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05 - William Penn by George Hodges · William Penn

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of William Penn by George Hodges. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Richard Voegel,
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  Speaker 1: The beginning of Penn's political life, The Holy Experiment. In
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  Speaker 1: sixteen seventy three, George Fox came back from his travels
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  Speaker 1: in America, and Pen and his wife had great joy
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  Speaker 1: in welcoming him at Bristol. No sooner, however, had Fox arrived,
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  Speaker 1: than the Declaration of Indulgence was withdrawn. It had met
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  Speaker 1: with much opposition, partly ecclesiastical from those who saw it
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  Speaker 1: a scheme to re establish relations between Rome and England,
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  Speaker 1: and partly political from those who found but an ill
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  Speaker 1: president in a royal decree which set aside parliamentary legislation.
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  Speaker 1: The religious liberty which it gave was good, but the
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  Speaker 1: way in which that liberty was given was bad. What
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  Speaker 1: was needed was not indulgence but common justice. So the
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  Speaker 1: King recalled the declaration in Parliament, being not yet ready
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  Speaker 1: to enact its provisions into law. The prisons were again
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  Speaker 1: filled with peaceable citizens whose offense was their religion. One
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  Speaker 1: of the first to suffer was Fox, and in his
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  Speaker 1: behalf Penn went to court. He appealed to the Duke
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  Speaker 1: of York. The incident is significant as the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: another phase of William's life. Thus far, he had been
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  Speaker 1: a Quaker preacher, though he was unordained, being in a
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  Speaker 1: set which made nothing of ordination. He was, for all
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  Speaker 1: practical purposes, a minister of the Gospel. He was the
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  Speaker 1: Reverend William Penn. But now when he opened the door
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  Speaker 1: of the Duke's palace, he entered into a new way
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  Speaker 1: of living, in which he continued during most of the
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  Speaker 1: remainder of his life. He began to be a courtier.
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  Speaker 1: He went into politics. He was still a Quaker, preaching
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  Speaker 1: sermons and writing books of theological controversy. He gave up
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  Speaker 1: no religious conviction, and abated nothing of the earnestness of
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  Speaker 1: his personal piety. But he had found, as he believed,
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  Speaker 1: another and more effective way to serve God. He now
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  Speaker 1: began to enter into that valuable but perilous heritage which
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  Speaker 1: had been left him by his father, the friendship of royalty.
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  Speaker 1: Penn found the Duke's antechamber filled with suitors. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: impossible to get into. The august presence. Colonel Ashton, one
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  Speaker 1: of the household, looked hard at Penn and found in
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  Speaker 1: him an old companion, a friend of the days when
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  Speaker 1: William was still partaking of the joys of pleasant society.
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  Speaker 1: Ashton immediately got him an interview, and Penn delivered his
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  Speaker 1: request for the release of Fox. The Duke received him
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  Speaker 1: in his petition, cordially, professing himself opposed to persecution for
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  Speaker 1: religion's sake, and promising to use his influence with the King. Then,
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  Speaker 1: says Penn, when he had done upon this affair, he
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  Speaker 1: was pleased to take a very particular notice of me,
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  Speaker 1: both for the relation my father had had to his
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  Speaker 1: service in the navy and the care he had promised
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  Speaker 1: to show in my regard upon all occasions. He expressed
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  Speaker 1: surprise that William had not been to see him before,
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  Speaker 1: and said that whenever he had any business with him,
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  Speaker 1: he should have a meeting at entrance and attention. Fox
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  Speaker 1: was not set at liberty by reason of this interview.
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  Speaker 1: The King was willing to pardon Fox, but Fox was
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  Speaker 1: not willing to be pardoned, having, as he insisted, done
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  Speaker 1: no wrong. Penn, however, had learned that the Royal Duke
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  Speaker 1: remembered the Admiral Son. It was an important fact, and
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  Speaker 1: William thereafter kept it well in mind that it was
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  Speaker 1: a turning point in his affairs, appears in his reference
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  Speaker 1: to it in a letter which he wrote in sixteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty eight to a friend who had reproached him for
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  Speaker 1: his attendance at court. I have made it, he says,
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  Speaker 1: my province and business. I have followed and pressed it.
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  Speaker 1: I took it for my calling in station, and have
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  Speaker 1: kept it Above these sixteen years, Penn went back to Rickmansworth,
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  Speaker 1: and for a time life went on as before. We
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  Speaker 1: get a glimpse of it in the good and wholesome
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  Speaker 1: orders which he established for the well governing of his family.
