USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 15
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Umfråndige Geogra phifche ISTOR Beforeibuna Der ju allerlest erfundenen Broving PENSYLVA- NIÆ, In Denen End : Grången AMERICÆE In ber Beft , QBelt gelegen/ Durch FRANCISCUM DANIELEM PASTORIUM, J. V. Lic. und Friedens Richtern Dafelbften. Borbey angebendet find eini ge notable Begebenheiten / und Bericht: Schreiben an defen Deren Battern MELCHIOREM ADAMUM PASTO- RIUM, Und andere gute freunde.
Scandfurt und Leipzigi Bufinden ben Andreas Otto. 1700
Title page of German book to induce Immigration to Pennsylvania From original in Collection of Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Founder of Pennsylvania
The experience gained by his connection with the New Jersey colony, the intense desire of many of the Friends in England for a home where they might live in peace, the report of George Fox that the land was good, and that sent by Josiah Cole and others that the Indians were friendly if well used put into the mind of William Penn the larger plan which he was presently able to exe- cute. Meanwhile, in 1677, he made an extended religious visit to Holland and the Rhine country, which must be mentioned here, for it bore important fruit later. In July of that year, ac- companied by George Fox, Robert Barclay, George Keith, and others, he crossed to Holland, and from Amsterdam went to visit the Princess Elizabeth-niece of Charles I., cousin of Charles II. and James II .- at Herford, in Westphalia; thence proceeded to Frankfort-on-the-Main, and its neighborhood, and then passed down the Rhine to Holland again, visiting on the way German towns and cities east of the great river. From the acquaintances and friendships formed on this journey came in no small measure the flood of German migration which colonized an important part of Pennsylvania between 1683 and 1750, and fixed upon it an in- delible Teutonic stamp.
The application of William Penn to Charles II. for a grant of land in America was presented early in the year 1680, probably in the month of May. Penn based his petition upon losses his father had sustained in Ireland, in the service of the King, amounting to eleven thousand pounds, with interest, and asked for a tract north of Maryland, bounded east by the Delaware, westward "as Maryland," and northward "as far as plantable." The business thus begun was under consideration for nearly a year. It was transferred to the "Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations," who had been constituted by the King a com- mittee on such matters, and in their hands it remained until the charter was actually drawn and ready for the royal signature.
The several steps may be briefly outlined. The Earl of Sun- derland, Secretary of State, June 1, 1680, referred the petition
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. to the Commissioners. June 14, they gave Penn a hearing, learned that he would be satisfied with three degrees northward from Maryland, and ordered copies of his petition sent to Sir John Werden, secretary to the Duke of York, and to the agents of Lord Baltimore. June 25, letters from Sir John Werden and Lord Baltimore's agents were read; the former cautiously dis-
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Great Seal of the Province of Pennsylvania, 1712-obverse
cussed the matter, suggesting that the grant as asked for would apparently cover "that colony or plantation . . . held as an ap- pendix ... of the Government of New York by the name of Delaware Colony," and governed by the Duke's deputies; Lord Baltimore's agents expressed no particular opposition, provided the southern limit of the grant were drawn through "the Susque- hanna Fort;" "that fort," they said, "is the boundary of Mary- land northward."
Penn was called before the Commissioners on the 23d of June, and told he must arrange matters with the Duke of York for an adjustment of "their respective pretensions." He in-
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formed them he would be satisfied to take the "Susquehanna Fort" as his southern limit. October 16, a letter from Sir John Werden was received, saying Penn had obtained the approval of the Duke, and the latter commanded him to say that he was "very willing Mr. Penn's request" should "meet with success"-that he should be granted "that tract of land which lies on the north of
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Newcastle colony, and on the west side of Delaware river, begin- ning about the latitude of 40 degrees, and extending northward and westward as far as his Majesty pleaseth."
