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 76
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Throughout the six months of tranquillity at Wyoming which followed Colo- nel Pickering's return, a student of his voluminous correspondence, preserved in his "Papers," may grasp an idea of the importance of affairs with which his active mind was concerned, and in which his ready sympathies were enlisted. A considerable portion of his correspondence was devoted to a settlement of many claims arising for material and supplies, furnished the Revolutionary army during the period of his office as Quartermaster General under Washington.
No man has ever resided in Luzerne County who possessed as wide an acquaintance among distinguished residents of other states as did Colonel Pick- ering. With these he corresponded as to the new Constitution, which was having a hard fight for recognition in New York, Massachusetts and elsewhere. With others, he kept up an intermittent exchange of letters as to agriculture, upon which subject he was regarded as an authority. Still another chapter of his activities related to an earlier suggestion he had made to General Washington, as to the establishment of a school of military instruction at West Point. He was so convinced of the necessity and value of such an institution, that he recurred to it at frequent intervals at this time and later. To his logic and clear thinking, President Washington in later years assented. When, in 1794, the President ordered to West Point for instruction, a new "cadet corps" then organized, a foundation was laid for the institution, although it was not formally legalized as the "Academy" until July, 1802. Colonel Pickering. has been called by some of his admirers the "Father of West Point," and certainly, if one judges from the earnestness of his recommendations, the title is not undeserved.
Important and diversified business interests likewise engaged his attention at this time. With others, he had taken up large claims of "wild lands" in cen- tral Pennsylvania and elsewhere. At Philadelphia, he was engaged in several ventures with his partner Hodgdon. That he had faith in the ultimate con- firmation of Connecticut titles under Laws of Pennsylvania, is shown by the purchase, for cash, of more than 700 acres of land in Wilkes-Barré .* Unless the titles of Connecticut settlers in general could be quieted, he realized, of course, that these purchases on his own account were valueless.
However deeply extraneous matters enlisted his interest, his thought consistently turned, as his chief concern, to the duties of his appointment as Commissioner at Wyoming. Colonel Pickering, in the early months of 1788, was no longer merely one of a Commission to carry into effect the terms of the Con- firming Law. To all and sundry, with the possible exception of remnants of the Franklin party, whose leader was still in jail at Philadelphia, awaiting trial he acted as counsellor and friend.
*For a description of these lands, see Pickering's letter to the House of Assembly on a following page.
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Regarded for his business acumen, respected for his learning, admired for his close association with men and events of the golden age of American states- manship, he seemed to have earned the esteem and merited the confidence of those with whom he dealt, in either a public or private capacity.
The conduct of the preceding Assembly had perturbed him greatly. A measure had been introduced, through the sinister agency of a powerful lobby of land speculators, to suspend the operations of the Confirming Law. Colonel Pickering clearly foresaw the confusion in Wyoming affairs that would attend any alteration in this conciliatory measure.
He realized also that were its provisions repealed, it would once again open the Commonwealth to charges of bad faith, and place him in a most unsatisfac- tory, if not humiliating position, with those whose possessions were most vitally affected by terms of the Law. With customary clarity and initiative, he had delivered to the Speaker of the Assembly, while still in exile at Philadelphia, the following comprehensive statement of his objections to any change in the legislative intent toward the settlers :*
"Thursday evening, November 22nd, 1787.
“Sir, "Deeply impressed with a sense of the mischievous consequences of the material alteration of the law relating to the Wyoming lands, which will be effected by the clause just adopted by your Honorable House, I beg leave to state some facts which appear to me important, and which, perhaps, may induee a reconsideration of it. The part I have taken in this business, the safety of myself and family which depends on the issue of it, and weighty public considerations, compel me to enter on the subject, and I pray for the indulgent attention of the House.
"After the law has been enacted for creating the northern part of Northumberland into a separate county, by the name of Luzerne (a measure of which, till then, I was wholly ignorant), it was proposed to me to apply for the office of Prothonotary for the new county. I objected; but it was urged upon me, chiefly on this ground,-that the views of government being con- ciliatory, my particular situation would enable me, more than any other probable candidate for that office, to promote them. I yielded to these solicitations, and applied for that office and the others usually joined with it in new and thinly peopled counties. .
