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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY 
 
A HISTORY OF QUAKER GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Volume I : 
 A Quaker Experiment in Government 
 
 J^afactforb lEtiitton 
 
 NON DOCTIOR SED MEHORB DOCTRINA IMBIJTUS 
 
I^a&etfori IBJiition 
 
 A 
 
 History of Quaker Government 
 in Pennsylvania 
 
 Volume I : 
 A Quaker Experiment in Government 
 
 By Isaac Sharpless, LL.D. 
 
 President of Haverford College 
 
 "For my country I eyed the Lord in the obtaining of it, and more 
 was I drawn inward to look to him and to owe it to his hand and power, 
 than to any other way. I have so obtained it and desire that I may 
 not be unworthy of his love and do that which may answer his kind 
 providence and serve his truth and people ; that an example may be set 
 up to the nations ; there may be room there though not here for such a 
 holy experiment." William Penn. 
 
 pijHalielpflfa : 
 S. LEACH & CO., Publishers 
 
 No. 29 North Seventh Street 
 
COPYEIGHT, 1900, BY T. S. LeACH & Co. 
 
TO 
 
 i^atJerforJi College 
 
 FOUNDED AND MAINTAINED BY HEIE8 
 
 OF THE FAITH OF WILLIAM PENN 
 
 TO UPHOLD AND DISSEMINATE THE PEINCIPLES 
 
 OF JUSTICE, PEACE AND LIBERTY 
 
 WHICH FORMED THE FOUNDATION OF 
 
 THE HOLY EXPERIMENT 
 
 tfjese faolumes are tnscribrt. 
 
PREFACE TO THE HAVERFORD 
 EDITION. 
 
 Aee the principles of William Penn practical? 
 Can a government be conducted in accord with 
 them? These questions have been discussed in 
 periodical literature and in private letters as an 
 outcome of the publication of this book. 
 
 If the manifest success of Pennsylvania for 
 three-quarters of a century is pointed to, is it fair 
 to attribute it to its principles of government? 
 Were there not other determining factors vphich 
 would have brought about peace, prosperity and 
 happiness under the governmental conditions 
 prevailing in any of the colonies? 
 
 E"o part of Penn's policy has been more 
 eulogized than his treatment of the Indians. It 
 must be admitted, as shown in the following 
 pages, that the mere fact of purchase did not. 
 separate his management from that of other lead- 
 ers of colonies. The purchase of Indian titles 
 was a common event, and the most of the ground 
 of the provinces was secured in this way. It was 
 the fairness of all Penn's transactions, leaving 
 
viii Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 ever after a pleasant savor in the native memory, 
 which, "was the characteristic of his deal- 
 ings. He explained the contract in full, he met 
 every objection, he was more than liberal in the 
 purchase of every claim which had any show of 
 justice, he was always open and honest, and in 
 after years not a shred of sharp practice could be 
 brought up, or was brought up, by any Indian 
 against him. 
 
 Was this the cause of Indian peace on the 
 colonial frontier? Parkham says, sceptically: 
 " Had the Quakers planted their settlement on 
 the banks of the St. Lawrence, or among the war- 
 like tribes of New England, it may well be 
 doubted whether their shaking of hands and as- 
 surances of tender regard would long have 
 availed to save them from the visitations of the 
 scalping-knife." John Eiske more recently 
 adopts the same view. While giving full credit 
 to the enlightened policy of Penn, he adds: 
 " Nevertheless, it seems to me quite clear that in 
 the long peace enjoyed by Pennsylvania the con- 
 trolling factor was not Quaker justice but Indian 
 politics." 
 
 The opinions of such careful students are 
 worthy of all consideration. The historical 
 causes of any event are often so complicated that 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. ix 
 
 there are abundant opportunities for speculation 
 as to which one among many produced it. We 
 may readily admit that the circumstances were 
 peculiarly favorable for Penn's Experiment. 
 His colony was practically secure from French 
 attack by sea. It did not touch the Erench pos- 
 sessions in Canada. There were friendly prov- 
 inces north and east and south of it. Its Indians 
 were in a state of semi-vassalage to the Iroquois, 
 and were living, not contentedly, perhaps, but 
 actually, under the imputation of being 
 " women." 
 
 Whether these conditions would have secured 
 peace without the addition of " Quaker justice " 
 is a matter upon which opinions may properly 
 differ. Also whether " Quaker justice " would 
 have triumphed under less favorable conditions 
 — if, for instance, Penn had secured a grant in 
 New England — is a problem admitting of 
 various answers. 
 
 The most reasonable seems to me to be an affir- 
 mative answer. The Indian qualities were those 
 of savages. Their treachery and cruelty to ene- 
 mies were extreme, but the general testimony is 
 that they were faithful in their friendship. So 
 say Heckewelder and Zeisberger, who lived with 
 them and knew them well from the standpoint of 
 
X Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 missionaries; so ako says General W. H. Har- 
 rison from the standpoint of an Indian fighter: 
 "A long and intimate knowledge of them in 
 peace and war, as enemies and friends, has left 
 upon my mind the most favorable impressions of 
 their character for bravery, generosity, and fidel- 
 ity to their engagements." 
 
 Indians, like white men in war, did not con- 
 sider the guilt of the individual, but attacked 
 without discrimination all members of the oppos- 
 ing party. When the war paint was on, and the 
 red tomahawk was tmsheathed, every white 
 was an enemy, though even then Indians have 
 again and again discriminated in favor of a 
 friend. They acknowledged no international 
 laws shielding non-combatants, and their warfare 
 was extreme in its barbarity, and vdthout respect 
 of persons. When, however, they were unpro- 
 voked, when they had been treated with fairness 
 and kindness, and had not exhausted the ordinary 
 resources of their diplomacy, when according to 
 their code they were still friends and allies, they 
 were faithful to their engagements, and war ar- 
 guments were used upon them in vain. Tradi- 
 tions, as binding with them as the written 
 treaties of the whites, carried down from genera- 
 tion to generation the sacredness of the ties of 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xi 
 
 friendsliip. " In commemoration of these con- 
 ferences (with William Penn)," says Hecke- 
 welder, " they frequently assembled together in 
 the woods in some shady spot, as near as possible 
 similar to those where they used to meet their 
 brother Mignon, and there laid all his ' words ' 
 or speeches with those of his descendants on a 
 blanket or clean piece of bark, and with great 
 satisfaction went successively over the whole. 
 This practice (which I have frequently wit- 
 nessed) continued until the year 1780, when the 
 disturbances which then took place put an end 
 to it, probably forever." 
 
 Every piece of wampimi stood imperishably 
 for a certain transaction. Again and again its 
 associations were rehearsed in the presence of the 
 young braves, and they were exhorted to be faith- 
 ful to the obligations their elder brethren had 
 taken upon themselves. IvTothing would relieve 
 them except such violent treatment as would 
 break its sacred validity. 
 
 It seems, therefore, not at all certain that the 
 bonds of gratitude, friendship and fidelity to en- 
 gagements would not have been sufficient to have 
 kept the Indians friendly, in the face of inter- 
 necine wars and French intrigue, had the whites 
 
xii Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 everywhere shown the uprightness of William 
 Penn and his friends. 
 
 The French, who treated them better than the 
 English, had hut little cause to complain of the 
 faithlessness of their allies, and the Iroquois, who 
 were '' robbed by land-speculators, cheated by 
 traders, and feebly supported in their constant 
 wars with the French," * were yet staunch in 
 their loyalty to the Dutch, and their successors, 
 the English. If stress is laid upon the fact that 
 the Pennsylvania Indians were "women," it 
 must be remembered that no warriors were more 
 fearless or cruel when the " Walking Purchase " 
 and other knaveries had in their minds canceled 
 their obligations to the provincial government. 
 They were the fiercest of the border ruffians, and 
 brought their old enemies and feudal lords to 
 terms. 
 
 It is more difficult to see how wars between 
 civilized nations would always have been averted 
 by fairness and justice. Gratitude is not an in- 
 ternational virtue as it is a virtue of Indian tribes. 
 Within a quarter of a century after France's in- 
 calculable service to us in the Revolution we 
 were quite ready to fight her, and it is not cer- 
 
 ' Parkman, "A Half Century of Conflict," page 8. 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xiii 
 
 tain that " had the Quakers planted their settle- 
 ment on the banks of the St. Lawrence " they 
 would have been secure from French attack, even 
 had their own conduct been perfect. It is, of 
 course, vain to expect peace when enemies have 
 been exasperated and over-reached to the point 
 of fighting. You cannot apply Quaker policy 
 in the midst of grossly imperfect and abnormal 
 conditions. As well might one expect a chemi- 
 cal experiment to yield satisfactory results, if the 
 materials were impure or the scales unreliable. 
 The best one can do is to show that with every 
 approximation to the principles of Penn wars 
 have diminished in frequency and consequence. 
 It was the opinion of John Eright that every 
 English war of his day might have been honor- 
 ably avoided, and General Grant is credited with 
 the same sentiment. 
 
 In the second volume of this set the course of 
 the Quakers during the Revolutionary War is de- 
 tailed. They had been friends of liberty, and 
 their early history had shown their capacity to 
 gain their points by persistent suffering for con- 
 science' sake. It was their idea that a similar 
 course of remonstrance, resistance which did not 
 involve the use of arms, and absolute refusal to 
 obey any law which struck at their consciences, 
 
xiv Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 would have sufficed to cause a repeal of the 
 offending edicts. So they joined in the non- 
 importation agreement and other defensive 
 movements -which preceded the passionate appeals 
 for independence and war. Finding the nation 
 was not with them, they withdrew from the con- 
 test, and were soundly abused for their neu- 
 trality. 
 
 It cannot be other than a matter of speculation 
 as to what would have been the result had 
 Quaker policy controlled the provinces for a score 
 of years following 1765, when the Stamp Act was 
 passed. There would have been no war; very 
 likely at that time there would have been no 
 declaration of independence; there would have 
 been a persistent refusal to pay objectionable 
 taxes and a determined and concerted effort to 
 bring England to grant justice by measures 
 which would have appealed to the pockets, the 
 consciences and the political motives of English- 
 men. Had these been unsuccessful, and an 
 army been sent to America, still the resistance 
 would have continued. Many people might have 
 gone to jail, and perhaps some would have been 
 martyred. But would there have been as many 
 lives lost as were sacrificed by the Eevolutionary 
 War? "Would the contest have even lasted for 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xv 
 
 seven years? Would America, had she desired 
 it, have failed to secure her iadependence? 
 "Would England have year after year hounded 
 and killed innocent men of conscientious convic- 
 tions rather than grant reasonable demands — in- 
 dependence or otherwise? ISTo English ministry 
 could have lived on such a policy. Separation 
 might have been delayed, but when demanded 
 by the united voice of America it must have 
 come, just as it would in Canada to-day. One 
 hundred years of bitterness would have been 
 averted, and the Anglo-Saxon race have marched 
 on unitedly to its moral conquests. 
 
 Nor is it altogether an unreasonable thought 
 that if the Quaker anti-slavery policy had been 
 adopted the Civil War might have been avoided. 
 It had other causes. Sectionalism might have 
 precipitated discordant interests into armed con- 
 flict had the nation not been " half -slave, half- 
 free." But the most obvious and most potent 
 of the differences which brought on the war 
 would have been removed had the nation at large 
 listened to the earnest appeals of their Quaker 
 brethren of New England, Philadelphia and 
 ilTorth Carolina, and freed their negroes. The 
 removal of one evil averts many another. 
 
 These considerations will have but little 
 
xvi Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 ■weight with those who consider war as inherently 
 beneficial, as a relief from commercialism and 
 selfishness, and as developing "the strenuous 
 life." But others regard it as an evil, an evil 
 perhaps necessary at times, but always to be 
 avoided if possible. They see in it " a suspen- 
 sion of the principles of morality," and a sanc- 
 tion of killing, stealing, lying and every other 
 crime. To these it is no slight encouragement 
 that a successful contest with any moral evil re- 
 moves many of the dangers of every other, and 
 that war, most intractable of all, may be indi- 
 rectly reduced at last by cutting off its provisions 
 and its allies. In this manly contest, which 
 opens every opportunity for heroism and strenu- 
 ous, unselfish exertion, each victory gained makes 
 every succeeding one more easy. The triumph 
 will not alone come by arbitration and education, 
 but also by courageous suffering. 
 
 We may well honor the warriors who at the 
 call of duty suffered the agony of battle and the 
 dreary stress of camp life. Their motives en- 
 nobled them, and a grateful nation should not 
 forget them. But when the history of moral 
 progress shall be written, after wars shall be no 
 more, something will also be said for the no less 
 noble men who, from motives as pure, went to 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xvii- 
 
 obloquy and persecution, to prison and death, 
 rather than touch a weapon against which their 
 consciences protested. Who have served their 
 country best only the future can decide. 
 
 The religious liberty which Penn granted in 
 full measure to his colonists was perhaps as much 
 an experiment in 1682 as the doctrine of peace. 
 The country soon grew up to it, and by Revolu- 
 tionary times was willing to engraft it into its 
 fundamental constitution. So accustomed are 
 we to conceding it as an undisputed principle of 
 government that we forget the stress of the days 
 of the seventeenth century. It was a principle 
 just bom. The first English tract demandiug 
 toleration was issued in Amsterdam by Anabap- 
 tists, in 1611, and received but scant attention; 
 and this persecuted sect (the Baptists, as they 
 were afterwards called) has the honor of being 
 pioneers in demanding for all the liberty which 
 now all enjoy. In 1644 Roger Williams went 
 a second time to America, and carried with him 
 his charter of Rhode Island, which granted him 
 the authority to enact religious liberty there. 
 He left behind him in England his " Bloody 
 Tenent of Persecution for the Cause of Con- 
 science," a kindly and broad-minded enuncia- 
 tion of the doctrine of wide toleration. But 
 
xviii Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Rhode Island, to -which he honestly applied his 
 theories, was a mere handful of people, and the 
 results did not seem final. The Independents, 
 many of them, preached toleration more or less 
 limited. With some, outrageous heresies were 
 to be rebuked by the civil arm; with many of 
 them, one church was to be favored, and the 
 others tolerated with diminished privileges; while 
 with many others it was the duty of the state, 
 as in New England, to permit the saints only to 
 have any part in government. Even the Tolera- 
 tion Act of William III., liberal beyond all that 
 England had seen, excluded dissenters from 
 office, from juries and from the universities. It 
 granted simply freedom of worship, and this boon 
 was received with thankfulness. The argument 
 from which most excellent Christians could not 
 escape was that the inerrant Bible, the 
 " Word of God," announced principles of gov- 
 ernment as well as theology and morals, that 
 truth was unchanging, and toleration of error 
 was compromise with evil. Above all 
 " The Scarlet Woman," the political and reli- 
 gious enemy of England, should never be toler- 
 ated. In the meantime this same objectionable 
 church was giving religious liberty to all classes 
 of Protestants in Maryland. 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xix 
 
 While, therefore, broad views of toleration, 
 perfect equality of all denominations in civil 
 matters and perfect freedom of worship, were not 
 iirst announced or even first practised by Penn, 
 they were still regarded as chimerical by the most 
 thoughtful men of the time. The trial in Ehode 
 Island and Maryland did not seem conclusive — 
 in the former by reason of its small size, and in 
 the latter because it was charged that Catholics 
 permitted it as the only way to secure freedom to 
 themselves. The risk was great, and nothing but 
 Penn's faith in his theory could justify him in 
 the attempt. 
 
 The same can be said with regard to civil lib- 
 erty. "We put the power in the people," said 
 Penn; and solid observers predicted confusion, 
 if not anarchy. It was no small hazard in the 
 days when a republican in England was looked 
 upon as a traitor, and when a century mu^t inter- 
 vene before the Prench Eevolution would rudely 
 awaken the continent to a sense of the value of 
 the individual man. We have found that liberty 
 is its own best preservative; that the cure for its 
 evils is often greater liberty; and that nothing 
 else could hold together our enormous and com- 
 plicated nation. Penn saw this with the eye of 
 faith, but it had never been worked out. He was 
 
XX Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 willmg to jeopard his life, his fortune, the repu- 
 tation of his religious Society (more to him than 
 either life or fortune) on the experiinent. The 
 courage and clear sight involved in this decision 
 cannot be too highly appreciated. 
 
 On these subjects his justification came speed- 
 ily. It was seen within a half century not only 
 that there would not be anarchy and confusion, 
 but also that liberty was consistent with and even 
 indispensable to the highest prosperity. The 
 words of one, not a Friend, Andrew Hamilton, 
 for a long time Speaker of the Assembly, than 
 whom no man of his time was more respected, ex- 
 presses the concurrent testimony of all unpreju- 
 diced observers. In 1Y39, at the close of about 
 thirty years of unprecedented prosperity and 
 peace, he declared that these were not due to the 
 fertility of the soil or the great rivers or other 
 natural advantages, but that " the growth in pop- 
 ulation, wealth and trade is principally and almost 
 wholly owing to the excellency of our constitu- 
 tion under which we enjoy a greater share both 
 of civil and religious liberty than any of our 
 neighbors." Then after reciting its points of 
 merit he adds : " This is our constitution, and this 
 constitution was framed by the wisdom of Mr. 
 Penn." A few decades later these same ideas 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xxi 
 
 were engrafted into the foundation principles of 
 the new nation, and have never been questioned 
 in America since. Peace is coming more slowly, 
 but the easy triumph of liberty will give courage 
 to believe in the ultimate triumph of the other 
 principles of the first constitution of Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 Other Quaker testimonies of perhaps less gen- 
 eral import have become acknowledged principles 
 of civilization. As early as 1716 the Friends 
 cautioned their members to avoid lotteries. Soon 
 they became a subject of annual inquiry, and 
 those who indulged came under the censure of 
 the meeting. As the Revolution approached, 
 and various un-Friendly customs were introduced 
 to their capital city, a general exhortation was 
 issued to all their members to avoid, among 
 others, "this unjust and dishonorable practice." 
 If they do " promote or encourage such means of 
 obtaining unjust gain " they are to be finally 
 " disowned " by the body. 
 
 It was after the war, and especially in the pros- 
 perous times following the adoption of the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, that the ubiquity of lotteries 
 was most conspicuous. " There was a wheel in 
 every city and in every town large enough to 
 boast of a court-house or a jail." * All improve- 
 
 * McMaster. 
 
xxii Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 ments were made by tteir means — school houses, 
 public offices, bridges and roads, churches and 
 colleges. The University of Pennsylvania and 
 Princeton College had their lotteries in Philadel- 
 phia. The development of the Pederal Capital 
 was promoted by huge national lotteries. Many 
 a church edifice owes its origin to them. It is 
 true there were some protests. It was claimed 
 that artisans were drawn from their work and 
 steady habits by the enticements of the wheel; 
 that many a home was demoralized, and that for 
 one person who seemed to prosper a dozen were 
 sunk into poverty. Yet the sanction of great 
 names, and the tangible effects in enterprises ac- 
 complished, continued to justify their use, and it 
 was well into the present century before states 
 began to make prohibitory laws. Now they are 
 forbidden in every part of the Union, and the 
 Federal mails are closed against them. 
 
 From all this the Friends escaped. ISTo meet- 
 ing or school of theirs was ever the result of the 
 proceeds of lotteries. It might also be said that 
 individually they were clear of participation in 
 them. For the annual inquiry was rigid and 
 honest, and the ticket purchaser must have kept 
 his transactions very secret if his cause was not 
 taken up by the monthly meeting. 
 
Preface to the Raverford Edition. xxiii 
 
 The long standing contest against oaths is 
 given in these pages. The original idea that all 
 oaths should be forbidden in the Province had 
 to be given up out of deference to the views of 
 those who considered them essential. So the 
 expedient of making them optional came in, and 
 is now general. The only hardship resulting is 
 that those who have a conscience against them 
 cannot hold an oiHce the duties of which include 
 administering them. 
 
 But while most people seem to be satisfied 
 vpith this liberty of choice, indications are not 
 lacking that the civilized world will come to the 
 original position of Penn and his associates. 
 
 Milton says that the nature of an oath consists 
 in " calling God to witness the truth of what we 
 say with a curse upon ourselves either im- 
 plied or expressed should it prove false." The 
 imprecatory clause is the final one, " So help 
 me God." This means, not a prayer to God to 
 aid me in speaking the truth, but a renunciation 
 of God's pardon and help in the day of judgment 
 if the truth is not spoken (or the deed per- 
 formed). In the multiplicity of cases in which 
 an oath or its equivalent is taken in judicial pro- 
 cedure and business life, this awful curse is called 
 for unthinkingly and irreverently on trifling oc- 
 
xxiv Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 casions. The habit of careless swearing is thus 
 begotten, and the oath, by breaking down the 
 taker's sense of reverence for truth, becomes an 
 aid to false statements rather than the reverse. 
 No one assumes that an affirmation is less bind- 
 ing than an oath, provided the same penalties 
 are attached to violation. The imprecation is, 
 therefore, not necessary to secure fidelity, and 
 the whole mass of procedure based on its enforce- 
 ment of the veracity or faithfulness of the wit- 
 ness or official seems unnecessary. Any refer- 
 ence to God may also be objected to on the 
 ground of the inexpediency of using lightly the 
 name of the Deity. There are, besides, perfectly 
 veracious agnostics whose testimony has been ex- 
 cluded because they are unwilling to state cate- 
 gorically that they believe in God. The safe and 
 easy rule would be to require a simple affirmation 
 or declaration in every case, affixing to falsehood 
 the penalties now attached to perjury. 
 
 Constitutional difficulties stand in the way of 
 this radical change in some States, but as a step 
 towards it the law enacted in Maryland,* in 
 
 * This laTT Tras passed largely tbrough the exertions of 
 Benjamin P. Moorej a Friend and member of the Baltimore 
 Bar. The first bill was presented to the Maryland Legisla- 
 ture in 1884, and was accompanied by a petition signed by 
 
Preface to the Haverford Hdition. xxv 
 
 1898, is suggestive and valuable. " The form of 
 oath to be taken or administered in this State 
 shall be as follows : ' In the presence of Almighty 
 God I do solemnly promise (or declare), 'etc., 
 and it shall not be lawful to add to the oath, ' So 
 help me God,' or any imprecatory words what- 
 ever. 
 
 " The manner of administering an oath shall 
 be by requiring the person taking the same to 
 hold up his hand in token of his recognition of 
 the solemnity of the act, except in those cases 
 where this is not practicable, or when it shall ap- 
 pear that some other form is more binding upon 
 the conscience of the swearer." 
 
 This is hardly an oath at all in the common 
 definition of the word. It is practically the 
 form of afiirmation used in Pennsylvania be- 
 tween 1693 and 1725, and while there was dif- 
 ference of opinion among Friends about it, the 
 
 three-fourths of the oldest and most influential members of 
 the Baltimore Bar. This is interesting, as showing the 
 readiness of lawyers in general to take the step. By fol- 
 lowing the matter up persistently for fourteen years, seeing 
 it in that time repeatedly pass one house and fail in 
 the other, the result was finally reached. It was the ex- 
 perience of this earnest advocate that whenever an oppor- 
 tunity was offered to explain the matter in full detail, » 
 committee of the Legislature was convinced of the utility 
 of the change. 
 
xxvi Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 yearly meeting would go no further than to ad- 
 vise charity in the judgment of those who took 
 or refused to take it.* 
 
 The same intelligence and persistence which 
 brought about this result in Maryland would 
 probably be similarly rewarded in most of the 
 other States, and public sentiment is ripening for 
 the conclusion, whatever construction is put upon 
 the words, " Swear not at all," that oaths are 
 unnecessary and prejudicial, and should be abol- 
 ished. 
 
 The unsolved problem of drinking and the 
 saloon was a problem in William Penn's day. 
 His first impulse was to abolish the public house 
 for the sale of liquor altogether, aijd so he pro- 
 posed in his first constitution. This was a dar- 
 ing thought for that day, and he gave it up. 
 Why — we shall probably never know. Instead 
 he made an effort to secure moral tavern-keepers 
 by a licensing arrangement, a process which we 
 are still attempting. There were no total ab- 
 stainers, but drunkenness in the red man and the 
 white was a civil and ecclesiastical offence. The 
 Assembly tried to give it a severe penalty in the 
 case of an oiEce-holder, but Governor Fletcher 
 vetoed the act " for taking a cup too much," as 
 he indignantly called it. The Assembly, how- 
 
 * Pee page 143, I. 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition, xxvii 
 
 ever, was convinced that frequent drunkenness 
 incapacitated a man for his civic duties, and re- 
 turned to the matter in various ways. 
 
 The meetings, with no one to veto their acts, 
 were more effective. Beginning with 1706 the 
 yearly meeting " advised that none accustom 
 themselves to vain and idle company, sipping and 
 tippling of drams and strong drink in inns or 
 elsewhere." The close relation between meet- 
 ing and Assembly is shown by the fact that a 
 minute of 1726 becomes the text of a preamble 
 to a law in 1751. One can trace a gradual 
 growth of sentiment outlined in yearly meeting 
 minutes and monthly meeting procedure, first 
 against excessive use of distilled liquors, then 
 against the habitual use of them, then against 
 any use of intoxicants. While exceedingly ten- 
 der and forgiving towards delinquents, and some 
 of these were their own trusted ministers of the 
 Gospel, they were growing towards the position 
 of total abstinence. In time they largely solved 
 the problem for their own body, but for the State 
 at large they simply furnished one among many 
 evidences that the demoralization wrought by 
 strong drink cannot be effectively stayed among 
 aggregations of men by any legal remedies yet 
 devised, or by any moral influences yet at hand. 
 
xxpiii Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 It is suggested in the succeeding pages that 
 the non-establishment of an institution for higher 
 learning in very early times was an error for the 
 Province and the religious Society vfhich con- 
 trolled it. A Quaker college, managed as a 
 Quaker college would have been managed La 
 those days, on liberal, undenominational lines, 
 would have sent out a stream of men of broad 
 grasp which the colony often needed. Perm ad- 
 vised his wife concerning his children: "For 
 their learning be liberal; for by parsimony all is 
 lost that is saved." It is possible he would have 
 advised the same for the children of others, and 
 that his " Public School " was intended to de- 
 velop into a college. But the second and suc- 
 ceeding generations were less well educated, and 
 the collegiate idea, if it ever existed, went into 
 the background. However, their school was in- 
 tended to solve the problem of universal educa- 
 tion. The central institution, on Pourth Street 
 below Chestniit, was classical, and a good charge 
 was made for tuition. Branches, of which there 
 came to be as many as fourteen, were lower in 
 cost and in scholastic standard, and some were 
 free. They educated both sexes, and nothing 
 was needed but a general extension of the system 
 to solve the problem of primary and secondary 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. xxix 
 
 education. When the school -which afterwards de- 
 veloped into the University of Pennsylvania was 
 started, about 1*749, it was built on the same model 
 — a central classical institute with branches, 
 " charitable schools," throughout the city. Had 
 the collegiate idea been connected with the 
 earlier institution, as it afterwards was with the 
 later, history would have been written different- 
 ly, and the Quaker Experiment in Government 
 might have been a longer and more potential 
 illustration. 
 
 The school with branches was, however, doing 
 its work, and when after the Eevolution the prob- 
 lem of general education was seriously taken up 
 by the State, it was on the model of Penn's Char- 
 ter and Franklin's early attempt. Academies 
 were subsidised in the centers of population, and 
 these were encouraged to develop groups of 
 primary schools around them. The plan was 
 finally abandoned to make room for the more sys^ 
 tematic and comprehensive scheme of public 
 schools enacted in 1834. 
 
 In the management of penal and charitable in-- 
 stitutions the Friends were more successful. 
 Their early idea was that eveiy prison should be 
 a work shop, and that one important object of 
 punishment should be the reformation of the of- 
 
■yyy Quaker Government in Pennsylvania. 
 
 fender. It was the fruition of this idea which 
 directly led the way to the Eastern Penitentiary, 
 in its best days a model for the world. It is also 
 largely due to them that the first hospital of 
 America, the Pennsylvania Hospital, has run its 
 successful career. It may not be as stimulating a 
 work to look after crime and disease as to avert 
 them, but it is a work which must be done, and 
 the intelligent thought and seK-sacrificing effort 
 given to these Philadelphia institutions are 
 worthy of all commendation. 
 
 If, therefore, the standard of Penn and his 
 friends has not, even after two centuries, been 
 reached in every particular, enough has been ac- 
 complished to show not only its abstract right- 
 eousness, but also its availability to practical gov- 
 ernment. Some of the principles we have built 
 into our political edifice, and we cease to question 
 their place there. To some we do the homage of 
 asserting their applicability to the purer condi- 
 tions of the future, too timid to do what we know 
 to be right, and set them to work now with con- 
 fidence in their inherent vitality. We forget 
 that truth makes its own way if given a chance, 
 and that out of our failures often come the suc- 
 cesses of the future. These successes will never 
 be produced by waiting for better circumstances. 
 
Preface to the Haverford Edition. sxxi 
 
 but they are brought on by Holy Experiments, 
 ■where "with faith and courage right principles are 
 set to work in the midst of a scoffing and perverse 
 generation. 
 
 I. S. 
 
 Haverford College, Pa., 
 1900. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 It is not at all unlikely that this contribution to 
 the early history of Pennsylvania will show a bias 
 towards the habits of thought and action which 
 have characterized the religion of the ancestors of 
 the writer. If so it is unintentional. 
 
 The purpose of the book is to include, with 
 other sources of information, the contemporary 
 Quaker view. This has been gained by a careful 
 examination of Meeting Records and private let- 
 ters of the times, and a fairly intimate personal 
 acquaintance with many who probably repre- 
 sent, in this generation, in their mental and moral 
 characteristics, the " Quaker Governing Class " 
 of the first century of the Province. 
 
 The ordinary public sources of information 
 have, of course, been used; but a dependence on 
 these alone would incur the danger, if not of mis- 
 representing facts, at the best of giving them a 
 wrong coloring. 
 
 While the general ideas of Quakerism were 
 worked out in Penn's Prame of G-ovemment they 
 were not fully manifest in the subsequent history 
 
of the Province, nor even in the acts of the As- 
 sembly, though this body was controlled by 
 Friends until 1756. 
 
 The minutes of the Yearly and other Meetings 
 ■would give a different idea of the political prin- 
 ciples and bias of Friends from that to be gath- 
 ered from the printed proceedings of either the 
 Council or the Legislature, and all should be con- 
 sidered in making up a correct historical judg- 
 ment. 
 
 I. S. 
 
 B.averford College, 
 1898. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 Peepacb to the Havekfokd Edition, . vii 
 
 Preface to the FiEst Volume, . . . xxxiii 
 
 List of Illusteations, . .... xxxvi 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. — Peinciples of Government, 1 
 
 II. — The Quakers in England, . . . 7 
 
 III. — The Quakers in Pennsylvania, . 21 
 
 IV.— Democracy and Civil Liberty, . 47 
 
 V. — Religious Liberty, . :16 
 
 VI.— The Indians, ... 152 
 
 VII. — Military Matters, . . .183 
 
 VIII. — The Last Days of Quaker Control of the 
 
 Assembly, 224 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I. 
 
 Founders' Hall, Havekfokd College, 
 
 Vignette Half -Title. 
 Half-tone, from a photograph,. 
 
 William Penn, . . . . Frontispiece. 
 
 Photogravure, after the original painting in the library 
 of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
 
 OPP. 
 PAGE 
 
 Old Swedes Church, ... ... 20 
 
 Half-tone, from a photograph. 
 
 Caves in the River Bank, .... 28 
 
 Line-engraving, from Watson's Annals. 
 
 Friends^ Almshouse, . . .... 34 
 
 Line-engraving, from Watson's Annals. 
 
 Friends' Meeting-Housh and School, Fourth 
 
 Street below Chestnut, .... 37 
 
 Half-tone, after an old drawing. 
 
 William Penn's Cottage, 67 
 
 Half-tone, after a conjectural restoration of its ancient 
 surroundings, in Watson's Annals. 
 
 Edward Shippen, . . ... 70 
 
 Half-tone, after a painting in the possession of Edward 
 Shippen, Esq., of Philadelphia. 
 
 Edward Shippen's House, 84 
 
 "■^ Line-engraving, from Watson's Annals. 
 
 Stenton, the House op James Logan, . . 85 
 
 Half-tone, from a photograph. 
 
OP p. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Robert Pkoud, .86 
 
 Half-tone, after the original painting. 
 
 Isaac Noeris, 91 
 
 Half-tone, after a painting in the possession of the 
 family of Isaac Norria. 
 
 Haverfoed Meeting-Hotjse, 146 
 
 Half-tone, from a photograph. 
 
 Penn Treaty Montjment, . . . . 152 
 
 Half-tone, from a photograph. 
 
 Penn's Treaty with the Indians, .... 161 
 Half-tone, from an engraving hy Banister, after the 
 painting by Benjamin West. 
 
 Indian Walk Monument, at "Weightstown, Bucks 
 
 COUNTY, Pa., . . . , 172 
 
 Half-tone, from a photograph. 
 
 James Logan, . ... . . 185 
 
 Half-tone, from an engraving in the library of the His- 
 torical Society of Pennsylvania, after an old painting. 
 
 Samuel Caepentee, 193 
 
 Half-tone, after a painting in possession of S. Preston 
 Carpenter, of Salem, New Jersey. 
 
 BUELINGTON MEETING-HOUSE, 1 
 
 Faiehill Meeting-House, J 
 
 Half-tones, from old drawings. 
 
 224 
 
 Old Couet-House, and Feiends' Meeting-House, 
 
 Second and High (now Market ) Streets, . 234 
 
 Half-tone, after a picture in Watson's Annals. 
 
 James Pembeeton, 254 
 
 Line-engraving, from Watson's Annals. 
 
" I went thither to lay the foundation oj a free 
 colony for all mankind. 
 
 WllilAM Pbnn (Letter to James Logan). 
 
a ©uafter experiment in ffiobernment. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PEINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The principles upon wliicii the settlers of 
 Pennsylvania sought to base their government 
 were, — 
 
 1. Perfect democracy. This hardly needs 
 qualification. Por while the governor was non- 
 elective and to some extent thwarted the will 
 of the people, this was probably not the orig- 
 inal intention, but rather an unexpected devel- 
 opment of proprietary rights as construed by 
 unsympathetic heirs of William Penn. 
 
 2. Perfect religious liberty. There was no 
 restriction on the free worship of any orderly 
 sect, and originally no religious test for office 
 except a profession of belief in Jesus Christ. It 
 is not unlikely that this limitation was imposed 
 by English authority or from fear of English 
 veto. 
 
 3. Perfect justice and fairness in dealing with 
 Piborigines and neighbors. Without concern- 
 ing themselves to define the Indian rights in the 
 
2 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 soil, whatever existed were purchased, and all 
 complaints were met by an evident desire to 
 recognize in others the same pereonal privileges 
 they claimed for themselves. 
 
 4. The absence of all military and naval pro- 
 vision for attack and defense. They recognized 
 the necessity for force through police and other 
 agencies in internal disturbance. They would 
 never need any force for attack, because they 
 would never be the aggressors. In the matter of 
 defense there were differences of opinion, and 
 the public acts of the Quaker Assembly may be 
 fairly construed as in some instances inconsistent 
 with their principles. But a careful study of the 
 records of the meetings of Friends, as well as the 
 public records of the government, will probably 
 convince an unprejudiced person that a belief 
 in the impropriety of an armed force was indeed 
 one of their strongly held convictions. 
 
 5. The abolition of Oaths. This did not neces- 
 sarily introduce any difficult principle of gov- 
 ernment. It afforded, however, an excellent op- 
 portunity for English and provincial enemies to 
 harass those in official life, either by requiring 
 them to take oaths themselves or to administer 
 them to others. 
 
 All of these principles had been many times 
 
Principles of Government. 3 
 
 expounded, and some of them practised, before 
 1682. But the collection had not before been 
 tried. It was the legitimate fruit of the religious 
 principles of the Society of Friends, and of the 
 best thought and experience of William Penn. 
 But it was only a " Holy Experiment," — the re- 
 sponsibility was very great, the many chances 
 for failure must have been at least partly fore- 
 seen, and the spectacle of these pioneers mus- 
 tering their confidence in " the Truth," risk- 
 ing their happiness, their fortunes, and the 
 reputation of their religious Society, is one of 
 the exalted scenes of history. The measure of 
 success they achieved deserves, probably, more 
 recognition than it has received. Had they been 
 independent of English control, the experiment 
 would have been more conclusive. The frame of 
 government was examined and perhaps modified 
 by the Ciown, and the royal power was appealed 
 to not infrequently to threaten forfeiture of 
 charter and abridgment of liberty in cases of 
 disagreement. All laws enacted were subject to 
 English veto. English quarrels with France, re- 
 produced in the New World, strained the pacific 
 principles of the Pennsylvania Quakers repeat- 
 edly, and finally broke their control of govern- 
 ment. The consent of the governed retained 
 
4 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 these principles in power for a haK century after 
 the sect which embodied them most conspic- 
 uously was in a minority, and would have re- 
 tained them we know not how much longer, 
 could that consent alone have determined the 
 question. It was the power of the English gov- 
 ernment exercised in response to the demands of 
 the minority in the Province which forced the 
 alternative of sacrifice of power or sacrifice of 
 principle on the part of the popularly-elected 
 Quaker Assembly. It was the same power which 
 by enforcing the necessity of administering 
 oaths, drove from office many of the most relia- 
 ble exponents of the Founder's policy. 
 
 William Penn and his friends, after three dec- 
 ades of suffering such as has seldom fallen to 
 the lot of Englishmen to endure, found resting 
 upon them the direct responsibilities of govern- 
 ment. Hitherto the State had been to them not 
 a beneficent agency, but a cruel oppressor. They 
 suffered passively, for deeply engraved in their 
 belief was the Biblical sentiment, " The powers 
 that be are ordained of God." But they felt also 
 that the maintenance of certain sacred principles 
 was a duty which transcended all obligations to 
 human government. Here in Pennsylvania was 
 the chance to make the Divine Law and the 
 
Principles of Government. 5 
 
 human law one. They embraced the opportu- 
 nity, and the responsibility of success or failure 
 was upon them. They had to prove that their 
 beliefs were not, as their enemies claimed, chi- 
 merical and unworkable. So fearful seemed the 
 consequences of failure, not to themselves, but 
 to " Truth," that the retention of power was a 
 duty, not a privilege. The English Crown, by a 
 stroke of the pen, could subvert their liberties, 
 destroy the fruits of their labors, and establish 
 the triumph of that which in their eyes was the 
 error from which they felt they had been deliv- 
 ered. It is not surprising that they went to the 
 verge of consistency, and perhaps at times a lit- 
 tle beyond, in order to tide over difficulties 
 which it was hoped were only temporary. The 
 alternative was a forfeiture of charter, perhaps 
 fines and jails for conscience' sake, the destruc- 
 tion of all that which they had left their English 
 homes to build up. They hoped to maintain a 
 consistent policy until they should survive the 
 experimental stage and establish a successful 
 state. But there were sacrifices of principle 
 they could not make, and after seventy-four 
 years of control, they sadly gave up the contest 
 with the knowledge that the battle had been only 
 partly won. 
 
6 ■ A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 No one can appreciate the history of Colonial 
 Pennsylvania who does not understand the 
 spirit, the methods, and the beliefs of the So- 
 ciety of Friends. The failure to grasp these 
 firmly, the dependence upon public records ex- 
 clusively for the materials of history, has been 
 the cause of serious misjudgments in many 
 otherwise admirable narratives of the times. 
 
The Quakers in England. 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE QUAKEES IN ENGLAITC). 
 
 William Penn was about 22 years old when 
 he decided to become a Quaker. This decision 
 has had a profound influence upon the history of 
 America. He was the beloved son of Vice- 
 Admiral Sir WilHam Penn, a distinguished offi- 
 cer of the navy who had achieved distinction 
 under the Commonwealth and Charles II. He 
 was rich, talented, highly educated, attractive 
 in person and manner, and a brilliant career 
 at court or in his father's profession was open 
 to him. But a growing seriousness at times 
 threatened to disappoint the hopes his father en- 
 tertained of his preferment. 
 
 It is hardly a matter of wonder that in these 
 times a development of religious interests 
 should provoke alarm in such a father. England 
 was full of Puritan sects of all imaginable forms 
 of belief, many of them crude, but most of them 
 earnest. In fact, almost all of the religious fer- 
 vency of the nation had gone in a Puritan direc- 
 tion. A growth in earnestness was very often a 
 precursor to some unexpected outbreak of doc- 
 trinal allegiance, which, no matter how absurd. 
 
8 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 •would hold its votaries through obloquy and 
 persecutions even unto death. The courage and 
 honesty of England deserted the court and took 
 up their abode among the secretaries. These lost 
 all chance of official recognition in State affairs 
 or court society, but a sense of a deeper loyalty 
 and of a higher career was more than an equiva- 
 lent for the loss. 
 
 Hence when the young Oxford undergrad- 
 uate developed some distaste for the established 
 forms, and rather than absent himself from cer- 
 tain unauthorized religious meetings with his 
 companions, allowed himself to be expelled from 
 the University, be did not receive a warm wel- 
 come at home. Driving from the house did not 
 accomplish a cure, but an extended visit to Paris 
 and to the theological school at Saumur was 
 more effective, and he returned " a most modish 
 person, grovwi quite a fine gentleman." * 
 
 This did not last long, and a growing serious- 
 ness took him to a meeting of Friends in Cork, 
 whither he had gone to attend to his father's 
 Irish estates. He there heard the words from 
 the mouth of Thomas Loe which determined his 
 religious association, his attitude towards society 
 and government, and his lifelong convictions. 
 
 * Pepy3. 
 
The Quakers in England. 9 
 
 This was in 1666. George Fox had been 
 preaching for twenty years, and multitudes ap- 
 parently ripe for the new teaching had flocked 
 to his standard. There were already thousands 
 of Quakers, as they were called in opprobrium. 
 They were inhumanly persecuted, but they 
 throve on it. The jails were full of them, and 
 foul places the jails of those days were, but more 
 crowded into the meetings, full of the martyr 
 spirit. 
 
 It is not necessary to give here a full account 
 of Quaker doctrine. Only such portions will be 
 referred to as seem to have some bearing on the 
 production of the type which afterwards found 
 its way into Pennsylvania and embodied itself 
 in the frame of government, the laws, the insti- 
 tutions, and the customs of the State. 
 
 That the Divine Being speaks directly to 
 the heart of every man was the central point of 
 the teaching — central in that it was the tenet 
 most pressed by the ministers as of vital conse- 
 quence to the individual believer, and central in 
 that it was logically "the root of the goodly 
 tree of doctrine which sprang from it." * Their 
 Christian lives consisted in obedience to this 
 voice, variously called the Seed, Grace, Light of 
 * William Penn. 
 
10 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Christ, Word of God, Christ Within. George Fox 
 said it was his business to point men to Christ 
 and to leave them there, and almost any one of 
 the countless sermons of which we have abstracts 
 in the Journals of Friends contains in more or 
 less obscure and mystical language the statement 
 that the kingdom of God is within men. This 
 doctrine was effective in their mouths and con- 
 tagions, and thousands of Christians settled 
 down under its influence, to draw their spiritual 
 nourishment and impulses from this Divine 
 Source. The plain layman looked to the Spirit 
 of God to guide him in the comprehension of 
 the Bible and other sources of spiritual truth, 
 and to a greater or less extent in the affairs of 
 daily life ; the church oiEcer performed his func- 
 tions under a sense of its continual direction ; 
 the minister preached and preached only when 
 he apprehended it gave him a direct and imme- 
 diate message to the congregation before him. 
 Men could not determine its course. Into the 
 hearts of the most illiterate came its power, and 
 words uttered by them were as authoritative as 
 if spoken by the university graduate. It re- 
 duced to a spiritual level all ranks of birth, sex, 
 fortune or education. The message, not the 
 form of its delivery nor the messenger throiigh 
 
The Quakers m England. 11 
 
 ■whom it came, was to be the object of reverence, 
 for that message was from God, who selected 
 among His servants the one to deliver it. If in 
 a meeting the ministers sat upon a higher bench 
 facing the congregation, it was only for conve- 
 nience of speaking and not to assume direction, 
 and not infrequently came the inspired voice of 
 exhortation and prayer from the commonest 
 member of the crowded assemblage. No line 
 was drawn between clergy and laity. It was a 
 spiritual democracy as well as a social one. ISTo 
 ordination made any hierarchy — only there was 
 a formal recognition that upon this man or 
 woman God had conferred a spiritual gift of 
 some sort to benefit the world. 
 
 The Grace was universal. Every man in 
 Christian or heathen lands had felt its influence, 
 and if yielded to, his salvation might be effected. 
 It was the function of the missionary to call at- 
 tention to it, to turn hearts to the Christ within, 
 as well as to inform them of the Christ of his- 
 tory, whose Deity and Atonement they plainly 
 stated, to -weahen dependence upon anything hu- 
 man, and to induce every one to take his own 
 spiritual responsibility upon himself. The deliv- 
 erances of this Divine grace were at first slight 
 and ob=-cnre, but obedience brought clearness of 
 
12 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 perception and definiteness of understanding, till 
 the habit "was begotten of living in the continual 
 experience of its guidance and discipline. 
 
 Such men could not fail to be democrats in 
 the ordinary affairs of life. Because many made 
 a distinction in rank, by addressing some with a 
 you and others with a thee, they testified against 
 inequality by using the singular pronoun to all. 
 Because in the obsequiousness of the manners 
 of the day, men would bow to the great and 
 scorn the poor, they bowed to none. Because 
 the newly imported doffing of the bat was only 
 given to those in high place, the Quaker's hat 
 stayed on his head in the presence of Eang and 
 courtier, priest, judge and magistrate.* The 
 doctrine of human equality was to them more 
 than a theory; it was a principle to be incorpo- 
 rated with their social and political institutions, 
 to go to jail for, if need be to die for. 
 
 The same principles determined their manner 
 of worship. Discarding all sacraments as tend- 
 ing to obscure the brightness of the spiritual 
 
 * " My friend Penn came there. Will Perm the Quaker, at 
 the head of his brethren to thank the Duke (Ormond) for 
 his kindness to the people of Ireland. To see a dozen 
 scoundrels with their hats on, and the Duke compliment- 
 ing with his hat off, was a good sight enough." — Swift to 
 Stella, January 15th, 1712. 
 
The Quakers in England. 13 
 
 baptism and communion which above all things 
 they desired, they met not to hear preaching or 
 sacred music or emotional human impulses, or 
 to take part in ritual or ceremony, but to hear 
 the words of God as they came directly to the 
 waiting heart, or mediately through an inspired 
 messenger. Without preparation, each one be- 
 lieving in his own capacity for priestly approach 
 to the source of all truth and instruction and 
 comfort, they sat in silence to await whatever 
 influences came to their souls, and so real was 
 this communion that there are frequent accounts 
 of meetings of entirely wordless worship, where 
 there was such tender union of spirit that the 
 floor was wet with their overflowing tears, their 
 hearts were strengthened and confirmed in their 
 Divine Master, and they were braced to stand 
 with quietness and fortitude all the trials of 
 their persecuted life. 
 
