WEBVTT NOTE 31. The Struggle in Pennsylvania and Delaware 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 4, Chapter 31, The Struggle in Pennsylvania and Delaware 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Congress's May resolutions spurred independence sentiment throughout the colonies, and John Adams soon exalted that 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:20.000 every post and every day rolls in upon us independence like a torrent. 4 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:31.000 Virginia had struck for independence and the Massachusetts House primed support in the grassroots by asking the towns their views on independence. 5 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:41.000 Through May and June the Massachusetts towns, as might be expected, answered that they would support the measure with their lives and fortunes. 6 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Rhode Island, too, was stimulated to instruct its delegates to sign any necessary treaties with foreign states. 7 00:00:48.000 --> 00:01:00.000 It had opted for independence as early as May 4, when the legislature had renounced all allegiance to King George and assailed his debasing and detestable tyranny. 8 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:07.740 Adams' jubilation was decidedly premature. America could not proclaim its independence 9 00:01:07.740 --> 00:01:15.160 without the middle colonies, and the middle colonies still stood obdurately outside or 10 00:01:15.160 --> 00:01:22.040 opposed to the independence movement. The powerful landed oligarchs of New York and 11 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:30.040 and the highly conservative Philadelphia financiers stood four square against independence. 12 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:37.040 Their brilliant leaders, the Morrises, the Jays, the Livingstons, the Dickensons, the Willings and others, 13 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:44.040 not only thoroughly dominated their provinces, they were shrewd enough not to turn outright Tory 14 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:49.040 and thus lose any hope of ruling their respective populaces. 15 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:56.040 Independence could not be assumed while these two great colonies remained adamant in opposition. 16 00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:01.600 The Pennsylvania Assembly had, in November, specifically directed its delegates to oppose 17 00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:08.240 any plan for independence, and the instructions of New York, Maryland and Delaware had clearly 18 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:12.000 emphasized American ties with Great Britain. 19 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:19.260 Even as late as the May 1776 assembly election, the conservatives carried Philadelphia. 20 00:02:19.260 --> 00:02:24.760 On May 15, when Virginia and the Continental Congress were taking such rapid strides towards 21 00:02:24.760 --> 00:02:31.400 independence, the Maryland Convention, in a burst of reaction, was resolving unanimously 22 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:39.820 that a reunion with Great Britain on constitutional principles would best secure the rights, liberty 23 00:02:39.820 --> 00:02:43.300 and Happiness of the Whole Empire. 24 00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:49.340 The radicals readily concluded that Pennsylvania was the key to their problem. 25 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:55.780 If that great ultra-conservative province should capitulate to the radicals and independents, 26 00:02:55.780 --> 00:02:59.420 the other colonies would have to swing into line. 27 00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:05.900 Maryland and Delaware, caught between Pennsylvania and the South, could not hold out, and neither 28 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:11.060 There could in New York, isolated from all of her sister colonies, but to accomplish 29 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:19.660 such a drastic change would require something on the order of a veritable internal revolution. 30 00:03:19.660 --> 00:03:28.700 The key to Pennsylvania politics was its almost unique status as a proprietary colony, a status 31 00:03:28.700 --> 00:03:33.960 it shared only with Maryland and Delaware, the latter being associated with it in the 32 00:03:33.960 --> 00:03:51.960 and the proprietorship of the Penn family. Directly under a sympathetic proprietary rather than the crown, Pennsylvania did not have to confront the royal tyranny directly or have its assembly dissolved or humbled by Great Britain. 