USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. V > Part 65
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" Aug. 29th .- His Excellency arrived in New York in the Evening.
"30th .- By seven o'Clock a Packet of Letters directed to Gov- ernor Hamilton was sent to my Lodging by one of Governor Clin- ton's Attendance, who told my Landlord (I being gone to take a Walk and to inform myself if Governor Clinton came to Town last night) that his Excellency Governor Clinton wished me a good Journey to Pennsylvania, and desired to mention his Compliments to Governor Hamilton and deliver that Packet of Letters to him. I being not altogether pleased with this Message, went about nine o' Clock to the Governor's House in the Fort, and one Mr. Askue went up to tell the Governor that I wanted to see him and take my leave of him. Mr. Askue came down again and told me that the Governor sent his Compliments to me and wished me a good Jour- ney to Philadelphia, and desired I would mention his Compliments to Governor Hamilton. I left New York the same Day by Twelve o'clock and arrived in Philadelphia on the second Day of Sep- tember by Seven o'clock in the Morning.
"CONRAD WEISER, Interpreter.
"Dated in Philadelphia the 2d September, 1753.
"P. S-Before I left Albany I desired the Favour of Mr. Ogilvie the English Minister, an Acquaintance of mine, that if Governor Clinton's Letter to me directed should be sent back to Albany from Schnechtendy or the Mohawk's Country, to send it after me to New York or Philadelphia, which Mr. Ogilvie accord- ingly did, and it was delivered to my Son by Mr. Alexander Colden, Deputy Post Master in New York."
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And on the said Fifth of September the Governor received from the House by Two Members the following Message with the Paper Money Bill :
A Message to the Governor from the Assembly.
" May it Please the Governor :
" Upon receiving a Message from the Governor of the Twenty-Ninth of August last, with some few amendments to the Bill for Striking Twenty Thousand Pounds to be added to the present Currency of this Province, which the Governor is pleased to acknowledge is not an exorbitant Sum, and to which Amendments he presumed we could have no Objection, We were in hopes that the repeated applications of this and our preceding Assemblies had induced him at length to give his Assent to the Bill upon such Terms as the House might comply with consistent with their Honor and the Trust reposed in them by their Constituents. But We are under the Necessity of assuring the Governor the Clause proposed to be added to that Bill is so far from being free from Objections that we apprehend it to be destructive of the Liberties granted to the People of this Pro- vince by the Royal and Provincial Charters, and Injurious to the Proprietaries Rights, and as such we have unanimously resolved it upon the Report of a Committee of this House, to whose Care we had also recommended the Examination of our Laws, a consider- able Number of which were enacted under the immediate Powers of the Crown; and We are well assured there has never been one single Instance of the Passing of any Law under the Restrictions now contended for by the Governor from the first Settlement of our Province to this Day. This has led Us into an Enquiry why so dangerous an Experiment should be now pressed upon Us, as we conceive, without the least apparent Necessity.
" The Governor, it is true, has been pleased to inform Us that it is founded upon an Instruction from the Lords Justices to the late Governor, but We entreat he would consider how far an additional Instruction dated in 1740, expressly directed to a former Governor, and which in its own Nature appears temporary and the Ends long since answered, can be binding upon him.
" That tho' it was directed to a Governor of this Province it , neither did nor could suit our Circumstances either at that time or any other Time before or since ; that it was temporary, and that the ends proposed by that Instruction have been answered, appear very clear to Us when We consider that the effectual putting in Execution the Act of the Sixth of Queen Ann for ascertaining the Rates of Foreign Coins in America, the various and illegal Cur- rencies introduced in several of the Colonies, the miserable Defec- tion from that Act, as well as the respective Acts by which such Currencies were originally issued, the Discouragement it brought on the Commerce of Great Britain, the Confusion in Dealings, and the
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Lessening of Credit in those Parts, are the Foundations both of the Address of the House of Commons to the King, and in Pursuance of that Address of the additional Instruction to which the Governor is pleased to refer.
" That this could never suit our Province at any Period since the Emission of our Bills of Credit must be very apparent to the Gov- ernor himself, and is most clearly demonstrable from the Dates of the Address of the House of Commons, and additional Instruction with the Report of the Board of Trade and Royal Assent to the Act for emitting the largest Sum of Bills of Credit that had ever been current among Us.
