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 DISCOURSE 
 
 ON 
 
 THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSAKY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BIRTH 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM PENN, 
 
 Delivered in tlic INDEPENDENCE HAIL at Philadelphia, 
 
 On the 24th October, 1844, 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOB R. TYSON, 
 
 ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 ■^^^^^^ ®^® •^*^^^'~ 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JOHN PENINGTON, 169 CHESTNUT S TREET, 
 
 John C. Clark, Printer, GO Dock Street. 
 
 1845. 
 

 f. 
 
 ^ivA, % O txOtA.A^ 
 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 BIRTH OF WILLIAM PENN. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Historical Society, 
 
 We commemorate the present Anniversary of the Landing 
 of William Penn on these shores, under circumstances of pe- 
 culiar impressiveness. Our late venerable President has 
 expi'essed a desire in his Will, that the Historical Society 
 should regularly celebrate the day, either alone, or in con- 
 junction with another institution, by which its observance had 
 been formerly appropriated. In complying with a request 
 thus solemnly made, we not merely obey the last wishes of 
 our departed President, authoritative as they are, but we per- 
 form an act of filial, if not of patriotic duty, — a duty as spon- 
 taneous and pleasing in the discharge, as it is high and con- 
 trolling in its obligations.* 
 
 But the present Anniversary has an emphatic claim upon 
 our notice, as an historical era. With this day is completed 
 a period of two centuries since the nativity of the illustrious 
 Founder of Pennsylvania. The occasion, therefore, is oppor- 
 tune, to refer to some of the leading principles of his life, and 
 the characteristic features of his colonial policy. 
 
 A summary retrospect is all that can I'easonably be expect- 
 ed, from the brief period allowed me for preparation; but 
 however imperfect and meagre the review, it cannot fail to 
 
 * Vide Appendix, Note 1. 
 
awaken the warmest filial regard, the most grateful emo- 
 tions to him and his companions, for our priceless inheritance 
 of virtue and of freedom. 
 
 William Penn was born to a competent estate, with the ad- 
 vantages of an honourable descent, and the highest political 
 connexions in England. The only son of Admiral Penn, 
 who had added not a little to the naval glory of his country, 
 he was carefully educated at the University of Oxford, and 
 gave promise of an elevated and brilliant manhood. How 
 could it be otherwise, when we recall the traits which all his 
 cotemporaries ascribe to him; — a striking countenance, a fine 
 person, a manly and refined demeanour, a playful wit, an open 
 and even joyous disposition? The solicitude of a watchful 
 and ambitious father, the influence of powerful friends, the 
 personal friendship of a monarch, — all these combined to in- 
 vite him to a career of worldly eminence and fame. To 
 spurn these advantages — to put back the hand which was 
 kindly stretched out to advance him — to forget the authority 
 of a father to whom he was most tenderly attached — to adopt 
 the rigid and self-denying principles of a despised sect; — these 
 revealed, at an early age, the germs of that native force of 
 mind, that originality and independence of thought, which 
 conspicuously marked his character through subsequent life. 
 Such conduct in a youth may be censured as frovvard, or con- 
 demned as unnatural, and the future man may be exposed to 
 the reproach of visionary delusion or heated fanaticism. But 
 harsh as may be our judgment of the act, all must admire the 
 disinterestedness of the motive; and though we may refuse to 
 it the praise of prudence, we cannot deny to it the virtue of 
 sincerity. No man, not actuated by a sense of what he be- 
 lieved to be right; no one, not led by an irresistible impulse, 
 
5 
 
 or impelled by the convictions of a superior influence;— could 
 
 so far abandon the ordinary landmarks of human discretion, 
 
 or so far deviate from the high road to worldly honour. 
 
 Twice expelled from his father's roof— estranged from his 
 
 longing and warm affections— deprived of the means of daily 
 
 support— exposed to the derisive finger of his old associates — 
 
 and consigned over and over again to the ignominy of a prison 
 
 with thieves and murderers;— we see Penn steadily adhering 
 
 to his principles, and without abating a jot or tittle, triumphing 
 
 over the pains which the spirit of inventive tyranny could 
 
 inflict. 
 
 Justum et tenacem propositi virum, 
 Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
 Non vultus instantis tyranni 
 Mente quatit solida — 
 
 Even before he commenced that career of philanthropy 
 which has shed such a glory on his name, and covered his 
 memory with so enduring a verdure, we find him sparing the 
 life of an antagonist, clearly in his power, while in the act of 
 an unprovoked and desperate assault upon his person. After he 
 embraced the faith which he so well defended in his writings, 
 and so beautifully illustrated in his life, we see him,— when 
 undergoing the rigours of the Tower and of Newgate — 
 solacing himself with the rewards of the future for the mise- 
 ries of the present, and contending for conscientious freedom 
 to all religious denominations as well as his own. His first 
 published work expresses upon its -title-page, the boldness of 
 his faith and the fortitude of his spirit;— "not fearing," says 
 he, "the King's ivrath, having beheld the Majesty of Him 
 who is invisible. '^ 
 
 It is not my purpose to dwell, either for praise or for criti- 
 cism, upon those distinctive views of a religious nature which 
 Penn had imbibed, or the received dogmas of bis peculiar 
 
6 
 
 tenets. I nm to consider him merely as a historical person- 
 a2;e, and separating his theological opinions from his public 
 career, to present his claims as a political philosopher to the 
 calm judgment of impartial posterity. 
 
 It is well known that England had been the scene of fierce 
 religious strife, consequent upon the heats produced by the 
 Lutheran Reformation. The Puiitans had obtained, by the 
 aid of Cromwell, an ascendancy over the Catholics and Pro- 
 testants; and they, in turn, submitted to the restoration of 
 Charles II. and the Episcopal Church. The arm of the State 
 became nerved against dissenters, all of whom were in turn 
 exposed to the tender mercies of religious zeal. Whether 
 Catholics, Puritans, or Churchmen, were at the head of Eng- 
 lish affairs, the strong arm of the magistracy was deemed the 
 only security against the ascendancy of error. From the 
 blindness of sectarian rage, or under the plea of state neces- 
 sity, the policy of each to the others, was marked by the same 
 spirit of penal intolerance. 
 
 No one who reads the history of those ages but must be 
 struck with the perversity of our fallible nature, in wresting 
 from Christianity the heavenly attributes of peace and good 
 will to men, which it was graciously intended to confer, and 
 transforming it into an engine of lamentable oppression and 
 wo. The ten persecutions against the Christians, beginning 
 with Nero, and ending with Dioclesian, were scarcely attend- 
 ed with circumstances of .deeper atrocity than the miseries 
 which different denominations of Christians have entailed 
 upon each other. 
 
 It was in a state of the public mind disturbed by a lively 
 recollection of past convulsions, and agitated by mutual fears 
 and apprehensions of future disquiet, that William Penn 
 raised the standard oi universal toleration in matters of con- 
 
7 
 
 science. He preached, persuaded, wrote and suffered tor tlic 
 doctrine he espoused. 
 
 During the reign of the 2d Charles, as well as his successor, 
 nonconformity was visited by fine, imprisonment and other 
 oppressive punishments. All dissenters, but especially the 
 Roman Catholics and Quakers, were exposed to these inflic- 
 tions. Persons of these two persuasions filled the prisons of 
 England. The sufferings of the Friends from the peculiarity 
 of their tenets, especially their repugnance to oaths, were 
 greater than those of other Dissenters. With a view to miti- 
 gate the rigours of their lot, he remonstrated with Parliament 
 against the abuses of the Conventicle Act of 1670, and besought 
 the sheriffs of London to protect the prisoners of Newgate 
 from the tyranny of their keepers. The Royal Indulgence of 
 1671, granted chiefly at the intercession of Penn, was the 
 means of releasing 500 Quakers from the various prisons of 
 the kingdom. His admirable work, bearing the modest title, 
 "Persuasives to Moderation," led to the enlargement of 1200 
 more who had been languishing in those receptacles of filth 
 and depravity, the English jails, for several years. 
 
