USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 15
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measures to protect their trade, or the property of their con- stituents.
The remonstrance of the assembly against Evans was, at length, effectual; he was superseded in September, by the ap- pointment of col. Charles Gookin. The proprietary was moved to this step, more by the disaffection of his people, and the representation of his friends, than his own convictions of its propriety. Evans had been a faithful and devoted servant, though his temper and his morals rendered him an inefficient one. His administration, which, for several years, was di- rected by Logan, had, in its principles, received the approba- tion of Penn. By instructions from the latter, given in.1705, he was directed to pass no law, nor grant any privilege, until the assembly should settle a permanent revenue, of one thou- sand pounds at least, upon the government; the proprietary declared at the same time, that " he too mournfully remem- bered how noble a law he had of exports and imports, when he was first in America, which would now be worth some thousands a year, which he had suspended for a season only, upon an agreement with the merchants, and which had been repealed by Thomas Lloyd, without his consent."*
Evans was young, volatile, and impetuous; fond of plea- sure, which he pursued with eagerness and without restraint. Confident in his own judgment, haughty in his manners, and careless in his temper, he contemned the understanding of the people he was called to govern, exacted a slavish respect for his station, and outraged the religious feelings of the most eminent citizens; and, at length, forfeited the esteem of his own and the proprietary's best friends, the secretary, Logan, included, who solicited his removal. His long continuance in the government, produced a disposition unfriendly to the proprietary interests, which embarrassed his successor, and marred the peace of the colony.(1) The assembly of the lower counties, irritated by his conduct, questioned his authority, denying the right of the proprietary to appoint a governor for them. We may mention here an instance of Evans' op-
11
* Penn's letter to Logan, 14th 7mo. 1705. (1) See Note C 2, Appendix.
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pression. He granted a license for the marriage of Thomas French, taking bond with surety that he should marry, pur- suant to the license, according to the mode of the church of England. But French, some time after, was married ac- cording to the manner of the presbyterians, and by a presby- terian clergyman. Evans put the bond in suit against the surety, obtained judgment, and imprisoned him for the non- payment of the penalty (two hundred pounds). The brother of the surety petitioned Penn, who, highly disapproving the conduct of Evans, commanded governor Gookin to discharge the prisoner, and release the debt. He also required, that all bonds of a public nature should, in future, be made payable to himself, unless otherwise directed by law .*
His great expenditure on the province, devotion to public affairs, civil and religious, neglect of his private concerns, and the fraud of his steward, had reduced the proprietary to great pecuniary distress; and, at the suit of the representatives of his steward, he was confined within the rules of the Fleet prison. He was relieved from this humiliating state, by mort- gaging the province, and his political rights therein, to Henry Gouldey, Joshua Gee, Silvanus Grove, John Woods, and John Field, of London, Thomas Callowhill, Thomas Oade, and Jeffrey Pennell of Bristol, and Thomas Cuppage of Ireland. The mortgagees did not assume the government, but appointed Edward Shippen, Samuel Carpenter, Richard Hill, and James Logan, commissioners to superintend their interest in the province, who repaid the loan with funds obtained from the sale of lands, and from his quit-rents.t
* Minutes of council. + Proud. Logan MSS.
1
CHAPTER IX.
Arrival of governor Gookin .... Complaints of the assembly .... Call upon the house for military supplies ···· Penn's in- structions to the governor ···· Logan attacks Lloyd .... Pro- ceedings of the assembly ····· Logan arrested ..... Governor dissolves the assembly ···· Produces a change of counsels .... Attack and capture of Fort Royal ··· Enterprise upon Canada ... Assembly grant two thousand pounds ··· Acts for securing the government, and prohibiting the importation of slaves .... Proprietary sells his government to the crown ··· Address of the governor to the assembly .... First edition of the laws .... Laws repealed by the privy council· ·· Governor publishes an ordinance re-establishing the courts .... Death of Queen Anne ···· Accession of George I ···· Address of the Assembly ··· Conduct of governor Gookin ··· Stat. 1. Geo. I. relative to oaths .... Governor quarrels with Logan and Norris. ... His recall .... Death and character of William Penn .... His will.
