USA > Pennsylvania > History of the province of Pennsylvania > Part 14
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That he first recommended to them as he did to the last assembly, that the two thousand pounds granted for the queens use, might be made ready payment when demanded; that the complaints of those persons whose servants were on the expedition to Canada, might be answer'd.
That he took this opportunity to give the country his thanks for the care taken for his support in the administra- tion by the last assembly.
That there was no government in America, where the governor was not in some measure supported in his adminis- tration, he therefore hoped they would not make a president in him of the contrary.
The assembly replied that the last house having (as was then presumed) effectually provided for the due collection and payment of the two thousand pounds granted to the
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queens use, they should be ready to do what further might appear necessary on their part, when they knew the defects which they desired might be laid before them at their next meeting, when as to the other matters recommended, they would also endeavor to provide adequate remedies, and then adjourned.
The members returned at the next election in October 1714, chose Gookin's old friend David Lloyd, speaker again- they had several sessions together but concluded on nothing material. The governor in the winter 1715, summoned them by the following writ.
1715
" CHARLES GOOKIN EsQ. lieutenant governor of the province of Pennsylvania &c.
" To the sheriff &c.
" Pennsylvania ss.
" Whereas the assembly of this province, having in the month of March last divers matters of the greatest weight and importance before them, which required to be dis- patch'd for the public good, and safety of all his majesty's subjects in this government; they the said assembly not- withstanding thought fit without my consent or approbation to adjourn themselves to the latter end of their yearly session, by which means the expectations of all good people, who depended on a suitable provision to be then forthwith made to answer the several exigencies of the government, became entirely disappointed: the great inconveniences of which must still continue unremedied until another assembly be chosen, unless they are called together before the time of their said adjournment. These therefore are (by and with the advice of the council) to require and command you that you forthwith summon all the representatives chosen in your county for the said assembly, that they meet me at Philadelphia the second day of May next to proceed to the dispatch of the said affairs, and such other matters
....
-
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as I may have occasion to lay before them, and without delay make return of this writ into the secretary's office.
"Given under my hand and the lesser seal of the said province at Philadelphia the sixteenth day of April, Anno Domini 1715."
Meeting according to this writ, the governor told them:
That although their affairs would not allow them time when last together to dispatch the important business then before them, yet how consistent their breaking up and ad- journment to the end of the year, without his consent or knowledge was with their trust and duty, they had by this time he supposed, had occasion to consider.
That by that adjournment it followed either that the great exigencies of governm' must remain unprovided for till another election, or that he must call them again by writ, and that hence he found it necessary in discharge of the trust reposed in him to give them this opportunity of retrieving what before they had otherwise put out of their power.
That the administration of justice by all acknowledged the life of government, had to their reproach as well as great insecurity to his majestys subjects here lain for a long time dead, and a provision for his support, which they must be sensible was justly due to him, both called for a dispatch, which now they were more at leisure, he hoped would be given them.
That the bills prepared for the first of these might be easily accomodated if they would prefer good order and regularity in their proceedings to novelty and untried ex- periments; that how unfit the methods proposed for the latter would be found, they could not on further reflection, but be sensible that he found it a general complaint of the merchants, that the liquor from which most of the tax must have risen would not after their voyages were made return
11
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the first cost to the adventurers: he therefore hoped they would of themselves be convinced of the necessity there was to take more equal ineasures.
That he had since his arrival here mel with assembly's of very different tempers, wth some of which he had not been able to effect any business; such had been the unhappiness of the province in those years: But as they had expressed a hearty zeal for the good of the public, not without some respect to his affairs, he should depend on their care & resolution to dispatch what related to both.
He concludes with putting them in mind that the best of peoples principles is their public actions, when not account- able by any law but that of their consciences and honor.
The assembly in return observe, that their faithful en- deavors had not been wanting to promote the public good, according to their trust, as they thought might appear by the bills which they had presented before their last adjournment, tho' at a juncture when their own private affairs suffered by their absence-that therefore there was no just cause for the imputations which seemed to be cast upon them by the governors summons and two written messages, and as to their adjournment it was considerd and could not be denied but that they had done what they could in preparing matters for concurrence, which they are well assured would have proved effectual both to answer the exigencies of the province and support of the administration, if he had thought fit to have given his sanction, but contrary to the expectation of the house he had denied the passing of any one bill, unless some particular members of the house would actually become engaged for payment of a certain sum in lieu of what was proposed to be raised for his support: That this gave the assembly ground to suspect there might be some new attempt by persons disaffected to their proceedings to frustrate the same, as was suggested to be the fate of the last assembly by an expectation given the governor of otherwise supply- ing him with a sum of money on those conditions, which
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practices, wherever introduced, as they are inconsistent with an English constitution, could tend to nothing but a confusion and disorder. They therefore thought it better to adjourn to their own private business, and leave the gov- ernor to ponder things in his own mind, or further consult his council, or other friends to this government, as he might see occasion, well knowing it was in his power to call them again, whenever he should find himself disposed to act in conjunction with them, and pass the bills into laws, or such of them on which the security and protection of the people of the province so much depended.
