USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VIII > Part 12
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by preventing the House from rising before we had received the Secretary of State's Letter. However, insolent as this attack and virulent as the Libel was, your Honour and some of your Council thought fit to take the Authors under your Protection, and, there- fore, we are not surprized at your thinking the Enquiry unseasonable, Since it is natural for a man to call every Measure so that tends to Support those Rights which he has so frequently Shewn a Disposition during His Short Administration to Abridge and Destroy.
"Your Honour is next pleased to say, that we have delayed to turn our attention to the Important Concerns of the Present Cam- paign, a groundless charge and not more easily made than refuted. - The first intimation we had of the Operations to the Westward, and of the Assistance expected from us, was by Lord Loudon's Letter, laid before the House the Twentieth of February ; immediately thereupon our proportion of the Eight Hundred Men demanded was resolved on with great cheerfulness, and the Necessary Sum for their Support Voted. On the Eighth of March we received his Majesty's pa- ternal and animating Instructions, informing us of the Measures he was determined to pursue for the preservation of this and his other : Colonies, and desiring us to exert the Strength and Abilities of the Province on this important Occasion. It was with impatience we waited to know what Part it was expected we should act in these interesting and necessary Operations ; but we did not receive the least intimation of it before the Eighteenth of March, when Gen- eral Abercombie's Letter was laid before us mentioning the Number of Troops required of this District of the Colonies, and therefore could not come to any determinate and certain Conclusion before. Eleven Days after we presented your Honour with a Bill for fur- nishing Two Thousand Seven Hundred Men to act in Conjunction with his Majesty's Troops to the Westward.
" A Bill in its Nature reasonable and just, adapted to the Circum- stances of the Province, and a Bill which your Duty to his Majesty, and the People entrusted to your Care, would have Obliged you to pass, had those sacred Obligations been constrained to Submit to the most tyranical and unjust Proprietary Instructions. Had your Honour passed this Bill when presented, as you ought to have done, we should have been the first of the Western District, who had given exemplary Proofs of an hearty Zeal for his Majesty's Service, and a Chearful Compliance with his Gracious Demands. But this reason- able Bill you thrice rejected, as you inform us, by the unanimous Advice of your Council, and was resolved, by taking an Advantage of our present bleeding and distressed Situation, either to exempt the Proprietaries from bearing their just proportion of the Tax, to defend their own Estates, or effectually to prevent us from com- plying with the most Interesting Demands of the Crown. So that it seems his Majesty's Province would have been defenceless, his gracious Demands rejected, and the glorious Plan concerted for the
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Defence of these Colonies frustrated, had the Representatives of the People, with the same Inflexibility, adhered to their natural Rights and Privileges as your Honour has to the Slavish Instructions of the Proprietaries, impracticable in themselves, arbitrary in their Na- ture and abhorrent to every Rule of Common Justice. Thus all the Delay from that Time can be only imputable, with Justice to your Honour and Council who have been so regardless of his Majes- ty's interest and Service, and so fearful to infringe the Proprietaries Instructions, as to reject a reasonable and most necessary Bill at this critical Juncture, because their Estates were to bear a pro- portion of the Tax, to defend their own Property.
"Your Honour further asserts, That the first Bill we sent you was so framed, we knew you could not pass it. How you should be ac- quainted with our Knowledge and Thoughts, we cannot conceive. We beg leave to inform you, that in this, you are under a great Mistake; we well knew your Honour is bound to Obey such Instruc- tions, from Time to Time, as are given you by the Proprietaries, which are liable to alterations and changes ; and therefore we could not know but you might have received Orders to have passed a Bill, in which their Estates were included, And we could not suspect that his Majesty had a subject so destitute of Loyalty and Gratitude to the best of Kings, and regardless of every Rule of common jus- tice and Equity, as to continue their Instructions to the Contrary. Is it possible that the Proprietaries can still insist that their great Estates should be protected at the Expense of his Majesty and every person within his Dominions capable of paying Taxes ? Could we conceive that they would venture to claim a Privilege no Peer of the Realm, nor even Royalty itself ever pretended to ? If these things are reasonable, then, we might have known that the Bill we presented was such as your Honour could not pass; if otherwise, we ought to have been well acquainted with the Proprietaries unjust Disposition, as you seem to be, to have believed it.
