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POLITICAL LEADERS OF 
 PROVINCIAL PENNSYLVANIA 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NHW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 •raE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltb 
 
 TORONTO 
 
POLITICAL LEADERS 
 
 OP 
 
 PROVINCIAL PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 BY 
 
 ISAAC SHARPLESS 
 
 President of Havkkford College, 1887-1917 
 
 Neto gorfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1919 
 
 All rights reserved 
 

 COPTBIGHT, 1919, 
 
 Br THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Printed from type. Published April, 1919. 
 
 
 Noitoooti Igtvns 
 
 J. S. CiiBhlng Co. — Berwick & Smith Oo. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
TO 
 
 X, G* Q* 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The names of the Quaker politicians in this book have 
 been selected with the view of showing the applicability 
 (or otherwise) to the practical affairs of government of the 
 principles which to some extent ruled their lives. 
 
 That they were all, from William Penn down, more or 
 less of idealists, is a fact of which they themselves were 
 very conscious. As all idealistic attempts have their les- 
 sons either of adoption or avoidance, this one may be worth 
 recording. 
 
 As a whole the experiment succeeded. As in politics in 
 general there was temporizing. Their anti-martial views 
 were the most difficult to apply consistently and finally 
 were the cause of their abstention from public affairs; but 
 there are interesting deductions to be drawn both from the 
 threescore years of success and the ultimate break-down. 
 Their ideas of civil and religious liberty, their treatment 
 of the Indians, their penal and hospital systems, the large 
 material growth which accompanied their management, and 
 the general tone of their public life afford a basis of a 
 favorable judgment upon their experiment. 
 
 The religious leaders of Friends have received ample rec- 
 ognition in print. Something, however, is still due to these 
 practical men who wrought with such devotion in working 
 out the principles of the "Holy Experiment." 
 
 Haverford, Pa. 
 1919. 
 
 vii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 rAOB 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 William Penn 21 
 
 Thomas Lloyd 55 
 
 David Lloyd 84 
 
 James Logan 114 
 
 John Kinsey 155 
 
 Isaac Norris 181 
 
 James Pemberton 200 
 
 John Dickinson 224 
 
PENNSBURY SERIES OF 
 MODERN QUAKER BOOKS 
 
 The Book Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of 
 the Society of Friends proposes to issue a series of books 
 in uniform binding under the above title. These have been 
 written during the past twenty-five years in England and 
 America, and in a general way express the views of the 
 Committee on the history, present position and outlook of 
 the Society. Doubtless some passages may not satisfy the 
 judgment of individual Friends or perhaps of the Commit- 
 tee as a whole, but without making unreasonable limitations 
 such variations are unavoidable. 
 
 Some or all of the following books may be included in 
 the series: 
 
 George Fox, An Autobiography, Rufus M. Jones. 
 
 Man's Relation to God, John Wilhelm Rowntree. 
 
 The Rise of the Quakers, T. Edmund Harvey. 
 
 Quaker Strongholds, Caroline Stephen. 
 
 The Story of Quakerism, Elizabeth B. Emmott. 
 
 William Penn, John William Graham. 
 
 A Quaker Experiment in Government, Isaac Sharpless. 
 
 John Woolman, Amelia Mott Gummere. 
 
 History of the Society of Friends in America, Allen C. 
 
 Thomas. 
 A Dynamic Faith, Rufus M. Jones. 
 
 Political Leaders of Provincial Pennsylvania, Isaac Sharp- 
 less. 
 
 Editor of the Pennsbury Series 
 Isaac Sharpless 
 Third Month, Haverford, Pa. 
 
 1919. 
 
 yd 
 
POLITICAL LEADERS OF PROVINCIAL 
 PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 A ROUGH classification might divide ethical standards 
 into two groups. One is based on results, the other on 
 principles. The first is the favorite method of the poli- 
 tician, the man on the street and on the farm. If a thing 
 produces good, it is good in itself; if evil, evil. A method 
 of action, a piece of legislation is to be justified or con- 
 demned by the consequences which follow it. In ordinary 
 affairs not involving moral considerations this sort of judg- 
 ment is universal. Business decisions are wise or unwise 
 according as they prosper. Fiscal legislation is ordinarily 
 decided, not by eternal principles of political science, but 
 by results as shown by history and experience which fol- 
 lowed similar legislation in the past and are likely to follow 
 it in the future. Perhaps ninety-nine per cent, of the acts 
 of legislatures are determined by such considerations. 
 
 Philosophers codify these methods and variously call 
 themselves hedonists, utilitarians, pragmatists and so on, 
 as they vary the theories to suit the conditions of the age 
 or country. 
 
 If one could see all the results nothing could be better. 
 But the wisest of philosophers can only see a little way 
 ahead and the shrewdest of politicians and business men 
 have a limited horizon. What is manifestly useful to a 
 
2 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 few people immediately affected may not be for a more 
 distant future or a wider circle. The primary results may 
 seem highly beneficial but those which result from these, 
 unseen by the performers, may be disastrous. 
 
 The other sort of standard is based on something sup- 
 posedly more fundamental. According to this when it 
 comes to decisions involving the moral idea there is no room 
 for a consideration of consequences. Things are inherently 
 right or wrong. One must be guided by what is called the 
 moral law. If we can ascertain this as applied to the case 
 human duty is determined. It may lead apparently into 
 all sorts of pitfalls and failures but in the long run it will 
 prove a safe guide. In the eternal plans of a Divine Ruler 
 of the universe that which seems inexpedient to us may be 
 of the highest expediency; our very failures may be the 
 means to the greatest success. The real good is the per- 
 manent, abiding, satisfactory result which comes by the 
 operation of all the many factors and forces producing it, 
 too various and too hidden for human ascertainment, but 
 which are all parts of one great plan. It is the duty of the 
 individual not to mar this plan. If he knows what his 
 part is, small or great, resulting to himself as it will in loss 
 or gain, resulting to others apparently for material good or 
 ill, he performs it faithfully, and concerns not himself 
 greatly with what follows. His conscience or judgment 
 determines his course and that is all there is to it. 
 
 But how is the man who takes this attitude to find what 
 this moral law is? How is his conscience or judgment to 
 be enlightened? There are quite as many philosophic 
 views on this question as in the field of utility. Men base 
 the standards of rectitude on reason, on intuition, or reve- 
 lation, or on authority human or divine, and deduce a code 
 of conduct which satisfies the argument. Sometimes it is 
 expressed in the sacred books of their rieligion, sometimes it 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 comes to them directly as the expressed will of their Deity 
 felt in their consciences, sometimes as the logical result of 
 their rational processes. 
 
 The standard Friends of the past have belonged to this 
 second class. When their duty was made known to them 
 they were not disturbed by results. So they went to jail 
 or to death for a conviction which often seemed trivial or 
 foolish to others, rather than abate an item of it. If one 
 argued with them that their liberty might do more for their 
 cause than the small testimony, the argument fell on deaf 
 ears. That testimony was their present duty and all the 
 rewards of disobedience, all the plausible considerations of 
 results, had no bearing on the case. One and all the Friends 
 of the first generations and the typical Friends which fol- 
 lowed them were never utilitarian. 
 
 But the interesting fact remains that though they thus 
 ignored results they got them. Their policy or, as it often 
 seemed, lack of policy, secured consequences. They re- 
 ceived religious liberty earlier and more fully than the tem- 
 porizing sects. They had their marriage regulations made 
 legal; they were allowed to afiirm rather than to swear; 
 much respect was paid to their anti-martial views; they 
 effected reforms in the jails and asylums of England and 
 America, and their treatment of aborigines and its conse- 
 quences has become historic. 
 
 There are many reasons for saying that fidelity to right 
 in the face of seeming disaster works better than any one 
 expects. There are many facts of history which show that 
 men and nations do get along, when they follow the right, 
 in a way which no one could have foreseen. There is some 
 inherent vitality in the truth which makes its own way, or 
 has a way made for it. 
 
 The Friends have abstained often in the past, from the 
 activities of politics and of government. Their thoughts 
 
4 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 have been so pervaded with the idea that immoral acts 
 camiot be made moral by the beneficent consequences which 
 seem likely to result, that they become ineflScient in the 
 work of practical politics as it sometimes exists. When 
 they swallow their scruples they cease to be in harmony 
 with the Friends' position and lose their standing in the 
 church. Hence we have frequently found that those mem- 
 bers who have become active in political life have been on 
 the fringe of the Meeting rather than, as they were in early 
 Pennsylvania, the trusted ministers and officials, whose 
 state duties bore on their consciences no less rigorously 
 than their ecclesiastical duties, but who would sacrifice 
 either rather than violate an apprehended moral obligation. 
 
 Good seems to come from the chicanery of politics no less 
 certainly than from war. Out of the selfishness, the venal- 
 ity, the immoral strategy of the presidential conventions 
 has come the greatest line of rulers any country has ever 
 seen in any age. From the days when Hamilton traded 
 off with Jefferson the location of the capital city for the fund- 
 ing of the state bonds, in the first Congress down to the 
 days of the last Congress, many measures yielding valuable 
 results have come as the results of bargains not always hon- 
 orable or moral. Every legislator knows that in order to 
 have a good measure passed it often seems necessary to 
 support others who want bad measures passed, and the 
 perfectly independent man who yields nothing in this way 
 is hardly efficacious in the councils or acceptable to his 
 constituents. To do evil that selfish projects may succeed 
 and to do evil that good may come are the lines that have 
 too frequently distinguished the evil from the good legis- 
 lator. 
 
 The principles which have been the keynote of Quaker 
 morality and those which define the average morality of the 
 politician even of the better sort are widely apart. The 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 one is idealistic, the other utilitarian. The one has never 
 been able to convert the other to the theory that idealism in 
 the long run is of the highest utility, and the other has had 
 no faith in any principle whose utility he cannot grasp as 
 likely to ripen in the very near future. 
 
 To this extent we can sympathize with the abstention of 
 Friends from politics. If a state is dominated by an unholy 
 machine which allows no one in office except obedient 
 henchmen, who must be without scruple or independent 
 character, then " the post of honor is the private station." 
 There may be a place for them in the ranks of the militant 
 reformers, but hardly in official life. 
 
 Through all the years covered by this volume there was 
 growing up, basing itself on George Fox's advice to keep 
 clear of the " Commotions " involved in government, a feel- 
 ing that Friends should take no part in public life. Their 
 course in the Revolution, which had involved the disown- 
 ment of some 400 members for participation in the warlike 
 affairs of the day, mainly on the American side, made them 
 unpopular. They withdrew into a more mystical life and 
 an uncompromising devotion to principle and testimony, 
 and the Quaker of the nineteenth century was evolved. 
 
 This would seem to indicate that the application of a 
 Quaker conscience to state affairs in a non-Quaker com- 
 munity is impossible. 
 
 Probably conditions will never be better than in Colonial 
 Pennsylvania, and there it broke down, after 70 years' 
 trial, though at first against the popular will, in the face of 
 apparent political necessity. 
 
 But it does not prove that Friends may not accept many 
 posts in government, both executive and legislative, which 
 need not touch on their convictions and in which they may 
 render signal service. 
 
 They may also bring the attention of a nation to the 
 
6 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 moral issues of the day, a task for which Friends with the 
 ancient sort of standards would seem to have great ad- 
 vantages. 
 
 It tones up the nation to have its thoughts turned to eth- 
 ical, rather than exclusively economic subjects. One moral 
 question brings another in its train and men get to think- 
 ing in terms of right and wrong rather than expedient and 
 opportune. In the decade prior to our Civil War when men 
 were fused together on the subject of the rights of man, and 
 used such phrases as " the higher law," " the irrepressible 
 conflict," " the true grandeur of nations," there was a mani- 
 fest raising of standards. Then came the war and the 
 host of questions of currency, tariff, revenue, and material 
 issues generally, which divided parties in the succeeding 
 years, and morality took the second place to economics and 
 men thought in dollars rather than in righteousness. We 
 had a great growth in wealth and all its unhealthy accom- 
 paniments of monopolies, corporate interference with gov- 
 ernment and boss and machine rule in politics. Later the 
 moral sense of the nation reasserted itself and the develop- 
 ment of attention to human rights and the social conscience, 
 and to specific matters like temperance and peace and civil 
 service reform, went on apace. It is one of the great evils 
 of war that it draws the interests of men from such move- 
 ments, to the more pressing but less vital ones of national 
 defense, sources of national income, reduction of national 
 expenditure for social development, and all the lesser breed 
 which designing politicians take advantage of to press 
 their own selfish designs for office and emolument. Some 
 beneficent reforms which need advertising to make people 
 appreciate them are thrust aside by the insistence on the 
 more spectacular national needs, and the wholesome dis- 
 cussion of moral and political reform in a democracy is 
 impeded. For this discussion under normal conditions is 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 the very lifeblood of progress. The American nation will 
 not get far astray if its attention can be seriously turned to 
 a great issue and a great need. How quickly when it once 
 grasped the dangers of corporation control of politics, with 
 many blundering and foolish steps, it is true, it improved 
 the situation. Free discussion and the honest purposes of 
 an intelligent electorate can be depended on to clear av/ay 
 any heresy before it reaches the stage of serious danger to 
 the national soul. 
 
 But morality must have the right of way, and while 
 matters in which the economic rather than the moral pre- 
 dominate should have their large place in national councils 
 and public discussions, it is the duty of every man with 
 influence in public life to press to the front the great abid- 
 ing projects which have their root in eternal right, and here 
 Quaker traditions and principles should make a preposses- 
 sion in favor of such a course of action. 
 
 There are a number of reforms which have been their 
 concerns very largely in the past. The substitution of life 
 imprisonment for capital punishment, the development of 
 the reformatory idea in prisons and kindly treatment in 
 asylums, the one-price system in sales, the limitation of 
 fortunes and expenditures within moderate dimensions, 
 theories of education which are at once practical and spir- 
 itual, the rigidly honest management of public funds, all of 
 these, in which good men generally would join, have some 
 of their roots in legislation, and if not national party issues, 
 not infrequently become the issues in State or local elec- 
 tions or legislation. 
 
 Then there is the great question of warlike preparation 
 and policy. This is the rock on which Quaker participa- 
 tion in politics has usually been shipwrecked. It broke 
 its control in provincial Pennsylvania. It drove the 
 Society back into itself in the Revolutionary War and pro- 
 
8 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 duced an inwardness from which it has only in the last half 
 century evolved. It forced John Bright from the British 
 Cabinet when Alexandria was bombarded. It caused the 
 breaking of the property of Joshua Rowntree in the Boer 
 War. It has sent many a conscientious sufferer to jail 
 rather than pay military fines or join in military exercises. 
 In wartime it operates to render pacifists objects of un- 
 popularity among a great host of men, some unthinking and 
 hysterical, some seriously concerned for the national safety. 
 
 Here is the great problem of to-day for the Christian 
 statesman who can maintain himself conscientiously in pub- 
 lic life. He needs to show the nation that an aggressive 
 policy of goodwill, the absence of all design on the integ- 
 rity or interests of others, the rigid and even generous 
 enforcement of all treaties and conventions, the full com- 
 prehension of and respect for the points of view and 
 political and commercial interests of others, are worth more 
 in maintaining peace than dreadnoughts or submarines, 
 coast defences or standing armies. Had we the greatest 
 armaments in the world, which after the expenditure of 
 billions of dollars and years of times we might have, with 
 all the military spirit and commercial interests necessarily 
 developed by such an aggregation, who could trust the 
 nation not to enter with slight provocation upon a career of 
 conquests or overbearing treatment in the cause of merce- 
 nary or political interests! The danger of foreign aggres- 
 sion upon a nation doing its generous part in world diplo- 
 macy, upon whose goodwill the commercial prosperity of 
 all others was largely dependent, is far less than the 
 danger, under the guise of preparedness, of creating a spirit 
 of militarism, which will break down our Christian stand- 
 ards and lead on to a cataclysm such as a similar spirit has 
 developed in Europe. 
 
 The ideal Friend stands for the development of person- 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 ality. For this he can not go to war, for this involves the 
 subordination of personality to human commands, doing 
 evil that good may come, the merging of the individual con- 
 science into the conscience of the mass. He can not swear 
 for his every word has the sanction of truth behind it. He 
 can not be an unquestioning member of a political group 
 taking on or leaving off principle at the behest of a leader or 
 of utilitarian considerations. He can not grind the poor in 
 business or the criminal in jail, for the respect for his own 
 personality induces respect for that of others. He must 
 go through life more or less isolated, not from lack of sym- 
 pathy for others, for he ouglit to have this in the highest 
 degree, but because the machinery of modern methods is 
 too rigid for his open-minded and independent soul. He 
 will take his orders from his own discerning heart rather 
 than from current opinion or popular impulse. " The 
 method of Christianity does not lend itself to those accom- 
 modations and compromises without which nothing can be 
 done in politics." 
 
 If he can do all this and still be an effective public serv- 
 ant, as an exceptional man in an exceptional place may be, 
 the Quaker in politics may live. If not he will sacrifice 
 place to conscience, expediency to principle. 
 
 These pages will show to what extent the prominent 
 agents in carrying Friendly principles into effect in the 
 politics of provincial Pennsylvania accomplished their 
 purposes. In varying degrees their public careers were 
 mixtures of idealism and opportunism. But the most 
 " practical " of them showed some effects of the spirit of 
 Quaker teaching, which modified their actions, and cut out 
 lines of effort which promised valuable results. 
 
 In the application of certain principles they were pioneers. 
 Their experiments have been justified by the results which 
 followed. No other founder than William Penn, except on 
 
10 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 a smaller scale Roger Williams, adhered more generously 
 to the ideas of religious and civil liberty and the separation 
 of church and state. His followers proved the utility as 
 well as ideal rectitude of the principle and prospered greatly 
 as a result. No other colony treated the natives so justly 
 or reaped so much peace and healthy development or drew 
 in as a consequence settlers and wealth so rapidly. Their 
 position with regard to oaths, which they adhered to tena- 
 ciously, has been illustrated by recent tendencies which show 
 at least that the affirmation is equally effective in securing 
 veracity and fidelity to duty. Their early penal system, 
 excepting their unfortunate lapse in the matter of capital 
 punishment for minor crimes, was governed by the ideas of 
 reformation and leniency which lie at the basis of the best 
 modern methods. They were a century ahead of their time 
 in seeing the evil of lotteries, and prohibiting them. In an 
 age when piracy and prize goods were common they bore 
 an unflinching testimony against them in all forms. The 
 colonial Quakers took an ever developing part against the 
 slave trade and slavery and laid the foundation of the pub- 
 lic sentiment which made Pennsylvania the first state of 
 the Union to pass an abolition law. They had the institu- 
 tion nearly exterminated in the north when the Federal 
 Constitution was adopted. John Woolman, Anthony Ben- 
 ezet and their friends keeping on moral grounds rather than 
 economic were ceaseless in urging the fact that property in 
 man violated inherent right and Christian principle. 
 
 Their position with regard to war seems not to have been 
 indorsed by the general practice of the future. Its essen- 
 tial cruelty and immorality are by most people, including 
 Christian ministers, justified by the necessities of the case 
 and the misfortunes which would seem to result from its 
 abandonment. All recognize its evils and long for its aboli- 
 tion but find in concrete cases good reasons for adopting it 
 
INTRODUCTION ii 
 
 as the least of the possible evils. They do not see as the 
 Friends thought they saw that the best thing to do, is to 
 avoid any participation in it as a wrong thing in itself and 
 to trust that somehow in the long run the right would 
 justify itself. This view may yet triumph but writing in 
 the midst of the Great War when all Christian bodies except 
 the Friends and a few other of the smaller sects alone take 
 this position, one can not fail to see that murder and maim- 
 ing and violation of human rights of all kinds do not seem 
 reprehensible in the settlement of national affairs as they 
 are fully recognized to be in personal differences. Possibly 
 the near future will tell a different story. 
 
 Why were Friends able to do even this much of pioneer 
 work in social and moral reform, for in England they could 
 give an equally good account of themselves under less free 
 and easy circumstances? 
 
 It was not because of superior intelligence or education 
 though these had doubtless their effects with the leaders of 
 the movement. As a whole they were not highly educated 
 or trained in social or ethical learning. It was not because 
 they were more anxious to do right than their contempo- 
 raries, for many of all bodies had motives as pure and con- 
 sciences as alert. The following answers to the question 
 may be put forward tentatively. 
 
 They were not drawn into any movement which promised 
 spectacular results from a supernatural agency. 
 
 The first Christians were so full of the idea of the early 
 " second coming " that the incentive to reform did not 
 exist. What difference did any amount of cruel treatment 
 make to a slave, any inhumanities of government, any hor- 
 rors of warfare, if all was to be soon set right and a uni- 
 versal reign of righteousness and sinlessness inaugurated 
 by a Divine Being, who would come independently of 
 anything which they could do, their duty being only to 
 
12 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 prepare themselves inwardly for the enjoyment of the 
 happy fruits. Paul did not attack slavery or war or graft 
 as institutions but preached the inner rectitude of the indi- 
 vidual. His followers saw in this inner rectitude not so 
 much a means of service to others as salvation for them- 
 selves. This it is true lifted men above the plane where 
 the worst evils were possible and so many of them disap- 
 peared, but any systematic social reconstruction was not 
 preached. As Harnack says, " The Gospel is not one of 
 social improvement but of spiritual redemption." 
 
 One finds nothing of this appeal to such a catastrophic 
 advent in the writings of the Early Friends. The Bible 
 passages referring to it were applied to an appearance of 
 the Divine spirit to individual hearts, leaving them, thus 
 illuminated, to work out their own problems. They turned 
 their minds inward and accepted the responsibility of their 
 actions, not leaving all response to a day when Christ him- 
 self would set matters right. They looked and waited for 
 this illumination. Their meetings for worship were not for 
 the purpose of listening to music or sermons, but to a Di- 
 vine voice in their consciences. When this told them an 
 institution was out of harmony with God's will they wanted 
 no other evidence. May it not be possible that they had 
 a surer support for their social work than the most of us are 
 now willing to admit? 
 
 Nor would they grant that any such a task was impos- 
 sible. Nothing with such a backing could be hopeless. 
 There was no demonic power in '' the world " which would 
 not succumb in time to a quiet attack, faithful to death. 
 With hearts open to influence and strengthened by a " will 
 to power " from above, each one was to do his duty as he 
 saw it and the harvest was some day sure. The time came 
 in the history of the Society when a copy of the first testi- 
 monies was accepted by the rank and file too slavishly, but 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 by this time the testimonies themselves had become tradi- 
 tions and the body remained true to them, while there 
 were always some prophets open to new truths. 
 
 Some one said before the war that the " three invin- 
 cibles " were the Romish Church, the German Army and 
 the Standard Oil Trust. The real Quaker of the olden 
 time would have said that these three would all fall as grain 
 before the sickle in the face of a silent assembly responsive 
 to God's spirit if out of harmony with it. 
 
 The same attitude of mind which looked for the second 
 advent in early Christian times is produced by dependence 
 upon the spasmodic " revivals " of modern date to main- 
 tain the spiritual life. During the intervals there is a sag, 
 and a comfortable feeling exists that it will be made all 
 right when the next excitement stirs up the emotions. The 
 converts are content not only for themselves but for others 
 to await these determining issues as all-sufficient rather 
 than to engage in serious and intelligent efforts to study the 
 causes of social ills and apply the remedies. 
 
 Through the centuries the preparation for the next world 
 has been the governing purpose of Christianity. After 
 about 250 a. d. the monastic movement beginning in the 
 East, borrowed from other religions, had sway over the 
 most devoted followers. Its purpoj'e was a desire to gain 
 heaven for one's self rather than the preparation for service 
 in this world. Its ascetic principle led to the subjection, 
 not the upbuilding, of the body, the elimination, not the 
 proper training, of useful faculties. The more one tortured 
 himself, kept apart from his fellows, subjugated in his own 
 person the world, the flesh and the devil, the more sure he 
 was of eternal reward. If by such means he could perform 
 miracles of healing they were valuable as a testimony to his 
 own holiness, rather than as helping his more sinful neigh- 
 bors. Western monasticism was more practical and useful, 
 
14 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 though hardly less ascetic. But its motive was the same — 
 otherworldliness rather than unselfish service. This still 
 persists but happily a more generous view of the utility of 
 goodness now often prevails. 
 
 Friends to some extent were influenced by this feeling. 
 But George Fox and William Penn were very practical 
 mystics though they never lost the hope and the belief in 
 immortality. But it seemed to them to come as a natural 
 reward of duty done on earth rather than as something to 
 be striven for in itself. As Whittier, the greatest of modern 
 Quaker prophets, has said: 
 
 " So to the calmly gathered thought 
 The innermost of truth is taught, 
 The mystery dimly understood 
 That love of God is love of good. 
 • ••••• 
 
 That to be saved is only this 
 Salvation from our selfishness. 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 That book and church and day are given 
 For man not God, — for earth not heaven; 
 The blessed means to holiest ends, 
 Not masters, but benignant friends: 
 That the dear Christ dwells not afar, 
 The king of some remoter star. 
 Listening at times with flattered ear, 
 To homage wrung from selfish fear, 
 But here amidst the poor and blind, 
 The bound and suffering of our kind. 
 In works we do, in prayers we pray. 
 Life of our life, he lives to-day." 
 
 Hence their obligations were never dulled by a feeling 
 that the progress of humanity was of less importance than 
 their own freedom from penalty. The nether world was 
 not described in their writings in the lurid pictures else- 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 where seen. The punishment they preached was the loss 
 of fellowship with the Father; their Heaven was the com- 
 pleteness of this fellowship. Salvation came with a re- 
 deemed life, a salvation from sin as well as from future 
 punishment. The life and death of Christ reproduced in 
 themselves, with them, as with him, sent them out to heal 
 and to help bodies and social conditions. The ideal Quaker 
 of the John Woolman type lived a life of close communion, 
 of great searching of motives, of intense desire for purity 
 of heart, but for the sake of never ending helpfulness 
 towards the worldly as well as the spiritual conditions of 
 others. " They were saved men themselves before they 
 went about to save others " is a Quaker classic. The inner 
 religious experience was the basis of service. Political 
 and economic considerations were secondary though help- 
 ful. In this way only can the old Quaker conception of 
 inwardness be linked with the modern study of economic 
 law and social justice. 
 
 They preached also as necessary a continuous experience 
 of Divine support and education. It was not merely one 
 or a series of spasmodic influences, renewable at the pleas- 
 ure of the individual, and independent of duty performed 
 in the intervals. It was rather a consistent spiritual im- 
 pulse, not always equally strong, which condemned every 
 shortcoming and gave its peaceful reward to every faithful 
 response to a call to service; which was clarified and 
 strengthened by obedience and exalted by fidelity. So 
 came the Quaker conscience; to its possessor the greatest 
 thing on earth; faulty in discovering fully absolute truth, 
 but simply another way of saying that in every emergency 
 of life a man must do the best he knows and feels and omit 
 a calculation of consequences. So every call to duty no 
 matter how slight the duty might be, became as the apple 
 of his eye, worth loss, worth suffering, worth imprisomnent, 
 
i6 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 worth death itself. His grip on a line of service could not 
 be shaken off by threat or argument but he would persist 
 with quietness and confidence, without bravado, " with 
 charity for all, with malice toward none, with firmness in 
 the right as God gave him to see the right." 
 
 A statement of principles should be but a cross section 
 of a developing belief. Like all human institutions it 
 changes with time. If it becomes fixed and necessary it 
 becomes a creed and fetters progress. Men must conform 
 their mental operations to its meaning. With much that 
 is true, in time it may be inadequate or erroneous. It may 
 become an object in itself and all movements be gauged 
 by the efforts for its maintenance. Social movements 
 which do not seem to conform themselves to it, are judged 
 adversely by its standard, itself only a secondary present- 
 ment of a prior belief. This is true whether it be an edict 
 of some old council, or a collection of biblical passages, 
 stripped of their context and real meaning. 
 
 There never was a Quaker creed. In theory at least the 
 free spirit of Christ was an ever new source of revelation. 
 There were no Quaker ordinances essential to the spiritual 
 life. The way was open for changing statements and sym- 
 bols to suit advancing thought. It was not necessary to 
 adopt or follow any ritual. George Fox did not mean at 
 first to found a sect but to infuse a certain spirit into all 
 Christian believers. It is true that crystallization came 
 in time, that forms supposedly essential were developed and 
 that doctrines almost credal in their tendencies became 
 largely prevalent. The dead times of Quakerism were 
 those when the spirit and personality of Christ became so 
 merged with tradition and custom and fixed belief that the 
 freedom to progress was hindered. But it was never quite 
 lost. 
 
 One must be appreciative of the fact that the above is 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 rather an ideal,- than an actual statement of Quaker condi- 
 tions; that the body was never fully permeated with the 
 liberty to attack moral evils and appreciate moral truths 
 at their real value. But there were always some who did 
 so appreciate them and they pointed the way. But clearly or 
 dimly as such lights were seen it is possible that they were 
 bright enough to enable the Society of Friends to act as 
 efficient precursors of certain social reforms; which gave 
 them a sense that liberty and justice and peace and kindli- 
 ness were worth striving for, and which showed them how to 
 work wisely and effectively for a religion which touched 
 men's lives in this world and helped bring about the King- 
 dom of God on earth. 
 
 They lost strength at times by the prosperity which came 
 with respect and success; by theories of living devoid of 
 experience; by minimizing the power of Jesus Christ; by the 
 use of forms after the life had departed from them; by 
 neglecting to revise their testimonies to suit new conditions ; 
 by a distrust of learning and the experience of others. Their 
 weaknesses and their strength are both full of meaning. The 
 one hindered their growth and influence, the other has kept 
 them alive, even when, as in war times, they have run coun- 
 ter to public opinion and prevalent Christian sentiment. 
 
 In summarizing the sources upon which the early Friends 
 based their attitude to moral reforms, and which brought 
 them whatever measure of success they had the following 
 may be considered: 
 
 1. They judged questions by moral principle rather than 
 by expediency. 
 
 2. They depended on a continuous moral education 
 through direct Divine agency rather than on spectacular 
 displays of Divine interference for which they were not 
 responsible, to set things right. 
 
1 8 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 3. Their religion was intended to be practical as applied 
 to the affairs of this world and not useful only as a prepara- 
 tion for the next. 
 
 4. They were not bound by a closed creed or tied to a 
 ritual which prevented adaptations to new conditions and 
 new revelations of truth. 
 
 5. They were willing to admit the supreme authority of 
 the New Testament in its spirit and methods. 
 
 Many are sceptical as to the ability of a minister of old 
 time " to speak to the condition " of an individual unknown 
 to himself previously. There is great possibility of self- 
 deception but there seem to be too many well authenticated 
 cases to doubt the reality of such revelations. One is, how- 
 ever reassured when a man so accustomed to weigh histor- 
 ical evidence and so fair and open-minded as Dr. Thomas 
 Hodgkin, himself a Quaker minister, writes as follows: 
 
 " And though I have heard many rambling discourses 
 which showed rather the desire to be helpful than any real 
 power of helping ... I am on the other hand fully per- 
 suaded that in many cases, a knowledge of the needs of the 
 congregation or of some individual member of it, which was 
 not in the intellect of the preacher has been by some spir- 
 itual process which I do not pretend to explain, but which 
 I believe to be God-guided, conveyed into his mind during 
 the preparatory time of silent waiting upon God." ^ 
 
 And again, 
 
 " Not so the early Friends. It was surely a heaven sent 
 instinct which restrained them from calling the Bible the 
 Word of God." ' 
 
 Is it a far cry to extend this principle from individual 
 to group illumination? To believe that when a company 
 of dedicated souls sitting in quiet with all worldly voices 
 
 1 Life of T. Hodgkin, p. 333. ^ jbid. p. 340. 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 and desires hushed, unitedly expecting instruction from 
 above, and their whole being attuned to its reception and 
 awaiting its deliverance, should have " the feeling which is 
 evidence," that their community duties pointed in a certain 
 direction? Is there not historic evidence enough, that here 
 is a factor of enlightenment which in our inquiries towards 
 the ways and means of social betterment should not be left 
 out of account? 
 
 We may assent to this, but in modern times we hardly 
 practice it, when we talk, for instance, of social justice to 
 the wage earner. We find the two lines of argument set 
 against each other. Our ancestors have often denied the 
 economic reasonings which appeal to us; also our ardent 
 and devoted missionary friends tell us that all good things 
 will follow real Christian experience. Many workers, on 
 the contrary, say that laws as immutable as gravitation 
 determine sociological conditions, that it is our duty to find 
 and apply them, and that Christian experience has nothing 
 more to do with it than with the movements of the planets. 
 If we could join together on the one hand the sources of 
 enlightenment which seem to have been effective with 
 Friends of the past, and on the other the modern ideas about 
 the reign of law and the lessons of history as contributory 
 and influential, such a union would be irresistible. 
 
WILLIAM PENN 
 
 It is not the purpose of this sketch to give even in broad 
 outline an account either of the life or the writings of Wil- 
 liam Penn. His many biographers have amply attended 
 to the former and the latter are too voluminous and dis- 
 connected to be mentioned even by title. We shall confine 
 ourselves to a brief estimate of his character and abilities 
 and the political ideals which he sought to introduce into 
 the life of his Province. The veneration in which his name 
 was held, and the beneficent results of his policies and 
 principles became after his death, most intensively within 
 his own denomination but not confined to it, the origin of 
 almost too great a reputation for sanctity and wisdom, and 
 leavened the life of the province throughout its whole his- 
 tory. 
 
 His biographers have copied from each other and perhaps 
 too carelessly accepted tradition as to some events which 
 have not stood the test of closer examination; but enough 
 of well authenticated facts, letters of himself and judicious 
 friends, epistles on religion and government, and the undis- 
 puted actions of his public and private career, exist from 
 which to frame an estimate of his strength and his weak- 
 ness. 
 
 Hepworth Dixon and others seem to have effectually 
 answered Macaulay's charges to his discredit. It is un- 
 fortunate, however, that they are embalmed in that his- 
 torian's brilliant style and perennially interesting volumes, 
 
 20 
 
WILLIAM PENN ei 
 
 Where a score read the attack but one knows of the defence, 
 and so the misstatements will for ever be renewed and be- 
 lieved. 
 
 There are, however, certain weaknesses of Penn's char- 
 acter, not seriously discreditable to him, but which detract 
 something from the universal praise often accorded him. 
 He was a poor judge of character. His Deputy-Governors 
 were often most unfortunate selections. Blackwell, an old 
 Cromwellian soldier, honest and moral, had no appreciation 
 of the Quaker character with which and over which he was 
 to govern. He was, as he admitted, " unequally yoked" 
 and " unfeignedly gave thanks to God " when he was re- 
 called. Evans, a young libertine, swollen with a puerile 
 self-conceit, ofTended in every way his best friends and 
 made endless troubles for Penn. Gookin, severe and un- 
 yielding, with a stubbornness lapsing into insanity, was an 
 unquestioned misfit. The better judgment of Penn's widow 
 saved the day for the family after this succession of fail- 
 ures. 
 
 It is true the problem was a hard one. A Friend would 
 not perform the duties which involved certain military- 
 declarations and ofiices; these they were quite willing that 
 others should undertake, but against them their own con- 
 sciences rebelled. The Deputy-Governor must, therefore, 
 not be a Friend. He must, however, be acceptable to them, 
 appreciating their spirit and respecting their scruples, for 
 by virtue both of numbers and character they controlled 
 the situation. They were to be his partners, not his sub- 
 ordinates, and with the extravagant idea of their rights and 
 privileges which some of them had, they were no easy part- 
 ners to work with. The ideal Governor must not only be 
 self-respecting, but tactful; not only a strict moralist, but 
 tolerant of differing standards; not only faithful to Penn's 
 interests, but appreciative of the people's liberties. Not 
 
22 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 one of Penn's choices, with the possible exception of Thomas 
 Lloyd, possessed all these qualities, and bitterly the pro- 
 prietor paid the price of his poor judgment in thirty years 
 of governmental confusion and financial loss. 
 
 The account of Penn's relations to his knavish steward 
 is not pleasant reading for his friends. Ford was a Friend 
 and a business man of ability. Penn placed all his affairs 
 in Ford's hands and dismissed his care of them. Full of 
 great schemes of philanthropy, his influence eagerly sought 
 for suffering Friends and suitors of all kinds, this is not a 
 matter of wonder. But when the fraudulent nature of 
 Ford's doings was known to Penn, or might easily have been 
 known, he still allowed matters to proceed, heaping up 
 claims till the province became mortgaged and his friends 
 had infinite difficulty in untangling the complicated fraud. 
 At first it was misplaced confidence, which any busy man 
 might have fallen into. Then lest the plight which had 
 happened to him should injure the Holy Experiment, he 
 allowed it to proceed and kept it quiet, thus piling up un- 
 told suffering and trouble and a term in the debtor's prison 
 for himself, and much vexation and expense for his friends 
 which an earlier, vigorous exposure might have avoided. 
 There was nothing dishonest or illiberal in his course, only 
 a suggestion of a lack of downright positiveness in extri- 
 cating himself honorably from an unfortunate position. 
 
 The question of military resistance was the great dif- 
 ficulty in a Quaker state, which finally wrought the political 
 downfall of the body which opposed it. Just prior to the 
 downfall, the Friends had, in many cases, held their places 
 by pursuing what seems like a doubtful course, going 
 further than strict consistency would approve. Penn him- 
 self was not quite clear of some equivocation in the matter. 
 As we have seen, he appointed non-Quaker deputies to per- 
 form acts which he and no other Friend would consider 
 
WILLIAM PENN 23 
 
 consistent with their profession; to " be stiff with our 
 neighbours upon occasion " as he once said. 
 
 This may be defensible, for liberty of the individual con- 
 science was their great claim. But when Penn recovered 
 his right to govern his province in 1693, it was the result of 
 a promise that he would faithfully transmit to the Assembly 
 all kingly commands for military aid, which " he doubted 
 not " that body would honor. It did not honor the first 
 communication he made in compliance with this implied 
 contract, and Penn must have known that it would not 
 and that he would not urge it to. 
 
 Fortunately the trouble was only ephemeral, and no one 
 called for a literal enforcement of the condition, but this 
 hardly acquits Penn of something like hedging in his deal- 
 ings with the Crown, a stroke of diplomacy very venial in 
 that day, but not quite consistent with an open and per- 
 fectly transparent character. 
 
 These, then, seem to be the weak spots in Penn's record, 
 an inability to judge men and a certain timidity in dealing 
 with difficult situations, when his larger plans would be 
 thereby endangered. More than this can hardly be fairly 
 charged against him. These were the causes of the most of 
 his troubles. Good deputies and bold strokes to rid him- 
 self of the webs of chicanery his personal and political 
 enemies had woven around him would have kept the tem- 
 per of the colonists sweet and loyal and his own actions iree 
 to carry out his plans. When he went to jail for a matter 
 of conscience, every one of his friends must have felt a thrill 
 of pride as he declared: " My prison shall be my grave be- 
 fore I will budge a jot, for I owe obedience of the conscience 
 to no mortal man." But when he sent out his frantic ap- 
 peals to Logan to gather in his dues, and allowed his friends 
 to raise a subscription to pay off the indebtedness he had 
 unwittingly contracted, when he lay months in Fleet prison 
 
24 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 waiting for his creditors to come to terms, there must have 
 been a loss of respect among those who looked to him for 
 leadership, even though these were recognized as under the 
 circumstances right and necessary things to do, and to be 
 the result of no moral obliquity on his part. 
 
 The other side of Pcnn's character is more pleasing to 
 contemplate, and so much more impressive that the flaws 
 seem insignificant. He was profoundly and sincerely reli- 
 gious, and his personal life was far above the ordinary vices 
 of his age. This was questioned probably but once. When 
 a persecuting Judge suggested that the early career of the 
 prisoner had been guilty of some of the sins against which 
 he was declaiming, Penn indignantly denied it and chal- 
 lenged any one to prove that by word or deed he had, even 
 in his more thoughtless youth, ever offended against the 
 standards of a strict morality. The Judge was rebuked by 
 a fellow judge, who admitted the truth of Penn's denial and 
 told his associate that he had gone too far. The truth 
 of the declaration may well be admitted. Only purity 
 of life, or arch hypocrisy, could be the basis of such beauti- 
 ful precepts of morality and piety as we find in his writ- 
 ings, and the latter alternative will hardly be claimed by 
 any one. 
 
 The wisdom of many of his Fruits of Solitude, the fervent 
 appeal to the reader at the beginning of No Cross, No 
 Crown, the fitting and eloquent eulogy on George Fox, and 
 many others which will occur to any reader of his works, 
 could hardly be the product of a character which had ever 
 suffered a moral relapse. Nor is there evidence that the 
 validity of his inspired ministry or the profound respect 
 and influence accorded to his preaching was questioned by 
 his rather exacting collaborators in the Gospel among 
 Friends. It is no proof of this that crowds flocked to hear 
 him in England when he was expected to be present at a 
 
WILLIAM PENN 25 
 
 meeting, for this is the meed of every preacher who has for 
 the time being the popular ear, 
 
 A better evidence is the judgment of friends expressed in 
 private correspondence. Isaac Norris wrote in 1701, just 
 as Penn was leaving the province the second time: 
 
 " The unhappy misunderstandings in some and unwar- 
 rantable oppositions in others have been a block to our 
 plenary comforts in him, and his own quiet; but these 
 things are externals only. Our communion in the church 
 sweetens all, and our inward waitings and worships to- 
 gether have often been a general comfort and consolation; 
 and in this I take a degree of satisfaction, after all, that we 
 part in love; and some of his last words in meeting yester- 
 day, were ' that he looked over all infirmities and outwards, 
 and had an eye to the region of spirits, wherein is our 
 surest tie ' ; and in true love, there he took his leave of us." 
 
 Again in 1707, when the proprietor was in the darkest 
 days of his difficulties with the Fords, Isaac Norris writes: 
 
 " The more he is pressed, the more he rises. He seems 
 of a spirit fit to bear and to rub through difficulties, and 
 after all, as thou observes, ' his foundation remains.' " 
 
 William Penn was one of those choice beings whose soul 
 was attuned to Divine harmonies, and whose power could 
 be felt by kindred spirits in the life of Christ. When he 
 was coming to Pennsylvania in 1699, he received three cer- 
 tificates from his Friends in England, one from " the Sec- 
 ond-day's Meeting of Ministering Friends," in London, one 
 from the Friends in Bristol, where he had resided for a 
 considerable time, and one from the Monthly Meeting of 
 Horsham. They are all most appreciative. The last tells 
 of — 
 
 " Our unity and communion with him. . . . He had been 
 a holy and blessed instrument in the hands of the Lord, 
 
26 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 both in his ministry and conversation (conduct) and hath 
 always sought the prosperity of the blessed truth and peace 
 and concord in the Church of Christ; and walked among 
 us in all humility, good sincerity and true brotherly love 
 to our great refreshment and comfort." 
 
 There was some adverse sentiment. In Pennsylvania, 
 this had, to a large extent, a political basis, and was led by 
 David Lloyd and Griffith Jones, both probably estimable 
 men, but whose extreme demands created a partisan feeling 
 that extended into the meetings.^ These men were corre- 
 spondents and in sympathetic relations with William Mead 
 and Thomas Lower, who are spoken of in the letters of the 
 day 2 as representing the opposition party. George White- 
 head is often associated with them. 
 
 This opposition from within was largely due to Penn's 
 supposed aristocratic tendencies and possible departure 
 from a proper simplicity in his relations with the courtly 
 influences among which he moved, and also to the Ford 
 
 ' "Our meetings for business are now so much injured by some 
 young forward novices and a few partisans of D. Lloyd, still a close 
 member, that the more sound and ancient Friends do not venture 
 upon anything there that concerns the government, expecting a 
 separation upon it whenever it is taken in hand. According to 
 present appearances of things, a separation will in time be un- 
 avoidable, and that after Friends (in England) have taken notice 
 of proceedings here, nothing less than a general purge will ensue. 
 J. Logan, 4 mo. 28, 1707." 
 
 2 "There is a short communication held between thy opposites 
 among Friends there and that corrupted generation here. G. 
 Whitehead has wrote a most affectionate letter to Griffith .Jones. 
 He expresses himself as thy friend, but we know how he is linked 
 with the Mead and Lower Party. I believe George is mistaken 
 in Griffith, and knows not that he is not received in unity with 
 Friends." 
 
 •James Logan to William Penn, 6 mo. 10, 1706. 
 
 "They address such on this side the water (England) who are 
 judged by them to be not in the best understanding with him." 
 
 Isaac Norris to Joseph Pike, 1 mo. (March) 18, 1707. 
 
 See l^enn and Logan correspondence. 
 
WILLIAM PENN 27 
 
 question and the doings of Evans as deputy-governor. It 
 was later swallowed up by the prevailing and warmly ex- 
 pressed regard, as these matters were seen to be perfectly 
 consistent with his profession and exalted character. After 
 1710, both the personal and political antagonism largely 
 ceased in Pennsylvania, and those who had been considered 
 as opponents lost their influence. The English opposition, al- 
 ways less well defined and based on more shadowy grounds, 
 seems also to have disappeared about the same time. So 
 that, cleared of his financial troubles, his colony loyal, and 
 his enemies evanescent, he spent the last two years of his 
 vigorous life in a serene atmosphere of success and triumph. 
 The stroke that then deprived him of his mental power, but 
 left his spiritual faculties unimpaired, brought him univer- 
 sal sympathy and appreciation. 
 
 Mentally, Penn was one of the great men of his times. It 
 was a day of young men. The great preachers were nearly 
 all under thirty, but this might be consistent with ordinary 
 intelligence. Penn was more than a great popular preacher. 
 He was a man of great thoughts and far-seeing plans and 
 definite and courageous convictions based on learning and 
 experience and study. He was ready for Oxford at fifteen. 
 He was but twenty-three when the germ of the principle of 
 universal toleration seems to have taken possession of him, 
 apparently evolved from within, which in time became the 
 great enthusiasm of his life. At the same time he began to 
 preach. The first of his religious works came a few years 
 later, and No Cross, No Crown immediately followed. The 
 erudition displayed by one so young was a surprise to 
 friends and enemies alike. Thus, at the age when the 
 average American youth is finishing college, Penn had col- 
 lected a wonderful store of knowledge, could command an 
 effective English style, and was a master of theological 
 arguments of a most serviceable quality. 
 
28 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 His development was continuous. His work on consti- 
 tutions prior to his American experiment betrays the 
 thoughtful student of the best that had been written in the 
 past. He always had great conceptions and projects. In 
 1693 he published his scheme for " An European Dyet, 
 Parliament or Estates," to which disputes between nations 
 should be referred. All the great Powers were to be repre- 
 sented. The advantages of such a court, and the means to 
 make its decisions acceptable, in order to avoid wars, were 
 presented with great wealth of argument and illustration. 
 The Hague tribunal was there in embryo. 
 
 Three years later, he published a plan for the union of the 
 American Colonies. Two representatives of each province 
 were to meet in New York to arrange matters of common in- 
 terest. They were to settle questions concerning commerce, 
 the return of criminals, and " consider ways and means to 
 support the union and safety of these provinces against the 
 public enemies." This was probably the first suggestion 
 of the movement which culminated about a century later 
 in the Federal Constitution and Union. 
 
 But the greatest and at the same time most practical con- 
 ception was the foundation of Pennsylvania itself. That 
 there were errors in detail, none can doubt. An absentee 
 landlord, even though liberal, can hardly avoid criticism 
 and opposition, and such was William Penn to his colony. 
 His forceful presence would undoubtedly have composed 
 faction and removed difficulties, and it was his full purpose 
 to have lived permanently in Pennsylvania. The idea of a 
 commonwealth devoted to liberty and peace drew out the 
 best powers of a comprehensive and enthusiastic intellect. 
 There was no room in Europe, but in the great unoccupied 
 expanse of the New World he would carry out his ideals 
 with a selected community in sympathy with them, of a 
 serious and honest sort, to whom he would transfer the 
 
WILLIAM PENN 29 
 
 government power and realty rights he had purchased of 
 the Crown, reserving only such moderate share of each as 
 security for the future and family interests would justify. 
 It was a glorious conception and a no less glorious oppor- 
 tunity, and we find him continually tempering his natural 
 ardor by considerations of duty to God and man, as the 
 seriousness of the task and the risks of failure pressed 
 themselves upon him. 
 
 There was, too, in his composition a good share of fight- 
 ing spirit. He was to have difficulties, but he never quailed. 
 The temper which declared that he would never yield a jot, 
 even though he died in prison, served him in good stead in 
 other contests. " Can my wicked enemies yet bow? They 
 shall, or break, or be broken in pieces before a year from 
 this time comes about, and my true friends rejoice," he de- 
 clared in a crisis with Lord Baltimore. " If lenitives will 
 not do, coercives must be tried," he announced in another 
 emergency. It was only this determined vigor which car- 
 ried him through the vast heap of difficulties among which 
 he struggled. 
 
 The whole of Penn's life indicates the power of his per- 
 sonality. Where he was present, events shaped themselves 
 towards his purposes. At the courts of Charles II., of James 
 II., and of Anne, he had surprising influence. This is all 
 the more remarkable because his Quaker scruples in certain 
 respects must have removed him far from the ordinary 
 courtier. We may assume that his dress, while simple, 
 was comely; that his speech, while observing the limitations 
 of his sect, was well chosen, pleasing and appreciative of 
 the point of view of his associates; that his manners, while 
 devoid of the flattering postures and phrases of the day, 
 were never offensive. It is only thus that we can explain 
 what seems his general friendliness with royalty and nobil- 
 ity. " I know of no religion," he says, " that destroys cour- 
 
30 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 tesy, civility and kindness," and these qualities, together 
 with a conversation full of interesting matter and a ready 
 wit, seem to have made him generally acceptable. So it 
 was that he interceded successfully at court, not only for 
 hundreds of persecuted Friends, but for Anglican bishops, 
 political refugees, and suffering scholars, as well as crowds 
 of needy suitors of humbler rank. 
 
 It was for these purposes, and to counteract the influence 
 of Lord Baltimore in the matter of the boundary line, ef- 
 forts which never failed of success, that he felt impelled to 
 remain so much in England. Again and again he hoped to 
 come to Pennsylvania, but the demands of Friends and the 
 exactions of Ford kept him at home. Only two visits of less 
 than two years each, all too short for the work to be done, 
 was he able to make to his province. 
 
 His personal influence was no less marked among his 
 colonists. When present, faction was stilled, the Indians 
 were pacified, desirable legislation was effected, and under 
 his ministry the meetings settled down into quietness and 
 harmony. Could he have longer remained, another history 
 would have been written. Perhaps it was well that in the 
 tutelage of the colony it should have been left to its own 
 responsibility, and have found its way through confusion 
 to liberty. For had the compelling influence of its founder 
 been continually present, a heroic figure among his friends, 
 certain aristocratic features and social customs might have 
 been engrafted on the government less favorable to liberty 
 than such as were worked out through the stress of partisan 
 conflict. Whether we sympathize with David Lloyd or 
 William Penn in the struggle between them, we may accord 
 to each of them a potent influence in shaping the free gov- 
 ernment which grew out of the troubled early years of the 
 experiment. 
 
 There are many traditions of his life in America: how he 
 
WILLIAM PENN 31 
 
 outjumped the Indians, and gained their lasting regard; the 
 great treaty immortalized by Clarkson in history, by West 
 on the canvas, and by Voltaire in happy phrase; the open 
 house at Pennsbury, where in feudal style he generously en- 
 tertained red man and white, politician and minister alike; 
 his " walks " with the Indians and the regard he showed 
 for their prejudices and customs; how on his way to Haver- 
 ford Meeting he took upon his horse little Rebecca Wood, 
 and carried her with him to the Meeting, her bare feet 
 dangling on either side; how at Merion a little boy, curious 
 to see the great Governor, peeped through a hole in the door 
 of his chamber, and saw him on his knees returning thanks 
 that he had been provided for in the wilderness. There is 
 probably more or less truth in all of these. They show 
 that in a little time something of a halo gathered around 
 his name, and his little acts became significant, a sure evi- 
 dence of influence. 
 
