Maryland: The Athenian Touch

In the wooden-domed building where General George Washington tendered his resignation to become G. Washington, Esq., and where the Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, Maryland's legislators of late have been busily writing some modern history. Last week, after decades of stand-pat government, the state's general assembly concluded its most productive, innovative session in memory. As a result, Annapolis—which once was proudly dubbed the Athens of America, but is better known today as Crabtown, after the Chesapeake crustaceans for which it is famed—fairly steamed with bipartisan mutual admiration.

Spiro ("Ted") Agnew, the fifth Republican Governor Maryland has had, said...