" But your Honour would fain perswade the World, that you are not against Taxing the Proprietary Property, and are pleased to say, that one of the principal objections to this Bill related to the unjust Method proposed for taxing their Estates. Let us enquire what this unjust Method was. In the Bill the return of Property was to be procured and made by the Constables of the respective Townships, and ass'ors, the latter of whom were to be Freeholders, and chosen by the People. By them, and the County Assessors, the Estates of the Proprietaries and all others were to be taxed, by
the same Method and Rule and in the same Proportion. These have ever been Men of Character and Integrity ; and being under the awful Obligation of an Oath or solemn Affirmation, to discharge their Duty, no one can presume they would do any man Injustice in the Taxation. But surely our Proprietaries, in the Characters of private Subjects may venture to submit to a Mode of Taxing, at-
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tended with equal security and Equity, with that by which the Peers of Great Britain, and their Gracious Sovereign, are, by a long Line of Precedents, rated and assessed. All Money Bills take their Rise with the Commons. Supplies cannot be raised without their Grant. The King and the House of Lords do not pretend to the Right of amending Money Bills; They ever submit their Estates to be assessed and rated by Persons chosen by the Commissioners, who are nominated by the Commons, and have no Voice in the Election, or Negative on such Persons; where then is the essential Dif- ference between, or greater Security in their Mode of Taxing, than pointed out in our Bill ? 'Tis really no more than the Commis- sioners, who are nominated by the Representatives of the People, choose the Assesors in the one case, and in the other they are Elected by the People themselves. But nothing less will satisfy the Pro- prietaries, than the investing their Deputies with a share in the Nomination and Appointment of the Assesors. We entreat your Honour would inform us what Share would Satisfy them, Is it a single Vote ? Or do they claim as many Votes as all the rest of the People in the Province, Or one-half of the choice ? or are we to present to your Honour Bill after Bill, alter and change the As- sesors therein to be named, untill we shall fix on such Persons as you shall approve of, and such as will nearly answer all the Pur- poses of totally exempting the Proprietaries' Estate in the Bill. This would be giving you the sole Nomination of them, for we can see no Difference between a Persons choosing an Assesor himself, and hav- ing a Power to reject until the person he likes be presented to him. If either of these be the meaning of your Message, you will excuse us, if we say, the proposal is anti-constitutional, and without precedent in our Mother Country, and is the more unreasonable in our Pro- prietaries as it is claiming a Right which the Nobility of the Realm, or his Majesty himself do not pretend to. And as your Honour must know we cannot consent to it, consistent with our Duty to the Peo- ple we represent, it must be mere Evasion and Illusion, calculated only to exempt the Proprietary Estate from bearing a just propor- tion, and to throw an additional Weight of Taxes on our Mother Country, the distressed Freemen of this and the Neighbouring Provinces. This will appear still more evident, when the Part of the Proprietaries' Estate, which your Honour proposes to tax in this extraordinary Way, is Considered. You assert that the Proprieta- ries are willing that every Tract of land within the Province, sur- veyed and appropriated for their Use, should bear an equal and proportionable Share of any Burthens that may be imposed on the People, in the necessary Defence of this and his Majesty's other Colonies. And is this all the Property the Proprietaries will suffer to be assessed for the immediate preservation of their own Fortunes ? Must the High Quit Rents arising from several Millions of Acres, the large Estate in Ground-Rents, and their other considerable Property in this Province, be exempted from bearing a proportion-
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able Part of this necessary Burthen ? This would be truly the Case, should we lose all Sense of our Constituents' P.ights, and agree to be the extraordinary Mode proposed by your Honour, for nothing else is to be taxed but the located and appropriated Lands. After men- tioning these Facts, how weak and absurd appears your assertion, that we chose rather to deprive our Constituents of the Benefit that would arise from an equal taxation of these Estates than not sub- ject it intirely to our own Mercy in the Mode we proposed, What great Benefit could flow from so small a part of their Estates, when by much the greater Share was to be exempted ? And in what manner can it be said with truth, we were determined to subject them to our Mercy ? We had no share by the Bill either in the rating or Levying the Money. That Matter was left to the Com- missioners and Assesors, who were to be sworn or solemnly Affirmed, to do equal Justice ; nor could the Representatives of the People interfere therein.
