USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 8
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In all the transactions of his eventful life, the character of William Penn shines out in clearness and purity. The lapse of one hundred and fifty years has not dimmed its lustre, and even his modern traducer admits that " his name
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has thus become, throughout all civilized countries, a syno- nym for probity and philanthropy." One of the most re- markable traits in the character of Penn was his magnanimity. With a singular disregard for selfish or personal considera- tions, he devoted his life to the good of mankind. To plead the cause of suffering humanity; to advocate the doctrines of civil and religious liberty ; to found a free colony for all mankind; to establish there the most liberal constitution and laws; to obtain by justice and kindness an unexampled in- fluence over the Indian tribes; to recommend measures for improving the moral and social condition of the African race; to point out the means of avoiding the calamities of war, and to exemplify the benign principles of peace : these and similar objects engaged all the powers of his active and vigorous mind. To have aimed at such noble objects, entitles his character to our esteem ; to have succeeded so remarkably, demands our gratitude.
" There is," says Bancroft, " nothing in the history of the human race like the confidence which the simple virtues and institutions of William Penn inspired." . . " Penn never gave counsel at variance with popular rights." " Eng- land, to-day, confesses his sagacity, and is doing honor to his genius. He came too soon for success, and he was aware of it. After more than a century, the laws which he reproved began gradually to be repealed ; and the principle which he developed, sure of immortality, is slowly but firmly asserting its power over the legislation of Great Britain." ... "Every charge of hypocrisy, of selfishness, of vanity, of dissimula- · tion, of credulous confidence; every form of reproach, from virulent abuse to cold apology; every ill name from Tory and Jesuit to blasphemer and infidel, has been used against Penn; but the candor of his character always triumphed over calumny.
" His name was safely cherished as a household word in the cottages of Wales and Ireland, and among the peasantry of Germany ; and not a tenant of a wigwam, from the sea to the Susquehanna, doubted his integrity.
" IIis fame is now wide as the world; he is one of the few who have gained abiding glory."
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CHAPTER II.
PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT, 1684-1693.
THOMAS LLOYD, President of Council, August, 1684, to De- 1 cember, 1686. - Unable to come to an agreement with Lord Baltimore, respecting the possession of the territory south of the Delaware, and desirous of holding the Bay, and thus securing favorable communication with the ocean, Penn determined to try his cause before the home government, where Lord Baltimore had already submitted it, and was laboring to have the case prejudged. Though attached to his colony, and conscious that his presence in it was con- stantly needed, he nevertheless decided to return to England. There were other considerations besides this which attracted him thither. It was a period in which dissenters, and espe- cially the sect to which Penn belonged, felt the heavy hand of persecution. He had influence at court, and he longed to plead the cause of his suffering brethren in the royal presence.
HIe accordingly placed the executive government in the hands of a Council of Five, over whom he appointed Thomas Lloyd, President, to whom he entrusted the keeping of the Great Seal, and on the 12th of August, 1684, sailed for England.
Lloyd had been educated at Oxford, and had held places of trust at home. Attaching himself to the Quakers, he had become skilled in argumentation, and in the defence of their , doctrines. Having formed the purpose of settling in the New World, he had embarked with Penn, to whose favor he had commended himself during the voyage, by the steadfast- ness of his faith, and by his fortitude under the severest trials. Markham, the first proprietary Lieutenant - Governor, was made secretary of the Province and the Territories; Thomas
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Holmes, Surveyor General; and Thomas Lloyd, James Clay- poole, and Robert Turner, commissioners of the land office.
At the departure of Penn, the country had twenty-two or- ganized townships, containing seven thousand inhabitants, of whom two thousand five hundred were in Philadelphia,- an extraordinary growth for the short period since the grant had been made. After going on shipboard, and before set- ting sail, Penn addressed a letter to his Council, full of excel- lent advice, and breathing the spirit of the most fervent piety. " My love and my life," he says, "is to you and with you, and no water can quench it, nor distance wear it out, or bring it to an end." . ... "Oh, that you would eye Him, in all, through all, and above all the works of your hands, and let it be your first care, how you may glorify God in your un- dertakings; for to a blessed end are you brought hither." .... " And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this prov- ince, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been, to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee."
