Pennsylvania, colony and commonwealth

Front matter

PENNSYLVANIA COLONY AND COMMONWEALTH BY SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER. THE MAKING OF PENNSYLVANIA. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE POPULATION AND THE FORMATIVE INFLUENCES THAT CREATED ONE OF THE GREATEST OF THE AMERICAN STATES. i2mo. Buckram, $i.so. " This is a study that has often been suggested, but it has never been made before in such an exhaustive way, and Mr. Fisher deserves praise for his thoroughness in his new contribution to a better knowledge of the real history of Pennsylvania. ' ' ■Philadelphia Public Ledger. MAP OF COLONIAL PENNSYLVANIA. PENNSYLVANIA COLONY AND COMMONWEALTH III SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER AUTHOR OF "THE MAKING OF PENNSYLVANIA" PHILADELPHIA HENRY T. COATES AM) COMPANY MDCCCXCVII Copyright, 1896, By Henry T. Coates and Company. rantbrtsttn John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. CONTENTS Chaptbr Page Introduction vii I. Penn takes Possession i II.

The Administration of Governor Evans . 35 III. The Administration of Gookin and the Death of Penn 51 IV. Mrs. Penn becomes Proprietary .... 66 V. Gordon's Wise Administration 78 VI. Governor Thomas and the Spanish War . 87 VII. The Quakers and the Indians 98 VIII. Commerce, Wealth, and Education ... 131 IX. The Seven Years' War Begins 145 X. Braddock's Defeat 153 XI. The Indians revenge Themselves on Pennsylvania 161 XII. The Indians Checked * 182 XIII. The Violence of Party Spirit 190 XIV. The End of the War 206 XV. The Estates are Taxed 215 XVI. Pontiac's Conspiracy .221 XVII. The Scotch-Irish and the Quakers . . . 230 v VI Contents Chapter Page XVIII. The Conspiracy Broken 251 XIX. The Attempt to abolish the Proprietorship 255 XX. Life and Manners at the Time of the Revolution 268 XXI. The Rise of the Revolution 284 XXII.

The Movement for Independence . . . 310 XXIII. War 333 XXIV. The British pass a Pleasant Winter in Philadelphia 357 XXV. Toryism and Paper Money 369 XXVI. Dickinson and the Provost return from Banishment 38° XXVII. The Whiskey Rebellion 393 XXVIII. The Hot-Water Rebellion 399 XXIX. The Civil War 402 XXX. The Pre-eminence of Philadelphia ...

Introduction

In the previous volume, " The Making of Penn sylvania," a full account was given of the numerous nationalities and religions which made up the population of the province. The Dutch, Swedes, English, Germans, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish, together with their different religions, Quaker, Lutheran, Reformed, Epis copalian, Tunker, Mennonite, Schwenkfelder, Moravian, and Presbyterian, were each considered in detail, and there was also a chapter on the Connecticut Invasion, which introduced a New England element into the population. This discussion was necessary to an intelligent under standing of the history of the State, not only because it showed of what sort of people we were composed, but because many of these divisions, especially the Germans, Scotch-Irish, and Connecticut people, lived an isolated life, forming almost distinct colonies of their own ; and in any truthful history of the State it is necessary that this should clearly appear.

"The Making of Pennsylvania" having shown this original isolation of the elements of the population, Introduction and having given with some detail the history of each, as it grew in its own way, and having also described the boundary disputes with Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia, by which the size of the territory which was to contain this very miscellaneous population was determined, it remains to give the general history of the State as a whole. This may be described as the narra tive or social and political history, — the history which shows the growth of civil and constitutional liberty, the gradual formation of a colony into a commonwealth, and the adventures and trials through which it passed. The first and most important point to notice in rela tion to this history is, that for nearly a hundred years, from 1682 to 1776, it is concerned principally with only one of the great divisions of the population ; namely, the Quakers.

The province was theirs ; and they controlled its policy and legislation down to the summer of 1776, when their power was destroyed almost in a moment. The present history is therefore compelled to leave in the background most of the diversified elements of the people and their social life among themselves, and to bring forward and make conspicuous only one of them. The Ouakers are our heroes, and the other divisions are subsidiary characters. During the first seventy years the political history of the colony may be said to be exclusively a history of the Ouakers, because the Church of England people, who were their opponents during that time, were so few in numbers that they played a comparatively insig- Introduction nificant part. During those same years, the Germans were pouring into the colony by thousands and the Scotch-Irish by hundreds, and going off into the wilderness to live by themselves, leaving the Ouakers in undisturbed control of politics.

