USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey : from its earliest settlement to the present time : including a brief historical account of the first discoveries and settlement of the country, Vol. I > Part 29
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To prosecute the views of territorial acquisition and seduction of the Indians, the French attacked the Twightees, and slew many in order to punish them for adhering to the British, and protecting English traders.
The Ohio company having surveyed large tracts of land upon the Ohio river, with the design of settlement, the governor of Canada remonstrated with the governors of New York and Pennsylvania, upon the invasion of the French territories, and threatened to resort to force, unless the English traders abandoned their intercourse with the Indians. The threats being dis- regarded, he captured some traders, and sent them to France, whence they retired without redress. He also opened a com- munication from Presque Isle by French creek, and the Alleghany river to the Ohio, and though the Six Nations forbade him to occupy the Ohio lands, be despised the present weakness of those tribes.
Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, learning that the French designed to proceed southward from Fort Venango, on French creek, despatched an agent, for the purpose of gaining intelligence and remonstrating against their designs. For this duty Mr. George Washington, then a young man under twenty years of age, was selected.
He left the frontier with several attendants on the 14th of November, 1753, and after a journey of two months over mountain and torrent, through morass and forest, braving the in- clemency of the winter and the howling wilderness, and many dangers from Indian hostility, he returned with the answer of Legardeau de St. Pierre, the French commandant upon the Ohio, dated at the fort, upon Le Boeuff river. The French re- ferred the discussion of the rights of the two countries to the Marquis du Quesne, governor in chief of Canada, by whose orders he had assumed, and meant to sustain his present position. From De la Joncaire, a captain in the French service, and Indian interpreter, Washington received full information of the designs of the French. They founded their claims to the Ohio river, and its appurtenances, on the discovery of La Salle, sixty years before, and their present measures for its defence,
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had grown out of the attempts of the Ohio company to occupy its banks.
The British ministry understanding the views and operations of the French nation on the American continent, remonstrated with the court of Versailles. But while that court publicly in- structed the governor of Canada to refrain from hostilities, to demolish the fortress at Niagara, to deliver up the captured traders and to punish their captors, it privately informed him, that strict obedience was not expected. Deceived and insulted, the English monarch resolved to oppose force by force, and the American governors were directed to repel the encroachments of any foreign prince or state. -
The English force in America, numerically considered, was much greater than that of the French, but divided among many and independent sections, its combined efforts were feeble and sluggish, while the French, directed by one will, had the advantages of union and promptitude, and drew the happiest hopes from the boldest enterprises. To resist them, effectually, some confederacy of the colonies was necessary, and common prudence required that the affections of the Indians towards the English should be assured. A conference between the Six Nations and the representatives of the colonies, was ordered by the ministry, under the direction of Governor De Lancy, of New York. This order was communicated to the assembly of New Jersey, by Governor Belcher, on the 25th of April, 1754. But the house refused on this, as they had upon every other occasion, heretofore, to take part in the Indian treaties, assigning as a reason, that their province had no participation in the Indian trade ; they professed, however, their readiness to con- tribute their assistance to the other colonies, towards preventing the encroachments of the French on His Majesty's dominions, but declaring their present inability to do aught on account of the poverty of their treasury. The reluctance displayed by the assembly upon this subject, together with their rude reply to a remonstrance from the governor, so provoked him that he dis- solved them.
The Six Nations, although large presents were made them, were cold to the instances of the confederate council, which met on the
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14th of June. Few attended, and it was evident that the affection of all towards the English had diminished. They refused to enter into a coalition against the French, but consented to assist in driving them from the positions they had assumed in the west, and to renew former treaties.
In this convention of the colonies, several plans for political union were submitted, and that devised by Benjamin Franklin, of which the following is an outline, was adopted on the 4th of July. " A general colonial government was to be formed, to be administered by a president-general, appointed and paid by the crown ; and a grand council of forty-eight members to be chosen for three years by the colonial assemblies, to meet at Philadelphia the first time at the call of the president. After the first three years, the number of members from each colony was to be in the ratio of the revenue paid by it to the public treasury.
"The grand council was to meet statedly, annually, and might be specially convened, in case of emergency by the presi- dent. It was empowered to choose its speaker, and could not be dissolved, prorogued or kept together longer than six weeks at one time, without its consent, or the special commands of the crown. They were, with the president-general, to hold or direct all Indian treaties, in which the general interest of the colonies were concerned, and to make peace and to declare war with Indian nations. To purchase for the crown from the Indians, lands not within particular colonies. To make new settlements on such purchase, by granting lands in the King's name, reserv- ing quit rents to the crown, for the use of the general treasury. To make laws regulating and governing such new settlements until they should be formed into particular governments; to raise soldiers ; build forts and equip vessels of war; and for these purposes to make laws and levy taxes. To appoint a general treasurer, and a particular treasurer in each government. Disbursements to be made only on an appropriation by law, or by joint order of the president and council.
