USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV > Part 18
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" What signifys, then, your now saying that you will chearfully come into any reasonable Concessions ? You have constantly said so, & as constantly rejected what Every individual Man in the Coun- cil of Maryland thought most just and reasonable.
" If You have now in Reality altered your Minds, & are willing, as you say, to come into Concessions really reasonable, I beg the favour of you to leave general Expressions, which we have found of so uncertain a Signification, and let us know precisely what the Con- cessions are that you are willing to come into, and if they are rea- sonable, I promise to join with you chearfully and heartily. In the mean time I beg leave to remain,
" Sir, "Your most Obedient, humble servant,
" SAM. OGLE.
"To The Honourable James Logan, Esqr., President of the Council of the Province of Pennsylvania."
Whereupon, the Board remarking that it is now near ten weeks since its Date, in which time several Mails from Maryland have ar- rived, that if it was wrote when it bears date, it is very difficult to reconcile those extraordinary Violences that have been since carried on by the Authority of that Government, with the Professions which Mr. Ogle makes of his Inclinations for establishing Peace, & with the Desire that this Government would make Proposals for that End. It is therefore thought necessary that the Post master should be sent for & examined touching his Receipt of the said Let-
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ter. And the Messenger of the Council being sent to require his Attendance, he came, & being called in & examined, declares that he received the said Letter by the Mail brought last night, that he never saw, knew, or heard of it before, and that three Mails have come from Annapolis to this place since Christmas last.
The Post master being directed to withdraw,
The Board are of Opinion that whatever Reasons Mr. Ogle might have for either antedating his Letter or keeping it back when finish- ed, and altho' on the Letter wrote to him from this Board, of the 16th of December last, he hath declined offering any Proposals on his part, it may nevertheless be proper, on this Call from Maryland (the first that has been known to come from thence) to make some Proposals on the part of this Government for procuring Peace to His Majesty's Subjects, who have so deeply suffered by the late un- precedented Measures that have been pursued by the Governor of Maryland. And upon this Occasion, the Board had Recourse to the Letters that had pass'd between the said Governor and the late Governor Gordon, on considering which, together with what the present Exigency may further require to be added, sundry Proposi- tions were made & debated, and some principal Points being fixed, the further Consideration of a matter of so great Importance is adjourned till to-morrow, against which time the President is de- sired to reduce into writing those Heads which the Board seem to agree in, that they may be then further deliberated upon.
At a Council held at Philadia., March 2d, 1736-7.
PRESENT :
The Honble JAMES LOGAN, Esqr., President.
Samuel Preston,
Ralph Assheton,
Clement Plumsted,
Samuel Hasell,
Esqrs.
Thomas Laurence,
Thomas Griffitts,
A Draught of an Answer to Governor Ogle's Letter, concluding with some Proposals, of which the Heads had been mentioned at the Preceeding Council, being prepared by the President, was laid before the Board and read, and after some time spent thereon, it is continued under Consideration.
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At a Council held at Philadia., March 5th, 1736-7. PRESENT :
The Honble JAMES LOGAN, Esqr., President.
Clement Plumsted, -
Samuel Hasell,
Thomas Laurence,
Thomas Griffitts,
Eisqrs.
Ralph Assheton,
The Consideration of the Letter to Governor Ogle being resumed, and the several parts of it and Proposals therein made maturely considered, and now fully concluded upon, a fair Copy is ordered to be transcribed, sign'd by the President in behalf of this Board, & forwarded without Loss of time by a Messenger Express. Which Letter is in these Words :
Philadia., March 5th, 1736-7.
" Sir-
"Our President communicated to us your Letter of the 24th of December, received by him in the morning of the first instant from the Post Office; which coming to hand near ten weeks after its Date, we sent for our Post Master to know how long it had lain with him, and he positively declared that he received it but the pre- ceeding evening, the 28th of February, by the Maryland Post, & that till he then found it in the Mail, he had never seen, heard, or knew any thing of it before. Being further questioned, he also assured us that the same Post had in the time mentioned made several Returns from Annopolis with Letters, which he had duly delivered as they came to his hands.
