Nearly to the same date as this naturalization act belongs a letter written from Philadelphia, in 1730, by the Rev. Jedediah Andrews.
Mr. Andrews says, in substance, “There are in this province a vast number of Palatines; those that have come of late years are mostly Reformed. The first-comers, though called Palatines, are mostly Switzers, many of whom are wealthy, having got the best land in the province. They live sixty or seventy miles off, but come frequently to town with their wagons laden with skins belonging to the Indian traders, with butter, flour, etc.”[32]
Mr. Andrews, in his letter, while speaking of the Switzers, continues: “There are many Lutherans and some Reformed mixed among them.... Though there be so many sorts of religion going on, we don’t quarrel about it. We not only live peaceably, but seem to love one another.”
This harmony among the multitudinous sects in Pennsylvania must have been the more remarkable to Mr. Andrews from his having been born and educated in Massachusetts, where a very different state of affairs had prevailed; and on this subject Rupp says, “The descendants of the Puritans boast that their ancestors fled from persecution, willing to encounter perils in the wilderness, and perils by the heathen, rather than be deprived of the free exercise of their religion. The descendants of the Swiss Mennonites in Lancaster County claim that while their ancestors sought for the same liberty, they did not persecute others who differed from them in religious opinion.”[33]
The letter of Mr. Andrews, above quoted, bears date 1730. Twelve years after, or in 1742, a respectable number of the Amish (pronounced Ommish) of Lancaster County petitioned the General Assembly that a special law of naturalization might be passed for their benefit. They stated that they had emigrated from Europe by an invitation from the proprietaries; that they had been brought up in and were attached to the Amish doctrine, and were conscientiously scrupulous against taking oaths; “they therefore cannot be naturalized agreeably to the existing law.” An act was passed in conformity to their request. (I give this statement as I find it, although somewhat surprised if the laws of Pennsylvania did not always allow those to affirm who were conscientiously opposed to oaths.)
The history of our Swiss Exiles is nearly finished. It is chiefly when a nation is in adversity that its history is interesting to us. What is there to tell of a well-to-do farming population, who do not participate in battles, and who live almost entirely secluded from public affairs?[34]
Under the date 1754 it is noted that Governor Pownall, travelling in Lancaster County, says, “I saw the finest farm one can possibly conceive, in the highest culture; it belongs to a Switzer.” Thus Gray’s lines (slightly altered) may be said to comprise most of the external history of this people for a century and a half:
“Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe hath broke;
How early did they drive their team a-field,