Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI, Part 59

Author:
Publication date: 1838
Publisher: [Harrisburg] : By the State
Number of Pages: 814

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"The proposal, however, the Governor is pleased to say was

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made with a good Intention, and had we raised Money for an ex- pedition to the Westward & for encouraging settlers, he should then have made an Offer of the Lands by Proclamation, letting the Adventurers know that they were to have the choice of the Lands in preference to all others with every thing else that could reduce the offer to a certainty, which there was no necessity of doing in a message to us barely mentioning the Thing, and recommending to us to grant an aid to those that should become Settlers. It is re- markahle how slowly and gradually this generous Offer is squeezed out; We never heard a Word of it during all the time of General Braddock's Expedition, for which recruits were raised both in this and the Neighboring Colonies, tho' the Governor brought over with him and had in his pocket all the while that certain power of At- torney called a *

* * Commission of Property, to which we are referred for his Powers of making the Offer, But as soon as the House had voted to raise Fifty thousand Pounds by a Tax on atty. Estates in the Province, real and Personal, down comes a Message containing a proposal to grant Lands to the Soldiers who shou'd engage in the Expedition, a proposal made with a good In- tention as the Governor says, that is, with an intention to get the Proprietary Estate exempted from the Tax by seeming to offer an Equivalent in another manner, but worded in the most cautious Terms as became an Offer made without Authority, and so as indeed to offer nothing that could affect the Proprietary Quit-Rent to be reserved, not being ascertained but left in the Proprietaries Breast, he might, when the Patents were to issue, demand a Quit-Rent greater than the worth of y". Land. This being observed and talked of we had another Message intimating that the Quit-Rent to be reserved should be only the common Quit-Rent of Four Shillings and Two pence Sterling per 100 Acres. But still the Land was no otherwise described than as West of the Allegheny Mountains, leaving the Proprietary at liberty after the conquest shall be made to pick out, accords to the modern practice, all the best Lands for himself and his Friends, and offer the Adventurers such as they would be sure not to accept of under that Rent. And this being pointed out we are now told that a future proclamation is to give them the Choice of the best Lands; but it was not necessary to mention this to us in a Message recommending to us the Granting an Aid to those Settlers. If we were to grant aids to the Settlers on the Proprietary Lands was it not proper for us, as Guardians of the People, to know the terms on which they was to hazard their Lives, and see that those Terms was good in themselves, and the Offer duly ascertained ? We conceive, may it please the Governor, that whenever we grant an Aid for the Encouragement of such Settlers it will be proper to have the Terms ascertained by the same Law, and not left to the precarious effect of a Proclamation there- after to be made by the Governor in the Proprietary's behalf with- out any apparent power for so doing. If the Offer is well meant a

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Law to ascertain it cannot hurt the Proprietaries. The recovery of the Country and the Settlements of the Lands are two distinct things. Let us first join equitably in the Tax for the Recovery, and whenever the Governor will be willing to pass such a Law we are not averse to giving the proposal of granting Lands a full and mature Consideration, and affording such equivalent Encouragement to Settlers in Provisions, &ca., as we mentioned in our former Mes- sage; But if he can pass such a Law to grant the Proprietarie's Lands contrary to the Prohibition in his Commission, may he not full as well pass the Bill for taxing the Proprietarie's Estate ?

" We cannot leave this Point without a word or two in Justifica- tion of ourselves against the heavy charge of depreciating, from a bad Temper of Mind, this generous Offer that would have had such good Effects in promoting the publick Service and Safety. We would not be misunderstood. We look upon it that Lands may be made a valuable Encouragement, but we do not see any Generosity in offering them to the recoverers at double the Market price. The Encouragement to Adventurers is not diminished but rather in- creased by our telling them where they may for their Service, in the same Expedition, have Lands equally good and more convenient on better Terms; For the Virginia vacant Lands are many of them nearer to navigable Water than the good Western Lands of this Province, and equally well accomodated by the Waggon Road made by the late Army. It is true the Proprietary's Price is Fifteen Pounds ten Shillings pr. hundred Acres, with a Quit-Rent of four Shillings and two pence Sterling. Numbers who imprudently made Improvements before they obtained a Title were obliged to give that Price, and the great assistance our Loan Office afforded by fur- nishing money to poor people on low Interest and taking it again in small Payment, thereby enabled them to purchase Lands, an Ad- vantage they could not have elsewhere, might encourage many to stay in the Country and take up Lands on those Terms. But that is now over for the Act is near expiring & it seems we are to have no more of the Kind; and when the Encouragement had its full Force, was it ever known .that any People came from Virginia to purchase here on Account of the Superior goodness or convenience of our Land? On the contrary, have not many Thousands of fami- lies gone from hence thither and within these few Years settled fif- teen or twenty new Counties in that Colony ? Have not Thousands likewise left us to settle in Carolina ? Has not the exorbitant price at which the Proprietaries held their Lands, and their neglect of Indian purchasing in order to keep up that Price, driven these Peo- ple from among us, this Province would at this day have been in a much more flourishing Condition,-Our number of Inhabitants and our Trade would, in all probability, have been double,-we should have been more able to defend the Proprietary's Estate and pay his Tax for him, and possibly more willing. But they are gone and gone forever, and Numbers are going after them! And if the

