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CELEBRATl ON 
 
 isiml ^adtii 0f IpOTSgfcaraa, 
 
 170th anniversary OF THE LANDING 
 
 P E N N. 
 
 BY ROBERT T. CONRAD, 
 
 PROCEEDINGS AT THE DINNEE, NOVEMBER 8th, 1862. 
 
 PRESS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 18 5 3. 
 

A D D 11 E S S 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THB 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 '^'Oj^^ll AT THE 
 
 CftA^' 
 
 FIRST CONSTITUTION 
 
 AND 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF PENISYLVAIIA. 
 
 ROBERT T. CONRAD. 
 
 
 V 
 
 r II I L A D E L P H I A : 
 K1.\G A BAIRD, PRINTERS, No. 9 SANSON STREET. 
 
 185 3. 
 

ADDRESS. 
 
 In commemorating the landing of Wm. Penn upon our 
 shores, the scene conjured up by the blended spells of memory 
 and imagination, for the mirror of each reflects the other until 
 the images of both are indistinguishably mingled, is one not 
 only of picturesque but philosophic interest. We see the good 
 ship Welcome moored within the shadow cast by the lofty pines 
 upon the clear waters of the vast, the silent and solitary Dela- 
 ware. A boat, urged by eager and sinewy arms, seeks the 
 shore ; and its voyagers regard, with an admiration akin to 
 awe, the spectacle before them. Nature, in her own still, un- 
 startled solitude, is ever sublime. The grand old forest, stretch- 
 ing to the Pacific and embosoming the homes of future empires, 
 rose darkly against the bright, autumnal sky, towards which 
 the smoke of distant Indian fires, curling above the pine tops, 
 slowly ascended. But, even then, the dominion of the primeval 
 forest had been disputed ; and the low-roofed cottages of the 
 blue-eyed Swedes dotted the clearing. Upon the shore, were 
 gathered those sons of the north, sturdy and stalwart, their 
 bronzed cheeks glowing with joy, and their hardy hands up- 
 raised in welcome ; and beside them, the gentle but heroic 
 partners of their woodland life, awaiting, with weeping delight, 
 the strangers who, though not of their country or kindred, had 
 still been wafted hither by the gales that swept from the father 
 land and whispered of home. Near them, were groups of 
 imperturbable Hollanders ; of silent Indians, gazing on with a 
 listlessness half stoical, half stolid ; and of Quakers, the pre- 
 cursors of the newly arrived, whose eager eyes pored upon the 
 approaching forms, and whose pallid lips moved with earnest 
 but uuuttered thanksgiving. The boat soon grated upon the 
 
gravelly beach; and the first to leap joyously ashore was 
 William Penn. The Founder of Pennsylvania was then in the , 
 primy youth of manhood ; and his noble form was gracefully 
 attired in the elegance which distinguished the courtiers and 
 cavaliers of Charles II. His fine countenance glowed with 
 health and hope and pleasure. Just escaped the ship-board 
 companionship of a fatal and loathsome pestilence, it is not 
 strange that his spirit exulted in pressing the soil upon which 
 he based so lofty a structure of benevolent and holy hope. 
 Nor have that moment and its associations less interest for 
 memory than for anticipation, for the posterity of those pil- 
 grims, for us, than for them. From that hour and that scene, 
 started events and destinies that will be studied throughout all 
 time. We may imagine that, before the prescient eye of 
 Penn, that dark wilderness faded away, like the shadows of a 
 long night ; and, in" its place, he saw hamlets, villages and cities : 
 millions thronged the land ; the songs of happy toil were heard 
 along its river sides ; and the hymns of humble devotion arose 
 from its thousand hills. That Wm. Penn was no dreamer, or 
 that if he dreamed, his visions were those of the prophet, is 
 shown by triumphs beyond the mere success of the colonizer. 
 Looking through the memorable origin of his community, we 
 see not only an empire rising upon that solitary shore ; but? 
 extending the view, Ave behold the great cause of Federative 
 Freedom emerging from the wave of revolution, the young 
 world grappling successfully with the old, and a structure of 
 government erected securing universal education and liberty, 
 and changing the aspect of the world and the destinies of time. 
 The colonization of North America was, from the condition 
 of Europe, necessarily successful. The Western wilderness 
 was the Paradise of insane Hope, the unfallen world in which 
 every error of time-stricken Europe was to be corrected, every 
 evil overruled, and every expectation realized. But 
 
 " Ccelum, non animiim mutant, qui trans marc currunt." 
 
 The cu.rse of a fallen nature, of erring opinions and perverted 
 passions, crossed the water with them ; and many a heart, 
 
strung to its utmost tension with idle and extravagant expecta- 
 tion, broke "\vith the bursting of its bubble hopes. 
 
 Of those who sought to work out, upon the unblotted desti- 
 nies of a new world, their theories of human improvement, the 
 loftiest yet the meekest, the most etherial yet most rational, 
 was "VVm. Penn. It was his sublime hope to raise here, where 
 we stand, a temple to human happiness, in the structure of 
 which the harmonies of primitive Christianity should unite 
 with political and practical necessity. The laAv of love and 
 peace, the rule of unresisting benevolence, had its disciples 
 before Christianity was strong enough and stern enough to 
 wield a sword : but that blessed era soon past ; religion clasped 
 the crimsoned palm of war ; the cross floated nowhere so 
 proudly as over battle fields, and the dying warrior — so died 
 Peruvian Pizarro — dipped his finger in his own heart's blood, 
 traced the sacred symbol on the earth, kissed it, and perished 
 smiling. And this ferocious perversion was the world's law 
 and the world's glory. Yet the meek and mighty Founder, 
 even in such a world, dared to build an altar to peace. The 
 scene, the circumstances, the subjects, all, were favourable to 
 the experiment ; and it was directed by his own energetic na- 
 ture, and clear, practical mind. But, did it succeed ? It is a 
 great, a noble triumph that it did not utterly fail. It was suc- 
 cessful, so long as the principles under which it originated were 
 adhered to ; and those principles were cherished, and governed 
 the colony, for a sufficient period to vindicate the practicability 
 of their application to government, and to prove their inesti- 
 mable and divine influence. But the very prosperity and 
 happiness which they induced encouraged immigration ; and 
 immigration crowded the colony with spirits and influences 
 fatally hostile to the original design of Penn. Its partial 
 failure establishes nothing against the principle proclaimed. 
 On the contrary, the world owes much to its authors for the 
 example it aff'orded and the truths it taught, truths which 
 are divine and eternal, and whose eventual and everlasting 
 triumph is an article in every good man's faith. Even now, 
 from the fragments of that crumbled structure, the world 
 is gathering lessons of wisdom and benevolence, which are 
 
gradually in corporated witli the polity of nations, to impart 
 stability to peace and mercy to war. Our commonwealth 
 boasts no possession so radiant and priceless, as the memory of 
 the wisdom, purity and piety with which the Founder and his 
 brethren illustrated the sinless annals of infant Pennsylvania. 
 
 Scarcely had Wm. Penn withdrawn from the colony, before 
 the smouldering fires of faction burst into open flame — a flame 
 never after extinguished. Bitterly did he lament this, and it 
 is afflicting to know that even his name must be numbered with 
 the host of the world's benefactors who have wept over the 
 world's ingratitude. "When," he says in a letter written 
 some time after his return to Europe — " when I reflect on all 
 these heads, of which I had so much cause to complain, I can- 
 not but mourn at the unhappiness of my portion, dealt to me 
 from those of whom I had reason to expect much better." 
 Alas, that such a spirit should have been taught 
 
 " How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
 To have a thankless child." 
 
 The charter finally granted by Penn to the colony, secured 
 it the largest liberty consistent with its connexion with the 
 crown and the proprietor. The assembly, elective by the 
 people, met annually and sate on its own adjournments, the 
 executive having no power to prorogue it. Charles Thompson 
 was correct in stating that, in her charter, "Pennsylvania 
 had a great advantage over the other Colonies." Under this 
 liberal constitution, the entire freedom of discussion induced 
 numberless subjects of disputation, which rose, like clouds 
 raised by the gusts of summer, changed with the moment, and 
 passed away forever. Idle feuds and petty faction ensued, to 
 record which — borrowing a figure from Milton — would be a sun- 
 prcfitable as to watch a\id describe the quarrels of rooks and 
 Idtes. Courts, subsidies, paper money, the militia, &c., were 
 the fruitful subjects of party contention. In the course of 
 these, the original peculiarities of the government speedily dis- 
 appeared ; its justice and honour were lost in the paltry fraud 
 of the Indian walk, and its humanity forgotten in the horrid 
 ofi"cr of premiums for Indian scalps — fifty dollars being paid by 
 
John Penn, the grandson of the Proprietary, for the scalp of 
 every female above the tender age of ten years. But the great 
 issue was that between the Proprietaries, with their baronial 
 manors and feudal prerogatives, and a people jealous of their 
 rights, and sudden and quick in political quarrel. Dr. Frank- 
 lin was sent to England on this subject ; and the assent of the 
 crown was procured to the taxation of the Proprietary estates. 
 It is easy to recognize, in these civil contentions, the palestras 
 where the moral sinews of the colonists were trained for the 
 great struggle that soon ensued, on the right of the imperial 
 government itself to tax the Colonies. The spirit that had so 
 long combatted against provincial usurpation, aroused itself, 
 with resolute alacrity, and prepared for this more momentous 
 contest. 
 
 As it is my desire to sketch — it must be very imperfectly — 
 the formation, character and history of our first State Govern- 
 ment, it is proper to present some view of the parties and 
 events of the revolution from vrhich it arose. 
 
 Of that revolution, perhaps I may be permitted to remark 
 that the independence of the Anglo-Saxon colonies was clearly 
 inevitable ; and that the result was, by the policy of the parent, 
 merely, and not greatly, hastened. The " destimj' of this 
 people has been so often associated with ideas of grotesque ex- 
 travagance, that to utter the word is to provoke a smile ; yet 
 the gravest student must be struck with the fact, that the 
 country has, from its earliest periods and in all its indications, 
 borne the significant impress of a future of empire and great- 
 ness. The elegant fictions of Livy do not more naturally 
 foreshadow, in the infant Rome, the future sovereign, than 
 docs historic truth indicate a gigantic future (whether of good 
 or evil) in the birth and development, the strange energies and 
 acquisitive instincts, of these colonies. 
 
 When the powers of Europe prepared to enact their parts 
 on this hemisphere, their plans were grand as the stage 
 upon which they were developed. The attitude and views of 
 the three great competitors for empire in North America, in 
 the time of Louis XIV., are full of interest. The prize was 
 appreciated ; for already the energies of the Anglo-Saxons had 
 
8 
 
 given to it the impress of greatness. The enterprize of Spain 
 seemed exhausted ; and her policy therefore was defensive, as 
 ■with a hand, already trembling with the paralysis that has 
 long since withered it, she gathered her colonies to her bosom, 
 and looked askant, upon the infant giant stretching its yet 
 feeble limbs along the Atlantic shore of the North. She had, 
 before this, viewed the English colonies with apprehension, 
 and opposed them with solicitude. It is not generally known, 
 that the early misfortunes of Virginia are, in part, to be 
 ascribed to this cause. Gondomar, the Spanish minister at 
 London, has left on record his conviction, that the superior 
 energy of the English Colonies in America would endanger 
 those of Spain; " for," said he, "should they thrive and go on 
 increasing as they have done, my master's West Indies and 
 his Mexico would shortly he visited hij sea and land, from 
 those planters in Virginia ;" and in 1G48, he succeeded, by 
 his intrigues at the British Court, and by the lavish expen- 
 diture of treasure, in preventing aid or additions going to 
 the relief of the struggling settlements in that colony. Nei- 
 ther the prescience nor the power of Spain was of avail to 
 avert the destiny so clearly foreseen ; not an acre remains to 
 her of the American world which once acknowledged her as 
 mistress ; and it is remarkable, that, precisely two hundred 
 years from the date of Gondomar's intrigues against the Eng- 
 lish Colonists, their descendants were entering the Spanish 
 City of Mexico, as conquerors. 
 
 Nor was France blind to the same rising power; but she 
 adopted a different policy to check it. Her scheme of aggran- 
 dizement was bold and grand ; and, had it succeeded, would 
 have built up, in the new world, an empire mightier than France 
 herself. Possessed of the north and west, she hemmed in the 
 English. Looking down upon their settlements, from the 
 heights of Abraham and the cliffs of the Alleghenies, she said, 
 to the advancing wave of British power — Thus far! while her 
 nominal sway extended southward to the Gulf, and westward 
 to the Pacific. Had France retained and peopled this une- 
 qualled empire, the destinies of the world's future would have 
 been changed. But this, under any circumstances, was impos- 
 
9 
 
 sible. From the iSrst, the Anglo-Saxons of America had 
 iresolved that no such barrier should stand in their path to em- 
 pire. Before a white man had entered the forests of that 
 iboundless west, tlie sjnrit of the Colonies possessed it. Their 
 mighty plans needed it, for their expansion ; and had England's 
 jealousy of France not aided the Anglo-Americans to wrest it 
 from the French, their own right arm would have achieved it. 
 
 The French probably realized this, or they would not have 
 yielded so readily their American possessions. Certain it is, 
 that they had a truer appreciation than the English themselves, 
 of the character and destinies of the chainless people that was 
 gathering and growing on this continent. The Abbe Raynal 
 was familiar Avith these facts and the views they suggest ; and, 
 before the American revolution, predicted the destiny of (I 
 quote him) " the American provinces, the asylum of freedom, 
 the cradle of future nations, and the refuge of distressed 
 Europeans." The Count do Vergennes, Louis XVI.'s minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, in an elaborate State paper, written during 
 lour revolutionary struggle, predicted from the energy and 
 lambition of the Anglo-American character, that the colonies 
 ivould overspread and absorb all North America. The policy 
 )f France, in promoting the independence of this country, was 
 [■indicated and confirmed by the far-sighted views of Napoleon, 
 ho assigned, as his reason for the sale of Louisiana, the ad- 
 antage of anticipating the circumstances that would inevita- 
 y make the United States the mistress of it. 
 England, alone, was ignorant and indifferent in regard to 
 r Colonies, except when the theme was involved with her 
 ropean policy. She was ever a step-mother. She left the 
 ^developed community of which she was the parent, as the 
 Ctrich leaves its egg in the wilderness, with no nurse but na. 
 ti-e, no guardian but necessity. Dr. Johnson's argument in 
 Ization no Tyranny, that the tribute of a colony to its father- 
 ed was the duty of a child to a parent, in return for existence 
 ai protection, never applied to these colonies ; for their parent 
 amdoned her progeny. They were peopled by oppression, 
 fobred by adversity, and grew up, not by England's aid, but 
 inlngland's despite. The variety of causes that induced the 
 
10 
 
 settlements is shown by the diversities of their character ; foi 
 it is difficult to realize, that the grim Puritan of New England 
 and the gay Cavalier of Virginia, the Dutchman of New York 
 and the Quaker of Pennsylvania, the Catholic of Maryland and 
 the Hugenot of Carolina, were people of the same empire. 
 But, differing in all else, they agreed in the energy of progres- 
 sion, in the instincts of territorial acquisition, and in the assi- 
 milation of the various masses into one homogeneous people. 
 Their pioneers, the avant couriers of civilization, left millions 
 of better acres behind them ; but they never left their country — 
 they carried that country with them. Ever advancing and 
 never receding, making every step they occupied their own, 
 and the plough and the surveyor's line the companions of the 
 rifle in the farthest wilderness, they yet never ruptured, never 
 strained, the tie that bound them to their great, young 
 country. Whatever may be their political divisions into states, 
 there never was a people more intensely national. Union was 
 the object of anxious aspirations when intercourse and commu- 
 nications between the sections were next to impossible. Long 
 before the revolution, long before the proposition of Dr. Frank- 
 lin, union was a darling object. It was recognized, as inter 
 twined in the thread of destiny by which they were draw) 
 on to greatness. As early as 1697, the bold and origins 
 genius of Vfilliam Penn — the author of more valuable improvf 
 ments in government and jurisprudence than any legislator t 
 modern times — devised, and submitted to the English Cover? 
 ment, a scheme for " the union and safety " of the Colonic. 
 He proposed that a " Congress," such is the title used, f 
 delegates from each province should meet annually or oftene, 
 over which " the King's Commissioner," should preside ; ad 
 that the Federal Government so formed should have power o 
 adjust all differences between Province and Province, as in ca:s 
 of absconding debtors and fugitives from justice ; to regu'te 
 commerce ; and to levy quotas of men and charges for the To- 
 secution of war, at which time the King's Commissioner shdd 
 act as Commander in Chief.* The wisdom of the schemeias 
 
 ■* Address of Edward Armstrong, Esq., before the Historical Sociy of 
 Pennsylvauia, 1S-3I. 
 
11 
 
 been approved by our own experience ; for its cliief features 
 may be recognized in our National Government ; and the effi- 
 ciency of the provision made for war exhibits, in a novel light, the 
 practical sagacity of its pacific author. As Penn's scheme was 
 not given to the public, it is remarkable, and indicates a singular 
 concurrence of views, that a similar plan was not long after 
 formed. In 1722, a more full and complete scheme of union 
 w^as matured and published. I have examined a " Deseriptmi of 
 the English Province of Oarolana, by Dan. Coxe, Esq., written 
 about the beginning of the eighteenth century, which recog- 
 nizes the magnificent future of the Colonies, and recommends 
 a wise and efiicient project of union, which would, if anything 
 could, have saved the country to England. The work seems 
 to have escaped the researcli of historical enquiries ; and as 
 there are probably but few copies now in existence, I do not 
 hesitate to give the heads of the plan in the words of the 
 author. He proposes " That all the Colonies pertaining to the 
 Crown of Great Britain on the Northern Continent of America, 
 be united under a legal, regular and firm establishment ; over 
 which it is proposed a Lieutenant or Supreme Governor may 
 be constituted and appointed, to preside on the spot, to whom 
 the Governors of each Colony shall be subordinate. It is fur- 
 ther humbly proposed, that two deputies shall be annually 
 elected by the Council and Assembly of each Province, who 
 are to be in the nature of a Great Council, or General Conven- 
 tion of the Estates of the Colonies ; and by the order, consent 
 or approbation cf the Lieutenant or Governor General, shall 
 meet together, consult and advise for the good of the whole ; 
 settle and appoint quotas or proportions of men, provisions, &c., 
 that each respective government is to raise for their mutual 
 defence and safety, as well as, if necessary, for oifence and in- 
 vasion of their enemies ; in all which cases, the Governor 
 General or Lieutenant is to have a negative ; but not to enact 
 anything without their concurrence, or that of the majority of 
 them. The quota or proportion as above allotted and charged 
 on each Colony, may, nevertheless, be levied and raised by its 
 own assembly, in such manner as they shall judge most easy 
 and convenient, and the circumstances of their affairs will per- 
 
12 
 
 mit." This important measure foreshadowing our confederacy 
 is urged with statesmanlike ability and eloquence. Thus early 
 was union cherished, not merely from policy and necessity, but 
 instinct and nature. Instinct and nature will forever maintain 
 it, even should the necessity cease and the policy be forgotten. 
 It is blended inseparably with that spirit which is a destiny, or 
 which makes a destiny ; which, in the revolution, after the 
 Colonies were united, [though by a rope of sand, for a rope of 
 sand was suiScient to unite them,] made every effort conti- 
 nental, and gave to all, the title " Continental." Ours was 
 the " Continental Congress ;" it was defended by the " Con- 
 tinental Army;" which was paid, a sorry payment it must be 
 confessed, with " Continental money." Nor, when the govern- 
 ment was established and the country prosperous, was it reason, 
 so much, (though good reasons there were), as an overruling 
 impulse, that improved the first season of security to make the 
 pathway of the sun the pathway of our empire, and — Louisiana 
 our own — to exult that it beamed upon no America, in our 
 latitude, that was not covered with the flag of our country. No 
 necessity, no need, added Florida. It fell upon the breast of 
 the republic from its natural gravitation, as the fruit falls to 
 the bosom of the earth wdiich nurtured it. And impulse, more 
 than calculation, has produced those subsequent results that 
 still urge our country on to the consummation which, from 
 the first, has been inevitable. No ordinary view of human 
 interest can explain the exodus, across a continent, of tens of 
 thousands; urged by no need, lured by no promise; encounter- 
 ing hardship and peril and death, in the most frightful shapes ; 
 and encountering them voluntarily and cheerfully, amply 
 rewarded by the privilege of planting our flag upon the Pa- 
 cific. I repeat, if this he not destiny, it makes destiny. 
 The position of Philadelphia at the origin of the revolutionary 
 strujxgle was influential and commanding. She was the literary, 
 political and commercial metropolis of the colonies, and her high 
 character at home and abroad sustained the influence conceded 
 to her superiority in wealth and population. She was, in addi- 
 tion, the home of many of those master spirits who formed and 
 directed public opinion in tlie revolutionary crisis ; and her 
 
13 
 
 moderation and loyalty, lier calm and sturdy fidelity, gave 
 a graver power to the councils of her Franklin and Dickinson, 
 her Reed and McKean, her Yv^ayne and Morris. Nor should it 
 be forgotten, that her geographical position and physical advan- 
 tages then, as since, added to her importance; and that her 
 agricultural resources were relied upon, not in vain, to supply 
 subsistence to the masses which the crisis might call into the 
 field. 
 
 At first, the opposition to Parliamentary taxation was univer- 
 sal in Pennsylvania. The recognized rights and interests of all 
 were assailed ; and as opposition originally involved neither dis- 
 loyalty nor danger, all united in it. Even the Proprietary influ- 
 ence was tiirown into the popular scale. As the contest advanced, 
 however, many paused and remained neutral, while others 
 reverted to the cause of the crown ; but a majority, finding them- 
 selves involved in the current, and feeling that " returning were 
 as tedious as go o'er," braved the uttermost of rebellion. These 
 shrank from no duty nor sacrifice ; and their action, at first 
 calm and guarded, became more and more decisive as the strug- 
 gle progressed. The writings and addresses of the leading 
 citizens exercised a deserved influence. Franklin represented 
 the colony in England, and his letters, enforced by his trans- 
 atlantic reputation, did much to stimulate the people. John 
 Dickinson also contributed greatly to the opposition. His 
 clear and vigorous reasoning was conveyed in a style of eloquent 
 and elevated simplicity ; and his views were recommended by 
 the sincerity and purity of his character. Though a devoted 
 patriot, he was cautious and deferential to authority ; and while 
 preparing the public mind for independence, shrank from the 
 result he aided to produce, lie prepared the mine, but would 
 not fire it. The author of " The American Loyalists" pro- 
 nounces the conduct of John Dickinson " a perfect riddle." 
 There was no actor in the revolution whose life and character 
 are more direct and transparent than those of John Dickinson; 
 and unless candor and honesty be " a riddle" there is nothing 
 in his conduct mysterious. "When he professed, in the congres- 
 sional documents which extorted the admiration of the world, 
 his loyal attachment to the connexion with Great Britain, he 
 
14 
 
 meant what he said. If others were, at the very moment they 
 uttered those sentiments, preparing the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, the merit or the fault was not his. He was con- 
 sistent throughout ; nor was there a man in our public councils 
 whose integrity, courage and devotion were more unquestiona- 
 ble or less questioned. The rules of his political life, as de- 
 clared in Congress and sternly adhered to, were as follows : — 
 " Two rules I have laid down for myself throughout this con- 
 test, to which I have constantly adhered and still design to 
 adhere. First, on all occasions where I am called upon, as a 
 trustee for my countrymen, to deliberate on questions important 
 to their happiness, disdaining all personal advantages to be de- 
 rived from a suppression of my real sentiments, and defying 
 all dangers to be risked by a declaration of them, openly to 
 avow them ; and secondly, after thus discharging this duty, 
 whenever the public resolutions are taken, to regard them, 
 though opposite to my opinion, as sacred, because they lead to 
 public measures in which the common weal must be interested, 
 and to join in supporting them as earnestly as if my voice had 
 been given for them." In striking contrast with the caution 
 and conscientiousness of Dickinson's character, is that of 
 another champion of the popular cause. I refer to Thomas 
 Paine, a man of few claims, on any score, to the respect of so- 
 ciety, but whose vivid appeals to the people, though greatly 
 overrated, especially by himself, were opportune and influential. 
 It may be observed, that neither his mind nor his morals secured 
 him the esteem and confidence of the pure and lofty leaders of 
 the revolution ; that his energies, whenever they emerged from 
 the slough of his ordinary life, were engaged in the task of de- 
 molition ; and that his name and character, like curious prepa- 
 rations in arsenic, have only been embalmed to the execration 
 of posterity in the poison of his subsequent productions. 
 
 The renewed attempt of 1768, to collect revenue from the 
 colonies, was energetically resisted in Pennsylvania. A great 
 meeting was held, and a "non-importation agreement," was 
 adopted which had all the force of law. When, shortly after, 
 the City of New York — the only colony false to the country 
 in this crisis— basely betrayed the patriot policy by violating 
 
the agreement, Philadelphia resolved to hold no commercial in- 
 tercourse with her. The assembly also recommended an union 
 of the colonies and a concert of action ; and, about the same 
 time, directed their agent in England to protest against taxation, 
 even with the right of representation conceded — a measure dis- 
 playing profound wisdom ; for parliamentary representation 
 would have been but a shadow, and the concession would have 
 led to the crushing policy v/hich has made Ireland a deso- 
 lation. 
 
 The first steps of the revolution now followed each other in 
 rapid and decisive succession. The mind of the country was pre- 
 pared to resist aggression, and aggression soon invited resist- 
 ance. The port of Boston was closed ; and Pennsylvania, then, 
 as ever, generous in her devotion to her sister communities, placed 
 herself by her side, assuring her of her sympathy and aid. A 
 meeting of 8000 persons was held on the 18th of June, 1774, 
 at wliich a Provincial convention was called on the 15th of 
 July. The convention accordingly met, and instructed the As- 
 sembly to appoint Delegates to a Congress. It was obeyed by 
 the Assembly ; and the fact is important, as affording the first 
 evidence of the insufficiency of the Provincial charter, to meet 
 the expectations of the party of movement, and as disclosing 
 the disposition to erect another and a revolutionary government, 
 at first to control, and then to supercede the Assembly. From 
 this time, we seethe public authority frequently confided in more 
 than one deliberative and executive body ; and though the pre- 
 sence and pressure of a common peril and purpose induced con- 
 currence and harmony, yet factious jealousies were necessarily 
 engendered. 
 
 The first Congress met in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. 
 Mr. Dickinson uttered its language, which was firm but con- 
 ciliatory ; bolder spirits controlled its action, which was hostile 
 and decisive. In the succeeding October, the Assembly con- 
 vened, and seconded the course of Congress with all the zeal 
 that could have been required, notwithstanding that a majority 
 of its members were Quakers. Governor Penn, who seemed 
 successful in maintaining a prudent neutrality, presented to the 
 Assembly overtures for a compromise, which, while it left Par- 
 
16 
 
 liament the power to demand revenue, conceded to tlie colony 
 the poor privilege of collecting it. It was rejected upon the 
 generous ground, characteristic of the Keystone, that to accept 
 it might injure ths common cause. The Assembly also recog- 
 nized aad approved the defensive association of the people, and 
 adopted measures for organizing, arming and paying a Provin- 
 cial army. Still, it may be doubted whether that body fully 
 met the expectations of the people, for on the 23d of January, 
 1775, another Provincial Convention was held. Its proceedings 
 were vigorous; it seconded the action of Congress, encouraged 
 manufactures, constituted the Committee of Safety and Corres- 
 pondence, and provided for the call of another convention. 
 