"Afterwards, the Assembly having passed a law to enable the electors of Luzerne to choose a Councillor, Representative, Sheriff, and other county officers, and therein authorized me singly, or in conjunction with the other persons therein named, to conduct those elections, I went thither with the law, and during the space of three weeks, was unremitting in my endeavors to persuade the people to make their elections, and peaceably submit to the government of this State. With extreme difficulty, I prevailed. The Councillor took his seat ; but the Representative, John Frank- lin, having other views, remained at home; and, by his artifices and misrepresentations, seduced a considerable number of the people from their duty; so that, on my return to that county, in April, I had to repeat my labors; but again I succeeded, and the elections of the justices were ultimately held, with the very general approbation of the inhabitants.
"Immediately after the first elections, in February, I consulted some of the principal persons who had attended the elections, and who had been old settlers, and, as I supposed, were best acquainted with the claims and expectations of the people. Those claims and expectations the petition which has been read this evening was intended to describe; and the law for confirming the lands so claimed, was grounded on this petition; and such words or passages as were inserted into the law, to extend the confirming clause beyond the limits of the Committee's report, I trust I may be permitted to say, were not "insidiously" introduced. I did not conceal a single fact or motive from the Committee. The principle of public policy which led to the adoption of the bill, was that of securing the submission and future attachment of that great majority of the Conneetient settlers within the county of Luzerne, who had equitable pretensions to lands granted them, prior to the Trenton decree; and, to effect that, it appeared expedient to extend the coll- firmation beyond the occupied rights; but, so far was I from wishing or attempting to conceal that extension, I well remember to have told one honorable member, who supported the bill, and who is also in the present house, that it might perhaps comprehend one hundred such un- occupied rights. The case of the claimants of such rights, as originally stated to me, struck me very forcibly. In all my communications with that people before the first election, I held up no ideas of confirmation beyond the rights they had occupied before the Trenton deeree; but the gentlemen, there, whom I afterwards consulted, represented that, besides such occupants, there was a considerable number of persons who, or those whom they represented, were actual settlers there, prior to the said decree, but who had not taken actual possession of their rights before the passing of the said decree. These persons, they said, were obliged, during the late war, to live with their friends in the compact part of the settlement, for their safety and protection against the Indians; that they had suffered and bled, in common with the other settlers, in the defence
*See the "Life of Pickering." 11 : 344
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of that frontier; and that it would be singularly distressing to reduce them or their orphan children to beggary, merely because their lots had fallen to them in places remote from the heart of the settlement. I need not be ashamed to own that humanity, as well as considerations of equity and public policy, prompted me to wish such sufferers might be provided for; and to such the peti- tion specially referred. These sufferers, Sir, I yet hope may experience the commiseration and favorable regard of your Honorable House.
"There are, Sir, other circumstances respecting the Connecticut claimants which seem necessary to be made known before the bill now pending is passed into a law.
"The first township granted by the Susquehanna Company, called Kingston, was to be divided into forty-three parts, each of which as the township was five miles square, would contain about three hundred and seventy-two acres, without any allowance for roads.
"Another township, called Hanover, was to be divided, agreeably to the latest resolution of the Susquehanna Company that I have seen, into thirty-six parts; and I think there is one other township which was also granted to about six and thirty settlers. The other townships, as well as I recollect, were to be divided into fifty-three parts, which gives about three hundred acres to each right. In each of them, three rights were to be reserved; one for the first settled minister in office, one for a parsonage, and one for the support of a town-school. The manner of dividing the townships has been various. In some, they made as many as four several divisions. In Wilkesbarre, for instance, each settler had a meadow lot (being part of the flats) of about thirty acres. A town lot of three acres and a half, or three acres and three-quarters, a back lot of about two hundred and fifty acres, and a fourth lot containing five acres, and the land reserved for the three public uses aforementioned was left in one entire body. In some townships, those three public rights were drawn in several lots; and in other townships, some parcels of land have been reserved to accommodate a mill, or for other uses of common benefit to the inhabitants. Now whatever lands shall be confirmed, it seems necessary to advert to these circumstances to prevent the confusion and mischief which a departure from the usages of the people might produce. The surveys of townships, which have been made by order of the Commissioners, have been con- formed to those usages.
