USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX > Part 19
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A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
." Gentlemen :
" In my last Message I desired you would give me a speedy and Explicit answer, whether you would or would not amend the pres- ent Supply Bill, or frame a separate one, in compliance with the Stipulations of your Agents, so often mentioned and recommended to you, of which you have not taken the least notice in your Mes- sage of Yesterday. Inow most earnestly renew that request, it being absolutely necessary to have Your answer to this question before I can determine on the Supply Bill now before me.
"JOHN PENN.
" May 26th, 1764."
A. M. Eight Members of Assembly waited on the Governor and acquainted him that Isaac Norris, Esq'. the late Speaker of the Assembly, had informed the Members by a Letter of this Morning, that the present State of his health would no longer admit of his attendance on public Business, and that therefore the House had made choice of another Speaker in his stead, and desired to know at what hour this afternoon the Members might wait on the Gover- nor to present him. To which His Honour made answer that he would be in the Council Chamber for that purpose at 5 o'Clock in the Afternoon.
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Eodem die, P. M.
The Governor sent a Message by the Secretary to the Assembly Requiring their attendance in the Council Chamber that they may present their Speaker. The whole House accordingly waited on the Governor & presented Benjamin Franklin, Esq", as their Speaker, of whom his Honour was pleased to approve. The Speaker then said, as his Predecessor had already claimed in behalf of the present Assembly their unusual Privileges, it was unnecessary for him to renew that Claim, except with regard to himself as Speaker, vizt : "That his unwilling mistakes might not be imputed to the House," . in which the Governor acquiesced.
At a Council held at Philadelphia, Tuesday, 29th May, 1764. PRESENT :
The Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor, &ca.
James Hamilton,
Lynford Lardner, Esq's.
Benjamin Chew, Richard Penn,
The Governor laid before the Board a Message he received from the House Yesterday Morning, in the following words, vizt-
A Message to the Governor from the Assembly.
" May it please your Honour :
" In answer to your Message of this day, we beg leave to observe that in Compliance with the General's Requisition, we have voted the number of Men demanded for the Service of the Crown, and have prepared a Bill for their Support, strictly conformable to the Stipulations entered into by the Agents of this Province, which Bill is now before, & we again request Your Honour would, without delay, give your assent thereto, it being so immediately necessary for His Majesty's Service & the Defence of His Colonies.
" As to the Amendment you require of the acts of 1759 & 1760, we do not conceive how that matter can be " Absolutely necessary" to your Determination on the Supply Bill now before you. Those Amendments have been repeatedly required of former Assemblies, who, after full enquiry, were of Opinion that no injustice had ever been done to the Proprietaries in the Execution of those Acts ; however, should your Honour hereafter make the contrary appear to this House, we shall chearfully take the matter proposed under our Consideration, and do the Proprietaries all the Justice that can be reasonably desired.
" Signed by order of the House, "B. FRANKLIN, Speaker.
" May 26th, 1764."
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And the Supply Bill being again taken into Consideration, it was found to contain a Clause, in effect, re-enacting the Supply Bill of the Year 1760, which the Governor could not think himself justi- fiable in doing, that Bill being liable to the Same Objections which were made by the King in Council, to the Bill of 1759. It was, therefore, the Opinion of the Council, that since the Assembly had absolutely refused to comply with the Stipulations of their Agents to amend the Act of the Year 1759, and his Majesty's Service, and the defence of the Province, required that Supplies be raised with- out delay, The Bill should be returned to the House, with a Mes- sage, desiring the House to strike out the exceptionable Clause, and acquainting them that he would, after that objection was removed, give his Assent to the Bill. Accordingly, the following Message was prepared, approved, and immediately Sent, with the Supply Bill, to the Assembly :
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" You must certainly have seen the necessity I was under, as the Supply Bill is at present framed, of pressing you to amend it, so as to make it conformable to the Decree of the King and Council, and your Agents' Stipulations on the Act of the Year 1759. By a Paragraph in the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Pages of the Bill now before me, you have expressly re-enacted and extended the several Clauses of a Supply Bill passed by Mr. Hamilton' in the Year 1760, before the above Decree was made. The Bill of the Year 1760, thus extended, has in it the very same Clauses of the Bill of 1759, which were disapproved of by the above Decree. By this means you are not content barely with re- fusing to comply with the Stipulations of your agents, but would oblige me, by assenting to the present Bill to re-enact the same matters which his Majesty condemned in the bill of the Year 1759, subjecting me to the disagreeable necessity either of passing a Law in direct Violation & Contempt of the Judgment of our late Sovereign, or by refusing it to stop the Supplies, at this time so much wanted for the King's Service and the Defence of the Province.
