USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 10
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The assembly opposed a firm resistance to these unwar- rantable assumptions of power. They voted the arrest of White a breach of privilege: denounced the magistrate who had issued the process, and the sheriff who executed it, as traitors; insisted that the proprietary had revoked his instruc- tions to the commissioners ; asserted the validity of the laws enacted pursuant to their charter, and denied the right of Penn to suspend or abrogate them; and, as a precautionary mea- sure against the abuse of the judicial power by the governor, they resolved that no one empowered to receive any fine, or forfeiture, or revenue, should sit in any court, or any cause, in which a fine or forfeiture might accrue to him.t
Unfortunately, the house did not continue true to itself. Blackwell, by intimidation or persuasion, succeeded in di- viding their councils. His party absented themselves from the assembly, from time to time, and finally left it without a quorum for business. Those who remained passed an indig-
Votes.
t Ibid.
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nant vote, charging the absentees with treason, in deserting their posts, after having condemned the conduct of the go- vernor, and the officers engaged in the arrest of White and Lloyd; and they directed a warrant to be issued to all con- stables, commanding them to bring the magistrates and she- riffs, who had been concerned in such arrests, before the house. This'warrant was never executed; and the assembly, no longer able to collect a quorum, was compelled to separate.
In his council the governor could neither preserve har- mony among the members, nor respect to himself. He re- quired of Thomas Lloyd, on occasion of temporary absence, to surrender the provincial seal, which was instantly refused. And soon after he impeached him of high crimes and misde- meanors, for having, as he alleged, encouraged the discon- tented, and for refusing to authenticate the acts of the government under the provincial seal. This seal Lloyd aver- red had been committed to him for life by the proprietary. The governor excluded Samuel Richardson from the council for having declared him to be a lieutenant only, and not a governor; he refused to receive the sheriff's returns of his re-election, on the ground that the election was void, and denied the right of the council to judge of the elections of its members; he arraigned Joseph Growden for publishing a printed copy of the frame of government, which he considered an offence against the state and the proprietary, who had, as the governor asserted, forbidden a resort to the press on sub- jects relating to the province. The meetings of the, council were marked by heat and animosity. The governor's la- bours were opposed or unaided, and when driven to exercise his authority, his commands were frequently contemned. His manners did not accord with those of the people; a soldier, his demeanour was light and courtly, strongly con- trasting with the grave carriage of the principal colonists ; nor did the ungrateful task, which the proprietary had im- posed upon him, of collecting his quit rents, serve to conci- liate the affections of the people. Disliked by all parties, but not censured by the proprietary, he was recalled, and the
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government devolved on the council, over which Thomas Lloyd again presided.
David Lloyd, who had been removed from office, and im- prisoned by the late governor, for resistance to his commands, had arrived in the province in the early part of the year 1686, and was commissioned attorney-general by William Penn on the twenty-fourth of April of the year following. He was now elected clerk of the assembly, and devoting him- self to the interest of the people, soon became distinguished for zeal and ability in their cause.
By the revolution of 1688, which drove James from the throne, the proprietary lost all influence in the English court. His intimacy with that unhappy monarch covered him with dark suspicion. His religious and political principles were misrepresented; he was denounced as a catholic, a jesuit of St. Omers, and a self-devoted slave to despotism, and was charged with conspiring the restoration of James. It is now unnecessary to disprove these accusations; for though his enemies caused him to be thrice examined before the privy council, and to give bail for his appearance in the king's bench, he was discharged by that court, no evidence appear- ing against him. The ties which bound him to Europe having been thus broken, he prepared to re-visit his province, accompanied by another colony of five hundred persons, which he had assembled by publication of new proposals. A convoy was appointed by government for his protection, and he was on the eve of sailing, when his enterprise was marred by another persecution .* A wretch, named Fuller, subse- quently declared infamous by parliament, and pilloried, ac- cused him, on oath, with being engaged in a conspiracy of the papists in Lancashire to raise a rebellion, and restore James to the crown. He narrowly escaped arrest on his return from the funeral of George Fox, the celebrated founder of the society of Friends.t Hitherto he had met his accusers with a courage worthy of his character and his innocence, yet such was his dread of the profligacy of the witness who now
Ebeling. Proud.
t Clarkson. Smollet.
16th Jan. 1691.
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appeared against him, that he deemed it prudent to seek re- tirement and privacy. His contemplated colony failed, and the expenses of its outfit were lost.
