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08 - William Penn by George Hodges · William Penn

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  Speaker 1: Of William Penn by George Hodges. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Richard Vogel, Penn's second
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  Speaker 1: visit to the province closing years. The thoughts with which
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  Speaker 1: Penn's mind was occupied during the years of hiding appear
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  Speaker 1: in his book Some Fruits of Solitude. Robert Louis Stevenson
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  Speaker 1: found a copy of it in a bookshop in San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco and carried it in his pocket many days, reading
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  Speaker 1: it in street cars and ferry boats. He found it.
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  Speaker 1: He says, in all places, a peaceful and sweet companion.
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  Speaker 1: And he adds, there is not a man living, no
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  Speaker 1: nor recently dead, that could put with so lovely a spirit,
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  Speaker 1: so much honest, kind wisdom into words. The author blesseth
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  Speaker 1: God for his retires. So the book begins and kisses
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  Speaker 1: the gentle hand which led him into it, For though
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  Speaker 1: it should prove barren to the world, it can never
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  Speaker 1: do so to him. He has now had some time
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  Speaker 1: he can call his own, a property he was never
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  Speaker 1: so much master of before, in which he has taken
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  Speaker 1: a view of himself in the world and observed wherein
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  Speaker 1: he hath hit and missed the mark. And he verily
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  Speaker 1: thinks were he to live his life over again, he
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  Speaker 1: could not only with God's grace, serve him but his
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  Speaker 1: neighbor and himself better than he has done, and have
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  Speaker 1: seven years of his life to spare. Government and religion
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  Speaker 1: have the longest chapters in this volume of reflections, as
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  Speaker 1: being the matters in which William was most interested. Happy
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  Speaker 1: that King, he says, who is great by justice, and
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  Speaker 1: that people who are free by obedience, where example keeps
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  Speaker 1: pace with authority. Power hardly fails to be obeyed, and
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  Speaker 1: magistrates to be honored. Let the people think they govern,
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  Speaker 1: and they will be governed. Religion is the fear of
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  Speaker 1: God and its demonstration good works, and faith is the
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  Speaker 1: root of both. To be like Christ, then is to
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  Speaker 1: be a Christian. Some folks think they may scold, rail, hate,
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  Speaker 1: rob and kill two. So it be for God's sake,
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  Speaker 1: But nothing in us unlike him can please him. So
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  Speaker 1: the book goes page after page, always serious and sensible,
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  Speaker 1: full of simplicity and kindliness, cheerful and brotherly, and unfailingly religious.
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  Speaker 1: It is the work of one who is trying his
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  Speaker 1: best to live for his brother other and in Christ's spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Another significant writing of this period is Pen's plan for
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  Speaker 1: the peace of Europe. The calamities of the war then
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  Speaker 1: in progress on the continent gave him arguments enough for
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  Speaker 1: the desirableness of peace. The means of peace is justice,
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  Speaker 1: and the means of justice is government. It is plain
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  Speaker 1: to all that a state wherein any private citizen might
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  Speaker 1: avenge himself upon his neighbor, would be a place of
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  Speaker 1: confusion and distress. For this cause, they have sessions, terms, assizes,
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  Speaker 1: and parliaments to overrule men's passions and resentments, that they
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  Speaker 1: may not be judges in their own cause, nor punishers
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  Speaker 1: of their own wrongs. Penn proposes that the same relation
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  Speaker 1: between peace and justice which is enforced between citizen and citizen,
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  Speaker 1: be also in between nation and nation. Now, he says,
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  Speaker 1: if the sovereign princes of Europe, for the love of
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  Speaker 1: peace and order, would agree to meet by their stated
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  Speaker 1: deputies in a general diet, the states or Parliament and
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  Speaker 1: their establish rules of justice for sovereign princes to observe
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  Speaker 1: one to another, and thus to meet yearly, are once
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  Speaker 1: in two or three years, at the farthest or as
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  Speaker 1: they shall see cause, and to be styled the sovereign
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  Speaker 1: or Imperial Diet, Parliament or State of Europe, before which
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  Speaker 1: sovereign Assembly should be brought all differences depending between one
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  Speaker 1: sovereign and another that cannot be made up by private
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  Speaker 1: embassies before the sessions begin. And that if any of
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  Speaker 1: the sovereignties that constitute these imperial states shall refuse to
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  Speaker 1: submit their claim or pretensions to them, or to abide
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  Speaker 1: and perform the judgment thereof, and seek their remedy by arms,
