Pennsylvania ratified the Federal Constitution in spite of pow erful opposition on Dec. 22, 1787, and in 1790 revised its own Constitution to conform with that instrument, the executive coun cil being abolished, the office of governor restored and a bicameral legislative system adopted. From 1790 to r800 Philadephia, then the largest and wealthiest city in the United States, was the seat of the Federal Government. The State capital was moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster in 1799 and from Lancaster to Harris burg in 1812.
Progress of Settlement and Industry.—In 1800 the popu lation of the State was 602,000. The years just previous to the Revolution and those after the Revolution were years of rapid settlement beyond the mountains. Settlement in the Upper Sus quehanna valley was also rapid in this period. Bridges and roads were being built in every direction and stage-coach routes estab lished. The Philadelphia-Lancaster turnpike (1790) was the first important turnpike in America. In 18°6 a bill passed Congress providing for the national road from Cumberland, Md., to the Ohio, which passed through south-western Pennsylvania and had great influence in the development of that section. After 1790 anthracite coal began to be mined near Mauch Chunk and trans ported down the rivers to Philadelphia. About i800 iron began to be manufactured in Lancaster, Coatesville, Phoenixville and the Juanita valley. Upon the opening of the mines thousands of Irish began to settle in the mining regions.
that time assured and the State began selling its enterprises to private corporations.
Pennsylvania was usually Democratic before the Civil War owing to the democratic nature of its western and immigrant citizens. The growth of the protectionist movement and the de velopment of anti-slavery sentiment drew it toward the newly organized Republican party, however, and it voted the Lincoln ticket in 186o. During the Civil War the State was subject to raids along its southern border, Chambersburg being burned in 1862. The battle of Gettysburg (July 1863), a defeat of Lee's attempt to invade the North, was a turning point in the war. After the Civil War.—On the political side the chief feature of the State's history after the Civil War was the growth ,pf the Cameron-Quay-Penrose political machine, founded by Simon Cam eron, strengthened by his son James Donald Cameron, and con tinued under Matthew Stanley Quay and Boies Penrose, down to the time of the latter's death in 1921. It was based upon the con trol of patronage, the distribution of State funds, the sup port of the Pennsylvania railway and other powerful corpora tions, and upon the ability to persuade the electors that it was necessary to vote the strict Republican ticket to save the pro tective system. This machine was not only all-powerful in State politics but influenced national elections. During Governor Penny packer's administration, 1903-o7, a number of new departments, among them those of forestry, health and highways, were created. Also under his administration the Pennsylvania State police were established as a more efficient body than the State militia in dealing with strikes and lawlessness. In 1913 the department of labour and industry was created and a workmen's compensation board set up. Gifford Pinchot was nominated by a close vote in 1922 and afterward elected. Under his direction the "Adminis trative Code" of 1923 centralizing control and consolidating de partments was passed, giving the governor much more power than he had hitherto possessed. In 1927 John S. Fisher (Republican) was elected to succeed Pinchot.
In the presidential election of 1932 Pennsylvania's normal Re publican majority, though not destroyed, was considerably dimin ished. And two years later the political reaction thus indicated was carried to its consummation when the Democrats elected their candidate, George H. Earle, to the governorship, captured 23 out of 34 seats in the House of Representatives and turned out of the Senate the veteran Republican David A. Reed to make room for their own nominee, Joseph F. Guffey. In November 1935, indeed, despite a determined effort, the party failed to carry the city elections of Philadelphia, but the vote was not suf ficiently decisive to show any clear drift in the state back to its old allegiance.