 Their morality was based on the New rather 
 than the Old Testament, and they accepted the 
 current views as to its inspiration and authority. 
 The Sermon on the Mount, if not in every re- 
 spect a literal standard of conduct, was not to be 
 explained away as a millennial model only, but 
 as something to be obeyed in this present world. 
 But here again all Biblical truth was in one re- 
 
14 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 spect subordinate to tile voice of direct revelation, 
 to which it owed its origin. It was permitted to 
 use it to test the validity of professed inspiration, 
 for the Divine teaching must be consistent with 
 itself. It was of unquestioned authority, but the 
 proper application of its rules could only be 
 made by the same Spirit who gave it birth. 
 
 From the Bible, therefore, thus interpreted, 
 the Friends derived their ethical ideas. It told 
 them " Swear not at all," and that command 
 they accepted unquestioningly and absolutely. 
 Again, its direct teaching and whole spirit testi- 
 fied against war and fighting and in favor of 
 love and forgiveness, and they refused all par- 
 ticipation direct or, so far as they could, indirect 
 in any war or warlike measures. It exalted the 
 spiritual over the temporal, and they preached 
 much and practiced much the greatest simplicity 
 of dress, furniture and living. It exhorted 
 obedience to government, and here they had a 
 difficult task. For the government of the day 
 commanded disobedience to their principles and, 
 not following the teaching of Hobbes, then 
 newly given to the world, they continuously dis- 
 regarded its commands. 
 
 As Peter affirmed before the Sanhedrin, " We 
 ought to obey God rather than man," as Socrates 
 
The Qualccrs in England. 15 
 
 declared before his judges, " Athenians, I will 
 obey God rather than you," so when the slightest 
 point of conscience was done violence to by law 
 or human command, to the Friend it became as 
 the apple of his eye, and no power on earth could 
 require its violation. They obeyed the law 
 which demanded their appearance at court on an 
 unrighteous charge, or which detained them in 
 a jail with open doors, when the authorities evi- 
 dently hoped to be rid by inadvertence of a 
 troublesome prisoner, but the conventicle act in- 
 terfering with their religious worship had no 
 validity for them. Deprived on trifling pre- 
 tenses of all the rights of Englishmen, they 
 never in an age of plotting did anything to jus- 
 tify the government in any suspicions as to their 
 loyalty; but the legal requirement of an oath 
 of allegiance was refused with the assurance of 
 perfect rectitude. " Where we cannot actually 
 obey we patiently suffer," says "William Penn, 
 and such was their consistent attitude. 
 
 It is surprising that a people so just as the 
 English have generally proved themselves to be 
 should have consented for so long a time to the 
 severe persecutions of their pacific, conscientious 
 fellow-citizens. It was very easy in those days 
 to find excuses, legal and otherwise, to fine and 
 
16 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 imprison them. They would not pay tithes to 
 support a religion of which they disapproved, 
 and hence incurred the enmity of the ecclesias- 
 tical Presbyterians and Independents of the 
 Conunonwealth, and the ecclesiastical Episcopa- 
 lians of the later Stuarts. Their goods were dis- 
 trained in extravagant amounts, and they were 
 brought into court. Once there it was very easy 
 to fine them for contempt for not removing the 
 hat and to send them to jail till the fine was paid, 
 which it would never be with their consent; or 
 to require them to take an oath of alle- 
 giance, always in order, which would re- 
 sult in a similar imprisonment. The Con- 
 venticle act of the reign of Charles II., 
 prohibiting more than five persons outside the 
 resident family to meet together except accord- 
 ing to the forms of the Church of England, they 
 most persistently disobeyed, and went wholesale 
 to jail, to be followed next meeting day by the 
 children, who kept up the assemblies, in the 
 meeting houses, on their ruins, or in the street 
 as near as the officers' presence would permit.* 
 The foulness of the dungeons into which they 
 
 * After e:xplammg how easy it was to break up the wor- 
 ship of other denominations by abstracting some of their 
 machinery, Masson says: "Not so a Quakers' meeting, 
 where men and women were worshipping with their hearts 
 
The Quakers in England. 17 
 
 were cast, tlie cruelties of jailers, the impoverish- 
 ment of families, produced untold sufferings, 
 but cemented the Society in a strong family 
 
 and without implements, in silence as well as in speech. 
 You may break in upon them, hoot at them, roar at them, 
 drag them about; the meeting, if it is of any size, essen- 
 tially still goes on till all the component individuals are 
 murdered. Throw them out of the door in twos and 
 threes, and they but re-enter at the window, and quietiy 
 resume their places. Pull their meeting-house down, and 
 they re-assemble next day most punctually amid the 
 broken walls and rafters. Shovel sand or earth upon them, 
 and there they still sit, a sight to see, musing immovably 
 among the rubbish. This is no description from fancy. 
 It was the actual practice of the Quakers all over the 
 country. They held their meetings regularly, persever- 
 ingly, and without the least concealment, keeping the doors 
 of their meeting-houses purposely open, that all might en- 
 ter, informers, constables, or soldiers, and do whatever 
 they chose. In fact, the Quakers behaved magnificent'sf. 
 By their peculiar method of open violation of the law, and 
 passive resistance only, they rendered a service to the 
 common cause of all nonconformist sects which has never 
 been, sufficiently acknowledged. The authorities had begun 
 to fear them as a kind of supernatural folk, and knew not 
 what to do with them, but cram them into gaols, and let 
 them lie there. In fact, the gaols in those days were less 
 places of punishment for criminals than receptacles for a 
 great proportion of what was bravest and most excellent 
 in the manhood and womanhood of England." — Masson's 
 " Life of John Milton and History of His Time," VI., 
 587-8. 
 
 " We shall engage by God's assistance to lead peaceable, 
 just and industrious Jives amongst men, to the good and 
 example of all. But if after all we have said, sufferings 
 should be the present lot of our inheritance from this gen- 
 
18 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 feeling. They volunteered to serve out each 
 other's sentences in jail,* they aided whenever 
 possible, and finally organized the Meeting for 
 Sufferings, under which peculiar title the repre- 
 
 eration, be it known to them all — That meet we must and 
 meet we can not but encourage all to do (whatever we sus- 
 tain) in God's name and authority, who is Lord of Hosts 
 and King of Kings." — William Penn, " The Great Case of 
 Liberty of Conscience." 
 
 * " In love to our brethren that lie in prisons and houses 
 of correction and dungeons, and many in fetters and 
 irons and have been cruelly beat by the cruel gaolers, and 
 many have been persecuted to death and have died in 
 prisons and on straw " we " do offer up our bodies and 
 selves to you for to put us as lambs, into the same dun- 
 geons and houses ot correction, and their straw and nasty 
 holes and prisons and do stand ready a sacrifice for to go 
 into their places that they may go forth and not die m 
 prison as many of the brethren are dead already. For 
 we are willing to lay down our lives for our brethren and 
 to take their sufferings upon us that you would inflict 
 on them. . . . And if you will receive our bodies 
 which we freely tender to you for our Friends that are 
 now in prison for ppeaking the truth in several places; 
 for not paying tithes; for meeting together in the feai 
 of God; for not swearing; for wearing their hats; for 
 being accounted as vagrants; for visiting Friends and 
 for things of a like nature: We whose names are here- 
 unto subscribed, being a sufficient number are waiting in 
 Westminster-hall for an answer from you to ns, to answer 
 our tenders and to manifest our love to our Friends and 
 to stop the wrath and judgment from coming to our en- 
 emies." Among this noble band of men who thus offered 
 themselves to Parliament were some who were afterwards 
 settlers in Pennsylvania. 
 
The Quakers in England. 19 
 
 sentative body of the Yearly Meeting still exists 
 in London and Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1680 William Penn and two others pre- 
 sented to King and Parliament a compilation of 
 their sufferings. Ten thousand had been in 
 prison, and 243 had died there, mainly from 
 cruel usage. Two-thirds of the estates of a large 
 number had been confiscated under the plea that 
 they were Papists in disguise. Exorbitant fines had 
 been imposed in other cases. As many as 4,000 
 were in jail at one time a little later than this, 
 and there seemed but little prospect of the trou- 
 ble abating. Nor had there been any effect, so 
 far as stopping Quakerism was concerned. The 
 Society was growing rapidly, and every one of 
 the persecuted had practically said with William 
 Penn, " My prison shall be my grave before I 
 will budge a jot, for I owe obedience of my con- 
 science to no mortal man." 
 
 Such was the man to whom was given Penn- 
 sylvania as a means of extinguishing an old debt 
 of 16,000 pounds owed him by the Crown, and 
 who was accorded quite large liberty in deter- 
 mining the nature of its government. Such 
 were the people upon whom he depended to form 
 the nucleus of his settlement and give it char- 
 acter. 
 
20 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Those who emigrated were mainly, but not ex- 
 clusively, English yeomen — tillers of the soil, 
 who found in Pennsylvania not only a congenial 
 political atmosphere, but fertile lands which they 
 knew how to improve. They very largely appro- 
 priated to themselves the country along the west 
 side of the Delaware Eiver from Trenton to Wil- 
 mington, and founded the cities of Philadelphia 
 and Chester. That they retained the same char- 
 acteristics in the ISTew "World they had devel- 
 oped in the Old, and added to them the more 
 active qualities which come from the assumption 
 of the responsibilities of government, will be 
 evident as we proceed. 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 21 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 THE QUAKEBS IN EAELT PENNSTXVAiraA. 
 
 The organization of the Society of Friends ex- 
 isting in England was reproduced in America. 
 It was due to the good sense and practical genius 
 of George Fox, and was probably worked out 
 during his cruel imprisonment of nearly three 
 years in Lancaster and Scarboro jails. The 
 central authority, at first representative, ulti- 
 mately became an assembly of all members of 
 the Society, the men and women meeting as dif- 
 ferent bodies. This constituted the Yearly 
 Meeting. The Quarterly Meetings reported to 
 this, and were in turn divided into Monthly 
 Meetings, the real working bodies of the organi- 
 zation, in matters relating to the individual 
 members. The Monthly Meeting undertook 
 to see that justice was done between man and 
 man, that disputes were settled, that the poor 
 were supported, that delinquents, whether as to 
 the Society's own rules or those of the State, 
 were reformed, or if reformation seemed im- 
 possible, were " disowned " by the Society, that 
 applicants for membership were tested and 
 
22 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 finally, if satisfactory, received, that all tiie chil- 
 dreu were educated, that certificates of good 
 standing were granted to members changing 
 their abodes, that marriages and burials were 
 simply and properly performed, and that records 
 were fully and accurately kept. Under these 
 were the Preparative Meetings. 
 
 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting dates back to 
 1681, when a number of Prion ds met at Burling- 
 ton on " the 31st day of the 6th month " (Aug- 
 ust). Oscillating for a time between Burlington 
 and Philadelphia, it finally settled dovni to reg- 
 ular sessions in Penn's city. The territory em- 
 braced monthly meetings on both sides of the 
 Delaware Eiver, in ISTew Jersey, Delaware and 
 Pennsylvania, and later some in Maryland. 
 
 Had all the inhabitants been Priends and 
 amenable to their discipline, very little civil gov- 
 ernment would have been needed in internal 
 affairs. The work of the legislature might have 
 been devoted mainly to questions involving 
 titles, etc., to property, and courts of law would 
 have been shorn of nearly all their criminal and 
 much of their civil business, while sheriffs and 
 policemen, jails and punishments might almost 
 have been omitted as unnecessary. Indeed, this 
 was practically the case for some decades in 
 
TTie Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 23 
 
 Pennsylvania, in country districts where the 
 Quaker element constituted nearly the whole 
 population.* 
 
 The Friends had a testimony against courts of 
 law, at least till all other methods had been tried. 
 They provided tribunals of their own, unbound 
 by any legal trammels, to decide differences 
 among Friends by considerations of the equities 
 of each particular case.f Such decisions cost 
 
 * " The flock committed to my charge is indeed small, 
 but God be thanked generally sound, which is as much as 
 can well be expected, considering the genius of the bulk 
 of the people among whom we live. I need not tell you 
 that Quakerism is generally preferred in Pennsylvania, and 
 in no county of the province does the haughty tribe ap- 
 pear more rampant than where I reside (Chester), there 
 being by a modest computation 20 Quakers besides dis- 
 senters to one true church-man." — December 30th, 1712, 
 " Papers Relating to the Church in Pennsylvania," page 69. 
 
 t " That if any personal difference doth arise among 
 Friends, that they may be speedily advised to refer it to 
 one or two honest Friends, and if it cannot be ended, then 
 to lay it before the preparative meetings to whom they 
 belong for the speedy ending of the same."— Chester Quar- 
 terly Meeting Minutes, 3, IX., 1701. In these minutes the 
 old spelling is not followed. 
 
 " It's the sense and agreement of this meeting according 
 to the agreement of the Yearly Meeting of London in the 
 year 1697, when any Friends have any difference one with 
 the other (if they do not agree it between themselves) that 
 they first speedily refer it to indifferent, impartial, and 
 judicious friends, mutually chosen between them, and to 
 
24: A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 nothing, arrived at substantial justice, and left 
 the disputants in an amicable frame of mind 
 towards each other and the arbitrators. The early 
 minutes of the monthly and quarterly meet- 
 ings contain abundance of descriptions of such 
 cases. After tracing the matter through several 
 successive meetings, the account usually ends 
 with the statement that all parties are satisfied.* 
 This result was the more easily arrived at be- 
 
 stand to their award if they agree to make any, but if 
 they do not agree, then either party may have liberty to 
 bring their said difference to the preparative meetings to 
 which both of them belong, and if they do not end it in 
 mutual satisfaction, then they may have liberty to appeal 
 to the monthly meeting, and so farther." — Ibid., 2, IX., 
 1702. 
 
 * . . . " Difference between C. E. of one party and G. H. 
 and R. W. of the other party, about the throwing down 
 of some old ruins of a mill dam, which difference was de- 
 bated in this meeting, and the said parties mutually re- 
 ferring the determination thereof to the meeting, which is 
 that C. E. shall pay the court charges on G. H.'s account 
 and two-thirds of the charges on R. W.'s account, and that 
 G. H. and R. W. acknowledge that they were too forward 
 in doing what they did without the said C. E.'s leave; and 
 that the said C. E. shall acknowledge to this meeting his 
 forvvardness in prosecuting of them by law without the 
 consent of the meeting. They jointly acknowledge their 
 satisfaction."— Chester Quarterly Meeting. 7, VI., 1699. 
 
 " L. B. brought in his paper of condemnation for quar- 
 reling and fighting with some of the servants; and at his 
 request it was read and accepted, and he advised to read it 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 25 
 
 cause in most quarrels errors exist on botli sides, 
 sometimes of action, sometimes only of hasty or 
 derogatory words, and all parties could be in- 
 duced not only to make financial restitution, but 
 also to present the proper apologies and admis- 
 sions. It is these small occasions of difference 
 which often seriously mar the good fellowship 
 of a neighborhood, and the plan of the Friends 
 was admirably adapted to settle them in their 
 
 according both in the meeting and court." — Bucks Quar- 
 terly Meeting, 1684. 
 
 " complain against some of our yoimg Friends to 
 
 assenting and assisting to a forward and unadvised action 
 in going to correct a man for beating his wife, which prac- 
 tice is contrary to our principles; for which the said per- 
 sons have offered their acknowledgment for their offence, 
 which is accepted." — Concord Monthly Meeting, 1740. 
 
 " The difference between J. R. and W. W. offered to 
 the meeting in order to compose the same. W. W. ac- 
 knowledgeth he spoke foolishly in comparing him to a 
 London pickpocket and the like, and sorry for the same, 
 which J-. R. did accept of, desiring and intending hereby 
 that there be an end of strife from the beginning to this 
 day.'-— Chester Montlily Meeting, 6, IX., 1685. 
 
 " Friends,— Whereas I contended with my neighbor for 
 what I apprehended to be my right, by endeavoring to turn 
 a certain stream of water into its natural course, till it 
 arose to a personal difference; in which dispute I gave way 
 to a warmth of temper, so far as to put my friend into the 
 pond; for which action of mine, being contrary to the 
 good order of Friends, I am sorry, and desire through 
 Divine assistance to live in unity with him for the future." 
 —Wilmington Monthly Meeting, 1751. 
 
2(3 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 initial stages. Should the arbitrament be re- 
 fused, there remained only the recourse of sepa- 
 ration from the Society; but this was only re- 
 sorted to after every endeavor was made for 
 months together to bring the offenders to terms. 
 In rare cases it was necessary to have a judicial 
 decision, especially where one party was not a 
 member.* 
 
 The business matters of Friends were looked 
 into, where any possibility of danger existed. 
 It was felt that the body had a responsibility for 
 the conduct of each individual which it could 
 not evade. f Most cautiously was the duty per- 
 formed. Advice was offered by " concerned 
 Friends " ; finally the power of the meeting was 
 invoked, and only after months of earnest labor 
 in the case of a refractory member was " disown- 
 
 * " J. C. having not made satisfaction according to the 
 last monthly meeting's order, therefore this meeting leaves 
 J. W. to his liberty to take his course with him at !aw."^ 
 Chester Monthly Meeting. 
 
 t " Pursuant to an order from the Quarterly Meeting 
 
 this meeting appoints and to inspect into 
 
 the concerns of Friends whom they have any suspicion of 
 going backwards in their outward concerns, so as to bring 
 reproach upon Truth and damage to the creditors." — Ches- 
 ter MontWy Meeting, 25, X., 1710. 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 27 
 
 ment " resorted to. The advice* of the higher 
 meetings finally crystallized into a requirement 
 for each monthly meeting to answer three times 
 a year, plainly and honestly, the query, "Are 
 Friends punctual to their promises and just in 
 the payment of their debts? " A man observed 
 to be going into business beyond his ability to 
 manage, or so largely as to detract from his at- 
 tention to meeting matters, was warned in ad- 
 vance of a possible calamity, and often saved 
 himself, f All preference to creditors or ten- 
 dency to save anything from a business failure 
 was sufficient cause for extended " labour " on 
 the part of Friends, to be followed either by re- 
 pentance or disownment. 
 
 Nor were moral delinquencies which involved 
 directly the offender only ever passed over if 
 they came to the ears of the meeting. The 
 early records contain but little reference to any- 
 
 * "Advised that all Friends be very careful in making 
 and vending all provisions and other commodities for 
 transportation, taking care that the same be good and of 
 due fineness, measure and weight." — Yearly Meeting, 1713. 
 
 t " Inasmuch as I have bought a piece of land in Chester 
 contrary to the advice of Friends, for which I am sorry, 
 and acknowledge I should not have done it."— Chester 
 3Tonthly Meeting, 27, XI., 1693. 
 
38 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 thing of the sort, being mostly taken up with 
 getting the young people married according to 
 the Quaker order. The original immigrants, 
 brought together by convictions of stern 
 duty under the persecutions of England, 
 were not likely to indulge in any libertin- 
 ism. Other;3, however, of a different sort 
 came with them. It is known that very early in 
 the history of the colony, the caves in the banks 
 along the Delaware, made by the settlers while 
 building their houses, became the resort of a 
 class whose loose life greatly disturbed the or- 
 derly Quakers. The birthright idea brought a 
 second generation of Friends upon the scene 
 who had not endured the discipline of their 
 fathers. These were in some cases infected by 
 the influences around them. There are many 
 evidences that Eriends were alert to the dangers 
 which seemed to be growing up.* The meetings 
 
 ' " Tl'e find a pressing concern earnestly to excite all our 
 dear Friends, brethren and sisters, seriously to consider 
 the state of things in this land, so lately a wilderness. 
 When on the one hand ^ve look back to the many bless- 
 ings we have received, and the protection and peace we 
 have enjoyed, how greatly doth it concern us to be hum- 
 hied before the Almighty, and with grateful hearts take 
 due heed to our walking before him; and on the other 
 hand, when we take a view of the great increase of the 
 people, and consider how many among them appear regard- 
 

 M 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Ui 
 
 ^ 
 
 l-H 
 
 1 
 
 fe! 
 
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 Si 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 29 
 
 brought all possible influence to bear on their 
 Quaker Assembly to abate i mm orality. This 
 Assembly did not seem at all unwilling to do 
 what it could, and while not going quite to the 
 length of the Puritan New Englanders, kept in 
 operation laws against gambling, cards and dice, 
 theatres, swearing, lying and drunkenness. 
 
 But the main duty of the meeting was to the 
 individual oiienders. After a few decades the 
 Monthly Meeting minutes begin to show cases, 
 not a few in the aggregate, of di-unkenness and 
 its attendant brawls, and also of personal im- 
 morality of other sorts, which were treated with 
 the greatest plainness. The first record would 
 be in the nature of a complaint of a preparative 
 meeting that A. B. had been guilty of a defi- 
 nitely named offence, for which his or her friends 
 had labored earnestly without avail to induce 
 repentance, acknowledg-ment and reformation. 
 
 less of religion, probity and virtue, who seem to combine in 
 an uncommon manner to rush into immoralities and tu- 
 multuous practices, using many artful means to draw 
 others to fall in with them, and the more perhaps because 
 of the number of Friends who are inhabitants here, and 
 that some are concerned in the government, by this means, 
 since they can not persecute them as in times past, to give 
 them trouble of another sort — how very careful ought we 
 to be to oppore and discourage them as much is in us lies." 
 —Yearly Meeting, 1726. 
 
30 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 The meeting then appointed a committee to con- 
 tinue the efforts. K there seemed any hope they 
 were continued, month by month, or a new one 
 appointed. In some instances the same name 
 again appeared in a little time in a responsible 
 position, — overseer or minister,* — showing how 
 completely he had rehabilitated himself. Such 
 a retention was always preceded by a written 
 acknowledgment of error and sorrow, which, if 
 accepted as sincere, was read in public in the 
 home meeting on " First-day." Perhaps in a 
 greater number of cases the offender was con- 
 sidered irreclaimable, and "to clear the Truth 
 and Friends from reproach," a committee would 
 be appointed " to draw up a testimony against 
 him and produce it to next meeting." At the 
 next meeting the testimony which separated him 
 from membership would be read and approved 
 and another committee appointed " to read it at 
 
 meeting on a First-day." 
 
 This course of discipline preserved to a re- 
 markable extent the business and moral standing 
 of the Society. By reforming some delinquents 
 and excluding the others, a body was pre- 
 
 * Michener's " Retrospect of Early Quakerism," page 
 324. 
 
llie Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 31 
 
 served in substantial harmony with the original 
 ideals. It had the additional effect of enabling 
 Friends to face squarely and honestly every 
 moral reform as it rose. They did not blind 
 themselves to the evils of slavery, or injustice to 
 the Indians, or war, or intemperance by any spe- 
 cious pleas of Biblical authority or financial or 
 national expediency. They saw the evil only, 
 and struck it straight in the face. Forbearing 
 to the last degree with offenders, they admitted 
 of no compromise with any system involving 
 wrong to humanity. The history of the growth 
 of the anti-slavery sentiment has been often told, 
 but so far as it concerns our Pennsylvania 
 Friends, it may be repeated as an illustration of 
 the effective way in which they cleared them- 
 selves by their admirable discipline of the evil 
 before they launched their corporate testimony 
 against an hostile nation. 
 
 The earliest minutes contain cautions against 
 abuse of slaves, and advice to see that they be 
 treated as human beings. In 1688, the German 
 Quakers of Germantown memorialized the 
 Yearly Meeting in a paper still in existence 
 against " the buying and keeping of negroes." 
 The meeting was not ready to act, but the move- 
 ment was working its way among the sensitive 
 
32 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 consciences of its members. In 1696 they ad- 
 vised against " bringing in any more negroes." 
 Chester Quarterly Meeting sent in numerous me- 
 morials requesting positive action, but many 
 ■wealthy Friends were slaveholders, and many 
 saw no evil in the established system, no doubt 
 leniently interpreted among them, and save 
 general exhortation against slaYe-dealiiig, the 
 Yearly Meeting could not be brought to a defi- 
 nite position till 1758. That year saw two 
 memorable minutes adopted with substantial 
 unanimity; one required Friends to give up all 
 civil ofhces in which " they think they must en- 
 join the compliance of their brethren or others 
 with any act which they conscientiously scruple 
 to perform " (meaning especially places in the 
 Assembly); the other went to the root of the 
 matter of slavery, and not content with a decla- 
 ration against dealing in slaves, as some urged, 
 declared that Friends were "to set them at liberty, 
 making a Christian provision for them," and ap- 
 pointed a committee to visit all slaveholders to 
 induce compliance. They were largely success- 
 ful, aided as they were by sympathizing Friends 
 In the various meetings. But a considerable 
 number held out, and in 1774 sentiment was so 
 advanced as to call out a more emphatic con- 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 33 
 
 demnation of all slave-holding. In 1776 a dec- 
 laration of independence for all slaves held by 
 Eriends was decreed, and monthly meetings 
 ■were directed, after proper effort, to exclude 
 from membership all Quakers who refused to 
 comply. How faithfully yet how tenderly the 
 work was done, while the Revolutionary War 
 raged around them, the records of 1776 and 
 1777 in nearly every meeting testify. 
 
 But the Quaker sense of right was not yet 
 satisfied. In 1779 the Yearly Meeting con- 
 cluded that something was owing to the slaves 
 for their past services. " The state of the op- 
 pressed people who have been held by any of us 
 in captivity and slavery calls for a deep inquiry 
 and close examination how far we are clear of 
 withholding from them what imder such an exer- 
 cise may open to view as their just right." The 
 matter was placed on the basis of justice, not of 
 charity, and many former owners voluntarily 
 paid an amount, adjudged by impartial umpires 
 to be fair, as the recompense for unrequited 
 labors. 
 
 JSTot only did the meetings relieve the State 
 of a large part of its criminal procedures, but 
 they also agreed to succor all, among their own 
 members, in poverty and suffering. Huch of 
 
34 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 this was done quietly, but many cases came to 
 the meetings and are on record.* Sometimes 
 money was raised, at others personal attention 
 was directed, and as there were no hospitals. 
 Friends' houses and lands were used.f 
 
 * " Ordered that Caleb Pusey and Walter Faucett take 
 care to hire a cow for the widow Rudman, and the quar- 
 terly meeting are obliged to answer them 30s." — Chester 
 Monthly Meeting, B, III., 1689. 
 
 " The condition of J. C, a Friend of Bucks County, be- 
 ing laid before this meeting, having lost by fire to tie 
 value of 162 pounds, this meeting orders that a collection 
 be settled in each particular First Day's meeting, and two 
 appointed to receive them." — Ibid., 2, IX., 1691. The prac- 
 tice of First-day collections for special cases was general in 
 those days. 
 
 t " This meeting having taken into consideration the con- 
 dition of T. N., he being generally weak and having a 
 great family of small children, and living very remote from 
 neighbors, it is agreed that he is to remove for the reasons 
 aforesaid, and settle down upon the lands of B. C, Jr., 
 having given his consent." — Ibid., 6, XII., 1692. 
 
 " J. P., being in necessity of a cow, having lost one, 
 and being in necessity of milk for his children, this meet- 
 ing have lent him £5 for one year to buy one." — Concord 
 Monthly Meeting, 1699. 
 
 " Information being given this meeting that W. P. is 
 
 very poor and in necessity, this meeting orders to 
 
 get a good pair of leather ' briches * and a good warm coat 
 and waistcoat, one pair of stockings and shoes, and make 
 
s 
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The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 35 
 
 Nor did cases near at hand and of their own 
 Society alone demand their attention, but we 
 find collections taken up for captives among the 
 Turks as early as 1691, when many of the donots 
 had just reached the country.* 
 
 The ideas of these Pennsylvania Quakers on 
 the subject of education were not very exalted. 
 Among those who came over from England 
 there were, besides Penn, several university men 
 of high attainments, like Thomas Lloyd and 
 James Logan. The great majority were com- 
 mon people very ordinarily educated, and they 
 did not set any great value on the higher train- 
 ing. They did not, as did the ISTew England 
 settlers, have a college in the first score of years, 
 because they lacked the incentive which most 
 strongly influenced the Puritans. According to 
 them the ministry did not depend on educa- 
 tion, and in the minds of many of them, it was 
 no better, perhaps worse, for its presence. Then 
 
 a report of the charge to next meeting.'' — Falls Monthly 
 Meeting, 1701. 
 
 " Our preparative meeting having agreed with A. F. to 
 keep N. M. one year with sufficient meat, drink, washing, 
 shaving, and leading him to meetings for £15, lOs." — ^Wil- 
 mington Monthly Meeting. 
 
 •Chester Quarterly Meeting, 1, XII., 1691. 
 
36 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 the classic languages were heathen, the modern 
 tongues frivolous. They had no place for art 
 or music. The range of possible education was 
 therefore greatly restricted. The number of 
 self-educated mathematicians and naturalists 
 (chiefly botanists) who grew up among them was 
 rather remarkable. But aside from this the 
 education of those born in this countr}- in the 
 second and third generations was limited in 
 scope and amount. There were no colleges ex- 
 cept Harvard and Yale, and they were distant 
 and alien. The medical was the only profes- 
 sion demanding luuch training, and except in 
 this one field, there was but little high culture 
 among them. It was not till 1856 that the first 
 Quaker college was in operation. 
 
 What they lacked in the higher education 
 they made up in the lower. As with crime and 
 pauperism, they took the elementary training of 
 their children in their own special care. Penn 
 well knew the value of education. In his letter 
 of instructions to his wife he wrote about his 
 children: "For their learning be liberal. Spare 
 no cost; for by siich parsimony all is lost that is 
 saved." In the first laws of the Province we 
 find, " To the end that the poor as well as the 
 
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The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 37 
 
 ricli may be instructed in good and commendable 
 learning, -which is to be preferred before wealth, 
 — Be it enacted that all persons .... having 
 children .... shall cause such to be instructed 
 in reading and writing, so that they may be able 
 to read the Scriptures and to write by the time 
 they attain to twelve years of age, and that then 
 they be taught some useful trade or skill." Then 
 follows a penalty of £5 for failure to secure this 
 attainment. In 1683 the Governor and Council 
 employed Enoch Flower on the following terms: 
 " To leame to read English 4s. by ye Quarter, to 
 leame to read and rite 6s. by ye Quarter, write 
 and cast accots 8s. by ye Quarter; for boarding 
 a scholar, that is to say, dyet, washing, lodging 
 and Scooling, Tenn pounds for one whole 
 year."* 
 
 In 1697 was chartered the " Public School," 
 intended to be a Latin school of considerable ad- 
 vancement after the fashion of an English gram- 
 mar school, which now exists under the name of 
 the "William Penn Charter School." There 
 were a number of branches over the city, and 
 free scholarships were established to give the 
 
 * Colonial Eecords, Vol. I., page 36. 
 
38- A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 poor a fair chance to secure its advantages.* In 
 the same year the Yearly Meeting says : " Meet- 
 ings for the education of youth are settled in 
 most counties except Bucks, Shrewsbury (IST. J.), 
 and Salem (N. J.)- 
 
 Advices began to go down to the subordinate 
 meetings, the burden of which was that Friends 
 should see to it that all children should be taught 
 " to read and write and some further useful 
 learning," ■!■ and that teachers should also be 
 •' careful in the wisdom of God and a spirit of 
 meekness gradually to bring them to a knowl- 
 edge of their duty to God and one another.":}: 
 
 These schools were not free schools, but the 
 idea of mutual aid extended to education as 
 well as to bodily distress, and probably nearly all 
 
 * " They (Quakers) have endowed a school with 80 
 pounds per annum, which is in effect to blast my endeav- 
 ors." — .T. Arrowsmith, March 26th, 1698. " Papers Relat- 
 ing to the American Church, Pennsylvania," page 7. 
 
 '* They are establishing a free school for the growth of 
 Quakerism and apostacy." — Robert Suder, November 20th, 
 1698. Ibid., page 11. 
 
 t " Our greatest want is a schoolmaster to instruct our 
 children and youth, which we are obliged to see corrupted 
 v.'ith the base principles they must needs suck in from 
 Quaker masters and mistresses." — " Ministry and Vestry of 
 Chester, alias Uplands, 1704." Ibid., page 23. 
 
 J Yearly Meeting, 1746. 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 39 
 
 children received this elementaiy opportunity. 
 It became a matter of comment that Quakers 
 were the best educated people of the counties. 
 It was as rare to find an entirely ignorant mem- 
 ber as a poverty-stricken one. A number of 
 private academies gave the well-to-do a better 
 chance, and as a result the average mental de- 
 velopment was not low. But it was a great loss 
 to them and their successors that there were 
 not, as in New England, a few highly educated 
 men in each community to stimulate the in- 
 tellectual life, and university opportunities to 
 satisfy it. 
 
 But though without this advantage, a moral 
 poise and a tenderness of spirit preserved them 
 from some Puritan delusions. They never per- 
 secuted. There was only one trial for witch- 
 craft in the colony. In 1683 a poor woman had 
 the usual accusations of bevsdtching cattle 
 brought against her. She was tried by jury, the 
 evidence soberly sifted, its absurdity proven, and 
 the jury brought in the verdict, " Guilty of hav- 
 ing the common fame of a witch, but not guilty 
 in manner and forme as she stands indicted."* 
 No other witch got so far as to court. Nine 
 
 * Colonial Ptecords, Vol. I., pages iO-41. 
 
40 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 years later they were hanging them in Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 There is a long minute of instructions among 
 the records of Chester Quarterly Meeting in 
 1695 against those "who, professing astrology, 
 have undertaken thereby to give answers and 
 astrological judgments concerning persons and 
 things, to the dishonor of God and the reproach 
 of the Truth," also against " rhabdomancy, or 
 consulting with a staff." Those who used them 
 were required to bring all books into the 
 Monthly Meetings or take the penalty of having 
 " testimony given against them." Several were 
 thus put through the disciplinary process,* and 
 sorcery disappeared. 
 
 Another contrast to New England was the ab- 
 sence of any hierarchy. It often happened that 
 ministers and men prominent in the meeting 
 were also members of the Council or Assembly, 
 or held judicial stations, but the connection was 
 only accidental. In no meeting record, so far as 
 a somewhat careful examination has revealed. 
 
 * J. T. offered an acknowledgment " for going to a man 
 to be informed concerning my horse. I can truly say I had 
 no desire he should use any bad art in the affair. Like- 
 wise was Ignorant of Friends' rules; but hope not to fall 
 into the like again." — Concord Monthly Meeting, 1738. 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 41 
 
 was there ever any attempt to influence legisla- 
 tion for any political purpose. Whenever the 
 laws touched the consciences of the members, 
 the old English spirit instantly revived, and ad- 
 vices were given, not to go into politics as re- 
 formers, but to suffer as martyrs rather than 
 bring "reproach upon Truth." Indeed there 
 seemed evidences under the surface^ but becom- 
 ing more open near the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, of a breach between those who ruled 
 the policy of the meetings and those who were 
 honored by their constituents with public oflice. 
 A sentiment was growing up that the activities 
 of public life were unfavorable to that introver- 
 sion of thought and quietness of spirit necessary 
 for the highest development of spiritual hfe. A 
 touch of asceticism was revealed in the charac- 
 ters of the men whose voices had most " weight " 
 in the yearly assemblies. These had no presid- 
 ing ofiicer, and took no votes. The clerk re- 
 corded the evident judgment of the meeting, 
 (every adult member being permitted to be pres- 
 ent), after a temperate and quiet discussion, car- 
 ried on, as they believed, under the immediate 
 guidance of a Di^dne Power. In such a discus- 
 sion the subdued and infrequent words of a man 
 known, to be living in close communion with 
 
42 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 God, and evidently speaking under a convic- 
 tion of duty, outweighed the most learned or 
 eloquent speech of a secular orator. Not elo- 
 quence, not education, not business success or 
 worldly wisdom availed agaiust a simple, sincere 
 titterance of unreasoned, but not necessarily un- 
 reasonable, conviction. The contrast between 
 the qualities of the Quaker ecclesiastic and the 
 politician would inevitably draw different tem- 
 peraments into the different stations. Some, 
 like William Penn, might combine the two, but 
 in many cases a line would be drawn growing 
 more and more definite as the century advanced. 
 Ultimately the ecclesiastical Quaker triumphed 
 over the political, and the body settled down into 
 a growing conviction that for them obedience to 
 righteous laws and passive resistance to unright- 
 eous ones constituted the burden of a Friend's 
 duty to the government. 
 
 Such was in imperfect outline the character 
 of the sect into whose hands the government of 
 Pennsylvania was committed. There were in 
 Philadelphia a number of men successful in com- 
 merce or profession whose families were better 
 educated and who did not live such simple lives 
 as their country brethren. It was the latter, how- 
 ever, by virtue of numbers and probably, also, of 
 
The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 43 
 
 spiritual power, -whicli set their stamp upon 
 Quakerism, and whicli deserve to be taken as the 
 prevailing type. They were earnest men of 
 quiet but strong convictions. Absolutely un- 
 compromising in matters of principle they, per- 
 haps, made the mistake occasionally of exalting 
 custom to the level of principle. They knew 
 very definitely what they believed, though they 
 admitted no creed but the Bible, and asked no 
 one to sign any articles. Quakerism was to 
 them a life, not a set of beliefs. They required 
 spiritual enduement as well as convincement as 
 a qualification for reception into membership, 
 still more for oificial station. Of infinite 
 tenderness and forgiveness toward offenders, 
 they refused all implication with sin. They 
 demanded righteousness as sternly as the Old 
 Testament and charity as perennial as the New. 
 They possessed large ideas, — universal peace, 
 civil and religious liberty, the embodiment in so- 
 ciety of the Sermon on the Mount, — but many 
 of them held these in rather a small way. 
 Beaten into them by English persecution were 
 the testimonies of the seventeenth century 
 Friends, and in some respects they failed to make 
 the necessary eighteenth century adjustment, 
 but their sincerity destroyed hypocrisy, and the 
 
44 A Quaker Sxperiment in Government. 
 
 sweetness of their lives exterminated bitterness. 
 That which prevailed in meetings was honest 
 simplicity and consistent integrity. 
 
 Their ruling power in relation to government 
 was their conscience divinely instructed. This 
 called for obedience, for reverence, for submis- 
 sion. They were thus the most peac^loving and 
 peaceable of subjects, restraining themselves and 
 their f reward brethren ; insisting on the full per- 
 formance of all governmental duties;* but back 
 of this it was perfectly known that legislation 
 offensive to their convictions would be met by a 
 resistance absolutely invulnerable, requiring 
 more bravery than an open armed fight, and en- 
 tirely sufficient in itself in time to conquer the 
 offending legislation. 
 
 Political life was to them not an absorbing 
 
 * '^ That inasmuch as some amongst us have refused to 
 pay their respective Levies in this county to the support 
 of Government and County charges, this meeting having 
 taken the same into their serious consideration, do con- 
 clude as foUoweth: That whereas we have been always 
 ready and willing to assist and support civil government, 
 do order that all be advised not to refuse the paj-ing of any 
 Levy lawfully demanded, and if any person be heady and 
 stubborn, and not take advise by the Brethren, let them 
 be speedily dealt with according to Gospel order, that so 
 our holy profession may be quit of them and Truth kept 
 clear."— Chester Quarterly Meeting, 3, VL, 1702. 
 
TJie Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 45 
 
 question. They had their duty to perform in 
 Pennsylvania and they meant to do it, but 
 around all such questions flowed the higher life 
 they desired to live, which found expression in 
 their calm meditation, their communion with 
 their brethren and their God, at home and in 
 meeting, their quiet but active furtherance of 
 moral reforms. They did not care for govern- 
 ment, most of them did not need any; they 
 wanted to lead unambitious lives of attention to 
 domestic and religious duty. They prospered in 
 business. The great, homelike houses and capa- 
 cious barns of the Quaker counties are sufiicient 
 evidence of this. Their religion cost nothing of 
 consequence, and it is possible their liberality 
 did not always grow with their sense of justice 
 and other virtues. 
 
 Their Assemblymen did not ask their support. 
 They asked their best equipped men to go to the 
 Assembly and kept them there for years, — 
 thirty, in two cases at least. These men truly 
 represented their constituencies, their strength 
 and their weakness, their inextinguishable cour- 
 age to do the right, their inability in some cases 
 to see right in more than one way. They carried 
 on during their ascendancy the government of a 
 
46 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 colony not inferior to any other in substantial 
 freedom, peace and prosperity.* 
 
 * "And now. Dear Friends and Brethren, ive recom- 
 mend to you Peace and concord as the gieat fruits of 
 charity, without which we are nothing; and that we labour 
 to approve ourselves men of peace and makers of peace; 
 which is our ornament, duty and ensign, as the disciples 
 of Jesus. But if any be otherwise the churches of Christ 
 have no such custom, nor can they therein be counte- 
 nanced or suffered; but so it is to the grief of our hearts, 
 and scandal of our profession, that some laying claim to 
 the same (in divers provinces within the verge of thia 
 meeting) have been too factious and troublesome in the 
 governments imder which they ought peaceably to live; 
 and have by their seditious words_, insinuations and prac- 
 tices disquieted the minds of others, to the making of 
 parties and disturbances; and some under the fair colours 
 of law and privileges have promoted their sinister ends; 
 when indeed it was but to take vengeance against those 
 whom they had taken disgust against. And this we can- 
 not but declare our just abhorrence of; that any should 
 sacrifice the peace of the province to private revenge; 
 warn all to beware of such; and wherever they find 
 them, forthwith to deal with them, and to acquit our 
 holy profession of them in a Gospel way. For by God's 
 help, we have now for many years approved ourselves 
 peaceable subjects to them whom God by his providence 
 hath set over us; first, to the King as supreme, and next, 
 to those in authority under him; being subject, not for 
 wrath, but conscience. But when at any time it hath 
 pleased God to suffer the rulers that hath been, over us to 
 impose anything against our allegiance to God, we have 
 patiently suffered under them till the Lord hath been 
 pleased to open their imderstandings and mollify their 
 hearts towards us; and this we also recommend to he con- 
 tinued amongst us." — Yearly Meeting, 1701. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEMOCEAOY AND CIVIL LIBEETT. 
 
 Such a people would have had a government 
 which would adequately express their beliefs and 
 habits. It could not fail to be democratic, for 
 equality was deeply ingrained in their religious 
 doctrines; on its penal side it could not fail to be 
 reformatory, for reformation was the characteris- 
 tic of all their churchly efforts in dealing with 
 offenders; it could not fail to demand individual 
 rights to the full, for they had ever claimed for 
 themselves the largest individual freedom. It 
 mattered, therefore, comparatively little what 
 William Penn's personal views were. The 
 people who emigrated to Pennsylvania through 
 his influence would sooner or later have moulded 
 the State into the form it finally assumed. That 
 it was done so quickly and effectually is, how- 
 ever, largely due to his substantial agreement 
 and sympathy with his co-religionists. He held 
 their views, and had suffered their sufferings, 
 but unlike most of them he had a tolerably clear 
 conception of the means to be used to achieve 
 the results desired by all. He had experience 
 
48 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 and leisure and education and access to authori- 
 ties, and a large list of friends with whom to ad- 
 vise. He was, therefore, a fair representative of 
 his people, and his Frames of Government 
 largely expressed their convictions and temper. 
 The colonists accepted all the liberty he gave 
 them, but, as it seemed to him, rather ungen- 
 erously, demanded more. His paternal assump- 
 tions, which were accepted in his gracious and 
 forceful presence, could not in his absence or in 
 the hands of his heirs become permanent. The 
 friction engendered by them was evidently a 
 source of surprise and disappointment to him. 
 That the peaceable and long-sufEering Friends 
 should quickly become staunch and well-organ- 
 ized supporters of popular rights, finding leaders 
 of their own not entirely in sympathy with him, 
 was an unwelcome and unexpected discovery. 
 Yet it was in reality only a development of his 
 own expressed ideas, a corollary of the prin- 
 ciples he had so frequently and so forcibly 
 enumerated. " For the matters of liberty and 
 privilege I propose that which is extraordinary, 
 and to leave myself and successors no power of 
 doing mischief; so that the will of one man may 
 not hinder the good of the whole country," he 
 wrote in 1861, and the province accepted the 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 49 
 
 grant as fully as it was offered. Had the colo- 
 nists of Pennsylvania been thrown together with- 
 out previous arrangements, a government in 
 harmony with the Quaker mind, free and demo- 
 cratic, shorn of the proprietary idea, concentrat- 
 ing the power in the popularly elected Assembly 
 would have been the inevitable result. 
 
 It is not unlikely that the reaction from the re- 
 strictions of England carried the democratic 
 party too far in its opposition to what little 
 power the Proprietary hoped to preserve out of 
 the advancing flood of popular privileges. The 
 people, mostly farmers, underlings at home, now 
 found themselves in a situation to secure all and 
 more than all they had ever hoped for. " This 
 people think privileges their due, and all that can 
 be grasped to be their native right .... Some 
 people's brains are as soon intoxicated with 
 power as the natives are with their beloved 
 liquor, and as little to be trusted with it,"* 
 Logan writes in 1704. But Logan was never 
 democratic in his tendencies, was violent in his 
 statements, and just at this time was in the heat 
 of partisan conflict. The life of Penn was 
 greatly embittered by what he considered the in- 
 
 * Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., page 299. 
 
50 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 gratitude of liis people. After being most lib- 
 eral in his concessions their repeated demands for 
 more seemed to him to indicate " an excess of 
 vanity that is apt to creep in upon the people in 
 power in America, who, having got out of the 
 crowd in which they were lost here, upon every 
 little eminency there think nothing taller than 
 themselves but the trees." He suggests that 
 those in ofSce should be brought occasionally to 
 London " that they might lose themselves again 
 amongst the crowds of so much more consider- 
 able people."* But this has been the charge 
 urged against Americans in all ages since then. 
 Whether the climate or the distance from estab- 
 lished institutions has been the cause, the Penn- 
 sylvanians displayed very early the qualities 
 which have made America free and vigorous, as 
 well as sometimes self-assertive and irreverent. 
 It was a pleasing sentiment that William Penn 
 and his family should live as gracious and kindly 
 feudal lords, dispensing the blessings of religious 
 and civil liberty upon wdlling and trusting free- 
 men, but it was opposed to the spirit of the age 
 and of the race and could not be. The great 
 goodness and liberality of the Proprietor, his 
 
 ' Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., page 374. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 51 
 
 misfortunes from the hands of those he trusted 
 most, his evident desire to have his Province 
 happy and prosperous and his perfect willingness 
 to make any reasonable sacrifice in order to make 
 it so, cause our sympathies to go out to him in his 
 differences with an ungrateful people. In one 
 sense a sadder life than his we seldom know. 
 His letters again and again, sometimes pathetic,* 
 sometimes indignant, portray the keen disap- 
 pointment of an honest, conscientious and sensi- 
 tive soul. There was undoubtedly provocation. 
 Demagogues then, as always, led the people 
 
 * " Pennsylvania! what hast thou cost me! Above 
 £30,000 more than I ever got by it, two hazardous and 
 most fatiguing voyages, my straits and slavery here, and 
 my child's soul almost." — Penn and Logan Correspondence, 
 I., page 280. 
 
 " I have cause to believe that had he (Logan) been as 
 much in opposition, as he has been understood to stand 
 for me, he might have met with milder treatment from his 
 persecutors, and to think that any man should be the more 
 exposed there on my account, and instead of finding favor, 
 meet with enmity, for bis being engaged in my service, is 
 a melancholy consideration. In short, when I reflect 
 upon all these beads of which I have so much cause to 
 complain, and at the same time think of the hardships, Jl 
 and my suffering family have been reduced to, in no small 
 measure owing to my endeavors for, and disappointmentfa 
 from that province, I cannot but mourn the unhappiness 
 of my portion dealt to me from those of whom I had rea- 
 son to expect much better and difEerent things." — Proud, 
 " History of Pennsylvania." 
 
52 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 astray. Sordid men refused grants whicli every 
 consideration of fairness, to say nothing of grati- 
 tude, should have caused them to make. But 
 underneath it all was the demand of the age for 
 liberty, a demand expressing itself oftentimes 
 unwisely and ungracioxisly, but leading on the 
 people to the inevitable goal of perfect democ- 
 racy. 
 
 Penn himself was an enthusiast for liberty. 
 So far from desiring reser\'ations of power for 
 himself he spread abroad among the people the 
 principles of the advanced republicanism of his 
 day. In 1687 he published in Philadelphia for 
 local circulation a copy of Magna Charta, with 
 introduction and comments evidently intended 
 to give his colonists a knowledge of their liber- 
 ties and to incite them to demand them.* The 
 treatise also contains " A Confirmation of the 
 Charters of the Liberties of England and of the 
 Forest made Anno XXV. Edward I.; the 
 sentence of the Clergy against the Breakers of 
 
 ' There is only one copy of this issue known to exist. 
 This is in possession of " The Friends' Meeting for Suffer- 
 ings " at 304 Arch Street, Philadelphia. A handsome edi- 
 tion of 15,*) copies has been published (1897) by the Philo- 
 hiblion Club of Philadelphia. William Penn's name does 
 not appear, but David Lloyd in 1728 refers to it as Penn's 
 production. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 53 
 
 these Articles; tke sentence or curse given by 
 the Bishops against the Breakers of the Great 
 Charter; a statute made Anno XXXIV. Ed- 
 ward I., commonly called De Tallagio non Con- 
 cedendo," an abstract of Penn's patent, and a 
 copy of The Frame of Government. 
 
 It could hardly be doubted that the man who 
 made the eloquent and effective defence, with 
 "William Mead, of himseK and the jury that ac- 
 quitted him, in 1670, understood and appre- 
 ciated the full meaning of civil liberty. His 
 views did not change when from being a prisoner 
 he became the ruler of a province. ISTothing 
 could be more eloquent than his address " To 
 the Header " of his book of 1687. 
 
 It may reasonably be supposed that we shall find in 
 this part of the world many men, both old and young, that 
 are strangers in a great measure to the true understanding 
 of that inestimable inheritance that every free-bom sub- 
 ject of England is heir unto by birthright, I mean that un- 
 paralleled privilege of Liberty and Property beyond all 
 the nations in the world beside; and it is to be wished 
 that Eill men did rightly understand their own happiness 
 therein; in pursuance of which I do here present thee 
 with that ancient garland, the Fundamental Laws of Eng- 
 land, bedecked with many precious privileges of 
 Liberty and Property, by which every man that is a sub- 
 ject to the Crown of England, may understand what is his 
 right and how to preserve it from nnjust and unreason- 
 able men; whereby appears the eminent care and wis- 
 dom and industry of our progenitors in providing for them- 
 
54 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 selves and posterity bo good a fortress that is able to repel 
 the lust, pride and power of the noble as well as the ig- 
 norance of the ignoble; it being that excellent and dis- 
 creef balance that gives every man his even proportion, 
 which cannot be taken from him, nor be dispossessed of his 
 life, liberty or estate, but by the trial and judgment of 
 twelve of his equals, or Law of the Land, upon the pen- 
 alty of the bitter curses of the whole people; so great was 
 the zeal of our predecessors for the preservation of these 
 fundamental liberties {contained in these charters) from 
 encroachment, that they employed all their policy and 
 religious obligations to secure them entire and inviolable, 
 albeit the contrary hath often been endeavored, yet Provi- 
 dence hitherto hath preserved them as a blessing to the 
 English subjects. 
 
 The chief end of the publication hereof is for the in- 
 formation and understanding (what is their native right 
 and inheritance) of such who may not have leisure from 
 their plantations to read large volumes; and beside I 
 know this country is not furnished with law books, and 
 this being the sort from whence all our wholesome English 
 laws spring, and indeed the line by which they must be 
 squared, I have ventured to make it public, hoping it may 
 be of use and service to many freemen planters and in- 
 habitants of this country, to whom it is sent and recom- 
 mended, wishing it may raise up noble resolutions in all 
 the freeholders in these new colonies not to give away 
 anything of Liberty and Property that at present they do 
 (or of right as loyal subjects ought to) enjoy, but take up 
 the good example of our ancestors, and understand that it 
 is easy to part with or give away great privileges, but hard 
 to be gained if once lost. And therefore all depends upon 
 our kindest care and actings to preserve and lay sure 
 foundations for ourselves and the posterity of our loins.— 
 '' Philopolites." 
 
 Could "William Penn have lived a century 
 longer he would not have seen the exact State of 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 55 
 
 his imagination, but he would have recognized 
 the great impetus given to the cause of human 
 Kberty by his well meant and in the main wise 
 efforts. Reformers never get what they work 
 for just as they expect it. 
 
 Pennsylvania became the most consistently 
 free colony in the country, the most consistently 
 prosperous, the most rapid in its growth in free- 
 dom and prosperity. So nearly had the inhabi- 
 tants everything they could desire that they hes- 
 itated to take up the Eevolutionary cause in 
 1775. Their charter, their traditions, their 
 thoughts were all free, and they were slow to 
 understand the fervor of New England and Vir- 
 ginia.* 
 
 * The glowing words of Andrew Hamilton, when giving 
 up his place as Speaker of the Assembly in 1739, were vm- 
 doubtedly true: 
 
 " It is not to the fertility of our soil or the commodious- 
 ness of our rivers that we ought chiefly to attribute tiie 
 great progress this province has made witliin so small a 
 compass of years in improvements, weaJth, trade, and 
 navigation, and the extraordinary increase of people who 
 have been drawn from every country in Europe; it is all 
 due to the excellency of our Constitution. Our foreign 
 trade and shipping are free from all imposts except those 
 small duties payable to his Majesty by the statute laws ot 
 Great Britain. The taxes are inconsiderable, for the sole 
 power of raising and disposing of public money is lodged 
 in the Assembly. . . By many years' experience we find 
 that an equality among religious societies, without distin- 
 
56 A Qiiaher Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 By the charter of Charles II. "William Penn 
 "was made absolute proprietor of Pennsylvania 
 and was authorized, with the assent of the free- 
 men or their representatives, to make all laws 
 not inconsistent with those of England, and to 
 appoint judges and other officers. In cases of 
 emergency he might be absolute lawmaker with- 
 out calling together the legislative body. There 
 was to be an appeal allowed to England at the 
 expiration of five years after the passage of any 
 law, and the crown thus reserved the power of 
 veto on all Pennsylvania enactments. 
 
 Armed with these powers and limitations he 
 went to work at constitution-making. The vari- 
 ous trials may be seen among the " Penn MSS." 
 in the library of the Historical Society of Penn- 
 sylvania. Anyone having the time and patience 
 to follow out the efforts of the author in the mass 
 of old writings, with their erasures and inter- 
 linear and marginal corrections, might probably 
 trace the steps through which the final Frame of 
 
 guishing one sect with greater privileges than another, is 
 the most effective method to discourage hypocrisy, pro- 
 mote the practise of moral virtues, and prevent the plagues 
 and mischiefs which alv?ays attend religious squabbling. 
 This is our Constitution, and this Constitution was framed 
 by the wisdom of Mr. Penn." 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 57 
 
 Government was perfected. Evidently more 
 than one hand and brain wrought for the estab- 
 lishment of the new State. The papers have 
 neither date nor name, and it is difficult to tell 
 whether they are products of different original 
 drafts, or the same draft modified by different 
 advisers. It is probable that Algernon Sidney 
 aided Penn in the work. In proof of this we 
 have the fact that Penn interested himself vigor- 
 ously in furthering Sidney's election to Parlia- 
 ment, and had a high estimate of his character 
 and political views. He says, in a letter to him, 
 after referring to " the discourse we had to- 
 gether at my house about me drawing constitu- 
 tions," ..." I took my pen and immediately 
 altered the terms so as they corresponded with, 
 thy objection and sense. Upon which thou didst 
 draw a draft, as to the Frame of Government, 
 gave it to me to read, and we discourst with 
 considerable argument." Benjamin Furly, a 
 Friend of considerable influence in Holland, 
 is known to have criticised the final " Frame," 
 and it would have been well had his cor- 
 rections been adopted in advance, as the 
 logic of events required most of them to 
 be finally. Others of Penn's co-religionists, 
 and some intending immigrants, were also 
 
58 ^1 Quaker Experiment in Governnieni. 
 
 consulted, and the result is the jumble now 
 to be seen in the records of the Historical Society 
 of Pennsylvania. It interests us only for our 
 present purpose to know that William Penn ad- 
 hered, through all the changes of detail, to the 
 fundamental purpose expressed by him in 1G76 
 in relation to West Jersey affairs: ''We lay a 
 foundation for after ages to understand their 
 liberty as men and Christians, that they may not 
 be brought in bondage but by their own consent; 
 for we put the power in the people." 
 
 "Out of this mass of suggestions arose Penn's 
 " Fundamental Constitutions " — being twenty- 
 four clauses embracing his general ideas of gov- 
 ernment, — one constitution, as we would express 
 it. This was not adopted exactly as promul- 
 gated. Other influences were afterwards 
 brought to bear, and changes were rhade which 
 did not improve the plan. The original is amon^; 
 the Penn MSS. and has only recently been pub- 
 lished.* It is interesting as probably being the 
 nearest approximation possible to Penn's ideas of 
 government. What he wanted was " the frame of 
 government that shall best preserve Magistracy 
 in reverence with the people and best keep it 
 from being hurtful to them." He cast aside 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine," Oetolaer, 1896. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 59 
 
 everything which would not conduce to the 
 general peace and prosperity. " For it were a 
 most condemnable superstition to perpetuate 
 anything for being ancient or domestick that 
 were not otherwise useful." In the forefront of 
 his " Constitutions " he places the right of every 
 one to worship according to his conscience and 
 pledges himself to secure it. He further de- 
 clares it a fundamental that an Assembly having 
 the privileges of an English House of Commons 
 be elected yearly, which shall meet whether 
 called by the governor or not. For the purposes 
 of election there shall be small districts, each one 
 sending two men to the Assembly. These shall 
 bring with them the written instructions of their 
 electors, and if they are violated the Assembly- 
 man shall be ineligible " unless the people, sen- 
 sible of his repentance, shall forgive and choose 
 him." They shall be required, moreover, to se- 
 cure the approbation of their electors to each 
 law or appropriation during the session of the 
 Assembly, " that they may always remem- 
 ber they are but deputies." The Assembly 
 might contain three hundred and eighty-four 
 members, and had the power to select forty-eight 
 Councilmen out of their own number as a per- 
 manent board and upper house of legislature, 
 
60 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 with co-ordinate powers. During tile sessions of 
 tlie Assembly this Council shall consult with the 
 larger body in order to send a law to the Gover- 
 nor. The Council has also executive duties. 
 The Governor can veto laws within fourteen 
 days of their presentation. Primogeniture shall 
 be abolished except that in deference to the Jew- 
 ish law the oldest son may receive double the 
 share of each of the others. Imprisonment for 
 debt for small sums shall be abolished, and for 
 large ones when the debtor is not worth ten 
 pounds. Capital punishment for felony shall be 
 abolished. AfBrmations shall be substituted for 
 oaths. The law of Habeas Corpus shall be ob- 
 served. There shall be no tavern or ale houses, 
 and horse racing, bull and bear baiting and 
 games of cards and dice shall be prohibited. All 
 children — girls and boys — shall be taught use- 
 ful trades. For each local office two names shall 
 be chosen by the electors, and the Governor shall 
 appoint one of the two. If he fail to do so, the 
 one first named shall hold the office. 
 
 This is a remarkable Constitution for the year 
 1G81. It anticipates by two centuries in some 
 respects the best ideas of the most advanced re- 
 publics. There could not well be anything more 
 democratic than the Assembly. The initiative 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 61 
 
 and the referendum are both here. The pro- 
 hibitionist will find there his plan for suppress- 
 ing saloons. Nothing of vital consequence now 
 in our American Constitution relating to indi- 
 vidual liberty and the rights of popular assem- 
 blies is denied except the privilege of passing 
 laws over the Governor's veto. 
 
 It would have saved some friction had these 
 " Constitutions " stood. But Penn must have a 
 colony before he could legislate for it, and we 
 may well imagine that it was an uppermost sub- 
 ject with him to induce the right sort of men to 
 emigrate in large numbers. As he truly said, 
 " Let men be good and the government cannot 
 be bad. If it be ill they will cure it. But if 
 men be bad, let the government be ever so good, 
 they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their 
 turn." * It is therefore probable that in order 
 to conciliate large land purchasers he gave the 
 Council, his upper house, in his final draft the 
 sole power to originate laws — the Assembly 
 being authorized onlyto pass on such laws as were 
 presented to it. It was supposed that the largest 
 property holders would constitute the Council, 
 and he exalted it at the expense, not only of the 
 
 * Preface to the Frame of Government. 
 
62 , A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Assembly, but of the Governor and Proprietor 
 as well, for he gave up the right of veto and 
 only retained three votes in a council of seventy- 
 two members. 
 
 Neither of these provisions could become per- 
 manent. The people immediately demanded 
 full legislative rights for the Assembly, and after 
 1693 practically excluded the Council from any 
 law-making powers. In 1701 it became an ad- 
 visory board for the Governor, appointed by the 
 Proprietor. Both people and Proprietor saw 
 that the latter official or his representative would 
 be powerless without the veto, and restored 
 it in 1696. But the willingness of William 
 Penn to give up power and privilege does credit 
 to his generosity, if not always to his judgment. 
 
 The Assembly of the first year was to consist 
 of all the freemen of the province, afterwards of 
 two hundred members. But here again the de- 
 sire for a pure democracy had outgrown the 
 bounds of reason. The freemen would not come 
 together. They were too busy. Nor coidd the 
 sparse population support two hundred Assem- 
 .blymen. Finally thirty-six became the maxi- 
 mum number, and near this it remained through 
 the Colonial period. 
 
 The " Frame of Government " and the " Laws 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 63 
 
 agreed upon in England " were the final prod- 
 ucts of all Penn's best thinking and confer- 
 ences, and were brought with him to the Colony 
 in 1682. Though changed in form many times 
 they shaped all future Constitutions of Pennsyl- 
 vania, of other States and of the Federal Union.* 
 This Prame was modified in 1683 to correct 
 some glaring inconveniences, again in 1696 in 
 the direction of popular freedom, and in 1701 it 
 assumed the form which it maintained during 
 the Colonial period. It was the Constitution 
 of Pennsylvania until 1776. There seems good 
 reason to believe that Penn preferred the earlier 
 drafts, but that the concentration of the power in 
 the hands of the Assembly was demanded by the 
 democratic aspirations of the people. The Pro- 
 prietor had said to them in 1700 with the great- 
 est frankness, " Friends, if in the Constitution by 
 charter there be anything that jars, alter it. If 
 you want a law for this or that, prepare it. . . . 
 Study peace and be at unity. ... I desire to see 
 mine not otherwise than in the public's pros- 
 perity." The demand of the people for liberty 
 was met by a gracious surrender on the part of 
 
 * For an interesting comparison between Locke's Con- 
 stitution and Penn's see Bancroft's History. 
 
64 A Quaker Experiment in Government.^ 
 
 the Proprietor. Himself greatly in advance of 
 the times, he so far honored the principle of 
 government by the people, as repeatedly to yield 
 his own judgment and desires; so that while 
 they were contending with him and his agents 
 for additional privileges he was himself shielding 
 them to his own pecuniary disadvantage from 
 the attacks of enemies in England who were 
 seeking to deprive them of privileges already 
 granted. 
 
 The charter of 1701 which embodied the final 
 triumph of radical democratic principles con- 
 tained only nine articles. The first grants 
 liberty of conscience to all who " Confess and 
 acknowledge Almighty God," and grants to all 
 who profess to believe in Jesus Christ the right 
 to hold executive and legislative ofiices, by giv- 
 ing a promise of allegiance and fidelity. 
 
 The second requires an Assembly to be chosen 
 yearly by the freemen to consist of four persons 
 or more from each county. This Assembly has 
 full powers to choose its officers, to judge of the 
 qualifications of its own members, to adjourn 
 itself, to prepare bills and make laws, impeach 
 criminals and redress grievances, " with all other 
 powers and privileges of an assembly according 
 to the rights of free-born subjects of England." 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 65 
 
 The third requires the freemen to elect two or 
 three people for each position of sheriff or coroner 
 or other court officers, and the Governor to 
 choose among them. Or if the Governor fails 
 to select, the first named shall serve. 
 
 The fourth declares that all laws shall be is- 
 sued in the form, " By the Governor, with the 
 consent and approbation of the freemen in Gen- 
 eral Assembly met." 
 
 The fifth allows all criminals to have the same 
 privileges of witnesses and counsel as their pros- 
 ecutors. 
 
 The sixth requires that all cases concerning 
 property shall he decided by courts of justice and 
 not by Governor and Council. 
 
 The seventh prevents any one receiving a 
 tavern license who is not recommended by the 
 justices, and allows the justices to suppress a dis- 
 orderly public house. 
 
 The eighth prevents the forfeiture of the es- 
 tates of suicides or intestates; prohibits any law 
 contrary to this Charter without the consent of 
 the Governor and six-sevenths of the Assembly, 
 and pledges the Proprietor to observe inviolably 
 the first article concerning liberty of conscience. 
 
 Lastly the Proprietor binds himself and heirs 
 
66 A Quaker Experiment in Governmeni. 
 
 not to destroy the liberties of the Charter, and 
 declares such actions if attempted to be of no 
 force or effect. 
 
 Nothing was said in the Charter about a veto 
 of laws by the Governor except such as is implied 
 in the fourth article. This seems, however, 
 never to have been questioned. When the Pro- 
 prietor was in the Province his assent was neces- 
 sary to all laws. When absent the Deputy Gov- 
 ernor was to assent, but he was governed by 
 general proprietary instructions. While ex- 
 cluded from law-making, the Council could ex- 
 ercise a salutary restraint upon both the Assem- 
 bly and the Governor. It was composed of eight 
 or twelve wise and solid men, and being ap- 
 pointed by the Proprietors largely to safeguard 
 their interests, was out of direct reach of pop- 
 ular clamor. The Deputy Governors were usu- 
 ally instructed to perform no act without its con- 
 sent. This gave it a valuable conservative place 
 in government. 
 
 " Thus did Penn perfect his government. An 
 executive dependent for its support on the peo- 
 ple; all subordinate elective oiBcers elected by 
 the people; the judiciary dependent for its ex- 
 istence on the people; all legislation originating 
 exclusively with the people; no forts, no armed 
 
(=; ^ "^ 
 
 
 H .-K 
 
 ^ zl Z 
 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 67 
 
 force, no militia; no established church; no 
 difference of rank; and a harbor open for the 
 reception of all mankind of every nation, of 
 children of every language and every creed; — ■ 
 could it be that the invisible power of reason 
 would be able to order and restrain, to punish 
 crime and to protect property? " * 
 
 Before entering upon the development of the 
 principles of democracy and civil liberty in the 
 Province, it will be interesting to know the ex- 
 tent to which the Quakers controlled the govern- 
 ment. "While William Penn was in his usual 
 health his influence was of course very great. 
 His proprietorship in its relation to the govern- 
 ment, to his quit-rents due from lands sold, to 
 his private ownership of vast acres of unoccupied 
 land, as well as his personal character, purity 
 and simplicity of life, the value of his religious 
 ministry, and his great abilities, gave him a com- 
 manding influence. He was in the country in 
 active control in 1682-4, and again in 1699- 
 1701. In 1712 he was seized with a stroke of 
 apoplexy, and was unable to do business until 
 1718, when he died. During this time his 
 affairs were managed with great ability by his 
 
 * Bancroft's " History of the United States." 
 
68 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 wife, who was, later, his executrix. After her 
 death his sons by his second wife inherited his 
 proprietary interests. They gave up their rights 
 in the Society of Friends, and in general did not 
 sympathize with it. During the latter part 
 of the time covered by this narrative, they were 
 in almost constant opposition to the Quaker ele- 
 ments of the Pennsylvania population. This 
 was more due to the fact of diverse interests, 
 arising from their private ownership of land, 
 than to any denominational cause. The Quaker 
 Assembly was the exponent of the democratic 
 feeling of the country, and was in frequent col- 
 lision with proprietary instructions and proprie- 
 tary claims. This oppostion may have been 
 strengthened by a feeling of the sons' desertion 
 of a cause with which the father was so promi- 
 nently identified, but sooner or later feudal in- 
 terests and popular interests would inevitably 
 clash. 
 
 There was only one Deputy Governor who 
 was a Quaker. When Penn returned to England 
 in 1684 the executive responsibility was left 
 with a council of five, of which Thomas Lloyd 
 was President. This Presidency, involving the 
 practical headship of the Province, was retained 
 till 1688, when Captain John Blackwell was ap- 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 69 
 
 pointed Lieutenant Governor. This arrange- 
 ment only lasted about a year, and Thomas 
 Lloyd again came into power, as President of the 
 Council, and in 1691 as Deputy Governor. In 
 1693 Colonel Fletcher was appointed Governor 
 by William III., who had taken the govern- 
 ment from Penn, and in 1694 William Mark- 
 ham received the same position from the Proprie- 
 tor, who had regained his Province. Thomas 
 Lloyd was a minister in the Society of Friends, 
 much loved and trusted by all, though at least 
 one of his acts led to Penn's very severe reproba- 
 tion.* He was a younger son in a Welsh family 
 of good standing, an Oxford graduate, and a 
 man of retiring disposition, who accepted office 
 with reluctance as a duty and gave it up with 
 glad relief. Finding a number of disorderly 
 characters frequenting the city he would go out 
 at nights and give them religious advice. The 
 combination of Deputy Governor and Quaker 
 preacher was too much for the boisterous spirits. 
 
 * " I too mournfully remember how noble a law I had of 
 exports and imports. But Thomas Lloyd, very unhappily for 
 me, my family and himself, complimented some few selfish 
 spirits with the repeal thereof." — Penn to Logan. Penn 
 and Logan Correspondence, 11., page 70. 
 
70 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 and Philadelphia became under his control the 
 most decorous of cities. He died in 1694, leav- 
 ing a place -which could not be filled by any 
 member of the Society of Friends.* There may, 
 however, have been other reasons why Penn 
 preferred Governors who were not Friends. Or- 
 ders of a character difficult for a Quaker to ex- 
 ecute might at any time come from England, f 
 William Penn had received power in his Charter 
 from Charles II. to train soldiers and to make 
 war. If the King should require warlike meas- 
 ures at the hands of the Governor it was con- 
 venient to have a Deputy without any scruples 
 
 * Edward Shippen, a Quaker, performed as President of 
 the CouDcil,. in 1702-3, the duties of Deputy Governor in 
 an interval between appointments, and James Logan in a 
 similar way in 1736-7. 
 
 t The Deputy Governors after Penn's second visit were: 
 
 Andrew Hamilton 1701 
 
 John Evans 1703 
 
 Charles Gookin 1709 
 
 William Keith 1717 
 
 Patrick Gordon 1726 
 
 George Thomas 1738 
 
 James Hamilton 1748 
 
 Robert Hunter Morris 1754 
 
 William Denny 1756 
 
 James Hamilton 1759 
 
5*°1t)«f 
 
 EDWARD SHIPPED. 
 
 FEOM A PAINTING IN POSSESSION OF EDWAKD SHIPPEN, 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 71 
 
 of conscience to stand in the way of organizing 
 militia and erecting fortifications.* 
 
 During the life time of William Penn the 
 Council was Quaker by a considerable majority. 
 His widow directed the Deputy to appoint at 
 least half the Councillors from the Society, f 
 After her death the Council naturally repre- 
 sented the changed feeling of the heirs, so that 
 the whole executive branch was in certain re- 
 spects disavowed by Friends. James Logan or his 
 son William, both Friends, retained a place there 
 through nearly all the proprietary regime. In 
 early time many members were ministers. 
 
 IsTothing more clearly shows the entire break- 
 down of the line between ministers and laity 
 than the way they exercised indiscriminately all 
 public offices. Whether Quakers or not, the 
 
 * As a illustration: Under date of 29tli of Fifth month, 
 1702, Logan writes to Penn: "I have not much to advise 
 of more than by the last packet arrived, with orders di- 
 rected to thee, or the commander-in-chief of this to pro- 
 claim a war, which was accordingly done on the 6th day 
 last, the 24th inst." 
 
 t " By order nine of twelve of my Council are Quakers, 
 the Magistrates in the same proportion, and the Assembly 
 twenty-three Quakers to three churchmen." — Governor 
 Gookin to Secretary, March 16th, 1716-7. " Papers Pelat- 
 ing to the American Church, Pennsylvania," page 109. 
 
72 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Council was composed of men of attainments 
 and character, and the place was one of honor 
 and usefulness, even after all law-making powers 
 were taken from it. 
 
 The Quakers, however, revelled in complete 
 possession of the Assembly from 1682 to 1756. 
 The first meeting at Chester in the former 
 year was to have consisted of all the freemen 
 of the Province. But the counties sent up 
 only twelve men each, thirty-six from Penn- 
 sylvania and thirty-six from Delaware, asking 
 Penn to accept this as a competent legisla- 
 ture. The Quaker immigration had not set 
 in very largely, and the Swedes and Dutch 
 already in the country, particularly in the 
 lower counties, had a majority of one in the 
 Assembly. The lines seem to have been drawn 
 on Quaker membership, and in choosing a 
 speaker the absence of two of the non-Quaker 
 members alone enabled Friends to organize it.* 
 
 * Letter of William Penn to Jasper Yeates, " Pennsyl- 
 vania Magazine," Vol. VI., page 469. This letter contains 
 many interesting features concerning Penn's attitude 
 towards the government of his colony. Yeates had evi- 
 dently reproached Penn for securing too much for his own 
 family. Penn calls attention in reply to the fact that he had 
 only three votes in joint legislature of 272 members, and 
 after telling how near the Quakers were to losing control as 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 73 
 
 After this there seems to have been no question 
 of ascendency. Friends were elected not infre- 
 quently against their own protests. After the 
 separation of the three lower counties, the As- 
 sembly came still more into their hands. In 1Y55 
 a militia law is thus prefaced : " Whereas this 
 Province was settled by (and a majority of the 
 Assembly have ever since been of) the people 
 called Quakers, etc." Franklin speaks of them 
 in 1747 as " That wealthy and powerful body of 
 people who have ever since the war governed our 
 elections and filled almost every seat in our As- 
 sembly." * They were partly aided in this by a 
 somewhat inequitable division of assemblymen 
 which gave a double representation to the three 
 Quaker counties — Philadelphia, Chester and 
 Bucks. It arose in this way. After 1701 it had 
 been decided to constitute the Assembly of four 
 members from each county, and if ever the lower 
 
 stated above, says that many Friends wanted him to take 
 back part of the power he had granted them. But at this 
 date he does not indicate any intention to do it. The 
 pressure probably became stronger later, for in 1683 Jic, 
 accepted the veto power. 
 
 * A Church of England clergyman writes: " We can have 
 no expectation of being a parish while seven-eighths of our 
 Assembly are Quakers."—" Papers Relating to the Church 
 of Pennsylvania," page 107. 
 
74 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 counties separated their quota should be added to 
 the three Pennsylvania counties then in exist- 
 ence. Wlien new counties were added, they came 
 in on the basis of the original numbers. This 
 was excused by the ideas of property representa- 
 tion then prevalent, and on this basis was not un- 
 reasonable. It gave, however, double power to 
 the counties which would naturally choose Quak- 
 er representatives. In the country districts of 
 these counties there was a Quaker majority prob- 
 ably up to 1740 or 1750. In Philadelphia city 
 there was never a Quaker majority except possi- 
 bly for a very few years after 1683. In 1702 it 
 has been estimated that the population of the city 
 was equal to that of the country, and that one- 
 third of the former and two-thirds of the latter 
 were Quakers.* It was about this date, there- 
 fore, that they became a minority, and the 
 minority grew smaller by immigration of others 
 with each succeeding year. The estimates of 
 their number in 1756 vary from one-sixth to 
 one-fourth of the total population. The exact 
 numbers will never be known, as no church cen- 
 suses were ever taken. 
 
 • James Logan. Penn-Logan Correspondence, I., page 
 102. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 75 
 
 Though thus in the minority, in 1740 there 
 Avere only three non-Quaker members of the As- 
 sembly,* and in 1T55, before they had them- 
 selves taken any measures to give up their scats, 
 twenty-eight of the thirty-six members were 
 Friends.f The responsibility for the actions of 
 the Assembly therefore during these years, so 
 far as their religious beliefs affected their duties 
 as legislators, properly belongs to them. 
 
 "With the exception of the unequal repre- 
 sentation, disproportionate as to numbers, among 
 the counties, there is nothing to indicate any im- 
 proper efforts to retain power in the hands of 
 Eriends. Their root principle of denominational 
 equality, never varied from and probably never 
 seriously impeached, would prevent this.t They 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine," X., page 291. 
 
 t Pemberton Papers. 
 
 t Shepherd, in hia " History of Proprietary Government 
 in Pennsylvania," makes a natural error when he says 
 (foot-note, page 548) : " The Quakers even went so far as 
 to make up their party ticket at their yearly religious 
 meetings." Any one familiar with the methods and spirit 
 of a Yearly Meeting would know the impossibility of such 
 an action. The authority for Dr. Shepherd'8 statement is 
 the following from The Sbippen Papers. Edward Shippen 
 writes under date September 19th, 1756: " No ticket is yet 
 
76 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 did feel a deep responsibility for the conduct of 
 a state based largely on their principles and in 
 which they had been the leading denomination 
 from the start. The principles were on trial. 
 It was an experiment, a " holy " one perhaps, 
 but more than this was not claimed. It would 
 be cowardly to yield their places to the clamor of 
 enemies at home and in England, so long as in 
 honest elections and by honorable methods they 
 were legitimately chosen to places of power. 
 There were among them ambitious and design- 
 ing men who made the most of their opportuni- 
 ties to advance their personal influence. But if 
 there are any adequate proofs of public immoral- 
 ity or personal aggrandizement of a serious char- 
 acter, or unrighteous expedients to perpetuate 
 church control or to establish a religion by state 
 aid, or as a church to retain political ascendency, 
 they have escaped a tolerably careful scrutiny of 
 public and meeting records. Until 1750 they 
 
 settled for this county (Philadelphia), nor can any be 
 until the result of the Yearly Meeting at Burlington is 
 known." At first sight this seems to confirm the state- 
 ment. The facts are, as will be seen in a succeeding chap- 
 ter, that both London and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings 
 were about to make strenuous efforts to prevent any Friend 
 taking a seat in the Assembly, and several possible candi- 
 dates refused to offer themselves till the action of the 
 Yearly Meeting should be known. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 77 
 
 probably voted for their own members, but the 
 election tnmed very largely on the German vote, 
 "which from similarity of religious and political 
 views naturally went to them, while the Scotch- 
 Irish Presbyterians of the frontiers and the Epis- 
 copalians of the city of Philadelphia supported 
 the Proprietary party of the later days. The 
 Quakers were never outvoted so long as they con- 
 sented to be candidates. 
 
 How the parties in those days selected their 
 candidates, what substitute they had for the 
 modern caucus, and what machinery they used 
 to make their leadership effective, may not be 
 known. The Quakers seem to have become effi- 
 cient politicians. They elected their best men, 
 and kept them continually in office. 
 
 Resuming now quite briefly the political his- 
 tory of the country so far as the preservation 
 of civil rights is concerned, we find, as we might 
 expect from the nature of the country whence 
 the immigrants had come, and the age in which 
 they lived, that they had the instincts for free- 
 dom, the suspicion of any power but popular 
 power, sufficiently strong and sufficiently close 
 to the surface. For the first twenty years the 
 politics of the country is full of bickerings and 
 difficulties over not verv large matters. When 
 
78 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Thomas Lloyd was in power after Penn's first 
 absence, there was some degree of harmony 
 between the executive and the legislature. But 
 Blackwell and Fletcher and Markham each was 
 at the helm at different times, and each was en- 
 gaged in a struggle with the popular Assembly 
 which ended ingloriously for him. Blackwell, 
 who came in in 1688, was an old soldier, son-in- 
 law to Cromwell's General Lambert, with, no 
 tact, but excellent intentions. He meant to rule 
 the country; he was under the impression that 
 Penn gave him some sort of power, and he un- 
 dertook in his own wisdom to revise the Council 
 then elected by the people. But Thomas Lloyd, 
 Quaker preacher though he was, proved a most 
 doughty and persistent opponent and effective 
 champion of popular rights, and would not be 
 put out. Samuel Richardson, in words whicli 
 remind one immediately of the spirit of English 
 Puritanism of the earlier times, refused to o^vn 
 the Governor, and when asked to withraw while 
 his case was being considered replied, " I will not 
 withdraw. I was not brought hither by thee, 
 and I will not go out by thy order. I was sent 
 by the people, and thou hast no power to put 
 me out." * There was nothing for Blackwell to 
 
 * Col, Rec, Vol. I., p. 20. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 79 
 
 do but to give up the fight and to ask for a recall. 
 When it came he no doubt sincerely told the 
 Council, " 'Tis a good day; I have given and I 
 do unfeignedly give God thanks for it (which 
 are not in vain words), for to say no worse I was 
 very unequally yoked." Thus ended the first 
 attempt to govern a body of Quakers by a soldier. 
 After this Thomas Lloyd came in again as 
 President of the Council and then Deputy Gov- 
 ernor, and harmony reigned for a little time. 
 But the lower counties (the present State of Del- 
 aware), connected with the Province but not 
 largely settled by Quakers, did not work harmo- 
 niously with the others. George Keith got up a 
 religious schism which developed into a political 
 opposition to the dominant powers. There was a 
 growing party of Churchmen, which afterwards, 
 under the leadership of Colonel Quarry, an offi- 
 cer appointed by the Crown to attend to admi- 
 ralty cases and hence independent of the provin- 
 cial government, was entirely out of harmony 
 with Quaker notions on war and oaths, and was 
 striving to discredit the government in England 
 so as to secure the forfeiture of the Charter and 
 the establishment of a Crown colony. The As- 
 sembly was rent internally by dissensions in ef- 
 forts to punish members for disrespect and to 
 
80 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 gain power from the Governor and Council, and 
 seemed to justify Logan's complaint that they 
 were intoxicated with the liberty to which they 
 were unnsed. To crown all William Penn was 
 thrown into prison on the charge of Jacobinism, 
 his government taken from him, and Governor 
 Pletcher of New York appointed to manage the 
 disordered but not turbulent Province. 
 
 Thomas Lloyd and many other Friends re- 
 fused positions under him, acting on Penn's ad- 
 vice " to insist on their patent with wisdom and 
 moderation." The old laws were, however, de- 
 clared invalid. " These laws and that model of 
 government is dissolved and at an end. . . . 
 The King's power and Mr. Penn's must not come 
 in the scales together." This dispute was long in 
 settling. The Assembly adhered tenaciously to 
 their old privileges, and the nineteen months of 
 Fletcher's rule saw very little done, but nothing 
 lost to the cause of liberty. 
 
 Upon the restoration of Penn to liberty and 
 power in 1694, he appointed Markbam as his 
 Deputy, and this arrangement lasted until his 
 return to the colony in 1699. Markham held to 
 what he could, but was not able to resist the 
 growing desires of the Assemblymen under the 
 able leadership of David Lloyd. They secured 
 
Democracy and Civil Liljerty. 81 
 
 the charter of 1696, giving them the power of 
 originating, as well as vetoing bills, thus re- 
 ducing the Council to a co-ordinate rather than 
 a superior body, a reduction still further con- 
 tinued in 1701, when it was shorn of all part in 
 law-making. The need of money by the Gov- 
 ernor was a perfect boon to the Assembly, which, 
 English-like, coupled its grant with conditions 
 requiring unwelcome concessions from the pro- 
 prietary deputy. 
 
 An unfortunate ecclesiastical schism was not 
 without its political effects. George Keith had 
 been a doughty defender of Quakerism. He was 
 perhaps the best scholar of his Society, had been 
 associated with Barclay in the preparation of the 
 Apology, and with Fox and Penn in their trav- 
 els in Holland and Germany. He had proven 
 the sincerity of his convictions by his sufferings, 
 and when, in 1689, he came to Philadelphia as 
 the first Headmaster of the School which is now 
 the William Penn Charter School, it was with 
 the highest reputation for Quaker orthodoxy, as 
 well as linguistic, scientific and philosophical at- 
 tainments. A change came over his views very 
 soon after this. It is unnecessary to accept any 
 of the reasons given by Quaker historians for 
 this change; all cannot be correct. The times 
 
82 A Quaker Experiment in -Government. 
 
 were strenuous, and strong language was used on 
 both sides. Political controversy raged fiercely, 
 and some of the tenets advocated were crude and 
 trifling. Keith's charges against his former 
 brethren were the exaltation of the Inward Light 
 at the expense of the historic Christ and the 
 Bible, too gTeat use of outward resistance by 
 magistrates, and the practice of capital punish- 
 ment. He had many sympathizers, but the 
 Yearly Meeting decided against him, and a sepa- 
 rate meeting was the result. The Foxian and the 
 Keithian Quakers became convenient terms of 
 distinction in the writings of the day, and op- 
 posed each other in church and state. 
 
 Iveith appealed to England with similar re- 
 sults. Plis learning and his preaching made him 
 friends, but the decision, carefully made, was 
 adverse to his claims. After a vain attempt to 
 divide Friends, he joined the Episcopal Church, 
 and spent the rest of his life in refuting the doc- 
 trines he had done so much to establish. He 
 never denied his inconsistency. He paid a sec- 
 ond visit to America, as the first missionary of 
 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 
 and between 1700 and 1704 traveled from Mas- 
 sachusetts to Carolina, setting up churches. He 
 claims to have induced about five hundred peo- 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 83 
 
 pie in Pennsylvania, mostly Eriends, to join the 
 Episcopal Church, and large numbers of Pres- 
 byterians in other colonies. His " Christian 
 Quakers " had disappeared as an organized body 
 by 1700, some returning to the fold, more join- 
 ing the Baptists and Episcopalians. 
 
 Politically, they associated themselves some- 
 times with David Lloyd and the democrats, 
 sometimes with Quarry and the Churchmen; 
 and by the rancor they received and returned, 
 added greatly to the disunion of the time. 
 
 Notwithstanding these continuous dissensions 
 among the rulers, petty and great, the country 
 as a whole was peaceful and prosperous. The 
 farmers tilled and cleared their lands, and built 
 up their homes undisturbed; they went to their 
 semi-weekly meetings, and managed their church 
 affairs generally in a sweet spirit of brotherly 
 love. Merchants and traders carried on increas- 
 ing business, and laid the foundations of con- 
 siderable fortunes. Immigrants flocked in at a 
 great rate, and found homes and occupations in 
 pleasing contrast to their state in Europe. 
 When Penn landed, in 1699, he found a govern- 
 ment somewhat in confusion, from an experi- 
 ment of tyros not altogether " holy," but a peo- 
 ple in the main contented and satisfied, and 
 
84 A Quaker Experiment in Government. ^ 
 
 containing all the elements of liberty and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 Some of the Philadelphia merchants were 
 making much money by trade. Samuel Car- 
 penter, prominent in the Council and in meet- 
 ing, had extensive interests in lands, mills and 
 commerce, and was, about 1700, the wealthiest 
 man in the province. Isaac ISTorris and Edward 
 Shippen — the latter of whom was appointed by 
 Penn as the first Mayor of the city — were also 
 men of large enterprise and resources. Phila- 
 delphia had drawn to herself, very early in her 
 history, a large number of energetic and wealthy 
 merchants, and her commerce exceeded that of 
 Xew York. Her farmers, too, were prosperous 
 and happy. 
 
 Penn's presence composed, at least super- 
 ficially, most of the differences. ISTo one ques- 
 tioned his authority. He was displeased with the 
 too great tendencies to license, as he deemed 
 them, but wisely accepted the inevitable, and 
 granted such changes in fundamental law as 
 were desired. Plis two years — all too short a 
 time for the work to be done — were full of con- 
 ferences with the Council and Assembly, of 
 visits to and from Indian chiefs, of religious 
 services in the numerous meeting houses which 
 
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Democracy and Civil Liberty. 85 
 
 were now scattered over the three upper coun- 
 ties. Matters were left in quietness, though for 
 a few years an unfortunate choice of a Deputy 
 Governor delayed the better days. 
 
 Three political parties sprang into existence 
 on Penn's departure. There was first the party 
 devoted to proprietary interests and sympathies, 
 embracing the more wealthy and highly edu- 
 cated Quakers, principally of Philadelphia, of 
 which in a little time James Logan came to be 
 recognized as the leader. Secondly, there was 
 the popular party, led by David Lloyd, com- 
 posed mainly of country Friends, and reinforced 
 in time by sympathetic Germans and other 
 liberty-loving people; and thirdly, there was an 
 opposition non-Quaker party, not strong in 
 Council or Assembly, whose ultimate object was 
 to make a crown colony and an established 
 church. 
 
 James Logan and David Lloyd were such 
 prominent men in early Pennsylvania, that they 
 deserve more than a passing notice. 
 
 James Logan was born in Ireland in 1674 of 
 Scotch parents, who were Friends. When Wil- 
 liam Penn was coming to Pennsylvania, in 1699, 
 he brought Logan with him as secretary and 
 agent. He held successively the posts of Provin- 
 
86 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 cial Secretary, Commissioiier of Property, Chief 
 Justice, and, as President of the Council, was for 
 about two years the Governor of the Province. 
 He was an excellent scholar, to his friends an 
 agreeable gentleman, thoroughly faithful to the 
 Proprietor, who in turn placed implicit confi- 
 dence in his judgment of other men, of great in- 
 fluence in the Council, of which he was almost 
 continuously a member, but not always courte- 
 ous and condescending to men of smaller abilities 
 find fewer advantages.* 
 
 He gave very censorious verdicts of his oppo- 
 nents, calling them " rogues," " composition of 
 vinegar and wormwood," " lurking snake," etc. 
 These were evidently written in the heat of 
 partisan controversy, and unfortunately influ- 
 enced Penn's mind against some who ought to 
 have been his warmest friends and supporters. 
 JSTo more faithful agent for the proprietor and 
 his widow could have been found, though one 
 could conceive a more judicious one. 
 
 In later years he retired to his place at Sten- 
 ton, and largely gave himself over to literary 
 work. He wrote several books in Latin, and 
 translated " De Senectute," which was printed 
 
 ' Proud, " History of Pennsylvania," Vol. I., page 478. 
 
KOBEKT PEOUD. 
 
 AFTHOT; <iF " IIISTOIiY I IF PENXSYLVANIA, 
 
 THK FlilF.NllS' SCIKinL. 
 
 AMI AN INKTlircTOR IN 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 87 
 
 by Benjamin Franklin in 1744. He gave to the 
 people a valuable collection of books, now incor- 
 porated in the Philadelphia Library. 
 
 He was not a very influential member of the 
 Society of Friends in religions matters, partly 
 on account of his views on defensive war; but 
 his character and attainments were greatly re- 
 spected. 
 
 David Lloyd was a "Welshman. He arrived 
 in the colony in 1686, commissioned by Penn as 
 Attorney General. He was an excellent lawyer, 
 exemplary in all the relations of private life, of 
 great force of character and commanding in- 
 fluence. Were it not for the dark colors in 
 which he is painted by Logan, Norris, Proud, 
 and other authorities, we should regard him as a 
 noble fighter for popular rights. He seems, 
 however, to have been of a contentious spirit, 
 and opposed Penn by methods and in words 
 which neither the circumstances could justify, 
 nor good political morality commend. He had 
 probably honesty of purpose in his aims, and in 
 the main a good cause. He was intense, dog- 
 matic, unbending, perhaps politically unscrupu- 
 lous in his early life; but later he became softer 
 and more gracious. He never failed to be the 
 trusted leader to his party so long as he was in 
 
88 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 the Assembly. The cause to which he gave his 
 gTeat energies and political abilities was the 
 canse of the future, and the net result of his 
 labors was to sustain in the colony strong at- 
 tachment to the principles we now consider to 
 be fundamentally American. He was a Quaker 
 in good standing, at first living in Philadelphia; 
 after 1710 in Chester. 
 
 It is interesting to note that Logan and Lloyd 
 drew together in later years, working for the 
 good of the State, and that Lloyd joined in an 
 affectionate memorial to Penn after his death. 
 
 Penn left his Province in 1701, with Andrew 
 Hamilton as Deputy Governor, and the play of 
 political forces immediately began. The Church 
 party, under Colonel Quarry, small but active, 
 would ally itself for the time with David Lloyd, 
 who, however, was far from sympathizing with 
 it. The main strength, however, lay in Eng- 
 lish sympathy.* The malcontents were also 
 with Lloyd. " It is the very leaven of George 
 Keith " (now mostly Episcopalians), " left among 
 
 * The feeling between the Churclimen and the Quakers 
 was quite severe. 
 
 " I hope your grace being at tlie helm will be mindful o£ 
 us at the stern, when Providence shall think to bless ua 
 "with a qualified government under his royal majesty; then 
 
Democracy and Civil Liherty. 89 
 
 b 
 
 the people at his separation, and now fermenting 
 np again," * writes Logan in 1706. Isaac ISTorris 
 also says in 1709: "Most of the sticklers in the 
 Assembly are either Keithians or those who stand 
 fast and loose with Eriends." f 
 
 Governor Hamilton, unfortunately for the 
 Province, died after about a year of administra- 
 tion, and Penn sent over John Evans, a Welsh- 
 
 Christianity will flourish in this Province, Quakerism will 
 be rooted out, and the church will be more than con- 
 querer." July 12th, 1700. " Papers Eelating to the Church 
 in Pennsylvania," page 16. 
 
