{400}landing of that officer was at first opposed and prevented, but he was finally permitted to enter the town. They made an effigy of him, dressed it curiously, placed it in a cart, like a malefactor, with some sheets of paper before it, and, while the bell was tolling, paraded it through the town. They proceeded to a hill, where, after punishing it at the whipping-post and pillory, they hung it upon a gibbet, set fire to a tar-barrel underneath, and burned it. * Governor Sharpe informed the colonial secretary of the proceedings, and plainly told him that, such was the temper of the people, that any stamped paper which might arrive would doubtless be burned. [Illustration: 9410] Some of the proscribed paper, which arrived in December [[ a 1765]] (a) was sent back by Governor Sharpe. The people refused to use the odious stamps, and all legal business was suspended for a while. The Maryland Gazette, like the Pennsylvania Journal (see page 259), appeared in mourning on the 31st of October, declaring, like its cotemporary, that "The times are Dreadful, Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous, and Dollarless." The editor issued "an apparition of the _late_ Maryland Gazette" on the 10th of December, and expressed his "belief that the odious Stamp Act would never be carried into operation." On the 1st of March, 1766, the Sons of Liberty of Baltimore, Kent, and Anne Arundel counties held their first formal meeting at the court-house in Annapolis. The Reverend Andrew Lendrum was appointed moderator, and William Paca (afterward a signer of the Declaration of Independence) was chosen secretary. Joseph Nicholson, from Kent county, presented an address from that district, signed by twenty-three of the leading men. ** It was an application to the chief justice of the provincial court, the secretary and commissary general, and judges of the land-offices, asking them to resume the business of their respective offices regardless of the law. The Anne Arundel and Baltimore committees also signed the request, *** which, being forwarded to those officers, was complied with. The Stamp Act thus virtually became a nullity a month before the intelligence of its repeal arrived. That intelligence reached Annapolis at noon on the 5th of April, and diffused unusual joy through the city. Ihe remainder of the day was spent by the people in mirth and festivity, and at an assemblage in the evening, "all loyal and patriotic toasts were drank." The Assembly of Maryland voted a statue to the king, and ordered a portrait of Lord Camden, a parliamentary friend of the Americans, to be painted for the State House. On the 11th of June, great rejoicings were again held at Annapolis, that day having been appointed for the purpose by the * Ridgeley's Annals of Annapolis, page 136.