33 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:58.200 In contrast to the other colonies, therefore, Pennsylvania was not propelled into a state 34 00:03:58.200 --> 00:04:05.520 of nature and, hence, to a rule by spontaneously formed local committees and provincial congresses. 35 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:15.800 Instead, throughout 1775, its colonial government continued complacently unaltered. Continuing 36 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:22.800 And in power were Pennsylvania's thoroughly undemocratic and malapportioned assembly, 37 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:29.640 as well as its executive and judiciary, appointed by the proprietary. 38 00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:35.640 Controlling the assembly with an iron hand was Arch-Conservative John Bickenson, along 39 00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:41.400 with the Quaker and financial oligarchy of Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania, all 40 00:04:41.400 --> 00:04:44.840 strongly opposed to independence. 41 00:04:44.840 --> 00:04:52.200 The Quakers and the proprietary party, formerly enemies, were now united in opposition to 42 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:57.720 independence and in favor of the existing political structure. 43 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:04.720 In Pennsylvania, there was no confusion between internal and external issues among the radical 44 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.680 and conservative camps. 45 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:12.280 The conservatives were opposed to independence and domestic reform, and the radicals were 46 00:05:12.280 --> 00:05:18.920 were squarely on the side of both. Indeed, the issues were conjoined as neither aim could 47 00:05:18.920 --> 00:05:25.720 be achieved without the other. One vital factor aiding the Pennsylvania left was the presence 48 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:32.100 of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Heavily committed to independence, the Congress, 49 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:40.100 especially since its resolution of May 15, 1776, exerted continual pressure on behalf 50 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:46.860 of the Pennsylvania Radicals. Over a month of agitation led by Joseph Reed, Washington's 51 00:05:46.860 --> 00:05:53.860 former aide, brought the assembly to enlarge its membership in mid-March. But this was 52 00:05:53.860 --> 00:05:59.820 a mild reform, and Dickinson, Robert Morris and their conservative allies were still in 53 00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:07.300 comfortable control. While local committees had not assumed power in Pennsylvania, they 54 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:12.900 They were in existence and a growing force in the province. They were a vital part of 55 00:06:12.900 --> 00:06:18.500 the protest movement against Great Britain, and a provincial convention of these committees 56 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:27.220 during January 1775, while effectively hobbled by Dickinson and the conservative leaders, 57 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:34.220 had marked the beginning of influence by the spontaneous organs of public sentiment. After 58 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:41.500 Here Lexington and Concord, county committees formed voluntary militia units called associations. 59 00:06:41.500 --> 00:06:46.820 While the county associations were governed by the assembly, friction developed as the 60 00:06:46.820 --> 00:06:53.620 radicals, eager to get on with the revolution, demanded either conscription of or special 61 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:59.500 taxation upon the numerous conscientious objectors in the province. 62 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:06.380 And in September 1775 the Philadelphia Committee declared outright that free speech had to 63 00:07:06.380 --> 00:07:14.380 end when used for counteracting virtuous exertions against injury and oppression. In such cases 64 00:07:14.380 --> 00:07:20.840 the human and divine laws justify the punishment of such licentiousness. 