RICHARD S. DUNN
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202295
- eISBN:
- 9780191675270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202295.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Richard S. Dunn, the author of this chapter, focuses on William Penn's lifelong effort to translate unconventional and unpopular personal convictions into purposeful and effective public action. He ...
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Richard S. Dunn, the author of this chapter, focuses on William Penn's lifelong effort to translate unconventional and unpopular personal convictions into purposeful and effective public action. He observes that as the circumstances of his career changed, Penn articulated his private beliefs in strikingly different ways. Dunn provides the four distinct phases to Penn's public life: between 1667 and 1679, as a young Quaker idealist, he felt inspired by God to challenge the religious and political establishment in England openly and aggressively; during 1680 to 1684, when he founded a colony in America, Penn abruptly reformulated this public posture; from 1685 to 1688 Penn tried to promote religious toleration by serving James II's confidential adviser and agent; and, from 1689 onwards, he was generally on the defensive, his public pronouncements becoming more conventional, consisting mainly of moral advice on how to lead a virtuous life.Less
Richard S. Dunn, the author of this chapter, focuses on William Penn's lifelong effort to translate unconventional and unpopular personal convictions into purposeful and effective public action. He observes that as the circumstances of his career changed, Penn articulated his private beliefs in strikingly different ways. Dunn provides the four distinct phases to Penn's public life: between 1667 and 1679, as a young Quaker idealist, he felt inspired by God to challenge the religious and political establishment in England openly and aggressively; during 1680 to 1684, when he founded a colony in America, Penn abruptly reformulated this public posture; from 1685 to 1688 Penn tried to promote religious toleration by serving James II's confidential adviser and agent; and, from 1689 onwards, he was generally on the defensive, his public pronouncements becoming more conventional, consisting mainly of moral advice on how to lead a virtuous life.
Michael T. Gilmore
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195157765
- eISBN:
- 9780199787784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195157765.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter investigates three of the foundational texts of American culture: John Winthrop’s Model of Christian Charity, William Penn’s plan for the city of Philadelphia, and Thomas Jeffersons ...
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This chapter investigates three of the foundational texts of American culture: John Winthrop’s Model of Christian Charity, William Penn’s plan for the city of Philadelphia, and Thomas Jeffersons Declaration of Independence. Each document is analyzed in itself and as a prototype for later cultural practices. Legacies include religious and psychological confessionalism; phrenology; the grid system of the American landscape; the passion for numeracy; and the occlusion of racial minorities, especially Blacks.Less
This chapter investigates three of the foundational texts of American culture: John Winthrop’s Model of Christian Charity, William Penn’s plan for the city of Philadelphia, and Thomas Jeffersons Declaration of Independence. Each document is analyzed in itself and as a prototype for later cultural practices. Legacies include religious and psychological confessionalism; phrenology; the grid system of the American landscape; the passion for numeracy; and the occlusion of racial minorities, especially Blacks.
Patrick M. Erben
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835579
- eISBN:
- 9781469601342
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807838198_erben.8
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter discusses promotional literature on Pennsylvania. William Penn and other English Quakers developed the first translingual project of promoting and settling a New World colony. ...
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This chapter discusses promotional literature on Pennsylvania. William Penn and other English Quakers developed the first translingual project of promoting and settling a New World colony. Translation and multilingual dissemination became the central tools for constructing and representing this new settlement. In promoting Pennsylvania to religious radicals in Germany and Holland, Penn emphasized spiritual and linguistic utopianism in his promotional writings.Less
This chapter discusses promotional literature on Pennsylvania. William Penn and other English Quakers developed the first translingual project of promoting and settling a New World colony. Translation and multilingual dissemination became the central tools for constructing and representing this new settlement. In promoting Pennsylvania to religious radicals in Germany and Holland, Penn emphasized spiritual and linguistic utopianism in his promotional writings.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to William Penn’s political thought, illuminating the Restoration backdrop of his theorizing on behalf of civil and religious liberty. It surveys the scholarly ...