The sway of Penn while in the Province was universally respected. He had made the art of government a study. Not so the men whom he left in power. They had been ac- customed to be governed, and knew little of the vexations and responsibilities of ruling.
On his departure, the great freedom of private opinion, in the affairs of government, which he had labored to incul- cate, began to show itself offensively, and to give trouble in the administration. Nicholas Moore, who was at the head of the Council of Five, in whose hands Penn had left judicial authority, and who was, in effect, Chief-Justice of the Colony, was impeached by the House on the 15th of March, 1685. Ten articles were preferred before the Council. Owing to some informality in the proceedings, he escaped conviction, but not punishment ; for he was expelled from the Assembly, and forbidden to hold any office of trust. In the eyes of the Proprietor, Moore was regarded as guiltless of any heinous of- fence. Other difficulties in the government occurred. Patrick
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Robinson, clerk of the court, was voted a public enemy ; and John Curtis, a justice of the peace, was charged with the use of treasonable language.
FIVE COMMISSIONERS, 1686-88. - To settle these dis- orders, the people sought the return of Penn. But other and weightier matters now claimed his attention. Dissatis- fied with the action of the Council, or rather its negligence, and to cure certain evils which he had seen arise, Penn deter- mined to relieve it and its president of the executive power, and to lodge it in the hands of five commissioners, any three of whom were to constitute a quorum, whose action in enact- ing, disannulling, or varying of laws, should have the same force as though the Proprietor was himself present, and gov- erning. Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas Moore, James Claypoole, Robert Turner, and John Eckley, were the first appointed to this commission ; but Moore and Claypoole never acted, and their places were filled by Arthur Cook and John Simcock. In their instructions, they were charged to correct the ineffi- cient conduct of the Council, to preserve the dignity of their station, to abrogate all laws except the fundamentals, and call a new Assembly; and finally, they were solemnly ad- monished " to be most just in the sight of the all-sceing, all- searching God."
Soon after the consummation of this change, Lloyd, who was weary of the cares and fruitless contentions of a power in which he found himself but a co-ordinate agent, applied to Penn to be relieved. It was not easy to find a man to fill the anomalous position which had been created. The Presi- dent of the Council was, in a great measure, held responsible for the success and efficiency of the government, while he had no more authority than each of the four with whom he was associated. Though with reluctance, Penn finally deter- mined to gratify the desire of Lloyd, bearing witness in the communication which granted his release to an unfeigned re- gard and esteem for him. In this letter, which was dated October 27th, 1687, Penn says : "I am sorry that Thomas Lloyd, my friend, covets a quietus, that is young, active, and
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ingenious; for from such it is that I expect help, and such will not sow in vain; but since 'tis his desire, I do hereby signify his dismiss from the trouble he has borne, (for some time of rest and ease, at least,) and do nominate in my name, under the Great Seal, till further orders, Samuel Carpenter, who, I hope, will accept, and industriously serve that station, else Thomas Ellis." The new member was not to take Lloyd's place as president, but to be one of the Council, all possessing equal power, and, by the advice of Penn, each to act as chairman a month in succession, or, if preferred, the senior member to preside steadily.
It is evident from the tenor of Penn's correspondence that he longed to be with his colony, and that he realized the need which existed of his strong hand in the government. In a letter addressed to Lloyd about this time, he says: "No honor, interest or pleasure, in this part of the world, shall be able to check my desire to live and die among you; and though, to my grief, my stay is yet prolonged, on private and public accounts, yet, depend upon it, Pennsylvania is my worldly delight, and end of all places on the earth."