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  Speaker 1: In winter, they were to rise at seven, in summer
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  Speaker 1: at five, Breakfast was at nine, dinner at twelve, supper
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  Speaker 1: at seven. Each meal was preceded by family prayers. At
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  Speaker 1: the devotions. Before dinner, the Bible was read aloud, together
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  Speaker 1: with chapters from the Book of Martyrs or the writings
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  Speaker 1: of friends. After supper, the servants appeared before the Master
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  Speaker 1: and Mistress and gave an account of their doings during
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  Speaker 1: the day and got their orders for tomorrow. They were
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  Speaker 1: to avoid loud discourse and troublesome noises. They were not
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  Speaker 1: to absence themselves without leave. They were not to go
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  Speaker 1: to any public house but upon business, and they were
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  Speaker 1: not to loiter or enter into unprofitable talk. While on
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  Speaker 1: an errand with the canceling of the indulgence, the persecution
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  Speaker 1: of the Quakers was renewed. Their houses were entered, their
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  Speaker 1: furniture was seized, their cattle were driven away, and themselves
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  Speaker 1: thrust into jail. When no offense was clearly proved against them.
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  Speaker 1: The oath was tendered, and the refusal to take it
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  Speaker 1: meant a serious imprisonment. Under these circumstances, pen wrote a
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  Speaker 1: Treatise on Oaths. He also addressed the general public with
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  Speaker 1: England's present interest considered an argument against the attempt to
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  Speaker 1: compel uniformity of belief. He petitioned the King in Parliament
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  Speaker 1: in the continued Cry of the Oppressed. William Brazier. He said,
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  Speaker 1: shoemaker at Cambridge was fined by John Hunt Mars and
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  Speaker 1: John Spencer, vice Chancellor, twenty pounds for holding a peaceable
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  Speaker 1: religious meeting in his own house. The officer who distrained
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  Speaker 1: for this sum took his leather last the seed he
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  Speaker 1: worked upon, wearing clothes, bed and bedding. In Cheshire, Justice
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  Speaker 1: Daniel of Dainesbury took from Briggs and others the value
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  Speaker 1: of one hundred and sixteen pounds, fifteen shillings and tenpence
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  Speaker 1: in coin, kine and horses. The later he had the
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  Speaker 1: audacity to retain and work for his own use, and
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  Speaker 1: so on instances after instance. Penn's acquaintance at court and
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  Speaker 1: his friendships with persons of position never made him an aristocrat.
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  Speaker 1: He was fraternally interested in farmers and cobblers, and cared
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  Speaker 1: for the plain people. Quakerism, as he held it, was
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  Speaker 1: indeed a system of theology, which he studiously taught, but
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  Speaker 1: it was also, and quite as much, a social and
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  Speaker 1: intellectual democracy. What he mightily liked about it was that
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  Speaker 1: abandonment of artificial distinctions, whereby all Quakers addressed their neighbors
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  Speaker 1: by their Christian names, and that refusal to be held
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  Speaker 1: by formulas of faith, whereby they were left free to
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  Speaker 1: accept such beliefs and such only as appealed to their
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  Speaker 1: own reason. About this time he engaged in controversy with
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  Speaker 1: mister Richard Baxter. Baxter is chiefly remembered as the author
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  Speaker 1: of The Saint's Everlasting Rest, but he was a most
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  Speaker 1: militant person who rejoiced greatly in a theological fight. Passing
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  Speaker 1: by Rickmansworth, and finding many Quakers there to him a
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  Speaker 1: sad spectacle, he sought to reclaim them, and thus fell
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  Speaker 1: speedily into debate with Penn. The two argued from ten
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  Speaker 1: in the morning until five in the afternoon, a great
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  Speaker 1: crowd listening all the time with breathless interest. Neither could
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  Speaker 1: get the other to surrender. But so much did William
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  Speaker 1: enjoy the exercise that he offered Baxter a room in
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  Speaker 1: his house that he might argue every day. In sixteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy seven, having now removed to an estate of his
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  Speaker 1: wife's at Worminghurst in Sussex, Penn, in company with Fox,
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  Speaker 1: Barclay and other Quakers, made a religious voyage into Holland
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  Speaker 1: and Germany, preaching the Gospel. His journal of these travels
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  Speaker 1: is printed in his works. At Osnenburg, he writes, he
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  Speaker 1: had little time with the men of the inn where
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  Speaker 1: we lay, and left him several good books of friends
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  Speaker 1: in the high and low Dutch tongues to read and
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  Speaker 1: dispose of. Then, in the last sentence, he continues, the
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  Speaker 1: next morning, being the fifth day of the week, we
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  Speaker 1: set forward to her were done and came thither at night.