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  Speaker 1: or delay their compliance beyond the time prefixed in their resolutions,
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  Speaker 1: all the other sovereignties, united as one strength, shall compel
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  Speaker 1: the submission and performance of the sentence, with damages to
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  Speaker 1: the suffering party and charges to the sovereignties that oblige
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  Speaker 1: their submission. Peace would be procured and continued in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: The principle of international arbitration. The Conference at the Hague,
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  Speaker 1: and all like meetings which shall be held hereafter are
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  Speaker 1: thus foreshadowed. These two productions of Penn's season of retirement,
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  Speaker 1: the Fruits of Solitude and the Plan for the Peace
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  Speaker 1: of Europe, illustrate again the two qualities which make him
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  Speaker 1: singularly eminent among the founders of commonwealths. He was at
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  Speaker 1: once a philosopher and a statesman. He was interested alike
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  Speaker 1: in religion and in politics. There have been many politicians
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  Speaker 1: to whom religion has been of no concern. There have
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  Speaker 1: been many religious persons in high positions who have been
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  Speaker 1: so shut in by the church walls that they have
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  Speaker 1: been incapable of a wider outlook. They have accordingly been narrow, prejudiced,
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  Speaker 1: and often unpractical people. They have been blind to the
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  Speaker 1: elemental social fact of difference. They have hated the thought
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  Speaker 1: of toleration. Penn was almost alone among the good men
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  Speaker 1: of our era of colonization in being at the same
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  Speaker 1: time a man of the world and a man of
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  Speaker 1: the other world. Penn came out of his exile in
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  Speaker 1: sixteen ninety three burdened with misfortune. He had been depresved
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  Speaker 1: to his government. He was sadly in debt. He had
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  Speaker 1: lost many of his friends. His colonists in Pennsylvania declined
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  Speaker 1: to lend him money. His brother Na England drew up
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  Speaker 1: a confession of wrongdoing for him to sign, if in
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  Speaker 1: any things during those late revolutions, I have concerned myself,
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  Speaker 1: either by words or writings, in love, pity, or goodwill
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  Speaker 1: to any in distress, meaning the king further than consisted
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  Speaker 1: with truce, honor or the Church's peace. I am sorry
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  Speaker 1: for it, but he would not sign to these troubles.
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  Speaker 1: Was added a greater grief in the death of his wife,
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  Speaker 1: an excellent wife and mother, he said of her, an
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  Speaker 1: entire and constant friend, of a more than common capacity,
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  Speaker 1: and great modesty and humility, yet most equal and undowned
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  Speaker 1: by danger, a brave soul no doubt, as befitted her parentage,
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  Speaker 1: and of a devout and consecrated spirit. But William was
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  Speaker 1: ever of a serene, cheerful disposition. Neither lost, nor disappointment
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  Speaker 1: nor bereavement could shut out the sun. His religious faith
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  Speaker 1: strengthen him. We must needs disorder ourselves, he had written
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  Speaker 1: in his Fruits of Solitude. If we only look at
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  Speaker 1: our losses, but if we consider how little we deserve
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  Speaker 1: what is left, our passions will cool, and our murmurs
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  Speaker 1: will turn into thankfulness. Though our Saviour's passion is over,
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  Speaker 1: his compassion is not that never fails, his humble, sincere disciple.
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  Speaker 1: In him, they find more than all that they lose
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  Speaker 1: in the world. During the six years which followed, this
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  Speaker 1: strong confidence was justified. He regained his government and his
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  Speaker 1: good name. He also married a second wife, Hannah Callahill,
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  Speaker 1: a strong, sensible and estimable Quaker lady of some means,
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  Speaker 1: living in Bristol. The only satisfactory information is to the
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  Speaker 1: personal appearance of Penn in mature life is that which
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  Speaker 1: is given by Sylvanus Bevin. Bevan was a Quaker apothecary
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  Speaker 1: in London who had a remarkable gift for carving portraits
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  Speaker 1: in ivory. After Penn's death, he made such a portrait
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  Speaker 1: of him from memory. The man who had known William
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  Speaker 1: liked it greatly. Lord Cobham, to whom Bevin said it said,
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  Speaker 1: it is William Penn himself. It represents him in a
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  Speaker 1: curled wig, with full cheeks and a double chin, a pleasant,
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  Speaker 1: masterful and serious person. Clarkson says that in his attire
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  Speaker 1: he was very neat though playing. Penn advised his children
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  Speaker 1: to choose clothes neither unshapely nor fantastical, and he illustrated
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  Speaker 1: to King James the difference between the Roman, Catholic and
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  Speaker 1: Quaker religions by the difference between his hat and the kings.
