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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume III > Part 18
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"As the Continental troops have lately been withdrawn from Wyoming, * you will each of you, directly march with your respective companies to that Fort, and take every proper measure for maintaining the Post there, and for protecting the settlements. * * *
"As we confide very much in your prudence, we trust that your conduct will enforce our wishes on a point of great importance. It is our earnest desire that the inhabitants settled at or near Wyoming should be in all respects treated with kindness. This we know to be the desire also of the Legislature-it being the unanimous sense of both Branches of the Government that all differences should be equitably and finally adjusted. We therefore expect that you will separ- ately and together employ your best exertions to prevent any injury being done to the inhabitants before mentioned, and even any quarrels being entered into with them by the officers and soldiers under your command, and that you may convince them by your care and attention to them that they are regarded as fellow citizens whose welfare and happiness you sincerely and affectionately * * desire to promote." *
At this time Captain Shrawder and his company were on duty in North- ampton County, Pennsylvania, while Captain Robinson and his company were stationed at Northumberland, Pennsylvania (as mentioned in [||] note on pages 1243 and 1244). As soon as possible both companies were marched to Wilkes- Barré, where they took possession of Fort Wyoming and re-named it "Fort Dickinson", in honor of the President of the Supreme Executive Council of
became Master of the grammar school connected with that college. Meanwhile he studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1760. The same year he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater, Yale College, and the college of Philadelphia (afterwards the University of Pennsylvania.) Mr. Montgomery held various pastorates in Pennsylvania until 1769, in which year he was installed pastor of the congregations of Christiana Bridge and New Castle, Delaware, where he remained until 1777. Subsequently he served as Chaplain of Colonel Smallwood's regiment of Maryland troops in the Continental Line. In 1780 he was chosen by the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania as one of the State's Representatives in the Continental Congress, and in this office he served two terms. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1782, and was a member of that hody when elected to serve as a Commissioner to conduct the investigations at Wyoming. As stated in the note on page 759, Vol. II, he succeeded William Montgomery in 1784 as a member of the New York-Pennsylvania boundary-line commission.
In March, 1785, when the county of Dauphin, Pennsylvania, was erected, Joseph Montgomery was appointed and commissioned Recorder of Deeds and Register of Wills in and for the new county; and these offices he held until his death, which occurred at Harrisburg October 14, 1794.
*See Hoyt's "Brief" (previously mentioned), uote on page 56.
tSee "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, IX: 761.
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Pennsylvania .* Meanwhile, on March 11, 1783, the Pennsylvania Assembly resolved that the Commissioners appointed on the 25th of February should attend at Wyoming on April 15, 1783; and that Surveyor General John Lukens, or a Deputy under him, "be directed to attend the Commissioners with the necessary
*JOHN DICKINSON, known as the "Penman of the Revolution," was born in Talhot County, Maryland, November 13, 1732. Gen. Philemon Dickinson, mentioned on page 903, Vol. II, was his younger brother, having been born in Talbot County, April 5, 1739, and dying near Trenton, New Jersey, February 4, 1809. Their parents were Samuel D. and Mary (Cadwalader) Dickinson- Samuel D. Dickinson having lo- cated in 1740 in Delaware, where he became Chief Justice of Kent County, and died July 6, 1760, aged seventy-one years.
DICKINSON-
They form one political body, of which each Colony is a member. *
John Dickinson studied law in Philadelphia from 1750 to 1753, and then went to London, where he entered the Middle Temple and spent three years. On his return to America itt 1757, he hegan the practice of his profes- sion in Philadelphia. In 1760 he hecame a member of the General Assembly of Delaware, and in 1762, at the age of thirty years, was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he served with great distinction until 1765.
The imposition of the Stamp Act on the American Colonies in 1765, as related on pages 584 and 585, Vol. I, produced great ac- tivity on the part of the press. The chief writer was John Dickin- son, who acquired great distinc- tion at this period in his published articles against the policy of the British Government. In Septem- ber, 1765 (as noted on pages 587 and 589, Vol. I), he was ap- pointed a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, and, as a member of that hody, formulated what was a genuine Bill of Rights.
