USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 23
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Fletcher had written, on April 15, for the full quota of 80 men with their officers, which he stated to be a captain, two lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, and two drummers, to be at Albany as soon as possible, and for their arms, ammunition, and pay for one year to be provided also. The Council advised that an As- sembly be called, but postponed its meeting until the 9th of September, declaring that it would be the ruin of many families for the men to be away from home during harvest. Markham, expressing the hope that the delay would not be looked upon as a refusal, men- tioned Penn's assurances to protect the country as far as in him lay, and asked, if an enemy made any attempt
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upon it, were the Councillors willing that the Governor should defend it by force of arms? Some said that they were willing; others, that they must leave every one to his liberty ; some admitted that Governor Penn's instructions were to be followed; finally various Quakers declared that it was the Governor's business, and they had nothing to do with it. Carpenter being probably among those unwilling to meddle, Markham asked John Goodson, the other Assistant, whether he was dissatisfied with anything that had been done; he expressed himself satisfied.
Fletcher, making a change in the number of ser- geants and corporals from four to three, asked, on June 12, that the troops or money to maintain them be sent to New York by the 1st of August. The Councillors to whom this second letter was read, whether Quaker or not, still saw no use in drawing the representatives of the People away from harvesting, as not until Winter would the crops be paid for, and the inhabitants have any money to pay a tax.
The Sheriffs were commanded to hold elections for six Assemblymen from each county, the number men- tioned in the Frame. The Assemblymen chosen, of whom Shippen was made Speaker, were all Quakers ex- cept four of those from Sussex.
The Council having failed to promulgate bills twenty days before the meeting of the Assembly, no legisla- tion was possible consistently with the Frame. This may have made the leaders of the People more deter- mined to get rid of the Frame: and there was a pur- pose to obtain greater concessions in a new Charter. Somebody, perhaps Lloyd, suggesting that the old was void, the opportunity seemed to have arrived. A third request for the quota of troops or money followed a meeting of Fletcher with some of the Mohawks, and was laid before the Assembly. A resolution was car- ried that legislation might be proceeded with, in the
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present emergency, without the previous promulgation of bills. A committee of Councillors and Assemblymen made a report, in which was set forth the present made in 1693 to the King and Queen for support of govern- ment, upon Fletcher's assurance of supplying the friendly Indians with necessaries, and there was ex- pressed the opinion that the money then raised or now to be raised "for the support of government," and not otherwise expressly appropriated, ought to be taken instead of the assistance asked, and as an answer, as far as conscience and ability allowed, to the Queen's letters, and that the said money might be appropriated as the Governor or his Deputy for the time being should see fit. Markham, welcoming any chance for a substan- tial aid, desired the representatives to go on as they had begun, and give an effectual answer by raising money. The Committee also made a report as to an Act of Settlement. There was a unanimous vote of the House that the old Frame was dead; certain altera- tions were decided upon to be embraced in a new law reviving it, to be passed by the Proprietary's Deputy with the consent of the freemen in an Assembly. An Act of Settlement, following the adoption by the House of that report, was presented along with a bill levying 1d. per l. and 6s. per head on persons not otherwise rated, 250l. of the proceeds to be for the support of the government as before mentioned, 300l. to go to Mark- ham for his services, and the balance to pay the debts of the government. Markham offered to pass the money bill to answer the Queen's letter in any manner, or under any "title," meaning the phraseology to avoid ostensibly appropriating for war, and desired his own name to be entirely omitted from the bill, rather than that the Queen's letter remain unanswered. He wished the Act of Settlement left for further debate, and refused to pass any bill before the money bill. One Councillor pointed out that Parliament always had
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their privileges granted first, and voted the money last. Several members said that there was nothing in the Act of Settlement but what the Proprietary had formerly granted. Markham reflected that, if the Frame binding Penn and his heirs, and curtailing their powers, was indeed dead, as asserted by the very bene- ficiaries of it, the Deputy would be unfaithful to his principal in binding him again. Markham accordingly declared that he could not, in honor or justice to the Proprietary, pass the Act of Settlement. As for the People's privileges, he never had attempted, or would attempt, to diminish them. Despairing of any answer to the demands of the Governor of New York, unless a Charter of Privileges were granted, Markham dis- solved both Council and Assembly. If he was Deputy of a Governor bound only by the Charter from King Charles or the usual customs of the British colonies, this action was perfectly valid. Apparently Markham had the consent of his Assistants, one or both of whom refused to agree to his calling an Assembly in the way it was done in other colonies. With the Assistants' consent, he administered the government without Council or Assembly for a year all but two days, writ- ing to Penn for a solution of the dilemma, but the let- ters being captured by the French.
