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thought fit to dispose of, were in a fair way | may be reclaimed and re-assumed at any of being sold off, he did not think it for his time, it cannot be too soon reclaimed and reinterest to incumber himself with more. assumed.

That assembly then, which first discovered this lapse, or which at the requisition of their constituents, first endeavoured to retrieve it, did no more than their duty; and the precedent they set cannot be too closely followed. Again: the distinction made by Mr. Penn in the case of the quit-rents, between his two capacities of governor and proprietary, had

This happened sooner than he foresaw; though it must be acknowledged the founders of few cities appear to have had more foresight than he. The growth of his colony exceeded his most sanguine expectations; and, when successive new purchases came to be made, an inconvenience by degrees became manifest, which, perhaps, had not been thought of before, or if thought of, had not been guard-an use, which even he, with all his shrewded against.

Men who want a present convenience must not be over solicitous about future contingencies; and, in general, we choose to be blind to such objects as we fear we have not strength enough to remove: he that is too much of a huckster often loses a bargain; as he that is too little so, often purchases a lawsuit.

ness, did not perhaps advert to, when it was made; or at least expect it would be adverted to by any body else.

For the support of the governor and government, it must be recollected they were submitted to; for the support of the proprietary, when absent from his government, and when the government charge was otherwise supported, they were paid: and as he and his agents went on, not only to reserve such rents out of all the parcels of lands they disposed of, but even to rise in their demands, as the value of lands rose; so it could not but follow, that in process of time these quit-rents would of themselves become an immense estate.

there, could it be supposed, that this estate, thus obtained and thus perverted from its original purpose, should not be liable, in common with all other estates, to contribute to those charges it was first in the entire allotted for, and the whole amount of which it so many fold exceeds?

It was no hard matter to induce a belief, that occasional treaties with the Indians, under the pretence of keeping up the same brotherly correspondence which had been at first established with them, was a necessary measure of government; nor to prevail with the province, while this was understood to be the sole consideration, to bear the expense of them. When, therefore, the proprietary no longer But when it appeared, as in the course of acted as governor, nor even resided in the time was unavoidable, that a treaty and a pur-province, nor expended a fifth of his income chase went on together; that the former was a shoeing-horn for the latter; that the governor only made the compliments, and the assembly the presents, &c. it could not but appear also, that there must be somewhat unfair in a procedure where one paid all the cost, and the other engrossed all the profit; and that it was high time to put some stop to a practice so injurious to their understandings. It is not indeed necessary in private life to bargain, that those who purchase for their own use and advantage, should pay the price out of their own pockets; but in public it is. Persons who stand on the same ground will insist on the same rights; and it is matter of wonder, when any one party discovers folly or insolence enough to demand or expect any pre-eminence over the other.

No property in England is tax-free: no difference in the amount, or value of property, makes any difference in the duty of subjects: and nothing is more consonant to reason, than that he who possesses most, should contribute most to the public service.

And yet, for want of a specific clause to declare their property taxable, the present proprietaries insist on having it exempted from every public obligation, and upon charging the difference on the public, who, it canWhereas prerogative admits of no equality; not be too often remembered, gave it in the and presupposes, that difference of place al-first instance as the price of an exemption ters the use of language, and even the very from all other taxes. nature of things.

Hence, though protection is the reason, and, consequently, should be the end of government, we ought to be as much upon our guard against our protectors as against our enemies.

Power, like water, is ever working its own way; and wherever it can find or make an opening, is altogether as prone to overflow whatever is subject to it.

And though matter of right overlooked,

Clear, however, it will be made to every unprejudiced mind, that such a specific clause neither is nor ever was necessary; and, that in virtue of the inherent right, as well as the power and authority reposed in the freemen to tax themselves by ways and means of their own providing, all the property of the province lies indiscriminately at their discretion, subject to an equal taxation.

