USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 92
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The next in the line of worthy and independent freeholders is evidently a deaf idiot, who, fastened in his chair, is brought by his attendants to give his vote for a fit person to represent him in Parliament. Behind him are two men carrying a sick man wrapped in a blanket ; after them follows a blind man, and then a lame man.
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importance, and the pleasure which the rich and powerful feel in governing those whoni Fate has made their inferiors, is not half so strong as that which the indigent and worth- less feel in subverting property, defying law, and lording it over those whom they were used to respect.
"A 'Jack Straw' or a John Wilkes are but the instruments of those whom they see111
to lead. * Has not the mob of London as good a right to be insolent as the un- checked mob of Boston? Was not the attack on Bedford House an encouragement to pull down any other house in London? And is it wonderful that the populace should at last assist the endeavours of those who for five years past have been making interest for Mr. Wilkes?"*
A few days after the announcement of Mr. Wilkes' election a Lon- don newspaper printed the following :
"It is confidently said that the legal life of Mr. Wilkes in Parliament will prove the certain death of the Scottish interest at Court; that expiring Jacobitism will, for tlie same reason, be totally extinguished, and that Mr. Wilkes' well-known aversion to the Romish superstition will greatly promote the present strict enquiry into the state of it in these kingdoms. * * We learn from Edinburgh that, on the night of the 4th inst. [April], several hundred persons assembled there and carried on their shoulders a figure which they called 'Wilkes'; and after parading the streets and shouting 'Wilkes and Liberty !' they carried him to the Grass-market, where they chaired the mock hero on the stone where the gallows is usually fixed at executions. After making a fire they com- mitted the effigy to the flames, scattered the ashes in the air, and then dispersed."
"The only opponent of Wilkes who was consistent throughout," says Fitzgerald,t "and who all through was for dealing with the arch- agitator in the most summary fashion, was the King. In fact, the whole seemed to be really fought out between two inen, His Majesty and Mr. Wilkes. The former identified him with the lowest scum of the popu- lation, and seemed to believe that he was ready to burn, sack and ravish. He held him accountable for the excesses of the inob. In aların for the safety of the palace, he had sat up during the whole night when the town was illuminated. * He was infinitely disgusted at the un- accountable inaction of the Ministers in not arresting the outlaw on his arrival. He wrote to one of his Secretaries : 'If he is not soon secured, I wish you would inquire whether there is no legal method of quicken- ing the zeal of the Sheriffs themselves.' "
Wilkes, unmolested, carried out his duly announced plans by pre- senting himself at Westminster Hall on the 13th of April. On his ap- pearance in the Court he inade a speech to the Judges, offering to sub- mit himself in everything to the laws, and adding a short defense on the two charges of publishing The North Briton and the "Essay on Woman." He complained also of the records of the Court having been altered by Lord Mansfield. The case was then duly argued by counsel, whereupon Lord Mansfield held that Wilkes was not properly "before the Court"- that he must be formally brought there on a writ, or warrant. West- minster Hall-as well as both the court-yards of Westminster Palace- was crowded by the populace on this occasion, but there was no dis- order. Upon retiring from the Court Wilkes repaired to Waghorn's coffee-house near by, and upon appearing at one of the windows thereof was greeted with vigorous applause and cheering by the crowd in the street. Later in the day he was served by a Sheriff's officer with a writ of "capias utlugatum"-under which he was permitted to remain at large, on his parole of honor to surrender when sent for. Wilkes im-
* In less than a year after this time Alexander Wedderburn exerted himself as much in the defense of Wilkes as ever he did in his condemnation. His vote on the popular side of the Middlesex election ques- tion in February, 1769, lost him his seat in Parliament. Through the friendship of Lord Clive for George Grenville, and on the recommendation of the latter, Wedderburn was elected to Parliament from Bishop's Castle in November, 1769. While he was out of Parliament he went about making harangues and sup- porting violent resolutions against the Government, and was more of a W'ilkesite than even Wilkes himself.
+ "The Life and Times of John Wilkes," I : 336.
