Changes

==Maryland politics==

==Maryland politics==

During December 1772-April 1773, an acrimonious battle of words enlivened the pages of the ''Maryland Gazette'' when the Whiggish country-party lawyers William Paca and Samuel Chase - Maryland's equivalent of two [[Sam Adams]]es and both members of the [[Sons of Liberty]] - exchanged a series of letters with rector Jonathan Boucher over the issues of the 40-pound tobacco poll tax for support of the clergy, and the movement for an American bishop symbolized by Boucher. Paca and Chase's position that the 1702 Act of Establishment creating the poll tax was invalid led Boucher to challenge their right as vestrymen of St. Anne's parish to levy taxation for church repairs, since vestrymen also were created by that very law.

During December 1772–April 1773, an acrimonious battle of words enlivened the pages of the ''Maryland Gazette'' when the Whiggish country-party lawyers William Paca and Samuel Chase - Maryland's equivalent of two [[Sam Adams]]es and both members of the [[Sons of Liberty]] - exchanged a series of letters with rector Jonathan Boucher over the issues of the 40-pound tobacco poll tax for support of the clergy, and the movement for an American bishop symbolized by Boucher. Paca and Chase's position that the 1702 Act of Establishment creating the poll tax was invalid led Boucher to challenge their right as vestrymen of St. Anne's parish to levy taxation for church repairs, since vestrymen also were created by that very law.

Instead the lawyers insisted that common law was their justification for representing their parishioners, and turned the argument into a scathing attack on churchmen, bishops, and the proprietary establishment in general. The entire imbroglio weakened the position of Maryland clerics as tensions with Britain increased after 1773, and enhanced the political prestige of Paca and Chase in the new politics of confrontation.<ref>Anne Y. Zimmer, "The 'Paper War' in Maryland, 1772-73: The Paca-Chase Political Philosophy Tested." ''Maryland Historical Magazine'' 1976 71(2): 177-193. 0025-4258</ref>

Instead the lawyers insisted that common law was their justification for representing their parishioners, and turned the argument into a scathing attack on churchmen, bishops, and the proprietary establishment in general. The entire imbroglio weakened the position of Maryland clerics as tensions with Britain increased after 1773, and enhanced the political prestige of Paca and Chase in the new politics of confrontation.<ref>Anne Y. Zimmer, "The 'Paper War' in Maryland, 1772-73: The Paca-Chase Political Philosophy Tested." ''Maryland Historical Magazine'' 1976 71(2): 177-193. 0025-4258</ref>