" The address of the House of Commons we find to be on the 25th of April 1740, the additional Instruction on the 21st of August fol- lowing, founded upon that address, and about the same time, to wit, on the 16th Day of April 1740, the Lords of Trade upon the Act for the more effectual preserving the Credit of our Paper Money, &c., and the Act for reprinting, exchanging, and re-emitting all the Bills of Credit and for striking the further Sum of Eleven Thousand one Hundred and Ten Pounds Five Shillings, &ca, report 'That as these Acts relate to Paper Money they took the Sense of the Merchants trading to that Province upon them, who were of opinion that they were not only reasonable but likewise necessary for carrying on the Commerce of that Country,' and in Pursuance of that Report, on the 12th Day of May, 1740, the King was graciously pleased to con- firm those Acts in a full Council.
" If, then, the Governor will be pleased to compare the Dates of the Report of the Board of Trade with the address of the House of Com- mons, the confirmation of our Paper Money Acts and the Lords Justices' Instruction, we make no Doubt He must be sensible that Bills of Credit emitted in Vertue of Laws, reported to be not only reasonable but the Sum itself so emitted necessary for carrying on the Commerce of the Country, cannot possibly agree with Bills of Credit illegally issued, by means whereof the Trade of Great Britain is discouraged, confusion in Dealings introduced, and all Credit less- ened, and in consequence the Instruction or the address of the House of Commons could not possibly suit the Circumstances of this Province at that time.
"To evidence this more clearly, if that can be, the Report of the Board of Trade to the House of Commons the Twenty Frst of Jan- uary, 1740, sets forth, that in Pursuance of the address above men- tioned, on the 25th of April preceding his Majesty had been pleased to direct them to prepare in order to lay before the then Sessions of Parliament an account of the Tenor and amount of the Bills of Credit which has been issued in the several British Colonies, &c. Whereupon they did immediately send circular Letters to all the Governors of his Majestie's Plantations in America, reciting the said
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address and directing them forthwith to prepare and transmit the several Accounts therein required, as by a Copy of one of the said circular Letters which they had thereunto annexed would more fully appear; from whence it is unquestionably clear that the Lords of Trade formed one circular Letter to be sent thro' all the Colonies however differently circumstanced, and this nearly in the Terms both of the Instruction of the Lords Justices and of the address of that Honourable House on the 25th of April preceding, altho' at the same time they acknowledge that being destitute of proper In- formation it could not be expected they should be able to lay before the House an adequate Remedy for the Evils complained of, and the rather because the Circumstances of the several Provinces being various and very different, each Province might require a distinct Consideration. But they proceed to say, being desirous as far as in them lay to comply with the Intentions of the House, they would. humbly propose that his Majesty would be graciously pleased to repeat his Orders to his Governors of the Plantations not to give their assent for the future to any Bill or Bills for the issuing or re-issuing of Paper Money in any of their respective Governments, without a Clause be inserted in such Act declaring that the same shall not take Effect until the said Act shall be approved by his Majesty, and then add, 'We hope these Propositions for reducing and discharging the Paper Currency in the Plantations may have a good Effect in those Governments which are held by immediate Commission under his Majesty, but We are very doubtful whether they will produce the like Effect in the Charter Governments, who do apprehend themselves by their particular Charters and Consti- tutions to be very little dependant upon the Crown, and for that reason seldom pay that Obedience to his Majestie's Orders which might reasonably be expected from them.'
" That the Board of Trade should consider and report this to the House of Commons as a doubtful expedient; that a Bill to enforce the Orders and Instructions of the Crown in America should have been since repeatedly brought into the House, and tho' supported by Members of great Weight and Influence at Length rejected by the Justice of a British Parliament; that the Governor himself should have represented this very Bill to the Assembly of this Province as a Bill he took for granted they were all sensible to be of a mischevious Tendency, and would give their Agent full Instruc- tions to oppose should it become necessary ; that the Honourable Proprietors had labored indefatigably and with Success to avert the Mischiefs threatned this Province from the Passing of that Bill, and had it in Command from them to assure that Assembly of their Assistance upon all future Occasions wherein the Welfare and Hap- piness of the People of this Province might be concerned ; and that this should be so in the Year 1749, and nevertheless that the Governour should be now pleased without any apparent Necessity
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to contend for the proposed Amendment, we own we are at a Loss to understand.
