Local History: Chapter XIII: The Colonial Era: Bean's 1884 History of Montgomery Co, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Susan Walters USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. บบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบ BEAN'S HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA บบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบบ 142 (Cont.) CHAPTER XIII. THE COLONIAL ERA. THE proprietary or colonial Government of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1776 seems to have been of a peaceful and conservative character. All nations and tongues; and kindred were here cordially invited to unite in their efforts to form and administer a system of government that would secure to in an kind the measure of human happiness believed to be incident to the providence of life. Peaceful relations with the aborigines were first secured. On the banks of the Delaware, at a point marked by a great elm-tree, the founder of the colony, surrounded by a few judicious followers, met in council a large delegation of the Lenni-Lenape tribes. We meet in good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. We are the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts, we are all are flesh and blood." The response was natural" We will live in love with you and your children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure." This covenant of peace and amity had neither signature seal nor oath confirm it. No record of it call be found. The, sons of the wilderness returning to their forest home, preserving the history of the great event by strings of wampum, and later generations would count over the shells on a clean piece of bark, and repeat to child and stranger the magic word of peace and good will." Honorable peace with the natives gave to all a sense of participation and security. Contentment and interest in the colony were inspired by assuring to a taxpaying citizenship a participation in making laws to govern themselves. The people responded promptly 143 to the privilege, and through their representatives entered upon the work of preparatory legislation at Cheater, and in a session of three days completed a form of government. By the joint act of the people and the proprietary all were united on the basis of equal rights. The rule of equality in descent and inheritance was secured in families by abrogating the laws of primogeniture. The standard of woman was lurking in many minds. The establishment of "an asylum for the oppressed of every nation" was an invitation to the children of misfortune of every clime to seek refuge in it. Adventurers came in throngs, demanding personal license in the name of public liberty. The mass of emigrants came with minds clouded by the gloomy terrors of an invisible world of attending fiends. Witchcraft found advocacy and PICTURE OF PENN'S TREATY TREE AND PHILADELPHIA HARBOR, 1800 APPEARS HERE. raised to an inheritable person in the distribution of all intestate estates. Every resident who paid "scot and lot to the Governor" possessed the right of suffrage, and every Christian was eligible to public office. No tax or custom could be levied or collected but by law, murder was the only crime punishable by death, marriage was declared a civil contract, every prison for convicts was made a workhouse, there were neither poor-rates nor church tithes. The Swedes, Finns, Dutch, and all men of whatever nation were invested with the liberty of Englishmen. It was a bold departure in a right direction, keenly appreciated by the newly enfranchised men, and led to open exclamations of joy by many leading spirits, among them Lawrence Cook, who declared for his fellow-citizens, "that it was the best day they had, ever seen. The birth of popular power and the institution of forms of government demanded by it imposed the duty, of dislodging the prejudice and superstition Belief, and demanded the arrest and trial of, common scold in the person of a woman. The event was important and the scene memorable. Penn presided as judge; the jury was carefully selected, the Quakers outnumbered the Swedes. The nature of the accusation was carefully considered, the witnesses were patiently examined, he jury received the charge of the court, and after mature deliberation returned the following verdict: "The prisoner is guilty of the common fame of being a witch, but not guilty as she stands indicted." The personal friends of the liberated but incorrigible scold were directed to enter into bonds that she should keep the peace and be of good behavior towards all good citizens. And from that day henceforth in the colony of Pennsylvania witchcraft became an extinct offense. The sinful arts of conjuration were obscured, if not eradicated, by this public trial. And "neither demon nor hog ever rode through air on goat or broom-stick," in the presence of a Quaker judge or jury thereafter. 144 Late in the year of 1682, Thomas Holmes, Penn's surveyor-general, laid out the city of Philadelphia on land purchased from the Swedes. In the spring of PICTURE OF THE TREATY TREE MONUMENT APPEARS HERE 1685 it became the capital city, the proprietor having previously divided the province into the counties Bucks, Chester, and Philadelphia, and the "territories" into three, New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. The political freedom of the colonists induced frequent modifications in their form of government. The Council and Assembly were in session in the spring of 1638. Addressing them in reference to the form of government, Penn said, "You might amend, alter, or add; I am ready to settle such form or additions as may be for your happiness." The question before them was whether to have the old charter or a new one. A new one was adopted and approved by the Governor of the province. By this charter the Provincial Council was to consist of eighteen persons, three from each county, and the Assembly of thirty-six persons "of most note for virtue, wisdom and ability." The laws were to be prepared and proposed by the Governor and Council, and the number of Assemblymen to be increased at their own pleasure. The popular branch of the Legislature had no power to originate laws or measures, but could negative or defeat those proposed by the Governor and Council. It was soon discovered that an elective Assembly, representing a large constituency, was unsatisfied with the exercise of a negative power. Discussions were frequent and animated. This led to conferences with the Council and the Governor; the associated wisdom of the many became manifest, and the privilege of suggesting measures was conceded to the Assemblymen. In return, they conferred upon the Governor the power to negative measures proposed by the Council. In the light of experience, it would seem to have been better to repose the veto power in the executive granting to the most popular branch of the Assembly power to originate all laws for the public welfare. As modified in 1683, the colonial government continued until 1683, having established the colony upon, principles of constitutional freedom, Penn confided the executive power to Thomas Lloyd, an eminent Quaker, and in the month of July 1684, returned to England. Commentators concur in reporting serious dissensions among those vested with the power of government. The trouble was mainly due to the distinction between the proprietary interests and those of the common people. In August 1684, the province contained eight thousand souls; over these. Penn had established a democracy, while his great landed interests made him a feudal sovereign. Bancroft declares, "The two elements in the government were incompatible, and for ninety years the civil history of Pennsylvania is but an account of the jarring of the opposing interests, to which there could be no happy issue but in popular independence." Sherman Day says, "The different authorities did not support each other as they should have done; there was constant bickering between the legislative and the executive, [See NOTE 13-1.] and between the members from the 'territories' and those of the province." "The territories" or what sub- 145 sequently became the State of Delaware were a source of solicitude to Penn, and the representatives from them were generally hostile to the proprietary interests. The third frame of government was adopted in 1696 which continued in force until 1700. Meantime Penn returned to his colony and applied himself diligently to a further modification of the government and in securing unity in the administration of the laws. The Assembly met in extra session in May, and again in October 1700. A new charter or frame of government, and a new code of laws were submitted. After long and bitter discussion both were FAC-SIMILE OF PENN'S SEAL AND WITNESSES' SIGNATURES ON ORIGINAL CHARTER APPEARS HERE. This charter of rights and privileges, under which our progenitors lived for, seventy-five years, from 1701 to 1776, merits preservation for They brought an answer that shortly they would bring an answer. In convenient reference, containing, as it does, the germ of the commonwealth. [NOTE 13-1.] The following conference between the Assembly and the Governor illustrate the temper and character of the conflict during the colonial period, and is referred to by historians generally: "John White, David Lloyd, Saml. Carpenter and Edward Blake, from the house of representatives bring in and offer the Bill of supplies for the government, which they say is read two times in their house, but not passed, and desires to know what is become of the other bills they have sent up; whether they am passed or not, or what amendments an made. His Excell. Gentl. This Is no bill. I will not look upon it until it be passed the house and signed by the Speaker. I have sent you word formerly that the Speaker was to cause be wrote under each bill, This bill being three times read, is assented unto by the House of Representatives, and ordered to be transmitted to the Governor and Council for their assent thereunto, and then signed by order of the house his name. But this you will not follow because bid to doe it. Mr. White, May it please the Governor not to take it amiss that the representative are desirous to know what is become of the other bill, ere they proceed to the passing of it. They judge it the practice of the Comons of England and their right, therefore pray Governor, excuse it and peruse the bill. "His Excel. Genlt. If you did design to compliment me with the sight of this Bill before it was passed your house, you might have followed other measures. I can take no notice of it here until it come signed by the Speaker and past the house. I will not look upon it. "Mr. Lloyd. To be plain with the Governor, here is the money bill, and the use will not pass it until they know what is become of the other bills that are sent up. Mr. White. May it please the Governor, the House doe not know but those bill the Governor may see cause to lay aside may be the bills put the greatest value upon, therefore pray thee to excuse it and to condescend to them in that thing. His. Excel. Genlt you have not dealt fairly by me. You have no candor you have sit these fifteen days and nothing done. No vote mentioning those laws ever came to my hand until you surprise me 13 bills and again inure, nine of which are directly opposite to their Maties Letter patent. I came not here to make bargains nor expose the king's honor. I will never grant any such for all the money in your Country. You have had her Maties" Letter before you, and let the house consider what they are, doing I must be accompttable [sic] at Whitehall for everie thing that is