USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 26
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that the Proprietaries, entitled to the shilling or value in current coin, would get more by the amendment than they were entitled to. The Lieutenant-Governor was asked to represent the matter to the Proprietaries. The Assembly then adjourned for over three months.
Thomas, who had received 200l. from the Assembly of the Lower Counties, and 600l. from the Assembly of the Province, and had spent 1300l., wrote on Jany. 24, 1738-9, that, had he known the temper of the People before he left England, he never would have obliged himself to conform to the aforesaid Instruction: noth- ing but an independent fortune enabled him to do so; for, had he been under the same necessities as his pre- decessors, he would have been obliged to yield to the Assembly, or to starve. He added, that, if no discre- tion were allowed as to the quit rents, he would leave. He had temporarily stopped payment under his agree- ment. In March, he wrote that his private fortune was a grievance to the People, and that it was threatened to oblige him to live entirely upon such fortune and the perquisites. It was, of course, not known, that, if he received no salary, he must pay half the perquisites to the Proprietaries. Thomas Penn, who had been very pleasant to the Deputy, had told him that he should not suffer; but the Deputy said that he would rather quit the post than be a charge upon those who had appointed him. He would not let the colonists say that he disagreed with them on account of his own interest -presumably the keeping of the position-for he would send his family to England, and follow as soon as consis- tent with his agreement. John and Richard Penn subse- quently sent Thomas Penn a power of attorney to allow their Deputy 1200l. Penna. out of the salary voted and perquisites, and to accept the surplus as satisfying the terms as to the emoluments.
Thomas Penn represented to his brothers how desir- able it was to keep George Thomas in office, as he, more
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than his predecessors, could be depended upon to obey instructions. For this purpose, John and Richard Penn authorized Thomas Penn to release George Thomas from the Instruction, and John Penn sug- gested that the Assembly might give a sum to the Pro- prietaries, and request them to accept 16d. for 1s. of the quit rent due on grants or warrants made before Thomas Penn's coming to the dominion, and the As- sembly might pass an Act that all future payments be according to the exchange or sterling value. Thomas Penn had introduced the practice of reserving quit rents payable according to the exchange. When, in May, 1739, the Assembly reconvened, a broad hint was conveyed by the Lieutenant-Governor in his message that some compensation might be made to the Govern- ors-in-Chief, to allow the paper money bill to be passed unamended. Accordingly, the Assembly offered 1200l. of the proposed issue as compensation for the loss they would sustain in accepting the overdue rents in the paper money at its face value, and also 130l. annually during the time the bills were to run, for the loss in accepting the rents accruing during that time reserved before 1732. Although these payments would not make up the difference at the rate of exchange contended for, yet Thomas Penn consented to accept them, out of apprehension, we are told, that the sink- ing of former bills without re-emission would be greatly injurious to the trade of the Province. Such "conde- scension" induced the Assembly, in the same Act as directed the payment of this indemnity to the Pro- prietaries, to provide some facilities for the collection of the rents, and this was passed on the same day as the Act authorizing the issue. Also on that day were passed an Act for the recovery of small debts and an Act, which will be referred to later, for regulating the elections for Assemblymen, and an Act allowing an oath to be taken in the Scotch form, or in the usual
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form, but without the kissing of the Bible. The paper money Acts aforesaid received royal approbation, and so did the other Acts except that concerning the oath.
In August, 1739, Logan having declined to serve longer as Chief Justice, Jeremiah Langhorne was ap- pointed as such, with Dr. Thomas Græme as Second Justice and Thomas Griffitts as Third Justice.
In response to an address from the Assembly to the Proprietaries asking for leniency to those who had set- tled on land without license, and to those who had not complied with their contracts, the Proprietaries di- rected that such should not be peremptorily treated. Gov. Thomas, upon the Assembly reconvening in Au- gust, asked for the enactment of a law, as promised, to protect lands from intrusion; but the Assembly, recommending the matter to the representatives so soon to be chosen, adjourned, any protracted session at that season of the year being usually avoided.
