Chapter VIII: Pennsylvania—The Olden Time

_SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA._

William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, was born in London in the year 1644. His father, Sir William Penn, was distinguished in the British navy as an able admiral, being commander of the fleet at the reduction of Jamaica in 1655, and contributing greatly to the defeat of the Dutch fleet in 1664. For his services he was knighted by Charles II.

William Penn was entered in 1660, as a gentleman commoner, at Christ’s Church, Oxford; but, withdrawing from the national forms of worship, in connection with other students, who like himself had attended the preaching of Thomas Loe, an eminent member of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, he was punished by fine for nonconformity, and in the succeeding year, for pertinacious adherence to his opinions, was expelled from the college. His father, considering that his singularly sober and serious manner of life tended to prevent his elevation to the honors of Charles’s licentious court, was indignant at his disgrace, and therefore turned him out of doors in 1662, after, as he says, being whipped and beaten.

He was, however, sent by his father to France, and after his return was entered at Lincoln’s Inn as a law-student. He renewed his acquaintance with Loe in Ireland, where he had been sent to manage an estate in 1666, and showed so much partiality to the persecuted sect of Quakers that he was arrested at a meeting in Cork and imprisoned by the authorities, who at last restored him to liberty at the intercession of some influential persons. He returned to England, when he had a violent altercation with his father, who was desirous that he should abandon habits so singular, so offensive to decorum, and so opposed to established forms; and, refusing to appear uncovered before the king and before his father, he was a second time dismissed in disgrace from protection and favor.

In consequence of a controversial dispute in 1668, when he first appeared as a preacher, he was sent to the Tower, where he remained a prisoner for seven months, and shortly after his release he was, on the passing of the Conventicle Act, again sent to prison in Newgate,—from which he was liberated by the interest of his father, who about this time became reconciled to him, and, dying some time after, left him an estate of £1500 per annum. Marrying in 1672, he fixed his residence in Hertfordshire, occupying himself zealously in promoting the cause of the Friends both by preaching and writing.

Soon after his return from Holland, whither he had gone in 1677 to assist at a general meeting of Friends, he petitioned his majesty Charles II. for a grant of land lying north of that already granted to Lord Baltimore, and west of the now Delaware. In consideration of his father’s services, and of a debt of sixteen thousand pounds due the admiral at his decease, the grant was readily made, to which the Duke of York added by cession a neighboring portion of territory on the Delaware to the south of the king’s grant. The patent bore date March 4, 1680-81; and in this instrument the king gave the name of Pennsylvania to the province, in honor of Admiral Sir William Penn.

The day after the charter was granted to Penn, he wrote a letter to Robert Turner, in which he gives the particulars of the naming of his province. The essential parts of this letter we quote:—

“ ... Know that, after many waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in council, this day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsylvania, a name the king would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being a pretty hilly country; but Penn being Welsh for _a head_, as Penmanmoire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, called this Pennsylvania, which is the _high_ or _head woodlands_; for I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman refused to have it called New Wales, _Sylvania_, and they added _Penn_ to it, and though I much opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move the under-secretaries to vary the name, for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise.”

The charter constituting William Penn and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries of Pennsylvania, saving to the crown their allegiance and the sovereignty, is preserved in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth at Harrisburg. Being thus constituted absolute proprietor and governor of Pennsylvania, Penn published “A Brief Account of the Province,” proposing terms of settlement to such as might choose to remove thither; in which land was offered to purchasers at forty shillings per hundred acres, with a quit-rent of one shilling per annum. Many persons embraced his offer, and several companies of emigrants sailed to take possession of their new purchase, landing, December, 1681, at Chester.

While the colony was thus commenced, Penn remained in England, occupied in forming a government for his people and providing means for its security.

Early in 1682 the proprietary published “The Frame of Government of the Province of Pennsylvania, together with Certain Laws, &c.,” in the preface to which is found a sketch of his sentiments on the form and substance of civil government.

The governor, having completed all his preparations, sailed early in the fall of 1682, in company with about one hundred colonists, mostly Quakers from his own neighborhood, of which number, however, about thirty persons perished by small-pox, which broke out after their departure.

The first colonists sent out, being chiefly of the Society of Friends, with the predominating characteristics of their people, temperance, industry, and economy, and conducting themselves in the difficulties and hardships of their new situation with much prudence and circumspection, avoided most of the dangers to which a new colony is usually subject, and received with demonstrations of satisfaction the new settlers who arrived at New Castle October 24, 1682. Immediately on his arrival, Penn proceeded to establish his government over the colony, and the first assembly was convened at Chester on December 4. This legislature, in a session of three days, passed laws annexing the lower counties ceded by the Duke of York to the province, confirming an act of settlement, and naturalizing resident foreigners, and also passed in form, after some revision, the laws which had been prepared in England.

