The Nation: The Last Governor

The Last Govenor

England and her colonies (now to be known as states) have come to a parting, but not everything need end in bloodshed and hatred. That was well demonstrated by Maryland’s Governor Robert Eden, who stayed at ins post long after ins fellow Governors had fled. For ins safety, he relied primarily on the affection he had earned during ins seven years in office. He had traveled widely throughout Maryland, entertained handsomely,* organized the building of a theatre, and consistently tried to reconcile London and the Colonies. Tins enraged General Charles Lee, Continental commander for the southern region, who demanded last month that the Maryland Council “get rid of their damn’d government.” The Baltimore Committee of Observation sent a band of men to kidnap Eden, but the Annapolis authorities repelled them. Only in May did the Maryland State Convention finally request that Eden “depart peaceably with all his effects.” Eden agreed. A fortnight ago, the entire Annapolis Council of Safety went to take what one witness called “an affectionate leave of their late supreme magistrate.” As he boarded a British warship, the citizenry presented him with several sheep, lambs and baby hogs. his well-wishers hoped he would return “whenever we shall happily be restored to peace.”

*The Governor’s love of comfort hardly exceeds that of his predecessor, Horatio Sharpe, whose mansion, Whitehall, contains the only water closet in the Colonies.