" Your Honour's Second Objection to our Bill related to the Ap- pointment of the Provincial Commissioners from among Members of our own House, accountable only to ourselves. If this Practice be liable to so many glaring exceptions, why did you not obect to it in the late Supply Bill passed in your other Government? Why did you Consent that Six Members out of their House consisting of Eighteen only should be Commissioners, and yet object to five being Chosen out of the Members of our House consisting of Six, and thirty joined with two of your own Council? Why does it require an extraordinary Degree of Hardiness in us even to suppose it, and not in the Assembly? Is it not as reasonable in one Government as the other ? Does the Soil, Climate, or Nature of the Country make that Practice just and equitable there, which is not so here ? Why did you not object to this Practice in the former Law for granting Money to the Crown ? But this Strange Conduct of your Honour we leave to be accounted for, whenever you shall think yourself capable of reconciling the most evident Contradictions.
" With the same Degree of Reason and Justice, you next assert that 'we seemed determined to see the Province brought to the utmost Destruction rather than that the Fingering of the Public Money should not be in a few leading Men of our House.' This it is true is a hard Charge as you say ; But we have been of late so used to receive high Accusations from our Governors, which upon a little Examination have proved groundless, that with the sensible Part of Mankind they are looked upon as things of little Meaning. As to the leading men of our House, we know of none such ; here every man is left to the free Exercise of his own Reason and Judgment. We are not confined to the Instructions, or Directions of any Man or Sett of Men, and we sincerely wish for your own Sake, the sake of the People we represent, and of his Majesty's Service, you were as dependant of and free from the leadings and
f. n
.
ng eir Bir he es s,
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Directions of a few ruling Men of your Council and Proprietary Instructions as we are from any undue Influence whatever. By the Bill the Commissioners are not to finger one farthing of the Public Money, and their Power only extends to draw Orders on the Trustees for the Purposes mentioned therein with your approbation, and the Money is to be paid by the Trustees to the Persons in whose Favour they are Drawn. The great relish for fingering Public Money, we apprehend, is rather to be found with the Governor, and we should be glad his connections were such with the People that we could safely confide in him. But when he looks on himself only as a Passenger, and regards not whether the Barque entrusted to his Care shall sink or Swim, provided he can by any means reach the shore, it is our indispensable duty to take every Measure in our Power to preserve that Economy and Public Justice in the Laying out and Appropriating the People's Money for which this Govern- ment has ever been so very remarkable.
" As to the Commissioners, we shall only say that they have ever been reputed Men of Integrity, and are well acquainted with our Publick Affairs, from long Experience. They have satisfied us of their Innocence with respect to the Charges you have made against them in the most loose, general, and unjust Manner. And we think ourselves obliged to return them our Thanks, for the great Pains they have taken, the Time they have spent, and for their prudent Conduct in the faithfull Discharge of the Duties enjoined them, by the late Act for granting One Hundred Thousand Pounds to the King's Use. Being convinced of this, we are not surprized to find your Honour's Indignation and Resentment so remarkably exerted against that part of our Bill nominating the same Gentle- men Commissioners, where the fingering the Money is no more in your Power than in theirs ; this we Suspect will ever be the case, till a Sett of Men can be found agreeable to your Honour's Mind, who may be less exact and careful of, and more profuse with, the publick Interest. The Commissioners, in the early part of our Session, laid their Accounts before us, which have been for some Time in the Hands of a Committee, and will be settled as soon as possible. What, therefore, your Honour means by obliging them to exhibit their Accounts when required, we cannot understand, any more than we can your Design or merit, in declaring with a Solemn Protestation to all the World, that the Passing our Bill was Con- trary to your Conscience, and that in violation of Truth you were obliged to say that the former Hundred Thousand Pounds was ex- pended with your consent. Did you ever attempt to make out this assertion ? Did you ever point out the Sum that was not expended with your consent ? Does your Honour think every Declaration of yours is to pass with us for Solemn and incontrovertible Truths, sufficient to condemn and destroy the Reputation of Men of whose Integrity and Fidelity to the Publick we have had manifest proofs ? We are sorry for the Governor and amazed at this part of his Mes-
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sage, and could wish sincerely for his own Sake that he had re- considered the Bill, without that Bitterness and passion which appears too much to have blinded his Judgment in these Solemn Assertions which can do him no Credit, with respect either to bis Moral, religious or Political Reputation.
