- ^ \0^^ = ^ -^^ ' T^-T X^'^'^' -%" --J '-6 <> ^' v* '^ --r. .^^^ fS ^*„ •^ cP-. ♦> ■<. * » 1 ^ - ^> , » . , ^/^ * -J N ■ \\-' K*-^ -•*- x^'-u. 0^ V \' .^' %. v^' .-{s .-iV s\ V.# :^^- % ^"^^ O. ,0^ %. ..0 o V. '•^.'' " 8 1 -^V ^ O' % /': .#• '<^^ ,^\^'' <.^<^. \V . ^• * £^ '- -^^v. v^^ ■'"o^ .4^ -n^. ,0- .■«-■ v\ ^^■ -/^„ V '^^ v^ 0" ■ ,0- ^. -^•. .vv^' WILLIAM PENN WILLIAM PENN. WILLIAM PENN AS THE FOUNDER OF TWO COMMONWEALTHS BY AUGUSTUS C. BUELL AUTHOR Of SIR WII.I.IAJI JOHNSON PAUL JONES, FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NAVY, ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MCMIV f' kI- \v-\- LIBRARY ot CONGRESS Tw* C»pie8 Received FEB 9 1904 1 •» Copyright Entry CLASS «• XXo, No. fOPY 8 /efo — CorrRiGHT. 1304, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Published, February, 1004 CONTENTS CHAPTER I 1644-1660 PAGE The Environment of his Youth 1 CHAPTER II 1660-1662 Under the Restoration , . 37 CHAPTER III 1661-1670 Under his Father's Displeasure 51 CHAPTER IV 1668-1678 Quaker Preacher and Founder of West Jersey . . 81 CHAPTER V 1680 The Pennsylvania Charter 105 CHAPTER VI 1681-1684 Penn's First Year in Pennsylvania . ^ - . . 129 V CONTENTS CHAPTER VII 1684-1686 PAGE At thk Court of JAxMEs II. 173 CHAPTER VIII 1688-1694 Under William of Orange 197 CHAPTER IX 1684-1694 Pennsylvania in Penn's Absence 217 CHAPTER X 1699-1701 Penn, with Logan, Returns to his Province . . . 237 CHAPTER XI 1702-1715 Government by Correspondence ...... 261 CHAPTER XII 1702-1712 Penn's Last Day's and his Letters to Logan . . . 293 CHAPTER XIII 1717-1776 Pennsylvania under Penn's Descendants .... 345 VI LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS FACING PAGE y William Penn Frontispiece Adraii-al Sir William Penn 6 '^ George Pox 18 ^'^ The Swedes' church and Sven Sener's house . . . . , 114 Treaty Tree and Fairman's mansion 114 Caves used by early settlers 120 Penn landing at Blue Anchor Inn 137 ^ Penn landing at Chester 137- Penn's treaty with the Indians 139 -- The LcTetitia House 148^ James II 180 William of Orange 200 The Slate-roof House 243 ' Penn's silver tea service 24G Jordan's Meeting-House 343 ' John Penn 350- Thomas Penn 356 Map showing Connecticut's claim in Middle States. Page 3G0 Arrest of the Connecticut settlers 363 . CHAPTER I 1G44-16G0 THE ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH WILLIAM PENN CHAPTER I 1644-1660 THE ENVIRONMENT OP HIS YOUTH The seventeenth century was essentially an epoch of warfare between kingly despotism and the conscience of the people. During that century, for the first time since the birth of Christ, aspirations for religious liberty found em- bodiment in organized armies and achieved definite form in victory over the hosts of oppression and the hordes of bigotry. It witnessed two revolutions in England, in which the forces of the people were arrayed against monarchs who aimed at absolutism; in which religious freedom waged war against dynastic intolerance. The whole result was one king beheaded and another driven from his throne to die in exile. On the Continent of Europe the seventeenth century witnessed the emancipation of North Germany from the sway of the Holy Roman Empire. Its first half saw the Thirty Years' War, illuminated by the genius of Gustav Adolf and made splendid by his heroic virtues. Its last half saw the complete religious liberation of North Ger- 3 WILLIAM PENN many, the growth of a great Protestant power in Prussia, and the elevation of the house of Hohenzollern to mon- archy based upon toleration; destined to carry the princi- ples of free thought and unfettered conscience from the shores of the Baltic to the banks of the Danube, from the summits of the Carpathians to the foot-hills of the Alps. Beyond the confines of Europe the seventeenth cen- tury saw the cause of religious freedom and toleration of conscience carried in frail barks far across the Atlantic and planted ineradicably in the virgin wilderness of America; planted in isolated colonies, few in numbers but indomitable in soul ; colonies destined through much trav- ail and great tribulation to blossom and bear fruit in the mightiest republic of earth's history. In such an environment, and near the middle of such an era, William Penn was born, hard by the gates of Lon- don Tower, on October 14, 1644. It was the year of Mar- ston Moor, and the child was only a year old when Crom- well, from the smoke and carnage of Naseby, proclaimed the cause of the people gained. He was little more than four years old when the stubborn Stuart king died beneath the ax at Whitehall. His childhood and early youth to the age of sixteen were passed amid the scenes and sub- ject to the austere yet simple popular thought and manners of the great Protectorate; the social atmosphere of Crom- well and the Puritans ; the political inspirations of an Eng- land that then, for the first time, began to feel her power. Upon a bright boy such as he, the lessons of such a time could not fail to make a deep and lasting impress. Whether the actual outcome in later years was that best 4 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH suited to his powers for usefulness has been debated by the ablest pens for nearly two centuries and without apparent conclusion. The discussion need not be pursued here. The character of William Penn presents three sides: the political, the commercial, and the religious. With the last-mentioned aspect the writer possesses neither the capacity nor the inclination to deal. It is his purpose to view Penn as an agent and promoter of secular civiliza- tion in its broadest sense, and therefore his religious char- acter need not be introduced except as it may from time to time become incidental as a key. William Penn came of seafaring and fighting stock on the paternal side and of commercial stock on the maternal. His father was Captain — afterward Admiral — Sir William Penn of the British navy. His mother was ]\Iargaret, daughter of John Jasper, an English merchant, settled in Rotterdam as correspondent or "resident partner" of an important London trading-house. The fact that Penn's mother was living in Rotterdam when married has apparently led some writers to conclude that he was half Dutch. But this, like many hasty conclu- sions reached in historical research, is an error. Margaret Jasper was quite as English as Captain Penn, and their son was a full-blood, thoroughbred Englishman. Captain Penn was the son of a daring and successful merchant captain named Giles Penn, who had taken his boy to sea with him at the early age of ten, teaching him step by step the mariner's art in the hard school of actual practise. In 1638, when the young sailor was seventeen, his father secured for him the warrant of master's mate 5 WILLIAM PENN in the royal navy. The rapidity of his promotion is all the evidence we have of his ability; but that is enough. At nineteen he was master commandant; at twenty-one second captain of Blake's flag-ship; and at twenty-three post captain in command of the Speaker, a new second- rate ship, said by such authorities as Charnock and Fincham to have been "the best-built ship of her time." Captain Penn did not remain quite a year in that rank ; he was promoted to be rear-admiral before reaching the age of twenty-five. This was in 1645, a year after William Penn's birth. His rise thenceforward was almost equally remarkable, until in 1751, at the age of thirty, he was pro- moted to the highest rank a seagoing officer could then attain — that of Vice-Admiral of England — inferior only to the Lord High Admiral. By this time Cromwell was in the fulness of his power. The monarchy had expired on the block with King Charles and England was a common- wealth instead of a kingdom. These vast changes wrought havoc among public serv- ants on land. Soldiers and civic functionaries alike had, perforce, to take sides. But it was different with the navy. Governments and rulers might come and go, but the navy "went on forever," During the final struggle between Charles and Parliament, when an effort was made to induce the navy to declare openly for the King, Admiral Blake — the foremost seaman of his time — issued a Private Circular to Ofiicers of Rank. In this he said : It is not meet that we should meddle in affairs of the land. True it is that two parties ashore are fighting for control of England. But whichsoever may win, they 6 ADMIKAL SIR WILLIAM TENN. Father of William Peiiii. ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH will be Englishmen and the country England still. . . . Our office is to defend all England from the designs of foreigners. Therefore we must be united. Should schism come into our midst and mutiny, the distractions of our country would be without end and both factions together would fall prey to our common enemies. It therefore be- hooveth us to keep our strength against a day of need. It is not for us to mind state affairs, but to keep foreigners from fooling us altogether. Government is all one to us, so it be the government of England by Englishmen! Wisely hearkening to the counsels of its cherished chief- tain, the British navy kept the peace outside while con- tending parties fought to the finish within the realm. And the navy was as ready to obey the Protector as it had been to obey the King ; as zealous to fight for the Commonwealth as it had been to battle for the Crown. Young Rear-Admiral Penn, along with many others as fervent royalists at heart as himself, accepted the advice of the old sea-dog philosopher, and upon the accession of Cromwell to absolute power was not long left without reward. The day after Christmas, in 1654, a fleet of fifty- four ships, including sixteen transports, sailed from the Motherbank with a force of 4,200 men on board. The commander of the fleet was Vice-Admiral Penn; of the land forces General Venables. The destination was Cuba. The object was to strike a blow against Spain in her weak- est part. This expedition is chiefly remarkable as being the first effort put forth by England on a large scale to employ her sea power offensively against distant foes. Drake had indeed ravaged the Spanish main long be- 7 WILLIAM PENN fore that, and had "singed the Spaniard's beard" in far- off seas. But Drake 's exploits were more the raids of buc- caneer than organized operations in regular warfare. The expedition of Penn and Venables was the first to combine sea and land forces in a systematic attack having a well- defined objective. Like most pioneer enterprises, it failed — and failed miserably. Penn and Venables returned to England in 1655 to abide the wrath of Cromwell, who forthwith took away the commissions of both and threw them into dun- geons in the Tower to ruminate on the uncertain fortunes of war. To Venables he said: "No doubt you did your best — in all things but one! You might have died with your soldiers ! ' ' To Penn, Cromwell imputed no particular blame, ex- cept that he had commanded the naval arm of a combined expedition that failed as a whole. Just a century later England shot Admiral Byng for failing in a smaller mat- ter. Cromwell was more lenient than the second George. All these things happened while young William Penn was struggling with the manifold ills and tribulations of childhood down to his eleventh birthday. But, young as he was, the sudden misfortunes of his father deeply and ineradicably impressed his mind. The Penn family then lived on a small estate at Wanstead in Essex, and William had been for about two years a student at the Free Gram- mar-school of Chigwell, founded by the late Archbishop of York, the most learned Dr. Samuel Harsnet. Some idea of the educational atmosphere of Chig- well may be gained from the Articles of Foundation as 8 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH drawn up by the Episcopalian founder. Among other things, Dr. Harsnet proclaimed that "the master should be a good poet; of sound religion, neither papist nor puri- tan; of a grave behavior; no tipler, no puffer of tobacco; and, above all, apt in teaching and severe in government. ... Of reading there should be none but the Greek and Latin classics; no novelties, fictions, nor conceited modern writings." The incarceration of the admiral in the Tower caused his wife and child to move from Wanstead and take apart- ments near that historic pile. This event detached young William from the Chigwell school at the age of twelve, and he never returned to it. In fact, though its course of study was supposed to carry boys up to the age of sixteen, he had to all intents and purposes exhausted its curriculum at twelve. The admiral was not long prostrated under the great Protector's displeasure. He promptly petitioned Crom- well that the commander of the naval part of the expedi- tion could not be held responsible for the conduct of the land part of it. He had safely convoyed General Vena- bles 's army to the scene of operations and landed his troops without accident at the place selected by the general for debarkation. He had then blockaded the coast to prevent reenforcements or supplies reaching the enemy from Spain. Finally, when the land forces retreated to their ships in much confusion and distress, he had put ashore a force of sailors and "ship soldiers" (the marines of that day) to cover their retreat and protect their reembarkation. After detaching a suitable squadron to convoy the transports 9 WILLIAM PENN back to England, he had cruised with the rest of his fleet on the station as long as his victualing would permit, and had "much harried the commerce of the enemy and grievously beaten up his coasts. ' ' The Protector accepted Admiral Penn's memorial, and after some investigation released him from the Tower, re- instated him in rank, and restored all his emoluments — including the special allowance of £365 a year granted four years before for eminent services in the Dutch war of 1652. But he did not give the admiral further com- mand or other employment at sea. The fact was, that by the year 1656 Cromwell, though to all outward appear- ances in the zenith of his power, had already discerned the growth or recrudescence of royalism not only among the people, but in the services as well, even the "new model" army having begun to show symptoms of the dis- affection that, only four years later, was destined to cul- minate in General Monk and the Restoration. That Cromwell's distrust of Admiral Penn's fealty to the Commonwealth and the protectory did him no injustice was abundantly proved when the test and the opportunity came. As a naval officer afloat Penn had adopted Blake's advice and had supported the Cromwellian cause right sturdily against the Dutch and the Spaniards for the sake of England. But at heart he had never been anything but a royalist, a monarchist, and a Stuartist. He was by no means alone in the Protector's suspicions. Many others of high rank and great power in the state shared them. And the suspicions were as well founded in other cases as in Penn's, 10 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH Cromwell was too shrewd not to observe the clouds gathering over his head. Though the year 1656 had been signalized by the election of a Parliament all his own, which not only voted all the supplies he asked for in aid of the Spanish War, but offered him a crown he did not ask — a crown he sternly refused — yet his sagacity taught him that Puritanism, as a predominant political power in England, was nearing its end. He doubtless felt that, waning though the forces of his party might be, there was yet enough left of the heart and bone and fiber that had won Marston Moor, Naseby, Dunbar, and Worcester to win again if only he could be spared to command. Though he well knew that England at large was tiring of Puritan rule — which meant the ascendency of less than one-fourth over more than the other three-fourths of all the people — yet he was resolved to hold the grasp he and they had fixed upon the throat of government to the last breath of his own marvelous life and to the last drop of Praise-God-Barebones blood in his sect and his army. He reckoned right. So long as Cromwell lived, no one or no multitude in England wished to provoke again the sword of Naseby or the ax of White- hall! Though secure in this, he was insecure in all else. And so, beetle-browed and defiant to the end, one of the great- est Englishmen that ever lived eked out in slow disease and in sullen distrust of all who had best served him in the heyday of fortune — from Sir Harry Vane to Sir Wil- liam Penn — the last two years of a life that has never yet found an adequate biographer, a career that still needs a competent historian. 11 WILLIAM PENN Admiral Penn lost no time in moping. As soon as his foot crossed the Tower threshold he moved his family back to the Wanstead house and went himself to Ireland, bent upon clearing title to an estate in the County Cork in which his father, Giles Penn, had long before acquired a lawful, though disputed, interest. Young William Penn was then just past twelve years old. During the next four years the admiral was absent from home nearly all the time, and young William did not return to the Chigwell school. Most of his biographers adopt the theory that his education was in the care of "private tutors" from 1656 to 1660; but there seems to be no extant evidence of it in family papers or in the voluminous writings of Penn himself. Ordinarily the years between twelve and sixteen do not afford material for an interesting chapter in the biography of even the greatest of men. As a rule, those four are what old-fashioned people call "the monstrous years" of a boy; full of mischief, redolent with the aroma of birch, a period to be forgotten or ignored rather than paraded or perpetuated. It was different in the case of William Penn. These four years were the formative period of his mind, the receptive period of his nature, and the determinative period of his career. Completely to understand this we must survey his mental quality and his moral environment to- gether. His mind had grown or was growing far in ad- vance of his years. His bodily development was as pre- cocious as his growth of brain. Both were abnormal. The time in which he lived his boyhood — or what ought 12 ENVIRONMENT OP HIS YOUTH to have been his boyhood — was the middle of the seven- teenth century. The first half of that century was a veri- table cyclone of theologies. At least four-fifths of the English literature of that period was written by sectarian preachers and read by schismatic zealots. Fortunately for the peace of mankind it has mostly been forgotten now. If a writer in this year of grace should offer a simple list of the names of those whose writings convulsed England two hundred and fifty years ago, he would either dishearten his readers at the outset or drive them to aimless and unprofitable delving in obscure literature. This is as it should be. The theological ava- lanche that devastated the seventeenth century has long since spent its force in the chasms of oblivion and been melted in the steady sunlight of common sense. But in Penn's youth-time this avalanche was descending like a snow-plunge from the crags of the Jungf rau ! To change the simile, when Martin Luther cut the strings by which Romanism had for ages held human thought in leash, the result was like that of uncorking champagne not properly cooled. The long pent-up wine effervesced half its substance in froth and foam that van- ished in the air which had oxygenated it, and the foam and froth left no trace but a literature as evanescent as the causes of its being. Of this ephemeral and fortunately forgotten literature doubtless the most captivating to the student of dialectics pure and simple, or of rhetoric for rhetoric's sake alone, are the writings of John Saltmarsh. It is probably safe to say that not more than one man in a hundred thousand 13 WILLIAM PENN to-day, fairly conversant with English literature, will be any the wiser for the mention of Saltmarsh's name than he was before he heard or read it. And yet, when William Penn was a boy between twelve and sixteen, John Salt- marsh was among the foremost writers — if not altogether the leading writer — of theological polemics in the language. He was born in Yorkshire, in the year 1596, just fifty years after Martin Luther died. Educated for the Presbyterian ministry, he took up the great reformer's doctrine of ''justification by faith," declared it to be "but a glimpse of the true light," and forthwith endowed himself with the attributes of divine glory incarnate. His writings were voluminous, and as many of them were published as he or those he deluded could pay for the printing of. From Presbyterian he became Puritan by an easy step; from Puritan he passed to Antinomian. Doubtless some of us have smiled at the quaint conceit of the French traveler in this country many years ago who described the United States as "a land of three hundred and sixty-five religions and one gravy." We are not ad- vised as to the number of gravies in the English cuisine of the seventeenth century, but there can be no doubt as to the redundancy of religions. Theological thought was running mad. Dissents, protests, and new dispensations were the order of the day. There were denominations, creeds, and schisms. Then divisions and subdivisions in the denominations, creeds within creeds, and schisms from schisms. Sects multiplied like insects. Finally, in the high riot of this doctrinal hurricane — this theological cloud- burst — it was easier to found a new sect than refrain from 14 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH founding one. Almost every non-conformist minister capa- ble of polemic writing or paroxysmal preaching had a sect of his own, frequently named after the preacher himself by affixing "ite" to his cognomen. Could Martin Luther have had a second advent and visited England a hundred years after his death, he must have been overwhelmed with horror at the monstrous mul- titude of fantastic ''beliefs" and grotesque "doctrines" into which his own plain and simple faith had been dis- torted and tortured. In one word, England, at the middle of the seventeenth century, was a theological Babel, in which no disputant understood the language of the others — and many a one of them could not comprehend his own! Into such a chaos John Saltmarsh threw all the forces of a mystic mind and a marvelous pen. He wrote books and preached sermons. The culmination — the cJief-d'ceuvre — of his polemic literature was Sparkles of Glory. This little work could hardly be found now outside of a few great public libraries or an occasional private collection of rare and quaint books. Yet two hundred and fifty years ago it was the most talked-about if not most widely read book in England. Dissenting and non-conformist preach- ers of a hundred sects and schisms laid aside the Bible to take their texts from Saltmarsh. Orthodox and strict- conformist prelates, professors, and clergymen "replied to" him by the dozen and denounced him by the legion. He was to the Protestantism of his time what Percy Bysshe Shelley became to the atheism of a later day — its ultimate intellectual development, its extreme visible 15 WILLIAM PENN apostle. There was, however, this difference : Shelley wrote a great deal of rationalistic philosophy in captivating verse ; John Saltmarsh wrote volumes of transcendental poetry in mystic prose. To. exhibit at once the fine chaos of his fancy and the subtle cant of his diction one extract may suffice : All outward administration, whether as to religion or as to natural, civil, and moral things, is only the visible appearance of God as to the world or in this crea- tion; or, the clothing of God, being such forms and dis- pensations as God puts on Amongst Men to appear to them in : this is the garment the Son of God was clothed in down to the feet or to His lowest appearance. And God doth not fix Himself upon any one form or outward dispensa- tion, but at His own will and pleasure comes forth in such and such an administration and goes out of it and leaves it and takes up another. And this is clear in all God's proceedings with the world, both in the Jewish Church and State, and Christians now. And when God has gone out and hath left such an administration, of what kind soever it is, be it religious, moral or civil, such an administration is a desolate house, a temple whose veil is rent, a sun whose light is darkened ; and to worship it then is to worship an idol, an image, a form, without God or any manifestation of God in it, save to him who, as Paul saith, knows an idol to be nothing. The pure, spiritual, comprehensive Christian, then, is one who grows up with God from administration to admin- istration and so walks with God in all his removes and spiritual increases and flowings. This rhapsody contains the key to Saltmarsh 's doctrine. Stripped of mystical metaphor, it amounts to a protest 16 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH against all formalism, regularity, and discipline in religious organization ; against canons, observances, litanies, set modes of worship, and ordained ecclesiastical functions of all kinds whatsoever. On the other hand, it amounts to a declaration that the human conscience which "grows up with God" is a supreme law unto itself and unto its own being. Interpreted in connection with another passage which follows it, in a dissertation upon "the Inner Light," it means that in all "pure, spiritual, comprehensive" re- ligion the conscience of the individual, sanctified by the "Inner Light," must be the measure of sanctity and the guide to holiness. The postulate of all this is that organ- ized churches, under any and all forms of administration, may become "desolate houses" or "temples whose veils are rent" or "suns whose light is darkened," whenever ' ' God is gone out and hath left such an administration. ' ' It remains to add only that the sole judge as to whether "God is gone out and hath left such an administration," etc., is the conscience of the individual sanctified by the "Inner Light." And the individual is also endowed with judgment from which there can be no appeal as to the presence of the "Inner Light" in his own conscience, and also as to its quality, degree, and intensity. Viewed upon the plane of common sense this doctrine of Saltmarsh was the opposite extreme to a then prevail- ing canon of Romanism. That Church in those days de- clared the infallibility of the Pope. Saltmarsh retorted by declaring the infallibility of the individual. This was a convenient doctrine for emotional persons, or for those whom Saltmarsh himself designates as "glow- 3 17 WILLIAM PENN ing souls." Almost any emotional person in the presence of great peril, or under stress of a cruel bereavement, or hypnotized by the rant of a revivalist, might be seized with a mental spasm or moral paroxysm and easily mistake it for the "Inner Light." For this psychological phenom- enon Saltmarsh seems to have made no provision whatever. But most of his readers were people of little knowledge, less education, and redundant superstition. Hence, his lapse in this particular made no difference. And as the faith of the disciple could not possibly be less logical than the precepts of the teacher, his doctrine found numerous converts not only in one creed, but here and there in all. Though Saltmarsh expounded a doctrine, he did not follow the usual practise of his time by proselyting a sect upon it. That omission may have been due to his lack of the executive ability required. Or he may not have lived long enough. At all events, he became insane at the age of forty-eight — perhaps overcome by an effort to compre- hend his own creed — and died three years later in the Chelmsford asylum. In the last stages of his mania he fancied himself Christ returned to earth, implored his at- tendants to bind up the bleeding wounds of crucifixion, and ever and anon would recite with singular eloquence some of the most beautiful passages in his Sparkles of Glory. Among the first works — perhaps the very first — that young William Penn read, aside from text-books, was the book just mentioned. Imagine the influence such a work so clothed in mysticism and so beclouded in imagery would have upon a young untrained and inexperienced mind, 18 GEORGE FOX. ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH far beyond its years already in receptivity and suscepti- bility to the appeals of the strange, the unknown, and the beautiful ! Whether the reading of Saltmarsh would have done more than promote a tendency to mysticism in young Penn's mental processes may be doubted. But just about the time he was reading this Antinomian gospel and try- ing to understand its application to human affairs, a new sect, based upon the central doctrine of Saltmarsh, came to the front, the sect founded by George Fox and named by him the ' ' Society of Friends. ' ' So far as can be ascertained from authentic records. Fox began to preach in 1647, the same year in which Salt- marsh was dying. Whether the first expounder of the doctrine would have approved the apostle's practical ap- plication of it must forever remain an unanswered ques- tion, because mania and death deprived him of the oppor- tunity to investigate or even observe the work of Fox. The two men were antipodal in fiber, traits, and antece- dents. One was a classical scholar of exquisite learning; the other a "village yokel," as his contemporaries called him. One was a recluse, a dreamer, and a poet; the other a hustling, stalwart zealot, a giant in bodily strength, moral fortitude, and mental audacity. One was a subtle-brained mystic of the cloister; the other a huge-muscled, strong- voiced preacher of the open air, the fields, and the high- ways. Fox proclaimed that God had appeared to him as in a pillar of cloud and "called him to awaken men from their lifeless forms and dogmas to a sense of the vital need of 19 WILLIAM PENN living, inward, spiritual religion."* He avowed in the broadest sense and most sweeping scope the doctrine of supremacy, even absolutism, of the individual conscience sanctified by the Inner Light. Though he claimed that God had become manifest to him in a way amounting to revelation, he did not assume for himself the personal apostolic character, but broadly granted to every one who listened to him similar freedom of conscience, equal ac- cessibility to the Inner Light, and like liberty to be each one's own judge. In short, he held that every man might have a revelation of his own, that there might be as many manifestations of God in the conscience as there were converts — a doctrine which may perhaps, without irreverence, be described as "every man his own Moses!" This doctrine was by no means original with Saltmarsh as an ideal, nor peculiar to George Fox in sectarian prac- tise. With modifications to suit time, place, and racial conditions, it was and is the doctrine of the North Ameri- can Indians, the Arab dervishes of the Soudan — and of every freethinker from Plato to Robert Ingersoll. Fox was not a man to rest his case upon doctrinal points alone. His strong sense of the practical, the tangible, and the visible taught him the need of observance as well as of faith; of outward manifestation as well as the Inner Light. So he formulated what might be called "canons of his church." Some of his precepts were sound and salutary in law and morals, some were visionary and chimerical, while others were frivolous and whimsical. The sound and salutary precepts of Fox were not new. * Fox's Journal, vol. i, pp. 103-104. 20 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH On the contrary, they were the commonplaces of a correct life, involving ordinary uprightness in worldly affairs, sim- ple honesty, and common decency — precepts that had been inculcated and enforced by pagans long before the name of Christ was known. But the new canons of Fox were either visions or whims or chimeras. He proceeded to flout the old decalogue, if for no worse or better reason than that God had revealed it to Moses instead of to George Fox ; or because there were commandments in the old deca- logue that might be obnoxious to the Inward Light. And then he proceeded to formulate a decalogue of his own. We say "decalogue" simply for convenience, though as a matter of fact the commandments that Fox declared the Lord had directed him to promulgate were not exactly ten in number. Indeed, in number they were somewhat in- definite. They were not proclaimed at any one time, but now and then, from time to time, as the Inward Light seemed to move him. The result was that, after a while, when Fox's commandments multiplied with his sermons, they began to conflict one with another, until it became hard to tell which was which — law or heresy, the true faith or all ungodliness. Chief among the articles of Fox's faith were certain affectations which we may let him de- scribe in his own words, as recorded on page 114 of the first volume of his Journal : The Lord gently led me along and let me see His love, which surpasseth all knowledge that men can get by his- tory or books. . . . And the Lord sent me forth to awaken the people and turn them from Darkness to the Light. . . . Moreover, when the Lord sent me forth into the world He 21 WILLIAM PENN forbade me to put off my hat to any, high or low ; and He required me to "thee and thou" all men and women, with- out any respect to rich or poor, great or small. And, as I traveled up and down I was not to bid people good mor- row or good evening; neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one. He also advised — though we can not find that he rigidly prescribed — a peculiar style of dress for each sex which he himself designed and set the example of wearing as "an emblem of equality among men and a token of humility before God." Fox is doubtless the only one who ever be- lieved that dress could make men equal or that God takes account of fashion-plates ! Whatever significance these canons may have had in the fanatical fancy that conceived, or in the simple, credulous minds that obeyed them, they impressed mankind at large as whims, none the less ridiculous because harmless. The "hat canon" was viewed simply as a boorish denial of com- mon politeness; the "thee and thou" usage as an unwar- ranted familiarity when addressed to strangers. The sin- gularity of garb we may let a contemporary describe : ' ' Af- fecting to despise all afi'ectation, " said Thomas Croxton, a Puritan preacher, "these Quakers regulate unto them- selves a livery which, since it be not the uniform cloth of soldiery, can be naught else but the quintessence of affecta- tion itself." Among the tenets that were visionary and chimerical was that of "universal peace" in an age and under condi- tions of universal war, an age in which, but for the fight- ing of Gustav Adolf's Lutherans and of Cromwell's Puri- 22 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH tans, Quakerism itself could never have had a chance to breathe, and George Fox's sermons had likely been silenced by the gibbet or the stake ! However beautiful in fancy or theory, primitive Quakerism was utterly impracticable, and though it had warrant in some teachings of the Bible, it exposed its devotees to the contempt of their fellow men in that era wholly and, to some extent, ever since. There is a fundamental trait of human nature — a trait than which none other lies nearer the foundation of all truth, right, and manhood — that may be described as an instinctive distrust of any doctrine or any principle which its devotees are not willing to fight for. There were many aspects of the Puritan creed and many idiosyncrasies of its believers quite as grotesque as anything in Quakerism, according to George Fox. But, un- like the Quaker, the Puritan would fight for his faith ; and when he did feel that the spirit of God moved him to *' smite abomination in the sight of the Lord hip and thigh," he made the climate torrid for his adversaries' — whereunto Marston and Naseby, Dunbar and Worcester had already borne bloody witness. He was always ready to show forth his faith by his works and to argue his points of doctrine with the point of the sabre. Many years ago there was, at Old Litchfield, in Con- necticut, a family gathered from the four quarters of the continent to celebrate the bicentenary of their ancestor's settlement there. The ancestor was a sergeant in Ireton's Ironsides * with whom the climate of England disagreed * It seems to be a common belief that only Cromwell's own regiment of cavalry — or " horse," as mounted troops were then called — was known 23 WILLIAM PENN very soon after Charles II was restored. It was an old- fashioned Puritan Thanksgi\ang affair, in which, as a rule, the grace of God before dinner and acute indigestion afterward figured with relatively equal prominence. There was, however, one event in that bicentenary which seems apropos to this context. It was in the form of a few lines composed and written by a great-granddaughter of the old ancestor in the sixth generation, and she recited them. They have never been printed. Perhaps they never ought to be. But they embody such a perfect description of the Conquering Puritan, as contrasted with the Suffering Quaker, that we can not refrain from offering here an ex- tract from them : The great religion he professed Was stern faith of unflinching breast. The gospel that he preached and prayed Was but three words : Be not afraid ! ' He knew no sin for which alone Faith's courage could not all atone. His creed held mortal but one vice : He forgave all but cowardice. To him the faith was life and light ; He prayed and fought in God's own sight, as " Ironsides." As a matter of fact all the regiments of horse in the Parliamentary army, or "New Model " in military phrase, were called by that name, because they wore cuirass and helmet of sheet iron. The Cavaliers also wore similar armor, but it was of brass and ornamented ; whereas that of the Puritans was, like their own natures, of iron, luster- less, unpolished, and grim. Their other epithet, " Roundheads," vras pro- voked by the shape of their helmets, which were hemispherical and per- fectly plain. 24 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH And ever, as the battle grew, His prayer found faith and hope anew. And when his foes lay cold and grim, He humbly sang thanksgiving hymn ; And, bending knee on blood-stained sod, Breathed victor's praise to battle's God! Achilles in his maddened joy Dragged Hector dead round walls of Troy, Not so the man of stalwart might Who strove for freedom, truth, and right. He only fought for leave to pray And worship God his simple way. And when his battle waged was won. He meekly said, " God's will be done." Ah, Cavaliers of Romish cross, Ye called him •' Caitiff ! " " Hind ! " and "Dross ! " Pray tell me, held ye him so poor At red sunset on Marston Moor ? Ah, Puritan, thy fame is young ; Thy hero epic all unsung ; But in far future's misty dream Shall shine thy glory's sunrise beam.* No Quaker maiden will ever have occasion to write in that strain about an ancestor in the seventeenth century — or any other. The Puritan's faith was austere, his ob- servances were somber, and his daily walk and conversation full of what the less drastic religions consider cant if not hypocrisy. But whatever the Catholics with their in- * Written by Miss Anna Buell. 25 WILLIAM PENN dulgences or the Episcopalians over their wine-bottles might think of "Praise-God Barebones," all had to confess that there was no hypocrisy in the destruction of twenty thousand Cavaliers by eight thousand Puritans at Preston ; no "cant" in.the charge of Cromwell's Ironsides at Marston Moor ! One hour of Puritan victory on the battle-field was worth more to the cause of religious freedom than could have been a cycle of stoical Quaker fortitude in jail. That this ' ' non-combatant canon ' ' in Quakerism was not due to deficiency in courage goes without saying. The Quakers were Englishmen — a remark which sufficiently covers that part of the ground. It must then be ascribed to the same cause as the other peculiarities noted — a fanat- ical purpose to be not like other men. It is a singular fact and almost imique, that the desig- nation of the sect itself as commonly received, as historic- ally approved, and tacitly adopted by its devotees, is not the one its founder chose for it. Fox called his proselytes "Friends." The word "Quaker" was applied by their adversaries as a term of derision, an epithet of contempt. The best description we have seen of the origin of the epithet is that offered by the Puritan preacher Croxton : They are called ' ' Quakers ' ' — a name they do much pro- test and wish to pass to and fro in the title of "Friends." But the describing them "Quakers" is an invention of some who, from curiosity or mischief, stand about their preachings in the highways. It comes of their fashion of speaking with tremulous voice, shaking of the head, and making the body and limbs to quake violently like one in ague ; their object being no doubt to press upon the mind of listener or beholder a sense that they be possessed and 26 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH almost torn and riven by the throes of the Spirit within them. Bradford, another Puritan writer — related to Bradford of Plymouth Rock — speaking of the neighborhood of Leeds about 1657, or in the tenth year of Fox's preaching, says: The sect called ''Friends" by their own tongue and "Quakers" by all other mankind doth grow and flourish grievously here. They are not like unto any kind or man- ner of men and women ever seen or known in this Com- monwealth since the memory of man. They wear a kind of livery they call the livery of the Lord their Master, than whom they own no other. Their mode of address is un- couth and insolent ; the same to their betters as to their own kind. They profess to a light of particular revelation unto themselves alone, and that without which, as their preachers say, no one in all the world may be saved. They refuse to make the oaths of justice; their marriages are concubinous except as their offspring may be saved from bastardy by the common law; they defy the law, saying each one that his own conscience with the Inward Light of God's Grace be above all law, scripta or non-scripta; and altogether they are a pest unto the true servants of the Lord. When apprehended and lodged in jail for viola- tions of the law forbidding riotous assembly and blas- phemy, they endure without complaint, pretending to be- lieve that they be suffering for righteousness' sake and proclaiming that they be persecuted by a wicked and adulterous generation. ... It is hard to understand why such blasphemy should be heard in the name of the Lord. Some say they are bewitched ! Whatever may be one 's opinion of George Fox 's preten- sions as the medium of revelation from God through him- 27 WILLIAM PENN self to mankind, and howsoever one may view the canons and observances which he declared the Lord had enjoined him to prescribe for the guidance and conduct of his disci- ples and converts, there was one thing about him which closely approached the miraculous : that was his command of language, a facility of expression both with tongue and pen. He acquired this early in his career. While not wholly illiterate, he had never attended any institution of learning more pretentious than the humblest of parish schools, and there his education stopped with learning to read. It is said that his mother taught him to write. But it is more probable that he learned to write from printed books, because his earlier manuscripts were a labored initia- tion of italic print, exhibiting great painstaking and re- markable accuracy. In later life he learned by practise to write faster and his penmanship more and more took the form of script. So far as reading was concerned, there is no evidence that before his twentieth year he had read anything beyond the New Testament and Saltmarsh's Sparkles of Glory. In his writings one constantly detects evidences of effort to imitate Saltmarsh's imagery — efforts naturally attended with scant success ; and his best and most forceful writings were those in which he gave his own practical and analytical mind free rein in his own rugged style. As an orator he was marvelously magnetic, fluent in words, and overwhelm- ing in power of expression. He never seemed at loss for a word or phrase, and he had an art possessed by hardly any learned man or scholar of his day or any other — the art of analyzing and interpreting into plain English that any 28 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH one could understand the most involved sentences and the most abstruse proi)ositions to be found in the transcendental religio-metaphysics that formed the theological literature of the seventeenth century. Finding a knowledge of the classics requisite in conducting discussions with the highly educated clergymen who assailed him, he mastered Greek and Latin in the first three years of his ministry; and George Whitefield says that before he reached the age of thirty (seventh year of his ministry) he could read and write Hebrew with more facility than the average scholar of the universities. In these studies, it must be said, he enjoyed the melancholy advantage of considerable enforced leisure and undisturbed privacy in various jails. It can not be denied that the early Quakers owed most of their persecutions to the eccentricities and asperities of speech, dress, and deportment which they cherished, and very little to the doctrines they proclaimed or the language in which they put them forth. For all these peculiarities, trivial in themselves but important in their consequences, George Fox was responsible. In fact, he laid more stress on the whimsical "hat canon" and on the frivolous "thee and thou" than upon doctrinal points in theology. Born in the humblest circumstances, nurtured in poverty, plainly bred, and yet feeling even amid his most untoward sur- roundings the mighty power of his own mind, Ik^ hated the rich, the polite, and the well-bred, and embraced the first opportunities to exhibit his resentment toward them. This was the impulse that found expression in the "revela- tion" already (pioted, in which, according to his own version, the Lord "required him" to direct his followers to dispense 29 WILLIAM PENN with all ordinary and every-day forms of the commonest politeness and most primitive courtesy. Some of Fox's biographers or apologists — notably Dr. Stoughton in his Life of Penn — make labored efforts to show that he must have been sincere in these whims and earnestly believed that they entered into the substance of his faith. It may be so. But, even if this be so, such explanation stamps him as a much lower type of fanatic than those who admire his wonderful intellect like to believe. It is easy enough to comprehend such a policy as an artifice intended to sub- serve a particular purpose,* but to conceive it as a part of the teachings of Christ is to deny the first tenet of Christ's religion — the Golden Rule — which, in a dozen words, ex- hausts all laws of gentleness, politeness, courtesy, and con- cern for the feelings of others. Be that as it may, the early Quakers suffered ten times more persecution for Fox 's whims than for their actual doctrines, beliefs, or modes of worship. Such a review of Fox at this point in the present work has seemed necessary to a proper understanding of William Penn's youthful environment, the influences which deter- mined his mental and moral tendencies, and thereby shaped the development of his character and the history of his career. * What we mean by " particular purpose" here is a design to inflame the resentment of his hearers — mostly people of narrow, untrained minds and lowly station — against the rich, the well-bred, and the polite. No more effective way to accomplish this could be devised than by persuading them that the Lord had commanded them, by revelation through him (Fox), to be rude in manner, insolent in speech, and uncouth in dress as a visible protest against such " vanities of the world," as courtesy, polite- ness, and attire of the fashion in vogue. 30 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH Judged by his antecedents, by the natural or normal sur- roundings of his youth, and by the ambitions of his parents in his behalf, he was almost the last man to be reasonably regarded as a possible convert to Quakerism. But he was among the earliest ; and he rose to a rank in the sect which, for real importance in his own time and for permanent im- press upon human affairs, far surpassed that of the founder himself. Four years had passed, and he was now sixteen years old. The time had arrived when the completion of his studies must be arranged for and the course of his future definitely marked out. He had already exhausted the capa- bilities of the Free Grammar-school of Chigwell, had proba- bly enjoyed some desultory tuition by private tutors, had traveled far enough to visit his father, who during that period lived mostly in Ireland, dividing his time between his estate there and the duties of Governor of Kinsale and commander of the coast-guard, to which he had been appointed by Richard Cromwell after the death of Oliver. But, so far as his future was concerned, these events were of trivial importance in comparison with the facts that he had read Saltmarsh's Sparkles of Glory, and had heard the preaching of Thomas Loe. Moreover, during this period, as described by himself in subsequent writings — though without exact mention of the time — he had ex- perienced when alone in his chamber *'an inward com- fort ' ' ; and he thought there was ' ' an external glory in the room, which gave rise to religious emotions"; and during which he "had the strongest conviction of the being of a 31 WILLIAM PENN God and that the soul of man was capable of enjoying com- munion with him"; and then he "believed also that the seal of divinity had been put upon him and that he had at this moment been awakened or called to a holy life. ' ' According to the chronological arrangement of the work in which the confession of this experience appears, it must have occurred somewhere between the age of thirteen and fifteen. He considered it his "first spiritual experi- ence." It may not, however, be amiss to remark that the language in which he describes it is in many respects a close copy of one of Saltmarsh's rhapsodies in Sparkles of Glory. That he had heard Thomas Loe preach is attested by an old manuscript of 1727, from the pen of Thomas Harvey, who states that he received the story from Penn himself. This manuscript is freely and approvingly quoted by the authoress of The Penns and Penningtons ; though it is full of statements likely to impress its reader with a sense of Harvey's lively imagination, if not, indeed, with occasional distrust as to its genuineness. It must be borne constantly in mind that the age was one of imagination and fantasy — and that, too, more notably in religious than in any other line of thought. The substance of Harvey's story is that Penn, when about fourteen, was visiting his father at Cork, when Thomas Loe happened to be preaching there, and that the boy heard one of his sermons in the market-place. Young Penn was so impressed that he invited Loe to come with him to his father's house; and when he arrived there, Loe preached in the presence of the admiral and other inmates 32 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH of the household, causing them — the admiral included — to weep and inquire what they should do to be saved. The intrinsically improbable thing about this is that Admiral Penn should have listened to a strolling street- preacher of any faith. The admiral was a Presbyterian in Cromwell 's time and an Episcopalian whenever the Stuarts ruled. The ease with which he could accommodate his faith to his policy for the time being indicates that the admiral's religious impressions were not of the burning kind. Even if, to humor a whim of his favorite son and heir, he might admit a street-preacher to his house and listen to him courteously, it is in the last degree improbable that he could have been moved to tears or made to cry out for salvation. However, the story — of which the above is only a brief synopsis — was related by Harvey with vast unction in his Manuscript of 1727, and it caught the fervid fancy of Maria Webb, who, in her Penns and Penningtons, gives it an importance that a less emotional author might have reserved for something approaching the character of revelation. Be this as it may, we have Penn's own testimony that his ultimate conversion to Quakerism and his "call to preach" were due to the fact that ''the Lord visited me with a certain sound and testimony of his eternal Word, through one of those the world calls a Quaker, namely, Thomas Loe." * Thus, as in a progression, we observe that Penn 's youth- ful mind was first prepared by the mysticism of Saltmarsh for the seed of Quakerism to be sown by Thomas Loe's * Penn's Journal, p 102. 4 33 WILLIAM PENN preaching; and as his conversion was the most important event in his career — that upon which all other events were consequent — it seems worth while to know who and what Thomas Loe was. Born at Lichfield — some accounts say Oxford — about 1625, of a well-to-do and well-connected family, young Loe was sent to Oxford University when about seventeen. This was in 1642, or at the time when the control of the institu- tion was passing from Episcopal to Presbyterian hands. Indeed, one sketch of Loe that we have seen — Trials and Triumphs of the Primitive Friends — describes him as the son of a Presbyterian clergyman. Loe, too, was a disciple of Saltmarsh. At the beginning of his third year in Ox- ford he was arraigned for blasphemy and expelled. Two years afterward, or in 1647, he became one of Fox's earliest converts and began preaching about 1649. Early in his ministry Loe went to Ireland, and that country continued to be the field of his labors — or the principal field — for several years. He was the first to preach the Quaker faith in the Gaelic tongue; and it is said of him that he learned that difficult language, from its rudiments to perfect fluency, in eight months! His style of oratory was much more polished than that of Fox. His forte was pathos, where Fox's was invective. His appeals were to the sym- pathies of his hearers, while Fox appealed to their resent- ments. He held out the promise of salvation as the reward of repentance, while Fox preached danmation as the penalty of unrepentance. In a word, Loe played upon the strings of human tenderness, while Fox hammered upon men's passions and their fears. 34 ENVIRONMENT OF HIS YOUTH There is no recorded evidence that Penn heard Fox preach at any time prior to his own conversion, though he had undoubtedly read some of his epistles before that. Under such conditions and a mind so ''prepared for the seed," as he himself expresses it, William Penn matricu- lated as a fellow of Christ Church College, Oxford, Michael- mas-tide, 1660, at the age of sixteen. 35 CHAPTER II 1660-1662. UNDER THE RESTORATION CHAPTER II 1660-1662. UNDER THE RESTORATION Simultaneously with Penn 's entry at Oxford occurred an event quite as important in his temporal history as reading of Saltmarsh and the preaching of Thomas Loe were in his spiritual. That was the restoration of the Stuarts. The effect on the fortunes of Penn was at first indirect. It began with the renewal of his father's per- sonal prestige and professional standing. The fact that Admiral Penn never fully regained Cromwell's confidence after the abortive West Indian expedition of 1655- '56 has been noted. Richard Cromwell, after the death of the great Protector, in 1658, appointed the admiral Governor of Kinsale and Commandant of the Coast-guard District for the Southwest of Ireland, but that was little more than a sinecure. Probably Admiral Penn was at the time the ablest officer in the British navy. But Cromwell as early as 1656 had begun to doubt his fidelity to the Commonwealth, and did not trust him with any important sea command, though fully exonerating him from personal responsibility for the failure of the expedition against the Spanish West Indies. The admiral, as already noted, abundantly justified Cromwell's suspicions. At least two months before Charles 39 WILLIAM PENN II landed in England (say in March, 1660) Admiral Penn, still holding his position in Ireland under Richard Crom- well, threw off all disguise and declared for the restoration of the Stuart dynasty. It afterward became known that for some time preceding this he had been corresponding secretly with James, Duke of York, younger brother of Charles II, and also with General Monk. The precise date at which the correspondence began can not be determined ; but it was probably in 1659, when the inability of Richard Cromwell to fill his father's place had been amply demon- strated. It is not probable that Admiral Penn, ardent royalist though he was, would have ventured so far during the lifetime of Oliver Cromwell ; because the great Pro- tector had means of finding out things not known to all men, and he also had a mode of dealing with such practises as secret correspondence with the exiled Stuarts which few men liked to tempt. But in the brief and troubled reign of Richard this peril did not exist. Be this as it may, there was a personal as well as a political reason for close fellowship between Admiral Penn and the Duke of York. The latter had in early youth manifested a predilection for the sea. In 1643, when only ten years old, he had received instruction in the rudiments of navigation, and among his tutors had been Penn, then a captain — though only twenty-two years old. During the long exile of the surviving Stuarts in France and Holland there had been some opportunity for keeping up this ac- quaintance. Naturally, therefore, when with the Restora- tion the Duke of York was made Lord High Admiral, the star of Penn also rose. 40 UNDER THE RESTORATION One of the duke's first acts was to appoint Penn captain-general of the fleet, and the King confirmed him in the title of baronet. About two years afterward the King, through the influence of the Duke of York, proposed to raise Sir William Penn to the peerage as Earl of Wey- mouth; but for reasons to be hereafter explained this proposition was not carried into efl^ect.* At this point, in view of the intimate relation of religious affairs to the secular career of William Penn, it becomes necessary to survey the effect of the Restoration upon spiritual conditions in England. Charles II, like all the Stuarts, was at heart a Catholic. Although when restored to the throne of his father he made a covenant to uphold and defend the Church of Eng- land — that is, the Episcopal creed — this was wholly politi- cal and had no personal significance whatever. Charles, though a Catholic by baptism and confession, was by no means a bigot. He was too clever a fellow and too fond of the good things of this world for that. He swore to uphold and defend the Episcopal Church simply because the English people would not restore him under any other conditions, and he was not the kind of man to weigh a faith against a throne, a church against a crown. * Regarding Admiral Perm's royalism, Pepys makes a quaint entry in his diary under date of March 12, 1662 : " Sir W. Pen told me of a speech he had made to the Low States of Holland telling them to their faces that he ohserved he was not received with the respect and observance now (coming to them from the King) as when he came from the Rebel and Traitor, Cromwell — by whom I am sure he got all he hath in the world and the Dutch knew it too ! " This speech was probably made in 1661, when Admiral Penn was sent as the bearer of a message from King Charles to William of Orange, then Stadtholder. 41 WILLIAM PENN Now it happened that the Anglican Church of that day differed from the Church of Rome chiefly, if not wholly, in the fact that it lacked a Pope and an Inquisition. In Cromwell's time the "dissenters" and "non-conformists" who ruled the state were not very careful or precise in observance of the distinction above noted. In their estima- tion the only "doctrinal points" of importance on which the papacy and the episcopacy differed were that the latter did not openly grant indulgences and did accord less prom- inence to the Virgin Mary as an object of worship. For the rest, from the non-conformist point of view, both creeds were alike. They "prayed out of books" — the Puritans said — "and wore gowns and surplices and cassocks, and kissed the altar and turned their backs on the congregation and had holy candles and all kinds of idolatrous abomina- tions in the sight of the Lord ! ' ' And, if we may accept non-conformist testimony on other and more practical points, the Episcopalians were not far behind the Catholics in proscription, intolerance, and persecution. Among the manuscript sermons of Elder John Buel, a Puritan preacher of that period, we find the declaration that "they who exchanged Popery for Episcopy made a sorry trade. There was as much real liberty of conscience under Papist Mary as now under Church-of-England Charles; save that burnings be not in vogue now as then. But the jails are full, and the pillory and cart-tail busy with victims whose crime is worshiping God without idols, candles, or Latin screeds ! "Verily, the little finger of Episcopy is become thicker than the thigh of Popery, and it has come to pass that 'Dis- 42 UNDER THE RESTORATION senter' be now a stronger word upon the tongue than 'Heretic' ever was." Possibly, in the stoutness of his Puritan heart, old Elder John's lament was more bitter than the actual conditions justified. Less liberty of conscience than existed in the brief reign of Bloody Mary is inconceivable. And while the prompting spirit might be similar, there was yet a vast difference between the stake and the pillory ; between death and a few weeks or months in jail ; between the deadly flames and even the severest "whipping at the cart-tail." If, therefore, we desire to draw a perfectly just distinction between English popery in the middle of the sixteenth century and English episcopacy in the latter half of the seventeenth, we must make due note of the wide differences in ecclesiastical discipline above set forth. This would, of course, exhibit commendable progress on the part of the Established Church as compared with its immediate prede- cessor. Progress of all kinds was slow in those days as compared with our own times ; and from such point of view the fact that in the course of one century the English Epis- copalians had ameliorated religious persecution from burn- ing heretics at the stake to mere whipping of dissenters at the cart-tail, must be accepted as a most gratifying growth of toleration. There was much more practical sense in another sermon of Elder John about the same time : If Godliness be decreed a crime and the realm given over to Priestliness for once and all, so be it. What signi- fies a name, be it Popery or Episcopy, so the sum of it be alike priestliness at either end ? 43 WILLIAM PENN If all that came to pass in the last twenty years [mean- ing from 1640 to 1660] could not free the people's conscience and save their sanctuaries from the constable or the hired soldier, surely then naught in England can, now or ever- more. It is hard to yield our birthright in the soil. Hard to go away from the places we have known and cherished to places we have never seen and know naught of. But as it appears our fair England is given over to abomina- tion beyond our power, under God, to cure, then we must seek another land and make for ourselves new homes. For this the Lord hath provided America, whither a goodly stem of our faith is already planted. It is a wilderness, like unto that of the Forty Days; but the trees do not persecute! Men are there, but they are pagan savages only; not savages like unto our own, with racks and roasting-chairs and Nuremberg ]\Iaidens and Latin screed-worships ! No Pope have they, nor in- quisition nor lords-spiritual of bishoprics and Archbish- oprics ; nor prebendaries, nor any other kind of holy leech fastened upon the body of the people to suck their blood ! Let us, therefore, forsake in the Lord's name this be- sotten land and go across the seas, where after much toil and great tribulation we may yet build a new abode of the Faith that shall glorify Him ! Elder John was as good as his word. During "the last twenty years" mentioned in his discourse he had manfully born musketoon and broadsword in Ireton's regiment. He had fought in those battles which the Puritan soldiers used to open with prayer and finish with butchery. Not only had he fought, but he had also preached and prayed. Now it seemed all for naught. So the veteran of Marston Moor and Dunbar gathered about him his family and little flock, 44 UNDER THE RESTORATION and though Time had begmi to plow furrows in his cheeks and sift snow upon his hair, he and they sailed away from the placid vales and the level meadows of Huntingdon for the untrodden wilds of Connecticut! Landing at Say- brook just twenty years before William Penn saw the capes of the Delaware, they forthwith plunged thence into the savage fastnesses of what we now call Litchfield, to hew out new homes and plant new sanctuaries far beyond the reach of pope or prelate. We have given so much space to the experience of stout old Elder John and his flock because they were the type of many, and because of our knowledge of him and them is more intimately personal than of any others. The type was universal among English non-conformists after the Restoration. The milder or more tactful sects, such as the Orthodox Presbyterians, the General Baptists, and the plain Lutherans, managed to get along fairly well with the Established Church, but had to content themselves with the practise of infinite prudence and a good deal of silence. For the more radical Puritans — and a little later the Quakers — there was no refuge from the storm but in flight to other shores. However, for persecution of the Puritans there was a reason in the philosophy of the house of Stuart that did not exist with other creeds. They were no more dissenters or non-conformists than the Presbyterians, the Baptists, or the Lutherans. Their mode of propagating the Gospel may have been a little more vigorous or less circumspect, but that was not the bottom cause for the singling of them out to be punished. The great and unforgivable offense of the 45 WILLIAM PENN Puritans in Stuart eyes was that they had been the bone and sinew of the revolution; that, though numerically a minority in the parliamentary party as compared with all the other revolting sects in sum total, they were the pre- dominant faction by sheer force of intellect, audacity, and desperate resolution. With Cromwell at their head they overbore all opposition, all doubt, and all conservatism. They were the ultra-Radicals of the English revolution, alike in war and in peace, on the battle-field and in Parlia- ment. To borrow a simile from the politics of our own times, Cromwell was the most colossal "Boss" and his Puritans the most devoted and daring "henchmen" the world has ever seen! It was the superlative nerve of Cromwell and the desperate fidelity of his Puritans that enabled him and them, though but a handful in the total population of England, to overturn a monarchy and rule upon its ruins with utter absolutism and no little downright despotism for a generation. Moreover, the "court," so-called, that condemned the King, the soldiers who guarded his execution-block, and the butcher who beheaded him, were all Puritans of the deepest dye. Charles II was indeed the "Merry Monarch." We like to believe that he would always rather have been kind than cruel. But he must have been something more — or less — than human had he failed in resentment toward those whom he considered his father's murderers — a view of them which was then and is yet shared by many who never drew a Catholic or royalist breath and who sym- pathized then or sympathize now wholly with the political aims of the Puritans and their gigantic chieftain. 