 We may make such surmises as we will concerning the 
 extent of the influence of William Penn upon Pennsylvania 
 Quakerism, based on his character and standing. The 
 Meeting minutes make but limited reference to him. In 
 1683 a plan, doubtless originating in William Penn's com- 
 prehensive mind, was presented to the Meeting: 
 
 " It being desired to hold a general Meeting of Friends 
 from New England to Carolina, the Meeting appoints: 
 William Penn, Christopher Taylor, Samuel Jenings, James 
 Harrison, Thomas Olive, Mahlon Stacy, to make arrange- 
 ments by writing to Friends or speaking, and inform Lon- 
 don Yearly Meeting." 
 
 What difficulties prevented the realization of this pro- 
 ject for nationalizing the Society of Friends, we do not 
 know. They were probably material, rather than political. 
 What different development would have resulted is also a 
 matter of conjecture. Something of the same idea occurred 
 
32 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 to certain Yearly Meetings about two hundred years later. 
 
 In 1700, on the occasion of Penn's second visit, we have 
 a record of certificates concerning him being received from 
 Bristol, London, and Horsham. In the same year " Gov- 
 ernor Penn " was appointed on a committee to draw up 
 the epistle to London Yearly Meeting. The next year the 
 following minute w^as adopted: 
 
 " Our Governor, William Penn, having said before this 
 Meeting that he entends for England, and desires that they 
 would appoint ten or twelve Friends to meet him this even- 
 ing upon some weighty occasion, in order thereunto, Sam- 
 uel Jenings (and fifteen others) and such public Friends as 
 have freedom, are desired to meet the Governor accordingly 
 about six this evening." 
 
 This meeting is probably referred to in the letter of Isaac 
 Norris, already quoted. No other references to him appear 
 on the Yearly Meeting minutes. We may safely assume, 
 however, that he was an important figure in any meeting 
 which he attended. 
 
 In the minutes of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, there 
 are evidences of his interest in the details of society work 
 and his name appears occasionally. On Eleventh-month 
 1st, 1683 (January 1684): 
 
 " A letter of advice from the Governor was read to 
 Friends councelling them to be careful in their behaviour for 
 Truth's sake, that so the Lord might not be dishonoured and 
 the Truth evily spoken of amongst wicked men." 
 
 Again on Sixth-month (August) 5th, 1684: 
 
 " The Governor being present, and his departure for 
 England drawing nigh, he moved the Meeting to give him a 
 certificate as touching his demeanour amongst the people 
 of his province, which was taken into consideration by the 
 Meeting." 
 
 And later in the same Meeting: 
 
WILLIAM PENN 33 
 
 " A certificate was drawn up in the Meeting according 
 to the motion of the Governor, and subscribed by Thomas 
 Lloyd (and fifteen others) in the name of the Meetmg. 
 
 During his second visit, he expressed to the Meeting a 
 " concern " that religious work should be done among the 
 negroes and Indians. Acting on this the Friends appointed 
 a Monthly Meeting for negroes to which their masters were 
 to send them, and " be present with them at said meetings 
 as frequent as may be." It was also agreed that when 
 Indians are in town they be invited to a meeting " when 
 our Governor is willing to speak to them." 
 
 He worked on ordinary committees, as in the case of the 
 widow of Thomas Lloyd, who thought that the executors of 
 his will had not treated her fairly. The Governor being 
 present on another occasion, " readily condescended " to 
 give the materials of the meeting house, erected where the 
 City Hall now is, to another in a more accessible part of 
 
 the city. 
 
 When he left in 1701, never to return, though he and they 
 hoped otherwise, another cordial and loving certificate 
 drawn up by Thomas Story, Samuel Carpenter, and Griffith 
 Owen, was given him. 
 
 The personality of William Penn may well be assumed to 
 be the most potent influence in the early history of his 
 province. His advantages of birth, fortune, and education, 
 his superior intellectual and moral powers, his position as 
 originator of the conception which had given to all its mem- 
 bers their worldly and religious opportunities, his authority 
 as Governor and Proprietor, would in any community have 
 endowed him with a towering ascendency. But when to 
 these are added a humility in religious affairs, which asked 
 and would allow no precedence, a record of faithful adher- 
 ence to principle through losses and imprisonments, and 
 an endowment of a prophetic gift of remarkable fervor 
 
34 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 and power, there is no need to doubt that whenever his 
 gracious presence could be felt, nothing could ever compare 
 with it. Even in his absence, his words and memory and 
 spirit hovered over his province in its religious life, and 
 became, long after his death, its inspiration and guide. 
 
 From Plato to H. G. Wells many paper constitutions have 
 been drawn up. Utopia, Oceana, The New Atlantis, Look- 
 ing Backward and a host of others have described ideal 
 bases of government. Whether they would work or not 
 has never been ascertained for they were never as a whole 
 put into operation by their authors or others. Doubtless 
 they have supplied ideas and developed the conditions 
 which have created successful commonwealths. In this 
 way they have fulfilled their function. William Penn 
 alone seems to have been able to perform the double duty 
 of working out a scheme in theory, and putting it into suc- 
 cessful action in a new country. He advised with the re- 
 publican Algernon Sidney, with his Dutch friend Benjamin 
 Furly and others, but primarily it was the result of his own 
 studies and observation. Out of this mass of cogitation and 
 advice came his first constitution, still in paper existence 
 with marginal and interlinear corrections in the handwrit- 
 ing of himself and others. 
 
 He wants " that manner or frame of government that 
 shall preserve magistracy in reverence with the people and 
 best keep it from being hurtful to them." He thinks that 
 the Hebrew and English types afford the best models, but 
 " It were a most condemnible superstition to perpetuate 
 anything for being ancient or domestic that were not other- 
 wise useful." Then he enumerates, first as always, reli- 
 gious liberty, " As every person shall in conscience believe 
 is most acceptable to God." There shall be a law-making 
 power meeting annually and adjourning at its pleasure with 
 " Whatever is the privilege of an English House of Com- 
 
WILLIAM PENN 35 
 
 mons." Each member shall bring a written body of in- 
 structions from the electors and if it shall so happen that 
 he act contrary to the same then ''He never more presume 
 to stand unless the people sensible of his repentance shall 
 forgive and choose him." There shall be no imprisonment 
 for debt for small sums or capital punishment for small 
 crimes. Oaths shall be abolished. There shall be no tav- 
 erns or ale-houses, nor any provision for plays, cards, horse 
 races, etc. All children shall be taught trades when twelve 
 years of age, girls as well as boys. 
 
 A number of changes were made in this before coming to 
 America and the first twenty years after the settlement saw 
 several constitutions placed on trial. The final one given 
 during his second visit here in 1701 lasted till the Revolu- 
 tion and is exceedingly simple. 
 
 There were nine articles. 
 
 The first decreed religious liberty. 
 
 The second required a free Assembly with full liberty to 
 make laws. 
 
 The third directed that two men should be elected for 
 local ofiices from whom the Governor should choose. 
 
 The fourth required all laws to be passed upon by the 
 Governor. 
 
 The fifth secured the rights of criminals to a fair trial. 
 
 The sixth gave to the courts and not the Governor the 
 rights to decide all property cases. 
 
 The seventh demanded good morality of the applicant 
 for a tavern before license could be granted. 
 
 The eighth prevents the forfeiture of the estates of sui- 
 cides and required a six-seventh vote of the Assembly to 
 amend any clause. 
 
36 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 The ninth declares that the clause relating to religious 
 liberty will be preserved forever by the proprietor and his 
 heirs. 
 
 On this basis of elementary right the government of 
 Pennsylvania for 75 years worked with success and a pros- 
 perity unrivalled among the colonies. 
 
 The great enthusiasm of William Penn's life was for 
 religious liberty. It was just beginning to find a voice in 
 Europe in his time. Holland was leading the way and 
 Roger Williams who was an English pioneer had in 1644 
 published his " Bloody Tenent of Persecution for the Cause 
 of Conscience." Here the arguments for the free enjoyment 
 of one's own religious convictions and practices were given 
 with great liberality and learning. Nor did he shrink from 
 the full application of these principles when he founded his 
 Rhode Island Colony. Toleration, which implies a favored 
 church and permission to others to exist, was as far as the 
 more advanced thinkers had elsewhere gone. Massachu- 
 setts and Connecticut rigidly excluded dissenters from the 
 franchise and demanded of them taxes for the support of the 
 state religion. Physical cruelty was the penalty for the 
 free exercise of their worship by the Quakers of Massachu- 
 setts and they with Baptists and Episcopalians were ban- 
 ished. The Church of England was established in New 
 York and the South, and, save for a time in Maryland under 
 Catholic rule, there were disabilities and fines for dissenters. 
 
 Penn grasped the idea in its fulness and his early at- 
 tempts at a constitution for his colony show how thor- 
 oughly he was convinced of its righteousness. But he had 
 to satisfy the court, and by 1701 when his frame had got 
 others, it had received some limitations. 
 
WILLIAM PENN 37 
 
 " I do hereby grant," he says, "and declare that no per- 
 son or persons inhabiting in the province or territories, 
 who shall confess or acknowledge one Almighty God — and 
 profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under the 
 civil government, shall in any case be molested or preju- 
 diced on his or their person or estate because of his or their 
 conscientious persuasion or practice, nor be compelled to 
 frequent or maintain any religious worship place or min- 
 istry, contrary to his or their mind, or to do or suffer any 
 other act or thing contrary to their religious persuasion. 
 And that all persons who profess to believe in Jesus Christ 
 the Saviour of the World, shall be capable (notwithstand- 
 ing their other persuasions and practices in point of con- 
 science and religion) to serve this government in any 
 capacity, both legislatively and executively, etc." 
 
 That is, Penn opened the door of conscience freely and 
 equally to all religions which acknowledged the existence 
 of a God, and allowed all professing Christians to hold of- 
 fice. This latter limitation, which in his time did not 
 amount to one, was probably a necessity of his English 
 connection. 
 
 Later at the command of England, his successors by a 
 test excluded Catholics, who were assumed to be allies of 
 the banished Stuarts, and in league with their great national 
 enemy, France, from the privileges of office holding, with- 
 out however curtailing the freedom of their worship. 
 
 That protection of the Catholics was given is shown by 
 an incident of 1755 after the story of Braddock's defeat 
 had reached Philadelphia. A mob assembled, as the diary 
 of Daniel Fisher says, for the purpose of destroying the 
 " Mass House " for supposed sympathy with the Friends. 
 " But the peaceable Quakers insisted that the Catholics as 
 well as Christians of other denominations were settled upon 
 the faith of the Constitution or William Penn's Charter and 
 that the governments were bound to protect so long at 
 
38 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 least as they remained inoffensive, etc." The Friends were 
 true to the principles of religious liberty of the Founder.^ 
 
 William Penn had been largely instrumental in securing 
 for dissenters in England a certain amount of toleration. 
 This was all he could expect there and the tests there re- 
 quired were forced upon his colonial officials. He would 
 have had them to resist. " Why should you obey any order 
 which is not according to patent or law here, nor the laws of 
 your own country," he writes indignantly from England. 
 This test simply required allegiance and fidelity to the 
 Crown, a denial of papal authority and practices and pro- 
 fession of faith in orthodox Christianity. The Friends 
 could honestly subscribe, but it negatived the application of 
 the broader principle to which Penn was committed, against 
 any religious test. It remained however all through provin- 
 cial days. 
 
 That he would not grant any political favors to his own 
 sect is undoubted. He sends a stinging rebuke to a member 
 who asks whether the founders of the colony should not 
 have such consideration. He gives in a private letter his 
 purpose in this respect. " I went thither to lay the founda- 
 tion of a free colony for all mankind 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 in- 
 fringement on that account." Knowing so well the disa- 
 bilities of Friends in England he would guard against a rep- 
 
 1 The Episcopal minister at Chester about 1740 writes that the 
 Quakers were encouraging children to leave his school to join one 
 which they had encouraged managed by a "virulent Papist." 
 "They did what none but Quakers dare do in a country under 
 the government of a Protestant king." But something may be 
 charged to partisan zeal in such statements as this. They show 
 however a willingness to extend their idea of liberty to this most 
 suspected of religious bodies. 
 
WILLIAM PENN 39 
 
 etition of them in Pennsylvania, and in guarding it for them 
 he did the same for every one else. 
 
 He meant also so far as he was able to provide for the 
 future. After prescribing a way by which all the other 
 clauses could be amended he says: " Because the happiness 
 of mankind depends so much upon the enjoying of liberty 
 of the conscience, as aforesaid, I do hereby solemnly de- 
 clare, promise and grant for me, my heirs and assigns, that 
 the first article of this chapter, relating to liberty of con- 
 science, and every part and clause therein, according to the 
 true intent and meaning thereof, shall be kept and remain 
 without any alteration, inviolably forever." 
 
 Hardly less liberal was his attitude to Democracy. This 
 was abated somewhat in course of time by his imperious 
 need for financial returns from his colony which were rather 
 ungenerously declined, and perhaps also by the aristocratic 
 circumstances of his family which had large influence in 
 English society of the day. But he started with unbounded 
 intentions of radical civil liberty. In his draft of govern- 
 ment which he brought from England he allowed himself 
 only three votes in a legislative assembly of 272 members 
 and no veto. The veto power was returned to him and ex- 
 ercised by him and his heirs, or in their absence by their 
 deputies, through all the proprietary years. Then he cre- 
 ated a bicameral legislature, the appointed Council propos- 
 ing all legislation and the elected Assembly passing on it. 
 By gradual encroachment on the power of the Council it 
 was reduced to an advisory body only, after 1701, and the 
 Assembly elected yearly, meeting without call, and ad- 
 journing at its pleasure became the free law-creating body 
 responsive to public opinion only. The franchise for the 
 day was liberal, not universal, but with a moderate property 
 qualification. In its frequent contests with the proprietors 
 it won victory after victory for the cause of democracy, 
 
40 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 by bringing popular sentiment to bear, and English fashion, 
 withholding money till privileges were granted. 
 
 It was unfortunate that circumstances seemed to place 
 Penn in certain exigencies on the side opposed to democ- 
 racy. For his early utterances and feelings were far other- 
 wise. He had been an ardent advocate of the election to 
 Parliament of the radical republican Algernon Sidney. In 
 1676 when he was thinking out a government for New Jer- 
 sey he said, " We lay a foundation for after ages to under- 
 stand their liberty as men and as Christians, that they may 
 not be brought into bondage but by their own consent; for 
 we put the power in the people." In 1687 he had printed 
 the Magna Charta with an introduction and comments in- 
 tended to give his colonists a knowledge of their rights as 
 Englishmen. " It may reasonably be supposed that we shall 
 find in this part of the world many men both old and young 
 that are strangers in a great measure to the true under- 
 standing of that inestimable inheritance, that every free- 
 born subject of England is heir unto by birthright, I mean 
 that unparalleled privilege of liberty and property beyond 
 all the nations of the world outside." Even the jars of the 
 first twenty years did not shake his faith in the people's 
 right to claim their dues. In 1700 he says with great frank- 
 ness: " If in the constitutions by charter there be anything 
 that jars alter it. If you want a law for this or that pre- 
 pare it. ... I desire to see mine not otherwise than in the 
 public's prosperity." 
 
 The demands of creditors came on him heavily after this. 
 He needed the reservations he had claimed out of the 
 colonial income. He had lost a princely fortune by his 
 investment in Pennsylvania and the settlers were slow to 
 pay their dues. They haggled about one privilege after an- 
 other, mostly financial, until Penn found himself in alliance 
 with the anti-democratic party of the province, and felt 
 
WILLIAM PENN 41 
 
 that David Lloyd who led the field against him for prop- 
 erty as well as political rights was a personal enemy as well 
 as a public opponent. But when these petty matters were 
 cleared away his life came out in its true colors as the 
 friend and champion of a liberal democracy. 
 
 Many letters in existence tell of the large trust of the 
 colonists in him and how potential an element this was in 
 creating prosperity in the colony. About ten years after 
 the settlement Hugh Roberts writes him, " I can truly say 
 that many of us had never come here but because of the 
 love and unity and confidence we had in thee." Indeed it 
 is not unlikely that the whole Welsh immigration was due 
 to his personality. They were somewhat disappointed be- 
 cause the agreement as they understood it of a " Barony," 
 where they could have local home rule after the Welsh 
 fashion, had not been kept and the letter of Hugh Roberts 
 while professing personal devotion seemed to indicate their 
 dissatisfaction. 
 
 On the other hand an English settler, John Goodson, writ- 
 ing about the same time, gives a most glowing account of the 
 rapidly developing colony but expresses the opinion that 
 Penn ought to be there. " This place is beyond whatever 
 our hearts could have thought of, so that we have no cause 
 to murmur or complain. ... Its might have been many 
 hundreds better for thee than it is; for the hearts of many 
 were inclined to this land for thy sake which would and 
 might have come if thou hadst settled here but now will 
 never come if thou comest not." The personality of the 
 founder had in the early days much to do with the success 
 of the Holy Experiment. 
 
 After the troubles of the early days passed away, troubles 
 which William Penn's presence in the country might largely 
 have avoided, after the personal differences between Logan 
 and Lloyd, between aristocrat and democrat, had been 
 
42 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 largely forgotten, the name and work of the founder were 
 held in ever-increasing veneration. In 1739 speaker Hamil- 
 ton, not a Friend, gives an enthusfastic account of the pros- 
 perity, freedom and happiness of the people, due he says not 
 mainly to any material considerations but " to the Consti- 
 tution of Mr. Penn." 
 
 About the same date the daughter of the founder, Mar- 
 garet Penn Freame, in a letter to her brother John urging 
 that a member of the family should live in the province 
 says: " The great regard they (the people) had for our 
 good father makes us welcome everywhere. If I had been 
 the first Duchess of England that title would not have 
 gained me so much respect as the daughter of William Penn. 
 I had the calves of their stalls and the firstlings of their 
 flocks." 
 
 There is no doubt that the hesitation of many moderate 
 people to join the American cause in the Revolution was 
 due to the fact that the extremists rather ruthlessly set aside 
 the Penn Charter of 1701 under which they had prospered 
 for 75 years, longer than any other constitution of Penn- 
 sylvania existed, and which now had become in their eyes 
 a venerated instrument. 
 
 Charles Thompson, " the man who spoke the truth," the 
 master of the Friends Public School, the Secretary of the 
 Continental Congress, the most judicious of the revolu- 
 tionary Pennsylvanians writing long after the event, of con- 
 ditions about 1775-6 says: " The original Constitution of 
 Pennsylvania was very favorable and well adapted to the 
 present emergency. The Assembly was annual. The elec- 
 tion was fixed for a certain day on which freemen who were 
 worth fifty pounds, met, or had a right to meet without 
 summons at their respective county towns, and by ballot 
 chose not only representatives of the Assembly but also 
 Sheriff, coroner, and commissioners for managing the af- 
 
WILLIAM PENN 43 
 
 fairs of the county and assessors to rate the tax imposed by 
 law upon the estates real and personal of the several inhab- 
 itants. Members of the Assembly when chosen met accord- 
 ing to law on a certain day and chose their own speaker, 
 provincial treasurer and sundry other officers. The house 
 sat on its own adjournment nor was it in the power of the 
 Governor to prorogue or dissolve it. Hence it is apparent 
 that Pennsylvania had a great advantage over the other 
 colonies which by being deprived by their Governors or 
 their legal Assemblies constitutionally chosen were forced 
 into conventions." 
 
 The freedom granted by Penn and enforced by the 
 Assemblv for nearly a century, added to the religious ob- 
 jection of the Quakers to war, explains very largely the 
 lack of earlv enthusiasm for independence in the colony. 
 They were used to liberty of which they had made mod- 
 erate and rational use, and except for the urgency of 
 Massachusetts and Virginia would probably not have joined 
 the revolutionary party. 
 
 But even though the Governor was such a great man the 
 Meetings were not inclined to accord him more than his 
 dues. When he had established himself at Pennsbury there 
 was an island in the river opposite which had been occupied 
 by William Biddle. The main channel ran to the west of 
 the island, thus placing it in New Jersey, but Penn claimed 
 that it had belonged to a tribe of Indians which had also 
 owned the Pennsylvania land adjoining. The controversy 
 went so far as to bring it into the meetings to which the 
 claimant belonged which appointed committees to examine 
 and report. The decision was against the owner and 
 governor of Pennsylvania and the dispute ended. 
 
 Penn brought into operation the Puritan notions of the 
 time as to amusements. In the first draft of a constitution 
 before coming to America he prohibited horse-racing, bull 
 
44 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 and bear baiting and games of cards and dice. It was also 
 decreed that there should be no taverns or ale houses. This 
 last was later softened into a requirement that tavern keep- 
 ers shall be moral meri, an attempt in practice probably 
 more successful than the similar one of the present day. A 
 traveller of 1755 speaks of the " Indian King " of Phila- 
 delphia kept by " one Mr. John Biddle, a very civil, cour- 
 teous Quaker," where no liquor is served after eleven 
 o'clock and everything is moderate in cost. The Friends, 
 however, soon after this came to the conclusion that tavern- 
 keeping was unsavory business for their members and dur- 
 ing the Revolutionary War tried to get them all out of it 
 with apparent success. About 1766 the Philadelphia 
 Jockey Club was formed, " Nearly all the principal citizens 
 outside the Society of Friends belonged to it." Out of 
 deference to this body they adjourned the races during the 
 week of Yearly Meeting. 
 
 While Penn and his friends simply transferred to Amer- 
 ica the common Puritan ideas of a godly commonwealth 
 as to plays, games and sports, the Friends almost alone 
 adhered to them up to Revolutionary days. 
 
 Perhaps it was the idea that lotteries were games of 
 chance that kept them out of colonial Pennsylvania. A 
 century before they were sufficiently in disfavor in the 
 country at large, to be legislated against, while universities 
 and churches and public improvement generally were build- 
 ing themselves up through their agencies, while George 
 Washington was willing to accept the presidency of a lot- 
 tery company, while a raffle was a common method of 
 settling an estate, the Friends were adopting minutes 
 against them and the purchase of a ticket was a sufficient 
 cause for disownment. Almost if not quite alone among 
 the colonial sects, no Friends house of worship or school 
 was erected by their aid and no countenance was given to 
 
WILLIAM PENN 45 
 
 state enterprises. Benjamin Franklin forwarded a lottery 
 to raise money for defense but the stricter Friends kept 
 clear of assisting him, objecting as they did both to the 
 object and the method. 
 
 The Friends had had a long standing contest against 
 oaths. They based their objections partly on the biblical 
 prohibitions, partly on the implication that they would not 
 speak the truth without them. They were absolutely faith- 
 ful to this testimony, enduring in England long terms of 
 cruel imprisonment rather than violate it. It was a very 
 simple matter for any inimical magistrate, private enemy 
 or invidious ecclesiastic to offer or have offered the oath of 
 allegiance to the king, and upon refusal, to place them in 
 prison. They would declare their loyalty and challenge 
 their persecutors to prove any flaw in this respect but they 
 would not swear. No testimony of early Quakerism was 
 adhered to more tenaciously in the face of malignant oppo- 
 sition than this. 
 
 William Penn himself was in sympathy with this posi- 
 tion and meant to relieve them in his province. For a few 
 years they had nothing but a very simple form of affirma- 
 tion and matters went on smoothly. But when non- 
 Quakers came into the province, and Crown officers claimed 
 that their acts could only be legalized by an oath, some 
 change was necessary. Quaker judges and magistrates 
 would not administer them and considerable confusion re- 
 sulted. In some sections there were none but Friends com- 
 petent to perform the duties of the offices. They could 
 either administer or resign. Penn wrote disapproving both 
 alternatives. He wrote from England, " I desire you to 
 pluck up that English and Christian courage not to suffer 
 yourselves to be thus treated and put upon . . . lose what 
 you lose like men and Christians." Various compromises 
 were proposed but the impossibility of carrying on the 
 
46 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 work of a mixed province made some arrangement neces- 
 sary. A law was passed in 1718 making an affirmation as 
 valid as an oath and affixing the same penalties for lying as 
 for perjury. Friends gave up offices which necessarily in- 
 volved administering oaths, and others were sworn at their 
 pleasure. Practically the same laws exist in the United 
 States to-day. Whenever however the enemies of Quaker 
 rule wanted to put them out of place, they would send a 
 petition to England to require the taking of an oath as a 
 condition of office holding. It was the threat of such a 
 law passing Parliament that brought the resignation of the 
 Quaker members of the Assembly in 1756. Others besides 
 Friends refused oaths in favor of affirmations, and in the 
 popular mind these were ranked among Friends. But all 
 members who took or administered oaths were disowned 
 by the Society. 
 
 By a strange political trade the law of 1718 which granted 
 liberties to Quakers on the subject of oaths included also 
 an increase in the list of capital crimes. By Penn's frame 
 capital punishment was made to cover the one crime of 
 first-degree murder, a notable advance from the English 
 code. Sir William Keith, the Deputy-Governor, suggested 
 to the Quaker legislature that their contention against 
 oaths would better stand against the chance of a Crown 
 veto if it were combined with an extension of the list of 
 crimes punishable by death. The legislature made no 
 objections. The year that William Penn died his merciful 
 penal code died also and some dozen crimes were added to 
 the criminal list, and so remained through all the colonial 
 days. It seems that the Friends of those days did not place 
 taking life for burglary, rape, arson and so on by judicial 
 process as one of the iniquities against which they must 
 protest with the same uncompromising vigor which they 
 displayed against oaths. 
 
WILLIAM PENN 47 
 
 In the main however they were merciful to the prisoners. 
 The laws made the jails into work houses and reformation 
 rather than example or vindictive wrath was held as the 
 object of detention. Until after the Revolution the penal 
 system of Pennsylvania was held as something of a model. 
 They took also those incapacitated by age or sickness under 
 their care. The first hospital of America was their work, 
 and the " bettering house " for convalescents was unique. 
 Their acceptance of the list of capital crimes seems out of 
 harmony with their general history and came up to plague 
 them when they tried later to argue the unlawfulness of 
 war under Christian standards. 
 
 While the Indian policy of Penn has been a large matter 
 of history it probably did not seem to him to be a command- 
 ing feature. To treat them with ordinary justice and to 
 convert them to Christianity were what he had in view. As 
 it turned out the latter did not seem nearly so capable of 
 accomplishment through Quaker influence as through Mo- 
 ravian. When the Friends told them that there was some- 
 thing within them which condemned wrong and encouraged 
 right they grunted approval but did not join the Society. 
 They respected Quaker morality and responded to good 
 treatment, but the Moravian Indians were a considerable 
 and loyal Christian group. 
 
 Buying their land was not a new thing in colonial Amer- 
 ica. It had been done at times in New England and New 
 York and more sparingly in the South. The Swedes and 
 Dutch had adopted it in the Delaware Valley before the 
 time of Penn. In fact the Indians sold their rights so 
 cheaply that it was folly for settlers to refuse the bargain. 
 When the Founder instructed his cousin Markham to buy 
 up his province by piecemeal in advance of settlement he 
 was doing the common as well as the politic thing. He fol- 
 lowed this up after he came himself to America only omit- 
 
48 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ting the strong drink which Markham had included among 
 the purchase goods. He evidently intended never to sell 
 to colonists until all native rights were extinguished, and 
 where two claimants appeared for the same land, as the Iro- 
 quois and Delawares for the Susquehanna Valley, he bought 
 of both. This policy worked well in his days for he could 
 readily buy ahead of the incoming tide of immigrants. 
 Later when the great crowds of Germans and Scotch-Irish 
 came in, who cared but little for Indian rights, under the 
 less careful management of his sons trouble resulted. The 
 Indians began to see that they were losing everything and 
 refused to sell and very doubtful measures were resorted 
 to to get a title. 
 
 It was not so much the simple fact of purchase or the 
 great Shackamaxon Treaty of good will and amity, immor- 
 talized in history and on canvas, which the Indians appre- 
 ciated, as the fairness of all transactions. This the Indian 
 sense of justice would respond to. They were never de- 
 ceived by false maps or compass bearings. The measure 
 of land by day's walks was fairly made. Furs were bought 
 by standard weights and cloth was sold by standard meas- 
 ures. While they loved firewater, in their sober moments 
 they would admit that the efforts to keep it from them were 
 dictated by unselfish motives. All this developed in the In- 
 dian mind the feeling that Onas and his brethren were really 
 fair minded friends to be trusted ; — a feeling which made 
 life secure and easy all through the early days of settlement, 
 which saved the frontier Quakers from the tomahawk when 
 ill-treatment by others had sent the red men on the war 
 path, and which lasted for scores of years when the Dela- 
 ware Indians were moved first to Ohio, then to Kansas and 
 Oklahoma. Other colonial governments did not start with 
 the idea of murdering the natives or even of stealing their 
 land or supplies. But individual settlers were knaves, per- 
 
WILLIAM PENN 49 
 
 sonal difficulties arose, the whites stood by one another 
 right or wrong, and the trouble led to war for which old 
 testament morality easily found an excuse. Penn re- 
 strained his traders. Though pressed for funds he refused 
 to sell monopolies of Indian trade lest advantage should be 
 taken of the natives. An intending purchaser says with 
 some surprise, "He ( W. P.) is offered great things — 6,000 
 pounds for a monopoly in trade which he refused. ... I 
 believe truly he does aim more at justice and righteousness 
 and spreading of truth than at his own particular gain." 
 This explains perhaps more truly than purchases of land 
 and treaties, the conditions of peace and quiet for so long a 
 time on the Pennsylvania frontiers. Penn practiced only 
 ordinary justice and it is a commentary on the times that 
 this should have been considered unique. 
 
 The relations were almost too friendly. The Indians 
 were indefatigable visitors. The kings and sachems, and 
 a large number seemed necessary to maintain traditions, 
 would camp on the grounds or in the houses of Friends, on 
 every excuse, to be entertained by their rather unwilling 
 hosts. The Friends would not usually supply liquor but 
 others would, and the guests, not always cleanly, were not 
 in the highest degree acceptable. In spite of the verbose 
 and metaphorical illustrations of eloquence of the chiefs, 
 expressing undying gratitude and helpfulness, which the 
 whites would do their best to equal, and the interchange of 
 wampum, such a conference usually ended with a sense of 
 relief on the part of the entertainers. On the other hand 
 it was convenient for the country Friends to leave their 
 children in the care of Indian neighbors, which they did 
 with a feeling of security when they went to Meeting in 
 Philadelphia. Making allowance for differing habits and 
 ideas the relations between the races seemed perfectly nat- 
 ural and such a thing as war was unthought of till, some 60 
 
50 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 years after the settlement, white injustice began the aliena- 
 tion. 
 
 The most troublesome feature of Penn's government was 
 one of which nothing was said or suggested in his frame — 
 the matter of martial defense. This was left to be decided 
 when the emergency arose. Penn himself had been une- 
 quivocal in his condemnation of war in his earlier writings. 
 " If they (the Friends) can not fight for it (civil govern- 
 ment) neither can they fight against it, which is no mean 
 security to any state." He accepted however in his charter 
 the post of captain general of the army with power " to 
 make war and pursue the enemies and robbers aforesaid 
 as well by sea as by land, yea even without the limits of 
 said province and by God's assistance to vanquish and take 
 them and being taken to put them to death by the law of 
 war, etc." This would seem to be ample authority for a 
 Quaker to fight if he wanted to. He did not hesitate to try 
 to create an ample police force and frequently reproves his 
 colonists for their too easy tolerance of vice. There was con- 
 siderable pugnacity in his disposition which the exigencies of 
 government frequently excited. He evidently found it diflfi- 
 cult to draw the line between a police and an army, as also 
 did his people. They would probably have made a stronger 
 case if they had taken the position that the objection was to 
 the methods of warfare, the killing, the invasion of rights, 
 the hatred engendered, which are inevitable accompani- 
 ments, which violate Christ's idea of the dominance of love, 
 and which did not necessarily exist in police duty, exer- 
 cised for protection of life and property rather than for 
 destruction. 
 
 They said in effect: We are not absolute non-resistants 
 but we stop resistance when it becomes in itself criminal 
 according to the moral law as our consciences see it. We 
 do not define the exact line where criminality begins but war 
 
WILLIAM PENN 51 
 
 and its practices are for us manifestly over the line and 
 therefore we can not accept any responsibility. 
 
 His great plan for a diet of nations of 1693 to which all 
 disputes should be presented for settlement, a plan far in 
 advance of his times, contains a clause which seems to en- 
 dorse an international police, which practically would be 
 an army. He says: 
 
 " If any of the sovereignties that constitute these imperial 
 states shall refuse to submit their claims or pretensions to 
 them or to abide and perform the judgment thereof and 
 seek their remedy by arms or delay their compliance be- 
 yond the time prefixt in these resolutions, all the other sov- 
 ereignties united as one strength shall compel the submis- 
 sion and performance of the sentence, with damages to the 
 suffering party, and charges to the sovereignties that obliged 
 their submission." 
 
 This may or may not mean a military force when political 
 and economic pressure fail. In another part of his scheme 
 we find the following: " Their Saviour has told them that 
 he came to save not to destroy the Lives of Men; to give 
 and plant peace among men; and if in any sense he may 
 be said to send war, it is the Holy War indeed, for it is 
 against the Devil and not against the persons of men." It 
 is evident therefore that even in this great plan so far in 
 advance of his time, so in harmony with the best apparent 
 tendencies of our time, intended to bring actual results 
 among nations as they were, his place for an armed force 
 would be slight. 
 
 The basic idea, as nearly as one can tell, of the Friends 
 in Pennsylvania seems to have been freedom of conscience 
 for every one on both sides, on the question of war. They 
 themselves would not serve in an army or support it except 
 in so far as war taxes were so inextricably mixed with others 
 that they could not well draw any line. Rather than do so 
 
52 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 they would give up place, and if necessary suffer distraint 
 of goods. They would also have gone to jail as happened 
 during the Revolutionary War. The supremacy of con- 
 science over any state commands was a well developed and 
 imdoubted part of their doctrine. 
 
 On the other hand they would not interfere with those 
 who thought that armed defense was a duty. The 
 Assembly refused to enact laws which required men to serve 
 in the militia, because it was known that the Friends would 
 not obey and even if the law made allowance for con- 
 scientious objectors, they would not force others to a 
 service which they declined for themselves. Voluntary 
 militia were formed by Franklin and others for frontier 
 protection at private expense, and the only objection made 
 by the Quaker Assembly was to the taking of farm laborers 
 before their debt for passage money, for which they had 
 agreed to work for a term of years, had been liquidated. 
 
 Hence appeared the convenience of a non-Quaker Dep- 
 uty-Governor which Penn provided. He could if necessary 
 raise a militia, or announce an English declaration of war, 
 or build a fort when he could get the means, without any 
 protests from conscience. Thus in 1689 when Governor 
 Blackwell was at the head of affairs, it was proposed that a 
 militia be formed to protect the province against a possible 
 attack by the French. His mixed Council was asked to 
 aid. The non-Quaker part approved. The Friends desired 
 not to be consulted. Samuel Carpenter said: "I am not 
 against those that will put themselves into defence but it 
 being contrary to the judgment of a great part of the people 
 and mine too I can not advise the thing. ... If we must be 
 forced to it I suppose we shall choose rather to suffer than 
 to do it, as we have done formerly." " We would not tie 
 other hands but we can not act." 
 
 Thus matters stood in the following years. The 
 
WILLIAM PENN 53 
 
 Assembly would not vote money for warlike measures di- 
 rectly. Once they extracted a promise from the Governor 
 that " it should not be dipt in blood." Once they sent word 
 to the King that they would obey his commands " as far as 
 our religious persuasions shall permit." Once again they 
 said, " Though we can not for conscience sake comply . . . 
 yet in point of gratitude of the Queen for her great and 
 many favors to us we have resolved to raise a present of 
 500 pounds." 
 
 The usual preamble to a money bill became at a later 
 date " As many of the people of the province are of the 
 people called Quakers who though they do not as the world 
 is now circumstanced condemn the use of arms in others yet 
 are principled against it themselves, etc." This position, 
 that fighting is right for those who thought so and wrong 
 for others, may do for the determination of personal duty, 
 but if they believed that right things were good for the state 
 can hardly be defended. As legislators for the province 
 every deviation from strict rectitude, as they understood it, 
 was in the interests of bad government which they were 
 bound to discourage. It must be admitted however that 
 these early Pennsylvanians were traveling over unknown 
 and difficult ground. It was the first attempt to govern a 
 country on principles of absolute right. They succeeded 
 for 70 years with great success by a reasonably close ad- 
 herence to principle. Each slight compromise they hoped 
 would be the last. When the line of manifest infidelity was 
 passed they resigned rather than make the further sacrifice 
 of principle. 
 
 Liberty and Peace were the two great ideals committed 
 to them. The one has triumphed and become a national, as 
 soon it will be a world ideal. Peace is delayed but it too 
 will be triumphant and it will be recognized that the pioneer 
 work was done in the province of William Penn. 
 
54 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Bancroft sums up the attempt of William Penn: " Thus 
 did Penn perfect his government. An executive dependent 
 for its support on the people; all subordinate elective offi- 
 cers elected by the people; the judiciary dependent for its 
 existence on the people; all legislation originating exclu- 
 sively with the people; no forts, no armed force, no militia; 
 no established church ; no differences of rank ; and a harbor 
 opened for the reception of all mankind of every nation, of 
 children of every language and every creed: — could it be 
 that the invisible power of reason would be able to order 
 and restrain, to punish crime and to protect property," 
 
 One can imagine with what boundless enthusiasm, with 
 these ideals struggling into action, William Penn in October, 
 1682, sailed up the Delaware in The Welcome, surveyed his 
 noble province spread out before him and consecrated him- 
 self to his life work. In the bloom of manhood, having 
 already done great things, he must have felt that the great- 
 est were yet to come. The problem was still to be solved, 
 hidden rocks might wreck him, but relying on his own fer- 
 tile brain, the support of his coreligionists, and more than 
 all upon the Divine aid which he had preached and expe- 
 rienced in the past he was ready to try the Holy Experi- 
 ment. 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 
 
 The Lloyds of Dolobran in Montgomeryshire were an 
 ancient and honorable family which claimed descent from 
 the old princes of Wales. Thomas Lloyd was born Feb- 
 ruary 17th, 1640. As were also his older brothers Charles 
 and John he was educated at Jesus College, Oxford. Both 
 Charles and Thomas joined the Society of Friends and, 
 especially the former, suffered severely in person and estate 
 on account of their fidelity to its principles. 
 
 These Welsh Friends took a certain un-Quaker-like pride 
 that they were descendants of the old Britons, a proud and 
 warlike people who had never been conquered. Yet George 
 Fox with his preaching of peace and Divine communion 
 and the simplicity and sincerity of life which flowed from it 
 made a deep impression upon them. A minister of Denbigh- 
 shire heard of him and sent two of his congregation " to trie 
 the Quakers." Fox in his Journal tells the result: "When 
 these triers came down among us the power of the Lord 
 overcame them, and they were both of them convinced of 
 the truth. So they stayed some time with us and then re- 
 turned into Wales, where afterwards one of them departed 
 from his convincement, but the other, whose name was 
 John ap John, abode in the truth and received a gift in the 
 ministry to which he continued faithful." 
 
 John ap John became the apostle of Quakerism in Wales. 
 He aided in buying the Barony of William Penn, but he 
 never came to America. He died at a great age, venerated 
 as a patriarch of the flock. 
 
 Equally influential with him was Richard Davies. He 
 
 55 
 
56 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 met an itinerant preacher who had some influence with him, 
 but his Quakerism seems to have arisen almost spontan- 
 eously. The thee and the thou, the refusal to doff the hat, 
 to swear, and to make forcible resistance, the confident be- 
 lief in direct teaching as a practical guide in all matters, 
 the silent worship and the unconquerable sense of duty, 
 sprang fully developed into being. He went to London to 
 enter into business, but the need of his Welsh neighbors 
 pressed on his heart. He tells the story of his courtship, 
 preparatory to his migration: " So the Lord gave me a little 
 time, and he alone provided an help-meet for me; for I 
 prayed unto Him that she might be of His own providing, 
 for it was not yet manifest to me where she was, or who she 
 was. But one time, as I was at Horslydown meeting in 
 Southark, I heard a woman Friend open her mouth, by way 
 of testimony, against an evil ranting spirit, that did oppose 
 Friends much in those days. It came to me from the Lord, 
 that that woman was to be my wife, and to go with me to 
 the country, and to be an help-meet for me. After meeting 
 I drew somewhat near to her, but spoke nothing, nor took 
 any acquaintance with her, nor did I know when or where 
 I should see her again. I was very willing to let the Lord 
 order it as it seemed best to Himself, and therein I was 
 easy ; and in time the Lord brought us acquainted with one 
 another, and she confessed she had some sight of the same 
 thing that I had seen concerning her. So after some time we 
 parted, and I was freely resigned to the will of God; and 
 when we came together again, I told her, if the Lord did 
 order her to be my wife, she must come with me to a strange 
 country, where there were no Friends but what God in time 
 might call and gather to Himself. Upon a little considera- 
 tion she said, if the Lord should order it so, she must go with 
 her husband, though it were to the wilderness; and being 
 somewhat sensible to the workings of God upon her spirit 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 57 
 
 in this matter, she was willing to condescend in her mind to 
 what He wrought in her ; but by hearkening to one who had 
 not well weighed the matter, she became disobedient to 
 what God had revealed to her, which brought great sorrow 
 and trouble upon her. I went to see her in this poor con- 
 dition, and I rested satisfied with the will of God in this 
 concern, being freely resigned, if the Lord had wrought the 
 same thing in her, as was in me, to receive her as His gift 
 to me; and after some time, we waiting upon the Lord to- 
 gether, she arose and declared before me, and the other 
 Friend who had begot doubts and reasonings in her mind, 
 that in the name and power of God she consented to be my 
 wife, and to go along with me, whither the Lord should order 
 us; and I said, in the fear of the Lord, I receive thee as the 
 gift of God to me. So I rested satisfied with the will of 
 God, for a farther accomplishment of it." 
 
 John ap John and Richard Davies were the apostles of 
 Quakerism in Wales. Multitudes joined them and the 
 usual persecutions followed. It was only necessary to offer 
 them an oath of allegiance to insure a legal imprisonment 
 and the ministers and magistrates were in harmony in their 
 efforts to crush out the heresy. A priest offended by a fail- 
 ure to defeat Davies in argument had an oath tendered him 
 and he spent years in jail. 
 
 Charles Lloyd, the chief man of the district, was reached 
 by the power and fidelity of the Friends. Richard Davies 
 tells the story: "There came in Charles Lloyd, of 
 Dolobran, who was formerly in commission of the peace for 
 Montgomeryshire, and had been in election to be High 
 Sheriff of that county, and also several of his well-meaning 
 neighbors. 
 
 " The Lord was not wanting, but afforded unto us His 
 good presence. Life and power came from Him, that 
 reached the hearts and understandings of most of the people 
 
58 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 then present. . . . The next morning we went to visit 
 Charles Lloyd, of Dolobran, who tenderly received us, and 
 several that were at the meeting came there that day, where 
 we had a sweet, comfortable, refreshing time, in the pres- 
 ence of the Lord. . . . 
 
 " The report of this meeting went through the country, 
 some saying that most of that side of the county were 
 turned Quakers. 
 
 " Whereupon divers were sent for, before Edward, Lord 
 Herbert, Baron of Cherbury, to a place where he then lived, 
 called Llyssin, about 3 miles from Dolobran. 
 
 " After some discourse with them, Lord Herbert sent 
 them to Welshpool to prison, for refusing to take the oaths 
 of allegiance and supremacy which they refused, because 
 they could not swear at all, they being six sent together, 
 viz., Charles Lloyd, Hugh David, Richard David, Cad- 
 wallader Edwards, Ann Lawrence, and Sarah Wilson.'' 
 
 Charles Lloyd was " put into a little smoky room and did 
 lie upon a little straw," but his brother Thomas interceded 
 for him and he was allowed to hire a prison for himself 
 where the Friends went to hold meetings. This condition 
 of semi-imprisonment lasted from 1662 till, ten years later, 
 Charles II made his declaration of indulgence which opened 
 many prison doors and Charles Lloyd was able to return to 
 Dolobran. Thomas Lloyd was liberated at the same time.^ 
 
 In 1660 the Lloyd brothers had a friendly public dis- 
 cussion with the Bishop of Asaph, turning principally on the 
 necessity of water baptism. - 
 
 1 In the Journal of George Whitehead printed in 1725 we find 
 an interesting description of the efforts made to circulate this 
 declaration of indulgence so that official information could reach 
 all the prisons including certain remote districts of England and 
 Wales. 
 
 "^ The manuscript account of this discussion is now in the cus- 
 tody of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 59 
 
 It was a temperate and courteous occasion. The Bishop 
 said " He did not expect so much could be said by any on 
 so little warning and that he did not expect so much civility 
 among the Quakers." "He highly commended Thomas 
 Lloyd " who had the chief part for the Friends, but the dis- 
 cussion made no converts to either side. 
 
 The toleration of Charles IL did not last long. Sometimes 
 it was the refusal to swear, sometimes it was the wearing of 
 the hat, sometimes attendance at meetings, that was the 
 excuse, but back of it was the hope to check the preaching 
 which was depopulating the old churches and introducing 
 new customs in religion and society. There was the con- 
 tinual prospect of imprisonment, of distraint of goods, of 
 civil disabilities, of popular opprobrium awaiting the con- 
 verts. With such a home-loving people the trial must have 
 been very sore indeed to induce them to consider expatria- 
 tion. 
 
 There now opened a prospect which would rob this last 
 remedy of some of its severity. William Penn had secured 
 Pennsylvania as a haven of rest for Quakers, a New 
 Wales, where they could retain their old language and cus- 
 toms and have free course for their new religion. 
 
 So a delegation of them including John ap John, Richard 
 Davies and Charles Lloyd went up to London to see Penn. 
 They asked for a " Barony " where they might preserve all 
 that was dear to Welshmen, free from the intrusion of oth- 
 ers, free in local matters from governmental interference 
 and of course free from molestation in matters of con- 
 science. 
 
 There is unfortunately no writing to prove exactly what 
 was promised, and probably never was. Penn wrote his 
 Surveyor Thomas Holme that sufficient Welshmen were 
 coming to occupy 40,000 acres and adds, " I do charge thee 
 and strictly require thee to lay out said tract." As Hugh 
 
6o POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Roberts wrote him ten years later, " I can truly say that 
 many of us had never come here but because of the love and 
 unity and confidence we had in thee." 
 
 The tract was laid out. It began opposite Philadelphia 
 and extended westward and northward along the Schuyl- 
 kill River, the country now traversed by the main line of the 
 Pennsylvania R. R., many of whose stations still perpetu- 
 ate the Welsh names. 
 
 The stream of immigration began immediately and cer- 
 tain parts of Wales were almost depopulated. Large tracts 
 of 5000 acres were bought by the more wealthy and divided 
 among others. The whole of the 40,000 acres was not im- 
 mediately taken however and this made trouble later. But 
 within and around the original tract many Welshmen, 
 Quakers and others found homes. 
 
 The leaders of the Quaker movement in Wales however 
 did not come. They bought land for their more impecu- 
 nious brethren but their place was at home where their suf- 
 ferings were beginning to conquer the spirit of persecution. 
 They lived long enough to see the Toleration Act of Wil- 
 liam and Mary in 1691 grant them the right of affirmation 
 instead of the oath and other liberties which made them 
 reasonably secure from jailing, though many political and 
 social disabilities still remained to trouble them. 
 
 The younger son, Thomas Lloyd, cast in his lot with the 
 immigrants and became the leader not only of Welsh inter- 
 ests in Pennsylvania, but as well of the state and church in 
 the colony. Thomas Lloyd landed in Philadelphia on 6th 
 month (August) 20, 1683. He was promptly seized upon 
 both by the meeting and the state for important services. 
 
 In these early days it was difficult to separate the minis- 
 ter and the magistrate. The same men held official posi- 
 tions in church and state. The Councilmen and Assembly- 
 men were frequently preachers. The legislative meetings 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 6i 
 
 were opened by a period of silent devotion, and the re- 
 ligious meetings had to change their times of holding to 
 suit the secular courts. All the functions of the Holy Ex- 
 periment were religious and all the religious arrangements 
 needed the aid of secular wisdom. It is convenient how- 
 ever in the narrative to separate the activities of Thomas 
 Lloyd. In each case his strong qualities of leadership, and 
 perhaps also some deference paid to rank when that rank 
 won respect by the personality of the man, gave him imme- 
 diate preeminence. No one could dispute this, except dur- 
 ing that short time of about a year when the proprietor 
 worked by his side. The Quaker would not remove his hat 
 in the presence of priest or magistrate, protector or king, 
 but he had to recognize ability and learning, and the qual- 
 ities which gentle nurture and college training necessarily 
 produced. 
 
 The first record we have of a meeting appointment was 
 about two months after his arrival when he was made a 
 member of a committee to repair the meeting house. Im- 
 mediately following this he was appointed on another whose 
 miscellaneous duties were to care for the poor, renovate the 
 property, encourage Friends to attend meeting and raise 
 money for general purposes. Then followed all sorts of 
 duties, to write epistles to England, to adjust quarrels 
 among citizens, to sign certificates of membership when a 
 ship was about to sail for England. In practically every 
 case his name was first mentioned on the committees, which 
 either meant chairmanship or a recognition of superior 
 fitness. 
 
 His most serious service as well as the most harassing 
 for a sensitive man, for it meant the breaking of intimate 
 friendships, was in connection with George Keith. The 
 two scholars had been associated on many important labors 
 in the church, and now they were to be the leaders in oppos- 
 
62 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ing parties which shook Philadelphia Quakerism to its 
 depths. Personalities were used unsparingly, at least on 
 one side, and the matter was fought out to its bitter ter- 
 mination. 
 
 George Keith was born in Scotland about 1638 and edu- 
 cated as a Presbyterian. He studied at the University of 
 Aberdeen, and received the degree of Master of Arts from 
 that institution. Bishop Burnet says that he "was the most 
 learned man ever in the Quaker sect, well versed both in 
 Oriental tongues and in philosophy and mathematics." 
 About 1663 or 1664 he joined the Friends, and for twenty- 
 seven years was in favor, sharing with the other leaders of 
 the Society the full measure of writing, public discussion 
 and persecution. He had the true spirit of the early 
 Friends. He said in 1665: 
 
 "It lay upon me from the Lord to depart from these 
 teachers who could not point me to the living knowledge of 
 God where I could find it; and I came and heard men and 
 women who were taught of God who pointed me to the true 
 principle; and though some of them could not read a letter 
 yet I found them wiser than all the teachers I ever formerly 
 had been under." 
 
