Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/154

130 "guided my feet into this path in the flower of my youth, when about two and twenty years of age." At once he entered upon that career of preaching his beloved doctrines, which, in the face of many trials, he long continued to follow both at home and abroad. Imprisoned in Ireland, he was enlarged only to be received on his return to England with animosity and derision, and a fresh ebullition of rage from his indignant father, who, for the second time, expelled him from his home. But the spirit of Penn was too high and calm to be intimidated or exasperated. Menaces and promises were alike employed in vain. "Tell my father," he said, after having been sent to the Tower, "that my prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot, for I owe my conscience to no mortal man. I have no need to fear. God will make amends for all." He remained many months in confinement, from which he was at length released through the influence of the Duke of York, the friend of his father as well as himself. The high spirited old admiral was, on his death bed, fully reconciled to his son, and committed him and his claims on the government to the good offices of the Duke of York, with whom Penn was quite a favorite, and on terms of the closest intimacy.

Some years before Penn entered directly upon the great work with which his name is indissolubly united, he had been called upon to take an active interest in the affairs of his fellow Quakers in New Jersey. He had done this with so much prudence, and had on various occasions shown so much wisdom and discretion that it is not surprising that he was looked up to with unusual deference and respect both at home and in America. His father had bequeathed to him a claim against the government for £16,000. As it was almost hopeless to expect the liquidation of this debt from a king like Charles II., Penn became desirous of obtaining in lieu of it a grant of American territory; a wish that his influence with the Duke of York and the leading courtiers at length enabled him to realize. "This day," he observes, in a letter dated January 5th, 1681, "after many waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes, my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of, a name the king gave it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being a hilly country, and when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to call it New Wales, I proposed Sylvania, and they added Penn to it, though I much opposed him, and went to the king to have it struck out. He said 'twas past, and he would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move the under secretary to alter the name, for I feared it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king to my father, as it really was Thou mayst communicate my grant," he adds, "to my friends, and expect shortly my proposals. 'Tis a dear and just thing, and my God, that has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the government, that it be well laid at first."