46 UNDER THE RESTORATION In connection with this matter it should be noted that the persecution of the Quakers was totally distinct in cause and provocation from that visited upon the Puritans. Quakerism came into being under Puritan rule — not earlier than 1647. The converts of George Fox were first perse- cuted by the Puritans themselves. And they suffered more in the reign of Oliver than in those of the two Stuart mon- archs who followed him. In a word, the Stuarts punished the Puritans because the Puritans had hurt the Stuarts and were formidable foes. Everybody seemed to persecute the Quakers for no better reason than that they never hurt any- body and were ridiculous. The usual Episcopal accusation against the Puritans was ' ' sedition " or " seditious heresy, ' ' which was made a felony by the Conformity Act of 1662. But it was not customary to accuse the Quakers of "sedition." The common charge against them was "blasphemy" or "disorderly assem- blage." In some cases, spies or informers would contrive to be present at their weddings, the peculiar mode of which is well known. Then the bride and groom would be arrested for "unlawful cohabitation," or "adultery" or any similar charge the informers might choose to make. Men and women were publicly stripped and flogged for ' ' Quaker marriages ! ' ' The "Quaker marriage" in the seventeenth century was much like the cognate ceremony among the North American Indians or primitive times, or of the Mormons of Nauvoo, according to the gospel of Joseph Smith. The contracting parties simply joined hands in the presence of witnesses, declared their devotion to each other, announced 47 WILLIAM PENN their intention to cohabit, and then made record of the agreement in a book provided for the purpose. This was exactly the IMormon ceremony of Naiivoo and Deseret, alike for wives and for concubines ; and it differed from the abo- riginal rites only in the fact that the Indians did not keep records in books. Yet the common law, as expounded by Coke and Little- ton, provided for protection from illegitimacy of the off- spring of marriages ' ' by common consent and public notori- ety," which, liberally interpreted, would have saved the Quaker weddings from the charge of "adulterous agree- ments" and their fruit from the stain of bastardy. But the blind zealotry and the prescriptive bigotry of the Epis- copal Church in the last days of the Stuart dynasty simply grinned at the common law, and forced its own sacerdotal decrees upon helpless mankind with as little compunction as Romanism had ever shown in its darkest days — and with less common sense than popery had exhibited at its worst! Proscription and ostracism did not have long to wait. Hardly had the restored King warmed his throne-seat when heads on pikestaffs began to adorn London Bridge. The fury spread. It is not the province of this work to trace in detail the events immediately consequent upon the Restoration except in so far as they affected the career of our subject. Naturally, among the first things the Estab- lished Church struck at were the fountains of learning. No Puritan or Presbyterian or Baptist was left in control of any school, college, or university that the powers of the state could reach. At Oxford and Cambridge the heads first began to fall. Charles had not been King three months 48 UNDER THE RESTORATION when the great, learned, and conservative Dr. Owen was forced to give place to Dr. Reynolds as dean of Christ Church. But the High Church cried out against Dr. Rey- nolds that he was too mild, and forced him to make way for Mr. Morley — plain George at first, but promptly manufac- tured into a doctor of divinity to meet the emergency. Honor be to Dr. George Morley that he did not in all things prove the pliant tool of proscription that the exultant Epis- copalians who urged his nomination hoped and expected he would. On the contrary, he proved in the long run so just, broad, and wisely conservative that those who had been ardent to set him up soon tried in vain to pull him down. They seemed to think that, because he had been chaplain to Charles I, he would be quick to inoculate the veins of English learning with the virus of state Church- ism, and convert the ancient temple of universal thought into chambers of a sectarian inquisition. As in Christ Church, so in Magdalen and throughout the colleges of the grand old university. The venerable Dr. Goodwin, the mildest of Puritans — so mild, indeed, that during the Cromwellian reign many "barebones" petitions had gone up to the Protector for his removal' — this benig- nant old man was displaced for Dr. Oliver. In this, how- ever, there might have been a shade of poetic justice, be- cause Dr. Oliver had been displaced by Cromwell for Dr. Goodwin thirteen years before ! So radical and sweeping were these sectarian changes, so wholesale was the state Church raid upon English learn- ing, that in the two great universities alone the supply of Episcopal doctors of divinity ran short, and it was found 5 49 WILLIAM PENN necessary, as Dr. Stoiighton tells us, to manufacture to order seventy brand-new D. D.s for educational purposes in the first twelvemonth of the restored monarchy and re- established state Church. History by no means records that all these new-fledged doctors of divinity were un- worthy. On the other hand, most of them proved capable instructors and, in the general sense, safe guides for the young minds intrusted to their care. We have already remarked that the literature of the seventeenth century, with a few very illustrious exceptions, such as Milton, Dr. Johnson, and Dryden, was a seething mass of polemical theology or spiritual mysticism long since consigned to kindly oblivion. But we must also bear in mind that the wonderful renaissance of practical thought and robust realism which illuminated the dawn of the eighteenth century was the product of brains trained under the educational auspices of England in the last days of the Stuart dynasty, of minds developed under the sway of the improvised faculties which the frantic rapacity of the state Church fairly "conscripted" into the service of the great English schools at the beginning of the Restoration. 50 CHAPTER III 16C1-1G70. UNDER HIS FATHER'S DISPLEASURE CHAPTER III 1661-1670. UNDER HIS father's DISPLEASURE Naturally, young William Penn, as a freshman at Christ Church, was among the first to feel the effects of such all-pervading change, such complete bouleverscment. He was not yet a Quaker. If anything, he was as much Puritan as the thoroughly barebones environment of Wan- stead and Chigwell could make of one so young and of such searching mind. But, in any event, he was far from the fold of the state Church, and every day 's growth of obser- vation and experience increased that distance. He had not been in Christ Church College a year when it became a total certainty that, whatever he might be, there were two things neither of which he ever would he — papist or Episcopalian. There is no historical record to show what his standing in classes was during his two years at Oxford. About all vouchsafed on that score is that he was well grown for his age, full of physical life and muscle, fond of college sports, and, in general, duly mindful of the monitory pealings of "Big Tom" night and morning. Meantime the academic paraphernalia and ecclesiastical forms of the state Church control were gradually recover- ing their hold on the university. The set prayer-book was 53 WILLIAM PENN substituted for the extempore petition of chapel exercise, and liturgy displaced the Bible chapter. Against this re- vival of what many of the young dons called popish mum- mery there was vigorous protest ending in a very consider- able secession from the regular exercises, and the seceders soon began to meet for exercises of their own and in their own way. Of course, in the estimation of the state Church authori- ties these secession meetings were nothing more nor less than riotous assemblages to be put down by the strong hand of college law. The seceders were warned to attend the regular exercises. Then the new state Church faculty found that the spirit which but little more than a score of years before had led to revolution was still alive and strong within the Oxonian walls. But Dr. Morley and Dr. Oliver were not men to be trifled with by a set of unruly boys. The recalcitrant dons were fined and otherwise pun- ished by curtailment of privileges. A few succumbed, bjit a great majority held out. Among these William Penn was a leader. He seems to have construed the Saltmarsh doctrine literally as he under- stood it. He held that so long as the faculty required a form of religious observance repugnant to the conscience of the student, the college authorities had no moral right to enforce it. He admitted their rightful power to make and enforce regulations pertaining to the secular discipline of the institution, but he denied in toto their prerogative to force upon any one ecclesiastical canons odious to the con- science and repugnant to the faith of any one, for no better reason than that he happened to be a fellow of the univer- 54 UNDER D18PLEASUUE sity. In this he drew a sharp and clear distinction between secular and spiritual discipline; and in that contention he was perfectly right, as all candid historians have long since admitted — besides some uncandid ones, including Macaulay. But the faculty did not stop at prayer-book and liturgy. They next required the canonical surplice to be worn on certain occasions. This produced undisguised revolt — open mutiny. Young Penn had now become the acknowledged leader of the liberty-of -conscience clan. He and his follow- ers not only refused to wear the despised livery of Episco- pacy themselves, but violently tore the surplices from the persons of those willing to wear them. Penn, in justifica- tion of such conduct, is said to have denounced the surplices as "popish rags!" This, of course, was a violation of his own professed principle. Any person has both moral and legal right to wear any garment that may please him, and to refuse to wear any that may be repugnant to him, the^ sole limitation being the statute relating to exposure of per- son. Thus Penn and his followers exhausted their own right when they refused to wear the surplices. And they violated the right of those from whom they tore them. These transactions terminated William Penn 's schooling at Oxford when he was eighteen years old. The common version is that he was expelled. But Dr. Stoughton, him- self an Oxonian, was unable to find any such record. Dr. Anthony Wood, in his Annals of Oxford, has a good deal to say about Penn. His sole comment on this event is the merest passing remark that "after two years, he traveled into France." But Penn himself, in his Journal of Travels on the Con- 55 WILLIAM PENN tinent in 1677, uses the phrase "my being banished from college." Expulsion from college is not necessarily an event of decisive importance in the history of a man. As already observed, there is no record of expulsion except Penn 's own phrase, and he uses the word ' ' banished. ' ' The inference is — though no direct evidence can be foiuid — that the faculty gave Penn the alternative of submission with apology or leaving the institution. This was then, and remains to this day, a common expedient in such cases. Penn would not submit or apologize, and so left the col- lege, without express record of the transaction. It is safe to assume that had so prominent a student as Penn was in college and so eminent a man in after-life been formally expelled, Anthony Wood must have made some note of it ; because his Annals in the History and Antiquities of Ox- ford and Athenae Oxonienses together bring the record down to 1694, when Penn was in the zenith of his fame. Some time prior to the trouble above discussed, the ad- miral contemplated removing his son from Oxford to Cam« bridge and consulted his friend Sir Samuel Pepys about it. (See Pepys 's Diary for January 25 and February 1, 1662.) Sir William Penn blamed Dr. Owen for "pervert- ing his son." Under date of April 28, 1662, Pepys says: Sir W. Pen much troubled upon letters come last night. Shewed me one of Dr. Owen 's to his son, whereby it appears that his son is much perverted in his opinion by him ; which I now perceive is one thing that hath put Sir William so long off the hooks. The particular direction in which Dr. Owen's influence was exerted does not appear ; but it could hardly have been 56 UNDEK DISPLEASURE encouragement of revolt and mutiny against the proper discipline of the college. It may have been, and probably was, encouragement to be steadfast against the encroach- ments of formalist religion upon the domain of conscience and, maybe, advice to leave the institution if he could not reconcile its spiritual administration with his sense of re- ligious liberty. Be this as it may — and it is more interesting than im- portant — Penn left Oxford and returned to the parental roof in the fall of 1662. Sir William was now a State Churchman, having, as previously intimated, dropped his free-conscience doctrines upon the downfall of Cromwell- ism and resumed his formalist communion upon the Res- toration. The common story was that he became very angry with his son when the latter came home from Ox- ford, and, after an altercation in which young Penn de- fended his conduct from what Sir William considered the Quaker point of view, the admiral turned him out of doors. The authority for this story is found in Penn's Journal of 1677. In that journal he records a Quaker meeting at Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands, which he addressed, and he states the substance of his remarks. In this occurs the following : ' ' The bitter usage I underwent when I returned to my father; whipping, beating, and turning out of doors in 1662, etc." This would seem to be conclusive on the subject, for that journal was in Penn's handwriting and the copy from which it was printed was undoubtedly accurate. The story proceeds that the admiral was soon reconciled to his son through the mother's intercession, and early in 1663 young 57 WILLIAM PENN William was sent to visit Paris, where, the admiral hoped, he might find social influences calculated to wean him from Quaker predilections. About the only record of his visit to the French capital is an apocryphal story, resting on the testimony of the Harvey manuscript. This tale is to the effect that Penn, who, conformably to the fashion of the period, wore a small sword or rapier, was attacked on the street by "a haughty desperado," whom he "at once dis- armed by his keenness of fence!" And then, having the haughty desperado "wholly at his mercy, Penn not only spared his life, but picked up and courteously handed back to him his rapier, which had fallen to the ground!" As William Penn was only eighteen at this time, his precocity as a swordsman must have been equal at least, if not superior, to his remarkable progress as a religious reformer in such callow years. In view of the extent to which Thomas Harvey has been enabled to impress his lucubrations upon William Penn's history, mainly through that somewhat widely read book with a distinctively feminine title, The Penns and the Pen- ningtons, it may be worth while briefly to examine Mr. Harvey's pretensions. He was the son of a non-conform- ist preacher of the Presbyterian sect and became a convert to Quakerism about 1700. His "manuscript" — never printed except in the extracts made by the authoress of The Penns and the Penningtons — consists mainly of purported Conversations with William Penn. Harvey undoubtedly saw Penn and conversed with him toward the end of the latter 's life. He was a fanatical Quaker and his aim was to glorify Penn, at that time the head of the sect. But the 58 UNDEK DISPLEASURE general result of his efforts was to make his hero ridiculous, or to pose him in situations either wholly at variance with his character or intrinsically improbable. He was a zealot, filled with mistaken zeal. At this point it seems proper to digress, as briefly as may be, from the main thread of our theme. Penn was in France, and the reign was that of Louis XIV. Everything was Roman Catholic, except here and there an oasis of lib- erated thought, where the teachings of John Calvin, of Noyon — a whilom pupil of Melchior Wolmar, and Wolmar an "understudy" of Martin Luther himself — had weaned the simple, honest peasants of Picardy, Normandy, and Bretagne from the saiutism and the icons of Rome. It may not be out of place for the author to remark here that his study of the theology of the seventeenth cen- tury has been wholly historical, practical, secular, political; not in the slightest degree sectarian, schismatical, doctrinal, or spiritual. To go a step further, the author would rever- ently say that, in these studies, he has held Christ in view as the greatest and most enduring teacher the world has ever seen or ever shall see; inventor and expounder of a school and system of the ethics and philosophy of human being and action as impregnable as it is imperishable, as eternal as it is irrefragable, and as sound in reason as any one can possibly believe it to be true in divinity. From this point of view we have long been convinced that the most perfect development of reformed religion in the seventeenth century existed among the Lutherans of Scandinavia and the Netherlands and the Huguenots of France. Among them was found to all intents and pur- 59 WILLIAM PENN poses a common faith and a uniformity of observance quite as distinctive as those of papacy and the episcopacy — which latter, in that age at least, was little more or less than a sort of illicit offspring of popery itself. But this com- munity of faith and uniformity of observance were based not upon canons, not upon bulls of the pope, not upon the set laws of hierarchy, not upon images, candles, vestments, or holy water ; but upon the consensus of free minds and the intercommunion of consciences not enslaved. In this respect the early Protestantism of northern France and the north of Europe generally was out of all comparison purer, healthier, more glad, more cheerful, and altogether more trustable and more believable than that of England. In France and Sweden there was a single faith, clear, logical, practical, simple, and strong in works as well as in profession. In England there was, as we have already remarked, a babel of beliefs, a storm of sects, a cyclone of creeds, a raging tornado of theologies, and a howling hurricane of heterodoxies. In France and Sweden there were no Protestant sects; there were simply Protes- tants. In England there were almost as many sects as preachers, well-nigh as many creeds as chapels ! In France and Sweden every Protestant minister preached the same doctrines, counseled the same faith, besought the same pious behavior. In England it seemed that almost every preacher who could write a book had a theology of his own. Among the French and Swedish Protestants no fanatic could find voice — or if he could find voice he found none to listen. The Catholics were not without their ultra- zealots. Neither were the Protestants of England. And 60 UNDER DISPLEASURE viewed as mere zealotry, it is difficult at this distance to draw much distinction between one bigot school that was crazy and another that was cruel — whether the founder of one was Loyola or of the other George Fox ! Penn 's visit to France was in the halcyon days of French Protestantism. It was twenty-two years before the Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes. The great Amyraut was nearing the end of his illustrious and useful life at the head of Saumur Seminary, center of Huguenot learning in France. Penn's stay in Paris was limited to about four months. Thence, desiring to perfect himself in the French language, he went to Saumur. This seems to have been with the full approbation of his father. The seminary was, of course, theological ; but the doctrines and observances taught there by Amyraut were those of a refined and soft- ened Calvinism — in a word, the Huguenot faith as we know it to-day. It was non-conformist from either Catholic or Episcopal point of view ; but it was a beautiful, cheerful faith, full of all human tenderness and domestic virtues, as near the true character and inspiration of Christ's actual teaching as any human creed has ever been. It had all the strength, consistency, and courage of Puritanism without any of its asperity, its austerity, or its gloom. It was indeed a Church militant, but not, like Puritanism, aggressive, in- tolerant or defiant. In other words, the Huguenots were Frenchmen, while the Puritans were Englishmen ; one cour- teous where the other would be gruff ; one gently regardful of the feelings of fellow men where the other would be rough-shod ; one polite where the other would be rude. About the only trait the Huguenot and the Puritan had in com- 61 WILLIAM PENN mon was that both stood always ready to fight for the faith. And even in this there was a difference : the Huguenot would alM'ays wait to be assailed ; the Puritan was always inclined to meet his foe half-way — and sometimes a little more. Probably Admiral Penn did not altogether draw these fine distinctions. But he knew at least that his son would hear no Quaker preaching at Saumur, see no hat worship, hear no theeing and thouing in the name of the Lord, be taught no doctrine that condemned politeness, deified dis- courtesy, or apotheosized the boor. In short, Sir William knew that in no part, article, or "convincement" of the religion inculcated at Saumur would be found the whims, the visions, or the chimeras of George Fox. Young William Penn spent nearly two years at Sau- mur — stayed there, in fact, until the death of the great and good Amyraut, whom he grew to revere with all the in- tensity of his fervid nature. During this period he mas- tered the French language and acquired the French man- ners so completely that, when he returned to England in 1664, his father's old friend. Sir Samuel Pepys, loudly lamented in his diary about it : Comes to visit me [says Sir Samuel, under date of August 30, 1664] Mr. W. Pen. I perceive something of learning he hath got, but a great deal, if not too much of the vanity of the French garb, and affected manner of speech and gait. I fear all real profit he hath made of his travel will signify little. Sir William was, however, more favorably impressed. He is recorded as rejoicing that his son had come back to 62 UNDER DISPLEASURE him, after two years in France, "dressed in the garb and displaying the manners of a gentleman ! ' ' After a brief rest at home, young Penn, now in his twenty-first year, entered Lincoln's Inn as a student of law, at the admiral's suggestion. This was not with any intention of a career in the legal profession. Sir William's ambition was that his gifted son should become a states- man. He himself at that time was member of Parliament for Weymouth, and his purpose was to vacate the seat — a pocket borough — in favor of young William as soon as the latter should have completed a general study of the prin- ciples and philosophy of law and legislation. That stout Sir William was wise in his generation when he aspired to make a statesman of his precocious son is sufficiently attested by the later career of the son himself. The William Penn of history was a statesman. He was born to be one. But he did not become one until he could not help it — until he could no longer deny the claim of his birthright. His intermediate career as Quaker preacher, semimartyr, and almost fanatic is forgotten in his unfa- ding light as the founder of a great commonwealth; in his immortal eminence as the pioneer of equal rights, universal suffrage, and unqualified popular sovereignty. William Penn as a Quaker preacher and Quaker tract- writer, and William Penn as a world statesman and a uni- versal lawgiver, must be always held in wide contrast. He was preacher and tract-writer because of George Fox and Thomas Loe; he was statesman and enlightened law- giver in spite of them. Had he remained through life in the narrow trail they blazed for him, he must have sunk 63 WILLIAM PENN into the oblivion that has engulfed a myriad of fanatic doctrinaires and a host of polemic theologians of the cen- tury in which he lived. But when he broke away from their market-place proselytism and their mock martyrdom of parish jails in England, he forthwith achieved immortal fame as a substantial benefactor of mankind. For an apt illustration of the natural fatherly ambition Admiral Penn may have cherished for his remarkable son, his heir, or of the chagrin and despair that must have over- taken him when he saw what, from his point of view, were the fatal effects of Fox's tracts and Loe's hypnotism, we need not go far from home or much into the past. Let us suppose that a great American admiral — Farragut, for example — had rejoiced in a brilliant son and had exhausted all his powers and resources to put him en train for the highest honors our republic can bestow. Then let us sup- pose that such son, instead of treading the path to power, usefulness, and fame pointed out by his brave and saga- cious father, had fallen under the sinister hypnotism of Joseph Smith and embraced the seductive gospel embodied in the Book of Mormon ! Reflect now that, with polygamy left out, there was not much spiritual or moral or legal difference between the George-Foxism of the seventeenth century and the Joe-Smithism of the nineteenth ! It is not our intention to enter here upon an analytical comparison or contrast as between Quakerism and Mormon- ism doctrinally or as creeds. Our comparison is purely historical, not at all spiritual — an affair of relation to the time and place. From this point of view it can not be gainsaid that the Quakerism of Fox in the seventeenth cen- 64 UNDER DISPLEASURE tury Avas as obnoxious to religious opinion at large and as abhorrent to all received moral tenets as the Mormonism of Joseph Smith in the nineteenth. Each in its time was the one creed which all other creeds united to condemn, to denounce, and to persecute. And the persecution of Joseph Smith in this free republic of the nineteenth century was far more terribly drastic than that of George Fox in the Stuart-ridden England of the seventeenth; for nothing worse than durance ever happened to Fox ; but Smith was assassinated in Carthage jail by a masked mob of citizens belonging to the great, free, and enlightened Commonwealth of Illinois. From this purely historical and chronological point of view we do not see how the comparison, so far as Admiral Penn was concerned, can be viewed as far-fetched or inept. Soon after young Penn was fairly installed in chambers of Lincoln's Inn, war broke out between England and Hol- land. The admiral, appointed Captain-General of the Fleet, took the sea as second in command and chief of staff to the Lord High Admiral, his old friend, the Duke of York. The result of this campaign was the signal defeat of the Dutch off the Dogger Bank, which pcn-manently terminated the pretensions of the Netherlands to rank as a first-class sea power. Sir William Penn returned to England the foremost naval commander of his time, and enjoying fame and honors hardly second to those lavished in later years upon Hawke, Rodney, and Nelson. But he returned also to find his son "relapsing into Quakerism," as he expressed it. He now, as a last resort, sent young William to Ireland 6 65 WILLIAM PENN and placed him under the care and tutelage of James But- ler, Duke of Ormond, the admiral's intimate friend and then Viceroy or Lord Lieutenant. The vice-regal court was brilliant. Penn was only twenty-one, and he was de- veloped physically and mentally alike to the stature of twenty-five. Under the influence of the Duke of Ormond and the court entourage, the young man soon resumed the ways of polite society ; and the duke, who was well aware of the admiral's purpose in sending him to Ireland, congratulated Sir William upon his son's evident abandon- ment of the visions which had affected his earlier youth. So marked was this tendency that young Penn joined a local military organization and participated in the siege of Car- rickfergus, whose garrison had risen in mutiny. During this experience the glamor of military life so profoundly impressed the young volunteer that he asked for a com- mission on the permanent establishment of the royal army, and the Duke of Ormond proposed to give him the captaincy of a company in the then local organization, which in 1689, upon the organization of the British regular army by Will- iam III, became the Eighteenth or Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, which it is now. The admiral, however, adhered to his purpose of train- ing young William for the career of a statesman, and per- emptorily vetoed the military proposition. It is worthy of remark that during this period William Penn sat for the only portrait ever painted of him from life. It represents him in the style and uniform of a royalist soldier — or sub- altern officer — with uniform and cuirass, flowing locks, and redundant scarf, exceedingly handsome, and of port and 66 UNDER DISPLEASURE mien as iimrtial as any cavalier. "It is a curious i'act, "' says one of Penn's biographers, "that the only genuine portrait of the great apostle of peace existing represents him armed and aceoutered as a soldier ! ' ' Sir William had by this time (1667) neglected the in- terests of his estate in Ireland nearly three years. His duties as member of Parliament and member of the Navy Board kept him busy. The machinations of his political enemies also troubled him. About this time they even tried to impeach him from the Navy Board, but so signally failed that there was no division of the Commons, and the House adjourned without action upon the question. Besides all these occupations, the health of Admiral Penn began to give way in the fall of 1667. The Irish estate — Shanningarry, County Cork — was a principal source of his income, and it was in sore need of intelligent and honest management. He therefore, in Sep- tember, 1667, wrote to young William, appointing him Clerk of the Cheque, in his sinecure office as Governor of Kinsale, and placing him in control of the Shanningarry estate with full power to reorganize and reform its man- agement. This he seems to have done with energy and ability sufficient to elicit praise from the admiral, who now believed that his ambitions and hopes for his son were in a fair way to be realized. But Sir William's gratification was short-lived. The estate was near the city of Cork, and young Penn soon heard that Thomas Loe was preaching there again. This exhorter seems to have possessed a marvelous fascination in Penn's eyes, an occult influence which in these days would likely 67 WILLIAM PENN be described as "hypnotic." We have seen, in an old tract printed during the reign of William and Mary, the declara- tion that it was Fox 's custom to ' ' aim at conversion of per- sons of note, men of rank and possessed of substantial estate. Convincement of the poor and lowly was always a light task, but Fox saw that such added not strength to his sect ; only weakness, for that they were a burden to their prosperous brethren and often brought discredit by their misbehavior. ' ' We hesitate to introduce this old tract as evidence; it was avowedly anti-Quaker; but some of its statements are of historical interest and well-known collateral facts sustain them by very strong inference, if not by positive corroboration. The author, speaking of Fox's methods, goes on to say in substance that, whenever he heard of any person above common station or possessed of some fortune displaying interest or even curiosity as to the preachings of Quakerism, he would find out if any particular preacher had special influence over such person, and then, to quote the language of the tract, "set that preacher upon that person ; to follow him, to make opportunity of being heard by him, and to labor privately with that person whensoever chance might throw them together. ' ' There is no lack of the "evidence of appearances" — to use a mild phrase" — that Thomas Loe was set upon William Penn. Conversion of the son of an admiral and baronet would naturally challenge Fox 's generalship from the social ■ point of view; while the large property to which he was heir-apparent would be a good thing to have in the sect. At any rate, if Fox did not specifically set Loe upon Penn, 68 UNDER DISPLEASURE a series of remarkable coincidences occurred. We have already given Thomas Harvey's version of Penn's listen- ing to Loe in Ireland when only thirteen years old, or thereabouts. Singularly Loe preached in Oxford, four years later, when Penn was in college there. And less than three years after that w^e find Loe preaching in Lon- don hard by Lincoln's Inn, where Penn was reading law. And now, when Penn was living on his father's estate, near Cork, Loe suddenly returns to that city, begins preach- ing there, and informs him of the fact through a Quakeress who made clothes for the young man. Thomas Harvey is, indeed, the authority for this last statement, but his version is generally corroborated by Penn himself in the Journal of 1677. If all this was coincidence, it would be in the last degree remarkable. If it was a case of "setting upon, following," etc., its processes were characterized by keen strategy, and its success was all that Fox, in his most san- guine moment, could have conceived possible. However, as we said at the outset, this testimony comes from an anti-Quaker source and is to be received with only such credibility as it may derive from corroborating facts and circumstances that are beyond dispute. The author of the tract declares that the setting of Loe upon Penn was not the only case of the kind ; that Fox set James Naylor in a similar way upon "a rich merchant of Bristol * and other noteworthy persons in the west of England," but names none of them; also that he "set Edward Burroughs upon Isaac Penington and others"; and that he even "had the effrontery to dog with Thomas Watson the footsteps of Lord * Thomas Callowhill, father of Penn's second wife. 69 WILLIAM PENN Coventry, but this last with the ill success such a churlish impudence deserved ! ' ' Of William Penn's final conversion — or "convince- ment," to use the Quaker phrase — there have been many accounts, all or nearly all written by members of his own sect and varying in detail according to the intensity of the Inward Light inspiring the writer for the time being. Among these the quaintest is that of Thomas Harvey, who says in his manuscript of 1727 : Penn, on his second coming to Cork, being the only one of the family there and requiring some articles of clothing, went to the shop of a woman Friend in the city to procure them. He expected she would have known him, but she did not. He was too much altered from the days of his boyhood, when the Friend had seen him, to be recognized by her now. However, he told her who he was, and spoke to her of Thomas Loe and of the meeting at his father's house ten or twelve years before. She admired at his re- membering, but he told her he should never forget it ; also that, if he only knew where that person was, if 'twere a hundred miles off, he would go to hear him again. She said he need not go so far, for that Friend had lately come thither and would be at meeting the next day. So he went to the meeting, and when Thomas Loe stood up to preach he was exceedingly reached and wept much. Another and intrinsically more probable version is that Loe sent word by this woman to Penn, or prompted her to advise him, that he had returned to Cork and intended to preach there. However, Penn has written an account of his own conversion, which, of course, must supersede all 70 UNDER DISPLEASURE others. We have already referred to it. The full text may be found on pages 102-103 of his Journal of Travels, 1677. We offer only an extract sufficient to cover the main facts : I let them know how and when the Lord first appeared unto me, which was about the twelfth year of my age, 1656. How, at times betwixt that and the fifteenth year, the Lord visited me and the divine impressions He gave me of Him- self ; of my persecution at Oxford, and how the Lord sus- tained me in the midst of that hellish darkness and de- bauchery ; of my being banished the college, the bitter usage I underwent when I returned to my father; whipping, beating, and turning out of doors in 1662; of the Lord's dealings with me in France, and in the time of the great plague in London. In fine, the deep sense He gave me of the vanity of this world and of the irreligiousness of the religions of it. Then of my mournful and bitter cries to Him that He would show me His own way of life and salvation and my resolution to follow Him, whatever reproaches or sufferings should attend me ; and that with great reverence and bro- kenness of spirit. How, after all this the glory of the world overtook me and I was even ready to give myself up unto it ; seeing as yet no such things as the primitive spirit and Church on the earth; and being ready to faint concerning my hope of the restitution of all things, it was at this time that the Lord visited me with a certain sound and testimony of His eternal Word through one of those the world calls a Quaker, namely, Thomas Loe. I related to him the bitter mockings and scornings that fell upon me, the displeasure of my parents, the invectiveness and cruelty of the priests, the strangeness of all my companions, what a sign and wonder they made of me; but, above all, that great cross of resisting and \yatching against my own inward vain 71 WILLIAM PENN affections and thoughts, . . . and the snares and pitfalls laid for my feet in every path, etc. This might not be believed to have been uttered by the man who afterward framed the great law of Pennsylvania. It is a strange melange of the mysticism of Saltmarsh and the rant of Fox. Yet there can be no doubt that Penn was perfectly sincere in it, or that his words — almost frenzied as they might seem at this distance — really failed to blazon forth the glow that filled his imagination. Glow of what? Spiritualists alone can answer. No one who has never fallen under that weird spell, that mysterious psychological spasm that Methodists commonly describe as "the power," can form the remotest conception of it. The author has seen men and women at revivals pass utterly beyond self-control, give voice to bursts of eloquence they would never dream of in normal moments, and then fall into mental stupor or muscular convulsion from which the most heroic application of medical skill was required to rescue them. In some cases when the patients came to their senses they had not the least recollection of the visions of their trance. In a few cases dementia supervened. It may be a serious question whether such phenomena are not always a fitter subject for the neurologist than for the the- ologian. But it seems indisputable that, while under the influence of Thomas Loe, William Penn had what old-fash- ioned Methodists call "the power." His new-found convincement of faith had not long to wait for the "crown of martyrdom." A few days after Thomas Loe had converted him, Penn attended a meeting 72 UNDER DISPLEASURE of Friends at the house of a shopkeeper. A drunken sol- dier came in and proceeded to disturb the assembly. Penn, a stalwart man of twenty-four, seized the soldier and was about to throw him out, when other Quakers interfered, told Penn that physical violence was contrary to their tenets, and induced him to let the soldier alone. The latter then went to a magistrate, lodged a complaint, and a force was sent which broke up the meeting and arrested several of the principal Quakers, including Penn, and they were put in jail. Penn at once wrote a letter to the Lord Presi- dent of Munster, the Earl of Orrery. This letter was an able review of the laws and orders under which the magis- trate had acted. It summed up as follows : I leave your lordship to judge whether that proclama- tion (that of 1660) relates to this concernment; that which was only designed to suppress Fifth Monarchy murderers. And since the King's Lord Lieutenant and yourself are fully persuaded the intention of these called Quakers by their meetings was really the service of God, and you have virtually repealed that other law [meaning the first Con- venticle Act] by a long continuance of freedom, I hope your lordship will not now begin an unwonted severity by suffering any one to indulge so much malice with his near- est neighbors; but that there may be a speedy releasement of all to attend their honest callings and the enjoyment of their families. Though to dissent from a national system imposed by authority renders men heretics in the eyes of some, yet I dare believe your lordship is better read in reason and theology than to subscribe a maxim so vulgar and untrue. It is not long since you were a solicitor for the liberty I now crave,* when you concluded there was * Lord Orrery had been imprisoned by Cromwell under the Common- wealth. 73 WILLIAM PENN no way so effectual to improve this country as to dispense freedom in relation to conscience. A curious feature of this petition is the use of the ordi- nary "you," "your," etc., instead of the Quaker "thee" and "thou." But Penn was at that date the merest neo- phyte in the external observances of Foxism. However, the petition immediately caused the release of Penn and his "fellow martyrs." As soon as he was free again Penn was summoned to England by his father, who had learned with despair of the ** relapse into Quakerism." Harvey, in his manuscript, records that Penn sailed from Cork to Bristol, and at the latter place "attended Friends' meetings for strengthening of the faith to meet the re- proachings and tryals he knew his father would put upon him." At last he arrived home and met his father. The ad- miral was confined to the house with acute gout and was unable to walk, though he could sit up in an easy chair. There are various accounts of the interview, but they sub- stantially agree upon the following details : Young Penn frankly said he was finally and perma- nently converted to Quakerism. They then discussed its various tenets, spiritual beliefs, and outward observances. The admiral, albeit then a State Churchman, had always cherished liberal views. On questions of religion and con- science he was, for that age at least, a pronounced free- thinker. After a long discussion with his son, he declared that, so far as spiritual doctrine was concerned, he could 74 UNDER DISPLEASURE tolerate all the Quaker beliefs except that which denied the right of physical self-defense, and at the same time refused the obligation of manliness that necessarily pertained to it. As for outward forms and observances, he could endure all except those which denied the virtue of common courtesy and made ordinary politeness a sin in the sight of God. He declared that there was nothing in the teachings of Christ or of any apostle which prohibited the customary conduct of a gentleman, and that no one had ever set up such a monstrous doctrine until the advent of George Fox. How- ever, he was willing to even ignore the "non-combatant canon," folly though it might be, if his son conscientiously believed that the salvation of his soul depended upon ad- herence to it. But he would not tolerate boorishness of manner or rudeness of personal behavior, such as the silly hat worship and the coarse vulgarity of "thee" and "thou," which George Fox considered the pillar of faith and the heart's core of his creed, the central dogma of his alleged "direct revelation from God." "Theeing" and "thouing," he argued, reduced society at large to the status of servants or menials, because it was to such and such only that those forms of the second personal pronoun were addressed. Young Penn rejoined that it was the "will of God"; but the admiral compelled him to admit that the only authority for that was the alleged special revelation to Fox which rested on the unsupported assertion of Fox himself. Finally the admiral said : You may "thee" and "thou" whomsoever you please except the King, the Duke of York, and myself. As for your hat, you can worship it to your heart's content and 75 WILLIAM PENN be as boorish with it as you please, except iu the house of your father, who is a gentleman, and in the presence of the King and the Duke of York, your sovereign and his heir apparent. On all else, which may be spiritual and of the inner conscience, I yield. But on these things, which are affairs of outward gentleness and decency, I will stand ! Upon this young Penn desired time for prayer and communion with God. The admiral suggested that when a belief or faith was firmly established in a man's con- science deliberation ought not to be needed in arriving at a judgment based upon it. However, the yoimg man took his time and reserved his decision until the next day. As a result of about twenty-four hours of prayer and divine communion, William Penn informed his father that he could not conscientiously remove his hat or address the word "you" to any individual. It is doubtless a historical misfortune that, with a single exception, all accounts, recollections, and biographies of William Penn written in his own period or a century and a half thereafter, were by Quakers; who — with a saving clause in favor of Clarkson (at the beginning of the nine- teenth century) — convert their books into Quaker tracts and Penn's career into a sort of apostolic succession to George Fox. This is natural enough. Though the sect is at this writing (1903) two hundred and sixty years old, it has never produced a man who made any permanent impress upon human affairs or accomplished anything worth endur- ing record except William Penn. Fortunately he was great enough to monopolize the earthly grandeur of a sect never very large itself, and his life glorifies the sect far more than 76 UNDER DISPLEASURE sectarian biographers can exalt him. All the Quaker wri- ters say that Admiral Pcnn expelled William from his house again on this occasion, and some of them declare that he also began proceedings to disinherit him. Granville Penn, in his Life of Admiral Penn, says noth- ing of this. He dismisses the whole episode as ' ' a warm de- bate, resulting in temporary estrangement." And his sub- sequent references to William Penn indicate that, during the two years of life yet remaining to the admiral, his house was the home of his son, though the latter seldom availed himself of its privileges. In fact, William Penn spent that two years — as he did the seven or eight next ensuing — in travels up and down as an itinerant exhorter or as a polemical tract-writer in jail. That Sir William Penn mourned what he viewed as the degeneracy of his son may be true. Harvey records him as reproaching his son in these words: "What can you think of yourself, after being so well-born and carefully trained up in learning and courtly accomplishments to fit you for the place of ambassador at a foreign court or min- ister of the Government at home, that you should sink all in a Quaker preacher and make your association of prefer- ence with outcasts ! ' ' Whether Sir William employed such language or not, the feeling so expressed was natural enough — in the seven- teenth century at least. But there is not the least authority for the disinheritance story. Sir William died in Septem- ber, 1670, in the old home at Wanstead, and his son William succeeded to all his estate by the law of primogeniture with- out let or hindrance. 77 WILLIAM PENN In the second edition of Penn's best theological work,* published some years after the admiral's death, he gives a touching account of that event which indicates perfect reconciliation between them. But William Penn could not inherit the baronetcy at that time, had it been heredi- tary, because such succession involved an oath of fealty to the Crown which his devotion to the whims of Fox would have forbidden him to make. However, the succession to the estate gave him command of an income of about 1,600 guineas a year — or say, $8,000 — which the vastly greater purchasing power of money in those days made equivalent to three times that sum now. Besides this, it made him a creditor of the King to the amount of about £16,000, with considerable accumulated interest; an inheritance destined to be the basis of the real, practical greatness he soon afterward attained as a states- man, lawgiver, and human benefactor; when, in a lucid interval, he temporarily quit Quaker preaching to found an American commonwealth. This relation of creditor to the King may be succinctly explained : Between the parsimony of Parliament and the extravagance of the King in those days, Charles II was always poor in purse and a constant borrower. He bor- rowed of all whom his royal favor could convert into money- makers and money-lenders, from prince to pawnbroker; from minister of Government to maker of periwigs, from admiral to apple-vender. He helped Admiral Penn to make prize money, in order that he might borrow from the admiral ashore the guilders the admiral * No Cross, No Crown. 78 UNDER DISPLEASURE afloat had wrung from the defeated Dutch. However, Charles was honest and would pay his debts when he could. When he could not pay he would borrow more. In the case of Admiral Penn, he had borrowed more and paid noth- ing. By that means — providential as it turned out — he owed the dying admiral £16,000, with accumulated inter- est, and he paid the debt to the admiral's heir with Penn- sylvania. 79 CHAPTER IV 1668-1G78 QUAKER PREACHER AND FOUNDER OP WEST JERSEY CHAPTER IV 16G8-1678 QUAKER PREACHER AND FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY This, as remarked at the outset, is a secular and not a spiritual, a temporal and not a religious, history of William Penn; the story of his statesmanship, not of his sectarian- ism. From this view-point, and in pursuit of this purpose, his life from 1668 to 1678 may be quickly reviewed. Those years he spent in rambling up and down England and the Continent, now preaching Quakerism, now printing Quaker tracts, and again as a martyr in Newgate or the Tower. Of his preaching little can be said that would be either instruc- tive or even interesting to those who read by the electric lights of this material age. Of his printing, even less. As to the volume of his preaching or the number of his sermons there is no exact record; but their name was myriad. As to his authorship, twentj^-six books are extant ; they require little review beyond the remark that no Quaker library is complete without them^ — and they are seldom found in any other. Two of them, however, may be viewed as possessing some permanent historical value not wholly sectarian. They are The Present Interest of England Con- sidered and The Peace of Europe. The first named is a treatise on religious toleration, a terse history of religious 83 WILLIAM PENN persecution, and an argument in favor of universal liberty of conscience, from the view-point of national self-interest alone. It aboimds in truisms which, though always trite, are ever new. Its literary execution leaves much to be de- sired, but in the main it must stand as a fair effort to apply sound religious principles in progressive political practise for the common weal and the general betterment of worldly conditions. The second named is a labored treatise against war and in favor of arbitration. In this Penn has some claim to originality of conception. So far as our reading enables us to judge, he originated the idea that nations might agree upon a system whereby issues commonly referred to arbi- tration of the sword might be adjusted by international litigation. In his Peace of Europe Penn brings out this idea quite crudely, but as intelligibly as any one has since advocated it. The essence of his theory was a sort of inter- national Quakerism, and later-day dreamers of the mil- lennium have not improved upon his logic. The experiment of "arbitration between nations" has, indeed, been tried since Penn's day; but the result has invariably been that the nation having all the cunning and none of the right cheats the eye-teeth out of the nation that has all the right and none of the cunning. The trouble is wholly that of human nature. No nation probably would offer to "arbi- trate" a cause that seemed worth fighting for. This is as fundamentally true as that no nation ever has adopted or ever will adopt the Quaker doctrine of absolute non-com- batantism. The full title of Penn's work is An Essay toward the 84 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY Present and Future Peace of Europe. After formulating an elaborate plan for creating an "International Court of Arbitration," Penn provides that "its judgment should be made so binding that, if any government offer its case for decision and do not then abide by it, the other governments parties to the tribunal should compel it." These words have a familiar sound. They seem quite as much like the nineteenth century as the seventeenth; and they might as well be dated from "Boston" as from " Worminghurst. " The theory was no more Utopian then than now. But riper experience among nations, as well as among individuals, has made ideas appear ludicrous now that were only novel then. With these two exceptions, Penn 's voluminous literature was as ephemeral as the spiritual polemics of the century in which it appeared. Its most notable peculiarity from the purely literary view-point was its total lack of settled or sustained style. In the best of his theological books — No Cross, No Crown — we find abundant traces of Salt- marsh, or of efforts to imitate his inimitable mysticism. In the worst of them — The Sandy Foundation Shaken — may be found echoes of the rugged and verbose speech of Fox. Penn never seemed able to cultivate a style of his own in theological writing. But whenever he touched upon practical questions of law, administration, or statecraft he wrote smoothly, clearly, and often masterfully. During this period occurred Penn's marriage with Guli- elma Maria Springett in ]\Iay, 1672. She was the daughter of Colonel Sir William Springett, who died during the siege of Arundel Castle, from the reopening of a wound received at Naseby. He was the youngest officer of his grade in 85 WILLIAM PENN Cromwell 's army, aud his daughter was born three months after his death. His widow married Isaac Penington be- fore Gulielraa was two years old. Penington was the son and heir of the famous alderman of London in Cromwell's time, sturdiest of Puritans and stanchest of Roundheads. The doughty alderman had quelled Westminster riots, arrested "seditious bishops," handed into Parliament the Monster Petition of the People to the Commons demanding that justice be meted out to the deposed King, and was a member of the high court of justice ordained for the King's trial. His son Isaac was of different mold. When the alderman died Isaac inherited his comfortable estate of Chalfont St. Peters, in Buckinghamshire, and soon after- ward became, like Penn, a Quaker preacher. A miniature or small portrait of Miss Springett, painted during Penn's courtship, shows her to have been remark- ably beautiful. Her life indicates rich endowment of do- mestic virtues and strength of character. Such of her let- ters as have been preserved exhibit a fertile and highly trained intellect together with perfect constancy of purpose and amiability of disposition. The atmosphere of the Penington home in which she had been reared was pure, wholesome, and devout. Her principal tutor was Thomas Ellwood, a classical scholar, who for a long time enjoyed the rare opportunities of culture afforded by the station of amanuensis and reader to Milton in his blindness. Miss Springett herself had often seen and conversed with the great Puritan poet dur- ing her girlhood while he lived in a neighboring village of Buckinghamshire, and one tradition (in Gibson's Life of 86 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY Penn) says that she had written from Milton's dictation after he became totally blind. In 1672, when Penn mar- ried her, she was past twenty-five, and doubtless had no superior among her sex in England for charms of person and mind. That she was greatly helpful to her husband in the most trying period of his career is abundantly attested by his letters to her and others while she lived, and by his eloquent and affecting tribute to her memory when she died. She brought to him not only her own virtues and graces, but a substantial property inherited from her father, whose only child she was. This was a small but very productive estate, and a neat country house at Worminghurst, Sussex, and there Penn made his home after the marriage. As we have already passed briefly over his religious work as preacher and author, so we need not dwell at length upon the trials and persecutions to which that work sub- jected him. No subject can be so dismal to either writer or reader as the annals of religious persecution. Whatever may be said of the idiosyncrasies of the Qua- kers or the peculiarities of their doctrines and observances, they were a harmless people ; they did not disturb the peace, they committed no crime ; and the only laws they infringed were such outrages upon common humanity as the infamous Conventicle Acts and similar statutes conceived in the bigotry, enacted in the intolerance and executed in the cowardly cruelty of the Episcopal Church of England two hundred years ago ; laws which were in themselves crimes, and the enforcement of which, in a more enlightened age, would be viewed as a felony. The complete account of 87 WILLIAM PENN Penn's "trial" at Old Bailey on an indictment accusing him of "riotous conduct" for "preaching in Grace Street Church" would form an interesting chapter in the history of the jury system if other demands upon our space did not exclude it. Suffice to say here that it was among the most important cases on record, involving as it did the last attempt ever made by an English judge to terrorize a jury with a view to extort from them a verdict contrary to the facts, the law, and their own oaths. The jury declared Penn not guilty, after the court had imprisoned them forty-eight hours without food or light in the vain effort to make them convict the accused. And then, after they persisted in rendering a verdict of not guilty, fined them forty shillings each and sent them to Newgate prison along with the defendant they had declared innocent. This farce of a trial has handed down the names of Samuel Starling, Mayor of London, and John Howell, Kecorder of Old Bailej^, to a disgusting obloquy and an unspeakable infamy that must endure so long as men who talk the English language shall love justice and hate despotism. It has consigned them to an immortal shame as much meaner and more despicable than that of Jef- feries, as his judicial crimes were greater in enormity than theirs. From this imprisonment, and subsequently from an in- carceration in the Tower under conditions of almost equal atrocity, Penn was liberated by the intervention of the King, at the instance of the Earl of Arlington in one case and of the Duke of York in the other. But the persecutions Penn suffered were only a single case in thousands during that 88 FOUNDEK OF WEST JERSEY period. The Quakers kept careful and accurate records of their sufferings for conscience sake. These records show that in a single twelvemonth about three thousand were imprisoned or punished in the pillory or publicly flogged through the streets ; and this in most cases by utter mockery of trial, when pretense was made of trial at all. And the record shows also that over three hundred died in prison or from the effects of hardships and privations suft'ered there. This was the year following the revision of the Conventicle Acts by which provision was made for arrest, imprison- ment, and fines upon information and without even the pretense of jury trial. The Church of England had at- tained complete control of the House of Commons, and its first use of that control was to pass the most infamous acts for promotion of sacerdotal despotism and sectarian felony that ever blotted the statutes of England. But the disease wrought its own cure. The enormities committed by the Episcopal Church and its servile minions were so appalling that the good-natured King intervened by order in Council, the effect of which was to compel all such cases to be regularly tried, with right of appeal, which, though it did not wholly stop the persecution, quite distinctly curtailed the powers of zealot constables and bigot magistrates. Among other things, the King required the bishops to grant licenses to non-conformist clergymen un- der certain conditions easily fulfilled. Such licenses pro- vided that preaching should not be disturbed, and in other ways protected the licentiates from persecution. In some cases arrests were made in spite of these licenses, but the constables themselves came to grief, together with the mag- 89 WILLIAM PENN istrates who issued the process. However, the story is too long and its details are too dismal for these pages. Well may the historian pass them over. But it is not so easy to refrain from the inevitable deduction that the Church of England in the seventeenth century was fit suc- cessor to the Church of Rome in the sixteenth. It is not easy to repress the fact that the Catholic butchers of Bloody Mary's time had little to repent of in excess of the blind bigotry and savage intolerance of the Church of England or the brutal and cowardly cruelty of its prelates, priests, and prebendaries two hundred years ago. These horrors fol- lowed naturally in the train of an Established Church. Take any sect or creed, munify it by statute and support it by taxation, and you will have provided for enormities in the name of religion. A creed set up by law and main- tained by public money must always add human cupidity to sectarian zeal, thereby stifling what should be the noblest of motives in the basest of vices. It was knowledge of this fundamental truth that impelled the framers of our institu- tions to prohibit a State Church and to make all sects equal before the law. The Church of England still exists as an "establishment." But it is a comparatively harmless an- achronism. It still plunders the English treasury in a small way; but, so far as real power is concerned, it is held in subjection by forces of public opinion that stand ready to overwhelm it should it offer the slightest symptom of re- lapse into its former crimes. In 1674 Penn had reached the age of thirty. He had given no signs of purpose or ambition to be anything else than an itinerant Quaker preacher and tract- writer. The 90 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY fortune inherited from his father, coupled with that which his marriage brought him, was sufficient to release him from the hard task of earning a livelihood. He was not avari- cious, and, considering the extent of his income, lived frugally. So far as concerned the expenses of himself and his family, he should have had a good annual surplus. But he did not. His income was expended as fast as it accrued — and often a little faster. This was due to his benefices toward his needy brethren. With few exceptions the early Quakers were people of humble station and small means, mostly shopkeepers or artisans, depending on personal industry for a living. Necessarily, fines and imprisonment bore heavily upon them, reducing many to penury. These unfortunates Will- iam Penn was always ready to help with his last farthing, and when he had no ready resource of his own at hand he would exhaust his credit borrowing for their benefit. These outlays and the expenses of his own missionary work, to- gether with the cost of his numerous publications, kept his purse constantly drained.* Moreover, while he was so zealous in his ministry of Quakerism his income itself fell away. Bad crops in Ireland made his Irish tenants fall into arrears. Penn had not the heart — or maybe, and more * Penn did not sell his books. He considered them part of his ministry. Not satisfied with serving the Lord by word of mouth, he served Him also in type. Therefore he paid the printer's bills, and then gave the books free and broadcast to whomsoever might wish to read them. Possibly there would not have been much sale for them when printed. But the author of this little book has seen a copy of the original edition of No Cross, No Crown, as written in the Tower (160!)), with Peun's autograph on the fly-leaf, sold at a sale of rare books in London for forty-five guineas ! Perhaps it had, like the best vintages, " improved with age." 91 WILLIAM PENN likely, he had too much heart — to distrain them. He evicted uo tenant. Whenever compromise could be made it was done and the tenant paid whatsoever he could — or said he could — and Penn charged the balance to profit and loss. After a few years he began to be straitened for funds. By the end of 1677 his main reliance had come to be the Springett estate of Worminghurst, which his wife brought to him. But he still held the debt of £16,000 or so that Charles II owed to his father. During the period just referred to he had but once, so far as record shows, taken active part in worldly affairs. That was in 1674-75. When the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was conquered in 1664 and became New York, that part of the province lying between the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers was granted or conveyed by the Duke of York to Earl Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The boundaries of this tract were not well defined, but generally speaking it included all the present State of New Jersey north of a line drawn from Staten Island southwest to the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. No set- tlements of any importance had been made in this tract prior to 1664. It was inhabited by Indians, and the only white people found within its borders were a few Dutch traders from New Amsterdam. But by 1675 a few settle- ments had been made on the west side of the region, chief among which was a little trading-post on the left bank of the Delaware, then known as New Beverly.* Sir George Carteret sold his half of the territory to John * Now Burlington, N. J. 92 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, both of whom were Quakers. Fenwick and Byllinge quarreled about their joint possession, much to the scandal of the Society of Friends, who declared them "covetous and carnally minded." The Quakers desired above all things to avoid lawsuits, which, they said, "put it in the mouths of the un- godly to revile them for the hankerings of the flesh after the things of this world ! ' ' The dispute between Fenwick and Byllinge became so acute that nothing short of an appeal to Westminster Hall seemed possible. To avoid such scandal the matter was taken up in the church. Fenwick and Byllinge were "dis- ciplined," and finally William Penn was chosen arbitrator. He made a sort of compromise, by which Fenwick received 1,000 guineas cash and one-tenth of the territory. Byllinge received the rest of the land. He was, however, insolvent, and Penn, wdth two others, were chosen trustees for Byl- linge 's creditors under an assignment. Fenwick at first refused to accept the award. Penn wrote to him : It behooveth me, sore against my wish, to tell thee, John Fenwick, that the present difference between thee and Ed- ward Byllinge fills the hearts of Friends with grief, and with a resolution to take into consideration and make a public denial of the person that offers violence to the award made, or that will not end the dispute without bringing it upon the public stage. God, the Righteous Judge, will visit him that standeth out ! . . . Opprest as I am with business, I will find an afternoon to-morrow or next day to determine and so prevent the mischief that will certainly follow divulging it in Westminster Hall. Let me know by the bearer thy mind. Oh ! John, let truth and the honor of it 93 WILLIAM PENN in this day prevail. Woe to him that causeth offense. I am an impartial man. Fenwick seems to have heeded these plain threats of "church discipline." Though he still "stood out" for a few weeks, he ultimately acquiesced in Penn's award and deeded nine-tenths of the land to the trustees of the Byl- linge creditors. Penn's cotrustees were unable to give the time required and withdrew from active connection with the trust, leaving the management of the Byllinge territory wholly in Penn's hands. For two years or more little was done beyond laying the foundation of a new colony. About a hundred families, mostly Quakers, were aided to cross the ocean. The little trading-post of New Beverly was made the nucleus of a permanent settlement and renamed "Bridlington," afterward changed to Burlington. The colony was named West Jersey. In the summer of 1677 Penn made a tour on the Con- tinent of Europe, visiting Holland and the Palatinate, which two years before had been ravaged by Turenne's army. During this journey he visited the Princess Pala- tine and William of Orange, then Stadtholder of Holland. The latter was engaged in war with Louis XIV, which ended the next year in the peace of Nymwegen. Prince William had just married Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of York. Mary shared her father's regard for Ad- miral Penn, and, like him, was disposed to transfer the good-will to his son. William of Orange also took a fancy to Penn, whose maternal grandfather, John Jasper, of Rotterdam, had befriended him in his boyhood. William, 94 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY however, did not like the Quakers — or at all events he had no respect for the non-combatant doctrine they professed. He is recorded by Dr. Montanus, in Leven van Willem III, as saying to Penn that he "believed in equal toleration of all creeds, except the Catholic, whose cardinal doctrine was the duty of murdering heretics, and the Quakers, who held cowardice to be a prime article of Christian faith ! ' ' Prince William said he did not believe in persecuting any one. But he would disqualify Catholics from holding any power in the state because they held that an oath to sup- port a Protestant government was not binding; and he would also exclude Quakers from office because no man ought to have any share in a government he was not willing to defend against aggression. He believed that much of the persecution suffered by the Quakers was due to the contempt in which all other creeds held them, because of their pusillanimous peace doctrine. William Penn returned from this trip filled with new aspirations. There is no positive evidence that the project of founding a free-conscience colony in the New World was suggested to him, but his first acts after he returned to England tended to that end. In Biographic des Femmes Celebres, the statement is given that the Princess Palatine suggested such a scheme to Penn while he was her guest at Heervorden in 1677. Penn, however, does not men- tion anything of the kind in his Journal of that year, which was quite copious and of which many pages are devoted to the Princess Palatine. Be this as it may, Penn at once began to prepare a scheme of government for the new colony, of which he was 95 WILLIAM PENN not proprietor but only trustee. At this point a new and, it would seem, an unexpected view of Penn 's character con- fronts us. For the moment at least he had dropped the role of itinerant Quaker preacher to assume that of the universal statesman; ceased, at least temporarily, the wri- ting of Quaker tracts, and begun to write fundamental laws ; stopped echoing the whims, the chimeras, and the vagaries of George Fox in theology, and begun his own original utterance of imperishable truths in the constitution of human self-government. This was in 1677-78. William Penn was thirty-three years old. As we have already intimated, his career up to the age of thirty had been wholly that of student, theo- logian, and sectarian. The time now under consideration may be described as the third year of his awakening to the great fact that there were such things as temporal interests in this world; that God made the earth for other purposes than an arena for sectarian polemics, and that there was really something for men to do besides preach and write tracts. It is, perhaps, quite as well for mankind that Penn made these temporal discoveries or woke up to these ma- terial facts at a somewhat mature age. It is possible that, had these practical revelations reached him ten years sooner, he might have tried to strain them through the mysticism of Saltmarsh or measure them by the standard of Fox. At any rate, his very first effort as a lawgiver showed that he had grasped at least one great truth, namely, that while a man might be Quaker to-day and statesman to- morrow, he could not be both on the same day. 96 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY Penn drew up, in his own handwriting, a code for the new colony. He called it A Preamble of Concessions. The latter word was used because it would have to be ap- proved by the King in Council. Charles II was a humane man and a clever fellow personally, but Penn knew him and his entourage well enough to know that he would approve under the title of "royal concessions" a great many things which he would not yield as popular rights. That was a way the Stuarts had. For example, Charles I wanted to "concede" several things to Parliament. In the end he yielded his head to Oliver Cromwell. James II afterward was willing to "concede" universal toleration, etc., on his own terms. He yielded his crown and throne to William of Orange on no terms whatever but those of headlong flight. However, Penn had now to deal with a Stuart, and so he called his pioneer declaration of fundamental and im- perishable principles "royal concessions." The whole cor- poration of diplomatists from Nicolo di Bernardo Machia- velli to Benjamin Disraeli could not have been more adroit. The King approved it. There were some things in this scheme of "royal concessions" that would never do in England — the Merry Monarch thought — but almost any- thing would do in West Jersey. It was a simple code. Yet it was, crudely, the greatest code in popular government that has fallen from the pen of mortal man. It was the pioneer of all codes that now express, under various conditions and in diverse forms, the essential doctrine of self-government, "of the people, by 8 97 WILLIAM PENN the people, and for the people." And of this Penn was pioneer. The boundary between East Jersey, which Carteret retained, and West Jersey, which he conveyed to Byllinge, was rather indefinite. By the terms of the transfer it was "a line drawn from the east of Little Egg Harbor straight north through the country to the utmost branch of Dela- ware River." However, the main purpose was to leave to Carteret the settlements along the west side of the Hud- son and the seashore, and to give Byllinge the east bank of the Delaware. To this domain Fenwick added the present counties of Salem and Cumberland, which he bought from the Indians for merchandise valued at about seventy-four guineas. It does not seem necessary to introduce here the full text of the constitution Penn framed for the free-conscience colony of West Jersey. In brief, its main provisions were : 1. Universal and unqualified suffrage. 