The governor replied that the council were unwilling to assist him in answering their message and gave him good reasons for it: that being now alone, he should not take it to pieces, but only observe that what they mention about his requiring security for the money they promised, was spoken jocularly and that so he told the messengers, and forbid them to deliver it as a message, yet they (the assembly) answer it as one, which he could not but say lookd with a very unkind air. That their mentioning a story of money offerd him the last year was of the same nature; it being very well known it was proposed only by one person, and that he wth scorn rejected it.
But to come to the matter he was very willing to agree with them in most of the bills proposed for his assent, but that of the impost seemd to be so unequally laid, that he could not clear his conscience of partiality, should he pass it as now drawn up; besides, should the merchants make no opposition to it, it would come very far short of the end they proposed. Therefore he earnestly desired them to take it into their further consideration.
Next followed an address upon another occasion, wherein the assembly tell the governor, that the opening the courts of justice, might have been a means to put a stop to those tumults, which had frequently happend in the city since the beginning of the session, so that their meeting now
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might have been to crown their labors with a general satis- faction. But to their great disappointment they under- stood by credible information, that some of those, who occasioned those tumults in order to annoy an opposite party, were now levelling their malignity against the magis- trates of the city & county and endeavoring to prevail with the governor to be of opinion, that there was no power to bring to tryal a person charged by indictment at the kings suit for committing fornication against the kings peace & the law of the province &c.
That fornication and such like offences which in other places might be ecclesiastical connusance were by the laws of the province, made tryable in the quarter sessions; and as their laws were by the royal charter to be inviolably ob- served, so the governor and magistrates were bound in duty to cause the same to be put in execution; that therefore whosoever did or should assert or endeavor to incence or persuade the governor or any other, that the court of quarter- sessions as by law established, had no cognizance of the said offences, were and should be deemed enemies to the governor and government.
The governor replied that he had immediately endeavred to quell the tumults and hoped with good effect; that the courts were now opened, the administration of justice restored, and if any should appear so audacious as to oppose the magistrates, they should not want his countenance and assistance to suppress the attempt: that he was sorry it should be surmised to the assembly by any, that those who shewed a malignity to the magistracy could have grounds to hope to prevail with him to favor them; on the contrary they should find (if there were any such) that he should exert all the authority with which he was invested to support the proprietary's powers of government, and the magistrates in the execution of the laws and full discharge of their duty. That the commissions not yet issued should be forthwith expedited.
CHAPTER XV.
THE ASSEMBLY8 ADDRESS TO K: GEORGE THE FIRST ON HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE -- REPRESENTATION OF THE ASSEMBLY TO GOVERNOR GOOKIN -HIS LAST MESSAGE TO THE ASSEMBLY-SIR Wm KEITH ARRIVES AND TAKES UPON HIM THE GOVERNMENT.
The new assembly of October 1715, chose Joseph Growden their speaker. Queen Ann dying last year this assembly sent the following address to king George, on his accession to the throne.
"To GEORGE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN &C.
"The humble address of the representatives of all the freemen of the province of Pennsylvania in assembly met, the first day of the Month called May 1716.
" GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,
"'Tho by divers concurring causes & particularly the great indisposition of our proprietary and governor in chief of this province, we have been hitherto to our great trouble pre- vented the opportunity of expressing to the king our sincere joy for his happy and peaceable accession to the throne of his ancestors, and thereby securing to all his protestant sub- jects, the full enjoyment of their religious and civil rights; yet none could be more sensible of the great blessing nor ex- press a warmer zeal for his service in their earlier approaches than at all times since has filled our thankful breasts; and altho' we had not the desired advantage of expressing these our sentiments, yet we became the easier under that dis- appointment by accounting the majority of this province included in that general application made by their friends at London. in behalf of the whole community, wherein our thoughts, with their own were most truly represented.
"Such has been the kings goodness, not only expressed in his first generous royal declaration, and repeatedly since from the throne, but more powerfully exerted through a
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most wise and steady administration in pursuing ev'ry measure that might contribute to the safety and happiness of his people; in making the known laws the invariable rule of his government; in restoring the honor to the British nation abroad, & in procuring for his subjects such advan- tages in commerce, as could scarce be hoped for, after they had been so unhappily given away that even the remotest part of the kings great dominion feel the benign influences of his paternal affection to the whole, and are laid under double obligations to make the utmost returns of gratitude as well as obedience for their happiness, under his auspicious reign.