 The Episcopalians evidently desired the establishment of 
 a state church, and this deepened the Quaker opposition, 
 poUtical and otherwise. This feeling very much softened 
 towards Revolutionary times, and we find James Pember- 
 ton lamenting the growth of the Presbyterians at the ex- 
 pense of the Episcopalians. The Scotch-Irish Presby- 
 terians, in many respects the Quaker antipodes, were their 
 great political opponents of the pre-Revolutionary days. 
 This culminated in the " Paxton boys " invasion of 1763-4. 
 
 Even in early days all the losses of Quakerism went to 
 the Church of England. George Eoss writes, under date 
 of August 28, 1716: " But though we and the Quakers do 
 thus differ widely, yet 'tis observable that when any of 
 them do leave their own way and become Christians, they 
 generally make their application to your missionary for 
 baptism, instead of going to the dissenting teachers, who, 
 though ten to one of ua, do not count one Quaker to ten 
 that come over to the Church." 
 
 * Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. II., page 190. 
 
 t Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol II., page 422. 
 
90 A Qualcer Experiment in Government. 
 
 man, " an honest and discreet young man," as 
 he styles Lim. Penn was wofully deceived, as 
 often happened in his choice of men. He 
 writes most enthusiastically about each new ap- 
 pointment, and after events usually were a 
 strange contradiction to his judgment. Evans, 
 if personally honest, was certainly not discreet. 
 A worse choice could scarcely have been made to 
 govern a colony of strict Quakers. He unneces- 
 sarily shocked their anti-martial principles by 
 pressing forward his schemes for colonial dc' 
 fense. He tried to force them into compromis' 
 ing measures by a false report that the French 
 fleet was in the Delaware, and rode through 
 Philadelphia asking all to arm. To this the 
 Quakers responded by quieting attending their 
 mid-week meeting. In company with William 
 Penn, Jr., the degenerate son of the proprietor, 
 he engaged in festivities in the poorer haunts 
 of the city, and in the Indian towns, which 
 shocked the sense of stem morality to which the 
 people's thoughts were attuned. He tried to col- 
 lectafine for disrespect from an honest but rather 
 irascible old Quaker minister and Assemblyman, 
 who cried out : " He is but a boy. We'll kick him 
 out," and won only contempt for his persecution. 
 He persuaded the Delaware authorities to erect 
 
- -if ^t>*," 
 
 ISAAC NOERIS. 
 
 FROM A PAINTING IN POSSESSION OF THE FAMILY 
 OF ISAAC NOKP.IS. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberly. 91 
 
 a fort and levy a tax on Philadelphia commerce, 
 which was a violation of charter. Three friends 
 of his own party — Kichard Hill, Isaac Norris 
 and Samuel Preston — ran their boat past the 
 fort in spite of the fire, and when the commander 
 pursued, carried him off and landed him at 
 Salem, ISTew Jersey. This broke up the exaction 
 of " powder money." Altogether Evans was a 
 great failure as Governor. Logan did his best to 
 advise his chief, but finally counseled Penn to 
 recall him, as also did the Assembly. It is not to 
 be wondered at that the anti-proprietary party, 
 under Lloyd, ruled the Assembly, and the friends 
 of Penn hung their heads. 
 
 In 1704 a remonstrance was sent to the Pro- 
 prietor, which was the most severe stroke he ever 
 received. It was the work of Lloyd, signed 
 by him as Speaker of the Assembly, and if we 
 are to believe Isaac ISTorris and .Tames Logan, the 
 signattire was effected after adjournment, when 
 he was no longer Speaker, the address was 
 never read to the Assembly, and in order to pre- 
 serve the appearance of regularity, the minutes 
 were interpolated. That the people had some 
 ground to complain of the choice of Deputy Gov- 
 ernor may well be admitted, but this was quite 
 as much Penn's misfortune as theirs, and was 
 
92 A Qualcer Experiment in Guvernment. 
 
 only an error of judgment. That tliey had just 
 then cause to complain of the hardships the Eng- 
 lish government was putting on them in the mat- 
 ter of oaths, was also true, but Penn was doing 
 all he could to remedy it. The other charges 
 of oppression " about our civil rights by the Pro- 
 prietary," in various details were too trivial to 
 be so seriously enumerated and intemperately ad- 
 vanced. There was an animus about the paper 
 worse than the complaints, which hurt the good- 
 hearted Proprietor deeply. He had spent his for- 
 tune, and was in debt as a result of his Pennsyl- 
 vania burden. He thought he had given every 
 reasonable concession, more than were enjoyed 
 elsewhere, and if things were wrong he had ex- 
 pected kindly and reasonable co-operation, not 
 bitter, unfriendly and unreasonable attack. 
 
 That Priends were to some extent on Lloyd's 
 side in the matter, is evident.* In their minds 
 he was the champion of personal liberty, to 
 which the country Friends especially were in- 
 ordinately attached. But that they still held to 
 Penn is proven by the next election, in 1705, 
 
 * " He carries so fair with our weak country people, and 
 those that long looked upon him to be the champion of 
 Friends' cause in government matters in former times, that 
 there is no possessing them." 
 
 Logan to Penn, Correspondence, Vol. II., page 119. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 93 
 
 when Lloyd's party was left in a small minority 
 in an Assembly of which all the members were 
 Friends except one.* Lloyd himself got in by 
 the election of the city after being left out by 
 the county, but lost his speakership. 
 
 The doings of Evans, however, restored 
 Lloyd's majority for several years following, 
 and the attempted impeachment of Logan on 
 
 * Even the quiet Friends did not get through this elec- 
 tion without reproach. " This meeting, understanding 
 of some disorderly carriage, language and deportment at 
 Chester, the last election, by some professing truth, the 
 meeting appoints to draw something m reprehen- 
 sion thereof, and bring the same to the next Quarterly 
 Meeting." 
 
 The next meeting adopted their report. " This meeting 
 understands there have been some persons that make pro- 
 fession of the blessed truth and peaceable spirit of the 
 Lord Jesus with us, but for want of keeping to it in them- 
 selves contrary fruits appear, so as to take liberty to speak 
 and act as they please. . . Some in this county at the 
 last election, where their moderation should have ap- 
 peared, but other fruits were brought forth, and seditious 
 words and practices, insinuations and turbulent behavior 
 . under a fair color of liberty and privilege to pro- 
 mote their sinister ends, to take revenge on those against 
 whom they have taken a disgust. The consideration of 
 these things hath brought a weighty concern upon this 
 meeting that any should sacrifice the peace of the people 
 to a private revenge. This meeting desires all monthly 
 meetings to deal with such, and if they prove stubborn and 
 unruly, and will not be reclaimed, then to acquit our holy 
 profession on them." 
 
 Chester Quarterly Meeting, 1706. 
 
94 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 certain charges relating to the tenure of office 
 of the judges, was the result. Logan defended 
 himself vigorously, and finally went to Eng- 
 land, where he was triumphantly acquitted a 
 little later, both legally and morally. 
 
 The people seemed to be tired of the bicker- 
 ings of the Assembly, and in 1710 elected a new 
 one, not one old member being returned, and 
 every one friendly to Penn. For the two remain- 
 ing years of the Proprietor's healthy life matters 
 went smoothly. Evans' successor, Charles Gook- 
 in, was a reputable gentleman, of a difficult dis- 
 position, and probably insane the latter part of 
 his career. He did not harmonize with the As- 
 sembly, nor indeed with his Council, but did not 
 greatly shock the people. David Lloyd was 
 temporarily out of public life, and when he re- 
 turned it was with a more kindly spirit. 
 
 The year 1710 was the beginning of a better 
 time for Pennsylvania. A succession of fairly 
 good Governors ensued. The people settled 
 down under the wise charter of 1701, which 
 granted all reasonable liberties. Immigration 
 was intensely active. Material prosperity de- 
 veloped at a rapid pace. Questions connected 
 with oaths were somewhat troublesome, and 
 small war clouds caused occasional uneasiness to 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 95 
 
 conscienticiis Friends, but in the main peace 
 reigned. 
 
 Bad as some of Lloyd's methods were, there 
 can be no doubt that they made Pennsylvania a 
 democratic State, tenacious of liberty. A dif- 
 ferent result would undoubtedly have ensued 
 had the more dignified, but more aristocratic, 
 system of Logan and Norris and the pro- 
 prietary party, remained unchallenged in power. 
 Lloyd only voiced a very prevalent feeling which 
 could not be restrained. 
 
 The heart of the people had always been with 
 Penn. They believed in his liberality, his sin- 
 cerity, his wisdom. Had he remained with them 
 as Governor, or sent sympathetic and discreet 
 deputies, there would have been practical una- 
 nimity in his support; at least there would have 
 been no permanent opposition party. When his 
 honest and pathetic address came to them in 
 1710, after his triumphant vindication by the 
 election, every heart responded, and with this v/e 
 may fitly close the account of the not very har- 
 monious early period of Pennsylvania legislative 
 history: 
 
 London, 29th Fourth month, 1710. 
 My Old Friends: — It is a mournful consideration, anrf 
 the cause of deep affliction to me, that I am forces', hy 
 the oppressions and disappointments which have fallen to 
 
96 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 my share in this life, to speak to the people of that Prov- 
 ince in a language I once hoped I should never have had 
 occasion to use. But the many troubles and oppositions 
 that I have met with from thence oblige me, in plainness 
 and freedom, to expostulate with you concerning the causes 
 of them. 
 
 When it pleased God to open a way for me to settle 
 that colony, 1 had reason to expect a solid comfort from 
 the services done to many hundreds of people; and it 
 was no small satisfaction to me that I have not been dis- 
 appointed in seeing them prosper and growing up to a 
 flourishing country, blessed with liberty, ease and plenty, 
 beyond what many of themselves could expect, and want- 
 ing nothing to make them happy but what, with a right 
 temper of mind and prudent conduct, they might give 
 themselves. But, alas! as to my part, instead of reap- 
 ing the like advantages, some of the greatest of my trou- 
 bles have arisen from thence. The many combats I have 
 engaged in, the great pains and incredible expense for your 
 welfare and ease, to the decay of my former estate, of 
 which (however some there would represent it) I too sen- 
 sibly feel the effects, mth the undeserved opposition I 
 have met with from thence, sink me into sorrow that, if 
 not supported by a superior hand, might have overwhelmed 
 me long ago. And I cannot but think it hard measure 
 that, while that has proved a land of freedom and flourish- 
 ing, it should become to me, by whose means it was prin- 
 cipally made a country, the cause of grief, trouble and 
 poverty. 
 
 For this reason I must desire you all, even of all pro- 
 fessions and degrees, (for although all have not been en- 
 gaged in the measures that have been taken, yet every man 
 who has interest there is, or must be, concerned in them 
 by their effects) — I must therefore, I say, desire you all, in 
 a serious and true weightiness of mind, to consider what 
 you are or have been doing: why matters must be carried 
 on with these divisions and contentions, and "R'hat real 
 causes have been given on my side for that opposition to 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 97 
 
 me, and my interest, which I have met with, as if I were 
 an enemy and not a friend, after all I have done and spent 
 here and there. I am sure 1 know not of any cause what- 
 soever. Were I sensible you really wanted anything of me, 
 in the relation between us, that would make you happier, 
 I should readily grant it, if any reasonable man would say 
 it were fit for you to demand, provided you would also take 
 such measures as were fit for me to join with. 
 
 Here follows a resume of the Frame of Gov- 
 ernment, "which he declares he cares nothing 
 abont except to promote their good. 
 
 The attacks on my reputation, the many indignities 
 put upon me in papers sent over hither into the hands of 
 those who could not be expected to make the most dis- 
 creet and charitable use of them; the secret insinuations 
 against my justice, besides the attempt made upon my 
 estate; resolves passed in the assemblies for turning my 
 quit-rents, never sold by me, to the support of my govern- 
 ment; my lands entered upon without any regular 
 method; my manors invaded (under pretence I had not 
 duly surveyed them), and both these by persons princi- 
 pally concerned in these attempts against me here; a 
 right to my overplus land unjustly claimed by the pos- 
 sessors of the tracts in which they are found; my private 
 estate continnally exhausting for the support of the gov- 
 ernment, both here and there, and no provision made for 
 it by that country. 
 
 In short, when I reflect on all these heads, of which I 
 have so much cause to complain, and, at the same time, 
 think of the hardships I and my family have been re- 
 duced to, in no small measure owing to my endeavors for 
 and disappointments from that Province, I cannot but 
 mourn the unhappiness of my portion, dealt to me from 
 these of whom I had reason to expect much different and 
 
98 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 better things, nor can I but lament the unhappiness that 
 too naany of them are bringing on themselves, who, instead 
 01 pursuing the amicable ways of peace, love and unity, 
 which I at first hoped to find in that retirement, are 
 blind to their own interest, are oversetting that founda- 
 tion on which your happiness might be built. 
 
 Friends, the eyes of many are upon you; the people 
 of many nations of Europe look on that country as a land 
 of ease and quiet, wishing to themselves in vain the same 
 blessings they conceive you may enjoy; but, to see the 
 use you make of them, is no less the cause of surprise to 
 others, while such bitter complaints and reflections are 
 been 10 come from you, of which it is difficult to conceive 
 either the sense or meaning. What are the distresses, 
 grievances and oppressions that the papers sent from hence 
 so often say you languish under, while others have cause 
 to believe you have hitherto lived or might live the hap- 
 piest of any of the Queen's dominions? 
 
 It is a certain sign you are strangers to oppression, and 
 know nothing but the name, when you so highly be- 
 stow it on matters so inconsiderable; but that business 1 
 find is adjusted. Could 1 know any real oppressions you 
 lie under, that it is in my power to remedy (and what 1 
 wish you would take proper measures to remedy if you 
 truly feel any such), I would be as ready on my part to 
 remove them as you to desire it; but according to the best 
 judgment I can make of the complaints I have seen (and 
 jou once thought I had a pi-etty good one), I must, in a 
 deep sense of sorrow, say that I fear the kind hand of 
 Providence, that has so long favored and protected you, 
 will, by the ingratitude of many there, to the great mercies 
 of God hitherto sho^^'n them, be at length provoked to con- 
 vince them of their unworthiness. 
 
 T must think there is a regard due to me that has not 
 of late been paid; pray consider of it fully, and think 
 soberly what you have to desire of me, on the one hand. 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 99 
 
 and ought to perform to me on the other; for from the 
 next Assembly T shall expect to know what you resolve 
 and what I may depend on. If I must continue my re- 
 gards to you, let me be engaged to it by a like disposition 
 in you toward me. But if a plurality after this shall think 
 they owe me none or no more than for some years I have 
 met with, let it, on a fair election, be so declared; and 
 I shall then, without further suspense, know what I have 
 to rely upon. God give you his wisdom and fear to direct 
 you, that yet our poor country may be blessed with peace, 
 love and industry, and we may once more meet good 
 friends, and live so to the end, our relation to the truth 
 having but the same true interest. 
 
 I am, with great truth and most sincere regard, your 
 real friend, as well as just Proprietor and Governor, 
 
 William Penn. 
 
 It required about thirty years to settle down 
 into steady government. Then followed thirty 
 years of the greatest peace and prosperity. 
 There were no more contentions between Gov- 
 ernor and Assembly; no more angry recrimina- 
 tions upon which to base partisan capital; no 
 more striving for liberties, for every reasonable 
 liberty worth striving for was secured; no more 
 attempts to exalt proprietary interests at the ex- 
 pense of public interests; no more partisan 
 strife, for there were no parties. The era of in- 
 ternal dissension had closed; the era of external 
 war had not opened. For a generation the 
 Quaker government went quietly on, performing 
 its functions with vigor and system. Paper 
 
100 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 money, fully secured by individual property, 
 as well as State credit, was issued in moderate 
 amounts, was never depreciated, and developed 
 business enterprise by taking the place of gold 
 and silver drained to England to purchase the 
 needed importation of a busy and growing popu- 
 lation. Taxes were light and were mostly raised 
 from tavern licenses. Indians were friendly, 
 and were kept so by frequent presents and pur- 
 chases of land. The criminal laws, while rather 
 severe, were humanely executed, and life and 
 property were secured by an alert magistracy 
 and a conscientious population. Oaths were vol- 
 untary; war did not exist. There were no mili- 
 tia companies, but little martial feeling. All 
 religions were free and on an equal footing. Po- 
 litical and personal rights were guarded with 
 jealous care. The best men of the colony, men 
 of the highest education, morality and prop- 
 erty interests, held, by the choice of the people, 
 the high ofBces of government. JSTo taint of 
 political corruption seems to have visited the 
 dignity of office-holding, but there " was magis- 
 tracy in reverence with the people, and kept 
 from being hurtful to them." Could Penn have 
 seen this thirty years' peace, he would not have 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 101 
 
 been utterly discouraged, nor deemed the " Holy 
 Experiment " a failure. 
 
 In 1739 England and Spain went to war, and 
 this was the beginning of the end. In another 
 chapter military questions will be taken up. It 
 is only necessary here to refer to the protection 
 and extension of popular privileges indirectly 
 resulting from the wars. War meant privateer- 
 ing, and privateering destroyed commerce, and 
 this touched Pennsylvania immediately. War 
 meant taxes, and taxes produced discontent, dif- 
 ferences with the Governors about the rights of 
 the Assembly, cessation of friendly feeHng, and 
 a re-creation of parties. 
 
 The Spanish war was soon over, but it was fol- 
 lowed by one with the French and their Indian 
 allies in 1744. This lasted ia America, in some 
 part or other, practically continuously till 1763, 
 and when it ended the Quaker Assembly was no 
 more. 
 
 Parties were now formed on new lines. They 
 had largely disappeared during the twenties and 
 thirties, but at this time we find a marked dif- 
 ference, growing more emphatic with the years 
 between the proprietary party and the " coun- 
 try " party. The Quakers were now in consid- 
 erable minority in the Province, but were practi- 
 
102 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 cally all on one side. The Proprietors had left 
 the Society and joined the Episcopal Church, 
 and that body rallied around them. So also did 
 the Presbyterians, and all who believed in a 
 vigorous, warlike policy. These stood together 
 for proprietary rights and interests, and had as 
 their stronghold the Governor and Council. 
 
 The Friends and the Germans and their sym- 
 pathizers maintained their ascendency in the 
 popularly elected Assembly, where they did 
 practically as they pleased. They opposed pro- 
 prietary pretensions, favored grants to the In- 
 dians, and cut down expenses for military opera- 
 tions wherever possible. Their efforts during 
 the years from 1740 to 1756 were directed to 
 securing their rights as representatives of the 
 people in the matters of protesting against secret 
 and arbitrary instructions to the Governor by the 
 Proprietors; of raising money in whatever way 
 seemed good to them; of insistence on the large 
 proprietary estates being subject to taxation as 
 other similar estates were; and of independence 
 of royal instructions when they contravened 
 their charter. 
 
 The machinery by which the Quakers held 
 their party together, judging from the results, 
 was effective. During the thirty years of peace 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 103 
 
 they liad become competent politicians. It is 
 uncertain how they selected their candidates, or 
 by what means they elected them. There is no 
 reason to suspect any immoral proceedings, for 
 their Assemblymen were men of excellent 
 standing, and many of them served for a long 
 time. Most of them were farmers, and this 
 gave the few men who knew something about 
 law, like David Lloyd, the two Norrises, and 
 Benjamin Franklin, their great influence. It 
 is probable that a loosely organized town meet- 
 ing (called for each case as it arose) determined 
 the choice, and that the general interest in the 
 issue, and community of political tendencies 
 carried the election. We hear nothing of diffi- 
 culties within the party, and thej^ were not the 
 sort of people to tolerate bosses quietly. In 
 these matters of liberty they were solidly and 
 effectively united in the general struggle against 
 Crown and Proprietor, which led up to the Eev- 
 olutionary war, and held their own as honorably 
 and as successfully as the liberty party of any 
 other colony. 
 
 The Province very early in its history, while 
 supplied with many of the necessities of life, was 
 short of money. This resulted from the large 
 purchases from England, which drained the 
 
104 A Quaker Experiment in Qovernment. 
 
 country of gold and silver. This condition ex- 
 isted up to the Revolution, the balance of trade 
 being almost continually against the Colony. 
 Much real suffering and great stagnation in trade 
 resulted from this state of affairs, and the issu- 
 ance of paper money became almost a necessity. 
 It was entered upon cautiously. There being 
 no banks or opportunities for specie redemp- 
 tion, it was arranged that bills of credit, which 
 could be used as money, should be issued to in- 
 dividuals as a loan for a term of years, secured by 
 real estate or plate. Interest and a part of the 
 principal were paid back yearly. The amount of 
 the issue being reasonable and the security am- 
 ple the money never depreciated, as was the case 
 in nearly all the Colonies, while the stimulus to 
 trade was sudden and marked. This process was 
 prudently repeated, and the interest, with tavern 
 licenses, enabled the Colony to get along almost 
 without taxes during the years of peace. Though 
 Logan, ISTorris, and other conservative men op- 
 posed the practice, it seems to have been justified 
 by the results, and there was sufficient self- 
 restraint to prevent an over-issue. 
 
 But the wars demanded a vast proportionate 
 increase in the expenses of government, and new 
 problems presented themselves. The Assembly 
 
Democracy and Civil Liber ly. lO.j 
 
 proposed to meet the increased expenses by fur- 
 ther issues of bills of credit, but were in 1740 re- 
 strained by the English Privy Council, acting 
 probably at the instance of the Proprietors, by 
 an order prohibiting any new issues, unless a 
 clause was also enacted suspending the execu- 
 tion of the law till the royal assent was obtained. 
 The Governor was instructed to refuse to sign 
 any bill violating this order. 
 
 The charter of William Penn had by this time 
 become an object of veneration with the popular 
 party in Pennsylvania, and under it they had 
 deemed themselves secure in the manner of rais- 
 ing money, subject only to the veto of the Gov- 
 ernor. It is true that after five years they might 
 also look for a royal veto, but this only involved 
 the necessity of re-enacting the offending law. 
 The new order of the Privy Council therefore 
 seemed an interference with one of their 
 choicest privileges. However, if they could 
 persuade Governor Thomas to sign notwith- 
 standing hostile orders from abroad, the laws 
 would be valid; and this they managed to do 
 by a judicious reduction of his salary until he 
 was brought to terms. The struggle was con- 
 tinued with successive Governors till the Revolu- 
 tion, under the effective leadership of Franklin, 
 
106 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 and while often baulked by the proprietary inter- 
 ests, the popular party in the Assembly grad- 
 ually regained all lost ground. While legally 
 there was no change, practically there was a con- 
 stant decrease of proprietary interference and a 
 constant giowth of popular rights. 
 
 The question was complicated with another. 
 The Governor was appointed by the Proprietors, 
 and was in fact their agent. It was his duty to 
 look after first the interests of his employers, and 
 afterwards those of the Colony. When peace 
 prevailed those interests were so nearly identical 
 that no controversy arose. In some cases, not.i- 
 bly that of Sir William Keith, the representa- 
 tives of the people were so much nearer, and it 
 was so much more pleasant to live in harmony 
 with them, that the Governor elected popular 
 rather than proprietary favor, and lost his place, 
 through the efforts of James Logan. Later the 
 Governor had to give a heavy bond, amounting 
 during the wars to £5,000, to obey instructions. 
 Popular bids for favor could hardly be expected 
 to exceed this sum, and the Governor was fairly 
 secured to the side of the Penns. 
 
 It was conceded that the Governor had certain 
 executive duties in which it was proper that he 
 should receive detailed instructions, but when it 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 107 
 
 came to legislative questions stringent and some- 
 times secret instructions as to vetoing bills were 
 felt to be a tacit invasion of legislative privileges. 
 William Penn, at the urgency of David Lloyd, 
 had wisely given up the povper of veto in the 
 case of a bill previously assented to by his dep- 
 uty, and he and his widow had carefully con- 
 fined instructions to general directions to sup- 
 press vice, to discourage faction, to follow the 
 advice of the Council, and to protect every one 
 in his rights. During the era of good feeling 
 the Assembly would ask to see the instructions 
 to the Governor and he would good-naturedly 
 comply. 
 
 After the wars began the Governor refused to 
 show his instructions, and the Assembly protested 
 against the folly of their spending much time in 
 elaborating bills when all the time the Governor 
 had in his closet his private instructions to veto 
 them. They wished to be able to confer with 
 him and by judicious compromises to secure his 
 assent to their bills. All they could do was to 
 find out gradually the character of his limita- 
 tions by his actions, and they rightly felt they 
 were kept working in the dark. They procured 
 from their agent in England in 1755 a copy of 
 Governor Morris's instructions, and raised a 
 
108 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 storm against him by its publication. They 
 refused, notwithstanding the urgency of the war, 
 to vote any supplies if these instructions were 
 brought into operation. Their importunity and 
 firmness finally prevailed, and like the opposition 
 to bills of credit, proprietary instructions before 
 the Revolutionary war were allowed to drop out 
 of sight. 
 
 Another subject of conflict was the taxation of 
 Proprietary properties. The Penns were not 
 only the owners of the unoccupied lands of the 
 Province, they were also in their private ca- 
 pacity owners of large tracts within the State 
 which they held like any other private persons. 
 Moreover, they enjoyed an income from quit- 
 rents from most of the lands they had sold. All 
 this property they claimed was exempt from 
 taxation. It would have been manifestly im- 
 proper to tax the large extent of unproductive 
 land of early times, and besides, there were no 
 land taxes of consequence levied, except for 
 county purposes, and these did not reach the 
 unsurveyed domain of the Proprietors. 
 
 But as in the other cases the wars brought this 
 to a focus. The people in response to a demand 
 for money to protect their frontier against in- 
 vasion insistently made by the Governor, sug- 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 109, 
 
 gested that the Penn estates should bear their 
 share in the joint defence. The Proprietors, in 
 the view of the Assembly, "while possessing cer- 
 tain feudal rights which they did not propose to 
 disturb, were also private land owners and on a 
 level with all other private land owners. In 
 1755, after Braddock's defeat, they levied a tax 
 on all estates in the Province, real and personal, 
 including quit-rents and unsettled land, which 
 tax was to redeem bills of credit to the amount of 
 £60,000. Governor Morris insisted that his in- 
 structions required him to protect the interests 
 of his employers, and refused to pass the bill. 
 The Assembly replied to his arguments that it 
 was better to give part in taxes than to lose the 
 whole by the Prench, and threw upon him and 
 the Proprietors the responsibility for the de- 
 fenceless state of the Province. The Indians 
 were scalping on the frontiers, and there were 
 daily distressing demands for protection, but the 
 Assembly judged that the principles involved in 
 their struggle with the Governor were worth more 
 than temporary security. ISTeither yielded until 
 finally a solution was found in an offer of a free 
 gift by the Penns of £5,000, vsdth the under- 
 standing that it should not be considered as a 
 substitute for the tax. The Assembly said noth- 
 
110 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 ing on this latter point, but passed a bill raising 
 £55,000, and omitted the taxation of the property 
 of the Penns. The £5,000 was to be collected 
 by the Assembly out of the arrears of quit-rents, 
 and hence was not quite so liberal as it seemed 
 to be. 
 
 Bills for revenue followed in rapid succession, 
 and the controversy was renewed. Benjamin 
 Franklin was sent to England to look after pro- 
 vincial rights, and he invoked the aid of the 
 home government. After considerable fencing 
 the proprietary case was defeated, and the As- 
 sembly had the satisfaction of completely carry- 
 ing its point. 
 
 The controversies of the time are shown in a 
 private letter of James Pemberton, a member of 
 the Assembly, to Henton Brown, an Englishman, 
 dated 15th of Tenth month, 1755: 
 
 " When I last wrote thee, our new Governor, R. H. 
 Morris, was but just come to town, and as the Represen- 
 tatives were but newly elected the Assembly had not met 
 him; their sessions began soon after, agreeable to our 
 charter, on the 14th of October, which were but short at 
 that time and passed chiefly in compliments to each other, 
 and being unusual to do business at the first time of their 
 sitting, they made the Governor a present of five hundred 
 pounds, and, what is a particular privilege to their own, 
 adjourned to the 2d of last, when they met for the 
 dispatch of business. The Governor very warmly rec- 
 ommended to them the making provision for dislodging 
 
Democracy and Civil Liber ly. Ill 
 
 Ujc i'lenoh on the borders of this and the neighboiing 
 Provinces. A majority of the House being of our Society, 
 they couid not (as they never at any time have) hterally 
 comply with such a demand. However, as we are always 
 willing to demonstrate our allegiance to our King, by a 
 ready compliance with his instructions, as far as they do 
 not affect our religious principles, in imitation of the prac- 
 tice of former Assemblies of this Province, they cheerfully 
 voted the sum of twenty thousand pounds for the King's 
 use, and sent up a bill to the Governor for striking that 
 sum in paper bills of credit to be sunk in ten years by ex- 
 tending an act for laying an excise on spirituous liquors, 
 which act hath subsisted for several years in this Province, 
 and been experienced to be a tax the least burthensome to 
 the inhabitants. In which time the said bills of credit 
 would be called in, and the demand of the Crown im- 
 mediately satisfied, the excise being proved sufficient 
 to raise more, one year with another, than two thou- 
 sand pounds. Notwithstanding this scheme is so reason- 
 able in itself, yet the Governor hath positively refused 
 passing that bill, urging it to be contrary to the instruc- 
 tions from the King, in the year 1740, to Governor Thomas. 
 
 " At this time we have but £80,000 in paper bills of 
 credit amongst us, none of which goes out to the people, 
 but on mortgages, which yield an annual interest to the 
 Province, by which the heavy expenses of maintaining our 
 friendship with the Indians and other charges of govern- 
 ment are defrayed; as well the farmers who purchase 
 land from the Proprietaries are enabled to improve their 
 settlements, and make their payments to them by bor- 
 rowing from the loan office, by which means the paper 
 currency hath proved of singular service in advancing their 
 interest and all parties share the benefit thereof, which 
 would be more extensive could we obtain an additional 
 sum to what is now current, more especially as our impor- 
 tation of English manufactures is prodigiously increased 
 within these few years. But nothing of this kind is at- 
 
112 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 tempted at this time, and I only mention it to convince 
 thee of the real advantages of paper currency, and that 
 the sum now current is very trilling compared with the 
 income of our trade, and that we cannot do without it 
 while we continue to send to you the silver and gold we 
 procure from the West Indies in return for the produce ot 
 the country which we export thither. The only intent of 
 striking the present sum proposed is that the crown maj 
 have the immediate benefit of it, there being no other fund 
 by which such a sum can be raised in the same time. A 
 land tax would be a grievance too great for this infant 
 colony, and such as the people cannot at this time bear to 
 pay; besides, is it not reasonable we should have the 
 liberty of raising money upon ourselves in a maimer least 
 burthensome. A long contest hath subsisted between the 
 Governor and the Assembly, in the course of which, from 
 his manner of treating the subject, as well as the opinion 
 of our last Governor Hamilton in his message to the last 
 assembly, we have very strong reasons to conclude that 
 the royal instructions are not the obstacle to the passing 
 our bill, but some private instructions from our Proprietar- 
 ies, who in every place of their conduct towards the people 
 of this province for some years past appear to be aiming 
 to subvert the valuable privileges granted us by the 
 charters from King Charles and their worthy father, in 
 consequence of which under Providence this province was 
 settled and is now become a great income to them and of 
 no small advantages to our mother country; therefore the 
 assembly, finding no prospect of redress by contesting the 
 point with the governor here, have drawn up a remon- 
 strance to the King which was sent via New York to our 
 agents P. Partridge and Robert Charles to be presented 
 to him setting forth what we would have done had not 
 as we apprehend the proprietary restrictions to their lieu- 
 tenant i^revented; therefore the request I have to make 
 to thee relates to the province in general, and it will be 
 kindly accepted here, if thou wilt so far favor us with thy 
 friendship as to join thy assistance to obtain a ready 
 
Democracy and Civil Liherty. 113 
 
 passage of our remonstrance to the King, being suspicious 
 some of the Proprietaries' friends may use their endeavors 
 to prevent it, as was the case vfith an address of a neigh- 
 boring province lately. We have requested the assistance 
 of the Meeting for Sufferings, which I hope they will cheer- 
 fully afford us, to which thy influence may greatly con- 
 tribute. It is a matter of considerable consequence to the 
 inhabitants; our liberties are at stake, and I think we 
 have as much reason to dread an attack upon them from 
 our Proprietary, whose ambitious views seem bent on en- 
 slaving us, as any danger that may be at present thought 
 to threaten us; aa should they gain their point, and we are 
 to be governed by their private instructions inconsistent 
 with our charter, we can no longer pretend to claim the 
 title of being the freemen of Pennsylvania. It may be 
 necessary further to remark that our public funds are 
 much reduced by very heavy expenses of Indian Treaties 
 and maintaining at this time a large number of Indian 
 allies who have taken refuge in this province from the 
 Ohio; and though this is the case, the Assembly has ex- 
 erted themselves as far as they had the means in their 
 own power, and have voted five thousand pounds to be 
 laid out in provisions for the King's troops against the 
 time they may arrive, in pursuance of the royal orders 
 from Sir Thos. Robinson of the 26th October, received 
 while the Assembly was sitting. 
 
 While the Quakers gave up control of the 
 Assembly in 1756 the policy of the succeeding 
 Assemblies in respect to these difficult subjects 
 remained the same down to the Eevolutionary 
 war. Gradually there grew up a party which, 
 angered by proprietary resistance, urged upon 
 the English government the destruction of the 
 Charter and the creation of a Crown Colony. 
 
114 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Ob this point the Friends were divided. A dec- 
 ade earlier none of them would have considered 
 the forfeiture of Penn's charter. 'Sow the vex- 
 ations of proprietary government seemed very 
 objectionable, and many joined with Franklin 
 and other radicals in the movement. It was al- 
 ways opposed by the more substantial members, 
 and nothing was accomplished till the Revolu- 
 tion solved the problem in an unloosed for way. 
 It has been usually represented that the trou- 
 bles of the years between 1740 and 1Y56 were 
 the result of a conflict between the Governor and 
 the Quaker Assembly over the subject of the 
 defence of the Province from French and In- 
 dian attack. How much this may have been an 
 effective cause below the surface it is difficult to 
 tell. So far as one can judge from the public 
 records, it was a controversy betwen proprietary 
 and popular rights and privileges, in which the 
 popular party, almost exclusively Friendly in its 
 representatives though not in its membership,* 
 acquitted itself so as to win success without sacri- 
 
 * Thomas Penn writes to Governor Hamilton, in 1760, re- 
 ferring to a proposed visit of William Logan to England: 
 " You may be assured I will treat him with regard, and 
 show him I have no disregard to those of his profession 
 (the Friends), except on their levelling republican system 
 of government so much adopted by them." 
 
Democracy and Civil Liberty. 115 
 
 ficing the stability of the government. A 
 French invasion was less terrible than the sur- 
 render of the powers of the Assembly, and the 
 people demanded that the Proprietor should 
 yield. Then they were as liberal as in any other 
 State in supplying the resources for defence. 
 They bought or intimidated the Governors one 
 by one and finally carried the war into England 
 and conquered. 
 
116 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 KELIGIOtrS LIBEETY. 
 
 The strenuous and in the main consistent be- 
 lief o£ the early Quakers in religious liberty and 
 the supremacy of conscience was founded on 
 their doctrine of the divine character and au- 
 thority of the Light by which the conscience was 
 guided and instructed. It was sealed to them by 
 the severe persecutions of England. While they 
 contended that this light would in essential par- 
 ticulars lead all obedient children into closeness 
 of sympathy and substantial similarity of belief, 
 they recognized the varying degree of its accept- 
 ance by different people, and were willing to 
 leave the uninstructed to its further operations 
 and the inspired teaching of those who were more 
 fully confirmed in its coimsels. 
 
 The writings of the English Quakers and of 
 William Penn in particular are replete with ex 
 pressions against interference by government 
 with the private beliefs of any subjects, and with 
 the actions for which they claimed a conscien- 
 tious sanction, so long as they were orderly and 
 moral. Penn announced in 1670 that he was " a 
 
Religious Liberty. 117 
 
 friend of universal toleration in faith and wor- 
 ship," and -wrote " The Great Case of Liberty of 
 Conscience Briefly Debated and Defended." His 
 main statement is " That imposition, restraint 
 and persecution for conscience' sake highly in- 
 vade the Divine prerogative." This is amplified 
 by the arguments novr so familiar, and illus- 
 trated by historical references and quotations 
 from classical and Christian writings in great 
 profusion. 
 
 The persecutions of the Quakers were a pen- 
 alty for the staunch maintenance of principles 
 and practices for which they believed they had 
 the authority of enlightened consciences. They 
 were firmly convinced of their rightfulness, and 
 loudly exclaimed against the injustice of oppres- 
 sion. They, however, unlike the Puritans, gen- 
 eralized from their own case and arrived at the 
 conclusion that they were working for a common 
 liberty, not the establishment of their owa ideas 
 of truth. The settlers of Massachusetts had 
 formed a commonwealth in which " truth " was 
 to rule, and " error " to be punished and exiled. 
 They, too, had suffered in England, and had emi- 
 grated to secure liberty of conscience for them- 
 selves. They had formed a Puritan reservation 
 at great expense of time, treasure and heroic self- 
 
118 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 sacrifice. They must preserve this at -whatever 
 cost. " There is no room in Christ's triumphant 
 army for tolerationists."* How could they see 
 their State invaded, their laws defied, their eccle- 
 siastical system scorned, by the very agencies 
 they had left England to avoid? If Episcopacy 
 was on one hand to he ruled out, still more neces- 
 sary was it that they should show to the world 
 that the errors of the Baptists and Quakers had 
 no place there, and so the heretics were sent to 
 Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and the very 
 persistent Quakers were hanged on Boston Com- 
 mon. 
 
 But matters were a little further developed 
 by Penn's time — Quaker theology a little less 
 dogmatic and literal than Puritan; there was 
 more faith in Truth making its own way, and 
 the broader view prevailed.f 
 
 * Longfellow's " New England Tragedies." 
 
 t " Let the tares grow with the wheat, errors of judg- 
 ment remain till removed by the power of light and con- 
 viction. A religion without it is inhuman, since reason 
 only makes humanity. For my part, I frankly declare that 
 I cannot think that God will damn any man for the errors 
 of his judgment, and God forbid that all or most of the 
 world err willingly in understanding." 
 
 William Penn to Duke of Ormond, " Academy," January 
 II., 1896. 
 
Beligious Liberty. 119 
 
 Nor did the principle stop with toleration. 
 Pennsylvania was not to be a Quaker Colony 
 where other sects were tolerated. One might as 
 well tolerate the holding of property as of opin- 
 ion. The principle was not based on the favor 
 of rulers; it was an inherent right. It was not 
 to be toleration; it was to be religious liberty 
 and freedom from all State interference. So 
 said Penn, and he placed the maxim in the fore- 
 front in all his " Frames of Government," and 
 despite some dissatisfaction at first among a few 
 Quakers * it always remained there. 
 
 We have seen that the " Fundamental Con- 
 stitutions " were the products of Penn's wres- 
 tling in company with unknown advisers with 
 the problems of government, and that they ex- 
 press, perhaps more nearly than subsequent pub- 
 lications, his own ideas. The first article is 
 worth quoting entire. 
 
 Considering that it is impossible that any people or 
 Government should ever prosper, where men render not 
 unto God that which is God's, as well as to C^sar that 
 which is Caesar's; and aJso perceiving the disorders and 
 mischiefs that attend those places where force is used in 
 matters of faith and worship, and seriously reflecting upon 
 the tenure of the new and spiritual Government, and that 
 both Christ did not use force and that He did not ex- 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. VI.. page 467, et seq. 
 
120 A Quaker Experiment in Governmerd. 
 
 pressly forbid it in His holy religion, so also that the tes- 
 timony of His blessed messengers was, that the weapons 
 of the Christian warfare were not carnal but spiritual; and 
 further weighing that this unpeopled country can never 
 be planted if there be not due encouragement given to 
 sober people of all soils to plant, and that they will not 
 esteem anything a sufiicient encouragement when they are 
 not assured, but that after all the hazards of the sea, and 
 the troubles of a wilderness, the labours of their hands 
 and sweat of their brows may be made the forfeit of theii 
 conscience, and they and their wives and children ruined 
 because they worship God in some different way from that 
 which may be more generally ovmed, Therefore, in rever- 
 ence to God, the father of lights and spirits, the author, 
 as well as object, of all divine knowledge, faith and wor- 
 ship, r do hereby declare for me and mine, and establish 
 it for the first fundamental of the government of my coun- 
 try, that every person that does or shall reside therein 
 shall have and enjoy the free possession of his or her faith 
 and exercise of worship towards God, in such, way and 
 maimer as every person shall in conscience believe is most 
 acceptable to God; and so long as every such person useth 
 not this Christian liberty to licentiousness, that is to say, 
 to speak loosely and profanely of God, Christ or Religion, 
 or to commit nny evil in their conversation, he or she shall 
 be protected in the enjoyment of the aforesaid Christian 
 liberty by the civil Magistrate.* 
 
 The first clause of the charter of 1701, under 
 which was operated the government of Pennsyl- 
 vania till 1776, was: 
 
 Because no people can be truly happy, though under 
 the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of the 
 freedom of their consciences as to their religious profession 
 and worship, and Almighty God being the one Lord ot 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine,'' October, 1896. 
 
lieligious Liberty. 121 
 
 Conscience, father of Light and Spirits, and the author, 
 as well as object, of all divine knowledge, faith and wor- 
 ship, who only doth enlighten the mind and persuade and 
 convince the understandings of people, I do hereby grant 
 and declare that no person or persons inhabiting in this 
 province or territories who shall confess or acknowledge 
 one Almighty God, the creator, upholder and ruler of the 
 world, and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly 
 under the civil government, shall be in any case molested 
 or prejudiced in his or their person or estate, because of 
 his or their conscientious persuasion or practice, nor be 
 compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship, 
 place or ministry, contrary to his or their mind, or to do 
 or suffer any other act or thing contrary to their religious 
 persuasion. And that all persons who also profess to be- 
 lieve in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, shall be 
 capable (notwithstanding their other persuasions and prac- 
 tices in point of conscience and religion) to serve this gov- 
 ernment in any capacity, both legislatively and executively, 
 he or they solemnly promising, when lawfully required, 
 allegiance to the king as Sovereign, and fidelity to the 
 Proprietor and Governor, etc. 
 
 We have from these Penn's idea. It in- 
 volved perfect hberty of conscience, opinion and 
 worship, and perfect equality among Christian 
 people in the matter of office holding. That it 
 did not extend to non-Christians is a matter of 
 regret. It is probable that a charter could not 
 have been obtained on this basis. It was ex- 
 pected that Penn would found a Christian col- 
 ony. At this time there were practically no pro- 
 fessing non-Christians, except perhaps a very few 
 Jews. 
 
122 A Quaher Experiment in Government. 
 
 Some of the associates and immediate suc- 
 cessors of the Founder took a narrower view of 
 this principle. Not content with excluding 
 Jews, they also deprived Catholics, by a religious 
 test, of the opportunity to hold office. 
 
 Penn was largely instrumental in securing 
 the passage in England of the Toleration Act, 
 in 16S9. This greatly relieved his fellow- 
 believers of the extreme suffering they had en- 
 dured for nearly fifty years for conscience' sake. 
 tt also enabled various dissenting sects to prac- 
 tice unmolested their forms of worship, provided 
 they would subscribe to a declaration of fidelity 
 to the sovereign, and would condemn the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation, and of the worship of 
 Mary and the Saints. 
 
 This act, beneficent and liberal in comparison 
 with anything England had known, was used 
 to fetter the broader principle which Penn 
 sought to establish in his colony. Not only 
 when his charter was taken away, in 1692-4, 
 and Governor Fletcher administered affairs in a 
 way to displease all of Penn's friends, but after- 
 wards as well, was lower ground taken. The 
 tests which in England were made a condition 
 of the permission of public worship, became un- 
 der Fletcher an indispensable requisite for all 
 offices. 
 
Religious Liberty. 123 
 
 In 1696, in the Markham constitution, to 
 "which Penn acquiesced, the same tests were con- 
 tinued. The acquiescence may have been due 
 to the very slender hold he felt he had on his 
 charter under William and Mary, and the Whig 
 politicians by whom they were surrounded. 
 When he returned to the colony he again forced 
 his freer scheme into the constitution of 1701, 
 and attempted to make it permanent by the 
 pledge " for himself and his heirs, that the first 
 article of this charter, relating to liberty of con- 
 science, and every part and clause thereof, ac- 
 cording to the true intent and meaning thereof, 
 shall be kept and remain without any alteration 
 inviolably forever." 
 
 His charter, granted by authority of the Eng- 
 lish crown, gave him full right to make such a 
 pledge. But in violation of this right, in 1702, 
 another order of the crown required of all ofB- 
 cers of colonies that they should subscribe to all 
 the tests of the Toleration Act. Penn felt too 
 insecure to object to this, and Colonel Quarry, 
 the Judge of the Admiralty, the bitter opponent 
 of the Quakers, forced it upon members of the 
 Council, Judges and Assemblymen. They all 
 took it, to Penn's indignation, who asked, 
 ''Why should you obey any order . . . which 
 
124 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 is not according to patent or law here, nor 
 the laws of your own country? " * He advised 
 resistance, hut met with no support in Pennsyl- 
 vania. Even Logan deserted him. " Be pleased 
 not to set such a value as thou dost upon the 
 charter (that of 1701, just quoted) granted, for 
 most are of opinion it is not worth so many 
 pence, and if mine were asked, I should still rate 
 it much lower." 
 
 ISTot content with submitting quietly to the 
 imposition of the test by English authority, the 
 Assembly, in 1705, practically re-enacted it 
 themselves. They required all members of the 
 Assembly, and the provision afterwards ex- 
 tended to all civil oiScers, to subscribe to the 
 test, and support it by oath or affirmation, f 
 
 • Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 247. 
 
 t The test taken by all civil officers in Pennsylvania 
 was: 
 
 " I, A. B., do sincerely promise and solemnly declare be- 
 fore God and the world, that I will be faithful and bear 
 true allegiance to Queen Anne. And I do solemnly pro- 
 fess and declare that I do from my heart abhor, detest and 
 renounce as impious and heretical that damnable doctrine 
 and position that princes, excommunicated or deprived by 
 the Pope or any authority of the See of Rome, may be 
 deposed or murdered by their subjects or any person what- 
 soever. And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, 
 prelate, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any 
 
Religious Liberty. 125 
 
 This test stood, with, some modification as to a 
 denial of the rights of the Pretender, until re- 
 moved by Franklin and his associates in 1776, 
 when Penn's old test of 1701 was readopted. 
 It does not appear that any protests, either by 
 
 power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, 
 ecclesiastical or civil, within the realm of England or the 
 dominions belonging thereunto. 
 