65 00:07:20.840 --> 00:07:26.520 William Nelson rightly adds that the Committee thereupon adopted the tyrant's usual plea 66 00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:33.060 of Necessity. No person has a right to the protection of a community or society he wishes 67 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:40.920 to destroy. Thus, Pennsylvania pacifists as well as Tories were subjected to invasions 68 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:48.720 of their liberty in the name of liberty. The restiveness of the associations was seen in 69 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:56.480 the bitter attack by the Association of Lancaster County upon the pacifism of the Mennonites 70 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:03.760 Demanding taxation of the Mennonites for military measures. Indeed, the living example of pacifism 71 00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:11.000 proved a catching, and the Philadelphia Association refused to serve as Minutemen after contemplating 72 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:16.900 the total exemption of the Quakers from the war machine. The leaders of the Philadelphia 73 00:08:16.900 --> 00:08:23.960 Association also demanded a tax on conscientious objectors and a transformation of the libertarian 74 00:08:23.960 --> 00:08:40.400 The assembly partially bowed to the pressure by levying a heavy tax of over 2.5 pounds 75 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:44.280 upon all non-associators. 76 00:08:44.280 --> 00:08:50.480 More important for the political structure of Pennsylvania was the radicalizing experience 77 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:56.480 of Belonging to the Military Associations, which were especially prominent in the West. 78 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:02.680 For the masses began to wonder why they should risk their lives for the revolutionary cause 79 00:09:02.680 --> 00:09:07.760 and yet not, in the words of the Committee of Privates headed by Dr. James Cannon at 80 00:09:07.760 --> 00:09:14.640 the end of February, be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of a citizen 81 00:09:14.640 --> 00:09:20.280 of that county, which they have defended and protected. 82 00:09:20.280 --> 00:09:25.840 The Assembly's brusque treatment of the Committee's petition, as well as its presuming to appoint 83 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:31.900 their military officers, led the Committee of Privates to the revolutionary repudiation 84 00:09:31.900 --> 00:09:36.440 of the authority of the constituted Pennsylvania government. 85 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:41.480 Furthermore, the Committee was perceptive enough to apply the argument of taxation without 86 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:45.360 representation to affairs at home. 87 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:50.760 Since they were not represented proportionately in the assembly, the authority of the government 88 00:09:50.760 --> 00:09:57.360 need not be recognized. Moreover, they moved to elect their officers and in many cases 89 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:04.280 to make their military decisions by majority will of the particular military company. It 90 00:10:04.280 --> 00:10:09.980 is not surprising that the Associators were noted for their individualistic spirit and 91 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:17.500 and their failure to abide by orthodox military rules of hierarchy and submission. 92 00:10:17.500 --> 00:10:23.860 That internal liberal democracy and independence were two sides of the same Pennsylvania coin 93 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:28.260 was fully recognized by the Pennsylvania right. 94 00:10:28.260 --> 00:10:34.880 During the spring of 1776, John Dickinson declared retention of the British royal power 95 00:10:34.880 --> 00:10:42.600 indispensable to protecting the colonies from civil war and democracy, and his views were 96 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:50.600 echoed more circumspectly by James Wilson. The looming threat of independence and internal 97 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:58.080 reform propelled many ultra-conservatives into a quasi-Tory position, and many of them 98 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:04.840 wrote pamphlets and articles denouncing independence. Thus the Anglican clergyman, William 99 00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:10.680 Thomas Smith cited Montesquieu in praise of the English form of government as the best 100 00:11:10.680 --> 00:11:17.920 guarantee of liberty, and Sivis railed against a republicanism that would lead to a government 101 00:11:17.920 --> 00:11:24.220 by a set of men whom nobody knows, by apprentices and immigrants. 