Penn was busy making preparations to follow the settlers, whom he had
already despatched, when he was afflicted by the death of his mother,
for whom he had ever manifested the greatest affection. Shortly after
this melancholy event, he published in full the constitution to which
we have already alluded, under the title, ‘The Frame of Government of
the Province of Pennsylvania, in America, together with certain Laws
agreed upon in England by the Governor and divers Freemen of the
aforesaid Province, to be further explained and confirmed there by the
first Provincial Council that shall be held.’ After stating in the
preface that he ‘does not find a model of government in the world that
time, place, and some singular emergencies have not necessarily
altered, and that it is not easy to frame a civil government that
shall serve all places alike,’ he proceeds to detail the arrangements
which, after due deliberation and consultation, he concluded to be
advisable in the meantime. The following is the summary of these
arrangements, given by Penn’s biographer, Mr. Clarkson:――‘The
government,’ he says, ‘was placed in the governor and freemen of the
province, out of whom were to be formed two bodies; namely, a
Provincial Council, and a General Assembly. These were to be chosen by
the freemen; and, though the governor or his deputy was to be
perpetual president, he was to have but a treble vote. The provincial
council was to consist of seventy-two members. One-third part――that
is, twenty-four of them――were to serve for three years; one-third for
two; and the other third for only one year. It was the office of this
council to prepare and propose bills; to see that the laws were
executed; to take care of the peace and safety of the province; to
settle the situation of ports, cities, market-towns, roads, and other
public places; to inspect the public treasury; to erect courts of
justice, institute schools, and reward the authors of useful
discoveries. Not less than two-thirds of these were necessary to make
a quorum; and the consent of not less than two-thirds of such a quorum
was required in all matters of moment. The general assembly was to
consist, the first year, of all the freemen; and the next of two
hundred. These were to be increased afterwards according to the
increase of the population of the province. They were to have no
deliberative power; but when bills were brought to them from the
governor and provincial council, they were to pass or reject them by a
plain “Yes” or “No.” They were to present sheriffs and justices of the
peace to the governor; of the number presented by them, he was to
select half. They were to be elected annually. All elections of
members, whether to the provincial council or to the general assembly,
were to be by ballot. This charter, or frame of government, was not to
be altered, changed, or diminished in any part or clause of it,
without the consent of the governor, or his heirs or assigns, and six
parts out of seven of the freemen both in the provincial council and
general assembly.’
Another precaution which Penn took before departing for America
deserves to be noticed. To prevent any future dispute between himself
or his heirs, and the Duke of York and his heirs, with regard to the
proprietorship of Pennsylvania, he procured from his royal highness a
written surrender of all his claims, real or supposed, to the lands in
question. Not only so; but being aware, also, that, adjoining the
district which had been granted him by royal charter, there was a
tract of land called ‘the Territories,’ already inhabited by Swedes
and Dutch, and belonging to the Duke of York, the possession of which
would, he conceived, be advantageous to the infant colony of
Pennsylvania, he made application to the duke with a view to obtain
it. The duke willingly agreed; and by a deed of feoffment, dated
August 24, 1682, the Territories were formally made over to William
Penn and his successors.
Nothing remained now but to take leave of his wife and children before
embarking on an undertaking then more hazardous than, with our present
notions of America and its distance from England, we can well
conceive. This he did in a letter of counsel addressed jointly to his
wife and children, some passages of which are so impressive and
honorable to the writer, that we cannot refrain from giving a brief
specimen:――‘My dear wife――Remember thou wast the love of my youth, and
much the joy of my life――the most beloved as well as most worthy of
all my earthly comforts; and the reason of that love was more thy
inward than thy outward excellencies, which yet were many. God knows,
and thou knowest it, I can say it was a match of Providence’s making;
and God’s image in us both was the first thing, and the most amiable
and engaging ornament in our eyes. Now I am to leave thee, and that
without knowing whether I shall ever see thee more in this world, take
my counsel into thy bosom, and let it dwell with thee in my stead
while thou livest.’ He next addresses himself to his children. ‘Be
obedient to your dear mother, a woman whose virtue and good name is an
honor to you; for she hath been exceeded by none in her time for her
integrity, humanity, virtue, and good understanding――qualities not
usual among women of her worldly condition and quality. Therefore
honor and obey her, my dear children, as your mother, and your
father’s love and delight; nay, love her too, for she loved your
father with a deep and upright love, choosing him before all her many
suitors. And though she be of a delicate constitution and noble
spirit, yet she descended to the utmost tenderness and care for you,
performing the painfullest acts of service to you in your infancy as a
mother and a nurse too. I charge you, before the Lord, honor and obey,
love and cherish, your dear mother.’
On the 1st of September, 1682, the ship Welcome, of three hundred tons
burthen, set sail from Deal with William Penn and about a hundred
other emigrants, mostly Quakers, on board. She had not sailed many
days when the small-pox broke out in the ship, and raged so violently,
that about thirty of the passengers died. The rest arrived safely at
their destination after a voyage of six weeks, the Welcome anchoring
in the Delaware river about the middle of October.