Before and during the first year of Thomas's Lieu- tenant-Governorship, the Mother Country and her American children were aroused over the severities used by the Spaniards in enforcing the treaty regulations as to trade with the Spanish West India islands and adjacent Main, vessels having been overhauled, goods justly or unjustly confiscated, and mariners imprisoned and maltreated. Sir Robert Walpole, the chief of the British Ministry, saw that in case of a war about Eng- lish or colonial smugglers and the right of search &ct., which had been given by the treaty of Utrecht, the King of Spain would have on his side not only a con- siderable amount of justice, but the powerful help of the King of France. So Walpole negotiated a treaty in January, 1739 (N. S.), whereby the King of Spain promised, among other things, to pay in reparation for wrongs a sum of money by the 25th of the May follow- ing. This settlement, which a great number of Eng- lishmen condemned, was not carried out by Spain. The
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sum of money not being paid, the King of Great Britain issued a warrant on June 15, 1739, for granting letters of marque against boats and goods of the King of Spain, his vassals and subjects, or the inhabitants of his West Indian possessions. On August 20, upon re- ceipt of a draft of a proclamation embodying this and a prohibition against carrying ammunition or stores to the Spaniards, Thomas issued such proclamation.
Chiefly by the immigration of Scotch-Irish, Germans, and such Englishmen, mostly in the laboring class, as could be counted as in the National Church, the Quakers had for decades been outnumbered in the colony. At the beginning of Thomas's administration, they were said to be about a third of the population. Circum- stances, however, were enabling them to retain a major- ity of the seats in the Assembly. In the first place, not only a larger proportion, but a greater number of adult males of the Society of Friends than of any other of the great religious bodies, possessed and exercised the electoral franchise. Of the non-Quaker population, or, rather, men,-for women did not vote,-the majority were disqualified; nearly all Germans, as aliens, many of the Irish, as bond servants, and others of those races and the poorest Anglicans, as not possessing the neces- sary amount of property. Secondly, the voters were neither allowed to choose at large the whole number of Assemblymen, nor distributed evenly in election dis- tricts; without either of which arrangements to give to every man an equal share in appointing the represen- tatives, there can be no accurate representation of the voters : and the unjust apportionment gave the Quaker localities most of the seats. The counties and the one city were the election districts, the electors within the city having the advantage of voting also as inhabitants of Philadelphia County. The city, however, had but two representatives. The original counties, although unequal in population, chose equal numbers of Assem-
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blymen. The remaining county, Lancaster, was repre- sented unduly in proportion to its population, but had only half as many representatives as Chester. While thus a single voter in Lancaster had a larger share, so to speak, in a unit of the House, than a single voter in Chester or Bucks, and far larger than a rural voter of Philadelphia County; yet Chester and Bucks, Quaker Counties, having together sixteen members, controlled the House, as against Philadelphia County, with eight members, Philadelphia City, with two, and Lancaster County, with four. To be sure, to legislate, not merely to defeat legislation, two thirds, or twenty, of the whole body were necessary. Then again, the third reason for the predominance by those in the minority as to re- ligion, personal ability enabled certain members of the Society of Friends to succeed to the prominence which their forefathers or the friends of their forefathers had at the start. In Bucks, when Hamilton, as will be men- tioned, declined reelection, there was practically no- body except some Quaker fit to be an Assemblyman; in Chester, there were very few. Furthermore, while the Quakers in general may be acquitted of a steady design to be a political party, they had another great political advantage, organization. They were in closer communication with one another than the scattered pioneers belonging to any German denomination, and than the Anglican, Baptist, or Presbyterian laity out- side of particular circles. To consult upon suitable men from Bucks and Chester, or to plan for a delegation from Philadelphia to carry out certain ideas, the gath- erings at the Monthly or Yearly Meeting just preceding the annual election, answered very opportunely as a caucus, and only under exceptional circumstances would the ticket then agreed upon be defeated. Even were the candidate not the preference of the majority at the polls, he might be elected by the scattering of the votes of the majority, as a plurality of votes was sufficient
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to elect. Nor was it necessary for Quakers to select, as an "available" candidate for non-Quaker votes, any lax or half-hearted member of the Society, any "gay Quaker," or one not fully imbued with the ideas of the preachers ; although it had become rare for the preach- ers themselves to transact civic business, as distin- guished from other secular business.
