Part 16

_T h i s settles the divine Right of Government beyond Exception, and that for two Ends: First to terrify evil Doers; Secondly to cherish those that do well; which gives Government a Life beyond Corruption, and makes it as durable in the Word, as good Men shall be. So that Government seems to me a Part of Religion itself, a Thing sacred in its Institution and End. For if it does not directly remove the Cause, it crushes the Effects of Evil, and is as such (though a lower yet) an Emanation of the same divine Power, that is both Author and Object of pure Religion; the Difference lying here, that the one is more free and mental, the other more corporal and compulsive in its Operations: But that is only to evil Doers; Government itself being otherwise as capable of Kindness, Goodness, and Charity, as a more private Society. They weakly err, that think there is no other Use of Government than Correction, which is the coarsest Part of it: Daily Experience tells us, that the Care and Regulation of many other Affairs, more soft and daily necessary, make up much the greatest Part of Government; and which must have followed the Peopling of the World, had_ Adam _never fell, and will continue among Men on Earth under the highest Attainments they may arrive at, by the coming of the blessed_ Second Adam, _the L O R D from Heaven. Thus much of Government in general, as to its Rise and End._

_F O R particular_ Frames _and_ Models, _it will become me to say little; and comparatively I will say nothing. My Reasons are:_ First, _That the Age is too nice and difficult for it; there being nothing the Wits of Men are more busy and divided upon. 'Tis true, they seem to agree in the End,_ to wit, _Happiness; but in the Means they differ, as to divine, so to this human Felicity; and the Cause is much the same, not always Want of Light and Knowledge, but Want of Using them rightly. Men side with their Passions against their Reason, and their sinister Interests have so strong a Biass upon their Minds, that they lean to them against the good of the things they know._

Secondly, _I do not find a Model in the World, that Time, Place, and some singular Emergencies have not necessarily altered; nor is it easy to frame a civil Government, that shall serve all Places alike._

Thirdly, _I know what is said by the several Admirers of_ Monarchy, Aristocracy, _and_ Democracy, _which are the Rule of one, a few, and many, and are the three common Ideas of Government, when Men discourse on that Subject. But I chuse to solve the Controversy with this small Distinction, and it belongs to all three:_ Any Government is free to the People under it (_whatever be the Frame_) where the Laws rule, and the People are a Party to those Laws; _and more than this is Tyranny, Oligarchy, or Confusion_.

_BUT_ Lastly, _when all is said, there is hardly one Frame of Government in the World so ill designed by its first Founders, that in good Hands would not do well enough; and Story tells us, the best in ill ones can do nothing that is great or good; Witness the_ Jewish _and_ Roman _States. Governments, like Clocks, go from the Motion Men give them; and as Governments are made and moved by Men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore Governments rather depend upon Men, than Men upon Governments. Let Men be good, and the Government can't be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if Men be bad, let the Government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their Turn._

_I know some say, Let us have good Laws, and no matter for the Men that execute them: But let them consider, That though good Laws do well, good Men do better: For good Laws may want good Men, and be abolished or evaded by ill Men; but good Men will never want good Laws, nor suffer ill ones. 'Tis true, good Laws have some awe upon ill Ministers, but that is where they have no Power to escape or abolish them, and the People are generally wise and good: But a loose and depraved People (which is to the Question) love Laws and an Administration like themselves. That therefore which makes a good Constitution, must keep it,_ viz. _Men of Wisdom and Virtue, Qualities, that because they descend not with worldly Inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous Education of Youth; for which After-Ages will owe more to the Care and Prudence of Founders and the successive Magistracy, than to their Parents for their private Patrimonies._

_THESE Considerations of the Weight of Government, and the nice and various Opinions about it, made it uneasy to me to think of publishing the ensuing Frame and conditional Laws, foreseeing, both the Censures they will meet with from Men of differing Humours and Engagements, and the Occasion they may give of Discourse beyond my Design._