The territory of Pennsylvania which William Penn had selected in North
America possessed natural advantages of no ordinary kind. ‘It may be
doubted,’ says one authority, ‘whether a more widely-diversified
region exists upon the face of the earth, or one of similar area in
which the vegetable and mineral productions are more numerous.’
Scarcely any part is level; the country is a perpetual alternation of
hill and valley. Watered by many large rivers, as the Delaware, the
Susquehanna, the Schuylkill, the Alleghany, the Ohio, etc., as well as
by innumerable rivulets, it seemed a most inviting country for
emigrants. A general perception of these advantages had no doubt
actuated Penn in his choice of this particular region. At the time,
however, when he made the choice, all was wild and uncultivated――a
tract, for the most part, of jungly forest-land, traversed in silence
by idle streams. ‘At the beginning of the year 1681,’ says the author
of an American history of Philadelphia, ‘the tract of ground upon
which Philadelphia now stands was covered with forests; and men and
beasts had a pretty equal right to it. Tradition has preserved the
anecdote, that, in the year 1678, a ship called the Shields of
Stockton, the first that had ever ventured so high up the Delaware,
approached so close to the shore in tacking as to run her bowsprit
among the trees which then lined the bank, and the passengers on
board, who were bound for Burlington, remarked upon it as an
advantageous site for a town. Little could they foresee the city that
was to be erected on that spot, or the contrast between its growth and
that of the still humble village for which they were destined.’
Sailing up the Delaware, Penn first reached the Territories, already
mentioned as having been ceded to him by the duke of York, and as
being inhabited by Dutch and Swedes. These people, now Penn’s
subjects, and who had been prepared for his coming by Colonel Markham,
were ready to give him a hearty welcome. About three thousand of them
were assembled at Newcastle, where he first landed, a little below the
site of the present Philadelphia. Here there was a magistracy and a
courthouse, in which Penn, after formally taking possession of the
country, delivered an address, assuring the inhabitants of his
intentions to govern them in a spirit of kindness and regard for their
interests. From Newcastle, Penn proceeded to New York, that he might
form a better idea of affairs as they stood in a part of the country
already colonized. Returning to Newcastle, he summoned a general
assembly of the settlers, at a place called Upland, but to which he
then gave the name of Chester. When the general assembly met, it
consisted of free settlers indiscriminately from the province and from
the territories; all such as chose to take part in the proceedings at
this first assembly being, in terms of one of the articles of the
constitution, at liberty to do so. A speaker having been chosen, one
of the first acts of the assembly was to pass an act uniting the
territories and the province, and naturalizing Swedes, Dutch, and all
foreigners within the boundaries of the entire region. The laws drawn
up by Penn in England were then confirmed, with some modifications and
additions. Among these additions the following deserve notice:――‘All
children of the age of twelve were to be taught some useful trade or
handicraft, to the end that none might be idle in the province. All
pleadings, processes, and records in courts of law were to be as short
as possible. All fees of law were to be moderate, and to be hung up on
tables in the courts. All persons wrongfully imprisoned or prosecuted
were to have double damages against the informer or prosecutor. All
fines were to be moderate. With respect to the criminal part of these
laws, one new principle was introduced. William Penn was of opinion,
that though the deterring others from offenses must continue to be the
great end of punishment, yet in a community professing itself
Christian, the reformation of the offender was to be inseparably
connected with it. Hence he made but two capital offenses――murder, and
treason against the state; and hence also all prisons were to be
considered as workshops, where the offenders might be industriously,
soberly, and morally employed. Thus all was begun fairly; the
settlers, most of them sensible and religious men, who had experienced
the effects of intolerant and bad government, manifesting a laudable
desire to lay down at the outset liberal and generous principles for
the government in all time coming of the colony which they would have
the responsibility of founding.
In the opinion of Penn, something was still wanting before he could
proceed another step in the colonization of Pennsylvania. The greater
number of his cotemporaries, to whom lands were ceded in these regions
by the government at home, held that they had by that cession acquired
all the necessary rights, and that no other parties were entitled to a
voice in the matter. Not so, thought William Penn. We have seen how he
had instructed his commissioners to open up the way to a friendly
communication with the native Indians, and how he had sent a letter to
the latter, expressing his wish to ‘enjoy the lands with their love
and consent.’