 The succeeding Spring saw the first blood spilt in America, 
 on the altar of liberty. The inevitable issue of arms was pre- 
 cipitated and the irreversible decree of separation pronounced. 
 The realm was as irrevocably divided as a continent torn asun- 
 der by a convulsion of nature ; and an ocean of dark memories 
 and feelings rolled between the sundered countries, wide and 
 deep and everduring as the Atlantic. The Assembly of Penn- 
 sylvania met again in October, and its members comprised many 
 distinguished patriots ; but, though it 'adopted energetic mea- 
 sures of preparation for the impending contest, it excited deep 
 and general discontent by its instructions to the delegates in 
 Congress. Among other things, it used the following language : 
 "though the oppressive measures of the British Parliament 
 have compelled us to resist their violence by force of arms, yet 
 we strictly enjoin you, that, in behalf of this colony, you dis- 
 sent from and utterly reject any propositions, should such be 
 made, that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother 
 country, or a change of the form of government." The last 
 act of the session was a vote on the question whether these 
 instructions should be altered, when it was, says the journal 
 " carried in the negative by a large majority." That vote 
 scaled the fate of the charter government. 
 
 The altered condition of affairs, when the country found 
 itself confronted with actual war, naturally excited new feelings 
 and opened new views. Hostilities, though they appalled the 
 feeble, only exasperated the bold; and while the former shrank 
 
17 
 
 back, tlie latter advanced still furtlicr. Plirases of loyalty 
 seemed a hateful mockery upon the lip from which the murder 
 of brethern extorted execration and defiance. The thought of 
 Independence, which had doubtless lurked, almost unconsciously, 
 in the minds of thousands, now bui'st forth in the tempest of 
 rage. Revolution was afoot — where would it pause ? 
 
 From the new aspect of affairs, new parties arose. The 
 friends of the revolutionary movement were called Sons of liber- 
 ty, and they were composed of the mass of the middle class of 
 the people, to whose virtue and valor, a revolutionary writer and 
 witness ascribes our triumph. Pausing at no peril, they es- 
 poused the cause with fiery zeal and ui-ged progress, even to the 
 uttermost and at any cost. Whether they constituted a majo- 
 rity, has, without proof, been questioned ; but the whigs sup- 
 plied any deficiency of number if it existed, by their superior 
 zeal, devotion and determination ; they assumed the power and 
 they maintained it. 
 
 The loyal party was composed of adherents of the proprie- 
 taries, royalists from conscientious opinion and from religious 
 scruples, and the lovers of security and authority generally. 
 They possessed wealth, social rank, and proprietary authority ; 
 and had the advantages always possessed in sustaining a gov- 
 ernment long established, vener able from its age and formidable 
 from its power. 
 
 But at this period, there were many patriots who still doubt- 
 ed. There was room for hesitation and reflection, and a portion 
 of the people, while they urged a redress of grievances, and 
 even favored measures of defence, were not prepared for the 
 final step of independence. This class was large and influen- 
 tial. It comprised many, who afterwards sustained indepen- 
 dence; many others, who, though they sustained the cause^ 
 never heartily approved of Independence ; and still others, who 
 afterwards proved recreants, and joined the enemy. Of this 
 last class, were Allen and Galloway. William Allen was son of 
 Chief Justice Allen, one of the wealthiest men in the province, 
 and served in the continental army under St. Clair, until 1776, 
 when he abandoned the cause, joined Gen. Stowe, and after- 
 wards raised a corps called the Pennsylvania Loyalists, of which 
 
18 
 
 he "U'as lieutenant-colonel. He was noted for lifs affability, mt 
 and elegance of manners — qualities that illj atoned for treason 
 and dishonor. Galloway was an active, managing politician, 
 a species since more numerous than valuable ; he was chosen a 
 member of congress, but when independence became inevitable, 
 resigned, joined the British, and closed his life, discontented 
 with himself, his allies and the world, in melancholy exile. 
 
 On the adjournment of the provincial assembly, the question 
 of a change in the government of the colony, was openly and 
 fiercely agitated. The assembly was suspected by the patriots, 
 because of the political tenets of many of its members, of their 
 short-coming in the instruction of delegates, and of their se< 
 cret councils within closed doors. The supporters of the charter 
 government included all the loyalists, before the war had weed- 
 ed them out, the adherents of the proprietors, the dependents 
 of government, and the enemies of change. But to these were 
 united, upon this question, many whigs of unquestionable integ- 
 rity and standing, as Dickenson, Morris, Reed, Mifflin and 
 others, who believed it possible and desirable to continue the 
 charter institutions and to carry on the government, even in 
 the crisis of the revolution, through the agency of a reformed 
 assembly, of which body many of them were members. But, 
 on the other hand, the most vehement revolutionary leaders, 
 Franklin, McKcan and others, determined on adapting the gov- 
 ernment entirely to the spirit and exigences of the times-; be- 
 lieving that it was neither wise nor seemly that Pennsylvania 
 should step forth upon her career of sovereignty, with the trap- 
 pings and badges of her colonial minority hanging about her. 
 A very able writer says, " Looking back on these times, we may 
 reasonably doubt whether it would not have been better for the 
 infant state, if the counsels of moderation and conservative pa- 
 triotism had prevailed, and the forms of the charter government 
 been made to adapt themselves to the exigencies of the times. 
 It might have saved the evil passions and fierce controversies, 
 which arose on the adoption of the constitution of 1776, and 
 which never abated during its existence. But the doom of the 
 charter was fixed." I quote from W. B. Reed's "Life and 
 Correspondence of Jos. Reed," a work of which Pennsylvania 
 
19 
 
 raay be justly proud. Of American historical productions, I 
 know not its superior in the combined merits of profoundness 
 of research and clearness of judgment, in the comprehensive- 
 ness of its views, and the animation and dignity of its style; 
 but it may be regretted, though hardly objected, that a natural 
 delicacy, an undue jealousy of the biographer's partiality for 
 his subject, has chilled the justice done to one of the foremost 
 men of the revolutionary period, one, whosp extraordinary 
 merits have been but inadequately appreciated, and whose share 
 of the revolutionary glory, is even yet a step-child's portion 
 The doom of the charter, says Mr. Reed, was fixed. I am dis- 
 posed to regard that doom as just. The materials of which 
 the assembly was, and would probably continue to be, consti- 
 tuted, could not expect the confidence of a people struggling 
 against domestic treason and foreign violence, and in the midst 
 of a conflict full of peril and passion. A majority of that 
 body, at its last session, were members of the society of Friends, 
 averse to insurrection, opposed to war, and unfitted by their 
 principles and character, for the rude duties of the crisis. 
 Others were old members, habituated to the royal authority, 
 and indisposed, from all the instincts of station, to change. 
 And they were necessarily associated and acting with a gover- 
 nor who held the king's commission, and was bound, by his oath, 
 to the monarch who was warring against the colony. To avoid 
 his authority, the assembly were constrained to have recourse to 
 indirection and evasion, and issued bills of credit, instead of 
 openly voting supplies to the public cause. To dissolve this 
 impracticable connection with the colonial executive, was itself 
 revolution ; and if constitutional amendment was undertaken 
 at all, it was better to complete it. Besides, the committees 
 raised up around the assembly, occupied a position, to use a 
 military illustration, which commanded it, and their existence 
 was fatal to the authority of the assembly. These committees 
 acquired popular confidence, from the fact that they were 
 chosen by all the friends of freedom, no other qualification being 
 required than devotion to the cause ; while loyalists and malig- 
 nants voted for members of assembly. A property qualification, 
 also, of =C50, was necessary for the latter, while every patriot 
 
20 
 
 was eligible to the popular committees. The presence, the in- 
 fluence and eloquence of the delegates to congress, likewise con. 
 tributed greatly to swell and direct this sentiment, which soon 
 became so decided, that it may be doubted whether, if baffled, 
 it would not have broken out in open revolt and violence. 
 
 The discreet friends of the charter endeavored to save it, by 
 popularizing the assembly ; and persuaded that body to admit 
 seventeen additional members. This measure gave satisfaction 
 for a time : but when the election took place, the tories and the 
 factions in alliance with them defeated the whig ticket, and 
 thus heightened the apparent necessity and real demand for a 
 change. The revolutionary committees renewed, with spirit, 
 their exertions against the charter, and the auxiliary action of 
 congress soon brought the contest to a close. That body, on 
 the 15th of May, 1776, passed a resolution, recommending to 
 the respective assemblies and conventions of the United Colo- 
 nies, where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their 
 affairs had been established, to adopt such government, as should, 
 in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best con- 
 duce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in parti- 
 cular and America in general." By the friends of the charter 
 in Pennsylvania, it was contended, that the existing government 
 was sufficient to the exigencies of our affairs, and that the reso- 
 lution did not, therefore, here apply. Its opponents, of course, 
 assumed the opposite ground, and on the 21st of May,' a pro- 
 test, which had been adopted by a meeting of four or five thou- 
 sand, in the state house yard, was presented to the assembly, 
 denying its authority, on the ground that its powers were de- 
 rived from the mortal enemy of the colonies ; that it was elected 
 by the supporters of the royal authority, and that it held official 
 intercourse with the governor, who was a svrorn officer and re- 
 presentative of the king ; and that the public safety demanded 
 a compliance with the resolve of congress. Addresses of an 
 opposite character, were also, subsequently presented. The 
 assembly seems to have been terror stricken. It sought infor- 
 mation from congress as to the meaning of its resolution, but 
 did not await a reply. For a time, it met from day to day, 
 without a quorum ; at length, this shadow of a legislature as- 
 
21 
 
 scmbled for the last time, on the 2uth of September, passed 
 resolutions denouncing the proceedicgs of the state convention 
 (in the meanwhile the people had adopted a constitution), nad 
 having discharged this Parthian shaft, we are told — and here 
 the record closes — "the house rose." 
 
 Thus, ninety-four years from the time the foot of the founder 
 pressed the shore of Chester, terminated the government estab- 
 lished by Wm. Penn. The conduct of the latest proprietary, the 
 last head of what has been not inaptly termed, " a miniature here- 
 ditary monarchy," was not unworthy his great ancestor. He 
 retained, throughout that season of trial, the good will of the 
 •worthy of all parties. After the dissolution of the government, 
 refusing his parol of honor, he was sent to Virginia, where, 
 though politically restrained, he was treated with the respect 
 due to his exalted station and private wealth. He died in Bucks 
 county in 1795. Of course his rights in Pennsylvania were for- 
 feited. The Penn estate was the largest one ever sequestered in 
 civil war. It was estimated by Thos. Penn, at ten millions 
 sterling, beyond doubt, an excessive valuation. For this, the 
 heirs received as a compensation from the British government, 
 an annuity of .£4000 : and the State of Pennsylvania generous- 
 ly awarded them, " in remembrance of the enterprizing spirit of 
 the founder," the sum of ^£130,000. This remuneration, pro- 
 bably compensated them for their loss, as, from the dispo- 
 sition manifested, before the dissolution of the government, to 
 war against the proprietary rights, a depreciation in its value 
 would probably soon have happened; and we may rejoice that 
 the revolution, under Providence so blest to us, was attended 
 ■with no serious injustice nor calamity to those who inherited the 
 name and estate of one to whom we owe so profound a debt of 
 gratitude. And it is a further subject of felicitation, that a 
 worthy son of a stock so venerated, is enabled to see, in per- 
 son, the rich realization of dreams that swelled the heart of 
 his great forefather, and to witness the grateful feelings with 
 which the fruits of his wisdom and benevolence, are appreci- 
 ated and enjoyed. May that prosperity long continue, and long 
 may there be a Penn to witness and to share it !* 
 
 * Mr. Granyille Sharp Peun.tlie great grandson of tlie Founder, was present 
 on tlic occasion, and participated io the proceedings of the Historical Society. 
 
22 
 
 The process by wliicli the change of govcrnniGnt was effected, 
 demands attention. The constitution ^yas wholly the child of 
 revolution. No elections were required in the first steps. The 
 Philadelphia committee called a conference to be composed of 
 delegates from like committees of the different counties. That 
 conference accordingly met in this city, on the 18th of June, 
 and proceeded to prescribe the mode of electing delegates to a 
 convention, for the formation of a constitution. All persons 
 suspected as enemies of the liberties of America, and all un- 
 ■willing to subscribe to the Holy Trinity and the divine inspira- 
 tion of the Scriptures, were excluded from voting. 
 
 The Constitutional Convention was called for the 8th of July, 
 about three weeks from the date of the call ; but did not as- 
 semble until the loth. Few, if any, of the members of the 
 assembly, are found in the roll of the convention. This appa- 
 rent exclusion, deprived the convention of the aid of the most 
 ardent whigs of the province. The religious qualification 
 enforced, must also, if regarded by those who took it, have ope- 
 rated to shut out even many sectarians who claim to be Chris- 
 tians. Although the charter government was as yet unsus- 
 pended, and the charter legislature was simultaneously in 
 session, the convention assumed and exercised, upon the warrant 
 of necessity, plenary legislative and executive functions. The 
 body was in session more than two months. The authorship of 
 the instrument adopted has been ascribed, not so much to joint 
 and general councils, as to an individual mind, a supposition to 
 which its peculiarities give countenance. Graydon, in his Me- 
 moirs of his own times, says : " Shortly after the declaration 
 of Independence by Congress, a constitution had been formed 
 for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This was understood 
 to have been principally, the work of Mr. George Bryan, in 
 "conjunction with a Mr. Carson, a schoolmaster, und it was se- 
 verely reprobated by those, who thought checks and balances 
 necessary to a legitimate distribution of the powers of govern- 
 ment. Doctor Franklin was also implicated in the production, 
 and either his participation in it, or approbation of it, was 
 roundly asserted by its fautors." Tradition seems to ascribe it 
 to the counsels of Franklin, who was president of the conven- 
 
tion, and Tt'hose acknowledged superiority, must have given him 
 great influence and weight. It rnay be worthy of notice, that 
 the convention, by resolution, thanked him " for his able and 
 disinterested advice" upon the subject of their labors. 
 
 Before speaking of the more important features of the con- 
 stitution of 1776, some of its minor peculiarities challenge at- 
 tention. Great credit is due for the prompt and emphatic 
 recognition of the utter dependence of republican government, 
 for its beneficence and stability, upon universal education. By 
 the 44th section it is required, that a school or schools, the mas- 
 ters of which shall be paid by the public, shall be established 
 in every county, for the instruction of youth at low prices. 
 This was an auspicious commencement to secure a glorious 
 career, for the experiment of popular government. The views 
 of the framers in regard to taxation are primitive and sound, 
 but quaintly expressed, as follows : " Before any law be made 
 for raising it, the purpose for Avhich any tax is to be raised, 
 ought to appear clearly to the legislature, to be of more service 
 to the community than the money would be if not collected, 
 which being well observed, taxes can never be burthens." Had 
 this homely rule been "well observed" by their descendants, 
 Pennsylvania would have been spared a debt of forty millions. 
 
 Our fathers seem to have relied upon a popular elevation of 
 political morals, which will, I fear, be now regarded as an an- 
 tique wonder. They dared to hope that public servants would 
 labour from a disinterested devotion to public weal ; and re- 
 garded the degenerate period when men Avould seek office for 
 its fees, as a frightful possibility to be encountered in the 
 recesses of a dim future, indefinitely remote. I will transcribe 
 the section. " As every freeman to preserve his independence, 
 (if without a sufficient estate) ought to have some profession, 
 calling, trade, or farm, whereby he may honestly subsist, there 
 can be no necessity for, nor use in, establishing offices of profit, 
 the usual effects of which arc dependence and servility unbe- 
 coming freemen, in the possessors and expectants ; faction, 
 contention, corruption and disorder among the people : but if 
 any man is called into public service to the prejudice of his 
 private affairs, he has a right to a reasonable compensation. 
 
24 
 
 AnJ whenever an "olTice, through increase of fees, or otherwise 
 becomes so profitable as to occasion many to apply for it, the 
 profits ought to be lessened by the legislature." Another sec- 
 tion prohibits Justices of the peace from receiving salaries or 
 fees. 
 
 Closet constitutions, even when the production of minds the 
 most profound and enlightened, have seldom endured the test 
 of trial ; and from the elaborate absurdity produced by the 
 genius of a Locke, dov/n to the multiplied and renowned abor- 
 tions of an Abbe Sieyes, these imagined triumphs of a visionary 
 philosophy have only served as "parchment for battledores." 
 The only governments that have worked beneficently have been 
 the slow and laborious results of experience and experimental 
 sagacity. In that before us, all that was novel proved unsatis- 
 factory. The legislative power was vested in a single house, 
 popularly constituted and elective annually. The design was, 
 probably, to approximate as nearly as possible to a simple de- 
 mocracy; if so, the purpose was defeated by the obstacles 
 thrown in the way of legislation. It was provided that " all 
 bills of a public nature shall be printed for the consideration of 
 the people before they are read in the general assembly for the 
 last time, for debates and amendments ; and, except on occa- 
 sions of sudden necessity, shall not be passed into laws until 
 the next session of assembly." The evil of hasty and inconsi- 
 derate legislation can scarcely be exaggerated ; but this provision 
 encumbered the assembly without averting that evil. Under 
 this singular system, a law was discussed by one legislature and 
 acted upon by another. Besides, the discretion of each legisla- 
 ture was to decide when the check thus provided, was to be, 
 under "sudden necessity," suspended — a power which was cer- 
 tain to render the check unavailing in the only cases where it 
 was likely to be needed. 
 
 But the attempt to dispense with a senate was a radical and 
 fatal error. Mere speculative theorists in politics have always 
 been enamoured of the simplicity of a single, unbalanced assem- 
 bly ; and this predilection probably induced Pennsylvania and 
 Georgia (for Georgia also purchased wisdom at the same price) 
 to disregard the evil effects of a single, unchecked legislative 
 
25 
 
 council, as displayed in tlic Italian republics of tlie middle ages; 
 and to overlook the advantages of a legislature divided into two 
 separate and independent branches, as proved by the success of 
 every constitutional government that has enjoyed practical and 
 lasting liberty. The example of Pennsylvania, under the direc- 
 tion of the idol of France, Dr. Franklin, probably had its 
 influence upon that mother of short-lived constitutions — philo- 
 sophic bantlings "only born to wail and die" — when she 
 adopted the constitution of 1791. The nature of things — so 
 argued the dreamers of that land, whose dreams of freedom are 
 all so speedily and roughly disturbed by the gauntletted hand 
 of military despotism — the nature of things is against a division 
 of the legislative body ; as the nation is one, so should the 
 representative body be ; as the will of the nation is indivisible, 
 so should be the voice which pronounces it. Such reasoning it 
 was, that turned the wit of France " the seamy side without ;" 
 and produced that scene of horrors, when the legislature became 
 a mirror of all the fiendish passions that swept, in clouds, across 
 the popular breast, 
 
 And France got drunk with blood, to vomit crime. 
 
 Her sufferings taught her wisdom for a thne ; and in her sub- 
 sequent constitutional inventions, she remembered, with respect, 
 the counsels of M. Lally Tolendal, and introduced the Council 
 of Ancients to give stability and moderation to the government. 
 Experience has now settled the question, it is hoped forever ; 
 and if the constitution of 1776 did the world no other service, 
 it at least proved, after sufficient trial, that the philosophy 
 which arrays its political phantasmagoria aga'nst the wisdom of 
 experience is not to be entrusted with the construction of forms 
 of Government. The elder Adams well observes, in his De- 
 fence of the American Constitution, that " a philosopher m*ay 
 be perfect master of Descartes and Leibnitz, may pursue his 
 own inquiries into metaphysics to any length he pleases, may 
 enter into the inmost recesses of the human mind, and make 
 the noblest discoveries for the benefit of his species ; nay, he 
 may defend the principles of liberty and the rights of mankind, 
 with great ability and success, and, after all, when called upon 
 
20 
 
 to produce apian of legislation, he may astonish the world with 
 a signal absurdity." 
 
 The Executive power was depositee! in a President, with a 
 supreme executive council, which consisted of twelve persons, 
 elected by the people of the different countries for three years. 
 The President and Vice President were chosen annually, by 
 joint ballot of the General Assembly and Council. The pri- 
 mary objection to this system was its want of unity. " The 
 characteristic qualities required in the executive department," 
 says Chancellor Kent, " are promptitude, decision and force ; 
 and those qualities are most likely to exist when the executive 
 authority is limited to a single person, moving by the unity of 
 a single will." The truth of this axiom has been conclusively 
 demonstrated by experience; and every executive constituted 
 upon different principles has been imbecile and irregular, tardy 
 and factious. To add to the elements of distraction and feeble- 
 ness in the executive of Pennsylvania, the council Avas, in part, 
 the source of the authority of the President, who was elective 
 by its ballots, in conjunction with the assembly, annually. The 
 constitution of the office, was, indeed, in every view defective. 
 It should have been independent, or dependent alone and 
 directly upon the people. It was neither. Elective annually, 
 it knew no stability ; elective by the legislature, it knew no 
 independence. The office was eminently and odiously aristo- 
 cratical ; and, on this ground, became the immediate object of 
 popular prejudice. The Virginia constitution contained the 
 same defect; and " the result," says Mr. Jefferson, "was that 
 during the whole session of the legislature, the direction of the 
 executive was habitual and familiar." In Pennsylvania this 
 constitutional defect operated to mingle and unite the legisla- 
 tive and executive, in violation of every sound principle of 
 government ; and tended to render the former arrogant, and 
 overbearing, and the latter subservient and ineffective. To 
 complete the picture, it is only necessary to add, that the rela- 
 tive powers of the President and council were not defined, 
 and the compensation of the former was not ascertained by the 
 constitution. 
 
 Nor was the Judiciary satisfactory to the people. Judges 
 
27 
 
 were appointed by the rresiilcnt and Executive Coimcn ; they 
 were commissioned for seven years only, and were removeable 
 by the Assembly. This tenure was, by the succeeding consti- 
 tution changed for that during good behaviour. It may be 
 observed, that the political history of our country affords no 
 instances, in the incessant change of our state constitutions, 
 [and like the satellites of Jupiter, some one of them is ever in 
 eclipse] of the retrogression of popular power. The effect of 
 every such revolution is to enlarge the immediate and overruling 
 influence of the popular will over all branches of the govern- 
 ment. It is said, that of the spoil gathered by the Niagara 
 river in its course, and swept by the torrent over the cataract, 
 nothing ever arises from the gulf below ; and thus every acqui- 
 sition cast into the vast profound of popular power remains in 
 its turbulent bosom forever. The history of our State afforded, 
 for a time, an exception, in the case just mentioned ; and but 
 for a time : for the Judicial independence restored by the con- 
 stitution of 1701, was again withdrawn in 1838, when the 
 Judges were made elective. 
 
 The religious test required by the constitution, though less 
 stringent than that under which the members of the constitu- 
 tion themselves acted, was the subject of vehement exception. 
 It was in these words : " I do believe in one God, the Creator 
 and Governor of the Universe, the rewarder of the good, and 
 the punisher of the wicked, and I do acknowledge the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine 
 Inspiration." Among the many objections to all religious 
 tests, not the least forcible is, the inducement extended to false- 
 hood. Though against the spirit of the age, and of our insti- 
 tutions, the test had abundant examples in the constitutions of 
 other states ; audit excluded fewer from office than would now 
 be shut out by the same qualification. The constitution also 
 required all officers to subscribe an oath, not to do, directly or 
 indirectly, any act or thing prejudicial or injurious to the con- 
 stitution or government as established by the convention. This 
 was, strangely enough, construed, by many, to prohibit all 
 opposition to the constitution, though the instrument itself made 
 provisions, (very ineffectual ones, it is true,) to aid such opposi- 
 
28 
 
 tion and consummate its own amendment or addition. Yet 
 many persons of standing and cliaracter refused to take the 
 oath ; others took it with a written reservation ; and this, in 
 the malcontent mood of the popular mind, contributed greatly 
 to the opposition which assailed the government. 
 
 I cannot hut pause to express a regret that my subject, and 
 the duty which arises from it, must necessarily be ungenial to the 
 taste of many who hear me; and that I have not the Prome- 
 thean prerogative that could breathe life and fire, even into a 
 theme of throbless marble : but the revolutionary time of which 
 I treat, taught, that no duty should be considered repulsive, 
 nor met with reluctance : and I, at least, must not forget the 
 lesson. 
 
 The most extraordinary feature of the new constitution was 
 the establishment of a council of censors. A more unfortunate 
 or grotesque fancy never entered the mind of a political vision- 
 ary. If the idea was derived from the Censorcs of the Romans, 
 the resemblance terminated with the title. The institution in 
 Rome was wholly social, in Pennsylvania Avholly political. The 
 office of the Roman Censors was chiefly to estimate the fortunes 
 and inspect the morals of the people ; and from the nature of 
 its duties, the censorship is called by Plutarch "the summit of 
 all preferments;" and by Cicero, magistra pudoris et modestix. 
 Their title was more honorable than that of Consul ; and we 
 can imagine no greater contrast than is presented by the an- 
 cient and modern censors— the antique Roman, seated in his 
 curule chair, under the bright sky of Italy, and amid the archi- 
 tectural glories of the seven-hilled city, ordering the masters of 
 the world to pass before him and await his irreversible and aw- 
 ful judgment — and the modern law mender, labouring over a pile 
 of acts of assembly, to find a flaw. The Council of Censors was 
 instituted says the constitution, "in order that the freedom of 
 the commonwealth may be preserved inviolate." It was chosen 
 by ballot, two from each city and county, every seventh year j 
 and its duty seems to have been that of a Grand Inquest for 
 the State. It was to inquire whether the constitution had been 
 preserved inviolate ; whether the legislative and executive 
 branches had performed their duties ; whether the public taxes 
 
29 
 
 had been justly liiicT and collected ; in what manner the public 
 money had been expended; and whether the laws had been 
 duly executed. The Council of Censors, however, seems to 
 have been constituted rather for inquiry than reform, for its 
 remedial power was confined to, what all citizens possessed, the 
 right to pass public censure and to order an impeachment. The 
 Board continued in office one year only. 
 
 The only constitutional process of constitutional amendment 
 was through the action of the Censors ; but that process was 
 so hedged and obstructed as to amount to a denial of the pri- 
 vilege. When there appeared " an absolute necessity for 
 amendment," the council had the right to call a convention, 
 within two years after their sitting; but the amendments pro- 
 posed must be defined and promulgated, six months previously 
 to the election of the delegates. The power, therefore, rested 
 not with the people but with the council ; could be exercised 
 only once in seven years ; and even then, the council were to 
 determine and propose the amendments to the people six months 
 before they could act upon them. From the obstacles heaped 
 in the way of reform, it was inferred that the framers of the 
 constitution, convinced that it was beyond improvement, had 
 determined that it should be as everlasting as it was perfect. 
 
 The first and only Council of Censors met November 10, 
 1783, and adjourned September 25, 1784. Its proceedings 
 display distinguished ability, and are full of interest. At its 
 first session, a majority of the Council were in favor of calling 
 a convention to alter the constitution ; but, a change occurring 
 by resignation and election, the majority voted against it. The 
 Constitution was altered in 171)1, without recourse being had 
 to the mode prescribed under the Constitution. 
 