The recall of Blackwell did not restore harmony to the province. Local attachments and jealousies had arisen to disturb the union of the province and territories. The pro- prietary had left to the council the choice of three modes of administering the executive power; by the whole council, by five commissioners, or by a deputy governor. The last was adopted, much against the will of the territories, which, assured that a provincial man would be chosen, dreaded partiality in the distribution of the offices. To prevent this, six members of council from the territories, convened, and in the absence of the other members and the president, appointed and com- missioned six judges. The regular council immediately pro- claimed this appointment surreptitious, illegal, and void. The territories had been long dissatisfied with their annexation to the province; they had suffered by the transfer of the com- mercial business and the custom house from Newcastle to Philadelphia, and they now complained that the taxes were unequal, and that much art was used by the provincial dele- gates to influence the governor in the appointment of officers for the lower counties, whilst they, unnoticed and disregarded, were compelled to aid in his support. Thomas Lloyd, on whom the choice of the council had fallen, endeavoured to remove this last cause of complaint, by declaring that he would accept no compensation for his services, unless at their special request. This, however, was not satisfactory. They required that the power of appointing territorial officers should be vested in the territorial delegates, and that five commissioners should be substituted for the deputy governor. These demands were refused, and the negotiation terminated in the dissolution of the union .* Lloyd continued to govern the province, and Markham, who had supported the territo- ries in all their measures, was chosen their lieutenant-gover- nor. The proprietary reluctantly confirmed this change. He
* 1691. Proud.
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animadverted severely upon the conduct of Lloyd, to whom, in the anguish of his heart, he ascribed irregular and ungo- vernable ambition, which, refusing an honour when proffered, sought it subsequently, through a breach of the charter and a change of the government. Lloyd, however, was reinstated in his confidence by a letter from the council, declaring that he had accepted the commission, only on the importunity of his friends, and the earnest request of the whole province.
Immediately after the dissolution of the union the assembly of the province passed an act, with a preamble, exculpatory of the council, declaring the integrity of the province, and their efficiency to legislate for it; and re-enacted all the laws then in force. To remove the apprehensions of the proprietary, both governments assured him of their satisfaction in the change.
In the province, as elsewhere, the Quakers had been dis- tinguished for union, temperance, and toleration. But a reli- gious schism now shook their church to its foundation, and injured the reputation of the civil government. George Keith, a native of Scotland, distinguished for learning and talents, had many years been an active and zealous teacher among " Friends." Firm under persecution, acute and ingenious in debate, he had by his sufferings and writings acquired great and merited influence with the society. On the establish- ment of a charity school at Philadelphia in 1689, he was called from New Jersey to superintend it. This situation he soon abandoned, and devoted himself with renewed zeal, but not with his usual success, to the work of the ministry. With the increase of years his faith became intolerant, his disci- pline austere, his manners rude, and his language vituperative. He condemned many rules of practice among his sect, pro- posed new regulations, and denounced the doctrine professed and propagated by approved ministers, and which he had hitherto advocated. He denied in particular the sufficiency to salvation of the Holy Spirit, without the aid of the gospel; and with a fanaticism which struck at the root of the proprie- tary power, he declared it unlawful for Quakers to engage in the administration of government, and more especially in the
13
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execution of the penal law. To his brethren he was captious and supercilious; treating their remonstrances with contumely, and assailing their persons and church with indecorous epi- thets .*
His conduct induced the society of " Friends," after re- peated monitions, to expel him from their communion, by a formal and public testimony of denial. This act of the meet- ing, although approved by many of the most considerable men in the province, was condemned by others not less re- spectable. The latter segregated with Keith, held church meetings, and claiming to be the true church, boldly de- nounced the former as apostates. Treason and heterodoxy, however, are of one genus, and exist only in the minority of the state, or religious society. Consequently, Keith's oppo- nents, having as well the government as the churches, and the greater number of adherents, are justly to be considered the orthodox, and himself and his followers as lapsed from the fold. If there be a doubt on this head, it must be removed by the decision of the yearly meeting at London; which, hav- ing appellate jurisdiction from that at Philadelphia, after full hearing of the parties, confirmed the denial. Thus irrevoca- bly disowned, Keith became a violent enemy, took orders in the established church, and returned to America as its mis- sionary. He, some years afterwards, died, outwardly at least, an episcopalian.
This affair, although important to "Friends," and viewed by them, until late events, as the greatest disturbance in their society, merits historical notice by its consequences only. The intemperance of Keith did not permit him to discriminate between the Quakers as rulers of a nation, and as members of a religious sect. His anathemas were hurled alike against the magistrate and elder. That tenet of the "Friends" which forbids the use of arms, he carried to a length deemed extravagant even among them; forbidding force in the apprehension of criminals. An occasion offered for inveighing strongly on this subject. · A person named
* Proud. Ebeling.
