The Greater Republic Part 5

As early as 1618, the Dutch erected a trading post at Bergen. All now included in the State was granted, in 1664, by the Duke of York to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Carteret was once governor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel, and gave the name to the new province. In the year mentioned, the first English settlement was made at Elizabethtown, now known as Elizabeth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FIRST FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE, BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY.]

In 1674, the province was divided into East and West Jersey, a distinction which is preserved to some extent to the present day.

Berkeley, who owned West Jersey, sold it to a number of Quakers, some of whom settled near Burlington. Carteret sold his part to William Penn and eleven other Quakers. The various changes of ownership caused much trouble with the land t.i.tles. In 1702, all the proprietors surrendered their rights to the crown and New Jersey became a royal colony. The same governor ruled New York and New Jersey, though those in the latter elected their own a.s.sembly. A complete separation from New York took place in 1738, and New Jersey remained a royal province until the Revolution. Its location averted all troubles with the Indians. Newark, the princ.i.p.al city, was settled in 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut.

Burlington, founded in 1677, was one of the capitals and Perth Amboy the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM PENN, THE GOOD AND WISE RULER.]

EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.

In 1638, a number of Swedes formed the settlement of Christina on the Delaware, near Wilmington. They bought the land from the Indians and named it New Sweden. A second settlement, that of Chester, was made just below the site of Philadelphia in 1643, and was the first in the present State of Pennsylvania. The fiery Governor Stuyvesant of New Netherland looked upon these attempts as impudent invasions of his territory, and, filled with anger, hurried down to Delaware and captured both. It was a matter of no moment to the thrifty Swedes, who kept on the even tenor of their way and throve under the new government as well as under the old. A further account of the settlement of Delaware will be given in our history of that of Pennsylvania.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOTABLE AUDIENCE IN MARYLAND TO HEAR GEORGE FOX, THE FOUNDER OF THE "SOCIETY OF FRIENDS" OR QUAKERS.]

SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE.

The peace-loving Quakers were among those who suffered persecution in England for conscience sake. William Penn was the son of Admiral Penn, who disliked the Quakers and had been a valiant officer for the English government. When he died, the crown owed him a large sum of money, which William offered to liquidate in return for a grant of the land now known as the State of Pennsylvania. The king willingly agreed to this, and the Duke of York, who had a strong liking for Penn, added the present State of Delaware to the grant, in which, as has been stated, the Swedes had made a number of settlements.

William Penn was one of the best and wisest rulers that had to do with the settlement of our country. The king, more as a piece of pleasantry than otherwise, insisted upon naming the province "Pennsylvania," in honor of the proprietor, much to the good man's dismay. He offered the royal secretary a liberal fee to omit the first part of the name from the charter, but it was not done. No rule could have been more kindly.

Absolute freedom of conscience was permitted; in all trials by jury of an Indian, one-half of the jury were to be composed of Indians, and, although Penn was induced to permit the punishment of death for treason and murder, to be provided for in the code, no man was ever executed while Penn had anything to do with the province.

His first act, after his arrival in 1682, was characteristic. He called the Indian chiefs together, under a great spreading elm at Shackamaxon, and paid them for the land that was already his by royal grant. In addition, he made the red men many presents and signed a treaty, which neither party broke for sixty years. It has been truly said that this was the only treaty not sworn to which was kept inviolate by both parties.

Penn himself laid out the city of Philadelphia in 1683. A year later, it had a population of 7,000, and in three years more its population increased faster than that of New York in half a century. Delaware, then called the "Three Lower Counties," was given a separate government at the request of the people in 1703. They were allowed their own deputy governor, but Pennsylvania and Delaware continued substantially under one government until the Revolution.

The good ruler met with many misfortunes. In 1692, the province was taken from him, because of his friendship to James II., but restored soon afterward. In 1699, when he made his second visit, he found the people had in a great measure grown away from him, and were unwilling that he should exercise his former supervision. While absent, a dishonest steward robbed him of nearly all his property in England; and, failing in health and mind, he died in 1718. His sons became proprietors, but the people grew more and more discontented with the payment of rents. To end the disputes and quarrels, the State abolished the rents during the Revolution, paying the proprietors the sum of $650,000 for the extinguishment of their rights.

PHILADELPHIA.

Philadelphia was prosperous from the first. New York City did not catch up to it until after the year 1810. It was early noted, as it has been since, for its cleanliness, fine buildings, and the attention it gave to education. It had a printing press in 1686, and three years later a public high school. In the year 1749, the present University of Pennsylvania was founded as a school, becoming a college in 1755, and a university in 1779. Many of the names of streets, such as Walnut, Chestnut, Pine, Mulberry, and others, were given to it when the city was laid out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MORAVIAN EASTER SERVICE, BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.]

