USA > Pennsylvania > History of proprietary government in Pennsylvania > Part 15
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2 " I cannot make money without special concessions. Though I desire to ex. tend religious freedom, yet I want some recompense for my trouble." Penn MSS., Domestic Letters, William Penn to -, July, 1681. " Prepare the people to think of some way to support me so I may not consume all my substance to serve the province." Ibid., to Thomas Lloyd, Oct. 2, 1685. " Make no further men- tion of the supply; I will sell the shirt off my back before I will trouble them any more. I will not come into the province with my family to spend a private estate to discharge a public station, and so add wrongs to my children." Ibid., to J. Harrison, Jan. 28, 1687. Speaking of Baltimore's attempt to deprive him of the Lower Counties, he wrote to the Marquis of Halifax ( Mem. Pa. Hist, Soc., i, pt. ii, p. 421), " I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did on private credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that were ever in it are to be found among us. If this lord, who nay remember that his country was cut out of Virginia, and this not for debt or salaries due, but as mere grace, shall carry away this poor ewe lamb too, my voyage will be a ruinous one to me and my partners, which God defend."
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In order to ascertain the real motive of Penn in founding the colony, it may be well to notice what he himself says on the subject. His letter of April 8, 1681, directed to the set- tlers already in Pennsylvania, reads as follows : "My friends, I wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God in His providence to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that though I never undertook before, yet God has given me an understand- ing of my duty, and an honest mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change and the king's choice; for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor who comes to make his fortune. You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the rights of any or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a bet- ter resolution, and has given me His grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with. I beseech God to direct you in the way of righteousness, and therein prosper you and your children after you."1
To James Harrison, September 4, of the same year, he wrote, " I bless the Lord in obtaining it, and were I drawn in- ward to look to Him, and to owe it to His hand and power to any other way, and I have so obtained it, and desire that I may not be unworthy of His love, but do that which answers His kind providence, and serve His truth and people, that an example may be set up to the nations, there may be room there, but not here for such a holy experiment."2 "I went thither," said he on another occasion,3 "to lay the foundation of a free colony for all mankind, more especially those of my own profession, not that I would lessen the civil liberties of others because of their persuasion, but screen and defend our
1 Hazard, Annals of Pz., p. 502. 2 Ibid., p. 522.
3 Penn and Logan Corresp., i, pp. 373-4.
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own from any infringement on that account." "It was not to be thought," wrote he to James Logan about the same time, " that a colony and a constitution of government made by and for Quakers would leave themselves out of so essential a part of the government as juries. If the coming of others shall overrule us that are the originals and made it a country, we are unhappy that it is not to be thought we intended no easier nor better terms for ourselves in going to America, than we left behind us."I Lastly, his religious idea may be shown by his reply to the complaints of Jasper Yeates, a somewhat bigoted Quaker, who believed that the powers of government should be in the hands of the Quakers exclusively. " I sup- pose," wrote Penn, February 5, 1683, " that thou intendest that God's power among honest Friends should have the rule and dominion with my whole soul, Jasper. Besides, tell me what will those Fetheses Centurions and Gamaliels think who in outward things that belong to the spirit of man are rightfully interested as well as we-and have wisdom as men? Shall they neither choose nor be chosen? If not, the patent is forfeited, for that right is founded upon civil, not spiritual freedom. We should look selfish, and do that which we have cried out upon others for, namely, letting nobody touch our government but those of their own way. I could speak largely of God's dealings with me in getting this thing (Pennsylvania), what an inward exercise of faith and patience it cost me in passing. My God hath given it me in the face of the world, and it is to hold it in true judgment as a reward of my sufferings. It is more than a worldly title and patent that hath clothed me in this place. * * * Had I sought greatness I had stayed at home, where the difference between what I am here, and was offered if I could have been there in power and wealth, as wide as the places are. No, I came for the Lord's sake." 2
I Penn and Logan Corresp., i, p. 205. 2 Pa. Mag. Hist., vi, pp. 469-70.