"I would here beg leave to mention the alteration lately made in the lower line of the county of Luzerne. In the first law, it was declared that it should run west from the mouth of Nescopeck Creek. In the supplement to that Law, it was declared that it should run 'northwestwardly' from the mouth of Nescopeck; and in the law passed in September last, the word 'northwestwardly' was interpreted to mean 'north, one degree west.' Sir, I am well informed that this last line will never strike the ridge dividing the waters of the east and west branches of the Susquehanna. I am also informed that it will cut off one-half, and perhaps the whole, of the township of Hunting- ton, which is one of the seventeen townships mentioned in the petition, and in which there are sundry Connecticut settlers, who occupied and improved their lots long before the Trenton decree. A number of them have already presented, and regularly supported, their claims.
"I would here cease, Sir, to trouble the House with any further observations, had I not reason to believe that pains have been taken to lessen the weight of any applications I should make in this business, by false suggestions of their proceeding solely from interested motives. Permit me, Sir, to declare that I claim no lands under a Connecticut title, except those mentioned in the enclosed paper; that I cannot acquire a single acre by extending the confirmation beyond the rights actually occupied prior to the decree of Trenton; all the lands I purchased being parts of very old settlers' rights; and that I can lose nothing from the lessening of the original grant by the clause just adopted, unless by that restriction numbers of the inhabitants who will lose their expected rights should murmur, and a general jealousy and discontent be excited from an apprehension, that this step is only a prelude to the total repeal of the law,-which, indeed, to stir up the people to rebellion, Franklin has been continually predicting. Such general discontent should it arise, would oblige me to remove my family, and abandon the country for ever.
"I am, Sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
"TIMOTHY PICKERING."
"The Honorable, The Speaker of the General Assembly."
The following accompanied the letter to the Speaker :
"Lands purchased by Timothy Pickering, within the county of Luzerne, under Connecticut titles, the whole lying within the town of Wilkesbarre :-
2 town lots of Colonel Butler, fenced, containing 17 12 acres.
37
10
1 meadow lot of 30 acres, and 8 acres adjoining, of Asa Bennet .
90
0
12 of a meadow lot, of 15 acres, 1/2 of a back lot of about 135 acres, and 1 five-acre lot 65 1 back lot of Tabez Fish and John Corkin. 250 acres
78
15
1 back lot of Capt. Schott, 250 acres
SC
366 5
Total acres, 70414."
Those who have studied the dilatory and strangely inconsistent policy of Pennsylvania, in its course of settlement of the Wyoming claims, have invariably turned from the subject amazed at a lack of sincerity disclosed, a want of ap-
S.
1 town lot of MI. Hollenback, Esq., agent of Benjamin Clarke, not fenced, 334aerts 15 0
0
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plication of even the most elemental rules of justice to the case, and the utter disregard of the rights of property involved, in an unrighteous sequence of con- flicting and confounding measures adopted by the Assembly. It is for the his- torian to record facts, leaving conclusions to others. But to those who make even a cursory examination of the series of laws intending to supplement the Decree of Trenton, in their application to Wyoming affairs, an absence of purpose and a suspicion of double dealing are so self-evident as to excite inquiry into motives that impelled them. The Decree in itself was rather a matter of policy than of right. Aside from the Confirming Law of 1787, there appears to have been little of policy and less of right, in the attitude of Pennsylvania toward the settlers on lands of the Susquehanna Purchase. That this Law was not allowed to remain in effect longer than a few months, seems not a matter of surprise in the light of all circumstances of the case. Its suspension was tainted with sus- picion and its subsequent repeal, on April 1, 1790, was tinged with duplicity and dishonor.
