The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-05-15 00:00:00, page 2

6. For the well ordering the fail interest, and doing
nif.ice to the citizens of this Rate, who may have right
depending and not tally compleated, to lands within this
state;.
Refolded, That Commiffioriers be appointed, who fled
hold a B >arl, to be called the B?xrd of Property, which
fydl be veiled witlk full power to demand, receive and
coheft all pipers, books, records, maps, draughts, Pur
veys and other papers, now in the possession of the said
Proprietaries, or any persons heretofore holding offices
under taea, touching, or in any wife rejecting, the ad
ministration or management of the lands within tnis Bate :
And also to be veiled with power to grant patents, con
firm f,impended tides, under a Seal, of Office to be by
them devised, to appoint Deputy Surveyors in each coun
ty (the Surveyor-General and Receiver - General being
appointed by Council) and fetch other officers as-rnay be
n^effary, and to receive such monies as may hereafter
arce from the sale of the lands within this Rate that are
not yet surveyed orGcated.
7. Refolded,-Thad all quit rents heretofore reserved by
the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, other than the quit- %
r nts before-mentioned, bmg badges of slivery. and re
served without any just authority, shall be,abolished, and
be no longer demanded of the free citizens of this hate.
The questions proposed t® the Chief Jufiice were the
following,:
HAD Charles the Second, King of England, authority
to convey the lands described in the Charter of Pennfyl
vania?'
Wes the grant to William Penn an absolute one; or is
he and his Reprefentaiives to be considered as trustees,
and in what manner ?
Is the operation of the concessions to be confined to
the original purchasers, who were parties to it, or is it to
be t # ken as a general and binding agreement on William
Penn and his heirs, of which all fubfiquent purchasers
were to claim benefit?
If the latter—then whether by the said concessions the
said William 'Fenn had a right to the tenth of the land as
well as purchase-money and quit-rents from the firft put
chafers; and whether the said concessions restrained him
from referring a tenth, as -purchases were made from the
Indians and from feeing thereft on such terms as the
purchasers and he fiiould agree on?
Are the quit.rents to be conffd&od'as a provision for
the support of government; or are they to be confidcr^i
as reservations refuiting from the nature of the estate which
William Penn had in the foil, and were they legally re
served?
Had the heirs of William Penn the right of pre-empti
cn'of all the lands within the boundaries of the state, and
yet unpurchafed from the Indians; or did he lose that
with the right of government ?
The answer of the Chief Justice is as follows;
IT is with the utmost reluctance I undertake to answer
the questions propounded to me by the Honourable the
House of Assembly, on account of my being a Member of
the General Assembly of the Delaware State, where force
of the like nature will probably be soon agitated ;, also,
because I cannot have the benefit of consulting my brother
Judges, but more particularly on account of the vast
magnitude of the fubje&, the short time allowed to me,
and my great diffidence in my own abilities ; however, as
it is the request of the House, I fliall wave every other
configuration, and give the best answers in my power.
Answer to the firft question.
It seems to have been the law of nations, that whatever
Vacant, nvafle or uncultivated country is discovered, shall
belong to that Prince who had been at the charge of the
difeovery. Henry the Seventh, on the sth March, in the
eleventh year of,his reign, had commiffioped John Cabot,
and his three sons, to fail in quest of unknown lands, and
to anhex them to the Crown of England ; with this clause,
, nvbicb before this time have been unknown to all Christians.
This John Cabot, with his son Sebastian, in their second
v °y 2 » e i n the year '497, are said firft to have difeovered
that part of America which lies on the North-East of the
Continent, from the south of Labrador as far as Cape
Florida. Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the year
1608, under a commiflion from King James the First,
discovered more particularly Long-Bland, New-York,
and the river which hill bears his name, and also Dela
ware Bay, and afterwards fold his right to the Dutch,
who fettled on each fide of Delaware, and in the year
1623 erected a fort on the East fide, called Nassau. The
Swedes appear to have taken poffefTion of the South fide
of Delaware in 1638, and to have held it under Peter
Minuit, Governor under the Queen of Sweden, until
1651, when the Dutch built Fort Cafimir, now Newcastle.