His commissioners had obeyed his instructions, and had made a bargain
with the natives before his arrival. In order publicly to ratify this
bargain in person, Penn, shortly after his arrival, made arrangements
for meeting the chief men of the Indians, who were still numerous in
the region. A grand convocation, accordingly, of the Indians and
settlers, the latter headed by Penn, was held near the site of the
present city of Philadelphia, under the spreading boughs of a
prodigious elm tree. The natives came to the place of meeting in great
numbers, and all armed; Penn came, with his friends, unarmed. The only
mark of distinction which the leader of the settlers presented, was a
sash of blue silk network, and the parchment-roll which he held in his
hand, and which contained the conditions of the treaty. The Indians,
on his approach, threw down their arms, and seated themselves on the
ground; on which their chiefs――one of whom, as being the principal,
wore a chaplet with a small horn attached, the primitive symbol of
power――announced to Penn that they were ready to hear him. Tradition
has preserved the main points in Penn’s address on this memorable
occasion. He began, ‘The Great Spirit, who made him and them, who
ruled the heaven and the earth, 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 hostile weapons against their
fellow-creatures, for which reason they had come unarmed. Their object
was not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, 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,
he unrolled the parchment, and by means of the same interpreter,
conveyed to them, article by article, the conditions of the purchase,
and the words of the compact then made for their eternal union. ‘Among
other things,’ says Mr. Clarkson, ‘they were not to be molested in
their lawful pursuits, even in the territory they had alienated, for
it was to be common to them and the English. They were to have the
same liberty to do all things therein relating to the improvement of
their grounds, and providing sustenance for their families, which the
English had. If any disputes should arise between the two, they should
be settled by twelve persons, half of whom should be English, and half
Indians.’ He then paid them for the land, and made them many presents
besides from the merchandise which had been spread before them. Having
done this, he laid the roll of parchment on the ground, observing
again that the ground should be common to both people. He then added
that he would not do as the Marylanders did――that is, 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 between them and him to a chain, for
the rain might sometimes rust it, or a tree might fall and break it;
but he should consider them as the same flesh and blood as 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 sachems to
preserve it carefully for three generations, that their children might
know what had passed between them, just as if he had remained with
them to repeat it.
The Indian chiefs answered in lengthened speeches, and pledged
themselves ‘to live in love with William Penn and his children so long
as sun and moon should endure.’ The treaty was concluded――a treaty of
which it has been remarked with truthful severity, that it was the
only one concluded between savages and Christians that was not
ratified by oaths, and the only one that never was broken! The great
elm-tree under whose boughs it was concluded stood for a hundred and
thirty years after, an object of veneration to the people around.
The purchase of Pennsylvania from the Indians having been concluded,
and the land in a great measure surveyed by a person who had been
brought out for the purpose, Penn, who had already established his own
residence on an island in the Delaware, a few miles below the falls of
Trenton, opposite the site of the present Burlington, and to which he
had given the name of Pennsburg, next turned his attention to the
foundation of a town in some advantageous locality. After mature
deliberation, a place, called by the Indians Coaquannoc, was chosen as
the site. It was the very spot which had struck the passengers on
board the South Shields of Stockton, on their way to Burlington, as so
well adapted for a city. A neck of land situated between two navigable
rivers, the Delaware and the Schuylkill, with quarries of good
building stone in the immediate neighborhood, the place seemed to be
marked out by nature for the purpose. Accordingly, previous to Penn’s
arrival, some of the settlers whom he had sent out had taken up their
habitations on the spot, erecting bark huts, the art of constructing
which they were taught by the Indians; or digging caves, which they
fitted up so as to afford tolerable accommodation, in the high bank
overhanging the Delaware.
The site of the city having been determined on, the surveyor, Thomas
Holmes, drew up, under Penn’s direction, a map or plan according to
which the streets were to be laid out. ‘According to this plan,’ says
Mr. Clarkson, ‘there were to be two large streets, the one fronting
the Delaware on the east, and the other the Schuylkill on the west, of
a mile in length. A third, to be called High street, of one hundred
feet broad, was to run directly through the middle of the city, so as
to communicate with the streets now mentioned, at right angles――that
is, it was to run through the middle from river to river, or from east
to west. A fourth, of the same breadth, to be called Broad street, was
to run through the middle also, but to intersect High street at right
angles, or to run from north to south. Eight streets, fifty feet wide,
were to be built parallel to High street――that is, from river to
river; and twenty of the like width, parallel to Broad street,
crossing the former. The streets running from north to south were to
be named according to their numerical order――First street, Second
street, Third street, and so on; and those from east to west according
to the woods of the country――as Vine street, Spruce street, Sassafras
street, Cedar street, and so on. There was to be, however, a square of
ten acres in the middle of the city, each corner of which was to be
reserved for public offices. There was to be also, in each quarter of
it a square of eight acres, to be used by the citizens in like manner
as Moorfields in London.’ To the ‘distractingly regular city,’ as Mr.
Dickens calls it, thus mapped out, but not one house of which had yet
been built, he gave the name of PHILADELPHIA, in token of the
principle of brotherly love on which it was founded――brotherly love
among English, Swedes, Dutch, Indians, and men of all languages and
nations.
The work of building commenced apace. Within a few months of Penn’s
arrival, as many as twenty-three ships, loaded with emigrants from
Somersetshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Wales and Ireland, sailed up the
Delaware, and anchored off the site of the new town. Most of the
emigrants they brought to the settlement were men such as Penn wished
to see in his colony, sober and industrious persons, who had left
Great Britain in order that they might lead a quiet and peaceable
life, undisturbed by persecution. A number of them brought out with
them a variety of implements and pieces of machinery, which were of
great use in the infant state of the colony. Accommodated first in
temporary huts, or the caves beforementioned, on the banks of the
Delaware, they gradually distributed themselves through the settlement
at their pleasure――few of them, however, removing far at first from
the site of the town. As these removed, and provided themselves with
better residences, their old habitations, the Indian-built huts, and
the caves on the river bank, were taken possession of by new-comers,
who in their turn made way for others, mutual benevolence and
assistance being the rule of the settlement. It was in one of the rude
caves dug in the river bank that the first native Philadelphian was
born. This person, whose name was John Key, and who died in 1767, at
the age of eighty-five, always went by the name of _First-born_.