 The Constitution of 1776, started upon its troubled career, 
 under heavy embarrassments and with inauspicious prospects. 
 The duty of good citizens was plain. Whatever the defects of 
 the government, it was no time, when the country was writhing 
 in the horrors of foreign and civil war, to indulge in factious 
 violence against the authority that constituted the only hope of 
 resistance and safety. All true patriots recognize the duty of 
 deferring such issues until the peril has passed, instead of imi- 
 
30 
 
 taling tlie macldcncd factions which floated the streets of Jeru- 
 salem in fraternal blood, even when Titus was thundering at 
 the gates. The approach of the enemj heightened the rage 
 and increased the confidence of the Anti-Constitutional party, 
 which now united the malcontents of all classes and factions. 
 Thus fortified, they adopted a plan of opposition, that only 
 paused on the hither side of treason. They recognized the 
 authority of the government sufficiently to vote for members of 
 Assembly, by the use of which body they hoped to remodel the Con- 
 stitution ; but they refused to choose members of the Executive 
 Council, — thus so crippling the government as to render it 
 incapable of action. This plot succeeded both in the City and 
 County of Philadelphia. Thus the unfortunate government, 
 defective at the best, went into operation but " half made up." 
 Meanwhile the British menaced Philadelphia ; the patriots 
 blenched at their approach, for the cruelty of the British and 
 Hessians in New Jersey, left little room for household confi- 
 dence, — while the tories awaited it with the flutter of secret 
 hope and suspended vengeance. What was the government to 
 do, in this crisis ? The only course was to organize so far as 
 was possible ; and the Assembly, therefore, met on the 28th of 
 November. It was, however, in the perturbed period that en- 
 sued, dispersed ; again it was assembled ; and, at length, being 
 enabled, by another election, to fill up the Council, the govern- 
 ment, after great delay and difficulty, perfected its organization ; 
 and Thomas Wharton, Jr., an active and ardent Whig and 
 Constitutionalist, was elected President, and George Bryan, 
 Vice President. But the war of factions continued to rage ; 
 nor was it appeased until the British took possession of Phila- 
 delphia, when tory rage was merged in tory triumph, and the 
 fugitive Whig government sought refuge in Lancaster. 
 
 In this dark era of the war, when the death sweat seemed 
 gathering on the brow of liberty — when Congress, the Council, 
 and all connected with the American cause, who were not too 
 feeble to fly, nor too obscure to be endangered, had withdrawn 
 from Philadelphia — the loyal of its inhabitants came forth joy- 
 ously from their reluctant retirement, into this burst of royal 
 sunshine, and revelled in their temporary triumph. The pre- 
 
31 
 
 sence of a splendid army and a mimic court, around wbich 
 gatliered tlie wealth of the city, the tarnished but tawdry pre- 
 tension of provincial rank, the servile, the lawless and the licen- 
 tious, emboldened the tories of all classes ; and an arrogant 
 security induced, too often, persecution and cruelty against 
 those whom the chance of war had placed in their power. 
 Philadelphia presented a scene of which posterity has little 
 reason to be proud. A lawless soldiery, a considerable portion 
 of which were ruiEan Hessians, wasted the city and suburbs, 
 literally with fire and sword ; property to the amount of mil- 
 lions was wantonly destroyed ; and life, and that which is dearer 
 than life, brutally sacrificed. A sense of decorum should have 
 stayed the tory dwellers of the city from devoting such a scene 
 and such a season to unfeeling revelry. But those who claimed 
 to be the leaders of provincial society, improved the opportu- 
 nity afforded by the presence of young noblemen and darling 
 ofiicers of the "British army, to enact the most untimely extra- 
 vagances, mocking the calamity of the country, and insulting 
 the fear and agony of kindred, companions, and friends. Tho 
 llescJiianza, a festival in which the most fashionable portion of 
 the remaining inhabitants united with the officers of the army 
 in a series of scenes of unexampled gorgeousness and gayety 
 is a familiar story to Philadelphians. Amid the splendours of 
 that entertainment, the tournament, the ball and the banquet, 
 the flashing banners, noble champions and kneeling knights, 
 the music of an hundred bands, the flashing of innumerable 
 wax tapers reflected from eighty-five mirrors, the arches and 
 alcoves, the flowers and fire-works, all aided by the presence of 
 the most magnificent military array, — amidst all these, and 
 other scenes of enchantment and delight, the loyalists of Phila- 
 delphia forgot that their gasping country was then bleeding at 
 every pore — forgot that, at that very moment, their fellow- 
 citizens, military prisoners in the jail formerly at the corner of 
 AYalnut and Sixth streets, were actually perishing from cruelty 
 and starvation ; forgot, too, that Americans could remember. 
 They did remember. But it is painful to know that American 
 women could be found, who were willing to add brilliancy to 
 the festivals of our unfeeling foes. Did not some of Uie gentle 
 
32 
 
 eyes that looked fortli upon those scenes of enjoyment, fill with 
 tears, at the thought that, while they sat at the banquet, their 
 Iiollovv'-eyed brethren of the camp withered with famine ; and 
 while they moved in an atmosphere of music and light and 
 fragrance, of love and luxuriance and joy, the wintry storm 
 howled mercilessly over the sordid hovels of Valley Forge ? 
 
 But let not the many be involved in the imprudence and 
 folly of the few. Of the heroism, devotion and humanity of 
 the ladies of Philadelphia, during the revolution, there are a 
 thousand instances. The courage of one lady, a Quaker, pro- 
 bably saved the army, by giving timely information of a de- 
 signed surprise. At various times, they raised large collections 
 for the relief of the suffering soldiery. They toiled to clothe 
 them — they nursed the sick — they ministered to the captive. 
 An interesting incident took place at the house of John Dicken- 
 son, which, during the prevalence of the camp plague, had been 
 made a hospital for the sick soldiers. A widowed mother came 
 to the hospital to nurse her son. She found him — her only 
 one — whom she had given, in the pride of his youth, and 
 strength, and beauty, to the cause of his country — she found 
 his among the breathless forms about to be removed to the rude 
 and common pit, the soldier's hurried and unwept grave. In 
 all a mother's agony, she threw herself upon the bosom of her 
 soldier boy; yet, with all a mother's undying love, and the 
 hope of despair, she used the ordinary restoratives to rouse 
 him from the sleep of death ; when, as if a miracle had answered 
 her wild prayers, a flush shot into the pallid cheek, the closed 
 eyes opened, and the lips parted to utter the word — Mother ! 
 ^^ Jesus saithf ' G-o tliy ivarj, thy son liveth !' " 
 
 When the Americans regained possession of Philadelphia, 
 they visited the loyalists with a severity not before manifested. 
 All these causes added to the exasperation of party, and in- 
 creased the embarrassments that surrounded the immature gov- 
 ernment of the State. On the return of the executive to the 
 city, it was deemed necessary to prosecute, for treason, certain 
 individuals, whose conduct during the presence of the enemy 
 had provoked resentment. The trial produced profound and 
 general excitement. The prosecution was conducted by Jona- 
 
33 
 
 than Sergeant, the Attorney General, a lawyer of eminence 
 and an inflexible Whig. The name has won — what name would 
 not ? — new lustre from his son, our revered fellow-citizen, 
 John Sergeant, the shining lessons of whose wisdom and ex- 
 ample are invaluable as teaching every virtue that can endear 
 the friend, and exalt the citizen, the patriot, and that still 
 higher character, the Christian : his day has been lengthened 
 and lustrous ; may its evening linger long, and deepen slowly ; 
 knowing no shadow, for his fame knows none ; but tranquil and 
 happy, as his career has been lofty and illustrious !* The ex- 
 ecutive considered these trials so important, that Mr. Reed 
 was engaged to aid the Attorney General ; the result was the 
 conviction of the accused. That result excited the sympathies 
 not only of the loyalists, for the culprits were neither obscure 
 nor friendless, but of many other and better citizens ; and great 
 exertions were made to procure their pardon. But the execu- 
 tive, convinced of their guilt, and of the necessity of an exam- 
 ple, not only for its effect upon the enemies but the friends of 
 the cause, refused to interfere, and they were executed. 
 
 It was at this period — when the government was reeling in the 
 storms of faction — that Joseph Heed was raised to the Presi- 
 dency of the State. The event had an important bearing not 
 only upon the immediate politics of the State, but upon the 
 great contest in which the country was engaged. From this 
 time, till the close of the war, the history of his administration 
 is not merely the history of the State, but almost that of the 
 country ; for Pennsylvania, which had been, for a period of 
 great sacrifice and suflFering, the seat of the war, was still 
 mainly relied upon to extricate the cause from the overwhelm- 
 ing difiiculties with which it struggled. 
 
 Mr. Reed, devoted to the duties of the war, had taken no 
 
 * This tribute, to one who added to all the antique grandeur of Greek or 
 Pioman virtue, the crowning beauty of a Christian life, was received with a 
 sensibility that denoted how closely he was endeared to a community, every 
 worthy man in which, was proud of a personal devotion to John Sergeant. A 
 few days after its utterance, that community, with a sorrow passing show, a 
 feeling in which each good man acknowledged " a fee-grief due to a single 
 breast," wept over hi;^ grave. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 part in the political contests that tore the State ; and his merits, 
 therefore, rendered him acceptable to all parties. He was 
 elected unanimously ; and Washington rejoiced in the result as 
 auspicious to the country at large. Reed was cautious but en- 
 terprizing ; diligent and energetic ; brave and self-sacrificing ; 
 equally valuable in council and in action. Few men made their 
 performance so far transcend their promise and profession. 
 He preferred a civil career, but patriotism made him a soldier; 
 and as such, he won immediate distinction, and that priceless 
 evidence of merit, the admiration and confidence of Washing- 
 ton. The highest rank was accessible to him ; yet he served 
 for a long time as a volunteer. He attached little value to 
 mere physical daring ; yet he exposed himself heroically on all 
 occasions — sought every scene of peril — and had three different 
 horses shot under him in as many different battles. Not mis- 
 led by sanguine confidence, he viewed public affairs in the 
 shadow of the cloud that really darkened them ; yet he always 
 suggested the boldest and most hopeful councils, and urged and 
 adopted the most enterprizing action. When the fatal pause was 
 made at Chew's House — " What !" remonstrated Reed, " what ! 
 call this a fort, and lose the happy moment." In short, he was, 
 beyond most men, the man for the crisis. Nothing could daunt, 
 weary or confound him. He was adequate to every danger 
 and every duty ; and when, after having declined the office of 
 Chief Justice from a sense of duty, he, from the same motive, 
 consented to undertake the onerous Presidency of Pennsylvania, 
 Washington was correct in supposing that he alone could, not- 
 withstanding the embarrassments of faction, make our cumb- 
 rous and unpopular government the instrument by which all the 
 resources of the State could be rallied for the cause, and the 
 country be saved. 
 
 The condition of the national cause was, at this moment, 
 well nigh desperate. Our paper credit, the only resource of 
 Congress, had passed away, like a mist ; and that body, how- 
 ever august, without money was without power. The army 
 had dwindled to the skeleton of an army ; it was without pay, 
 without clothing, without food, and almost wj^thout hope. Wash- 
 ington, laboring to rebuild the crumbled structure of defence, 
 
35 
 
 appealed, as a last resource, to the State governments, and 
 most of all, to Pennsylvania. This state was his reliance, and 
 proved his stay. In a letter at this time, he says, " The 
 matter is reduced to a point. Either Pennsylvania must give 
 us all the aid we ask of her, or we can undertake nothing." 
 She was expected to supply men, provisions, clothing and funds. 
 Exhausted as she was, torn by faction and weakened by trea- 
 son, under her energetic executive, she did this, and more. 
 
 There are certain writers who, ascribing all the revolutionary 
 merit of this country to that portion of it which, after the evacu- 
 ation of Boston, scarcely saw a foe, have represented Pennsylva- 
 nia in a light consistent neither with generosity nor justice. It 
 would not be difficult, if time permitted, to prove that our 
 State, if not foremost, was second to no member of the Con- 
 federacy, in her devotion of heart and hand to the cause, in her 
 zeal and gallantry, her sufferings and services, her quota of 
 fighting men and 4ier contribution of resources. Whether in 
 the council or in the field, her's was no inferior part; and 
 while her capital was the centre of the political movement, the 
 territory within a circle of fifty miles from that capital was the 
 dark and bloody ground of the Revolution — the seat of the 
 most glorious and decisive battles of the war — in which Penn- 
 sylvania nerve and Pennsylvania numbers lifted her patriotism 
 above the necessity of invidious commendation. It is true, 
 that her population comprised some who were disafiected — 
 what State was exempt from that reproach ? — but it is not true, 
 that those of her people who, from religious scruples, remained 
 passive, were tories or traitors ; or were then, or were ever, the 
 open or the secret foes of liberty. There have been much error 
 and much calumny on the subject of the Quakers of the Revo- 
 lution. It is undeniable, that for the most part they took no 
 share in a bloody resistance of the wrongs of England : but in 
 the name of reason and justice, what else was expected from 
 them? For that very principle of non-resisting peace and 
 love, they had, at home, suffered all that bigotry could inflict, 
 poverty and shame, the pillory, the scourge and the dungeon. 
 They had crossed the ocean to find, for that principle, a shelter 
 in the wilderness ; for it was creed and country, honor and 
 
faith and life, to the Qnaher : and were they expected, at the 
 first temptation, at the first trumpet-blast, to forget and foi-- 
 sake it ? If they had done so, they would have proved that all 
 their past had been a hypocritical mockery, a holy lie. They 
 would have been false to their fathers, recreant to their faith ; 
 and while, by their brethren, their shameless apostacy would 
 have been lamented with bitter tears, by the world it would have 
 been scorned as a base and dishonorable treason to that which 
 they had, before heaven and earth, embraced as an obligatory 
 and vital duty. The senseless bigot, for the holiest cause has 
 such, of course, ruflled at a scruple which he did not appre- 
 ciate ; and even Washington may have regretted that their 
 very virtues forbade their participation in the strife of blood : 
 but did he, the exemplar of all human excellence, or did any 
 good man of that era, condemn them for their fidelity ? So far 
 from it, he, then, and after, and ever, spoke of them and 
 treated them, with studious consideration •and respect ; and 
 was always regarded by them with veneration and love. It is 
 not merely idle but absurd, to regard that people as, at any 
 time, inimical to liberty. The entire theory, the entire prac- 
 tice of the Society is perfect freedom ; and it was so when 
 freedom had no other, at least no such, friends. It was they 
 who first taught and practised — not that bated and barren 
 privilege termed religious toleration — but ample, unbounded, 
 universal religious liberty. They afforded the world the first 
 example of a perfect deliberative democracy, a democracy that 
 borrowed no authority from power, and exercised no tyranny 
 over feebleness. Their great peculiarity is that which dis- 
 tinguishes them as the friends of freedom, though unwilling 
 to baptize it in blood. Had its friends always been restrained, 
 in the moment of triumph, by their gentleness — could their 
 scruples against violence have availed to stay the frenzy 
 which, in successful popular revolutions, raises the manumitted 
 arm to smite and slay — half the world would now rejoice in 
 freedom. Let us, then, no longer sanction the injustice that 
 confounds, in the Quakers of the Revolution, fidelity to their 
 faith with falsehood to their country. 
 
 The condition of Pennsylvania, at the period of Mr. Reed's 
 
37 
 
 elevation to the Presidency, was troubled and despondent in 
 the extreme. Iler northern and western frontier was ravaged 
 by the Indians ; the vicinity of the seat of war led to constant 
 drafts of men and supplies to the Continental army ; and vatli 
 every resource, physical and pecuniary, exhausted, to complete 
 her distress, she was torn by the violence of intestine faction. 
 These tribulations were aggravated at once by the imbecility 
 and the odiousncss of her fancy-woven and impracticable con- 
 stitution ; of which Mr. Reed himself had predicted, that, 
 unless amended, it " would sink in spiritless languor or expire 
 in sudden convulsion." Amendment was attempted; but what 
 was to be expected from councils torn by the tempests, the fury 
 or the fears, of an exigency so turbulent and terrible? It is 
 true, that the Assembly unanimously agreed, in November, 
 1778, to submit to the people the question of a revision of the 
 government ; and an angry contest ensued upon the issue thus 
 presented : but the same body, in the following February, by 
 a vote of 47 to 7, rescin<led the resolution ; and the question 
 was left open, to distract the State with endless and acrimo- 
 nious controversy. The disappointed reformers of the govern- 
 ment, of course, became its opponents ; and the faction was 
 swelled, and the issue aggravated, by the accession of the loy- 
 alists to their ranks. With all the confidence inspire<l by 
 union, the crisis would have been suiEciently gloomy ; without 
 that confidence, it was terrible. Notwithstanding these dis- 
 tractions, which gathered force and fierceness throughout the 
 remainder of the war, Pennsylvania did not falter nor fall 
 short in her duty. With the firmness and ability of Reed at 
 the head of her divided councils, and the chivalry and devotion 
 of Wayne and Cadwallader in the field, she still stood, the 
 rock upon which the roughest waves of the war were broken. 
 The administration of Mr. Reed, which endured and ended 
 with the war, almost constitutes the history of the Constitution 
 of 177G ; but my limits, already transcended, preclude even a 
 sketch of its outline. One of its earliest and boldest measures 
 was the prosecution of Benedict Arnold, anticipating the full- 
 blown ignominy of the succeeding year. It is no light honor 
 to have appreciated, at his worth, that marvel of moral 
 
38 
 
 depravity ; a wrctcli born to prove that courage Is tlie only 
 virtue tliat can endure companionsliip with every vice ; and 
 ■who, if fortune had not afforded him the eminent infamy of 
 treason, must have accomplished his destiny as an audacious 
 cutpurse or a sanguinary sea-rover. This trial is remarkable, 
 also, for producing perhaps the earliest collision between* the 
 authority of the State and that of the Confederacy. Other 
 and more alarming excitements soon sprung up to agitate the 
 community ; and an unfortunate financial policy, the desperate 
 recourse of a desperate crisis, attended with tender-laws and 
 price-regulations, heated the community into an exasperation 
 which disdained all reverence for authority, and broko forth in 
 heady and fatal popular excesses. Amid these difficulties, the 
 vigorous administration of the government partially atoned for 
 its intrinsic defects ; and in a season of peril, when there 
 seemed neither time nor temper except for hurried efforts to 
 save a sinking State, many acts of calm and wise benificence 
 were elaborated and perfected, to which Pennsylvania may, in 
 all time, revert with honest pride. Among them may, even 
 here, be mentioned the Proprietary Bill, the Adjustment of 
 the Boundary Line with Virginia, the Transfer of the College 
 Charter to the University of Pennsylvania, and, above all, the 
 Act for the Abolition of Slavery. The statute last recited, 
 passed on the 1st of March, 1780, was the first law enacted, 
 in any part of Christendom, for the abolition of African 
 slavery ; and, as benevolence was then " unmixed with baser 
 matter," it constitutes a title, which Pennsylvania may justly 
 and proudly cherish, to the admiration and gratitude of the 
 world and posterity. 
 
 In the fearfullest crisis of the Revolution — that darkest 
 hour which preceded the day — we have already observed that, 
 feeble as was the government of Pennsylvania, Washington 
 appealed to it, in his extremity, as his dearest, if not his only, 
 hope ; and that he was not disappointed. The nature of that 
 crisis may be appreciated from the following memorable appli- 
 cation, extorted by the imminence of the peril, from the an- 
 guished patriotism of the Father of his Country. It is to be 
 found in a letter addressed by him, in 1780, to President Heed. 
 
39 
 
 " I wish that the Legislature could be engaged to vest the 
 executive with plenipotentiary power. I should then expect 
 everything practicable from your abilities and zeal. This is 
 not a time for formality or ceremony. The crisis is, in every 
 point of view, extraordinary; and extraordinary expedients 
 are necessary. I am decided in this opinion." 
 
 The wasting efforts of Pennsylvania — for, during the last 
 two years, she had borne one-fourth the entire burthen of the 
 war* — had torn her flimsy credit to shreds ; and her treasury 
 was incapable of meeting a demand for ten pounds. Every 
 fibre had been strained to the uttermost ; and when the almost 
 despairing invocation of Washington came, it found her pros- 
 trate and panting, from the disproportioned struggle. Yet 
 she did not hesitate a moment. Fearful as was the measure 
 which the exigence demanded — and, in a free government, 
 nothing, but utter ruin, can be more fearful — it was instantly 
 adopted by the authorities of Pennsylvania. The Assembly 
 passed a resolution authorizing the proclamation of martial 
 law. This, in fact, constituted President Reed an absolute 
 dictator. Never was there a more emphatic expression of con- 
 fidence in a public servant — never was that confidence more 
 nobly vindicated. His exertions were unremitting and gigan- 
 tic. The public property of the State was mortgaged ; re- 
 sources were re-created ; supplies and recruits were, by the 
 most extraordinary exertions, contributed to Washington's 
 army ; and Reed, placing himself at the head of 1200 Penn- 
 sylvania militia, marched out of the State, and encamping at 
 Trenton, awaited the orders of the Commander-in-chief. The 
 peril was met, and the country saved. 
 
 The energetic administration of Mr. Reed bore the rickety 
 government of '70 through the war of the Revolution. He 
 was succeeded, in the Presidency, by William Moore ; who, 
 with Dickinson, Franklin and Mifilin, completed the list of 
 Pennsylvania's Presidents. But the bitterness of the Revolu- 
 tionary factions did not characterize those of the period which 
 
 * We have good authority to say, that, for two years past, Pennsylvania 
 has borne one-fourth of the whole expense of the war. President Reed in 
 Council to Washington, May 17, 1781, 
 
40 
 
 ensued. As opposition became safe, it grew languid. Yet 
 the Constitution failed to grow into favor. Its defects became, 
 with the experience of each added year, more glaring and 
 intolerable. At length, the adoption of the National Consti- 
 tution afforded new ground for a change in that of the State ; 
 and that change was, by the simple, but irregular process of a. 
 Convention, held under the authority of an Act of Assembly, 
 quietly and satisfactorily eifected. It found, in its last hours, 
 no champion ; and the Constitution of 1776 ceased to exist, 
 except as a study for the statesman, and as a monument of 
 "the times that tried men's souls." 
 
 Upon its ruins, arose a structure of government more prac- 
 tical and perfect, which, as amended — if, indeed, its changes 
 be improvements, — still retains the confidence and love of the 
 people, gathers stability from opposition and reverence from 
 time. Beneath its shelter, our State has advanced in popula- 
 tion, affluence and power, almost beyond parallel ; the trust of 
 our fathers has been vindicated, the fame of their beloved 
 Commonwealth cherished, and its history preserved free from 
 maculation or reproach. JEsto perpetua ! And may Penn- 
 sylvania, to whatsoever elevation her happy destiny lifts 
 her, never forget the season of her early trials and triumphs ; 
 nor cease to venerate the pilgrim band, and their meek but 
 noble leader, whom the boat of the good ship Welcome, this 
 day one hundred and seventy years since, bore to the beach 
 of Chester ! 
 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CELEBRATION, WITH ADDRESSES AT THE 
 TABLE, AND LETTERS OF INVTTED GUESTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The oration by Hon. Robert T. Conrad, was delivered on the 8th of Novem- 
 ber, 1852, at twelve o'clock, in the Sansom Street Hall, before a large audience. 
 At six o'clock, the members of the Historical Society sat down to a dinner, at 
 the United States Hotel ; Thomas Biddle, Esq. presided, supported by George 
 W. Norris, M. D., and John Cadwalader, Esq., as Vice-Presidents ; the Rev. 
 IT. A. Boardman officiated as Chaplain. Over the President's chair was sus- 
 pended the original painting by West, of Penn's Treaty with the Indians. 
 This fine work of art was painted for the proprietor's family, and was never 
 but twice before exhibited to the public ; the first time, some thirty years ago, 
 at an exhibition in London of the works of West, Reynolds and Lawrence, 
 the three Presidents of the Royal Academy ; and again, when Mr. Harrison 
 had purchased it, he generously permitted Mr. Catlin to exhibit it in connection 
 with his gallery of Indian portraits. 
 
 The Committee of Arrangements for the Celebration, take this public 
 manner of thanking Mr. Harrison for his courtesy in placing the picture at 
 their disposal for the day, and have the pleasure of inserting the following 
 note, which at once displays a most liberal spirit and pure patriotism. 
 
 433 Arch Street, December 8th, 1852. 
 Mv DEAR sir: 
 
 I owe you an apology for not having sooner sent you the information I pro- 
 mised in regard to the picture of Penn's Treaty. In the spring of 1851, I 
 saw this picture advertised in a London paper, to be sold at public auction 
 with others from the collection at Stoke Park, the seat of the Penn family ; I 
 concluded to attend the sale, and if not above my notion of its value to secure 
 the picture with the intention of having it come to Philadelphia, which of all 
 other places is its home. I bid for it when it was put up, and went nearly 
 twice as high as I had thought it would have sold for. It was knocked down, 
 but not for me. After the sale I was curious to know who had obtained the 
 picture, and upon inquiry found that it had not been sold, not having reached 
 tiie limit fixed by its owner. I subsequently negotiated its purchase from 
 Mr. Granville John Penn for £500, through a third party, (I having been 
 obliged to leave London for a time.) 
 
 The above ai-e all the facts connected with my purchase of this picture. I 
 might say, that in buying it I was mainly filled with the desire as a Pennsyl- 
 vanian and a Philadelphian, to rescue it for my native city, and thus prevent 
 it from being hidden in some of the private galleries of England, as hundreds 
 of the works of our distinguished countryman, AVest, are now lost to the world. 
 Hoping the above will meet your wishes, 1 remain 
 
 Very respectfully 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 To TowxsF.xn Warp, Esq. JOSEPH HARRISON. 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 INVITED GUESTS AND SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Edw. Armstrong, 
 
 Henry C. Baird, 
 
 J. D. Balu, 
 
 Hon. James W. Beekman, New York, 
 
 Thomas Biddle, 
 
 Thomas Biddle, Jr., 
 
 Rev. H. a. Boardman, 
 
 Geo. H. Boker, 
 
 Rev. Thomas Brainerd, 
 
 Hon. Samuel Breck, 
 
 John A. Browne, 
 
 Hon. James Buchanan, Wheatland. 
 
 F. N. Buck, 
 
 E. Morris Buckley, 
 
 Gen. Geo. Cadwalader, 
 
 John Cadwalader, 
 
 James H. Castle, 
 
 B. H. Coates, M. D. 
 
 J. Harvey Cochran, 
 
 Harry Conrad, 
 
 Hon. R. T. Conrad, 
 
 Caleb Cope, 
 
 Major G. H. Crosman, U. S. A. 
 
 William Duane, 
 
 A. L. Elwyn, M. D. 
 
 J. L. Fenimore, 
 
 E. B. Gardette, M. D. 
 
 Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, 
 
 Fred. W. Grayson, 
 
 Joseph Harrison, 
 
 Samuel Hazard, 
 
 Samuel Hood, 
 
 Hon. C. J. Ingersoll, 
 
 Edward D. Ingraham, 
 
 W. Arthur Jackson, 
 
 Alexander Johnston, 
 
 Horatio G. Jones, Jr., 
 
 John Jordan, Jr., 
 
 Charles S. Keyser, 
 
 J. R. Lambdin, 
 
 Lyon Joseph Levy, 
 
 Hon. Ellis Lewis, 
 
 John T. Lewis, 
 
 M. D. Lewis, 
 
 J. H. Markland, 
 
 Hon. W. M. Meredith, 
 
 Jno. C. Mitchell, 
 
 Tho. S. Mitchell, 
 
 Charles M. Morris, 
 
 Joseph B. Myers, 
 
 John McAllister, Jr., 
 
 Morton McMichael, 
 
 J. Engle Negus, 
 
 Geo. W. Norris, M. D. 
 
 Geo. Northrop, 
 
 Gen. R. Patterson, 
 
 Hon. a. G. Penn, Louisiana. 
 
 Granville J. Penn, England. 
 
 Jno. Penington, 
 
 William Rawle, 
 
 John M. Read, 
 
 William B. Reed, 
 
 Rev. Levin T. Reichel, Nazareth. 
 
 W. Th. RoEPPER, Bethlehem. 
 
 Henry R. Schoolcraft, 
 
 Richard R. Seldener, M. D. 
 
 Hon. Geo. Sharswood, 
 
 W. Shippen, Jr., 
 
 Samuel L. Siiober, 
 
 Aubrey H. Smith, 
 
 Jno. H. Swaby, 
 
 Hon. Oswald Thompson, 
 
 George Tucker, 
 
 J. R. Tyson, 
 
 Rt. Rev. Geo. Upfold, Bp. of Indiana. 
 
