USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI > Part 72
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A Letter from Gov. Morris to Gen1. Johnson.
" Sir :
" I have the Honour to Congratulate you on the Success of his Majesty's Arms under your Command. I take part in the Glory you have acquired, and now the Campaign is brought to a close I hope you will enjoy Ease & Leisure enough to give you an Oppor- tunity of perfectly re-establishing Your health.
" The unhappy defeat of Gen1. Braddock has brought an Indian War upon this and the neighbouring Provinces, and from a Quar- ter where it was least expected, I mean the Delawares and Shawa- nese, from whom we thought there was no danger, as they had the very last Year given us assurances of their continuing Quiet and taking part with us when we should ask them to do so; and they made the same promise to the Six Nations, so that we depended on them not only to remain neuter but to prevent other Indians from joining the French. But to our great surprize they have in breach of their Treaties & in Defiance of the Six Nations, to whom they are subjects, fallen upon our back Inhabitants and exercised on their persons the most shocking Barbarities, killing their Cattle and burning their Houses, and destroying all before them. You cannot conceive what a vast Tract of Country has been depopulated by these merciless Savages. I assure you that all the Families from Augusta County in Virginia to the River Delaware have been
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pliged to quit their Plantations on the North side of that Chain Hills which is called the endless Mountains, that take their ise in New England, and that the Indians are expected to Con- que their Ravages into the Governments of New York and New ersey.
"As I know not the State of the Six Nations, nor where an Ap- ication can be best made to them, I must take the Freedom to sire on the part of this Government that you would be pleased to nd a Message to the Six Nations to inform them of this Defection the Delawares and Shawonese both from us & them, with all its porrid Circumstances, and assure them that is it without the least rovocation from us, but that as they say themselves it is to shew he Six Nations that they are no longer Women, by which they sean no longer under their Subjection; they have the further Im- rudence to say they will come & attack such of the Six Nations as ave taken up the Hatchet against the French. It will, therefore, e right to warn the Six Nations in your Message not only against by attempts that may be made on their Castles, but to require them o send Messengers to all the Indians under their Dependance not assist or join the French or their Indians, but to take up the Hatchet & assist the English, and to let them know that if they o out a fighting against the English the Six Nations will consider hem as Enemies & treat them as such.
" You will see by the enclosed Papers that these French Shaw- nese and Delawares have offered the French Hatchet to the Sas -. uehannah Indians but they have refused to take it, and have sent Message to this Government that they have done so, & will fight ith us if we will support them, and they shall be ordered to do so y the Six Nations. Be pleased, therefore, in your Message to uform the Six Nations of this, and desire they will send a particular Iessage to these Sasquehannah Indians, commanding them to assist he English against the French.
" I intend to build a Fort at Shamokin this Winter, of which be leased likewise to acquaint the Six Nations, & I doubt not they will approve this measure as absolutely necessary to protect the Indians for the common Security of them and us.
" I have enclosed you the minutes of Council containing what bassed between this Government & Scarrooyady, & likewise some secret Intelligence, which you will make your own use of, conceal- ing the name of the Author.
"I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant,
"ROBERT H. MORRIS.
" To Gen1. JOHNSON.
" Philada., 15th Novembr., 1755."
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At a Council held at Philadelphia, Monday the 17th Nov"., 1755. PRESENT :
The Honourable ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, Esquire, Lieu- tenant Governor, &ca.
Robert Strettel,
Richard Peters,
Joseph Turner,
John Mifflin,
Lyndford Lardner,
Benjamin Shoemaker,
Benjamin Chew, Esquires.
On reading and considering the Bill entituled " An Act for strik- ing £60,000 and sinking it by a Tax," all the Council present un- animously agree to the following Amendments, which with the Bill & following Message were sent to the House by the Secretary :
" Amendments to the Bill entituled 'An Act for striking £60,- 000,' &cª,
" Ist. Page 1st, Line 4. Dele the word [not] and insert [only].
" 2d. Page 26, from the word [And] in the 10th line. Dele all the rest of that & 27 Page, and down the word [Act] in the 10th line of the 27th Page, both inclusive.
"3d. Page 49, line 7. Dele [Isaac Norris] and insert [James Hamilton, Isaac Norris, & 8 Benjamin Chew] striking out [James Hamilton ] in the 8 line.
