USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. VIII > Part 61
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"At the same time I wrote to Governor Fitch, I published a Proclamation strictly forbidding all the Inhabitants of this Pro- vince from joining themselves to these Intruders, and giving it in charge to all his Majesty's Subjects to bring any persons who shall be found settling those Lands or encouraging such as did, before the proper Magistrates, in order that they might be dealt with ac- cording to Law.
"And you may assuredly rely on my carrying this Proclamation into execution, and doing every thing in my power to remove these unlawful Intruders, but then, all this will be ineffectual, if, whilst some Indians are complaining against them, others, as they say, are encouraging them and are content to have them settle."
Teedyuscung thanked the Governor, and expressed great satis- faction therewith.
He asked what should be done if they should come to Wyomink in the spring? The Governor gave them for answer that they should not suffer them to settle, and expected to be informed of every thing that they should attempt, either at Wyomink or in any other part of the Country. To which Teedyuscung replied that he looked upon himself as the Governor's Eye and Ear, and that he would give him the earliest intelligence of every thing that should come to his knowledge.
Then Teedyuscung desired that, as the people who came with him were poor and naked, the Governor would order them Cloaths & provisions for their Journey home, and the Governor promised to consult with the Provincial Commissioners, and give him an answer.
At a Council held in the State House, on Monday, 13th April, 1761.
PRESENT :
The Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esq'- Lieutenant Gov- ernor, &cª.
Richard Peters, Joseph Fox, 3 Thomas Cadwalader, 5 Esquires.
The Governor, upon re-considering that part of his Speech to Tee- dyuscung, in which he desired him not to suffer the Connecticut poeple to settle at Wyomink, was of opinion that they might pos- sibly misunderstand his meaning, and look upon it as an encourage- ment for them to use force in the preventing of their Settlement, by which means many murders might happen, and an Indian War be revived, thought proper to explain himself more particularly on that head, for iwhich purpose he sent for Teedyuscung, & ex- plained himself in the following manner :
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" Brother :
" By what I said to you the other day, about your not suffering the Connecticut people to settle themselves at Wyomink or on any of the Indian Lands, I did not mean that you should use force or proceed to kill any of them for coming amongst You and attempt- ing to settle your Lands, but that you should rather collect the ancient and discreet men of your Nation and go to them in a peace- able manner, and endeavour to persuade them to forbear settling those Lands till the right to the same should be settled by lawful authority, and the Indians, to whom the Land of right belongs, shall consent to sell it."
Teedyuscung being asked if he understood what was said, an- swered that he perfectly well understood it, and was pleased with it. As to him, he will do nothing more in this matter, but will acquaint the Governor with any thing that shall hereafter be at- tempted by these people, and leave it to the Governor to do what is proper.
He then acquainted the Governor by a String of Wampum that some of the Opey and Mohecion Nations were going to settle at Wyomink, and when he looked that way, he should see them sit- ting together as one people.
He will always do from his heart what shall be for the best, & in an open way.
The Governor then enforced again to him not to have recourse to violence, lest it should occasion fresh disturbances, but that since he has said he would refer the matter to him, he will take care to manage the matter so as may be most for the Interest of the In- dians.
*April the 11th, 1761. i
The Governor returned the Bill for laying a Duty on Negroes and Mullatoe Slaves imported into this Province, with a Message that he was ready to pass it.
The same day a Bill entituled " An Act to prevent the Exporta- tion of bad or unmerchantable Staves, Heading, Boards and Tim- ber," was presented to the Governor by two Members for his Con- currence.
*MEMORANDUM.
This minute should have been inserted before the preceding Conference of the 13th April, 1761.
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At a Council held at Philadelphia, on the 14th April, 1761. PRESENT :
The Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esquire, Lieutenant
Governor, &cª.
Joseph Turner,
Richard Peters, ? Esq rs.
Benjamin Chew, "
Š
The Governor returned the Bill entitled " An Act to prevent the Exportation of bad or unmerchantable Staves, Heading, Boards and Timber," with a Message that he would pass it.
The following Letter from General Amherst, of the 10th In- stant, was read and considered, & the following Message sent to the House with the sd. Message :
A Letter from his Excellency General Amherst to the Governor.
