History

Home Rule Convention of the Eastern Shore of Maryland

civic · founded 1925

A states'-rights and anti-Prohibition convention convened at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, on Saturday 29 August 1925, with delegations from nine Eastern Shore counties and a call signed by representative citizens of each. Senator William Cabell Bruce was the chief speaker and Congressman John Philip Hill also took part. The Worcester Democrat called it "the Eastern Shore's first organized interest in States' rights." Its resolutions demanded that Congress stop concentrating control at Washington; that all federal power over education, roads and "the prohibition or regulation of alcoholic liquors" be repealed; and declared "unalterable opposition to the proposed child labor amendment."

In the record (1)

  1. 1925 · 1925-08-29

    On 29 August 1925 nine Eastern Shore counties met at the Atlantic Hotel to demand the repeal of federal power over roads, schools, child labour and Prohibition.

    Worcester Democrat, 22 August: "A convention and mass meeting to protest against Federal encroachment on the rights of the States will be held at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Md., on Saturday, August 29th, under the auspices of a Home Rule Convention of the Eastern Shore of Maryland." On 29 August, under "STATES' RIGHTS MEET AT OCEAN CITY TODAY — Senator William Cabell Bruce Will Be The Chief Speaker—Dry Mention Likely — NINE COUNTIES WILL HAVE DELEGATIONS": "The convention will mark the Eastern Shore's first organized interest in States' rights." The resolutions, printed on 5 September, ran: "Before the 18th Amendment, the people were content and law-abiding. Since the 18th Amendment the coasts and bays are filled with smugglers, and the fields and forests with illicit stills, furnishing the people, young and old with poisonous liquors. Therefore be it resolved by this Convention of Eastern Shoremen, assembled at Ocean City, Maryland on August 29, 1925: 1. That we demand from Congress an immediate cessation of the tendency to concentrate at Washington control over the purely local concerns of the States. 2. That we demand a repeal of all laws which vest or attempt to vest in the Federal Government power over such local matters as education and roads, the prohibition or regulation of alcoholic liquors or the like… 4. That we declare our unalterable opposition to the proposed child labor amendment to the Constitution of the United States." The dry Midland Journal of Rising Sun answered on 4 September: "With such men as Senator Bruce and Congressman John Philip Hill, of Maryland, of well known wet proclivities, dominating the convention and railing, as usual, at the Prohibition Amendment, it is not hard to see that the 'Home Rule' convention was just another wail of Maryland's wet politicians."

    Ocean City's grand hotel spent its last summer as the meeting-place of the Eastern Shore's anti-Prohibition revolt — and four months later it burned down.

    Atlantic HotelWilliam Cabell BruceJohn Philip Hill

    Source · checked 2026-08-06