The paper currency of the province is next to be mentioned; and as that was out of pros

pect while the several frames of government | as possible on a par with gold and silver, they were under consideration, it could not be imposed sufficient penalties on all those who comprehended in any of them. presumed to make any bargain or sale upor cheaper terms, in case of being paid in the on preferable to the other: they provided for the

The currency then was, and so continued to be, for many years after, gold and silver of any species by weight; at first in so irre-gradual reduction of them, by enacting, tha gular a manner, and at such uncertain rates, one eighth of the principal, as well as the whol as gave the crafty many opportunities to prey interest money, should be annually paid. An upon the ignorant and necessitous; conse- it was not till they were convinced by expe quently was productive of much contention, rience of the utility of the measure, and the in embarrassment, and confusion. sufficiency of the sum, that they adventure to issue thirty thousand pounds more.

By royal proclamation, in the fourth of queen Anne, the rates and values of all foreign coins current in the English colonies were limited and ascertained; and, in her sixth, the contents of the said proclamation were enacted into a law, which is still in force.

But the annual influx of these foreign coins, through what channel soever, or from whatsoever source, by no means answered the demands of an annual issue.

From England came all the manufactures consumed in the plantations; and all the returns they could make by their commodities sent thither directly, or the product of them at other markets, fell far short of the balance growing against them.

The defect, therefore, was to be made good in gold and silver, and was so as long and as often as any could be found. Every colony, in its turn, was, consequently, drained of its specie; and, as it is an impossibility known and avowed, for any trading community to subsist without some medium of circulation, every colony in its turn was obliged to have recourse to the same expedient of uttering provincial bills of credit, and making them answer, as far as possible, all the topical purposes of gold and silver; by which their severa capitals were enlarged; the gold and silver became commodities that could be spared for exportation; and the merchants at home were paid in that gold and silver, without any provincial detri

ment.

and

Pennsylvania, however, if not the very last, was one of the last, which gave into it. It was not till the year 1722 (Keith, governor) that they made their first experiment; even then they proceeded with the utmost caution and circumspection, in every step they took.

Such, moreover, was the benefit apparentl resulting from it; such the inconveniency ap prehended by every body from the scarcity o money sure to follow a too precipitate dis charge of the loans; and such the apparen growth of the province during this interva that, in the year 1729 (Patrick Gordon, go vernor) it was thought advisable to increas the provincial capital by a new emission of bills, to the amount of thirty thousand pounds and to render the repayments still easier t the borrowers, by reducing them to one six teenth a year.

Again: in the year 1739 (George Thomas governor) occasion was taken from the disco veries repeatedly made, that these provincia bills had been counterfeited, not only to ca them all in, in order to their being replace with others of a new impression, &c. but als for the reasons before given, to issue the fu ther sums of eleven thousand one hundre and ten pounds five shillings, (which, adde to the sums already in circulation, made the whole capital amount to eighty thousan pounds) to be current for sixteen years.

Lastly: finding, that the like, or a greate sum, in case the province should grow sti greater, would in all probability be alway necessary, the assembly moreover provided that so fast as any of the former borrowe should repay their provincial-money, the tru tees of the loan-office might re-emit the sam sums during the said term of sixteen year on the same conditions, either to them others, without any new authority for that pu pose.

And, upon the whole, it is to be observe that the assembly, in establishing this pap currency, in taking upon themselves, as repr Knowing, for example, that the danger of sentatives of the province, to appoint the tru depreciation was the only danger they had to tees and other officers charged with the a guard against, and that nothing but an over ministration of it; in providing that the sa quantity, defect of solid security, and of pro-trustees and officers should be responsible per provision to recall and cancel them, could create that danger, they issued at first but fifteen thousand pounds; they made no loans but on land-security or plate deposited in the loan-office they obliged the borrowers to pay five per cent. for the sums they took up; they made their bills a tender in all payments of all kinds, on pain of vacating the debt, or forfeiting the commodity: to keep them as near

the province for their conduct in it; and reserving to the assembly, for the time bein the disposition and application of the annu product, met not with any such objection fro their governors, or the proprietaries, or t ministry here at home, as could excite t least apprehension of any such contest, might either embroil the province, affect t interest, or incommode the government of

It is true, the proprietaries and their agents | been at first opprobriously called by that of did, from the beginning, discover a repugnance quakers, have been forced, by the joint tyto this measure, till they found themselves ranny of imposition and custom, to answer to considered in it; like the snail with his horns, it ever since. they had no sensations for the province, but what reached them through the nerves of power and profit. Profit, though ranked last, they consulted first; and when possessed of one point, they thought they might wrangle more successfully for the other.

