City’s 375th year deserves attention

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

You note in your article, as well, that these bicentennial celebrations will be buttressed by other occasions marking the 300th celebration of Leonardtown and the 350th birthday of Charles County.

Where, however, in your article is mention of the one upcoming celebration that deserves the attention of all Americans, as well as all Marylanders and most assuredly all residents of St. Mary’s County?

March 25, 2009 — Maryland Day — marks the 375th year of the founding of St. Mary’s City, the first capital of Maryland. What is important about this date is not simply that it is Maryland’s birthday, but that this date marks the birth of the first government in the English world that officially separated church from state and, thereby, laid the foundation for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, granting the right to freedom of religion that we Americans now take for granted.

Lord Baltimore’s ‘‘Maryland Designe” represented a bold experiment in civil government that grew out of the repression and civil unrest in Britain at the time.

By officially separating religion from government, the early Maryland settlers were the first who could vote, own land and hold public office without a religious test. By offering ‘‘liberty of conscience,” Maryland attracted a wide diversity of people with different faiths. For more than half a century, Puritans, Catholics, Quakers and Anglicans lived and worked together in St. Mary’s City and its environs, building a new American society.

The principles of religious freedom and secular government have never been more important — and more threatened — than they are in our world today. Understanding and celebrating our history and the basic precepts and processes by which our diverse nation is governed is an important thread that binds Americans together and can protect our way of life in the future.

The 375th anniversary of the founding of Maryland and Lord Baltimore’s ‘‘Maryland Designe” provides an important opportunity for Marylanders to celebrate their seminal role in the founding of our nation.

Patricia King Jackson, Compton The writer is president of the Historic St. Mary’s City Foundation.