FROM RICHARD JACKSON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Pennsylvania Affairs. Chief Justice Allen. - Consequences of a Change of Government doubtful.

London, 18 November, 1764.

DEAR SIR, Nothing has given me, or can give me, more concern than the disturbances and disputes in your province. The mischiefs and dangers to Pennsylvania in particular, and to all America in general, are inconceivable to one, who has not been in England a good part of the past year. The effect that the foresight of these mischiefs and dangers had upon me, and the firm belief I entertained that Mr. Allen* was affected by the prospect as I was myself, made me open my mind more fully to him, than I should otherwise have done, and which I was the more readily induced to do, from the warmth with which he entered into some of my notions, and the candor with which he admitted others. At the same time that I was thoroughly convinced, that the interests of both parties were the same, and have a hundred times heard him confess, that one of them could not gain a victory over the other without a loss of much more than it was worth to themselves. By this I meant, that if government could go on under the Proprietary, it was much better for all parties than a change of government could well be expected to be in the long run, at the same time that a triumph, on the side of the Proprietary, if it could be hoped for, would infallibly in the end strip him of the powers of gov

William Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania, and one of the ablest supporters of the Proprietary interests, had been recently in England.

ernment; for that a man must know little of America, to suppose such a superiority would last long, and little of England, to hope that all the Proprietary's friends could preserve to him a possession, which he held by a tenure so unlike that of every other subject, except Lord Baltimore, and the defence of which was no man's common cause, when attacked and clogged by the efforts of a respectable party in Pennsylvania.*

* To understand clearly what is here meant by the Proprietary, and, in other parts of this Correspondence, by the Proprietor, and Proprietors, it is necessary to revert to a few facts respecting the descendants of the original founder of Pennsylvania.

William Penn died in 1718. He was twice married; first to Gulielma Maria Springet; and next to Hannah Callowhill. By the first marriage he had a son and daughter, William and Lætitia; by the second, three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, and a daughter, Margaret. These children were all living at the time of his death. To his son by the first marriage he left his Irish estate, two of the manors in Pennsylvania, and some other property in the province. To the daughters were left certain city lots and other landed property. The sons by the second marriage inherited the Proprietary interest in Pennsylvania, which was divided into four parts, or shares, two being given to the eldest son, John, one to Thomas, and one to Richard. In 1746 John died without issue, and left his whole estate to Thomas, who thus became proprietor of three fourths. During Franklin's agency in England, therefore, Thomas Penn was the principal Proprietor, and the proprietary affairs mostly devolved on him, although official papers were signed by Thomas and Richard as joint proprietors.

Richard Penn and his descendants ran through a large part of their private estates in Pennsylvania before the revolution, that is, their portions of the manors, farms, and town lots. Thomas, who was a careful man of business, had then a large private property in the province; some of which still remains to his second son, Grenville Penn, now residing in England, and well known for his highly respectable character, learning, and talents. These private estates were not confiscated at the revolution. The family are supposed to have lost much, however, by the improper conduct of their agents, who, taking advantage of their fears and wants, purchased their lands at a very low price. The act of confiscation affected the general proprietary rights, that is, the quitrents and the right of purchase of the Indians. The proprietary tenths of the already surveyed lands were left to the family. As a compensation for their losses, the State of Pennsylvania gave them 35

VOL. VII.

I confess I had formed a very advantageous opinion of Mr. Allen's honesty and good sense, and therefore was disposed to talk with him frankly on a subject, on which I thought all honest men of good sense must think alike. I trusted him, therefore, with my opinion on two or three points, which I was satisfied he could not use to the mischief of any one, without hurting himself and his friends, though he might make a use of them for the service of all parties, to the good part of whom I sincerely wished welfare and happiness. But my commission to him was to tell you my apprehensions, and not to make them public, because I never thought that could do service even to his own friends in the end. I particularly gave him this commission to you, in order to open again that correspondence, which I was of opinion was of so much consequence to the province to bring about. I am sorry I was mistaken, but think that the mischief will fall at last on those, who have rejected terms of accommodation.

