Frontier Country - Patrick Spero Early American Studies

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in. By 1699, the trickle had become a strong and steady flow.27

      Two issues preoccupied Penn’s time in the colony, both of which dealt with establishing the colony he wished to have. First, he was concerned about Indian affairs. Violence between Indians and colonists on the western fringes of settlement were fraying his once strong ties to Pennsylvania’s Native neighbors. Strengthening these relations was a top priority. He did so because he wanted to keep the peace that was so important to his Quaker faith. He also knew that losing Indian allies on the Susquehanna, which seemed possible, could hurt his expansionary visions. The Indian settlement on the banks of the river was a bustling hub of trade and travel. It was here that strife seemed most pressing because Penn knew that this site, with its access to the vast interior and its trade networks, was a key part of his future plans.28

      The Conestoga, the most influential of the many groups then residing in the Indian town, were the focus of Penn’s diplomatic foray. In April, a delegation of Conestogas joined by the Shawnees, another powerful group on the Susquehanna, hiked to Philadelphia to reestablish good relations with Penn. Penn reassured his neighbors that his intentions remained unchanged. He promised that they would receive “the full and free privileges and immunities of all the said laws as any other inhabitants,” extending the same protection that Penn’s proprietorship gave to all colonists to include the Indians present. Penn also strengthened trade agreements and regulations. Penn’s words convinced the Conestogas to agree to a deal that would last for over sixty years, only ending because the Paxton Boys killed it. The Conestoga’s representatives ceded control of the eastern banks to Penn so long as they could continue to inhabit their settlement without interference. By doing so, they gave Penn even better title to the land in dispute with Baltimore, and they secured a piece of independence from colonization efforts. Penn then did a remarkable thing. To show his allies that the two were truly of “one head and one heart” who could “live in true friendship and amity as one people,” he visited their community for several days, also taking time to scout out its potential as a future site for a Pennsylvania trading city.29

      With Indian affairs on stronger footing, Penn turned to the second issue that troubled him. The government in Philadelphia had spun out of his control. In the years since he had left, the colony went through three different governments. From the moment Penn landed in 1682, colonists complained that his initial Frame with its large Assembly was too unwieldy for colonial life. In the years since Penn’s initial visit, they also had grown anxious about the proprietor’s powers, especially his right to collect quitrents, what they saw as a feudal form of taxation that had no place in their colony. Penn saw things differently, admitting to a friend “though I desire to extend religious freedom, yet I want some recompense for my trouble.” In 1701, when Penn returned, the colony was governed by an unofficial frame of government that colonists put in place as a temporary solution after Penn’s charter was returned. One of Penn’s objectives on his return was to regain some control by creating a new frame of government.30

      Penn had changed in these years as well. Most notably, he had grown more jealous of his proprietary powers as he fended off assaults on his charter and fretted about finances. He worried about what would become of his colony and of his interest in it if he ceded too much authority to the colonists who, to his eyes, seemed more interested in their private affairs than in the vision he held for the colony. Penn often expressed frustration at colonists’ intransigence throughout these years—once pleading with colonists to show more deference, writing “for the love of God, me, and the poor country, be not so governmentish; so noisy and open in your dissatisfaction” and another time flippantly threatening to sell the colony to the Crown. He wanted to draft a new and official constitution that better reflected his own vision for the colony and preserved more of his proprietary authority than the previous frames.31

      English affairs once again intruded on Penn’s visit, however, and ruined his plans to draft a new frame more acceptable to him. In 1701, with still no frame agreed upon, reliable reports reached Penn that he might again lose the colony to the Crown. If there was no official governing document in place when Penn lost his charter, then the Crown could design the government any way it pleased, which certainly would have spelled the end of Penn’s vision and threatened the freedom of conscience that the predominantly Quaker colonists enjoyed. While rushing to leave for England, Penn decided to let colonists design the document as they wished. He asked a select group of leading colonists to write the document “quickly.” Penn did so because he knew that colonists needed a formal frame of government in place to protect them should a royal government replace a proprietary one.32

      Penn’s decision to give his colonists carte blanche produced a constitution unlike any other, though its form represented the logical culmination of the political culture that had developed within the proprietary colony. After an initial period of warm feelings toward the proprietor, colonists by 1701 saw the primary political problem in Pennsylvania as a struggle between the people and their interest and the proprietor and his prerogative. In each frame that followed Penn’s first one, colonists pushed for greater power in the Assembly at the expense of proprietary authority. If anything, while Penn was away, fear of proprietary rule—if not of the proprietor himself—had lodged in the minds of most colonists, and they saw a legislature as a check against the potential for a grasping proprietorship.

      The government they designed in 1701 enshrined this struggle. The Frame of 1701 went further than any other frame in empowering the Assembly. Previously, the colonial government had an upper house called the Provincial Council that exerted strong legislative powers, but the new frame transformed this body into an advisory board appointed by the governor. Instead of the bicameral structure Penn had always preferred, the colonists wanted a unicameral legislature composed of four representatives from each county. The framers concentrated their interests in this single legislature because it would allow the people to stay united in their struggles against a proprietor or, if Penn lost the government, a royal governor.33

      People at the time and historians since have commended the Frame of 1701 for being innovative and democratic, and point to its longevity as a sign of its success. It was, as its preamble declared, “better adapted to answer the present circumstances and conditions” of colonists. But along with significant changes, there were important continuities that historians have missed and that left the colony ill-prepared for future circumstances. For one thing, the proprietor still possessed an immense amount of potential power, even as the new Frame took a great deal of his immediate powers. Most of this residual power rested in the proprietor’s control over expansion. The proprietor had at his disposal a land office, a surveyor-general, and deputy surveyors. Every landowner would need to work through these offices to have land legally recognized. The proprietor also continued to levy annual quitrents from landowners and could use force to evict squatters.34

      Aside from such strong control over land ownership, the proprietary branch managed many of the administrative and coercive powers of the government. The charter conferred to the proprietor enormous powers over commerce and its regulation. The institution could collect export and import duties and handle all licensing and fee collection, and claimed the right to control travel on all waterways, including the sole right to license ferries. Such revenue was not insignificant. In 1765, the income from the collection of fees was so great that the proprietor could, if necessary, pay for the lieutenant governor’s salary without having to rely on any Assembly support. As captain-general, the proprietor was also responsible for diplomacy with natives and military defenses in the time of war. Finally, the proprietor appointed the judges for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and, of course, the lieutenant governor, who would serve as the proprietor in residence in Philadelphia.35

      The proprietor’s administrative power was even stronger on the local level because of his power to appoint county officials. The county was the main political unit of Pennsylvania. Each county had a series of offices meant to enforce law and to provide a level of local self-government. Each county had only two solely elective county offices: the three county commissioners and six tax assessors. When it came to county commissioners, the proprietor often appointed the first county commissioners, but after the county was formally established, these offices became elective. Beyond that, nearly every other office—at least ten—either was appointed

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