WEBVTT NOTE 55. "The Holy Experiment": The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1681-1690 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.000 Volume 1, Chapter 55, The Holy Experiment, The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1681-1690 2 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:16.000 The example of West Jersey taught William Penn two lessons. 3 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:23.000 It was possible, given sufficient territory, to found a large Quaker settlement in America, 4 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:29.000 and it was best to secure a charter for such a colony directly from the king. 5 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:41.000 In the vast stretches of America, Penn envisaged a truly Quaker colony, a holy experiment that an example may be set up to the nations. 6 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:56.000 In his quest for such a charter, Penn was aided by the fact that the Crown had owed his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, the huge sum of £16,000 for loans and back salary. 7 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:13.000 In March 1681, the king agreed to grant young William, the admiral's heir, proprietary ownership of the lands west of the Delaware River and north of the Maryland border in exchange for canceling the old debt. 8 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:24.000 The land was to be called Pennsylvania. Penn was greatly aided in securing the charter by his friendship with the king and other high officials of the court. 9 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:32.000 The proprietary charter was not quite as absolute as the colonial charters granted earlier in the century. 10 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:41.000 The proprietor could rule only with the advice and consent of an assembly of freemen, a provision quite satisfactory to pen. 11 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:50.000 The Privy Council could veto Pennsylvania's actions, and the Crown, of course, could hear appeals from litigation in the colony. 12 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:56.600 The Navigation Acts had to be enforced, and there was an ambiguous provision implying that 13 00:01:56.600 --> 00:02:03.600 England could impose taxes in Pennsylvania. As soon as Penn heard news of the Charter, 14 00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:10.640 he dispatched his cousin, William Markham, to be Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania. The 15 00:02:10.640 --> 00:02:17.240 latter informed the 500 or so Swedish and Dutch residents on the west bank of the Delaware 16 00:02:17.240 --> 00:02:24.040 of the New Charter. In the fall, Markham was succeeded by four commissioners and they were 17 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:32.200 succeeded by Thomas Holm as deputy governor in early 1682. In May, William Penn made the 18 00:02:32.200 --> 00:02:38.520 Frame of Government the constitution for the colony. The frame was amended and streamlined 19 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:46.000 and became the second frame of 1683, also called the Charter of Liberties. The frame 20 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:52.920 Religion provided first for full religious freedom for all theists. No compulsory religion 21 00:02:52.920 --> 00:03:00.520 was to be enforced. The Quaker ideal of religious liberty was put into practice. Only Christians, 22 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:07.060 however, were to be eligible for public office. Later, at the insistence of the Crown, Catholics 23 00:03:07.060 --> 00:03:13.720 were barred from official post in the colony. The government, as instituted by the Frame, 24 00:03:13.720 --> 00:03:26.720 A surprise to governor, the proprietor. An elected council, which performed executive and supreme judicial functions, and an assembly, elected by the freeholders. 25 00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:40.720 Justices of lower courts were appointed by the governor. But while the assembly, like those in other colonies, had the only power to levy taxes, its powers were more restricted than those of assemblies elsewhere. 26 00:03:40.720 --> 00:03:47.400 The Council could initiate laws and the Assembly was confined to ratifying or vetoing the Council's 27 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:49.480 proposals. 28 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:57.400 William Penn himself arrived in America in the fall of 1682 to institute the new colony. 29 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:03.920 He announced that the Duke's laws would be temporarily in force and then called an Assembly 30 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:05.640 for December. 