The Stamp Act having been repealed in March, 1766 (see page 592, Vol. I), a new measure, respecting impost duties in the American Colonies, was passed by Parliament in the Spring of 1767, as mentioned in the note on page 596, Vol. I; about which time John Dickinson issued an "Ad- dress to the British Colonists", containing the following para- graphs:
"What have these Colonists to ask while they continue free? Or what have they to dread but in- sidious attempts to subvert their freedom? Their prosperity does not depend on ministerial favours doled out to particular Provinces.
* We have all the rights requisite for our prosperity. The legal authority of Great Britain may indeed lay hard restrictions upon us; but, like the spear of Tele- phus, it will cure as well as wound. Her unkindness will instruct and compel us, after some time, to discover in our industry and frugality surprising remedies-if our rights continue unviolated; for, as long as the products of our labour and the rewards of our care can properly he called our own, so long it will be worth our while to be industrious and Irugal. * : * *
"Let us take care of our rights, and we therein take care of our prosperity. 'Slavery is ever preceded by Sleep!' Individuals may be dependent on Ministers, if they please. * But, if we have already forgotten the reason that urged us, with unexampled unanimity, to exert ourselves two years ago-if our zeal for the public good is worn out before the homespun clothes which it caused us to have made-if our resolutions are so faint as, hy our present conduct, to condemn our own late successful example-if we are not affected by any reverence for the memory of our ancestors, who transmitted to us that freedom in which they had been blessed-if we are not animated by any regard for posterity, to whom, hy the most sacred obligations, we are hound to deliver down the invaluable inheritance-then, indeed, any Minister, or any tool of a Minister, or any creature of a tool of Minister, or any lower instrument of administration (if lower there be), is a personage whom it may be dangerous to offend."
The Act respecting impost duties met at once with opposition in the Colonies, and late in October, 1767, was de- nounced by a public meeting in Boston, which suggested a non-importation agreement as the best means of rendering its operations ineffective. "While the leaders of the opposition throughout the country were doubtful and hesitating", says Charles J. Stille, LL. D., in his 'Life and Times of John Dickinson', there appeared in the Pennsylvania Chronicle (Philadelphia) for the 2d of December, 1767, the first of a series of letters on the political situation, afterwards known as the 'Farmer's Letters'. The letters, fourteen in number, followed one another in quick succession, and they were read by men of all classes and opinions throughout the continent as no other work of a political kind had been hitherto read in America. It was, of course, soon known that John Dickinson was their author."
In the first of these "Letters" Mr. Dickinson wrote: "Benevolence towards mankind excites wishes for their welfare, and such wishes endear the means of fulfilling them. These can be found in liberty only, and therefore her sacred cause ought to be espoused by every man on every occasion, to the utmost of his power." These "Letters" were collected together and published in hook form (80 pages, size 31/2x6 inches) at Boston in 1768, under the title "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies." A second edition of the pamphlet was published hy Hall & Sellers at Philadelphia in 1768, and a third edition was printed by William and Thomas Bradford at Philadelphia in 1769. From that time to the present, various editions of the "Letters" have been publish- ed both in this country and England-one of the latest editions being the one published by The Outlook Company, New York, in 1903.
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The "Farmer's Letters" had a wide circulation, both in the Colonies and in England, and they plainly fore- shadowed trouble if the British did not make an attempt to understand what the Americans desired and what they would not suffer. One of the earliest copies of the "Letters" sent to the mother country was the one sent to John Wilkes, as related on page 548, Vol. I.
The "Letters" produced such an effect on both sides of the Atlantic that their appearance has been regarded as "the most brilliant event in the literary history of the Revolution." Ramsay, in his "History of the American Rev- olution", declares that Dickinson, in his "Letters", "may be said to have sown the seeds of the Revolution." The following is an extract from a letter from a gentleman in London, published in the New York Journal of April 13, 1769. "Mr. Dickinson's 'Farmer's Letters' have carried his name and reputation all over the British Dominions, I was a few days ago in a large company of patriots and advocates of liberty, where I heard a thousand fine encomiums passed upon them. It is a general remark here that all the State papers which come from America are wrote in a style not to be equalled in any part of the British duminions."