"It is therefore the more surprising that there should be any of the British race within that Island so lost to all sense of their own interest as well as their engaged duty to a prince of the most conspicuous and consummate virtues, as to ex- press the least uneasy murmurs much less to rise in an open, and unnatural rebellion; for the suppression of which, by the great wisdom and vigilance of the king and his ministry, and faithfulness of his servants, we do with hearts full of the sincer- est gratitude and joy, return our most humble acknowledge- ments to the fountain of infinite goodness & mercy, that has so eminently appeared in the support of the royal throne, estab- lished on the lasting foundation of justice, to the confusion of all the detestable machinations vainly formed against it.
" As for us, our known principles are so essentially inter- woven with the protestant interest of Great Britain and our greatest concerns do so entirely depend on the preserva- tion of thy person and royal issue long to reign over us, that we cannot possibly separate our own wellfare from the indispensable duty of shewing ourselves with the most hearty affection, thy loyal and most obedient subjects.
"That confusion and disappointment may attend all the wicked devices of thy enemies; that the minds of thy people may be composed, and universally inspired with the same spirit of love and obedience as that wherewith we now approach thy throne; and that the watchful providence of
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Almighty God may always attend the King and confirm the wisdom and justice of his rightful goverment over us, is the most sincere and unfeigned desire of the kings humble and dutiful subjects.
"Signed by order of the house N. C. D. "JOSEPH GROWDON Speaker."
At the usual meeting of the new members returned in October 1716, Richard Hill was chosen speaker. In the next month this assembly made the following representation to the governor. [Here take in Votes 2d vol: p. 200.]
The following winter governor Gookin made his last message as follows.
"GENTLEMEN,
"I am very glad of this opportunity of meeting the repre- sentatives of the people, that I may take my leave of them, for I am well assured that I shall soon be superceded; for the little time that I am to be with you I shall be ready to do the country all the service I can.
"I must therefore once more recommend to your considera- tion, what I laid before the assembly of last year, and what I have mentiond sometimes to you.
"You may be now your own carvers, & you will not think me unreasonable in my expectations when I tell you, that as the first assembly I met with, had a regard to the charge of my coming over, so you, gentlemen, who are to be the last, will I hope in some measure provide for my going back to seek another employmt.
"I intended to have said more to you on this subject, but the thought of what I left to serve M' Penn in this province, the disappointment I have met with, and the uncertainty of being provided for at home, so fill my mind, that you will excuse me that I say no more."
Sir William Keith arriving in a few months after, brought with him a commission to supercede Gookin.
CHAPTER XVI.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE MENONISTS, AND SWENCKFELDERS.
1717. Some instances are given before of the Dutch or Germans coming very early to settle in Pennsylvania, after it was so named; those that then arrived were comparatively not many, and there did not any considerable numbers follow for several years, but of later times they have flocked in at almost an incredible rate, so that great quantities of the back lands in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are setled wth them-they have as to the general, hitherto proved themselves an industrious, frugal and thriving people. Those who go under those names in this province, have among them many different professions of religion, perhaps of all sorts-there are several sects remarkable in some par- ticulars, especially for a great simplicity of manners; of these some account, will not perhaps be unacceptable, and first,
OF THE MENONISTS.
The people believe that from the times of the apostles, there has ever existed a congregation, holding the same articles of faith with them, but that this congregation has been so oppressed by different persecutions, that not much of their writings have appeared in public, because they were looked upon by the church of Rome as heretics, some of their writings have however been found among the Romans, as appears from an ancient Roman writer, in the time of the Waldenses, about the year 1200, whose works were published by the Jesuits themselves, and wherein the author Remariusi says-that they the Waldenses were the most antient sect because they had existed eversince the time of Sylvester, others say since the time of the Apostles.
' See his works, Inglestadt edit: Chap VIII p: 54
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About the year 1540 some members of this congregation were taken prisoners, by Turks in Moravia, and as slaves carried to Thessalonia, making an acquaintance wth the Christians there they disclosed to them that they had bretheren in Moravia: The Thessalonians sending three of their Bretheren into Moravia, they arrived in a town called Nicholasburg, on the frontiers of Moravia; they took their lodging with a priest, and enquiring after the first mentiond bretheren, the priest took the three with him into a coach to Pansrom to the Hulterians, where they treated together in Latin, on the articles of their faith, but about three of them, they could not agree, which occasiond their parting sorrow- fully. After this, the priest brought them to a congregation of Switzers, who had been imprisoned for nine years in the castle of Passau in Bavaria; with these the three bretheren argued over the articles of their faith in the Latin tongue, John Peck arguing chiefly on behalf of the Switzers, when they came to understand one another, they agreed very well on all points, which occasioned joy on both sides, and they acknowledged one another for bretheren and as a pledge took what they called the Lords supper together. The three thereupon declared them to be of the true congregation, at the same time acquainting them, that those of Thessalonia had continued unchangable in their faith from the time of the Apostles to that day, and that they still kept in safe custody, the epistles which the apostle Paul had wrote to them.
