USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 13
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This difference in view between Penn and the ordi- nary Quakers, as the world associates the latter with non-resistance, brings up the whole personality, char- acter, abilities, and ideas of the first Proprietary, of which there was some disclosure in the preceding chapters; and an estimate of him and his career, such as is generally given after noting the death of the per- son in question, may be allowed at this point. William Penn is to be called great without reference to qualities or manifestations of the soul, but by a mundane cri- terion, viz: the affecting of the lives of many others, a criterion which does not insist upon martial deeds or the surmounting of obstacles, and which does not pre- suppose any natural superiority of intellect, and which considers the holding, however fortuitous, of a position of power. Although the position and achievements of other persons have prevented Penn from being the greatest man in American history, he is at least the greatest among the founders of English or Dutch col- onies. Far more than any other of them, he had an importance in the Mother Country, independent of con- nection with the New World, a connection which, in his case, has caused his name to be known where the pre- lates, jurists, statesmen, and generals, possibly even
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Marlborough, who were his contemporaries and ac- quaintances, have been forgotten.
While not the founder of a sect or of a school of thought, Penn was one of most active missionaries and controversialists for a set of religious ideas which spread much more widely than is popularly supposed. The actual result of his labors in this line can not be measured. His learning must have conveyed an im- pression in intellectual classes outside of the Society of Friends. His defence at trial tended to break down repressive measures against the attendants of Meetings. There is no point in detailing here his work as a preacher and elder : it is of as little general interest as the administration of a particular diocese by Wolsey or Richelieu, with which political ecclesiastics, in the broad meaning of the term "ecclesiastics," Penn is to be classed. His religious views are the least striking thing about him, except as sometimes denying what had been considered Orthodoxy: he generally used the ex- pressions common to spiritually minded Christians. His sufferings for conscience make no tragic scene, unpleasant as were expulsion from Oxford and im- prisonments, even if short. Except opportunities in some lines, he lost little by his religion. His closing years were pathetic, but most of his tribulations were from political and financial causes.
The distinction of Penn is in secular affairs. While he was not a forceful ruler, he had remarkable influence over a widely extended variety of human beings, and, while in some matters, like slavery, he was not ahead of his time, he was profound in establishing principles which have come to be recognized as the true bases upon which to build a nation. He gave a code, and held a lordship, in which many abuses in English jurispru- dence and property rights were avoided. To be sure, in the actions from which he has received most credit, viz : paying the Indians for lands and allowing freedom
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of worship, he was scarcely a free agent. It has been shown that, in buying instead of taking the land, he followed the advice of Bishop Compton and the practice on the Delaware. Some secret understanding, too, may have bound Penn, as much as his kindheartedness, to leave the Roman Catholics unmolested; as to Protes- tants, the Church of Sweden could not be uprooted, the Church of England could not be excluded, and there seemed no point, when he had land to sell, in refusing the money of Presbyterians and Baptists. In details, he gained the Indians' confidence and love. He carried out so well the plan of giving all religious denomina- tions a fair chance that he ultimately failed in his object, a commonwealth under the control of Quakers. Only his care safeguarded, and only he could have safeguarded such a colony as he created, imperilled as it was successively; and the advantages which he gave to the settlers, combined with the goodness of the soil, were the reason that his colony outstripped others. Exactly what measures or Royal actions in England are to be traced to him except the sparing of certain lives, we do not know: but Macaulay describes how this un- titled Quaker had the ear of at least one occupant of the throne. Harley, who became Prime Minister, sought through Penn the votes of Quakers at the elections.
The unfollowed suggestions of Penn should give a high notion of his genius. In the line of toleration, which was with him a theory of rightfulness, and no mere expedient, he suggested in James II's reign a division of the royal patronage into thirds for the Anglican Churchmen, the Roman Catholics, and the Dissenters respectively. The share for the King's co- religionists was too great, but any distribution was rejected because the Protestants felt that they were in a life and death struggle.
