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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 venturers embarked with thee to plant t colony, and what grants and promises t made, and the assurance and expectatio thou gave them and the rest of the settlers & inhabitants of this province, to enjoy the 1 vileges derived from thy own grants and c cessions, besides the rights and freedoms England: but how they were disappointed several respects, appears, in part, by the s representation, to which we refer; and come supplicants for relief, not only in matt there complained of which are not yet redre ed, but also in things then omitted, as well what have been lately transacted, to the gri ous oppression of the queen's subjects, public scandal of this government.

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"We are much concerned, that thou c ceived such displeasure as thou did agai that assembly, and not in all this time vou safe to show thy readiness to rectify th things which they made appear were ami nor hast thou showed thy particular objecti to the bills, which, with great care and char were then prepared, for confirming thy ch ters to this city and country, respecting b affirmation instead of oaths: but on the ot privileges and property, and for settling hand, we found, to our great disappointme that thou gave credit to wrong insinuatio against them, as appears by thy letter fr Hyde-Park, dated the twenty-sixth of twelfth month, 1704-5, wherein thou trea some particulars very unfriendly, and with And lastly, the said assembly having drawn sentatives, who, we perceive by their p any just grounds blamed the people's rep up two several remonstrances to the proprie- ceedings, were ready to support the tary, reciting the particulars of their griev-ment under thy administration, and desired ances and complaints against the said go- thing but to have their just rights, privileg vernor, took occasion in the last of them, dat- and properties confirmed, the judicatories ed June 10, 1707, to express themselves as gularly established, the magistracy suppli "We, and the people we represent, being constitution so framed, that the people cal with men of virtue and probity, and the wh still grieved and oppressed with the mal-ad-quakers might have a share with other Ch ministration and practices of thy deputy, and tian people in the government, which th the ill carriage, unwarrantable proceedings, always gave them an expectation of, a and great exactions of thy secretary, are like which they justly claim as a point of rig to be destroyed by the great injustice and ar- not for the sake of honour, but for the s bitrary 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.

66

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.

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To wade through the whole of this prov controversy which, at several reprisa lasted till Gookin was superseded in the y 1717, and replaced by William Keith, E (afterward sir William Keith, Bart.) wo be a task of great prolixity, and what con quently might prove as tedious to the rea as laborious to the writer.

what terms Mr. Penn was first followed Enough has been recited, to show up his flock, as a kind of patriarch, to Pennsyl nia; as also, what failures in his conduct wards them were complained of by the and as to the conduct of the several asse blies, which, in the several periods of this

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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 evadễ, 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 pounds.

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 accept 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 is the strongest; and the subject's money is reinstate him, but in effect, to be governe never so well disposed of, as in the mainte- by him, as implicitly as Gookin had bee 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 c too much spirit to submit to such treatmen and presuming beside, that his services t and interest in the colony, and his connexior with the most considerable men in it, woul uphold him against all opposition whatsoeve communicated all to the assembly, togethe with his own answers: and this he though was the more incumbent on him, because L gan had already been making his efforts t stir up a party against him.

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

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

Logan and his creatures were the only mal- The assembly, however, not being in a hu contents; and why they were so will be made mour to pay two government subsidies in sufficiently obvious. The governor and as- stead of one, when exempted by the origina sembly in concurrence, could govern the pro- article of quit-rents from the obligation o vince without his participation; so he remain-paying any, did not so much as take notic 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 substituted his own interest in the place of the The governor himself also became an ad proprietary'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 constitu ture equally subservient to popular purposes. tion thereof, as well as of the late proprieta Subtle, however, as he was, and practised ry's character, in answer to Logan's memo in all the arts of political disguise, he could rial; and the session was concluded mos not long conceal himself from the penetration triumphantly on the governor's side: for the of Keith. Thus having been detected (as house not only agreed to a remonstrance, ir Keith says*) in aggravating, and even in alter- answer to the widow Penn's private instruc ing certain minutes of the council-proceedings tions, as they were called; but moreove for the purposes before specified: and, in full gratified him for his extraordinary service: confidence of proprietary protection, defend- with a thousand pounds. ing 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.