The English provinces of North America, at least some of them, were not at this period filled with God- fearing or law-abiding people. Nicholson, when he complained of the loose government of Pennsylvania, drew a sad picture of the low state of religion and morality in Maryland, his own province, where there were men with two wives, and women with two hus- bands. Pennsylvania might have been expected to be a bright spot, from the character of Penn's first set- tlers, most of whom were still living, but the Keithian movement, overturning, like all reforms, something beneficial in the old order of things, had destroyed the
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influence of those who might have kept the public, even with increasing additions of non-Quakers, to a high moral sentiment. Having no regard for such monitors, the many persons who for other than religious reasons had come to the western shore of Delaware Bay and River were on the average no better behaved than those who were residing elsewhere away from home. More- over, black sheep in the diminished Quaker flock were visible, and it was even alleged that its ministry fur- nished enough cases of immorality to seem to be no more like angels than the clergy of other bodies have shown themselves to be.
While examples and ideals were becoming insufficient in many cases to restrain conduct, the government was ceasing to be a terror to evil doers. Markham was in failing health, Randolph calling him "very infirm." Penn writing on 3mo. 7, 1700, pleaded this as an ex- cuse for "slips," Markham "having been so rudely handled with gout, he has not the use of his legs, and but little of his hands, he can not even ride, and is prisoner to his own chamber." Uncertain as to what Charter he was acting under, in trepidation at the Assembly's non-compliance with the royal order for troops, without any fund at his disposal, or guards at his command, and depending on the rough characters to do the fighting which might be required for the do- minion, and naturally politic and easy-going, Markham was not energetic in correcting irregularities. It is even noticeable, that, although the Act of Navigation gave to the Governor of the plantation-in this case Markham or Penn-one third of any vessel or goods seized there, Markham showed no avidity in making seizures. In fact, while Penn in England was sancti- monious, Markham adopted the policy for making Penn's dominion prosperous of having a "wide open" town. No ordinary or drinking place being allowed without the Governor's license, Markham seems to
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have granted licenses to all who would pay to him the fee for the same. Randolph, Surveyor-General of Customs, repeated stories of Markham receiving large sums from illegal traders and pirates, whom he allowed to reside unmolested. Against such complaints and Penn's insinuations covered by the word "avarice," Markham, in the course of two letters in the Spring of 1697, said: "I have been a slave to this Province many years and never saw a penny of their money. .
I have had as many opportunities since I have been here to have bettered my fortune as those that have made use of them, but I have always been governed by such principles whether out of religion or honor I will not say that I fear will always subject me to the character [of being impecunious] Randolph gives of me. In short I have served you faithfully but desire not to be a burden. I have trusted Providence hitherto and tho' it may be hard with me being a cripple, yet can not beg an alms tho' at the door of those I spent my strength for." A few years later, Penn, in a letter referring to Markham having set apart a certain lot for a meeting- house for the Friends, spoke of him as having lived "corruptly and lavishly" upon him: but the angry language may have been too strong. If, to be sure, this complaisant Governor did not take as much blackmail or presents in the nature of blackmail as some Gover- nors of other colonies, he by that very circumstance added to the attractiveness of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties for bad characters.
