April, to the crown.' The two provinces were united as a royal domain, and placed under the government of Lord Cornbury, the licentious ruler of New York,' in July following.

The province of New Jersey remained a dependency of New York, with a distinct legislative assembly of its own, until 1738, when, through the efforts of Lewis Morris, the connection was for ever severed. Morris was appointed the first royal governor of New Jersey, and managed public affairs with ability and general satisfaction. From that period until the independence of the colonies was declared, in 1776, the history of the colony presents but few events of interest to the general reader.

CHAPTER VIII.

PENNSYLVANIA. [1682.]

4

THE colonial career of Pennsylvania began when, in the autumn of 1682, William Penn arrived, and by a surrender by the agents of the Duke of York, and a proclamation in the presence of the popular Assembly, the Territories which now constitute the State of Delaware were united with his province.5 Already, Penn had proclaimed his intention of being governed by the law of kindness in his treatment of the Indians; and when he came, he proceeded to lay the foundation of his new State upon Truth and Justice. Where the Kensington portion of the city of Philadelphia now stands, as we have elsewhere mentioned, he met the Delaware chiefs in council, under the leafless branches of a wide-spreading elm,' on the 4th of November, 1682, and there made with them a solemn covenant of peace and friendship, and paid them the stipulated price for their lands. The Indians were delighted, and their hearts melted with good feeling. Such treatment was an anomaly in the history of the intercourse of their race with the white people. Even then the fires of a disastrous war were smouldering on the New England frontiers. It was wonderful how the savage heart, so lately the dwelling of deepest hatred toward the white man, became the shrine of the holiest attribute of our nature. "We will live in love

Their

The proprietors retained their property in the soil, and their claims to quit-rents. organization has never ceased; and unsold, barren tracts of land in West Jersey are still held by that ancient tenure.

3

6

* Page 149. Son of an officer in Cromwell's army, who purchased an estate near New York, known as Morrisiana. He died in 1746. A part of that estate yet [1856] remains in possession of the Morris family • Page 96. Page 96. By his direction, his agent, William Markham, had opened a friendly correspondence with the Indians, and Penn himself had addressed a letter to them, assuring them of his love and brotherly feelings toward them.

The Penn Society of Philadelphia erected a monument upon the spot where the venerable elm stood, near the intersection of Hanover and Beach-streets, Kensington district. The tree was blown down in 1810, and was found to be 283 years old. The monument is upon the site of the tree, and bears suitable inscriptions. King Philip's War, page 92.

with William Penn and his children," they said, "as long as the moon and the sun shall endure." They were true to their promise-not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian.

Having secured the lands, Penn's next care was to found a capital city. This he proceeded to do, immediately after the treaty with the Indians, upon lands purchased from the Swedes, lying between the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers. The boundaries of streets were marked upon the trunks of the chestnut, walnut, pine, and other forest trees which covered the land,' and the city was named Philadelphia, which signifies brotherly love. Within twelve months almost a hundred houses were erected,' and the Indians came daily

PENN'S HOUSE.

with wild fowl and venison, as presents for their "good Father Penn." Never was a State blessed with a more propitious beginning, and internal peace and prosperity marked its course while the Quakers controlled its councils.

The proprietor convened a second Assembly at Philadelphia, in March, 1683, and then gave the people a "Charter of Liberties," signed and sealed by his own hand. It was so ample and just, that the government was really a representative democracy. Free religious toleration was ordained, and laws for the promotion of public and private morality were framed. Unlike other proprietors, Penn surrendered to the people his rights in the appointment of officers; and until his death, his honest and highest ambition appeared to be to promote the happiness of the colonists. Because of this happy relation between the people and the proprietor, and the security against Indian hostilities, Pennsylvania outstripped all of its sister colonies in rapidity of settlement and permanent prosperity.

In August, 1684, Penn returned to England, leaving five members of the Council with Thomas Lloyd, as president, to administer the government during his absence. Soon afterward, the English Revolution occurred [1688] and king James was driven into exile. Penn's personal regard for James continued after his fall; and for that loyalty, which had a deeper spring than mere political considerations, he was accused of dissaffection to the new government, and suffered imprisonments. In the mean while, discontents had sprung up in

This fact was the origin of the names of Chestnut, Walnut, Pine, Spruce, and other streets in Philadelphia. For many years after the city was laid out, these living street-marks remained, and afforded shade to the inhabitants.

