USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV > Part 62
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Doctor Bond having certified that he had this Morning carefully examined the State of Health of the Mariners on Board the Con- stantine, and found them well, And that the Vessel had been cleansed & Aired in the likeliest Manner, to free her from the Dan- ger of spreading the infectious Disease wherewith she arrived, and giving it as his Opinion that there is now as little Danger of infec- tion from her as there will be after any time she can be expected to lie Quarantine.
The Board is of Opinion that the said Ship may be allowed to come up Opposite to the Town and unload with Boats, but that she be not as yet permitted to come to a Wharff.
At a Council held at Philada., July 22d, 1742.
PRESENT :
The Honble GEORGE THOMAS, Esqr., Lieutt Governor. James Logan, Samuel Preston, Esqrs.
Clement Plumsted,
Mr. Peters.
The Governor having received an Answer from Conrad Weiser to the Message sent him the 19th Instt., laid the same before the Board, which being read, the Board is of Opinion that the Governor write to Governor Ogle upon the Subject of the Answer of the six Na- tions, inclosing a Copy of Conrad Weiser's Letter, and that the same be dispatched Express at the Publick Expence.
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At a Council held at Philada., Aug. 16th, 1742.
PRESENT :
The Honble GEORGE THOMAS, Esqr., Lieutt. Governor.
James Logan,
Samuel Preston,
Clement Plumsted,
Samuel Hasell,
Ralph Assheton,
Wm. Till,
Esqrs.
Abraham Taylor,
Robt. Strettell,
The Governor laid before the Board certain Minutes or Notes of a Conference between Mr. Edwards and other Justices in Lancaster and Mothowana and five other Shawanese Indians sent by their Chiefs to make enquiry concerning the late Imprisonment of the Nantikoke Indians in Maryland.
The Board taking this Message into Consideration, disapprove of the Conduct of Mr. Edwards and the other Magistrates in receiving any Application of this Nature from the Indians, whose Publick Messages ought all to be delivered to the Governor ; Nevertheless, at this Time it is the Opinion of the Board that the Indians should receive an Answer, And the following Answer being prepared and approved of, was ordered to be transcribed and sent accordingly, to wit :
" George Thomas, Esqr., Governor of the Province of Pennsyl- vania, &t.,
" To his ffriends and Brethren, Cacowatchico & Nuchicaw.
" ffriends & Brethren :
" I could not but be surprized at receiving last Week by the Hands of a Gentleman or two who chanced to be at Lancaster Court, a Belt with two Strings of Wampum that were delivered them they said by Methawana, accompanied with five others of your Nation, with a Message that undoubtedly you conceived to be of Importance by the Belt you sent with them, but whatever it was you cannot but be sensible it was incumbent on your Messengers, instead of Stopping short at Lancaster, to have proceeded on their way directly to Philadelphia, and here delivered their Message to me, as you well know has been the Practice ever since the first of your people came into the Government of your ffather & very good ffriend William Penn, who was also the ffather & founder of this Colony.
" This Message that you intended should be delivered to me as I understand it, was to inquire about some Nantikoke Indians who were lately imprisoned in Maryland on some informations that were given first to the Magistrates and then to the Governor & Council, of some Evil Designs occasion'd by a Visit made to those Indians between three & four Months since by some of your Nation, Which being a Transaction within another of his Majestie's Governments, and therefore not under my Cognizance, would more properly have
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been inquired of there. However, I take it kindly, and as an In- stance of your Regard to the Chain of ffriendship and Brotherhood subsisting hetween You & Us, and which has by so very many. re- peated Treaties been strengthen'd & brighten'd, One Article of which I am very sensible is, That the Christians or Subjects of our Great King and the Shawanese shall duly inforin each other of whatever either side hears or knows that may affect the other. But that any of your People should Act so very inconsistently with all your solemn Engagement, appears to me unaccountable. I well re- member I held a Treaty with you here at Philada about this Time was three Years, in behalf of your selves and your whole Nation, And upon this last occasion I have been enquiring what Old Trea- ties have been enter'd into between Us and your Nation, for you are sensible we have Records in writing by which the Memory of past Transactions are preserved for all Ages to come, And amongst these I observe one Treaty held above 40 Years since by your said ffather William Penn, for himself and all the King of England's subjects, with Conoodachto and other Chiefs of the Sasquehannah, together with 3 of your Chiefs, viz: Wopaththa, Lemoytaugh, & Pemayojooagh, in behalf of their whole Nation, not long after their first