At the same time the Church of England people were also gradually increasing, and other elements were adding themselves to the population. It was not, however, until about the year 1755, when the French and Indian Wars began, that we find any of the other elements assuming an important position in political contests. At that time, both the Church men and the Scotch-Irish became very bitter oppo nents of the Quakers, but utterly failed to drive them from power, because the Germans never forgot the debt of gratitude they owed the Quakers, and always voted on their side. From 1755, therefore, until the Revolution, we are able to see something of other ele ments of the population than the Quakers. During the Revolution the Ouakers disappear entirely, and the Presbyterians and Scotch-Irish are in the ascendant.

Another very important point to be noticed in this history is the gradual but sure and steady way in which the Quakers, during their long control, developed the civil liberty of the province. In Massachusetts the col onists, for the first fifty years, enjoyed what was in effect political independence, elected their own gov ernors, and made their own laws without any interfer ence from England. At the end of that time their Charter was annulled, their liberties lost, and they X Introduction came under direct royal rule through governors appointed by the crown. At the accession of Wil liam III. to the throne, they rebelled to regain their liberties, but lost them again, and were held under closer rule than ever, which, being increased after the passage of the Stamp Act, made them the most violent agitators in the Revolution.

Virginia had a somewhat similar experience of an easy, almost independent, government at first and tyranny afterward. Other colonies went through somewhat the same varied ex periences, except Connecticut and Rhode Island, whose forms of government, liberal in the beginning, went on without change through the whole colonial period. But Pennsylvania, starting as a feudal proprietary province, under the treble control of deputy-governors, proprietor, and king, gradually worked out for herself a body of constitutional liberty, which, at the time of the Revolution, gave her such a satisfactory form of gov ernment that it was a great obstacle in the way of the movement for independence. The development of this civil liberty was very slow, step by step and year by year, without rebellions, revolutions, or violence of any kind; but there were no backward steps.

Indeed, the regularity of it is very curious and remarkable, and has never yet been described. It was accomplished by continual yearly disputes with the deputy-governor and proprietors on all sorts of questions, most of them extremely petty at first sight, but all of them involving great constitutional principles of which the sturdy colonists never lost sight. The patience and persistence Introduction with which they worried and worried over these prob lems, the ingenuity with which they tried to turn every trifling circumstance into an advantage, and their end less tenacity and endurance, were extremely Anglo- Saxon. It must be admitted that to unravel the tangled skein of their efforts through nearly a hundred years is very tedious; but at the same time it is interesting to see the resistance of king, proprietor, and governor slowly yielding before their determined purpose.

When the time of the French and Indian Wars ar rives, their struggles become dramatic and tragic ; and there are few things in history more pathetic than the driving from power and influence in 1776 of the men who had so patiently built up the noble fabric of the liberties of the province. Unfortunately the historians of Pennsylvania have always failed to grasp this slow development of our civil liberty. In its earliest movements they see in it nothing but petty disputes, which they make still more petty by their ridicule ; and in the heroic struggle to preserve the province's liberty in the French and Indian Wars, they are again stupidly blind to the true situation, and place the province in the position of oppos ing the best interests of America. There is no State whose early history has been so thoroughly misunderstood.

Our own writers have mis understood it, and other writers, like Parkman, in his " Conspiracy of Pontiac," have indulged themselves in an insanity of abuse of every act and motive of our Introduction people, until it is hard to find in the general literature of the country a single passage containing a good word for Colonial Pennsylvania. Our position during the Revolution is another unex plored domain of which there is no connected account. There were two revolutions going on in Pennsylvania during the war for independence, — one was part of the general revolution affecting the whole continent, and the other was a revolution within the State, reversing its policy of a hundred years and bringing into power entirely new forces and new people. It was a turmoil and confusion very difficult to understand at this late day.

Our own writers have scarcely touched upon it; and the little that has been written is by opponents of the State, inspired by prejudice, and not inclined to uphold either the conduct of our people or the char acters of our public men. The present volume completes our history to the time of the Whiskey Rebellion, or in effect to the close of the eighteenth century. The history of the present century would require another volume, and would be extremely difficult to write in a way that would interest readers, because the material is not yet collected. It has been thought well, however, to add to the present volume two chapters, — one on the services of the State in the Civil War, and the other on the Pre eminence of Philadelphia. The chapter on Philadelphia includes a discussion of the effects of the introduction of the public-school system in 1834, which in many respects was the most important event in our history Introduction during the present century; and the Civil War and our resistance to Lee at Gettysburg form, of course, an other great event.

