USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 9
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Votes. + He declined to avail himself of this revenue for the pre- sent, but considered it as a source of future profit. He was deprived of it by the repeal of the impost without his consent, during the administra- tion of his deputy, Thomas Lloyd. Logan MSS. # Penn's letter to
the society of traders. § Proud.
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peaceable means fail to determine their controversies. From this principle, provision was made for the appointment, at every county court, of three peace-makers, in the nature of common arbitrators, to hear and decide all differences be- tween individuals .* The assembly adjourned, after a session of twenty-two days, during which, beside enacting the laws we have noticed, they revised and confirmed the whole civil and criminal code.
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The judicial power was vested in permanent courts of jus- tice, to be erected by William Penn, during his life, and after- wards by the governor and council, when they should judge convenient. In some cases, this power was exercised by the proprietary and council. Several bills of indictment, for issuing counterfeit silver money, were preferred by a regular grand jury, and tried by a petit jury. One Pickering, and two of his accomplices, were convicted of coining silver, in the form of Spanish money, with too great an alloy of cop- per. Pickering was sentenced to redeem his base coin in good money, the former to be melted before it should be returned, to pay a fine of forty pounds towards building a court-house, to stand committed until the money was paid, and afterwards to find surety for his good behaviour.t Many civil cases also were brought before this tribunal, by original complaint, and by appeal from the county courts. In some instances, committees were appointed by council to expostu- late with and reconcile the parties; in others, trials were had without the intervention of a jury. Nor were the council satisfied to hear such causes only as were brought before them by the parties. They assumed a supervisory power over, and the right to judge, and punish summarily, the magistrates of the inferior courts. In one case, they fined the judges of the county court of Philadelphia, forty pounds for illegal conduct, in taking cognizance of a suit relating to land in the county of Bucks.# The only instance of a prosecution for witch- craft, which defiles the judicial records of Pennsylvania, is
· Penn's letter. t Proud. Minutes of council. + Votes. Minutes of council.
11
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registered on the minutes of council, A certain Margaret Matson was the accused; Penn presided at the trial, and the jury found the defendant "guilty of having the common fame of being a witch, but not guilty in manner and form as she stands indicted." No judgment was pronounced on this verdict.(1)
The intercommunion of the Indians and Europeans, added the vices of civilized life to those which the former already possessed. The Indians madly devoted themselves to ine- briation; and, notwithstanding a prohibitory law, the avarice and thoughtlessness of the needy and ignorant whites fur- nished them abundantly with ardent spirits, by which their health and reason were continually destroyed. Unable to restrain his own people from a practice which they found so profitable, Penn vainly appealed to the good sense of the In- dians. For, whilst they frankly confessed the injurious con- sequences of this destructive vice, and submitted to the punish- ment inflicted for intemperance upon their corruptors, no persuasion could induce its abandonment. Its prevalence probably saved, and has certainly supplied, the use of the sword. The tide of population, rapidly swelling along the shores of the Atlantic, required more land to sustain it than the savages would willingly have relinquished. War and the extermination of their race must have followed. But the unexampled mortality among them, of which intemperance was the active and mighty agent, swept them from the path of their invaders.
The legislature, at the session of this year, displayed a fur- ther grateful sense of the proprietary's merit. They voted him the sum of two thousand pounds, to be raised by duties on imported spirits, which he no longer declined; and they made it treason, punishable with death, to attempt his life, or to assail his power.
Penn had now executed all he had designed. He had established a government after his ideal model, contain- ing a principle of improvement and regeneration. He be-
(1) See Note S, Appendix.
