** The parting message of Governor Penn to the Assembly is a pattern of brevity, and might be studied with profit by some of our chief magistrates. It was communicated just before his departure for England, and was as follows: "10th month, 15th, 1708. "Friends,—Your union is what I desire; but your peace and accommodating one another is what I must expect from you; the reputation of it is something—the reality much more. I desire you to remember and observe what I say. Yield in circumstances to preserve essentials; and being safe in one another, you will always be so in esteem with me. Make me not sad now I am going to leave you; since it is for you, as well as for your friend, and proprietor, and governor, William Penn."
** Just before leaving, Penn granted a city charter to Philadelphia, and Edward Shippen was appointed the first mayor. He appointed Andrew Hamilton, of New Jersey, lieutenant governor of his province, and James Logan secretary.
Penn's Successors hostile to the Indians.—Popular Feeling against the Proprietaries.—Dr. Franklin.
continued to administer the government—by deputies, most of the time—until the Revolution. The commonwealth of Pennsylvania then purchased all their interest in the province for five hundred and eighty thousand dollars. *
It would be a pleasant and profitable task to trace the history of Pennsylvania in detail, from the period of Penn's death to the commencement of the war for independence, but our plan and limits forbid it. Having taken a general view of the settlement and establishment of the province, we must be content with a consideration of leading events bearing directly upon the Revolutionary struggle.
John, a grandson of William Penn, and son of Richard, then one of the proprietors living in England, was lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania when the Stamp Act and kindred measures of government stirred up a rebellious spirit in the colonies. The province was then engaged in hostilities with the Delawares, Shawanese, and Seneca Indians, who were committing dreadful atrocities on the western frontier. It seemed necessary for Governor Penn to assume the attitude of an enemy toward the people with whom his grandfather lived so affectionately; and it is painful to contemplate the fact that he offered, by proclamation, in the city of Philadelphia, a bounty for the capture of Indians or their scalps! ** The war was successful; and in the autumn of 1764 the Hostile July 1764 Indians sued for peace.
Internal commotions now became more frequent, and ominous of political disruption. For years the province had been agitated by quarrels between the Assembly and the proprietors on the subject of prerogatives. The popular mind was led by Dr. Franklin and his associates, who contended that the proprietary estates should be taxed in common with other property. The proprietors, resting upon the privileges of their charter, resisted the measure, and in John Penn they had a powerful, because interested, champion. All hope of a reconciliation through concession being at an end, Franklin and others had previously proposed to petition the king to purchase the jurisdiction of the province from the proprietors, and vest the government directly in the crown. The proposition was favorably considered by the people at large, and the petition was accordingly drawn up by Franklin. It set forth the increasing property, and, as a consequence, the increasing power of the proprietaries, and the danger to be apprehended from the influence of such a power in the state intervening between the crown and the people. This was the first great step toward revolution in Pennsylvania—an attempt to crush feudal power and remove all barriers between the supreme governor and the governed. Many leading men, whose relationship to the proprietaries, and attachment to things made reverend by age, opposed the petition; but the Quakers, whose principles had been set at naught by the successors of William Penn, were in favor of the measure. Several successive Assemblies favored the proposition, and Dr. Franklin November, 1764 was appointed provincial agent to urge the measure before the king. This
* The founder of Pennsylvania, by the expenses incident to the establishment of his government, together with many acts of private benevolence, so impaired his paternal estate as to make it necessary to borrow $30,000, the most of which was secured by a mortgage on his province. This was the commencement of the state debt of Pennsylvania, now amounting to about $40,000,000.
** The bounties were as follows: "For every male above the age of ten years captured, $150; scalped, being killed, $134; for every female Indian enemy, and every male under ten years, captured, $130; for every female above the age of ten years, scalped, $50!
The Stamp Act.—Spirit of the People.—Party Rancor.—Franklin Lampooned.—William Bradford.