transacted here in this assembly. I shall be sorry if I can be able to give you no better character; and In short, you must expect to be an annex to New York or Maryland. I will not look upon the Bill until it will be three times read and signed by the Speaker. "The Representatives did throw down another bill upon the table and withdrew. "The Bill last delivered is concerning the estate of persons deceased, and not signed by the Speaker. "His Excel, ordered Mr. Robinson to carry the same back to the house, and tell them that his Excell. Hath passed a bill against abusing Magistrates this day in Council; that they sufficiently abuse his Excell. in sending up such scripts of paper without being signed, and that they must not expect that he will take and notice of such. "His Excell. Sent Mr. Robinson and Mr. Forman to inquire if the House of Representatives had any more Bills to offer. Who in answer, Said the house were in debate whether they should send any more bills for assent until they heard that the other former bills were passed. "His Excell. After long expectation, did desire the advice of the board whether he should not dissolve the assembly, having had no regard to their Majesties' demands for assisting New York. "His Excell. Ordered Pat. Robinson and Geo. Forman. Esqrs to wait upon the house of Representatives, and demand of them whether they have complied with their Majesties' demand for assisting New York; whether they had considered of a Quota of men or money, or both, and that they return an answer in writing, signed by the Speaker. "His Excell. Gave them the Queen's Letter, of which the Representatives had formerly a copy, that they might see it adopted. The charter continued in force until the separation of the province from Great Britain, 1776. "His Excell. Did demand of the Council if they have observed him to take wrong measures to disoblige the representatives and make the in. habitants uneasy since he came among them, and prayed them to use Their freedom of speech. The Members of the Council did return that they were admirers of his Excell. Patience and were witnesses that be hath taken all the steps of condescension imaginable to gain them, and that they were afraid the Country will be at last sufferers through their means. "His Excell. Gave the board to understand that he hath sent several messages to the Representatives they have done nothing to answer the Queen's Letter. They have adjourned themselves twice this day, and It is now three hours since the last message was sent to them; Therefore, asks the advice of the board to send for them and dissolve them. Andrew Robeson, Esq., made answer, That he was ashamed of their behavior to his Excell. after all that condesention and patience his Excell. Hath shown to them; being put to the vote It is the opinion of the Council (only Mr. Salway excepted) that his Excel have patience till tomorrow morning, and if they give not satisfactory answer to the Queens, Letter by 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, then to dissolve the present assembly. "Adjourned till 5 o'clock tomorrow morning." (Col. Rec. vol. i.) [FINIS NOTE 13-1.] 146 The expense attending upon the settlement and improvement of the province impaired the fortune of its founder, and in the year 1708 he was obliged to mortgage his proprietary possessions for the sum of thirty thousand dollars. This is said to be the first debt of the State. In 1712, Penn negotiated with Queen Anne for the transfer of the government of the province and territories to the crown, for which he was to receive sixty thousand dollars. Pending legislation upon this subject, Penn became a hopeless invalid with impaired faculties, and after a lingering illness of six years he died at Rushcomb, in Buckinghamshire, England, on the 30th day of July, 1718. [NOTE 13-2.] "THE CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES TO THE PROVINCE AND COUNTIES. WILLIAM PENN, PROPRIETARY AND GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA AND TERRITORIES THEREUNTO BELONGING. "To all to whom thus presents shall come, sendth Greeting." "Whereas, King Charles the Second, by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England, bearing date the fourth day of March, in the year One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty, was graciously pleased to give and grant unto me, my heirs and assigns, forever, this Province of Pennsylvania. The diverse Great Powers and Jurisdiction for the Well Government thereof; and whereas the King's Dearest Brother, James, Duke of York and Albany, &c., by his Deeds of feiffment under his hand and Seal, duly perfecting, bearing Date the Twenty fourth Day of August One Thousand Six hundred Eighty and two, Did grant unto me, my heirs and assign, all that Tract of Land now called the Territories of Pennsylvania, together with Powers and Jurisdiction for the good Government thereof; and Whereas, for the Encouragement of all the freemen and Planters that might be concerned in the said Province and Territories, and for the good government thereof, I, the said William Penn, in the year One thousand Six hundred Eighty and three, for me my heirs and assigns, did grant and Confirm unto all the freemen, Planters and adventurers therein, Divers Liberties, franchises and property, as by the said grant Entitled the Frame of the Government of the Province of Pennsylvania and Territories thereunto belonging, in America, may appear. Which Charter or frame, being found in some parts of it not so suitable to the present circumstances of the Inhabitants, was, in the third month, in the year One thousand seven hundred, Delivered up to me by six parts of seven of freemen of this Province and Territories, in General Assembly met, provision being made in the said Charter for that end and Purpose; and Whereas, I was then pleased to promise that I would restore the said Charter to them again with necessary alterations, or, in Lieu thereof, Give them another, better adapted to answer the Present Circumstance and condition of the said Inhabitants, which they have now by their Representatives in General Assembly met in Philadelphia, Requested me to grant; know ye therefore that I, to the further well-being and good Government of the said Province and Territories, and in pursuance of the Rights and Powers before mentioned, I, the said William Penn, do Declare, grant and Confirm unto all the freemen, planters and adventurers and other inhabitants of and in the said Province and Territories thereunto annexed, forever; "First. Because no people can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil Liberties, if abridged of the freedom of their Consciences as to their Religious profession and Worship; and Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, father of Lights and Spirits, and the author as well as object of all Divine Knowledge, faith and Worship, who only doth Enlighten the mind and persuade and convince, the understanding of people, I do hereby grant and declare that no person or persons, inhabiting in this Province or Territories, who shall confess and acknowledge one Almighty God, the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the World, and Profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under the Civil Government, shall be in any case molested or prejudiced in his or their person or estate, because of his or their conscientious persuasion or practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any Religious Worship, place or ministry contrary to his or their mind, or to do or suffer any other actor thing contrary to their Religious persuasion. And that all persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, shall be capable (notwithstanding their other persuasions and practices in point of Conscience and Religion) to serve this Government in any Capacity, both Legislatively and Executively, he or they Solemnly promising, when Lawfully required allegiance to the King as Sovereign and fidelity to the Proprietor and Governor, and taking the attests as now established, by the law made at New Castle, in the year One Thousand seven hundred, Intitled an act Directing the attests of several officers and ministers, as now amended and confirmed by this present Assembly. "Secondly. For the well governing of this Province and territories, there shall be an Assembly yearly chosen by the freemen thereof, to consist of four persons out of each County of most note for Virtue, Wisdom and Ability (or of a greater number at any time as the Governor and Assembly shall agree), upon first day of October, forever; and shall sitt on the fourteenth day of the said month, at Philadelphia. unless the Governor and Council, for the time being, shall see cause to appoint another place within the said Province or Territories, which assembly shall have power to choose a Speaker and their other officers, and shall be Judges of the Qualifications and Elections of their own number, sitt upon their own adjournment, appoint Committees, prepare bills in or to pass into Laws, Impeach criminals and redress Grievances; and shall have all other powers and Privileges of an Assembly, according to the rights of the first-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the King's Plantacons in America. And if any Court or Counties shall refuse or neglect to choose their Respective representatives, as aforesaid, or, if chosen, do not meet to serve in Assembly, those who are chosen and met shall have the full power of an Assembly, in as ample manner as if all the Representatives bad been chosen and mett; Provided they are not less than two thirds of the whole number that ought to meet; And that the Qualifications of Electors and Elected, and all other matters and things Relating to Elections of Representatives to serve in Assemblys, though not herein particularly expressed, shall be and remain as by a Law of this Government, made at New Castle in the year One thousand seven hundred, Intitled an Act to ascertain the number of members of Assembly, and to regulate the Elections. "Thirdly. That the freemen in each Representative County, at the time and place of meeting for Electing their Representatives to serve in Assembly, may, as often as there shall be occasion, choose a Double number of persons to present to the Governor for Sheriffs and Coroners, to serve for three years, if they so long behave themselves well, out of which respective Elections and Presentments The Gov. shall nominate and Commission One for each of the said officers the Third Day after such presentment, or else the first named in such presentment for each office, as aforesaid, Shall stand and serve in that office for the time before Respectively Limited; and in case of death or Default, such vacancies shall be supplied by the Governor to serve to the End of said Term; Provided always, that if the said freemen shall at any time neglect or Decline to Choose a person or persons for Either or both the aforesaid offices, then and in such Case the persons; that are or shall be in the Respective offices of Sheriff or Coroner at the time of Election shall remain therein untill they shall be Removed by another Election, as aforesaid. And that the Justice of the Respective Counties shall or may nominate and present to the Governor three persons to serve for Clerk of the Peace for the said County when there is a vacancy, One of which the Governor shall commissionate within Ten Days after such presentment, or else the first nominated shall serve in the said officer during good behavior. "Fourthly. That the Laws of this Government shall be in this stile, viz: [By the Governor with the County and approbation of the freemen in