and large circle of friends and acquaintances by whom he was much respected and will be long and deeply mourned."

Kennedy's demise, coming so unexpectedly and swiftly, brought deep gloom to his many friends throughout the State. The esteem and love with which he was generally held were exemplified by the action of the Legislature, in the adoption of a motion that each member wear crepe on his left arm for 30 days. This motion was passed on January 1, 1832 (House Journal, Page 6). Its sponsor was Delegate Nicholas Brewer of Annapolis.

Kennedy's sudden end was not only a sad blow to the members of the General Assembly; it was distressing news to the people generally. He had endeared himself to them by reason of his many martial ballads that had aroused their ardor during the War of 1812. Kennedy's muse had been the inspiring voice of the trumpet in gathering together the people for common action. He believed that an injustice was being perpetrated upon his beloved America, and so advised his fellow-townsmen to go forth, like the Maccabeans of old, with swords in their hands and with the "praise of God in their mouths." He poured forth patriotic strains with a frequency and enthusiasm that won him a countrywide fame. On every ship where waves the Stars and Stripes his song "The Impressed Seamen" was sung. His striking "Ode on the Conflagration at Washington, August 24, 1814," was sung in many schools and churches.

His fellow-citizens knew him as a man who loved his God and country and who hated injustice. They knew him to be a man who was pious but without bigotry; who was ambitious without greed; patriotic and broad-minded; a man, in whom, as the Bard of Avon says, "The elements so mixed nature might stand up and say to all the world 'This was a man.'"'

For a long period Kennedy's remains rested in obscurity. With the passage of years and important events the work of Kennedy was gradually forgotten; time, as it often does, effaces the memory of men's accomplishments. Small headstones marked his grave and those of his wife and daughter

in the old Presbyterian burial ground in Hagerstown. They were in an unfrequented corner overgrown with weeds and rambling vines.

Some ten years ago, Mrs. James Findlay, granddaughter of Thomas Kennedy removed the graves to Rose Hill Cemetery, in the same city.

In 1918, the centenary of the introduction of the "Jew Bill" by Kennedy aroused to activity a number of the Jewish [ citizens of Washington county, among whom was F. S. Kahn. Through the Morris Brenner Lodge, of the Independent Order Brith Sholom of Baltimore, a fund was raised for the purchase of a monument. On June 1st, 1919, Kennedy's work was perpetuated by the dedication of this monument over the grave of Liberty's apostle. This memorial to Kennedy, a tall granite shaft, was unveiled by Mrs. James Findlay. Col. William P. Lane of Washington county, the president of of the County Historical Society, presided. Among the speakers were Senator H. S. Bomberger and Leo Weinberg of Frederick. The Grand Lodge officers of the Order of Brith Sholom and a large delegation from Baltimore witnessed the ceremonies.

Several years prior to the unveiling of the monument, Mr. Kahn aroused great interest in the subject of Kennedy's legislative struggle by awarding a monetary prize for the best essay on Kennedy. It was won by Miss Clara Tucker Riley of Annapolis, daughter of Dr. Elihu S. Riley.

The following memorandum written by Kennedy, May 28, 1829, the original of which Mrs. Findlay recently discovered among old family documents, contains much of interest :

"Thirty-three years ago, about this very hour, a large vessel passed Alexandria and proceeded up the Potomac by Washington to Georgetown; and as the Britannia passed on the Virginia side of Mason's Island, a salute was fired, which shook the houses in Georgetown and brought her citizens down to the wharf in crowds. A boat went ashore, and in it, the writer of these lines; and the first person he spoke to was to his brother Matthew whom he had not seen for many long years. Georgetown was then a little village

without a pavement. Washington was in embryo, those six buildings were finished, the President's House and Capitol were not under roof, and one solitary grog shop was all that was to be seen in those days, and this was a temporary shed in the neighborhood of the President's House.

"What a change has thirty-three years made in Washington, in Georgetown, in the United States, in the world, in my own situation. There I was, a Caledonian laddie—a stranger, a wanderer. The wanderer is now a Senator of Maryland. The stranger is now the father of an American family. The Caledonian laddies' locks once yellowish fair begin to assume the looks of the thistle-down, and long before thirty-three years more are gone and past, they will be laid low in the dust, and if he sleeps not in the land of his fathers-it will be in the land of his children.

"And though misfortune and distress have often visited him yet he has been blessed beyond his deserts, blessed with the choice of his heart, in his Rosamond, blessed in his children, blessed in friends, firm, faithful and affectionate friends-blessed with the confidence of his fellow-citizens who have elected him to many responsible stations, and with the confidence of the Government of Maryland and the Government of the United States. He has been often gratified in seeing the principles of Republicanism in triumph. In the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800; in the elections of Madison and Monroe, and lately and gloriously in the election of Andrew Jackson-and he has seen those principles triumph in Maryland in 1800 and to 1812, and again in 1819, to the present time. He has seen religious liberty triumph in Maryland he has seen the Jews restored and placed on a footing with the Christians and he has seen the reign of prejudice and bigotry put to an end in Ireland and the Catholics set free and raised to an equality with their Protestant brethren. With all their blessings and gratifications he is satisfied, and now asks neither honor nor wealth -all he asks now is that wisdom which cometh from above: wishes for content, without riches, without poverty, and as he has been preserved through past years he cheerfully

commits the future to the disposal of Him who rules in

heaven and on earth.

THOS. KENNEDY,

Castle Hope,

Potomac St., Hagerstown, Md.

May 28, 1829.

Family: Rosamond Harris, home; Grace Carmelia, home; John Francis (to graduate next month at West Point Military Academy); Howard (graduated April, 1828, Medical College, Baltimore, now residing in Williamsport); Catherine Sim, home; Rosamond Thomas, home; Amelia Thomas, died an infant, in 1801; William Thomas, a year old, 1803; second William Thomas a year old, 1805; Lawrence Ludlow, four years, 1816.

Bless them all.

Hagerstown, Maryland, Sunday eve., May 28, 1826.

T. K.

CHAPTER V

FIRST JEWS TO HOLD OFFICE

As a result of Thomas Kennedy's victory for religious freedom, the voices of men opposed to the Jews' progress were temporarily silenced. In the fall of 1826, two distinguished sons of Israel-Solomon Etting and Jacob I. Cohen-were elected members of the City Council. The population of Baltimore in that year was about 65,000. There were about two hundred Jewish people in the State, representing a capital of about a half million dollars.

In October, 1825, General Andrew Jackson was nominated by the Legislature of Tennessee as a candidate for President of the United States in 1828, and all the elections held in Maryland during the interval turned upon the Presidential question. Both administration and anti-administration parties held State conventions in Baltimore during 1827, and organized for the approaching struggle. In the proadministration convention, held in Baltimore, July 23, 1827, the name of Solomon Etting appears as one of the delegates. He was a prominent figure at the convention, for the passage of the "Jew Bill" at Annapolis the year before had given him courage to engage actively in political enterprises.

A slight reaction (which was but temporary) occurred in this connection, when a committee consisting of ten Jews appeared in Annapolis in the fall of 1829 to petition the Legislature for permission to incorporate the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. When the memorial was read for the first time and the Speaker put the question to a vote, it was rejected by a sweeping majority. This was a bitter blow to the members of the congregation who had organized in Baltimore for divine worship at the home of Zalman Rehine, whose house was on Holliday street, near Pleasant.

There