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Source: January 1987 Volume 25 Number 1, Pages 32–35

The Pennsylvania Provincial Conference Why We Should Remember

John J. Turner

• Note

Page 32

A few weeks ago I visited the Grand Canyon. I viewed this extraordinary landscape from numerous vantage points, but it was from a perch on the north rim about 8000 feet above sea level that I experienced most directly its vastness, complexity, striking formations and range of colors. The Canyon is so spectacular that one's mind almost looks away while the eye records. Two billion years of geological history -- approximately one half of the earth's existence -- spreads before you.

That huge figure is difficult to comprehend. So imagine, if you will, that the two billion years which have elapsed since the creation of the formations of the Inner Gorge were telescoped into a single day. 12:01 a.m. would represent the formation of the first rock. It would not be until 11:45 p.m. that the mighty Colorado River would begin to carve the Canyon. And the entire span of human existance would occur in the last minute, between 11:59 p.m. and midnight!

These facts compel me, as I am sure they do others, to stand back in awe at the vastness of time and the forces of nature, and to ask humbly about the meaning of human life in the cosmic scene.

This article is from a talk given by Dr. Turner on the occasion of the Pennsylvania Day ceremonies held at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia last summer. The Chester County Historical Society was the host for the ceremonies.

Page 33

Set against this background the event we commemorate here today - the seven-day meeting of the Pennsylvania Provincial Conference at Carpenters' Hall in June 1776 -- appears to be little more than a microscopic speck on the back of time. And yet that meeting, together with other events of the American Revolution, forged ideas and institutions which had been developing unclearly, gradually, and sporadically over the years into forms which altered the landscape of human life for eighteenth-century Americans and future generations forever. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the success of these ideas and institutions and the way of life they spawned may very well determine whether succeeding generations will survive to probe the magnificent mysteries of life and the universe posed by such wonders as the Grand Canyon.

I will return to this strong statement shortly. But first, a word or two about what actually happened here at Carpenters' Hall 210 years ago, from June 18th to June 25th, 1776.

By the time the Provincial Conference convened, the flood tide of revolution was sweeping across the 13 colonies. War between the Americans and the British had erupted a year earlier at Lexington and Concord. In June 1776 the second Continental Congress was meeting at the State House just a few yards from here and debating Richard Henry Lee's resolution that the colonies ought to be free and independent states. Thomas Jefferson and a committee of four were busy preparing a declaration stating the "causes which impel them to the separation".

The Provincial Conference was summoned by a tumultuous gathering of approximately 4000 rain-swept people in the State House yard on May 20th. Impatient with the failure of the Pennsylvania Assembly to rescind its directive against a vote for independence, the crowd proclaimed that body unworthy of the people's confidence and incapable cf producing a new constitution for an independent Pennsylvania. Hooting down all opposition, the crowd resolved that a Provincial Conference be called to arrange for the preparation of a new instrument of government for the Province.

Various local committees went to work, and convention delegates were elected, mostly by irregular means. On June 18th the 107 delegates assembled in Carpenters' Hall and proceeded to their task with dispatch. By unaminous vote, the Assembly was declared "not competent" to handle public affairs, and a constitutional convention was approved "for the express purpose of forming a new government ... on the Authority of the People only".

The delegates then moved to purge the constitutional process of all who opposed the Revolution. The suffrage was given to all adults and legal voters, provided they were prepared to take an oath which acknowledged the authority of the constitutional convention and repudiated allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and was denied to any who had been charged as Tories and not recanted their error. Then, to the embarrassment of some delegates, the Conference ruled that only professing Christians who repudiated British rule and were qualified to vote for the members of the Assembly could be elected as delegates to the constitutional convention.

Page 34

On June 24th the Conference anticipated the Declaration of Independence with a document announcing Pennsylvania's break with Britain. In plain, straight-forward language, the Conference declared that "in this public Manner in behalf of Ourselves, and with the Approbation, Consent, and Authority of our Constituents, [we] Unaminously declare our willingness to concur in a vote of the Congress, declaring the United Colonies free and independent states".

The Conference concluded its session the next day, at which time some of the delegates repaired to the Indian Queen on Fourth Street where they joined in toasts to "The Congress", "The free and independent States of America", and "Lasting dependence to the enemies of independence".

It is clear from this brief summary that the real purpose of the Conference was to promote the Revolution by circumventing the Assembly and all other opposition. There is no question that those who favored independence and a new form of government stacked the deck in their favor. The hour of decision was upon them, and the Pennsylvania revolutionaries were bound to have their way.

How then, you may ask, do these events justify the ringing statement that I made about them a few paragraphs back? What was there about the Provincial Conference that goes beyond the turmoil of revolution and leave sits mark on our people and nation?

The answer is found in an Address to the People of Pennsylvania adopted by the delegates on June 25th. The Address urged popular support for the pending constitutional convention and noted, "Divine Providence is about to grant you a Favor, which few People have ever enjoyed before, the Privilege of chusing Deputies to form a Government under which you are to live. . . . Your Liberty, Safety, Happiness and every Thing that Posterity will hold dear to them to the End of Time will depend upon their Deliberations."

What the Pennsylvanians and other American revolutionaries contributed to the world's pool of ideas was the concept of the Constitutional Convention, a convention which, in theory, embodied the sovereignty of the people. The Convention was not appointed to govern, but to establish institutions of government. It created and defined the powers of government, established their authority, and balanced them one against another. In theory, the Constitution would then be ratified by the people as the Convention passed into history. Now the source of all authority, the sovereign people, became temporarily inactive, leaving the actual government to newly selected authorities, required to keep within the bounds of the Constitution. Thus government was restrained; authority was restrained.

Page 35

It was that powerful theory, a distinctively American theory, to which the Provincial Conference contributed. It is that theory which is embodied in our present United States Constitution: "We the people of the United States ... do ordain and establish ..." It is that theory which made possible a new kind of federal structure, unknown in other parts of the world, in which both the states and the central government draw their powers from the same source of authority, the sovereign people.

Pennsylvania contributed to a revolution that was revolutionary in part because it established the method of constituting new government, and, in a measure, new societies based on the sovereignty of the people. That revolutionary concept quickly became institutionalized in the new United States, but its revolutionary power to shape and form our lives has never diminished. It is as vital today as it was in the 18th century.

The crucial problem of our time is to preserve the moral and spiritual values of the system they created and, at the same time, govern a new technological society which has transformed our world into a village, has changed our ways of living, and has created forces which can destroy human life. Our ability to resolve this haunting problem will determine whether the hope of the Provincial Conference that 1776 would be a year "famed in the Annals of History to the End of Time, for establishing on a lasting Foundation the Liberties of One Quarter of the Globe" is sustained. Nothing is more appropriate than to commemorate their actions by rededicating ourselves to fulfilling this dream.

Note

A member of the faculty of West Chester University, Dr. Turner is also co-chairman, with Martha Carson-Gentry, of the Constitution Bicentennial Council of Chester County. Chester County, incidentally, is the only municipality in Pennsylvania, and one of about 150 communities altogether, to be designated a Constitution Bicentennial community.

The Council had its opening convocation on September 25, 1986, at the Court House in West Chester. (Mildred Kirkner, Eleanor Chworowsky, and Elizabeth Goshorn represented the Club at the convocation.) The keynote address was given by Hobart G. Cawood, Superintendent of the Independence National Park.

Throughout the year the Council will coordinate a number of lectures, activities in schools and libraries, exhibits, and other events to stimulate a greater awareness of the provisions of the United States Constitution and their importance and significance.