These two are our most important episodes since 1800, and the material from which they may be described is easily accessible. PENNSYLVANIA: COLONY AND COMMONWEALTH

Chapter I Penn Takes Possession

In "The Making of Pennsylvania" the occupation of the Delaware by the Dutch and Swedes was described, and the easy, contented life they led on the meadows and marshes without any attempt to penetrate the in terior. There was a vast abundance of game and fish, and they pastured their cattle on the rich grass. But other eyes were turned upon the land ; and it was de sired by more earnest souls, who intended to penetrate far beyond the marshes. It is commonly supposed that the idea of having a great province on the Delaware as a refuge for the Quakers originated with William Penn. It was sug gested to him, it is said, by his connection with New Jersey, — of one part of which he was a co-owner and of the other part a trustee, — and also by the thought that the crown still owed him the £16,000 due to his father, and might be willing to pay it in wild land.

A careful investigation, however, shows that the origi nal conception of Pennsylvania as a commonwealth was not with William Penn at all, but with George Fox and the Ouakers, and Penn was merely the instrument to carry out their purpose. Soon after the year 1650, when the Quakers were or ganized as a sect, George Fox, their leader, appears to have made definite inquiries as to the availability for settlement of the mountains and forests which were said to lie north of Maryland. A certain. Quaker, Josiah Cole, had travelled in America and been much among the Indian tribes. Fox consulted with him ; and on his second visit to America, in 1660, he was commissioned to treat with the Susquehanna Indians, whose territory seemed to be the only available land near the seashore not already taken by white men.

In November, 1660, Cole wrote to Fox the result of his inquiries ; and the letter is quoted in Bowden's " His tory of the Friends in America" (vol. i. p. 389): "Dear George, — As concerning Friends buying a piece of land of the Susquehanna Indians I have spoken of it to them & told them what thou said concerning it ; but their answer was, that there is no land that is habitable or fit for situation beyond Baltimore's liberty till they come to or near the Susquehanna's Fort." The letter goes on to say that nothing could be accomplished in the way of purchase because the Indians were at war with one another, and William Fuller, a Maryland Quaker of much influence, was absent. But although nothing definite could be done, the subject was no doubt much debated among the followers of Fox in England.

The discussion reached the ears of a student of Christ Church College, Oxford, — a tall, strong young man, devoted to athletic sports, but with a serious cast of countenance and large handsome eyes. Christ Church College, the training-school of the English nobility, was not exactly a place for religious enthusiasm. Young William Penn, though not a nobleman, was the asso ciate of noblemen, for his father was one of the great admirals of the age, and stood high in favor at court. He looked forward to court preferment and high dis tinction for his son, and educated him for that purpose. But young Penn had wandered occasionally from the college precincts and listened to a Quaker preacher, and, as his father, the admiral, would have said, had become infatuated. A youth of such broad sympathies as Penn was easily led away by the refined spirituality of the early- Quakers ; and how attractive to such a boy must have been the thought of a refuge in the American wilderness, — a home for his pure faith in the virgin woods, far from corruption, imprisonment, tithes, and cruel men ; a commonwealth reared afresh out of nature by manly effort and adventure, where they could try the experi ment of their principles in their truest form.

How a college lad would dwell and enlarge on such a theme ! And did he exaggerate when afterward he spoke of it as " an opening of joy "? We can see him now in his room at Christ Church, that nurse of so many leaders of men, with his athletic figure and his great sincere black eyes, as he pondered and dreamed and built up the ideal. Twenty years afterward, when he had obtained the grant of Pennsylvania from the crown, he wrote, " I had an opening of joy as to these parts in the year 1661 at Oxford."1 Every year there are college boys 1 Janney's Life of Penn, 163. that have dreams, but very few bring them to fulfil ment like Penn. The dreamer became a man. He left his college, and for twenty years learned the world. He became by turns a soldier, traveller, fop, fanatic, courtier, his nature shifting and hesitating between the two influences he had received at Oxford, — the love of pleasure and dis tinction and a courtier's life, and the religious infection which his father detested.

He was whipped for that religious infection and driven from home by that stern father, who, after Blake, was the greatest naval officer of the century. Sometimes he yielded to his father's wishes, sometimes to the impulses of the new religion. At his father's wish he became a soldier for a time, and at another time travelled in France with the gay people of the court. But in the end the religious feeling tri umphed, and in spite of the father it rapidly began to absorb the young man's whole life. So much did it absorb him, and so famous did he become as an advocate of the new faith, that the father yielded and forgave him. About the year 1680 young Penn found himself at the age of thirty-six, with his father dead, and a debt due him from the crown of £16,000 for services which his distinguished father had rendered.

