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 68
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* Sunday, January 21 .- No preaching at Wilkesborough. Monday, January 22 .- Went to Lackawanock (Pittston) to meet the people there. It was a snowy day, and there were only about twenty-five persons pres- ent at the meeting. Mr. Finn was not present. After the Act relative to the election had been read, I desired the company to make any objection which occurred to them. Ist: Some mentioned their fear of being obliged to pay back taxes ever since the Decree of Trenton. I answered: This probably is a groundless fear. When their distresses and inability to pay even present taxes should be properly represented to the Assembly, by their own Representative, there was little doubt of their being exempted from all back taxes. But with respect to future taxes: Although their pres- ent unhappy condition might justly entitle them to an exemption for a year to come-and the Assembly might feel disposed to grant it-yet (as that would give umbrage for discontent among all the people on the other frontiers of the State) they would probably be called on for taxes; but then these would be proportioned to their ability.
"As they had neither houses nor barns of any value, and but very small stocks of cattle, their taxes must necessarily be extremely small. And even these would perhaps be more than counter-balanced by the grants of the Assembly for opening roads and for other public purposes. "Second Objection :- There are named in the Act Zebulon Butler and John Franklin. Colonel Butler is well known to have held a commission in the Continental army. Why is he (and we, through him) treated with so little respect that his title is not given to him as well as
*See [*] note page 1406.
+See pages 1412-1416.
#See page 459, Vol. I, and subsequent pages.
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to Colonel Pickering? Answered by Colonel Butler :- The Assembly of Pennsylvania did not practice giving titles unless to their own officers. That Colonel Pickering had just been commis- sioned by the Government, and therefore it was proper to give him his title.
"Third Objection :- Pennsylvania has used us ill, and deceived us. We are afraid they mean to deceive us again. Fourth Objection :- If we receive the laws, writs of ejectment will immed- iately be brought, and the people turned out of their possessions. One of the people present asked me if I should come here to live. I answered, Yes, of necessity, if the laws are introduced. 'If that were known', said he, 'it would give the people more confidence in what you say, for some are jealous that you are sent here to draw them into a snare.'
"I then added that I should not only live here, but I should want some land on which to raise provisions for the support of my family, because it would be a good while before my offices would yield anything of consequence; and therefore I would now purchase enough for a farm, if I could get it at the rate for which it was selling under the Connecticut title-and I would pur- chase nothing but a Connecticut title, for I had such confidence in the good disposition of Government to do what was equitable to this settlement that I was willing to take my chance with the people of obtaining a confirmation of that title on reasonable terms. The same person then replied: "This being known, it would give great satisfaction to the people; for, if you should deceive them, it would then be in their power to take revenge on you.' Another person then remarked: 'But how easy it will be for the Pennamites to reimburse Colonel Pickering for any mouies he shall now pay for Connecticut titles; and he may purchase for the purpose of drawing us into his meas- ures, and yet run no hazard at all.'
"I then declared that I would pledge my honour and my life that, while the people of the settlement held only under the Connecticut title, I would hold by the same, and by no other! That I had a wife and five children, with whom I should move to Wilkesborough; which certainly I should never dare to do if I now meant to deceive them. That I must of necessity move hither, because the laws could not be carried into execution without the exercise of the offices which I held; and in order to exercise them I must be here. But, I added, that, though I was willing to take my chance with them, by purchasing Connecticut titles at the rates at which they were selling -- provided they proceeded in the election-yet, if the people should refuse to hold the election, I would not then give six pence an acre for their best lands; for if, after the State had, at their request, erected them into a County, and given them an opportunity of electing their own officers (hy which they would enjoy every right and privilege enjoyed by the other freemen of Pennsyl- vania), if, after all this, they should refuse to receive the laws, I had no reason to expect that the State would ever make another offer in peace. Arms would then compel a submission to the Government.
"Fifth Objection :- Pennsylvania could not raise an army to come against us. The people would not fight for the sake of the land-jobbers; and if 3,000 men were to come against us, we need not fear, for 100 boys raised in this settlement would stand against 1,000 of such troops as would come against us. Or, if they did break up the settlement, 100 boys whom he (the objector) could muster, would keep 3,000 men in perpetual alarm, &c. I answered, what is too obvious to relate, that Pennsylvania has as good riflemen and swordsmen in her five frontier Counties as any in this settlement, however valiant, &c.