Although the Quakers in their Address to King William of 3mo., 1696, spoken of in the chapter on Re- ligious Dissension, attributed misrepresentations of them to revenge for their magistrates' strictness against disorders and night revels, there was, contem- porary with the coming of men of bad character among the non-Quaker residents or sojourners, a dislike widely spread among the religious people of the use of any-
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thing but moral suasion to control a fellow man's con- duct. This was independent of any worldly motives. Not only were the Mennonites principled against co- ercion by force, and the Keithians had reproached their enemies with readiness to fight to enforce the law, but many who thought about human rights justified unkind- ness to anybody only when necessary to protect others in life, freedom, and lawful property. Retribution, as an object apart from prevention, seemed to them not man's affair. The disinclination to punish naturally increased with the severity of the punishment, and, as well as legal obstructions, left grave offences unatoned for. Except the persons benefitted by fines or forfei- tures, and not even Markham or Penn among such, few wished to see any man suffer very much in person or estate for a breach of the laws giving England a mo- nopoly of trade. Although this remark seems to be at variance with the Vindication sent by the Council and Assembly to King William in 1698, two years later than the Address already spoken of, and although the word of those who signed may be worth more than the word of Edward Randolph, yet in this matter the Vindica- tion need be taken as proving only that the leading men were neither conspiring nor wishing to foster pro- hibited trade.
Along such a water frontage, where vessels could escape observation in a wide bay and in creeks, in days when a deep channel was not required, no Governor except with numerous revenue cutters could prevent smuggling. Goods could be landed, and, while kept away from New Castle, Chester, and Philadelphia, could be disposed of among the country people, and in some cases carried over to Maryland. Similarly, even tobacco could be put on board by stealth. One vessel said to have been owned by a Netherlander did its work by night. As required by the law to prevent exporting except to England, the acting Governor duly
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exacted bonds with sureties for proceeding thither from the masters of vessels leaving Penn's dominions. When on the high seas, a master would sometimes change the course, and carry his cargo to Scotland or the Netherlands. Hearing of vessels which had not reached their ostensible destination, Markham did not sue out the bonds, and when Randolph expostulated with him, gave Randolph no satisfaction. Nearly every case in the list made out by Randolph is explained in the Vindication aforesaid, the vessel as a rule being captured by the French: but in March, 1696-7, Penn was obliged to raise the point before the Committee of the House of Lords that Proprietary officers could not be expected to sue out the bonds, in which contention he was unsuccessful.
While Markham and the Deputies of Proprietary Governors generally co-operated less with the Customs officials than did Governors directly under the Crown, judges and juries outside of Penn's dominion were ap- parently as unwilling as those within it to enforce the Trade and Navigation Laws, and perhaps were less disinterested in their motives. By December, 1695, when Randolph made the statement, he had never gained a case in the courts of any colony against any vessel. He may have brought his suits without suffi- cient evidence, but, as the judges in America were often merchants, the unvarying acquittal looks more like par- tiality or affiliation, and led to the belief that justice to the King's side in such tribunals was not obtainable. In the case of the ship "Dolphin," Randolph asked Markham for a special court at Philadelphia, but the trial was ordered to be at Chester, and, on April 30, 1695, there was a verdict for defendant with damages and costs, and Randolph was arrested and imprisoned for £46, and, although an appeal was allowed, the ship was not detained.
The population along the western side of Delaware
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Bay and River increased rapidly during the fifteen years following the grant to Penn. To the causes men- tioned in the chapter on the People, there were added towards the close of the Century, to attract from other colonies, greater employment for labor and gentler exercise of authority. Better wages and, according to Governor Nicholson, the chance of booty offered by piratical captains, induced such desertion of sailors to Pennsylvania that the vessels in Maryland could not be manned. He, in June, 1695, did not doubt that one hundred had run to Pennsylvania from the Virginia and Maryland fleet. There was another cause for emi- gration from Maryland; in that colony, people were caned and clubbed. As to New York, the burdens of the war with Canada were mentioned in September, 1696, as having induced two hundred or three hundred families to leave, some going to New England, but most to Maryland or Pennsylvania. Philadelphia became nearly as large and possessed of nearly as much trade and riches as the city of New York, which was much older. Penn told the Commissioners for Trade in 1697 that he thought it possible that Philadelphia comprised 1500 houses, and that the inhabitants of town and country together numbered 12,000.
Pennsylvania had bid for actual money by passing a law in 1693, with the consent of Fletcher, that all Peru pieces of eight weighing not less than 12 dwt. and all Lion dollars (coined in the Netherlands) not clipped should pass for 6s., and all pillar, Mexico, and Seville pieces of eight should pass, if weighing 13 dwt., for 6s. 2d., and, if weighing 14 dwt., for 6s. 4 d., and, if weighing 15 dwt., for 6s. 6d., and, if weighing 16 dwt., for 6s. 9d. and, if weighing 17 dwt., for 7s. This had operated to draw both silver and trade to the Dela- ware: Hartwell and other Virginians complained on Oct. 20, 1697, that, by appointing the piece of eight weighing 12 dwt. to go for 6s., Pennsylvania was drain-
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ing all the money from Maryland and Virginia, the best piece of eight being in Virginia 5s., and in Maryland 4s. 6d.