"NEW YORK, April 10th, 1761.
" Sir :
" It is no less unexpected (nay astonishing) to me to learn, than it was to you to acquaint me, that your Assembly had come to a Determination not to raise any more than three hundred men granted a few weeks ago; for tho' you had not yet been acquainted with their resolves, as you had heard this from one of the Members of the House, I am afraid it is but too true. I cannot, therefore, re- frain from expressing my highest Disapprobation of so unwarrant- able a Non-compliance with the King's requisition, which if they do not reconsider and act up to (as I am inclined to hope they will), I must represent their backwardness to his Majesty, whose displea- sure, I should think, they would be sorry to incur; and yet how can they expect to avoid it, if they persist obstinately in their re- jection of his Demands, the result of which may be no less than of the worst consequence to the operations that must accordingly lie at their Door, and which they will repent when it is too late?
" Their reasons for Non-complyance are not more excusable than their Refusal ; They have no right to imagine that the regular Troops will be carried off the Continent, not to return again; I shall obey the King's Commands with regard to their Destination. It behooves them to be no less obedient in granting the aid the King expects to secure his North American Conquests, and to fur- nish their quota for the Services required of them, that all such operations as his Majesty has been pleased to plan may be carried on; however, for your particular satisfaction, I will say thus much, that I do not intend to send them out of their Province, and that they shall not be detained in the Service a moment longer than there shall be an absolute occasion, & of this you may make what use you think proper, to bring them to a better sense of their Duty,
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which I am still willing to hope they will hearken to. I am with great Regard, Sir, "Your most Obedient humble Servant, "JEFF. AMHERST.
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A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" It is with great Concern that I find myself obliged to animad- vert, in a manner that may not be agreeable, upon any part of the proceedings of your House, with whom I have the strongest desire to live upon good Terms, and in such a State of Harmony as may, at all times, Conduce to the public Welfare.
" It might, with reason, have been expected, Gentlemen, that the late Solemn Determination of the King in Council, with respect to the points so long contested betwixt the Governors and Assemblies of this Province, might have satisfied the minds of all, and have put a period to any further disputes of that kind, both on account of the acknowledged Wisdom & Justice of that Board, as because it is the Tribunal appointed by our Constitution to judge, in the last resort, of all proceedings amongst us, whether Legislative or ju- dicial.
" It could not, therefore, but surprize me to see it insinuated in your Message of the Tenth instant, that because his Majesty and Council (the only competent Judges in Cases of this nature), were pleased to differ in sentiment from you with regard to the justice and equity of certain provisions in your Supply Bill for the Year one thousand seven hundred & fifty-nine, you will therefore, decline granting the Aids now required by the King, for vigorously prose- cuting the War, and reducing the Enemy to the necessity of accept- ing a peace on Terms of Glory & Advantage to his Majesty's Crown, and beneficial, in particular, to his Subjects in America.
" Were we an independent People, Gentlemen, and not account- able elsewhere, we might then form such a System of Laws and Government as seemed best to ourselves, and dignify whatever we pleased, with the name of Rights and Privileges, without paying the least regard to the usages and precedents of the Mother Country ; . but you are sensible the case is quite otherwise, and that all Laws passed in this, as well as in the other Colonies, are, from the very nature of our establishment, subject to the Revision & Controul of a Supream Judicatory, instituted for that and other good purposes, whose Decisions with respect to the propriety of them, are conclu- sive. I could have wished, therefore, that, considering the Dignity and great Talents of the Members who compose that Board, the im- putation cast upon their Judgment, as being contrary to the Rights, and injurious to the properties of your Constituents, had been spared,
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since Reflections of this kind may possibly prove prejudicial, but can never be of any Service to the Province.
" To what end you have chosen to introduce the history of the several Acts, by which Aids have been granted to the Crown, since the commencement of the present War, I do not conceive, un- less it be for the opportunity of throwing reflections upon your Proprietaries, who have no otherwise injured you or desire to in- jure you that I know of, than by seeking to maintain their own just Rights & properties (a privilege never denied to the meanest Sub- ject), both which they thought unjust attacked, in which they have been so happy as to be vindicated by those who alone have the power of judging between them and you.
" It would be an easy Task, Gentlemen, to shew that between the Supply Bill, passed in the Year 1757 and 1758, and those passed in 1759 & 1760, there is no such Similitude as to induce a necessary inference, that because the former have received the Royal Approbation, and the latter are also intitled to the same indulgence, for till plain contradictions be reconciled, it is impossible that any two things should be more unlike each other with respect to one principal object than the Bills passed at those different periods of time ; inasmuch as in the former the Proprietary Estates, for a valu- able consideration which you have not thought fit to take notice of, were totally exempted from all Assessment whatever, but, in the latter, are subjected to a very unequal one, from which they can only be secured by the Integrity of the Commissioners and Asses- sors.
" Nor can I think you ought to have built much more upon the approbation given to those Acts by the respective Governors who passed them, since, upon inspecting the Journals of your own House, you might easily have seen that the Assent given to those Acts was by no means Voluntary, but the effect of necessity, and extorted from at least one of them at a time when the Assembly refused to grant to his Majesty the necessary supplies upon any other Condi- tions.
" But as I have no pleasure, Gentlemen, in controversies of this kind, nor shall ever engage in them without being in some measure constrained thereto, I am glad to be called off from any further Animadversion on your Message, by a Letter I have just received from General Amherst, relative to the Business on which you were called together. This Letter I have ordered to be laid before you, and am in hopes it will have the effect of inducing you to re-con- sider his Majesty's Requisition, & to comply therewith in the most speedy and effectual manner, in which you cannot fail of doing a Service highly acceptable to his Majesty, and to a Nation that hath conferred such singular favours upon these Colonies.
" JAMES HAMILTON.
" April 14th, 1761."
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At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Saturday the 18th of April, 1761.
PRESENT :
The Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor, &cª.
Richard Peters, Benjamin Chew, Esquires.
A Bill having been presented to the Governor for his Concurrence entitled " A Bill for granting to his Majesty the sum of Thirty Thousand Pounds, and for striking the same in Bills of Credit, & for providing a Fund for sinking the said Bills of Credit," the same was read and considered, and it appearing to have in it the very matters for which some former Acts of Assembly were re- pealed by the King in Council, the Gov". was advised to repeal it and Assign his reason in a written Message, and to send the Secretary with the following verbal Message to know what Certificates had been given out by the Assembly.
A Verbal Message delivered by the Secretary, by order of the Governor, to ye Assembly.
"I am ordered by the Governor to desire the House will furnish him with a particular account of all the Certificates and Draughts on the Provincial Treasurer; and also with the amount of the Money due to the Masters or owners of Servants, heretofore enlisted into his Majesty's Service ; and to the publick House-Keepers, for quartering Soldiers, which are made payable out of the Supply Bill now before him."
At a Council held at Philadelphia, 22d April, 1761. -
PRESENT :
The Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esq", Lieutenant Gover- nor, &cª.
Richard Peters, Esqrs. Benjamin Chew, S
The following Message to the Assembly was read, approved of, & sent to the House :
A Message from the Governor to the Assembly.
" Gentlemen :
" It was no less surprize than concern to me on perusing your Bill for granting to his Majesty the sum of Thirty thousand Pounds,
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to find that within a few Months after his late Majesty had so ex- pressly declared his Disapprobation of several provisions contained in your late Acts, as to make them the foundation of their Repeal, you have again ventured to renew them, and insert them in the present Bill as if no such Censure or Disapprobation had ever passed.
" With what view or intention you have done this I do not take upon me to determine, yet thus much I must have Leave to say, that it is a strong evidence of your paying but a very slender re- gard to the judgment of the King, and his Ministers, when of all the particulars objected to by them, so far as they are applicable to this Bill, you have not thought fit to conform to their Sentiments in respect to any of them.
" You cannot be unacquainted, Gentlemen, that in the Report of the Lords of Trade and Plantations, approved and confirmed by his late Majesty in Council, the three following particulars were not only objected to, but severely censured, as being either Encroachments on the prerogative of the Crown, or acts of injustice with regard to your Proprietaries, viz“:
" First. The blending and connecting together in the same Bill, Things which in their own nature are totally seperate, by which the Crown is reduced to the Alternative, either of passing what it dis- approves, or of rejecting what may be necessary for the Publick Service, and which is expressly called a Tack.
