USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. V > Part 75
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" Added to these You have, I observe, upon several Occasions given it as your Opinion that I am restricted by Proprietary Instructions as well as those from the Crown. How consistent it may be with the Rules of Parliamentary Proceedings to take notice of any Thing respecting me which does not come properly before you from myself, I leave you to judge ; But I am persuaded that had I administered the like Occasion of Complaint to you, you would not have been backward in charging me with a Breach of your Privileges. Did any of the Amendments proposed to the Paper Money Bill look as if they had been dictated by Proprietary Instructions, Or was any thing offered on my Part but what was common in your former acts, except what I was obliged to add in Consequence of the King's Instruction ? with which had you then acquiesced 'tis more than probable your Bill would by this Time have received the Royal Sanction, and you have been put in Poses- sion of what you appear so Sollicitous about.
" I must not, however, omit to return You my Thanks in behalf of the Proprietaries for the Regard you are pleased to express for their Rights in your Resolve relating to the Royal Instruction; an equal Concern for all their other Rights as they come occasionally before you cannot fail of receiving their just acknowledgements and of entitling the People you represent to all the Favours and Benefits they are capable of bestowing.
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PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
" Having gone through what appeared worthy of Observation in the Report, I now proceed to enquire what Part of my Conduct can have given Occasion to such Resentment as to induce you to lay aside those Rules of Civility so constantly practiced by Legislative Bodies, and to treat me in a manner which nothing less than an actual Invasion of your Liberties and Privileges or some other notable provocation can ever justify, and which, were I to imitate by giving the same free Scope to my Passions, I leave you to judge how the Publick Business could be carried on.
" Was there any Thing either in the Manner or Matter of my Message that necessarily called upon You for such a Return ? I am persuaded You will acquit me of that.
" But you say You have no other Method to secure yourselves from future Insinuations, &ca., but by leaving your Sentiments, &ca., on your Minutes in the clearest Manner You are able. I agree with You, Gentlemen, that if You apprehended the Interest of your Constituents might be injured by your Silence the design was highly laudable. But was it ever known that an Argument lost any Thing of its Force by being handled in a modest and decent Manner? Or could you not have left your Sentiments, &ca, on your Minutes without uttering the most injurious Insinuations against me ? You must be sensible other Governors and Assemblies have differed in Opinion upon Points nearly of the same Nature with this ; but have those Assemblies, therefore, behaved to their Governors as if it was a Crime in them to have been charged with Instructions from the King ? Or proceeded to insinuate because they thought themselves obliged to yield Obedience to those Instructions, that, therefore, they had no Regard to the Liberties and Privileges of the People ? Or that it was evident the good People or their Representatives were not to expect to have any Influence over their Governor on that or any other Occasion ? I am perswaded, Gentlemen, You will not be able to find a similar Instance on so slight an Occasion in the Records of any Assembly in his Majestie's Dominions, and consequently that the Report of your Committee is a Paper of the first Impression.
" Had I been an Enemy to the Liberties and Privileges of the People, or been desirous of gratifying my own Passions at their Ex- pence, it must be confessed You have furnished me with the fairest Occasion a Governor so disposed could possibly have wished for. For Example : You have voted a Clause proposed to be added to your Bill by his Majestie's express Direction at the Request of his Two Houses of Parliament, to be destructive to the Liberties of the People of this Province, &c., and have even threatened to examine the Validity of the King's Instruction if by a Perseverance in my Opinion I laid You under the Necessity of doing it. What is this less than declaring that the Lords and Commons and his Majestie's Privy Council, consisting among others of the most eminent Law-
1
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yers in Great Britain, have requested and his Majesty enjoined an Act directly contrary to Law ?
If, then, in Consequence of the Indignation You cannot but sup- pose me to have conceived at finding myself so unworthily used for no Cause given on my Part I had transmitted to his Majestie's Min- isters a Representation or Complaint of the forementioned Proceed- ings, agravated with all the invidious Constructions of which they are capable and which an abused or a provoked Man might think himself well justifyed in making use of, can you think the Conduct you held upon that Occasion would contribute any thing to the bet- ter recommending You to his Majestie's Favour ? Or might it not rather tend to encrease the jealousies and Suspicions already too easily entertained of these Colonies by our Superiors, and perhaps terminate finally in an act to compel Obedience not to one but all Instructions from his Majesty? Which I hope will never be the Case, tho' You must be sensible it has more than once been medi- tated by Gentlemen of great Weight and Authority in the British Parliament.
