PENNSYLVANIA.
I had a vision: evening sat in gold
Upon the bosom of a boundless plain,
Covered with beauty; garden, field and fold,
Studding the billowy sweep of ripening grain,
Like islands in the purple summer main,
The temples of pure marble met the sun,
That tinged their white shafts with a golden stain
And sounds of rustic joy and labor done,
Hallowed the lonely hour, until her pomp was gone.
--Croly.
Religious fanaticism is the most dangerous of all the errors of mankind.
A false leader in religion may be more fatal than an incompetent general
of an army, therefore ministers of the gospel and teachers have the
greatest task imposed on them of any of God's creation. When once one's
religion runs mad, barbarity assumes the support of conscience and feels
its approval in the consummation of the most heinous crimes. The
Pilgrims and Puritans who had fled from religious persecutions across
the seas, and had come to the wilderness to worship God according to
their own conscience were unwilling to grant the same privilege to
others. For this reason they banished Roger Williams and persecuted
other religious sects not in accordance with their own views.
They whipped Quakers, bored holes in their tongues, branded them with
hot irons, and even hung them for their religious views. Why need one
blame Spain for the infamous inquisition, when the early churches of
Protestantism did fully as bad? Religious fervor controlled by prejudice
and ignorance is the greatest calamity that can befall a nation.
The Quakers appeared first in England about the time Roger Williams
procured his charter for Rhode Island. The term Quaker now so venerated
and respected was given this sect in derision, just as the Puritans,
Protestants and many other now respectable sects were named.
Their founder and preachers were among the boldest and yet the meekest
of the non-conformists. Their morality was so strict that by some they
were denominated ascetics, and this strictness was carried into every
habit and department of life. Extravagant expenditures, fashionable
dress, games of chance, dancing, attending the theatres and all
amusements, however harmless, were forbidden by this sect. Even music
was discouraged as a seductive vanity. The members of this church were
forbidden to own slaves, to take part in war, engage in lawsuits,
indulge in intemperance or profanity, which, if persisted in, was a
cause for the expulsion of a member from the society, and the whole body
was in duty bound to keep a watch upon the actions of each other. Their
practices so generally agreed with their principles, that society was
compelled to admit that the profession of a Quaker or Friend, as they
usually styled themselves, was a guaranty of a morality above the
ordinary level of the world.
The founder of this remarkable sect was George Fox, a shoemaker of
Leicestershire, England, who, at the early age of nineteen, conceived
the idea that he was called of God to preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He attacked the coldness and spiritual deadness of all the
modes and forms of religious worship around him, and soon excited a
persecuting spirit which marked his ministerial life of about forty
years as a pilgrimage from one prison to another. When, in 1650, he was
called before Justice Bennet, of Derby, he admonished that magistrate to
repent and "tremble and _quake_ before the word of the Lord," at the
same time his own body was violently agitated with his intense emotions.
The magistrate and other officers of the court then and there named him
a "Quaker" out of derision, a term which the society have since come to
use themselves.
William Penn, the son of a distinguished English admiral, became an
early convert to this religion. At an early age, while at college, he
embraced the doctrines and adopted the mode of life of George Fox and
his followers. When his father first learned that his son was in danger
of becoming a Quaker, he was incredulous. The admiral was a worldly,
ambitious man and had great plans in view for his son, which would all
be blasted if the precocious youth adopted the new religion. The
struggles of young William Penn with his ambitious father, were long and
bitter. He was beaten and turned out of doors by his angry parent, then
taken back by the erratic but kind-hearted father and sent to France to
be lured with gayety and dazzled with promises of wealth and
distinction; but William Penn had the courage of his convictions and
yielded not one whit of his religious ideas. Conscious of being right,
he was unmoved by either promises or threats, and he even withstood the
fires of persecution.
On one occasion he and another were tried on a charge of preaching in
the streets. The jury, after being kept without fire, food, or water for
two days and nights, brought in a verdict of "not guilty," for which
they were each heavily fined by the court and committed to Newgate
prison. Penn and his companion did not wholly escape, for they were
fined and imprisoned for contempt of court, in wearing their hats in the
presence of that body. At this time William Penn was only twenty-four
years of age.
