XI ROBERT BOWIE Certain apologists, performing for a season the duties. of historians, have sought to read into the early state history of Maryland naught but what is admirable, patriotic and sublime. While the sentiments which actuated them are undoubtedly noble, their performances have frequently done less to excite favorable regard than would have been the case had they been critical instead of worshipful. It is possible, for instance, for the highly imaginative to see in Maryland's partial opposition to the second war with England only an all-controlling love of peace and concord; but it is more in accord with the facts to remember, when approaching that period of the state's history which parallels the war of 1812-15, that many of the leaders who denounced the conflict did not love peace and concord onehalf so much as they did their own pet theories, which they were trying to saddle upon the people. Again, it is possible for the apologist to find certain credulous followers when he explains away the several mob outbreaks at this time by charging them to a foreign and ruffian element; but the Baltimore mob, which gave evidence of the criminal extremes to which uncontrolled patriotism may go, was in truth very representative of a large portion of the population of Maryland in the closing years of the eighteenth century and in the first part of the nineteenth century. These men in their day indulged in public ceremonies, which, if practiced today, would create considerable doubt as to the sanity of the participants. Publicly to burn effigies and portraits of those who had fallen under the people's dis pleasure was a common practice, then given all the formality of a state ceremony; and the same men whom some historians seek to make so serious and lofty-purposed went further, and took part in the public interment of the ashes of such effigies and likenesses after they had burned them. This lack of proper restraint is not dwelt upon to disparage the people of Maryland of a century ago, but rather as a means toward understanding fully the actions of certain leaders of that time. It intensifies the light which existing chronicles throw upon the life of the first Governor Bowie, for without the background of excessively enthusiastic partisans and of the general wild delirium of his time Mr. Bowie might be unjustly discounted because of some peculiar traits which he displayed on certain occasions and which were really characteristic of his time. Robert Bowie, third son of Capt. William and Margaret (Sprigg) Bowie, was born at Mattaponi, near Nottingham, Prince George's county, in March, 1750. He attended successively the schools of Rev. Mr. Eversfield, near his own home, and of Rev. Mr. Cradock, near Baltimore. But in his youth he gave first thought to romance and things romantic, and was daring enough to put his visionary theories into practice early by eloping with the daughter of Gen. James John Mackall, Priscilla, who, when young Bowie discovered her attractions, was not yet fifteen years of age, while her impulsive swain was just past nineteen. With the rashness of youth they married immediately; the union fortunately revealed in later years the unconscious wisdom of the principals. Bowie's father presented him a house and lot in Nottingham and also a farm on the outskirts of the village, and in 1791, when the elder Bowie died, the son inherited the paternal estate of Mattaponi, where he usually spent his summer months. Bowie was twenty-four years of age when the Freeholders' ROBERT BOWIE 59 convention at Upper Marlboro, in November, 1774, placed him on a committee to carry into effect the resolutions of the Continental congress. On September 12, 1775, he, with certain others of his fellow-countians, was instructed to enroll a company of "minute men," and early in 1776 Mr. Bowie was commissioned first lieutenant of a company of militia organized in Nottingham. He was promoted to a captaincy on June 21, 1776, and accompanied the Maryland forces when they joined Washington in his early campaign near New York. Captain Bowie took part in several of the important battles of the Revolutionary War, and, although he won no great glory, he always displayed good judgment and courage. When a treaty of peace was patched up between England and her former colonies, Mr. Bowie returned to his county and sought fresh excitement in politics. Despite his long absence, he soon won enough support to be sent to the house of delegates. On October 15, 1785, he was elected a member of the lower house of the general assembly, and he was reëlected five times consecutively. Then there was a break of ten years in Bowie's political service, during which time, however, he filled the post of major of militia and also that of justice of the peace in Prince George's county. When Maryland began to experiment with things democratic, Mr. Bowie was again given a place in the council halls, being in the lower house of the general assembly from 1801 to 1803. During this period Governor Mercer, the first republican state executive, directed the affairs of the commonwealth, and his administration witnessed a breaking away from those old ideas which denied to a man who had not been born in a silk-stocking or fat-pursed family the capacity for thinking or acting upon affairs of government. But the pendulum of public sentiment was not to pause halfway between the extremes of federalism and democracy. Mercer was not radical enough for the masses who then, for the first time, were feeling the effects of equality theories which they had freely imbibed until they were in a state of intoxication. Mercer was democratic, but he was not radically democratic, and therefore the people clamored for someone who should stand for radicalism and Mr. Bowie seemed the man. On November 17, 1803, the general assembly cast a majority of its votes in favor of Mr. Bowie as successor to Governor Mercer. At this time he was a member of the general assembly, but on the following day he presented his resignation to the house of delegates that he might assume charge of the gubernatorial office. Governor Bowie was reëlected for a one year term in 1804 and again in 1805, which made his first administration cover the period from the fall of 1803 to the fall of 1806, the full three years for which he was eligible. The first Bowie administration was noteworthy on account of two national events of moment. The one was the reëlection of Thomas Jefferson The other was the beginning of foreign interference with American comWhile the European nations had been engaged generally in warring with one another, the maritime interests of the United States had grown considerably, until the new nation came to assume a position of no little importance in the commerce of the world. As soon, however, as England and France laid aside their weapons of war long enough to realize that a commercial competitor had arisen, there was born a determination to crush the shipping industry of the United States by whatever means would produce most quickly the desired results. Thus began the depredations of the mother country upon the commerce of her late colonies, and on this hinged the War of 1812-1815, as well as the bitter conflict to the death between the federalists and the republicans. Although the full effect of this merce. 1 |