Penn in 1696 proposed a union of the British colonies in North America, submitting to the Commissioners for
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Trade and Plantations a scheme, according to which two delegates from each colony, making twenty per- sons, would meet once in two years during peace, and oftener in time of war, should be under the presidency of the King's Commissioner, and would adjust differ- ences between Provinces in cases where persons re- moved to avoid paying debts, where offenders fled justice, of injuries in the matter of commerce, and of ways and means to support safety against public ene- mies, fixing the quotas of men and expense, and the King's Commissioner would be General or Chief Com- mander of the forces formed of the quotas. Shall we call Penn the projector of the United States Senate?
His greatest dream-to some extent materialized in the Hague Tribunal, and essentially what we have heard suggested very recently-was a Parliament, or Diet, of Europe, to which disputes between the Powers were to be submitted, and the decisions of which were to be enforced by the other Powers. Thus war would be abolished, except as between the general police force and a delinquent. Co-operation of this kind for this purpose had been suggested previously-see Thomas Willing Balch's pamphlet on Eméric Crucé; and it is too much to claim that such a reader as Penn was unaware of this. His own suggestion appeared, and in detail, in 1695 in his Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe. The representation in the Parliament was to be based upon a census of the wealth of the countries represented, and it is interesting as showing the relative importance of those countries that he tentatively supposed that the Empire of Germany would have 12 members, France 10, Spain 10, Italy "which comes to France" 8, England 6, Portugal 3, Sweden 4, Denmark 3, Poland 4, Venice 3, the Seven Provinces of United Netherlands 4, the Thirteen Swiss Cantons "and little neighbouring sovereignties" 2, and the Dukedom of Holstein and Courland 1; and if Tur-
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key and Muscovy were taken in, they each would have 10. The representatives were to sit in a circular chamber, and the presidency should rotate, to preserve equality. The decision was to be by a three fourths vote or at least seven more than half. The vote was to be by ballot, that no potentate inclining to resort to bribery could be sure of getting a bribed member's vote! No power could refuse to submit to this arbitration, and, if any were maintaining an army dangerous to the others, the question could be raised, and the necessary reduction of the army enforced.
Penn urged free trade between all the colonies, in connection with which his letter to the Commissioners for Trade &ct. written in 1700 speaks against the law about transporting wool from one to another, and tells how it was avoided by the purchasing of a thousand sheep with the wool on, and the shearing of them in the province needing the wool, after which the sheep were sold. The matter had little reference to Pennsylvania, where, there being more money than elsewhere in British North America except Boston and New York, the people were already too luxurious to be satisfied with American wool and woolen goods.
In September, 1700, Penn, as Governor of Pennsyl- vania, met in New York Gov. Nicholson of Maryland, Gov. Hamilton of New Jersey, and the Earl of Bello- mont, who was Gov. of New York, Massachusetts, &ct. Penn then suggested as desirable in the colonies: 1st, one standard for foreign coin, so that Boston would not call a piece of eight-i.e. a Spanish "dollar"-six shillings, when New York called it six shillings nine pence, New Jersey and Pennsylvania called it seven shillings eight pence, Maryland, four shillings six pence, and Virginia five shillings; 2nd, a mint for small silver to the denomination of six pence in the City of New York; 3rd, an impost in England on foreign timber, to encourage the exportation of timber from the colonies;
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4th, such adjustment of the boundary with the French on the north as would give the English the south side of the St. Lawrence and of the Lakes; 5th, for pre- vention of runaways, rovers, and fraudulent debtors coming from one province to another for shelter, all provinces to make a uniform law with the same re- strictions and penalties; 6th, foreigners coming daily, especially Dutch, Swedes, and French, to inhabit the colonies, a general naturalization law passed in Eng- land to allow such of them as declared freemen by Act of Provincial Assembly to enjoy all the rights and liberties of English subjects, except being masters or commanders of vessels ; 7th, no appeal to England under £300; 8th, the allowance of expenses and part of the prey to those capturing pirates. The 7th suggestion was or had been adopted. The 6th was observed as calculated to people Penn's own dominion.