In the spring of 1683 the affairs of the new colony presented a very
flourishing appearance. The more recently-arrived settlers had
experienced some hardships during the winter, but on the whole, fewer
than might have been anticipated, and the new year was entered upon
with cheerfulness and hope. The following extract contains the
recollections, in old age, of one of the first Pennsylvanian settlers,
by name Richard Townsend, and may be taken at once as a succinct
account of the rise of the colony, and as an illustration of the
simple and devout character of the early settlers: ‘After our
arrival,’ he says, ‘we found it a wilderness. 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 very reasonable rates, as well as brought
from divers other parts that were inhabited before. After some time I
set up a mill on Chester Creek, which I brought ready framed from
London, which served for grinding corn and sawing boards, and was of
great use to us. Besides, with Joshua Tittery, I made a net and caught
great quantities of fish, which supplied ourselves and many others; so
that, notwithstanding it was thought near three thousand persons came
the first year, we were so providentially provided for, that we could
buy a deer for about two shillings, and a large turkey for about a
shilling, and Indian corn for about two shillings and sixpence per
bushel. And as our worthy proprietor treated the Indians with
extraordinary humanity, they became very civil and loving to us, and
brought us in abundance of venison. After our arrival, there came in
about twenty families from High and Low Germany, of religious, good
people, who settled about six miles from Philadelphia, and called the
place German Town. About the time German Town was laid out, I settled
upon my tract of land, which I had bought of the proprietor in
England, about a mile from thence, where I set up a house and a
corn-mill, which was very useful to the country for several miles
round; but there not being plenty of horses, people generally brought
their corn on their backs many miles. I remember one man had a bull so
gentle that he used to bring his corn on him instead of a horse. Being
now settled within six or seven miles of Philadelphia, where I left
the principal body of friends, together with the chief place of
provisions, flesh meat was very scarce with me for some time, of which
I found the want. I remember I was once supplied, by a particular
instance of Providence, in the following manner: As I was in my meadow
mowing grass, a young deer came and looked on me. I continued mowing,
and the deer in the same attention to me. I then laid down my scythe
and went towards him, upon which he ran off a small distance. I went
to my work again, and the deer continued looking on me; so that
several times I left my work to go towards him, but he still kept
himself at a distance. At last, as I was going towards him, and he,
looking on me, did not mind his steps, he ran forcibly against the
trunk of a tree, and stunned himself so much that he fell; upon which
I ran forward, and getting upon him, held him by the legs. After a
great struggle, in which I had almost tired him out, and rendered him
lifeless, I threw him on my shoulders, holding him fast by the legs,
and with some difficulty, on account of his fresh struggling, carried
him home, about a quarter of a mile, to my house; where, by the
assistance of a neighbor who happened to be there, and who killed him
for me, he proved very serviceable to my family. I could relate
several other acts of Providence of this kind, but omit them for
brevity. As people began to spread, and to improve their lands, the
country became more fruitful, so that those who came after us were
plentifully supplied; and with what we exceeded our wants, we began a
small trade abroad; and as Philadelphia increased, vessels were built,
and many employed. Both country and trade have been wonderfully
increasing to this day, so that, from a wilderness, the Lord, by his
good hand of providence, hath made it a fruitful land; on which things
to look back, and observe all the steps, would exceed my present
purpose.’
To this we may add an extract from a letter written by Penn himself to
a society of traders in England, who had purchased a large quantity of
land in Pennsylvania, and which sketches the history of the colony
down to the date at which it was written, August 1683:――‘The country,’
he says, ‘lies bounded on the east by the river and bay of Delaware
and Eastern Sea. It hath the advantage of many creeks, or rivers
rather, that run into the main river or bay, some navigable for great
ships, some for small craft. Our people are mostly settled upon the
upper rivers, which are pleasant and sweet, and generally bounded with
good land. The planted part of the province and territories is cast
into six counties――Philadelphia, Buckingham, Chester, Newcastle, Kent,
and Sussex――containing about four thousand souls. Two general
assemblies have been held, and with such concord and despatch, that
they sat but three weeks, and at least seventy laws were passed,
without one dissent in any material thing. And for the good government
of the said counties, courts of justice are established in every
county, with proper officers――as justices, sheriffs, clerks,
constables――which courts are held every two months. Philadelphia, the
expectation of those that are concerned in this province, is at last
laid out, to the great content of those here that are anyways
interested therein. The situation is a neck of land, and lieth between
two navigable rivers, Delaware and Schuylkill; whereby it hath two
fronts upon the water, each a mile, and two from river to river. But
this I will say for the good providence of God, that of all the many
places I have seen in the world, I remember not one better seated; so
that it seems to me to have been appointed for a town, whether we
regard the rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, docks, springs,
the loftiness and soundness of the land, and the air, held by the
people of these parts to be very good. It is advanced, within less
than a year, to about fourscore houses and cottages, such as they are,
where merchants and handicrafts are following their vocations as fast
as they can; while the countrymen are close at their farms. Some of
them got a little winter corn in the ground last season, and the
generality have had a handsome summer crop, and are preparing for
their winter corn. They reaped their barley this year in the month
called May, the wheat in the month following; so that there is time in
these parts for another crop of divers things before the winter
season. We are daily in hopes of shipping to add to our number; for,
blessed be God, here is both room and accommodation for them. I bless
God I am fully satisfied with the country, and entertainment I got in
it; for I find that particular content which has always attended me,
where God in his providence hath made it my place and service to
reside.’