2. Perfect freedom of conscience and complete religious equality before the law. (It is noteworthy that the word "equality" was used, not "toleration.") 3. A governing assembly to be chosen by ballot, any voter being eligible; pay in actual session one shilling per diem. 4. An executive commission of ten members to be ap- pointed by the assembly. 5. Magistrates and constables to be elected by the people of each of the magisterial districts into which the assembly might from time to time subdivide the colony. 6. No sentence in criminal eases without trial by jury, 98 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY except minor forms of disorderly conduct such as drunk- enness, the use of riotous or obscene language, etc., which might be corrected by the magistrate on prima facie evi- dence; and all cases might be appealed to the executive council on points of law. 7. No judgment in civil cases involving over five shil- lings, without verdict of a jury, unless the parties should agree to trial before a magistrate. 8. Additional articles to be submitted to popular vote, but no article to be adopted in conflict with the foregoing. 9. Summary: All and every person in the province shall, by the help of the Lord and these fundamentals, be forever free from oppression and slavery. In his letter forwarding the draft of these "conces- sions" (which were brought over by John Fenwick) Peun said : In the fear of the Lord and in true sense of his Divine Will we try here to lay foundations for after ages to un- derstand liberty as Christians and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent. We put all power in the people. This was, of course, an absolute democracy, the climax of home rule. Among Penn's most intimate friends at this time were John Locke and Algernon Sidney, the one leading the lib- eral philosophy, the other the advanced statesmanship of the period. But William Penn went ahead of both. Locke had his doubts about admitting papists to a share in the government. He feared it might be made a loophole for the introduction of French influence. The indefatiga- WILLIAM PENN ble Jesuits he thought might easily make their way from Canada into West Jersey, or from the Catholic colony of Maryland. Even if they could not subvert the institu- tions, they would manage to keep the colony itself in tur- moil, causing scandal and distrust on the part of the home Government. Less than ten years prior to the time under consideration Locke had drawn up, at the request of the Earl of Shaftesbury, a charter for Carolina. This charter created a "peerage" of eight men — to begin with — whose powers were to be hereditary and whose functions were modeled after the House of Lords. Two-fifths of all the land in the colony was to be set apart as estates for the hereditary nobility. The other three-fifths might be ac- quired by the common people. Representatives or "mem- bers of the Commons ' ' were to be chosen by the people and these, eoordinately with the hereditary "peers," were to form a colonial parliament. To these Lord Shaftesbury added an article providing for appointment of a governor by the Crown, but without veto power, and an article making the Church of England the established religion — this last against Locke's protest. For the rest there was to be entire freedom of conscience and "toleration" — not as Penn provided, "equality" — of all religious faiths. This was, of course, a limited aristocracy not essentiallj'- differing from the system in England itself. Clearly Penn's ideas of liberty were more advanced than those of Locke. Possibly he legislated in advance of the age in which he lived. Subsequent events might be construed to argue in that direction. Sidney agreed with Penn's ideas as far as they went, 100 FOUNDS II OF WEST JERSEY But he distrusted what he called the ' ' hydra-headed execu- tive of ten persons, all having equal power and equal lack of responsibility." He contended that no scheme of gov- ernment would be found practicable that did not possess a single executive head, visible, tangible, and responsible. He also condemned Penn's total lack of provision for de- fense, saying, among other things, that no body of men could govern themselves unless able and willing to defend themselves. It is noteworthy that the two elements of Peun 's scheme which Algernon Sidney disapproved were the two which embodied the essence of Foxite Quakerism — the non-com- batant canon and the "hydra-headed executive." The latter was a clear concession to Fox's fundamental whim that there ought to be no "single high dignitary." The vesting of executive power in a "Council of Ten" had the flavor of a Quaker church committee. As a matter of fact, this fault wrought its own cure, for the Council of Ten, af- ter a very brief experience, delegated its practical authority to a chairman, who became an individual executive de facto if not de jure. But the cure was not radical or permanent. And there was no cure for the lack of defense, or refusal to provide for it. No matter how just and right Penn's scheme of religious equality and popular home rule by universal suffrage might be, the effort to incorporate with it two dis- tinctively Quaker whims proved fatal. Penn's form of government for West Jersey endured a quarter of a century — 1677 to 1702. Then upon the ontbreak of what we usually call "Queen Anne's War" in the latter year the 101 WILLIAM PENN exigencies of public defense compelled the British Govern- ment to suppress the Quaker regime, and West Jersey as a whole was made a Crown colony with a royal governor and council and an elective assembly. Suffrage was limited to freeholders, Catholics were disfranchised, and the Church of England was favored, though not regularly established by statute. The royal governor had the veto power and could call or prorogue the assembly at will. This review of Penn's connection with West Jersey is an essential part of his history. It antedated his founding of Pennsylvania by four years. In some things it proved a lesson. It taught him at least what ought to be avoided. The ''great law" of Pennsylvania, which Pcnn also framed, and which the first Assembly adopted at Upland (now Chester) in 1682, was more practical and less Quakerish than the original West Jersey "concessions" of 1677. Though Penn was the real founder of West Jersey be- fore he founded Pennsylvania, he had no personal interest in the province and derived no profit from it except his fee as trustee, which was small. But he spent a good deal of his own money aiding his persecuted brethren to migrate from England to the new land of peace and promise. What was more important than all else, it is beyond question that Penn's experience with West Jersey led him to the meas- ures Avhich culminated in the great achievement upon which his fame rests. In 1679 Penn made his first appearance on the public stage as a politician. Algernon Sidney was the Liberal can- didate for the House of Commons from Guildford. Though Sidney was not a Quaker, but a Puritan, he was an ad- 102 FOUNDER OF WEST JERSEY vanced Liberal, and he and Penn agreed on that point if on no other. Penn "stumped the borough" for Sidney and wrote "campaign documents" advocating his election. He was elected, but the House refused to seat him — seat- ing instead his defeated rival, Colonel Delamahoy, on a technicality. Sidney then stood again for Bramber — a good deal of a rotten borough — was again elected, and again refused the seat by the House. This treatment of his friend discouraged Penn more than all his own sufferings had done. "There is no hope in England," he said bitterly. "The deaf adder can not be charmed." As if to add insult to injury, just about this time the "Popish Plot" of Titus Oates's perjury was at its height as a sensation, and the Established Church declared the Quakers to be "Jesuits in disguise." So hotly was this absurd charge urged that Penn found it necessary to have a hearing before the com- mittee of the Commons appointed to investigate it. In- deed, the committee heard him twice. His sole aim was to show the ridiculous fallacy and cruel imposture of trying to connect the Society of Friends with papal intrigues. The tenor of his addresses to the committee may be inferred from the conclusion of the second and last one : "We choose no suffering, for God knows how much we have suffered and how many families are reduced to pov- erty by it. We think ourselves a useful people; yet, if we must suffer, let us suffer not as Popish recusants but as Protestant dissenters. Penn seems to have carried his point with the com- mittee, for the clause he advocated was incorporated in the 103 WILLIAM PENN bill to suppress popish plots as it passed the Commons ; but the King prorogued Parliament before it could be consid- ered in the Lords and the measure fell between the two houses. 104 CHAPTER V 1680 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER CHAPTER V 1680 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER Just when the thought of asking the King to pay the debt of £16,000 by grant of territory in America first oc- curred to William Penn is a question that he himself left no data to determine. The records of his contemporaries are almost equally silent. The sole inkling we have been able to find occurs in Clarke's Life of James II. We have already adverted to the friendship which existed between that prince, when Duke of York, and Admiral Penn, and to the fact that the admiral 's son inherited the duke 's good- will. Clarke intimates that William Penn was first em- boldened to petition King Charles II for a grant of Ameri- can land in payment of the debt, by advice of the Duke of York and by the prince 's assurance that he would do every- thing in his power to bring about a favorable result. This is probably true. The duke was opposed to religious per- secution. He had no sympathy with the Established Church. He was as much in favor of universal toleration as Penn was — only from the opposite extreme, for the duke at heart was quite as much Catholic as Penn was Quaker. IMoreover, the duke himself was interested in the colonies of New York and West Jersey, and naturally desired to 107 ^•f WILLIAM PENN see the country contiguous to them developed. Penn's efforts to build up West Jersey were beginning to show good fruits. Between 1677 and 1680 over three thousand emigrants had settled there, mainly under Penn's manage- ment or by his advice. The duke thought he could do vastly more as the actual head of a new colony than as mere trustee for other owners. Penn, on his part, may have had misgivings as to the fate his petition would meet if addressed to the King with no influence or "backing" be- yond the justice of the claim itself. But with the earnest support of the Duke of York assured this source of doubt might be removed. If the duke did promise Penn his good offices he kept it confidential. When Penn sent up his peti- tion early in the summer of 1680, it was referred by the King to the ' ' Committee of the Privy Council for the Affairs of Trade and Plantations. ' ' * This committee notified the agent of the Duke of York — Sir John Werden — and asked him to report whether the tract described in the petition was consistent with the boundaries of New York. Sir John, in his reply, objected to Penn's proposed southern boundary on the ground that all territory west of the Delaware, which had been settled by the Swedes and Finns in 163^, and then conquered by the Dutch, had been annexed by the latter to New York, and was therefore part of that colony when conquered from the Dutch by the English in 1664. Therefore, as the whole of the conquered Dutch colony had been given to the Duke of York, his grant must include the settlements of the * A designation changed to " The Lords of Trade and the Colonies " in a hiter reign. 108 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER Swedes aud Finns on the west bank of the Delaware River, which extended from the sea to Upland.* For these reasons Sir John Werden protested in behalf of the Duke of York against the transfer of this territory to Penn. The committee referred Sir John's letter to Penn, who at once laid it before the Duke of York in person. The duke immediately instructed Sir John "to withdraw the letter of objection and to inform the committee that his Royal Highness commands me to let you know . . . that he is very willing Mr. Penn's request may meet with suc- cess. . . . And H. R. H. also bids me inform their lord- ships that in his opinion questions of exact boundary or prior right may be determined upon more particular ex- amination and survey of the domain." This would indi- cate a prior understanding between the duke and Penn. It is a curious fact that, almost alone of all the impor- tant documents connected with the grant of Pennsylvania, the original petition should not have been preserved. Hazard, in his Annals of Pennsylvania, says that ' ' the peti- tion existed, in a mutilated state, in 1735. It was then adduced in evidence during a trial at law to determine the proper boundaries of the possessions actually granted to William Penn. As far as the fragment could be made out, it recited the royal debt, to the embarrassments caused to the heir of Sir William Penn through its non-payment, and then humbly prays that his ]\Iajesty, in his compassion for the afflicted, will be pleased to grant land in America north of some territory, the name of which was defaced, and bounded by a river on the west, also left without a name." ♦Now Chester, Pa., twelve miles below Philadelphiu 109 WILLIAM PENN The committee of the Privy Council consisted of the Duke of Albemarle — son of General Monk, who had restored Charles II — the Bishop of London — Henry Compton — with Sir Lionel Jenkyns as secretary. The first meeting to con- sider Penn's petition was held June 24, 1680. They called Penn before them and asked him to explain the geography of his proposed grant. "To be bounded on the east by the Delaware River," he said, as reported in the minutes of the Council, "on the south by the grant to Lord Baltimore; to run west as far as the latter grant, and northward to the forty-third paral- lel of latitude — it being assumed that latitude 40° should be the northern limit of Lord Baltimore's grant." As the map now stands, the boundary suggested by Penn was sixteen miles north of the existing State line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. But the committee did not approve the forty -third parallel as the proposed northern limit of Penn's grant. That question was, in fact, left indeterminate, with the understanding that it should be "settled by a more particular survey respecting the rights of the Duke of York west of the Delaware River." As it turned out, the forty-second parallel was adopted as the northern boundary of Penn's grant. After much investigation and a great deal of epistolary discussion chiefly remarkable for ignorance on all hands as to the actual geography of "the region west of the Dela- ware," King Charles II signed the patent on March 4, 1681. * ' This venerable document, ' ' says Hazard in his Annals, ** which is still preserved and now hung up in the office of 110 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER the Secretary of State at Harrisburg, is written on strong parchment in the old English handwriting, each line under- scored with red ink and the borders gorgeously decorated with heraldic devices. ' ' The next day Penn wrote a letter to Robert Turner ex- plaining the origin of the name of the new colony. He said he at first proposed to call it New Wales, to which objection was made in the Council. He then suggested "Sylvania." But the King prefixed the syllable ''Penn" — making it ' * Pennsylvania. ' ' William Penn was apprehensive that Fox and other Quakers would view this as a lack of humility on his part — a yearning after the fame of this world, or something of that sort — so he explained that the King prefixed the "Penn" in honor of the admiral's memory and his services to the country, and not in any degree as a compliment to himself. Having thus purged himself of any lurking suspicion that he had been guilty of vanity, Penn proceeded to draw up a form of government to be expressed in the charter. Between this charter and the system Penn had drawn up for West Jersey three years before fundamental differences appear. The governorship is vested in a single head, that head is Penn, and the office is made hereditary, saving only allegiance to the Crown, with "an annual rental of two beaver-skins delivered at Windsor Castle and one-fifth of all the gold and silver ore which shall be found within the limits of the grant aforesaid. ' ' The proprietary governor, with the assent of the free men of the colony, to make all laws not inconsistent with 111 WILLIAM PENN the laws of England; to appoint magistrates and judges; to grant pardons, except for murder and treason, and in these to grant reprieves until the pleasure of the King should be known. The exports of the colony to be sent into English ports only ; but a year after being landed in England they might be reshipped to any foreign port, subject to the duties im- posed upon British subjects. Penn and his heirs were bound to lev>^ no tax in the province except such as might be agreed to by the popular assembly, or by Act of ParUamcnt appointed. And the King was to levy no tax upon the inhabitants of the province without consent of the proprietary or assembly or hy Act of Parliament. The proprietary governor was made captain-general and authorized to levy, muster, and train all sorts of men ; to make war upon sea and land against barbarous nations, pirates, and robbers. The Bishop of London had a clause inserted — after fail- ing to secure establishment of the Church of I]ngland — requiring that, when twenty or more of the inhabitants might so request, an Episcopal clergyman should be per- mitted to reside in the colony. For the rest, the charter of Pennsylvania embodied the substantial elements and principles of representative gov- ernment foreshadowed in the ''concessions" of West Jer- sey. Penn's original draft was revised by Chief- Justice North and the Attorney-General, Sir William Jones. The only material changes they made in it were the provision for defense and the reservation of the right to * ' tax the in- 112 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHAKTEK habitants by Act of Parliament." In this latter clause the Pennsylvania charter differed from all others.* But there was a reason for this. An explanation of it may be found in the papers of Algernon Sidney. lie had seen Penn's first draft. He knew that it did not contain either the clause providing for defense or the reservation of the right to tax by Act of Parliament. Those were in- serted by Chief -Justice North (Lord Guildford) and Sir William Jones, the Attorney-General. In this Sidney — Puritan and republican though he was — sustained the law olScers. This colony, he said, differed from all others. It was a Quaker colony. Occasion for self-defense against aggression might arise — must, in fact, arise. The Quakers would not defend themselves. Nor would an assembly hav- ing a Quaker majority vote supplies for defense by others. Therefore, in time of war the Quaker colony must either be defended by the mother country or left to its fate, which, of course, would be absurd. Now, as the Quakers would not defend themselves or pay for defense by others, it was perfectly just for the mother country to reserve the right to make them pay the cost whenever it became necessary to defend them. The only way by which this could be done was through Act of Par- liament, enforced by English troops, if necessary. In other words, the blind adherence of the Quakers to the strangest * When Dr. Franklin went to London as colonial agent just before the Revolution, Lord Shelburne jocosely told him that Pennsylvania had not the same grievance that New England and other colonies alleged, be- cause the right of Parliament to tax Pennsylvania was reserved expressly in the charter. Franklin's retort was that "the relations between Eng- land and her American colonies had got beyond the scope of a Quaker meeting ! " y 113 WILLIAM PENN of all Fox's whims made it justifiable to withhold from them the greatest right that Englishmen ever claimed — the right of "no taxation without representation." It is, at this distance and in the light of our time, impossible to comprehend how a man of Penn's general wisdom and breadth of view could be held in such mental subjec- tion by the vagaries of George Fox. He must have known — a half-witted man not crazed by sectarian fanat- icism or hypnotized by a canting zealot could not have helped knowing — that a prosperous and rich colony could not be created on a basis of universal peace in an era of universal rapine. Therefore, he must have realized the need of provision for defense. But he seems to have been so abjectly enslaved by Fox that he preferred to surrender the g'reatest of rights rather than assert the commonest prin- ciple of manhood. This is the only real blot upon Penn's character as a statesman. It was a tremendous price to pay for nothing better than a heritage of ridicule and a birth- right of contempt. The sequel proved that the law officers of the Crown were wise. When the charter was signed there were about a thou- sand — some authorities say twelve hundred — white inhab- itants already in the territory granted to Penn. They were mostly Swedes, together with some Finlanders — the pioneers of 1632 — and a few Dutch traders who had chosen to stay on the Delaware after the English conquered New Amster- dam and called it New York. To these Penn, under date of April 8, 1681, addressed the following: My Friends: I wish you all happiness here and here- after. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God, 114 THE SWEDES' CHUKCH AND SVEN SENER'S HOUSE. From Watsou's Anuals of Philadelphia. TREATY TREE AND FAIRMANS MANSION. From Watson's Annals of I'liiladcliiliia. THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER ill Ills Providence, to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God hath given me an understanding of my duty and an honest mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled^ at the change and the King's choice, for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall he governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. [The italics are Penn's.] I shall not usurp the rights of any, or oppress his person. God hath furnished me with a better resolution and hath given me His grace to keep it. ' In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall heartily com- ply with; and in five months resolve, if it please God, to see you. In the meantime, pray submit to the commands of my deputy, so far as they are consistent with the law, and pay him those dues (that formerly you paid to the Governor of New York) for my use and benefit; and so I wish God to direct you in the way of righteousness and therein prosper you and your children after you. I am your true friend, William Penn. London, 8th of the month called April, 1681. The deputy mentioned was William Markham, Penn's cousin. He at once embarked, carrying the foregoing let- ter, a copy of the King's proclamation, and specific orders to the Governor of New York and to Lord Baltimore re- quiring them to observe the terms of the royal grant and to adjust boundaries without delay. Markham arrived in New York June 21st, and at once obtained from the acting or lieutenant-governor of that colony an order for the transfer of all territory on the west 115 WILLIAM PENN bank of the lower Delaware hitherto under control of New York to the authority of William Penn. Markham went from New York to Upland, the most northerly settlement of the Swedes. There he met Lord Baltimore, and the question of boundaries was taken up. It was found by observation (made by Captain Markham, who understood the art of surveying) that Penn had made a geographical error of about seventeen miles in his location of a southern boundary. The fortieth parallel, which he had stipulated, ran north of the confluence of the Delaware and Schuyl- kill, which he had already selected as the site of his new city.* In his selection of this parallel for his southern boundary Penn had been guided by the representations of John Fen- wick mainly, and the error, as Captain Markham at once perceived, must derange his whole plan of settlement. The conference with Lord Baltimore was adjourned, Markham wrote to Penn, and the latter forthwith appealed to the Duke of York to use his influence for rectification. The duke then defined his part of the cession to mean practi- cally the present State of Delaware, and Lord Baltimore was advised that the boundary must be so adjusted as to make Penn's south line at least fifteen minutes of latitude below the confluence of the two rivers. The exact delimita- tion of these boundaries was not efi^ected until many years afterward. In fact, the question was not finally settled until the running of "Mason and Dixon's Line." Mean- * The fortieth parallel runs through the north part of Gerniantown, leaving the whole of modern Philadelphia south of Penns original bound- ary. 116 THE P E N N S Y L V xV N I A CHARTER time, it was a source of constant litigation between Lord Baltimore and Penn, it survived them and was waged by their descendants or assigns long after they departed. The details of these disputes can not be reproduced here. They are of no interest to the general public of to-day and, in extenso, would fill another volume as large as this. Markham, confident that Penn would succeed in recti- fying the boundary, proceeded to carry out his original in- structions. They were as follows: "(1) To call a council of nine, he (Markham) presiding. (2) That he does there read my letter to the inhabitants and the King's declara- tion of subjection; then take the inhabitants' acknowledg- ment of my authority and proprietary. (3) To settle bounds between me and my neighbors, to survey, set out, sell, or rent lands according to my instructions dated April 8, 1681. (4) To erect courts, appoint sheriffs, magistrates, and other necessary officers. (5) To call to his aid any of the inhabitants of those provinces for the legal suppression of tumults." The conditions of acquiring land, appended to Mark- ham 's instructions, were as follows : Those who wish to buy shares in the province can have 5,000 acres for £500, and to pay annually one shilling quit- rent for each 100 acres ; the quit-rent not to begin till 1684. Those who only rent are to pay one penny per acre, not to exceed 200 acres. Those who take over servants — that is, laborers — are to be allowed fifty acres per head and fifty acres to every servant when his time is expired. . . . The passage will come, for masters and mistresses, at most, £6 a head ; for servants £5 a head, and for children under seven years of age fifty shillings. 117 WILLIAM PENN From these rates it would appear that there was much less difference between cabin and steerage accommodations in the transatlantic passenger service of 1G81 than now. Penn concludes by exhorting all emigrants to ''under- stand that they must look for a winter before a summer comes; they must be willing to be two or three years with- out some of the conveniences they enjoy at home. ' ' But he considers it his duty also to inform them that "America is another thing now than it was at the first planting of New England and Virginia." The circumstances and conditions of I'enn s grant were soon noised abt)ut the three kingdoms by the means of ad- vertisement usual in that day. His prospectus embodying the propositions above set forth was read at Quaker meet- ings and explained orally at fairs and market-places by Penn's agents. The first results were two ship-loads of emigrants, nearly all Quakers, who sailed in September of 1681. The total number was about a hundred families, or, say, 350 to 400 souls. In one of the ships — the John and Sarah, of London — sailed three commissioners appointed and instructed by Penn to Locate and lay out a great town on the Pennsylvania bank of the Delaware, . . . where it is most navigable, and the land high, dry and healthy; that is, where most ships may best ride, of deepest draft of water, and if possible to load or unload at the bank or key-side, without boating or lighterage. Such a place being found, lay out ten thousand acres contiguous to it in the best manner you can, as the bounds and extent of the liberties of the said town. 118 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER Every share of 5,000 acres [of farming landj shall have one hundred acres of land out of the ten thousand [in town and liberties). Pitch upon the very middle of the plot, where the town or line of houses is to be laid or run, facing the harbor and great river, for the situation of my house, and let it be, not the tenth part of the town as the conditions say, viz. : that out of every himdred thousand acres shall be reserved to me ten [thousand], but I shall be content with less than a thirtieth part, to wit : Three Hundred Acres, whereas sev- eral will have two [hundred] by purchasing two shares; that is, ten thousand acres, and it may be fitting for me to exceed a little. . . . Let every house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of its plot as to the breadthway of it, so that there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields, that it may be a green country town which will never be burnt and always wholesome ! . . . Be sure to keep the conditions hereunto affixed, and see that no vice or evil conversation go uncomplained of or un- punished in any, that God be not provoked to wrath against the country. These instructions were signed ''William Penn, 30th of September, 1681"; and were directed to "Nathaniel Allen, John Bezar, and William Crispin, Commissioners to ar- range for a settlement, lay out a town, and treat with the Indians." On this last-mentioned point Penn emphatically in- structed his commissioners to "be tender of offending the Indians and hearken by honest spies if you can hear that anybody inveigles them not to sell or to stand out and raise the value upon you. . . . Let my letter and conditions with 119 WILLIAM PENN purchasers about just dealing with them be read in their own tongue. ... Be grave ; they love not to be smiled on ! " The ship bearing the commissioners arrived late in November. They found that, so far as concerned selection of a site for the "great town," they had been anticipated by Markham. Soon after his arrival, and after his confer- ence with Lord Baltimore at Upland (Chester), the ener- getic deputy had proceeded up the Delaware to reconnoiter. In August — before the date of Penn 's instructions to Allen, Bezar, and Crispin — Markham had selected that part of the Philadelphia river-front now bounded by the foot of Pine Street on the south and the foot of Race Street on the north as the most available site for a town afforded by the west bank of the Delaware anywhere near its confluence with the Schuylkill. He had also begun to clear land and had built several small houses, including a log tavern or inn, and a number of "caves" had been excavated in the bluff bank of the river for temporary shelter. Thus, whatever the commissioners may have intended to do, it turned out that the man who actually selected the site and determined the practical foundation of Philadelphia was William Markham. At this point we may briefly survey the system of gov- ernment embodied in Penn's charter: 1. It created a proprietary executive, hereditary in his family, in feoffment. This was feudal. 2. It reserved to the proprietary executive the power to appoint judicial officers. This was, in itself, monarchical, but limited by the power of the people to impeach; and it survives in the Federal Constitution of to-day. 120 tJ -r, THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER 3. It created a popular assembly chosen by unqualified or universal suffrage. This was pure democracy. 4. It created a system of land tenure involving the prin- ciple of perpetual ground-rent, inalienable and incommu- table except by grace of the hereditary proprietor. This was aristocratic. It denied the principle of freehold in the land by fee simple, the dearest right of freemen. 5. It conceded the right of Parliament to tax the colony. This was a surrender at the outset of a principle that lies at the bottom of self-government — a principle in vindication of which the American Revolution was inaugurated less than a century afterward in Penn's own Philadelphia. 6. It asserted absolute freedom of conscience and tol- erated all religions alike before the law, and denied in toto the doctrine of church establishment. This was perfect Christianity pure and simple. 7. It recognized the original title of the Indians to the land, and required that it be purchased from them by what Penn himself called "fair and open dealing." This was just and humane, though subject to qualification by method. 8. It not only made no provision for self-defense against aggression, but by implication seemed to flout the necessity of defense. This was absurd. It was, in fact, the only distinctively and essentially Quaker element of the whole scheme. But it proved the chief cause of all the troubles subsequently encountered by the proprietary government, and, ultimately, the rock on which that government was wrecked. However, in estimating the value of Penn's organic sys- tem — or the "Great Law," as it was called — it must be 121 WILLIAM PENN viewed as a whole. Incongruoiis as it may have been in parts, the sequel proved that the right it embodied was strong enough to overthrow its fallacies ; so that, in the long run, only the right survived. The feudal proprietary, the denial of fee simple in land tenure, and the Quaker non-combatantism all fell to the ground when the exigency of self-preservation brought the forces of popular sovereignty in hostile contact with them. Penn, though a believer in freedom of conscience, was never a republican or a democrat as Sidney, for example; nor a liberal in politics, as Cromwell, Ireton, and Hampden. Though he believed in popular representation, and pro- vided for it with sagacity beyond the lights of his time, he yet wished to reserve a power and a prerogative beyond the people's reach. For example, his land system, if carried out on its origi- nal lines, could not have resulted in anything but a landed gentry. He proposed a town and a province. Any pur- chaser of 5,000 acres in the province was entitled to 100 acres in the town ; of 10,000 acres in the province to 200 acres in the town. The province was practically without limit in acreage, but the town was limited to 100 shares of 100 acres each. Had this scheme been carried out to the letter as Penn framed it and as he explains it in his instruc- tions to Allen, Bezar, and Crispin, the result must have been the elevation of one hundred families or less to the status of a landholding aristocracy separate and distinct from the mass of the people in privileges, which could not fail to produce distinction of caste in fact if not in name. 122 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHAIITER But in estimating Penn's personal relation to these evi- dent incongruities and even direct contradictions, we must bear in mind the peculiar conditions under which he had to operate and the capricious influences upon which he had to rely in acquiring his grant at all. No competent historian has ever accused Charles II of liberal tendencies. The best that can be said of him is that he was a good-natured voluptuary, who preferred kindness to cruelty when it would serve his purpose to be liind. No one has suspected James II of even a covert desire to pro- mote the cause of human freedom. The best that can be said of him is that his personal likes were strong, and that he could be good to the son for the sake of the dead father who had served him so well. Yet it was upon these two men that Penn must rely wholly for success. He must draw up a charter that the Duke of York (James II) would indorse and that the King would sign. How far or to what extent these conditions tied his hands there is no means of knowing. But it is safe to assume that all the liberalism in the charter was Penn's, and all else the King's — save and except, of course, the dis- tinctively Quaker clause, which may be considered the ex- pression of Penn's strange helplessness under the spell in which George Fox held him. On the whole, it must be remembered that Penn's char- ter was a product of the seventeenth century, and of its reactionary period at that. From that point of view it was a good deal better than was reasonably to have been ex- pected. His own views are doubtless best set forth in the third 123 WILLIAM PENN clause of the preface or preamble to the Constitution — or the "Twenty-four Articles": ' ' Thirdly : I know what is said by the several admirers of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, which are the rule of one, of a few, and of many ; and are the three com- mon ideas of government when men discourse on that sub- ject. But I choose to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three. Any government is free to the people under it, whatever be the frame, where the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws. . . . But, lastly, when all is said, there is hardly one frame of government so ill-designed by its founders that it in good hands would not do well enough !" From this it would appear that Penn believed good government lay quite as much in the character of adminis- tration as in the quality of law itself — a view common to optimists in later and more enlightened times than the sev- enteenth century. William Penn was by no means destitute of detractors in the country of his adoption. Legion as was the name of his enemies in England, he still had room left for a few in America. Perhaps what are known as the Byrd Manu- scripts in the Virginia Historical Society have been seen by some who may read this book. If so, they may have noticed the following, written by William Byrd, deputy- governor of Virginia and president of the King's Council thereof from 1704 to 1744. This manuscript forms part of a succinct description of all the colonies as they stood at that period. Governor Byrd wrote this part of his Manuscripts about the year 1734, when he was sixty 124 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHAKTEll years old. No doubt thr ;iiiiaiory legend lie })erpetuatcs was part of the standard Church-of-England gossip in his time, and he probably believed it to be true. The general character of his writings is truthful, though they abound with evidences of personal or sectarian prejudice similar to this one. He says : The Proprietors of West Jersey, finding more Trouble than Profit in their new Dominions, made over their Right to several other Persons, who obtained a fresh Grant from his Royal Highness, dated March the 14th 1682. Several of the Grantees, being Quakers and Anabaptists, faild not to encourage many of their own Perswasion to remove to this Peaceful Region. Amongst them were a Swarm of Scots Quakers, who were not tolerated to exercise the Gifts of the Spirit in their own Country. Besides the hopes of being Safe from Persecution in this Retreat, the New Proprietors inveigled many over by this tempting Account of the Country : that it was a Place free from those 3 great Scourges of Mankind, Priests, Lawyers and Physicians. Nor did they tell a Word of a Lye, for the People were yet too poor to maintain these Learned Gentlemen, who, every where, love to be paid well for what they do; and, like the Jews, cant breathe in a Climate where nothing is to be got. The Jerseys continued under the Government of these Proprietors till the year 1702 when they made a formal Surrender of the Dominion to the Queen, reserving how- ever the Property of the Soil to themselves. So soon as the bounds of West Jersey came to be dis- tinctly laid off, it appeared that there was still a Narrow Slipe of Land, lying betwixt that Colony and Maryland. Of this, William Penn, a man of much Worldly Wisdom and some Eminence among the Quakers, got early Notice, 125 WILLIAM PENN and, by the Credit he had with the Duke of York, obtained a Patent for it, Dated March the 4th 1680. It was a little Surprising to some People how a Quaker should be so much in the good Graces of a Popish Prince; tho, after all, it may be pretty well Accounted for. This Ingenious Person had not been bred a Quaker: but in his Earlier days had been a Man of Pleasure about the Town. He had a beautiful form and very taking Address, which made him Successful wnth the Ladies, and particularly with a Mistress of the Duke of Monmouth. By this Gentle- woman he had a Daughter, who had Beauty enough to raise her to be a Dutchess, and continued to be a Toast full 30 Years. But this Amour had like to have brought our Fine Gen- tleman in Danger of a Duell, had he not discreetly sheltered himself under this peaceable Perswasion. Besides, his Father having been a Flag-Officer in the Navy, while the Duke of York was Lord High Admiral, might recommend the Son to his Favor. This piece of Secret History I thought proper to mention, to wipe off the Suspicion of his having been Popishly inclind. This Gentleman's first Grant confind Him within pretty Narrow Bounds, giving him only that Portion of Land which contains Buckingham, Philadelphia and Chester Counties. But to get these Bounds a little extended. He pusht His In- terest still further with His Royal Highness, and obtaind a fresh Grant of the three Lower Counties, called New-Castle, Kent and Sussex, which still remaind within the New York Patent, and had been luckily left out of the Grant of New Jersey. The Six Counties being thus incorporated, the Propri- etor dignifyd the whole with the Name of Pensilvania. The Quakers flockt over to this Country in Shoals, being averse to go to Heaven the same way with the Bishops. Amongst them were not a few of good Substance, who went 126 THE PENNSYLVANIA CHARTER Vigorously upon every kind of Improvement; and thus much I may truly say in their Praise, that by Diligence and Frugality, For which this Harmless Sect is remarkable, and by haveing no Vices but such as are Private, they have in a few Years made Pensilvania a very fine Country. The truth is, they have observed exact Justice with all the Natives that border upon them; they have purchased all their Lands from the Indians : and tho they paid but a Trifle for them, it has procured them the Credit of being more righteous than their Neighbors. They have likewise had the Prudence to treat them kindly upon all occasions, which has savd them from many Wars and Massacres, wherein the other Colonies have been indiscreetly involved. The truth of it is, a People whose Principles forbid them to draw the Carnal Sword, were in the Right to give no Provocation. Of course, no one now would believe the slander which Governor Byrd in 1734 visits upon the memory of William Penn, dead then sixteen years. But the Virginia colonial statesman evidently believed it. He belonged to that class of the Lord's zealous servants whom we have in foregoing pages described as the Church of England in the seventeenth century. The spirit of persecution in the colonies was probably as willing as in Old England itself. But the flesh was weaker. Thus Governor Byrd, being by local condi- tions denied the proud privilege of persecution enjoyed by Mayor Starling and Recorder Howell, took his sectarian revenge by bequeathing to future generations a historical libel. Of this document we can hardly say "interesting if true." A more appropriate description would be "some- what interesting, though not true. ' ' 127 CHAPTER VI 1681-1G84 PENN'S FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA 10 CHAPTER VI 1G81-1684 PENN's first year in PENNSYLVANIA Penn's promise of April, 1681, to the people of his new province that he "would see them in five months " was not kept. Cirenmstanees beyond his control compelled him to break it by a year. According to promise, he should have arrived in the colony about the end of September, 1681. He actually landed at Chester the 27th of October, 1682. The causes of his detention in Eno-land need not occupy much space here. Chief amonf>' them was the boundary question raised by the discovery of an error in geography noted in the last chapter. This was not even tentatively adjusted until August, 1682, when the Duke of York deeded to him in feoffment the present State of Delaware. This alone would have held him, because without such modifica- tion of his original boundary his province would have been landlocked to a point several miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill. But there were other delays. He wished to take with him across the ocean at least a thousand settlers, and he also desired to exercise a personal choice as to the character and quality of these pioneers, rightfully holding that the time to fix the mental and moral status of a settle- ment is at the beginning. 131 WILLIAM PENN But the undertaking was not easy. The Quakers were an inquiring people. They wanted to make sure that their temporal as well as spiritual interests would be subserved by the vast change from the ancient civilization of Eng- land to the savage wilderness of America. While Penn en- couraged all "sober and industrious persons who wished to live free," he clearly had a first preference for Quakers, and there is abundant evidence that he meant so to arrange his scheme of emigration as to keep them in the majority. He held out the hand of welcome to Germans of the Palati- nate and Huguenots of France; but he wanted Quakers first, and enough of them to insure popular control. In other words, his was Quaker philanthropy, with incidental w-ell-doing toward the rest of the world. BiLsy as he must have been with these numerous and indispensable duties, Penn could still find time to take part in a church quarrel and write a tract. In 1680 two Quakers of consequence, John Wilkinson and John Story, rebelled against Fox's Code of Church Discipline, formulated in 1669. They contended that Fox started out in 1647 to preach a new gospel, which, accord- ing to his own declaration, God had revealed to him in a personal interview, that this gospel was based upon abso- lute freedom of individual conscience guided by Inward Light; that it denounced all kinds of church organization, condemned all sorts of sectarian administration, and flouted every code of ecclesiastical discipline. They then showed that, as soon as Fox had gathered about him a new sect, he saw fit to reduce it to subjection by a Code of Discipline, quite the same as other sects not professing the absolute 132 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA autocracy of the Inward Light. All this was true. By 1681 the Story-Wilkinson schism had become formidable enough to attract the attention of Fox himself. There was immi- nent danger of an internal "reformation" in the Quaker Church itself, almost as radical as Luther's revolt against Romanism. Li this extremity Fox appealed to Penn for help. Penn preached an admonitory sermon or two in Bristol and wrote a tract entitled as follows : A Brief Examination of Lib- erty Spiritual : Both with Respect to Persons in their Pri- vate Capacity and in their Church Society and Commun- ion! Penn prevailed. Story and Wilkinson were sup- pressed — whether by the text or by the title, or by both, of Penn's tract does not appear. But at any rate, they were crushed and Fox still reigned supreme. So far as the rec- ord shows, Penn was now free to proceed with the founding of Pennsylvania. It is not amiss to add that Story and Wilkinson subsequently cooperated with Penn in his great enterprise. Among Penn's undertakings during this period (1681- '82) was to organize, under a charter of his own, a company called the Free Society of Traders. This cor- poration was intended by its founder to accomplish by association of capital and enterprise such large and ex- pensive operations as might be beyond the power of indi- vidual means. It purchased 20,000 acres of land with the special inducement of freedom from quit-rent, but other- wise upon the common terms. It was also intended as a corporation to own and navigate ships in traffic between the colony and the mother country, but in this respect 133 WILLIAM PENN it enjoyed no special privileges or monopolies. It was short- lived, and its history is not of particular interest. Another association of English Quakers applied to Penn for con- cession of a monopoly in the Indian trade of the colony, offering £6,000 cash and a percentage on transactions for the privilege. This Penn refused to grant, saying that he ''aimed only at equal justice and righteousness and to spreading of the truth; not at his own particular gain." Also that he "would keep undefiled and for equal benefit of all that which the Lord gave to him clean, and would give to none privilege or monopoly over another." As for himself, so far as we may judge from his expres- sions and his conduct alike, he did not consider his own proprietary as a monopoly, but rather as a trust reposed in him by the Almighty through the King, for the equal behoof and benefit of any and all who might follow his fortunes or aid him in developing the new domain. It is hardly necessary to add that this lofty sense of his own moral responsibility in the premises died with him and was buried in his grave. That sense and his total freedom from cupidity and avarice were among the things which his progeny did not inherit. Having done all he could to promote the interests of the colony in England, and having arranged for a large emigration the following year, Penn sailed from the Downs in the ship Welcome, of 300 tons, August 31, 1682. His last letter to his wife and children was a long one, almost wholly domestic in tenor. About the only passage of his- torical interest is an intimation concerning the state of his finances at the time : 134 FIKST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA Cast np thy income and see what it daily amounts to; by which thou mayest be sure to have it in thy sight and power to keep within compass. I beseech thee to live low and sparingly till my debts are paid. Then enlarge as thou seest it convenient. In this there was no affectation. Penn was on the verge of insolvency when he sailed for America. Plis estate in Ireland and other realty left to him by his father had been mortgaged to the last penny. The small estate and home at Worminghurst was the property of his wife, inherited from her father, Sir William Springett; and she had con- siderably encumbered it to aid her husband between 1677 and 1682. It is related of her that she desired to accom- pany Penn in this his first voyage to the New World. But she was not in robust health, her youngest child was hardly two years old, and Penn quite sensibly decided that the comforts of Sussex would be better for a family so situ- ated than roughing it in Pennsylvania — at least for a year or two. It was understood, however, that they were to follow him as soon as he should be able to make a com- fortable home for them. It is evident from the tenor of numerous letters written by Penn and by others to him on the eve of sailing that he fully intended to reside permanently in the new colony. Further evidence is found in orders he gave for the pur- chase and shipment of many things for his own use, such as seeds, farming utensils, furniture, live stock for breeding purposes, ironwork for the building of mills, and last, but by no means least, "a complete sett of shipwrights tools and furnishings and shipsmiths utensils suitable and suflfi- 1:15 WILLIAM PENN cient for the employ of at least twenty-five capable men at ship-building. . . . Also, a full establishment for printing, including plentiful supply of paper and press-ink." Apparently he did not propose to be denied his favorite pastime of authorship. As for his forethought toward the art of shipbuilding, it was doubtless an inheritance from his seafaring father and grandfather. Moreover, it is of interest to know that William Penn was really the founder of the ship-building industry on the Delaware, for the first seagoing vessel launched at Philadelphia was built for him, and in a shipyard of which he was principal promoter and chief owner. A diary of the voyage of the Welcome kept by Thomas Pearson, of which some fragments were extant in Clark- son's day, describes Penn as a good sailor, and says that he knew the art of navigation as well as the master of the ship, explaining that it had been taught to him by his father before he went to Oxford. The voyage of the Welcome was considered a prosper- ous one for those days. She made the Capes of the Dela- ware the 22d of October, or fifty-two days from the Downs. Besides Penn the ship brought 116 passengers, all Quakers except three Huguenots. Though prosperous in point of time, the voyage was by no means free from mis- fortime. A fortnight after sailing smallpox broke out on board, and twenty-seven of the passengers died. The same diary from which we have quoted says that "the good and cheerful conversation of Governor Penn was most advan- tageous unto all the Company ; and he manifested singular care in contributing to the necessities of the many who were 136 I'ENN LANDING AT BLUE ANCHOR INN. From Watson's Auuals of Philadelphia. PENN LANDING AT CHESTER. From Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. FIKST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA sick of the smallpox on board. . . . Though never having had the disease himself and being therefore subject to its contagion, he attended the cots and hammocks of those pros- trated without fear, trusting all in the mercy of the Lord. ' ' On the 29th of October, 1682, he landed at Chester, and there summoned the officers and principal inhabitants of the lower Delaware settlements to meet him in council on November 2d at New Castle. Ten officials, including Deputy-Governor Markham, were present, and about a hun- dred and twenty citizens. At this council measures for confirming land titles were agreed upon, and until an assem- bly could be chosen to legislate for the colony imder the new charter and the deeds of feoffment, he directed that the laws of the colony of New York be continued in force. From New Castle he went up the river to Chester again, where the ship anchored, and Penn proceeded thence to the site of Philadelphia " in a six-oared barge. ' ' His first land- ing was at the spot cleared by Markham the year before. Here a log tavern had been built, which is known to his- tory as The Sign of the Blue Anchor. This, according to Robert Proud 's History of Pennsyl- vania, written a century and a quarter ago, was the first house built in Philadelphia,* though at the time of Penn's * This refers to the original city. A small settlement of Swedes, called " Wicacao " (now Southwark), was made some time before 1681. Elsewhere we have referred to Upland (Chester) as the " northernmost Swedish settlement on the Delaware." Wicacao was, of course, north of Upland village, but was considered a part of the settlement as a whole, and under its jurisdiction before Penn's grant was made or Phila- delphia founded. Swedish fishermen and hunters had also built cabins on the banks of the Schuylkill as far up as the falls of that river several years prior to the advent of Penn. 137 WILLIAM PENN arrival in November, 1682, nine other houses much like it were built and occupied to the northward of it. The Blue Anchor Tavern was built by a settler named John Guest. It stood near the present northwest corner of Front and Dock Streets, on a knoll about twenty feet above high tide, and a small creek forming a tidal cove or small harbor flowed into the river south of it. The river-front of to-day bears no resemblance to that of 1682. Then the bank ter- minated in an abrupt bluff east of the present line of Front Street. All east of that bluff has been reclaimed from the river by bulkheading and filling in. For that reason no description would be intelligible on the basis of modern landmarks. Besides, the small details and traditions of first settlement — even of so important a city as Philadel- phia — are more properly the subject of the gazetteer than of general history, and are not likely to be of interest to any but the local antiquary. Penn now passed a fortnight in visiting New York, and on his way thither examined the site for "Pennsbury Manor," which Captain Markham had bought from the Indians the preceding year, and on which a manor-house was built in 1682- '83. This estate was on the west bank of the Delaware, five miles above the present Bristol, Pa., nearly opposite the present Bordentown, N. J., and as origi- nally planned was to embrace about 7,000 acres. No trace of it now exists. All human greatness has its apogee and every great career has its climax. And this moment or this measure is regulated by the schoolbooks. The average schoolboy knows Washington best as the author of the Farewell Ad- 138 ^ M :j — < ^ o '- \ J ■^^ -n 3 '/\ p ;^ f^ tq FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA dress; Franklin best as flying his kite to catch the light- ning; and William Penn best under the "Treaty Elm" at Shackamaxon. The scene has been idealized by Benjamin West on canvas, and the picture is a national heirloom. Historical critics, such as Hazard, Watson, Clarkson, and Story, have picked West's picture to pieces until little is left of it but a study of anachronism. Such critics, how- ever, must not be heeded. They are men whose sense of historical exactness suppresses their emotions — if they have any. And West slights the tree ! If his picture had no other fault, that one alone ought to condemn it. Of this treaty, the most famous in history between the white man and the red man, no formal records exist. Even the date — or dates — of Penn's meeting — or meetings — with the Indian chiefs are not exactly known. The nearest approach to official record is found in a speech of Governor Gordon, of Pennsylvania, to Indians of the same tribes in the same place forty-five years afterward (May, 1728). From this speech and from fragments of correspondence contemporaneous with Penn's treaty, including a letter of his own to the Free Society of Traders written soon after the event, Messrs. Peter Duponceau and Francis Fisher many years ago prepared for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania an ingenious and voluminous paper * which has been generally accepted as the history of the transac- tion. The details are of course too prolix for these pages. It may, however, be remarked that a current impression that the main object of this treaty was to negotiate for the purchase of certain lands is erroneous. No question of * Memoirs : Historical Soc. of Pa., vol. iii, part ii, p. 112 et seq. 139 WILLIAM PENN that kind was brought up, and no particular lands were bargained for. The object of the treaty was general: to agree upon a system of relations, to arrive at what diplo- matists call a modus vivendi, and to provide methods of adjusting peaceably any disputes that might occur.* A primary condition of all colonial privileges under royal favor in those days was that the King conveyed only the sovereignty in loco, subject to the Crown at large; and that the grantees in all cases must "extinguish the Indian title" to the lands granted. The pioneers of the various colonies proceeded under this requirement according to their respective characteristics. For examj^le, the fighting Puritans who colonized New England adopted the Crom- wellian method in which they had been bred and trained. They ''extinguished the Indian title" by the simple, sure, and irreversible expedient of extinguishing the Indian. At the other extreme the long-suffering and peaceful Quakers who settled West Jersey and Pennsylvania took a less drastic though by no means less effectual course of procedure: they availed themselves of the Indian's inex- perience in the real-estate business. They accomplished by means of a few economical looking-glasses and cheap beads ♦ But if there is no exact record of the treaty itself, the spot where it was made is known. It was on the bank of the Delaware near the pres- ent foot of Shackamaxon Street. The spot is signalized and the event commemorated by a neat little riverside park in the midst of busy work- shops and almost under the shadow of Cramp's great shipyard. The old Elm Tree was blown down in March, 1810, taking with it a history rivaled only by the Charter Oak of Connecticut. In its place is now a lofty flag- staff, made and presented to the Park Association by a man born and reared within a stone's throw of the historic spot, the greatest of American ship-builders, Charles H. Cramp. 140 FIE ST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA what lilt' J'uritaiis wi-oitylit out with powder and bad. When the Quakers had to determine the boundaries of their peaceful transactions in aboriginal real estate they resorted to pedestrianisni — of which more in detail later on. It requires no exuberant imagination to depict before the mind's eye, on the one hand, the redoubtable Captain Myles Standish, with resolution graven upon his grim visage, striding, armed cap-a-pie, in the direction of Wessa- gussett ; and, on the other hand, the pacific Penn, his placid features all aglow with ''a smile that was childlike and bland," and his hands full of economical presents, setting out for Shackamaxon. Here w^e have, unquestionably, the two extremes of early Indian policy personified. In the long run the fate of the Indian w^as the same. As a race or as a people in per- petuity it made little difference to the Indian whether he succumbed to Puritan bullets or Quaker blandishments; he succumbed and his race perished from the earth just the same. As already intimated, Penn's "Great Treaty" has been richly idealized. For more than two centuries it has been the pet theme of emotional writers on the subject of the American Indian. It is therefore a thankless task at this late date to sift out the real facts. In dealing wnth the Indians during the colonial period Penn's policy found but one disciple, and that one came half a century after him. It was Sir William Johnson. All other colonists in contact with the Indians regarded them as unclean beinus, or noisome vermin, to be disposed of in the shortest time and by the readiest expedients. These expedients generally proved to be fraud or force, or 141 WILLIAM PENN both, the ratio or proportion of the one to the otlier varying with the characteristics of the white people or the situa- tion and resources of the Indians. Penn, however, had at least one advantage enjoyed by no other white man having to deal with Indians on a large scale. He was to all intents and purposes on virgin soil. The Indians with whom he came in contact had been nei- ther corrupted by the vices nor warned by the rapacity of the white race. They had seen only the handful of harm- less Swedish farmers or fishermen, with now and then a jolly Dutch trader. They had yet to learn the meaning of the words "white man's land hunger." The French in Canada had not begun to use the Indian as a factor in the contest for empire. Therefore Penn was not called upon to soften preju- dices, allay hatred or remove distrust, which was the lot of all Indian negotiators who came after him. What Penn did with Tamenend in 1682, and what he might have done had he tried to deal with Captain Pipe in 1782 — both head chiefs of the same tribe, the Delawares — would doubtless make contrary stories. Tamenend and Captain Pipe were a century apart. The difference between their respective ideas and policies represented the effect of a hundred years of acquaintance with white men. The Delawares of Tamenend 's time lived in eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. The Delawares of Captain Pipe's time lived in central and northern Ohio. That geographical description represents the extent to which they "had been driven from their an- cestral lands" — a favorite phrase with sentimental writers. 142 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA To Jill praetical inleiiis and purposes they had been "driven" as fast and as far as other tribes who never enjoyed the advantages of the Quaker peace policy. Captain Pipe was a son of the " Half-king," so friendly to Washington at the beginning of the old French War (1754). And the Half-king was a descendant of the Sachem Tamenend, who made the great treaty with Penn at Shackamaxon. Yet Captain Pipe burned Colonel William Crawford and his son at the stake in 1782, on the banks of the Sandusky, just a century after his great-grandfather made a treaty of perpetual peace with William Penn on the banks of the Delaware. This would seem to argue that Indian friendship, like other friendships, is an affair of con- ditions, regulated by time and place and existing facts. As the sequel proved, Penn 's famous ' ' amity with the Indians ' ' did not last much beyond his own lifetime. Calling attention to variations of time, place, and cir- cumstance does not diminish the credit that is due to Penn. It does, however, break the force of contrasts which so many enthusiastic writers have drawn between his policy and that of those who came later — contrasts which unduly exalt him and unjustly abase them. In 1682 the Indian knew neither the value of his land nor the strength of those who were to seek it. He saw a few white men coming in a little ship, and they came then not as conquerors, but as beggars. He had no means of knowing — and could not have comprehended had he been told — what conquering hosts lay behind this feeble van- guard. In the main it must be said, or confessed, that the pol- 143 WILLIAM PENN icy of the Anglo-8axou race on this continent toward the aborigines has been patterned after that begun by Captain Myles Standish rather than that attempted by William Penn. Whether for right or for wrong, whether for better or for worse, the Indian policy of the American people for nearly three centuries — like most other policies of the American people — has taken its model from the fighting Puritans, leaving the policy of the non-combatant Quakers to await the approving effulgence of the millennium. Still the Quakers got the Indians' land, and got it cheap.* We have observed that in the primary treaty under the Old Elm Tree at Shackamaxon there was no specific nego- tiation for the cession of land, only a general agreement as * Some idea as to the average Quaker system of dealing in aboriginal real estate under the beneficent auspices of the "peace policy" may be formed from the purchase of the Salem tract by John Fenwick (" Old Quaker John " of unsavory legend) in 1678. The tract fronted twenty- four miles on the Delaware and extended back far enough to embrr.ce an area of over eight hundred square miles. The price paid, as recorded in Smith's History of New Jersey, was as follows : " The natives received for it, 30 match-coats, 20 guns, 30 kettles, 1 great kettle, 30 pair of hose, 20 fathoms of duffels, 30 petticoats, 30 narrow hoes, 30 bars of lead, 15 small barrels of powder, 70 knives, 30 Indian axes, 70 combs, 60 pair of tobacco tongs, 60 pair of scissors, 60 tinshaw looking-glasses, 120 awl- blades, 120 fish-hooks, 2 grasps of red paint, 120 needles, 60 tobacco boxes, 120 pipes, 200 bells, 100 Jew's-harps and 6 ankers of rum." (An " anker" was 8^ gallons.) Lest this might be considered an extreme or exceptional case of philanthropy, it may be added that the total cost of all land purchases made from the Indians during Penn's lifetime, or after- ward, within the limits of his proprietary domain, was £4,800, as shown by the records extant. There are, however, many Indian deeds in which the consideration is not stated. These were presents. The total area of Indian land, bought or received as gifts, was about 8,000 to 8,500 square miles. The average cost, therefore, would be about eleven shillings ster- ling (say $2.75) to the square mile, or about forty-three one hundredths of a cent per acre ! 