TREATY WITH INDIANS; PROGRESS OF COLONY. tions were broken off, only to be resumed a year later in England with considerable acrimony. After the matter had been thoroughly sifted, the argument terminated in the assignment to Penn of half the territory between the banks of the Delaware and the Chesapeake." About November, 1682, under the great elm of Shakamaxon, was held the traditionary interview with the Indians, which has been commemorated by the painting of Benjamin West. There seems to be little doubt that at this interview Penn made a treaty with the Indians, although documentary evidence of it is meagre. This matters little, however, for the chief point of interest is that the understanding produced by the interview was carefully maintained. During his stay in the country, Penn often met the Indians in friendly intercourse, partaking of their simple fare, mingling in their athletic games, and enjoying their simple life. It is hardly possible, however, that any land was purchased from the Indians by Penn himself at * See Browne, Maryland: The History of a Palatinate, pp. 133-144; Hildreth, vol. ii., pp. 69-72, 74-75. † Memoirs of Pennsylvania Historical Society, vol. iii., part ii., p. 143. See also Bowdoin, History of Friends in America, vol. ii., p. 62; Dixon, William Penn, pp. 199-203; the article by Frederick D. Stone in the Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. vi., pp. 217-238. Sharpless, however, says that "it does not seem probable that any formal treaty was made with the Indians before the summer of 1683."-Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History, p. 58. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, vol. i., p. 56. 403 this time, for in 1685, after Penn's return to England, a bargain was struck with four chiefs by which they sold a large tract extending from the Delaware to the Susquehanna for a compensation consisting of 44 pounds of red lead, 60 fathoms of "Strandwaters" and 30 fathoms of duffels (these were coarse kinds of cloth), 200 fathoms of wampum, 12 hoes, 20 tobacco tongs, 3 papers of beads, 6 draw knives, 12 pairs of shoes, 6 caps, and 30 each of shirts, pairs of stockings, combs, glasses, pairs of scissors, awls, knives, axes, kettles, tobacco-boxes, guns, bars of lead, and pounds of gunpowder certainly a shabby compensation.* In 1683 Penn determined upon a site for his capital city, selecting land at the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware, which appeared to him to be very desirable. to be very desirable. The new city was called Philadelphia, as signifying the brotherly love which the Quakers advocated. Houses were rapidly constructed and numbered eighty at the close of a year.† Penn early took steps for the protection of morals and promotion of art and scholarship. In 1683 Enoch Flower opened a school in a hut, making the following charges for instruction: "To learne to read English, 4s. by ye Quarter, to learne to read and write 6s. by ye * Ibid, p. 143. On the various land purchases see Sharpless, A Quaker Experiment in Government, p. 160 et seq. † Penn chartered the city October 25, 1701. Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, vol. ii., p. 157; Dixon, William Penn, pp. 205-207. 404 CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT; PENN RETURNS TO ENGLAND.' Quarter, write and cast accots 8s. by ye Quarter; for boarding a scholar, that is to say, dyet, washing, lodging and Schooling, Tenn pounds for one whole year. In March, 1683, Penn summoned the newly constituted legislature and they met him in Philadelphia.† At this time the Assembly accepted a frame of government modelled after the late act of settlement, with a proviso that no changes should be made save by the joint consent of the proprietary and six parts in seven of the freemen of the province. It was ordained also that in addition to the conditions above named, the three arbitrators, called peacemakers, were to be chosen by the county courts to hear and determine small differences between man and man; it was further ordained that factors wronging their employers should be compelled to make satisfaction, and one-third over; that such things as excited the people to cruelty and irreligion should be discouraged and severely punished; that no one should be molested for opinions regarding religion or compelled to frequent houses of worship or forced to maintain any ministry whatever, provided such persons *Pa. Colonial Records, vol. i., p. 36; Isaac Sharpless, 4 Quaker Experiment in Government, p. 37; Dixon, William Penn, p. 208. See Proud, vol. i., 235 et seq. Proud, vol. ii., p. 21. See also the resumé in Doyle, Middle Colonies, p. 400. For text see Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. v., pp. 3064-3069. created no serious disturbances.* At the same time, the Assembly provided that a revenue be raised by a duty on exports and imports, which should be given to the proprietary, but Penn consented to suspend the receipt of it for a year or two, and the law was finally allowed to lapse altogether.† Meanwhile news of the prosperous condition of the colony had been received in Europe, and from Germany and Holland came many settlers to seek an asylum from the stern laws in those countries, while large numbers of Quakers continued to come. from England. Penn might well boast that "he had led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that ever were in it, are to be found among But Penn now determined to us." return to England for a while to look after his affairs at home. On August 12, 1684, he set sail after providing for the government of the colony by appointing five judges chosen from the community to look after judicial affairs, Nicholas Moore being appointed chief justice. Thomas Lloyd was appointed president and Markham secretary of the council; these were assisted by Thomas Holme, James Claypole, Robert Turner and two or three others. When Penn PENN'S DISPUTE WITH ASSEMBLY. returned to England Pennsylvania contained about twenty settlements and 7,000 inhabitants. By 1685 1685 Philadelphia contained over 350 houses, the value of land rising enormously. Penn speaks also of the number of drinking houses and of the looseness in the lives of those living in the caves, the large number of arrivals compelling the use of caves along the Delaware as places of abode until houses could be erected.* Soon after Penn arrived in England, James II. became king, but Penn continued to enjoy the same favor from the king which he had received from the Duke of York. It may be noted in passing that Penn's charter was the only one against which a writ of quo warranto had not be issued. While Penn was in England he was subjected to a great deal of vexation and disappointment. The executive authorities in Pennsyl vania had become dissatisfied with the amount of authority granted them by their proprietary, and they constantly endeavored to enlarge it. In 1686 the president, Thomas Lloyd, and the council on one hand, and the Assembly on the other, engaged in an acrimonious dispute, in which Penn naturally became involved. In addition to being subject to continual encroachments on his authority, Penn claimed that the quit-rents, which should have been returned to him, See Penn's letter in Proud, vol. i., p. 296. Hildreth, vol. ii., p. 78. See also Dixon's Penn, pp. 217-219. 405 were absorbed in the public service, for which in 1688 the Assembly refused to vote a suitable provision. He was also dissatisfied with the conduct of the council, and in 1686 superseded the council by five commissioners, charged with executive functions.* Some years later, however, (1688) he appointed John Blackwell, one of Cromwell's old officers,† to the governorship, and Blackwell strenuously insisted upon the maintenance of proprietary rights: yet to so little purpose, that after another period of dissension, Penn, anxious, to use his own words, "to settle the government so as to please the generality,' determined "to throw all into their hands, that they might see the con fidence he had in them, and his desire to give them all possible contentment." Thus, with Lloyd again at its head, the council, in 1690, became invested with the chief authority, with the sole power of veto vested in the proprietary.‡ Meanwhile, in 1687, the third printing press in America was set up at Philadelphia, and some two years later Penn gave the charter to the first public school. When James II. fell, however, * Penn's instructions to them are in Proud, vol. i., p. 305. See also Sharpless, Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History, p. 68. † Pennsylvania Colonial Records, vol. i., p. 229. Penn's instructions to him are given in Proud, vol. i., p. 339. See also Doyle, Middle Colonies, p. 408 et seq. Osgood, American Colonies, vol. ii., pp. 261269; Doyle, p. 411; Sharpless, pp. 69-71; Dixon, William Penn, chap. xxix. |