Even in Pennsylvania, young as the colony was, and composed of better
materials than most colonies, crime soon made its appearance. Before
the first grand jury summoned in the province in March, 1683, a
settler named Pickering was brought to trial for issuing counterfeit
silver coin――an offense which one would not have expected to find at
so early a stage in the history of a new society. The man having been
found guilty, was sentenced to pay a fine of forty pounds, to be
employed towards the erection of a court-house――a much more lenient
sentence than would have been awarded in the mother country. Before
the same jury a woman named Margaret Mattson was tried for witchcraft.
The verdict returned deserves notice for its peculiarity: it was, that
the accused was ‘guilty of _having the common fame_ of being a witch,
but not guilty in manner and form as she stands indicted.’ This
verdict probably meant that the jury found the prisoner guilty of a
notoriously malicious disposition――the true offense of many of the
poor wretches whom the barbarous British justice of that day condemned
to the stake.
At midsummer 1684 the population of the colony amounted to upwards of
seven thousand souls――English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes,
and Germans. About twenty different townships had been established;
and Philadelphia could boast of a population of two thousand five
hundred persons, well lodged in about three hundred houses, all
regularly built according to the prescribed plan.
Attracted by Penn’s reputation for just and honorable dealing, and by
reports of the flourishing condition of the settlement, ships were
arriving in quick succession with new settlers from different
countries of the old world. Seeing the success of his project thus so
far happily realized, Penn, who had now been two years in America,
resolved to return to England. His reasons for doing so were twofold.
In the first place, a dispute had arisen between him and Lord
Baltimore, the proprietor of the adjoining province of Maryland, as to
the boundaries of their respective territories; and this dispute had
at length become so warm, that there was no hope of settling it except
by being personally present to represent the state of the case to the
home government. Again, intelligence had reached Penn in America that
the dissenters in the mother country, and especially those of his own
persuasion, were suffering greater persecutions than ever; and even if
he had not hoped to effect something in their behalf by his personal
influence at court, it was Penn’s nature, wherever he saw persecution
going on, to desire to be in the midst of it, either to help the
sufferers, or at least to write against the oppressors. Accordingly,
on the 12th of August, 1684, William Penn set sail for England, having
made all necessary arrangements for the government of the colony
during his absence. The supreme power was vested in the provincial
council; as president of which he named Thomas Lloyd, a Quaker
preacher, who had emigrated from Wales.
In February, 1685, four months after Penn’s return to England, Charles
II died, and was succeeded by his brother the Duke of York, under the
title of James II. It has already been mentioned that the duke had
always manifested a liking for Penn, at first as the son of his
friend, Admiral Penn, and afterwards on account of his own merits.
This liking he continued to exhibit in a very marked manner after his
accession to the crown; and Penn, to improve the opportunities of
usefulness which his free access to the king afforded him, took up his
residence at Kensington, in order to be near the palace. The following
passage from Gerard Croese’s history of the Quakers will give an idea
of the intimate terms on which Penn was with James II. ‘William Penn,’
says Croese, ‘was greatly in favor with the king, and the Quakers’
sole patron at court. The king loved him as a singular and sincere
friend, and imparted to him many of his secrets and counsels. He often
honored him with his company in private, discoursing with him of
various affairs, and that not for one, but many hours together, and
delaying to hear the best of his peers, who at the same time were
waiting for an audience. Penn being so highly favored, acquired
thereby a number of friends. Those also who formerly knew him, when
they had any favor to ask at court, came to, courted, and entreated
Penn to promote their several requests. Penn refused none of his
friends any reasonable office he could do for them, but was ready to
serve them all, but more especially the Quakers, and these wherever
their religion was concerned. They ran to Penn without intermission,
as their only pillar and support, who always caressed and received
them cheerfully, and effected their business by his interest and
eloquence. Hence his house and gates were daily thronged by a numerous
train of clients and suppliants, desiring him to present their
addresses to his majesty. There were sometimes there two hundred or
more.’ Earl Buchan, in his life of Fletcher of Saltoun, relates an
instance of Penn’s great influence at the court of James II. By his
advice many exiled Presbyterians were permitted to return to their
native country, and among others Sir Robert Stuart of Coltness, who
had taken refuge in Holland. On his return, however, Sir Robert ‘found
his estate and only means of subsistence in the possession of the Earl
of Arran, afterwards Duke of Hamilton. Soon after his coming to London
he met Penn, who congratulated him on his being restored to his native
country. Coltness sighed, and said, “Ah, Mr. Penn, Arran has got my
estate, and I fear my situation is about to be now worse than ever.”