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new Politicks prevail, and our distinguishing privileges are one by one to be taken from us, we may without the Gift of Prophecy ven- ture to foretel that the Province will soon empty itself much faster than it ever filled.

"In fine, this offer was in fact a mere illusion intended first to impose on the Assembly and then on the People ; it was likewise to figure with at Home in the Eyes of the Ministry. We discovered the Deception, and the Governor is offended that we did not keep the Secret. He is 'astonished that we should depreciate an Offer which would have had very good effects and induced many to have gone on the Expedition and become Settlers that would not other- wise have thought of doing either.' May it please the Governor, as bad an Opinion as he is pleased to entertain of us we have some Conscience, and would not chuse by our Silence to have any share in the disappointment and other ill Consequences which might ensue to those who should have gone on that vague, empty, unwar- ranted Offer, and not otherwise have thought or it; And we, in our Turn, may be astonished that the Governor should expect it of us.

" We are in the next place told by the Governor ' that we take a very nice Distinction between the Proprietary as owner of Land and the Proprietary as Chief Governor, and say we do not tax him as Governor but as a Land-holder and Fellow Subject.' Our words are : 'We do not propose to tax him as Governor, &ca ;' but the Governor by carefully omitting the Word propose in his Quotation gives himself an Opportunity of expatiating on the Absurdity and Insolence of our Inverting the order of things and assuming a Power to tax the Proprietaries, 'under whom,' he is pleased to say, 'we derive the power of acting as an Assembly.' Had the word propose been honestly left in its place there would have been no room for all this Declamation. And the Demand, How came you by a Right to Tax them ? might have well been shared, since tho' we as an Assembly have no Right to tax the Proprietary Estate, yet the Proprietary and Assembly together have surely such a Right, and as he is present ' by his own particular Representative, the Gov- ernor,' we may have a right to propose such a thing to him if we think it reasonable, Especially since we do not, as the Governor imagines we do, derive our Power of acting as an Assembly from the Proprietary, but from the same Royal Charter that impowers him to Act as Governor.

"We had been told in a former Message that the Proprietary ought to be exempt from Taxes, for he was a Governor, and Gov- ernors were exempt by the nature of their Office. We reply'd that he did not Govern us, but the Province supported his Lieutenant to do that duty for him. On this the Governor now makes the follow- ing Observation : ' It may be very true, as you say, that the Proprie- taries do not govern you but that is not owing to any want of a legal Authority in them, but from another Cause that I need not mention here.'

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" We were approach'd in the Beginning of the Message as playing with Words, and the Governor it seems has now caught the Infection. The reason we gave why the Proprietary could not be said to govern us was a plain one, but the Governor insinuates some other Cause without explaining it, that there may be room for the Reader's Immagination to make it any thing or every thing that is bad. We dislike these dark Innuendoes, and shall speak our Minds openly. It may be thought rude and unpolite, perhaps, but it is at least fair and honest, and may prevent Misunderstandings. If, therefore, the present Proprietaries do not govern us, it is because they never assumed the Government in their own Persons, but, as we said before, employ a Deputy, and if the Deputy does not govern us it is not because we are ungovernable or rebellious, as he would insinuate, nor for want of sufficient power in his Hands by the Con- stitution, but because he has not that Spirit of Government, that Skill, and those Abilities that should Qualify him for his Station.