2 Markham, Penn's agent, erected a house for the proprietor's use, in 1682. It is yet [1856] standing in Letitia court, the entrance to which is from Market-street, between Front and Secondstreets. Another, and finer house, was occupied by Penn in 1700. It yet remains on the corner of Norris's alley and Second-street. It was the residence of General Arnold in 1778. Note 3, page 287.

It was ordained" that to prevent lawsuits, three arbitrators, to be called Peace Makers, should be appointed by the county courts, to hear and determine small differences between man and man; that children should be taught some useful trade; that factors wronging their employers should make satisfaction, and one third over; that all causes for irreligion and vulgarity should be repressed; and that no man should be molested for his religious opinions.

Pennsylvania, and the "three lower counties on the Delaware," offended at the action of some of the Council, withdrew from the Union' in April, 1691. Penn yielded to their wishes so far as to appoint a separate deputy governor for them.

An important political change now occurred in the colony. Penn's provincial government was taken from him in 1692 [Oct. 31], and Pennsylvania was placed under the authority of Governor Fletcher, of New York, who reunited the Delaware counties [May, 1693], to the parent province. All suspicions of Penn's disloyalty having been removed in 1694, his chartered rights were restored to him [Aug. 30], and he appointed his original agent, William Markham, deputy governor. He returned to America in December, 1699, and was pained to find his people discontented, and clamorous for greater political privileges. Considering their demands reasonable, he gave them a new charter, or frame of government [Nov. 6, 1701], more liberal in its concessions than the former. It was cheerfully accepted by the Pennsylvania people, but those of the Delaware territories, whose delegates had already withdrawn from the Assembly [Oct. 20], evidently aiming at independence, declined it. Penn acquiesced in their decision, and allowed them a distinct Assembly. This satisfied them, and their first independent legislature was convened at Newcastle in 1703. Although Pennsylvania and Delaware ever afterward continued to have separate legislatures, they were under the same governor until the Revolution in 1776.

A few weeks after adjusting difficulties, and granting the new charter, Penn returned to England [Dec., 1701], and never visited America again. His departure was hastened by the ripening of a ministerial project for abolishing all the proprietary governments in America. His health soon afterward declined, and at his death he left his American possessions to his three sons (Thomas, John, and Richard), then minors, who continued to administer the government, chiefly through deputies, until the War for Independence in 1776. Then it became a free and independent State, and the commonwealth purchased all the claims of Penn's heirs in the province, for about five hundred and eighty thousand dollars."

CHAPTER IX.

THE CAROLINAS. [1665-1680.]

NOTWITHSTANDING the many failures which had dampened the ardor of English speculators, who had engaged in planting settlements in America, hope still remained buoyant. Success finally crowned the efforts in New England

1 Page 96.

Page 96. On account of the expenses incurred in Pennsylvania, Penn was compelled to borrow $30,000, and mortgage his province as security. This was the commencement of the State debt of Pennsylvania, now [1856] amounting to about $40,000,000.

and further south, and the proprietors of the Carolinas, when settlements within that domain became permanent,' and tides of emigration from various sources flowed thitherward, began to have gorgeous visions of an empire in America, that should outshine those of the Old World. It then became their first care to frame a constitution of government, with functions adequate to the grand design, and to this task, the earl of Shaftesbury, one of the ablest statesmen of his time, and John Locke, the eminent philosopher, were called. They completed their labors in March, 1669, and the instrument was called the Fundamental Constitutions. It was in the highest degree monarchical in its character and tendency, and contemplated the transplantation, in America, of all the ranks and aristocratic distinctions of European society." The spirit of the whole thing was adverse to the feelings of the people, and its practical development was an impossibility; so, after a contest between proprietors and colonists, for twenty years, the magnificent scheme was abandoned, and the people were allowed to govern themselves, in their own more simple way. The disorders which prevailed when the first attempts were made to impose this scheme of government upon the people, soon ripened into rebellion, especially in the Albemarle, or northern colony. Excessive taxation and commercial restrictions bore heavily upon the industry of the people, and engendered wide-spread discontent. This was fostered by refugees from Virginia, after Bacon's rebellion, in 1676, who sought shelter among the people below the Roanoke. They scattered, broad-cast, over a generous soil, vigorous ideas of popular freedom, and a year after Bacon's death,' the people of the Albemarle County Colony' revolted. The immediate cause of this movement was the attempt of the acting governor to enforce the revenue laws against a New England vessel. Led on by John Culpepper, a refugee from the CARTERET County Colony of South Carolina, the people seized the chief magistrate [Dec. 10, 1677] and the public funds, imprisoned him and six of his council, called a new Assembly, appointed a new magistrate and judges, and for two years conducted the affairs of government independent of foreign control. Culpepper went to England to plead the cause of the people, and was arrested and tried on a charge of treason.