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A perusal of these statements leads to the conviction that Penn's religious enthusiasm had awakened in him the idea that he was, in some measure at least, inspired of God to found a colony in which every form of religious belief, not distinctly polytheistic and anti-Christian,I should be tolerated. Settlers from all nationalities and representing every type of Christian faith or fanaticism should be welcome. Only those who de- nied the existence of God should be excluded. It was natural that he should feel the strongest interest in the welfare of his own sect, but Pennsylvania was not intended exclusively as a refuge for Quakers. The spirit of William Penn was not that of the Puritan who desired to make New England the posses- sion of the saints alone, and who labored to shut out all who did not hold religious views identical with his own. His plan was nobler and broader than this. His views were those of the enlightened lover of humanity. He desired that some secluded spot might be chosen where, under the most favor- able conditions, purity and virtue might flourish till they ap- peared in bold contrast with the immoralities of the age, where freedom of religious belief and practice might be enjoyed, and where truth and Christian charity might triumph over all that was narrow and persecuting.
To give an exhaustive definition of Penn's scheme of gov- 'ernment is impossible. Did he purpose to form a Quaker commonwealth ? His liberal concessions in the first frame of government and the character of the early legislation2 in the province, would seem to show that he intended to establish a commonwealth of which the governing body should be Quak-
1 See preamble and chapter i. of the Great Law of 1682. Charter and Laws of Pa., p. 107.
2 " Be it further enacted that the days of the week and the months of the year shall be called as in the scripture, and not by heathen names, as are vulgarly used, as the first, second and third months of the year, and first, second and third days of the week, and beginning with the day called Sunday, and the month called March." Charter and Laws of Pa., pp. 116, 198, and passim.
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ers. Men of other forms of religion were not to be denied a voice in the management of affairs, but the idea was to keep the control, so far as possible, in the hands of the Quakers. The proprietor should be merely the permanent executive to perform their commands. But this view of the matter is un- satisfactory, for two reasons. In the first place, Penn was the proprietor and governor of the province. As such he repre- sented the crown. In the excitement of the moment, and be- set by the importunities of his followers," this position was lost sight of. Sooner or later he must recognize the fact that he could not give up at pleasure the prerogatives of the crown, with which he was entrusted. Secondly, a close study of the character of William Penn, as exemplified in his writings, shows him to have been distinctly paternalistic in his attitude and tendencies.2
His career as a religious teacher, and the awe with which many of his converts regarded him, would also serve to con- firm this idea. He believed that he had a great humanitarian mission to fulfill. He thought his followers were with him heart and soul in the accomplishment of this purpose. His influence over them was apparently very strong. His attract- ive and benevolent personality, and his wonderful talents, ought to make him the head of the little community in the wilderness. The thought that anything but the truest harmony would reign in the place where now his holy experiment was to be put to the test, or that discord, bitterness, and personal animosity could ever possess the hearts of the gentle, peace- loving Quakers, probably never entered his mind. Nor did he believe that suggestions on his part would meet with any- thing but a cordial response and acquiescence. He had known what was their highest good spiritually. Endowed as he was
1 Gordon, Hist. of Pa., p. 63.
2 Benjamin Franklin's covert sneer, that " Penn was first followed by his flock as a kind of patriarch to Pennsylvania" ( Works, iii, p. 184), is not wholly devoid of truth.
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with all the brilliant attainments that natural genius, social position, travel, education, and association with men could give hin, he had shown himself an excellent student of politics. Why should he not be regarded as the source of all wisdom in matters pertaining to government ? Even should dispute arise, his mild intervention would speedily cause its cessation. Hence, in the execution of his plan, and within the self- imposed limits of his frame of government, he was to direct as a father,“ and his people to render due obedience as children. He intended in fact to spend the greater part of his life in the province, and to leave it as a place of residence to his children.2 A distinctly personal government permeated with the principle of religious liberty was the gist of his idea 3 of the proper mode for developing his " holy experiment."