Rifingh, the then Governor under Christina, Queen of
Sweden, afterwards retook Cafimir; but his fucceftor,
Suen S utz, surrendered it and the country to Stuyvesant,
the Dutch Governor of New-York, &c. the 16th Septem
ber, 1655, on articles of capitulation. From this time
the South fide of Delaware was held by the Dutch until
theist Oftober, 1664, when it was surrendered to Sir
Robert Carr for his Royal Highaefs James Duke of York,
&c. on artidesof capitulation. A war broke out with,
the States General in 1672, and the latter retook the
whole country in August, 16,3; but there was a treaty
of peace at Weftmin^er on the 9th of February, 1674, by
the sixth article of which the whole was again restored to
the En^lifo. The Duke of York, to remove all contro
versy rejecting his property, obtained a new patent from
King Charles the Second, dated the 29th June, 1674, for
all the lands contained in his firft grant of the nth
March, 1664. The Dutch had, during the time they
governed the country, purchased large tracts of land from
the Indian proprietors; and their Diredorsand Deputy
Directors, as well as the Governors, Deputy Governors,
and the County Courts, under the Duke of York, had
granted considerable quantities of land to the inhabitants
on the South fide of Delaware, as far up the river as Up
land, now called Cheflet,' and above it, reserving a quit
rent of a bushel of wheat for every hundred acres, before
the date of the Royal Charter for Fehnfylvania to William
Penn, Esquire.
At the time of the grant of Pennsylvania, to wit, the
4th of March, 1681 (new Hile) the lands therein com
prifed.do not appear to have been elairced by or under
any power in Europe, 'except the King of England.
These fails seem ueceffarily to be Rated previous to a
direst answer to the qaeftion.
Under these circumstances then, I think, Charles the
Second had (jure corvee) authority to convey the lands
defcribeJ in the Charter of Pennsylvania ; excepting such
parts as lie had before granted to the Duke of York, or
were held under him, or by or under the Indian frepri
eers ; these exceptions mull be allowed, unless the absurd
doctrine, that the Pagans or Heathen had no right to any
lands, is admitted; but the words of the Charter, in the
preamble, " not yet cultivated ®r planted," omitting by
any Cbrjiiaxs, imply a contrary opinion, both in the
grantor and grantee.
Answer to the second question..
It rather appears to me, that the grant to William Fenn
is an abfo'ute one; in favour of which opinion the 17th
feStion of the Charter (to mentici no other) seems to be
very Hrong and pointed. The intereH of the grantee,
and his heirs, seems to have been so connected with the
fettlcment of the province and the enlarging the Englilh
empire, railing ofeful commodities, &c. that the firft
could not be much promoted without tue latter; and alb
grants of this kind, whiebhave came to my knowledge,
particularly, that to John Lord Berkely and Sir George
Carteret for Nova - C^faria, or New-Jersey, and that to
Lord B dtimore for Maryland, appear to have been abf^-
lu§ and intqnjed for the benefit and to advance the for
tunes of the grantees and their heirs.
Answer to the third queftipn. ~
The cieareft construction I cap form of the conditions
@r concessions, dated nth July, 1681, is, that they were
confined to the adventurers and purchasers at that time.
This conftrudion i,s founded net only on the title of the
eruditions, &c. which are said ,0 be agreed upon by the
Proprietary and Governor, " arid those, who arc the ad
venturers, &c." in the present tense, but from the natural
import of feverafof the articles thereof.
Answer to the fourth queflion.
Though more than one Assembly have infinuatdd or
asserted, that the quit-rents were intended for the support
of government, yet as this is not evidenced b'y any law or
instrument in writing or aft whatsoever assented to by
William Fenn, Esquire, the firft Proprietor, or by any of
his heirs ; as nothing of the fort is mentioned in any of the
deeds or patents, wherein the fame are reserved; as they
have never been applied to that use for near a century,
but always received and considered as- private property ;
and as all the other Proprietaries in America, under Char,
ters of the like kind, have reserved, received and appro
priated the quit-rents to tlurir own private uses, I am of
opinion, that ; thefe quit-rents are to he considered at this
day as reservations resulting from the nature of the estate,
winch William Penn had its the foil, and that as Lord
Mefne he could legally reserve them.
Answer to the lad queftfon.