102 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:31.600 George Chalmers, the young author of the pamphlet Plain Truth, An Attack on Common Sense, also 103 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:37.960 Charles cited Montesquieu and attacked Paine for not resigning himself to the necessary 104 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:44.960 imperfections of mankind's state, especially man's laws. 105 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:50.680 A particularly interesting statement of the right-wing position in Pennsylvania was that 106 00:11:50.680 --> 00:11:57.600 of the Tory Anglican priest Charles Inglis. His pamphlet, The True Interest of America 107 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:05.560 impartially stated, was specifically designed as a rebuttal to common sense. Since its entire 108 00:12:05.560 --> 00:12:11.360 first printing was destroyed by radical mob, it did not have any influence on the struggle 109 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:19.080 over independence. Nonetheless, Inglis' arguments provide important insights into the thinking 110 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:25.760 of the conservatives. He began with a statement of fundamental opposition to Paine's allegedly 111 00:12:25.760 --> 00:12:34.620 Utopian Individualism. Man was not born free in a state of nature, he maintained, but born 112 00:12:34.620 --> 00:12:45.160 necessarily into society and therefore supposedly born under innate social obligations. Inglis 113 00:12:45.160 --> 00:12:51.480 saw that Locke's and even Hobbes' ultimate individualism had to be repudiated in order 114 00:12:51.480 --> 00:13:00.600 to Uphold the Tory Cause, he maintained that man could not exist without society, society 115 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:08.440 could not exist without law, and that law could not exist without government. 116 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:15.800 After employing this string of non-sequitors to imply that government was anterior to man, 117 00:13:15.800 --> 00:13:23.240 He naturally concluded that government was not a necessary evil, but a necessary good. 118 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:29.160 He further adopted the classical Tory equation of government with human civilization. 119 00:13:29.160 --> 00:13:37.520 Thus, the clash of pain in English posed critical questions of political philosophy, among which 120 00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:44.940 were, is the individual logically anterior to society? 121 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:52.940 Is there any society or civilization to be equated with or clearly distinguished from the state apparatus? 122 00:13:52.940 --> 00:14:02.940 Inglis, of course, deduced from his thesis that Americans were naturally and inherently part of English society and government, 123 00:14:02.940 --> 00:14:06.940 and therefore must not assert their independence. 124 00:14:06.940 --> 00:14:13.260 Moreover he turned to Monaskew to support the need for monarchy and aristocracy as well 125 00:14:13.260 --> 00:14:17.360 as to eulogize British institutions. 126 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:22.980 One assiduous radical writer perceptively charged that when the conservatives talked 127 00:14:22.980 --> 00:14:30.000 of their preference for the mild and wise laws of Great Britain, as contrasted to the 128 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:36.860 tyranny of the many, they were really protesting at the prospect of losing their own special 129 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:43.460 privileges, at being governed by any laws that will effectively secure the liberty and 130 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:49.060 property of the people from their ravenous clutches. 131 00:14:49.060 --> 00:14:55.920 To this end, one radical, Elector, who may have been the radical theoretician Dr. Thomas 132 00:14:55.920 --> 00:15:02.840 Young, went beyond his fellows to advocate suffrage for all adult members of military 133 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:05.860 associations in Pennsylvania. 134 00:15:05.860 --> 00:15:12.100 The Pennsylvania radicals were handicapped by a lack of eminent leadership. The well-known 135 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:18.820 and well-born were almost completely on the right. Even Joseph Reed was not a radical 136 00:15:18.820 --> 00:15:25.520 and was not really ardent about independence. But this lack of status was one of the main 137 00:15:25.520 --> 00:15:33.360 reasons for the unique intensity of Pennsylvania radicalism. Its leaders came from outside 138 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:39.640 of the Pennsylvania Power Structure. These were new, independent men, free from vested 139 00:15:39.640 --> 00:15:47.040 interest in the status quo. The leadership of the revolutionary left included two mathematicians, 140 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:53.700 the eminent astronomer David Rittenhouse and Professor James Cannon of Philadelphia College, 141 00:15:53.700 --> 00:16:01.280 the roistering Philadelphia mechanic and retailer Timothy Matlack, Colonel Daniel Robredo and 142 00:16:01.280 --> 00:16:07.160 And two great theoreticians of the radical libertarian movement, Dr. Thomas Young, the 143 00:16:07.160 --> 00:16:13.400 former Massachusetts mentor of Ethan Allen in liberalism and deism, and, of course, Thomas 144 00:16:13.400 --> 00:16:20.400 Payne. Virtually the only radical leader who had been prominent in the movement against 145 00:16:20.400 --> 00:16:27.800 Britain before the war was the Philadelphia merchant George Bryan. Cannon, writing as Cassandra, 146 00:16:27.800 --> 00:16:32.360 came to the defense of common sense against its enemies, and other radical pamphleteers 147 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:36.400 called for extensive widening of the suffrage. 