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of vice, which, to our great trouble we have to acquaint thee, is more rife and common amongst us since the arrival of thy deputy and son, especially of late, than was ever known before: nor are we capable to suppress it, whilst it is connived at, if not encouraged by authority; the mouths of the more sober magistrates being stopped by the said late order about oaths, and the governor's licensing ordinaries not approven by the magistrates of the city of Philadelphia, and the roast chiefly ruled by such as are none of the most exemplary for virtuous conversation: thy positive orders in the premises, will be absolutely necessary to thy deputy, who thinks it unreasonable, and a great hardship on him, to give sanction to laws explanatory of thy grants, or to do any thing by way of enlargement or confirmation of aught, save what is particularly and expressly granted by thee, it being by some of his council urged as an absurdity in us to expect: and we desire that thou would order the licensing of ordinaries and taverns, to be by the justices, according to thy letter dated in September, 1697; and we hope we need not be more express in charging thee, as thou tenders, thy own honour and honesty, or the obligations thou art under to thy friends, and particularly thy first purchasers and adventurers into this province, that thou do not surrender the government, whatsoever terms thou may by so doing make for thyself and family, which we shall deem no less than a betraying us, and at least will look like first fleecing, then selling: but rather use thy utmost interest with the queen, to ease us in the premises: and if after thy endeavours used to keep the government, it be per force taken from thee, thou will be the clearer in the sight of God, and us the representatives of the people of this thy province, who are thy real friends and well wishers, as we hope is evident in that we have dealt thus plainly with thee."

It was but natural, that such a paper as this should deeply affect those it was levelled against; and that it should operate differently on persons differently made and differently situated.

Those best acquainted with the necessity of keeping the first principles of government ever before their eyes, and the danger of admitting the least departure from them, could not but be pleased with the plain and firm language of this remonstrance: while those apt to be so dazzled with the outside of things, that they were incapable of looking into their contents, were as much softened with concern for the father and founder of their community, and consequently inclined to think him hardly dealt by in it.

There is something in connexion and dependence which gives a secret bias to all we think and wish, as well as what we say and

in all disputes this must be duly allowed for on both sides.

Seven persons, some of them of the coun cil, made their application by petition to the next assembly for a copy of it, but were flatly refused: and even when the governor himself in very high language required it, they were immoveable as before.

Willing as they might be to reclaim the proprietary to a due sense of his first obligations, they might be equally unwilling to expose him: and, agreeable to this, the assembly of 1706–7 in one of their remonstrances to the governor say, "that hoping the bill of courts then in dispute would have put an end to some of the grievances they had several years groaned under, they had hitherto forborn publicly to remonstrate; choosing rather to provide remedies for things amiss than to complain of them." Some concern they might also be under for themselves; their ascendancy was precarious: it depended on the good will of numbers: and the infirmity of nature above touched upon, might happen to operate more powerfully in the people, than the consideration of justice and safety to themselves and their posterity. The province, at this time, had moreover their reasons on account of oaths, a militia, &c. to apprehend some inconveniency if they fell under the immediate government of the crown; and therefore did not care to break with the proprietary entirely.

Nor was it long before, by partial and indirect practices, such as both influencing and awing the electors (facts publicly charged on the instruments of government by the assembly of 1706-7) that the governor obtained both an assembly and a speaker, almost as complaisant as he could wish. Nor ought it to be forgot, that his successor Gookin obtained such another in the year 1710.

In all matters of public concern something personal will interfere. Thus we find during this turbulent period, two names frequently occur, as opposite, in principle and purpose, and the oracles of their respective parties, to wit, David Lloyd, speaker of the assembly, and James Logan, secretary to the governor and council.

Logan insults the members of the assembly sent from the house on a message to the governor. The house resent it, complain of it, arraign his conduct in office, and proceed against him as a public delinquent. The governor, on the other hand, conceives an insuperable aversion to the speaker, points him out to the public as an interested, factious, dangerous person, treats him arrogantly at two several conferences, and complains of the house for not abandoning him to his resentments.

Thus heat kindled heat; animosity excited animosity; and each party resolving to be al

ways in the right, were often both in the wrong.