General Assembly mett] and shall be, after confirmation by the governor, forthwith Recorded in the Roll's office and kept at Philadelphia, unless the Governor and Assembly shall agree to appoint another place. "Fifthly. That all Criminals shall have the same Privileges of Witnesses and Council as their Prosecutors. "Sixthly. That no person or persons shall or may, at any time hereafter, be obliged to answer any Complaint, matter or thing Whatsoever relating to Property before the Governor and Council or in any other place but in the ordinary Courts of Justice, unless appeals thereunto shall be hereafter by Law appointed. "Seventhly. That no person within this Government shall be, licensed by the Governor to keep Ordinary, Tavern, or House of Publick Entertainment, but such who are first recommend to him under the hand of the Justices of the Respective Counties signed in open Court, Which Justices are and shall be hereby Impowered to suppress and forbid any person keeping such Publick House, as aforesaid, upon their misbehaviour, on such Penalties as the Law doth or shall direct, and to Recommend others from time to time as they shall see occasion. "Eighthly. If any Person, through temptation or melancholly, shall Destroy himself, his Estate, Real and Personal, shall notwithstanding, Descend to his wife and Children or Relations as if he died a natural Death; and if any Person shall be destroyed Or killed by Casualty or accident there shall be no forfeiture to The Governor by reason thereof; and no act, Law or Ordinance, whatsoever shall at any time hereafter be made or done to alter, Change or Diminish the form of effect of this 147 Charter, or of any part or clause therein Contrary to the true Interest and meaning thereof, without the Consent of the Governor for the time being, and Six parts of Seven of the Assembly mett. But because the happiness of mankind depends an much upon the enjoying of liberty of their Consciences, as aforesaid, I do hereby Solemnly Declare, promise and Grant for me, my heirs and assigns, that the first article of this Charter, Relating to Liberty of Conscience, and every part and Clause therein, according to the true intent and meaning thereof, shall be kept and remain without any alteration inviolably forever. "And Lastly, I, the said William Penn, Proprietor and Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania and Territories thereunto belonging, for myself, my heirs and Assigns. Have solemnly Declared, Granted and Confirmed, and do hereby Solemnly Declare, Grant and Confirm, that neither I, my heirs or Assigns shall procure or do anything or things whereby the Liberties in this Charter Contained and Exprest, nor any part thereof, shall be infringed or Broken; And if anything shall be procured or done by any Person or Persons contrary to these presents, it shall be held of no force or effect. "In Witness whereof, I, the said William Penn, at Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, have unto this present Charter of Liberties sett my hand and Broad Seal, this Twenty-Eighth Day of October, In the year of our Lord One thousand Seven hundred and One, being the thirteenth year of the Reign of King William the Third over England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, &c., and in the Twenty-first year of my Government. And notwithstanding the Closure and test of this present Charter, as aforesaid, I think fit to add this following, provision, thereunto as part of the same, that is to say: that notwithstanding any Clause or Clauses in the above mentioned Charter obliged the Province and Territories to join together in Legislation, I am content and do hereby declare that if the Representatives of the Province and Territories shall not hereafter agree to Joyn together in Legislation, And if the same shall be signified to me or my Deputy, in open Assembly, or otherwise, from under the hands and seals of the Representatives (for the time being) of the province or Territories, or the major part of Either of them, any time within three years front the date hereof, That in such Case the Inhabitants of Each of the three Counties of this Province shall not have less than Eight persons to Represent them in Assembly for the Province, and the Inhabitants of the town of Philadelphia. (when the said Town is incorporated), Two persons to represent them in Assembly; and the Inhabitants of Each County in the Territories shall have as many persons to Represent them in a Distinct Assembly for the Territories as shall be by them requested, as aforesaid, Notwithstanding which separation of the Province and Territories in respect of Legislation, I do hereby promise, Grant and Declare that the Inhabitants of both Province and Territories shall separately enjoy all other Liberties, Privileges and benefits Granted Jointly to them in this Charter, any Law usage or Custom of this Government heretofore made and practiced, or any Law made and passed by this General Assembly to the contrary hereof notwithstanding. "Copia Vera, "WILLIAM PENN. "p. Jos. ANTROBUS, "Clerk of the Assembly. "This Charter of Privileges being Distinctly Read in Assembly, and the whole and every part thereof being approved of and agreed by us, we do thankfully receive the same from our Proprietors and Governor at Philadelphia, this Twenty-eight Day of October, 1701. "Signed on behalf and by order of the Assembly. "p. Jos. GROWDON, Speaker. "EDWD. SHIPPEN | "PHINEAS PEMBERTON | "GRIFFITH OWENS } Propry. and Governor's Council "CALEB PUSEY | "THOS. STORY | "Recorded in the Rolls Office at Philadelphia, In Patent Book A., Vol 2nd, Page 125 to 129, the 31st of 8th Mon. 1701. "By me THOS. STORY, Mr. Ibiot.?" --Col. Rec., vol ii. [FINIS NOTE 13-2.] 147 By his will the government or jurisdiction of Pennsylvania and territories was given in trust to the Earls of Oxford (Mortimer and Powlet), to be disposed of to the Queen or any other person to the best advantage. The proprietary right of government of the province was claimed by the eldest son, William. The hereditary succession was disputed, and the case found its way to a Court of Chancery, which decreed the right of government to be a part of the personal estate. Under this decision the widow and executrix, Hannah Penn, exercised a proprietary interest during the minority of the heirs and for many years afterwards. She is said to have been a woman of "powerful intellect, and exerted it in securing the appointment of Governors, and in directing of the affairs of the colony." The colony established as a "Holy Experiment" was geographically known throughout Christendom, and the tide of emigration was tending in the direction of Pennsylvania. Men of enterprise, possessing capital, came to secure timber lands, to engage in shipbuilding, to explore and develop mineral wealth and to foster the growth of cattle and grain for exportation. This development attracted the New England traders, trained in the school of republican Puritanism, who found here a congenial climate and sources of wealth which induced many of them to become permanent settlers. Among them was the boy Benjamin Franklin, who arrived in October, 1723. Among those who came from the mother country at this period were many connected with the Church of England. Following these were Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland. These people were not averse to bearing arms in self-defense; in truth, they were aggressive and were active, as have been their patriotic descendants in extending the line of civilization westward. In contrast with this class were the Mennonists or German Baptists, a religious people who adhered to the principles of non-resistance, and because of this belief were persecuted in Northern Europe. They naturally sought a country tolerant in its laws, and thousands of them settled in Eastern Pennsylvania in the beginning of the seventeenth century. These were followed by the Dunkers and German Lutherans. Amid this great diversity of races, languages, interests, and prejudices, agitation and sharp conflicts of opinion were natural, and slowly but surely led up to and expended their force in the Revolution that followed. Cause was not wanting to excite a well marked division of public opinion upon subject, associated with the general welfare. On the one side was the proprietary family with their landed prerogatives, their manors of many thousand acres of the most valuable of improved lands, their quit-rents and baronial pomp, alienated in their sympathies from the colony, preferring the luxuries of aristocratic life in England to the simple manners and customs of the New World, ruling the colony by capricious Governors and deputies, and persistingly refusing to be taxed in 148 common for the defense of the country. On the other side was a hardy, self-reliant and enthusiastic band of pioneers. Free in this New World to develop and maintain the great principles of civil liberty and self-government then just dawning upon the human mind, willing to bear their share of the pecuniary burdens of the frontier wars against the encroachments of the French and their savage allies. Provided the proprieties would consent to be equally taxed; a part of them ambitious to take up arms in defense of the colony, while the Quakers and other non-resisting sects were zealous in their humane efforts to promote peace. The policy of the home government was to keep the colonists dependent; the ambition of the enterprising colonists was to be self-supporting and independent. [See NOTE 13-3.] [NOTE 13-3.] The restrictive policy of the house government is shown in the following proclamation conceding the privilege of exporting the fruits of coarse and cheap labor, but denying to he enterprising manufacturer the right to employ skilled labor in the higher and more profitable branches of productive industry. "By the Honourable James Hamilton, Esqr., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania and Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, on Delaware: "A PROCLAMATION. "Whereas, By an Act of Assembly passed in the twenty-third year of his Majestie's Reign, entitled 'An Act to encourage the importation of Pig and Bar Iron from his Majestie's Colonies in America, and to prevent the erection of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a Tilt Hammer, or any furnace for making steel in any of the said colonies' it is enacted ' That from and after the Twenty-Fourth day of June in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty, every Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of any of his Majestie's Colonies in America shall forthwith transmit to the Commissioners for Trade and plantations a certificate under his Hand and Seal of office, containing a particular account of every mill or engine for slitting and rolling Iron, and every plating fore to work with a Tilt Hammer, and every furnace for making Steel at the time of commencement of his act erected in his Colony, expressing also in the said Certificate each of them as are used, and the name or names of the proprietor or proprietors of each such mill, engine, forge and furnace, and the place where each such mill, engine, forge and furnace is erected, and the number of engines, forges and furnaces in the said Colony.' To the end, therefore, that I may be the better enabled to obey the directions of the said Act, I have thought fit, with the advice of the Council, to issue this Proclamation, hereby enjoining and requiring the proprietor and proprietors, or in case of their absence, the occupiers of any of the above mentioned mills, engines, forges and furnaces erected within this Province, to appear before me at the city of