Penn could advise others to keep out of worldly discussions, but he found it hard to do so himself. His nature was too bold and energetic, and he was above all things else a public man. So he tried to help his friend Algernon Sydney win a seat in the House of Commons, and, as a Whig, used all his influence to win success for that party in the elections. Sydney was defeated, but William Penn now became known as something of a politician as well as a religious leader. In 1680 Penn began to work out a plan that had been in the minds of George Fox and other Quakers for some time, namely, to obtain from the king a grant of land in America where the Quakers might establish a settlement for themselves. They had already seen the Puritans cross the Atlantic and found the colony of Massachusetts Bay, where they were free to establish their own religion, and they had seen the Catholics go to Maryland under the guidance of Lord Baltimore. The Quakers were having a hard time of it at home; why should they not choose a new land where they could do as they pleased? They were not welcome in Massachusetts, where some of them had been hung and some whipped at the tail of a cart. Virginia was being settled by members of the Church of England, Maryland by the Catholics, and the Dutch were in possession of New York. They looked about to find some territory not yet well occupied. Some time earlier George Fox had considered founding a Quaker colony in the country lying north of Maryland and west of New York and the Jerseys. Travelers reported that this was easy to reach by a broad river called the Delaware. Penn already knew a good deal about this and the neighboring country, partly from George Fox, and partly because he had already acted as arbitrator in a dispute as to the boundary line between East Jersey and West Jersey. He had also helped to draw up the constitution for West Jersey, and, as that constitution established religious liberty in that territory, many Quakers had gone there to live. Indeed, West Jersey might have become a great Quaker colony had it not been that men who went out there reported that its soil was not so fertile nor its general character so attractive as the land that lay farther to the west.