 Many other of his testimonies are eloquent of the great 
 peace and rapturous joy that came into his heart as the 
 result of the Quaker teaching of God's direct communion 
 with men and his own experience of it. He found "the 
 gates of the heavenly paradise" opened in himself and came 
 to have a great love for all mankind. It is unnecessary for 
 our purpose to go over the details of his early life. His 
 books and sufferings both betray the unflinching spirit of 
 the early Quaker apostle. He had his full share of impris- 
 onments and beatings, which he bore with humility. He 
 was especially effective in public discussions and vigorously 
 argued his new convictions before hostile audiences of 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 63 
 
 Presbyterian divines. In 1670 he published his "Benefit, 
 Advantage and Glory of Silent Meetings/' a most sympa- 
 thetic treatment of the subject written in Aberdeen prison. 
 ''There are immediate revelations now-a-days" is the em- 
 phatic point. In 1675 he debated in company with Robert 
 Barclay the principles of his sect before the students of 
 the University of Aberdeen. He joined with George Fox, 
 William Penn, and Robert Barclay in a visit to Germany, 
 and worked in great unity with them. In 1684 he came to 
 New Jersey where as surveyor he laid out the division line 
 between East and West Jersey. In 1689, at the opening 
 of the Friends' Public School, he was made headmaster, but 
 gave it up in a year, finding that his abilities needed freer 
 scope than in a school of young boys. Up to this time no 
 serious ripple of discontent with Friends or of Friends with 
 him seems to have appeared. 
 
 There now began to come out in his sermons and dis- 
 courses certain doctrinal views, which were looked upon 
 with suspicion by many Friends and received with enthusi- 
 asm by others. He charged that Friends had in their 
 preaching of the inward Christ neglected the outward. He 
 asserted that ministers declared that they could be saved 
 by the Christ within them "without anything else," and 
 hence that they undervalued the historic Christ and the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 These doctrinal questions were mingled with others of a 
 more practical nature. He charged a general slackness in 
 the administration of the Discipline. The magistrates were 
 often ministers, and in their civil functions would arrest 
 offenders by force but without loss of life or limb. This 
 Keith declared to be inconsistent with the profession of non- 
 resistance of evil. 
 
 In these early days the civil and ecclesiastical powers 
 were so closely united in practice, if not in theory, that it 
 
64 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 was difficult to distinguish them, and disputes in one court 
 were easily transferred to another. 
 
 There were doubtless, owing to the emphasis Friends 
 placed on inspiration as the sole endowment for the minis- 
 try, a number of crude and narrow preachers among them. 
 The doctrine of direct divine leading unto all truth was so 
 simple and had such sanction from the leaders of the So- 
 ciety that it is not surprising that it constituted for many 
 the one staple subject of discourse. A scholar like George 
 Keith, whether in general harmony with them or not, could 
 not fail to see the lack of perspective and breadth of such 
 men. That there was no ground for his doctrinal charges 
 would be difficult to maintain. That Friends denied the 
 offices and failed to recognize the divinity of the Christ of 
 Judea was in answer to his challenge emphatically contra- 
 dicted by official assertions both in Pennsylvania and Lon- 
 don. The Friends across the water sent a special message 
 urging a full acceptance of the biblical account of Christ, 
 while not weakening in the least in their belief that the light 
 of Christ reached all men whether they had this account or 
 not. The leading Philadelphians issued another paper de- 
 fining their position in full in the same strain. It was urged 
 upon Keith that the doctrinal shortcomings of individuals 
 should not be used against the Society. It was also urged 
 that for a score of years while the same conditions existed 
 he had been a strong defender of its teachings. 
 
 It was quite as much the spirit as the doctrine of George 
 Keith to which the Friends objected. He loved contro- 
 versy, and in the days when he was in favor used the se- 
 vere language of his time against the opponents of Quaker- 
 ism. His open arguments with Cotton Mather and other 
 New England divines left but little to choose between them 
 as to the courtesies of debate. But to call the leaders of the 
 Yearly Meeting by opprobrious names, to get excited and 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 65 
 
 angry in discussion, and to make statements which he had 
 to retract, were evidences of "brittleness" of temper, accord- 
 ing to his opponents, which were inconsistent with a claim 
 to spiritual guidance. He was evidently hot-tempered and 
 pugnacious. He called Thomas Lloyd, then Deputy-Gov- 
 ernor, and a man of amiable disposition and excellent abil- 
 ities and education, " an impudent man and a pitiful 
 governor," challenged Lloyd to send him to jail, and said 
 that '' his back had long itched to be whipped." A magis- 
 trate he called " an impudent rascal," and a meeting of min- 
 isters he said were " come together to cloak heresies and 
 deceit, and that there were more damnable heresies and 
 doctrines of devils among the Quakers than among any 
 profession of Protestants." 
 
 It was an age of rough controversy. His opponents did 
 not spare him. Possibly they better controlled their tem- 
 per in debate, but in the title-page to one of their works 
 written in cold blood a little later the author speaks of 
 
 "... the apostate convicted ... in which his apostacy 
 from the Truth and enmity against it is manifested, his 
 Deceit Hvpocricie and manifold prevarications are dis- 
 covered, his false Quotations Lyes and Forgeries out of the 
 Quakers Books are detected, etc." 
 
 and even the courteous Thomas Story calls him "that 
 contentious apostate from the Truth of God once made 
 known to him." 
 
 Matters could not abide in this state. Keith had com- 
 plained to the Ministers' Meeting against William Stock- 
 dale, charging him with saying that Keith had preached two 
 Christs. Stockdale denied the charge, and in reply said 
 that Keith had called him " an ignorant heathen." The 
 meeting blamed them both and tried to make peace. But 
 it was too late. Thomas Lloyd and twenty-seven other 
 ministers issued a temperate epistle presenting the troubles 
 
66 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 they had with Keith, earnestly appealing to him to be rec- 
 onciled and to lay down the separate meeting which he was 
 then engaged in setting up, and repudiating him as an au- 
 thorized minister among Friends. 
 
 The ministry and the magistracy were so associated that 
 Keith in one of his pamphlets laid himself open to the 
 charge of sedition and disturbance of the peace by reviling 
 Samuel Jenings, who was as an ecclesiastic strongly opposed 
 to Keith, and as a judge and magistrate the author of certain 
 acts against privateers which Keith bitterly attacked. The 
 Grand Jury brought in a true bill, and Keith and a friend 
 were fined five pounds each, which fine was never collected. 
 The Justices imposing this fine were all Friends and among 
 Keith's strongest antagonists. They said in an explanation 
 to the public that they would endure all personal reflections 
 and attacks upon their religious body in quiet, but the 
 pamphlets tended to revile state officials and incited to 
 oppose the administration of justice. 
 
 These trials bring out the prominence of ministering 
 Friends in civil positions, a prominence to which Keith and 
 his friends with some justice objected, but which naturally 
 resulted from the Friendly conception of the absence of any 
 definite line of distinction between the preachers as a class, 
 and the other spiritual members of the body. 
 
 " The Meeting of Ministering Friends " and in Seventh 
 Month (September) 1692 the Yearly meeting itself were the 
 ecclesiastical courts into whose hands George Keith now 
 fell. The latter body after a careful investigation de- 
 clared: 
 
 " We find it our duty to join with our brethren in their 
 testimony against that spirit of reviling, railing, lying, 
 slandering, and falsely accusing which hath risen and acted 
 notoriously in George Keith and his adherents which hath 
 led them into a mischievous and hurtful separation." 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 67 
 
 This paper is signed by over 200 Friends beginning with 
 Thomas Lloyd, including Pastorius and nearly all those 
 prominent in church and state. 
 
 Keith now became an avowed leader of a new sect, 
 gathered out of the large body of Friends. He set up 
 meetings in Philadelphia, Burlington, and Bucks County. 
 His eloquence, learning, and previous high standing brought 
 many to his ranks. The denial of the outward Christ was 
 his main subject of attack. In these days he had among 
 other public controversies one with James Dickinson, an 
 English minister, in which, according to the account of 
 Dickinson's companion, he was vanquished " and went away 
 in great wrath." Such discussions and voluminous writ- 
 ings fanned the separating spirit. 
 
 It was said many times that Keith's doctrinal attacks 
 upon the main body of Friends could be all answered by his 
 own earlier writings, and after examining these one is in- 
 clined to think the statement true. He had often pleaded 
 the sufficiency of the Divine Light to lead into doctrinal 
 truth, into correct living, into right public preaching and 
 praying; and it is impossible to note any difference between 
 his views and those of his friend and fellow-worker and 
 sufferer, Robert Barclay. The charges he now made 
 against the Philadelphia Friends seemed to indicate a 
 change in himself. The main one, that Friends considered 
 the Light within sufficient, " without something else," was 
 one to which his own early statements made him quite as 
 fairly liable to attack as his opponents. But they both 
 asserted in positive terms the ordinary orthodox position 
 as to the outward Christ and the Scriptures. It seems 
 impossible to reconcile the Keith of 1670 with the Keith of 
 1691 and later. Of course he had a perfect right to change 
 his position as to these matters, but he never fairly ad- 
 mitted the change. 
 
68 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 In a public discussion Thomas Lloyd had said that one 
 might be saved without the outer revelation of Christ if he 
 had had no opportunity to know it. But Keith said that 
 this was impossible, and that if such were Lloyd's views 
 " he could not own him as a Christian brother, though he 
 might be a devout heathen," This is hardly compatible 
 with his earlier statement, " God himself ... is objectively 
 manifest so that he can be heard, seen, tasted, and felt if 
 all Scripture words were out of our present remembrance," 
 or with many other similar statements. In 1670 he had de- 
 fended Friends against Robert Gordon, who made against 
 them the same charges he was now preferring against the 
 Philadelphians. 
 
 The controversy was now carried to London by Keith 
 himself, where we may leave it with the statement that Lon- 
 don Friends including William Penn disowned his spirit, 
 and after a hot controversy he joined the Established 
 Church, was ordained a minister, and later traveled through 
 the colonies gathering recruits among his own followers and 
 others into the fold. 
 
 His " Keithian Quakers " in Pennsylvania formed an op- 
 position body, separate from the main organization of 
 Friends, and always opposing their political leadership. 
 The latter days of Thomas Lloyd were embittered by their 
 attacks, but this only seemed to increase the loyalty of his 
 friends. The Keithian party soon dwindled and disap- 
 peared but smouldering feelings of hostility did not entirely 
 vanish for a decade or more. 
 
 Thomas Lloyd entered the lists unwillingly and only 
 when he saw that no other authority but his could stay the 
 tide. Hugh Roberts, a friend of William Penn,^ writing 
 presumably in 1694, tells the story with deep feeling but 
 
 1 Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. 18, p. 205. 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 69 
 
 evident fairness and his testimony is supported by all we 
 know of the matter. 
 
 " my dear frd there another thing yt trubles me very 
 much yt is in one of ye two epistles yt cam from ye two 
 weekes meeting in London, if I doenot mistake they writ as 
 if ye difrence or falling out was between ye two scolars and 
 all ye rest but parties of both sides, if you judge so I tell 
 thee you judge hard of all, and you are in a great mistake 
 for I know to the contrary for Tho. LI: was not concernd 
 a long time after he broke out and I know he did endevour 
 a prswayd both frds and to gain upon him as much as 
 any man amongst us, and for a long tim ye difrence did not 
 at all apear between Tho LI and he, but at last when he 
 could not be pervaild upon but he rund frds down at straint 
 rate becaus they refused to subscribe his creed with many 
 other things of his (illegible) which frds could not joyn 
 withall, it is true Tho. LI. was forcd to apear, but as soon 
 as he apeard though very meeke Loving and tender he 
 began to be mor eger at him than any, for he thought if he 
 could but run him down he could deal well inufe with the 
 rest, and after this it is true Tho was forced to stand in ye 
 front, being beter quarif (torn) amongst us, this I do be- 
 lieve yt ther is not a man amongst us yt can truley lay to 
 his charg not as much as a hasty word or unsavry word in 
 all ye discours yt he had with him from first to Last but 
 always cald him his ffrd G. K. but I have heard many 
 a time G K abusing him calling him a poe a hyppocrit 
 an impudent man with abundance of such unsavrey ex- 
 pressions." 
 
 The controversy was certainly something more, as Hugh 
 Roberts indicated, than a theological contest between two 
 scholars equally virulent and ambitious for leadership. 
 
 On the same boat with Lloyd came Francis Daniel Pas- 
 torius, the pioneer of the great German emigration to Penn- 
 sylvania. Pastorius could not then speak English, nor 
 Lloyd German but he had been educated at Oxford and 
 so had the continental pronunciation of Latin. 
 
70 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 "Alone with him I could in Latin then commune, 
 Which tongue he did pronounce right in our German way." 
 
 For William Penn Pastorius had an unbounded admira- 
 tion which he expressed in many ways. " My pen/' he 
 says, " is too weak to express the lofty virtues of this Chris- 
 tian, for such he is indeed." This esteem lasted through all 
 their difficulties about the assignment of land and through 
 Penn's troubles in England. The proprietor cordially re- 
 turned the appreciation. When in the country he regularly 
 met Pastorius in a social way, and in reply to his father in 
 Germany gave a most affectionate tribute in Latin to the 
 virtue of the distinguished son. Pastorius could not re- 
 sist the temptation to drop into verse at every suitable 
 opportunity and when Penn reached his colony a second 
 time in 1699 he was met by a long and most appreciative 
 metrical welcome. 
 
 But scarcely second to Penn, Pastorius loved Thomas 
 Lloyd. The two scholars had common knowledge, common 
 mystical ideas, and common interests in the colony. They 
 were both strongly opposed to George Keith and worked 
 side by side in many church affairs. In fact Pastorius 
 tells 
 
 " We never disagreed nor were at variance 
 
 Because God's sacred Truth (whereat we both did aim) 
 
 To his endeared friends is every where the same. 
 
 Therefore 'twas he that made my passage short at sea, 
 
 'Twas he and William Penn that caused me to stay 
 
 In this then uncouth land and howling wilderness 
 
 Wherein I saw that I but little should possess. 
 
 And if I would return to my father's house 
 
 Perhaps great riches and preferments might espouse." 
 
 Whittier tells us 
 
 " With lettered Lloyd on pleasant morns he strayed 
 Where Sommerhausen over vales of shade 
 Looked miles away, by every flower delayed, 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 71 
 
 Or song of bird, happy and free with one 
 Who loved like him to let his memory run 
 Over old fields of learning and to sun 
 
 Himself in Plato's wise philosophies 
 And dream with Philo over mysteries 
 Whereof the dreamer never finds the keys." 
 
 Pastorius' sympathy with Lloyd extended to his daugh- 
 ters, whose acquaintance he also made on the boat, and 
 long after when they were wives and mothers he wrote them 
 a long poem, from which the preceding extracts are taken, 
 ending with lines: 
 
 " Thus I am finishing my homely lines and crave 
 Dear shipmates, your excuse that I so boldly have 
 With doggrels troubled you. Farewell, remembering me 
 Who am your loving and affectionate F. D. P." 
 
 At the risk of forgetting that this is a biography of Lloyd 
 rather than of Pastorius it is interesting to note the rela- 
 tion of the German scholar to other Friends, while he 
 served as teacher in the Friends Public School. 
 
 On 10 mo. 31st, 1697 Samuel Carpenter and James Fox 
 were authorized by the Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia 
 " to treat with Daniel Pastorius and Thomas Makins " and 
 a month later they are authorized to engage them at forty 
 pounds each yearly. The school was to open on the first of 
 first month (March), 1698 "over the meeting house." 
 There Pastorius remained two years. Phineas Pemberton 
 was then clerk of the Yearly Meeting and an important 
 patron of the school. He writes Pastorius shortly after the 
 school opened apologizing for the lateness of " My little 
 girles " in reaching school on account of illness at home, 
 to which Pastorius replies in a courteous letter. Phineas' 
 son Israel did not however fare so well. Two months later 
 the boy makes this record: 
 
72 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 "About the 10th day of the 4th month 1698 Francis 
 Daniel Pastorius a German one of the school masters at 
 Philadelphia, took occation (upon a small difference that 
 did arise between me and another scholar) to beate me very 
 much with a thick stick upon my head untill the blood came 
 out and also on my arms untill the blood started through 
 the skin, and both were so swelled that the swelling was to 
 be seen so that it caused my clothes to stand out and the 
 flesh was bruised that it turned black and yellow and green. 
 My father coming to town on the 13th day of the 5th month 
 and my sister acquainting him how I had been used took me 
 away from the school . . . and sent me into the country 
 from which I writ the following epistles." 
 
 One of " the following epistles " was written to the other 
 master, Thomas Makin, and was a warm expression of lik- 
 ing for him and a different feeling for " another " who al- 
 ways gave him " rough answers." 
 
 Thomas Makin naturally felt that the withdrawal would 
 affect the reputation of the school and wrote the father 
 that he would give Israel studies under other masters than 
 Pastorius and the appeal seems to have been successful. 
 
 The German schoolmaster was evidently choleric and 
 thoroughly believed in the rod. We may if we choose 
 reconcile this with his conduct as a magistrate as given in 
 the Pennsylvania Pilgrim. 
 
 " Whatever legal maze he wandered through, 
 He kept tl\e Sermon on the Mount in view, 
 And justice always into mercy grew. 
 
 No whipping post he needed, stocks nor jail. 
 Nor ducking stool ; the orchard thief grew pale 
 At the rebuke, the vixen ceased to rail." 
 
 But schoolboys needed other discipline than common cul- 
 prits, or perhaps Whittier had not read these Pemberton 
 letters.^ 
 
 \Now in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 73 
 
 The Yearly Meeting directed that Pastorius " Primmer " 
 should be printed at the expense of Friends. Only one copy 
 of this book, at Birmingliam, England, is known to be in 
 existence. 
 
 Thomas Lloyd's services were demanded by the state 
 with equal promptitude after his landing. On the 25th 
 day of the 8 mo. 1683 he was made foreman of a Grand 
 Jury in a case of counterfeit money. Two months later he 
 was made " Master of the Rolls," and in the following 
 spring a member of the Governor's Council. 
 
 The legislative body was at this time composed of Coun- 
 cil and Assembly. The Council originated all laws which 
 to be valid must be confirmed by the elective Assembly. It 
 was also the executive body of the colony and hence was 
 clothed with great powers. The right to originate laws was 
 soon taken from it by the growth of the democratic senti- 
 ment in the province and after 1701 it was completely shorn 
 of legislative power, and became simply an advisory board, 
 appointed by the Governor. A seat in it was however 
 always an honor, and the list of provincial councillors con- 
 tains the names of nearly all the prominent men of the col- 
 ony. 
 
 After William Penn's return to England in 1684, Thomas 
 Lloyd was made President of the Council, and hence the 
 chief officer of the province till 1688. In February of this 
 year Penn appointed five Councilmen as his Deputy: 
 Thomas Lloyd, Robert Turner, Arthur Cook, John Sym- 
 cock and John Eckley. This arrangement lasted till 
 December 1688 when as Lloyd had refused further service 
 Captain John Blackwcll, an old Cromwellian soldier, not a 
 Friend, reached Philadelphia under appointment of William 
 Penn to act as Deputy-Governor, and then trouble began. 
 
 Lloyd had also been made keeper of the Broad Seal, 
 
74 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 without the imprint of which no act of the government 
 would be valid. Not approving of certain commissions he 
 refused to affix it to them and in this position he was sus- 
 tained by a minority of the Council. It is impossible not 
 to see the sectarian lines which were gradually being drawn, 
 the Friends of prominence generally siding with Lloyd. The 
 minutes of the Council declared that Lloyd's friends had 
 " an inordinate affection " for him. When John Symcock 
 at the next meeting objected to the adjective the Governor 
 insisted that it stand on the records. A Councillor lament- 
 ing their inability to do business declared that they had two 
 Governors, one inside the Council and one (Thomas Lloyd) 
 outside. 
 
 Lloyd had been returned as a member from Bucks 
 County, but having committed certain stretches of author- 
 ity of doubtful legality, he was charged by the Governor 
 with high crimes and misdemeanors and his right to a seat 
 refused pending the trial. Another elected member, Sam- 
 uel Richardson, was also refused for having spoken slight- 
 ingly of the Governor, though he made the vigorous 
 remonstrance, " I will not withdraw. I was not brought 
 hither by thee and I will not go out by thy order. I was 
 sent by the people and thou hast no power to put me out." 
 John Eckley was also denied the right to sit for reasons 
 which will appear later. Other of the members objected 
 to these acts of arbitrary power, and the sessions of the 
 Council were taken up by frequent disputes as to their pro- 
 priety, and but little real business was transacted. 
 
 The Welsh Tract was one of the subjects of difficulty. 
 It had been supposed to be all in Philadelphia County. 
 But in 1688 Caleb Pusey and certain other reputable citi- 
 zens of Chester County made a request that part of it should 
 be transferred to that County because their numbers were 
 small and the charges of maintenance burdensome. This 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 75 
 
 request was fortified by depositions that William Penn had 
 stated that such a division should be made, and by some 
 maps which supported it. Lloyd, though denied member- 
 ship in the Council, was allowed to appear on behalf of 
 his countrymen, but all he could do was to ask for more 
 time to carry the matter to England that the justice of the 
 measure might be more fully considered. Blackwell had 
 with him the majoritj'' of the Council and the minority were 
 willing to concede the reasonableness in a general way of 
 the proposition. The act was passed and Merion was 
 placed on one side of the line and Haverford and Radnor 
 on the other, and so they have remained to this day. 
 
 The Welsh felt deeply aggrieved. Their Barony, al- 
 ready shorn of certain powers which they expected to retain, 
 was now divided between two counties. At first they re- 
 fused to abide by the decision and the men from Haverford 
 and Radnor joined with the Merion voters in sending John 
 Eckley to the Council, but as already stated he was refused 
 admission. 
 
 The future history of the Welsh Tract is interesting. One 
 can not but sympathize with the gradual fading away of 
 the hopes for an old Wales in the new country. 
 
 They had not taken up their whole tract, and in 1690 
 men of other nationalities came in with claims. The 
 settlers made an eloquent appeal: " We, the Inhabitants of 
 the Welsh Tract in the Province of Pennsylvania in Amer- 
 ica, being descended of the ancient Britons, who always in 
 the Land of our Nativity, under the Crown of England, 
 have enjoyed that Liberty and privilege as to have our 
 bounds and limits by ourselves within which all causes, 
 quarrels, crimes, and titles were tryed, and wholly deter- 
 mined by oflBcers, magistrates, and jurors of our own 
 language, which were our equals; having our faces towards 
 these counties, made motion to our Governor, that we might 
 
76 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 enjoy the same here, — to the Intent we might live together 
 here, and enjoy our liberty and Devotion; which thing was 
 soon granted us before we came into these parts." 
 
 It was decided that if the Welshmen would pay all quit- 
 rents since 1684 they might preserve their tract intact. 
 They refused the proposition, but expressed a willingness 
 to be responsible for the whole 40,000 acres in future. This 
 was declined. When it was too late they reconsidered the 
 matter and agreed to accept the conditions. But the com- 
 missions to others had already been executed. Their polit- 
 ical integrity had been broken, and now their social com- 
 radeship was threatened. The Barony was about to pass 
 away, but the " Great Welsh Tract " became a well marked 
 section of the province, leading in enterprise and prosperity, 
 up to the time of the Revolution. 
 
 The Friends' meetings were more considerate of Welsh 
 sentiment than the state authorities. The Quarterly Meet- 
 ing of Chester, in 1700, sent word to the Haverford Friends 
 that as they were in their county they should be joined to 
 their meeting. But Haverford protested, and the Phila- 
 delphia Meeting strongly supported them: " Whereas Hav- 
 erford Meeting hath belonged to this Quarterly Meeting 
 from the first settlement and for several other reasons this 
 meeting unanimously desire that the Monthly Meeting at 
 Haverford may not be separated from this our Quarterly 
 Meeting "; and so it has remained to this day. 
 
 The separateness of the Welsh settlers now rapidly de- 
 parted. Business, marriages, politics drew them into close 
 association with the English, and while their brethren in 
 the old country retained their language, the new country 
 Welshmen, who had so pathetically appealed for national 
 peculiarity, had before the Revolution lost it all. 
 
 While Lloyd had failed in the matter of the Welsh set- 
 tlement he had proved a strong political antagonist. After 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 77 
 
 his death Haverford Monthly Meeting spoke of " his meek 
 and lamb-like spirit, great patience, temperance and humil- 
 ity and slowness to wrath." William Markham however, 
 who took sides with Blackwell and kept the minutes of the 
 Council, gives a little insight into the turbulent politics of 
 the time. 
 
 " The Govr declared ye Council to be adjourned till ye 
 next council day, viz: to ye fifth day of ye same week, at 
 nine of ye Clock, at ye same place ; and Rose up out of his 
 place to depart accordingly; upon wch severall of ye mem- 
 bers of ye Councill departed. But divers remayned and a 
 great deale of confused noise and clamor was Expressed at 
 and without the doore of ye Govrs roome, where ye Councill 
 had sate, wch occasioned persons (passing by in the streets) 
 to stand still to heare, which ye Govr observing, desired ye 
 sayd The Lloyd would forbeare such lowd talking, telling 
 him he must not suffer such doings, but would take a Course 
 to Suppress it, and shutt ye Doore. So he went away, 
 attended with severall of ye members of ye Councill, others 
 staying behind with ye Governor." 
 
 Other scenes were equally boisterous. One can not but 
 feel as he reads the personnel of those who voted against 
 Lloyd in the Council that the political differences of the 
 Blackwell era had something to do with the Keith con- 
 troversy which followed. 
 
 Penn tried to make peace. On 7 mo. 25th 1689 he wrote 
 to Blackwell, " I would be as little vigorous as possible, and 
 do desire thee by all the obligations I and my present cir- 
 cumstances can have upon thee to desist the prosecution of 
 T. L. I entirely know the person both in his weakness 
 and accomplishment & would ye end the dispute between 
 you two upon my single request and command and that 
 former inconveniences be rather mended than punished. 
 Salute me to the people in general & pray send for J. 
 Simcock, A. Cook, John Eckley and Samuel Carpenter & 
 
78 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 let them dispose T. L. and Sa Richardson to that comply- 
 ing temper that may tend to that loving and serious accord 
 yt becomes such a government." 
 
 But Penn from England finally recalled Blackwell. In 
 his farewell address the Deputy used words the sincerity of 
 which we can hardly doubt. " 'Tis a good day. I have given 
 and I do unfeignedly give God thanks for it, for to say no 
 worse I was very unequally yoked." He was probably an 
 honest but tactless man who did not understand the Quaker 
 character, and pugnaciously attempted to override it. 
 Thomas Lloyd had undoubtedly proven an " unequal " yoke 
 fellow. 
 
 Penn now made two propositions: One was to have three 
 names sent to him by vote of the Council, one of whom he 
 would appoint as Deputy-Governor. The other was to al- 
 low the Council itself to be Deputy-Governor and elect its 
 own President. The Council unanimously chose the latter 
 and elected Thomas Lloyd President. In this form the 
 arrangement continued till 1693, when Penn was deprived 
 of his government by the King, and the province placed in 
 the hands of Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York. 
 This period of about four years from 1689 to 1693 was quiet 
 and uneventful, as shown in the Colonial Records though 
 there is a gap of over two years in the minutes. The politi- 
 cal peace speaks for the wisdom of Lloyd's administration 
 and its general acceptance by the province. 
 
 When Fletcher came on April 26, 1693 his first act was 
 the following: " His excellency having sent for Thomas 
 Lloyd, the late Deputy-Governor did offer unto him the 
 first place in the Council which he did refuse." This ex- 
 ample was followed by other Friends. 
 
 When early in 1695 the province was restored to William 
 Penn as Proprietor and Governor, Thomas Lloyd was no 
 more. He died at the age of 54. 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 79 
 
 For a man of quiet instincts his life had been a troubled 
 one. Persecuted in Wales, he sought the peace of a Quaker 
 province. Immediately he was thrown into the distractions 
 of a government of non-experts, jealous of their liberties, 
 suspicious of every move that threatened to curtail them, 
 uncertain of their powers and crude in their methods. He 
 could suffer passively in Wales under unjust laws and their 
 unkindly enforcement. But he could not see lost the lib- 
 erties which William Penn and his friends had purchased 
 in Pennsylvania, when the responsibility for their defense 
 rested partly upon him. By common consent the strongest 
 man in the province, positions of influence were almost 
 forced upon him. He resisted when he could. William 
 Penn writes in 1687, " I am sorry that Thomas Lloyd, my 
 esteemed friend, covets a quietus, that is young and active 
 and ingenious, for from such it is that I expect help, and such 
 will not sow, I hope, in vain." And the next year he urges 
 him " By all that is reverent, tender and friendly I beseech 
 thy care, condescension and help for that poor province." 
 Lloyd lived in the province about eleven years during seven 
 of which he was at the head of the government. 
 
 Such appeals could not be denied, and so he fought 
 through the Blackwell regime and the Keith controversy as 
 best he could, keeping the esteem of the best men of the 
 province, but suffering, no one knows how much, from the 
 bitter attacks upon him. Lover of peace as he was there 
 is no evidence that he allowed these attacks to divert him 
 from his path of duty. Scholar and mystic by temperament 
 and training, he became a politician by force of circum- 
 stances. In happier times his religion and his learning 
 would have been his cherished objects, but his province and 
 his sect owe to him a debt in that he sacrificed fortune and 
 the life of lettered ease and spiritual quiet to the stern de- 
 mands of political and ecclesiastical battle. 
 
80 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 His loving Welsh friends of Haverford Monthly Meeting 
 leave this memorial of him. 
 
 " The love of God, and the regard we have to the blessed 
 truth, constrains us to give forth this testimony concerning 
 our dear friend Thomas Lloyd, many of us having had long 
 acquaintance with him both in Wales, where he formerly 
 lived, and also in Pennsylvania, where he finished his 
 course, and laid down his head in peace with the Lord, and 
 is at rest and joy with Him for evermore. He was by birth 
 of them who are called the gentry, his father being a man of 
 a considerable estate, and of great esteem in his time, of an 
 antient house and estate called Dolobran, in Montgomery- 
 shire in Wales, He was brought up at the most noted 
 schools, and from thence went to one of the Universities, 
 and because of his superior natural and acquired parts, 
 many of account in the world had an eye of regard towards 
 him. Being offered degrees and places of preferments, he 
 refused them all; the Lord beginning his work in him, and 
 causing a measure of his light to shine out of darkness in 
 his heart, which gave him a sight of the vain forms, customs, 
 and traditions of the schools and colleges. And hearing of 
 a poor despised people called Quakers, he went to hear 
 them, and the Lord's power reached unto him, and came 
 over him to the humbling and bowing his heart and spirit; 
 so that he was convinced of God's everlasting truth, and re- 
 ceived it in the love of it, and was made willing, like meek 
 Moses, to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people 
 of the Lord, than the honours, preferments, and riches of 
 this world. The earthly wisdom came to be of no reputa- 
 tion with him, but he became a fool, both to it and his for- 
 mer associates; and through self-denial and taking up the 
 daily cross of Christ Jesus, which crucified his natural will, 
 affections, pleasures, he came to be a scholar in Christ's 
 school, and to learn the true wisdom which is from above. 
 
 "Thus, he departing from the vanities and iniquities of 
 the world, and following the leadings, guidance, and in- 
 structions of the divine light, grace, and spirit of Christ, 
 came more and more to have an understanding in the mys- 
 teries of God's kingdom, and was made an able minister of 
 the everlasting gospel of peace and salvation, his acquired 
 parts being sanctified to the service of truth. 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 8l 
 
 " His sound and effectual ministry, his godly conversa- 
 tion, meek and lamb-like spirit, great patience, temperance, 
 and humility, and slowness to wrath; his love to the 
 brethren, his godly care in the Church of Christ that all 
 things might be kept sweet, savoury, and in good order; his 
 helping hand to the weak, and gentle admonitions, we are 
 fully satisfied have a seal and witness in the hearts of all 
 faithful Friends who knew him, both in the land of his 
 nativity and in these American parts. We may, in truth, 
 say he sought not himself, nor the riches of this world, but 
 his eye was to that which is everlasting, being given up to 
 spend and be spent for the truth and the sake of Friends. 
 ... He was taken with a malignant fever the 5th of the 
 7th month, 1694. and though his bodily pain was great he 
 bore it with much patience. Not long before his departure 
 some friends being with him he said, ' Friends, I love you 
 all, I am going from you, and I die in unity and love with 
 all faithful Friends. "l have fought a good fight and kept 
 the faith, which stands not in the wisdom of words but in 
 the power of God: I have sought not for strife and conten- 
 tion, but for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
 simplicity of the gospel. I lay down my head in peace, 
 and desire you all may do so. Friends, farewell.' 
 
 " On the 19th day of the 7th month aforesaid, being the 
 6th day of the sickness, it pleased the Lord to remove him 
 from the many trials, temptations, sorrows, and troubles of 
 this world, to the kingdom of everlasting joy and peace; 
 but the remembrance of his innocent life and meek spirit 
 lives with us, and his memorial i?, and will remain to be, 
 sweet and comfortable to the faithful. He was buried in 
 the Friends' burying-ground in Philadelphia, aged about 
 fifty- four years, having been several years President and 
 Deputy-Governor of Pennsylvania." 
 
 The following letter gives some insight into the conditions 
 in the colony and the character of Thomas Lloyd. 
 
 " From Thomas Lloyd to his Friends, belonging to Dol- 
 obran Quarterly-Meeting, Wales." ^ 
 
 1 The original of this letter is in the Roberts Collection of Haver- 
 ford College. 
 
82 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 " Philada. 2d of ye 9thmo 1684. 
 
 " My Dear and Well beloved Friends, 
 of, and belonging to Dolobran Q. Meeting, 
 
 '' The warm and tender salutation of My love is un- 
 feignedly to you, with whom I have convers'd and walked 
 some years, in unity, Zeal, Concord and Endeavor'd Serv- 
 ice ; you are, because of our nearness, familiar, yet Honour- 
 able, in my Thoughts and Esteem; The Truth, ' as it is in 
 Jesus,' Prosper and encrease Dayly in your minds; and rest 
 Bountifully upon your Habitations; 
 
 " It is no New Thing for you to Suffer Joyfully in your 
 Persons and Goods; — The Lord gave us strength. Cour- 
 age, Satisfaction and Honour Thereby; — Whil'st He is 
 before our eyes, & his Holy fear in our hearts. Whether 
 in Bonds or free, — in that or this Part of the world ; — our 
 Preservation we shall witness; 
 
 " Our Meetings are very full ; I guess we had no less 
 Numbers, last first-Day, than Eight Hundred, we are glad 
 to see the faces of servicable Friends here, who Come in 
 God's freedom; who are Persons of a Good Understanding 
 & Conversation; & will Discharge their Stations Reli- 
 giously; Such, Will be a Blessing to the Province; — 
 
 " The favourable Revolution of Providence hath founded 
 the Government so here. That a man is at Liberty to Serve 
 his Maker without Contempt, Discouragement, or restraint; 
 Truth indeed Makes Men Honourable, not only here, but 
 in most Places at least; But here Truth Receives Good 
 Entertainment at first; 
 
 " Our Governor is just Embarking for England, our best 
 wishes go with and attend him ; He hopes to have an opor- 
 tunity, by Testimony or Writing, to Express his Love and 
 Remembrance to ye Several Churches of Brittain; — Our 
 friends from the neighborhood are generally well, and Tol- 
 erably settled; Tho. Ellis, I. Humphrey, H. Roberts, J. 
 Eckley, D. Davis and Many more are usefull and accepted 
 among'st us ; — 
 
THOMAS LLOYD 83 
 
 " In Love I lived with you ; In Love I took my leave of 
 
 you; and in Love, I now bid you, a Christian & Brotherly 
 
 Farewell; from your friend and Brother, 
 
 Thomas Lloyd;" 
 
DAVID LLOYD 
 
 David Lloyd was born in Montgomeryshire, Wales, in 
 1656. Thomas Lloyd speaks of him in a letter as " my 
 kinsman," though the relationship was probably not near. 
 
 Comparatively little is known of his early history. In 
 some way he secured an accurate and available knowledge 
 of law. His first wife was from Gloucestershire, and it is 
 not improbable that he was educated in England. 
 
 In the seething political and religious times of the Com- 
 monwealth and later he imbibed the strong republicanism 
 with which his name and talents were afterwards so con- 
 spicuously associated. Then he joined the Society of 
 Friends, as many of the Commonwealth sympathizers did, 
 and abjured fighting with material weapons forever. His 
 pugnacity was, however, transferred to another field, and 
 when in 1686 Penn commissioned him as Attorney-General 
 of his new province he little knew what a determined op- 
 ponent he was sending over the seas. On " the 5th of ye 
 6th Mo. 1686 " he presented his commission to the Council, 
 subscribed to the necessary declarations of fidelity to the 
 King and Governor and entered upon the duties of his 
 ofiBce. From this time until his death, in 1731, he was a 
 potent factor, possibly as potent as any, considering perma- 
 nent results, in the public affairs of the province.^ 
 
 1 Macaulay in his History makes one David Lloyd an emissary 
 in attempting the restoration of James II in 1690-91. The name 
 was included with that of William Penn and a number of noblemen 
 and gentlemen in a list of supposed conspirators against William 
 and Mary. It is possible that our David Lloyd went over from 
 Pennsylvania for this purpose, though it seems improbable. Deb- 
 orah Logan, however, speaks of him as the same person. She also 
 says that he was Captam in the "Republican Army," presumably 
 
 84 
 
DAVID LLOYD 85 
 
 Two months later Patrick Robinson, who appears to have 
 been a testy and obstinate official, was discharged from his 
 position as Clerk of the Provincial Court, and David Lloyd 
 was appointed to the place. He was also made clerk or 
 deputy to the Master of the Rolls, Thomas Lloyd. 
 
 As Attorney-General there is only one important case 
 with which David Lloyd was associated that has come down 
 to us — the case in which William Bradford, the only 
 printer of Philadelphia, was charged with issuing a seditious 
 libel in connection with the George Keith controversy. 
 Lloyd represented the prosecution, and won. Bradford was 
 fined, but in the easy-going times the fine was never col- 
 lected. It is important as being the first case where the 
 seditious character of the publication, as well as the fact of 
 printing, was submitted to the jury, and was thus important 
 in establishing the freedom of the press. ^ 
 
 In the snarl that followed the appointment of Blackwell 
 as Deputy-Governor, he showed the militant disposition 
 which made his life a continual turmoil. 
 
 There came up in a meeting of the Council the question of 
 a criminal whose case had been adjudged by the court of the 
 county of Sussex, and the judgment reversed by the Provin- 
 cial Court. The copies of the records of the higher court 
 being conflicting, David Lloyd was asked to produce the 
 original. He refused, saying that the Council had no au- 
 thority to give such an order. Then, the minutes state, 
 " he was thereupon ordered to withdraw. This was judged 
 a high contempt in the said David Lloyd, and for that and 
 other . unseemingly and slighting expressions of his to the 
 Governor and Council," he was discharged from his various 
 positions. Thomas Lloyd then came to his rescue by issu- 
 
 that of Cromwell. As he was only two years old when Cromwell 
 died, she was undoubtedly mistaken. 
 1 See Pennypacker's Colonial Cases. 
 
86 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ing a commission to him re-appointing him. This Black- 
 well conceded he had a right to do as his deputy, but not as 
 clerk of the court. Blackwell was probably right, and the 
 Lloyds had to recede from their position. David Lloyd 
 finally gave up the papers in question, and ultimately re- 
 covered his standing. 
 
 In 1693 he was again brought unfavorably before the 
 Council. One Charles Butler was charged with passing 
 counterfeit coin. The jury found him guilty, and he 
 claimed that David Lloyd added to their verdict that it was 
 misprision of treason, which would cause a forfeiture of all 
 the prisoner's property. In reply Lloyd claimed that his 
 act was only a legal form. The Council concluded that it 
 was not a proper case for it to decide, but gave an opinion 
 that it did not look right to them to give so severe a pen- 
 alty for so slight an offense and that there was " a matter 
 of law in it against David Lloyd." 
 
 Another instance of a legal character may be cited to 
 illustrate his facility in making enemies by the method of 
 his proceedings. Francis Daniel Pastorius was the agent 
 of the Frankford Company which owned a large amount of 
 land in and around Germantown. He was dismissed from 
 his position without proper compensation for past services. 
 An adventurer now appeared, one Henry Sprogel, whom 
 Pastorius calls " a cunning and fraudulent fellow," who had 
 come over with the claim that he had bought in Germany 
 the rights of several of the owners, and was proceeding to 
 eject the innocent settlers by court decree. In company 
 with a colleague, he retained David Lloyd, and gave to him 
 as a fee 1,000 acres of land to which the title was doubtful. 
 Acting on Lloyd's advice, he also bought up the whole bar 
 of the province, consisting of three other lawyers, and 
 sprung the case upon the court, which decided in his favor 
 without a full hearing of the other side. 
 
DAVID LLOYD 87 
 
 The above is Pastorius's account, and in concluding it he 
 gives this verdict: — 
 
 " If David Lloyd does justify this barbarous manner of 
 proceeding and spoiling of widows and orphans, it's more 
 than any can do that professes truth, and unless he really 
 repent and endeavors to have restitution made to those who 
 so deeply suffer, he certainly will be accountable for it at 
 the great day of judgment." ^ 
 
 In other letters Pastorius is even more severe, referring 
 to him as d-11. Finally he made his complaint to Philadel- 
 phia Monthly Meeting, where David Lloyd was a member. 
 At the same time a request came from Lloyd to transfer 
 his certificate to Chester Monthly Meeting. The double 
 question was considered from month to month for six 
 months with additions to the membership of the committee. 
 Finally, on 9 month 27th 1713 the meeting minuted " How- 
 ever, it seems to the meeting to be that which is not of good 
 report and therefore desires David Lloyd that he may for- 
 bear to have anything further to do towards strengthening 
 the parties concerned therein." With this Scotch verdict 
 the matter was left. 
 
 In forming a judgment of David Lloyd from these ques- 
 tions of legal ethics it is fair to bear in mind that he has 
 placed on record no defenses of his action. He used the 
 means which as a lawyer were at his command, and which 
 many good lawyers at the present day sanction and adopt. 
 The accounts of the transactions all come from his political 
 and factional opponents. His skill and ability are abun- 
 dantly manifest by the results, while his methods would 
 doubtless be differently judged were we to hear his own 
 statements. He, apparently, both in meeting his legal and 
 political enemies, had no thought of protecting himself in 
 history. The voluminous writings of Logan and Pastorius 
 
 1 See M. D. Learned's Pastorius, p. 154. 
 
88 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 bear evidence of the opinion held of him by those whose 
 plans he had opposed. That during all his life time he had 
 an ardent political following, containing many good men, 
 and more often than not defeated the opposition, are facts 
 we know from the public records, but not from his pen. 
 
 To the political side of his life we now turn. 
 
 It was as a politician rather than as a lawyer that he will 
 ultimately be judged, and here we find most opposite views 
 of his character and influence. With some he is the great 
 champion of democracy and popular rights against the 
 encroachments of the Proprietary and his friends; with 
 others he is simply an artful demagogue, using his great 
 legal training and undoubted abilities to carry out his plans, 
 ofttimes by unscrupulous means, in the midst of a simple 
 and trustful community of country Friends, of whose prin- 
 ciples he was, or seemed to be, an ardent exponent. We 
 will try to state the facts fairly before forming a judgment. 
 
 After holding various minor offices as clerk of the courts 
 and of the Assembly, and deputy to certain officials, he was 
 in 1693, at the time of the Fletcher regime, when William 
 Penn was deprived of his government, elected to the 
 Assembly. A year later he was made Speaker. Fletcher 
 was opposed by the whole Quaker body in public life and 
 Lloyd had a united party with him. The Governor was 
 attempting to break down the Penn authority and consti- 
 tution, and as Friends had refused to sit in his Council, and 
 as this body had the sole power of originating laws, he had 
 at the start things pretty much his own way. But when 
 these laws were presented to the Assembly, without whose 
 sanction they could not be enacted, came Lloyd's chance. 
 Every piece of legislation in conflict with popular rights was 
 held up, and, after the fashion of the English Commons, 
 supplies were denied pending the Governor's surrender, 
 Lloyd was then as always very direct and open in hia 
 
DAVID LLOYD 89 
 
 statements. On one of the occasions when a committee 
 of the Assembly waited on the Governor to explain their 
 non-passage of the supply bill, and various circumlocutory 
 statements were made, David Lloyd brought the matter to 
 a head by the unmistakable announcement, " To be plain 
 with the Governor here is the Monie Bill, and the House 
 will not pass it until they know what is become of the other 
 bills sent up." 
 
 The first contest was over the validity of the charter and 
 laws granted by Penn. Fletcher claimed that they were 
 superseded by his royal commission. After some sparring, 
 the Assembly had to yield. Then an appropriation was 
 asked to defend the frontier of New York against the 
 French, with whom England w^as at war. This demand 
 struck at the anti-martial principles of Friends, and was 
 successfully resisted, or rather postponed by the Assembly. 
 The plan of delaying supplies till certain laws were granted 
 was now tried in Pennsylvania, and, as in other colonies and 
 in England, was successful in extorting one popular liberty 
 after another. 
 
 Fletcher's rule only lasted about two years, when the 
 government was restored to Penn, who made his cousin 
 Markham his Deputy. Markham tried to live up to the 
 arbitrary standard of Fletcher, but now both Council and 
 Assembly opposed him. Lloyd was now in the former body, 
 but remained the champion of democracy. One privilege 
 after another was gained, giving the Assembly as well as 
 the Council the right to originate laws, and allowing it to sit 
 on its own adjournments. All and more than Penn had 
 granted was secured. This condition lasted till 1699, when 
 Penn, with his secretary, James Logan, came into the 
 country, and David Lloyd's easy supremacy was over. 
 
 For he and Logan became bitter enemies. During Penn's 
 stay of two years this did not much show itself, but he and 
 
90 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 his friends had so indoctrinated the colony with ideas of 
 freedom that Penn, half reluctantly, was forced to give a 
 new charter, that of 1701, which lasted just seventy-five 
 years, till abrogated in the opening days of the Revolution- 
 ary War. This abolished the Council as a part of the law- 
 making power, making it only an advisory body to the Dep- 
 uty-Governor, and granted full powers to the Assembly, 
 with the Governor's assent, to pass all laws. 
 
 Hitherto Lloyd had seemed to be on good terms with 
 Penn, whose commission he had held. But when the Pro- 
 prietary sailed for England, leaving Logan his secretary 
 and agent, a controversy, both personal and political, which 
 in time became very bitter, arose between the Welshman and 
 the Irishman. Both had a sort of fearless pugnacity which 
 induced plain speaking without any avoidance of direct 
 issues. Though their state papers are couched in terms of 
 studied courtesy, there was no pains to conceal the differ- 
 ences involved between them. 
 
 Each had his party behind him. The most of the best 
 educated city Friends, who were also friends of the Pro- 
 prietary, were gathered in the ranks with the secretary. 
 The country Friends, the great bulk of the population, con- 
 cerned for their property and personal rights, followed loy- 
 ally the skilful and forceful leadership of David Lloyd. 
 
 A small third party must not be neglected, the Church- 
 men, whose leader was Robert Quarry, Judge of the Admi- 
 ralty, appointed by the Crown and independent of the Penn 
 government. This party was troublesome more because it 
 spread in England reports of inefficiency in the province, 
 due, as it claimed, to Quaker scruples as to war and oaths, 
 than as the result of its direct influence upon popular opin- 
 ion. 
 
 David Lloyd was a strong uncompromising champion of 
 Friends' views on these subjects and one of his favorite 
 
DAVID LLOYD 91 
 
 charges against the Penn and Logan party was that relief 
 ia these matters was not granted, so that Friends could have 
 their full share in government without any sacrifice of prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 That Logan did not hold the Friendly attitude as to wars 
 and self-defense is unquestionably true, and became more 
 manifest as he grew older. The Friends that surrounded 
 him, however, did, — some of them quite as strenuously 
 as did the countrymen, and perhaps with a better apprecia- 
 tion of all the factors entering into the matter. Hence on 
 occasions they would vote money " for the Queen's use " on 
 the general plea that the use the Queen made of it was, as 
 Isaac Norris expressed it, " Not our part, but hers." 
 
 Lloyd never compromised. When the Assemblies of 
 which he was the Speaker voted money, they made it a con- 
 dition that " it should not be dipt in blood," and appointed 
 trustees to hold it till they found how it was to be applied. 
 He was willing to carry non-resistance to its fullest con- 
 clusion, and abruptly closed the question and adjourned the 
 Assembly when it was found that the Deputy was not 
 inclined to accept the grant on such dubious terms. In 
 this particular he was undoubtedly supported by the great 
 body of Friends in the province. 
 
 The close identity of Friends with the government is 
 shown by two addresses passed by the House on the same 
 day (May 25th, 1704) and both signed by David Lloyd, 
 Speaker. One of these was " The Humble Address of the 
 Freemen of Pennsylvania," congratulating " Our Gracious 
 Queen Anne " on her accession. The other was " The 
 Humble Address of the People called Quakers convened in 
 Assembly," also addressed to " Our Gracious Queen Anne," 
 asking relief in the matter of oaths, which was approved 
 by the Assembly, N. C. D. The Assembly, probably all 
 Friends, adopted by the same vote and placed on its min- 
 
92 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 utes the two addresses, in one case as the Freemen of Penn- 
 sylvania and the other as the People called Quakers. 
 
 The severity of this controversy lasted from 1701, when 
 Penn left the province, to 1710, when Lloyd was completely, 
 though temporarily, unhorsed. It was a sad decade for 
 Quaker government. It is a mistake to assume, however, 
 that the difference was as pervasive in the ranks as it was 
 acrid among the leaders. The Province continued to pros- 
 per, immigrants came in, houses were built, farms were laid 
 out and woods cleared, and the foundations of many a for- 
 tune and many a happy home were laid. A generation of 
 Quaker politicians was being reared who were learning the 
 meaning of self-government and democracy. History deal- 
 ing only with men who ruled in Council and Assembly rec- 
 ords the serious contests over what seem sometimes small 
 matters, but the great body of Friends attended their quiet 
 meetings in simple harmony and satisfaction with their lot. 
 David Lloyd seems to have expected that a separation in 
 meeting might result from the political conditions, but 
 fortunately his prediction was not fulfilled. James Logan 
 speaks of him as " a discordant in the Friends' meetings for 
 business, so much so he expects a separation and purging; 
 the young push for rash measures, the old for Penn's inter- 
 ests." 
 
 One of the questions of the day was the right of the 
 Assembly to come together and adjourn at its pleasure. In 
 view of the history of England under the Stuarts, now not 
 so very far in the background, it is not a matter of wonder 
 that they were sensitive on this point. William Penn had 
 granted in his charter of 1701 the right of the popular house, 
 to be, w^ith the assent of the Governor, the whole legislative 
 body of the Province, to be elected on the 1st of October 
 every year without any call from the Governor and to sit 
 on the 14th following. The only question remaining was 
 
DAVID LLOYD 93 
 
 as to its right to adjourn to some fixed date within the year 
 of its service. 
 
 When in 1702 there was difficulty in organizing an Assem- 
 bly owing to the discordant politics of the Province and 
 Territories (Pennsylvania and Delaware) which had hith- 
 erto worked together as one Colony, but were now about sep- 
 arating, it was suggested that the Governor might adjourn 
 the meeting to a future day. Immediately David Lloyd 
 sounded the alarm. Though it was only a preliminary con- 
 ference, and not an Assembly, the account states: " David 
 Lloyd objected to the word adjourn, for tlie Charter empow- 
 ering them to sit on their own adjournments, they would 
 betray their trust should they admit of any other adjourn- 
 ment." His keen eye for the establishment of a precedent 
 which would in any degree threaten popular rights seized 
 upon this little point for protest. 
 
 The Governor did not yield the matter ostensibly, but the 
 Assembly had the habit of adjourning when it pleased, and 
 nothing could be done, so that in time the policy with which 
 we are so well acquainted in the United States became fully 
 established. 
 
