The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. XII, Part 34

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 438

USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. XII > Part 34

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114

WILLIAM PENN.

[AUGUST

Nor do the divisions, which subsequently took place between Penn and the colonists, furnish any argument against the merits of the former. For it is to be observ- ed, that the emigrants had formed cabals and parties among themselves, before they complained of the pro- prietary. And Penn still had the magnanimity to call them " one of the best people." The changes which took place in the form of government, were in the main, improvements. They chiefly resolve themselves into two; a concession to the popular branch of the right of introducing bills, a right which at first had belonged to the council; and on the other hand, a reservation of a veto to the governor. It was natural that some portion of the colonists should view any change with alarm. That vague dissatisfaction which belongs to human life and human affairs, assumed the form of complaining of Penn, as though he had designed to diminish the liber- ties of the colony. Is there any ground whatever for the complaint? The proprietary administration was essentially a bad one; Penn is not responsible for those evils, which lay in the very nature of the organization, which had enabled him to accomplish so much good. When the Assembly of Pennsylvania transmitted to him a remonstrance about quit-rents, and alleged that by his artifices the several charters granted at the first settling of the colony had been defeated, it is evident, that the payment of the quit-rents was the main grievance, for he that candidly examines the changes in the charters, the tenor of them, and the manner in which they were made, must acquit Penn of all unwarrantable interfe- rence, and all disposition to check the growth of the li- berties of the State.

We might finally notice the attack upon Penn, in consequence of his advising King James to practice tole. rance. It is contended, that for the king to have al- lowed liberty of conscience was an act of encroaching power; that it was tyranny and usurpation in a British king to have favoured liberty of conscience; and that Penn was no better than guilty of treasonable designs in attempting to procure the release of more than a thou- sand, who had been imprisoned for the sin of being Quakers. As we write, we call to mind the splendid speech of Burke at Bristol, perhaps the noblest which he ever uttered, where he was compelled to make his apology to the English nation for having taken a part in repealing a bill of atrocious severity against the Roman Catholics. The same men who censured Burke, com- plain of Penn, as the advocate of tolerance. He should have seen, say they, that tolerance meant Popery. He should have snuffed the idolatry of Rome in the breeze. In the same spirit, Chalmers derides the Quakers for emigrating, inasmuch as they "suffered more from what they dreaded than from what they felt." We have before us the copy of the Political Annals which once belonged to the celebrated Ebeling; the honest chronicler makes upon this passage a wise annotation: " Than what they felt: to be whipped, imprisoned, nay to be burnt alive, certainly may be felt !! " And most men will agree with the learned commentator, and will hesitate before they condemn Penn for striving to stem the vehemence of public fury and the delirium of fanatic hatred.

Even at this moment, while we are writing, many citizens of a large and most respectable commonwealth are engaged in commemorating the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the landing of William Penn at New Castle; they are communing together upon his virtues, and drawing from the recesses of history, the memorials of his life and policy.

The first effort of Penn in colonial legislation was effected in West New Jersey. A small knot of emi- grant husbandmen established themselves there under his auspices; and in the spirit of philanthropy and jus- tice, agreed upon the assertion of civil and religious li- berty as the basis of their government. No men on earth, say they, have flower to rule over men's consciences in matters of religion. They introduced voting by ballot,

universal suffrage, and universal eligibility to office; they abolished imprisonment for debt; they punished falsehood with the forfeiture of denizenship; they grant- ed no taxes but for a year. "We lay," said Penn, "a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and as Christians; that they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent, for we put the power in the people." These were remarkable words for a period which saw Charles II. upon the English throne, and the Duke of York the heir apparent and personal friend of the writer. The economy of the colony was also as exemplary as the features of its con- stitution were liberal, Two hundred pounds a year were enough to defray all public expenses; the mem- bers of the Assembly received no more than a shilling a day for their services during the session; and that only for the sake of reminding them that they were the hire- lings of the people. The country was esteemed the poor man's paradise; or rather poverty was unknown in all its borders. The pleasant villages on the eastern side of the Delaware, welcomed the virtuous exile with a homely but cordial hospitality; and there was so little of "human nature" in these adventurers, that they were unequivocally and magnanimously tolerant, when all the rest of the human family was engaged in reli- gious persecutions.

