USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 7
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These instructions of Penn were most carefully observed, and for many weeks the commissioners searched for such a site as he had pictured, their investigations extending far up the Delaware. They finally fixed upon the present site of Philadelphia, which was settled, and has grown as then surveyed. It was between two navigable streams; it was dry, being one vast bed of sand and gravel and hence easily drained; and so high as not to be liable to overflow; it had ten thousand square acres; but there was not distance enough between the two rivers to allow it to be in a square block. However, as there was room for indefinite extension up and down the streams, this was not regarded as fatal to the choice. The streets were laid with exact regularity, crossing each other at right angles. Through the center. Market street extended from river to river, and so wide that origi- nally, and until within the memory of many now living, long, low market houses, or sheds stretched along its middle, and at its center it was crossed by Broad street, a magnificent avenne. At their in- tersection a park was left, upon which the city has recently erected a structure of marble for the purposes of the city government, which, for beauty of architecture, convenience and solidity of structure is scarcely matched anywhere in the world.
Having settled all things at home to his satisfaction, Penn pre- pared to depart for his new country. But before departing he ad- dressed farewell letters to his friends, and to his wife and children. From these we can gather what was really in his heart of hearts, what was his true character and the tenor of his inmost thoughts. To his fellow laborer, Stephen Crisp, he wrote, "Stephen, we know one another, and I need not say much to thee. * The Lord
Cafet John Scott
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will bless that ground (Pennsylvania). * * And truly, Stephen, there is work enough, and here is room to work in. Surely God will come in for a share in this planting-work, and that leaven shall leaven the lump in time." As he was now about to depart on a voy- age over the treacherous ocean, he wrote to his wife and children as though he might never return to them again. To his wife he said, "God knows and thon knowest it, I can say it was a match of Providence's making, and God's image in us both was the first thing." In counselling her not to become involved in debt, he says, " My mind is rapt up in a saying of thy father's, 'I desire not riches, but to owe nothing;' and truly that is wealth, and more than enough to live is attended with many sorrowes." Of his children he says, "I had rather they were homely, than finely bred, as to outward be- havior; yet I love sweetness mixed with gravity. Religion in the
heart leads into this true civility. * * * For their learning be liberal. Spare no cost; for by such parsimony all is lost that is saved; but let it be useful knowledge, such as is consistent with truth and godliness, not cherishing a vain conversation or idle mind, but ingennity mixed with industry is good for the body and mind too. I recommend the useful part of mathematics, as building houses or ships, measuring, surveying, dialing, navigation; but agriculture is especially in my eye-let my children be linsbandmen and house- wives; it is industrious, healthy, honest, and of good example; like Abraham and the holy ancients, who pleased God and obtained a good report. This leads to consider the works of God and nature of things that are good, and diverts the mind from being taken up with the vain arts and inventions of a luxurious world. * ** Of eities and towns of concourse beware; the world is apt to stick close to those who have lived and got wealth there; a country life and estate I like best for my children." To his children he said, " First love and fear the Lord, and delight to wait on the God of your father and mother. * * * Next be obedient to your dear mother, a woman whose virtne and good name is an honor to yon; for she hath been exceeded by none in her time for her plainness, integrity, in- dustry, humanity, virtue, good understanding; qualities not usual among women of her worldly condition and quality. * * Be- take yourselves to some honest, industrions course of life. ** *
And if you marry, mind neither beanty nor riches, but the fear of the Lord, and a sweet and amiable disposition; and being married, be tender, affectionate and meek. % * * Be sure to live within compass; borrow not, neither be beholden to any. * * Love not money nor the world; use them only, and they will serve you; but if you love them you serve them, which will debase your spirits as well as offend the Lord. * * % Be humble and gentle in your conversation; of few words, but always pertinent when you speak, 4
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hearing out before you attempt to answer, and then speaking as if you would pursuade not impose. Affront none, neither revenge the affronts that are done to you; but forgive and yon shall be forgiven of your heavenly father. In making friends cousider well first; and when you are fixed be true. Watch against anger; neither speak nor act in it, for, like drunkenness, it makes a man a beast. Avoid fatterers, for they are thieves in disguise. * * They lie to flatter, and flatter to cheat. *
% Be temperate in all things; in your diet, for that is physic by prevention; it keeps, nay, it makes people healthy, and their generation sound. * Avoid pride, avarice and luxury. Make your conversation with the most eminent for wisdom and piety, and shun all wicked men, as you hope for the blessing of God, and the comfort of your father's living and dying prayers. Be no busy bodies. In your families remember, Abraham, Moses and Joshua, their integrity to the Lord. * Keep on the square for God sees you."
