USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI > Part 40
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"10th. Adheres to the Amendment.
"11th. Agrees after taking in the Amendment to let the Words [any one of the Justices of the Peace ] stand as in the Bill.
"12th. Recedes from this Amendment.
"13th, 14th, 15th, 16th. Adheres to all these Amendments.
"18th. Adheres to the Dele.
"20th. Recedes from this Amendment.
"21st. Agrees with the House to add [from the last Port] as in the Answer.
"26th. Recedes from the Dele.
" 27th, 28th. Adheres to these Amendments.
" 31st. Adheres to the Amendment.
' "33rd. Agrees to the Exception and Provisoe as in the Answer, and recedes from the rest of that Amendment.
"34th.
"35th. Adheres to all these Amendments."
"36th.
"37th.
The following Letter from General Braddock to the Governor was read :
" Sir-
" I have found it absolutely necessary to send Mr. Leslie, Assistant Deputy Quarter-Master General into your Government to purchase a large Quantity of Oats for the Service of the Forces, and must beg of You to give him such Countenance and Assistance towards pro- viding'em as may be in your Power; And as the Deputy Paymaster General is not yet arrived at the Camp, I should be much obliged to You if You would advance to Mr. Leslie such a Sum as he shall have Occasion for, and I will repay it to You in the manner that You shall desire.
"I have given Mr. Leslie an Assurance that the Wagons shall be suffered to return home immediately after the Delivery of the Forage, which shall be punctually complied with.
"I am, Sir, Your most humble and most obedient Servant,
"E. BRADDOCK.
"Fort Cumberland, May 10, 1755."
On which the Governor supplied Mr. Leslie with Five Hundred Pounds; and it appearing to him that General Braddock must be greatly distressed for want of Provisions and Forage, and that if he should be so fortunate as to get a sufficient Supply of those he would not be able to march for Want of the necessary Roads being cut thro' this Province, it would be for the King's Service that some
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Member of Council should undertake a Journey as well to hasten the Opening of the Roads as to confer with General Braddock on what wou'd be immediately wanted for the necessary Use of the Army. Upon this Mr. Peters offered his Service, and was furnished with Letters from the Governor to the General and Instructions about the Roads, together with Two Warrants against the Persons accused of supplying the French with Provisions, which were directed to the Sheriff of Cumberland County.
MEMORANDUM.
On the Fifteenth of May the Governor received the following Message from the Assembly by two of their Members, who acquainted him that the house was enclined to adjourn to-morrow to the first of September 'next, if he had no Objection; to which the Governor answered that he would consider the Message, and if any thing therein or any other Matter occurred that might require their longer Stay he would acquaint the House in the Morning, and ac- cordingly sent them his Answer to their abusive Message and had from them as abusive a Reply, all which are entered as follows :
" A Message to the Governor from the Assembly.
" May it please the Governor :
" Upon the Governor's Message of the Twelfth of December last recommending to Us a Revision of the Laws now in being relating to sickly Vessels and Passengers, and that we would make proper Provision for Preventing the ill Effects that might arise from such for the future, and as far as in our Power prevent the Spreading of any infectious Disorders that might be introduced into this City and Province, We immediately prepared and sent up a bill which We presume would in a great Measure have answered that good Pur- pose, and at the same Time have left open to the fair Trader all the valuable Advantages which would accrue to the Province from such Importations.
"The grievous Calamities we were then threatened with, the melancholy Spectacle of the Distress of so many of our Fellow Creatures perishing for Want of Change of Apparel, Room, and other Necessaries on board their Ships, and after being landed among Us the extreme Danger the Benevolent and the Charitable. exposed them to in approaching those unhappy Sufferers, together with the Governor's own Recommendation, gave Us Reason to hope that he might be at Liberty and that his own Inclinations would have in- duced him to have passed such a Bill as might prevent the like for the future, but we are under the greatest Concern to find Ourselves disappointed in these our reasonable Expectations.
" By our Charters and the Laws of this Province the whole Leg-
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islative Power is vested in the Governor and the Representatives of the People ; and as we know of no other Negative upon our Bills but what the. Governor himself has, we could wish he had been pleased to have exercised his own Judgement upon this our Bill without referring the Consideration of it to a Committee of his Council, most of them such, as We are informed, who are or have lately been concerned in the Importations, the Abuses of which this Bill was designed to regulate and redress.