But not satisfied with planting West Jersey, Penn, fortunately for mankind, persevered in his entreaties in England, till at length he wrested from a voluptuous despot, the broad domain of Pennsylvania. It was then that his character was put to the test, for he was made sole proprietor of the territory of the commonwealth, with ample and almost irresponsible supremacy. It was then that he stood forth in the eye of the world and of all ages as a legislator; unrestrained by ancient usage; untrammelled by the influence of established abuses; having free course for the exercise of all his mind, and the display of his principles.

Penn was at that time in the vigour of manhood He was well informed, if not learned. His early years bad the benefit of a careful education; he had subsequently travelled over many parts of Europe; he had lived in an age of revolutions, so that his own experience and the recollections of those around him were full of variety and interest; a king dethroned and executed; the an- cient parliament reformed; the new parliament abolish - ed; the stern tyranny of the protectorate; the libertine despotism of the reformation; these were the occurren- ces with which his years were conversant; the wrecks of the feudal system were floating on the stream of time before his eyes; the constitutions and the practical administration of the most cultivated European coun- tries were familiar to him; the voice of antiquity had reached him in the quiet of studious seclusion. Above all; besides these opportunities of acquiring the know- ledge which lie needed, he had confidence in himself; and he had also had a just consciousness of his high re- sponsibility as the founder of a State. " As my under- standing," he remarks, "and my inclination have been much directed to observe and reprove mischiefs in go- vernment, so it is now put in my power to settle one. For the matters of liberty and privilege I purpose that which is extraordinary; and leave myself and succes- sors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country. A government is free to the people under it, when the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws." And in this view, in an age when despotism was on the. advance, he determined, according to his own sublime expressions, to set an example to the nations; adding, there may be room in America, though not in Europe, for such a holy experiment.

Need we dwell on the liberal features of his constitu - tion? Or the wisdom and humanity of his laws? How admirable his regulations to encourage industry, to protect commerce, to improve the discipline of pri- sons: to establish the absolute equality of all religious

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sects by the strongest guarantics of constitutional possessing the Schuylkill, because it stretched so far

law.

This is the great glory that makes the name of Penn conspicuous on the pages of universal history, and marks him out for one among the few, to whom immor- tal honour will be paid through all succeeding genera- tions: he was the first who successfully established the unqualified spirit of religious liberty in America. He does not indeed deserve the honor of having originated the design; but he was the first who succeeded in prac- tice. It had already been attempted by a Roman Cath- olic nobleman in Maryland; but the views of Lord Bal- timore were subverted by the bitterand ambitious intol- erance of the Protestants, whom his own moderation had freely admitted into his settlements. The same object had again been attempted by a Protestant English philosopher, whom Providence had called forth to legis- late for Carolina; but then the bigotry of the lords proprietaries occasioned the greatest abuses, and in spite of the catholicism of Locke, the settlers were ha- rassed by grevious invasions of their stipulated liberties What Locke and Baltimore had failed to accomplish, Penn was enabled to perfect. He and the people of his colony were true to that charity which rested upon justice, and gave the promise of peaceful abundance.

But let us hear the language of Penn himself.

" We must give the liberty we ask: and we cannot be false to our principles, though to relieve our- selves." And again-

" We should have none suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent on any hand." And in lais admi- rable letter to Tillotson,

" I abhor two principles in religion, and pity those that own them. The first is obedience upon authority without conviction: and the other, the destroying them that differ from me for God's sake Such a religion is without judgment, though not without teeth."

And whence could Penn have directed his philan- thropic and truly Christian liberality? From the Uni- versity of Oxford, to which he resorted for his educa- tion ?- He had been indignantly expelled from it for non-conformity .- From the venerable bishops of Eng- land ?- They had caused him imprisonment in the Tower of London for his liberality, and had threatened to make his prison his grave .-- From the relics of the partizans of Cromwell ?- His was bitter fanaticism, which alone dared to oppose that usurper. - From the restorers of the monarchy ?- Let history tell its tale of the political profligacy of Monk, and the inflexible bigotry of Clarendon .- From the voluptuous court of Charles II ?- Sunk in the excesses of grotesque ribaldry, it fluctuated between the caprices of superstition and the grossness of sensuality .- From his travels abroad? Holland could imprison Grotius for Arminianism, and France exile a million of its best inhabitants for the crime of being Protestants. - Whence then could the lawgiver of Pennsylvania have derived his candour and his charity? He asked counsel of truth and justice; he closed his eyes alike to the visions of metaphysical theo- ries and the intolerance of existing governments. His judgment was not dazzled by the splendour of Euro- pean hierarchies; nor was his imagination overpowered by the Utopias and El Dorados of ingenious speculation. He interrogated nature on the rights of man, without dictating her reply.

