From Necessity Not Choice: Lessons in Democracy from Maryland's Past

by Jane E. Calvert and Anthony K. Lake

The Occasional Papers of the Center for the Study of Democracy

Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2005

The sixty thousand visitors who come every year to Maryland’s first capital in Historic St. Mary’s City are usually impressed by the sweeping vistas of the tidewater Chesapeake, the archeological discoveries, and the vivid re-creation of the lives of some of the first European settlers in North America.  Less apparent, but equally impressive, is the fact that the bucolic seventeenth-century capital was also home to powerful stirrings of democracy that can inspire today’s democrats abroad, as well as those seeking to strengthen the American system of governance.

Today there are monuments in St. Mary’s City that celebrate early American forms of pluralism, liberty, and inclusion.  The Indian hamlet depicts the relatively peaceful relations of the settlers with Native Americans.  An archeological dig is gradually revealing the location where Margaret Brent demanded her right to vote in the Maryland Assembly.  The working tobacco plantation and the replica of the cargo ship, The Dove, give visitors insight to the lively commerce in the colony.  And a reproduction of a printing press—the third press to exist in British America—lets visitors try their hand at seventeenth-century communication.  At opposite ends of the small city sit the two most important structures, the 1676 State House and a Catholic chapel.

The symbols of the roots of modern democracy on display at Maryland’s first capital remind Americans that the spread of democracy in today’s world is both an expression of our national ideals and in the national interest.  A review of Maryland’s seventeenth-century history is more compelling and hopeful than a tale of idealism.  The founders of Maryland moved in democratic directions out of necessity, not choice.  They thought their approach helped solve practical problems and would work in practice.

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Jane E. Calvert is an assistant professor of history at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Anthony Lake is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University and served as the National Security Adviser to President Clinton from 1993-1997. Both authors are members of the Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Democracy.

For a full copy of the article please contact Zach Messitte

at the Center for the Study of Democracy.