Page:MonumentalCity1873.djvu/12



HISTORICAL SKETCH.

MR. McMAHON has remarked, in his Historical View of the Government of Maryland, that "the colonial history of Maryland is distinguished more by results than by incidents;" and he has further pointed out that "the gradual accessions to a nation's wealth, power and liberty, which she derives from a peaceful devotion to her own interests, are perceived only in their general results." If this be true of a nation, more especially is it true of a city; and therefore especially devoid of incident must be a historical sketch of a city, the principal object of which is to note the rise and progress of its commercial importance. In the following pages it is sought to set forth such facts as will best illustrate the growth and development of Baltimore, and the causes which most directly contributed to those results,—noting events of general or national character only where the history of Baltimore is intimately connected with them, in the relation of a part to the whole; and while the annals of Baltimore have at different times been marked by events of striking character and of considerable local interest, they have, for the most part, been such as belong to a political, rather than a commercial history.

As introductory to the history of the city, it may be found useful to give some preliminary account of the Province in which it was founded, and the causes which led to its establishment.

The Province of Maryland had been settled for nearly a century before the first foundations were laid of the city that was destined to become the com- mercial metropolis of the State, and one of the leading cities of the American continent.

George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, having found that his efforts to establish a colony at Avalon, in Newfoundland, were attended with but little success, determined to seek a more favorable region in which to carry out his plans of colonization. With this view he visited, in the year 1628, the colony of Virginia. Of the favorable situation and flourishing condition of that colony he was well aware, having himself been a member of the Virginia