Beneath the surface could be found an active and earnest party, consisting of capitalists in high places, and speculators in low, who, in one of the intervals when the Connecticut settlers had been driven from these lands, had purchased of Pennsylvania, overlapping claims to the same territory. This party was known to possess an influential backing in the Assembly, and gave no indication of resting until all Connecticut titles in the Commonwealth were wholly repudiated. Fear of the accomplishment of this sinister lobby tended, more than any other agency, to keep alive the insurrectionary spirit in Wyoming.
Colonel Pickering's influence with a majority of the older settlers, had alone induced them to accept the Confirming Law as an earnest of good faith on the part of Pennsylvania and a guarantee of equality under its laws respecting their persons and possessions. That the Commissioner's conduct of his office was beyond reproach, time has proved. That he suffered for the sins of the Assembly is a matter of record. He had accepted office in order to put into effect the terms of this Law. Its suspension left one of two alternatives open to him. He could resign and leave the settlers to their fate. This action he contemplated.
That he decided to remain and take whatever consequences might follow in the impairment of his own fortunes and the loss of reputation which, of a certainty, would follow the failure of his mission to Wyoming, discovers the true character of Timothy Pickering.
Without him, chaotic conditions would have followed news of the suspen- sion of the Law. The orderly march of events which succeeded during the early months of 1788, even in face of this news, was largely in response to the wise administration of his trust and a growing public confidence thus engaged.
The Assembly's bungling policy might have driven to despair, men less inured to privation and hardship than were the settlers at Wyoming. It might have forever estranged them from a Commonwealth, upon the mercy of which an unkind fate had thrust them, after years of futile contention that they were part and parcel of another state. What is more probable, it might have urged them forward into violent measures which malcontents in eastern states gen- erally, would willingly have espoused.
That none of these unhappy results followed, was due no less to the influence of Colonel Pickering, than to the inherent common sense of the settlers, and
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their belief that with him as an intermediary between the Assembly and them- selves, justice would ultimately prevail.
Colonel Pickering visited Philadelphia in February, 1788, in the hope of having the terms of the Law restored. This mission was unsuccessful. The open hostility of these same powerful interests and the hidden intrigues of others prevented any further steps in quieting titles to the disputed lands. A letter received about this time from his friend George Clymer, at Philadelphia, indicated to Colonel Pickering and his adherents at Wyoming, how little encouragement in the settlement of affairs was to be expected from the Assembly:
"Assembly Room, March 15th, 1788. "Dear Sir, "Colonel Hodgdon just calling me out to let me know there would be an opportunity to write you this morning on the Wyoming business, I shall, in three words, tell you it is in the worst possible state. We have two parties in the House; one I detest, the other I despise. The Constitutionalists would rather stimulate than repress anything that tended to insurgency and civil war, and so systematically refuse any measures likely to settle the peace of the country. The Republicans are bewildered about compensations, and, not agreeing in the mode, fatally acquiesce in doing nothing.
I have been urging the necessity of separating the confirming and compensating parts of the bill not necessarily connected, as the only means of saving us from confusion, but can get no second. I have no hope left.
"Your humble servant,
"GEORGE CLYMER."
Thus is left, for the remainder of the year 1788, the unsatisfactory state of legislation, as it affected the long drawn controversy which was to determine the ownership of lands at Wyoming.
fine
CHAPTER XXXII.
HARSH TREATMENT OF COLONEL FRANKLIN - RETALIATORY MEASURES THREATENED-THE ABDUCTION OF TIMOTHY PICKERING-PENNSYLVA- NIA STIRRED TO ACTIVITY - CONGRESS ORDERS CONTINENTAL TROOPS TO HIS RESCUE-HIS VOLUNTARY RELEASE-ARREST OR DISPERSION OF HIS CAPTORS-COLONEL FRANKLIN'S PLEDGE-ANALYSIS OF HIS CASE-THE SUPREME COURT AT WILKES-BARRE-FRANKLIN NOT TRIED - SENTENCES OF ABDUCTORS- THE "STATE OF WESTMORELAND" -"THE SEQUEL"
"Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woc, There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye But hath its bounds, in carth, in sea, in sky." Comedy of Errors.
"Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred who will stand adversity."
Carlyle.