[Illustration: William Penn.]
A great many Friends had emigrated to America, and two had become
proprietors of New Jersey. The first event that drew Penn's particular
attention to America was when he was called upon to act as umpire
between the two Quaker proprietors of New Jersey. Having the New World
thus thrust upon his attention, the young convert to the new religion
began to look with longing eyes across the Atlantic for a home for
himself and his persecuted brethren. Shortly afterward, he obtained
from the crown a charter for a vast territory beyond the Delaware. This
charter was given in payment of a debt of eighty thousand dollars due
to his father from the government. The charter was perpetual
proprietorship given to him and his heirs, in the fealty of an annual
payment of two beaver skins. In honor of his Welch ancestry, Penn
proposed calling the domain "New Wales;" but for some reason the
secretary of state objected.
Penn, while endeavoring to think up an appropriate title, suggested that
Sylvania would be an appropriate name for such a woody country. The
secretary who drew up the charter, on the impulse of the moment,
prefixed the name of Penn to Sylvania in the document. William Penn
protested against the use of his name, as he had no ambition to be thus
distinguished, and offered to pay the secretary if he would leave it
out. This he refused to do, and Penn next appealed to the king--"the
merrie King Charlie," who insisted that the province should be called
Pennsylvania, in honor of his dead friend the admiral. Thus Pennsylvania
received its name. The territory included in William Penn's charter
extended north from New Castle in Delaware three degrees of latitude and
five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware River. William Penn was
empowered to ordain all laws with the consent of the freemen, subject to
the approval of the king. No taxes were to be raised save by the
provincial assembly, and permission was given to the clergymen of the
Anglican church to reside within the province without molestation.
The charter for Pennsylvania was granted on March 14, 1681, and in the
following May, Penn sent William Markham, a relative, to take
possession of his province and act as deputy governor. A large number
of emigrants in the employ of the "company of free traders" who had
purchased lands in Pennsylvania of the proprietor, went with him. These
settled near the Delaware and "builded and planted."
With the assistance of Algernon Sidney, a sturdy republican, who soon
after perished on the scaffold for his views on personal liberty, Penn
drew up a code of laws for the government of the colony, that were wise,
liberal and benevolent, and next year sent them to the settlers in
Pennsylvania for their approval.
William Penn soon discovered that his colony was liable to suffer for
the want of sea-board room. He coveted Delaware for that purpose, and
resolved if possible to have it. This territory, however, was claimed by
Lord Baltimore as a part of Maryland, and for some time had been a
matter of dispute between him and the Duke of York. For the sake of
peace, the latter offered to purchase the territory of Baltimore; but
the baron would not sell it. Penn then assured the Duke that Lord
Baltimore's claim was "against law, civil and common." The duke gladly
assented to the opinion, and the worldly-wise Quaker obtained from his
grace a quitclaim deed for the territory, now comprising the whole of
the State of Delaware.
As soon as William Penn had accomplished his purpose, he made immediate
preparations for going to America, and within a week after the bargain
was officially settled, he sailed in the ship _Welcome_, with one
hundred emigrants, in August, 1682. Many of his emigrants died from
small-pox on the voyage; but with the remainder he arrived, early in
November, at New Castle, where he found almost a thousand emigrants. In
addition to these, there were about three thousand old settlers--Swedes,
Dutch, Huguenots, Germans and English--enough to form the material for
the solid foundation of a State.
There Penn received from the agent of the Duke of York, and in the
presence of all the people, a formal surrender of all that fine domain.
The Dutch had long before conquered and absorbed the Swedes on the
Delaware, and the English in turn had conquered the Dutch, and it was by
virtue of his charter, giving him a title to all New Netherland, that
the duke claimed the territory as his own. The transfer inherited for
Penn and his descendants a dispute with the proprietors of Maryland,
which might seem incompatible with the views of Quakers. William Penn,
in honor of the duke, attempted to change the name of Cape Henlopen to
Cape James; but geography is sometimes arbitrary and refuses to change
at will of rulers, and Henlopen and May preserve their original names
given them by the Dutch.