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held a people, happy in their religious and civil liberty, growing in numbers beyond his most sanguine expectations, and grateful for the virtues which had served them. He had in prospect a quiet, gainful, and honoured future. But its quietude and monotony were features least recommendatory. His disposition was active, ambitious, and eager after fame. His present theatre was too circumscribed. Europe offered one more extensive, where, in the cast of characters, he had reason to believe, his would be distinguished. His proprie- tary and gubernatorial power would, even there, give him consideration. At the court of Charles he was influential, and by the duke of York respected and esteemed. These circumstances placed him at the head of his increasing sect; and the protection that he could give, would be repaid by the influence he would acquire. Although his knowledge of the world forbade him to form any visionary hopes of change in the English government, he was sufficiently acquainted with the state of parties in England to perceive that the time was favourable to religious toleration. To this subject, he was nobly and ardently devoted; and it is but justice to con- sider it as among the principal causes of his immediate return to London .* His dispute with Baltimore, and his domestic affairs, served as additional reasons for this determination.
Preparatory to his departure, he made the necessary ap- pointments for administering his government. The exe- cutive power was lodged with the provincial council, of which Thomas Lloyd, a quaker from Wales, was made president; to whom the charge of the great seal was specially com- mitted. Markham was created secretary of the province and the territories; Thomas Holmes, surveyor-general; Tho- mas Lloyd, James Claypoole, and Robert Turner, commis- sioners of the land-office; and Nicholas Moore, William Welsh, William Wood, Robert Turner, and John Eckley, provincial judges for two years. The proprietary sailed for Europe on the twelfth of June.
At his departure, the province and territories were divided into twenty-two townships, containing seven thousand inha- * Proud. Oldmixon. Clarkson.
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bitants, of whom two thousand five hundred resided in Phi- ladelphia. This city already comprised three hundred houses. A considerable trade was opened with the West Indies, with South America, and even with the Mediterranean, the profits of which centred in England, whence came the great mass of the colonial imports. *
* Moll. Oldmixon. Proud. Clarkson. Macpherson's Annals of Com- merce.
1
CHAPTER V.
Death of Charles the second. ... Accession of James. ... Conduct of Penn .... Impeachment of chief justice Moore. ... Proceed- ings against captain Robinson ···· Misconduct in the pro- vince ···· Attempts to convert the Indians ···· Penn solicited to return to the province .... Relations between the proprie- tary and his people ···· New executive commission ···· extra- ordinary instruction .... Alarm of Indian hostility .... John · Blackwell appointed deputy-governor ···· His administration .... David Lloyd ···· Revolution in England .... Its effect on Penn ···· New arrangement of the executive power of the council, jealousy of the territories, and dissolution of the union .... Displeasure of the proprietary .... Defence of the province .... Dispute with Keith .... William and Mary as- sume the province, and appoint Fletcher governor.
SOON after Penn's return to England, Charles the second died,* and was succeeded by James, duke of York, who was proclaimed in the province on the second of May. A most favourable opportunity of improving the province now pre- sented itself.
The religious and political principles of James were viewed with unconquerable dread by the greater part of his subjects. His zeal to convert the nation, threatened to overturn the established religion; whilst his high sense of royal preroga- tive made the people tremble, lest every barrier between legal power and absolute despotism should be broken down. Among protestants, every heart sank with apprehension, every eye wandered in jealousy and fear.
To have fanned the flame of discontent, to have turned the attention of the peaceable and the timid, the oppressed and
· February 6, 1681-5.