" The German Importations were at first and for a considerable Time of such as were Families of Substance and industrious sober People, who constantly brought with them their Chests of Apparel and other Necessaries for so long a voyage. But these we appre- hend have for some time past been shipped on board other Vessels in order to leave more Room for crowding their unhappy Passen- gers in greater Numbers, and to secure the Freights of such as might perish during the Voyage, which experience has convinced Us must be the Case of very many where such Numbers (as have been lately imported in each Vessel) are crowded together without Change of Raiment or any other Means of keeping themselves sweet and clean. But this Provision the Governor has been pleased to throw out of our Bill; and yet we think it so essentially necessary that the Want of it must necessarily poisen the Air those unhappy Passengers breathe on Shipboard, and spread it wherever they land to infect the Country which receives them, especially as the Gov- ernor has likewise altered the Provision We had made by the Advice of the Physicians for accommodating them with more Room and and Air upon their Arrival here.
"We have reason to believe the Importations of Germans have been for some Time composed of a great Mixture of the Refuse of their People, and that the very Goals have contributed to the Sup- plies We are burthened with. But as there are many of more Substance and better Character, We thought it reasonable to hinder the Importer from obliging such as had no connections with one another to become jointly bound for their respective Frieghts or Passages ; but the Governor has thought fit to alter this also in such a manner as to elude the good Purposes intended by the Act, by which means those who are of more Substance are involved in the Contracts and Debts of Others, and the Merchants secured at the Expence of the Country where they are necessitated and do become very frequently common Beggers from Door to Door, to the great Injury of the Inhabitants and the Increase and Propogation of the Distempers they have brought among us. Many who have indented themselves for the Payment of their Passages have fre- quently been afflicted with such secret and loathsome Diseases at the Time as have rendered them altogether unfit for the Services they had contracted to perform, for which we had provided a Remedy by the Bill; but the Governor has thought fit to strike it VOL. VI .- 25.
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out and leave Us exposed to this grevious Imposition without a Remedy.
" As we are situated between two neighboring Governments not subject to our Laws We had provided against landing such Impor- tations as were designed for this Colony, either in New Jersey or the Three Lower Counties, merely to elude the Force of our Law, and to introduce them from either of these into this Province; but the Governor has also rejected the Provisions We had made on this Head as We apprehend to the utter Subversion of any Provision We can make to regulate this Trade.
"From these and many other Alterations which the Governor, after having had the Bill repeatedly under his Consideration, is pleased to adhere to, We are of Opinion that should We assent to the Bill as it comes down from the Governor We should be more exposed to the Abuses and Grievances it was intended to redress than We are at present by the Laws now in Being if duly executed. We therefore are under the Necessity of leaving all the ill Consequences which may attend the Refusal of passing our Bill upon the Gov- ernor himself, and do earnestly recommend them to his most serious Consideration.
"Signed by Order of the House. " ISAAC NORRIS, Speaker. "15th May, 1755."
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" When I summoned You together on the Seventeenth of March last I was in Hopes You would bring with you Inclinations to pro- mote the Publick Service by granting the Supplies expected by the Crown, and by putting this Province into a Posture of Defence ; but I am sorry to find that neither the Danger to which this Coun- try stands exposed, nor his Majesty's repeated and affectionate calls, have had any Weight with You.
" The Bill you sent me for striking Twenty-Five Thousand Pounds was of a more extraordinary Nature than that I refused my Assent to in the Winter Sessions, as it gave General Braddock a Power over no more than Five Thousand Pounds, and subjected the remaining Twenty Thousand and all the Surplus of the Excise for Eleven Years to come to the Disposition of some of the Mem- bers of your House, and to the Assembly for the Time being.
"The offering Money in a Way and upon Terms that You very well knew I could not consistent with my Duty to the Crown con- sent to, is in my Opinion trifling with the King's Commands, and amounts to a Refusal to give at all, and I am satisfied will be seen
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in this Light by my Superiors, who by your Bill above mentioned, which I shall lay before them, and by the whole of your Conduct since You have been made acquainted with the designs of the French, will be convinced that your Resolutions are and have been to take Advantage of your Country's Danger, to aggrandize and render permanent your own Power and Authority, and to destroy that of the Crown. That it is for this Purpose and to promote your Scheme of future Independency You are grasping at the Disposition of all Publick Money and at the Power of filling all the offices of Government especially those of the Revenue, and when his Majesty and the Nation are at the Expence of sending Troops for the Pro- tection of these Colonies, You refuse to furnish them with Provi- sions and necessary Carriages tho' your country is full of both, unless You can at the same Time encroach upon the Rights of the Crown and increase your own Power, already too great for a Branch of a Subordinate dependant Government so remote from the princi- pal Seat of Power.