The way was thus fairly cleared, but many steps remained to be taken. November 4, Penn presented to the Commissioners the draft which he proposed for his patent, and it was referred to the Attorney-General, Sir William Jones; it was also ordered that Lord Baltimore's agents "have a sight" of it. November II, the Attorney-General presented his "Observations" upon the draft. He had not found, he said, that it would "appear to entrench upon the boundaries of Lord Baltimore's province, nor those of
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New York, so that the tract of land desired by Mr. Penn seems to be undisposed of by his Majesty: except the imaginary lines of New England patents, which are bounded westwardly by the main ocean, should give them a real, though impracticable right to all those vast territories." In December, North, the Lord Chief Justice, submitted a "settlement of the boundaries" to the revision of Sir John Werden, in the interest of the Duke of York.
January 15 (1680-81), the Commissioners read and ap- proved the boundaries as they had now been drawn, and appoint- ed "Wednesday next, at Nine in the Morning, to review the whole Patent." On the 22d of the same month the minutes of the Commissioners state: "Upon reading the Draught of a patent for Mr. Pen, constituting him absolute proprietary of a Tract of Land in America Northerly of Maryland. The Lords of the Committee desire My Lord Chief Justice North to take the said patent into his consideration and to provide, by fit clauses therein that all Acts of Sovereignty as to peace and Warr be reserved unto the King, and that all Acts of Parliament concerning Trade and Navigation and his Matie's Customs bee duly ob- served. And in general that the patent bee soe drawn that it may consist with the King's interest and service and give suffi- cient encouragement to planters to settle under it. A paper be- ing alsoe read wherein my Lord Bishop of London desires that Mr. Pen bee obliged by his patent to admit a Chaplain of his Lord's appointment upon the request of any number of planters, the same is also referred to My Lord Chief Justice North."
February 24, the Commissioners once more read the draft of the Patent, "and there being a blank left for the name," agreed "to leave the nomination of it to the King." "The Lord Bishop of London," the minutes add, "is desired to prepare the draught of a Law to be passed in this Country [the new Colony] for the settling of the Protestant religion."
The patent of William Penn for the region which is now Pennsylvania was thus originated, developed, and perfected. It
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bears on its face the statement that it was passed, "by Writt of Privy Seale." It was approved by the King on the 4th of March, 1680-81, and the "great seal" was affixed, apparently, the next day. A letter of William Penn to his friend Robert Tur- ner, a merchant of Dublin, afterward extensively engaged in the settlement of Pennsylvania, materially enlarges our knowledge of the transaction :
"5th of Ist mo., 1681.
Thine I have, and for my business here, know that after many waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in council, this day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsylvania; a name the King would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly coun- try, but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Penmanmoire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head woodlands; for I proposed, when the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it; and although I much opposed it, and went to the King to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him ; nor would twenty guineas move the under Secretary to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the King, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise. Thou mayest communicate my grant to Friends, and expect shortly my proposals. It is a clear and just thing, and my God that has given it me through many difficulties will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the government, that it be well laid at first."
The charter of Pennsylvania is one of several "proprietary" grants in America by English kings. It gave to William Penn large powers, yet somewhat less complete than those given to Lord Baltimore, by Charles I., in 1632. In the latter grant,
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laws passed by the Assembly and confirmed by the Proprietary were valid, but in Pennsylvania they required to be submitted to the crown. In the Maryland charter it was provided that the crown, and by inference Parliament, should impose no taxes within the province, but in that of Pennsylvania the right of Par- liamentary taxation was expressly reserved. These were limita- tions, very probably, which Lord Chief Justice North had insert- ed in pursuance of the minute of the Commissioners to draw the patent so as to guard the royal interests.
