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THOMAS WHARTON, JR.,

PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

THE

March 5, 1777, to May 23, 1778.

HE Provincial Convention which had been elected to frame a new Constitution, and which, upon meeting on the 15th of July, 1776, assumed the entire government of the Colony, elected, on the 24d of the same month, a Council of Safety, composed of twenty-five members, to which was committed the executive department of the Government until the new frame of the constitution about to be promulgated should be put in operation. This Council was organized by the selection of Thomas Rittenhouse as chairman, and Jacob S. Howell, Secretary. By this action the Proprietary Government was completely superseded, and the title of the Proprietors to landed estate in Pennsylvania was suspended. An estimate commenced by Thomas Penn, and completed by Franklin, in 1759, made the value of this estate about ten millions of pounds sterling. It should here be observed that the Legislature of Pennsylvania, on the 27th of November, 1779, passed an Act for vesting the estate of the Proprietors in the Commonwealth, but reserving to the Proprietors all their private estates, including the tenths of manors, and paying to them the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling "in remembrance of the enterprising spirit of the Founder," and "of the expectations and dependence of his descendants." In addition to this, Parliament, in 1790, granted an annuity of four thousand pounds per annum to the heirs and descendants of the Founder, "in consideration of the meritorious services of the said William Penn, and of the losses which his family have sustained." This annuity has ever since been regularly

paid, and in a reference made to it a short time ago [1872] in the House of Commons, Chancellor Lowe stated that the pension would not be discontinued.

On the 6th of August, a formal organization of the Council of Safety was effected, when Thomas Wharton, Jr., was elected President. On the 28th of September, the new constitution was completed and passed unanimously, taking effect from the date of its passage. It provided for an annual Assembly and for a Supreme Executive Council, to consist of twelve persons to be chosen by the people, and to hold office for three years. Members of Congress were to be appointed by the Assembly. Assembly men were eligible to membership but four years out of seven, and members of Council but one term in seven years. The Constitution could not be changed for the space of seven years. At the expiration of that time. censors were to be elected, who were to consider whether a revision was demanded, and if so, they were to call a convention for the purpose. The Council was charged with the due execution of the laws, its powers being not materially different from those of the Council under the Proprietary GovernFrom the first, this instrument met with violent

ment.

opposition.

On the first day of January, 1776, Washington unfurled over his camp, at Cambridge, for the first time, the Union Flag. It had thirteen stripes of alternate red and white, with the cross of St. George in the upper left-hand corner. For this cross Congress ordered, on the 14th of June, 1777, thirteen white stars in a field of blue to be substituted, and this design became the emblem of nationality. The Continental Congress, before the close of the year 1775, had agreed upon certain articles of war, declared the cause for which arms had been taken up, and had issued bills of credit for prosecuting the war to the amount of six millions of dollars. The Parliament of Great Britain had, on the other hand, declared the Colonists rebels; had authorized the seizure or destruction of American vessels; had voted a force of fifty-five thousand men for compelling obedience to its man

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