William Penn: Politics and Conscience (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS William Penn: Politics and Conscience. By Mary Maples Dunn. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1967. 206 pages. $6.00. On the basis of thorough background knowledge of the period involved and of fresh perusal of all the political writings of William Penn, including the several extant drafts of the constitution for Pennsylvania, Mrs. Dunn has provided a very useful survey of the somewhat paradoxical development of the political theory and action of the famous Quaker. She writes clearly and sympathetically and judicially without undue parade of evidence. Her comparison of Penn's constitutional theories with those of James Harrington's Oceana and her discussion of his Essay Towards the Peace of Europe are both noteworthy longer sections.¦ She finds a continuing concern on Penn's part, at least as soon as he became a Quaker,! for liberty of conscience. This was natural in the self-interest of his sect, but he immediately recognized that such liberty could be defended as for the self-interest of England and justified as a natural law and fundamental right. As times changed his methods changed. Prior to 1680 he wrote extensively on the subject. He also engaged in electioneering for Whig candidates for Parliament whom he thought sympathetic to the cause. But the Whigs were defeated and then followed the Stuart Revenge, to alleviating which he devoted his energies and influence on behalf of his co-religionists. His ideals further found an outlet in the attempt to create a colony in Pennsylvania which would embody them. Here also various circumstances on both sides of the Atlantic compelled him to retrench from either his old bold challenge of persecution or the full embodiment of ideals in the colony. Then comes in that enigmatic period of his intimacy with James II, followed naturally by the suspicion it put him under with the really more tolerant William III. The last two of the well-chosen chapter headings are "Persuasives to Moderation" and "The Politics of Preservation." The ordinary reader will know in advance that Penn had a difficult role to play and will wonder whether he callously sacrificed principle to expediency, unnecessarily and inconsistently shifted his stance, or was the victim of his own mistakes rather than of circumstances. His relations with James have been repeatedly suspected or criticized as has his failure to hold the loyalty of the Pennsylvanians. It is impossible here to indicate how judiciously the author analyzes these many problems. She admits that the basis of Penn's influence with Charles II remains "the greatest mystery surrounding Penn's career" (p. 79). Generally she quite adequately explains the apparent inconsistencies of his words and actions as due to his persistent adherence to his main goal—religious toleration. 112 Book Reviews113 In spite of his undoubted ability and idealism and unparalleled opportunity, Penn's career is usually nowadays regarded as everywhere unsuccessful. Certainly his public as well as his private life had defeats enough to break the stoutest heart, as even today it makes the modern spectator's heart bleed for him. He had again and again to steer a difficult course. His life is described correctly but less emotionally (p. 198) as "a complex and important man's involvement in the crucial issues of his day." Even at the nadir of his affairs in Pennsylvania "with dogged determination, he met and overcame the threats to his proprietary claims, property, and power. ... He ended his days in penury, solitude, and self-pity, and few would have discovered greatness in him. . . . For all his mistakes, and in large part from religious motives, he helped to create a secular world and a new empire enjoying a new freedom." So the author, herself no Quaker, is able to end her fascinating volume, because with painstaking objectivity and understanding she has faithfully traced the changing factors in a complicated and rarely immediately successful career. Haverford, PennsylvaniaHenry J. Cadbury James Claypoole's Letter Book, London and Philadelphia, 1681-1684- Edited by Marion Balderston. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library. 1967. 256 pages. $7.50. A London merchant in the seventeenth century found it almost necessary to keep a record of his correspondence. Mail was slow and...