 " And I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the pres- 
 ence of God, profess, testify and declare that 1 do believp 
 that in the Sacrsiment of the Lord's Supper there is not 
 any transubstantiatiou of the elements of bread and wine 
 into the body and blood of Christ, at or after the consecra- 
 tion thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the in- 
 vocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other 
 saint, and the sacrifice of Mass, as they are now used in 
 the Church of Kome, are superstitious and idolatrous. 
 
 " And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, tes- 
 tify and declare that I do make this declaration, and 
 every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the 
 words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by 
 English Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation or 
 mental reservation whatsoever, and without anj' dispensa- 
 tion already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or 
 any other ijersou or authority whatsoever; or without 
 thinking I am or may be acquitted before God and man, 
 or absolved of this declaration or any part thereof, al- 
 though the Pope or any other person or persons or power 
 whatsoever should disoense with or annul the same, or 
 declare that it was null and void from the beginning. 
 
 '■' And I, A. B., profess faith in God the Father, and in 
 Jesus Christ His eternal Son, the true God, and in the 
 Holy Spirit, one God blessed forevermore; and do ac- 
 knowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment to be given by Divine Inspiration." 
 
126 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 the Assembly or the meetings, were made against 
 the use of this abridgment of the rights of office- 
 holders. During the seventy years all officials 
 subscribed without apparent demur. Catholics, 
 Jews and Socinians were excluded from posi- 
 tions under the State. They were also, by the 
 imposition of the same test, denied the legal 
 right to hold church property, or to become 
 naturalized. In other words, while freedom of 
 worship was permitted to all, it was intended to 
 make Pennsylvania's government one of and for 
 Orthodox Protestant Christians only. This was 
 in advance of other colonies (except Rhode 
 Island and Maryland), where the Catholic wor- 
 ship was prohibited, but behind Penn's enlight- 
 ened conceptions of religious liberty and equality 
 under the law. 
 
 It is true Catholics were few in number (1400 
 only in 1757), while the other prohibitions kept 
 almost no one out of State employment. The 
 Catholic religion was, both in England and 
 America, the subject of bitter reprobation for its 
 historical association with the Stuarts, and with 
 the Colonial enemies, the Prench. These facts 
 may explain, but hardly justify, the compla- 
 cence with which their official disabilities were 
 viewed during these years. In the general 
 
Religious Liberty. 137 
 
 eulogy given to the Pennsylvania constitution, 
 this exception to religious freedom should be 
 borne in mind.* One also is surprised to find 
 that the Quakers made no objection to the im- 
 position of any religious test. They could hon- 
 estly subscribe to this one, but their general op- 
 position to creeds, except when expressed in 
 biblical words only, might have been expected to 
 show itself in some public or private protest. 
 
 It must therefore be recognized that notwith- 
 standing the liberal charter, Penn's and the As- 
 sembly's right to enact liberties and make laws 
 was greatly restricted. The Privy Council an- 
 nulled what it chose, and its decisions were de- 
 termined by the views of the Attorney General, 
 who thus became a greater power in legislation 
 in certain particulars than Penn himself. Thus 
 with regard to Penn's act concerning liberty of 
 conscience, that irresponsible official writes: " I 
 am of opinion that this law is not fit to be 
 confirmed, no regard being had in it to the 
 Christian religion, and also for that in the in- 
 dulgence allowed to the Quakers in England by 
 the statute of the first WUliam and Mary," etc. 
 The whole of Penn's liberal scheme, supported 
 
 * This subject is fully treated in the Pennsylvania Maga 
 zine, Vol. IX., pages 365, etc., by Dr. Stills. 
 
128 A Quaker Experiment in Government. ■ 
 
 at first by the voice of the people's representa- 
 tives, "went dovpn before the opinion of one man. 
 
 Penn was in no condition to resist. Bur- 
 dened by debt incurred in support of his col- 
 ony; his deputy a failure; his steward a fraud; 
 his son a disappointment; he saw no recourse 
 but to sell his province to the crown. Under 
 these circumstances, he could only protest and be 
 silent. Of the fifty-three laws vetoed by the 
 Crown in 1705, some he agreed to have returned 
 and amended, some he apologized for, and some 
 he feebly defends. But when the "Act of privi- 
 leges to a freeman," reading, " That no free- 
 man shall be hurt, damnified, destroyed, tried 
 or condemned, but by the lawful judgment of 
 his twelve equals, or by the laws of the Prov- 
 ince," was objected to because " This, we think, 
 will interfere with the act for preventing frauds, 
 etc.," he flamed out with his old liberty-loving 
 spirit, — "I cannot help it; 'tis the great char- 
 ter that all Englishmen are entitled to, and we 
 were not so far to lose a little of it." * 
 
 * For a detailed description of the English, treatment of 
 Pennsylvania enactments, see appendix to '^ The Statutes 
 at Large of Pennsylvania," published by the State, \'o 
 II., 1896. The limitations of Penn's powers -were never so 
 clearly shown as in the extracts there printed from llie 
 Public Records of London. This work is not complete. 
 
Religious Liberty. 139 
 
 To what extent did Penn desire favors for his 
 own people in connection with government? 
 That he hoped he was founding a Quaker State, 
 conducted by and for them, is evident from 
 many expressions. He probably shared the be- 
 lief then prevalent in the Society, that Quaker- 
 ism was simply Christianity shorn of human ac- 
 cretions, and was destined to become universal. 
 It was only necessary to entrench it in power by 
 proper means, and its own intrinsic worth would 
 draw the people to it. But he vigorously re- 
 fused to allow any constitutional advantages to 
 his denomination. " Every particular denomi- 
 nation of the Christian religion is perfectly 
 upon a level in Pennsylvania," wrote Thomas 
 Penn, in 1757, speaking of facts as they were, 
 and had always been, with the exceptions noted 
 above. In the letter to Jasper Yeates, already 
 quoted, Penn rebukes him for desiring to keep 
 those not of the " Stock of David " from the gov- 
 ernment. " We should look selfish and do that 
 which we have cried out upon others for, 
 namely, letting nobody touch with government 
 but those of their own way. And this hath 
 
 but it IB becoming more and more evident that Penn and 
 the Quakers were greatly hampered in their liberal inten- 
 tions by ridiculous but effective opposition at home. 
 
130 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 often been flung at us, viz. : If you Quakers had 
 it in your power none should have a part in 
 government but those of your own way." He 
 says also that property has a right to representa- 
 tion which cannot be denied. He explains very 
 fully and very succinctly in a letter to Eoger 
 Mompesson His purposes in the effort to estab- 
 lish a State: — 
 
 " I went thither to lay the foundation of a free colony 
 for all mankind that should go thither, more especially 
 those of my own profession; not that I would lessen the 
 civil liberties of others because of their persuasion, but 
 screen and defend our own from any infringement on that 
 account."* 
 
 Thirty years before Penn led his colony to 
 America, the far-sighted George Fox had under 
 consideration the project of procuring a place 
 there to which persecuted Friends might emi- 
 grate. He requested Josiah Cole, a minister 
 going to see the Indians of the interior, to look 
 for a favorable location, where he might pur- 
 chase from them a home, not for his Society 
 bodily to move to, but for the poor who could 
 not stand the shock of persecution. But Cole, 
 while favorable to some territory on the Sus- 
 quehanna, reported in 1660 difficulties in the 
 
 * Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 373. 
 
Religious Liberty. 131 
 
 way of the purchase.* The matter, however, 
 appears to have been kept in view, and in 1674, 
 when Lord Berkeley offered for sale one-half of 
 New Jersey, it was purchased by two Quakers, 
 John Fenwick and Edward Billinge, probably 
 with the knowledge and approval of others of 
 their persuasion. Billinge, however, soon 
 failed, and in order that the opportunity should 
 not be lost, assigned to William Penn and two 
 others nine-tenths of the new territory. Many 
 Quakers moved there, and thus New Jersey be- 
 came in a sense a Quaker colony. It grew so 
 rapidly in population, that the experiment was 
 extended to east New Jersey, and in 1681 Wil- 
 liam Penn, and eleven other Friends, purchased 
 of the proprietor. Sir George Carteret, the re- 
 mainder of the province, organized the govern- 
 ment, and invited immigration. Robert Barclay, 
 of Urie, the Quaker apologist, was made Gov- 
 ernor for life. There were, however, in the 
 country such numbers presumably not in sym- 
 pathy with Quaker views that the experiment 
 was deemed hardly a fair one, and Pennsyl- 
 vania, " virgin settlement," was at last procured. 
 " My God hath given it me in the face of the 
 
 * Bowden's History of Friends in America, Vol. I., p. 389. 
 
133 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 -world," Penn says in 1682, and evidently the 
 long-delayed desire was accomplished. 
 
 There was some excuse then for the fact that 
 Friends felt a sense of proprietorship in the new 
 colony, and wished to hedge themselves around 
 with some power and preferment. That they 
 took so little is greatly to their credit. They 
 asked only what their numbers and character 
 would give them. William Penn was anxious 
 they should take office in government and give 
 their principles a full trial. When complaint 
 was made to England that a man was sentenced 
 to death by an affirmed rather than a sworn 
 jury, he writes to Logan in 1703: "It was not 
 to be thought that a colony and constitution of 
 government made by and for Quakers would 
 leave themselves and their lives and fortimes out 
 of so essential a part of the government as juries. 
 If the coming of others shall overrule 
 us that are the originals and made it a country 
 we are unhappy; that it is not to be thought we 
 intended no easier nor better terms for ourselves 
 in going to America than we left behind us." * 
 
 The Quakers, therefore, meant to retain for 
 themselves just what they were willing to grant 
 
 ' Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 205. 
 
Religious Liberty. 133 
 
 to all other Protestants. But because they held 
 peculiar "views conceming the imraorality o£ 
 oaths and of war, the ordinary forms of govem- 
 ment had to be seriously changed to conform to 
 the new conditions. While therefore they felt 
 that they were only asserting for themselves a 
 reasonable liberty of conscience, it seemed to 
 others that they were giving away the stability 
 and permanence of the State. Hence arose the 
 strong opposition to Quaker rule among certain 
 elements of the population of Pennsylvania, 
 which found a still stronger echo in England. 
 
 Part of this was reasonable. Evidently there 
 could be no possibility of arrangement between 
 those who believed oaths to be indispensable and 
 those who believed them to be sinful. One or 
 the other must prevail. The Quaker, deter- 
 mined to have the share in government to which 
 his numbers and character entitled him, would 
 neither take oaths nor administer them. He did 
 not deny them by statute to others, and an Epis- 
 copalian could take them without prejudice if he 
 could find an Episcopalian to administer them. 
 The subject was a standing bone of contention 
 on which there was an honest fundamental dif- 
 ference of opinion.* 
 
 * Penn aBd Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 65. 
 
134 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Still more strongly were pressed the views 
 denying the possibility of conducting a govern- 
 ment on the basis of anti-martial principles, and 
 there was at times a fear, real and honest, that 
 Pennsylvania would be given over to the merci- 
 less slaughter of the Indians, or lost by conquest 
 by the French. 
 
 Other charges were less respectable. James 
 Logan intimates that the Episcopal church felt 
 a grievance from the fact that it had not the su- 
 periority that it had in England and in some 
 other colonies, and hence declined to certify to 
 the justice of Quaker rule. Others wrote to 
 sympathizing friends across the water that the 
 Quakers had what we would now call a political 
 machine conducted by the church organization. 
 This charge has been echoed by writers of recent 
 times.* If true it has been most carefully kept 
 out of the records. The proceedings of the meet- 
 ings never touch legislation, except incidentally 
 when they deal with moral questions like oaths 
 or slavery. ISTo candidates were ever suggested 
 
 * " History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania," 
 by W. R. Shepherd, page 548. See note, page 75 of this 
 book. 
 
 " Pennsylvania, Colony and Commonwealth," by Sydney 
 George Fisher, page 91. 
 
Religious Liberty. 135 
 
 or discussed. ISTo poHtical conclusions or advice 
 ever appear. The most important case in which 
 the meetings undertook any oversight of the As- 
 semhlymen was in 1756 and the following years, 
 when they were trying to induce them to resign. 
 There is no doubt that considerable esprit de 
 corps existed in the Society. When Friends met 
 before and after meetings, doubtless the affairs 
 of politics were talked over, and no doubt also 
 the trend of a sermon or letter of advice on a 
 moral or religious subject would influence votes, 
 as it does to-day. That the Quakers held to- 
 gether so well and controlled the State so long is 
 due not to any political organization, or church 
 organization worked for political purposes, but 
 to the fact that the State expressed the principles 
 in which they in common with many German 
 sects believed, and that they were loyal to the 
 representatives of these principles. The continu- 
 ous attacks of their enemies doubtless held them 
 together, even when their natural divisions be- 
 tween the Proprietary party and the democrats 
 would have drawn them apart. 
 
 The attacks upon them are therefore just from 
 the standpoint of those who believe oaths and 
 war essential to government, and relief from 
 them not properly embraced in the liberties to be 
 
136 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 granted to sensitive consciences, but hardly on 
 the other grounds of complaint. 
 
 The war question will be dealt with in a later 
 chapter. The ground of the Quaker objection 
 to oaths was partly Biblical, partly resentment 
 at the suggestion of untruthfulness involved in 
 them; and the sufferings endured in England on 
 account of this objection had only fortified their 
 beliefs in their position. They did not in- 
 tend to have to suffer further in Pennsylvania if 
 they could avoid it. One of their prime reasons 
 for emigrating was to be able to have their hon- 
 est promise, their yea and nay, accepted at its 
 face value without the need of any confirmatory 
 solemnities. A clause of the first " Great Law " 
 of 1C82 enacted "that all witnesses coming or 
 called to testify their knowledge in or to any 
 matter or thing in any court, or before any law- 
 ful authority within the said Province, shall there 
 give in or deliver their evidence or testimony by 
 solemnly promising to speak the truth, the whole 
 truth and nothing but the truth to the matter or 
 thing in question." Then follow severe penal- 
 ties for falsehood. Had this law been permitted 
 to stand for the Commonwealth, oaths would 
 have disappeared, the penalties for falsehood 
 would have replaced the penalties for perjury. 
 
Religious Liberty. 137 
 
 justice would have been administered, and loy- 
 alty secured, as perfectly by affirmations as by 
 oatbs, and the people in a little while would 
 have adjusted their thoughts to the new order. 
 The good man would have preferred to tell the 
 truth, and the bad man would have feared the 
 punishment for untruth, and as has been amply 
 proved since, oaths even if right in theory would 
 have become unnecessary in practice. But un- 
 fortunately for this solution of the problem, 
 Pennsylvania was not an independent State. 
 
 The council in 1685 refused to administer an 
 oath even to the king's collector of customs, who 
 came armed with English instructions to be 
 sworn, telling him " it was against their methods 
 to take an oath." 
 
 The matter seemed to have worked smoothly 
 on this basis till 1693. Then Penn was deprived 
 of his proprietorship, and Fletcher was appointed 
 Governor by the Crown. The English laws were 
 supposed to be applicable. The act of 1689 per- 
 mitted Quakers in England to oiler a solemn af- 
 firmation " in the presence of Almighty God " 
 in place of an oath, but prohibited them from 
 giving evidence in criminal cases, from serving 
 on juries, or from holding any office. The orig- 
 inal laws of Pennsylvania made the official qual- 
 
138 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 ification a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. 
 The English made the additional requirement of 
 a belief in the Trinity and the Scriptures. The 
 matter for the time was allowed to go by default. 
 The Assembly protested against the new imposi- 
 tions, but finally accepting the declaration of 
 fidelity and orthodoxy, were allowed to continue 
 the exercise of their functions without an oath. 
 
 By this time many non-Quakers were in Penn- 
 sylvania. Some thought oaths necessary, others 
 liked to worry the Quakers and drive them from 
 government. To satisfy the former it was 
 enacted in the Frame of 1696 that afiirmation 
 should be permitted to all whose conscience did 
 not pennit them to swear, and that the penalties 
 for false affirmation should be the same as those 
 attached to perjury. The English officers in 
 Pennsylvania should take the oath according to 
 English law. 
 
 For several years there followed a contest with 
 the Crown officers and Governor. The Assem- 
 bly passed bills the object of which was to pre- 
 vent Quakers from being disqualified from ofl3.ce- 
 holding by their objections to administering 
 oaths, which bills were repealed in England. 
 The Church party in the State sent formal re- 
 monstrances to England against the liberties 
 
Beligious Liberty. 139 
 
 allowed in taking affirmations. On the other 
 hand the anti-proprietary Quaker party, under 
 the leadership of David Lloyd, sent to England 
 a formal protest in 1704 against William Penn 
 because he had not secured relief from adminis- 
 tering oaths, so that many Quakers were driven 
 from government employment. 
 
 This resulted from an order obtained in Eng- 
 land in 1703, doubtless for the sake of annoying 
 the Quakers,* that judges and other officers 
 should be required to administer oaths to all per- 
 sons willing to take them. If they refused, Ihe 
 proceedings were to be null and void. This 
 created great confusion in the Province. In 
 some sections there were none but Quakers suit- 
 able for justices, and government was suspended. 
 Some Quakers appear to have administered the 
 oath or allowed it to be administered, and some 
 resigned. Penn, who was in England at the 
 time, wrote disapproving of both courses. He 
 said they should have disobeyed and held their 
 places. " I desire you to pluck up that English 
 and Christian courage to not suffer yourselves to 
 be thus treated and put upon." " Spirit him 
 (the new Governor) and creep not. 
 
 * Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 214 
 et seq. 
 
140 A Quaker Exiperiment in Government. 
 
 Lose what you lose like men and Christians." * 
 Here spoke again the old spirit of martyrdom 
 which said that his prison should be his grave 
 before he would sacrifice a principle. The Penn- 
 sylvanians were forgetting how to suffer, and 
 were being spoiled by their liberties. 
 
 The Assembly, however, was not inactive. 
 Law after law was sent to the Governor, making 
 affirmations valid in all coiirts. Either he did 
 not believe with Penn, who appointed him, in 
 the invalidity of the Queen's order, or wa.s 
 swayed by opposition to the party which domi- 
 nated the Assembly. He refused bis consent. 
 Then a joint meeting of Governor, Council and 
 Assembly was held.f The Attorney General 
 had advised that no charter could abrogate the 
 law of England requiring a jury to be sworn in 
 a capital case. Notwithstanding this it was de- 
 cided that Governor and Council had power to 
 pass a law, substituting affirmations for oaths, 
 because it had been done in the past and the 
 Crown had not objected. Moreover, there were 
 country places where juries could not be made 
 up without Quakers unless they should consist 
 
 • Perm and Logan Correspondence, page 248. 
 t Colonial Eecords, Vol. II., page 233 et seq. 
 
Religious Liberty. 141 
 
 " wholly of Swedes and other foreigners in whom 
 there would be much less security." It was fur- 
 ther urged that those willing to take oaths would 
 be permitted so to do, if the official was also will- 
 ing to administer them. 
 
 To this the Governor objected that in many 
 cases where the magistrate was not willing to 
 administer oaths there would be no chance to 
 have them taken, and that the Queen's order 
 requires them in such cases. The Assembly 
 replied to this that it had been well known that 
 Quakers who had " first settled and now chiefly 
 inhabit this country " would have nothing to do 
 with oaths, and moreover that this had been rec- 
 ognized by allowing these same judges and mag- 
 istrates to be qualified by an afiirmation, and 
 that it was very unlikely the Queen meant to 
 remove all of them from office. 
 
 But, the Governor replied, some Quakers get 
 along very well as judges notwithstanding the 
 Queen's order. 
 
 On the other hand, said the Assembly, where 
 there are conscientious Quaker justices, if some 
 one desires evidence to be sworn to before them, 
 the whole proceedings become null and void. 
 Hence they ask that in such cases the affirmation 
 may be legal. 
 
142 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 The Governor finally decided to sign the bill, 
 to take effect after a lapse of time sufficient to 
 allow the Crown to veto it. 
 
 The Episcopalians sent a protest against the 
 bill to London and it was repealed. The Assem- 
 bly re-enacted it and sent it to the Governor, 
 who now refused to sign it. The Assembly pro- 
 tested with great vigor that there was no security 
 against murder in a Quaker community, for their 
 evidence would not be received. 
 
 The next Assembly, in 1711, conceded some 
 points to the Governor, and a fairly satisfactory 
 measure was passed, to be vetoed by the Crown 
 in 1713. Until vetoed it remained in force. 
 After this the process was again and again 
 repeated, the Governor objecting each time to 
 the passage of the bill. Finally in 1718 an act 
 was passed carrying most of the provisions that 
 the Assembly had contended for, — the right to 
 consider an affirmation as valid as an oath in 
 evidence, and as a qualification for otfice, and 
 affixing the same penalties for lying under such 
 circumstances as for perjury. This managed to 
 escape repeal in London. 
 
 Another question now came up. Some Quak- 
 ers objected to the phrase " in the name of Al- 
 mighty God," as approximating an oath in effect. 
 
Religioxis Liberty. 143 
 
 James Logan, in 1706, while admitting the form 
 to be objectionable, thought that greater security 
 than ordinary was needed in Pennsylvania, 
 " where such a rotten and insensible generation 
 shelter themselves under the name " * (of 
 Friends). (This was in the heat of his contro- 
 versy with David Lloyd.) 
 
 The Yearly Meeting in 1710 recognizing the 
 difference refused to take sides, but asked for 
 charity. " The solemn affirmation is a thing of 
 the greatest moment. We exhort all to be very 
 careful about it. . . . That Friends be 
 charitable one to another about it; they that 
 can take it, not to censure or reproach those who 
 can not; and those who can not, to use the like 
 caution and regard to those who can, till further 
 relief can be had for us all." 
 
 The whole matter so far as government was 
 concerned was finally laid at rest by a law finally 
 ratified by the king in 1725, prescribing the 
 forms of declaration of fidelity to King George, 
 and renunciation of a belief in the power of the 
 Pope over the English Crown, of abjuration of 
 allegiance to the Stuarts, and of affirmation. The 
 latter form omitted any reference to God, and 
 
 * Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. II., page 187. 
 
144 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 as administered simply was, " Dost thou, A. B., 
 solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm 
 
 ? " To wticli the answer is to be " yea " 
 
 or "yes." 
 
 The Yearly Meeting this year expresses its 
 satisfaction at the favorable turn of affairs. It 
 calls attention to the fact that the preamble to 
 the act says: " It is evident that the said people 
 called Quakers have not abused the liberty or 
 indulgences allowed to them by law," and urges 
 that the further liberties be so used as to justify 
 this favorable notice. 
 
 The expense of securing the ratification of the 
 act must have been considerable, for we find 
 records in several, perhaps all, the meetings * 
 advising subscriptions towards the funds raised 
 for the purpose. 
 
 Oaths, however, were still administered and 
 taken by those who had no scruples, and the two 
 systems did not work side by side without fric- 
 tion. In 1732 Chester Quarterly Meeting asked 
 whether justices in a mixed court are responsible 
 for the acts of the body in administering oaths. 
 
 * " Ordered by the Quarterly Meeting (Bncks), that every 
 Monthly Meeting shall make a subscription towards the 
 charge of gaining the royal assent to the Affirmation Act 
 as others have done." 1726. 
 
Religious Liberty. 145 
 
 and also whether clerks who are Friends can 
 carry out orders to swear witnesses. The Yearly 
 Meeting decided negatively in the latter case. In 
 the former it determined that Quaker justices 
 should have no part in such administration. If, 
 however, there are enough other justices to make 
 the act legal without their concurrence they may 
 retain their places without sacrifice of principle. 
 
 There seemed, however, no way to allow a con- 
 scientious Quaker to serve as a judge or other 
 official from whom the right to take an oath 
 could be claimed. One such place after another 
 they resigned, at their own motion or the urgency 
 of the meeting. Some retained the office and dis- 
 obeyed instructions, and in some places the diffi- 
 culty of securing competent officials not Quakers 
 disposed the meetings to look leniently on the 
 offenders. 
 
 One of the " queries " answered three times a 
 year by all the meetings was, " Do you maintain 
 a faithful testimony against oaths," and other 
 specified Quaker immoralities. Towards the mid- 
 dle of the century there were many exceptions 
 in the matter of administering oaths.* The cases 
 
 * " That Friends are generally pretty clear with respect 
 to military sei^ice, defrauding the Kmg of his duties, pay- 
 ment of church rates so-called, or being concerned in 
 
..14.6 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 ■were taken up one by one by the monthly meet- 
 ings, under directions from the Yearly Meet- 
 ing.* This body also advised its members not 
 to vote for Quakers for such offices. Many were 
 induced to decline to serve,+ and a very general 
 refusal to accept judgeships and magistracies re- 
 sulted. 
 
 It may seem strange that a beKef so unani- 
 mously accepted as a cardinal ethical principle, 
 should after the lapse of a century have to be 
 
 prize gooda, or goods imlawfully imported; though not 
 from the administering of oaths." Bucks Q. M., 28, VIII., 
 1760. 
 
 * " Recommended that the ceire of Friends, where oc- 
 casion requires it, may be exerted to labor in Christian 
 love, to convince such of their error vrho are deficient in 
 respect to our testimony against oaths, and that vrhere 
 these endeavors prove unsuccessful, that Friends proceed 
 according to our discipline; and it is likewise further de- 
 sired that all Friends may be particularly careful that they 
 be not accessory in promoting or choosiog their brethren in 
 such offices, which may subject them to the temptation of 
 deviating from our Christian testimony in this or any other 
 branch thereof." Yearly Meeting, 1762. 
 
 t " I. T. so far condemns his having administered an oath, 
 as to declare himself determined not to accept of any office 
 for the future which may subject him to the necessity of 
 doing it, and that he now sees the practice inconsistent 
 both with the rules of the Society and the convictions of 
 his own mind." 
 
 Middletown M. M., 1762. 
 

 o 
 p o 
 
 O 
 O 
 
Religious Liberty. 147 
 
 inculcated upon unwilling members as a condi- 
 tion to the continuance of fraternal relations. 
 Its triumph in Pennsylvania and in a modified 
 way in England was so secure, that in the minds 
 of most of them the sufferings of their ancestors 
 were justified by the result. The Society as a 
 whole apparently never wavered in its support. 
 Wo corporate defection ever resulted from it. 
 The responsibility of government, the duties 
 and privileges of place, brought the Quakers in- 
 cidentally to the stand where they must adhere 
 to convictions or to office. The decision went 
 forth, as clear as a bell, to hold no office and give 
 no vote which would render nugatory the un- 
 changing testimony of the fathers, and a certain 
 line of offices knew no Quaker incumbents even 
 in communities almost unanimously of their per- 
 suasion. The few exceptions to this were, after 
 a long time of unsuccessful kindly discipline, dis- 
 owned by the Society. 
 
 The laws of Pennsylvania, of the States in 
 general, and of the United States, are practically 
 those to which the agitation of the question 
 brought the Pennsylvanians in 1725. They 
 amount to freedom to choose between oath 
 and affirmation on the part of the taker, 
 but no such freedom on the part of the 
 
148 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 giver. The law for wliieh the Quakers 
 pressed so assiduously as the best possible 
 under the circumstances allowed all denom- 
 inations except their own to hold judicial posi- 
 tions. Their ideal was doubtless expressed in 
 the original law of 1682, but having been beaten 
 out of this by the pressure of opposing interests 
 fortified by English authority, they retained 
 what they could, and secured to all the future the 
 liberty to have their yea counted as yea and 
 their nay as nay without the implied invocation 
 of a curse for every falsehood, or the irreverent 
 use of a sacred name in every formal proceeding 
 of the courts. 
 
 This was purchased coincidently with if not 
 consequent upon the sacrifice of another princi- 
 ple, which most people would judge of equal 
 importance with that against oaths. 
 
 The " Great Law " of 1682, passed under the 
 impulse of the influence of William Penn and 
 his immediate friends, reduced the death penalty 
 to cases of treason and murder (practically to the 
 one crime of malicious murder only). This stood 
 till 1718. There does not appear to have been 
 any alanning increase of crime, though numer- 
 ous reports were sent to England by enemies of 
 the Provincial government, tending to show in- 
 
Beligious Liberty. 149 
 
 security of life and property as a result of too 
 great leniency. While we have no evidence that 
 Penn changed his mind on the suhject of capital 
 punishment, he frequently vsrote urging a vig- 
 orous enforcement of laws against criminals, as 
 one means of aiding him in defending the good 
 name of the Province. 
 
 In 1715 a prominent citizen, Jonathan Hayes, 
 was murdered in Chester County. This was 
 while the affirmation question was unsettled, just 
 after Governor Gookin had decided that the 
 English disqualifying law applied to Pennsyl- 
 vania. As judges, and probably witnesses and 
 part of the jury, would have to be Quakers, who 
 refused to be sworn, the prisoners were released 
 on bail for about three years. In the meantime 
 Governor Keith came into power, and he and 
 his Council considered their case.* It was said 
 that immunity had encouraged crime. They 
 appealed to England, but before the appeal could 
 be heard the sentence was executed. 
 
 The affair made a great excitement, especially 
 in England, which was studiously fanned by the 
 anti-Quaker party in Pennsylvania. That the 
 lives of Englishmen could be taken by an un- 
 sworn jury was considered monstrous. 
 
 • Colonial Kecords^ III., page 32. 
 
150 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 The Assembly became alarmed at the threats 
 to exclude Quakers from office by the imposi- 
 tion of oaths, and were ready to take advice of 
 the Governor. He shrewdly intimated that they 
 would secure favor at court by re-adopting the 
 criminal laws of England so far as they would 
 apply to Pennsylvania. Hence the act of 1718 
 " for the advancement of justice and the more 
 certain administration thereof," the very act 
 which as we have seen made an afErmation as 
 good in law as an oath, contained also the author- 
 ity to inflict the penalty of death upon a dozen 
 crimes, including robbery, burglary, malicious 
 maiming, arson, and manslaughter by stabbing, 
 to which was afterward added counterfeiting. 
 
 This act was passed by a Quaker Assembly, 
 drawn up by a Quaker lawyer, and its acceptance 
 by the Crown brought with it a sense of relief 
 and satisfaction to a Quaker community. The 
 royal approbation was triumphantly announced 
 by the Governor, securing on the one hand lib- 
 erty to hold ofSce without taking an oath, and on 
 the other the great extension of capital punish- 
 ment. Penn and his liberal penal code died in 
 the same year. This act was in force till after 
 the revolution. ISTot only was the existing law 
 adopted as the Governor advised, " as the sum 
 
Religious Liberty. - 151 
 
 and result of the experiences of the ages," but 
 persons convicted or attainted were to suffer " as 
 the laws of England now do or hereafter shall 
 direct." If there was any testimony in Quaker- 
 ism against capital punishment, which there does 
 not appear to have been prior to the Revolution, 
 it was bartered, and the right to make laws was 
 surrendered to the English power. That in de- 
 fence of a principle fully accepted Eriends could 
 brave all dangers had been fully proven, and the 
 only explanation of their anomalous position is 
 that the taking of life judicially was not at that 
 time an iniquity in their eyes. The question 
 was one of expediency upon which a compromise 
 could properly be made. 
 
152 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE INDIANS. 
 
 No phase of early Pennsylvania history needs 
 less defense than the Indian policy of the col- 
 onists. The " Great Treaty " at Shackamaxon 
 has been immortalized by West on canvas and 
 Voltaire in print, and historians have not hesi- 
 tated to do it ample justice. The resulting sev- 
 enty years of peace and friendship, as contrasted 
 with the harassing and exterminating wars on 
 the boundaries of nearly all the other colonies, 
 attest its practical utility. The date of the treaty 
 is more or less uncertain, its place rests on tra- 
 dition, and its objects are not positively known.* 
 It seems probable that it occurred in June, 1683, 
 under the elm tree whose location is now marked 
 by a stone, and that it was held for the double 
 purpose of making a league of friendship and of 
 purchasing lands. 
 
 There can be no doubt of Penn's benevolent 
 intentions regarding the Indians. The Quaker 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. VI., pages 217 to 238. 
 Article by Frederick D. Stone, which is frequently used in 
 the succeeding pages. 
 
The Indians. 153 
 
 doctrine of universal divine light seemed to give 
 encouragement to do missionary work among 
 them. George Fox again and again in his let- 
 ters urges ministers to convey to the Indians 
 the messages of Christ's life and death, and 
 God's love for them.* The Indians responded 
 as if they knew the reality of the indwelling of 
 the Great Spirit. On that point their theory 
 and that of the Quakers agreed, and this may 
 have been the basis of the bond of sympathy 
 which existed between them. 
 
 On the " 18th of the Eighth month (October), 
 1681," the Proprietor sent by his cousin and 
 deputy, William Markham, a letter f to the In- 
 
 * "YoTi must instnact and teach your Indians and negroes 
 and all others how that Christ by the grace of God tasted 
 death for every man, and gave himself a reinsom for all 
 men, and is the propitiation not for the sins of Christians 
 only but for the sins of the whole world." — G. F., in 1679. 
 
 " And God hath poured out his spirit upon all flesh, 
 and so the Indians must receive God's spirit. . . . And so 
 let them know that they have a day of salvation, grace 
 and favor of God offered unto them; if they will receive it 
 it will be their blessing." — G. F., in 1688. 
 
 t " My friends : There is a great God and power that 
 halh made the world and all things therein, to whom you 
 and 1 and all people owe their being and well-being; to 
 whom you and I must one day give an account for all 
 that we do in the world. 
 
 " This great God hath written his law in our hearts, by 
 
154 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 dians, simple, brief and kindly, admirably 
 adapted to dispose them favorably to himi. He 
 had been authorized by his charter " to reduce 
 the savage nations by gentle and just manners 
 to the love of civil society and Christian reli- 
 gion." He was evidently greatly interested in 
 them, as his long and elaborate descriptions sent 
 home on the basis of rather insufficient knowl- 
 
 which we are commanded to live and help and do good to 
 one another. Now this great God hath been pleased to 
 make me concerned in your part of the world, and the 
 King of the country where I live hath given me a great 
 province therein, but I desire to enjoy it with your love 
 and consent, that we may always live together as neigh- 
 bors and friends; else what would the great God do to us, 
 who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another 
 but to live soberly and kindly together in the world? Now 
 I would have you well observe that I am very sensible 
 of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much 
 exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the 
 world; who have sought themselves, and to make great 
 advantages by you rather than to be examples of goodness 
 and patience unto you; which I hear hath been a matter 
 of trouble to you, and caused great grudging and animosi- 
 ties, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which hath made 
 the great God angry. But I am not such a man; as is well 
 known in my own country. I have great love and regard 
 towards you; and desire to win and gain your love and 
 friendship by a kind, just and peaceable life; and the 
 people I send are of the same mind and shall in all things 
 behave themselves accordingly; and if in anything any 
 shall offend you you shall have a full and speedy satisfac- 
 tion for the same by an equal number of just men on both 
 sides. ..." 
 
PENN TREATY MONUMENT. 
 
 IN THE PEKN TREATY PARK, CORNER OF COLUMBIA AVENUE 
 AND BEACH STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
The Indians. 155 
 
 edge testify; and he seems to have had great 
 hopes of making acquisitions to Christianity 
 among them. 
 
 He saw, however, that Christian sentiment 
 alone "would not advance the standard or even 
 prevent the degradation of Indian morality. He 
 knew, at least partly, the character of frontier 
 traders, the valuable bargains to be obtained 
 from a drunken Indian, and the weakness of 
 Indian character in the face of sensual tempta- 
 tions. Whatever he could do to lessen these 
 evils he stood ready to attempt. He refused an 
 advantageous offer when he needed money badly 
 lest he should barter authority to irresponsible 
 people to the disadvantage of the Indian. " I 
 did refuse a great temptation last Second-day, 
 which was £6,000 ... to have wholly 
 to itself the Indian trade from south to north 
 between the Susquehanna and Delaware Eivers. 
 . . . Eut as the Lord gave it to me over 
 all and great opposition ... I would not 
 abuse His love nor act unworthy of His provi- 
 dence, and so defile what came to me clean." * 
 
 There is additional proof of the correctness of 
 this statement in a letter of one of the intending 
 
 * Hazard's " AnnalB of Pennsylvania,'' page 522. 
 
156 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 purchasers, James Claypoole : " He (W. P.) 
 is offered great things, — £6,000 for a monopoly 
 in trade, which he refused. ... I be- 
 lieve truly he does aim more at justice and right- 
 eousness and spreading of truth than at his own 
 particular gain." 
 
 This was in 1681. In the same year he places 
 in his " Conditions and Concessions " made with 
 his purchasers of land, the stipulations that 
 wrong-doers towards the Indians should be 
 treated as if the misdeeds were against fellow- 
 planters, that Indian criminals should be pro- 
 ceeded against before magistrates just as white 
 criminals were, and that in cases of dif- 
 ference an arbitration committee of twelve, 
 six Indians and six whites, should end them. 
 He probably over-estimated the capacity and 
 willingness of the Indians to adapt them- 
 selves to English customs, and the latter meas- 
 ure, apparently unworkable, was soon abandoned. 
 But as an evidence of his desire for justice it is 
 valuable. 
 
 William Penn had paid King Charles £16,000 
 for Pennsylvania. He recognized, however, the 
 Indian claims to the same territory, and was 
 ready to purchase them. Moreover, as he deter- 
 mined never to engage in warfare with the na- 
 
The Indians. 157 
 
 tives, and was trustful in the efficacy of justice 
 and reason to settle all disputes, lie would 
 begin with a friendly bargain with them for the 
 land he was to occupy. 
 
 The purchase of lands of the Indians was no 
 new thing. It had been frequently but not 
 uniformly done in New England and ISTew York. 
 The early " Pennsylvania Archives " give sev- 
 eral instances of such purchases in New Jersey. 
 The Dutch and the Swedes had acquired title 
 to lands in the same way in Pennsylvania. In 
 fact it had become rather common, and Penn 
 probably thought but little of the mere act of 
 purchase. 
 
 What seems to have impressed the Indians 
 was the fact that Penn insisted on purchase at 
 the first and all subsequent agreements as being 
 an act of justice, to which both parties were to 
 give their assent voluntarily. They also felt 
 that the price paid was ample to extinguish their 
 claims, and that no advantages were taken by 
 plying them with drink or cheating them with 
 false maps. The treaties were open and honor- 
 able contracts, and not characterized by sharp- 
 ness and chicanery. As the Indians reflected on 
 them at their leisure they saw nothing to repent 
 of, and everything to admire in the conduct of 
 
158 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Penn and his friends, and they preserved invio- 
 lably the terms to which they had solemnly 
 agreed. They instinctively felt the honorable 
 intentions and methods of " Onas," and handed 
 down from generation to generation the belts 
 of wampum which ratified the treaties, and the 
 words of kindness and interest they heard from 
 his mouth in the conferences between them. 
 These traditions still exist in the West, and a 
 band of Quaker Indians in Indian Territory is 
 a testimony to their vitality. The Shawnees, 
 forced from Pennsylvania, found a temporary 
 home in Ohio, still keeping in touch with their 
 Quaker friends, and when moved by the Govern- 
 ment first to Kansas and then to the Indian Ter- 
 ritory, made a request that their agents and 
 teachers should be members of the Society 
 which they and their ancestors had been able to 
 trust.* 
 
 The first land purchased f of the Indians by 
 
 * " American Friend," Vol. IV., page 79. 
 
 t The consideration paid by William Penn was: 
 350 fathoms of wampum. 
 20 white blankets. 
 20 fathoms of Strand waters (coats). 
 60 fathoms of Duifields (coats). 
 20 kettles. 
 
The Indians. 159 
 
 Penn was on July 15th, 1682, before his arrival, 
 when Markham conducted the negotiations. 
 This was for a tract in the northern part of 
 Bucks County, between the Delaware Eiver and 
 Neshaminy Creek.* 
 
 20 guns. 
 
 20 coats. 
 
 40 shirts. 
 
 40 pairs of stockings. 
 
 40 hoes. 
 
 40 £ises. 
 
 2 barrels of powder. 
 
 200 bars of lead. 
 
 200 knives. 
 
 200 small glasses. 
 
 12 pairs of shoes. 
 
 40 copper boxes. 
 
 40 tobacco tongs. 
 
 2 small barrels of pipes. 
 
 40 pairs of scissors. 
 
 40 combs. 
 
 24 pounds of red lead. 
 
 100 awls. 
 
 2 handfuls of fish hooks. 
 
 2 handfuls of needles. 
 
 40 pounds of shot. 
 
 10 bundles of beads. 
 
 10 small saws. 
 
 12 drawing knives. 
 
 4 anchors of tobacco. 
 
 2 anchors of rum. 
 
 2 anchors of cider. 
 
 2 anchors of beer. 
 
 300 gilders. 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I., page 47. 
 
160 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Another tract adjoining this was sold ■■'" by 
 Tamanen to William Penn, on Jime 23d, for 
 '' so much wampum, so many guns, shoes, stock- 
 ings, looking glasses, blankets, and other goods 
 as the said William Penn shall please to give 
 unto me." At the same treaty other chiefs sold 
 out their lands " to run two days' journey with 
 an horse up into the country as the said river 
 doth go " for a similar consideration. Other 
 treaties of June 25th and July 14th, expressed 
 in the same indefinite way, conveyed to Penn. 
 all southeastern Pennsylvania. 
 
 It was probably the transaction of June 23d, 
 1683, which constituted the great treaty, f 
 Penn writes shortly after, in a letter to the Free 
 Society of Traders: 
 
 I have had occasion to be in Council witli them upon 
 terms for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. . . 
 When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed be- 
 tween us of kindness and good neighborhood, and that the 
 Indians and English must live in love as long as the sun 
 gave light. Which done, another made a speech to the 
 Tndians in the name of all the Sachamakers or kings; 
 first to tell them what was done, next to charge and com- 
 mand them to love the Christians, and particularly live in 
 peace with me and the people under my government; that 
 many governors had been in the river, but that no gov- 
 
 t 
 
 " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I., page 62, et seq. 
 " Pennsylvania Magazine,'' Vol. VI., page 218. 
 
—I s 
 
 
 5^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 "A 
 
The Indians. 161 
 
 erttor had come to live and stay here before; and having 
 now such an one that had treated them well, they should 
 never do him harm or his any wrong. At every sentence of 
 which they shouted and said Amen, in their way. 
 
 While many of the details given by some ear- 
 lier writers are imaginary, there seems to be no 
 doubt from the above that a treaty covering 
 sales of land and a compact of perpetual amity, 
 answering well the established traditions on the 
 subject, was held, and that West's picture does 
 substantially represent a historical fact, and Vol- 
 taire's eulogium is deserved. 
 
 ISTor has the effect upon the Indian mind been 
 in any way exaggerated. Again and again, in 
 subsequent negotiations, they refer to the ar- 
 rangement with William Penn in terms of the 
 greatest respect. 1712, in an interview with the 
 Conestoga Indians, Indian Harry said: * 
 
 The Proprietor, Governor Penn, at his first coming 
 amongst them, made an agreement with them that they 
 should always live as friends and brothers, and be as one 
 body, one heart, one mind, and as one eye and ear; that 
 what the one saw the other should see, and what the one 
 heard the other should hear, and that there should be 
 nothing but love and friendship between them and us for- 
 ever. 
 
 In 1715, Sasoonan said: f 
 
 » " Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 578. 
 t " Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 628. 
 
1G2 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 To prevent any misunderstanding, they now come to 
 renew the former bond of friendship that William Penn 
 had at his first coming made a clear and open road all the 
 way to the Indians, that they desired the same might be 
 kept open, and that all obstructions might be removed, ct 
 which on their side they will take care. 
 
 The chief of the five nations, in 1727, told the 
 Governor: * 
 
 Governor Penn, when he came into this Province, took 
 all the Indians by the hand; he embraced them as his 
 friends and brethren, and made a firm league of friendship 
 with them; he bound it aa with a chain that was never to 
 be broken; he took none of their lands without paying tor 
 them. 
 
 Practically the whole of Pennsylvania was 
 purchased of the Indians, some of it several times 
 over. The Six Nations of New York claimed 
 a suzerainty over the Pennsylvania Indians, and 
 in this capacity Penn, in 1696, bought of them, 
 or of the Governor of New York, acting for 
 them, the lands on both sides of the Susquehanna 
 throughout the whole Province. f The subject 
 Indians, however, not feeling satisfied to be left 
 out of the purchase, Penn explained that he was 
 only buying the right of the Six Nations, which 
 was thereby extinguished, and he laid the parch- 
 
 * " Colonial Records," Vol. III., page 288. 
 t " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I., page 121. 
 
The Indians. 163 
 
 ment on the ground between the red and white 
 men to indicate joint ownership. In 1700, he 
 bought over again the same lands " for a parcel 
 of English goods," to the perfect satisfaction of 
 the occupants. 
 
 During Penn's lifetime the relations con- 
 tinued so good that there was no difficulty in re- 
 straining unruly Indians. We find in the early 
 minutes of the Council several complaints 
 against Indians for stealing the settlers' hogs. 
 The kings were sent for and presimiably settled 
 the matter. 
 
 Penn writes, in 1685, of the Indians: 
 
 If any of them break our laws they submit to be 
 punished by them; and to this they have tied themselves 
 by an obligation under their hands. 
 
 He was equally desirous to punish white tres- 
 passers on Indian rights. The great difficulty 
 was to keep settlers off lands not already pur- 
 chased. During his lifetime, he bought so far 
 in advance of settlement that he managed to 
 avoid any sense of injury on the part of the In- 
 dians. Later in the history of the Colony the 
 problem became a serious one. 
 
 Another cause of complaint was the demoral- 
 ization wrought by rum. The Indian was help- 
 less in the presence of this ruinous beverage, and 
 
164 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 that helplessness was an appeal to Christians to 
 keep it from him. 
 
 Penn's cellar at Pennsbury was well stocked 
 with liquors of various degrees of strength, 
 which he dispensed with generous hospitality to 
 his callers, whether Indian or white. He ap- 
 pears to have recognized very early the devasta- 
 tions wrought by rum among the Indians, and 
 we do not find it given as one of the considera- 
 tions for lands after the Markham purchase of 
 1682. An early law prohibited the sale of rum 
 to the Indians, but in 1684 Penn informed his 
 Council, that at the request of the chiefs he had 
 consented to allow them to buy rum if they 
 would take the same punishment for drunken- 
 ness as the English. This did not, however, last 
 long, and in 1701 a very stringent law against 
 selling strong liquors to the Indians was 
 enacted.* 
 
 * Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, Vol. II., page 16S: 
 " Whereas our Proprietarj- and Governor and the repre- 
 sentatives oi^ the freemen of this Province and the terri- 
 torie in General Assembly met, are still desirous to induce 
 the Indian nations to the love of the Christian religion by 
 the gentle, sober and just manners of professed Christians 
 (under this government) towards them; and it being too 
 obvious that divers persons within this Province have used 
 and practiced the selling of rum, brandy and other strong 
 liquors in such quantities to the Indians, many cif whom 
 
The Indians. 165 
 
 In the meantime the Quaker meetings had 
 taken up the matter. 
 
