Hannah F. Gould.
The children of the forest were touched by the sacred doctrine which the "Quaker king" avowed. They received the presents of Penn in sincerity, and in hearty friendship they gave the belt of wampum. "'We will live,' said they, 'in love with William Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure.'"
Thus was established the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, its foundations laid deep and broad upon the sacred rules of truth and justice, the cardinal principles of the Quakers, who formed the prime element of the new state. That sect stood out in bold relief as exemplars of moral purity in an age and among a people eminently licentious. The court, the fountain-head of example, was wholly impure in morals, skeptical in religion, and unscrupulous in politics. Unlike the other Puritan sects, which gave royalty so much trouble, the Quakers taught morality more by example than by precept; yet they were ever bold in the
* This monument stands near the intersection of Hanover and Beach Streets, Kensington, on the spot where the celebrated Treaty Tree stood. The tree was blown down in 1810, when it was ascertained to be 283 years old. When the British were in possession of Philadelphia, during the winter of 1778, their foraging parties were out in every direction for fuel. To protect this tree from the ax, Colonel Simcoe, of the Queen's Rangers, placed a sentinel under it. Of its remains, many chairs, vases, work-stands, and other articles have been made. The commemorative monument was erected by the Penn Soeiety. Upon it are the following inscriptions: North side.—"Treaty ground of William Penn and the Indian nation, 1682. Unbroken Faith." South side.—"William Penn, born 1644. Died, 1718." West side.—"Placed by the Penn Soeiety, A.D. 1827, to mark the site of the great Elm Tree." East side.—"Pennsylvania founded, 1681, by deeds of Peace."
Character and Influence of the Quakers.—-Founding of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth, and of the City of Philadelphia.
avowal of their principles. Their benevolence was as extensive as the round world; their plans designed no less than the establishment of universal religion. No station was too exalted for their faithfulness to reach. George Fox spoke boldly, face to face, to the king, as did Paul before Agrippa; and he did not fail to catechise, by letter, even Pope Innocent XI. No station was too low for their paternal care, and no instrument too humble to be made useful as a preacher of righteousness. "Plowmen and milk-maids, becoming itinerant preachers, sounded the alarm throughout the world, and appealed to the consciences of Puritans and Cavaliers, of the pope and the Grand Turk, of the negro and the savage. Their apostles made their way to Rome and Jerusalem, to New England and Egypt; and some were even moved to go toward China and Japan in search of the unknown realms of Prester John." * Democracy, in its largest sense, was their political creed. "We lay a foundation," said Penn, "for after ages to understand their liberty as Christians and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent; for we put the power in the people." With such views he framed his government; with the simplicity of honest truth and love he made the treaty with the Indians. This treaty was not confirmed by oath, nor ratified by signatures and seals; no written records were made, "and its terms and conditions had no abiding monuments but on the heart. There they were written like the laws of God, and were never forgotten." ** Kindness was more powerful in subduing than the sword, and justice had greater weight with the Indian warrior than gunpowder. "New England had just terminated a disastrous war of extermination; the Dutch were scarcely ever at peace with the Algonquins; the laws of Maryland refer to Indian hostilities and massacres which extended as far as Richmond. 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." *** They themselves were conscious of the power of rectitude. "We have done better," they said, in the Planter's Speech, in 1684, "than if, with the proud Spaniards, we had gained the mines of Potosi. We may make the ambitious heroes whom the world admires blush for their shameful victories. To the poor dark souls round about us we teach their rights as men."
Near the close of 1682 Penn purchased lands lying between the Delaware and the Schuylkill, at their confluence, for the purpose of founding a capital city. Already the Swedes had built a church there; **** and the situation was "not surpassed," in the estimation of Penn, "by one among all the many places he had seen in the world." With great joy and brilliant hopes they marked the boundaries of streets on the trunks of the chestnut, maple, ash, and walnut trees of the original forest, and gave them names derived from these natural landmarks. They called the city Philadelphia—brotherly love—and with unexampled rapidity the forest disappeared, and pleasant houses uprose upon the "virgin Elysian shore." In March, 1683, the second Assembly of the province convened in the infant city, and, at the suggestion of Penn, the original "form of government" was so amended, that the "charter of liberties" signed by him at that time rendered the government of Pennsylvania, August, 1684 all but in name, a representative democracy. Penn soon afterward returned to England, having first appointed five commissioners, with Thomas Loyd as president, to administer his government during his absence. Every thing went on prosperously, and nothing occurred to disturb the quiet of the new state until 1691, when the "three lower
* Bancroft, ii., 337.
** Ibid., ii., 382.
*** Ibid., ii., 383.