Chapter IV: Concerning the infallible teaching of the Roman (4)

"As the Duke of York claimed, by right of conquest, the
settlements on the western shores of the Bay of Delaware, and
had, by his deed of 1682, transferred to William Penn his
title to that country, embracing the town of Newcastle and
twelve miles around it (as a reasonable portion of land
attached to it), and as far down as what was then called Cape
Henlopen; an important subject of controversy was the true
situation of that cape, and the ascertainment of the southern
and western boundaries of the country along the bay, as
transferred by the Duke's deed. …
{2502}
After two personal interviews in America, the Proprietaries
separated without coming to any arrangement and with mutual
recriminations and dissatisfaction. And they each wrote to the
Lords of Plantations excusing themselves and blaming the
other. … At length, in 1685, one important step was taken
toward the decision of the conflicting claims of Maryland and
Pennsylvania, by a decree of King James' Council, which
ordered, 'that for a voiding further differences, the tract of
land lying between the Bay of Delaware and the eastern sea, on
the one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other, be divided
into equal parts, by a line from the latitude of Cape Henlopen
to the 40th degree of north latitude, the southern boundary of
Pennsylvania by Charter; and that the one half thereof, lying
towards the Bay of Delaware and the eastern sea, be adjudged
to belong to his majesty, and the other half to Lord
Baltimore, as comprised in his charter.' … This decree of King
James, which evidently exhibits a partiality towards the
claims of Penn, in decreeing the eastern half of the peninsula
to his majesty, with whom Lord Baltimore could not presume,
and indeed had declined to dispute, instead of to the
Proprietary himself, by no means removed the difficulties
which hung over this tedious, expensive, and vexatious
litigation. For … there existed as much uncertainty with
respect to the true situation of Cape Henlopen and the
ascertainment of the middle of the Peninsula, as any points in
contest."

_J. Dunlop,
Memoir on the Controversy between William Penn
and Lord Baltimore,
(Pennsylvania Historical Society Memoirs, volume 1)._

See, PENNSYLVANIA: 1760-1767.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1691-1702.
Practical separation of Delaware.

See DELAWARE: A. D. 1691-1702.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1692-1696.
Keith's schism.
Penn deprived of his government, but restored.
Early resistance to the proprietary yoke.

"While New England and New York were suffering from war,
superstition, and the bitterness of faction, Pennsylvania was
not without internal troubles. These troubles originated with
George Keith, a Scotch Quaker, formerly surveyor-general of
East Jersey, and at this time master of the Quaker school at
Philadelphia, and champion of the Quakers against Cotton
Mather and the Boston ministers. Pressing the doctrines of
non-resistance to their logical conclusion, Keith advanced the
opinion that Quaker principles were not consistent with the
exercise of political authority. He also attacked negro
slavery as inconsistent with those principles. There is no
surer way of giving mortal offense to a sect or party than to
call upon it to be consistent with its own professed
doctrines. Keith was disowned by the yearly meeting, but he
forthwith instituted a meeting of his own, to which he gave
the name of Christian Quakers. In reply to a 'Testimony of
Denial' put forth against him, he published an 'Address,' in
which he handled his adversaries with very little ceremony. He
was fined by the Quaker magistrates for insolence, and
Bradford, the only printer in the colony, was called to
account for having published Keith's address. Though he
obtained a discharge, Bradford, however, judged it expedient
to remove with his types to New York, which now [1692] first
obtained a printing press. The Episcopalians and other
non-Quakers professed great sympathy for Keith, and raised a
loud outcry against Quaker intolerance. Keith himself
presently embraced Episcopacy, went to England, and took
orders there. The Quaker magistrates were accused of hostility
to the Church of England, and in the alleged maladministration
of his agents, joined with his own suspected loyalty, a
pretense was found for depriving Penn of the government—a step
taken by the Privy Council without any of the forms, or,
indeed, any authority of law, though justified by the opinions
of some of the leading Whig lawyers of that day." Governor
Fletcher of New York was now authorized for a time to
administer the government of Pennsylvania and Delaware. "He
accordingly visited Philadelphia, and called an Assembly in
which deputies from both provinces were present. Penn's frame
of government was disregarded, the Assembly being modeled
after that of New York. Fletcher hoped to obtain a salary for
himself and some contributions toward the defense of the
northern frontier. The Quakers, very reluctant to vote money
at all, had special scruples about the lawfulness of war. They
were also very suspicious of designs against their liberties,
and refused to enter on any business until the existing laws
and liberties of the province had been first expressly
confirmed. This concession reluctantly made, Fletcher obtained
the grant of a small sum of money, not, however, without
stipulating that it 'should not be dipped in blood.' … The
suspicions against Penn soon dying away, the administration of
his province was restored to him [1694]. But the pressure of
his private affairs—for he was very much in debt—detained him
in England, and he sent a commission to Markham [his relative
and representative in Pennsylvania] to act as his deputy. An
Assembly called by Markham refused to recognize the binding
force of Penn's frame of government, which, indeed, had been
totally disregarded by Fletcher. To the restrictions on their
authority imposed by that frame they would not submit. A
second Assembly [1696] proved equally obstinate, and, as the
only means of obtaining a vote of the money required of the
province toward the defense of New York, Markham was obliged
to agree to a new act of settlement, securing to the Assembly
the right of originating laws. A power of disapproval was
reserved, however, to the proprietary, and this act never
received Penn's sanction."

_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 21 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_G. E. Ellis,
Life of Penn,
chapter 10
(Library of American Bibliographies, series 2, volume 12)._

_G. P. Fisher,
The Colonial Era,
chapter 16._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1696-1749.
Suppression of colonial manufactures.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1696-1749.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1701-1718.
The new Charter of Privileges and
the city charter of Philadelphia.
The divorcing of Delaware.
Differences with the Proprietary.
The death of Penn.

