USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 17
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After many votes, the plan was perfected; and, on March 2, 1722-3, was formally passed the first authori- zation of Pennsylvania paper money, an Act for Emit- ting and Making Current 15000l. in Bills of Credit. By drastic sections of the Act, these bills were to be legal tender for eight years; afterwards the Province was to redeem them. They were to be of denomina- tions from one shilling to twenty shillings current money of America according to the Act of Parliament for ascertaining the rates of foreign coin in the plan- tations, four thousand bills being for two shillings six ยท pence. Charles Read, Francis Rawle, Benjamin Vin- ing, and Anthony Morris or any three of them were to sign the bills, and to deliver them to Samuel Car- penter, Jeremiah Langhorne, William Fishbourn, and Nathaniel Newlin, Trustees of the General Loan Office of the Province of Pennsylvania. These Trustees or any three of them were to lend 11000l. of the issue, in sums not exceeding 100l. or less than 12l. 10s. to any one person, on mortgage of clear real estate-lands
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and ground rents of double the amount in value, houses of three times the value-at five per cent per annum interest, the principal to be paid in instalments of one eighth annually. In case of default, the Trustees were to sue out the mortgages. The interest and the instal- ments were payable either in such bills, or in current money of America. The money over and above the interest could be paid out in exchange for bills pre- sented. The bills returned on account of principal were to be sunk and destroyed. The money received as interest could be spent by the Assembly. Bills to an amount not exceeding 100l. to one person could be lent for one year at five per cent interest on silver ware at 5s. per oz. The Provincial Treasurer was to receive 2500l. of the 15000l. issued, and to pay the debts of the Province, said 2500l. being sunk as collected from the excise and imposts. The Counties were to receive in all 1500l. for public works, to be repaid by a tax of 1d. per l. every year as long as necessary.
On the same day that the legislature provided for lending Provincial paper money at five per cent, interest on debts between private individuals was re- duced from eight to six per cent, the penalty for usury being the forfeiture of the debt, one half to the Gov- ernor for support of government, and the other half to the informer.
In a supplement, passed on March 30, 1723, to the Act for issuing bills of credit, the government ordered that Spanish pistoles and other pieces of coined gold should pass at no other rate than 2d. 3 farthings per grain or 5l. 10s. per oz.
Sir William Keith was the only Lieutenant-Gov- ernor under the Penns who engaged in business ventures of a kind to develop the natural resources of the dominion, and may even be accorded a place for the time between William Penn and Robert Morris in the line of great speculators associated with Pennsyl-
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vania, who, although since deservedly more celebrated for what they accomplished than for their financial failures, brought themselves and some associates to grief. Not only did Keith project a distillery at Hors- ham, as mentioned in Chapter XVIII, and dig for copper, as mentioned in Chapter XX, but, before and after the adoption by the People of paper-money, made extensive purchases in New Castle County in the neigh- bourhood of the Iron Hills, and, in the early part of 1724, established a mill for working iron ore. In later life, he is seen preparing to found a colony on or near the Ohio.
This Assembly was not quick to give the Lieutenant- Governor any salary. It was finally carried by a majority of one to allow him 1000l. This was on Mch. 30, 1723, the day that certain laws were passed, among them being a schedule of fees, making a reduction in nearly every case.
