USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 4
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
- [1681.
It provides that " black servants shall be free at fourteen years end, on giving the society two- thirds of what they can produce on land allotted to them by the society, with stock and tools; if they agree not to this, to remain servants till they do." Trade with the Indians for peltry was another purpose of the society; and they made overtures of trade to many sachems, ex- tending their views even to Canada. They also contemplated assistance to Indians settling in towns, "by giving them advice and instruction in handicraft." Among the prominent members settled in the country were Nicholas Moore and James Claypoole. Most of their city property remained unoccupied, and in common, until the breaking up of the society, and the passing of the property into other hands.
"Society Hill," as the elevated land in their allotment was called, was a parade-ground, and had on its summit a flag-staff. Here Whitefield preached in the open air, and other clergymen, following his example, kept up continuous ser- vices. Now, not a vestige of the hill remains, and a dense population has obliterated the last trace of the city possessions of the "Society of Free Traders." Like other adventurers, they were very much disappointed in their expecta- tions of trade with the aborigines. The "mono- poly speculators," with these facts transpiring
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before them, must have felt quite reconciled to William Penn's refusal to treat with them. We have anticipated our dates to say the least of. this enterprise, and now return to our continuous narrative.
CHAPTER III.
Preface to Penn's Frame of Government-Consultations about the Frame-Antagonistic influences-Deed of release from the Duke of York-The territories-Penn's embarkation- His fellow-passengers-Death of his mother-Farewell- Letter to Stephen Crisp-The passage-Sickness on board -Penn's arrival at New Castle-At Upland, now Chester- Reception-Preliminaries of government-Landing at Phi- ladelphia-Intercourse with the Indians-Visit to New York -Treaty at Shackamaxon-Indian respect for Penn-Tra- dition of his speech-Presumed terms of the treaty-Penns- bury.
IN the spring of 1682, William Penn pub- lished a plan, or "Frame of Government," for his colony. This plan required subsequent changes and modifications. But in the preface he laid down certain principles which are un- changeable. This paper we present entire, as one of those documents from the fathers of this republic, which deserve remembrance. Happy would that state be, which should be guided by its principles.
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" When the great and wise God had made the world, of all his creatures it pleased him to choose man as his deputy to rule it; and to fit him for so great a charge and trust, he did not only qualify him with skill and power, but with integrity to use them justly. This native good- ness was equally his honour and his happiness, and while he stood here, all went well; there was no need of coercive or compulsive means; the principle of divine love and truth in his bosom was the guide and keeper of his inno- cency. But lust prevailing against duty, made a lamentable breach upon it; and the law that had before no power over him, took place upon him and his disobedient posterity, that such as would not live conformably to the holy law within, should fall under the correction of the just law without, in a judicial administration.
"This the apostle teaches in divers of his epistles. ‹The law,' says he, 'was added, be- cause of transgression.' In another place, ' know- ing that the law was not made for the righteous man, but for the disobedient and the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy and profane, for mur- derers, * * and others.' But this is not all; he opens and carries the matter of govern- ment a little further : «Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power, but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God; whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power,
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resisteth the ordinance of God; for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou not be afraid of the power ? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. -He is the minister of God to thee for good .- Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but conscience' sake.'
" This settles the divine right of government beyond exception, and that for two ends: first, to terrify evil-doers; secondly, to cherish those that do well; which gives government a life be- yond corruption, and makes it as durable in the world as good men shall be. So that govern- ment seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end; for if it does not directly remove the cause, it crushes the effects of evil, and is, as such, though a lower, yet an emanation of the same divine power that is both author and object of pure religion; the difference lying here, that the one is more free and mental, the other more corpo- ral and compulsive in its operation; but that is only to evil-doers, government, itself being otherwise as capable of kindness, goodness, and charity as a more private society. They weakly err, who think there is no other use of govern- ment than correction, which is the coarsest part of it. Daily experience tells us that the care and regulation of many other affairs, more soft, and daily necessary, make up the greatest part
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1682.
of government, and which must have followed the peopling of the world, had Adam never fallen, and will continue, among men on earth under the highest attainments they may arrive at, by the coming of the blessed second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Thus much of govern- ment in general, as to its use and end.
"For particular frames and modes it becomes me to say little, and, comparatively, I will say nothing. My reasons are, first, that the age is too nice and difficult for it, there being nothing the wits of men are more divided and busy upon. 'Tis true, they seem to agree in the end, to wit, happiness, but in the means they differ, as to divine, so to this human felicity; and the cause is much the same, not always want of light and knowledge, but want of using them rightly. Men side with their passions against their rea- sons; and their sinister interests have so strong a bias upon their minds, that they lean to them against the good of the things they know.