If, to have a man's ability recognized, it must be shown that he labored under disadvantages, the reader will see that Penn had a number; and when there is an occasion to criticize his later acts, it must be remem- bered that he was always short of money.
The character of William Penn, as we see him turn from a Moses into a William the Conqueror, saving, to be sure, the bloody war, and, finally, into a King John Lackland, is the most interesting one made prominent by the Colonial history of the original United States : other characters, which, to be sure, have not been ques- tioned like Penn's, have been exhibited as simple and solid specimens of good or bad qualities with some ex- traneous setting, which is negligible; but Penn's char- acter requires study because of many sides, complexity, and contradictions. Whatever may surprise those look- ing for a maltreated innocent, his piety was sincere. He had, indeed, the Christian virtues of forgiveness and taking trouble for others to a degree that made him friends even among former enemies. Becoming a
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preacher, he remained, when required to meet or corre- spond with men highly placed, a gentleman, dignified, courteous, punctilious, although independent of his class in opinion, and dressed in a different fashion. In those days of dying feudalism and young and lusty "graft," an "esquire," as a knight's eldest son was called, a lesser noble, as he was classed in other coun- tries, had in England prerogative, leadership, the right to other men's service, &ct .; and we find Penn, as troubles beset him, disinclined to forego, or endeavor- ing to resume this. Like a feudal baron, he asked his people to come to his financial assistance. His religious career shows activity, determination, and at last a settled responsiveness to the call to seriousness. There had been an interval of gaiety and pleasure, to use no harsher word: but there has been nothing found in his private life after he had been several years in the Society of Friends to brand him a hypocrite. As to financial transactions with individuals, could the acts and plans of all men be disclosed as we are able to see Penn's in the records and in his confidential letters, it is doubtful whether the acts and plans of many would look as clean. No one who reads the list of articles which Penn or his agents gave to the Indians will echo any flippant remark that he got Pennsylvania from them for a few beads. In public affairs, rather than an ideal Quaker, he was something like a Stuart king, due allowances being made for difference in sphere, power, and surrounding sentiment. Starting with the sagacity of James I of England and the early leaning of him and his three successors to religious toleration and the disinclination of nearly all of them to war, Penn kept unworthy or unpopular men in office, strove for taxes, contributions, and loans, sought to change what had been agreed upon, and thought himself the Lord's chosen vessel. As a sufferer for ecclesiastical ideas, Penn would be too much honored by being
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classed with Charles I, who lost his life, or James II, who lost his crown. Yet if giving up much for one's religion entitles to canonization, Penn has claims. He sacrificed, along with his ease and comfort, a greater position in his day than that of a mere English gentle- man. Had he accepted the opinions of the majority, his abilities might have led him to the highest offices. There is a tradition that the Admiral, owing to his son's re- ligion, declined a title of nobility, that of Viscount Weymouth being mentioned. Succeeding to this, his son would no doubt have risen to a higher title : but, outside of the peerage, with the capacity he had shown as a soldier, a law student, a politician, a scholar, and a preacher, and with the "back door" influence he pos- sessed to give him a start, it would be too much to say that a great military command, the lord chancellorship, a seat in the King's Cabinet, or an archbishopric would have been beyond his reach. Living in a corrupt and bellicose age, he was constrained to follow paths for the carrying out of his projects, or for his own safety, which have been thought dark and dirty by good people not so tempted. Intimacy with a Roman Catholic king caused Penn to be suspected of being a Jesuit, and, although he was not of Loyola's Society, the reader has seen an attitude taken in the matter of the bound- ary explicable only as unscrupulousness for the attain- ment of a noble and, in Penn's thought, a holy end.