"The Governor is pleased to tell us 'that our Distinction be- tween the Proprietary as owner of Land and the Proprietary as Chief .Governor has no Existence in Law or Reason.' We shall endeavour to shew him that it Exists in both with regard to the King, and therefore presume it may wth. regard to the Proprietary. The Governor tells us, likewise, as a Matter of Law ' that the King can have no private Estate, but from the dignity of his Office holds his Lands in Right of the Crown.' We are not any of us Law- yers by Profession, and wou'd not venture to dispute the Gov- ernor's Opinion if we did not imagine we had good Authority for it. We find in Viner's Abridgment, an Allowed Book, Title Descent of Lands, these observations, which we hope may be satisfactory to the Governor in both points. It is there said 'That the King has two Capacities, for he has two Bodies, of which the one is a Body natural, consisting of natural members, as every other Man is, the other is a Body politick, and his Members thereof are his Subjects. He may take in his Body natural Lands or Tenements as Heirs to any of his Ancestors, and also in this Capacity may purchase to him and his Heirs, and his Heirs shall retain it, Notwithstanding that he is removed from the Royal Estate; And he may also take or pur- chase Lands or Tenements in Fee in his Body politick, that is to say, to him and to his Heirs, Kings of England, or to him and to his Suc- cessors Kings of England, and so his Double Capacity remains as it does in other persons who have a double Capacity as Bishop or Dean,' &ca. We presume that our Proprietaries hold the Manors they have laid out to themselves, and the other Lands they may have re-purchased in their Province in their private Capacities, as Thomas Penn or Richard Penn, and not in their Capacity as Chief Governor. The Governor is pleased to allow 'that one Reason why the King's Fee Farm Rents are taxed in England may be that the Land Tax should not fall heavier upon other Lands in the same District.' It seems to us a good Reason, and to hold as well in our

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Case, for should the Proprie" go on encreasing their already enor- mous Estate, sue and recover all their Mortgages, add Field to Field, and make Purchase after Purchase till the number of Free-holders in the Province is reduced to a Handful, can it be thought Reason- able that every Estate as it comes in their hands shall be exempt from Taxes, and the Burden of supporting the Government and de- fending the Province thrown fall upon the Remainder ? And yet this must be the case if our Distinction has, as the Governor says, no Existence in Law or Reason.

" The Governor denies that the Fees and Perquisites he enjoys are paid for support; they are, he says, 'only moderate Fees con- sented to be fixed by Law as Considerations for the Business done, and the Publick-house Licences, which are the Chief of them, were originally granted by Charter.' This latter Assertion is quite unin- telligible to us We can find no such grant in the Royal Charter, nor can we conceive how the Proprietary can grant a Fee to himself by his own Charter. The Governor is a Stranger here, and may be unacquainted with the Rise and Establishment of what is called the support of Government among us; he will, therefore, permit us to relate it to him as we have received it from our Ancestors, and find Traces of it on our Records. When the first Settlers purchased Lands from the Proprietary he demanded besides the Consideration Money that a Quit-Rent should be reserved and paid to him and his Heirs Yearly forever. They objected against this as a disagreeable and unreasonable Encumbrance, but were told that the Proprietary being also Governor, tho' he took the Purchase Money for the Land as the Proprietary, he reserved the Quit-Rents to be paid for his Support as Governor, for that Government must be supported and these-Quit Rents would be the most equal and easy Tax, and prevent the necessity of other Taxes for that purpose here as they did in the King's Government of Virginia. These Reasons induced them to acquiese in it. But the Proprietarie's Affairs calling him to re- side in England, and the Quit-Rents then but few being all wanted to support him there, a Lieutenant Governor became necessary, and also a Support for that Lieutenant, as ye Proprietary, through the necessity of his Affairs, was unable to support him. The Public- house Licences and other Licences and Fees were pitched upon for this second Support, and by perpetual Laws were given to the Governor for the Time being. But Governors, a sort of Officers not easily satisfied with Salary, complaining that these were insuffi- cient to maintain Suitably the Dignity of their Station, occasional presents were added from time to time, and those at Length came to be expected as of Right, which if conceded to and established by the People would have made a third support. Our Situation is at this time that the present Proprietaries claim and enjoy the Quit Rents (which were the first support) as part of their private Estate, and draw them to England where they reside, remote from their VOL. VI-37.

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Government, supplying their places here by a Lieutenant. The Lieutenant takes and enjoys the Licence money and other perqui- sites, which were the second support, and though he has from thirty shillings to three pounds for writing his name only (the Secretary being paid Six Shillings besides for the Licence and Seal), says they are only moderate Fees in consideration for Business done. And now if we do not regularly give those additional presents, which were only the marks of our Good Will and Tokens of the Satisfac- tion we had in a Governor's Administration, Every thing else that the Governor enjoys is forgot, and we are charged both at home and abroad with the henious crime of presuming to withhold the support of Government. Thus we see how soon Custom may become a Law, how thirsty a thing power is, and how hard to be satisfied. ' Claims,' as the Governor says, 'will never be wanting;' and if the People will give 'whenever they are required' to give they may soon be 'stript of every thing they have a right to enjoy.'