144 FIKST YE All IN PENNSYLVANIA to mode of purchase and survey. The next mention we find of dealing with the Indians is under dates of Jime 23, 1683, and July 14 following, when deeds were recorded for transfer of a tract above Philadelphia, bounded by Nesham- iny Creek on the south, and another south and west from the town, between the Schuylkill and Chester Creek. The Neshaminy tract was "surveyed" by the primitive expedi- ent of a walking-match against time. The agreement was that the tract should extend beyond the mouth of the Neshaminy (northward) "as far as a man could walk and back in three days!" That is, it meant a day and a half each way. John Watson * says : Governor Penn, with several Friends and a party of Indians, began in the month of November at the mouth of the Neshaminy and walked up the Dela- ware. In a day and a half they arrived at a point about thirty miles distant at the mouth of a creek which they called "Baker's" [from the name of the man who first reached it]. Here they marked a spruce-tree; and Gov- ernor Penn decided that this was as much land as would be immediately wanted for settlement, and walked no farther. They walked at leisure, the Indians sitting down sometimes to smoke their pipes and the white men to eat biscuit and cheese and drink a bottle of wine. A line was afterward run from the spruce-tree to Neshaminy and marked, the remainder was left to be walked out when wanted for set- tlement.! Pending these negotiations with the Indians the first assembly was elected and the colonial government perma- * Hazard's Kegister, vol. vi. t This transaction, though somewhat crude in system, seems to have been fair enough, as the Indiana themselves took part in the peripatetic 11 145 WILLIAM PENN nently inaugurated. This assembly met at Chester De- cember 4, 1682. Among the parliamentary rules they adopted was one providing that "none shall speak before the question is put — and but once after, and none shall fall from the matter to the person ; and superfluous and tedious speeches may be stopped by the speaker. ' ' This assembly sat only four days. Its work, aside from the adoption of its own rules, was the passage of "The Great Law" in sixty-nine sections, without material amendment, just as it had been drawn up in England and brought over by Penn. This may be considered the beginning of what is now commonly termed "Bossism" in Pennsylvania legis- lation, an early example from which two centuries have developed no deviation worthy of comment. In fact, the bossism instituted by Penn in the first popular or repre- sentative assembly of Pennsylvania is the sole relic of his regime that survives with full vigor and effect. Four days after the assembly adjourned Penn set out for West River, Maryland, where a meeting was arranged with Lord Baltimore to adjust the boundary question. There was much debate resulting in no conclusion other than an agreement to refer the whole issue back to the King and his Council, Lord Baltimore refusing to receive the King's letter or the Duke of York's deeds of feoffment as amendments to his patent. " survey." But a later real-estate operation on the same plan was differ- ent. In 1733, when the proprietary was under the management of Thomas Penn, more land was needed and the " walkino; survey " again resorted to. Thomas Penn hired a sprinter named Edward Marshall, who walked eighty- six miles in a day and a half ! Tlie Indians resented this, and soon after began a system of petty warfare on the border settlements. 146 FIRST YEAR TN PENNSYLVANIA Penu then returnt'd to Chester, where he passed the I'est of the winter — 1682- '83. This, according to contemporary accounts, was a very hard season, navigation in the Deki- ware being blocked by ice until April, and the snow so deep on land that improvements were brought to a standstill. Upon the opening of spring operations were resumed with great energy. More than a hundred houses were built in Philadelphia during the summer of 1683, and Penn had a small ship * built for the account of the Free Society of Traders. She w^as called the Amity. This was the begin- ning of ship-building in Philadelphia, an art in which the city has excelled from that day to this. It is interesting to note that though the Amity's hull and spars were new and built of American timber, her ironwork, standing rigging, and much of the running rigging were taken from an old brig of the same name which had brought over a load of emigrants the previous fall, and was then condemned and broken up at Chester, having nearly foundered on the voy- age. In this, at least, all other colonial records were broken. No seagoing vessel was built in Massachusetts until four- teen years after the landing of the Pilgrims. But Penn built a ship in Philadelphia wnthin three years from the signing of his charter. During the summer of 1683 Penn devoted all his spare time to the completion of his manor-house at Pennsbury — * According to tradition, this pioneer of sliip-buildinj^ on the Delaware was built at the northeast corner of High Street (now Market Street) and the river-bank. At that time the bank at that point was at the foot of the steep incline from Front Street to the present Delaware Avenue ; so that the stocks on which the Amity was built must have occupied part of the ground on wliicli the Ridgway Hotel now stands. 147 WILLIAM PENN begun, as already intimated, by Deputy-Governor Mark- ham in the spring of 1682. It is a curious fact that Will- iam Penn never built or even planned a mansion for him- self in Philadelphia. The only dwelling ever erected there for his particular use and ownership was a small house, known to history as Laetitia Cottage.* Had circumstances permitted him to carry out his original design of perma- nent residence in the colony he would doubtless have built an elegant and imposing town mansion. But the care, pains, and expense he lavished on Pennsbury Manor indi- cate that he intended it to be his principal place of abode and the hereditary seat of his baronial estate. In the fall of 1683 Penn made an exploration of his domains. The details of his journey are meager. In a letter to the Free Society of Traders, wa-itten soon after his return to Philadelphia, he gives an elaborate description of the territory, soil, products, and climate. He also most interestingly describes the Indians, but he has left no itin- erary of his movements. John Watson says that he ' ' pene- trated the wilderness to the bank of the Susquehanna and as far to the south as Conestoga. He met many Indians, and freely partook of their simple fare. Sometimes he lodged in their huts of bark, but more often in his own tent. The Indian huts were not cleanly, and the governor was unable to endure either the odors or the small inhabitants of the Indian abodes. Nevertheless he made great acquaint- ance, and a retinue of them was always at his heels bring- ing profusion of game, fowl, fish, and the wild fruits and • Now removed from its original site and reerected, brick for brick, in Fairmount Park, fronting Girard Avenue, just west of the Schuylkill. 148 PENN'S lloMi:, 'I' 111-: L.iyiM'IMA I! (II Removed from its original site ami imw staiidinj; in Fairmoinit Park, Philacklpliia. FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA berries. He made diligent study of their language, both by words and by signs, and at the journey's end could make himself well understood as to the needful things of life without an interpreter, though he had a most compe- tent one — one Svenson, a Swede, born at Upland." Penu's description of the country, and particularly of the Indians, is the most interesting contribution he ever made to history in the general sense. It is the only one of his voluminous writings that may be described as wholly free from a species of cant which his earlier theological career seemed to have made almost second nature with him. It is, indeed, pure generalization. But that was to be ex- pected from a man whose mind, no matter how fertile by nature, had been sterilized by nearly twenty years of sev- enteenth-century sectarian theology. To a mind so sancti- fied and to a conception so spiritualized, there could be no charm in nature, no impress of the incidents of mundane travel, no fruit of terrestrial observation. All that was of the earth, earthy. Yet Penn's description of the climate of the region immediately about Philadelphia in 1683 is of rare historical interest as a basis for the study of compara- tive meteorology; and his account of the social customs, racial conditions, and modes of government among the Indians of his time has no superior in English literature. It may be excelled by the Narratives of the French Jesuits, who saw the Mississippi long before he ever saw the Dela- ware, but with that exception he stands supreme. Of the climate in his own time Penn says : For the seasons of the year, having by God's goodness now lived over the coldest and hottest that the oldest liver 149 WILLIAM PENN iu the province can remember, I can say something to an English understanding. First of the fall, for then I came in. I found it from the 24tli of October to the beginning of December, as we have it usually in England in September, or rather like an English mild spring. From December to the beginning of the month called March, we had sharp frosty weather ; not foul, thick, black weather, as our northeast winds bring with them in England, but a sky as clear as in the summer, and the air dry, cold, piercing, and hungry ; yet I remember not that I wore more clothes than in England. The reason of this cold is given from the great lakes, which are fed by the fountains of Canada. The winter before was as mild, scarce any ice at all, while this for a few days froze up our great river Delaware. From that month to the month called June we enjoyed a sweet spring; no gusts, but gen- tle showers and a fine sky. Yet this I observe, that the winds here, as there, are more inconstant, spring and fall, upon that turn of nature, than in summer or winter. From thence to this present month, August, which endeth the summer, commonly speaking, we have had extraordinary heats, yet mitigated sometimes by cool breezes. The wind that ruleth the summer season is the southwest ; but spring, fall, and winter, it is rare to want the northwestern seven days together. And whatever mists, fogs, or vapors foul the heavens by easterly or southerly winds, in two hours' time are blown away; the one is followed by the other; a remedy that seems to have a peculiar providence in it to the inhabitants, the multitude of trees yet standing being liable to retain mists and vapors, and yet not one quarter so thick as I expected. This would not be recognized as the climate of Philadel- phia and its neighborhood at the beginning of the twentieth century. There is probably no locality on earth where the 150 FIRST YEAU IN PENNSYLVANIA deforestation of the surrounding country has so banefuUy affected the climate as the tide-water estuary of the Dela- ware. And these malign conditions seem to culminate at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill. In Penn's time the south winds blew over a primeval forest that cov- ered all South Jersey. The great trees absorbed the humid- ity which the Gulf Stream spreads all along its wake, and the southerly and southeasterly breezes reached Philadel- phia with all their miasma sucked out of them. Now they blow over half -tide lagoons, back-water creeks, and marshes fetid with rotting vegetation and morbific with malarial germs ; or they sift through hot sand barrens, supporting a scrub growth of leafless and half-burned second-crop pine or old fields exhausted by slovenly tillage, baked by a bla- zing sun or steamed by a hot humidity, and covered with a scant shrubbery of dwarf bushes and enfeebled briers wherever the sand-drifts will let shrubs grow. The result is a climate — or rather the total absence of one — that in summer amounts to a vast gridiron for the broiling of mankind, while the so-called spring and autumn are likely to exhibit three changes of season in forty- eight hours. The alleged winter is divided into about three parts slush and one part blizzard. This is as different from the climate Penn describes as darkness differs from light, and it is all due to deforestation. In Penn's time the country bounded by the Great Lakes on the north, the Appalachian chain on the west, and the James on the south was unquestionably a climatic Eden. Its forests were the grandest on earth. Its rivers, rivulets, and ponds were the clearest and purest water known. Its 151 WILLIAM PENN seasons came and went each in its good turn, and all be- cause Nature had her own way. The changed conditions now appallingly exemplify the truth of the Good Book where it says that the sins of the parents shall be visited upon the children, even to the third generation. The parents, in their reckless cupidity and thoughtless greed, slaughtered the noble forests of this splendid region indis- criminately, without reason for the present or care for the future. It was a colossal crime. And their children — not alone to the third, but to untold generations — must ex- piate it. Penn's description of the Indians as he saw them is, a.s already intimated, his most valuable and enduring contri- bution to historic literatui'e. It can not be abbreviated. It must be read as a whole. He says : They are generally tall, straight, well built, and of singular proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin. Of complexion black, but by design, as the gypsies in England. They grease them- selves with bear 's fat clarified ; and using no defense against sun and weather, their skins must needs be swarthy. Their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-looked Jew. The thick lip and flat nose, so frequent with the East Indians and blacks, are not common to them ; for I have seen as comely European-like faces among them, of both sexes, as on your side the sea; and truly an Italian complexion hath not much more of the white ; and the noses of several of them have as much of the Roman. Their language is lofty, yet narrow; but, like the He- brew in signification, full. Like short-hand in writing, one word serveth in the place of three, and the rest are sup- plied by the understanding of the hearer; imperfect in 152 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA their tenses, wanting in their moods, participles, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections. I have made it my business to understand it, that I might not want an interpreter on any occasion ; and I must say that I know not a language spoken in Europe, that hath words of more sweetness or greatness, in accent and emphasis, than theirs; for instance, Octo- cockon, Rancocas, Oricton, Shak, Marian, Poquesian, all which are names of places, and have grandeur in them. Of words of sweetness, anna is mother, issimus, a brother; neteap, friend ; usqueoret, very good ; pane, bread ; yneisa, eat ; matta, no ; hatta, to have ; payo, to come ; Sepassen, Passijon, the names of places; Tamane, Secane, Menanse, Secatareus, are the names of persons. If one ask them for anything they have not, they will answer, matta ne hatta, which, to translate, is, ' Not I have, ' instead of ' I have not. ' Of their customs and manners there is much to be said. I will begin with children. So soon as they are born they wash them in water, and while very young, and in cold weather to choose, they plunge them in the rivers to hard- en and embolden them. Having wrapt them in a clout, they lay them on a strait thin board a little more than the length and breadth of the child, and swaddle it fast upon the board to make it straight; wherefore all Indians have flat heads; and thus they carry them at their backs. The children will go very young, at nine months commonly. They wear only a small clout round their waist till they are big. If boys, they go a-fishing till ripe for the woods, which is about fifteen. Then they hunt; and, having given some proofs of their manhood by a good return of skins, they may marry : else it is a shame to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mothers, and help to hoe the ground, plant corn, and carry burthens; and they do well to use them to that, while young, which they must do when they are old; for the wives are the true servants of the husbands : other- wise the men are very affectionate to them. 153 WILLIAM PENN When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear something upon their heads for an advertisement, but so as their faces are hardly to be seen but when they please. The age they marry at, if women, is about thirteen and four- teen; if men, seventeen and eighteen. They are rarely older. Their houses are mats or barks of trees, set on poles in the fashion of an English barn, but out of the power of the winds, for they are hardly higher than a man. They lie on reeds or grass. In travel they lodge in the woods about a great fire, with the mantle of duffils they wear by day wrapt about them, and a few boughs stuck round them. Their diet is maize or Indian corn divers ways pre- pared, sometimes roasted in the ashes, sometimes beaten and boiled with water, which they call homine. They also make cakes not unpleasant to eat. They have likewise several sorts of beans and peas that are good nourishment: and the woods and rivers are their larder. If an European comes to see them, or calls for lodg- ings at their house or wigwam, they give him the best place and first cut. If they come to visit us, they salute us with an Itah, which is as much as to say, ''Good be to you!" and set them down, which is mostly on the ground, close to their heels, their legs upright ; it may be they speak not a word, but observe all passages. If you give them any- thing to eat or drink, well, for they will not ask; and, be it little or much, if it be with kindness, they are well pleased : else they go away sullen, but say nothing. They are great concealers of their own resentments, brought to it, I believe, by the revenge that hath been prac- tised among them. In either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians. A tragical instance fell out since I came into the country. A king's daughter, thinking herself slighted by her husband in suffering another woman to lie down between them, rose up, went out, plucked a root out 154 FIRST YEAK IN PENNSYLVANIA of the ground, and ate it, upon which slie immediately died; and for which, last week, he made an offering to her kindred for atonement and liberty of marriage, as two others did to the kindred of their wives, who died a natural death : for till widowers have done so, they must not marry again. Some of the young women are said to take undue liberty before marriage for a portion ; but when married, chaste. . . . But in liberality they excel. Nothing is too good for their friend. Give them a fine gun, coat, or other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it sticks : light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent : the most merry creatures that live : they feast and dance perpetually ; they never have much, nor want much. Wealth circulateth like the blood. All parts partake ; and though none shall want what another hath, yet exact observers of property. Some kings have sold, others presented 'me with several parcels of land. The pay or presents I made them were not hoarded by the particular owners ; but the neighboring kings and their clans being present when the goods were brought out, the parties chiefly concerned consulted what, and to whom, they should give them. To every king, then, by the hands of a person for that work appointed, is a proportion sent, so sorted and folded, and with that gravity which is admira- ble. Then that king subdivided it in like manner among his dependents, they hardly leaving themselves an equal share with one of their subjects : and be it on such occasions as festivals, or at their common meals, the kings distribute, and to themselves last. They care for little, because they want but little : and the reason is, a little contents them. In this they are sufficiently revenged on us. If they are igno- rant of our pleasures, they are also free from our pains. They are not disquieted with bills of lading and exchange, nor perplexed with Chancery suits and Exchequer reckon- ings. We sweat and toil to live. Their pleasure feeds 155 WILLIAM PENN them ; I mean their hunting, fishing, and fowling, and this table is spread everywhere. They eat twice a day, morning and evening. Their seats and table are the ground. Since the Europeans came into these parts they are grown great lovers of strong liquors, rum especially ; and for it exchange the richest of their skins and furs. If they are heated with liquor, they are restless till they have enough to sleep. That is their cry, "Some more, and I will go to sleep"; but, when drunk, one of the most wretched spectacles in the world. In sickness, impatient to be cured, and for it give any- thing, especially for their children, to whom they are ex- tremely natural. They drink at those times a teran or decoction of some roots in spring water; and if they eat any fiesh, it nuist be of the female of any creature. If they die, they bury them with their apparel, be they man or woman, and the nearest of kin tiing in something precious with them, as a token of their love ; their mourning is black- ing of their faces, which they continue for a year. They are choice of the graves of their dead : lest they should be lost by time, and fall to common use, they pick off the grass that grows upon them, and heap up the fallen earth with great care and exactness. These poor people are under a dark night in things relating to religion, to be sure the tradition of it : yet they believe a God and immortality, without the help of meta- physics ; for they say there is a great king, that made them, who dwells in a glorious country to the southward of them ; and that the souls of the good shall go thither, where they shall live again. Their worship consists of two parts, sacri- fice and cantico. Their sacrifice is their first fruits. The first and fattest buck they kill, goeth to the fire, where he is all burnt, with a mournful ditty of him who performeth the ceremony, but with such marvelous fervency and labor of body that he will even sweat to a foam. The other part 156 FIRST YEAH IN PENNSYLVANIA is their cantico, performed by round dances, sometimes words, sometimes songs, then shouts ; two being in the mid- dle who begin, and, by singing and drumming on a board, direct the chorus. Their postures in the dance are very antic and differing, but all keep measure. This is done with equal earnestness and labor, but great appearance of joy. In the fall, when the corn cometh in, they begin to feast one another. There have been two great festivals already, to which all come that will. I was at one myself. Their entertainment was a great seat by a spring under some shady trees, and twenty bucks, with hot cakes of new corn, both wheat and beans, which they make up in a square form, in the leaves of the stem, and bake them in the ashes, and after that they fall to dance. But they who go must carry a small present in their money ; it may be sixpence, which is made of the bone of a fish ; the black is with them as gold; the white silver; they call it wampum. Their government is by kings, which they call sachama, and those by succession; but always of the mother's side. For instance, the children of him who is now king will not succeed, but his brother by the mother, or the children of his sister, whose sons (and after them the children of her daughters) will reign, for no woman inherits. The reason they render for this way of descent is, that their issue may not be spurious. Every king hath his council, and that consists of all the old and wise men of his nation, which perhaps is two hun- dred people. Nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, or traffic, without advising with them, and, which is more, with the youn^ men, too. It is ad- mirable to consider how powerful the kings are, and yet how they move by the breath of their people. I have had occasion to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. Their order is thus : The king sits in the middle of an half -moon, and has his council, 157 WILLIAM PENN the old and wise, on each hand. Behind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger fry in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me. He stood up, came to me, and in the name of the king saluted me, then took me by the hand, and told me that he was ordered by his king to speak to me, and that now it was not he but the king who spoke, because what he should say w^as the king's mind. He first prayed me to excuse them, that they liad not complied with me the last time. He feared there might be some fault in the interpreter, being neither Indian nor English. Be- sides, it was the Indian custom to deliberate and take up much time in council before they resolved ; and that, if the young people and owners of the land had been as ready as he, I had not met with so much delay. Having thus in- troduced his matter, he fell to the bounds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, and the price ; which now is little and dear, that which would have bought twenty miles not buying now two. During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile — the old grave, the young reverent, in their deportment. They speak little, but fervently, and with elegance. I have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I was going to say the spoil) of tradition; and he will deserve the name of wise who outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand. When the purchase Avas agreed, great promises passed between us of kindness and good neighborhood, and that the English and Indians must live in love as long as the sun gave light : which done, another made a speech to the Indians, in the name of all the Sachamakers or Kings; first, to tell them what was done ; next, to charge and command them to love the Chris- tians, and particularly to live in peace with me and the people under my government; that many Governors had been in the river ; but that no Governor had come himself 158 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA to live and stay hero before: and having now such an one, who had treated them well, they should never do him or his any wrong; at every sentence of which they shouted, and said Amen in their way. The justice they have is pecuniary. In case of any wrong or evil fact, be it murder itself, they atone by feasts and presents of their wampum, which is proportioned to the qualit}^ of the oft'ense or person injured, or of the sex they are of. For, in case they kill a woman, they pay double; and the reason they render is, "that she breedeth children, which men can not do." It is rare that they fall out if sober; and if drunk they forgive, saying, "It was the drink, and not the man, that abused them. ' ' We have agreed, that in all differences between us, six of each side shall end the matter. Do not abuse them, but let them have justice, and you win tliem. The worst is, that they are the worse for the Christians, who have propa- gated their vices, and yielded them tradition for ill and not for good things. But as low an ebb as these people are at, and as inglorious as their own condition looks, the Christians have not outlived their sight with all their pre- tensions to an higher manifestation. What good then might not a good people graft, where there is so distinct a knowledge left between good and evil ? I beseech God to incline the hearts of all that come into these parts to outlive the Ivuowledge of the natives by a fixt obedience to their greater knowledge of the will of God; for it were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the poor Indian conscience, while we make profession of things so far transcending. For their original. I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race, I mean of the stock of the ten tribes, and that for the following reasons : first, they were to go to a land not planted nor known, which to be sure Asia and Africa were, if not Europe; and He who intended that extraor- 159 WILLIAM PENN dinary judgment upon them might make the passage not uneasy to them, as it is not impossible in itself from the easternmost parts of Asia to the westernmost of America. In the next place, I find them of the like countenance, and their children of so lively resemblance, that a man would think himself in Duke's Place or Berry-street, in Loudon, when he seeth them. But this is not all: they agree in rites; they reckon by moons; they offer their first fruits; they have a kind of feast of tabernacles; they are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones ; their mourning a year ; customs of women ; with many other things that do not now occur. So much for the natives. Next, the old planters will be considered in this relation, before I come to our colony and the concerns of it. The historical value of this description is threefold: First, it is the record of personal observation by a man who always wrote the truth. Second, it views the Indians in their purely social aspect and treats of them without prejudice or romance. Third, it is the only impartial ac- count we have of the Indians of the seventeenth century in the English language. It is extremely interesting to compare Penn's descrip- tion of the Pennsylvania Indians in 1683 with Sir William Johnson's paper* on the Iroquois and their neighbors of New York and the Northwest in 1771 — eighty-eight years apart. The interest and value of this comparison rest in the diversity of conditions under which two great men viewed the Indians in their respective eras. Each was, in his time, the most influential white man the Indians knew ♦ Letter to Arthur Lee, Philosophical Society, February 28, 1771. Printed in Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. ii, p. 479 et seq. IGO F i ii ST YEAH IN P E N N S Y L V A N I A and the most successful in dealinjj: with them. Each had the respect and coulidence of the Indians to a degree far beyond any other white man of his day. The Indians William Penn knew and described in 1683 were to all intents and purposes in their primitive state. They had seen no white people except the few Dutch and Swedish pioneers of the Delaware estuary, and these had been too feeble to excite their apprehensions, too few to cor- rupt their native morals. The Indians Sir William Johnson knew and described in 1771 had tasted to the full of the white man's tempta- tions ; had been for a century apt pupils in the white man 's school of ambition, intrigue, and conquest. They had borne a daring and a bloody hand in the ferocious struggle of Frank and Saxon for the empire of North America. So far as concerned contact with the white race and its baneful experiences, the Indians of Penn and the Indians of Johnson stood at antipodes. Penn knew the Indians and described them just before Frontenac began his vast scheme of converting them into a weapon of French power. Sir William Johnson knew and described them just after the last vestige of French power had fallen with Montcalm. The two men were equally observant, equally conscientious, and equally truthful. They were also agreed in their esti- mates of the Indian character and in their conceptions as to the right method of dealing with them — save only the one important distinction that Sir William's basis of thought was purely secular, while William Penn's was a convenient cooperation of the spiritual with the temporal ; of religion with an eye to business. Yet they agreed on 12 161 WILLIAM PENN most points of conduct. Above all, they were unanimous in the doctrine that to be just with the Indians was the way to win them. Next in historical importance is Penn's brief account of the primitive white settlers who preceded him half a century as the real pioneers of his colony. Of them he says: The first planters in these parts were the Dutch, and soon after them the Swedes and Finns. The Dutch applied themselves to traffic, the Swedes and Finns to husbandry. There were some disputes between them for some years; the Dutch looking upon them as intruders upon their pur- chase and possession, w'hich was finally ended in the sur- render made by John Rizeing, the Swedish Governor, to Peter Styvesant, Governor for the States of Holland, anno 1655. The Dutch inhabit mostly those parts of the province that lie upon or near the Bay, and the Swedes the Freshes of the River Delaware. There is no need of giving any description of them, who are better loiown there than here ; but they are a plain, strong, industrious people, yet have made no great progress in culture, or propagation of fruit- trees ; as if they desired rather to have enough than plenty or traffic. But I presume the Indians made them the more careless by furnishing them with the means of profit, to wit, skins and furs for rum and such strong liquors. They kindly received me as well as the English, who were few before the people concerned with me came among them. I must needs commend their respect to authority, and kind behavior to the English. They do not degenerate from the old friendship between both kingdoms. As they are people proper and strong of body, so they have fine children, and almost every house full : rare to find one of them without 162 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA three or four boys and as many girls; some six, seven, and eight sons. And I must do them that right, I see few young men more sober and laborious. During the winter of 1683- '84 Penn lived in the Lseti- tia Cottage, where he kept "bachelor's hall," his servants being the only other members of the household. He also put the finishing touches upon Pennsbury Manor. There is evidence in his correspondence of this period that he intended to bring his family to this country in the summer of 1684 and take up his residence at the manor perma- nently. Its first occupant, however, was James Harrison, steward of his estate and, in general, his business manager — a capable, diligent, and honest man. At home Penn is described by a contemporary as Most hospitable to high and low alike, never without a friend or two at meals, and his house [the cottage] , which was small, always filled with sojourning guests. All he possessed was at his neighbors' service; horses, vehicles, barge, or any utensil. His conversation was wholesome to the spirit and gave refreshment to the mind. He loved wit and was fond of jest so it should be decorous and chaste. Of good things he had store, but besides water, his only drink was wine, always of good vintage, and sometimes a bottle of sack. His habit was to dispose of business, public and private, in the forenoon; the rest of the day for walks about the town to view improvements and advise the people. Some- times to Pennsbury for several days. In despatch of busi- ness he was quick to the point and liked not small disputings or petty bargaining. Rather than submit to such, he would either terminate the matter at once or yield to the impor- 163 WILLIAM PENN tuuity of the other party — mostly the last. For money lie had no care but as means to the end ; and when he wanted to know how much he had or what w^as due he must fain ask his steward or his deputy. Of accounts by hand he kept none of his own, trusting all to them w^ho served him. With too shrewd persons or those covetously inclined he was impa- tient and often suspicious. No one he knew to have cheated could ever gain his trust more ! But no one was misled or cheated more than he.* Penn had now completed his preparations. He had arranged, as soon as navigation should begin in the Dela- ware, for Thomas Lloyd to go to England in the first ship, file his answer to the claims of Lord Baltimore, and then return to Pennsylvania, bringing with him Mrs. Penn and the children. Provision had also been made for not less than twenty ships, to bring about three thousand emigrants during the summer of 1684. Most of these were Quakers, but some were Palatinate Germans and a few Huguenots — taking time by the forelock and fleeing from the impending butcheries of 1685. All these plans were upset. In April, Lord Baltimore made formal demand upon Penn to relinquish all claim of sovereignty south of the fortieth parallel. Penn replied in conformity with the agreement of the previous year, de- clining to accede, and urging that the question be left in statu quo pending adjudication by the highest court of Eng- land. To this Lord Baltimore responded by an aggressive assertion of his claim under the patent of Charles I to his grandfather, and, as he expressed it, "to make tangible * Letter of John Watson. 1 64 FIRST YEAK IN PENNSYLVANIA subject of appeal," he sent a force of Maryland militia, under Colonel George Talbot, to seize the disputed strip of territory, eject the officials Penn had commissioned, and claim the sovereignty for the colony of Maryland. On the face of the papers, Lord Baltimore was right. As we have already remarked, the whole trouble grew out of an error of latitude, amounting to about a quarter of a degree; or, say, fifteen geographical miles. The error was Penn's. He had been led into it mainly by the advice of John Fenwick, whose fame survives in South Jersey to this day, partly in " Fenwick 's Island" and partly as "Old Quaker John" — probably as singular a compound of stupidity, hypocrisy, and greed as ever lived. But there was a saving clause upon which, long afterward, the con- troversy was decided. The geographical authority upon which the Maryland grant was made to old Lord Baltimore by Charles I in 1632 was Captain John Smith's Map of Virginia. From this map, also, the southern boundary of Penn 's grant was located. They might have corrected it by the then existing Dutch chart of the Delaware — which was true by observation — but no one seems to have thought of that. The saving clause was a phrase in Penn 's petition, which was part of the grant and charter. This phrase was "a point on the Delaware River, west bank, twelve miles above Newcastle." It made some difference whether this "twelve miles" was measured on a due north and south line or on the line of the river channel ; it was the difference between the hypoth- enuse and the side of a right-angled triangle. In the end the channel line was declared to be the base, and that 165 WILLIAM PENN brought the southern boundary of Penn's grant several miles south of the fortieth parallel. This is as far as our space permits us to go in detail of the controversy. For the rest, let it be said, simply, that Penn vigorously remonstrated against Lord Baltimore 's ag- gression, and, among other expedients, addressed a letter to the Duke of York, adroitly — and, as it proved, successfully — framed, to make the duke believe that Lord Baltimore had ridiculed the duke's pretensions in conveying the terri- tory, and now defied his authority and his influence. This letter to the Duke of York was such a marvel of diplomacy — addressed as it was to a man destined to be King within a year — that we copy it in full. Whether it suggests any- thing like "crooking the pregnant hinges of the knee, etc.," we leave our readers to decide. But neither Machiavelli nor Talleyrand need have been ashamed of it as his own. Great Prince : It is some security to me, and an happi- ness I must own and honor, that in these my humble and plain addresses, I have to do with a prince of so great justice and resolution ; one that will not be baffled by crafts nor blinded by affection; and such a prince, with humility be it spoken, becometh the just cause I have to lay before him. Since my last, by which I gave the Duke to understand that the Lord Baltimore had sent agents to offer terms to the people, to draw them from their obedience of this gov- ernment, where his Royal Highness had placed them, and that without having any special order for the same, it hath pleased that lord to commissionate Colonel George Talbot to come, with armed men, within five miles of New Castle town, there upon a spot of ground belonging to one Ogle, that came with Captain Carr, to reduce that place by force, 166 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA erected a fort of the bodies of trees, raised a breastwork, and palisaded the same, and settled armed men therein. The president of that town and county, together with the sheriff and divers magistrates and inhabitants of the same, went to the said fort, demanded of Colonel George Talbot the reason of such actions, being a warlike invasion of the right of his majesty's subjects, never in his possession. He answered them, after having bid them stand off, (present- ing guns and musquets at their breasts) that he had the Lord Baltimore's commission for what he did. The presi- dent being an old experienced man, advised him to depart, and take heed how he obeyed such commands as these were, since acting in such a way of hostility against the right of his majesty's subjects not in rebellion, and not by his com- mission, might cost him and his lord dear in the issue. He still refused, upon which proclamations were made in the king's name, that they should depart, but he, with some more, would not depart but in the name of Lord Baltimore, refusing to go in the king's name: and there the garrison is kept, the commander and soldiers threatening to fire upon and kill all such as shall endeavor to demolish the block-house, and say they have express commands so to do from that lord. How far these practises will please the king or duke, is not fit for me to say; but if not mistaken, I shall be able to make evident by law, he hath also canceled his allegiance to the king herein, and exposed himself to his mercy for all he hath in the world. I hear he is gone for England, and was so just as to invite me, by a letter in March, delivered in the end of April, informing me that towards the end of IMarch, he intended for England. This was contrived that he might get the start of me, that making an interest before I arrived, he might block up my way, and carry the point. But such arts will never do, where there is no matter to work upon, 167 WILLIAM PENN which I am abundantly satisfied they will not, they can not find in the duke, with whom I know he hath great reason to ingratiate his cause and malconduct, if he could. I am following him as fast as I can, though Colonel Talbot, since his departure, threatened to turn such out by violence as would not submit to him, and drive their stock for arrears : believing that the worse the better, I mean, the more illegal and disrespectful he and his agents are to his majesty and royal highness, and humble and patient I am, they will the more favor my so much abused interest. I add no more, but to pray that a perfect stop be put to all his proceedings till I come, who hope to show myself the king's dutiful, and (in reference to his American em- pire,) not unuseful subject, and as well as the duke's most faithful friend, to serve him to my power. WILLI AI\r PENxN. Philadelphia, the Sth of the 4th month (June), 16S4. The reader may or may not at first sight observe one striking feature of this letter. It will be noted that, while it is addressed directly to the "Great Prince," the second person singular of the pronoun is not used anywhere, but the individual to whom the letter is addressed appears throughout in the third person. By this means Penn evaded the law of George Fox's ''second commandment" to "thee and thou all men and women without any respect to rich or poor, great or small ! ' ' We have already noted that in his letter to the Earl of Orrery, when in jail at Cork, he used the form "you" and "your," instead of "thee" and "thou" and "thy," throughout. The third person also occurred in his re- monstrance addressed to Lord Baltimore, the familiarity of "thee" and "thou" being thus evaded by use of the 168 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA third person in two cases and wholly disused in the other one. This might lead to the inference that, though in ordi- nary circumstances regulating his daily walk and conversa- tion by George Fox's special decalogue, he could talk and write like the rest of the Christian world whenever it was necessary, particularly if he happened to want something very much. About the end of April Lord Baltimore had notified Penn of his intention to go to England for the purpose of looking after his end of the boundary dispute in person. At first the Governor did not permit this news to alter his plans, and even as late as June he sent Captain Mark- ham across the ocean as bearer of his letter to the Duke of York. But the idea, that if one proprietor was to be present at court the other ought to be, weighed upon him, and finally he determined to meet Lord Baltimore in England. Appointing Thomas Lloyd deputy-governor and providing that Captain Markham should succeed Lloyd as secretary upon his return from England, Penn embarked in the En- deavor, a two-masted, ketch-rigged vessel of 140 tons, and, after an uneventful passage of fifty days, landed in Sussex, within a few miles of his home at Worminghurst. This was doubtless a pleasant surprise to his wife and children, who were daily expecting to sail for Pennsylvania, and had no advices of his intended return to England. Readers of William Penn's somewhat copious works have doubtless noticed the total absence of anything that might be viewed as statistical information. Of course, we refer now to his writings on secular subjects only. The- ology, which embraced the greater part of his literary 169 WILLIAM PENN product, being neither an exact science nor even a litera- ture of precision, does not admit of statistical accuracy. But it might have been expected that when he wrote con- cerning his province he would give here and there a bit of information to indicate its growth and general pros- perity. Nothing of that kind, however, is to be found. Indeed, the absence of it is so universal as to suggest an aversion to statistics or exact writing in any form. The nearest approach to statistics occurs occasionally in his letters to other Quakers, where he says of certain ''great meetings" that "above two thousand were present," etc. But when he writes of a ship-load of emigrants he calls them "a goodly number," or "a seeming multitude," or "a throng of welcome souls." This affords a really curious glimpse of character. It may have been a native repugnance to dry and unmystical things, or it may have become second nature to a mind aerated and etherealized by years of spiritual contemplation and sectarian zeal. In either case his writings, whether of travel or of coloniza- tion, are almost stripped of permanent historical value through persistent generalizations. His disregard of exact material sometimes seems almost studied. If the writer had been Fox, this would have been a matter of course. Fox preached with all the vehemence he could muster that all kinds of worldly affairs were sinful, and that the only true Christian was he who partook least of things earthly — perfection, of course, being reached only by him who prayed all the time and worked not at all. But Penn did deal with the affairs of the earth, and most important ones they were. And yet the most that students of history de- 170 FIRST YEAR IN PENNSYLVANIA sire to know of him and them must be found in the writings of others. From this point of view, the most careful and intelli- gent writer of Penn's time was John Oldmixon, who, in his History of the Stuarts, refers as follows to Penn's re- turn to England in 1684 : Mr. Penn left his colony in a most prosperous condi- tion. Though settled but three years, it already had up- wards of seven thousand white people. The number of in- habitants of Swedish or Dutch extraction was computed at three thousand ; but this included some settlements of West Jersey. His new capital, called Philadelphia, though not a tree was felled in it until 1681, had in 1684 upwards of three hundred houses and more than 2,500 residents. The natives (Indians) in the province were estimated by Mr. Penn himself at six thousand, and there were also about eight hundred African slaves. Oldmixon wrote this statement about the year 1700, and evidently derived the information from Penn himself. 171 CHAPTER VII 1G84-1G8G AT THE COURT OF JAMES II CHAPTER VII 1684-1G8G AT THE COURT OF JAMES II When Pemi left Philadelphia he fully expected to se- cure a final settlement of the boundary dispute within a year. The instructions to his steward before leaving, which were amplified by letters afterward, indicated an intention and expectation of being in America during the summer of 1685, accompanied by his family and bringing with him ' ' all the household goods endeared by association or otherwise worth the cost of transport." Some of his biographers have maintained that in leav- ing the colony when he did he made a mistake, aggravated in an almost fatal degree by the excessive prolongation of his absence. They argue that, as the boundary dispute was not settled definitely by his presence at court, and as all he was able to accomplish in his lifetime was an order in Council restraining Lord Baltimore from aggression pend- ing conclusive delimitation, and as that order was obtained in about a year after he left the colony, there was no adequate reason for his tenacious stay in England from 1684 to 1699, fifteen years. Reasons for this long absence — or rather for the post- ponement of his I'etui'u to Pennsylvania' — U})pear from time to time in his correspondence with the officials of the colony 175 WILLIAM PENN and with the steward of liis personal estate. Some of these reasons appear sufficient; others little better than trivial if not frivolous. But so far as concerns the going to Eng- land in the first instance, there can be no doubt of its wis- dom. The issue was vital to the welfare of Pennsylvania, then and always. A decision had to be the outcome not only of argument, but also — and chiefly — of the personal influence which Penn could exercise through the Duke of York in a degree far exceeding that of his adversary, Lord Baltimore. Personal influence could be exerted, of course, only by contact and conversation. It would be weakened, if not wholly lost, by absence and correspondence. Such personal influence could not be delegated to a deputy, although the functions and powers of colonial government could be delegated. True, no deputy could govern the colony as Penn himself could. No one else could hold the same commanding rank and compelling prestige among the new settlers. But the colony could get along in some sort of fashion — as it actually did — with Penn absent. The great and vital cause of the disputed boundary had to be decided by a tribunal in London, and its decision meant in great degree the fate of Pennsylvania. Defense of that cause and vindication of Penn's claims absolutely required the attendance of the claimant upon the tribunal. All these propositions must appear incontestable. Penn, after his arrival, lost no time in getting a hear- ing. He arrived the first week in October. The next week his memorial was before the court, backed by a representa- tion from the Duke of York. Among other things the memorial recited: 176 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II The colony of Maryland was founded in 1634. The royal patent to Lord Baltimore, dated in 1632, con- tained a restriction of the grant, to lands oiot planted or in possession of any Christia'n people. Previous to this date, the Dutch, under Cornelius May, had sailed up the Delaware and asserted a claim to its western shore. They planted a colony in 1623, at Fort Nassau, where Timber Creek enters the Delaware, a few miles from the mouth of the Schuylkill ; and in 1631 they made another settle- ment on Lewis Creek, near Cape Henlopen. They made two purchases of land from the natives, one of which ex- tended from Cape Henlopen to the mouth of the River Delaware. In 1638, a colony of Swedes arrived under Governor Minuit, and erected a fort at the mouth of Minquas River, now called the Christeen. The Dutch governor of the New Netherlands [now New York] protested against this settle- ment, as an encroachment on the rights of the Dutch West Indian Company, but he took no effectual measures to re- sist it. In 1643, the Swedish government sent two ships of war and an armed transport with emigrants, under the command of John Printz, who was appointed governor of the colony, with instructions to assert, by force of arms, the Swedish claim to the whole western shore of the Dela- ware River and Bay. The Swedes built three forts, all below the Dutch fort, Nassau. After some years of altercation between the rival col- onists, Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of the New Netherlands, in 1655, entered the Delaware with seven ships and 750 men and took possession of New Sweden, which then became part of the Dutch dominions in America. In 1664 the King of England, having conquered the Dutch possessions, conveyed the whole territory to the Duke of York, who in turn conveyed the former Sw(^dish territory on the west side of the Delaware to William 13 177 WILLIAM PENN Penn. It is clear that the Lord Baltimore never at any time had jurisdiction of this territory. The tribunal (the Committee of Privy Council on Trade and Plantations) on November 13, 1685, rendered judg- ment as follows : By Order in Council, this Thirteenth Day of Novem- ber, A. D. 1685, it is made known unto all concerned that the Lords of Trade and Plantations, having duly considered the grants and patents of the Earl of Baltimore and of Will- iam Penn respecting certain territory in dispute, do give it as their opinion that the said lands intended to be granted by the Lord Baltimore's patent were only cultivated and inhabited by savages, and that the part then in dispute, was inhabited and planted by Christians, at and before the date of the Lord Baltimore's patent, as it had been ever since to that time, and continued as a distinct colony from that of Maryland, so that the lords offered it as their opin- ion, that for avoiding further difference, the tract of land lying between the River and Bay of Delaware, and the Eastern Sea, on one side, and Chesapeake Bay on the other, be divided into two equal parts by a line from the latitude of Cape Henlopen to the fortieth degree of north latitude, (the south boundary of Pennsylvania, by charter,) and that one-half thereof be adjudged to his majesty (viz. King James, who, when Duke of York, granted it to Will- iam Penn), and the other half remain to the Lord Balti- more, as comprised in his charter. This decision, however, settled only the status of the west bank of the Delaware. It left the question of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania open. But, to avoid further conflict pending definite settlement, Lord Balti- 178 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II more was enjoined to keep the peace and to consider the line of Susquehanna Fort as the northern limit of his juris- diction until such settlement could be effected by proper measures. This itself was indefinite. A line drawn east and west through Susquehanna Fort would be slightly south of the fortieth parallel, but still north of the petition line, which was "twelve miles north of Newcastle." However, Penn had accomplished his inain object, which was the preven- tion of Lord Baltimore from the use of armed force and the final award of the Delaware territory. The adjustment of the southern boundary could be de- termined only by actual observation and survey. It is evi- dent that the English Government intended to carry this out at once. But, for some reason concerning which history is silent, it was deferred seventy-eight years, or until 17G3, when the result of Mason and Dixon's survey was promul- gated. Pending these proceedings an event had occurred of vast importance to William Penn personally and to Quaker- dom in general. This was the accession to the throne as James II of the Duke of York, whose friendship had been the making of Penn's fortunes. How much more potent might his good-will and his help be as King! It was a foregone conclusion that Penn would always have a ready welcome at court during the reign of James. The Quakers were now in their worst state from oppression and persecu- tion by the Church of England. A friend at court might emancipate them — at all events, could hardly fail to mitigate their condition. James was known to be, like Penn, in 179 WILLIAM PENN favor of universal toleration; though, as has already been suggested, from a widely different point of view. The King favored toleration for everybody because that would include the papists, of whom he himself was one, though sworn to ''defend the faith" of the Established episcopacy. Penn favored it on general principles pri- marily, and because it would emancipate his own sect incidentally. But, by tests of exclusion, the Established Church had obtained absolute control of Parliament in both houses, and fiercely resisted every proposal of toleration or enfranchisement. Catholic France under the absolute Louis XIV was not more despotic in its government than so-called "representative" England under its hide-bound and iron-clad Episcopal Parliament. However, the Qua- kers still hoped, as did the Catholics, the only material dif- ference being that the Catholics wanted toleration as a stepping-stone to political control of the state, while all the Quakers wanted was to be let alone. In this emergency the Quakers wanted Penn to stay in England. He was the only member of their sect who could get audience of the King, and almost the only one having any influence whatever with members of the Council or of Parliament. The fact that the American Quakers in the new and feeble colony of Pennsylvania needed Penn to compose their bickerings and suppress their factions by his commanding prestige and tactful will was nothing to the Quakers who remained in England. "Perish Pennsyl- vania!" they cried; "at least so long as our chestnuts need pulling out of the fire." Penn yielded to the importuni- ties of the English Quakers, and left his own in America 180 JAMES II. AT THE COURT OF JAMES II to shift for themselves. Thenceforward, for more than a dozen years, .his career was part courtier, part Quaker preacher, and part "suspect" in England. To trace him in detail through all the devious meander- ings of this diversified destiny would be not only profitless as an historical study, but tiresome as a narrative. We have before us a Quaker biography of him — one of the most pretentious from the sectarian point of view, and perhaps the best. It devotes seventy-eight pages to his operations as a Quaker courtier and preacher from 1686 to 1689, and eleven pages to his usefulness as the founder of a colony and architect of a new commonwealth. And yet that biographer is not unjust to his memory. Unquestionably the proportion of 78 : 11 fairly represents Penn's own real activity as distributed between the two scopes of efi:ort dur- ing that dreary period. Penn's situation in England at this time and his stand- ing as a courtier have been most entertainingly described by the author of Historia Quakeriana, published at Am- sterdam in 1694 and reprinted in London the next year. The author, Gerard Croese, was a Holland Dutchman, savant, philosopher, and friend of William of Orange. He had been, in fact, a tutor of William in youth ; he was only eight years older than the King, and as long as the latter lived Croese was his companion, adviser, and friend. His view of Quakerism may be taken as representing King Will- iam's own opinions. Croese was not a Quaker himself, but he was an impartial observer and judicial writer. His history runs more to personality than was usual in that day, but his judgments of men were always moderate and 181 WILLIAM PENN apparently just. So far as Penn is concerned, Croese's view of him has the peculiar value of being contemporane- ous. He says : This [the reign of James II] was a troublous time. There seemed no escape on any side from suspicion, no se- curity of repute, no refuge from calumny. Men met in quiet places and spoke in low tones. Among strangers one might always be sure that there would be an informer pres- ent in some guise. The Quakers, more ostracised and worse proscribed than any other sect, naturally suffered most andi worst of all ; because while the other sects only traduced, vilified, and informed upon each other, they all, with equal zeal and like vehemence, traduced, vilified, and informed upon the Quakers. At such a time no auxiliary could be so valuable as a friend at court, possessing the unshaken confidence of the King. . . . William Penn was greatly in favor with the King — the Quaker's sole patron at court — on whom the hateful eyes of his enemies were intent. The King loved him as a sin- gular and entire friend, and imparted to him many of his secrets and counsels. He often honored him with his com- pany in private, discoursing with him of various affairs, and that not for one but many hours together, and delay- ing to hear the best of his peers who at the same time were waiting for an audience. One of these being envious, and impatient of delay, and taking it as an affront to see the other more regarded than himself, adventured to take the freedom to tell his majesty that when he met with Penn he thought little of his nobility. The King made no other reply, than that Penn always talked ingenuously, and he heard him willingly. Penn, being so highly favored, acquired therieby a num- ber of friends. Those also who formerly knew him, when 182 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II they had any favor to ask at court, came to, courted, and entreated Penn to promote their several requests. Penn refused none of his friends any reasonable office he could do for them, but was ready to serve them all, but more espe- cially the Quakers, and these wherever their religion was concerned. It is usually thought, when you do me one favor readily, you thereby encourage me to expect a second. Thus they ran to Penn without intermission, as their only pillar and support, who always caressed and received them cheerfully, and effected their business by his influence and eloquence. Hence his house and gates were daily thronged by a numerous train of clients and suppliants, desiring him to present their addresses to his majesty. There were sometimes there two hundred and more. If that be insufficient to indicate the good nature of King James toward William Penn, an anecdote related by Queen Mary Beatrice, in Agnes Strickland 's History of England 's Queens, may be reproduced, even though it has been worn threadbare: One day Penn, at audience, kept his hat on, seeing which the King promptly took off his own. Penn was surprised, and the King explained: "It is the custom, here, for only one man to wear his hat ! ' ' The Queen adds that "the King, though a devotee of etiquette, was always prone to indulge Mr. Penn, whom he dearly liked both for his father's sake and his own. Truly, he was a most agree- able person." Undoubtedly Penn's ready entree at court and the dis- position of King James to favor him were exceedingly use- ful to those Quakers who preferred the comforts of Eng- land, despite persecution, to the freedom of Pennsylvania with its physical privations. But the question may occur 183 WILLIAM PENN here : ' ' Did he not owe a personal debt of fidelity and care to those who had broken all home ties, forsaken all home comforts in England, and followed him into the wilderness — a debt which the English Quakers could not urge?" That the colony needed his presence, needed the steadying power of his influence to quell the bickerings and check the rapacity that had already begun to appear in its councils, goes without saying. No one else could do that as he could. His deputy, Thomas Lloyd, was an able man, honest, faithful, industri- ous, and patient. But he could not wield the power of Penn because he had not the same force of character, and he was not the real head of the colony — only the deputy of its real head; and such powers, or, more strictly speaking, such prestige, could not be delegated at such a time and imder such conditions. Thus, as Penn more and more pro- longed his stay in England for the sectarian benefit of Quakers there, the material interests and necessities of his colonists in Pennsylvania were worse and worse sacrificed. The government could not govern. The council and the assembly were at odds. The latter impeached Nicholas Moore, the presiding judge or chief justice of the colony. Penn, upon review of the facts, though he could not revoke the action of the assembly in such premises, fully exonerated Moore, and afterward appointed him a member of the ex- ecutive commission. "I am sorry at heart for such ani- mosities," he wrote to Thomas Lloyd. "Can not more friendly and private courses be taken to set matters right in an infant province whose steps are numbered and watched? For the love of God, me, and the poor country, 184 AT THE COUKT OF JAMES II be not so govcrnmentish, so uoisy and open in your dissatis- factions. ' ' About this time (1686) the King proclaimed a general pardon of all persons in confinement or under bonds for non-conformity, or who had been committed under the re- vised Conventicle Act. Soon after that, evidently consid- ering that he had done as nmch for the English Quakers, at sacrifice of those in his own domain, as could reasonably be expected, Penn wrote to his steward, James Harrison : For my coming over (to Pennsylvania) cheer up the people. I press what I can, but the great undertakings that crowd me, and to raise money to get away, hinders me yet, but my heart is with you, and my soul and love is after you. The Lord keep us here in this dark day. Be wise, close, respectful to superiors. The King has discharged all Friends by a general pardon, and is courteous to us, though as to the Church of England, things seem pinching. Sev- eral Roman Catholics get much into places in the army, navy, and court. In August, 1686, having fully determined to return to his colony early the next spring, Penn went to Holland, and thence to Oldenburg and Rhenish Pfalz, to arrange for a large emigration of Holland Dutch and German settlers. King James entrusted to him a private diplomatic mission. It was to wait upon Prince William of Orange, then Stadt- holder, and urge him to join in the movement for universal toleration, without exception of any kind. Arriving at The Hague, Penn had several interviews with Prince William; also with his wife, the Princess Mary, who was King James's eldest daughter. He even enjoyed 185 WILLIAM PENN the distinction of being a guest at the palace for several days. Both William and Mary were perfectly frank with him on the subject of general toleration. They told him that they "would not, under any circumstances, consent to the enfranchisement of Roman Catholics; that to do so would simply invite Romish plots and encourage French intrigue ; that no trust could be safely reposed in any Roman Catholic, because men of that creed left their consciences in keeping of priests and confessors, held no regard for any oath they might make to support a Protestant government, and con- sidered it their duty to employ any and every expedient — no matter how base or treacherous — for the aggrandizement of their Church in temporal power. "If they swear falsely," exclaimed Princess Mary, "they believe the Pope will absolve them ! They fear not God, but the pontiff ! For forgiveness of sins they look to a human, not to a divine being ! " * Then, besides ostracising the Catholics, William and Mary were in favor of maintaining the existing tests for membership of Parliament. These tests excluded not only Catholics, but Protestant dissenters also; in other words, eligibility to Parliament was confined wholly to communi- cants of the Church of England. The House of Commons might, in its own sovereign capacity as to qualifications of its membership, admit dis- senters, and a good many were seated. But they were orig- inal Lutherans or General Presbyterians who had not gone * Leven Tan Willem III, by Dr. Montanus. Also Gerard Croese's Historia Quakeriana. 