USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 5
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thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. It will thus be seen that the two grants overlap each other by three degrees; but as neither com- pany was to begin settlements within a hundred miles of the terri- tory of the other, it practically left the limits as given above. Previous to the active operations inaugurated by these companies, frequent attempts had been made by the English at colonization; but hitherto, beyond a few fishing stations, and the fort which the Span- ish continued to maintain at St. Augustine, no foothold had been gained by them along the whole stretch of the Atlantic, now occupied by the States of the Union. The London Company, in 1607, sent one hundred and five colonists in three small ships under command of Christopher Newport, to make a settlement in South Virginia. Among the number was Bartholomew Gosnold, who was the real organizer of the company, and the renowned Captain John Smith, by tar the ablest. They entered Chesapeake Bay, giving the names Charles and Ilenry, the names of King James' two sons, to the op- posite capes at the entrance, and having moved up the James River, they selected a spot upon its banks for a capital of the future empire, which in honor of the king, they called Jamestown. The seat here chosen became the seed of a new nation. The encounter with the powerful war chief Powhatan, and the romantic story of his gentle and lovely daughter Pocahontas, will ever lend a charm to the early history of Virginia.
The Plymouth Company having made fruitless attempts to get a foothold upon their territory, applied to the king for a new and more definite charter. Forty of "the wealthiest and most powerful men in the realm " associated themselves together under the name of the Council of Plymouth, which superceded the original Plymonth Com- pany, and to them James granted a new charter embracing all the territory lying between the fortieth and the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude and stretching away to the Pacific-a boundless grant, little comprehended by the king and his ministers, they believing that the South Sea, as the Pacific was designated, which had been seen by Balboa from a high mountain upon the isthmus, was close at hand. In 1620, a band of English Puritans, who had been persecuted and harried for non-conformity to the English church, having escaped to Holland, and there heard flattering accounts of the New World, conceived the idea of setting up in the new country a home for freedom. Having obtained from the new Council of Plymouth authority to make a settlement upon their grant, and having received assurance that their non-conformity would be winked at, a company of forty-one men with their families, one hundred and one in all, " the winnowed remnants of the Pilgrims," embarked in the May- flower, and after a perilous voyage of sixty-three days, landed on the shores of Massachusetts, at Plymouth Rock, and made a settlement
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which they called New Plymouth. Before leaving the ship they drew up, and the whole colony signed, a form of government, and elected Jolin Carver governor. The elder Brewster had accompanied them as their spiritual guide, and here in a mid-winter of almost arctic fierceness, they suffered and endured; but sang the songs of freedom. By spring the governor and his wife and forty-one of their number were in their graves; but not dismayed they observed seed- time, and gathered in harvest; other pilgrims joined them ; it became the seed of a state.
In the meantime, the Dutch had planted upon the Hudson and the Delaware by virtue of the discoveries of Hudson in 1609. And now in succession followed the planting of Maryland in 1634-5, Connecticut in 1632, Rhode Island in 1636. New Hampshire in 1631, Pennsylvania in 1682, the Carolinas in 1680, and Georgia in 1733.
But has it ever occurred to the reader when unfolding the charters conveying unlimited possession of vast sketches of the new found continent, by the great sovereigns of Europe, to ask by what right or by what legal authority they assumed to apportion out, and give away, and set up bounds in this land? Here was a people in possession of this country whose right to the soil could not be questioned. True, it was not so densely peopled as the continent of Europe; but the population was quite generally distributed, and they were organized into tribes and confederacies, and were in actual pos- session-a claim fortified by long occupancy. The European sover- eigns were careful to insert in their charters, " not heretofore occupied by any Christian prince." But the Indians believed in a Great Spirit whom they worshipped.
The answer to this question, whether satisfactory or not, has been, that the civilized nations of Enrope, on crossing the ocean, found here a vast country of untold resources lying untouched and unstirred, the Indians subsisting almost exclusively by hunting and fishing, the few spots used for cultivation being small in proportion to the whole and consequently their right to the soil as being nn- worthy of consideration. They found a people grossly ignorant, superstitious, idle, exhibiting the fiercest and most inhuman passions that vex the human breast, their greatest enjoyment, their supreme delight being the infliction upon their victims such refinements of torment, and perpetrations of savagery, as makes the heart sick to contemplate. Europeans have, therefore, held that they were justified in entering upon this practically unnsed soil, and dispossessing this scattered barbaric people.
