Pennsylvania Politics 1746-1770: The Movement for Royal Government and Its Consequences

The Quaker Party’s campaign in 1764 to replace Pennsylvania’s proprietary government with royal government prefigures, in some ways, the colonies’ struggle against George III. This is the key, in James Hutson’s analysis, to Pennsylvania politics in the decades before the Revolution. In a lucidly written narrative, he follows the efforts of the Quaker dominated Assembly—outraged by Thomas Penn’s inflexible government and representing a society that had matured economically, politically, and socially—to bring about royal government, on Benjamin Franklin’s advice, as a less restrictive alternative.

Mr. Hutson’s interpretation clarifies the major realignment of political parties (Quaker, Presbyterian, and Proprietary) that the movement occasioned, the impact of the frontiersmen (notably the Paxton Boys) on provincial politics, and the role played by important political figures like Franklin.

Originally published in 1972.

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