Philadelphia on or before the twenty-first day of September next, with proper and ample testimonials of the rights of such proprietor, proprietors and occupiers therein, and sufficient proofs whether the said mills, engines, forges and furnaces, respectively, were used on the Twenty-fourth day of June or not. And I do further hereby require and command the Sheriff of every County in this province respectively on or before the said Twenty-first day of September to appear before me at the city of Philadelphia, aforesaid, and then and there, by writings under their Hands and Seals, to certify and make known to me every mill and engine for slitting and rolling Iron, every platting forge to work with a Tilt Hammer, and every furnace for making steel which were erected within their several and respective counties on the said Twenty-fourth day of June, and the place and places where the same were erected, with the names of their reputed proprietor, proprietors and occupiers of them and every of them, and whether they or any of them were on the Twenty-fourth day of June or not, as they and each of them will answer the contrary at their peril." "August 16, 1750." - Col. Rec. vol. v. [FINIS NOTE 13-3.] The conflict of opinion upon the subject of taxation was intensified by the declaration of hostilities between France and England, in March 1744. The French seized upon and fortified important point on the Ohio River, and artful means secured the Shawnees and other Indian tribes to join them. The situation boded evil to the colony, and a frontier war seemed inevitable. Deferential measures were necessary for the protection of life and property. The Assembly urged that the proprietary estates, as well as those of the common people, should be taxed for warlike purposes. The proprieties, through their deputies, opposed the measure, pleading prerogative, charter and law; the representatives of the people urged equity, common danger and reciprocal benefits. The Assembly passed laws laying taxes, but annexing conditions. The Governors objected to the condition, and insisted upon laws taxing the people, but not the proprieties. Benjamin Franklin was at this date a leading member of the Assembly, and took an active part in, this controversy in relation to the equality of taxation. He was subsequently commissioned to visit London, where; in 1759, he secured the royal assent to a law authorizing the taxation of proprietary estates in the province. This was deemed an important triumph at the time, and gave to Franklin his first diplomatic honors. [SEE NOTE 13-4.] [NOTE 13-4.] The famous "Review of the History of Pennsylvania," written by Franklin, was published in London, anonymously in 1759. It was an able argument in favor of the position taken by the Assembly, and against the proprietors of the Province. [FINIS NOTE 13-4.] Braddock's defeat, in the summer of 1753, gave rise to apprehension among settlers between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. The peaceful Moravians fortified Bethlehem and took up arms for their defense. Colonel William Franklin with a regiment of five limit men proceeded to the Lehigh and superintended the erection of a line of fortifications. The precautionary measures were wisely taken. The line of frontier front the Delaware Water Gap to the Potomac was the scene of burning settlements, massacre and cruelty. The imperiled condition of the colony as represented by Franklin attracted the attention of the home government, whose affairs at this date were guided by the statesmanship of William Pitt. The French were vigorously attacked on the northern frontier of New York, compelling their withdrawal from all operations on the frontier of Pennsylvania. Meantime, efforts were made by the unwarlike of the colony to renew peaceful relations with the Indian tribes, who were in sympathy with the French Grand councils were held at Easton in November 1756, and at the same place in the autumn of 1758. At the last-named council the chief of the Six nations and the Delaware were present. The Complaints of the Indians concerning lands were duly considered all differences were for the time amicably settled. Two years later the French were driven from the colonial boundaries, and in 1762 a treaty of peace was concluded between Great Britain, France 149 and Spain, by which Canada became a British colony. At this period of our colonial history the province and "Territories" of Pennsylvania were supposed to have a population of two hundred thousand souls. [Bancroft, vol. iii, p. 167.] Although no census had been taken, the number of men capable of military duty was estimated to be about thirty thousand. It had no organized militia, but maintained and garrisoned a chain of forts protecting its frontiers, at an annual cost of seventy thousand pounds currency. The Assembly were steadily encroaching upon the prerogatives of the executive powers of the government. When new public offices were created by law, as the growing necessities of the people required, the names of those who were to fill them were inserted in the bill, with a clause reserving to the Assembly the power to nominate in case of death. Sheriffs, coroners, and all persons connected with the treasury were named by the people, and were responsible to their constituency. The Assembly could not be prorogued or dissolved, and adjourned at its own pleasure. "In Pennsylvania," wrote London, in the hope of influencing the mind of Pitt, "the majority of the Assembly are Quakers; whilst that is the case they will always oppose every measure of Government and support that independence which is deep-rooted everywhere in this country." "The people of Pennsylvania," said Thomas Penn in 1757, "will soon be convinced by the House of Commons, as well as by the ministers, that they have not a right to the powers of government they claim." The same year the House of Commons resolved that "the claim of right in a Colonial Assembly to raise and apply public money, by its own act alone, is derogatory to the Crown and to the rights of the people of Great Britain." FRANKLIN AT THE AGE OF TWENTY APPEARS HERE. Said Granville to Franklin on his arrival in London, "Your Assemblies slight the King's instructions; they are drawn up by men learned in the laws and constitution of the realm; they are brought into Council, thoroughly weighed, and amended, if necessary by the wisdom of that body, and when received by the Government they are laws of the land, for the King is the legislator of the Colonies." In 1758 Parliament laid grievous restrictions on the export of provisions from the British colonies. America protested against the wrong and injury. Granville replied, "The Colonies must not do anything to interfere with Great Britain in the European markets." "If we plant and reap and must not ship," retorted Franklin "your lordships should apply to Parliament for transports to bring us all back again." Peace with France and the acquisition of the Canadian provinces gave impetus to the colonizing efforts of the crown, whose troops were stationed at remote points, from Lake Huron to and beyond the 0hio. The peace that followed was of short duration. The Indians around the great lakes and on the Ohio cheerfully as sent to the building of a chain of forts by the French, from Presque Isle to the Monongahela, so long as they proved a barrier to the advance of the English westward. But now they saw the English in possession of Canada and all forts with the evident intent to occupy the country for purposes of agriculture. This line of occupation was fully a hundred miles west of all purchases, and excited the hostility of the savages. Pontiac, 'the King and Lord of all the Northwest, and chief of the Ottawas, counseled with the Senecas, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis and Wyandots. In their own councils they said, "The English mean to make slaves of us, by occupying so many posts in our country; we had better strike now to recover our 150 liberty and our country than wait until it is too late." Pontiac proposed the gigantic plan of uniting all the northwestern tribes in a simultaneous attack upon the whole frontier. The forts and garrisons were to be taken by force or artful stratagems by separate parties on the same day, the border settlements were to be attacked in the harvest season, and men, women and children were to be killed or carried into captivity. The events, which speedily followed, crimson the annals of our early history. The forts of Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, St. Joseph and Michilimackinac were taken with a general slaughter of their garrisons, while those of Bedford, Ligonier, and Pitt were preserved through great loss and privation. The frontier settlements among and near the mountains were overrun with scalping-parties, marking their track with blood and fire. Of one hundred and twenty English traders located on the line of operations, only three escaped the general massacre. Consternation spread throughout the colony and thousands of settlers refuged from the Juniata and Susquehanna, fleeing with their families and flocks for shelter to Carlisle, Lancaster, and Reading. John Penn, grandson of William Penn, was then Governor, and heartily seconded the efforts of General PICTURE OF JOHN PENN APPEARS HERE Gage to repel the invasion. His conduct was in strange contrast with that of his great progenitor. He published his proclamation in July 1764, offering the following bounties for the capture or scalps and death of Indians: "For every male above the age of ten years captured, one hundred and fifty dollars; scalped, being killed, one hundred and thirty-four dollars; for every female Indian enemy, and every male under the age of ten years, captured, one hundred and thirty dollars; for every female above the age of ten years, scalped, being killed, fifty dollars." The military operations conducted by Colonel Bouquet in the autumn of 1764 were successful. PICTURE OF HENRY BOUQUET APPEARS HERE The Indians were overawed and sued for peace. The Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas agreed to cease hostilities, and in token of their good faith surrendered a large number of prisoners, among them many women and children, whose safe return gladdened many hearts and homes in Pennsylvania. All wars are costly, and this last one had entailed large expenses that now must be met. Taxation was the basis of credit, and a revival of the subject in the Assembly raised anew the controversy between the people and the proprieties. The Governor used his influence in shielding his family estates from their equitable share of the public burden. Debtors became clamorous, and finally the Assembly was compelled to provide for the necessities of the province. And the supplies were granted; but the conduct of the executive so incensed the Assembly that they determined by a large majority to petition to the King to purchase the proprietary interests and vest them in the crown for the common welfare. The taxable resources of the province and the necessary consumption of two hundred thousand people now began to attract the attention of the ministry, and the measures adopted by the British government to replenish its home treasury by a grievous system of taxation upon all the American colonies introduced a new and absorbing subject of great public interest. The policy of England was to secure the mo- 152 nopoly of manufactured articles, to encourage her home population of artisans, to develop maritime enterprise, and by legislation perpetuate the dependency of her distant colonies. This policy involved the question of taxing a people without their