USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
* Walsh's Appeal, and the authorities there cited. Smollet.
166
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1713
But before the legal forms were completed, an apoplectic stroke prostrated his vigorous mind, and reduced him to the feebleness of infancy.
The intention of the proprietary to transfer the govern- ment, appears to have been deeply regretted by governor Gookin, who, anticipating to be removed, endeavoured to interest the assembly in his misfortune, and to obtain from them prompt payment of his salary, and the means of trans- porting himself to Europe, where he considered his presence necessary to refute certain calumnies, which he attributed to his indulgence of the wishes of the people. The house pre- sented him with one hundred and fifty pounds, in grateful acknowledgment of his services.
The laws having become voluminous and complex, requir- ed some other mode of publication than a placard at the coffee house. A committee composed of Richard Hill, Samuel Preston, Caleb Pusey, and John Swift, were appointed to col- late and digest them, and to publish five hundred copies.
Of the laws enacted in the years 1709, 10 and 12, twenty- eight were repealed by the queen, embracing almost all in which the people had taken a lively interest; such were the acts fixing the value of coins, establishing the judiciary, re- gulating fees, imposing duties on wine and spirits, prohibiting the importation of negro and Indian slaves. The reasons for abrogating these laws were not transmitted, but we conjec- ture the nature of some of the objections. Those relating to the act prohibiting the importation of slaves we have already noticed. To the same jealous spirit of commerce we must ascribe the repeal of all acts, which, in the language of the governor, laid " a burden on trade," whilst the land and poll tax received the ready assent of the queen. The judiciary bill was a compromise between the proprietary and popular interests, and most probably was opposed by the former be- fore the throne. Upon notification of the repeal, the gover- nor published an ordinance for the administration of justice, embracing most of the provisions of the repealed act. Al- though the assembly did not oppose this measure with their former warmth, they endeavoured to persuade him to recall
167
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1714]
it, as the powers given to the judges by their commissions, and the royal charter, rendered it unnecessary, and it might offend the queen, being in effect the re-enactment of a system which she disapproved. In its place, they recommended a proclamation to the judges to convene the courts at the usual time and places, and to continue the pleas over; and the suc- ceeding assembly applied themselves diligently to establish, by a new act, the several courts of the province.
Queen Anne died on the first of August, 1714, and was succeeded by George the first. Official notice of her decease was not received in the colony at the meeting of the legis- lature in October, and the house deemed it proper to adjourn, that their, declaration of allegiance might be made to the reigning sovereign.
Governor Gookin had for several years preserved uninter- rupted harmony between himself and the assembly. In mat- ters of legislation he was content to follow their wishes, occasionally calling their attention to public bills, which were delayed from the pressure of private business. Poor, penu- rious, and dependent upon the province, his own wants were ever present, and have a conspicuous place in most of his ad- dresses to the house. Sometimes these were humbly urged, and their relief thankfully acknowledged; at others, his claims are more strongly pressed, and their procrastination sharply reproved. His annual allowance may be averaged at five hundred pounds, payable out of the funds produced from the direct-tax and the customs. * But taxes of every description were slowly and irregularly collected. Appropriations made in one year, on which he relied for immediate support, were frequently not half paid at the close of the next. For seve- ral years he submitted patiently to disappointment and de- privation, but at length he became peevish and capricious. On the fifteenth of February, 1714, by reason of bad weather, and the illness of several members, the house failed to make
* The proprietary had engaged to pay him two hundred pounds per an- num, without any fines, forfeitures, or other perquisites, in full, for his ser- vices. Gookin was a bachelor, and chosen because he was a cheap governor. Logan MSS.
.