It was not until 1699 that Penn returned to his domain after
an absence of fifteen years, and his brief stay of two years
was not made wholly agreeable to him. Between him and his
colonists there were many points of friction, as was
inevitable under the relationship in which they stood to one
another. The assembly of the province would not be persuaded
to contribute to the fortification of the northern frontier of
the king's dominions (in New York) against the French and
Indians. Penn's influence, however, prevailed upon that body
to adopt measures for suppressing both piracy and illicit
trade.
{2503}
With much difficulty, moreover, he settled with his subjects
the terms of a new constitution of government, or Charter of
Privileges, as it was called. The old Frame of Government was
formally abandoned and the government of Pennsylvania was now
organized upon an entirely new footing. "The new charter for
the province and territories, signed by Penn, October 25,
1701, was more republican in character than those of the
neighboring colonies. It not only provided for an assembly of
the people with great powers, including those of creating
courts, but to a certain extent it submitted to the choice of
the people the nomination of some of the county officers. The
section concerning liberty of conscience did not discriminate
against the members of the Church of Rome. The closing section
fulfilled the promise already made by Penn, that in case the
representatives of the two territorial districts [Pennsylvania
proper, held under Penn's original grant, and the Lower
Counties, afterwards constituting Delaware, which he acquired
from the Duke of York] could not agree within three years to
join in legislative business, the Lower Counties should be
separated from Pennsylvania. On the same day Penn established
by letters-patent a council of state for the province, 'to
consult and assist the proprietary himself or his deputy with
the best of their advice and council in public affairs and
matters relating to the government and the peace and
well-being of the people; and in the absence of the
proprietary, or upon the deputy's absence out of the province,
his death, or other incapacity, to exercise all and singular
the powers of government.' The original town and borough of
Philadelphia, having by this time 'become near equal to the
city of New York in trade and riches,' was raised, by patent
of the 25th of October, 1701, to the rank of a city, and, like
the province, could boast of having a more liberal charter
than her neighbors; for the municipal officers were to be
elected by the representatives of the people of the city, and
not appointed by the governor, as in New York. The government
of the province had been entrusted by Penn to Andrew Hamilton,
also governor for the proprietors in New Jersey, with James
Logan as provincial secretary, to whom was likewise confided
the management of the proprietary estates, thus making him in
reality the representative of Penn and the leader of his
party. Hamilton died in December, 1702; but before his death
he had endeavored in vain to bring the representatives of the
two sections of his government together again. The Delaware
members remained obstinate, and finally, while Edward Shippen,
a member of the council and first mayor of Philadelphia, was
acting as president, it was settled that they should have
separate assemblies, entirely independent of each other. The
first separate assembly for Pennsylvania proper met at
Philadelphia, in October, 1703, and by its first resolution
showed that the Quakers, so dominant in the province, were
beginning to acquire a taste for authority, and meant to color
their religion with the hue of political power." In December,
1703, John Evans, a young Welshman, appointed deputy-governor
by Penn, arrived at Philadelphia, and was soon involved in
quarrels with the assemblies. "At one time they had for ground
the refusal of the Quakers to support the war which was waging
against the French and Indians on the frontiers. At another
they disagreed upon the establishment of a judiciary. These
disturbances produced financial disruptions, and Penn himself
suffered therefrom to such an extent that he was thrown into a
London prison, and had finally to mortgage his province for
£6,000. The recall of Evans in 1709, and the appointment of
Charles Gookin in his stead, did not mend matters. Logan,
Penn's intimate friend and representative, was finally
compelled to leave the country; and, going to England (1710),
he induced Penn to write a letter to the Pennsylvania
assembly, in which he threatened to sell the province to the
crown, a surrender by which he was to receive £12,000. The
transfer was in fact prevented by an attack of apoplexy from
which Penn suffered in 1712. The epistle, however, brought the
refractory assembly to terms." In 1717 Gookin involved himself
in fresh troubles and was recalled. Sir William Keith was then
appointed—"the last governor commissioned by Penn himself; for
the great founder of Pennsylvania died in 1718. … After Penn's
death his heirs went to law among themselves about the
government and proprietary rights in Pennsylvania."

_B. Fernow,
Middle Colonies
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 5, chapter 3)._

ALSO IN:
_G. E. Ellis,
Life of Penn
(Library of American Biographies, series 2, volume 12),
chapters 11-12._

_R. Proud,
History of Pennsylvania,
chapters 14-22 (volumes 1-2)._

_Penn and Logan Correspondence
(Pennsylvania Historical Society Memoirs, volumes 9-10)._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1709-1710.
Immigration of Palatines and other Germans.

See PALATINES.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1740-1741.
First settlements and missions of the Moravian Brethren.

See MORAVIAN BRETHREN.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1743.
Origin of the University of Pennsylvania.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1683-1779.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1744-1748.
King George's War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1744; 1745; and 1745-1748.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1748-1754.
First movements beyond the mountains
to dispute possession with the French.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1753-1799.
Connecticut claims and settlements in the Wyoming Valley.
The Pennamite and Yankee War.