consent and without allowing them a representation in the Parliament laying the tax. It was at this period in the colonial era, and in the well-concerted but ill-advised efforts to enforce this policy, that those convictions of hostility that later developed in revolution was inspired. No period in the history of our country can be studied with greater advantage than that from 1765 to 1776. Colonies fringed the Atlantic from Massachusetts Bay to Florida. They emerged from a wilderness and were possessed by two millions of people, who were pressing westward to civilize a continent. The frontier line required the presence of an army of ten thousand troops; the cost of these required an annual expenditure of one million five hundred thousand dollars. Naturally the home government felt that the colonies should bear a part of this expense. On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was passed. It consisted of fifty-five PICTURE OF BRITISH STAMP APPEARS HERE resolutions embracing all details, and making all offenses against it cognizable in the Courts of Admiralty without any trial by jury. To prove the fitness of the tax, George Grenville argued that the colonies had a right to demand protection from Parliament. And Parliament, in return, had a right to enforce revenue from the colonies; that protection implied an army, an army must receive pay, and pay required taxes; that, on the peace, it was found necessary to maintain a body of ten thousand men at a cost of three hundred thousand pounds, most of which was a new expense; that the duties and taxes already imposed or designed would not yield more than one hundred thousand pounds, so that England would still have to advance two-thirds, of the new expense; that it was reasonable for the colonies to contribute this one-third part of the expense necessary for their own security; that the debt of England was one hundred and forty millions sterling, of America but eight hundred thousand pounds; that the increase of annual taxes in England within ten years was three millions, while all the establishments of America, according to accounts which were produced, cost the Americans but seventy-five thousand pounds. The charters of the colonies were referred to, and Grenville interpreted their meaning. The clause under which a special exemption was claimed for Maryland was read, and he argued that the province, upon a public emergency, is subject to taxation, in like manner with the rest of the colonies, or the sovereignty over it would cease; and if it were otherwise, why is there a duty on its staple of tobacco? and why is it bound at present by several acts affecting all America, and passed since the grant of its charter? Besides, all charters, he insisted, were under the control of the Legislature. "The colonies claim, it is true," he continued, "the privilege which is common to all British subjects, of being taxed only with their own consent, given by their representatives, and may they ever enjoy the privilege in all its extent; may this sacred pledge of liberty be preserved inviolate to the utmost verge of our dominions, and to the latest pages of our history. I would never lend my hand towards forging chains for America, lest in so doing I should forge them for myself. But the remonstrances of the Americans fail in the great point of the colonies not being represented in Parliament, which is the common council of the whole empire, and as such is as capable of imposing internal taxes as impost duties, or taxes on intercolonial trade, or laws of navigation." The House was full, and all present seemed to acquiesce in silence. Beckford, a member for London, a friend of Pitt, and himself a large owner of West India estates, without disputing the supreme authority of Parliament, declared his opinion that "taxing America for the sake of raising a revenue would never do." Jackson, who had concerted with Grenville to propose an American representation in Parliament, spoke and voted against the resolutions. "The Parliament," he argued, "may choose whether they will tax America or not; they have a right to tax Ireland, yet do not exercise that right. Still stronger objections may be urged against their taxing America. Other ways of raising the moneys there requisite for the public service exist and have not yet failed; but the colonies in general have with alacrity contributed to the common cause. It is hard all should suffer for the fault of two or three. Parliament is, undoubtedly, the universal, unlimited legislature of the British dominion, but it should voluntarily set bounds to the exercise of its power; and, if the majority think they ought not to set these bounds, then they should give a share of the election of the legislature to the American colonies; otherwise the Liberties of America I do not say will be lost, but will be in danger, and they cannot be injured without danger to the liberties of Great Britain." Greenville had urged the House not to suffer them to be moved by resentment. One member, 152 however, referred, with asperity, to the votes of New York and Massachusetts; and it is generally held that America was as virtually represented in Parliament as the great majority of the inhabitants of Great Britain. Isaac Barre, the companion and friend of Wolfe, sharer of the dangers and glories of Louisburg and Quebec, seemed to admit the power of Parliament to tax America, yet derided the idea of virtual representation. "Who of you, reasoning upon this subject, feels warmly from the heart?" he cried, putting his hand to his breast. "Who of you feels for the Americans as you would for yourselves, or as you would for the people of your own native country?" And he taunted the House with its ignorance of American affairs. The charge of ignorance called upon his feet Charles Townshend, the professed master of them. He confirmed the equity of taxation, and insisted that the colonies had born but a small proportion of the expense of the last war, and had yet obtained by it immense advantages at a vast expense to the mother country. "And now," said he, "will these American children, planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burden under which we lie?" As he sat down Barre rose, and, with eyes darting fire and outstretched arm, uttered an unpremeditated reply, "THEY PLANTED BY YOUR CARE! No: your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, inhospitable country. Where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and, among others, to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and, I will take upon me to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth; and yet actuated by principles of the English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of these that should have been their friends. THEY NOURISHED UP BY YOUR INDULGENCE! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them, -men whose behavior an many occasions have caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of justice, some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. THEY PROTECTED BY YOUR ARMS! They have nobly taken up arms in your defense; have exerted a valor, amidst their constant and laborious industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument? And believe me -remember I this day told you so- the same spirit of freedom, which actuated that people at first will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this House maybe, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the King has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated. But this subject is too delicate; I will say no more." As Barre spoke, they're sat in the gallery Ingersoll of Connecticut, a semi-royalist, yet, joint agent for that province. Delighted with the speech, he made a report of it, which the next packet carried across the Atlantic. The lazy post of that day brought it in nearly three months to New London, in Connecticut, and it was printed in the newspaper of that village. May had not shed its blossoms before the words of Barre were as household words in every New England town. Midsummer saw them circulate through Canada in French and the continent rung from end to end with the cheering name of the Sons of Liberty. But at St. Stephen's the members only observed that Townshend had received a heavy blow. The opponents of the measure dared not risk a division on the merits of the question, but about midnight, after a languid debate of seven hours, Beckford moved an adjournment, which Sir William Meredith seconded; and, though they were aided by all those interested in West Indian estates, it was carried against America by two hundred and forty-five to forty nine. Conway and Beckford alone were said to have denied power of Parliament, and it is doubtful how far it was questioned even by them. While this debate was proceeding, faith in English liberty was conquering friends for England in new regions. The people of Louisiana, impatient of being transferred from France, would gladly have exchanged the dominion of Spain for that of England. Officers from West Florida reached Fort Chartres, preparatory to taking possession of the country, which was still delayed by the discontent of the Indians. With the same object, Croghan and a party descended the Ohio from Pittsburg. A plan was formed to connect Mobile and Illinois. The Governor of North Carolina believed that by pushing trade up the Missouri, away to the great western ocean would be discovered, and an open trade to it be established; so wide was the territory, so vast the interests for which the British Parliament was legislating. On the 7th of February, Grenville, Lord North and Jenkinson, with others, were ordered to bring in a stamp bill for America, which, on the 13th, was Introduced by Grenville himself, who read the first without a syllable debate. Among the papers that were to be stamped, it enumerated the several instruments used in the courts of episcopal jurisdiction, for he reasoned that one day such courts might be established in America. On the 15th, merchants trading to Jamaica offered a petition against it, and prayed to be heard by counsel. "No counselor of this kingdom," said Fuller, formerly chief justice of Jamaica, "would come to the bar of this House and question its authority to tax America. Were he to do so, he would not remain there long." It was the rule of the House "to receive no petition against a money bill," and the petition was withdrawn. Next, Sir William Meredith, in behalf of Virginia, presented a paper in which Montague, its agent, interweaving expressions form the votes as the As- 153 sembly of the Old Dominion, prayed that its House of Burgesses might be continued in the possession of the rights and privileges they had so long and uninterruptedly enjoyed, and might be heard. Against this, too, the same objection existed. But Virginia found an advocate in Conway. Indignant at his recent dismissal from the army, as he rose in opposition to Grenville. His cheeks flushed, and he was tremulous from emotion. "Shall we shut our ears," he argued, against the representations that have come from the colonies, and for receiving which we, with an affectation of candor, allotted sufficient time? For my own part, I must declare myself just as much in the dark as I was the last year. My way of life does not engage me in intercourse with commercial gentlemen or those who have any knowledge of the colonies. I declare, upon my honor, I expected, as a member sitting in this House, in consequence of the notice given, to receive from the information by which my judgment might be directed and my conduct regulated. The light which I desire the colonists alone can give. The