" 4th. lines 9 & 10. Dele [John Hughes].
"5th. line 14. After the word [being] add [and not otherwise ].
"6th. Page 50, line 4th. Dele [Isaac Norris ] and insert [ James Hamilton, Isaac Norris, Benjamin Chew]; strike out [James Hamilton ] in the 5 Line.
" 7th. line 6. Dele [John Hughes].
w 8th. Page 51 &ca. Dele all Pages 51, 52, & the first line of Page 53.
" 15th November, 1755. Sent to the House with the Bill. " RICHARD PETERS, Secr'y."
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" I have again taken in Consideration your Bill for striking Sixty thousand Pounds and sinking it by a Tax, and tho' I cannot recede from my former Opinion that I am restrained by my Commission from passing any Law for taxing the Proprietary Estate, yet I agree with you that the Dispute between us whether the Proprie- tary Estate ought to be taxed by Act of the Legislature here, and whether I have a power by my Commission to pass any Act for that purpose, must in the end be determined by his Majesty.
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" But as I conceive the Method you propose by a Clause in your Bill of leaving that matter to the Royal Determination is unprece- dented, and that his Majesty cannot properly give his Assent to some parts of an Act and reject others, but will agreeable to the usual Forms in such Cases approve or disapprove of the whole, I have, therefore, returned & am ready to pass your Bill with some Amendments, the most material of which are the striking out that Clause and those parts of the Bill which subject the Proprietary Estate to Taxation, and in lieu thereof I propose that you shall prepare another Bill, whereby the Proprietary Estate shall be taxed in proportion to the other Estates in the Province and for the same purposes ; not by Assessors chosen by the People, but by Commis- sioners to be mutually chosen by you and me and named in the Bill, with a suspending Clause that the same shall not take effect or be in force till it has received his Majesty's Royal Approbation.
"This Mode of doing it will, in my opinion, as effectually answer the end you propose of laying this affair before his Majesty for his Determination, & I think more properly and methodically, and in the mean time, without waiting for that Determination, Money will be raised for supplying the present Exigencies of the Province.
" I must confess that nothing but the implicit Confidence I have in his Majesty's goodness & justice that he will disapprove of it if it is wrong, & the most sincere and ardent desire I have of doing every thing in my power for the good & security of the people com- mitted to my Care, could induce me to pass a Law in any shape for the Taxing the Proprietaries estates, And if you are equally sincere & equally affected with the Distresses and Miseries of your bleeding Country, you can have no objection to this Method of affording them immediate Succor and Relief.
"ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS.
" PHILADA., November 17th, 1755."
The Three following Letters being delivered to the Governor in Council by an Express Dispatched by Mr. James Read, Prothono- tary of the County of Berks, the same were read :
A Letter from Peter Spycker, at Tulpehoccon, to Conrad Weiser, Esq'", in Philada.
" TULPEHOCCON, ye 16 November, 1755.
" Conrad Weiser, Esqr. :
" John Anspack and Frederick Reed came to me and told me the miserable Circumstances of the People murdered this side the Moun- tain Yesterday, the Indians attacked the Watch, killed and wounded him at Derrick Sixth, and in that Neighbourhood great many in that night. This morning our people went out to see ; came about 10 o'clock in the morning to Thomas Bower's house, finding a man
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Dead, killed wth a Gun Shott. Soon we heard a noise of firing Gunns; Running to that place and found four Indians sitting on Children scalping, 3 of the Children are dead and 2 are alive; the Scalps are taken off; hereafter we went to the watch House of Derrick Sixth, where the Indians first attacked, finding 6 Dead Bodies, 4 of them scalpt ; about a mile this side the Watch house as we went back the Indians set fire to a Stable & Barn, where burnt the Corn, Cows, and other Creatures, where we found 7 Indians, 5 in the House eating their dinner and drinking Rum which was in the House, and 2 outside the House; we fire to them, but in vain; the Indians have burnt 4 Plantations more the above account told me; Peter Anspack, Jacob Caderman, Christopher Noacre, Leonard Walborn told me in the same manner; George Dollinger & Adam Dieffenbach sent me word in the same manner.