" But if, on the contrary, all this has been avoided, and I have endeavored to suppress as much as in me lay any Resentment by which the Publick may be affected, in hopes of a more dispassion- ate Behaviour on your Part for the future, I flatter myself with hav- ing done the People of this Province as effectual a good Service by my Moderation as You by all the Zeal and Warmth You have expressed upon the Occasion.
"JAMES HAMILTON.
" 1st March, 1754."
The Governor's Verbal Message.
" Sir :
" The Governor commands me to acquaint the House that obser- ing among the Minutes of the last Assembly a Paper which he apprehended to be highly injurious to his Character, he had pre- pared an answer thereto, which he would have laid before them at the Beginning of the Sessions, but being unwilling for any private Consideration of his own to divert the attention of the House from the important Matters he then recommended to them, he has delayed it till this Time, when he understands they have not much Business before them."
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PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
At a Council held at Philadelphia, Saturday the 2d Day of March, 1754.
The Governor still Indisposed.
PRESENT :
John Penn, - Esquires.
Joseph Turner,
Richard Peters,
The Minutes of the preceding Council were read and approved.
The Assembly having on the Twenty-Seventh of February sent the Governor a written Message in answer to his of the nineteenth of February, relating to the Paper Money Bill, he sent it to the Council with the Draught of a Reply which he proposed to make to it, and desired before they proceeded to consider them that they would carefully peruse Mr. Patten's Map of the Distance of the Ohio, together with the account given of the same by Mr. Weiser and the Traders on former examinations, and likewise that they would exam- ine Mr. West, who accompanied Col. Fry and other Gentlemen to Log's Town to a Treaty held there by them as Commissioners on the Part of Virginia with the Ohio Indians in the Year 1752.
The Message was read in these words:
" May it please the Governor :
" The unusual Manner in which the Governor has been pleased to refuse his assent to a Bill of the greatest Importance to the Pros- perity and Welfare of this Province, appears to us particularly 'unfortunate at this time, when an easy access to the Governor and free Conferences with each other would so naturally tend to cement the Several Branches of the Legislature by the Strong Ties of their mutual Interest, notwithstanding any supposed independent Rights on either Part. Yet as we apprehend it our Duty under these Difficulties, and in all circumstances, to contribute whatever lies in our Power towards preserving or restoring this Harmony, we have referred that Part of the Governor's Message to be considered independent of the Royal Commands and other pressing affairs recommended to us at this Time, in order that no seperate Interests of our own which can possibly be avoided may interfere with the common Good of these his Majestie's Colonies on the Continent of America.
" Under these Considerations We have deliberately considered the other Matters contained in the Governor's Messages and Let- ters to which they refer, in which we cannot but observe some Dif- ferences between the Royal Orders, signified by the Earl of Holder- nesse's Letter as well as the Letter from the Lords of Trade of the eighteenth of September last, and the Light in which the Governor is pleased to represent them in his Message of the Fourteenth In- stant, for which Reason we shall undoubtedly stand excused if We
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MINUTES OF THE
recur to the Letters themselves for the Rule of our Conduct in this great Affair.
" The Earl of Holdernesse in his Letter of the twenty-eighth of August last has very minutely and precisely directed the several Steps to be taken and the Cautions to be used by the Governors of the Colonies in regard to their own Defence, or when called upon by the neighbouring Provinces or any others of his Majestie's Colonies for their mutual assistance in Support of the general In- terest of the British Dominions on the Continent, in which, as it is his Majestie's Determination not to be the Aggressor, they are most strictly commanded and enjoined not to make use of an armed Force, excepting within the undoubted Limits of his Dominions, and in that case under such Restrictions only as are particularly set forth in the Royal Order.