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Chapter 1 provides an introduction to William Penn’s political thought, illuminating the Restoration backdrop of his theorizing on behalf of civil and religious liberty. It surveys the scholarly literature on Penn and notes how little attention Penn has received compared to his more famous contemporaries such as John Locke. Penn’s significance becomes even more pronounced given the emergence of the “British Atlantic” as a locus of scholarship on religious and political contestation during the early modern period, and the fact that Pennsylvania played a central role in the seventeenth-century British Empire. Briefly laying out the main arguments for and against the toleration of religious dissent, and the role Penn played in the development of Quakerism in both England and America, the chapter sets the stage for the in-depth exploration of Penn’s thinking that will follow.Less
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to William Penn’s political thought, illuminating the Restoration backdrop of his theorizing on behalf of civil and religious liberty. It surveys the scholarly literature on Penn and notes how little attention Penn has received compared to his more famous contemporaries such as John Locke. Penn’s significance becomes even more pronounced given the emergence of the “British Atlantic” as a locus of scholarship on religious and political contestation during the early modern period, and the fact that Pennsylvania played a central role in the seventeenth-century British Empire. Briefly laying out the main arguments for and against the toleration of religious dissent, and the role Penn played in the development of Quakerism in both England and America, the chapter sets the stage for the in-depth exploration of Penn’s thinking that will follow.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter considers four aspects of William Penn’s legacy in the history of political thought and practice. First, Penn played an important role in the seventeenth-century articulation of ...
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This chapter considers four aspects of William Penn’s legacy in the history of political thought and practice. First, Penn played an important role in the seventeenth-century articulation of religious toleration as a necessary element of legitimate government. His role as a colonial founder, second, made possible his practical attempts to instantiate tolerationist commitments into political institutions in America and sets him apart from others (such as his contemporary John Locke) who, while often involved in political life, never wielded governmental authority the way Penn did. Third, Penn and his colony played a central role in the nascent British Empire, in the increasingly wide circulation of goods, people, and ideas. And finally, Penn is considered as an American, alongside another colonial founder, Roger Williams, whose Rhode Island colony has historically vied with Pennsylvania for pride of place in the story of American religious liberty.Less
This chapter considers four aspects of William Penn’s legacy in the history of political thought and practice. First, Penn played an important role in the seventeenth-century articulation of religious toleration as a necessary element of legitimate government. His role as a colonial founder, second, made possible his practical attempts to instantiate tolerationist commitments into political institutions in America and sets him apart from others (such as his contemporary John Locke) who, while often involved in political life, never wielded governmental authority the way Penn did. Third, Penn and his colony played a central role in the nascent British Empire, in the increasingly wide circulation of goods, people, and ideas. And finally, Penn is considered as an American, alongside another colonial founder, Roger Williams, whose Rhode Island colony has historically vied with Pennsylvania for pride of place in the story of American religious liberty.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter traces the relationship between theory and practice in the founding of Pennsylvania (1681–1684). The “theory” that William Penn was attempting to realize in Pennsylvania’s “practice” had ...
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This chapter traces the relationship between theory and practice in the founding of Pennsylvania (1681–1684). The “theory” that William Penn was attempting to realize in Pennsylvania’s “practice” had been worked out in dozens of drafts of founding documents—correspondence, promotional literature, agreements with investors, plans for governmental institutions—over many months, for multiple constituencies. These documents expressed Penn’s intentions as proprietor and framed his attempts to instantiate theoretical arguments about liberty of conscience and representative institutions into Pennsylvania’s political practice; the colony’s political practice is inconceivable without the extensive theorizing in which Penn had engaged during the 1670s. But Penn theorized within fundamentally different contexts as a colonial proprietor than he had as an English Dissenter, and in their transportation to American shores, his theories encountered challenges unforeseen by their English author. The chapter elaborates Penn’s difficult attempts to translate theory into practice during the colony’s early years.Less
This chapter traces the relationship between theory and practice in the founding of Pennsylvania (1681–1684). The “theory” that William Penn was attempting to realize in Pennsylvania’s “practice” had been worked out in dozens of drafts of founding documents—correspondence, promotional literature, agreements with investors, plans for governmental institutions—over many months, for multiple constituencies. These documents expressed Penn’s intentions as proprietor and framed his attempts to instantiate theoretical arguments about liberty of conscience and representative institutions into Pennsylvania’s political practice; the colony’s political practice is inconceivable without the extensive theorizing in which Penn had engaged during the 1670s. But Penn theorized within fundamentally different contexts as a colonial proprietor than he had as an English Dissenter, and in their transportation to American shores, his theories encountered challenges unforeseen by their English author. The chapter elaborates Penn’s difficult attempts to translate theory into practice during the colony’s early years.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
The accession of James II paved the way for William Penn to play an increasingly prominent political role. Liberty of conscience appeared closer than ever, under a sympathetic king who cultivated ...