For twenty-six years, that is from the peace of Utrecht, Great Britain had had no foreign war involv- ing operations in the New World, filibustering cam- paigns at the northern and southern end of her pos- sessions excepted : and, since the days of the Swedes and Dutch, no Indian invasion had touched the white settlements of Pennsylvania. The rebellion in favor of the Pretender did not extend to America. Thus "peace principles," as they were called, had been subjected to no strain, and had become almost axiomatic with those in control of the legislature at Philadelphia. Few of the Quaker Assemblymen who read the aforesaid proclama- tion had ever been face to face with the question : what would they do if an enemy were at the border? This, however, did not at this time seem imminent. Actual war might not be declared. Those who would not join in slaughter for defence were not yet required either to abdicate, or to obstruct their fellow citizens. On the other hand, the non-Quakers had not felt called upon to retain what political foothold they had. Hamilton. the Speaker, on the ground of age and infirmities, had just announced his intention to retire from the House, and his rich son-in-law, William Allen, a Presbyterian, declined reelection as a member from Philadelphia County, feeling that no important question was likely to come up. Perhaps, after all, with an eye to keeping in the Assembly the friends of paper money, or to pre- vent the officeholders from selecting the members, but with the announced intention to oppose expense on war- like preparations, those Quakers who were watchful of
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political matters exerted themselves considerably for the election that year of members of the Society of Friends or others not controlled by the Proprietaries. That a district so strongly Quaker as Chester County reelected such a Churchman as William Moore, son of the late John Moore, would indicate that antagonism to the Penns was chiefly looked for. The others of the delegation reelected, viz: James Gibbons, Thomas Chandler, Joseph Harvey, John Owen, Jeremiah Starr, and William Hughes, all appear to have been Quakers, as was Samuel Levis, who took the place of Thomas Tatnall. In the two years following, no change was made, except that Tatnall crowded Moore out. The delegation from Bucks appears to have been made solidly Quaker in 1739, those then elected being John Watson, Mark Watson, Thomas Canby Jr., Jeremiah . Langhorne, Joseph Kirkbride, Abraham Chapman, Benjamin Field, and Benjamin Jones. In the following year, Benjamin Jones and Joseph Kirkbride were re- placed by John Hall and Mahlon Kirkbride. Instead of Allen, Monington, Job Goodson, Jonathan Robeson, and Morris Morris, who had sat in the Assembly of 1738, Philadelphia County chose in 1739, 1740, and 1741 Robert Jones, Isaac Norris, Owen Evans, Joseph Trotter, and James Morris, all of them probably Qua- kers, and it reelected two Quakers, John Kinsey and Edward Warner, and one Churchman, Thomas Leech, who seems to have always voted in opposition to the Proprietaries. Jones became the first on all commit- tees to draft answers to the Lieutenant-Governor, while Norris was in the front rank of those who contended for the immunities of the Quaker population. With such men in the seats, as they continued to be for several years, it made no difference who were the four from Lancaster County, where the voters were mostly Scotch Irishmen or Proprietary officials. That con- stituency chose Thomas Edwards, Thomas Ewing,
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Thomas Linley, and John Wright in 1739. The city's voters reelected in 1739 and 1740 the earnest Church- man Dr. Kearsley, who was superintending the erection of the present edifice of Christ Church, Philadelphia, and old Phineas Pemberton's son Israel, as staunch a Quaker as Phineas himself had been in his day, but without the leaning towards the Proprietaries which Phineas showed towards William Penn. The reader will recall the episode of Kinsey's hat in the Court of Chancery (page 231). Kinsey was chosen Speaker in 1739, and reelected continuously.