CAPTAIN JOHN BLACKWELL, Deputy Governor, De- cember, 1688, to January, 1690. - Though permission had been given to Lloyd to retire from the Council, and another mem- ber had been designated, yet for some reason Lloyd remained until near the close of the year 1688. In the meantime he had recommended to the Proprietor the appointment of one person to the supreme executive power, having had a sad experience with a many-headed executive. Penn was disposed to heed this advice, but he was much perplexed to find a suitable representative. He had tried his friends, chief men of the colony, and they had failed. IIe accordingly determined to send a stranger, not a Quaker, a man of experience, learn- ing, and ability. To this end he selected and commissioned Captain John Blackwell, who had been a soldier with Crom- well, and was, at the time of his selection, in one of the New England colonies. "Since no Friend," says Penn,
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" would undertake the Governor's place, I took one that was not, and a stranger, that he might be impartial, and more reverenced. IIe is, in England and Ireland, of great repute for ability, integrity, and virtue."
The hopes which the Proprietor had cherished from the appointment of Blackwell were not realized; for he had no sooner arrived in the colony and assumed authority, than dissensions began to show themselves. Lloyd refused to de- liver up the Great Scal, claiming that it had been delivered to him by the Proprietor for life.
Of his own motion, Blackwell arrested and imprisoned offi- cers high in the service of the State, attempted to establish and organize the militia, under plea of threatened hostilities by France, and questioned the validity of all laws passed previous to the commencement of his administration. The Assembly endeavored to check his arbitrary rule; but he defeated its ends by forming a party in the Assembly, who absented them- selves from its sessions, leaving less than a quorum.
THOMAS LLOYD, President of Council, January, 1690, to March, 1691. - After a little more than a year of this turbu- lent rule, (from December, 1688, to January, 1690,) Blackwell was relieved, and the executive authority was again committed to the Council, with Thomas Lloyd president. With a most sincere and earnest desire to heal all wounds and compose all differences, Penn proposed three forms of executive power, and left to the decision of the Council which should be adopted, - either the entire Council, five commissioners, or a Deputy Governor, each of which forms had already been tried. The majority favored a Deputy-Governor; but the councilmen from the three Territories, who had viewed the transfer of power from New Castle to Philadelphia with con- cern, opposed this, favoring the five commissioners, and when they found themselves outnumbered, withdrew from the Council, with the determination of ruling the Territories in- dependent of the Province, until the will of the Proprietor should be known. A deputation from the Council was sent
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to New Castle to induce the seceding members to return, but without success.
In a letter addressed to Lloyd, the Proprietor had advised the establishment of a public school. In his comments upon the art of government, which he had promulgated before starting for America, and when he was about to draw up his original form of constitution, he had declared, " That, therefore, which makes a good government must keep it, viz., .men of wisdom and virtue; qualities that, because they de- scend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propa- gated by a virtuous education of youth; for which after ages will owe more to the care and prudence of founders and the successive magistracy, than to their parents, for their private patrimonies." In compliance with this advice, George Keith, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, a man of learning and note among the Quakers, who had for several years resided in East New Jersey, where he had served as Surveyor-General, was engaged to open a school in Philadelphia, -the first free school in the Province. ITis salary was to be fifty pounds per annum, with a house provided for his school and for his family.
THOMAS LLOYD, Deputy Governor of Province ; WILLIAM MARKHAM, Deputy Governor of Territories; March, 1691, to April, 1693. - Upon the receipt of intelligence of the with- drawal from the Council of the members representing the Territories, and a due notification of the choice, by the re- maining members, of Thomas Lloyd as President, Penn, at all times desirous of gratifying the wishes of his people, and deeply solicitous of making his Province a real republic, com- missioned Lloyd Deputy Governor of the Province, and William Markham, the former Secretary, who had withdrawn from the Council with the seceding members, Deputy Gov- ernor of the Territories.