Following the career which he chose, or felt called upon to follow-for he believed himself Divinely sent forth-and meeting the obstacles which nature, society, and church presented, and making the false steps which we can see, he may be summarized as more of a states- man than a saint, a better preacher than a business man, a rather weak ruler, but, considering the people he had to deal with, including kings, Quakers, and Indians, and his general success, we ought finally to say, the greatest of the long line of Pennsylvania politicians.
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We can not call him self-seeking: he seems actuated, when asking for power and money, by a sense of duty to others. The reader of history must take to himself the Psalmist's address to the Deity :
"If thou . . . wilt be extreme to mark
what is done amiss, . who may
abide it?" -Prayer Book version of the De Profundis.
Later chapters will show how the veto power given to Penn and his heirs and their Deputies and Lieu- tenants was used as a weapon to protect the Proprie- tary interests, and how the patronage became an asset of commercial value, both of which effects King Charles II intended in giving the Charter: but in this chapter the reader will see a great exhibition of altruism, an abnegation of power because of belief in human rights, or of desire to do kindness, and somewhat because of broadminded recognition of what would make a col- onial project attractive. Penn, after closer acquain- tance with kings, found monarchy practicable, thought Charles II a great man, saw what was good in James II, advised the Crown's ministers, and finally acted as a petty duke of an empire : but before all this, Penn had accepted Republican theories. At the end of 1680, he took the power in legislation and as executive with the purpose of making it, or soon afterwards he chose to make it, a conduit pipe through which his colonists would govern themselves. It seems to have been politi- cally necessary to make the government seigniorial in form. Charles II scarcely intended to have a republic set up. He felt that he knew William Penn, and was willing to confide a territory to his discretion, the free- men's consent being necessary for taxes and new laws. Early Penn must have determined to curb his own power. On 2mo. 12, 1681, thirty-nine days after the date of the King's letters patent, Penn expressed to Robert Turner and others his intention: "For the matter of liberty and privilege, I promise that which is extraordinary,
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and to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of an whole country. But to publish these things now, and here, as matters stand, would not be wise; and I am advised to reserve that till I come there. let Friends know it, as you are free." The letter is printed in Samuel M. Janney's Life of William Penn. The postscript lets us infer that he had similarly expressed himself to "the most eminent Friends here- away," i.e. about London. Perhaps the representa- tions of possible settlers may have carried him later further than he first intended. Rather to excuse him, Markham wrote to Fletcher in 1696 that Penn was obliged to grant the Charter of 1683, or, in other words, the popular features which were copied into it from the charter of 1682, being compelled by "friends"- perhaps Markham meant Quakers-who, unless they had received all they demanded, would not have come to the country. This corroborates the Pennsylvania As- sembly as to the object in coming of such substantial people as the English settlers of the Province, viz: the enjoyment of privileges which they could not have at home.
The Charter dated 2mo. (April) 25, 1682, prescribing a form of government, was very much a covenant that Penn and his heirs and assigns would hold their author- ity to and for the use of a democracy. As near as possible, there was to be direct legislation. The free- men were to send seventy-two of the small number which there would be of them to a Provincial Council, which, among other powers, had the origination of all laws: all the freemen were to appear in their own per- sons on 2mo. 20, 1683, and pass or reject said laws; afterwards the freemen were annually, on the 20th of 12th month, to choose representatives not exceeding two hundred, but as the population increased, then up to five hundred, to form the General Assembly, or
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lower house of the legislature. All that the Governor, whether the Proprietary or his deputy, was to have, was a vote equal to three members in the Council. The Council was joined with the Proprietary in the executive functions, giving judgment on criminals impeached, settling ports, &ct., the Governor or his deputy having always the treble vote; a small return, surely, for the surrender of power, a small recognition of Penn's or his appointee's superior wisdom. Two thirds of the whole Council were to be the quorum in important matters, and the consent of two thirds of such quorum was to be necessary. Three more than said two thirds thus could compel action against the Gov- ernor's wishes. Even in the appointment of Judges, while Penn himself picked out the first ones, and they were to serve as long as they behaved well, the suc- cessors, as well as the successors of the similarly appointed County Treasurers and Master of the Rolls, were to be selected by the acting Governor from two persons nominated by the Council. The first Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Coroners were also picked out by Penn. Their successors were to be selected by the acting Governor from a double number of persons nominated by the freemen in the County Courts when erected, and by the Assembly until the erection of such Courts. The Governor's consent, as well as the consent of six sevenths of the Council and the Assembly, was necessary to change the Charter.