into the interior, and might one day be a channel of in- ternal commerce. What would he say, if he could now return to earth and behold the territory which he cher- ished? He would see the Delaware united with the Hudson, and with the waters of New York harbour; the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna, both feeding canals along their banks, and both united; the heights of the Alleghanies conquered by a rail road, that is to bear the burdens of commerce with rapidity and security, by the side of the precipices and the mountain waterfalls; and finally, to the west of the Apalachian chain, he would observe the busy activity of steamboats, and the im- mense rafts of floating forests upon rivers which in his day murmured through the secret places of the wilder- ness without a name. He had pitched for his city upon a site, which seemed to him favourable beyond that of any town which he had ever seen. He describes with delight, the lofty banks covered with stately pines; the broad plain stretching away from river to river, and offering ample room, not for dwellings and warehouses only, but also for gardens and orchards. What if he could now behold those gardens covered with stately buildings, the streets extending from stream to stream; and the falls of the Schuylkill, diffusing by the aid of simple machinery, the blessings of pure water in abun- dance to every corner of the city, that is happy in its general prosperity, ant tranquil from the force of pub- lic sentiment and the effusion of public virtue?

The consideration of the great results which have been accomplished in the short space of one hundred and fifty years, is full of solemn admonition to the living generation, which is necessarily the guardian, to hold in trust for coming ages, the wisdom, the comfort, and the liberties which have been accumulated by the past. The fathers were emigrants; were still subject to a fo- reign jurisdiction; were few in number; and were sum- moned to contend with the savage strength of unsub- dued nature. We stand upon vantage ground .- Can virtue be developed only in the contest with adversity? And will patriotism be endangered by the brilliancy of our prosperity?

From the Philadelphia Gazette. PROCEEDINGS OF COUNCILS.

Thursday Evening, Aug. 8, 1833. SELECT COUNCIL. In the absence of Mr. Ingersoll, Mr. Groves was elected President pro tem.

Mr. Neff presented a communication respecting the Delaware Avenue, signed by Jacob Ridgway and Geo. Blight, Chairman and Secretary of a meeting on that subject. It was referred to the committee on Delaware Avenue.

A memorial was presented, signed by sundry inhabi- tants, respecting certain unfinished improvements in the paving of Filbert street, and requesting the attention of Councils to the same. It was read and referred to the Paving Committee.

A memorial from the Board of Health respecting nui- sances in the neighbourhood of Logan Square, was re- ceived and referred to the committee on that Square, with power to act.

Mankind will never forget to do him honor. But his The following communication from Nicholas Biddle, Esq. was received and read. noblest monument is found in the results of his legisla- tion. Emigrants from half the world have felt the at . Board of Trustees of the 2 Girard College for Orphans. S traction of the system which he established; and the mass of incongruous elements, Puritans and Prelates, Cavaliers and Roundheads, Catholics and Quakers, Me- To the Select and Common Councils of the City of Phi- ladelphia. thodists and Baptists, Heretics and Orthodox, have all been brought together by the benignant influence of Gentlemen, -I perform a melancholy duty in an- nouncing to you the death of our respected colleague, John C. Stocker, Esq. According to the Ordinance establishing the Board of Trustees for the Girard Col- religious liberty, and all have been harmonized and united into one civil community under its majestic in- fluence. The Delaware river used to gain the most ready admiration; but Penn would often boast of his | lege, it will devolve upon your honorable bodies to sup-

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ply the vacancy occasioned by this event-and I there- fore take the earliest opportunity of communicating it to you officially.

I have the honour to add, that I am, With great respect, yours,

N. BIDDLE, President.

August 8th, 1833.

On motion of Mr. Lippincott, it was resolved and carried, that the Select and Common Councils, meet forthwith, and proceed to the election of a Trustee to fill the vacancy in the Board, occasioned by the death of John C. Stocker, Esq. This was non concurred in, by the Common Council, and Thursday evening next, the 15th inst. was fixed upon by both bodies, for a special meeting on the subject.