"Thus having answered all the material parts of your unkind Mes- sage, filled with the Grossest Invectives and Misrepresentations, we must assure you, that we are desirous to submit our Merit to the Test of our Actions. Every Thing has been done for the good of our Constituents and his Majesty's Service, that your Honour would permit us to do ; & many things further, equally necessary, which your Honour has obstructed, we would have done. It would be happy for Pennsylvania, could you with equal safety, appeal for a Justification of your Conduct to the same Test. Have you not sup- ported a Man in his Acts of Extortion, Oppression, and Tyrany, over the Poor Inhabitants of Chester County, against the Solemn Exam- inatione and Remonstrance of the Representatives of the People ? Are not the Widow and Fatherless groaning under his arbitrary Measures, and yet remain without Hopes of Relief? Have you not continually usurped an arbitrary Power of amending our Money Bills, and thereby repeatedly violated one of the most essential Rights of the People ? Have you not rejected a reasonable Bill for furnishing the Crown with Two Thousand Seven Hundred Men for the recov- ery of the Proprietaries' Fortunes from the Possession of the Enemy, because their Estates were to bear a reasonable Proportion ? Have you not retarded and obstructed the granting Supplies to the Crown, by tenaciously adhering to your Instructions? Have you not had under your Command Fourteen Hundred Men, & yet permitted the most trifling Parties of Indians to depopulate a great Part of the Province, captivate and murder the Inhabitants, while our Troops have been inactive in our Forts? Have not orders for making In- cursions into the Enemy's Country, tho' expressly directed by the Law, being intirely neglected ? Has a Single Party been sent out on this Account, or one of the Enemy been killed or taken Prisoner since your Administration, tho' our Frontiers have been almost Contin- ually bleeding by their merciless Hands ? Have not the People, thro' this unhappy Neglect, been surprised and murdered in their Beds, who otherwise might have had timely Notice of their Approach, and defended themselves ? In short, what Protection or Defence has this unhappy Colony received from the large Sums of Money it has gen- erously granted ? These are the unhappy Marks of your Honour's Regard for his Majesty's Service, which the Good People of this Province have fatally felt, at a time when their Representatives have been exerting the Power and Strength of the Province almost beyond what it could bear, to relieve them from the Butchery and Ravages of the Most barbarous Enemy, whose Blow has fallen the heavier on us thro' the Frauds and injustice they declare they have
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received from the Proprietaries, and their Agents, with regard to their Lands.
"Signed by order of the House. " THOMAS LEECH, Speaker.
" May 3d, 1758."
The Governor received the following Letter from General Forbes : " Sir :
" Finding that the Storeship with the Tents, Arms, &cª., has not arrived from England with the Transports, I applied to General Abercrombie, to know how I was to proceed with regard to Camp Necessaries, and his answer is :
"' With regard to Camp necessaries for the Provincials, they must be furnish'd by the different Provinces; those to the North- ward have agreed to it, and their Troops are to come provided with them at their Expence.' I must therefore beg leave to Know the Resolution of the Province upon this Subject directly.
" Upon your Application, I promised to send an Hundred of the Royal Americans up towards Reading, but as these Companies are very Sickly, coming from Carolina, and very much want some Days of Rest and Refreshment, I must, therefore, beg you will excuse me from my Promise, and in their Room you may send some of the new raised Provincials, which will answer every purpose fully as well.
" I should be glad to know your Opinion of the Party of Chero- kees at Carlisle, whether they should be allowed to proceed, or turned another Way. I should likewise want to know how far the Province thinks themselves Obliged to take Care of those Indians by Presents, Cloathing, &cª.
" I beg, Sir, that the Orders about the Light Horse may be given as soon as possible ; And that you will likewise be so good as to order the Horses to be placed, for the Conveying Intelligence thro' your Counties, according to the plan given to you by the Quarter- master General.
