The Framing of Government in Pennsylvania
Ideas in Contact with Reality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3567009 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gary B Nash (0000-0003-4313-6082, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1966 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 183 |
| Publication date | 1966-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1922507 |
| OpenAlex | W2322007535 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
L ITTLE is known of the pressures and influences which bore upon William Penn as he pieced together the instruments of government for his Holy Experiment between March 4, i68i, when he received his charter from Charles II, and April 25, i682, when his Frame of Government was published in London. Most historians, upon reading the widely heralded Frame of i682, have been content to believe that Penn was given the rare opportunity of forging a government of his own and that the result was a pure distillation of his political philosophy, drawn from studies of classical Republican writers, his practical experience since i675 in the affairs of West New Jersey, and the counsel of a few intimate advisers such as Algernon Sidney, the radical parliamentarian, and Benjamin Furly, the Rotterdam Quaker merchant. This uncomplicated view assumes a confidence in the Quaker founder on the part of his principal supporters that probably never existed. Penn, in all likelihood, was far from a free agent in the work of constituting a government. William Markham, his cousin and a trusted adjutant in the colony for many years, indicated as much when he later wrote: I know very well it [the Frame of Government] was forced from him by friends who unless they received all that they demanded would not have settled the country.' But beyond this intriguing comment little direct evidence of such pressures survives to illuminate the government-making process in i68i and I682; nor is it likely that any interplay between Penn and his supporters was recorded at the time. But what is evident from an examination of Penn's remaining correspondence and from a close analysis of the various drafts of government fashioned in i68i and i682 is that the ideal state which Penn had constructed theoretically in the i670's in a series of essays and pamphlets was
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Framing (construction · Government (linguistics · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Philosophy · Public Administration
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,07 |
| Citation span | 1985 - 2025 (41) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |