Comments on Pennsylvania's New Government

“The Examiner,” Pennsylvania Evening Post, Oct. 15, 1776: [On the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution] “This wise, this necessary preservative against tyranny has given very great offence to some of our gentry who regard you as their property, their beasts of burden, born only to be ruled by these Lords of the Creation….I have been repeatedly told by them that gentlemen would not submit to have power so much in the hands of the people.  The people, they say, are not fit to be the guardians of their own rights.”

“Independent,” Pennsylvania Packet, Mar. 18, 1776: [On the opposition to the creation of a new government] [They were "the better sort who [thought they] were made, ordained, constituted, appointed, and predestined from the foundation of the world to govern and to all intents and valuable purposes, possess the surface of the this globe and all its inhabitants

“Cassandra,” Pennsylvania Packet, April 8, 1776: [On the opposition to the creation of a new government] “aristocratical junto, who are straining every nerve to frustrate our virtuous endeavours and to make the common and middle class of people their beasts of burden.”

“A Watchman,” Pennsylvania Packet, June 24, 1776: [On opposition to the new government] "Men of property” [spoke out against the new government]. “But always remember that they derive no right to power from their wealth and that a freeman worth only fifty pounds is entitled by the laws of province to all the privileges of the first Nabob of the country.  Remember the influence of wealth upon the morals and principles of mankind.  Recollect how often you have heard the first principles of government subverted by the calls...to make way for men of fortune to declare their sentiments upon the subject of Independence, as if a minority of rich men were to govern the majority of virtuous freeholders in the province. 

“Andrew Marvell,” Pennsylvania Packet, Nov. 26, 1776: [Critic of 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution] “A member if the late [Constitutional] Convention congratulated the State upon the opening of the Convention that a set of plain men with good understandings were assembled together to make a government.  It was debated for some time in the Convention whether the future legislatures of this State should have the power of lessening property when it became excessive in individuals.”

“Sully,” Pennsylvania Packet, Feb. 2, 1779: [Critic of 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution]: “The Magistrates of the State were elected by a small body of the people, and consist chiefly of illiterate men who are altogether unqualified for their offices….These infringements of the Constitution have been pointed out in the newspapers, but the people are not yet sufficiently alarmed with them.  They are blinded with the workmanship of their own hands, and think a [Patriot] in power, “can do no wrong.”  The men of the greatest property in the State are in the scale of opposition.  If the Constitution should not be altered, the revolution of a few years will bring the present opposition into power.  Perhaps we may then hear of an exchange in the principles of the parties.  When the wealthy men become a majority in the Assembly, they may imitate the present rulers of the state in violating the Constitution and vote themselves as perpetual to the rump Parliament of England.”