USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV > Part 57
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"We shall not dispute with the Committee upon their distinction between filing & lodging a Paper in an Office; It is a distinction too Minute to spend any time upon. But when we see the Com- mittee decline reason and recur to threats to make an Officer sensible of his Duty, as they call it, because they pay him fifteen Pounds per Annum for as much business as would amount upon a Quantum Meruit to four Times that money, we take it for granted that Reason is not on their side, and that the House of Representatives have not any Authority to direct the filing of papers in the Secretary's or any other Publick Office, without the Governor's Assent to a Law for that purpose.
"We cannot but however observe, that they might with equal Justice have threatened the Judges of the Supreme Court, as their Salaries are paid out of the Public stock, that they will make them too sensible of their Duty if they do not receive the Resolves of the Assembly as Laws, and give Judgment according to them. But how a Committee consisting of no more than eight Members can take upon them to threaten for the whole House, we are at a Loss to conceive, unless they unwarrantably flatter themselves that the whole are under their Command.
"Before we leave this head, we think ourselves obliged to do the Committee the Justice to take Notice of the only part of this ob- servation which has any pretensions to reason, or rather of an As- sertion contained in it that carries some appearance of reason, and that is, that those who have a right to give may annex Conditions to their Gifts.
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" Considering that the Committee have been so careful of others in regard to Limittations, it is strange that they should not have thought of some Limitations or Exceptions to this Rule or asser- tion. The Assembly, it is true, are at this Time Trustees for the Public Money, but because they pay a Doctor (for it is not giving) have they therefore a right to annex it as a Condition that they shall have the appointment of him? Or because they pay a Gov- ernor, have they a right to annex it as a Condition that they shall have the Choice of him? Or if they do not choose him, that he shall deliver up the whole Legislative and the Executive power of the Government into their Hands when they shall think fit to de- mand it? What has been said is sufficient to shew that Conditions must be agreeable to the establish'd Constitution and to the Laws, otherwise Conditions may be annexed destructive of both the Con- stitution and the Laws.
" On the sixth Resolve the Committee have remark'd that the Event has shewn there was great reason for the Assembly in August, 1741, to provide against a Default the present Declaration of the Gov- ernor & Council ; that they will have no regard to the Resolutions of the Assembly proves it. We must leave it to the Gentlemen of the Committee to prove how the present Declaration could be a reason for the Assembly's doing a thing Prior to the making that Declaration. The Committee goes on, and therefore it is well pro- vided by that Assembly, that in such Case they would pay the Doctor as often as he should be sent by any two Justices of the City & County of Philadelphia. That is, because of the Council's present Declaration, it was well provided by the Assembly before that declaration was made, That in such Cases they would, &t. He could not be thought a very just Judge who should condemn a man to punishment and pretend to justify himself by saying that the Man perpetrated a Crime since which deserved it. But the injustice must, if possible, be still more flagrant if the subsequent Act was so far from being Criminal that it was in support of the Government and the Laws.
"The Committee have added, we are at a Loss to say why the supposition of a Default in the Governor & Council should be as- serted to carry with it an unjust reflection ; And in Justification of the former Assembly, have cited an Act of Parliament for the pun- ishment of Crimes committed by Governors.
" If the Committee have been at such a Loss on this Point, it is no wonder that they have been so much at a Loss on others. But that they may not longer remain so we think it necessary to observe, That as the Act of Parliament relates to Governors in General, no Governor but one that has committed the Crimes punishable by it can have reason to think it applicable to him in Particular; but the supposition of a Default in the Case before Us could relate to no other Governor & Council but the Governor & Council of this Pro-
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vince, And therefore it was truly said (as their was no default on their part) to carry with it an unjust Reflection both upon the Gov- ernor & Council.
" Acts of Parliament may be Cited for the Punishment of Crimes committed by men in most Stations & Professions (for some Men in most Stations & Professions have deserved Punishment), but he that has any regard for his own Character or has any Character to lose, will never descend to so low, to so ungentlemanly an Attempt, to an Attempt so unbecoming even the name of a Christain, as to blast the Character of another by dark insinuations of what he dares not openly assert. The King's approbation of the Governor's Conduct, signified by his Majestie's principal secretary of State, & laid before the Council on the single point from whence his Ene- mies have pretended to draw advantage over him, sufficiently secures him from the Application of any such Quotations.