THE removal of governor Evans had been procrastinated, from the difficulty of procuring a fit successor. At one time the proprietary had resolved to appoint his eldest son his de- puty, but abandoned his design on the remonstrance of his friends in the province, who knew and dreaded his levity and dissipation. At length, colonel Gookin was selected, and the proprietary anticipated, that his mildness of manners, steadiness of conduct, and economical habits, would recom- mend him to the people.
Governor Gookin arrived in the province in the month of March. The assembly then in session immediately peti- tioned him for redress of their grievances. The memory of Evans' offences did not die with his authority; nor was Lloyd and his party disposed to suffer him to depart without further marks of their displeasure. They charged him with high
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crimes and misdemeanors before Gookin, and required, that a criminal prosecution should be instituted against him. 'But the governor prudently endeavoured to allay their animosity, and to satisfy them that he could not, constitutionally, accede to their request. But, whilst extinguishing a flame with one hand, he lighted a new one with the other. By communi- cating to the assembly an address of his council, vindicating themselves from a charge of having influenced the conduct of Evans, he involved the two bodies in a violent altercation. Astute in discovering grievances, the house soon found ample matter to occupy the attention of the executive. They com- plained of his disrespect, in visiting Newcastle whilst they were in session; of the insecurity of the freeholders in the payment of their quit-rents, whilst uncertain of the payment of a mortgage of the province, by the proprietary, to Philip Ford,(1) in the year one thousand six hundred and ninety; of the assumption by the governor to grant marriage licenses; of the grants of pardon, and discontinuance of prosecutions, without the knowledge of the magistrates before whom cri- minals were charged, or to be tried; of the appointment of one person to the offices of town clerk, clerk of the peace, prothonotary of the common pleas, and of the supreme court; of the illegal assessment of certain poor-taxes, and of several petty misdemeanors of justices of the counties of Bucks and Philadelphia.
But from these petty grievances, the attention of the house was soon called to subjects of greater importance, in which their duty to the crown, and their religious principles, were again to be weighed against each other. In demands hereto- fore made for military contributions, circumstances had fa- voured the province, and she had escaped with ease, under the forbearance of Fletcher, the scruples of Penn, and the inefficiency of Evans. A severe trial now awaited her. The French had actively prosecuted the war on the continent of America, and the northern colonies suffered greatly from their incursions. In the preceding year, they had penetrated to
(1) See Note D 2, Appendix.
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Haverhill, on the Merrimack river, and reduced the town to ashes. Upon the entreaties of the inhabitants of New Eng- land, the ministry in England formed an extensive plan for the conquest of Canada, Arcadia, and Newfoundland. An attack upon Quebec was to be made by a squadron of ships, · carrying five regiments of regulars from England, and twelve hundred provincials, furnished by the zeal of Massachusetts and Rhode Island; whilst an army of fifteen hundred men from the colonies, conducted by colonel Francis Nicholson, should attempt Montreal, by way of the lakes. But this enterprise was altogether abandoned; the exigencies of the war in Europe requiring all the forces of the allies.
The portion of troops required from Pennsylvania was one hundred and fifty privates, with their officers. The governor, conscious of the obstacles to the raising of troops, interposed by the religious sentiments of the assembly, proposed that instead of soldiers, they should furnish four thousand pounds, to be expended under the direction of a committee of their own appointment. But the house having taken time to con- sult their constituents, with great humility, and with their usual professions of duty, declared, " they could not in con- science provide money to hire men to kill each other;" but offered, as part of the revenue of the queen, the sum of five hundred pounds. This was refused by the governor, who insisted on a larger sum, more proportionate to their ability, and warned them, that their coldness to the public service would injure their cause with the queen; and he finally de- clined to consider any bill offered by the house until they should vote a proper supply. At a subsequent session they again offered five hundred pounds, but they made a special appropriation of this sum; three hundred pounds for Indian expenses, and two hundred for the governor's own use, with a condition, however, that he should concur in the bills then before him. Offended by their want of confidence, and this attempt at coercion, he spiritedly refused to take further part in legislation, until ample provision had been made for his support.
