Excerpt from George Bryan and the Constitution of Pennsylvania: 1731-1791On a beautiful spring day in 1731, an April day, the 6th thereof, on the green banks of the Delaware river just above the mouth of Chester Creek in Pennsylvania, in what was then a village, Chester by name, the first capital of Penn's colony, and in one Of the most beautiful mansions of that day in the whole Quaker colony, looking out over the very waters where the Welcome had anchored, there passed away the most important resident Of that colony during the first half - century of its existence. The aged figure who had seen seventy-five Springs come and go since his birth, in Cromwellian days, in Wales, was David Lloyd, the father of the first permanent colonial constitution Of Pennsylvania of 1701, by which he gave to that colony the dearly won liberties of the revolution Of 1688, that the great Founder, William Penn, was unable voluntarily to give because of the unwillingness Of both Crown and Parliament to pass on their new liberties to the colonies. Like the products Of the revolution of which this charter Of 1701 was a part, it was itself the result of a half-century of struggle, including the twenty years of effort to secure it and the thirty years of hard fighting to put its principles into the colony's laws and keep them there. So when on that April day the aged creator of that great instrument, that was to last and grow stronger for three-quarters of a century, gave over the struggle to a new generation, he doubtless had faith that more than one defender Of it would arise in the years to come.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.