" The general accounts to be settled yearly, and reported to the several assemblies. Twenty-five members to form a quorum of the council, there being present one or more from a majority
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of the colonies. The assent of the president general was requisite to all acts of the council, and it was his duty to execute them. The laws enacted were to be as like as possible to those of England, and to be transmitted to the king in council for approval, as soon as might be after their enactment, and if not disproved within three years, to remain in force. On the death of the president general, the speaker was to succeed him, and to hold his office until the pleasure of the king should be known. Military and naval officers acting under this constitution, were to be appointed by the president, and approved by the council ; and the civil officers to be nominated by the council and approved by the president ; and in case of vacancy in the civil or military service, the governor of the province in which it happened, was to appoint until the pleasure of the president and council should be ascertained."
This plan was submitted to the board of trade in England, and to the assemblies of the several provinces ; Franklin says its fate was singular. The assemblies rejected it as containing too much prerogative, while in England, it was condemned as too demo- cratic. Had it been adopted, the projector might have been famed as the forger of a nation's chains, instead of the destroyer of a tyrant's sceptre. As a substitute, the British ministry proposed that the governors of the colonies, with one or more members of the respective councils, should resolve on the measures of defence, and draw on the British treasury for the money required, to be refunded by a general tax, imposed by parliament on the colonies. But this proposition was deemed inadmissible by the provinces. The " plan of union," as adopted by the congress, was laid before the assembly of New Jersey in October. The house voted that if it should be carried into effect, "it might be prejudicial to the prerogative of the crown, and to the liberties of the people." They instructed their agent at court to petition the king and parliament against its ratification ..
Virginia had raised three hundred men, under Colonel Fry and Lieutenant Colonel Washington. The latter marched with two companies to the Great Meadows, in the Alleghany mountains, and having learned that the French had dispersed a party, who
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had been employed by the Ohio company to erect a fort on the Monongahela river, and who were themselves raising fortifica- tions at the confluence of that river with the Alleghany, and that a detachment was then approaching his camp.
Being convinced of the hostile intentions of this party, Washington resolved to anticipate them. Guided by his Indians, under cover of a dark and rainy night, he surprised the French encampment, and captured the whole party, except one who fled, and Jumonville, the commanding officer, who was killed. Soon after the whole regiment united at the Great Meadows. They were reinforced by two independent companies of regulars, one from South Carolina and the other from New York, forming an , effective force of five hundred men.
In consequence of the death of Colonel Fry, the command de- volved upon Colonel Washington, who was at this time under age. Having erected a stockade to protect their horses and provisions, they marched to dislodge the enemy at Fort Du Quesne. Their progress was arrested by information of the advance of twelve hundred French and Indians. As the Ameri- cans had been six days without bread, and had but a small supply of meat remaining, and fearing the enemy would cut them off from their stores, they resolved to retreat to their stockade, to which they gave the name of Fort Necessity.
Colonel Washington commenced a ditch around this post, but before he could complete it, he was attacked by the French force under Monsieur de Villiars. The troops made an obstinate de- fence, fighting partly within the stockade, and partly in the ditch, half filled with mud and water, from ten o'clock in the morning until dark, when de Villiars demanded a parley, and offered terms of capitulation. During the night, articles were signed allowing the garrison the honors of war, to retain their arms and baggage, and to return home unmolested. The last clause was not strictly kept, the Indians harassing and plundering the Americans during their retreat. The courage and conduct of Washington on this occasion, was greatly applauded, and laid the foundation for his future greatness. The assembly of Virginia voted their thanks to him and his officers. The French
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retired to their post on the Ohio .* The French nation strongly reprobated the attack on the part of Jumonville, it having been without summons or expostulation. They declared that while peace prevailed between the two nations, hostility should not have been presumed. The death of Jumonville was called by them an assassination, even in the capitulation of Fort Necessity, the attack upon which, they state to have been made in con- sequence of the outrage upon their advance party. These allegations were refuted, by a review of the conduct of the French, since the development of their designs upon the Ohio. The capture of the persons and property of the settlers, at Log- town, and of the Indian traders, wherever found in the western country, afforded conclusive evidence of their intention to try the disputed title by force, and they could not, justly, complain of the reply to their argument. t
The French completed Fort Du Quesne, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, which is now the thriving city of Pittsburg. They garrisoned it with one thousand regulars, with an ample supply of cannon, provisions, and other munitions, and prepared to occupy the country of the Twightees, with numerous settlers. The Six Nations were now. more numerous on the western waters than they were in their ancient . location ; they were indifferent to the cause of the English, and were divided among themselves, and it was with great difficulty that they maintained their neutrality. Some of them had re- moved to Canada, preferring the protection of the active and enterprising French commanders. The small body of the English troops on the frontiers was weakened by desertions and demoralized, the Indians who still adhered to their interest re- tired to Aughwick, in Pennsylvania, and there proclaimed their admiration of the courage of the enemy, and their contempt
* Marshall's Washington. Bradford's journal, Review of military opera- tions in North America. London, 1757.