 But it was not for his own sect alone, but in behalf of all 
 mankind, that he brought forth the stores of his learning, and 
 exerted his great abilities to establish the doctrine he main- 
 tained. The lessons of history, the deductions of reason, the 
 sentiments of wise and good men of all ages, the authority of 
 Scripture, and the example of Christ and his apostles, were 
 all employed to prove its consentaneousness with the growth 
 of truth and the dictates of duty. "■ Force," he observes, 
 " might make hypocrites, but would make no converts." In 
 one passage he says, "mistakes about religion are known only 
 to God." In a letter to the King of Poland, he quotes the 
 memorable sentiment of his predecessor, Stephen, "I am king 
 of men, not of consciences; king of bodies, but not of souls." 
 
8 
 
 Having demonstrated in one of his dissertations, the absurdity 
 of attempting to propagate faith by force, he denounces " the 
 persecutor as a beast of prey, and a declared enemy to man- 
 kind." 
 
 The appeals which he made in behalf of the freedom of 
 religious opinion and practice, are contained in many eloquent 
 and erudite performances, which he occasionally issued, from 
 an early to a late period of his life. These embody a mass 
 of political philosophy which it would do well for mistaken 
 enthusiasts, even of our own day, to ponder over and meditate. 
 
 The principles upon which he proceeded, had their origin 
 in the most enlarged ideas of human liberty. As a religious 
 teacher, his mind, — before the civil affairs of West Jersey and 
 Pennsylvania engaged his attention, — had been chiefly intent 
 upon the establishment of religious toleration. But it will be 
 seen, upon a closer view of his voluminous writings, that 
 whether from this point he was induced to survey the general 
 foundations of human government and civil abuses, — certain 
 it is, he scans and discusses, in one of his earlier works, the 
 whole fabric of social freedom. In his "England's Present 
 Interest," published in his thirtieth year, he traces the liberty 
 of English subjects to a period of English history antecedent 
 to the Magna Charta. " Near 300 years," says he, " before 
 Austin set his foot on English ground, the inhabitants had a 
 good constitution. It came not in with him. Neither did it 
 come in with Luther, nor was it to go out with Calvin. We 
 were a free people by the creation of God, by the redemption 
 of Christ, and by the careful provision of our never to be for- 
 gotten, honourable ancestors; so that our claim to these Eng- 
 lish privileges, rising higher than Protestantism, could never 
 be justly invalidated on account of nonconformity to any tenet 
 or fashion it might prescribe." 
 
 In contending before a Committee of Parliament that the 
 
9 
 
 Quakers ought not to be visited with those penalties which 
 the law intended for Catholics only, he made this emphatic 
 declaration: — " All laws have been let loose upon us, as if the 
 design were not to reform but to destroy us. * * * But 
 mark, I would not be mistaken. I am far from thinking it 
 fit, because 1 exclaim against the injustice of whipping Qua- 
 kers for Papists, that Papists should be whipped for their 
 consciences. No: * * * we do not mean that any should 
 take a fresh aim at them, or that they should come in our 
 room; for we must give the liberty we ask, and cannot be 
 false to our principles, though it were to relieve ourselves; — 
 for we have good will to all men, and would have none suffer 
 for a truly sober and conscientious dissent, on any hand." He 
 protests, with great cogency of language, against the various 
 charges, which, owing to the liberality of his sentiments, had 
 been preferred against him; — that he was a Seminary, a Jesuit, 
 an emissary of Rome, and in pay from the Pope; — asserting 
 that he and his sect were of the same negative faith with the 
 ancient Protestant church, and had never receded from one 
 principle maintained by the first reformers of Germany and 
 the martyrs of England. 
 
 At the risk of tediousness in thus multiplying quotations, 
 permit me lo add a few lines extracted from his " Persuasives 
 to Moderation," as well for their truth as for the beauty and 
 force of the simile. He is pleading for a renewal of the Royal 
 Indulgence, which had been suspended. " The animosities," 
 says he, " which by fresh accident falling in, have swelled to 
 a mighty deluge, and such an one as had overwhelmed our 
 former civil concord and security." " And pardon me," he 
 continues, " if I say, I cannot see that these waters are likely 
 to assuage till this olive branch of indulgence be some way or 
 other restored. The waves will still cover our earth, and a 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 spot of land will hardly be found in this, our glorious isle, for 
 a great number of useful people to set a quiet foot upon. And 
 to pursue the allegory, what was the ark itself, but a most apt 
 and lively emblem of toleration? a kind of natural temple of 
 indulgence, in which we find two of every living creature 
 living together." 
 
 It was dilBcult for persons educated in the system of exclu- 
 sion and intolerance, to conceive of the sincerity of a teacher 
 who contended for equal privileges to all. But the public 
 mind is at length awakened to the appeals of truth and reason. 
 Through his agenc}', many persecuted Presbyterians w^ere 
 recalled from exile; forfeited estates were restored to their 
 owners; Catholics were released from prisons and exonerated 
 from heavy fines; — and to his labours at last it was eminently 
 owing, that many of the great principles of religious liberty 
 were declared and established by act of Parliament. 
 
 This apostle of the rights of humanity received, during 
 many years of his life, but a poor requital for his pains and 
 labours. He was often the inmate of a jail for months together. 
 He felt, in succession, the evils resulting from a temporary 
 deprivation of his province; the loss of his friends; his good 
 name; and his fortune. But in the extremity of his darkest 
 hour, when in retirement from the heats of party, and when, 
 to use his own language, he had become " a man of sorrows, 
 and a reproach to his familiars," he retained the friendship 
 and experienced the sympathy of such men as Tillotson, 
 Locke and Sidney. Sustained by the consciousness of inno- 
 cence, and of that mighty arm upon which he leaned, the sun- 
 light of better fortunes beamed through the thick clouds of suf- 
 fering. He lived admired, respected and loved, and descended 
 into the grave revered as a learned, a great, and a good man; — 
 and honoured as the champion of human rights, and the bene- 
 
11 
 
 factor of two hemispheres. His death was mourned by men 
 of eminence and piety of every creed, who saw in his charac- 
 ter the varied accomplishments of the scholar united not only 
 with the rarest endowments of the mind and understanding, 
 but with those expansive charities and heaven-born affections 
 which dignify and ennoble our nature. " His memory," said 
 the Memorial of his Meeting at Reading, '' will be valued by 
 the wise and blessed by the just." 
 
 It was the peculiar and happy lot of Pennsylvania to have 
 such a man for its Founder; — to have the seeds of human 
 liberty planted deep in its virgin soil — to have a political 
 constitution and code of laws framed by one whose spirit of 
 freedom had grown under the fetters which bound him; — and 
 whose spirit of benevolence, had been nursed and expanded 
 beneath the hard hand of religious oppression. 
 
 The penal rigours against all Dissenters, and especially the 
 Quakers, continued with little intermission or abatement, till 
 the enactment of the Toleration Act, after the accession of 
 William and Mary. Such were the variety and magnitude of 
 the evils under which they groaned, that many began to look 
 to remote resions for a shelter from that storm which beat too 
 violently in their native country. 
 
 The active and comprehensive genius of Penn had already 
 anticipated their desires. He had accepted a charter of Penn- 
 sylvania from Charles H. and invited the persecuted noncon- 
 formists, and such as were desirous of change, to accompany 
 him thither, for the enjoyment of more benignant laws amid 
 the solitudes of the Trans-Atlantic West. He had sought in 
 the new world, a theatre to exemplify the wisdom and feasi- 
 bility of the doctrines he had promulgated in the old; and 
 
12 
 
 while he conferred the means of happiness upon a distant 
 colony, to give to Europe the model of a government found- 
 ed upon justice, benevolence, and the rights of man. 
 
 Before tlie first ship-load of emigrants had been freighted 
 for Pennsylvania, he issued a Declaration, making liberty, in 
 its largest sense, an essential article of the colonial plan. 
 
 In England, he simply contended for religious toleration. 
 As the friend of peace and social repose, he refused to assail 
 the legal preeminence of the English Church. But in his 
 Province, not being deterred by the apprehension of revolu- 
 tionary disquiet, his views were disclosed in their native ex- 
 pansion. He proclaimed not a mere toleration, which ad- 
 mitted the prerogatives of a dominant establishment, but a 
 positive equality of religious faith and opinion. 
 