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  Speaker 1: This is the city where Princess Elizabeth Palatine hath her court,
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  Speaker 1: whom and the Countess in her company with her, it
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  Speaker 1: was especially up honest to visit. Thus they went ministering
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  Speaker 1: to high and low alike in their democratic Christian way,
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  Speaker 1: making no distinction between tavern keepers and princesses. As they
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  Speaker 1: talked with Elizabeth and her friend, the Countess, discoursing upon
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  Speaker 1: heavenly themes, they were interrupted by the rattling of a coach,
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  Speaker 1: and callers were announced. The Countess fetched a deep sigh,
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  Speaker 1: crying out, Oh, the cumber and entanglements, this vain world,
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  Speaker 1: they hinder all good, upon which says William I replied,
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  Speaker 1: looking her steadfastly in the face, Oh, come now out
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  Speaker 1: of them. Then this journey was of great importance as
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  Speaker 1: affecting afterwards the population of Pennsylvania. Here it was that
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  Speaker 1: penn meant various communities of separating and seeking turn of mind,
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  Speaker 1: who found in him a kindred spirit. When he established
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  Speaker 1: his colony, many of them came out and joined it,
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  Speaker 1: becoming the Pennsylvania Dutch. During these travels, pen wrote letters
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  Speaker 1: to the Prince Elector of Heidelberg to the graph of
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  Speaker 1: Bruck and Falkenstein to the King of Poland, together with
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  Speaker 1: an epistle to the churches of Jesus throughout the world.
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  Speaker 1: This was a kind of correspondence in which he delighted.
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  Speaker 1: Like Wesley after him, he had taken the world for
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  Speaker 1: his parish. He considered himself a citizen of the planet,
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  Speaker 1: and took an episcopal impontifical interest in the affairs of
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  Speaker 1: men and nations. He combined in an unusual way, the
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  Speaker 1: qualities of the saints and the statesman. His mind was
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  Speaker 1: at the same time religious and political. Accordingly, as he
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  Speaker 1: came to have a better acquaintance with himself, he entered
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  Speaker 1: deliberately upon a course of life in which these two
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  Speaker 1: elements of his character could have free play. He applied
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  Speaker 1: himself to the task of making politics contribute to the
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  Speaker 1: advancement of religion. Many men before him had been eminently
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  Speaker 1: successful in making politics contribute to the advancement of the church.
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  Speaker 1: Penn's purpose was deeper and better. He came near it,
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  Speaker 1: this time, to getting Parliament to assent to a provision
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  Speaker 1: permitting Quakers to affirm without oath, But the sudden proroguing
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  Speaker 1: of the body prevented it. In the general election which followed,
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  Speaker 1: he made speeches for Algernon Sidney, who was standing for
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  Speaker 1: a place in Parliament. He wrote, England's great interest in
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  Speaker 1: the choice of a new Parliament, and one project for
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  Speaker 1: the good of England. The project was that Protestants should
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  Speaker 1: stop contending with one another and unite against a common enemy.
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  Speaker 1: This was in sixteen seventy nine. The next year he
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  Speaker 1: took the decisive step. He entered upon the fulfillment of
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  Speaker 1: that great plan which had been in his mind since
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  Speaker 1: his student days at Oxford, and with which he was
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  Speaker 1: occupied all the rest of his life. He began to
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  Speaker 1: undertake the planting of a colony across the sea. Penn
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  Speaker 1: had already had some experience in colonial affairs. With the
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  Speaker 1: downfall of the Dutch Dominion and the New World, England
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  Speaker 1: had come into possession of two important rivers, the Hudson
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  Speaker 1: and the Delaware, and of the countries which they drained.
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  Speaker 1: Of these estates, the Duke of York had become owner
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  Speaker 1: of New Jersey. He, in turn, dividing it into two
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  Speaker 1: portions west and East, had sold West Jersey to Lord
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  Speaker 1: Berkeley and East Jersey to Sir George Carteret Berkeley had
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  Speaker 1: sold West Jersey to a Quaker, John Fenwick, in trust
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  Speaker 1: for another Quaker, Edward Violinge. These Quakers, disagreeing, had asked
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  Speaker 1: Penn to arbitrate between them. Bolene had fallen into bankruptcy,
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  Speaker 1: and his lands had been transferred to Penn as receiver
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  Speaker 1: for the benefit of his creditors. Thus William had come
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  Speaker 1: into a position of importance in the affairs of West Jersey. Presently.
