to surrendering one of the most important
privileges the province possessed. It was, they said, as much their duty
to resist this invasion of their rights as to resist the French.

Governor Morris, besides demanding that the supply of 20,000 pounds
should not go into force until the King's pleasure was known, insisted
that the paper money representing it should be redeemable in five years.
This period the Assembly considered too short; the usual time was ten
years. Five years would ruin too many people by foreclosures. Moreover,
the Governor was attempting to dictate the way in which the people
should raise a money supply. He and the King had a right to ask for aid
in war; but it was the right of the colony to use its own methods
of furnishing this assistance. The Governor also refused to let the
Assembly see the instructions from the proprietors under which he
was acting. This was another attack upon their liberties and involved
nothing less than an attempt to change their charter rights by secret
instructions to a deputy governor which he must obey at his peril.
Several bills had recently been introduced in the English Parliament for
the purpose of making royal instructions to governors binding on all the
colonial assemblies without regard to their charters. This innovation,
the colonists felt, would wreck all their liberties and turn colonial
government into a mere despotism.

The assemblies of all the colonies have been a good deal abused for
delay in supporting the war and meanness in withholding money. But
in many instances the delay and lack of money were occasioned by the
grasping schemes of governors who saw a chance to gain new privileges
for the Crown or a proprietor or to weaken popular government by
crippling the powers of the legislatures. The usual statement that
the Pennsylvania Assembly was slow in assisting the war because it was
composed of Quakers is not supported by the facts. The Pennsylvania
Assembly was not behind the rest. On this particular occasion, when
their large money supply bill could not be passed without sacrificing
their constitutional rights, they raised money for the war by appointing
a committee which was authorized to borrow 5000 pounds on the credit of
the Assembly.

Other contests arose over the claim of the proprietors that their
estates in the province were exempt from taxation for the war or any
purpose. One bill taxing the proprietary estates along with others was
met by T