+ Colonel Washington, who was ignorant of the French language, was unable to read the articles of capitulation, and was, therefore, obliged to rely on an interpreter, who rendered the word "assasinat," into the word " death," merely .- Wash. Lett.
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of the sloth of their friends, and it was with great difficulty that the assembly of Pennsylvania, with all the liberality manifested towards them and their families, and with all its forbearance to- wards the license of their chiefs, could keep them quiet.
After much delay, however, Great Britain prepared with energy to oppose the growing power of her restless rival on this continent.
They sent forward two regiments of foot from Ireland, com- manded by Colonels Dunbar and Halkett, who were ordered to Virginia to be there enforced, and Governor Shirley and Sir William Pepperell were directed to raise two regiments of one thousand men each, to be officered from New England, of which they were to have command. The provinces generally were re- quired to furnish men to be placed at the disposal of the com- mander-in-chief, who should be appointed to command all the forces of the king, in America, and ample provision was made for their sustenance, transportation and all the necessaries for the soldiers landed or raised within the provinces, which expenses were to be borne by the respective provinces.
Governor Belcher urged the assembly of New Jersey to make liberal provision, but they refused to appropriate more than five hundred pounds for the transportation and subsistence of the troops of this province, in consequence of having previously voted the issue of seventy thousand pounds in bills of credit.
The troops under Major General Braddock, Sir John St. Clair, Adjutant General, and the regiments of Dunbar and Halkett, sailed from Cork on the 14th of January, 1755, and arrived at Alexandria, in Virginia, early in March, from whence they marched to Fredericktown, in Maryland. The governors of New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia, met at Annapoli; to devise a plan of military operations with General Braddock. Three expeditions were determined upon. The first against Fort du Quesne, under General Braddock in person, with the British troops and those of Maryland and Virginia ; the second against Forts Niagara and Frontenac, under General Shirley, with his own and Pepperill's regiment ; and the third, originally pro- posed by Massachusetts, against Crown Point, to be executed
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altogether by colonial troops from New England, New York and New Jersey, under Major General William Johnson.
Before the measures above had been fully matured, Lieuten- ant Colonel Monckton, a British officer, and Lieutenant Colonel Winslow, a major general of the Massachusetts militia, made an attack against the French, in the province of Nova Scotia, and in little more than a month, with the loss of only three men, they obtained possession of the whole province.
The province of New Jersey, in a continental war, dreaded an attack from Canada by the way of. New York, while from the French and Indians on the Ohio, they had no fears. The as- sembly cordially approved the plan of operations adopted at Annapolis, and particularly the expedition against Crown Point, and at once resolved to raise a battalion of five hundred men, and to maintain which, to issue bills of credit for fifteen thousand pounds, redeemable within five years. The governor nominated Mr. Peter Schuyler, with the rank of colonel, to command this force, and that gentleman's popularity was such that the battal- ion was not only promptly filled, but a much larger number of men than were required, presented themselves for enlistment.
General Braddock removed his army to Fort Cumberland, on Willis's Creek, where he received his wagons and other neces- sary supplies ; at which place he was reinforced by a considera- ble body of Americans and Indians, and on the 12th of June he broke up his encampment at this place and passed the Alleghany mountains at the head of two thousand men.
At Little Meadows, he convened a council of war for consul- tation on future operations. Colonel Washington, who had en- tered the army as a volunteer aid-de-camp, having a perfect knowledge of the country, as well as the nature of the service, had urged the substitution of pack horses for wagons for the transportation of their baggage. He again urged it upon them, and earnestly and successfully recommended that the heavy artillery and stores should remain with the rear division and follow the army by easy marches, while a body of troops should be chosen, with a few pieces of light cannon and stores, to press forward to Fort du Quesne. For this service, twelve hundred
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men with twelve pieces of cannon, were sent forward, com- manded by General Braddock in person.
Sir Peter Halkett acted as brigadier, having under him Lieu- tenant Colonels Gage and Burton and Major Spark.
Thirty wagons only, including those with the ammunition, fol- lowed. The rest of the army remained under the care of Colo- nel Dunbar and Major Chapman.
The benefit of these prudent measures was lost by the fastidi- ousness and presumption of the commander-in-chief, and his strong confidence and reckless temerity were destined to a speedy and fatal reproof.
Having crossed the Monongahela river, and when within seven miles of Fort du Quesne, feeling himself secure and joy- ously anticipating the coming victory, he was suddenly checked by a destructive fire on the front and left flank, from an invisi- ble enemy.
