Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/211

 In addition to the tidings of these prolonged disagreements, and of the final rupture between the two settlements, Penn was harassed by complaints against the administration of Governor Evans, and rendered indignant with charges made against himself of unfair dealing. Having ascertained, by a deliberate examination of the complaints against Evans, that they were too well founded, he appointed in his place Charles Gookin, a gentleman of ancient Irish family, who seemed qualified to give satisfaction to the people over whom he was appointed governor. The Assembly were out of humor because Penn had refused to dismiss Logan, whom they termed an enemy to the welfare of the province. Logan soon after went to England, and Penn, now in his sixty-sixth year, sent back by him a letter addressed to the Assembly, replete with calm solemnity and dignified concern. This letter is said to have produced a deep and powerful impression on the more considerate part of the Assembly, who now began to feel for the father of the province, and to regard with tenderness his venerable age; to remember his long labors, and to appreciate their own interest in his distinguished reputation: in consequence of this letter at the next election a new Assembly was chosen and most of the points in dispute were arranged. Penn had determined, in consequence of his pecuniary embarrassments and the vexatiousness of his position, to relieve himself from the troublesome position in which he was placed, intending to cede the sovereignty to the queen for an equitable consideration; but an attack of paralysis put an end to further. steps on his part at the time, and some few years afterwards he died.

Gookin was removed in 1716, and was succeeded the next year by Sir William Keith. Penn's will, gave rise to a nine years' lawsuit as to the sovereignty of the province; but Keith, studying popularity, was in favor with all the claimants and so remained in office. He and the Assembly proved mutually accommodating, and they consented to his wishes in enrolling a volunteer militia, and in adopting the English criminal law as a substitute for their existing statutes. Keith also consented to try the paper money loan system by an issue of £15,000, to be lent out at five per cent.; the next year an additional £30,000 were issued on the same plan. Through Logan's interference—Keith having served him rather shabbily as secretary and counsellor—the governor was pretty sharply reprehended for some of his acts, and in 1725 he was removed from his office. The members of the Penn family found it most convenient to arrange and settle their long dispute about the sovereignty of the province. Keith tried to be troublesome in the province by heading an opposition to the new governor, Patrick Gordon; but with no great success. Subsequently, on returning to England, he broached the notion of the propriety of taxing the colonies for the benefit of the mother country; but, as Mr. Hildreth relates, Sir Robert "Walpole is