" You have, Gentlemen, by a Vote of your own House, without the Consent of the Government empowered a Committee of your Members to borrow Money upon the Credit of the Assembly, and to dispose of the same to certain uses in that Vote mentioned. You have also by Votes and Resolves of your own House created Bills or notes of credit made payable to the Bearers thereof, to the Amount of Fifteen Thousand Pounds, which You have issued in lieu of Money, and they are now circulating in this Province with- out the Approbation of the Government. You have denied me Access to your Journals and refused me copies of your Minutes. And You have printed and published the Secretary of State's Let- ters to me signifying his Majesty's Commands, not only without my Consent, but contrary to an Order I had issued to the Printers expressly forbidding the Publication of those Letters.
" Whether You have a Right to the Exercise of such extraordi- nary Powers his Majesty and his Ministers will judge, before whom it is my Duty to lay your Proceedings as soon as I can come at them, and to whom they will appear the more dangerous as neither they nor You can know but a future Assembly may use those Powers against the Government by which they are protected.
" While I had any the most distant Hopes of your coming into Measures that might Promote the Public Service at this critical Conjuncture, I suffer'd some Parts of your Conduct to remain un- observed upon, but as I am now convinced from the whole Tener of your Behaviour and from your Message of Yesterday notifying your Intentions to adjourn till September next without granting the necessary Supplies, that You have no Design to contribute any Thing towards the Defence of this Country, I thought it right to be no longer silent upon those Heads.
" Gentlemen, When the Bill to prevent the Importation of the
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Germans, &c., was under my Consideration, I took such Advice upon it and made such amendments to it as I thought would best answer the Publick Purposes, and put that Trade upon such a Foot- ing as to prevent the many Abuses that had been practised in it, and at the same Time secure this City and Province against the coming in and spreading of Infectious Distempers. How far the Bill as proposed by You, or amended by me, would or would not have answered those Ends, was a matter proper to be considered at a Conference which you might have desired if you had thought proper, as it is the only means of bringing a Bill to Perfection when the Branches of the Legislature differ in Opinion concerning any amendments proposed to it, but instead thereof You have sent me a Message filled with unjust Reflections upon the Amendments proposed by me, and plainly designed to represent me as having no Regard for the Health or Safety of the Inhabitants of this Country, in doing which I cannot think You have paid a proper Regard to Truth. However, as it is not my intention to enter into a Contro- versy with You upon that Bill, which might have been agreed upon between Us had the usual Method of proceeding in such Cases bech pursued by You, I shall say nothing more upon this Head, especi- ally as this matter seems purposely chosen to lead me and the Pub- lick from considering that Part of your Conduct that must in its Consequences most nearly affect the Inhabitants of this Province.
" ROBT. H. MORRIS.
" May 16, 1755."
A Message to the Govenor from the Assembly.
" May it please the Governor :
" When We met in obedience to the Governor's Summons on the Seventeenth of March last, We really brought with Us the sin- cerest Inclinations to promote the publiek Service by granting the Supplies expected by the Crown; and We trust it will appear to all who impartially examine the Proceedings of that Session that We did every thing in our Power, as our Affairs were then circum- stanced, and consequently that the Danger to which this Country stood exposed, and his Majesty's repeated and affectionate Calls, had great Weight with Us whatever they had with the Governor.
