Assembly of Freemen

The Annapolis Convention was an Assembly of the Counties of Maryland that functioned as the colony's revolutionary government from 1774 to 1776. After 1775, it was officially named the Assembly of Freemen.

In 1774, the committees of correspondence that had sprung up throughout the colonies were being drawn to the support of Boston, as they reacted to the closing of the port and increase of the occupying military force. Massachusetts had asked for a general meeting or Continental Congress to consider joint action. To forestall any such action, the royal governor of Maryland, Robert Eden prorogued the Assembly on April 19, 1774. This was the last session of the colonial assembly ever held in Maryland. But, the assembly members agreed to meet in June at Annapolis after they went home to determine the wishes of the citizens in the counties they represented.

Over the next two and a half years, the Convention met nine times and operated as the state or colony level of Government for Maryland. Throughout the period, they maintained some standing Committees that continued their function between sessions.

The first convention lasted four days, from June 22 to June 25, 1774. All sixteen counties were represented by a total of 92 members. They elected Matthew Tilghman as their chair. Within that short time, they agreed:

Other sessions were held on November 21 – November 25, and December 8 – December 12.

July 26 – August 14 and December 7, 1775 – January 28, 1776

(No 13.)
ASSOCIATION of the FREEMEN of MARYLAND
July 26, 1775.

The long premeditated, and now avowed design of the British Government, to raise a revenue from the property of the colonists without their consent, on the gift, grant and disposition of the Commons of Great Britain; the arbitrary and vindictive statutes passed under color of punishing a riot, to subdue by Military force, and by famine, the Massachusetts Bay; the unlimited power assumed by parliament to alter the charter of that province, and the constitution of all the colonies, thereby destroying the essential securities of the lives, liberties and properties of the colonists; the commencement of hostilities by the ministerial forces, and the cruel prosecution of the War against the people of the Massachusetts Bay, followed by General Gage's proclamation, declaring almost the whole of the Inhabitants of the united colonies, by name or description, rebels and traitors are sufficient causes to arm a free people in defence of their liberty, and to justify resistance, no longer dictated by prudence merely, but by necessity, and leave no alternative but base submission or manly opposition to uncontroulable tyranny. The Congress chose the latter, and for the express purpose of securing and defending the united colonies, and preserving them in safety, against all attempts to carry the above-mentioned acts into execution by force of arms.

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