"The charter bounds [of Connecticut] extended west to the
Pacific Ocean [see CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1662-1664]: this would
have carried Connecticut over a strip covering the northern
two fifths of the present State of Pennsylvania. Stuart
faithlessness interfered with this doubly. Almost immediately
after the grant of the charter, Charles granted to his brother
James the Dutch colony of New Netherland, thus interrupting
the continuity of Connecticut. Rather than resist the king's
brother, Connecticut agreed and ratified the interruption. In
1681 a more serious interference took place. Charles granted
to Penn the province of Pennsylvania, extending westward five
degrees between the 40th and 43rd parallels of north
latitude." Under the final compromise of Penn's boundary
dispute with Lord Baltimore the northern line of Pennsylvania
was moved southward to latitude 42° instead of 43°; but it
still absorbed five degrees in length of the Connecticut
western belt.
{2504}
"The territory taken from Connecticut by the Penn grant would
be bounded southerly on the present map by a straight line
entering Pennsylvania about Stroudsburg, just north of the
Delaware Water Gap, and running west through Hazelton,
Catawissa, Clearfield, and New Castle, taking in all the
northern coal, iron, and oil fields. It was a royal heritage,
but the Penns made no attempt to settle it, and Connecticut
until the middle of the 18th century had no energy to spare
from the task of winning her home territory 'out of the fire,
as it were, by hard blows and for small recompense.' This task
had been fairly well done by 1750, and in 1753 a movement to
colonize in the Wyoming country was set on foot in Windham
county. It spread by degrees until the Susquehanna Company was
formed the next year, with nearly 700 members, of whom 638
were of Connecticut. Their agents made a treaty with the Five
Nations July 11, 1754, by which they bought for £2,000 a tract
of land beginning at the 41st degree of latitude, the
southerly boundary of Connecticut; thence running north,
following the line of the Susquehanna at a distance of ten
miles from it, to the present northern boundary of
Pennsylvania; thence 120 miles west; thence south to the 41st
degree and back to the point of beginning. In May, 1755, the
Connecticut general assembly expressed its acquiescence in the
scheme, if the king should approve it; and it approved also a
plan of Samuel Hazard, of Philadelphia, for another colony, to
be placed west of Pennsylvania, and within the chartered
limits of Connecticut. The court might have taken stronger
ground than this; for, at the meeting of commissioners from
the various colonies at Albany, in 1754, the representatives
of Pennsylvania being present, no opposition was made to a
resolution that Connecticut and Massachusetts, by charter
right, extended west to the South Sea. The formation of the
Susquehanna Company brought out objections from Pennsylvania,
but the company sent out surveyors and plotted its tract.
Settlement was begun on the Delaware River in 1757, and in the
Susquehanna purchase in 1762. This was a temporary settlement,
the settlers going home for the winter. A permanent venture
was made the next year on the flats below Wilkes Barre, but it
was destroyed by the Indians the same year. In 1768 the
company marked out five townships, and sent out forty settlers
for the first, Kingston. Most of them, including the famous
Captain Zebulon Butler, had served in the French and Indian
War; and their first step was to build the 'Forty Fort.' The
Penns, after their usual policy, had refused to sell lands,
but had leased plots to a number of men on condition of their
'defending the lands from the Connecticut claimants.' The
forty Connecticut men found these in possession when they
arrived in February, 1769, and a war of writs and arrests
followed for the remainder of the year. The Pennsylvania men
had one too powerful argument, in the shape of a four-pounder
gun, and they retained possession at the end of the year.
Early in 1770 the forty reappeared, captured the four-pounder,
and secured possession. For a time in 1771 the Pennsylvania
men returned, put up a fort of their own, and engaged in a
partisan warfare; but the numbers of the Connecticut men were
rapidly increasing, and they remained masters until the
opening of the Revolution, when they numbered some 3,000. …
But for the Revolution, the check occasioned by the massacre
[of 1778—see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JULY)], and
the appearance of a popular government in place of the Penns,
nothing could have prevented the establishment of
Connecticut's authority over all the regions embraced in her
western claims. … The articles of confederation went into
force early in 1781. One of their provisions empowered
congress to appoint courts of arbitration to decide disputes
between States as to boundaries. Pennsylvania at once availed
herself of this, and applied for a court to decide the Wyoming
dispute. Connecticut asked for time, in order to get papers
from England; but congress overruled the motion, and ordered
the court to meet at Trenton in November, 1782. After
forty-one days of argument, the court came to the unanimous
conclusion that Wyoming, or the Susquehanna district, belonged
to Pennsylvania and not to Connecticut." Connecticut yielded
to the decision at once; but, in 1786, when, following New
York and Virginia, she was called upon to make a cession of
her western territorial claims to congress (see UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786) she compensated herself for the
loss of the Susquehanna district by reserving from the cession
"a tract of about the same length and width as the Wyoming
grant, west of Pennsylvania, in northeastern Ohio …; and this
was the tract known as the Western Reserve of Connecticut. It
contained about 3,500,000 acres. … The unfortunate Wyoming
settlers, deserted by their own State, and left to the mercy
of rival claimants, had a hard time of it for years. The
militia of the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania was
mustered to enforce the writs of Pennsylvania courts; the
property of the Connecticut men was destroyed, their fences
were cast down, and their rights ignored; and the 'Pennamite
and Yankee War' began. … The old Susquehanna Company was
reorganized in 1785-86, and made ready to support its settlers
by force. New Yankee faces came crowding into the disputed
territory. Among them was Ethan Allen, and with him came some
Green Mountain Boys." It was not until 1799 that the
controversy came to an end, by the passage of an act which
confirmed the title of the actual settlers.

_A. Johnston,
Connecticut,
chapter 15._

ALSO IN:
_C. Miner,
History of Wyoming,
letters 5-12._

_W. L. Stone,
Poetry and History of Wyoming,
chapters 4-5._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1754.
Building of Fort Duquesne by the French.
The first armed collision in the western valley.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1754.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1754.
The Colonial Congress at Albany, and Franklin's Plan of Union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1754.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1755.
The opening of the French and Indian War.
Braddock's defeat.
The frontier ravaged.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1755.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1755-1760.
French and Indian War.
Conquest of Canada and the west.

See CANADA: A. D.1755, 1756, 1756-1757, 1758, 1759, 1760;
and NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1755.

{2505}

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1757-1762.
The question of taxation in dispute with the proprietaries.
Franklin's mission to England.