 It was this great and cardinal principle, that every man has 
 an inherent right to worship God according to the dictates 
 of his conscience, more than any other, that lay nearest the 
 heart of the Founder of Pennsylvania. Having disseminated 
 this grand truth in a great variety of learned and ingenious 
 publications, he sought to impress upon the minds of his co- 
 lonists, that the right which he asserted, lying at the very 
 base of freedom, should be made inviolate by positive law, 
 as it was inalienable and imperishable in its nature. He 
 therefore first declared it to be essential and fundamental; 
 it was afterwards incorporated into the Great Law of 1682; 
 was solemnly reenacted; and finally became a part of the 
 perpetual laws and Constitution of the Province. 
 
 It is beside the present purpose to inquire how the germs 
 of those seeds, which were scattered, at the beginning, in Penn- 
 sylvania, came to be transplanted into the other colonies at 
 the Revolution. The policy of Penn had been the policy of 
 two only of the thirteen colonies, which united their forces to 
 
13 
 
 overthrow the English supremacy; — of Lord Baltimore in 
 Maryland, and of Williams and Coddington in Rhode Island. 
 But the colonial platform in Pennsylvania was more broad 
 and comprehensive than either. Without detracting a tittle 
 from the merit of either of these eminent benefactors of their 
 race, we may leave to the philosophic lustorian, and the in- 
 formed judgment of impartial posterity, the respective claim 
 of each to the honour of fostering those distinguishing and 
 fundamental ideas which enter into our present system of go- 
 vernment. 
 
 One of the great efforts of Penn's labours in Europe, was 
 the removal of tests, as the necessary attribute of social free- 
 dom. Upon the faith of his first Declaration, and the laws 
 enacted in pursuance of it, Pennsylvania became the resort 
 and asylum of the oppressed of every creed in Europe. It 
 partook of the nature of the ark, he described. It was the re- 
 sidence of the Episcopalian, and the sanctuary to which the 
 Presbyterian, the Catholic and the Jew, fled for refuge. 
 
 The Constitution of Pennsylvania, as a State, adopted the 
 principles, and almost the language, of Penn's first Declaration 
 in regard to liberty of conscience. The first great act of the 
 Nation, as an independent political society, — I mean the Con- 
 stitution of the United States — was to remove for ever the 
 necessity of religious tests. That sacred Charter was framed 
 by a Convention, who assembled and deliberated in Philadel- 
 phia. We may not conjecture how far the influence of the 
 genius loci,^of a spot consecrated by the universality of its 
 freedom, — may have operated upon their deliberations; but 
 we cannot doubt that the ideas of liberty which this colony 
 diffused, cooperating with the spirit which the revolution 
 itself had engendered, opened the minds of its framers to the 
 reception of those more catholic principles of human deniza- 
 
14 
 
 tion, which leave to all the undisturbed fruition of its bless- 
 ings. This is the vital and distinguishing spirit of the Ame- 
 rican Revolution. It is the security and support of all the 
 rest;— it is the keystone of the arch which upholds the temple 
 of true and equal liberty; — of that arch which sustains the 
 complicated and massive edifice of the Union itself. 
 
 Vessels for the promised land were soon loaded with emi- 
 grants, whither Penn followed a few months after, and land- 
 ed at New Castle, from the good ship Welcome, on this 
 day 1G2 years ago. Here let us forget the scene which now 
 surrounds us, of a stately and luxurious city, and dwell upon 
 that which opened upon the adventurers. The Schuylkill 
 was separated from the Delaware, not by edifices, the abodes 
 of opulence and taste, but by a dreary and almost untrodden 
 expanse of forest. A few worthy Swedes, Dutch and English, 
 were thinly scattered along the margin of the Delaware. All 
 else was dense and unbroken wilderness, the coverts of wild 
 beasts, or the home of the wilder Indian. 
 
 I will not dwell upon the circumstances of that little settle- 
 ment, nor point you to the caves which protected many of 
 the colonists from the inclemency of the ensuing winter. I 
 will not harrow the feelings with cases of individual suffering, 
 of death by tlie raging of disease on the voyage, or of the 
 hardships, discomforts and privations, of their subsequent lot. 
 It is scarcely fancy which depicts among that primitive band, 
 many an eye turned to heaven in thanksgiving for their pre- 
 servation and safe retreat from the persecutions of " woful 
 Europe," while streaming in tender i-ecollection of their na- 
 tive land, and of the kindred they had forsaken. But I may 
 not omit to call your attention, if not to the just purchase 
 which Penn made of his lands from the simple inhabitants of 
 
15 
 
 the country, at least to the Treaty concluded between them, 
 for a close and abiding friendship. 
 
 The spreading elm tree, which stood but a few years ago 
 in Kensington, marked the spot of that memorable compact. 
 Penn taught mankind, in the circumstances and consequences 
 of that Treaty, a beautiful moral lesson, the observance of 
 which, in succeeding times, might have prevented much cala- 
 mity and outrage, and no little national dishonour. He and 
 his colonists entered the crowd of grim warriors assembled 
 beneath tlie wide branches of the elm, and there, unprotected 
 by soldiers and unarmed themselves, held out to them the 
 hand of peace. The simplicity of the act, the mild counte- 
 nances, and apparent sincerity of the strangers, opened the 
 heart and subdued the fierce spirit of the savage. The ex- 
 tended pledge was taken, and promises of perpetual friendship 
 were mutually exchanged. 
 
 The plighted faith of the parties to this compact, was never 
 violated. They lived in close neighbourhood and fraternal 
 amity with each other, for more than half a century. During 
 that period, no complaint of infidelity was heard, and not a 
 drop of blood was shed in Pennsylvania. The kind ofiices of 
 the colonists were acknowledged by timely presents of corn 
 and game from the natives, and by every mark of attachment 
 and regard. The story of this Treaty, and of its fruits, pre- 
 sents the most pleasing page in modern history. On this 
 page, Voltaire and the Abbe Raynal have delighted to dwell, 
 in strains of the most rapturous panegyric. The narrative, 
 while it elucidates the character of our ancestors, determines 
 the moral capacities of uncivilized man. It exhibits the In- 
 dian, not as destitute of moral faculties and virtuous instincts; 
 not as an incarnate demon or a brute, who delights only in 
 treachery and muj-der; but though a heathen, though a being 
 
16 
 
 in a state of moral infancy, yet as capable of cherishing some 
 of the best affections of humanity — the sentiments of consis- 
 tent friendshijD and enduring gratitude. This problem was 
 solved by our ancestors, in their connexion with a race which 
 were the great fathers of the North American Indians; — the 
 tradition of whose conquests, and the fame of whose valour, 
 had reached beyond the Mississippi ; — in fine, with a race which 
 in their previous intercourse with the Swedes and Dutch, had 
 displayed many of the traits of fell and truculent savages. 
 The process was simple, — that of peace-breathing conduct and 
 consistent kindness; of undeviating truth and perfect since- 
 rity. The benevolent Robinson and Elliott, of Massachusetts, 
 saw the fatal mistakes of a different course of action, and de- 
 plored with bitterness, its sad fruits and irretrievable mis- 
 chiefs. — But if it be asked, whether this memorable lesson of 
 the good Onas, was productive of its natural effects upon our 
 subsequent policy, we must burn with shame at the answer. 
 It is an unhappy truth, that the successors of Penn forgot the 
 wise precept he had taught them. Jealousy and encroach- 
 ment on our side, provoked resistance, outrage and violence 
 on the other: until after the commission of many crimes, and 
 the endurance of many sufferings, these harmless friends, if 
 not kind benefactors of our ancestors, retired from the con- 
 fines of Pennsylvania to the western wilds. But it may be 
 hoped, that the precious results of Penn's philanthropic disco- 
 very may not be lost to mankind, but that it may yet be ap- 
 plied to the redemption of the national faith and honour. That 
 great assemblage of Indian nations which are now settled, by 
 the policy of the Federal Government, on the western banks of 
 the Mississippi, affords the last opportunity, which a cold and 
 selfish policy has permitted, to illustrate the wisdom, as well 
 as benignity, of this example. 
 
