USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 7
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1684.
never find him denying the power he was sup- posed to have-but always on the alert to exer- cise it, and always, it must be conceded, in the cause of humanity. If he made any profit of his interest, it was not from his persecuted clients, nor from the victims of political persecution whom he defended, but in the mode indicated in the following extract from his own declarations : "I cast about. in mind what way I might be helpful to the public, and as little hurtful to my own concerns as I could,.for I had then a cause depending about bounds of land in America, with the Lord Baltimore, before the council, that was of importance to me." This cause was unsettled at Penn's death. There were also other move- ments in relation to the colonies, in regard to which Penn felt it necessary to be vigilant. The inconveniences which his colony suffered by his absence led to the underrating of his motives for remaining in England; especially by colonial au- thorities, and those historians who have followed them. That his interests, and those of Penn- sylvania, would have been better promoted by a residence in his colony is now generally sup- posed; but we must remember that it is easier to pronounce an opinion on the past than to decide what to do in a present difficulty.
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While debating what course to pursue, Penn found exercise for his active temperament and philanthropy in pleading the cause of single
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PENN'S ACCOUNT.
1685.]
sufferers for conscience' sake, the "times being too eel" for public appeals or extended move- ments. But in February, 1685, a new com- plexion was put upon public matters by the death of Charles II. King James peaceably succeeded, though not without great alarm among English Protestants, churchmen and dissenters, on ac- count of the new monarch's undisguised ad- herence to the Romish church. No better brief. account of the accession of James and his first measures has been written than that found in a letter of Penn to his friend Thomas Lloyd. Im- mediately upon the death of Charles, and James's accession, a "proclamation followed, with the king's speech, to maintain the church and state as established, to keep. property and use clemency. Tonnage and poundage, with the excise, are re- vived de bene esse, till the Parliament meet. One is now choosing. The people of Westminster just gone by to choose. It sits the 19th of third month next. In Scotland, one next month. Severities continue still, but some ease, to us faintly promised. Be careful that no indecent speeches pass against the government, for the king going with his queen publicly to mass gives occasion. He declared he concealed himself to obey his brother, and that now he would be above board; which we like the better on many ac- counts. I was with him and told him so; but, withal, hoped we should come in for a share.
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[1685.
He smiled, and said he desired not that peacea- ble people should be disturbed for their religion. And till his coronation, the 23d, when he and his consort are together to be crowned, no hope of a release; and, till the Parliament, no hope of a fixed liberty. My business, I would hope, is better. The late king, the papists will have, died a Roman Catholic; for he refused (after his usual way of evading uneasy things, with unpreparedness first, and then weakness,) the Church of England's communion, Bishop Ken, of Wells, pressing him that it would be to his comfort and that of his people to see he died of that religion he had made profession of while living; but it would not do. And once, all but the duke, Earl of Bath, and Lord Feversham were turned out; and one Huddlestone, a Romish priest, was seen about that time near the cham- ber. This is most of our views. The popish lords and gentry go to Whitehall to mass daily ; and the Tower, or royal chapel, is crammed, by vying with the Protestant lords and gentry. The late king's children by the Dutchess of Portsmouth go thither.
" Our king stands more upon his terms than the other with France; and though he has not his brother's abilities, he has great discipline and industry. Alas! the world is running over to you : and great quantities together is to put the sale of lands out of my own hands, after I had
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PENN'S ACCOUNT.
1685.]
spent what I got by my own in the public service, for I am £3000 worse in my estate than at first. I can say it before the Lord: I have only the comfort of having approved myself a faithful steward, to my understanding and ability; and yet I hope that my children will receive it in the love of yours when we are gone. Keep up the people's hearts and love. I hope to be with them next fall, if the Lord prevent not. I long to be with you. No temptations prevail to fix me here."