practice of receiving no petitions against money bills is but one of convenience, from which, in this instance, if in no other ought to vary; for from whom, unless from themselves, are we to learn the circumstances of the colonies. And the fatal consequences that may follow the imposing of this tax? The question regards two millions of people, none of whom are represented in Parliament. Gentlemen can not be serious when they insist even on their being virtually represented. Will any man in this House get up and say he is one of the representatives of the colonies? "The commons," said Gilbert Elliot, "have maintained against the crown and against the lords. Their right of solely voting money, without the control of either any otherwise than by a negative; and will you suffer; your colonies to impede the exercise of those right, untouched as they now are by the other branches of the Legislature?" "Can there be a more declared avowal of your power," retorted Conway. "Than a petition submitting this case to your wisdom, and praying to be heard before your tribunal against a tax that will affect them in their privileges, which you at least have suffered, and in their, property, which they have acquired under your protection? From a principle of lenity of policy and of justice I am for receiving the petition of a people from whom this country derives its greatest commerce, wealth, and consideration." In reply, Charles Yorke entered into a long and most elaborate defense of the bill; resting his argument on the supreme and sovereign authority of parliament. With a vast display of legal erudition, he insisted that the colonies were but corporations, their power of legislation was but the power of making by-laws, subject to parliamentary control. Their charters could not convey the legislative power of Great Britain, because the prerogative could not grant that power. The charters of the proprietary governments were but his hereditary Governors. The people of America could not be taken out of the general and supreme jurisdiction of Parliament. The authority of Yorke was decisive; less than forty were willing to receive this petition of Virginia. A third from South Carolina, a fourth from Connecticut, though expressed is the most moderate language, a fifth from Massachusetts, though silent about the question of "right" shared the same refusal. That from New York no one could be prevailed upon to present. That from Rhode Island, offered by Sherwood, its faithful agent, claimed by the charter under a royal promise equal rights with their fellow subjects in Great Britain, and insisted that the colony had faithfully kept their part of the compact; but it was as little heeded as the rest. The House of Commons would neither receive petitions nor hear counsel. All the efforts of the agents of were fruitless. "We might," said Franklin, "as well have hindered the sun's setting." The tide against the Americans was irresistible. "We have power to tax them" said one of the ministry, "and we will tax them. The nation was provoked by American claims of legislative independence, and all parties joined in resolving by this act to settle the point." Within doors less resistance was made to the act than to a common turnpike bill. "The affair passed with so very little noise that in the town they scarcely knew the nature of what was doing. " On the 27th the House of Commons sent up the Stamp Act to the House of Lords. In that body Rockingham was silent; Temple and Lyttelton both approved the principle of the measure and the right asserted in it. Had there existed any doubt concerning that right, they were of opinion it should then be debated before the honor of the Legislature was engaged to its support. On the 8th of March the bill was agreed to by the lords without having encountered an amendment, debate, protest, division or single dissentient vote. The King was too ill to ratify the act in person. To a few only was the nature of his affliction known. At the moment of passing the Stamp Act, George III. was crazed; so on the 22d of March it received the royal assent by a commission. The sovereign of Great Britain, whose soul was wholly bent on exalting the prerogative, taught the world that a bit of parchment bearing the sign of his hand, scrawled in the flickering light of clouded reason, could, under the British constitution, do the full legislative office of the King. Had he been a private man his commission could have given validity to no instrument whatever. It was thought "prudent to, begin with small duties and taxes, and to advance in proportion as it should be found the colonies would bear." For the present Grenville attempted nothing more than 154 to increase the revenue from the colonial post-office by reducing the rate of postage in America. His colleagues desired to extend the mutiny act to America, with power to billet troops in private houses. Clauses for that purpose had been strongly recommended by Gage. They had neither the entire conviction nor the cordial support of Grenville, so that they were introduced and carried through by the Secretary at War as a separate measure. In their progress, provincial barracks, inns, ale-houses, barns, and empty houses were substituted by the merchants and agents for private houses; but there remained a clause to compel the colonies to furnish the troops with various articles, and the sums needed for the purpose were "required to be raised in such manner as the public charges for the province are raised." Thus the billeting act contained what had never before been heard of, -a Parliamentary requisition on the colonies. Bounties were at the same time granted on the importation of deals, planks, boards and timber from the plantations. Coffee of their growth was exempted from an additional duty. Their iron might be borne to Ireland, their lumber to Ireland, Madeira, the Azores and Europe south of Cape Finisterre; the prohibition on exporting their bar-iron from England was removed; the rice of North Carolina was as much liberated as that of South Carolina, and rice might be warehoused in England for re-exportation without advancing the duties. It was further provided that the revenue to be derived from the Stamp Act should not be remitted to England. But constitute a part of the sum to be expended in America. Grenville also resolved to select the stamp officers for America from among the Americans themselves. The friends and agents of the colonies were invited to make the nominations, and they did so, Franklin among the rest. "You tell me," said the minister, you are poor and unable to bear the tax; others tell me you are able. Now, take the business in your own hands; you will see how and where it pinches and will certainly let us know it, in which case it shall be eased." Not one of the American agents in England "imagined the colonies would think of disputing the stamp tax with Parliament at the point of the sword." "It is our duty to submit" had been the words of Otis. "We yield obedience to the act granting duties" had been uttered by the Legislature of Massachusetts. "If Parliament, in their superior wisdom, shall pass the act, we must submit," wrote Fitch, the Governor of Connecticut, elected by the people, to Jackson. "It can be of no purpose to claim a right of exemption," thought Hutchinson. "It will fall particularly hard on us lawyers and printers," wrote Franklin to a friend in Philadelphia, never doubting it would go into effect and looking for relief to the rapid increase of the people of America. The agent for Massachusetts had recommended it. Knox, the agent for Georgia, wrote publicly in its favor. Still less did the statesmen of England doubt the result. Thomas Pownall, who had been so much in the colonies and really had affection for them, congratulated Grenville in advance "on the good effects he would see derived to Great Britain and the colonies from his firmness and candor in conducting the American business." No tax was ever laid with more general approbation. The act seemed sure to enforce itself. Unless stamps were used, marriages would be null, notes of hand valueless, ships of sea prizes to the first captors, suits at law impossible, transfers of real estate invalid, inheritances irreclaimable. Of all that acted with Grenville in the government, he never heard one prophecy that the measure would be resisted. " He did not foresee the opposition to it, and would have staked his life for obedience." The following correspondence with Governor John Penn shows the persistency of the British government in efforts to enforce the odious measures of taxation, and the inability or unwillingness of the Governor to comprehend the true situation and temper of the colonists: PICTURE OF "THE STATE HOUSE IN 1744" APPEARS HERE. "At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Wednesday, the 19th of February, 1766. Present The Honorable John Penn, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor &c.; Lynford, Larder, Benjamin Chew, Richard Penn, Esqs. "The Governor laid before the Board a letter he lately received by the packet from the Right Honorable Henry Seymour Conway, Esq., one of his majesty's principal Secretaries of State dated the 24th of October last, expressing the King's concern at the late commotion in some of the American colonies that happened on account of a late Act of Parliament for collecting Stamp Duties, and setting forth his majesty's pleasure respecting the conduct to be observed by this Government in case any such disturbance should take place in Pennsylvania, which letter being read, was ordered to be entered, and follows in these words, viz.: "A Letter from the King. Honorable. R. S. Conway, Esqr, to the Governor." St. James October 24, 1765. "Sir: It is with the greatest concern that his majesty learns the disturbances that have arisen in most of the North America, Colonies. If this evil should spread to the Government of Pennsylvania, where you preside, the utmost exertion of your prudence will be necessary so as justly to temper your conduct between that caution and the coolness the vigor necessary to suppress, outrage, and violence on the other. It is impossible at this distance to assist by any particular or positive instruction because you will find yourself necessarily obliged to take your resolution as particular circumstance and emergencies may require. "His Majesty, and the servants he, honor with his, confidence, cannot but lament the ill advised intemperance shown already in some of the provinces by taking up a conduct which can in no way contribute to the 155 removal of any real grievance they might labour under, but may tend to obstruct and impede the exertion of His Majesty's benevolent attention to the ease and comfort as well as welfare of all his people, It is hoped and expected that this want of confidence in the justice and tenderness of the mother country, and this open resistance to its authority, call only have found place among the lower and more ignorant of the people. The better and wiser part of the colonies will know that decency and submission may prevail, not only to redress grievances, but to obtain grace and favor, while the outrage of a public violence can expect nothing but severity and chastisement." "These sentiments you and all his majesty's servants, from a sense of your duty to and loyalty of your country, will endeavor to excite and encourage. You will all in a particular manner, call upon them not to render their case desperate: you will, in the strongest colors, represent to them the dreadful consequences that must inevitably attend the forcible and violent resistance to Acts of the British Parliament, and