-
168
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1715
a quorum; but being full on the next day, they appointed a committee to inform him of the occurrence of the preceding day, and to declare their readiness now to proceed with busi- ness. But he sullenly and repeatedly refused to recognise them. This treatment was the more offensive, as such acci- dental breaches, in the order of their sessions, had frequently happened since 1709, and were instantly repaired, either by a summons from the governor, or his formal approbation of their subsequent meeting. The house, therefore, in a remon- strance prepared by Lloyd, strenuously maintained their right to proceed with the public business. But their committee, charged with this address, were driven from the governor's door, with threats and reproaches. The house, compelled to separate, vindicated their conduct in their usual manner, by publishing their proceedings at the exchange. They were convened by the governor on the third of August, but they passed no bill during their year of service.
In the succeeding year, Lloyd was again elected speaker; and, though the intercourse between the house and the go- vernor was marked by many petty quarrels, the business of the province was not impeded. One of the causes of com- plaint, on the part of the assembly, was the governor's negli- gence in punishing some rioters, who endeavoured to protect a certain clergyman, indicted for fornication, from legal pro- secution, on the ground that this offence was of ecclesiastical cognizance only. And the house deemed it necessary to re- mind him, that such offences in Pennsylvania " were triable in the quarter sessions;" and they resolved, that whoever endeavoured to persuade the governor, or any other, that the court of quarter sessions, as by law established, had not cog- nizance of such offences, should be deemed enemies to the governor and government.
Whatever regard the province may have entertained for the governor, in consequence of his occasional favourable disposition towards the popular party, was destroyed by a mea- sure, which momentarily unhinged all the subordinate autho- rities. An act, which had passed in 1710, directing affirma- tions to be administered to persons conscientiously scrupulous
169
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1716]
of taking an oath, had been repealed by the queen, but was supplied by another, passed on the twenty-eighth of May, 1715, to which the governor gave his sanction in the usual form. By an act of parliament of 1 Geo. I. the stat. of 7 and 8 Wil. III. was made perpetual in Great Britain, and was extended to the colonies for five years. By a provision of the latter act, no Quaker, by virtue thereof, could be qualified, or permitted to give evidence in any criminal case, or serve on juries, or hold any place or office of profit in the government. The extension of this act to the provinces, in the opinion of the governor, repealed the provincial law, and disqualified the Quakers from giving testimony in criminal cases, from sitting on juries, and from holding any office. If this were true, the consequences were perplexing and disastrous. Almost all the offices in the province were filled by Quakers; and the judges of the supreme court, who were not lawyers, staggered by the opinions of the governor, hesitated to pro- ceed in their official duties, in which it was necessary to re- ceive affirmations, or to stop the current of justice. The governor tenaciously adhered to his construction of the sta- tute, notwithstanding the desertion of his council, and the remonstrances of the assembly; who directed copies of their memorial to be forwarded to England. Lloyd, on the part of the house, contended, that the object of the first settlers and other Quakers, in emigrating to America, was to enjoy the privileges of English subjects, without violence to their religious principles, and that this was utterly destroyed by the governor's construction of the statute: that the act of William III. was affirmative, granting privileges to the Quakers in Great Britain, which they had not before possessed; and that its extension to the plantations did not deprive their inhabitants of the rights they enjoyed before its enactment, but confirmed such as were acknowledged; the prohibitory clause, in its utmost extent, only preventing the Quakers from claiming, by virtue of the act, the powers and benefits it prohibited: that to these the Quakers had a natural right, confirmed by the provincial laws warranted by their charter, which were efficient for five years, unless repealed by the
22
170
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1716
king in council, or repugnant to the laws of England: that the provincial act, authorizing affirmations, like the laws punishing crimes, and regulating the descent of real estates, differed from, but was not repugnant to, the English law : that this construction was corroborated, by the proclamation of queen Anne, extending to the province the affirmation allowed to Quakers, by the statute of William, not only for the purposes embraced by that act, but also for the qualifi- cation of magistrates and other officers; by the opinions of general Hunter, governor of New York and New Jersey, and of the chief justice of the latter colony, in a direct parallel case ; and by the instructions of the king to general Hunter, following, in all points, those established in the proclamation of the late queen. These views he further supported by cases industriously collected from the law reporters. This vexatious subject was finally put to rest in the year 1725, when an act, prescribing the form of declaration of fidelity, abjuration, and affirmation, having passed in the province, was ratified by the king in council.