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those who dreaded oppression, to the shores of the Delaware, where liberty dwelt, and plenty showered competence on labour, was as facile as politic. The sagacity of Penn per- ceived the advantage, but gratitude forbade him to use it .* He owed much to the royal family, and lived on a familiar footing with the present monarch, between whom and the dissenters he desired to be the mediator. He attached him- self so steadily and ardently to the court, that he drew upon himself a share of the odium in which it was involved. Yet circumstances so friendly to emigration were not without their effect. Many persons of wealth and consideration sought an asylum in Pennsylvania, and purchased extensive tracts of land. These sales of large plots the proprietary greatly lamented, because he was thus deprived of the profit arising from the enhancement of the value of lands by the increased population. This profit he conceived due to his labour and expenditure, the latter having surmounted, by three thousand pounds sterling, his returns.t
The inhabitants of Pennsylvania have ever showed a jea- lous spirit on political subjects. Unawed by names or power, they have opposed a prompt resistance to usurpation, and to malversation in office an instant corrective. An early in- stance of this temper is found in the impeachment of Nicho- las Moore, chief justice of the province. He was charged with violence, partiality, and negligence, in a cause in which the society of free traders was interested. Ten articles were preferred against him, which he refused to answer, though frequently summoned by the council, and he was saved from conviction by some technical obstacle in the form of proceed- ing. But this did not protect him from punishment. He was expelled from the assembly, and was interdicted all places of trust by the council, until he should be tried upon the articles of impeachment, or should give satisfaction to the board. His offence was not of an heinous character, since he retained the confidence of the proprietary: and, in no-
Penn's letter to Popple. t Ibid. It appears by an entry in Council Book A, Oct. 24, 1684, that a warrant issued to survey for Ralph Fretwell a tract of land twelve miles square, in Chester county.
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ticing his punishment, we should remark, that he had in- curred the displeasure of the house, by having entered thrice in one day his single protest upon its minutes against the pas- sage of bills, which had been introduced without the publica- tion directed by the charter. The anger of the assembly was extended to Patrick Robinson, clerk of the provincial court, who had refused to produce before them the minutes of that court. They voted him to be a public enemy, and a violator of their privileges, and ordered him into the custody of the sheriff. When brought before the house, he complained of arbitrary and illegal treatment, refused to answer the ques- tions put to him, and, in a fit of sullenness, cast himself at full length upon the floor .* An address was presented to the council, requesting that the prisoner might be disqualified to hold any public office within the province or territories; but this punishment was not inflicted, as Robinson subse- quently held the clerkship of the council and other offices. Neither Moore nor Robinson were Quakers; they were charged with enmity to that sect, or, in the language of Penn, "were esteemed the most unquiet and cross to Friends." There were other disturbances at this time in the province. A certain John Curtis, a justice of the peace, was charged with uttering treasonable and dangerous words against the king. He was ordered to be tried by commissioners from the coun- cil, and, though no bill was found against him, he was dis- missed from his office, and compelled to give surety of the peace, in the sum of three hundred pounds: charges were made against several officers of government for extortion; and gross immoralities were practised among the lower class of people inhabiting the caves on the banks of the Delaware. These things were reported with great exaggeration in Eng- land, by the enemies of Penn and the Quakers; they pre- vented emigration, and greatly affected the reputation of the society of Friends and the proprietary.t
Many pious Friends laboured to convert the Indians to Christianity. But their doctrines made faint and temporary
Votes.
+ Penn's letter.
38.
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impressions on minds more open to European vices, which found advocates in their physical constitution, than to mys- terious and abstract principles, to them almost incomprehen- sible.
The presence of the proprietary in the province was now greatly desired. The assembly and his private friends earn- estly entreated his departure from London. But he found too much gratification at the court of St. James, where he was a favourite and a dispenser of favours, to listen to their instances. He pleaded, indeed, the necessity of using his influence to procure religious toleration .* But when this was effected by the proclamation for religious indulgence, and the suspension of the penal statutes against non-conformity, he urged the unwillingness of the province to provide a sufficient revenue for his maintainance as a reason for further delay.t His ideas of the style of living, befitting a provin- cial governor, were not very humble. " I resolve," he said, " never to act the governor, and keep another family and capacity upon my private estate; if my table, cellar, and sta- ble may be provided for, with a barge and yacht, or sloop, for the service of governor and government, I may try to get hence."¿ He complained that the province had failed to fulfil its promise to reimburse him for the extraordinary expenses he had incurred.§ There was certainly much cause for these complaints. The only act that looked toward pecuniary re- compense, was the impost law of 1683; but, small as that revenue must have been, it was slowly and partially collect- ed. (1)
Nor was this his only cause of complaint. His quit-rents were in arrear, and his urgent solicitations to have them punc- tually paid were disregarded: he required in vain to have copies of the laws submitted to him: his letters to the coun- cil were neglected and unanswered; and his exhortations to concord were ineffectual. This negligence on the part of the government he held to be a forfeiture of their charter, which
* Clarkson.