17 
 
 The Proprietary, having enacted his laws and settled his 
 Indian relations, proceeded to mark the plan of his future city. 
 In the second article of his "Conditions and Concessions," 
 executed in England on the 11th July, 1681, Penn limited 
 the area of the town to the proportion of 200 acres out of each 
 10,000 sold. But in an order to his commissioners in the 
 October following, he directed them "to lay out 10,000 acres 
 for a town." Holme, the Surveyor General of the Province, 
 proceeded to execute this order in June, 1682, but he was 
 anticipated by the arrival of Penn, who, at the instance of the 
 colonists, agreed to diminish its extent. As finally agreed, 
 Philadelphia was to extend from the Delaware to the Schuyl- 
 kill river, and from the line of Vine street on the north, to 
 Cedar street on the south, including an area of about 1200 
 acres. The streets were laid down with great uniformity in 
 the plan, slightly varied from in practice, with the distances 
 from each other which have since been preserved. The four 
 open squares are delineated on the original map as they now 
 exist, for the public health and recreation. This model was 
 nearly perfect in conception, and will bear an advantageous 
 comparison with the irregular, winding, and narrow thorough- 
 fares of the other great towns of the Union. Dean Prideaux 
 has referred to Philadelphia, as presenting no slight similarity 
 in design to the ancient city of Babylon, which, it may be 
 remembered, was almost as famous for its beauty, as for the 
 crimes which led to its downfall. After describing the cele- 
 brated metropolis of Chaldea, he observes, " much according 
 to this model, hath William Penn, the Quaker, laid out the 
 ground for his city of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and were 
 it all built, according to that design, it would be the fairest 
 city in all America, and not much behind any other in the 
 whole world." 
 c 
 
18 
 
 When the town received from Penn its Charter for a city 
 in 1701, its proportions and dimensions were defined as 
 they now exist. The sagacity of the Founder had been 
 shown, not only in the rectangular intersection of the streets, 
 but in their width, distances from each other, and in the va- 
 rious arrangements for health, cleanliness and beauty. It is 
 not easy to estimate the value of these regulations to the future 
 well-being of our metropolis, without a reference to older and 
 more populous communities. If an inquirer will look into a 
 recent official report on London, Liverpool, and other English 
 towns, he may see in their sickening details, the nature of 
 some of those evils which it will be our happy lot to escape. 
 
 But it has been objected, that the circumscribed limits of 
 Philadelphia, as set forth in the Charter of 1701, have proved ^ 
 
 injurious to her prosperity. Whatever may be the defects of 
 that instrument, we cannot without injustice, charge upon 
 Penn, the number of independent interests which have grown 
 up around her. We have seen that his own judgment was in 
 favour of a municipal territory of 10,000 acres, and that he 
 reduced it to nearly its present extent of 1200 acres, at the 
 desire of the inhabitants. But to whom is the blame properly 
 imputable, when the population had grown beyond these boun- 
 daries, of conferring upon their inhabitants distinct municipal 
 rights? The Charter of Southwark as a district, the earliest 
 of these separate municipalities, was granted in 1794, by the 
 Legislature of Pennsylvania, when experience had suggested 
 the probable magnitude, and the commercial and manufac- 
 turing destiny of Philadelphia.* The corporation of the 
 Northern Liberties, next in order, received its grant in 1803, 
 from the same source, as well as the other bodies politic which 
 
 * Act for Streets, &c. passed in 17G'2; incorporated in 1794. (Vide 
 Smith's Laws, 1 Vol. 248, and 3 Vol. 130.) 
 
19 
 
 now comprise our large and expanding population. It is easy 
 to throw the censure of present mistakes upon the absent and 
 the past. But as these separate communities, with their inde- 
 pendent jurisdictions, are proved to be an evil injurious to the 
 common welfare, it is better and more magnanimous, to pro- 
 vide an obvious remedy. 
 
 The venerable Charter of Philadelphia, which has so well 
 advanced the greatness of an exiguous surface, may throw its 
 aegis over a wider territory. It should extend its parental 
 embrace to the fine possessions of Fairmount, Girard College, 
 and Lemon Hill, which, lying beyond its present corporate 
 limits, may, at some future day, be exposed to the interested 
 policy of a step-mother, who has it always in her power, to be 
 more insidious in her unkindness than a stranger. By greater 
 enlargement, each important point of an increasing commerce 
 may be improved, and the extended lines of our two no. 
 ble rivers, be rendered tributary to the wealth and gran- 
 deur of one undivided metropolis. Ideal landmarks will be 
 removed which weaken or distract enterprise, and tend to 
 hinder that social fusion which springs from popular sympa- 
 thy, identity of interest, and the sense of a common union. 
 Nor can it be doubted that a plan may be devised which, while 
 it confers the security of a general police, will reconcile the 
 demands of sectional as well as private justice with the para- 
 mount claims of the public prosperity. 
 
 But — to return from this digression — if sagacity was dis- 
 played in the economy of the town, the social organization of 
 the Province has even higher claims upon our regard. Its 
 political frame-work was modelled upon those principles of 
 society, which, Penn had conceived, were fitted to develope the 
 more exalted faculties of man. He had imbibed the opinion 
 that mankind were governed too much, and that numerous 
 
20 
 
 regulations and severe laws only invited their violation. 
 Every part of his colonial plan recognised the people as the 
 guardians of the common welfare. Popular liberty and re- 
 publican forms were maintained in every department of the 
 administration. An anecdote is related, which displays the 
 simplicity of the times and the republican tendencies of the 
 people. In the year 1685, three years after the first settle- 
 ment, Allen published an Almanac, in which he ventured to 
 give the title of Lord Penn to the Founder. The Council 
 were so offended, that they sent personally for Allen and his 
 printer, Bradford, and ordered them to blot out of the Alma- 
 nac the unauthorized appellation. — The different branches of 
 his simple polity were intended to preserve justice, and the 
 laws to encourage morality. He seems to have reduced to 
 practice the political Romance of Harrington, and proved by 
 the order of his province and the happiness of his people, that 
 the Oceana was not a delusion. Some of the older writers 
 have seen in the condition of early Pennsylvania, — in the ge- 
 neral peace and prosperity, — in the fraternal kindness which 
 subsisted between the colonists and Indians, — in the mild pe- 
 nalties and comparative exemption from crime, — an image of 
 the golden age, as depicted by the poets. 
 
 But he encouraged no Eutopian dream of impracticable 
 perfection. He knew that good government did not always 
 make good men, and that ignorance and idleness were the 
 parents of a numerous and vicious progeny. In order to 
 guard these avenues of misery and crime, he established 
 schools, and recommended that youth, at the age of twelve, 
 be required to be put to trades, agriculture, or some useful 
 employment. Tiie means of sound mental and moral educa- 
 tion were amply provided. " Men of wisdom and virtue," 
 says he, "because they descend not with worldly inherit- 
 ances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education 
 
21 
 
 of youth, for which after ages will owe more to the care of 
 founders and the successive magistracy, than to their parents 
 for their private patrimony." 
 
 In the punishment of crimes he was lenient and merciful. 
 The English law, as it then stood, was distinguished for its 
 sanguinary rigour. Death was the general avenger of its vio- 
 lations. But Penn admitted into his code an element which 
 did not enter into the legislation of Europe. He looked to 
 reforination as one of the great ends of retributive justice. 
 In pursuance of this idea, he exempted from the infliction of 
 death about two hundred offences, which were capitally pu- 
 nished by the English law, and reserved it for murder only. 
 The improvements which he introduced into the system of 
 prisons, kept pace with the meliorations of the penal code. 
 He ordered the jails of the Province to be workhouses for the 
 prisoners, to serve the purposes of punishment in promoting 
 wholesome contrition and ultimate amendment. 
 