The following resolution, from the Common Council, was received and adopted:

Resolved, by the Select and Common Councils, That the City Commissioners be instructed to. collect forth- with all the arrearages of rent due from the tenants occu- pying the Drawbridge lot, and notify such of said tenants. as may be deemed necessary to remove therefrom, ac- cording to law.

- COMMON COUNCIL.

The Chair presented a communication, signed' John M. Ogden, tendering to Councils, on behalf of the Commissioners of the district of Spring Garden, a copy of the laws and ordinances of that district.

The Chair presented a communication from the Board of Health, complaining that nuisances to a great extent exist on Logan Squares and a public lot, north of the Permanent Bridge, with a request that Councils would take order to remove the same. Referred to the Com- mittee on Logan and Penn Square, with power to act, and instruction to report at the next meeting.

The Chair presented the following. communication from the City Commissioners, which was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means:

The City Commissioners respectfully state to Coun- cils, that by order of the Committee for improving the City Property, at and near Chesnut street wharf, on Schuylkill, they have passed bills from the first of Jan- aary last to this date, amounting $22,643 22. Bills were in like manner passed by the late Commissioners for the same object, which amounted on the 31st De- cember last, to $5,941 93, as appears by the printed state of their accounts for 1832. The aggregate ex- pended for the wharf and buildings is $28,545 15, which has been charged to Appropriation, No. 14, for repairing and improving City Property for 1832 and 1833. No appropriation has been made by Councils for these expenditures, which have occasioned an overdraught of Appropriation, No. 14, for 1833, of $15,094 10.

By order of the City Commissioners, ROBERT H. SMITH, City Clerk.

Mr. McMullen presented a petition praying that Schuylkill Seventh street, between Market and Arch, may be paved. Referred to the Paving Committee.

Mr. McMullen, presented a communication from own- ers of property on the Delaware river, praying that the action of Councils on the Ordinance relating to Dela- ware Avenue, may be suspended for the present.

Mr. Chandler, presented a memorial from Samuel Guss, the occupier of a house and lot, on the north side of Market street, west of the Permanent Bridge, stating he has been deprived of the use of a portion of his premises, in consequence of an entry made therein by the West Philadelphia Canal Company, and praying Councils to take the subject in hand. Referred to a joint committee of both Councils, consisting of Messrs. Chandler, Maitland, Wetherill and Lippincott.

stage owners, praying that Crown street may be made a stand for a Manayunk line of stages. Referred to the Market Committee.

Mr. Byerly presented a petition praying for the laying of flag stones across South Alley. Referred to Paving Committee with power to act.

Mv. Byerly presented a communication from Thomas Desilver, offering to Councils the remainder of his edi- tion of the "Devises made to the City." Laid on the table.

Mr. Smith, from the Paving Committee, reported a resolution directing the paving of Haines street, which was adopted: Select Council concurred.

On motion of Mr. Borie, a resolution was adopted, directing the Mayor to draw his warrant on the City Treasurer, in favor of Lydia R. Bailey, for the sum of $1209 12, the amount of her bill for printing, present- ed at the last meeting of Councils; in which resolution the Select Council concurred.

An Ordinance authorising. the laying of a pipe from the cellar of the premises at the S. W. corner of Se- cond and Dock streets to the public sewer, was read at third time and passed. The Ordinance was also adopt- ed by the Common Council.

Thursday Evening, Aug. 15th, 1833. SELECT COUNCIL.

A message was received from the Common Couneif, announcing the readiness of that body to proceed, in joint ballot with the Select Council, to the election of a Trustee for the Girard College for Orphans, in the place of John C. Stocker, deceased

Mr. Wetherill' from the committee to whom was re- ferred' Mr. J. Marshall's petition, respecting certain pro- perty, presented the following report.

The committee to whom was referred the petition of Joseph Marshall, praying that certain property be re- leased from the operation of a judgment held by the city on Franklin legacy, report:

l'hat Joseph Marshall and George Read are the sure- ties on the bond of David Donaldson in the penal sum 520 dollars, conditioned for the payment of $331 50 im annual instalments-but one of these instalments has become due, and that was paid at maturity. The com- mittee have reason to believe that Mr Marshall has suf- ficient property to cover the amount of his bond after the release of that prayed for in his petition. The committee, accordingly, passed the following resolution which has been executed.