" Secondly. The vesting in yourselves alone, the application of the publick Money, usurping, by this means, one of the most invio- lable prerogatives of the executive power, not countenanced by any example of the British Parliament, who always considered the ap- plication of the publick money subject to account, as one of the most indisputed Powers of the Crown.
"Thirdly. Your contending that the Proprietaries should be bound to receive their Rents in paper Currency, notwithstandding the ex- press words of their Covenants, in Sterling.
" Having thus recited the purport of his late Majesty's Senti- ments upon these several points, I shall proceed to shew that, by the Bill sent up for my Concurrence, every Rule and principle therein established is either directly or virtually contravened, and set at nought; but in order to do this the more clearly, it is neces- sary to state the Facts upon the first and second objections fully, by which means the proof of both may be comprized under one and the same article.
" Since the commencement of the present War, the Parliament of Great Britain have, from time to time, granted large sums of Money, to be apportioned by the King, to the several Colonies, for reimbursing them a part of the Expences they have been put to by the Aids they have granted to his Majesty for prosecuting the War in America. In consequence hereof, a considerable Sum of Money hath been allotted, and is ready to be paid, for the use of this Pro-
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vince, whenever a person shall be properly authorized by both Branches of the Legislature, to receive it, & not otherwise ; for, as the Money was granted to the whole Legislature, the Board ap- pointed to pay it have insisted that the Person applying to receive it should be empowered by the same authority. The Governor, as one branch of the Legislature, in September last, did offer to join with Assembly in appointing Agents to apply for and receive the Money so granted, on condition of his retaining a concurrent power, with them, in the superintending & applying it to the purposes to be appointed by Law. The Assembly, on the contrary, being de- sirous to deprive the Governor of any share or management of the Money granted, or to be granted by parliament, as aforesaid, and to subject the whole to their own power, independent of him, under the pretence, indeed, of applying it to the payment of the publick Debts, and, in abatement of the Taxes, did present to him a sepe- rate Bill, 'for the appointment of Agents to receive the same, and invest it in the publick Stocks, in their own names, and empow- ering the Trustees of the Loan Office, when thereto required by the immediate direction of the House, to draw upon them for the Money, and apply it to the Purposes aforesaid.' But, as they had therein attempted to deprive the Governor both of his Share in the Nomination of the Agents, and of any concurrent power with themselves, in the Superintendence and due application of the Money, and had not limited a time in which the said Money should be drawn for and applied as aforesaid, he therefore refused his assent to the Bill, and which the House, no longer expecting to accom- plish their Purposes by a seperate Bill, have now seized the occa- sion of his Majesty's demanding an aid from the Province, to blend and connect these unconstitutional Claims with the supply Bill, which they will not suffer to be altered or amended, in order to oblige the Governor either to give up so essential a branch of the Prerogative, or to subject himself to the King's Displeasure, for refusing the supplies offered him.
" If these Facts be rightly stated, Gentlemen, as I conceive they are, then the Clause in your Bill relating to the Management & Disposition of the Money granted by Parliament, which is the same in effect I refused my Assent to before, and its being inseperably joined to the Clauses for granting an aid to his Majesty, will, in my opinion, be a convincing Proof that the present Bill is justly liable to the Censure passed upon the former Acts, of being both a Tack to the Supply Bill (by which the King's Representative is denied the free use of his Negative in the Legislature), and as tending to usurp one of the most inviolable Prerogatives of the executive power in the Application of the publick money, subject to account, which being once given up, would be to change, in a great Degree, the Constitution, and sap the Foundations of Government.
