Seeds of

should run their division line at 39° 43′ 26.3" north, the privy council also insisted that the the northern boundary of Pennsylvania contention. should be at 42° instead of 43°. This arrangement, like Penn's original charter, ignored the claim of Connecticut, under her Winthrop charter of 1662, to the strip of land between 41° and 42° as far as the Pacific Ocean; an unsettled question which led to the Pennamite-Yankee conflicts, disgraceful alike to both parties. It has been truly said that Penn's charter was the source of more boundary disputes than any other in American history.1

It was Penn's intention to call his province New Wales, because he had heard that there were hills west of the Delaware River. But as the king for some reason objected to this, he changed it to Sylvania, or Woodland. When the king had in hand the draft of the charter, with this correction, he added the name Penn before Sylvania. When Penn saw this he was not at all pleased. It had an egotistical look, and he insisted that his own name should be crossed off; but Charles II. was quick-witted. "We will keep it," said he, "but not on your account, my dear fellow. Don't flatter yourself. We will keep the name to commemorate the admiral, your noble father." If there were any answer for this, Penn had it not forthcoming, and the king's emendation remained. Penn afterward laughingly argued that, since in the Welsh tongue pen means

Name of the new commonwealth.

1 The subject is ably and succinctly treated in Hinsdale's Old Northwest, pp. 98-119.

"hill," the compound Pennsylvania might well mean Hilly Woodland or Wooded Hills.1

The charters of Pennsyl

The charter which made Penn lord proprietor of this goodly domain was drawn up by himself in imitation of the charter of Maryland, but differed from it in two very important particulars. Laws passed by the assembly of Maryland were valid as soon as confirmed by Lord Baltimore, and did not need even to be looked at by the king or his privy council; but the colonial enactments of Pennsylvania were required to be sent to England for the royal approval. It was, moreover, expressly provided in the Maryland charter that the crown should never impose any taxes within the limits of the province; and although nothing is said about the authority of parliament in such matters, there is no doubt that the proviso was understood to mean that the right of taxing the colony was entirely disclaimed by the government in England. For the views of Charles I. were unquestionably identical with those

vania and

Maryland.

1 See his letter to his friend Robert Turner, in Stoughton's William Penn, p. 169. The reader must pardon me for throwing the king's remark into the oratio directa, thus paraphrasing but scarcely amplifying what Penn tells us. The king spake as I have quoted him, or words to that effect," as the lawyers say.

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It is said that Penn once told the Rev. Hugh David that he was himself of Welsh origin and descended from the Tudors. "My great-grandfather, John Tudor, lived upon the top of a hill or mountain in Wales and was generally called John Penmunnith, which in English is John-on the-Hilltop. He removed from Wales into Ireland, where he acquired considerable property," and afterward removed to London. His Welsh nickname became abbreviated to John Penn, and in the new surroundings the old name Tudor was forgotten. See Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, i. 119. I relate the tradition for whatever it may be worth.

of his father, who declared in 1624 that the government of colonies was the business of the king, and that parliament had nothing whatever to do with it.1 But in the charter of Pennsylvania, half a century later than that of Maryland, the right of parliament to levy taxes in the colony was expressly maintained. The younger colony was therefore less independent of the mother country than her elder sister, and the position of Penn was distinctly less regal than that of Baltimore.

Significance

of the contrast.

This noticeable contrast marks the growth of the imperial and anti-feudal sentiment in England during those fifty years, the feeling that privileges like those accorded to the Calverts were too extensive to be enjoyed by subjects. It also marks the great decline in the royal power and the concomitant increase in the power and importance of parliament. We see that august body putting forth claims to a voice in the imposition of American taxes, claims which the American colonies could never be brought to admit, but which were naturally resented and resisted with more alertness and decision by the older colonies than by the younger.

Influence of the king's experience with Massa

The limitations in Penn's charter show also the influence of the conflict which had been going on for twenty years between Charles II. and the colony of Massachusetts. That stiff-necked Puritan commonwealth had coined money, set the navigation acts at defiance, prohibited the Episcopal form of worship, snubbed the royal commissioners, and passed laws

chusetts.

1 See Old Virginia and Her Neighbours, i. 218.

inconsistent with those of England. Hence in the Pennsylvania charter we see imperial claims more carefully guarded. Massachusetts, moreover, had neglected to appoint an agent or attorney to represent her interests at the English court, for, in the rebellious phrase of a later era, all she asked was to be let alone. Accordingly the Pennsylvania charter required that such an agent should be employed. The toleration of Episcopal forms of worship was also expressly provided for.

1

humane and

But in spite of these few limitations in the charter, Penn was allowed the widest latitude in shaping the policy of his colony, and nothing could have been less like the principles of the Stuarts than the kind of civil government which he forthwith proclaimed. Absolute freedom of Penn's conscience was guaranteed to everybody. reasonable It was declared, in language which to the policy. seventeenth century seemed arrant political heresy, that governments exist for the sake of the people, and not the people for the sake of governments; and side by side with this came the equally novel doctrine that in legislating for the punishment of criminals, the reformation of the criminal is a worthier object than the wreaking of vengeance. The death penalty was to be inflicted only in cases of murder or high treason; a notable departure from the customary legislation of those days. In Massachusetts, for example, there were fifteen capital crimes, including such offences as idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, adultery, bearing false wit

1 These were probably added by Lord Chief Justice North, who revised the document.

ness, and cursing or smiting one's parents.1 In such wise, with his humane and reasonable policy, did Penn seek to draw men to his new colony. To all who should come he offered land at forty shillings (equivalent to something between $40 and $50) for a hundred acres, subject to a quit-rent of one shilling a year.

His letter to the colonists.

In April, 1681, Penn sent his cousin, William Markham, to be deputy-governor of Pennsylvania, and with him a letter to the colonists already settled west of the Delaware River: "My friends: I wish you all happiness, here and hereafter. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God, in his providence, to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God has given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change and the king's choice, for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution, and has given me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with, and in five months I resolve, if it please God, to see you. In the mean time pray submit to the commands of my deputy, 1 Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, pp. 14–16.