31 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:10.760 The Assembly included representatives not only of three counties of Pennsylvania, but also 32 00:04:10.760 --> 00:04:17.160 of the three lower counties of Delaware. For Delaware, or New Castle and the lower counties 33 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:23.920 on the West Bank of Delaware Bay, had been secured from the Duke of York in August. While 34 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:31.200 Penn's legal title to exercising governmental functions over Delaware was dubious, he pursued 35 00:04:31.200 --> 00:04:37.920 William Penn now owned the entire West Bank of the Delaware River. 36 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:43.720 The assembly confirmed the amended frame of government, including the Declaration of Religious 37 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:50.040 Liberty, and this code of laws constituted the Great Law of Pennsylvania. 38 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:55.760 The three lower Delaware counties were placed under one administration, separate from Pennsylvania 39 00:04:55.760 --> 00:04:57.240 proper. 40 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:02.760 Penn was anxious to promote settlement as rapidly as possible, both for religious, a 41 00:05:02.760 --> 00:05:10.400 haven to Quakers, and for economic, income for himself, reasons. Penn advertised the 42 00:05:10.400 --> 00:05:16.280 virtues of the new colony far and wide throughout Europe. Although he tried to impose quit rents 43 00:05:16.280 --> 00:05:23.640 and extracted selling prices for land, he disposed of the land at easy terms. The prices 44 00:05:23.640 --> 00:05:28.040 Rents of land were cheap. Fifty acres were granted to each servant at the end of his 45 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:35.040 term of service. Fifty acres also were given for each servant brought into the colony. 46 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:41.600 Land sales were mainly in moderate-sized parcels. Penn soon found that at the rate of one shilling 47 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:48.200 per hundred acres, quit-rents were extremely difficult to collect from the settlers. Induced 48 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:54.520 Faced by religious liberty and relatively cheap land, settlers poured into Pennsylvania at 49 00:05:54.520 --> 00:06:02.560 a remarkably rapid rate beginning in 1682. Most of the immigrants were Quakers. In addition 50 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:10.260 to English Quakers came Welsh, Irish, and German Quakers. Penn laid out the capital 51 00:06:10.260 --> 00:06:16.460 destined to become the great city of Philadelphia and changed the name of the old Swedish settlement 52 00:06:16.460 --> 00:06:23.460 of Upland to Chester. The German Quakers, led by Francis Daniel Pastorius, founded Germantown. 53 00:06:25.820 --> 00:06:30.780 In addition to Quakers, there came other groups attracted by the promise of full religious 54 00:06:30.780 --> 00:06:37.780 liberty. German Lutherans, Catholics, Mennonites and Huguenots. The growth of Pennsylvania 55 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:45.480 was rapid. Three thousand immigrants arrived during this first year. By 1684, the population 56 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:51.480 The population of Philadelphia was 2,500, and of Pennsylvania, 8,000. 57 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:57.480 There were over 350 dwellings in Philadelphia by the end of 1683. 58 00:06:57.480 --> 00:07:03.480 By 1689, there were over 12,000 people in Pennsylvania. 59 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:11.480 One of William Penn's most notable achievements was to set a remarkable pattern of peace and justice with the Indians. 60 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:18.420 In November 1682, Penn concluded the first of several treaties of peace and friendship 61 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:24.200 with the Delaware Indians at Shackamaxon, near Philadelphia. 62 00:07:24.200 --> 00:07:30.300 The Quaker achievement of maintaining peace with the Indians for well over half a century 63 00:07:30.300 --> 00:07:32.820 has been disparaged. 64 00:07:32.820 --> 00:07:38.380 Some have held that it applied to only the mild Delaware Indians, who were perpetually 65 00:07:38.380 --> 00:08:08.380 by the fierce but pro-English Iroquois. But this surely accounts for only part of the story, for the Quakers not only insisted on voluntary purchase of land from the Indians, they also treated the Indians as human beings, as deserving of respect and dignity as anyone else. Hence they deserved to be treated with honesty, friendliness and even-handed justice. As a consequence, the Quakers were treated 66 00:08:08.380 --> 00:08:15.380 is precisely the same way in return. No drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by the Indians. 