But notwitstanding his large experience with men, Penn did not know them. As Macaulay truly says, " his writings and his life furnish abundant proofs that he was not a man of strong sense. He had no skill in reading the characters of others. His confidence in persons less virtuous than himself led him into great errors and misfortunes. His enthusiasm for one great principle sometimes impelled him to violate other great principles which he ought to have held sacred."4 He was not at all conscious of the extent of the concessions he was mak-
1 " I shall do the best I can for future safety to the people and my family as one common interest." Penn and Logan Corresp., i. p. 73. "The governor is our pater patric, and his worth is no new thing to us." Ibid., p. 40.
2 " I would gladly see you once more before I die, and my young sons and daughter also settled upon good tracts of land for them and theirs after them to clear and settle upon, as Jacob's sons did." Mem. Pa. Hist. Soc., i, pt. i, p. 211.
3 This is well illustrated in his letter to Capt. Markham, who, it will be re- membered, had been sent over to take possession of the country. He says, "Strive to give content to the planters, and with meekness and sweetness mixed with authority, carry it so as thou mayest honor me as well as thyself. Be tender of my credit with all, watching to prevent false stories, and inculcate all honest and ad- vantageous things on my behalf." Pa. Mag. Hist., vi, p. 465.
+ Op. cit., i, pp. 457-S.
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ing. If he could have anticipated the ingratitude and obloquy with which he later met, it is doubtful whether his liberal tendencies would not have received a decided check, and been made to conform both to justice to himself, and to a correct view of the actual needs of the people. " The sacrifice of Penn's life," says the editor of the Penn and Logan corres- pondence," " was his establishment of Pennsylvania. He had ventured everything upon it, and underwent an unceasing struggle to preserve it. His expenses were enormous,2 and his just returns, which it had been solemnly contracted should be paid, were in the main witheld by an ungrateful people, who, running riot with an excess of liberty, raised all manner of untenable objections against the performance of their duty ; a people who, possessed of every substantial right, were yet dissatisfied, but who would have been very humble and repentant, had they been deprived of those privileges which they did not seem to know how to value and enjoy."3 Not until he found himself opposed at every turn, his requests disregarded, his official position ignored, and himself visited with complaint and invective, did he perceive his error. “ I pretty well know my own interest," wrote he to James Logan in 1705,"4 though my too kind nature to serve others has neglected it. I hope it shall not be the error of the last part of my life."
1i, pp. 351-2. Note.
2 " Nor am I sitting down in a greatness that I have denied, as thou suggestest. I am day and night spending my life, my time, my money, and am not six pence enriched by this greatness. Costs in getting, settling, transportation, and mainte- nance, now in a public manner at my own charge, should be duly considered, to say nothing of my hazard and the distance I am from a considerable estate, and my dear wife and poor children. Nor shall I ever trouble myself to tell thee what I am to the people of this place in watchings, travellings, spendings, and my servants, every way freely." William Penn to Jasper Yeates, Pa. Mag. Hist., vi, p. 470.
3 See also Dixon, Life of Penn, Amer. Ed., 1851, p. 319.
4 Penn and Logan Corresp., ii, p. 74.
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The best way to show how the kindliness and benevolence of the proprietor gave place to wrath and bitterness, only to be succeeded by the spirit of Christian forgiveness as the shadows of his life touched the borders of eternity, is by an examination of his personal relations with the colonists. But some knowledge of the state of affairs which prevailed in the province during the period of his mental activity, is requisite to an understanding of these changes in his attitude. Hence, as the purpose of the foregoing discussion has been merely to indicate in a general way the idea of William Penn, it may perhaps be well to defer any explanation of his policy till, in the chapter on the frames of government, his relations with the colonists can be closely examined.
