PENN SPEAKS
Bailyn, Bernard
Penn Speaks William Penn: a biography, by Catherine Owens Peare. Lippincott. 448 pp. $6. Reviewed by Bernard Bailyn WILLIAM PENN, born in 1644, "speaks," Miss Peare concludes, "to the condition...
...If it is diffuse and lacking in penetration and insight, it contains a thorough recital of the outward events of an important career and of a movement that did much to advance the enlightenment of men...
...What difference does it make that "he sometimes wore calico drawers...
...dom and intimate of authority, Penn 'Was never fully trusted nor fully successful...
...It is not so much that there is bad writing in it...
...And casual historical background does not explain the subversivness of Seventeenth Century Quakerism nor the extraordinary advancement of its tolerationist views...
...As a chronicle of Penn's life it is exhaustive and accurate, superceding all previous studies...
...Devoted to Quaker austerity, he always retained something of the elegant manner of the Cavalier, and though suffering persecution with his fellow Quakers, imprisoned and hunted, he yet managed to retain not only extensive family properties in England and Ireland but also, to an amazing degree, the personal friendship and support of the Stuart mon-archs—support which alone made possible the princely gift of the Pennsylvania property...
...As the second generation spokesman for the obscure and fanatical sect called in derision Quakers—a sect not merely despised but feared, and rightly, as subversive in its denial of traditional forms of authority—Penn fought as few have fought for an equal rule of law in behalf of the freedom of individual conscience...
...It is a voice to which we are poorly tuned, for we commonly think of the early Quakers as quaint characters in broad brimmed hats "theeing" and "thouing" in solemn simplicity...
...His weaknesses and the contradictions of his personality are no less a part of the story than are his virtues and successes...
...The author lacks penetration into the personality of Penn and into the problems of his time as they relate to his career...
...But useful as it is, this is not a distinguished biography...
...Penn erected a commonwealth along the Delaware River whose institutions were distinguished for far-sighted tolerance and enlightenment, but he distrusted democracy and insisted longer than was practical on certain of his rights as proprietary overlord...
...In many more ways than not Penn was an admirable man, but admiration by a biographer is not enough...
...For Penn the battle between personal liberty and the compulsive power of the state was cast in religious terms, and not by accident, for religion and the state were still conceived as intermingled in purpose, mutually supporting and responsible...
...Yet the book has virtues...
...There was nothing quaint about them, and we are the losers for failing to hear the stubborn defiance of their quiet words...
...Its description of Penn's private life is particularly valuable...
...Reviewed by Bernard Bailyn WILLIAM PENN, born in 1644, "speaks," Miss Peare concludes, "to the condition of our times," and though we shrink from analogies that leap across the centuries, we must admit the truth of her remark...
...Yet his defense of the right to private conviction in the face of co*" Srive authority rings across the centuries, speaking to the condition of our times...
...His complicated and influential career, recorded in a mass of printed and manuscript sources, is a splendid subject of biography...
...And it is not merely the atmosphere of sentiment and adulation that encloses the book, nor the occasional errors of interpretation (Charles II did not grant Penn his colonizing charter either to rid the realm of political malcontents or to get Penn himself safely out of the country before a royal purge of Whigs was begun...
...Must we have a description of every meeting Penn attended...
...His career is full of paradoxes...
...Miss Peare's is the fullest account we have...
...The key to the trouble is that the details pile up endlessly—one preaching trip, one meeting, one letter after the other until the reader is lost and weary...
...The founder of Pennsylvania may not be "eternally our contemporary," but in grappling with issues that still trouble our society he seized upon principles which remain guides to the liberal, humane conscience...
...But not completely...
...For Americans, of course, Penn has a special importance as the founder of what became in a remarkably short time the most prosperous of the American colonies...
...It is little wonder that at least twentyfive book-length studies of Penn's life have been written...
...He is, moreover, fascinating in himself...
...Familiar with large affairs, he shrewdly judged his judges, but as governing proprietor of Pennsylvania he blundered repeatedly, especially in his appointments to the highest public offices, and he allowed himself to be fleeced to the point of bankruptcy by an unscrupulous steward...
...Its 414 pages of text are crowded with details culled from Penn's voluminous writings and from a great array of Seventeenth Century records...
...The son inherited a high station, access to wealth and public office, which he forfeited after a dramatic "convince-ment" to Quakerism...
...His father was an influential admiral and man of affairs, a friend and creditor of Charles II...
...Elegant courtier and humble Quaker, man of affairs and political neophyte, champion of free...
Vol. 21 • May 1957 • No. 5