Various laws of the Province prohibited stage plays and amusements, not only bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and cock-fighting, but such as were neither immoral nor cruel, as bowls, billiards, and quoits. Macaulay has said of the Puritans that they opposed bear-baiting "not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators." Quaker legislation as to games was, indeed, scarcely stricter than Henry VIII's, but Quakerism discountenanced excitement. A wandering showman arrived in Philadelphia, and set up a stage just below South Street, where he was outside of the jurisdiction of the City Corporation, composed so largely of staid Quakers or ex-Quakers. At the desire of the Assemblymen, the Speaker, Joseph Growdon, on March 30 aforesaid, after the other business with the Lieutenant-Governor was over, asked him to prohibit any performance. This he declined to do, but under- took to see that good order should be kept. So the actor issued his playbills, and gave what is supposed
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to have been the first entertainment in Pennsylvania that might, by any stretch of the word, be called the- atrical. As the man who entertained by his "Comical Humour" at the end of April in the following year "at the New Booth on Society Hill" (see advertisement printed in Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadel- phia from the American Weekly Mercury) called him- self the audience's "old friend Pickle Herring," he may be presumed to have been the owner of both shows; and, except in not having the "Roap-Dancing" which the advertisement calls "newly arrived," the perform- ance of 1723, may have resembled that of 1724, including story telling, tricks, and a woman's spinning around rapidly for a quarter of an hour with seven or eight swords pointed at her eyes, mouth, and breast. Keith himself went to one or more performances, and this caused a shaking of Quaker heads, although, as far as is mentioned, not troubled by the danger to the per- formers. Logan was Mayor that year; but, although he would have liked to do what perhaps was expected of him by those whom he called the "sober people of the place," he decided not to embroil himself with the Lieutenant-Governor, on a question, it appears, whether the Mayor's power as a Justice extended be- yond the city limits.
Keith, however, was not disposed to bear with Logan. The minutes of the Council for years had been very much a running commentary by whoever wrote them, until, on Mch. 6, 1721-2, it was agreed, upon the Secretary's motion, that in future they should be ap- proved before being entered in the Council Book. Logan, as Secretary and Clerk, preparing the rough minutes of April 16, 1722, for his deputy, George Bar- clay, to transcribe upon approval, wrote down some strong expressions, which were deemed insulting by Keith when he saw them in black and white, as he happened to do some time afterwards, on going over
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the accumulation of unconsidered minutes. The Lieu- tenant-Governor accordingly, about April 7, 1723, ap- pointed his friend Patrick Baird (misprinted as Peter Baird) to be Secretary and Clerk of the Council, thus getting rid of Logan in that capacity. Reporting this to the Council on May 20, the Lieutenant-Governor prom- ised to give his reasons later, but he appears not to have done so, until, under date of Sep. 24, 1724, he wrote to Hannah Penn in answer to her Instructions. He then said that he had removed Logan for adding to or falsifying the minutes. Logan, on seeing this letter in the printed journal of the Assembly, appealed at a meeting to the Councillors who had been present on April 16, 1722, who agreed that what Logan had written was said in substance, but ordered the part objected to by Keith to be stricken out, as "of no real service to be put on record." On April 9, 1723, how- ever, before the appointment of Baird had been re- ported to the Council, Logan wrote to Henry Gouldney (Penna. Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. VII, p. 70), telling of various matters, the aforesaid "comedian," or showman, the appointment of Baird, &ct., and saying that Sir William expected the powers of government to be soon adjudged to Springett Penn. Logan, al- though hurt by being superseded, shows in this let- ter much breadth of mind as to Sir William. There being an incredible rumor of a change (misprinted "charge"), evidently that Gookin would be reap- pointed Lieutenant-Governor, Logan remarks: "I shall only observe upon it that an ingenious man, with many failings, is still preferable with me to a stupid, obstinate, or conceited Creature, for the Govmt. really requires a Disposition more generous than is to be mett with in all tempers and kinds of Education. If our Govr. has any faults, 'tis believed they are very much owing to his close application to some of ye arts of rising at Court."
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While occasionally, and, Logan says, in "some in- different matters," Keith took the advice of his Coun- cil in the affairs of the Province, he acted even more independently with regard to the Lower Counties, con- sulting with none of the members. After the adoption of the scheme for paper money in the Province, he summoned the Assembly of the Lower Counties, and carried through it, in the face of great opposition, a bill to issue 5000l. Delaware currency, although with- out government sanction in Pennsylvania, was ac- cepted by the merchants there as it continued to be issued, confidence in it doubtless increasing as there was seen to be scarcely any default by the Delawareans to whom the bills were issued-only two small plan- tations had been sold by the Trustees before Nov. 15, 1729.