By the way, this.- -And it is necessary still to add, that all this while, the charter of privileges and that for the city of Philadelphia, as well as that of property, remained unconfirmed at home; and the people were plainly told by Evans, that, till both the proprietary and his governor were put upon proper establishments, they were not to expect the fruits of his favour and protection.

The last of those charters, the said governor, in one of his papers, was pleased to style a tedious bill of property, fitted so entirely to the people's interest, and with so little regard to the proprietary, that it seemed strange how reasonable men could, without confusion, of fer it and in another he discourses of it as a project of the speaker's, to incorporate the whole province, and take away near the whole power out of the hands of the proprietary and governor, and lodge it in the people. To which the assembly replied in the remarkable words following;

be shown to some other persons disaffected to him, in the name of the assembly and people of this province, of which I have formerly demanded a copy, but was then denied it, under pretence (when it was too late) that it should be recalled: if that letter was the act of the people, truly represented, he thinks such proceedings are sufficient to cancel all obligations of care over them: but if done by particular persons only, and it is an imposture in the name of the whole, he expects the country will purge themselves, and take care that due satisfaction be given him."

The reader will observe that the letter is not complained of as scandalous, because of its falsehood, but because of its freedom, in which it must be understood consists the indignity.

And the assembly's reply was as follows: "As to the representation or letter sent to the proprietary by order, or in the name of the former assembly, which he takes, it seems as an indignity, and resents it accordingly; it not having been done by this house, but being the act (or in the name) of a former, as we are not entitled to the affront, if any be, neither are we concerned in answering it: our part is only to lament (as we really do) that there should be true occasion for such representation; or, if none, that it should be offered to our proprietary, whom we both love and honour; and, therefore, we hope his obligations of care over us and the people of this province by no such means shall be cancel

"And as to what is said concerning the charter prepared at the proprietary's departure, the draughtsman has assured us, that no project or power is comprised in that charter but what was the proprietary's direction, perused and corrected by his cousin Parmiter, before it was engrossed, and afterwards signed by himself: but whether the proprietary designed thereby to reverse the method of the government according to an English constitution, and establish a republic in its stead, ored." leave the people to struggle with the queen's governors, which he then expected would be the consequence of the bill then moving in parliament against proprietary governments, the draughtsman cannot tell: but he well remembers, that the proprietary told him, that he held himself obliged to do what he could to confirm his tenants in their lands and properties, and give them all the* powers he could, as he was lord of this seignory, and much more to that effect."

And now, to finish on the head of the representation, which throws so much light on the first foundation of this colony, what afterwards passed in the assembly concerning it, candour requires should here be.subjoined.

"But what, says governor Evans, I must not be silent in, is, that he, (the proprietary) highly resents that heinous indignity and most scandalous treatment he has met with in the letter, directed not only to himself, but also to

That this man's government should be one continued broil, from the beginning of it to the end, is proof sufficient, that Mr. Penn left his frame at least in a very imperfect state.

Nor were the people themselves insensible of it, nor more backward to declare their sentiments concerning it, than of the other parts of his conduct.

Evans, for example, having made use of the following clause in one of his papers to the assembly, to wit;

"The governor, at his arrival, found the people possessed of a charter, by virtue of which the present assembly now sits, containing the frame of government, settled solemnly, as he has reason to believe, between the proprietary and the people, because by the subscription, it is said to be thankfully accepted of by the assembly then sitting, and was signed not only by the proprietary, but by the speaker of the assembly, in the name of all those of the province (as it is affirmed) who were then present, and unanimously consent

"Wiliam Biles acquainted this house, that Nathaniel Puckle had a letter from the proprietary to be coming, and is farther witnessed by the council; municated to several persons here, encouraging them to visit upon the privileges of their charter and laws, and not tamely give them up; and instanced what ad an tage it has been to the people of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and other proprietary governments, to as sert their rights," &c. Votes of Assembly for August 21, 1704.

this, therefore, ought fully to conclude: for if the people could allege, that any thing more was their due, it ought at that time to have been fixed and settled; the assembly then sitting, as the governor is informed, hav

ing fully considered and debated it; or if any demands, which it is imagined might further have been made, were not then granted, the governor cannot think it proper for him to intermeddle or to concern himself farther than by virtue of the king's letter patent, to the proprietary, and the proprietary's commission to him, with her majesty's royal approbation, to govern according to that charter, and the laws in force, &c.