" In order to remove this Difficulty, I return you the Bill, and earnestly desire you will free it from this objection, by striking out the exceptionable Clause; and if you will not amend the former Acts agreeable to the above mentioned Stipulations, at least let them stand on their own Bottom, without mentioning of them up on this occasion, after which I shall no longer withhold my Assent from it.
"JOHN PENN.
" May 29th, 1764."
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Eodem Die, P. M.
Two Members of Assembly waited on the Governor with a Sup- ply Bill and a Verbal Message from the House, acquainting His Honour that the House having freed the Bill from the Objections made to it in the Governor's Message of this Morning, desired His Honour would be pleased to appoint a time for passing it into a Law; To which he answered that he would examine the Bill, and if he found the exceptionable Clause left out, he would be ready to pass it to-morrow Morning at ten o'Clock.
Wednesday, 30 May, 10 o'Clock, A, M.
The Governor returned the Supply Bill to the House by the Se- cretary, with a Verbal Message that he assented to it, and required the attendance of the House immediately in the Council Chamber, in order to enact the same into a Law. The House accordingly attended, and the Speaker presented to the Governor the Bill enti- tuled "An Act for granting to His Majesty the sum of Fifty-five thousand Pounds, and for striking the same in Bills of Credit in the manner herein after directed, and for providing a Fund for sinking the said Bills of Credit by a Tax on all Estates, real and personal and Taxables within this Province," which his Honour passed, and signed a Warrant for affixing the Great Seal thereto, which was done, and the Law deposited in the Rolls Office.
Eodem die, P. M. -
The Governor having agreed to a Bill sent him by the House for his Concurrence, entituled 'An Act for regulating the Officers and Soldiers in the pay of this Province,' and for continuing An Act entituled 'An Act for Regulating the Hire of Carriages to be em- ployed in his Majesty's Service,' Required the attendance of the House in the Council Chamber, that he might pass the Same. The House immediately attending, the Speaker presented the said Bill to the Governor, which was enacted into a Law, Sealed, & lodged in the Rolls Office.
In the Evening, two Members waited on the Governor, and acquainted him that the House intended to adjourn to the 10th of Septem". next, and then delivered him a Message from the Assembly in the following words, vizt. :
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A Message to the Governor from the Assembly.
" May it please your Honour :
"The professed intention of your Honour's Message of the Seventeenth . Instant, being to vindicate the Character of the Proprietaries, and give a fairer State of the Dispute between us than we had done, it would have Pleased us could either of those Purposes have been executed; We apprehend your Honour has failed in both.