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The accession of James II paved the way for William Penn to play an increasingly prominent political role. Liberty of conscience appeared closer than ever, under a sympathetic king who cultivated Penn’s personal involvement in advancing his tolerationist program of repealing penal legislation and the Test Acts. In insisting that legitimate laws are made by consent-based political institutions, and that they ought to be motivated by civil interest and the common good, Penn was able to endorse immediate toleration through the king’s prerogative powers and simultaneously urge the legitimation of James’s Declarations by Parliament. However, Penn’s association with James would bring about his downfall, as he quickly became identified with an unpopular (and, after 1688, deposed) ruler. This chapter elaborates Penn’s high hopes for James, his theoretical and practical contributions to the tolerationist effort, and the eventual downfall of the campaign for liberty of conscience and James’s reign more generally.Less
The accession of James II paved the way for William Penn to play an increasingly prominent political role. Liberty of conscience appeared closer than ever, under a sympathetic king who cultivated Penn’s personal involvement in advancing his tolerationist program of repealing penal legislation and the Test Acts. In insisting that legitimate laws are made by consent-based political institutions, and that they ought to be motivated by civil interest and the common good, Penn was able to endorse immediate toleration through the king’s prerogative powers and simultaneously urge the legitimation of James’s Declarations by Parliament. However, Penn’s association with James would bring about his downfall, as he quickly became identified with an unpopular (and, after 1688, deposed) ruler. This chapter elaborates Penn’s high hopes for James, his theoretical and practical contributions to the tolerationist effort, and the eventual downfall of the campaign for liberty of conscience and James’s reign more generally.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This book argues that despite widespread scholarly neglect, William Penn (1644–1718) was a sophisticated political thinker who contributed in important ways to the theory and practice of religious ...
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This book argues that despite widespread scholarly neglect, William Penn (1644–1718) was a sophisticated political thinker who contributed in important ways to the theory and practice of religious liberty in the early modern Atlantic world. Penn’s political thinking unfolded over nearly a half century and was shaped by four concrete political episodes: (1) the controversy over the Second Conventicle Act (1668–1670); (2) the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis (1678–1681); (3) the founding and settlement of Pennsylvania (1681–1684); (4) and the contentious reign of James II (1685–1688). The book contextualizes the development of Penn’s thought through analysis of his published writings, consideration of the mutual interconnections between Penn’s political theory and his colonizing venture in America, and reflection on Penn’s ongoing significance to the broader history of Anglo-American political thought. Penn remains a singular figure in the history of liberty of conscience for at least three reasons. First, his substantive political theorizing provides a window into the increasingly organized and philosophically sophisticated Restoration tolerationist movement and the development of late-seventeenth-century Quakerism. Second, not only did Penn articulate principles of religious liberty in England but he governed an American polity and experienced firsthand the complex relationship between political theory and political practice. Finally, an examination of Penn’s political thought as it emerged from the concrete details of political life points toward a new way of understanding the enterprise of political theory itself: what it is, where and how it is produced, and how it relates to political practice.Less
This book argues that despite widespread scholarly neglect, William Penn (1644–1718) was a sophisticated political thinker who contributed in important ways to the theory and practice of religious liberty in the early modern Atlantic world. Penn’s political thinking unfolded over nearly a half century and was shaped by four concrete political episodes: (1) the controversy over the Second Conventicle Act (1668–1670); (2) the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis (1678–1681); (3) the founding and settlement of Pennsylvania (1681–1684); (4) and the contentious reign of James II (1685–1688). The book contextualizes the development of Penn’s thought through analysis of his published writings, consideration of the mutual interconnections between Penn’s political theory and his colonizing venture in America, and reflection on Penn’s ongoing significance to the broader history of Anglo-American political thought. Penn remains a singular figure in the history of liberty of conscience for at least three reasons. First, his substantive political theorizing provides a window into the increasingly organized and philosophically sophisticated Restoration tolerationist movement and the development of late-seventeenth-century Quakerism. Second, not only did Penn articulate principles of religious liberty in England but he governed an American polity and experienced firsthand the complex relationship between political theory and political practice. Finally, an examination of Penn’s political thought as it emerged from the concrete details of political life points toward a new way of understanding the enterprise of political theory itself: what it is, where and how it is produced, and how it relates to political practice.
Simon Finger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801448935
- eISBN:
- 9780801464003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801448935.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter describes how William Penn's understanding of how to identify and create healthy living spaces guided his approach to settling Pennsylvania and to governing it, setting the stage for ...
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This chapter describes how William Penn's understanding of how to identify and create healthy living spaces guided his approach to settling Pennsylvania and to governing it, setting the stage for conflict with settlers and constituents who did not share his assessments of the local conditions or his priorities for the city's development. It was far from clear that any city could provide both wealth and well-being; most of the era's major cities were filthy, pestilential places. Penn's own sentiments were haunted by the living memory of London beset by plague and conflagration. At stake was more than just the proprietor's power, but broader anxieties about whether English life would survive the journey to America, whether people made their environments or were made by them, and whether commerce and a healthy constitution could coexist.Less
This chapter describes how William Penn's understanding of how to identify and create healthy living spaces guided his approach to settling Pennsylvania and to governing it, setting the stage for conflict with settlers and constituents who did not share his assessments of the local conditions or his priorities for the city's development. It was far from clear that any city could provide both wealth and well-being; most of the era's major cities were filthy, pestilential places. Penn's own sentiments were haunted by the living memory of London beset by plague and conflagration. At stake was more than just the proprietor's power, but broader anxieties about whether English life would survive the journey to America, whether people made their environments or were made by them, and whether commerce and a healthy constitution could coexist.
Simon Finger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801448935
- eISBN:
- 9780801464003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801448935.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter illustrates the problems Penn faced in colonizing Pennsylvania. When he departed the colony in 1684, he was confident that his plan was solid enough and his settlers public-spirited ...
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This chapter illustrates the problems Penn faced in colonizing Pennsylvania. When he departed the colony in 1684, he was confident that his plan was solid enough and his settlers public-spirited enough that his direct supervision was unnecessary. However, both inclination and obligation limited Penn's ability to impose his plan against the will of his colonists. People ambitious enough to traverse the ocean were unwilling to accede meekly to proprietary demands, and the proprietor ultimately found himself unable to make any demands at all upon a population that came to his colony for their own reasons. With his authority further attenuated by distance, Penn could only rebuke his colonists and lament his impotence as Philadelphia came to embody his most hated aspects of both wilderness and city.Less
This chapter illustrates the problems Penn faced in colonizing Pennsylvania. When he departed the colony in 1684, he was confident that his plan was solid enough and his settlers public-spirited enough that his direct supervision was unnecessary. However, both inclination and obligation limited Penn's ability to impose his plan against the will of his colonists. People ambitious enough to traverse the ocean were unwilling to accede meekly to proprietary demands, and the proprietor ultimately found himself unable to make any demands at all upon a population that came to his colony for their own reasons. With his authority further attenuated by distance, Penn could only rebuke his colonists and lament his impotence as Philadelphia came to embody his most hated aspects of both wilderness and city.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter explores William Penn’s political thought as it developed during the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis (1678–1681). During these years, Penn became an increasingly prominent member of the ...
