prietors also they had ceaseless bickerings over the quit-rents. Affairs were in a feverish state until the former, tired of keeping up the profitless discussion, and now rent by dissensions in their councils, surrendered all their claims to the Crown (1702). The policy of James was to solidify the colonies, and bring them into greater dependence.

New Jersey's condition as a royal province.

New Jersey, at last reunited, was made a royal colony; but until 1738, when given a governor of its own, it was under the administration of the governor of New York, who ruled through a deputy. The New Jersey council was appointed by the king, and there was a popularly elected representative assembly. All Christian sects were tolerated, but Roman Catholics were denied political privileges. There was a property qualification for suffrage, the possession of two hundred acres of land, or other property worth £50. The inhabitants were generally prosperous. Their isolated geographical position secured them immunity from attacks by hostile Indians; they had scrupulously purchased the lands from the native inhabitants, and with the few who were now left they maintained friendly relations. The new government brought them greater political security, and under it they thrived even better than before.

Character

The annals of New Jersey are like the population and political system, confused and uninteresting. It was many years before a tradition of common inistics of New terest could be established between East and Jersey. West New Jersey. One of the most remarkable lessons in government furnished by the colony was a decision of the courts that an Act of the assembly was void because not in accordance with the frame of government.

1676-1682.]

Penn's charter.

Pennsylvania Founded.

89. Pennsylvania (1681-1718).

215

In 1676 William Penn, prominent among the English Quakers, became financially concerned, with others of his sect, in the colony of West New Jersey, and thereby acquired an interest in American colonization. His father, an admiral in the English navy, had left him (1670) a claim against the government for sixteen thousand pounds; in lieu of this he induced Charles II. (1681) to give him a proprietary charter of forty thousand square miles in America. The king called the region Pennsylvania, in honor of the admiral, but against the protest of the grantee, who "feared lest it be looked on as vanity in me."

Penn at once widely advertised his dominions. He offered to sell one hundred acres of land for £2, subject His coloniza- to a small quit-rent, and even servants might tion scheme. acquire half this amount. He proposed to establish a popular government, based on the principle of exact justice to all, red and white, regardless of religious beliefs; there was to be trial by jury; murder and treason were to be the only capital crimes; and punishment for other offences was to have reformation, not retaliation, in view. By the terms of the charter Penn was, in conjunction with and by the consent of the free-men, to make all necessary laws. The proposals of the new proprietor were received with enthusiasm among the people of his religious faith throughout England.

In October three ship-loads of Quaker emigrants were sent out, and a year later (1682) Penn himself followed, with a hundred fellow-passengers. At the time of his arrival the Dutch had a church at Newcastle, Del., which was within his grant, the Swedes had churches at Christina, Tinicum, and Wicacoa, and Quaker meet

ing-houses were established at Chester, Shakamaxon, and near the lower falls of the Delaware.

and laws.

The constitution drawn up by Penn for his colony provided that the proprietor was to choose the governor, Constitution but the people were to elect the members of the council, and also deputies to a representative assembly; it was practically the West New Jersey plan. The laws decided upon by the first assembly, convened by the proprietor soon after his arrival, were beneficent. They included provisions for the humane treatment of Indians; for the teaching of a trade to each child; for the useful employment of criminals in prisons; for religious toleration, with the qualification that all public officers must be professing Christians, and private citizens believers in God. The principles set forth in Penn's original announcement were thus given the sanction of law.

Relations

"territo

ries" and

A distinction was made between the original Pennsylvania, as granted by the king to Penn, and the territory afterwards known as Delaware, which the between the latter had obtained in a special grant from the Duke of York, the royal grant being known the province as "the province," and the purchase from the duke as "the territories," of Pennsylvania. In the province three counties were established, and in the territories three more. These counties were given popularly elected governing boards, and were made the unit of representation in the assembly; the towns were merely administrative subdivisions of the counties, without any form of local government.

Relations

Penn was eminently successful in treating with the Indians in his neighborhood. Circumstances favored him greatly in this regard, but nevertheless much was due to his shrewd diplomacy and humane spirit; and for a long period the Quaker

with the Indians.

1684-1750.] Disquiet in Pennsylvania.

217

district of Pennsylvania was exempt from the border warfare which harassed most of the other colonies.

turbulence.

Obliged to return to England in 1684, Penn did not again visit his American possessions until fifteen years Political had elapsed, and then but for a brief time (1699-1701). This intervening period was one of continuous political disquiet for the proprietor and the colonists alike, despite the fact that the material condition of the people — Quakers, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, and Welsh alike - continued to improve. A boundary dispute with Maryland required the intervention of the English government (1685) as an arbitrator; during two years (1692-1694), Penn was dispossessed of his colony by the Crown; and the turbulent "territories" gave him so much. trouble that he sought peace by erecting them into the separate colony of Delaware in 1703.

Dissensions, however, did not cease either in the provinces or in Delaware. Penn died in 1718, leaving to his heirs a legacy of petty but harassing disputes which lasted until the Revolution.

Characteris

Planted as Pennsylvania was, half a century after the earlier Southern and New England colonies, and aided by rich men and court favorites, its progress was rapid and its prosperity assured from the beginning. The pacific policy of Penn towards the Indians saved tics of Penn- his colony from the expense and danger of sylvania. frontier wars. Nevertheless from the beginning the colony showed the same indisposition to submit to the control of proprietors that had so disturbed Maryland and the Carolinas. Notwithstanding, Pennsylvania shortly became the most considerable of the middle colonies, and eventually equalled Virginia and Massachusetts in importance.

CHAPTER X.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES IN 1700.

General Accounts. - Lodge's Colonies, (Pennsylvania and Delaware) pp. 227-262, (New Jersey) pp. 273-284, (New York) 312–340; while devoted to life in the middle colonies in 1765, there is much in these pages that is applicable to 1700. Scott's Development of Constitutional Liberty, pp. 154-163. Eggleston's United States and its People, pp. 91-113; also Eggleston's articles in the Century Magazine cited at head of Chapter V.; Baird's Huguenot Emigration to America, i. 148-200. See also references at head of Chapter IX.

Special Histories. — On the historical importance of the topography of New York, examine Roberts, i. 120-127. Stone's New York City, pp. 69-105, gives an account of early Dutch society on Manhattan Island; Scharf treats of Delaware topography, pp. 1-4, and of manners and customs in that colony, pp. 146-183. Consult index to Whitney's United States for mention of physical features in the several colonies. See also references at head of Chapter IX. Contemporary Accounts. —Same as Chapter IX.

91. Geographical Conditions in the Middle Colonies. THE middle section of the Atlantic plain in the United States is distinguished by three deep indentations, Chesapeake, Delaware, and New York bays; Geography, each of these is the expanded mouth of a comprehensive river system, and furnishes abundant anchorage, - New York bay being the finest harbor on the continent. Along the coast south of New York is a low, level base-plain of sand and clay, from twenty-five to