A History of the United StatesAdams, Charles Kendall
History
A History of the United States
Adams, Charles Kendall
United States -- History
=68. Disturbances in the Jerseys.=—Other settlers came in, and by 1668
a code of laws of remarkable severity was adopted by the delegates of
the people. Disturbances arose over the subject of the quit-rents paid
by freeholders in discharge of services, and Lord Berkeley was so
disgusted that he sold his share in the province to certain Quakers who
wished to secure for their co-religionists a place of refuge in the New
World. William Penn[40] and some associates shortly afterward acquired
this interest. Then a division was made between Carteret and the new
proprietors, the Quakers getting less than half, which formed West New
Jersey. Here they set up a liberal government, which attracted several
hundred immigrants. In 1682, two years after Carteret’s death, William
Penn and others purchased his interest in East New Jersey, and
established another liberal government. Governor Andros of New York
endeavored to assert his jurisdiction over both the Jerseys, but his
attempts were defeated until 1686, when James II., by writs of _quo
warranto_,[41] forced the surrender of the patents. The Jerseymen,
however, resisted all Andros’s attempts to tax them, and also quarreled
with the proprietors, whose land rights had not been affected by the
loss of their political powers. Finally, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, the proprietors, worn out with the struggle,
surrendered all their rights to the Crown, and the two provinces were
united into the royal colony of New Jersey.[42]
=69. The Founding of Pennsylvania.=—William Penn’s interest in the
colonization of West Jersey led to his taking a greater part in American
affairs. In 1670 his father, an admiral in the English navy, died, and
left him a claim against the government, in compensation for which he
induced Charles II. to give him a charter for forty thousand square
miles in America (1681). This region was named Pennsylvania in honor of
the admiral, against the modest wishes of the proprietor. Penn at once
offered liberal terms to colonists, and promised a thoroughly equitable
government. Later in 1681, three shiploads of Quakers emigrated, and the
next year Penn himself came over and founded Philadelphia. He soon
convened an assembly, and a code of laws was drawn up, allowing
considerable religious freedom and providing for the humane treatment of
the Indians. With these savages Penn, through his shrewdness and
kindness, was always successful in his negotiations, and as a result
Pennsylvania did not suffer from border warfare.
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