It was the earliest days in November when William Penn, with a few
friends, set out in an open boat and journeyed up the river to the
beautiful bank, fringed with pine trees, on which the city of
Philadelphia was soon to rise.
On this occasion was made that famous treaty with the Indians, with
which every school-boy is acquainted. Beneath a huge elm at Shakamaxon,
on the northern edge of Philadelphia, William Penn, surrounded by a few
friends, in the habiliments of peace, met the numerous delegations of
the Lenni-Lenape tribes. The great treaty was not for the purchase of
lands; but, confirming what Penn had written and Markham covenanted, its
sublime purpose was the recognition of the equal rights of humanity,
under the shelter of the forest trees, barren of leaves from the effects
of the early frosts. Penn proclaimed to the men of the Algonkin race,
from both banks of the Delaware, from the borders of the Schuylkill,
and, it may have been, even from the Susquehannah, the same simple
message of peace and love which George Fox had professed before
Cromwell, and which Mary Fisher had borne to the Grand Turk. He argued
that the English and the Indian should respect the same moral law,
should be alike secure in their pursuits and their possessions, and
should adjust every difference by a peaceful tribunal, to be composed of
an equal number of wise and discreet men from each race. Penn said:
"We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good-will. No advantage
will be taken on either side; but all shall be openness and love. I will
not call you children, for parents sometimes chide their children too
severely, nor brothers only, for brothers differ. The friendship between
me and you, I will not compare to a chain, for that rains might rust, or
the falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man's body were
divided into two parts. We are all one flesh and blood."
The sincerity of the speaker, as well as his sacred doctrine, touched
the hearts of the forest children, and they renounced their guile and
their revenge. The presents which Penn offered were received in
sincerity, and with hearty friendship they gave the belt of wampum.
"We will live," said they, "in love with William Penn and his children,
as long as the moon and the sun shall endure."
Mr. Bancroft says: "This agreement of peace and friendship was made
under the open sky, by the side of the Delaware, with the sun and river
and the forest for witnesses. It was not confirmed by an oath; it was
not ratified by signatures and seals; no record of the conference can
be found, and its terms and conditions had no abiding inscription but on
the heart. There they were written like the law of God. The simple sons
of the wilderness, returning to their wigwams, kept the history of the
covenant by strings of wampum, and, long afterward, in their cabins,
would count over the shells on a clean piece of bark and recall to their
own memory and repeat to their children or to the stranger the words of
William Penn. New England had just terminated a disastrous war of
extermination. The Dutch were scarcely ever at peace with the Algonkins.
The laws of Maryland refer to Indian hostilities and massacres, which
extended as far as Richmond. Penn came without arms; he declared his
purpose to abstain from violence; he had no message but peace, and not a
drop of Quaker blood was shed in his time by an Indian.
"Was there not progress from Melendez to Roger Williams? from Cortez and
Pizarro to William Penn? The Quakers, ignorant of the homage which their
virtues would receive from Voltaire and Raynal, men so unlike
themselves, exulted in the consciousness of their humanity. 'We have
done better,' said they truly, 'than if, with the proud Spaniards, we
had gained the mines of Potosi. We may make the ambitious heroes, whom
the world admires, blush for their shameful victories. To the poor,
dark souls around about us we teach their rights as men.'"
After the treaty, Penn again journeyed through New Jersey to New York
and Long Island, visiting friends and preaching with his usual fervor
and earnestness. Then he returned to the Delaware, and, on the seventh
day of November, he went to Uplands (now Chester), where he met the
first provincial assembly of his province. There he made known his
benevolent designs toward all men, civilized and savage, and excited the
love and reverence of all hearers. The assembly tendered their grateful
acknowledgment to him, and the Swedes authorized one of their number to
say to him in their name that they "would live, serve and obey him with
all they had," declaring that it was "the best day they ever saw." He
informed the assembly of the union of the "territories" (as Delaware was
called) with his province, and received their congratulations. Then and
there was laid the foundation for the great commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.