 In 1709 Governor Gookin sent word to the Assembly, " I 
 expect the House shall not adjourn any longer than from 
 day to day, till the business further recommended to you 
 this morning shall be issued." Here was a direct challenge, 
 and David Lloyd, then Speaker, accepted it. With an 
 unanimous House behind him, he passed resolutions, an- 
 nouncing that they would not attend to the business recom- 
 mended, and would adjourn when it suited them, which, 
 as harvest was approaching, they immediately proceeded 
 to do. It is not giving Lloyd too much credit to say that 
 his influence largely secured to the people of Pennsylvania 
 the invaluable right of an independent legislature. 
 
 Penn was a full believer in civil liberty, as the advanced 
 
94 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 men of the times construed it, but he was an enthusiast for 
 religious liberty and equality among the sects. He placed 
 this principle in the forefront of all his constitutions, and 
 when he gave the final one in 1701 he asked that his people 
 should take the opportunity to propose any provisions 
 which would better secure their rights. The most of them 
 had not, as he had, any broad conception of the value of 
 these intangible matters, but they did want good titles to 
 their property, low taxes, good roads, and all the factors 
 which would lead to permanent material prosperity. He 
 was rather disgusted when in response to his liberal offers, 
 the House sent in a reply dealing only with some of these, 
 to him, minor matters. 
 
 His financial circumstances were such that he could not 
 give away too many of his perquisites, for the expenses of 
 government which fell upon him were in excess of his total 
 receipts. Hence, some of these matters were left unde- 
 termined and afforded grounds of difference. All might, 
 however, have been happily adjusted had he remained in 
 the country or sent a judicious deputy. But, after the 
 death of Andrew Hamilton, whom he first appointed, he 
 sent over a vigorous, but not very judicious, man in the 
 person of John Evans. 
 
 Logan and other of Penn's best friends rallied around him, 
 but Lloyd was in popular control, and for three years (1702- 
 1705) as Speaker of the Assembly, he ruled the Province 
 with a high hand, finding abundant causes to quarrel with 
 the Governor and Council and using them to the best ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 The matter culminated in a list of grievances to be sent 
 by the House to William Penn in England. This document 
 had a remarkable history, and was a source of contention 
 for years to come. 
 
 In the first place it was not addressed to Penn directly, 
 
DAVID LLOYD 95 
 
 but to certain English Friends, who were more or less in- 
 imical to him. By a strange series of accidents, the boat 
 carrying it was captured by a privateer and taken to France, 
 and the bearer made a prisoner. He disclosed his package 
 to a brother prisoner, who begged it of him, and, being a 
 friend of Penn, forwarded it to the man from whom Lloyd 
 meant to keep it till it had done its work secretly among 
 the enemies of the Proprietary. 
 
 Equally irregular was the method of its passage through 
 the House. It was brought up just at the close of a session 
 of the Assembly in August, 1704, when it was too late to 
 write it out in full and have it formally passed upon. The 
 heads were drawn up and a committee was authorized to 
 phrase them properly and forward the product — at least 
 so the minutes say; but Logan tells us, and his word is 
 supported by Isaac Norris, that the statement was seen by 
 three men only, David Lloyd, Griffith Jones and Joseph Wil- 
 cox ; that the minute giving the matter over to a committee 
 was interpolated after the adjournment, and that it was 
 signed by David Lloyd as Speaker after his term had ex- 
 pired. 
 
 Lloyd defended himself ably in a paper to the Assembly 
 in 1709 against these charges. He does not deny that the 
 papers were written but intimates that Logan got possession 
 of them by unfair means and that the interpolations were 
 sanctioned by the committee or as many of them as could 
 be procured at the time. 
 
 The heads agreed upon by the Assembly referred to cer- 
 tain charges against Penn relating to the failure to perform 
 his duty as Proprietary according to his own Charter and 
 agreements. He had instructed his Deputy to issue writs 
 for election when the House had a right to assemble accord- 
 ing to its own adjournment. He had obtained money to 
 secure the ratification of laws in England, especially those 
 
96 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 giving relief to Friends in the matter of oaths, but had not 
 accomplished the purpose. His surveyors of land had been 
 inefficient or worse. He had commissioned the Judges and 
 they were devoted to his own interests as against those of 
 the people. 
 
 The remonstrance was accompanied by a letter from 
 David Lloyd which was even more a bitter pill for the 
 Proprietary. It told these unfriendly men " how we have 
 been abused by trusting William Penn," and emphasized 
 the disadvantage to the Province brought upon it by " the 
 revels and disorders of young William Penn and his gang 
 of loose fellows." 
 
 It is not a matter of wonder that William Penn w^ho was 
 never expected to see this epistle did not feel pleasantly 
 toward the writer in the succeeding years, and that he was 
 quite willing to believe the damaging stories of him in Lo- 
 gan's letters. 
 
 But Lloyd had overreached himself. The Assembly 
 chosen in the fall of 1705 was of a different sort. There 
 was a strong reaction in favor of Penn and Logan. David 
 Lloyd was defeated for election in Philadelphia County, 
 which he had previously represented, but got in from the 
 city. He lost the Speakership, and the Assembly, dropping 
 the quarrels of the past, devoted its time to useful legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 Now was the time when a good Governor could have kept 
 the temper of the people sweet and at the same time resisted 
 unjust claims against the Proprietary. But they had any- 
 thing but a good Governor. By a series of inexplicable 
 follies, he threw away all his advantages. He prosecuted 
 an old member of the Assembly, William Biles, for saying 
 outside the House, "The Governor is but a boy; we'll 
 kick him out." He attempted to discredit Friends' testi- 
 mony against war by raising a false report of the approach 
 
DAVID LLOYD 97 
 
 of a French fleet and calling on every one to arm, hoping 
 that the Friends would thus compromise themselves. In- 
 stead of which they went to meeting. He built a fort at 
 New Castle, and attempted to extort " powder money " il- 
 legally from owners of ships who were mostly of his own 
 party. 
 
 In addition, he was irregular in his own life, joined with 
 young Penn in his revels, and bore no good name in a com- 
 munity of strict Quakers. His own friends had to apolo- 
 gize for him, and Logan finally advised the recall, but as a 
 result again Lloyd was triumphant. In 1707 and the two 
 following years he was elected Speaker, resisted Evans and 
 Logan with acrimony and success, and carried the Province 
 with him. 
 
 Nor did matters change greatly when Penn in 1709 sent 
 over Charles Gookin to supersede Evans. The personal 
 faults of Evans were not reproduced in Gookin, but he was 
 obstinate and headstrong, and perhaps, as he himself in- 
 timated, a little unbalanced mentally. 
 
 There were, however, two underlying causes for the 
 trouble. One was that Penn was now in desperate finan- 
 cial straits, and could not yield his perquisites except at the 
 cost of absolute ruin. His part of the expenses of govern- 
 ment had to be borne, the quit-rents were coming in slowly, 
 and his steward. Ford, had cheated him out of his fortune. 
 The income from fines, licenses and other governmental 
 functions were his by the arrangement previously made, 
 and he could not afford to yield them. 
 
 The other was that while Deputy Governors changed, 
 Logan remained. He could not always control the unwise 
 acts of the Deputies, but he could largely influence general 
 policy and was absolutely faithful to the Penn interests. 
 The matters for which Lloyd contended were in the inter- 
 ests of the larger democracy and prosperity of the colony, 
 
98 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 but Penn could not afford to give up his undoubted rights, 
 and Logan would not yield one iota to popular clamor. 
 Lloyd was right in looking upon Logan as his great antag- 
 onist. Both were determined and fearless, and personal 
 feeling was added to political diversity of interests. 
 
 One of the subjects about which the controversy raged 
 was the composition of the courts of Justice. The char- 
 ter of Charles II to William Penn gave him the right to 
 establish courts and appoint their officers. He finally al- 
 lowed the Assembly to draw up bills for such establishment, 
 but retained the appointment of judges and clerks. As 
 Penn's interests were larger than those of any other indi- 
 vidual, Lloyd's claim was that these officers should be in- 
 dependent of any obligations to him. There appear to 
 have been no serious complaints as to the character of these 
 officials, or that substantial justice was not done. 
 
 Again, in a community of Friends, it was of vital conse- 
 quence that a juror or witness should be accepted on his 
 affirmation, for he would not swear. It would be impos- 
 sible to secure competent administration of justice without 
 Friends, for in all the country communities they constituted 
 nearly all the responsible people. There is no doubt that 
 Penn appreciated this, but the charge of Lloyd was that he 
 did not succeed in having laws ratified in England making 
 provision for the full acceptance of the affirmation as equiv- 
 alent to the oath. 
 
 Then there was the burning question of the licensing of 
 public houses. Lloyd and the Assembly claimed that this 
 was one of the proper functions of the courts and that the 
 licensees should be appointed by local authority rather than 
 by the Proprietary, so as to secure the choice of proper per- 
 sons, who would restrain drunkenness and attendant crimes. 
 
 All these and other matters were to be fought through 
 between the Governor and Logan on one side and Lloyd and 
 the Assembly on the other. 
 
DAVID LLOYD 99 
 
 In the fall of 1706 Lloyd had a bill passed through the 
 Assembly for a Supreme Court with three judges to which 
 appeals could be made, also local courts for the counties for 
 ordinary crimes, having also the power to grant licenses for 
 taverns — providing that all fines should go toward the 
 payment of the judges, who should be removable by the 
 Assembly and therefore out of reach of Proprietary in- 
 fluence; that the judges should appoint the clerks, and that 
 freeholders should not be imprisoned for debt. 
 
 This, of course, would be a great step in advance towards 
 popular control of the course of justice. The Governor 
 objected to it in toto. There was no need for more than 
 one Justice of the Supreme Court — fines and fees belonged 
 to the Proprietary, and judges and clerks should not be in- 
 dependent of him. It was a Proprietary prerogative which 
 the Assembly had no authority to question, granted by the 
 charter and due to him in return for his large concessions 
 and care of the province. 
 
 The Governor threatened to establish courts on his own 
 authority, as the royal charter empowered him to do in 
 certain cases, but the Assembly told him that any one who 
 should advise this would be considered an enemy of the 
 country. 
 
 A conference was arranged between the Council and 
 Assembly and a point of etiquette now threatened a com- 
 plete stop to legislation. After the matter had been de- 
 bated courteously for a time Lloyd neglected to rise when 
 he spoke. The Governor commanded him to do so. To 
 Lloyd this command was sufficient to arouse his pugnacity 
 and he refused to obey, saying that he represented the 
 people and in an open conference no special deference to the 
 Governor was necessary. This broke up the conference. 
 The Assembly sent a semi-apologetic message to the Gov- 
 ernor, and Lloyd himself wrote a defense which could 
 
loo POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 hardly be called an apology, ending with these words, char- 
 acteristic of the man: " I do solemnly declare that my re- 
 fusal to comply with the Governor's humour (for so I con- 
 ceive it to be when he exerts his command when he should 
 not) was not with a design to affront him but to show my 
 dissent to that which I thought had a tendency to frustrate 
 the freedom of conferences ; not knowing, if I complied with 
 this, whether the next command would not more highly 
 affect the rights and privileges of this house which I am 
 conscientiously concerned to maintain everywhere, and if 
 in this I have done any thing unbecoming the station you 
 have put me in I shall freely submit to your censure." 
 
 The Governor tried to secure a more personal apology, 
 but he never received it, and the incident added to the bit- 
 terness of the times. 
 
 Ultimately compromises were reached embracing the 
 most for which Lloyd had striven. The Proprietary re- 
 tained the right to appoint clerks of the courts and holders 
 of licenses, but these could be nominated by provincial 
 bodies. Judges independent of the Penn interests were not 
 appointed by the Crown according to Lloyd's plan, but men 
 of highest character were chosen, and Lloyd himself did 
 not disdain to accept a few years later the office of Chief 
 Justice from his patrons' hands. 
 
 But Lloyd and Logan in the forefront of the controversy 
 recognized, each the other, as the chief obstacle to his plans. 
 Penn sent over pressing advice to impeach Lloyd, for ac- 
 cepting office illegally under Thomas Lloyd and for his ir- 
 regular actions in the case of the remonstrance of 1704, 
 Logan said that there were no substantial grounds on which 
 to build an impeachment and was too wise to attempt it. 
 But Lloyd with the full Assembly back of him entered joy- 
 ously upon an impeachment of Logan. The real reason was 
 that Logan had the brains and courage of the administra- 
 
DAVID LLOYD loi 
 
 tion and Lloyd was right in considering him the chief ob- 
 stacle in the way. Much time and much legal fencing were 
 employed, but the matter came to an end when the Council 
 decided that it had no authority to try impeachments and 
 the Secretary was saved. He shortly after went to England 
 on a visit and returned stronger than ever. 
 
 Governor Gookin next tried a tilt with Lloyd in the mat- 
 ter of an appropriation for a military expedition against 
 the French in Canada. In a rather facetious letter he him- 
 self tells the results: " The Queen having honored me with 
 her commands that this Province should furnish out 150 
 men for its expedition against Canada, I called an Assembly 
 and demanded £4,000; they being all Quakers, after much 
 delay resolved, N. C, that it was contrary to their religious 
 principles to hire men to kill one another. I told some of 
 them the Queen did not hire men to kill one another, but 
 to destroy her enemies. One of them answered the 
 Assembly understood English. After I had tried all ways 
 to bring them to reason they again resolved, N. C, that 
 they could not directly or indirectly raise money for an 
 expedition to Canada, but they had voted the Queen £500 
 as a token of their respect, etc., and that the money should 
 be put into a safe hand till they were satisfied from Eng- 
 land it should not be employed for the use of war. I told 
 them the Queen did not want such a sum, but being a pious 
 and good women perhaps she might give it to the clergy 
 sent hither for the propagation of the Gospel; one of them 
 answered that was worse than the other, on which arose a 
 debate in the Assembly whether they should give money or 
 not, since it might be employed for the use of war, or against 
 their future establishment, and after much wise debate it 
 was carried in the affirmative by one voice only. Their 
 number is 26.^ They are entirely governed by their 
 speaker, one David Lloyd." 
 
 1 Eight from each county and two from Philadelphia. 
 
102 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 But the people finally got tired of the bickerings of 
 parties. Lloyd in his contest with Evans and Logan had 
 again overstepped the mark. In the fall of 1710 the elec- 
 tion showed a completely new Assembly. Neither Lloyd 
 nor any of his followers was returned. Instead there came 
 in William Trent, Jonathan Dickinson, Caleb Pusey, Rich- 
 ard Hill, Isaac Norris and other of the best friends of Wil- 
 liam Penn. There was what would be called in modern 
 politics " a tidal wave " which showed that, except for 
 serious errors by deputies, the heart of the people was true 
 to the Founder. Impeachments were dropped, £2,000 was 
 voted " for the Queen's use," abundance of useful legisla- 
 tion, held back by the partisanship of previous years was 
 created, and the youthful province having passed over the 
 perilous times of infancy, started fairly on its successful 
 career. 
 
 Lloyd was temporarily laid aside, and yet his great ser- 
 vices in founding the real democracy of Pennsylvania under 
 the generous provisions of the Founder had largely been 
 accomplished. Whether he felt this or whether about this 
 time he experienced a real change of heart, as suggested by 
 some biographers, ma}' never be known, but certain it is 
 that the peaceful and also effective part of his life and pub- 
 lic employment was yet to follow in a score of years of 
 honored and honorable service. 
 
 He did not remain long out of office. About 1711 he 
 moved his residence from Philadelphia to Chester; in the 
 same year he was elected to the Assembly from Chester 
 County, but did not receive the Speakership. This also 
 happened in 1712 and 1713. In 1714, however, he was 
 unanimously chosen Speaker, for which service, in a gen- 
 eral way, no one could compete with him in capability. The 
 records of the time indicate the great prosperity of the 
 Province growing in wealth and population at a rapid rate, 
 
DAVID LLOYD 103 
 
 and the absence of the unhappy divisions of earlier years. 
 A further indication of the softening of the partisan asperi- 
 ties of the first decade of the century was the appointment 
 of David Lloyd as Chief Justice in 1718 to succeed his 
 father-in-law, Joseph Growdon, who had held the position 
 for ten years preceding and who had frequently opposed 
 him in the House. 
 
 In May, 1717, Sir William Keith succeeded Governor 
 Gookin. He was selected by Hannah Penn, for while her 
 husband was still alive, he had so far failed in body and 
 mind as to be incapable of business and about a year later 
 died. 
 
 Keith was a wise and politic Governor, He had the con- 
 fidence of Logan and Norris and he now undertook to se- 
 cure the support of Lloyd and the Assembly. He rightly 
 judged that the Quakers must be kept friendly to him if 
 he would be preserved from endless disputes. He found 
 them troubled with their difficulties as to oaths, and in a 
 diplomatic way suggested that they should adopt the Eng- 
 lish penal code and in exchange receive the right to affirm 
 instead of swearing. The same bill which made an affirm- 
 ation legal for those whose consciences would not allow 
 them to swear, extended capital punishment to burglary, 
 rape, counterfeiting and other serious crimes. The mild 
 penal code of Penn wherein murder only was made a capi- 
 tal offense and which was applied to one case only prior to 
 1700, died with him. There seems to have been no testi- 
 mony against capital punishment among Friends. David 
 Lloyd, a member in good standing, drew up the bill, it 
 was passed by a Quaker Assembly, approved by a Quaker 
 Council and endorsed by a Quaker community. Had they 
 felt as most modern Friends do, it may be considered as 
 doubtful whether the right to affirm would have been 
 deemed a sufficient compensation for a severe code involv- 
 
104 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ing capital punishment. We can easily appreciate how 
 much the affirmation meant to them. For without it they 
 would have been deprived of all share in government and 
 anarchy would have resulted. But we can hardly appre- 
 ciate that a testimony against capital punishment did not 
 mean as much. 
 
 Governor Keith's entire attitude was gracious and con- 
 ciliatory. He had learned from the experience of former 
 Governors how hard a task it was to contest a popular 
 Assembly led by David Lloyd and he went over completely 
 to the other side, yet at first not so imprudently as to draw 
 fire from Logan and his friends. Lloyd was made Chief 
 Justice and the Governor assumed the role of protector" of 
 popular liberties, thus procuring for himself immediate sup- 
 port. He had his reward in prompt votes for salary and 
 easy times. 
 
 Material prosperity accompanied political peace. There 
 was only one drawback, the lack of ready money. Coin 
 was drained to Europe to make the purchases needed by a 
 growing community which imported far more than it ex- 
 ported. Barter was common, but was inconvenient. Keith 
 shrewdly suggested a paper currency. Norris and Logan 
 objected and their fears were echoed from England. There 
 seemed to be abundant ground for hesitation. Many of the 
 Colonies had tried it, and with disastrous results. As a 
 little stimulated trade, more, they argued, would be better; 
 and they increased the amount until it lost its purchasing 
 power and depreciated. But Lloyd and his friends urged 
 it and Keith had his way. 
 
 This balance of forces was just what was needed to make 
 it a success. It was issued sparingly on the security of 
 land and plate. It stimulated trade and never depreciated. 
 Pennsylvania taught the lesson, and all through her colo- 
 nial history she had an abundant stable paper currency, due 
 
DAVID LLOYD 105 
 
 largely to the initiative of Keith and Lloyd and the caution 
 of Logan. But the latter element did not win the popular 
 appreciation as did the former, and Keith became im- 
 mensely popular. The Assembly sent him a congratulatory 
 letter and a vote of supplies. The Council, which had been 
 largely ignored by the Governor, as indeed by the charter 
 of 1701 he had a right to ignore it, as having no necessary 
 function in legislation, drew away from him, and in 1722 
 Keith, feeling himself strong enough to dispense with it, 
 removed Logan from his offices as Councillor and Secretary, 
 thus forcing him out of the government entirely. 
 
 But Logan was still strong with Hannah Penn, and sail- 
 ing to England he soon returned with definite instructions 
 to Keith, threatening him with removal. Keith was consti- 
 tutionally right, but he was the servant of the heirs of Wil- 
 liam Penn, and they trusted Logan. He concluded to stand 
 by his plans, and to set against proprietary powers, popu- 
 lar support. Logan attacked him in a long memorial, and 
 David, with some of the spirit and vigor of a score of years 
 earlier, entered the lists against his old adversary. His 
 abundant citation of authorities and able legal arguments 
 were conclusive, if such matters could settle the question. 
 He was again Speaker of the Assembly as well as Chief 
 Justice, and that body under his guidance sent to Hannah 
 Penn a remonstrance against the contemplated removal of 
 the Governor and a eulogy of his services to the state. 
 
 From the Lloyd point of view the administration of Keith 
 was the consummation of the efforts for which he had been 
 struggling for many years. The Assembly, as the repre- 
 sentatives of the people, had been exalted and their rights 
 defined and extended. The Courts had been created by the 
 act of Assembly, made reasonably responsive to popular 
 demands and the great democratic leader placed at the head 
 of the system. The Quakers had received that for which 
 
io6 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Lloyd had always pleaded — the right to a full participa- 
 tion in government without being sworn. English wars 
 had ceased to disturb the peaceable principles of the ruling 
 sect, and to crown all a stable material prosperity, satisfy- 
 ing alike to proprietaries and people, had settled down upon 
 the province. It is not to be wondered at that Lloyd in his 
 old age awakened from his quietude to defend the cause 
 with which he had been so long and so intimately associated 
 in his earlier years. 
 
 With such a record and such support Keith thought he 
 could defy England. He felt that the heirs would hardly 
 dare to remove him, and if they did he imagined he might 
 even overthrow the proprietary government itself and make 
 a crown colony, with himself as Governor. 
 
 But with all that he had learned he under-estimated the 
 strength of the sentiment of the people of Pennsylvania to 
 the Founder's family, and when the day of his removal came 
 he had nothing to do but hand over his office to old Patrick 
 Gordon, who, in 1726, had been sent over to supersede him. 
 
 Lloyd also accepted the failure of his plans gracefully. 
 Indeed, he and the Assembly may almost be accused of 
 apostasy by allowing their enthusiasm for Keith to pass 
 away. When the ex-Governor had himself elected to the 
 next Assembly and became a candidate for Speaker, Lloyd 
 turned against him and easily defeated him. His further 
 career was neither happy nor dignified, and the unwisdom 
 of his closing years was allowed to cloud his great services 
 to the cause of free government. 
 
 This was the last important public controversy of David 
 Lloyd. In honored performance of his duties as Chief 
 Justice he lived until 173L He died aged 75 years. 
 
 After this sketch of David Lloyd's life it is unnecessary 
 to say much as to his character. He was a great lawyer, 
 probably the greatest of colonial Pennsylvania. In this 
 
DAVID LLOYD 107 
 
 capacity he was always efficient and faithful to his clients, 
 sometimes possibly at the expense of pure morality. In 
 most legal circles this would hardly seem a fault, but the 
 Quakers of the time from their lay standpoint could not 
 always justify him. 
 
 As a politician he was equally competent. He led by 
 sheer ability and persistence. Logan tells us — and this 
 was at the time before their personal differences had de- 
 veloped: " He is a man very stiff in all his undertakings, of 
 a sound judgment and a good lawyer, but extremely per- 
 tinacious and somewhat revengeful." Proud says cau- 
 tiously: "His political talents seem rather to divide than 
 to unite; a policy that may suit the crafty politician but 
 must ever be disclaimed by the Christian statesman." 
 
 It is unfair to assume that Logan's further estimates of 
 his character, given in the heat of their partisan controversy, 
 are conclusive. He tells, however, how it was that Lloyd 
 maintained his great influence in the Assembly, and we may 
 at least guess the truth from his statements. " The generality 
 (of the Assemblymen) are honest and well inclined and out 
 of the Assembly are very good men, but when got together 
 I know not how they are infatuated and led by smooth 
 stories," and again he speaks of the great influence " he has 
 over the majority composed of designing and weak men," 
 and again " He carries so fair with our weak country people 
 and those that have long looked upon him to be the cham- 
 pion of the Friends' cause in government matters in former 
 times that there is no possessing them." And again, " Jones 
 and Wilcox stand by him in mischievous intentions. The 
 rest think they are faithfully discharging their duty to the 
 country." 
 
 Lloyd was the great leader of the country members, and 
 these were a large majority of the Assembly. They were 
 worthy, honest men, but Lloyd was so vastly their superior 
 
io8 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 in learning, ability and political skill that he practically 
 voted them as he would. Whenever the Logan party got 
 control a much abler and more responsible body of men 
 appeared in the Assembly, only to be thrown aside when 
 Lloyd returned to power. 
 
 David Lloyd became for the times wealthy, but no sus- 
 picion of mercenary methods appears in his politics. He 
 probably made his money by his legal practice and still 
 more by advances on real estate. His salary as Chief 
 Justice was generally £150 a year, and the Assembly paid 
 him for his labors in framing legislation and writing ad- 
 dresses, but his public work would not explain more than 
 a poor living. 
 
 As a Friend we do not find him prominently mentioned in 
 the minutes of the meetings — at least in comparison with 
 the records of Samuel Carpenter, Isaac Norris and many 
 another. Perhaps there was, as the minutes of Philadelphia 
 Monthly Meeting in the case of the dispute with Pastorius 
 show, a lurking suspicion that his methods could not be 
 fully justified. 
 
 It is a significant fact, however, that Chester Monthly 
 Meeting was the most persistent of any in urging upon the 
 Yearly Meeting the iniquity of the slave trade and the ne- 
 cessity to take strong action.^ The first one of these epistles 
 was in 1711, which w^as the year Lloyd moved from Phila- 
 delphia to Chester, and the last was in 1730, the year before 
 he died, and their style suggests the bold, vigorous, uncom- 
 promising spirit that penned the Assembly addresses of the 
 same period. This is not conclusive, but it seems highly 
 probable that the attitude of the early Friends of Pennsyl- 
 vania towards questions of slavery was largely due to the 
 clear thinking and fearless writing of David Lloyd. 
 
 David Lloyd's second wife was Grace Growdon, the 
 1 See Whittier's Introduction to "John Woolman's Journal." 
 
DAVID LLOYD 109 
 
 daughter of Joseph Growdon, of Bucks County, one of the 
 leading men of the colony and in the main an adherent of 
 the Penn-Logan party. Why the father cut off Grace with 
 five shillings in his will is probably not known, but he fre- 
 quently opposed his son-in-law in politics. They were 
 married in 1697. Their only son died when four years old, 
 as the result, it is stated, of fright because he was placed in 
 a dark closet for punishment during the absence of his par- 
 ents. David Lloyd had no descendants to care for his rep- 
 utation, and except in the public records, and a defense in 
 the Penn-Logan correspondence, he left but little about 
 himself. 
 
 He had landed interests in Chester and represented Ches- 
 ter County in the Assembly until 1700. Then he trans- 
 ferred his residence to Philadelphia, and that county made 
 him its representative for the coming decade. Afterwards 
 he moved to Chester for his declining years. 
 
 Grace Lloyd was a minister in the Society of Friends and 
 was much loved and trusted. There is an account in the 
 life of Jane Hoskins ^ which gives a little insight into the 
 family and religious life of David and Grace Lloyd. 
 
 Jane Fenn (afterwards Hoskins) came over to Penn- 
 sylvania in 1712, in response to a call of duty. She was of 
 poor circumstances, and engaged herself as a servant in 
 Friends' families, at the same time diligently attending reli- 
 gious meetings. She tells her own story: " One First-day 
 after I had sat some time in Haverford Meeting, David 
 Lloyd from Chester, with his wife and several other Friends 
 came into meeting. As soon as they were seated, it was 
 as though it had been spoken to me, ' These are the people 
 with whom thou must go and settle.' They being strangers 
 to me, and appearing as persons of distinction, I said, 
 Lord, how can such an one as I get acquainted with people 
 1 Friends' Library, Vol. T, p. 460, otc. 
 
no POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 who appear so much above the common rank. The word 
 was in my soul, ' Be still, I will make way for thee in their 
 hearts — they shall seek to thee.' I knew not what to think 
 of this, and was afraid it might be a temptation of Satan; 
 yet was contented in the thought, that the Lord who never 
 yet failed, was all-sufficient to provide for me. At that 
 instant a great stillness came over me, and I felt the love 
 of my heavenly Father to afifect me in a very uncommon 
 manner. I afterwards understood that David Lloyd and 
 his wife fixed their eyes upon me, felt a near sympathy 
 with me, such as they had never known towards a stranger 
 before, and said in their hearts, this young woman is or will 
 be a preacher. They were both tendered, and it was fixed 
 in their minds, that they were to take me under their care, 
 and nurse me for the Lord's service, with a promise that his 
 blessing should attend them. This I had from their own 
 mouths after I lived with them." 
 
 Jane Fenn became ^' an upper servant " in the family of 
 David Lloyd. This came in response to a suggestion of an 
 English Friend who had become interested in her religious 
 life. " After dinner," she says, " the Friend spoke to David 
 Lloyd and his wife. ' Take this young woman, make her 
 your adopted child and give her liberty to go wherever 
 Truth leads.' . . . Grace Lloyd then took me into another 
 apartment and told me how she and her husband were 
 drawn in love to me the first time they saw me at Haver- 
 ford." 
 
 Jane Fenn became a minister and made extensive travels 
 through other colonies, to Barbadoes and later to Ireland 
 and England in religious service. She returned from a for- 
 eign trip in 1730 " and was affectionately received by my 
 kind friends and benefactors, David and Grace Lloyd. 
 
 " Soon after my arrival David Lloyd was taken ill with 
 his last sickness, during which I thought it my duty to at- 
 
DAVID LLOYD iii 
 
 tend on him as usual. On the 6th of the second month, 
 1731, he departed this life; and in him I lost a father, and 
 a sure friend. In all the journeys I went, whilst he lived, 
 he cheerfully supplied me with the necessaries requisite. 
 He was exemplary in his family, treating all about him with 
 humanity, choosing rather to be loved than feared. He was 
 diligent in attending meetings for worship, and those of 
 his servants who inclined to go to meetings, he allowed to 
 perform that necessary duty. After my arrival I did not 
 live as an hired servant with David Lloyd, or with his 
 widow, though I remained with her, at her request, till I 
 married, which was in the year 1738." 
 
 The value of David Lloyd's services to the state will lie, 
 (1) in his successful insistence upon an independent legis- 
 lature. He had evidently a large though undetermined 
 share in procuring from Penn the charter of 1701, which cut 
 the Council out of all legislative powers. He was ever keen 
 to notice any small attempts to reinstate it in such powers 
 in indirect ways. He had the modern faith in the people 
 and was jealous of any tendency which would circumscribe 
 the privilege of the elective Assembly. (2) He, more than 
 any other man, fought out the Quaker battle for the affirm- 
 ation instead of the oath, and for the further contest for 
 a form of affirmation which was simply a promise, with- 
 out bringing in the name of God, which in some minds made 
 it a modified oath; and (3) while Penn arranged for an 
 executive and a legislature, he omitted to make provision 
 for a judiciary, probably intending to create this by his 
 own authority under his charter from the King. The form 
 which the machinery of the courts finally assumed and its 
 large independence of proprietary influence, was the great 
 work of David Lloyd. 
 
 In the words of Proud, it is true that Lloyd's efforts 
 " tended rather to divide than to unite." He could not 
 
112 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 work comfortably with opponents and bring them to his 
 own point of view. By his staunch Quakerism and superior 
 knowledge he brought his followers into loyal allegiance, 
 but he was uncompromising in his attitude towards opposi- 
 tion. Whether the beneficent results of his career could 
 have been achieved by a gentler spirit, less tenacious of 
 every little point, arousing less personal antagonism, more 
 gracious and diplomatic in argument, may be difficult to 
 determine with certainty. It is not unreasonable so to 
 think. 
 
 But it is difficult to estimate the full value of his ser- 
 vices. His strong personality, his persistent energy, his ex- 
 treme perception of the value of liberty and determination 
 to defend it against any, even small, encroachments, made 
 him a strong factor, perhaps after William Penn the strong- 
 est factor, in building up the colonial Commonwealth on the 
 basis of popular rights. Had he known how the letters of 
 his great rival to Penn would have formed the basis of his- 
 tory, he might have left stronger defences of his work and 
 positions. There is not much evidence, however, that he 
 considered the judgment of the future as of consequence. 
 He was too busy attaining immediate objects. It is only 
 in quite recent times that his name and reputation have 
 emerged from the mass of statements against him contained 
 in the voluminous letters of political opponents and their 
 descendants. Without family, with a following, numerous 
 and devoted but not literary, with an independence which 
 kept him in somewhat doubtful relations to many of the 
 prominent Friends of the Yearly Meeting, without ade- 
 quate biography, he has hardly received the attention which 
 his undoubtedly great public services demand. 
 
 His countrymen appreciated him. The Rev. Abel Mor- 
 gan wrote a Welsh Concordance to the Bible, which was 
 published in 1730 and dedicated to Chief Justice Lloyd as 
 
DAVID LLOYD 113 
 
 a token of esteem and an appreciation of his devotion to 
 the principles of liberty. He aided in the revision of the 
 translation of a religious treatise called " A Salutation to 
 the Britains." During his later years he published two 
 small treatises: " A Vindication of the Legislative Powers," 
 and " A Further Vindication of the Rights and Privileges of 
 the People of Pennsylvania." 
 
 These were the occupations of his declining years of 
 peaceful repose in contrast with the stirring scenes of his 
 earlier life. They indicate, however, that the trend of his 
 thoughts never changed. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 
 
 It is usually stated that James Logan was a descendant 
 of a noble Logan family of Scotland. This has probably 
 not been certainly proven. It is sufficient for our purpose 
 to state that his father was Patrick Logan, a Presbyterian 
 minister who joined Friends and moved to the north of Ire- 
 land where James was born. He thus inherited his Quaker- 
 ism. There are however various events in his life which 
 show that he also inherited that vigorous militant blood of 
 the people commonly called Scotch-Irish, who so much 
 disturbed the Quaker relations with the Indians on the 
 frontiers of Pennsylvania, who largely settled the western 
 end of the province and spread themselves down the Appa- 
 lachian country to the south, who were the choicest enemies 
 of Quakerism whenever they came into conflict, and through 
 whose influence Pennsylvania was largely drawn into the 
 Revolutionary War. 
 
 He did not much like the company of his compatriots 
 that came later in provincial times. They were the great 
 obstacles in the way of his Indian policy which he had 
 inherited from William Penn and which he faithfully ad- 
 hered to, and he did not fancy their rough uncouth man- 
 ners. " It is strange that they thus crowd in where they 
 are not wanted. . . . The Indians themselves are alarmed 
 at the swarms of strangers and we are afraid of a breach 
 between them, for the Irish are very rough to them," he 
 says, — a prophecy soon verified. 
 
 He was born on October 20th, 1674, at Lurgan. His 
 father was a teacher and gave him a good education. He 
 
 114 
 
JAMES LOGAN 115 
 
 became proficient in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The Irish 
 fighting which was terminated by the Battle of the Boyne 
 sent the family first to Scotland and then to Bristol, Eng- 
 land, where he carried on his studies in mathematics and 
 modern languages and assisted his father in teaching. In 
 1699 William Penn, who had many acquaintances in Bristol 
 where his second wife had lived, came into contact with 
 James Logan and asked him to go with him as secretary of 
 his province. They reached Philadelphia early in Decem- 
 ber. Logan was then 25 years old, one of the few highly 
 educated men of the settlement. 
 
 Thus began his colonial life. As secretary and agent of 
 the Penn family, trustee under Penn's will, secretary of the 
 Council, Mayor of Philadelphia, Chief Justice of the Prov- 
 ince, and for a time acting Lieutenant-Governor, he was for 
 fifty years a most potential influence, perhaps the most po- 
 tential influence for this half century, in provincial affairs. 
 It is often said and with a large element of truth that Penn 
 was weak in his judgment of men. But he made no mis- 
 take in this instance. Save for a certain pugnacity which 
 was sometimes tactless and made him enemies, there never 
 was a more faithful and intelligent manager of another 
 man's afl"airs ; and this refers equally to Penn's political and 
 his financial interests. 
 
 He came into his Quaker membership by birthright rather 
 than by conviction and while in the main loyal to the So- 
 ciety, refused to accept in full all its usual testimonies. On 
 his first voyage from England his boat was approached by 
 a supposed pirate which afterwards proved to be a friend. 
 Penn and the Friends held a meeting in the cabin. Logan 
 assisted the sailors on deck to prepare the guns for de- 
 fense. After the danger was over Penn reproved him for 
 his martial activity. It seems to have been a surprise to 
 him that Friends disapproved of physical weapons for 
 
ii6 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 defense, and he did not see how his master could govern a 
 province on this basis. That he had not known it is an 
 indication of rather a lax acquaintance with the history of 
 the Society. 
 
 Shortly after he came to Philadelphia he found that Dan- 
 iel Cooper from New Jersey had settled upon the Reed 
 Islands in the Delaware River which belonged to Penn. 
 Logan with Edward Shippen, Jr., and the Sheriff of Phila- 
 delphia went out armed to arrest him. No blood was shed 
 but the meeting thought it necessary to set the matter 
 straight and " clear the Truth." The two Friends were re- 
 quired to write papers of apology and after one or two trials 
 produced such as were satisfactory to the meeting. The 
 charge against Logan was " his going with armed men or 
 suffering arms to go in company with him in a hostile man- 
 ner when he ought to have gone in a peaceable manner 
 according to the profession he makes." Logan's acknowl- 
 edgment is interesting: — 
 
 " Whereas upon a provocation given by Daniel Cooper 
 of West Jersey, injuriously (as was judged) to our Pro- 
 prietary's right and contrary to authority, invading in the 
 5th mo. last one of the Reed islands of Delaware, over 
 against this city, I undertook to go over to ye said island to 
 divert him from proceeding in his design, accompanied with 
 the Sheriff of Philada. w4io hearing of an opposition de- 
 signed, took with him some other persons with fire arms for 
 ye greater awe of such as should attempt to oppose. And 
 whereas occasion hath been or may be taken from the said 
 arms being carried in my company to reflect not only upon 
 me as concerned for the Proprietary, but also upon the 
 profession of Gods Truth owned by and amongst us, I do 
 therefore in a true sense of the inconveniences that have 
 naturally ensued from the said action and its contrariety 
 to the said profession heartily regret my complying with or 
 being in anywise concerned in that method which ministers 
 such occasion and do in sincerity declare that could I have 
 foreseen the ill consequences of it I should by no means 
 have engaged in it. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 117 
 
 " Hoping and earnestly desiring that it may please God, 
 the Author of all good councill and direction so to enlighten 
 my understanding by his spirit that I may avoid not only 
 all such occasions but all others that by being contrary to 
 his divine will may minister offence for the future, 
 
 James Logan." 
 
 Hardly had this matter been settled when he had some 
 difficulty with Thomas Story a young and accomplished 
 Quaker minister. Thomas Story made some unknown 
 charge against James Logan " both upon his own and 
 Truths account " and they mutually agreed to leave it to 
 the determination of the meeting, giving up all papers in 
 their possession. The matter was somehow amicably 
 settled and the meeting decreed that all these papers should 
 be burned in the presence of the two men, each declaring 
 that no others existed. This was done and no one will ever 
 know the cause of the difficulty from the meeting records. 
 
 Profane history however tells us that these two young 
 men were suitors for the hand of Anne Shippen, the daughter 
 of the mayor of Philadelphia, and that Story won the prize. 
 That Logan's rivalry caused some actions of which the 
 meeting disapproved is not an impossible suggestion. The 
 disappointment seems to have been generally known and to 
 have reached Penn's ears in England. " I am anxiously 
 grieved for thy unhappy love," he writes, '' for thy sake 
 and my own, for T. S. and thy discord has been of no serv- 
 ice here any more than there." But the affair was settled. 
 The two became excellent friends. '^ He and I are great 
 friends," Logan said a couple of years later, " for I think 
 the whole business is not now worth a quarrel." In later 
 years a long correspondence of considerable interest, which 
 has been published, was kept up between the two scholars 
 relating to scientific and philosophical matters. 
 
 From Isaac Norris's description one ought to find it diffi- 
 
ii8 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 cult to quarrel with Thomas Story. " He was bred a law- 
 yer but laid that aside for the gospel. His conversation as 
 a man was sweet, gentle, and extremely affable; his spirit 
 as a Christian extraordinarily humble; and I have observed 
 him to watch even against his own abilities lest they should 
 appear to exalt him in the opinion of any." 
 
 Other cases where James Logan differed from the Quaker 
 authorities will be mentioned later. But the relations were 
 always sympathetic. He was careful to emphasize his 
 membership whenever proper, his family was perhaps more 
 Friendly than he, and his integrity and high ideals were 
 never questioned, except by his political opponents in the 
 heat of controversy. He however never took prominent 
 part in church affairs, held few official positions, and there 
 seems to have been a frank recognition of certain differ- 
 ences to which in time both sides adjusted themselves. 
 
 " Traveling Friends," he writes to Penn, " will give no 
 good account of my strictness. I am willing all should 
 know that I neither am nor ever was a strict professor and 
 I will make my outside appearance agree with what I really 
 know myself to be." 
 
 When Penn left him in 1701 Logan plunged into the work 
 with his characteristic ardor and energy. The quit-rents 
 had to be collected and this was no light matter from a 
 people, comfortably living it is true, but with but little ready 
 money. Individually small (one shilling per hundred 
 acres or thereabouts) it made a great difference to William 
 Penn that they should come in promptly for he was greatly 
 out of funds through his experiment. The rough surveys 
 had to be revised and when settlers found that they had 
 more or less land than they supposed, adjustments had to 
 be made. Penn had been rather profuse and uneven in his 
 promises, titles were uncertain, and records in default. The 
 tangle must be straightened out. Logan had a clear head 
 
JAMES LOGAN 119 
 
 and absolute fidelity, but his manners were ungracious and 
 his instructions, which he could not well disclose, frequently 
 hampered his free action. His was not a popular part but 
 he did his duty. Penn's best friends stood by him but the 
 country people were not pleased by his stringent demands 
 and his unsympathetic attitude, however in their hearts 
 they might recognize the general justice of his measures. 
 Thus he alienated support and his future battles with David 
 Lloyd were made more difficult, while his differences with 
 his monthly meeting did not help matters. 
 
 Why it was difficult to collect the quit-rents and other 
 dues manifestly owing to Penn is told by James Logan. "No 
 trade," he writes, " no money coming in, nothing to pay in 
 but wheat and no sale for that." And again, " Were the 
 country people ever so willing nay were it to redeem their 
 lives they cannot now raise money." Under these circum- 
 stances the only remedy was distraint. The difficulties of 
 collection were so great and the feeling for the farmers so 
 strong that men could not be found to apply the law. 
 
 He writes again, " The people will not pay without dis- 
 tress (distraint) . Friends are willing to pay but not to bear 
 all the burden themselves, while others obstinately save 
 their money, and none can be prevailed upon without much 
 reluctancy and compulsion to do that unkind office to their 
 neighbors." Later the meetings set their machinery to 
 work and insisted that the members should pay their just 
 dues. But the difficulty, until paper money was issued 
 some 40 years after the founding, consisted in the fact that 
 the province was drained of money to pay for importations 
 which the developing country must have. Logan writes 
 again in 1705: "We have now tis true nor money nor 
 credit, yet we live quiet and easy and want nothing," and 
 Penn responds " I am glad of thy opinion of the people that 
 it arises from want and not disaffection that they have not 
 paid." 
 
120 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 The ownership of William Penn and heirs was of three 
 sorts. (1) The common land sold at uniform prices, at the 
 start about £5 per 100 acres, to all satisfactory purchasers, 
 who were also to pay a quit-rent^ of one shilling per 100 
 acres per year. (2) The manors belonging to the proprietors 
 jointly, usually the best 10,000 contiguous acres out of every 
 100,000 acres sold. (3) Land owned by individual proprie- 
 tors bought as any one else would. There was a condition 
 that the first purchasers of 5000 acres, for which the price 
 was fixed at £100, should have a town lot of liberal dimen- 
 sions within the limits of the city of Philadelphia or its 
 " liberties," and this provision was extended pro rata to 
 certain small purchasers. Land could be rented at a quit- 
 rent of one penny per acre. Masters might have 50 acres 
 for each servant brought over and servants themselves also 
 50 acres each when the time of service was ended. 
 
 With this complicated system and the crude opportuni- 
 ties for keeping records it may be seen that the land office 
 was for 50 years a scene of confusion and strife. 
 
 There were also difficulties in carrying out Penn's policy 
 with the Indians. He had given instructions that strict 
 honesty was to be used in buying lands of them and that 
 purchase should precede settlement. But settlers pushed 
 themselves into unoccupied lands without recognition either 
 of Proprietor or Indian rights. In 1726 it was estimated 
 that there were many thousand settlers, mostly Germans 
 and Scotch-Irish, on land to which they had no legal right. 
 This was a source of continuous trouble with the Indians 
 which nothing but a general respect for '' Onas " enabled 
 Logan to keep in check. 
 
 1 This name originated because the renter was thereby "quit and 
 free" from all other feudal services. According to English law 
 something of the sort seemed necessary to the perfection of the 
 title. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 121 
 
 In 1682, before Penn landed, his agent and cousin, Wil- 
 liam Markham, had bought of the Indians the land between 
 the Ncshaminy Creek and the Delaware River. Within a 
 few years by several purchases, from various Indian chiefs, 
 several of them covering the same districts, titles to all of 
 south-eastern Pennsylvania, as far back into the country 
 as a man could travel with a horse in a two days journey, 
 were secured. In 1694 Penn bought of the Five Nations 
 the whole course of the Susquehanna through the province 
 and confirmed it later by buying again of other tribes who 
 objected to the claims of the Five Nations. So the various 
 Indian titles, some very shadowy, were bought out. At- 
 tempts were made to dispossess settlers who passed over 
 the legal boundaries. They were removed and their build- 
 ings burned. But they went in again as soon as the force 
 withdrew. 
 
 Some of these troubles were at the time which we are con- 
 sidering still in the foreground but James Logan was enter- 
 ing on a task which was of immense service to the young 
 province. His boundless hospitality to Indian chiefs, his 
 sympathy for the Penn policy and ability in making it 
 effective saved many a day of serious discord. For 50 
 years he conducted the most of the transactions with the 
 red men with great success. 
 
 But if the land and Indian questions were troublesome for 
 the young secretary, the political issue was even more im- 
 portunate. The Deputy Governor selected by Penn did 
 not live long and a young man of Logan's age, John Evans, 
 was in 1704 selected as his successor. This proved a most 
 unfortunate choice for all parties. He was not wise in his 
 methods, had no sympathy with Friends and his life did not 
 commend him to their favorable notice. With him came 
 the oldest son of the proprietor by his first wife, William 
 Penn, Jr. He had been something of a libertine but his 
 
122 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 father hoped that the influence of Logan aided by solid 
 Friends like Samuel Carpenter and Isaac Norris would save 
 him. Logan did his best, and for a time the experiment 
 seemed likely to succeed. He was encouraged to find his 
 pleasure in the woods and waters, teeming with game and 
 fish, and to become interested in the political problems of 
 the province of which he would probably be the proprietor. 
 But Evans' influence was not good and after a drunken riot 
 in the streets, the two were arrested at night for disorderly 
 conduct. The legal question was soon patched up but the 
 matter caused great heart-burnings both in England and 
 Pennsylvania and was not without its political significance. 
 The young heir shook the dust both of the province and 
 the church off his feet and neither knew him again. 
 
 Had Governor Evans behaved himself Logan would 
 have had but little trouble in maintaining the interests of 
 the Proprietor. But there followed a series of unwise and 
 provoking actions which quite unsettled the influence of the 
 Secretary. David Lloyd was busily engaged in pressing 
 the claims of the legislature to adjourn at its will and to 
 be independent of executive control. He did this by vir- 
 tue of his superior finesse and knowledge and by his staunch 
 support of the Friendly position against war and oaths. 
 Logan was quite his equal in ability but was known not to 
 be so radical in his moral positions. Besides as the faithful 
 guardian of the Penn interests he thought it necessary to 
 support the governor. 
 
 The Remonstrance of 1704 ^ brought the smouldering 
 controversy to a head and was the center about which the 
 storm raged for a number of years. Neither leader hes- 
 itated to say hard words of the other. " That lurking snake, 
 David Lloyd" is the eulogy sent to England by Logan. 
 " The malignity and falsehood of James Logan " is Lloyd's 
 ^ See David Lloyd, p. 94. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 123 
 
 reference to his adversary. If the body of Friends of the 
 time possessed the spirit of these leaders it would have to 
 be admitted that the softening influence of their religion 
 was not much in evidence. But while dealing with matters 
 of consequence it was largely a politicians' fight. The body 
 of Friends seemed to be interested spectators ready to turn 
 the scale in favor of one side or the other as errors of 
 " falsehood or malignity " withdrew their sympathy. Back 
 of it was an undeniable love and respect for the absent Pro- 
 prietor now in the depth of his financial difficulties, and, 
 less to be commended, but only natural, a hope to improve 
 their material conditions. Whether they very intelligently 
 cared for the political and civil liberties which Lloyd so 
 strenuously urged is more doubtful. If so it was largely due 
 to his persistent advocacy, which, whatever the motive, 
 made the province " safe for democracy." 
 
 Logan and his friends triumphed ii| the election of 1705 
 when a wave of loyalty for Penn sweprthe province. This 
 unfortunately had the effect of increasing the presumption 
 of the Governor. An elderly and injudicious Assemblyman, 
 William Biles, sympathetic with the popular party, had 
 made some indefinite threat outside the house that Evans 
 was but a boy and " we will kick him out." For this the 
 Governor had him arrested and put in prison and asked the 
 house to expel him, which of course it refused to do, and 
 asserted that its privileges had been violated by his 
 arrest. However this did not seriously abate the strength 
 of the Logan party which again carried the election of 1706, 
 electing Joseph Growdon as Speaker and passing much 
 wholesome legislation without bickering. 
 
 Again Evans was his own worst enemy. Truly appre- 
 hensive that an attack by sea from the French fleet was 
 imminent he attempted to induce the Assembly to appropri- 
 ate money to place the province in a state of defense. But 
 
124 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 the Assembly, practically all Friends, would do nothing. 
 He thought that their principles would fade away before a 
 near danger and adopted a ruse to discredit them. On the 
 day of the annual fair when the city was unusually full of 
 people he had an accomplice send word from New Castle 
 that the enemy's ships were in the river. Then mounting 
 his horse with a drawn sword he rode through the streets 
 asking the people to arm. The city was duly alarmed. 
 There was a great exodus of small craft to the ereeks, plate 
 was buried, and some families hid themselves. The Friends 
 instead of arming as Evans had intended went to their reg- 
 ular midweek meeting and sat in quiet through the disturb- 
 ance. They had not compromised themselves and when 
 later in the day the real facts developed the Governor was 
 placed in an unexcusable situation much shorn of influence. 
 
 The next Assembly as the result of this farce went over 
 to the opposition and Lloyd was again in power. James 
 Logan was charged with being an accomplice in the plot by 
 placing a French flag on a sloop which would have told the 
 truth about the matter and sending signals to the Governor. 
 This he denies in a letter to Penn and his general good 
 sense and knowledge of Friends would seem to support the 
 denial. His object he says in going down the river was to 
 ascertain the truth, and abate the panic. He writes Penn 
 " The entire body (of Friends) seems disgusted and piqued 
 to the heart at the contrivances of that alarm which they 
 think served only to expose them to their enemies here." 
 
 Then Evans tried another plan equally unfortunate for 
 his popularity and this time directed mainly against his own 
 adherents. He built a fort at New Castle and levied trib- 
 ute in the shape of powder on all vessels entering or leaving 
 Philadelphia. The restriction on trade was probably illegal 
 and certainly unpopular, and Richard Hill, an old sea cap- 
 tain and now a prominent citizen, with two other Quaker 
 
JAMES LOGAN 125 
 
 merchants, undertook to sail his own vessel past the fort 
 and test the right of the Governor to collect the tax. They 
 stopped at the fort, informing the commander that their 
 vessel was regularly cleared, and demanding that they 
 should be allowed to pass. This was denied and Richard 
 Hill himself took the helm and sailed by the fort, receiving 
 a shot through the mainsail. The commander followed in 
 an armed boat as did also Evans himself in another. The 
 boat of the former was turned adrift and he himself kept a 
 prisoner in the cabin. Landing at Salem they found Lord 
 Cornbury, the Governor of New Jersey, to whom the exac- 
 tion was equally distasteful. The prisoner was reprimanded 
 and released and this ended the " powder money " exaction 
 on the Delaware. 
 