Arrival at the River Sasquehannah, by which Treaty it was mutually agreed and firmly Covenanted by & between the Chris- tians and all the said Indians, that they should for ever thereafter be as one Head & one Heart, and live in true friendship and Amity as one People, And the same has been Confirmed by the Chiefs of your Nation in behalf of all their People from Time to Time, as often as this Government hath held Treaties with any Indians in your Neighbourhood, and particularly, as I have already mentioned, by your selves this Time was three Years, and therefore repeat it again. Now that any of your People should have taken it into their Heads to Act so inconsistently as to plot Mischief against any of our King's Subjects, as they are charged by the Nantikokes to have done, appears to me, as I have said, unaccountable. But upon what has happened I advise you, as your true ffriend, without Delay to send a proper Message to the Governor of Maryland to clear (if you can) those People's Innocence, Or if Guilty let the Action be condemned in them. That Gentl. used their imprisoned Indians with Great tenderness, Dismissing them on their Engagements to behave well for the future, and sending them home to their former Habitations. I must further take Notice that I received this past Summer from You a Small Bundle of Skins on Accot of some Scalps discovered in the Bundles of the Twechtway Indians, that you had reason to believe were not the Scalps of Indians, as those who had them pretended, but of white people, And therefore to prevent all suspicion that any of your Nation were concerned in the Murther, you sent me the aforesald Message, your Care in which was not only Commendable in that particular, but I hope it will be the same in every respect for the future; And I desire you will make further
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enquiry into that Matter and send me a more certain Account if you can, not only who committed the Murther but to what Place or River the People Murder'd did belong. I shall Expect to see you here next Spring, according to your Promise, where you shall be Kindly received by your very good ffriend and Brother.
"Philada., August 16th, 1742."
"P. S. I send you this not only under the Seal of our Govern- ment, but for a further Confirmation have added four Strings of Wampum."
The Several Bills of Expences on Account of the Indians were laid before the Board and committed to the inspection and Examination of Mr. Hasell, Mr. Assheton, Mr. Till, and Mr. Strettell, or any three of them, who are to report their Opinions thereon, and form one General Account thereof.
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" It is not from an expectation of convincing your Understand- ings, or of reforming Your Conduct, that I take the Trouble of answering your Messages. The Interests of your Leaders I know depend upon keeping alive a Spirit of Faction, for a Return of that Harmony which subsisted before they embroiled the Publick Affairs would render them as inconsiderate as they formerly were, and as all True Lovers of the Peace and Prosperity of the Province wish to see them again. I know, too, that I am to expect nothing from these Men but Misrepresentations and Revilings. But it is not for them that I write; it is to prevent the Honest and well meaning from being deceived and misled. As to myself, I cannot have the least Reason to be concerned about your Sentiments of me; since his Majesty has been graciously pleased, after a Transcript of your proceedings had been laid before him, to signify his Approbation of my Conduct; since the Honourable Proprietaries, to whom you have appealed, have likewise done me that Justice which I had reason to expect from their Candour and good Sense, and since, if they are to be credited, my Conduct has appeared in a very agreeable Light to Persons less concerned in the Province than either They or You, and therefore more indifferent Judges. These things considered, I have nothing to wish for respecting my Administration, but that the Eyes of such as have been infected by your Passions and Prejudices may be opened, that they may lay the true Interests of their Coun- try to Heart, and that they may do their Parts towards preparing and applying proper Relief, as well to the impending as to the pre- sent Necessitys of the Publick.
"It will ill become me to descend so low as to take Notice of every part of your last Messages, wherefore I shall principally con- fine myself to such of them as seem particularly calculated to injure me, and to preserve yourselves in Power.
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" In answer to all that relates to the Inlisting Servants for the late Expedition, I might refer You to my former Messages on that Subject; but since you think you gain great Advantages in keeping up a Discontent in the Minds of the People by a Repetition of your Charge against me, and an obstinate avowal of your own unaccount- able Conduct upon that Occasion, I shall not decline the Contro- versy, but briefly as I can State some few of the material Facts, and make a few Observations upon them.