"Secondly, I do not find a model in the world that time, place, and some singular emergencies have not essentially altered; nor is it easy to frame a civil government that shall serve all places alike.
"Thirdly, I know what is said by the several admirers of monarchy, aristocracy, and demo- cracy, which are the rule of one, of a few, and of many, and are the three common ideas of
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government when men discourse on that subject. But I choose to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three: any government is free to the people under it, whatever be the frame, where the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws; and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion.
" But, lastly, when all is said, there is hardly one frame of government in the world so ill-de- signed by its first founders," that in good hands would not do well enough; and history tells us, that the best, in ill hands, can do nothing that is great and good: witness the Jewish and Ro- man states. Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and then government cannot be bad. If it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be ever so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn.
"I know some say, 'Let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them.' But let them consider, that though good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want good men, and be abolished or evaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones. "Tis true, good laws
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[1682.
have some awe upon ill ministers, but that is where those have not the power to escape or abolish them, and where the people are generally wise and good; but a loose and depraved people (which is the question) love laws and an admin- istration like themselves. That, therefore, which makes a good constitution must keep it, namely, men of wisdom and virtue; qualities that, because they descend not with human inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth; for which after ages will owe more to the care and prudence of founders and their suc- cessive magistracy, than to their parents, for their private patrimonies.
"These considerations of the weight of go- vernment, and the nice and various opinions about it, made it uneasy to me to think of pub- lishing the ensuing frame and conditional laws, foreseeing both the censures they will meet with from men of different humours and engagements, and the occasion they may give of discourse beyond my design.
"But, next to the power of necessity, which is a solicitor that will take no denial, this in- duced me to a compliance, that we have, with reference to God and good conscience to men, to the best of our skill, contrived and composed the frame and laws of this government, to the great end of all government, viz., to support power in reverence with the people, and to
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secure the people from the abuse of power, that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just admin- istration; for liberty without obedience is con- fusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.
"To carry this evenness is partly owing to the constitution, and partly to the magistracy ; where either of these fall, government will be subject to convulsions; but where both are want- ing, it must be totally subverted; then where both meet, the government is like to endure, which I humbly pray and hope God will please to make the lot of this of Pennsylvania. Amen."
This preface bears indubitable marks of being the sole composition of William Penn. But in the Frame of Government he consulted those who had adventured with him; and in some particu- lars his wishes were overruled, by those who made the adoption of their views a condition, without which they could not take part with him. Algernon Sidney was in particular con- sulted; and the plan of government, in its main particulars, appears to have been the joint pro- duction of Penn and Sidney. The feudal rela- tion in which Penn stood was difficult to recon- cile with the democratic ideas which Sidney held, and to which William Penn was inclined. The preface which we have given, indicates the " discourse with a considerable argument," which the founder says that he had with Sidney; and 6*
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which he had, no doubt, with others. The essen- tial democratic features of Penn's plan remain without change. The original frame or con- stitution underwent the first of its modifications at the second meeting of the council and as- sembly of the colony, at Philadelphia, in 1683. To avoid repetition, we postpone our notice of the frame until we arrive at the date of the Provincial Assembly, by which it was revised. A code of laws was prepared in England, and as this was reviewed and enlarged and enacted by the first assembly of the province, it will be · given in its order.
That every thing might be done which should remove the possibility of clashing rights and sovereignties, William Penn next obtained a deed of release from the Duke of York, and his heirs, of all claim to sovereignty over the tract embraced in the limits of Pennsylvania. He also procured the fee simple in the land now composing the State of Delaware, paying there- for to the Duke of York one-half of all the revenues derived from it. This tract is, in the early history of Pennsylvania, known under the name of "The Territories."
Thus having closed all the business relative to his colony which could be done in England, Penn embarked at Deal on board the "ship Welcome, of three hundred tons burden, Robert Greenaway commander." In this little vessel,
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1683.]
for small she seems compared with those that now convey passengers, Penn had more than a hundred fellow-passengers, adventurers to his new colony. They were most of the members of the Society of Friends, and Penn's old neigh- bours in Sussex, where he had a mansion. It was a most formidable undertaking in those days to cross the Atlantic, and William Penn seems to have been deeply impressed with it, and anxious to close up all his affairs, and per- form all his duties, as if he were setting his house in order. We do not think that he under- took the voyage with any great alacrity. He felt a vocation, to use his own language, to em- ploy his influence and improve his position at court for the relief of his suffering brethren of the same faith. Almost on the eve of his de- parture he exerted himself in this charitable and most worthy cause, procuring the discharge from arrest of several members of his sect.