"This Date, therefore, has laid us under some Difficulties how to consider your Letter ; for as that appears, after all the Misrepresen- tations couched in it, to show some Disposition on your part to hearken to pacifick measures, yet such Hostilities & inhuman cruel- ties have been committed by Persons acting, as they affirm, by your Authority since that date, that we can by no means reconcile them to the least Degree of Inclination to Peace. Therefore, to give the matter some Consistency, we shall suppose the Letter expresses your present Sentiments, but that for some Reason mysterious to us, you have thought fitt so far to antedate it, and accordingly we shall answer it as follows:
" On these unhappy Disputes we have found it necessary to view & consider the several Letters that formerly passed between you & our late Governor on the subject, & heartily wish you had been pleased to review or recollect them, for we find every thing you had alledged in yours against this Government so fully answered by those of Governor Gordon, that if you had Recourse to them it must have prevented your repeating the same things over and over. It has been the constant strain of your Letters, we observe, to load this Government with a Charge of Rioting & committing Insults
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on the Inhabitants of yours; &, indeed, if those Letters were to be read & depended on, we might be considered as some of the most unreasonable, turbulent, & unjust People in the Universe; yet when the real Facts & Proceedings as truly represented in the an- swers from this Government, are on the other hand considered by any equitable & impartial Judges, it will evidently appear you have thro' the whole been the Aggressors, and that till after your noisome Goals (as you have been fully told before) had been peopled with our innocent Inhabitants, nothing had been attempted on cur part, and then only in self-Defence ; for it cannot be doubted but that the apprehending of Criminals, Authors of the greatest Disorders, and constantly animated to continue them more insolently & abu- sively than ever, is as necessary a Part of Self-Defence as to oppose an Attack the same instant it is made.
" But what must the World judge, or yourself say, of the last Transactions begun about the time of the date of your Letter, and since continued by your new Captain Higginbotham & his Crew, the seizing & taking at one time half a dozen quiet & peaceable Men from the human Office of digging a Grave to bury the dead of a Neighbor's Family, hurrying them thro' the Woods in the most rigorously cold Season that has been for some years known, about an hundª. miles on foot, & there committing them in the like Weather to a narrow noisome Goal without any other Subsistance than a Pint of Indian Corn boil'd in Water for the whole twenty four hours, for which Pint of the value of about a half penny each Man is charged by the Sherif twenty pounds of Tobacco for each day, and no Fire, or any other Lodging than the bare Floor al- lowed them further than as the distressed People could procure them from the Humanity of others, or borrow money to purchase them. And others again of the same People yet more barbarously treated ; for Instance, your Captain & his Gang breaking down the Window fired in upon the Family at one Man's house, then violently break- ing up both his Doors they cruelly beat him & his Wife with their Guns till they broke two on them, & then took the Man; another they took from his Threshing, & being at the work very thinly clothed, his Wife following him to carry his Coat to him, they fired at the Woman and obliged her to return; they cut down the Door of a third & took the Man ; at another who fled on Horseback to escape them they fired two Shot ; at another's House they cut down two Doors & took the Man ; at another's they cut down three doors, two at his House & one at his Mill, & took him; and then took two others who went to them with an Intention to have those unhappy Prisoners freed ; and all these, when thus taken, they hurried down in the same manner to Annapolis & committed them as they had the others before. They have also since taken Joshua Minshal, a frequent Sufferer in your Goals, for no other Reason formerly than acknowledging the Jurisdiction he lives under, and now for none that we can learn beside their own or your Will and Pleasure. Nor
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do we find that any thing is or can be alledged against those Dutch- men, or Germans, more than that being from their own Observation convinced (for they were never, that we can discover, solicited or perswaded to it by any of this Government) that the place they lived in could not be in Maryland but in Pennsylvania, &, therefore, they thought themselves obliged in Conscience to acknowledge their rightful Proprietors, & accordingly lett you know this, a Proceeding that, on their application to some of our Magistrates of Lancaster, they were advised to as the most candid & ingenuous they could use on their Return to us, which they had of themselves proposed & were determined in before.