67 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:22.140 So strong was the mutual trust between the races that Quaker farmers unhesitatingly left 68 00:08:22.140 --> 00:08:28.940 their children in the care of the Indians. Originally, too, the law provided that whenever 69 00:08:28.940 --> 00:08:35.940 an Indian was involved in a trial, six whites and six Indians would constitute the jury. 70 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:52.940 Voltaire, raptuous over the Quaker achievement, wittily and perceptively wrote that the Shackam-Axon Treaty was the only treaty between Indians and Christians that was never sworn to and that was never broken. 71 00:08:52.940 --> 00:08:59.620 Voltaire went on to say that for the Indians it was truly a new sight to see a sovereign, 72 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:06.540 William Penn, to whom everyone said thou, and to whom one spoke with one's hat on one's 73 00:09:06.540 --> 00:09:14.540 head, a government without priest, a people without arms, citizens as equal to the magistrate, 74 00:09:14.540 --> 00:09:17.460 and neighbors without jealousy. 75 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:23.900 Other features of the Assembly's early laws were puritanical acts barring dramas, drunkenness 76 00:09:23.900 --> 00:09:30.620 and so forth. More liberally, oaths were not required and the death penalty applied only 77 00:09:30.620 --> 00:09:34.500 to the crime of murder. 78 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:41.120 Punishment was considered for purposes of reform. Feudal primogenitor was abolished 79 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:46.800 To make justice more efficient and informal, the government undertook to appoint three 80 00:09:46.800 --> 00:09:52.480 arbitrators in every precinct to hand down decisions in disputes. 81 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:58.200 The Quakers, however, unsatisfactorily evaded the problem of what to do about a military 82 00:09:58.200 --> 00:09:59.600 force. 83 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:05.920 So as not to violate Quaker principle against bearing arms, the friends refused to serve 84 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:11.820 in the militia, but they still maintained a militia in the province, and non-Quaker officials 85 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:18.740 were appointed in command. But surely, if armies are evil, then voting for taxes and 86 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:25.740 for laws in support of the evil is serving that evil and therefore not to be condoned. 87 00:10:26.340 --> 00:10:32.480 On the question of free speech for criticizing government, laws were, unfortunately, passed 88 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:38.880 prohibiting the writing or uttering of anything malicious, of anything stirring up dislike 89 00:10:38.880 --> 00:10:44.360 of the governor, or of anything tending to subvert the government. 90 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:52.640 The tax burden was extremely light in Pennsylvania. The only tax laws were enacted in 1683. These 91 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:59.280 placed a small duty on liquor and cider, a general duty on goods, and an export duty 92 00:10:59.280 --> 00:11:06.280 on hides and furs. But Governor Penn promptly set aside all taxes for a year to encourage 93 00:11:06.280 --> 00:11:12.920 settlers. In 1684, however, another bill to raise import and other duties for William 94 00:11:12.920 --> 00:11:19.320 Penn's personal use was tabled. Instead, a group of leaders of Pennsylvania pointed out 95 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:25.840 that the colony would progress much faster if there were no taxes to crippled trade. 96 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:31.140 These men heroically promised to raise 500 pounds for Penn as a gift if the tax bill 97 00:11:31.140 --> 00:11:32.680 were dropped. 98 00:11:32.680 --> 00:11:36.360 The tax bill was dropped, but not all the money raised. 99 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:42.360 As might have been predicted, the first political conflict in Pennsylvania came as a protest 100 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:49.100 against the curious provisions of the frame restricting the assembly to ratifying bills 101 00:11:49.100 --> 00:11:51.760 initiated by the Council. 102 00:11:51.760 --> 00:11:57.500 In the spring of 1683, several assemblymen urged that the assembly be granted the power 103 00:11:57.500 --> 00:12:06.120 to initiate legislation. Several of Penn's devotees attacked the request as that which 104 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:12.280 seemed to render him in gratitude for his goodness towards the people. The assembly 105 00:12:12.280 --> 00:12:18.880 balked too at granting the governor veto power over itself. There are indications that the 106 00:12:18.880 --> 00:12:28.880 The non-Quaker elements in the Assembly were particularly active in criticizing the great powers assumed by the Governor and the Council. 