Pennsylvania Politics 1746-1770

The Movement for Royal Government and Its Consequences

James H. Hutson

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780691619835, 9780691046112
• eBook ISBN: 9781400869565
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Process
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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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Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• I. Troubles with Thomas Penn
• II. The Decision to Request Royal Government
• III. The Campaign for Royal Government
• IV. The Mirage of Royal Government
• Conclusion. The Implications of the Royal Government Movement
• Index