In his message to the legislature on this occasion, he inad-
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vertently disclosed, that his instructions forbade him to pass any law without the consent of his council. This interdic- tion giving birth to a power foreign to the constitution, was highly offensive to the assembly. The office of the council was to aid, not to rule, to serve, not to command, the gover- nor. He was the representative of the proprietary, vested with all his political power, and constitutionally subject to no other control, than that his principal had submitted to, by his compact with the people. In this character they knew how to approach him: but, if he were subject to the will of a secret and irresponsible cabal, they were uncertain to whom their grievances might be effectually addressed, or what in- terests they were to propitiate. Deprived of his freedom of will, he was no longer answerable for his actions; his dignity must vanish, and himself sink into pity or contempt. Beside these constitutional objections, the assembly felt there were others of a personal nature. Logan, devoted to the proprie- tary, to whose interests he was at all times ready to postpone those of the province, was predominant in the council; and in terms as plain as their indignation was strong, the house ascribed to him all the past dissentions of the government.
The secretary, who had hitherto stood on the defensive, receiving or parrying the blows of his adversaries, now re- solved to retaliate. He preferred, through the governor, to the house, a charge of high misdemeanor against Lloyd, then speaker; the nature of which does not clearly appear, but was probably founded on the correspondence of the latter with William Mead and others, relative to the remonstrance to Penn in 1704. Lloyd, without any affectation of delay, entered upon his defence, and required his accuser to sub- stantiate his accusation. This Logan declined, under various pretences, chiefly on the ground of his immediate departure for Europe, pledging himself to return, if for no other pur- pose, to prove his allegations. The house, however, would not brook delay. After an examination before a committee of the whole, they declared the charge false, scandalous, and libellous.
Preparatory to his departure, the secretary expressed his
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desire of being tried on the articles of impeachment, former- ly preferred against him. In a petition to the assembly on this subject, he charged them with unfairness and injustice, and dared the vengeance of the members, who were his im- placable enemies. Irritated by this language, they directed him to be committed to prison, and disqualified him from exercising any office until he should make them satisfaction. He was arrested on the warrant of the speaker, but released by the sheriff, on a supersedeas from the governor, who de- nied the right of the assembly. to arrest any other than its own members, and particularly one who was a member of council; and declared, that if such right existed, it did not appertain to the present house, which was illegally consti- tuted. But, if the assembly possessed the power to protect itself against libellers, that power could not be suspended, because the offender was a member of the governor's coun- cil. Nor was the governor's objection to the legality of the assembly entitled to consideration. He contended that the house having failed to form a quorum at a former session, was ipso facto dissolved, and had not the power to adjourn to a future day. But the dissolution of the assembly from such a cause is inconsistent with the existence of a represen- tative government, and would subject it to all the evils of intrigue and corruption. The governor, however, persisting in his opinions, and refusing to try the impeachment, the house was compelled to separate; nor did they again re- assemble. Their conduct was approved by a great majority of the inhabitants, for whose information they published their late proceedings, and they had just reason to confide in the public favour; but by Logan's activity their hopes were speedily crushed.