At a largely-attended meeting of the merchants of Philadelphia, held in that city on April 25, 1768, Mr. Dickinson delivered a long and carefully-prepared address, the opening (1) and closing (2) paragraphs of which were as follows: (1) "You are called together to give your advice and opinions as to what answer shall be returned to our Brethren of Boston and New York, who desire to know whether we will unite with them in stopping the importation of goods from Great Britain until certain Acts of Parliament are repealed, which are thought to be injurious to our rights as freemen and British subjects. * * * * (2) I hope, my Brethern, there is not a man among us who will not cheer- fully join in the measure proposed, and, with our Brethren of Boston and New York, freely forego a present advantage, nay, even submit to a present inconvenience, for the sake of Liberty, on which our happiness, lives and properties depend. Let us never forget that our strength depends on our union, and our liberty on our strength. United we conquer-divided we die!"
In 1768 William Goddard of Philadelphia published a tract of eight pages written by Mr. Dickinson and entitled "To the Public." It dealt with the Stamp Act and the renewal of the Non-Importation Agreement. In this same year a "Liberty Song" written hy Mr. Dickinson was widely disseminated and sung. It was set to the air of "Hearts of Oak", and is said to have been the first American patrotic song, produced in this country. It first appeared in God- dard's Pennsylvania Chronicle, and was soon copied into newspapers throughout the Colonies. It had a great vogue. In it were the lines:
"Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall."
This phrase was freely quoted during the American Revolution. It was the pith of all Mr. Dickinson's public writings; it was the motto of the times; it was the slogan which eventually was to lead the patriots to victory.
In 1774 Mr. Dickinson wrote, and William and Thomas Bradford of Philadelphia published, "An Essay on the Constitutional Powers of Great Britain over the Colonies in America."
As narrated on pages 354 and 602, the First Continental Congress convened in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. In general the Delegates-fifty-five in number-were men of uncommon ability, who had taken a prominent part in the political action of their several localities. Among the Delegates from Pennsylvania were Joseph Galloway (mentioned in the note on page 781, Vol. II), some time later attainted of high treason in pursuance of the treason laws of the State of Pennsylvania, and John Dickinson. The latter was the author of a series of State papers put forth by the Congress, which won for him a glorious tribute from Lord Chatham. Among them was the "Petition to the King", referred to on pages 557 and 603. It has been said that "it will remain an imperishable monu- ment to the glory of its author and of the Congress of which he was a member, so long as fervid and manly eloquence and chaste and elegant composition shall be appreciated."
On the adjournment of the Congress in October, 1774, a public entertainment was given to the Delegates by more than 500 citizens of Philadelphia; and it was manifest that the union of the Colonies was greatly strengthened by the ties not only of public interest, but of private friendship. Independence, let it be borne in mind, was still not yet the object aimed at. Redress of grievances and the repeal of obnoxious statutes were to be accomplished, if possible, by means compatible with colonial allegiance. If blood was to be shed, it was to be in defense against aggression.
To carry into effect the measures determined on by the Congress, a committee of sixty persons was elected in Phila- delphia in November, 1774. John Dickinson, Joseph Reed, Charles Thomson, George Clymer and Thomas Mifflin were members of it. The committee proceeded with great energy to the discharge of its dutie ;.
The following paragraph is from a letter written in Philadelphia relative to the First Continental Congress, and printed in the London Chronicle of January 5, 1775. "The cordiality and affection which the American puffers and scribblers say prevailed at the General Congress are known by every honest Philadelphian to be falsehoods. The celebrated Mr. Dickinson, the second-named Delegate from Pennsylvania, cannot have forgotten the thorough caning which he received from Mr. Galloway, the first-named Delegate; nor can Mr. Galloway have forgiven the scurrilous falsities which provoked him to discipline the celebrated Gentleman Farmer, Lawyer and Patriot. The public may guess what sort of affection subsisted between the well-drubbed patriot and his corrector."
