with the Indians in a plot for the
destruction of the Protestants in the province. An actual league at that
time between the French and the Jesuit missionaries with the savages on
the New England frontiers for the destruction of the English colonies in
the east seemed to give color to the story, which created great
excitement. The old feud burned intensely. The Protestants formed an
armed association led by Coode. They marched to the Maryland capital,
took possession of the records and assumed the functions of a
provisional government, in May, 1689. In the following August they met
in convention, when they prepared and sent to the new sovereigns a
report of their proceedings, and a series of absurd and false
accusations against Lord Baltimore. In conclusion, they requested the
monarchs to depose Lord Baltimore by making Maryland a royal province
and taking it under the protection of the crown.

William and Mary listened favorably to the request and, moved by the
false representations, complied with it. Coode was ordered to administer
the government in the name of the king. He ruled with the spirit of a
petty tyrant, until the people of every religious and political creed
were heartily disgusted with him, and, in 1692, he was supplanted by Sir
Lionel Copley, whom the king sent to be governor of Maryland. On the
arrival of the new governor, in the spring of 1692, he summoned a
general assembly, to meet at St. Mary's in May. New laws abolishing
religious toleration were instituted. The church of England was made the
state church for Maryland, to be supported by a tax on the whole people.

"Thus," says McMahan, "was introduced, for the first time in Maryland,
a church establishment, sustained by law and fed by general taxation."
Other laws oppressive in their bearings upon those opposed in religious
views to the dominant party were enacted, some of which remained in
force until the glorious emancipation day, in the summer of 1776, gave
freedom to our nation.

Partly in order to better accommodate the people of Maryland, but more
for the purpose of punishing the adherents of Lord Baltimore, who
constituted a greater proportion of the population of St. Mary's, the
seat of government was moved from there to Anne Arundel, a town on the
shore of the Chesapeake, early in 1694, and there a general assembly was
convened in February. The following year, the name of the place was
changed by authority to Annapolis, and the naval st