" The long Recapitulation of what passed at the Council Board in 1760, and from thence to the present time, answers no end, as we conceive, but to insinuate that we have been contending against a Determination of the King in Council, while the Fact really is otherwise, we having made the late Bill conformable in our Opinion to every Article of that Determination. And the Dispute between us Relates merely to the meaning of one of those Articles, which we understand to intend an equal Taxation of the Proprietaries' Lands with those of the people, and which your Honour will have to mean a partial and unequal Taxation in the Proprietaries' favour. And as you thought the words alone of that Article would best bear the unjust meaning you were pleased to put on them, you' contended against our using any others with them that might explain them in an equitable Sense. This was our sole Dispute, and though we think it extreamly inconvenientand improper to use in an Act words of whose meaning the two Branches of the Legislature have pre- viously declared that they have such different and contrary Con- ceptions, yet rather than His Majesty's service should be longer obstructed, we have given up the point, and in a new bill inserted the very words, confiding that the sense of natural Justice in the As- sessors and Commissioners who are to execute the Act, will deter- mine them to do what is right. Thus the matter might have rested, but as your Honour, with a view of placing our Conduct in an unfa- vourable Light, is pleased to ask us a number of Questions we are obliged to give them answers, which though short, we hope will be clear and satisfactory. "Were not learned Counsel," you ask, "employed and fully instructed by the Agents on the part of the Assembly to advocate the Supply Bill of the Year 1759 ?" We answer Yes. "Were not those Counsel twice fully heard, both before the Lords of Trade and a Committee of the Council? Did not the Agents understand the Force and Meaning of the Sec- ond and Third Articles previous to their signing the Stipulation ?" Undoubtedly ; and as we have no dispute about the Meaning of the Third, we scarce know why it is mentioned. " If they entertained a notion that they were ambiguous, why did they not then object to them when they might have had their doubts removed upon the Spot?" It seems they entertained no such notion, nor had any Doubts to be removed. It appears by the pleadings of the Pro- prietaries' Counsel, of which we have a Copy taken first in short hand, that they there made no such Claim of a partial and unequal
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Taxation of their located uncultivated Lands, as is now made for them. They only pretended fears that the people would Tax them unequally, and desired no more than that such provision should be made as might secure for them an equal Taxation. The doubts you mentioned, if there are any, have arisen in Pennsylvania.
"Your Honour makes it a Crime in us to suppose any Ambiguity or Obscurity in the words of a Report of a. Com- mittee of Council, though that Supposition arose merely on the Ob- servation of your differing so widely from us in the Construction of them. This was our remark: "We may both be separately clear in our Conceptions of their Meaning, but our differing so widely in those Conceptions, seems to indicate, at least, some Ambiguity or Obscurity in the Terms." If your Honour had not differed from us in the Meaning of these Words in the Report, there would have been no Doubts about it, for we made none. And our Observation, that Laws, composed by the wisest men, are sometimes found to contain obscurities and Uncertainties, which those who are to exe- cute them find difficult to clear and settle; And that when any words of such Laws are capable of two Meanings, one unjust and unequal, & the other consistent with Justice and Equity, we con- ceived it a good Rule to judge that the intention is with the latter, arose, Originally, upon your differing with us in that Construction ; But this you candidly call a " contending that the controverted Ar- ticles of the Decree required Additions and Explanations to be made to them by us, to reconcile them to common Justice and Hon- esty." For our parts, we cannot yet perceive anything indecent or " immodest" in our observation, that Laws made by the wisest Bo- dies of Men (by Kings, Lords, and Commons, for Instance), do sometimes contain Obscurities and Uncertainties. Subsequent Laws, frequently made by the same August Legislators, to explain the preceding, are Proofs of it. We, therefore, added justly, that it was no reflection on such Bodies to say this; But as your Honour purposed to make us appear guilty of a Reflection on them, you thought fit to mutilate the Sentence in your Quotation of it from our Message, and leave those words intirely out. But to return to Your Honour's Questions, "Why were not the objections lately made against those parts of the Decree pointed out, and urged to Mr. Hamilton as Reasons for not coming into the Measure, when he repeatedly Solicited you to comply with the Stipulations of your Agents ?" Answer, the Objections in Question are against an unjust Construction that, in our Opinion, Your Honour put on Certain Words, which being used in the Stipulations of the Agents, you contended should be inserted without explanation in the Bill. As this construction was never put on those Words by Governor Hamilton, we could not point out and urge to him those Objections against it. "Why have these Objections been trea- sured up and kept in Reserve till this critical Period." Objections not in being, could not be treasured up, and Objections of no kind
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can exist previous to a Supposition of the Thing objected to. Your Honour will please to reflect that your Construction, which these Objections relate to, was as new and strangeas it is unjust and unequal, and so glaringly unjust and unequal, that you was your- self unwilling to own it, and could not, till after three Messages, urging an Explanation from you, prevail with yourself openly to avow it.