More
This chapter explores William Penn’s political thought as it developed during the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis (1678–1681). During these years, Penn became an increasingly prominent member of the Quaker leadership, defending Friends in print and before Parliament. He also remained active in the nation’s political life and, given increasingly dim prospects for toleration in England, began exploring the possibility of securing land in America. Penn’s political thinking during these years focused on two primary issues: Parliament and popery. He reiterated his long-standing commitment to Parliament’s role in the governance of the realm and, while echoing popular concerns about the seditious potential of English Catholics, also attempted to find ways to guarantee loyal English Catholics their civil rights. In all these endeavors, Penn sought to articulate a social and political vision that would enable individuals to build a common life together despite their religious differences.Less
This chapter explores William Penn’s political thought as it developed during the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis (1678–1681). During these years, Penn became an increasingly prominent member of the Quaker leadership, defending Friends in print and before Parliament. He also remained active in the nation’s political life and, given increasingly dim prospects for toleration in England, began exploring the possibility of securing land in America. Penn’s political thinking during these years focused on two primary issues: Parliament and popery. He reiterated his long-standing commitment to Parliament’s role in the governance of the realm and, while echoing popular concerns about the seditious potential of English Catholics, also attempted to find ways to guarantee loyal English Catholics their civil rights. In all these endeavors, Penn sought to articulate a social and political vision that would enable individuals to build a common life together despite their religious differences.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter explores several aspects of William Penn’s political career during the 1690s: the ongoing difficulties that his colony continued to cause him (including the Keithian schism in ...
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This chapter explores several aspects of William Penn’s political career during the 1690s: the ongoing difficulties that his colony continued to cause him (including the Keithian schism in Pennsylvania’s Quaker community), Penn’s 1693 Essay toward the present and future peace of Europe, and finally the legal and political implications of his eventual return to Pennsylvania at the end of the decade. None of these episodes rises to the level of the events that had first made Penn a public figure and kept him in the public eye for more than twenty years; and he engaged in little explicit political theorizing during the 1690s. Yet each one illustrates Penn’s ongoing involvement in public affairs and the ways in which the political principles that he had refined during the 1670s and 1680s continued to shape his thinking about politics, as the eighteenth century approached and he attempted to return to Pennsylvania.Less
This chapter explores several aspects of William Penn’s political career during the 1690s: the ongoing difficulties that his colony continued to cause him (including the Keithian schism in Pennsylvania’s Quaker community), Penn’s 1693 Essay toward the present and future peace of Europe, and finally the legal and political implications of his eventual return to Pennsylvania at the end of the decade. None of these episodes rises to the level of the events that had first made Penn a public figure and kept him in the public eye for more than twenty years; and he engaged in little explicit political theorizing during the 1690s. Yet each one illustrates Penn’s ongoing involvement in public affairs and the ways in which the political principles that he had refined during the 1670s and 1680s continued to shape his thinking about politics, as the eighteenth century approached and he attempted to return to Pennsylvania.
Mark G. Hanna
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469617947
- eISBN:
- 9781469617961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469617947.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter examines the political implications of illicit sea marauding in the British Empire during the period 1697–1701. Beginning in 1692, waves of sea marauders arrived in the North American ...
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This chapter examines the political implications of illicit sea marauding in the British Empire during the period 1697–1701. Beginning in 1692, waves of sea marauders arrived in the North American colonies from the Indian Ocean, settling down in port towns or buying farms and marrying local women. They probably could not have imagined they would play a central role in a political drama. From 1697 to 1701, pirates sparked riots in nearly every colony. However, the true source of radicalism was the colonial gentry. The chapter first considers Cotton Mather's criticism of the piratical economy before turning to fundamental questions about the source of political power in colonial communities. It then looks at accusations against Quakers for their alleged support and protection for pirates and William Penn's views about the piracy problem. It also discusses two laws passed by Parliament in 1700 to address illicit sea marauding: the Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy and An Act to Punish Governors of Plantations in This Kingdom for Crimes by Them Committed in the Plantations.Less
This chapter examines the political implications of illicit sea marauding in the British Empire during the period 1697–1701. Beginning in 1692, waves of sea marauders arrived in the North American colonies from the Indian Ocean, settling down in port towns or buying farms and marrying local women. They probably could not have imagined they would play a central role in a political drama. From 1697 to 1701, pirates sparked riots in nearly every colony. However, the true source of radicalism was the colonial gentry. The chapter first considers Cotton Mather's criticism of the piratical economy before turning to fundamental questions about the source of political power in colonial communities. It then looks at accusations against Quakers for their alleged support and protection for pirates and William Penn's views about the piracy problem. It also discusses two laws passed by Parliament in 1700 to address illicit sea marauding: the Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy and An Act to Punish Governors of Plantations in This Kingdom for Crimes by Them Committed in the Plantations.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter traces the emergence of William Penn as a national political figure by examining his published writings between 1668 and 1671, in the context of the public upheavals surrounding the ...
