Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/157

 1868.] The Penn Treaty- Ground and a Monument to William Penn. 129 " deavor to ascribe to William Penn " the exclusive merit of a conduct " pointed out, not only by the plainest "rules of justice, and the example of his "predecessors, but also by prudence and " the soundest policy, particularly, when "it is considered, how much easier and "cheaper it was, to purchase the lands " of those savage tribes, than to attempt " to take them by force, which, in the in- " fancy of colonies, would not have been " an easy task. When the European " writers praised William Penn so highly " for having purchased his lands of the " Indians, they meant to place his con- " duct in opposition to that of Pizarro " and Cortez ; and although they attrib- " uted to Penn alone, a merit to which " he was not exclusively entitled ; they " could not have chosen a fitter per- " sonage to make the strongest conti"ast " with those destroyers of their fellow- " men." In fact our founder was his own ex- emplar, for Penn himself, the chief in- strument in settling West New Jersey, directed at the start, in 16 11, that the lands should be purchased from the In- dians. — Roberts Vaux. To resume Du Ponceau and Fisher : " The true merit of William Penn, that "in which he surpasses all the founders " of empires, whose names are recorded " in ancient and modern history, is not " in having made treaties with, or pur- " chased lands of the Indians, but in the "honesty, the integrity, the strict jus- " tice with which he constantly treated " the aborigines of the land ; in the " fairness of all his dealings with them, " in the faithful observance of his prom- "ises, in the ascendancy which he ac- " quired over their untutored minds ; in "the feelings of gratitude with which " his conduct and his character inspired " them, and which they, through succes- " sive generations, until their final dis- " appearance from our soil, never could " nor did forget, and to the last moment "kept alive in their memories." POWERS OP THE PROPRIETARY. No man, not absolutely a monarch, ever ruled with more power, than that, by England's charter, devolved upon William Penn. He had sought it purposely, in order that he might ef- fectually restrain his lineal successors. He had free use of all ports, bays, rivers and waters ; and all islands, mountains, soils, mines and their produce were wholly granted to, and vested in him. He was made absolute Proprietary of the territory, to be held of the crown in free and common socage and fealty only, at a rent of two beaver skins payable to the king annually, and a royalty of 1-5 of all the gold and silver discovered. He had the power of making laws, with the advice and assent of the freemen of the territory assembled, for raising money for the public uses ; of ap- pointing judges and other officers; of pardoning and reprieving, except in cases of high treason and murder — re- prieve in these cases to be granted only till the pleasure of the king should be known. All the laws made in the prov- ince were to be agreeable to reason and not repugnant to those of England ; duplicates of them to be sent to the Privy Council within five years after their passage ; and, if within six months after their transmission such laws were not pronounced void by said council, they were to be held approved and valid. He could divide the province into hun- dreds, towns and counties ; could erect towns into boroughs, and boroughs into cities ; could with the advice of the as- sembled freemen, assess reasonable cus- toms on goods laden and unladen, re- serving to the king imposts established by act of Parliament. He was not to maintain correspondence with any power at war with England, nor make war with any power in amity with Eng- land. Any doubts as to the manner of construing any expression of the charter to be resolved in the manner most favor- able to Penn and his heirs.