The controversy continued notwithstand ing; and both parties bestirred themselves equally in order to make proselytes. Logar seemed more humble than before, but never was more confident. Keith never was s much in pain for his own stability, and ye 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

print, acted the part of a second to him, became as fatal to him as it was fortunate to Logan.

added to this unfortunate list; concerning whom the least that can be said, is, that either none but men of fortune shall be appointed to When the next assembly met, it soon ap- serve in such dignified offices: or otherwise, peared, that though the governor used the that, for the honour of government itself, such same patriot-language to it, he had not the as are recalled without any notorious impusame ascendancy over it. Two several ne- tation on their conduct, should be preserved gatives were put, upon two several motions from that wretchedness and contempt which to furnish him, the first with six hundred they have been but too frequently permitted pounds, the second with five hundred pounds, to fall into, for want even of a proper subsisttowards his support. No more than four hun-ence.

dred pounds could be obtained: and, notwith- The reader is desired to pardon this distanding all engines and all devices were em-gression, if it is one. It was necessary to ployed, no farther compensation could be pro-show, that the province of Pennsylvania, when cured for him.

It is equally the lot of this nation to be more specious than virtuous, more splendid than consistent, and to abound more in politicians than philosophers. Keith had more of the former than the latter in his composition, though he was neither in any eminent degree. A politician would not have furnished his adversaries with a plea to excuse his removal, by communicating a private paper to a popular assembly. A philosopher, governed by principle, and proof against passion, would not have been in the power of any issue whatsoever and if the assembly had been capable of consistency, they would have set a lustre on his dismission, by accompanying it with all the douceurs in the power of the province to have heaped upon him, that other governors might have thought it worth their while to proceed on his plan.

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Instead of which, on the first intelligence of a new governor, which was as carefully imparted to them, as concealed from him, they even affected to procrastinate the business of the province; and when upbraided by Keith with this backwardness, and, not without some mixture of indignation, required to give the public a testimonial of his administration, they proceeded in it, as if rather constrained than inclined; and at last took care to say as little as possible, though they had room to say so much.

In short, after a nine years' administration, unembarrassed with any one breach between the governor and assembly; and, as acknowledged by the latter, productive of much positive good to the province, they parted with reciprocal coldness, if not disgust: Keith disdaining to follow Gookin's example in desiring a benevolence; and they not having consideration enough left for him to offer it.

well governed, is easily governed; and that whichever branch of the legislature inflames the proprietary jealousy, or interferes with the proprietary interest, the result is the same: the obnoxious assembly is reprimanded and vilified, and as before observed, the obnoxious governor is recalled.

So that, unless the province stoops to be loaded with a triple tier of subsidies; namely, one for the public service, ordinary and extraordinary, one for the governor's annual appointments, and one for the gratification of the proprietaries and their creatures, it seems reasonable to conclude it is never to enjoy any established state of tranquillity.

And now, in addition to the points of proprietary encroachment and proprietary resentment already mentioned, we are naturally led to such other points of controversy, as at various times have arisen for want of sufficient foresight and sufficient preventatives; and of which several are unhappily in agitation at this very day.

It cannot but be recollected, that Mr. Penn, in his discourse with his joint adventurers, concerning reserved rents for the support of government, made a remarkable distinction between his two capacities of proprietary and governor and from hence, as well as from the nature of the trust, it must obviously follow, that when he withdrew himself to England, and transferred the government to his deputies, those deputies could not but be possessed of all the powers originally vested, by the crown, in him. Adroit as he was at refinements, he could not do by his trust as he did by his land;-withhold a reserve of power, and, like the drunken sailors in the play, appoint a viceroy, and retain a power to be viceroy over him.

And yet even Mr. Penn himself in his commission to Evans, a man, as we have seen, determined enough to push any proprietary, and defeat any popular point whatsoever, could venture to slip the following clause into his commission, to wit: "saving always to

There is no man, long or much conversant in this overgrown city, who hath not often found himself in company with the shades of departed governors, doomed to wander ont the residue of their lives, full of the agonizing remembrance of their passed eminence, and the severe sensation of present neglect. Sir William Keith, upon his* return, was *He staid in Philadelphia some time after his being displaced; and, seduced by his resentments, conde-prietaries. VOL. II.... D 3

scended to act a part neither becoming nor prudent: procuring himself to be returned as an assembly-man, and taking all the measures in his power to divide the province, embarrass the governor, and distress the pro

me and my heirs, our final assent to all such | vernor's part: that thou make no speech, nor

bills as thou shalt pass into laws in the said government, &c."