Though acceding to the wishes of the minority of the Council in granting a separation of the Territories from the Province, Penn, nevertheless, felt himself much aggrieved by the want
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of harmony and union among his friends. After recount- ing, in a letter to a friend, the several changes which he had made in the administration of government, upon the advice and at the suggestion of his people, he exclaims : " What could be tenderer? Now I perceive Thomas Lloyd is chosen by the three Upper, but not the three Lower, Counties, and sits down with his broken choice. This has grieved and wounded me and mine, I fear to the hazard of all. What- ever the morals of the Lower Counties are, it was embraced as a mercy that we got and united them to the Province; and a great charter ties them, and this particular ambition has broken it. Had they learned what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, there had been no breaches nor animosities there till I had come, at least."
The immediate evils which the Proprietor had anticipated from the separation did not arise, for the government was administered with more harmony and efficiency than it had been before since his departure. But, though unexpectedly relieved of difficulty in one direction, there came in another what proved of more injury to the colony than any evil which had hitherto existed. It was a schism in the Church. This, to a religion whose cardinal tenet is peace and good will, was especially vexatious. It was incited by George Keith, who, after having taught in the public school for a year, had entered the ministry. Of quick and acute perceptions, and well instructed in the doctrines of his Church, but with little skill or moderation in the management of affairs, he was dis- posed to push his logistics to absurd conclusions. He was, moreover, of an irascible and intemperate disposition, heap- ing abuse upon his opponents in public assemblies and by inflammatory pamphlets. IIe held that there was too great a slackness in the discipline of the Church; that members thereof could not consistently serve as magistrates in crimi- nal jurisprudence. Upon small provocations, if any, he called his brethren in the ministry, "fools, ignorant heathens, lyers, heretics, rotten ranters, muggletonians." Of Lloyd he de- clared that "he was not fit to be a governor, and that h's
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name would stink." A considerable party in the Church followed him, and Keith proclaimed himself at the head of the true Society of Quakers, stigmatizing all others as apostates.
After submitting to the intemperate conduct of Keith until forbearance seemed no longer to be a virtue, a declara- tion or testimony of denial was drawn up against him at a meeting of the ministers of Philadelphia, which was con- firmed at the next general Yearly Meeting. From the force of this decree, which was in effect an act of expulsion, he appealed to the Society in London, where he appeared in per- son in his own defence; but so wrathful and intemperate did he show himself, that the action of the Philadelphia meeting was confirmed. He subsequently became a bitter enemy of the Quakers, and withdrawing entirely from them, joined the Church of England, and was ordained a clergyman by the Bishop of London. After officiating in England, in America, and again in England, he finally died an unhappy man, declaring on his death-bed, "I wish I had died when I was a Quaker! for then I am sure it would have been well with my soul."
The inquiry naturally arises, while contemplating the troubles which were experienced in the administration of the Government, and in the affairs of the Church, why the Proprietor, whose personal influence in his Colony and in his Church was puissant, withheld his presence. The necessity which kept him in England seems to have been a matter of deep regret to him; but a combination of cir- cumstances beyond his control - apparently interpositions of Providence - barred his return. In a letter to Lloyd of the 14th of April, 1691, he says: "It has been [my absence] 20,000 pounds to my damage in the country, and above 10,000 pounds here, and to the Province 500 families ; but the wise God that can do what He pleases, as well as see what is in man's heart, is able to requite all; and I am per- suaded that all shall work together for good in this very thing, if we can overlook all that stands in the way of our
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views Godward in public matters. See that all be done pru- dently and humbly, and keep down irreverence and loose- ness, and cherish industry and sobriety."
