Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

“ The gentlemen will meet again, if necessary, and stand ready to render every assistance which the situation calls for, but they will leave the control of the matter with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until it appears that she is unable to cope with it. ”

“ Several years ago more than one thousand persons from every section of Pennsylvania, and not a few from Southern New York State, journeyed to a most out-of-the-way place up in the wilds of Potter County to do homage to the memory of a great man, and to view the scene of one of the saddest failures in the history of the settlement of our great Commonwealth. ”

“ We, the representatives of the freemen of Pennsylvania, in general convention met, for the express purpose of framing such a government, confessing the goodness of the great Governor of the universe (who alone knows to what degree of earthly happiness mankind may attain, by perfecting the arts of government) in permitting the people of this State, by common consent, and without violence, deliberately to form for themselves such just rules as they shall think best, for governing their future society ”

“ This commonwealth has as sacredly respected the rights of other states as it has been careful of its own; it has been the invariable aim of the people of Pennsylvania to extend to the universe, by their example, the unadulterated blessings of civil and religious freedom; and it is their pride that they have been at all times the practical advocates of those improvements and charities anion": men which are so well calculated to enable them to answer the purposes of their Creator ”

“ In the history of this Nation, there has been a small number of men and women whose contributions to its traditions of freedom, justice, and individual rights have accorded them a special place of honor in our hearts and minds, and to whom all Americans owe a lasting debt. Among them are the men and women who founded the thirteen colonies that became the United States of America.
William Penn, as a British citizen, founded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in order to carry out an experiment based upon representative government; ”

“ This struggle, which continued until the adoption, in 1790, of a constitution which provided for a stronger executive, served to divide the state into two distinct parties and to prevent the development of such factions as were found in New York; it accounts largely for the early development of party organization and nominating conventions, and, through these, of the spoils system. [37]
Under the first constitution most appointments in Pennsylvania were controlled by the legislature, either alone or in conjunction with the president of the commonwealth who also was practically elected by it. ”

“ The planting of Pennsylvania was a true colonization. Not only did it amount to the creation of a great and model commonwealth, full-fledged, with a composite new-world population, in twenty or even ten years' time, but it furnished the keystone to the arch of states that constituted the American republic in the next century after Penn's settlement. ”

“ It was the most complete collection of the early literature relating to Pennsylvania which any individual had ever possessed. It is impossible that any man shall ever again have one of like importance. To part with it was to tear up forty years of my life by the roots. I had made a secret covenant with the commonwealth, unknown to the commonwealth, that if my future were provided for by a return to the Bench or otherwise, this record of its life should be preserved intact. ”

“ It was largely the weight and current of such reaction against arbitrary interference with the religious convictions and free con [Pg 174] science of man that furnished the impulse to the original peopling of our State and country, and gave shape to the constitution and laws of this commonwealth for the last two hundred years. Nor will our inquiries and showings with regard to the founding of Pennsylvania be complete without something more respecting the leading principles which governed in that fortunate movement. ”

“ ADDED BY AMENDMENT OF NOVEMBER 6, 1951
Article XV Section 1: Home Rule. Cities may be chartered whenever a majority of the electors of any town or borough having a population of at least ten thousand shall vote at any general or municipal election in favor of the same. Cities, or cities of any particular class, may be given the right and power to frame and adopt their own charters and to exercise the powers and authority of local self-government, subject, however, to such restrictions, limitations, and regulations, as may be imposed by the Legislature. ”

“ Union; whereas Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has more towns of over 4,000 population than any other state, giving it the highest per cent, of urban population of any commonwealth in the Union with the exception of New York. ”

“ The State of Pennsylvania was a great commonwealth of over seven millions of people, twice as many as those presided over by Queen Elizabeth, William of Orange and George Washington. I approached the duties of governor with certain well-defined convictions to be regarded and certain lines of policy to be pursued. The governorship was a climax of a career attained, and not a stepping stone to something beyond. The efforts of men are always weakened when they have some other end in view apart from the object they are called upon to accomplish. ”

“ When the war of our revolution commenced, the proprietary went to Great Britain, and was, consequently, to be considered as a British subject, not as an American citizen. The right to confiscate his property, or to leave it untouched, was in the government of Pennsylvania. The Legislature of that State, for reasons satisfactory to itself, took a middle course. In 1779, an act was passed, entitled 'An act for vesting the estate of the late proprietaries of Pennsylvania in this Commonwealth.' This ejectment was brought in the year 1819. ”

“ Each county containing one or more ratios of population, shall be entitled to one Senator for each ratio, and to an additional Senator for a surplus of population exceeding three-fifths of a ratio, but no county shall form a separate district, unless it shall contain four-fifths of a ratio, except where the adjoining counties are each entitled to one or more Senators, when such county may be assigned a Senator on less than four-fifths and exceeding one-half of the ratio ”

“ Every member of the council shall be a justice of the peace for the whole commonwealth, by virtue of his office. In case new additional counties shall hereafter be erected in this state, such county or counties shall elect a counsellor, and such county or counties shall be annexed to the next neighbouring counties, and shall take rotation with such counties. The council shall meet annually, at the same time and place with the general assembly. ”

“ I have been a pretty thorough student of Pennsylvania history, and I feel that I am entirely within the bounds of fact when I say that more has been accomplished in general progress in the line of great constructive improvement, as well as in the bettering of conditions of government, during your administration than in any two equal periods in the career of the commonwealth. ”

“ The first was composed of certain members of the government who possessed a seat at the board in virtue of their several offices; the second, of the "senior ministers in standing" of the six principal sects in Philadelphia; and the third, of individuals selected for their attachment to the revolution, which, in most of them, was evinced by the possession of high public stations in the commonwealth. [1] By these appointments, it will be perceived that the legislature fully provided for the political fidelity of the University, and its perfect impartiality towards all religious denominations ”