After a visit to Lord Baltimore in his government of Maryland, Penn returned to _Coaquannock_ (the site of Philadelphia), and, still conscientiously regarding the Indians as rightful possessors of the soil, he invited them to a conference at Shackamaxon (now Kensington), where they assembled in great numbers. A formal treaty of peace and amity was made: the Indians were paid for their lands, and departed for their homes full of love and admiration for the great and good _Onas_, as they called Penn. For seventy years this simple but sincere treaty remained inviolate: of it Voltaire says, “It was the only treaty between these people and the Christians that was not ratified by an oath, and which was never broken.” Certain it is that Penn’s strict observance of justice in paying for the soil, and the interest he manifested, during many successive treaties, in their real welfare, not only operated to secure the colony for many years from hostile attacks, but implanted in the generous though uncultivated mind of the Indian a regard for Penn and the Quakers which bids fair to be transmitted to the latest remains of the race.

The capital of the province, Philadelphia, was next to be laid out, of which at the time of Penn’s arrival not a house was completed,—the colonists having in general no better lodgings than caves hollowed out of the high banks of the rivers. The very ground on which it was proposed to locate was in dispute, being claimed by some Swedes, who were induced to relinquish their claim for a larger portion of land elsewhere. The city was located between _Wicacoa_, now Southwark, and Shackamaxon,—two miles in length and one in breadth, with a navigable river at each end,—and was planned with admirable convenience and regularity under the inspection of the Surveyor-General of the province. During the first year there were erected about eighty houses; and the establishment of various mechanical arts, as well as a profitable trade, soon gave strength to the infant city.

Early in 1683 the first jury was impanelled for the trial of one Pickering, with others as accessories, who were convicted before the governor and council of counterfeiting the Spanish silver money current in the colony. The sentence discovers the same spirit of mildness and equity which at this day constitutes the praise and the efficacy of the criminal code of the State. He was to pay a fine of £40 towards the building of a court-house, standing committed until payment, find securities for his good behavior, and make restitution in good silver to the holders of his base coin, _which, being first melted down, was to be restored to him_.

Penn’s interest at court had declined considerably, partly caused by _ambitious_ enemies; but it was soon restored upon the death of Charles II. by the accession of his more immediate patron, James II., which occurred shortly after Penn’s arrival in England in 1684. The troubles in that country during the reign of James involved Penn and his colony in difficulty, and after the revolution of 1688, which placed William and Mary on the throne, Penn was several times imprisoned in consequence of his religion and his supposed adherence to the cause of the fallen monarch.

On the prevalence of his enemies at court, he had been deprived of his government of Pennsylvania, which was annexed in October, 1692, to that of New York under Colonel Fletcher.

The suspicions which had so long rendered the king unfriendly to Penn were at last removed. He was honorably acquitted of all charges, religious as well as political, which had been brought against him, and his rights were restored to him by an instrument of William and Mary, dated in August, 1694.

We have given this little sketch of the history of Pennsylvania simply as an episode. It is, however, connected with that portion of our subject which laid the foundation for a system of communication that has, ever since the introduction of trade and commerce, made up one of their chief facilities in business, and identified itself with the cabinet of Washington,—THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

In connection with William Penn our readers will no doubt be interested in the following letter, which is on file in the Land Department at the Capitol, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

According to the “Harrisburg Telegraph,” it appears to be the credentials of a Society of Free-Traders, an organized body of merchants which once existed in London, whose objects were to trade with Canada, at that time a comparatively unknown country. The “Emperor of Canada” was supposed by the company to be a celebrated Indian chief. The letter is written on a piece of parchment about two and a half feet wide by three feet in length. The letters are about an inch in length, slightly inclined to the right, bold, and of a very symmetrical formation. The first letters of the first and second lines are large and highly ornamented,—a style which is yet kept by some of our first-class publishers, who introduce ornamental initial letters to chapters in their books. The signature of Penn is nearly an inch long, with the same inclination to the right, but the letters are not quite so bold and gracefully formed as those in the body of the document:—

“TO THE EMPEROR OF CANADA:—The Great God that made thee and me and all the world, Incline our hearts to love peace and Justice that we may live friendly together as becomes the workmanship of the Great God. The King of England, who is a Great Prince, hath for divers Reasons, granted me a large Country in America, which however I am willing to Injoy upon friendly terms with Thee. And this I will say that the people who come with me are a just, plain and honest people, that neither make war upon others nor fear war from others, because they are just. I have set up a Society of Traders in my Province to traffic with thee and thy people for your commodities, that you may be furnished with that which is good at reasonable rates. And the Society hath ordered their President to treat with thee about a future Trade, and have joined with me to send this messenger with certain presents from us to testify our willingness to have a fair Correspondence with thee. And what this Agent shall do in our names we will agree unto. I hope thou wilt Kindly Receive him, and comply with his desires on our behalf both with respect to Land and Trade. The Great God be with thee. Amen.

“WM. PENN,
“PHILIP THEODORE LEHNMAN, _Sec._

“LONDON, the 21st of the fourth month, called June, 1682.”