As mentioned in the note on page 859, Vol. II, John Dickinson was a member of the Provincial Convention which assembled at Philadelphia in January, 1775. The Secund Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia May 10, 1775, and Mr. Dickinson attended as one of the Delegates from Pennsylvania. On the 23d of the same month he was appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly, and duly commissioned, Colonel of the 1st Battalion of Associators (Militia) in the City and Liberties of Philadelphia. Early in the Second Congress a second "humble and dutiful" petition to the King was moved. John Dickinson had the chief part in framing it, but it met with strong opposition. John Adams condemned it as an imbecile measure, calculated to embarrass the proceedings of the Congress. He was for prompt and vigorous action, and other members concurred with him. The petition was finally adopted, however, on July 8, 1775, and the same day a committee, that had previously been appointed, presented through John Dickinson, its author, a "Declaration of the Causes of taking up Arms against England." This "Declaration", which was duly adopted, contained the following paragraphs:
"We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyrrany of irritated Ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dread- ful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from nur gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.
"We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them. Our cause is just! Our union is perfect! Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly available."
As noted on pages 847 and 849 Colonel Dickinson was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1775, and served on committees having to do with the state of affairs in Wyoming.
As an important means of prosecuting the rebellion of the Colonies against the Royal Government, a "Committee Df Secret Correspondence" was appointed by the Continental Congress November 29, 1775, composed of John Dickin- son, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Johnson and John Jay. This was actually a Committee of Foreign Affairs, whose negotiations resulted, two years later, in an alliance with France.
In June, 1776, as a member of Congress, Colonel Dickinson opposed the adoption of the Declaration of Independ- ence, because he doubted the wisdom of the measure. When the question came to be voted on he absented himself intentionally from the Hall of Congress; but subsequently he proved that his patriotism was not inferior to that of those who differed with him by enlisting as a private in the American army. In October, 1777, he was commissioned a Brigadier General of the Delaware militia. In April, 1779, he returned to Congress as a Representative from Dela- ware, and wrote the "Address to the States" of May 26. He was Governor of Delaware in 1781-82, and November 7, 1782, succeeded William Moore as President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.
But, says Dr. Stillé, in his "Life and Times of John Dickinson", previously quoted from, "Mr. Dickinson was not permitted to assume office until after he had been exposed to a most violent and scurrilous attack in the newspapers hy an anonymous writer, who signed himself ' Valerius'. The attack began by a letter in the Freeman's Journal of October 3, 1782, and was followed up, after Mr. Dickinson's election as President, by several other letters from the same source, in which the bitterness and malignity of the writer were more conspicuous, if possible, than in the first. * * * * "Who Valerius was has never heen distinctly known, and his identity has been, perhaps, as difficult to fix certainly as that of the author of the letters of Junius. Like the attacks of that famous libeler. the letters of l'alerius are more
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papers on that day." On March 13th, the Assembly passed an Act which, after first referring to the Decree of Trenton, contained the following paragraphs:
"And Whereas, This House, taking into consideration the situation of the present settlers under the late claim of the State of Connecticut, at that part of Wyoming eastward and north- ward of Nescopeck Falls, on the East Branch of Susquehanna, have agreed to send Commissioners to make inquiry into the cases of the said settlers, and to encourage, as much as possible, reason- able and friendly compromises between the parties claiming, and, therefore it is highly improper that any proceedings at law shall be had for the recovery of any lands or tenements during the said inquiry ;
"Be it therefore enacted, That every writ and process whatever, granted or issued, or which may hereafter be granted or issued for any owner or owners, claimant or claimants, against any person being now an inhabitant on said lands at Wyoming, in order to dispossess any of the said inhabitants or settlers of the lands or tenements in his, her, or their occupancy, shall be and the same are hereby declared to be stayed; and on motion, all further proceedings thereon shall be quashed by the Court to which such writ shall be returnable, until the report of the said commis- sioners shall be laid before this House, and order shall be taken thereupon.
"And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this Act shall be and continue in force until the end of the next sitting of General Assembly, and no longer."