the scene of misery and calamity to themselves and of mutual weakness and distraction to both countries inseparable from such a conduct." "If by lenient and persuasive method you can contribute to restore that peace and tranquillity to the provinces. On which their welfare and happiness depend. You will do a most acceptable and essential service to your country. But having taken every step which the utmost prudence and lenity can dictate. In compassion to the folly and ignorance of some misguided people, you will not, on the other hand, fail to use your utmost power for the repelling of all acts of outrage and violence." "And to provide for the maintenance of peace and good order in the province by such timely exertion of force as the occasion may require, for which purpose you will make the proper applications to General Gage or Lord Colvill, commanders of his majesty's land and naval forces in America." "For, however unwilling his majesty may consent to the exertion of such powers as may endanger the safety of a single subject. Yet can he can not permit his own dignity and the authority of the British Legislature to be trampled on by force and violence, and in avoid contempt of all order, duty and decorum. If the subject is aggrieved, he knows in what manner legally and constitutionally to apply for relief; but it is not suitable, either to the safety or dignity of the British Empire, that any individual, under the pretence of redressing grievances, should presume to violate the public peace." "I am, with great truth and regard, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, H. S. CONWAY, Deputy-Governor Penn. The above letter having been taken into due consideration, and an answer thereto prepared in order to be transmitted by the next pacquet, the same was approved by the Board, and is as follows: "A Letter to the Right Honorable. H. S. Conway, Esquire, from the Governor PHILADELPHIA, 19th February 1766" "Sir: I had the honor of your letter of the 24th October last, respecting the disturbances which have lately been committed in severs of the North American colonies. Give me leave to assure you. Sir, that no one of his majesty's servants is more sensible than I am of the rashness and folly of those who have been concerned in these outrages. Which at the same time that they violate the public tranquillity and set Government at nought, are undutiful and affrontive to the best of kings and productive of the most dangerous consequences. I am sorry to be under the necessity of informing you that the dissatisfaction with some of the late Acts of the British Legislature (particularly the Stamp Act) is almost universal in all the colonies on the continent, and prevails among all ranks and orders of men; but I should do great injustice to numbers of his majesty's faithful subjects if I did not represent to you at the same time that the wiser and more considerate among them highly disapproved of and detest the violent and illegal measures which have been pursued in many of the colonies. In the province of Pennsylvania, where I have the honor to preside, matters have been conducted with more moderation and respect to his majesty and Parliament than in most others and the giddy multitude have hitherto been restrained from committing any acts of open violence. Upon the arrival of the first cargo of stamped papers, into this province, in the month of October last, John Hughes, of this city, who was reported and indeed generally known to be the person appointed to distribute them, refused to take charge of them. Though they mere consigned to him, under pretence that he had not received his commission or had any authority to take them into his possession. And there being no fort or place of security where I could lodge them on shore, I thought it most advisable to order them on board his Majesty's Ship of War, the "Sardoine" Captain James Hawker, commander, stationed in the River Delaware, to whose care (on Hughes' afterwards resigning his office of Stamp Distributor). I have also committed all the papers which have since been sent by the Commissioners for the use of this province, till his Majesty's further orders can be received or another person shall be appointed to the office of distributor by the Commissioner, agreeable to the directions of the Act. The Americans have the most sanguine hope. That the remonstrances drawn up by the committed of the seventh Assembly at the Congress held for that purpose at New York last Fall. And transmitted by them to the Parliament, will produce a repeal of the Stamp Act; but if they should be disappointed in their expectations, it is impossible to say to what length they're irritated and turbulent spirits may carry them. Of this however, Sir, you may rest assured. That I shall esteem it my indispensable duty on this and every other occasion to use every means in my power to preserve the public peace, and support to the utmost the honor and dignity of his Majesty's Government committed to my care." "I have the honor to be, with great truth and regard, Sir, Ye, most obedient honorable servant," JOHN PENN. The Stamp Act excited the bitter and uncompromising hostility of all the colonies. The Sons of Liberty of New England and New York concerted with leading citizens of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, and a united protest went back to the mother country, which resulted in the speedy reconsideration of the measure. Benjamin Franklin had been commissioned by the anti-proprietary party of Pennsylvania to visit London as early as November, 1764, to secure the transfer of all property estates to the crown, but the question of taxation without representation as embodied in the Stamp Act became of such widespread importance that he was appointed general agent for all the colonies, and played a conspicuous part in the repeal of the infamous act. Franklin was summoned before the bar of the House of Commons on the 13th of February 1766. In answer to questions, he declared that "America could not pay the stamp tax for want of gold and silver. And from want of post-roads and means of sending stamps back into the country; that there were in North America about three hundred thousand white men from sixteen to sixty years of age. That the inhabitants of all the provinces together, taken at a medium, doubled in about twenty-four years; that their demand for British manufactures increased much faster; that in 1723 the whole importation from Britain to Pennsylvania was but about fifteen 156 thousand pounds sterling, and had already become near half a million; that the exports of the province to Britain could not exceed forty thousand pounds." "Do you think it right," asked Grenville, "that this country should protect America, and pay no part of the expense?" "That is not the case," answered Franklin; "the colonies raised, clothed and paid during the last war twenty-five thousand men, and spent many millions." "Were you not reimbursed by Parliament?" rejoined Grenville. "Only what, in your opinion," answered Franklin, "we had advanced beyond our proportion; and it was a very small part of what we spent. Pennsylvania, in particular, disbursed about five hundred thousand pounds, and the reimbursements, in the whole, did not exceed sixty thousand pounds." "Does the distinction between internal and external taxes exist in the charter of Pennsylvania?" asked a friend of Grenville. "No," said Franklin; "I believe not." "Then," asked Charles Townshend, "may they not, by the same interpretation of their common rights as Englishmen, as declared by Magna Charta and the Petition of Right, object to the Parliament's right of external taxation?" And Franklin answered instantly: "They never have hitherto. Many arguments have been lately used here to show them that there is no difference, and that, if you have no right to tax them internally, you have none to tax them externally, or make any other law to bind them. At present, they do not reason so; but, in time, they may be convinced by these arguments." The question of repeal came before the House of Commons on the 21st of February. Every seat bad been taken; between four and five hundred members were in attendance. Pitt was ill, but his zeal was above disease. "I must get up to the House as I can," said he; "when in my place I feel I am tolerably able to remain through the debate and cry aye to the repeal with no sickly voice." And through the huzzas of the lobby he hobbled into the House on crutches, swathed in flannels. Conway moved for leave to bring in a bill for the repeal of the American Stamp Act. It had interrupted British commerce, jeopardized debts to British merchants, stopped one-third of the manufacturers of Manchester, and increased the rates on land by throwing thousands of poor out of employment. The act, too, breathed oppression. It annihilated juries and gave vast power to the Admiralty Courts. The lawyers might decide in favor of the right to tax, but the conflict would ruin both countries. In three thousand miles of territory the English had but five thousand troops, the Americans one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men. If they did not repeal the act, France and Spain would declare war, and protect the Americans. The colonies, too, would set up manufactories of their own. Why then, risk the whole for so trifling an object? Jenkinson, on the other side moved modification of the act, insisting that the total repeal, demanded as it was with menaces of resistance, would be the overthrow of British authority in America. In reply to Jenkinson, Edmund Burke spoke in a manner unusual in the House, connecting his argument with a new kind of political philosophy. About eleven Pitt rose. He conciliated the wavering by allowing good ground for their apprehensions, and, acknowledging his own perplexity in making an option between two ineligible alternatives, he pronounced for repeal, as due to the liberty of unrepresented subjects and in gratitude to their having supported England through three wars. He spoke with an eloquence that expressed conviction, and with a suavity of manner which could not offend even the warmest friends of the act. "The total repeal," replied Grenville, "will persuade the colonies that Great Britain confesses itself without the right to impose taxes on them, and is reduced to make this confession by their menaces. Do the merchants insist that debts to the amount of three millions will be lost, and all fresh orders be countermanded? Do not injure yourselves from fear of injury; do not die from the fear of dying. With a little firmness, it will be easy to compel the colonists to obedience. America must learn that prayers are not to be brought to Cesar through riot and sedition." The lobbies were crammed with upward of three hundred men, representing the trading interests of the nation, trembling and anxious, and waiting to learn the resolution of the House. Presently it was announced that two hundred and seventy-five had voted for the repeal of the act against one hundred and sixty-seven for softening and enforcing it. The roof of St. Stephen's rung with the long-continued shouts and cheering of the majority. When the doors were thrown open and Conway went forth there was an involuntary burst of gratitude front the grave multitude which beset the avenues; they stopped him; they gathered round him as children around a parent, as captives round a deliverer. The pure minded man enjoyed the triumph; and while they thanked him, Edmund Burke, who stood near him, declares that 'his face was as if it had been the face of an angel.' As Grenville moved along, swelling with rage mortification, they pressed on