The Morning herald., 1876-05-30
,.,,.a.,nn,s Quskers and Tories.

T.,s a curious study 70 note IN these re-
:. .,' or the last century, especially In West
eoir, ,,,s invaluable History of fPhiladelphia,' =
cht ni,H Is a most vivid panorama OF the past,
S","n '., with a Flemish minuteness and ac-
draw nr how the disagreement with the
, mnbsr country, beginning with murmur
"r Iiscoutent in the outer business circles,
w ongrv talk in counting rooms and club
Snnses. scarce heard in domestic lie, rose
s,1denIy into the storm that racked the
i,4.In colony to it's foundations, and brought
r,.;n and death close to every nome and
l,,n .."., woman and child. The Pennsylvania
e'vy 'acyr,hly acted tarlily in resenting the pas
.n+s of the Stamp Act. Massachusetts, and
t.'-oiria famed with Indignation for months
,al,re the placid Quaker town saw fit to
HC, ia;n tbem. When, however, the Royal
yTnarlo,te, y having on board the stamped
u,nrrs, hove in sight, all the ships in the
pphfiIadeIyhia harbor dropped their flags to
halr.mast, and all the bells were tolled as
Co., the death of Liberty. Committees
,D waited daily on Hughes, the stamp agent,
Is,"am],pc his designations; but be wisely
t,,, himself in bed, as at the point Of
Scath and SO Stunned the popular abuse on
to franklin in England, who was his friend,
and it was supposed, the friend OF the
Stamp Act. The newspapers came out next
day in mourning for their own approaching
demise, Bradford's "Journal' bearing a
Gpalh's-head and coffin, and the words,
"Tbe Pcnnsylvania "Journai' departed
this life October 81, 1865, of stamp in her
y;Ials. Aged twenty,three years."
The history of Philadelphia for the next
three wears is the history of an exceptional
" temperate, prudent community, slowly
rousiur into temperate, prudent resist
auce to Injustice. If they were more tardy
than any other colony in this resistance it
must be remembered that the injustice
touched them less kcenly. They had always
b.pu ruled, in effect, not by England, but
by the Pcnns ard the Governors appointed
by the Penns and although there was an
incessant squabbling going on between the
Province and the Proprietares, the rule had
been easy and just, and Philadelphia knew
that it had been so. There can be no doubt
that her leading men were drawn with ex-
trcme rcluctances into the violent separation
from the the mother country. The Qua
kers threw their full dead weight of inertia
against the revolutionary movement OF
Massachusetts and Virginia radicals for
which we can scarcely blame them. They
had come here to find not only religious
liberty, but chance to rise socially and po-
litically, and had gained all they sought
They were firmly seated on the soil, and
were the ruling power. They were asked
now to engage in bloody war, which their
principles forbade, to give up an authority
which they had used with wisdom and JUS
tice, and to give into the hands of people
alien to themselves in belief, habits and ed
ucaLiOn.
Men who were not Friends, but were as
sociated with the proprietary Government,
and the great shipping merchants, to whom
prolonged war with Great Britain threat
ened ruin, were, frem evident reasons, anX-
ious to temporzc, to use all peaceable
means before resorting to the sword, when,
indeed, they did not openly take sides, as
was often the case, with the mother coun-
try.
Apart from these, there were, however,
enough men of force of character and broad
political apprehension to carry Philadelphia
at least nominally, to the side ofthe Wings;
and soon after, when she became the CHIEF
point of the struggle (simply because she
was the mOss central and important
town of the colonies the sudden influx OF
the leaders of the Revolution-oflicers ana
men who crowded into the capital to make
money or to spend it-pushed the Quaker
class and Tory families temporarily to the
wall. During the time when Philadelphia
claims historic importance, her old rulers,
with few exceptions, yielded their place To
strangers.