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mediately announced in public that he would formally surrender his out- lawry on Wednesday, April 20th. George Grenville writing in reference to this said : "A great concourse of people is expected on Wednesday -the very expectation will alone make it. But, besides, I was told yesterday that Mr. Fitzherbert had advised Wilkes to prevent all crowd on that day, and that Wilkes in answer swore that he would be carried down to the Court on the shoulders of the city of London."
From a London newspaper of April 21, 1768, we get the following :
"Yesterday morning Mr. Wilkes came from his lodgings in a hackney-chair to the Parliament Coffee-house, in Old Palace-yard, being preceded by three gentlemen, who most pressingly recommended silence and good order to the populace, as did Mr. Wilkes also from the chair. He staid at the coffee-house till the Court was sat, and then went the back way into the Court, where liis surrender was not accepted. The matter was argued by counsel, and it is said that according to law Mr. Wilkes should have surrendered hinn- self to the Sheriff. The pleadings of tlie counsel lasted till near two o'clock, when Mr. Wilkes left the Court. * Among other prudent measures used yesterday for the preservation of peace, the locks were taken off the muskets belonging to the Middlesex inilitia, lest the mob should seize them."
In a London newspaper of April 28, 1768, we find the following :
"Yesterday morning about nine o'clock Mr. Wilkes was brought to Westminster Hall by virtue of tlie writ of capias utlugatum. He did not come into the Court of King's Bench till four minutes before three o'clock in the afternoon. A writ of error was allowed, after which it was argued whether the said gentleman could be admitted to bail ; when, after several learned arguments and debates-which lasted till half past six o'clock-it was the opinion of the Court that he could not. In consequence thereof lie was committed to the King's Bench Prison ; to which place, as Mr. Wilkes was going from the Hall in an hackney-coach, attended by Messrs. Stichall and Holloway, tipstaffs to the Rt. Hon. Lord Mansfield, the mob stopped the coach at the foot of Westminster Bridge, on the Middlesex side, took out the horses and drew the coach along the Strand, Fleet Street, etc., to Spitalfields. When they came to Spital Square they obliged the two tipstaffs to get out, and let them go very quietly away. They then drew Mr. Wilkes to the Three Tuns Tavern, in Spitalfields, where, from a one-story window, he earnestly entreated them to retire ; but they refused, saying they would watch him till the morn- ing. However, soon after they dispersed, and Mr. Wilkes went to the King's Bench between ten and eleven last night."
The next morning Lord Temple wrote to Mr. Wilkes as follows :
"I little thought I should ever pay a visit to the King's Bench Prison ; but the same opinions which carried me to see you in the Tower now incite me to take an opportunity (before I leave town for the Summer) of returning my thanks to you in person for your sober and discreet conduct of yesterday, manifested in a dutiful submission to the law, though carried on against you with the most unnecessary rigour by refusing bail. I applaud your wise and liumane discouragement of all tumult and disorder, in which I doubt not but you will persevere. Though I have not seen you for many years, yet I shall bring with me the same heart warin for your support of the just rights and dignity of the Crown, and for the defence of the constitutional privileges of Englishmen, violated in so many instances in your person."
This was the last letter written by Lord Temple to Wilkes, and shortly afterwards the friendship which had existed between the two men for so long was broken-Wilkes having grievously offended his Lordship by some remarks which he had printed.
The new Parliament being appointed to meet on the 10th of May there was an expectation that Wilkes would endeavor, by some means, to take his seat in the House of Commons, and a great crowd of people assembled near the prison. A riot ensued, the military were called out by the magistrates in pursuance of the advice of Lord Weymouth-com- minicated in an official letter-and one man was killed and several were wounded by the soldiers. Subsequently a letter of the Secretary for War, conveying an expression of the King's approval of the conduct of the officers and men on this occasion, was the subject of much caustic comment by "Junius." In the meantime the appeal of Wilkes against his outlawry had been argued-Serjeant Glynn appearing in his behalf-
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and on the 8th of June Wilkes was brought from the prison to the Court to hear the judgment, which was a reversal of the outlawry on a technical point. But the Court took advantage of the opportunity to pass sentence on Wilkes for reprinting and publishing The North Briton, "No. 45," and for printing the "Essay on Woman." In the one case he was sentenced to pay a fine of £500 and (having already been in prison for six weeks) to undergo a further confinement of ten months ; while in the other case he was to pay a fine of £500 and be imprisoned for a twelve- month. At the end of these terins he was to find sureties for his future conduct during seven years. A writ of error to the next House of Lords was immediately applied for by Wilkes, and he announced his determination to bring his whole case before Parliament by way of petition.