"For a long while past the relationship between the Penns,
unworthy sons of the great William, and now the proprietaries,
on the one side, and their quasi subjects, the people of the
Province, upon the other, had been steadily becoming more and
more strained, until something very like a crisis had [in
1757] been reached. As usual in English and Anglo-American
communities, it was a quarrel over dollars, or rather over
pounds sterling, a question of taxation, which was producing
the alienation. At bottom, there was the trouble which always
pertains to absenteeism; the proprietaries lived in England,
and regarded their vast American estate, with about 200,000
white inhabitants, only as a source of revenue. … The chief
point in dispute was, whether or not the waste lands, still
directly owned by the proprietaries, and other lands let by
them at quitrents, should be taxed in the same manner as like
property of other owners. They refused to submit to such
taxation; the Assembly of Burgesses insisted. In ordinary
times the proprietaries prevailed; for the governor was their
nominee and removable at their pleasure; they gave him general
instructions to assent to no law taxing their holdings, and he
naturally obeyed his masters. But since governors got their
salaries only by virtue of a vote of the Assembly, it seems
that they sometimes disregarded instructions, in the sacred
cause of their own interests. After a while, therefore, the
proprietaries, made shrewd by experience, devised the scheme
of placing their unfortunate sub-rulers under bonds. This went
far towards settling the matter. Yet in such a crisis and
stress as were now present in the colony … it certainly seemed
that the rich and idle proprietaries might stand on the same
footing with their poor and laboring subjects. They lived
comfortably in England upon revenues estimated to amount to
the then enormous sum of £20,000 sterling; while the colonists
were struggling under unusual losses, as well as enormous
expenses, growing out of the war and Indian ravages. At such a
time their parsimony, their 'incredible meanness,' as Franklin
called it, was cruel as well as stupid. At last the Assembly
flatly refused to raise any money unless the proprietaries
should be burdened like the rest. All should pay together, or
all should go to destruction together. The Penns too stood
obstinate, facing the not less resolute Assembly. It was
indeed a deadlock! Yet the times were such that neither party
could afford to maintain its ground indefinitely. So a
temporary arrangement was made, whereby of £60,000 sterling to
be raised the proprietaries agreed to contribute £5,000, and
the Assembly agreed to accept the same in lieu or commutation
for their tax. But neither side abandoned its principle.
Before long more money was needed, and the dispute was as
fierce as ever. The burgesses now thought that it would be
well to carry a statement of their case before the king in
council and the lords of trade. In February, 1757, they named
their speaker, Isaac Norris, and Franklin to be their
emissaries 'to represent in England the unhappy situation of
the Province,' and to seek redress by an act of Parliament.
Norris, an aged man, begged to be excused; Franklin accepted.
… A portion of his business also was to endeavor to induce the
king to resume the Province of Pennsylvania as his own. A
clause in the charter had reserved this right, which could be
exercised on payment of a certain sum of money. The colonists
now preferred to be an appanage of the crown rather than a
fief of the Penns." In this latter object of his mission
Franklin did not succeed; but he accomplished its main
purpose, procuring, after long delays, from the board of
trade, a decision which subjected the proprietary estate to
its fair share of taxation. He returned home after an absence
of five years.

_J. T. Morse, Jr.,
Benjamin Franklin,
chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_J. Parton,
Life of Franklin,
part 3 (volume 1)._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1760-1767.
Settlement of the Maryland boundary dispute.
Mason and Dixon's line.

The decision of 1685 (see above), in the boundary dispute
between the proprietaries of Pennsylvania and Maryland,
"formed the basis of a settlement between the respective heirs
of the two proprietaries in 1732. Three years afterward, the
subject became a question in chancery; in 1750 the present
boundaries were decreed by Lord Hardwicke; ten years later,
they were, by agreement, more accurately defined; and, in
1761, commissioners began to designate the limit of Maryland
on the side of Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 1763, Charles
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two mathematicians and surveyors
[sent over from England by the proprietaries], were engaged to
mark the lines. In 1764, they entered upon their task, with
good instruments and a corps of axe men; by the middle of
June, 1765, they had traced the parallel of latitude to the
Susquehannah; a year later, they climbed the Little Alleghany;
in 1767, they carried forward their work, under an escort from
the Six Nations, to an Indian war-path, 244 miles from the
Delaware River. Others continued Mason and Dixon's line to the
bound of Pennsylvania on the south-west."

_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
part 2, chapter 16._

"The east and west line which they [Mason and Dixon] ran and
marked … is the Mason and Dixon's line of history, so long the
boundary between the free and the slave States. Its precise
latitude is 39° 43' 26.3" north. The Penns did not, therefore,
gain the degree 39-40, but they did gain a zone one-fourth of
a degree in width, south of the 40th degree, to their western
limit, because the decision of 1760 controlled that of 1779,
made with Virginia. … Pennsylvania is narrower by nearly
three-fourths of a degree than the charter of 1681
contemplated. No doubt, however, the Penns considered the
narrow strip gained at the south more valuable than the broad
one lost at the north."

_B. A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest,
chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_T. Donaldson,
The Public Domain,
page 50._

_Pennsylvania Archives,
volume 4, pages 1-37._

_W. H. Browne,
Maryland,
pages 238-239._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1763-1764.
Pontiac's War.
Bouquet's expedition.

See PONTIAC'S WAR.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1763-1766.
The question of taxation by Parliament.
The Sugar Act.
The Stamp Act and its repeal.
The Declaratory Act.
The Stamp Act Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1760-1775;
1763-1764; 1765; and 1766.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1765.
Patriotic self-denials.
Non-importation agreements.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1764-1767.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1766-1768.
The Townshend duties.
The Circular Letter of Massachusetts.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1766-1767; and 1767-1768.

{2506}

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1768.
The boundary treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1768-1774.
Opening events of the Revolution.

See BOSTON: A. D. 1768, to 1773;
and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1770, to 1774.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1774.
The western territorial claims of Virginia pursued.
Lord Dunmore's War with the Indians.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1774.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1775.
The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution.
Lexington.
Concord.
Action taken upon the news.
Ticonderoga.
Bunker Hill.
The Second Continental Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1776.
The end of royal and proprietary government.
Adoption of a State Constitution.