"Now we are in great Danger for to Lose our Lives or Estates. Pray, therefore, for help, or else whole Tulpehoccon will be ruined by the Indians in a short time, and all Buildings will be burned down & the people scalped, therefore you will do all haste to get people together to assist us. The Assembly can see by this work how good and fine friends the Indians are to us, we hope their Eyes will go open & their Hearts tender to us and the Governor's the same, if they are true Subjects to our King George the second, of Great Britain, or are willing to deliver us in the hands of these miserable Creatures.
"I am, Your Friend, · "PETER SPYCKER.
N. B. The people is fled to us from the Hills, Peter Kryger and Jno. Weiser are the last.
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A Letter from John Elder, of Paxton, to the Secretary : " PAXTON, 9ber, 1755.
" Sir :
" I have just now rec". an Express informing that out of a small party on Guard last night in Tullyhaes Gap of the Mountain, 5 were killed and 2 wounded. Such shocking accounts we frequently receive, and tho' we are careful to transmit 'em to Philada. & re- monstrate and Petition time after time, yet to no purpose ; So that we seem to be given up into the hands of a merciless Enemy. There are within this few weeks upwards of 40 of his Majesty's Subjects massacred on the Frontiers of this and Cumberland Cy- besides a great number carried into Captivity, and yet nothing but unreasonable Debates between the two parts of our Legislature in- stead of uniting in some probable Scheme for the Protection of the Province and the preservation of its Inhabitants. What may be
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the end of these things God only knows, but I really fear that un- less vigorous methods are speedily used to prevent it, we in these back Settlements will unavoidably fall a sacrifice & this part of the Province be lost, which may, 'tis true, be recovered out of the hands of the enemy, but at the expence of much blood & treasure. If I have expressed my Sentiments here with too much warmth you'l be kind enough to pardon me as it proceeds from a hearty re- gard to the Publick good, & you'l infinitely oblige,
" Sir, Y". most obedient humble Servant,
" JOHN ELDER.
" RICHARD PETERS, Esq"."
A Letter from Mr. Edward Biddle, at Reading, to his Father in the City.
" My dearest Father :
" I'm in so much horror and Confusion I scarce know what I am writing. The Drum is beating to Arms, and Bells ringing & all the people under Arms. Within these two hours we have had dif- ferent tho' too uncertain Acc's. all corroborrating each other, and this moment is an Express arrived dispatch'd from Michael Reis' at Tulpehoccon, 18 Miles above this Town, who left about 30 of their people engaged with about an equal number of Indians at the sd. Reis'. This night we expect an attack, truly alarming is our situation. The people exclaim against the Quakers, & some are scarce restrained from burning the Houses of those few who are in This Town. Oh my Country ! my bleeding Country ! I recom- mend myself to the divine God of Armies. Give my dutiful Love to my dearest Mother, and my best love to Brother Jemmy.
"I am, Honoured Sir, Your most affectionate & obedient Son,
" E. BIDDLE.
"Sunday 1 o'clock. I have rather lessened than exagerated our Melancholy Account.
" Copied from the Original.
" JAMES BIDDLE."
As it appears from the above Letters that the Indians had passed the Blue Mountains, broke into the County of Berks and were there committing Murder, Devastations, & other kind of horrid Mischiefs, the Governor desired the Council would consider what was neces- sary for the Government to do in this Exigency of Affairs; and the Council unanimously agreed that it was absolutely necessary,-
" 1st. That such a sum of Money should be immediately lodged in the Hands of the Government for the use of his Majesty as shall VOL. VI .- 45.
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be judged sufficient to answer the present necessities of the Pro- vince.
" 2dly. That a proper Law be made for the subsisting, disciplin- ing and the better Government and ordering of the Forces that shall voluntarily enlist for opposing the French and Indians, & defence of the Country, as near to the form & purport of the Eng- lish Mutiny Act as may be, consistent with the Circumstances of the Province ; Or by extending the said Act to this Province in such a manner as to answer the purposes aforesaid."
And then the Council earnestly recommended it to the Governor forthwith to demand the Assembly's immediate compliance and posi- tive and Cattegorical answer thereto.
Accordingly on the 18th The Intelligence was laid before the House with the following Message :
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
"The Secretary will lay before you the Intelligence I have received that the Indians have fallen upon the Inhabitants of Tul- pehoccon, many of whom they have destroyed.
