XVI. to session of their civil rights and freedoms, a mere wilder- CHAP. ness would be no encouragement. It were madness to leave a free country to plant a wilderness, and give 1678 another person an absolute title to tax us at will. 1680. "The customs imposed by the government of New York are not a burden only, but a wrong. By what right are we thus used? The king of England cannot take his subjects' goods without their consent. This is a home-born right, declared to be law by divers statutes. "To give up the right of making laws is to change the government and resign ourselves to the will of another. The land belongs to the natives; of the duke we buy nothing but the right of an undisturbed colonizing, with the expectation of some increase of the freedoms enjoyed in our native country. We have not lost English liberty by leaving England. "The tax is a surprise on the planter: it is paying for the same thing twice over. Custom, levied upon planting, is unprecedented. Besides, there is no end of this power. By this precedent, we are assessed without law, and excluded from our English right of common assent to taxes. We can call nothing our own, but are tenants at will, not for the soil only, but for our personal estates. Such conduct has destroyed government, but never raised one to true greatness. "Lastly, to exact such unterminated tax from English planters, and to continue it after so many repeated complaints, will be the greatest evidence of a design to introduce, if the crown should ever devolve upon the duke, an unlimited government in England." Such was the argument of the Quakers; and it was triumphant. Sir William Jones decided that, as the 360 PROSPERITY OF WEST NEW JERSEY. XVI. CHAP. grant from the duke of York had reserved no profit or jurisdiction, the tax was illegal. The duke of York 1680. promptly acquiesced in the decision, and in a new 6. indenture relinquished every claim to the territory and the government. Aug. After such trials, vicissitudes, and success, the light of peace dawned upon West New Jersey; and in November, 1681, Jennings, acting as governor for the proprietaries, convened the first legislative assembly of the representatives of men who said thee and thou to all the world, and wore their hats in presence of beggar or king. Their first measures established their rights by an act of fundamental legislation, and in the spirit of "the Concessions," they framed their government on the basis of humanity. Neither faith, nor wealth, nor race, was respected. They met in the wilderness as men, and founded society on equal rights. What shall we relate of a community thus organized? That they multiplied, and were happy? that they levied for the expenses of their commonwealth two hundred pounds, to be paid in corn, or skins, or money? that they voted the governor a salary of twenty pounds? that they prohibited the sale of ardent spirits to the Indians? that they forbade imprisonment for debt? The formation of this little government of a few hundred souls, that soon increased to thousands, is one of the most beautiful incidents in the history of the age. West New Jersey had been a fit home for Fenelon. The people rejoiced under the reign of God, confident that he would beautify the meek with salvation. A loving correspondence began with Friends in England; and from the fathers of the sect, frequent messages were received. "Friends that are gone to make plantations 1682. in America, keep the plantations in your hearts, that 1681, XVI. 1682 your own vines and lilies be not hurt. You that are CHAP. governors and judges, you should be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and fathers to the that poor; you may gain the blessing of those who are ready to perish, and cause the widow's heart to sing for gladness. If you rejoice because your hand hath gotten much; if you say to fine gold, Thou art my confidence,-you will have denied the God that is above. The Lord is ruler among nations; he will crown his people with do minion."1 In the midst of this innocent tranquillity, Byllinge, the original grantee of Berkeley, claimed as proprietary the right of nominating the deputy-governor. The usurpation was resisted. Byllinge grew importunate; and the Quakers, setting a new precedent, amended their constitutions, according to the prescribed method, and then elected a governor. Every thing went well in West New Jersey; this method of reform was the advice of WILLIAM PENN. For in the mean time William Penn had become 1682. deeply interested in the progress of civilization on the Delaware. In company with eleven others, he had purchased East New Jersey of the heirs of Carteret. But of the eastern moiety of New Jersey, peopled chiefly by Puritans, the history is intimately connected with that of New York. The line that divides East and West New Jersey, is the line where the influence of the humane society of Friends is merged in that of Puritanism. June. It was for the grant of a territory on the opposite bank 1680. of the Delaware, that William Penn, in June, 1680, became a suitor. His father, distinguished in English 2 1 Fox and Burnyeat, in Hazard's Reg. vi. 184-200. VOL. II. 2 Proceedings of the privy council, in Votes and Proceedings of the 46 362 PENNSYLVANIA GRANTED TO PENN. CHAP. history by the conquest of Jamaica, and by his conXVI. duct, discretion, and courage, in the signal battle against 1680. the Dutch in 1665, had bequeathed to him a claim on the government for sixteen thousand pounds. Massachusetts had bought Maine for a little more than one thousand pounds; then, and long afterwards, colonial property was lightly esteemed; and to the prodigal Charles II., always embarrassed for money, the grant of a province seemed the easiest mode of cancelling the debt. William Penn had powerful friends in North, Halifax, and Sunderland; and a pledge given to his father on his death-bed, obtained for him the assured favor of the duke of York. Sustained by such friends, and pursuing his object with enthusiasm, William Penn triumphed over "the great opposition" which he encountered, and obtained a charter for the territory, which received from Charles II. the name of Pennsylvania, and which was to include three degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware. The duke of York desired to retain the three lower counties, that is, the state of Delaware, as an appendage to New York; Pennsylvania was, therefore, in that direction, limited by a circle drawn at twelve miles' distance from Newcastle, northward and westward, unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of latitude. This impossible boundary received the assent of the agents of the duke of York and Lord Baltimore. The charter, as originally drawn up by William Penn himself, conceded powers of government analogous to those of the charter for Maryland. That no House of Representatives in Penn- 1 Penn, in Memoirs of Pennsylvania Historical Society, i. 244. 2 Ibid. i. 205. XVI Jan. clause might be at variance with English law, it was CHAP. revised by the attorney-general, and amended by Lord North, who inserted clauses to guard the sovereignty 1681 of the king and the commercial supremacy of parliament. The acts of the future colonial legislature were to be submitted to the king and council, who had power to annul them if contrary to English law. The power of levying customs was expressly reserved to parliament. The bishop of London, quite unnecessarily, claimed security for the English church. The people of the country were to be safe against taxation, except by the provincial assembly or the English parliament. In other respects the usual franchises of a feudal proprietary were conceded. Mar. 5. At length, writes William Penn, "After many wait- 1681. ings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in council, my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England. God will bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care of the government, that it be well laid at first." Pennsylvania included the principal settlements of the Swedes; and patents for land had been made to Dutch and English by the Dutch West India Company, and afterwards by the duke of York. The royal proclamation soon announced to all the inhabitants of April the province, that William Penn, their absolute proprietary, was invested with all powers and preeminences necessary for the government. The proprietary also issued his proclamation to his vassals and subjects. It was in the following words : "MY FRIENDS: I wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These are to lett you know, that it hath pleased God in his Providence to cast you within my Lott and Care. It is a business, that though I never 2. |