Maryland's lone US vice president was Spiro Theodore Agnew (1918–96), who served as governor of Maryland before being elected as Richard Nixon's running mate in 1968. Reelected with Nixon in 1972, Agnew resigned the vice-presidency in October 1973 after a federal indictment had been filed against him. Roger Brooke Taney (1777–1864) served as attorney general and secretary of the treasury in Andrew Jackson's cabinet before being confirmed as US chief justice in 1836; his most historically significant case was the Dred Scott decision in 1856, in which the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could not exclude slavery from any territory.
Three associate justices of the US Supreme Court were also born in Maryland. Thomas Johnson (1732–1819), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, served as the first governor of the State of Maryland before his appointment to the Court in 1791. Samuel Chase (1741–1811) was a Revolutionary leader, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a local judicial and political leader before being appointed to the high court in 1797; impeached in 1804 because of his alleged hostility to the Jeffersonians, he was acquitted by the Senate the following year. As counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Thurgood Marshall (1908–93), argued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case before the Supreme Court in 1954; President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the Court 13 years later.
Other major federal officeholders born in Maryland include John Hanson (1721–83), a member of the Continental Congress and first president to serve under the Articles of confederation (1781–82); Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737–1832), a signer of the Declaration of Independence and US senator from 1789 to 1792; John Pendleton Kennedy (1795–1870), secretary of the Navy under Millard Fillmore and a popular novelist known by the pseudonym Mark Littleton; Reverdy Johnson (1796–1876), attorney general under Zachary Taylor; Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851–1921) secretary of the Navy and attorney general in Theodore Roosevelt's cabinet; and Benjamin Civiletti (b.New York, 1935), attorney general under Jimmy Carter. Among the many important state officeholders are William Paca (1740–99), a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later governor; Luther Martin (b.New Jersey, 1748–1826), Maryland's attorney general from 1778 to 1805 and from 1818 to 1822, as well as defense counsel in the impeachment trial of Chase and in the treason trial of Aaron Burr; John Eager Howard (1752–1827), Revolutionary soldier, governor, and US senator; and Albert C. Ritchie (1876–1936), governor from 1919 to 1935. William D. Schaefer (b.1921) was mayor of Baltimore from 1971–87; he was elected governor in 1987.
Lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner"—now the national anthem—in 1814. The prominent abolitionists Frederick Douglass (Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, 1817?–95) and Harriet Tubman (1820?–1913) were born in Maryland, as was John Carroll (1735–1815), the first Roman Catholic bishop in the US and founder of Georgetown University. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (b.New York, 1774–1821), canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1975, was the first native-born American saint. Stephen Decatur (1779–1820), a prominent naval officer, has been credited with the toast "Our country, right or wrong!"
Prominent Maryland business leaders include Alexander Brown (b.Ireland, 1764–1834), a Scotch-Irish immigrant who built the firm that is now the 2nd-oldest private investment banking house in the US; George Peabody (b.Massachusetts, 1795–1869), founder of the world-famous Peabody Conservatory of Music (now the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University); and Enoch Pratt (b.Masachusetts, (1808–96) who endowed the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), a free black, assisted in surveying the new District of Columbia and published almanacs from 1792 to 1797. Ottmar Mergenthaler (b.Germany, 1854–99), who made his home in Baltimore, invented the linotype machine.
Financier-philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795–1873) was a Marylander, and educators Daniel Coit Gilman (b.Connecticut, 1831–1908) and William Osler (b.Canada, 1849–1919, also a famed physician), were prominent in the establishment of the university and medical school named in Hopkins' honor. Peyton Rous (1879–1970) won the 1966 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.
Maryland's best-known modern writer was H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken (1880–1956), a Baltimore newspaper reporter who was also a gifted social commentator, political wit, and student of the American language. Edgar Allan Poe (b.Massachusetts, 1809–49), known for his poems and eerie short stories, died in Baltimore, and novelist-reformer Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was born there. Other writers associated with Maryland include James M. Cain (1892–1976), Leon Uris (b.1924), John Barth (b.1930), and Russell Baker (b.1925). Painters John Hesselius (b.Pennsylvania, 1728–78) and Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) are also linked with the state.
Most notable among Maryland actors are Edwin Booth (1833–93) and his brother John Wilkes Booth (1838–65), notorious as the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Maryland was the birthplace of several jazz musicians, including James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (1883–1983), William Henry "Chick" Webb (1907–39), and Billie Holiday (1915–59).
Maryland was home to a number of well-known sports figures. Probably the greatest baseball player of all time, George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895–1948) was born in Baltimore. Other prominent ballplayers include Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove (1900–75), James Emory "Jimmy" Foxx (1907–67), and Al Kaline (b.1934, and Cal Ripken, Jr. (b.1960), who played in 2,632 consecutive major league baseball games (ending 20 September 1998), setting a new record. Former lightweight boxing champion Joe Gans (1874–1910) was a Maryland native.