Two difficulties had escaped the notice of those who inserted in the original Act that the real estate mort- gaged should be clear of "incumbrances," and that the applicant for the loan should make oath or affirmation as to value, ownership, and clearness. As the first difficulty, all land in Pennsylvania except a few re- leased pieces was subject to the Proprietary quit rent, which, although, properly speaking, an estate reserved, might be within the meaning of the word "incum- brance." Secondly, there were still remaining among the Quakers whose small means put them in the class which the Act was designed to help, those who serupled to take an affirmation in the legal form, that is men- tioning Almighty God. Accordingly an Act was passed in May, 1723, authorizing the loaning on messuages, lands, and tenements subject to quit rent or ground rent, of bills of credit to the amount of one third the value over and above the principal of the rent, estimat- ing the principal at not over twenty or less than twelve years purchase: the Act also allowing any Quakers scrupling to take the affirmation in the usual form to
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borrow upon his or her "solemnly and sincerely de- claring to be true."
The Case of the Heir at Law, hereinafter mentioned, says, that, although Sir William Keith had received a letter from the Commissioners for Trade advising him against passing any laws for making paper money, he, in 1724, made a law for emitting 30,000l., without acceding to the request of some persons of note that the Act should not go into force until it received the royal assent, and that the debts due to the King, the Proprietary, and English merchants be not payable in the paper. This Act was passed on Dec. 12, 1723, while Logan was absent on a visit to England, but apparently with the consent of the Council, recently increased by the admission, with the approval of the others, of Wil- liam Fishbourn and Josiah Rolfe. Out of the 300001. authorized, the same Trustees as in the earlier Act were to lend 26500l., returnable one twelfth and a half part annually at five per cent. To the 2500l. lent to the Provincial Treasurer by the former Act, 1300l. were to be added, to be sunk as collected from the excise and im- posts. The Counties were to receive the remaining 2200l. in certain shares to be repaid by means of City and County levies, the City of Philadelphia paying five per cent interest on a part of her loan. The Trustees had a right to enter upon and sell and convey the mort- gaged lands in case of default. If any mortgagor paid back his entire loan before it fell due, whether borrowed under the former or the second Act, the second Act prescribed that all but the amount due should be reis- sued for the unexpired time of the loan, as well as all principal collected from the sale of mortgaged estates.
It will be seen that the scheme provided the Province with a revenue. Keith, in the aforesaid Discourse, says that the five per cent interest paid by the bor- rowers was sufficient without laying any tax upon the people to defray the expenses of the government. Of
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course this means the central government and the cur- rent expenses of it, for we have seen that what bills were given to the Counties, or for paying the debts of the Province, were to be repaid by taxation. To this reduction of taxation to a minimum, merely some duties on a few imports, so that it was many years before another levy on land or wealth or poll tax was laid by the central government of Pennsylvania, is due the stride made by the colony in population and wealth.
The early results in other ways of so issuing paper money are thus given in Keith's Discourse: "It is in- conceivable to think what a prodigious good Effect immediately ensued. . The Shiping from the West of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which just before used to be detain'd five, six, and sometimes nine Months in the Country, before they could get in the Debts due to them and load, were now dispatch'd in a Month or six Weeks at farthest. The poor middling People, who had any Lands paid off their usurious creditors : lawful Interest was at this Time [by Act of Mch. 2, 1722-3] reduced from eight to six per Cent. by which means the Town was soon filled with People, and Business all over the Prov- ince increased at a great rate : The few rich Men were obliged to build Ships, and launch out again into Trade, in order to convert their Paper Riches into solid Wealth; and for some Years, while that Province continued to have only a moderate Sum in Paper Money on foot, it kept an Equality with Spanish Silver and Gold, or did not fall above five per Cent. for as Lands there generally rise in their Value, and are in continual Demand, the Security was unquestionably as good, if not better, than any that is given in Europe for Paper; and this most useful Scheme was not at- tended with any other ungrateful Consequence, but the Removal of a Governor who, contrary to the Senti-
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ments and private Interest of a few rich Men in that Place, had passed it into a Law."
By the Assembly which authorized the additional 30000l., of which Assembly Lloyd was Speaker, there was passed a law for the improvement of the breed of horses, no stallion above eighteen months old being al- lowed to run at large unless "of a comely proportion," and of the height of thirteen hands, fifty-two inches, from the ground to the withers. This Act was never submitted to the Crown, but was deemed in force long after the period of five years.
Thomas Masters dying after several years of service as a Councillor, Keith obtained the consent of those Councillors present on May 5 or 6, 1724, for offering a seat to Francis Rawle; but the latter declined it.