The object of William Penn in securing this great grant, perhaps the most valuable which any monarch ever assumed to confer, need cause no extended speculation. Two principal mo- tives impelled him-the desire to found a free commonwealth on liberal and humane principles, and the desire, also, to provide a safe home for the persecuted Friends. We shall be safe if we say that these motives had equal weight in his mind; he was strongly devoted to his religious faith, and warmly attached to those who professed it, but not less was he an idealist in politics, and a generous and hopeful believer in the average goodness of his fellow men. His own statements, many times made, clearly present his views and explain his motives. One of his first acts, on receiving the patent, was to prepare a letter to the settlers who were already in Pennsylvania. It is dated April 8, 1681, and has the special merit of brevity, running 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 provi- dence, to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God has given me an under- standing 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 that comes to make his fortune great; 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 right of any, or op-
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The Founder of Pennsylvania
press his person. God has furnished me with a better resolu- tion, and has given me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and im- provement of their own happiness I shall heartily comply with, and in five months resolve, if it please God, to see you. In the meantime, pray submit to the commands of my deputy, so far as they are consistent with the law, and pay him those dues (that formerly you paid to the order of the governor of New York), for my use and benefit, and so I beseech God to direct you in the way of righteousness, and therein prosper you and your children after you. "
"For the matters of liberty and privilege," he wrote, April 12, to Robert Turner and others, "I propose that which is extraor- dinary, and to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of an whole country."
A few weeks later he wrote to James Harrison, and used an expression which has remained conspicuous in the history of his colony. Speaking of the grant by the king, he said : "I eyed the Lord in obtaining it, and more was I drawn inward to look to him, and to owe it to his hand and power than to any other way. I have so obtained it, and desire to keep it that I may not be unworthy of his love, but do that which may answer his kind providence, and serve his truth and people, that an example may be set to the nations. There may be room there, but not here, for such an holy experiment."
The political conditions in England at the time Penn obtained the Charter can hardly be passed over in this connection, though they usually have been ignored in the history of Pennsylvania. It was the period precisely of the struggle of Charles I. with the popular party in Parliament, the "Whigs" as they began to be called, headed by Lord Shaftesbury. This struggle, in which the "Exclusion Act," designed to cut the Duke of York out of the succession to the throne, was for the time the pith and substance,
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had begun most earnestly in 1679, a few months before Penn pre- sented his petition, and ended in March, 1680-81, less than a month after the charter was granted.
The Catholic religion of the Duke caused the contest. More candid than Charles, who dissembled till his death-bed, James avowed his adhesion to Rome in 1670, and in 1673 took for his second wife a Catholic princess, Mary of Modena. In the same year (1673), the passage of the "Test Act" by Parliament, re- quiring all holding office to subscribe an oath repugnant to the Roman church, compelled him to resign his place as Lord High Admiral, and in 1679 the heat of the controversy had become so great that he was obliged to quit England. He went first to the Continent and then to Scotland, where he remained, practically in exile, though holding the place of "High Commissioner," until the spring of 1682. He feared impeachment, and Charles did not dare to give him a pardon in advance which would safeguard his remaining in England.
It was thus that Penn plucked the charter of Pennsylvania. When the King went down to Oxford to meet the Parliament, shortly after signing the charter, the old university town, so long identified with the Stuart cause. was occupied with armed men, partisans of both sides, and it seemed as if the fires of another civil war might be kindling. But Charles dissolved the Parliament, after but seven days of life, and Shaftesbury's followers dared not take up the challenge. The King won for the time, and it was left for William of Orange, six years later, to resume the Whig program.
That a commoner like Penn should have received so great a grant amid such heats and complications is a curious passage in history. He was no lover of "prerogative," but an advocate and organizer of popular government; he was no supporter of the Court party, but a friend and associate of men like Algernon Sid- ney ; he was not a Catholic, but a Protestant of a strict sect ; he was no loose moralist, to figure in the memoirs of De Grammont, but a man of clean life both by principle and habit.