148 00:16:36.400 --> 00:16:43.900 Paine was a host unto himself, and in The Forester's Letters, published in April 1776, 149 00:16:43.900 --> 00:16:50.160 he counterattacked his critics and elaborated his libertarian doctrine. In his third letter, 150 00:16:50.160 --> 00:16:57.460 he answered the common conservative contention that the evil inherent in human nature requires 151 00:16:57.460 --> 00:17:05.300 a strong state to repress it. If all human nature be corrupt, it is needless to strengthen 152 00:17:05.300 --> 00:17:12.580 the corruption by establishing a succession of kings who, be they ever so base, are still 153 00:17:12.580 --> 00:17:20.060 to be obeyed. Furthermore, he argued, it is far more consistent for free men to choose 154 00:17:20.060 --> 00:17:27.060 their governors than to be ruled by mere birth. Certainly it is both folly and tyranny to 155 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:36.460 To give any one man power over all. No man since the fall hath ever been equal to the trust. 156 00:17:36.460 --> 00:17:40.460 As to whether America could be happy under its own government, 157 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:47.460 Payne sensibly replied, As happy as she pleases, she hath a blank sheet to write upon. 158 00:17:47.460 --> 00:17:52.460 Let America make what it will out of this tabula rasa. 159 00:17:52.460 --> 00:18:04.460 Payne also stressed in this letter the libertarian importance of trial by jury as the people's way to completely circumvent the government in making judgments. 160 00:18:04.460 --> 00:18:17.460 Here the power of kings is short cut. No royal negative can enter the court. The jury is a republic, a body of judges chosen from among the people. 161 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:32.460 He pointed out that typically the Magna Carta that secured this liberty had not been granted by the largesse of the crown, but had been forced out of the king by irresistible pressure from below. 162 00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:40.460 Payne also emphasized the goal of an isolationist foreign policy for the new republic that he envisioned on the horizon. 163 00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:49.380 Listen. America, he urged, will make peace with Britain as with an enemy. Then, independent, 164 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:55.380 it will live in peace, remote from all the wrangling world, bounded by the ocean and 165 00:18:55.380 --> 00:19:01.140 backed by the wilderness. Who has she to fear but her God? 166 00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:07.940 During May, the Pennsylvania left was reinforced by the news of the hiring of Hessian mercenaries, 167 00:19:07.940 --> 00:19:14.380 by Virginia's Electrifying Decision for Independence and it stepped up its demand for a democratic 168 00:19:14.380 --> 00:19:19.900 provincial convention elected by all the free men of Pennsylvania. 169 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:25.380 But the major impetus to the radicals was the Continental Congress's resolutions of 170 00:19:25.380 --> 00:19:34.960 May 10 and 15 denouncing all allegiance to the enemy George III and calling on all colonies 171 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:40.160 is to form their own governments independent of Great Britain. 172 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:44.580 The main resolutions were implicitly directed against Pennsylvania. 173 00:19:44.580 --> 00:19:50.000 The only province, along with its associated Delaware, that was still dominated by its 174 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.080 old British-directed government. 175 00:19:53.080 --> 00:19:59.120 The congressional resolutions acted as a mighty signal, perhaps prearranged, to the Pennsylvania 176 00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:00.320 left. 177 00:20:00.320 --> 00:20:07.220 The radical leaders urged on by John and Sam Adams now saw that they could put together 178 00:20:07.220 --> 00:20:16.220 the long sought radical alliance of Philadelphia mechanics and artisans and Western frontiersmen. 179 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:21.720 Swiftly on the night of May 15, the radical Philadelphia committee, of which James Cannon 180 00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:27.260 was secretary, met to consider the formation of a new government. 