Thus we see they date from the church at Thessalonia, to which the apostle Paul wrote. They say, they have also an account that to this day, there are bretheren and christians at Thessalonia, who in all points of religion and consequently in the article of Baptism, agree with the Mennonists, and that likewise among the rest of Christians, many of their bretheren live dispersed here and there-in Ethiopia, Greece and other Eastern countries ;- they say also, that the above three Thessalonians left behind them a confession of faith,
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which is still extant, containing sixteen articles, of these we will mention some here. 1st of God, they confess one only God; Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 2ยช of Baptismn, they confess a baptism into faith, and no infant baptismn. 3d they confess a eucharist to be kept with common bread and wine in rememberance of the sufferings and death of Christ. 4th of marriage, they profess a wedlock of two believing persons, and no exterior marriage ceremony by punishment of excommunications &c. 5th of the taking of oaths, they confess that no christian may take an oath, or in his evi- dence go beyond yea and nay, though he has the truth for him, but must rather choose to die. 6th of bearing arms. No christian must in any wise withstand with arms, or take to the sword.
They say this congregation has always from the begining insisted upon the confession above, with other articles, even from the time of the apostles, and that they could never be drove to part from them, but rather underwent death, which they add, hath been frequently their case as witness the ten severe persecutions 'till 310 years after Christ, that afterwards they were from time to time renewed till the year 1300, that in particular in the year 1210 was a terrible one, wherein great numbers were killed, principally in Europe, because they did not allow of infant baptism but would be baptized into their faith in their own mode. For refusing to take the oath and bear arms. and for adhering to other articles of their faith, for which they suffered such heavy persecutions that they were reduced to but a small number, 'till the time of the reformation, when from the year 1520 to 1530, they began to flourish again to the no small mortification of the Romish clergy, who gave them the name of Annabaptists and used their endeavors first by persuasion to draw them over, but they continuing inflex- ible, they at length raised a terrible persecution throughout all the Emperors dominions, on which followed the punish- ments of banishing-imprisonments-fire-water-sword
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and gallows, but all their instrumts of torture were not able to conquer them; They remaining constantly confessing their tenets, and professing their willingness to suffer rather than part with them. That this persecution began in the year 1524 and continued about one hundred years, a few instances out of hundreds may here suffice.
The 6th of December 1529, the congregation in Austria, surprized by a general accompanied by his executioners, the mob came upon them as they were gatherd to their worship at Hemborn, and taking men, women, children, women with child, and sick people to the number of 150, carried them to the castle of Falkenstein, where they re- mained prisoners above five weeks, and then ninety of them chained two and two together by the hands were carried to the galleys. That in 1529 the count Palatine in a short time executed near 350 of them by fire and sword in the country about Alsom, besides inflicting corporal punish- ment on abundance more, such as cutting off their fingers, burning them with a cross on their foreheads, and other butcheries. That in 17th Century this persecution ceased pretty much especially in the Netherlands, for the Uplanders, and particularly the Switzers continued to persecute up- wards of an hundred years longer namely from 1600 to 1700 and near ten or fifteen years more, however they did not kill many, though that in September 1614 one of their teachers were beheaded at Inrich, and not long after one Haslebacker at Bern. That for a long time after this ser- geants were sent in quest of them, to take thein to prison, where, obliged to suffer want and hunger, many of them were starved to death. That in 1670 sixteen of them were chained together, and sent to the galleys, and at the same time others were whipped and banished the country, branded with the mark of a bear (the arms of the canton) one of whom was grandfather to the person who gave the account that about the year 1710 a whole bargefull of these prisoners were carried down the Rhine to be transported beyond sea.
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But coming to Holland the government of that republic declared they would have no such prisoners in their country, and set them at liberty.
That many of them gatherd themselves in divers German provinces as the palatinate, and thereabouts, where on con- dition of paying a great tribute, they obtained an exemption from taking oaths, from bearing arms and having their children baptized, and gained the liberty of upholding public worship in their own way, but that for all this they met with many troubles in regard to the exercise of their con- sciences, being in time of war, obliged to lodge in their houses wicked crews of soldiers, this, and other grievances they groaned under, often wishing to be in some country where they could be entirely rid of these things. In time a way was opened for their removal to Pennsylvania, William Penn both in person and by letters published in Germany first gave them the knowledge that there was liberty of conscience in Pennsylvania, and that every one might live there without molestation; some of them about the year 1698, others in 1706, others in 1709, and others again in 1711 partly for conscience sake, and partly for tem- poral gain resolved to go thither, and upon their arrival found their expectations fully answered, enjoying liberty of con- science according to their desire together with the benefits of a plentiful country; of this, they sent word to their friends in Germany, a great many of whom in the year 1717 came over hither.
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