"January 24 .- Samuel Allen, of Kingston, comments on the Decree of Trenton. * * * I had only heard before that the Judges were bribed! It was now said that Colonel Dyer-the most zealous agent on behalf of Connecticut, and one deeply interested in The Susquehanna Company- was also bribed by Pennsylvania to betray the cause of Connecticut and the Company! "Thursday, January 25 .- The inhabitants of Wilkesborough assembled. Upwards of fifty men were present, including a few from Kingston, &c. They were desired to ask any questions relative to the election, where any doubts remained in their minds as to the expediency of holding it. The grand point insisted on was the confirmation of the titles to their particular farms. If this were granted, they would be satisfied; and not one man appeared desirous of supporting The Susquehanna Company in their claims. The few who intimated that they had general in- terests in those claims, expressed a willingness to relinquish them if their particular farms could be confirmed to them; but they feared an adoption of the laws would strip them of their posses- sions. I asked if the inhabitants of this settlement were entitled to superior privileges above all the other citizens of Pennsylvania? Nobody answered.
"I observed that if titles to land were disputed elsewhere in Pennsylvania the parties resorted to the laws and trials by juries for decisions, and that they had no other remedy. That the same laws were now tendered to them, and that hy receiving them they would then enjoy equal rights and privileges with the first citizens of the State. Mr. Carey said they were not able to defend their rights in courts of law. They had been stripped of their movable property by Patterson and others, acting by authority from Pennsylvania, and now had not wherewith to fee lawyers and bear other charges and lawsuits, I then said that I had been reasoning on the ground of mere law, and showed that if they pleased they might now enjoy all the rights of the freemen of Pennsylvania; but that I wished to put them on a better footing, on account of their distresses occasioned by the general destruction of the settlement by the Indians, hy Squire Pat- terson and his assistants, and by two sweeping floods. These losses and sufferings (particularly those occasioned by Patterson and others pretending to act under the authority of the State) had excited a general sympathy, and people now said they ought not to be driven from their actual possessions- such as they held and improved prior to the Decree of Trenton.
"That on this equitable ground there was a fair prospect of their succeeding to obtain the confirmation of their farms, and that this claim would be more effectually supported by their own Representatives in the Council and Assembly than in any other way whatever. That if
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they refused to go into the election, and yet were to petition for their farms, it would be an insult to the Assembly. That this was probably the last peaceable offer the Assembly would make to them, and that, if they refused it, the next step would be to raise and send a body of troops to compel them to submit to the laws. That all who should resist the Government would be deemed rebels, and be punished as such. That they themselves acknowledged Pennsylvania had the right of jurisdiction. That jurisdiction was the right of making and executing laws, and that resistance in arms would of course be rebellion. Colonel Butler read Major [William] Judd's letter. Judd says that if they held the election they would be completely saddled with the laws of Pennsylvania. On this an old man (Mr. Hyde) wittily remarked that he was 'more afraid of the halter than of the saddle!' Much more was said, for the conversation lasted about two hours. The general disposition appeared in favor of the election."
The letter of Maj. William Judd, referred to, as above by Colonel Pickering was written at Farmington, Connecticut, January 11, 1787, was addressed to Col. Zebulon Butler at Wilkes-Barre, and was conveyed to him by the hands of Benjamin Harvey of Plymouth, who, some weeks previously had gone to Con- necticut in company with Col. John Franklin. A copy of the letter is preserved among the "Pickering Papers" (LVII : 89), and reads, in part, as follows:
"I was disappointed when I found my letter directed to you, relative to the Susquehanna meeting, failed of being sent forward from Hudson, [New York]. At our last meeting at Hart- ford we have made many new regulations. I have not a copy, and must beg leave to refer you to Colonel Franklin, who will be at Wyoming soon, and hath the copies at large. *
* * One thing we are alarmed about here, and that is: It is said Colonel Pickering is coming among you to hold an election. Should that be the case, unless you contrive some way to avoid his request, you will be completely saddled with the laws of Pennsylvania, and your property all at hazard. "There are so many inconsistencies in the two Acts of the Legislature, it appears to me you may easily play him off for the present. If you want assistance, we have a fair prospect of augmenting your force next Spring by at least 400 [men] that may be relied upon. The Susque- hannah cause gains friends day by day, and your intolerable suffering hath made you many friends in the country; and public policy seems to be in your favor. The Federal Government is upon its last legs, and you may stand an equal chance with the rest of mankind if you are firm, steady and united! Preparation is [being] made to fill up all the granted towns [in the Susquehanna Purchase], and to settle men upon all the rights that are now destitute of settlers. * * Be * not desponding, but play the man as heretofore! Providence helps them that help themselves!"