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Babit, with others, stole a sloop from the wharf at Philadel- phia, and in their passage-down the river committed many robberies. A warrant was issued in the nature of a hue and cry, on which they were apprehended and brought to justice. The force used to arrest them, though not more than is ordinarily exercised on such occasions, was censured by Keith as unchristian and incompatible with the Quaker charac- ter. In a pamphlet, entitled the " Plea of the Innocent," written in conjunction with a certain Thomas Budd, printed by Wil- liam Bradford, and published by John McComb, he accused Samuel Jennings "with being too high and imperious in worldly courts," and styled him "an impudent, presump- tuous, and insolent man." In a controversy with governor Lloyd, in church meeting, he called him " an impudent man, and a pitiful governor," asking him "why he did not send him to jail," declaring " that his back had long itched for a whipping, and that he would print and expose them all over America, if not in Europe." Another of the magistrates he called an impudent rascal.
These seditious words were held worthy of punishment. Bradford and M'Comb were apprehended, and for contempt of court, on their examination, and refusal to find sureties for their appearance, were committed. They were not ordered into close confinement; for, wishing to date a paper from the prison, they endeavoured to obtain admittance; but being prevented, they signed it in the hall, common to the prison and the house adjoining. * 'The license of M'Comb, who was a publican, was taken from him, as a punishment for his offence, though no conviction was had; and Bradford having been once brought to trial, and the jury being unable to agree upon a verdict, was subsequently discharged.
Keith and Budd, who were prosecuted by indictment, framed on the 32 cap. of the great law, for their defamation of Jennings, were convicted and sentenced to pay five pounds each; but these fines were never collected.
* Keith's Journal. Proud.
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A religious society may justly cast from its bosom a schis- matic, who indecorously censures its practices, and violently assails its leaders ; but in Pennsylvania, the secular arm could not be constitutionally raised to chastise heresy. Keith and his followers charged the government with religious intole- rance, and in Europe this transaction was painted in the darkest colours. The character of the Quakers was grossly misrepresented. They were accused of hypocrisy in their civil and religious conduct, and were cited as an additional instance of the effect of power to subvert the principle of re- ligious toleration. The confidence of the persecuted in Europe was lessened, and emigration to the province decreased.
The magistrates published a vindication of their conduct. They enumerated the offences of Keith, dwelt upon their probable consequences, and expatiated on the patience with which they had borne his religious excesses. They urged strongly the disastrous results flowing from his doctrine, touching the unlawfulness for Quakers to conduct the civil government, disqualifying the proprietary, and annulling every act of the government since its foundation.
It will be remarked, that of the offences of Keith, one, ap- parently the least considerable, was selected for prosecution. His deportment to the governor, and his publication of prin- ciples hostile to the proprietary's authority, were passed over, whilst his insolence to Jennings, only, was laid in the indict- ment. This may give some colouring to the allegation, that he was the victim of personal and sectarian animosity, as Jen- nings was his distinguished opponent in the church. But, in fact, abusive carriage towards magistrates was an offence of great enormity, and subject to a more grievous penalty than the other offences charged upon him. The Quakers held government to be an ordinance of the Deity, and its ministers entitled to the most profound respect. The assembly had at no time suffered an abuse of this principle to pass unpunished. For light offences of this kind it had expelled its own mem- bers, and had preferred complaints to the council against others. Besides, circumstances, at this time particularly, called for demonstrations of firmness on the part of the go-
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vernment. Its peace had been much disturbed by the late dispute with the territories; and insubordination was highly alarming to men who, forbidden by their consciences to bear arms, must sustain their authority by public opinion. If the motives which directed this prosecution were pure, no doubt ought to exist of the propriety of Keith's conviction. He had broken an established law of the province, was tried by the laws, and his sentence was less severe than they would have warranted. * (1)
Whatever were the motives of the government, it is certain its conduct was not approved by the proprietary. He fore- saw that these dissentions would give the crown an excuse to strip him of his province.t His fears were soon verified. William and Mary seized with avidity this opportunity to punish him, for his attachment to the late king; and they were well pleased to clothe an act of naked power with such justification as the disorders of the province presented. #
Their majesties' commission to Benjamin Fletcher, gover- nor-general of New York, constituting him governor of Pennsylvania and the territories, was notified to Thomas Lloyd on the nineteenth of April. There was no notice, in this commission, of William Penn, nor of the provincial con- stitution. Fletcher was empowered to summon the general assembly elected by the freeholders, to require its members to take the oaths and subscribe the tests prescribed by act of parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the assem- bly, he having a veto upon their acts; and was directed to transmit copies of such laws, for the approbation of the crown, within three months from their enactment. Official information of this change was not given to the constituted authorities of the province, either by the king or proprietary; yet on the arrival of colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the government was surrendered to him without objection; but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions.§ The proprietary
* Proud. Pamphlets. Clarkson,
+ Penn's letter, Oct. 1693. Proud. of Council.
(1) See Note X, Appendix. + Clarkson. § Minutes
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condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and ad- dressed a cautionary letter to Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment; which might have restrained the latter from exercising his authority, had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn, by personal favours. *
Proud.
