now appeared in their true light, "if you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching and living, you will make an end of the priests.' Penn was now nearly twenty-six years old, and had inherited from his father a handsome estate. He continued to explain and defend his doctrines through the press, and in 1671 was arrested and sentenced to six months' imprisonment in Newgate. From his prison he addressed a noble plea to Parliament and to the nation for toleration in all matters of faith. The Wife of Penn. Upon his release from prison, Penn travelled in Holland and Germany, and upon his return to England, in 1673, married a woman of great beauty, whose noble character rendered her a fitting companion to him. He took no part in public affairs until the imprisonment of George Fox, upon his return to England to America, called him once more to the defence of his brethren. Fox being released, he and Penn and several others travelled through Holland and a part of Germany, seeking to make converts to their faith-an effort in which they were very successful among the Dutch and German peasantry. Returning to England, he once more appealed to Parliament, but without success, to do justice to the Quakers, and grant them the toleration to which they were entitled. Despairing of success in England, Penn low directed the whole of his energies to securing a home for his persecuted brethren in the new world. A number of Quakers were already settled along the banks of the Delaware and in New Jersey, and in 1675 the embarrassments of Edward Byllinge, who had purchased Lord Berkeley's interest in New Jersey, obliged him to sell his share of that province. It was purchased by William | Penn, Gawen Lourie and Nicholas Lucas, for the benefit of the Quakers This placed the Friends in possession of an asylum, but it left them more at the mercy of the English government and church than they desired to be, and New Jersey was divided into two equal parts; Cartaret, Berkeley's former partner, retaining East Jersey, and West Jersey becoming the property of the Quakers. The People Rule. This was accomplished in 1676, and in March of the following year a government resting upon the will of the people, and securing to the inhabitants protection and equality in all their political and religious rights and privileges, was set up in West Jersey. The English Quakers came over to the new province in great numbers, with the good wishes of Charles II., and peaceful relations were established with the Indians. Byllinge, who had retained some interest in the province, now began to be troublesome, and claimed the right to nominate the deputy governor. The people denied his claim, and at the instigation of William Penn, amended their constitution so as to place the choice of all their officers in their own hands, and then elected a governor. Penn had now become deeply interested in the colonization of America, and wished to secure for his faith a wider domain than West Jersey. He had inherited from his father a claim against the English government amounting to sixteen thousand pounds. He now proposed to exchange this claim for a grant of territory in America. Charles II., who was always in want of money, and who never set much value upon the lands of the new world, readily accepted his offer, as it was urged by Lords North, Halifax and Sunderland, and the Duke of York, who were firm friends of William Penn. The king, in 1681, granted to Penn a district lying west of the Delaware River, and corre sponding very nearly to territory embraced in the present state of Pennsylvania, which name the king bestowed upon it in honor of the proprietor. The Duke of York claimed Delaware as his own property, and Penn, who wished to have free access to the sea, purchased it of him the next year. The territory was granted to Penn as absolute proprietor; the people were secured in the right of self-government; religious equality was guaranteed to all; the acts of the colonial legislature were to be submitted to the king and council, who had the power to annul them if contrary to the law of England; the power of levying customs was reserved to Parliament; and no taxes were to be imposed upon the people save by the colonial legislature or by Parlia ment. Settlers Throng the Wilderness. Penn then invited all persons who desired to do so to settle in Pennsylvania, and in a proclamation declared his intention to leave the settlers free to make their own laws. "I propose," he said, "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." "God," he declared, "has furnished me with a better resolution, and has given me His grace to keep it." His resolution was soon tested. Soon after he obtained his patent a company of traders offered him six thousand pounds and an annual payment of a stipulated sum for the monopoly of the Indian traffic between the Delaware and the Susquehanna. He had already straitened himself very much by his expenditures for his colony, and his family had been obliged to endure some deprivations in consequence. The offer was tempting, but he declined it firmly. What was free to him should be free to every inhabitant of Pennsylvania, and he would derive no advantage at the expense of his people. Liberal Education. A company was collected and sent out to Pennsylvania, under William Markham, Penn's nephew, and the personal character of the proprietor of the colony was deemed by all a sufficient guarantee for the protection of their liberties. Penn intended following this company as soon as he could, and in the meantime enjoined Markham to continue the establishment already existing along the Delaware, and to govern in accordance with the laws of England. In 1682 he prepared to go out to America to superintend the formal establishment of his colony.. As he was about to sail, he wrote to his wife, to whom he was devoted