WEBVTT NOTE 11. Reaction in Pennsylvania 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 3, Chapter 11, Reaction in Pennsylvania 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:12.000 Pennsylvania's protests were among the most anemic in the colonies. 3 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.000 A major reason was undoubtedly the restraining influence of Franklin and Jackson. 4 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:26.000 The Pennsylvania Assembly, in September 1764, declared its opposition to taxation by Parliament, 5 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:32.540 But was too timid to follow its sister colonies and send the protest to parliament or the 6 00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:33.540 crown. 7 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:40.960 Instead, the assembly quickly, quietly, and privately sent its conclusions to Richard 8 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:42.720 Jackson. 9 00:00:42.720 --> 00:00:49.840 For a while it even promised to send Jackson an alternate plan for raising a colonial revenue, 10 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:56.160 Probably the scheme of the ever-helpful Franklin that would pay interest to the crown on a 11 00:00:56.160 --> 00:01:00.960 new all-colonial paper currency. 12 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:08.080 Perhaps the major reason for Pennsylvania's timidity as well as Franklin's was the scheming 13 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:16.040 of the non-pacifist Quaker oligarchy of eastern Pennsylvania, with whom Franklin was allied 14 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:21.360 to perpetuate their control of the colony. 15 00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:27.080 As the Germans and the Ulster Scots poured into western Pennsylvania, the older Quaker 16 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:34.600 settlers became a distinct minority of the population, yet their districts still commanded 17 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:38.480 a majority representation in the assembly. 18 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:46.220 Thus, the three Quaker counties of Chester, Box, and Philadelphia, excluding the city 19 00:01:46.220 --> 00:01:54.480 of Philadelphia, had far less than half of Pennsylvania's population in 1760, yet they 20 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:03.480 sent 24 representatives to the assembly out of 36. Demands for correcting the increasing 21 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:10.480 Inequality of Pennsylvania Representation were mounting, and the Quaker oligarchs calculated 22 00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:17.740 that if the province shifted from proprietary to royal government, they could manage to 23 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:24.740 dominate a crown-appointed council and thereby keep control of the government. Hence, Benjamin 24 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:32.180 Franklin, appointed as Pennsylvania's agent in London in the fall of 1764, to press for 25 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:38.300 changed to royal government, wrote from London that English Quakers would back 26 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:44.060 the cause and thus prevent their friends in Pennsylvania falling totally under 27 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:51.700 the domination of Presbyterians. Seeking important favors from the Crown, the 28 00:02:51.700 --> 00:02:56.260 Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania Assembly felt that it could not press any 29 00:02:56.260 --> 00:03:26.260 The principle yielded to the subservience of the courtier. 30 00:03:26.260 --> 00:03:37.260 In this trend, one great leader arose to take a determined libertarian position against both crown and proprietary. 31 00:03:37.260 --> 00:03:51.260 The lone voice was John Dickinson, a young lawyer who in May 1764 warned of the blaze of royal authority that would follow replacement of the proprietary. 32 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:58.820 Only Dickinson warned clearly of the impending aggrandizement of the imperial power and of 33 00:03:58.820 --> 00:04:04.720 the dangers of a British standing army. He also pointed out that the proprietors had 34 00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:11.040 cooperated closely with royal policies and therefore that the Crown could hardly serve 35 00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:19.220 as a relative paladin of liberty. While denouncing the exactions and evils of proprietary rule, 36 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:26.900 Dickinson hailed Pennsylvania's unique liberties, complete religious freedom, absence of test 37 00:04:26.900 --> 00:04:36.060 oaths, a unicameral elected legislature unhampered by an appointed council, absolute assembly 38 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:44.260 control over its own meetings, and annual elections. In contrast, Joseph Galloway sought 39 00:04:44.260 --> 00:04:51.260 about the blessings of royal liberty, and Ben Franklin proudly and accurately proclaimed 40 00:04:51.260 --> 00:04:58.500 that he had constantly and uniformly advanced the measures of the Crown ever since I had 41 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:02.180 any influence in the province. 42 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:07.660 John Dickinson's emergence as head of the liberal opposition to the tyrannical moves 43 00:05:07.660 --> 00:05:14.100 of the British Crown occasioned a new political line-up in Pennsylvania. 44 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:21.700 On one side was an anti-royal coalition of western Ulster-Scott Presbyterians, urban 45 00:05:21.700 --> 00:05:26.700 Philadelphians, and a handful of proprietary men. 46 00:05:26.700 --> 00:05:32.940 On the other was a conservative party headed by Galloway and Franklin, based on the non-pacifist 47 00:05:32.940 --> 00:05:37.940 Quakers of the eastern counties surrounding Philadelphia. 48 00:05:37.940 --> 00:05:46.120 Professor Jacobson concludes, for John Dickinson, 1764, marked the beginning of his important 49 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:56.620 political leadership. His arguments in 1764 showed not essential conservatism, as historians 50 00:05:56.620 --> 00:06:04.020 have so frequently charged, but a belief in the more radical idea that fundamental rights 51 00:06:04.020 --> 00:06:10.420 could not be altered without the consent of the governed. An idea that clearly foreshadowed 52 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:17.420 the American position in the revolutionary crisis of succeeding years. Dickinson's early 53 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:24.420 and perceptive analysis supports his own later claim that his stand against royal government 54 00:06:24.780 --> 00:06:31.780 marked the beginning of the revolutionary struggles in Pennsylvania.