Turning again to Colonel Pickering's diary we have:
"Thursday evening, January 25 .- Parson [Jacob] Johnson was at the meeting to-day. He told Colonel Butler that he could answer all my questions, &c. I proposed to the Colonel to go and see him this evening. We did so, and he immediately began on the subject. I found him possessed of all the prejudices of the warm abettors of The Susquehanna Company's claim, and in full belief of all the falsehoods and misrepresentations which have been industriously raised and propagated to support it, and of some absurdities peculiar to himself. * *
* He declared that the great men of Pennsylvania, and among them the great Mr. [James] Wilson, acknowledged that these lands belonged to the Connecticut people, by the laws of God and Nature, but that the laws of Pennsylvania would take them from them; and that laws contrary to the laws of God and Nature were not to be obeyed, &c. &c.
"I answered all these objections, but the old gentleman would believe no fact, however plain or probable, if it contradicted his former belief. He crowned all with this remarkable dec- laration: 'You are of one opinion and I am of another. I am fixed, and shall never change till the day that Christ comes to judgment!'
"Friday, January 26 .- Went with Colonel Butler to attend a meeting of the people of Nanticoke. Full fifty were assembled. I met with more opposition than at any meeting else- where; but it arose chiefly from a few rather young men. Old Mr. [Prince] Alden also spoke, and he repeated the sentiment that 'Jealousy and Suspicion are the inseparable companions of little minds, and therefore to be guarded against.' Yet, in spite of plain facts and conclusive reasoning, he persisted in his jealousy and suspicion that, because Pennsylvania had injured and oppressed them in the case of Patterson, Armstrong and Boyd, therefore the State would persevere in their oppression, and that the law I brought to hold the election was only a snare to catch them, and he concluded with an expression in the spirit of Parson Johnson-that his opinion was fixed.
"Perhaps the most difficult characters to reason with are the young and the old. The former are too sanguine and rash-the latter think that 'years teach wisdom'; and, having long entertained their prejudices, it is next to impossible to eradicate them. Mr. [Benjamin] Harvey
and- -Northrup, both men in years, were also opposers. Harvey has lately returned from Hartford, where he saw some members of The Susquehanna Company and got his ears filled with fine stories-not only of the undoubted maintenance of their most extensive claims of land, but of independence itself. The whole Susquehanna Purchase, he said, was their honest dne. Harvey brought to the settlement this report: 'That if there had been present at the meeting of The Susquehanna Company at Hartford in December, [1786], only one person from Wyoming, they would have made a Declaration of Independence!' One Center, also from Hartford, made the same report to Colonel Butler and others.
"I asked the company whether they were ripe for independence, and desired it. 'Yes!' answered three or four young men. No where else has this been avowed; and this [avowal] I
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suppose to be the mere effect of rashness and ignorance, not of a preconcerted plan. I am fully satisfied that not one man in fifty entertains the idea [of independence]. Indeed, it appears that the design is rather intended to be kept concealed from the body of the people; although Dr. Hamilton's letter-clearly enough expressing it -- had been made public by Dr. Smith. Yet Franklin pretended that it had no such meaning, and put such glosses upon it as blinded the people. But Major Judd's letter, brought by Harvey, confirms the point; and there is other corroborative evidence. On every occasion, therefore, I make known to the people the crafty, but wicked and ruinous, designs of their few leaders.
