Penn’s adherence to James carried him to such lengths, that he was considered as an inveterate enemy to the protestant establishment, and was for some time excepted out of the acts of grace published by William and Mary; who appointed colonel Fletcher, by the same commission, governor both of New-York and Pennsylvania. In the commission no manner of regard seems to have been had to the original charter. But when the assembly met, though sixteen short in number to what had been before usual, through the change made in the writs, they passed a vote, nem. con. “That the laws of this province, which were in force and practice before the arrival of this present governor, are still in force; and that the assembly have a right humbly to move the governor for a continuation or confirmation of the same.” That and subsequent assemblies shewed such a fixed determination to secure their rights, that neither governor nor lieutenant governor could bring them to bend to their wishes.
In 1696 Penn had so well managed matters at the court of England, that he was restored to his right of naming a governor; and in the beginning of 1700 he went to Pennsylvania in person. After the meeting of several assemblies, he convened one in September, 1701, and informed them of the indispensable necessity he was under of going to England, to obviate some ill offices done by his and their enemies with the government there; but offered to do every thing that was in his power to secure to them their privileges and properties. The assmbly, in their answer, expressed their dissatisfaction at the state of both, and required farther security; to which he gave evasive answers, but offered to leave the nomination of the deputy governor to themselves; they declined it, and went upon a new charter of privileges.
This introduced a breach between the members of the province and those of the territories; the latter insisting upon some particular privileges, which, when refused by the others, made them withdraw from the meeting, and it required all the authority and address of the proprietary to make up the breach. At last, after great heart-burnings on both parts, just when Mr. Penn was about to embark, a charter of privileges was presented to him and being ratified by him, became the rule of government in Pennsylvania. By this important charter liberty of conscience is granted; and all christians, of whatever denomination, taking the proper oaths of allegiance and fidelity, are enabled to serve the government, either legislatively or executively. The exclusion of all persons from the legislative and executive branches, however eminently qualified, and well behaved as members of civil society, unless they are christians, does not accord with that general liberty which ought to prevail in national communities, now that the existance of all theocracy is ended by the introduction of the kingdom of Christ. The piety of the theorist, and the subtilty of the politician, desirous of securing the support of christians, may introduce the exclusion into written or printed agreements, but cannot establish a practical exclusion of persons opposed to christianity. He must be both simple and uninformed, who will not admit, that many deists have served the Pennsylvania and other excluding governments, either legislatively or executively.
By the second article of the charter it is provided, that an assembly shall be yearly chosen by the freemen, to consist of four persons out of each county, or of a greater number, if the governor and assembly shall so agree, on the 1st of October for ever, and shall sit on the 14th following, with power to choose a speaker and other their officers, and be judges of the qualifications and elections of their own members; shall sit upon their own adjournments, prepare bills, impeach criminals, and redress grievances; and shall possess all other powers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and the customs observed in any of the king’s plantations in America. If any county or counties shall neglect to send deputies, those who meet, provided they are not fewer in number than two thirds of the whole, shall be considered as the legal representatives of the province.
By the eighth article, in cases of suicide, all property is to descend to the next heirs, as if the deceased had died a natural death: nor is the governor to be entitled to any forfeiture, if a person shall be killed by causualty or accident. The same article provides, that no act, law, or ordinance whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter be made, to alter or diminish the form or effect of this charter, or of any part of it, without the consent of the governor for the time being, and six parts in seven of the assembly met—that the first article, relating to liberty of conscience, shall be kept without any alteration inviolably for ever—and that William Penn, for himself, &c. does solemnly declare, that neither he, &c. shall do any thing whereby the liberties, in this charter contained, nor any part thereof, shall be infringed; and that if any thing shall be done by any person contrary thereto, it shall be held of no effect.
This new constitution differed greatly from the original.—The governor might nominate his own council, and he was left single in the executive part of the government, and had liberty to restrain the legislative, by refusing his assent to their bills.—The assembly, on the other hand, acquired the important privilege of propounding laws, as well as of amending or rejecting them; but though this new constitution was thankfully accepted by the province, it was unanimously rejected by the territories; and affairs stood in this untoward state when the proprietary sailed for England. The representatives of the province and those of the territories divided, and acted as two distinct bodies; and the attempts to unite them proved ineffectual.
The territories consisted of the three counties, Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on the Delaware, and are commonly known by the name of the three Lower Counties on the Delaware.
Notwithstanding Mr. Penn is celebrated as the wisest of legislators, the assembly, about the year 1704, unanimously came to nine resolutions, in which they complain with great grief of him, “for undermining his own foundations; and by a subtle contrivance, laid deeper than the capacities of some could fathom, finding a way to lay aside the act of settlement, and dissove his second charter.”[47] He was likewise charged with having extorted from the province great sums of money. They complained also of the abuses of surveyors, the clerks of the courts, and justices of the peace, who, they said, were all put in by the proprietary, so that he became his own judge in his own cause.—These and other matters were the heads of a representation, or rather remonstrance, drawn up and sent to Mr. Penn, then in England, in which he is represented as an oppressor, and as falsifying his word in almost every respect, with the provincials.[48]
The disputes which subsisted in Pennsylvania were greatly augmented by the intemperance of the quakers themselves, who, notwithstanding all their zeal for liberty of conscience, persecuted about or soon after 1694, George Keith (who had been one of their most famous preachers) upon his conforming to the church of England; and went so far as to throw him into prison. They apologized for their conduct by pleading, that they did not punish him for his religious principles, but for having insulted the civil government.[49] If this was a good plea, the New-Englanders might gain great advantages from it, in vindicating themselves as to many of the severities they practised upon the quakers, who insulted their civil governments, beyond what will be easily credited by those who have not had the opportunity of knowing the transactions of that period, or are not acquainted with the abusive language of some of the then leaders of that denomination—language which the body of modern quakers will not vindicate.