Many historians and writers on this fubjea, have been
of opinion, that a Charter or grant, likethat ior Pennsyl
vania, gave a right of pre-emption to the grantee, and
was good against all perlons but the Indian or native pro
prietors and occupiers. Indeed it seems to have been ne
cessary for the public weal that this right should be veiled
hi the person or per son, v,ho had the government of the
country, the holding treaties iwith independent Princes or
nations for any purpose w hatfoever being an a& of sove
reignty, and thegreateft danger of an Indian war being
to be apprehended froth the frauds anl injufbee which
private performs might be tempted to tommi , were they
permitted to purchase ai they pleased. Besides, to pre
vent their frequent felling the fame lands, and many other
causes of controversy, it is expedient that the bargain with
Indians should be made by the rulers of the state, and that
it should be attended with considerable solemnity. For
these or such reasons this right might be foppofed to be
granted to Wiliam Pen n, Esquire, by the Charter, as he
was veiled with the whiole of the Executive and a moiety
of the Legifiative Pow< r over all Engldh fubjells within
the limits of the then province. Be that as it may, an
exclusive right of purtnafing land from the natives was
granted to him by ad of Assembly in 1705. But upon
the whole, as every power cf government in the heirs of
William Penn ceased by thecate revolution, I rather think
that they have no right of „, emotion, or of furckafag at
all fr:m the Indian nations, in future, any lands 1,14 g
within th^ boundaries of Pennsylvania, but that the fame,
for the reasons abovty belongs to tr,e Rate.
This opinion is to be considered by the Honourable
House in a legal, and ^ot a ,0/itira/ light: And it is hoped,
they will receive it with candor and excuse any inaccura
cies, when they are pleased to refled that I have had but
one day to digest and write it.
T HO. M'KEAN.
Philadelphia, March igth. 1779.
The Honourable, the House of Assembly
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
To the Printer of the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
SIR,
'T'. a " '' e political writers for and against the conflitn-
A tion of Pennsylvania, have amply paid you for printing
their several remarks and animadversions thereon, yen
have reaped a super- abundant harvest, and can well afford
this a part of a column in your ufeful paper, gratis. And
I have such an opinion of your patriptifn, that if you think
it of service to the people in general of your state, it will
not miss the writer's expeßatiton; altho' no pecuniary gra
tification accompanies it.
Having from my childhood until within these three
years been a resident in the city of Philadelphia, lam
therefore very solicitous for the welfare of its inhabitants,
and from all 'th^t I can colled from the eonftitution itfel/,
and from the several publications for and against it, altho'
it may have defeats which I arm not about to controvert.
Yet I am fully convinced, were every individual as indus
trious to support it, as force have been to sap, clog, or
overwhelm it, it is as capable of life and vigour as any
one of the other twelve, nor can I perceive even with my
fpedacles, for, Sir, I have been obliged to use them more
than twenty years, a single feed more of delpotifm or ty
ranny in it, than in any one of the others. The best con
stitution that can be devised by human wisdom, may be
fubverced by ambitious and designing men, where the mass
of the people are corrupt, and a bad one may be supported,
while they continue virtuous, —the contentions about it
has made me more particularly attentive to the legislature
of the state I now reside in, which is composed of two
branches, and who for these two years, whenever they can
have a qubium in both houses, have alinoft perpetually
been wrangling ; bat it rarely has happened, that a quo
rum ofboth houses has met at the time of adjournment,
and qqq branch has waited weeks for the other to no pur
pofa, and at leng'h broke up in conAGoh, witucrit zdjeurt.
m%t; and in general, where they have once met on their
own adjournment, they have more than twice been called
together by the Governor's writ, which has caused an in
credible^xpence to the Rate ; three fourths of which might
'have b^n fayed, had there been but one branch of le,
giflation.',
MENTOR.
N. B. The wretched feribbler in your Advertiser, of
Marche, wild stiles Gmfelf A Cstfituti<maiiji, foci,who,
as he fays, " Hands in the Tavern-keeper's books for a
Urge score," and therefore derft not vote against him, has,
I think, much disgraced your , double branch confiitution
ali?s; he seems more ; fuitable fora tool ct that infamous
tool Wedderburne, than for a dabler in American po
litics ; his piece is intended ns irony cn your present
constitution, but is in fa& a burlesque on Inmfelf.
For the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
Q ^HE peace lately concluded between the Emperor, of
£ Germaoy^and the King of PtuiTia is, io its present
state, a field far political (peculation. The New-York
papers, from which the account of the peace is taken, have
Y endeavored to r-present it as a (ircumftance favorable
Britain; but until Mr. Rivington can furnifh his readers
with force fufficient grounds for fuch' a conjecture, his
Ample opinion of the matter will fignify but irtt'e. Those
who plea'le may believe Mr. Risington ; but as the case
at present stands, it admits of an opinion, directly, contra
ry jo that which he has endeavored to circulate.
