What kind of government did pennsylvania have

In order to appease the Assembly, Penn revised the Frame of Government in and eliminated the Governor's voting power in Council and reduced the number of members of the Council to three members from each county. There were 6 counties in Pennsylvania at the time; therefore, the size of the Council was set at a maximum of 18 members. The Frame, however, did not alter the restriction on the Assembly to introduce laws, which became a major problem over the course of the next 20 years.

In , Penn sailed back to England to settle the border dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and charged the Provincial Council to act with executive authority in his stead. The Council and Assembly entered a period of hostile discord immediately following Penn's trip back to England that led Penn to strip the Council of its executive powers and appoint a five-man Commission to act with the powers of a Governor during Penn's absence.

However, this plan was met with resistance as well, and Penn decided to dissolve the Commission and appoint John Blackwell as Deputy Governor, who would take over the executive powers of the Provincial Council. Blackwell failed to bring any more order to the Province than either the Council or Commission, and Penn eventually replaced him with Thomas Lloyd in Benjamin Fletcher was then appointed Governor, and the members of the Provincial Council started being appointed, rather than elected, to office.

To resolve this dispute, in Penn issued the "Charter of Privileges," which granted the General Assembly the right to initiate legislation, and therefore, took away legislative powers from the Council. The Charter of Privileges remained in effect until Pennsylvania declared independence in during the American Revolution. Pennsylvania's early government was a work in progress. While Penn had ideas on how he wished the institutions he set up to function, oftentimes the people running those intuitions had different ideas.

It took nearly two decades for Penn and the men who served in those institutions to finally agree on the powers they would exercise. While reading the biographies of these early leaders, it is important to remember them in this context.

Bibliography Dunn, Mary Maples. William Penn: Politics and Conscience. Although William Penn was granted all the land in Pennsylvania by the King, he and his heirs chose not to grant or settle any part of it without first buying the claims of the Native Americans who lived there.

In this manner, all of present Pennsylvania except the northwestern third was purchased by The Commonwealth bought the Six Nations' claims to the remainder of the land in and , and the claims of the Delawares and Wyandots in The defeat of the French and Indian war alliance by , the withdrawal of the French, the crushing of Chief Pontiac's Indian alliance in , and the failure of all attempts by Native Americans and colonists to live side by side led the Native Americans to migrate westward, gradually leaving Pennsylvania.

Quakers were the dominant English element, although many English settlers were Anglican. The English settled heavily in the southeastern counties, which soon lost frontier characteristics and became the center of a thriving agricultural and commercial society. Philadelphia became the metropolis of the British colonies and a center of intellectual and commercial life. Thousands of Germans were also attracted to the colony and, by the time of the Revolution, comprised a third of the population.

The volume of German immigration increased after , coming largely from the Rhineland. The Pennsylvania Germans settled most heavily in the interior counties of Northampton, Berks, Lancaster, and Lehigh, and in neighboring areas. Their skill and industry transformed this region into a rich farming country, contributing greatly to the expanding prosperity of the province.

Another important immigrant group was the Scotch-Irish, who migrated from about until the Revolution in a series of waves caused by hardships in Ireland. They were primarily frontiersmen, pushing first into the Cumberland Valley region and then farther into central and western Pennsylvania. They, with immigrants from old Scotland, numbered about one-fourth of the population by Despite Quaker opposition to slavery, about 4, slaves had been brought to Pennsylvania by , most of them owned by English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish colonists.

The census of showed that the number of African Americans had increased to about 10,, of whom about 6, had received their freedom. Many Quakers were Irish and Welsh, and they settled in the area immediately outside of Philadelphia. French Huguenot and Jewish settlers, together with Dutch, Swedes, and other groups, contributed in smaller numbers to the development of colonial Pennsylvania.

The mixture of various national groups in the Quaker Province helped to create its broadminded tolerance and cosmopolitan outlook. Pennsylvania's political history ran a rocky course during the provincial era.

There was a natural conflict between the proprietary and popular elements in the government which began under Penn and grew stronger under his successors. A popular party led by David Lloyd demanded greater powers for the Assembly, and in "Markham's Frame of Government" granted some of these.

In December , the Proprietor again visited Pennsylvania and, just before his return to England in , agreed with the Assembly on a revised constitution, the "Charter of Privileges," which remained in effect until This guaranteed the Assembly full legislative powers and permitted the three Delaware counties to have a separate legislature. It made Penn's earlier assurances of religious liberty absolute and irrevocable. However, except for the 44 months when William himself resided in Pennsylvania, government affairs were administered here by deputy or lieutenant governors termed "Governor" within Pennsylvania , who were chosen by the Proprietors and obedient to them.