Of this remarkable letter, which is worthy to lay to heart and be made a frequent study by the rising generation, only a few brief extracts are given above, yet enough has been adduced to show the pions intent of the founder of our noble Commonwealth. In June, 1682, Penn set sail for America in the ship " Welcome," with some hundred passengers, of whom thirty died of small-pox on the voyage. He landed at New Castle, where he took formal possession of the country. Ata public meeting called at the court-house he explained his object in coming, his plan of government. and renewed the com- missions of the magistrates. Proceeding to Uplands, which he named Chester, he called an assembly composed of an equal number from the province and territories, (afterwards Delaware), and proceeded to enact a frame of government and a body of laws. The convention was in session but three days, as it was in harvest, and the farmers could not afford to spend much time; but in that brief period, which in these days would scarcely suffice for the speaker to make up his committees, the constitution was considered article by article, amended and adopted, and the laws in like manner, so that when they adjourned, after this brief session, it could be said that the great ship of State, Pennsylvania, was fairly launched, and the government, which, in this simple way, was there adopted in the town of Chester, has formed the basis of that system which has guided the State in safety through the more than two centuries of its growth, and brought it safely on in the voyage of empire, with its more than four millions of people.
Penn's first and chief care was to establish civil and religious liberty so firmly, that it should not be in the power of future rulers to alter or destroy it. As he himself declared, " For the matter of liberty and privilege, I purpose that which is extraordinary, and
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leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country." Having suffered sore persecution himself, as well as his religious associates, he cherished a bitter hatred of any system which could impose or even suffer sneh injustice, and accordingly he placed at the head of his Fundamentals this, in that age, remarkable provision: "In reverence to God, the Father of light and spirits, the author as well as object of all divine knowledge, faith and worship, I do for me and Inine, declare and establish for the first fundamental of the govern- ment of my province, that every person, that doth and shall reside therein, shall have and enjoy the free possession of his or her faith and exercise of worship towards God, in such way and manner as every such person shall in conscience believe is most acceptable to God."
It would seem as if the new world was opened at a time when persecution in the old world was rife, that the oppressed people of all nations might have an asylum, where eivil and religions liberty should forever be preserved. Having thus settled his form of gov- ernment, and set it fairly in operation, be began to make journeys into the distant parts of his country. He first visited the site which had been selected for the new city, proceeding in a barge from Chester, and landed at the mouth of Dock Creek, now Dock street. Forests covered the site, conies burrowed in the bank, and wild ani- mals dashed past him as Penn was pulled up the side. The situation pleased him, and the country was even more inviting than he had been led to believe. "I am very well and much satisfied with my place and portion. ** As to outward things we are satisfied; the land good, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good and easy to come at, an innumerable quantity of wild- fowl and fish; in fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be well contented with, and service enough for God; for the fields are white for harvest. Oh how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, heresies and perplexities of woful Europe."
Penn understood well the proprieties of social life, as well as the advantage of politeness to good fellowship. He took early occasion to visit New York, and pay his respects to the Governor and his associates there. But wherever he went, he never divested himself of his character as a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. Accord- ingly, after having taken his leave of the Governor, he paid visits to the members of the society of Friends living on Long Island, and in east New Jersey, which had previously come into the possession of a company of which he was one, and everywhere did " service for the Lord." He also visited Lord Baltimore, in Maryland, that they might confer together upon the subject of the boundaries of the two
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colonies. As the weather became intensely cold, precluding the possibility of taking stellar observations or making the necessary surveys, it was agreed to adjourn the conference to the milder weather of the spring.