 But Evans was hopelessly discredited in the minds of the 
 Pennsylvanians, and Logan, who had stood by him as far as 
 he could, as the representative of the Penn interests, shared 
 his unpopularity. The Assemblies of 1707-8-9 were bitterly 
 opposed to the Executive and to James Logan as its brains 
 and motive power. 
 
 That official now came into the clutch of impeachment 
 proceedings. The Assembly was greatly incensed at the 
 Governor and with some truth identified Logan with his 
 actions. The secretary had also become generally unpopu- 
 lar by his rigidity in collecting quit-rents and other of the 
 dues of Penn. Moreover he could possibly be reached by 
 legal proceedings while Evans could not. So they pre- 
 sented thirteen articles of impeachment against him relat- 
 ing to alleged misdeeds. They stated that he had illegally 
 violated the constitution of 1701 by inserting in the Gov- 
 ernor's commission a power to convene or dissolve the 
 Assembly; that he had usurped certain powers in relation 
 to surveying lands and reserving quit-rents; that he had 
 prevented certain acts of assembly from being published 
 
126 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 and that he had persuaded officials to accept their commis- 
 sions from the Governor instead of by election of the people. 
 
 It is not improbable that Logan was technically guilty 
 of some of these charges. He had in defense of the rights of 
 the Proprietor and with an exalted sense of his own im- 
 portance combined with a dislike amounting at times al- 
 most to contempt for Lloyd and the popular party, assumed 
 powers which were legally indefensible. 
 
 The Governor stood by him and refused to entertain the 
 charges on the ground that neither he nor the Council had 
 power to try impeachments. Logan himself while pro- 
 fessing a desire to have the case tried was unwilling to pro- 
 ceed until the proofs were published. There was much legal 
 fencing on both sides which embittered the controversy, and 
 the Assembly finally concluded to appeal directly to Wil- 
 liam Penn of England with their complaints against his 
 own neglect of their interests. 
 
 This remonstrance was more moderate than that of 1704 
 but reiterated the old charges. The Friends had not been 
 relieved in the matter of oaths and hence were deprived of 
 certain official positions; the Maryland boundary had not 
 been settled; the royal sanction had not been secured for 
 certain laws ; the Deputy-Governor had attempted to estab- 
 lish a judiciary on his own authority; had refused to try 
 Logan; had formed a militia, exacted " powder money," had 
 been engaged in disorderly brawls in the city and in immor- 
 alities in Indian villages. The charges against Logan were 
 repeated. 
 
 The people endorsed the Assembly electing practically the 
 same members for 1709 and the impeachment proceedings 
 were not allowed to drop. It is probably true that the 
 Assembly was now composed of a weak set of men. The 
 nerve was taken from Penn's friends by the exploits of Ev- 
 ans and they withdrew from the contest. This left the field 
 
JAMES LOGAN 127 
 
 to Lloyd's followers and he wanted such as he could manage. 
 Logan, it is quite likely, made the most of their weaknesses 
 when he wrote " In the worst of our former Assemblies we 
 had seven or eight honest men of good sense. ... In the 
 present we have not one left," and again " The last Assem- 
 bly were all Friends in unity except [two]. But these pres- 
 ent Gallimaco Fry (such a mixture as were never here in the 
 assembly before) are the men it seems that are to manage 
 in the name and for the interest of Friends when in reality 
 they are neither of them or the church, but the leaders of 
 them are made up of that bitter spirit raised by the foam 
 scattered by George Keith at the time of the Separation." 
 The Keith body had disintegrated by this time, but there 
 are several evidences that the personal bitterness in many 
 cases had not passed away. At any rate the Assembly fol- 
 lowed Lloyd most loyally in his moves against the propri- 
 etor and his secretary. 
 
 The best friends of the province were in despair. In this 
 vein Isaac Norris who was now in England writes to James 
 Logan : " Serious and sorrowful reflections upon the present 
 state of poor Pa. have presented themselves and they give 
 a melancholy and discouraging prospect. .The ingratitude 
 of the Lieut. Gov. to his friends that had staged themselves 
 to serve him, the disposition and thwarting designs of 
 others, the heightening of parties, the decay of trade, the 
 discredit the country has here, the proprietor's hard circum- 
 stances with Ford and his other involvings, his placing all 
 upon that country, and expectation of more from it than it 
 is able or willing to do with other contingencies and the 
 confusions in view make me almost wish I had no obliga- 
 tions there." 
 
 Added to this there was a most urgent insistence on the 
 part of the non-Friends on some adequate means of defense. 
 A French privateer landed some sixty men at Hoarkill 
 
128 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 (Lewes) and plundered it, carrying some citizens away for 
 ransom. It was possible that the same might happen at 
 Philadelphia and there was a clamorous demand as Logan 
 writes against " the absurdity of pretending to govern 
 without applying force in the greater as well as the least 
 degree," that is in general armed defense as well as against 
 a robber. But nothing was done and the province was not 
 disturbed by privateers. Serious remonstrances were how- 
 ever sent to England that the Quakers were unfit to manage 
 a government. The trouble became intense and Isaac 
 Norris wonders " whether it were the worse prospect to 
 hold it (the government) under such difficulties or resign it 
 to men who have no honorable principles." 
 
 Yet after all the people lived in peace. Again Logan 
 writes " In this country we have no such settled estates and 
 constant incomes; yet want not the blessings of the neces- 
 saries of life; very few things wanting except some luxu- 
 ries. As for myself I bless the Almighty I want nothing of 
 the useful conveniences but live equal with my neighbors 
 and desire not an abundance." 
 
 William Penn was now in the thick of his controversy 
 with the Fords and part of the time was lying in a debtors' 
 prison in England. The troubles in his colony preyed upon 
 him and he was told very plainly that peace could only be 
 secured by the discharge of Evans. Isaac Norris who was 
 in England aiding him in settling affairs with his creditors 
 urged the same, and Penn was finally freed by a compromise 
 on the debts and the promise to appoint a new governor. 
 The province was mortgaged for the debt to a number of his 
 friends to be repaid out of the quit-rents, sale of lands and 
 other receipts of the province, and Edward Shippen, Samuel 
 Carpenter, Richard Hill and James Logan were made com- 
 missioners to perform the active duties under the trust. As 
 secretary this all went through the hands of James Logan. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 129 
 
 The new Deputy-Governor, Colonel Charles Gookin, 
 reached Philadelphia in March 1710. He found in session 
 the same hostile assembly that had impeached Logan and 
 remonstrated to Penn. They showed no signs of any miti- 
 gation of their bitterness and immediately began to com- 
 plain of the actions of the new ofl5cial. Some of these com- 
 plaints were trivial but they found a real difference in the 
 frequently recurring question of military defense. The 
 house refused absolutely to endorse the request to furnish 
 150 men to join in an attack on Canada or to provide any 
 funds for the purpose. They found that the governor had 
 been instructed by Penn to refuse to pass any law not ap- 
 proved by the Council. But that body was simply an 
 advisory body for the governor, not recognized by the 
 charter. This recognition by Penn seemed to give it some 
 governmental power and the house resented the implication, 
 the more so that Logan's influence there was predominant. 
 On the whole the Governor, who was rather testy in dispo- 
 sition, behaved himself at first with judgment and moder- 
 ation. 
 
 Logan now decided that the time had come to strike back 
 at Lloyd in counter charges. But here again some political 
 fencing prevented any open trial and the exact nature of the 
 charges does not appear, but the house, loyal to its Speaker, 
 pronounced them false. Logan then sent back a defiant 
 message to the Assembly which greatly increased their re- 
 sentment, and they directed that he should be sent to prison. 
 Their right to take this extreme measure was denied by the 
 Governor. Logan was now about ready to carry his case to 
 England and after some attempt to delay his passage, he got 
 away and in due time was presenting the whole matter to 
 the Proprietor in person. 
 
 William Penn never seems to have lost faith in his sec- 
 retary as the letters between them, saved through the care 
 
130 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 and labor of Deborah Norris Logan, abundantly show. 
 These letters betray the zeal and fidelity for his employer's 
 interests which characterized the secretary, as well as the 
 censorious spirit toward opponents which he was continually 
 pouring into Penn's mind. He said what he thought and his 
 views changed with the years. It is unsafe to form historic 
 judgments on the basis alone of certain of his statements, 
 but the whole series, combined with the official records of 
 the Council and Assembly, afford a ground-work for a fairly 
 accurate decision as to the quality of the government of the 
 Quaker province through this first decade of the 18th cen- 
 tury. 
 
 As a whole one cannot derive much satisfaction from the 
 record. There was too much partisanship, too much self- 
 ishness, too much ascription of personal motives, among 
 Friends to answer the ends of Christian courtesy or good 
 government in its best estate. 
 
 The Friends that rallied around James Logan felt keenly 
 the difficulties of the Proprietor who had sacrificed so much 
 of time, comfort, and money in his efi"ort to found a com- 
 monwealth on the basis of principle, and who, they knew, 
 could have sold out to the Crown at a great relief to himself 
 had he been willing that his colonists should lose something 
 of the liberties they had received by the migration. While 
 he was sacrificing for the settlers, they seemed disposed to 
 deprive him of his just dues in quit-rents and other income 
 needed for the government. On the other hand he could 
 hardly divest himself of a certain feeling of class distinction. 
 His ideal, however much he might keep it down, was a feudal 
 lord, an absentee landlord, dispensing with a generous hand 
 the blessings of liberty and happiness to willing and loyal 
 citizens. Add to this the great dissatisfaction with the per- 
 sonal and political conduct of Deputy-Governor Evans, and 
 the rather haughty and testy spirit of Logan, devoted to his 
 
JAMES LOGAN 131 
 
 duty, and, fearless of opposition as he was, and the friends 
 of Penn were kept the most of the time in a constant posture 
 of defense. 
 
 On the other hand the country people who were led by 
 David Lloyd had back of them the instinct for liberty and 
 equality, the inheritance of the English race, just strength- 
 ened by the Puritan spirit and the politics of the Common- 
 wealth period. They had a smaller vision than the pro- 
 prietor's party, and hence were led into the more obvious 
 courses based on present needs which the methods of their 
 leader used to the utmost. That able lawyer, faithful to 
 the patent implications of Quakerism, but, at least during 
 this decade, hardly possessed by its spirit, played with the 
 prejudices and material interests of the country population 
 at his will. They wanted to live consistently their lives of 
 opposition to war and oaths, of strict morality and quiet 
 attention to their farms and meetings. They had a dim in- 
 stinct of opposition to the city men of growing fortunes, a 
 very strong protest against immorality in high places. They 
 did not mean to be disloyal to Penn as their conduct in 
 1705 made manifest. Had he been with them or sent an 
 acceptable deputy they would have worked out their prob- 
 lems without great friction, but they become suspicious, 
 narrow and partisan, and David Lloyd who knew the value 
 of civil liberty and honestly wanted it, had an easy task 
 in marshalling the country hosts, sometimes by methods 
 which cannot be fully defended, into lines which as reported 
 by Logan gave deep offense and disappointment to the 
 great-hearted Proprietor. 
 
 It must be remembered however that the conflicts were 
 conflicts of leaders. The great bulk of the people carried 
 on their work on farm or shop, grateful for the liberties 
 they enjoyed, with none of the bitterness of Logan and 
 Lloyd. These divisions never showed themselves in the 
 
132 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 records of their meetings. At one time Logan seemed to 
 think an ecclesiastical separation partly based on politics 
 probable, but it never came. The quiet of worship and the 
 real goodness which pervaded the rank and file of the mem- 
 bership kept down partisanship and allayed acrid feelings. 
 The writings of traveling ministers and the good advice of 
 the Yearly Meetings indicate the best of feeling and the 
 successful pursuance of the church objects. 
 
 The troubles of the Friends as the result of their scruples 
 were bringing many of them to the point where they were 
 beginning to doubt whether they ought to have anything 
 to do with government, — a doubt which the success of the 
 following thirty years largely dissipated. We find Isaac 
 Norris in a letter to William Penn writing: "We say our 
 principles are not destructive or repugnant to civil govern- 
 ment and will admit freedom of conscience for all, yet it 
 appears to me according to the best scheme I can form from 
 the opinions of many Friends, that to be concerned in gov- 
 ernment and to hold (maintain) ourselves, we must either 
 be independent or entirely by ourselves . . , and not allow 
 the liberty of others who make conscience to have an oath; 
 . , . or be as thou used to express it, ' Dissenters in our own 
 country.' " 
 
 The problem of liberty of conscience was being worked 
 out and, amid the confusion of party rancor, people were 
 thinking with fearful hearts that the William Penn ideals 
 might not be possible of achievement. The political up- 
 heaval of the next year settled some of these questions at 
 least temporarily. 
 
 " Thou used to talk about astral influences. I am not 
 very superstitious though I cannot but take notice how uni- 
 versally and resolutely Friends here were spirited about this 
 election," Isaac Norris writes to James Logan still in Eng- 
 land after the election for the Assembly which occurred in 
 
JAMES LOGAN 133 
 
 October, 1710. As soon as they saw that Evans was dis- 
 missed and had heard from Enghmd of the condition of the 
 Proprietor the province as one man returned to its alle- 
 giance. An absolutely new Assembly was elected. Lloyd 
 himself was defeated. The strongest men in the province 
 and the best friends of Penn and Logan were returned. 
 Richard Hill became speaker and abundance of good legis- 
 lation was passed. Compromises were made on both sides. 
 The right to adjourn at pleasure for which Lloyd had fought 
 so vigorously was accorded, and the judiciary was estab- 
 lished by law. Both impeachments were dropped and 
 heard of no more. Supplies were voted liberally for the 
 support of the government and £2000 for " the Queen's use " 
 without conditions. The real blessings of the free institu- 
 tions of Penn were abundantly recognized, and every effort 
 was made to bring up to date legislation which had been 
 postponed by the political turmoil of the preceding three 
 years. The province steadied itself in the face of its prob- 
 lems and privileges and set itself to work out its destiny 
 with cheerful and united effort. 
 
 In the midst of this wave of unity Logan returned from 
 England vindicated as far as conditions there would allow, 
 and with no loss of confidence on the part of his employer 
 and his friends. Moreover he brought with him a pathetic 
 appeal from William Penn, then in his 70th year, which he 
 may have helped to frame, and to which his knowledge of 
 the situation had undoubtedly contributed. The compo- 
 sition was however that of Penn and not of Logan. It did 
 not reach the province till after the election but had a pro- 
 found effect in stimulating the returning loyalty to the Pro- 
 prietor. It begins: 
 
 " My old Friends — It is a mournful consideration and 
 the cause of deep affliction to me that I am forced by the 
 oppressions and disappointments which have fallen to my 
 
134 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 share in this life to speak to the people of that Province in 
 language I once hoped I should never have occasion to use. 
 But the many troubles and oppositions I met with from 
 thence oblige me in plainness and freedom to expostulate 
 with you concerning the causes of them." 
 
 Then he reviews the liberal principles by which he has 
 been guided, his personal work for the province and his 
 financial losses and contrasts these with the contentions and 
 ingratitude of the settlers. He takes up both the political 
 and personal questions which had separated them. Some 
 are small and can be readily rectified. " It is a certain sign 
 you are strangers to oppression and know nothing but the 
 name, that you so lightly bestow it on matters so incon- 
 siderable." There are other lawyers except the one by 
 whom they have been guided almost exclusively " whom I 
 cannot think so very proper to direct in my affairs," was 
 his suggestion as to David Lloyd. Nevertheless, small or 
 great, he is very willing to adjust them to suit their con- 
 venience so far as is consistent with a fair balance of gov- 
 ernmental powers. He defends Logan. " 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 have met with 
 a milder treatment from his persecutors; and to think that 
 any man should be more exposed there on my account and 
 instead of finding favour, meet with enmity for his being 
 engaged in my service is a melancholy consideration." Thus 
 identified with the Proprietor and amply vindicated the 
 secretary could afford to return in triumph to the province. 
 Finally Penn intimates that the conduct of the Assembly 
 might determine whether or not he should sell his interests 
 to the Crown. 
 
 This letter was read in all the meetings of Friends and 
 was responded to with an outburst of respect and affection. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 135 
 
 " Sure an overruling hand directed that our thoughts and 
 actions here should be answerable to thine there " writes 
 Isaac Norris. 
 
 Both Penn's political and financial troubles w^ere now 
 somewhat alleviated but enough remained to make his re- 
 tention of the proprietorship a matter of serious misgiving. 
 He could sell his rights as governor to the Crown, retaining 
 his individual property and claims. His situation would 
 then become easy and his family amply provided for. Lo- 
 gan advised this strongly. While Gookin meant well his 
 tactless and unwise assertion of power still made trouble 
 and there seemed no end of such little difficulties. Penn's 
 only hesitation came from the fear that his settlers would 
 suffer in their maintenance of their principles from the de- 
 mands of the English government. War, civil and religious 
 liberty, oaths, and the treatment of the red men were very 
 vital problems in the new experiment and such arrange- 
 ments must be made as would secure the colonists against 
 any return of English persecution, against making the 
 Quakers " dissenters in their own country." Penn seems to 
 have thought that this was accomplished. The transfer 
 was arranged and something paid by the government in 
 advance, when on the 4th of 8th Month (October) 1712 his 
 hand became paralyzed in the midst of a letter to Logan. 
 Some months later his wife forwarded the incomplete 
 epistle to the secretary with a postscript from Penn, much 
 of it illegible but closing with the words " My dear love to 
 all my dear friends." 
 
 He lived six years longer, unable to transact business. 
 The bargain with the Crown was annulled, ultimately much 
 to the gain of the family, and Logan's engagement and in- 
 structions thereafter came from Hannah Callowhill Penn 
 and her children. 
 
 Shortly before the attack the secretary arranged for pay- 
 
136 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ment for past services. He writes later " The Proprietor 
 was willing to give me what I would ask for my ten years' 
 service and considering his melancholy circumstances in 
 1711 I set it only £100 a year currency, for all manner of 
 services whatever; but told him I could stay in his service 
 no more than two years. But he was seized with an apo- 
 plectic fit in less than one year, which tied me down to his 
 business, and vastly as it proved to my loss." 
 
 Logan writing in 1714 says that the people are "generally 
 pretty easy, all the factions against the proprietor being 
 over." There were no more Quaker parties in the govern- 
 ment but Logan's troubles were not over. Gookin after 
 several years of great harmony with the Assembly became 
 disaffected and got on wrong terms with every one. There 
 was some cause. His meagre salary was frequently unpaid 
 and he was reduced to the necessity of undignified begging 
 in procuring an ordinary existence. The personal loyalty 
 to Penn reawakened by his appeal of 1710 partly passed 
 away when the pecuniary needs of the government seemed 
 to conflict with what he considered his personal rights. A 
 new generation was growing up who did not know him and 
 since his release from active connection with the province 
 were less disposed to join with Norris and Logan in a vig- 
 orous assertion of his claims. 
 
 First Gookin quarreled with Lloyd (who was in 1715 
 again speaker) and the Assembly, because there was not a 
 quorum on the day for convening. He afterwards charged 
 Norris and Logan, the former now mayor of Philadelphia, 
 with disloyalty to the Crown. He himself in retracting the 
 charge intimated that he was temporarily deranged, a not 
 improbable suggestion. His Council in 1717 sent a unani- 
 mous address to William Penn that he be removed, and 
 Hannah Penn now manager for her husband appointed Sir 
 William Keith as successor. These troubles however did 
 
JAMES LOGAN 137 
 
 not, except in one particular, seriously distract the good leg- 
 islation of the province and matters were rapidly getting 
 into shape. 
 
 This one exception related to oaths. There was nothing 
 on which Friends were more consistently united than in 
 their opposition to the administration and taking of oaths. 
 Lloyd was their great champion but Logan and his friends 
 were with him. Their objection was party biblical, largely 
 their denial of a double standard, one for the court-room and 
 another for the shop and the farm. They demanded that 
 their yea and nay be taken at their face value whenever 
 uttered: they charged that the constant formal and often 
 flippant use of the name of the Deity induced irreverence 
 and profanity. They refused to have anything to do with 
 oaths or to hold any office which necessitated administering 
 them. Largely due to Quaker protests reinforced by im- 
 prisonment a form of affirmation not very satisfactory had 
 been substituted in England. But they also recognized that 
 their principle of freedom of conscience, as well as respect 
 for English law, could not force affirmations on dissidents in 
 Pennsylvania. Up to about 1715 by virtue of acts passed by 
 the Assembly matters had gone on quietly and oaths were 
 practically not administered. The English law of that year 
 put out of all official positions, including juries, and out of 
 the witness box, all who did not swear. Now Governor 
 Gookin construed this as applying to the colonies. 
 
 In many country districts there were none but Friends 
 and illiterate servants and all judicial proceedings were 
 stopped. In the city it was not much better as Friends held 
 all the important positions and constituted the leadership 
 of the political situation. Lloyd gave his legal influence 
 vigorously to the cause but the governor stood firm in his 
 construction of the law. For two years the province sur- 
 vived without courts and criminals went unpunished. An 
 
138 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 atrocious murder committed in Chester County seemed to 
 make it necessary to do something, and the culprit was 
 condemned to death on the strength of unsworn testimony 
 and by an unsworn jury. Appeal was made to England but 
 Keith, by this time governor, hung the criminal. 
 
 We may carry this account ahead of our general nar- 
 rative. Sir William Keith, a man of great political acute- 
 ness, suggested that if the Assembly would adopt the Eng- 
 lish penal code they might in exchange have their way in 
 the matter of oaths. Lloyd and his friends agreed and in 
 1718 placed burglary and some dozen crimes on the capital 
 list, in the same act making affirmations and oaths optional 
 with the taker. The form of affirmation included however 
 the phrase " in the presence of Almighty God," to which 
 many Friends objected and in 1725 this was further modi- 
 fied to make it a simple affirmation. This relieved the 
 taker but as oaths could still be demanded by those without 
 scruples in the matter, there was nothing for the consistent 
 Friend to do but refuse an official position which involved 
 administering them, so that in this respect Friends became 
 " dissenters in their own country." The solution found in 
 1725 still continues. 
 
 The extension of the capital code from Penn's limitation 
 to murder in the first degree to a number of lower forms of 
 crime seems to have met with no opposition from Friends 
 and was continued through all colonial times without pro- 
 test. Thus John Smith a prominent Friend writes in his 
 diary in 1747, " Was part of the day at the Court of Oyer 
 and Terminer called on purpose to try three villains for a 
 burglary and robbery of the widow Cox at my accusing 
 which was so clearly proved that the Jury soon found them 
 guilty." And again a day later, " Heard that sentence of 
 death was passed on the poor villains mentioned above." 
 Better times were coming for the secretary. In 1714 he 
 
JAMES LOGAN 139 
 
 made a happy marriage with Sarah the daughter of Charles 
 Read, a Councillor prominent in public affairs. He en- 
 gaged in the Indian trade and in commercial ventures which 
 ultimately brought him a considerable fortune. His friends 
 were the most intellectual and most influential citizens of 
 Philadelphia including " wise Samuel Carpenter," Isaac 
 Norris, and Richard Hill, " the three best heads in Penn- 
 sylvania," as he says. He himself was their peer in busi- 
 ness sagacity and their superior in learning and scholarly 
 interests. The voice of faction among Friends had ceased 
 and England presented after the peace of 1710-12 no claims 
 for military service for almost 30 years. The oath question 
 was settled. There was litigation over William Penn's 
 Estate but this was confined to England and ultimately 
 resulted in 1726 in confirming the title in the hands of John, 
 Thomas, and Richard Penn, the sons of the second wife. 
 These became warm friends of Logan and fully trusted him, 
 while he returned to them as agent and secretary the same 
 unswerving fidelity which he had accorded to their father. 
 The great immigration of Germans and Scotch-Irish solved 
 the financial difficulty by land sales and quit-rents. Wise 
 legislation placed the government in smooth working order, 
 and a satisfactory system of courts was established. The 
 management of Logan kept the Indians friendly. Taxes 
 were trifling. The average provincial expenditure under 
 Keith's administration was 1500 pounds a year. Laws for- 
 bidding the use of molasses and other foreign substances in 
 the manufacture of beer, and requiring that all flour and 
 salted provisions should be up to a standard quality, thus 
 insuring a great foreign trade, stimulated home production, 
 while the immense immigration vastly increased the product 
 of the farms. Peace and liberty were proving their efficacy 
 as agents of prosperity and comfort, enriching alike country 
 farmer and city trader. 
 
140 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 There was however much difficulty owing to the scarcity 
 of circulating medium, for the imports still were in great 
 excess of exports, and had to be paid for. Keith suggested 
 a paper issue based on land and plate. But Logan, warned 
 by the unfortunate experiments in other colonies, opposed it 
 vigorously. The bill went through the Assembly however 
 and Logan's opposition had the very desirable effect of 
 making it a conservative measure. Hence the paper never 
 depreciated and greatly increased trade. 
 
 An Indian incident of 1722 will illustrate the methods by 
 which peace on the frontiers was maintained. The council 
 was informed that a red man of the Five Nations had been 
 killed in what is now Lancaster County by two whites 
 named Cartledge. James Logan and Colonel French were 
 deputed to ascertain the facts. They called a council of 
 Indians at the place of the murder and had the suspected 
 criminals arrested. Logan made one of his happy speeches, 
 for he was now well versed in Indian psychology, calling 
 attention to the league of friendship made by William Penn 
 and that the league had been rigidly observed by both 
 parties. Only one complaint had been made for forty 
 years. Now a report had come of a murder by a white man, 
 and they had come to condole with the friends of the victim 
 and see that justice be done according to the league of 
 friendship. 
 
 Witnesses were then examined by which it appeared that 
 the Indian was setting his traps when the Cartledges came 
 to him to trade. They gave him rum and he persisted in his 
 demand for more till the trader irritated struck him so that 
 he died. A message was sent to the Senecas in New York 
 with a statement of regret and that the offenders were to be 
 taken to Philadelphia to answer for their fault. After va- 
 rious circumlocutions and conferences and exchanges of 
 wampum belts final word came to Philadelphia as follows: 
 
JAMES LOGAN 141 
 
 " We have well considered all you have spoken and like 
 it well, because it is only the renewing of the former leagues 
 and treaties made between the government of Pennsylvania 
 and the Five Nations, which we always believed we were 
 obliged to keep. And as to the accident of one of our 
 friends being killed by some of your people, which has hap- 
 pened by misfortune and against your will, we say that we 
 are all in peace ; we think it hard the persons who killed our 
 friend and brother should suffer and we do in the name of 
 all the Five Nations forgive the offence and desire you will 
 likewise forgive it, and that the men who did it may be 
 released from prison and set at liberty to go whither they 
 please; and we shall esteem that as a mark of regard and 
 friendship for the Five Nations and as a further confirma- 
 tion of this treaty." 
 
 The Indians on the Brandywine sent a petition to the 
 Assembly making complaint against the whites for in- 
 fringement of their fishing rights. They asserted that Wil- 
 liam Penn had granted them a tract a mile on either side of 
 the Creek, the deed for which had been burned in the cabin 
 in which it was kept. There was no record of such a treaty. 
 The English had settled all over this tract and worse still 
 had built dams which prevented the passage of fish. While 
 the story was based on no legal claims Logan recognized the 
 vitality of Indian tradition, and induced the governor to 
 order that the dams should be constructed so as to allow 
 the fish to pass. 
 
 These incidents are illustrations of the management of 
 Indian relations through the first half century of the prov- 
 ince under William Penn and James Logan. It is easy to 
 see why there was uninterrupted peace. There is probably 
 no record of Logan's attitude toward the Walking Purchase 
 and the iniquities that followed it, but it maj^ be assumed to 
 accord with his other actions. 
 
 There is a story that the old chief Wingohocking became 
 so friendly that he offered to change names with Logan. 
 
142 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 It was not entirely convenient to accept the offer, but 
 the chief must not be antagonized. So Logan replied that 
 he would soon pass away and be forgotten, but the stream, 
 pointing to one which went through his fields, would flow on 
 through all generations, and he would give it the Indian 
 name to be carried down forever. This happy expedient 
 satisfied the Indian who changed his name to Logan and 
 transferred his own to the stream which still perpetuates it. 
 Twenty years after the Cartledge incident when James 
 Logan was an old man, a chief of the Six Nations expressed 
 his kind regard for him in Indian fashion to the Governor 
 and Council in Philadelphia: 
 
 " Brethren we called at our old friend James Logan's on 
 our way to the city, and to our grief we found him hid in 
 the bushes and retired through infirmities from the public 
 business. We pressed him to leave his retirement and pre- 
 vailed with him to assist once more on our account at your 
 council. We hope notwithstanding his age and the effects 
 of a fit of sickness which we understand has hurt his consti- 
 tution that he may continue a long time to assist this prov- 
 ince with his counsels. He is a wise man and a fast friend 
 to the Indians; and we desire when his soul goes to God, 
 you may choose in his room just such another person of the 
 same prudence and ability in counselling and of the same 
 tender disposition and affection for the Indians." 
 
 Sir William Keith had proved a popular and politic gov- 
 ernor. He had shown Friends a solution of the oath diffi- 
 culty; had carried through the movement for a paper cur- 
 rency; had suggested many pieces of good legislation; and 
 by his agreeable manners had made a most favorable im- 
 pression on the people. But after nearly ten years' service 
 he ran up against Logan and his friends in a delicate mat- 
 ter of management. Theoretically the Council had no legal 
 rights in legislation, being only an advisory body for the 
 governor. But he was nevertheless the creature of the Penn 
 
JAMES LOGAN I43 
 
 family who had implicit trust in Logan and who had sent 
 instructions that no measures were to be passed without the 
 consent of the majority of the Council. Keith tried various 
 devices to rid himself of this incumbrance. On the other 
 hand the Council tried to set up an unjustifiable claim that 
 its relations to government were somewhat like those of the 
 House of Lords in England, and held as strictly to their 
 powers as possible. Keith for a time carried on the contest 
 with his usual astuteness, but in 1722 becoming bolder in 
 his methods and feeling sure of popular support, on the plea 
 that Logan had entered on the minutes something that had 
 not officially passed the Council, the governor discharged 
 him from his offices as councillor, secretary and keeper of 
 the great seal. He was thus thrown entirely out of the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 But he was not of the sort that submit easily to such a 
 dismissal. He sailed to England and returned in a little 
 time with definite instructions from Hannah Penn. Keith 
 was to make at least half his board Quakers and no new 
 members were to be appointed without the consent of those 
 already in. He was to send no verbal or written messages 
 to the Assembly without their consent. He was to rein- 
 state Logan in all his offices, and was threatened with dis- 
 missal if he further disobeyed. 
 
 This was humiliating enough to a man of such large in- 
 fluence and importance, still more so that it came from the 
 hands of Logan. He decided not to submit and prepared a 
 reply justifying his actions to the Assembly. This brought 
 to his aid the old war-horse David Lloyd, now Chief Justice 
 of the province, who gave his legal advice to the support of 
 the independent powers of the Assembly and the non-inter- 
 ference of the Council. The Assembly backed up their old 
 leader and assured Keith of their gratitude. But they could 
 not prevent his dismissal by Mrs. Penn and when he was 
 
144 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 himself elected a member of their body and aspired to the 
 speakership he was easily defeated by David Lloyd. 
 
 He was succeeded by Patrick Gordon, a wise old man who 
 seemed to harmonize the hitherto conflicting claims of Pro- 
 prietor and Assembly. For ten years, 1726 to 1736, there 
 was great peace and prosperity. There was a vast influx of 
 foreigners. Palatines from the Rhine Valley and Presbyte- 
 rians from the north of Ireland, as many as 6000 to 8000 per 
 year. Many were poor, without money even to pay for their 
 passages, and were sold out to service in the Delaware River 
 for a term of years. This supplied abundant labor but the 
 influx was not looked upon with much favor by the Phila- 
 delphians. Problems of illiteracy and sanitation demanded 
 much attention. A tax of 40 shillings per head was passed 
 on all aliens imported. The Germans, as a report to the 
 Assembly asserted, " had purchased and honestly paid for 
 their lands, had conducted themselves respectfully towards 
 the government, paid their taxes readily and were a sober 
 and honest people in their religious and civil duties." Yet 
 they would use their own language and lived very much to 
 themselves. The Irish moved to the frontiers and their in- 
 considerate treatment of the Indians was already beginning 
 to stir up trouble which developed later. It seemed that the 
 colony would soon contain a foreign population. The fran- 
 chise was however still largely in the hands of the original 
 settlers and their descendants. It was limited to men who 
 owned 50 acres of land or had an income of 50 pounds a 
 year. This was probably the most liberal of all the colonial 
 laws and far more so than those of England; but it tended 
 to continue a literate and hereditary electorate. The As- 
 sembly was constituted of 26 members, eight from each of 
 the three original counties of Chester, Philadelphia, and 
 Bucks and two from the city. As these country districts 
 were almost exclusively Friendly a large majority of, and 
 
JAMES LOGAN 145 
 
 frequently all, its members belonged to the governing sect. 
 When new counties were admitted (Lancaster being the first 
 in 1729) they were accorded a smaller representation and 
 this was not increased as their population grew. This in 
 time constituted a real grievance. 
 
 There were no infractions of religious liberty and no the- 
 ological tests for suffrage except such as were imposed by 
 the English Crown. It was a time of great distrust of 
 Roman Catholics on account of their supposed allegiance 
 to the exiled Stuart family and the French interests. St. 
 Joseph's Church had been built in the city and mass was 
 openly celebrated there contrary to English law. The 
 Council however decided that Pennsylvania was an excep- 
 tion and that all sects were protected by the charter. Le- 
 gally the position of the Council was probably indefensible 
 but the matter was allowed to rest. 
 
 The Friends by this time had outgrown all internal 
 political parties and worked together. They were without 
 question the governing body, and while making no legal 
 discrimination against other religions, by virtue of their 
 personal character and training and their well organized sys- 
 tem, maintained an easy leadership. There is no evidence 
 that they used their ecclesiastical order to advance their 
 political schemes, but their close friendships produced the 
 same effects. How their candidates were selected is not 
 very evident, but probably by an informal meeting of their 
 influential men. An entry of John Smith's diary speaks of 
 such a meeting. To these selections the body of voters 
 seemed to be loyal. A good man in the Assembly was re- 
 elected year after year, for thirty years in the cases of 
 George Ashbridge from Chester County and Isaac Norris 
 2nd from Philadelphia. It was the high water time of 
 Quaker management and they were giving a good account 
 of themselves. The commerce of the colony was develop- 
 
146 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ing at a rapid rate increasing threefold during Gordon's ad- 
 ministration. The problems were those of development and 
 not of dissension. 
 
 In 1731 in succession to David Lloyd, James Logan be- 
 came Chief Justice of the province which post he held for 
 five years. His most notable achievement was a charge de- 
 livered to the Grand Jury in 1736, in which at some length 
 he goes over the functions of government and the duties of 
 juries in keeping public life up to high standards. This 
 was printed in America and England and received much 
 notice. 
 
 In 1736 on the death of Gordon and pending the appoint- 
 ment of a successor Logan as President of the Council be- 
 came nominal head of the government. He accepted the 
 responsibility with great reluctance. *' I am now entering 
 my 63rd year," he writes John Penn the eldest of the propri- 
 etors, " much weakened in all respects and so circumstanced 
 that I am every way unfit for it; and I now greatly blame 
 myself for submitting to it on the governor's decease. But 
 next in standing to me being Samuel Preston, who is yet 
 more weakened by age and too rigidly strict in his profes- 
 sion for government ... I was prevailed upon to accept 
 it, in hopes it might hold only for a few months ; and if not 
 relieved, as I have said, I must relinquish it, let it fall where 
 it will." 
 
 The Council had no legal part in legislation and hence 
 while the Assembly met to advise, no laws were passed for 
 two years, because there was no governor empowered to 
 sign them. Logan, now the chief man of the colony, had 
 charge of all executive duties. The most important of these 
 related to the quarrel with the governor of Maryland over 
 the still undetermined boundary line. A " war " between 
 two sherififs' posses resulted in one man being killed on 
 each side and a number being placed in jail. This might 
 
JAMES LOGAN 147 
 
 have developed further, but an order from the King was 
 sent over which resulted in a temporary peace and the re- 
 lease of all prisoners. No lands were to be granted by 
 either province in the disputed territory till further orders. 
 
 The great speech of Andrew Hamilton, the first lawyer 
 of the colony, not a Friend, is the best testimony to the 
 happy conditions in 1739 when he gave up the speakership. 
 
 Logan desired that John Penn should succeed to the gov- 
 ernorship. He distrusted Thomas's ability to get along 
 with the people. " If it is so ordered," he writes John, " I 
 shall very heartily wish it may prove to his own and all 
 your satisfaction; yet I have too much reason to doubt of 
 it. An open freedom and plainness, or an effectual appear- 
 ance of it I take to be absolutely necessary to a governor." 
 
 But George Thomas was appointed in 1738. He was not 
 a Quaker and did not understand them. There would have 
 been trouble in ordinary times but the Spanish War broke 
 out a year later and the demands of England, unwisely 
 pressed by him upon the Assembly, created the first friction 
 due to a martial cause since 1712. The Friends by this 
 time had settled down into the policy of refusal to force 
 any one to fight, Quaker or non-Quaker, or to levy taxes 
 ostensibly for war purposes. They would not interfere 
 with voluntary enlistments, and they would vote money 
 " for the King's use " even when they knew that some of it 
 would go for martial purposes. Governor Thomas mis- 
 reported them to England and proposed that they should be 
 kept out of government by the requirement of an official 
 oath. He declined to sign bills because they did not em- 
 brace military appropriations and because they did not 
 raise the money as he desired, and they opposed him by re- 
 fusing him a salary. The proprietors were now on his side 
 and the military spirit of the non-Quakers of the city was 
 rising. The Germans who loved neither taxes nor war 
 
148 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 voted for their friends and the Assembly was steadily sup- 
 ported by the electors. 
 
 The contest is explained elsewhere.^ We will here con- 
 fine ourselves to James Logan's part. He had not changed 
 his views on the morality of defensive war since he came 
 over with William Penn in 1699. Up to this time there 
 had seemed no occasion to diverge openly from the stand 
 taken by other Friends. Now the issue was more clearly 
 drawn and in 1741 he addressed a letter to the Yearly Meet- 
 ing. In this he admits that the unlawfulness of all war ac- 
 cording to Christian standards is a well-understood prin- 
 ciple of Friends and always has been. Nevertheless as all 
 government is founded on force there are conditions when 
 this force must be drilled and armed. While Friends trust 
 that having done their duty, by means which they consider 
 moral, Providence will protect them, they do not observe 
 Christ's other precepts but lay up treasures on earth in 
 which they have been so successful that the province would 
 now be a choice prey for an invader. Only one-third of the 
 people are Friends and others are clamoring for defense, 
 and finally he urges that those who for conscience' sake can- 
 not join to protect the province should decline to be can- 
 didates for official position. The paper was referred to a 
 committee which reported that it related to governmental 
 matters and was not suitable to be read in their meeting. 
 
 A letter from Richard Peters to John Penn says that 
 when the report of the committee was presented Robert 
 Strettell - alone in the meeting stated that owing to the im- 
 portance of their old member, whose life evinced his attach- 
 ment to the Society, the refusal to read the letter would 
 alienate himself and English Friends, but someone plucked 
 
 1 See Isaac Norris and John Kinsey. 
 
 2 A few years later Robert Strettell was disowned for arming his 
 ship. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 149 
 
 him by the coat and told him " Sit thee down, Robert, thou 
 art single (alone) in this matter." 
 
 The matter produced some discussion. It was pointed 
 out that it was not the fact of force but the methods of 
 force, that was objected to and that the police agent used 
 his for the protection not the destruction of Society, and 
 did not engage in the cruelties attendant on warfare. That 
 the Friends did not represent the whole province was an- 
 swered in the next election by returning the old house, even 
 from districts not much inhabited by Friends. " In the 
 most remote county of this province," says a Meeting re- 
 port " at the last election all the representatives returned to 
 serve in the Assembly were of our Society ; and though those 
 in the opposition to Friends were very active yet of 1150 
 freeholders that voted (in which there were not above 20 
 Friends) they could prevail with scarce 200 to join them." 
 
 James Logan was also out of sympathy with Friends in 
 the matter of lotteries. For some unexplained reason they 
 had got about a century ahead of general public sentiment 
 in opposing them and had gone so far as to disown members 
 who bought tickets or managed a raffle. Since about 1720 
 their utterances were very definite and later, while other 
 bodies were building universities and churches, court houses 
 and jails and public improvements in general from their 
 proceeds, they remained aloof. In 1747 Logan joined with 
 Benjamin Franklin and others in establishing a great lottery 
 from the proceeds of which a battery was to be erected on 
 the Delaware River for defense, and he directed that any 
 profits assigned to him should go directly to the support of 
 the battery. 
 
 The last decade of his life was spent at Stenton, where 
 he exercised boundless hospitality, engaged in classical and 
 scientific studies and writings, and was consulted on pub- 
 lic affairs. In 1729 he had a fall which broke his thigh and 
 made him a cripple for the rest of his life. 
 
150 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANL^ 
 
 His residence, the best specimen of a colonial home still 
 standing, was built in 1728 on his tract of 500 acres near 
 what is now Wayne Junction on the Philadelphia and Read- 
 ing Railroad. In the main room of the second story, sur- 
 rounded by his books he spent his time, the grand old man 
 of the colony, respected by all. While differing from his 
 coreligionists on certain ethical matters and taking but 
 little part in church affairs, he had great sympathy with 
 their spiritual attitude in all religious concerns. His fam- 
 ily, more Friendly than himself, retained a close associa- 
 tion with the leading Friends of the city and formed a part 
 of that delightful society of religious and intellectual souls 
 so pleasantly described by John Smith. 
 
 Outside of his denomination he had the hearty respect of 
 all. Benjamin Franklin looked up to him for advice and 
 aid, which was not very generously reciprocated. He was 
 a leading factor in founding the school which afterwards de- 
 veloped into the University of Pennsylvania, and was 
 Overseer of the '' Public Schools " founded by the Charter 
 of William Penn. To him repaired the men responsible for 
 the affairs of the province to consult concerning legislation 
 and measures of finance and management, for his most in- 
 timate knowledge of all the details of the history of the 
 province and his acquaintance with the Penn family, to- 
 gether with his steady judgment made him an unrivalled 
 authority in all colonial concerns. The sons of William 
 Penn trusted him as implicitly as did their father and he 
 gave them good advice with a free hand. His own success 
 in trade made him independent of any financial payments 
 from them, which suited their rather penurious habits. No 
 charge of misappropriation or cupidity was ever made 
 against him, indeed his services to William Penn were ever 
 generous. Indians by the hundreds for days at a time 
 camped on his place, in grounds especially set apart for 
 
JAMES LOGAN 151 
 
 them, to receive his advice and largesses. Stenton was a 
 center of the intellectual, social and political life of the 
 city. 
 
 His intellectual interests were varied. He conducted ex- 
 periments on the fertilization of plants and announced re- 
 sults verified by modern science. These were published in 
 Latin in Leyden and London. He investigated and wrote 
 upon the angular appearance of lightning and the cause of 
 the apparent increase of sun and moon near the horizon. 
 When Thomas Godfrey was working out his trade as painter 
 and glazier at Stenton, the idea which afterwards developed 
 into the sextant for finding latitude at sea occurred to him. 
 Logan wrote this up for the Royal Society and elsewhere, 
 but the reward for the discovery was given to Hadley. 
 Other scientific publications in Latin followed at intervals. 
 Linnaeus in recognition of his botanical knowledge named 
 an order of trees and shrubs the Loganacece. 
 
 But the Latin Classics constituted his favorite study and 
 his most distinguished publication was his translation of 
 Cicero's De Senectiite, which was printed by Franklin. 
 
 His long correspondence with his old-time rival but after- 
 wards fast friend Thomas Story has been printed. Thomas 
 Story was a much esteemed minister among Friends who 
 after fourteen years spent in Pennsylvania moved to Eng- 
 land where he was closely associated with William Penn in 
 his later years and lived to an old age. The letters relate 
 to many scientific, philosophical and religious subjects, in- 
 dicating serious study on the part of both. It is interesting 
 to note a statement of Thomas Story, written in 1738. " I 
 spent some months at Scarborough, attending the meetings, 
 at whose high cliffs and the great variety of strata therein, 
 and their present positions I further learned and was con- 
 firmed in some things; and that the earth is of much older 
 date as to the beginning of it than the time assigned in the 
 
152 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Holy Scriptures, as commonly understood, which is suited 
 to the common capacities of the human kind, as to five days 
 progressive work; by which I understand certain long and 
 competent periods of time and not natural days." This 
 may have been the beginning of the attempted harmony of 
 Genesis and Geology. 
 
 James Logan spent much time and money in collecting 
 the most scholarly library, certainly in the province, pos- 
 sibly in America. It was his regret as he writes Thomas 
 Story '' that my considerable collection of Greek and Roman 
 authors, with others in various languages will not find an 
 heir in my family to use them when I have gone." Some 
 time before his death he determined to give them to the 
 city as the nucleus of a public library, and in his will, writ- 
 ten two years before he died, he says : 
 
 " In my library which I have left to the city of Philadel- 
 phia for the facilitating and advancement of classical learn- 
 ing are about one hundred authors in folio all in Greek with 
 mostly their versions ; all the Roman classics without excep- 
 tion; all the old Greek mathematicians, viz., Archimedes, 
 Euclid and Ptolemy. . . . Besides these are many of the 
 most valuable Latin authors, and a great number of modern 
 mathematicians, with all the three editions of Newton, Dr. 
 Halley, Wallis, etc." He bequeathed this library of 3000 
 volumes together with an endowment for its increase and the 
 salary of the librarian to the city of Philadelphia. It 
 formed the Loganian Library, which later was included in 
 the Philadelphia Library. 
 
 The annalist Watson says, " James Logan was tall and 
 well-proportioned with a graceful yet grave demeanor. He 
 had a good complexion and was quite florid even in old age ; 
 nor did his hair which was brown turn grey in the decline 
 of life, nor his eyes require spectacles. According to the 
 custom of the times he wore a powdered wig. His whole 
 
JAMES LOGAN I53 
 
 demeanor was dignified so as to abash impertinence; yet 
 he was kind and strictly just in all the duties of acquaint- 
 ance and society." 
 
 William Black, a Virginia visitor at Stenton, gives a 
 somewhat different story. " I was very much surprised at 
 the appearance of so charming a woman (his daughter 
 Hannah) where the seeming moroseness and goutified 
 Father's appearance promised no such beauty, though it 
 must be allowed the man seemed to have some remains of a 
 handsome enough person and a complection beyond his 
 years for he was turned 70." 
 
 He died October 31st, 1751, having just entered his 77th 
 year, having for a half century placed his impress deeply on 
 the history of Pennsylvania. 
 
 James Logan had seven children, three of whom died 
 young. Sarah Logan in 1739 married Isaac Norris, the 
 Speaker, of whom James Logan says that he was the most 
 learned man in the colony except Richard Peters, the Rector 
 of Christ Church. Their daughter Mary married John 
 Dickinson. 
 
 William Logan was sent to England under the care of his 
 uncle Dr. William Logan of Bristol to be educated. He be- 
 came a member of the Council, succeeded his father in care 
 of the Penn estates, and was the heir to Stenton. As Coun- 
 cillor he stood out alone in 1756 in opposition to a declara- 
 tion of war against the Indians. His life indicates a closer 
 association with the Friends and more complete sympathy 
 with their moral positions than his father. His son was Dr. 
 George Logan, a leader in state affairs after the Revolution, 
 a student of agriculture, a Senator of the United States, a 
 lover of peace. When in the closing years of the century 
 there was a prospect of a French war, he went on an un- 
 official visit to Talleyrand and thought that he had large 
 influence in averting it. But Congress passed the " Logan 
 
154 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Act " which made such interference illegal and punishable. 
 Notwithstanding he tried again a few years later with Eng- 
 land but with less success, for the War of 1812 followed. 
 His wife was the accomplished Deborah Norris, niece of 
 the Speaker, to whom all Pennsylvania historians are vastly 
 indebted for the preservation and copying of thousands of 
 pages of Logan Manuscripts. These covering the time for 
 ten years after 1701 are published as "The Penn and Logan 
 Correspondence." She and her husband made Stenton the 
 center of the best life of the republic. Washington, Jeffer- 
 son, Franklin, Randolph and many other leading statesmen 
 during the days when Philadelphia was the capital city were 
 entertained with elegant hospitality and the best of Quaker 
 society. Their son Albanus Logan married the daughter of 
 John Dickinson. 
 
 Hannah Logan married John Smith who kept the Diary^ 
 which gives such an interesting insight into the life of the 
 Quaker group which before the war led the colony in its 
 politics and social life. She became a minister. Her hand 
 was desired by Charles Norris, brother of the Speaker, later 
 the father of Deborah Norris Logan, and the two families 
 lost much of their intimacy on account of John Smith's suc- 
 cess. 
 
 James Logan Jr. left no children. 
 
 When to this complicated family relationship is added the 
 fact that Richard Hill, Samuel Preston and Isaac Norris all 
 married daughters of Thomas Lloyd, that Israel Pemberton 
 Sr. married a sister of the wife of James Logan and their son 
 James a granddaughter of Thomas Lloyd, it will be seen 
 how closely associated by family ties were nearly all the 
 leading men of the " Quaker governing class," a class of 
 which the founders were Thomas Lloyd and James Logan. 
 
 1 See Hannah Logan's Courtship, well edited by Albert Cook 
 Myers, 1904. 
 
JAMES LOGAN 155 
 
 After William Penn, the only two prominent men mentioned 
 in these pages not nearly related to the others were David 
 Lloyd and John Kinsey. 
 
JOHN KINSEY 
 
 After William Penn, no Colonial Quaker had the abso- 
 lute confidence of Friends in church affairs, and at the 
 same time the strong leadership in the state to the extent 
 possessed by John Kinsey. During the last decade of his 
 rather short life he was the clerk of the Yearly Meeting and 
 its most responsible and influential member. He was also 
 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province, 
 Speaker of the Assembly and the undoubted leader of his 
 party in political management. By this time the factions 
 within the Society had practically disappeared. It was one 
 loyal united body in both state and church. The differences 
 which separated Thomas Lloyd and George Keith and later 
 David Lloyd and James Logan were no longer existent. 
 New issues were soon to arise but when John Kinsey came 
 most prominently before the people, there was this calm 
 which had been cemented by about thirty j^ears of peace and 
 prosperity, after the political upheaval of 1710. During 
 this time the memory of the great Founder had grown more 
 and more in the esteem of his people. His government was 
 established in popular regard as a model of liberality and 
 wisdom. His words were quoted and his example pointed 
 to, in settling the problems which arose. 
 
 John Kinsey's grandfather, John Kinsey, was a member 
 of the little band which settled Burlington in 1677. He 
 died a few days after his landing at the Swedish Settlement 
 of Shackamaxon. His standing may be estimated by the 
 fact that he was one of the Commissioners sent by the pro- 
 prietors of West Jersey to guard their interests. His son 
 
 156 
 
JOHN KINSEY 157 
 
 John Kinsey the second was a prominent lawyer. In 1716 
 he was elected to the legislature of New Jersey, of which he 
 was for several years the Speaker. He was also an active 
 and acceptable minister among Friends, traveling exten- 
 sively through the colonies. 
 