The quarrel of Wilkes with the Ministry gave him great popularity in the American Colonies with the opponents of the Government, and every political and public move made by Wilkes and his followers was chronicled in due time in the American newspapers-particularly in those of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Some of the issues of those papers published in May and June, 1768, had their news columns almost entirely filled with items relating to Wilkes; as for example, The New London Gazette of June 10, 1768-a sheet of four pages, each 73x12 inches in size, with three columns to a page-devoted five and a-half columns to the doings of Wilkes and the Wilkesites. When news reached Boston that Wilkes had been returned to Parliament as Member for Middlesex, "the friends of liberty, Wilkes, peace and good order- in other words, the Sons of Liberty" *- assembled at the Whig Tavern in Boston "to the number of forty-five and upwards" and formulated an address to Wilkes. They congratulated his country, the British Colonies and himself on his happy return to the land worthy such an inhabitant. They expressed their confidence that he would convince Great Britain and America "that he was one of those incorruptibly honest men reserved by Heaven to bless and perhaps save a tottering empire." Feeble and infirm as was the British Constitution, they would not despair of it. To Mr. Wilkes they owed much for his strenuous endeavors to preserve it. They asked leave, therefore, to express their confidence in his approved abilities and steady patriotism. His perseverance in the good old cause might still prevent the great system from dashing to pieces. In con- cluding they begged him to accept the copy of "The Farmer's Letters"+ which they sent with the address; the sentiments of the "Farmer" being theirs.
The foregoing address, together with "The Farmer's Letters," were forwarded to Wilkes' brother-in-law, Alderman Hayley, by whom they were duly delivered to Wilkes at the King's Bench Prison. Under date of July 19, 1768, Wilkes sent a reply to the address-professing himself extremely honored by it and the valuable present which accompanied it. Nothing could give him more satisfaction than to find the true spirit of liberty so generally diffused through the most remote parts of the Britishi monarchy. He thanked them very heartily for the generous and rational entertainment of "The Farmer's Letters," in which the cause of freedom was perfectly understood and ably defended. As a member of the Legis-
* Mentioned on page 482, and more fully referred to in Chapter X.
t "Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," by John Dickinson. For a fuller reference to these "Letters," and for a portrait of the author and a sketch of his life, see a subsequent chapter.
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lature he would always give a particular attention to whatever respected the interests of America, which he believed to be intimately connected with and of essential moment to the parent country and the common welfare of the great political system. After the first claims of duty to England and of gratitude to the county of Middlesex, none should engage him more than the affairs of the Colonies. He would ever avow himself a friend to universal liberty, and he held Magna Charta to be in as full force in America as in England. The only ambition hie felt was to distinguish himself as a friend of the rights of mankind, both religious and civil. The favorable opinion, which the committee of the Sons of Liberty in the town of Boston had been pleased to express of lim, was a great encouragement and a noble reward of his efforts in the service of the kingdom.
The Sons of Liberty answered this letter shortly after its receipt- the members of the organization having assembled to hear the letter read and to spend an evening in drinking toasts to the health of Wilkes and his friends, and to the cause they represented. In their reply the "Sons" congratulated themselves on their well-placed confidence, and presumed much on the exertions of such a martyr to universal liberty as Jolın Wilkes. They felt, with fraternal concern, that Europe in a ferment and America on the point of bursting into flames more press- ingly required the patriot senator, the wise and honest counselor, than the desolating conqueror. Numerous friends in the Colonies having dis- covered a great desire to see Wilkes' letter, they preferred a request for permission to publish it; and then they concluded with these words : "With ardent wishes for your speedy enlargement, elated expectations of sharing in your impartial concern for your country-the spreading empire of your sovereign, wherever extended-we remain, Unshaken Hero, your steady friends and much obliged humble servants."