" You are pleased to add, as to the Equity and Justice of the Decree I should think I justly subjected myself to the Charge of offering the highest affront to, and flying in the Face of that Su- preme and august Judicatory who pronounced it, were I to enter into any Arguments with you in Support of it." Will your Honour give us leave once more to put you in mind, that it is not the Equity and Justice of a Decree that we are disputing, but your une- qual and unjust Construction of it, viz“ : that the best and most valuable of the Proprietaries Lands shall be taxed no higher than the worst of the People. Your total Inability of supporting this Construction by the least Colour of Argument, or Reason, is what you would fain conceal under that extravagant Pretence of Respect to the Judicatory who you say pronounced it. Could you by any Arguments have shewn the Equity and Justice of such a Taxation, we should not now have heard for the first time this extraordinary Position, that demonstrating the Equity and Justice of a Decree would be flying in the Face of Authority. Wise, learned and pious Men, have in all ages thought themselves well employed in convinc- ing Mankind of the reasonableness, Equity and Justice of Laws, human and divine, and never once dreamt that by so doing they were offering " the highest affront to, and flying in the Face of the Supreme and august Judicatories who pronounced them."
"Your Honour charges us with bestowing much abuse on the Proprietaries ; Stating plain public Facts, where necessary, we do not conceive to be abuse, though done in plain Terms ; But the misrepresenting a loyal and dutiful People to their Sovereign, as the Proprietaries, to cloak their own Avarice, have done the people of this Province for many Years past is, in our Opinion, Abuse, though it were delivered in the politest Language ; It was in this part of your Honour's Message that we expected that vindication of the Proprietaries which in the first Paragraph seemed to be pro- posed ; But now you chuse to pass all over with a 'silent disre- gard,' reflecting probably on the Maxim you had before advanced, that 'Facts are Stubborn Things,' and despairing, it seems, by any ' Colouring' to 'disguise the truth.'
" Your Honour's 'resolution to discharge the Station you fill with Fidelity and Justice to the good people of this Province,' is highly laudable, but may we be permitted to ask a Question or two in our Turn : Is it consistent with Justice to the good People of this Province, to insist on taxing the best and most valuable of the Proprietarie's Lands no higher than the worst and least valuable of
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. the Peoples' Lands in a common Tax, to be levied for the defence of the whole ? And farther, when the Requisition was made to your Honour by the General of raising a number of Men for His Majesty's Service in your Province, were not the three Lower Counties understood to be included ? Your Honour bas since met and exchanged Compliments with the Assembly of those Coun- ties, without making (as far as we have heard) the least Demand of . them ; Is it 'Justice to the good People of this Province,' to saddle them with all the Expence of defending that Government with all the Proprietary property contained in it, and not call upon it for the least Assistance, while we are and shall so long be loaded with the heavy debt the Wars have occasioned ? The Troops raised here will perhaps all be marched to the Westward in His Majesty's Service ; In which case, at least, we cannot but think it reasonable to have expected a Proportion of Forces from that Government, to assist in the Protection of our Frontier.
" Your Honour's Message concludes with recommending to us (as if we had hitherto neglected it) the raising Supplies for the King's Service, the Defence of the Frontiers, and discharge of the Publick Debt, Which obliges us to remark, that within a few Months we have sent up to your Honour three Bills for those Pur. poses, two of which have been rejected because they required a fair and equal Taxation of the Proprietary with other Estates, for their common Defence. And we may add, that in our Zeal for the Pub- lic Service, we have departed from the ancient forms of Parliamen- tary Proceeding, & waved very important Rights, which, under a more equitable Government we should not have been constrained to, and such a Government we now hope is not far distant, and that an End will thereby be put to these disagreeable and mischievous Pro- prietary contentions, and the People of this much injured Province restored to their Privileges, which they have long been deprived of; Proprietary Will and Pleasure, expressed in their Instructions, being now our only Law, which, through publick necessities and the distresses of War, we have been and are compelled to obey.
" Signed by Order of the House.
" BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Speaker. " May 30th, 1764."
At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Friday, the 6th July, 1764.
PRESENT :
The Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor, &ca.
Thomas Cadwalader, Richard Penn, Esquires.
The Governor proposed to the Provincial Commissioners, at a Meeting of that Board, the 12 June, 1764, that in order to prose-
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cute the Indian War with the more vigour, and to spirit up the People to pursue and harrass the Savages in their own Country, it would be very necessary at this time to offer great rewards, by Pro- clamation, for all Indian Enemy Prisoners & Scalps that shall be taken within this Province, & further acquainted the Commissioners that he had, on the 9 June, wrote to Sir William Johnson, to desire his Opinion & Advice as to that Measure, and whether it would in any manner interfere with the Indian Affairs under his Direction.