 The Friends who had settled at Burlington in 
 advance of Penn's purchase of Pennsylvania 
 had very early seen the effects of the sale.* By 
 1685 the Yearly Meeting was convinced on the 
 
 are not able yet to govern themselves in the use thereof 
 (as by sad experience is too well known), that they are 
 generally apt to drink to great excess, whereby they are 
 not only liable to be cheated and reduced to great poverty 
 and want, but sometimes inflamed to destroy themselves 
 and one another, and terrify, annoy and endanger the 
 inhabitants, and forasmuch as several Sachems and 
 Sachemucks, kings of the Indijin nations, have in their 
 treaties with the Proprietary and Governor earnestly de- 
 sired that no European should be permitted to carry rum 
 to their towns, because of the mischiefs before expressed, 
 and since these evil practices plainly tend to the great dis- 
 honor of God, scandal of the Christian religion, and hin- 
 drance to the embracing thereof, as well as drawing the 
 judgment of God upon the country, if not timely pre- 
 vented, for the prevention thereof for the future ": 
 
 [Section I. makes an absolute prohibition of all spirits 
 by sale, barter, gift or exchange, and affixes a penalty ot 
 10 pounds for each offence. 
 
 Section II. makes the testimony of one professed Chris- 
 tian sufF-cient for conviction. 
 
 Section HI. forfeits all liquors carried to Indian towns. 
 
 Section IV. prohibits receiving any article of the Indiana 
 as pawn for strong drink, and forfeits the pawn.] 
 
 * " It was desired that Friends would consider the mat- 
 ter as touching the selling of rum unto the Indians [if it] 
 be lawful at all for Friends professing Truth to be con- 
 cerned in it."— Burlington Monthly Meeting, 1679. 
 
166 A Quaker Experimenl in Government. 
 
 subject, and " doth unanimously agree, and give 
 as their judgment, that it is not consistent with 
 the honor of Truth for any that make profession 
 thereof to sell rum or other strong liquors to 
 the Indians, because they use them not to mod- 
 eration, but to excess and drunkenness." Two 
 years later they say, if possible still more em- 
 phatically, it " is a thing contrary to the mind 
 of the Lord, and a great grief and burden to 
 His people, and a great reflection and dishonor on 
 the Truth," and directed that the minute " be 
 entered in every monthly meeting book, and 
 every Friend belonging to said meeting subscribe 
 the same." Even this did not seem to have 
 rooted out the practice among some Friends, so 
 in 1719 Monthly Meetings were directed to 
 " deal with " (I.e., separate from membership if 
 not repentant) those who sold directly or indi- 
 rectly to the Indians. By this time it was a 
 penal as well as a moral offense. 
 
 The Indian chiefs were sensible of the hon- 
 esty of these efforts. In a conference held about 
 1687, one of them spoke as follows: * 
 
 The RtroDg liquor was first sold us by the Dutch, and 
 they are blind; they had no eyes, they did not see it was 
 for our hurt. The next people tbat came among us were 
 
 * Janney's " Life of "William Penn," page 123. 
 
, The Indians. 167 
 
 the Swedes, 'who continued the sale of the strong liquora 
 to us; they were also blind, they had no eyes, they did 
 not see it to be hurtful to us to drink it, although we 
 knew it to be hurtful to us; but if people will sell it to 
 us, we are so in love with it that we cannot forbear it. 
 When we drink it, it makes us mad; we do not know what 
 to do; we then abuse one another; we throw each other 
 into the fire. Seven score of our people have been killed 
 by reason of drinking it, since the time it was first sold to 
 us. These people that sell it have no eyes. But now there 
 is a people come to live among us that have eyes; they 
 see it to be for our hurt; they are willing to deny them- 
 selves the profit of it for our good. These people have 
 eyes. We are glad such a people are come among us; we 
 must put it down by mutual consent; the cask must be 
 sealed up; it must be made fast; it must not leak by day 
 or by night, in light or in the dark, and we give you these 
 four belts of wampum, which we would have you lay up 
 safe and keep by you to be witnesses of this agreement, 
 and we would have you tell your children that these four 
 belts of wampum are given you to be witnesses, betwixt 
 us and you, of this agreement. 
 
 At tlie time of the death of Penn the rela- 
 tions between the whites and Indians could not 
 well be improved. While there were individual 
 outrages on the Indians, and individual stealings 
 from the whites, they were punished as com- 
 pletely as the circtmistances would admit, and 
 never produced ill-feeling. The frontier was 
 safe from marauders, tomahawks and scalping 
 knives were unknown, and traders carried on 
 their business with safety. A perfect confidence 
 in the fairness of Penn and the Quakers existed 
 
168 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 among the Indians, which in time deepened into 
 an abiding respect. 
 
 As lands became more in demand for settle- 
 ment, difficulties increased. But it was a di£Eer- 
 ent spirit in the white negotiators, rather than 
 inherent perplexities, which drove the red men. 
 ■first to estrangement, then to hostility, then to 
 bloody revenge, making them an easy prey to 
 French machinations. Much was said at the 
 time about the peace policy of the Quakers 
 making the Province insecure against Erench 
 and Indian attack. A more profound study 
 would indicate that that insecurity was primarily 
 caused by rank injustice to the Indians at the 
 hands of fhe sons and successors of William 
 Penn. A policy of peace and one of justice com- 
 bined may be successful; it is hardly fair, how- 
 ever, to provoke attack by iniquity and then 
 saddle the inevitable consequences upon the lack 
 of preparation for military resistance. Had the 
 sons of Penn maintained the confidence and 
 friendship of the Indians, an effective buffer 
 against all hostile French designs would have 
 existed, and Pennsylvania been spared the hor- 
 rors of 1755 and succeeding years. This friend- 
 ship, notwithstanding the increasing pressure on 
 the Indian lands, might have been maintained, 
 
The Indians. 1G9 
 
 had there been no deceitful measures which left 
 the red man quiet but sullen, with a brooding 
 sense of wrong, and desire for revenge. Even 
 then he seems to have understood that the 
 Quaker was his friend and shielded him in his 
 frontier raids. It is said that only three mem- 
 bers of that sect were killed by the Indians in 
 the Pennsylvania troubles, and they had so far 
 abandoned their ordinary trustful attitude as to 
 carry guns in defense.* 
 
 There were inherent difficulties in preventing 
 rum being furnished to the Indians, and in keep- 
 ing settlers off their hands. Charles Thomson f 
 says, in the case of the rum, that while ample 
 promises were held out to them, they were never 
 kept. In 1722 the Indians told Governor Keith 
 that they " could live contentedly and grow rich 
 if it were not for the quantities of rum that is 
 suffered to come among them contrary to what 
 William Penn promised them." Again in 1727 
 they complain of traders who cheat them, and 
 
 *Dymond, "Essay on War." 
 
 t "An Enquiry into the Cause of the Alienation of the 
 Indians," 1750. The facts which follow are mainly derived 
 from this book. C. T. was afterwards secretary of the 
 Continental Congress and author of a translation of the 
 Bible. 
 
170 A Quaker Experiment in Goverivinent. 
 
 give them rum and not powder and shot, so that 
 the Indians nearly starve. The Governor in 
 reply to this said he could not control traders, 
 that Indians and whites all would cheat, and that 
 they were at liberty to break in the heads of all 
 rum casks. Such complaints came in contin- 
 uously, and we can well understand were hard 
 to deal with. In the matter of settlement of 
 lands prior to purchase of the Indians, probably 
 all was done that was possible. The Scotch-Irish 
 and Germans were pressing in at a tremendous 
 rate and cared nothing for Indian titles. It 
 seemed to them absurd to allow Indians a great 
 stretch of fertile land for hunting purposes only. 
 Sometimes the settlers were removed, at other 
 times the Indians were satisfied by payments, 
 but they still felt aggTieved as they saw their 
 lands melting away before the ubiquitous wliites. 
 
 These causes, while adding to the general dis- 
 content, would not with proper management 
 have produced serious disaffection had they not 
 been re-enforced by a few cases of glaring injus- 
 tice. The first of these was the notorious 
 " Walking Purchase." 
 
 In a treaty in 1728 James Logan said that 
 William Penn never allowed lands to be settled 
 till purchased of the Indians. Ten years before 
 
The Indians. . 171 
 
 he had shown to their chiefs deeds covering all 
 lands from Duck Creek, in Delaware, to the 
 " Forks of the Delaware," * and extending back 
 along the " Lechoy Hills " to the Susquehanna. 
 The Indians admitted this and confirmed the 
 deeds, but objected to the settlers crowding into 
 the fertile lands within the forks occupied by the 
 Minisink tribe of the Delaware Indians. Logan 
 accordingly forbade any surveying in the Min- 
 isink country. White settlers, however, were 
 not restrained, and the Indians became still more 
 uneasy. A tract of 10,000 acres sold by the 
 Penns to be taken up anywhere in the unoccu- 
 pied lands of the Province, was chosen here and 
 opened for settlement. A lottery was estab- 
 lished by the Proprietors, the successful tickets 
 calling for amounts of land down to 200 acres, 
 and many of these were assigned in the Forks, 
 without Indian consent. 
 
 In order to secure undisputed possession and 
 drive out the Delawares, who it must be remem- 
 bered had always been more than friendly, a des- 
 picable artifice was resorted to, which will 
 always disgrace the name of Thomas Penn. A 
 deed of 1686 of doubtful authenticity was 
 
 * Between the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, where Easton 
 now stands. 
 
172 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 produced, confirming to William Penn a plot of 
 ground beginning on the Delaware River a short 
 distance above Trenton, running west to 
 Wrightstown, in Bucks County, thence north- 
 west parallel to the Delaware Eiver as far as a 
 man could walk in a day and a half, which was 
 no doubt intended to extend to the Lehigh Hills, 
 thence eastward by an undefined line, left blank 
 in the deed, presumably along the hills to the 
 Delaware E,iver at Easton. It was one of nu- 
 merous purchases of a similar character which in 
 the aggregate conveyed to William Penn all 
 southeastern Pennsylvania, and had with his 
 careful constructions made no trouble. The 
 walk, however, had never been taken, and in 
 1737 the Proprietors brought out the old agree- 
 ment as a means of securing a title to the Mini- 
 sink country. 
 
 The route was surveyed, underbrush cleared 
 away, horses stationed to convey the walkers 
 across the rivers, two athletic young men trained 
 for the purpose, and conveyances provided for 
 their baggage and provisions. Indians attended 
 at the beginning, but after repeatedly calling to 
 the men to walk, not run, retired in disgust. Far 
 from stopping at the Lehigh Hills, they covered 
 about sixty miles and extended the line thirty 
 
INDIAN AVALK MONUMENT. 
 
 at weightstown, bucks co., pa. 
 
 [inscription on large stonk on the left] 
 to the >i e m o i! y of the l e n n i - l e n a p e indians 
 
 ANCIENT OWNEIIS OF THIS KEGION 
 
 THESE STONi;S ARE I'LACED AT THIS Sl'OT 
 
 THE STAP.TING POINT OF THE 
 
 INDIAN WALK 
 
 septemiif:r 19, 1737 
 
 BUCKS CO. Hl.ST. SOC, 1890. 
 
The Indians. 173 
 
 miles beyond the Lehigh River. Then to crown 
 the infamy, instead of running the northern line 
 by any reasonable course they slanted it to the 
 northeast and included all the Minisink country. 
 It was a gross travesty on the original purchase, 
 an outrageous fraud on the Indians, which they 
 very properly refused to submit to. They re- 
 mained in their ancestral homes, and sent notice 
 they would resist removal by force. There un- 
 fortunately seems to be no doubt of the iniquity 
 of the transaction. There is the testimony of at 
 least two witnesses to the walk. It appears tj 
 have been a common subject of remark. Indif- 
 ferent men treated it as sharp practice, and hon- 
 est men were ashamed. But the Proprietors had 
 a sort of a title to the fertile lands along the 
 Delaware. 
 
 The outrage did not stop here. The Proprie- 
 tors, probably knowing the temper of the Assem- 
 bly, did not ask a military force to eject the 
 Delawares. They applied to the Six ISTations, 
 who claimed all the Pennsylvania Indians as 
 their subjects. In 1742 a conference was held 
 in Philadelphia, where a large number of the 
 chiefs of the various tribes were present. Pres- 
 ents worth £300 were given to the Six ISTations,* 
 
 * " Colonial Records," Vol. IV., page 597, et seq. 
 
174 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 and after hospitable entertainment of several 
 days after the manner of the times, they were 
 brought into conference with their tributary 
 chiefs, the Governor, and his Council. The 
 Iroquois sachem, after saying he had judicially 
 examined the deeds, pronounced judgment in 
 favor of the whites, and turning to the Dela- 
 wares, who apparently had nothing to say, he 
 addressed them : " Let this belt of wampum 
 serve to chastise you; you ought to be taken by 
 the hair of the head and shaken severely till you 
 recover your senses." Then with the bitterest 
 taunts he proceeded: "But how came you to 
 sell land at all? We conquered you. We made 
 women of you; you know you are women, and 
 can no more sell land than women. 
 For all these reasons we charge you to remove 
 instantly. We don't give you liberty to think 
 about it. Tou are women; take the advice of a 
 wise man and remove immediately. 
 We assign you two places to go to, Wyoming or 
 Shamokin. You may go to either of these places 
 and then we shall have you more under our eye 
 and shall see how you behave. Don't deliberate, 
 but remove away and take this belt of wampum." 
 There was nothing for the Delawares to do 
 but to obey. They saw that the league between 
 
The Indians. 175 
 
 the whites and the Six Nations was irresistible. 
 They placed them in the same category of ene- 
 mies and bided their time. If in the Indian 
 sense they had been women — that is, peaceful ami 
 trustful — they were soon to show that the injury 
 had made them capable of coping with their 
 dreaded Iroquois oppressors, and of sending the 
 white frontiersmen fleeing in terror to towns and 
 forts. But the cup of their injurious treatment 
 was not yet full. 
 
 The Six Nations having completed their con- 
 tract in removing the Delawares, demanded a 
 reciprocal favor. The lands along the Juniata 
 Eiver had never been purchased, and were 
 claimed by these New York Indians as a part of 
 their imperial domain. Moreover they were val- 
 uable hunting grounds. But the whites were 
 pressing in, and the government of Pennsylvania 
 was asked to clear them out. They could not 
 well object to the request, and an expedition was 
 sent into the country which demanded the 
 removal of the settlers and burned their build- 
 ings. The whites moved back as soon as the 
 authorities were gone, and the old complaints 
 were renewed. 
 
 No doubt the Trench were continually fo- 
 menting the disturbances. By artfully promis- 
 
176 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 ing the recovery of lands and giving presents to 
 chiefs, they were welding together most of the 
 Indians except three nations of the Iroquois into 
 a confederacy against the English. The Penn- 
 sylvanians, sensible of the danger, began to make 
 counter presents, and here the Quaker Assembly 
 and the Proprietors joined hands. It was a for- 
 tunate seasons for such Indians as could take 
 advantage of the competition, but in the nature 
 of things could not last. 
 
 Finally the Penns concluded at one stroke to 
 extinguish all Indian titles to Western Penn- 
 sylvania. The rest was practically their own. 
 The Indian chiefs were collected at Albany, and 
 by means which will not bear examination were 
 induced to sign the contract. It gave to the Pro- 
 prietors all the land south and west of a line 
 drawn from Shamokin to Lake Erie and extend- 
 ing to the extreme boundaries of the Province. 
 The Indians said they were cheated; some chiefs 
 were pri-s'ately bought ; most of the Pennsylvania 
 tribes were not represented and did not know 
 what was going on; they did not understand the 
 compass courses, and did not know the extent of 
 the sale; they were told they were only clearing 
 themselves of charges of having sold to the 
 French or the people of Connecticut, who were 
 
The Indians. 177 
 
 then making claims on the northern part of 
 Pennsylvania. How much of this is true can- 
 not be certainly known. But when the Pennsyl- 
 vania Indians became aware that they had been 
 induced, by methods which seemed to them 
 fraudulent, to sign away all their hunting 
 grounds, the pent-up dissatisfaction of years came 
 to a head. The grievances v?hich the Proprie- 
 tors and frontiersmen had heaped upon them 
 seemed now a part of a settled policy. They felt 
 excused from fulfilling the obligations they had 
 assumed to William Penn and the Quakers, 
 who, they rightfully conjectured, had nothing 
 to do with these iniquities; they joined heartily 
 with the Prench in their hostilities, and shot 
 down Braddock's army in the summer of 1755 
 with a right good will. The terrors of Indian 
 warfare to which the other colonies had been 
 subjected were now for the first time reproduced 
 in Pennsylvania, and the effects of the " Holy 
 Experiment " were ended. 
 
 The victory over Braddock turned all doubt- 
 ful Indians into the ranks of the hostiles. The 
 fall of 1755 and spring of 1756 were dire sea- 
 sons for the frontiers of Pennsylvania. The 
 burning of houses, the shooting down of men, 
 the outrages on women and children, the flight 
 
178 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 to places of safety, the demands for protection 
 from government and friendly Indians, — from 
 all these things the policy of William Penn had 
 shielded the settlers for seventy-three years. 
 The very tribes with which he had formed his 
 treaties, which were always so warm in their 
 friendships for him, which had been the victims 
 of the " Walking Purchase," been branded as 
 women by the Six Nations, and moved about 
 from place to place, — the Delawares and the 
 Shawnees, — now proved as fierce as any. All 
 that the brilliant author of the History of the 
 Conspiracy of Pontiac has said of their general 
 peacefulness was disproved. When ill-treated 
 they had their bloody revenge, exactly as in New 
 England. They showed no lack of Indian spirit. 
 Hitherto overcome by the superior numbers and 
 organization of the Iroquois, they now, under 
 French tutelage and a sense of wrong, turned on 
 their oppressors and proved their equality in en- 
 durance, in resource and in cruelty. That Penn- 
 sylvania was saved by the just and pacific policy 
 of the first settlers, and would have suffered just 
 as the other colonies did by the reverse, seems as 
 probable as any historical conclusion. 
 
 War was declared against these two tribes by 
 the Governor and Council in the spring of 1756. 
 
The Indians. 179 
 
 This was the final act which drove the Quakers 
 from the Assembly. Rewards for scalps, one 
 hundred and thirty " pieces of eight " for 
 a man and fifty for a woman, were offered 
 to friendly Indians and guerilla whites, and 
 a slightly larger amount for prisoners. But 
 the scalps were more easily handled and pris- 
 oners were not brought in. The war raged 
 primarily in the unpurchased and doubtful 
 lands, in the Cumberland and Juniata Valleys, 
 and in the " Forks of the Delaware," whither the 
 Minisinks had returned to their old home. 
 
 The French were busy in the north, and could 
 not do more to aid the Pennsylvania Indians 
 than furnish them with supplies. Hence it 
 seemed possible to detach the Delawares and 
 Shawnees from the hostile alliance. For this 
 purpose the ' 'Friendly Association' ' was formed. 
 This was composed of Quakers, now out of the 
 government, but anxious to terminate the un- 
 fortunate warfare. They refused to pay war 
 taxes, but pledged themselves to contribute in 
 the interests of peace " more than the heaviest 
 taxes of a war can be expected to require." 
 
 While this Association was objected to by the 
 State authorities as an unofficial and to some ex- 
 tent an impertinent body, and charged with 
 
180 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 political motives, it succeeded in a remarkable 
 "way in bringing together tlie Indians and the 
 Government in a succession of treaties, vchich 
 finally resulted in the termination of the war and 
 the payment to the Indians of an amount which 
 satisfied them for the land taken by the Walking 
 Purchase and other dubious processes. Repre- 
 sentatives of the Association, either hj invita- 
 tion of the Indians or of the Governor, were 
 invariably present, and their largesses to the 
 Indians much smoothed the way to pacific re- 
 lations. As Israel Pemberton, a prominent mem- 
 ber, said in 1758, after speaking of the miscon- 
 struction of their motives by various persons : 
 
 If we can but be instrumental to restore peace to our 
 countrj' and retrieve the credit of it with our former kind 
 neighbors, but of late bloody enemies, we shall have all 
 the reward we desire. . It was by this [justice] the 
 
 first settlers of the Province obtained their friendship, and 
 the name of a Quaker of the same spirit as William Penn 
 still is in the highest estimation among their old men, 
 . . . and there's a considerable number of us here united 
 in a resolution to endeavor by the like conduct to fix the 
 same good impression of all of us in the minds of the ris- 
 ing generation.* 
 
 Treaties were held at Easton in the summer 
 and fall of 1756. Tedyuscung conducted the 
 negotiations on behalf of the Six Nations, who 
 
 * '• The Friend," Vol. XLVI., page 187. 
 
The Indians. 181 
 
 in the main remained friendly, and the Dela- 
 wares. The Lieutenant-Governor and his Coun- 
 cil were present. The Friendly Association 
 requested to be allowed to send delegates, and 
 were at first forbidden, but being doubtful 
 either of the perfect wisdom or perfect sincerity 
 of the Governor,* and finding that the Indians 
 desired them, sent their deputation, and had im- 
 portant influence in securing a favorable con- 
 clusion. 
 
 Tedyuscung was very plain. " This very- 
 ground that is under me (striking it with his 
 foot) was my land and inheritance, and is 
 taken from me by fraud." f He went over the 
 old grounds of complaint, but desired now to live 
 in peace. The Council, with apparent intention 
 to evade the real question, brought up the old 
 decision of 1742, when the Six ISTations chastised 
 their "women," as evidence of the fairness of 
 Proprietors, and proposed that they should, when 
 they adjourned to Philadelphia, inquire into the 
 matter and do what was right. This was evi- 
 dently insincere. The Walking Purchase and 
 its consequences were too well known to need 
 
 * " The Friend," Vol. XL VI., page 201. Letter of James 
 Pemberton. 
 + " Colonial Records," Vol. VII., page 324. 
 
182 A Quaker Experiment in Qovernment. 
 
 further investigation, and so the commissioners 
 acting for the Assembly seem to have known, 
 for they advised settling the claims immediately. 
 This was finally done. The Quakers added their 
 present of clothing, and the Indians went off in 
 better humor than for years. 
 
 This did not entirely stop hostilities on the 
 sparse frontier. Scattered tribes still had pri- 
 vate revenge or French designs to spur them on. 
 But Tedyuscung, who was now a Christian, used 
 his greatest endeavors to bring them one by one 
 into friendly relations with the English, and a 
 little interval of quiet allowed the disordered 
 border to repair itself before another war again 
 stirred up the Indians. 
 
 The year 1757 saw peace restored by the ef- 
 forts of the heroic Moravian, Christian Frederic 
 Post, sent out by the Friendly Association to the 
 Ohio Indians, and by the capture of Fort Du- 
 Quesne by General Forbes. 
 
Military Matters. 183 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MILITAET MATTEES. 
 
 Of all Friendly ideas the most difficult to in- 
 corporate practically into government machinery 
 was that of peace. The uncompromising views 
 which most Quakers held as to the iniquity of all 
 war, seemed to those outside the Society Utopian 
 if not absurd, and did not command the united 
 support of its own membership. That justice 
 and courtesy should characterize all dealings 
 with other states, that no aggressive war could 
 ever be justified, that in almost every case war 
 could be honorably avoided, all were willing to 
 endorse and practice, but a minority, probably a 
 small minority, held that circumstances might 
 arise when warlike defense was necessary and 
 proper, and that the Sermon on the Mount was 
 not to be interpreted any more lit-erally when 
 it commanded " Eesist not evil " than when it 
 commanded " Lay not up treasures on earth." 
 
 The general tenor of authoritative Quaker 
 teaching, however, admitted no such interpreta- 
 tion. It is not found in the writings of Fox, 
 Barclay, Penington or Penn. Their language 
 
184 A Quaker Experiment in Goveriiment. 
 
 is always unequivocal in opposition to all war. 
 The Quaker converts among Cromwell's soldiers, 
 of whom there were not a few, left tlie ranks for 
 conscience' sake as uniformly and as unhesitat- 
 ingly as the Christian converts of the early cen- 
 turies abandoned the Roman armies, with the 
 plea, " I am a Christian, and therefore cannot 
 fight." 
 
 "ISTot fighting, but suffering," says William 
 Penn * in 1694, " is another testimony peculiar 
 to this people. . . . Thus as truth-speaking 
 succeeded swearing, so faith and patience suc- 
 ceed fighting in the doctrine and practice of this 
 people. ISTor ought they for this to be obnoxious 
 to civil government; since if they cannot fight 
 for it neither can they fight against it, which is 
 no mean security to any state. ISTor is it reason- 
 able that people should be blamed for not doing 
 more for others than they can do for them- 
 selves." 
 
 We have important testimony to Penn's posi- 
 tion in the unsympathetic statement of James 
 Logan, f After expressing his own view that all 
 government was founded on force, he says: ''I 
 
 * " The Eise and Progress of the People Called Quakers." 
 t " Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. VI., page 404. 
 
JAMES LOGAX. 
 
 FIKIM AX ENIiliAVIXf; IN THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 HlSTOllICAL SdCIETY IIF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 WHICH WAS MAIIE J-ROjr AN OLD PAINTING. 
 
Military Matters. 185 
 
 was therefore the more surprised when I found 
 my master on a particular occasion on our voyage 
 hither (in 1699), though coming over to exercise 
 the powers of it here in his own person, showed 
 his sentiments were otherwise." * He adds that 
 " Friends had laid it down as their principle, that 
 bearing of arms, even for self-defense, is unlaw- 
 ful" 
 
 There seems therefore no doubt that the So- 
 ciety had with practical unanimity accepted mili- 
 tary non-resistance in its most extreme form. 
 
 Not content with arguing on moral grounds 
 against the unrighteousness of war, Penn elabo- 
 rated, in 1693, a large scheme "of an European 
 Dyet Parliament or Estates " to which disputes 
 
 * This refers to an incident mentioned in Franklin's Au- 
 tobiography. When the vessel was thought to be about to 
 be attacked by a hostile boat, Logan prepared to resist, 
 while Penn and the other Friends retired to the cabin. 
 
 It seems strange that Logan should prior to this have 
 been ignorant of Perm's views on defensive warfare, inas- 
 much as the treatise quoted above had been several years 
 in print, and other writings published long prior were 
 equally plain. But Logan was then only 26 years old, and 
 though he says he " considered of t very closely before I 
 engaged," his knowledge of Friends was probably limited. 
 Indeed, he never felt such sjTtipathy with Friends as to 
 attend meetings for business with regularity. 
 
 When Penn took his young secretary to task for his 
 hostile preparations on shipboard, Logan suggested rather 
 unkindly that the objections were not stated till all danger 
 was past. 
 
186 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 should be presented for settlement. All na- 
 tions were to be represented by Deputies, and 
 the advantages of such a Court and the various 
 expedients to make the decisions final and satis- 
 factory are pressed with great wealth of sugges- 
 tions.* 
 
 "William Penn's mind was full of profound 
 and comprehensive projects. Three years later 
 he published a plan for the union of the Ameri- 
 can colonies, of course in dependence upon the 
 English Crown. Two representatives were to 
 meet in New York from each province at stated 
 times to arrange for their common interests. 
 They would settle all questions about the return 
 of criminals, arrange details of commerce, and 
 " consider ways and means to support the union 
 and safety of these provinces against the public 
 enemies." He was too early with this sugges- 
 tion, but it would have preserved them from 
 rather bitter controversies if it had been adopted. 
 
 It was easy to hold peace views as an academic 
 proposition, supported by the spirit and letter of 
 the ISTew Testament; but when the actual prob- 
 lems of government arose how was this non- 
 resistant principle to be applied to the protection 
 
 * This is puWiahed as a tract by the " Old South " Asso- 
 ciation of Boston. 
 
, Military Matters. 187 
 
 of society against criminals? This logical diffi- 
 culty does not seem to have troubled the early 
 Pennsylvanians. So far as appears they drew a 
 line between police and military measures, mak- 
 ing one effective and barring out the other. 
 There was to them no contradiction to call for 
 explanation. With strict logic they might have 
 been driven to the position of Count Tolstoi, who 
 carries his non-resistance so far as to object to all 
 government, and all restraint on criminals. Or 
 the line might be supposed to be drawn on the 
 sacredness of human life, but, as we have seen, 
 opposition to capital punishment, per se, never 
 arose before the Revolution. Probably if 
 pressed for an answer to the question why it was 
 right to resist a street mob of subjects with police 
 and not to resist an attacking force with soldiers, 
 they would have replied that one act was in de- 
 fence of life and property under authority of 
 civil powers " ordained of God," and involving 
 no iniquitous means, while all military measures 
 necessarily included the destruction of life and 
 property, of innocent as well as of guilty, and 
 reversed the established rules of morality in sanc- 
 tioning stealing, lying, and killing those who 
 were not personally offenders. 
 
 The Quaker Assembly of 1740, in their 
 
188 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 ethical controversy witli Governor Thomas, 
 argued thus: "And yet it is easy to discover the 
 diflerence between killing a soldier fighting (per- 
 haps) in obedience to the commands of his sov- 
 ereign, and who may possibly think himseK in 
 the discharge of his duty, and executing a burg- 
 lar who broke into our houses, plundered us of 
 our goods, and perhaps would have murdered too 
 if he could not otherwise have accomplished his 
 ends, who must know at the time of the commis- 
 sion of the act, it was a violation of laws, human 
 and divine, and that he thereby justly rendered 
 himself obnoxious to the punishment which en- 
 sued." * 
 
 Penn did not hesitate to commend force in 
 civil affairs when necessary. " If lenitives would 
 not do, coercives should be tried; but though 
 men would naturally begin with the former, yet 
 wisdom had often sanctioned the latter as reme- 
 dies which, however, were never to be adopted 
 without regret," he wrote in 1700. f The whole 
 machinery of courts and police was intended to 
 be effective in resisting crime and criminals. All 
 prisons were more or less work-houses, and the 
 
 * " Colonial Records," Vol. IV., page 373. 
 t Janney's " Life of Penn," page 441. 
 
Military Matters. 189 
 
 reformation idea had larger vogue tlian in some 
 places, but there "was no hesitation apparent to 
 secure by force the ascendency of law. 
 
 The position they took was probably this: We 
 will never do an injustice, provoke a war, or at- 
 tack an enemy. If attacked we will, therefore, 
 always be in the right. We cannot do wrong 
 even to defend the right, but will trust that hav- 
 ing done our duty. Providence will protect us. 
 Beyond this we cannot go.* 
 
 Penn had authority by his Charter " to 
 levy, muster and train all sorts of men of what 
 condition or wheresoever born in the said prov- 
 ince of Pennsylvania for the time being, and to 
 make war and pursue the enemies and robbers 
 aforesaid as well by sea as by land, yea even 
 without the limits of said province, and by God's 
 assistance to vanquish and take them, and being 
 taken, to put them to death by the law of war, 
 or save them at their pleasure, and to do all and 
 
 * In a pamphlet printed in 1748 entitled, " The Doctrine 
 of Christianity as held by the people called Quakers Vin- 
 dicated," in answer to Gilbert Tennent's sermon on the 
 " Lawfulness of War," substantially this position was 
 taken. The pamphlet appeared anonymously, but is 
 known to have been written by a Friend of prominence, 
 closely connected with James Logan, who doubtless was 
 expressing the recognized views of the Society. A copy 
 is in the Philadelphia Library. 
 
190 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 every act or thing whicli to the charge and office 
 of a Captain-General belongeth, as fully and 
 freely as any Captain-General of an army hath 
 ever had the same." 
 
 These powers were doubtless ample for a 
 peaceable Quaker. He could not exercise them 
 himself without trampling on the views to which 
 he was indelibly committed. The power to use 
 them implied the power to transmit them, and 
 this is just what Penn did. 
 
 He was in a delicate position. He was, as 
 feudal lord of the province, liable to be called 
 upon to support Britain's causes by force of arms 
 against Britain's enemies. This he could not 
 personally do, but if the Deputy-Governor had 
 no conscience in the matter, Penn would not in- 
 terpose to prevent obedience to the commands of 
 the Crown. He selected non-Quaker deputies, 
 and doubtless this consideration had its effect in 
 inducing the choice. H some were inclined to 
 criticize him for appointing others to perform 
 acts he could not do himself, it must be remem- 
 bered that deeds concerning whose culpability 
 differences may properly exist, are evil or good 
 for an individual, dependent on the attitude of 
 his own conscience. The Friends never asked a 
 man to violate conscience, and recognized the 
 
Military Matters. 191 
 
 differences due to education, enlightenment and 
 mental constitution. If others honestly thought 
 war right, it was right for them. Hence the 
 actions of the Deputy were not of the character 
 which involved evil-doing on his part, even 
 though the same actions would have been evil for 
 Penn himself. Such was Paul's attitude, and 
 such was probably Penn's argument. What, 
 however, seems a less defensible position, was 
 that taken by him in 1694, as a pledge of the re- 
 storation of his government: 
 
 At the Committee of Trade and Plantations, at the 
 Colonial Chamber at Whitehall, the 1st and 3d of August, 
 1694. . . 
 
 The Committee being attended by Mr. Penn, who, hav- 
 ing declared to their Lordships, that if their Majesties shall 
 be graciously pleased to restore him to the Proprietary 
 according to the said grants, he intends with all convenient 
 speed to repair hither, and take care of the government ami 
 provide for the safety and security thereof, all that in him 
 lyes. And to that end he will carefully transmit to the 
 Council and Assembly there all such orders as shall be 
 given by their Majesties in that behalf; and he doubts 
 not but they will at all times dutifully comply with and 
 yield obedience thereunto and to all such orders and di- 
 rections as their Majesties shall from time to time think 
 fit to send, for the supplying such quota of men, or the de- 
 fraying their part of such charges as their Majesties shall 
 think necessary for the safety and preservation of their 
 Majesties' dominions in that part of America. 
 
 It is true William Penn only promised " to 
 transmit to Council and Assembly " the orders 
 
192 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 of the Crown, which was safe enough. But 
 when he stales " he doubts not " they will com- 
 ply, the remark seems disingenuous. For he 
 must have known that these Quaker bodies 
 would do nothing of the kind. Indeed he, him- 
 self, about that time, was carefully explaining 
 the general unrighteousness of these acts which 
 he appears to expect his co-religionists will per- 
 form. It looks as if he intended to promise a 
 course of action for the future, and then to un- 
 load this promise upon a body which would not 
 redeem it. 
 
 The first trial of Quaker faith had, how.ever, 
 occurred prior to this, in 1689. The Crown had 
 suggested that in order to defend the Colony 
 against an attempted attack by the French, a 
 militia should be formed. Grovernor Blackwell 
 urged this, and he was supported by Markham 
 and the non-Quaker portion of the Council. The 
 Friends refused to have anything to do with it. 
 They told the Governor that if he desired a 
 militia he had power to create one, and they 
 would not interfere if it did not offend any con- 
 sciences. 
 
 John Simcock said : " I see no danger but from 
 bears and wolves. We are well and in peace 
 and quiet; let us keep ourselves so. I knovp not 
 
Military Matters. 193 
 
 but a peaceable spirit and that will do well. Fot 
 my part I am against it clearly." 
 
 Samuel Carpenter said: "I am not against 
 those that will put themselves into defence, but 
 it being contrary to the judgment of a great part 
 of the people, and my own, too, I cannot advise 
 the thing nor express my liking for it. The king 
 of England knows the judgment of Quakers in 
 this case before Governor Penn and his Patent. 
 If we must be forced to it I suppose we shall 
 rather choose to suffer than to do it, as we have 
 done formerly." 
 
 After much discussion the five Quaker mem- 
 bers of Council asked leave to retire for a 
 conference. On their return they announced, 
 " We would not tie others' hands, but we cannot 
 act. We would not take upon us to hinder any, 
 and do not think the Governor need call us to- 
 gether in this matter. . . . We say nothing 
 against it, and regard it as a matter of conscience 
 to us. ... I had rather be ruined than violate 
 my conscience in this case." * The matter was 
 dropped. 
 
 Again in 1693, Governor Fletcher, who was 
 
 * " Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 470. 
 Samuel Carpenter, who expressed this sentiment, was 
 adjudged the richest man in the Province. 
 
194 A Quaher Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 also Governor of Xew York, in the interval of 
 Penn's deposition, asked the Assembly for 
 money to support a war against the French and 
 Indians of Canada, which had been raging on 
 their frontiers. He knew the difficulties. " If 
 there be any among you that scruple the giving 
 of money to support war, there are a great many 
 other charges in that government for the support 
 thereof, as officers' salaries. . . . Your money 
 shall be converted into these uses and shall not be 
 dipt in blood." * Upon the basis of this promise, 
 after some delay, the money was voted. 
 
 In May, 1695, a requisition was made on 
 Pennsylvania for eighty men with officers for the 
 defence of ISTew York. The Council advised call- 
 ing together the Assembly, but not until harvest 
 was over. The Assembly united with the Council 
 in refusing the bald request, reminding the Gov- 
 ernor of Fletcher's promise that the last appro- 
 priation should not "be dipt in blood," but should 
 be used " to feed the hungry and clothe the 
 naked " Indiaris, and suggested that such of it as 
 had not been used as promised should go 
 towards the present emergency. The Council 
 finally offered two bills, one to make an appro- 
 
 ' Colonial Records," Vol. I., page 361. 
 
SAMUEL CAEPENTEE. 
 
 FROM A PAINTIXr; NO\Y IN POSSESSION OF S. PRESTON I A KPENTEK, 
 OF SALEM, NEW JERSEY. 
 
Military Matters. 195 
 
 priation, and one to demand a return to Penn's 
 Frame of Government, which was held in abey- 
 ance since his return to power. As the Grov- 
 ernor had to take both or neither he dissolved the 
 Assembly. A year later he was willing to make 
 the required concession, and urged that the 
 money was needed in ISTew York '' for food and 
 raiment to be given to those nations of Indians 
 that have lately sutiered extremely by the 
 French, which is a fair opportunity for you, that 
 for conscience cannot contribute to war, to raise 
 rdoney for that occasion, be it under the color of 
 support of government or relief of those Indians 
 or what else you may call it." The Assembly 
 made the necessary vote and the Constitution of 
 1696 was obtained in payment. 
 
 The next time the pacific principles of the 
 Assembly were tried was in 1701, when the Eng- 
 lish Government asked for £360 for the purpose 
 of erecting forts on the frontiers of JSTew York 
 on the plea that they were for the general de- 
 fence. Penn, who was then in the Province, 
 faithfully observed his promise " to transmit," 
 but declined to give any advice to the Assembly. 
 The members were evidently greatly agitated, 
 and repeatedly asked copies of his speech, which 
 was in fact only the King's letter. After some 
 
196 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 fencing two reports appeared. One, from the 
 Pennsylvania delegates, urged their poverty, 
 owing to taxes and quit-rents, also the lack of 
 contributions of other colonies, but added plainly, 
 " We desire the Proprietor would candidly repre- 
 sent our conditions to the King, and assure him 
 of our readiness (according to our abilities) to ac- 
 quiesce with and answer his commands so far as 
 our religious persuasions shall permit, as be- 
 comes loyal and faithful subjects so to do." * 
 The other answer came from the Delaware por- 
 tion of the Assembly, excusing themselves be- 
 cause they had no forts of their own. 
 
 When the Assembly met, a month later, Penn 
 again referred to the King's letter, but nothing 
 was done, and the matter was not pressed. 
 
 Governor Evans made several attempts to es- 
 tablish a militia, but the Assembly refused any 
 sanction, and the voluntary organizations were 
 failures. 
 
 The military question came up in 1709 in a 
 more serious form. An order came from the 
 Queen to the various colonies to furnish quotas 
 of men at their own expense towards an army to 
 invade Canada. New York was to supply 800, 
 Connecticut 350, Jersey 200, and Pennsylvania 
 
 * " Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 26. 
 
Military Matters. ■ 197 
 
 150. In transmitting the order Governor Goo- 
 kin, who evidently anticipated difficulty, sug- 
 gested that the total charge would be about 
 £4,000. He says, " Perhaps it may seem diffi- 
 cult to raise such a number of men in a country 
 where most of the inhabitants are of such prin- 
 ciples as will not allow them the use of arms; but 
 if you will raise the sum for the support of gov- 
 ernment, I don't doubt getting the number of 
 men desired whose principles will allow the use 
 of arms." * 
 
 This was too manifest an evasion for the As- 
 sembly to adopt. Its first answer was to send in 
 a bill of grievances. The opportunity was too 
 good to be lost, and David Lloyd, then Speaker, 
 made the most of it. 
 
 In the meantime the Quaker members of the 
 Council met some of their co-religionists of the 
 Assembly " and there debated their opinions 
 freely and unanimously to those of the House, 
 that notwithstanding their profession and prin- 
 ciples would not by any means allow them to 
 bear arms, yet it was their duty to support the 
 government of their sovereign, the Queen, and to 
 contribute otit of their estates according to the 
 exigencies of her public affairs, and therefore 
 
 ' Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 740. 
 
198 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 they might and ought to present the Queen with 
 a proper sum of money." * 
 
 The Assembly the next day sent an address to 
 the Governor which said, " Though we cannot 
 for conscience' sake comply with the furnishing 
 a supply for such a defence as thou proposest, yet 
 in point of gTatitude of the Queen for her great 
 and many favors to lis we have resolved to raise 
 a present of £500 which we humbly hope she 
 will be pleased to accept, etc., etc." f 
 
 To this the Governor replied that he would not 
 sign the bill. If the Assembly would not hire 
 men to fight, there was no scruple which would 
 prevent a more liberal subscription to the 
 Queen's needs. The Assembly was immovable, 
 and ashed to be allowed to adjourn, as harvest 
 time was approaching. 
 
 The Governor refused consent, when the 
 House abruptly terminated the whole matter: 
 
 Resolved, N.C.D., That this House cannot agree to the 
 Governor's proposal, directly or indirectly, for the expe- 
 dition to Canada, for the reasons formerly given. 
 
 Kesolved, N.C.D., That the House do continue their reso- 
 lution of raising £500 as a present for the Queen, and do 
 intend to prepare a bill for that purpose at their next 
 meeting on the ISth of August next, and not before. J 
 
 * " Colonial Records," Vol. 11., page 478. 
 t Tbid., 479. t Ibid., 486. 
 
Military Matters. 199 
 
 The House then adjourned without waiting 
 for the Governor's consent. 
 
 The Governor sadly admitted that nothing 
 could be done with such an Assembly, and 
 gave a rather facetious but truthful account in a 
 letter to London, two months later. " The 
 Queen having honored me with her commands 
 that this Province should furnish out 150 men 
 for its expedition against Canada, I called an 
 Assembly and demanded £4,000; they being all 
 Quakers, after much delay resolved, IST.C, that 
 it was contrary to their religious principles to 
 hire men to kill one another. I told some of 
 tliem the Queen did not hire men to kill one an- 
 other, but to destroy her enemies. One of them 
 answered the Assembly understood English. 
 After I had tried all ways to bring them to 
 reason they again resolved, IST.C, that they could 
 not directly or indirectly raise money for an ex- 
 pedition to Canada, but they had voted the 
 Queen £500 as a token of their respect, etc., and 
 that the money should be put into a safe hand 
 till they were satisfied from England it should 
 not be employed for the use of war. I told them 
 the Queen did not want such a sum, but being a 
 pious and good woman perhaps she might give it 
 to the clergy sent hither for the propagation of 
 
200 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 the Gospel; one of them answered that was 
 worse than the other, on which arose a debate in 
 the Assembly whether they should give money 
 or not, since it might be employed for the use of 
 war, or against their future establishment, and 
 after much wise debate it was carried in the 
 affirmative by one voice only. Their number is 
 26.* They are entirely governed by their 
 speaker, one David Lloyd." f 
 
 The service performed by " one David Lloyd " 
 to the integrity of the Quaker testimony against 
 war is strikingly revealed in this letter. The 
 Assembly, more emphatically than the official 
 records show, took effective measures to maintain 
 their position with perfect consistency. 
 
 In lYll a similar request was made by the 
 Government, and in response £2,000 was voted 
 for the Queen's use. This money never aided 
 any military expedition, but was appropriated by 
 a succeeding Governor to his own use, and the 
 fact was used as an argument in 1740 against 
 similar grants. :t 
 
 " We did not see it," Isaac ISTorris says, in 
 
 * Eight iidm each county and two from Philadelphia. 
 
 t " Historical Collections Relating to the American 
 Colonial Church, Pennsylvania," page 366, et seq. 
 
 t " Colonial Eecords," Vol. IV., page 366, et seq. 
 
Military Matters. 201 
 
 1711, "to be inconsistent with our principles to 
 give the Queen money notwithstanding any use 
 she might put it to, that not being our part but 
 hers." 
 
 Then followed the thirty-years peace, when no 
 calls for military service or money were made. 
 Occasionally the Governor would think it neces- 
 sary to establish a militia, when the Assembly 
 would caution him to make it purely voluntary 
 and force no conscience. There were friendly 
 relations with the Indians. 'So European 
 troubles necessitated money or troops for Cana- 
 dian attack or defense. But, beginning with 
 1737, the gradual alienation of the Indian tribes 
 made a disturbed frontier ready to be dangerous 
 at the first outbreak of war, and new conditions 
 prevailed. 
 
 Hitherto the relation of the Friends to these 
 inevitable mihtary solicitations had been largely 
 that of passivity. They would not interfere 
 with the movements of those who desired to form 
 military companies. If the Governor chose to 
 engage in the arming and drilling of voluntary 
 militia, he had his commission from the Proprie- 
 tors, and they from the Charter of Charles II. 
 It was no matter for the Assembly. The meet- 
 ing organizations would endeavor to keep all 
 
203 A Quaher Experiment in Government. 
 
 Quakers from any participation in these un- 
 Yriendly proceedings, and the Quaker Assembly- 
 men had their own consciences to answer to, as 
 well as their ecclesiastical authorities, if they 
 violated pacific principles. 
 
 When it came to voting money in lieu of per- 
 sonal service, the legislators had a ditiicult road 
 to follow. If the government needed aid, it was 
 their duty, in common with the other colonies, 
 to supply it. Even though the need was the di- 
 rect result of war, as nearly all national taxes are, 
 they were ready to assume their share of the 
 burden. Caesar must have his dues as well as 
 God, and a call for money, except when coupled 
 directly with a proposition to use it for military 
 attack or defense, was generally responded lo, 
 after its potency as an agent in procuring a little 
 more liberty was exhausted. They would not 
 vote money for an expedition to Canada or to 
 erect forts, but they would for " the King's use," 
 using all possible securities to have it appropri- 
 ated to something else than war expenses. The 
 responsibility of expenditure rested on the King. 
 There were legitimate expenses of government, 
 and if these were so inextricably mingled with 
 warlike outlay that the Assembly could not sep- 
 arate them, they would still support the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
Military Matters. 203 
 
 It is easy to accuse them of inconsistency in 
 the proceedings which follow. It was a most 
 unpleasant alternative thrust before honest men. 
 The responsibility of government was upon them 
 as the honorable recipients of the popular votes. 
 Great principles, the greatest of all in theii' 
 minds being freedom of conscience, were at 
 stake. Each call for troops or supplies they 
 fondly hoped would be the last. Their predeces- 
 sors' actions had secured the blessings of peace 
 and liberty to Pennsylvania for sixty years, and 
 if they were unreasonably stringent, their Eng- 
 lish enemies held over their heads the threat to 
 drive them from power by the imposition of an 
 oath. Then the persecutions of themselves and 
 their friends, which their forefathers had left 
 England to avoid, might be meted out to them, 
 and the Holy Experiment brought to an end. 
 