" The Bill We sent up for Striking the Sum of Twenty-Five Thousand Pounds, and giving the same to the King's Use, and for providing a Fund to sink it, had nothing extraordinary in its Nature, or differing from other Bills heretofore passed or presented for like Purposes in this Province, excepting that the Sum given was ex- traordinary compared with the Time proposed for sinking it, the Sum for the Canada expedition in the last War being but Five Thousand Pounds, to be sunk in Ten Years, and this Sum, tho'
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Five Times greater, was to be sunk by the same Fund in the same Number of Years. In the Bill Five Thousand Pounds of the Sum was appropriated to pay for Provisions bought and given for the Use of the Forces in Virginia under General Braddock, Ten Thousand Pounds more was given to buy Provisions for the New England Forces under his Command, Five Thousand Pounds more was subjected to his Order, and to be disposed of for the King's Service as he should think fit, and the remaining Five Thousand Pounds was appropriated for the Subsistence of Indians taking Refuge in his Province, Payment of Posts or Expresses, Hire of Carriages, Clearing of Roads, and other necessary contingent Ex- pences for the King's Service as might be incumbent on this Gov- ernment to discharge. Thus the whole Twenty-Five Thousand Pounds was appropriated to the King's Service, and almost all of it to the immediate Use of General Braddock, or to such Purposes as were by him especially recommended in his Letters laid before . the House by the Governor. The Members of the House men- tioned by the Governor were to have no Share in the Disposition of it, it was disposed of by the Bill, and they could only have the Trouble of laying it out according to the Appropriation and keeping the Accounts. This is Truth, and well known to the Gov- crnor if he perused our Bill with any Degree of attention, Yet how differently it is represented in the Governor's Message! It is called only 'A Bill for striking Twenty-Five Thousand Pounds,' which is but a Part of the Title, the Words 'and for giving the same for the King's Use' Being (as it would seem) carefully omitted least they might militate against the Assertion which imediately follows : that " Twenty Thousand Pounds of it was subjected to the Disposition of some Members of the House and of the Assembly for the Time Being.' Then it is said, 'It gave General Braddock a Power over no more than Five Thousand Pounds,' because it gave him a Power to draw for and appropriate as he pleased no more than that Sum, Tho' all the Twenty-five Thousand Pounds (except a small Part for the Support of Indian Refugees, which is likewise for the King's Service) was appropriated for his and Army's Use or Services by him required; and we cannot learn that any other Colony besides hath given or offered. to give that Gentleman a Power over as many Pence. Great Subtilty and Dexterity appear in this manner of disguising Truths and changing Appearances, but We see in it very little Candour or Ingenuity.
" In the next Paragraph of the Governor's Message there are many Assertions in which We think We are equally mis- represented. We are charged with 'offering Money in a Way and upon Terms which We knew the Governor could not Consistent with his Duty to the Crown consent to.' We really thought and still think it was inconsistent with his Duty to the Crown to refuse it. If Weare mistaken 'tis an Error in Judg- ment. We have appealed to our gracious King on this Ilead and
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We hope for a favourable Determination. We are charged with ' trifling with the King's Commands and refusing to give at all,' tho' We have actually given great Sums in Obedience to those Com- mands and earnestly endeavored to give much greater which the Governor refused, unless We would give in a Manner which We think inconsistent with our present just Liberties and Privileges held under the Royal Charter. We are charged with 'resolving to aggrandize our own Power and destroy that of the Crown'-a charge as We conceive utterly groundless and for which We have never given the least Foundation. We are charged with a 'Scheme of Independency.' We have no such Scheme nor ever had, nor do We as a Part of the Legislature Desire any Independency but what the Constitution authorises, which gives Us a Right to Judge for ourselves and our Constituents of the Utility and Propriety of Laws or Modes of Laws about to be made, and does not yet and We con- fide never will oblige Us to make Laws by Direction. We are charged with grasping at the Disposition of all publick Money and at the Power of filling all the Offices of Governments, a Charge, as We conceive, equally groundless and invidious. We have by Law a Right to dispose of some publick Money and We cannot be properly said to grasp at what We are in Possession of. That part of the publick money which the Governor receives, arising by Ly- censes, &c., great as it is he disposes of as he pleases, and We have never attempted to interfere in it, nor can one Instance be given of our attempting to fill any Office which We are not by some express Law impowered to fill. But the heaviest Charge of this Paragraph concludes it; the Governor is pleased to say, "When his majesty and the Nation are at the Expence of sending Troops for the Pro- tection of these Colonies, You refuse to furnish them with Pro- visions and necessary Carriages tho' your Country is full of both, unless You can at the same Time encroach upon the Rights of the Crown.' This Charge is really amazing ! It requires, however, no other Answer than a simple Relation of fact. In the same session and as soon as it appeared there was no Hope of obtaining the Bill for giving Twenty Thousand Pounds to the King's Use, and many Weeks before the Forces arrived, We voted and gave Five Thousand Pounds to purchase Provisions and other necessaries for those Forces ; these Provisions were accordingly bought and are sent to Virginia, being the full Quantity required of Us. We have since given Ten Thousand Pounds to purchase Provisions for the New England Forces; it was given as soon as requested and before the Troops were raised. Those Provisions are most of them actually purchased, great Part sent away, and all will probably be at the Place appointed before they are wanted. We gave not a Pound of Provision less than was asked of Us, and all the Carriages required Us have been furnished. This has been done with the greatest Readiness and Alacrity, and done, We conceive, without the least Encroachment on the Rights of the Crown, unless 'bor-
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rowing Money on our own Credit' (which We thought even every private Man had a Right to do if he had any credit) be indeed such an Encroachment. Indeed the next Paragraph begins with charging this upon Us as a Crime. 'You have, the Governor is pleased to say, by a Vote of your own House without the Consent of the Government impowered a Committee of your Members to Borrow Money upon the Credit of the Assembly and to dispose of the same to certain Uses in that Vote mentioned.' By this Caution in ex- pressing the Uses a Stranger might imagine that they were wicked if not treasonable Uses, and that the Governor out of meer Tender- ness for his People forbore to explain them. But the Uses men- tioned in the Votes are to purchase fresh Victuals and other Neces- saries for the Use of the King's Troops at their Arrival and to purchase and transport Provisions requested by the Government of the Massachusetts Bay to victual the Forces about to march for securing his Majesty's Territories. These are the Uses in the Votes mentioned, and the only Uses; and We can conceive no Reason for touching them so gently by the name of certain Uses, unless the Governor thought that being more explicit on the Uses might seem to lessen in some Degree the heinous Crime of borrowing Money on our own Credit.