So wrote Penn at the beginning of his long absence; and the earnest desire which he then felt to return to America failed after many de- lays, and was diminished no doubt by the very occurrences in Pennsylvania which rendered the ed of his presence the greater. Private letters like the above, written in confidence, are in- teresting as developing character. The "alas!" at the increase of emigration is an honest regret at the sales of land in large lots, which gave the profits of the transaction to speculators. As settlers bought, it was in smaller lots of the first purchasers, and thus Penn lost what he might have received by the enhanced value which in- creased emigration gave to eligible lands. He might have much increased emigration by the issue of new proposals, but friendship for the king, and wise caution, forbade his taking ad- vantage of the popular fears, by proclaiming the
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1685.
advantages of an asylum from persecution and oppression in the new world.
King James was duly proclaimed in Pennsyl- vania, on the 22d of April, 1685. The style of the proclamation may interest our readers :__ " Pennsilvania :- Wee the President and Pro- vinciall Councill, accompanied with the represen- tatives of the Freemen in Assembly, and Divers Magistrats, Officers, and other Persons of note, doe in Duty and in concurrence with our neigh- bouring Provinces, Solemnly publish and Declare that James, Duke of York and Albany, by the decease of our late Sovereign Charles the Se- cond, is now become our Lawfull Liege Lord and King, James the Second of England, Scot- land, France and Ireland; and (amongst others of his dominions in America) of this Province of Pennsilvania and its Territories KING ; To whom Wee acknowledge faithfull and constant obedience, hartily wishing him a happy Reign in health, peace and prosperity. And so God Save the King !"
The first difficulty which occurred in the pro- vince of a public nature, grew out of some al- leged misconduct of Nicholas Moore, whom Penn had appointed chief-justice. Mr. Moore was at the same time member of the assembly, and was also President of the Free Society of Traders. Articles of impeachment were prepared against him, charging him with violence, partiality, and
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1685.] IMPEACHMENT QF MOORE.
negligence, as chief-justice, in a cause in which the traders were interested. He had incurred the anger of the house by three times in one day entering his single protest against bills in- troduced without the previous publication re- quired by the charter. He refused to appear and plead to the impeachment before the coun- cil, and was thereupon enjoined to cease acting in any place of authority or judicature till the articles of impeachment were examined. What were the charges does not clearly appear, but they could not have been of very great weight, since Penn, in alluding to them, says, "that may be a mighty political vice which is not a moral one." Moore also received high evidence of Penn's confidence, though he certainly had no great personal liking for him, since he speaks of him and Patrick Robinson, as " most unquiet and cross to Friends." Robinson was clerk of the provincial court, and refused to produce be- fore the assembly the court records without an order from the bench ; and as the bench was not obedient enough to order evidence to be produced for its own trial, the records were not forthcom- ing. The assembly requested the council to de- clare the contumacious clerk unqualified to hold any office, but it does not appear that this was done.
The letter of Penn's request, that " no indecent speeches pass against the government," was fol-
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1685.
lowed in the case of one John Curtis, a justice of the peace, who, for certain " treasonable and dangerous words against the king," was dismiss- ed from his office, and required to find surety in three hundred pounds to keep the peace. Charges of extortion were made against several officers of government ; the " caves" were said to be places of gross immorality, and altogether the good city of Philadelphia was in a state of much disquiet. The echo of the criminations and recriminations of the disputants across the Atlantic seems to have been much greater than the facts warranted. The worthy proprietary's uneasiness may be judged of by his correspond- ence. In a letter addressed in 1685 to the magistrates of the colony, he says :-
" There is a cry come over unto these parts against the number of drinking houses and loose- ness that is committed in the caves. I am press- ed in my spirit, being very apt to believe too many disorders in that respect, strictly to require ' that speedy and effectual care be taken :- First, to reduce the number of ordinaries or drinking houses, and that without respect to persons :--- Such are continued that are most tender of God's glory and the reputation of the govern- ment ; and that all others presuming to sell, be . punished according to law :- I desire you to purge those caves in Philadelphia; they are worse by license and time :- the three years are
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1685.]
COLONIAL DIFFICULTIES.
expired ;- I would have the suspected forthwith to get up a housing elsewhere ; and the empty caves to accommodate the poor families that come over; though they must not stand long be- fore men's doors."