CHAPTER II
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PROPRIETARY FAMILY
I. Mortgage and Litigation.
WE have shown how exaggerated were the estimates of the wealth of the proprietors. The enormous expenses entailed upon Penn himself by his ventures in the province, as well as the disgrace under which he lay for his supposed complicity with the Jacobites, greatly reduced his resources. Indeed, the expenses connected with settling the colony were so consider- able, that he was forced to mortgage a part of his first wife's inheritance. The war in Ireland greatly impaired his estates there. The revenues from Pennsylvania were scanty and irreg- ular.I He was compelled to pay the salaries of the deputy- governors, attorney-generals, and chief justices. He was con- stantly employed in attempting to refute the insinuations against Pennsylvania for its connivance at illegal trade. The rascally conduct of his steward, Philip Ford, and the refusal of those he supposed to be his friends in the province to give aid when the clouds of misfortune gathered about him, at last wrung from him the cry, "I am a crucified man between in- justice and ingratitude there, and extortion and oppression here."2 Indeed, it was estimated by Penn that, prior to 1688, he had lost over £13,000, and during the first twenty-five years of his proprietorship he had lost over £64,000.3
1 " I have a rough people to deal with about my quit-rents, that can't pay a {10 bill ; but draw, draw, draw still upon me." Hazard, Reg. of Pa., iv, p. 105.
2 Penn and Logan Corresp., i, p. 60; ii, p. 71; Col. Rec., ii, p. 239.
3 Breviat of Evidence, Penn and Baltimore, p. 82.
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The assembly utterly ignored Penn's misfortunes. In 1705 it stated that what the province had done for the support of government would more than equal what the proprietor had done for the province. When he was unable to grant all it de- manded, the inability wasattributed to unwillingness on his part. It complained that the proprietor expected it to pay the salary of the deputy governor, an obligation which it viewed as a hard- ship, " considering that the proprietor's stay in England was for the service of that nation, and the disservice of the province, by the loss of many thousand pounds to himself, and many hun- dred families to the province." It looked upon the failure to determine the boundary line with Maryland as a great griev- ance. It thought that a bill of property which it had presented to the deputy governor at that time would better secure the proprietor in some portions of his estate than had previously been the case, and that, "if it was for the people's interest, it was not far wide of the proprietor's true interest."I Indeed, when in 1701 it gave him £2,000, it did so with no intention of alleviating his troubles. It wanted something done, and when it could neither browbeat nor threaten him, it resorted to a pecuniary expedient.2
Considering now more specifically the causes of Penn's financial difficulties, we must assign the principal cause to the conduct of his steward. The confidence Penn had in this per- son, and the extraordinary influence that he and his wife pos- sessed over their patron's mind, form an interesting
1 Col. Rec., ii, pp. 195, 196.
2 What had the assembly done ? The deputy governors, Markham and Lloyd, had been voted a few hundred pounds. But the law passed in 1683, granting the duties on exports and imports to the proprietor, was repealed in 1690, and the sum offered be to raised in its stead, remained unpaid. The salaries of the members of the council were far in arrears. The {2000 had been given to the proprietor to aid him in having the provincial laws confirmed by the crown. But the assembly seconded those who refused to pay any portion of this sum, on the ground that their demands concerning land were not fully satisfied. In fact, the arrears of the {2000 were not collected till after 1716.
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episode in the life of the proprietor. Whether this influence was due to Penn's surprising credulity, or to a knowledge that Ford may have possessed of some incidents in the pro- prietor's life which Penn wished to be kept concealed, is a matter of conjecture. It seems improbable that Penn could repose so much confidence in a man as, without inspection of his accounts, to execute so many mortgages, and to give such extraordinary securities, unless some deeper reason than mere credulity existed. This will more fully appear as we trace the events leading up to the final mortgaging of the province in 1708.
About 1656 Philip Ford was a merchant in London. His business ventures not being prosperous, in 1669 he applied to Penn for assistance. As he was a Quaker and a man of fair business ability, Penn appointed him steward of his estates in Ireland at a salary of £40 per annum. Ford was very faithful, rendering his accounts every six months, and hence Penn trusted him implicitly. When the proprietor was busied in the early affairs of Pennsylvania, he necessarily had to rely on the integrity of the steward. Then the possi- bility of defrauding the proprietor entered the mind of his crafty servant. Therefore, when Penn was on the point of « setting sail for Pennsylvania in August, 1682, Ford presented him with an account, by which it appeared that a balance of £2851,7s. 6d. was due for money advanced and expenses of col- lection. Penn innocently signed this account, and, upon Ford's tendering a document for securing the payment of the sums, without noticing the difference between the two amounts specified, Penn signed this also. The document, however, was a deed of lease and release, bearing date, August 24, 1682. According to its terms Penn, unless within two days he should pay £3,000, was to grant Ford 300,000 acres of land in Penn- sylvania at an annual quit-rent of four beaver skins. At the same time the proprietor signed a bond for £6,000 to pay the £3,000 on the date mentioned in the deed.