When the Assembly chosen in 1739 convened, Thomas spoke of the likelihood of war, and of France joining with Spain, and asked that the defenceless province be put in proper condition, before it might be too late, and he hinted at the horrors of the sacking of the city or the ravaging of the country. He did not say officially, but it was the case, that he wanted as much as money a militia law to raise a force of non-Quakers. Hoping to arouse Protestant sentiment, he asked the members to act in a way becoming "lovers of your religion and liberties." This was an unfortunate remark: it gave the Quakers the opportunity, which they embraced in an address from the body on January 5, of saying that it was their regard for their "religion and liberties" which induced them to think differently from him; that liberty of conscience was the fundamental law, and very many of the people were Quakers, who, although they did not, as the world was then constituted, con- demn the use of arms by others, were principled against bearing arms themselves, and that to compel them to do so, would be to persecute them for their religion. The members declined to make a law exempting their co- religionists, but compelling others to bear arms, because such legislation on their part would be a piece of inconsistency and partiality. A hint of a way out of the difficulty was given in the reminder that the Gov-
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ernor's military powers under the Charter from King Charles II were unrestrained by the laws; and the hope was expressed that such would suffice. After all, the colony, it was pointed out, could be efficiently protected only by the Mother Country. The reply ended with ex- pressing "a due dependence on that Power which not only calms the raging waves of the sea, but sets limits beyond which they cannot pass;" and the sacred text was quoted that "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
It would have been of some value, if those who might enlist voluntarily could by virtue of an Act of Assem- bly be subjected to any discipline, or even required to serve; but the plan of the House was to leave them to their own caprice, as well as to avoid the appropriation of money, either on hand or to be collected, drawn partly from Quakers.
The leaders of the non-Quaker part of the com- munity did not thank the lawmakers for their for- bearance from the kind of "partiality" which they spoke of, and which the make-up of the population in fact called for, a discrimination between those who could, and those who could not plead conscientious scruples. Petitions laid before the House for some measures for defence, were referred to as speaking for the non-Quaker element. When the war came, most of the Quaker merchants wished to see the Province and its shipping defended, and several, increasing in num- ber, were not content to have this done by others, but were willing to bear a financial part themselves, some making a distinction between offensive and defensive warfare, and others even disregarding such distinction.
A petition from non-Quakers, Langhorne joining therein, was sent to the King, and elicited the opinion that the Province was not exempted from the duty of defence.
Yet, after all, not only were the legislators continu-
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ously reelected by the property-holders, but it is prob- able that in Thomas's time the Assembly truly repre- sented the feelings of the majority of the population on this subject. Had there been a referendum where every man dared to vote his real wishes, would there have been consent to the imposition of military service, or of taxes? Taxes would not have been levied on property alone, but so much a head on every poor free- man above twenty-one and every hired man-servant. It can not be an over-estimate to put the Mennonites, who were thoroughly opposed to force for any purpose, as one sixth of the population : so that, had the Quakers been unanimous, there would have been from the two denominations, as there nearly was, the majority spoken of. Outside of these, the man with no property to defend, whose situation would change very little under a foreign flag, would not have been desirous of war, unless anxious for employment as a soldier : the resident of the more remote district, and particularly the native of Germany, would have been loath to make sacrifices. In 1740, the support of such Germans as could vote was secured for the old Assemblymen from a belief fostered in papers circulated that heavy taxes, military service, and building of forts would come from a change. Of the non-voting population, the persons who would suf- fer most, these Quakers were taking care. In the course of the addresses made by the House, which were probably framed by Kinsey, and fully matched in force the messages sent by the Lieutenant-Governor, both being worth reading, various non-religious objections were made, which, while they detract from the grandeur of the members as religious martyrs, make them con- tenders for the liberties of individuals : a large sum of money was not to be handed over to royal officials for disposal, nor were the steps of a freeman to be sub- jected to the will of military officers until the necessity actually arrived. Various arguments were used to
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show the remoteness of the danger: Pennsylvania was on a river difficult of navigation, with New Jersey between it and the ocean, with Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia between it and the Spanish dominions, and with New York and New England be- tween it and the French. Thomas thereupon sneer- ingly said: "I am obliged to you for the particular Description you have favoured me with of the Situation of this Province," and added, "but had you looked into a Map of it, you would have seen that the French have a very considerable Tract of Country adjoining to it, and that they have an easy Conveyance from their principal Settlements to their fort at Niagara, which is built either within the Bounds of this Province or upon the Borders of it." He spoke of a considerable body of French and Indians being reported to have marched a greater distance than to Philadelphia to attack some Indians a few months before. The route to the sea lay along the Lower Counties, as defenceless as Pennsylvania itself. The channel of the river had become so well known that nearly 300 vessels every year went up and down safely.