Mr. Justice Story, in his familiar exposition of the constitution, in commenting upon this subject says: "As to countries in the possession of native inhabitants and tribes, at the time of the
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discovery, it seems difficult to perceive what ground of right any discovery could confer. It would seem strange to us, if, in the present times, the natives of the south sea islands, or of Cochin China, should, by making voyages to, and discovery of, the United States, on that account, set up a right to the soil within our bounda- ries. The truth is, that the European nations paid not the slightest regard to the rights of the native tribes. They treated them as mere barbarians and heathens, whom, if they were not at liberty to extir- pate, they were entitled to deem mere temporary occupants of the soil. They might convert them to Christianity; and, if they refused conversion, they might drive them from the soil as unworthy to inhabit it. They affected to be governed by the desire to promote the cause of Christianity, and were aided in this ostensible object by the whole influence of the papal power. But their real object was to extend their own power and increase their own wealth, by acquiring the treasures, as well as the territory of the new world. Avarice and ambition were at the bottom of all their original enterprises."
This may be a just view of the moral and primary estimate of the case, yet the Supreme Court of the United States passed upon the question, Chief Justice Marshall delivering the opinion, holding that " the Indian title to the soil is not of such a character or validity as to interfere with the possession in fee, and disposal of the land as the State may see fit." In point of faet, every European nation, has, by its conduct, shown, that it had a perfect right to seize and occupy any part of the continent, and as much as it could by any possibility get its hands upon, could with perfeet impunity steal and sell into slav- ery the natives, drive them out from their hunting grounds, burn and destroy their wigwams and scanty crops on the slightest pretext, and inflict upon them every species of injury which caprice or lust suggested. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Indians felt aggrieved, and that their savage instincts were whetted for their fell work of blood, and many of the massacres which were perpetrated within the limits of Greene County, which will form the subject of a future chapter, may be traced to a bitterness thus engendered. Generations of ill usage could be scarcely expected to bear other fruitage.
James Lindsey
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CHAPTER IV.
THE DUTCH AND SWEDES UPON THE DELAWARE -- THE ENGLISH SUPER- CEDE THEM-IN 1677 CAME THE ENGLISH QUAKERS -- WILLIAM PENN INTERESTED IN NEW JERSEY-ADMIRAL PENN -- THE UNCER- TAIN BOUNDS-KING CHARLES II. GRANTS PENN A LIBERAL DOMAIN-CHARTER OF PENNSYLVANIA- - LIBERAL TERMS - SPELL- ING -- PENN HAD MEDITATED OF A FREE COMMONWEATH-RE- CEIVES HIS GRANT IN AN IIUMBLE SPIRIT-BITTER EXPERIENCES IN THE LIFE OF PENN -. DISINHERITED-FATHER RELENTS ON INIS DEATH-BED-URGES HIS SON NOT TO WRONG HIS CONSCIENCE -- SEEKS A DEED OF QUIT-CLAIM FROM JAMES, AND BUYS THE LOWER COUNTIES-PERPLEXED IN DEVISING A FORM OF GOVERNMENT- SECURES FREEDOM TO THE SUBJECT -- PUBLISHED ABROAD -- LETTER SHOWING ABUNDANCE OF PRODUCTS-PENN WARNS ALL TO CON- SIDER WELL BEFORE EMBARKING THE PRIVATIONS THEY MUST ENDURE-TENDER OF RIGHTS OF THE NATIVES-SENDS A NOTICE TO THEM OF HIS PURPOSES-ALL ALIKE ANSWERABLE TO GOD- WILL TAKE NO LAND EXCEPT BY THEIR CONSENT-MIGHT HAVE BECOME CITIZENS --- FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF INTERCOURSE HAS NOT CHANGED THEIR NATURE-SHOW NO LEVITY IN THEIR PRES- ENCE -- " THEY LOVE NOT TO BE SMILED ON."
