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American Historical Associatio7i 499 he desired to found a Quaker colony, yet was determined to have freedom of religion for all. Very probably a Quaker colony could have got along without laws, but non-Quakers, of whom there was a considerable influx, could not be dealt with in the Quaker meeting. Penn held that the end of government is the good of the people, that governments depend on men rather than men on government. This, it should be noted, was his idea before he had been a governor. He was a man of the highest ideals and the noblest intuitions, whose mind, however, was not fitted by nature or training to cope with practical problems of government or of business. The constitution which he made was an utter failure. This failure may be attributed to two causes. In the first place, his plan of government took away from the more numerous branch of the legislative body the right of amendment, anc', a more vital defect still, denied to them also the privilege of initiation or even of discussion. The constitution which superseded the second Frame of Government and which proceeded from divided and unknown authorship remained a part of the organic law of Pennsylvania until the year 1776. How much of this consti- tution grew out of the idealistic notions of William Penn and how much proceeded from the experience of practical Pennsylvania poli- ticians can never be determined because of the imperfections of the records bearing upon the subject. The third paper of the morning, " Gustav Koerner, a Typical German-American Leader ", by Professor E. B. Greene of the Uni- versity of Illinois, was a biographical sketch intended to illustrate one phase of the colonization of America in the nineteenth century. The influence of the German colonists has been strongest in the Middle West, and in Cincinnati and St. Louis it has been decisive. In Illinois before the war the relation of the German element to the slavery contest was an important factor. One of the most interest- ing of the German communities in Illinois as early as the thirties was Belleville, whose leading citizen for half a century was the sub- ject of this sketch. Koerner was born in Frankfort on the Main in 1809. His father was strongly anti-Napoleonic in sentiment and was in personal relations with Bliicher and Stein. The son thus grew up in an atmosphere of liberalism the effects of which were strengthened by his education at Jena, where he was a member of the Burschenschaft, and at JMunich. and Heidelberg. He took part in the July revolution of 1830, was present at the Hambach Festival, and, soon after his admission to the bar, took a leading part in the Frankfort insurrection of 1833. In this uprising he was wounded AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XJl. — H-