Teaching Pennsylvania Politics: A Reference Guide and Course Syllabus

Extract

In 1981, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Charter granted to William Penn by King Charles II permitting the former to assume proprietary rights over the territory that was to encompass the Province of “Penn's Woods.” If the general euphoria and “hoopla” which is likely to characterize this celebration does not deprive everyone of energy for subsequent commemoration, citizen and scholar alike will be reminded that in 1682, the year after Penn's arrival in the territory, a governmental system began functioning in the Province and, coincidentally depositing along the way, a record of its activities and outputs. The process continued through four Basic Charters or Frames of Government and beyond 1776 when a Provincial Convention composed the first constitution for the state that had emerged simultaneously with the start of the American War for Independence. It is a process which obviously is still going on and which accounts for large quantities of documentation and records regularly being added to the stockpile started by the Provincial Council and other governmental institutions in 1682.