Nicholson, in a letter of June 14, 1695, to the Duke of Shrewsbury, said that there was a bank in Penn's dominion of £20,000, most of the people, even the tradesmen and farmers, being concerned in it, the farmers putting in their grain. On this subject, noth- ing further has been found except that on 12mo. 7, 1688-9, Robert Turner, John Tessick (Tysack?), Thomas Budd, Robert Ewer, Samuel Carpenter, and John Fuller, by petition to Governor Blackwell and Council, set forth said petitioners' design to start a bank for money, and asked to be encouraged, where- upon Blackwell told them that he himself had, when in New England, proposed such a thing to Penn, and the latter's answer might be expected by the first ship from England. Nevertheless, Blackwell explained that he saw no reason why they should not give their personal bills, as merchants usually did bills of exchange, to any- body who would take such bills to pass as money. He warned as to the danger of counterfeiting. If Nichol- son, who had only recently arrived in the adjoining province, was correctly informed, there was thus an association distinct from the Society of Traders, and apparently unchartered, warehousing and marketing much of the agricultural product.
Nicholson also mentioned the Germans in Pennsyl- vania employed in linen and woolen manufacture, and that more were expected, "which," he added with true English feeling, "will be very prejudicial to England." Two years later, Penn, before the Committee of the House of Lords, spoke of the possibility of America furnishing wine for England, saying that in Pennsyl- vania both Germans and French were then making white and red wine every year.
The other colonies, and particularly Maryland, were
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jealous of Penn's, and jealousy fostered suspicion that the commerce of the latter was illegal. Nicholson heard and, in the aforesaid letter, communicated the gossip that Penn's colony, having many Scotchmen engaged in trade, was sending tobacco to Scotland and other un- lawful European destinations, also to Curaçoa and Surinam, in casks with only flour and bread visible at the ends. The story continued that the vessels con- trived to reach Curacoa and Surinam in time for the arrival of the Dutch fleet from Europe, so as to buy goods from it, which were then brought back and sold in Pennsylvania as cheap as in Holland. Nicholson said further that twelve or fourteen sloops, brigantines, and other vessels were then being built in Pennsylvania, i.e. Penn's whole dominion. After much suspicion had been cast upon the trade to Curaçoa, a Dutch posses- sion, Francis Jones, a sea captain, in his letter herein- after mentioned, explained that as it was not to the interest of merchants to bring Dutch goods to the dual colony, but that provisions, a legitimate export, were sent to Curaçoa, payment was made in Spanish pieces of eight, otherwise dollars, at 4s. to 4}s. per piece, and these were used to buy salt to bring back. As to a charge of shipping tobacco to forbidden places, Jones did not believe 1000 hhds. were grown in Penn's do- minion, the inhabitants chiefly growing corn. Mary- land discriminated in 1695 against Pennsylvania by laying an impost for three years of ten per cent. on all European goods imported thither through Maryland ports and across country, although not exposed to sale on the way; yet Maryland, without paying a similar impost in Pennsylvania, got most of her European goods through its ports. Goods for New York and Vir- ginia were allowed to pass through Maryland free.
Randolph, being in England in the latter part of 1695, laid before the Commissioners of Customs an ac- count of the state of the North American colonies with
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reference to the Scotch act incorporating an East India Company, and also some suggestions for preventing illegal traffic between the tobacco plantations and Scotland. He spoke of a possible design of the newly incorporated Scotch East India Company to purchase a settlement in one of the Lower Counties on the Dela- ware, and suggested the annexation of those Counties to Maryland, and also of West Jersey to Pennsylvania under a Governor to be appointed, more active than Markham. The act of 7 & 8 Wm. III, c. 22, aimed at the dangers spoken of by Randolph, has been men- tioned in the chapter of this book just preceding. Ran- dolph represented that in Proprietary colonies, there was every encouragement for illegal trading, and vari- ous persons in office were Scotchmen, and naturally inclined towards their countrymen. He said that in Pennsylvania several well known pirates were engaged in trading, chiefly with Curacoa, and that nine vessels had lately sailed directly for Scotland. He urged that the Crown establish a court in the colonies for cases concerning the revenue and trade.
