Eden was not among those who believed that coercion would force Marylanders into loyalty to the mother country. He returned to Maryland from England shortly after the
Peggy Stewart was burned in protest against English taxes on tea, and on December 30 1774 he wrote:
"The spirit of resistance against the
Tea Act, or any mode of internal taxation, is as strong and universal here as ever. I firmly believe that they will undergo any hardship sooner than acknowledge a right in the
British Parliament in that particular, and will persevere in their non-importation and non-exportation experiments, in spite of every inconvenience that they must consequently be exposed to, and the total loss of their trade."
[1] By 1775 his authority had been totally usurped by the
Annapolis Convention. He was created a
Baronet, of Maryland in North America, in 1776.