"The Governor is pleased to acquaint us that all the Fees and perquisites of this Government communibus Annis to more than a Thousand Pounds, meaning, as we suppose, Sterling Money. This the Governor enjoys fully and freely, & we never interfere in his Disposition of it any more than in the Proprietaries Disposition of the Quit-Rents. We think this a handsome support for a Governor, and though he calls it only Moderate Fees for Business done, yet if he can earn One Thousand Pounds Sterling a Year in such Fees the Business must certainly be a good One. On our saying that some Proprietaries and Governors of Petty Colonies assume more prero- gatives and Immunities than ever were claimed by their Royall Master, the Governor grows warm in behalf of the Proprietaries, and demands with all the Air of a person conscious of being in the Right, What instance can you give of that assuming behaviour in your Proprietaries? We answer, the present Instance; for the King does not claim an Exemption from Taxes for his private Estate as our Proprietaries do. Have they ever claimed any Rights or Pre- rogatives not granted them by the Royal Charter, or reserved by that of their Father ? Yes, the right of being exempt from Taxes for their Estate in Pennsylvania, when all their Fellow Subjects (for the Proprietaries are subjects, tho' the Governor seems to dis- dain the Term) both in England and America, not excepting even the Lords and Commons of Parliament, are now obliged to undergo a Tax for the Recovery of part and defence of the Rest of that very Estate. This Right is not granted them by the Royal Charter, nor could it be reserved by their Father's Charter. Can you lay to their charge one Instance of Injustice or Severity ? This is an Act of Injustice & Severity to insist that the People shall not be allowed to raise Money for their own defence, without they will agree to de- fend the Proprietary Estates gratis. If this be comply'd with, and the War continues, what shall hinder them another Year, when the Fifty thousand pounds is expended, to require that before we are allowed

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to raise another sum for that purpose we shall agree not only to de- fend their Lands but to plough them. For this their Lieutenant may alledge the ' usage and custom in Germany,' and put us in mind that we are chiefly Germans. Who can assure us that their appro- priated Lands, so long kept untenanted and Idle, are not reserved in expectation of some such fortunate Opportunity ? Can other In- stances in answer to the Governor's Questions be necessary? If he thinks it discreet to insist on more they may soon be at his Service.

" We are then desired to turn our Eyes on our own Conduct, and charged in high terms with 'taking upon ourselves great and mighty powers, dispensing with positive Laws, and claiming a Right of disposing of all publick Money, a right of keeping our Proceed- ings a Secret from the Crown, with, as the Governor is pleased to say, many others unknown to an English Constitution, and never heard off in the other Plantations.' A round charge, but not more easily made than answered. The Governor allows 'that we have all the powers and privileges of an Assembly, according to the Rights of the Free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the King's plantations in America ;' and we neither claim nor practice any but what is usual in some or other of them. We claim no Right of dispensing with Laws. The Right of disposing of our own Money we think is a natural Right, and we have enjoyed it ever since the Settlement of the Province, and constantly been in the exercise of it in every instance, except perhaps in a few, where on extraordinary Occasions we have chosen to make special approba- tion by a particular Law. It is also possessed and practiced by several other Assemblies. We have moreover the Right of dispos- ing of the present Revenue by positive Laws which have received the Royal Assent. This natural and legal Right, as we contend it is, was never denied us, or called in Question as we know of, but by our present Proprietaries; their ever hearty Friend the late Gov- ernor's Father, who had lived many years among us and was skilled in our Laws, in a solemn Speech recorded in our Minutes men- tions this as one of our civil rights, among the other Happinesses of our Constitution, with which he was thoroughly acquainted. Our inserting, therefore, in the Bill a Clause that the Governor should have a voice in the disposition of the Money intended to be raised, was partly in Consideration that the Proprietary was by the Bill to contribute in proportion to his Estate, and to avoid unrea- sonable disputes. But since we are daily more and more convinced that the Governor is no Friend to our Country, and takes a pleasure in contriving all possible Methods of Expence to exhaust our Funds, and distress our Affairs (of which the present exorbitant demand of five thousand pounds, besides what we have already paid for cutting a Road-an undertaking he engaged us in on a Compu- tation of its costing Eight hundred Pounds, and which if this be due must cost us above an hundred Pounds pr. Mile), it will become us to be more particularly careful how our publick Money shall be

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expended, when the greatest Sums which can be raised upon this Young Colony must fall so far short of what may become absolutely necessary for our common Security.