"Congress, on the 15th of May, 1776, recommended … 'the
respective Assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies,
where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their
affairs has been hitherto established, to adopt such
government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of
the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their
constituents in particular, and America in general.' A
diversity of opinion existed in the Province upon this
resolution. … The Assembly referred the resolve of Congress to
a committee, but took no further action, nor did the committee
ever make a report. 'The old Assembly,' says Westcott, 'which
had adjourned on the 14th of June, to meet on the 14th of
August, could not obtain a quorum, and adjourned again to the
23d of September. It then interposed a feeble remonstrance
against the invasion of its prerogatives by the Convention,
but it was a dying protest. The Declaration of Independence
had given the old State Government a mortal blow, and it soon
expired without a sigh—thus ending forever the Proprietary and
royal authority in Pennsylvania.' In the meantime, the
Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular
to all the county committees for a conference in that city on
Tuesday, the 18th day of June. … The Conference at once
unanimously resolved, 'That the present government of this
Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs,
and that it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be
called by this Conference for the express purpose of forming a
new government in this Province on the authority of the people
only.' Acting upon these resolves, preparations were
immediately taken to secure a proper representation in the
Convention. … Every voter was obliged to take an oath of
renunciation of the authority of George III., and one of
allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania, and a religious test
was prescribed for all members of the Convention. … The
delegates to the Convention to frame a constitution for the
new government consisted of the representative men of the
State—men selected for their ability, patriotism, and personal
popularity. They met at Philadelphia, on the 15th of July, …
and organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin,
president, George Ross, vice-president, and John Morris and
Jacob Garrigues, secretaries. … On the 28th of September, the
Convention completed its labors by adopting the first State
Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote
of the people. … The legislative power of the frame of
government was vested in a General Assembly of one House,
elected annually. The supreme executive power was vested in a
President, chosen annually by the Assembly and Council, by
joint ballot—the Council consisting of twelve persons, elected
in classes, for a term of three years. A Council of Censors,
consisting of two persons from each city and county, was to be
elected in 1783, and in every seventh year thereafter, whose
duty it was to make inquiry as to whether the Constitution had
been preserved inviolate during the last septennary, and
whether the executive or legislative branches of the
government had performed their duties."

_W. H. Egle,
History of Pennsylvania,
chapter 9._

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1776-1777.
The Declaration of Independence.
The struggle for the Hudson and the Delaware.
Battles of the Brandywine and Germantown.
The British in Philadelphia.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 and 1777;
and PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1777-1778.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1777-1779.
The Articles of Confederation.
The alliance with France.
British evacuation of Philadelphia.
The war on the northern border.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1781, to 1779.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1778 (July).
The Wyoming Massacre.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JULY).

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1779-1786.
Final settlement of boundaries with Virginia.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1779–1786.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1780.
Emancipation of Slaves.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1688-1780.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1780-1783.
The treason of Arnold.
The war in the south.
Surrender of Cornwallis.
Peace with Great Britain.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780, to 1783.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1781.
Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781 (JANUARY).

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1787.
Formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787; and 1787-1780.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1794.
The Whiskey Insurrection.