 ISTor is it necessary to assume that their mo- 
 tives were entirely unselfish. They had ruled the 
 Province well, and were proficients in govern- 
 ment. Their leaders doubtless loved the power 
 and influence they legitimately possessed, and 
 they did not care to give it away unnecessarily. 
 They tried to find a middle ground between shut- 
 ting their eyes to all questions of defense on the 
 one side, and direct participation in war on the 
 
204 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 other. This they sought by a refusal for them- 
 selves and their friends to do any service person- 
 ally, and a further refusal to vote money except 
 in a general way for the use of the government. 
 If any one comes to the conclusion that during 
 the latter part of the period of sixteen years now 
 under consideration the evasion was rather a 
 bald one, it is exactly the conclusion the Quakers 
 themselves came to, and they resigned their 
 places as a consequence. The iniquities of others 
 over whom they had no control brought about a 
 condition where Quaker principles would not 
 work, and they refused to modify them in the 
 vain attempt. For a time rather weakly halting, 
 when the crucial nature of the question became 
 clear, and either place or principle had to be 
 sacrificed, their decision was in favor of the sanc- 
 tity of principle. 
 
 They were on the popular side of the questions 
 of the day, in close association with Benjamin 
 Franklin and others. The fact that these allies 
 in their other battles were unwilling to stand by 
 them on this question made their position espe- 
 cially difficult. They, however, always carried 
 the popular Assembly against all combinations. 
 
 In 1739, urged by the Proprietors, the Gov- 
 ernor presented to the Assembly the dangers of 
 
Military Matters. 205 
 
 the defenceless coBdition of the Province in the 
 approaching war with Spain and asked for the 
 establishment of a militia. 
 
 This opened the way to an interchange of long 
 argumentative papers between Governor and 
 Assembly in which the positions of the two par- 
 ties were laid down with considerable ability. 
 The Assembly said: "As very many of the 
 inhabitants of this Province are of the people 
 called Quakers, who, though they do not as the 
 world is now circumstanced condemn the use of 
 arms in others, yet are principled against it them- 
 selves, and to make any law agaiust their con- 
 sciences to bear arms would not only be to violate 
 a fundamental in our constitution and be a direct 
 breach of our charter of privileges, but would 
 also in effect be to commence persecution against 
 all that part of the inhabitants of the Province, 
 and should a law be made which should compel 
 others to bear arms and exempt that part of the 
 inhabitants, as the greater number in this As- 
 sembly are of like principles, would be an incon- 
 sistency with themselves and partial with respect 
 to others, etc."* 
 
 To this the Governor replied that no religious 
 opinions would protect the country against an 
 invading force, and as representatives of the 
 
 • Col. Eec, Vol. IV., p. 366, et seq. 
 
206 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 whole people, not of a denomination, they must 
 defend the Province from external enemies as 
 they did from criminals within, and that there 
 was no intention to force any one's conscience. 
 Their reliance on Providence without doing 
 their whole duty was as futile as if they expected 
 to reap without sowing, or protect their vessels 
 from the waves without seamanship. 
 
 The Assembly reminded him that the Prov- 
 ince had prospered- under Quaker management 
 for a number of years before he had anything to 
 do with it, and would in the future, if his mis- 
 representations should not prevail in England, 
 even " though some Governors have been as un- 
 easy and as willing and ready to find fault and 
 suggest dangers as himself." 
 
 The Governor in despair replies: " If your 
 principles will not allow you to pass a bill for 
 establishing a militia, if they will not allow you 
 to secure the navigation of a river by building a 
 fort, if they will not allow you to provide arms 
 for the defence of the inhabitants, if they will 
 not allow you to raise men for his Majesty's 
 service for distressing an insolent enemy . . . 
 . . is it a calumny to say your principles are in- 
 consistent with the ends of government? " 
 
 After pages of argument, which the curious 
 
Military Matters. 207 
 
 reader will find detailed in " Colonial Records," 
 Vol. IV., the Assembly refused to do anything.* 
 Governor Thomas, under royal instructions, 
 approached the same subject a year later with 
 a similar result. A voluntary company was, 
 however, organized and supplied by private sub- 
 scriptions. This took away from their masters a 
 number of indentured servants, whose time was 
 thus lost, and in voting £3,000 for the King's 
 use the Assembly made it a condition that such 
 servants should be discharged from the militia 
 and no more enlisted. The Governor refused to 
 accept it, and in wrath wrote a letter to the 
 
 * " I looked over several messages and votes of your 
 House of Representatives, and if T may be peiTQitted to 
 give my opinion of the management of your controversy 
 ■with the Governor, I can scarcely upon the whole forbear 
 to take his side. Your cause is undoubtedly good, but I 
 am afraid you discover a little more warmth than is quite 
 consistent with the moderation we profess. The provoca- 
 tions I confess are great, and more than flesh and blood 
 can well sustain, but there is a rock which many of you 
 know where to seek, but to which he discovers himself to 
 be a perfect stranger. The arguments made use of by the 
 assembly are strong and cogent, but he justly accuses you 
 of too much acrimony. Truth never appears more agree- 
 able than when dressed with mildness and temper. . . . 
 And be pleased to remember that a deference is due to a 
 magistrate in some sense, though a wicked one, and in 
 every set of opposition to his measures, plainness and 
 inoffensive simplicity are the principal ones we can man- 
 age."— Dr. Fothergill to Israel Pemberton, Second month 
 8th, 1742. 
 
208 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 Board of Trade not intended for home reading, 
 berating the Quakers for disobedience, stating 
 how they had neglected following his advice to 
 withdraw themselves from the Assembly, but 
 had rather increased their majority there. He 
 advised that they be refused permission to sit 
 there in the future. . A copy of this letter was 
 secured by the Assembly's agent in England, and 
 great was their indignation. The disturbances 
 culminated in an election riot in Philadelphia in 
 1742, in which both sides used force, the Quaker 
 party having the best of it and electing Isaac 
 ITorris. They re-elected their ticket, with the 
 aid of the Germans, and controlled the Assembly 
 by an overwhelming majority. To show their 
 loyalty they voted a considerable sum for the 
 King's use, but refused Governor Thomas any 
 salary until he had given up his pretentious show 
 of power and signed a number of bills to which 
 he had objected. After this he worked very har- 
 moniously with them till 1746. 
 
 In 1744 he used his authority as Captain- 
 General in organizing a voluntary force said by 
 Tranklin to amount to 10,000 men. On this 
 the Assembly took no action. 
 
 The next year the Governor asked them to aid 
 ISTew England in an attack on Cape Breton. 
 
Military Matters. 309 
 
 They told him they had no interest in the matter. 
 He called them together again in harvest time to 
 ask them to join in an expedition against Louis- 
 burg. A week later came "word that Louisburg 
 had surrendered, and the request was transferred 
 to a call for aid in garrisoning the place, and in 
 supplying provisions and powder. The Assem- 
 bly replied that the " peaceable principles pro- 
 fessed by divers members of the present Assem- 
 bly do not permit them to join in raising of men 
 or providing arms and ammunition, yet we have 
 ever held it our duty to render tribute to Cae- 
 sar." * They therefore appropriated £4,000 for 
 " bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat or other grain." 
 The Governor was advised not to accept the 
 grant, as provisions were not needed. He replied 
 that the " other grain " meant gunpowder, and 
 so expended a large portion of the money.f 
 There is probably no evidence that the Assembly 
 sanctioned this construction, though they never 
 so far as appears made any protest. 
 
 Again in 1746 aid was asked of the Assembly 
 towards an expedition against Canada. After 
 forcing the Governor to yield the point as to how 
 the money should be raised, they appropriated 
 £5,000 " for the King's use." 
 
 * " Colonial Eecords," Vol. IV., page 769. 
 t This is on the authority of Franklin. 
 
210 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 This seems to have been the attitude of the 
 Quaker Assembly for the ten years to come. 
 Again and again did the successive Governors 
 call for military appropriations. As often did 
 the Quaker Assembly express a willingness to 
 comply provided the money was obtained by 
 loans to be repaid in a term of years rather than 
 by a tax. The governors said their instructions 
 prevented their sanction to this proceeding, and 
 except when the necessity was urgent refused to 
 permit the bill to be enacted into a law. The 
 Assembly frequently reminded the Governor 
 that they were unable to vote any money for 
 warlike purposes, and personally would con- 
 tribute nothing in the way of service, but that 
 they were loyal subjects of the King and ac- 
 knowledged their obligations to aid in his gov- 
 ernment. Had they granted regular aid, war or 
 no war, their position would have been greatly 
 strengthened, but being given " for the King's 
 use " in direct response to a call for military 
 assistance, knowing perfectly how the money 
 was to be expended, they cannot be excused from 
 the charge of a certain amount of shiftiness. 
 The effect, however, was to save their fellow- 
 members in the Province from compulsory mili- 
 tary service, and from direct war taxes. They 
 thus shielded the consciences of sensitive Friends, 
 
Military Matters. 311 
 
 preserved their charter from Court attack, broke 
 down the worst evils of proprietary pretensions, 
 and secured large additions of liberty. Whether 
 or not the partial sacrifice of principle, if so it 
 was, was too high a price for these advantages, 
 was differently decided in those days, and will 
 be to-day. An unbending course would but have 
 hastened the inevitable crisis. 
 
 That they paid these taxes unwillingly and 
 were generally recognized as true to their prin- 
 ciples is evidenced by many statements of their 
 opponents. In 1748 the Council writes to the 
 Governors of New York and Massachusetts ask- 
 ing for cannon for the voluntary military com- 
 panies then forming through Benjamin Frank- 
 lin's influence, and says, " As our Assembly con- 
 sists for the most part of Quakers principled 
 against defence the inhabitants despair of their 
 doing anything for our protection." * Again 
 later Thomas Penn writes on the same subject: 
 " I observe the Assembly broke up without giv- 
 ing any assistance, which is what you must have 
 expected."! This belief that the Quakers in the 
 Assembly would not do anything for the armed 
 defence of the Province was general both in 
 England and America. 
 
 • " Colonial Eecords," Vol. V., page 207. 
 t " Colonial Records," Vol. V., page 241. 
 
212 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 The Assembly in this attitude was always sup- 
 ported by the people. The members were re- 
 elected, after the most cutting criticisms of the 
 Governor and Council, by undiminished major- 
 ities, in open elections. The Friends were now 
 in a small minority of the population, but during 
 all this time they were three-fourths of the As- 
 sembly. They could afford to refer their critics 
 to their constituents with confidence. " What 
 motives could we possibly have for judging 
 amiss? Have we not also estates and families in 
 the Province? . . . Have not divers of 
 our fathers and some of our grandfathers been 
 of the first settlers?. . . H we have com- 
 
 mitted any mistakes the time draws near in 
 which our constituents, if they think it neces- 
 sary, may amend their choice. And the time 
 also draws nigh in which your (the Council's) 
 mistakes may be amended by a succeeding gov- 
 ernor. Permit us to congratulate our country 
 on both."* 
 
 In 1754 the Governor, at the instance of the 
 Proprietors, who anticipated the French and In- 
 dian troubles on the western frontier, endeav- 
 ored to induce the Assembly to pass a bill for 
 compulsory military service for those not con- 
 
 » " Colonial Records," Vol. V., page 342. 
 
Military Matters. ■ 213 
 
 scientious about bearing arms.* He evidently 
 did not expect much. " As I am well acquainted 
 with their religious scruples I never expected 
 they would appropriate money for the purpose 
 of war or warlike preparation, but thought they 
 might have been brought to make a handsome 
 grant for the King's use, and have left the dis- 
 position of it to me, as they have done on other 
 occasions of like nature,"f he wrote to Governor 
 Dinwiddie of Virginia. " But," a few months 
 later he added, " I can see nothing to prevent 
 this very fine Province, owing to the absurdity 
 of its constitution and the principles of the gov- 
 erning part of its inhabitants, from being an easy 
 prey to the attempts of the common enemy.":]: 
 
 This was after the Assembly had voted 
 £10,000, but coupled the grant with conditions 
 the Governor would not accept. 
 
 While they were debating the question Brad- 
 dock came into the country as commander of 
 the combined forces in an expedition against 
 Fort DuQuesne. Pressure came down strong 
 and heavy on the Quaker Assembly. Their 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Arcbives," Vol. II., page 189. 
 t " Colonial Records," Vol. VI., page 2. 
 t Ibid., page 49. 
 
214 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 own frontier was invaded. Their own In- 
 dians, as a result of the wicked and fool- 
 ish policy of their executive were in league 
 with the invaders. All classes were excited. To 
 aid the great expedition which at one stroke was 
 to break the French power and close the troubles 
 was felt to be a duty. Franklin diligently 
 fanned the warlike spirit, procuring wagons for 
 the transfer of army stores, and was extremely 
 valuable to the expedition at some cost to him- 
 self. 
 
 The Governor wrote to Braddock telling him 
 they had a Province of 300,000 people, provis- 
 ions enough to supply an army of 100,000, and 
 exports enough to keep 500 vessels employed. 
 They had no taxes, a revenue of £7,000 a year 
 and £15,000 in bank, yet would neither estab- 
 lish a militia nor vote men money or provisions, 
 notwithstanding he had earnestly labored with 
 the Assembly, and he was ashamed of them. He 
 does not explain that they had repeatedly ofEered 
 sums of money, but that he would not accept the 
 conditions. As Braddock himself admitted, 
 Pennsylvania had supported him quite as liberal- 
 ly as Virginia. This was partly done by private 
 enterprise and partly by appropriations of the 
 Assembly to reward friendly Indians, to open a 
 road to Ohio, and to provision the troops. 
 
Military Matters. 215 
 
 Braddock was defeated. The Indians were let 
 loose on the frontiers. Daily accounts of har- 
 rowing scenes came up to the Council and As- 
 sembly.* Settlers moved into the towns and 
 many districts were depopulated. Strong were 
 the expressions of wrath against the Quakers, 
 who were held responsible for the defenceless 
 state of the Province, f 
 
 This was hardly a just charge, even from the 
 standpoint of those who favored military de- 
 fence, for the Assembly had signified its willing- 
 ness to vote £50,000, an unprecedented amount, 
 to be provided by " a tax on all the real and per- 
 sonal estates within the Province," which the 
 Governor refused to accept. While the matter 
 was in abeyance the time for the new election 
 of Assemblymen came around, and both parties, 
 except the stricter Quakers, who were becoming 
 alarmed, put forth their greatest exertions. The 
 old Assembly was sustained, the Friends, with 
 those closely associated with them, having twen- 
 ty-six out of the thirty-six members. 
 
 * Votes of Assembly, Vol. IV., pages 481, 699. 
 
 t The people esclaim against the Quakers, and some are 
 scarce restrained from burning the houses of those few who 
 are in this town (Reading). — Letter of Edmund Biddle, 
 " Colonial Heeords," Vol. VI., page 705. 
 
316 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 The new House went on with the work of the 
 old. They adopted a militia law for those '' will- 
 ing and desir-ous " of joining companies for the 
 defence of the Province. This is prefaced by 
 the usual declaration: " Whereas this Province 
 was settled (and a majority of the Assembly 
 have ever since been) of the people called Qua- 
 kers, who though they do not as the world is 
 now circimistanced condemn the use of arms in 
 others, yet are principled against bearing arms 
 themselves,"" explaining also that they are rep- 
 resentatives of the Province and not of a denonu- 
 nation, they proceed to lay down rules for the 
 organization of the volunteers. After the Pro- 
 prietors had given their £5,000 the Asembly 
 also voted £55,000 for the relief of friendly In- 
 dians and distressed frontiersmen, " and other 
 purposes," without any disguise to the fact that 
 much of it was intended for military defence, 
 though it was not so stated in the bill. Before 
 this was done, while they were still insisting on 
 taxing the Penn estates, in answer to the chara:e 
 that they were neglectful of public interests, 
 secure in the confidence of their constituents 
 just most liberally given, they say: "In fine 
 we have the most sensible concern for the poor 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I., page 516. 
 
Military Matters. 217 
 
 distressed inhabitants of tlie frontiers. "Wc have 
 taken every step in our power, consistent with 
 the just rights of the freemen of Pennsylvania, 
 for their relief, and we have reason to believe 
 that in the midst of their distresses they them- 
 selves do not wish to go further. Those who 
 would give tip essential liberiy to purchase a 
 little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty 
 nor safety."'^ Their position definitely was, We 
 will vote money liberally for defensive purposes, 
 but we will take care to secure our rights as free- 
 men, and we will not require any one to give 
 personal service against his conscience. 
 
 The money was largely spent in erecting and 
 garrisoning a chain of forts extending along the 
 Kittatinny hills from the Delaware Eiver to the 
 Maryland frontier, f 
 
 The amount of defence the Assembly had pro- 
 vided, while probably expressing the will of their 
 constituents, did not satisfy the more peace- 
 loving of the Friends on the one hand, nor the 
 advocates of proprietary interests on the other. 
 
 In Eleventh month, 1755, twenty Friends, in- 
 cluding Anthony Morris, Israel and John Pem- 
 
 * Votes of Assembly, Vol. IV., page 501. 
 
 t " Pennsylvania Magazine," July, 1896. Dr. Stille on 
 " The Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania." 
 
218 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 berton, Anthony Benezet, John Churchman, 
 and others, representing the most influential and 
 " weighty " members of the Yearly Meeting, ad- 
 dressed the Assembly. They say they are very 
 ■willing to contribute to taxes to cultivate friend- 
 ship with Indians, to relieve distress, or other 
 benevolent purposes, but to expect them to be 
 taxed for funds which are placed in the hands of 
 committees to be expended for war, is inconsist- 
 ent with their peaceable testimony, and an in- 
 fringement of their religious liberties. Many 
 Friends will have to refuse to pay such a tax and 
 suffer distraint of goods,* and thus " that free 
 enjoyment of liberty of conscience for the sake 
 of which our forefathers left their native coun- 
 try and settled this then a wilderness by degrees 
 be violated." '' We sincerely assure you we have 
 no temporal motives for thus addressing you, 
 and could we have preserved peace in our own 
 minds and with each other we should have de- 
 clined it, being unwilling to give you any un- 
 necessary trouble and deeply sensible of your 
 difficulty in discharging the trust committed to 
 you irreproachably in these perilous times, which 
 hath engaged our fervent desires that the imme- 
 diate instruction of supreme wisdom may in- 
 
 * This afterwards happened in numerous cases. 
 
Military Matters. 219 
 
 fluence your minds, and that being preserved in 
 a steady attention thereto you may be enabled to 
 secure peace and tranquillity to yourselves and 
 those you represent by pursuing measures con- 
 sistent with our peaceable principles, and then 
 "we trust we may continue humbly to confide in 
 the protection of that Almighty Power whose 
 providence has hitherto been as walls and bul- 
 warks round about us."* 
 
 As the Assembly was composed, this was an 
 earnest plea from the responsible Friends to their 
 fellow religionists to stand uncompromisingly 
 by their principles. It was not very kindly re- 
 ceived. The reply indicated that the signers had 
 no right to speak for others than themselves, that 
 they had not duly considered the customs of the 
 past, particularly the grant of £2,000 in 1711, 
 and the address " is therefore an unadvised and 
 indiscreet application to the House at this time." 
 Four members of the Assembly dissent from this 
 reply.f 
 
 On the other hand we have a strong petition 
 sent about the same date to the King, signed by 
 numerous influential men in Philadelphia, stat- 
 
 * Votes of Assembly, Vol. VI., page 530. 
 
 t " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. II., page 487. 
 
220 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 ing that the Province was entirely bare to the 
 attack of enemies, " not a single armed man, nor, 
 at the public expense, a single fortification to 
 shelter the unhappy inhabitants." 
 " We have no hopes of seeing the grievances re- 
 dressed here while a great majority of men whose 
 avowed principles are against bearing arms find 
 means continually to thrust themselves into the 
 Assembly of this Province." They ask the in- 
 terposition of royal authority to insist on proper 
 defence being provided.* 
 
 The attorneys for the petitioners before the 
 Board of Trade made the most sweeping and 
 unfounded charges, full of errors of fact and 
 unconcealed animus, and ending with the recom- 
 mendation " that the King be advised to recom- 
 mend it to his Parliament that no Quaker be per- 
 mitted to sit in any Assembly in Pennsylvania 
 or any part of America," and that this result 
 should be produced by the imposition of an oath. 
 
 In the minds of the Friends the crisis was 
 reached when the Governor and Council (Wil- 
 liam Logan, son of James Logan, only dissent- 
 ing) in the spring of 1Y56 declared war against 
 the Delaware Indians, the old allies and friends 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. X., page 283, et seq. 
 Article by Dr. Stille. 
 
Military Matters. 331 
 
 of William Penn, but now in league with the 
 French and killing and plundering on the fron- 
 tiers. They were quite sure that peaceful and 
 just measures would detach the Indians from 
 their alliance, and that war was unnecessary. 
 The lines were becoming more closely drawn, and 
 the middle ground was narrowing, so that it was 
 impossible to stand upon it. Either the principle 
 of the iniquity of war must be maintained in its 
 entirety, or war must be vigorously upheld and 
 prosecuted. Some Friends, with Franklin, took 
 the latter position, but the great majority closed 
 up their ranks around the principle of peace in 
 its integrity. In Sixth month, 1756, six of the 
 old members of the house, James Pemberton, 
 Joshua Morris, William Callender, William 
 Peters, Peter Worral and Francis Parrin, re- 
 signed their seats, giving as their reason, " As 
 many of our constituents seem of opinion that 
 the present situation of public affairs calls upon 
 us for services in a military way, which from a 
 conviction of judgment after mature delibera- 
 tion we cannot comply with, we conclude it most 
 conducive to the peace of our minds, and the rep- 
 utation of our religious profession to persist in 
 our resolution of resigning our seats, which we 
 now accordingly do, and request these our rea- 
 
223 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 sons may be entered on the minutes of the 
 house."* The same fall several other Friends 
 declined re-election, and after the next House 
 assembled four others, Mahlon Kirkbride, Wil- 
 liam Hoyl, Peter Dicks and ISTathaniel Pennock, 
 also resigned. " Understanding that the minis- 
 try have requested the Quakers, who from the 
 first settlement of the Colony have been the ma- 
 jority of the Assemblies of this Province, to suf- 
 fer their seats during the difficult situation of 
 the affairs of the Colonies to be filled by mem- 
 bers of other denominations in such manner as 
 to perform without any scruples all such laws as 
 may be necessary to be enacted for the defence 
 of the Province in whatever manner they may 
 judge best suited to the circumstances of it; and 
 notwithstanding we think this has been pretty 
 fully complied with at the last election, yet at 
 the request of our friends, being willing to take 
 off all possible objection, we who have (without 
 any solicitation on our part) been returned as 
 representatives in this Assembly, request we may 
 be excused, and suffered to withdraw ourselves 
 and vacate our seats in such manner as may be 
 attended with the least trouble and most satis- 
 factory to this honorable House."f 
 
 * Votes of Assembly, Vol. IV., page 564. 
 t Votes of Assembly, Vol. IV., page 626. 
 
Military Matters. 223 
 
 The places of all these Friends were filled by 
 members of other religious denominations, and 
 Quaker control over and responsibility for the 
 Pennsylvania Assembly closed with 1756 and 
 was never resumed. 
 
 The circumstances which led up to this action 
 within the Society of Eriends will be detailed in 
 the next chapter. 
 
224 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF QUAKER CONTEOL OF THE 
 ASSEMBLY. 
 
 So far as any records show there was only one 
 opinion on the subject of war among those au- 
 thorized to speak iu the first century of the exist- 
 ence of the Society of Friends. There was noth- 
 ing to call out any vigorous restatement of peace 
 doctrine in Philadelphia during the early dec- 
 ades of the eighteenth century. Running 
 through the history we find it accepted as an 
 established fact not needing formal confirmation 
 that Quakerism and peace were indispensably 
 and logically associated.* 
 
 * One can only wonder what troubled the Burlington 
 Friends so early as 1682. 
 
 "At our mens Monthly meeting held in Burlington in y« 
 House of Eobt Young y= 4th of y" 10th month : . . . . 
 
 " In ye behalf of truth & y" Blessed name of y" Lord y= which 
 we make a profession of thought meet to write to our friends of 
 y' monthly meeting of Upland. & marcus Hook y' they to- 
 gether with William Penn would be pleased to give this meeting 
 an Account Concerning y" report of y= preperation for War wch. 
 God in his mercy hath Given us a Testimony a gainst y^ we may 
 Know what Satisfaction they Can give y' Meeting therein. 
 Sam' Jennings &, Eobt. Stacy to Draw up a paper to y' meeting 
 Con Cearniug it." 
 
FAIRHILL FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE. 
 
 OCCl'PIED AS A BARRACKS EY THE BRITISH ARMY DFRINci THE WINTER 
 
 OF 1777. 
 
 FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE AT BURLINGTON, X. J. 
 
 (old VIEW.) 
 
Last Days of QuaTcer Control of Assembly. 225 
 
 In the fall of 1739 the Yearly Meeting saw 
 the storm coming. A committee was appointed 
 to draw up a paper exhorting Friends to continue 
 in peace principles " and in no manner to join 
 with such as may be for making warlike prepa- 
 rations, offensive or defensive, but on all occasions 
 to demean themselves in a Christian and peace- 
 able manner, thereby to demonstrate to the 
 world that our practices, when we are put to the 
 trial, correspond with our principles." 
 
 The next year, in view of the complaint made 
 to the King by Governor Thomas and his 
 friends, they appointed a committee " to state 
 the occasions for it to the Friends of the Meeting 
 for Sufferings * in London, and request their 
 assistance as occasion may require." 
 
 An interesting minute of the Yearly Meeting 
 occurs in 1741: 
 
 A letter from our friend, James Logan, directed to 
 Eobert Jordan and others, the Friends of this meeting, 
 being offered, it was deHvered to Samuel Beston, Eobert 
 Jordan, Anthony Morris, John Bringhurst, Jacob Howell 
 and Caleb Raper, who were appointed a committee (as is 
 usual in like cases) to peruse the same and report whether 
 
 * The Meeting for Sufferings, so called because it was 
 originally formed to investigate and relieve the sufferings 
 of Friends in times of persecution, was the executive body 
 of the Yearly Meeting. A number of its members were 
 influential at court, and on many occasions rendered in- 
 valuable service to their Philadelphia brethren. 
 
226 A Quaker. Experiment in Government. 
 
 it is fitting to be read here or not; who withdrew for some 
 time, and being returned reported, that the subject matter 
 o£ the letter related to the civil and military affairs of the 
 government, and in their opinion was unfit to be read in 
 this meeting. The meeting concurring in opinion with the 
 committee, therefore, it was not read here, of which the 
 clerk is desired to acquaint the Friend who sent the same. 
 
 We have a contemporary account of the same 
 proceeding in a letter from Kichard Peters to 
 John Penn. The writer not being a Priend, got 
 his information second-hand, and made a few 
 errors. The names of the committee are not all 
 correct, and the " expedient " to stifle the letter 
 was but the common practice in all papers ad- 
 dressed to the meeting. Of course also no par- 
 liamentary motions were made. It is quite likely 
 the coat-tail incident is true. If so it shows the 
 smallness of the support James Logan had in the 
 meeting. 
 
 The Yearly Meeting being held the week before the gen- 
 eral election, Mr. Logan, by his son William, sent them a 
 letter wherein he is said to enlarge on the defenceless state 
 of the Province, and of the ill consequences that may ensue 
 to men of their principles procuring themselves to be re- 
 turned to the Assembly, but his good design was eluded 
 by the folloTvmg e:spedient- Some members moved that 
 a committee might be appointed to peruse the letter and to 
 leport whether it contained matters proper to be com- 
 municated to the meeting at large: accordingly Robe't 
 .Tordan, John Bringhouse, Ebenezer Large, .John Dillwin 
 and Robert Strethill were appointed to inspect the epistle 
 and report whether it contained matters which were fit 
 for the meeting to take into consideration. On examina- 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 227 
 
 tion, they reported that the letter contained matters of a 
 military and geographical nature, it was by no means 
 proper to be read to the general meeting, but some per- 
 f-ons ■vvho understood those matters might be desired to 
 consider and answer it. Robert Strethill singly declared 
 that considering the letter came from one who was known 
 to have had abundance of experience, was an old member, 
 and had a sincere affection for the welfare of the Society, 
 he was apprehensive, should this letter be refused a read- 
 ing in the meeting, such a procedure would not only dis- 
 gust him, hut the body of Friends in England, especially 
 as it might be supposed to contain several things that 
 were intended for the good of the Society at these fickle 
 and precarious times. But John Bringhouse plucked him 
 by the coat and told him with a sharp tone of voice, 
 " Sit thee down, Robert, thou art single in the opinion," 
 etc.* 
 
 In the letter Logan says lie has always held 
 defensive, but not offensive, war to be lawful. 
 But it is not his purpose in now speaking to 
 prove this, for he recognizes that the unlawful- 
 ness of all war is an avowed and well-understood 
 principle of Friends. All government is founded 
 on force, and a militia is necessary to secure the 
 country from attack. The whole system of 
 judges, sheriffs, etc., implies force, and it must 
 have drilled and armed backing to make it effect- 
 ive. The Friends of Pennsylvania, at a liberal 
 estimate, do not include more than one-third of 
 the people, and the others have a right to laws 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. "VT., page 403. The 
 vhole of James Logan's letter is printed here. 
 
228 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernmeni. 
 
 by which they may properly protect theniselves, 
 and while Friends profess faith in Providence 
 to protect them, they are not careful to observe 
 Christ's other precepts, but lay up treasures on 
 earth, and thus draw upon themselves the attacks 
 of enemies. Hitherto Pennsylvania has been an 
 inconsiderable colony, but is now a choice and 
 easy prey to any enemy. War is not unlikely in 
 the near future. The people are clamoring for 
 defence, and he urges upon the meeting that 
 those who for conscience' sake cannot join in the 
 movement should decline to allow themselves to 
 be used as candidates, and publicly announce 
 they will not serve even if chosen.* 
 
 * " It is now several months since I received from my 
 kind friend J. Logan a copy of his printed paper sent to 
 your yearly meeting, at the reading of which I confess 1 
 was not a little troubled and surprised, not that I believed 
 it would be of so much weight as to occasion any con- 
 siderable embarrassment among yourselves only as it would 
 be a public declaration of differing sentiments and a 
 basis for your enemies to build a good deal of mischief 
 upon as I observe has since happened. . . . The argu- 
 ment entirely turns on his assertion of all government being 
 founded on force. If this is once cleared and it is demon- 
 strated it is so, yet to prove his argument of any force in 
 this case he must malce it plain that there is no difference 
 in the degrees of it but that the force exercised in the 
 correction of a child is the same as in cutting the throat 
 of an enemy." — Dr. FothergiU to Israel Pemberton, Second 
 month Sth, 1742. 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 229 
 
 The position taken by James Logan,* while 
 never having official recognition by the Meet- 
 ing, was undoubtedly held by a considerable 
 number of Friends for the coming forty years. 
 They constituted the sort that made up Frank- 
 lin's fire company; f that armed themselves 
 against the " Paxton Boys " in 1764, that 
 supported John Dickinson, Charles Thomson 
 and their friends in urging the resistance which 
 led to the Eevolutiongry war, and that finally 
 separated and formed the Free Quakers. Many 
 of those who did not separate acknowledged the 
 
 * Nevertheless Logan was able to give the Quaker argu- 
 ment quite forcibly. 
 
 " I always used the best argument I could, and when 1 
 pleaded that we were a peaceable people, had wholly re- 
 nounced war and the spirit of it, that were willing to 
 commit ourselves to the protection of God alone in an 
 assurance that the sword could neither be drawn or 
 sheathed but by his direction, that the desolations made by 
 it are the declarations of his wrath alone; that the Chris- 
 tian dispensation is exclusively one of peace on earth and 
 good will to men; that those who will not use the sword, 
 but by an entire resignation commit themselves to his 
 all-powerful Providence shall never need it, but be safe 
 under a more sure defence than any worldly arm, — when 
 T pleaded this I really spoke my sentiments, but this will 
 not answer in English government." — 2nd September, 1703. 
 
 t Franklin doubtless grossly exaggerates the number of 
 such Friends. See Sparks's " Life of FrEuiklin," Vol. I., 
 page 151. 
 
230 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 validitj^ of the Quaker testimony, and their own 
 errors. The most of them were young men, 
 drawn away by the warlike excitements of 
 the times and the seductive influences of 
 Franklin and his associates. Those who had 
 the most right to speak for the Meeting, with 
 the great majority of the membership, stood 
 unflinchingly by the views of Fox and Penn, not 
 only through the French and Indian wars but 
 in the more trying days of the Revolution. The 
 Yearly Meeting never gave any uncertain sound. 
 Logan was out of sympathy with Friends not 
 only on the question of war, but he also sup- 
 ported lotteries, which the Meeting condemned. 
 In a remarkable letter introducing Franklin to 
 Thomas Penn, written in 1749, he tells of his 
 friend's abilities and judgment, " crowned with 
 the utmost modesty." Among his good deeds he 
 speaks of the establishment of the Philadelphia 
 library, the raising of militia companies in 1747, 
 notwithstanding that " one Sauer, a Dutch 
 printer in Germantown, who publishes a weekly 
 paper in his own language, is so much of a 
 (Quaker that he writes against bearing arms on 
 any account," and of setting up two lotteries, 
 from the proceeds of which a battery was 
 erected. 
 
Last Days of Qy,dker Control of Assembly. 231 
 
 Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting addressed 
 the Meeting for Sufferings of London in 1742 
 in explanation of the political situation. This 
 body contained a large number of members ac- 
 tive in public life, and probably better represent- 
 ed the political aspirations of the Society than 
 the Yearly Meeting, in which the country mem- 
 bers from both Pennsylvania and ISTew Jersey 
 had the preponderating influence. Reference is 
 made to the statements gent over by Governor 
 Thomas's friends, and to the hold Friends had on 
 the part of the community not affiliated with 
 them religiously. Their reasons for retaining by 
 proper means the power they had acquired, and 
 the overwhelming support they received from 
 the people, are clearly shown. The letter is a 
 complete answer to the charges frequently made 
 that by dubious methods for selfish purposes they 
 thrust themselves into the Assembly. 
 
 We are truly thankful that it has pleased the Lord to 
 dispose you to support us in the defence of our Christian 
 privileges and civil rights, and though we are not covetous 
 of power, yet being entrusted with many valuable privi- 
 leges which induced our predecessors to transport them- 
 selves into this then wilderness country, and having by the 
 Divine blessing on their endeavors cultivated and im- 
 proved the same, and we now enjoying the fruits of their 
 Ifibours, believe it to be our indispensible duty as far 
 as lies in our power to prevent our posterity's being de- 
 prived of these advantages, and notwithstanding a few un- 
 
232 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 steady persons under our name were induced by the in- 
 terest of some men in power to join with others (.of whom 
 tome were persons not lawfully qualified or entitled to ue 
 concerned) in a petition to the King which contains un- 
 just and groundless insinuations against us, we can assure 
 you that the people in general, and especially the most 
 religious and considerate of those not ot our Society are 
 veiy much dissatisfied with the conduct of those men, and 
 so averse to any change of our Constitution, that they 
 would readily join in any measures that may be necessary 
 to disappoint the authors of this attempt on our privileges, 
 and to shew their disposition to have the administration 
 continued, as it has hitherto been, principally in the hands 
 of Friends, of which we think a more plain proof need 
 not be offered than that in the most remote county of 
 this Province at the last Election, all the Representatives 
 returned to serve in the Assembly were of our Society; 
 and although those in the Opposition to Friends were 
 very active, yet of 1150 Freeholders that voted (in which 
 number were not above 20 Friends) they could prevail 
 with scarce 200 to join with them. 
 
 As we are not willing to say anything more at present 
 than we conceive absolutely necessary, we refer you to our 
 Friend Richard Partridge, who is more particularly in- 
 structed in such matters as we suppose may be enquired 
 into in the further consideration of these affairs. We shall 
 conclude with observing that the situation and constitu- 
 tion ot this Province is particular]}' adapted to the disposi- 
 tion of Friends and of many others of the religious in- 
 habitants in like manner principled against bearing arms, 
 and we are willing to depend on that good Providence 
 which has hitherto protected us, and we trust will always 
 preserve us, as we are patiently and humbly resigned to 
 the Divine Will, in which disposition our worthy ancestors 
 surmounted the many difficulties and exercises they were 
 long engaged in. We have faith to believe our sincere 
 concern to maintain their testimony will likewise be 
 blessed with an happy issue, altho' we have with sorrow 
 to observe that we meet with great opposition from the 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 333 
 
 immediate descendants of our first worthy Proprietor, 
 whose zealous labours in defence of our principles were 
 very eminent in times of the greatest danger. 
 
 London Friends promised aid as desired, and 
 in 1742 the Yearly Meeting replies: " The kind 
 assistance you have been pleased to afford in the 
 afl'air to which your epistle alludes we gratefully 
 acknowledge, and make no doubt of the continu- 
 ance of the same beneficent disposition toward us 
 as occasion may require. And we humbly trust 
 that the same Almighty Power which supported 
 our worthy ancients in much greater trials and 
 hath hitherto favored us will make a way 
 through the present difEculties and enable us as 
 we abide faithful to maintain our Christian tes- 
 timony for the gospel of peace." 
 
 In 1744 they strengthened their testimony by 
 endorsing a minute adopted in London " against 
 persons professing with us carrying of guns for 
 defending their ships, persons and goods, and in 
 being concerned in privateering or as owners of 
 ships going with letters of Marque "... "Also 
 to signify to them (subordinate meetings) the 
 unanimous sense of this Meeting that all profess- 
 ing with us be cautioned and earnestly admon- 
 ished against purchasing of prize goods, knowing 
 them to be such, as a practice altogether incon- 
 sistent with our principles." 
 
234 A Quaker Experiment in Govermnent. 
 
 Little appears on the Meeting records bearing 
 on the political situation till 1755, when war was 
 already in operation and the pressure on peace 
 practices and other Quaker rights and privileges 
 was becoming stronger. In the spring of this 
 year, just before Braddock's defeat, the Quar- 
 terly Meeting again addressed their English 
 brethren. It will be noticed that this is a de- 
 fence, in some respects an unanswerable one, jus- 
 tifying the attitude of the Quakers in the Assem- 
 bly. Hints are thrown out that they may have 
 to give up their places, but the sentiment on this 
 subject was evidently not quite ripe. There was 
 still hope that by judiciously following their 
 past course of action their influence in the State 
 might be preserved without a compromise of 
 principle. Events soon to follow showed the fal- 
 lacy of this hope. 
 
 From the Quarterly Meeting of Friends held at Philadel- 
 phia the fifth day of the fifth month, 1755. 
 
 To our Friends and Brethren of the Meeting for SufEer- 
 ings in London: 
 
 Dear Friends: 
 
 The foundation of our dependence on and connection 
 with each other being that brotherly love and fellowship 
 by which our Lord and Master distinguished His disciples 
 from the world, We trust nothing more is necessary from 
 us to engage your concern and assistance than to make 
 
-■'■ td 
 
 K I — ( 
 
 -r. ^^ 
 
 •^ to- 
 
 > ^ 
 
 td 
 
 
Last Days of QuaJcer Control of Assembly. 235 
 
 you acquainted with, the difficulties we aie now under and 
 the advantages we may reasonably expect from your ex- 
 erting yourself for us at this juncture. 
 
 We have on some former occasions been obliged to in- 
 form you that the inclinations and views of our present 
 Proprietaries seem to be so essentially changed from those 
 which their truly honourable Father had, that they for 
 some time past have appeared disposed to abridge, and we 
 fear to deprive us of many of those liberties and privileges 
 which we derive from the original concessions and charter 
 on which this Government is founded. This we apprehend 
 proceeds very much from their not bearing in mind that 
 the first settlers of this Province were men of interest and 
 reputation in their native country, and were principally 
 induced to remove from thence with the prospect of en- 
 joying and securing to their posterity that liberty of con- 
 science which they preferred to every temporal considera- 
 tion. For the sake of this they adventured with their 
 families and substance to undertake a long and dangerous 
 Toyage and to cultivate this then a wilderness country, 
 not without a large share of difficulty and hardship, to the 
 diminution of their estates and the imminent danger of 
 their lives. That they were not inconsiderate nor weak 
 men nor such whom necessity or misconduct had forced 
 from their former homes is very evident not only from 
 the knowledge some yet living had of their conduct and 
 characters, but from the circumspection, prudence and 
 religious consideration, of which they have left valuable 
 testimonials in the concessions, laws and first frame of 
 government settled and agreed upon between them and 
 our worthy Friend William Penn in England. 
 
 We are sensible that a great share of merit and esteem 
 is due to the memory of that great good man whose be- 
 nevolent and disinterested love of mankind has engaged 
 the veneration of all wise and good men among us. Yet 
 we are likewise desirous it should be frequently remem- 
 bered that these advantages and immunities we enjoy were 
 purchased at a considerable expense by our forefathers 
 who, wisely considering the instability of human affairs 
 
^36 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 and the intoxicating effects of increasing wealth and power, 
 made the most timely and effectual provisions they could 
 then devise to prevent their posterity being deprived of 
 these advantages. 
 
 On an impartial and calm review of the transactions of 
 the government it will appear that in divers instances the 
 Proprietaries and their deputies have extended their pre- 
 rogatives and obtained concessions from the people, 
 some, with their consent; others, by custom; and thereby 
 made a large addition of power and treasure which the 
 people did not originally intend to part with. But while 
 the fundamentals of our Constitution remained unattacked, 
 and there appeared no design to enervate the principles on 
 which it was established, we thought it was prudent to 
 submit to smaller inconveniences. We now thint our cir- 
 cumstances are such that we have abundant cause to com- 
 plain that the most unwearied endeavours are and have 
 some time past been used, and various artifices attempted, 
 to wrest from us our most valuable privileges, and the 
 conduct and language of those whose duty it is to protect 
 us in the enjoyment thereof, fully convince us of the per- 
 nicious tendency of their designs. 
 
 In these times the name of liberty is so highly regarded 
 that few are in much esteem who do not profess to main- 
 tain and defend it. To succeed, therefore, in a scheme to 
 deprive us of curs, it was necessary, first to represent us 
 as being unworthy of it, and if possible to obtain a belief 
 of our having forfeited it by wilful neglect or an obstinate 
 refusal to do what was incumbent on us for the support 
 and preservation of the Constitution we profess so much 
 value for. The measures which some years past have been 
 pursued by most of those appointed to preside over us evi- 
 dently shew that this point hath been constantly kept in 
 view and every opportunity watched to subject us to diffi- 
 culties, and thereby furnish some appearance of grounds 
 for the charges with which we were to be loaded. 
 
 Those who are conversant in the management of Pub- 
 lick Affairs must know, that where many of various dispo- 
 sitions and sentiments are concerned, it is not easy, scarce 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 237 
 
 possible, to conduct every design and carry it into execu- 
 tion in the most unexceptionable way. Some allowance 
 must therefore be made for human imperfections, and we 
 hope it may with truth and justice be said small allow- 
 ances are requisite to reconcile the conduct of the peopl;; 
 of this Province so far as they have been concerned in tin- 
 Legislature to these Christian principles of fearing GoJ, 
 honouring the King, and promoting peace and good \\i:l 
 among men, and we hope the desire of pursuing measures 
 consistent with these principles will still animate the sen- 
 sible and judicious of our Society, and that they will freely 
 resign the right we have in the government, whenever it 
 may appear impracticable for us to preserve it and those 
 principles. 
 
 We have the more just grounds for this hope, as it 
 is well known that many have voluntarily declined acting 
 in the executive poweis of government, and some in the 
 Legislature, as they found themselves incapable of 
 preserving the peace and tranquility of their own minds 
 and steadily maintaining our Christian testimony in all 
 its branches. And were there a sufficient number of men 
 of understanding, probity and moderate principles pro- 
 posed for our Kepresentatives in whose resolution we could 
 confide to preserve our liberties inviolate, we should be 
 well satisfied to have the members of our Society relieved 
 from the disagreeable contests and controversies to which 
 we are now subjected, but while arbitrary and oppressive 
 measures are publicly avowed by those who desire to 
 rule over us, and our country so heartily and unanimously 
 calls upon us to maintain the trust committed to us, we 
 cannot after the most deliberate consideration judge we 
 should be faithful to them, to ourselves, or to our pos- 
 terity, to desert our stations and relinquish the share we 
 have in the legislation. 
 
 The increase of the number of the inhabitants of this 
 Province is now very great, and the much greater part 
 are not of our Society, and especially in the back counties. 
 Yet such is the confidence reposed in us, that after the 
 utmost efforts had been used, and the pulpit and press 
 
238 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 exercised against us, our former Representatives were at 
 our last election chosen throughout the Province by the 
 greatest majority ever known, without accounting the 
 freemen who are foreigners, on whose credulity and ignor- 
 ance it has been unjustly asserted that we have indus- 
 triously and artfully imposed. And this was done, not 
 only without the solicitation, but in some instances with- 
 out the privity or approbation of some that were chosen. 
 
 And it is remarkable that for sixteen years successively, 
 more than half of which was a time of war, a sett of men 
 conscientiously principled against warlike measures have 
 been chosen by those, of whom the majority were not in 
 that particular of the same principle; and this we appre- 
 hend may be chiefly attributed to the repeated testimonies 
 we have constantly given of our sincere and ready dis- 
 position to provide for the exigencies of the Government, 
 and to demonstrate our gratitude for the favours we enjoy 
 under it by cheerfully contributing towards the support 
 of it according to our circumstances in such manner as we 
 can do with peace and satisfaction of mind. That this 
 has been the constant practice of our assemblies, the 
 records of their proceedings will evidently shew. 
 