Benjamin M. Nead, in his excellent Historical Notes published by the State as an Appendix to the Duke of Yorke's Book of Laws, speaks of the dissatisfaction of the representatives of the People with Markham's dissolution of the two legislative houses, Council and Assembly, in 1695, and with his not issuing writs in 1696 for elections to be held at the time fixed by the old Frame, and also says that Markham dissuaded the freemen, who were planning to hold elections.
A circular from the English government for the vigorous enforcement, really against the Scotch, of the laws of Trade and Navigation, and a copy of a letter from the Committee for Trade and Plantations for the publishing and carrying out of the Act of 7 & 8 Wm. III, c. 22, and a letter from the said Committee, dated April 20, requiring the inhabitants to put themselves
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in a posture of defence against the French, convinced Markham that circumstances required an organized government. Therefore, like the Governors of other colonies, he established a Council appointed by himself, admitting thereto on Sep. 25, 1696, Shippen, Morris, David Lloyd-said three being Quakers-and Yeates, Halliwell, Brinckloe, John Hill, and Robinson-said five taking oaths. On the 28th, Markham again took the oaths, and subscribed the test: he thought it neces- sary to do so, because there had been "some alteration in the frame of government." He asked the Council- lors to administer the oaths to him, but some of them answered that, being unable to take an oath, they could not administer one, and so Patrick Robinson admin- istered the oaths. By unanimous advice, Markham summoned an Assembly, issuing writs for the same number of representatives as under Fletcher's rule.
About this time, a French privateer took several ves- sels out of New York harbor, and a sloop belonging to Philadelphia with a valuable cargo off Barnegat; then the privateer came into Delaware Bay, sending part of the force to plunder on shore. A brigantine commanded by John Day came to New Castle under clearance papers from South Carolina for England, with a crew so large that he was supposed to be intend- ing a piratical expedition. Markham hesitated to avail himself of the authority and opportunities to arrest him : there was no force, even if there was any pretext, to restrain Day's men, who might therefore, if they lost their commander, plunder the land, or themselves take the vessel on a piratical cruise. There was some mili- tary organization for volunteer defenders of the dominion. John Donaldson, the Councillor, as Major, had been put in charge at New Castle, where there was a fort with seven guns. Pemberton, doubtless the Thomas Pemberton who had been a Councillor, was Captain of the Lower Precincts by Markham's appoint-
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ment. Markham is called "Colonel" from Fletcher's time. Day offering to sail down, and to fight the priva- teer without any expense to the government, merely for the chance of getting such a prize, Quary advised Markham to commission Day, and to give him 30 or 40 men from the Lower Counties, and let him ambuscade such French as had landed. Markham gave Day the commission, and he got ready. Francis Jones, before mentioned, some of whose men had deserted to Day, could not induce Markham to attempt to recall him. So, in great anger, Jones appealed to Governor Nichol- son in Maryland, where there was a fleet under Captain Wager. Two lieutenants of Capt. Daniell's ship with about sixty men, landing at French Town on Elk River, marched over to New Castle without asking Markham's leave, and there seized Day and most of his officers on shore, but were confronted on the vessel with Mark- ham's commission. The lieutenants could not refuse to recognize the military authority of Donnaldson, who told them that he would have prevented their entering the town as they did, if he had known that they were coming. They, finding that their followers were get- ting drunk, made these deliver their arms into Don- naldson's custody for the rest of the stay. Donnaldson protected the brigantine with the guns of the fort, the sails moreover being in the fort. When, without a drop of blood having been shed, the invading force started home, several of the men did not appear. To the great annoyance of Capt. Daniell, these deserters were not found and surrendered to him. Day, who was indeed a rascal, was allowed to proceed on his voyage. The French privateer appears to have put to sea, and to have escaped him. Day went to Curacoa, and there sold the brigantine, and disappeared, for a time at least, to the defrauding of the owners.
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