 Richard Vaux, 
 
 Chas. M. AVagner. 
 
 EwD. H. Ward, 
 
 TowNSEND Ward, 
 
 John F. Watson, 
 
 Thompson Westcott, 
 
 T. I. Wharton, 
 
43 
 
 When the cloth was removed the President rose and proposed the following 
 toast : 
 
 Tlie Eighth of Novanbcr, 1682 — The day of the landing of the founders at 
 Chester. 
 
 Mr. Wji. M. Meredith responded as follows : 
 
 The day is appropriate for recalling to our minds the memory of the founders 
 of Pennsylvania, of that small baud of "Friends" who, with Pcnn for their 
 leader, ventured their future on an untried soil, and among fierce and 
 uncivilized ti-ibes. We find much in the career of these Fathers of the Com- 
 monwealth of which we may be justly proud. 
 
 Their position at home was that of men of good substance and habits, and 
 kindly afiectioned. Persecution had produced the rare effect of teaching them 
 not to persecute others. They were not decayed tradesmen or idle vagabonds, 
 but generally persons well to do in their worldly afl'airs, who set forth upon a 
 considerate plan of benefit to themselves, and by their example, to all mankind 
 — the plan of founding a State in which all of English civil liberty, and more 
 than all of English iiolitical and religious liberty, should be established forever. 
 
 The JiEAXs which they emploj-ed were in accordance with the character of 
 the men. They planted their foot on no soil without acquiring a title by the 
 consent of its owners ; they were never squatters or intruders, nor was it 
 their practice to seize without right whatever they felt strong enough to hold 
 against right. They took up no goods on trust for which they never paid. 
 They left no borrowed money to swell the insolvent schedules of doomsday. lu 
 their exodus they spoiled no Egyptians. Their hopes and thoughts were on 
 eternity, but their credit was always redeemed in time. They used no 
 violence, nor prepared any defence against violence ; the doctrines of their 
 lieculiar sectarianism forbade both. They went among the savages with the 
 same confidence that supported Daniel in the den of lions, the three children 
 of Israel in the fiery furnace, and the Christian virgin among the wild beasts 
 of the amphitheatre — and they came forth as unharmed. They never took the 
 style of saints, nor earned the title of sinners. 
 
 For their Ends, we desire they may be judged not by preliminary professions 
 or })0stliminary panegyrics, but by their acts themselves. For political 
 liberty they did all tliat circumstances would allow. Republican in feeling 
 from the beginning, they became year by year more republican in practice. 
 They did in fact, and promptly, establish civil liberty as large as was con- 
 sistent with public safety — so large, that it has scarce been found practicable 
 in modern times to extend it. Their early statutes evince profound thought 
 and liberal intellects. They are models of wise statesmanship, as well as of 
 clear, terse and undefiled English. The founders of this Commonwealth 
 understood the true basis of legislation to be the uses and customs of the 
 people. They sought to restore to their simplicity the well-fitting and easy 
 garments in which Anglo-Saxon liberty had been clothed, and it is marvellous 
 the skill with which these " drab coated mc7i" (as they were sneeringly styled 
 by an Englishman with a shovel hat)* stripped oif the technicalities and tinsel 
 Avhich centuries had accumulated — and stripped them off, too, without injuring 
 the texture or even marring the face of the cloth. For religious liberty, they 
 established the largest that was then dreamed of. From the very beginning, all 
 might be citizens who acknowledged a God, and all might hold oflice who 
 believed in our Saviour. At the time this was practically an unbounded 
 freedom of conscience. It was not toleration, it was liberty. 
 
 These, then, were their acts — these, therefore, were, in truth, their ends. 
 
 Of the qualities of these men we may say that they were pi'oportionate to 
 their position, means, and ends. On the surface, indeed, lay pieculiarities — 
 eccentricities, if you will — of language and deportment — easy to be ridiculed ; 
 — within, lived virtues and piety — hard to be imitated. That they were wise, 
 liberal-minded, just, is shown by their woi-ks ; — their prudence is proved by 
 their success, and their firmness and persistence, by all their history. In 
 
 * The Kev. Sidney Smith. 
 
44 
 
 these qualities they may have been more or less nearly equalled, but their 
 COURAGE was such as we believe no other people have exhibited. We find 
 rare individual instances moi'e or less resembling it. Fortitude is the ability 
 to bear ills ; courage, the readiness to meet them. Of any two men, he dis- 
 plays the greater courage who seeks the more imminent danger, upon the 
 less stimulating motive. The man who, armed in proof, faces a spear-thrust iu 
 defence of his country, shows less courage than he who exposes his naked 
 bosom to the steel in pursuing a scheme of philanthropy. When we read of 
 the few Roman Senators who seated in their curule chairs, calmly awaited their 
 massacre by the Gauls, we feel that they therein eclipsed all the heroism of the 
 Roman armies. There is still, I think, a savage people somewhere in the East, 
 to whose instruction missionary after missionary is ready to devote himself, 
 though each is morally certain that, as soon as he shall have been fattened 
 after his voyage, he will be roasted and eaten by his own catechumens — 
 devoured by his own flock — yet an individual is never wanting to feed those 
 sheep. 
 
 The Quakers of Pennsylvania afford the spectacle of a whole body of men — 
 founding a State in the wilderness — seeking and facing the imminent dangers 
 of the tomahawk and scalping-knife — of tortures and death — without arms 
 offensive or defensive. The Roman Senators, in like manner, met equal perils, 
 under the overruling motive of patriotism. The Christian missionary does 
 likewise, under the powerful stimulus of religious enthusiasm. The Quakers 
 alone did the same ; touched by no spur of patriotism — for they had then no 
 ties of country here — urged by no goad of religious enthusiasm — for they were 
 not then enthusiasts — but guided simply by the reasonable fear of God, and 
 love to all mankind. How much this courage was superior to the mere courage 
 of arms, is shown by the ease witli which the Quakers, whenever they have de- 
 scended into the military arena, having attained military distinction. I shall 
 not pause long on the Free Quakers — commonly called Fighting Quakers — who 
 furnished gallant field and company officers in the Revolutionary war, and 
 who (excluded from the regular body of Friends) formed a sect of their own. 
 The men died game, and the sect died game. I think that, some years ago, it 
 had dwindled to one man. Now almost any other sect, so reduced, would have 
 either sought proselytes, or given up its own observances. But this last man 
 did neither. On every First day morning, this uncompanioncd remnaiat sat 
 under the old accustomed roof-tree of the meeting-house at Fifth and Mul- 
 berry, and spent his two hours of solitary peace, in contemplative meditation 
 on his pugnacious predecessors, and in solemn communion with his own heart. 
 I tell you that, when he hears the last trumpet, that " Friend" will stand to 
 his arms. But, without dwelling on these, 1 will merely name Gen. Greene, of 
 the war of Independence, and Gen. Brown, of the war of 1812 — the one, 
 second only to him to whom it was more honor to be second than to be first 
 elsewhere — the other, among the first of those to whom it would have been no 
 dishonor to be second any where — the one, a Quaker blacksmith of Rhode 
 Island — the other, a Quaker schoolmaster of Bucks county, iu tliis State. 
 
 These, then, were the qualities of the founders of our Commonwealth — 
 piety, wisdom, justice, industry, com'age, modesty. If you will have us 
 search, these are the gems that we find among owv primordia rent in : these are 
 the jewels that adorned the Fathers of our State. We show them, but without 
 boasting — nor yet ai'e we ashamed of them. They need no artistic cutting to 
 hide flaws ; we set them in no fairy ring of romance to obtain a factitious 
 brilliancy. Here they are, just as we find them — rough, but real — and we 
 stand upon these. If auy think they can do better, let them show their hand. 
 If we have been often silent while others spoke loud, it is that Ave court no 
 rivalry ; if quiet when they were excited, it is only that we fear none. If 
 we have never turned aside even to answer the vile abuse, which on the 
 calumnious charge of dishonesty was vented against Pennsylvania by foreign 
 dignitaries, domestic rivals, and a polluted press, it is because we know that 
 from the breast-plate welded of truth and integrity, the shafts of slander glance 
 harmlessly, and that uo indefinite number of toads, by squeezing out their 
 
45 
 
 drops of loathsome exudation, can extinguish the sun, or dim the lustre of 
 any fraction of humanity that is vivid with a spark of the celestial fire. 
 
 Such, then, were the deservings of our predecessors ; such was the course 
 in Avhich they moved. Let every man follow them according to his gifts. 
 Perhaps none may keep their pace, but all will be strengthened by the effort 
 to do so. 
 
 They had one habit which I scarce like to mention just now ; but the muster- 
 roll of their merits ought to be complete, and it is especially recorded that 
 they never preached over their liquor. 
 
 The second toast was : 
 
 The memory of Fenn, which comes down to us sanctified by gentle deeds. We 
 rejoice in the privilege of doing honor to the founder, in the person of his 
 esteemed descendant. 
 
 This sentiment was received with much enthusiasm, and was replied to by 
 Wii. Granville John Penn, who acknowledged, in suitable terms, the honor 
 paid to the memory of his ancestor, which he said he was gratified to feel was 
 recalled not mei-ely as a portion of history, or antiquity, but as an object of 
 affectionate regard and veneration. He concluded by remarking that the best 
 testimony which Pennsylvania can give of her respect for the principles of her 
 founder, must ever be the devotion she manifests to the cause of peace, and 
 the fraternal union which connects her with her sister Commonwealths in the 
 National Confederacy. 
 
 The third toast was : 
 
 Pennsylvania, whose mountains are mines, and whose valleys are gardens ; 
 whose heart is gold, and whose sinews are iron. 
 
 Governor Bigler, who had been expected to reply to this, was prevented 
 from being present, but sent the following letter, which was read by John 
 Cadwalader, Esq. : 
 
 Ilarrishiiry, Nov. Qlh, 1852. 
 
 Dear Sir, — 1 have been honored by the receipt of your favor of yesterday, 
 inviting me to attend a " celebration of the 170th anniversary of the landing 
 of 'William Penn," to be given by the "Historical Society of Pennsylvania," at 
 Sansom street Hall, on Monday next, and am compelled to say, in reply, that 
 my official duties at this place will deprive me of the great pleasure I should 
 take in being present on that interesting occasion. 
 
 I sincerely regret the existence of the circumstances which will prevent my 
 attendance, not only on account of the peculiarly interesting character of the 
 event to be commemorated, but because I am ever anxious to embrace every 
 proper opportunity of giving the sanction of my official and personal influence 
 to promote the literary and scientific advancement of the people. In your 
 venerable, learned and honorable association, I recognize a body pre-eminent 
 in this good work. While this great Commonwealth (the landing of whose 
 founder you meet to commemorate,) has been blessed by Providence with 
 almost boundless resources in the fertility of her soil — the abundance, richness 
 and variety of her miuei'al deposits — yet these would remain as comparatively 
 valueless as when they were trodden over by the untutored savage, if it were 
 not for our institutions of learning, that develop the mind and cultivate the 
 moral faculties of man ; and thus enabling him to conceive plans and adjust 
 details to bring forth these vast treasures and reduce them to practical use. 
 
 It is now the pride of Pennsylvania that she has made the diffusion of 
 knowledge, by her Common School system, part of the machinery of her 
 government, recognizing thereby the importance of the intelligence of the 
 citizen to the proper support and perpetuity of her institutions. Whilst she 
 thus sows the seeds of knowledge amongst the youth of the land, their further 
 and higher cultivation must be greatly forwarded by the genial influences, the 
 refined taste, noble aims and philanthropic efforts of associations such as that 
 you represent. 
 
 An Historical Society, presenting a full record of the past, teaching those 
 
46 
 
 of the present generation -wisdom by an exhibition of the errors committed and 
 the truths discovered by those who have preceded ns, stimulating us to worthy 
 aims, and constraining us, by the force of experience, to embrace the right, 
 on all moral, political and scientific subjects, is a most valuable auxiliary to a 
 good government, and should ever have her countennuce and liberal support. 
 AVhether destiny carves out for us a prominent part in the administration of 
 government, or consigns us to the jilough or loom, in these, as in every other 
 pursuit of this life, mind — cultivated mind — is indispensable to success and 
 happiness. 
 
 Let me congratulate your learned association that the knowledge of these 
 truths, and a relish for scientific and literary learning, is being rapidly diffused 
 among the descendants of Penn. Prominent amongst the institutions that 
 are contributing towards the promotion of this desirable end, is the Historical 
 Society of Pennsylvania. 
 
 With many thanks for 3'our kind consideration, 
 
 I remain, dear sii", your ob't servant, 
 
 \Vm. Bigler. 
 
 Mr. TowNSEND Ward, Librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The fourth toast was — 
 
 The Three Lower Counties. In the olden time united to us by ties that made 
 lis one; may we in fraternal atiection and in that maternal bond which secures 
 one Constitution and one destiny, never be twain. 
 
 In reply to this sentiment, Dr. B. H. Coates said : — 
 
 He had been requested to respond to this toast in the absence of one who 
 had the double superiority of not only being far better qualified to perform 
 such a task, but, in addition, of being a native, not of Pennsylvania, but of 
 one of the " three lower counties thereunto annexed" — the earliest instance of 
 annexation with which the speaker was acquainted in American history. 
 
 In addressing such an assemblage, containing so many gentlemen of high 
 character and commanding intellect, so many, indeed, who have served their 
 country in conspicuous stations, he might well feel much hesitation. He 
 should encourage himself with their good nature, and, in some degree, with 
 the recollection of auld lang syne. He believed himself very certain that he 
 owed the compliment of this request to the fact of his having had the high 
 honor to be one of the foundation members of the Society ; an advantage which 
 he shared, he believed, with only one of the gentlemen now present, Mr. 
 Thomas I. AVharton. The contrast, indeed, between the first meeting, in a 
 half furnished room over Laval's book store, and such a meeting as this, or as 
 that at the oration this morning, was indeed encouraging. He should feel, 
 too, recreant to the high character for military courage ascribed sportively 
 by Mr. Meredith, in his recent remarks, to the Quakers, of whom Dr. C. Avas 
 one, should he delay to comply. 
 
 And surely there was no difiiculty in assigning abundant evidence of the 
 greatness and glory of the Swedes and Dutch, the colonists of the three lower 
 counties. It had been truly said that, when our ancestry arrived here, they 
 did not find the country a desert, but inhabited by men like themselves — by 
 Christian men — imbued with the arts, and sensible of the duties of civilization. 
 As military glory was in fashion now, he would say that certainly there was 
 as wonderful a claim to military fame for the Swedes and Dutch as for any 
 other people in the world. Two little nations, they achieved the most extra- 
 ordinai'y exploits. One Swedish king, in a single campaign, conquered three 
 monarchs, and dictated peace. And, at an earlier period, a Swedish king, 
 with a small force, put an end to the thirty years' war, broke the power of 
 Austria, and defeated the utmost efforts of Tilly and AVallenstein. 
 
 The little republic of Holland, with only two millions of inhabitants, success- 
 fully defied and permanently weakened the power of Spain, and that at a time 
 when it was truly said that " the sun never set upon her dominions ;" built the 
 largest commei'cial city in the world ; founded empires in remote parts of the 
 
47 
 
 globe ; and only yielded, at last, in a desperate struggle, to the superior 
 numbers of England. 
 
 But it was not for this that the strongest claim was made for a grateful 
 memory of the Swedes and Dutch. It was because they were the friends of 
 religious and civil liberty ; because they put an end to persecution for 
 religion ; because they jiatronised commerce ; and because they founded 
 institutions of learning, which were the glory of the world. Sweden gained 
 imperishable renown for her Upsala and her Linnteus. Holland founded 
 those Universities which gave the impulse to the Universities of Germany, 
 now the great lights of civilized mankind. It was conceded that the celebrity 
 of Leyden, Utrecht, and other Dutch Universities, was the cause of the 
 great reforms and brilliant career of the institutions of Germany. Holland, 
 too, was famous, little as she was, and in defiance of the most powerful kings, 
 for protecting political exiles. But the speaker said he was well aware 
 that he was detaining the company from those whom they were much more 
 anxious to hear, and he should hasten to a close and cease to occupy their time. 
 
 The fifth toast was : 
 
 State Pride, State Fidelity, State Fraternity. 
 
 " To thine own self be true ; 
 And it must follow, as the night, the day. 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
 Mr. .James Buchanan spoke to this sentiment as follows : — 
 I am a Pennsylvanian, in heart and soul ; and whatever can advance the 
 interest or promote the glory of my good old native State, God bless her ! shall 
 ever find in me a devoted advocate. I am proud of my State ; and State pride 
 springs from that commendable and natural feeling — that love of our native 
 land which Heaven, for the wisest purposes, has implanted in the human 
 breast : 
 
 " Breathes there the m.m, with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself bath said, 
 
 This is my own, my native land! 
 Whose heart has ne'er within him burned. 
 As home his footsteps he hath turned. 
 
 From wandering on a foreign strand?" 
 
 The citizens of Pennsylvania ought, in my opinion, to cherish this sentiment 
 of State pride more than they have ever done heretofore. We have never 
 properly appreciated ourselves. This noble sentiment, however, should never 
 degenerate into harsh, jealous, or unfriendly feelings towards our sister 
 States. Far, very far from it. But it ought to impel us to a generous rivalry 
 with them for the palm of excellence in every thing which can advance our 
 physical prosperity — in every thing which can elevate, enlighten and adorn 
 the human character. 
 
 Under our complicated but unrivaled form of government. State pride has 
 become the truest patriotism towards the whole Union. It is eminently con- 
 servative of our Federal Republican Government. What we have most to 
 dread is the centralization of unconstitutional political powers in the Federal 
 Government ; and the indulgence of a well regulated State pride, throughout 
 the confederacy, will always preserve us from this abyss. As our territory 
 extends, — as we rapidly advance in power and wealth, — as the patronage and 
 expenditures of the Federal Government increase, the natural tendency 
 becomes greater and greater to accumulate power at the centre of our system. 
 
 But whilst thirty-one State sovereignties, proud of their power and jealous 
 of their rights, shall continue to resist all encroachments from the General 
 Government, they will ever preserve the just balance between Federal and 
 State authority. So long as this balance shall be held with a steady hand, 
 neither the Constitution nor the Union will ever be in danger. But let the 
 pride and the power of the State sovereignties pass away — let them be reduced 
 to mere provincial corporations, dependent upon the Federal government, and 
 
48 
 
 tben the centralization of all powers at Washington, in fact, if not in form, 
 will inevitably follow; and thus the animating life and soul of our institutions 
 will have fled forever. 
 
 What but centralization at Paris has rendered abortive every attempt, for 
 the last sixty years, to maintain free republican institutions in France ? Had 
 she converted her ancient provinces into sovereign States, with State govern- 
 ments, such as we enjoy, and established a Federal Republic, a coup d'etat at 
 the Capitol could never have destroyed her successive free Constitutions. 
 Liberty would then have taken refuge under the wing of the State govern- 
 ments, and would have been protected by their power until the storm had 
 passed away. Paris would then no longer have been France. Under our 
 system, at the present moment, nothing could be so supremely ridiculous as 
 an attempt to make a coup d'etat at Washington. 
 
 State pride ought ever to cherish the Senate of the United States, as the 
 selected protector under the Federal Constitution of State sovereignty. This 
 is a body far more important, powerful, and august than was ever the 
 celebrated Amphictyonic Council of Greece. Among our sister States, and 
 throughout the world, the intellectual and moral character of each State in 
 the Union is, and must be, to a great degree, estimated by the standard of 
 the Senators whom she has selected to represent her sovereignty. I have 
 often observed with what intense feelings of pride the citizens of Kentucky 
 have in the Senate Chamber pointed to their Clay — the citizens of Massachu- 
 setts to their Webster — the citizens of South Carolina to their Calhoun, and 
 the citizens of New York to their AVright. Alas ! these intellectual giants, 
 like all things human, have passed away. 
 
 There is no State in the Union which can more justly indulge in feelings of 
 State pride than Pennsylvania. Our enlightened, persevering and truly 
 Christian founder, immediately after he had obtained the Royal charter, 
 declared, in the spirit of prophetic enthusiasm : " God will bless and make it 
 the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care of the Government, that it 
 be well laid at first." And ti'uly God has blessed it, and the seed which Wil- 
 liam Penn sowed has borne the richest fruit. We have already become a 
 powei'ful and prosperous nation, and united with thirty other confederate 
 States, we have formed a Federal Republic which is the admiration of the 
 world and the Star of promise in the West to millions of down-trodden men 
 throughout the old world who are panting for the liberties which we enjoy. 
 Besides, Pennsylvania is truly the Keystone of the Federal Arch ; and our 
 character and position peculiarly qualify us to become the mediator between 
 opposing extremes. Placed in the centre, between the North and the South, 
 with a jiopulation distinguished for patriotism, steady good sense, and a 
 devoted attachment to the Constitution and the Union, we stand as the days- 
 man between the extremes, and can declare with a potential voice to both, 
 " hitherto shalt thou go, but no further." It was from the Legislature of 
 this great and glorious old Commonwealth that the first ray of light emanated 
 to dispel the deep gloom in which the slavei-y question had involved our 
 country. 
 
 The heaven-born principle of religious liberty with which our fotinder was 
 inspired has been always carried into practice in Pennsylvania. From tlie 
 beginning, every man has enjoyed the natui-al i-ight of worshipping his God 
 according to the dictates of his own conscience. No bigot or despot has ever 
 been suft'ered impiously to assume the attributes of Deity, and to interpose 
 and prescribe the form in which man shall woi-ship his Creator. 
 
 Although there are events in our history which we may have cause to regret, 
 yet, taken as a whole, the State has always been well and wisely governed. 
 " By their fruits ye shall know them," is a rule dictated by divine authority. 
 Judging according to this standard, where shall we find a people on the face of 
 the earth — where has there ever existed a people more prosperous and more 
 happy than are the people of Pennsylvania at the present moment ? Agriculture, 
 manufactures and commerce are all in a flourishing condition. Labor every 
 where finds j vofitable employment. Every where a fair day's work commands 
 
49 
 
 a fair day's wages. We have no poor amongst us, except the victims of 
 idleness or misfortune ; and to relieve the unfortunate, we liave a greater 
 number of benevolent institutions than any of our sister States. The teeming 
 bowels of our soil have been explored by the hand of enterprise and industry, 
 and our vast mineral treasures are carried to our own mai'kets and those of 
 the world over the railroads and canals which have been constructed in all 
 directions by the wealth and public spirit of our fellow-citizens. Nor have we 
 confined ourselves merely to the development of our physical resources Every 
 child born in the Commonwealth enjoys the same right to a good common 
 school education that he does to breathe the vital air ; and every where temples 
 arise for the worship of the Most High, erected by the voluntary contributions 
 of a Christian people. 
 
 Why f-hould we not, then, in the language of your toast, cherish " State 
 pride, State fidelity, and State fraternity?" In politics, from the very nature 
 of man, and of our institutions, we must necessarily differ ; but throughout 
 all the vast range of subjects on which we have a common feeling, and common 
 interest for our good old State, why should we not cordially fraternize ? The 
 city of Philadelphia and the interior of the State are bound together by the 
 strongest bonds of mutual interest. In this respect they are inseparable. 
 The one is essential to the prosperity of the other. Let this not be the harsh 
 bond of mere cold and calculating interest, but let it be the happy union of 
 mutual kindness and affection. 
 
 It cannot be denied, though it is to be deplored, that mutual jealousies, to 
 some extent, have hitherto existed between the city and the country. These 
 would pass away like the mists of the morning before the rising sun, if the 
 people of both knew each other better. The citizens of Philadelphia do not 
 generally visit the interior of their own State as much as we from the country 
 ardently desire, or as often as the citizens of New York and Baltimore visit 
 the interior of their respective States. Come more frequently amongst us, 
 and you will find that for cordial, genuine, heartfelt hospitality — for magnifi- 
 cent, grand and sublime scenery, Pennsylvania is not inferior to any State 
 throughout the Union. 
 
 Like quarrels between man and wife, there have been, doubtless, faults on 
 both sides. Let us forget and forgive what may have been wrong in the past 
 of either, and determine that hereafter the bonds of mutual affection shall be 
 much stronger than those cemented alone by avarice and interest. For my 
 own part, so far as I may possess any influence, I shall use my best exertion 
 to bring about this consummation, so devoutly to be wished. 
 
 " State pride, State fidelity, and State fraternity," now and forev.er! 
 
 The sixth toast was — 
 
 Washington, and the Soldiers of the Revolution. 
 
 Mr. William B. Reed, said — 
 
 Mr. President : — I esteem it a very high honor to be called to answer 
 this toast. At the same time, it is not easy to do it — for " Washington 
 and the Sohliers of tlie Revolution" is a subject so completely overlaid by 
 common places that it is hard to say any thing new or interesting about it. 
 But it has occurred to me that this company of Pennsylvanians and Jerseymen 
 • — for some of us Pennsylvanians are, by descent at least, half Jerseymen — 
 may be glad to recall what Washington and his fellow soldiers did for us and 
 amongst us in their honored day and generation. I undertake to say that, 
 within fifty miles of the spot where I now stand, there are more battle fields 
 of the Revolution than in half the confederacy besides. But this is not what 
 I meant to say. I meant to speak of Washington and his relations to our soil. 
 I have not time to ti-ace them all. I wish I had. There is a distant corner of 
 our State, through whose valleys and hills Washington's steps may be traced 
 when, a young, and relatively an obscure man, he served his apprenticeship 
 of war and peril. It was in that part of Pennsylvania, watered by streams 
 which swell the Oliio, tliat Washington learned to be a soldier. It was in Penn- 
 
50 
 
 sylvania — in Pliiladelpliia — as we all know, he became commander in-chief. 
 It was in our old State House yard (I wish it had never had any other name,) 
 that John Adams first mentioned Washington's name for this high trust — and 
 it was from Philadelphia, and surrounded by Philadelphia friends, he went to 
 assume the awful burthen of his trust — the greatest, in its responsibilities 
 and its results, that any modern hero ever undertook. He never returned to 
 Philadelphia till two years afterwards, when, at the head of the American 
 army, he marched to meet the enemy at Braudywine. It was a burning 
 August day when what was called our army, hurried through these streets. 
 We have an eye-witness's account of its appearance. Lafayette had just 
 arrived, fresh from the review of the French guards at Vers.ailles, where there 
 was a full share of the pageantry of war, and he has told us what he thought 
 of the hunting-shirts, and the half-naked men, and the green boughs stuck 
 in their hats and guns ; but he has told us, too, that at the head of the 
 ragged, motley band, was one whose every look, and act, and figure, was 
 the incarnation of all that poetry and romance give to their heroes. No 
 marshal of France looked the knight of chivalry better than Washington. 
 I have not time to speak of the rout at Bi-andywine, or the sorrows of Valley 
 Forge. When I hear other states and cities tell of their classic spots — when, 
 with no jealousy, I see the proud monument reared aloft which tells of one of 
 New England's two battles — when year after year our New York brethren cele- 
 brate, with great complacency, the heroic day when, unmolested and of their 
 own accord, after a quiet possession of six years, the British evactiated their 
 city, and then, sir, I look round me in Philadelphia — within this historic circle, 
 and see our battle fields — Trenton, Princeton, Braudywine, Paoli, Barrenhill, 
 Germantown, Red Bank and Monmouth — for they are all in our neighborhood, 
 and think of the neglected graves (I have seen them) of the gallant men who 
 perished fighting for our homes, I feel it is something to be a Philadelphian 
 and a Pennsylvanian yet. Washington and the soldiers of the Revolution 
 belong more to us than to any others. Washington came twice again to 
 us as the leader of his soldiers, on his way to Yorktown and his way back. 
 He came again on his way to Annapolis to resign his commission — and Phila- 
 delphia welcomed him and honored him. He says in his Diary, when he arrived, 
 the bells were chimed. Yes, Christ Church bells, the ancient voices of our 
 city's heart, never spoke a heartier or worthier welcome than they did to 
 Washington, for he seemed to belong to us. 
 