107 00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:38.880 One of the leaders of the incipient opposition to Penn was the non-Quaker Nicholas Moore, Speaker of the Assembly in 1684, 108 00:12:38.880 --> 00:12:46.080 and Anthony Weston, apparently a non-Quaker, was publicly whipped on three consecutive days for his 109 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:53.600 presumption and contempt of this government and authority. Having founded the new colony and its 110 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:01.120 government and hearing of renewed persecution of Quakers at home, William Penn returned to England 111 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:09.760 in the fall of 1684. He soon found his expectations of large proprietary profits from the vast 112 00:13:09.760 --> 00:13:16.640 royal grant to be in vain. For the people of the struggling young colony of Pennsylvania 113 00:13:16.640 --> 00:13:23.400 extended the principles of liberty far beyond what Penn was willing to allow. The free people 114 00:13:23.400 --> 00:13:30.640 of Pennsylvania would not vote for taxes and simply would not pay the quit rents to Penn 115 00:13:30.640 --> 00:13:40.620 As a result, Penn's deficits in ruling Pennsylvania were large and his fortune dwindled steadily. 116 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:47.040 In late 1685, Penn ordered the officials to use force to protect the monopoly of lime 117 00:13:47.040 --> 00:13:52.460 production that he had granted himself in order to prevent others from opening lime 118 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:54.600 quarries. 119 00:13:54.600 --> 00:14:02.520 As to quit rents, Penn, to encourage settlement, had granted a moratorium until 1685. The people 120 00:14:02.520 --> 00:14:09.180 insisted that payment be postponed another year, and Penn's threatened legal proceedings 121 00:14:09.180 --> 00:14:15.760 were without success. Penn was especially aggrieved that his agents in Pennsylvania 122 00:14:15.760 --> 00:14:21.540 failed to press his levies upon the people with sufficient zeal. Presumably, the free 123 00:14:21.540 --> 00:14:28.900 Every taxless heir of Pennsylvania had contaminated them. As Penn complained in the fall of 1686, 124 00:14:28.900 --> 00:14:36.540 well, the great fault is that those who are there lose their authority one way or another 125 00:14:36.540 --> 00:14:42.940 in the spirits of the people, and then they can do little with their outward powers. After 126 00:14:42.940 --> 00:14:51.100 Penn returned to England in 1684, the Council virtually succeeded him in governing the colony. 127 00:14:51.100 --> 00:14:56.780 The Council assumed full executive powers and since it was elected rather than appointed, 128 00:14:56.780 --> 00:15:02.020 this left Pennsylvania as a virtually self-governing colony. 129 00:15:02.020 --> 00:15:08.660 Though Thomas Lloyd, a Welsh Quaker, had by pen been appointed as President of the Council, 130 00:15:08.660 --> 00:15:14.660 the President had virtually no power and could make no decisions on his own. 131 00:15:14.660 --> 00:15:19.300 Because the Council met very infrequently and because no officials had any power to 132 00:15:19.300 --> 00:15:27.060 Act in the interim, during these intervals, Pennsylvania had almost no government at all, 133 00:15:27.060 --> 00:15:36.940 and seemed not to suffer from the experience. During the period from late 1684 to late 1688, 134 00:15:36.940 --> 00:15:43.140 there were no meetings of the Council from the end of October 1684 to the end of March 135 00:15:43.140 --> 00:15:53.460 March 1685, none from November 1686 to March 1687, and virtually none from May 1687 to 136 00:15:53.460 --> 00:16:01.260 late 1688. The councillors, for one thing, had little to do, and being private citizens 137 00:16:01.260 --> 00:16:07.260 rather than bureaucrats, and being unpaid as councillors, they had their own struggling 138 00:16:07.260 --> 00:16:14.260 If for most of 1684-88 there was no colony-wide government in existence, what of the local officials? 139 00:16:14.260 --> 00:16:20.780 The laws had called for small payment to the counselors, but typically it was found to 140 00:16:20.780 --> 00:16:26.260 be almost impossible to extract these funds from the populace. 141 00:16:26.260 --> 00:16:33.980 If for most of 1684-88 there was no colony-wide government in existence, what of the local 142 00:16:33.980 --> 00:16:35.620 officials? 143 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:40.580 Were they not around to provide that evidence of the state's continued existence, which 144 00:16:40.580 --> 00:16:45.900 Which so many people through the ages have deemed vital to man's very survival? 