with all the ardor of his youth: "Live low and sparingly till my debts be paid; I desire not riches, but to owe nothing; be liberal to the poor and kind to all." With regard to their children, he wrote: "Let their learning be liberal; spare no cost, for by such parsimonyall is lost that is saved." Penn took out with him one hundred emigrants, and reached Newcastle on the twenty-seventh of October, 1682, after a long and trying voyage. In the presence of the Swedish, Dutch and English settlers, who welcomed him with joy, he took formal possession of the province, which was surrendered to him by the agents of the Duke of York. He pledged himself to the people to grant them liberty of conscience and all their civil privileges. From Newcastle Penn went up the river to Chester, where a settlement had been formed by emigrants from the north of England, who had preceded him. Early in November, accompanied by a few friends, Penn ascended the Delaware in an. might never be burned, and always be open boat to the mouth of the Schuylkill, | town, gardens round each house, that it and passing a little distance beyond this, landed on the beautiful site now occupied by the city of Philadelphia. The place at The place at which he landed was long known as the "Blue Anchor Landing," from a tavern of that name which stood there. A little later, A little later, under a spreading elm, Penn met the chiefs of the neighboring Indian tribes and entered into a treaty of peace and friendship with them. This treaty was confirmed by no oath, but it remained unbroken for fifty years, and as neither side sought to evade its obligations, which were simply of peace and good will, the colony of Pennsylvania escaped in its earlier years the horrors of a savage warfare from which the other settlers suffered. "We will live," said the Indian sachems, "in love with William Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure." They kept their word. "Penn came without arms; he declared his purpose to abstain from violence; he had no message but peace; and not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian." The scene of the treaty was at Shackamaxon, now Kensington, in the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Laid Out. On the pleasant tract lying between the Delaware and the Schuylkill, which was purchased from the Swedes, who had on their part purchased it from the Indians, Penn in 1683 laid out the capital of his province, which he named PHILADELPHIA, the City of Brotherly Love, in token of the principles which he meant should constitute the common law of his possessions. It was abundantly supplied with streams of pure water and was admirably situated for purposes of trade. He did not wish it to be built after the manner of European cities, but designed it to be a "greene country PENN TREATY MONUMENT. Penn from the first refused to retain in his hands the exercise of the vast powers with which the charter granted him by the king invested him. As early as December, 1682, he convened a general convention of the people and gave them a charter of liberties which Bancroft thus sums up: "God was declared the only Lord of conscience; the first day of the week was reserved as a day of leisure, for the ease of the creation. The rule of equality was introduced into families by abrogating the privileges of primogeniThe word of an honest man was ture. evidence without an oath. The mad spirit | Swedes, and Finns, and Dutch were invested of speculation was checked by a system of strict accountability, applied to factors and agents. "Every man liable to civil burdens possessed the right of suffrage; and, without regard to sect, every Christian was eligible to office. No tax or custom could be levied but by law. The Quaker is a spiritualist; the pleasures of the senses, masks, revels and Mar THE OLD SWEDES' CHURCH, BUILT IN 1641. stage plays, not less than bull-baits and cock-fights, were prohibited. Murder was the only crime punishable by death. riage was esteemed a civil contract; adultery a felony. The Quakers had suffered wrong from imprisonment; the false accuser was liable to double damages. Every prison for convicts was made a workhouse. There were neither poor-rates nor tithes. The with the liberties of Englishmen."* In March, 1683, the first general assembly of Pennsylvania met at Philadelphia. "I am ready," said Penn to this body, "to settle such foundations as may be for your happiness." Under the guidance of the founder of the colony, the assembly established a constitution which made Pennsylvania emphatically a free state. A government was established, consisting of a governor, a legislative council and an assembly composed of representatives of the people. As the charter made the proprietor responsible to the king for the legislation of the colony, no act of legislation was to be valid until it had passed the great seal of the province. With this exception, the entire power of the province was left in the hands of the people. "But for the hereditary office of proprietary, Pennsylvania had been a representative democracy. In Maryland the council was named by Lord Baltimore; in Pennsylvania, by the people. In Maryland, the power of appointing magistrates, and all, even the subordinate executive officers, rested solely with the proprietary; in Pennsylvania, William Penn could not appoint a justice or a constable; every executive officer, except the highest, was elected by the people or their representatives; and the governor could perform no public act but with the consent of the council. Lord Baltimore had a revenue derived from the export of tobacco, the staple of Maryland; and his colony was burdened with taxes; a similar revenue was offered to William Penn and declined, and tax-gatherers were known in his province." un * Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. ii., p. 385. |