The assembly thus replied:

"As to the present charter, which the governor found in being at his arrival, though it be far short of an English constitution, yet even that has been violated by several inroads made upon it: and if the governor cannot grant the just and reasonable demands of the people's representatives agreeable with an English establishment, there is cause to conclude, that the proprietary is not fully represented here: and, however the charter was received, yet it was not with such unanimity as is alleged, because diminutive of former privileges; neither was it prepared by the house of representatives, but done in great

haste."

*

"We are not striving for grants of power, but what are essential to the administration of justice, and agreeable to an English constitution and if we have not been in possession of this these twenty-four years, we know where to place the fault, and shall only say, it is high time we were in the enjoyment of our rights."

upon what score the purchasers and first adventurers embarked with thee to plant this colony, and what grants and promises thou made, and the assurance and expectations, thou gave them and the rest of the settlers and inhabitants of this province, to enjoy the privileges derived from thy own grants and concessions, besides the rights and freedoms of England: but how they were disappointed in several respects, appears, in part, by the said representation, to which we refer; and become supplicants for relief, not only in matters there complained of which are not yet redressed, but also in things then omitted, as well as what have been lately transacted, to the griev ous oppression of the queen's subjects, and public scandal of this government.'

"We are much concerned, that thou conceived such displeasure as thou did against that assembly, and not in all this time vouchsafe to show thy readiness to rectify those things which they made appear were amiss: nor hast thou showed thy particular objections to the bills, which, with great care and charge, were then prepared, for confirming thy charters to this city and country, respecting both privileges and property, and for settling the affirmation instead of oaths: but on the other hand, we found, to our great disappointment, that thou gave credit to wrong insinuations against them, as appears by thy letter from Hyde-Park, dated the twenty-sixth of the twelfth month, 1704-5, wherein thou treated some particulars very unfriendly, and without And lastly, the said assembly having drawn sentatives, who, we perceive by their proany just grounds blamed the people's repreup two several remonstrances to the proprie- ceedings, were ready to support the governtary, reciting the particulars of their griev-ment under thy administration, and desired noances and complaints against the said go- thing but to have their just rights, privileges, vernor, took occasion in the last of them, dat- and properties confirmed, the judicatories reed June 10, 1707, to express themselves as gularly established, the magistracy supplied with men of virtue and probity, and the whole "We, and the people we represent, being constitution so framed, that the people called still grieved and oppressed with the mal-ad-quakers might have a share with other Chrisministration and practices of thy deputy, and tian people in the government, which thou the ill carriage, unwarrantable proceedings, always gave them an expectation of, and and great exactions of thy secretary, are like which they justly claim as a point of right, to be destroyed by the great injustice and ar- not for the sake of honour, but for the supbitrary oppressions of thy evil ministers, who pressing of vice, &c." abuse the powers given thee by the crown, and we suppose have too much prevailed up-cial

follows.

on thee to leave us hitherto without relief.

"That the assembly which sat here on the 26th of the sixth month, 1704, agreed upon certain heads or particulars, which, according to the order of that day, were drawn up in a representation, and was signed by the speaker, and sent thee by a passenger in John Guy's brigantine, who was taken into France, from whence the same representation was conveyed to thy hands; whereby thou art put in mind,

* The governor had rejected the bill proposed by the assembly for establishing courts of justice, &c. and had

done it by an ordinance of his own.

To wade through the whole of this provincontroversy which, at several reprisals, lasted till Gookin was superseded in the year 1717, and replaced by William Keith, Esq. (afterward sir William Keith, Bart.) would be a task of great prolixity, and what consequently might prove as tedious to the reader as laborious to the writer.