The right of Quakers to promise fidelity and to qualify as officers or witnesses by solemnly, sincerely, and truly declaring, affirming, professing, or promis- ing, without making reference to God, was at last estab- lished permanently by Act of May 9, 1724, and the royal ratification of said Act, given on March 27, 1725. The execution had, by a proviso, been postponed until the royal pleasure could be known.
Logan, upon arrival in England, found that for eighteen months the widow Penn had been resolved upon getting a new Lieutenant-Governor. Logan ad- vised against this, urging the alternative that the one in office be laid under close restrictions. Accordingly instructions were drawn up by a relative of the widow, and were signed by her, and dated 3mo. 20, 1724, and sent by the hands of Logan, on his sailing back to America. Two mortgagees, Gouldney and Gee, wrote a supplementary letter, saying, among other things, that it could become no other person better than Hannah to take care of the family dominion.
The instructions were such as no man of spirit would follow. Not only was Keith to reinstate Logan, but
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he was neither to pass nor to reject any law without the advice and consent of the Council. He was to receive no message from the Assembly except in the presence of the Council, nor send any message, nor make any speech, unless first approved of by that body. No person was to be made a member of the same except with the consent of the other members. All members were to be impartially notified of every meeting. While he was commended with those who accompanied him for the conduct of the treaty at Albany, all further dealings with the Indians were to be upon consultation with the Councillors having the management of the Proprietary lands, or, in other words, Logan, Hill, Norris, and Preston. Hannah Penn referred to the feeling of Eng- lish merchants against the issue by the colonies of paper money, but agreed not to oppose royal confirma- tion of the Pennsylvania Acts already passed for that purpose; nevertheless she hoped that the Lieutenant- Governor would consent to no further laws of that kind. The letter had begun with the assertion that the family had it in their power to remove Keith, and would have done so, but for tender pity for his family, and then expressed the hope that he would devote his known abilities to his constituents' in- terest. The letter closed by threatening to remove him before the final settlement with the Crown. The tone was rather that for the case of a bad child. Of course, it will be thought that a high-minded man would have at once resigned, that, if the position was intolerable, he should have thrown it into the faces of his superiors. On the other hand, the salary, which the commission gave him the opportunity to get, but which his circumstances forbade his letting go, was not paid by these superiors; except a few fees, it was given by the People, represented in the Assembly, and if he set himself in opposition to that power, he would be serv- ing the Penn family practically gratis. The Proprie-
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tary's friends were not the only persons who made the appointment : the British government had had the last word, and his personal qualifications or his influence had been availed of in getting those who suggested him out of trouble. If he was bound more to the Proprietary than to the People, he was bound most to the King, who had purchased the government, and at any time might, by paying the balance of the money, reduce the Penns to mere landowners, and, moreover, might find the Province injured by the following of the directions of Logan, Hill, Norris, and Preston.
On August 5, Keith announced to the Council that he had received the missive, but would not follow the instructions, until he had further communicated with the Proprietary family. Logan having announced that he had no matters to lay before the Board, the other Councillors present, Hill, Norris, Preston, and Asshe- ton, finally, on Keith's reminding them that Mrs. Penn's letter was addressed to himself, declared the subject not regularly before them. Logan protested that his own silence should not preclude him from doing his duty.
By Governor Spotswood, who stopped at New Castle on his way to embark at New York on a man-of-war for England, Keith sent to Mrs. Penn a letter, dated Sep. 24, 1724, declining to comply with the instructions, and giving his reasons. Spotswood, while in New York, seems to have become aware of the weakness of the Penn title to the Lower Counties, and, at any rate, found the Customs officials talking about the money due as a moiety of the quit rents for the southern part of that region. Delivering Keith's letter on arrival in England, Spotswood urged Hannah Penn to continue Keith in power, and offered to guarantee his compli- ance with certain modifications of the instructions, and hinted that certain information obtained in New York
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would otherwise be used against the Proprietary family.
