XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.

COLONIZATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The Quakers.-William Penn.-His Education.-Obtains a Charter.-Prepa rations to plant a Colony.-He lands at Newcastle.-Philadelphia.— Rights of the Indians.-Settlement of Germantown.-Fletcher, the Royal Governor.-New Charter granted the People.-Prosperity of the Colony.-Trials of Penn: his Death.-Benjamin Franklin.

CHAP. WE have in the course of this history met with the sect known as Quakers,--a sect, perhaps, more than any other 1650. drawn from the humbler classes of the English people. We have found them at one time few in number, despised and persecuted; treated as the enemies of social order and morals. They were persecuted by all the sects in turn. The Puritans of New England endeavored to drive them from their shores; the Churchmen of Virginia refused them a resting place; and the politic and trading Dutch, though desirous for colonists, treated them harshly.

The Quakers loved and cherished the truths of the Bible with as much zeal as the most devoted Puritans. As non-resistants, they believed that the only evil a Christian should resist, was the evil of his own heart: as followers of the Prince of Peace, they were opposed to war. How much blood and sorrow would be spared the nations, if in this respect they were governed by the principles of Quakerism !

We have now to speak of this despised sect as the founders of a State, where their principles were to be applied to the government of men.

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George Fox, their founder, had visited the American CHAP. colonies; the condition of his followers touched his heart. Was there no asylum for them in the New World? Who 1673. should furnish them the means to form for themselves a settlement?

Among the few who joined them from the higher classes of English society, was one destined to exert a great influence on the sect, and to be admired and reverenced as a benefactor of his race by the good of every age. When a mere youth, his heart was touched by the conversation of a simple-minded Quaker, who spoke of the peace and comfort derived from the witnessing of God's Spirit with his own: "the inner light," or voice of conscience. This youth was William Penn, the son of Sir William Penn, who was distinguished as a successful naval commander in the times of Cromwell and Charles II. The position of his father afforded him great advantages. He studied at Oxford University, was then sent to the Continent to improve his mind by travel and intercourse with men, and to eradicate his tendency toward Quakerism. After the absence of two years he returned, improved it is true, but in religion still a member of that despised sect everywhere spoken against : a sect, which its enemies affirmed, would destroy every government. The ambitious and worldly-minded Admiral was angry and disappointed. He insisted that his son should renounce Quakerism. The son reflected-he loved and reverenced his father; he desired to obey and please him, but could he violate his conscience? No; he calmly resigned all earthly preferment, and became an exile from his father's house. A mother's love secretly relieved his pressing wants.

Before long we find him in prison for his religion. When the Bishop of London threatened him with imprisonment for life if he did not recant, he calmly replied, "Then my prison shall be my grave!" When a clergyman, the learned Stillingfleet, was sent to convince him

1674.

1661.

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CHAP. by arguments, he referred to his prison-walls, and remarked, "The Tower is to me the worst argument in the 1663. world; those who use force for religion never can be in the right!" "Religion," said he, on another occasion, "is my crime and my innocence; it makes me a prisoner to malice, but my own freeman." At the expiration of a year he was released, through the intercession of his father.

Promotion in the navy, royal favor, and every worldly inducement was now urged to tempt him to desert his principles; but in vain. Within a year he was arraigned again for having spoken at a Quaker meeting. As he pleaded his own cause, he told the court "that no power on earth had the right to debar him from worshipping God." The jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. The court, determined to persecute, ordered them back to their room; saying, "We will have a verdict, or you shall starve for it." Penn admonished them as Englishmen to remember their rights. To the great annoyance of his enemies, the jury, though they "received no refreshments for two days and two nights," again brought in a verdict of not guilty. The court fined the jury it could not intimidate. Though thus acquitted, the recorder, under the plea of contempt of court, fined Penn, and again remanded him to prison. As he was leaving the room, he mildly remarked to the angry magistrate: "Thy religion persecutes and mine forgives." His father soon afterward paid the fine, and he was liberated. Ere long that father, when dying, became reconciled to his son, and called him to his bedside. Worldly prosperity and honor did not seem so important to the admiral in his dying hour as they had done in other days. "Son William," said he, "if you and your friends keep to your plain way or preaching and living, you will make an end to the priests!"

Weary of persecutions, Penn determined to seek in

PENNSYLVANIA PURCHASED.

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the New World an asylum for himself and his suffering CHAP friends. There was, perhaps, no man in the kingdom better fitted to take the lead in colonizing a State: fa- 1680. miliar, from books as well as from observation, with the governments of Europe, and by personal intercourse with some of the most enlightened statesmen of the age; the friend and companion of men, as eminent in science and philosophy as they were in purity of morals.

Mar.

His father had bequeathed him a claim of sixteen thousand pounds against the government. He offered to receive lands in payment. Charles II., always in want of money, readily granted him territory west of the Delaware 1681. river, corresponding very nearly with the present limits of the State of PENNSYLVANIA,-a name given it by the king. The Duke of York claimed the region now known as the 1682. State of Delaware; Penn wishing to have free access to the bay obtained it from him.

4.

As proprietary he now drew up a proclamation for those who were about to emigrate, as well as for the settlers April already on the Delaware. He proposed that they should make their own laws, and pledged himself to interfere with nothing that should be for their benefit; saying, “I propose to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief; that the will of no one man may hinder the good of a whole country."

With instructions to govern in accordance with law, he sent his nephew, William Markham, as agent. He had expended so much to aid his suffering brethren, that his estate was now nearly exhausted. When about to sail for his colony he wrote to his wife: "Live low and sparingly till my debts are paid; I desire not riches, but to owe nothing; be liberal to the poor, and kind to all." At this time of embarrassment a very large sum was offered him by a company of traders for the exclusive right to trade between the rivers Susquehannah and Delaware. He re

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CHAP. fused to sell such right, saying each one in his colony should have an equal privilege to acquire property.

1682.

Oct.

27.

Penn, accompanied by one hundred emigrants, landed at New Castle. The Swedes, Dutch, and English alike welcomed him. He passed up the river to where the capital of his province was yet to rise; there, under a spreading elm, he met a large number of sachems of the neighboring tribes, and with them entered into a treaty. No record of this treaty has been preserved, yet it remained for fifty years in force; neither party violating its provisions. The sons of the forest received the "Quaker King" as a friend, and they never had cause to regret their confidence. He promised to treat them justly; a promise observed not only by himself but by the Quaker settlers. During this year twenty-three ships laden with emigrants arrived safely in the colony; and they continued to flock thither from year to year.

Lands, lying between the Schuylkill and the Delaware, were purchased from the Swedes: a place desirable for a city, from its situation, healthy air, and springs of fresh water. It was to be a "greene country town, gardens round each house, that it might never be burned, and always be wholesome." The streets were marked out in the primitive forest by blazing the trees-the walnut, the spruce, the chestnut. A city for all mankind, it was sig1683. nificantly named PHILADELPHIA.

The new city grew very rapidly; in three years it contained more than six hundred houses, while the colony had a population of nearly ten thousand. Well might the benevolent proprietary look forward to the future in cheerful hope; he had based his government on truth and justice. The rights of the Red Men were respected; no one could wrong them without incurring the same penalty as that for wronging a fellow planter. If difficulties occurred between them and the settlers, the juries to try such cases were to be composed of six Indians and six