" As it would be highly presumptuous in us to pretend to judge of the undoubted Limits of his Majestie's Dominions on the Con- tinent, so neither ought we to fix the Boundaries of this Province beyond which We apprehend our own Forces are strictly enjoined by no Means to act as Principals, especially as the Governor has not been pleased to furnish Us with any Materials for that Enquiry, were we so inclined or were we the proper Judges, nor has he made the necessary Requisition, or called upon us to resist any hostile Attempts made upon any Part of his Majestie's Dominions within this Government, but to grant such a Supply as might enable him to raise Forces to be ready to join those of Vir- ginia early in March upon Patowmack. Under these Circum- stances We hope the Governor will concur with Us, the most pru- dent Part will be to wait the Result of the Government of Virginia, as there is no Provision yet made there, so far as We know, for the raising any Forces on this Occasion, nor in Maryland their neigh- bouring Colony, or New Jersey, equally engaged in the general Interest of the British Dominions on this Continent, tho' the Gov- ernors have called upon their respective Assemblies for that Purpose in Pursuance of the Royal Command, signified to them in the circu- lar Letter from the Earl of Holdernesse as above ; and this Caution We presume is more especially becoming Us, as it is well known the Assemblies of this Province are generally composed of a Majority who are conscientiously principled against War, and re- present a well-meaning, peaceable People, deeply sensible of the great Favours, Protection, and Privileges they enjoy under the present Royal Family, and therefore ready and willing to demon- strate their Duty and Loyalty by giving such Sums of Money to the King's Use, upon all suitable Occasions, as may consist with our Circumstances or can be reasonably expected from so young a Colony.
" By the Accounts now before Us we find we have contracted a Debt of about Fourteen Hundred Pounds for Presents to the
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PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
Indians and other Charges arising from the late Treaty at Carlisle, which We shall discharge chearfully, notwithstanding our Proprie- taries refuse to contribute any Part of our Indian Expences, which have encreased upon Us exceedingly within these few Years ; never- theless We return our Acknowledgments to the Governor for his Care and prudent conduct on that Occasion, as well as to the Gen- tlemen who, under the Governor's Commission, held the Treaty at that critical Juncture to our Satisfaction, and we hope not only to our own but to the general Interest of these Colonies, by demon- strating to our Indian Allies the good Faith with which the Sub- jects of Great Britain fulfil their Treaties and the ready Assistance they may depend on under their Wants and Necessities.
" The Letter of the Lords of Trade having left both the Time and Place of holding a Treaty with the Six Nations to the Governor of New York, he has thought fit to appoint it to be held at Albany on the Thirteenth or Fourteenth of June next, as the Governor has been pleased to inform us. However inconvenient it may appear to Us to hold cur Treaties with the Indians at Albany, yet as all his Majestie's Colonies whose Interest and Security are connected with or depend upon the Six Nations, are invited to join in this Interview, if the Governor should think it may be for the Interest or advantage of this Province to appoint Commissioners to be joined with those of the other Governments on this Occasion, we shall be willing to make the proper Provision for that Purpose, together with a small Present; but as We have been already at so consider- able an Expence at our late Treaty, it cannot be expected nor do we apprehended it would answer any good Purpose to make it very large at this Time.
" We are now to join with the Governor in bewailing the miser- able Situation of our Indian Trade carried on (some few excepted) by the vilest of our own Inhabitants and Convicts imported from Great Britain and Ireland, by which means the English Nation is unhap- pily represented among our Indian Allies in the most disagreeable Manner. These trade without Controul either beyond the Limits or at least beyond the Power of our Laws, debauching the Indians and themselves with spirituous Liquors, which they now make in a great measure the principal Article of their Trade in direct Viola- tion of our Laws, supplied, as we are informed, by some of the Magistrates who hold a Commission under this Government and other Inhabitants of our back Counties. These Laws now in force if duly put in Execution we hope would in a great Measure redress the Grievances complained of; but that no Endeavours may be wanting on our Part we have appointed a Committee to consider if anything further in our Power can be done to remedy these Evils, and to bring in a Bill accordingly.
" Signed by Order of the House.
" ISAAC NORRIS, Speaker.
"In Assembly, 27th February, 1754."
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And then Mr. Patten and Mr. Montour were examined, who did declare that the Courses and Distances from Carlisle to Shanoppin, an Indian Town on the River Ohio near the Mouth of Mohongialo, are laid down in a Map wch they had presented to the Governor and now produced to the Council with as much Care and Accuracy as in their Power, and that they believed them to be as near the Truth as it could be known without actual Mensuration ; and that the two following Tables taken from the Map contain a just Description of the Road as well by Computation as by the Compass :
The computed Distance of the Road by the Indian Traders from Carlisle to Shanoppin's Town.
From Carlisle. Miles.