The confidence of the proprietary in his secretary had never wavered, and the influence of the latter, now in Lon- don, was visible, in a letter of the fourth of June, addressed by the former to the assembly. This letter, after a rapid and accurate sketch of the history of the province, puts in full relief all that the proprietary had done for its benefit. ~ His liberal political principles, his personal labours, and pecuniary
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losses are contrasted with the turbulence, avarice, and ingrati- tude of the people. Their complaints of oppression and other grievances he treats as the mere wantonness of liberty. On all the prominent subjects of dispute he sanctions the views of his deputies. The alleged right of the house to adjourn at their pleasure for any length of time, the proposition to make the judges removable on the address of the assembly, their former remonstrance to him, their remarks on his quit- rents, the encroachments on his manors, their claims for allowance in the surveys of land, their violent measures against his secretary, and their resistance to the establishment of courts by his authority, under the royal charter, are all un- equivocally condemned. After a warm but friendly expos- tulation, he assures them that his future conduct must take its colour from that of the next assembly; that if it, after a fair election, should not be more favourably disposed towards him, he would, without suspense, resolve on his course. This was understood as a threat to surrender the government of the province to the crown. An instantaneous and general change in the minds of the people was effected by this letter. The unanimity of the assembly made every member obnox- ious to the complaints of the proprietary, and the exclusion of all was deemed the only proper sacrifice to his violated feelings. Lloyd thus beheld the fragile staff on which he leaned break under him, and his violence against the secre- tary recoil upon himself.
By the election of the new assembly harmony was restored to the government, and all its branches were distinguished by sedulous and successful application to business. The right to adjourn at pleasure was yielded: the expenses of the state were cheerfully supplied, and the judiciary was established by law. The voice of complaint was hushed, whilst the mani- fold blessings they enjoyed were frankly acknowledged. *
After the failure of the late enterprise against the French possessions, colonel Nicholson proceeded to England to sti- mulate the ministry to further exertions on the American
* Votes.
21
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continent. Great promises were made him, but their fulfil- ment was so long delayed, that he resolved to attack Port Royal with the means at his disposal in the colonies; with twelve ships of war, and twenty-four transports, having on board one regiment of marines, and four of infantry, raised in New England, he attacked and captured the place, and ob- tained possession of Nova Scotia .* This success, and the personal solicitation of Nicholson, supported by colonel Schuyler, of New York, who had visited London with a depu- tation from the Five nation Indians, determined the ministry to make another attempt on Canada. In pursuance of this resolution, circulars were addressed to the governors of the northern and middle colonies, requiring them to meet and confer with Nicholson at New London, and to prepare their respective quotas of men and provisions. Governor Gookin did not arrive at the place of rendezvous in time to assist at the conference, and his absence was regretted by the assem- bly of Pennsylvania, under the belief that his representations would have procured them a more favourable requisition. They gave him no cause, however, to complain of their con- duct. Their regard for the religious principles of their con- stituents caused them to decline taking an active part in the war, but recognising their duty in the payment of tribute and obedience to the powers which God had set over them, so far as their religious persuasions would permit, they availed themselves of this opportunity to express their loyalty to the queen, by raising for her use the sum of two thousand pounds, which they tendered as a token of their duty, and as the equivalent for their quota of men.t This sum was raised by an impost of five pence half penny in the pound on the value of real and personal estate, and a poll tax of twenty shillings on unmarried freemen; and being immediately re- quired, was, because of the scarcity of money, paid princi- pally in provisions. The grant, however, was subjected to the charge of compensating the masters of such servants in
* Holmes' Annals. + Votes.
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Pennsylvania as had enlisted in the New Jersey forces, not returned before the ensuing September.(1)
The expedition to Canada proved most disastrous. Colonel Nicholson, under whom served colonels Schuyler, Whiting, and Ingoldsby, mustered at Albany two thousand colonists, one thousand Germans, from the palatinate, and one thousand of the Five nation Indians, who commenced their march towards Canada on the twenty-eighth of August. The troops from Boston, composed of seven veteran regiments, of the duke of Marlborough's army, one battalion of marines, and two provincial regiments, amounting to six thousand four hundred men, sailed on board of sixty-eight vessels, the thirtieth of July, and arrived off the St. Lawrence on the fourteenth of August. In ascending the river, the fleet, by the unskilfulness of the pilots, or the obstinacy and distrust of the admiral, was entangled amid rocks and islands on the northern shore, and ran imminent hazard of total destruction .* Several transports, and near a thousand men, perished. Upon this disaster the remainder bore away for Cape Breton, and the expedition, by the advice of a council of naval and milita- ry officers, was abandoned on the ground of the want of pro- visions, and the impossibility of procuring a seasonable supply. The admiral sailed directly for England, and the colonists returned to Boston, whilst colonel Nicholson, thus deserted, was compelled to retreat from Fort George. The want of skill, fortitude, and perseverance, are eminently con- spicuous in the British commanders of this enterprise.