"After a long conversation, and answering a variety of questions, Harvey and others declared that, tho they had jealousies of the State, yet they believed that I had no intention to deceive them. Notwithstanding the opposition I met with at Nanticoke, yet it appeared to me that, on the close of the debate, many minds were soothed and satisfied, and that there will be a majority for the election. Mr. [Christopher] Hurlbut (the Committee-man), who lives there and is well acquainted with the people, confirms this opinion. He is a sensible, discreet man, and as fit as any man I have met with for a Justice of the Peace in his district.
"On our return Colonel Butler told me that Major [John] Jenkins had lodged at Nanticoke (at young Alden's) the night before, and had visited a number of houses. This accounts for the opposition. He had been down there to prepare them for the meeting. He is an obstinate man, with but little discernment, and only makes bold and ill-bred assertions without argument. Old Mr. Stanbury, speaking of Jenkins' father, said 'he had more sense than honesty'; but as to the son, I think he has as little of one as the other.
"Saturday, January 27 .- Went with Butler and Schott to Forty Fort to attend a public meeting of the Kingston and Exeter people. It was a large meeting-probably sixty or more present; and though Jenkins gave sundry striking proofs of his ill-manners, ignorance, absurdity, folly and obstinacy, yet, upon the whole, it was a meeting (as Friends say), 'very solid and satis- factory, and many hearts were tendered' and satisfied, which before had been wavering or op- posed to the election. All of them-even Jenkins-disavowed any intention of independence."
Some years later, Colonel Pickering, writing* to his son Henry about his experiences at Wyoming in January and February, 1787, and particularly with respect to the meeting at Forty Fort on January 27th, said:
"I spent a month among them, and with great difficulty succeeded, on the ground of their being quieted in their possessions; assuring them that I had strong reasons to express the opinion that the Legislature would pass a law for that purpose. But, just as I was closing prosperously, as I thought, my month's labor, a pretty shrewd man, John Jenkins, a Major of their militia, the second leader in the country in the interest of The Susquehanna Company, rose and said that they had too often experienced the bad faith of Pennsylvania to place confidence in any new measure of its Legislature; and that if they should enact a quieting law, they would repeal it as soon as the Connecticut settlers submitted and were completely saddled with the laws of the State .; This was prophetic; but I then had no faith in the prophecy.
*See Upham's "Life of Timothy Pickering", II : 263.
"The speech said to have been delivered by Major Jenkins upon the occasion mentioned by Colonel Pickering, is printed as an Appendix (111) to Governor Hoyt's "Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne"-having been furnished to the author by the late Steuben Jenkios, Esq. The speech is also reprinted in "Pennsylvania Archives", Second Series, XVIII : 666. It is as follows:
"We will gladly accept of any proposition that will bring peace, quiet us in our possessions and protect us in our titles. This is all we ask now; it is all we have asked from the beginning. Suppose we accept of the terms proposed what guarantee have we that Pennsylvania will keep her plighted faith? She has forfeited her honor to us time and again. If we accept the provisions of the proposed law, when she finds we are tied, hand and foot, she will repeal it and leave us again without remedy or hope, except in ourselves. We have repeatedly had assurance of the desire of Pennsylvania to have this controversey settled, but the measures proposed, and the men sent here to effect such settle- ment, have shown us that they will never be satisfied except with our expulsion from our lands, and out total ruin- which we will never agree nor submit to!
"Our fathers have been imprisoned, robbed and whipped by the Pennsylvanians; our public papers have been wickedly taken from us; they have plundered our settlements, burnt our towns, taken the lives of our friends and brethren; driven our old men, women and children into the wilderness at the point of the bayonet, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the lead of a civilized State or nation. We have petitioned in the most humble terms for the redress of our grievances, and to he secured in our property, our lives and our possessions, and our petitions have been treated with insult and contempt, and heen rejected. They still continue in their endless persecution with obstinate fury and uncontrolable oppression.
"And yet, in the face of all these facts, all this perfidy, all these crimes, we are again called upon by their per- petrators to give up our titles, and all claims and rights under them, and rely upon the clemency of Pennsylvania for any future titles or rights to our lands. God forbid that we should be foolish enough to do anything of this kind! The blood of the martyrs, who have fallen in defence of our rights, would cry to us from the ground should we permit their widows and orphan children to be driven from their homes and possessions out into the wide world to perish or become a public burden.
