Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/83

1692-1701] Early history of Pennsylvania. 51 stone to some form of permanent union. A man of more purpose and concentration might have provoked a rebellion. Fletcher was arbitrary and brutal, but there was very little continuity or definiteness of purpose in his tyranny; and his loose private life and gross official corruption constantly put him in the power of those whom he wished to oppress. In one important point the liberty of Pennsylvania gained by his appointment. Hitherto, as we have seen, the representatives of the people had no power of initiating legislation. Now, either through weakness or through ignorance of the preexisting constitution of the colony, Fletcher acquiesced in their exercise of that power. In 1694 Penn was restored to his proprietary rights. But the ground accidentally gained, as one may fairly say, by the Assembly under Fletcher was not lost; and their right of legislation was formally confirmed by an Act of Settlement approved by the Proprietor. In 1699 Penn revisited the colony. Two years later a dispute broke out, the first of a long series arising from the same cause. Pennsylvania was called upon to contribute to the fortifications of New York. The Assembly might have anticipated the attitude so often taken up by its successors, and protested against military expenditure as inconsistent with the principles on which the colony was founded. It might have anticipated the attitude taken up seventy years later, and pleaded the right of self-taxation. It was content to take lower ground and to plead poverty. In Penn a statesmanlike view of the necessity for colonial defence was stronger than sectarian prejudice, and he remonstrated with his settlers, but to no effect. The dispute between the Territories and the main body of the colony had been temporarily patched up by a provision that the Assembly should meet alternately at Philadelphia and Newcastle. The colony now claimed that the Assembly when meeting at Newcastle should only legislate provisionally, such legislation to be confirmed at Philadelphia. The inhabitants of the Territories not unnaturally re- sented this demand. This and other questions were settled in another charter superseding the previous one, and settling, so far as any such settlement could be final, the constitution of the colony. The chief points of difference in the new system were that provision was made for a possible increase in the number of representatives, and that the Territories were allowed, if they chose, to have a separate legislature. This was accepted. The two provinces formed part of the same pro- prietorship and were usually under the same governor, though with different commissions. In other respects they were distinct. At the same time Penn granted a charter of incorporation to the city of Philadelphia. That was his last official act. In 1701 he left the colony, never to return. His mental powers soon afterwards failed. A few years later we find him remonstrating with the Assembly for their attacks on the Proprietor's secretary and staunch supporter, James CH. i. 42