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Ford, seeing that he could so readily impose on the propri- etor, concocted another most ingenious piece of villainy.I To begin with, he charged Penn two and a half per cent. commission on all receipts and disbursements, as well as on all money ad- vanced. To these gross sums he added the amounts of his commission, together with his salary, and on this calculated compound interest at the rate of 3 per cent. and 4 per cent. pay- able every six months or oftener. When Penn returned from the province, in 1684, Ford told him that, in spite of the sums of money arising from sales of land in Pennsylvania, and from the rents of the estates in Ireland, he was in debt to the amount of £4293,3s.2 Thereupon he presented the proprietor with his accounts, the first item of which was the £2851,7s. 1od. pre- viously mentioned. Penn immediately signed them. Although Ford was apparently satisfied with the security Penn had given in 1682, his wife expressed her disapproval, and con- stantly urged him to get a larger security for the sum claimed to be due. Hence Ford persuaded the proprietor to go with him to a tavern, and there proposed that Penn should renew his previous security, and make an additional grant. The proprietor at first refused, on the ground that Pennsylvania was a new colony and not a settled estate, and that he was busily engaged in disposing of the land to new comers. Ford stated that such a grant would operate merely as a pri- vate security until the money could be raised by the sale of lands in Pennsylvania, and would never be construed to prejudice Penn's rights. He asserted, moreover, that he was willing to receive the money in installments, and, when Penn paid him £500, agreed to lessen the security propor- tionately. The proprietor, apparently believing that the deeds were simply a collateral security for the sums due to the
1 Penn and Lagan Corresp., ii, p. 163.
2 Up to this time, Ford had received nearly {8000 from the sale of lands in Pennsylvania. Penn MSS., Ford vs. Penn.
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steward, signed a document dated June 10, 1685, which pur- ported to give Ford 300,000 acres more, the manors of Penns- bury and Springettsbury, as well as another manor in Chester county, a lot in Philadelphia, certain islands, and all the quit- rents of the province, unless by March 21, 1687, Penn paid him £5000.
On April 11, 1687, Penn signed another account of £5282, 9s. 8d. On the same date he executed a deed by which he mortgaged the province and territories to Ford for 5,000 years at the quit-rent of a peppercorn, unless at the end of a year he paid £6,000. This was also secured by a bond. On October II, 1689, Penn again ratified the steward's account of £6,333, Igs. 2d. At this time, according to the several deeds and these last accounts, he was indebted to Ford to the sum of £20,333, 19s. 2d. In August of the next year he released to Ford all equity of redemption in the mortgage of April 10, 1687. Ford then, taking advantage of the fact that Penn was under the displeasure of the English government, induced him the month following, in consideration of £6,900 by the accounts supposedly due, to make a conveyance of the entire province and territories without defeasance.
Three years elapsed before Penn even partially realized his position. In 1693 he wrote to Robert Turner a pathetic letter in which, after intimating the danger of imprisonment for debt, he asked a loan from a hundred persons of £100 each, free of interest for five years. Strangely enough, he attributed his financial distress chiefly to the wretched condition of affairs in Ireland. It is evident, therefore, either that he was afraid or ashamed to admit that he had been so defrauded, or that the steward forbade him to speak.I His request was met with a
1 " Almighty God incline and direct you for the best, and determine quickly, for else my course will be in solitudes. My sincere love salutes you, and my wishes in the will of God are for your happiness, whether I see you any more, which depends much upon your compliance with my proposal, and those that close with it shall ever be remembered by me and mine." Hazard, Reg. of Pa., iv, pp. 135-6.
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