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This chapter traces the emergence of William Penn as a national political figure by examining his published writings between 1668 and 1671, in the context of the public upheavals surrounding the passage of the Second Conventicle Act in 1670. It traces not only the political, philosophical, and epistemological arguments for religious toleration that were advanced during these years—a debate to which Penn contributed, most particularly with his The great case of liberty of conscience (1670)—but also the thought of those opposed to toleration, and who advanced their own, equally sophisticated, arguments for religious uniformity. The chapter also explores Penn’s commitment to the idea of fundamental law and Magna Carta, and concludes with a consideration of his broader defense of Quaker social practices such as refusing to observe conventional markers of social deference and to swearing oaths.Less
This chapter traces the emergence of William Penn as a national political figure by examining his published writings between 1668 and 1671, in the context of the public upheavals surrounding the passage of the Second Conventicle Act in 1670. It traces not only the political, philosophical, and epistemological arguments for religious toleration that were advanced during these years—a debate to which Penn contributed, most particularly with his The great case of liberty of conscience (1670)—but also the thought of those opposed to toleration, and who advanced their own, equally sophisticated, arguments for religious uniformity. The chapter also explores Penn’s commitment to the idea of fundamental law and Magna Carta, and concludes with a consideration of his broader defense of Quaker social practices such as refusing to observe conventional markers of social deference and to swearing oaths.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190271190
- eISBN:
- 9780190271213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190271190.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, American Politics
This chapter argues that the “transcript” of William Penn’s 1670 trial, The peoples ancient and just liberties asserted, represents a sophisticated and substantive work of political theory. Peoples ...
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This chapter argues that the “transcript” of William Penn’s 1670 trial, The peoples ancient and just liberties asserted, represents a sophisticated and substantive work of political theory. Peoples presents embedded principles (a coherent vision of legitimate government, justified by reference to authoritative texts and historical practices); it also communicates political content through the embodied performance of a politics of Dissent, in which what matters is less what the defendants (Penn and fellow Quaker William Mead) say than how they interact with other participants in the court, and what those interactions show about the exercise of legal, social, and political power. This performative aspect of the text illustrates Gilles Deleuze’s notion of “dramatization.” Peoples presents the Penn-Mead trial as epitomizing a politics of dissent against arbitrary authority, of written law against prosecutions built on vague appeals to common law, and of juries as defenders of popular liberties against power-hungry judges.Less
This chapter argues that the “transcript” of William Penn’s 1670 trial, The peoples ancient and just liberties asserted, represents a sophisticated and substantive work of political theory. Peoples presents embedded principles (a coherent vision of legitimate government, justified by reference to authoritative texts and historical practices); it also communicates political content through the embodied performance of a politics of Dissent, in which what matters is less what the defendants (Penn and fellow Quaker William Mead) say than how they interact with other participants in the court, and what those interactions show about the exercise of legal, social, and political power. This performative aspect of the text illustrates Gilles Deleuze’s notion of “dramatization.” Peoples presents the Penn-Mead trial as epitomizing a politics of dissent against arbitrary authority, of written law against prosecutions built on vague appeals to common law, and of juries as defenders of popular liberties against power-hungry judges.
Daniel K. Richter
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199391783
- eISBN:
- 9780190213213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199391783.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter argues that the distinctive role of land cession treaties in the dispossession of indigenous people in the United States can be traced to historical circumstances in North America and ...