During the interchange of these messages, Israel Pemberton Jr., son of Israel the Assemblyman, being with some acquaintances at the house of Alexander Graydon, and the subject of the dispute being broached, Israel Jr. remarked that it was known before the Lieutenant-Governor arrived what kind of a man he was, and what was to be expected: he was designing to overthrow the constitution, and turn Pennsylvania into a royal province. On Graydon saying that the dispute would probably be laid before the British Ministers, who would best judge of the Lieutenant- Governor's conduct, Israel Jr. said that he had no doubt that the Lieutenant-Governor would make use of all his friends to put the Assembly in the wrong, and would make an unjust representation of the case.
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This conversation was reported within a few hours to Thomas, and soon all over the city. Pemberton, going to see Graydon the next day, expressed himself as glad that Thomas had heard truths which the sycophants about him would never tell him. Nor would Pember- ton qualify his remarks, when Thomas requested him to do so. Graydon was then called before the Govern- or's Council, and testified to the words. The Lieu- tenant-Governor proposed a warrant to bring Pember- ton before the Board. Councillor Lawrence doubted whether the Council could issue such. The Lieutenant- Governor acknowledged the want of power in the Council, but maintained that he as Supreme Magistrate could bring before him persons charged with matters tending to a breach of the peace. Plumsted thought, that, if the Lieutenant-Governor's character only were concerned, he would be a very improper person to issue such a warrant, but, as it might affect the peace of the government, he could sign a warrant for Pemberton's public examination before the Council. No one objecting to this, the warrant was signed and sent to the Sheriff, with orders to treat Pemberton with civility, and not to act under the warrant, if Pemberton could be other- wise persuaded to attend the Council that afternoon. At the time appointed, the same members appeared and waited. Then Councillor Griffitts, who was a Judge of the Supreme Court, was called out of the room, and, Pemberton being in the Sheriff's custody, Griffitts signed a writ of habeas corpus returnable to the Su- preme Court on April 10 following, and admitted Pemberton to bail. Griffitts returned, and took his seat, and the writ was sent into the meeting with the Sheriff's endorsement. Thomas expressed belief that this was the first instance of granting such a writ to take out of an officer's hands before examination a person sus- pected of disturbing the peace; that it was illegal, and that Griffitts should have consulted some lawyer, or, at
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least, taken time to think over it. Griffitts said that he thought the writ was of course. Before the next meet- ing, Thomas, having his opinion as to the habeas corpus confirmed by some lawyers, issued a second warrant, but Pemberton dodged the Sheriff, and went out of the county. The next day, upon Pemberton's father com- plaining to Andrew Hamilton of the injury to Israel Jr.'s business by the warrant being outstanding, the Lieutenant-Governor withdrew it, saying that he would proceed in some other way. He appears not to have further molested this outspoken Quaker.
The Assembly undertook to transfer from the City Corporation to the assessors annually elected and Commissioners to be elected annually by the voters, the regulation of the streets, wharves, landings, bridges, houses, &ct., and from the City magistrates to such Commissioners the power in connection with assessors to raise money. Giving reasons against the law pre- sented for this purpose, the Lieutenant-Governor wrote: "Therefore I can not give my consent to this Bill." The House answered that it would have been perfectly proper to refuse assent without giving rea- sons, but that the course taken, i.e. giving reasons, and peremptorily rejecting, and so not offering an oppor- tunity by conference or otherwise to make the bill satisfactory, affected the rights, privileges, and free- dom of the representatives of the People. Thomas disclaimed any intention of preventing a conference. After the correspondence had turned from punctilios of procedure to the merits of the measure, which the House supported, as giving the power of taxation into the hands of the People, and Thomas opposed, with the argument that the consent already requisite of assess- ors chosen by the People was sufficient for the People's protection, Thomas finally closed the correspondence with the words, "I will upon this occasion observe the rule you were pleased to lay down for me in your mes-
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