The Hamlet Case of 1850 was the first recorded action under the American Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Hamlet, a free negro (Black man) with a family, was arrested in New York by a Deputy US Marshal as a fugitive slave of Mary Brown, of Baltimore, and after a hasty examination surrendered in accordance with the law. Indignation was aroused and he was finally redeemed. Research Hamlet Case
The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland., was chartered in 1867, and named in honour of its principal benefactor, who bequeathed a fund of $3,000,000. It was intended especially for post-graduate work, and has since done much for research. Research Johns Hopkins University
Mason and Dixon's Line was the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, so called from the names of the two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were employed by William Penn and LordBaltimore to mark it off in 1766, after the settlement of the case of Pennsylvania Vs Baltimore. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon marked the line with boundary posts, having on one side the arms of Pennsylvania and on the other those of Baltimore. The line was famous as the line between free States and slave States of the USA. Research Mason and Dixon's Line
McCulloch Vs Maryland was a famous legal case in the US Supreme Court, brought by writ of error from the Court of Appeals of Maryland to the Supreme Court in 1819.
McCulloch was cashier of a branch established in Baltimore by the Bank of the United States, of Philadelphia, which had been incorporated by an act of Congress in 1816. The action was one of
debt brought by the State of Maryland against McCulloch, who, it was averred, had refused to comply with an act of the Maryland General Assembly of 1818, which imposed a 'tax upon all banks or branches thereof in the State of Maryland, not chartered by the Legislature." The decision of the Court of Appeals of Maryland had been against the plaintiff. The Supreme Court reversed this decision, declaring that the Bank Act of 1816 was constitutional, and that therefore the act of the Maryland Legislature of 1818 was contrary to the Constitution of the United States, and therefore void, because States have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to impede or control the operations of constitutional laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution any of the powers of the Federal Government. Research McCulloch Vs Maryland
The Merryman's Case was a famous case before the US Supreme Court. The petitioner was arrested at his home in Maryland, in 1861, for treason, by order of a major-general of the National army. He was imprisoned at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. Chief Justice Taney, of the Supreme Court of the United States, granted a writ of habeas corpus, which the officer in charge at Fort McHenry refused to execute, on the ground that the President had suspended the writ of habeas corpus. The majority of the court decided that no such power was vested in the President, Congress alone having such privilege; that a military officer has no right to arrest a person not subject to the rules and articles of war, except in the aid of judicial authority. Research Merryman's Case
A newspaper is a publication reporting and commenting upon news. The first periodicals were published by the Romans., the first newspapers proper were produced in Venice by the government, published monthly during the war of 1563 against the Turks.
The first genuine newspaper established in the United States was the Boston News Letter founded at Boston in 1704 by Postmaster John Campbell, and continued until 1776. Previous to this there had been
issued at Boston three publications of one number each. Of these the first, called a Newspaper Extraordinary consisted wholly of extracts from a letter of Dr. Increase Mather, who was then in London endeavouring to obtain a new charter for Massachusetts. This letter was published by Samuel Green in 1689.
On September the 25th, 1690, appeared the first and only number of
Publick Occurrences Foreign and Domestic issued by Benjamin Harris. The authorities promptly seized and suppressed the paper as 'a pamphlet published contrary to law and containing reflections of a very high nature'. In 1697 B Green and J Allen republished a news letter, bearing no title, which had been issued in London the same year. It was printed on a single page, .and contained small news items from the continent. After the Boston News Letter there appeared in 1719 the Boston Gazette Andrew Bradford issuing the American Weekly Mercury at Philadelphia the same year. James Franklin established the New England Courant at Boston two years later. This was suppressed for its attacks upon the Government and clergy, but was revived by Benjamin Franklin. WilliamBradford began the Gazette at New York in 1725, and John Peter Zenger the New York Weekly Journal in 1733, in the cause of the people against the Colonial Government. Zenger's paper may be regarded as a prototype of the modern news journal. Newspapers were founded in the other American colonies in the following order: In Maryland, at Annapolis, in 1727; in South Carolina, at Charleston, in 1731; in Rhode Island, at Newport, in 1731; in Virginia, at Williamsburg, in 1736; in North Carolina, at New Berne, in 1755; in Connecticut, at New Haven, in 1755; in New Hampshire, at Portsmouth, in 1756; in Georgia, at Savannah, in 1763; in Vermont, at Westminster, in 1781.
Between 1704 and 1775 seventy-eight different newspapers had been printed with varied success in the American colonies. Of these, thirty-nine were in actual process of publication at the outbreak of the American War of Independence. The papers most influential in advancing the revolutionary cause were the Boston Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy, On the British occupation of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, most of the Whig journals were suspended. It has been estimated that the thirty-nine newspapers of 1775 circulated about 1,300,000 copies annually.
After the Federal Constitution was adopted in America the newspapers fell largely into the hands of English immigrants, men of versatility and talent. Violent partisan controversies arose. The most influential papers of this period were the Columbian Centinel, published at Boston during forty years, commencing in 1784, by Benjamin Russell; the New York Minerva, established at New York in 1793 by Noah Webster; the New York Evening Post, established as the central organ of the Federalists in 1801; the Philadelphia Aurora, founded by Benjamin Franklin Bache in 1790, and afterward edited with vindictive partisanship by William Duane, an Englishman; the Philadelphia National Gazette, established in 1791 by Philip Freneau; and the National Intelligencer, established at Washington by Samuel H Smith in 1800.
The first American penny paper was the New York Sun, established in 1833 by Benjamin Day. The first American Sunday paper was the Sunday Courier, appearing in New York in 1825, with but little success. The chief period of the political influence of editors in the United States was that beginning in 1830 and ending after the American Civil War. Before that date the editor was often of little account, but from 1830 to 1870 the paper was often known chiefly as the organ of the individual editor's opinions. Research Newspaper
Niles's Register was an American weekly journal established at Baltimore by Hezekiah Niles in 1811, and discontinued by his son in 1849. It was a weekly repository of the documentary and political history of the United States, reported with impartiality and fidelity. These reports were made with a fullness not attempted by the local newspapers. Niles's Register had a large circulation for many years. It was frequently quoted by historical writers. Research Niles's Register
Penn Vs Baltimore was a legal case involving the boundaries between William Penn's and Lord Baltimore's land grants from the crown in America. Charles Calvert, the third LordBaltimore, met William Penn's deputy in 1682, William Penn in 1683, but nothing was decided, though William Penn obtained a new grant from the Duke of York reaching into Delaware and even into Maryland; also a letter from the king requesting Baltimore to hasten the adjustment of the boundary. The case was taken to London and decided in William Penn's favour. A compromise was arranged in 1732, and enforced by the Court of Chancery in 1760, in accordance with which a line was run by Mason and Dixon, fixing the boundary in 1767 as now. Research Penn Vs Baltimore
A railway is a road made by placing on the ground on a specially prepared track, continuous parallel lines of iron or steel rails, on which carriages with flanged wheels are run with little friction and consequently at high velocity. The necessity for railways originated in the requirements of the coal-traffic of Northumberlandshire, where the first railways were constructed. In 1676 near Newcastle the coals were conveyed from the mines to the banks of the river by laying rails of timber straight and parallel; and bulky carts were made, with four rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage was made so easy that one horse could draw four or five chaldrons of coal.
The first railway (railroad) constructed in America was projected by Gridley Bryant in 1825, and extended from Quincy, Massachusetts, to the nearest tide-water. It was four miles long. The second railway extended from mines near Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania to the Lehigh River. It was begun in 1827. Stephenson's locomotive came into use in 1829, and by 1830 there were twenty-three
miles of railway completed in the United States.
Abbreviations
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