Penn has within six months parceled out…
July 1682 CE
Penn has within six months parceled out three hundred thousand acres (twelve hundred square kilometers) to over two hundred and fifty prospective settlers, mostly rich London Quakers.
Eventually he will attract other persecuted minorities including Huguenots, Mennonites, Amish, Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews from England, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, and Wales.
Penn now sets out to lay the legal framework for an ethical society where power is derived from the people, from “open discourse”, in much the same way as a Quaker Meeting is run.
Notably, as the sovereign, Penn thinks it important to limit his own power as well.
The new government is to have two houses, safeguard the rights of private property and free enterprise, and impose taxes fairly.
It will call for death for only two crimes, treason and murder, rather than the two hundred crimes under English law, and all cases are to be tried before a jury.
Prisons are to be progressive, in an attempt to correct through “workshops” rather than through hellish confinement.
The laws of behavior he lays out are Puritanical: swearing, lying, and drunkenness are forbidden as well as “idle amusements” such as stage plays, gambling, revels, masques, cock-fighting, and bear-baiting.
All this is a radical departure from the laws and the lawmaking of European monarchs and elites.
Over twenty drafts, Penn labors to create his “Framework of Government.” He borrows liberally from John Locke, who is later to have a similar influence on Thomas Jefferson, but adds his own revolutionary idea—the use of amendments—to enable a written framework that could evolve with the changing times.
Penn hopes that an amendable constitution will accommodate dissent and new ideas and also allow meaningful societal change without resorting to violent uprisings or revolution. (Remarkably, though the Crown reserves the right to override any law it wishes, Penn’s skillful stewardship will not provoke any government reaction while Penn remains in his province.)
Despite criticism by some Quaker friends that Penn is setting himself above them by taking on this powerful position, and by his enemies who think he is a fraud and “falsest villain upon earth”, Penn is ready to begin the “Holy Experiment”.
Bidding goodbye to his wife and children, he reminds them to “avoid pride, avarice, and luxury”.