Well Disposed to Give Battle - The Patriots of Charles County

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I.  Rising to Importance:  Thomas Stone, part 1

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Distinction & Disaster:  Thomas Stone, part 2

Within the short space of six months, Thomas Stone went from the Committee of Correspondence, to the Provincial Convention and then became a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.  It is not entirely known how he was able to achieve such prominence in such a short span of time.  Nonetheless, Stone was well known by many of the more tenured officials and, even though a political moderate, brought balance to the men composing the Continental Congress.

Thomas Stone, signed the Declaration of Independence for Maryland at age 33.

War had already broken out by the time Stone arrived for the first meeting of Congress in Philadelphia in May of 1775.  Three weeks earlier, blood had been spilled in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord.  Stone had sketchy details of the event before he traveled to Philadelphia.  He had written about his concerns to his wife, Margaret, saying that the bloodshed would “reduce both England and America to a state to which no friend of either ever wished to see.”  

Even though blood had been spilt and prolonged warfare appeared evident, Stone’s main concern, as a moderate, was the restoration of harmonious relations between Britain and her embittered colonies.  Stone, however, was willing to meet with the British only upon “terms of security and justice to America”.  Barring those terms, Stone felt “war, or anything, would be preferable to a surrender of our rights.”

Stone’s moderate stance did not change over the following year.  Although most of his fellow moderates now felt that a break with England was needed, Stone continued in the early days of 1776 to search for reasonable accommodations, which would allow peace to gain a foothold.  

The conflict within Stone was evident.  In a letter to his uncle, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Stone wrote that he knew, “the dye was cast- the fatal stab is given to any future connection between this country and Britain except in the relation of conqueror and vanquished, which I can’t think of without horror and indignation.”  In the same letter, however, Stone railed against the “rash and precipitate councils of a few men,” probably John Adams and Richard Henry Lee, who pushed for independence, “when the minds of men are not prepared for such an event… and appears to me the most weak and ill judged measure I ever met.”

Stone felt a decision on the future of Maryland and America should be made by the “fair and uninfluenced sense of the people.”  Historian, Jean Lee calls Stone a “consistent moderate”, a man who believed in the rightness of the Patriot cause, while dreading the cost of lives on both sides.

In the end, Thomas Stone went with his head and became a firm supporter of American independence.  Unlike Pennsylvanian delegate John Dickinson, who refused to have outsiders sway his conviction and ultimately had refused to sign the Declaration, Stone voted ‘yes’ along with his fellow Marylanders.  At 33 years old, he was the youngest of the four Marylanders to affix their signatures to the document.  

In an uncharacteristic display for him, Stone afterward expressed his recognition of reaching a personal point of no return by writing, “May God send victory to the arm lifted in support of righteousness, virtue, and freedom and crush even to destruction the power which wantonly would trample on the rights of mankind.”

There is no way of knowing how far Thomas Stone would have gone in Congress or any other national office, because 1776, aside from bringing him renown also became the most trying year of his life.  

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The Illness of a Wife Most Dear Preys Heavily On My Spirits

Stone’s wife Margaret joined him in Philadelphia that spring.  While she was there, a smallpox epidemic swept through the city.  Smallpox, a virulent and often fatal disease, is estimated to have claimed up to 125,000 victims during the revolutionary years.  Margaret received an inoculation against the disease and was then given “medicine” (believed to have been mercury) with which to purge her system.  The procedure left Margaret gravely ill.  Even after recovery, her health was poor and continued to deteriorate until her death in 1787.  

Thomas expressed his grief in a letter to his uncle Jenifer saying, “The illness of a wife I esteem most dearly preys heavily on my spirits.”  This may have been the reason Stone declined his next appointment to Congress in 1777.  Instead, he spent most of the remainder of his life in the Maryland state senate in Annapolis.

Stone kept up with national events, even serving for a few months in Congress when it met for eight months in Annapolis from November 1783 to June 1784.  He was concerned about the direction America took after the conclusion of the war.  Although he helped frame the Articles of Confederation, Stone ultimately became a proponent for a stronger federal government than the one then in place.

To this end, Stone and three other Maryland delegates traveled to Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, in 1785 to meet with Virginia delegates to discuss boundary and trade issues between the two states.  The overwhelming success of this conference led Virginia to call for a convention of all the states.  Two years later, in 1787, the Constitutional Convention took place.  

Stone played a major role in Maryland’s work toward the new government and was rewarded by being selected to be one of Maryland’s delegates to the convention in May 1787.  Stone declined his selection, however, due to his wife’s grave condition.  A few weeks later, on June 3, 1787, Margaret Stone died at the age of 36.

"Haberdeventure", the Stone plantation in Port Tobacco, Charles County.  First built as a modest farmhouse for Stone's wife and three children; then expanded to house Stone's younger siblings after the death of their father.

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His Loss Will Be Felt By His Country

Grief stricken at the loss of his wife, Stone quickly fell ill himself.  Overwhelmed with depression, he neglected work, family and friends; but the following September, Stone was persuaded to take an ocean voyage to clear his mind.  He traveled to Alexandria, Virginia to book passage on a ship departing for the West Indies.  Stone felt, however, that he would not return from the trip.  

In what amounted to a farewell letter to his 13-year-old son, Frederick, Stone left fatherly words of wisdom, advising his son to “seek goodness, rather than greatness among men, the former is solid, the latter all vanity and often leads to ruin, this I speak from personal experience.”  Stone also expressed that his weakened health made him fear he would never see his son again.  

In this, Stone was eerily prophetic.  On October 5, 1787, just days after writing to Frederick, and only four months and two days after his wife’s passing, Thomas Stone died at the age of 44.  

On October 11, the Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser wrote these glowing words of tribute to Stone…

“…His singular assiduity and integrity, both as a professional man and in the several distinguishing and important offices of public trust wherein he hath been placed by his country, had long gained him the universal confidence, gratitude and applause of his fellow citizens.  His loss will be felt by his country-to his family and friends it is irreparable.”

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Next in the Series: An Unusual Voice for Independence

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Scott S. Hill is an interpretive park ranger at Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Port Tobacco, Maryland.  He has spent a total of fourteen years in the Federal Government preserving and relating our nation’s history: two years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and twelve years in the National Park Service as an interpretive park ranger at seven different park units. 

Scott has spent the last six years at Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Charles County.  His other areas of academic knowledge and interest include the histories of the U.S. Military, the Civil War, the Revolutionary War and Great Britain.

CNN, C-Span and Fox News have featured Scott’s work; and he has recently been published in the National Parks collection of stories, Oh, Ranger!

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Ms Dailey welcomes your comments & questions. Please leave feedback in the box below or contact her via email: annadailey@thebaynet.com .