One matter still remained to be adjusted, and that was some satisfactory
arrangement with the third Lord Baltimore, concerning the boundary
lines. This at last having been amicably adjusted, Penn went up the
Delaware in an open boat to Wicaco, to attend the founding of a city, to
which allusion had been made in his concessions in 1681. Before his
arrival in America, Penn had thought of this city he was to found, and
resolved to give it the name of Philadelphia--a Greek word signifying
brotherly love--as a token of the principles in which he intended to
govern his province.
Near a block-house constructed by the Swedes, but which had since been
converted into a church, he purchased lands extending from the high
banks of the Delaware, fringed with pines, to those of the Schuylkill.
There his surveyor laid out the city of Philadelphia upon a plan which
would embrace about twelve square miles.
The surveyor who aided William Penn in laying out Philadelphia was
Thomas Holme. It was at the close of the year 1682, that the town was
surveyed, and the boundaries of the streets marked on the trunks of the
chestnut, walnut, locust, spruce, pine and other forest trees covering
the land. Many of the streets were named for the forest monarchs on
which these inscriptions were cut, and still bear the names. The growth
of the town was rapid, and, within a year after the surveyor had
finished this work, almost a hundred houses had been erected there, and
the Indians daily came with the fruits of the chase as presents for
"Father Penn," as they delighted to call the proprietor.
In the following March, the new city was honored by the gathering there
of the second assembly of the province, when Penn offered to the people,
through their representatives a new charter. The new charter was so
liberal in all its provisions, that when he asked the question:
"Shall we accept the new constitution or adhere to the old one?" they
voted in a body to accept the new charter, and became at once a
representative republican government, with free religious toleration,
with justice, for its foundation, and the proprietor, unlike those of
other provinces, surrendered to the people his chartered rights in the
appointment of officers. From the beginning, the happiness and
prosperity of his people appeared to be uppermost in the heart and mind
of William Penn. It was this happy relation between the proprietor and
the people, and the security against Indian raids, that made
Pennsylvania far outstrip her sister colonies in rapidity of settlement
and permanent prosperity.
It was late in 1682 that a small house was erected on the site of
Philadelphia for the use of Penn, and only a few years ago it was still
standing between Front and Second Streets, occupied by Letitia Court.
There he assisted in fashioning those excellent laws which gave a high
character to Pennsylvania from the beginning. Among other wise
provisions was a board of arbitrators called peace-makers, who were to
adjust all difficulties and thus prevent lawsuits. The children were all
taught some useful trade. When factors wronged their employees, they
were to make satisfaction and one-third over. All causes for irreligion
and vulgarity were to be suppressed, and no man was to be molested for
his religious opinions. It was also decreed that the days of the week
and the months of the year "shall be called as in Scripture, and not by
heathen names (as are vulgarly used), as ye First, Second and Third
months of ye year, beginning with ye day called Sunday, and ye month
called March," thus beginning the year, as of old, with the first spring
month. Pennsylvania was first divided into three counties--Bucks,
Chester and Philadelphia, and the annexed territories were also divided
into three counties--New Castle, Kent and Sussex--known for a long time
afterward as the "Three Lower Counties on the Delaware."
Penn returned to England in the summer of 1684, leaving the government
of the province during his absence to five members of the council, of
which Thomas Lloyd, the president, held the great seal. William Penn's
mission in America had been one of success. In 1685, Philadelphia
contained six hundred houses; schools were established, and William
Bradford had set up a printing press. He printed his "Almanac for the
year of the Christian's Account, 1687," a broadside, or single sheet,
with twelve compartments, the year beginning with March.
William Penn could look with no little degree of pride upon his work. If
ever man was justified in being proud, he was. Looking upon the result
of his work, he, with righteous exultation, wrote to Lord Halifax, "I
must, without vanity, say I have led the greatest colony into America
that ever man did upon private credit, and the most prosperous
beginnings that ever were in it are to be found among us."