The founder took great care to secure the friendship and interest of the Indians in the new State. He accordingly took early occasion to summon a council of all the neighboring tribes, that he might make a formal treaty of peace with them, and secure a legally executed deed for their lands. The meeting was held beneath the shade of a giant elm at Kensington, ever after known and held in veneration as the " Treaty tree." The Indians from far and near had come, as it was an event that had been widely heralded, and the desire on the part of the natives to see and hear the great founder, who had addressed them the year before in such loving words, was doubtless intense. Penn came with his formal treaty all drawn up, and engrossed on parch- ment, as well as a deed for their lands. In his letter to friends in Eng- and he describes the manner of the Indians in council, which was doubtless the method observed on the occasion of concluding the great treaty. " I have had occasion," he says, "to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. Their order is thus: the king sits in the middle of a half-moon, and has his conneil, the old and wise on each hand. Behind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger fry in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me. He stood up, came to me, and in the name of his king saluted me; then he took me by the hand, and told me that he was ordered by his king to speak to me, and that now it was not he but the king who spoke, because what he should say was the king's mind. Hav- ing thus introduced his matter, he fell to the bonnds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, and the price; which now is little and dear, that which would have bought twenty miles, not buying now two. During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile, the old grave, the young reverent, in their deportment. They speak little but fervently, and with ele- gance. I have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I was going to say, the spoil of tradition) and he will deserve the name of wise, who ontwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand." Penn now responded to them in a like sober and reverent spirit, assuring them that the red man and the white man are equally the care of the Great Spirit, and that it is his desire to live in peace and good fellowship with them. "It is not our custom," he says, " to use hostile weapons against onr fellow creatures, for which reason we have come unarmed." Penn now unrolls his parchment, and reads and explains the force of each article, all of which is interpreted into their own language,-though it should
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here be stated that Penn learned the Indian language, and was able to speak to them in their own tongue. " I will not do," he continued, " as the Marylanders did, call you children or brothers only; for parents are apt to whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes will differ; neither will I compare the friendship. between us to a chain, for the rain may rust it, or a tree may fall and break it; but I will consider you as the same flesh and blood as the Christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts." In response to this declaration the spokesman for the king again comes forward and makes great promises and declares that "the Indians and the English must live in love as long as the sun doth give its light." Another speaker now turns to the Indians and ex- plains to them what had been said and done, and counsels them "to love the Christians, that many Governors had been in the river, but' that no Governor had come himself to live and stay here before, and having now such an one that had treated them well they should never do him nor his any wrong," all of which was received by the entire assemblage with accents of approval.
Penn took special pains to have all his purchases of the Indians executed in due legal form, and recorded in the offices of his govern- ment, so that if any question concerning the conditions should arise there should be the exact evidence of the bargain at hand. The Indians themselves had no method of recording their agreements, but their memory of such transactions was remarkably exact and tena- cions. They had some arbitrary way by which they were able to recall their knowledge of events. The Indian missionary and his- torian says, "They frequently assembled together in the woods, in some shady spot, as nearly as possible similar to those where they used to meet their brother Miquon (Penn), and there lay all his words and speeches, with those of his descendants on a blanket or clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction go successively over the whole. * * * This practice, which I have repeatedly witnessed, continued until 1780 (a period of a hundred years), when disturb- ances which took place pnt an end to it probably forever."
The venerable elm tree under which this noted conference was held was carefully guarded and preserved. Even while the city of Philadelphia was in possession of the enemy during the Revolution- ary war, and firewood was scarce, the Treaty Tree, this venerable elin, was preserved from mutilation. The British General Simcoe sta- tioned a guard over it. It stood till 1810, when it fell a victim to the storms, and was found to be 283 years old, showing that at the time of the treaty it was 155. The Penn Society of Philadelphia have marked the spot where it stood by erecting a durable monn- ment.