The settlement of the province was confined for a long time to the eastern section. No population was more varied. The Scotch and Irish were mainly in the central portion, the Dutch and Germans in the east and northeast, and the English in the southeastern part of the colony.

There are hundreds of people to-day in Pennsylvania, whose ancestors for several generations have been born there, who are unable to speak or understand a word of English.

Maryland is the next colony in order of settlement. The Roman Catholics were among those who suffered persecution in England, and Maryland was founded as a place of refuge for them. Among the most prominent of the English Catholics was Sir George Calvert, known as Lord Baltimore. His first attempt to found a colony was in Newfoundland, but the rigorous climate compelled him to give it up. He decided that the most favorable place was that portion of Virginia lying east of the Potomac. Virginia had its eye already upon the section, and was preparing to settle it, when Charles I., without consulting her, granted the territory to Lord Baltimore. Before he could use the patent, he died, and the charter was made to his son, Cecil Calvert, in 1632. He named it Maryland in compliment to the queen, Henrietta Maria.

Leonard Calvert, a brother of Lord Baltimore, began the settlement of Maryland at St. Mary's, near the mouth of the Potomac. He took with him 200 immigrants and made friends with the Indians, whom he treated with justice and kindness. Annapolis was founded in 1683 and Baltimore in 1729.

Despite the wisdom and liberality of Calvert's rule, the colony met with much trouble, because of Virginia's claim to the territory occupied by the newcomers. William Clayborne of Virginia had established a trading post in Maryland and refused to leave, but he was driven out, whereupon he appealed to the king, insisting that the Catholics were intruders upon domain to which they had no right. The king decided in favor of Lord Baltimore. Clayborne however, would not a.s.sent, and, returning to Maryland in 1645, he incited a rebellion which was pressed so vigorously that Calvert was forced to flee. He gathered enough followers to drive Clayborne out in turn. The Catholics then established a liberal government and pa.s.sed the famous "Toleration Act," which allowed everybody to worship G.o.d as he saw fit. Many persons in the other colonies, who were suffering persecution, made their homes in Maryland.

After a time, the Protestants gained a majority in the a.s.sembly and made laws which were very oppressive to the Catholics. The strife degenerated into civil war, which lasted for a number of years. The proprietor in 1691 was a supporter of James II., because of which the new king, William, took away his colony and appointed the governors himself. The proprietor's rights were restored in 1716 to the fourth Lord Baltimore.

The Calverts became extinct in 1771, and the people of Maryland a.s.sumed proprietorship five years later. Comparative tranquillity reigned until the breaking out of the Revolution.

An interesting occurrence during this tranquil period was the arrival from England of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers. In the a.s.semblage which gathered on the sh.o.r.es of the Chesapeake to listen to his preaching were members of the Legislature, the leading men of the province, Indian sachems and their families, with their great chief at their head.

The disputed boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was fixed in 1767, by two surveyors named Mason and Dixon. This boundary became famous in after years as the dividing line between the free and slave States.

Charles II., in 1663 and 1665, granted the land between Florida and Virginia to eight proprietors. The country had been named Carolina in honor of their king, Charles IX. (Latin, _Carolus_), and since Charles II. was King of England the name was retained, though he was not the ruler meant thus to be honored. The country was comparatively uninhabited after the failure of the French colony, except by a few Virginians, who made a settlement on the northern sh.o.r.e of Albemarle Sound.

THE CAROLINAS.

For twenty years the proprietors tried to establish upon American soil one of the most absurd forms of government ever conceived. The land was to be granted to n.o.bles, known as barons, landgraves, and caziques, while the rest of the people were not to be allowed to hold any land, but were to be bought and sold with the soil, like so many cattle. The settlers ridiculed and defied the fantastical scheme, which had to be abandoned. It was the work of John Locke, the famous philosopher, who at one time was secretary of Lord Cooper, one of the proprietors.

The first settlement of the Carteret colony was made in 1670, on the banks of the Ashley, but in 1680 it was removed to the present site of Charleston. The colonies remained united for about seventy years, when it became apparent that the territory was too large to be well governed by one a.s.sembly and a single governor. In 1729, the present division was made, and the rights of government and seven-eighths of the land were returned to the crown.

The soil and climate were so favorable that thousands of immigrants were attracted thither. Among them were numerous Huguenots or French Protestants, whose intelligence, thrift, and morality placed them among the very best settlers found anywhere in our country. Newbern was settled by a colony of Swiss in 1711, and there was a large influx of Scotch after their rebellion of 1740, England giving them permission to leave Scotland. Scotch immigrants settled Fayetteville in 1746.

There were occasional troubles with the Indians, the most important of which was the war with the Tuscaroras, in 1711. This tribe was utterly defeated and driven northward into New York, where they joined the Iroquois or Five Nations. The union of the Tuscaroras caused the Iroquois to be known afterward as the Six Nations.

The Carolinas were afflicted with some of the worst governors conceivable, interspersed now and then with excellent ones. Often there was st.u.r.dy resistance, and in 1677 one of the governors, who attempted to enforce the Navigation Act, was deposed and imprisoned. In 1688, another was driven out of the colony. The population was widely scattered, but the people themselves were as a whole the best kind of citizens. They would not permit religious persecution, and defeated the effort to make the Church of England the colony church. As a consequence, the Carolinas became, like Maryland and Pennsylvania, a refuge for thousands of those who were persecuted in the name of religion.

GEORGIA.

Georgia was the last of the thirteen original colonies to be settled, and, though it long remained the weakest of them all, its history is very interesting. It, too, was a country of refuge for those suffering persecution, but their affliction was different in its nature from those of whom we have made record.

One of the remarkable facts connected with the government of nations claiming the highest civilization, hardly more than a century ago, was the brutality of their laws. Many crimes, comparatively trifling in their nature, were punishable with death. One of the most cruel of these oppressive laws was that which permitted a man to throw into prison a neighbor who was unable to pay the money he owed. If a poor tenant fell ill, and could not pay his landlord, the latter could have him flung into jail and kept there until the debt was paid. Since the debtor was unable to earn a penny while in prison, and probably his wife and children were equally helpless, the landlord thus deprived himself of all possibility of getting his money, while the wretched debtor literally "rotted" in prison. Thousands died in dreadful misery, merely because they were poor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLONIAL PLOW WITH WOODEN MOULD-BOARD. 1706 (State Agricultural Museum, Albany, N.Y.)]

This system of allowing imprisonment for debt prevailed in our own country until within the memory of men still living. It makes one's cheeks tingle with shame and indignation to recall that Robert Morris, who devoted all his wealth and energies to raising money for the patriots during the Revolution, who furnished Washington with thousands of dollars, and but for whose help the war must have failed, became poor after independence was gained and was imprisoned for debt.

The system caused such horrible suffering in England that the pity of all good men was stirred. Among these was James Edward Oglethorpe, one of the most admirable characters in modern history. He was a brave and skillful soldier, eminently just, of the highest social position and a member of Parliament. He determined to do something practical for the perishing debtors in English jails. He, therefore, asked George II. to give him a grant of land in America to which the imprisoned debtors could be sent, and the king, whose heart also seemed to be touched, promptly did so. It was said of Oglethorpe that the universal respect felt for him made certain that any favor he asked of his own a.s.sociates or friends would be willingly granted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT HORSESHOES PLOWED UP IN SCHENECTADY CO., N.Y.

(In the New York State Agricultural Museum.)]

The king not only presented him with valuable equipments, but Parliament granted him a liberal sum, to which wealthy citizens added. He had the best wishes of his entire country when he sailed for America with one hundred and fourteen persons. He named the new colony Georgia in honor of the king, and began the settlement of Savannah in 1733, Darien and Augusta being founded three years later. It need hardly be said of such a man, that, like Penn and Baltimore, he bought the lands anew of the Indians and retained their friendship from the start. On one of his visits to England he took a party of red men with him, entertained them at his country place and presented them at court.

The Spaniards claimed Georgia as their own territory, and raised a large force with which to expel Oglethorpe, whose colony had been increased by the arrival of other immigrants, but the English officer handled his men with such extraordinary skill that the Spaniards were utterly routed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COLONIAL FLAX-WHEEL.]

It would be supposed that Georgia would have been one of the most successful of the original colonies, since seemingly it possessed every advantage, but such was far from the fact. One cause for this was the "coddling" the pioneers received. They were harmed by too much kindness.

Had they been compelled to hew their own way, like their neighbors, they would have done better. They were like children spoiled by being granted too many favors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HIAWATHA, FOUNDER OF THE IROQUOIS LEAGUE

The Iroquois League was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations, who founded in the New York wilderness a barbaric republic, with bonds of union that might serve in many respects as a model for civilized nations.]

Another cause was the poor laws by which the people were ruled. Slavery at first was forbidden within its borders, though it was tolerated all about them. Then, in 1747, the trustees yielded to the general demand and admitted slavery. Other rules caused discontent, and many settlers moved away. Population appeared to be at a standstill, and finally the trustees in 1752 surrendered their rights to the crown. More liberal laws followed and the prosperity increased.