At Norwich, Connecticut, the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty in Connecticut, Wilkes' election to Parliament was celebrated on June 7, 1768. The principal men of the town and vicinity assembled at Peck's Tavern on the Green, near the Liberty Tree (see page 591). A bounteous repast was served, all the furniture of the tables-plates, bowls, tureens, tumblers, napkins, etc .- being marked "No. 45." The Liberty Tree was decked with new emblems, among which, and conspicuously surmounting the whole, was a banner inscribed with "No. 45" and "Wilkes and Liberty !" During and after the repast forty-five toasts were drunk, some of which were : "The King"; "The Queen"; "Wilkes and Liberty"; "No. 45"; "The British Parliament"; "Tlie Royal Pa- triots of America"; "The Governor and Colony of Connecticut"; "All the Sons of Liberty on the Continent"; "No Internal Taxes in this Colony but such as are laid on us by our own Assemblies"; "No Bishops for America, to eat up the Tythe Pigs"; "May we never want a Wilkes, and may Wilkes never want Liberty"; "Success to our American Man- ufactories"; "Success to Trade and Navigation."*
Wilkes' imprisonment was, in a measure, a long triumph. Hampers of game and wine were sent to him continually from all quarters, and money poured in upon him from sympathizing patriots. Meanwhile he sent numerous addresses to his constituents and communications to the newspapers. In one of the latter lie incorporated a copy of Lord Wey-
* See The New London Gazette, June 10, 1768, and The Connecticut Courant (Hartford), July 4, 1768.
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mouth's letter to the City magistrates (alluded to on page 547, ante)- which by some unknown means he had obtained-introducing it with this remark : "It shows how long the horrid massacre in St. George's Fields had been planned and determined upon before it was carried into execution, and how long a hellish project can be brooded over by some infernal spirits without one moment's remorse." When Parliament met, November 14, 1768, Wilkes' petition was presented, setting out all his grievances in detail. His case was taken up at an early day by the two Houses in conference, when his libellous comments on Lord Weymouth's letter were considered. Later his petition was taken into consideration, and over it there was a hot debate in the House of Commons. Burke inveighed against the Ministers, declaring it was safer to libel the Con- stitution than the Ministers ; while Col. Isaac Barré went so far as to style Wilkes "a wicked, daring, infamnous incendiary" and "an infernal parricide." Finally, on the 3d of February, the House resolved, by a vote of 219 to 137, "that John Wilkes, Esq., who hath expressed him- self the author and publisher of an insolent, scandalous and seditious libel [against Lord Weymouth], and who has been convicted in the Court of King's Bench of having printed and published a seditious libel and three obscene and seditious impious libels, and been sentenced to twenty-two months' imprisonment, be expelled this House, and that a warrant be issued for a new election." In the meantime, about the first of January, Wilkes had been chosen Alderman of the Ward of Farring- don-Without, London, by a very considerable majority ; on which oc- casion "a great number of the gentlemen of the Lumber Troop, of which he [Wilkes] was a member, repaired to their suttling-house, where they drank health, prosperity and liberty to Mr. Wilkes, under a discharge of forty-five pieces of cannon, which were fired off before the door of the house."*
Under date of February 6, 1769, a gentleman in London wrote to The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia) as follows :
"Setting aside all prejudices and popular clamor against Wilkes' former irregulari- ties, we must acknowledge that he has done and suffered more for the cause of liberty than any patriot in our time ; and in all his latter conduct he has been so steady and so consistent that it has gained him universal applause. He is not only idolized by the mob, but caressed and supported by a great majority of sensible thinking men."
Immediately upon his expulsion from the House Wilkes, with the aid of his friends, began to canvass for his re-election. The polling took place on the 16th of February and resulted in Wilkes being again re- turned ; on learning which the House, on the 17th of February, resolved, by a vote of 235 to 89, that Wilkes having suffered expulsion he "was and is incapable of being elected a Member to serve in this present Parliament."
February 20th Wilkes issued from his prison an address to the free- holders of the county of Middlesex, in which was this paragraph :
"The unanimity you have shown in the second choice of me as your representative, has not prevented my second expulsion. Another writ is ordered, and I must again en- treat you to confirm your former choice by honoring me a third time with your votes."