181 00:20:27.260 --> 00:20:33.200 The opportunistic Delaware lawyer Thomas McKean was in the chair at the meeting, but the power 182 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:39.420 resided in a steering committee that included Cannon, Young and Payne. 183 00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:45.600 In presumed obedience to congressional advice, the committee called for provincial conference 184 00:20:45.600 --> 00:20:52.100 of county committees to demand a vote for independence and a constitutional convention 185 00:20:52.100 --> 00:20:59.140 outside the stultifying structure of the assembly to form a new and democratic revolutionary 186 00:20:59.140 --> 00:21:05.800 government for Pennsylvania. A mass meeting of nearly 5,000 people, whipped up by pain 187 00:21:05.800 --> 00:21:11.700 and others, gathered on May 20 at the behest of the Philadelphia Committee with Colonel 188 00:21:11.700 --> 00:21:17.380 Robredo in the chair. The meeting denounced the assembly as holding its authority from 189 00:21:17.380 --> 00:21:23.120 from the King and for being based on a narrow electorate. It also called for a constitutional 190 00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:28.260 convention for Pennsylvania. A provincial conference of committees was set for June 191 00:21:28.260 --> 00:21:35.800 18 to organize a constitutional convention, and associations throughout the province enthusiastically 192 00:21:35.800 --> 00:21:42.380 endorsed the lead of the Philadelphia committee. The conservatives of Philadelphia were able 193 00:21:42.380 --> 00:21:53.380 were able to organize a mass meeting of their own on May 21, as well as a remonstrance of 6,000 people to preserve the old government. 194 00:21:53.380 --> 00:21:59.380 This meeting was led by John Dickinson, Charles Thompson and even Joseph Reed. 195 00:21:59.380 --> 00:22:10.380 Other conservative protest against the May 20 meeting came from the Committee of Inspection of Philadelphia County and from Chester County in eastern Pennsylvania. 196 00:22:10.380 --> 00:22:28.380 On the other hand, the York County Committee soon demonstrated its power by forcing the York Assemblyman James Rankin into a public recantation of the bad tendency of my past conduct in advocating the old Pennsylvania government. 197 00:22:28.380 --> 00:22:40.380 Citizens of Redding in Berks County burnt the conservative remonstrance as treasonable and hundreds of Philadelphia signers shifted and withdrew their signatures. 198 00:22:40.380 --> 00:22:51.380 The numerous and powerful associations throughout Pennsylvania, superbly organized by Professor Cannon, joined the call for a new government and a constitutional convention. 199 00:22:51.380 --> 00:23:00.380 The tide of radical opinion was indeed swift. Not even repeated concessions by the Assembly could stem its flow. 200 00:23:00.380 --> 00:23:13.380 The Pennsylvania Assembly, bewildered at seeing its public support rapidly dwindling, decided to wither away and allow Pennsylvania's great internal revolution to be bloodless. 201 00:23:13.380 --> 00:23:27.380 In this resolve, it was aided by Assemblyman Joseph Reed. On June 8, the Assembly withdrew its November instructions to the delegates to the Continental Congress to oppose independence. 202 00:23:27.380 --> 00:23:33.380 The delegates were now authorized to adopt any measures they deemed necessary. 203 00:23:33.380 --> 00:23:50.380 To block any attempt by moderates to preserve the moribund assembly by taking charge of the forthcoming convention, radical members boycotted assembly meetings after June 13, thus preventing the gathering of a quorum. 204 00:23:50.380 --> 00:23:56.380 The Pennsylvania assembly drifted into hopeless adjournment on June 14. 205 00:23:56.380 --> 00:24:04.380 On June 18, the government of Pennsylvania changed hands in a peaceful but impressive revolution. 206 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:11.380 The provincial conference met on that date with delegates selected by the radical county committees. 207 00:24:11.380 --> 00:24:16.380 The conference itself dramatized the thorough transformation of political power. 208 00:24:16.380 --> 00:24:22.380 None of the old conservative or moderate Whig leaders were present. 209 00:24:22.380 --> 00:24:29.080 No Dickinson, no Thompson, no Mifflin, no Wilson, no Reed, no Morris. 210 00:24:29.080 --> 00:24:34.860 Fully half the delegates were leaders in their local military associations. 211 00:24:34.860 --> 00:24:40.460 The conference looked to the Vanguard Philadelphia Committee for Leadership, and here the only 212 00:24:40.460 --> 00:24:48.500 old line wig in prominence was Thomas McKean, who was chosen president of the conference. 213 00:24:48.500 --> 00:24:56.000 That venerable opportunist, Benjamin Franklin, never one to be in any minority, had seen 214 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:02.620 the way the wind was blowing and allowed himself to be included temporarily among the left. 215 00:25:02.620 --> 00:25:08.620 He nominally headed the Philadelphia delegation to the conference, but never attended meetings. 