" That the Instruction was designed as a temporary Expedient we think will appear from the Report of the Board of Trade on the Twenty-first of January, 1740, above mentioned, five Months after the Date of the additional Instruction from the Lords Justices, at which Time that Board had not received Returns in Answer to their circular Letters from any of his Majestie's Governors on that Sub- ject, except only from the Lieutenant Governor of New York. In this Uncertainty, destitute as they report of proper Information, they propose that his Majesty would be pleased to repeat his Or- ders to his Governors of Plantations not to give their Assent to any Paper Money Bills for the future without the Clause as above ; but notwithstanding this was addressed to the House of Commons at the next Sessions after the Date of the additional Instruction to Governor Thomas, which had taken its Rise from an Address of that Honourable House in their preceding Sessions, we cannot learn, and have good Reason to believe the Crown has never been pleased to repeat those Orders at least to the Governors of this Province.
"That the ends proposed by that additional Instruction have been answered by the full Examination of all the States of Bills of Credit in the American Plantations by the Parliament, and an Act in Pursuance of that Enquiry passed in the Year 1751, appears clear to Us from the Report of our Committee; and that since the passing of that Act we are left in the full Possession of our Rights in Regard to a Paper Currency, we doubt not the Governor will ·concur with the Sentiments of this House.
" The Governor, long since the Date of that Instruction, has re- ceived a Commission from our Proprietaries, with the Approbation of the Crown, and we hope and presume he is at full Liberty to pass all our acts upon the terms granted us by the Royal and Provincial Charters ; and as the additional Instruction upon which the Gov- ernor has been pleased to ground his amendment proposed to our Bill, appears long since to have answered the ends proposed, we hope the Governor will think that neither himself or the Freemen of this Province are at this time at all concerned therein, and will not put us under the disagreeable Necessity of examining the Validity of that Instruction, but that he will be now pleased to comply with the general Voice of the People, and the repeated unanimous Ap- plications of their Representatives, in granting them and the Trade of this Province this seasonable Relief, by giving his assent to the Bill as it now stands.
"Sign'd by order of the House, " ISAAC NORRIS, Speaker.
" September 5th, 1753."
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To which the Governor made the following Answer, and returned the Paper Money Bill :
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" When I sent down the Bill for striking Twenty Thousand Pounds to be made current and emitted on Loan, and for re-emitting and continuing the Currency of the Bills of Credit of this Province, I had not the least apprehension that the amendments by me pro- posed could have rendered it inconsistent with the Honour of the House or of the Trust reposed in them by their Constituents to have excepted it, especially as on inspecting the Journals of your House of the Year 1746, I find that when the same Instruction in a Case of the like kind was then urged upon the Assembly by the late Governor, they were so far from disputing that they appear clearly to have admitted the Validity of it in ordinary Cases, and at that time only hoped the then Governor on reconsidering the Royal In- struction might think himself at Liberty to give his Assent to a Bill for striking a further Sum of Money in Bills of Credit, when any ex- traordinary Emergency required it. Hence it seems plain that they did not then think his Majestie's Instructions, founded on an Address of the House of Commons, either illegal or temporary, or that it was destructive of the Liberties granted to the People of this Pro- vince ; otherwise, in Duty to their constituents they would un- doubtedly have represented it in the Light You now do. If these, then, were the Sentiments of both Governor & Assembly at that Time, and if they would not venture upon an Emission even of so small a Sum as Five Thousand Pounds in a case of so real Emer- gency as the Expedition against Canada, without immediately pro- viding to sink it by a Tax in a short space of Time, to what Purpose is it insinuated as if I was the first to press so dangerous an Experiment without the least apparent necessity, when in the course of your Enquiries upon this subject the Transaction of the Year 1746 must needs have been well known to you ?