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We shall find the reason of his success-not easily won, as his letter to Robert Turner discloses-in a few simple explanations. It was the settled policy of England to strengthen her colonies in America, and for this work Penn had shown large ability in the planting of New Jersey. He was "a born leader of men," and could call out of England, Wales, and Germany, as a few years
OFFICE
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proved, tens of thousands of colonists who when they had settled stayed. For the Friends in their persecutions Charles had at least compassion, as his action toward them more than once dis- played. The old claims of Admiral Penn, the so-called debt, gave some support, if but slight-for certainly Charles was not one to worry over old debts-to the application. Moreover, the status of the settlements west of the Delaware, north of Lord Bal- timore's colony, had been clouded by doubt from the day of Sir Robert Carr's capture of New Amstel, and even earlier, and a royal grant was desirable to clear up the situation.
That the Duke of York was the friend of the Penns, father and son, may be here explicitly owned. As James the Second,
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last of the Stuart line on the English throne, he has passed into history with many severe judgments upon his head. Deserved as all these may be, or some may not, the fact remains that his at- tachment to the Admiral and to William Penn implied no dis- honor either to him or them. The Admiral had been the Duke's supporter and companion for years in the naval wars of England, and on his death-bed he had asked him to remember kindly his son, whose Quaker convictions were only too likely to bring him into trouble. That the Duke continued friendly to the son, as he had been to the father, can certainly be no cause for reproach.
No time was lost by the new Proprietary. His plans, no doubt, had been thought over and matured in the period of "wait- ings, watchings, and solicitings." April 2 ( 1681), he obtained from the King an order to those who were settled within Penn- sylvania "to yield all due obedience" to their new Governor. He had already selected his cousin William Markham to be his deputy-governor, and he drew up for him (April 8) a series of instructions relating to the sale of land, etc., and ( April 10) gave him his commission, authorizing him to appoint a Council of nine persons, proclaim the King's order, give the letter to the settlers, adjust boundaries with adjoining colonies, establish courts, ap- point officers, and in general set the machinery of government in motion. Markham must have left England soon after, for he had landed in America, probably at Boston, and had reached New York, before the 21st of June.
Penn's anticipation that he would himself reach Pennsylvania in five months after the date of his letter to the settlers (April 8), could not be realized. He was detained in England almost a year and a half. The time was occupied with active work for the new province. His pen was busy. He was planning and or- ganizing. He drew up an important pamphlet, "Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania," which was first published in Eng- lish, and which Benjamin Furly, a rich merchant of Rotterdam, who had been one of the company with Penn on the Rhenish
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journey of 1677, spread wide in translations into Dutch, German, and French.1 It is, in purpose, an advertisement, but in style and content almost a contribution to English literature, present- ing many interesting descriptive details, with economic, social, and political observations and suggestions, all in Penn's charac- teristic manner. He analyzes the condition of the people of England, and explains why they may better themselves in a new country. He describes Pennsylvania, which "lies six hundred miles nearer the sun than England," and whose summer is longer and warmer, but which has, notwithstanding, a colder winter. He classifies the kinds of people, whom "Providence seems to have most fitted for plantations"-"industrious husbandmen and day- laborers," who with the greatest industry are barely able to get on; sundry mechanics, "especially carpenters, masons, smiths, weavers, tailors, tanners, shoemakers, shipwrights, etc.," "in- genious spirits, that being low in the world, are much clogged and oppressed about a livelihood;" "younger brothers of small inheritances ;" and lastly, "men of universal spirits, that have an eye to the good of posterity, and that both understand and delight to promote good discipline and just government among a plain and well-intending people." He states his terms for the sale of land. He will sell in "shares" of five thousand acres, free of In- dian claims, for a hundred pounds purchase money, and an an- nual quit-rent of one shilling for each one hundred acres. Renters may have land at a shilling an acre, and for each "servant" taken over, the masters shall be allowed fifty acres, with an equal quan- tity to the servant when his time is out.