_BUT next to the Power of Necessity, (which is a Solicitor that will take no Denial) this induced me to a Compliance, that we have (with Reverence to G O D and good Conscience to Men) to the best of our Skill, contrived and composed the_ F R A M E and L A W S of this Government, _to the great End of all Government_, viz. To support Power in Reverence with the People, and to secure the People from the Abuse of Power; _that they may be free by their just Obedience, and the Magistrates honourable for their just Administration: For Liberty without Obedience is Confusion, and Obedience without Liberty is Slavery. To carry this Evenness is partly owing to the Constitution, and partly to the Magistracy: Where either of these fail, Government will be subject to Convulsions; but where both are wanting, it must be totally subverted: Then where both meet, the Government is like to endure. Which I humbly pray, and hope_ G O D _will please to make the Lot of this of_ Pensilvania. _Amen._

William Penn.

* * * * *

_The_ F R A M E, &c.

T O A L L P E O P L E, To whom these Presents shall come. W H E R E A S King _C H A R L E S the Second_, by his Letters Patents, under the great Seal of _England_, for the Consideration therein mentioned, hath been graciously pleased to give and grant unto me _William Penn_ (by the Name of _William Penn_, Esq; Son and Heir of Sir _William Penn_ deceased) and to my Heirs and Assigns for ever, all that Tract of Land, or Province called _Pensilvania_, in _America_, with divers great Powers, Preheminences, Royalties. Jurisdictions, and Authorities, necessary for the Well-being and Government thereof: N O W K N O W Y E, That for the Well-being and Government of the said Province, and for the Encouragement of all the Freemen and Planters that may be therein concerned, in Pursuance of the Powers afore-mentioned, I the said _William Penn_ have declared, granted and confirmed, and by these Presents, for me, my Heirs and Assigns, do declare, grant and confirm unto all the Freemen, Planters and Adventurers, of, in and to the said Province, these Liberties, Franchises, and Properties, to be held, enjoyed and kept by the Freemen, Planters and Inhabitants of the said Province of _Pensilvania_ for ever.

I M P R I M I S.

T H A T the Government of this Province shall, according the Powers of the Patent, consist of the Governor and Freemen of the said Province, in Form of a Provincial Council and General Assembly, by whom all Laws shall be made, Officers chosen, and publick Affairs transacted, as is hereafter respectively declared. _That is to say_,

II.

T H A T the Freemen of the said Province shall on the twentieth Day of the twelfth Month, which shall be in this present Year _One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty and Two_, meet and assemble in some fit Place, of which timely Notice shall be beforehand given by the Governor or his Deputy, and then and there shall chuse out of themselves Seventy-two Persons of most Note for their Wisdom, Virtue and Ability, who shall meet on the tenth Day of the first Month next ensuing, and always be called and act as the provincial Council of the said Province.

III.

T H A T at the first Choice of such provincial Council, one third part of the said provincial Council shall be chosen to serve for three Years then next ensuing, one third part for two Years then next ensuing, and one third part for one Year then next following such Election, and no longer; and that the said third part shall go out accordingly: And on the twentieth Day of the twelfth Month as aforesaid, yearly for ever afterward, the Freemen of the said Province shall in like Manner meet and assemble together, and then chuse Twenty-four Persons, being one third of the said Number, to serve in provincial Council for three Years: It being intended, that one third part of the whole provincial Council (always consisting, and to consist of seventy-two Persons, as aforesaid) falling off yearly, it shall be yearly supplied by such new yearly Elections, as aforesaid; and that no one Person shall continue therein longer than three Years: And in case any Member shall decease before the last Election during his Time, that then at the next Election ensuing his Decease, another shall be chosen to supply his Place for the remaining Time he was to have served, and no longer.

IV.

T H A T after the first seven Years, every one of the said third parts that goeth yearly off, shall be uncapable of being chosen again for one whole Year following: That so all may be fitted for Government, and have Experience of the Care and Burden of it.

V.