It only remains to give a concise account of the settlement of Georgia.
In 1732 a number of gentlemen, considering the vast benefit that might arise from the tract of land lying between the Savannah and the river Altamahat petitioned the king for a charter, which was accordingly granted on the ninth of June. They meant that the country should be made a bulwark for the southern colonies against the Spaniards; and should give employment to numbers of people who were burthensome at home to their friends and parishes. The charter constituted them a corporation, by the name of trustees for establishing a colony, by the name of Georgia, including the country from the most northern stream of the Savannah, to the most southern stream of the Altamaha. The corporation was to subsist for 21 years; and after the expiration of that term, the governor and all officers were to be appointed by the crown.
Toward the end of August, Sir William Heathcote recommended in the strongest terms, to the directors of the bank, the interests of the colony. His speech had the desired effect, and the members of the court, after his example, contributed largely toward the undertaking, as did great numbers of the nobility, gentry, clergy, and others; and the parliament granted £.10,000. By the beginning of November, about a hundred and sixteen colonists presented themselves, most of them labouring people; and were furnished with working tools of all kinds, stores, and small arms. Mr. Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, generously attended the first set of emigrants to Carolina, where they arrived in good health on the 15th of January 1733. The Carolinians made them a present of 100 breeding cattle, besides hogs, and twenty barrels of rice; and furnished them with a party of horse and with scout boats, by the help of which they reached the Savannah, where Mr. Oglethorpe, ten miles up the river, pitched upon a spot for a town; and on February the 9th, the building of the first house commenced. The colonists were most generously assisted by the Carolinians and their governor, cololonel Bull, not only with their purses, but their labour, in raising the new town, named Savannah, from the river.
Mr. Oglethorpe was waited upon by a numerous deputation from the Lower Creek Nation, with whom he concluded a treaty; and soon after set out for Charles-Town, on his return to England, where he arrived in 1734, bringing with him several Indian chiefs and a war captain. But before the end of March this year, more emigrants, to the amount of six hundred, were either sent over by charity, or went at their own expence.
On the 30th of October the Indians embarked for their own country, having had an allowance while in London of £.20 a week, of which they spent little, as they commonly ate and drank at the tables of persons of the highest distinction. They moreover received presents to a very considerable amount. They embarked at Gravesend, in a ship which carried over a number of Saltzburghers, being German protestants, who, with others of their countrymen that followed, settled on the Savannah, a town they called Ebenezer, and which by their habits of industry and sobriety soon became considerable. The Georgians made a surprising progress in clearing their lands and building their houses: and, as an encouragement, the British parliament granted them a supply of £.26,000 which, with very great private donations, was expended upon strengthening the south part of Georgia. This being a necessary service for the colony, the trustees pitched upon the highlanders of Scotland, 160 of whom went over in 1735, settled themselves upon Altamaha river, and gave the name of Darien to a fort they built there, to which they afterwards added a small town called New Inverness.
In February, 1736, Mr. Oglethorpe, with about 300 passengers on board two ships, anchored in the road of Savannah. He soon began building another town, named Frederica.
[1737.] A misunderstanding subsisting between the courts of London and Madrid, and advice being sent from South-Carolina to Britain, that the Spaniards at St. Augustine and the Havannah, were making preparations for attacking Georgia, the government, at the request of the trustees, sent thither a regiment of 600 men, any of whom at the end of seven years might have a regular discharge, and be entitled to a grant of twenty acres of land. The parliament this year granted the colony another supply of £.20,000 which enabled the trustees to send over a fresh embarkation, of persecuted protestants.
On the breaking out of the war between England and Spain, Mr. Oglethorpe, being invested with a general’s command, proceeded with a body of troops to attack St. Augustine in 1740, but the expedition proved unfortunate.
In 1742 Georgia was invaded by about 5000 Spaniards and Indians from St. Augustine, in about fifty vessels of various kinds, who were repulsed by the general at the head of the English forces, and a small body of Indians. Had the Spanish descent proved successful, the Carolinians must have been in imminent danger: but the general’s good conduct secured them, and he received congratulatory letters of thanks from several of the American governors, for his great and important services.[50]
On the review of what you have read, you will note, that the colonists were very early in declaring, that they ought not to be taxed but by their own general courts, and that they considered subjection to the acts of a parliament in which they had no representatives from themselves, as a hardship—that like true born Englishmen, when grievously oppressed by governors or others, they resisted, deposed, and banished; and would not be quieted till grievances complained of were redressed—and that not a colony, Georgia excepted, was settled at the expence of government. Toward the settlement of the last, parliament granted £.56,000 at three different periods.