Resolved, That the Mayor be requested to affix the: eity seal to an instrument releasing the property of Jo- seph Marshall, described in the within petition.

Mr. Wetherill offered a report from the committee to whom was referred a petition. for changing the name of South alley,-declining to alter the same, and beg- ging leave to be discharged from a further considera- tion of the subject, -which was adopted.

Mr. Wetherill also offered the following memorial from the owners and occupiers of Wharf property on the river Delaware, within the limits of the city, which was referred to the committee on the Delaware Ave- nue.

MEMORIAL.

To the Select and Common Councils of the city of Philadelphia.

The memorial of the subscribers, owners and occupiers of wharf property on the river Delaware, within the limits of the city of Philadelphia, respectfully shew- eth --

That having learned, that a bill has been reported by a committee of your honourable bodies, entitled " An Ordinance for laying out a passage or street from Vine

Mr. Byerly presented a communication from sundry ) to Cedar street, to be called the Delaware Avenue,"

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MEMORIAL ON DELAWARE AVENUE.

1833.]

accompanied by a plan and description of the same, made under your authority by Samuel Hains, City Sur- veyor, they feel themselves bound by a sense of duty to themselves as well as to the public, to remonstrate most earnestly against the passage of this measure, fraught as it is with consequences vitally injurious not only to your memorialists, but to the best interests of the city of Philadelphia, and they beg leave briefly to offer their reasons for so doing.

The city of Philadelphia was laid out by the proprie- tary in the year 1683, on " a neck of land between two navigable rivers, Delaware and Schuylkill; whereby it had two fronts on the water, each a mile, and two from river to river."

By the original plan, the front streets on each river were to be the eastern and western boundaries of the lots intended to be granted; and in the year 1684, the proprietary declared in relation to the bank of the river Delaware: " The bank is top common from end to end: The rest, next the water, belongs to front lot men no more than back lot men: The way bounds them; they may build stairs; and the top of the bank a common ex- change or walk, and against the street common wharfs may be built freely ;- but into the water, and the shore is no purchasers.'

The necessities, and perhaps the policy of William Penn soon changed this original plan, and we accor- dingly find him immediately afterwards, granting lots east of Delaware sixty foot front street to various indi- viduals upon certain terms which are described in their respective patents. Some regulation relative to these and future grants of the same part of the city became necessary, and accordingly on the 26th day of the se- cond month(April) Anno Domini 1690, the commissioners of property executed an instrument entitled " Regula- tion of the Bank of the River Delaware," the original of which is now in the possession of the city.

By this regulation, the proprietors of bank lots, who had been formerly restricted by the terms of their pa- tents, were allowed to build as high as they please above the top of said bank, "because, the more their improvements are, the greater will the proprietor's be- nefit be," and certain regulations were prescribed with regard to lots already purchased and thereafter to be purchased, of which your memorialists beg leave to cite one or two, which they conceive to be material to the present inquiry.

" First, that all the said persons who have already got, or shall hereafter, any bank lots, shall regularly leave thirty foot of ground in the clear, for a cartway under and along the said whole bank, and in conve- nient time shall make the same to be a common and public cartway for all persons, by day and by night for- ever hereafter; and that whoever shall be willing to have cellar stairs or steps up into their houses, .shall leave convenient room to make the same upon their own ground, without making any encroachment upon the said way, the narrowness thereof will not admit of any such incumberance thereupon; and if any person or persons shall unadvisedly build to the utmost extent of their bounds, such shall expect no other convenience nei- ther for cellar stairs nor steps, than what they can make within their own houses, and if any person or persons shall not wharf out and make the said thirty foot cart- way, the person or persons that shall happen to be next unto and to join upon such, shall and may make the said cartway for the general service, and the said per- son or persons so neglecting shall pay the said whole charge thereof to the person that shall make the same. And these commissioners have unanimously agreed that the said thirty foot cartway shall run upon one stretch or course from one public street to another, as near as may be." Then followed the regulation relative to the pub- lic stairs and passages to be left open from Delaware Front street, to the river between each public street, and leaving it at the option of the purchasers " to make and leave, or not to make and leave any stairs, passage, |

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The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. XII, Part 34

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870 Publication date: 1828 Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ; Number of Pages: 438

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 438