 Mr. President : One other word and I have done. Washington no longer 
 belongs to us alone. His fame has outgrown the limits of our country. It is 
 part of history — part of the glory of mankind. His letters have been trans- 
 lated into German and French. The most eloquent character yet written of 
 him is from a British pen, published within the last year — from the pen of him 
 who rumor says has been selected as the literary executor of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, (Lord Mahon.) And it was my good fortune (I hope I may be excuseil 
 for referring to it,) within the last three months, in the historical home of that 
 writer's ancestors, within walls hung with the portraits and arms of America's 
 friends in her hour of need — the Stanhopes and Chathams — walking in paths 
 laid out by hands (to use his own words,) which " scorned to sign the peace of 
 Paris,"* it was my fortune there to talk of Washington — his times, his friends, 
 his bright career. We talked of him as part of the common glory of mankind 
 — as part of the glory of the English language — and the Englishman's praise, 
 the praise of the scholar and the gentleman, was as hearty and unreserved as 
 mine. 
 
 Now, Mr. President, this sentiment — this romantic sentiment about our 
 forefathers of the Revolution is a thing we ouglit to encourage and stimulate. 
 It may suit some people to ridicule it ; but if, under the baleful influence of 
 ridicule, it dies away — if nothing is to be thought of but the bright and glow- 
 
 * Cheveninp; in Kent, the seat of Earl Stanhope, whence on 18th October, 1769, Lord Chatham 
 wrote, " I carry my ambition to be remembered at Chevening, so far that I wish it may be said 
 hereafter, if ever ttiis pl:i,n for ji rnail ^ous into execution, be who made this way did not sign tlio 
 peace of Paris." 
 
51 
 
 iug future — if visions of glory to come make all that is behind us look dim and 
 gloomy — if young America, unlike the Spartans of old, refuses honor and 
 welcome to the man of ancient days, and his bright example, then Mr. I'resi- 
 deut, we may be sure that one element of heroic character is gone forever. I 
 am proud to believe, when I look around me and hear what I have heard to- 
 day, the spirit of loyalty to our histoi'y burns as brightly and purely as ever. 
 
 The seventh toast was — 
 
 TIi.e Treaty under the Elm ; in which wisdom dealt with simplicity, yet did 
 not deceive : and power gave terms to weakness, yet did not oppress. 
 
 On this sentiment being given by the President, Mr. Henry D. Gilpin said 
 he was desirous not to suffer it to pass, without offering a few remarks ; as he 
 saw among the guests, who had honored the Society with their presence, a 
 gentleman (Mr. Fernon) who, impelled by a generous and honorable sympathy, 
 while he represented the county of Philadelphia in the State Legislature, bad 
 not forgotten, in the midst of his- political duties, the incident in our history to 
 which the sentiment alluded ; and had introduced and been instrumental in 
 obtaining the passage of a law, by which a public square is hereafter to be set 
 apart in commemoration of it. All people, sir, said Mr. Gilpin, have among 
 them places, whose local associations recall to them incidents and men, whom 
 they justly desire to keep in lively remembrance. The spirit of association which 
 sanctifies the dwelling of Washington, and hallows the rock where the storm- 
 tossed pilgrims of New England founded for liberty and religion an enduring 
 liome, is the same which has made dear to the Englishman and the Swiss the 
 bivth-place of Shakspeare and the battle-field of Murat — is the same which, in 
 times long before, preserved aad pointed out the gulf of Curtius, in the midst 
 of the Roman forum, and turned aside Alexander iia his rapid march of con- 
 ([uest, that he might visit the deserted shores of the Scamander, where Achilles 
 fought, and of which Homer sung. There is, indeed, something in our nature 
 — to borrow the idea of him whose eloquence was ever blended with the finest 
 human sympathies — by which such scenes, when visited, excite sensations 
 more lively than the best told story of the events and men with which they are 
 connected, is ever able to awaken. And we, too, in Philadelphia, are not with- 
 out our cherished scenes of local association ; nor is it an ungenerous vanity 
 to say, that the sentiments which they excite, and by which we arc attracted 
 to them, are in their nature even more noble and better in their influences 
 than those that are kindled by any spot where a patriot has lived or a poet has 
 sung — where a warrior has triumphed, or an exile of freedom has found a 
 home. Our cherished spots of local association are the Hall of Independence 
 and the treaty ground of Penn. It is no mere connection with illustrious 
 names, or acts of brilliant genius, enterprise or courage that imparts to them 
 their interest ; but it is that from them — as was claimed for the oracles of old 
 — deep, sacred and enduring truths were promulgated, which had, and are still 
 to have, the most lasting influences upon the welfare and progress of man. It 
 is not the memory of the men who sat in the Hall of Independence, that makes 
 us pass with reference beneath its portals, but because great truths were there 
 made the basis of a social compact which nearly a century has already shown, 
 and we may trust that many future centuries are yet to prove, to be most fitted 
 to procure the prosperity and happiness of our x-ace. It is no thought of the 
 group collected beneath the Elm Tree at Shackamaxon — the graceful and 
 manly form of Penn, serene in conscious virtue, his countenance beaming with 
 hope and the belief that his "holy experiment" was successfully begun; nor 
 the patient and trusting crowd of "friends" around, who were to benefit by 
 and perfect it ; nor the circle of red men, whose wild natures were already 
 yielding to the influences of Christian justice, forbearance and love — it is not 
 the thought of this scene, attractively as the genius of the artist might depict 
 it, which makes us dedicate the well-remembered spot. It is because there — 
 beneath the canopy of heaven and the primeval forest ; there — in the presence 
 of civilized and savage man, the representatives at once of the future and the 
 past — the glad tidings were announced, to be borne back on one hand across 
 
52 
 
 the ocean on the wings of hope and promise, and on the other into the recesses 
 of the unreclaimed forest, that a State was to be founded "by deeds of peace," 
 and with equal and considerate justice to all men who claimed its shelter or 
 protection. No written record — no parchment with its dangling seals — has 
 handed down to us the words of Penn, or the proceedings of that memorable 
 council ; but a faithful tradition assures us that it aimed at no end of commerce 
 or of gain ; that it sought only to announce, in language and with ceremonies 
 that would not be forgotten, principles that should be sacredly adhered to in 
 the commonwealth he was founding. Ere he had crossed the Atlantic — almost 
 before the gift of his province was perfected— Penn had publicly made known 
 to the "friends" who should embark with him, the "frame of government" 
 under which their " holy experiment" was to be commenced ; he had promised 
 to secure to them the fullest rights of self-government, and "all that good and 
 free men could reasonably desire, for the security and improvement of their 
 own happiness." "Let the Lord," he said, "guide me by his wisdom to 
 honor bis name, and to serve his truth and people, so that an example and a 
 standard may be set up to the nations." Nor was it for the white man only 
 that his plans of justice and benevolence were formed. lie remembered too, 
 " the poor savage people who believed in God and the soul without the aid of 
 metaphysics," but who had yet to know and to be secured "in their rights 
 as men." In advance of his contemplated voyage — to guard them against 
 fears not unreasonable — he sent them a letter, which was read to them by 
 interpreters. " God," said he, " hath written his law in our hearts, by which 
 we are taught and commanded to love, and help, and do good to one another ; 
 now this great God bath been pleased to make me concerned in your part of 
 the world, and I desire that we may always live together as neighbors and 
 friends. I desire to win and gain your love and fi-ieudship 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 any thing, any shall offend 
 you or your people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same, 
 by an equal number of just men on both sides, that by no means you may have 
 just occasion of being oifended against them. I shall shortly come to you 
 myself, at which time we may more largely and freely confer and discourse on 
 these matters." And come he did ; and beneath the Elm Tree at Shackamaxon 
 his promise was redeemed. There, under that broad canopy which nature 
 spreads for all her children, he gathered together, not alone "the poor, dark 
 souls round about him," but the "friends" from every land who had listened 
 to his cheering promises — from England, from Wales, from Sweden, from Hol- 
 land, from the ilhine. There, were his hopes, his promises, and his plans 
 renewed. There, were they explained with all the eloquence of sincerity and 
 truth, so that even from the sealed heart of the Red man burst forth the irre- 
 pressible response — " We will live in love with Uncas and his children, as long 
 as the moon and the sun shall endure." It was beneath an oak tree in the 
 plain of Hebron, whose site a pious tradition long kept in remembrance, that 
 the patriai'ch dwelt and spread around him the sacred lessons of the true reli- 
 gion. Under a plane-tree, near the banks of the Ilissus, Socrates disclosed 
 to his assembled followers the doctrines of a philosophy almost divine. The 
 great statesman and orator of Rome has preserved for us the eloquent record 
 of the conferences of the most distinguished of her sons, in the tranquil shade 
 of a plane-tree on the slopes of Tusculum. But of neither of these will the 
 grateful tradition be more long and reverently preserved, than that which will 
 consecrate the Elm Tree beneath whose branches was proclaimed the motives, 
 the objects, and the plans of him whose name is, and forever will be, joined 
 with that of the community which he founded. 
 
53 
 
 The eighth toast was : 
 
 Coaquannock — called into life as Philadelphia, by Penn, erected iuto a great 
 Capital by his successors. 
 
 Mr. J. R. Tyson being called to respond to this toast, said : 
 
 The toast, Mr. Chairman, which has just been read, may well cause some 
 hesitation in the reply. It brings into view the solitude which once brooded over 
 a spot which is now occupied by the crowded avenues, the well filled storehouses, 
 and the stately residences of a refined and luxurious city. If we compare the 
 forest home of the savage hunter, as he ranged in 1682, without control, over 
 these plains, with the scene which we now behold around ns, the contrast is 
 perfectly marvellous. From the Delaware to the Schuylkill river and stretch- 
 ing indefinitely beyond it to the western Ocean, there lay a dense and unbroken 
 wilderness, the abode of wild beasts, and the still wilder Indian. These noble 
 rivers which are now the highways of a large commerce, passed in silent gran- 
 deur to the Atlantic, unvisited in their solitary flow, except by the breezes of 
 Heaven, or the light canoe which danced over their waters ! AVe may picture to 
 ourselves from the festive board at which we sit, and amid the embellishments 
 of artificial elegance, the rudeness of primeval woods, and the barbarism of 
 forest life. We may picture to ourselves the old Indian of the Leni Lenapes, 
 leaning forward to catch the first glimpses of the good ship Welcome as she 
 hove in sight, and afterwards, with siiuple wonder, contemplating the emblems 
 of peace and friendship held out to him and his tribe by her venerated chief. 
 
 The axe of the woodsman, the ploughshare of the farmer, and the saw of 
 the artisan, were emulous in the work of changing this scene of blank but ma- 
 jestic solitude into active and stirring life. Those fine oaks and towering cedars 
 which had stood erect, amid the blasts of centuries, fell before the march of 
 the invaders. They were the only foes which encountered the enmity of the 
 strangers. They were made to give place to the genial influences of light and 
 air, to the needful succession of seed-time and harvest, to comfortable abodes 
 for the habitation of man, and sacred fanes for the worship of God ! 
 
 But your toast, sir, does not look merely to a desert converted into a garden, 
 or a wilderness made to blossom as the rose. To my apprehension, it implies 
 something more than these. — " Coaquannock, called into life as Philadelphia bi/ 
 Pcnn,'^ beautifully expresses the magical impress which was made by the 
 founder's genius upon the chaos around him. It seems intended to describe 
 the caduceus of Penn's moral power ; the more than Promethean fire which 
 he infused into the inert mass of savage desolation ; the mighty spirit which 
 he breathed into all, by his sublime maxims of social and religious freedom ! 
 This was all the incantation which Penn employed, in calling Philadelphia 
 into life out of dead Coaquannock ! 
 
 The age of Penn, passing that of the 2d Charles, of the 2d James, and of 
 William and Mary, included the Augustan age of Anne and George 1st. 
 Thougli the refined era of Addison and Pope, it was an age which was marked, 
 in England and Scotland, by manners, as fiei'ce and atrocious, blended with 
 a policy as indirect and subtle as those of the American Indian. The famous 
 Rob Roy and his freebooting companions pillaged and murdered, without 
 scruple, almost within sight of the city of Glasgow, and within hearing of 
 its learned University. The contrasts presented by such opposite conditions 
 of life, among the same people, in the same age, and the same neighborhood, 
 are more striking and more humiliating than in difl'erent races, periods, 
 and nations. The vicinity of such contrarieties of character, maintaining 
 their own separate spheres, like jDarallel lines indefinitely prolonged without 
 uniting, i)resent subjects of painful interest to the philosophical student of 
 history. But while the laws of Scotland, armed with the terrors of death, 
 confiscation, and exile, were incapable of preventing the horrors of these 
 freebooters' enormities, or of checking the violence of their excesses, Penn 
 could disarm, his ferocious neighbours, and convert their enmity into friend- 
 ship, by the simple policy of mild words, sincere professions, generous acts, 
 and just counsels. Bloodshed was stopped among themselves, and uninter- 
 
54 
 
 mittcd kindness and friendsliip secured to their European visiters. Not a 
 drop of Indian or white blood stained the virgin soil of Pennsylvania for half 
 a century from the English settlement. Such is the first bright page of our 
 domestic annals ! It is that which is associated with Penn and the primitive 
 age of Philadelphia. 
 
 No town in the colonization of North America made such rapid progress. 
 Within 20 years from that period, when the Indian hunter ranged in pursuit of 
 game over the wild region of Coaquaunock ; within 20 years from the original 
 settlement, when from the want of houses, the colonists sought shelter in the 
 caves of the Delaware ; within 20 years from that time, — Wm. Penn erected 
 Philadelphia into a City, and gave to it a Charter. From the earliest period of 
 recorded time, history had presented no similar example to this. The pros- 
 perity of the settlement was a perfect wonder to the statesmen of that day. 
 But the wonder is explained by calling to mind the grand pi'inciples of LIBERTY 
 upon which the colony was founded. In New England Church members only 
 were permitted to be freemen of the colonies ; all others were disfranchised and 
 pei'secuted. In Pennsylvania religious intolerance was luiknowu ; ^'■errors in 
 rcUijion," said Penn, " are known onhf to God.^' The arms of the colony were 
 thrown wide open to every variety of sect in Christendom, to every shade of 
 creed under Heaven. They were stretched out to embrace not alone the 
 Catholic and Protestant, the Churchman and Puritan, the Conformist and 
 Dissenter, but the Jew and the Mahometan were alike protected and secure. 
 No sooner had the founder landed from the good ship Welcome, than he bade a 
 hospitable welcome to every adventurer of whatever religious faith or political 
 opinion, and gave to them all a certain and safe asylum. 
 
 It was to these principles of policy and the mild punishment of transgressors, 
 that the historian most attribute the happy and prosperous condition of the 
 province. Without any, even the slightest collision with the Indians, but 
 enjoying their confidence and friendship for neai'ly half a century, the colony 
 flourished beyond all former example. In 1G83, the year succeeding the 
 foundation of the English colonization, Penn writes to Lord North, " that since 
 the last summer, th.ere had stopped at Philadelphia sixty sails of ships," and to 
 the Marquis of Halifax, " that he had conducted the greatest colony into America, 
 upon liis private credit, that had ever followed the fortunes of a leader." In 
 1G8G Robert Turner writes to Penn, that "within the space of three years 
 six hundred houses had been erected." Gabriel Thomas, an historian of the 
 year IG'JG, predicts that Philadelphia will become a celebrated emporium. The 
 town continued to advance with prodigious celerity in population, and the 
 arts of life. During the second visit of Penn, that is, in 1701, he writes, " this 
 year the customs amount to £8000 ; New York has not the half of it." 
 
 From the year in which Philadelphia received its Charter as a city, we are to 
 date its municipal existence. The corporate powers were amplified by the 
 successors of Penn in 1789, but the limits assigned to the city in 1701, were 
 preserved in the new enactment. But the colonial Assembly in iive years 
 after the grant of the second charter, passed an act the sad consequences of 
 which are entailed upon their posterity to the present day. The district of 
 Southwark was chartered as a separate mimicipality, in 1704, instead of 
 throwing the ajgis of the city charter over its floui-ishing population. This 
 example was the parent of the multitudinous progeny which now compose our 
 numerous and expanding city. As a part of his plan of empire in the new 
 world, Penn ordered a plot of ground of 10,000 acres, or twelve square miles, 
 to be marked out as the territorial area of the future metropolis. Owing to 
 the mistaken abandonment of this policy, this land is covered — not by one 
 great and undivided community, — but by at least seven co-ordinate and 
 independent, perhaps jealous and rival towns, including together a population 
 of 500,000 souls. Though forming but one body, of people, compacted together 
 in close neighborhood, each town is as distinct from its fellows in local juris- 
 diction and legal immunities, as Boston is from New Orleans. 
 
 This is not the place, Mr. Chairman, nor this the occasion, to expatiate 
 upon a topic so suggestive of rctlections as the peculiar and anomalous condi- 
 
55 
 
 tion of onr municipal affairs. Suffice it to say that history thus sets before us 
 two conflictiug examples — one by Penn, the other by his successors. Which 
 of these examples should we adopt in order to promote our social well-being, 
 or to place upon solid foundations the prosperity of a great Capital? The 
 question is a grave and delicate one. Whatever others may think, I declare 
 in favor of blending these different jurisdictions into one ; I go for a union of 
 this municipal heptarchy, as only less important to us than national union is 
 to the whole coiintry ! 
 
 The ninth toast was — 
 
 The Children of the Forest. May they be protected in the enjoyment of their 
 hunting grounds until the Great JNIanitou shall call them to himself. 
 
 Mr. H. R. Schoolcraft, in replying to the above sentiment, said : 
 
 The aborigines of this continent were the greatest wonder found in it. So 
 long as the continent was deemed to be a prolongation of Asia, or a remote 
 part of the East Indies, there was little doubt of their being from that part of 
 the stock of the human race. But as soon as the Pacific Ocean and Behring's 
 straits were discovered, men began vigorously to doubt about their origin, and 
 liave been doubting ever since. 
 
 With our present knowledge of the temperature, winds and currents of the 
 Indian Ocean, and the Pacific latitudes, it would be rather more wonderful 
 that the population of the Asiatic coasts and islands should not, than that it 
 should, have reached America. Such voyages could easily have been performed 
 in their balzas and light floats, if they were designed by a migrating people, 
 and if they were not designed, the drifting from island to islanil, in the course 
 of years, was a natural mode of progress ; and it is as reasonable to suppose 
 that the Indian tribes have been on this continent 3000 as 500 years. Indeed, 
 it is far more so, for the greater length of time would account for the diversi- 
 ties of languages and tribes. 
 
 Viewed as a race, they are decidedly Asiatic. They not only have the lead- 
 ing physical traits of Asiatics, but their mental organization is the same. They 
 are not inductive men, like the Goths, and Celts, and Saxons, and Angles, but, 
 rather, have a picturesque mind. They are prone to complain — prone to 
 dwell on reminiscences of the past — little disposed to indulge in anticipations 
 — little inclined to hope on amj subject. Doubtless their complaints, since the 
 Europeans came over, have had a pretty broad foundation in truth, for they have 
 lost all, and we have gained all. Yet, I doubt if the Aborigines of any country 
 have fared better, if as well. The old Britons, except on the rocky peaks of 
 AVales, were scarcely left a foot-hold. The Romans hated and hunted them 
 like deer, and the Angles and Saxons did the same. The Druids were 
 slaughtered by hundreds, and it is no wonder, as some think, if Madoc and 
 his followers found shelter here. 
 
 But did the English do better to the aborigines of India ? Not a particle. 
 They have coveted territory on territory, and kingdom on kingdom ; and they 
 have never been slow, from the days of Lord Olive and Tippoo Saib, in bring- 
 ing the last resort of kings — the ultima ratio regum — to bear upon their terri- 
 torial questions ; as in the career of Bonaparte, a new battery of fifty field 
 guns, was of more diplomatic weight than the most eloquent arguments in the 
 world. Not less than one hundred millions of the inhabitants of India are now 
 disfranchised and subjugated. Did France do better in Algeria? Not a whit. 
 Ask Abdel-Kader. The sword makes law and the sword breaks law in Algeria. 
 After fom- years of captivity, he is not even allowed to go back to his native 
 country. 
 
 The United States, on the contrary, have not taken the Indian territories 
 unpaid for. The Indian, it is true, had neither "crown or cowl." He had 
 some imagination, and some eloquence, but he did not evince much capacity 
 to wield the sceptre — unless we except the Iroquois, and they chiefly threw 
 their weight into the scale against us, in the great struggle of 1775 — which 
 was indeed, as it is now seen, the struggle of mankind for rational liberty and 
 self-goveriiment. 
 
56 
 
 Penn found here the Leniio Lenapees — the oldest member of the great 
 Algonquin stock — which spread over half America. They received him kindly, 
 and he treated them well, and their descendants remember the era as the rule 
 of the great and benevolent Miquon. His rule and government were equally 
 the praise of those Indo-Greeks, the Iroquois, better known to the English as 
 the Six Nations, and they bestowed on him the distinctive name of Onas. Both 
 these terms are Indian equivalents for the name of Penn. 
 
 But, whatever be the character and capacities of the Indian mind, they are 
 our predecessors — our wards — our brothers. We owe them kindness, justice, 
 benevolence. We owe them those great means by which nations are exalted 
 — letters, education, Cliristianity. They are, it is true, a lost link in the history 
 of the human family, but without stopping to inquire where they were lost, or 
 when they were lost, it is one of the highest duties of our nationality to wel- 
 come them as men — to protect them as tribes, and, as a Christian people, to 
 cherish them. Aye, and to receive them, as we receive the emigrants of all 
 Europe, into the great family of the American Union. There will, doubtless, 
 arise, in these new legislators of the Indian race, future Logans and Garan- 
 gulas to vindicate their history, and other Conassategos and Red Jackets to 
 utter their eloquence. 
 
 The tenth toast was — 
 
 Tlie Great Law. The act that rendered Pennsylvania illustrious as the 
 Pioneer of legal amelioration, and that has done more, bj' its holy influence 
 and example, for human happiness than all the battle-fields over which the 
 world has wept. 
 
 Hon. George Sharswood responded. 
 
 Mr. Sharswood said that he had to acknowledge the honor conferred upon 
 him by the Committee of Arrangement, in imposing upon him the duty of 
 responding to the toast just announced, with the regret, however, that the 
 task had not devolved upon one with more time and ability to do justice to 
 the subject. 
 
 Our founder had well studied the science of government and laws, though 
 he was no lawyer by profession. He drew his first principles on the subject 
 from the most authoritative source. He held that " the glory of God Almighty 
 and the good of mankind is the reason and end of government, and therefore 
 government itself is a venerable ordinance of God." He was not a disciple of 
 Sir Robert Filmer ; he did not mean that monarchy, or any particular form of 
 government was divinely instituted — that " some men were born with saddles 
 on their hacks, and other men ready booted and spurred to ride them." At 
 all events, it is by no means a just inference from his principles, that the 
 people have not a right to change their form of government whenever it is 
 proper and expedient to do so. So far from it, the legitimate deduction 
 appears to be that any form which fails to accomplish the design of its insti- 
 tution — tlie glory of God and the good of mankind — ought to be changed ; 
 "that when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
 the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, 
 laying its foundation on such principles, and oi'ganizing its powers in such 
 form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." 
 There is one legitimate inference from Mr. Penn's principles, however, not to 
 be lost sight of at the present day — that until revolution has effected a change 
 by the will of the people, the actual existence of any government, whatever 
 may be its form or the modes of its administration creates the obligation of 
 obedience. There is no higher law which dispenses with that obligation. 
 
 Another of Mr. Penn's principles was, that " any government is free to the 
 people under it, Avhatever be the frame, where the laws rule and the people are 
 a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy and confusion." 
 He knew no more concise and perfect description of civil and political liberty 
 than was contained in these few wiu'ds. He composed and published his frame 
 to advance, as he saj'S, " the great end of government, viz. : to support power 
 
57 
 
 in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power ; 
 that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honorable 
 for their just administration ; for liberty without obedience is confusion, and 
 obedience without liberty is slavery." 
 
 ]5y this frame the General Assembly was the first year to consist of all the 
 freemen of tlie Province. Accordingly we may say that the Assembly which 
 convened at Upland on the 7tli, and atljourned on the 10th of December, 1G82, 
 was the meeting of a pure Democracy. It would have been a solemn and 
 touching sight to one who could have Ibreseen all its consequences in the dis- 
 tant future — that first meeting. They came together the pioneers of the 
 wilderness — stern, grave, and earnest men — prepared for toil, privation and 
 danger — men of moral, rather than mere physical courage — their hands 
 hardened by the axe's unwearied stroke in felling the primeval forest, and 
 raising their rude log cabins, and there, within the hearing of the yells of 
 wandering savages of untried disposition, they adopted, in the short space of 
 three days, sixty-one laws, — many of them, indeed all of them, the foundation 
 stones upon which has been since erected the superstructure of the civil and 
 criminal jurisprudence of this broad Commonwealth. It was a fitting intro- 
 duction to that simple but noble code — the law about liberty of conscience — 
 " that all persons living in this province, who confess and acknowledge the 
 one Almighty and Eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the 
 world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and 
 justly in civil society, shall in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their reli- 
 gious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship ; nor shall they 
 be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place 
 or ministry." 
 
 Looking at the scope and spirit of our early laws and institutions, the cele- 
 brated Montesquieu pronounced j\Ir. Penn a true Lycurgus ; that though the 
 object of the one was to form a peaceful and of the other a warlike State, they 
 resembled each other in the ascendancy they were able to acquire over the 
 opinions, prejudices, and passions of the people. Mr. Penn infused his own 
 spirit into the laws, and certainly the whole history of our jurisprudence shows 
 how largely we have drawn from these original fountains. The character of 
 the code comports with its introduction. Moderate in its penal enactments — 
 just and cijual in its civil provisions — it is an instance unparalledin the world's 
 history of the foundations of a great State laid in peace, justice, equality. It 
 is necessary to refer nierelj' to the abolition of capital punishment in all cases 
 except for wilful murder, — that all prisons shall be work-houses— to the acts 
 for the recording of deeds and registry of wills — for the regulation of process 
 and pleading — for making lands chattels for the payment of debts — and that 
 the laws should not only be printed for general information, but taught in the 
 schools. There is one section of the great law worthy of especial note — under 
 the title of mancrous suits avoidable — of which our celebrated act about defalca- 
 tion, passed in 1705, is but the re-enactment, and which is still the law of this 
 State, almost in the very words of those primitive legislators who first assembled 
 to make laAvs for themselves — a small band of emigrants upon the banks of 
 the river which fl^ows by our doors. It was more than a half century after- 
 wards before a similar enactment was to be found upon the statute-book of old 
 England. 
 
 Just and true is indeed the sentiment of the toast, that " the Great Law has 
 done more by its holy intluence and examples for human happiness than on all 
 the battle-fields over which the world has wept." He did not wish, and he pre- 
 sumed the Committee who framed this toast did not mean to be understood as 
 depreciating the true value of military services : — on the contrary, his settled 
 opinion was that the maintenance of a proper military spirit among the people 
 is essential to the liberty and progress of a State. "Where it exists even 
 despotisms become comparatively harmless, as in Prussia, and when it is 
 absent, even mild governments dwindle into imbecile and powerless tyrannies, 
 as in Italy and Spain." We are too apt, however, to be carried away by the 
 splendor of military success. Generals have always been the most available 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 men. The world Las always bowed more implicitly to military genius than to 
 civic talents. The Alexanders, Otcsars and Napoleons have carried with them 
 more of the world's attention and applause than the Lycurguses, Solons and 
 William Penns. Yet he who has wisely laid the foundations of a nation's 
 liberty, prosperity and progress in an enduring constitution, and in just and 
 equal laws, has done far more for the solid and lasting happiness of the people 
 than the leader who has added glory to their arms. He who is instrumental 
 in giving security, industry, education and religion to the precincts of home^ 
 he it is who should be crowned with unfading laurels — and whose monument 
 is more glorious than a column cast from the captive cannons of a hundred 
 Austerlitzes. 
 