In reference to the disputes among the officials, Penn writes :- " I am sorry at heart for your animosities ; cannot more friendly and private courses be taken to set matters to right in an infant province, whose steps are numbered and watched ? For the love of God, me, and the poor country, be not so governmentish, so noisy and open in your dissatisfaction." There is
often a pith in Penn's language which carries a world of meaning. That word " governmentish," correct for the nonce, could not be surpassed in expressiveness. In regard to the extortions charged against some of his colonial officers, Penn writes :- " It is an abominable thing to have three warrants for one purchase; 'tis op- pression that my soul loathes. Several things and sums besides are set down, that are not in law nor in my regulations." In another letter he declared " the Province disgraced" by these circumstances; and in reference to the disputes of the provincial officers said, "their conduct herein had struck back hundreds, and was £10,000 out of his way, and £100,000 out of the country."
The year 1685 was a year of sad confusion and
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1685.
suffering in England. Penn had taken lodgings for himself and family in Kensington, where his doors were besieged by hundreds of applicants at a time to obtain his influence at court in the removal of disabilities or oppressions under which they laboured, or for the pardon of friends. His own business, meanwhile, was delayed, "thrown off," he says, " with other people's ; first by the late king's death, then the coronation, next the Parliament, now this insurrection, almost over, for the Duke of Monmouth is taken." The capture of Monmouth was followed by sangui- nary severity against his adherents. The duke was beheaded, and the rigour with which the followers of the Pretender were hunted out and executed, leaves a blot upon the history of the English judiciary, and has stamped the judge before whom the forms of trial took place as " the infamous Jefferies." A corrupt court made merchandise of the fears of the implicated, and large sums were paid for pardon or escape from trial, when trial was equivalent to condemnation. Between two and three hundred persons were executed, and about a thousand transported. We allude to this subject chiefly to defend the fame of William Penn, who has been made un- justly to suffer by his connection with the king. The charge has been made against him in a re- cent work, that he acted as the agent of the court in fleecing the parents of certain school
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1685.] VINDICATION OF PENN ..
children in Taunton. The charge against the children was, that they met and congratulated the Pretender, in procession, at the head of which was their teacher. The plunder of these unfortunates having been given to the queen's maids of honour, it is alleged by Macaulay that Penn undertook the collection of it. There is no proof to support an allegation so contrary to William Penn's character; and there is the fact that one George Penne was notoriously employ- ed in such vile work, which makes the conclusion irresistible that William Penn has suffered, though but temporarily, by his connection with a wicked tyrant, and the resemblance of his name to that of a man of miserable reputation. Other charges, such as that Penn was a Papist, that he was guilty of proposing simony, &c., are equally baseless. Some of these slanders were contemporary, others have been invented by the willing ingenuity of an unfriendly historian. But from all charges involving moral turpitude Penn stands fully acquitted. His philanthropy is undoubted, and his honesty of purpose and integrity are unquestionable. Thus much at least duty requires the historian of Pennsylva- nia to say of the founder of this great common- wealth.
But the course which Penn did take must be admitted to have been injudicious ; though even against this is to be pleaded his desire to benefit
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1686.
his kind, and the immediate results of his con- duct were beneficial to hundreds. The king as- sumed the responsibility of suspending the law, and Penn stopped not to inquire into the strict legality of the proclamation of religious tole- rance, and the abolition of tests. If the Ro- manist party were benefited, so were the Qua- kers, in common with other dissenters; and though Penn was disposed to make the most of partial relief, he was not blind to the fact that the ultimate disposition of the matter rested with the Parliament. " Till the Parliament,' he says in a letter already quoted in this chapter, " no hope of fixed liberty." That Penn did fathom the king's true motive for tolerance, the reinstatement of the Roman power, is hardly to be doubted ; and it cannot be wondered that he had less objection to this, since it necessarily opened the door for all dissenters. "It is a time," he said in one of his letters, "to be wise."