At Wilkes-Barré, under the date of March 26, 1783, Capt. Thomas Robin- son* wrote to President Dickinson of the Supreme Executive Council, in part as followst :
"Your orders of the 4th inst. I received on the 13th, but such was the state of the weather, the roads, and the freshets in the creeks and rivers, as rendered it impracticable for me to march before the 19th; and on the 23d I arrived here, with much difficulty, where I met Capt. Philip Shrawder. I immediately took possession of the garrison, with everything belonging thereunto. I also met at the same place Capt. Peter Summers, late of the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment, who
remarkable for boldness of invective and unscrupulous ascription of bad motives than for any influence or impressio." which they made upon the public mind at the period when they were written. These letters are the source from which posterity has drawn the materials for the libels which have done so much to misjudge and iojure, in the eyes of posterity the man who had the moral courage to refuse to vote for the Declaration of Independence because he thought it inopportune."
Dr. Stillé then refers to the diary of Mrs. Deborah Logan, and quotes an extract from it which shows that "the family tradition is that Gen. John Armstrong, Jr., was ' Valerius'." "It must be borne in mind, however", says Dr. Stillé, "that Armstrong was Secretary of the [Supreme Executive] Council before Dickinson was elected President." Dr. Stillé is in error here, for, as shown in the sketch of Armstrong, hereinafter, he was not elected Secretary of the Council until March, 1783. The extract from Mrs. Logan's diary, quoted by Dr. Stille, reads as follows: "Here let me mention an anecdote of Armstrong, given on the best authority as true. He has always displayed a love of intrigue, a dereliction of principle and a baseness of deceit which should draw on him the scorn of every honest mind, from his first appearance in public life until this time [Angust 30, 1814]. He read law, when a young man, under my honored consia, John Dickinson, and bad received from bim polite and kind attentions. When Armstrong was Secretary of Council be was, of course, much in John Dickinson's family, receiving daily proofs of his confidence and friendship; yet at this period he was actually the writer of all those ill-natured and detestable paragraphs in some of the public prints which wounded the mind of his patron but too sensibly."
In 1783 Dickinson College was established at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and incorporated by the Legislature of the State. It was named for Jobn Dickinson, in commemoration of the great and important services rendered by him to his country, and in acknowledgment of bis very liberal donations to the institution. The same year he was made an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Branch of the Society of the Cincinnati.
General Dickinson served as President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, by successive elections, until October 18, 1785, when be was succeeded by Benjamin Franklin. After his retirement from the Council he took up his residence in Wilmington, Delaware, where he resided until his death. His influence had waned somewhat after 1776. on account of bis opposition to the Declaration of Independence; but a series of papers written by him in 1787- '88, and published over the pseudonym of "Fabius", were widely read, and contributed much towards inducing Penn- sylvania and Delaware to ratify the Federal Constitution. General Dickinson sat in the Constitutional Convention (May-September, 1787) as one of the five delegates from Delaware, and took a prominent part in the debates.
In 1796 General Dickinson received the honorary degree of LL. D. from the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and in 1801 his "Political Writings" were published in two volumes, 8vo, by Bonsal and Niles at Wilmington. He died at Wilmington February 14, 1808.
The following concerning John Dickinson is taken from Sharf and Westcott's "History of Philadelphia" (page 275): " "Truly he lives in my memory', said William T. Reed, 'as a realization of my bean-ideal of a gentleman.' That was apparent to all, and it may have been the reason John Adams did not like him, and wrote of him, 'A certain great fortune and piddling genius, whose fame bas been trumpeted loudly, has given a cast of folly to our whole doings.' John Dickinson had the misfortune to be un homme incompris. He was sensitive, proud, haughty; disappointed, too, perbaps, that he could not persuade the Revolution to move on as he would have had it do, and, perhaps thought his pen and voice could make it do, like a gentleman's chaise and pair over a smooth lawn. He was too precise, courtly and formal, perbaps, to suit bis business-like colleagues, who could not conceive so much grace and polish to be compatible with earnestness."
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