“What dost thou say?” says Penn; “thou surprisest and grievest me
exceedingly. Come to my house to-morrow, and I will set matters right
for thee.” Penn went immediately to Arran. “What is this, friend
James,” said he to him, “that I hear of thee? Thou hast taken
possession of Coltness’s estate. Thou knowest that it is not thine.”
“That estate,” says Arran, “I paid a great price for. I received no
other reward for my expensive and troublesome embassy in France than
this same estate; and I am certainly much out of pocket by the
bargain.” “All very well, friend James,” said the Quaker; “but of this
assure thyself, that if thou dost not give me this moment an order on
thy chamberlain for two hundred pounds to Coltness, to carry him down
to his native country, and a hundred a-year to subsist on till matters
are adjusted, I will make it as many thousands out of thy way with the
king.” Arran instantly complied; and Penn sent for Sir Robert, and
gave him the security.’
Although it is certain that, in thus acting the part of private
adviser to the king, William Penn had the good of the country in view;
and although there can be no doubt that, in that capacity, he rendered
many services to the cause of civil and religious liberty, yet the
prudence of his conduct in so mixing himself up with court affairs is
somewhat questionable. At all events, his intimacy with the king
subjected him to many imputations and suspicions, which it was
difficult to clear away. The efforts of James to restore the supremacy
of the Roman Catholic church being then the great subject of interest
in the nation, it was concluded that Penn was privy to all the king’s
plans and measures; that he was coöperating with him for the overthrow
of Protestantism; in short, that he was a Papist. The absurdity of
such rumors would have been evident to any one who had taken the
trouble to look back on Penn’s former life; but in a time of public
excitement, the extravagance of a story is no security against its
being believed. Members of the Church of England, Protestant
dissenters of all denominations, even the Quakers themselves, joined
in the cry against Penn, and he became one of the most unpopular men
in England. To say that he was a Papist, was not enough; he was
stigmatised as a Jesuit, wearing the mask of a Quaker, in order the
better to accomplish his purposes. It was currently reported that he
had been educated at St. Omer’s; that he had taken priest’s orders at
Rome; that the pope had given him a dispensation to marry; and that he
was in the habit of officiating at the celebration of mass before the
king at Whitehall and St. James’. Of these rumors Penn took no notice,
except when they reached him through some of his friends, who were
anxious that he should take some steps to exculpate himself. On such
occasions he used to say that he had a personal regard for the king,
and that he believed him to mean well, and at heart to be in favor of
toleration; that as for the king’s secret and arbitrary schemes for
the restoration of the Catholic religion, he knew nothing of them;
that his aim had ever been to use his influence ‘to allay heats, and
moderate extremes, even in politics;’ and that the only ground on
which he could conceive the charge of his being a Papist to have been
founded, was his anxiety to admit all sects alike to the benefits of
religious freedom.
These representations were of no avail in clearing his reputation with
the public; and accordingly, in the year 1688, when James II was
expelled from the kingdom, and William of Orange appointed his
successor, Penn was one of those who were likely to suffer from their
friendship with the fallen monarch. Four different times he was
arrested and examined on a charge of being a Jesuit, and a secret
partisan of the exiled king; but no instance of guilt could be proved
against him. On one of these occasions, when he was examined before
King William in council, a letter was produced which James II had sent
to Penn, but which government had intercepted. In this letter James
desired Penn ‘to come to his assistance, and to express to him the
resentments of his favor and benevolence.’ On being asked why King
James wrote to him, Penn replied that this was no fault of his; that
if the king chose to write to him, he could not prevent it. As for the
king’s meaning in the letter, he supposed it was that he should assist
in an attempt to restore him to the throne. This, however, he had no
intention to do. He had always loved King James, and had received many
favors from him and he should be willing to render him any private
service he could, but nothing more. This candid and manly defense
produced its effect, and Penn was discharged.
Wearied out with these annoyances, and having no great public duty now
to detain him in England, seeing that the toleration he had so long
struggled for was realised, at least to a great extent, under the
government of King William, Penn was anxious to return to his American
colony, where his presence was greatly desiderated, on account of
various differences which had broken out among the settlers. He was
preparing to set sail in 1690, when his departure was prevented by a
fresh charge of treason preferred against him by a wretch of the name
of Fuller, who was afterwards publicly declared to be a cheat and
impostor, but whose true character was not then known. Not wishing to
run the risk of being convicted on the oath of such a man, who would
not scruple, of course, as to the means he would employ in making out
his case, Penn lived in great seclusion in London for several years,
occupying himself in writing replies to the letters he received from
America, and in composing numerous tracts on subjects congenial to his
tastes and disposition. In the year 1693, his misfortunes reached
their height. Early in the year he was deprived of the governorship of
Pennsylvania, which was annexed, by royal commission, to that of the
province of New York. Towards the end of the same year his wife died.
Before this time, however, a reaction had begun in his favor. His own
character began to be better appreciated by King William, while that
of his accuser, Fuller, became disgracefully notorious. Accordingly,
Penn being admitted to plead his cause before the king and council,
was honorably acquitted; and shortly after, by a royal order, dated
the 20th of August 1694, he was reinstated in his government.