"What new plan do they propose to us now? Nothing but to quiet us in our possessions for a short period, until we give up our titles and they can devise and put into execution sodie new plan for our expulsion. We have too often experienced the bad faith of Pennsylvania, to place confidence in any new measure of her Legislature; and if they shall enact a quieting law, they will repeal it as soon as the Connecticut settlers submit and are completely saddled with the laws of the State. What security have we, if we comply with their proposals and put ourselves in their power, that the State will not repeal the law and deal as treacherously with us as in the case of Armstrong?
"The only safe course for the settlers to pursue is to stand by their titles and their possessions until Pennsylvania shall find it to her interest to do them justice by acknowledging their rights and establishing them through proper legislation. Whenever she shall do this, there will be an end of the controversy. If it be the disposition of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania to do us justice, as stated by Colonel Pickering, she can do it in that way and thus end all further trouble and annoyance to either party. But the proposal is to bind us and leave Pennsylvania free; to have us surrender our titles and trust to Pennsylvania for another and, as the gentleman says, a better title. This we will never submit to. We have fought too long, and shed too much of the blood of our best inhabitants, and sacrificed too much in defence of our titles and possessions, to tamely yield them up to the threats or entreaties of Pennsylvania, and we will never do it All we ask is justice, and that is in her hands to grant at any moment. If she will not grant this, she must put up with the consequences."
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"A new argument then occurred to me, and it was my last. I remarked that, whatever might have been the conduct of Pennsylvania in times past, I was perfectly satisfied that now she was amicably disposed and sincerely desirous of a fair accommodation; and that, if its Legis- lature should once pass a law to quiet them in their possessions, it would never be repealed. And to give them the strongest evidence in my power that my confidence was not misplaced, I ob- served that all the offices conferred upon me were of small value, because of the scanty population of the County; that I should need some other resource to maintain my family, such as the pro- ducts of a farm; that I would, therefore, purchase of any of them, who had land to sell, what would be sufficient for a farm; that, in doing this, I would purchase the Connecticut title only, and thus place myself precisely on a footing with them; and that if, as I confidently expected, a quieting law passed, I should hold the land; if not, I should lose it. A number of persons present (and it was a public meeting) immediately declared they could ask no more. I then recommended to them to petition the Legislature-which was in session at Philadelphia-to enact a law to quiet them in their possessions. They requested me to write a petition for them. * *
Subsequently, writing about the two Yankee leaders in Wyoming-the "two Johns"-Colonel Pickering said: "The first, a man able, bold and ener- getic, was John Franklin, a native of Connecticut, and who, at this time [Jan- uary, 1787], was in Connecticut consulting with The Susquehanna Company (or its active members) on the means of defeating the pacific measures of Pennsyl- vania here mentioned. Such are my impressions of the fact, from what I then heard; and the actual state of things, joined with the events of 1787 and 1788, warrants the conclusion. The father of this Major Jenkins [the "second leader"] had been a leading man, and one of the Judges of the County Court, when Con- necticut exercised a jurisdiction over them. He had died before I ever saw that country."
Turning once more to Colonel Pickering's diary we find the following: "Sunday, January 28 .- No public worship at Wilkesborough. This morning Mr. Bailey informs me that 'Parson Johnson has changed his mind, and thinks it will be best to hold the election' !!! Sunday evening .- Stephen Jenkins is down from Exeter. He says he has been press- ing his brother, Major Jenkins, to cease opposing the election. He has brought a note from him to Captain Schott, the substance of which is: That if the election of Justices of the Peace could be postponed till after the ensuing session of the Assembly, he would not oppose the holding of the election now for a Representative, &c. Captain Schott asked me what my determination was relative to the election of Justices. I answered that I could ease Major Jenkins' mind on that head, for I had concluded not to appoint the time of meeting [for the election of Justices] until after the other election was over; and then I meant to consult some of the principal gentle- men of each district as to the time, and places in the districts, most convenient to the freeholders for holding the elections. This, Captain Schott is to write to Major Jenkins. This conversion, or yielding, of Jenkins is a wonderful event; but I give him little credit for it. He sees the tide is turning-or, rather, has turned-and makes a virtue of necessity.
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