This system of government was accepted in the first of a series of laws agreed upon on May 5, 1682, by certain persons, then in England, who had bought lands from Penn, the second law declaring practically all purchasers, renters, and tax payers to be freemen. By another of these laws, no tax, custom, or contribution was to be levied upon or paid by any of the people ex- cept by a law made for that purpose, and when this was reenacted at Chester, Pennsylvania, it was added that
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no tax should continue longer than one year. These Laws Agreed upon in England were to be changed only by the same consent as in the case of the Frame of Gov- ernment.
As a preliminary to putting in force this Charter, William Penn, having received title, such as it was, to what is now called Delaware, and, by virtue of the assignment of the Duke of York's powers, taken the designation of Governor of those Territories, issued writs for the choosing of seven deputies from each of the three counties into which the same had been divided, New Castle, St. Jones, and Deal, to meet the freemen from the Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester on Dec. 6, 1682, for the common good of the inhabitants of both the Province and Territories. By the Assembly of these deputies, the laws and privi- leges of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania were extended to the inhabitants of the Territories, as stated in the chapter on the Ascertainment of the Southern Bound- ary. An Act of Naturalization, passed at the same meeting, took into the category of freemen all foreign- ers inhabiting either region holding land in fee in free- hold who within three months thereafter promised on record in the County Court fidelity and allegiance to the King of England and fidelity and obedience to the Proprietary. A Great Law of many chapters, enacting, with or without modifications, or supplanting, the laws agreed upon in England, was also passed in this pre- liminary Assembly, or, more correctly speaking, Con- gress. By Chapter LVII, it was made necessary that the land to qualify for voting or holding office should be not merely unlocated acres, but such as had been seated, a freeman being defined thus: an inhabitant who had purchased and seated one hundred acres, a person who had paid his passage, and taken up one hundred acres at 1d. per A., and seated the same, a person who, formerly a servant or bondsman, had be-
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come free of his service, and taken up and seated 50 A., or a resident paying scot or lot to the government. In these general terms, it might be supposed that women were included, but probably this was never contended.
When Penn attempted to set up the governmental machinery devised, most of the people of both Province and Territories, busy with private concerns, seem, even the Quakers, to have lost political ambition, objecting to forsaking their habitations to make rules, and not well able to spare what money they would be obliged to spend or lose in doing so : so those meeting on the 20th of 12th month (February), 1682-3, to elect the first members of the Provincial Council, declared that the twelve men then chosen from each county were enough to attend to public business, and accordingly petitioned that three of the twelve be accepted as Councillors for one, two, and three years respectively, and the nine others stand for the whole body of freemen of their county for the first regular General Assembly. The nine from each county meeting at the same time as the Council, the proposition was agreed to, and was con- firmed in an Act of Settlement, with a promise by the freemen to do nothing in prejudice to the just rights of William Penn and his heirs and successors, who were thereby acknowledged true and rightful Proprie- taries and Governors of the Province and Territories. By this Assembly, the laws made in the preceding De- cember at Chester were ordered to stand in force until the end of the first session of the next Assembly, except as altered by a number of laws at this session passed. Among these was an act of indemnity for offences pre- viously committed, and a specification that certain laws be fundamental, i.e. not to be altered, diminished, or re- pealed without the consent of the Governor, his heirs or assigns and six sevenths of the freemen in Council and Assembly met. All laws passed at this session, except that of indemnity, and that prescribing the fundamen-
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