145 00:16:45.900 --> 00:16:49.520 But the answer is no. 146 00:16:49.520 --> 00:16:55.160 The lower courts met only a few days a year, and the county officials were, again, private 147 00:16:55.160 --> 00:16:59.860 citizens, who devoted very little time to upholding the law. 148 00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:08.180 No, the reality must be faced that the new, but rather large, colony of Pennsylvania lived 149 00:17:08.180 --> 00:17:18.180 for the greater part of four years in a de facto condition of individual anarchism and 150 00:17:18.180 --> 00:17:25.040 seemed none the worse for the experience. Furthermore, the assembly passed no laws after 151 00:17:25.040 --> 00:17:32.840 1686, as it was involved in a continual wrangle over attempts to increase its powers and to 152 00:17:32.840 --> 00:17:44.840 A bit of government came in 1685 in the person of William Dyer as collector of the King's 153 00:17:44.840 --> 00:17:52.840 customs, but despite the frantic urgings of William Penn for cooperation with Dyer, Pennsylvanians 154 00:17:52.840 --> 00:18:00.840 persisted in their de facto anarchism by blithely and regularly evading the Royal Navigation 155 00:18:00.840 --> 00:18:02.880 Laws. 156 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:08.040 William Penn had the strong and distinct impression that his holy experiment had slipped away 157 00:18:08.040 --> 00:18:13.000 from him, had taken a new and bewildering turn. 158 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:18.700 Penn had launched a colony that he thought would be quietly subject to his dictates and 159 00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:21.680 yield him a handsome profit. 160 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:28.440 By providing a prosperous haven of refuge for Quakers, he had expected in turn the rewards 161 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:36.100 of Wealth and Power. Instead, he found himself without either. Unable to collect revenue 162 00:18:36.100 --> 00:18:44.000 from the free and independent-minded Pennsylvanians, he saw the colony slipping gracefully into 163 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:54.120 outright anarchism, into a growing and flourishing land of no taxes and virtually no state. 164 00:18:54.120 --> 00:19:00.520 Men frantically determined to force Pennsylvania back into the familiar mold of the old order. 165 00:19:00.520 --> 00:19:07.800 Accordingly, he appointed vice commissioners of state in February 1687 to act in the execution 166 00:19:07.800 --> 00:19:13.700 of laws, as if I myself were there present, reserving myself the confirming of what is 167 00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:18.940 done and my peculiar royalties and advantages. 168 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:24.500 The purpose of the appointments, he added, was that there may be a more constant residence 169 00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:31.260 of the honorarian governing part of the government for the keeping all things in good order. 170 00:19:31.260 --> 00:19:36.420 Penn appointed the five commissioners from the colonies' leading citizens, Quakers and 171 00:19:36.420 --> 00:19:41.060 non-Quakers, and ordered them to enforce the laws. 172 00:19:41.060 --> 00:19:48.380 The colonists were evidently content in their anarchism and shrewdly engaged in nonviolent 173 00:19:48.380 --> 00:19:56.380 Resistance Against the Commission. In fact, they scarcely paid any attention to the Commission. 174 00:19:56.380 --> 00:20:02.300 A year passed before the Commission was even mentioned in the minutes of the Council. News 175 00:20:02.300 --> 00:20:08.620 about the Commission was delayed until the summer of 1687, and protest against the plan 176 00:20:08.620 --> 00:20:14.300 poured into pen. The commissioners and the protesters, too, pretended that they had taken 177 00:20:14.300 --> 00:20:20.300 and up their post as a continuing executive. Finally, however, Penn grew suspicious and 178 00:20:20.300 --> 00:20:27.300 asked why he had received no communication from the supposedly governing body. 179 00:20:27.300 --> 00:20:33.660 Unable to delay matters any longer, the reluctant commissioners of state took office in February 180 00:20:33.660 --> 00:20:40.660 1688, a year after their appointment. Three and one-half years of substantive anarchism 181 00:20:40.660 --> 00:20:49.660 The conservative anarchism were over. The state was back in its heaven. Once more, all was right with the world. 182 00:20:49.660 --> 00:20:59.660 Typically, Penn urged the commissioners to conceal any differences they might have among themselves, so as to deceive and overhaul the public. 183 00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:06.660 Show your virtues, but conceal your infirmities. This will make you awful and revered with your people. 184 00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:25.660 The Commissioners confined themselves to calling the Assembly into session in the spring of 1688, and this time the Assembly did pass some laws for the first time in three years. 