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  Speaker 1: The only difference, he said, lies in the ornaments that
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  Speaker 1: have been added to thine. His dress was probably that
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  Speaker 1: which was common to gentlemen in his day, but without
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  Speaker 1: extremes of color or adornment. For some time after becoming
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  Speaker 1: a Quaker, he wore his sword, having consulted Fox, who said,
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  Speaker 1: I advise thee to wear it as long as thou
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  Speaker 1: canst Presently, Fox, seeing him without it, said William, where
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  Speaker 1: is thy sword, to which Penn replied, I have taken
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  Speaker 1: thy advice. I wore it as long as they could.
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  Speaker 1: The sober, cheerfulness of Pen's attire comported well with his conversation.
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  Speaker 1: It is true that Bishop Burnett, who did not like him,
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  Speaker 1: says that he had a tedious, luscious way of talking,
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  Speaker 1: not apt to overcome a man's reason, though it might
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  Speaker 1: tire his patience. But Dean Swift enjoyed him and testified
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  Speaker 1: that he talked very agreeably and with great spirit. The
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  Speaker 1: friends of Reading Meeting even noted that he was facetious
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  Speaker 1: in conversation, and there is a tradition of a venerable
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  Speaker 1: friend who spoke of him as having naturally an excess
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  Speaker 1: of levity of spirit for a grave minister, a handsome, graceful,
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  Speaker 1: and even a merry gentleman, it was who married Hannah Klahill.
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  Speaker 1: For a time he devoted himself again to the work
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  Speaker 1: of the ministry. He went about as in former days, preaching,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes in the market hall, sometimes in the fields. Once
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  Speaker 1: in Ireland, the bishop sent an officer to disperse the meeting,
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  Speaker 1: complaining that Penn had left him nobody to preach to
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  Speaker 1: but the mayor, churchwardens, a few of the constables, and
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  Speaker 1: the bare walls. His heart, however, was in his province.
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  Speaker 1: The affairs of Pennsylvania had been going badly. There had
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  Speaker 1: been a hot contention between the council and the Assembly,
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  Speaker 1: and another between the province and the territory. The officials, too,
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  Speaker 1: whom Pennett appointed, had quarreled amongst themselves. William complained that
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  Speaker 1: they were excessively governmentish, meaning that they liked the authority,
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  Speaker 1: that they took details very seriously. The situation, however, was
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  Speaker 1: inevitably difficult. In his relation to the king, the governor
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  Speaker 1: was a feudal sovereign. In his relation to the people,
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  Speaker 1: he was, by Penn's arrangement, the executive of a democracy.
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  Speaker 1: Pen himself reconciled to positions by his own tact and
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  Speaker 1: unselfishness as well as by a certain masterfulness to which
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  Speaker 1: those about him instinctively and willingly yielded dumb klaudum tenaeum.
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  Speaker 1: All went well while he, with his own hands held
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  Speaker 1: the helm, but his deputies were not so competent. The
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  Speaker 1: colony fell into two parties, the proprietary and the popular,
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  Speaker 1: representing these two ideas. The governor, whom the king had
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  Speaker 1: appointed during Penn's retirement, was a soldier, and his unquakerlike
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  Speaker 1: notions as to the right conduct of a colony brought
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  Speaker 1: a new element of confusion into affairs which were already
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  Speaker 1: sufficiently confounded. At last, in sixteen ninety nine, it became
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  Speaker 1: possible for the Founder to make another visit to his province.
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  Speaker 1: He brought his family with him, evidently intending to stay.
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  Speaker 1: Philadelphia was now a city of some seven hundred houses
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  Speaker 1: and nearly seven thousand inhabitants. The people were at that
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  Speaker 1: moment in deep depression, having just been visited with a
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  Speaker 1: plague of yellow fever. The pestilence, however, had abated it,
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  Speaker 1: and Penn was received with sober rejoicings. He took up
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  Speaker 1: his residence in the slate Roofhouse, a modest mansion which
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  Speaker 1: stood on the corner of Second Street and Norris Alley.