"In every part of the United States except Pennsylvania, and
in by far the larger number of the counties of that state, the
officers of the Federal Government had been able to carry the
excise law [passed in March, 1791, on the recommendation of
Hamilton], unpopular as it generally was, into execution; but
resistance having been made in a few of the western counties,
and their defiance of law increasing with the forbearance of
the Government in that State, prosecutions had been ordered
against the offenders. In July, the Marshal of the District,
Lenox, who, was serving the process, and General Neville, the
Inspector, were attacked by a body of armed men, and compelled
to desist from the execution of their official duties. The
next day, a much larger number, amounting to 500 men,
assembled, and endeavored to seize the person of General
Neyille. Failing in that, they exacted a promise from the
Marshal that he would serve no more process on the west side
of the Alleghany; and attacking the Inspector's house, they
set fire to it, and destroyed it with its contents. On this
occasion, the leader of the assailants was killed, and several
of them wounded. Both the Inspector and Marshal were required
to resign; but they refused, and sought safety in flight.
{2507}
A meeting was held a few days later, at Mingo Creek
meeting-house, which recommended to all the townships in the
four western counties of Pennsylvania, and the neighboring
counties of Virginia, to meet, by their delegates, at
Parkinson's ferry, on the Monongahela, on the 14th of August,
'to take into consideration the situation of the western
country.' Three days after this meeting, a party of the
malcontents seized the mail, carried it to Canonsburg, seven
miles distant, and there opened the letters from Pittsburg to
Philadelphia, to discover who were hostile to them. They then
addressed a circular letter to the officers of the militia in
the disaffected counties, informing them of the intercepted
letters, and calling on them to rendezvous at Braddock's Field
on the 1st of August, with arms in good order, and four days'
provision. … This circular was signed by seven persons, but
the prime mover was David Bradford, a lawyer, who was the
prosecuting attorney of Washington County. In consequence of
this summons, a large body of men, which has been estimated at
from five to seven thousand, assembled at Braddock's Field on
the day appointed. … Bradford took upon himself the military
command, which was readily yielded to him. … Bradford proposed
the expulsion from Pittsburg of several persons whose
hostility had been discovered by the letters they had
intercepted; but his motion was carried only as to two
persons, Gibson and Neville, son of the Inspector. They then
decided to proceed to Pittsburg. Some assented to this, to
prevent the mischief which others meditated. But for this, and
the liberal refreshments furnished by the people of Pittsburg,
it was thought that the town would have been burnt. … The
President issued a proclamation reciting the acts of treason,
commanding the insurgents to disperse, and warning others
against abetting them. He, at the same time, wishing to try
lenient measures, appointed three Commissioners to repair to
the scene of the insurrection, to confer with the insurgents,
and to offer them pardon on condition of a satisfactory
assurance of their future obedience to the laws. … Governor
Mifflin followed the example of the President in appointing
Commissioners to confer with the insurgents, with power to
grant pardons, and he issued an admonitory proclamation, after
which he convened the Legislature to meet on the 3d of
November. The Federal and the State Commissioners reached the
insurgent district while the convention at Parkinson's ferry
was in session. It assembled on the 14th of August, and
consisted of 226 delegates, all from the western counties of
Pennsylvania, except six from Ohio County in Virginia. They
appointed Cook their Chairman, and Albert Gallatin, Secretary,
though he at first declined the appointment. … The
Commissioners required … an explicit assurance of submission
to the laws; a recommendation to their associates of a like
submission; and meetings of the citizens to be held to confirm
these assurances. All public prosecutions were to be suspended
until the following July, when, if there had been no violation
of the law in the interval, there should be a general amnesty.
These terms were deemed reasonable by the subcommittee: but
before the meeting of sixty took place, a body of armed men
entered Brownsville, the place appointed for the meeting, and
so alarmed the friends of accommodation, that they seemed to
be driven from their purpose. Gallatin, however, was an
exception; and the next day, he addressed the committee of
sixty in favor of acceding to the proposals of the
Commissioners; but nothing more could be effected than to pass
a resolution that it would be to the interest of the people to
accept those terms, without any promise or pledge of
submission. … On the whole, it was the opinion of the
well–disposed part of the population, that the inspection laws
could not be executed in that part of the State; and that the
interposition of the militia was indispensable. The
Commissioners returned to Philadelphia, and on their report
the President issued a second proclamation, on the 25th of
September, in which he announced, the march of the militia,
and again commanded obedience to the laws. The order requiring
the militia to march was promptly obeyed in all the States
except Pennsylvania, in which some pleaded defects in the
militia law; but even in that State, after the Legislature
met, the Governor was authorised to accept the services of
volunteers. … The news that the militia were on the march
increased the numbers of the moderate party. … Bradford, who
was foremost in urging resistance to the law, was the first to
seek safety in flight. He sought refuge in New Orleans. A
second convention was called to meet at Parkinson's ferry on
the second of October. A resolution of submission was passed,
and a committee of two was appointed to convey it to the
President at Carlisle. … On the return of the committee, the
Parkinson ferry convention met for the third time, and
resolutions were passed, declaring the sufficiency of the
civil authorities to execute the laws; affirming that the
excise duties would be paid, and recommending all delinquents
to surrender themselves. … Lee, then, as Commander-in-chief,
issued a proclamation granting an amnesty to all who had
submitted to the laws; and calling upon the inhabitants to
take the oath of allegiance to the United States. Orders were
issued and executed to seize those offenders who had not
signed the declaration of submission, and send them to
Philadelphia; and thus was this purpose of resisting the
execution of the excise law completely defeated, and entire
order restored in less than four months from the time of the
burning of Neville's house, which was the first overt act of
resistance. It was, however, deemed prudent to retain a force
of 2,500 militia during the winter, under General Morgan, to
prevent a return of that spirit of disaffection which had so
long prevailed in Pennsylvania."

_George Tucker,
History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_J. T. Morse,
Life of Hamilton,
volume 2, chapter 4._

_T. Ward,
The Insurrection of 1794
(Memoirs of Pennsylvania Historical Society, volume 6)._

_J. B. McMaster,
History of the People of the United States,
chapter 9 (volume 2)._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1861.
First troops sent to Washington.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1863.
Lee's invasion.
Battle of Gettysburg.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JUNE-JULY: PENNSYLVANIA).

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1864.
Early's invasion.
Burning of Chambersburg.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (JULY: VIRGINIA-MARYLAND).

----------PENNSYLVANIA: End--------

{2508}

PENNY POSTAGE.

See POST.

PENSACOLA: Unauthorized capture by General Jackson (1818).

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1816-1818.

PENTACOSIOMEDIMNI, The.

See ATHENS: B. C. 594.

PENTAPOLIS IN AFRICA.

See CYRENE.

PENTATHLON, The.

The five exercises of running, leaping, wrestling, throwing
the diskos, and throwing the spear, formed what the Greeks
called the pentathlon. "At the four great national festivals
all these had to be gone through on one and the same day, and
the prize was awarded to him only who had been victorious in
all of them."

_E. Guhl and W. Koner,
Life of the Greeks and Romans,
section 52._

PEORIAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

PEPIN.

See PIPPIN.

PEPLUM, The.

"The peplum constituted the outermost covering of the body.
Among the Greeks it was worn in common by both sexes, but was
chiefly reserved for occasions of ceremony or of public
appearance, and, as well in its texture as in its shape,
seemed to answer to our shawl. When very long and ample, so as
to admit of being wound twice round the body—first under the
arms, and the second time over the shoulders—it assumed the
name of diplax. In rainy or cold weather it was drawn over the
head. At other times this peculiar mode of wearing it was
expressive of humility or of grief."

_T. Hope,
Costume of the Ancients,
volume 1._

PEPPERELL, Sir William, and the expedition against Louisburg.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1745.

PEQUOTS. PEQUOT WAR.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY,
and SHAWANESE:
also, NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1637.

PERA, The Genoese established at.

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

PERCEVAL MINISTRY, The.

See: ENGLAND: A. D. 1806-1812.

PERDICCAS, and the wars of the Diadochi.

See MACEDONIA: B. C. 323-316.

PERDUELLIO, The Crime of.

"'Perduellis,' derived from 'duellum' e. q. 'bellum,' properly
speaking signifies 'a public enemy,' and hence Perduellio was
employed [among the Romans] in legal phraseology to denote the
crime of hostility to one's native country, and is usually
represented as corresponding, in a general sense, to our term
High Treason."

_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 9._

See MAJESTAS.

PERED, Battle of (1849).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

PEREGRINI.