 John Kinsey the third had therefore an inheritance of 
 legal and ecclesiastical faculty which he greatly developed 
 in himself. At the same time he had the Quaker discipline 
 of his youth, and a religious tendency in his early days 
 which steadied and utilized his great powers to a life de- 
 voted to public service. 
 
 He was born in Burlington in 1693. He studied law, 
 was elected to the Assembly of New Jersey and became its 
 speaker as the successor to his father. There are too few 
 records of his public life and still less of his private to en- 
 able us to fill up this bare recital. 
 
 The first we hear of him in Philadelphia is in 1725 when 
 he came to plead a case in court before Governor William 
 Keith. He began to speak with his hat on. The governor 
 who should have better informed himself as to Quaker 
 scruples ordered him to take it off. He refused stating that 
 he was acting from conscientious motives. The governor 
 ordered the court officers to remove it and the incident 
 seemed closed. 
 
 But to the Quarterly Meeting it was too vital a matter 
 to be dropped in this way. It was an attack upon their 
 religious liberty as they deemed it and they sent a formal 
 protest to the governor. 
 
 " There is no people more willing than the Friends to pay 
 all due regards to their superiors, to offer all honor to the 
 courts of justice, and in every way consistent with their re- 
 ligious persuasions to pay all deference to their government 
 and king; but when our conception of an individual's per- 
 sonal liberty is trespassed upon, we have openly and firmly 
 borne our testimony against it in all countries and places 
 where our lots have fallen." 
 
158 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Keith was a politic man determined to get along with 
 every one. He could not afford to contest a little point 
 like this with a people so strong in numbers and in influence 
 as the Friends then were and the following entry is found 
 in the recbrds of the court. 
 
 " On consideration of the humble address presented to 
 the Governor this day, read in open court, from the Quar- 
 terly Meeting of the people called Quakers, for the city and 
 county of Philadelphia, it is ordered that the said address 
 be filed with the register, and that it be made a standing 
 rule of the Court of Chancery for the Province of Penn- 
 sylvania, in all time to come, that any person whatsoever, 
 professing himself to be one of the people called Quakers, 
 may and shall be admitted, if they think fit, to speak, or 
 otherwise officiate, and apply themselves decently unto the 
 said courts without being obliged to observe the usual cere- 
 mony of uncovering their heads, by having their hats taken 
 off; and such privilege hereby ordered and granted the 
 people called Quakers shall at no time hereafter be under- 
 stood or interpreted as any contempt or neglect of the said 
 court, but shall be taken only as an act of conscientious 
 liberty, of right appertaining to the religious persuasion of 
 the said people, and agreeable to their practices in all the 
 civil affairs of life." 
 
 To understand why the good Friends of the day made so 
 much of this question of the hat, we must know the condi- 
 tions of the times. During the 17th century men were ac- 
 customed to wear a head covering in the house as well as 
 outside. They took it off only as an honor accorded to per- 
 sons in superior station, and expected those of lower rank 
 to take theirs off to themselves. The regicide judges re- 
 fused to uncover their heads when they tried King Charles 
 and of course he refused to recognize their standing by un- 
 covering his. A century later at the outbreak of the French 
 Revolution the popular Assembly insisted on wearing their 
 hats in the presence of the nobility, as a testimony to their 
 
JOHN KINSEY 159 
 
 equality. The sturdy Puritanism of the early Friends dis- 
 posed of the matter once for all, by uncovering to no one 
 save God, neither to King nor Magistrate, Priest nor Judge. 
 Bitterly they suffered for this testimony to democracy. 
 They went to jail for months at the command of angry 
 judges. William Penn wore his hat before King Charles II 
 and the pleasant monarch, remarking that it was not cus- 
 tomary in that presence for more than one to remain cov- 
 ered, took off his own. Under all circumstances they stood 
 by their convictions, taking all that came of imprisormient, 
 contempt or ridicule. 
 
 It was in 1725 too near this time for the cause to be given 
 away in a Quaker Province, governed by the sons of those 
 who had suffered in England and the meetings unanimously 
 accepted the challenge. Afterwards no Quaker lawyer or 
 witness was required to remove his hat during colonial days, 
 
 John Kinsey moved to Philadelphia in 1730 at the age 
 of 37 and the same year was made clerk of Philadelphia 
 Yearly Meeting. He was the strong and useful man of 
 the body and held the place till his death 20 years later. 
 
 The records of the meeting for these twenty years are 
 full of John Kinsey's work. His name was scarcely ever 
 absent from any important committee. The literary work 
 of Friends of this time, including the London Epistles, the 
 collection of minutes for the new discipline, the epistles to 
 subordinate meetings, was very largely done by him. Dur- 
 ing most of the time he was engaged in gathering materials 
 for writing a history of the early days of the province, which 
 material afterwards passed into the hands of Samuel Smith, 
 He was the medium through whom the decisions of the 
 meeting were conveyed to the public, as, note for instance, 
 the following minute of 1738: 
 
 " John Kinsey was ordered to draw an advertisement to 
 be printed in the newspapers of Philadelphia, in order to 
 
i6o POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 inform all whom it may concern that the book lately pub- 
 lished by Benjamin Lay was not published by approbation 
 of Friends ; that he is not in unity with us, and that his book 
 contains false charges as well against particular persons of 
 our Society as against Friends in general." 
 
 Equally prompt was the State of Pennsylvania to demand 
 his services. On the 20th of January, 1731, the sheriff 
 asked admittance to the Assembly with the message: " In 
 pursuance of a writ of the said sheriff, directed by the 
 honorable the governor of the Province, John Kinsey, Gen- 
 tleman, the day and year above mentioned was elected a 
 representative in the Legislature to serve in the General As- 
 sembly of Pennsylvania this present year, in room of David 
 Potts,^ lately deceased." On the next day John Kinsey took 
 his seat which he held, with one slight intermission, to his 
 death and after 1739 was Speaker. 
 
 As with the Meeting so with the Legislature John Kinsey 
 immediately became the important member, drawing up 
 bills and addresses to the Governor, acting on committees, 
 as trustee of public funds and real estate, as witness that the 
 great seal was properly attached to laws and wherever good 
 sense and legal training could serve the public interests. 
 For several years he was in addition Attorney-General of 
 the Province. 
 
 So matters went on till 1739 when Andrew Hamilton re- 
 signed the Speakership, tired of its responsibilities and 
 duties, and his faithful and unrewarded attention to the 
 building of the State House. He had handed in his final 
 accounts, and made his great farewell speech, perhaps the 
 best resume of Pennsylvania Colonial conditions ever given. 
 There was no doubt that John Kinsey should be his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 ^ David Potts was a Friend and an ancestor of Theodore Roose- 
 velt. 
 
JOHN KINSEY i6i 
 
 On October 15, 1739 the Assembly met and " by a major- 
 ity vote " made John Kinsey Speaker. The same day they 
 presented him to the Governor, George Thomas, an ap- 
 pointee of the Penn Family, who expressed in the formal 
 way his satisfaction with their choice. He then made the 
 usual requests of the Governor " that the House might have 
 ready access to him at all reasonable times when the public 
 business should require it: that they might enjoy freedom 
 of speech in all their propositions and debates: that the 
 members might be exempted from arrest during the sittings 
 of the Assembly: that the Governor should give no ear to 
 reports touching debates in the House till matters debated 
 on passed into resolves ; and that the Speaker's inadvertent 
 mistakes might be excused. All of which he had requested 
 as the just rights of the Freemen of Pennsylvania: and the 
 Governor was pleased to assure the House that they should 
 be protected in the full use and exercise of the same." 
 
 This little list of legislative privileges represented the 
 gains made in the years by the Quaker Assembly, in secur- 
 ing the independence of the people's representatives from 
 encroachment of the Proprietors and Governor. They were 
 not likely to lose any of it under John Kinsey 's vigorous 
 leadership. 
 
 While they did not know it at the time the easy days of 
 Quaker control were about at an end. They were to struggle 
 along in the midst of wars and rumors of wars for some sev- 
 enteen years longer, but against an ever increasing opposi- 
 tion from the Proprietors on one side and the militant portion 
 of the population on the other. While John Kinsey was 
 alive they fought the battle successfully in the legislative 
 halls and at the polls. The contest began on the day fol- 
 lowing the choice of John Kinsey as Speaker. 
 
 About the same time that John Kinsey took up the 
 Speakership, George Thomas was made Lieutenant-Gov- 
 
1 62 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 erndr under the Penns. He knew very little about the char- 
 acter of the people whom he came from the West Indies to 
 govern, but he was a man of ability and resources. If he 
 had been appointed a few years earlier in the times of peace 
 he might have quietly adjusted himself to the conditions; 
 but, unfortunately, Spain and England, as a result of differ- 
 ences centering in the West Indies, concluded to have a war, 
 and Thomas was keen to support his royal master. The 
 two men, Kinsey and Thomas, were pitted against each 
 other as the leaders of the contest which was to follow. 
 Whether we consider skill in disputations or in political 
 management, the end of the struggle did not find the Quaker 
 leader at any disadvantage. 
 
 The contest began when, in October, 1739, Governor 
 Thomas sent a message to the Assembly, suggesting that 
 they make an appropriation to protect the province against 
 attack and assist the king. The Assembly took the mat- 
 ter into serious consideration, and explained in a some- 
 what lengthy preface that they were all loyal subjects, lov- 
 ers of religious liberty, and that one of the principal motives 
 which had brought them and their ancestors to the Province 
 was the full enjoyment of liberty of conscience which was 
 granted to them by their great charter, and which the pro- 
 prietor had pledged himself and his successors " according 
 to the true intent and meaning thereof, should be kept and 
 remain without any alterations inviolably forever." And 
 then they add, " It is not unknown most of them were of 
 the people called Quakers, and principaled against bearing 
 arms in any case whatsoever." They admit that the cir- 
 cumstances have changed, and that a great many who have 
 come in since think it to be their duty to fight in defense of 
 their country, families and estates. These also have the 
 same right of liberty of conscience with themselves. They 
 do not condemn the use of arms in others, but they ob- 
 
JOHN KINSEY 163 
 
 ject to any law which would compel a man to bear arms 
 against his conscience; and they add that a law which 
 forces other people to bear arms and relieves the Quakers 
 would be inconsistent and partial. Then they make a sug- 
 gestion to the Governor, which, if he had been wise, he would 
 have adopted and dropped the matter. They point out that 
 the Charter gave him ample authority to raise a troop him- 
 self, and that they did not propose to interfere with his ac- 
 tions in this respect, provided he did not trample upon any- 
 one's conscience. The clause of the Charter granting this 
 authority, which William Penn accepted, it may be inter- 
 esting to note : 
 
 " To the Proprietor aforesaid, his Heirs and Assigns, by 
 themselves or their Captains, or other of their OflScers, to 
 levy, muster, and train all sorts of Men of what Condition 
 soever or wheresoever born in the said Province of Penn- 
 sylvania for the time being, and to make Warr and to pur- 
 sue the Enemies and Robbrs aforesaid as well by Sea as by 
 Land, even without the Limits of the said Province, and by 
 God's Assistance to vanquish and take them, and being 
 taken to put them to Death by the Law of Warr, or to save 
 them at their Pleasure; and to do all, and every other thing 
 which unto the Charge and Office of a Captain General of 
 an Army belongeth, or hath accustomed to belong, as fully 
 and freely as any Captain General of an Army hath ever 
 had the same." 
 
 They wound up their address by the pious reflection: 
 
 " Not doubting but that Wee shall share in that Protec- 
 tion Our Gracious Sovereign denys not even to the meanest 
 of his Subjects; And having at the same time a due de- 
 pendence on that Power which not only calms the raging 
 Waves of the Sea, but sets Limits beyond which they can- 
 not pass; And remembering the Words of the sacred Text, 
 That * Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh 
 but in vain.' " 
 
i64 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 We find in this paper several interesting indications of 
 the state of feeling among Friends on the subject of war at 
 this date. One was that they were unequivocally opposed 
 to all war under all circumstances; another, that they had 
 no words of condemnation for those who from good motives 
 thought and acted differently, and thirdly, that if they did 
 their duty their reliance was upon a divine Providence who 
 would order the matter aright. 
 
 The Governor was not disposed to recede from the con- 
 test. In an epistle equally lengthy he called their attention 
 to the fact that they were representatives of the whole 
 people; that he had no right to look into their personal re- 
 ligious persuasions, but that it was their duty as representa- 
 tives to protect a rich Province from invaders. He did not 
 wish to infringe any of their consciences, nor to introduce 
 persecution, for he himself was a great friend of liberty. 
 " But," he said, " as the world is now circumstanced, no 
 purity of heart or set of religious principles will protect us 
 from the enemy." The Assembly had recognized this in 
 the institution of courts and juries. He told them that they 
 would condemn " little rogues " to death for breaking into 
 their houses and yet they would not use similar means on a 
 larger scale for meeting the more organized attacks upon 
 their property. He had not been unaware of the privileges 
 granted to him by the Charter, and the very fact that Wil- 
 liam Penn was willing to accept the powers of a Captain- 
 General under this Charter indicated his opinions as to the 
 necessity of bearing arms in defense of his government. 
 Then he puts in a little attack at their trusting in Provi- 
 dence and unwillingness to exert themselves. He says: 
 
 " Every Man that acknowledges the Superintendence of 
 one Supreme Being in the Affairs of the World, must be sen- 
 sible that without His Blessing all we do will come to noth- 
 ing; and yet we build, we plant, we sow, and w^e send Ships 
 
JOHN KINSEY 165 
 
 to Sea, concluding that these are necessary means for 
 accomplishing the Ends desired. But that we should do 
 all these, and at the same time expect that God shall fight 
 our Battles, without preparing ourselves the necessary 
 means for our Defence, I confess can be no more recon- 
 ciled to my understanding than that Because the Lord stills 
 the raging Waves of the Sea, the Seaman may therefore 
 leave the Sails of the Ship standing, and go to sleep in a 
 storm; Or that Watchmen are therefore unnecessary, be- 
 cause Except the Lord keep the City the Watchmen waketh 
 but in vain." 
 
 The Assembly returned to the attack, and article by ar- 
 ticle, replied to the Governor's address. They showed that 
 their position inland from the sea, protected by friendly 
 colonies to the north, east and south, made them in no dan- 
 ger of being attacked. Consequently the Governor's argu- 
 ment for the need of defense had no bearing on the case. 
 They will not admit the justice of the comparison between 
 the " little rogue " and the " great invaders." Their argu- 
 ment is this: 
 
 " And yet it is Easy to discover the Difference between 
 killing a Soldier, fighting (perhaps) in Obedience to the 
 Commands of his Sovereign, and who may, possibly, think 
 himself in the Discharge of his Duty, and executing a 
 Burglar who broke into our House, plundered us of our 
 Goods, and perhaps would have murdered too, if he could 
 not otherwise have accomplished his Ends, who must know 
 at the Time of the Commission of the Fact, It was a viola- 
 tion of Laws human and divine, and that he thereby justly 
 rendered himself obnoxious to the Punishment which en- 
 sued." 
 
 They would evidently have made a stronger case if their 
 attitude toward capital punishment had permitted them to 
 say something more of the sacredness of human life; but, 
 having just enacted laws inflicting the penalty of death for 
 burglary, rape, counterfeiting and other crimes, they could 
 
1 66 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 hardly say that they had any objection to the taking of life 
 per se. They believe, however, that an Almighty Power 
 does superintend the government of the world, and that He 
 will protect the principles of religion which are agreeable to 
 His will. As to William Penn's being a believer in war, they 
 state, with some sarcasm, that they probably know as much 
 about his opinions as the Governor does. They say, " he 
 not only professed himself a Quaker, and wrote in their fa- 
 vor, but particularly against war and fighting." As to the 
 comparison between the preparation for storms at sea and 
 harvests on land, and self-defense in the time of danger, 
 their argument is: 
 
 " By a law almost as old as the Creation, Building, Plant- 
 ing, Sowing, and other parts of Agriculture became neces- 
 sary for the Sustenance of Life ; And so to those who would 
 traffick in Parts beyond the Seas, Ships and Seamen were 
 requisite ; the Nature of whose undertaking obliged them to 
 Industry in discharge of their Duty as well as for their own 
 Safety, and not attended with any Injury to others; But 
 because we may lawfully build, plant, sow, or send Ships 
 to Sea, or that because it is necessary for Seamen to take 
 care of a Ship in a storm, that therefore it is not inconsist- 
 ent with Christianity to defend ourselves at the Expense of 
 the Lives of our Fellow-Creatures, tho' our Enemies, is not 
 equally evident to us; And yet if others think the Argu- 
 ments forcible, such have their Liberty." 
 
 The Governor, in a couple of days, returned to the attack. 
 He reproved them for their acrimony, which, he says, he 
 little expected from men of their principles, and declares 
 he will not engage in the discussion in that spirit. He 
 thanks them sarcastically for their description of the geog- 
 raphy of the Province, which he intimates he is not en- 
 tirely unacquainted with. And then he again takes up the 
 question of the burglar where he evidently thinks he has a 
 point: 
 
JOHN KINSEY 167 
 
 " If a Burglar acts contrary to the Laws of Christianity 
 and of the land in breaking open your Houses, and by those 
 Laws you are justified in putting him to Death; and if a 
 soldier acts contrary to the Laws of Christianity (as he does 
 according to your own principles) and the Laws of Nations, 
 in plundering your Houses and murdering your Families, it 
 will be difficult to shew why you may not as justly put the 
 latter to Death as the former. The Will of the Prince, or 
 the mistake of the Soldier, can have nothing to do in de- 
 termining the moral Good or Evil of the Action." 
 
 He points to their early appropriation of money for the 
 King's use in manifest response to a demand for war funds, 
 and admitting that he does not know very much about Wil- 
 liam Penn's writings, he adds: 
 
 " As Actions are the best Evidences of a Man's Thoughts, 
 your first Proprietor's acceptance of a Military Charge, his 
 devolving it upon his Lieutenants, and his Commission to 
 a Person to command a Fort at Newcastle, which I have 
 under his own Hand writing, are sufficient Proofs to me of 
 his Opinion; and tho' I have a very high Regard for that 
 Gentleman's character, render it altogether unnecessary to 
 examine his Writings, if he has wrote on that subject." 
 
 He replies in conclusion: 
 
 " For I believe it will be still thought as little consistent 
 with reason to expect we shall be protected from an enemy 
 without preparing the necessary Means for Defence, as it 
 would be to expect Grain without Sowing or Fruit without 
 Planting, and so in other Instances." 
 
 The Assembly contented itself with a general reply to 
 this, stating that they had no delight in controversy; that 
 they did not believe the Province was in danger; that the 
 early appropriations of money for warlike purposes did not 
 prove their utility ; that they were steadfastly loyal to King 
 George, and that on the basis of these well-known principles 
 
168 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 had always enjoyed the protection of the Crown, and that 
 the Province would receive no ill effects from their lack of 
 legislation. 
 
 In the main their argument was that fighting being im- 
 moral in itself was very unlike the preparation for a storm 
 at sea and that they could not do it even for a good cause. 
 
 Then the Governor replies in a final argument, and asks 
 the question which has never been answered: " If your prin- 
 ciples will not allow you to pass a bill for establishing a 
 militia, if they will not allow you to secure the navigation of 
 a river by building a fort, if they will not allow you to pro- 
 vide armies for the defence of the inhabitants, if they will 
 not allow you to raise men for his Majesty's service for dis- 
 tressing an insolent enemy, is it calumny to say your prin- 
 ciples are inconsistent with the ends of government? " 
 
 There was a veiled irony in many of the Assembly's replies 
 which presumably came from the pen of John Kinsey, and 
 which delighted the men who, in the coffee-houses of Phila- 
 delphia, followed the controversy with great interest — as, 
 for instance, when they said that the Province had pros- 
 pered under the Quaker management before Governor 
 Thomas had anything to do with it, and probably would 
 in the future; " though some Governors have been as uneasy 
 and as willing and as ready to find fault and suggest dan- 
 gers as himself." Or again, as the election approached, " If 
 we have committed any mistakes, the time draws near in 
 which our constituents, if they think it necessary, may 
 amend their choice, and the time also draws nigh in which 
 your (councillors' and governor's) mistakes may be 
 amended by a succeeding Governor. Permit us to con- 
 gratulate our country on both." 
 
 During the course of the controversy, parties were grad- 
 ually^ forming, and this thrust and counterthrust of argu- 
 ments were simply appeals to the constituents; for there 
 
JOHN KINSEY 169 
 
 were no editorial comments in the scanty papers of those 
 days by which public opinion was influenced. The argu- 
 ments were passed around by word of mouth or by written 
 manuscript, and in many a coffee house or country tavern, 
 and doubtless also on the steps of the meeting houses after 
 the assembly was dismissed, they were repeated and illus- 
 trated with ever-increasing emphasis. 
 
 That the Governor's threat to drive Friends from the As- 
 sembly was not purely an empty one, is shown by a letter 
 which he wrote to the English Government, considerably 
 misrepresenting the situation, and recommending that all 
 Quakers be made ineligible to official situations. This was 
 intended to be private, but a friend of the Assembly got 
 possession of it in England, and sent a copy to Philadelphia. 
 Great was the wrath of the men who for half a century had 
 felt themselves responsible for the conduct of affairs, and 
 under whose management had developed the most thriving 
 Province of the new world. 
 
 The " Gentlemen's Party," which was the title that the 
 Governor's friends took to themselves, also girded themselves 
 for the contest, and in the fall election of 1742 there was 
 a great street fight in Philadelphia, the actual participants 
 of which were a number of sailors for the Gentlemen's Party 
 and a bunch of hard-fisted Germans for the Quakers. It is 
 unnecessary to add that the Quakers triumphed both in the 
 street contest and at the polls, and rather increased than 
 diminished their great majority in the Assembly. 
 
 They also struck the Governor at another point. He was 
 promised a salary by the Penns, whose agent he was, but 
 this salary had to be voted by the Assembly. During the 
 stringency of the contest the Assembly always forgot to place 
 such an item in their appropriation bills, and for several 
 years he nursed his wrath in poverty. But being now beaten 
 at the polls, he showed signs of yielding. He signed a bill 
 
I70 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 which he had hitherto opposed, and a little salary was 
 granted him. He signed another and the Assembly began to 
 feel still more generous. Finally he gave way altogether, 
 and all his arrears were paid. He got along very pleasantly 
 with the Assembly during the rest of his official career. He 
 was completely tamed. 
 
 The net results of the contest were a large increase of lib- 
 erty for the people of Pennsylvania; the perfect mainte- 
 nance of their anti-martial principles; the defeat of the 
 Gentleman's Party at their own political game; the increas- 
 ing strength among the people of the Quaker leaders in gov- 
 ernment; the triumph of economy and simplicity in the 
 management of public affairs. John Kinsey's letters, full 
 on the one hand of pious reflection, and on the other, of 
 adroit political argument, had carried the day. The " Coun- 
 try Party," as his friends were generally called, had become 
 supreme. One by one the claims of the proprietors — who 
 were now farming Pennsylvania for what they could get 
 from it, in a very different spirit from that of their high- 
 minded father — were cut down. The possibility of gaining 
 political ends without the sacrifice of principles was begin- 
 ning to answer the taunt of Governor Thomas that their 
 theories were inconsistent with government. In 1747 Ben- 
 jamin Franklin writes of the Friends as " that wealthy and 
 powerful body of people who have ever since the war gov- 
 erned our elections and filled almost every seat in the As- 
 sembly." Evidently they were good politicians, and the 
 contest with the Governor had resulted in a strengthening of 
 their lines. 
 
 The Spanish War did not last long, but others came. The 
 Governor used his authority as Captain-General to organ- 
 ize a voluntary force said by Franklin to consist of 10,000 
 men. On this the Assembly took no action. The Assembly 
 frequently reminded the Governor that they were unable to 
 
JOHN KINSEY 171 
 
 vote any money for warlike purposes, and personally would 
 contribute nothing in the way of service, but that they were 
 loyal subjects of the King and acknowledged their obliga- 
 tions to aid in his government. The effect of this course was 
 to save their fellow-members in the Province from compul- 
 sory military service, and from direct war taxes. They 
 thus shielded the consciences of sensitive Friends, preserved 
 their charter from Court attack, broke down the worst evils 
 of proprietary pretensions, and secured large additions of 
 liberty. Whether or not the partial sacrifice of principle, 
 if so it was, was too high a price for these advantages, was 
 differently decided in those days, and will be to-day. An 
 unbending course would have but hastened the inevitable 
 crisis. 
 
 Matters went on in this unsettled way through the re- 
 maining years of John Kinsey's Speakership. The As- 
 sembly would appropriate money " for the King's use " and 
 the King through the Governor would use it for warlike 
 purposes, as all taxes in all lands have been used. If there 
 were a direct tax asked for a definite military purpose it 
 would be refused. Up to 1750 the Friends under Kinsey's 
 leadership were reasonably consistent. Afterwards the dif- 
 ficulties increased and after 1756 they gave it up and re- 
 fused membership in the Assembly . 
 
 On the death of David Lloyd in 1731 the position of Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court was offered to Isaac Norris 
 the elder who declined. James Logan was then appointed 
 and he held the post till 1739. Jeremiah Langhorne fol- 
 lowed him till 1743 when John Kinsey was appointed and 
 with him the line of Quaker Chief Justices ended. There 
 is so little one can glean from the records of the doings of 
 any of these men in this capacity that the history of the 
 court and the competency of the Justices is largely a matter 
 of inference. Logan never had a serious legal education 
 
172 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 and probably this was not demanded by the times. Kinsey 
 was a lawyer of great learning, skill and probity and the 
 honor of the court doubtless did not suffer in his hands. 
 
 During these years he performed other public services of 
 value. The continuous discussion with Maryland over the 
 Boundary Line developed finally into a " war." A militia 
 captain and surveyor in the interests of Lord Baltimore and 
 Governor Ogle drew around him a band of ruffians and in 
 1730 made an invasion into York County driving out those 
 who claimed allegiance to the Penn government. John Kin- 
 sey and Samuel Preston were appointed Commissioners to 
 visit the Governor, asking that hostilities cease and that a 
 temporary arrangement as to citizenship should be made 
 pending a permanent settlement. Some progress was made 
 but the Maryland commissioner got Governor Ogle away 
 from " the seductive influences of the Pennsylvania Com- 
 mission," and he left town without notice. The Pennsylva- 
 nians came home without accomplishing anything definite, 
 but the " war " did not continue and the way was cleared for 
 the future. 
 
 During the Speakership of John Kinsey a burning ques- 
 tion was the issuance of Bills of Credit to be used as money. 
 This was frowned upon by the Proprietors and by the Eng- 
 lish government, but in a new country which imported so 
 much more than it exported, the gold and silver were drained 
 and the people had to resort to barter, to their great incon- 
 venience. To meet this difficulty the Assembly had author- 
 ized loans upon land and plate of ample security and upon 
 this the bills had been issued. They never depreciated and 
 this could probably be said of the paper money of no other 
 colony. The land was rising in value and when orders 
 came to call in the bills and Governor Thomas presented 
 the directions to a special session of the Assembly there was 
 universal disapproval. They refused to withdraw the bills 
 
JOHN KINSEY 173 
 
 already out and insisted on reissuing them when matured. 
 To issue such bills was the popular method of raising 
 revenue for the Province, and tho in general this was a dan- 
 gerous policy, it was so carefully guarded that it worked 
 well in Pennsylvania. John Kinsey was the great defender 
 of the issue and was for a long time a Trustee of the Loan 
 Office which had charge of it. 
 
 His contest in this matter and his efforts to avert war, 
 made him popular in the province, not only among the 
 Friends and their close supporters but also among the great 
 mass of German voters. In a community with only a few 
 Friends these voters would often select one as their repre- 
 sentative and the Friends always had a three- fourths ma- 
 jority in the legislature. In 1741 in the midst of the con- 
 troversy with Governor Thomas, a serious effort was made 
 to divert these German voters from the Quaker alliance. 
 Conrad Weiser the Indian interpreter, a man of great and 
 deserved influence among them, wrote a serious address 
 telling them how deficient the Friends were in their "render- 
 ing tribute to Caesar " and asked them to send in men who 
 would do as the Governor wanted. The letter was widely 
 circulated but Kinsey's hold was unshaken and the Ger- 
 mans stood faithfully by their old friends. 
 
 The dispute between the Governor, representing the Pro- 
 prietors, and the Assembly became in time very complicated. 
 The Governor wanted money for war with the French and 
 Indians. The Assembly refused. He wanted any money 
 " for the King's use " raised by taxes. They demanded 
 Bills of Credit. He wanted the Proprietors' property ex- 
 cluded from all taxation. They insisted that such property 
 should stand with others. He wanted his salary. They de- 
 clined to vote it while he was unsatisfactory to them. They 
 demanded a knowledge of his instructions for they were 
 tired of working in the dark. He declined to show them. 
 
174 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 They wanted to have complete political rights even though 
 they would not swear or fight. He insisted that such prin- 
 ciples were subversive of government. They demanded 
 pay to the masters for the indentured servants who had 
 joined the militia without serving their full time. He 
 balked seriously at the suggestion. Through this complex 
 maze of difficult problems, John Kinsey steered his party 
 wisely, unitedly and victoriously. 
 
 John Kinsey had his share in making the honorable his- 
 tory of the treatment of the Indians by the Friends of Penn- 
 sylvania. The days of trustfulness by the red men were 
 over. They had seen too much of the vices and greed of 
 the settlers to repose entire confidence in them. They had 
 learned too that there were two tribes of white men, the 
 French and the English who were eagerly bidding for their 
 friendship. They were inclined to keep peace with their 
 neighbors of the Province and good treatment would cement 
 this inclination into an indissoluble bond. The Quaker 
 Assembly voted willingly large appropriations for Indian 
 presents. It meant also not to allow settlers on their lands, 
 and to keep fire-water from them. But the Penns and the 
 Governor wanted their land for sale to settlers and cheated 
 and debauched the Indians to secure some infamous titles. 
 The iniquitous '' Walking Purchase " of 1737 and the en- 
 forced banishment of the Minisink Indians from their an- 
 cestral home in the " Forks of the Delaware " gave a very 
 ugly complexion to Indian attitude. Had the Quaker As- 
 sembly had their way, the desolating wars preceding the 
 Revolution would have almost certainly been avoided and 
 the seventy years of peace been extended by twenty more. 
 
 It would have been better for the Indians if a white man 
 had never set foot upon the Province. Their conversion to 
 Christianity, which had been cherished by Penn and his 
 friends as a solution of the race question had practically 
 
JOHN KINSEY 175 
 
 been abandoned. It was better to feed them than to fight 
 them but white avarice and white disease were fast demor- 
 alizing them. They had not learned to take kindly to reser- 
 vations, and were powerless against the oncoming flood of 
 settlers. The Quaker policy would have purchased their 
 land piecemeal in advance of occupation, and paid them 
 enough to satisfy them, or if they refused to sell would have 
 kept the whites off the land. But the land belonged to the 
 Proprietors, who had none of the broad-minded philan- 
 thropy of their father, and it was necessary to patch up the 
 holes made by their short-sighted diplomacy in the Indian 
 relations. 
 
 Their arrangements had been almost wholly with the 
 Algonquin tribes of the Province. But about the time of 
 John Kinsey's prominence it became evident that the Iro- 
 quois of New York were to become a factor in affairs. They 
 claimed the sovereignty over the Pennsylvania Indians, 
 were sworn friends of the whites and had resisted both the 
 force and the bribes of the French. They had saved New 
 York from an invasion from Canada, and all the colonies 
 looked upon them with hope as a bulwark against French 
 aggression. They must be liberally supplied with every- 
 thing the Indian heart could desire. Conrad Weiser and the 
 Governor hoped also that they could be persuaded to take 
 French scalps in the lake region. 
 
 The first part of the policy was acceptable to the As- 
 sembly but they would not countenance war measures. In 
 response to a request to furnish funds the Assembly replied: 
 " The Governor must be sensible that men of our peace- 
 able principles cannot consistently therewith join in per- 
 suading the Indians to engage in the war. If it be thought 
 there be any real danger of the Indians deserting the British 
 interests and going over to the French, and that to preserve 
 them steady in their friendship further presents are neces- 
 
176 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 sary to secure them in their fidelity to the Crown of Great 
 Britain and amity with the inhabitants of this and the 
 neighboring Colonies, and the Governor can think his health 
 and business will permit his negotiating this affair in per- 
 son, we shall be willing to pay the expense to arise by it. 
 
 " John Kinsey, Speaker. 
 "Fourth month 24th, 1746." 
 
 The Governor however preferred to send a commission to 
 Albany, with John Kinsey at its head, to join with agents of 
 the other colonies in arranging matters with the Six Nations. 
 The New Englanders who felt the brunt of French aggres- 
 sion wanted to force the Iroquois to abandon their role of 
 friendly passivity for active warfare and in this they were 
 encouraged by Conrad Weiser who had gone along as in- 
 terpreter. New York was undecided and Pennsylvania 
 actively hostile to this policy. John Kinsey argued that 
 Pennsylvania had no interest in a war and would not sanc- 
 tion one unless the legislature acted favorably upon it; 
 that such a war would open hostilities upon all the colonies ; 
 that other Indian tribes would be drawn in on one side or 
 the other; that if the Six Nations were persuaded to go to 
 war by white influence it would be cowardly to desert them, 
 and it was quite uncertain what the legislatures would do. 
 New York seems to have been won by these arguments and 
 a divided conference did nothing, which is what John Kin- 
 sey desired. He probably averted a general war, or rather 
 postponed it for a decade. 
 
 John Kinsey's useful life ended suddenly on May 12th, 
 1750, at the age of 57. He had gone to Burlington, his old 
 home, to plead in court and was there seized with a stroke 
 of apoplexy which carried him off in a few hours. 
 
 In John Smith's Journal we find this reference: " The loss 
 of this great and good man occasions a general lamentation 
 
JOHN KINSEY 177 
 
 and to present appearances is irrepairable." In a private 
 letter James Pemberton writes: " John Kinsey was a person 
 of no small consequence to this province, being our Chief 
 Justice, Speaker of the Assembly and in many other public 
 posts, in all of which he acquitted himself with an unblem- 
 ished character, of great skill in the law, and was of great 
 account in the Society, being a person of extensive capacity 
 and completely qualified for a serviceful man. To the ir- 
 reparable loss of the province he died in Burlington in the 
 midst of a cause he was there pleading. He acquired a 
 great share of credit during our contest some time ago 
 with Governor Thomas." These were the views of Friends, 
 and in Franklin's Gazette of May 17th, we have the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 " Friday last died suddenly in Burlington in New Jersey, 
 the Honorable John Kinsey, Esquire, Chief Justice of the 
 Province and Speaker of the General Assembly. His long 
 experience and great ability in the management of public 
 affairs, his skill in the laws and his unblemished integrity 
 as a Judge, made his life a very valuable and useful one. 
 His death is therefore justly lamented as a general loss." 
 
 The Pennsylvania Journal gives a more extended notice: 
 
 " On Friday last died in an apoplectic fit at Burlington in 
 the Colony of New Jersey that truly great man John Kinsey, 
 Esquire, of this city, the place of his birth, and was de- 
 cently interred here on Sunday last. Upon the death of his 
 father who was Speaker of the House of Representatives of 
 that Colony, he was though young chosen a member and 
 Speaker of the House, where he sat from his first election 
 till the dissolution of the Assembly which happened some 
 years after his coming to reside in this place; when the 
 people there very much regretted that a law of the Colony 
 disabled persons not inhabitants from representing them. 
 But his great abilities and unshaken integrity were so con- 
 spicuous that the freemen of this county at the first election 
 after the removal of his family hither made choice of him 
 
178 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 as one of the representatives in the General Assembly of 
 this province and continued him during his life. He would 
 have been immediately chosen Speaker of our honorable 
 house but that the chair was then filled by a gentleman of 
 like abilities and public spirit whom they could not over- 
 look. But that patriot in the year 1738 declining to sit 
 longer in the house and resigning his trust of Public Com- 
 missioner in the Loan Office, Mr. Kinsey was fixed upon as 
 the most proper person to succeed him in both stations in 
 which he continued to the time of his decease. He was the 
 Corypheus of law in this and adjacent provinces, sometimes 
 Attorney General, and in April 1743 to the great joy of the 
 people made Chief Justice of the province and has ever since 
 sat in the Supreme Court with unrivaled reputation; and 
 indeed would have filled with honor the first seat of Justice 
 even in England. His death gave a universal shock to the 
 people. We may without attempting a particular delin- 
 eation of his character justly apply to him what was said 
 of the great and good Sir Matthew Hale in last century, 
 whose spirit he much admired. ' He was one of the greatest 
 patterns this age has afforded whether in his private de- 
 portment as a Christian, or in his public employments as a 
 lawyer, Senator, judge or treasurer.' So that what Horace 
 said of his friend Quintilius will with propriety close the 
 article concerning our late public friend: ' Omnibus ille 
 bonis flebilis occidit.' " 
 
 When John Kinsey died the days of real Quaker control 
 of the government ended. The Legislature remained theirs 
 for six years longer and could have so continued had they 
 not insisted on resigning when the Governor declared war on 
 the Indians. But they had no leader who combined the ab- 
 solute confidence of the meeting with the capacity to mould 
 public opinion and give wise judgment on public affairs. 
 The "Quaker Party " fell largely into the hands of Benjamin 
 Franklin who had sympathy with their demands for politi- 
 cal freedom, but none for their non-military spirit. Their 
 counsels became divided. The successor to John Kinsey as 
 
JOHN KINSEY 179 
 
 Speaker, Isaac Norris, 2nd, perhaps equally able and 
 trusted as a statesman, was more on the fringe of meeting 
 activities. The more strict churchmen were having an in- 
 creasing distrust of the influences of public life and a rift 
 developed between the political and ecclesiastical Quakers 
 which made united action diflBcult. Whether John Kinsey 
 had he lived would have been able to guide Friendly activ- 
 ities in politics in harmony with conscientious Quakerism, 
 is a matter of speculation. But he must be regarded as the 
 last great Quaker political leader. 
 
 There is not much to guide us in forming a judgment of 
 the man apart from his external activities. Like the other 
 great Quaker Chief Justice David Lloyd he left very little 
 in the way of memoranda or letters by which to judge the 
 man. Unlike him however he seems to have made no ene- 
 mies and been open to no damaging charges. He belonged 
 to the social circle in Philadelphia, consisting of the Logans, 
 the Norrises, the Pembertons, the Morrises and others who 
 combined broad intellectual sympathies, with keen business 
 instincts and honest interest in the affairs of state, who 
 were the best group of citizens of the city and most active 
 in all its developments. How much he was esteemed by 
 these is evident from many little references, but by very 
 few direct allusions. 
 
 His home after 1735 was " Plantation," an estate of 23 
 acres fronting the Schuylkill on the east side near Grays 
 Ferry, the site of the present U. S. Naval Hospital. Here 
 he retired when his many duties permitted. About two 
 years before his death, his son John, a youth of great prom- 
 ise, was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun when on 
 a hunting trip for ducks on the Schuylkill. This greatly 
 saddened his last years. 
 
 The minute of the monthly meeting of Philadelphia may 
 conclude this sketch. 
 
1 80 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 " John Kinsey was born in this city about the year 1693. 
 Being endowed with a superior natural capacity and under- 
 standing, he applied himself to the study of the law and 
 became eminent in that profession and distinguished himself 
 in several public stations in this and the adjacent govern- 
 ment (New Jersey) by his integrity, candour and regard to 
 truth and justice, being of an agreeable disposition, easy of 
 access and free to communicate his knowledge for relief of 
 the distressed though engaged in a multiplicity of business. 
 He was remarkably useful and acquired a general good 
 character, and great respect among people of all ranks. In 
 his younger years he was signally visited by the power of 
 truth, by which he was drawn off from the vanities and fol- 
 lies of the world and became serviceable in the church on 
 various accounts. His death was sudden and much la- 
 mented, being seized by an apoplectic fit, during the sitting 
 of a court at Burlington, and departed in a few hours. His 
 corpse w'as brought to his own home in this city, and from 
 thence attended by a great number of people of the sev- 
 eral denominations to our great Meeting House and after 
 to the grave yard on the 13th of 3d mo: 1750 in the 57th 
 year of his age, having been Chief Justice of this province 
 the last seven years of his life." 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2nd 
 
 No one probably stood higher in general esteem and trust 
 during the first quarter of the 18th century in the province 
 of Pennsylvania than Isaac Norris the elder. He was the 
 son of Thomas Norris, or Norrice, a London merchant who 
 joined Friends very early in their history, and was born in 
 London on July 26th, 167L The family emigrated to 
 Jamaica about 1678. In 1692 Isaac Norris went to Phila- 
 delphia probably on business, as there was a large trade de- 
 veloping between Penn's new province and the West Indies. 
 While absent a terrible earthquake shook Port Royal to the 
 ground and all the remaining members of the family were 
 immediately killed or so hurt that death shortly followed. 
 About all that was saved of the property was a large silver 
 dish found floating in the harbor in a cradle which also con- 
 tained a negro child, the daughter of a slave who had died 
 in heroic attempts to save his master. 
 
 When he returned to the ruins of his home and had buried 
 a brother and sister who had survived the immediate shock, 
 he concluded to leave the stricken island for Philadelphia. 
 In 1693 with about £100, all that was left of a flourishing 
 business, a young man of about 21, without near relatives or 
 influential friends he entered into business in Penn's City. 
 
 He was strikingly successful. The conditions of the 
 times afforded an excellent chance for commercial success. 
 The triangular exchange of goods between Pennsylvania, 
 the West Indies and England brought large gains and he 
 was in a condition from previous experience and capacity 
 to profit largely. James Logan calls him " a trader," which 
 
 i8i 
 
1 82 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 probably meant a shrewd and successful man of affairs. 
 James Logan also says of him, " I value his judgment far 
 above any man's in this government (except Samuel Carpen- 
 ter) and he is one of the most excellent of men." In a little 
 time he was one of the wealthiest merchants of the province. 
 William Penn, Jr. had received as a gift from his father a 
 manor on Schuylkill containing 7000 acres. Isaac Norris 
 and William Trent, the founder of Trenton, bought him out 
 and Norris soon after purchased Trent's share. This in- 
 cluded the present Norristown. He also bought several 
 hundred acres in the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia on 
 which he built Fair Hill, for the times a residence of consid- 
 erable pretensions. Pastorius speaks admiringly of it. It 
 is interesting also to read the description of the colonial 
 country seat, by Deborah Logan, a granddaughter of Isaac 
 Norris, giving as it does the life of a wealthy Quaker family, 
 
 " Fairhill built by Isaac Norris upon the same plan as 
 Dolobran (a seat from long antiquity possessed by the 
 Lloyd family in Montgomeryshire, North Wales) , at least 
 as to the ground floor, was finished in 1717, and was at that 
 time the most beautiful seat in Pennsylvania. The sashes 
 for the windows and much of the best work were imported 
 from England. The entrance was into a hall, paved with 
 black and white marble, two large parlors on each side, and 
 an excellent staircase, well lighted. The courts and gardens 
 were in the taste of those times, with gravel walks and 
 parterres. Many lofty trees were preserved round the 
 house, which added greatly to its beauty, and, at the time 
 of my remembrance, the outbuildings were covered with fes- 
 toons of ivy and scarlet bignonia. Isaac Norris had been 
 very prosperous in trade, which at that period offered un- 
 common facilities. His son Isaac Norris the Speaker suc- 
 ceeded his father in the possession of Fairhill, as he did in 
 his talents, abilities, and public usefulness. As he was 
 learned and fond of literature, he collected together a very 
 good and extensive library. It was placed in a low build- 
 ing, consisting of several rooms, in the garden, and was a 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 183 
 
 most delightful retreat for contemplative study; the win- 
 dows curtained with ivy ; the sound of * bees industrious 
 murmur ' from a glass hive which had communication from 
 without, and where their wonderful instinct could be viewed. 
 Beautiful specimens of the fine arts and many curiosities 
 were also collected there, the shelves were filled with the 
 best authors, and materials for writing and drawing at 
 hand. In this place Isaac Norris the Speaker spent all the 
 time that his health would permit which was not devoted 
 to public business." ^ 
 
 Isaac Norris also owned the Slate Roof House, in which 
 William Penn resided from 1699 to 1701. It was situated 
 on the east side of Second Street below Chestnut. He was 
 one of three or four Philadelphians who owned a coach. 
 On it the coat of arms of the family was blazoned. 
 
 His standing if not his fortune was improved by his mar- 
 riage with Mary the third daughter of Thomas Lloyd the 
 Deputy-Governor and Penn's trusted friend. They had 14 
 children, four of whom died in infancy. 
 
 He was for many years a member of the Assembly. In 
 politics he sided wholly with the Proprietor and James 
 Logan, though in such a reasonable way as not to bring 
 upon himself much of the personal opposition which the 
 more pugnacious Logan had to bear. He was one of Wil- 
 liam Penn's most trusted and sagacious advisers, and along 
 
 1 An interesting little piece of by-play is seen in the following 
 minute of Fair Hill meeting with the good natured sarcasm of 
 Isaac Norris's comment. He had proposed an exchange of land 
 with the meeting property and the committee reported : 
 
 "The Friends appointed to view Fair Hill lands report that 
 they have viewed it and considered the proposal made by I. N. 
 of exchanging a piece of Friends lands there, with him, for the 
 like quantity of his which they conceive will not be of advantage 
 to this meeting." To which Isaac Norris added, 
 
 "Because if Isaac Norris keeps his land between German road 
 and the Meeting House always open as he may probably do rather 
 than shut up the way, this meeting will save their own land and 
 get all the use of his for nothing." 
 
1 84 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 with Samuel Carpenter, Caleb Pusey, Richard Hill and a 
 few others was appealed to in all diflficult matters as a wise 
 counsellor. In 1706 he went to England and spent two 
 years. Penn was at this time in the thick of his difficulties 
 with the grasping family of Fords which had stripped him of 
 many thousand pounds. His comment on Penn's business 
 methods is interesting. " But the strange infatuation that 
 should lead a man never to show this (Penn's account with 
 the Fords) to any friend whatsoever before he had so 
 clinched and closed it, is not to be paralleled nor exceeded in 
 a man of his sense otherwise." 
 
 Isaac Norris untangled the medley, brought matters to 
 a settlement which ultimately relieved Penn of the diffi- 
 culty, and also disproved some of the adverse stories which 
 David Lloyd was then circulating among the unfriends of 
 the Proprietor. 
 
 He was Mayor of the city. Presiding Judge of the Court 
 of Common Pleas and a member for about 30 years of the 
 Governor's Council. On the death of David Lloyd in 1731 
 he was offered the Chief Justiceship but declined. 
 
 He was attorney for William Penn to sell lands and later 
 for his widow, and was also one of the Trustees named by 
 Penn in his will. 
 
 He died in 1735 in his 65th year as the result of an apo- 
 plectic stroke in Gerraantown Friends Meeting. 
 
 Isaac Norris first appears on the meeting records when he 
 asked for permission in 1694 to marry Mary Lloyd. What 
 happened at the wedding is not very evident but there ap- 
 pears to have been some " acclamations " the report of which 
 the Keith party sent over to England as a complaint against 
 Friends. George Whitehead, a prominent English Friend 
 who seems on various occasions to have antagonized Wil- 
 liam Penn and his friends, asked an explanation. But the 
 meeting cleared the parties involved of all blame. Isaac 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 185 
 
 Norris then rapidly rose in meeting importance, his clear 
 head and wisely conciliatory methods finding a large place 
 for him. Whenever a paper was to be prepared or a judg- 
 ment passed on the orthodoxy of a writing or an important 
 piece of business to be attended to, he was on the committee. 
 Throughout his life he was a trusted and consistent Friend. 
 Like other friends of Penn and Logan he was rather less 
 strenuous in his anti-martial views than David Lloyd. 
 When on the occasion of that agitator's downfall in 1710 
 Isaac Norris became the practical leader of the Assembly, 
 that body voted £2000 " to the Queen's use " without re- 
 strictions, with the argument that the way it was spent was 
 her matter not theirs. This set the standard for the Quaker 
 attitude in the legislature on requests for grants of money 
 for suspicious purposes through the colonial days. 
 
 He was a man of good education, though how he re- 
 ceived it does not appear. He knew enough Latin to make 
 frequent use of it, and his letters show a good English style, 
 far better than the hastily written composition of William 
 Penn. He had varied interests which were reflected in the 
 library which he collected at Fair Hill to which his son 
 made extensive additions. After the province got through 
 the turbulent days of infancy a fairly healthy and solid 
 intellectual life arose in the colony of which the names men- 
 tioned in this volume are all good representatives. Neither 
 their state nor church activities were permitted to take all 
 their time or energy, and their early retirement from busi- 
 ness with moderate fortunes gave them the leisure for read- 
 ing and profitable intercourse. The new English books 
 were early purchased and the standard authors in various 
 languages carefully read. Without a college they had the 
 advantage of a serious interest in the best literature by 
 which they were efficiently educated. 
 
 The son of Isaac Norris, the grandson of Thomas Lloyd, 
 
186 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 and the son-in-law of James Logan could not well be other- 
 wise than an active Quaker politician. That he was al- 
 ways influential and after the death of Logan and Kinsey 
 the undoubted leader of the party in the Assembly and the 
 Province is a mild statement of his prominence. Politi- 
 cally no one but Franklin had any considerable share in 
 this leadership and Franklin not being in sympathy with 
 Friends on certain points could not carry the general re- 
 spect felt for Isaac Norris, 2nd — " The Speaker," — as he 
 is usually designated to distinguish him from his father. 
 
 He was born in 1701 the sixth in the family. The home 
 of his early life was the " Slate Roof House," and as the 
 oldest son at the time of his father's death he inherited Fair 
 Hill. Here late in life he brought Sarah, the daughter of 
 James Logan, to be his wife. 
 
 His first public office was in 1727 when 26 years old he 
 became a member of the City Council. Three years later 
 he was made magistrate and in 1734 a few months before 
 his father's death, he became a member of the Assembly of 
 the Province. The division between parties had now shifted 
 from the days of David Lloyd. William Penn and his wife 
 were both dead and his sons were becoming unsympathetic 
 in their attitude to Friends. Besides, the immigration of 
 non-Quakers was creating a condition that forbade disunion 
 in their ranks. So while the elder Isaac Norris was a strong 
 adherent of the Proprietors the son immediately cast in his 
 lot with the liberty party, whose opposition to the Propri- 
 etors and their Episcopalian adherents was beginning to 
 develop. The lines however in these early days were not 
 hardly drawn and for a few years under the leadership of 
 the Speaker Andrew Hamilton there was a good degree of 
 harmony. When John Kinsey succeeded Hamilton in 1739 
 and the question of peace and war was added to the differ- 
 ences about secret instructions, the taxation of the Penn 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 187 
 
 lands, the issue of paper money and other economic ques- 
 tions, the contest became more virulent. 
 
 Isaac Norris, 2nd had gained his large place in public es- 
 timation partly by his family connections and character, 
 and partly by his mercantile experience, which made him an 
 authority on all matters of trade. After his first election 
 he was made chairman of a committee to make a report on 
 the resources of Pennsylvania to be sent to England. This 
 was a valuable and comprehensive statement and attracted 
 attention to the young Assemblyman. 
 