 In the distribution of good and evil, in the affairs of this 
 world, it is sometimes decreed that afiliction and calamity are 
 to be the messengers and source of our greatest blessings. 
 The English persecutions of the seventeenth century, were 
 the means of bringing to light the disgusting depravity and 
 unimagined horrors of the English prisons. These recepta- 
 cles, therefore, became an object of lively attention in Penn- 
 sylvania. Many of the colonists, with their venerated leader, 
 being made acquainted, by long endurance, with their mani- 
 fold evils, became the best instruments for remedying their 
 defects. From this cause originated the Prison Society of 
 Pennsylvania — the earliest known association in the world 
 for such an object — whose silent but sedulous philanthropy 
 has been the means of carrying the idea of a prison ivork- 
 shop, first suggested by Penn, to the most beneficial results. 
 It has matured a system of Penitentiary discipline, upon the 
 
22 
 
 plan of separation, which is now the admiration of our own 
 country and of Europe. We have witnessed the advent of 
 gentlemen to these shores as commissioners, from the greatest 
 nations of the old world, to examine and report to their re- 
 spective governments, upon the character and effects of our 
 Penitentiary system, — a system which, having originated and 
 being matured in Pennsylvania, is properly and exclusively 
 our own. Thus, by the unobtrusive labours of our own phi- 
 lanthropists, whose rule of action is esse qiiam videri, Penn- 
 sylvania has the honour of giving to mankind an institution 
 of the highest consequence, and one which is destined to 
 confer the most permanent benefits. 
 
 In the legal government of the colony, though the whole 
 theory rested upon the equality of human rights, and their as- 
 sertion by the popular will; though justice and kindness go- 
 verned the colonial intercourse with the Indians; though the 
 penal law was divested of the sanguinary features of the En- 
 glish code; yet the Founder never failed to impress and ex- 
 emplify the sentiment, that "the way of the transgressor is 
 hard." The Province presented, in regard to crimes, a fa- 
 vourable contrast with all the other colonies, where severer 
 punishments obtained. Penn distinguished between lenity 
 and inefficiency on the one hand, and between liberty and li- 
 centiousness on the other. He was as prompt to hinder any 
 organized opposition to law, as he was ready to avenge its 
 perpetration. To guard against popular disturbance, as well 
 as to bring the lawless to punishment, he felt the necessity of 
 providing an adequate police. He somewhere emphatically 
 tells us, that ''weakness in the rulers leads to mutiny and re- 
 bellion in the people." So sensible was he of the importance 
 of subduing at the outset, the least manifestation of a refrac- 
 tory or insubordinate spirit, that he offered his jjersonal aid 
 
23 
 
 to quell a riotous outbreak in the neighbouring province of 
 New Jersey. The insurgents proceeded so far as to have re- 
 course to arms. Though the tumult was suppressed before 
 his arrival, yet he despatched a missive to the authorities 
 there, in which he expresses, with firmness and decision, his 
 views of the measures which the emergency demanded. " It 
 would be hard," he wrote, according to his biographer, Clark- 
 son, "to find temper enough to balance extremes; for he 
 knew not what punishment those rioters did not deserve. * * 
 If lenitives would not do, coercives should be tried; for 
 though men would naturally begin with the former, yet wis- 
 dom had often sanctioned the latter, as remedies, which, how- 
 ever, were never to be adopted but with regret." 
 
 There is nothing in the example and sentiments of the 
 Founder; nothing in the history of the colony; to sanction 
 the idea that the administration was feeble, though the puni- 
 tive system was mild. The penal economy seemed to pro- 
 ceed upon the idea, that mild laws, executed with uniformity 
 and certainty, were better than a rigorous code administered 
 with laxity. "Criminals," says Lownes, "avoided Pennsyl- 
 vania, because they preferred the 7nsk of being hanged in 
 other States, to the certainty of being confined to the Peni- 
 tentiary cells of this." Those writers who would attribute to 
 misgovernment in the past, the misrule, errors, or licentious- 
 ness of a recent period, know little of our history. An admi- 
 nistration of the laws such as it was the care of our ancestors 
 to enforce; a constabulary suited to our crowded numbers; 
 and an union of the various jurisdictions into one munici- 
 pality; would enable Philadelphia to retrieve that character 
 for submissive obedience and decorous order which she once 
 so eminently deserved. 
 
 Philadelphia was the pride and joy of its Founder. He had 
 
24 
 
 visited the spot where it stands before the trees which cover- 
 ed its surface, were removed by the sturdy hand of the wood- 
 chopper. He witnessed the erection of the first hundred 
 buildings, for the accommodation of his houseless, but ho- 
 noured associates. To his friends at home, he drew a most 
 pleasing picture of the site of the town, of its salubrity and 
 beauty, and its advantageous position for trade and commerce. 
 To this town of his affections, v/here dwelt many of his for- 
 mer companions in prison, now voluntary exiles in his pro- 
 vince for conscience sake; — the repositories of his cherished 
 principles, his tried counsellors and friends; — to that small 
 assemblage of simple and unpretending dwellings, comprising 
 for the most part, religious refugees of all names and distinc- 
 tions; — to that spot, he looked for the realization of all his 
 hopes of a virtuous government and a happy people. His 
 apostrophe to Philadelphia, in one of his letters, is touchingly 
 simple and beautiful: "And thou, Philadelphia," he writes, 
 " the virgin settlement of this Province, named before thou 
 wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what tra- 
 vail, has there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from 
 such as would abuse and defile thee! * * My soul prays to 
 God for thee, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that 
 thy children may be blessed of the Lord, and thy people 
 saved by his power. My love to thee has been great, and the 
 remembrance of thee affects my heart and my eye. The God 
 of eternal strength keep and preserve thee to his glory and 
 thy peace!" We may reverently hope that these solemn ad- 
 jurations may not be without their effect upon the future 
 peace and prosperity of the City, since the past has been sig- 
 nally crowned with blessings. 
 
 The advancement of the Colony of Pennsylvania, in num- 
 bers, wealth, and the personal consideration of its members. 
 
25 
 
 was without example in the colonial history of this country. 
 It may be remembered, that with the exception of Georgia, it 
 was the last colony planted by the English in North America. 
 The rapidity with which emigrants flocked to Pennsylvania, its 
 unexampled prosperity and internal quiet, were chiefly attribu- 
 ted to the superiority of its laws; — to the political and religious 
 freedom of its Constitution. All the early writers agree in 
 ascribing the highest praises to both. Edmund Burke, one of 
 the greatest minds of the last century, remarks, in his phi- 
 losophical survey of the colony, " But what crowned all 
 was that noble Charter of Privileges by which Penn made 
 the inhabitants as free as any people in the world, and which 
 has drawn such vast numbers of so many different persuasions, 
 and such various countries, to put themselves under the pro- 
 tection of his laws. He made the most perfect freedom, both 
 civil and religious, the basis of his establishment; and this has 
 done more towards the settling of the Province and the set- 
 tling of it in a strong and permanent manner than the wisest 
 regulations could have done on any other plan." Anderson, 
 who wrote in 1760, speaks, in his History of Commerce, to 
 the same effect, observing, that " Although so lately planted, it 
 is thought, at this day, to have more white people in it than 
 any other colony on all the continent of North America, New 
 England alone excepted." 
 
 Philadelphia was founded about sixty years after New 
 York, and about half a century later than Boston. In a few 
 years, she outstripped these older and enterprising sisters;* 
 became the metropolis of the United Colonies; and after the 
 revolution, the capital of the Nation. Her central position; 
 the general intelligence of the people; the superior tone of 
 
 * Vide Appendix, No. 2. 
 D 
 
26 
 
 society; and the unusual advancement which had been made 
 in the practical arts, pointed out Philadelphia, as the ultima 
 thule of American life. The private correspondence as well 
 as the official papers of Washington and other public actors in 
 the revolution, attest her indispensable importance during the 
 progress of the conflict, as the centre of art, intelligence and 
 wealth. 
 
 At an early day, it was her lot to attain a standing for 
 solidity of pecuniary means, and a high repute for commer- 
 cial honour. The citizens at large were more remarkable 
 for their frugality and competent estates, for their devotion 
 to public and private charity, than the possession of affluent 
 fortunes. But this individual wealth, moderate as it was, 
 being widely, even generally diffused, formed an aggregate 
 capital which was enough to establish, upon a firm basis, a 
 solid pecuniary reputation. 
 
 But the simplicity of primitive manners faded apace before 
 the influx of riches, obtained by more adventurous commerce. 
 Men of larger property multiplied, and in more modern days 
 many private estates might be pointed to, in the city and State, 
 much exceeding a million of dollars, and a few above five mil- 
 lions, amassed in Philadelphia. Our respected fellow towns- 
 man, Dr. Mease, in his excellent Picture of Philadelphia, 
 informs us that of the former debt of the United States, now 
 happily extinguished, amounting in 1824 to above 90 millions 
 of dollars, 43^ millions were held in Philadelphia. 
 