" A Proclamation was made by me, inviting all such as were willing to inlist in the King's Service to enter their Names with Persons appointed to Receive them, that I might be enabled to make a Judgment of the number of Men likely to be raised here, and to give Collo Spotswood an Account of it. Numbers enter'd their Names accordingly-Freemen and Servants. From hence you insist that Servants were inlisted before a Bounty was proposed by me to the Assembly; for what is an Inlistment, said the Assembly, but entering a name on a List?
" This is, I confess, a very ingenious Definition of Inlisting; and as it is to be found in every Dictionary, the Assembly laid their Chief Stress upon it. But, with your leave, an Inlistment must be attended with other Circumstances besides that of entering a Name on a List. To make a Legal Inlistment the Person must have re- ceived inlisting Money, must be carried before a Magistrate, the seventh & tenth Articles of War read to him, and the Oath men- tion'd in those Articles taken by him; which, however, he may refuse to take if he makes the satisfaction required by Act of Par- liament in four days after receiving the inlisting Money: As these Essentials to an Inlistment were wanting, and there was in Truth " no Person authorized to make a legal Inlistment before the Arrival of Colo. Blakeney, no one was so weak as to think of holding any by their having barely enter'd their Names on a List; and, there- fore, their appearance was so far from being insisted upon that not one of them was ever called for. As this is truly the Case, there is not the least Ground for your Assertion that Servants were In- listed before a Bounty was mentioned, nor was one Man Inlisted, either Freeman or Servant, until several Days after my Speech to the Assembly recommending a Bounty.
" You are pleased to say now, that the Assembly did declare they could not appropriate any Money to the uses required, yet they had determined to give &4,000 to the King's Use, and prepared a Bill for that purpose, which might have passed had not the Inlist- ing so many Servants prevented it. This may pass well enough with such as are disposed to swallow any thing, but to me it dis- covers such a double-dealing as is not much for the Assembly's Credit. To declare their Consciences could not allow them to raise or apply Money for Victualling and Transporting Soldiers, and yet to determine to give &4,000 to the King's Use, that is, for victual-
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ling and transporting Soldiers, can, in my opinion, no otherways be accounted for, consistent with a good Conscience, than upon a supposition of a new Revelation intervening between the positive Refusal and the Determination to give.
"But suppose, for Argument sake, I should allow that the As- sembly were really determined to give £4,000 for the King's Use ; as &2,000 was to pay the Masters of such Servants as should en- list, and the other &2,000 was for victualling and transporting both Freemen and Servants, I am at a loss to account how the Inlisting Servants should be a reason for laying aside the Bill. On the con- trary, as the voting £2,000 to pay the Masters was an Encourage- ment given by the Assembly to the Inlisting of Servants, it ought to have been a Reason for passing the Bill. But the Truth of the matter is, after the Assembly saw that Servants were inlisted, tho' Contrary to my express direction when I went down to Newcastle, they thought they had a good handle for a Complaint against me, and a good pretence at the same time for saving their money, and so adjourn'd without expressing the least dislike to the Inlistment of Servants at that time, and left the King's Business and me to struggle thro' the Difficulties they had thrown in my way as well as I could. The Voting &3,000 afterwards, upon such Conditions as were an Affront to His Majesty, and altogether impracticable without breaking all the Companies, was a piece with the rest of their Proceedings.
" Upon the same supposition that you were in Earnest in the Bill for giving £4,000, I have been so far from adding to the Pub- lick Expence, as you charge me, by the Encouraging the Inlistment of Servants (had I really done so), that the Publick had been a saver by it; For as £4,000 was intended to be granted, and but £2,600 has been paid for Servants, there is evidently a saving of £1,400 to the Publick. The £3,000 lately given has no relation to that Matter; For that was given unask'd, and under the pre- tence of commiserating the Burthen and heavy Taxes your Fellow- Subjects labour under in England : And as it is said to be illegal, and the true Reasons for giving it are as well understood as here, it is probable that will remain in your Agent's Hands as a Fund for solliciting future Petitions and Representations, and for his own and the Agent Assistant's unknown Services to the Province. I cannot suppose that your Agent is quite so ignorant or remiss as not to have known and informed you that the Legality of the Grant of &3,000 has made a Question of by much greater Men than any of us; nor is it difficult to conceive that the refusing to give at one time and the giving at another may be equally blameworthy. A Grant may be legal and may be an Instance of Loyalty to the King and of Regard to our Mother Country, when it is asked, when the Exigency of the Publick Affairs require it, and it is made in a proper manner, and at another time may be illegal and wanton, or ill-judged Dissipation of the Publick Treasure.
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" When a Controversy is not like to be ended by the Parties themselves, it has been usual to appeal to the Judgment of others. You have made your Appeal to the Honourable the Proprietors, which I conclude you would not have done had you not at that time entertained a just opinion of their impartiality. Altho' their An- swer is Publick, I shall here insert what relates to the Dispute between us, as the best way of putting an End to it, or at least of satisfying such as may not have seen that Answer. It is in the fol- lowing words : 'By the Minutes of that Year we find the Governor was so far from desiring the Inlistment of Servants, that he very early took Measures to prevent ; and in his Speech to the Assembly, wherein he communicates to the House His Majesty's Instructions for the raising and transporting Men to the West Indies, proposed a Bounty for the Encouragement of Freemen to inlist, in order to prevent the Accepting of Servants, which we are very sensible must have been a great hardship on particular Persons, and heartily wish had been prevented; but the House, instead of entering into the Consideration of a matter which You now conceive of so great Im- portance, preferr'd then the Care of their private Concerns, and by that means became the occasion of this Grievance, tho' the Gover- nor has been charged with all the Inconveniences that have at- tended it.'
"I proceed now to your Charge of attempting to deprive you of your Privileges, by my Letter to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, contrary to the Solemn Engagements you say I am under to support You in them. And in this Charge you particularize the Assembly's Rights to sit on their own adjourn- ments and to dispose of the Publick Money, and the Rights of the People call'd Quakers, when duly Elected, to sit in the Assembly.
"That this matter may be well understood, I must first premise that my Duty to the King is prior and paramount to any Obliga- tions I am or can be laid under to any Persons whatsoever; and where an inferior Duty interferes with a superior, the superior is to be preferr'd. This being granted (for it cannot be denied), where is the breach of my Engagement in representing to His Majesty or His Ministers, that the Assembly have a Right to sit on their own Adjournments, but that they made a very ill Use of that Privilege, when a Matter immediately recommended by His Majesty was laid before them? And that they might bring great Prejudice to His Majesty's Service by such a Practice, without a positive Refusal to comply with his just expectations. As it is a Fact that the Assem- bly did so adjourn, and that Adjournments in the like Cases may prove hurtful to the King's Service and the Interests of our Mother Country, it was my Duty to represent it; and further, as I was un- der His Majesty's express Command to lay His Instructions before the Assembly, it was my Duty to give a particular Account of their whole Proceedings upon those Instructions. But had His Majes- VOL. IV .- 38.
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ty's Commands been out of the Question, could it be expected that I should be so regardless of my own safety as not to make use of all the Advantages the Assembly's rash Conduct had given me, to defend myself against a Petition they have threatned me with ? The Contents of that Petition being kept Secret (for it was never Printed in the Assembly's Votes, nor a Copy of it deliver'd to me), made it still the more necessary for me to Arm myself at all Points against the dark Malice of my Adversaries. If you would preserve this Privilege use it with Discretion, especially in Instances where the King's immediate Service is concerned. It has been strained in that and other Instances of late, contrary to the Intention of the first Granter, which is plain for comparing your Practice with the Paragraph of his Letter lately sent to You by the Present Honour- able Proprietors, his Sons, in the following words : 'I designed the People should be secured of an annual fixed Election and Assembly, and that they should have the same Privileges in it that any other Assembly has in the Queen's Dominions, among all which this is one constant Rule, as in the Parliament here, that they should sit on their Adjournments ; but to strain this expression to meet at all times during the Year, without the Governor's Concurrence, would be to distort Government, to break the due proportion of the parts of it, to establish Confusion in the Place of necessary Orders, and to make the legislative the executive part of the Government.'
" As to the Disposition of the Publick Money, I deny that it is a Privilege of the Assembly. It is true you have a Temporary Right to dispose of it by virtue of two Acts of Assembly, one of which will expire ye next Year. But from the observations I have made, this is so far from having been of late an Advantage to the Province, that I am convinced some Thousands of Pounds would have been saved in the two last Years had the Money been appro- priated by those Acts, or the People's Representatives been under some Check. That the Proprietors entertain the same Opinion of this Power, appears from what follows out of their Answer to your late Address. 'The Money belongs to the People, and the more difficult it is to appropriate any of it, the less probability there is of having it unnecessarily expended.'