 When John Kinsey was made Speaker in 1739 Norris be- 
 came his chief assistant and as we have seen in the sketch 
 of the former, the great controversy between the Deputy 
 Governor and the House on the question of appropriations 
 for war and the right of peace loving men to have their con- 
 sciences respected became acute. Feelings were embittered 
 and politics ran riot. In 1741 the " Norris party " as the 
 Friendly connection was often called was defeated in the 
 city, and the Friends after this never regained the control 
 of the city government. It was a different matter however 
 to defeat Norris in Philadelphia (now Montgomery) County, 
 yet it was very important to do so if the Governor was to 
 control the situation. In " the bloody election of 1742 " a 
 serious riot occurred, the facts concerning which were about 
 as follows: 
 
 The opponent of Norris was the wealthy William Allen 
 then Recorder of the city and as such responsible in part 
 for the conduct of the election. The German voters in 
 gratitude for the liberal treatment they had received, and 
 their freedom from military service and heavy taxes were 
 invincibly friendly to the Quaker candidates and the oppo- 
 sition claimed that unnaturalized Germans had been voted. 
 On the morning of election day some 70 sailors in the inter- 
 est of Allen armed with clubs gathered around the polls and 
 
188 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 when the Recorder was appealed to to keep the peace his 
 reply was " They have as good a right to be there as the 
 unnaturalized Dutchmen." Very little effort was made 
 to prevent a riot and the riot came. Men were knocked 
 down around the polling place and the sailors for a time held 
 possession. Reputable citizens like Israel Pemberton were 
 rudely treated, and a reaction of public feeling probably 
 aided the Norris party. When the roughs were driven away 
 and the election was allowed to proceed, Norris was chosen 
 by a considerable majority. The Assembly took ample tes- 
 timony and without avail urged the city authorities to 
 punish the rioters. 
 
 The Assembly at this time was opposing the Governor, 
 who as agent for the Penns was endeavoring to acquire by 
 fair means or otherwise the right to settle all parts of the 
 province. It had been bought of the Indians piecemeal 
 and the rapid immigration of the peaceful years from 1710 
 to 1740 had effected the sale of much of the lands already 
 purchased. Hence it was desired to secure more from the 
 Indians, for the Assembly insisted, so far as lay in their 
 power, that purchase must precede settlement. The trick 
 of the " Walking Purchase " by which a sort of title was 
 had for lands lying between the Delaware and Lehigh Riv- 
 ers had alienated the Pennsylvania Indians, and the Iro- 
 quois of New York who claimed a kind of sovereignty over 
 them were called in to move them out of the way to the 
 banks of the Susquehanna. 
 
 In a noted Council held in Philadelphia in 1742, the chiefs 
 of the Five Nations professed to make a judicial examina- 
 tion of the title deeds and to decide the question of rights. 
 They had always been friendly with the English as against 
 the French, but now having established their claims to 
 recompense, word came to Philadelphia that they had also 
 been treating with the French in Canada, and that their 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 189 
 
 future allegiance must be secured by presents and new treat- 
 ies. It was also hoped that they could be induced to take up 
 arms against the French. A general conference was therefore 
 called to be held at Albany in 1745 to be attended by dele- 
 gates from New England, New York and Pennsylvania, and 
 Thomas Lawrence of the Governor's Council, John Kinsey 
 the Speaker and Isaac Norris were the Pennsylvania dele- 
 gates. Norris kept a journal of his trip to Albany, now in 
 print.^ The results of the conference have already been 
 given. Kinsey and Norris were in close accord. Their 
 Quaker ideas kept them from removing their hats in the 
 presence of the Governor of New York, which he demanded, 
 and they therefore remained outside several of the con- 
 ferences doing their work, probably none the less effectively, 
 in private meetings with the Indian chiefs. They gave lib- 
 eral presents at parting and Brother Onas again stood well 
 with the Indians. The Iroquois were persuaded not to take 
 up the hatchet on either side and war was averted. 
 
 In 1751 Norris succeeded John Kinsey as Speaker of the 
 Assembly, a post which he held till nearly his death. It 
 was a result of his 30 years' service in this legislative body 
 that his fame as a statesman must rest. It is safe to say 
 that during this time no important measure went through 
 without having strongly felt his impress. During the early 
 years he was most intimately associated with Kinsey and 
 during his late years with Franklin, but always his strong 
 individuality stood out. No one but must respect his stern 
 integrity, his capable management and his high ideals of 
 independence in public service. His frequent election was 
 compromised by no self seeking schemes, but his attitude 
 simply was, that his time and abilities were at the service 
 of the state, if they were needed and desired. The voters 
 responded, placing him usually at the head of the poll. 
 * Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. 27, p. 20. 
 
190 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Up to 1729 the Assembly had met in a hired private 
 house or occasionally in the Friends Meeting House. In 
 that year an act was passed authorizing a commission of 
 which the Speaker of the Assembly was chairman to con- 
 struct a house and two thousand pounds was appropriated 
 for the purpose. Differences arose as to the location and 
 plans and nothing was done till 1732. Finally the State 
 House, the fine chaste central building we now see, was 
 adopted and construction was started. To Andrew Ham- 
 ilton belongs the credit as architect and overseer of the 
 erection. But he had to bear much criticism, and had spent 
 some of his own money and on Jan. 18th, 1734 he asked to 
 be discharged from further responsibility. 
 
 This does not seem to have been granted and two years 
 later he secured the two lots, one on the corner of 5th and 
 Chestnut and the other at the corner of 6th and Chestnut, 
 which he transferred respectively to the city and county 
 of Philadelphia for courts and other public uses. Upon 
 these lots at a later date the two corner buildings fronting 
 on Chestnut Street were placed. 
 
 In 1738 Andrew Hamilton rendered his final account 
 showing the expenditures upon the State House proper and 
 the land on which it stood to be £4446. 
 
 In 1751 when Norris became Speaker he thought it neces- 
 sary to crown the structure with a bell. In ordering from 
 England his instructions were, " Let the bell be cast by the 
 best workmen and examined carefully before it is shipped 
 with the following words well-shaped in large letters round 
 it; viz.: ' By order of the Assembly of the Province of Penn- 
 sylvania, for the State House in the city of Philadelphia, 
 1752,' and underneath ' Proclaim Liberty throughout the 
 land, unto all the inhabitants thereof. Levit. XXV: 10.' " 
 The bell imported was cracked in the trial ringing and re- 
 cast in Philadelphia. Isaac Norris said, " they have made 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 191 
 
 a good bell which pleases me much that we should first 
 venture upon and succeed in the greatest bell for aught I 
 know in English America — surpassing too the imported 
 one which is too high and brittle — the weight was 2080 
 lbs." 
 
 When Isaac Norris directed the inscription he could 
 hardly have foreseen its prophetic character, but it was 
 rung immediately after the reading of the Declaration of 
 Independence in 1776 and the " Liberty Bell " is the most 
 cherished relic of American history. 
 
 Isaac Norris was appointed to another Albany treaty with 
 the Indians in 1754. The commission consisted of John 
 Penn and Richard Peters representing the Proprietors, and 
 Benjamin Franklin and himself the Assembly. Indian re- 
 lations were becoming difficult. The Five Nations still 
 claimed the right to the ownership of Pennsylvania and in- 
 sisted that no sale of land by the Delawares was permis- 
 sible. In an evil hour the government of Pennsylvania 
 recognized this claim and this Albany meeting was for the 
 purpose of effecting a purchase. By methods which were 
 more or less unfair, taking advantage of the Indian igno- 
 rance of geography, they bought for £400 all of south- 
 western Pennsylvania. When the Delawares found that 
 their land had been sold without their consent, they threw 
 off the Iroquois yoke, joined the French, defeated Brad- 
 dock's army a year later and for the first time in the history 
 of the Colony the horrors of Indian warfare were known on 
 the frontiers. What part Isaac Norris had in framing this 
 treaty may not be known. Primarily it was the work of 
 the agents of the Proprietors who wished to sell their lands. 
 His own attitude had always been so fair and friendly to 
 the Indians that it is hard to believe that he was actively 
 interested in the proceedings. But there are indications 
 that his relations with Friends were less close in his later 
 years. 
 
192 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 It was on this expedition that Franklin presented to his 
 fellow delegates his plan for a union of the Colonies, of 
 course in subordination to the English Crown which was a 
 precursor of the final union in Revolutionary days. Sixty 
 years earlier William Penn had proposed a somewhat simi- 
 lar scheme. 
 
 The war came, French intrigue and the unwisdom of the 
 Executive branch of the government of the Province drove 
 the Indians, who for seventy-three years had been friendly, 
 into the warpath. Cries came in from the frontiers of home- 
 steads burnt, men shot at their plows, women and children 
 scalped or carried into horrible captivity and a growing 
 sentiment among the red men that the French were the 
 stronger and that the English were to be driven into the 
 sea. 
 
 For the past ten years while this state of affairs had 
 been preparing the Quaker Assembly under Norris's leader- 
 ship had adopted a definite course. The wisdom of appro- 
 priations had been complicated by the efforts of the Penns 
 to avoid their fair share of taxes on their unsold lands, and 
 by their attempt to diminish the powers of the Assembly in 
 the matter of appropriating and expending public money. 
 But in the matter of military defense the Assembly had 
 practically said, " We will not violate our consciences, or 
 ask our constituents to do so by laws enforcing military 
 service. We will not require citizens who are not con- 
 scientious to perform the service for us. But we recognize 
 that we are the servants of the province and not of a sect, 
 and when men voluntarily form companies for defence we 
 will supply the needed money." So they voted taxes " for 
 the king's use " whenever the defense of their rights per- 
 mitted with a not illiberal hand. They equipped and fed 
 voluntary militia. They built a chain of forts to fence off 
 the Indian territory. They voted supplies to Braddock's 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 193 
 
 army. In this policy they were supported by the Province 
 and year after year were elected by large majorities. 
 
 In the spring of 1756 the Governor and Council declared 
 war against the Delaware and Shawnese Indians. The As- 
 sembly was asked to appropriate money. This brought 
 matters to a crisis. The more conservative Friends had 
 been inclined for some time to question the consistency of 
 war taxes with their professions of peace and in 1755 a 
 number refused to pay them, suffering distraint of goods. 
 A Quaker Assembly imposing taxes against which the 
 Quaker conscience revolted was an unedifying spectacle. 
 
 Matters were brought to a head by a bill introduced into 
 the British Parliament to require an oath of allegiance of 
 all members of colonial legislatures. This was especially 
 aimed at the Philadelphia Friends, and would have driven 
 them all out of office. To avert this result certain English 
 Friends agreed to advise the retirement, at least temporary, 
 of enough members of the meeting to give the non-members 
 a majority and sent over two delegates to urge this view 
 upon the colonists. Prior to their arrival six members led 
 by James Pemberton had resigned. A number of others 
 declined reelection in the fall of 1756 and the meeting 
 authorities did their best to induce such as had been elected 
 also to withdraw. 
 
 In the fall of 1755 just after the Braddock defeat while 
 the war was still raging on the frontiers the Province had 
 elected out of an Assembly of 36 members, 26 Friends. As 
 a result of the self-effacing efforts but twelve members were 
 left after the election of 1756. These however contained 
 two distinguished leaders. George Ashbridge had been 
 sent up by Chester County continuously since 1743. When 
 the committee of his Monthly Meeting tried to show the 
 impropriety of his retaining his post, the only report they 
 could make of his attitude was " He do not feel himself 
 
194 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 culpable." He held his place till his death in 1773, the 
 undoubted choice of his constituents for thirty years. 
 
 The other was Isaac Norris. He also declined to resign. 
 The two delegates from England had personal interviews 
 with all Friends in the Assembly. " They first waited on 
 the Speaker Isaac Norris and if they could have prevailed 
 with him to decline it would have the desired effect on the 
 others now remaining but they had no effect further than 
 that he approved of what the others did.^ " He had been in 
 the Assembly for twenty-two years and was to remain eight 
 more. It is quite probable that though he was in the main 
 a loyal Friend, he did not seriously disapprove of the meas- 
 ures taken to defend the Province from the French and 
 Indians and he knew the value of his leadership. He prob- 
 ably saw the need of the break-up of the Quaker majority 
 and now that was secured preferred to continue his useful 
 services as Speaker. James Pemberton writes in another 
 letter in 1765 "It is with some reluctance several of us enter 
 again into this service the disposition of our Speaker whose 
 conduct you can not in all respects approve renders the task 
 the more disagreeable." 
 
 The influence of Norris is strikingly shown in a pamphlet 
 printed in 1758, the author unknown, called The Chronicle 
 of Nathan ben Saddi, in which the leaders of the popular 
 party are satirized. William Moore was Judge of the Com- 
 mon Pleas of Chester County and a violent partisan of the 
 Proprietors. He expressed great dislike of the Quakers and 
 openly abused them in a way to cause great irritation. A 
 number of charges were preferred against him by his con- 
 stituents, charges of serious misconduct and injustice. The 
 Assembly asked him to appear and answer them. He de- 
 nied their authority to summon him and in violent language 
 refused to appear. Provost Smith of the University had 
 1 Private letter of James Pemberton. 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 195 
 
 Judge Moore's reply printed in German and widely dis- 
 tributed. For this they were arrested in January 1756 for 
 libel. It was in the midst of the excitement of this con- 
 troversy that the satire appeared. The prominent actors 
 are mentioned by false names but easily distinguished at 
 the time. We are concerned now only with the part re- 
 ferring to Isaac Norris. 
 
 " And Isaac the judge did according to the sayings of 
 Adonis the Scribe (Franklin) and he mouldeth the Coun- 
 cillors in his hands even as a potter mouldeth the clay. 
 
 " So they gave him a great report among the people, and 
 he grew proud in heart saying to himself, 
 
 " ' I bid one go and he goeth, and another run and he run- 
 neth. Am not I great in authority? If any man stand 
 against my sayings thus and thus shall it be done unto him.' 
 
 " And he became haughty and his mind swelled within 
 him and he went from the ways of David his father. 
 
 " And he made an image of paper in the shape of a calf, 
 and the body seemed as though thirty calves were joined 
 together but there was only one head and the head was like 
 unto the head of Isaac the judge." 
 
 The thirty calves probably refers to thirty members of 
 the Assembly who followed his lead. 
 
 The Friendly majority in the Assembly never returned. 
 The Yearly Meeting persistently advised its members to 
 accept no public places the duties of which were likely to 
 compromise their principles and a succession of Indian and 
 French wars seemed to make membership in the Assembly 
 one of these questionable offices. Each year we have re- 
 ports as to the number of Quakers. They never, except 
 possibly once, amounted to a majority though it is evident 
 that they would have been had the will of the people gov- 
 erned the selection. It was however the same party acting 
 through different representatives, and Isaac Norris was its 
 undisputed leader. Among the Friends there was no com- 
 
196 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 petition and Benjamin Franklin was the only man outside 
 the Society who was greatly influential in its councils. 
 
 A correspondent of Thomas Penn after detailing the ef- 
 forts of his friends to procure the election of " sensible and 
 reasonable " men to the legislature of 1756 had to admit 
 that their efforts were vain, and that the '' veriest partisans 
 against the Proprietors " had been returned including " one 
 Quakerized Presbyterian and two Quakerized churchmen " 
 heading the list with Isaac Norris. He said that " the 
 Quakers were never more active though a few serious and 
 grave men did not show themselves." The " Quaker party " 
 ruled the state till the Revolution. 
 
 War questions having been placed somewhat in the back- 
 ground the contest with the Proprietors became the issue 
 between the parties. The Friends led by Norris and 
 Franklin and aided by the Germans and some of the 
 Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the west were vigorous op- 
 ponents, while many of the wealthy Episcopalians of Phila- 
 delphia rallied around the governor and the Penn family. 
 The popularly elected legislature was always overwhelm- 
 ingly for liberty from the restrictions imposed from Eng- 
 land, and by limiting supplies and the salary of the 
 Governor forced one access of privilege after another from 
 the unwilling hands of the sons of William Penn. But 
 these owners of a large part of the Province were too 
 strongly entrenched in their inherited rights and privileges 
 to be seriously affected by anything within the power of the 
 freemen of the Province even though party feeling ran high 
 and one legislature after another sent up its petitions and 
 demands. 
 
 The war must be carried into England and in 1757 Frank- 
 lin and Norris were appointed agents to present the popular 
 claims to the English government and to strive after some 
 satisfactory arrangement with the Proprietors. Norris de- 
 
ISAAC NORRIS, 2ND 197 
 
 clined on account of ill-health and Franklin went alone, ac- 
 complishing however but little. 
 
 The feeling became more and more bitter and by 1764 
 the great body of the liberty party including the most of the 
 Friends were of the mind that one remedy alone was left, 
 the dispossession of the Proprietors of any share in the 
 government and the acceptance of a Governor appointed 
 by the Crown. This popular demand was reflected in the 
 Assembly and in May, 1764, a resolution to that effect was 
 passed by a large majority. The Speaker opposed it, and 
 John Dickinson who was afterwards his son-in-law made his 
 first great speech on the same side. But it was of no avail. 
 Isaac Norris was now a feeble man and though treated with 
 great respect could not control the House. He now in- 
 formed them " that for 30 years past he had had the honor 
 of serving as a representative of the people of the Province, 
 and for more than half that time as Speaker; that in these 
 offices he had uniformly endeavored to the best of his judg- 
 ment to promote the public good. That the subject of the 
 present debate was a matter of the utmost importance to the 
 Province. That as his sentiments on the occasion were 
 very different from the majority, and his seat in the chair 
 prevented him from entering into the debate, he therefore 
 prayed the House that if in consequence of their order his 
 duty should oblige him to sign the petition as Speaker he 
 might be permitted to offer his sentiments on the subject 
 before he signed, and that they might be entered on the min- 
 utes." 
 
 Out of courtesy the request was granted but the next day 
 he was not able to attend and instead sent in his resigna- 
 tion as Speaker. A most flattering testimonial to the value 
 of his past services was sent by the House asking for a with- 
 drawal of the resignation, which he declined, and Benjamin 
 Franklin was chosen in his place. 
 
198 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Franklin was however defeated for reelection in October 
 1764 and Norris against his wishes was elected, and was 
 again voted into the Speakership. This insistence upon his 
 holding the place by a House which did not agree with his 
 position on the important issue of the day is an indication 
 of the strong respect and confidence of the Province. Frank- 
 lin was again sent to England to effect the transfer, but the 
 encroachments of the Crown soon caused the people of 
 Pennsylvania to change their mind and accept the judg- 
 ment of Norris. Franklin presented the petition but did 
 not press it, and it was never granted. 
 
 After a few days, Isaac Norris resigned again, and after 
 an attempt to elect George Ashbridge, Joseph Fox succeeded 
 to the chair. 
 
 He died at Fair Hill on July 13th, 1766. 
 
 In his political life he was the type of dignified honesty 
 and devotion to the public service. A friend says of him: 
 " In all his long public career he never asked a vote to get 
 into the House nor solicited any member for posts of pri- 
 vate advantage or employments." Happy the state which 
 can call into its service and retain for a lifetime such a man, 
 without asking him to vary his honest judgment or sac- 
 rifice aught of his independence. As he said on one occa- 
 sion when he left the Speaker's chair to speak on a matter 
 of much moment, " No man shall ever stamp his foot on 
 my grave and say, * Curse him! Here lies one who basely 
 betrayed the liberties of his country.' " 
 
 Isaac Norris was not especially prominent in Friendly 
 affairs. Except as Clerk of the Monthly Meeting he does 
 not seem to have held church positions. But his promi- 
 nence, integrity, abilities, social position and wealth gave 
 him a large standing among them as well as others and he 
 always emphasized his connection. He regularly attended 
 the Friends Meeting adjoining the grounds of Fair Hill, 
 
ISAAC NORMS, 2ND 199 
 
 on a lot which William Penn had given George Fox for the 
 use of Friends. Deborah Logan says that after the First- 
 day Meeting " All the decent strangers who frequented it 
 were sure of an invitation to dine with him, where, as in 
 the time of his parents, a good table and the warmest wel- 
 come awaited them." His influence among others was 
 probably the greater that he did not always do as the strict 
 Friends desired and no one questioned his general loyalty 
 and the sincerity of his convictions. 
 
 His married life was short, his wife Sarah Logan Norris 
 dying in 1744. Two sons died in infancy and the daughter 
 Sarah in 1769, shortly after her father. Mary, the oldest, 
 married John Dickinson. His unmarried sister, Elizabeth, 
 became the kindly genius of the household which was a 
 happy and harmonious one. He spent much of his leisure 
 time in his library building which he had erected separately 
 from the house and hence was saved from destruction when 
 the British burnt the residence of the " arch-rebel Dickin- 
 son." He was Trustee of the College, afterwards Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania, and was active in every movement 
 for the development of the intellectual life and welfare of 
 the city. He wrote French and Latin fluently and read 
 most of the books of consequence of cotemporary literature. 
 
 Thus as a man who was both scholarly and practical, 
 adaptable and conscientious, tolerant and religious, he was 
 able to guide the youthful Province through rather stormy 
 times when the Holy Experiment had to be tempered with 
 many conflicting interests and divergent judgments. 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 
 
 When state and church duties seemed to conflict, Isaac 
 Norris usually decided in favor of the state. Under sim- 
 ilar circumstances James Pemberton would give his prefer- 
 ence to the church. Both were men of high principles and 
 strong character. Both had the political instinct strongly 
 developed, and found it difficult to keep out of public life. 
 Both were men of means, good education and social stand- 
 ing, closely related to each other by marriage. But Isaac 
 Norris, 2nd, had an ancestry and education which tended 
 towards what was practical and possible, and would bend 
 his desires to secure it. James Pemberton lived more in 
 the atmosphere of unwavering principle as was the habit of 
 the stricter Friends of earlier days. The type of thought 
 of Isaac Norris, 1st, and James Logan, was not quite the 
 type which characterized the ancestors of James Pember- 
 ton. 
 
 The Pemberton family came to Pennsylvania in the fall 
 of 1682 about the same time as William Penn. The group 
 consisted of Ralph Pemberton, 72 years old, who soon died, 
 his son Phineas, aged 33, James Harrison and wife, whose 
 daughter Phebe had married Phineas Pemberton, and a 
 number of children, relatives and dependents. An uncle 
 had preceded them to the Province and had bought land in 
 Bucks County nearly opposite the site of the present 
 Trenton and this determined them to seek homes in the same 
 neighborhood. James Harrison was placed in charge of 
 William Penn's country place, Pennsbury, and Phineas 
 Pemberton bought 300 acres near by, and later a larger 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 201 
 
 track farther from the river. Almost immediately he was 
 seized upon for public service, first as register for Bucks 
 County, then in 1685 as a member of the Assembly for Bucks 
 County, with increasing trust and confidence as the years 
 went by. The civil affairs of his county came largely into 
 his hands and in 1696 he succeeded Thomas Lloyd as Mas- 
 ter of the Rolls of the Province. He died in 1702, aged 53 
 years and as Samuel Carpenter writes to William Penn, 
 " He will be greatly missed having left few or none in these 
 parts or the adjacent like him for wisdom and integrity and 
 a general service." He was equally prominent in the church, 
 serving as clerk of the Yearly Meeting and otherwise. 
 
 Phineas and Phebe Pemberton had nine children of whom 
 four outlived him. We are concerned with Israel the eldest 
 surviving son. He came to Philadelphia as a boy and 
 served his apprenticeship to Samuel Carpenter, the great 
 capitalist of the day, and soon established himself in very 
 large successful mercantile transactions. He became the 
 wealthiest and best known merchant of Philadelphia. In 
 1710 he married Rachel Read, whose sister was the wife 
 of James Logan. 
 
 By his financial and social position thus assured, his 
 inherent abilities and trustworthiness and his generous 
 hospitality unrivalled in the Province, he rapidly gained 
 confidence and respect and held a series of important places 
 in church and state. For 19 successive years from 1731 
 to 1750 he was a member of the Assembly, and in 1745 was 
 elected Speaker, but declined. Like his father he was clerk 
 of the Yearly Meeting and after 1729 an elder. 
 
 His political life covered the high water mark of Quaker 
 domination, and while not obtrusive, its effectiveness was 
 attested by the numerous committees for routine service of 
 which he was a member. It was a model of fidelity and 
 usefulness. 
 
202 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 He left his large estate to his three sons, Israel, James 
 and John, the only ones of his ten children who survived 
 him. 
 
 The atmosphere of the Pemberton home was devoutly- 
 religious. To build up their spiritual life by consecration, 
 kindness and service was a constant effort. The volumi- 
 nous letters of the three brothers are some of the best treat- 
 ises on the conditions of the times, giving us the inner 
 history of Quakerism as a religion and as a factor in 
 government. Mostly addressed to English correspondents 
 like Dr. Fothergill, and the travelling ministers who went 
 through the colonies and when in Philadelphia made the 
 Pemberton houses their homes, they give the sort of infor- 
 mation which is often taken for granted in correspondence 
 between friends of the same community. John was a min- 
 ister. There is no trace of any but religious interests in 
 his letters. He travelled extensively in Gospel service and 
 died at Pyrmont, Germany, while thus engaged. But Israel 
 and James were very wide awake to every feature of pro- 
 vincial life. They took part in politics, joined societies for 
 conducting hospitals, for slavery abolition, for Indian con- 
 ciliation, for every beneficent movement of the times, while 
 their purses were liberally opened for private charities. 
 
 Israel Pemberton " the head of the Quaker interests " as 
 John Adams called him in pre-Revolutionary times or " the 
 king of the Quakers " as he was dubbed by the people in 
 general, was the oldest and in some respects the most in- 
 fluential of the three. In later life he lost his interest in 
 ordinary provincial politics when the Quaker policy of In- 
 dian conciliation was exchanged for warfare and refused 
 for ten years even to vote. 
 
 A little piece of by-play may give some light on the small 
 political troubles of his early days. In the exciting contest 
 of 1739 when he was about 24 years old he criticized the 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 203 
 
 Governor most severely in a company of which Alexander 
 Gray don (he whose memoirs we read with so much interest) 
 was a member. He said that it was the Governor's design 
 to overturn the Constitution, and reduce them to the King's 
 government; that the Governor carried on the debate with- 
 out dignity ; that he had no doubt that the Governor would 
 use his influence in England to set the Assembly in the 
 wrong, and that he would make an unjust representation of 
 the matter. Graydon narrated this conversation to the 
 Governor, and the next day told Pemberton so, upon which 
 Pemberton said he was glad of it; that he would not make 
 any apology, for it was a good thing that these truths should 
 come to the Governor's knowledge, for his sycophants who 
 lived around him would never tell him, and that he would 
 prove that the Governor said that he would bring matters 
 to extremities. This would not now seem a very serious 
 offense, but the Governor was rash and issued a warrant 
 for the arrest of Pemberton. After some discussion in the 
 council as to the legality of this warrant, it was allowed to 
 proceed. The Supreme Court interfered, however, with the 
 serving of the warrant, issued a writ of habeas corpus, and 
 ordered that Israel Pemberton, Jr., should not be called 
 before the council, which simply indicates that the court 
 and council were on different sides of the political contro- 
 versy. The Governor declared this writ illegal, and again 
 ordered the sheriff to serve the warrant, who reported " that 
 Pemberton read the warrant and called it nonsense; that 
 he, the sheriff, being ordered by the secretary to behave 
 toward Mr. Pemberton with civility, had permitted him to 
 go out of his sight in the house of John Kinsey, Esq., after 
 his word was given that he would not escape, and he notwith- 
 standing, had escaped." The Governor would not excuse 
 the sheriff, and Pemberton was held in legal confinement, 
 the Governor having come to the conclusion that the writ of 
 
204 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 the Supreme Court was illegal, under the circumstances. 
 He therefore instructed the sheriff again to find Pemberton, 
 but he had gone to Chester. However, he came back the 
 next day. The sheriff then reports in these words the 
 trouble which Israel gave him in the attempt to serve the 
 warrant: 
 
 " That yesterday about twelve of the Clock he came to 
 town; his Deputy gave him a Warrant from the Governor 
 to take Mr. Pemberton, Junr.; that he went to Mr. Pem- 
 berton's House about one of the clock, and had answer that 
 he was not in town; he went again about three of the clock, 
 and had answer that he was gone out; he went this morn- 
 ing about three-quarters of an hour after Eight in the morn- 
 ing, and asked his Clerk or Book Keeper if Mr. Pemberton 
 was at home, who said he was, and went to some other 
 Apartment of the House, as he thought, to see for his mas- 
 ter, but returned and said his Master was in bed ; Mr. Rob- 
 inson went to another Door of the House, and asked Mrs. 
 Pemberton if Mr. Pemberton was within, who said he was 
 in Bed ; Mr. Robinson asked what time he would be up, and 
 had answer he would in half an hour; he went towards Mr. 
 Pemberton's House about twelve of the Clock, and in his 
 going down Chestnut Street, by John Miller's at the Sign 
 of the City of Dublin, he saw Mr. Pemberton standing on 
 the Platform at his own Door, but when he had got so far 
 as Front Street, he saw Mr. Pemberton tack about and go 
 into his House, and since has seen nothing of him." 
 
 Evidently the Governor was making himself ridiculous, 
 and the Quaker was getting the better of the manoeuvres. 
 An intermediary was found in Andrew Hamilton, the 
 Speaker of the Assembly, who said that Israel Pemberton, 
 Sr., was very uneasy " at his son's being compelled to keep 
 his house for fear of being taken by the sheriff, to the great 
 prejudice of his business," and the warrant was withdrawn. 
 
 Israel Pemberton with his great capacity and wide inter- 
 ests could not well keep out of public life. For a short 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 205 
 
 time he was in the Assembly and took an active part on its 
 important committees. After the Indian War of 1755 broke 
 out he gave the most of his time and much money to striving 
 for a reconciliation. " The Friendly Association for gain- 
 ing and preserving peace with the Indians by pacific meas- 
 ures," was formed, Israel Pemberton being the leading 
 figure. 
 
 The Walking Purchase of 1737 and the subsequent for- 
 cible removal of the Minisink Indians from their ancestral 
 homes between the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, the Albany 
 Treaty of 1754 when the Indian rights in all western Penn- 
 sylvania were sold to the Penns by the Iroquois without 
 regard to the dwellers on the soil, French intrigue and the 
 invasion of traders and settlers had transformed the Dela- 
 ware and Shawnese Indians, the ancient friends of William 
 Penn, into bitter and inveterate foes of the frontier white 
 men and sent them into warfare. The Friends addressed 
 the Governor offering to pay " a much larger portion of our 
 estates than the heaviest taxes of a war would be expected 
 to require " for the purpose of regaining the friendship. The 
 Association hoped first to detach the chief Tedyuscung and 
 the northern Delawares from the French alliance. A large 
 sum of money was raised, chiefly by Friends, partly by 
 sympathetic German sects, to purchase presents. Confer- 
 ences were held at Easton in 1756, at Lancaster in 1757 
 and again at Easton in 1758. Israel Pemberton carried 
 £2000 to Pittsburg the following year to treat with the 
 western Indians. The Friends had the satisfaction of 
 knowing that their diplomacy, their presents and their in- 
 fluence had pacified the Indians and for a little time peace 
 prevailed on the frontier. 
 
 The Indians appreciated the differences among the 
 whites and saved the frontier Quakers from the tomahawk 
 and burning buildings. Israel Pemberton said after the 
 
2o6 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 1758 treaty, " It was by justice the first settlers of the 
 province obtained their (the Indians) friendship and the 
 name of a Quaker of the same spirit as William Penn still 
 is in the highest estimation among their old men . . , and 
 there is a considerable number of us here united in a reso- 
 lution to endeaver by a like conduct to fix the same good 
 impression of all of us in the minds of the rising generation." 
 But they did not have as clear a field as William Penn 
 had. The Lieutenant-Governor, the agent of his master in 
 England, Thomas Penn, had commercial designs on Indian 
 land which the first Proprietor would have spurned. His 
 party in Pennsylvania excited by Indian outrages on the 
 frontiers and by the hope to get Quakers out of the gov- 
 ernment pressed him for vigorous measures. The contest 
 kept up for years with alternate success. The spirit of the 
 Friendly Association, in its endeavor to smooth the way on 
 both sides is conveyed in an address to the Governor from 
 a meeting held in Israel Pemberton's house late in the year 
 1756 where they say: 
 
 " If our furnishing them a supply of clothing against the 
 approaching winter in addition to what is provided at the 
 public expense may ... be consistent with the Governor's 
 pleasure we shall cheerfully provide them . . . to be de- 
 livered by the Governor in such measure as will most 
 effectually promote the public service and express our 
 friendly disposition toward them." 
 
 It was to this cause that Israel Pemberton devoted his 
 energies up to the Revolutionary War. By friends and foes 
 alike he was regarded the leader of the movement. " King 
 Wampum " became another of his pseudonyms. Had he 
 had a free field it is not improbable that he might have 
 solved the problem of harmonizing red men's rights with 
 white men's reasonable desires. He did restrain several 
 tribes from the warpath and so saved the lives of many 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 207 
 
 frontiersmen. But while his friends carried the legislative 
 branch, the executive was out of their reach and the Indian 
 question was ultimately settled by the military arm driving 
 the natives from the Province, the Friends tempering the 
 process as they could. 
 
 The embitteiTnent of the frontiersmen, especially the 
 settlers from the north of Ireland, towards the Quakers was 
 strikingly shown in 1764 when a band of them after ex- 
 terminating the Conestoga tribe in Lancaster County, 
 marched down to Philadelphia with the ostensible purpose 
 of giving a band of Moravian Indians the same ruthless 
 treatment. If the Quakers made any show of resistance, 
 they, and especially Israel Pemberton, were to be treated 
 in like manner. A demand was made that he be given up 
 to the rioters. Israel seems to have considered prudence 
 to be wise under the circumstances and having been ad- 
 vised that his life was in danger " was banished for a few 
 days." 
 
 All the Friends, however, did not run away in this man- 
 ner. Some 200 of the younger among them opened the 
 Meeting House at Market and Second Street, stacked their 
 arms in the gallery and in company with many other citi- 
 zens awaited the attack. The " Paxton Boys " never got 
 further than Germantown where they were met by a com- 
 mittee of which Benjamin Franklin was the head, per- 
 suaded to state their claims, some of which were just, and 
 finding that they had no chance against a city in arms, went 
 back to their homes. 
 
 Then followed a pamphlet warfare in which the relative 
 claims of Presbj'terianism and Quakerism were discussed 
 with great acerbity. Benjamin Franklin came to the front 
 against the lynchers and was gratefully received by the 
 Friends as an ally. " The Quaker Unmasked " was a se- 
 vere arraignment of their policy, which was replied to by 
 
208 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 '•'The Delineated Presbyterian PLayed Hob With." The 
 first stated that " to govern is absolutely repugnant to the 
 avowed principles of Quakerism " and the second, " to be 
 governed is absolutely repugnant to the avowed principles 
 of Presbyterianism " — both of which statements have in 
 them an element of truth. There were many stronger and 
 indecent charges made and Israel Pemberton was the tar- 
 get of a large share of them without, however, so far as we 
 know, provoking any reply from him. He weathered the 
 storm, however, in the esteem of his friends and had the 
 satisfaction of seeing the Indian question settled in Penn- 
 sylvania for colonial times with as much justice to the red 
 men as could reasonably have been expected in the excited 
 condition of the frontiersmen. The only concession which 
 the " Boys " obtained at the time was a temporary offer of 
 rewards for the scalps of male and female Indians, a strange 
 edict to come from the grandson of William Penn. 
 
 When the question of handing over the government to the 
 king came up in 1764 and the general feeling against the 
 proprietors became so strong in the Province as to turn 
 most of the Quaker sentiment away from them, Israel 
 Pemberton took the conservative position along with Nor- 
 ris and Dickinson. In a private letter he seriously criti- 
 cized the unwise policy of Thomas Penn and his selfish 
 actions towards the colonists and Indians, but he judged, 
 and as it turned out, judged rightly, that the chances of 
 a Crown colony were no better. He sympathized strongly 
 with the Speaker in his efforts to defeat the transfer. A 
 paragraph in a letter of his probably explains as fully as 
 anything the action of that ofl&cial in the last days of his 
 public life. 
 
 " We expected the advice and conduct of Isaac Norris, 
 who had for many years been Speaker of our Assembly, 
 would have had some effect but in this we were disao- 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 209 
 
 pointed. Last summer being in a weak state of body, and 
 tired out with the tedious controversies with the Governor, 
 when he found the Assembly in general determined in pur- 
 suing those measures, which he apprehended it unsafe to be 
 accessory to, he chose to resign his seat. Some change 
 being this year made in the Assembly, and his state of health 
 much recovered, as it was said the Governor had instruc- 
 tions to make some concessions, he entertained the hopes of 
 promoting a reconciliation, and restraining from precipitate 
 measures. He then was induced to consent to accept the 
 Speaker's seat again, but when he found the Governor de- 
 clined communicating anything towards a reconciliation, 
 and that the majority of the present Assembly were bent on 
 pursuing the measures he had before disapproved, after 
 giving the house his sentiments thereon, he again resigned 
 his seat and retired home heartily concerned for the un- 
 happy circumstances of his country, which he could neither 
 redress nor prevent, his salutary advice being rejected with 
 contempt by those who formerly revered it." 
 
 The reaction from any tendency towards royal govern- 
 ment came almost immediately. England began the series 
 of taxation experiments which a decade later brought on 
 the Revolutionary War. The opposition was general. Re- 
 fusal to pay taxes, agreements for non-importation and non- 
 exportation, the ejection of officers who were deputed to 
 collect the Stamp taxes, were, with the possible exception of 
 the last, quite Quaker methods ot resistance. The names 
 of over fifty Friends are on the agreement to import no more 
 English goods, and the list includes Israel Pemberton. They, 
 however, while resisting, counseled moderation and it is 
 largely due to this that the measures were milder than in 
 Boston. Thus when the tea ship came in 1773 consigned 
 to a Quaker firm, instead of the spectacular performance of 
 Boston Harbor, they sent it back without unloading the 
 cargo, loaning the captain enough to victual. If some of 
 their statements seem unnecessarily loyal in tone, it must be 
 remembered that nearly a year after this George Washing- 
 
210 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ton had declared, " No such thing as independence is de- 
 sired by any thinking man in America," and John Adams 
 had pledged even Massachusetts to the statement, " That 
 there are any who pant after independence is the greatest 
 slander on the Province." But sentiment developed rapidly 
 after this. 
 
 There seems to be little doubt that Israel Pemberton and 
 the other wealthy Quaker merchants of Philadelphia were 
 British sympathizers during the war. That many, perhaps 
 most, of the membership were not so is probable. The 
 Meetings disowned every one who took any part, how- 
 ever slight, in resistance in either direction and the minutes 
 show some 400 who in this way brought upon themselves 
 the penalty on the American side and perhaps not more 
 than a half dozen on the British. The testimony against 
 both was borne impartially. But those who remained 
 in good standing adopted, whatever their sympathies, the 
 policy of non-participation because of conscientious oppo- 
 sition to the means used. It is at least probable that the 
 Friends who actively joined the American forces were not 
 without the consciousness of a large body who agreed with 
 their objects if not their methods. The long struggle for 
 liberty against Proprietary and Crown encroachment did 
 not leave them without a fellow feeling for the cause even 
 when they could not actively join. But we can hardly 
 include in this list the Pembertons and their closest 
 associates. 
 
 Perhaps the best authority on the Quaker position during 
 the war, because unbiased, is Brissot de Warville, a French 
 traveler who went through the country in 1788, afterwards 
 guillotined in Paris as a Girondist. 
 
 " It was at this epoch (the Revolution) particularly that 
 an animosity was excited against them (the Quakers) 
 which is not yet entirely allayed. Faithful to their reli- 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 211 
 
 gious principles, they declared they could take no part in 
 the war, and disavowed or excommunicated every member 
 of their Society who served with either the American or the 
 British army. . . . Notwithstanding my principles, I do 
 not the less think that the violent persecution of the Quakers 
 for their pacific neutrality was essentially wrong. 
 
 " If their refusal had been the first of this kind; if it had 
 been dictated solely by their attachment to the British 
 cause; if it had only served them to conceal the secret 
 proofs which they might have given of this attachment, 
 certainly they had been culpable and perhaps persecution 
 had been lawful. But this neutrality was enjoined upon 
 them by the religious opinions which they profess, and 
 which they have practised from their origin. But exclusive 
 of this, whatever prejudiced or ill informed writers may 
 have asserted, the truth, which I have taken great pains to 
 obtain, is that the majority of the Quakers did not incline 
 more to one party than to the other ; and that they did good 
 indifferently to both, and in fact to all those who stood in 
 need of assistance. If some of the Society of Quakers 
 served in the British Army, there were some likewise who 
 served in the American army — and amongst others may be 
 mentioned the names of Generals Greene, Mifflin and Lacy ; 
 but the Society excommunicated indifferently all those who 
 took up arms. . . . 
 
 " I have heard no one speak more impartially of the Qua- 
 kers than this celebrated man (Washington) whose spirit 
 of justice is particularly remarkable. He acknowledged to 
 me that in the course of the war he had entertained an un- 
 favourable opinion of the Society ; he, in fact, knew little of 
 them, because at that period there were few members of the 
 sect in Virginia. He attributed to their political sentiments 
 what was the effect of their religious principles. When he 
 encamped in Chester County, principally inhabited by 
 Quakers, he supposed himself to be in the enemy's country, 
 as he could not induce a single Quaker to act for him in the 
 character of a spy. But no one served as a spy against him 
 in the employ of the British army. . . . 
 
 " General Washington, having since better understood the 
 spirit of the Society, concludes by esteeming them. He 
 acknowledged to me that, on considering the simplicity of 
 
212 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 their manners, their fondness for economy, the excellence of 
 their morals, and the good example they afforded, joined to 
 the attachment they showed for the Constitution, he re- 
 garded them as the best citizens of the new government, 
 which required a great degree of obedience and the banish- 
 ment of luxury," ^ 
 
 John Adams in his Diary tells us of an unexpected en- 
 counter with Israel Pemberton when in 1774 the New Eng- 
 land delegation came to Philadelphia to enlighten the Quak- 
 ers and others as to the principles of liberty as developed 
 in Massachusetts. They were invited to a meeting in Car- 
 penters Hall and they concluded that their opportunity had 
 come. But the Friends took charge of the meeting. Israel 
 told them very plainly that " Friends had a concern about 
 the condition of things in Massachusetts; that they had 
 received complaints from some Anabaptists and some 
 Friends against certain laws of that Province restrictive of 
 liberty of conscience. 
 
 " The laws of New England and particularly of Massa- 
 chusetts were inconsistent with liberty of conscience for 
 they not only compelled men to pay for the building of 
 churches and the support of ministers but to go to some 
 known religious assembly on First-days; and that he and 
 his friends were desirous of engaging us to assure them 
 that our state would repeal all those laws and place 
 things as they were in Pennsylvania." This turning of the 
 tables was a sad blow to the complacency of the delegates 
 of the " Sons of Liberty." They denied the enforcement 
 of such laws of recent years but stated that " they might as 
 well hope to turn the heavenly bodies out of their annual 
 
 1 "Nouveau Voyage dans les Etats-Unis de TAmerique Septen- 
 trionale fait en 1788; par J. P. Brissot (WarviUe), Citoyen Fran- 
 cais." The portion here translated is omitted in the English 
 edition of 1792. See Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, Vol. 
 VIII, page 315. 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 213 
 
 and diurnal course as the people of Massachusetts at the 
 present day from their Meeting House and Sunday laws." 
 They then began to explain how such laws were compatible 
 with liberty of conscience but Pemberton called out, " Don't 
 urge liberty of conscience in favor of such laws." Unques- 
 tionably the Quaker had the better of the debate for the 
 facts were on his side and Israel Pemberton was too ag- 
 gressive a pacifist to lose the opportunity. 
 
 When in the fall of 1777 the British Army was approach- 
 ing Philadelphia the American government undertook to 
 remove leading citizens who were suspected of sympathy 
 with the invading force. This will be treated more fully 
 later in this chapter. The three brothers Pemberton were 
 arrested and by a rather arbitrary stretch of authority 
 were banished for eight months to Winchester, Virginia. 
 They were then released with something of an apology. 
 But the severe winter which froze up the American Army 
 at Valley Forge was too much for the Philadelphians sud- 
 denly removed from the comforts of the city to the bleak 
 quarters of west Virginia. Two of them died during the 
 winter and Israel Pemberton was so weakened that early 
 in 1779 he died aged 64 years. He was the only one of the 
 brothers who left any descendants of the name. One of 
 these by a strange reversion was the Southern General 
 Pemberton who surrendered Vicksburg to General Grant in 
 1863. 
 
 James Pemberton writes of his brother: " His health was 
 much impaired by a fit of sickness at the time of our exile 
 and was never perfectly restored. The various afflictions 
 with which he was of late years encompassed had much 
 contributed to weaken his constitution and vital strength 
 which the death of his wife six months before his own 
 further affected; but by exerting himself he kept about most 
 of the winter and was active on many necessary occasions 
 
214 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 for the relief of the afflicted and oppressed with whom he 
 always nearly sympathized and was unwearied in his 
 endeavors to promote their ease and redress, on which 
 account and his superior abilities, assiduity and resolution 
 in difficult cases relating both to religion and civil society 
 he is and will be much missed among us, his integrity, 
 benevolence and many other virtuous qualifications ren- 
 dered him generally respected and his death greatly 
 lamented." 
 
 James Pemberton the second of the "brothers was born 
 in 1723. He had all the opportunities which Philadelphia 
 afforded for an education, with a year in England. His 
 brother Israel was a man of courage and initiative full of 
 aggressive plans which absorbed his energies but who sel- 
 dom allowed himself to be tied down to official life. James 
 was the useful man, the politician, the office holder, the 
 letter writer, using the words in no belittling sense, who 
 while aiding his brother's large interests carried on the 
 details and committee work most efficiently and suc- 
 cessfully. 
 
 In church affairs he was a member of the " Meeting for 
 Sufferings," the executive body of Philadelphia Friends, 
 from its origin in 1756 till 1808 a few months before his 
 death. He was for about thirty years including the Revo- 
 lutionary War the Clerk of the Yearly Meeting, the prac- 
 tical President of that court of last appeal of the Quaker 
 system. He was on important committees whenever needed 
 and for a half century or more very little went on without 
 his co-operation in the affairs of his church. 
 
 He was a member of the legislative Assembly of the 
 province in 1755 and 1756 and again after 1765. His 
 letters ^ are a mine of wealth concerning political and eccle- 
 
 1 For many facts in this paper the author is indebted to these 
 manuscript letters not previously examined for purposes of pubhea- 
 tion. 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 215 
 
 siastical matters in the provinces from his view point. He 
 was an intimate associate and, except in matters of war- 
 fare, a strong believer in Benjamin Franklin. He founded 
 the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, persuaded Franklin 
 to accept the presidency and on his death in 1790 succeeded 
 him in the place. He was the confidential friend of Dr. 
 Fothergill and David Barclay who with Dr. Franklin 
 attempted the not unlikely experiment of a reconciliation 
 of England with the provinces just before the war and 
 used Pemberton as their colonial agent. Their letters agree 
 closely with Franklin's account in his Autobiography. 
 
 The Assembly of the Province was made up largely of 
 farmers, the best to be had. They were honest, intelligent, 
 and well-intentioned, but lacked for the most part a knowl- 
 edge of political history and business training. The oppor- 
 tunities of a country Friend for anything but an elementary 
 education were very limited, mostly non-existent. In a 
 clear case of provincial policy their judgment could be 
 relied on to do the right thing, Penn had drilled into them 
 the possession of certain rights as to legislation which they 
 tenaciously held to. How they came to be selected as 
 candidates is an interesting but unknown subject. Prob- 
 ably as there was but little emolument and no graft con- 
 nected with the office there was no great competition, but 
 by some process of nomination the Quaker machine main- 
 tained its supremacy and sent from the three populous 
 counties a practically unanimous line of these sectaries up 
 to 1756. Even from the frontier counties mostly made up 
 of non-Quakers from Germany it often happened that a 
 Friend was selected to represent their views on peace or 
 taxation. 
 
 In such an Assembly men like David Lloyd, John Kin- 
 sey, Isaac Norris and James Pemberton with their legal 
 and business training, their large contact with the world, 
 
2i6 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 their sturdy character and their sympathetic appreciation 
 of the point of view of their simple and trustful associates 
 would have unlimited influence and create the unity of 
 action in plans and policy, so strikingly displayed in the 
 legislative history of the province. The City of Philadel- 
 phia had two members and each of the counties surrounding 
 it eight. Towards the end of the provincial period new 
 counties were taken in, and an apportionment, probably 
 unfair, gave them a smaller representation. The city mem- 
 bers were largely depended on to supply the leadership and 
 while the Quaker population there found it more difficult 
 than in the country to carry its representation, they often 
 succeeded when a strong man like James Pemberton could 
 be found to lead them. We find him therefore frequently 
 elected and serving on the most important posts. 
 
 The constitution gave them rather unusual privileges for 
 a colonial legislature. The right to meet without call from 
 any power, to adjourn at will, to be free from arrest, to 
 control money affairs, to have their laws recognized unless 
 vetoed by the crown and the other rights as claimed by the 
 advanced freemen of the day, were guaranteed to them in 
 Penn's Frame of 1701 and they were always looking very 
 seriously at anything that seemed an infringement. But 
 when it came to putting this sensitive feeling into action 
 they had to depend on the creative wisdom and literary 
 ability of the city members. It was probably no great dis- 
 advantage that they had to fight at the polls for their rights 
 during these years. It kept the sentiment for liberty awake 
 and in action. The details were somewhat unlike those 
 in New England, but each was approaching the same goal 
 by a different method, the Puritan by a process which 
 was sure to culminate in avowed resistance, the Quaker by 
 legal methods, by appeal and argument, by a refusal to 
 obey oppressive laws, and a willingness to take the conse- 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 217 
 
 quences of disobedience. Had they been able to control 
 the province at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War a 
 test of the eflEicacy of their policy might have been made, 
 but the action of 1756 put them out of power, as they 
 probably did not appreciate, forever. 
 
 In the spring of 1755 the Quarterly Meeting of Philadel- 
 phia largely under Pemberton influence sent to London a 
 paper explaining the circumstances of Quaker ascendency 
 in the legislature. They told how the Friends had been 
 elected without exertion on their part often against their 
 wishes, and that this applied to counties where they were 
 in a minority as well as others; that for sixteen years they 
 had been kept in power by voters who did not share their 
 pacific principles ; that their policy had advanced the inter- 
 est of the proprietors by the general prosperity of the 
 province; and that if there were others who could be relied 
 upon to preserve the liberties guaranteed by the charter and 
 maintained by them they would be quite willing to be 
 relieved of the thankless task of engaging in the controver- 
 sies of the times. It was the last defense of active Quaker 
 participation in politics and in the main unanswerable. 
 
 But when in the crisis of 1756 the London Friends ad- 
 vised abstention to save the general imposition of an oath, 
 James Pemberton and six other Friends gave up their places 
 in the Assembly. This was the beginning of the break. 
 The meetings acting on the advice used their efforts to have 
 others withdraw and four more yielded and resigned. In 
 the fall a number refused reelection. James Pemberton 
 probably held the key to the situation and his action deter- 
 mined the loss of direct Quaker control for the future. 
 
 But the habits and instincts developed by seventy years 
 of political control died slowly. For the next ten years 
 there might at any time have been a Quaker Assembly, if 
 the meetings had not exerted themselves to prevent it. In 
 
2i8 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 1761 after the war ended there was probably a majority of 
 nominal Friends, but steadily the " weighty " Friends op- 
 posed. James Pemberton whose political tendencies were 
 hard to keep down, made a sort of an apology for accept- 
 ing reelection in 1765. He agreed *' with reluctance " 
 " through solicitation of Friends " " to keep out an envious 
 
 Pres n." (It will be remembered that this was in the 
 
 hot days of the Presbyterian-Quaker controversy following 
 the Paxton riots of the year before.) " Valuable interests 
 were suffering because no one properly represented them," 
 and so on. The troubles which led up to the Revolutionary 
 War seem to have convinced most Friends that they had 
 better confine their attention to local and moral affairs. 
 
