e Pennsylvania colonists.

In a few years the port of Philadelphia was loading abundant cargoes for
England and the great West India trade. After much experimenting with
different places on the river, such as New Castle, Wilmington, Salem,
Burlington, the Quakers had at last found the right location for a great
seat of commerce and trade that could serve as a center for the export
of everything from the region behind it and around it. Philadelphia thus
soon became the basis of a prosperity which no other townsite on the
Delaware had been able to attain. The Quakers of Philadelphia were the
soundest of financiers and men of business, and in their skillful hands
the natural resources of their colony were developed without setback
or accident. At an early date banking institutions were established in
Philadelphia, and the strongest colonial merchants and mercantile firms
had their offices there. It was out of such a sound business life that
were produced in Revolutionary times such characters as Robert Morris
and after the Revolution men like Stephen Girard.

Pennsylvania in colonial times was ruled from Philadelphia somewhat as
France has always been ruled from Paris. And yet there was a difference:
Pennsylvania had free government. The Germans and the Scotch-Irish
outnumbered the Quakers and could have controlled the Legislature,
for in 1750 out of a population of 150,000 the Quakers were only about
50,000; and yet the Legislature down to the Revolution was always
confided to the competent hands of the Quakers. No higher tribute,
indeed, has ever been paid to any group of people as governors of a
commonwealth and architects of its finance and trade.

It is a curious commentary on the times and on human nature that these
Quaker folk, treated as outcasts and enemies of good order and religion
in England and gradually losing all their property in heavy fines and
confiscations, should so suddenly in the wilderness prove the capacity
of their "Holy Experiment" for achieving the best sort of good order and
material success. They immediately built a most charming little town
by the waterside, snug and pretty with its red brick houses in the best
architectural style. It was essentially a commercial town down to the
time of the Revolution and long afterwards. The principal residences
were on Water Street, the second street from the wharves. The town in
those days extended back only as far as Fourth Street, and the State
House,