185 00:21:25.660 --> 00:21:32.660 The two crucial bills presented by the Commissioners and the Council regulated the export of deer skins 186 00:21:32.660 --> 00:21:46.660 and, once again, levied customs duties on imports so as to obtain funds to finance the government, in short, imposed taxes on a taxless colony. 187 00:21:46.660 --> 00:21:56.660 After almost passing the tax bill, the assembly heroically defied the government once again and rejected the two bills. 188 00:21:56.660 --> 00:22:04.180 The state had reappeared in a flurry of activity in early 1688, but was found wanting, and 189 00:22:04.180 --> 00:22:10.740 the colony, still taxless, quickly lapsed back into a state of anarchism. 190 00:22:10.740 --> 00:22:16.020 The commissioners somehow failed to meet, and the council met only once more, between 191 00:22:16.020 --> 00:22:19.340 the spring meeting and December. 192 00:22:19.340 --> 00:22:25.640 Pennsylvania was once again content with a supposedly dreadful and impossible state of 193 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:32.860 affairs, and when this idle came to an end in December 1688 with the arrival of a new 194 00:22:32.860 --> 00:22:40.140 deputy governor appointed by Penn, the deputy governor had difficulty finding the officers 195 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:45.900 of the government. He found the council room deserted and covered with dust and scattered 196 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:51.260 Papers, The Wheels of Government had nearly stopped turning. 197 00:22:51.260 --> 00:22:56.460 William Penn, seeing that the Pennsylvanians had happily lapsed into an anarchism that 198 00:22:56.460 --> 00:23:03.420 precluded taxes, quit rents and political power for himself, decided to appoint a deputy 199 00:23:03.420 --> 00:23:10.140 governor. But the people of Pennsylvania, having tasted the sweets of pure liberty, 200 00:23:10.140 --> 00:23:15.660 were almost unanimously reluctant to relinquish that liberty. 201 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:20.300 We have observed that the commissioners of state had failed to assume their post and 202 00:23:20.300 --> 00:23:26.760 had virtually failed to function after it was presumed they accepted. No one wanted 203 00:23:26.760 --> 00:23:34.900 to rule others. For this reason, Thomas Lloyd, the president of the council, refused appointment 204 00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:42.340 as deputy governor. At this point, Penn concluded that he could not induce the Quakers of Pennsylvania 205 00:23:42.340 --> 00:23:50.020 to Institute a State, and so he turned to a tough non-Quaker, an old Puritan soldier, 206 00:23:50.020 --> 00:23:58.260 and a non-Pennsylvania, John Blackwell. Once a State has completely withered away, it is 207 00:23:58.260 --> 00:24:05.780 an extremely difficult task to recreate it, as Blackwell quickly discovered. If Blackwell 208 00:24:05.780 --> 00:24:11.740 had been under any illusions that the Quakers were meek and passive people, he was in for 209 00:24:11.740 --> 00:24:19.500 For a rude surprise, he was defined very quickly that devotion to peace, to liberty and to 210 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:28.140 individualism in no sense implies passive resignation to tyranny, quite the contrary. 211 00:24:28.140 --> 00:24:34.180 In announcing Blackwell's appointment in September 1688, Penn made it clear that his 212 00:24:34.180 --> 00:24:41.540 primary task was to collect Penn's quick rents and secondarily to reestablish a government. 213 00:24:41.540 --> 00:24:48.660 As Penn instructed Blackwell, Rule the meek meekly, and those that will not be ruled, 214 00:24:48.660 --> 00:24:51.580 rule with authority. 215 00:24:51.580 --> 00:24:58.740 John Blackwell's initial reception as Deputy Governor was an omen of things to come. 216 00:24:58.740 --> 00:25:04.100 Sending word ahead for someone to meet him upon his arrival in New York, he landed there 217 00:25:04.100 --> 00:25:08.260 only to find no one to receive him. 218 00:25:08.260 --> 00:25:14.460 After waiting in vain for three days, Blackwell went alone to New Jersey. When he arrived 219 00:25:14.460 --> 00:25:24.020 at Philadelphia on December 17, he found no escort, no parade, no reception committee. 220 00:25:24.020 --> 00:25:29.620 We have mentioned that Blackwell couldn't find the council or any other government officials, 221 00:25:29.620 --> 00:25:35.660 and this was after he had ordered the council to meet upon his arrival. Once early escort 222 00:25:35.660 --> 00:25:40.500 appeared and he refused to speak to the new governor, and when Blackwell arrived at the 223 00:25:40.500 --> 00:25:47.820 empty council room, a group of boys from the neighborhood gathered around to hoot and jeer. 224 00:25:47.820 --> 00:25:55.100 The Quakers, led by Thomas Lloyd, now embarked on a shrewd and determined campaign of resistance 225 00:25:55.100 --> 00:25:57.740 to the imposition of a state. 