The Lottery
by Gary D. Crawford Nope, sorry. You didn’t win it. (Maybe next time.) Actually, though, this article isn’t about Maryland’s modern game of chance at all. Rather, it’s about some rather deadlier gambles ~ ones that were played out around here over 200 years ago. But to learn about them, we’ll need to jump back to 1790. Ready? (Hold on!) There! The 18th century was drawing to a close. It was Washing ton’s second term, and our new country was still a teenager. The respective responsibilities of the states and the federal government were still being worked out, and Congress was short of cash. The only source of federal funds was from tariffs, the duties paid on imported goods, and a Revenue Service soon was created to curb cheating. The lack of federa l money made it quite impossible to maintain a standing army or navy. Even the modest nav y we had built up during the Revolution, with the help of Philadelphia shipbuilder Joshua Humphrey, was long gone. Humphrey deserves to be better known, by the way. Like all Quakers, Humphrey was a pacifist, so when he was asked to switch from building merchant vessels to ships of
war, he had a difficult choice. When he agreed to help build a navy, it moved him outside the community of Friends ~ a process they call “disuniting.” Humphrey was passionate about the revolution, however, and managed to provide the Continental Congress with a small fleet of new or converted warships. After the war, however, the navy vessels were sold off as the nation turned to domestic issues. Fortunately, for a few years, it didn’t much matter. By 1790, a number of international difficulties were brewing. The war between Great Britain and Revolutionary France was drawing many other countries into the conf lict. Washington declared the U.S. neutral in 1793, making it unlawful for any American to assist those at war. Nevertheless, American ships at sea were running into trouble. For hundreds of years, the coun-
141