" That there has not been an Instance of passing any Law in this Province under the Restrictions contained in the Amendment may be very true; but I cannot think any thing further is to be inferred from thence than that no such Instruction was ever sent to the Governors of this Province before the Year 1740; otherwise it is reasonable to conclude they would have paid the same dutiful obedience to it as was done by your late Governor. Nor perhaps is a restraining Instruction so necessary upon any other occasion as in the Business of Money, over which the King having peculiar Prerogatives may well think himself entitled to claim the Superin- tendance.
I confess myself at a Loss to conceive how an Instruction di- rected to a particular Governor by name, or to the Commander-in-
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Chief of the same Province for the Time being, can be deemed to bind that particular Governor only and not his Successor, since by that Way of Reasoning it is possible the King's Instructions, how- ever necessary, urgent, and well-founded, might be altogether frus- trated by the Death or Removal of the particular Person to whom they are by Name directed. I am perswaded that upon Recollec- tion You cannot think there is much weight in this Argument; and as to its being temporary in its own Nature I am far from thinking that to be the case, either from the face of the Instruction, in which no Limitation of Time is expressed, or from your Reasoning upon that Head. The several Reports, Address, and Royal Assent (ex- cept that of the 21st of January, 1740, in which the Charter Gov- ernments are mentioned not much to their advantage), referred to in your Message, tho' not set forth in their Order of Time, are all of them prior to the Royal Instruction; from whence it is natural to conclude, that altho' his Majesty upon the Report of the Lords of Trade in our favour was graciously pleased to indulge Us with the Sum of Eighty Thousand Pounds, as being a just Medium at that Time, yet being made acquainted with the abuses that had crept into some other of his Colonies, imoderate Quantities of Paper Money, and apprehending We might possibly run into the same Excess, issued this Instruction with a View to restrain Us from in- juring ourselves and the English Merchants by unnecessary Emis- sions of Bills of Credit. Nor is it to be doubted that if you can make it appear to his Majestie's Ministry that an Addition to your Currency would at this Time be of Service to the Province, the same Royal Favour will be again extended to you as was upon your last Application.
" You are pleased to acquaint me that You are at a Loss to un- derstand why I, who in the Year 1749 represented a Bill then depending in the House of Commons for enforcing the Orders and. Instructions of the Crown in America to be of mischievous Tendency, should now, without any apparent Necessity, contend for the pro- posed Amendment. In answer to which I now inform You that I am still of the same Opinion with Regard to that Bill as at the Time You mention; But surely a very moderate Share of Penetra- tion is sufficient to distinguish between an Act to enforce all Orders and Instructions of the Crown, of whatever nature, and a Royal In- struction founded on an Address of Parliament that only relates to one particular Point, in which his Majestie's Prerogative may be supposed to be concerned, and which besides is plainly calculated to do Justice between Man and Man, and you will certainly allow me to judge for myself of the Necessity I am under of paying Obedi- ence to the King's Instruction when a Disregard of it is threatned with his Majestie's highest Displeasure.
"I do not by any Means blame You, Gentlemen, for contending for what You are persuaded are your Rights and Privileges, and
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consequently can have no Objection to your examining the Validity of the King's Instruction. Onc Precaution, however, I think it my Duty to lay before You, tho' I hope it is not necessary, that in the Course of this Examination you will proceed with such Temper and Moderation that You may give the World no Room to repeat the Charge made against this Province, among others by the Lords of Trade, of its apprehending itself to be very little dependant on the Crown or of its not paying a reasonable Obedience to his Majestie's Orders.
" Upon the whole I am sincerely of Opinion that the Royal In- struction is of the same Force at present as when the late Governor told the Assembly in 1746, " That He could not bring himself to such a Pitch of Boldness as to contravence it," of which Opinion that Assembly seems also to have been by their not having dis- puted either the Validity of the Instruction or the Continuance of its Operation. Why, therefore, an Instruction, allowed to be in Force in the Year 1746, and still unrevoked, should now be deemed to be of no Effect, tho' the State of our Paper Currency has not suffered the least Alteration since that Time, is what I own I can- not comprehend, nor can I bring myself to think that I may be ever freed from the Obligation of paying a strict Obedience to it until the same shall be revoked, or that I may be otherwise dis- charged from it by his Majestie's Authority.