226 00:25:57.740 --> 00:26:03.500 Thomas Lloyd, as keeper of the Great Seal, insisted that none of Blackwell's orders 227 00:26:03.500 --> 00:26:08.580 or Commissions was valid unless stamped with the great seal. 228 00:26:08.580 --> 00:26:13.420 Lloyd, the keeper, refused to do the stamping. 229 00:26:13.420 --> 00:26:19.020 It is amusing to find Edward Channing and other thorough but not overly imaginative 230 00:26:19.020 --> 00:26:23.300 historians deeply puzzled by this resistance. 231 00:26:23.300 --> 00:26:28.620 This portion of Pennsylvania history is unusually difficult to understand. 232 00:26:28.620 --> 00:26:34.460 We find, for instance, so strong and intelligent a man as Thomas Lloyd, declining to obey 233 00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:41.140 what appeared to be reasonable and legal direction on the part of the proprietor. As keeper of 234 00:26:41.140 --> 00:26:48.140 the great seal of the province, Lloyd refused point-blank to affix that emblem of authenticity 235 00:26:48.540 --> 00:26:54.660 to commissions which Blackwell presented to him. What Channing failed to understand was 236 00:26:54.660 --> 00:27:09.660 It was that Pennsylvanians were engaged in a true revolutionary situation, that they were all fiercely determined to thwart the re-imposition of a burdensome state upon their flourishing, stateless society. 237 00:27:09.660 --> 00:27:23.660 That is why even the most reasonable and legal orders were disobeyed, for Pennsylvanians had for some years been living in a world where no one was giving orders to anyone else. 238 00:27:23.660 --> 00:27:43.660 Lloyd persistently refused to hand over the great seal or to stamp any of Blackwell's documents or appointments with it. Furthermore, David Lloyd, clerk of the court and a distant relative of Thomas, refused absolutely to turn over the documents of cases to Blackwell, even if the judges so ordered. 239 00:27:43.660 --> 00:27:51.660 For this act of defiance, Blackwell declared David Lloyd unfit to serve as court clerk and dismissed him. 240 00:27:51.660 --> 00:28:00.660 But Thomas Lloyd promptly reappointed David by virtue of his alleged power as keeper of the Great Seal. 241 00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:07.660 As a revolutionary situation grows and intensifies, unanimity can never prevail. 242 00:28:07.660 --> 00:28:18.660 The timid and the short-sighted began to betray the cause. Thus the Council frightened that the Lloyd's direct acts of rebellion now sided with Blackwell. 243 00:28:18.660 --> 00:28:27.660 The pro-Blackwell clique was headed by Griffith Jones, who had consented to let Blackwell live at his home in Philadelphia. 244 00:28:27.660 --> 00:28:35.660 Jones warned that, It is the King's authority that is opposed and looks to me as if it were raising a force to rebel. 245 00:28:35.660 --> 00:28:42.620 Of the members of the Council, only author Cook remained loyal to the Lloyds and to the 246 00:28:42.620 --> 00:28:49.540 resistance movement. Of a dozen justices of the peace named by Blackwell, four bluntly 247 00:28:49.540 --> 00:28:56.500 refused to serve. When Blackwell found out the true state of affairs in Pennsylvania, 248 00:28:56.500 --> 00:29:04.100 his state-bound soul was understandably appalled. Here was a thriving trade based on continuing 249 00:29:04.100 --> 00:29:11.540 and Violations of the Navigation Laws. Here, above all, were no taxes, hence no funds 250 00:29:11.540 --> 00:29:18.340 to set up a government. As Bronner puts it, he, Blackwell, deplored the lack of public 251 00:29:18.340 --> 00:29:24.100 funds in the colony, which made it impossible to hire a messenger to call the council, a 252 00:29:24.100 --> 00:29:29.460 doorkeeper, and someone to search ships to enforce the laws of England. He believed that 253 00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:36.460 Blackwell managed to force the Council to meet every week during the first months of 1689, but his suggestion that every Council should meet every week during the first months of 1689, was that the Council should be free to do whatever they would like. 254 00:29:59.460 --> 00:30:14.460 Arthur Cook led the successful resistance, maintaining that the people were not able to bear the charge of constant attendance. 255 00:30:14.460 --> 00:30:20.460 As Blackwell continued to denounce the Council and Pennsylvania as a whole before his accession, 256 00:30:20.460 --> 00:30:50.100 The conflict of views continued to polarize Blackwell and the Pennsylvanians. Finally, 257 00:30:50.100 --> 00:30:58.060 The climax came on April 2, 1689, when Blackwell introduced proceedings for the impeachment 258 00:30:58.060 --> 00:31:03.780 of Thomas Lloyd, charging him with eleven high crimes and misdemeanors. 259 00:31:03.780 --> 00:31:08.620 Blackwell had also refused to seat Lloyd when the latter was elected counselor from Bucks 260 00:31:08.620 --> 00:31:10.380 County. 