracy. They were entitled to be addressed as Esquire, and were expected to be holders of landed estate. The smaller land-holders and tenants were styled master, and were either freeholders or tenants on the manors. All the landless, under Calvert's original plans and arrangements, were people in servitude. Redemptioners and indentured apprentices, when their terms were served, were expected to buy or rent land, to hire servants, and become tax-payers. The distinction between taxables and tax-payers was an important one, entirely aristocratic in its intentions. Every productive head in the colony was taxed, or rated, but only the employing classes and land-holders paid the taxes. Each employer and land-holder was assessed per poll according to the number of taxables he had in his care, and it was Calvert's original plan to have each tax-payer vote also as many polls as he was assessed for.1 But, as we have seen, this system failed from the beginning. Calvert's lords of the manor and burgesses repudiated at the start his borough system. They did not believe in* conducting a free State upon the joint-stock principle, so that a man's consequence in it was to be measured by the number of shares (i. e. polls), which he held in it. And, if the system had not broken down then, it would have certainly done so later, when the negroes began to be largely imported, and the planter, with a hundred black slaves, could cast ten times as many votes as the sturdy backwoodsman, who was cutting his path through the wilderness with nine stalwart "buckskins," his own sons, swinging axes by his side. But tobacco did Lord Baltimore's system a worse hurt yet. It converted what he meant to be an aristocracy of land, and hoped would become one of 1 See Davis' Day-Star, pp. 143-44, note 4. |
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