186 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II to the extreme of Puritanism. The Established Churchmen in Parliament were, however, careful to keep these favored dissenters in a powerless minority, and they would not seat any dissenter of intellectual power or mental independence. They wanted no more Hampdens, Cromwells, Iretons, Fair- faxes, or Algernon Sidneys. As for Quakers, they were, of course, out of the question, because members of Parliament must make oath of office, must conform to parliamentary rules in modes of speech, and must be free from religious scruples against measures for public defense. The Qua- kers would conform to none of these necessary principles of law, because they Avere forbidden by George Fox in his special decalogue. Therefore the Quakers were excluded by their own whims and chimeras, without other test. Says Dr. Montanus in his Conversations of William of Orange : Prince William spoke with particular warmth of the so-called scruple of the Quakers against force of arms. He said it was a doctrine without sanction of any law in statute or in morals, human or divine. Those who professed it pre- tended to teach more than God had taught in His own Word, in Testament Old or New. They pretended to exceed Christ in holiness, and to revise the Ten Commandments by certain inventions of one Fox; a low, unlettered fellow, claiming new apostleship and impiously asserting particu- lar revelation from God Himself. This, Prince William declared, was a doctrine he would never defend ; those who pretended to believe it placed themselves without the pale of protection by laws which they refused to enforce. As for mere liberty of thinking or impunity to worship in any form of choice, it was not an affair that concerned the state, provided it did not lead to turbulence or disorder. As for persecution for mere 187 WILLIAM PENN opinion or for doctrine innocently held and preached in an orderly or not riotous manner, or for practises not overtly lewd or calculated to corrupt public morals, he did not countenance it, and it should not be done in any domin- ion of his. But between simple toleration of religious be- liefs or forms and enfranchisement in the concerns of the state there was a wide difference. For his part he should always hold with those who held that in religion, as in all other human concerns, there was need of law, order, and regularity of dispensation. Otherwise, he declared, mankind must become a mob and society a rabble. In order that the situation at the time of Penn's visit to the Prince of Orange and Princess Mary may be clearly apprehended, it must be known that, though this was 1686, two years before they were crowned King and Queen of England, "William and Mary were already recognized as the leaders of the English Whigs, or the Liberals of that day. In fact, the movement which dethroned James II in 1688 was already in train tM^o years before, and only a favorable opportunity was needed. At any time after the end of 1686 William and Mary were ready for the sum- mons to assume the sovereignty of England. For that reason, though in 1686 William was only the Dutch Stadt- holder, he and his wife took as keen an interest in English politics as in those of Holland. Therefore Penn, in his mission from King James, met with no success and made no headway. He did not know what was coming or how soon. But William and Mary knew. Leaving The Hague, Penn went to Crefeld and Cresheim and thence to Hanover. Most of the Germans driven out of the Palatinate by Louis XIV the previous year (1685) 188 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II had taken refuge in Holland, Oldenburg, and Hanover. They were willing and anxious to emigrate to America, but the ravage of their country had pauperized them. Penn helped them all he could, but his own resources were at a low ebb then. However, the refugees found aid from other quarters. Princess Mary of Orange spent her pin- money to provide the refugees in Holland with clothing and provisions for the voyage. William of Orange, out of his private purse, which was by no means plethoric, chartered ships for them. Those who had sought asylum in Han- over found similar helping hands in the Princess Sophia (mother of King George I) and her husband, Ernest Augustus, elector of that state. But not all of these went to Pennsylvania. Most of the refugees who were aided by Princess Mary, as afterward others by Queen Anne, landed in New York, and many of them finally settled in the Hud- son and Mohawk Valleys. Those who went from Hanover came to Philadelphia and settled Germantown. They were the progenitors of that sturdy and thrifty breed now known to good fame as ' ' the Pennsylvania Dutch. ' ' * * Any one sincerely desiring a personal difficulty with a genuine "Penn- sylvania Dutchman " can always accomplish that object by accusing him of descent from a German emigrant since the American Revolution, or from some Hessian prisoner of war captured during that conflict. They maintain that the real, Simon-pure Pennsylvania Dutch are tlie progeny of those who came to this country in search of religious freedom between 1G86 and 1775. They will tell you, among other things, that there were no Tories among the Pennsylvania Dutch in the Revolution, and that they never became Quakers in the sense of conscientious scruples against self- defense. The same is true of the Mohawk and North River Dutch of New York. Oldmiion says the reason why Princess Mary sent her pro- teges to New York was her fear that " if they went to Pennsylvania, Mr. Penn would make Quakers of them! " To which her I)Iuff soldier-hus- band replied : " Never fear, Mary ; they have too much sense for that ! " 189 WILLIAM PENN The episode of l*enn's life iii England during the reign of James II that has found most permanent place in history is an affair commonly known as the " Blood-money of the Taunton Maids," and this itself was an unfounded slander rather than an actual event. The circumstances are briefly that, when the Duke of Monmouth, in his crazy attempt to seize the English Crown (1685), entered the town of Taun- ton at the head of his army, after the ' ' victory ' ' at Axmins- ter, a concourse of young girls, some of whom were not yet in their teens, met him, presented to him a silk flag, and strewed flowers in his path. Then in rapid succession came Sedgemoor, the capture and execution of Monmouth, the Bloody Assizes of the infamous Judge Jeffreys, and the rapine of Percy Kirke at the head of his "Tangier Lambs"* in the western counties. James II may have been a bad and bigoted King; but * Upon tlie marriage of Catharine of Braganza to Cliarles II, in 1C61, her father, King of Portugal, gave her for dowry the port and fortress of Tangier, on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar. A regiment was raised in England to garrison the place, and went there in 1G02 — over a thousand strong. It was largely recruited from the jails and workhouses of England. It remained in garrison at Tangier twenty-two years. Wliile there it was recruited from time to time by the same class of men — felons of all degrees. Kirke became its colonel about 1075. It returned to England in 1(584 and was taken on tlie regular establishment as the Sec- ond (Queen's lloyal) Regiment of Foot. The " regimental emblem " upon its colors was the Paschal Lamb, whence its sobriquet. In 1685, when it was sent to ravage the western counties with orders to " hunt down the Monmouth rebels like so many wild beast," it was all that might be expected of a regiment composed of convicts, commanded by a monster, and trained in a Moorish garrison twenty-two years ! Its career in the western counties is the theme of a sickening history — a history of murder, arson, pillage, rape, and terror. It is now officially known as "The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment." — See Regimental Rec- ords of the British Army. 190 AT THE COURT OF JAMES 11 it would be unfair to hold him responsible for the judicial murders of Jeffreys or the military atrocities of Kirke and his "Tangier Lambs." The crime of those horrors lies at the door of the Established Church, which controlled the ministry and demanded the holocaust. In the estimation of that Church, Monmouth's offense was not so much his rebellion itself as his proclamation promising to enfran- chise all dissenters! Rebellion alone might be condoned; ])ut, in the eyes of the episcopacy, an effort to enfranchise dissenters was an enormity to be expiated, even to the cradles of children, without benefit of clergy, and every prelate, priest, and prebendary of the Established Church joined in the savage hue and cry. After Jeffreys and Kirke had done their worst and paused, glutted with blood or satiated with rape and pillage, there were still many offenders left alive. Some of them were men. These were given over to Queen Mary of Modena. She transported them to penal servitude and replenished her pin-money by the sale of them into slavery.* Other offenders were little girls, too young for the lust of Kirke 's "Lambs." It was determined that the parents of these should be made to pay blood-money. Of this crime — as revolting as ever disfigured a page of history — Macaulay, in the first volume, Chapter V, History of Eng- land, says : * It is a mournful commentary upon those times that the same woman could have so pocketed the reeking profits of human misery when in ex- ultant power, and then have made the chapter she did in the History of England's Queens when in hopeless exile. 191 WILLIAM PENN The Queen's maids of honor asked the royal permission to wring money out of the parents of the poor children, and the permission was granted. An order was sent down to Taunton that all these little girls should be seized and imprisoned. Sir Francis Ware, of Hestereombe, the Tory member for Bridgewater, was requested to undertake the office of exacting the ransom. He was charged to declare in strong language that the maids of honor would not endure delay, that they were deter- mined to prosecute to outlawry, unless a reasonable sum were forthcoming, and that by a reasonable sum was meant seven thousand pounds. Ware excused himself from tak- ing any part in a transaction so scandalous. The maids of honor then requested Wm. Penn to act for them ; and Penn accepted the commission. Yet it should seem that a little of the pertinacious scrupulosity which he had often shown about taking off his hat, would not have been altogether out of place on this occasion. He probably silenced the remonstrances of his conscience by repeating to himself that none of the money which he extorted would go into his own pocket; that if he refused to be the agent of the ladies, they would find agents less humane ; that by complying he should increase his influence at the court ; and that his influence at the court had already enabled him and might still enable him to render great services to his oppressed brethren. The maids of honor were at last forced to content themselves witJi less than a third part of what they had demanded. The only evidence Macaulay had for this charge was a letter on file in the state archives office, London. It was written by the Earl of Sunderland, then secretary of the Home Office in James 's ministry : 192 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II Whitehall, Feb. 13th, 1685-6. Mr, Penne — Her Majesty's Maids of Honour having acquainted me, that they designe to employ you and Mr. Walden in making a composition with the Relations of the Maids of Taunton for the high Misdemeanor they have been guilty of, I do at their request hereby let you know that her Majesty has been pleased to give their fines to the said Maids of Honour, and, therefore, recommend it to Mr. Walden and you to make the most advantageous composi- tion you can in their behalfe. I am, Sir, your humble servant, Sunderland P. Macaulay's History of England appeared in 1848 — at least the volume containing this scandal. Instantly there was throughout Quakerdom what the average cockney would call "a blue funk." Had their idol been broken? Was the only great man the sect ever produced to be tum- bled in the mire? Then the controversial flood-gates were thrown wide open. As to Macaulay, one of his eulogists, Dr. Evan Thomas, says that his History of England "was read with as much eagerness and delight as a new novel by Scott or Bulwer might have been "! Well, why not? It was that, exactly — * ' a new novel ' ' ; and far superior, as such, in conception, subtlety of plot, and literary style to any novel Scott or Bulwer or any one else ever wrote in the English language. As a model of English composition Macaulay has no superior ; as a guide to the truth of history many equals ! He always wrote for an object — party and the peerage. He gained his ambition. Macaulay dearly loved a lord. 14 193 WILLIAM PENN But all his love was lavished upon live lords. He licked the hand that fed him — a good trait. He bit the hands that did not feed him. Occasionally he made a vicious snap at some hand which, having once fed him, had quit. He wrote his History of England to defame the Stuarts. This was not because he himself hated them, but because he knew that defamation of them would please the regime to which he must look for his peerage. In this game William Penn was played as a very small pawn. The story of the Taun- ton maids was but one of many monstrous sins Macaulay wished to heap upon the tomb of James II. Penn's chief offense in Macaulay 's eyes was that James II had liked him. However, the judgment of enlightened mankind had been passed upon the Stuarts long before Macaulay saw light, and his fierce diatribes added nothing to their just obloquy. As we remarked, the printing of Macaulay 's onslaught upon Penn opened wide the flood-gates of controversial Quakerism. Finally, the Right Honorable William E. Forster — not himself a Quaker, but the son of one — pub- lished an elaborate vindication m which he proved by offi- cial records and by the negative testimony of the contem- poraneous historian, Oldmixon, that the pardon-broker in the case was not William Penn, but one George Penne, a person regularly engaged in that sort of business at the time. Oldmixon 's negative testimony is as follows, to quote only the part applying directly to the case : The court [meaning the ministry] was so unmerciful that they excepted the poor girls of Taunton, who gave Mon- mouth colors, out of their pretended pardon, and every one 194 AT THE COURT OF JAMES II of them was forced to pay as much money as would have been a good portion to each for particular pardons. This money, and a great deal more, was said to be for the maids of honor, ivhose agent, Brent, the Popish lawyer, had an under agent, one Crane of Bridgewater, and 'tis supposed that both of them paid themselves very bountifully out of the money which was raised by this means, some instances of which are within my knowledge. It is said that Macaulay, when confronted with Mr. Forster's evidence, withdrew his statement implicating Penn. But we have not seen the text of his retraction. At any rate, or at the worst, the scandal has always seemed to us a teapot tempest. Suppose Penn had used his influ- ence at court to make the terms easier for the persecuted schoolgirls of Taunton ! Was that any worse than using his influence to ' ' beg off twenty who had been sentenced by Jeffreys, that he might send them to Pennsylvania"? Fourteen of those twenty men had been sentenced to death. Through Penn's intercession their sentences were com- muted to exile. They were all young men in the prime of life and vigor. Penn sent them to Pennsylvania and helped them to get a new start in life. They had to begin anew because all they possessed in England had been confiscated and their progeny attainted. Their descendants have been governors of American States and Senators in the American Congress. One of their descendants, on his mother's side, was a general officer in the American Revolution. His name was Nathaniel Greene — a name not unknown to the history of England ! Why, or by what pro(!ess of casuistry, was an ameliora- 195 WILLIAM PENN tion of the blackmail practised by the "maids of honor" upon the hapless Taunton schoolgirls an "infamous act," when the saving of fourteen men sentenced to death is universally applauded, as it ought to be ? In conclusion of this disagreeable subject, it may be said that Macaulay's diatribe derived most of its importance and all of its dig- nity from the character of its principal refuter, Mr. Fors- ter. Without his calm research and his trenchant summing up, the shrill chorus of the Quaker defenders of Penn would have been as impotent as Macaulay's libel was groundless. 196 CHAPTER VIII 1688-1694 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE CHAPTER VIII 1688-1094 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE At length the curtain, in the closing days of 1688, rang down on the tragic farce of James II 's brief, bloody, and dismal reign. And when that curtain rose again the foot- lights of destiny shone upon the supreme architect of Britain's later glory, the founder of the British Empire, William of Orange. It is hard for a student of English history to pass over that name with a mere mention. In this instance his reign covered such an important period in the life of our subject, and his personality was so deeply impressed upon the concerns of William Penn, that a brief survey of him may not seem wholly digressive. To begin with, he was half Dutch, one-quarter English Stuart, and one-quarter French Bourbon. His father, Prince William II of Orange, was a full-blood Dutchman. His mother, Mary Stuart, was a daughter of Charles I by Henrietta Maria of France, herself a daughter of Henri IV, the first and greatest of the Bourbons. Therefore, if ever man was "born to the purple," William III of Eng- land was. In the paternal line he was great-grandson of William the Silent, founder of the Dutch republic and of the House of Orange. Born in 1650, he became ruler of the Netherlands at the age of twenty-two, and when twenty- eight he had become the acknowledged head of Protestant 199 WILLIAM PENN Europe, the trusted defender of the faith of Luther against Rome, the successor in statecraft and war of Gustav Adolf ; and he was the only potentate in Europe whom Louis XIV feared. In his early career he had always been compelled to struggle against heavy odds in the numbers, resources, and positions of his foes. He had made little Holland a great power in the midst of giant enemies who sought to devour her. But his genius had been cramped by lack of means, and he often saw the fruits of success vanish before his eyes for the want of reserve force after victory. All this was changed when the numbers, the wealth, and, above all, the impregnable position of England fell into his hands. "At last I have a weapon whose blows will hurt!" he said to his old friend and tutor. Dr. Montanus, shortly after he and Mary had been crowned in 1689. That expression indicated the whole character and re- vealed the whole nature of the man. He was a soldier and a fighter first, statesman and diplomatist afterward. He hated Louis XIV personally, and Louis warmly recipro- cated. It was not a mere rivalry of great monarchs. It was a real, earnest, human hatred, as genuine as the animos- ity between two rival butchers in the market-place. Most historians describe him as a cold, sullen, almost saturnine man. It is true that he was not always gracious to courtiers, sometimes not excessively polite to ambassadors. But no great commander in the field' — not even Napoleon — had the art of winning the confidence and afl'ection of sol- diers more than he. Some say he was callous, if not cruel. It is true that, with the preliminary peace of Nymwegen 200 VVILI.IAM OF ORANGE. UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE in his pocket, he attacked and defeated the French army at Nancy and then rather airily remarked that he ' ' couldn 't resist the temptation of a good opportunity to give his old friend, the Duke of Luxembourg, one more lesson in his trade "! From early boyhood most of his life had been spent in camp, and though his tutors had to take the field with him, he was a scholar. He spoke and wrote five languages, perhaps more fluently than correctly. He was versed in history, philosophy, and fairly in belles-lettres. His knowledge of the principles and his equipment in the application of international law put to their utmost re- sources all the professional diplomatists who ever came in contact with him. Dealing with his own realm he was a subtle, adroit, and far-seeing politician. Nor was he burdened with over- scruple. With him the end justified the means much oftener than the means the end. The England that he took over from James II was a seething hotbed of factions, sects, and cabals, all bleeding with wounds of revolution or smarting with sores of persecution. Public opinion was part animosity and part suspicion, one man against another. The only real strong thing upon which he could lean was that deathless patriotism of Englishmen as against the rest of the world, which the smoke of revolution could not smother, the blood of execution could not quench ; a patriot- ism that survived alike religious murders and the flames of civil war, a love of country that could be soured neither by the Catholic atrocities of Bloody Mary nor by the Puri- tan cruelties of Oliver Cromwell. 201 WILLIAM PENN All this William knew. He also knew the inherent devo- tion of Englishmen to law, if only they had a share in the making of it. Hence he would not accept the throne but by election, and would not undertake to reign except by covenant, in which the prerogatives of the King, the privi- leges of the lords, and the rights of the Commons should be defined beyond the possibility of doubtful construction or double meaning. Though the Protestant leader of Europe, William of Orange cared little for religion except as an element in statecraft. The only active religious impulse that animated him was hatred of Catholicism and a loathing of the papacy. So far as any real spiritual sentiment obtained with him, he was a Calvinist of the softened type professed by the French Huguenots ; and the thing that embittered his soul against Louis XIV more than all else was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the atrocities that followed it. As King of England he swore to defend the faith. That faith, in the eyes of the law, was the Established Church. That, in his eyes, was a convenient machine for reducing religion to a plane of law and regulation. To him that was enough. But any other faith — except the Roman Catholic and the Quaker — would have suited him as well had it an- swered his purpose equally. In short, he completely opened his inner heart to Dr. Montanus when he said England in his hands was "a weapon that would hurt. ' ' How well he wrought out that estimate history eloquently shows. Fortunately, his ambi- tions all tended toward the common good; his aspirations were all toward the destruction of absolutism and the up- 202 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE building of popiilarism. In short, he lacked little of being a republican except humble birth. In another work * we described William III as the great- est combination of soldier and statesman ever born to the purple. He may have been no greater soldier than Gustav Adolf, no greater statesman than his own great-grandfather, Henri IV of France and Navarre. But he was an abler statesman than Gustav and a better soldier than Henri. In the art of creating and organizing armies he had no superior. His knowledge of what could be made of men and what they could do was instinctive. To those who voiced him in the Commons when he was preparing for the war in Flanders in 1690- '91, he said: "I must reckon with armies at least a hundred thousand strong. Half as many English will suffice for me!" It was a cold-blooded, cruel calculation, but, after seven years of warfare the like of which had never been seen before, Ryswick justified his estimate. He lost some battles, but no campaigns. Defeated by Luxembourg at Steenkerke and again at Neerwinden, he was ready for another battle before the French had finished their Te Deums. ' ' Of all generals, ' ' says Macaulay, ' ' Will- iam was best qualified to repair a defeat!" As a strategist, he relied more on celerity of movement than on subtlety of combination; as a tactician, more on sheer fighting than on skilful maneuver. And, above all, he relied upon the unshakable pluck and stolid resolution of the English and Dutch soldiers he commanded. "They get beaten some- * Life of Sir William Johnson, pp. 2, 3, Appletons' Historic Lives Series. 203 WILLIAM PENN times, ' ' he said, ' ' but never routed ; defeated, but never dis- heartened. ' ' He had no sense of what is commonly termed "the glory of war." He never felt elation in victory. To him an army was simply a machine constructed for a purpose, and war merely and simply the use of the machine. He held the same view of naval force. He was the first to apprehend the full meaning of sea power. Prior to his time the English navy had been little more than a coast-guard. He made of it a universal fight- ing machine, like his army. He was also the first sovereign of England to take the imperial view of her outlying col- onies and possessions. Previous sovereigns had looked upon them as gifts to favorites. It was in this particular that the change from the Stuarts to William of Orange chiefly affected William Penn. In James II Penn had found the sentimental friendship of a weak monarch on an unstable throne and wearing an uneasy crown. In William he was to encounter the cold materialism of one who was every inch a king — and, far more than that, every inch a Man — whom no sentimentality weakened, no emotions softened — a monarch to whom policies and projects were every- thing, individuals and personalities nothing. William and Mary were joint sovereigns. There had been kings and queens before, and other kings and queens came after them; but these two were the only conjoint, dual sovereign England ever had. Naturally in such an arrangement there would be a distribution of functions. King William took the state, the navy, and the army. Queen Mary took the royal household, the appurtenant estates, and the Church. Out of the thirteen years he reigned 204 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE William was fighting nearly eight years ; sometimes he was at home, sometimes in the field. At home he was his own Minister of Foreign Affairs, in the field his own com- mander-in-chief. At home or afield he never meddled with Queen Mary's Church or household as such. In her administration of the Established Church Mary hewed to the line. The old ostracism and proscription of non-conformists and dissenters continued, but physical or corporal persecution ceased. Gradually inhibitions were relieved and tests removed until most of the milder non- conformists were enfranchised. This, however, was state policy rather than religious. William strove to unite the nation in political patriotism.* Whenever the Church seemed to stand in the way of this consummation he brushed * King William soon grew restive under the sullen, surly reactionism of the House of Lords, with its iron-bound Episcopal majority. The Commons he could manage by the arts of the politician and patronage of the Crown, every particle of which he made to count in the game. There was no "civil-service reform" about William. Like our own Jackson — a character not unlike him in some respects — the " Figliting Dutchman," as the English used to call William, believed that to the victors belong the spoils. He was anxious to conciliate all dissenters, and particularly the advanced Presbyterians or Puritans. They were, he said, the best fightiug stock in the kingdom. Bill after bill to remove tests was put through the Commons under his influence, only to be beaten in the Lords. Finally he took to creating new peers. During his reign of thirteen years he added 110 names to the English peerage, not including a list of t)2 awaiting patents at the time of his sudden death in 1702— all of whom were promptly confirmed by Queen Anne. Every one of William's peers was a Whig ! Not one Tory was ennobled during his reign. By 1702, when he was ready to begin the AVar of the Spanish Succession, the House of Lords had become almost evenly balanced, partly by the new Whig peers and partly by winning over some of the Tory barons. By "the list of thirty-two " above mentioned he intended to turn the scale — and they did turn it, but too late for him to enjoy the benefit. Queen Anne, how- ever, made good use of them. 205 WILLIAM PENN it aside, Queen Mary and all. But this was only the secular side. He let the spiritual side wholly alone. At the beginning Penn had the entree at court — not, in- deed, on the familiar basis he enjoyed with James II, but his privileges were equal to those of any other subject so eminent as he. Moreover, he had the initial advantage of a prior acquaintance with King William, already noted. Doubtless, but for a single untoward circumstance, Penn would have gotten along with William about as well as he did with James. But one day the exiled King took it upon him to write a letter to his old friend William Penn. Among King Will- iam 's precautions was that of closely watching ex-King James's correspondence. The letter from James to Penn was intercepted. The first knowledge Penn had of this letter was a summons to appear before the secret committee in Council and answer to a charge of treasonable corre- spondence. As was natural to and characteristic of him, he took the manly course. Rightly thinking that, as the complaint personally concerned the King, he was entitled to royal audience in the premises, Penn waited on Lord ^omney (Henry Sidney) of the Council, surrendered to him, and requested an immediate hearing in the presence of King William. This was arranged for the next day. Says Gerard Croese : The King greeted him pleasantly and mentioned their former interviews at The Hague. Mr. Penn replied with suitable deference, speaking in the third person. His head was also uncovered. The examination was made by King William in person. He produced the letter from King 206 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE James which had been intercepted. Handing it to Mr. Penn, he, the King, said it was, of course, genuine — an autograph. Mr. Penn bowed. It was a short letter. King William desired Mr. Penn to read it aloud. It contained an expression of hope that he (Penn) would come to his aid in this his hour of need, referred to the memory of his father, the admiral, and their ancient friendship; and repeated the hope of assistance. Having read it, Mr. Penn handed the letter back to King William, who proceeded to interrogate him. The first ques- tion was: Why did King James desire him (Penn) to "come to his assistance" and "to express to him the re- sentments * of his favor and benevolence, ' ' and why King James wrote to him? He answered, that it was impossible for him to prevent the King from writing to him, if he, the King, chose it. He was then questioned as to what resentments these were, which James seemed to desire of him. He answered he knew not, but he supposed the King meant that he should endeavor his restoration. Though, however, he could not avoid the suspicion of such an attempt, he could avoid the guilt of it. He confessed he had loved King James, and, as he had loved him in his prosperity, he could not hate him in his adversity; yes, he loved him yet for the many favors he had conferred on him, though he could not join with him in what concerned the state of the king- dom. He owned again, that he had been much obliged to the King, and that he was willing to repay his kindness by any private service in his power ; but that he must observe, inviolably and entirely, that duty to the state which be- * The original letter was in French. Croese's Ilistoria Quakeriana was in Dutch. The translation is Clarkson's. The French words in tlie original letter which Clarkson translates " resentments of his favor and benevolence" were " renseignements de sa faveur et de sa bienveillance." A better translation would be " assurances of his favor and good wishes." 207 WILLIAM PENN longed to all the subjects of it ; and, therefore, that he had never had the wickedness even to think of endeavoring to restore him that crown which had fallen from his head, so that nothing in that letter could, in anywise, fix guilt upon him. This manly and ingenuous defense had so much weight with the King that he was willing to discharge him, but some of the Council objecting, he, to please them, ordered him to give bail to appear at the next Trinity term; which being complied with, he was then allowed his personal lib- erty. Shortly after this audience King William went to Ire- land, where James had landed at the head of an army fur- nished and supplied by Louis XIV, and largely reenforced by Irish Catholics. That campaign and its results are for- eign to the scope of this work. But during William's ab- sence in Ireland the daily affairs of state were lodged in the hands of Queen Mary. Acting upon the statements of officious, and in some cases base, informers — as, for exam- ple, the infamous William Fuller — she caused the arrest of eighteen men charged with * ' conspiring to restore James Stuart to the throne of England. ' ' The last name on this list was that of William Penn ! He was arrested and placed under bonds. The case was never brought to trial ; but it and other events immedi- ately sequent had the effect of retiring Penn from public life about three years! During this period he lived in close seclusion — most of the time in London. This accusa- tion and arrest to all intents and purposes placed Penn under surveillance, though it did not deprive him of his personal freedom of movement within the limits of Eng- 208 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE land. But it practically prohibited his return to Pennsyl- vania, which he had planned and arranged for before it occurred. There is evidence, none the less convincing because cir- cumstantial, that this detention of Penn in England was pursuant to the general policy of King William. Let us briefly review the circumstances which constitute the evi- dence : First, we may say that King William did not be- lieve a word of the charges of treason against Penn. His subsequent action, as soon as the emergency was over, proves that. But William had other subjects besides Penn and Penn- sylvania on his mind. No sooner had he driven James II and his French army out of Ireland and subdued the in- surrection of the Irish Catholics there than he turned his attention to the Continent of Europe. Let us, for con- venience, say that this was about the end of 1691. Even while he was fighting in Ireland William was arranging a coalition on the Continent against Louis XIV. It may be that by the date of the battle of Boyne Water William had already planned the siege of Namur. At any rate, he had resolved to invade France as soon as he should have re- pulsed the French invasion of Ireland. Meantime Louis XIV was neither idle nor unwatchful. He knew that William intended to attack him at home; and he also knew that William, with the physical power of England in his grasp in 1692, would be an altogether dif- ferent adversary from the William of 1674, with no force but that of Holland at his back. William, he knew, had nerve enough to cut the dikes of Holland in 1674, willing to 15 209 WILLIAM PENN drown his own country if he could drown the French in- vader with it. Now, eighteen years later, Louis had to face the fact that he must deal with the same desperate soldier, reenforced by the best heart, brain, and brawn that Eng- land and Holland together could muster. The case was different. At this moment it occurred to Louis that the North American colonies of England might be converted into an open joint in William's armor. From 1672 to 1682 Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, a godson — and some said the natural son — of Louis XIII, had been governor-general of French North America. He was a man of wonderful talents. While in his first term as governor-general, he had pointed out to Louis the expediency of using the northern and western Indians as auxiliaries in a grand scheme to exterminate the feeble English colonies on the seaboard and gain the whole continent for France. Louis did not then entertain this project kindly. When it was pro- posed (about 1678) the Stuarts ruled England. They were little better than vassals of the Bourbon Crown, and Louis could see no good reason for destroying the colonies of his subsidiary princes. But when William became King over these colonies, in 1689, the case was altered. William was not a vassal of Louis. England was no longer a subsidiary state to France. Therefore the advice of Frontenac, declined in 1678, became a subject for favorable consideration in 1690- '91. Louis sent Frontenac back to Canada clothed with every power that the King himself could have exercised if there, and the King told the count to employ every Indian 210 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi for the purpose of driving the English into the sea. All this was known to William almost as soon as to Frontenac. He at once determined to pnt the American colonies in a posture of adequate and effective self-defense. As for New England, New York, Maryland, and Virginia, they could take care of themselves, with a little help in the way of arms and munitions from the motherland. The weak spot — the open joint in the armor — was Pennsyl- vania. That colony was open to attack by Indians from the mountains in its rear and by the French navy from the estuary of the Delaware in its front. And it had not the sign or the symbol of defense! Even the little fort the Dutch had made at Gloucester Point in 1655 the Quakers had torn down, and they had sold its half dozen brass cannon for scrap. King William, not wishing to act hastily, sent Captain Barent Van Alstyne and Cornells Ten Eyck — Holland Dutchmen settled in New York, and whose families he had known at home in Holland — on a secret mission to Phila- delphia. They were charged to ascertain and report in detail as to the disposition of the Pennsylvania colonists to provide for their own defense as against either an Indian attack from the west or a naval attack by the French in the Delaware. They reported, first, that the colonists were not prepared for any kind of attack; second, that they could not be induced to prepare ; and, third, that if attacked they would have to be defended either by royal forces from England or by the militia of New York and Maryland. It does not require a very intimate acquaintance with 211 WILLIAM PENN the character of William of Orange to apprehend the effect such a report at such a crisis would be likely to produce. There could bi no doubt about the truth of the report. Captain Van Alstyne was a soldier, quartermaster-general of New York colony ; Judge Ten Eyck was city magistrate of the infant metropolis" — both men of the highest social rank and most inflexible honor. They had, in fact, been selected at the instance of Governor Fletcher of New York, who remarked that "perhaps the King would give more weight to a report made by his own countrymen than if it came from Englishmen." This report reached King William just after he had quelled the insurrection in Ireland and was on the point of beginning the memorable "First War in Flanders." The comprehensiveness of his plans and the far-reaching scope of his projects were not well understood then, and are not generally appreciated at their full grandeur even now. We may adopt his own analysis of his ambitions and the logic of his operations. He said to Dr. Montanus : The English have not been a great power because they have had no definite foreign policy. In that respect they have been thrown hither and thither at the caprice of their kings or of Cromwell. But the English, once bent upon a definite foreign policy, must become the commanding nation of Europe. France is now the predominating power be- cause the most solid and least distracted. If the English had fought the French as they have fought each other in civil war, France would have been humble and England great long ago. My purpose is to consolidate England. To do that I must unite Englishmen against France. Here- tofore they have been allied with the French, their natural 212 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE enemies, against the Dutch, their natural friends. I will put an end to all that. I will try conclusions with Louis by land and sea to the bitter end. That end will be the exaltation of England and the abasement of France. In the train of all that will come supremacy in commerce, col- onization, and wealth of the realm. The first step was to quiet Ireland. That is done. The next, to satisfy Scot- land. That will come, with time and patience. Then the British Islands will rule the world.* Nothing less than this, pursues Dr. Montanus, was the ambition that inspired the soul of the King. He discoursed about it without passion, without zeal, but coldly, as a man would speak of his daily affairs. A statesman of William's stature and a soldier of his quality was not likely to leave any point in his long line helplessly open to attack. To him, first of English kings, the colonies were a military factor in the realm — sources of strength or of weakness, according to circumstances. Pennsylvania, under Quaker rule, was a weak spot. Will- iam resolved to make it strong. He therefore issued an order in Council, which reached these shores in November, 1692, suspending the executive council of Pennsylvania and placing the colony under command of Colonel Benja- min Fletcher, Governor of New York. The governor was clothed with full power to take such measures as might be needful to put the province and its approaches in an ade- quate state of defense. The King suggested — though he did not order — that it would be best, if possible, to main- tain the representative assembly and operate through it in ♦ Conversations of William III. 213 WILLIAM PENN the raising of money and supplies. But Fletcher was authorized, if the assembly should refuse to act, to dissolve it and place Pennsylvania under martial law. Every Quaker historian has denounced this measure as "tyranny," "despotism," "usurpation" — in short, has ex- hausted the thesaurus in search for synonyms of that mean- ing. As a matter of fact, it was wise, salutary, and patriotic. It was made indispensable by the pusillanimity and parsimony of the Quakers themselves. The Indians of Count Frontenac and the buccaneers of Jean Bart could not be persuaded to a policy of peace by Saltmarsh's In- ward Light or by George Fox's special decalogue. They needed cannon-balls or musketry, and such King William proposed to give them. Fletcher took command. Proceeding to Philadelphia, he ousted the executive council and convened the assembly, to whom he proposed a scheme of taxation for purposes of defense. The assembly rather grudgingly complied, but only as an alternative to dispersion. No attempt was made to compel the Quakers to perform military duty. But a poll-tax was levied; all who volunteered for service in the militia were exempt from it; those who Avould not fight must pay. The total population of the colony, inclu- ding West Jersey, was about 12,000 in 1692. Of these about 8,000 were Quakers, the rest Swedes, Holland Dutch, Pala- tine Germans, and a few Huguenots. These 4,000 were all fighting people, and four companies of efficient militia were enrolled from among them. Two small forts were built for defense of the channel, and after Count Frontenac 's massacre at Schenectady precautions were taken to prevent 214 UNDER WILLIAM OF ORANGE a surprise on the frontier. French influence, however, did not then reach far enough south to affect the Pennsylvania Indians; besides, the Iroquois in western New York were friendly to the English, and at that period the Iroquois practically ruled all the Indians east of the Ohio and as far south as Virginia. These conditions lasted until 1694, when King William restored the proprietary under a new patent, differing in some details from the original, but not affecting its substantial rights. It is sometimes amusing and sometimes exasperating to read the Quaker histories of this period. Their first and greatest effort is to make a monster of Colonel Fletcher. Fletcher undoubtedly had more energy than tact, more of the fortiter in re than of the suaviter in modo. A thor- ough soldier, of Puritan antecedents — his father having been a distinguished officer under Cromwell — he was likely to hew to the line. Yet, the impartial student of history — we mean documentary and official history — must admit that, all things considered, Fletcher's administration of Pennsylvania under what amounted to martial law was humane if not actually mild. That the duty was distaste- ful to him is sufficiently attested by his frequent requests to be relieved; and it was upon his recommendation, ac- companied by assurances that the colony could now defend itself, that the proprietary government was restored. Yet one of the Quaker historians (Gough) intimates that King William was misled in 1692 by Fletcher, who was ambitious to annex Pennsylvania and the Jerseys to New York, etc. The truth is, as already shown, that William himself took the initiative, that the duty was unwelcome to Fletcher, 215 WILLIAM PENN and that he escaped from it at the first opportunity. On King William's part it was never anything but a temporary expedient of military necessity. He even caused Penn to be advised by the Earl of Romney (Henry Sidney, Penn's personal friend) that he had no intention to permanently alter the status of the colony and would restore the former system as soon as the emergency should be past. It needs but a superficial knowledge of William's character to perceive that, if he had intended to abrogate the old charter, abolish the proprietary, and make Pennsylvania a crown colony, he would have gone about it in a way the signifi- cance of which would never have been left a matter of his- torical conjecture. 216 CHAPTER IX 1684-1694 PENNSYLVANIA IN PENN'S ABSENCE CHAPTER IX 1684-1694 PENNSYLVANIA IN PENN's ABSENCE Near the end of 1693, the charges of "treasonable corre- spondence" under which Penn had been detained in Eng- land and compelled to live in seclusion three years were declared to be without foundation. Released by order of the King, November 30, 1693, he was now free to visit Pennsylvania, but, as noted in the last chapter, his govern- ment there was still suspended and was not restored until the following August. Penn describes the circumstances of his release in a letter to Thomas Lloyd under date of ' ' 11th of 10th Mo. 1693," by the Quaker calendar, or December 11, 1903, according to the Gregorian mode of reckoning time : This comes by the Pennsylvania Merchant, Har- rison, commander, and C. Saunders, merchant. By them and this know, that it hath pleased God to work my enlarge- ment, by three Lords representing my case as not only hard, but oppressive ; that there was nothing against me but what impostors, or those that are fled, or that have, since their pardon, refused to verify, (and asked me pardon for saying what they did) alleged against me; that they had long known me, some of them thirty years, and had never known me to do an ill thing, but many good offices; and that for not being thought to go abroad in defiance to the govern- 219 WILLIAM PENN ment, I might and would have done it two years ago; and that I was, therefore, willing to wait to go about my affairs, as before, with leave; that I might be the better respected in the liberty I took to follow it. King William answered, "That I was his old acquaint- ance, as well as theirs ; and that I might follow my business as freely as ever ; and that he had nothing to say to me, ' ' — upon which they pressed him to command one of them to declare the same to the Secretary of State, Sir John Tren- cliard, that if I came to him, or otherwise, he might signify the same to me, which he also did. The Lords were Roch- ester, Ranelagh, and Sidney; and the last as my greatest acquaintance, was to tell the Secretary ; accordingly he did ; and the Secretary, after speaking himself, and having it from King William's own mouth, appointed me a time to meet him at home ; and did with the Marquis of Winchester, and told me I was as free as ever; and as he doubted not my prudence about my quiet living, for he assured me I should not be molested or injured in any of my affairs, at least while he held that post. After his release, Penn was hopeful of immediate return to Pennsylvania. But now a new trouble beset him. This was the illness of his wife, which terminated fatally in Feb- ruary, 1694. Her death seems to have brought on a crisis in Penn 's pecuniary affairs. During several years past the revenues of the Worminghurst property had been the most important part of the family income. Pennsylvania had never been a source of revenue to Penn, but a continual drain. The settlers had not even paid the trifling quit- rent of one shilling a year per hundred acres. The Irish estates but little more than paid the fixed charges of their incumbrances. 220 IN PENN'S ABSENCE The Worrainghurst estate was Mrs. Peun's property in her own right. While she lived its income accrued to the family and Penn got the benefit of it. But now it was put in trust for her children — or rather for her eldest son, Springett Penn, then about nineteen years old. The other children were a boy named William, thirteen years old, and Lcetitia, a girl of fifteen. All that the father received from the estate after the mother's demise was an allowance for the support and education of the children. There may have been other causes operating to prevent his return at that time, but they are nowhere clearly set forth. We may now briefly survey the progress of affairs in Pennsylvania during the ten years 1684 to 1694. No at- tempt at detail is possible here or within our present limits. In any form it is not a pleasant history. The only gratify- ing feature of it was the rapid growth of the colony, which its natural advantages seem to have compelled, in spite of bad administration, discord in public affairs, and petty squabbles in private life. One fact had been conclusively demonstrated : the impracticability of popular self-govern- ment by Inward Light. It seemed as if almost every Quaker had a political economy of his own, and each one seemed intolerant of all others in direct ratio of his own ignorance, bigotry, or greed. The first two years of Penn's absence — 1684 to 1686 — were signalized by disputes between the assembly and the executive, the legislative branch arrogating to itself powers and privileges sufficient to forfeit the charter, had the home Government been disposed to be exact. King James and his advisers, doubtless on account of Penn 's own stand- 221 WILLIAM PENN ing at court, seemed willing to give the Quakers all the rope they wanted. But at the end of 1686 affairs had come to such a pass that, to prevent a lapse into utter anarchy, the Proprietary felt constrained to prorogue the assembly and annul all laws passed during his absence. His letter to the executive commission embodying this decree is as follows : First : You are to oblige the Provincial Council to their charter-attendance, or to take such a council as you think convenient to advise and assist you in the business of the public; for I will no more endure their most slothful and dishonorable attendance, but dissolve the frame without any more ado. Let them look to it, if further occasion be given. Secondly : That you keep to the dignity of your station, both in Council and out, but especially that you suffer no disorder in the Council, nor the Council and Assembly, nor either of them, to entrench upon the powers and privileges remaining yet in me. Thirdly: That you admit not any parleys or open con- ferences between the Provincial Council and Assembly ; but let one, with your approbation, propose, and let the other consent or dissent, according to the charter. Fourthly : That you curiously inspect the past proceed- ings of both, and let me know in what they have broken the bounds or obligations of the charter. Fifthly: That you, this very next Assembly General, declare my abrogation of all that has been done since my absence ; and so of all the laws but the fundamentals ; and that you immediately dismiss the Assembly and call it again; and pass such of them afresh, with such alterations as you and they shall see meet ; and this to avoid a greater inconveniency, which I foresee, and formerly communicated to Thomas Lloyd. 222 IN PENN'S ABSENCE Sixthly : Inspect the qualifications of members in Coun- cil and Assembly, and see they be according to charter; and especially of those that have the administration of just- ice; and whatever you do, let the point of the laws be turned against impiety, and your severe brow be upon all the troublesome and vexatious, more especially trifling ap- pealers. You shall shortly have a limitation from the King, though you have power, with the Council and Assembly, to fix the matter and manner of appeals, as much as to do any justice, or prevent any disorder in the province at all. Seventhly : That, till then, I have sent you a proclama- tion to that eft'ect, according to the powers of ordinance making, as declared in my letters patent, which you may expose as you please. This was nothing less than a sweeping declaration and drastic exercise of vice-regal prerogative, and it has been made a subject of severe animadversion by Gordon (His- tory of Pennsylvania) and other writers. But the docu- mentary evidence sustains Penn. What the government might have been had he been present to direct or guide it is a matter of conjecture. What it had actually become in only two years of his absence was a Quaker mob, in which factional spirit was embittered by sectarian or inter- sectarian reproaches, and political quarrels inextricably mixed up with religious cant. Penn had been fortunate in his selection of a deputy- governor and chairman of the executive commission, Thomas Lloyd. He was a learned man, deeply conscien- tious, upright, patient, and diligent. But he lacked the personal force of Penn, and the prestige of the Proprietary 223 WILLIAM PENN could not be delegated. Lloyd, chafed and worried by the distractions of his task — thankless at best — repeatedly besought relief, and Penn finally, in September, 1688, ap- pointed Captain John Blackwell to succeed him. This gentleman was not a Quaker, but a Presbyterian. He was the first non-Quaker official appointed in the colony — ex- cepting, of course, a few Swedish local officers in the ' ' lower counties" (now Delaware). Blackwell had held adminis- trative positions in Ireland and also in Scotland. In the Revolution his father had been keeper of Cromwell's mili- tary chest, and the young man himself was a soldier in the Army of the Commonwealth before reaching the age of twenty. When appointed deputy-governor of Pennsyl- vania he was about sixty years old, but still hale, vigorous, and energetic. In a letter to Robert Turner Penn gives his reasons for appointing Blackwell : The reason I appointed Capt. Blackwell was, that Friends refused, (especially Thomas Lloyd, to whom I of- fered it,) and Capt. Blackwell, here, is of high repute as a wise and virtuous man, and yet, though treasurer, in the Commonwealth's time, to the army in England, Scotland and Ireland, a place in Avhich he might have gained many thousands by the year, he was remarkably just, and refused all perquisites and a great place, in King Charles's and King James's time, in Ireland, because it depended upon them; besides, he was pregnant, experienced, and had for- merly commanded men. I thought I had a treasure in him, and being not a Friend, could better deal with those that were not and stop their mouths, and be stiff with our neigh- bors upon occasion. This was my motive to have him, and so thou mayst tell others. 224 IN PENN'S ABSENCE Blackwell was in Connecticut when the appointment reached him, which was December, nearly three months after its date. He assumed the governor's office at Phila- delphia in March, 1689. His official action from the start indicated a belief on his part that the government of Penn- sylvania was a practical institution. He was soon unde- ceived. Before he had been in contact with it six months he wrote to a friend in England — Sir Thomas Hartley: "I do not hesitate (and you may tell Mr. Penn so if you see him) to declare that the wild beasts that fill his forests here can better govern than the witless zealots who make a monkey-house of his assembly. Each is wiser than his neighbor, and on every side is heard the Pharisee-cry, ' I am holier than thou.' For the rest, consider hate of all sects but their own, envy and jealousy of one another within their own sect, such avarice as I have never seen or heard of elsewhere, each praying with his neighbor on First Days and then preying upon him the other six ! . . . I hope soon to be well out of it. Mr. Penn will receive my resignation by the next ship. ' ' * A Quaker historian (Janney) says: "He [Blackwell] * Most of the Quaker biographers say offhand tliat Blackwell was re- moved by Penn. Janney and Stoughton, with some regard for decency, say that Penn advised him to resign. Both versions are untrue and unjust. The statement that Penn removed him is a simple, downright falsehood. The intimation that he resigned by Penn's advice is, at best, a covert slur, designed by Janney and Stoughton to humor the vengeful spleen of the Quakers and at the same time avoid a barefaced lie. There is not a sen- tence or syllable extant in Penn's writings to show that he either removed Blackwell or advised liini to resign. Blackwell wrote Penn a letter dated August 29, 1689, forwarding reports on certain subjects and notifying him of the discontent on the lower counties. Penn replied to this November 11, 1689. Not a word was said about resignation or removal in either let- 16 225 WILLIAM PENN appears to have been guilty of arbitrary and illegal pro- ceedings against the members of Council and the assembly, by whom they were firmly resisted." Careful examination of the records shows that the "arbitrary and illegal pro- ceedings" mentioned in this charming specimen of Quaker candor consisted of a close and faithful adherence to Penn 's own instructions, with a single exception. Penn had in- structed Governor Blackwell to "inquire into the ordi- nances for provincial trade with foreign countries as to their legality and whether they were admissible under the royal charter." Blackwell did this, and reported that the trade laws of the assembly in that respect were in direct conflict with the charter. This, however, he gave as his own legal opinion, and proposed to refer the question, with the text of the laws themselves, to the Proprietary for final decision. This was, of course, "arbitrary" in the last degree ! Penn had instructed him to "inquire into the matters in dispute between the province [Pennsylvania proper] and the 'lower counties' [now Delaware], and either act thereon according to his judgment or report all the facts ter. Penn's letter of November 11, 1689, reached Blackwell January 8, 1690. But three weeks before that date^ or December 17, 1689, Blackwell had forwarded his resignation by the ship Bristol Merchant. Penn re- ceived it February 27, 1690. Governor Blackwell did not await the ap- pointment of a successor or even acceptance of his resignation. He him- self constituted Thomas Lloyd deputy ad interim and abruptly left the colony. Penn was, doubtless, glad to let him go, because the experi- ment of a non-Quaker Governor had proved a failure from the start. The Quakers would not tolerate a governor unless of their own sect, and they gave Penn no respite from their shrieks until Blackwell was gone. This ought to have satisfied them. But it seems that their descendants inherited their spleen, and still vent it in falsehoods over his grave. 226 IN PENN'S ABSENCE to him, should he be unwilling to act on his own responsi- bility. " Blackwell made the investigation, declined to act himself, and reported the facts to Penn. Grossly ' ' illegal, ' ' of course ! Penn had instructed Blackwell to "inquire as to the sale of liquor to the Indians, find out the guilty parties, and suitably punish them." Blackwell investigated, with the result of finding out that, while no Quaker had directly sold liquor to the Indians, several Quaker merchants — among whom were some members of the assembly itself — regularly supplied liquor to Dutch and Swedish traders, well know- ing that it was intended for sale and was actually sold to the Indians. This was, of course, "arbitrary" past en- durance ! What could be so tyrannical as an investigation that disclosed hypocrisy and greed on the part of holy men? But Blackwell did not venture to "suitably pun- ish the guilty parties." lie simply reported the facts to Penn. Now for the "single exception" mentioned above, in which Blackwell acted upon his own responsibility. In May, 1689, King William declared war against France. The news reached Pennsylvania early in August, accom- panied by the royal order requiring all colonial governors to take prompt and efficient measures for defense against aggression. Governor Blaclcwell summoned the assembly and recommended the enrolment of a provincial militia for defense, as was done in all other colonies. His recom- mendation "was received with derision and treated with contempt," to use his own language in the letter of resigna- tion he soon afterward sent to Penn. This was, indeed, 227 WILLIAM PENN "arbitrary." It was also "illegal," because forbidden by the special decalogue of George Fox. The assembly refused to consider the proposition. About three hundred able-bodied men, mostly Swedes, Ger- mans, Dutch, and the few non-Quaker English in the col- ony, offered their services, but the governor said he could not enroll them without authority and supplies from the assembly. The Quakers got rid of Blackwell in February, 1690, and Thomas Lloyd was appointed in his place. They did not have long to wait. The sequence has already been related in the last chapter. The King seized the colony, placed it virtually under martial law, and, through Gov- ernor Fletcher, compelled the assembly — amid tears, groans, and invocations of Divine vengeance — to vote money for the defense of themselves, their families, and their prop- erty. It is an unpleasant task to record such history. No man with a spark of real, virile manhood in him can read it without contempt — or pity — for the fanatics who made it. Things went on from bad to worse. The "lower coun- ties," or "the territory," as it was officially called, seceded from Pennsylvania proper, officially known as "the prov- ince," and set up a government of their own. To prevent a complete separation, it was arranged that the lower coun- ties accept Captain Markham as deputy-governor, leaving Thomas Lloyd's authority limited to the "province," or Pennsylvania proper. At this time the population of the lower counties was about four thousand, and a movement for revocation of the charter and establishment of Dela- ware as a separate crown colony gained much headway. But Markham, by exercise of tact, succeeded in suppress- 228 IN PENN'S ABSENCE ing this movement just as Delaware was on the point of sending delegates to London with a petition for separate organization and government.* In addition to all this political turmoil, a formidable religious "sedition," as the Quaker writers term it, broke out in the colony. Its leader was George Keith, a Scotch Quaker. He was a man of thorough education and culture, and his first work in the colony was as principal of what is now known as the "Penn Charter School." Penn, when he founded that school, selected Keith to be its first teacher. He had been a Quaker of the Quakers, and was a member of the party who accompanied Penn in his continental tour of 1677. But now he revolted against the sect on several "points of doctrine" and set up an independent meeting- house of his own, where he preached a gospel mainly directed against the whims and inconsistencies of Fox. Keith was a powerful orator. The Orthodox or Foxite preachers then in the colony were mediocrities — or less — and the best of them was no match for George Keith. He was master of satire and ridicule, weapons to which the Orthodox Quaker dispensation of Church and state offered a broad and vulnerable target. Theaters — or "play- * About this time a good many of the Swedes in the lower counties sold their lands and left the colony. Some went to the other colonies — New York and Maryland— but most of them returned to Sweden. The Quakers, finding that the stubborn Lutherans resisted all their efforts at " convincement," resorted to petty annoyance and small persecution or proscription. In the first few years of union the Swedes had their share of public trust; but by 1695 all non-Quakers had been practically dis- qualified from share in the provincial government. It was estimated that at least 700 to 800 Swedes left the colony between 1685 and 1605. They were, in all respects of manhood, the most valuable of citizens and their loss could not be repaired. 229 WILLIAM PENN houses," in Quaker parlance — were, of course, interdicted in the colony. But George Keith soon made his independ- ent meeting-house the most popular place in town. At last his preaching became so grievous that the grand jury "pre- sented him" on charge of "reviling Samuel Jennings, and uttering and publicly declaring against the said Jennings sundry defamations, as witness": here followed a long array of "defamations." Jennings was a provincial magistrate or judge, in a court consisting of three. Keith was tried before the other two judges of Jennings's own court, by a jury of Orthodox Quakers. His guilt was therefore preordained. The sen- tence was a fine of five pounds sterling. The principal "defamation" upon which they convicted him was an as- sertion that, "if Jennings would hold his courts in the meeting-house on First Days and then preach in his court- hall on week-days, both the morals and the justice of the province might be bettered." Keith treated the whole proceeding with contempt. No effort was made to collect the fine. As a last resort he was expelled from the sect by the provincial meeting of minis- ters, and also by the ministers of West Jersey in general meeting at Burlington. This action was approved by the Grand Yearly Meeting in London.* * It must not be supposed that Keith preached a better doctrine than that of the Orthodox Quakers. On the contrary, he went back to the Simon-pure Antiuomianism of Saltmarsh, denounced all law and discipline in state or Church as heathen devices, ridiculed the officers of the law, and condemned every form of human restraint or justice. Among other things, he held that for a constable to arrest a malefactor by force was a sin against God equal to that of bearing arms in war. In fact, the modern reader of Keith's writings in the seventeenth century might easily imagine 230 IN PENN'S ABSENCE However, all this seed of righteousness seemed to fall on stony ground. Keith continued his preaching until, in the words of Janney, "it threatened to make a formidable schism in the society. ' ' But, just as hope seemed about to vanish, Providence intervened and averted the calamity. Keith suddenly felt a call to England, where he was soon after ordained an Episcopal clergyman — ' ' in reward for his treason to the Society of Friends and his defamation of its members, ' ' Gough says. It may be imagined that these dissensions, squabbles, and scandals, coming as they did in such rapid succession, added weight to the grievous burdens of injustice, financial embarrassment, and domestic bereave- ment already heaped upon William Penn. In May, 1696, Penn contracted his second marriage.* The bride was Hannah Callowhill, of Bristol, England. By this union Penn gained a sturdy helpmeet for his de- clining j^ears, and also, to a considerable extent, reenforced his waning fortune. Miss Callowhill was a somewhat ma- ture spinster, a broad-minded, hard-fibered, stalwart Eng- lishwoman, and, in the business sense at least, a Quakeress. She was the daughter of Thomas Callowhill, a Bristol mer- chant, who had amassed a snug fortune in the "West India that lie had before him the ravings of some Polish anarchist in the twen- tieth. His ability to jump from snch a platform to an Episcopal pulpit argues that he was an adventurer, without character or principle, faith or fidelity of any kind. But he was smart and, sometimes, amusing. * Curiously enough, one of Fenn's Quaker biographers (Lewis), in de- scribing this marriage, uses the phrase " led her to the altar." Lewis ought to have been expelled for that phrase. In Quaker estimation it was the rankest kind of paganism. lie should have said, in Orthodox Quaker form, " took her by the hand in presence of witnesses, signed the book, and then led her to the nuptial chamber." But " the altar," never! 231 WILLIAM PENN trade. This traffic consisted of importing sugar, molasses, and rum from the islands to Bristol and exporting English goods in return. Occasionally, when the market for Eng- lish goods happened to be slack, the voyage would take a triangular shape, the 'Hhird leg" being a cargo of human chattels from the "Gaboons" of West Africa to the isles of the Caribbean. The Callowhill family had been Qua- kerized by Hannah's mother, who was the daughter of Dennis Hollister, one of the first dozen or so "convinced" by Fox himself in 1643. All the force and vim of the family seemed to run in the female line. Abigail Hollister had always ruled Thomas Callowhill, and now her daughter Hannah was destined to dominate William Penn. It proved, however, a wholesome form of government. She at least succeeded in compelling Penn to bestow some attention upon his own business, to husband his resources somewhat, and to cut down his pension list of Quakers who had suffered for con- science sake. She also instituted a drastic system of ad- ministration .upon the Irish estate, by which it ultimately became productive of some revenue. In 1698 she sent Penn to Ireland for the purpose of completing some legal forms necessary to the change of administration. On his arrival at the Cove of Cork, from Bristol, he fell in with Story and another Quaker preacher, who induced him to attend the half-year meeting of Friends at Dublin. After that was over, the trio set forth on a missionary tour through the southeastern counties of Ireland. No doubt Story and the other preacher — Everrott by name — liked Penn's society. But another reason why they enjoyed his 232 IN PENN'S ABSENCE company was that they had not half a crown between them, while Penn's purse was plethoric. Just before leaving Dublin, Penn went to the horse-market and bought saddle- horses for the party — good Irish hunters, worth at least thirty guineas apiece. There was a law, or royal ordinance, in force in Ireland at that time prohibiting any Catholic from owning or using a horse worth over five pounds sterling. At this distance and in our time it is impossible to view such a law as anything but causeless despotism or gratuitous tyranny. Then, however, it was merely a measure of what King William considered "military necessity." His prin- cipal difficulty in quelling the insurrection of 1689- '91 had been due to the efficiency of the Irish light cavalry or mounted infantry in consequence of their superior horses. He determined that they should have no more light cavalry such as the Legion of Lord Clare or the Light Dragoons of Walsh and O'Donnel. He knew that horses worth only five pounds sterling could never be formidable as chargers ; so he fixed the limit of Catholic ownership in horseflesh at the valuation of five pounds (say $25) per steed. Now it also happened that the dress worn by Quakers at that time closely approximated the garb of Recollet friars. Both sects wore black* coats buttoned up to the chin, and hats with broad brims. Just as Penn and his party were crossing the boundary of the County Waterford * At tliat period the Quakers wore black mostly. The distinctive drab or " shadbelly " was a later invention, adopted, probably, for the purpose of readier recognition and to avoid the often unpleasant experience of being mistaken for Catholic friars in regions under the sway of King William. 233 WILLIAM PENN they were apprehended by a sergeant's guard or patrol of English dragoons, who made them dismount and seized their fine horses. In answer to Penn 's vigorous protest, the sergeant called his attention to the five-pound-sterling limit of value in papist horseflesh and declared that these fine Irish hunters they had were worth half a dozen times that price, at the same time explaining that he considered Penn and his companion friars of the Recollet or strict-observ- ance order, who were then viewed as the most dangerous and insidious emissaries and spies of Romanism to be found in Ireland. The upshot of this episode was that the ser- geant refused to believe even the documentary evidence of Quakerism that Penn showed him, and it was only by going eight miles out of his way to find the commanding officer of the patrol that Penn succeeded in recovering his horses. The officer then proposed to reduce the sergeant to the ranks and flog him for his stupidity ; whereupon Penn 's irrepres- sible goodness of heart asserted itself, and he begged the sergeant off with an eloquent plea that he did not know any better and was only doing his duty to the best of his understanding. The lesson of this episode is not far to seek. King Will- iam 's idea of "religious toleration" — in Ireland, at least — not only excluded Catholic men, but it also proscribed all horses of the Romish faith valued at $25 and upward! This was a policy that might be termed "thorough," if not strenuous. After this episode Penn and his companions spent a month or two in missionary work, and finally, in an inci- dental sort of way, he gave a day or two to the transaction 234 IN PENN'S ABSENCE of the business which had brought him to Ireland^ — that connected with his Shangarry estate — and then returned to Bristol, richer in religious growth but poorer in purse than when he went away. From this time Hannah Callowhill increased her influ- ence over William Penn. To her clear, firm, business-like mind he appeared to have passed the limit of self-control whenever or wherever religious excitement or sectarian zeal or the personal associations of his creed could get the better of his judgment. 