"The length of the Committee of Assembly's Report had con- trary, both to our Inclination and Intention, carried us into a Greater, which, however, is generally and almost necessarily the Case with all answers. Whether we have well executed what was expected of Us is submitted to the Governor & Council, with this further Remark that it appears to Us that the Resolves of Council were so farr from having been an Attack upon the Rights and Privi- ledges of the ffreemen of this Province, illegal or unwarrantable as the Committee of Assembly would have it thought, that they were a necessary, just, and laudable Defence against the Attempts of the last Assembly to seize the whole Legislative & Executive power of the Government into their own Hands, which if admitted in any one Instance may be carried such lengths as to endanger the Char- ter, which it is as much the Interest & Desire of the Council to pre- serve as of any the like Number of Men in the Province, altho' they do not, like some Men of Old who made high Pretensions to Religion, despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities.
"CLEMENT PLUMSTED, " SAMUEL HASELL, " ABRAHAM TAYLOR, "WILLIAM TILL."
The Governor then acquainted the Board that as the Assembly in pursuance of their last Adjournment were to Meet this night, he had prepared a Message which he intended to send them to-morrow Morning, and the same being read was also order'd to be entred, viz *· :
" His Honour, the Governor, in Council, to the Gentlemen of the Assembly.
"Gentlemen :
" Had the Publick Interest been concerned when you sent me your Resolution to adjourn to the 17th Instant, I should have in-
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sisted upon or at least desired your sitting some time longer for my Answer to the written Message which was then delivered me, how- ever doubtful I had reason to be of obtaining that Favour, since it had been denied when a Matter recommended by his Majesty him- self was under Consideration. But as that Message contained little more than a repetition of your former Civilities, or was but another Instance of the Sincerity of your Professions for restoring the Peace of the Province, I was not willing to increase the Publick Expense on Account of a matter purely Personal, and which I was no ways apprehensive could affect me in the Opinion of any impartial ob- server upon my Conduct.
" As a Committee of the Council appointed to Consider the Re- port of a Committee of your House on the proceedings of the late and present Assembly relating to unhealthy Vessels, have fully an- swered all that has been objected in that Report, it is needless for me to say much upon that Subject ; Wherefore, in imitation of that nice Decorum observed by you in a Verbal Message at the time of your adjournment, I refer you to the Clerk of the Council for a Copy of that Report, if you are desirous of seeing it; But as the House have Resolved, 'That for the Governor & Council to draw in Question, arraign & Censure the Proceedings of the Representa- tives of the ffreemen of this Province in Assembly met after the adjournment of such Assembly, is Assuming to themselves a Power the Law hath not entrusted them with, is illegal and unwarrantable, a high breach of their Privileges, and of dangerous example,' It may not be improper to observe, That when the Resolves of an As- sembly are to be received as Laws, we must Submit not only to this, but to all such as they shall think fit to make; but as this is not the Case yet, nor will be until the Assembly have seized all the Powers of Government into their own hands, you must excuse me if I in- sist upon seeing the Law which impowers an Assembly to supersede the Governor's appointmt, or to transfer a Power vested by Law in the Governor & Council to any other Magistrates, And I promise You when that is produced to show you another to support the Gov- ernor & Council's Right to arraign and Censure the Proceedings of the Assembly after their adjournment. At present I am so far from agreeing that it is a Breach of the Privileges of the House of Rep- resentatives, that I think it would have been Criminal not to have censured those unprecedented proceedings, as it would have been a Submission to an Usurpation of very dangerous Example. Had that Assembly, however, sent me their Resolves whilst they were sitting, I should indeed have thought that the properest Time for animadverting upon them, but as they were secreted for some Time, and not delivered to the Mayor of this City until several Days after their adjournment, And as there was no likelihood of that Assem- bly's sitting again, it was thought necessary to nip such an Extrava- gant production in the Bud, least the Privilege of issuing Edicts and appointing all Publick Officers should be engrafted upon it by
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some future Assembly as enterprising as the Last. To conclude all upon this Subject, I think it might with more Justice be resolved by my self and Council that for the Assembly to supersede the Gov- ernor and Council's appointment of a Doctor to visit unhealthy Ves- sels, and to transfer a Power vested by Law in the Governor & Council to other Persons by a bare vote of their House, & even without the Privity of the Governour & Council, and to require Obe- dience to such Vote or Resolve by serving it upon the Mayor of this City After the Adjournment of that House, is assuming to themselves a Power the Law hath not entrusted them with, is illegal & unwar- rantable, an high Invasion of the Powers of Government, & Of very dangerous Example.