 Owing to these causes, the practical and ornamental arts 
 have been cultivated with unusual assiduity and success. The 
 exact sciences — the pure as well as the practical — have received 
 such a momentum, from the tendencies and tastes of our fore- 
 fathers, as to predominate, in the efforts of the mind, over the 
 lighter exercitations of elegant literature. To this we are 
 
27 
 
 indebted for that spirit of utility, which has placed Pennsylva- 
 nia in the van of internal improvements in this country. The 
 turnpike road leading from, this city to Lancaster, was the 
 earliest project of that nature in the Union. The first canal 
 undertaken in the United States,— except that through the 
 Dismal Swamp of Virginia, — is the Union Canal of Pennsyl- 
 vania, which unites the waters of the Schuylkill and Susque- 
 hanna; — an enterprise which was unhappily delayed about a 
 century after its feasibility and importance were suggested by 
 the Founder. The number and permanence of the bridges, 
 turnpike roads, canals, and rail-ways stretching over and in- 
 tersecting our diversified and bountiful region, are unequalled 
 by any State in the Union, and they have employed a sum of 
 money, surpassing in magnitude that of any of her sisters. 
 
 Agriculture was quickened and encouraged in its best ope- 
 rations, by the diffusive and intelligent aid of Societies formed 
 to advance and improve it, by good roads constructed at an 
 early period, and by other fi\cilities for bringing to market the 
 produce of labour. The effects of these upon the husbandman 
 may be read in the commodious barns, neat fences, and culti- 
 vated fields, which give to the State such a smiling aspect of 
 substantial comfort and overflowing abundance. And as if 
 the bounty of heaven had cooperated with the wisdom of our 
 early pioneers, in showering upon her the most signal bless- 
 ings, the wealth of Pennsylvania does not lie alone on the 
 luxuriant surface, but the most rugged and uninviting tracts 
 of her domain, teem in exhaustless profusion with mineral 
 wealth. The Province, in 1683, contained less than one hun- 
 dred houses. These were inhabited by a band of religious ex- 
 iles, who are summarily described by their cotemporaries as 
 men of property and character. This small settlement has 
 grown to be a State, containing nearly 2,000,000 of inhabitants, 
 
28 
 
 and possessing an aggregate amount of wealth exceeding 
 2,100,000,000 of dollars, estimated to produce 200,000,000 
 of dollars annually.* Immense regions, teeming in close 
 proximity, with coal and iron, yet remain untouched by the 
 hand of the miner, and new fields of these minerals are con- 
 stantly opening to the eye of enterprise and discovery. Eng- 
 land and Wales are stated to export 30,000,000 of tons of coal, 
 per annum, while the exports of Pennsylvania, whose mine- 
 ral wealth is believed to be equal to both combined, do not 
 exceed the one-fifteenth of that amount. The annual pro- 
 duct of the Anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania has increased 
 within the brief period of twenty-four years, from 365 tons, 
 to 1,600,000, for the year lS44.t It should be remem- 
 bered that the settlement of the colony does not reach to a high 
 antiquity; that these mineral tracts are newly redeemed from 
 primeval wiidness; and that artificial communications, as well 
 as the operation of mining, are of recent introduction into this 
 country. Time is required to scale the rocky ramparts, and 
 overcome the mountainous walls, with which nature has de- 
 lighted to guard these treasures. But art and enterprise are 
 on foot to dislodge them from their fastnesses, and each day 
 is adding new monuments of their triumphs. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, vain would be all the glories of the public 
 prospects, if shadowed by the cloud of public dishonour! It 
 was one earnest recommendation of the Founder to his chil- 
 dren, and the desire of his own heart, " to owe nothing^ 
 This sentiment is sanctified in the affections of every legiti- 
 mate child of Pennsylvania. In pursuance of its spirit the 
 obligations of the State have now been provided for by the 
 Legislature, and every consideration connected with the past, 
 
 * Vide Appendix, No. 3. I Vide Appendix, No. 4. 
 
29 
 
 or relating to the future, every motive of justice, policy and 
 patriotism, concur to recommend their speedy and complete 
 fulfilment. Owing to the unhappy failure of the greatest of 
 our financial institutions, attracting into its vast vortex nearly 
 all the lesser establishments of the State, a void was created 
 which crippled the public resources and threatened to involve 
 us in one universal ruin. Many families, accustomed to opu- 
 lence, were reduced to destitution. The great works of the 
 State, in which the public debt was expended, being 
 so unfinished as to prove unproductive, formed rather a 
 drain and a burden, than a means of profit or relief. But 
 thanks to the bounty of Providence and the energy of our 
 people, the thick gloom has been penetrated, and a brighter 
 day is at hand. Pennsylvania will remember the injunction 
 of her Founder. She will stand vindicated before the world, 
 of the charge of degeneracy, and transmit the fair escutcheon 
 of good faith which she derived from her ancestors, undefaced 
 and unspotted to her descendants. We may fondly anticipate 
 the sunshine of prosperity and true glory, which, upon the 
 redemption of her faith, will dawn upon our beloved Common- 
 wealth. Each hill and valley of her territory, made glad by 
 the enlightened liberality of expended millions, will gratefully 
 yield up those hidden stores, which nature with so prodigal a 
 hand, has poured into its bosom. The public bounty will be 
 scarcely less magical in its effect upon these wild and unpro- 
 mising regions, than the potent rod of the prophet upon the 
 arid rock, at whose stroke the overflowing waters gushed 
 forth in the desert. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, it is not to riches we are chiefly to look 
 for our future greatness. We may be thankfully content with 
 the local position of Pennsylvania, her mineral stores, and 
 
30 
 
 agricultural capacities. These all are secure. We have a City 
 most fairly adorned, and a State of which we have many rea- 
 sons to be proud, for which we have every motive to be grate- 
 ful. But the physical surface and material appearances, how- 
 ever imposing and beautiful, do not satisfy the eye which is 
 seeking for something better. As Pennsylvanians, with the 
 heritage of the principles of William Penn, as one member of 
 a great family whose form of government depends for its pre- 
 servation upon individual and private virtue, the perpetuity of 
 whose union is intertwined and identified with the moral pa- 
 triotism of its constituent parts, we are to look to higher 
 sources of ambition. 
 
 The noble charities which, at an early day, gave to Penn- 
 sylvania a name in Europe; the pure virtues and wise max- 
 ims of our ancestors; are worthy of our filial care and devoted 
 cultivation. That liberality of spirit which our early laws 
 engendered and difi'used, made Pennsylvania the home of a 
 Christian, and an enlightened tolerance. They made it a 
 home for the oppressed of all nations. They have conducted 
 it in safety from the helplessness of infancy, to its present 
 maturity and power. We are called upon by every conside- 
 ration of pride in a virtuous ancestry; by the associations of 
 this hallowed spot; by the call of patriotism; to cultivate 
 those seeds of moral virtue and enlightened freedom which 
 were scattered at the first planting in our native soil. 
 
 The City in which we live was founded by the great and 
 good man, whose birth and landing we this day commemo- 
 rate. It was the place of his residence, and the scene of 
 many of those labours which have given celebrity to his 
 name. It was the theatre of the first Congress who assem- 
 bled from all the colonies to deliberate upon their common 
 
31 
 
 grievances, and to devise the mode of their common redress. 
 It was the theatre of that illustrious Assembly, who, within 
 these walls, convened to ponder the dread alternative of resist- 
 ance or subjection! Though they sat with closed doors, yet on 
 such a spot as this, it requires but little aid from fancy to look 
 round upon the venerable sages who considered the question 
 at issue. Here, amid the antique furniture and massive wain- 
 scot, which, preserved with pious care, are still visible around 
 us, in their original state, we may picture — in the stately dress 
 of a past age — the reverend and majestic persons who filled 
 this consecrated chamber. Here sat Hancock upon an emi- 
 nence, contemplating with a resolute but settled brow, and an 
 expression of intense interest, five persons who were ap- 
 proaching the Chair. Below him sat Charles Thomson, the 
 secretary of the body, diligently, but with emotion, recording 
 the business as it proceeded. There sat Lee, Samuel Adams, 
 Rutledge, Hopkinson, Rush, Carroll, Hopkins, Rodney, Mid- 
 dleton, and their associates, all evincing, in their fixed gaze 
 and compressed lips, the absorbing interest of the present bu- 
 siness. Whatever of contrast or variety was observable in 
 the countenances of the assembly, every pulse seemed to beat 
 in unison, and all hearts seemed prepared for some fearful ex- 
 tremity ! 
 