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  Speaker 1: In sixteen seventy nine, East Jersey came also into the market,
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  Speaker 1: and Penn and eleven others bought it at auction. These
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  Speaker 1: twelve took in another twelve and the twenty four appointed
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  Speaker 1: Quaker governor Robert Barclay. Now in sixteen eighty, having had
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  Speaker 1: his early interest in America thus renewed and strengthened, Penn
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  Speaker 1: found that the King was in his debt to the
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  Speaker 1: amount of sixteen thousand pounds. Part of this money had
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  Speaker 1: been loaned to the king by William's father, the Admiral.
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  Speaker 1: Part of it was the admiral's unpaid salary. Mister Peeps
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  Speaker 1: has recorded in his diary how scandalously Charles left his
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  Speaker 1: officers unpaid. The King, he says, could not walk in
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  Speaker 1: his own house without meeting at every hand men whom
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  Speaker 1: he was ruining, while at the same time he was
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  Speaker 1: spending money prodigally upon his pleasures. Peeps himself fell into
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  Speaker 1: poverty in his old age, accounting the king to be
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  Speaker 1: in debt to him in the sum of twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: thousand pounds penn. Considered his account collectible. I have been,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote, these thirteen years, the servant of truth and friends,
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  Speaker 1: and for my testimony's sake, lost much, not only the
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  Speaker 1: greatness and preferment of the world, but sixteen thousand pounds
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  Speaker 1: of my estate, which, had I not been what I am,
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  Speaker 1: I had long ago obtained. It is doubtful, however, if
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  Speaker 1: the King would have ever paid a penny. It is
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  Speaker 1: certain that when William offered to exchange the money for
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  Speaker 1: a district in America, Charles agreed to the bargain with
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  Speaker 1: great joy. The territory thus bestowed was all that tract
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  Speaker 1: or part of land in America bounded on the east
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  Speaker 1: by the Delaware River, from twelve miles northward of Newcastle Town,
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  Speaker 1: unto the three and fortieth degree of the northern latitude,
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  Speaker 1: the said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude
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  Speaker 1: to be computed from the said eastern bounds, and said
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  Speaker 1: lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and
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  Speaker 1: on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles
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  Speaker 1: distance from Newcastle northward and westward unto the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a
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  Speaker 1: straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: This was a country almost as large as England. No
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  Speaker 1: such extensive domain had ever been given to a subject
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  Speaker 1: by an English sovereign, but none had ever been paid
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  Speaker 1: for by a sum of money so substantial. On the
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  Speaker 1: fourth of March sixteen eighty one, the charter received the
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  Speaker 1: signature of Charles the Second. On the twenty first of
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  Speaker 1: August sixteen eighty two, the Duke of York signed a
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  Speaker 1: deed whereby he released the tract of land called Pennsylvania
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  Speaker 1: to William Penn and his heirs forever. About the same time,
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  Speaker 1: by a light deed, the Duke conveyed to Penn the
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  Speaker 1: district which is now called Delaware. Penn agreed, on his part,
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  Speaker 1: as a feudal subject, to render yearly to the King
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  Speaker 1: two skins of beaver, and a fifth part of all
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  Speaker 1: the gold and silver found in the ground, and to
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  Speaker 1: the Duke one rose at the feast of Saint Michael
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  Speaker 1: the Archangel. This association of sentiment and religion with the
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  Speaker 1: transaction and real estate is a fitting symbol of the
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  Speaker 1: spirit in which Pennsylvania Colony was undertaken. Penn received the
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  Speaker 1: land as a sacred trust. It was regarded by him
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  Speaker 1: not as a personal estate, but as a religious possession,
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  Speaker 1: to be held for the good of humanity, for the
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  Speaker 1: advancement of the cause of freedom, for the furtherance of
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  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Heaven. He wrote at that time to
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  Speaker 1: a friend that he had obtained it in the name
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  Speaker 1: of God, that thus he may serve his truth and people,
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  Speaker 1: and that an example may be set up to the nations.
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  Speaker 1: He believed that there was room there for such unholy experiment.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter five