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marks this famous line which became more than the boundary between two States. It marked, during the early part of the nineteenth century, the boundary between two distinct ideas on the continent; the line separating two distinct industrial sections-the free States of the North and the slave States of the South.

The Founder of the Commonwealth.-William Penn, who in an age of persecution made religious liberty the corner stone of a frame of government, was the foremost man among the Quakers; and one of the most remarkable men of his time. His fame is as wide as the world; and he has gained abiding glory as the man who was able, with unarmed hands, to establish in the wilderness a mighty Commonwealth by the rules of justice and moderation. The way in which he did this deserves our notice.

Charles the Second Pays a Debt.-Actuated by a desire to found a colony where civil and religious liberty might be enjoyed, and the people might dwell together in peace, Penn petitioned King Charles II. to grant him the land now comprised within the limits of Pennsylvania in payment of a debt of £16,000 which the government owed to his father, Admiral Sir William Penn. The king gladly consented, and in 1681, Penn received a grant of the region stretching from the Delaware River westward through five degrees of longitude.

Named in Honor of Penn's Father.-Against the wishes of Penn, who desired to call the new province "Sylvania," the king named it Pennsylvania or "Penn's Woods." The charter gave title to more than 45,000 square miles of land, which was increased next year by purchasing from the Duke of York the "Three Counties upon the Delaware”—the present State of Delaware.

Treaty and Settlements. At that time the present limits of the State were inhabited only by Indians, with a few Swedes and Dutch settled along the lower Delaware. Penn bought the land over again from the Indians, and made a treaty of peace with them which remained unbroken for more than fifty years. "We shall never forget the counsel he gave us," said their spokesman at Conestoga in 1721.

The real settlement may be said to have been made in 1681 by the Quakers who came over in that year. The next year, Penn himself arrived, bringing with him a hundred colonists of his own faith to found Philadelphia, the city of "Brotherly Love."

The First General Assembly.-Landing at Newcastle, in the territory purchased from the Duke of York, Penn received the submission of the settlers and assured them of his protection. About two months afterward he went to Upland, which he named Chester. On December 4, 1682, the first General Assembly ever held in Pennsylvania was called together at Chester; and William Penn, by the aid of the people, enacted the "Great Law" by which the new colony was to be governed. Pennsylvania, like all the colonies founded after 1660, was a proprietary colony. Penn was the owner of the land; from him the settlers obtained the right to occupy it and to build houses and make improvements; to him they paid their rents. But to this feudal principle was opposed Penn's firm belief in the equality of men. Under the influence of this latter principle the colony of Pennsylvania became at last one of the truest examples of a thoroughly democratic government. The words of Penn ring true: "Government depends rather upon men than men upon government. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad."

QUESTIONS

What was one of Rome's famous inscriptions? How does Pennsylvania rank among the States of the Union?

Why may Pennsylvania be fittingly called the Keystone State?
Give the boundaries of Pennsylvania.

What can you say concerning its charter boundaries?

Who was the founder of the colony? What treaty was made with the Indians?

Describe the Mason and Dixon Line. When was this line surveyed? When was it completed?

How did this line become more than a mere boundary between States?

How did Pennsylvania receive its name? What nickname has it? Has Pennsylvania ever been part of another State? Was any other State ever a part of it?

What was the form of the early government of the colony?

What forms of government existed in this country before the present time? State the fundamental difference between the present form and the earlier forms.

Where was the first General Assembly ever held in Pennsylvania called together?

What is Penn's statement of the relation of men to government? Tell when, where, and by whom the following States were first settled: Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia.

CHAPTER III

EARLY GOVERNMENTS IN PENNSYLVANIA

Penn's Frame of Government. The plan of government which Penn drew up for the control of his new colony was prepared in England before the first band of emigrants set out for the province under Captain William Markham, the cousin of the Proprietor. The spirit shown in the germ of the proposed government was largely republican in character, although the charter had given Penn great power in the province. Inscribed upon the walls of Independence Hall, side by side with the Declaration of Independence, are these words taken from the preface to the "Frame of Government" which Penn gave to the colonists in Pennsylvania:

"Any government is free to the people under it, whatever be the form, where the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws; and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, and confusion."

The words above given set forth a twofold foundation for government. The people were to make their own laws; and in return for this privilege give willing obedience to those laws. "For liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery." Thus liberty and obedience were to be the foundation principles of that "holy experiment" in establishing a free colony by the light of the Golden Rule.

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