"I really think Teedyuscung's Demands ought to be agreed with, as he has the Publick Faith for the making such a Settlement, altho' I would parry off all Convoy of Troops, as Axmen and Car- penters will Answer all his purposes, and I think that he and his Tribes ought to be our Guards for those Back Settlements this Summer, as we shall want all the Troops somewhere else.
"I am, Sir, with great Regard, Your Most Obedient & most Hum. Servt.,
"JOHN FORBES.
"Philadelphia, May 3d, 1758."
The Secretary was directed to carry the Above Letter from
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General Forbes to the House, together with a Letter from Captain William Thompson to Colonel Armstrong, and a Message in these Words :
" Gentlemen :
"I lay before you a Letter I have just now received from General Forbes, on which I desire to know your Resolutions before you rise, that I may be enabled to give him a proper Answer.
" Teedyuscung has renewed his Request to have the Houses finished at Wyoming, for which this Government stands engaged. I propose sending the same Gentlemen that were appointed last Year, and shall recommend it to the Commissioners to defray the Expences that will attend the Execution of this Commission.
"WILLIAM DENNY.
" May 3d, 1758."
A Letter to Colonel Armstrong from Captain William Thompson. "YORK TOWN, 26th April, 1758.
"Sir :
" The Cherokees and Catawbas that left Fort Loudoun to go to War, Marched in Company 'till they crossed Juniata, at which Place some Misunderstanding that Happened amongst them occa- sioned the Four Catawbas to return to the Fort ; But the Cherokees proceeded towards Fort Du Quisini, by the Franks Town Road.
" They proposed, being out twelve or Fourteen Days, and said if their Brothers of Pennsylvania had any Inclination to hold a Treaty with them, they were sure a Present would be sent them by the Time they return'd.
" As I have not as yet received any Orders concerning them, nor do I know if the People in this Province will incline to treat with them, I can't determine what is best for me to do, as it is at my own risque I have furnished them with Provisions and what Drink was Necessary for them since they came into this Province. And I have reason to Doubt the Accounts will not be Answered, as I have not been paid for a Horse and a Riffle Gun, which I gave to the Cherokees last Year by Colonel Stanwix's and Your Orders.
" I will set off for Fort Loudoun to-morrow, and will be glad to know, as soon as possible, what his Honour the Governor and the Assembly intends to do with them.
"I am, Sir, Your most Obedi" hume. Servant,
"WM. THOMPSON."
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Two Members waited on the Governor with a Message from the House in these Words :
" May it please Your Honour :
" We much approve of your designs in sending the same Gen- tlemen that were appointed last Year to finish the Houses begun at Wioming, at Teedyuscung's Request, and as the more expeditiously this Measure is executed, the sooner we shall have an Indian Bar- rier in that Quarter, we hope no Time will be lost in Dispatching them.
"With respect to the General's Demand of Tents, Arms, Camp necessaries, &cª., for the Provincials, we beg leave to observe that by his Majesty's Royal Instructions, by his Secretary of State, the whole that the King expected or required from us, was the levying, Cloathing, and paying the Men ; in Consideration of which we have supplied as large a Number of Men as the present Circumstances of our Constituents would admit. The supplies in the Bill are ap- propriated to these purposes, which we are very apprehensive they will fall short of answering ; and as we presume the General must be invested with Powers to supply these things, agreeable to the Royal Promise, in case of any accident, we doubt not he will chearfully comply with it.
" As we understand the Cherokees are invited by the Crown to assist in the general Defence of the Colonies, which receive an equal Benefit from their Services, we are of Opinion they should either be maintained, Cloathed, &ca., by the Crown, or at the general expence of the Colonies, and not by this Province only; which must appear the most reasonable to your Honour, as you know this Government has very lately expended large Sums of Money in Indian Affairs, from which the other Provinces have received equal Advantages, tho' they have not contributed any Thing towards the Expence thereof.
"Signed by order of the House.
"THOMAS LEECH, Speaker.
" May 3d, 1758."
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At a Council held at Philadelphia, Friday the 5th of May, 1758.
PRESENT :
The Honourable WILLIAM DENNY, Esqr., Lieutenant Gor- ernor.
Joseph Turner,
John Mifflin,
Lynford Lardner,
Richard Peters, Esquires.
William Logan,
Thomas Cadwalader,
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