Keith recognized that his official days were num- bered. In January, 1724-5, upon the Assembly meeting after a recess, he invited the members to the court house, for a glass of wine and a pipe with him, and there made a stirring appeal to them:
Whose property have I at any time wronged? or whose petition have I refused? what part of the public ser- vice have I neglected? And at what time has our Sovereign Lord the King, the Proprietary, or the Country suffered by any action or misconduct of mine ? Is it to be charged as a crime for the Governor to concur with your Sentiments, and pass reasonable bills from your House into laws? To maintain the King's legal prerogative, and to support the Proprietary's just rights, consistent with those privileges which he has been pleased to grant you by charter? Is it a crime to commiserate the distress of the poor, and to provide for their relief? to encourage industry? to promote trade? Is it a crime to do equal justice unto all men, and to appear boldly in defence of the Constitution and Liberties of your Country? I say, if these things, gentlemen, are to be charged upon your Governor as acts of mal-administration, it is high time for you to look to yourselves, and endeavor to ward off the blow, by modestly asserting your lawful privileges as Eng- lishmen and loyal subjects to the best of kings, as well as dutiful tenants to the Proprietary's family. . . . " He sent a message to the House that there was some business nearly concerning it and the People's privi- leges, but involved in some secret original instructions and letters which might be thought not very proper to be published, but, as it was supposed that a member of the last Assembly had, without its knowledge, taken from the Clerk, and used against the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, a copy of a private letter with which he had
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entrusted that Assembly, he would not repeat his con- fidence, until the House would make him safe. The House replying that it had looked into that incident, and received satisfaction, and would make no other use of what he might communicate than consistent with the House's trust and station, Keith, on January 13, laid before the Assembly Hannah Penn's instructions, his reply, and also Joshua Gee's letter. Indignation at the instructions and approval of the reply filled the hearts of the friends of representative government. Through one of the members, a defensive letter from Logan was read, communicating the written reasons given to the Lieutenant-Governor for leaving the Council's board on Feb. 22, 1717-8, and Keith's letter to Mrs. Penn of July 5, 1722. On January 16th, the House voted unanimously that parts at least of the instructions were contradictory and an infringement of the liberties and privileges by Charter granted to the People of the Province. Then the House adjourned for about three weeks, during which a petition, presented at the next sitting, was signed by a great number of the inhabi- tants, praying that measures be taken to prevent the Council from having a negative upon legislation, and that the abettors and promoters of such power be pun- ished. Logan attempted to arrest a popular feeling and further action by the Assembly by a memorial on behalf of the Proprietary family, and proposed that the case be stated from all the grants that could be pleaded, and that the same be referred to the lawyers in England. He promised that the family would bear the expense of this, and would recall the instructions, if the opinion were adverse to the legality of the same. The Assem- bly ordered the instructions, Keith's answer, and Logan's memorial to be printed with the minutes. The attention of the House was diverted to certain bills before it: but, when these were sent to the Lieutenant- Governor for his concurrence, he declined to proceed
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before obtaining an address concerning the instruc- tions. On February 9th, an address, drawn by a com- mittee consisting of Francis Rawle and Anthony Mor- ris, was adopted, requesting the Lieutenant-Governor to assist the representatives of the People in asserting their right to legislative authority, and to take no no- tice of any parts of the instructions which might admit of a construction repugnant to the Charter, but to pro- ceed, agreeably to the practice of the government, to pass the bills lying before him. Logan having set forth that William Penn had wished to have a legis- lative Council provided for in the Frame of Govern- ment, but had yielded to opposition, but, afterwards, to accomplish the purpose, had commissioned a Coun- cil, Keith wrote a "Defence of the Constitution of the Province of Pennsylvania and the late honorable Pro- prietary's Character in Answer to James Logan's Memorial &ct." This brought a rejoinder from Logan. On March 16, Rawle, Kearsley, Fell, and Crosby were appointed by the Assembly as a committee to prepare a Remonstrance to the Proprietary's widow and fam- ily. Although Keith held meetings with the Council, and, at the advice of the majority attending, rejected various bills sent by the Assembly, even one for the further reduction of fees, that body voted to him 10001. on March 17. David Lloyd, who was not a member of the Assembly that year, wrote a "Vindication of the Legislative Power," signing it, and presenting it to the Assembly, through the Speaker, on March 19.
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