261 00:31:10.380 --> 00:31:17.240 In his impeachment speech, Blackwell trumpeted to his stunned listeners that pens and therefore 262 00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:26.080 for his own powers over the colony were absolute. Penn was a feudal lord who could create manorial 263 00:31:26.080 --> 00:31:32.720 courts. Furthermore, Penn could not transfer his royally delegated powers to the people, 264 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:38.440 but only to a deputy such as himself. The council, according to Blackwell's theory, 265 00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:44.120 existed in no sense to represent the people, but to be an instrument for William Penn's 266 00:31:44.120 --> 00:31:54.120 Blackwell concluded this harangue by threatening to unsheath and wield his sword against his insolent and unruly opponents. 267 00:31:54.120 --> 00:32:01.120 Blackwell's proclamation of absolute rule now truly polarized the conflict. 268 00:32:01.120 --> 00:32:08.120 The choice was now narrowed, the old anarchism or the absolute rule by Blackwell. 269 00:32:08.120 --> 00:32:13.560 Blackwell. Given this confrontation, those wavering had little choice but to give Thomas 270 00:32:13.560 --> 00:32:20.760 Lloyd their full support. Blackwell now summarily dismissed from the Council Thomas Lloyd, Samuel 271 00:32:20.760 --> 00:32:27.600 Richardson and John Eckley. On April 9, while the Council, the supreme judicial arm of the 272 00:32:27.600 --> 00:32:35.640 colony, was debating the charge against Lloyd, Blackwell threatened to remove Joseph Grodin. 273 00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:42.900 At this point, the Council rebelled and demanded the right to approve its own members. Refusing 274 00:32:42.900 --> 00:32:50.640 to meet further without its duly elected members, the Council was then dissolved by Blackwell. 275 00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:57.000 With the Council homeward bound, the disheartened Blackwell sent his resignation to Penn, while 276 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:03.000 seven councillors bitterly protested to Penn against his deputies' attempt to deprive them 277 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:10.520 of their Liberties. As for Blackwell, he believed the Quakers to be those agents of the devil 278 00:33:10.520 --> 00:33:18.840 foretold in the New Testament, who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. 279 00:33:18.840 --> 00:33:25.000 From this point on, the decision was in the hands of Governor Penn, and Penn decided in 280 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:31.240 favor of the Quakers and against Blackwell. For the rest of the year, Blackwell continued 281 00:33:31.240 --> 00:33:37.960 formally in office, but lost all concern for making changes or exerting his rule. From 282 00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:46.160 April 1689 until early 1690, he was waiting out his term. Blackwell wrote to Penn that, 283 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:53.980 I now only wait for the hour of my deliverance. He summed up his grievance against the Quakers. 284 00:33:53.980 --> 00:34:01.380 These people have not the principles of government amongst them, nor will be informed. 285 00:34:01.380 --> 00:34:08.020 Meanwhile, the assembly, headed by author Cook, met in May and fell apart on the issue 286 00:34:08.020 --> 00:34:14.260 of protesting the arrest of one of its members. Between May and the end of the year, the Council 287 00:34:14.260 --> 00:34:22.020 met only twice. Pennsylvania was rapidly slipping back toward its previous state of anarchism. 288 00:34:22.020 --> 00:34:28.340 William Penn enlivened this trend by deciding to reestablish the old system with the Council 289 00:34:28.340 --> 00:34:34.540 as a whole, his deputy governor. Writing to the leading Quakers of Pennsylvania, Penn 290 00:34:34.540 --> 00:34:40.920 apologized for his mistake in appointing Blackwell, but wistfully reminded them that he had done 291 00:34:40.920 --> 00:34:49.760 so because no friend would undertake the governor's place. Now he told them, I have thought fit 292 00:34:49.760 --> 00:34:56.600 to throw all into your hands that you may all see the confidence I have in you. 293 00:34:56.600 --> 00:35:05.300 With Blackwell out of office, the Council, back in control, resumed its somnolent ways. 294 00:35:05.300 --> 00:35:11.520 Again headed by Thomas Lloyd, it met rarely, did virtually nothing, and told William Penn 295 00:35:11.520 --> 00:35:14.220 even less. 296 00:35:14.220 --> 00:35:20.220 had returned in triumph to Pennsylvania. And when Secretary William Markham, who had been 297 00:35:20.220 --> 00:35:26.380 one of the hated Blackwell clique, submitted a petition for levying taxes to provide some 298 00:35:26.380 --> 00:35:32.380 financial help for William Penn, the Council completely ignored the request.