" These unexampled Violences & Cruelties, therefore, laid this Government under a Necessity to engage the Sherif of Lancaster with a proper Strength to curb the Insolencies of those lawless Wretches, that they might not continually go on to the Scandal of Government in perpetrating such horrid Outrages, yet with strict Orders at the same time that they should disturb no peaceable Per- son, nor act any part but what was absolutely necessary to suppress that Criminal Gang. Now if by any Art, Colour, or Turn, these Disorders, or any of them, can be charged on us, though the at- tempt would not be without Precedent in your past Letters, it might indeed be thought ingenious ; but how just or consistent the Prac- tice is with the Spirit & Disposition becoming all those who are entrusted under His Majesty with the Powers of Government, the sole End of which is to maintain Justice & secure the Peace of the Subject, even the meanest may be able to judge.
" Much the same is to be said of what you insist on of the many pacifick Proposals you have made, which this Government always answers, you say, with a Collection of fair & plausible Words, but nothing to the purpose : For of those two you made to Mess". Hamilton & Georges, at Annapolis, the first was clearly shown to you by our late Governor to be most unreasonable, since the Conse- quence of it would have been the voiding of the late Agreement, which this Government must always insist on, & is well assured by good Authority, both is & must continue in full Force, unless it should be otherways declared by that great Judicatory it is now submitted to; and that the other, which was that all who had settled near the Borders since your Accession should be removed, & no further Settlements made till the Lines were fixed, was utterly impracticable. Your next Proposals made the last Spring, that it should be agreed on both sides, that all then in possession near the disputed Borders should be suffered to continue quiet in them, with a Salvo for the Proprietor's Rights, was also as fully answered, & demonstrated to be most unreasonable, for those parts on the west of Sasquehannah that have been lately made the scene of these Contentions, had for many years before the last Agreement, as well as the Lands on the East side, been in the rightfull possession of VOL. IV .- 11.
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this Province, & never at any time in that of Maryland, but were invaded & asserted by you after that Agreement, which ought to have ended all Disputes of the kind, had been actually entred into, & when, from that time, you had carried on your unjustifiable En- croachments as far as you thought fitt, you then desired this Gov- ernment would agree the Possessors should peacebly hold them, by which would have been conceded to you, as far as it was in the Power of our Government, every thing you wanted or could crave of us. Which is just the same as if of two Persons, the one being possessed of Goods by a Right fully acknowledged by the other, that other should forcibly deprive the first of them, and then require him to give Consent that he should quietly keep possession of them till the Right were determined by Law-a Proposal that, when rightly considered & understood, all the rational and equitable part of Mankind must certainly conclude to be in the highest Degree unreasonable & unjust.
"Now these Proposals, being all we can find you ever made, and seeing as well they as your repeated but unjust Charges against us have been very particularly & fully answered before, we must beseech you to save yourself & us the Trouble of repeating or answering the same things any more. We beg you also to consider the Propriety of now continuing them, at the same time that a Gang of profligate Fellows, in hopes that, in Reward of their Wickedness and Barbarities, they shall be put into Possession of the Labours of honester Men, are, by your Authority, ravaging the Country and committing such horrid Outrages as those we have mentioned, on the Unjustifiableness of which, & some other Proceedings, you may perhaps at length have reflected, & we will hope at least that you are now truly in earnest in proposing to treat of Measures that may fully put an End to them. It has ever been the sincere Desire of this Government to preserve Peace & maintain a perfect good Un- derstanding with Maryland, and you well know by what means it has been interrupted. We may indeed now expect Orders from Court in a little time; but as many things may intervene to prevent or delay them, in the mean while it becomes us, in our respective Stations, to lose no Time in procuring to His Majesty's Subjects under our Care that Peace to which, while they act not criminally, they have an undoubted Right under His auspicious Reign. There- fore, since you have now at length thought fitt to desire our Thoughts on the Subject, & to know what Concessions we would make, we shall here give our Sentiments of what appears to us the most probable Method, under the present Circumstances of things, to establish Peace amongst those distressed People on the western side of Sasquehannah River.