"To add any thing in Proof of the Jealousy entertained of the Germans is almost as unnecessary as to Spend Time in proving that the sun Shines in a clear Day. The uneasiness of many of those who deny the lawfulness of Arms at the Importation of fforeigners bred up to the Use of them, is so generally known that the disput- ing it would be matter of as general Wonder, were not the reasons for it well understood. The Germans have been of Service to you in some late Elections, and are so numerous that it is now become necessary to count them to Chuse you again. The Act, however, for laying a Duty of 40 Shillings $ Head in 1729, to discourage the Importation of fforeigners, will be a lasting Memorial of that Jealousy; And although you have laboured hard to explain away that part of the Address to the Proprietor which was quoted in my last Message, as the Germans were not the People complained of for having unwarrantably settled themselves upon the Proprietors Lands, the Voluntary Engagments to guard against the Dangers which may arise from the great & frequent Importation of Foreign- ers will be considered by all who know anything of that Matter to have been the Effect of ffear and Jealousy of them, and of Resent- ment against Me for my just tho' unacceptable Commendation of the Industry of those People. That the Proprietor saw it in the same Light is evident from bis answer, which is general, and does not take the least Notice of the Danger apprehended from the Im- portation of Foreigners.
" As to the Gentlemen now no Members of your House (which they think a peculiar Happiness, as not being Chargeable with your Proceedings) some of you cannot be Ignorant, notwithstanding what is insinuated in your last Message, that they oppos'd that part of the address relating to fforeigners, as they had before everything that tendered to Clog the Importation of them; but they were borne down by the Stream, and altho' you may not be willing to allow them the Merit of having acted with a view to the Publick good, You must own this was most agrecable to their private Interests, as they had more land to dispose of than all the other Members of that Assembly .. With these Gentlemen I confess I have lived in Confi-
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dence, and as they carried on the Publick affairs with Reputation, and were the Leaders of some that are now Yours, You ought to be the last to object to that Confidence. If it be criminal in them & their ffriends to have since supplied me with Money after the Assembly had declared that they could not cheerfully accede to the Measures recommended by his Majesty, or come into the levying of Money & Appropriating it for obtaining Satisfaction for national Injuries and Affronts, from whence his Majesty would have been disappointed of the Assistance expected from this Province, you may with some Justice reproach me with that Confidence; but if this be praise- worthy, my Confidence has been well placed, and their ffriendship is an Honour to me.
" That you may not give Occasion to charge you with a Deviation from your wonted Good Nature, you have been pleased to tell Me that Accusations and Complaints ought not to be new Things to me, whilst the Causes of them remain-this is taking a thing for granted which ought to have been first proved. Taking it for granted that a Man has committed a felonious Act, he may be pronounced to have deserved Punishment; but if the Accusation be false, it will be a full proof of the wickedness & Malice of the accuser, but cannot in Justice affect the reputation of the Person accused. The Assem- bly transmitted an Accusation against me, by way of Petition, to his Majesty in Council, and the poor Man you call your Agent ran about with it to several of the most Eminent Council in England, but being told that it could not be Expected His Majesty should censure a Governor for a Punctual Obedience to his Commands in a matter of the Highest Concernment to the Nation, And being unable to prevail with any one of them to appear in support of that Petition, he thought it best to decline a Publick Examination into the Matter, lest the Behaviour of his Employers should appear to merit that Censure which they had kindly meditated for their Go- vernor.