+ Proud.
+ Penn's letter to Harrison, 23d Sep-
tember, 1685.
§ Proud.
(1) See Note T, Appendix.
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in mercy only he forbore to resume. * But the people were not without apology. They believed the proprietary abun- dantly rich. He had sold lands to the value of twenty thou- sand pounds, which yielded a quit-rent of five hundred pounds sterling per annum. Contrasting the ample possessions of the landlord, with the pittance they found it difficult to pay, they considered the demand of his rents, enforced by the sheriff, as cruel and unjust; their own necessities closing their eyes to the pressure of his wants and the legality of his claims. (1)
For their political errors they were entitled to greater in- dulgence. However great the discoveries, and extended the knowledge, of the proprietary, in political science, his follow- ers and immediate agents could not all boast like acquire- ments. The lives of the statesmen of Pennsylvania, antece- dently to the settlement, were not devoted to such studies. Merchants, agriculturists, mechanics, and labourers, had nei- ther time nor opportunity to investigate abstract principles, nor to trace their practical application; and, being chiefly Quakers, their zeal for a new religion absorbed their ener- gies. After their emigration, the government, the country, and their circumstances, were altogether new. Difficulties too trivial to relate, yet sufficient to embarrass an unpractised administration, constantly presented themselves. And it is highly probable, that the habitual morality of the colonists, and the necessity of close application to labour, were as ef- ficient causes in promoting the peace and happiness of the province, as its excellent laws, or the wisdom of their admi- nistration. This want of political experience, in minds ex- cited by the novelty of their situation, might engender fears and jealousies which would extend even to the proprietary, and lead to acts that were ungrateful to him.
The negligence of their duties, by the greater part of the council, their disagreement, and other inconveniences, result- ing from a multiform executive, induced the proprietary to devolve his gubernatorial powers on five commissioners, any
Proud.
(1) See Note U, Appendix.
12
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three of whom were empowered to act. He selected Tho- mas Lloyd, Nicholas Moore, James Claypoole, Robert Tur- ner, and John Eckley. His instructions to these, present a new view of his estimate of the proprietary power. His "Frame of government," though unquestionably a contract between himself and his people, he held to be the gift of his special grace, revocable at his pleasure, when he believed its conditions were broken; and the laws enacted with the con- sent of his deputies, void at his discretion .* These preten- sions, so hostile to liberty, prostrating at once the constitu- tion and laws, were borrowed from the dispensing power claimed by the king, and by him so fatally and liberally exercised. In conformity with these principles, he directed his commissioners, if dissatisfied with the council, to appoint others, though the charter gave their election to the people; to abrogate all laws passed since his departure from the pro- vince, though such power belonged to the crown only; and to search curiously for infractions of the charter, whether by the council or assembly.t The commissioners wisely kept their instructions secret, and refrained to enforce such parts as would inevitably have roused the indignation of the assembly. From that body, at all times jealous of the council, and prompt to oppose its authority when the legality of its exercise was doubtful, the commissioners would not have escaped without severe animadversion had they attempted to overthrow the constitution. Their administration was prudent, steady, and efficient.
The succeeding two years of the provincial history is bar- ren of interesting incident, except an alarm of Indian hosti- lity, which produced a short but violent agitation. Two Indian women of New Jersey informed a Dutch resident of Ches- ter, that the Indians had conspired to destroy the white inhabitants. On the night of the day predicted for the in- surrection, a messenger from the woods arrived at Ches- ter, with information that three families, nine miles distant, had been butchered by the savages. Several persons im- mediately proceeded to the place, and found the houses * Proud. + Penn's inst. Proud.