" With respect to the third point, The Lords of Trade in their Report, of which you have a Copy, have reasoned so fully, and so
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much better than I am capable of, on the subject of your con- tending that the Proprietaries should be bound to receive their quit-rents in paper Currency, notwithstanding their express Cove- nants in Stirling, and have also expressed his Majesty's opinion in respect to reservations of that kind, in Colonies immediately under his own Government, that I shall not venture to say anything fur- ther upon that head, but only put you in mind that your present Bill contains a Clause of the same nature with that objected to by his Majesty in council, and that you have not offered any Compen- sation to the Proprietaries for the Loss they are to sustain thereby, tho' former Assemblies were both sensible of the justice of such Compensation, and made it accordingly.
" I was in great hopes, Gentlemen, that on your being convened to consider of his Majesty's requisition, you would not have fallen short of the other Colonies in a zealous and ready compliance with it, considering the importance of the Service for which your aid is required ; and I flatter myself that this might have been easily done, without laying any new Burthens upon the People, or run- ning the risque of our falling into fresh Contentions about the means of doing it, as has been too often the case in respect to Bills of this nature; but as these means do not seem to have occurred to you, I hope to be excused for pointing them out to you.
"You are sensible, Gentlemen, that there is a sum of Money lying in the hands of your Agent in England (part of the parlia- mentary Grant) more than sufficient to answer all the purposes of the Present Bill, even tho' you had double the number of men thereby granted to his Majesty; and since the making use of this Money could occasion no Controversy between You and me, why might not a Bill have been prepared, empowering the Trustees forthwith to draw for it, and pay the produce, or such part as should be necessary, into the hands of the Commissioners, to be applied to the present service? Or to what end should you think of over- whelming the province with Floods of paper Money, at a time when that Currency is depreciating so fast as must necessarily prove injurious, not only to the English Merchants trading hither, but to every man in the province who is possessed of property in a per- sonal Estate, and more particularly to Widows and Orphans ? Or why would you chuse to propose creating a Fund for sinking this Money, upon Terms which you well know I neither ought or can accept of without breaking in upon the just and established Rights of Government, when all these Difficulties and Inconveniences might be so easily avoided by making use of that Fund, which is absolutely in your power ?
" Perhaps you will say, gentlemen, that the Money lying in your Agents' Hands is by Law appropriated to the payment of the pub- lick Debts, and therefore ought not to be diverted to any other Ser- vice. But pray, Gentlemen, has one shilling of it as yet been applied to that purpose ? Or, if that was an objection to our using
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it for any other Service, does it not equally lie against the making. use of the Money heretofore allotted, and not received, as a Fund for sinking the sum of Thirty thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit, voted to his Majesty, as you have proposed in the present Bill ? The cases then are exactly similar, except that you chuse to give Money of which we are not possessed, rather than that of which we are.
"But further to obviate that objection, you may please to re- member, gentlemen, that there is an express provision in the Act empowering the Governor & Assembly to dispose of the Money in your Agents' hands to any purpose they think fit; and I do not think it can be better disposed of than by granting such a part of it to his Majesty as may be sufficient for the present Service, and applying the remainder (if any) to the payment of the public Debts, and in abatement of the Taxes; for I can by no means think it reputable to, or becoming any Governmt., to be trafficking with the people's money, while they at the same time are paying Taxes for it. Dealing in the Stocks has always been deemed as a more reputable sort of Gaming, by which Loss, as well as Gain, may accrue to the adventurers, Individuals may do as they please with their own Money; but the giving ease to the people by light- ening the Burthen of their Taxes ought not to be delayed, under the precarious expectations of encreasing the public Stock.
" Upon the whole, Gentlemen, a regard to the just rights of Gov- ernment, which I shall on all occasions think myself indispensably obliged to support and maintain, and the greatest Deference I bear to the judgment and opinion of our late gracious Sovereign and his- Ministers, who have actually repealed some of the Acts of this Prc- vince for the reasons. I have above set forth, render it impossible for me to give my assent to the Bill now before me. At the same time, I cannot but express the highest concern, lest his Majesty's Service should be obstructed, if any Difference in opinion between us, on the present occasion, should deprive him of the Aids he demands from this Province. I must, therefore, recommend it to you, Gen- tlemen, in the warmest manner, to reconsider the Bill, and if you will not accede to the Amendments I have proposed thereto, to fall on some other means of complying with his Majesty's most reason- able Requisition, by forming a new Bill, free from the objections I have herein pointed out to you.
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