The assembly, however, to whom this commission was communicated, were shrewd enough to start the following doubt upon it, and to send it by way of message to the coun cil, to wit: whether the said vote is void in itself, and does not vacate the rest of the said commission or render it invalid?" And the council, with the proprietary's eldest son at the head, and secretary Logan at the rear of it, were so startled at it, that, in order to evade the last inference, they found themselves under a necessity to return the following answer. "We of the council, whose names are hereunto subscribed, are of opinion, that the said saving is void in itself: and that those bills which the present lieutenant-governor shall think fit to pass into laws, and cause the proprietary's great seal to be affixed thereunto, cannot afterwards be vacated or annulled by the proprietary, without assent of the assembly of this province."

send any written message to the assembly, but what shall be first approved in council; that thou receive all messages from them in council, if practicable at the time; and shall return no bills to the house, without the advice of the council; nor pass any whatsoever into a law, without the consent of a majority of that board, &c."

What, therefore, the governor's bond has not been sufficient to obtain, this new expedient was to extort. If the governor would not act as required, he was thus to be disabled from acting at all: and after so many various frames of government had been granted and regranted, proprietary will and pleasure was to be the last resort of all.

In vain both governor and assembly freely and fully remonstrated against such an innovation, in a government supposed to be guarded by charter against all innovations whatsoever; more especially such as were neither consistent with the rights of the people, the powers already vested in the governor, nor the respect due to the crown.

The next piece of practice, to answer the same purpose, that was found out, was to im- Logan discovered the assembly were not pose certain conditions of government on the authorized by charter to advise, though they deputy, under the penalty of a certain sum. were to enact; because the word advice was This was first submitted to by Keith, and has not to be found in that last given to them; been a rule to all his successors, with this dif- that governors were not to be trusted to act ference, that whereas the penalty exacted without advice; consequently the said exfrom him was but one thousand pounds ster-pedient to bridle them was a good one; and ling, it has been since raised to two or three if we may judge by events, his sophistry has thousand pounds. given the law ever since.

If ever the case of this colony should come before parliament, which is not altogether improbable, no doubt these conditions will be called for; and if they should then be found irreconcilable with the charter, and a check upon the legislative, altogether unconstitutional and illegal, the wisdom of the nation will, no doubt, pronounce upon such a trespass according to the heinousness of it.

Again: the widow Penn, in her private instructions to sir William Keith, having admitted and complained, that the powers of legislature were lodged in the governor and as sembly, without so much as a negative reserved to the proprietary when absent, proceeds to avow, that it was never intended [by the proprietary must be understood] the said governor and assembly should have the exercise of these powers; as also to pronounce it a dangerous invention of Keith's to enact laws in conjunction with the assembly, and transmit them directly to the king's ministers without any other check; and then, after thus arrogantly interposing between the king and his lieges of this province, clenches the whole with the following injunction; "therefore, for remedy of this grievance, it is required, that thou advise with the council, upon every meeting or adjournment of the assembly, which requires any deliberation on the go

From what has been thus far recited, it is obvious, that the proprietary of Pennsylvania was of too little consideration here at home, to be of much use to the province either as a protector or advocate; and yet, that he was there so much above the level of his freemen and tenants, that, even in their legislative capacity confederated with the governor, they could hardly maintain their rights they were so many ways entitled to, against the artifices and encroachments of his emissaries.

As lord of the soil, is the light he is next to be considered. The charter Mr. Penn obtained of the crown, comprehended a far greater extent of territory, than he thought fit to take up of the Indians at his first purchase.

And even in the very infancy of his colony, it was by act of assembly inconsiderately, because unconditionally, provided, that in case any person should presume to buy land of the natives, within the limits of the province, &c. without leave first obtained from the proprietary, the bargain and purchase so made should be void.

Rendered thus the only purchaser, he reckoned he might always accommodate himself at the Indian market, on the same terms, with what quantity of land he pleased; and till the stock in hand, or such parts of it as he

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