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This chapter argues that the distinctive role of land cession treaties in the dispossession of indigenous people in the United States can be traced to historical circumstances in North America and England during the second half of the seventeenth century. Proprietary titles derived from the English Crown were confused, overlapping, and contested by colonists who rested their titles on grants from other colonial powers or on purchases from Native Americans. In practical terms European sovereign claims could seldom be enforced, but neither (in English law) could those derived from treaties of purchase. The imperfect solution that English proprietors of William Penn’s generation discovered was to bring the two sorts of claims together. In theory royal titles remained supreme, but those who held them henceforth had to use the treaty process to extinguish native claims before lands could be sold to settler-colonists.Less
This chapter argues that the distinctive role of land cession treaties in the dispossession of indigenous people in the United States can be traced to historical circumstances in North America and England during the second half of the seventeenth century. Proprietary titles derived from the English Crown were confused, overlapping, and contested by colonists who rested their titles on grants from other colonial powers or on purchases from Native Americans. In practical terms European sovereign claims could seldom be enforced, but neither (in English law) could those derived from treaties of purchase. The imperfect solution that English proprietors of William Penn’s generation discovered was to bring the two sorts of claims together. In theory royal titles remained supreme, but those who held them henceforth had to use the treaty process to extinguish native claims before lands could be sold to settler-colonists.
Carlton F.W. Larson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190932749
- eISBN:
- 9780190932770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190932749.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century, Cultural History
This chapter provides a summary of treason law in Pennsylvania from the founding of the colony by William Penn in 1682 through the outbreak of the War for Independence. After several halting starts, ...
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This chapter provides a summary of treason law in Pennsylvania from the founding of the colony by William Penn in 1682 through the outbreak of the War for Independence. After several halting starts, Pennsylvania formally adopted English treason law in 1718. This law was rooted in the 1351 English Statute of Treasons and the chapter explains the broad contours of that law as it was developed in the succeeding centuries. Treason law, however, was rarely employed in colonial Pennsylvania, even though the Seven Years’ War, the march of the Paxton Boys, and the disputes with Virginia and Connecticut over land claims (hostilities that amounted to low-level open warfare) provided possible opportunities for its employment. The chapter also addresses whether members of American Indian tribes were subject to Pennsylvania treason law.Less
This chapter provides a summary of treason law in Pennsylvania from the founding of the colony by William Penn in 1682 through the outbreak of the War for Independence. After several halting starts, Pennsylvania formally adopted English treason law in 1718. This law was rooted in the 1351 English Statute of Treasons and the chapter explains the broad contours of that law as it was developed in the succeeding centuries. Treason law, however, was rarely employed in colonial Pennsylvania, even though the Seven Years’ War, the march of the Paxton Boys, and the disputes with Virginia and Connecticut over land claims (hostilities that amounted to low-level open warfare) provided possible opportunities for its employment. The chapter also addresses whether members of American Indian tribes were subject to Pennsylvania treason law.
Maximillian E. Novak
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199261543
- eISBN:
- 9780191698743
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199261543.003.0021
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
In his letter of July 12, 1703, to William Penn, Daniel Defoe pointed out that he had been urged by some friends to take advantage of his bail to flee. He apparently thought that he might yet avoid ...
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In his letter of July 12, 1703, to William Penn, Daniel Defoe pointed out that he had been urged by some friends to take advantage of his bail to flee. He apparently thought that he might yet avoid the pillory, and urged Penn to continue his services. The government had succeeded in punishing the body of Defoe, but his images of a type of persecution that most people in England were no longer willing to accept had blunted the attack upon the Dissenters. Defoe was to tell the story of his release in moving terms in Appeal to Honour and Justice. He was attempting to explain his sense of gratitude toward Robert Harley and Queen Anne as a justification for his loyalty to both of them from that point forward. This was not exactly the way Defoe became a secret agent for the Queen and a propagandist for Harley. Defoe probably had difficulty getting Harley to provide exact orders about the kind of propaganda he wanted.Less
In his letter of July 12, 1703, to William Penn, Daniel Defoe pointed out that he had been urged by some friends to take advantage of his bail to flee. He apparently thought that he might yet avoid the pillory, and urged Penn to continue his services. The government had succeeded in punishing the body of Defoe, but his images of a type of persecution that most people in England were no longer willing to accept had blunted the attack upon the Dissenters. Defoe was to tell the story of his release in moving terms in Appeal to Honour and Justice. He was attempting to explain his sense of gratitude toward Robert Harley and Queen Anne as a justification for his loyalty to both of them from that point forward. This was not exactly the way Defoe became a secret agent for the Queen and a propagandist for Harley. Defoe probably had difficulty getting Harley to provide exact orders about the kind of propaganda he wanted.