 The eleventh Toast was — 
 
 The Illustrious Dead of the Rejmhlic — May their virtues survive in the living. 
 
 In response to this, Mr. Robert T. Conrad said : 
 
 Mr. President — I feel that I have made a suflicient draft upon your patience 
 to-day, and I doubt whether even the knowledge that I am expected to speak 
 to this noble sentiment will warrant a further trespass upon your attention. 
 
 The very hopelessness of doing justice to that sentiment will excuse diffi- 
 dence in the effort. Justice to the dead of our republic cannot be rendered 
 in words ; yet it is nobly rendered — rendered in the heart-throbs and tears of 
 a nation — rendered in a gratitude intense and universal — worthy of the dead 
 and of the living, and doing honor to both. 
 
 The summons to graves over which a continent weeps has been sadly fre- 
 quent of late ; and hardly has the tolling bell for one patriot — (caught up and 
 echoed from hill-top to hill-top until it rings over the far Pacific) — ceased to 
 sound, before another knell announces another national calamity. It would 
 seem as if He, in whose hand are the issues of life and death, looks in anger 
 upon us. But let us hope that it is not so. The Revolution, rich itself in 
 great men, left the seeds of a great race, the undegenerate heirs of their 
 genius and virtues. That race grew and rose and ripened together. Calhoun, 
 and Clay, and Webster shone out from their high sphere about the same 
 period. How long they shone, and how brightly — and how the nation rejoiced 
 in their light — who does not know ? No wonder that, thus rising and culmi- 
 nating together, shining with the same brilliance, from the same sky, they 
 went down, at nearly the same time, beneath the same horizon, leaving it even 
 when they are seen no more, radiant with their glory. 
 
 Our country, even in her tears, is happy in having so long possessed them ; 
 for each had filled the measure of the patriot's service and the patriot's fame, 
 and each fell, even wondered at because he fell no sooner. 
 
 Our country is happy in the wealth of virtue, and genius, and patriotism 
 which she possesses — of which the grave is the guardian — and which she will 
 possess forever — for it is beyond the reach of chance or change, of its own 
 fallibility or of the wrongs of others. Our dead cannot be taken from us. 
 
 Our country is happy that the departed have set their seal upon that which, 
 as patriots, we value. Our Constitution belongs not only to the living, but to 
 the dead. And who would wrong the dead ? Our Union is not ours only ; it 
 belongs to Washington and Jackson, to Clay and AVebster. What Northern 
 man would be divorced from the tomb at Ashland ? What Southern man from 
 that at Marshfield ? Or what American would not rather die than live to 
 tread iipon the haunted, holy ground of Mt. Vernon — his father's grave — an 
 aliea, a stranger ? No, all that is holy to the patriot is holier when it is 
 sanctified, and because it is sanctified by the dead — who lived for it here, and 
 who now watch over it from their better habitations eternal in the heavens. 
 
 Our country is happy, too, in her own warm, true, noble heart — a heart 
 that glows with gratitude for the illustrious dead — a gratitude too lofty to be 
 reached by the low mists of prejudice — a gratitude that is the glory of the 
 country, and which, while it rewards the patriotism of the past, afibrds a noble 
 incentive to that of the future. Greatness and virtue reproduce themselves 
 by their example. It may be long before we have another Calhoun, or Clay, 
 
59 
 
 or Webster ; but that time ■will come ; and when it does come, may the grati- 
 tude of posterity be as warm and sincere as ours — it cannot be more so. 
 
 The twelfth Toast was : 
 
 Our Sister Societies. United with us in kindred pursuits. 
 Mr. James W. Beekman, of New Yorli, spoke briefly in answer to this 
 toast. 
 
 The thirteenth Toast was : 
 
 The Sons of the Soil. Wherever they wander, may joy and gladness attend 
 their steps. 
 
 Bishop Upfold of Indiana responded as follows : 
 
 Mr. President — In responding to this sentiment, at the request of the Com- 
 mittee of Arrangement, I feel considei-able embarrassment, from the fact that 
 I cannot claim to be strictly " a son of the soil." I have not the honor to 
 call Pennsylvania my birth place. A residence of many years, however, in 
 the good old Commonwealth, may perhaps entitle me to be considered an 
 adopted son. Indeed it has so identified me in feeling with the Keystone 
 State, and with so deep an interest iu her character and welfare, that I in- 
 dulge as strong filial affection and respect for her as if I were strictly a " son 
 of her soil," and feel as much becoming " State pride," as if in some valley 
 or on some mountain of her beautiful, fertile and rich domain, I had drawn 
 my first breath, and received m^^ earliest nurture. And now, though removed 
 from what was my pleasant home for many years, in her busy Western metro- 
 polis, and having, in the discharge of official duties, become very much a 
 wanderer, I ever turn to Pennsylvania with undiminished interest in her pros- 
 perity and advancement ; with strong, unimpaired, filial reverence and regard ; 
 and with all the pride and affection of " a son of the soil," can with truth and 
 emphasis say, in the language of one of England's sweetest bards — 
 
 " Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see. 
 My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to Thee!" 
 
 And I am free to say, moreover, that in the State in which I now sojourn, there 
 are hundreds besides myself, most of them with far higher claims to be " sons 
 of the soil" of Pennsylvania, who are ready to echo the sentiment — and who, 
 from the strong attachment to their Fatherland, which seems to be characte- 
 ristic of Pennsylvanians, are prepared, from the depths of their " untravelled 
 hearts" to add — 
 
 " Still" to my birth-place " turns, with ceaseless pain, 
 And drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 
 
 Indiana numbers a goodly portion of Pennsylvanians among her citizens. 
 Some of her earliest settlers, the pioneers who ventured into her territory 
 when it was from one end to the other the domain of the savage, emigrated 
 from the honest old Commonwealth. And in more recent years, much of the 
 numerical strength of Indiana, and very much of her bone and sinew has been 
 derived from the sturdy yeomanry of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians are 
 among her best citizens. They have carried with them the integrity, the 
 thrifty habits, the patient industry, the indomitable courage and perseverance, 
 with the agricultural skill, which so much characterizes "the sons of the 
 soil," native or adopted. And these are all preserved unimpaired in the new 
 home they have found in the West. If in travelling through the State, you 
 perceive a farm of finer appearance than another, in better order, vmder more 
 skillful cultivation, with barn, outhouses, and other farm apptrrtenances com- 
 plete — I will say nothing of the dwellingj house, for that, as in the land they 
 have left, seems to be a minor consideration — you may be pretty sure it is 
 cultivated and owned by a Pennsylvanian. The same creditable characteris- 
 tics are observable in those of her sons who are engaged in mechanical and 
 commercial employments, and in professional occupations. In these you will 
 find the same honesty, industry, and perseverance as in the other — with a dis- 
 
60 
 
 position too, I must in all candor add, to dip a little into politics, and tliat 
 pretty much on one side. They do no discredit to the State of their birth, 
 however, in this, any more than in other matters, but honor it in all their 
 ways, works and habits, presenting an array of honest thrift, of industry and 
 enterprize, of moral habits and moral example, of which their fatherland need 
 not to be ashamed. 
 
 It is, however, so little in accordance with my habits to make a speech on 
 an occasion like this, that I am surprized I have gone so far and said so much, 
 without breaking down. And for fear of such a catastrophe, if I proceed 
 much longer, I beg leave to substitute, for the remainder of an oration. A 
 story, or rather two illustrative I think of the characteristics I have ascribed 
 to the "sons of the soil," and which, I trust, will be regarded as not inappro- 
 priate to the occasion, particularly which has brought this pleasant company 
 together, and to the laudable object of the Historical Society. They relate to 
 two venerable men, who were among the earliest pioneers of the north west- 
 ern section of the State ; and I narrate them, as they were narrated to mo 
 a few years ago on the spot, — substantially at least, for a treacherous memory 
 may cause me to be inaccurate in details. 
 
 Some iii'ty years ago — and that was a long time ago for this county, — a 
 sturdy " Green Mountain boy" arrived at Presque Isle on Lake Erie, with a 
 pack on his back, and an axe on his shoulder, seeking his fortune in a then 
 almost impassable wilderness. At the public house he entered, a mere log hut, 
 near the Fort, he inquired for employment. It was immediately furnished by 
 the landlord, who engaged the new comer to chop wood for him — puncheons 
 for floors, or hoop poles — I forget which. He was to receive as wages tifty 
 cents a day; but nothing was said about the price of board and lodging. At 
 the expiration of a week he asked for his wages, which were paid him, but 
 Avas immediately met by a demand, on the part of the cunning landlord, of 
 seventy-five cents a day for board and lodging. There was a hearty laugh by 
 the occupants of the bar-room, at the expense of the svipposed greenhorn, 
 which he took in good part. The settlement was completed, when the laugh 
 was turned on the landlord ; who, upon asking the wood cutter where the pun- 
 eheons or hoop poles were, was answered, they were "in the woods where 
 they had been cut, and the place he might possibly find if he hunted carefully 
 and patiently." The articles were sought for, but in vain— the landlord re- 
 turned from the search unsuccessful — and the puncheons and hoop poles were 
 not discovered for many years after, and were then found, after the scite of 
 the present borough of Erie had begun to be cleared, on the spot on which the 
 Court House of Erie now stands. 
 
 During the absence of the over-cunning landlord, the greenhorn, with his 
 axe on his shoulder, made tracks for the forest, penetrated it some ten or 
 twelve miles, found a lot of land to his liking, took its marks and boundaries, 
 repaired to the Land office, made his purchase, received his title deed, and 
 retui-ned and begun to clear a farm. A few others had preceded him, and a 
 small settlement had been liegun. Late in autumn, as winter approached, an 
 examination was made of the quantity of food in the settlement, and it was 
 found there was not enough for all. It was determined, therefore, in order to 
 make it available for the winter, that the young, unmarried settlers, must seek 
 employment elsewhere during the winter months. The decision was immedi- 
 ately acted upon by the Green mountain boy. He betook himself without 
 delay to the woods, felled a large tree, made a "Dug-out" or Canoe, launched 
 in Le Boeuf creek, filled his frail bark with such scanty provision as he could 
 procure, descended in it to French creek, through that stream to the Alle- 
 gheny river, and down that stream to Fort Pitt. Here he found a small set- 
 tlement, a village of log huts adjacent to the Fort— but the inhabitants so far 
 advanced in civilization as to have a sort of market house. He sought em- 
 ployment at this place for the winter, but found great difficulty in obtaining 
 it. After a few days of unsuccessful effort he mounted a butcher's block in 
 tlie market house, and auctioned himself off as a laborer for three months, to 
 ihe highest bidder. The novel plan succeeded— he found an employer. When 
 
61 
 
 spi'ing came he received his wages and obtained his release. With his hard 
 earnings he purchased some flour, bacon, salt, and other articles of food, em- 
 barked in his " Dug-out," paddled his way up the streams he had descended 
 and landed within six or eight miles of his wild home He spent several days 
 in transporting his store of provisions, from his Canoe to his imbryo farm, 
 carrying all on his back. This done, he built a log cabin, the rain descending 
 on the roof of which — such was the peculiar shape of the ground on a sort of 
 elevated ridge — on one side, flowed into streams running into the Gulf of 
 ]\lexico, and on the other into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here he commenced 
 his life of patient toil, and with such success, that for many years past he 
 has possessed one of the largest and finest fanns in Pennsylvania, and has at- 
 tained not only competence, but independence. And he still lives, I believe, 
 to enjoy in a green old age the fruits of his industry and enterprize. 
 
 The other tale relates to the settlement of a land claim, in a somewhat novel, 
 but entirely successful way, the successful party to which, and the narrator of 
 the occurrence, was and is, for I believe he still lives, a neighbour of the for- 
 mer. He was also an early settler, one of the pioneers of that portion of the 
 State. He had "located" a tract of four hundred acres, and paid for it, in 
 a twelve hundred acre section, and had been in undisturbed i^ossession thereof 
 for two or three years. At the end of that time he discovered that certain 
 "squatters," four in number, had taken illegal possession of the entire sec- 
 tion, and in order to secure a pre-emption title, had built a log cabin on the 
 spot where the four tracts united. He sought to eject the intruder on hia 
 tract, but in vain. " At that day," said he to me, " there was no redress at 
 law. For though there were courts and lawyers, the decisions of the one and 
 the pleadings of the other commanded no respect whatever. The best man 
 was the law — the strong arm maintained the surest title. After jawing about 
 it," svich was the language, " a good while, it was agreed on all hands that 
 the best man should liave the tract of land, and a day was appointed for the 
 fight. It took place," said he, pointing to his dwelling house — "in that very 
 building. I had just covered it in. We met in that room"— indicating it 
 with his finger — "it had only an earthen floor. We stripped to the buff, 
 smeared our bodies all over with soft soap, so that no unfair advantage should 
 be taken, went at it, and in half an hour," said he, his eyes sparkling at the 
 recollection of his successful prowess — " he, my antagonist, cried enough, let 
 up, the tract is 7/oiirs.^' On this title I have continued to hold the tract, which 
 1 had previously fairly purchased, and I hold it still. And from this circum- 
 stance, this tract is designated on the County Records as the "Speculator's 
 Defeat Tract." " So mortified," continued my aged narrator, " was the man 
 I flogged, that he instantly made tracks for a distant part of the country, in 
 which he managed to thrive to such a degree, as to become one of the leading 
 men of the Territory, and when it became a State was chosen its first Go- 
 vernor." 
 
 Mr. Aubrey H. Smith, introduced, with the following remarks, the first of 
 the volunteer toasts : 
 
 Mr. President — I do not think it presumptuous to call the times in which 
 we live t/ood. Nay, more. I believe that this will ever be counted the heroic 
 age of the republic — the age of courage, energy, development. AVhen in 
 some remote future the historian limns the outline of our annals; this time and 
 these days will stand sharp out in his picture in the strong colours due to 
 their vigour of thought and intensity of purpose. Men labor now for truth 
 as much as men ever did, for truth in all things and every where. On the 
 outward limits of human knowledge are toiling an army of truth-seekers — 
 look where you will, you see them giving labour, time and life, to their 
 work. They triumph too — no dejjartment of human affairs is void of their 
 triumphs. 
 
 But, Sir, our Society deals with the past, and we look to it, not with the 
 idle curiosity which would recall what had better be forgotten, but with the 
 reverence that honors the past as the mother of the present and the still 
 
62 
 
 grander future. Our past is eminently and peculiarly the mother of the pre- 
 sent. Republicans, democrats in verity as we are — so were those republicans 
 and democrats who first swung their axes in the foi-ests of New England and 
 Virginia. They were not, nor could be else. 
 
 From them as from a primitive root grew every thing. How it grew in those 
 old times, what truths it elaborated, and what triumphs glorify its annals, 
 others are here most fit to tell. I see before me men whose age, whose wisdom, 
 whose means of knowledge, whose habits of life specially qualify them to the 
 task. In the hope that some one of them may assume it, I propose this toast : 
 
 Old Times, Old Trulhs and Old Triumjyhs. — With a hand for the future, we 
 will still have a heart for the past. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Breck was requested to respond, and said : 
 
 " Old Times !" Can young Pennsylvania point to any in her annals? To find 
 any period worthy of the epithet, me must consult her earliest history ; and 
 there, indeed, without diving into very ancient times, we shall find the record 
 of as wise and as able an administration of public aflairs, by members of the 
 Society of Friends ; by unsophisticated, honest and honorable Quakers, as the 
 history any country can exhibit. 
 
 William Peun, the great founder — the master spirit of every movement in 
 those early days, taught his companions, in their first assembly, how to con- 
 stitute a government for freemen, and enjoined upon them to weigh well the 
 following maxim : " Freedom exists only where the laws rule, and i\iQ people are 
 parties to the laws." With this and other equally sound political precepts, ho 
 established constitutional provisions for peaceful government and religious 
 freedom, which have continued to this daj^ with few changes, to be the firm 
 platform, on which Peunsylvanians have placed their dearest pi-ivileges. 
 
 Following the rules established by their illustrious leader, the Quakers, in 
 the course of eighty years, increased a Colony of a few hundred to three hun- 
 dred thousand inhabitants. And this vast multitude was thrown, from year 
 to year, Avhen in process of rapid growth, upon a territory covered with wood 
 and owned by savages. 
 
 * To make room for the thousands that landed on the shores annually, the 
 Indians were to be induced to remove; and to remove too, without causing discon- 
 tent, and then was to be peaceably seated the German, who knew nothing of 
 our language, laws or customs ; and along side, or in pretty close proximity, 
 the English, Scotch, Welsh and Ii'ish. Then followed a class of immigi-ants 
 suited to give much trouble, called Bond-Servants or Redemptioners, and 
 mixed up with these was the negro Slave. 
 
 Do you believe it possible, I\Ir. President, that a population so dissimilar in 
 language, manners, religion, color and customs, could be made to dwell to- 
 gether in happiness and thrift, without superior statesmanship ? Could these 
 distinct and various elements, Sir, be made to harmonize, without the friend- 
 ly sway of something in love and skill, akin to paternal affection ? It was the 
 mildness of the laws, administered by the good Quaker, that brought about 
 this extraordinary and happy result. No coercion, other than that of the law, 
 ■was ever used. None, indeed, was needed ; for during the whole period of 
 Quaker rule, which lasted nearly ninety years, not the slightest commotion or 
 insurrectionary movement took place, unless we except the trifling flun-y of 
 the Paxon boys, and the occasional excitement on days of election, so that 
 the absence of military aid was never felt, nor did any organization of a 
 militia force take place duiiug the long period of Quaker power. 
 
 Thus for several generations a succession of these peaceful, excellent men, 
 bestowed upon a large community, (numbering at the time they relinquished 
 the reins of government, three hundred thousand) that measure of happiness, 
 which it is the aim of the purest legislators to reach, by means of mild, just 
 and appropriate laws, suited to the condition of each and every citizen. Such 
 was their practice, and such their eminent success. Can we, in contem- 
 plating this passage in the history of our Old times, withhold from it the 
 
63 
 
 epithet of Old iriumjihs and Old truths. I think not, for the art of governing 
 was carried to perfection at that period, and claims our highest admiration. 
 
 In the short space of eighty years, Peun's woodland was converted into a 
 cultivated country, rivalling, in some districts the husbandry of Belgium. 
 Savages were made to yield their land willi?iffli/, for a fair equivalent, to the 
 industrious settler, and civilization, (with brotherly love) was established in 
 all our borders, solely by the mild influence of Quaker rule. 
 
 Some among us treat this picture of happiness as an affair devoid of ex- 
 citement. They call them the dull annals of a people without sj^irit, having 
 nothing in them to rouse the mind to action. 
 
 The wars of the Indian chief, Philip, in Massachusetts, and even the ridi- 
 culous pretence for harassing there the many poor creatures for witch-craft, 
 and cruel persecution of Quakers, are adduced as passages fitted to stir the 
 dull intellect, and produce, no matter of what cost, something brilliant and 
 worth reading. 
 
 Wo doubt the brilliancy of our historic pages would have been increased, 
 according to these critics, had they been adorned with Carolinas high sound- 
 ing titles of Palatine, Margrave, Cassick and Barons ; or had Pennsylvania 
 winked at an overt or covert trade with Pirates, or allowed their poor Indians 
 to be kidnapped and sold as slaves in the West Indians. These things were 
 allowed elsewhere in the Colonies, and made their annals more piquant to those 
 wlio are in search of the picturesque. 
 
 One black spot, however, disfigured our fair Quaker picture. I allude te 
 Negro Slavery. The friends in power sought to abolish it at the beginning of 
 the last Century, and actually passed a Colonial law, accompanied by a prohi- 
 bitory duty of £20 per head on every negro imported ; but it was disallowed 
 by the people in power in England, who left Slavery fastened upon us until 
 the year 1780. 
 
 Viewing then the calm, even, equitable and eminently just and successful 
 rule of the people called Quakers, as an Old triumph of Old times, I conclude 
 by offering the following Toast. 
 
 The Quaker government of the Province of Pennsylvania, during the first 
 eighty years of its history, distinguished alike for its ability, its wisdom and 
 its inimatched success. 
 
 Mr. Horatio G. Jones, Jr., introduced the second volunteer toast, and 
 said — While we are commemorating the virtues of William Peun, the founder 
 of our commonwealth, than whom few statesmen of his age are entitled to 
 greater praise, it is no more than proper to refer to other American pioneers 
 who suffered as great hardships as that noble apostle of Religious liberty. I 
 shall not refer to the Pilgrim fathers of New England — the Catholics of 
 Maryland, or the Cavaliers of Virginia — for their praises and virtues have 
 been often sung — but I purpose to call attention to the Dutchmen of New 
 Amsterdam, between whom and the early settlers of Pennsylvania there 
 were many strong ties of interest. The provinces of Pennsylvania and Dela- 
 ware were, at one time, under their control, and as all present know, the 
 records of those early days are filled with interesting accounts of the contests 
 between the Dutch and the Swedes for the mastery of this portion of the 
 newly settled country. I forbear to give the details of the mode of warfare 
 which the Knickerbockers adopted, as I see before me one of their descendants 
 — [Hon. James W. Beekman of New York] who, I doubt not, with the true 
 spirit of a Netherlander, has attentively studied the history of those early 
 days as related by that venerable historian, the famous Diedrick Knicker- 
 bocker. 
 
 But, Sir, there is another reason equally to the point why I propose to 
 toast the settlers of the Hudson. As all are aware, the Hudson — then, as it 
 is now called, " the North River" — and the Delaware — named by way of 
 contradistinction, "the South River" — were discovered by one and the same 
 person — the far famed Hcndrick Hudson, whose unfortunate and untimely 
 fate is lamented by every student of American history. 
 
 Besides, Sir, our Province was under the government of the Duke of York, 
 
64 
 
 and was purchased from him by AVilliam Penn in August 1082, the year of 
 his first visit to this country, and so highly did our Founder value the friend- 
 ship of the early settlers on the Hudson, that after viewing the site of this 
 great city, and even before he gave his people a form of government, he 
 made a visit to the city of New York for the purpose, as he said, of paying 
 " his duty to the Duke of York by visiting his Province." 
 
 The friendly relations which were then established have subsisted until 
 the present day, and far distant be the period when they shall be disturbed. 
 
 The Keystone State has increased in population, in wealtli, and in power, 
 and has become a mighty commonwealth, while the Empire State with strides 
 like those of a giant, has advanced, until it wields an iutlueucc almost un- 
 bounded, upon the welfare of the Piepublic. 
 
 Sir, the settlers of the Hudson were men of virtue, intelligence and bravery, 
 and their descendants are now treading in the pathway which their noble 
 ancestors first ojiened ; and the valley of the Hudson, sanctified by a thou- 
 sand delightful memories, has become classic ground. 
 
 We have reason to be proud of the fraternal intercourse which existed 
 between the founders of these great States — and I know I am only expressing 
 the feelings of all present, when I say that the descendants of "the South 
 River" extend to the descendants of " the North lliver" the liand of a cordial 
 and sincere friendship. 
 
 Mr. Jones then read the following toast. 
 
 The Original Settlers on the Hudson: Brave, hardy and liumane ; they 
 opened the path of Empire, and atfordod an example of those virtues that 
 secured triumph to the Pilgrim Fathers of America. 
 
 Mr. James W. Beekman responded as follows : 
 
 In thanking you, Mr. President, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
 for the very cordial manner in which you are pleased to compliment the 
 Netherlands founders of New York, it will, perhaps, be pardoned me, if I am 
 tempted, in view of the eminence of your city and Commonwealth in all the 
 attributes that can ennoble a metropolis, or a State, to claim for such a pos- 
 terity a Netherlands beginning. 
 
 The enterprize of Hudson opened to the world the South as well as the 
 North river; for, although he merely looked into the Capos of the Delaware 
 in 1009, when seeking a passage to the North, and although Verrazani, in 
 1525, almost a century earlier, had seen the land near Wilmington, Hudson 
 first drew attention to the Delaware, as has been suggested by the gentle- 
 man who preceded me. There is good reason to believe that Adrian Block, 
 in the first vessel built on this continent, the Onrust — a little yacht of 
 fourteen tons — visited the South river about 1010, and in the great ship 
 New Netherlands, built at Manhattan by Wouter Van Twiller, Cornelius 
 Jacobson Mey brought the first emigrants to the South river in 102.3. Ameri- 
 can ship building began on Manhattan. Where now is the Bowling Green, 
 in New York city, was then the water's edge, and there was built the little 
 Onrast, or Restless, in 1010. Probably on the eastern side of the "Capsee," 
 or point where the East and North rivers divide, was launched the New 
 Netherlands, a great ship of about 400 tons, the cost of building which gave 
 serious ofl"ence, as a piece of extravagance, to the Directors of the AVest India 
 Company. 
 
 As early as 1004, a merchant of Antwerp, William Usselincx, had exerted 
 himself to establish a company to trade to America from the Straits of Magel- 
 lan to Terra Nova. Usselincx had himself visited the Spanish West Indies, 
 and had formed the vastest expectations of the profit likely to enure from a 
 Western commerce ; and he enumerated among the advantages of his enter- 
 prize, that in the course of time the saving faith and gospel of Jesus Christ 
 may be planted there. The Company was formed. The States General were 
 on the point of granting the charter of incorporation, when affairs of State 
 diverted their attention from private claims, and the matter was dropped. 
 
 Usselincx, however, did not dcspaii-. Twenty years later he had become 
 
65 
 
 a resident of Stockholm, and to his exertions there is due the great Swedish 
 Company, authorized by Gustavus and the States, on the 2d July, 1G26. The 
 great Oxenstiern was a warm friend of the undertaking, but Usselincx, the 
 Dutchman, was the father of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware. Fort 
 Nassau, the earliest and the forgotten, was built by Cornelius Mey and his 
 emigrants in 1623. Where was Fort Nassau? asks the antiquarian as yet in 
 vain, and the maps of the period, with a few exceptions, seem only to in- 
 crease the doubt. The persevering labors of the Pennsylvania and New 
 Jersey Societies, at present directed to this point, will soon determine its 
 precise situation. Perhaps the best map extant, is Areiit Eooffeveen, probably 
 published in 1675, which contains a number of soundings of the depth of 
 water in the river, and appears to be altogether more accurate than the 
 others. Roogeveen placed Fort Nassau nearly opposite the mouth of Schuyl- 
 kill, and a little above. 
 
 Next came Wm. Verhulst, in 1625, and at Trenton Falls, on an island, a 
 settlement of three or four families of Walloons. In 1630 or 1631, ten or 
 twelve servants of the West India Company were occupying a trading house 
 there. Old Gabriel Thomas, in alluding to Stacey's Island as the place where 
 the Dutch built only two or three houses, but made very little improvement, 
 probably referred to Verhulsten Eylandt. Mr. Broadhead, long known as 
 devoted to Historical research, is about to give to Antiquarians a book on 
 the Early History of New York, which abounds in the i-arest materials for 
 neighboring annals. To an acquaintance with his labors, I am indebted for 
 many curious facts. 
 
 1631 came De Vries, in the good ship Woivis, Captain Peter Heyn, and 
 planted the ill-fated colony of Zwanendal. They built a brick house — but 
 all perished in 1632 by an Indian massacre. 
 
