A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
[10] Penn intended to call his tract New Wales, but to please the king
changed it to Sylvania, before which the king put the name Penn, in honor
of Penn's father. The king owed Penn's father £16,000, and considered the
debt paid by the land grant.
[11] All laws were to be proposed by the governor and the upper house; but
the lower house might reject any of them. At the first meeting of the
Assembly Penn offered a series of laws called _The Great Law_. These
provided that all religions should be tolerated; that all landholders and
taxpayers might vote and be eligible to membership in the Assembly; that
every child of twelve should be taught some useful trade; and that the
prisons should be made houses of industry and education.
[12] Pennsylvania extended five degrees of longitude west from the
Delaware. The south boundary was to be "a circle drawn at twelve miles'
distance from Newcastle northward and westward unto the beginning of the
fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line
westward." This was an impossible line, as a circle so drawn would meet
neither the thirty-ninth nor the fortieth parallel. Maryland, moreover,
was to extend "unto that part of Delaware Bay on the north which lieth
under the fortieth degree of north latitude."
Penn held that the words of his grant "beginning of the fortieth degree"
meant the thirty-ninth parallel. The Baltimores denied this and claimed to
the fortieth. The dispute was finally settled by a compromise line which
was partly located (1763-67) by two surveyors, Mason and Dixon. In later
days this Mason and Dixon's line became the boundary between the seaboard
free and slave-holding states. The north boundary of Pennsylvania was to
be "the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude,"
which, according to Penn's argument in the Maryland case, meant the forty-
second parallel, and on this New York insisted.
[13] The grant extended from the 31st to the 36th degree of north
latitude, and from the Atlantic to the South Sea; it was given to eight
noblemen, friends of the king. In 1665 strips were added on the north and
on the south, and Carolina then extended from the parallel of 29 degrees
to that of 36 degrees 30 minutes.
[14] This plan, the _Grand Model_, as it was called, was intended to
introduce a queer sort of nobility or landed aristocracy into America. At
the head of the state was to be a "palatine." Below him in rank were
"proprietaries," "landgraves," "caciques," and the "leetmen" or plain
people. Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
271-276.
[15] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
310-319.
[16] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
361-369.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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