From Carlisle to Major Montour's
10
From Montour's to Jacob Pyatt's - 25
From Pyatt's to George Croghan's at Aucquick Old Town
15
From Croghan's to the Three Springs
-
10
From Sideling Hill to Contz's Harbour -
8
From Contz's Harbour to the top of Ray's Hill -
1
From Ray's Hill to the 1 crossing of Juniata 10
From the 1 crossing of Juniata to Allaguapy's Gap 6
From Allaguapy's Gap to Ray's Town - 5
From Ray's Town to the Shawonese Cabbin - 8
From Shawonese Cabbins to the Top of Allegheny Mountain 8
From Allegheny Mountain to Edmund's Swamp 8 -
From Edmund's Swamp to Cowamahony Creek -
6
From Cowamahony to Kackanapaulins - .
5
From Kackanapaulins to Loyal Hannin - -
18
From Loyal Hannin to Shanoppin's Town - - 50
The Courses of the Road from Carlisle to Shanoppin's Town by Compass.
N. 20, W. 8 Miles to Major Montour's.
W. S. W. 20 Miles to Jacob Pyatt's.
N. 20, W. 8 Miles to George Croghan's or Aucquick old Town.
N. 70, W. 7 Miles to the three Springs.
S. 70, W. 5 Miles to Aucquick Gap.
S. 70, W. 53 Miles to Contz's Harbour.
S. 80, W. 9 Miles to Allaquapy's Gap.
West 3 Miles to Ray's Gap. N. 45, W. the Course up the Gap.
N. 63, W. 5 Miles to the Shawonese Cabbin's.
N. 60, W. 5 M& to the top of Allegheny Mount".
N. 75, W. 42 Miles to Edmund's Swamp.
N. 80, W. 4 Miles to Cowamahony Creek.
N. 10. W. 33 Miles to Kackanapaulin's House.
7
From the Three Springs to Sideling Hill - - -
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PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
N. 64, W. 12 Miles to Loyal Hannin Old Town. N. 20. W. 10 Miles to the Forks of the Road.
West 10 Miles to
N. 80, W. 15 Miles to Shanoppin's Town.
Mr. West was likewise Examined, and did declare that he verily believed the Courses and distances as set down by Mr. Patten on the Map now produced, came as near to the Truth as was possible, with- out actual Mensuration. He further said that Col. Joshua Fry, one of the Virginia Commissioners who had the Reputation of an excellent Mathematician, with a Quadrant of eighteen Inches Radius, took an Observation of the Sun on the 16th of June, 1752, at a Place about a Mile North of Shanoppin's Town, and found the Sun's Meridian Altitude to be 72d. 54°.
Complement Suns Altitude
17
6
June 16, Suns Declination
23 1
Latitude .
- 40 29
Mr. Peters in order to give the Council a just Notion of the Dis- tance of the Ohio, produced a Draught of the Temporary Line, and the Field Book of the late Surveyor General Mr. Eastburn, by which it appeared that the End of that Line is distant from New- castle one hundred and Thirteen Miles, and from the Meridian of Philadelphia one hundred and forty-four Miles. Mr. Peters and Mr. West both agree that a Place called the three Springs is in the same Meridian with the End of the Temporary Line, which Place by Patten's Draught is distant from the Ohio eighty-six Miles on a strait Line by Compass, which added to one hundred and thirteen Miles make two hundred Miles, wanting one mile distant from the Circle of Newcastle, and added to one hundred and forty-four Miles, makes two hundred and thirty Miles distant from the Meridian of Philadelphia. Mr. Peters further observed that this Situation of the Ohio was perfectly agreeable to the late History and Maps of Canada published by Father Charlevoix, which were likewise ex- amined by the Council and gave them entire Satisfaction. Then it was desired that the several Matters now set forth might be com- mitted to writing and comunicated to the Assembly if the Governor pleased.
And then the following Message was agreed to :
" Gentlemen --
"In all Transactions with the Assemblies of this Province since. my accession to the Government I have constantly endeavoured to confine myself within the undoubted and well-known Limits of the Powers entrusted to me by my Commission, without ever designedly attempting the least Infraction or Invasion of the Privileges of your House. That the Right of refusing my assent to any Bill offered me by the Assembly without assigning Reasons is incident to the
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Station I have at present the Honour to fill I am persuaded you will not deny, inasmuch as the same has not only been frequently exercised by my Predecessors without any Complaint from the Assemblies on that account, but has also been expressly acknow- ledged by them to be so in the fullest and plainest Words.
" I hope never to be justly chargeable with using the Powers I am invested with in a Wanton or extravagant manner; and there- fore as I do not conceive myself to be accountable to You for my Conduct on the present Occasion, I cannot but look on your having taken Notice of it in the way You have done to be a good deal more unusual and unprecedented than the Practice complain'd of.