Pages 97 and 98.

2 It consists of one hundred and twenty articles, and is supposed to have been the production, chiefly, of the mind of Shaftesbury.

There were to be two orders of nobility: the higher to consist of landgraves, or earls, the lower of caciques, or barons. The territory was to be divided into counties, each containing 480,000 acres, with one landgrave, and two caciques. There were also to be lords of manors, who, like the nobles, might hold courts and exercise judicial functions. Persons holding fifty acres were to be freeholders; the tenants held no political franchise, and could never attain to a higher rank. The four estates of proprietors, earls, barons, and commons, were to sit in one legislative chamber. The proprietors were always to be eight in number, to possess the whole judicial power, and have the supreme control of all tribunals. The commons were to have four members in the legislature to every three of the nobility. Thus an aristocratic majority was always secured, and the real representatives of the people had no power. Every religion was professedly tolerated, but the Church of England, only, was declared to be orthodox. Such is an outline of the absurd scheme proposed for governing the free colonies of the Carolinas.

A governor, with a council of twelve-six chosen by the proprietors, and six by the Assembly -and a House of Delegates chosen by the freeholders.

Shaftesbury procured his acquittal, and he returned to the Carolinas.' Quiet was restored to the colony, and until the arrival of the unprincipled Seth Sothel (one of the proprietors), as governor, the people enjoyed repose. Thus early the inhabitants of that feeble colony practically asserted the grand political maxim, that taxation without representation is tyranny,' for the defense of which our Revolutionary fathers fought, a century afterward.

Governor Sothel arrived in North Carolina in 1683. Martin says that "the dark shades of his character were not relieved by a single ray of virtue;" and Chalmers asserts that "the annals of delegated authority included no name so infamous as Sothel." He plundered the people, cheated the proprietors, and on all occasions prostituted his office to purposes of private gain. After enduring his oppression almost six years, the people seized him [1689], and were about sending him to England to answer their accusations before the proprietors, when he asked to be tried by the colonial Assembly. The favor was granted, and he was sentenced to banishment for one year, and a perpetual disqualification for the office of governor. He withdrew to the southern colony, where we shall meet him again. His successor, Philip Ludwell, an energetic, incorruptible man, soon redressed the wrongs of the people, and restored order and good feelings. Governors Harvey and Walker also maintained quiet and good will among the people. the people. And the good Quaker, John Archdale, who came to govern both Carolinas in 1695, placed the colony in a position for attaining future prosperity, hitherto unknown.

3

While these events were transpiring in the northern colony, the people of the Carteret,* or southern colony, were steadily advancing in wealth and numbers. Their first popular legislature of which we have records, was convened in 1674, but it exhibited an unfavorable specimen of republican government. Jarring interests and conflicting creeds produced violent debates and irreconcilable discord. For a long time the colony was distracted by quarrels, and anarchy prevailed. At length the Stono Indians gathered in bands, and plundered the plantations of grain and cattle, and even menaced the settlers with destruction. The appearance of this common enemy healed their dissensions, and the people went out as brothers to chastise the plunderers. They completely subdued the Indians, in 1680. Many of them were made prisoners, and sold for slaves in the West Indies, and the Stonos never afterward had a tribal existence.

Wearied by the continual annoyance of the Indians, many English families

1 Culpepper afterward became surveyor-general of the province, and in 1680, he was employed in laying out the new city of Charleston. [See next page.] His previous expulsion from the southern colony, was on account of his connection with a rebellious movement in 1672. Page 211.

2

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Page 167.

4

Page 98. The settlers brought with them an unfinished copy of the "Fundamental Constitutions," but they at once perceived the impossibility of conformity to that scheme of government. They held a "parliamentary convention" in 1672, and twenty delegates were elected by the people to act with the governor and the council, as a legislature. Thus early, representative government was established, but its operations seem not to have been very successful, and a legislature proper, of which we have any record, was not organized until 1674, when an upper and a lower House was established, and laws for the province were enacted.