T H A T the provincial Council in all Cases and Matters of Moment, as their arguing upon Bills to be past into Laws, erecting Courts of Justice, giving Judgment upon Criminals impeached, and Choice of Officers, in such Manner as is herein after-mentioned; not less than two-thirds of the whole provincial Council shall make a _Quorum_; and that the Consent not Approbation of two-thirds of such _Quorum_ shall be had in all such Cases and Matters of Moment. And moreover, that in all Cases and Matters of lesser Moment, twenty-four Members of the said provincial Council shall make a _Quorum_, the Majority of which twenty-four shall and may always determine in such Cases and Causes of lesser Moment.

VI.

T H A T in this provincial Council the Governor, or his Deputy, shall or may always preside, and have a treble Voice; and the said provincial Council shall always continue, and sit upon its own Adjournments and Committees.

VII.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall prepare and propose to the general Assembly hereafter mentioned, all Bills, which they shall at any Time think fit to be passed into Laws within the said Province; which Bills shall be published and affixed to the most noted Places in the inhabited Parts thereof, thirty Days before the Meeting of the general Assembly, in order to the passing them into Laws, or rejecting of them, as the general Assembly shall see meet.

VIII.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall take care, that all Laws, Statutes and Ordinances, which shall at any Time be made within the said Province, be duly and diligently executed.

IX.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall at all Times have the Care of the Peace and Safety of the Province, and that nothing be by any Person attempted to the Subversion of this Frame of Government.

X.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall at all Times settle and order the Situation of all Cities, Ports, and Market-Towns in every County, modelling therein all publick Buildings, Streets, and Market-Places, and shall appoint all necessary Roads and Highways in the Province.

XI.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall at all Times have Power to inspect the Management of the publick Treasury, and punish those who shall convert any Part thereof to any other Use, than what hath been agreed upon by the Governor, provincial Council, and general Assembly.

XII.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall erect and order all publick Schools, and encourage and reward the Authors of useful Sciences and laudable Inventions in the said Province.

XIII.

T H A T for the better Management of the Powers and Trust aforesaid, the provincial Council shall from time to time divide itself into four distinct and proper Committees, for the more easy Administration of the Affairs of the Province, which divides the Seventy-two into four Eighteens, every one of which Eighteens shall consist of six out of each of the three Orders or yearly Elections, each of which shall have a distinct Portion of Business, as followeth: _First_, a Committee of Plantations, to situate and settle Cities, Ports, and Market-Towns, and Highways, and to hear and decide all Suits and Controversies relating to Plantations. _Secondly_, a Committee of Justice and Safety, to secure the Peace of the Province, and punish the Male-Administration of those who subvert Justice to the Prejudice of the publick or private Interest. _Thirdly_, a Committee of Trade and Treasury, who shall regulate all Trade and Commerce according to Law, encourage Manufacture and Country-Growth, and defray the publick Charge of the Province. And _Fourthly_, a Committee of Manners, Education, and Arts, that all wicked and scandalous Living may be prevented, and that Youth may be successively trained up in Virtue and useful Knowledge and Arts: The _Quorum_ of each of which Committees being six, _that is_, two out of each of the three Orders or yearly Elections, as aforesaid, make a constant and standing Council of Twenty-four, which will have the Power of the provincial Council, being the _Quorum_ of it, in all Cases not excepted in the fifth Article; and in the said Committees and standing Council of the Province, the Governor or his Deputy shall or may preside, as aforesaid; and in the Absence of the Governor or his Deputy, if no one is by either of them appointed, the said Committees or Council shall appoint a President for that Time, and not otherwise; and what shall be resolved at such Committees, shall be reported to the said Council of the Province, and shall be by them resolved and confirmed before the same shall be put in Execution; and that these respective Committees shall not sit at one and the same Time, except in Cases of Necessity.

XIV.

