The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographersWeems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Philosophy
The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographers
Weems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
Having thus laid, the foundation of this colony in JUSTICE to the poor
natives, and in generosity to his own followers in the great cheapness
of his lands, in perfect liberty of conscience, and in the exceeding
moderation of his government, this wise statesman then looked to God
for his blessings. Nor did he look in vain, The fame of "PENN COLONY"
resounded throughout Great Britain. An immense emigration were quickly
on their way to Pennsylvania. The young city grew apace, and farms and
fair buildings in the country, spread in every direction with a
rapidity unequalled in history.
But alas! when honest William fell asleep, there rose after him a race
of heirs "_who knew not Joseph_;" who not content, _like him_, with
modest drab, and simple dinners, and aspiring to the true happiness of
imitating God in godlike loves and deeds, basely prostituted their
hearts to carnal lusts and pride.
The worship of these gods, though contemptible, is costly; and to
these _wet-quaker_ successors of the good William Penn, nothing
promised such a swelling revenue as a bold rise in the price of their
lands. And in this pitiful kind of management they soon gave the
Pennsylvanians to understand that like Rehoboam of old, "_their little
fingers were heavier than their father's loins_." I have not been able
to procure any thing like certainty as to the sum that GOOD William
Penn gave to the natives for the vast tract of land he purchased of
them. But that he hardly gave at the rate of a _hatchet_ for what is
now a noble farm, may be very fairly inferred. In 1754, which was
seventy years later than the first purchase, the house of Penn bought
of the Indians seven millions of acres lying within the ROYAL GRANT.
And what do you suppose they gave for it? what do you suppose they
gave for seven millions of acres of rich, heavy timbered Pennsylvania
land? why not quite two thousand dollars! not _three cents_ the
hundred acres! And what do you suppose they immediately asked for it?
why _fifteen pounds ten shillings!_ near fifty thousand cents per
hundred acres! And yet with such a bank of millions in hand they were
not willing to bear their part of the taxes for public good!!
Like the starched Pharisees of old, they could throw heavy weights on
other men's shoulders, but not suffer a fly to light on theirs. They
could smile when they saw the officer going round with his ink horn
and pen, noting down the poor man's paddock, but if he but looked at
their princely manors and parks they would make the whole colony ring
with it.
Grown beyond calculation rich by the sales and rents of their lands in
America, they scorned the country of their illustrious predecessor,
and went over to London, where they mimicked the pride and pageantry
of princes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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