Of these, the majority carried along with them a scruple better accommodated to the forming of a society and preserving it in peace, than to the protecting it from those insults and depredations which pride and lust of dominion have at all periods committed on their If the widow Penn acquiesced in the paper-weaker neighbours; and from the visitation money acts passed by Keith, she reprimanded of which, no system of politics, morals, or rehim for passing them; and in a manner forbid ligion, hath as yet been able to preserve manhim to pass any more. kind.

Gordon (Keith's successor) having over and over again acknowledged his conviction of the conveniences arising to the province from a reasonable increase of their paper currency, gave the assembly to understand, in so many words, that nothing but the gratification of the proprietaries in the affair of their quit-rents, would prevent the opposition they were otherwise to expect to the act then before them in England.

All their views, purposes, and endeavours were narrowed, therefore, to the forms and uses of civil life; and to link the several parts of their own little community in the most expedient manner together.

The French were too feeble in America and too remote from Pennsylvania, to be then apprehended. The provinces adjacent were branches from the same root, and responsible for their conduct to the same laws; and the Indians, from the very beginning, had been considered and treated as equally the sons of

Nor, indeed, had they at that time any other object before them: alike to wage war against any power in alliance with England, and to correspond with any power at war with her, was expressly forbid both to the proprie By special contract with the several pur-tary and the province, by the fifteenth section chasers, these quit-rents of theirs were to be of the royal charter. paid in sterling money; and, as it was impossible, by any provision whatsoever, to make the provincial currency answer the universal purposes of gold and silver, so no provision could hinder these metals from having the preference of paper. To convert paper into specie or bullion could not of course but be attended with some cost; and hence the propri-one common father. etary-remittances could not but come shorter home. When, therefore, by the eighty thousand pounds act, paper was to become the provincial establishment, they would not allow their share of the provincial advantage resulting from it (which was, at least, equal to that of the province, as will hereafter become apparent) to be what it really was, an adequate consideration, but insisted, not only on having the difference between paper and specie or bullion made up to them, and that the difference of exchange should be made up to them also; or, in other words, that the pounds sterling due to them in Pennsylvania, should be paid to them nett in England.

In short, the sum of one thousand two hundred pounds was in this manner extorted from the province, together with an annuity of one hundred and thirty pounds, to continue during the circulation of those bills; which will serve to show, at least, that the province could not be more stubborn, upon other occasions, than the proprietaries were selfish on this.

Land wanted by us was a drug to them. The province, then to be allotted, peopled, and cultivated, had not been wrested from them by violence, but purchased for a suitable consideration. In the contract between the proprietary and his sub-adventurers, all possible care had been taken that no cause of complaint should be administered to them: in trade they were not to be overreached nor imposed upon in their persons they were not to be insulted or abused; and, in case of any complaint on either side, the subject-matter was to be heard by the magistrates in concert with the Indian chief, and decided by a mixed jury of Indians and planters.

The same regard to conscience which led them into this wilderness, adhered to them afterwards; and having thus resolved and provided, never to be aggressors, and not being sovereigns, they left the rest to Providence.

Governed by principle in all things, and believing the use of arms to be unlawful, the case of defence by arms could not come withtheir plan.

There remains yet another topic to be touch-in ed upon, which will require a more tender consideration from the reader than perhaps it may always find.