WIE Colony of Pennsylvania was later in being permanently settled than most of the others upon the sea-board. It is true that the Dutch, who originally settled New York, had effected a lodgment upon the Delaware, and maintained a fort there for trading purposes, soon after its discovery by Iludson, in 1609, the Dutch claiming all the territory which the Delaware and the Hudson drain by reason of Hudson's discoveries. Dutch colonies increased upon the Delaware, and made settlements on both sides of the river. and Dutch governors were sent to rule there with justices of the peace, constables, and all the appurtenances of civil government. In 1638 came the Swedes, the representatives of the great monarch, Gustavus Adolphins, and for several years there was divided authority upon the Delaware, the Dutch and the Swedes contending for the mastery. In 1664, upon the accession of Charles II. to the English throne, came the English with a patent from the King covering all the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers, or in short. all the territory occupied by the Dutch. Seeing themselves 3
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likely to be overcome by force, the Dutch quietly surrendered, and the colony upon the Delaware passed under English rule. The list of taxables between the ages of sixteen and sixty, made in the year 1677, in the colony upon the Delaware, contained 443 names, which gives a population of 3,101. In this same year came three ship-loads of emigrants, for the most part English Quakers, who settled on either side of the Delaware, but the greater part in West Jersey. Some of this religions seet had preceded them, and in 1672 George Fox, the founder, had traveled through the Delaware country, " ford- ing streams in his course, camping out at night, and visiting and counseling with his followers on the way." In 1664 Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret received from the Duke of York a grant of territory between the Delaware and the ocean, including the entire southern portion of New Jersey. After ten years of troublesome attempts to settle their country, with little profit or satisfaction. Berkeley and Carteret sold New Jersey for a thousand pounds to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, both Qnakers. But the affairs of Byllinge were in confusion, and upon making an assignment, Gawin Lawrie, William Penn and Nicholas Lucas, became his assignees. Upon settlement of his affairs Byllinge came into pos- session of West New Jersey, as his share of the province. In the discharge of his duty as trustee for Byllinge, William Penn, who was himself a convert to the doctrines of Fox, became greatly interested in the colonization of the Quakers ni the New World, they having suffered grievous persecution for religions opinions' sake. In his devotion to their interests he had spent much time and labor in drawing up a body of laws for the government of the colony, devised in a spirit of unexampled liberality and freedom for the colonist.
We, who are accustomed to entire freedom in our modes of wor- ship. can have little idea of the bitterness, and deadly animosity of the perseentions for religious opinion's sake, which prevailed in the reigus of bloody Mary and her successors. Even as late as the acces- sion of James Ii. to the English throne, over fourteen hundred Quakers, the most learned and intelligent of that faith, mild and inoffensive, were languishing in the prisons of England, for no other crime than a sincere attempt to follow in the footsteps of their Divine Master, for Theeing and Thoning as they conceived He had done. To escape this hated and harassing persecution first turned the mind of Penn to the New World.
Penn had reason to expect favor at the hands of James II. Ilis father, who was a true born Englishman, was an eminent admiral in the British navy, and had won great honor upon the seas for his country's flag. He had commanded the expedition which was sent to the West Indies by Cromwell, and had redneed the island of Jamaica to English rule. When James. then Duke of York, made
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his expedition against the Dutch, Admiral Penn commanded the fleet which descended upon the Dutch coast, and gained a great naval victory over the combined forces led by Van Opdam. For his gallantry in this campaign " he was knighted, and became a favorite at conrt, the King. and his brother the Duke, holding him in cherished remembrance." It was natural. therefore, that the son should seek favors at court for his distressed religions associates. Upon the death of Admiral Penn, the British government was indebted to him in the sum of sixteen thousand pounds. a part of it money actually advanced by the Admiral in fitting out the fleet which had gained the great victory. In lieu of this sum of money, which in those days was looked upon as a great fortune, the son, William, proposed to the King, Charles II., who had now come to the English throne, that he should grant him a province in America. " a traet of land in America. lying north of Maryland, bounded east by the Delaware River. on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable." These expressions, " as far as plantable," or. " as far up and northward as convenient," and the like, were favorite forms of expression, in cases where the country had been unexplored and no maps existed for the guidance of the royal secretaries. and were the canse of much uncertainty in interpreting the royal patents, and of long and wasting controversies over the just boundaries of the colonies. and were really the cause which made it possible for this County of Greene to have been subject to Virginia, or Maryland. or even to Massachusetts. or Connecticut.
