Page:Notices of Negro slavery as connected with Pennsylvania.djvu/4

368 warriors and heroes whose names have been emblazoned on the historic page. A century and a half have now nearly elapsed since the great sage and lawgiver of Pennsylvania landed on her shores, and gave the first impulse to that spirit of Christian philanthropy which has ever since continued, amid the wars and miseries of the old world, to shed its light and diffuse its warmth from the sanctuary of our native soil; and it is not the mere vaunt of egotism or the idle declamation of a contracted mind to assert, that from the humble and unpretending efforts of this youthful member of the commonwealth of nations have arisen many of those plans of benevolence which are now adopted and zealously prosecuted by the most enlightened philanthropists of all countries.

The axiom, that the object of all good government is the freedom, order, and happiness of the governed, is now considered so self-evident and undeniable, that we may hardly be able sufficiently to appreciate the great merit of William Penn in proclaiming the sound and comprehensive doctrines contained in his charter, bill of rights, and great law, at a period when the most profound statesmen held and promulgated far different ideas of the true and proper constitution of government. In contemplating the character of Penn and his noble views and plans of melioration, we perceive for the first time an attempt to found a government upon the basis of practical Christianity, desiring no other end than the welfare of those who might live under its happy influence; we find a man the personal friend and acquaintance of a