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Archiver > PACHESTE > 1999-01 > 0915509287


From: Eugene "Gene" Stackhouse <>
Subject: RE: Re: Wm Penn's integrity
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 99 23:57:03 Eastern Daylight Time


Well said.
Penn's financial dealings were normal for the times and were in no way unfair nor illegal.
In any case, his life and deeds speak for themselves and, I suspect, he can still defend himself from the grave.
He committed no hypocrisy.

Gene in Philadelphia

--------
>From:
>To:
>Subject: RE: Re: Wm Penn's integrity
>Date: January 04, 1999
>
>We all have our flaws.
>
>Wm Penn did not have an easy life, but his perseverance in the
>face of severe trials gave him opportunities to open new avenues
>of service to many people.
>
>The modern idea that juries cannot be forced to rule in a certain
>way by the judge came about as a result of a trial in which Wm
>Penn was a defendant. This one case is a cornerstone of the
>modern judicial process, which none of us would desire to see
>abrogated.
>
>Wm Penn made it possible for many people to settle in a fertile
>land where they could follow their religious convictions without
>govt interference. He did this at a great economic loss for
>himself -- in fact, it ruined him financially.
>
>Officials in Massachusetts Bay Colony hanged four people on the
>Boston Commons for the high crime of attending Friends religious
>services. Wm Penn did not follow their example of seeking to
>regulate religious beliefs.
>
>Officials in Massachusetts Bay Colony cut off John Copeland's ear
>because he attended Friends religious services. I have never seen
>any reference to any act of that kind in Pennsylvania.
>
>It is easy for us to find hypocrisy in other people. We need to
>be careful that we maintain charity towards other people and set
>a better example. That was one of the main ideas flowing through
>the writings of Wm Penn.
>
>Seth Hinshaw
>Stillwater Friends Meeting
>Co-moderator of Quaker-W mailing list
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>
>
>(The more things change, the more they seem the same -- I'm sure
>I ran across
>more than a few of the Honorable (?) William Penn's protégées)
>

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