Enough has been recited, to show upon what terms Mr. Penn was first followed by his flock, as a kind of patriarch, to Pennsylvania; as also, what failures in his conduct towards them were complained of by them; and as to the conduct of the several assemblies, which, in the several periods of this in

terval, maintained this controversy, a bare perusal of their proceedings is in general sufficient for their justification.

Men they were; passions and interests they consequently had; and, if they were sometimes carried away a little too far by them, it is obvious the passions and interests of others worked up the ferment first, and never relented to the last.

It is true, an over rigid performance of conditions is not to be expected of government, and seldom can be exacted from it: but then if the representative part is not tenacious, almost to a fault, of the rights and claims of the people, they will in a course of time lose their very pretensions to them.

Against Logan, the proprietary's minister, stands upon record, still unanswered, thirteen articles of malversation, by way of impeachment, which the governor (Evans) found means to evade, against the repeated offers of the assembly to produce their witnesses and fasten their proofs upon him: and against the governor himself, twelve in the shape of remonstrances, which argue him loose in principle, arbitrary in disposition, and scandalous in his private life and deportment.

So unpopular was he, that an unanimous vote of thanks to the proprietary was passed on his being removed, almost before his face, for he was still a resident among them: and as he had been Logan's screen, so his successor, Gookin, was little better than Logan's tool. The first had the name; the latter the power; and by the help of the council, spurred him on, or reined him in, as he pleased.

Both were necessitous, consequently craving alike; and having each considered himself first, and the proprietary next, had little consideration left for the crown, and none at all for the people.

If Evans adventured to act in many respects as if there was neither charter nor assembly, or, rather, as if he was authorized by his commission to do what he pleased in contempt of both, (as appears by his arbitrary dismission of one assembly, merely because they could not be brought to obey his dictature) Gookin after his example, and at the instance of Logan, declared another assembly to be no assembly, and refused to hold any further correspondence with them: and yet when he was on the point of being recalled, he was both mean enough and desperate enough to convene the assembly, purposely to make them this laconic proposition, viz. "That, for the little time he had to stay, he was ready to do the country all the service he could-and that they might be their own carvers, in case they would in some measure provide for his going back to seek another employment," Of which, however, they made no other use than to gratify him with a present of two hundred Dounds.

Lastly, that the reader may have a general idea of those assemblies, represented in proprietary language as so refractory and turbulent, so pragmatical and assuming, let him ac cept of a passage out of one of their own papers to governor Evans, in which they thus characterize themselves. "And though we are mean men, and represent a poor colony, yet as we are the immediate grantees of one branch of the legislative authority of this province, (which we would leave to our posterity as free as it was granted) we ought to have been, and do expect to be more civilly treated by him that claims the other branch of the same authority, and under the same royal grant, and has his support from us and the people we represent.'

It is by this time apparent enough, that though the proprietary and popular interests spring from one and the same source, they divide as they descend: that every proprietary governor, for this reason, has two masters; one who gives him his commission, and one who gives him his pay: that he is on his good behaviour to both: that if he does not fulfil with rigor every proprietary command, however injurious to the province or offensive to the assembly, he is recalled: that if he does not gratify the assembly in what they think they have a right to claim, he is certain to live in perpetual broils, though uncertain whether he shall be enabled to live at all: and that, upon the whole, to be a governor upon such terms, is to be the most wretched thing alive.

Sir William Keith could not be ignorant of this; and therefore, however he was instructed here at home, either by his principal or the lords of trade, resolved to govern himself when he came upon the spot, by the governing interest there: so that his administration was wholly different from that of his two predecessors.

With as particular an eye to his own particular emolument, he did indeed make his first address to the assembly: but then all he said was in popular language: he did not so much as name the proprietary: and his hints were such as could not be misunderstood, that in case they would pay him well, he would serve them well.

The assembly, on the other hand, had sense enough to discern, that this was all which could be required of a man who had a family to maintain with some degree of splendour, and who was no richer than plantation governors usually are: in short, they believed in him, were liberal to him, and the returns he annually made them were suitable to the confidence they placed in him: so that the proper operation of one master-spring kept the whole machine of government, for a considerable period of time, in a more consistent motion than it had ever known before.

