52 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



example of Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and New Jersey ; and 

 tlie Dutcli, Swedes, and Fins of tlie Delaware. His merit consists in the 

 justice and kindness which characterized all his intercourse with the na- 

 tives. These have made an indelible impression. His memory is still 

 gratefully cherished by their descendants, amid the distant wilds to which 

 they have been driven by the tide of population. The great and good 

 Onas, as they rendered the word Penn in their language, was an exem- 

 plar, which they frequently held up for imitation to his lieutenants and 

 successors: and by this name they continued to distinguish the future 

 Governors of Pennsylvania." ^ 



Penn on the fourth of December [1682] convened a General Assembly 

 at Chester, of which Nicholas Moore, president of the Society of Free 

 Traders, was chosen speaker. During a session of four days this assembly 

 enacted three laws : 1. An act for the union of the province and territories ; 

 2. An act of naturalization; o. The great law, or code of laws, consist- 

 ing of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon 

 in England and several others afterward suggested. 



"1. The inhabitants of the territories, anxious to participate in the 

 benefits of the provincial constitution, solicited to be incorporated with 

 the province on the third day of the session, and a bill, prepared by the 

 proprietary, was immediately offered and adopted.^ This act should rather 

 be considered as confirmatory than as the origin of the union. For the 

 freemen of the territories formed a part of the assembly, and acted with 

 those of the province on all measures, from the commencement to the 

 close of the session. As this measure strengthened the authority of 

 Penn, so, in some degree, it legitimated his conduct. Tracing political 

 power to its only true source, the will of the people, he was ready to 

 forget that no power to rule the territories was given to him by the deeds 

 of feoffment from the Duke of York; nor did he nicely scan the rights of 

 the royal prerogative, infringed by himself and the people, over whom 

 his power was thus established. 



"2. The 'Act of Union,' alone, was not deemed sufficient to effect an 

 entire amalgamation of the inhabitants of the province and territories. 

 For, although, by the capitulation of the Dutch Avith Colonel Nichols, in 

 l(36-i, and by the treat}^ between England and the States General, the 

 inhabitants of the west border of the Delaware became English subjects, 

 they were considered bv Penn so far a distinct peojjle, as to require an 

 act of naturalization to make them citizens of his commonwealth. By 

 such an act, the Dutch, Swedes, and Fins of the territories entered into 

 full possession of provincial rights. And, with jealousy and fear, in- 



1 William Penn was called by the Iroquois Onas, by the Delawares Miquon, both 

 ■words signifying a quill or pen. Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa., iii. pt. 3. p. 349. 

 " Gordon. 



