<P> The eighth session decided that the continuation of an ad - hoc government by the convention was not a good mechanism for all the concerns of the province . A more permanent and structured government was needed . So, on July 3, 1776, they resolved that a new convention be elected that would be responsible for drawing up their first state constitution, one that did not refer to parliament or the king, but would be a government "...of the people only ." After they set dates and prepared notices to the counties they adjourned . On August 1, all freemen with property elected delegates for the last convention . The ninth and last convention was also known as the Constitutional Convention of 1776 . They drafted a constitution, and when they adjourned on November 11, they would not meet again . The conventions were replaced by the new state government which the Maryland Constitution of 1776 had established . Thomas Johnson became the state's first elected governor . </P> <P> On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union took effect with Maryland's ratification . The articles had initially been submitted to the states on November 17, 1777, but the ratification process dragged on for several years, stalled by an interstate quarrel over claims to uncolonized land in the west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River . Maryland was the last hold - out; it refused to ratify until larger states like Virginia and New York agreed to rescind their claims to lands in what became the old Northwest Territory and the Southwest Territory . </P> <P> No significant battles of the American Revolutionary War (1775--1783) occurred in Maryland . However, this did not prevent the state's soldiers from distinguishing themselves through their service . General George Washington was impressed with the Maryland regulars (the "Maryland Line") who fought in the Continental Army and, according to one tradition, this led him to bestow the name "Old Line State" on Maryland . Today, the Old Line State is one of Maryland's two official nicknames . </P> <P> The Second Continental Congress met briefly in Baltimore from December 20, 1776, through March 4, 1777 at the old hotel, later renamed Congress Hall, at the southwest corner of West Market Street (now Baltimore Street) and Sharp Street / Liberty Street . Marylander John Hanson, served as President of the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1782 . Hanson was the first person to serve a full term with the title of "President of the United States in Congress Assembled" under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union . </P>

Maryland was the only southern colony founded for religious reasons