Of all political cements reciprocal interest | and private instructions to Keith, not only to is the strongest; and the subject's money is reinstate him, but in effect, to be governed never so well disposed of, as in the mainte- by him, as implicitly as Gookin had been nance of order and tranquillity, and the pur- governed before. chase of good laws; for which felicities Keith's administration was deservedly memorable.

Under proprietary displeasure, however, by the resentment and artifice of Logan, the proprietary secretary, excited and aggravated by some neglects and mistakes of his own, he sunk at last; after what manner, it may not be altogether unuseful to intimate.

When Mr. Penn died in the year 1718, he left his hold of the province (which was much incumbered, by a mortgage on one hand, and by a transfer of it to the crown for ten thousand pounds, of which he had received two thousand pounds, on the other) in the hands of trustees, namely, his widow, Henry Gouldney, Joshua Gee, and his all-sufficient secretary Logan.

The difficulties thus resting in his family were very well known in the province; notwithstanding which, the inhabitants, satisfied with their governor, persevered in all duties to them; nor seemed to entertain a thought to their disadvantage.

Keith, on the other hand, being a man of too much spirit to submit to such treatment, and presuming beside, that his services to and interest in the colony, and his connexions with the most considerable men in it, would uphold him against all opposition whatsoever, communicated all to the assembly, together with his own answers: and this he thought was the more incumbent on him, because Logan had already been making his efforts to stir up a party against him.

Logan, upon this, commences advocate in form for the proprietary interest; presents a written plea on its behalf to the assembly, justifying therein all the restrictions laid on the governor by those instructions, (which will be in the next session explained) and whether by chance or design, it is hard to pronounce, suffered the secret of the quarrel to escape, by insinuating, that the proprietary, during his absence, had not received one penny either to himself or his family from the government, whereas others had received large sums.

The assembly, however, not being in a humour to pay two government subsidies instead of one, when exempted by the original article of quit-rents from the obligation of

of this point; but on the contrary, closing with the governor, desired his concurrence with them, and offered their concurrence to him, in withstanding whatever was in the said instructions contained, repugnant to their charter, or inconsistent with their pri

Logan and his creatures were the only malcontents; and why they were so will be made sufficiently obvious. The governor and assembly in concurrence, could govern the province without his participation; so he remain-paying any, did not so much as take notice ed without importance to either, till this share of the trust enabled him to interpose, and entitled him to be heard, at the expense of both. In the second year after Keith's arrival, Logan had divided his council against him, and carried off a majority; and ever after had represented him in his despatches, as having sub-vileges. stituted his own interest in the place of the The governor himself also became an adproprietary's, and confederated with the as-vocate for the province, and laid before the sembly to make both branches of the legisla-assembly a written defence of the constituture equally subservient to popular purposes. tion thereof, as well as of the late proprietaSubtle, however, as he was, and practised in all the arts of political disguise, he could not long conceal himself from the penetration of Keith. Thus having been detected (as Keith says) in aggravating, and even in altering certain minutes of the council-proceedings for the purposes before specified: and, in full confidence of proprietary protection, defending himself therein, with much personal abuse against the governor; the latter dismissed him from his post as secretary, and substituted another in his place.

With this, and a variety of other complaints all of the same tendency, Logan therefore made a voyage to England, soon after he became a trustee, and there made his court so effectually to the widow, &c. that they freighted him back with letters of reproof, Governor Keith's letter to the widow Penn, September 24, 1724.

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ry's character, in answer to Logan's memorial; and the session was concluded most triumphantly on the governor's side: for the house not only agreed to a remonstrance, in answer to the widow Penn's private instructions, as they were called; but moreover gratified him for his extraordinary services with a thousand pounds.

The controversy continued notwithstanding; and both parties bestirred themselves equally in order to make proselytes. Logan seemed more humble than before, but never was more confident. Keith never was so much in pain for his own stability, and yet never seemed to have less apprehensions. In proportion, however, as it became more and more probable, that he would be laid aside, he became less and less considered; and a breach between him and the speaker Lloyd, so often mentioned, and who had, even in

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