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  Speaker 1: It was pulled down. In eighteen sixty seven he began
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  Speaker 1: a season of good government. The business of piracy had
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  Speaker 1: for some time been merrily carried on by various enterprising persons,
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  Speaker 1: some of whom lived very respectably in Philadelphia. William put
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  Speaker 1: a stop to it. The importing of slaves from Africa
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  Speaker 1: was at that time considered to be by most persons
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  Speaker 1: a good thing, both for the planters and for the slaves. Already, however,
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  Speaker 1: at the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Friends in sixteen eighty eight,
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  Speaker 1: some who came from Christian Germany had protested against it,
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  Speaker 1: who first of all their testimonial gave against the oppressor
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  Speaker 1: the outcast slave, and in consequence, though slaves were still imported,
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  Speaker 1: they were humanely treated. Penn interested himself in the improvement
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  Speaker 1: of their condition. He was also concerned in the progress
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  Speaker 1: of the prisoner forms which he had proposed in the
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  Speaker 1: original establishment of the colony. He employed a watchman to
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  Speaker 1: cry the news, the weather and the time of day
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  Speaker 1: in the Philadelphia streets. Regarding the constitution about which there
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  Speaker 1: had been so much contention, he addressed the council and
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  Speaker 1: the Assembly in terms of characteristic friendliness. Friends, he said,
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  Speaker 1: if in the Constitution by charter, there'd be anything that
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  Speaker 1: jars alter it, if you want a law for this
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  Speaker 1: or that, prepare it. He advised them, however, not to
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  Speaker 1: trifle with government, and wished there were no need to
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  Speaker 1: have any government at all, and generally said the fewer
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  Speaker 1: laws the better. The result was a new constitution. It
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  Speaker 1: provided that the Council should be appointed by the governor,
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  Speaker 1: and that the Assembly should have the right to originate laws.
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  Speaker 1: It was more simple and workable than the previous legislation,
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  Speaker 1: and lasted until the Revolution. Meanwhile, Penn was journeying about
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  Speaker 1: the country in his old way, preaching at Marion. A
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  Speaker 1: small boy of the family, where he was entertained, being
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  Speaker 1: much impressed with the great man's looks and speech, peeped
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  Speaker 1: through the latchet hole of his chamber door, and saw
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  Speaker 1: and heard him at his prayers. Near Haverford, a small
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  Speaker 1: girl walking along the country road was overtaken by the governor,
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  Speaker 1: who took her up behind him on his horse, and
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  Speaker 1: so carried her on her way, her bare feet dangling
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  Speaker 1: by his horse's side. Clarkson, the chief of the biographers
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  Speaker 1: of penn who collected these and other incidents, gives us
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  Speaker 1: a glimpse of him as he appeared at this time
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  Speaker 1: At Quaker meetings. He was of such humility that he
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  Speaker 1: used generally to sit at the lowest end of the
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  Speaker 1: space allotted to ministers, always taking care to place above
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  Speaker 1: himself poor ministers and those who appeared to him to
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  Speaker 1: be peculiarly gifted. He liked to encourage young men to speak.
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  Speaker 1: When he himself spoke, it was in the simplest words,
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  Speaker 1: easy to understand, and with many homely illustrations. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time, on state occasions, as the proprietor Pennsylvania and
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  Speaker 1: representative of the sovereign, he used some ceremony, marching through
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  Speaker 1: the Philadelphia streets to the opening of the Assembly with
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  Speaker 1: a mace bearer before him, and having an officer standing
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  Speaker 1: at his gate on audience days with a long staff
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  Speaker 1: tipped with silver. Acquainted with affairs, and with the knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the relations between government and human and nature drawn
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  Speaker 1: from wide experience, he knew the distinction at which some
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  Speaker 1: of his Quaker brethren stumbled between personal humility and the
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  Speaker 1: proper dignity of official station. In the intervals left him
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  Speaker 1: by the demands of church and state. He busied himself
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  Speaker 1: with the improvement of his place at Pennsbury. Here he
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  Speaker 1: had a considerable house in the midst of pleasant gardens.
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  Speaker 1: He took great pleasure in personal superintendence of the grounds
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  Speaker 1: and buildings, planting vines and cutting vistas through the trees.