It was not, however, till the year 1699 that Penn returned to
Pennsylvania, from which he had been absent about fifteen years. The
interval of five years between his restoration to the governorship and
his return to the colony was spent in preaching tours through England
and Ireland, and in conducting those controversies out of which he
appeared to be out of his natural element. In 1696 he contracted a
second marriage with Hannah, daughter of Thomas Callowhill, a merchant
of Bristol; and not long afterwards his eldest son, by the former
marriage, died in his twenty-first year.
Accompanied this time by his wife and family, Penn returned to America
in November 1699, and immediately commenced revising the conduct of
his substitutes during his absence, and adopting new measures for the
good of the colony. A discussion has been raised as to the wisdom and
disinterestedness of Penn’s government of Pennsylvania during this his
second visit, and indeed during the latter part of his proprietorship;
some contending that he did not show the same liberality as at the
outset, and others defending him from the charge. Among the former,
the most distinguished critic of Penn is Benjamin Franklin, whose
judgment is, that Penn began his government as a man of conscience,
proceeded in it as a man of reason, and ended it more as a man of the
world. Penn’s most zealous apologist against this charge of Franklin
is his biographer, Mr. Clarkson. To examine minutely the arguments on
both sides, would not answer any good purpose; it may be sufficient to
remark, that the charge of Franklin is founded on certain changes
introduced by Penn into the political constitution of Pennsylvania, to
increase his own authority as governor, and that it does not effect
the general spirit in which Penn fulfilled his important trust, which
was uniformly that of mildness, justice, and benevolence. It was not
to be expected that a constitution or frame of government prepared on
the other side of the Atlantic by the mere pen, and transplanted to
the new world, would satisfy the actual wants of the colony, or
require no change. Accordingly, that there should be differences of
opinion between the colonists and the governor on some points, or
among the various classes of the colonists themselves, was natural
enough; the merit of Penn and the early Pennsylvanians was, that,
notwithstanding these differences, the general spirit of the
administration was healthy and tolerant. ‘Governments,’ said Penn
himself, ‘depend upon men, rather than men upon governments. Like
clocks, they go from the motion which men give them. Let men be good,
and the government cannot be bad. If it be ill, they will cure it. No
government could maintain its constitution, however excellent it was,
without the preservation of virtue.’ Thus it was that, although
Pennsylvania at its commencement had its political disputes, it had a
security for prosperity in the character of its founders.
Two objects which occupied a great share of Penn’s attention in his
capacity of governor of Pennsylvania, were the condition of the
negroes who had been imported into the settlement, and the
civilization of the North American Indians with whom the colonists
were brought into contact. ‘Soon after the colony had been planted,’
says Mr. Clarkson, ‘that is in the year 1682, when William Penn was
first resident in it, some few Africans had been imported; but more
had followed. At this time the traffic in slaves was not branded with
infamy as at the present day. It was considered, on the other hand, as
favorable to both parties: to the American planters, because they had
but few laborers in comparison with the extent of their lands; and to
the poor Africans themselves, because they were looked upon as persons
thus redeemed out of superstition, idolatry, and heathenism. But
though the purchase and sale of them had been adopted with less
caution upon this principle, there were not wanting among the Quakers
of Pennsylvania those who, soon after the introduction of them there,
began to question the moral licitness of the traffic. Accordingly, at
the yearly meeting for Pennsylvania in 1688, it had been resolved, on
the suggestion of emigrants from Crisheim, who had adopted the
principles of William Penn, that the buying, selling, and holding men
in slavery was inconsistent with the tenets of the Christian religion.
In 1696, a similar resolution had been passed at the yearly meeting of
the same religious society for the same province. In consequence of
these noble resolutions, the Quakers had begun to treat their slaves
in a manner different from that of other people. In 1698, there were
instances where they had admitted them into their meeting-houses, to
worship in common with themselves.’
Penn, on his return, keenly took up the cause of the negroes, both in
his private capacity as a member of the Society of Friends, and in his
public one as governor. ‘He began to question,’ says Mr. Clarkson,
‘whether, under the Christian system, men ought to be consigned to
unconditional slavery; whether they ought to be bought and sold. This
question he determined virtuously, and in unison with the resolutions
of the two forementioned yearly meetings of the Quakers. He resolved,
as far as his own powers went, upon incorporating the treatment of the
negroes, as a matter of Christian duty, into the discipline of the
religious body to which he belonged. He succeeded; and a minute was
passed by the monthly meeting of Philadelphia, and properly registered
there, by which a meeting was appointed more particularly for the
negroes once every month; so that, besides the common opportunities
they had of collecting religious knowledge by frequenting the places
of public worship, there was one day in the month in which, as far as
the influence of the monthly meeting extended, they could neither be
temporally nor spiritually overlooked. Having secured their good
treatment in a certain degree among those of his own persuasion, his
next object was to secure it among others in the colony, on whom the
discipline of the Quakers had no hold, by a legislative act. This was
all he could do at present. To forbid the bringing of slaves into the
colony was entirely out of his power. He had no command whatever over
the external commerce of the mother country. He was bound, on the
other hand, by his charter, to admit her imports, and at this moment
she particularly encouraged the slave trade. His first step, then, was
to introduce a bill into the assembly which should protect the negroes
from personal ill treatment, by fair trials and limited punishments,
when they committed offenses; and which, at the same time, by
regulating their marriages, should improve their moral condition. This
he did with a view of fitting them by degrees for a state of freedom;
and as the bill comprehended not only those negroes who were then in
the province and territories, but those who should afterwards be
brought there, he hoped that it would lay the foundation of a
preparatory school for civilization and liberty to all of the African
race.’ This bill, unfortunately, he was unable to carry, at least in
its full extent. But the good effects of his exertions, so far as they
did succeed, were ultimately seen. From the time that the subject of
negro treatment was introduced into the discipline of the
Pennsylvanian Quakers by Penn, it was never lost sight of by that
body. Individual Quakers began to refuse to purchase negroes, others
to emancipate those in their possession; and at length it became a law
of the society that no member should hold slaves. In the year 1780,
not a Quaker possessed a slave in Pennsylvania; and from that time
slavery dwindled away in the state, till, in the year 1810, there were
only eight hundred slaves in Pennsylvania, in a population of nearly a
million.