During the years 1711 and 1712, cordiality continued to pre- vail between the governor and assembly. A regular and competent revenue was established ; the arrears of taxes were put in train for collection, and the public debts liquidated and paid ; courts were erected in a manner satisfactory to the people, and the fees of the several officers established by law. Even the animosities of the leaders of the rival parties were charmed to rest, and Lloyd, a member of assembly in the latter year, appears to have bent his talents and industry with
(1) See note E 2, Appendix. * Charlevoix.
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sincerity and earnestness to the public labours. His querulous spirit was restrained by the majority of the house, which was of the proprietary party.
Two acts of the legislature distinguish this period; one securing the administration of the government, and another preventing the importation of negroes and Indians. By the first it was provided, upon the absence or death of the lieu- tenant governor, in absence of the governor-in-chief, that the eldest counsellor, or in case of his absence or refusal, a mem- ber chosen by a majority of the council, should exercise the functions of the governor, the powers of legislation only ex- cepted, until the return of the lieutenant-governor, or until another should be commissioned by the proprietary: and in the event of the death of the governor-in-chief, the powers of his deputy were continued, until revoked by the crown or proprietary. By the second, a further step was taken, to re- sist the increase of domestic slavery. Their efforts on this subject are not more honourable to the humanity than to the wisdom of the province. They have secured to it the noble distinction, of having led the way to the abolition of this nefarious traffic, and of having preserved its inhabitants from the ceaseless watchings, and anxious cares, resulting from internal enemies, who wait only a favourable moment to re- turn the embittered chalice to the lips of their oppressors. Unfortunately for the interests of humanity, and the happi- ness of the North American states, this wise and virtuous measure was inconsistent with the policy of the mother coun- try, and was annulled by the crown. The slave trade had been cherished by England since the year 1562; several companies were incorporated for conducting it, and Charles II. had publicly invited his subjects to engage in it, with the special view of supplying the plantations with negroes; and whilst the philanthropic sages of Pennsylvania were contem- plating the cheering picture of emancipation, the British ministry was plotting the widest extension of human misery, in forming the Assiento convention, the most accursed of con- tracts, by which their merchants obtained the exclusive pri- vilege for thirty years, of supplying Spanish America with
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four thousand eight hundred negro slaves annually. The act of Pennsylvania, had its principles been felt by the English government, must have been considered as a severe reflection on their conduct; but it is probable that it was regarded in no other light than an interference with the commercial inte- rest of the nation .*
With increasing years and declining faculties, the love of repose came upon the proprietary. From the government of Pennsylvania he had derived little pecuniary advantage. Time and absence had loosened the bonds of affection which connected him with the early settlers. Thousands were now in the province who knew him not, and were indisposed to yield their own interests to their affection or respect for him. His rights were critically examined, and the distinction now established between his characters of governor-in-chief and proprietary, deprived him of many sources of revenue, which, as feudal lord, he held to be personal rights. The prices of tavern licenses, and the fines and forfeitures estreated, were now claimed for the public service. His deputy was consi- dered by the people as representing fully his political power, and rendering official intercourse with him unnecessary; and the veto he claimed in legislation was denied by the as- sembly. His expostulatory epistle of 1710, it was true, had awakened the slumbering gratitude of the colonists, but this sentiment was evanescent, and faded before the increasing subjects of contention ; it had not been sufficiently lasting to exclude from the public councils, for more than a single year, his most active opponents. In Europe he was harassed by pecuniary embarrassment, and his love of action had sunk with his political importance, which did not survive his suc- cessful efforts to protect his religious friends, in the undis- turbed exercise of their faith. Under these circumstances his resolution to cede his government to the crown was not extraordinary. He entered into an agreement for this pur- pose, the consideration of which was twelve thousand pounds, payable in four years, and received one thousand on account.
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