A N D, to the End that all Laws prepared by the Governor and provincial Council aforesaid, may yet have the more full Concurrence of the Freemen of the Province, it is declared, granted, and confirmed, That at the Time and Place or Places for the Choice of a provincial Council as aforesaid, the said Freemen shall yearly chuse Members to serve in a general Assembly as their Representatives, not exceeding two hundred Persons, who shall yearly meet from the twentieth Day of the second Month, which shall be in the Year _One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty and Three_ following, in the capital Town or City of the said Province, where during eight Days the several Members may freely confer with one another; and, if any of them see meet, with a Committee of the provincial Council (consisting of three out of each of the four Committees aforesaid, being twelve in all) which shall be at that Time, purposely appointed to receive from any of them Proposals for the Alterations or Amendment of any of the said proposed and promulgated Bills: And on the ninth Day from their so meeting, the said general Assembly, after Reading over the proposed Bills by the Clerk of the provincial Council, and the Occasions and Motives for them being opened by the Governor or his Deputy, shall give their Affirmative or Negative, which to them seemeth best, in such Manner as herein after is express'd. But not less than two-thirds shall make a _Quorum_ in the Passing of Laws, and Choice of such Officers as are by them to be chosen.

XV.

T H A T the Laws so prepared and proposed as aforesaid, that are assented to by the general Assembly, shall be enrolled as Laws of the Province, with this Stile: _By the Governor, with the Assent and Approbation of the Freemen in provincial Council and general Assembly._

XVI.

T H A T, for the better Establishment of the Government and Laws of this Province, and to the End there may be an universal Satisfaction in the Laying of the Fundamentals thereof; the general Assembly shall, or may for the first Year, consist of all the Freemen of and in the said Province, and ever after it shall be yearly chosen as aforesaid; which Number of two hundred shall be enlarged as the Country shall encrease in People, so as it do not exceed five hundred at any Time: The Appointment and Proportioning or which, as also the Laying and Methodizing of the Choice of the provincial Council and general Assembly in future Times, most equally to the Divisions of the Hundreds and Counties, which the Country shall hereafter be divided into, shall be in the Power of the provincial Council to propose, and the general Assembly to resolve.

XVII.

T H A T the Governor and the provincial Council shall erect from time to time standing Courts of Justice, in such Places and Number as they shall judge convenient for the good Government of the said Province. And that the provincial Council shall on the thirteenth Day of the first Month yearly, elect and present to the Governor or his Deputy, a double Number of Persons, to serve for Judges, Treasurers, Masters of Rolls, within the said Province for the Year next ensuing; and the Freemen of the said Province in the County-Courts, when they shall be erected, and till then in the general Assembly, shall on the three and twentieth Day of the second Month yearly, elect and present to the Governor or his Deputy, a double Number of Persons to serve for Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Coroners, for the Year next ensuing; out of which respective Elections and Presentments, the Governor or his Deputy shall nominate and commissionate the proper Number for each Office the third Day after the said Presentments; or else the first named in such Presentment for each Office, shall stand and serve for that Office the Year ensuing.

XVIII.

B U T forasmuch as the present Condition of the Province requires some immediate Settlement, and admits not of so quick a Revolution of Officers; and to the End the said Province may, with all convenient Speed, be well ordered and settled, I _William Penn_ do therefore think fit to nominate and appoint such Persons for Judges, Treasurers, Masters of the Rolls, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Coroners, as are most fitly qualified for those Employments; to whom I shall make and grant Commissions for the said Officers, respectively, to hold to them to whom the same shall be granted, for so long Time as every such Person shall well behave himself in the Office or Place to him respectively granted, and no longer. And upon the Decease or Displacing of any of the said Officers, the succeeding Officer or Officers shall be chosen as aforesaid.

XIX.

T H A T the general Assembly shall continue so long as may be needful to impeach Criminals fit to be there impeached, to pass Bills into Laws that they shall think fit to pass into Laws, and till such Time as the Governor and provincial Council shall declare that they have nothing further to propose unto them for their Assent and Approbation: And that Declaration shall be a Dismiss to the general Assembly for that time; which general Assembly shall be notwithstanding capable of assembling together upon the Summons of the provincial Council, at any Time during that Year, if the said provincial Council shall see Occasion for their so assembling.