him with hisses. But when Pitt appeared the crowd reverently pulled off their hats, and their applause touched him with tender and lively joy. Many followed his chair home with benedictions. He felt no illness after his immense fatigue. It seemed as if what he saw and what he heard, the gratitude of a rescued people and the gladness of thousands, now become his own, had restored him to health; but his heartfelt and solid delight was not perfect till he found himself in his own house, with the wife whom he loved and the children for whom his fondness knew no restraint or bounds, and who all partook of the overflowing pride of their mother. This was the first great political lesson received by his second son, then 157 not quite seven years old, the eager and impetuous William, who, flushed with patriotic feeling, rejoiced that he was not the eldest born, but could serve his country in the House of Commons, like his father. In the House of Lords ten peers spoke against the repeal, the session being the longest ever experienced by that body to that date. Sixty-one votes were recorded against repeal and seventy-three in favor. Royal sanction was given the measure on the 18th day of March 1766, and the odious Stamp Act was a matter of history. The colonies had triumphed. [See NOTE 13-5.] [NOTE 13-5.] The joy of tire colonies was, for a time, unmixed with apprehension Virginia voted a statue to the King, and an obelisk on which were to be engraved the names if those who in England, had signalized themselves for freedom, "My thanks they shall have cordially," said Washington, "for their opposition to any act of oppression." The consequences of enforcing the Stamp Act, he was convinced, would have been more direful than usually apprehended. Otis, at a meeting at the town-hall in Boston, to fix a time for the rejoicing, told the people that the distinction between inland taxes and port duties was without foundation; for whoever had a right to impose the one had e, right to impose the other, and, therefore, as the Parliament had given up the one, they had given up the other; and the merchants were fools if they submitted any longer to the laws restraining their trade, which ought to be free. A bright day in May was set apart for the display of the public gladness, and the spot where resistance to the Stamp Act began was the centre of attraction. At one in the morning the bell nearest Liberty Tree was the first to be rung; at dawn colors and pendants rose over the housetops all around it, and the steeple of the nearest meeting-house was hung with banners. During the day all prisoners for debt were released by subscription. In the evening the town shone as though night had not come, in obelisk on the common was brilliant with a loyal inscription, the houses round Liberty Tree exhibited illuminated figures of the King, of Pitt and Camden and Barre, and Liberty Tree itself was decorated with lanterns till its boughs could hold no more. All the wisest agreed that disastrous consequences would have ensued from the attempt to enforce the act, so that never was there a more rapid transition of a people from gloom to transport. They compared themselves to a bird escaped from the net of the fowler, and once more striking its wings in the upper air; or to Joseph, the Israelite, whom Providence had likewise wonderfully redeemed from the perpetual bondage into which he was sold by his elder brethren. The clergy from the pulpit joined in the fervor of patriotism and the joy of success. "The Americans would not have submitted," said Chauncy. History affords few examples of a more general, generous and just sense of liberty in any country than has appeared in America within the year past Such were Mayhew's words, and while all the continent was calling out and cherishing the Dame of Pitt, the greatest statesman of England the conqueror of Canada and the Ohio, the founder of empire, the apostle of freedom, - the genius and guardian of Britain and British America. "To you," said Mayhew, speaking from the heart of the people and as if its voice could be heard across tire ocean, "to you, grateful America, attributes that site is reinstated in her former liberties. The universal joy of America, blessing you as our father, and sending up ardent vows to Heaven for you, must give you a sublime and truly god-like pleasure; it might perhaps, give you vigor to take up, your bed and walk, like those cured by the word of Him who came from heaven to make us free indeed. America calls you over again her father; live long in health, happiness and honor. Be it late when you must cease to plead the cause of liberty on earth." Bancroft, Hist. of U. S. [FINIS NOTE 13-5.] The sense of peace and joy resulting from the repeal of the Stamp Act was of short duration. The King and his political powers smarted under their defeat, and regarded the repeal as "a fatal compliance" which had "planted thorns " under his royal pillow and forever "wounded the majesty of England." "The administration is dead and only lying in state," was the common criticism of the hour. A keen satire still further wounded the household of state, shrewdly predicting the independence of the American colonies. The causes that hastened the close of our colonial era were still active. Parliament reasserted its supremacy and resolved to try a new mode of taxation. Heavy duties were imposed on goods; wares and merchandise; necessities and luxuries were offered to rich and poor subject to the tax or duty imposed without the assent of the colonies. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, led public opinion in resisting the right of parliamentary taxation. So persistent was the opposition to the measure that the home government modified the law, 1770 retaining only a tax of three pence a pound on tea. And yet so uncompromising was the spirit of Pennsylvania to the principle of the law that "this duty was paid on but one single chest of tea. The Assembly declared against the iniquitous act. Governor Penn was advised by the secretary of colonial affairs to prorogue the Assembly. The Assembly resolved " they had the right to sit on their own adjournments. And this popular branch of the provincial government continued their agents at London with full pay and emoluments of office. To protest against a "tea tax or any other tax involving the same principle. And also to oppose any plan that might be proposed for an American representation in Parliament, "the principle of Pennsylvania being that taxation of the colonies should not in any shape be allowed except by the Provincial Assembly. I will freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound, said Franklin. To defend my right of giving or refusing the other shilling, and after all, if I cannot defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless woods of America. Which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger The Americans, said Thomas Mason, the leader of the Virginia bar, is hasty in expressing their gratitude. If the repeal of the Stamp Act is not at least a tacit compact that Great Britain will never again tax Laymen, lawyers, preachers and philosopher all united in support of a principle deemed essential. To the development of the colonies, and for the maintenance of which they accepted the challenge to arm. 158 PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS. 1623 - The Dutch planted a colony on the Delaware, under Cornelius Jacob May, appointed Governor of the West India Company, under the authority of the States-General. 1624 - William Useling appointed Governor of the Swedish colony to be established on the Delaware but he never came here. 1630. - David Peterson De Vries (Dutch). 1631. - John Printz (Swedish). 1638. - Peter Minuete Swedish, (but himself a native of Holland) 1640. - William Kieft, Dutch Governor of New York. 1643. - John Printz (Swedish). 1653. - Pappagoya (son-in-law to Printz). 1654. - Risingh. 1657 - Alrichs. 1658 - John Paul Jaquet. 1669. - Beckman. 1664. - Robert Carr. 1673. - Anthony Colve, Dutch Governor of New York. 1674. - Sir Edmund Andross, English Governor of New York. 1681. - William Penn, founder of the province. 1684. - Governor's Council, Thomas Lloyd, president. 1687. - Five commissioners appointed by William Penn. 1688. - John Blackwell, Lieutenant Governor. 1690. - Governor's Council. 1691. - Thomas Lloyd, Deputy Governor. 1692. - Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York. 1693. - William Markham, Lieutenant Governor. 1700. - William Penn. 1701. - Andrew Hamilton, Deputy Governor. 1704. - John Byrum. 1709. - Charles Gooken. 1717. - Sir William Keith. 1726. - Patrick Gordon. 1736. - James Logan, President of Council. 1738. - George Thomas, Lieutenant Governor. 1747. - Anthony Palmer, President of Council. 1748. - James Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor. 1754. - Richard H. Morris, Lieutenant Governor. 1756. - William Denny, Lieutenant-Governor. 1759. - James Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor. 1763. - John Penn, Lieutenant Governor. 1771 - Richard Penn, Lieutenant-Governor till 1776 COUNTIES OF THE PROVINCE. Philadelphia City and County organized 1682. Bucks County organized 1682. Chester County organized 1682. Lancaster County organized May 10, 1729. York County organized, August 9, 1749. Cumberland County organized January 27, 1750. Berks County organized March 11, 1752. Bedford County organized March 9, 1771. Northampton County, organized March 21,1772. Northumberland County, organized March 21, 1772 Westmoreland County, organized February 26,1773. COUNCIL OF SAFETY, INSTITUTED AT PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 30, 1775, BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PROVINCE. "Resolved, That this House approves the association entered into by the good people of this colony for the defense of their lives, liberty and property. "Resolved, That John Dickinson, George Gray, Henry Wynkoop, Anthony Wayne, Benjamin Bartholomew, George Ross, Michael Swoope, John Montgomery, Edward Biddle, William Edmunds, Bernard Daugherty, Samuel Hunter, William Thompson, Thomas Willing, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Roberdeau, John Cadwalader, Andrew Allen, Owen Biddle, Francis Johnson, Richard Reiley, Samuel Morris, Jun., Robert Morris, Thomas Wharton, Jun., and Robert White, Gentlemen, be a committee of safety for calling forth such, and so many, of the associators into actual service, when necessity requires, as the said committee shall judge proper." The Council of Safety was organized July 3, 1775, by electing Benjamin Franklin president and William Govett clerk. The first Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia on the 15th of July 1776. This body not only entered upon the task of framing the constitution, but also assumed the legislative power of the State. This was followed by the institution of the Supreme Council of Safety, in which reposed the executive powers of the commonwealth until the first constitution was revised in 1790. Thomas Wharton, Joseph Reed, John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Mifflin presided over this body in the order named between the years 1776 and 1788. The colonial era closed with the adjournment of the Provincial Assembly on the 23d of September, 1776. Governor Richard Penn yielded reluctantly to the forces of revolution, and the last act of provincial authority was a fierce denunciation of the Constitutional Convention in assuming the legislative power of the State. "God save the King!" was said for the last time in a Pennsylvania Assembly; henceforth it was to be "God save the Commonwealth! End Chapter XIII.