"The term 'Peregrinus,' with which in early times 'Hostis'
(i. e. stranger) was synonymous, embraced, in its widest
acceptation, everyone possessed of personal freedom who was
not a Civis Romanus. Generally, however, Peregrinus was not
applied to all foreigners indiscriminately, but to those
persons only, who, although not Cives, were connected with
Rome."

_w. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 3._

See, also, CIVES ROMANI.

----------PERGAMUM: Start--------

PERGAMUM, PERGAMUS.

This ancient city in northwestern Asia Minor, within the
province of Mysia, on the north of the river Caïcus, became,
during the troubled century that followed the death of
Alexander, first the seat of an important principality, and
then the capital of a rich and flourishing kingdom, to which
it gave its name. It seems to have owed its fortunes to a
great deposit of treasures—part of the plunder of Asia—which
Lysimachus, one of the generals and successors of Alexander,
left for safe keeping within its walls, under the care of an
eunuch, named Philetærus. This Philetærus found excuses, after
a time, for renouncing allegiance to Lysimachus, appropriating
the treasures and using them to make himself lord of Pergamum.
He was succeeded by a nephew, Eumenes, and he in turn by his
cousin Attalus. The latter, "who had succeeded to the
possession of Pergamum in 241 [B. C.], met and vanquished the
Galatians in a great battle, which gave him such popularity
that he was able to assume the title of king, and extend his
influence far beyond his inherited dominion. … The court of
Pergamum continued to flourish till it controlled the larger
part of Asia Minor. In his long reign this king represented
almost as much as the King of Egypt the art and culture of
Hellenism. His great victory over the Galatians was celebrated
by the dedication of so many splendid offerings to various
shrines, that the Pergamene school made a distinct impression
upon the world's taste. Critics have enumerated seventeen
remaining types, which appear to have come from statues of
that time—the best known is the so–called 'Dying Gladiator,'
who is really a dying Galatian. … Perhaps the literature of
the court was even more remarkable. Starting on the model of
Alexandria, with a great library, Attalus was far more
fortunate than the Ptolemies in making his university the home
of Stoic philosophy."

_J. P. Mahaffy,
Story of Alexander's Empire,
chapter 20._

_en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul_

From the assumption of the crown by Attalus I. the kingdom of
Pergamus existed about a century. Its last king bequeathed it
to the Romans in 133 B. C. and it became a Roman province. Its
splendid library of 200,000 volumes was given to Cleopatra a
century later by Antony, and was added to that of Alexandria.
The name of the city is perpetuated in the word parchment,
which is derived therefrom. Its ruins are found at a place
called Bergamah.

See, also,
SELEUCIDÆ; B. C. 224-187;
ALEXANDRIA: B. C. 282-246;
and ROME: B. C. 47-46.

PERGAMUM: A. D. 1336.
Conquest by the Ottoman Turks.

See TURKS (OTTOMAN): A. D. 1326-1359.

----------PERGAMUM: End--------

PERGAMUS, Citadel of.

See TROJA.

PERICLES, Age of.

See ATHENS: B. C. 466-454; and 445-429.

PERINTHUS: B. C. 340.
Siege by Philip of Macedon.

See GREECE: B. C. 340.

PERIOECI, The.

See SPARTA: THE CITY.

PERIPLUS.

The term periplus, in the usage of Greek and Roman writers,
signified a voyage round the coast of some sea. Example: "The
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea."

PERIZZITES, The.

"The name 'Perizzites,' where mentioned in the Bible, is not
meant to designate any particular race, but country people, in
contradistinction to those dwelling in towns."

_F. Lenormant,
Manual of Ancient History,
book 6, chapter 1._

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT OF BENGAL LAND REVENUE.

See INDIA: A. D. 1785-1793.

PERONNE, The Treaty of.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1467-1468.

{2509}

PERPETUAL EDICT, The.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1575-1577.

PERPIGNAN: A. D. 1642.
Siege and capture by the French.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1640-1642.

PERRHÆBIANS, The.

"There had dwelt in the valley of the Peneus [Thessaly] from
the earliest times a Pelasgic nation, which offered up thanks
to the gods for the possession of so fruitful a territory at
the festival of Peloria. … Larissa was the ancient capital of
this nation. But at a very early time the primitive
inhabitants were either expelled or reduced to subjection by
more northern tribes. Those who had retired into the mountains
became the Perrhæbian nation, and always retained a certain
degree of independence. In the Homeric catalogue the
Perrhæbians are mentioned as dwelling on the hill Cyphus,
under Olympus."

_C. O. Müller,
History and Antiquity of the Doric Race,
book 1, chapter 1._

Dr. Curtius is of the opinion that the Dorians were a
subdivision of the Perrhæbians.

_E. Curtius
History of Greece,
book 1, chapter 4._

PERRY, Commodore Matthew C.: Expedition to Japan.

See JAPAN: A. D. 1852-1888.

PERRY, Commodore Oliver H.: Victory on Lake Erie.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813.

PERRYVILLE, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE-OCTOBER: TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY).

PERSARGADÆ.

See PERSIA., ANCIENT PEOPLE, &c.

PERSARMENIA.

While the Persians possessed Armenia Major, east of the
Euphrates, and the Romans held Armenia Minor, west of that
river, the former region was sometimes called Persarmenia.

PERSECUTIONS, Religious.
Of Albigenses.

See ALBIGENSES.

Of Christians under the Roman Empire.

See ROME: A. D. 64-68; 96-138; 192-284; 303-305;
and CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 100-312.

Of Hussites in Bohemia.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1419-1434, and after.

Of Jews.

See JEWS.

Of Lollards.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1360-1414.

Of Protestants in England.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1555-1558.

Of Protestants in France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547; 1559-1561 to 1598-1599;
1661-1680; 1681-1698.

Of Protestants in the Netherlands.

See NETHERLANDS: A.D. 1521-1555 to 1594-1609.

Of Roman Catholics in England.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1572-1603; 1585-1587;
1587-1588; 1678-1679.

Of Roman Catholics in Ireland.