"If I rightly know myself I may venture to say that no Man in my Station has ever been more desirous or taken more Pains than myself to establish and Preserve Peace and Harmony between the several Branches of the Legislature as well as throughout the whole Province ; and I am still ready to contribute every Thing in my Power to so good a Purpose, consistent with my Honour and the Trust reposed in me; But if in order to restore and preserve this Harmony it be expected that I should make a Sacrifice of any of the Rights of Government, or part with my negative Voice with Respect to all Bills that may be laid before me, I shall look upon the Purchase, however desirable in itself, as made at too dear a Rate, being firmly of Opinion that such a change in the Consti- tution would be productive of more real Mischiefs and Incon- veniences to the Province than are to be apprehended from any Temporary Disagreement between a Governor and Assembly. I would not here be understood to mention this as a Thing You have actually and in express Terms demanded of me, yet upon the most careful Review of all that has passed I am not able to discover any other Cause for the Interruption of that Harmony which for several Years subsisted between us, and for the late indecent Treatment I have received in a Paper published by your House, than my having refused to pass some favourite Bills upon your own Terms. If this then should have been the Case, what is it less in Effect than en- deavouring to intimidate me from exercising my Judgment upon such Bills as come before me in my Legislative Capacity under Pain of incurring your sharpest Resentment, and consequently to deprive me of the Negative invested in me by the Constitution.
"But waving every Thing of an inferior Nature I proceed to that Part of your Message of the Twenty-Seventh of last Month where- in you are pleased to say You observe some Differences between the Royal Commands signified in Lord Holdernesse's Letter and the Light in which I represent them in my Message of the Fourteenth Instant. If there was any Defect in the Form of my calling upon You for such Supplies as might enable me to do what his Majesty has enjoined to be done in case of any hostile attempts upon any Part of his Majestie's Dominions, namely, to repel Force by Force,
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PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
I would willingly have hoped that your Duty to his Majesty would rather have induced you to supply any Omission of mine in that respect, especially as every Means of Information I was possessed of was laid before you, than that you would have attempted to elude the Force of a Demand made upon You by his Majestie's express Orders by such an Evasion as that of my not having done it in the very words of Lord Holdernesse's Letter. The words of my Message are so full, and tho' not a bare Repetition of his Lordship's, yet so very agreeable to them in their Sense and Meaning, that it is impossible You should have understood them in any other Light than as referring to Lord Holdernesse's Letter, especially as that Letter then lay upon your Table; However, as I find You have in some measure made that a pretence for not complying with my De- mand made upon you by his Majestie's Order, I desire you will please now to be informed that I have undoubted Assurance that Part of his Majestie's Dominions within my Government is at this Time invaded by the Subjects of a Foreign Prince, who have erected Forts within the same; And further, that You will take Notice that I do now call upon You, pursuant to his Majestie's Orders, in the present Emergency to grant such Supplies as may enable me to draw forth the Armed Force of the Province in order to resist these hostile attempts, and to repel Force by Force.
" But you are pleased further to say, that You ought not to fix the Bounds of this Province, and that if You had been so inclined I had not furnished you with any Materials for the Enquiry. Pray, Gentlemen, did You ever ask me to furnish You with Materials for this particular Enquiry ? If you did not, which I aver to be the case, Whence the Insinuation as if I had omitted to furnish You with all the Means of Information that were in my power? Was it possible for any Body to think You could have been so unconcerned about a Matter of such vast Consequence as an Invasion of his Majestie's Dominions (which was so strongly represented to You in my Mess- age as being very near to Us) without making an Enquiry touch- ing the Place and Situation where these Hostilities were said to be committed, or whether the same was or was not within the Limits of our own Province, especially as You might so easily have satisfied yourselves in that Point by the Papers laid before You and the Per- sons You had under Examination ? By these it would have ap- peared to You that Log's Town, the Place where the French propose to have their Head Quarters, is not at the Distance of Five Degrees of Longitude from the River Delaware, and not to the Southward of Fifteen Statue Miles South of this City, and that the Course of the Ohio from that Place to Weningo, which the French have taken Possession of, and from whence they have driven away our Traders, is to the North-East, and consequently nearer to Us. It is likewise well known that a Person apprehended for committing a Murder at Shanoppin, which lies still South of Log's Town, was tried in the VOL. V .- 48.
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