Of Penn's purchases of the Indians two deeds are on record,
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executed in 1683, one of them bearing the signature of the renowned chieftain Taminend. In one of these the method of measurement was unique. The terms were that the tract should embrace the ter- ritory between two rivers and " shall extend as far back as a man can walk in three days." It does not provide whether the days are to be from sun to sun, nor at what season of the year the walk is to be made, nor whether a day shall be reckoned at twenty-four hours, or whether the walk shall be executed by an experienced walker at the top of his bent, or be walked leisurely. But Penn, actuated by a sense of simple justice, construed entirely to the advantage of the Indians, that he might show them that he was actuated by none but the most exalted motives. Accordingly, Penn, himself, with a num- ber of his friends, accompanied by a gay party of the natives, made 'the walk. They did not turn it into a race, but treated it as a pleasure party, proceeding leisurely, sitting down at intervals to "smoke their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and drink a bottle of wine." Com- mencing at the month of Neshaminy Creek they proceeded on np the shores of the Delaware. At the end of a day and a half they reached a spruce tree on the bank of Baker Creek, about thirty miles, when Penn, thinking that he had as much land as he would want for the present, agreed with the Indians to stop there and allow the re- maining day and a half of space to be walked out at some future time. The execution of the balance of the contract was in marked contrast to the liberal interpretation of the founder. It was not made till 1733, when the then Governor offered a prize of 500 acres of land and £5 in money to the man who would make the greatest walk. There were three contestants, and one, Edward Marshall, won the prize, making a distance of eighty-six miles in the single day and a half, an unprecedented feat. The advantage taken by the Governor in this transaction gave great offense to the Indians. " It was the cause," says Jenney, "of the first dissatisfaction between them and the people of Pennsylvania; and it is remarkable that the first murder committed by them in the province, seventy-two years after the landing of Penn, was on this very ground which had been taken from them by fraud."
The excellence of the country, the gentleness of the government, and the loving society of Friends, caused a good report to go out to all parts of Enrope, and thither eame floeking emigrants from many lands, from London, Cheshire, Lancashire, Ireland, Scotland, Ger- many, and from Wales a company of the stock of Ancient Britons. For the most part they were of the Society of Friends, and were escaping from bitter persecution for their religion. They were, con- sequently, people of pure hearts, good elements for the building of a colony. On landing they would seek the shelter of a tree with their household goods, and there they would live till they could secure
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their land and erect a rude shelter. Some betook themselves to the river's bank and dng caves for temporary shelter. In one of these caves the first child, John Key, was born in the new city, known long after as Penny-pot, near Sassafras street. Ile lived to his eighty-fifth year, dying in 1768. It will be seen that many priva- tions had to be endured, and so great was the influx of settlers that food was sometimes scarce. But they were patient, accustomed to toil, and devoted in their worship, so that the colony had wonderful prosperity and increase.
Penn's own impressions are conveyed in a letter to his friends in England. " Philadelphia, the expectation of those who are con- cerned, is at last laid out to the great content of those here. The situation is a neck of land, and lieth between two navigable rivers, Delaware and Schuylkill, whereby it hath two fronts upon the water. each a mile, and two from river to river. This I will say for the good providence of God, of all the places I have seen in the world I remember not one better seated; so that it seems to mne to have been appointed for a town, whether we regard the rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, docks and springs, the loftiness and sound- ness of the land, and the air, held by the people of these parts to be very good. I bless God I am fully satisfied with the country and entertainment I got in it." By the course of the river the city is 120 miles from the ocean, but only sixty in direct line. It is eighty- seven miles from New York, ninety-five from Baltimore, 136 from Washington, 100 from Harrisburg, and 300 from Pittsburg, and is in latitude north 39°, 56', 54", and in longitude west from Green- wich 75°, 8', 45". The Delaware at this time was nearly a mile wide opposite the city and navigable for ships of the greatest tonnage. The tide here has a rise of about six feet and flows back to the falls of Trenton, some thirty miles. The tide in the Schuylkill flows only about six miles above its confluence with the Delaware. The purpose of Penn was that the land along the river bank should be a public park, holding in his mind's eye its future adornment with walks and fountains and statues, trees and sweet smelling shrubs and flowers; for when pressed to allow warehouses to be built upon it lie resolutely declared, " The bank is a top common, from end to end; the rest next to the water belongs to front-lot men no more than back-lot men. The way bounds them." But Penn, at this early day, in the simplicity of his nature had little conception of the necessities which commerce would impose, when the city should grow to the million of population, which it now has, so that the cherished design of the founder has been disregarded, and great warehouses where a vast tonnage is constantly moving, embracing the commerce from the remotest corners of the globe, cumber all the bank. Penn had eher- ished the purpose of founding a great city from his earliest years,
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and had adopted the name Philadelphia (brotherly love) before he had any reasonable prospect of coming to America. So that the name was not a matter of question.