His mother died in the spring of this year, and William Penn was deeply moved and af- fected. We read in his beautiful letter of fare- well to his wife and children the wisdom of a man made wise by chastening, and the affection of a heart softened by affliction. As a promi- nent and conscientious member of the society, he could not leave England without a farewell message, and this he prepared under the title of "An Epistle containing a Salutation to all
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1683.
Faithful Friends, a Reproof to the Unfaithful, and a Visitation to the Inquiring in the Land of my Nativity." He wrote many letters to individuals, and from one of these we make an extract, as exhibiting the conflict in his mind between the calls of duty at home and in his colony. The letter was written to Stephen Crisp, like the writer, an esteemed preacher in his society.
" The Lord will bless that ground! I have also a letter from thee which comforted me; for many are my trials, yet not more than my sup- . plies from my Heavenly Father, whose glory I seek, and the renown of his blessed name. And truly, Stephen, there is work enough, and here is room to work in. Surely God will come in for a share in this planting work, and that heaven shall leaven the lump in time. I do not believe the Lord's providence had run this way toward me, but that he has an heavenly end and service in it; so with him I leave all, and myself and thou, and his dear people and blessed name in earth."
The vessel sailed about the first of September, and made, in regard to time, a prosperous pas- sage, being less than two months. On the 24th the entrance of the Delaware was reached, and on the 27th the Welcome arrived opposite New Castle. Here he produced the deeds from the Duke of York, and was formally invested with
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PENN'S FIRST VISIT.
1683.]
the possession of the town and country, by the "delivery of turf and twig, and soil of the River Delaware." The small-pox had reduced the number of the passengers one-third, and the proprietor had doubly endeared himself to the passengers by his attention both to the physical comforts and the spiritual wants of the sick. His «good conversation," says Richard Town- send, one of the passengers, "was very advan- tageous to all the company, and we had many good meetings on board." From the same testi- mony we learn that the fear of disease did not abate the kindness of the inhabitants. "The chief inhabitants were Indians and some Swedes, who received us in a friendly manner; and though there was a great number of us, the good hand of Providence was seen in a particular manner, in that provisions were found for us by the Swedes and.Indians at reasonable rates, as well as brought from divers other parts that were inhabited before."
After addressing the people, renewing the commissions of the magistrates, and accepting pledges of fidelity and obedience, Penn pro- ceeded to Upland, now, and from the date of his arrival, called Chester. It was so named by P'enn in compliment to his friend and fellow- passenger Pearson, who came from the city of that name in England. From this place he addressed a summons to the magistrates and
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. - [1683.
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people of the Territories, to meet him at New. Castle on the 2d of November. The "court" or audience was held accordingly, and Penn ad- dressed them upon the objects for which he had summoned them, viz., to confirm their land titles, provide room for new settlers, and esta- blish temporarily the laws of New York, until an assembly could be summoned to enact a new code.
Having thus arranged the preliminaries of his government-over the Territories, Penn next pro- ceeded to his province proper. It is related that he went up the Delaware in an open boat or barge, and reached the site of his future city about the 8th of November, as noted in the minutes of the Friends' meeting, held on that day at Fainan's Mansion, Shackamaxon, now Kensington. Dock Creek, now marked only by the line of Dock street, a crooked phenomenon among Philadelphia right angles, was then a beautiful rural stream; and the emigrants who had preceded Penn had commenced to build on the north side of this creek, in the angle formed by its connection with the Delaware. Here stood the "Blue Anchor Tavern" on the corner of Front street and the creek margin, and at the landing opposite this house Penn disembarked. Among those who welcomed the Founder were the Swedes and Indians; and Penn, who had brought with him a theoretic liking for these sons
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1683.]
of the forest, and a determination to test what kindness could do in civilizing them, took an early opportunity to cultivate their acquaintance. He walked with them, sat down on the ground at their side, and partook of their primitive re- past of roasted acorns and hominy. The de- lighted Indians, at a loss for words with one who could not understand them, expressed their pleasure by feats of agility, and William Penn, not to be outdone by his new friends, sprang up, and out-leaped them all !
