ned to the
frontier and on their way back for another present destroyed the
property of the interpreter and Indian agent, Conrad Weiser. They felt
that they could do as they pleased. To make matters worse, the Assembly
paid for all the damage done; and having started on this foolish
business, they found that the list of tribes demanding presents rapidly
increased. The Shawanoes and the Six Nations, as well as the Delawares,
were now swarming to this new and convenient source of wealth.

Whether the proprietors or the Assembly should meet this increasing
expense or divide it between them, became a subject of increasing
controversy. It was in these discussions that Thomas Penn, in trying to
keep his family's share of the expense as small as possible, first got
the reputation for closeness which followed him for the rest of his life
and which started a party in the province desirous of having Parliament
abolish the proprietorship and put the province under a governor
appointed by the Crown.

The war with the French of Canada and their Indian allies is of interest
here only in so far as it affected the government of Pennsylvania.
From this point of view it involved a series of contests between the
proprietors and the Crown on the one side and the Assembly on the other.
The proprietors and the Crown took advantage of every military necessity
to force the Assembly into a surrender of popular rights. But the
Assembly resisted, maintaining that they had the same right as the
British Commons of having their money bills received or rejected by the
Governor without amendment. Whatever they should give must be given on
their own terms or not at all; and they would not yield this point to
any necessities of the war.

When Governor Morris asked the Assembly for a war contribution in
1754, they promptly voted 20,000 pounds. This was the same amount that
Virginia, the most active of the colonies in the war, was giving. Other
colonies gave much less; New York, only 5000 pounds, and Maryland 6000
pounds. Morris, however, would not assent to the Assembly's bill unless
it contained a clause suspending its effect until the King's pleasure
was known. This was an attempt to establish a precedent for giving up
the Assembly's charter right of passing laws which need not be submitted
to the King for five years and which in the meantime were valid. The
members of the Assembly very naturally refused to be forced by the
necessities of the war in