The governor's good genius had now entirely abandoned him. Not content with arraying against himself all the Quaker interest in the province, he contrived to give it spe- cial activity, by assailing the political character of Isaac Norris and James Logan, the most distinguished men of that society, and of the colony; the former now mayor of Philadelphia, and speaker of the assembly. He charged them with disaf- fection to his majesty's government, and devotion to the pre- tender; and declared that the breach between Norris and himself was in consequence of his refusal to proclaim that prince. These allegations were without a shadow of proof or probability. Nor did the governor's infatuation stop here. He dared to protect, by a nolle prosequi, a wretch, by the name of Lowden, who attempted to assassinate Logan and Norris, for having, as judges of the common pleas, rendered judgment against him .*
Offences like these, against the dearest interests, and the
Votes. Proud.
1
171
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1716]
most distinguished citizens, of the province, called loudly for the removal of Gookin, from a station he had become un- worthy to fill. Isaac Norris, with some other friends of the proprietary, waited on the deputy-governor, and mildly ex- postulated with him on the inconsistency and ill consequences of his conduct. Affected by their representations, he gave them assurances of amendment, but his weakness and fickle- ness rendered his resolution vain. Much of his folly was ascribed to the influence of his relation, one Birmingham, after whom a township in Bucks county was named; who, though himself a vain and shallow man, had much alacrity of spirit, and obtained entire mastery over the sluggish temper of Gookin. Expostulation having proven vain, in restoring the governor to a sense of propriety, his council unanimously joined in an address to William Penn, praying his recall .* He met the assembly, for the last time, in March, 1717, and ex- torted from their compassion the sum of two hundred pounds, a valedictory donation. On the arrival of Keith, Gookin's successor, he was called to substantiate his charges against Logan and Norris before the council. But he openly re- tracted them, and ascribed his conduct to mental derange- ment. It is probable, that his understanding had been impaired for several years before his dismissal .;
The imputation on the loyalty of Norris and Logan, in- duced the assembly to address the king, and the preparation of the address was confided to the former. This paper shows that the language of courts was neither unknown nor con- temned by the primitive settlers of Pennsylvania. Ascribing the tardiness of their congratulation, on his accession to the throne, to the illness of the proprietary, they declared, that none could be more sensible of the blessings it conferred, nor express a warmer zeal for his service, than had filled their thankful breasts; and that they consoled themselves, for not hav- ing sooner approached him, by the reflection, that their sen- timents were expressed by the society in London, whose address was in behalf of the whole community of Friends:
* Logan MSS.
+ Minutes of council.
172
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1717
that such had been his goodness, exerted by a wise and steady administration, in making the laws his rule of government, in restoring the honour of the nation abroad, and extending its commerce, that the remotest parts of his dominions felt the benign influence of his paternal affection, and were bound to make the utmost returns of gratitude and obedience; and that, therefore, they were surprised that a portion of the British race were so lost to a sense of its own interest, and its duty to a prince of the most conspicuous and consummate virtues, as to murmur, much more, to rise in open and unna- tural rebellion, for the suppression of which, they, with hearts of sincere gratitude and joy, returned their humble acknowledg- ments to the Fountain of infinite goodness and mercy : that their principles were so essentially interwoven with the protestant interests of Great Britain, and their greatest concerns so en- tirely dependent upon the preservation of his majesty's per- son and royal issue, long to reign over them, that their own welfare could not possibly be separated from the indispensa- ble duty of showing themselves his loyal and most obedient subjects: and they prayed, that confusion and disappointment might attend all the devices of his enemies, and that the minds of his people might be composed, and universally inspired with the same spirit of love and obedience, with which they approached the throne.
Sir William Keith succeeded governor Gookin in May, 1717. But, in order that we may not break in upon the narrative of his administration, we will anticipate our chro- nological order, and notice here an afflicting dispensation of Providence, in the death of William Penn.
That great and good man died at Rushcomb, near Twy- ford, Buckinghamshire, England, on the thirtieth of July, 1718. As a leader of a Christian sect, he has left no mean reputation. His ability, courage, zeal, and perseverance, have made him conspicuous among religious reformers; but, as an apostle of civil liberty, the world has an interest in him which can never, fade, whilst order and freedom are dear to the human race.
173
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1717]
From his father, he inherited a disposition ardent and en- thusiastic, enterprising and courageous, reflecting and perse- vering. The energy of mind which advanced the one to the rank of rear-admiral at twenty-three years of age, rendered the other conspicuous amid the founders of a new religion, soon after he attained his majority. The father was distinguished by the love of glory and of arms; the son was not insensible to the value of fame, but sought it by diffusing the blessings of peace, and of religious and civil liberty. In this work, he la- boured with the firmness and devotion of heroism, struggling to attain its object, utterly regardless of himself. His voluntary abandonment of rank and fortune, his spirited and manly op- position to the abuses of the law, his patience under its in- flictions, his learning, industry, and perseverance, in the maintainance of his principles, acquired for him in early life the respect of the public, and the friendship of men of emi- nence and worth who did not approve his religious peculiari- ties. His religion made him obnoxious to the laws, and induced him to examine the principles on which, not only the laws, but the government that enacted them, were founded: and he discovered and adored the great truths, that the hap- piness of society is the true object of civil power, and that freedom exists only " where the laws rule, and the people are parties to the laws."
On these foundations was his colony erected. His merit will be the more justly appreciated by adverting to the state of the American colonies planted antecedently to the year 1780. These were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. The New England provinces sprang from the natural and selfish desires of their founders to withdraw themselves from power and oppression. Reli- gious toleration, and civil liberty, were not appreciated by them as rights essential to the happiness of the human race. The rights of conscience the puritans of these provinces demanded were such as protected themselves from the gibbet and lash, which they applied to force the consciences of others. Their civil
.
174
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1717
rights they regarded as exclusive property, acquired by pur- chase, the evidence of which was in their charter. Whilst Penn was offering to the world a communion of religious and civil freedom, the saints of Massachusetts excluded from the benefits of their government all who were not members of their church, and piously flagellated or hanged those who were not convinced of its infallibility. Roger Williams, proscribed and expelled for his own opinions, was the first to teach that the civil magistrate might not interfere in re- ligious matters, and that to punish men for opinion was per- secution. New York, without a charter or an assembly, was subject to the caprice of its governors, in civil as in ecclesi- astical matters. New Jersey had a free, a liberal, but an im- practicable constitution. The attempt to establish in that province the basis of a free government, though unsuccess- ful, and throwing the administration into the hands of the crown, was not useless. The people were introduced to the knowledge of sound political principles, which were never altogether abandoned. Maryland, possessing the most libe- ral, and the best digested, constitution that has emanated from a British monarch, and the most independent of the royal power, had been involved in civil war and religious persecu- tions during the revolution, and was now reduced to order and good government, by the resumption of executive power by the Calverts. But the Catholic faith of its governors and principal inhabitants, rendered its policy suspected by Protestants. Carolina was the subject of a most fanciful ex- periment of the renowned Locke, who framed for it an aris- tocratical constitution, totally inconsistent with the light of the age in which he lived; establishing an hereditary nobility, with large and unalienable landed estates, and the church of England as the religion of the state. Penn wisely modelled the royal charter for his province, as closely as possible upon the Maryland grant; and, though at the first institution of the government, he was doubtful of the propriety of giving the assembly the power to originate laws, experience soon taught him the wisdom of this measure. His government secured the blessings of property and personal freedom alike
175
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1717]
to Christian and to infidel; placed all persons on an equality before the laws, and admitted Christians of every denomina- tion to a full participation of political rights. The experience of a hundred and forty-seven years, during which political sci- ence has been widely extended, has added nothing essential to human happiness which his system had not provided; unless it be found in those constitutions which make no discrimi- nation in the religious faith of the citizens.