"That we claim a Right of keeping our Proceedings a Secret from the Crown, another of the Governor's Groundless Accusations, has been twice Refuted and is yet a third time courageously re- peated, tho' all the Province knows that our Votes and proceedings are every Year printed and published, and have been so for these Thirty Years past and more. Equally groundless are the (many others) which the Governor forbears to particularize ; could he have thought of one that had the least apparent Foundation he would not have spared to mention it.

" Plans and Schemes of aggrandizing ourselves the Governor has often charged us with, and now repeats the charge ; he affects to consider us a permanent Body, or some particular order of people in the State capable of planning and Scheming for their own par- ticular advantage distinct from that of the Province in general. How groundless this must be is easily conceived, when 'tis consid- ered that we are picked out from among the people by their Suf- frages to represent them for one Year only, which ended, we return again among the People, and others may be and often are chosen in our places. No one of us knows a Day before the Election that he shall be chosen, and we neither bribe nor sollicit the Voters, but every one votes as he pleases, and as privately as he pleases, the Election being by written Tickets folded up and put into a Box. What interest can such a Body have separate from that of the pub- lick ? What schemes can a sett of Men continually changing have, or what plans can they form to aggrandize themselves, or to what purpose should they have or form them ? If the little power al- lowed us by the Constitution was fixed in our particular Families, and to descend to our Heirs as the Proprietary Power does in their Family, We might then be suspected of these aggrandizing Plans and Schemes with more appearance of probability. But if any of us had such Schemes the want of a single vote in any Election might totally disconcert them, there being no Tenure more preca- rious than that by popular Esteem or Favour.

" The Governor next considers what we have said relating to the Act for raising County Rates and Levies, and is pleased to say ' he does not see why the Proprietary Estate in each County is not bene- fitted in common with other Estates and by the same means.' That the Proprietaries Estate should be excused in a County rate, at least so far as that Rate is levied for the payment of Assemblymen's wages, appears to us equitable, for it would seem to us unreasonable to tax an Estate to defray their Expences if the Possessor had no vote in chusing a Representative in that House. But we conceive it is widely different in a Provincial Tax, where the common Interest and Security of all are concerned; and yet if the Proprietaries should

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purchase Estates which have usually been Taxed by the County Rate and levy Act for that purpose, we presume those Estates ought to be continued to pay their Assessments. It was the Opinion of the Sollicitors General in King William's time that the Lords had no right to vote in the Elections of a commoner, because they were not Contributors to the expences of a Knight of the Shire or Bur- gess, and they were not Contributors to that Expence because they were of another House. But if they purchased Lands which were before such purchase chargeable with those expences, those Lands should notwithstanding that purchase continue chargeable therewith by Law, altho' before the Act the Lands the Lords were seized of or purchased were excused from that Charge. But tho' such Lands were excused from these Rates, will any one from thence alledge that the Lords are exempted from paying the national Taxes ? As for the rest of the Expences provided for by that Act, we thought as the Proprietary cultivated no Land in any of the Counties but let them lie for a market, he had probably no Sheep that might suffer by Wolves, Poultry by Foxes, or Corn by Crows & Black- birds, &ca., and, therefore, might reasonably be excused from those Taxes that were to raise Money to destroy such Vermin. But on farther Consideration we are willing to give up that point to the Governor, and agree that their Estates may on other Considerations be equally benefitted, concluding withal that they ought, therefore, equally to pay; For as to the Condition of Consent the Governor mentions, they are merely imaginary, tho' the Governor speaks of them with the same apparent Assurance as if he had the Contract between the then Governor and Assembly under Hand & Seal in his possession. The exempting Proviso in that Act the Governor says is declarative of the Rights of the Proprietaries Station, of which the People in general might be ignorant ;' be it so, then, and let us see what are the words : 'Provided also, that the Proprietary and Governor's proper Estate shall not be liable to be rated or assessed by Virtue of this Act.' We submit. Their Estate must not be Taxed by Virtue of that Act for the purposes intended by that Act. Tis the Right of their Station, it seems. But is this a reason why they should not be taxed by another Act for any other Purposes, or by another Act for the same purposes, when it shall become reason- able and necessary ?

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Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI, Part 59

Author: Publication date: 1838 Publisher: [Harrisburg] : By the State Number of Pages: 814

Author:
Publication date: 1838
Publisher: [Harrisburg] : By the State
Number of Pages: 814