too, was granted. This, sir, as well as I can remember, is a just and impartial narrative of the most material occurrences in the trial of that cause. One occurrence more, tho' not essential to the cause, I can't help mentioning, as a striking instance of the loyalty, impartiality and attachment of the Bench to the Church of England in particular, and to religion at large. Mr. Henry, mentioned above (who had been called. in by the Defendants, as we suspected, to do what I some time ago told you of), after Mr. Lyons had opened the cause, rose and harangued the jury for near an hour. This harangue turned upon points as much out of his own depth, and that of the jury, as they were foreign from the purpose; which it would be impertinent to mention here. However, after he had discussed those points, he labored to prove " that the act of 1758 had every characteristic of a good law; that it was a law of general utility, and could not, consistently with what he called the original compact between King and people, stipulating protection on the one hand and obedience on the other be annulled." Hence, he inferred, "that a King, by disallowing Acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience." He further urged, "that the only use of an Established Church and Clergy in society, is to enforce obedience to civil sanctions, and the observance of those which are called duties of imperfect obligation; that, when a Clergy ceases to answer these ends, the community have no further need of their ministry, and may justly strip them of their appointments; that the Clergy of Virginia, in this particular instance of their refusing to acquiesce in the law in question, had been so far from answering, that they had most notoriously counteracted, those great ends of their institution; that, therefore, instead of useful members of the state, they ought to be considered as enemies of the community; and that, in the case now before them, Mr. Maury, instead of countenance, and protection and damages, very justly deserved to be punished with signal severity." And then he perorates to the following purpose, "that excepting they (the jury) were disposed to rivet the chains of bondage on their own necks, he hoped they would not let slip the opportunity which now offered, of making such an example of him as might, hereafter, be a warning to himself and his brethren, not to have the temerity, for the future, to dispute the validity of such laws, authenticated by the only authority, which, in his conception, could give force to laws for the governinent of this Colony, the authority of a legal representative of a Council, and of a kind and

benevolent and patriot Governor." You'll observe I do not pretend to remember his words, but take this to have been the sum and substance of this part of his labored oration. When he came to that part of it where he undertook to assert, "that a King, by annulling or disallowing acts of so salutary a nature, from being the Father of his people degenerated into a Tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience ;' the more sober part of the audience were struck with horror. Mr. Lyons called out aloud, and with an honest warmth, to the Bench, "That the gentleman had spoken treason," and expressed his astonishment "that their worships could hear it without emotion, or any mark of dissatisfaction." At the same instant, too, amongst some gentlemen in the crowd behind me, was a confused murmur of Treason, Treason! Yet Mr. Henry went on in the same treasonable and licentious strain, without interruption from the Bench, nay, even without receiving the least exterior notice of their disapprobation. One of the jury, too, was so highly pleased with these doctrines, that, as I was afterwards told, he every now and then gave the traitorous declaimer a nod of approbation. After the Court was adjourned, he apologised to me for what he had said, alleging that his sole view in engaging in the cause, and in saying what he had, was to render himself popular. You see, then, it is so clear a point in this person's opinion, that the ready road to popularity here, is, to trample under foot the interests of religion, the rights of the church, and the prerogative of the Crown. If this be not pleading for the " assumption of a power to bind the King's hands," if it be not asserting "such supremacy in provincial Legislatures" as is inconsistent with the dignity of the Church of England, and manifestly tends to draw the people of these plantations from their allegiance to the King, tell me, my dear sir, what is so, if you can. Mr. Cootes, merchant on James River, after Court, said "he would have given a considerable sum out of his own pocket, rather than his friend Patrick should have been guilty of a crime, but little, if any thing inferior to that which brought Simon Lord Lovatt to the block;" and justly observed that he exceeded the most seditious and inflammatory harangues of the Tribunes of old Rome. My warmest wishes and prayers ever attend you. And besides these there is little else in the power of, my dear Camm,

Your affectionate

J. MAURY.

Ann Maury, Memoirs of a Huguenot Family (New York, 1872), 418–424.

38. The Running of Mason and Dixon's Line

(1763-1767)

BY THE COMMISSIONERS OF MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA

The commissioners were fourteen in number. The piece is significant as showing the settlement of one of the many boundary controversies, and also as the record of a line which later divided free from slave states. - Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, III, 513, V, 273; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 107.

Ist.