 In the controversy over the transfer of the government 
 to the King he inclined to take the popular side for he was 
 much opposed to the demands of the Proprietors. At least 
 he says while not expecting much from the Crown, he thinks 
 that the agitation will bring the Proprietors to terms. His 
 idea of the attitude of a Quaker politician in a contest is 
 expressed by the statement, " Christian charity teaches us 
 to forgive our enemies and Christian prudence to beware 
 of them." He supported the idea of sending Franklin to 
 England and writes Dr. Fothergill: " No man in the prov- 
 ince has been so influential in promoting the public good; 
 the most useful institutions we have among us may be 
 attributed in great measure to his great understanding and 
 disinterested regard for the welfare of the province." 
 
 Among the institutions referred to the Pennsylvania Hos- 
 pital is prominent. It was a Quaker concern from the start. 
 In 1709 the Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia made a move 
 in this direction by sending over to England by James 
 Logan a request for financial aid and a charter for a hos- 
 pital. What reception this met with is unknown, except 
 that nothing resulted. 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 219 
 
 In 1751 Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin took 
 up the matter again. In a little time popular subscription 
 and an appropriation from the legislature gave the neces- 
 sary financial basis, and thus started the first hospital for 
 sick and insane in the new world. The largest contribu- 
 tors were Friends and so were a majority of the managers 
 for 150 years. Israel Pemberton, Jr., served on the board 
 from 1751 until his death in 1779 and James Pemberton 
 from 1756 to 1780 when he resigned " for various consid- 
 erations." Such work was strictly in line with the Pem- 
 berton idea of charity, to all branches of which they were 
 liberal contributors of time and money. The hospital 
 served as a sort of headquarters for Quaker leadership in 
 the days following 1750 as did the college, now university, 
 for the Episcopalians. 
 
 About the same time James Pemberton sent in an earnest 
 protest against New England Friends " removing to settle 
 on the lands in Nova Scotia from whence the poor unhappy 
 neutrals were in the beginning of the war removed, as such 
 a settlement does not appear suitable for any under our 
 profession when we consider the manner these distressed 
 people were dispossessed." As at this time he was 
 interested in all the city charities it is not a large stretch 
 of imagination for Longfellow to note the ministrations of 
 Evangeline in the Friends' Alms House where " her ear was 
 pleased with the Thee and Thou of the Quakers." 
 
 It is not a matter of wonder that the authorities in the 
 troublous days of September, 1777, should have been 
 looking for British sympathizers in Philadelphia. Sir Wil- 
 liam Howe was marching his army toward the city from 
 the Chesapeake. This corner of Pennsylvania had never 
 been warm for the war. There were outspoken militant 
 Tories besides the non-militant Friends, and spying was 
 evidently going on extensively. How far Friends were 
 actively implicated they did not know. 
 
220 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 To ascertain this the minutes of the various Meetings 
 were seized. Those of us who since that time have had 
 the opportunity to read these volumes, know that there 
 was nothing stronger than appeals to the members to be 
 faithful to their principles. So the officials found; and the 
 books were soon returned. Then they decided to banish 
 a group of the more suspicious people, striking more par- 
 ticularly those whose prominence would produce popular 
 effect. About forty were selected of whom nearly half 
 were Friends. They were not tried or heard, though they 
 sent urgent appeals and statements of their position to the 
 Council of the State, to Congress, and to the people of 
 Pennsylvania. Chief Justice McKean allowed a writ of 
 Habeas Corpus which was ignored. Their private papers 
 were examined and nothing incriminating was found. Then 
 they were offered freedom on taking oath or afl&rmation 
 of fidelity to the new government, which seemed too much 
 like a confession of guilt for most of them to agree to. 
 Other tests were applied and the list was reduced to twenty, 
 of whom seventeen were Friends. The decree was that 
 they were to be banished to Staunton (changed to Win- 
 chester), Virginia, at their own expense. This banishment 
 lasted until spring, when General Washington intervened 
 on their behalf, and the orders came to conduct them back 
 to Philadelphia through the lines of both armies " treating 
 them on the road with that polite attention and care which 
 is due to men who act on the purest motives, to gentlemen 
 whose stations in life entitle them to respect however they 
 may differ in political sentiments from those in whose power 
 they are." 
 
 A sort of a joint journal was kept, written by James 
 Pemberton which has been printed. Two of the exiles suc- 
 cumbed to the severe treatment and died in Virginia and 
 others were greatly weakened. Almost immediately on their 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 221 
 
 return they joined with other Friends in another appeal to 
 the members for fidelity to the anti-war attitude of the 
 past. 
 
 When the war was over the energies of James Pemberton 
 were directed largely to two causes in addition to the gen- 
 eral work of the Society. If he desired further political 
 life, which is doubtful, it probably would not have been 
 accorded him for a decade, for by meeting action and popu- 
 lar wish it was denied to Friends. 
 
 He was interested in educational movements among 
 Friends. Evidently the cause was at a low ebb, and all 
 the more so because many of the better educated Philadel- 
 phia Friends had actively espoused the American side in 
 the war and been disowned. The country Friends, worthy, 
 moral, traditional people, had nothing but their elementary 
 schools attached to the meeting houses to give them train- 
 ing. There are probably few opportunities for education 
 better than the conjunction of an aspiring youth with an 
 inspiring teacher in an ungraded school, and such oppor- 
 tunities sometimes present themselves. But neither side of 
 the condition was fulfilled in most cases and a rather 
 materialistic attitude relieved somewhat by the idealism 
 of some of the preaching in meeting was settling down on 
 the Societ3^ The objection to theological training as un- 
 necessary was extended to mean objection to higher educa- 
 tion as undesirable, and mediocrity was spreading its 
 dangerous hold. James Pemberton was a friend and active 
 correspondent of John Dickinson, Owen Biddle and others 
 who had a larger vision and a better background and in 
 course of time Westtown Boarding School evolved from 
 the controversy, opening its doors in 1799. The school itself 
 was for some time largely elementary but it gave to certain 
 Friendly youths a chance to come in contact with a better 
 type of scholarship than they had been used to and was 
 the beginning of better days. 
 
222 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 The other interest for which James Pemberton wrought 
 most assiduously was less denominational — the cause of 
 anti-slavery. The Friends had cleared themselves during 
 the w^ar of holding slaves and had at least partially paid 
 the freed negroes for past services. Pennsylvania in 1780, 
 the first among the states, passed a law for gradual aboli- 
 tion. Past efforts had reduced the number of slaves in the 
 state to about 4,000, while in the surrounding states there 
 were 103,000 in Maryland, 9,000 in Delaware, 11,000 in 
 New Jersey and 21,000 in New York and the people were 
 ready almost unanimously for a forward move in the nation 
 at large. The Yearly Meeting in 1783 sent to the Congress 
 of the Confederation a paper asking it to take steps towards 
 abolishing the slave trade signed by 535 Friends, but that 
 body was too powerless to do anything. As soon as the 
 national government was formed they again made an at- 
 tempt. They called attention to the former paper which had 
 been followed by action in a number of states, and appealed 
 to the Golden Rule as the basis of action. An acrimonious 
 debate followed. A year later a petition from Warner 
 Mifflin, a Friend from Delaware, who had freed and taken 
 care of his own slaves was " returned to him by the clerk 
 of the House " after serious controversy. Again in 1797 a 
 Quaker memorial produced a violent debate. 
 
 These petitions while creating no immediate legislation 
 did bring about a large growth of popular sentiment. Dur- 
 ing all the years up to the Civil War Friendly action stim- 
 ulated and to a large extent led the anti-slavery movement. 
 
 These early congressional debates brought out the stand- 
 ing of Friends as to their war attitude. The Southerners 
 attacked them as undesirable citizens on account of their 
 record. " We took each other with our mutual bad habits 
 and respective evils for better, for worse; the northern 
 states adopted us with our slaves and we adopted them 
 
JAMES PEMBERTON 223 
 
 with their Quakers," said Smith of South Carolina. On 
 the other hand the northern Congressmen especially those 
 from Pennsylvania and New Jersey were their eulogists. 
 Boudinot, the Commissary-General during the war testified 
 that their voluntary relief of suffering had greatly aided 
 the situation. 
 
 James Pemberton during these times was President of 
 the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of 
 Slavery which he had founded and of which he was the 
 mainstay, and to this cause he gave much of the energy of 
 his declining years. He died in 1809, eighty-five years old, 
 greatly respected. 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 
 
 The men whose lives we have been considering divided 
 their interest in state and church in varying proportions. 
 Thomas Lloyd was primarily a minister and reluctantly 
 assumed the burdens which his pre-eminent fitness placed 
 upon him as political leader of the colony. David Lloyd 
 was an ingrained politician looked upon at least in his 
 earlier days with considerable distrust by the Friends of 
 weight in the meeting, but ever faithful to the traditions 
 and testimonies of the Society. James Logan and his son- 
 in-law Isaac Norris tried to put Quaker principles into 
 active operation but found the difficulties so great in the 
 case of those relating to warfare, that they somewhat com- 
 promised. John Kinsey held his own in both fields with 
 remarkable success and was trusted as a shrewd and clear- 
 sighted political leader, no less than as the man of influence 
 and power in his Yearly Meeting. James Pemberton 
 equally faithful in both never had the preeminence of 
 Kinsey in either, but was always a most useful and intelli- 
 gent citizen and churchman. 
 
 John Dickinson was very little of a Friend in his early 
 life. Though descended on both sides from Quaker ances- 
 tors, finding his wife in a Quaker household, and leaving 
 children imbued with Quaker loyalty and ideals, it is not 
 certain that he was ever a member, and as we shall see later, 
 it was not till old age that his sympathies were given to 
 the Quaker connection. 
 
 He was descended from a Quaker family who emigrated 
 to Virginia in 1654 and a few years later moved to the 
 
 224 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 225 
 
 Eastern shore of Maryland at a plantation which they called 
 Crosia-dore. Here John Dickinson was born on November 
 8th, 1732. His father was Samuel Dickinson a lawyer, and 
 afterward Judge of the Court of Kent County, Delaware. 
 His mother was Mary Cadwalader, sister of the noted Dr. 
 Thomas Cadwalader of Philadelphia. Judge Dickinson 
 meant to give his son the best education the colonies af- 
 forded. But the three colleges then in existence, Harvard, 
 William and Mary, and Yale, were too ecclesiastical in 
 scope and spirit to attract a Quaker. John was confided 
 to the care of a young Irishman, William Killen, afterward 
 Chief Justice of Delaware. From this nationality not a 
 few of the teachers of the Middle States in colonial times 
 were drawn. It proved a happy choice and the bright boy, 
 through his training in the classics, secured an English style, 
 simple, direct, and eloquent, upon which was based much 
 of the effectiveness of his later writings. 
 
 When he was 18 years old he was sent to Philadelphia and 
 entered the office of the leading attorney of the town, John 
 Moland. After three years of study here he induced his 
 father to send him to London to enter as a student of law 
 at the Inns of Court. Here he had the best training pos- 
 sible for an English speaking youthful lawyer. He devel- 
 oped the legal and historical interests so conspicuously 
 useful in his political career, and which gave the bias to 
 his mind, which later contrasted so strongly with the New 
 England patriots with whom he was to work in the estab- 
 lishment of the nation. While they appealed to the rights 
 of man he sought his sanction in history and constitutional 
 principle. While they became excited and revolutionary 
 he approached the questions calmly and reasonably, and 
 after a certain point conservatively. 
 
 In 1757 we find him again in Philadelphia starting the 
 practice of law. As a lawyer he achieved an early success 
 
226 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 though as a biographer says " He possessed considerable 
 fluency, with a sweetness of tone and an agreeable modula- 
 tion of voice. . . . His law knowledge was respectable 
 though not remarkably extensive for his attention was 
 directed to historical and political studies." 
 
 His public life began in 1760 at the age of 28 when he was 
 elected to the Delaware legislature. The two provinces had 
 both been the property of William Penn, and while their 
 legislatures separated in 1701 the Penn Family appointed 
 the governor in both, sometimes the same person. Their 
 public men were somewhat interchangeable, and John Dick- 
 inson after the war at different times held the Governorship 
 of both states. 
 
 Two years later he was elected to the Pennsylvania 
 Assembly from the City of Philadelphia. This was just 
 when the question of the advisability of appealing to the 
 crown to substitute royal for proprietary government was 
 becoming acute. Franklin was urging it and Joseph Gal- 
 loway, a legal competitor of Dickinson's, was making 
 effective speeches for the movement. The most of the 
 country Friends somewhat exasperated by the proprietary 
 pretensions had been swerving to the same side. The older 
 city Friends of weight and influence led by the Speaker 
 Isaac Norris held back, partly from attachment to the old 
 William Penn Charter of 1701 under which they were still 
 working, partly because they feared the unknown possibil- 
 ities of royal rule. Franklin and Dickinson the mature 
 man of the world and the youthful student of history and 
 law were the chief opponents in this contest as they were 
 in many others to follow. 
 
 The policy of the Penns was certainly indefensible. The 
 refusal to pay their share of the taxes on their immense 
 estates, their binding their deputies by secret instructions, 
 which would be revealed after the Assembly had wrestled 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 227 
 
 for weeks with a subject and had drawn up a bill only to 
 find that it had all the while been impossible to have it 
 passed, the frequent attempts to drive the Friends from the 
 legislature by the enforcement of an oath of office, the selfish 
 methods of dealing with the Indians which had provoked 
 war, the opposition to paper money issues which had largely 
 but conservatively stimulated trade, had created a settled 
 and reasonable hostility to their rule, and had produced a 
 mass of adverse but ineffective legislation. The Penns, 
 secure in England as they deemed themselves to be in their 
 now enormous returns from quit-rents and the sale of land, 
 thought they could afford to defy opposition. But one re- 
 source seemed left to the colonists, to force the power from 
 their hands and trust to the chances of better times under 
 a governor appointed by the crown. 
 
 Dickinson was therefore on the unpopular side as was 
 frequently the case in his future political life. While 
 admitting the grievances under proprietary rule he mis- 
 trusted the British ministry, and the course of events, begin- 
 ning almost immediately after this, justified his sagacity. 
 
 At present however the province was in the throes of an 
 Indian War provoked primarily by the injustice of the 
 whites, but immediately by the conspiracy of Pontiac. The 
 Delawares and Shawnese, the friendc of Onas for 70 years, 
 the " women " of the Iroquois, were now the fiercest of 
 border ruffians. The Assembly, now non-Quaker, voted sup- 
 plies liberally for defense. The Penns yielding something to 
 the necessities of the case still insisted on unreasonably low 
 taxation for their land, and their Governor vetoed a bill of 
 supplies, preferring that the frontiersmen should suffer rather 
 than submit to an equitable demand. The Assembly more 
 humane yielded the point and the feeling against the Pro- 
 prietors did not diminish by the incident. 
 
 Galloway expressed the general demand in a series of 
 
228 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 resolutions when in 1764 the Assembly met. They were 
 in response to a number of petitions signed by country 
 Friends, their chief opponents the Presbyterians of the fron- 
 tiers, and by the Germans. On the other side were the 
 Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Friends of Philadelphia 
 who advised holding to the old Charter. 
 
 The resolutions were passed all but unanimously, appar- 
 ently in Dickinson's absence, but on May 26th he made a 
 famous speech, which while it did not change the vote in 
 the Assembly had a powerful effect on popular opinion. 
 The speeches of Galloway and Dickinson were printed and 
 are both masterly statements of their positions. Both were 
 based on real arguments and studied logic, fortified by 
 historical examples and constitutional principles.^ 
 
 " Benjamin Franklin and John Dickinson greatly distin- 
 guished themselves, the first as a politician the other as an 
 orator " says Samuel Foulke a colleague. 
 
 Dickinson however carried with him neither the house 
 nor his constituents for he was defeated for election for the 
 five following years. Franklin again went to England to 
 urge the decisions of the Assembly, but the series of attempts 
 at British taxation beginning about the same time he was 
 advised by his friends not to hurry the issue, and the dawn 
 of the harassing legislation which led up to the Revolu- 
 
 i The debate produced most angry feelings between the two 
 main contestants and Dickinson challenged Galloway to a duel, 
 which was declined. "That a Quaker should challenge a Quaker 
 may well cause surprise," says a biographer. As a matter of fact 
 probably neither was a Quaker, though both were members of 
 Quaker families. In the histories of the times the term Quaker 
 was used rather freely to include all who belonged to the "Quaker 
 Party" or who took affirmations instead of oaths, or whose families 
 were of this persuasion. 
 
 Dickinson was greatly inflamed and says in his reply, "Pre- 
 sumptions indeed must I appear should I venture into these lists, 
 against a person who wields the weapons of wordy war — the only 
 weapons he dares to wield." 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 229 
 
 tionary War soon took away all wishes for a royal govern- 
 ment. In 1770 Dickinson triumphantly came back into 
 the Assembly. 
 
 In the meantime he entered upon a series of studies and 
 writings which extended his fame far beyond the bound- 
 aries of his province. The Indian wars were over for the 
 time, the French had been driven from the continent, and 
 now England began to levy taxes to pay the bills incurred 
 for the benefit of the Americans. John Dickinson brought 
 his constitutional knowledge and effective style into the 
 defense of the colonies against taxation imposed from Eng- 
 land. A paper against the Stamp Act was widely read and 
 made him a delegate to the impotent Congress of the Colo- 
 nies of October, 1764, called to announce the conditions 
 on which they were willing to be taxed. 
 
 But two years later came the first of the " Farmer's Let- 
 ters " which gave their author the first place in America 
 as leader of the opposition to Britain's pretensions. From 
 this time till 1776 this young man in his thirties was pro- 
 claimed as the rising hope of the defenders of American 
 rights. 
 
 The Farmer's Letters, fourteen in number, following each 
 other in rapid succession, read by all classes, solidified and 
 made consistent and logical the gathering feeling against 
 the mother country. They seemed to prove the justice and 
 reasonableness of the position and propounded a theory on 
 which all could unite. For though many fell away when 
 it came to independence, there were but few who did not 
 now have a lurking feeling that they were being imposed 
 upon. The letters crystallized and made respectable this 
 feeling by a political philosophy which satisfied the edu- 
 cated and the ignorant alike. They referred to English law 
 to prove that constitutional resistance was sanctioned and 
 so made easy the conversion of the conservative lovers of 
 
230 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 the old country, and they contained the appeal to colonial 
 patriotism which warmed the hearts of many who were just 
 beginning to think that more than constitutional resistance 
 might soon be possible. For the present however they dis- 
 armed the movement for more serious measures by showing 
 that legal remedies might produce the result desired. 
 
 Boston in a town meeting voted " that the thanks of the 
 town be given to the ingenious author of a course of letters 
 published at Philadelphia, and in this place, signed ' A 
 Farmer ' wherein the rights of American subjects are clearly 
 stated and fully vindicated." Princeton gave him an hon- 
 orary LL.D. All social organizations of Philadelphia 
 opened their doors to him. Translated into French they 
 were widely read and praised, and did something to develop 
 the sentiment of that fermenting nation. John Dickinson 
 was the great man of America. Nothing could be done 
 without his leadership. He carried his conservative friends 
 with him in non-importation and non-exportation agree- 
 ments and in numerous remonstrances and commercial at- 
 tacks upon British interests. 
 
 True to his feeling that force was not now the proper 
 remedy against oppression he mildly disapproved of the 
 destruction of the tea in the Boston Harbor and thereby 
 incurred the reprobation of Samuel Adams and the more 
 revolutionary Bostonians. His settlement of the question 
 was better expressed by the Philadelphia method which 
 sent the tea ship back to England without unloading, ad- 
 vancing money to the captain to revictual her. 
 
 It was however deemed of great importance to have 
 Dickinson vigorously espouse the Boston side of the con- 
 troversy and Paul Revere was sent to Philadelphia in 1774 
 to insure the cooperation of that city. Dickinson would 
 however go no farther than to express his sympathy with 
 Boston and to counsel conciliation. The gentlemen through 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 231 
 
 whom Revere acted, Thomas Mifflin, Charles Thompson 
 and Joseph Reed, one a Friend, another closely associated 
 with them, knew that for any united and effective Phila- 
 delphia support which would include Friends, Dickinson 
 must be secured. They tried every means to win him with- 
 out further success. Thompson says " The Quakers courted 
 and seemed to depend upon him." Indeed he appears to 
 have had the unlimited confidence of all parties and it was 
 admitted that no movement could succeed except with his 
 concurrence. 
 
 Then came the days of the Continental Congress. Dick- 
 inson was a member from Pennsylvania and up to the date 
 of the Declaration of Independence wrote the most of its 
 state papers. It was these papers that drew from Lord 
 Chatham the eulogy " I must declare and avow that in the 
 master states of the world I know not the people or the 
 Senate who in such a complication of difficult circumstances 
 can stand in preference to the delegates of America assem- 
 bled in General Congress in Philadelphia." 
 
 These papers were the last hopeless efforts to avert war 
 and revolution, which Dickinson hated, and the fact that 
 he succeeded in getting them through the Congress in the 
 face of the more determined representatives of New Eng- 
 land and the South, shows the strength of his influence. 
 John Adams called him " a piddling genius," which, however 
 doubtful may be the meaning, was not intended to be 
 complimentary. On the other hand his old opponent Gal- 
 loway fast developing into a positive loyalist opposed him 
 bitterly. 
 
 He was holding a middle ground and as is usually the 
 case retained it with difficulty. A leader in demanding 
 redress, yet compromising by nature, he stood out against 
 radical measures on the one side and submission on the 
 other. 
 
232 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 In this he probably fairly represented his Quaker con- 
 nection. The Friends had been vigorously opposed to any 
 infringements on popular rights whether by Proprietors or 
 Crown. Up to 1755 this had been done through their own 
 membership, afterwards through representatives chosen by 
 them. They had gained one point after another by legal 
 means. In England where they had no political power, 
 when laws went against them they protested and suffered. 
 The method had been effective and Quaker scruples were 
 often crystallized into legislation. 
 
 They yielded exact obedience to all edicts, and had a 
 testimony against plots and revolutions, but they were in- 
 flexible in disobedience to laws which touched their con- 
 sciences. They granted freedom of conscience to all others 
 and demanded it for themselves. Now they were approach- 
 ing a time when their love of liberty and their hatred of 
 revolution and war were to conflict. Could they gain their 
 points by appeal to the king, to the English people, to con- 
 stitutional rights, all would be well and in this movement 
 John Dickinson was their hope. 
 
 His papers had made him influential and distinguished 
 above any man in America and it did not seem impossible 
 that he could carry the country. He was appealing for 
 undoubted rights and privileges, needing not the support of 
 illegal or revolutionary proceedings, rights which had the 
 same foundation as trial by jury. The true English mode 
 of resistance was by petition and remonstrance which gen- 
 erally proved effective in time. There were of course pos- 
 sibilities of unreason or obstinacy on either side in which 
 case resistance by force must follow, but he warned the 
 ministry that if this came to pass the responsibility would 
 be with them. On the other hand he tried to moderate the 
 extreme measures which the New England delegates were 
 preaching, urged on by the popular feeling at home. A 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 233 
 
 normal vigorous agitation, an appeal to English justice and 
 English constitutional methods of resistance rather than 
 premature and violent action was the content of his preach- 
 ing, but neither Old nor New England was in a condition 
 to respond. Franklin in England was writing that the tea 
 sunk in Boston harbor should be paid for and seemed to 
 be his ally. 
 
 But appeals failed and the radicals forced independence, 
 revolution and war, and here for a time ended the popularity 
 and influence of John Dickinson. He was too much of a 
 patriot to join Galloway and the loyalists; too cautious to 
 sign a measure which he considered premature and which 
 would lead to consequences which might be fatal; too little 
 of a Friend to oppose war for its own sake. His argument 
 was that without foreign aid a rebellion would not be suc- 
 cessful and foreign aid should first be secured. In the first 
 point he was probably right, and in the second the colonists 
 took their chances. The French came in to save the sit- 
 uation. 
 
 His speech on this occasion was an eloquent plea for 
 moderation. John Adams had invoked the " God of Elo- 
 quence." Dickinson replied, "The gentleman who spoke 
 last began by invoking a heathen God. I shall introduce 
 what I have to say by humbly invokmg the God of heaven 
 and earth to inspire me with the knowledge and love of 
 truth and if what I am about to say in opposition to the 
 Declaration of Independence should be injurious in any 
 degree to my country I pray God to overrule my arguments 
 and to direct us to such a decision upon this weighty ques- 
 tion as shall be most for the interest and happiness of the 
 people committed to our care. ... I know too that I 
 have acquired a character and some popularity with them, 
 both of which I shall risk by opposing this favorite measure. 
 But I had rather risk both than speak or vote contrary to 
 the dictates of my judgment and conscience." 
 
234 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Though defeated in his method he did not sulk but joined 
 the Revolutionary Army first as an ofl&cer, then, when 
 driven out of his place by political enemies as a common 
 soldier. He had lost his standing with the people and after 
 his career in the field retired to private life on his Delaware 
 plantation. 
 
 A few years later he could not resist the call to Congress 
 from Delaware and, after a brief service there, to the Gov- 
 ernorship. By the end of the war there came a conserva- 
 tive reaction and Pennsylvania turned to Dickinson. In 
 1782 he was elected a member and soon after the President 
 of the Supreme Executive Council, practically the Governor 
 of the state. He held this place for three years and was 
 succeeded by Dr. Franklin.^ 
 
 In 1787 when the Convention which framed the Consti- 
 tution of the United States met in Philadelphia John Dick- 
 inson was a member from Delaware. He had himself 
 drafted the Articles of Confederation under which the states 
 worked since 1776, but no one saw more clearly than he, 
 their inadequacy to meet the conditions of a permanent 
 union. His intimate knowledge of the history of the free 
 institutions of England and other states made his services 
 
 1 A glimpse, not very flattering, is given of Dickinson in 1783 
 hy a German traveller Johann David Sehoeff. He says, "I de- 
 sired to make him my duty, and in order to be received by him 
 I had recourse to a physician of my acquaintance, who excused 
 himself on the ground that he had been against the Governor at 
 the last election." Then he tried an American Mayor who also 
 made some trivial excuse. Then "I betook myself to a Quaker 
 confidently believing I had come to the right man since Dickinson 
 himself is of the Society of Friends; but my Quaker assured me 
 he had nothing to do with the Governor." Another doctor also 
 declined. "I regretted I could not meet with one whose vainglory 
 not satisfied with the government of so considerable a province as 
 Pennsylvania was at the same time putting in for another that of 
 the state of Delaware. But this may have been from lofty patriot- 
 ism." 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 235 
 
 of great value. He was the author of the scheme by which 
 the upper house of the federal legislature was to be com- 
 posed of two from each state thus recognizing the rights of 
 the smaller states. As delegate from Delaware he felt it 
 to be a part of his duty to see that the doctrine of the rights 
 of states as enunciated in the constitution should not permit 
 the overwhelming influence of the more populous ones. 
 
 When the form of the Constitution was finally agreed 
 upon he was urgent for its adoption by the people and wrote 
 over the signature of Fabius a series of articles in explana- 
 tion and support of it. Delaware and Pennsylvania were 
 the two states first to adopt it. 
 
 In the old age of John Dickinson his political sympathies 
 took an unexpected turn. The well known caution and 
 conservatism of his younger years might have been ex- 
 pected to deepen with age. Instead he allied himself with 
 the Republican Party of Jefferson with whom he carried on 
 a most sympathetic correspondence. He greatly rejoiced 
 in the early days of the French Revolution, though depre- 
 cating the cruelties and atheism into which it developed. 
 He was often consulted and wrote many letters of advice 
 as to public matters of consequence. Several suggestions 
 were made to him to accept a United States Senatorship 
 from Delaware and other offices, but nothing could tempt 
 him from the life of quiet unofficial interest in public affairs. 
 On February, 1808, he died in his 77th year and was buried 
 in the graveyard attached to Friends Meeting House in 
 Wilmington, Delaware. 
 
 Such is a brief epitome of his public life. However we 
 may differ as to the wisdom of his positions, we can readily 
 recognize the consistent patriotism, the intelligent and stu- 
 dious advocacy of important movements, the lack of asper- 
 ity in his judgment of opponents, the intellectual grace and 
 culture of the man, and his permanent influence upon the 
 nation he helped to create. 
 
236 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 But what of John Dickinson the Quaker? Prior to his 
 marriage at the age of 38 there is little in his life, except 
 perhaps a certain quietness of manner and conciliatory- 
 spirit, to suggest his membership with Friends. The proba- 
 bilities are that he was not a member, though why there 
 are not facts known to show. Apparently his parents were 
 Friends and he would have a birthright membership. Pos- 
 sibly one of these lost the right before he was born in which 
 case his name would not be recorded on the books. He 
 did not use the Friendly " thou " and " thee " or the numer- 
 ical names of the months even in writing to his family. 
 His education was away from Friends and his associates 
 after he came to live in Philadelphia were many of them 
 of other denominations. 
 
 He would however often find a congenial household at 
 Fair Hill. The Norris family would have large intellectual 
 as well as political attractions for the young student. Isaac 
 Norris and he were closely associated in their opposition to 
 the change of masters from the Proprietors to the Crown. 
 The ample library would be a source of profit and pleasure 
 and the entrance was easy for him with his graceful man- 
 ners, ample means and fine intelligence to whatever was 
 best in the society of the colonial capital. 
 
 Isaac Norris died in 1769 and his daughter Sarah a few 
 weeks later. Only Mary Norris was left of the family. 
 She became the wife of John Dickinson in 1770 and as the 
 heirs of Fair Hill they lived there " in great elegance." 
 John Adams speaks of Dickinson's calling on him " in his 
 carriage and four beautiful horses," and that " his residence 
 was very fine with its beautiful prospect of the city, the 
 river, the country, fine gardens and a very grand library." 
 
 Mary Norris was an interested Friend but could not 
 marry a non-member by Friendly methods. It was then a 
 serious matter to marry " out of the Society " and the 
 result usually was " disownment." 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 237 
 
 The account which follows therefore indicates that her 
 husband was not a Friend. " Thou will be greatly sur- 
 prised," her uncle William Logan writes " to hear that our 
 niece Polly Norris was married last night to John Dickin- 
 son. , . . She was married at the Widow Norris's by 
 George Bryan (a Magistrate). ... I am greatly con- 
 cerned for the example Polly has set by this her outgoing in 
 marriage. I fear she has slipped from the top of the hill 
 of reputation she had gained in the Society and among her 
 friends, and that it will be a long time before she gains it 
 again if ever. I wish she may not repent it." 
 
 But Polly probably never repented it. She retained her 
 memnership, and largely through her her husband and chil- 
 dren were influenced in the same direction. 
 
 Had John Dickinson been a Friend in early life his 
 membership would not have survived his military experi- 
 ence during the war. Some writers have said that he was 
 too important a man for the Quakers to lose, but such 
 little knew the prompt, unbending, impartial action which 
 followed every departure however slight from the straight 
 line of peace, on either side of the controversy. 
 
 At the end of the war however there are many evidences 
 of his close approach to Friends, though he never joined in 
 membership. His letters used the Friendly language no 
 matter whom he addressed. He became a regular attender 
 of Friends Meeting and interested himself in their affairs. 
 He joined with them in the abolition movement, freed all 
 his own slaves and drew up an emancipation bill for Dela- 
 ware, which however was not adopted. He wrote to his 
 cousin James Pemberton letters of concern that the Friends 
 of the day read no literature but Quaker literature, and 
 tried to encourage a wider literary interest. He wrote to 
 them eloquently against the idea which was probably rather 
 widely spread among them that education was in itself dan- 
 
238 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 gerous. "So assured am I that learning and religion will 
 be found to agree together that I think it the indispensable 
 duty of those who revere religion to cultivate learning in 
 order to counteract the mischiefs flowing from its perver- 
 sions and apply it to its proper use." 
 
 To further encourage the idea he urged the Friends to 
 establish a school and made to it liberal contributions in 
 money and real estate. This came to an issue in 1799 and 
 Westtown Boarding School still in honored existence was 
 the fruit of their joint efforts. 
 
 He and his wife gave to Wilmington Monthly Meeting of 
 Friends a sum for the education of children of those not 
 in affluent circumstances. Other benevolent projects were 
 committed to other organizations of Friends. 
 
 His identification with Friends was so close that he was 
 usually considered a member. Thus we have this testimony 
 from the son of Chief Justice Read: — 
 
 "I have a vivid impression of the man, tall and spare, 
 his hair white as snow, his face uniting with the severe sim- 
 plicity of his sect a neatness and elegance peculiarly in 
 keeping with it; his manners a beautiful emanation of the 
 great Christian principle of love, with that gentleness and 
 affectionateness which, whatever may be the cause, the 
 Friends, or at least individuals among them, exhibit more 
 than others, combining the politeness of a man of the world 
 familiar with society in its most polished forms with con- 
 ventional canons of behavior. Truly he lives in my mem- 
 ory as the realization of my beau-ideal of a gentleman." 
 
 But during all these years he was not a member with 
 Friends. This was a matter of doubt till the recent dis- 
 covery of two letters, one in the Historical Society of Penn- 
 sjdvania, and one in the Friends Library in Devonshire 
 House in London, seems to set the matter at rest. 
 
 A correspondent writing without date but probably about 
 1787 is urging him to join Friends. She says: "Thou 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 239 
 
 mayst be a suitable laborer in the work if disposed to. It 
 is a worthy act not only to do good ourselves but to induce 
 others thereto. If thou wast become a member of Society 
 thou mightest with just assistance of others also yoked in 
 mind to the service become as Dr. Fothergill, a vigilant 
 advancer of it into execution. But that must depend on 
 thy feelings. Perhaps human wisdom is not yet sufficiently 
 reduced in subjection to the simplicity that is in Christ, 
 to make thee as yet willing to stoop to the foolishness of 
 the cross sometimes appearing in the Quaker. I do not 
 mean an irrational or unchristian foolishness but what 
 appeareth foolishness to Sophistry. I suggest these things 
 respecting thyself. I do not say they are so. Forgive my 
 great freedom and burn this if I do not conclude to save 
 thee the trouble. If it goes let the veil of charity cover its 
 defects. And may thou persevere this time in that which 
 shall induce us to address thee in the character of — John 
 Dickinson the worthy — not J. D. Esq., or the Great. 
 Thou will say I suppose I am a strange girl to write as I do. 
 Farewell however. 
 
 " Thy friend, 
 
 " A. Emlen, Jr." 
 
 Again James Bringhurst in 1799 writes to a correspondent 
 a letter which gives certain interesting facts concerning his 
 later life. 
 
 " A great change has taken place in John Dickinson 
 although not yet in Membership with F'''^^ it plainly shews 
 what the powerful operation of Divine Grace has done for 
 him, who was once in almost the highest applause & popu- 
 larity of Mankind as to worldly things, having been a great 
 Lawyer, a Politician, a Governor of Pensilvania, & any 
 station he seemed to chusc — having been the Author of 
 what's called the Farmer's letters some years past, & now 
 I believe him to be the improving Christian. He has so far 
 
240 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 taken up the cross as to use the plain language to all, & is a 
 diligent attender of our religious meetings. I had been inti- 
 mately acquainted with him & therefore took the liberty to 
 lay before him in a letter I wrote a few weeks past, the use 
 & benefit his influence might probably have if he could feel 
 it right to exert it with G. Washington, & some others in 
 high stations on behalf of the poor Black people detained 
 in Bondage. — of his own Negroes he set a number free, in 
 which I was informed he gave up to the amount of between 
 eight & ten thousand pounds. Respecting that & some 
 other matters he gave me some account last spring about a 
 week before I left home to come here. — I went to Will- 
 mington to see a Son of mine, who is settled there, when 
 J. Dickinson was very pressing with me to spend some time 
 with him at his house, which is large & comodious & pleas- 
 ently situated in that Town, where he lives as a private 
 Gentleman. He possesses vast property & therefore it is 
 in his power to do much good with it wherein I believe he 
 is good to the poor. I staid longer than I had intended on 
 purpose from his solicitation & spent part of two days with 
 him, when he was very free & open in conversation, one part 
 of which I may have room to mention — in speaking of the 
 difference between his former & present manner of Life, he 
 told me his daughter had been his instructor; he has two 
 children who are daughters lately grown up, no Son. He 
 said, when he lived in Philadelphia, he wished his eldest to 
 learn dancing & proposed it to her, offering to have a master 
 come to teach her, — at which she made some hesitation. 
 He then desired her to go into her chamber & set an hour 
 or two alone to consider of it & then give him an answer. 
 She went as he bid her & when she returned to him again, 
 her answer was, ' if Father pleases I had much rather be a 
 Friend ' which altho' somewhat mortifying to him at that 
 time he gave up to. That with some other parts of her 
 conduct put him upon closer thinking of the cause. She 
 is a fine young woman of superior understanding, just grow- 
 ing up into the prime of life with every opportunity of 
 indulgence that's apt to be pleasing to young minds. Thus 
 to deny herself of those things, so powerfully struck his 
 mind as gradually with other feelings he experienced to 
 effect a change in him who was in great exaltation as to 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 241 
 
 worldly Eminence. — I thought this short ace* might be 
 agreeable to you both to see, far short it is, to what I could 
 have wrote respecting the conversation we had, but I 
 thought this enough to insert in this letter. I wish this part 
 of it not to be much seen by others, as I should not like 
 any of it as wrote by me, should come to his knowledge — 
 that respecting his negroes he told me if some who held such 
 knew of, perhaps it might be an encouragement to them to 
 set theirs free, tho' I dont wish that to be mention'd either 
 from me, — he said he became uneasy in his mind about his, 
 & therefore thought to accommodate the matter to himself 
 & them also, & therefore order'd a number of huts to be 
 built for their better living on the Plantations, & several 
 other ways endeavor'd to render a state of slavery easy to 
 them, but after all this he found his mind disturbed on their 
 ace*, & at last determin'd to set them at liberty, & wrote 
 a manumission for the whole of them, immediately after 
 which he told me he had a peaceful easy mind, & everything 
 seemed to prosper in his hands, & to crown all, his Income 
 was abundantly increased contrary to his expectation." 
 Dated Tiverton Rhode Hand 8*^ of lO**^ mo 1799. 
 
 He never accepted the historic position of Friends on 
 the subject of the unchristian character of the methods of 
 warfare. Writing to his cousin, George Logan, a grandson 
 of James Logan, then United States Senator from Penn- 
 sylvania, he says in 1804 " As standing armies are justly 
 abhorred among us our liberty must depend upon our being 
 an armed nation; and considering the honor of those with 
 whom we have to contend, we must be a populous nation." 
 
 Warner Mifflin who was a fellow member of the Conven- 
 tion which framed a Constitution for Delaware in 1782, a 
 Friend in good standing, thus writes of Dickinson's efforts 
 to defeat the causes which Friends had much at heart. " I 
 believe I attended them (the sittings of the Convention) 
 every day except one meeting-day and am very strongly 
 suspicious that John Dickinson knew that was our meeting- 
 day, as he then moved that the blacks should be prevented 
 
242 POLITICAL LEADERS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 by the Constitution from purchasing real property &c. His 
 conduct respecting the blacks and the conscientiously scru- 
 pulous against arms, induced one to believe that he was as 
 great an enemy to the cause of righteousness as was in that 
 body. ... I told him that those who came nearest the 
 truth and were not in it were its greatest enemies." 
 
 Thus he lived through his life on the fringe of the Society, 
 identified with them in popular estimation but never fully 
 trusted by their standard members. 
 
 Whether Quaker or not he was a devout and pious Chris- 
 tian. His private letters breathe a spirit of fervent reli- 
 gious life, and his kindly but unostentatious donations all 
 through his life betray the sense of responsibility for the 
 proper use of his large wealth. His wife had inherited 
 Fair Hill and when in Philadelphia they spent their life 
 there in a generous hospitality. But knowing that Isaac 
 Norris had desired that the property should descend to the 
 male members of the Norris family, he transferred without 
 compensation all rights in the very valuable estate to the 
 sons of Charles Norris. 
 
 The residence at Fair Hill was burned by the British 
 during their occupancy of the city in 1777, part of the 
 Library being saved. 
 
 The books left, some 1500 volumes, were given in 1783 
 to Dickinson College then just established by the Presby- 
 terians. He also donated two tracts of valuable land 
 altogether 500 acres to the new institution. It was char- 
 tered "Dickinson College in memory of the great and im- 
 portant services rendered to his country by his Excellency, 
 John Dickinson, Esquire, President of the Supreme Execu- 
 tive Council and in commemoration of his very liberal 
 donation to the institution." He also subscribed to the 
 funds of Princeton College. 
 
 Education, charity, religion, these were the purposes to 
 
JOHN DICKINSON 243 
 
 which his peaceful hiter years were devoted. Almost his 
 last words were " I wish happiness to all mankind and the 
 blessings of peace to all the nations of the earth, and these 
 are the constant subjects of my prayers." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Asceticism, 13 
 Ashbridge, George, 145 
 Assembly, 144 
 
 Bancroft, George, 54 
 Barclay, Robert, 63, 67 
 Benezet, Anthony, 10 
 Biddle, John, 44 
 Biddle, William, 43 
 Biles, William, 96, 123 
 BlackweU, Governor, 21, 73 
 Brissot de Warville, 210 
 
 Carpenter, Samuel, 33, 52, 71, 77, 
 
 108, 122, 139, 184, 201 
 Chronicle of ben Saddi, 194 
 Conscience, Quaker, 15, 51 
 
 Davies, Richard, 55 
 Dickinson, James, 67 
 Dickinson, John 
 
 ancestry, 224 
 
 education, 225 
 
 studies law, 225 
 
 enters public life, 226 
 
 contest Franklin and Galloway, 226 
 
 Farmer's Letters, 229 
 
 influence in Philadelphia. 230 
 
 Continental Congress, 232 
 
 represents Friends, 232 
 
 moderation, 232 
 
 joins army, 234 
 
 Governor of Delaware and Penn- 
 sylvania, 234 
 
 constitutional convention, 234 
 
 sympathizes with Republicans, 235 
 
 death, 235 
 
 as a Friend, 236, 238 
 
 marriage, 236 
 
 letters of A. Emlen and James 
 Bringhurst, 239 
 
 donations, 242 
 Dixon, Hepworth, 20 
 
 Eckley, John, 73, 77 
 Evans, Governor, 21, 97, 121 
 
 Fisher, Daniel, 37 
 
 Fletcher, Governor, 78, 88, 89 
 
 Ford, Patrick, 22, 26, 97 
 
 Fox, George, 63 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 150, 192, 196, 
 198, 207, 215, 226 
 
 Freame, Margaret Penn, 42 
 
 Friends, society of 
 
 abstain from politics, 3 
 general meeting, 31 
 war problems, 7, 8, 50, 147 
 control Assembly, 145 
 leave Assembly, 193, 195,217 
 
 Galloway, Joseph, 226, 228 
 Goodson, John, 41 
 
 Gookin, Governor, 21, 93, 97, 129, 136 
 Gordon, Governor, 106, 144 
 Growdon, Joseph, 108 
 
 Hamilton, Andrew, 42, 160, 190 
 Hill, Rich.-rd, 124, 128, 133, 139, 154, 
 
 184 
 Hodgkin, Thomas, 18 
 Holme, Thomas, 59 
 Hoskins, Jane, 109 
 
 Indian policy, 47, 48, 49, 140, 174. 
 188, 191, 205 
 
 Jenings, Samuel, 66 
 John a;/ John, 55 
 Jones, Griffith, 26 
 
 Keith, George, 62, 68 
 
 Keith, Sir V. iUiam, 46, 103, 142, 157 
 
 Kinsoy, John 
 
 ancestry, 156 
 
 hat in court, 157 
 
 245 
 
246 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Kinsey, John — continued 
 came to Philadelphia, 159 
 meeting work, 159 
 state offices, 160 
 contest with Governor Thomas, 
 
 162-169 
 chief justice, 171 
 Maryland boundary line, 172 
 bills of credit, 172 
 differs with governor, 173 
 treaties with Indians, 174 
 Albany treaty, 176 
 death, 176 
 notices, 177 
 
 end of Quaker control, 178 
 meeting notice, 180 
 
 Lloyd, Charles, 57 
 Lloyd, Da\'id 
 
 opposed to Penn, 26 
 
 early life, 84 
 
 offices in state, 85 
 
 differs with Pastorius, 86 
 
 politician, 88 
 
 opposes Logan, 89, 98, 100 
 
 opposes Penn, 90 
 
 war grants, 91 
 
 identity of Friends with govern- 
 ment, 91 
 
 Llovd defeated, 1710, 92, 102, 132 ; 
 1705, 96 
 
 adjournment of House, 92 
 
 address to Penn, 1704, 94, 122 
 
 courts to be established, 99 
 
 differs with Gookin, 99, 101 
 
 moves to Chester, 102 
 
 sides Math Sir W. Keith, 104 
 
 death, 106 
 
 as a lawyer, 106 
 
 as a politician, 107 
 
 as a Friend, 108 
 
 Jane Fenn, 110 
 
 services to state. 111 
 
 literary work, 113 
 
 country people for Lloyd, 131 
 Lloyd, Grace, 109 
 Lloyd, Thomas 
 
 qualities of, 22 
 
 signs Penn's certificate, 33 
 
 comes to Pennsylvania, 60 
 
 opposes George Keith, 61 
 
 Pastorius and Lloyd, 70 
 
 deputy governor, 73 
 
 differs with Governor Blackwell, 
 74,77 
 
 death, 78 
 
 character, 79 
 
 memorial of Welsh Friends, 80 
 
 letter to Welsh Friends, 82 
 Logan, Dr. George, 153, 241 
 Logan, James 
 
 comes to Permsylvania, 89, 115 
 
 attitude to war, 91, 115, 148 
 
 fidelity to Penn, 97 
 
 descent, 114 
 
 offices held, 115 
 
 dispute with Daniel Cooper, 116 
 
 with Thomas Story, 117 
 
 relation to Friends, 118 
 
 quit-rents and collections, 119 
 
 Indian question, 120, 140, 150 
 
 politics, 121 
 
 bitterness with Lloyd, 122 
 
 Evans hoax, 123 
 
 powder money, 124 
 
 impeached, 125 
 
 bad assemblies, 126 
 
 Lewes plundered, 127 
 
 trustee under Penn's mortgage, 128 
 
 goes to England, 129 
 
 election of 1710, 132 
 
 returns, 133 
 
 salary, 135 
 
 marriage, 138 
 
 better times, 139 
 
 differs with Governor Keith, 143 
 
 made chief justice, 146 
 
 president of council, 146 
 
 aids lotteries, 149 
 
 Stenton, 149 
 
 influence, 150 
 
 intellectual interests, 151 
 
 library, 152 
 
 death, 153 
 
 descendants, 153 
 Logan, William, 153 
 Lotteries, 44 
 Lower, Thomas, 26 
 
 Makin, Thomas, 71 
 Markham, William, 77, 89, 121 
 Mather, Cotton, 64 
 
INDEX 
 
 247 
 
 Mead, William, 26 
 Mifflin, Warner, 242 
 
 Negro meetings, 33 
 Norris, Deborah, 154 
 
 Norris, Isaac, Sr. 
 
 judgment of Penn, 25 
 
 of Thomas Story, 117 
 
 care of young Penn, 122 
 
 poor prospects of Pa., 127 
 
 arranges Penn's debts, 128, 184 
 
 early life, 181 
 
 builds Fairhill, 182 
 
 marries Mary Lloyd, 183 
 
 politics, 185 
 Norris, Isaac, 2nd 
 
 birth, 186 
 
 City Council, 186 
 
 merchant, 187 
 
 assists Kinsey, 187 
 
 goes to Albany, 189 
 
 speaker, 189 
 
 state house built, 190 
 
 liberty bell, 190 
 
 Albany treaty, 191 
 
 declines to leave Assembly, 194 
 
 the Chronicle of Nathan ben 
 Saddi, 194 
 
 appointed agent in England, 196 
 
 contest wath proprietors, 197 
 
 death, 198 
 
 relation to meeting, 198 
 
 married life, 199 
 
 scholarship, 199 
 
 Oaths, 45, 103, 137 
 Owen, Griffith, 33 
 
 Palatines, 144 
 
 Pastorius, F. D., 67, 69, 70, 72, 86 
 Pemberton, Israel, Sr., 201 
 Pembcrton, Israel, Jr. 
 
 leader of Quakers, 202 
 
 trouble with Governor Thomas, 202 
 
 Indian interests, 205 
 
 King Wampum, 206 
 
 Paxton boys, 207 
 
 opposes Thomas Penn, 208 
 
 tea ship, 209 
 
 British sjTnpathizers, 210 
 
 Friends in revolution, 210 
 
 contest with John Adams, 212 
 
 banished to Virginia, 213 
 
 death, 213 
 Pemberton, James 
 
 education, 214 
 
 offices in church, 214 
 
 member of Assembly, 215 
 
 character of Assembly, 215 
 
 break-up of Quaker majority, 217 
 
 Pennsylvania Hospital, 218 
 
 Acadians, 219 
 
 banished to Virginia, 219 
 
 Westtown School, 220 
 
 anti-slavery work, 222 
 
 death, 223 
 Pemberton, Phineas, 71, 200 
 Penal code, 46, 103 
 Penn, Hannah C, 103, 105, 136 
 Penn, John, 147 
 Penn, Thomas, 147, 196 
 Penn, William 
 
 religious liberty, 10, 36, 93 
 
 weak qualities, 23 
 
 strong qualities, 24, 27 
 
 Isaac Norris' judgment, 25 
 
 personality, 29, 30, 33 
 
 certificates of English Friends, 32 
 
 constitutions, 34, 35 
 
 democracy, 39 
 
 amusements, 43 
 
 oaths, 45, 103 
 
 capital punishment, 46 
 
 Indian policy, 47, 48, 49 
 
 war, 50, 52 
 
 diet of nations, 51 
 
 travels in Germany, 63 
 
 Penn and Pastorius, 70 
 
 Penn and Blackwell, 77 
 
 financial troubles, 94, 97 
 
 engages Logan, 115 
 
 land ownership, 120 
 
 opposition to Penn, 130 
 
 Penn's letter to Friends, 133 
 
 sale to crown, 135 
 
 paralyzed, 135 
 Penn, William, Jr., 121 
 Personality, 9 
 Punishment, capital, 46, 138 
 
 Quaker reforms, 7 
 Quit-rents, 119 
 
248 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Riot of 1742. 169, 187 
 Roberts, Hugh, 41, 69 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 160 
 
 Second coming, 11 
 Smith, John, 154, 177 
 Standards of conduct, 1 
 Stockdale, William, 05 
 Story, Thomas, 33 
 
 Thomas, Governor, 147, 161 
 Thompson, Charles, 42, 231 
 
 War troubles, 101, 162, 170, 192 
 Weiser, Conrad, 173. 175 
 Welsh Friends. 55. 80 
 Welsh Tract, 59, 74-76 
 Whitehead, George, 26 
 Williams, Roger, 10, 36 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
npHE following pages contain advertisements of a 
 few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects 
 
The Pilgrims and Their History 
 
 By ROLAND G. USHER, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of History, Washington University, St. Louis. Author of 
 
 "Pan-Germanism," "The Reconstruction of the English 
 
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 Illustrated, 12°, $2.00 
 
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*'AN ACCURATE GENERAL IMPRESSION" 
 
 The Story of the Pilgrims for Children 
 
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The Quakers in the American Colonies 
 
 By Prof. RUFUS M. JONES, M.A., D.Litt. 
 
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 This volume is a historical and critical study of the Quaker religious 
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 The work thus admirably assists the man of to-day to visualize the life 
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TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS 
 
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