Penn bade the colonists farewell, with the brightest hopes for the
future, saying, "My love and my life are to and with you, and no water
can quench it, nor distance bring it to an end. I have been with you,
cared for you, and served you with unfeigned love, and you are beloved
of me and dear to me beyond utterance. I bless you in the name and power
of the Lord, and may God bless you with his righteousness, peace and
plenty all the land over." Then of Philadelphia, the apple of the noble
Quaker's eye, he said, "And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of
this province, my soul prays to God for thee, that thou mayest stand in
the day of trial, and that thy children may be blessed."
He stood on the deck of the ship which was anchored at the foot of
Chestnut Street, when he delivered his farewell address, and on that
bright August day, when the good ship spread her sails and sped away
across the seas, he bore away with him to England the blessings of the
whole people.
Four months after Penn's return to England, Charles the Second died, and
his brother James ascended the throne. A period of theological and
political excitement in England followed, in which William Penn became
involved. William Penn and the new king had long been personal friends,
and through the influence of the honest Quaker, twelve hundred
persecuted Friends were released from prison, in 1686. As James was
under the influence of the Jesuits, his Quaker friend was suspected of
being one of them, and when the revolution that drove James from the
throne came, Penn was three times arrested on false charges of treason
and as often acquitted, his last acquittal being in 1690. There had
meanwhile been great political and theological commotions in
Pennsylvania, and in April, 1691, the three lower counties on the
Delaware, offended at the action of the council at Philadelphia,
withdrew from the union, and Penn yielded to the secessionists so far as
to appoint a separate deputy governor over them.
In consequence of representations which came from Pennsylvania, the
monarchs William and Mary deprived Penn of his rights as governor of his
province, in 1692, and the control of the domain was placed in the hands
of Governor Fletcher of New York, who, in the spring of 1693, reunited
the Delaware counties to the parent province. Fletcher appeared at the
head of the council at Philadelphia on Monday, the 15th of May, with
William Markham, Penn's deputy, as lieutenant governor.
The noble Quaker, however, had powerful friends who interceded with King
William for the restoration of Penn's rights. He was called before the
Privy Council to answer certain accusations, when his innocence was
proven, and a few months later, all his ancient rights were restored.
Penn's fortune had been wasted, and he lingered in England, under the
heavy hand of poverty, until 1699, when, with his daughter and second
wife, Hannah Callowhill, he sailed to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, his
colony, under his old deputy, William Markham, had asserted their right
to self-government and made laws for themselves.
They were prosperous, but clamorous for political privileges guaranteed
to them by law. Regarding their demands as reasonable, Penn, in
November, 1701, gave them a new form of government, with more liberal
concessions than had been formerly given. The people of the territories
or three lower counties were still restive under the forced union with
Pennsylvania, and Penn made provisions for their permanent separation in
legislation, in 1702, and the first independent legislature in Delaware
was assembled at New Castle in 1703. Although Philadelphia and Delaware
ever afterward continued to have separate legislatures, they were under
the same government until the Revolution in 1776.
Shortly after Penn's arrival in America, he received tidings that
measures were pending before the privy council, for bringing all of the
proprietary governments under the crown. Penn located in Philadelphia,
declaring it his intention to live and die there. He erected an
excellent brick house on the corner of Second Street and Norris Alley.
Disparaging news from his native land determined him to return to
England, which he did in 1701, where he succeeded in setting matters to
rights. He never returned to America. Harassed and wearied by business
connected with his province, he was making arrangements in 1712 to sell
it for sixty thousand dollars, when he was prostrated with paralysis. He
survived the first shock six years, though he never fully recovered,
then he died, leaving his estates in America to his three sons. His
family governed Pennsylvania, as proprietors, until the Revolution made
it an independent State, in 1776. During that time the great province of
Pennsylvania had borne its share of troubles with the French and
Indians.