Whereupon it was agreed by that Board that the several follow- ing Premiums be offered by Proclamation for the Prisoners and scalps of the Enemy Indians that shall be taken or killed within the Bounds of this Province, as limited by the Royal Charter, or in pursuit from within the said Bounds, vizt., :
For every Male Indian Enemy above ten Years old taken Prisoner and delivered to the Officer of any Fort garrisoned by the Troops in the pay of this Province, or to the keeper of the common Gaol of any County Town within this Government, One hundred and fifty spanish Dollars.
For every Female Indian Enemy, and for every Male Indian of 10 Years old and under, taken & delivered as aforesd .. 130 Spanish pieces of Eight.
For the Scalp of every Male Indian Enemy above the age of 10 Years produced as evidence of their being killed, 134 pieces of Eight.
And for the Scalp of every female Indian Enemy above the Age of 10 Years produced as Evidence as afores'., 50 pieces of Eight.
And that there shall be paid to every Officer or Officers, Soldier or Soldiers, in the pay of this Province, one-half of the above re- wards.
And that the Six Nations, or any other Indians in Amity with the Crown of Great Britain, be excepted out of the said Proclama- tion, But that before the said Proclamation be made publick, the advice and sentiments of Sir Wm. Johnson be had respecting this measure, & how far it may interfere with the Designs of his Majesty communicated to him on Indian Affairs.
The Governor having received an Answer to his Letter above mentioned from Sir William Johnson, approving of his design of giving rewards for Indian Scalps, laid the same before the Board, which was read and is as follows :
" BURNETS-FIELD, June 18th, 1764.
" Sir :
"I have just received your favour of the 9th Inst., on my way to Niagara, which deprives me of the pleasure of writing to you as fully as I would.
" I am heartily sorry for the losses sustained about Fort Loudon, and on the Frontiers of Virginia, all which will, I hope, be shortly put a stop to. In the mean time, I cannot but approve of your
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gratifying the desire of the people in your Province, by a bounty on Scalps, and I heartily wish success to the design, & to guard as much as in my power against the ill consequence of their killing any of the Friend Indians. I shall make them all acquainted there- with, & caution them by no means to appear on your Frontiers till affairs are settled.
" David Owens was a Corporal in Capt". McClean's Comp"", and lay once in Garrison at my house. He deserted several times, as I am informed, & went to live among the Delawares & Shawanese, with whose Language he was acquainted, His Father having been long a Trader amongst them.
" The Circumstances relating to his leaving the Indians have been told me by several Indians. That he went out a hunting with his In- dian Wife and several of her relations, most of whom, with his Wife, he killed and scalped as they slept. As he was always much attached to Indians, I fancy he began to fear he was unsafe amongst them, and killed them, rather to make his peace with the English, than from any dislike either to them or their Principles.
"I hope to be at Niagara within 10 or 12 days, when I shall do every thing in my power for obtaining an advantageous peace with the Indians, who desire it for the benefit of the Colonies. Tho' the slender efforts hitherto made use of, and our great back wardness, will increase the confidence of the Indians to such a Pitch as must in a little time occasion another Rupture, unless by friendship and favours we secure them in our Interest.
"I am with great esteem, Sir, " Your most obedient humble Servant, "WM. JOHNSON. " The Hon ble. Lieutent. Gov". PENN."
In consequence thereof, a Draught of a Proclamation having been prepared, was read and considered and approved, and ordered to be got in readiness for the press to-Morrow, that a number of Copies may be printed off and distributed thro' the Province, and also pub- lished in the next Week's Gazette & Journal.
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Saturday, 7th July.
The following Proclamation, approved in Council yesterday, was this day signed by the Governor, had the Great Seal affixed thereto, & was sent to the press, viz":
" By the Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Lieutenant Gov- ernor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, and Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware.
" A PROCLAMATION.
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WHEREAS, the Delaware and Shawanese Tribes of Indians and others in Confederacy with them, have, without the least provoca-
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