The van was thrown into confusion, but the main body form- ing three deep, instantly advanced. The commanding officer of the enemy having fallen, it was supposed that the assailants had dispersed, as the attack was for a moment suspended, but the fire was renewed with great spirit ; the English seeing their men falling around them, and unable to see their foe or tell from whence the firing came, broke and fled in utter dismay. Had he have availed himself of the advantage his Indians afforded him, of reconnoitering the woods and passages on the front and flank, as prudently suggested by Sir Peter Halkett, this disaster might have been avoided, but he even sneered at the suggestion. But, in his astonishment at this sudden and unexpected attack, he lost his self-possession, and neither gave orders for a regular retreat, nor for his cannon to advance and scour the woods. His officers behaved admirably, but distinguished by their dresses, and selected by the hidden marksmen, they suffered severely. Every one on horseback, except Washington, was killed or wounded. He had two horses killed under him, and four balls through his coat. Sir Peter Halkett was killed on the spot, and the general himself, having been five times dismounted, received a ball through the arm and lungs, and was carried from the field. He survived only four days. On the first day he did not speak,
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and at night he only made the remark, "Who would have thought it?" He was again silent, until a few minutes before his death, when he observed, "We shall better know how to deal with them another time," and in a short time after expired.
The defeat was total-the carnage unusually great. Sixty-four out of eighty-five officers, and one-half of the privates, were killed or wounded. Many fell by the arms of their fellow sol- diers. Of Captain Stewart's light-horse, twenty-five out of the twenty-nine were killed. The defeat of General Braddock, which was wholly unexpected, produced great consternation throughout all the colonies. Upon the receipt of intelligence of this extraordinary event, as Governor Belcher properly termed it, he summoned the assembly of New Jersey to meet him on the Ist of August, but it was not until the approach of winter that they became fully aware of its disastrous consequences, and began to prepare against them.
The enemy discovering the defenceless state of the frontiers, now roamed fearlessly and unmolested along the western lines of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and committed the most appalling outrages and cruelties, which the cupidity and ferocity of the savage could dictate. Their first inroads were in Cum- berland county, Pennsylvania, from whence they were soon ex- tended to the Susquehana, and thence through Berks and North- ampton counties, across the Delaware into New Jersey,
They were joined by the Shawanese and Delaware Indians, who had hitherto remained faithful to the colonists. They com- mitted depradations the most horrible, laying in waste towns, slaughtering men, women and children ; even the settlements of the peaceful Moravians, on the Lehigh, were destroyed, and the inhabitants slaughtered. They made no prisoners, but murdered all who fell into their hands, of both sexes.
The inhabitants of New Jersey, roused by the sufferings of their neighbors, prepared, not only to resist the foe, but to pro- tect their friends. Colonel John Anderson was most conspicu- ous among the energetic citizens of Sussex county. With four hundred men, whom he collected, he scoured the country, marched to the defence of Easton, and pursued the dastard enemy, unhappily in vain. The governor promptly dispatched troops
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from all parts of the province to the defence of its western frontier, and the wealthy inhabitants advanced the funds requi- site for their maintenance, until the assembly, in the middle of December, took such troops upon the provincial establishment, and recalled their battalion under Colonel Schuyler, from the Northern service, where it was then idle, and placed them also on the frontier. To meet the expenses thus incurred, the house, though greatly chagrined at the rejection, by the king, of their bill for a paper currency, voted ten thousand pounds in such bills, redeemable at the usual period of five years.
The marauding parties of French and Indians hung on the western frontiers during the winter.
To guard against their devastations, a chain of forts and block- houses were erected by Pennsylvania along the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains, from the Delaware river to the Maryland line, commanding the principal passes of the mountains. In New Jersey, forts and block-houses were also erected along the moun- tains, and at favorable points on the east bank of the Delaware river. Many of the inhabitants left their homes, and all called loudly upon the assembly for additional means of defence ; and in the spring, when the Jersey regiment was again to proceed to the north, the house authorized the enlistment of two hundred and fifty volunteers, to supply their place and that of the militia on the frontier.
In enlisting troops for the approaching campaign, the recruit- ing parties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey gave great offence to the inhabitants by the reception, if not the seduction of their indented servants; and the assembly of the latter province threatened to discontinue the regiment they had furnished, un- less the grievance was redressed. Circumstances, however, did not admit the discharge of such recruits to any great extent, of which the house becoming sensible, appropriated fifteen thousand pounds for the maintenance of that regiment for the campaign. Extraordinary inducements were offered at this time for enlist- ment in the royal regiments. The recruits were exempted from service anywhere but in North America, and were promised a bounty of two hundred acres of land, free from quit rents for ten years, either in the province of New York, New Hampshire,
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or Nova Scotia, at their option, and in case they should be killed in the service, it was assured to their children.
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