On the same day that this address was issued a meeting of a large number of Wilkes' friends-Members of the House of Commons, and others-was held at the London Tavern. Certain resolutions were adopted, the preamble of which read in part as follows : "Whereas John Wilkes, Esq., has suffered very greatly in his private fortune from the * See The Pennsylvania Gazette, April 6, 1769.
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severe and repeated prosecutions he has undergone in behalf of the pub- lic ; and as it seems reasonable to us that the man who suffers for the public good should be supported by the public," etc. A subscription was then set on foot "to support the cause of Wilkes," when the sum of £3,340 was immediately subscribed. On March 16th a fresh election of this extending series was hield, and once more Wilkes was triumphantly returned ; but on the very next day the House of Commons declared his return "null and void," and issued a writ for a new election. The poll for this new election was taken at Brentford on the 13th of April, and Wilkes received 1,143 votes against 296 given to his opponent, Col. Henry Luttrell. The next day several thousand freeholders, carrying banners and preceded by a band of music, marched from Brentford to the King's Bench Prison to congratulate Wilkes on his victory. The publicans, all the way from Brentford to Knightsbridge, sold their beer at three pence per pot, in honor of Wilkes, as they said. At night houses were illuminated and church bells were rung.
On April 15th the House voted that "Henry Luttrell ought to have been returned, and therefore do order said return to be amended accordingly"; and some days later they declared "that H. Luttrell is duly elected." The scandalous contempt shown by the House for the rights of the electors soon enlisted on behalf of Wilkes every advocate for freedom in the country. No man, whatever his demerits, can help becoming a hero when his enemies persist in thrusting the role upon him. Chatham thundered on his behalf, Burke and Rockingham came to visit him in prison, and a society was organized for the purpose of paying his debts. The conduct of the House was denounced by Lord Camden (then Lord Chancelor) as a direct attack upon the principles of the Constitution-for which assertion of the popular right to choose a representative his Lordship was ultimately forced from the Govern- ment. Henry Cavendish, the celebrated physicist, grandson of the Duke of Devonshire, declared with great warmth : "I do from my soul detest and abjure, as unconstitutional and illegal, the damnable doctrine that the House of Commons can make, alter, suspend or abrogate the law of the land." This patriotic outburst became a regular toast at political banquets. The Common Council of the city of London presented to the King a strongly-worded remonstrance against the course his Ministers had adopted, and a bold denunciation of the House of Commons-for which many of the latter body would have had the principal movers of the address committed to the Tower, but fear of the popular indignation prevented them from proceeding to extremity. In this memorable address, or remonstrance-which greatly offended the King-the Con- mon Council declared :
"The majority of the House of Commons have deprived your people of their dearest rights. They have done a deed more ruinous in its consequences than the levying of ship- money by Charles I, or the dispensing power assumed by James II. A deed which must vitiate all the future proceedings of this Parliament, for the acts of the Legislature itself can no more be valid without a legal House of Commons than without a legal Prince upon the throne. Representatives of the people are essential to the making of laws, and there is a time when it is morally demonstrable that men cease to be representatives. That time is now arrived. The present House of Commons do not represent the people."
March 30, 1769, Wilkes addressed another letter to the Sons of Liberty at Boston, in which he stated that if he had been perinitted to take his seat in the House of Commons he would have been eager to move the repeal of the late Act which laid the new duties on paper,
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paint and other articles. He would have done this from the full per- suasion, not only of its being highly impolitic and inexpedient, but likewise absolutely unjust and unconstitutional-a direct violation of the great fundamental principles of civil liberty. The present session of Parliament had been, in many instances, most unfavorable to public liberty ; but he hoped that the next, and a more upright Administration, would restore all the subjects of the British Empire to the possession of their rights. He had read with grief and indignation the proceedings of the Ministry with regard to the troops ordered to Boston, as if it were the capital of a province belonging to enemies, or in the possession of rebels. He admired exceedingly the prudence and temper of the Ameri- can patriots on so intricate an occasion, maintaining at the same time their own dignity and the true spirit of liberty. Their moderation pre- vented the effusion of blood, which had been shed by the military in St. George's Fields on the most frivolous pretext and in the most in- human way. He submitted to them the propriety of the publication of any letters which might pass between them.
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