1Benjamin Furly was a notable figure in connection with the early Dutch and Ger- man movement to Pennsylvania. He was born in England in 1636, went to Amster- dam, and settled later in Rotterdam, where he married, and became one of the leading merchants. He wrote learnedly, had a col- lection of "at least 4,000" books, was a linguist, and a student. His house was the gathering place for men of advanced opin-
ions and plans, including John Locke, Al- gernon Sidney, and the first Lord Shaftes- bury. He affiliated with the Friends, and aided and entertained them, but probably did not always regard himself as one of the Society. He died in March, 1714, and was buried in the Groote Kerk at Rotterdam. (See article on B. F., by J. F. Sachse, "Penna. Mag.," Vol. XIX.)
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Two papers of importance for the time in connection with the establishment of the Colony, were prepared later. These were : (1) "Certain Conditions and Concessions agreed upon by Wil- liam Penn . . . and those who are the adventurers and pur- chasers in the said Province;" and (2) "The Frame of the Gov-
Home of John Harris, the Indian Trader
Built prior to 1718. Redrawn especially for this work from a photographic reproduction of an oil painting. By courtesy Historical Society of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
ernment of the Province of Pennsylvania in America." The first of these papers is dated July 11, 1681, and covers some of the same ground as to sales of land, etc., which had been dealt with in the "Some Account." It may be regarded as a form of con- tract between Penn and those who were supporting him in his enterprise. It is signed first by Penn himself, and then by thir- teen others, few of whom became prominent in the settlement of Pennsylvania.
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The "Frame of Government" was a more important docu- ment. It was not prepared until some time later, and bears date April 25, 1682. It has a preface, signed by Penn, present- ing general propositions as to government, followed by twenty- four specific provisions, the spirit of which had already been sug- gested in the "Concessions and Agreements" of West New Jer- sey, drawn up six years earlier, and already referred to. There are passages, however, in this first constitution of Pennsylvania, which are of permanent interest, as showing clearly the founda- tion on which Penn desired the commonwealth should be built, and from which, in fact, inspiration and suggestion have been drawn since his day. These sentences, from the Preface, may be cited :
"Governments rather depend upon men than men upon gov- ernments; let men be good and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill they will cure it . . . though good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want1 good men, and be abol- ished or evaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws nor suffer ill ones. That, therefore, which makes a good constitution must keep it, viz., men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth. For liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery."
A little later than the "Frame," there was prepared an outline of statutory enactments, "Laws Agreed Upon in England by the Governor and Divers Freemen of the aforesaid Province." There are forty numbered paragraphs under this heading, and the sub- stance of them was enacted by the first and second Assemblies of the Province, which met after Penn's arrival. These "Laws Agreed upon in England" are dated May 3, 1682.
All these papers are, of course, the expression of Penn's own principles and plans. Whoever else may have had a hand in
1"Want" is used in the old sense-lack.
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their preparation, by counsel or criticism, the substance of them is characteristically his. Probably no man ever enjoyed more the preparation of such constitutions than did he, and confidently it may be added that no period of his experience with Pennsyl- vania was happier than this in which he was planning for the fu- ture welfare of its people. His expectations were not utopian ; his mind was very practical, and he had had enough experience · with men to distinguish between the feasible and the visionary in public affairs ; so that Pennsylvania in the long run realized in fair degree the hopes he entertained for her, and in every experi- ence of her more than two centuries has never had a better guide or chart than those found in the writings of her Founder. "This is the praise of William Penn," says Bancroft, "that in an age which had seen a popular revolution shipwreck popular liberty among selfish factions, which had seen Hugh Peter and Henry Vane perish by the hangman's cord and the axe; in an age when Sidney nourished the pride of patriotism rather than the senti- ment of philanthropy, when Russell stood for the liberties of his order and not for new enfranchisements, when Harrington and Shaftesbury and Locke thought government should rest upon property-he did not despair of humanity, and though all history and experience denied the sovereignty of the people, dared to cherish the noble idea of man's capacity for self-government, and right to it."
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