Copyright 1999 The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.

OBITUARY FOR A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM
by Allan R. Andrews
American Reporter Correspondent

Tuliptree lived her entire life in one spot and became a meeting place for the planners and promoters of freedom from tyranny. The mayor of Annapolis, Dean Johnson, noted that when Tuliptree was young, "freedom was a fantasy."

At the time of her death, Tulip tree was 97 feet high with an estimated 80-foot canopy of leaves spreading in all directions. Her trunk at the ground was just less than 10 feet in diameter.

While birth records do not exist, it is estimated she was born in the vicinity of Annapolis sometime in the 15th century. At some point during her youth, the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis, the third oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the alma mater of Francis Scott Key, grew up around her.

It was under the branches of Tuliptree that the notion of freedom and liberty flourished in the Maryland Colony. Early colonists concluded a treaty with the Susquahannock tribe in 1652 on the spot where the tree stood. Colonists who gathered at the tree organized a lesser-known tea party aboard the British ship "Peggy Stewart". It was from under her branches that French troops gathered before joining Gen. George Washington's battle at Yorktown.

Tuliptree was well known for having survived previous attacks of lightning and explosive gunpowder placed in her innards. In 1907, her almost devastated insides were filled with concrete and steel rods to keep her standing and strong. About six decades later, she became known internationally when the famous "Ripley's Believe It or Not" featured her as the "poplar tree that would not die."

Noting her passing, an editorialist with the local newspaper called her "the last surviving participant in the American Revolution." At a memorial service earlier this week, a bell atop one of the college's nearby buildings was tolled 13 times to honor the founding colonies.

Hurricane Floyd had opened a fracture through Tuliptree's trunk about 15 feet long, and Russell E. Carlson, a professional arborist from nearby Delaware consulted by the state, waxed poetic in his report sounding the death knoll for Tuliptree.

"It has stood as silent witness for over four centuries," Carlson wrote. "It has seen the development of a nation. . . . Campers and wanderers, children and philosophers, vagrants and presidents, have all stood in the shade of this ancient giant. But finally, it is time to say goodbye to our old friend."

At the memorial service just before Tuliptree was reduced to her stump, Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening remarked: "I hope we commit ourselves to not just the preservation of new trees, but the preservation of the ideas that are stronger than any tree - or any country."

Liberty Tuliptree is the last of 13 so-called liberty trees planted in the original colonies of the United States, perhaps the most famous being on the North Shore of Massachusetts close to where the American Revolution erupted in Concord and Lexington. Several of those trees, symbols of the colonists' battle for freedom, were destroyed by the British.

The stump of Tuliptree will remain in place for several months in hopes that new sprouts will grow from it, and a University of Maryland scientist, according to a report from the Associated Press, took DNA samples from Tuliptree and hopes to clone her.

If he's successful, the scientist plans to donate cloned Liberty trees to each state of the union.

Though she was silent for 400 years, Liberty Tuliptree would probably prefer to see us clone the colonists she harbored and the notions of freedom and liberty for which she stood.

Tuliptree's place of residence, Annapolis, is home to the U.S. Naval Academy as well as to St. John's College, and the curricula at these two American institutions encapsulate the divergence of Liberty's vision.

At the academy, a select group of young men and women with Congressional endorsement train and devote themselves to the armed defense of the nation in a rigid curriculum of disciplined thought, close-order drill, physical fitness and uniformed impeccability.

At St. John's an equal rigor of curriculum allows no elective courses; instead, students, many selected because of their nonconforming brilliance, gather with their tutors in relaxed seminars, dressed for the most part in casual clothing but disciplined nevertheless. For four years they read and discuss The Great Books of civilization.

Allan R. Andrews can be contacted at allan.andrews@reporters.net