" I have given both the People of this Province and their Rep- resentatives too many Proofs of my Regard for their Liberties and Privileges to have it suspected that I am capable of entering into a scheme to deprive them of either. Nor shall I ever cease to do them all the Service in my Power, consistent with the Duty I owe to his Majesty and the Rights of the Honourable Gentleman whose Commission I have the Honour to bear.
" JAMES HAMILTON.
"PHILADELPHIA, September 7th, 1753."
On the eleventh of September a Verbal Message from the As- sembly was delivered by Two Members, presenting his Honour the thanks of the House for his great Care in Indian Affairs, and further acquainting him that They proposed to adjourn to the Thirtieth Instant, to which the Governor made no Objection.
MEMORANDUM.
The Governor being informed that Captain Philip Nery, Com- mander of the Schooner called Nostra Scignora de Rozario, Saint Anna, and Saint Antonio, who had been permitted to sell a Part of his Cargo in Order to make the Repairs necessary to proceed on his Voyage, did propose to sell more than was deemed fair or reason-
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able, and the Collector having informed the Governor that he was dissatisfied with the conduct of Mr. Edgar, the present Agent for the said Captain, his Honour thought it proper to put the Cargo into the Hands of some other Merchant, and Mr. John Ingliss being recommended he gave him the following Commission :
"[L. s.] By the Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, and Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sus- sex, upon Delaware,
" Whereas, a Petition hath been presented to me by Captain Philip Nery, a Subject of his Portugal Majesty, and Master or Commander of the Schooner called the Nostra Seignora de Rozario, Saint Anna, and Saint Antonio, of the Island of Madeira, setting forth that his said Vessel was in so leaky and distressed a Condi- tion that he durst not continue longer at Sea but was under a Ne- cessity of putting into this Port of Philadelphia, and desiring leave to refit. Whereupon an Order was issued requiring Joseph Rich- ardson, William Glentworth, John Meas, and Thomas Penrose, to examine and report the condition of the said Vessel and (the Cargo being delivered into the Custody of the Collector of the Customs) it appears that the said Vessel's bottom is Worm-Eaten and must undergo a Repair, which as I was first given to understand might amount to Two Hundred and Fifty or three hundred Pounds, but it hath been since suggested that it will cost three times that Sum, or the whole Cargo; I being desirous to be informed of the Truth of the matter, and especially to prevent any unfair or illegal Prac- tices in selling more of the said Cargo than is necessary for making the said Vessel fit for Sea, do hereby authorize and appoint John Ingliss of this City, Merchant, to sell and dispose of as much of the said Vessel's Cargo as will be sufficient to defray the Expences of the said Master and the necessary Repairs of the said Vessel, and no more, and to inspect and examine the several Tradesmen's Bills so that an exact account of his Proceedings therein may be ren- dered to me.
" Given under my Hand & Seal at Arms at Philadelphia, the First Day of September, in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty-Three.
"JAMES HAMILTON."
Mr. Ingliss having made a Report to the Governor endorsed on the Warrant or Commission, the same is as follows :
"In Pursuance of the Within Warrant to me directed by the Honourable James Hamilton, Esquire, I have fitted out the within named Vessel with all convenient necessaries of provisions, &ca., given her a thorough Repair, paid her Wages, and shipped a Master and other Seamen agreeable to the Direction of Capt. Philip Nery,
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which with their Wages advanced and Tradesmen's Bills with every Charge included, amounts to the Sum of Five Hundred and Ninety- Six Pounds nineteen Shillings and Three Farthings Current Money of Pennsylvania, for the Re-payment of which sundry Tons of Nica- ragua Wood and Pig Copper was disposed of to Messieurs Robert and Amos Strettell, of which particulars his Majestie's Collector, Abraham Taylor, Esquire, took a particular Account of. Witness my Hand this Fifth Day of September, 1753.
" JOHN INGLIS."
Afterwards the following Petition was presented to the Governor by Cap". Philip Nery :
" To the Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Penn- sylvania, and Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, upon Delaware,
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