King Charles, who had trouble enough in meeting the ordinary expenses of his throne withont providing for an old score, lent a ready ear to the application of the son. and the idea of paying off a just debt, with a slice of that country which had cost him nothing. induced him to be liberal, and he gave Penn more than he had asked for. Already there were conflicting claims. The Duke of York held the grant of the three counties of Delaware, and Lord Baltimore held a patent. the northern limit of which was left indefinite. The King himself manifested unusual solicitude in perfecting the title to his grant, and in many ways showed that he had at heart great friendship for Penn. All conflicting claims were patiently heard by the Lords, and that the best legal and judicial light upon the subject might be had the Attorney General Jones and Chief Justice North were called in. Finally, after careful deliberation, the Great Charter of Pennsylvania, conveying territory ample for an empire, holding unexampled resources upon its surface. and within its bosom. glad- dened on every hand by lordly streams, and so diversified in surface as to present a scene of matchless beauty, was conveyed to Penn in these liberal. almost loving words: "Charles II .. by the grace of
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God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc., To all to whom these presents shall come greeting."
" Whereas our trustie and well beloved subject, William Penn, Esquire, sonn and heire of Sir William Penn, deceased, out of a commendable desire to enlarge our English Empire, and promote such usefull commodities as may bee of benefitt to us and our do- minions, as alsoe to reduce the Savage Natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civill Societie and Christian Religion hath humbley besought leave of us to transport an ample colonie unto a certain countrey hereinafter described in the partes of America not yet cultivated and planted. And hath likewise humbley besought our Royall majestie to give, grant and confirme all the said countrey with certaine priviledges and jurisdiecons requisite for the good Government and saftie of the said Countrey and Colonie, to him and his heires forever. Know yee, therefore, that wee. favoring the peti- tion and good purpose of the said William Penn, and having regard to the memorie and meritts of his late father, in divers services, and partienlerly to his conduet, courage and discretion under our dearest brother, James, Duke of Yorke, in the signall battell and victorie, fought and obteyned againste the Dutch fleete, commanded by Heer Van Opdam, in the year one thousand six hundred sixty-five, in con- sideration thereof of our special grace, certain knowledge and meere motion, Have given and granted, and by this our present Charter, for us, onr heires and successors, Doe give and grant unto the said William Pen, his heires and assigns, all that tract or parte of land in America, with all the islands therein conteyned, as the same is bounded on the East by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance, Northwarde of New Castle Towne unto the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude, if the said River doth extend so far Northwards; But if the said River shall not extend soe farre Northward, then by the said River soe farr as it doth extend, and from the head of the said River the Easterne bounds are to bee determined by a meridian line, to bee drawn from the head of the said River unto the said three and fortieth degree, the said lands to extend Westwards five degrees in longitude, to bee computed from the said Easterne Bounds, and the said lands to be bounded on the North by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude, and on the South by a circle drawn at twelve miles, distance from New Castle North- wards, and Westwards unto the beiginning of the fortieth degree of Northerne Latitude, and then by a straight line Westwards to the limit of Longitude above menconed.
" Wee doe also give and grant unto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, the free and undisturbed use, and continuance in and passage into and out of all and singular, Ports, harbours, Bayes, waters, rivers. Isles and Inletts, belonging unto, or leading to
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and from the Country, or Islands aforesaid; and all the soyle, lands, fieldd, woods, underwoods, mountaines, hills, fenns. Isles, Lakes, Rivers, waters, rivuletts. Bays and Inletts, scituate or being within or belonging unto the Limitts and bounds aforesaid, together with the fishing of all sortes of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all Royall and other fishes in the sea. bayes, Inletts, waters, or Rivers within the premises, and the fish therein taken, and alsoe all veines, mines and quarries, as well discovered as not discovered, of Gold, Silver, Gemms and pretions Stones, and all other whatsoever stones, metals, or of any other thing or matter whatsoever found or to be found within the Countrey, Isles or Limitts aforesaid; and him the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, Wee doe, by this our Royall Charter, for us, our heires and successors, make, create and constitute the true and absolute proprietaries of the Countrey afore- said, and of all other, the premises, saving always to us, our heires and successors, the faith and allegiance of the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, and of all other, the proprietaries, tenants and Inhabitants that are, or shall be within the territories and pre- cincts aforesaid; and saving also unto us, our heirs and Successors. the Sovreignity of the aforesaid Countrey. To Have, hold and pos- sesse and enjoy the said tract of Land, Countrey, Isles, Inletts and and other the premises, unto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes, to the only proper use and behoofe of the said William Penn, his heires and assignes forever."