The principal causes of his detention may be briefly recited. On the 6th of December, 1684, soon after his return to England, Charles II., from whom Penn had re- ceived his original charter, died suddenly of apoplexy. Charles was succeeded by his brother James, Duke of York. James proved to be a bigoted Catholic, though, on ascend- ing the throne, he had made most fair promises of protection to all classes of worshiping Christians. James had been a friend to Penn, and it was through his influence that Penn- sylvania had been granted to him. When James came to power, Penn had his ear, and daily visited White Hall. The King's intolerance finally grew to such a pitch, and so many were brought to the scaffold for opinion's sake, that the respect and confidence of the great mass of the English people was lost, and when on the fifth of November, William, the Prince of Orange, who had married a daughter of James, landed upon the English coast, he was received with open arms, and William and Mary were declared King and Queen, James retiring to France. The mere fact of the intimacy of Penn with James brought him under the displeasure of the new reigning party, and he was held to bail to answer charges of complicity with the deposed monarch in his high- handed practices. These vexatious suits, prolonged from term to term of court, though void of proof, would not admit of his honorable departure. At the Michaelmas term of 1690 he was cleared by the King's Bench Court, sitting at Westminster, of the charge of adhering to the kingdom's enemies. Immediately thereafter, he published proposals for a new colony which he designed to lead in person. So numerous was the promise of this colony that a convoy had been granted for it by the Secretary of State ; but, before it was ready to depart, fresh charges were brought against Penn, and he was obliged to abandon his project and again prepare for trial and its many delays.
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CHAPTER III.
UNDER THE CROWN OF ENGLAND, 1693-95.
B ENJAMIN FLETCHER. - WILLIAM MARKHAM, Deputy Governor, April, 1693, to March, 1695 .- Though enjoying the respect of King William, Penn was, nevertheless, re- garded with disfavor by the party in power, and every oppor- tunity was seized by his enemies to defeat his designs. Pre- vented thus' by false accusations from joining his colony, while troubles were fomented among his people during his absence, he was finally brought to the humiliation of seeing his authority in his Province wrested from him and given to another. On the 21st of October, 1692, a commission was issued by William and Mary, to Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York, directing him to assume the government of the Province and Territories of Pennsylvania. Fletcher did not receive the commission until some months later, and on the 19th of April, 1693, wrote to Governor Lloyd, that he should commence his journey to Philadelphia on the follow- ing Monday, and desiring that notice of his coming should be given to the principal freeholders, when their Majesties' commands would be communicated to them.
Fletcher came dressed in all the pomp and splendor of royalty, attended by a numerous retinue, gorgeously bedecked with feathers and gold lace, to whom the government was surrendered without opposition or remonstrance. The sub- serviency of Lloyd and Markham, on the occasion, was sharply censured by Penn, who also wrote to Fletcher, " cau- tioning him to beware of meddling," and reminding him of his " particular obligation to him." Fletcher immediately summoned the Assembly, but in doing so, raised the opposi-
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tion of the Council, which began to badger him with remon- strances, alleging that, by the charter of Charles II., Penn was empowered to make laws for the government of the Province, and that under that charter, provision had been made for the meeting of the Assembly on the 10th of Janu- ary, and protesting against calling it for legislative purposes at any other time. The Assembly, however, met, and the members being duly qualified, Fletcher demanded money to meet expenses which had been incurred in defending Albany against the French and Indians, the French being at this time at war with the English; and Count Frontignac, the governor of Canada, having incited the Indians to join him in hostilities, Fletcher fortified his demand by a letter from Queen Mary, in which she expressed her will and pleasure that all the Colonies, upon the application of the governor of New York, should contribute men and money for the de- fence of the threatened frontier. The Assembly was careful of its privileges, stubbornly resisting any infringement there- of; but finally passed a rate bill of a penny a pound for the support of government, and a poll-tax of six shillings, which yielded over seven thousand pounds. A number of bills were passed, and laws already in force confirmed, when, the business having been completed, Fletcher appointed William Markham as his Deputy Governor, dissolved the Assembly at their request, and departed to his own Colony. Fletcher occa- sionally visited the Colony, and again met the Assembly in the following year, when he addressed them with many honeyed words in his message, saying, "that he considered their principles, that they could not carry arms, nor levy money to make war, though for their own defence, yet he hoped they would not refuse to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked; that was, to supply the Indian nations with such necessaries, as may influence their continued friendship to these Provinces."
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