 AVe cannot therefore be insensible of the injury done 
 us, to have our principles and conduct represented in such 
 manner as to render us odious to our neighbors and con- 
 temned by our superiors, to whom we think ourselves 
 obliged by the strong ties of gratitude and interest. And 
 this injustice is greatly aggravated by the consideration of 
 the station of those by whom it is committed. Could our 
 proprietaries be persuaded to put themselves in our station 
 and duly to consider the principal inducements the first 
 settlers of the Province had to improve a wilderness, and 
 that it is by their industry, and the reputation they and 
 their successors obtained for their justice, hospitality and 
 benevolence, so great numbers of our countrymen and 
 others have been induced to settle among us and advance 
 the Proprietaries' Estate to its present value, we have 
 no doubt they must assent to the reasonableness of what 
 we desire, which is, that they would either exercise the 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 239 
 
 Government over us themselves, or according to the orig- 
 inal contract [havej themselves fully represented by a. 
 person of integrity, candour, and a peaceable disposition; 
 for vi'hile their Deputy is of a different disposition, and 
 continues limited by instructions inconsistent with our 
 rights and liberties, vi'e cannot expect tlie Government will 
 be conducted with prudence or supported with satisfaction. 
 
 We consider that in the present situation of public 
 affairs, the exigencies being great, the supplies must be 
 proportioned thereto; and we only desire that as we cannot 
 be concerned in preparations for war, we may be permitted 
 to serve the government by raising money and contribut- 
 ing towards the Publick Exegencies by such methods and 
 iu such manner as past experience has assured us are least 
 burthensome to the industrious poor, and most consistent 
 with our religious and civil rights and liberties, and which 
 our present Proprietaries, when one of them was person- 
 ally present, consented to and approved, and to which no 
 reasonable or just objection hath ever since been made. 
 
 We apprehend the interest of the Proprietaries and 
 people are united, and that they are not Friends to either 
 who would separate them, and we heartily wish it were 
 in our power to make the Proprietaries truly sensible oi 
 this, and to convince them that these are our inclinations 
 and desires. We are not ignorant that very contrary sen- 
 timents have been artfully insinuated by some of those 
 whom they have unhappily reposed confidence in, and 
 thus the free intercourse which ought to be maintained 
 between them and their people hath been obstructed, and 
 occasions ministered for misunderstandings which, with 
 more openness and freedom, might easily have been ob- 
 viated. 
 
 One point we have therefore in view by laying our 
 case so fully before you, is that, as there are some among 
 you whose stations and circumstances will entitle them 
 to a free conference with our Proprietaries; We earnestly 
 desire your engaging such in this necessary service. The 
 attempt must be allowed to be laudable, and if it suc- 
 ceeds, undoubtedly rewardable, the making of peace 
 
240 A Qudcer Experiment in Government. 
 
 having a blessing annexed to it by the Author of every 
 blessing. 
 
 Were a sense of the satisfaction resulting from the 
 hearty concurrence and union of their Friends in promot- 
 ing their interest sufficiently impressed on the minds of 
 our Proprietaries, we cannot but think they would re- 
 move from their Councils and favours all such who would 
 separate them from us, and then whatever difference of 
 sentiments might sometimes happen we should hope to iind 
 them really disposed to maintain the liberties and priv- 
 ileges we are justly entitled to, and to promote universal 
 peace and good will among us. 
 
 The people of this Province in general, and Friends in 
 a more particular manner, have interested themselves 
 nearly, and exerted their interest vigorously in the sup- 
 port of the rights of the Proprietaries on several occa- 
 sions, some of which your meeting has been acquainted 
 with, and we doubt not the same affection and respect 
 still subsists in the minds of Friends in general, to whom 
 it will be extremely pleasing to see the harmony restored 
 by which our mutual welfare might be promoted. 
 
 We shall conclude this with the salutation of true love 
 and respect, and remain your Friends and Brethren. 
 
 Signed by appointment on behalf of our said Meeting. 
 
 The winter of 1755-6 was one of difference and 
 perplexity among Philadelphia Friends. On the 
 one side were the men of spiritual power, whose 
 Toices exercised the prevailing influence in the 
 meetings for business. On the other were the 
 disciples of Logan, who, being manifestly out of 
 sympathy with well-established Quaker views, 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assenibly. 241 
 
 urged the necessity of vigorous defence, caught 
 the surrounding warlike spirit, and with personal 
 service and money aided Franklin and the mili- 
 tia. Between the two stood the " Quaker gov- 
 erning class," who controlled the Assenibly, who, 
 while admitting and commending the peaceable 
 doctrines of Friends, considered their own duty 
 accomplished when they kept aloof from per- 
 sonal participation and supplied the means by 
 which others carried on the war. This third sec- 
 tion was the product of long experience in polit- 
 ical activity. To these men and their predeces- 
 sors was owing the successful administra- 
 tion for decades of the best governed colony in 
 America. They were slow to admit any weak- 
 ness in their position, but it was becoming in- 
 creasingly evident that it was untenable. There 
 was actual war, and they were, while not per- 
 sonally responsible for it, indeed while opposing 
 vigorously the policy which had produced it, 
 now a component part of the government which 
 was carrying it on. Would they join their 
 brethren in staunch adherence to peace princi- 
 ples, and thus give up their places in the state 
 as John Bright did afterwards when Alexandria 
 was bombarded? Would they join Franklin, 
 their associate in resisting proprietary power, and 
 
242 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 throw aside their allegiance to the principles of 
 William Penn, whom they professed greatly to 
 honor? 
 
 The question was answered differently by dif- 
 ferent ones as the winter and spring passed away. 
 Pressure was strong on both sides. The Gov- 
 ernor, writing to London, says : " The Quaker 
 preachers and others of great weight were em- 
 ployed to show in their public sermons, and by 
 going from house to house through the Province, 
 the sin of taking up arms, and to persuade the 
 people to be easy and adhere to their principles 
 and privileges." This was an enemy's view of a 
 conservative reaction which was going on within 
 the Society, which was tired of compromises, was 
 willing to suffer, and could not longer support 
 the doubtful expediency of voting measures for 
 others to carry out, of which they could not 
 themselves approve. 
 
 We have seen how in the early winter the As- 
 sembly rebuked what they considered the im- 
 pertinence of the protest of a number of impor- 
 tant members of the Meeting against a war tax. 
 The Meeting mildly emphasized the same differ- 
 ence in "their London epistle of 1756: 
 
 The scene of our affairs is in many respects changed 
 since we wrote to you, and our late peaceful land involved 
 
Lasi Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 343 
 
 in the desolations and calamities of war. Had all under 
 our profession fcUthfuUy discharged their duty and main- 
 tained our peaceable testimony inviolate we have abun- 
 dant sense to believe that divine counsel would have been 
 afforded in a time of so great difficulty; by attending to 
 which, great part of the present calamities might have 
 been obviated. But it hath been manifest that human 
 contrivances and policy have been too much depended on, 
 and such measures pursued as have ministered cause of 
 real sorrow to the faithful; so that we think it necessary 
 that tbe same distinction may be made among you as is 
 and ought to be here between the Acts and Resolutions of 
 the Assembly of tbis Province, tho' the majority of them 
 are our Brethren in profession, and our acts as a religious 
 Society. We have nevertheless cause to admire and ac- 
 knowledge the gracious condescension of infinite goodness 
 towards us, by which a large number is preserved in a 
 steady dependence on the dispensations of divine Provi- 
 dence; and we trust the faith and confidence of such will 
 be supported through every difficulty which may be per- 
 mitted to attend them, and their sincerity appear by freely 
 resigning or parting with these temporal advantages and 
 privileges we have heretofore enjoyed, if they cannot be 
 preserved without violation of that testimony on the faith- 
 ful maintaining of which our true peace and unity de- 
 pend. 
 
 We have an excellent opportunity to view tbe 
 internal condition of affairs among tlie Friends 
 in the letters of Samuel Fothergill, brother of 
 the noted Dr. John Fothergill. He was making 
 a religious journey through the American col- 
 onies, having already traversed all the southern 
 and northern provinces, and reached Philadel- 
 phia shortly after Braddock's defeat, where he 
 
344 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 remained all through the following winter and 
 spring. His letters were private, principally to 
 his wife and sister, and are evidently the un- 
 studied impressions made by his personal obser- 
 vation and experience."' 
 
 He first attended the Yearly Meeting, which 
 was " very large and to great general satisfac- 
 tion." He did not approve of the doings of the 
 Assembly. " As the Assembly for the Province 
 have in some respects, I think, acted very incon- 
 sistently with the principles they profess, T had 
 a concern to have an opportunity with such of 
 them as are members of our Society, being 
 twenty-eight out of thirty-six; and they gave 
 some Friends and me an opportunity this morn- 
 ing to relieve our spirits to them." 
 
 He is first inclined to think they have hope- 
 lessly compromised their principles. " All the 
 hardships of last winter, though very great, were 
 nothing in comparison with the anguish of spirit 
 I feel for this backsliding people, though there 
 are, and even in the Assembly, a number who 
 remember with hiimble trust and confidence the 
 everlasting Protector of His people." 
 
 * " Memoirs of Samuel Fothergill." By George Crosfield, 
 page 214, et seq. 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 245 
 
 " Our epistle from Philadelphia to the 
 monthly meetings meets with a different recep- 
 tion as the people differ; the libertines, worldly- 
 minded and opposers of the reformation in them- 
 selves, cavil and rage, but the seed is relieved 
 and the honest-hearted strengthened." 
 
 Matters, however, improved during the win- 
 ter. He writes in the spring: " The love of 
 power, the ambition of superiority, the desire of 
 exemption from suffering, strongly operate vrith 
 many under our name to continue in stations 
 wherein they sacrifice their testimony and are as 
 salt which hath lost its savor. But as it now ap- 
 pears that we can scarcely heep the truth and its 
 testimony inviolate and retain those places, many 
 stand up on the Lord's side and declare they have 
 none on earth in comparison with the God of 
 their fathers." 
 
 He does not have any respect for the line of 
 forts. "Many thousand pounds of the Prov- 
 ince's money have by the Assembly's committee 
 been laid out in erecting forts upon the frontiers 
 and placing men in them ; a step as prudent, and 
 likely to be attended with as much success, as an 
 attempt to hedge out birds or the deer. 
 In contempt and mockery of the attempt eleven 
 people being destroyed a few days ago within a 
 
346 ^ A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 mile of one of their forts." He also objects to 
 the lack of respect in the tone of the Assembly's 
 addresses to the Governor. " It is altogether im- 
 puted to B. Franklin, their principal penman, 
 who I have sometimes thought intended to ren- 
 der the Assembly contemptible, and subject our 
 religious Society to the imputation of want of 
 respect for authority, as a factious sort of people ; 
 and I fear he has gained his point." 
 
 It is the injustice to the Indians to which the 
 trouble is to be attributed. " The five Indian 
 nations who conquered the Delawares sold some 
 part of the ancient inheritance of these last to 
 the Proprietors, some few years since, alleging 
 the right of sale to be in them as conquerors, and 
 the goods were divided amongst the five nations 
 principally, to the discontent of the Delawares, 
 who still judge themselves justly entitled to some 
 equivalent for their land, which either the inat- 
 tention of the Proprietors or their want of in- 
 formation induced them to disregard; and it is 
 pretty much in this land, and land fraudulently 
 obtained, that the barbarities are committed." 
 
 " The consternation in which this Province 
 hath been thrown by the Indians is not dimin- 
 ished. The Assembly have sold their testimony 
 as Friends to the people's fears, and not gone far 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 347 
 
 enough to satisfy them. The Indians have com- 
 plained without redress, and are now up in arms 
 
 and have destroyed many people 
 
 The ancient methods of dealing with the Indians 
 upon principles of equity and justice seem neg- 
 lected, the spirit of war and destruction endeav- 
 oring to break loose, in order to reduce this pleas- 
 ant populous Province to its ancient wilderness 
 condition." 
 
 "4th month 9th, 1756.— Had some labor 
 amongst Friends to endeavor to prevent a cruel 
 Indian war; and had also a conference with the 
 present and late Governor along with J. P. 
 (John Pemherton) upon the present position of 
 affairs; they received us with candor, but our 
 labor was ineffectual, for on the 10th, a day to 
 be remembered through many generations with 
 sorrow, the Governor agreed to proclaim war 
 against the Delawares, and delivered the hatchet 
 into the hands of some of the Indians." 
 
 As the address of twenty Friends to the As- 
 sembly had predicted, a large number refused to 
 pay the war tax of 1755. Others were quite will- 
 ing to do so. The differences were evidently 
 acute. " The Assembly here have passed a law 
 imposing a tax upon the inhabitants of this Prov- 
 ince; and as a great part of the money is to be 
 
218 A Quaker .Experiment in Government. 
 
 laid out for military purposes many solid Friends 
 can not pay it, which is likely to bring such a 
 breach and division as never happened among us 
 since we were a people." 
 
 The Friends who refused to pay the tax 
 thought it peculiarly hard that they were forced 
 to suffer heavy losses through the action of their 
 fellow-members of the Assembly. These Assem- 
 blymen and their friends pointed out on the 
 other hand that these taxes had been paid in the 
 past, and that it was ultra-conscientiousness 
 which prevented the willing support of the gov- 
 ernment in this hour of peril. The question was 
 a difficult one. Quakers had hitherto refused a 
 direct war tax and paid everything else, even 
 when war expenditures were mingled with 
 others. The stricter Friends considered that 
 this tax, though disguised, was of the objection- 
 able sort, while others did not so place it. The 
 difference accentuated itself by condemnatory 
 criticisms, and in 1757 the Yearly Meeting 
 appointed a committee of thirty, who reported 
 that it was a matter for individual consciences to 
 determine, and not for the Meeting's decision. 
 
 " We are unanimously of the judgment that it 
 is not proper to enter into a public discussion of 
 the matter; and we are one in judgment that it 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 249 
 
 is highly necessary for the Yearly Meeting to 
 recommend that Friends everywhere endeavor 
 to have their minds covered with frequent char- 
 ity towards one another." The Meeting unani- 
 mously adopted this report. This appeal seems 
 to have been successful, and we hear no more of 
 the difference.* 
 
 The situation is explained in two letters from 
 James Pemberton to Samuel Fothergill, one 
 dated 11th mo., 1756, the other 1st mo., 1757: 
 
 Our situation is indeed such as affords cause of mel- 
 ancholy reflection that the first commencement of perse- 
 cution in this Province should arise from our brethren in 
 profession, and that such darkness should prevail as that 
 they should be instruments of oppressing tender con- 
 sciences which hath been the case. The tax in this county 
 being pretty generally collected and many in this city 
 particularly suffered by distraint of their goods and some 
 being near cast into jail. 
 
 The number of us who could not be free to pay the 
 tax is small compared with those who not only comply 
 with it but censure those who do not. 
 
 Notwithstanding the feeling against the Pro- 
 prietors, the Yearly Meeting insists on their hav- 
 ing their just dues promptly. " It should be 
 earnestly recommended to the several Quarterly 
 and Monthly Meetings to use their utmost en- 
 
 * Further information on this matter wOl be found in 
 John Woolman's Journal, Whittier's edition, pages 124, 
 et seq. 
 
250 A Quaker Experiment, in Government. 
 
 deavors to excite the several members of their 
 respective meetings to be punctual in the pay- 
 ment of quit-rents and other monies due from 
 them to the Proprietors, to remove any just 
 cause of reflection on us in this particular." 
 
 The deliberations and differences among the 
 Friends of Pennsylvania were helped to an end- 
 ing by the action of their London brethren. 
 They had been at all times willing to respond to 
 the request of the Colonial Quakers for advice 
 and assistance. The petition of the Philadel- 
 phians adverse to the Assembly's course of ac- 
 tion, and the accounts true and false as to the 
 defenceless condition of the Province which had 
 been sent to London, had made many enemies, 
 and measures were on foot to drive all Quakers 
 from Government places. The London Friends 
 got on the track of these movements and under- 
 took to do what they could to neutralize them. 
 The whole matter is explained in the report of 
 Dr. Fothergill to the Meeting for Sufferings. 
 
 At a meeting for Sufferings the 9th of 4th month, 1756. 
 
 John Fothergill, from the Committee on the Pensilvania 
 affair, brought in a report, which was read, and is as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 To the Meeting for Sufferings: 
 
 The Committee appointed to consider the present state 
 of affairs in Pensilvania, Submit the following account of 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of ^Assembly. 251 
 
 their proceedings therein to the Meeting, and request their 
 farther direction in the affair. 
 
 The Committee having received undoubted Informa- 
 mation that measures were concerting by some persons of 
 Influence here, which would very much affect our friends 
 in Pensilvania, & occasion some material alterations in 
 the present frame of Government in that Province, de- 
 puted several Friends to wait upon a Nobleman in high 
 station, in order to request his advice & favourable Inter- 
 position. 
 
 He acquainted Friends who waited upon him that he 
 discovered a general & strong prepossession excited against 
 us as a people both here and in America, chiefly he be- 
 lieved from the repeated accounts transmitted hither of 
 the distressing situation of affairs in that Province, which 
 were too readily credited by all ranks and ascribed to 
 the principles and Conduct of the Society. That even 
 those in considerable Stations, who had been our firm 
 Friends on various occasions now seemed to be so far 
 influenced as to be either wavering in their opinion, or 
 disposed to join in the popular cry against us; and that 
 from the present appearance of things such seemed to be 
 the temper of many that no measures however disadvan- 
 tageous to us, could be offered to either house, which would 
 not at least meet with a Strenuous support. 
 
 Nevertheless that he and a few more from a thorough 
 knowledge & approbation of our principles and Conduct 
 in divers particulars; and from a consideration of the in- 
 justice it would be, to exclude those from any share in the 
 Legislature of a Province, who had so highly contributed 
 to it's present value & reputation, were desirous that we 
 ourselves if possible, should apply a remedy, rather than 
 leave it to be done by the public, who from the disposition 
 they were in, seemed inclined to the severest, a Clause for 
 totally excluding our Friends in Pensilvania & other parts 
 of America from having seats in any Provincial Assembly 
 by imposing an Oath, having actually been part of a bill 
 now before Parliament, That as the majority of the pres- 
 ent Assembly were of our Profession who from their 
 
252 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 kttown principles could not contribute to the defence of 
 the Country now grievously harrased by the Indians under 
 French Influence m a manner that most people here and 
 even many in Pensilvania thought necessary it seemed 
 but common justice in our Friends to decline accepting a 
 trust which under the present Circumstances they could 
 not discharge, and therefore advised that we should use 
 our utmost endeavours to prevail upon them neither to 
 offer themselves as candidates nor to accept of seats in the 
 Assembly during the present commotions in America. 
 
 That if we could give any reasonable hopes this advice 
 would be complyed with, he for one would endeavour to 
 prevent any violent measures from being taken at the 
 present. 
 
 But that as much depended on this complyance he 
 earnestly recommended we should not trust to Letters 
 only, or the most pressing advices, but that even some 
 proper persons should be deputed to go over on this occa- 
 sion. 
 
 For should any disaster befall the Province and our 
 Friends continue to fill the Assembly, it would redound 
 to the prejudice of the Society in general, and be the 
 means perhaps of subverting a constitution under which 
 the province had so happily flourished. 
 
 He farther recommended it to us, to wait upon some 
 other principal persons in high stations, and endeavour 
 to prevail upon them to join in suspending the resolutions 
 which might have been formed either for a present or a 
 total exclusion. 
 
 The Friends acknowledged their grateful sense of his 
 regard & strenuous interposition on their behalf, and on 
 making this report to the Committee it was agreed in pur- 
 suance of this advice to wait upon some other persons in 
 high stations on the same account. 
 
 In conversation with those to whom the Committee 
 applied they found it was the general opinion that either 
 an immediate dissolution of the pi-esent assembly, or a 
 Test to incapacitate any of our profession from setting 
 therein, or both were absolutely necessary to preserve the 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 253 
 
 Province from inevitable ruin: and We also found that 
 Bills "were already prepared for these purposes. 
 
 The friends appointed among other things represented 
 that we were satisfied many of our Friends who now sat 
 in that assembly, accepted the seats therein with some re- 
 luctance & would cheerfully resign them whenever the 
 country thought other representatives could more effec- 
 tually contribute to its benefit & security, for which reason 
 we apprehended it would be no difficult matter to induce 
 most if not all of our Society to resign their Stations es- 
 pecially as this might be the means of preventing so dan- 
 gerous an innovation upon the present Frame of Govern- 
 ment of that Province. 
 
 Upon the whole, we have reason to expect that thro' 
 the kind interposition of Providence and the favourable 
 disposition of those in power, nothing will be attempted 
 in Parliament this Sessions. 
 
 But it is fully expected that our Friends will not suffer 
 themselves "to be chosen into assembly during the present 
 disturbances in America. 
 
 And as the committee have engaged that our utmost 
 endeavours shall be used with our Friends in America, to 
 fulfil these expectations, — We are of opinion that an Epis- 
 tle should be forthwith drawn up and sent to our Friends 
 in Pensilvania, fully to inform them of the sentiments of 
 the Publick concerning them of the danger they have so 
 narrowly escaped, & the means pointed out for their avoid- 
 ing it for the future. 
 
 And that in pursuance of the advice given us, two or 
 more proper Friends should be engaged to go over to Pen- 
 silvania, in order the more fully to explain the present 
 state of affairs, and what is expected from Friends in those 
 parts. 
 
 And we are likewise of opinion that proper acknowledge- 
 ments should be made in behalf of the Society to those 
 persons in high stations, who have manifested so much 
 lenity and regard to us on this occasion and the same time 
 to acquaint them, that no endeavours on our part will be 
 wanting, to influence our Friends in Pensilvania, to con- 
 
254 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 duct themselves in such, a maimer as to merit the confi- 
 dence reposed in the Society. 
 
 And farther the Committee is not mthout hopes, that 
 their seasonable & diligent application to persons in power 
 may have been the means of strengthening their favour- 
 able dispositions towards us, & has furnished various op- 
 portunitys to remove many prejudices respecting the con- 
 duct of affairs in Pensilvania. 
 
 The Meeting for Sufferings and the Yearly 
 Meeting adopted the recommendations of this 
 report, and sent letters to Philadelphia practi- 
 cally recapitulating it. To insure its favorable 
 reception, they sent over John Hunt and Chris- 
 topher Wilson to use their personal influence in 
 the same direction. 
 
 Prior to their arrival, the six members of the 
 Assembly led by James Pemberton had re- 
 signed. These resignations were probably the 
 result of conscientious conviction. Those which 
 followed were influenced by a desire to satisfy 
 the demands of London and Philadelphia Year- 
 ly Meetings. 
 
 Under date of Eleventh month, 1756, James 
 Pemberton writes to Samuel Pothergill, who had 
 returned to his home in England, a letter nar- 
 rating the turn affairs had taken: 
 
 The business which detained me from accompanying 
 thee on shipboard, I mean that of resigning in the As- 
 sembly, was completed pretty readily, though afterward 
 
JAMES PEMBERTO^'. 
 
 FROM WATSOK'S ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Probably cdpied from a coniemporary iil;elcli. 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 355 
 
 much disapproved o£ by Governor Morris and his friends 
 when they found our successors were such as did not an- 
 swer their purposes. 
 
 . . . Having mentioned thus far to public afEairs, I may 
 add something further with regard to our last election. 
 Many Friends were under some anxiety to know the con- 
 tents of the embassy from the Meeting for Sufferings in 
 London, that we might be able to conduct in such a man- 
 ner as should be consistent with the reputation of Truth, 
 and the sentiments of our Friends on your side, the latter 
 of which could be learned only from the intelligence re- 
 ceived in private letters which it was not thought pru- 
 dent at that time to make too generally known from 
 divers considerations and particularly lest there should be 
 any variation in what the Friends whom we expected 
 might bring, and therefore such Friends who had most 
 regard to the preserving our testimony inviolate, thought 
 it best to decline interesting themselves in the election 
 any further than to prevent a majority of those professing 
 with us being returned as Representatives in the Assem- 
 bly, and would have preferred that not one under the 
 name should be chosen, and for this reason declined vot- 
 ing themselves, and many others influenced by their ex- 
 ample acted in like manner; but notwithstanding this there 
 were too many under our name active in the election, 
 whom no arguments could prevail with to desist, and by 
 this means, and the apprehensions of others of the in- 
 habitants of the ill consequence of being inactive, there 
 are in this county of eight members of the House, two 
 called Quakers, and one that was owned last year, and 
 another who comes to meeting, but not joined in member- 
 ship. In the other counties several Friends were left out. 
 However upon the whole of the 36 members who make up 
 the House, there were 12 under the name of Quakers, and 
 our adversaries reckoned them 16. J. H. and C. W. [John 
 Hunt and Christopher Wilson] arrived 5 days after the 
 election and on their communicating to the Committee 
 appointed by the Yearly Meeting to constitute a Meeting 
 
25G A Quaker Experiment in Oovernment. 
 
 for Sufferings, it was agreed to be most proper that these 
 friends should have an opportunity of conferring with all 
 of the meiubers chosen in the late election who went 
 under our name, before they took their seats in the House, 
 and intelligence was accordingly sent to them, and most 
 of them came and much pains taken to convince them of 
 the expediency of their declining to take their seats, to 
 which some of them readily assented; the first was oid 
 Peter Dicks and Maylou Kirkbride who, and two others 
 one from Bucks, and another from Chester were all that 
 could be prevailed with to shake off their rags of imagin- 
 ary honor . . The House has been sitting most of the 
 time since the election, and have as yet done little busi- 
 ness; they have had under their consideration a militia 
 law, which hath been long in the hands of a committee, 
 and is likely to take up a great deal more of their time; 
 also a bill for raising £100,000 by a land tax of the same 
 kind as your's in England; if these pass it is likely Friends 
 will be subjected to great inconvenience. As the former 
 now stands, as I am told, the great patriot Franklin, who 
 hath the principal direction of forming the bills, hath dis- 
 covered very little regard to tender consciences, which 
 perhaps may partly arise from the observations lie must 
 have made since he hath been in that House of the in- 
 consistent conduct of many of our Friends. That it seems 
 to me he hath almost persuaded himself there are few if 
 any that are in earnest relating to their religious princi- 
 ples, and that he seems exceedingly studious of propagat- 
 ing a martial spirit all he can.* 
 
 Tlie ten Assemblymen who resigned, as also 
 those who refused re-election, were succeeded by 
 members of other denominations. f The twelve 
 
 * " The Friend," Vol. XLVL, page 162. 
 f " The manner in which you had proceeded in the con- 
 sideration of our affairs, and the engagements you had en- 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 357 
 
 nominal members of the iSociety who retained 
 their seats were too few to commit their Church 
 to any policy, and most of them had their actions 
 practically disowned by the ecclesiastical au- 
 
 tered into on behalf of Friends here, appeared to be con- 
 ducted with a real regard to our true interest, and so per- 
 fectly consistent with our sentiments that they were en- 
 couraged and assisted by those members of this meeting 
 in doing everything in their power to render the service 
 proposed effectual, in order to which those of our Society 
 who were chosen representatives in the several counties 
 were requested to give them [John Hunt and Christopher 
 Wilson] a hearing before the usual time of meeting in the 
 Assembly, which was readily complied with by all whom 
 there was at that time any prospect of prevailing with to 
 regard the advice and concern of their brethren, and in con- 
 sequence of it four of them declined taking their seats in 
 the house, and others not of our profession were soon after 
 chosen in their stead, so that there are now but twelve of 
 the members of the Assembly who make any pretensions of 
 being called by our name, and several of these are not 
 acknowledged by us as members of the Society. . . As 
 six of the friends chosen into the Assembly last year had 
 resigned their seats, and some others since refused to be 
 re-elected those who now remain say they should not 
 think themselves excusable to their constituents if they 
 should decline the service, but we think it may be truly 
 said, they were most of them so clear of intermeddling in 
 the elections and so many friends declined attending or 
 voting in several of the counties, that they appear to be 
 chosen by a majority of people not of our profession many 
 of whom are very apprehensive of the danger from per- 
 mitting those who have been endeavouring to subvert the 
 constitution to have any considerable share in the legisla- 
 ture." — From Philadelphia Meeting for Sufferings to Lon- 
 don Meeting for Sufferings, Twelfth month, 17S6. 
 
:?-58 A Quaker Experiment in Oovernnient. 
 
 thorities, ■wliich year by year grew more urgent 
 against any compromise of principle. 
 
 Three courses were open to the political 
 Quakers in 1756. 
 
 They might have given up their religious 
 scruples and joined heartily in the defence of 
 the Province; they might have stood rigidly by 
 their principles, so long as their constituents 
 would have returned them, and allowed the In- 
 dians on the one side and the English oppo- 
 nents on the other to do their worst, giving up 
 their places when they had to; or they might 
 have resigned as they did. The inconsistent 
 position they held in the Assembly was no longer 
 tenable. The first was the course of mere poli- 
 ticians, the second perhaps of impossible heroes, 
 the third of honest men who valued consistency 
 above power. One cannot but wish that in the 
 spirit of the Pembertons, the Fothergills, the 
 Woolinans of their day, they had kept their pub- 
 lic places in absolute obedience to their religious 
 principle. The Quakers triumphed in England 
 by non-resistant faithfulness to conviction. 
 Should they not have tried, not abandonment, 
 but non-resistant adherence to place and respon- 
 sibility, when place and responsibility were hon- 
 orably in their hands? Has not the world 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 359 
 
 needed a more virile example of Quaker govern- 
 ment to show the merits of unquailing, passive 
 resistance to wrong and injustice? Would not 
 the Providence upon whom they depended in 
 case of military attack also prove their safeguard 
 if in the line of duty in civil place and attacked 
 by civil enemies? But probably the actual 
 members of the Assembly were not the sort of 
 men to present this brave, quiet front. John 
 Woolman could have done it, but John Wool- 
 man would never have been elected, would not 
 probably have made a very practical legislator, 
 and besides, John Woolmans were rare. The 
 Quaker legislators were not careless politicians, 
 neither were they heroes, but they were con- 
 sciertious men, who, when the issue came bald- 
 ly, stood by their brethren who controlled the 
 Yearly Meeting, and preserved unimpaired the 
 principle of peace to their posterity. 
 
 There was growing up in the Society a belief 
 which was vastly strengthened by the military 
 experiences of the years between 1740 and 1780, 
 that public life was unfavorable to the quiet, 
 Divine communion which called for inwardness, 
 not outwardness, and which was the basic prin- 
 ciple of Quakerism.* Quakers had always had 
 
 ' " That stillness and abstraction I desire does not ap- 
 
260 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 strong mystical tendencies. William Penn rep- 
 resented one type of active, militant Quaker- 
 ism, and Isaac Pennington another of passive, 
 introversive Quakerism. In George Fox they 
 were happily blended. The ease and prosperity 
 and public responsibilities of Pennsylvania 
 Friends had tended to develop the spirit of out- 
 vs-ard acti"\aty, useful but dangerous to the inner 
 life. Ultimately it brought about the loss to 
 the Society of many aggressive members, and a 
 growing conviction that the place of Friends was 
 not in political, but in religious and philan- 
 thropic work. In these directions their activi- 
 ties were more and more thrown, and the Yearly 
 Meeting was strenuously engaged for several 
 years after 1756 in pressing on its members the 
 desirability of abstaining from civic business. 
 
 This was done under the plea that, as matters 
 were, it was impossible to hold most ofEcial po- 
 sitions without administering oaths or voting war 
 taxes. The former violated Quaker principles 
 directly, and the latter enjoined on their breth- 
 
 pear at present to be allowed me, nor can I yet attain so 
 deep inward silence and attention as I find necessary, but 
 from wilful disobedience or transgression of duty I am I 
 hope in a good degree presented." — Israel Pemberton to 
 Samuel Fotbergill, Ninth month, 1757. 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 261 
 
 ren a service against whicli their consciences re- 
 belled. In the interests, therefore, of liberty of 
 conscience, the meetings urged on the members 
 not to allow themselves to be candidates for ju- 
 dicial or legislative positions, and in time were 
 largely successful. 
 
 In 1758 a report came in to the Yearly Meet- 
 ing from a large and influential committee ad- 
 vising against furnishing wagons for the trans- 
 port of military stores, and warning against al- 
 lowing " the examples and injunctions of some 
 members of our Society who are employed in 
 ofEces and stations in civil government "* to in- 
 fluence anyone against a steady support of 
 the truth. They also recommend that the 
 Yearly Meeting should " advise and caution 
 against any Friends accepting of or continu- 
 ing in ofiices or stations whereby they are sub- 
 jected to the necessity of enjoining or enforcing 
 the compliance of their brethren or others with 
 any act which they may conscientiously scruple 
 to perform." 
 
 * The distinction between the ecclesiastical and political 
 Quakers is further indicated in the following: " Thou 
 knows that we could not in every case vindicate our As- 
 sembly who had so greatly deviated from our known prin- 
 ciples and the testimony of our forefathers." — Israel Pem- 
 berton to Samuel Fothergill, Seventh month, 1757. 
 
2()2 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 The Meeting adopted the report and issued a 
 minute largely in its language. The holding of 
 all civil ofBces is not advised against, only such 
 as call for questionable proceedings in " these 
 perilous times." 
 
 And as the maintaining inviolate that liberty of con- 
 science which is essential to our union and well-being as a 
 religious jSociety evidently appears to be oui- indispensable 
 duty, this Meeting doth with fervent and sincere desires 
 ior the present and future prosperity of Truth among us, 
 and the preservation of individuals on the true foundation 
 of our Christian fellowship and communion, caution, advioc 
 and exhort Friends to beware of accepting of, or continu- 
 ing in, the exercise of any ofiice or station in civil society 
 or government by which they may in any respect be 
 engaged in or think themselves subjected to the neces- 
 sity of enjoining or enforcing the compliance of their 
 brethren and others with any act which they conscien- 
 tiously scruple to perform; and if any professing with 
 us should, after the advice and lovmg admonitions of their 
 lirethren, persist in a conduct to repugnant to that sin- 
 cerity, uprightness and self-denial incumbent on us, it is 
 the sense and judgment of this Meeting that such persons 
 should not be allowed to sit in our Meetings for discipline, 
 nor be employed in the affairs of Truth until they are 
 brought to a sense and acknowledgment of their error. 
 
 The advice is strengthened in 1762. "It is 
 likewise desired that all Friends may be particu- 
 larly careful that they be not accessory in pro- 
 moting or choosing their brethren to such offices 
 which may subject them to the temptation of de- 
 viating from our Christian testimony in this 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 2G3 
 
 (administering oaths) or any other branch 
 thereof." 
 
 In 1763 the Quarterly Meetings are asked to 
 report the success of their " labours " in getting 
 Friends out of compromising offices. Philadel- 
 phia Quarterly Meeting reports some success; 
 Chester, " a comfortable account " from one 
 monthly meeting, but " cannot say much " as 
 to the rest; Western (Chester countj'), "little 
 success, but has hopes of more if the concern con- 
 tinues." 
 
 Bucks remarks that as " There appears an un- 
 easiness in several of their monthly meetings 
 with the minute of the Yearly Meeting of 1758 
 as it now stands, respecting the treating with 
 such as hold offices in the Government, they de- 
 sire that the said minute may be returned to this 
 Meeting for reconsideration." 
 
 Bucks gained from this appeal only the sus- 
 pension of judgment respecting the last clause of 
 the minute. 
 
 The matter went down through the monthly 
 meetings, and in nearly all of them some records 
 are found. 
 
 In Goshen, "Third month 11th, 17G3, 
 
 . were appointed to treat with puch 
 
 Friends within the Meeting's compass who hold 
 
264 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 offices in Government which subject them to a 
 violation of the fundamental privilege of liberty 
 of conscience." 
 
 Fifth month 6th, 1763, they report that they 
 have " taken an opportunity with one of the 
 representatives of Assembly,* and that he do 
 not apprehend himself culpable, and as to county 
 commissioners and assessors there are none 
 within the verge of this meeting." 
 
 The Friends of these days had a large list of 
 civil delinquencies to trouble them. Bucks 
 Quarterly Meeting, in 1763, reports, " That all 
 are not clear of administering oaths, nor of mili- 
 tary service "; nor " of purchasing negroes, and 
 that a religious education of them is much 
 neglected"; but they are "free from paying 
 priests wages and being concerned in prize 
 goods and lotteries." " That Friends should 
 not purchase nor remove to settle on such lands 
 as have not been fairly and openly purchased 
 from the Indians"; that certificates should not 
 be given to such as do, and they should be con- 
 A'inced " of the inconsistency of their conduct 
 
 • George Ashbridge, who entered the Assembly in 1743, 
 and notwithstanding the pressure of his ecclesiastical su- 
 periors, retained his membership both in the Assembly and 
 the meeting till 1773. 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 365 
 
 with our Christian profession." In addition to 
 these they now had to see after those who held 
 offices incompatible with the same Christian pro- 
 fession. "Whatever Quaker political control was 
 doing for the State, it was accumulating anx- 
 ieties for " concerned Friends." It should be 
 said, however, that in these moral questions they 
 were pushing ahead of the community, and if 
 some of their own members could not maintain 
 the pace, it was not mxich a matter of wonder. 
 
 The withdrawal of the Quaker members of the 
 Assembly did not change its political tendencies. 
 In all things, save a greater willingness to vote 
 money for defence, it showed the same hostility 
 to proprietary encroachments as before. The 
 new members, while not Friends, were of the 
 same political party as their predecessors (indeed, 
 there did not seem to be any proprietary party of 
 consequence in the Assembly), and were elected 
 by the same constituencies. They doubtless had 
 the support of the Quaker voters, and the same 
 machinery (whatever it was) which had hitherto 
 been effective. It was still in popular language 
 the Quaker Assembly, and so remained till 17Y6, 
 when there was a sudden and radical change. It 
 represented the " Quaker party " (of which prob- 
 ably a majority were non-Quakers) and carried 
 
206 .-i QuaJcer Experiment in Government. 
 
 out its decrees. But the Society of Friends was 
 in no sense responsible for its acts, any more than 
 the Society was for the acts of Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, who was largely politically affiliated with its 
 members. Hence, while some writers, deceived 
 by the popular language of the daj^, give the 
 date 1776 as the downfall of Quaker ascendency, 
 they include twenty years which Quakers dis- 
 tinctly repudiate, and which were controlled by 
 such as were not members nor fair representa- 
 tives of the body. The Quaker control ended 
 with 1756. In increasing numbers after this 
 date they absented themselves from the polls, 
 and though, after peace with the Indians was 
 declared, some Friends were returned to the As- 
 sembly, they never exerted more than a modi- 
 fying influence in it. 
 
 John Pemberton writes, in 1757, after the up- 
 rooting of the Quaker majority of the Assembly: 
 " Our country people seem to repent Friends 
 being out of the House of Assembly, and if we 
 do not use much precaution it will be next to 
 impossible to prevent a majority of them being 
 chosen next year." He adds, when they find 
 how expensive and how useless the forts are, cost- 
 ing £10,000 per month, and making the Indians 
 " glory in doing mischief near them and the 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 267 
 
 men " in them, they will be still less likely to be 
 satisfied. 
 
 The effect anticipated was produced. In 1760 
 " there is a majority of such who quaUfy by an 
 affirmation." The next election, in the fall of 
 1761, " was the occasion of an addition to the 
 number of the members of our Society, of whom 
 there is now a majority in the House so termed, 
 which, if the war continues, may occasion a re- 
 vival of our troubles on that account."* It 
 thus appears that the people wanted to elect 
 Friends, and would do so with their consent, 
 but that only such as stood somewhat fast and 
 loose with the Society would allow themselves 
 to be candidates against the expressed wishes of 
 the Yearly Meeting. 
 
 A year later the situation has not changed. 
 
 " I wish they who are active in these matters could be 
 persuaded to pay more regard to the engagement with 
 respect to tiie number of those of our Society returned 
 for Representatives, there being now, as last year, very 
 nearly an equal number of our Society, and a large ma- 
 jority of such who do not qualify by an oath." 
 
 The " labours " were now, however, beginning 
 to yield fruits. In the fall of 1763 the number 
 
 * James Pemberton is the authority for this statement. 
 It does not necessarily mean that all were Friends who 
 refused to swear. 
 
268 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 of Quaker Assemblymen was greatly reduced. 
 " I should be very glad if the ntunber of mem- 
 bers of Assembly under our name was less, and 
 believe some in that station now heartily wish 
 they had barkened to the advice of their breth- 
 ren, dissuading them from accepting the trust, 
 though there are but fourteen allowed members 
 of our Society in the House, yet as divers others 
 are termed such our adversaries take occasion of 
 clamoring and abusing us on this account, and 
 seem now bent upon attempting by violence 
 what they cannot effect by free choice." 
 
 This quotation explains the general reference 
 of the day to the Quaker Assembly. In popular 
 estimation, every one who qualified by an af- 
 firmation, every one who sympathized with the 
 past policy of the legislative body, every de- 
 scendant or close relative of a Quaker family, 
 was a Quaker. Thus was saddled upon the So- 
 ciety the responsibility which it diligently sought 
 to avoid, of the conduct of the Government, in 
 which its influence was still unquestionably a 
 strong but not a controlling factor. 
 
 The vsathdrawal from public life of those best 
 qualified to attend to it in the country districts, 
 led inevitably to a weakening of the standard of 
 government. In the same letter with the last 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 269 
 
 quotation, we have an account of " anarchy and 
 confusion." " Vice of all kinds prevails in a 
 lamentable degree; murder, highway robberies 
 and house-breaking are committed, and the per- 
 petrators have passed undiscovered; the minds 
 of the people in general are agitated with great 
 ferment, and the rulers of the people cause them 
 to err; the few in public stations who have vir- 
 tue enough to put the laws in execution have 
 their hands weakened by mean and mercenary 
 opposition, so that desolation appears almost in- 
 evitable." 
 
 James Pemberton rather apologetically ex- 
 plains to Dr. Fothergill his own resumption of 
 political life in 1765. He was much pressed by 
 his constituents, and with great reluctance con- 
 sented. It was done with the approbation of 
 Friends, and he hopes it will not be looked upon 
 as a violation of the agreement the English 
 Friends had made. He thinks he can do some 
 good to good causes, and keep out objectionable 
 competitors, and so on, all of which seems excel- 
 lent, and induces one to wonder why the same 
 reasons should not have prevailed on other 
 Quakers to maintain a power so evidently for 
 the good of the Province, now that the Indian 
 wars were over. The probabilities are that they 
 
270 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 preferred to be a minority in the Assembly suf- 
 ficient to leaven its actions, yet also so small that 
 they would not be responsible for acts of a war- 
 like character. 
 
 It is possible Friends looked forward to a time 
 when they might consistently resume their po- 
 litical activity and influence, when wars would 
 be over, and a policy of equity and friendship 
 with the Indians might be renewed? In the six- 
 ties there seemed such a possibility. But if they 
 ever cherished the idea it does not show itself in 
 the records of the times, and was rudely shat- 
 tered by the Revolutionary war. 
 
 In this war they were in an embarrassing posi- 
 tion. It was, politically speaking, the work of 
 their party, which had always stood for civil lib- 
 erty, and which plunged into it with ardor. It 
 was, however, opposed to their anti-revolution- 
 ary and their anti-martial principles. " We can- 
 not be instrumental in the setting up or pulling 
 down of any government," they said, in 1778. 
 This negative attitude brought much misrepre- 
 sentation and much persecution, and left them 
 more than ever convinced that the place of a 
 Quaker was not in political life. From that day 
 to this their corporate influence has been exerted 
 against such participation. 
 
Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 371 .. 
 
 It is sadly evident to anyone who, witliout 
 prejudice, places himself in contact with the 
 spirit and tendencies of the men who for seventy- 
 four years controlled the destinies of the gov- 
 ernment of Pennsylvania, that the high ideals 
 and buoyant hopes with which William Penn 
 started were only in>perfectly realized. The 
 government in which the sober will of the peo- 
 ple should prevail in all internal affairs, without 
 factional or selfish strife; where all should be 
 equal, every conscience should be unfettered, no 
 man's word should need any confirmatory oath; 
 where fraternal kindness and even justice should 
 go out to the natives, and no force should be 
 needed or employed except toward individual 
 disturbers of the peace; where human life 
 should be sacred and human rights preserved, 
 and where over all and in all there should be the 
 pervasive, restraining and directing influence of 
 God's Holy Spirit, present because merited by 
 holy lives and reverent hearts, — this government, 
 which Penn saw in his imagination, never ex- 
 isted in fact. Unholy party spirit was at times 
 strong, religious liberty was abridged, oaths were 
 only partially abolished, capital punishment was 
 extended, the Indians were abused and angered, 
 and warlike passion and war itself invaded the 
 
272 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 territory; and finally the effort apparently broke 
 down before the influences exerted by seemingly 
 insurmountable opposing forces. This par- 
 tially unsatisfactory outcome is to some extent 
 explained by these facts: (1) The English 
 Crown, by its power of veto, its undefined au- 
 thority, even over the charter, and by its fre- 
 quent wars and consequent demands on the col- 
 ony, was a continual interference with the plans 
 of the Government; and (2), the Proprietors of 
 the second generation were out of sympathy 
 with the principles of their fathers. Yet one 
 could not but expect obstacles, and there were 
 many counterbalancing advantages. Perhaps 
 at no other time or place in this defective world 
 could the trial have been better made, and one 
 has to admit that the noble dream, even when 
 worked out by a man so practical, so resource- 
 ful, so skilful in adapting means to ends, of 
 such an imposing personality as William Penn, 
 was incapable of full accomplishment under 
 any conditions likely to be realized. All of the 
 actors in it were not pure and consecrated 
 themselves, and nothing else could save it. 
 
 And yet it was not a failure. The world will 
 return to it when times are riper. There will be 
 another trial of the principles of a pure democ- 
 
Ijast Days of Qualc&r Oontrol of Assembly. 373 
 
 racy, with perfect civil and religious liberty, per- 
 fect justice to neighbors, never attacking, and 
 without need or provision for armed defence, 
 which will be permanently successful. The 
 leaven is working, and one by one men are being 
 convinced of the right and expediency of some or 
 all of its features. ISTations are adopting them, 
 and with every advance there is an approxima- 
 tion to the experiment of Penn. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that notwithstanding 
 all difficulties and imperfections there was for 
 seventy years an efficient government in Penn- 
 sylvania, based largely on Penn's ideas. There 
 were no wars or external troubles. The home 
 affairs were quiet and orderly. Prosperity and 
 contentment reigned, immigrants came in unpre- 
 cedented numbers, and the public finances were 
 so managed as to encourage trade, and lay no un- 
 necessary burdens. Peace and justice were for 
 two generations found available defences for a 
 successful State. 
 
 The failures are as instructive as the successes. 
 Had William Penn's Indian policy prevailed, 
 there was no need of Pennsylvania's embroil- 
 ment in the French and Indian wars. The pol- 
 icy of peace is closely interwoven with that of 
 justice. If other powers are exasperated by un- 
 
274 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 
 
 fair dealings it will not do to fold one's arms and 
 cry for peace. The experiment, in order to be 
 conclusive, must involve rigid uprightness on the 
 part of the State that objects to war. When, 
 therefore, the breakdown of Quaker policy, in 
 1756, is pointed to, it should also be stated that 
 it was very largely due to the injection into the 
 political situation of the non-Quaker manage- 
 ment of the Proprietors. As long as exact jus- 
 tice prevailed peace existed, and this is the les- 
 son of Pennsylvania.