" After the Account given by me to the Lords of Trade of the defenceless Condition of the Province, it was added, that so long as the House of Assembly shall be composed of 'a sett of People who oppose all preparation for Defence, the Province will remain exposed to any Enemy that shall think fit to invade it.' This you call, likewise, a Breach of my Solemn Engagements. How comes it to be more so now than it was two Years ago ? for I said this in substance to You then in several of my Messages, and You, in effect, acknowledged it by insisting that it was against your Consciences to make any Provision for the Defence of the Province. I am answer- able for the safety of the People committed to my Care, and if no
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Provision has been, or is like to be made for their Defence, is it my Duty to inform His Majesty of it, or to conceal it from him? the latter, I know, would have been more agreeable to You, but in that case I should have deserved something worse than the effects of your Resentment can ever prove to me.
" In the next Paragraph you ask me whether his Majesty's Com- mands required that the People of this Province should be charged with carrying on Manufactures at very cheap Rates, directly inter- fering with the Trade of their Mother Country ? I answer, Yes; for as His Majesty commanded that I should give His Ministers a particular Account of my Transactions relating to the Expedition, and the Assembly insisted, as an Argument against the Legalty of Inlisting Servants, that the Trade of Servants was advantageous to Britain, they made it a Part of those Transactions, and put me a Necessity of proving it was not so, as it enabled the Inhabitants here to carry on Manufactures directly interfering with those of Britain. The Assembly's Threats upon the Point of Inlisting Ser- vants, likewise rendered this Proof necessary for my own safety, for as this Argument was calculated to Engage the Trading part of the Nation against me, it behoved me to shew how the Trade of Ser- vants was injurious to our Mother Country. But whether it was or was not my Duty, it will not be thought an Instance of Prudence in You by those that have any share of it themselves, to bring this matter again under the Publick Notice. Your view, it is plain, is to prejudice the People against me, in order to preserve Yourselves in Power. But will any prudent or honest Man put such advan- tages to a Risque (if any can be advantageous to this Province that is prejudicial to its Mother Country) to serve such Ends ?
" Besides what I have already said, the standing Orders from the Lords of Trade, in obedience to His Magestie's Commands, are a full Justification of my Letter. For it is their Lordship's Express Direc- tion 'that I send particular Accounts of Laws made, Manufactures set up, or Trade carried on in the Province of Pennylsvania, which may in any way affect the Trade, Navigation, and Manufactures of this Kingdom, & to take it for a constant Rule to send them annual Returns to the enclosed Queries.' A Copy of these Queries I have ordered my Secretary to deliver to You, and you will oblige me if you speak out and tell me plainly whether I am to obey his Majesty or am to obey you, that I may signify to His Majesty what your pleasure is; or if you do not care to do this, favour me with such an Answer to these Queries as it is your will I should give, that I may make such an Annual Return as may not incur your Displeasure.
" What next occurs to me that has a relation to the Expedition, is the advance of Money made for carrying on our Part of it, after the Assembly had adjourned upon the Rumour of a probability of a Peace. To this you say, if the Merit consisted in Purchasing
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the King's Bills at an easy Exchange, once Publishing it to the world might have been sufficient. I do not wonder at you being displeased at the Publication of it, since the Gentlemen's Zeal who advanced Money was so much commended in England, and was so opposite to the Scheme the Assembly had formed to pre- vent my sending any Assistance at all : And as what relates to the King's Bills is as well levll'd at my Integrity as to detract from these Gentlemen's Merit, you must excuse me if I tell you plainly that it is an Insinuation of the worst sort, tho' no other than is very common with You. The King's Bills for subsisting the Troops here, and for victualling the Transports, were sold and paid away at the highest exchange that was given to Merchants of the best Credit in the Town for Bills of their own Draught ; and I put you to a publick Defiance to prove in any one Instance where the King's Bills were not sold at the full Exchange, and the Money was not as frugally managed, as if it had been my own Property, or the Property of any Merchant in the Town. If you yourselves had set any value upon a Character, you would have scorned such Insinuations to the prejudice of other People's.
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