WE

E have completely run out, settled, fixed and determined a straight line, beginning at the exact middle of the due east and west line mentioned in the articles of the fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and sixty, to have been run by other commissioners, formerly appointed by the said Charles, Lord Baltimore, and the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, across the peninsula, from Cape Henlopen to Chesapeake Bay, the exact middle of which said east. and west line is at the distance of thirty-four miles and three hundred and nine perches from the verge of the main ocean, the eastern end or beginning of the said due east and west line; and that we have extended the said straight line eighty-one miles seventy-eight chains and thirty links up the peninsula, until it touched and made a tangent to the western part of the periphery of a circle drawn at the horizontal distance of twelve English statute miles from the centre of the town of New Castle, and have marked, described and perpetuated the said straight or tangent line, by setting up and erecting one remarkable stone at the place of beginning thereof, in the exact middle of the aforesaid due east and west line, according to the angle made by the said due west line, and by the said tangent line; which stone, on the inward sides of the same, facing towards the east and towards the north, hath the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved thereon, and on the outward sides of the same facing towards the west and towards the south, hath the arms of the said Frederick Lord Baltimore graved thereon; and have also erected and set up in the said straight or tangent line, from the said place of beginning to the tangent point, remarkable stones at the end of every mile, each stone at the distance or end of every five miles, being particularly distinguished by having the arms of the said Frederick Lord Baltimore graved on the side thereof turning towards the west, and the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved on the side thereof turning towards the east, and all the other

intermediate stones are marked with the letter P on the sides facing towards the east, and with the letter M on the sides facing towards the west, and have fixed in the tangent point a stone with the arms of the said Frederick Lord Baltimore graved on the side facing towards the west, and with the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved on the side facing towards the east.

2d. That from the end of the said straight line or tangent point, we have run out, settled, fixed and determined, a due north line of the length of five miles one chain and fifty links, to a parallel of latitude fifteen miles due south of the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia, which said due north line intersected the said circle drawn at the distance of twelve English statute miles from the centre of the town of New Castle, one mile thirty-six chains and five links from the said tangent point, and that in order to mark and perpetuate the said due north. line, we have erected and set up one unmarked stone at the point where the said line intersects the said circle, three other stones at a mile distance from each other graved with the letter P on the sides facing the east, and the letter M on the sides facing the west, between the said place of intersection of the said circle and the said parallel of latitude, and a third stone at the point of intersection of the said north line and parallel of latitude, which last stone on the sides facing towards the north and east, hath the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved thereon, and on the sides facing towards the south and west hath the arms of the said Frederick Lord Baltimore graved thereon.

3d. That we have run out, settled, fixed and determined such part of the said circle as lies westward of the said due north line, and have marked and perpetuated the same, by setting up and erecting four stones in the periphery thereof, one of which, at the meridian distance of one mile from the tangent point, is marked with the letter P on the east and the letter M on the west sides thereof.

4th. That we have run out, settled, fixed and determined a due east and west line, beginning at the northern point or end of the said due north line, being the place of intersection of the said north line, with the parallel of latitude, at the distance of fifteen English statute miles due south of the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia, and have extended the said line, two hundred and eighty miles, eighteen chains and twenty-one links due west from the place of beginning; and two hundred and forty-four miles, thirty-eight chains and thirty-six links due west from the river Delaware; and should have continued the same to

the end of five degrees of longitude, the western bounds of the Province of Pennsylvania, but the Indians would not permit us. And that we have marked, described, and perpetuated the said west line, by setting up and erecting therein stones at the end of every mile, from the place of beginning to the distance of one hundred and thirty-two miles, near the foot of a hill, called and known by the name of Sideling hill; every five mile stone having on the side facing the north, the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved thereon, and on the side facing the south, the arms of Frederick Lord Baltimore graved thereon, and the other intermediate stones are graved with the letter P on the north side, and the letter M on the south side; and that the country to the westward of Sideling hill, being so very mountainous as to render it in most places extremely difficult and expensive, and in some impracticable, to convey stones or boundaries which had been prepared and marked as aforesaid, to their proper stations, we have marked and described the said line from Sideling hill to the top of the Alleghany Ridge, which divides the waters running into the rivers Potowmack and Ohio, by raising and erecting thereon, on the tops of ridges and mountains over which the said line passed, heaps or piles of stones or earth, from about three and a half to four yards in diameter, at bottom, and from six to seven feet in height, and that from the top of the said Alleghany Ridge westward, as far as we have continued the said line, we have set up posts at the end of every mile, and raised round each post, heaps or piles of stones, or earth of about the diameter and height before mentioned. J. Thomas Scharf, History of Maryland (Baltimore, 1879), I, 407–409.