" By the Bill I have amended and returned to you no money can be issued till January next, before which the greatest part of this Province may be laid waste, & the people destroyed or drove from their Habitations. I think it, therefore, my duty upon the present Exigency of Affairs to call upon you to grant an immediate Sup- ply of money that I may be thereby enabled to afford the neces- sary and timely assistance to the distressed Inhabitants in the Back Counties and to secure the Province in general.
"Should you enable me to raise men upon the present occasion, I must recommend and press it upon you to pass a Law for the bet- ter Government of such Forces at the time when they are not joined by any of his Majestie's regular Forces, For which you cannot have a better standard than the Act of Parliament for punishing Mutiny and Desertion, which is in some things already extended to this Province.
" Without a Law of this kind it would be imposible to keep up or govern any Troops that may be raised; and as such a Law is found absolutely necessary in England, I hope you will think it equally so here, & immediately set about preparing one for this Province.
"ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS.
" Philada> Nov. 18th, 1755."
Mr. Potter, the Sheriff of Cumberland County, being in town, was sent for and desired to give an account of the upper part of that County in which the Indians had committed their late Rava-
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ges ; and he said that 27 Plantations were burnt and a great quan- tity of Cattle killed ; That a Woman of 93 years of age was found lying killed with her Breast tore off and a stake run thro' her Body ; That of ninety-three Families which were settled in the two Coves & the Conolloway's, 47 were either killed or taken and the rest de- serted.
On the 18th of November the two following Messages were de- livered to the Governor by two of ye Members, which are as fol- lows :
A Message to the Governor from the Assembly.
"May it please the Governor :
"We are glad to hear that the Governor's chief remaining ob- jections to the Bill are only that the Method it proposes in a par- ticular Clause of leaving our dispute to the Royal Determination is unprecedented, and that ' his Majesty cannot properly assent to some parts of an Act and reject others,' On which we beg leave to say that we think the Bill is not liable to either of these objections. Conditional or alternative Clauses in Iaw are far from being un- precedented, & the Clause objected to is no other. Nor is there any necessity in the method proposed, that the Crown should give its assent to some parts of the Act and reject others. The Act will be compleas in itself and to be carried into execution either way, whether his Majesty shall think fit to determine in favour of the Proprietary Exemption or not. The Royal Approbation of the Law is one distinct Act of the Crown. The declaration of the Royal Plea- sure, that the Proprietaries have a right to be exempted from Taxes (if such a Declaration is ev. made) is another distinct Act that may be done at any other Time or at any time during the continu- ance of the Law, which second distinct Act of the Crown to be done in pursuance of the Law, is, by the Law to be attended with certain advantageous Consequences to the Proprietaries, such as a forbearing to levy their Tax or a refunding it if levied. This very refunding the Tax if levied is to be done, not because a part of the Law is rejected by the Crown (for that is not the Case), but it is to be done in Execution of the Law and by virtue of the Law itself. Were we to go into the other Method proposed instead of this, and pass two L'lls at the same time, one declaring positively that the Proprietary Estate shall not be taxed (which the prese it Bill de- clares as it now comes down amended by the Governor), and an- other expressly to Tax that Estate, we think we should be justly chargeable with doing what is not only unprecedented but absurd, & that the Diametrical contradic"on of two Laws passed at the same time, and as it were with the same Breath, would, so far as they relate to the same point, infallibly des'roy each other, and the end aimed at by the Governor, to wit, Exempting the Proprietaries from Taxation be thereby infallibly secured.
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" As to the Governor's proposal of a particular manner of chusing Commissioners to assess the Proprietary Estate, we conceive there is not the least necessity of deviating from the common method on this occasion. The Assessors yearly chosen throughout the Pro- vince have established Characters for Probity and Discretion, which gives the people that Confidence in then that occasions their choice. They are moreover under Oaths or solemn Affirmations to do impar- tial Justice ' according to the best of their skill and abilities, neither sparing any Person for favour or affection, nor giving any for hatred or ill-will,' and tho' it is possible that in the many private Estates they have to assess, some small inequalities may at times escape their observation, yet we think in assessing the Proprietary Estate they would be extremely careful of giving any just Grounds of Complaint, and make their uprightness in that Transaction a point of Honour as well as Conscience, in which they would be strength- ened by this Consideration, that an iniquitous, unjust assessment of that Estate would give the best grounds to the Proprietaries whereon to find their Application to the Crown for the Exemption claimed, and as that application may by the Bill be made & the right of Ex- emption declared by the Crown at any time within the four Years' continuance of the Act, the Assessors would by one Act of Injustice incur the Danger of losing all their Trouble in assessing and collect- ing that Tax perhaps for several Years, and losing the whole Money raised by it to the Publick, the Law obliging a Restitution to be made to the Proprietaries whenever the Crown shall think fit to make such Declaration, So that not only from Conscience and Hon- our but from a regard to the publick Interests the assessors will be obliged to do Justice to that Estate, and thereby prevent all Cause of Complaining.