"If his Majesty, after my Letters relating to the Expedition and a Copy of the Assembly's proceedings had been laid before him, vouchsafed to signify his Approbation of my Conduct on that occa- sion, And that this appears by his Grace the Duke of Newcastle's Letter communicated by me to the Council, it is as Evident that the Applause, as you call it, is not of my own bestowing, as it is that your Language & Behaviour shew a Contempt of his Majesty's Sen- timents, as well as a Departure from the Decencys observ'd by all other Publick Bodys towards persons in Authority; That you have no other Credentials but my own is by no means to be wondered at, since his Majesty has not yet Commanded his Ministers to hold Correspondence with you, nor was it for your Agent's interest to. inform you of a thing so disagreeable to you as the King's approba- tion of my Conduct, neither is he indeed of Consequence enough to have come at the Knowledge of it otherwise than by Corrupting some inferior Clerk of an Office.
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" After you have thus Civilly called me an Imposter in bestowing upon myself an Approbation which you insinuate the King never gave, you go on to Impeach my Integrity in clandestinely Attempt- ing to deprive You of those religious & Civil Liberties which I had solemnly promised to support. If you mean by this that I did very fully represent the abuse of those religious & Civil Liberties, as well in regard to the defenceless Condition of this province as to the King's Instructions laid before the Assembly, relating to the Expedition, and that I did at the same Time shew in the clearest Manner I was able how the King's Honour and the Interests of our Mother Country may in future Times be affected by the like rash & undutiful proceedings, it is, in my Opinion, so far from being an Instance of my want of Integrity, that I glory in having preferr'd Obedience to His Majesty's Commands to give his Ministers a Par- ticular Account of all my Transactions upon that Occasion, to the private Advantages which would have attended my acting a different part. And further, if Resentment for imaginary injuries, or even an opposition to your Sentiments, can be justified by your Example, that surely will be an ample Justification of me where the injuries were real & without provocation. The Assembly, laying aside Truth and good Manners, first publickly defamed me in their Messages, they stopt my Salary, they petitioned the King against me, and they employ'd Men (some of them without shame or Common Hon- esty) to procure the Depositions of Blacksmiths' Boys and such like rabble to support it, and then clandestinely transmitted them to England without ever doing me the Justice due even to a Criminal of seeing or hearing the Charge or the Evidence. But if resent- ment is not to be justified in any Case, no reasonable Man will blame a Conduct that was rendred Necessary to guard myself against a Stab in the Dark, which was intended both to blast my Character and to ruin my ffortune. The freemen of the Province will judge well and honestly when they are left to their own Judgments, but to prejudice them against me the Seeds of Dissention have been plentifully sown, and carefully nourished by the grosest Misrepre- sentations and ffalshoods. When a Petition has failed, a Repre- sentation or more properly a new Calumny has been projected to amuse them, and the Craftsmen have proclaimed aloud that their privileges were in Danger; many, notwithstanding, have been too cautious and too wise to be caught with such Baits; And I make no doubt of living, by the Blessing of God upon my honest Intentions, to see all Honest Men made sensible that Danger to their Religious & Civil Liberties must arise from the Malice and self-interested De- signs of these or such like Men; you cannot be Ignorant that the last Assembly have been charged with another piece of Art in the Distribution of the Public Money, by the Partiality shewn in pay- ing the Masters of such Servants as enlisted themselves in the King's Service upon the Expedition, not according to their value but to the Masters approbation or Disapprobation of that Assembly's
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proceedings. You have it in your power to confute this Aspersion, if it be one, by publishing an Exact List of the Names of such Servants, in what Company they inlisted, their Masters Names, their Trades, the Dates of their several Indentures, the Time each Man had to serve, & the particular Sums paid.
" In my last Message I said that £1,500 of the &2,500 paid for Servants had been Stopt out of my Support. In answer to which you tell me I may remember that since my accession to the Govern- ment I have received divers Sums of Money arising by Fines, For- feitures, licensing Publick Houses, & other Perquisites of Govern- ment, amounting from the best Judgment you can form to near one thousands Pounds & Ann., which is double the yearly Salary some of your former Governor's received, and then according to your accustomed Charity you represent me to the World as a public Rob- ber by adding ' Some of which you have no right to.'
