Bating somewhat the missionary character of the enterprise, the same
may be said of William Penn and his great reinforcement to what had
thus been successfully begun long before his time. He was himself a
very zealous preacher of religion, though more in the line of protest
against the world and the existing Church than in the line of positive
Christianity and the conversion and evangelization of the heathen. He
had himself been a great sufferer for his religious convictions, along
with the people whose cause he had espoused and made his own. His
controlling desire was to honor and glorify God in the founding of a
commonwealth in which those of his way of thinking might have a secure
home of their own and worship their Creator as best agreed with their
feelings and convictions, without being molested or disturbed;
offering at the same time the same precious boon to others in like
constraints willing to share the lot of his endeavors.
The motives of Charles II. in granting his charter were, first of
all, to discharge a heavy pecuniary claim of Penn against the
government on account of his father; next, to honor the memory and
merits of the late Admiral Penn; and, finally, at the same time, to
"favor William Penn in his laudable efforts to enlarge the British
empire, to promote the trade and prosperity of the kingdom, and to
reduce the savage nations by just and gentle measures to the love of
civilized life and the Christian religion." Penn's idea, as stated by
his memorialist, was "to obtain the grant of a territory on the west
side of the Delaware, in which he might not only furnish an asylum to
Friends (Quakers), and others who were persecuted on account of their
religious persuasion, but might erect a government upon principles
approaching much nearer the standard of evangelical purity than any
which had been previously raised."
His own account of the matter is: "For my country I eyed the Lord in
obtaining it; and more was I drawn inward to look to him, and to owe
it to his hand and power, than to any other way. I have so obtained
it, and desire to keep it, that I may not be unworthy of his love, but
do that which may answer his kind providence and serve his truth and
people, that an example may be set up to the nations. There may be
room there, though not here, for such an holy experiment." "I do
therefore desire the Lord's wisdom to guide me and those that may be
concerned with me, that we may do the thing that is truly wise and
just."
And with these aims and this spirit he invited people to join him,
came to the territory which had been granted him, conferred with the
Swedish and Dutch colonists already on the ground, and together with
them established the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.