216 00:25:08.620 --> 00:25:13.500 Apart from McKean, the leading delegates from the Philadelphia Committee were Committee 217 00:25:13.500 --> 00:25:21.260 President Christopher Marshall, Dr. Benjamin Rush and Colonel Timothy Matlack, with Cannon, 218 00:25:21.260 --> 00:25:25.380 Payne and Rittenhouse active in the background. 219 00:25:25.380 --> 00:25:28.520 The provincial conference began its work quickly. 220 00:25:28.520 --> 00:25:35.020 The assembly was declared abolished in a constitutional convention summoned for a new government based 221 00:25:35.020 --> 00:25:37.960 on the people of Pennsylvania. 222 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:45.080 The suffrage for the convention was to be widened to all adult tax-paying associators. 223 00:25:45.080 --> 00:25:48.960 Unreconstructed Tories were denied the privilege. 224 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:55.760 A more serious blow to liberty was the conference's decision to require an oath of Christian belief 225 00:25:55.760 --> 00:26:00.560 for all those elected as deputies to the Constitutional Convention. 226 00:26:00.560 --> 00:26:07.360 This oath, an effort to disenfranchise the Quakers, opened a bitter debate between the 227 00:26:07.360 --> 00:26:14.240 elderly Christopher Marshall and the other far younger leaders of the radical camp. Marshall 228 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:19.880 strongly supported the religious test oath against the vigorous opposition of Roche and 229 00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:26.960 especially Cannon, who privately denounced the supporters of the oath as fools, blockheads, 230 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:35.040 of Righteous and Zealous Bigots. Representation at the Convention was not allocated proportionately 231 00:26:35.040 --> 00:26:42.160 and democratically. Understandably, exhilarating vengeance against the old, overweighting of 232 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:48.580 the East led to an even greater overweighting on behalf of the West. Each county was given 233 00:26:48.580 --> 00:26:54.440 eight delegates to the Constitutional Convention, so that sparsely settled Western counties 234 00:26:54.440 --> 00:26:59.360 enjoyed almost the same representation as Philadelphia. 235 00:26:59.360 --> 00:27:06.200 On June 24, the provincial conference surprised no one by declaring that George III had forfeited 236 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:11.720 American allegiance and voting to concur in any declaration of independence. 237 00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:17.280 By late June, Pennsylvania was firmly in the camp of the pro-independence radicals. 238 00:27:17.280 --> 00:27:22.120 Indeed, the outcome had been clear since the beginning of June. 239 00:27:22.120 --> 00:27:28.200 As for Governor John Penn of the proprietary family, he was generally sympathetic to the 240 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:34.040 American cause and gave little trouble about his disappearance from the political scene. 241 00:27:34.040 --> 00:27:41.200 Indeed, he was content to remain a private citizen of the new Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 242 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:46.680 Where Pennsylvania went, little Delaware could not be far behind. The two were almost one 243 00:27:46.680 --> 00:28:16.160 By the end of 1775, Rodney had shifted leftward, winning the delegation for the American cause. 244 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:21.240 Pennsylvania's opting for independence quickly convinced Delaware. 245 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:27.880 On June 14, McKean presented to the Delaware Assembly the May 15 resolution of Congress 246 00:28:27.880 --> 00:28:31.480 along with the recent resolutions of Pennsylvania. 247 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:37.960 On June 15, Delaware removed the restrictions that prohibited its delegates from voting 248 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:44.080 for independence, which had been in force since March 1775, when the delegates were 249 00:28:44.080 --> 00:28:48.880 were instructed to aim for reconciliation with the mother country. 250 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:55.600 Now in imitation of the Pennsylvania Assembly's resolve of June 8, the Delaware Assembly ordered 251 00:28:55.600 --> 00:29:02.360 its delegates to concur with other delegates in favoring whatever measures may be necessary 252 00:29:02.360 --> 00:29:04.920 for the interest of America. 253 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:10.280 The way was clear for the Delaware delegation to vote for independence.