" Observing first, that when the Royal patent of Maryland is duly considered, & that it can be evidently made appear it was intended that Province should be bounded Northwards by a Line passing close by the Head of Chessapeak Bay ; That Charles Lord
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Baltimore, very soon after the first Settlement of Pennsylvania, caused an East Line to be run from the Mouth of Octararoe Creek to Delaware, & sent his Commissioner to Philadia to demand the Possession of the Lands to the Southward of it only; That Mary- land never extended their Settlements to the Northward of that Line-those very few there were being made by Persons on their own Presumption ; That the present Lord Baltimore, in the year 1723-4, agreed with our Proprietor that no Person in either Gov- ernment should be molested for a certain space of Time, within which it was hoped the Agreement then in hand for fixing the Boundaries would be concluded, the Equity of which undoubtedly continued till such Conclusion ; That his Lordship in the year 1731, by Articles between himself & our Proprietors executed the May following, agreed that his northern Boundaries should be an East & West Linc, to the Limits of this Province, at the Distance of Fifteen miles South from Philadia», & that all Persons seated to the north- ward of it should peaceably hold their Lands under Pennsylvania, & those to the Southward of it under Maryland; That in that year, 1724, not one Person was, or before it ever had been settled, as far as we can discover, by any Grant from Maryland, in any of those parts on the west of Sasquehannah that have since been claimed by the Government of Maryland; These Particulars, we say, consid- ered, it is certainly astonishing that Maryland should now make the least Claim or Pretence to any of those Lands that have of late been with such Violence invaded & asserted under your Govern- ment; All which we cannot but presume must be carried on with- out the Lord Baltimore's Privity, or at least without his Approba- tion; for we mention it to his Lordship's Honour, that upon Appli- cation made to him, when in Philadelphia, for the Grant of Lands lying on the west side of Sasquehannah, in those parts opposite to Connestogoe, he was pleased to declare, with that Frankness natural to his Quality, that he neither would himself nor suffer any of his Officers or Agents to grant any Lands within the disputed Bounds untill the Controversy should be ended. The late Agent also of your Land Office has positively declared that upon the several Ap- plications that had been made to him for Grants of Lands in the same parts, he had ever refused them, which probably might pro- ceed from the Knowledge of his Lordship's Sentiments & Resolu- tions in the Case.
" Now seeing it is obvious to common Sense that without some certain known Limits for Civil Jurisdiction & the Administration of Justice, it is scarce possible by any means to avoid Confusion amongst the Inhabitants, & therefore some ought to be agreed on, Surely no Limits can be proposed more reasonable than those in being in the year 1724, extendd. Westward, or those agreed to in the Articles of 1732, with a full Salvo to be continued for the Pro- prietor's Rights & Claims on fixing the decisive Boundaries of their Property; for neither at the time of that last Agreement, nor at
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any time before, was our Exercise of Jurisdiction over those parts now contested, ever opposed or disputed, that we can learn. But in fixing such Limits it will, for the further preventing Disputes, be necessary that no new Settlements whatever shall be suffered in those parts, save by the same Families that are now in Possession on the Lands they held or claimed before. 1
"Tho' this Proposal appears the only one to us that can be deemed reasonable & prevent Confusion amongst the People, & We shall always be ready to submitt it to the Judgment of Our Supe- riors, yet so ardent is our Desire to procure Peace to His Majesty's Subjects in those parts, who have been so miserably harrassed by your late new Claims, that if on your Part you can propose any rational Measures to render the thing practicable, we shall not op- pose but that all those who first took up their Lands under Mary- land may be allowed to acknowledge that Government, only those who coming into this Province to inhabit it and going over Sasque- hannah to seek for Settlements, were either forced or decoyed by T. Cressap or others to submit to your Government, ought certainly to be left to That to which they first belonged, and all those who settled as Pennsylvanians under This should continue so in Peace. But as it cannot be expected these Points can be settled between us by the Intercourse of Letters only, and other Particulars neces- sary to be considered may properly be thought of, we propose that some Persons on each side be authorized & appointed to meet at some convenient Place as Commissioners to adjust the whole.
"In the mean time we make it a Preliminary that all those who have been employed on your part to seize our People, and all who appear in Arms for any such Purpose, shall immediately retire, as all ours also, whom our Sherif of Lancaster has been obliged to call & keep together to oppose the others' illegal attempts, shall on the first effectual Orders you give therein be likewise dismissed; & that no Person whatever in or near those parts shall on either side be molested on any cause or Pretence arising from these Disputes or the Proprietary Claims.