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deserted, but without any marks of violence; their tenants, having themselves been alarmed by the report of hostili- ties, had fled to the dwellings of their parents at Ridley creek. Rumour soon gave the most frightful form to the news. It was reported in Philadelphia that five hundred armed Indians were collected at Naaman's creek, resolved on indiscriminate slaughter. A messenger despatched for intel- ligence, confirmed the report, with the variation, that the warriors were at an Indian town on the Brandywine river, whence they had removed their king, who was lame, and their women and children, that they might be secure from the perils of battle. Many of the Quakers, relying upon the justice and humanity which had been observed towards the Indians, refused credence to these reports; and Caleb Pusey, a member of the council, then in session, offered to proceed to the village, if five others would accompany him, unarmed. His proposal was instantly accepted. On the arrival of the deputies at the wigwam, they beheld every where the sem- blance of peace. The king was lying quietly in his bed, the women were at work in the fields, and the children at play round the doors. With some surprise, the chief demanded the cause of their visit, and, having learned the report, he expressed great indignation against its authors, and declared that his people had no cause of complaint against the whites; who owed him fifteen pounds, it was true, for lands bought by the proprietary, which he expected would be paid when they should be settled: he concluded, by advising the de- puties to attend to their harvest, then ripe, without fear of the Indians, who intended them no harm .*
Thomas Lloyd, to whom the proprietary had given his unreserved confidence, growing weary of political labours, solicited permission, which was reluctantly granted, to retire from the cares of government. Dissatisfied with a plural executive, he recommended the appointment of a single de- puty. Penn, unable to find among the Quakers an indivi- dual qualified to perform the duties of lieutenant-governor,
* Proud.
-
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who would accept the office, was willing to try whether a stranger, one having no familiar intercourse with the colo- nists, might not inspire them with greater reverence than they had hitherto felt for his substitutes .* His choice fell on captain John Blackwell, formerly an officer of Crom- well, under whom he had earned a distinguished reputa- tion in England and Ireland.t He was in New England when he received his commission, dated twenty-fifth of July, 1688, which was sent him on the assurance of his wife, a daughter of general Lambert, that it would be accepted.
The instructions to Blackwell were more honourable to the proprietary than those to his commissioners, and evince a spirit chastened by the misfortunes of himself and the king. He directed that the government should be administered in his name, by the style of his patent only, "absolute proprie- tary of Pennsylvania;" that all commissions signed by him in Europe should be confirmed by the seal of the province ; that a copy of the laws, for which he had hitherto solicited in vain, should be sent to him; that speedy and impartial justice should be done to all; that fines should be apportioned to the offence and ability of the offender; that religious and national feuds should be prevented; that the rights of the widow, the orphan, and the absent, should be specially re- garded; that the sheriffs of the respective counties should collect his rents and fines, and give security for their pay- ment; that care should be taken to protect the people from imposition by the sheriffs and clerks of the peace, and that the magistrates should live soberly and peaceably; that the roads and highways should be made straight and commodious for travellers ; and that the governor should consider the best means to promote the prosperity of the province, and should report to him what existing laws were unnecessary, and what additional ones were requisite.
Blackwell's administration continued little more than a year, and was remarkable only for the discord which pre- vailed between him and the chief inhabitants. He impoliti-
* Penn's letter. + Proud.
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cally endeavoured to establish a militia, and commenced an inquiry into the legality of the provincial trade with foreign countries, and, against the sense of the council, declared such trade inadmissible under the royal charter; but finally con- sented to refer the question to the decision of the proprietary. He persecuted and arrested White, the speaker of the pre- ceding assembly, who had been actively engaged in the pro- secution of Moore: he imprisoned and superseded David Lloyd, clerk of the supreme court, for refusing to deliver him the records, without the order of the judges: he re- fused to submit any new laws to the assembly, pleading the instructions of the proprietary to the commissioners in his justification : he alarmed the people by doubts of the constitutionality of the laws already enacted, and by suspend- ing them until they should be approved by the proprietary. These measures were extremely vexatious. They arrested the improvement of the country, and rendered every interest dependent upon the proprietary, who could not be timely con- sulted. *
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