" But to satisfy the Governor farther that not only the Taxing of the Proprietary Estates but the Assessing them by the common Assessers is agreeable to the Practice at home in taxing the Lords of Parliament, we beg leave to refer him to the Votes of the House of Commons, an Extract of which we herewith send him, where the peers in 1692 proposed a like Amendment to a Money Bill, vizt, to appoint seperate Assessors for the Lords, to be nominated in the Bill, but it appears that on the Commons refusing it, Their Lord- ships presently dropped the proposal, and as far as We know have never since revived it.
" It is, may it please the Governor, one of the most valuable Rights of Brittish Subjects to have their Bills granting Money to the Crown accepted without Amendments, a right that cannot be given up without destroying the Constitution and incurring greater and more lasting Mischiefs than the grant of Money can prevent. The present Assembly, however, being a new Body, thought them- selves at Liberty to consider the twenty Amendments proposed by the Governor to the Bill of the last Assembly for granting Fifty
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thousand Pounds, and without seeing the necessity or use of inany of those Amendments, but merely as they wished & hoped thereby to avoid all Dispute, admitting every one of them that was of any Consequence into the present Bill, except that of exempting the Proprietary Estate, & that was so modified as they imagined no farther objection could remain. We find, however, in this instance how little is to be gained by such Compliance, and how endless it is to admit any Change in such Bills, for now the Governor pro- poses to amend his own Amendments, adds to his own Additions, and alters his own Alterations, so that tho' we should accede to these we are not sure of being ever the nearer to a Conclusion. In fine as it is a money Bill, as the whole sum is granted to the Crown & to be paid by Tax on the Subjects in this Province, we cannot receive any Amendment to it, and as the passing the proposed sepe- rate Bill is equally inconsistent with the Governor's Construction of the Prohibitory Clause in his Commission, which he seems now to have got over, and he only mentions this mode as in his opinion it will ' bring the Affair before his Majesty more properly and methodically,' we hope he will not for the sake of a mere opinion of more propriety or better method in a particular Clause any longer refuse a Bill of so great importance at this Juncture to his Majesty's Service, the Security of the Proprietory Estate now going daily to ruin, and the relief of the poor distressed Inhabitants of the Pro- vince. The same implicit confidence in his Majesty's goodness ' that induces him to pass a Bill in any shape for taxing the Pro- prietary Estate ' may encourage him to hope that any little Impro- priety (if such there should be) in the manner of laying the affair before His Majesty will be graciously passed over ; Tho' we flatter ourselves that the Governor will on further Consideration be per- suaded with us that the Manner provided in this Bill is on many accounts the most proper, & that the Money will be raised for the present use with the same readiness and dispatch.
" Whether we are 'equally sincere and equally affected with the Miseries and Distresses of our bleeding Country' with the Gover- nor, must be left to others to Judge. As we are most of us Natives of the Country, & all of us have our Estates & other more valuable Connections in it, and the Governor is a stranger among us, it should seem we think, at least probable, that we may be even more deeply affected with its distresses than he is ; but the many Bills our Assemblies have proposed in vain for its relief, and our carnest Endeavours to give such great Sums to that end which the Gover- nor has so long refused, will, we think, put that point beyond dis- pute.
" Upon the whole, the House adheres to the Bill as being in their Judgment a reasonable one, and what they cannot deviate from consistent with the rights of the people ; and since at such a time as this Disputes & Contentions between the different parts of the Gov-
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ernment are extremely prejudicial, both to the King's service & the Welfare of the Country, we entreat they may henceforth be laid aside ; and that the Gov". by passing this just & equitable Bill will lay the foundation of such an Agreemt as may conduce to the General benefit of all concerned, and prevent the necessity we shall otherwise be under of making an immediate application & Com- plaint against him to our Sovereign.
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