See IRELAND: A. D.1691-1782.

Of Christians in Japan.

See JAPAN: A. D. 1549-1686.

Of the Waldenses.

See WALDENSES.

See, also, INQUISITION.

PERSEIDÆ, The.

See ARGOS.—ARGOLIS.

----------PERSEPOLIS: Start--------

PERSEPOLIS: Origin.

See PERSIA, ANCIENT PEOPLE.

PERSEPOLIS: B. C. 330.
Destruction by Alexander.

Although Persepolis was surrendered to him on his approach to
it (B. C. 331), Alexander the Great determined to destroy the
city. "In this their home the Persian kings had accumulated
their national edifices, their regal sepulchres, the
inscriptions commemorative of their religious or legendary
sentiment, with many trophies and acquisitions arising out of
their conquests. For the purposes of the Great King's empire,
Babylon, or Susa, or Ekbatana, were more central and
convenient residences; but Persepolis was still regarded as
the heart of Persian nationality. It was the chief magazine,
though not the only one, of those annual accumulations from
the imperial revenue, which each king successively increased,
and which none seems to have ever diminished. … After
appropriating the regal treasure—to the alleged amount of
120,000 talents in gold and silver (=£27,600,000 sterling)
—Alexander set fire to the citadel. … The persons and property
of the inhabitants were abandoned to the licence of the
soldiers, who obtained an immense booty, not merely in gold
and silver, but also in rich clothing, furniture, and
ostentatious ornaments of every kind. The male inhabitants
were slain, the females dragged into servitude; except such as
obtained safety by flight, or burned themselves with their
property in their own houses."

_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 93._

----------PERSIA: Start--------

PERSIA:
Ancient people and country.

"Persia Proper seems to have corresponded nearly to that
province of the modern Iran which still bears the ancient name
slightly modified, being called Farsistan or Fars. … Persia
Proper lay upon the gulf to which it has given name, extending
from the mouth of the Tab (Oroatis) to the point where the
gulf joins the Indian Ocean. It was bounded on the west by
Susiana, on the north by Media Magna, on the east by Mycia,
and on the south by the sea. Its length seems to have been
about 450, and its average width about 250 miles. … The
earliest known capital of the region was Pasargadæ, or
Persagadæ, as the name is sometimes written, of which the
ruins still exist near Murgab, in latitude 30° 15', longitude
53° 17'. Here is the famous tomb of Cyrus. … At the distance
of thirty miles from Pasargadæ, or of more than forty by the
ordinary road, grew up the second capital, Persepolis. … The
Empire, which, commencing from Persia Proper, spread itself,
toward the close of the sixth century before Christ, over the
surrounding tracts, [extended from the Caspian Sea and the
Indian Desert to the Mediterranean and the Propontis]. … The
earliest appearance of the Persians in history is in the
inscriptions of the Assyrian kings, which begin to notice them
about the middle of the ninth century, B. C. At this time
Shalmanezer II. [the Assyrian king] found them in
south-western Armenia, where they were in close contact with
the Medes, of whom, however, they seem to have been wholly
independent. … It is not until the reign of Sennacherib that
we once more find them brought into contact with the power
which aspired to be mistress of Asia. At the time of their
re-appearance they are no longer in Armenia, but have
descended the line of Zagros and reached the districts which
lie north and north-east of Susiana. … It is probable that
they did not settle into an organized monarchy much before the
fall of Nineveh. … The history of the Persian 'Empire' dates
from the conquest of Astyages [the Median king] by Cyrus, and
therefore commences with the year B. C. 558 [or, according to
Sayce, B. C. 549 —see below]."

_G. Rawlinson,
Five Great Monarchies: Persia,
chapters 1 and 7._

ALSO IN:
_A. R. Sayce,
Ancient Empires of the East,
appendix 5._

See, also,
ARIANS; IRAN; and ACHÆMENIDS.

PERSIA:
The ancient religion.

See ZOROASTRIANS.

{2510}

PERSIA: B. C. 549-521.
The founding of the empire by Cyrus the Great, King of Elam.
His conquest of Media, Persia, Lydia, and Babylonia.
The restoration of the Jews.
Conquest of Egypt by Kambyses.

"It was in B. C. 549 that Astyages was overthrown [see MEDIA].
On his march against Kyros [Cyrus] his own soldiers, drawn
probably from his Aryan subjects, revolted against him and
gave him into the hands of his enemy. 'The land of Ekbatana
and the royal city' were ravaged and plundered by the
conqueror; the Aryan Medes at once acknowledged the supremacy
of Kyros, and the empire of Kyaxares was destroyed. Some time,
however, was still needed to complete the conquest; the older
Medic population still held out in the more distant regions of
the empire, and probably received encouragement and promises
of help from Babylonia. In B. C. 546, however, Kyros marched
from Arbela, crossed the Tigris, and destroyed the last relics
of Median independence. … The following year saw the opening
of the campaign against Babylonia [see BABYLONIA: B. C.
625-539]. But the Babylonian army, encamped near Sippara,
formed a barrier which the Persians were unable to overcome;
and trusting, therefore, to undermine the power of Nabonidos
by secret intrigues with his subjects, Kyros proceeded against
Krœsos. A single campaign sufficed to capture Sardes and its
monarch, and to add Asia Minor to the Persian dominions [see
LYDIANS, and ASIA MINOR: B. C. 724-539]. The Persian conqueror
was now free to attack Babylonia. Here his intrigues were
already bearing fruit. The Jewish exiles were anxiously
expecting him to redeem them from captivity, and the tribes on
the sea coast were ready to welcome a new master. In B. C. 538
the blow was struck. The Persian army entered Babylonia from
the south. The army of Nabonidos was defeated at Rata in June;
on the 14th of that month Sippara opened its gates, and two
days later Gobryas, the Persian general, marched into Babylon
itself 'without battle and fighting.' … In October Kyros
himself entered his new capital in triumph."