Scott Douglas Gerber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199765874
- eISBN:
- 9780199896875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765874.003.0023
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Legal History
New Jersey is probably best known to students of American constitutional history for the so-called New Jersey Plan. The plan was issued during the Federal Convention of 1787 in response to the ...
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New Jersey is probably best known to students of American constitutional history for the so-called New Jersey Plan. The plan was issued during the Federal Convention of 1787 in response to the proposal in the Virginia Plan for a bicameral national legislature, both houses of which were to be elected with proportional representation. Less populous states such as New Jersey were opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to larger states such as Virginia, and New Jersey's delegates to the federal convention offered an alternative that would have awarded one vote per state for equal representation in a unicameral national legislature. The New Jersey Plan was premised on the belief that the states were independent entities and, as they joined the United States of America freely and individually, so they remained. New Jersey's colonial and early state history was likewise premised on a particular constitutional ideal: a reverence for individual liberty. In fact, due in large part to the efforts of William Penn, one of the early proprietors of New Jersey, New Jersey's commitment to individual rights arguably was manifested earlier than that of any other of the original thirteen states. The same may be said of its endorsement of judicial review. Paradoxically, New Jersey embraced judicial review well before its judiciary became independent. This chapter investigates that anomaly.Less
New Jersey is probably best known to students of American constitutional history for the so-called New Jersey Plan. The plan was issued during the Federal Convention of 1787 in response to the proposal in the Virginia Plan for a bicameral national legislature, both houses of which were to be elected with proportional representation. Less populous states such as New Jersey were opposed to giving most of the control of the national government to larger states such as Virginia, and New Jersey's delegates to the federal convention offered an alternative that would have awarded one vote per state for equal representation in a unicameral national legislature. The New Jersey Plan was premised on the belief that the states were independent entities and, as they joined the United States of America freely and individually, so they remained. New Jersey's colonial and early state history was likewise premised on a particular constitutional ideal: a reverence for individual liberty. In fact, due in large part to the efforts of William Penn, one of the early proprietors of New Jersey, New Jersey's commitment to individual rights arguably was manifested earlier than that of any other of the original thirteen states. The same may be said of its endorsement of judicial review. Paradoxically, New Jersey embraced judicial review well before its judiciary became independent. This chapter investigates that anomaly.
Mark G. Hanna
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469617947
- eISBN:
- 9781469617961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469617947.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This book examines sea marauding in the Spanish Indies, the southern Pacific, and the Indian Ocean during piracy's Golden Age, that is, before the turn of the eighteenth century. It argues that ...
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This book examines sea marauding in the Spanish Indies, the southern Pacific, and the Indian Ocean during piracy's Golden Age, that is, before the turn of the eighteenth century. It argues that piracy flourished during the period because of the support and protection received by illicit sea marauders from the merchant elite on the margins of the British Empire. It also considers the important role played by deep-sea pirates—through their goods and services—in the political and social development of the colonial maritime communities in the areas where they carried out their swashbuckling activities. Finally, the book discusses William Penn's conception of the complexity and malleability of sea marauding as well as the political, legal, and cultural conflicts triggered by the support of maritime banditry.Less
This book examines sea marauding in the Spanish Indies, the southern Pacific, and the Indian Ocean during piracy's Golden Age, that is, before the turn of the eighteenth century. It argues that piracy flourished during the period because of the support and protection received by illicit sea marauders from the merchant elite on the margins of the British Empire. It also considers the important role played by deep-sea pirates—through their goods and services—in the political and social development of the colonial maritime communities in the areas where they carried out their swashbuckling activities. Finally, the book discusses William Penn's conception of the complexity and malleability of sea marauding as well as the political, legal, and cultural conflicts triggered by the support of maritime banditry.