Mr. Penn and his followers were of that sect, who call themselves by the amiable and levelling name of Friends; and who having

But then as their community was left open to Christians of all persuasions, and the conditions of union could be abhorrent to none, they might well presume on being joined by numbers, which has since happened accordingly, who, being devoid of such scruples,

might be easily induced, for proper considera- | tablished for sixteen years, the merchants tions, to take that difficulty out of their hands: trading to the eastern colonies of America, and, as to military service, under all English took occasion to complain to the house of tenures whatsoever, no man could be compel- commons, of the inconveniences and discouled to serve in person, who made it his choice ragements brought on the commerce of Great to serve by proxy. Britain in those parts, by the excessive quantities of paper money there issued, and the depreciated condition thereof, for want of proper funds to support its credit. The house, by way of palliative, addressed the throne to put a temporary stop to the evil, by instructing the several governors, not to give their assent to any farther laws of that nature, without an express proviso, that they should not take effect till his majesty's approbation had been first obtained.

Add to all this; that William Penn himself does not appear to have been under the dominion of these scruples; he having taken care in his charter from the crown (sect. 10.) to be invested with all the powers ever be stowed on a captain-general (which were also to descend to his heirs and assigns) "to levy, muster, and train all sorts of men, of what condition soever, or wheresoever born, and to make war and to pursue such enemies as should make incursions into the province, as well by sea as land, even without the limits of the said province, and, by God's assistance, to vanquish and take them," &c.

And, lastly, if ever involved in the quarrels of the mother-country, and obliged to take their share of the common duty and the common danger, they might reasonably hope for all the protection from thence they might stand in need of, on the condition of contribut. ing all that was in their power, consistent with their principles, towards it.

This they have occasionally done from colonel Fletcher's time downwards, and they would have done more, if the proprietary calls and those of their deputies had not put it out of their power.

Allowing, therefore, that this unresisting principle would have been a solecism in the construction of an independent state, it was not, provincially speaking, destitute of proper palliatives.

At least, scruple of conscience is at all times, and in all cases, less blameable than the wanton experiments tried upon the province, even by the proprietary's own agents: first to scatter terrors among the peaceable inhabitants, and then to plead the necessity of a military force from the effects of their own wicked devices.

Of this nature was the false alarm raised in the queen's time by Evans and Logan: a fact which stands charged against them, in the records of the assembly, at this very day; and which, as often as recollected, will ever suggest a fear, that a measure, so unwarrantably contended for, would, if obtained, be as unwarrantably made use of.

We have now such a summary of the state of Pennsylvania, from its origin, before us, as may render every branch of the controversy still depending, familiar to us: and, as facts are best seen and understood in order of time as they occurred, we shall do our best to follow the thread as it lies.

Such instructions were accordingly sent; and those to the governor of Pennsylvania were dated August 21, 1740. Notwithstanding all which, the lords of trade and plantations (having already in their hands a full and clear account of the currency, as established by the eighty thousand pounds act, as also of the rates of gold and silver, from the year 1700 to the year 1739; and having been moreover convinced, by the merchants trading to that province, that such a sum was not only reasonable but necessary for carrying on the commerce of the country) thought fit to recommend the said act, to the royal acceptance and ratification; and ten days afterwards the lords justices passed it into a law.

Here the affair slept for several years, except that the assembly, in conformity to an order, which accompanied the instructions just mentioned, caused a second state of their currency to be transmitted the following year to the lords of trade and before it was again resumed in parliament, the several incidents, next to be recited, took place.

When the attempt upon Carthagena was under consideration, the northern colonies were called upon to furnish soldiers for that service, and Pennsylvania among the rest. The assembly was at that time composed, as it had hitherto generally been; consequently this demand could not but be productive of scruples and difficulties in point of conscience; that, however, they might discharge all obligations at once, they voted four thousand pounds for the king's use, and the governor took upon himself to raise the soldiers.

This was a duty of office; and, if he had discharged it properly, what would have given universal satisfaction. The labour of the plantations is performed chiefly by indented servants, brought from Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany; nor, because of the high price it bears, can it be performed any other way. These servants are purchased of the captains who bring them; the purchaser, by a positive In April, 1740, when the paper currency of law, has a legal property in them during the the province had been just increased, as above term they are bound for; can sell or bequeath specified, to eighty thousand pounds, and es-them; and, like other chattels, they are lia

ble to be seized for debts. Out of these, nevertheless, did the governor make his levies. A ferment ensued: the owners were tenacious of their rights: the governor stood upon prerogative as paramount to all: the dispute was brought into the courts; and such was the terror of power, that the aggrieved was forced to repair to New York for advocates. The assembly, seeing no other remedy, thought themselves bound to defend the rights of their constituents; and did defend them accordingly, by refusing to part with their supply, unless these servants so unjustly taken from their masters were restored. The governor was obstinate, and so the money was, at last, applied, as it ought, to indemnify them for the injury they had sustained.