 1633, two years later, Arent Corsen purchased for the W. I. Company, of 
 the Indi.^ns, Armenveruit, a tract of land on the Schuylkill, near the spot 
 where afterwards stood Fort Beversrede ; and in 1646, in the month of Sep- 
 tember, Andries Hudde purchased from the savages a piece of land on the 
 West shore, about a mile (four and a half miles English) from Fort Nassau 
 to the North. This was the site of the future city of Penn, and Netherlands 
 proprietaries held at the same time the two greatest cities of America. 
 
 Fort Beversrede encountered the especial spite of the Swedes, who built a 
 large house in front of the Fort, while a redoubtable Swede named Moens 
 Kling, " with twenty-four men marching in ranks," cut down all the trees 
 in the neighborhood. 
 
 Fort Nassau was finally demolished by Stuyvesant in 1651, because it was 
 too far up the river. 
 
 But, ]\Ir. Chairman, there is another aspect in which the pilgrim fathers of 
 Pennsylvania and New York are to be regarded. We have been celebrating 
 to-day with well merited and appropriate honors the landing of Wm. Penn — 
 the christian, the philanthropist, the legislator, the first statesman who has 
 demonstrated by experiment the omnipotence of the law of love — that eleventh 
 commandment which includes all the other ten. 
 
 The Dutch colonists, too, always respected the rights of Indians. They 
 purchased land from the savages by honest barter, and Andries Hudde pur- 
 chased, in 1646, the soil of Fort Beversrede as honestly as Penn, 35 years 
 later, extinguished the Indian title to the lands he bought by the treaty at 
 Shackamaxon. Unworthy servants of the West India Company were some- 
 times guilty of wrong doing, but their orders were to do i-ight. 
 
 Just a century before Wm. Penn received from Charles II. the patent which 
 made him proprietor of Pennsylvania, in July, 1581, the States General of 
 Holland published to the world a declai'ation of independence, in which the 
 great doctrines of popular sovereignty are set forth in worthy words, to be 
 maintained by worthy deeds — " Subjects are not created for the Prince, but 
 the Prince for the subjects," who may always abjure allegiance to a bad 
 sovereign. For sixty-seven years the Netherlands struggled against these 
 successive sovereigns of Spain, until the resistance became efFectual, and 
 
 U 
 
66 
 
 civil and religious liberty, with .toleration for all, became the birthright of 
 every Dutchman. These liberties and freedom of conscience they carried to 
 New Netherlands, and both North and South River witnessed their plantings. 
 
 Did the stern military ideas of Stuyvesant lead him to punish Broivn for 
 being a Quaker, by sending him to Holland, the Home Government sent him 
 back, with a stern rebuke to the Director-General. Jesuit missionaries were 
 ransomed from the Mohawks by Calvinistic Dutchmen ; Megapolensis, at the 
 same time with the Jesuit Jogues, was striving to instruct the savages several 
 years before Eliot, at Watertown and Dorchester. 
 
 The Waldenses fleeing from Savoy took refuge in Amsterdam. Cavaliers 
 and Baptists fled from New England to Manhattan for protection and liberty 
 of conscience. The minister and schoolmaster accompanied ihe emigrant, 
 and in 1657 Domine Everardas Welius, with 400 Hollanders, settled at New 
 Amstel. So great even then were the attractions of the Delaware, that 30 
 families left Manhattan and removed thither. 
 
 Penn founded everything anew. Coming to his new possessions with ample 
 resources and numerous settlers, the city where we now commemorate his 
 fame sprang to maturity more wonderfully than even the modern cities of 
 the West. Old Gabriel Thomas, who lived fifteen years after in Philadel- 
 phia, and came over, as he says, in the year 1681 — the ship's name was the 
 John and Sarah of London, Henry Smith, commander — describes, with 
 pride, the impi'ovements of the place. " I saw," says he, " the first cellar 
 when it was digging for the use of our Governor, William Penn." And he 
 describes Philadelphia as having above 2000 noble houses in 1697. There 
 are above 30 carts. "Some lots," said he, "that might have been then 
 purchased for three pounds, within the space of two years were sold for a 
 hundred pounds a-piece ; and these lots were first laid out within the compass 
 of about twelve years." 
 
 Within one year from its founding, your city contained nearly one hundred 
 houses; at the end of two years, 2500 inhabitants. New Amsterdam had 
 no such growth. In 1656, a survey by Capt. Konyok showed 120 houses 
 and only 1000 souls, forty years after its settlement. In the same year, 
 there wei'e four clergymen of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Nether- 
 land; and I may mention, in passing, that in 1561 there were salt works at 
 Coney Island, since so famous, where Dick De AVolf manufactured sea salt. 
 
 Manhattan suffered under the commercial thrift of the company which had 
 established its colony for trade, and trade alone. Philadelphia, eai'ly set 
 free from all unworthy shackles, and practicing the holy precepts which her 
 name implies, has won a name proudly eminent in letters, morals, and in 
 arts. May 1 be permitted to propose a toast ? 
 
 The present dwellers upon the Delaware, worthy descendants of the ancient 
 settlers on the South River, have nobly trod the path of Empire which their 
 forefathers pointed out. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Rawle, in introducing the third volunteer toast, said : 
 
 After so many interesting toasts and so many eloquent and stirring addresses, 
 it requires no small degree of courage to offer another toast, and still more to 
 attempt to address this company ; the more so, in my own case, as the duty 
 which I understood had been assigned to me, has, as I have been informed a 
 very short time ago, been changed and connected with different subjects. 
 
 No one, however, has reason to complain at being called upon to offer sucli 
 a toast as that annexed to my name, and I have only to regret that it has not 
 fallen into hands more capable of suddenly casting aside one subject and adopt- 
 ing another. 
 
 The State of Maryland, so closely connected with us by geographical posi- 
 tion and mutual interest, may, like Pennsylvania, trace back her prosperity 
 and happiness to the introduction of those principles which were implanted by 
 her illustrious founder. 
 
 Lord Baltimore, the proprietary of a large and fruitful territory, divided 
 into two parts by an immense inland sea, into whose bosom a tliuusand tri- 
 
67 
 
 butaries empty themselves ; bounded on one side by one magnificent river and 
 intersected by another, headed his little band of colonists, and at St. Mary's 
 planted the cross with all the ceremonies and solemnities of the most imposing 
 form of religion known ia the Christian world. 
 
 Penn, the proprietary of a territory more vast and abounding in greater re- 
 sources, led his pilgrims to the shoves which were to be the scene of his mis- 
 sion ; plain, unadorned men, in all the plainness and simplicity of a new reli- 
 gion, which had sprung up under the auspices of a humble and unknown 
 individual, which met with no favor or respect from the world, and which, 
 until it was adopted by William Penn, numbered no man of worldly conse- 
 quence as a member. 
 
 What points of sympathy or union could there be between Lord Baltimore 
 and his colony and William Penn and his ? — the Catholic and the Quaker. 
 
 Though the external symbol of the cross was not planted in the soil of Penn- 
 sylvania, it was deeply rooted in the breast of the founder. 
 
 Though the visible cross was uprearcd amidst all the magnificent ceremonies 
 of the Catholic church, yet the pure and saving doctrines of Him who died 
 upon the cross for the salvation of man, warmed the heart and enlightened the 
 views of Baltimore. 
 
 The star of peace and happiness did not shine alone for the Catholic or the 
 Quaker. 
 
 They acknowledged the right of all mankind to seek and enjoy its benign 
 influences according to the dictates of their own consciences. 
 
 With opinions at vai-iance in doctrine, and still more in forms and discipline, 
 with temporal interests which had in them the elements of discord, they united 
 in proclaiming to that portion of the new world which was theirs, universal 
 religious freedom. 
 
 What could more emphatically illustrate the wisdom and the goodness of 
 their characters ? 
 
 In what manner could the value of the principles they inculcated be more 
 beautifully illustrated than in the subsequent history of their respective pro- 
 vinces, now great and powerful States ? 
 
 Some of the descendants of Lord Baltimore are still living in the land of their 
 forefathers. 
 
 And we have the gratification of numbering among our guests, the represen- 
 tative of William Penn in the person of his great-grandson. 
 
 If the great-grandson of William Penn could cari-y his mind back to those 
 primitive times when little of this great and flourishing State was reclaimed 
 from the hand of the savage, and the dreary forests resounded with the howl 
 of wild beasts — when the habitations of civilized man were confined to the nar- 
 row limits of the river shore — when habits and manners were plain and simple 
 — when houses were deemed sufficient if they served to protect the indwellers 
 from the stormy elements, and food and raiment were designed to supply actual 
 wants — I say, if he could carry his mind back to those primitive times, and 
 compare them with what he has seen since his short sojourn among us, he 
 would be lost in admiration and wonder. 
 
 The narrow strip to which the sparse population of Pennsylvania was then 
 confined, has been expanded to the utmost limit of its vast territoiy, and a 
 population of between two and three millions is spread over its surface. 
 
 The trackless forest has given way to flourishing and populous towns, and 
 innumerable and fertile fai'ms, which spread prosperity and happiness every 
 where. 
 
 Even the rugged mountains, which were considered worthless excrescences 
 on the fair face of nature, teem with boundless wealth, brought into active 
 operation by the hand of industry. 
 
 Our magnificent rivers, over which the painted Indian paddled his log canoe, 
 now bear upon their bosoms, or through the canals they feed, an immense and 
 rapidly increasing commerce. 
 
 And Philadelphia, what was it when visited by William Penn, little more 
 than a century and a half ago, and what is it when visited by his great-grandson ? 
 
68 
 
 I shall not attempt a comparison, but I may be allowed to say that the caves, 
 and few log cabins, and ill-constructed shanties which formed the habitations 
 of the first settlers, have yielded to streets of palaces, and the busy marts of 
 commerce. 
 
 The plain and simple manners and tastes of our forefathers have been driven 
 out by luxury, elegance and refinement, which were then only known in the 
 metropolitan cities of Europe. 
 
 Perhaps we have advanced too far and too fast in the path of luxury. But 
 to me, at least, it is a source of pleasing reflection that some of the coloring of 
 our ancestors still tinges our character. 
 
 We have been called the Quaker city, and a drab colored popiilation. 
 
 I accept the appellations with pleasure, not as terms of derision in which 
 sense they have been applied, but as highly complimentary and gratifying; for 
 they imply that we have not entirely cast off those features of sobriety, sim- 
 plicity, industry, and honesty which marked the character of our ancestors. 
 
 But perhaps I have been led to say too much of my honored native State. 
 
 This was natural at such a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
 vania, as a member of which I take great interest in all its concerns. 
 
 This Society has done much good in rescuing from oblivion many important 
 facts which otherwise would have been lost. 
 
 But it is not to herself alone that she is indebted for all the treasures she 
 possesses. 
 
 It is a source of congratulation to the Historical Societies of every State that 
 their sister States have felt the importance of forming them, and among them 
 that of Maryland is not the least in importance and usefulness. 
 
 I regard Historical Societies in our respective States as having strong claims 
 to encouragement and support. 
 
 They not only mutually assist each other in furthering the common objects 
 of their creation, but they form a bond of union between the States them- 
 selves, now so loudly called for by every patriot, and so absolutely essential to 
 our existence as a free, independent, and happy nation. 
 
 I cannot but reflect with horror upon the bare possibility of these pillars of 
 our national edifice being broken and thrown down, and all that we hold dear 
 involved in a common ruin. 
 
 I have endeavored very faintly to point out some of the blessings which have 
 flowed from the adoption of the Christian policy of religious freedom in Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 The same picture of the same happy result may be painted of Maryland. 
 
 Look on her vast improvements, her railroads and canals, her beautiful city 
 of hills and monuments — her happy, industrious, wealthy population, and who 
 shall say that these gardens, like those of Pennsylvania, have not flourished 
 under the fertilizing influence of the waters drawn from the well of religious 
 liberty. 
 
 Permit me to offer as a toast : 
 
 Maryland — Our Sister in the establishment of Religious Liberty in our land. 
 
 Mr. Brantz Mayer, of Baltimore, who was expected to reply to this senti- 
 ment, was unavoidably absent, but sent the following letter, which was appi'o- 
 priately prefaced with some brief remarks, and read by Mr. John Cadwalader, 
 
 Letter from Brantz Mayer, of Baltimore. 
 To Edward Armstrong, &c., a Committee of the Historical Society of Penn'a. 
 Gentlemen— The Maryland Historical Society received your invitation to 
 elect and send one of its members as its representative at the festival you pro- 
 pose holding in memory of the illustrious founder of Pennsylvania. At its last 
 meeting our Society honored me with the appointment, and I am indeed sorry 
 that I was not present, so as to enable the members to select some one else to 
 perform this pleasant duty, inasmuch as a professional engagement will un- 
 avoidably take me elsewhere. You will not, however, fail, I hope, to convey 
 
69 
 
 to your colleagues around the social board our Society's cordial thanks for this 
 friendly remembrance. It will be a source of sorrow to our members that they 
 were not represented as you desired on this occasion — even so feebly as they 
 would have been by myself. INIaryland and Pennsylvania have many common 
 historical ties independently of their geographical union ; our land was, indeed, 
 an object of contention between the early proprietors; but when wars began 
 our people went shoulder to shoulder through all their dangers, from the mo- 
 ment when our Chase, our Cai-roU and their colleagues signed the sacred de- 
 claration within that venerable Philadelphia Hall, which the whole world now 
 considers consecrated to the great principle of National Independence. 
 
 It is true that certain worthy gentlemen, known in history as "Mason and 
 Dixon," did actually venture, upon a memorable occasion, to "run a line" 
 betwixt us ; yet we all knew that those excellent persons, with all their skill, 
 were never able to produce any other than a "mathematical line," which science 
 defines to be length without breadth or thickness. Other more tangible lines 
 have since crossed or welded us together. The iron road and the metallic wire 
 pass it with permanent security, sending our people or their thoughts to and 
 fro without hindrance. Nay, we have not only fought, travelled and traded 
 together until our material interests are blended, but we have often gone " over 
 the border" on tenderer and dearer forays, and many a Maryland and a Penn- 
 sylvania matron honors and adorns our interchanged homes. 
 
 Well, then, may Maryland send hearty greetings to your noble Keystone 
 State, which has consolidated the arch of our Union. Calvert and Penn were 
 the founders of literature among the forests of this western world, and from 
 their noble plantings have sprung the national principles on whose progressive 
 stability the hopes of freedom must repose. 
 
 Allow me, as an appropriate sentiment, to offer — The memory of these two 
 illustrious men. 
 
 With great respect, Bkantz Mayer. 
 
 The fourth volunteer toast was : 
 
 The Laborers in the Vineyard of American History. Their efforts have been 
 worthy of their theme. — Their theme would reward a Thucydides. 
 In reply to which the committee received the following from 
 
 Me. Charles J. Ingeesoll: 
 
 Dear Sir: — The tyranny of the press which by more i\ia,n peine forte et dure, 
 extorts speeches before their delivery, a Ciesarean operation to which I never 
 will submit — fatal, let me tell you and all other nascent orators, to one of the 
 best powers of our country, public speaking — and one of those violations of 
 truth, a fraud, become habitual with the press — that tyranny, as I detest all 
 tyrants, ought to make my consistency refuse the reqiiest of your note of the 
 24th inst. But as your humble servant I answer it, that while I had not put 
 pen to paper, I did not go to the festival altogether without some cogitations, 
 as well as I can recall them, as follows — 
 
 I happened that day to be again reading DeTocqueville's Democracy in 
 America, where he writes, "America has till now had but a very small num- 
 ber of remarkable writers ; she has no great historians — does not count one 
 poet. The inhabitants regard literature, properly speaking, with a sort of 
 disfavour. Third rate cities in Europe publish every year more literary works 
 than the twenty-four States of the Union together." 
 
 This disparagement is not the ejaculation of any cockney itinerant, but of 
 a learned foreigner admiring this country and disposed to extol its institutions. 
 Why then his thirteenth edition of that contumely published in the year 1851 ? 
 Because we Americans are false to ourselves. Not to go beyond history, who 
 reads Ramsey's History of the Revolution, or Stanhope Smith's continuation 
 of it to the Treaty of Ghent ? or Marshall's Life of Washington ? Certainly 
 not one in ten thousand of those who dwell with delight on Macaulay's absur- 
 dities against Penn, nor one in twenty thousand of the doters on David Cop- 
 perfield, 
 
70 
 
 Then 1 had meditated some animadversions on Macaulay's pleasant, and if 
 you please, charming, but false and foolish relations of bastard princes and 
 strumpet duchesses and his despicable misrepresentation of Penn — the founder 
 of a Commonwealth already greater than Scotland — a great conservative re- 
 former of legislation, of jurisprudence, of Society, no red republican, but a 
 pious and provident founder of free government on the Christian Religion. 
 
 I would have insisted that unless diction and fiction be preferable to plain 
 English and truth, Proud's History of Pennsylvania is a better book than 
 Macaulay's History of England. 
 
 And with that assertion I intended to connect some notice of Stanhope 
 Smith's continuation of Piamsey's history, an excellent narrative of important 
 events, and as Dr. Smith was president of Princeton College while I was there, 
 I would have said something of that exemplary divine, fine scholai', eloquent 
 preacher, accomplished gentleman, like hundreds of others like him, totally 
 eclipsed by inferior Europeans viewed through American eye-glasses. 
 
 Finally, as well as I remember, I would have quoted the recent article in the 
 London Times, which says, that America seems determined to have a literature 
 of her own, as well as other things, and that when Americans set about any- 
 thing, they are very sure to efl'ect it. 
 
 Some such effort at American independence in literature — " Let independence 
 be our boast," you know is the chorus to Hail Columbia, would have been the 
 tenor of my audacity. 
 
 I am, very sincerely, y'rs, 
 
 C. J. Ingeusoll. 
 
 Nov. 26, '52. 
 
 Dr. a. L. Elwyn, introduced the following as the fifth volunteer toast : — 
 
 The Army and Navy. — Their battles have been those of Right ; their 
 triumphs those of Humanity ; their glory is the glory of the country. 
 
 On an occasion like this, Mr. Chairman, when we come together to celebrate 
 the advent on this continent of a man of Peace, a harangue upon the glory 
 acquired in war by your citizens, can hardly be considered appropriate. It 
 would be better left to the Hustings, to the vehemence of the stump, or the 
 orgies of a Fourth of July. 
 
 But, Sir, on all and every occasion, under any and all circumstances, I pre- 
 sume an American is at liberty to show feeling, or even enthusiasm, when he 
 speaks of those whose deeds have made his country famous — in whose glory 
 he himself shares — by whose reputation he himself is honored. It would 
 argue a low degree of patriotism, and a temperament somewhat too stoical, if 
 a citizen of this country, could listen to the narration of the heroism of his 
 fellow countrymen, without pride, or know that their conduct had given a 
 new impulse to national greatness, without a feeling of triumph. It matters 
 not how deep and strong his principles may be, which inculcate peace, for- 
 bearance, or toleration of wrong, even to non-resistance, his manly nature, 
 and his love of his country, will stir every pulse, as report brings to him, and 
 fame spreads far, the victories of his country. This is natural and not to be 
 resisted, however, the heart may suppose itself steeled by indiiference, or 
 made cold and dead by the struggles of faction, and the animosity of political 
 strife. But, Sir, our wars have not as yet been wars of ambition ; no one 
 man has brought them on us for self-elevation, or personal aggrandizement. 
 They have been wars of defence, and not of aggression, wars ordered by the 
 people, and carried through by the people. They have increased, too, the 
 political wisdom of the world. In all past times, tyrants and oligarchies have 
 made wars for their own particular ends, but we have told the world a secret, 
 that a nation, and every man in that nation, will raise his arm in defence of a 
 principle, and risk for it, in the chances of battle, his life and his fortune. 
 
 We have also shown the world, that roused by the occasion, our citizens, of 
 their own will, "by just revenge inflamed," will not only enrol themselves, 
 as the soldiers of their country, but calmly prepare for the terrible necessities, 
 of battle, by a quiet submission to the stei'n severities of discipline. Such 
 
71 
 
 men are patriots as well as soldiers, men of peace, and the gallant defenders 
 of their country, men who, on this occasion, when we celebrate the landing of 
 the great Friend and the Man of Peace, merit our praise and our grateful 
 remembrance. 
 
 Gen. Robt. Patterson, in replj'ing to the toast said : — 
 
 It gives me great pleasure, IMr. President, to comply Trith the request of the 
 committee of arrangement, and of the officers of the army present, in respond- 
 ing to this toast. I thank you. Sir, and the gentlemen of the Society, for the 
 well-deserved compliment paid to the army and navy, and for the cordial 
 manner in which the sentiment was received. There are, I believe, some 
 gentlemen of the Navy present, who will do justice to that gallant arm of the 
 service, and I will, therefore, in the few words 1 have to say, refer to the 
 Army only. 
 
 While I could not, under any circumstances, fail to embrace the oppor- 
 tunity your kindness affords me, I do so the more readily, because I am no 
 longer in the army. I can, without indelicacy, speak of my late companions 
 as they deserve to be spoken of, and my testimony in their behalf, will at 
 least, have the merit of being disinterested as coming from one, whose con- 
 nexion with them is severed forever. 
 
 You have truly said. Sir, that " their battles have been those of right." 
 I believe with you, that every war in which our country has been engaged, 
 from the war of the revolution to that with Mexico, has bee« a just and 
 righteous war, and I rejoice, that a body of gentlemen who form no opinion 
 lightly or inconsiderately, deliberately affirm the fact. But for this, the army 
 can claim no credit. The honor of being right, rests with the distinguished 
 men who composed the administration of the general government when war 
 was declared. The soldier, it is true, will fight with a stouter heart and 
 stronger arm, when fully confident of the justice of his cause, but it is not for 
 him to question the authority which sends him to the field. 
 
 It is equally true, and here, Sir, the glory is all their own, that " their 
 triumphs" have invariably been " those of humanity." With them, victory 
 has ever been crowned by mercy, and no outrage on a vanquished foe has tar- 
 nished their renown or sullied a page of their country's history. 
 
 In the campaigns on both lines in Mexico, from the accomplished com- 
 mander-in-chief tlown to the recruit of the occasion, a common determination 
 pervaded the army to respect the rights and protect the persons and property 
 of the conquered enemy. That army governed, people hailed the advent of the 
 American army, because of the protection it afforded them from the rapacity 
 of their own, retiring to rest at night and going forth to their daily labor in 
 the morning with a sense of security never enjoyed before or since. 
 
 It must be to you, gentlemen, and to every American, a source of proud 
 reflection, that your little army of veteran regulars and gallant volunteers 
 carried your young flag from battle-field to battle-field always in victory, and 
 from the day it landed at Corpus Christi until it left the shores of the enemy's 
 country, unstained by a single act of oppi'ession or inhumanity. 
 
 The army has faithfully and gallantly defended the rights and upheld the 
 honor of the nation. I ask you, gentlemen, to unite in protecting it from 
 ungenerous assault and the possibility of injudicious legislation. I do so, 
 because the opinion is gaining currency, and to some extent in high places, 
 that a regular army is unnecessary in time of peace. If this mischievous 
 theory shall ever be carried into practical effect, its results will teach the 
 country a costly lesson. The present regular army is indispensable for border 
 service and frontier protection, and is barely sufficient for those purposes. 
 At this moment, to protect the South Western frontier, and prevent an Indian 
 war, the government has been compelled to leave with scarcely a guard, many 
 posts on the seaboard, costing millions to construct, and of the last importance 
 in the event of a war with a maritime power. This occurs, too, when the 
 intervention of a military force may at any moment become necessary to 
 strengthen the arm of civil power in arresting the profligate schemes of those 
 
72 
 
 who, in reckless disregard of solemn national obligations, as well as of the 
 rights and feelings of a people among our earliest and most constant friends, 
 and for purposes purely and exclusively selfish and sinister, seek an occasion 
 for entailing on the country the horrors and crimes of an unnecessary and 
 unjust war. 
 
 Every officer, regular or volunteer, who has served in the field, will, I think, 
 concur with me, that a good well-disciplined army is essential as a nucleus, 
 on which in war, new regulars and volunteers may form, and that the require- 
 ments of the country are fully met, in what we now have and ought to keep, 
 the best army of its size in the world, with officers of the line of the highest 
 order of professional ability, and a well organized general stafi^, including an 
 admirably selected body of medical gentlemen, and an engineer corps, perhaps 
 unequalled, certainly unsurpassed in any other service. 
 
 To such an army, and to such volunteers as we had in the war with Mexico, 
 and will have again, when occasion may require, the honor of the country may 
 safely be confided. 
 
 Mr. John M. Read, proposed the following as the sixth volunteer toast: — 
 The Press. — The Sword and Shield of Truth and Freedom. 
 
 Prefacing the sentiment with the following remarks, he said : — 
 
 A Free Press can only exist in a Free Country, and even there, it must be 
 secured from inijust persecution by the intervention of a popular tribunal ; I 
 mean, the trial by Jury. This is its shield. When thus protected in its 
 free discussion of the Government, and of the laws — of public measures and 
 public men, and of the difi'erent branches of the administration, whether exe- 
 cutive, legislative, or judicial, the press becomes in its turn, the sword and 
 shield of truth and freedom. 
 
 Yet the trial by jury in criminal cases, is but a mockery, unless that tribunal 
 is free in the exercise of its legal powers, to declare those innocent whom its 
 members believe to be so. This has always been the law of Pennsylvania, and 
 to its founder William Penn, is due the praise of having established it as the 
 settled doctrine of England and America. 
 
 AVhere there is no preliminary license to print, the mode of attacking the 
 press is by information or indictment, and if the just powers of the jury can 
 be usurped by the Judge, who is a permanent ofiicer of the government, it can 
 be as successfully muzzled as in a despotism, where it lives on the will of one 
 man. 
 
 By the English law, a jury always had an undisputed right to find a general 
 verdict in criminal cases of guilty or not guilty, and if they acquitted the 
 prisoner, no power known to the constitution could revise or reverse its deci- 
 sion. This principle was boldly proclaimed by Col. Libburne, in the times of 
 the Commonwealth, and secured his acquittal ; and in the reign of Charles II., 
 two Quakers as they are styled, Penn and Mead, contended for the same doc- 
 trine, and succeeded, for Bushell's case which grew out of it, solemnly decided, 
 that the jury had a clear and undoubted right to find a general verdict, and 
 that they could neither be imprisoned, nor fined, nor questioned, for its 
 exercise. 
 
 William Penn came to America, bringing with him this sacred portion of 
 the English law, and his earliest acts of government, recognize it as one of the 
 foundations upon which he rested the future prosperity of his settlement. 
 According to this well settled constitutional principle, the jury in criminal 
 cases are the judges of the law and the facts, and Andrew Hamilton, the cele- 
 brated Philadelphia lawyer, stated it as an unquestioned rule of law, in the 
 Provincial Supreme Court of New York, in the case of Peter Zerger ; for his 
 services in which case, he received the thanks of the corpoi'ation of New York, 
 and the freedom of the city. 
 
 "Trial by jury shall be as heretofore," say all the Constitutions of this 
 State, and our present one adds, "and the right thereof shall remain invio- 
 late." 
 
Tbis clause of the constitution has never, in this point, been disregarded or 
 evaded by any Pennsylvania Judge ; and I am certain never will be ; for those 
 high stations will always be filled by men too deeply imbued with the princi- 
 ples of civil liberty, to wish to encroach upon the settled rights of the tribunal 
 of the people. 
 
 In England, the same doctrine confirmed in the case of the seven Bishops, 
 remained undisturbed until about the year 1729, when in indictments for libel, 
 a contrary rule was adopted by the judges, in spite of the arguments of 
 Camden and the eloquence of Erskine, which gave rise to Mr. Fox's libel act, 
 which restored the old law, putting libel on the same footing with all other 
 criminal cases. All the English Judges from the time of Lord Ellenborough, 
 have treated this as simply a declaratory act of what the law was, and not as 
 euunciating any new principle. 
 