 But what mighty event, either announced or unexpressed, 
 disturbs the tranquillity of the convention? Who are the five 
 persons now advancing in front of the president? The assem- 
 bly is silent with expectation. Jefferson, and, standing beside 
 or behind him, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Living- 
 ston, bring to the table a paper, which is slowly and delibe- 
 rately read. The contents of that paper are seen in the unal- 
 terable purpose, written, in deep characters, upon the faces of 
 
32 
 
 the committee. Its consideration is postponed, then calmly 
 debated, and at last, with deliberate solemnity, adopted. The 
 paper complained of birth-rights outraged and charters vio- 
 lated, of faithless desertion and perfidious wrongs. It spoke 
 of separation from one empire, and proclaimed the erection of 
 another. That paper was our first National Charter — the De- 
 claration of Independence. All the assembled patriots, save 
 one, gave it their cordial support, and early, if not immediate, 
 signature.* 
 
 From the steps of this venerable edifice that immortal In- 
 strument was read to the people, and went forth to the utter- 
 most parts of the earth. 
 
 After achieving the Independence they had declared, the 
 patriots of the Revolution, returned to Philadelphia to form a 
 second and equally endurable charter of our liberties; — I mean 
 the Constitution of the United States. Over that eminent 
 convention sat the venerated father of his country, and con- 
 ducted to the chair by a son of Pennsylvania, the great finan- 
 cier of the Revolution. Here, in Philadelphia, was celebrated 
 that grand jubilee of the nation which followed the ratifica- 
 tion, by the States, of the Federal Charter. Here we may 
 recognise the familiar scenes of one, whom the poetic enthu- 
 siasm of Byron did not unduly exalt, when, intent upon pre- 
 senting to the admiration of the world the embodiment of 
 imaginary or peerless virtue, he referred to — 
 
 " the name of Washington, 
 
 To make men blush there was but one." 
 
 Here, in succession, dwelt John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, and here assembled the first Congress and Senate under 
 the Constitution. 
 
 * Vide Appendix, No. 5. 
 
33 
 
 The epochs of 1644, of 1682, of 1776, and 1787, should 
 be inscribed in letters of living light upon the historic scroll. 
 They bring with them reminiscences of great and glorious 
 events, which should never fade from the memory of Phi- 
 ladelphia. They are so many mementoes to you, gentlemen, 
 and to us all, of the classic ground on which we dwell, and 
 call upon us, in tones of the deepest eloquence, to cherish 
 those virtues which blest it from the first! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE 1, P. 3. 
 
 The Anniversary of the Landing h:is been observed on the 24th 
 October, ever since the year 1824, when that day was assigned as 
 the proper one, by " The Society for Commemorating the Landing 
 of WiUiam Penn," — of which Mr. Du Ponceau was a leading mem- 
 ber, if the suggestion did not, in fact, originate with him. As it was 
 the special duty of that Society, which was formed to keep alive the 
 memory of the day, to ascertain the pro^r one, every body acqui- 
 esced in the time it selected, without examination. In fact, with a 
 view to avoid mistake, it appointed a Committee to ascertain the 
 precise period of the event, and upon the report of this Committee 
 the 24th was appointed. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
 which was formed in the following year, (1825,) has adopted the 
 same day, on the authority of the Penn Society, and because Proud, 
 in his History, assigns that as the day on which the Founder landed 
 at New Castle. 
 
 But it now turns out that the 24th is an anachronism. Our pains- 
 taking antiquarian, John F. Watson, of Germantown, proves in the 
 late edition of his curious and very interesting "Annals," (1 Vol. p. 
 1.5, Note,) by the original record at New Castle, which he quotes at 
 length, that Penn "arrived before the tbwne" on the 27th, and re- 
 ceived possession of it on the 28th October, 1682. 
 
 In compliance, however, with former usage, the Historical Society 
 appointed the 24th October, 1844, for the observance of the day, es- 
 pecially as it happened to fall upon that which completed a period 
 of 200 years since the birth of Penn, an epoch which it resolved to 
 celebrate. 
 
 NOTE 2, P. 25. 
 Boston is said to have contained 10,000 inhabitants when Phila- 
 delphia was founded. (Vide Breck's Disc. p. 30.) In the year 1696, 
 
35 
 
 there were, according to G. Thomas's Historical and Geographical 
 Account of Pennsylvania, 2000 houses in Philadelpliia, " all inhabit- 
 ed, most of them stately, and of brick." 
 
 NOTE 3, P. 28. 
 
 The following statement is extracted from the 2d Vol. of the 
 United States Almanac, (1844,) a publication which is remarkable 
 for the accuracy of its statistics: — 
 
 Real Estate. 
 The value of the Real Estate and Personal Property in Pennsylva- 
 nia, according to an estimate made from the returns of the Mar- 
 shals, in taking the last census, and from returns of the County 
 Commissioners, is stated as follows, in an article published in the 
 " Protector." 
 
 Value of 30,080,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, in- 
 cluding water-power, quarries, mines of iron, salt, 
 
 coal, and all other minerals, .'^752,000,000 
 
 Value of 300,000 dwelling-houses, 300,000,000 
 
 Value of barns, work-shops, stores, furnaces, rolling- 
 mills, forges, and factories, 248,000,000 
 
 Value of 216.5 miles of rail-roads and canals, .... 70,250,673 
 Value of public buildings of all kinds, bridges, gas and 
 water-works, 29,746,327 
 
 Total value of Real Estate, .... $1,400,000,000 
 
 Personal Property. 
 
 Value of36.5,129 horses and mules, at $60 $21,907,740 
 
 Value of 1,172,665 neat cattle, at $15, 17,589,975 
 
 Value ofl,767,620 sheep, at $2.50, 4,419,450 
 
 Value ofl,503,964 swine, at $3.50, 5,263,874 
 
 Value of Poultry, 685,801 
 
 Carried over, 49,866,840 
 
36 
 
 Brought over, !iS49,866,840 
 
 Value of furniture of 300,000 houses, including plate, 
 jewelry, watches, cloaks and wearing apparel, . . 135,000,000 
 
 Value of carriages, stages, wagons, farmers' imple- 
 ments, mechanics' tools, books of all kinds, ships, 
 brigs, barges, schooners, canal boats, rail-road cars, 
 stationary and locomotive steam engines, and steam- 
 boats 300,000,000 
 
 Value of goods, wares, merchandise, stocks, money, 
 
 and all other personal property, at least .... 21.5,133,160 
 
 Value of personal property, 700,000,000 
 
 Total value of the State, $2,100,000,000 
 
 Annual Products. 
 In the same article the estimated value of the Annual Products 
 is as follows: — 
 
 Value of 113,395 tons pig iron, at $30, $3,401,850 
 
 Value of additional, by various manufactures, . . . 17,652,283 
 
 Value of anthracite coal mined, 5,000,000 
 
 Value of bituminous coal mined, 4,000,000 
 
 Value of agricultural products, 126,620,617 
 
 Value of manufactures, except iron, 43,151,843 
 
 Annual Products of the State, .... $200,026,523 
 
 In the iron business alone, according to the same work, for 1843, 
 (1 Vol. 275-6,) employment is given to 20,000 workmen in Penn- 
 sylvania. The annual value of the iron trade is estimated, in the 
 same work, to exceed 22,000,000 of dollars. 
 
 NOTE 4, P. 28. 
 