The growth of the province was something wonderful, and caused Penn to say in a spirit of exultation unusual to him, " I must, with- out vanity say, I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit." Bancroft very justly observes, " There is nothing in the history of the human race like the con- fidence which the simple virtues and institutions of William Penn inspired. The progress of his province was more rapid than that of New England. In August, 1683, Philadelphia consisted of three or four little cottages. The conies were yet undisturbed in their heredi- tary burrows; the deer fearlessly bounded past blazed trees, uncon- scious of foreboded streets; the stranger that wandered from the river bank was lost in thickets of interminable forest; and two years afterward the place contained about six hundred houses, and the schoolmaster and the printing-press had begun their work. In three vears from its foundation Philadelphia had gained more than New York had done in half a century. It was not long till Philadelphia led all the cities in America in population, though one of the latest founded. By the census of 1800 Pennsylvania led all the other States in the number of white population, having 586.095; New York, 557,731; Virginia, 514,280; Massachusetts, 416,393; North Carolina, 337,764; Connecticut, 244,721; Maryland, 216,326; Sonth Carolina, 196,255; New Jersey, 194,325; New Hampshire, 182,998; Kentneky, 179,873; Vermont, 153,908; Maine, 150,901; Georgia, 102,261; Tennessee, 91,709; Rhode Island, 65,438; Delaware, 49,852; Ohio, 45,028; Indiana, 5,343; Mississippi, 5,179.
Halu Clayton
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
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CHAPTER VI.
CONTROVERSY WITH LORD BALTIMORE OPENED-CHARTERS COMPARED -- PENN VISITS LORD BALTIMORE-BALTIMORE MAAKES EXCUSES ---- AMBIGUITIES IN BOTH CHARTERS-BALTIMORE OFFERS DISPUTED LANDS FOR SALE AND DRIVES OUT PENNSYLVANIA OWNERS- SUMMONS TO QUIT-RESPONSE-PENN OFFERS TO PURCHASE- PENN CARRIES THE CONTROVERSY BEFORE THE ROYAL COMMISSION -LETTER TO HIS FRIENDS ON QUITTING HUIS COLONY-FOUND OFFICERS SOUR AND STERN-NEW KING FRIENDLY, BUT MINISTRY HOSTILE TO DISSENTERS - CLAIMS COMPROMISED-ELABORATE TREATY OF 1760-LINE DESCRIBED-LOCAL SURVEYORS AP- POINTED -- MASON AND DIXON APPOINTED-NATIVE SURVEYORS' WORK FOUND CORRECT- SAMPLE OF WORK-DELAWARE LINE ESTABLISHED -- EXTRACTS FROM NOTES -- " VISTO" CLEARED- HORIZONTAL MEASUREMENT-STONE PILLARS SET -- INDIANS VIEW ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS WITH AWE -- WAR PATH IN GREENE COUNTY SURVEY STOPS-TEDIOUS LABORS OF SURVEYORS -BOUN- DARY STONES CUT IN ENGLAND-COST OF SURVEY FOR PENNSYL- VANIA, $171,000-END NOT YET.
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