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  Speaker 1: The country is to be preferred, he wrote in Fruits
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  Speaker 1: of Solitude. The country is both the philosopher's garden and
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  Speaker 1: the library in which he reads and contemplates the power, wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: and goodness of God. The knowledge and improvement of that,
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  Speaker 1: he declared, is man's oldest business in trade. And the
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  Speaker 1: best you can be of with them were silver plate
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  Speaker 1: and satin curtains, and embroidered chairs and couches. The proprietor's
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  Speaker 1: bed was covered with a quilt of white holland quilted
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  Speaker 1: in green silk by Letitia, his daughter. Send up, he
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  Speaker 1: writes to James Logan at Philadelphia, our great stew pan
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  Speaker 1: in cover, and a little soap dish, and two or
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  Speaker 1: three pounds of coffee, if sold in town, and three
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  Speaker 1: pounds of wicks ready for candles. Missus Pan asked Logan
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  Speaker 1: to provide candlesticks and great candles, some green ones, and
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  Speaker 1: pewter and earthen basins, mops, salts, looking glass, a piece
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  Speaker 1: of dried beef, and a firkin or two of good butter.
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  Speaker 1: Pen rode a large white horse and had a coach
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  Speaker 1: with a black man to drive it in a rattling
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  Speaker 1: leathern conveniency probably smaller, and a sedan chair for missus Penn.
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  Speaker 1: In the river lay the barge of which William was
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  Speaker 1: so fond that he wrote from England to charge that
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  Speaker 1: it be carefully looked after. Somebody expressed surprise one day
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  Speaker 1: when Penn went out on it against the wind and tide.
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  Speaker 1: I've been sailing all my life against wind and tide,
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  Speaker 1: he said. Much of the work of the estate was
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  Speaker 1: done by slaves. The fact troubled the proprietor's conscience. He
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  Speaker 1: laid it upon his soul, as he did upon the
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  Speaker 1: souls of his brethren in the colony, to be very
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  Speaker 1: careful and discharging a good conscience towards them in all respects,
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  Speaker 1: but more especially for the good of their souls, that
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  Speaker 1: they might, as frequent as maybe come to meetings. On
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  Speaker 1: first day, a special meeting was appointed for slaves once
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  Speaker 1: a month, and their masters were expected to come with them. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: Pen liberated all his slaves, and as will of seventeen
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  Speaker 1: oh one I give, he says, to my blacks their
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  Speaker 1: freedom as is under my hand already, and to old
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  Speaker 1: Sam one hundred acres to be his children's after he
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  Speaker 1: and his wife were dead forever. The Pennsbury house had
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  Speaker 1: a great hall in the midst where the governor, in
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  Speaker 1: an oak armchair, received his neighbors, the Indians. Here they
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  Speaker 1: came in paint and feathers, Gnundaka, king of the Susquehanna Indians, Wupatha,
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  Speaker 1: king of the Shawnese, Wubunjo, chief of the Ghanawies, and
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  Speaker 1: the Hookahsong, brother of the Emperor of the Five Nations,
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  Speaker 1: and many other humbler braves. Richardson, a Yorkshire Quaker, visited
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  Speaker 1: Penn at Pennsbury and saw them. William gave them match coats,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and some other things, including a reasonable supply
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  Speaker 1: of room, which the chiefs dispensed to their warriors severally
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  Speaker 1: in small portions. So they came quietly and in solid manner,
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  Speaker 1: and took their draws. He did not smoke, a fact
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  Speaker 1: which the Indians must have noted as a curious eccentricity.