XX.

T H A T all the Elections of Members or Representatives of the People to serve in provincial Council and general Assembly, and all Questions to be determined by both or either of them, that relate to passing of Bills into Laws, to the Choice of Officers, to Impeachments made by the general Assembly, and Judgment of Criminals upon such Impeachments by the provincial Council, and to all other Cases by them respectively judged of Importance, shall be resolved and determined by the Ballot; and unless on sudden and indispensible Occasions, no Business in provincial Council, or its respective Committees, shall be finally determined the same Day that it is moved.

XXI.

T H A T at all times, when, and so often as it shall happen that the Governor shall or may be an Infant under the Age of one and twenty Years, and no Guardians or Commissioners are appointed in Writing by the Father of the said Infant, or that such Guardians or Commissioners shall be deceased; that during such Minority, the provincial Council shall from Time to Time, as they shall see meet, constitute and appoint Guardians or Commissioners, not exceeding three; one of which three shall preside as Deputy and chief Guardian, during such Minority, and shall have, and execute, with the Consent of the other two, all the Power of a Governor, in all the publick Affairs and Concerns of the said Province.

XXII.

T H A T as often as any Day of the Month mentioned in any Article of this Charter, shall fall upon the first Day of the Week, commonly called _the Lord's Day_, the Business appointed for that Day shall be deferred till the next Day, unless in case of Emergency.

XXIII.

T H A T no Act, Law, or Ordinance whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter be made or done by the Governor of this Province, his Heirs or Assigns, or by the Freemen in the provincial Council, or the general Assembly, to alter, change or diminish the Form or Effect of this Charter, or any Part or Clause thereof, or contrary to the true Intent and Meaning thereof, without the Consent of the Governor, his Heirs or Assigns, and six Parts of seven of the said Freemen in provincial Council and general Assembly.

XXIV.

A N D L A S T L Y, That I the said _William Penn_, for myself, my Heirs and Assigns, have solemnly declared, granted, and confirmed, and do hereby solemnly declare, grant, and confirm, That neither I, my Heirs nor Assigns, shall procure or do any Thing or Things, whereby the Liberties in this Charter contained and expressed shall be infringed or broken; and if any Thing be procured by any Person or Persons contrary to these Premisses, it shall be held of no Force or Effect. I N W I T N E S S whereof, I the said _William Penn_ have unto this present Charter of Liberties set my Hand and broad Seal, this _five and twentieth_ Day of the second Month, vulgarly called _April_, in the Year of our L O R D _One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty-two_.

William Penn.

* * * * *

L A W S _agreed upon in England_, &c.

I.

T H A T the Charter of Liberties, declared, granted, and confirmed the _five and twentieth_ Day of the second Month, called _April_, 1682, before divers Witnesses, by _William Penn_, Governor and chief Proprietor of _Pensilvania_, to all the Freemen and Planters of the said Province; is hereby declared and approved, and shall be for ever held for Fundamental in the Government thereof, according to the Limitations mentioned in the said Charter.

II.

T H A T every Inhabitant in the said Province, that is or shall be a Purchaser of one hundred Acres of Land, or upwards, his Heirs and Assigns, and every Person who shall have paid his Passage, and taken up one hundred Acres of Land at one Penny an Acre, and have cultivated ten Acres thereof; and every Person that hath been a Servant or Bondsman, and is free by his Service, that shall have taken up his fifty Acres of Land, and cultivated twenty thereof; and every Inhabitant, Artificer, or other Resident in the said Province, that pays Scot and Lot to the Governments shall be deemed and accounted a Freeman of the said Province: And every such Person shall and may be capable of electing, or being elected Representatives of the People in provincial Council or general Assembly in the said Province.

III.