In order to form force jud,mefft concerning the conse
quences of the peace, it is ucieHaxy, in the fir'ft Nace, to
go back to the fla|e of things before die war broke out
between those two powers.— Secondly, what was the bene
aud expectations of Britain receding that war. —And
Thirdly, by what means the peace -was atcomplifhed.'
The good disposition of both those powers • towards
Ameri % so late as March 1778, is, or ought to be, very
well known here, and as th„r difference nrbfe, about a
month afterwards, on a measure no-ways <;onneßed with
America, there is rm ,eafdn yet to feppew that any new
grounds have been lince produced to chance either their
disposition or line of politics with refpe& to us. Mention
was made in our papers Jaft Cummer that Prussia would be
the fecund p^wer in Europe to acknowledge ' our indepen
dence; the information was founded on no leb authority
than that of a State Officer o' the firft rank of th?.Pruffiau
Court, and transmitted here by one of our CommiSioners
(not Mr. Deane) but the rupture happening almofLimm,'
diately after, naturally occasioned at that Court a ctffafion
of all other polities.The difpcfitjon of the Emperor of Ger
many at that time towards America may be easily collect
ed from his connections with the Court of France. There
fore, nothing tha,happened faior to the rupture has any
thing in it favorable towards Britain. '
The rupture broke suddenly out a. few cars after the
treaty between France and America, Was signed, and the
a^prehenfions which the federal Powers on the Cettintr.t
of Europe were under, as to the probable extent and cq^
frequences of the quarrel,, seem in a great measure to have
reftriCted their operations rffpeCting.America by calling
• their attention more immediately to themfelver. Ahd ft
appears to have been the hope and expectation o f Britain
that the cohteft between the Emperor and the King of
Prussia would, in the end, involve France, and probably
Spain. For a confirmation of this opinion, I fhali give
an extras of a letter from a gentleman of Wgh character
in France, dated February 28, '778.
“ lam sorry to inform you there is now an p^arance
" of an approaching rupture between the Emperor and
“ the King of Prussia relative to the possessions of the late
" Emperor of Bavt rials eft,ates. Great-Britain, youm-y
<c be sure, will endeavour to in fiigate the King of Fruita
" to go on, because if war ensues, France will rcoftpro
" bably be drawn in to take a part; but I Hill hope that
" peace will be maintained by negotiation."'
It has happened according to the writer's wish.. Peace
has taken place between the Emperor and the Kin^ of
Prussia, and that through the mediation of France and
Rudha. It does not appear, even by the New-York ac
count, that the Courtof London had any thing to do in
compromising the difputfy and as it is easy to fee ' that her
hope was in the continuance and probable eonfequences of
the quarrel, it is natural to conclude that the must feel
herfelf difappeinted by the peace.
That the peace is an agreeable event to France is de
duced with certainty from the part which the took in pro
moting it; and as it relieves her from the apprehensions
of a war on the Continent of Europe, it leaves her at li
berty to prosecute the object of the alliance.
COMMON.SBNSE.
° w.2: tl^ ^d>&s^)%*ca>aa* ^efceh'^^
JN purfifance cf an order of Orphans Court,
will be fold by public vendue, nt the Cefee-houfe
in the city of Philadelphia, on Wednesday the nineteenth
day of May inst. at seven o'clock in the evening, a House
xnd Lot or Piece of Ground, situate on the weft fide of
" e ma ' n ftf^t in&rmantowu,containing in breadth cn
laid Hicet titty feet, and in length or depth two hundred
and seventeen feet, opposite to the White Herfe Tavern 1
There is on laid lot an elegant new stone house two fto
riev high, with two rooms cn a floor, genteely ficrifhed,
and a good cellar under the vihole hudfe; also a good
stable and other out-houses, and feme fruit trees 5 the
whole lot is inclofed with a good hoard fence; free
from any ground-rent. Late the estate of Daniel
Meredith, deceased.
Philadelphia, May 14,
TO BE SOLD,
TH AT valuable trad of land situate in Turkey
foot township, in the county of Bedford, contain
ing three hundred acres, known by the nsme of White's
farm, on which are a well-built log house two stories
high, a large barn, and about forty acres of land well
cleared and fenced, the greatest part of which is excel
lent Timothy meadow, and sixty acres more may easily
be made and well watered ; the upland exceeding rich
and level, being only twenty rfeven toiles distant from
the Potemack river. For terms apply to
JOHN VANDERBN, Jun.