Such is the introduction and deed of conveyance of the great charter by which Peun came into possession of that royal domain. Pennsylvania. But as it was to be in the nature of a sale, to make * this deed of transfer binding according to the forms of law. there must be a consideration, the payment of which could be acknowledged or enforced, and the King, in a merry mood, exacted the payment thus, "yielding and paying therefor to us, our heires and snecessors, two Beaver Skins to bee delivered att our said Castle of Windsor, on the first day of January, in everey yeare." The King also added a fifth of all gold and and silver which might be found. But as that was an uncertain thing, and as in point of fact none ever was discovered. the sale of this great State was made, so far as this instrument shows, for two beaver skins, to be annually paid to the King. And as a sequence to this condition the King says, " of our further grace cer- tain knowledge and meer mocon have thought fitt to Erect the aforesaid Country Islands, into a province and Seigniorie, and do call itt Pensilvania, and soe from henceforth wee will have itt called, and forasmuch as wee have hereby made and ordeyned the aforesaid William Penn, his heirs and assignes, the true and absolute Proprie- taries of all the lands and Dominions aforesaid."
Penn had proposed that his province be called New Wales, but
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the King objected to this. Penn then proposed Sylvania, as the country was reputed to be overshadowed by goodly forests. To this the King assented provided the prefix Penn should be attached. Penn vigorously opposed this as savoring of his personal vanity. But the King was inflexible, claiming this as an opportunity to honor his great father's name, and accordingly, when the charter was drawn, that name was inserted. Following the provisions quoted above are twenty-three sections providing for the goverment and internal regulation of the proposed colony, and adjusting with great particularity and much tedious circumlocution, the relations of the colony to the home government. It is not on this account thought best to quote the entire matter of the charter here, but any who may be curious to consult the document in its entirety will find the orig- inal, engrossed on parchment with an illuminated border, in the executive office at Harrisburg, and a true copy printed in the first volume of the Colonial Records, page seventeen. If anything is wanting to show the heartfelt consideration of the King for Penn, it is found in the twenty-third and last section, " And if, perchance, it should happen hereafter, any doubts or questions should arise con- cerning the true sense and meaning of any word, clause, or sentence, contained in this our present charter, We will ordaine, and command. that att all times and in all things such interpretacon be made thereof and allowed in any of our Courts whatsoever, as shall be adjudged most advantageous and favorable unto the said William Penn, his heires and assignes."
It will be noticed that the spelling of the royal secretary seems peculiar at this day, and that the capital letters and the alphabet generally are used with a freedom and originality which would have taxed the utmost stretch of ingenuity of so acknowledged an expert as Artemus Ward himself; but in the matter of composition it fol- lowed the legal forms prevalent in the courts of England of that day, and was drawn with a particularity and minuteness of detail scarcely paralleled in similar documents, apparently with a sincere desire to make the provisions so clear that there should be no chance for future dispute or misunderstanding, and the authority given to Penn as the proprietary was almost unlimited. In the matter of the boundaries the terms were such that there could be no possibility of mistake, the boundary lines being fixed by actual measurement and mathe- matical calculation, or by the observation of the heavenly bodies. The Delaware river formed its eastern limits, and all the others were lines of longitude and latitude. In this respect this portion of the charter was drawn with less equivocal terms than any other similar document. And yet the authorities of Pennsylvania had more difficulty in establishing its claims-for reasons which will hereafter be explained -- than all the others together,
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