The last two resident lieutenant governors, who were in office from until the Revolution, were grandsons of William Penn. In , the older grandson, John Penn the 2nd , became both a Proprietor and the resident executive in Pennsylvania, and he was styled "Governor and Commander in Chief. William Penn's heirs, who eventually abandoned Quakerism, were often in conflict with the Assembly, which was usually dominated by the Quakers until One after another, governors defending the proprietors' prerogatives battered themselves against the rock of an Assembly vigilant in the defense of its own rights.

The people of the frontier areas contended with the people of the older, southeastern region for more adequate representation in the Assembly and better protection in time of war. Such controversies prepared the people for their part in the Revolution.

These wars ended the long period when Pennsylvania was virtually without defense. The government built forts and furnished men and supplies to help defend the empire to which it belonged. The territory claimed for New France included western Pennsylvania. The Longueuil and Celoron expeditions of the French in and traversed this region, and French traders competed with Pennsylvanians for Indian trade.

The French efforts in and to establish control over the upper Ohio Valley led to the last and conclusive colonial war, the French and Indian War In George Washington of Virginia failed to persuade the French to leave and in they defeated his militia company at Fort Necessity. In the ensuing war, General Edward Braddock's British and colonial army was slaughtered on the Monongahela in , but General John Forbes recaptured the site of Pittsburgh in After the war, the Native Americans rose up against the British colonies in Pontiac's War, but in August , Colonel Henry Bouquet defeated them at Bushy Run, interrupting the threat to the frontier in this region.

In , for the second time, England captured from the Dutch the area that became the state of Delaware and the Duke of York made an undocumented assertion that it was part of New York, a colony that he was clearly entitled to govern because of charters from the king.

William Penn's Charter from King Charles II made no mention of them, although the Duke completed grants that assumed he could legally convey the area to Penn. In the Pennsylvania Assembly, which had Delaware representatives, approved an Act of Union that made the Pennsylvania Charter applicable to the three counties, but Delaware leaders resented domination by Pennsylvanians.

Pennsylvania's Charter of Privileges of allowed the union to be dissolved if assemblymen of both colonies agreed to do it. But Delaware leaders refused to acknowledge the Charter of Privileges unless they received as many Assembly seats as the Pennsylvania counties.

When the Pennsylvanians would not accept this, Governor Gookin in , convened a separate Assembly for the Delaware counties, which continued to exist until Delaware and Pennsylvania had separate Assemblies but shared the same governor until , although many Delawareans insisted that the Penn family had no proprietary rights in their counties and that Pennsylvania's governors had authority in Delaware only because they were royal appointees.

At the beginning of the American Revolution, the connection of the governorship function was dissolved when both colonies became states. From its beginning, Pennsylvania ranked as a leading agricultural area and produced surpluses for export, adding to its wealth. By the s an exceptionally prosperous farming area had developed in southeastern Pennsylvania. Wheat and corn were the leading crops, though rye, hemp, and flax were also important. The abundant natural resources of the colony made for early development of industries.

Arts and crafts, as well as home manufactures, grew rapidly. Sawmills and gristmills were usually the first to appear, using the power of the numerous streams. Textile products were spun and woven mainly in the home, though factory production was not unknown. Shipbuilding became important on the Delaware.

The province gained importance in iron manufacturing, producing pig iron as well as finished products. Printing, publishing, and the related industry of papermaking, as well as tanning, were significant industries.

The Pennsylvania long rifle was an adaptation of a German hunting rifle developed in Lancaster County. Its superiority was so well recognized that by gunsmiths were duplicating it in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maryland. The Conestoga wagon was also developed in Lancaster County. Capable of carrying as much as four tons, it was the prototype for the principal vehicle for American westward migration, the prairie schooner. The rivers were important as early arteries of commerce and were soon supplemented by roads in the southeastern section.

By , stagecoach lines reached from Philadelphia into the southcentral region. Trade with the Indians for furs was important in the colonial period. Later, the transport and sale of farm products to Philadelphia and Baltimore, by water and road, formed an important business.

Philadelphia became one of the most important centers in the colonies for the conduct of foreign trade and the commercial metropolis of an expanding hinterland. Philadelphia was known in colonial times as the "Athens of America" because of its rich cultural life. Because of the liberality of Penn's principles and the freedom of expression that prevailed, the province developed a conspicuous variety and strength in its intellectual and educational institutions and interests.

An academy that held its first classes in became the College of Philadelphia in , and ultimately grew into the University of Pennsylvania. It was the only nondenominational college of the colonial period. The arts and sciences flourished, and the public buildings of Philadelphia were the marvel of the colonies. Many fine old buildings in the Philadelphia area still bear witness to the richness of Pennsylvania's civilization in the eighteenth century.

Newspapers and magazines flourished, as did law and medicine. Pennsylvania can claim America's first hospital, first library, and first insurance company.

Quakers held their first religious meeting at Upland now Chester in , and they came to Pennsylvania in great numbers after William Penn received his Charter.