State of Maryland
Harford County, Harford County, Maryland
Marker Inscription
State of Maryland 1776-1964 General Washington resigned his commission at Annapolis, December 23, 1783. American Revolution officially ended by Congress meeting in Annapolis January 14, 1783. District of Columbia given to nation, 1791. Francis Scott Key w… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
This monument gathers up Maryland's outsized place in the nation's founding, when the little capital at Annapolis briefly held the eyes of a new country. There, in December 1783, George Washington laid down his military commission and returned power to civilian hands — one of the young republic's defining acts — and the Confederation Congress, meeting in the same statehouse, closed the books on the Revolution. In the years that followed Maryland ceded the land that became the District of Columbia, and a Maryland lawyer named Francis Scott Key would give the country the words of its national anthem.
Why it matters
Maryland was a crossroads of the early republic — the stage for Washington's precedent-setting surrender of power and the birthplace of both the national capital's ground and the national anthem — making it a quiet keystone in the American story.
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Related people
- · George Washington
- · Francis Scott Key
Related events
- · Washington's resignation of his commission at Annapolis (1783)
- · End of the American Revolution
- · Creation of the District of Columbia
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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