The subject of a home in the new world was still in the minds of his sect; and Penn saw an opportunity in the debt due him from the crown to secure a grant of the necessary land. He applied to Charles II. in 1681, and the debt of _£ 16,000 was cancelled by a gift to Penn of the largest tract of territory that had ever been given in America to a single individual. In addition to this and for the sake of controlling the free navigation of the Delaware all the way to the sea, Penn secured from the Duke of York the free gift of the territory now included in the State of Delaware. The vastness of these grants and the ease with which they were obtained shows how powerful was Penn's influence at court. He held the extraordinary position of being popular among the aristocracy, who despised his religion and, so far as that religion was concerned, believed him to be nothing but a disturber of the peace.

This good fortune of being liked by opposing classes he owed to the broadness of his sympathy and his perfect courage, frankness, and sincerity. The charter or grant of Pennsylvania, unlike many of the colonial charters, was not for the purpose of creating a trading corporation, but simply gave the land of the province into the hands of a single individual, and gave also to that individual the privilege of creating a political government. Penn had the fee-simple title to over forty thousand square miles of territory, and could adopt for it any form of government he chose, provided that the majority of his colonists consented. If, however, on any sudden emergency, the freemen could not assemble, the Charter gave Penn the right to make laws without their consent. Penn was by his Charter governor of the province as well as proprietor, and it was often in his mind to live in his colony, and exercise the powers of a governor in person.

But various circumstances prevented the fulfil ment of this, and he enjoyed the pleasure of direct rule over his people on only two occasions, when he made short visits to his colony. He and his children after him ruled their possessions almost exclusively by deputies. That long list of persons called colonial governors of Pennsylvania is merely a list of the agents of the proprietor, who was the true governor. These deputy-governors acted under instructions ; and the people, when irritated, were not slow to remind them of their subservient position. Besides being the political governor of the province, Penn was also the feudal lord and owner of all the land. It was his intention to sell it to the settlers from time to time in such tracts as should be convenient, reserving on the tracts sold a small quit-rent to be paid to him and his heirs forever.

Some lands were sold for a price in addition to the quit-rent, and others for the quit-rent alone. It was a pleasant arrangement for the proprietor and governor; for although neither the selling-price nor the rent was very large, yet when forty thousand square miles had been sold in this way, the governor would be a very rich man, not only in capital, but in yearly income. The reservation of rent to be paid forever fortified him in his position of lord of the manor, and made all the colonists his tenants. It was thoroughly feudal, and always a cause of more or less dissatisfaction among the people, but not so much as might be expected; for the proprietors were on the whole not disliked ; and in the Revolution, when the people could have confiscated every penny in Pennsylvania that belonged to the founder's family, they not only left them in possession of a large part of their land, but paid them handsomely for the part that was taken.

The securing of this great domain in America must have gratified to the utmost the two most prominent impulses in Penn's character. He never could rid him self of the feelings inherited from his father and de veloped by associations at Oxford and the court. He loved high life and distinction. He never forgot that as his father's son he was entitled to respect and honor; and as lord of millions of acres in America, he felt that his position as a man of affairs in England was vastly aug mented, and that a fortune was secured for himself and his family. But on the other hand the devotion to his sect was equally strong. He had labored for them for years, gone to prison for preaching at their meetings, and gone to prison for writing books and pamphlets in favor of their doctrines. He was not only building up for himself a great position and name, but was establishing for the people of his faith a home in the country they had been seeking in vain for more than twenty years.

The debt due him from the crown, his love of distinction, and his love of his religion had combined in a most curious way to produce what promised to be a grand success. Pennsylvania was not only the greatest proprietary province in point of size, but it was also the most successful one. The proprietorships in Maine, New Hampshire, and the Carolinas were utter failures. Maryland was only partially successful ; it was never very remunerative, and the crown deprived the Balti mores of their control of it for over twenty years. But William Penn was deprived of his province by. William III. for only about two years; and except for that short time he and his sons held their province down to the American Revolution of 1776, a period of ninety-four years. creation by one man of such a huge, prosperous, and powerful empire, and its possession by himself and his children as a feudal barony for such a length of time, has, we believe, no parallel in the history of the world.

Kings have possessed themselves of such domains, but never before a private citizen, who scorned all titles. When we consider the education and surroundings of Penn, his romantic youth, his learning and accomplish ments, his extraordinary position of religious enthusiast and courtier, and that he established his great province on the most liberal and advanced principles of his time, — principles, indeed, which the rest of the world has only recently adopted, — we can understand why Penn sylvania became the wonder and talk of all Europe, as a most remarkable experiment by a most interesting man, and why Voltaire would never to the end of his life give up the thought that it was an ideal spot for human existence, and the refuge for all lovers of liberty as well as philosophers. Penn expected his colony to be peopled by Ouakers ; and as soon as he had obtained his Charter, he advertised for settlers and appointed his cousin, William Markham, to be deputy-governor.