That I did not mean that Mr. Allen should make my sentiments public, is evident. I did not even write them to any one else in the world, but yourself; and, if I glanced at any such in my letters to Mr. Galloway, or the Committee, it was at a distance; but I have to believe, too, that he has exaggerated my ex

one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling, which sum, if not an equivalent, was considered a very liberal grant. It was divided between the children of the two brothers in proportion to their shares in the proprietary interest. They also obtained from the English government a large indemnity as loyal refugees, besides a pension and certain sinecure offices for a definite time; so that, in regard to property, it is probable that the family were fully remunerated for their losses in Pennsylvania. All William Penn's children, except Lætitia and John, abandoned the religious tenets of their father; and hence, at the time of Franklin's agency, the Proprietors were not Quakers.

pressions. I confess I have thought, from the best judgment I could form of the opinion of people in power, that it was probable they might be glad to take a favorable opportunity of possessing the crown of these powers of government, without giving the people of the province any ground to triumph over those, who have pretended that they have been fighting the battle of the crown. I had reasons for this opinion, and therefore wished to defend the province from the dangers it threatened. I thought it my duty to do so; and therefore hinted to you, in more letters than one, what I apprehended. My apprehensions were chiefly on the head of purchase money to be paid to the Proprietary, and some privileges of the people of Pennsylvania; but my apprehensions never extended on the former head to one hundred thousand pounds, nor, on the latter, did I think that the crown would by violence and unconstitutionality strip the province of its privileges.

I do not write you this for public use. Perhaps it might serve some purpose to make it public, but I know you will make no use of it, that I do not consent to; and my design is only to open my heart to you on the subject, and that it should go no further.

Since I wrote the above, I received your favor acquainting me with the event of the election. I am heartily sorry for it, not for your sake, but for that of the province. I now look on the hopes of reconciliation as banished for ever, and am sure that the event will be the vesting the powers of government in the crown. My compliments to the governor of New Jersey. I took all the pains I could to get his judge confirmed, but there was some want of form in his appointment, that rendered it impracticable;

besides, I have really little interest with ministers of any kind, though I keep a post that gives me access to them. Perhaps it may be of service, and I may have more. Farewell, dear friend, and believe me,

&c.

RICHARD JACKSON.

FROM JOSEPH GALLOWAY TO B. FRANKLIN.*

Defects of the Proprietary Government. Its unequal Administration.-Appointments to Office.

DEAR SIR,

Philadelphia, 23 November, 1764.

I wrote you from Newcastle the substance of the address of the Lower Counties' Assembly, in which

Joseph Galloway, son of Peter Galloway, was born in the neighbourhood of West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, about the year 1730. As his family was respectable and of good fortune, his education was probably the best that could be obtained in the middle colonies. He came early in life to Philadelphia, where he commenced the practice of the law, in which he attained eminence. In the year 1757 he was elected to the Assembly for the County of Philadelphia, and immediately took a prominent stand in that body, being a member of most of the committees, and constantly employed in public duties, as we find, in the Votes, by his compensation for extra services. The next year he was chairman of the committee of grievances, and managed the prosecution of Dr. Smith and Mr. Moore for a libel on the Assembly. In subsequent years he held the same place, and his Report, in 1764, on the state and grievances of the province, was the occasion of his well known speech published with Dr. Franklin's Preface, in answer to one of the celebrated John Dickinson.

He sided with Dr. Franklin in opposition to the Proprietary interest, and urged the resumption of the government by the crown. And, though on this account in 1764 he lost his election in the county, he was the next year returned a member, and was chosen Speaker of the Assembly, to which office he was successively reelected till the year 1774.

In 1757 he was one of the agents of Pennsylvania at the treaty with the Indians at Easton. In the next year, as one of the commissioners under the act for granting one hundred thousand pounds, he entered into a controversy with the governor, which may be seen at length in