"A prison is a house of care, A place where none ean thrive. A touchstone true to try a friend, A grave for men alive; Sometimes a place of right, Sometimes a place of wrong, Sometimes a place of rogues and thieves, And honest meu among."
Inscription in the old prison of Edinburgh.
In order to understand an event which was to follow as a dramatic climax to the turbulent history of the infant County of Luzerne, the career of Col. John Franklin must again be referred to at this time. The violent measures of his arrest at Wilkes-Barre, October 2, 1787, have hereinbefore been recorded. His treatment while in jail, at Philadelphia, was not consonant with that quality of
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mercy to have been expected of Pennsylvania .* For a period of almost six months, he was closely confined in an upper apartment of the jail, a considerable portion of the time in irons; denied the admission of visitors, prevented from writing his friends and otherwise treated with every contempt shown a degraded malefactor. To add to his discomfort of mind and body, he was forced to pur- chase his own subsistence, owing to a neglect on the part of the jailer to inform him that Government had made provision of the usual prison fare.
To a strong, active man, accustomed to life in the open, this treatment brought on a fever which impaired his iron constitution, and all but broke his iron will. On April 16, 1788, he petitioned the Supreme Court, then sitting at Philadelphia, that he "might be liberated on finding bail that should be deemed sufficient." Assurances were given him that if he would obtain securities in the sum of two thousands pounds, he should have his liberty.t Josiah Rogers, Jonah Rogers, Christopher Hurlbut, John Hurlbut, Nathan Carey, John Jen- kins, Hezekiah Roberts, Benjamin Harvey, Daniel Gore, Samuel Ayers and John Carey were named by Colonel Franklin, "any or all of whom would become pledged for his good behavior and his appearance at the time of trial." These friends and others had left no stone unturned as far as their influence extended in Philadelphia, to accomplish his bail and bring his case to trial, but delays were interposed.
While Colonel Franklin's request for bail secured him a more humane treatment as a prisoner, it did not effect his release.#
At Wyoming, Colonel Franklin's former associates, to whom the treatment of their leader appeared merely another link in the chain of injustices to be expected of Pennsylvania, determined on radical measures as a final resort. To them, the attitude of Colonel Pickering toward Colonel Franklin, was neither to be understood nor condoned. Against every petition or request that the Commissioner use his good offices to secure Colonel Franklin's release, Colonel Pickering was adamant. To his dying day, he believed that Colonel Franklin was a dangerous man-dangerous to the peace of the community because of his radical views-and dangerous also because the Commissioner's mission at Wyoming could not be satisfactorily accomplished with Colonel Franklin free to again assume the leadership against the influence of Pennsylvania, which Colonel Pickering officially represented.
The two men were much alike in the persistency with which they held to their convictions. Colonel Franklin had the directness and often the impa- tience and impetuosity of the soldier. Colonel Pickering was skilled in diplo- macy, but courageous withal, and rather the type of the constructive states- man. Their divergent views seemed to find no common meeting point.
*That this severity of treatment was not only countenanced hy the Supreme Executive Council, but in fact directed by that body, is shown by a resolution adopted October 8, 1787. "Council taking into consideration the intel- ligence received from the County of Luzerne since the capture of John Franklin, the principal of the banditti lately assembled at Tioga, and the public safety at this time requiring that the said John Franklin should be closely confined; therefore Resolved: That the sheriff of Philadelphia be directed to confine the said Franklin in one of the upper rooms of the jail, in irons, to suffer no person or persons whatsoever to speak to bim without leave from Council, or one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and to debar him the use of pen, ink, and paper." See "Colonial Records," XVI : 288.
tWhile Colonel Pickering was fixed in his purpose not to intercede with the Council for Colonel Franklin's release, he nevertheless seems to have performed all the duties required of him as Commissioner in measures looking to that end. On May 26, 1788, he notified the Justices of the Supreme Court, that he had "agreeably to their request. taken a recognizance of ten freeholders to the amount of 2,000 pounds for the appearance of John Franklin at the next term of Court of O. and T. in this County, to take his trial of high treason." See "Pennsylvania Archives," XI : 295.
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