" Whoever considers what was alledged by me, that you had stopt £1,500 of my support, will see that this is an Answer as much to the purpose as if you had given me an Account of the last Year's Clouds. Wherefore, were it not that my Character is again Struck at, I should think it mispending Time to make any other Reply to it than that most of the members of the present Assembly have received double the Wages that former Members received in the like time, without doing one Single Act in two Years and a-half for the Public Service. But before I proceed to a vindication of my self give me leave to say that you would have shewn more Exact- ness if you had distinguished betwixt the perquisites of this Gov- ernment & those of the Lower Counties, for I conceive you have no more to do with what relates to that Government than you have with the Income of my own Private Estate. . To that Assembly & their Constituents I am pleased with every opportunity of making my Acknowledgements for the Provision they have annually made for my support, but more particularly for the Justice they have done to my Administration ; for from hence it will be concluded by all unprejudiced Persons that the Names of Imposter, Plunderer, Invader of the Liberties of the People, &t., &t., &t-, are the result of personal prejudice or of a Malignant party Spirit.
" fforgive this Digression if your ever do forgive the Man that tells you disagreeable Truths, and I will return to the point and own to you that the Perquisites of this Province have amounted to between 6 & £700 $ Ann., one year with another. And that I may do you some pleasure, I will own to you likewise that I have spent above £1,000 more than ever I received from both Governments in supporting the Character of a Governor which I was weak enough to think would be a Reputation to this Government in particular. This you say is double the yearly Salary some of your former Governers received, Altho' by the way I have received no Salary at all from you for two years past, altho' the two last Governors, VOL. IV .- 35.
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Sir William Keith & Major Gordan, received the same perquisites and £1,000 $ Ann. Salary besides. I Expect you will answer that as the number of people is encreased the perquisites must have done so in proportion, but it would be an Affront to your Arithmetick to suppose any of you can really think that 6 or £700 $ Ann. perqui- sites is equal to &1,000 salary per Ann., & the perquisites of those Times too, or that the difference of perquisites is more than equivalent to 20 or 30 $ Cent. difference of Exchange, and as much in the price of all sorts of provisions.
"To shew, however, your Skill in accounting for this prodigious Income of mine, you tell me how it has arisen by ffines, fforfeitures, &t .; for ffines & fforfeitures I have not received ten pounds a Year, one Year with another; in this Government ffines have generally fallen upon necessitous people, and I thank God I have always had humanity enough to remit them rather than suffer such as were really so to languish in a Goal and remain a Burthen upon the Counties.
" I come now to your grand Charge, the taking Money to which I have no right, and I shall give you a full answer to it, tho' it is far from my intention to acquiesce under your determination, either as to my own Right or the Rights of my Successors. The Charge it self must indeed appear to every impartial person to be the Effect of Disappointment in your attempts to reduce me to such a Com- pliance with your pleasure as would be a Scandal to my Station, and and which I could never be so mean as to Submit to, tho' you had it as much in your power to wrest the perquisites of the Govern- ment out of my Hands as you have had to stop my Salary.
" As to the ffees taken by my Secretary for my Use, they are the same that have been taken for above twenty Years by my pre- decessors Sr. William Keith, Major Gordon, & Mr. President Logan ; and are either of Right by Acts of Assembly or are countenanced by the practice of most other Governments in America, from whence the Governor's Right to them here has never been questined by any former Assemblys of as much Zeal for the publick Good and of Knowledge at least equal to the present. I have made it a Rule not to exceed in any one Instance, and have always refused ffees for Business done if not included in the List of ffees delivered to me by the late Governor's Secretary. I have never taken, directly nor indirectly, either myself or by any other person, any Sum or Sums of Money, or the value of Money, by way of Present, Gratuity, or in any other Way whatsoever for Charters, Commissions, or any Offices of profit, although Money has been offered and the Example of other Governor's urged for my taking it. I rejected such Offers least the taking Money should prove an encouragement for Extortion, and disarm me from punishing the Crime as it deserves. And now I defie my most inveterate Enemies to prove one single Act of Cor- ruption upon me in an administration of four Years.
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