which they cheerfully concurred in doing, seduced by their interests and their inclinations into a belief, that the whole line of our colonies would not be thus agitated, nor their Indian allies induced to take up the hatchet in conjunction with them, merely by way of feint to facilitate a peace.

Forces were every where raised by the several governors, and the assembly of Pennsylvania voted five thousand pounds for the king's use, or, in other words, as their contingent for this pretended national service. The money so voted being more than their revenue could furnish, they proposed to raise it by an addition of the like sum to their paper currency; in which case the king would be served, the provincial capital would be so far enlarged, and the interest arising from it would, in a due proportion of time, discharge the principal.

And here began the first dispute between the governor and the assembly on this topic : the governor pleaded the instruction of 1740 as a reason, why he could not bring himself to such a pitch of boldness as he apprehended was necessary to the contravention of it; and therefore urged them to find out some method less exceptionable for raising the said sum:

That, however, they might not be misrepresented or misunderstood at home, as deficient in zeal for the public, or backward to contribute to the service, they came the next year to the following vote, to wit: The house, taking into consideration the many taxes their fellow-subjects in Great Britain are obliged to pay towards supporting the dignity of the crown, and defraying the necessary and contingent charges of government, and willing to demonstrate the fidelity, loyalty, and affection of the inhabitants of this pro-and they, willing to comply as far as possible vince to our gracious sovereign, by bearing with his scruples, so far receded from their a share of the burden of our fellow-subjects, point to that time as to issue it out of the proportionably to our circumstances, do there- money dormant in the loan-office for exchangfore, cheerfully and unanimously resolve, ing torn and illegible bills, and to replace it that three thousand pounds be paid for the by a new emission of bills to the same amount, use of the king, his heirs and successors, to be to be sunk out of the product of the excise in applied to such uses as he in his royal wisdom ten years. Upon which the governor waved shall think fit to direct and appoint." And the instruction, and passed the bill; five hunthe said three thousand pounds were after-dred men were raised and supported by it, for wards paid into his majesty's exchequer by the agent of the province accordingly. A free gift, if ever there was one, from subject to sovereign; and, however small, a sufficient voucher for the good intentions of those who made it.

In the beginning of the year 1745, the project against Louisburgh, having been carried in the assembly of New England by a single vote only, was imparted to the assembly of Pennsylvania by governor Shirley, with a desire, that they would contribute thereto : but though they could not be prevailed upon to take any part in an enterprise which to them appeared so desperate, they voted four thousand pounds in provisions, for the refreshment and support of the brave troops who had taken the place, as soon as it was known they were in possession of it, and that such supplies were wanting.

In the beginning of the year 1746, the ministers affected to entertain a project for the reduction of Canada. By letters from the secretary's office, dated April 6, the northern colonies were severally called upon to contribute their respective quotas towards it;

near eighteen months, employed chiefly in defending the frontiers of New York, when the expedition at length was dropped and the troops disbanded.

A formal bill to restrain the northern colonies in general, from issuing paper bills of credit, it must be observed had been brought into parliament, but not perfected; and in the year 1748 again: upon which occasion the next governor of Pennsylvania, James Hamilton, Esq.; in a message to the assembly in October 1749, made use of the following remarkable expressions: "I take it for granted, we are all sensible of the mischievous tendency of the bill that was brought into parliament the last year, to regulate and restrain paper bills of credit in the plantations (in which there was a clause to enforce the orders of the crown in his majesty's American dominions) and it is not improbable, that something of the same kind may be offered in the ensuing session. I persuade myself you will give your agent full instructions upon this subject, in case it should become necessary for him to oppose it: the honourable proprietaries at that time laboured and with success

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