" And we must add, that as these Proposals are made on our part solely with a View on the present Exigencies to procure Peace to His Majesty's distressed Subjects, neither the whole nor any part of them shall by any Construction, Implication, or Inference what- soever, be interpreted to make any Concession, or to give the least Advantage, directly or indirectly, to either your or our Proprietors or Government, on either side, in their respective Rights or Claims over the other; but excepting for the Purposes they are now in- tended, they shall in all other Respects be wholly void, as if never made or thought of.
" These Proposals, we hope, will effectually convince you that we are not for offering Words (as you charge us) without meaning, but that we are truly in earnest; & that we may be the more sure of
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your Answer we send this, not by Post, but Express, & accordingly we crave it by his Return, and are,
"Sir, "Your Friends and humble Servants, "In behalf of the Council, "JAMES LOGAN, Presid-
"Be pleased to direct to President & Council and not to me only. " J. L.
"For His Majesty's Service.
" To the Honble. Samuel Ogle, Esq., Governor of Maryland."
And in answer to the late Accounts from Lancaster, the Board are of Opinion that it may be sufficient to acquaint the Justices and Sherif there with the Receipt of the late Letter from Mr. Ogle, that an Answer has been given to it from this Board & dispatched by Express, till whose Return, and the further Knowledge of the Governor of Maryland's Disposition & Resolutions, they ought to continue their utmost Care & Vigilance for the Preservation of His Majesty's Peace & the Protection of the Inhabitants from the further Outrages of the Banditi in that Neighbourhood; And the President is desired to write to this Effect to the Magistrates of the said County of Lancaster.
At a Council held at Philadia., March 7th, 1736-7. PRESENT :
The Honble JAMES LOGAN, Esqr., President.
Samuel Preston,
Ralph Assheton, 1 Esqrs.
Anthony Palmer, Samuel Hasell,
Clement Plumsted,
Thomas Griffitts,
Thomas Laurence.
The Minute of the preceding Council being read & approved,
The following Letter from the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, received yesterday by the New York Post, was communi- cated to the Board by the President :
"Duplicate of the Letter sent under Cover to the Governor of Virginia.
"Council Chamber, Charles Town, 5th Febry., 1736-7. “ Sir-
"This Government has within these two Days received advice from Commodore Dent, of his Majesty's Squadron at Jamaica, that there is an Armament of Spanish Ships of War & Troops preparing at the Havana to be sent to St. Augustine, & from thence Attack the New Colony of Georgia and this Province. This Government has
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taken all possible precautions to give the New Colony all the Assist- ance in their Power, and also to put this Province in the best posture of Defence; And in Order to Distress the Spaniards, An Act of General Assembly is passed authorizing me, with the Advice of His Majesty's Council, to lay an Embargo on all Ships and Vessels, and to prohibit any kind of Provisions being Exported, by which means a Stop will be put to supplying the Spaniards at St. Augustine with Provisions and Ammunition from this Province; But as they may be supplied with the same from your Government, It is my request to you that you will use the properest means to hinder any Vessels going from your Province to that Garrison. I cannot doubt of your ready Complyance and Assistance in all things for the Preservation of his Majesty's Frontiers & Territorys in America. I am,
"Sr., "Your most obedient humble Servant, "THO. BROUGHTON.
"On His Majtys. Special Service.
"To the Honble. James Logan, Esq"., President & Commander-in- Chief of Pennsilvania :
It being observed that, on the Receipt of the same Advices at York, a Proclamation had been there issued for preventing any Supplies being sent from thence to the Spaniards, The President proposed that the like should be done in this Government, Which being unanimously agreed to by the Board, a Draught of a Procla- mation that by Direction of the President had been prepared by the Secretary, was laid before the Board, read, & with some Amend- ments approved, And it is Ordered that the same be engrossed, sealed, & published forthwith In these Words :
"By the Honourable James Logan, Esqr-, President, and the Council of the Province of Pennsylvania.
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