But the excellence of Penn's system is not confined to the provisions of his charters. His laws were dictated by wis- dom and humanity. The unequal and dangerous disposition of wealth, arising from the feudal principles of primogeni- ture, was abolished; the equal claims of children to the pro- perty of their common parent were acknowledged, and by this return to common sense and natural right, the dangers of accumulated wealth were avoided. But the philosophical mind of the Pennsylvania lawgiver is, perhaps, most discerni- ble in his criminal code. A scale, graduating the punishment to the offence, seemed in Europe to be undesired by the le- gislator. Death impended alike over the purloiner of a few grains of metal, and the murderer, who robbed a family of its support, and the country of a citizen; over the infraction of a revenue law, and the attempt to subvert the state. Death was ever ready to offer himself to the indolence of the law- giver, who found it less laborious to hang than to reclaim the criminal; to apply a common punishment, than to inves- tigate its propriety. Reason revolts at this indiscriminate punishment, and the humanity of the marquis Beccaria, Mon- tesquieu, and others, have contributed to convince the world, that its welfare is best promoted by a due apportionment of the punishment to the crime, and its certain application to the offender. Before these benevolent theorists gave their labours to the public-before they were born-Penn had prac- tically exhibited the beneficial results of the principles which they have advocated. He established a new code, in which the punishment of death was affixed to murder only; injuries to individuals were punished by compelling the criminal to make an adequate compensation to the party grieved, or by
1
176
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1717
imprisonment at hard labour; in all cases varying the punish- ment with the enormity of the offence. In the classification of crimes, there are, perhaps, some errors, inseparable from enthusiasm; but humanity and wisdom are eminently con- spicuous in the legislator. The boldness and originality of his genius will be more thoroughly understood by a glance at the policy of the age and country in which he lived. When he composed his plan of government, the despotic principles of the Stuarts were prevailing over the nation, liberty of conscience was proscribed by the laws, and almost every crime was punishable by death. In opposition to all this, he dared to consult his own reason, and follow the dic- tates of his own judgment, the soundness of which every re- volving year has confirmed.
Penn was ambitious, and animated by the love of fame. He sacrificed his time and his fortune in its pursuit; at least so much of them as was unnecessarily employed at the courts of James and Anne. The obscurity of his province was un- attractive; and, in the height of his favour with James, he was for a moment unregardful of the free principles on which it was founded. Had he applied himself, unreservedly and exclusively, to cultivate the scion he had planted, its growth would have been more rapid; and, under its shade, distant from the vexations and vicissitudes of English politics, he would have enjoyed the reward of his labour, competence, and the respect of the world. Pecuniary distress, at times, compelled him to give utterance to undignified and unjust complaints. The political benefits he had conferred upon his province, in his opinion, imposed on its inhabitants an obli- gation to be requited with money: his proprietary character claimed to be recognised by the establishment of some reve- nue. His people, on the contrary, felt these pretensions as a double charge, and were unwilling to maintain a resident and non-resident governor, the latter of whom had an estate in the soil of the province, which increased in a great and indefinable ratio.
In his demeanour, William Penn was grave, but not aus- tere; affable, but not familiar; and, whilst his intercourse
177
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1717]
with his friends was marked by the formality and peculiar phraseology in use with his sect, his correspondence with men of the world showed him to have been perfectly ac- quainted with polite manners. As a writer, he was much esteemed by his church; as a minister, he was bold, indus- trious, and successful; he was beloved by his family and a wide circle of friends. He had been twice married. His first wife was Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of sir Wil- liam Springett, of Darling, in Sussex. The fruit of this mar- riage was two sons and one daughter; Springett, William, and Letitia. Springett died in 1696, aged twenty-one years; William and Letitia, and three grand-children, children of his son William, survived him. His second wife was Han- nah, daughter of Thomas Callowhill, of Bristol, by whom he had five children; John, Thomas, Margarette, Richard, and Dennis, who, with their mother, were living at their father's death.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.