"The Governor is pleased to add, 'You have also by Votes and Resolves of your own House created Bills or Notes of Credit made payable to the Bearers thereof to the Amount of Fifteen Thousand Pounds, which You have issued in lieu of Money, and they are now circulating in this Province without the Approbation of the Govern- ment.' This Charge We presume will like the rest vanish on a little Explanation. By the Laws of this Province now in Force, and which have received the Royal Assent, the Disposition of the In- terest Money and Excise is vested in the Assembly for the Time being. Out of this Revenue the Assemblies have from Time to Time defrayed the Charges of Government. The constant Method of Payment was always this : when an Account against the Publick was allowed or any Expence for publick Service agreed to, an Order issued, drawn on the Treasurer or Trustees of the Loan Office, and signed by the Speaker or the Clerk by Order of the House. As these Orders were generally paid on Sights they naturally obtained some Credit, and sometimes passed through several Hands before Payment was demanded. At the last Settlement of the publick Accounts it appeared that a considerable Sum of this Interest and Excise Money over which the Assembly alone had a legal Power, ought to be in the Hands of the Treasurers and Trustees. The Gov- ernor himself was pleased to point this Money out to Us, to com- pute the Sum, and urge the House to make Use of it, when in Jan- uary last he refused their Bill for giving Twenty-Five Thousand Pounds to the King's Use. The House alledged, and truly, that the Money was outstanding in many Hands, and could not suddenly be collected without distressing and ruining the People. However,
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on the Credit of this Fund We voted the First Five Thousand Pounds for Provisions, and ordered the Money to be borrowed on Interest. And at the last Sitting when the Governor refused to pass our Bill for giving Twenty-Five Thousand Pounds to the King's Use, he may be pleased to remember that he sent us down a Mess- age, in which, after the Reason given for not passing the Bill, there are these Words : 'As this is a Time of imminent Danger, and the Forces raised and destined for the Service of the Colonies must wait the Supplies from this Province, I again entreat You to fall upon some other Method of Raising Money that We may not lose this. happy Opportunity of recovering his Majesty's Dominions now in- vaded by the French King.' The House accordingly fell on this other Method : they gave Ten Thousand Pounds of the Money in their Power to the King's Use ; they appointed a Committee to pur- chase the Provisions required, and impowered them to draw for the Sum on the Treasurer or Trustees of the Loan office as had been usual, with this only Difference, that as former Draughts were payable on Sight, and, therefore, bore no Interest, these being payable in a Year were to bear Interest, and in the mean Time the outstanding Money was ordered to be got in that the Draughts might be punctually discharged. Moneyd men knowing the Goodness of the Fund and confiding in the Justice and Punctuality of the Assem- bly, which has always honourably discharged the Publick Debts, have voluntarily furnished the Committee with Cash for these Draughts, which they have laid by in their Chests to receive in Time the Interest. Thus the King's Forces have been expeditiously sup- plied, the People have Time to pay off their Debts to the Publick, and no one is oppressed, distressed, or injured, nor is any Encroach- ment made on the Powers of Government, or any Thing done that has not been usual or which the Assembly are not by Law impow- ered to do. Yet this is what the Governor represents as "creating Bills of Credit and issuing them in lieu of Money without the ap- probation of the Government,' by which Persons unacquainted with the Fact might understand We had been making Paper Money and issuing it on Loan or in some other Manner to produce an Advan- tage to ourselves, and attempted to make it a legal Tender without the Governor's Assent, &c., all which is mere Misrepresentation or Misapprehension, as will appear by the Resolves themselves, to which We beg Leave to refer. After this Explanation of our Con- duct We Believe it will clearly appear that the Governor's Insinua- tion as if We had used Powers dangerous to the Government is as groundless as it is unkind.
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