The watching of his infant colony, to which he refers in one of his letters, by its enemies abroad, had an important significance to William Penn. He feared that the disorders there, exaggerated as they were, would be made use of to strip him of his government. The cumbrous machinery of proprietary establishments, with a third party between the crown and the distant subjects, was beginning to be called in question. In 1686 a
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1688.] COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED.
writ of quo warranto was issued against the pro- prietaries . of New Jersey, a proceeding which resulted in their surrender of jurisdiction. The New England charters had been superseded. Penn was justly alarmed at such omens ; and we cannot wonder that he remained at court to : guard his interests, though at the injury of his reputation.
While he still remained in England he took steps, as judicious as he could conceive, to ob- tain that peace and efficiency in his government which would remove the pretext to deprive him of his province. He vested the gubernatorial powers, at first left with the council, in five com- missioners, whose warrant was read in the coun- cil, in the month of February, 1688. Thomas Lloyd was at the head of the board. Nicholas Moore, the former judge, was originally appoint- ed one of the commissioners, but never served, his death occurring about this period. In his instructions and letters to these commissioners, Penn gave them all powers which he considered himself to possess, reserving to himself the con- firmation of what was done. He directed them to enforce a better attention to their public duties on the part of the Provincial Council, for he says :- " I will no more endure their most slothful and dishonourable attendance, but dis- solve the Frame without more ado: let them look to it if further occasion be given." If the
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1688.
council was obstinately remiss, the commissioners will « take such a council as they thought con- venient." They were directed to abrogate all laws which had been passed in Penn's absence, to dismiss the assembly, "call it again," and pass such laws as should seem meet to the new legislature and executive. He required them to "inspect curiously" the proceedings of the coun- cil and legislature, and report to him in what way they had broken the charter. It is evi- dent from these instructions that Penn feared the forfeiture of his charter by the crown, and to avoid this « greater inconveniency," directed these measures. But it does not appear that the commissioners attempted either to supersede the regularly elected council, or to annul the laws which had been passed previously to their appointment. They held office about two years, and were then succeeded by John Blackwell.
Penn, being wearied with the jars of his colo- nists, was willing to try a deputy who had not mingled in their disputes. Thomas Lloyd wished ·to retire from political life, and in concurrence with his advice against a divided executive, Penn appointed Blackwell lieutenant-governor. The new governor had been an officer under Cromwell, but proved to be deficient in the tact necessary to manage the colony. He remained in office little over a year, and it appears to have been a year of continual clashing between
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PENN'S EMBARRASSMENTS.
1689.]
the governor and the assembly and council. He attempted many infractions of the privileges of the coordinate members of government, and seemed to succeed in nothing but making him- self universally unpopular. He was recalled in 1689, and the government devolved again upon the council, of which Thomas Lloyd was presi- dent.
William Penn's province had now become more than ever a sore vexation to him. His quit-rents were in arrears, and he was obliged to furnish money for the support of his establish- ment at Pennsbury. The provincial government neglected the supply which they had promised him; he received "not so much as a beaver skin, or pound of tobacco," as a present; and he declared himself determined not to defray out of his private fortune his charges in a pub- lic office. He requested in vain for copies of the laws which had passed the provincial legisla- ture, and had certainly great ground of com- plaint of those for whom he had expended so much. And, on the other hand, there were not wanting extenuating considerations in relation to the neglect of the colonists. They regarded the founder as wealthy, while they felt their own poverty, or, in nominal competence, their inability to answer demands for money. They were harassed by changes and divisions, to which they thought Penn's presence would have 11* .
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1691.
put an end. The tie of affection, and the con- sideration of respect for their proprietary, were growing weaker every day.