235 CHAPTER X 1G99-1701 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS TO HIS PROVINCE CHAPTER X 1699-1701 PENN, WITH LOGxVN, RETURNS TO HIS PROVINCE In the meantime affairs in the colony had reached a stage of confusion bordering upon anarchy. Its wretched condition began to attract the unfavorable attention of the home Government. Lords Romney and Rochester, who were the only real friends Penn had in King William's Council, privately advised him of the danger and counseled him to go to Pennsylvania at once. They reminded him that the Peace of Ryswick (1697) had left King William free to look after the political concerns of the realm, and they assured him that the conditions prevailing in Pennsyl- vania were a subject of earnest consideration, the result of which might be permanently fatal to the Proprietary unless the causes of distrust were immediately removed. They told him that the King inexorably demanded three things, none of which then existed in Pennsylvania : First, a regular, stable form of government in which the rights of the people and the prerogatives of the executive should be clearly defined, scrupulously observed, and wisely carried into effect. Second, an adequate enforcement of law by judicial power, supplemented when necessary by physical force. 239 WILLIAM PENN Third, and most important in the imperial sense, a regu- lar and reliable provision for defense. This last, they assured Penn, was a sine qua non with the King. He was disgusted with the conduct of the Qua- kers toward Fletcher, his personal representative, and had more than once declared that he would take advantage of the present peace to establish in Pennsylvania a regime which the outbreak of another war would not find unpre- pared. To this Penn pleaded the "religious scruples" of the Quakers. They answered him that the King believed self-defense to be the first great law, a law that could not be superseded by so-called ' ' religious scruples. ' ' They said the King would not try to compel Quakers to go into the field and fight, but he would make them pay the costs of defense; if by their own appropriation, well and good; if not, he would find other means. They also reminded Penn that the charter itself reserved the right of taxation by Act of Parliament, and, if the colonial assembly would not levy and collect a tax for defense. Parliament would levy it and English soldiers would collect it. Penn desired audience with the King, but it was refused. William said : "I have nothing to say to Mr. Penn just now. But I shall be most happy to receive him and congratulate him when he shall have set his house in order. ' ' This state of things practically left Penn no choice. He either had to go to Pennsylvania and straighten out the tangled web there, or King William would put a permanent end to the whole farce — for farce it had become, and noth- ing else. On September 9, 1699, Penn embarked in the ship Can- 240 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS terbuiy, at Southampton, and arrived at Chester on Decem- ber 1st, after a rough voyage of nearly three months. His wife and his daughter Lffititia accompanied him. He also brought with him, in the capacity of secretary, a young man named James Logan, destined in after years to become the ablest and most useful Quaker ever connected with the Proprietary government. There was room for new blood and new fiber. Thomas Lloyd had passed away in 169-1, at the early age of forty- five, worn out and disheartened by brave efforts to accom- plish the impossible. William Markham was still alive and deputy-governor; but he was nearing threescore and ten, and was also worn out by nearly twenty years of unavailing effort to govern the ungovernable. He hailed Penn's ar- rival as a prisoner in a dungeon might hail the tidings of release ! Ever since the restoration of the Proprietary, in 1694, Markham had been striving to do exactly those things which, as recorded on a previous page, the King insisted must be done. He had failed in most directions; but he had managed to reunite the upper and lower counties on a more equitable basis of representation, and, to some extent, had mitigated the Quaker monopoly of offices, emoluments, and trade benefits. As for defense, he had enrolled a mi- litia, though with no provision for their pay or supply when in service, and he had succeeded in partially arming them, through the generosity of New York, Maryland, and Virginia. He had also to a considerable extent overcome the antagonism of the Quakers themselves to defensive measures, and there was a respectable element in the assem- bly ready to vote supplies when needed. To his great de- 17 241 WILLIAM PENN light, Markham found that James Logan — whom he knew Penn had brought over for important uses — agreed with him on this point, and that Penn himself, while not quite daring to disobey the commandment of George Pox, was willing to let the question of defense be settled affirmatively, provided some one else would shoulder the sin of it. Even William Penn had learned some lessons during ten years in the grim school of William of Orange. Having no house of his own in Philadelphia, Penn in- stalled his domestic establishment in one rented for the oc- casion. It was known as "the slate-roof house," stood on the east side of Second Street, between Chestnut and Wal- nut, and was one of the most commodious dwellings then in the town.* Here he resided until early in the spring of 1700, when the family occupied the mansion at Pennsbury Manor. In the ' ' slate-roof house, ' ' February 28, 1700, was born a son, named John Penn, the only one of Penn's chil- dren native to this country, and known in his day and generation as "the American." During the winter of 1699-1700 but little of importance was done. At the instance of the Proprietary, two acts were passed by the assembly, one providing for defense against piracy, and the other to break up the contraband trade. These acts had long been demanded by Colonel Quarry, King's judge of admiralty for the province, but until Penn's arrival without success. In consequence of this neglect. Quarry, who was the only direct representative of the King's authority in the province, had made strong ♦ This house stood in its original shape until about 1849, when it waa torn down to make room for a business structure. 242 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS representations to the home authorities concerning the weak and frivolous character of the provincial government, and these statements were the principal cause of King Will- iam 's dissatisfaction, already referred to. Penn's personal influence, however, proved sufficient to procure the passage of these bills, which, for the time being, satisfied the King's representative. The assembly, however, proved to be completely under the influence of David Lloyd, the leading Quaker lawyer of the colony, and Penn, by virtue of the power reserved to him in the charter, dissolved it. A new council and assembly were chosen, and convened April 1, 1700. This election disclosed the fact that David Lloyd had thoroughly established himself as the political boss of the majority in the province, and he waged a stout battle against the influence of Penn himself. But the personal prestige of the Proprietary, reenforced by threats of the royal displeasure, turned the scale. Lloyd was elected by his own constituency, but the majority he had hitherto con- trolled in the assembly was wiped out. His behavior dur- ing the political campaign, and particularly his defiance of King and Proprietary alike, had roused the resentment of the usually placid Penn. Not satisfied with defeating Lloyd's bossship in the assembly, Penn now determined to oust him from the Council. He was accordingly impeached upon charges preferred by Colonel Quarry. The Council, however, voted only to suspend him until he could have a judicial trial — which never occurred. Lloyd claimed that the vote for suspen- sion was a trick on the part of Penn to remove him from 243 WILLIAM PENN the Council and that there never was any intention of bringing him to trial. This was borne out by appearances. But Penn's supporters explained that the failure to try him was due to the conduct of his chief accuser, Colonel Quarry, who, after vexatious postponements from time to time, went to England and dropped the whole affair. Review of the meager evidence extant indicates that the trouble grew out of a personal quarrel between the King's judge and Lloyd, and that Penn threw his power into the judge's side of the scale, for reasons equally personal. It had the effect of suppressing Lloyd's bossism while Penn remained in the colony. But after the latter returned to England Lloyd resumed his activity and became, if possi- ble, more grievous than ever. He was a man of much ability, both as politician and lawyer. The history of the subsequent contests between him and James Logan — Penn's political representative — would, ynutatis mutandis, read very much like that of more recent trials of strength be- tween Senator Quay and John Wanamaker. In the long run Logan had the best of these contests, mainly be- cause he was backed by the power of the Proprietary and influence of the Crown. But Lloyd, at least, kept him busy. As previously observed, Penn went to live in the man- sion at Pennsbury early in the spring of 1700 — some of the documents say in April, some in May. The house itself vv^as built between 1681 and 1684. Its material was brick, mainly imported from England, though some of the brick used for the inside walls was made here. It fronted the Delaware River some distance (about one hundred rods) 244 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS from the water's edge. The slope upward from the river- bank at that point is very gentle, the lower floor of the house having been no more than twenty feet above mean high tide. The mansion itself was the most imposing structure of its time to be found anywhere between the Hudson and the Potomac, and but few in New York or Virginia surpassed it in size or elegance of furnishing. It had a front of sixty feet, with a depth of forty-two. The main walls were eighteen inches thick. It had two stories, and a high attic or garret used for servants' rooms. The lower floor had a hall eighteen feet wide extending two-thirds of the way back, and in rear of this was a small hall, used also as a reception-room. On either side of the great hall were two rooms, each about nineteen feet square. The two rooms on the north side were used as parlor and drawing-room ; those on the south side as library and dining-room, respectively. In the rear was a separate building about twenty by twenty-four feet, one story high, with an attic, and con- nected with the mansion by a covered way some fourteen feet long. This was the kitchen. Back of this again was a building of about equal dimensions known as "the brew- house," which was fitted with a complete apparatus for brewing ale or "strong beer." At each end of the main building was a structure about twenty -two feet square, a story and a half high. These were about twenty feet from the main building, and detached from it. One was used by Penn as his executive office, for public affairs, the other as the "steward's office," for the private concerns of the personal estate. 245 WILLIAM PENN Besides these structures there were stables for twelve horses, sheds for cattle, and a barge-house at the mouth of the tidal creek that flowed on the north side of the grounds. An inventory of the furniture in 1701 indicates an advanced degree of elegance, considering the time and place. Though somewhat mutilated and defaced in the original, Watson was able about seventy years ago to make out the following, for publication in his interesting Annals : Lower Rooms: Best parlor, two tables, one couch, two great cane chairs and four small ones ; seven cushions, four satin, three green plush and sundries more. Back parlor, two tables, six easy chairs, one great leather chair, a large clock, a pair of brasses (for the fireplace) and many small articles. Little Hall, six leather chairs and five maps. Great Hall, one long table and two forms, six chairs, pew- ter mugs, five mazarins, two cisterns (bronze urns with spigots) and sundry other furnishings. Dining room, plate, linen, damask, five sideboard cloths, with tankards, basins, plates, porringers, knives, forks, spoons and many small articles. Second Floor: Five bedchambers each furnished with bed, bedding, chairs, table, clothes-press, silk and flannel blankets, linen, white bed-curtains, damask curtains for windows, etc. ; and nursery, with pallet bed, two chairs for Master John, toys and sundry other small articles. The list of plate includes eighty-seven pieces, all sterling silver; of which three are " large chafing-dishes wuth things to burn spirits " and one " large double chafing-dish with gridiron." The steward's accounts (1701) show six horses; four for carriage and two for saddle; harness single, double and four-in-hand; one large coach, two small "leathern con- 246 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS veniencos" of two wheels, and a sedan chair and side-saddle, besides two men's saddles and two pillions. The cost of the mansion, with the furniture, is said to have been £7,800 — a sum in those days easily equivalent in purchasing power, to $100,000 now. Though the land was bought in 1681 and the mansion finished in 1684, it appears from the papers of James Logan that as late as 1700 but ten acres had been cleared for cultivation. This is some- what obscure. It jjrobably means the area then under the plow, because the reports of James Harrison during his stewardship indicate that land was systematically cleared every year. The original purchase by Deputy-Governor Markham in 1681 was between 6,000 and 7,000 acres. But for some reason not explained the actual deed calls for only 3,800. In this palace of its period Governor and Mrs. Penn kept open house and dispensed a stately hospitality to all comers, rich or poor, high or low, white or red, alike, from April, 1700, to October, 1701. It appears from fragments of correspondence extant that Miss Leetitia was not well pleased with the rural seclusion of the manor, and spent most of her time with friends in town, mainly the Shippens, Logans, and Markhams. She was now past twenty, buxom, handsome, and not so demure as Quaker maidens of that epoch are popularly supposed to have been. Her coquetries were evidently intended to be perfectly impartial. But one of her swains, an evidently calf-built youth, named William IMasters, claimed that she had promised to marry him, followed her to England, and, when she did marry 247 WILLIAM PENN William Aubrey, raised a vigorous protest, which, though it did not prevent the marriage, brought about a cruel estrangement between the Penns and the Penningtons.* During the two years of his second and final residence in Pennsylvania William Penn tried to do several things wise in themselves and calculated to improve the conduct of public affairs. The details of these efforts would be not only too prolix for our space, but too melancholy for good reading. He accomplished nothing except to further demonstrate — had further demonstration been needed — the futility of trying to adapt the doctrines of John Salt- marsh to the problems of popular self-government. He found that, no matter how beautiful his theories of universal toleration and unrestricted suffrage, he practically had to deal with an Established Church in fact, if not in name; and this misfortune was aggravated by the circumstance that, while the Established Episcopacy in England was an institution of law and could be held to some sort of tem- poral responsibility, the Established Quakerism of Penn- sylvania was in the air, spiritual, elusive to the sight, im- palpable to the touch, and irresponsible to itself or anybody else; but still an establishment, capable of thwarting everything, though incapable of creating anything. He must have realized in some degree the trials that had pre- cipitated Thomas Lloyd into an early grave, and brought even the robust and sanguine William Markham to a dis- * It is remarkable that no modern purveyor of fiction has seized upon this episode in Quaker high life as the theme of an " historical novel." Of course we do not refer to the innumerable throng of those who write shirt waist romances or the melodrama of the board-walk, but some real, stalwart, and strenuous artist. 248 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS heartened and desolate old age. Penn's last effort to get some kind of sensible legislation through what Governor Blackwell, in his sturdy Puritan wrath, had called that "monkey-house of an assembly," was the most dismal and humiliating failure of all. At the beginning of 1701 King William accused Louis XIV of not only violating the Treaty of Ryswick, but also of wantonly disregarding a subsequent compact concerning the Spanish Succession. "Louis," he said, sardonically, "so dearly loves treachery that he will not even keep a promise for his own benefit! He must be humbled again, and this time for good." William now formed a great coalition of England, Hol- land, the North German States, and Austria against France and Spain. Among his precautionary measures before de- claring war was to write autograph letters to the colonial governors warning them to be in readiness for self-defense by land and promising to look out for their protection by sea himself. One of these letters was, of course, sent to William Penn. He laid it before the assembly and re- quested action in accordance with the requirements of the King and home Government. The result is stated by con- temporaneous history, from a Quaker source : But finally, after some days spent in this manner, they sent their answer in writing, declining to comply with the King's requisition, assigning as a reason the taxes already levied and the quit-rents due. They stated, moreover, "that the adjacent colonies had done nothing in the matter, and therefore they postponed it to another session ; desiring that the Proprietary would represent their condition to the 249 WILLIAM PENN King, and assure him of their readiness to comply with his commands " as far as their religious persuasions ivould permit. ' ' The members for the territories made a separate answer, alleging that the lower counties, though most ex- posed, were in a defenseless condition, being without arms or ammunition, and having neither militia nor officers ap- pointed to command them. They prayed, therefore, to be excused from "contributing to forts abroad while they were unable to build any for their own defense at home. ' ' This answer shows that the members from the territories were less imbued with the principles of Friends, in relation to war, than those of the province, and doubtless this was one cause of their frequent disagreements, for the pacific policy of Penn could only be carried into practise by persons thor- oughly convinced of its feasibility. The Governor having received the Assembly 's answer to the King's letter, dismissed it; but little more than two weeks elapsed before he received information from Eng- land which made it necessary to issue writs for the im- mediate election of another.* Throughout this discussion Penn refused to take any responsibility upon himself. Though repeatedly requested by the assembly to lay his own views before them in wri- ting, he insisted that the King's letter was sufficient, and declined to express views of his own on the subject of armament or defense. This was, of course, evasion or "dodging," pure and simple. He did not dare to openly oppose the King. He shrank also from violating George Fox's fourth commandment. In this dilemma Penn adopted the ostrich policy. He may have saved his face with the Quakers by this feat, but he did not fool the King. * Logan MSS. as summarized by Janney. 250 PENN, WITH LOGAN, II E T U R N S It was this that caused the King, as soon as he heard of Penn's evasive behavior, to begin operations in Parliament for permanent transfer of Pennsylvania to the Crown. The fact was, though not known in the colony at the time, that Penn failed to keep a personal promise he had made as a condition on which the Proprietary was restored to him in 1694. The archives of the State Paper Office, Board of Trade Division, contain the following minute in Council : At the Committee of Trade and Plantations, Council Chamber at "Whitehall, the 1st and 3d of August, 1694 : Present a Quorum of the Committee. Mr. Secretary Blath- wayte offers the Memorial of William Penn, praying to be heard in his own person. Granted : The Committee being attended by Mr. Penn, who de- clared to their Lordships that if Her Majesty * shall be graciously pleased to restore him to the Proprietary accord- ing to the grants [of Charles II and the Duke of York, afterward James II] he intends with all convenient speed to repair thither and take care of the Government and pro- vide for the safety and security thereof, all that in him lies. And to that end he will carefully transmit to the Council and Assembly there all such orders as shall be given by Her Majesty in that behalf, and he doubts not but that they will at all times dutifully comply with and yield obedience thereunto and to all such orders and directions as their * The Queen was then in charge of the home Government, King William being absent commanding the army in Flanders. However, in this instance Queen Mary was only carrying out conditions the King him- self had prescribed three months before, on the eve of his departure from London. These conditions were that Pennsylvania must fall in line with her sister colonies in the system of defense, or he would place a permanent government there that would make lier do it. 251 WILLIAM PENN Majesties shall from time to time think fit to send for the supplying of such quota of men or the defraying of their part of such charges as their Majesties shall think necessary for the safety and preservation of their Majesties' domin- ions in North America. Fortunately for Penn, the existence of this document was not known to the assembly in 1701, when he was spar- ring with them over the King's letter and exhausting his arts of diplomacy to shift responsibility from his own shoul- ders to theirs. In this transaction Penn appears more dis- creditably than in any other of his career. It serves to ex- hibit the grip that Fox had fastened upon him, an influence capable of making him tread so closely upon the verge of dissimulation as almost to obliterate the line between that and dishonesty. In the debate of the assembly one devout old Quaker named Claypole declared that ' ' rather than vote a farthing for the wicked uses of war," he "would see the province ravaged by French pirates from the ocean or massacred by French Indians from Canada. It would be only persecu- tion for righteousness ' sake, and Friends knew how to suffer that." When it is borne in mind that this sentiment, though not often so vigorously expressed, dominated the counsels of the assembly, the folly of trying to address sense or reason to them must be self-evident. Penn succeeded better with the Indians. Whenever he could get a council of them together he was sure of having a deliberative body to deal with. Their mental processes were never "mysticized" by Inward Light. Under dates of September 13, 1700, and April 23, 1701, he held councils 252 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS with the Susquehanna and Conestoga Indians, respectively, and made treaties ratifying the purchase of lands in the Susquehanna Valley which had been initiated for him by Governor Dongan of New York in 1686. The latter had satisfied the claims of the Iroquois to those lands, based on conquest; but the "Susquehannocks" and Conestogas denied the right of the Iroquois to convey the title. Penn, in his turn, satisfied the two tribes first mentioned and received from them a deed. The area was indefinite, being bounded on the north by the southern limits of New York and on the south by the northern line of Maryland ; but neither of those boundaries was known in 1701. The Maryland line was, as already stated, established by Mason and Dixon in 1768, and the New York line by the Fort Stanwix treaty of Sir William Johnson the same year. The western boundary of the Sus- quehanna tract was not described at all, except by the words "as far to the westward as Maryland extends"; an expression also wholly indefinite in 1701. This territory was at once thrown open to settlement. In 1702 a tide of German, Swiss, Huguenot, and Scotch- Irish immigration to the region set in, and by 1727 more than fifty thousand people were settled in the present counties of Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York. They were all Lutherans or Calvinists, with a few Swiss Mennon- ites, and they and their descendants were the real makers of the Commonwealth. They made the state, while the Qua- kers were making the money. They pioneered the wilder- ness, subdued the forests, and held the Indians in check on the frontier, while the Quakers mostly huddled in Phila- 253 AVILLIAM PENN delphia and the smaller towns, devoting themselves to worship and to trade. A singular coincidence was that on the same day — August 16, 1701 — the Pennsylvania assembly refused to grant the supplies asked by King William, and the Earl of Ranelagh, Government leader in the House of Lords, in- troduced a "Bill for the Better Regulation and Government of Certain Provinces and Plantations." The bill was read twice and referred to committee with request that report be made after the recess. It provided, among other things, for annexation of West Jersey and East Jersey to New York, for revocation of Penn's charter with suitable in- demnity for personal loss or damage, and the incorporation of Pennsylvania as a representative Crown colony on the plan and system then existing in New York. This kind of news always travels fast. It reached Penn in fifty-two days, in a letter from his friend, William Popple, secretary of the Committee on Trade and Plantations. He decided to sail for England at once. An intimation that such a measure was contemplated had reached him about the end of August, but he did not then think it would be brought on until the next session. His first intention was to be absent only long enough to effect a better understanding with the King and ministry on almost any terms that would save his Proprietary ; then he would return to Pennsylvania and take measures, no matter how drastic, to bring about a practical and responsi- ble mode of provincial government. Though he had been in the colony less than two years, he issued in August writs 254 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS of election for the third assembly since his arrival. This alone was argument enough for a sweeping change, and he was ready to adopt any measure that the King and ministry might approve — even to a restriction of legislative powers. He believed he could accomplish all he desired in a year at most. Part of his program was that his wife and daugh- ter should remain at Pennsbury during his absence. In this, however, he counted without his host. Under date of September 8, 1701, he writes from Pennsbury to James Logan at Philadelphia: "I can not prevail on my wife to stay: still less Tishe. I know not what to do. Samuel Carpenter seems to excuse her in it." In another letter he says: "The going of my wife and Tishe will add greatly to the expense; more of living in London than of the passage. But they will not be denied." It is not difficult to understand the disinclination of the two women to stay in the colony while the husband and father went to England for a sojourn the duration of which they knew was beyond his control. Lsetitia, a young lady past twenty, fond of society, far too gay and sportive for the typical Quaker maiden accustomed to society of gentlefolk in England, could find poor substitute in the rustic circles of the new colony, where most of the people were poor and all struggling. She had already shown abundant signs of distaste for the strait laces and ex- cessive devoutness, whether real or simulated, of the pro- vincial Quakers. Not long after her return to England she renounced all connection with the Society of Friends, 255 WILLIAM PENN and was received into the Church of England. Though, as we have observed, gay and fond of pleasure, Laetitia Penn was of irreproachable character and far above the average of her sex in mental endowments.* Mrs. Penn's determination to accompany her husband had a different reason, and one far more practical. Since Penn's campaign in Ireland (1698) his wife had seen, as she could not help seeing, that he needed the guidance of her firm will and strong, clear mind, and this much more in England than in America, In the new country the field for missionary or itinerant work was limited by the small population, and also by the fact that in Penn's time most of the people were already "convinced." But in Europe the field was illimitable. And Mrs. Penn knew that, no mat- ter what the urgency of his business might be, he was at any moment likely to be diverted from it and persuaded to make a missionary tour whenever two or three itinerant and impecunious Quaker preachers, like Story and Ever- rott, could get hold of him. Realizing this, and knowing also that his whole fortune, with the work and sacrifices of * No authentic portrait of Ltetitia Penn is extant. She is described by a contemporary chronicler (Thomas Story) as " courteously carriaged and sweetly tempered in her conversation among us and also a diligent comer to meetings." She is also described as a large, handsome girl, closely resem- bling in countenance and complexion her father at her own age (twenty- two). From this description, and from her father's portrait painted when he was in Ireland with the Duke of Ormond, it may readily be understood that with his features softened into feminine contour and expression slie must have been a young woman of rare beauty. Her marriage to William Au- brey proved a misfortune. Aubrey was avaricious, exacting, suspicious, jealous, and tyrannical : a harsh creditor in dealing with her father and an oppressive husband to her. 256 PENN, WITH LOGAN, HE TURNS twenty years, himg upon the success of his present mission to Loudon, she most naturally and sensibly decided to see that he attended strictly to the momentous temporal busi- ness, even at the expense of spiritual privation. When all other preparations were complete, Penn ap- pointed Andrew Hamilton deputy-governor, James Logan secretary of the province, and an executive council of ten — eight of whom were Quakers — and who, in case of death or resignation of the governor, were empowered to act in his stead until a new appointment could be made. He then embarked witli his wife, daughter, and American-born in- fant son, and sailed from Philadelphia November 4, 1701. The ship was the Dalmahoy, strangely enough owned by and named for Colonel Dalmahoy, who had beaten Algernon Sidney in the parliamentary contest for Guilford in 1678, when Penn so ardently championed Sidney's cause. She cleared the Capes November 8th, having been detained two days at Newcastle. The voyage was marvelously quick for those days, the ship arriving at Portsmouth December 14th, only thirty-six days from the Capes, the "record run" of that era, so fas as can be ascertained. Penn went direct from Portsmouth to London, and, taking apartments in Kensington, proceeded energetically with his affairs. About two months afterward the bill that had been in- troduced in the House of Lords was withdrawn by Lord Ranelagh. This, presumably, was due to Penn's influence with certain members of the ministry. Lords Rochester and Romney in particular. There was, however, a powerful party in Parliament, largely Whigs, who believed that all i« 257 AV I L L I A M P E N N proprietary governments ought to be abolished and the direct authority of the Crown made uniform. This caused William Penn and Lord Baltimore to cease their disputes and join hands, one striving to hold his own in Pennsyl- vania, the other seeking restoration of the Maryland Pro- prietary, which had been taken aM'ay by the "Protestant Revolution" in that province in 1688- '89. Hardly had Lord Ranelagh's bill been withdrawn from the House of Lords when a similar one was offered in the Commons. This was believed to have behind it the personal influence of the King, who always operated through that body in preference to the upper house. The Bill of the Commons was introduced early in March, 1702. A few days afterward King William died suddenly from injuries inflicted by the stumbling and falling of his horse. His successor, Queen Anne, proved more indulgent toward Penn than William had been. There can be no doubt that the death of the King saved the Proprietary to Penn. Colonel Quarry had "completely poisoned his [the King's] mind toward Pennsylvania," as the Quaker writers unani- mously put the phrase, and William had fully resolved to have a government there that could be relied upon, a gov- ernment that would not — as the Pennsylvania assembly had done the previous year — reject his royal requests or defy the Proprietary along with him. Long afterward Dr. Franklin expressed the opinion that, whatever it might have been to Europe, the death of King William just at that moment was a misfortune to Pennsylvania, because it post- poned for many years the establishment of a governing system suited to sensible and practical men. At any rate, 258 PENN, WITH LOGAN, RETURNS all immediate prospect of a radical change disappeared with the change of sovereigns.* At the outset of her reign Queen Anne proclaimed that she would maintain toleration. The Society of Friends, at their yearly meeting in London, voted an address which William Penn was, of course, selected to submit, as the head of the sect. The text of this address seems to have been lost. It is described as brief and expressive of perfect fealty to the sovereign, with profound gratitude for the pledge of toleration. Her response, when Penn had read the address to her, was : Mr. Penn, I am so well pleased that what I have said is to your satisfaction, that you and your friends may be assured of my protection, and I sincerely hope for your welfare and happiness. f Anne proved the steadfast friend of Penn. She had seen him at court during the reign of her father, James II, knew his fondness for Penn's father, the admiral, and his kindly feeling toward Penn himself. Though Anne had taken sides against her father in the Revolution of 1688 and was estranged from him politically, she still respected his personal friendships and never missed an opportunity of graciousncss toward his old friends. It was asserted by * King William was not hostile to the Quakers as such ; hut he was unalterably opposed to their non-combatant doctrine, and held that any body of men who preached against self-defense were a dangerous element in any state and unworthy to have any share in its government. But in the purely spiritual sense he was tolerant enougli. The very last official act of his life was to approve a bill exempting Quakers from judicial oath, and providing that their solemn affirmation be accepted instead. f Oldmixon's Life of Queen Anne. 259 WILLIAM P E N N people hostile to Penn that the favor he found with Qiieeu Anne was due to the influence of the Duchess of Marlbor- ough, and that the good offices of the latter in this respect, as in most others, were well paid for; also that the indi- vidual who found a way to the favor of the duchess was not Penn, but his wife. There is not a particle of evidence to prove or even give color to this statement beyond the fact that Mrs. Penn was personally acquainted with the duchess, and sometimes vis- ited her on occasions of ceremony. The more probable theory is that Anne hoped to effect the termination of the Proprietary by purchase on behalf of the Crown, instead of compelling its surrender through drastic legislation, as intended by her predecessor. Color is lent to this theory by the fact that during the first year of Queen Anne 's reign negotiations were suggested by her advisers to Penn having purchase in view. And it is also true that these negotia- tions were from time to time renewed between 1703 and 1714, when the Queen died. During her whole reign, though it was a period of constant war both in Europe and America, she never allowed the slightest interference with Penn or his colony. And it is equally true that her favor to him and his was quite as marked after the Duchess of IMarlborough ceased to be influential at her court as it was in the height of the duchess's power. For these reasons, it would seem safe to assume that Penn dealt directly with the Queen and needed no intervention. No subject was more often received or more pleasantly treated at the court of Queen Anne than was William Penn. 260 CHAPTER XI 1702-1715 GOVERNMENT BY CORRESPONDENCE CHAPTER XI 1702-1715 GOVERNMENT BY CORRESPONDENCE From 1702 until the end, the life of William Penn makes a sad history. His colony grew rapidly, but he realized no benefit from it. On the contrary, his financial embar- rassments increased almost as fast as the colony grew. Re- maining in England, he tried to govern Pennsylvania by deputies and to shape its policy by correspondence. In both he failed. His lieutenants were in some cases strong men — as, for example, James Logan, the ablest of them all. But he had in David Lloyd an adversary on the spot, tire- less, relentless, and without scruple. Lloyd's system of political or party management was simple. He was against "William Penn, first, last, and all the time. Hardly had Penn left the province when Lloyd elected himself speaker of the assembly, and he held that post in spite of every effort to dislodge him. Lloyd, in a negative sense, could rule the province. Though he could not actually do anything, he could prevent everything. There is nothing of record to show that he was corrupt. He did not even resort to stealth or stratagem. He carried con- tests with a high hand. His whole impulse seems to have been a love of power for its own sake. He wanted to be 263 WILLIAM PENN deputy-governor, and his implacable hostility to Penn was mere resentment at the latter 's persistent refusal to appoint him. With the exception of Markham and Thomas Lloyd, Penn chose for his deputy-governors men outside the col- ony; and Thomas Lloyd and Markham were the only deputies capable of any success whatever in dealing with the fanatical rabble that was to be ruled. Even James Logan, able, patient, persistent, and untiring as he was, labored under the disadvantage of having been imported from England for the express purpose of holding office. That fact brought upon him the resentment of a majority of the earlier settlers. Thorough study of the documentary history, which is the only guide to judgment as to the conditions and require- ments of those times, has fixed in our mind a belief that the greatest mistake Penn made in his whole career was the personal fight he waged against David Lloyd during his second and last visit to Pennsylvania — 1699-1701. Had Penn been an adroit politician, he would have made Lloyd president of the council, instead of expelling him from it. He would have turned Lloyd's bossism to his own good and the colony's, instead of making it an element of discord and an instrument for disorder. All this could have been accomplished if Penn had humored Lloyd while he re- mained in Pennsylvania and if Penn had appointed Lloyd deputy instead of Hamilton when he went back to England. It is questionable whether any one could have converted the early Quaker regime into a serious, responsible, and effective government. But David Lloyd could have come 264 BY CORUESPONDENCE nearer to it than any other man available. He abundantly demonstrated his capacity to rule the assembly, frivolous and v/himsical as it was. Penn's policy toward him in a sense compelled him to use his control obstructively. It is fair to assume that a wiser policy would have led him to a better use of his power. Governor Hamilton died April 20, 1703. He was an executive officer of tried and proved capacity. He had been governor of the Jerseys, to the great benefit of the colony and to the satisfaction of its people. But he was powerless and his talents useless in Pennsylvania. He was assailed on all sides. In revenge for his efforts to organize a defensive militia, the Quakers accused him of ' ' conniving at piracy" and of '^ encouraging illicit trade." * The death of Colonel Hamilton gave Penn the oppor- tunity for a master-stroke. He might have appointed David Lloyd. True, Lloyd had no fixed principles, but he could control the Quaker assembly as its speaker. Was it not a fair inference that he could also shape its action as gov- ernor? As to policy, Lloyd would have adopted any that appeared favorable to his ambitions. He knew Penn would never return. His ambition was to be permanent deputy- * On this score the Quakers had a singular system of tactics. Every governor who tried to prepare for defense of the colony incurred their resentment. But they were extremely careful to avoid resistance as ex- pressed in legislative acts. They always stood in mortal fear of the home Government ; in trembling apprehension lest their charter should be re- voked. Therefore in any public resistance to providing means of de- fense, they were invariably circumspect and sinuous. In tlieir fear of King William they voted money for armament. But their private venge- ance knew no bounds. Every governor who proposed a scheme of colo- nial defense was secretly maligned and covertly libeled while he lived, his memory traduced and reviled after death. 265 WILLIAM PENN governor. In that capacity he would have done anything the Crown might require. As for his Quakerism, he was orthodox yesterday, moderate to-day, and ready to be heterodox to-morrow. Possibly his remarkable ascendency among the Quakers may have been due to the fact that he was the most colossal hypocrite in the province. A shrewd politician in Penn's place and in Penn's desperate straits at the time would have made these elements useful. After the death of Hamilton there was delay in select- ing his successor, the executive coimcil acting ad interim. This delay was due to a cause hitherto unknown in the ad- ministration of the colony. The Duke of Marlborough was then (1703) in full power, successor of King William in everything but the Crown. Knowing that war would be waged in America no less furiously than in Europe, he re- quired that the ministry should supervise any appointment Penn might make. This, of course, meant that the appoint- ment should be subject to Marlborough's approval. The final outcome of this situation was the choice of John Evans to be deputy-governor of Pennsylvania in February, 1704. He was the son of a wealthy Welsh Quaker named Thomas Evans, who had interests in Penn- sylvania, was, or had been, connected with the Free So- ciety of Traders, and was Penn's creditor at the time. John Evans was not a professed Quaker. In fact, there seems to be no historical evidence that he was a member of any sect, except that on general principles he was a Protes- tant. He was a graduate of Cambridge, had studied law, was an officer of militia, and had been defeated as a Whig candidate for Parliament. He was only twenty-six years 266 BY CORRESPONDENCE old when appointed deputy-governor of Pennsylvania. When he came over to assume his office Evans brought with him the eldest son of the Proprietary, William Penn, jr., a young man about his own age, whose career in the colony was brief and not brilliant, though somewhat noteworthy. We may now pause briefly to survey the general condi- tion of the province upon the advent of the new governor. Though only twenty-two years had elapsed since its first settlement, Pennsylvania now had a population of 26,000 white people, by enumeration, with about 4,000 negroes and 6,000 Indians, both estimated. Of the 26,000 whites, a small majority were Quakers, though the great tide of Ger- man, Swiss, Huguenot, and Scotch-Irish immigration had set in and was rapidly reducing the Quakers to a numerical minority, much to their dismay. Among the younger generation of Quakers themselves a considerable tendency to liberalism had begun to show itself, and their fathers viewed this as the harbinger of disaster. The most noteworthy feature of this tendency was a re- laxation of the tenet of non-combatantism and great dis- content with the old curfew law requiring public places to close — their front doors — at 9 o'clock p. m., which, by the way, had already been extended to 10 o'clock. Of the 26,000 inhabitants, the city of Philadelphia had about 8,000 and the towns of Chester, Newcastle, and Christeen (Wil- mington) about 4,000. The population of the towns, how- ever, was not wholly urban as to pursuits, because many who lived in the towns carried on agricultural operations in the immediate neighborhood. Considering the youth of the colony, a remarkable degree of comfort and even com- 267 WILLIAM PENN parative opulence prevailed. In the general sense it was already richer and more prosperous than some of the older colonies, being equaled or surpassed in that respect only by Virginia, settled in 1608; Maryland, settled in 1634; and New York, in 1614.* The New England colonies, though more populous, were not as rich per capita as those farther south, because the agricultural conditions there were less favorable and their subsequent commercial and industrial prosperity was yet to be developed. The War of the Spanish Succession was now in full operation, and the chief interest of the royal Government in its American colonies lay in their military strength, either for self-defense or for aggression upon French Canada. Hitherto the fighting Puritans of New England, with some assistance from New York — not very important — had borne the American brunt of the conflicts between Eng- land and France. They had made great efforts and suf- fered severe losses in King William 's war ; notably through the disastrous expedition of Sir William Phipps against Quebec. In the war now raging, Marlborough was deter- mined that every American colony should bear its full share of the burden, and Pennsylvania must abide the conse- * It may be interesting to state at this point the result of an enumera- tion ordered by King William in 1701 and completed in 1703 in each of the colonies. It was as follows: New Hampshire, 11,000; Massachu- setts, 71,000; Rhode Island, 10,700; Connecticut, 31,800; New York, 34,400; New Jersey, 14,400; Pennsylvania, 2G,000 ; Maryland, 24,800; Virginia, 69,000; the two Carolinas, 13,000. Total, 300,100. Georgia had not been founded then. Maine was part of Massachusetts. Vermont was included in New York, and Delaware was in Pennsylvania. The King's object in causing this enumeration was primarily to provide a basis for estimating the military strength of the colonies in the impending war. 268 BY CO U \l E S P N D E N C E quences. The duke, like his predecessor, King William, was in favor of terminating the proprietary government and asserting the sole authority of the Crown; but the Queen would not assent to that. She believed, however, that Pennsylvania must be brought into line with the rest of the colonies, and for this task Evans was selected. On his arrival Evans found David Lloyd in supreme control through the assembly, which he carried in his pocket. Almost the first act of Governor Evans was to issue a proclamation calling for the enrolment of citizens for serv- ice in the militia. James Logan in a letter to Penn, dated May 26, 1704, says that "the overseers of the press* were not willing to have the proclamation printed. ' ' Governor Evans then had the proclamation printed at his own expense. The "overseers of the press" tried to prosecute the printer, but were restrained by David Lloyd, who told them that the home Government would not want any better pretext for the subversion of the whole system and an assumption of control by the Crown. Evans reported the fact to the English colonial office and also to Penn, as a sample of what the Quakers understood "freedom of conscience" to mean when applied to any belief but their own. Other governors had tried to organize a militia, but they had first asked authority and supplies from the assem- bly. Evans organized the militia first, and then demanded an appropriation for its support. James Logan, in the * The overseers of the press were a commiltee of Quakers appointed as censors to prevent printing of " scurrilous, indecent, or immoral papers, ])amphlets, or books." They always construed that list to include every- thing opposed to their own creed or sect. 269 WILLIAM P E N N letter already quoted, says that the governor enrolled "three companies in this tovm [Philadelphia], three in Newcastle, two in Kent, and two in Sussex. ' ' Evans him- self reported that he had * ' enrolled a regiment of ten com- panies, of which all but three are in the territory [Dela- ware]. It is unequal, for that the seven companies come from less- than one-third the whole population and only three from the other two-thirds. ' ' Over this a fierce contest ensued between the governor and the assembly, and finally Evans dissolved the as- sembly and issued writs for a new election. Logan was with him on the question of self-defense. By their joint efforts David Lloyd's faction was defeated. The new as- sembly voted money, but the Quakers could not be induced to specify that it was for the organization and equipment of an armed force. They assigned part of it "to the gov- ernor" and part "to the Queen," thereby saving their con- sciences. The principal argument used by Governor Evans in this "campaign" was the evidence he had in his posses- sion showing that, unless the new assembly should be found willing to meet the requirements of the home Government in the matter of defense, the Crown would give the col- ony another dose of Fletcher, and this time a perma- nent one. The governor now completed the fort at Newcastle which his predecessor had begun. He also armed and equipped his militia with serviceable weapons and accouterments. His regiment was about six hundred strong, of whom only four were Quakers. The monthly meeting proposed to expel these from the society with all the odium that scold- 270 13 Y C () R R I^: S P N D E N C E ing could heap upon them, but were again restrained by David Lloyd, who told them that such action would not be viewed leniently by the home Government, that Evans was sent there to find a pretext for abolishing the charter, and they must avoid every appearance of contempt or disobedi- ence. The young militiamen were not expelled, but they were savagely ostracized from Quaker society. Affairs now went on with little or no apparent friction for some time. Evans, who was a shrewd politician, patched up a truce with David Lloyd and offered to make him a member of the council. This met with the earnest disapproval of the Pcnn faction, but Logan silenced that, as Penn's per- sonal representative, and for the first time in the history of the colony in the absence of the Proprietary himself har- mony, or the semblance of it, reigned. In April, 1706, a squadron of four fast-sailing frigates was fitted out at Louisbourg, Cape Breton, and sent to cruise off the coast between Long Island and the capes of the Chesapeake.* Its commander was De Castries, an enter- prising young officer who had "learned his trade" under Jean Bart and Duguay-Trouin. Very soon he had the whole coast in a state of terror. The British navy was w^eak in American waters that year. Two small English corvettes were guarding the Delaware capes. These De Castries chased up the bay almost to Newcastle. He landed at Lewes for wood, water, and fresh provisions, but did not molest the inhabitants except to take away some of their * Histoire de la Marine fran^aisp. Captain dc Castries was firand father of tlie marshal of the same name who was French Minister of Marine in Paul Jones's time. 271 WILLIAM P E N N live stock. Altogether he captured twenty-six English merchant ships, besides several fishing vessels, while on his station. Near the end of May, 1706, Governor Evans became ap- prehensive lest the French squadron, finding the Delaware estuary so feebly defended, should venture to attack Phila- delphia, lie determined to ascertain, by real experi- ment, what the behavior of the Quakers would be if their homes were actually invaded. He therefore caused a letter to be sent to him from New Castle announcing the near approach of the French squadron into the Delaware. Their landing at Lewes was already known to him ; also that they had chased the two English ships up the bay. The letter from New Castle exaggerated the landing at Lewes into the burning of the little town and a ravage of the whole settle- ment. Upon receipt of this letter, the governor had the news circulated through the town, mounted his horse, drew his sword, and called the people to arms, en masse, for defense of their firesides. The scene that followed beggars description. It hap- pened to be "weekly meeting." The meeting-houses were emptied. On every side could be seen frantic Friends sink- ing their plate and other valuables in the creeks or swamps, too wise even in their panic to bury them in the ground for fear the fresh-turned earth might betray them. Then all took to the woods with their wives and children. It was a veritable "hegira of the faithful." The Quaker part of Philadelphia — more than half — became absolutely depopu- lated. The shock of an eartlKjuake could not have wrought more devastation in society ; the eruption of a volcano like BY CORRESPONDENCE Mont Pelee could scarcely have made the town more dcso- hite. The Quaker population of the town was then at least five thousand. Governor Evans, in his explanation, said that only seven of them manifested the least intention of defend- ing their firesides or their helpless women and children! The rest fled and continued to flee. Some of them did not venture home again for two days. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, ' ' but this was the flight of the righteous. Governor Evans was alarmed at the effect of his ruse. He believed, before he tried the experiment, that if war and rapine came to their doorsteps, the Quakers would defend them. But if a mere alarm, and that a false one, could produce such a headlong stampede, such a breakneck bolt- ing in all directions, what might the actual sight of the enemy do ? He declared his belief that some of them would actually perish with terror at the sight of a French imiform or sound of a French gun. But he had one satisfaction : not one able-bodied man of any non-Quaker persuasion flinched. Even negro slaves asked for arms and ammuni- tion, declaring their intention to defend the homes whence their Quaker masters had fled. The total non-Quaker popu- lation of Philadelphia was about four thousand. Of these, nearly seven hundred able-bodied men assembled on So- ciety Hill with any sort of weapons they could flnd and demanded to be led against the invaders. James Logan, in a letter to Penn, dated in June, 1706, says : ' ' The people threw their goods into wells and all manner of holes, greatly to their damage ; . . . many of them fled, but were misera- bly insulted and menaced by those who bore arms ! ' ' Isaac 19 273 WILLIAM PENN Norris said, also in a letter to Penn: "Not a Frieud of any note behaved but as becomes our profession." — meaning, of course, that not a Quaker of any note failed to run. Stoughton, in his Life of Penn, says it was "an infamous trick." It would have been so but for the reasons which impelled it and the people on whom it was played. Wat- son, in his Annals of Philadelphia, with a sense of the ludi- crous remarkable in a Quaker, says that "the whole scene, such as it was, might afford subject for the poet's pen and the painter's skill." Undoubtedly, for the poet who wrote John Gilpin, or for Patch, who sketched The Retreat from Limerick. The incident found its way across the ocean and attracted the mirthful fancy of Dean Swift: "That," he said, "was, after all, nothing more than the general run of Quakers ! ' ' On the whole, this episode is passed over very briefly by historians of the sect. They condemn Evans, but do not dwell upon the subject. They took their revenge on Evans in other ways. He himself has described one phase of their vengeance. "For weeks afterward," he said, "they would stand on the other side of the street and make faces at me as I passed by. " As soon as they could compose their nerves sufficiently to sign their names to petitions, nearly all the Quakers of Philadelphia joined in a vehement demand upon Penn to remove Evans, but Penn at that moment was powerless to comply, even had he desired to do so. Evans had been forced upon him by members of the ministry, and their consent would be necessary in order to remove him. The only Quaker in the province, however, who knew that fact 274 BY CORRESPONDENCE was James Lo(;:aii. IVnn, in the circiiinstaiiees, was embar- rassed. He did not like to antagonize Evans without bet- ter cause. After several months of deliberation, he sent a long letter of admonition to Evans, who received it in a proper spirit. It is impossible to view the artifice of Evans in any other light than as unwarrantable, undignified, and mischievous. Moreover, it was unnecessary. He knew the pusillanimity of the Quakers just as well before he stam- peded them with a false alarm as afterward. He remained in office nearly three years after the episode and was ulti- mately removed, with the consent of his friends in the min- istry, however, and for other and more cogent reasons. Another event in Governor Evans's administration may be found much more exhaustively treated in the journals and correspondence in the Friends' Library. This is an escapade of young William Penn, in which the governor himself was involved. Young Penn had been sent to the colony at the beginning of the Evans regime. He was then twenty-five years old. On the death of his elder brother, Springett Penn, in 1696, he had become, imder the English law of primogeniture, heir apparent of the Proprietary, and his father desired him to live in the colony, become ac- quainted with its people, and familiarize himself with the conduct of public affairs. Young Penn is described by contemporary chroniclers as an exceedingly handsome, affable man, liberal in his views, generous, and disposed to extravagance. He was also convivial. His Quakerism was merely an affair of youthful education. He had never received the Inward Light, and when he grew up found the peculiarities of the 275 WILLIAM PENN sect irksome. The result was that at maturity he had no religious convictions whatever, and became dissipated to an extent that gave his father infinite trouble and sorrow. One, and possibly the principal, object William Penn had in view when he sent him to Pennsylvania was a hope that he might find there less temptation to vice and more in- centive to steadiness and application than in London. But the sequel proved that the yoimg man was either already too far gone on the wrong road, or intrinsically bad. The old court records of the colony contain the following entry :* 1704— 1st of 7th Mo. [September 1.] to wit: The Grand Jury do present some of the young gentry for an assault on James Wood, Constable and James Dough, Watch : ma- king riot at the Inn of Enoch Story by night, in Combes' Alley. Namely: William Penn, jun. gent; John Finney, Sheriff; Thomas Gray, Scrivener; and Joseph Ralph, gent. It is charged that Mr. Penn called for pistols to pistol the complainants, but none were seen. The keeper of the Inn, Enoch Story, was of the party but gave no hand and is detained for witness. An effort was made to implicate Governor Evans, though he was not named in the presentment. He proved that his presence was accidental, that he was passing along the street when the disturbance occurred, and he interfered to restore the peace. An alderman named Wilcox who was with the officers attacked the governor, who knocked him down. The Friend — a sort of general journal of the colony from the Quaker point of view — says (Vol. XVIII, No. 46) : "Alderman Wilcox availed himself of the darkness to fail * Watson's Annals, vol. i, p. 308. 276 BY CORRESPONDENCE in recognizing the Chief Magistrate, to whom he gave a severe drubbing," etc. This was written many years after the event. The testimony taken at the time describes Wil- cox as being himself "influenced by rum," and as "suffer- ing sundry bruises inflicted by the Governor's hand or cane." The case was never brought to trial, but the attor- ney-general, after investigation, brought the matter before the council, on information, reversing the action of the grand jury, and making the watch officers and Alderman Wilcox defendants. No further action was taken on either side, but the Lloyd faction of Quakers made great talk about it for a long time afterward, and the extant cor- respondence concerning it would fill a chapter of this work. It had, however, the effect of shortening young Penn's stay in the colony. He soon afterward sold the "Manor of Williamstadt, " containing 7,000 acres, which had been set apart for him by his father when he reached his ma- jority. This manor comprised the most of the present city of Norristown. Young Penn sold it to Isaac Norris and William Trent for £850 (say $4,250) and took passage for England in the frigate Jersey a few months later. Norris and Trent availed themselves of the young man's necessi- ties to drive a hard bargain. The place was then worth three times the price they paid, and its valuation in less than a lifetime was multiplied by fifty. Isaac Norris was the devoutest of Quakers and — in his letters, at least — the most devoted friend of William Penn. But the latter in a letter to Logan not long afterward ex- pressed strong disapproval of the hard bargain with his 277 WILLIAM PENN son. The devoutest Quakers were generally the shrewd- est. The remark of old Captain Blackwell that "each prays with his neighbor on First Days and then preys upon him the other six" was often exemplified. Students of history have doubtless noted a tendency to worldly thrift and business cunning on the part of races or peoples that have suffered religious persecution; for example, the Jews of the world at large, the Armenians of Turkey, the Mennonites of Russia, the Mormons of Utah, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and other less familiar sects. The logic may not be easy to trace, but the fact is incontest- able. Avarice and shrewdness, parsimony and cunning, seem to be products of religious persecution, and money seems to gravitate toward martyrs. In the early settle- ment of Pennsylvania the Quakers formed almost the whole population, and therefore had to practise their arts of thrift one upon another. This was the primary cause of their bickerings and dissensions. Later, when the large in- flux of non-Quaker immigrants furnished more desirable subjects for their skill, the Quakers developed a gratifying state of harmony among themselves. William Penn was already crushed under debt, half distracted by the dissensions between the assembly and his deputy-governor, and well-nigh hopeless for the future, when this new trial in his son's disgrace came upon him. He received different versions of the young man 's conduct, but none, not even that of the son himself, put any face on the affair as other than disgraceful and humiliating. In a letter to James Logan, dated December 11, 1704, Penn pours out his grief : 278 BY CORRESPONDENCE A melancholy scene enough upon my poor child. Penn- sylvania began it by my absence here, and there it is accom- plished with expense, disappointment, ingratitude and poverty. The Lord uphold me under these sharp and heavy bur- dens, with his [young William Penn's] free spirit. I should have been glad of an account of his expenses and more of a rent-roll, if I must perish with gold in my view but not in my power. To have neither supplies nor a reason of credit here [in England] is certainly a cruel circum- stance. I want to know what I have to stand upon and help myself with. He [young William] is my greatest affliction, for his soul 's and my country 's and family 's sake. Penn goes on to complain of the sale of Williamstadt without his knowledge, declares that they "did not send him word what the manor was sold for," but when young William arrived in England he ' ' drew a bill for £10 to ride two hundred miles home, which he performed in two days and a night. . . . See how much more easily the bad Friend's treatment of him stumbled him from the blessed truth than those he acknowledges to be good ones could prevail to keep him in possession of it ; from the prevailing ground in himself to what is levity more than what is re- tired, circumspect and virtuous." Penn's language in this, as in most of his letters to Logan, is involved, obscure, and even vague. It betrays a hesitation to speak freely about the conduct of Isaac Nor- ris, whose name he does not mention. This is one among many evidences in his correspondence that he was afraid of Norris, who subsequently proved to be his creditor in large amounts and who was at that time the richest Quaker 279 WILLIAM PENN in the colony so far as concerned ready money. Norris owed all his prosperity to Penn, who had aided him in every way during the first two or three years of the colony, and he now expressed his gratitude by driving a hard bargain with Penn's prodigal son and exacting usury from Penn himself. The truce between Governor Evans and David Lloyd was of short duration, A new assembly was elected in 1706. Lloyd carried it by a good working majority, was elected speaker, and fully resumed his negative control of the prov- ince. Its history during the rest of the Evans administra- tion was that of a deadlock between the executive and leg- islative branches. For two years no appropriation was made for the support of the government. Evans tried the expedient of collecting the arrears of quit-rents with a view to using the proceeds for the payment of public expenses. Lloyd put a resolution through his legislature to impeach the secretary of the province, James Logan. The governor and Logan retorted by an order in Council accusing Lloyd of high crimes and misdemeanors, among which was a charge, substantiated by several members of the assembly itself, that Lloyd had altered the text of acts and resolutions after the assembly had passed them. The events of this disgraceful squabble are too prolix as well as too disgusting for detailed description. If set forth in extenso they alone would fill a volume larger than this one. Unfortunately the personal behavior of Governor Evans was not of a kind to dignify the executive branch of the government. He was intemperate — sometimes grossly so — recklessly immoral, and had on more than one occasion 280 BY CORRESPONDENCE disregarded the plain letter of the law in official acts. His most scandalous act was the seduction of a pretty young Quakeress named Susan Harwood, though he provided for the child and subsequently induced a man to marry the girl. He was also accused of immoral conduct with Indian women at Conestoga and other native villages which he visited from time to time. He levied and collected by forco a tax on vessels passing up and down the river, using ther proceeds to buy ammunition for the channel defenses. This tax was not authorized by law, but Evans claimed that his- powers as commander-in-chief of the defenses carried with them the right of resorting to extreme measures when the assembly failed or refused to make proper provision. Finally, in May, 1708, Penn determined to remove Evans, and announced that purpose in a letter to Logan, under date of June 3. The material part of it is as follows : Thy silence since last 6th month gives me great uneasi- ness; since the virulent treatment of D. Lloyd, &c., can much sooner find its way to Philip Ford, and by him to G. W., W. M. and T. L., who have been with me at my lodg- ings, in Old Baily, to represent the state of the province, and render it very lamentable, under the present Lieuten- ant-Governor ; and unless I will discharge him, and put in a man of virtue, years, and known experience, and of a moderate spirit, they can not avoid laying the Assem- bly's complaint before the Queen and Council; in which they have enumerated all the faults, if not impru- dences, they can lay to his conduct. The alarm, the refusal of the law for courts, the New Castle law, to pay toll com- ing from, and going to, Philadelphia, and the violent strug- gle upon it; the affair of young Susan Harwood, and con- niving at the escape of the old one made from justice, and 281 WILLIAM PENN accompanying them to another province, for avoiding shame and punishment. To which they add a voyage to Susquehannah, with the vilest character of his, and his retinue's practises, in the families of the people at Cones- toga. My soul mourns under these things, for the very fame of them, but much more if true. I doubt not his regards for my interest, in the main, but this disjoints all, and cuts me down at once; so that I have been forced to think, much against my desire, of look- ing out another to put in his place; and, at last, I have found one, of whose morals, experience and fidelity, I have some knowledge, and of his family, forty years, also a recommending character from persons of great rank. And, he assures me, he intends to center with us, and end his days in that country, being forty-six years of age, and has sold his estate in Europe, to lay out his money there, and be a good freeholder among you. The ''one" to whom Penn refers in the foregoing was Colonel Charles Gookin. He was himself a Quaker, "con- vinced," as Penn himself had been, by the preaching of Thomas Loe. But his ancestors were Catholics, his grand- father, Sir Vincent Gookin, having been a devoted retainer of James I, who gave him a considerable estate of escheated lands in Ireland, Penn further says in the letter just quoted : He [Gookin] comes highly commended by Lieutenant- General Earle and Major-General Cadogan, and the In- goldsby family, as Avell as Major Morris, my Steward, and some friends in Ireland : and if he goes, it will be as one resolved to retire, and absolutely disposed to recommend himself to you by sobriety and thriftiness, rather than lux- ury or rapaciousness. Which I thought fit to communicate. 