 The law of England is therefore exactly the same as the law of Pennsyl- 
 vania on this subject, as declared by the judges of both countries. Such also 
 has at all times been the law of Scotland. 
 
 There is one other point intimately connected with the freedom of the press, 
 I mean the freedom of elections, upon which head, not only Pennsylvania, but 
 the United States, (and I hope England soon will,) owe a lasting debt of grati- 
 tude to William Penn. 
 
 The vote by ballot had been practised in the latter days of the Roman 
 Republic, but was disapproved of by Cicero, because the vote of the plebeians 
 was thus made secret, and was not known to the patricians. It had been 
 introduced in a modified form in the Republic of Venice, and was advocated 
 by Sir Thomas I\lore, the Chancellor of Henry the Eighth, in his Utopia. The 
 same method of elections, forms a part of the scheme of polity traced out by 
 Sir John Harrington, in his Oceana ; but it was reserved for AVilliam Penn, 
 solemnly to adopt it as a fundamental principle in his Frame of Government, 
 as the best preservative of the purity of elections, and of the civil and religious 
 liberty which he had planted in our favored soil. 
 
 Our revolutionary fathers incorporated this principle of the secret ballot 
 into our earliest constitution and by immediate legislative enactment, carried 
 out the principle of inviolable secrecy to its utmost extent 
 
 The Constitution of Pennsylvania has in the fewest possible words, marked 
 out the distinction between secret and open voting, and has extended the 
 former to all cases of election " except tkose by persons in their representa- 
 tive capacities who shall vote viva voce." 
 
 This principle of vote by ballot prevails almost universally in the United 
 States, and in many of them is secured by constitutional provisions. In two 
 States, where the vote was formerly an open one, the method of the secret 
 ballot has been introduced within the last two years, with entire success ; and 
 even England has allowed it in one of her dependencies, the Ionian Republic ; 
 and the dreadful scenes of bribery, corruption, and intimidation, which attend 
 every election of members of Parliament, are paving the way for the introduc- 
 tion of William Penn's sovereign remedy, the ballot-box, into the country of 
 his birth. 
 
 These two great popular powers ; trial by jury, and the vote by ballot, 
 secure the freetlom of the press, which in return, must cover them with its 
 shield, whilst it uses its sword to cut down all those enemies of liberty, who 
 would lay their sacrilegious hands upon either or both of these pillars of our 
 free constitution. 
 
 Mr. Morton McMichael responded to the sentiment of Mr. Read, as 
 follows : — 
 
 Mr. President : The whole company, I am sure, is under obligations to the 
 distinguished gentleman who has just addressed us, for his excellent and elo- 
 quent exposition of the services rendered by our illustrious founder, to the 
 cause of free speech and free writing; and it is especially my duty, to acknow- 
 ledge that obligation in behalf of the newspaper press which I am called upon 
 to represent. 
 
 10 
 
74 
 
 Undoubtedly, Mr. President, the public press of tlils country is a most 
 potent instrumentality, either for good or for evil, as it may happen to be 
 directed. How, indeed, could it be otherwise, now that steam has brought us 
 into almost daily communication with continents, separated from us by inter- 
 vening oceans ; and information of all kinds, whether foreign or domestic, 
 
 " horsVl 
 Upon the sightless couriers of the air," 
 
 travels with a speed, outstripping even the lightning. It is a matter of such 
 common occurrence, as no longer to excite special remark, that tidings of 
 European affairs, but little more than a week old, are read and discussed at 
 the same moment by the fish merchant of Halifax and the cotton broker of 
 New Orleans ; and the period will soon arrive when whatever transpires in 
 London, or Paris, or Vienna, or St. Petersburg, or Constantinople, or any of 
 the leading capitals of the old world, will, within a few hours, be made the 
 subject of commentary, perhaps of controversy, in every considerable village 
 from the St. Croix to the Rio Grande. 
 
 Already, indeed, so far as relates to the diffusion of intelligence, the prayer 
 of the enthusiastic lover has been realized, and both time and space have been 
 practically annihilated on the land ; and the far down depths of the surging 
 .sea, inaccessible to man's approach, and heretofore unmanageable by man's 
 skill, are beginning to yield to the magnetic — may we not say magical — influ- 
 ences of the sub-marine telegraph. In an age of marvels like these — with such 
 facilities for the interchange of thought — among a people able to read, and 
 addicted to reading, to whom newspapers are supplied at every cross-road, the 
 power of the press cannot be easily over-estimated. 
 
 I wish I could truthfully say. Sir, that this power is always applied to wise 
 and wholesome ends. I am sorry to be obliged to confess that the reverse is 
 too frequently the case. Occupying .a territorial domain, which, stretching 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, includes every variety of soil, and climate, 
 and production, and embraces within its yet undefined borders, men of all 
 nations, conditions, classes, pursuits, sects and creeds — among whom every 
 doctrine, however absurd, has its advocates ; evei'y practice, however dan- 
 gerous, its defenders; every scheme, however wild or wicked, its champions ; 
 and with the public sentiment, which controls the law, opposing but few 
 barriers to the most unlimited, nay, the most licentious expressions of opinion, 
 it is inevitable that in some of its parts, the press of the United States should 
 be occasionally disfigured by crude suggestions, and erroneous ideas, and 
 impracticable theories, and visionary speculations, and false and pernicious 
 teachings. Nor is this the worst. In some of the larger cities, where any 
 one, too indolent to obtain the means of support by proper exertion, whose 
 malignities prompt, or whose necessities require him to earn his daily bread 
 by making of his life a daily lie — any one who can buy, or borrow, or beg, or 
 steal a ream of paper, and procure the use of a case of types, can set up what 
 he calls a newspaper, and give to it a miserable existence, a sort of " death in 
 life," by pandering to evil passions; by ministering to brutal appetites; by 
 seeking to gratify low, and coarse, and perverted tastes ; by envy and malice 
 and all vmcharitableness ; by lewdness, and calumny, and filthy abuse ; by 
 hiring himself and his pen and his press, to perform any service, no matter 
 how base, for any wages, no matter how small ; by coaxing a dollar to-day 
 from some poor creature covetous of praise, though the breath that bestows 
 it is so foul that decent men turn from it in disgust : by extorting a dollar 
 to-morrow from sijme timid wrong-doer, whose misdeeds he threatens to pro- 
 claim ; by becoming in turn a mendicant, a parasite, a bully, and remaining 
 always the miscreant which nature made him ; by filling the streets with 
 libellous and obscene sheets, that destroy the peace of families, and corrupt 
 the manners of youth, and otlend the morals of the community ; there are 
 such, Sir, who, like the hateful progeny of Sin and Death, 
 
 " A cry of hell-hoimds, never ceasing, hark 
 With wide Cerheroan mouths, full loud, and ring 
 A hideous iieiil." 
 
75 
 
 But, I thank God, Mr. President, these, and such as these, are but excres- 
 cences on the great body of the American press, -which, though odious and 
 offensive to its healthier members, cannot disturb the pulsations of its mighty 
 heart, nor cripple the energies of its indomitable arm, nor impair the vigor of 
 its teeming brain. With due respect for the learned professions which embody, 
 as I cheerfully own, so much valuable erudition and practical wisdom and 
 high intellectual attainment, I do not hesitate to affirm that the conductors of 
 the newspaper press, relatively to numbers, comprise as many men of schol- 
 astic acquirements joined to superior natural gifts, whose knowledge is as 
 ample and varied, Avhose judgments are as well informed by observation and 
 experience, whose sagacities are as thoroughly sharpened by constant exer- 
 cise, and whose walk and conversation are as pure and upright, as can be 
 found in any or all of them ; and 1 am proud of the order to which I belong, 
 because, in my inmost conscience, I believe, that by far the larger portion 
 of those who compose it, however they may disagree as to means, are — each 
 in his own sphere, and according to the measure of his ability — laboring 
 earnestly and faithfully to fulfil the trusts confided to them, namely to assist in 
 cultivating the minds, and improving the affections, and advancing the for- 
 tunes, and shaping the social and political destinies of twenty-three millions 
 of freemen. 
 
 In a confederacy like ours, Mr. President, formed of numerous sovereign- 
 ties, with distinct, and often conflicting interests, there can be no common 
 centre where public opinion maj^ be formed, and from which it may radiate. 
 Washington can never be to the Union, what, in this respect, London is to 
 Great Britain, or Paris to France ; and hence, there can never grow up with 
 us, any single journal or any number of journals in a particular locality, of 
 such commanding power and influence as to give tone and direction to all 
 others elsewhere. New York, and Philadelphia, and Boston, and Baltimore, 
 and the growing cities of the South and West, must continue to speak, as they 
 have heretofore spoken, through their own immediate organs. But while we 
 shall not have — nor is it desirable that we should have — any great over- 
 shadowing metropolitan agency, such as that to which I have adverted, as the 
 country moves forward on its path of prosperity, developing its resources, 
 increasing its wealth, enlarging its population, extending its boundaries, 
 advancing in mental and moral and religious culture, in civilization, in refine- 
 ment, and in the arts, it cannot be doubted that the press generally will move 
 with equal pace, and, freed from the infirmities which now impair its useful- 
 ness, — disdaining to register the strifes, and echo the lamentations of those who 
 control it, but becoming, as it should be, wholly impersonal, and dedicating 
 itself to the honorable and useful aims for which it was instituted, will con- 
 stitute an infinite chorus of voices, differing in volume and sound, some rising 
 to the loftiest realms of utterance, others subsiding to the softest cadences, 
 but all instinct with a common spirit, and all swelling and mingling together 
 in one grand strain of onward, forever onward, Humanity, Christianity, 
 Liberty, and Rational Progress. 
 
 The seventh volunteer toast was — 
 
 New Jersey, who eai-ly established those principles in Council for which she 
 so bravely fought on the glorious fields of Princeton, Trenton and Monmouth. 
 
 Mr. Edward Armstrong, in introducing it, said — 
 
 I am sure, sir, that all present must feel a common disappointment in the 
 absence of the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, (Judge Hornblower,) 
 who, it was to have been hoped would have responded in behalf of our sister 
 Historical Societies. We, however, must not in his absence forget his native 
 State — our sister — New Jersey, and to whom with so much justice we can apply 
 this designation, endeared to us as she is by so many incidents in her early 
 annals, by so many social ties, by so many social interests, and by the sacri- 
 fices and the glories of a common revolutionary struggle. It was for her our 
 revered founder first tried his skill in statemanship, and framed his earliest 
 
76 
 
 constitution, the embodiment of all that was comprehensive, liberal and saga- 
 cious. Indeed, sir, but for the interest be felt and which he never ceased to 
 feel in tlic welfare of the State whose constitution he thus drew, it would 
 not be idle to conjecture that the knowledge might never have been derived of 
 that rich territory which lay to her westward — of our own beloved Penn- 
 sylvania, so that but for New Jersey, we might not have been here this day to 
 recount and cherish those priceless legacies, — our founder's treasured memory, 
 his virtuous deeds, his benignant policy, his noble constitution, his wise laws. 
 The patriotic position which New .Jersey assumed during the revolutionary 
 conflict, was no more the impulse of the moment, than that struggle was the 
 offspring of the hour, instead of the fruition of a century. It would be folly 
 to suppose that men who had fled from religious and political intolerance, who 
 had been all their lives accustomed to mark well the boundary between prero- 
 gative and freedom, who had been trained to scan the phraseology of every 
 statute, the effect of every royal veto, lest some latent tyranny might lie 
 concealed, who in governing themselves had felt the skill, the courage, and 
 decision which self-reliance always imparts, were not willing and instant to 
 defeat the first weak attempts at coercion, or to perceive the issues which 
 submission or resistance might involve. And we are this day reminded upon 
 how early an occasion New Jersey promulged those principles in her council 
 chambers which she afterwards asserted with the sword. " It were a madness," 
 said, in 1G80, the patriots of New Jersey, " to leave a free, good and improved 
 country to plant in a wilderness, and there adventure many thousands of 
 pounds to give an absolute title to another person to tax us at will and plea- 
 sure." What mortal can estimate the influence of truths so eai-ly, so boldly, 
 so wisely uttered. And let it never be forgotten that the principles New Jersey 
 so fearlessly asserted in the hour of peace, she sustained in that of bloody trial 
 — upon those fields so fruitful of pride, and joy, and gratitude, so dear to us, 
 and which will be so much dearer to posterity — which turned the tide of war 
 — which revived the almost perished hopes of a nation, and were blessed by 
 the God of battles, to the political salvation of a great people. " Let there be 
 light," said the Divine author of all goodness, and "there was light;" but a 
 a decree no less irreversible went forth in the dying roar of the last cannonade 
 at Princeton. It was, " let there be liberty," and there was liberty. 
 
 Judge Hornblower of New Jersey, was to have spoken in response, but not 
 being able to be present in person, he sent the following letter : 
 
 New Jersey, Friday evening, Nov. 5, 1852 
 
 Gentlemen : — At the request of the Corresponding Secretary and members 
 of the Executive Committee of the New Jersey Historical Society, I consented 
 to be its representative at your ensuing anniversai-y celebration of the landing 
 of Wm. Penn at Chester. In the hope of being your guest on that interesting 
 and social occasion, I have anticipated much pleasure, and thought it might 
 constitute one item in my own unimportant "history," that I had represented 
 New Jersey at such a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. But, 
 alas ! I find myself doomed to a disappointment. Within a few days past. 1 
 have been attacked with the influenza, accompanied with a violent catarrh ; and 
 I know, from long experience, that there is not the least prospect of my re- 
 covery in time to enable me, with any personal comfort or satisfaction, to 
 mingle with you in your social and intellectual enjoyments on Monday next. 
 
 It is now too late for me to make tfie necessary arrangements to procure the 
 attendance of any other officer or member of our Society to meet with you. 
 If, at your festive board, you shall adopt the practice of exchanging sentiments, 
 please, in my behalf, as President of the New Jersey Historical Society, give 
 the one inscribed below. I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obedient 
 servant, 
 
 Jos. C. Hornblower, 
 In the 76th year of his age. 
 
 George Northrop, Edw. Armstrong, Townsend Ward, and Jno. Jordan, Jr., 
 Esqa., Com'tee, &c. 
 
77 
 
 The Slates of Pennsylvania avd New Jersey, inseparably connected with each 
 other by their geographical boundaries, may our united efforts to preserve 
 their provincial and subsequent histories constitute a record truthful and just 
 to our ancestors, and instructive to future generations. 
 
 The eighth and last volunteer toast was — 
 
 The Memory of the Deceased 3Iembers of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
 As well the ornaments as the aids of history — may history cherish their re- 
 membrance. 
 
 Mr. Richard Vaux, in responding, said — 
 Mk. President, 
 
 It is with regret I undertake the duty assigned me. The dirge is no agree- 
 able performance. The brilliant display of classic lore and historic research, 
 enlivened by the incidents of this evening, give reality to the contrast of this 
 duty, or its attempted execution. 
 
 It is not in vain the lamented members of this Society labored. Its founders 
 regarded the objects of their association as enjoined by a sense of justice to 
 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Her position as the Keystone State 
 demanded the elimination of her historical character. While sister sovereignties 
 flaunted their historic records, the silence of Pennsylvania was considered as 
 an illation derogatory to the patriotism and just State pride of her sons. 
 Tardily this Society has vindicated both. 
 
 It may not be unworthy of note, that the original idea of the founders was 
 to call their association, "The Society of the Sons of the Soil." Many were 
 the consultations on this point. There is present now, one at least, who re- 
 members this fact. Dr. Coates, one of the founders of this Society, remem- 
 bers the occasion, when it was determined to adopt the present designation, 
 "The Historical Society of Pennsylvania." 
 
 This incident is a key to the true intents of the earliest members. To delve 
 into the past of Pennsylvania, to rescue from forgetfulness the history of a 
 State, of a soil, which will compare with that of any other community, and 
 gain in the comparison. 
 
 Yes, sir! a State whose "unbroken faith" — whose solemn compact, ratified 
 without forms, and held inviolate — a State whose escutcheon has never been 
 sullied by fraud, or tarnished by wrong — a State that has liberated education, 
 ameliorated jurisprudence — christianized sectarianism, and nourished " Virtue, 
 Liberty and Independence," has a history, worthy of an eternal life. 
 
 Those of the departed members of this Society, whose memories your toast 
 re-encircles with the wreath of remembrance, have not labored in vain. 
 
 They opened the field of a glorious past, for the honest enquirer, and en- 
 lightened student, and worthy son of the soil of Pennsylvania. The original 
 laborers were few. Now they are many. The great ability, the historic 
 learning which have enriched this evening's proceedings, attest the value of 
 the first efl'orts of those, we now commemorate. 
 
 They did not labor in vain. Year by yeai", as the benefits of this Society are 
 made manifest — its objects realized — its ends consummated : when Pennsylvania 
 shall be by her history, confirmed in her position as the Keystone of the Arch 
 on which our nationality securely rests : each such epoch will itself establish 
 the just claim of the founders of this Society, to the gratitude of the people of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
LETTERS. 
 
 The following letters were received in answer to those of the Committee on Invita- 
 tions. 
 
 Near Seaford, Del., October 23, 1852, 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 11th 
 inst., inviting me to "the celebration of the anniversary of the landing of 
 Penn, at Chester, on the 8th day of November next. I sincerely regret that 
 engagements of the most urgent character, at home, precludes the possibility 
 of my being with you on an occasion of such deep interest alike to the citi- 
 zens of Pennsylvania and Delaware. 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
 Your obdt. servt., 
 To Geo. Noethrop, Esq., and others com. W. H. Ross. 
 
 Philadelphia, October 25, 1852. 
 
 My Dear Sirs, 
 
 I have received the invitation which you have been so good as to give me, 
 to become one of the guests of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at the 
 celebration of the approaching " Anniversary of the landing of Penn." 
 
 It will gratify me to be present among the auditors of the oration; but it 
 will not be in my power to partake of the hospitality of the Society at their 
 dinner, on the occasion. 
 
 Accept for yourselves my thanks for the compliment, which you have paid 
 me, and believe me. 
 
 Kindly and respectfully yours, 
 
 W. J. DUANE. 
 
 Townsend Ward, Joh\ Jordan, Jr., Edward Armstrong, Esqs. 
 
 Newark, N. J., November 2, 1852. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 The venerable President of our Historical Society has informed me that, in 
 a letter recently written in reply to your invitation to participate in the con- 
 templated commemoration of the 8th inst., he intimated to you the probability 
 that I would represent the society on that occasion. I regret that lam obliged 
 to deny myself the satisfaction of so doing ; my presence on that day being 
 required by a literary association here, with which I am connected ; but the 
 society will be better represented, undoubtedly, by the President himself. 
 
 It would give me great pleasure to join in celebrating the landing at New- 
 castle, for, as a Jerseyman, I feel that to me, of right — as well as to you of 
 Pennsylvania — belongs a share in the inheritance of the name and fame, the 
 character and deeds of William Penn. In fact, I think we, of New Jersey, 
 may rightfully claim the larger portion, as it is generally understood, that 
 the pecuniary interest which Penn iirst acquired in our quarter, led to his 
 subsequent acquaintance with the capabilities and advantages of the region 
 which now perpetuates his name. 
 
 Penn's attachment to New Jersey appears never to have varied. From the 
 time that he wrote to his friends and brethren — " that there is such a province 
 as New Jersey is certain" — he seems alwnys to have entertained a high opin- 
 ion of the country ; and the fact that William Penn, on taking a survey of 
 the land, " said ho had never seen such before in his life " — was carefully 
 transmitted to the friends of the province in England, to increase their faith 
 in its capabilities and encourage their exertions for its settlement ; and his 
 proprietary rights were not parted with during his life. 
 
80 
 
 It is an interesting circumstance that events in JVew Jersey should have led 
 to the assertion for the first time — and that by Wm. Penn, or under his direc- 
 tion — of the rights of the colonies to representation as a prerequisite to 
 taxation. "The English right of common assent to taxes," and that "the 
 king cannot justly take his subject's goods without their consent," are doc- 
 trines promulgated in connection with the measures taken for the revocation 
 of the duty imposed in 1(J80 upon importations into West Jersey. "It were 
 a madness," says the interesting document put forth by the Quakers of that 
 day, " to leave a free, good, and improved counti-y, to plant in a wilderness, 
 and there adventure many thousands of pounds to give an absolute title to 
 another person to tax us at will and pleasure." It will ever be one proof of 
 the consistency of Penn's character that, while thus prompt in repelling 
 ■wrong and oppression, he was equally ready to regard the just rights of 
 others ; and it was pi'obably, in a great degree owing to his example, that 
 New Jersey, in all that relates to her intercourse with the aborigines, can 
 proudly take her stand by the side of Pennsylvania, bearing as her mark of 
 distinction, the title of " the great arbiter, or doer of justice," accorded in 
 1769 by the Indians themselves. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to refer at greater length to Penn's connection with 
 New Jersey ; it is well known, and I must apologize for what I have already 
 written — pleading, in extenuation, that interest which <dl Jerseymen and Penn- 
 sylvaniaus should take in every thing relating to his life and character. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 AV A. Whitehead. 
 
 Geo. Northrop, Edward Armstrong. Esqrs., and others, Committee, &c. 
 
 Pittsburgh, November 5, 1852. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I have delayed my reply to this late hour, with the hope that I might be 
 enabled to accept the polite invitation conveyed to me by your letter of the 
 8th ultimo., and to participate with you and the society, which you represent, 
 in the pleasures of tiie celebration of the landing of that wise and good man, 
 William Penn, on our shores. My long absence from home during the spring, 
 summer and fall, has crowded upon me, in a brief space of time, the amount 
 of business which otherwise would have been spread over several months, 
 and thus forbids my visit to your city at this time. 
 
 Permit me to remark that we, of this portion of western Pennsylvania, have 
 reason to remember with aftection, and to honor the memory, not of William 
 Penn alone, but of his descendant John, who, 1774, displayed much zeal, firm- 
 ness and sound judgment, in maintaining the chartered limits of Pennsylvania 
 against the insolent pretensions of Lord Dunmore. Permit me, therefore, 
 through you, to tender to your assembled friends the following tribute to 
 that man, who, by his knowledge of the geography of the country, and his 
 wisdom and firmness, contributed greatly to the extension of the western 
 boundary, so as to include the head and a considerable portion of the course 
 of the Ohio. 
 
 AVhile we duly honor and esteem the memory of that good man who made 
 our land, the field for the dissemination of his generous and noble principles, 
 let us not forget his descendant, John Penn, who, by his firmness, good sense, 
 and frank diplomacy, ai led in securing, for the spread of those principles, 
 an area extending from the Delaware to the Ohio. 
 
 I remain, gentlemen, with sincere respect. 
 
 Your obdt. servt., 
 Neville B. Craig. 
 
 To Messrs. George Northrop, Edward Armstrong, John Jord.\n, Jr., 
 TowNSEXD Ward, Committee. 
 
81 
 
 Gentlemen 
 
 I have just received your favor announcing the contemplated celebration 
 of Penn's Landing. It would give me great pleasure to participate in such a 
 commemoration ; but a tour of duty carries me to the northern part of the 
 State about that time, and will not permit me to return till after your appointed 
 day. Be pleased to accept my thanks for your courtesy and believe me 
 
 Very sincerely yours 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 Walnut sir. 146, Tuesday Evening. 
 
 Baltimore, October 27, 1852. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your kind invitation to m representation of this association, to attend the 
 anniversary meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, to celebrate the 
 landing of Penn, has been received. But as this Societ}- does not meet until the 
 4th of November next, it will not be in my power to submit your letter until 
 then, when it will, no doubt, receive the cordial acknowledgments, to which it 
 is so justly entitled. 
 
 In the mean time 1 have the hou(n' to be with the highest respect,^ 
 
 Yoiu' obedient servant 
 
 .1. Spear S.mith. 
 Messrs. Geo. Noethrup, Eu. Aumsthonu, .John Jordan, Committee. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your letter of the 11th instant, inviting me to the oration and dinner, com- 
 memorative of the Landing of William Penn, was not received until after my 
 return from Pittsburgh on the 23d of October, or it would have commanded an 
 earlier reply. 
 
 I regret exceedingly that circumstances will put it out of my power to join 
 in the proposed celebration. 
 
 Wishing you every enjoyment on the occasion, 
 
 I am, ..Gentlemen, truly and most respectfully yours, 
 
 G. M. Dallas. 
 
 October 25, 1852. 
 
 To George Northrop, John .Jordan jun., Thos. S. Mitchel'., Edward 
 Armstrong, and Thomas Biddle jun.. Committee of the Historical Society 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 \^The fotlowini/ is from the last survivor of Lee's Legion of the Revolutionary War.~\ 
 
 Haddonfi.eld, October 29, 1852. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I h.ave the honor to acknowledge your polite invitation to celebrate the an- 
 niversary of the landing of Wm. Penn. It would be exceedingly gratifyiner to 
 me to join with you on that pleasing occasion. But age admonishes me that 
 "there is no place like home."' 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 .Ja. B. Cooper. 
 To Geo. Northrop, .John .Jordan, Townsend Ward. 
 
 11 
 
82 
 
 Washington, October 27, 1852. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I have just received your letter of the 7th instant, by which you honor me 
 with an invitation to the annual oration and dinner, commemorating the 
 landing of Penn at Chester, on the 8th November, proximo. 
 
 It is with deep regret I am constrained from a sense of duty, in connection 
 with my official position, to decline an invitation which, under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, I would most gladly accept ; but having been absent from my 
 post for some weeks dui-ing the present autumn, it does not seem proper that 
 I should take to myself more time, so near the occasion of the meeting of 
 congress, at a period when my engagements are very pressing. 
 
 My warmest sympathies will be with you at a time when 1 would be happy 
 to be personally present to form new, and renew old acquaintance among 
 those whose love for our native state they manifest by an annual festival in 
 honor of her immortal founder, whose name should be reverenced, and whose 
 character should be held up for imitation, while the example of good men of 
 past days may be supposed to exercise an influence on those of the time being. 
 Highly appreciating the honor conferred upon me, 
 
 I am, gentlemen, 
 
 Your very obdt. servt., 
 
 Jos. C. G. Kennedy. 
 
 Messrs. George Northrop, John Jordan, Jr., Edward Armstrong, 
 TowNSEND Ward. 
 
 Committee of arrangements of the Historical Society of I'ennsylvania. 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Wilkesbarre, October 20, 1852. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your favor of the 7th was not received until to-day. 1 hasten to tender 
 you my most respectful acknowledgements for your polite invitation. 
 
 To participate in " the celebration of the anniversary of the landing of 
 Penn at Chester," would be to me a rare pleasure, but it is out of my power. 
 
 With more than Roman — with a Christian spirit he sought 
 
 " To civilize the rude unpolished world, 
 And lay it under the restraints of laws ; 
 To make man mild and sociable with man. 
 And cultivate the wild licentious savage." 
 
 That the boldness and magnitude of the undertaking were fully equalled 
 by the wisdom and perseverance displayed in its execution, is attested by the 
 unsurpassed prosperity and happiness this day enjoyed by two millions of 
 inhabitants in Pennsylvania. 
 
 It was, indeed, in a sui)er-eminent degree, the auspicious lot of William 
 Penn 
 
 •• To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land." 
 
 And I cherish the pleasing liope that the descendant of our great law- 
 giver, now on a visit to America, will be present, and the memory of the 
 illustrious dead be honored by the cordial welcome of the living. 
 With great respect, gentlemen. 
 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 Charles Miner. 
 To George Noethrop, Edw.'VRd. Armstrong, John Jordan, Jr., Townsend 
 Ward, Esqrs. 
 
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