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  Speaker 1: Then they made a small fire out of doors, and
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  Speaker 1: the men sat about it in a ring, singing a
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  Speaker 1: very melodious hin, beating the ground between the verses with
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  Speaker 1: short sticks, and after a circling dance departed. Penn got
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  Speaker 1: along most happily with the Indians. The peaceful Quakers went
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  Speaker 1: about unarmed and were never in danger. The only disorderly
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  Speaker 1: folke there about were white men. In the midst of
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  Speaker 1: these rural joys, news came that a movement was on
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  Speaker 1: foot to put an end to proprietary governments, thereby bringing
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  Speaker 1: all colonies under the immediate control of the crown. Penn
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  Speaker 1: felt that it was necessary for him to return to
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  Speaker 1: England to block this inconvenient legislation. On the twenty eighth
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  Speaker 1: of October, he assembled the citizens of Philadelphia and presented
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  Speaker 1: them with the charter for their city. In the friends meeting,
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  Speaker 1: he said that he looked over all infirmities and outwards,
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  Speaker 1: and had an eye to the regions of the spirit,
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  Speaker 1: wherein was our sweetest tie, then says Norris, in true love,
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  Speaker 1: he took his leave of us. Thus after two years,
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  Speaker 1: where in peace and quietness prevailed over all misunderstanding and opposition.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: He set sail in seventeen oh one and never saw
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania again. His house at Pennsbury fell into ruins due
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: in part to the leakage of a leaden reservoir on
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the roof, and was taken down before the Revolution. The
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: furniture was gradually dispersed. For some years it was deemed
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: a kind of pious stealth among those who were most
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: loyal to the proprietor to carry away something out of
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the house when they chanced to visit at empty halls.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: One gentleman rejoiced in the possession of the mantlepiece. Another
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: had a pair of pens plush breeches. William Penn's four
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: years of actual residence gave him all the satisfaction which
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: he ever got from his colonial possessions. All else was
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: worried labor and expense. The province was a sore financial burden.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: As proprietor, he was charged with the payment in large
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: part of the expenses of government. The returns from rents
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and sales were slow and uncertain. The taxes on imports
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and exports, to which he had a charter right he
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: had generously declined. When he asked the Assembly, in remembrance
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: of that liberality, to send him money in his financial straits,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: they were not minded to respond. Penn belonged to that
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: high fraternity of noble souls who do not know how
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: to make bargains. His impulses were generous to a fault,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and he had an invincible confidence that his neighbors would
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: deal with him in the same spirit. The consequence was
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: that year by year the expenses grew, and there was
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: but a slender income. Oh Pennsylvania. He cries, what hast
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: thou cost me? About thirty thousand pounds more than I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: ever got by it? Two hazardous and most fatiguing voyages,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: my straits and slavery here, and my child's soul. Almost
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: The last allusion is to Julie's son, William, whose dissipation
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Penn always attributed to a lack of fatherly care. During
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: his first visit to the province. Penn finally sent the
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: boy to Pennsbury, hoping that the quiet, the absence of temptation,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and the wholesome joys of country life might amend him.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: But William went from bad to worse was arrested in
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia and Tavern Brawl, was formally excommunicated by the Quakers,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and came home to England to give his father further pain.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: To the financial burdens of the province were added the
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: difficulties of government. Penn succeeded very well in keeping his colony.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: He defended his boundaries against Lord Baltimore, and he defeated
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: those who would have taken away as rule and given
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: it to the King. But the governing of the colony
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: across three thousand miles of sea was another matter. The
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: moment he withdrew the restraining influence of his personal presence,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: all manner of contentions came into the light of day.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: The question of the prudence of bearing arms was vigorously debated.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: James Logan, secretary of the province and Penn's ablest counselor,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: urged the need of military defenses. Conservative friends opposed it.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Churchmen had been settling in the province. One of William's
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: oldest friends, George Keith, who had accompanied him on his
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: religious mission to Holland, had gone into the episcopal ministry.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Logan says in a letter to Penn that not suffering
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: them to be superior was accounted by the churchmen as
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the equivalent of persecution. Colonel Quarry, a judge of the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Admiralty appointed by the British government to enforce the navigation
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: laws in the colony, was responsible to the Board of
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Trade in London. An independent of the Governor and of
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the Assembly, he exercised his office of critic and censor
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to the annoyance Pen. To these various sources of trouble
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: was added an unending strife between the Governor's deputy and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the people. Penn's habit of looking always on the best
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: side made him a bad judge of men, and the
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: deputies whom he sent were few of them competent. Some
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: were not even respectable. Pen, with his characteristic invincible blindness,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: took their part. Finally, the disputation's protests and complaints, with
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: direct attacks upon Penn's interests and even about his character,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: got to say much passed that. He addressed a letter
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of expostulation to the people. When it pleased God to
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: open away for me to settle that colony, he wrote,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I had reason to expect a solid comfort from the
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: services done to so many hundreds of people. But last