After the transaction of such business as op- portunity afforded, and the circumstances re- quired, Penn visited the province of New York, visiting . the Jersey Friends, with whom he had been in business relations, and seeking out also the people of his faith in Long Island, and at other places. In November he returned, and during the latter part of this month was held the famous meeting with the Indians, at the treaty tree at Shackamaxon, now Kensington. This . tree stood until 1810, when it was blown down, and a small monument now marks its former site. Penn had instructed his commissioners who preceded him to this country, to make a treaty or league with the Indians. It appears from the circumstances that this meeting was held for the ratification of the work commenced by those commissioners. No written record of the transaction remains, and there is no deed or
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1683.
grant of land bearing date from this meeting. It was not, therefore, for the purchase of land. but for the interchange of friendly greetings and assurances that William Penn met the In- dians at Shackamaxon. It was the proper com- mencement of his intercourse with his new neigh- bours, and its effects remain upon them to this day. The traditions of the aborigines have canonized the great "Onas," as they called him, translating the word pen into their language; and the dress and manners of a "Quaker" are assurances to their confidence. The venerable John Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, remarks upon the aversion of the Indians to treaties made anywhere except in the open air. " William Penn," the Indians told Heckewelder, " when he treated with them adopted the ancient mode of their ancestors, and convened them under a grove of shady trees, where the little birds on the boughs were warbling their sweet notes.' In commemoration of these conferences, which are always to the Indians a subject of pleasing remembrance, they frequently assem- bled together in the woods, in some shady spot, as nearly as possible similar to those where they used to meet their brother Miguon, (Penn,) and there lay all his words or speeches, with those of his descendants, on a blanket, or a clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction go over the whole. This practice, which I have repeatedly
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TREATY OF SHACKAMAXON.
1683.]
witnessed, continued till the year 1780, when the disturbances which then took place put an end to it, probably for ever." The name Mi- guon has the same signification as Onas.
The Indians assembled at Shackamaxon in great numbers, painted and armed. The handful of Friends who met them were without any weapon whatever; but Onas, or Penn, was dis- tinguished from his suite by a sash of blue silk network. Various articles of merchandise, in- tended as presents, were borne before the Euro- peans. The Indian chief who presided was Tanunend, whose name seems to belong alike to the legends of New York and Pennsylvania. Advancing before his warriors, he placed upon his head a chaplet adorned with a small horn, the emblem of kingly power, and of religious. and inviolable peace. At this symbol the In- dians laid aside their arms, and seating them- selves in the form of a half-moon, awaited the conference. Tanunend signified through an in- terpreter their readiness to hear, and William Penn addressed them in a speech of which tradi- tion has preserved the substance.
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The Great Spirit, he said, who made him and them, and who knew the innermost thoughts of man, knew that he and his friends had a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with them, and to serve them to the utmost of their power. It was not their custom to use
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1683.
hostile weapons against their fellow-creatures, for which reason they had come unarmed. Their object was not to do injury, but to do good. They were then met on the broad pathway of good faith and good-will, so that no advantage was to be taken on either side, but all was to be openness, brotherhood, and love. After these and other words, Penn opened a parchment which he held in his hand, and conveyed to the Indians, article by article, the terms upon which he placed the intercourse between them, as al- ready given in his instructions to the commis- sioners, and made the basis of their conferences with the Indians for the purchase of land. He then laid the parchment on the ground, observ- ing that the ground should be common to both people. Having distributed presents among the chiefs, he proceeded to say that he would not call them children or brothers only; for often parents were apt to whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes would differ. Neither would he compare the friendship be- tween them to a chain, for the rain might some- times rust it, or a tree might fall and break it; but he would consider them as the same flesh and blood with the Christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts. He then took up the parchment, and presented it to the sachem who wore the horn in the chaplet, and desired him and the other
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TREATY OF SHACKAMAXON.
1683.]
sachems to preserve it carefully for three gene- rations, that their children might know what had passed between them, just as if he had re- mained himself with them to repeat it.
The Indians, as is their decorous custom, lis- tened in perfect silence. The chiefs, we may suppose, as Penn describes their general custom, deliberated for some moments, and then one of them, speaking in the king's name, and taking Penn by the hand, pledged the Indians to live in love with William Penn as long as the sun and moon endure. No tradition of the Indian speech on this occasion is preserved. We may remark, that this tree had been the place be- tween the Indians and Penn's commissioners when they settled the purchases which were made before Penn's arrival; and as Shacka- maxon signified, in the Indian language, "the place of kings," probably it was an old council ground. The principal tribes represented were three, the Lenni Lenape, the Mingoes, and the Shawnees. The Lenni Lenape, usually called the Delaware Indians by the Europeans, appear to have been the fathers and possessors of the soil. The Mingoes, called by the French the Iroquois, were a confederacy known among the English as the Five Nations, and afterward the Six Nations. The Shawnees were a warlike tribe, exiled from the south, and tolerated or protected by the Delawares. It should be ob-
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA: [1683.
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