Meanwhile, Penn's residence in Europe had become unpleasant, and even hazardous. By the revolution of 1688, James II. was driven from the throne, and Penn became the object of suspicion as a friend of the abdicated monarch. All the old slanders were revived against him, and he was accused of plotting the restoration of James. He was thrice examined before the privy council, and thrice discharged. But when a fourth time proceedings were commenced against him, early in the year 1691, the circum- stances were such as made it the part of pru- dence to avoid to answer, and to remain con- cealed. He was accused by a perjured wretch of complicity in a plot to restore James to the throne, and barely escaped arrest while attend- ing the funeral of George Fox. Knowing the reckless and abandoned character of his accuser, he esteemed it wiser to wait in concealment the establishment of his innocence, than to confront an accuser so vile. What made this occurrence doubly unfortunate was, that it took place in the midst of William Penn's preparations for a new colony. He had issued proposals, and obtained a large company of adventurers. The govern- ment had promised him a convoy for his pas- senger vessels, and he was on the point of sail-
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NEWS OF REVOLUTION.
1691.]
ing. All was abandoned, and for three years William Penn remained under a sort of informal duress. His accuser was, during that time, de- clared infamous, and sentenced to the pillory; and with that revelation of the character of the accuser, the accusation fell to the ground.
CHAPTER VII.
News of the revolution received in Philadelphia-Action of the council thereon-Separation of the territories from the pro- vince-Two deputy-governors-George Keith-The jurisdic- tion of the governor of New York extended over Pennsyl- vania-Administration of Governor Fletcher-He appoints Colonel Markham his deputy-William Penn reinstated -- He continues Markham as deputy-governor-Death of Mrs. Penn-Of Thomas Lloyd-Markham's administration-New act of settlement-Its democratic features-Charges of piracy and illicit trade-Arrival of William Penn in his colony-His welcome-Birth of "The American"-Penn meets the legis- lature-His activity in his government-New charter of privileges-Charter of Philadelphia-Differences about titles and quit-rents-Failure to obtain money for colonial defence -Rumours of intended changes in the charters-Return of Penn to England.
THE first rumour of the abdication of James II. appears to have been brought to Philadelphia by Zachariah Whitpain, who arrived "about middle-night," January 23d, 1689. The said Zachariah was on the next day examined before the assembled council, relative to rumours which
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he reported as current in London on "the 10th or 12th of Xbre." His statement was reduced to writing, Zachariah was "deposed to the truth thereof," and it was entered on the journal of the council. It was not, however, until the first of the next November that the form of papers issuing in the king's name was changed in con- sonance with the new order of things. A decla- ration was drawn up, passed, and signed by the governor and ten counsellors. In this were recited the facts of the action of Parliament, and the actual reign of William and Mary; and al- though the provincial authorities had received no formal instructions, they made manifest their loyalty and obedience by this declaration. All officers were directed to govern themselves ac- cordingly, and all to abide in their stations, " Roman Catholiques only Excepted."
By the return of Governor Blackwell to Eng- land, the government of Pennsylvania devolved upon the council, which elected Thomas Lloyd president. But the province and the territories could not work harmoniously together. The territories had long been dissatisfied at being overshadowed by the province. Philadelphia in- creased at the expense of New Castle, the custom- house and commercial business of the province and territories having been transferred to the new city. The proprietary had left the colonists their choice, to be governed by five commis-
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GEORGE KEITH.
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sioners, by the council, or by a deputy-governor, as they should prefer. Pennsylvania chose the latter; and the delegates from the territories, being in a minority, withdrew their attendance. Lloyd was chosen by the Pennsylvanians deputy- governor, and Colonel Markham, the secretary of the province, who sided with the members from the territories, was chosen as their gover- nor. The proprietary reluctantly acquiesced in this decision of the government, and issued his commission to both officers. The province and the territories, though under different executives, acted together in legislation until 1693, when a new change, not unexpected to the proprietary, came over the province.
During the joint administration of the deputy- governors, the Society of Friends had a difficulty which gave them great anxiety. George Keith, a member of the society, distinguished for learn- ing and talents, was invited to Philadelphia in 1689, to take charge of a public school esta- blished by the Society of Friends. He had been a very active preacher in New Jersey, and soon abandoned the school to resume his preaching, deeming himself in duty required to procure a reform among Friends, of whose discipline he alleged that "there was too great a slackness therein." He was abusive in his language, and spared neither printed nor spoken words against the members of his society. He denied the
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