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: is to my part instead of reaping the like advantages.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Some of the greatest of my troubles have sprung from thence,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the many combats I have engaged in, the great pains
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: and incredible expense for your welfare, and ees to the
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: decay of my former estate, with the undeserved opposition I
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: had met with from thence, sinking to me with sorrow that,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: if not supported by a superior hand, might have overwhelmed
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: me long ago. And I cannot think it hard measure
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: that while it has proved the land of freedom and flourishing,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: it should become to me by whose means it was
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: principally made to country the cause of grief, trouble, and poverty.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: So heavy was the financial burden, and so vexatious and
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: disheartening the bickering and ingratitude, that Penn thought seriously of
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: selling his governorship, and it was in the market for
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: several years awaiting a purchaser. Indeed, in seventeen twelve he
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: had so far perfected a bargain to transfer his proprietary
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: rights to the Crown for twelve thousand pounds that nothing
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: remained to be done save the affixing of his signature.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Before his name was signed he fell suddenly ill, and
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the transaction went no further. In the midst of these
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: many troubles, in themselves serious enough, there came another. Penn's
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: business manager for his estates in England and Ireland was
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Philip Ford. For a long time, Ford's payments had been
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: less and less. Penn was continually complaining that he got
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: so little from his property. Still, Ford's accounts went without examination,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: and some of the financial reports were not so much
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: as opened. William had his customary confidence in his agent's honesty.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: At last, when things got so bad that something had
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: to be done, it appeared by Ford's books that instead
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: of Ford's being in debt to Penn, Penn was in
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: debt to him for more than ten thousand pounds. This
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: was the result of a long, ingenious and unmolested bookkeeping,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and Penn had made himself liable by his careless silence.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Then Ford died, and his widow and children claimed everything
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: which stood in Penn's name. Penn had appeared had borrowed
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: money of Ford and had given him a mortgage on
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: his Pennsylvania estates a security. When the loan was paid,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the mortgage had not been returned. Not only did missus
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Ford retain it, but she sued Penn for three thousand
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: pounds rent, which was due, she said, from the property
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: of which William was once owner, but which he now
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: held as a tenant of the Fords. So far was
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: this iniquitous business pursued that Penn was arrested as he
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: was at a religious meeting in grays Church Street, and
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: was imprisoned for debt in the fleet or its precincts.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: This was the turn in the tide. Everybody disapproved of
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: treatment so unjust and extortionate. William's friends raised money and
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: made a compromise with the Fords and got him free.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: In Pennsylvania too, the contentions were quieted by a good governor,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: and as the wars came to an end, trade so
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: increased that the province presently yielded a substantial income. Penn
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: retired to Ruscolle in Berkshire, in the pleasant country. Here
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: he had his family about him. He was now a grandfather,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: his son William, having a son and a daughter. So
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: that now we are major, minor and minimis I bless
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: the Lord minor pretty well, John Lively, Tommy a lovely
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: large child, and my grandson Spring yet a mere Saracen,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: his sister a beauty. Of his second marriage. There were
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: six children, four of whom John, Thomas, Margaret, and Richard
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: became proprietors of Pennsylvania. Thomas had two sons, John and Granville.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Richard had two John and Richard. When the proprietary government
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: ended in seventeen seventy six, it was in the hands
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: of the heires of William Penn. In seventeen eleven, Penn
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: wrote a preface to John Banks his journal, dictating it
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: as his custom was walking to and fro with his
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: cane in his hand, bumping the floor to mark the emphasis. Now, reader,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: he concludes, before I take leave of THEE, let me
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: advise THEE to hold thy religion in the spirit, whether
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: thou prayest, praisest, or ministress to others, which that all
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: God's people may do is and hath long been the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: earnest desire and fervent supplication of Theirs and thy faithful
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: friend in the Lord Jesus Christ. W. Penn. This is
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the last word of his writing, which remains the next
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: year he had a paralytic stroke, and another and another.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: This impaired his memory and his mind Thus he continued
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: for six years as happily as was possible under the circumstances.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: He went off into meeting, where he frequently spoke briefly
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: but with sound and savory expressions. He walked about his gardens,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: saw his friends, and delighted in the company of his
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: wife and children. Each year left him weaker than the
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: year before, but his days were filled with serenity. He
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: was surrounded with all the comforts which a generous income,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: an affectionate family, the respect of his neighbors, and the
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: approval of God could give him. He that lives to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: live forever, he had written in his Fruits of Solitude,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: never fears dying, nor can the means be terrible to
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: him that heartily believes the end. For though death be
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: a dark passage, it leads to immortality, and that is
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: recompense enough for suffering of it. And this is the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: comfort of the good that the grave cannot hold them,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and that they live as soon as they die, into
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: the fullness of this life. He entered on the thirtieth
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: of July seventeen eighteen, being seventy four years old. End
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: of chapter eight end William Penn by George Hodges