 The earliest trade in Anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, was in that 
 which is denominated the Lehigh, in the year 1820, when 365 tons 
 were sent from the mines. The Schuylkill trade commenced in the 
 
37 
 
 year 1825, when 7,143 tons were sent to market. In that year, the 
 number of tons sent from the Lehigh mines was 28,393. In the 
 year 1839, 221,850 tons were sent to market of the Lehigh coal, and 
 442,607 tons of the Schuylkill, making the aggregate shipments 
 782,458 tons. (Vide History of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
 Company, p. 47.) In 1840, the total quantity sent to market, of An- 
 thracite coal, was 865,414 tons; and on the 31st December, 1844, it 
 amounted to 1,631,699 tons, showing the trade to be nearly doubled 
 within the last four years. (Vide Miners' Journal for January 11, 
 1845.) 
 
 We have no means of ascertaining the amount sent from the Bitu- 
 minous mines of Pennsylvania, as the trade is chiefly in the hands 
 of private persons, who are numerous, and whose individual ship- 
 ments are small. But it is believed by gentlemen who are conver- 
 sant with those districts of the State, in which this mineral abounds, 
 that the trade exceeds that in the Anthracite. The mining opera- 
 tions of coal in Pennsylvania, may therefore be safely stated to be 
 3,000,000 of tons, annually, of which about 2,000,000 are exported, 
 according to the computation made in the text. 
 
 NOTE 5, P. 32. 
 
 An impression prevails, that the Declaration of Independence was 
 not si^ne^ before the 2d of August, 1776, when it was engrossed. 
 There is no doubt, that the engrossed copy was signed by the 
 members, but there is nothing inconsistent in this fact, with the 
 immediate signing of the paper adopted on the 4th of July. Accord- 
 ing to the "Secret Journals" of Congress, the following resolution 
 was adopted on the 19th July:— "Resolved, that the Declaration 
 passed on the fourth, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the 
 title and style of ' The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United 
 States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed 
 by every member of Congress." On the 2d of August, it is stated 
 in the " Secret Journals," that " the Declaration, being engrossed 
 and compared at the table, was signed by the members." (Vide Se- 
 cret Journals, 1 Vol. p. 46.) In the Journal of Congress, under date 
 
38 
 
 the 4th July, 1776, after noting the adoption of the Declaration, 
 and inserting it, the words are, — " the foregoing Declaration was 
 by order of Congress engrossed and signed by the members," (Vide 
 Journal, 2 Vol. 241 and 245.) There is no entry in the "Secret 
 Journals " under date the 4th of July, a hiatus occurring between 
 the dates, June 24 and July 8, 1776. In Mr. Jefferson's Notes of 
 the Debates, printed among the Madison papers, we have the most 
 authentic account of the doings of that celebrated Congress. He 
 expresses himself thus, — " The debates having taken up the greater 
 parts of the second, third and fourth days of July, were, in the 
 evening of the last, closed; the Declaration was reported by the 
 Committee, agreed to by the House, and signed by every member, 
 except Mr. Dickinson." (Vide "The Papers of James Madison," «Scc. 
 1 Vol. p. 18.) 
 
 There would be an end of the question, as to whether the Decla- 
 ration was signed by the members present on the 4th of July, if the 
 paper before Congress were still in existence. Unhappily, however, 
 that paper is not known to exist, nor, it is believed, is the original 
 rough draft, of which a fac simile is preserved in Randolph's edition 
 of Jefferson's works. There is a copy in the hand-writing of Mr. 
 Jefferson, with alterations noted in the margin, in the possession 
 of "The American Philosophical Society;" but whether this is the 
 precise paper adopted by Congress, and if so, whether it is complete, 
 are subjects of conjecture. No signature is affixed to it, nor is it 
 further authenticated, than that it is clearly traced to Mr. Jefferson, 
 and is indubitably in his hand-Avriting. This precious MS. was 
 sent on the 8th July, 1776, by Mr. Jefferson, to Richard Henry Lee, 
 (See Memoir of Lee, by his Grandson, pp. 175 and 275,) and was the 
 gift of his grandson to G. W^ashington Smith, Esq. of Philadelphia, 
 who presented it to the Philosophical Society. It is preserved in a 
 glass case. — There is another fair copy of the Declaration, in the 
 hand-writing of Mr. Jefferson, among the Madison Papers, and of 
 which a fac simile is published in the 3d Volume, with a verification 
 of its accuracy, as a copy, by Henry D. Gilpin, Esq., under whose 
 excellent superintendence this important historical work was given 
 to the world. 
 
39 
 
 The engrossed copy on parchment, with the original signatures, 
 under the resolution of the 19th July, is in the Department of State, 
 at Washington ; but the two MSS. referred to, are the only copies 
 of the Declaration of Independence, in the hand-writing of the au- 
 thor, which are known to be in existence. 
 
 The late Governor M'Kean, of Pennsylvania, complains of the 
 injustice done to him, in omitting his name from the published copy 
 of the Declaration, though he voted for and signed it, as a member 
 of the Congress, from Delaware. His grandson, the Honourable 
 Thomas M. Pettit, has called my attention to a letter, written 
 on the subject by Mr. M'Kean to Mr. A. J. Dallas, in 1797, and 
 printed in the Laws of Pennsylvania, edited by Mr. Dallas. (1 Vol. 
 Appendix, p. 54, Note.) In this letter, Mr. M'Kean says that he 
 " signed the Declaration after it had been engrossed on parchment." 
 It is well known, that the name of this eminent civilian, statesman, 
 and patriot, appears among the signers to the engrossed copy on 
 parchment; but may not its exclusion from the Journal of Congress, 
 (2d Vol. 246,) be accounted for by supposing, that owing to some 
 forgotten accident, he did not, in fact, sign the paper copy on the 
 4th of July, with those members who then subscribed it? The omis- 
 sion of his name from the printed list in the Journal of Congress, 
 can be explained upon no other hypothesis. 
 
 Since writing the above note, I have consulted the Memoir written by 
 Mr. Jefferson of himself, in the 1st Vol. of Randolph's edition of his wri- 
 tings. On pages 15 and 16, Mr. Jefferson uses the same language which 
 he employs in his Notes of the Debates, preserved in the Madison Papers, 
 as above quoted. At the foot of the Declaration, which is introduced, he 
 says, (p. 21,) "The Declaration was signed on the 4th on paper, was en- 
 grossed onparckmeiit, and signed again on the 2d of August." This is con- 
 clusive of the question. On page 94 of the same Volume, may be found 
 Jefferson's letter of May 12, 1819, to Samuel A. Wells, in which he satisfac- 
 torily explains the apparent objection arising from subsequent signal ures. On 
 page 98 he says, " It was not till the 2d of July, that the Declaration itself 
 was taken up; nor till the 4th that it was decided, and it was signed bv 
 every member present, except Mr. Dickinson. The subsequent signatures 
 of members who were not then present, and some of them not in office, is 
 easily explained, &c." The interest attached to this great act, in the drama 
 
40 
 
 of the revolution, and the assumption in the text, of a fact which is differ- 
 ently stated by various public writers, such as Daniel Webster, John F. 
 Watson, and others, may justify these details. 
 
 While on such a topic, it may be as well to add, that various buildings 
 have been jsointed to in Philadelphia, as entitled, in the opinions of their re- 
 spective champions, to the renown of being that in which this important 
 State Paper was written. In order to set the controversy at rest, the vene- 
 rable Dr. Mease wrote to Mr. Jefferson, and ascertained that his lodgings in 
 1776, were at the S. W. corner of Seventh and High Streets, in which house 
 his letter assures Dr. M., it was penned. — In Toicn's Gazette it is stated, 
 that on the 8th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally 
 read by Capt. John Hopkins, commander of an armed brig, " to many thou- 
 sand spectators," in the State House Yard. Watson agrees with the Ga- 
 zette, that it was read by Capt. Hopkins. I find that a journalist of that 
 day mentions the fact, but names John Nixon, as the reader. (See Mar- 
 shall's Remembrancer, edited by Wm. Duane, Jr. pp. 93, 94.) The paper 
 read on the 8th July, in the State House Yard, — whence the present name, 
 Independence Square, — was in print, and authenticated by the signatures of 
 Hancock and Thomson. But traditional evidence speaks of a previous read- 
 ing of the Declaration to the people, from the front steps, on Chestnut 
 Street, on the morning after its adoption by Congress. 
 
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