Markham sailed almost immediately, and seems to have gone by way of Boston, where he recorded his commission. He travelled by way of New York, and arrived on the Delaware July i, 1 68 1, which may be considered as the date when Penn took possession. Markham immediately began to arrange for the purchase of the land from the Indians. He fixed on Upland, now Chester, for his headquarters, where he held court and ruled over the Swedes and Dutch, and also the English that he found on the land. He con tinued in this way for more than a year with but few additions to his people, until on the 27th of Octo ber, 1682, Penn arrived at New Castle with many settlers in the ship " Welcome." Penn landed at New Castle, exhibited the deeds of the Duke of York giving him what is now the State of Delaware, and, having placed the government of that country in safe hands, proceeded to Upland to take possession of Pennsylvania and form its consti tution.

Immediately upon landing at Upland, he turned to his friend Pearson, saying that this was a memorable event and asking him to name the town ; and Pearson gave it the name of his native city, Chester. A day or so afterward, Penn, it is said, was rowed in a barge from Chester to the present site of Philadel phia, — a memorable excursion upon which the fancy of historian and biographer has long delighted to dwell. It was one of the last days of October ; and that reach of the river now so familiar to Philadelphians must have been a fascinating scene in its perfect wildness, the autumn tints upon the shores, the millions of birds upon the waters, and the deep stillness of the wilderness all around. He landed where the high land had long shown to explorers the site for a great city. The steep bank was penetrated by a little stream, deep at its mouth, with a low sandy beach making a natural land ing-place, and the line of it is now marked by Dock Street.

It was a pretty spot ; a stray settler had already built his house there; and Penn was charmed with the situation. Indians, it is said, were there to meet him; and there is also a tradition that on this occasion he sat with them on the ground, ate their roasted acorns, and afterwards recalled his college days by contending with them in a jumping match in which his agility surprised them. The story is not at all unlikely; for Penn cared little for formal dignity, and when he erred in such matters it was usually on the side of levity. He was, moreover, at that time only thirty-eight years old, with the athletic, handsome figure that his cavalier training had developed. Philadelphia had already been decreed into exist ence, its streets mapped out by his commissioners, and perhaps some progress made in marking them on the ground.

The present Walnut Street was called Pool Street, and Chestnut Street was Union Street; but Penn afterward gave them the names they now bear, from the trees that grew near them. But although Philadelphia was begun, business must still be transacted at Chester ; and writs were issued, summoning the freeholders to meet at that place and elect representatives to a General Assembly which was to meet in December and accept or reject the " Frame of Government" and the "Laws Agreed upon in England." These two documents had been published by Penn in England during the previous spring, and were spoken of as the " Printed Laws " and the " Written Laws, or Constitution." "The Printed Laws," or the " Laws Agreed upon in England," gave the Assembly little trouble, and were readily passed. They had already been considered in England, and they contained nothing more than simple rules of order, and raised no disputed questions of principle.

They defined who should be freemen and have the right to vote, and the term included land holders and also such inhabitants and artificers as paid " scot and lot to the government." They pro vided for courts, trial by jury, prisons, marriages, and register of births. The only provisions at all striking or new were those for registering deeds, giving the estates of murderers to the next of kin of the sufferer and of the criminal, abolishing oaths, and establishing freedom of worship. The " Frame of Government," as it was called, was what we should now call a constitution, and carried out that portion of the Charter which gave Penn the privi lege of joining with the freemen in creating the political government. In this constitution he enlarged on govern ment as a divine institution ; and as we read this rather dull preamble we soon come to the passage so often quoted, wherein he says that any government is free where the laws rule and the people are a party to the laws, which is immediately followed by another passage equally sensible and Saxon : — " But lastly, when all is said, there is hardly one frame of government in the world so ill designed by its founders, that in good hands would not do well enough. . . .

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too." Coming more to particulars, he provided for a pro vincial council of seventy-two members, to be elected by the people; and this council was to propose laws, which should be submitted for the approval of the General Assembly, also to be elected by the people. The governor and this provincial council were to form the executive part of the government, guard the peace and safety of the colony, see that all laws were en forced, locate cities, ports, streets, and roads, inspect the management of the treasury, establish public schools, courts of justice, and appoint judges, sheriffs, justices of the peace, and coroners. The evident intention was that the governor and Council should be the ruling body, with the General Assembly as a check on their proceedings, but without any power in the Assembly to originate laws, which were to be first proposed in every instance by the Council.