282 BY CORRESPONDENCE And pray break it to him [Governor Evans], and that the reason why I chose to change, rather than contest with the complaints before the Queen in Council, is, that he may stand the fairer for any employment elsewhere; which would be very doubtful if those blemishes were aggravated in such a presence. This letter betrays two tendencies which were now be- coming more and more characteristic of Penn. One was a disposition to avoid personal responsibility, the other to seek and accept advice from people of high rank and good standing at court, whether they really knew anything about the conditions or not. It was, of course, his own affair to notify Governor Evans, and he should have done so in a frank, formal, and official manner. He preferred, however, to have Logan ''break it to him" and explain, in a second-hand way, the reasons. Penn had never removed a deputy-governor be- fore, all others having been relieved at their own request or by death. It is probable that the weakening of his mind and will, which Hannah Penn not long afterward described as " a lethargic illness, ' ' was at this time beginning to affect him. Gookin arrived in Pennsylvania early in 1709 and re- lieved Governor Evans, who gave up the office without regret. The previous autumn, after being advised of Penn's intention to supersede him, Evans had married the daughter of John Moore, a young Quakeress said to be the belle of the colony. He remained several years in the col- ony, engaged in commercial pursuits in connection with his father-in-law, and amassed a considerable fortune. In 283 WILLIAM PENN 1717 his father died, and Evans succeeded to the estate in Wales. He then removed thither and lived to a great age. During his stay of eight years in the colony after being relieved of the governorship he lived at the Fairman man- sion, near the "Treaty Tree," and, with his beautiful and accomplished wife, dispensed a hospitality that became almost proverbial. As a "family man" his behavior seems to have been irreproachable. Once, about the middle of Gookin's administration, when the latter had brought the colony to the brink of anarchy, Hannah Penn tried to persuade Evans to resume the governorship, but he declined. He would not partici- pate in the politics of the province in any way, even re- fusing to vote at elections. After his return to England he continued his commercial pursuits, represented his county in Parliament, and for some years was high sheriff of Mon- mouth. He died in 1779, ninety-one years old. In the all-round sense, John Evans was undoubtedly the ablest of Pennsylvania's deputy-governors under Penn. But he was not adapted to the place by nature or by training. In fact, no one seemed able to manage the rabble except Penn him- self and David Lloyd — the one as an overpowering states- man, the other as a resistless demagogue. But Penn, as we have seen, never tried the difficult task c(uite two years at a time, while Lloyd, as we shall soon see, came to grief through the fickleness of his followers. Gookin 's administration began under flattering auspices. The assembly he found in power on his arrival was that of Lloyd. After a few months of vain effort to get along with that assembly, Gookin dissolved it and appealed to the 284 BY CORRESPONDENCE people. Then occurred that iiicalculabh^ l)heiiomenon of public upheaval known to modern political management as "a tidal wave." Not one man who had adhered to Lloyd in the previous assembly was reelected. Lloyd him- self was beaten, his adversary, Richard Hill, receiving nine votes to his one. Hill was chosen speaker. Lloyd was not only beaten politically, but, as the seciuel soon proved, de- stroyed professionally. Up to that time he had been the leading lawyer in the colony. Now clients shunned him, and those who had cases in his hands took them to others. Lawsuits were piled up against him by numerous creditors. He managed to pay his debts, but his property in Phila- delphia was swept away by the sacrifices necessary to do it. He then, in 1712, retired to a fine farm he, or rather his wife, owned within the present limits of Chester,* where he spent the ensuing six years meditating upon the ingratitude of republics in general and the instability of Quaker factions in particular. For four years Colonel Gookin's administration was marked by few events worthy of special note. He suc- ceeded in establishing a system of provincial defense on a sound basis. The assembly refused to authorize the rais- ing and equipping of a battalion of provincial troops to participate in an expedition against the French West Indies, but they almost unanimously voted £2,000 sterling ''as a gift to the most gracious Queen for her goodness to them," and £600 more to the governor "for the erection and maintenance of an official household suited to his rank." * Part of liis farm is now occupied by the great Tidewater Steel Works of Chester. 285 WILLIAM PENN The colony grew beyond all precedent. By 1714 its population had reached 60,000, more than doubling in eleven years. The immigration that caused this marvelous growth was very largely non-Quaker, nearly all German, Swiss, Scotch-Irish, and Huguenot. Seventeen thousand came in the two years 1712, 1713.* The immediate effect of this was to obliterate the former sectarian party lines, to overthrow the Established Quaker Church, and to create a new political system from the ground up. For a time the Quaker hierarchy in temporal power struggled desperately to breast the inpouring flood, but in vain. Individual in- terests proved stronger than sectarian cohesion, and by the end of Gookin's administration the regime of Quakerism I^ure and simple had gone to pieces amid the cry of ' ' Sauve qui pcut!" But if this consummation destroyed the hierarchy as a whole, it fabulously enriched the individual members. And, as they saw temporal power passing from them, the devout Quakers could console themselves with the flood of wealth in this world's goods that fairly engulfed them. In 1718, when Penn died, Pennsylvania had over 90,000 peo- ple and was the richest colony in America. But Penn him- self died insolvent, of disease that began while he was in Fleet Prison for debt. In 1714 Governor Gookin began to manifest symptoms of mental unbalance. He became morose, moody, and splenetic. History assigns no particular cause, except that * This was the first wave of the great tide that increased the popula- tion of Pennsylvania from about 26,000 in 1701 to 280,000 in 1761 and 360,000 in 1776. 286 BY CORRESPONDENCE his maternal grandfather died a maniac. The first public evidence of the governor's aberration occurred when a committee from the assembly waited on him with the usual official information that the body was organized and ready to receive his communications. This was in the month of March, 1715, and extremely cold weather — a blizzard, in modern parlance — had delayed the gathering of a quorum two days beyond the legal time of meeting. Gookin upbraided the committee for this tardiness and ordered them out of doors. They went, except the chair- man, who tried to remonstrate. Governor Gookin kicked the chairman down the front steps of the executive man- sion. Then he struck an attitude and exclaimed — in imita- tion, perhaps, of Cromwell threescore years before : "Go to your homes, ye palterers ! Ye are no longer an As- sembly ! ' ' Prior to that time there had been acute friction between the governor and the assembly over the question of reor- ganizing the provincial judiciary. It is only fair to say, without going into tedious details, that the assembly was right and the governor wrong on this issue. The assembly voiced the sense of the people, which was that the province, by reason of its phenomenal growth in population, industry, and trade, had outgrown the primitive judiciary system framed for the original colony, and the bill they proposed was mainly drawn by Roger Mompesson, who had been chief justice of Pennsylvania in 1706- '07, but at the time under consideration was chief justice of New York. Prior to that he had been appellate or reviewing judge in vice- * Colonial Records : Penn-Logan Corr. ; Hazard's Register. 287 WILLIAM PENN admiralty, by royal appointment, for all the colonies from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania inclusive. He was beyond doubt the leading jurist of his time in America and had few if any superiors in England. The assembly passed it. The governor refused to execute its provisions. He did not possess the veto power, but he could practically nullify a law by refusing to put it in operation — a most singular and dangerous anomaly, possible only in such semifeudal times and under such crude development of popular home rule. The result of this deadlock, described in the foregoing chapter, was a total suspension of judicial proceedings in the colony of Pennsylvania. There appeared to be no remedy. The assembly could not impeach the deputy ap- pointed by the Proprietary. The power of removal was vested wholly in William Penn. At that time he was in- capable of transacting business of any kind; was not even permitted to know the state of affairs, even could he have comprehended it. The situation was almost grotesque. In the colony a crazy deputy-governor. In England a Pro- prietary, sole source of executive authority, with softening of th(^ brain. The one apparently capable of no action but that which was wrong, the other incapable of any action at all. It was unquestionably the reductio ad absurdum of proprietary government. And it lasted two years. Finally Hannah Penn took the emergency in her own hands. Penn had made a will by the terms of which the Earls of Oxford, Mortimer, and Poulett were made trustees of the Proprietary government with power to transfer it to the Queen or to any other person. Hannah Penn was made 288 BY CORRESPONDENCE sole executrix of his private estate. This will had been made before Penn 's mind completely yielded to his malady. Though it could not become legally operative until the death of its testator, this will was made the basis of assumption of proprietary power by Hannah Penn, with the approval of the trustees. The law officers of the Crown approved it also, and the Queen assented. Hannah Penn then appointed Sir William Keith to succeed Gookin, and he assumed the office in March, 1717. In the meantime, before Sir William arrived in the colony, Gookin left it without even informing the council or assembly and went to England, where he arrived shortly after Keith sailed for America. Gookin 's object in going to England was, as he himself declared, to lay the state of the colony before the Queen. But he was quietly taken in hand by the law officers of the Crown, who subjected him to examination and declared him insane, or, to use the words of the finding itself, ' ' of unsound mind and deranged." Gookin was the last governor deputized by Penn. For the sake of form, the trustees and Hannah Penn had him sign Keith's commission. But, though he could still write his name, it was not believed that he knew what he was signing. However, as no one was inclined to question the proceeding, except possibly Gookin, who was himself insane, Keith became deputy-governor and held the office from March, 1717, to June, 1726. Here William Penn's connection with the government of Pennsylvania ceases, his last act that might be termed "official" having been performed unconsciously or without knowledge of its meaning. But, in order to avoid a sudden break in the history of proprietary government itself, it 30 289 WILLIAM PENN seems necessary to trace tlie succession to the end, which was fifty-eight years after Penn's death. Sir William Keith was the sou of a hereditary Scotch baronet of the same name and had been bred to public affairs. The first four years of his administration were signalized by harmony in all branches of government, re- forms in the judiciary system, revenue laws, and public in- struction. The Quakers from the beginning had maintained a theory of free public schools, but had never reduced it to a practical system. This was done under Sir William Keith. Pennsj^lvania can claim the credit of originating * ' common schools, ' ' as the term is understood to-day. The Act of 1721, providing for building schoolhouses at public expense, payment of teachers by direct tax levied for that purpose, and creation of territorial school districts, was undoubtedly the pioneer act of its kind known to the his- tory of civilization. Provisions somewhat similar existed at that time in New England, but there were some restric- tions and the basis was sectarian. The Pennsylvania sys- tem was absolutely free and wholly secular. Keith also placed the militia on a permanent footing, authorized by express act of the assembly and maintained by regular ap- propriation. The assembly that passed the "defense act," as it was called, had a small Quaker majority, notwith- standing that the sect was considerably less than half the total population. But many of the Friends supported the defense act. James Logan, who was then the leading Qua- ker m the province and president of its council, believed in the use of armed force whenever necessary to protect life and property against wanton aggression or to enforce the 290 BY CORRESPONDENCE laws. Those of the Society of Friends who voted for the defense act were guided by his advice. lie wrote a k'tter in which fine distinctions were drawn between the bearing of arms by an individual and the voting of money to be used for defensive purposes. "The conscience may and should govern the man," he said, "but to hold that one man's conscience should govern all other men is the most complete denial of liberty of conscience itself." He ad- vised all Quakers who conscientiously felt that they could not vote for defense to refrain from being candidates for the assembly, on the ground that "one man can have no right to assume duties affecting the welfare of the whole body, knowing beforehand that he will feel in conscience bound to obstruct the performance of any one of those duties. ' ' But perhaps the most remarkable act of Keith's admin- istration was the resurrection of David Lloyd from his agri- cultural seclusion at Chester and his appointment to be chief justice of Pennsylvania. This was the act of Hannah Penn as executrix of the Proprietary under her husband's will. James Logan acquiesced, saying in a letter to her that "he [Lloyd] is a good lawyer, of sound judgment, though pertinacious and somewhat inclined to vengeance. . . . But it is meet for us to hope that the meditations of private life these six years past have softened his asperities and brought him to a frame [of mind] in wdiich his unde- niable talents may be made useful. ... In high judicial office he will not be beset by the temptations of faction, and his learning in the law with his knowledge of the peo- ple's needs will make him a strong public servant. . . . 291 WILLIAM PENN For my own part, I forget the past, both as to myself aud as to our great and good friend [meaning William Penn], and leave his [Lloyd's] conduct in that past to the review of his own conscience!" Lloyd held the chief justiceship until his death, in 1731, and the relations between him and Logan in public affairs were marked by cordiality and confidence. But privately or socially they were never reconciled. 292 CHAPTER XII 1702-1712 PENN'S LAST DAYS AND HIS LETTERS TO LOGAN CHAPTER XII 17U2-1712 PENN's LxVST days and his letters to LOGAN From Peiin 's return to England, in 1702, until the end of his life the correspondence between him and the pro- vincial secretary, James Logan, embodies the most impor- tant or salient parts of its history. That Penn's intention was to return to Pennsylvania as soon as he should have set at rest the movement in Parliament against him and his Proprietary is abundantly indicated by his letters from 1702 to 1709. But while his letters to James Logan, Gov- ernor Evans, Judge Mompesson and others contain many announcements of such purpose, they are invariably quali- fied by an " if " or a " provided ' ' or other phrase calculated to keep the matter constantly in the conditional or the sub- junctive mood. This correspondence is interesting not only as a journal or "log-book" of history written on the spot, but also as an index to the character of Penn himself and as a current record of the gradual decay of his mind toward the end. The whole mass of this correspondence was given to the American Philosophical Society by Deborah Logan many years ago. As presented by her to the society it was in excellent preservation, considering its great age. Use of it, to a limited extent only, has been made by writers on 295 WILLIAM PENN Pennsylvania and its history, and in other works, since the middle of the nineteenth century. Taken together it is undoubtedly the most complete and consecutive volume of historical correspondence extant on any subject, and it has been enriched not a little by the annotations and comments of Deborah Logan herself, a woman of rare ability, culture, and grace. The present chapter of this work, therefore, will be based almost wholly upon this correspondence, part of which only has been printed in a book published by the Society of Friends and called Passages from the Life and Writings of William Penn, together with excerpts here and there from the original MSS. Penn's career in England from 1702 to 1712 may be divided into three parts : First, his efforts to prevent the absorption of his colony by the Crown on its own terms, or practically without his consent. In this he was successful. Second, his efforts to discharge his expenses and pay his accumulated debts by raising money on the value of his proprietary charter and his personal estates in Pennsyl- vania. In this he was sometimes successful and sometimes not, but in the long run he failed. Third, his efforts to sell his rights to the Crown on his own terms and with guaran- tees of certain special concessions and privileges to the Quakers. In this he failed, partly because of the stub- bornness with which he adhered to the interests of the Qua- kers as distinguished from other colonists, and partly be- cause of the malady which suddenly destroyed his capacity to transact business, in the year 1712. In the correspondence these three classes of effort are carried along together and can not be intelligibly separated 296 PENN'S LAST DAYS so far as concerns the letters themselves. The first impor- tant contribution to this epistolary history is a letter from Penn to Logan, the material part of which is as follows : London, 21st of 4th mo.^ 1702. Never had poor man my task, with neither men nor money to assist me. I therefore strictly charge thee that thou represent to Friends there, that I am distressed for want of supply; that I am forced to borrow money, and add debts to debts, instead of paying them off; besides, my uncomfortable distance from my family, and the unspeak- able fatigue and vexation of following attendance, drafts of answer, conferences, Council's opinions, hearings, &c., with the charge that follows them, guineas melting, four, five, six a week, and sometimes as many in a day. My wife hitherto has been maintained by her father, whence she is coming next week to Worminghurst on my daughter's ac- count, in likelihood to marry. I have been more sensibly touched for the honor of the country's administration than for myself. The scene is much changed since the death of the King. The church party advances upon the Whig, and yet I find good friends, though severely against some people's wills. I have had the advice of some of the wisest and greatest men in England, that wish me well, about bargaining with the Crown for my government. They all say, "Stay awhile, be not hasty"; yet some incline to a good bargain: and to let Quarry begone, and change him to another prov- ince, if we can do no better. Perry and the Lords of Trade have talked of our being Friends. Pray, mind my direc- tions in former letters, and make return with A\ speed, or I 'm undone. To this letter Logan replied, under date of "Philadel- phia, 17th, 7 mo., 1702" (September 17th) : 297 WILLIAM PENN We are sensible of thy great exigencies for want of suffi- cient supplies there, but I can see no better way to remedy it than those I am upon, when thy son arrives he will be a witness of our circumstances, and that I pretend nothing for the sake of excuse, but what we too feelingly experience to be true. Wheat, that when thou left us, was our best commodity, goes now begging from door to door and can rarely find a buyer. The cheapness of grain in England, allowing provisions from thence at much easier rates than our country will yet afford it. So that very few vessels have gone out this fall, which used to be the busiest time, and even these were long before freighted, and that, not fully. The merchants thus forbearing to buy, the country can get no money. Wheat, they offer in pay, but for that there is no vent, nor indeed are the merchants much better supplied. They buy goods of the vessels at 150 per cent, but how they will be paid, none can foresee — unless corn rise in England or a peace (which is not likely) open to us the Spanish trade. This province seems in danger of being brought to an ebb. . . . I can not advise against a bargain with the Crown, if to be had on good terms for thyself and the people. Friends here, at least the generality of the best informed, think gov- ernment at this time so ill fitted to their principles, that it renders them very indiff'erent in that point, further than that they earnestly desire thy success in vindicating the country's reputation, and that they may not fall a spoil to such base hands as now seek our ruin. Privileges, they believe, such as might be depended on for a continuance both to thee and them, with a moderate governor, would set thee much more at ease, and give thee an happier life as Proprietor only, than thou hast yet had as Governor; besides, that it would exempt thee from the solicitude they 298 PENN'S LAST DAYS are under, both from their own impotence and the malicious watchfulness of enemies. To this Penn rejoins under date of "London, 24th of 12 month, 1702" (Christian Calendar, February 24, 1703) : I never was so low and so reduced. For Ireland, my old principal verb, has hardly any money. England — se- vere to her — no trade but hither — and at England's mercy for prices, (save butter and meat to Flanders and the West Indies) that we must go and eat out half our rents or we can not enjoy them. I have great interest, as well as my son's settlement to deduct, with three or four per cent tax here and twenty or twenty-six per cent exchange from Ireland to England, to answer. I therefore earnestly urge supplies, and by the best methods, and least hazardous. . . . I know thy ability, I doubt not thy integrity, I desire thy application and health, and above all, thy growth in the feeling of the power of Truth; for that fits and helps us above all other things, even in business of this world; clearing our heads, quickening our spirits, and giving us faith and courage to perform. I am sorry to find by thine, thou art so much oppressed in thy station, and wish I could make it lighter. If my son will apply himself to business, he may, by the authority of his relationship, &c., render the post easier to thee. I know the baseness of the temper of too many of the people thou hast to deal with, which calls for judgment and great temper, with some authority. This year the customs upon goods from Pennsylvania amount to £8,000. The year I arrived there, 1699, but to £1,500, at the most. A good argument for me and the poor country. It has a greater regard here, and made the care of an officer, (as well as 299 WILLIAM PENN Virginia and Maryland) at the custom house. New York not the half of it. But oh! that we had a fur trade instead of a tobacco one, and that thou didst do all that is possible to master furs and skins for me, they bear more, especially such as thou sent me. Had I but two or three chests of them, I could have sold them for almost what I would ; 16, aye, 20 shillings a skin, at this juncture. . . . The gentleman who brings this (Judge Mompesson) is constituted Judge of the Admiralty of Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York, and is yet willing to be roif Attor- ney-General to rectify matters in law, and to put you into better methods, in which respect he is thought by the Judi- ciary here to be very able. Get him a sober, suitable house to diet in, as well as lodge. If you were together, 'twere to thy advantage in many respects. He is a moderate churchman, knows the world here, has been in two several Parliaments, and Recorder of Southampton — only steps abroad to ease his fortune of some of his father's debts he was early unwarily engaged for. He is a favorite of Lord Cornbury's father, the Earl of Clarendon. I have granted him a commission for Chief Justice, in case the people will lay hold of such an opportunity as no government in America ever had before of an English law- yer, and encourage him by a proper salary of at least £100, if not £150 per annum. My son (having life) resolves to be with you per first opportunity ; his wife, this day week, was delivered of a fine boy, which he calls William. So that now we are major, minor, and minimus. I bless the Lord mine are pretty well. Jolinne lively, Tommy a lovely, large child, and my grand- son, Springett, a mere Saracen, his sister a beauty. . . . I have sent some hats, one for Griffith Owen, and the other intended for Edward Shippen, which thou mayst 300 PENN'S LAST DAYS take, with this just excuse, that the brim being too narrow for his age and height, I intend him one with a larger brim ; for as soon as I saw it, I tokl the Friend who made it, I thought it handsome, though I pinch here to be sure. If my son sends hounds, as he has provided two or three couple of choice ones for deer, foxes, and wolves, pray let great care be taken of them. In the foregoing letter we see Penn's habit, common to all his correspondence, of mixing up state. Church, and family in the most charmingly patriarchal confusion. This is chiefly interesting as an index of his random mental habit, his tendency to think, or try to think, of many things at the same time, and his apparent inability to draw much, if any, distinction between public and private affairs. He seems to have considered his own life, private as well as public, an open book, which "he who runs might read." At any rate, he was always ready to take the whole world into his confidence, apparently so conscientious in self- assurance of right, probity, and honor on his own side that he cared nothing for any other point of view. It was a singular manifestation of the Ego, as metaphysicians say, and yet, though his career and character have been under close scrutiny and often subjected to malevolent in- vestigation during two centuries, nothing has been found to indicate that he could not submit his private affairs to the public gaze with impunity. But, irreproachable as William Penn's life may have been in the sense of freedom from wrong or scandal, he was no stranger to the arts of diplomacy. We have already shown that when, during his second visit to Pennsylvania 301 WILLIAM PENN (1G99-1701), the King wrote to him, as to other colonial governors, requesting that defensive measures be taken, he evaded the responsibility of personally indorsing the King's requirement before the assembly. Though that body, by resolution, requested him to lay the King's letter before them with a written message embodying his own views and advice in the premises, he adroitly avoided the issue by orally requesting the assembly to consider and act upon the King's letter as it stood, and declined to assume any per- sonal attitude whatever, pro or con. In 1703, after the death of King William, the same ques- tion came up and confronted James Logan, who was man- aging the affairs of the province pending the arrival of Governor Evans. Logan believed that the colony ought to defend itself. But he, too, was unwilling to assume the responsibility of advocating such a policy openly. There- fore, when the question confronted him in 1703, he re- ferred it to Penn in the following letter, dated September 2, 1703: By last post we have accounts from N. England that the French and Indians, joining to the eastward, have cut off several settlements, and killed and carried away 150 persons, a sore unexpected blow. The Governor having, even this summer, made peace by a solemn treaty with those very savages who have been chiefly concerned in the mis- chief. They are at open war with them now, having pro- claimed it at Boston al)Out fifteen days ago. The French have likewise settled among the Five Nations not at peace with them, and have their emissaries everywhere, those of Connecticut are also like to break with the English, as let- ters by the same post inform us. Indian Harry of Cones- 302 PENN'S LAST DAYS toga, is now here, and informs lis of the great endeavors of the French, but I have not yet fully discoursed with him. I wish thee could find more to say for our lying so naked and defenseless. I always used the best argument I could, and when I pleaded that we were a peaceable people, had wholly renounced war and the spirit of it, that we were willing to commit ourselves to the protection of God alone, in an assurance that the sw^ord can neither be drawn nor sheathed, but by his direction ; that the desolation made by it, are the declaration of his wrath alone ; that the Christian dispensa- tion is exclusively of peace on earth and good-will towards men ; and that those who will not use the sword, but by an entire resignation commit themselves to his all-powerful providence, shall never need it, but be safe under a more sure defense than any worldly arm. When I pleaded this, I really spoke my sentiments, but this will not answer in English government, nor the methods of this region. Their answer is, that should we lose our lives only, it would be little to the crown, seeing it is our doing, but others are involved with us, and should the enemy make themselves masters of the country, it would too sensibly touch England in the rest of her colonies. Manifestly, no more pointed request for the assumption by Penn of the personal responsibility that belonged to him could be framed. But he evaded it. On December 30, 1703, he wrote a reply to Logan's letter, just quoted, without the slightest mention of the subject of defense. Under the same date he wrote voluminous instructions to the council, in which he treats clearly and exhaustively of every subject before them except that of defense, concerning which his silence is profound. But he closes his instructions to the council as follows: 303 WILLIAM PENN I shall conclude when I have said I expect from you that you will maintain my just rights and privileges, both in government and property, granted to me by King Charles II, under the Great Seal of England, and by James, Duke of York, his Royal brother, and the constitution, laws, and customs, unitedly and universally signed and established in that government long before the coming of those troubles of our race amongst us ; for you can not think that I shall support them here, if you submit them there to the unjust, clamorous, and insolent practises of those notorious enemies to our public peace. It has been observed in a previous chapter that the cause of all Penn's troubles, so far as concerned the relations of his colony to the home Government, was the stubborn re- fusal of the Quakers to defend themselves. At the end it was one cause of the destruction of his government by the Continental Congress acting through the "supreme execu- tive council" in 1776. He certainly must have had views of his o^vn on the subject. More than once a crisis occurred at which both the home Government and his own subordinates were enti- tled to know where he stood. But he made no sign. In any one else, situated as he was, such silence would have been construed to indicate a want of moral courage. What was it in William Penn? The correspondence was closely maintained without any other development of historical importance until the "5th mo. 1704," when Logan writes a long letter detailing the factious proceedings of the assembly, the "pernicious activity" — as President Cleveland might have said — of David Lloyd, the unreasonable notions of the people eon- 304 PENN'S LAST DAYS cerning the use tliey ought to make of the privileges they already have and certain additional immunities to which they think themselves entitled. Logan concludes this let- ter as follows : I am at wit's end here. Since thou provided for them [the Quakers] an asylum where they may breathe free air and worship without fear of constables or risk of jail, their spirits rise to most exorbitant expectations and demands of further enfranchisement. This people think privileges their due, and all that can be grasped their native right ; but when dispensed with too liberal a hand, as not restraining licentiousness, may pro- duce their greatest unhappiness. Charters here are in dan- ger of consequences more fatal according as they are lib- eral; for some people's brains are as soon intoxicated with power as the Indians are with their beloved liquor, and as little to be trusted with it ! ... A well-tempered mixture in government is the happiest, the greatest liberty and surest property; and Commonwealth's men, being invested with power, have been known to become the greatest tyrants. This letter was followed by another dated October 3, 1704, in which Logan informs Penn that The people, getting advice of negotiation to sell [the pro- prietary] are alarmed lest some denial of privilege may befall them and the province carried loose from its safe foundation in equal rights of all. They lay siege to me for news and hopes. I can but say I know only what thou sendest, but am sure thy care will protect them in all things worthy of protection or for their real good. . . . The part thou hast hitherto had to manage in the world, will not suffer thee with any honor utterly to desert this 21 305 WILLIAM PENN people ; and on the other side, I can not see why thou should neglect thy own interest, while no more gratitude is shown thee. Were one * man from among us, we might, perhaps, be happy, but he is truly a promoter of discord; with the deepest artifice, under the smoothest language and pre- tenses, yet can not sometimes conceal his resentment of thy taking (as he calls it) his bread from him. This expres- sion he has several times dropped, overlooking his politics, through the heat of his indignation. In reflecting upon this subject, I can not but pity the poor misled people, who really design honestly, but know not whom to trust for their directors; they are so often told that things w^aut to be mended, that at length they are persuaded it is the case, and not knowing how to set about it themselves, believe that those who can discover the disease are the most capable to direct the proper remedies : how ends may be gained thus, is easy to imagine. I have a tenderness in my own thoughts for the people, but can not but abhor the appearance of baseness ; I believe in the whole Assembly, there are not three men that wish ill to thee, and yet I can expect but little good from them. Thy friends in the Council are disabled from serving thee with the country by their being so, for they are looked on as ill here as the court party at home, by those that some reckon the honest men of the country. I am sorry we have lost, this election, two or three good men that were in the last, as Samuel Richardson and Nicholas Wain, who is now pretty right, but especially my late landlord Isaac Norris, who was the chief man of sound sense and probity amongst them, and the greatest clog in their way. I have never been under a greater depression of thought than for these few months past : Thy estates here daily sink- ing by the country's impoverishment, with thy exigencies * David Lloyd, of course. 306 PENN'S LAST DAYS incroasino;, suffer me not to know what any of the comforts of life are. To this Penn responds under date three months later : As difficult as my circumstances are, and as mean a prospect as thou givest me of any supply, yet that hardly troubles me equal to the weakness, and worse, (I fear) of some of our folks in reference to your government matters. If, at a time when monarchs on this side the world, who will yet for some ages give law to that, seem almost of a mind to get as nuich power in their hands as they can, the people think such a law as thine mentions can succeed here, they are distracted, if not worse, for to say truth 'tis incon- gruous, and a mere bull in constitution as the case stands. They will leave no government for me to dispose of, but take it upon themselves, and neither acquit me for a Deputy- Governor these twenty-three years at my cost, nor so much as settle a maintenance upon this gentleman. By no means let the present Governor recommend himself to the Queen or me, to succeed in the government at so preposterous a rate. Will they never be wise? These Assemblies held so unwisely, as well as so hazardously, will, in the end, subject the whole to laws made for them in Parliament. I am sorry to have such a prospect of charges ; two houses and the Governor's salary, my son's voyage, stay and re- turn ; and no revenue nor Susquehannah money paid ; on which account I ventured my poor child so far from his wife and pretty children, and my own oversight. Penn- sylvania, what hast thou not cost me! Above £30,000 more than I ever got by it, two hazardous and most fatiguing voyages, my straits and slavery here, and my child's soul almost; as I have formerly expi-essed myself, but I must be short, — I shall be further loaded, instead of his coming being instrumental to relieve me. In short I must sell all or be undone, and disgraced into the bargain. 307 WILLIAM PENN Soon after this, under date of "London, 16th of 11th mo. 1704" (January 16, 1705), Penn resumes the subject of sale : Now, for the government, depend upon it I shall speed- ily part with it; and had I not given that Charter [the amended Charter of 1701] and got but £400 per annum fixed for Governor, and not made such good conditions for them, I had twice as much as I am now likely to get. If I don't dissolve it, the Queen will. [Meaning the amended Charter.] In another letter, written a few days after the fore- going, but sent in the same packet, Penn offers a sort of ultimatum : In short, upon my knowledge of the conclusion of this winter's Assembly, I shall take my last measure. When the prosperity that attends the country is talked of, and what they have done for me, or allowed my deputies, that have supported them against their neighbor's envy, and church attempts here, and there, [people] seem struck with admiration [wonder] ; and must either think me an ill man, or they an ungrateful people. That which I expected was, £300 or £400 per annum for the Governor, and to raise for other charges, as they saw occasion. And if they will not do this willingly, they may find they must give a great deal more, whether they please or not, [under a royal govern- ment.] I only, by my interest, have prevented a scheme drawn up to new model the colonies. I was told so by a duke, and a minister, too. For, indeed, if our folks had settled a reasonable revenue, I would have returned, to settle a Queen's government and the people together, and laid my bones with them; for the 308 PENN'S LAST DAYS country is as pleasant to me as ever. And if my wife's mother should die, who is now very ill, I believe not only my wife and our young stoek, but her father, too, would incline thither — who has been a treasure to Bristol, and given his whole time to the service of the poor; Friends first, (till they made eight per cent of their money,) and next the city poor, by act of Parliament, where he has been kept in beyond forms. He has so managed to their advan- tage, that the Bristol members [of Parliament] gave our Friends, and my father-in-law in particular, an encomium much to their honor, in the House. . . . I can hardly be brought to turn my back entirely upon a place the Lord so specially brought to my hand, and has hitherto preserved against the proud swellings of many waters, both there and here. My surrender is before the lords, a copy of which, and conditions, as also the report of the Attorney-General — as to the thirty-seven laws he excepts against, I send now that you may obviate them be- fore refused by the Queen ; the rest shall be confirmed — I can do no more ; and what with the load of unworthy spirits with you, and some not much better here, with my poor son's going into the army or navy, as well as getting into Parliament, through so many checks and tests upon his morals as well as education ; with the load of debt, hardly to be answered, from the dil^culty of getting in what I have a right to, of twice their value, which is starving in the midst of bread ; my head and heart are filled sufificiently with trouble; yet the Lord holds up my head, and Job's overrighteous and mistaken friends have not sunk my soul from its confidence in God. On February 17, 1705, Penn appoints Roger Morapes- son Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and in the letter ac- companying the commission he says: 309 WILLIAM PENN I went to Pennsylvania to found a free colony for all mankind of any nation, belief or circumstance that should go thither, more especially those of my own profession. Not that I would lessen the civil liberties of others, because of their persuasion, but screen and defend our own from any infringement on that account. The charter I granted, was intended to shelter them against a violent or arbitrary gov- ernment, imposed upon us; but that they should turn it against me, that intended their security thereby, has some- thing very unworthy and provoking in it; especially, when I alone have been at all the charge, as well as danger and disappointment, in coming so abruptly back and defending ourselves against our enemies here, and obtaining the Queen's gracious approbation of a Governor of my nom- inating and commissioning — the thing they seemed so much to desire. But as a father does not use to knock his children on the head, when they do amiss, so I had much rather they were corrected and better informed, than treated to the utmost rigor of their deservings. I, therefore, earnestly desire thee to consider of what methods law and reason will justify, by which they may be made sensible of their en- croachments and presumption ; that they may see them- selves in a true light, in their just proportions and dimen- sions, according to the old saying, Metiri se qiiemquc suo modulo ac pcde, verum est. No doubt these follies have been frequent and big enough to vacate their charter, but that should be the last thing, if anything else would do. I would hope — that in the abuse of power- — punishing the immoderate offenders, should instruct them to use it well. . . . There is an excess of vanity that is apt to creep upon the people in power in America, who having got out of the crowd, in which they were lost here, upon every little eminency there, think nothing taller than themselves but 310 PENN'S LAST DAYS the trees; and as if there was no after superior judgment to which they should be accountable. So that I have some- times thought, that if there was a law to oblige people in power, in their respective colonies, to take turns in coming over to England, that they might lose themselves again amongst the crowds of so much more considerable people, at the Custom House, Exchange, and Westminster Hall, they would exceedingly amend in their conduct at their return, and be more discreet and tractable, and fit for gov- ernment. In the meantime pray help them not to destroy them- selves. Accept of my commission of Chief Justice of Penn- sylvania and the territories ; — take them all to task for their contempts, presumption, and riots; — let them know and feel the just order and economy of government, and that they are not to command, but to be commanded, according to law and constitution of the English government. And, 'till those unworthy people that hindered an establishment upon thee, as their Chief Justice, are amended, or laid aside, so as that thou art considered by law to thy satisfac- tion; I freely allow the £20 at each session; which I take to be, at spring and fall ; and at any extraordinary session thou mayst be called from New York, upon mine, or weighty causes; having also thy viaticum discharged. After this Penn seems to have waited for developments. On September 14, 1705,* he answers a cheerful letter from Logan as follows : Thy letter of the 11th of 12th mo. contains four points. First, the late quiet state of government amongst you. Could I promise myself the continuance thereof, I should * For the convenience of the reader we shall henceforth translate the dates of this correspondence into the language of the Christian calendar, 311 WILLIAM PENN be induced never to part with it. The surrender is not yet effected, nor do I know when it will. . . . I am well pleased with the Governor's speech, and as little pleased with the Assembly's answer. I have not yet surrendered, and unless I can do it upon very valuable terms, I will not ; and, therefore, expect three things : 1st. The condemnation of David Lloyd's proceedings, as thou speakest of, and that, whether I surrender or not. Since one or t'other shall make no difference as to my coming and inhabiting there, and placing some of my children among them. 2dly. That no law be passed, nor privilege granted, by my Lieutenant-Governor, till they have settled a revenue of £1000 per annum upon the government, at least. I, too, mournfully remember how noble a law I had, of exports and imports, when I was first in America, that had been worth, by this time, some thousands a year; which I suspended receiving for a year or two, and that not without consideration engaged by several merchants. But T. [Thomas] Lloyd, very unhappily for me, my family, and himself, complimented some few selfish spirits with the repeal thereof, without my final consent, which his commission required. And that has been the source of all my loads and inabilities to support myself under the troubles that have occurred to me on account of settling and maintaining that colony. For I spent upon it £10,000 the first two years, as appears by accounts here in England, which, with £3000 I overspent myself in King James's time, and the war in Ireland that followed, has been the true cause of all my straits I have since labored under ; and no supply coming from Pennsylvania between my first and second voyage, (being 15 years,) to alleviate my burdens and answer my necessities; — to say nothing of what my Deputy-Governors have lost me, from the beginning, even in Fletcher 's time, and the vast sum of money I have melted away here in London, to hinder much mischief against us, 312 PENN'S LAST DAYS if not to do us much good — which I can solemnly say has not been less, communihus annis, than £400 a year, which comes to near £10,000. Lord Baltimore's two shillings per hhd., with anchor- age, tonnage, and other immunities, is a supply far tran- scending what I can hope for, though he never took the hundredth part of the concern upon him that I have done : and when they gave it to him, they were in poorer cir- cumstances than Pennsylvania is now, by many degrees. And I am ashamed to tell thee how approbriously our people's treatment of me has been styled by people of almost all qualities and stations. . . . I do again a little complain of thee, to thee : for thou hast shifted thy judgment about selling the government. One time sell it with all speed, and another time keep it. One time sell all ; perplexities in property staring us in the face, as well as those in government ; another time, govern- ment only, and go thither and enjoy myself quietly, in the evening of my time, with my family and friends, and it would much advance my property. And thou advisest me to sell government, and the millions of rough lands remain- ing — Tjeing about thirty millions of acres, unless the lakes divide me. Now the opinion I have of thy abilities, (as is well known to our secretaries and great men here,) makes me stagger under diversity of directions. I know also thou hast two or three good heads in thy intimacy, and, that I make myself believe, love me and wish me well, that are good assistants to thee ; and I wish I had your solemn final resolve what I shall do. The foregoing excerpts may serve to exliibit the scope and tenor of all the official correspondence between the Pro- prietary and his subordinates from 1702 to 1708. The parts reproduced form only a small fraction of the whole. For 313 WILLIAM PENN the rest the subjects are mainly religion, the behavior of young William Penn, the care of Pennsbury Manor, the family affairs of his particular friends in the colony, in- cluding several instances of patriarchal advices on such subjects as the marriage of some friend's daughter or selec- tion of a trade for the son of some other friend, and fre- quent injunctions as to dealing with the Indians. It is, we think, difficult to resist the impression that Penn had during these years an ulterior purpose in his tentative and protracted bargaining with the Queen's officers for the sale of his Proprietary. There never was a time during the whole seven years inclusive when the deal could not have been closed in a week had Penn been suffi- ciently in earnest to relax the extraordinary and, in some respects, absurd terms he steadily proposed, not only on his own behalf but on that of " Friends. These special terms were quite at variance with the oft and loudly pro- claimed doctrine of universal equality; but his excuse for them was that transfer of control to the Crown might re- sult in ascendency of the Church of England in the prov- ince, and with it ostracism and even political disfran- chisement of the Quakers similar to that then prevailing not only in England but in most of the American colo- nies themselves. However, the real or main purpose of this dawdling policy, though thinly disguised, clearly seems to have been the use of the negotiations as a threat held over the provin- cial government in the hope of forcing or frightening its discordant factions into good or endurable behavior. In this he was partially successful. Evans imdoubtedly used 314 PENN'S LAST DAYS the threat with telling effect iu the campaign of 1705, which resulted in the defeat of David Lloyd's faction in the assembly and temporary retirement of that indefati- gable boss to his farm at Chester. It also seems clear that by the year 1708 Penn had begun to realize that his plan of government was a failure, and that, whatever may have been his motive in opening negotiations for the sale of his Proprietary to the Crown in 1703, he began to take a serious view of it in 1708 or 1709. At that time the pressure of debt and the loss of other re- sources forced him to view his colony as a source of revenue. His tenants would not pay the quit-rents, and to compel them by distraint would disclose a weakness in his system which, for obvious reasons, it was his policy to conceal. That weakness was his inability to enforce his own laws. With this fatal defect once officially exposed the officers of the Crown would naturally inquire why they should buy something that did not exist ; why they should pay a price for a ''government" that did not govern; and, in logical sequence, why they should not take it, as King William already had done, temporarily, by force ? The only chance he had of realizing on his Proprietary was by sale outright, and he must effect the bargain before the patience of the home Government should be wholly exhausted. And, from 1708- '09 till his mind gave way in 1712, that was his real aim. At the very outset, however, of these earnest negotia- tions a new and unexpected misfortune overtook him. In order that this event may be clearly understood and its effect upon his already weaning fortunes fully comprehended, 315 WILLIAM PENN it is necessary to say that, in 1689, he appointed Philip Ford steward of his personal estates in the province, vice James Harrison, who had held the position from 1681. Lest some might charge us with bias or prejudice, we will let another writer, a Quaker, describe Ford and the means through which he found the way to the confidence of William Penn. We quote from the Pemberton MSS. (see also Janney, pp. 499 et seq.): Philip Ford was a man of respectable standing ; a mem- ber of the Society of Friends and much esteemed by Penn, who employed him in the management of his estates, placing implicit confidence in his integrity and accepting his ac- counts without scrutiny. In a letter to Thomas Lloyd and others (five members of the Council) dated December — , 1685, he thus speaks of Ford, who was one of the first buy- ers of land in Pennsylvania, though residing in England: "I would have you forthwith take care and order Philip Ford's city lot for his ten thousand acres and his hundred and fifty acres to be laid out the very next of all that is not taken up, for he deserves of the whole country to be pre- ferred, for the good of it has neglected the advancement of his own." Ford died in 1705, leaving to his heirs certain alleged claims against Penn, These claims were made up of un- reasonable connnissions charged upon large transactions that had passed through his hands for many years, and of certain advances on which he calculated compound interest every six months at eight per cent (the law allowing only six per cent). By such means, though he had received from Penn or his estates £17,000 and could show vouchers for expendi- ture of only £16,200 in his behalf, he brought the Proprie- tary in his debt to the amount of £10,500. 316 PENN'S LAST DAYS Penn had passed Ford 's accounts from time to time with- out sufficient examination, and finally, to secure the debt, gave Ford a lien upon the Proprietary in the form of what would in these days be called a "cutthroat mortgage." In that shape Penn let the affair rest until, when Ford died, his widow and son, Philip Ford, Jr., instituted foreclosure pro- ceedings. When Penn was advised of these facts he wrote to James Logan under date of December 28, 1705 : I offered upon the adjusting the accounts, (against which I have great and equitable exceptions,) that the half should be then presently paid, and the other reasonably secured; and that, as I desired not to be a judge in my own case, I did propose to refer it to Friends of their and my own choosing. Both which, (after three years agitation,) they refused. On which, I complained to the meeting they be- longed unto; and had it not been for the young man's late illness, which hindered their attendance on the meeting, that adjourned from week to week, mostly on that account, they had been disowned by the meeting, or had stopped their proceedings in chancery. Those people have been very dil- atory, false, and changeable, as well as insolent and unman- nerly ; and their strength is not their cause, but their abet- tors — some of the worst among you, and of such here as have long laid a design to supplant both me and mine. I hope the Lord will disappoint them, to their shame. The reason why they will not refer their case, is supposed to be the blackness and injustice of the account, which by chancery they hope to stifle, and have the oppressive sum allowed, being upon security. But my counsel, (esteemed the top of that court,) assures me otherwise; and then, their £12,000 pretense must bear a considerable abatement ; whose 317 WILLIAM PENN accoiints, though so vohiminoiis, have been, through Provi- dence, rather than by my carefulness, preserved entire; having never opened them since the family delivered them sealed to me, 'till on this occasion. Some of the exceptions thereunto are these : First, He received more moneys of mine than ever he paid for me, as appears from the account enclosed. Second, That the pre- tended sum amounts to that height by an unreasonable and voracious computation of compound interest every six months (sometimes sooner,) at six, but oftener at eight per cent. Third, The unusual and extravagant sum he sets down as salary money, for paying himself out of my money — and 21/^ per cent for money advanced, when the custom here is but 1/2 per cent. Fourth, That he did not set down any of the times on which he received £8,000 of my money, whereby one might bring the account to a balance — but continued the first sum advanced, which was £2,800, and the compound in- terest thereof, reckoned every six months; with other de- mands, as aforesaid. There are many things more which I can not insert, by reason of the shortness of time. Friends' letter, with many subscriptions [signatures] is come to hand. My dear love to them all, and let none be concerned about the lands they purchased, either before or since my last being among you, for care was taken therein : and let them know, that I neither have, nor willingly shall surrender, since they desire I should not. The widow Ford, however, did not adopt Penn's view of the case, but brought suit, with David Lloyd for counsel in the province and Sir Simon Harcourt in England. This lawsuit dragged along until November, 1707, when a judg- ment was rendered against Penn for £3,000, including costs in one of three separate cases, and an appeal was taken to the High Court of Chancery. Penn refused to give the 318 PENN'S LAST DAYS double security required and was put in Fleet Prison. Isaac Norris (then in England) describes this event in a letter to James Logan as follows, under date of January 10, 1708 : Governor Penn was, last fourth day, arrested at Grace Church street meeting, by order of Philip Ford, on an exe- cution on the special verdict for about £3,000 rent. He has, by the advice of all his best friends, turned himself over to the Fleet. I was to see him last night, at his new lodgings in the Old Bailey. He is cheery, and will bear it well ; and, 'tis thought, no better way to bring them to terms. At some, there are hopes of a composition ; at other times, they appear cold and hardened : so that there is no judgment beforehand how it will terminate. I have taken some pains, and some- times seem to have an interest with them ; but when they get with their lawyers all is blown. This act of theirs, with the aggravation of dogging to a meeting, makes a great noise everywhere, but especially among Friends; and people, who had not troubled them- selves before, now appear warm, and I hope still a good issue. The Proprietary Governor of Pennsylvania lay in the debtors ' prison nine months and eleven days, from January 7 to October 18, 1708. Isaac Norris visited him occasionally. Under date of March 6, 1708, he writes to James Logan : Our Proprietor and Governor is still in the Fleet [Fleet Prison] . Good lodgings ; has meetings there, is often visited and lives comfortably enough for the circumstances. He has freedom of the garden and all in charge are kind to him. His health though, I fear, may suffer not alone from confine- ment, but from the total of his burdens on every hand. Meantime Norris, Thomas Callowhill, and others be- stirred themselves, both in England and in Pennsylvania, 319 WILLIAM PENN to effect a compromise with the Fords and also to raise the money necessary for their satisfaction. After many con- ferences and much squabbling, the widow agreed to accept £7,500 in full of all claims of the Ford estate against Penn. That amount was soon raised by subscription, about £3,000 in England and the rest in Pennsylvania. The fund was placed in the hands of trustees, to whom Penn executed a mortgage on the Proprietary and his personal estates, pay- able in nine years at six per cent interest, compounded an- nually, to be divided when paid pro rata among the sub- scribers. Among the largest subscribers to this fund was Joshua Carpenter, who but a short time before had resisted collection of the quit-rent and made a test case at law, as stated in a previous chapter. For the first six months Penn bore up well. His confine- ment w^as by no means rigorous, and he was allowed every privilege but that of egress from the prison. In the last three months, however, his health began to fail. He became despondent and frequently brooded over the wrongs that had been visited upon him by those he most implicitly trusted. He could not comprehend how any man could be devout as Philip Ford was in religious profession and ob- servance and at the same time so rapacious and unprincipled in worldly affairs. He knew that the outside world, both in England and America, viewed the whole aft'air as a case of "Quaker eat Quaker," and bestowed little sympathy on the victim. His letters to Logan, Norris, and others, while the case was pending, indicate that he more keenly felt the scandal and opprobrium it cast upon Quakerism than the wrong done to himself. 320 PENN'S LAST DAYS When released from Fleet Prison he was quite ill and barely able to endure the journey to his home at Brentford, only nine miles distant, and on arrival there he was pros- trated several weeks. His malady is described in the old letters as ' ' a dropsical gout, with swelling of the lower legs and feet, much lassitude and feebleness of mind as well as of body at times." From this he rallied about the beginning of the year 1710 and resumed control of his affairs. lie also removed from Brentford to a country-seat called Ruscombe, in the Berkshire Hills, where he passed the remainder of his life. He now resumed negotiations for the sale of his Proprie- tary. These operations dragged slowly along, the delay being caused by his determined adherence to certain conditions which the officers of the Crown would not accept. These conditions were partly based upon material considerations and partly upon principle. On the material considerations he was willing to yield somewhat. For example, he began by demanding that one-tenth of the lands embraced in the grant of Charles II should be considered his personal estate in fee under the Crown the same as under his Proprietary. This the Queen's officers would not admit. They would only agree that he should hold in fee such lands as had already been actually taken up by him for his own use or as estates for his children. On this point he yielded early in the year 1712, or rather he agreed to a compromise by virtue of which he and his family were to have about 800,000 acres in fee under the Crown, in lieu of all other rights under the original grant, including arrears of quit-rents, the rest reverting to the Crown. 22 321 WILLIAM PENN On the considerations we have described as matters of principle he was inflexible. They were, in the main, stipula- tions that there should be no Establishment of the Church of England in the province and no use of public money for sectarian benefit; that there should be no abridgment or qualification of suffrage or test of eligibility to office within the province; and the implied right of Parliament to tax the colony reserved in the original charter should be con- strued, as it hitherto had been, to involve only indirect taxes, such as duties on imports, and not to include direct taxation upon property or income. Finally, after nearly two years of debate, the officers of the Crown yielded all these points of principle and a new charter or constitution was drawn. It was modeled in most respects after those of New York and New Jersey, except that the Church clause was omitted and the question of suffrage left to be determined by the people of the province. During this period, when all hope of success along his original lines had been abandoned and Penn was struggling to save as much as he could from the wreck — or what he considered the wreck — of his Proprietary, his patience must have been something more than human to have kept at least some trace of bitterness from his soul. His patience was, indeed, wonderful, almost miraculous; but the ingratitude of those whose fortunes he had made and the reeking selfish- ness of those for whom he had created an asylum of freedom and prosperity at last wounded him beyond endurance. By the middle of the year 1710 he could see his way clear. The eventual sale of the Proprietary was assured. 322 PENN'S LAST DAYS He then addressed a letter to the people of the province at large through the president of the council, Edward Ship- pen. This was a remarkable production, in most respects the ablest state paper to be found in the entire collection of his writings. Its tenor was plaintive rather than condemna- tory, but it set forth with greater force than condemnation could the neglect, the wrongs, and the ingratitude that his colony in general and his own sect in particular had visited upon him in return for his benefices. The letter is dated '^London, June 29, 1710," and it is addressed to ''My Old Friends." (Selected Writings, pp. 515 et seq., Friends' Library) : It is a mournful consideration and a cause of deep afflic- tion to me that I am forced by the oppressions and disap- pointments that have fallen to my share in this life to speak to the people of that province in a language I once hoped I should never have occasion to use. But the many troubles and oppositions I have met with from thence oblige me in plainness and freedom to expostulate with you concerning the causes of them. . . . For this reason I must desire you all, even of all professions and degrees (for, although all have not been engaged in the measures and actions that have been taken, yet every man who has interest there is, or must be, concerned in them by their effects), I must therefore, I say, desire you all, in a serious and true weightiness of mind, to consider what you are, or have been doing ; why matters must be carried on with these divisions and contentions ; and what real causes have been given, on my side, for that opposition to me and my interest, which I have met with, as if I were an enemy, and not a friend, after all I have done and spent both here and there : I am sure I know not of any cause whatsoever. Were I sensible you really wanted anything of me, in the relation between us, that would make 323 WILLIAM PENN you happier, I should readily grant it, if any reasonable man would say it were fit for you to demand, provided you would also take such measures as were fit for me to join with. Before any one family had transported themselves thither, I earnestly endeavored to form such a model of government as might make all concerned in it easy ; which, nevertheless, was subject to be altered as there should be occasion. Soon after we got over, that model appeared, in some parts of it, to be very inconvenient, if not impractica- ble. The numbers of members, both in the Council and As- sembly, were much too large. Some other matters also proved inconsistent with the King's charter to me; so that, according to the power reserved for an alteration, there was a necessity to make one, in which, if the lower counties (the Territories) were brought in, it was well known at that time, to be on a view of advantage to the province itself, as well as to the people of those counties, and to the general satisfaction of those concerned, without the least apprehen- sion of any irregularity in the method. Upon this they had another charter passed, nemine contradiccntc, which I always desired might be continued while you yourselves would keep up to it and put it in prac- tise ; and many there know how much it was against my will, that, upon my last going over, it was vacated. But, after this was laid aside (which, indeed, was begun by yourselves in Colonel Fletcher's time), I, according to my engagement, left another, with all the privileges that were found con- venient for your good government; and, if any part of it has been, in any case, infringed, it was never by my appro- bation. I desired it might be enjoyed fully. But, though privileges ought to be tenderly preserved, they should not, on the other hand, be asserted under that name, to a licen- tiousness: the design of government is to preserve good order, which may be equally broke in upon by the turbulent 324 PENN'S LAST DAYS endeavors of the people, as well as the overstraining of power in a Governor. I designed the people should be se- cured of an annual fixed election and Assembly; and that they should have the same privileges in it that any other Assembly has in the Queen's dominions; among all which this is one constant rule, as in the Parliament here, that they should sit on their own adjournments; but to strain this expression to a power to meet at all times during the year, without the Governor's concurrence, would be to distort government, to break the due proportion of the parts of it, to establish confusion in the place of necessary order, and make the legislative the executive part of government. Yet, for obtaining this power, I perceive, much time and money has been spent, and great struggles have been made, not only for this, but some other things that can not at all be for the advantage of the people to be possessed of ; particularly the appointing of judges ; because the adminis- tration might, by such means, be so clogged, that it would be difficult, if possible, under our circumstances, at some times to support it. As for my own part, as I desire nothing more than the tranquillity and prosperity of the province and government in all its branches, could I see that any of these things that have been contended for would certainly promote these ends, it would be a matter of indifference to me how they were settled. But, seeing the frame of every government ought to be regular in itself, well proportioned and subordinate in its parts, and every branch of it invested with sufficient power to discharge its respective duty for the support of the whole, I have cause to believe that nothing could be more destructive to it than to take so much of the provision and executive part of the government out of the Governor's hands and lodge it in an uncertain collective body ; and more especially since our government is depend- ent, and I am answerable to the Crown, if the administra- tion should fail, and a stop be put to the course of justice. 