CHAPTER VI.
Fletcher re-unites the province and territories .... Demands money from the province to aid in securing the frontiers of New York against the Indians and French .... The war be- tween England and France extends to America ···· Proceed- ings of the assembly .... Markham appointed deputy-governor under Fletcher ···· Assembly asserts its right to sit upon its own adjournments, and to originate bills ···· Fletcher de- mands further pecuniary aid .... The province restored to Penn ···· Death and character of Thomas Lloyd ···· Adminis- tration of governor Markham under Penn ···· New constitu- tion .... State of the province .... Buccaneers in the Delaware .... The province accused of giving them protection.
GOVERNOR Fletcher, regardless of the animosities which had disunited the colonists, summoned the representatives of the province and territories to meet in one assembly. Nei- ther the charter nor laws were regarded in the summons. The time and forms of the election were changed, and the number of members was diminished, notwithstanding a spi- rited remonstrance from the former council, who asserted that their constitution and laws had been confirmed by the king and queen, and were obligatory on the governor.
When the legislature assembled, the greater part of the members, pleading their conscientious scruples, refused to take the oaths, and the governor permitted them to subscribe simply, the declarations and tests required by the act of par- liament for liberty of conscience, protesting that this indul- gence should not be made a precedent for the future.
Pursuant to his instructions, Fletcher demanded aid in men or money to secure the frontiers of New York against the hostilities of the French and Indians; and as that province covered all the English settlements to the south, she had an
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obvious claim on Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, for assistance. The war, which now extended to the colonies, was declared by England against France immediately after the accession of William and Mary. Count Frontignac, go- vernor of Canada, hastened to assail the English; and exciting the northern savages to the most barbarous cruelties upon their out settlements, set the example of that execrable policy which is an indelible stain upon the French and Eng- lish nations. In 1690 one party of French and Indians surprised and destroyed Schenectady, on the Mohawk river; another seized a post at the Salmon Falls, on the Piscataqua, and soon after, under the Sieur Hurtel, attacked and levelled the fort at Casco, in Massachusetts. These inroads were followed by an active, but desultory border warfare, in which New York and the New England colonies were principally en- gaged. Both parties sedulously sought the friendship of the Mengwe or Five nations, which was finally secured to the English, after many conferences, and great expense in presents. To propitiate these tribes, the subsidy now asked of Pennsyl- vania was to be appropriated .*
Instead of giving an immediate and direct reply to the governor's demand, the assembly set themselves to ascertain and define his authority under his commission. They re- solved, that their constitution and laws, founded on the char- ter to the proprietary, were still in force, and that they had the right to require their confirmation by the governor: and assured him, when this should be done, they would comply with his requisition to the extent of their power. They affected to ascribe the change of government solely to the absence of the proprietary; but the governor assured them that was the least cause of their majesties' measures; and to their own mal-administration, their neglect to defend the pro- vince against the enemy, and the consequent danger of its loss, they might attribute his appointment. He further told them, that the royal government, and that of the proprietary, were inconsistent with each other; and that he should consider
Votes.
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their adherence to the latter, however disguised, as full evidence of their hostility to the former .*
This was a view which the house might reasonably dread; since neither their nor the proprietary's conduct was marked with zeal for the revolution; and, until the arrival of Fletcher, their majesties' authority had never been publicly acknow- ledged. The assembly, therefore, availed itself of this op- portunity to declare their devotion to William and Mary; but they repelled the charge of mal-administration, and denied, that there was any danger of the loss of the province, or that the present government was opposed to that established by the proprietary, although the executive authority was tempo- rarily taken from his hands. The governor, unwilling to enter upon further altercation, and, perhaps, satisfied of the correctness, as well as firmness, of the assembly, complied with their request for confirming the laws, and published a proclamation for that purpose. The assembly, now disposed to show their affection to their majesties, passed a bill, im- posing a tax of one penny per pound on the clear value of real and personal estate, and a poll tax of six shillings per head, which they presented to the king and queen, praying that one-half might be given to the governor. But Fletcher, dis- satisfied that nothing had been done, directly to aid New York, refused this bill, with others which had been sent to him, and threatened to annex the province to that govern- ment.t This threat produced a very humble petition, that he would condescend to inform them which of the bills he would accept, amend, or reject, that they might dispose them- selves to acquiesce in his pleasure, or to offer reasons in their support. But this spirit was instantly changed, when he indi- cated a disposition to enact the laws with his amendments, with- out further consulting the house. They sent him an animated resolution, asserting their right to pass on all amendments to their bills before they became laws. And a protest, drawn by David Lloyd, was signed by many of the members, declaring the retention of the bills unlawful, and that, before any bill of
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