MDDMD18: Pennsylvania Politics

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Pennsylvania Politics?  Its name is Simplicity. 
Religious Bodies here cannot be distinguish'd from
Political Factions,  These are Quaker, Anglican,
Presbyterian, German Pietist.  Each prevails in its
own area of the Province.  Till about five years ago,
the Presbyterians fought among themselves so fiercely,
that despite their great Numbers, they remain'd
without much Political Effect,-- lately, since the Old
and New Lights reach'd their Accomodation, all the
other Parties have hasten'd to strike bargains with
them as they may,-- not least of these the Penns, who
tho' Quaker by ancestry are Anglican in Praxis,-- some
even say, Tools of Rome.  Mr. Shippen, upon whom you
must wait for each penny you'll spend, is a
Presbyterian, the City Variety, quite at ease as a
member of the Governor's Council.  As for the
Anglicans of Philadelphia, the periodick arrival in
Town of traveling ministries such as the Reverend
MacClenaghan's have now split those Folk between
traditional Pennites, and Reborns a-dazzle with the
New Light, who are more than ready to throw in with
the Presbyterians, against the Quakers,-- tho' so far
Quakers have been able to act in the Assembly as a
body, and prevail,-- '" (M&D, Ch. 29, p. 293)

>From Edwin Danson, Drawing the Line (NY: John Wiley &
Sons, 2001), Ch. 3, "The Great Chancery Suit," pp.
18-26 ...

"From the outset, Penn's aim was to estblish a fair,
by seventeenth-century standards, form of government
in his colony.  Penn's Quaker detractors wanted a
strong legislature, but he knew the weakness of
popular government, especially since the English home
government was ever suspicious of Quaker motives. 
Instead, Penn placed power in the hands of an
executive, a governor, and a council.  The freemen of
the colony retained a right of expression and were
assure their freedom of conscience.  However, this
governmental framework never satisfied the provincial
Friends who continued to lobby Penn.  During the
latter part of his stay in Philadelphia in 1701, and
against his better judgment, Penn signed a Charter of
Privileges that granted the colony its own elected (by
freeholders) assembly." (p. 20)

A coupla notes ...

"German Pietism"

Pietism is a movement within the ranks of
Protestantism, originating in the reaction against
time fruitless Protestant orthodoxy of the seventeenth
century, and aiming at the revival of devotion and
practical Christianity. Its appearance in the German
Lutheran Church, about 1670, is connected with the
name of Spener....

... along with good results, this movement again
degenerated into mystical fanaticism and
sectarianism....

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12080c.htm

And see as well ...

http://www.etown.edu/youngctr/studygroup.html

"Mr. Shippen"

293; wealthy Tory Loyalist and member of Governor's
Council in Philadelphia, and one of the Commissioners
appointed by the Proprietors of Pennsylvania to settle
the boundary dispute between Maryland and
Pennsylvania, at the time of the surveying of the M-D
Line; 325; 773

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/s.html

And see here as well ...

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/communities/overview/edward.html

http://08016.com/shippen.html

More on him and his daughter, Peggy (Mrs. Benedict
Arnold), as necessary.  But the intricacies of latter
eighteenth century Pennsylvania politics are behind my
ability, inclination, patience and schedule to
discern.  If anybody has any info, well ...

But I'm more interested in these "Reborns a-dazzle
with the New Light" in "their Accomodation" "reach'd"
with "the Old Lights," and how all this might resonate
with Pynchon's, Mason & Dixon's, indeed, our very own
Politickal Milieu.  Oh, but one more ...

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