Penn’s success with the Indians was similar. Unable to do much for
them legislatively, he did much by his example and influence, visiting
them personally, and trying by all means to establish a friendly
commercial intercourse with them. Whatever advances in the arts of
civilized life were made in the early part of the eighteenth century
by the Indian tribes of the northwest, were due originally to William
Penn; and for more than fifty years after his death, his name was
remembered among them as that of a ‘true and good man.’
Penn was roused from his quiet and benevolent labors in behalf of the
colonists, the negroes, and the Indians, by the intelligence that a
movement had been begun in England for the abolition of the
proprietary system of governing the American colonies. Deeply
interested in this intelligence, he thought it due to his interests to
embark for England, where, accordingly, he arrived in December 1701.
The bill which had brought him from America was not proceeded with;
and the accession of Queen Anne to the throne in 1702 was a favorable
event for his interests. Penn, however, never returned to America, but
spent the remaining sixteen years of his life in England. It is
melancholy to add that these last years of the existence of so good a
man were clouded with misfortune. His outlay on Pennsylvania had far
exceeded the immediate returns which the property could yield; and the
consequence was, that he was involved in pecuniary embarrassments. To
meet these, he was obliged, in 1709, to mortgage the province for
£6600. The loss of a lawsuit added to his difficulties; and for some
time he was a prisoner within the rules of Fleet. In 1712, he agreed
to sell his rights to government for £12,000. The bargain, however,
was never concluded, owing to his being incapacitated by three
apopletic fits, which, following each other rapidly, deprived him to a
great extent of memory and consciousness. He lingered on, however,
till the 30th of July 1718, when he died at Ruscombe, in Berkshire, in
the seventy-fourth year of his age.
Penn’s appearance and personal habits are thus described by Mr.
Clarkson:――‘He was tall in stature, and of an athletic make. In
maturer years he was inclined to corpulency; but used a great deal of
exercise. His appearance at this time was that of a fine portly man.
He was very neat, though plain in his dress. He walked generally with
a cane. He had a great aversion to the use of tobacco. However, when
he was in America, though he was often annoyed by it, he bore it with
good-humor. Several of his particular friends were one day assembled
at Burlington; while they were smoking their pipes, it was announced
to them that the governor’s barge was in sight, and coming up the
river. The company supposed that he was on his way to Pennsburg, about
seven miles higher up. They continued smoking; but being afterwards
unexpectedly informed that he had landed at a wharf near them, and was
just entering the house, they suddenly concealed their pipes.
Perceiving, from the smoke, when he entered the room what they had
been doing, and discovering that the pipes had been hid, he said
pleasantly, ‘Well, friends, I am glad to see that you are at least
ashamed of your old practice.’ ‘Not entirely so,’ replied Samuel
Jennings, one of the company; ‘but we preferred laying down our pipes
to the danger of offending a weak brother.’ They then expressed their
surprise at this abrupt visit, as, in his passage from Philadelphia,
not only the tide, but the wind had been furiously against him. He
replied, with a smile on his countenance, ‘that he had been sailing
against wind and tide all his life.’
The colony made rapid progress after Penn’s death, settlers being
attracted to it from all parts of the old world by the freedom of its
constitution and its natural advantages. The proprietorship was vested
in the heirs of Penn by his second marriage, his children by his first
marriage having inherited his British estates, which, at the time of
Penn’s death were of greater value than his American property. In the
year 1752, while Pennsylvania was still a British colony, the French
made encroachments on it from the north-west, and built Fort
Duquesne――now Pittsburg. Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania,
speedily grew in size and importance. Its name is associated with some
of the most distinguished events in the history of the United States.
It was there that the delegates of the various colonies assembled in
the year 1774, when they declared against the right of the mother
country to tax the colonies; and it was also there that the famous
declaration of independence was proclaimed in 1776. On the conclusion
of the war of independence, Penn’s descendants sold their right of
proprietorship over Pennsylvania to the American government for
£130,000. Philadelphia continued to be the seat of the federal
government till the year 1800. In the present day it is a large and
populous city, celebrated for the number of its foundations and
benevolent institutions, all less or more originating in the
philanthropic principles early introduced into Pennsylvania.