325 WILLIAM PENN On these considerations, I can not think it prudent in the people to crave these powers ; because, not only I, but they themselves, would be in danger of suffering by it. Could I believe otherwise, I should not be against granting any- thing of this kind, that were asked of me, with any degree of common prudence and civility. But, instead of finding cause to believe the contentions that have been raised about these matters have proceeded only from mistakes of judg- ment, with an earnest desire notwithstanding, at the bottom, to serve the public (which, I hope, has still been the induce- ment of several concerned in them), I have had but too sorrowful a view and sight to complain of the manner in which I have been treated. The attacks on my reputation ; the many indignities put upon me in papers sent over hither into the hands of those who could not be expected to make the most discreet and charitable use of them; the secret insinuations against my justice, besides the attempt made upon my estate ; resolves past in the Assemblies for turning my quit-rents, never sold by me, to the support of govern- ment ; my lands entered upon without any regular method ; my manors invaded (under pretense I had not duly sur- veyed them), and both these by persons principally con- cerned in these attempts against me here; a right to my overplus land unjustly claimed by the possessors of the tracts in which they are found; my private estate contin- ually exhausting for the support of that government, both here and there, and no provision made for it by that coun- try ; to all which I can not but add the violence that has been particularly shown to my Secretary; of which (though I shall by no means protect him in anything he can be justly charged with, but suffer him to stand or fall by his own actions) I can not but thus far take notice, that, from all the charges I have seen or heard of against him, I have cause to believe, that had he been as much in opposition to me as he has been understood to stand for me, he might 326 PENN'S LAST DAYS have met with a milder treatment from his prosecutors ; and to think that any man should be the more exposed there on my account, and, instead of finding favor, meet with enmity, for his being engaged in my service, is a melancholy con- sideration. In short, when I reflect on all these heads, of which I have so much cause to complain, and, at the same time, think of the hardships I and my suffering family have been reduced to, in no small measure, owing to my endeavors for, and disappointments from that province; I can not but mourn the unhappiness of my portion, dealt to me from those, of whom I had reason to expect much better and different things ; nor can I but lament the unhappiness that too many of them are bringing upon themselves, who, in- stead of pursuing the amicable ways of peace, love, and unity, which I first hoped to find in that retirement, are cherished a spirit of contention and opposition, and, blind to their own interest, are oversetting that foundation on which your happiness might be built. Friends ! the eyes of many are upon you ; the people of many nations of Europe look on that country as a land of ease and quiet, wishing to themselves in vain the same blessings they conceive you may enjoy ; but, to see the use you make of them, is no less the cause of surprise to others, while such bitter complaints and reflections are seen to come from you, of which it is difficult to conceive either the sense or meaning. What are the distresses, grievances and oppressions, that the papers, sent from thence, so often say you languish under, while others have cause to believe you have hitherto lived, or might live, the happiest of any in the Queen's dominions? Is it such a grievous oppression, that the courts are established by my power, founded on the King's charter, without a law of your making, when upon the same plan you propose ? If this disturb any, take the advice of other able 327 WILLIAM PENN lawyers on the main, without tying me up to the opinion of principally one man, whom I can not think so very proper to direct in my affairs ( for I believe the late Assembly have had but that one lawyer among them), and I am freely content you should have any law that, by proper judges, should be found suitable. Is it your oppression that the officers' fees are not settled by an act of Assembly? No man can be a greater enemy to extortion than myself. Do, therefore, allow such fees as may reasonably encourage fit persons to undertake these offices, and you shall soon have (and should have always cheerfully had) mine, and, I hope, my Lieutenant's concurrence and approbation. Is it such an oppression that licenses for public houses have not been settled, as has been proposed ? It is a certain sign you are strangers to oppression, and know nothing but the name, when you so highly bestow it on matters so inconsiderable ; but that business I find is adjusted. Could I know any real oppression you lie under, that it is in my power to remedy (and what I wish you would take proper measures to remedy, if you truly feel any such) , I would be as ready, on my part, to remove them, as you to desire it ; but according to the best judgment I can make of the complaints I have seen, (and you once thought I had a pretty good one,) I must, in a deep sense of sorrow, say, that I fear the kind hand of Providence that has so long favored and protected you, will, by the ingratitude of many there, to the great mercies of God hitherto shown them, be at length provoked to convince them of their unworthiness ; and, by changing the blessings, that so little care has been taken by the public to deserve, into calamities, reduce those that have been so clamorous and causelessly discontented to a true but smarting sense of their duty. I write not this with a design to include all ; I doubt not, many of you have been burdened at, and can by no means join in, the measures that have been taken ; but, while such things appear under 328 PENN'S LAST DAYS the name of an Assembly, that ought to represent the whole, I can not but speak more generally than I would desire, though I am not insensible what methods may be used to obtain the w^eight of such a name. I have already been tedious, and shall now, therefore, briefly say, that the opposition I have met with from thence must at length force me to consider more closely of my own private and sinking circumstances in relation to that prov- ince. In the meantime, I desire you all seriously to weigh what I have wrote, together with your duty to yourselves, to me, and to the world, who have their eyes upon you, and are witnesses of my early and earnest care for you. I must think there is a regard due to me that has not of late been paid ; pray consider of it fully, and think soberly what you have to desire of me, on the one hand, and ought to perform to me on the other ; for from the next Assembly I shall ex- pect to know what you resolve, and what I may depend on. If I must continue my regards to you, let me be engaged to it by a like disposition in you toward me. But if a plurality, after this, shall think they owe me none, or no more than for some years I have met with, let it, on a fair election, be so declared; and I shall then, without further suspense, know what I have to rely upon. God give you his wisdom and fear to direct you, that yet our poor country may be blessed with peace, love, and industry, and we may once more meet good friends, and live so to the end, our relation in the Truth having but the same true interest. I am, with great truth and most sincere regard, your real friend, as well as just Proprietor and Governor, William Penn. Viewed as an arraignment it would be difficult to add anything to or take anything from the foregoing letter. Whether or not Penn intended it to be his "Farewell Ad- dress," circumstances made it so. The particular feature 329 WILLIAM PENN of the letter likely to attract the attention of historical students is its assumption that Penn's ideal of success was possible under any circumstances, dealing with any race, class, or sect of people living in the seventeenth century. From this point of view and adopting Penn's own esti- mate of cause and effect, the conclusion seems irresistible that he was at least a century ahead of his time in concep- tion of possibilities in popular self-government, and alto- gether Utopian in his theories of actual administration. As individuals, man for man, the Quakers may not have been more ungovernable than members of other sects. But as a sect, en masse, they were totally so and could not have been otherwise, for the very basis of their creed was the Saltmarsh doctrine of universal anarchy. The proposed new bill of rights or constitution included provision for a permanent militia organization which, as in the other colonies, was to be armed and munitioned by the colony, but maintained by the Crown whenever embodied for service outside the province ; in other words, the regular provincial establishment of military force. The officers of the Crown also agreed to a clause allowing affirmation in lieu of oath in case of all persons holding religious scruples on that subject. In June, 1712, the negotiations were com- pleted. The amount to be paid by the Crown was £12,000, in four annual instalments. This agreement between Penn and the Queen's commis- sioners — two members of the Committee of Council on Trade and Plantations and the Solicitor-General — did not conclude the transaction. It had yet to be ratified by Act of Parliament. But Penn seems to have considered it an 330 PENN'S LAST DAYS accomplished fact, lliulcr date of July 24, 1712, he ad- dressed to the provincial council — Messrs. Carpenter, Ship- pen, Hill, Norris, Pnsey, Preston, Owen, Story, and Ellis — the following letter of notification : KuscoMBE, Berks, 24th 5th mo. 1712. Dear and Worthy Friends : Plaving so fair an oppor- tunity, and having heard from you by the bearer, John French, I choose by him to salute you and yours; and all unnamed friends that you think worthy, for my heart loves such and heartily salutes them and theirs, and prays for your preservation in the Lord's everlasting truth, to the end of time ; and the way of it is, to take the Lord along with you in all your enterprises, to give you right sight, true counsel, and a just temper or moderation in all things; you knowing right well the Lord our God is near at hand. Now know, that though I have not actually sold my government to our truly good Queen, yet her able Lord Treasurer and I have agreed it, and that affair of the prizes, the bearer came hither about, is part of the Queen's payment, viz., her one-third ; and the other comes very opportunely, that be- longs to me, which I hope J. Logan will take care of, in the utmost farthing, and remit it to me first, to whom I suppose orders will go by this opportunity from the treasury, to that effect. But I have taken effectual care that all the laws and privileges I have granted to you, shall be observed by the Queen 's Governors, &c. ; and that we who are Friends shall be in a more particular manner regarded and treated by the Queen. So that you will not, I hope and believe, have a less interest in the government, being humble and discreet in our conduct. And you will find all the charters and proprietary gov- ernments annexed to the Crown, by an Act of Parliament, next winter; and perhaps Col. Quarry, if not J. Moore, 331 WILLIAM PENN may happen to be otherwise employed, notwithstanding the politic opinion of one of my officers in that government, that is still for gaining them, which I almost think impossi- ble. But be that as it will, I purpose to see you, if God give me life, this fall, but I grow old and infirm, yet would gladly see you once more before I die, and my young sons and daughter also, settled upon good tracts of land, for them and theirs after them, to clear and settle upon, as Jacob's sons did, I close when I tell you that I desire fervent prayers to the Lord for continuing my life, that I may see Pennsyl- vania once more before I die, and that I am your faithful, loving friend, William Penn. On the same day he wrote a private letter to Logan, of which the part relating to the sale is as follows : I rejoice that I am yet alive to write to thee, and if ever thou lovest me, or desirest my welfare, show it now, I pray thee, in my poor concerns, though I hope I have made an end with the Lord Treasurer about my business (twelve thousand pounds, payable in four years, the price ; with certain stipulations,) which I recommend to thy great care and diligence; for since the Lord has continued my life, I hope by the same token, to see an end of my incumbrances. The latter part of oeptember Penn, with his family, paid a visit to the Callowhills at Bristol. He seemed on a fair road to recovery from his malady, of which he had suffered a slight attack in August. He was so much encouraged at the prospect of restored health that plans for permanent removal to Pennsylvania were made. Part of his object in visiting Bristol pertained to the estate of Thomas Callow- hill, recently deceased. He intended to leave England as soon as Parliament should have ratified the sale. He had, 332 PENN'S LAST DAYS in fact, already received an advance of £1,200 from the Crown as earnest money. But the end of William Penn's active career was nigh. Under date of October 4, 1712, he wrote to Logan from Bristol a letter which proved to be the last coherent product of his brain : * I do desire thee to move all springs that may deliver me from my present thraldom, as thou wilt answer it to the Great, All-seeing God, and all just and good men ; for it''s my excessive expenses upon Pennsylvania that has sunk me so low, and nothing else; my expenses yearly in England ever exceeding my yearly income. Hope for returns vanish- ing, no recourse was left but sale, which now waits only upon Parliament; a certain affirmation. And that which urges me more, is thy deep silence to my earnest expectation, upon my pressing order to thee to dispose Friends there, to come in with Friends here, to sink the present incumbrance on the country. It would have been a kindness I should not have forgotten ; but I see such a holdfast disposition in the most of men, that I almost despond. Yet the Attorney-General assures me, I might have made over my patent to any number of my friends, or a less number, as 48, 24, or 12, for the whole, as an in- corporated body, to have ruled in my stead [including my- self or family (with) a double vote] and so Friends would have had a country ; which Friends there and here may have time hereafter to consider of. And truly so great is the number and interest of Friends here, that they would always have had it in their power to have preserved their interest in the province to the end, in all revolutions in government here. But I am not to be heard either in civils or spirituals till I am dead. * Life and Selected Writings of William Penn, Friend's Library. 333 WILLIAM PENN I am now to tell thee that both my daughter and son, Aubrey, are under the greatest uneasiness about their money, which I desire, as well as allow thee, to return per first. 'Tis an epidemic disease on your side the sea, and the worst of all the seasoning, to be too oblivious of returns ; which I beseech thee to contradict by the most speedy methods possible. But as thou sayest the money intended [for] me was placed to account of my mortgages, but still kept there, and so from me — so I have paid William Aubrey, (with a mad bullying treatment from him into the bargain,) but £500, which, with several hundreds paid at several times to him here, makes near £1,100, besides what thou hast sold, and put out to interest there ; — which is so deep a cut to me here; — and nothing but my son's tempestuous and most rude treatment of my wife and self too, should have forced it from me. Therefore do not lessen thy care to pay me, or at least to secure the money on her manor of Mount Joy, for a plantation for me, or one of my children. I writ to thee of our great and unhappy loss and revolu- tion at Bristol, by the death of our near and dear friends, father and mother Callowhill ; so shall only say that he has left all his concerns in America, to poor John, who had almost followed his grandfather, and who, by his sorrow at his death and burial, and also by his behavior since, has jus- tified my special regards to him, as of an uncommon char- acter and capacity. Now, through the Lord's mercy, he is on the recovery, as I now likewise am, by the same Divine goodness; for I have been most dangerously ill at London. A peace certainly — and that whether the Dutch will or not ; and whom our folks threaten shall pay for the recover- ing of it too ; which will not be less than a million of money ; and I advise you to be discreet in those parts of the world, and may the simplicity, humility, and serious sincerity of the Christian life and doctrine, be your aim and attain- ment in the peace and plenty you are blest withal. 334 PENN'S LAST DAYS I am glad to see Sybilla Masters, who has come down to the city, and is with us, but sorry at M. Phillips 's coming, without a just hint of it. She This unfinished letter Hannah Penn enclosed to Logan, with an explanatory note dated October 13, 1712, as follows : Esteemed Friend: The enclosed my poor husband wrote, but had not time to finish before he was taken with a second fit of his lethargic illness, like as about six months ago, at London. But it has pleased the Lord, in the midst of judgment to show us mercy in the comfortable prospect of his recovery ; though as yet but weak. I am ordered by the doctors to keep all business from him till he is stronger ; and yet, loath to let what he has wrote be left behind, I thought best to send it, though unfinished, for thee to make the best use of, there being several things of moment. I pray thee use thy utmost diligence to settle things and re- turns for our comfort. To this note of his wife William Penn tried to add a postscript, of which only the following words are legible in the manuscript: Farewell ! and pursue former exact orders thou wilt — oblige thy real [friend?] My love to — dear friends. W. P. Penn's condition now forbade travel and compelled the family to remain at Bristol until January, 1713. By that time he was so much improved that the physicians permitted him to undertake the journey to his home at Ruscombe. They contemplated only the return thither, and, perhaps, had he obeyed their instructions, he might have rallied completely. Though in his seventieth year, he still pos- 335 WILLIAM PENN sessed considerable physical vitality and strength, but he could not endure mental strain. However, after leaving Bristol he determined to visit London before returning to Ruscombe. He wished to see certain friends in the council and also Vice-Chancellor Sir Richard West, to whom the Crown had entrusted the legal elements involved in the transfer. He carried out this part of his program. But, while engaged in an interview with the vice-chancellor, he broke down again both physically and mentally. His wife, however, succeeded in conveying him from London to Rus- combe, where he had another attack which verged upon total collapse, which Hannah Penn describes in a letter to Logan dated February — , 1713 : Esteemed Friend : I wrote to thee about three months since, in a postscript, or rather conclusion of a letter from my husband who was then very ill at Bristol, but recovered so as by easy journeys to reach London, where he endeav- ored to settle some affairs and get some laws passed for that country's [the colony's] ease and his own and family's comfort ; * but finding himself unable to bear the fatigues of the town he just reached Ruscombe when he was again seized with the same severe illness that he has twice before labored under. And though, through the Lord's mercy, he is much better than he was and in a pretty hopeful way of recovery, yet I am forbid by his doctors to trouble him with any business till better. This was practically the end of William Penn. Though he lived five years and five months longer and maintained to some extent his physical strength and powers of locomo- * She refers in this obscure way to his efforts toward expediting the Act of Parliament ratifying the terms of sale and transfer of the Proprietary. 336 PENN'S LAST DAYS tion, his mind was never clear again. Within a year from the date of his wife's letter to Logan just quoted the law- officers of the Crown, upon motion of Sir Richard West, vice-chancellor, adjudged him incapable of transacting busi- ness and the proceedings looking to sale of his Proprietary were suspended. The opinion of the vice-chancellor in these premises was interesting. He held that while Penn seemed competent enough to transact business during the preliminary negotiations, the transfer could not be com- pleted without his signature to an instrument of final re- nunciation ; that his mental condition was now such as to presuppose incapacity to realize the nature of any instru- ment ; therefore his signature would be void at law, and his heirs could contest the validity of the transfer as soon as his death should make his will operative, the will having been written and duly witnessed in 1711, before any signs of aberration had developed. The bill to confirm the sale was therefore withdrawn from Parliament, and Hannah Penn was made curator — or curatrix — of his property and custodian of his person under the common law. No professional description or diagnosis of Penn's con- dition after the third paroxysm in 1713 seems to be extant. The law-officers who pronounced him incapacitated from transacting business did not file any medical opinion with their report, nor did they indicate that he had been exam- ined by physicians. Their report, so far as the state papers show, was based upon the motion of Sir Richard West, who sustained it by oral representation of Penn's mental state as observed by himself in their last interviews. 23 337 WILLIAM PENN The only document approaching description is that found in the journal of Thomas Story, who was sent to England by the provincial council (of which he was a mem- ber) in November, 1714, to ascertain and report the facts for their information. There seems to have been some doubt among Penn's closest friends in the colony whether or not he was being fairly dealt with. Some of them suspected that advantage had been taken of his illness by his wife and her advisers to transfer control of the province into her hands. This was the view taken by those who championed the interests of the children by the first wife, and who be- lieved that the will, which excluded that branch of the family from share in the Proprietary, had been procured by im- proper influences. Lloyd's report, however, seems to have set the doubts and suspicions at rest. In his journal, pages 463-464, appears the following: He was then under the lamentable effects of an apo- pletic fit, which he had had some time before ; for his mem- ory was almost quite lost, and the use of his understanding suspended, so that he was not so conversable as formerly, and yet as near the Truth, in the love of it, as before, where- in appeared the great mercy and favor of God, who looks not as man looks; for, though to some this accident might look like judgment, and, no doubt, his enemies so accounted it, yet it will bear quite another interpretation, if it be considered how little time of rest he ever had from the importunities of the affairs of others, to the great hurt of his own and suspension of all his enjoyments, till this hap- pened to him, by which he was rendered incapable of all business, and yet sensible of the enjoyment of Truth as at any time in all his life. When I went to the house I thought myself strong 338 PENN'S LAST DAYS enough to see him in that condition ; but when I entered the room, and perceived the great defect of his expressions for want of memory, it greatly bowed my spirit under a consideration of the uncertainty of all human qualifications, and what the finest of men are soon reduced to by a dis- order of the organs of that body, with which the soul is connected and acts during this present mode of being. When these are but a little obstructed in their various func- tions, a man of the clearest parts and finest expression becomes scarcely intelligible. Nevertheless, no insanity, or lunacy, at all appeared in his actions; and his mind was in an innocent state, as ap- peared by his very loving deportment to all that came near him ; and that he had still a good sense of Truth is plain by some very clear sentences he spoke in the life and power of Truth in an evening meeting we had together there, where- in we were greatly comforted ; so that I was ready to think this was a sort of sequestration of him from all the concerns of this life, which so much oppressed him, not in judgment, but in mercy, that he might have rest, and not be oppressed thereby to the end. This condition remained unchanged to the end. Though almost wholly oblivious of the past, and incapable of con- secutive thought or coherent expression upon any affair of business, public or private, his mind seemed clear upon re- ligious subjects, and but for a constantly increasing diffi- culty in articulation, he could discourse as fluently as ever with regard to them.* * One of the most eminent living neurologists has informed us tliat this is a frequent phenomenon in eases of religious dementia ; that while all the normal or secular faculties may be clouded or totally eclipsed, the patient will yet be able to preach or pray with fervor, using language with fluency and eloquence, and maintaining lines of thought as consistent and unbroken as any sane person fould do. 339 WILLIAM PENN Judging from her letters to Logan during this pe- riod, Hannah Penn seems to have encouraged the tenden- cy of her husband's mind toward spiritual meditation and discourse, with the view, no doubt, of averting from him all thoughts^ — or attempts to think — of temporal concerns. Early in this period Hannah Penn obtained the highest legal advice as to the sufficiency and validity of the will of 1711 and its codicil of 1712. Sometime in 1714 she was ad- vised by such authorities as Vice-Chancellor Sir Richard West and Sir Edward Northey that the will was valid and would be probated without contest at Penn's death, when- ever that might occur. Then all the mental power and strength of wnll possessed by this remarkable woman became manifest. The sale of the Proprietary, as we have already seen, had been sus- pended indefinitely, or during the lifetime of the disabled testator. She now determined that, if she could prevent it, the negotiations should never be renewed, and that, if what had already been done could be canceled, she would save for her own children the imperial domain of Pennsylvania. She was the sole surviving issue of Thomas Callowhill, and by his death became trustee of the Callowhill estate for its minor heir, who was her own eldest son, John Penn, then (1714) a lad of fifteen years. The income of this estate was considerable — at least £3,000 a year — and she was en- titled to use the whole of it for the maintenance and educa- tion of all her children during the minority of the heir at law. This rendered her temporarily independent of resources from the Proprietary itself and left her free to 340 PENN'S LAST DAYS employ the ablest legal assistance in her efforts to retain it in her family. Under such circumstances the affairs of the province drifted along, as related in the preceding chapter, on the succession of governors, until July 30, 1718, William Penn died that day and Hannah Fenn became sole executrix under the will, vested with all the powers of the Propri- etary pending the minority of the youngest of her three boys, to whom it had been devised jointly. This was Richard, born in 1709. He would not reach his majority until 1730, and that gave Hannah Penn's term as execu- trix twelve years to run. Circumstances favored her plans. The death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I in 1714, just at the beginning of her management as curatrix and custodian, put an end to all the tentative negotiations which had pre- ceded the mental breakdown of her husband. She was able to refund the advance of £1,200 which had been paid by the ojfficers of the Crown under Queen Anne. This left the whole affair just as it stood before Penn began his negotiations for sale and transfer. Any further steps in that direction must be taken de novo. George I and his advisers proved indifferent to the concerns of the Proprietary. They made no overtures to renew or revive the bargain. Of course Hannah Penn offered none. There was no danger so long as Penn lived. But after his death the will would be operative. That instrument named three earls — Oxford, Poulett, and Morti- mer — trustees of the Proprietary, with power to convey it to the Queen or to any other person or persons. They, how- 341 WILLIAM PENN ever, were friendly to Mrs. Penn. There is every reason to believe that they were in her confidence and approved her plan. At all events, when Penn died and their powers under the will became operative, they left the whole affair in her hands as executrix, and gave themselves no concern about the matter, except when she asked their advice, which was not often. Thus, almost by default it might be said, Mrs. Penn managed the Proprietary from 1712 till 1727. In 1722 Mrs. Penn suffered a stroke of paralysis which per- manently affected her left side. It did not make any im- pression on her faculties of mind, but she had little use of her left arm and leg and was nearly deaf in her left ear. She soon rallied and continued to exercise the functions of the Proprietary until September, 1727, when a second stroke proved fatal. By this time Mrs. Penn's eldest son, John Penn, was in his twenty-eighth year. During her lifetime as execu- trix Hannah Penn had effected a general settlement under the terms of the will whereby John Penn became principal Proprietary, with his younger brothers, Thomas and Rich- ard, as minority associates. She paid off all the liens, com- promised or commuted the grants of land made in the will to the children of the first wife, and procured a defi- nite and formal annulment of the proposed sale and transfer. On the whole, Hannah Penn's administration, from 1712 to 1727, was far more practical and successful than that of William Penn from 1681 to 1712. When William Penn's faculties failed in 1712 he left to his wife and 342 FENN'S LAST DAYS children a vast estate so hopelessly entangled in every kind of complication that ruin seemed inevitable. When Hannah Penn died in 1727 she left the same estate to her three sons — the most magnificent domain on earth owned by pri- vate individuals. , 343 CHAPTER XIII 1717-1776 PENNSYLVANIA UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS CHAPTER XIII 1717-1776 PENNSYLVANIA UNDER PENN 'S DESCENDANTS About 1722 Governor Keith had begun to antagonize Hannah Penn, and he covertly advised the popular leaders to organize a party having for its object abolition of the Proprietary system. Penn's will had given the English and Irish estates to Gulielma Springett's children and the Pennsylvania Proprietary to those of Hannah Callowhill, Keith did not like the latter 's eldest son, John Penn, who had then reached the age of twenty-three, and did not be- lieve he would be acceptable to the people — an apprehension which subsequently proved well founded. This made his situation unpleasant. But that was not the worst. In 1720 Keith's father died, leaving to him the baronetcy and a heavily encumbered estate in Aberdeenshire. In hope of making money to pay oft" these obligations Keith embarked heavily in colonial speculations, not hesitating to use his official position to further private ends. His speculations were not fortunate. In June, 1726, Hannah Penn appointed Patrick Gordon to succeed Keith. This was her last act as executrix. Final settlement of the estate under the will soon followed and 347 WILLIAM PENN John Penn became chief Proprietary,* though, as appears from the Logan correspondence, she continued to be the real head or directing mind until her death, seven years later. Gordon's term was barren of historical events. Its most noteworthy occurrence was the visit of Thomas Penn in 1732, followed by John Penn in 1734. Thomas Penn was the originator of the famous — or infamous — ' ' walking pur- chase" of September, 173S, to which reference has been made in a preceding page. The impression made by both these sons of Penn and Hannah Callowhill was extremely unpleasant. Those who remembered the courteous manners and gentle bearing of yoimg William Penn, despite his unfortunate adventures, compared his half-brothers most unfavorably with him. Benjamin Franklin was editor and proprietor of the Pennsylvania Gazette during the visit of Thomas and John Penn. He had never seen young William Penn, but became acquainted with the two other sons. On a certain occasion he remarked to Dr. Read that "according to all accounts there was more of the gentleman in Billy Penn drunk than in both of these Penns sober." John and Thomas were much alike. Neither possessed an atom of William Penn's goodness of heart or breadth of character. They were sordid, unscrupulous, overbearing, and dishonest. John had more sense than Thomas. The latter was little better than a common blockhead in all except money-getting and money-keeping. He was greedy, stingy, and cruel, and withal dull, repellent, and morose. * John Penn's interest in the Proprietary was one-half. His younger brothers, Thomas and Kichard, had each one-fourth. 348 UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS John was more presentable socially, and could be agree- able when it suited his fancy. But he was supercilious, and never failed to give the air of condescension to his good graces. He remained in the province but little over a year. During his stay he assumed the Proprietary right to a seat in tlie council, but there is no record of anything he did, except to propose that the assembly pass an act creating a special court for the collection of arrears of quit-rents; to be independent of the regular courts, and to have power of distraint without appeal. He was reminded by James Logan that the question of quit-rents had been settled by the Carpenter case * many years before, and that an attempt to revive it would doubtless result in a popular movement en masse to abolish the Proprietary. John Penn returned to England in 1736, and was fol- lowed by Thomas in 1741. Neither ever returned. Both went away much disgusted with the colony, a feeling which the colony reciprocated with compound interest, f * This case occurred in 170G. Penn, driven to desperation by bis debts in general and tbe demands of tbe Fords (see Chapter XII) in particular, bad directed Governor Evans to take legal steps for collection of arrears in quit-rents. Joshua Carpenter, whilom bosom-friend of Penn and one of the richest Quakers in the colony, made a test case, with David Lloyd as counsel. Penn's complaint was thrown out of court, and Carpenter recovered damages for the distraint made on his property. f Hardly had Thomas Penn boarded the ship for England, when a bill was introduced in the assembly providing for taxation upon the private estates or " manors " of the Penns, hitherto exempt. The author of this bill was a Quaker named Wharton. It gave rise to a struggle between the popular assembly and the Proprietary which lasted until 17G4, when the assembly almost unanimously petitioned the Crown to abolish the Pro- prietary and assume control of the province ; and at the same time framed a representative charter similar to that of New York, Avhich was submitted for approval of the home Government. Nothing was done, however, until twelve years later. 349 WILLIAM PENN Governor Gordon was generally popular, and his ad- ministration, apart from the scandals brought on by the greed and dishonesty of the two Penns, forms a pleasant interlude in the otherwise troublous history of Proprietary Pennsylvania. He died in June, 1736. James Logan then discharged the chief executive functions ad interim as president of the council until June, 1738, when George Thomas was appointed by the Penn brothers. Thomas was enthusiastically loyal to the Crown. In 1745, when the news of the defeat of the pretender by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden reached the colony, he gave a grand public dinner in honor of the event and asked the assembly to foot the bills. They quite properly re- fused, on the ground that they could not reasonably be held to pay for a dinner they had not ordered. He then de- frayed the expense out of his own pocket, but the affair stung him deeply. He asked to be relieved shortly after- ward. His request was "taken under advisement," but nothing was done. He waited over a year, and then, on June 17, 1747, peremptorily resigned, leaving Anthony Palmer, president of the council, governor ad interim, and sailed for England a few days afterward. In June, 1748, James Hamilton * was appointed to sue- * James Hamilton was the son of Andrew Hamilton, a Scotchman, who emigrated to Virginia about 1697, and settled in what is now Accomac County, " Eastern Shore," where the son was born in June, 1709. Hamil- ton was not his (Andrew's) real name, which, in fact, was never revealed. He was, in his time, popularly believed to be a natural son of the Duke of York (James II), to whom his physical resemblance was most striking. When James Hamilton was seven years old, his father, Andrew, removed to Philadelphia, and was appointed attorney-general of the province the next year (1717). He held successively the offices of clerk of the Supreme 350 ^^s m. JOHN PENN. Son of William IVnu. UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS ceed Thomas. He was the first Pennsylvania governor of American birth and breeding. His administration was the most harmonious and salutary the province had ever en- joyed, excepting, perhaps, the two brief terms of William Penn himself (1682 to 1684 and 1699 to 1701). There was no friction between him and the popular branch. He had no fads and attempted no "reforms." He considered the system as good as a Proprietary government could be, and exerted himself to make it as beneficial to the public as possible. In 1752, on the occasion of the King's birthday, he gave a grand public banquet, ordered a general holiday, and illuminated the city, paying the bills himself. But he was promptly reimbursed by the corporation without request on his part, and the assembly afterward, of its own motion, refunded half the amount to the city cor- poration. Governor Hamilton also popularized himself exceed- Court (1727); member of assembly and speaker (1729-37); and judge of the Admiralty Court — an appointment of the Crown — which he held until his death, in 1741. James was elected to the assembly at the age of twenty-three, and served six consecutive terms ; mayor of Philadelphia 1745-'46, and declined reelection to enter the provincial council, of which he was a member; and in England on public business in 1748, when he was appointed deputy-governor. After Braddock's defeat in 1755 he went to the frontier (being then president of the council) and most strenuously devoted himself to rallying and encouraging the hardy settlers to defend their homes. No public funds being available, he supplied them with rifles, knives, hatchets, ammunition, blankets, and other necessaries out of his private means, which were ample. Among other things, he bought all the rifles then on hand in the gun-shops of Lancaster, at a cost of nearly £2,000. To him more than to any one else the colony was indebted for the chain of forts from the west branch of the Susquehanna to the Mary- land line at Fort Cumberland. In 1777 he was arrested as a Tory and held on parole nearly two years. 351 WILLIAM PENN ingly by personal attention to the needs of the poor. The population of the province had then (1752) reached two hundred thousand, and Philadelphia was a city of forty-odd thousand. Governor Hamilton lent his official influence to the foundation of a seaman's hospital and a general charity hospital for the poor of the city, contributing to them liber- ally from his own private means. His popularity seems to have excited the suspicions or resentment of the Proprie- taries (then Thomas and Richard Penn, John having died in 1746) . They knew, in fact, that Hamilton did not believe the proprietary system ought to be perpetuated, and they suspected him of secretly cooperating with Dr. Franklin and others in the popular movement against it. They did not dare to attempt his removal. However, he disliked them more than they him, and in October, 1754, he resigned per- emptorily, without assigning any reason, and was at once elected president of the council — a position independent of ^ Proprietary appointment or control. He was succeeded by Colonel Robert Hunter Morris, who held office from 1754 to 1756, when he was succeeded by William Denny. Both these administrations were stormy and both governors extremely unpopular, Denny in particular. This fact, however, can hardly be ascribed to fault of theirs. The period was that of the old French War, which, for the first time in the history of the colony, brought the pressure of Indian warfare on a large scale home to her own frontiers. The 'Quaker peace policy had vanished with Thomas Penn's "walking purchase" of "1 17^ And now, twenty-odd years later, Pennsylvania was made to feel what had so long been familiar to the frontiers- 352 UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS meu oi' New York and New England — the sinister power of French influence upon the Indians. Robert Hunter Morris was a son of Lewis Morris, of New York, and grandson of Richard Morris,* who com- manded Ireton's regiment of horse in Cromwell's army after Ireton became a general. He was therefore of the fighting Puritan stock, and as such ill constituted to govern a Quaker province. Governor Morris had to deal with Pennsylvania and the peculiarities of its Quaker population during the crisis brought on by Braddock's expedition and defeat. The history of his quarrel with the assembly on the subject of defense has been ably written by Winthrop Sargeant. It exhibits him in a light honorable to himself and creditable to his station; and it exhibits the Quakers in an attitude scarcely less pusillanimous and contemptible than that of Governor Evans's "false alarm," forty years before. After several vain efforts to persuade the assembly to adopt a vigorous and manly policy in the general system of defense, Morris resigned. In the letter accompanying his resignation he declared, among other things, that no man of honor, patriotism, or courage could act in concert with such a concourse. * Richard Morris was one of those proscribed and condemned on the restoration of Charles II. He went to the West Indies, where he lived in seclusion for a time. Then he came to New York and settled a tract of land (about 3,000 acres) near Haarlem, whicli he had bought from the In- dians in 1650. This was the manor of Morrisania. He was the founder of the American family which produced, in succeeding generations, Rob- ert Hunter Morris, Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration, Gouverneur Morris, and many other eminent men, including Colonel Lewis Morris, killed at the head of his regiment in the capture of Monterey, and his son, Colonel Lewis O. Morris, killed in the assault at Cold Harbor in the civil war. 24 353 WILLIAM PENN William Denny fell heir to all the troubles of his prede- cessor. But his task was lightened by the action of the frontier settlers, who, after Braddoek's defeat, formed in- dependent companies of riflemen and began fighting the Indians in their own way. These settlers were all Scotch- Irish, Germans, or Swiss, with a few Huguenots; but no Quaker was ever known to get — or stay — near such a dan- ger-line as the Pennsylvania border was from 1755 to 1759. The few Quakers on the frontier — mostly traders — fled to Philadelphia at the first sign of war.* In 1756, shortly after Governor Denny assumed office and the refusal of the assembly to grant supplies for de- fense became known along the frontier, the rough moun- taineers assembled in Philadelphia to the number of four hundred or five hundred. Clad in buckskin, wearing long hair, and armed with long rifles, accoutered with powder- horns, tomahawks, bullet-pouches, and hunting-knives, they terrorized the town. There is no record of any overt act on their part, though they openly announced their intention — if the assembly did not vote the supplies they needed — to take them wherever they could be found. Though they numbered not more than one to the hundred of the city's population, every one knew that if they once began they * In 1755, just after Braddoek's defeat, two Quakers trading at Loyal Hanna asked Captain James Brady to escort them with a squad of his men — the famous independent company of " Brady's Rangers " — to a place of safety. Brady detailed seventeen men, under Sergeant McGil- very, to " escort the Quakers." The detachment marched with them one day, then seized their pack-horses, confiscated their goods, and told the Quakers to run for their lives — which they did. The feeling among the frontiersmen was almost as bitter toward the Quakers as toward the Indians. 354 UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS would ravage the town iu spite of any civic i'orce that could oppose them. The Quakers, finding themselves between the devil and the deep sea — with Indians on one hand and angry moun- taineers on the other — began in a niggardly way to vote supplies. A historian * of Quaker sympathies says of this period : The assemblies always offended by trying to spare the purses of the people, and the governors always got provoked because they had not lavish supplies for the King's serv- ice. ... It was really pitiable to see what levies were perpetually put upon the poor province to help them [the English] out of the squabbles generated by the courts of Europe. A contest for the empire of North America seems to have been nothing more imposing than "a squabble," from the Quaker point of view. In a special message dated September 8, 1757, Governor Denny says : To your puerile plaints and subterfuges of excuse un- worthy of men or of manhood I offer no answer. Moderation is agreeable to me. But you might have had another governor candid enough to tell you, what I keenly feel, that the whole tenor of your memorial of remonstrance is evasive, frivolous, and indecent. And another governor might also be frank enough to say that your attitude is more likely the dictate of cowardice than the prompting of conscience. ... If detraction and personal abuse of your governor were worthy of notice in this more than in former instances, it might be said a governor of Pennsylvania soon gets accus- * W'.itaon's Annals, vol. ii, p. 27"). 355 WILLIAM PENN tomed to sucli in a degree that leaves your censure without sting. ... I have the less reason to regret such usage, since it is obvious, from your similar conduct toward those gone before me, that you are not so much displeased with the person governing as impatient of being governed at all. However, under various kinds of pressure, but chiefly fear of another and more earnest visit from the moun- taineers, the assembly during the years 1757-1759 granted supplies amounting to £218,000, about half of which was for General Forbes 's expedition against Fort Duquesne.* To raise the amount necessary for the Forbes expedition the assembly found it necessary to tax the property of the Penns. Governor Denny 's signature to this bill gave mortal offense to Richard and Thomas Penn, who forthwith re- moved him. This foolish act, the reasons for which soon became public, was the last nail in the coffin of proprietary government. The next assembly repeated and increased the tax. The Penns tried to resist it, but yielded when the assembly, council, and judiciary joined in a system of dis- traint which the governor could not control. Denny said to Dr. Franklin that he was glad to escape, and that three years of the governorship as he had held it would turn any sane man against the proprietary system. "Particularly with Tom and Dick Penn for Proprietors ! ' ' was the sar- donic rejoinder of the philosopher. James Hamilton was now reappointed governor and held the office from November 17, 1759, to October 31, 1763, * For this appropriation General Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander-in- chief, thanked the assembly in person, saying, among other things, that he appreciated their sacrifice of conscientious scruples to the public good. 356 THOMAS PENN. . Son of William Penn. UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS without special incident. He was then relieved by John Penn second, son of Richard. John Penn held the govern- ment until October 16, 1771. His "reign," as Franklin called it, was the stormiest in all the Proprietary annals. In the first year a formidable revolt of the mountaineers occurred, known as the "revolution of the Paxton boys." They defied a battalion of British regulars at Lancaster, informing them that "if they fired so much as one shot their scalps would ornament every cabin from the Sus(jue- lianna to the Ohio." The regulars did not fire. The Paxton boys then helped themselves to all the horses and supplies they wanted — including the ammunition-wagons of the regulars — and started for Philadelphia. They appeared on the heights of Germantown nearly a thousand strong, and demanded that certain Indians then guarded in the Northern Liberties be given to them or they would sack the city. Finding that the regulars could not be depended on to face them, a deputa- tion of the most influential citizens parleyed with the insur- gents. Finally, by agreeing to everything they demanded — except the privilege of massacring the Indians — the citizens succeeded in persuading the mountaineers to return to their homes. Soon after this the assembly petitioned the Crown and Parliament to abolish the Proprietary. John Penn went to England in 1771, leaving his brother Richard acting gov- ernor. He returned and resumed the office in August, 1773. It seemed a coincidence of fate that the last Proprietary governor of Pennsylvania should have been, like the first, a Penn, grandson of his grandfather, and that — with the 357 WILLIAM PENN brief exception of Richard, hardly worth mention — they were the only Penns who ever governed in person. The grandson came only to attend the funeral and witness the burial of the system his grandfather founded. He tried hard to carry water on both shoulders, but the spirit then moving the people knew no middle ground. The most cruel and sordid episode of John Penn's ab- horrent "reign" is known in history as "the Pennamite War" — or "Wars." This is now an almost forgotten page of history, and might have gone to oblivion altogether but for its association with the story of Wyoming. Francis W. Halsey, in 1901, in his vivid history The Old New York Frontier, gave it a new lease upon memory. He says (pp. 217-218) : Wyoming had been settled from Connecticut, and under the charter granted by the King was claimed as a township of that State, with the name of Westmoreland. But it was also claimed by the heirs of William Penn. For many years before the Revolution there had been bitter, and even armed, controversy over this disputed ownership. During these Pennamite Wars the settlement on three occasions had virtually been destroyed. As early as 1750 men from Con- necticut had visited this beautiful wilderness valley and made report on its extraordinary fertility. But it was not until 1762 that any from that State arrived to cultivate the soil, and not until after the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 that they came in large numbers to establish homes upon it. . . . From the Pennamite Wars had survived at Wyoming a stockade called Forty Fort. . . . It is to be regretted that Halsey should have treated the Pennamite Wars as a simple incident in the history of 358 UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS Wyoming, and even then merely by way of explaining the existence of the only defensive work it possessed in 1778, His book, however, deals specifically with New York State history, with which during the Revolution the Wyoming massacre of 1778 had close relations. The settlement of 1762 which he mentions consisted of about fifty families. The husbands and fathers had come from Connecticut in the previous year, made clearings, raised a little corn, built some humble log cabins, and the next summer brought on their families — mostly from Litch- field. John Penn heard of this settlement in 1764, the second year of his "reign," and he sent constables to order them off, claiming that they were within the territory cov- ered by the treaty and deed of Governor Dongan on behalf of his grandfather in 1686.* Meantime the Wyoming settlement had grown to a popu- lation of nearly 3,000 — a blooming oasis in the wilderness. An association of Quakers, called the Delaware Company, was formed in Philadelphia, who proposed to buy the lands of John Penn and pay cash, at a valuation about four times that of William Penn's original terms. They expected thereby to get at comparatively small cost the benefit of the improvements made by the Connecticut pioneers. But a condition of their purchase was that John Penn should oust the settlers. In 1770 John Penn hired a gang of ruffians, mainly discharged British soldiers, to invade Wyoming and * For particulars of this transaction sec Colonial Records, Penna., vol. ii ; also Jannoy, pp. 427, 428. The deed from Dongan to Tenn is dated January 13, 1606, and the consideration named is £100. It i)rcn-ides for cession of " all lands of the Susquehannah south of the colony bound- ary of New York." 359 UNDEK PENN'S DESCENDANTS drive the pioneers from their homes. Then they defied him and built the famous Forty Fort. The settlers, after many vicissitudes and some fighting, held their ground. It is amazing that John Penn, with the distant thunders of the American Revolution muttering in his ears, and the foundations of his absurd and obsolete Proprietary crumbling under him, should have attempted such an atrocity upon the brink of his own ruin. But what shall be said of the association of Quakers who so cunningly and so cruelly devised a scheme of profit from the misery and murder of the Wyoming settlers'? The darkest chapter in all the history of Quakerdom is that one. Never before or since did the Inward Light of Quakerism shine so balefully. It was the Spiritualization of Self into a Gospel of Greed ; of Avarice into a Religion of Rapine; the Prayer for Money that had Murder for its Answer. The Quakers of Philadelphia would not take up arms themselves against the Wyoming settlers; but they stood ready to grasp the profits of their improvements whenever John Penn's ruffianlj^ mercenaries might drive the pioneers from their humble homes. In the Delaware Land Company are to be found such Quaker names as Carpenter, Shippen, Norris, Story, Griscom, Pemberton, Wharton, Pusey, Hill, Barker, Bailey, et al., all leading "Friends," all pious, all devout, all rich, and yet all ready and anxious to swell their coffers with the plunder torn from a feeble settlement of pioneers in a wilderness which was no man's property, but the prize of every man brave enough to invade and subdue it. Well may the student of history search Quaker writers in vain for a true story of the * ' Pennamite Wars. ' ' 361 W I L L I A ]\I P E N N It was the last gasp. In the fall of 1775 the Continental Congress passed the act creating a navy and giving Paul Jones a lieutenant's commission. At the same time the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety considered the abroga- tion of the Penn charter and abolition of the Proprietary. In September, 1776, two months after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Committee of Safety resolved itself into the " Supreme Executive Council," deposed John Penn, took control of the province of Pennsylvania, made it a State in the Revolutionary Confederation, and the rule of Penn and the Penns became a tradition. But though the visible form of Proprietary government disappeared, a good deal of its virus lingered. To this day it has not been wholly extirpated. The boundaries of the Pennsylvania territory covered by the original grant to William Penn in 1681 had never been definitively fixed until the Fort Stanwix treaty of 1768, which gave to Pennsylvania the Susquehanna Valley as far north as the mouth of Towanda Creek and the land west that lay south of a line drawn from the head of Towan- da Creek to a point on the Alleghany River several miles above Fort Pitt. This delimitation gave the Proprietary under the original grant jurisdiction over about twenty million acres — or, say, thirty-one thousand square miles of land — of territory that has since become the richest in- dustrial State of the Union. When the Proprietary was finally abolished in 1779, the interest of the Penn family in the soil was vested in the State. The Act of 1779, however, appropriated £130,000 to be paid out of the treasury to the heirs of William Penn 362 ARREST OF THE CONNECTICUT SETTLERS IX WYOMING. From a drawing by Howard Pyle. UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS in full of all claims and clamasies. It also secnrod to them all private estates, lands, or manors owned by them in fee simple at the date of the act. The State held the lands — or sold them to actual settlers — until 1789, when such as remained unsold were trans- ferred to the Federal Government as public lands. The books of the comptroller-general's office show that from 1780 to 1789 the State received from sales of the es- cheated or sequestrated lands of the Penn Proprietary the sum of £825,000 in round figures (say $4,225,000). In addition to the amount paid by the State of Penn- sylvania— £130,000 (say $650,000)— the Penn heirs made a claim for damages amounting to £945,000, under the Act of Parliament "to indemnify loyal subjects of his Britan- nic Majesty for losses suffered in the American War." The Penn heirs were all Tories — in common with most of the Quakers of Pennsylvania — and therefore entitled to the benefits of the act mentioned. Their claim was reviewed by a select committee of the House of Commons, who reported in favor of granting £500,000 to the Penn heirs, which was paid in consols at par. It thus appears that the heirs of William Penn by Han- nah Callowhill realized from the governments of Pennsyl- vania and Great Britain together £630,000, or, say, $3,- 150,000 in money, besides securing their private estates in Pennsylvania. In conclusion we shall not attempt any general survey or anah'sis of the character of William Penn. If, with the facts wo have deployed before him, the reader is unable to form an estimate of his own, nothing within our power to 363 WILLIAM PENN say further could help him. But we are confident all will agree that William Penn, in every aspect of character and in every relation of life, was a good man. It is, we think, equally apparent that he was a great man. Sometimes he w^as a great statesman; at other times he was a great Quaker ; but he was never both at the same time. 364 INDEX A DOLF, GUSTAV, 1. American Philosophical Society, 29o. Annals of Oxford, 55. Annals, Watson 's, 355. Anne, Queen, 258 et seq. Aubrey, William, 256. B ISHOP OF LONDON, 112. Blackwell, Captain John, deputy-gov- ernor of Pennsylvania, 224, 225. Blake, Admiral. Private Circular to Officers of Rank, 6, 10. Boundary-lines, of Penn's grant, 110; of Pennsylvania, difficulty of locating, 253; definitely fixed, 1768, 361. Buel, John, 42, 45. Byng, Admiral, 8. Byrd, William, deputy-governor of Virginia, 124. Byrd Manuscripts, 124; extracts from, slandering Penn, 125. CALLOWHILL, HANNAH, second wife of Penn, 231; her character and influence, 232, 235. Calvin, John 59. Captain Pipe, Indian chief, 143. Charles II, 40, 41, 46, 78, 97. Charter, Penn's, provisions of, 120 et xeq; amended, 308. Chigwell Free Grammar-school, 8, 31. Church of England, 41, 87, 89, 90. Code of Discipline, 132. Colonial Records, 359. Colonies, population of, in 1703, 268. Colony of Pennsylvania, charter of, 107, 112. Commissioners to colonies, 119, 123. Comte de Frontenac, 210. Conformity Act, 47. Constitution of West Jersey, 98. Conventicle Acts, 87, 185. Conversations of William of Orange, quotation from, concerning Quakers, 187, 213. Council of Ten, 101. Croe.se, Gerard, author of Historia Quakeriana, 181, 206. Cromwell, Oliver, accession to power, 6; mentioned, 8, 9, 10, 11; his des- potism, 46. Cromwell, Richard, 31, 39, 40. Croxton, Thomas, 22, 26. DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRON- TENAC, 210. De Castries, cruise and capture of Eng- lish vessels, 271. Delaware Indians, 142. Denny, William, 352. Dissenters, 42. Duke of York, 40, 41, 108, 179. Dutch colony, 92. TTIARL OF RANELAGH, 2,54. Earl of Romney, 216. Emigration to Pennsylvania, 118, 185. 253, 286. Episcopal Church, its bigotry, 48; its cruelty, 87, 89, 90. Evans, John, deputy-governor of Penn- sylvania, 266; his success in the colony, 269, 270, 271; his removal, 275; his character, 280; death, 284. FENWICK, .lOHN, 93, 94, 116, 144, 165. Fenwick's islanti, 165. 5(55 WILLIAM PENN Fletcher, Benjamin, Governor of New York, 213, 214, 215. Ford, Philip, 316, 320. Forster, William E., vindication of Penn, 194. Fort Stanwix treaty. 361. Fox, George, his doctrines, 19, 34, 133, 168, 170,214, 252 ei seq. Fox's Cotle of Church Discipline, 132. Franklin, Benjamin, 348. Free Society of Traders, organized by Penn, 133. "Friends," 26, 27. Frontenac, Comte fie, 210. ptOOKIN, COLONEL CHARLES, ^-^ deputy-governor for Penn, 282 et seq. Government by correspondence, 263. Grant of land to William Penn, bounda- ries of, 110, "Great Law," 121. TTAMILTON, ANDREW, appointed -*- deputy-governor by Penn, 257; his death, 266. Hamilton, James, 350, 356. Harcourt, Sir Simon, 318. Harvey, Thomas, 32, 58, 69, 70. Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, 109. Historia Quakeriana, 181, 207. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 139. House of Commons, 186. Huguenots, 61. TMMIGRATION to Pennsylvania, 253, -J- 286. Indians, 141, 143, 145, 148; description of, by Penn, 152 et seq., 161. " Inner Light," 17. Ironsides, Ireton's, 23. Iroquois Indians, 161. TAMES II, DUKE OF YORK, ^ Clarke's Life of, 107; accession to the throne, 179; not responsible for judicial murders, 191; his brief reign, 199. Janney, Quaker historian, 225. Jasper, Margaret, mother of Penn, 5. Johnson, Sir William, 141; opinions of the Iroquois, 161. Journal of Travels, 55, 71. K EITH, GEORGE, 229, 230, 23L Keith, Sir William, successor of Charles Gookin, 289, 290, 291. King William III, his coalition against France and Spain, 249; his death, 258. Kirke, Percy, 190, 191. " Kirke's Lambs," 191. T EE, ARTHUR, 160. Literature, theological, during the early life of William Penn, 13. Lloyd, David, hostility to Penn, 243, 263. Lloyd, Thomas, 223. Locke, John, 99. Loe, Thomas, 31, 32, 33, 34, 67. Logan, Deborah, 295, 296. Logan, James, representative of Penn, 244, 263. Lord Baltimore, 116, 117, 146; claims all sovereignty south of the fortieth parallel, 164, 169; patent to, 177. Louis XIV, 200, 202, 208, 209, 210. Luther, Martin, 13, 15. Lutherans, 22. "A /TACAULAY, characterization of, -LVJ- 193. Manor of Williamstadt, 277, 279. Markham, Captain William, deputy- governor of Pennsylvania, 115, 116, 117; selected site of Philadelphia, 120, 228, 241. Maryland, settlement of, 268. Mason-Dixon line, 116, 253. "Merry Monarch," 46. Mompesson, Roger, appointed chief justice of Pennsylvania by Penn, 309. Morley, George, 49, 54. Morris, Colonel Robert Hunter, 352. Morris, Richard, 353. TVrrO CROSS, no crown, by Will- -L^ iam Penn, 78, 91. Non-conformists, 42. North American colonies, 210. /^LD elm-tree, 144. Old Lichfield, 23. 366 INDEX Oldiuixon, John, refers to Peiin's return to England iu 1684. 171 ; quoted. 194; his life of Queen Anue. 259. Orthodox Quakers, 229. TDEACE of Ryswick, 239. Pemberton MSS., 316. Penn Charter School, 229. Penn, Hannah, made executrix of Penn's private estate, 288, 340, 342; death, 343. Penn, John, 348, 349. Penn, Laetitia, daughter of William Penn, 255; her marriage to William .\ubrey, 256. Penn, ThomaS, originator of the "walking purchase," 348, 350. Penn, William, Jr., 267, 275. Penn, Sir William, early experience as a sailor, 5; promotion to rear-admiral, 6; commander of fleet as vice-admiral, 1654, 7; failure of expedition, and thrown into prison by Cromwell, 8; his release, 10, 12; declared for restora- tion of the Stuart dynasty, 40, 56, 57, 62, 64, 65, 67; Life of, 77; his death, 77. Penn, William, place of birth and en- vironment of his youth, 4 ; his charac- ter and predecessors, 5 ; early educa- tion at Chigwell school, 8, 12; his pre- cociousness, 12; influence of John Saltmarsh's, writings, 18; his first spiritual experience, 32; matricula- tion at Christ Church College, 35; under his father's displeasure, 53; leaves Oxford, 55; visit to Paris, 61; as student of law, 63; portrait of, 66; as Governor of Kinsale, 67 ; final conversion, 70; his Journal of Travels, 71; letter to Earl of Orrery, 73; bi- ographies of, 76; his father's estate, 78; Quaker preacher and founder of West Jersey, 83; as author, 83; his marriage, 85; trial at Old Bailey, 88; his travels in Europe, 94; prepares scheme of government for new colony, 95; first appearance in politics, 102; petitions to King for grant in America, 107; his instructions to commission- ers for settlement of colony, 119; his land system, 122; his detractors, 124; 36 his first year in Pennsylvania, 131; partiality for Quakers, 132; organizes Free Society of Traders, 133; his first voyage to the New World, 134; on the verge of insolvency, 135; founder of the .ship-building industry on the Delaware, 136; meeting with Lord Baltimore, 146; explores his domains, 148; his description of the Indians, 152 et seq.; described by a contemporary, 103; his letter to Duke of York, 166; returns to England, 1684, 169; aversion to statistics, 170; at the court of James II, 175; reasons for his long absence from colony, 175; his memorial to the court, 177; visits Holland, 185; ground for Macaulay's charge against him, 192; summoned before secret council for treasonable correspondence, 206; his arrest for conspiracy, 208; three years in seclusion, 219; letter to Thomas Lloyd describing his release, 219; illness and death of his wife, 220; his instructions to Governor Black- well, 226, 227; second marriage, 231; visits Ireland, 1698, 232; returns to his province, 1699, 240; his house in Philadelphia, 242; residence at Penns- bury Manor, 244; evasive behavior toward the King, 250; councils with the Indians, 252; second visit to England, 1701, 257; financial em- barrassments, 263, 278; weakening of mental faculties, 283; his connection with the government of Pennsylvania ceases, 289; his last official act, 289; his last days, and letters to Logan, 295; his career in England, 1702 to 1712, 296; his diplomacy, 301; causes of his troubles, 304; imprisoned for debt, 319; farewell address, 329; his last letters and final illness, 335; his death, 341. Penn's charter signed, 110, 114; its pjro- visions for system of government, 120; estimate of its value, 121 ; Penn's own views, 124; amended, 308. Penn's grant. 110. 165. Penn's treaty, 1,39, 141. Penns and Pennington, 33, 58. Pennsbury Manor, 138; description of, 244. WILLIAM PENN Pennsylvania, origin of name, 111; charter of, 107, 112; in Penn's ab- sence, 219 et seq.; Gordon's History of, 223; under Penn's descendants, 347; boundary-lines fixed, 361. Pennsylvania charter, 107. Pennsylvania colony, growing dissen- sions and confusion in Penn's absence, 221. " Penn.sylvania Dutch," 189. Pennsylvania province, population in 1704, 267. Pepys, Sir Samuel, Diary of, 41, 56, 62. Philadelphia, settlement of, 137; popu- lation in 1704, 267. Population of colonies, 1703, 268. Praise-God Barebones, 26. Preamble of Concessions, 97. Proprietary finally abolished, 361. Proprietary governor of Pennsylvania, 319. Protector, the great, 4, 9, 39. Protestantism in northern Europe and England, 60. Proud's History of Pennsylvania, 137. Puritan creed, 23, 25. Puritans, 22, 24, 45, 46, 47, 61. /QUAKER MARRIAGES, 47. Quakers, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 45, 73, 87, 95, 103; as non-combatants, 113, 118, 132; their commerce with In- dians, 140,144, 179, 214, 225; dre.s8 of. 233, 265; tendency toward liberal- ism, 267, 269; their panic and flight from Philadelphia, 272, 277, 278, 360. Quaker calendar, 219. Queen Anne's War, 101; her friendship for Penn, 258, 259, 260. Queen Mary, 204, 205, 208. TDESTORATION, its effect upon the -L^ spiritual conditions in England, 41. Revivals, psychological effects, 72. Roundheads, 24. SALTMARSH, JOHN, writings of, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Selected writings, 323. Shanningarry, 67. Shelley, Percy Bysshc, 15, 16. Ship-building in Philadelphia, beginning of, 147. Sidney, Algernon, 99, 101, 102, 113. Sign of the Blue Anchor, 137. Smith, Joseph, 65. Society of Friends, 19, 259. Sparkles of Glory, 15, 18, 28, 31. Springett, Gulielma Maria, wife of William Penn, 85; her death, 220. Standish, Myles, 141, 144. Story, John, 132. Story, Thomas, journal of, 338. Stuyvesant, Peter, 177. T ANGIER LAMBS, 190. Ten Eyck, Cornelius, 211. "The Great Law," 146. Theology in the seventeenth century, 14, 59. "Treaty Elm," picture of, by Benjamin West, 139. Trenchard, John, 220. TTNDER the Restoration, 39. TTAN ALSTYNE, CAPTAIN BA- V RENT, 211. Vane, Sir Harry, 11. Venables, General, 7. Virginia Historical Society, 124. Virginia, map of, 165; settlement of, 268. "\TTANSTEAD, 8. War of Spanish .succession, 268. Watson's Annals, 355. Webb, Maria, 33. Welcome,-^' oy age of, 136. Werden, Sir John, agent of Duke of York, 108. West Indian expedition, 39. West Jersey Colony, constitution of, 98. White settlers, primitive, Penn's de- scription of, 162. Wilkinson, John, 132. William and Mary, 186, 188, 204 et seq. William of Orange, 199; how his reign affected Penn's interests, 204, 206 et seq., 227, 233. 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