History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 12

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc > Part 12

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principles, and see if they would not rush to arms when danger should really appear. But in this the Governor was disappointed. For it is said that only four out of the entire population of this religious creed showed any disposition to falsify their faith. It was the day of their weekly meeting, and regardless of the dismay and consternation which were everywhere manifest about them, they assembled in their accustomed places of worship, and engaged in their devotions as though nothing unusual was transpiring without, manifesting such unshaken faith, as Whittier has exemplified in verse by his Abraham Davenport, on the occasion of the Dark Day:

', Meanwhile in the old State House. dim as ghosts, Sat the law-givers of Connecticut, Trembling beneath their legislative robes.

'It is the Lord's great day! Let us adjourn,' Some said; and then, as with one accord, All eyes were turned on Abraham Davenport. He rose, slow, cleaving with his steady voice The intolerable hush. 'This well may be The Day of Judgment which the world awaits;

But be it so or not, I only know My present duty, and my Lord's command To occupy till He come. So at the post. Where He hath set me in His Providence,

I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face., No faithless servant frightened from my task, But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls; And therefore, with all reverence, I would say,

Let God do His work, we will see to ours. Bring in the candles.' And they brought them in."

In conjunction with the Legislature of the lower counties, Evans was in- strumental in having a law passed for the imposition of a tax on the tonnage of the river, and the erection of a fort near the town of New Castle for com- pelling obedience. This was in direct violation of the fundamental compact, and vexatious to commerce. It was at length forcibly resisted, and its impo- sition abandoned. His administration was anything but efficient or peaceful, a series of contentions, of charges and counter-charges having been kept up between the leaders of the two factions, Lloyd and Logan, which he was pow- erless to properly direct or control. " He was relieved in 1709. Possessed of a good degree of learning and refinement, and accustomed to the gay society of the British metropolis, he found in the grave and serious habits of the Friends a type of life and character which he failed to comprehend, and with which he could, consequently, have little sympathy. How widely he mistook the Quaker character is seen in the result of his wild and hair-brained experi- ment to test their faith. His general tenor of life seems to have been of a piece with this. Watson says: 'The Indians of Connestoga complained of him when there as misbehaving to their women, and that, in 1709, Solomon Cresson, going his rounds at night, entered a tavern to suppress a riotous as- sembly, and found there John Evans, Esq., the Governor, who fell to beat- ing Cresson.'"

The youth and levity of Gov. Evans induced the proprietor to seek for a successor of a more sober and sedate character. He had thought of proposing his son, but finally settled upon Col. Charles Gookin, who was reputed to be a man of wisdom and prudence, though as was afterward learned, to the sorrow of the colony, he was subject to fits of derangement, which toward the close of his term were exhibited in the most extravagant acts. He had scarcely ar- rived in the colony before charges were preferred against the late Governor, and he was asked to institute criminal proceedings, which he declined. This

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

was the occasion of a renewal of contentions between the Governor and his Council and the Assembly, which continued during the greater part of his ad- ministration. In the midst of them, Logan, who was at the head of the Coun- cil, having demanded a trial of the charges against him, and failed to secure one, sailed for Europe, where he presented the difficulties experienced in ad- ministering the government so strongly, that Penn was seriously inclined to sell his interest in the colony. He had already greatly crippled his estate by expenses he had incurred in making costly presents to the natives, and in set- tling his colony, for which he had received small return. In the year 1707, he had become involved in a suit in chancery with the executors of his former steward, in the course of which he was confined in the Old Baily during this and a part of the following year, when he was obliged to mortgage his colony in the sum of £6,600 to relieve himself. Foreseeing the great consequence it would be to the crown to buy the rights of the proprietors of the several English colonies in America before they would grow too powerful, negotia- tions had been entered into early in the reign of William and Mary for their purchase, especially the "fine province of Mr. Penn." Borne down by these troubles, and by debts and litigations at home, Penn seriously entertained the proposition to sell in 1712, and offered it for £20,000. The sum of £12,000 was offered on the part of the crown, which was agreed upon, but before the necessary papers were executed, he was stricken down with apoplexy, by which he was incapacitated for transacting any business, and a stay was put to fur- ther proceedings until the Queen should order an act of Parliament for con- summating the purchase.

It is a mournful spectacle to behold the great mind and the great heart of Penn reduced now in his declining years, by the troubles of government and by debts incurred in the bettering of his colony, to this enfeebled condition. He was at the moment writing to Logan on public affairs, when his hand was suddenly seized by lethargy in the beginning of a sentence, which he never finished. His mind was touched by the disease, which he never recovered, and after lingering for six years, he died on the 30th of May, 1718, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. With great power of intellect, and a religious devotion scarcely matched in all Christendom, he gave himself to the welfare of mankind, by securing civil and religious liberty through the operations of organic law. Though not a lawyer by profession, he drew frames of govern- ment and bodies of laws which have been the admiration of succeeding gener- ations, and are destined to exert a benign influence in all future time, and by his discussions with Lord Baltimore and before the Lords in Council, he showed himself familiar with the abstruse principles of law. Though but a private person and of a despised sect, he was received as the friend and confi- dential advisee of the ruling sovereigns of England, and some of the princi- ples which give luster to British law were engrafted there through the influ- ence of the powerful intellect and benignant heart of Penn. He sought to know no philosophy but that promulgated by Christ and His disciples, and this he had sounded to its depths, and in it were anchored his ideas of public law and private and social living. The untamed savage of the forest bowed in meek and loving simplicity to his mild and resistless sway, and the members of the Society of Friends all over Europe flocked to his City of Brotherly Love. His prayers for the welfare of his people are the beginning and ending of all his public and private correspondence, and who will say that they have not been answered in the blessings which have attended the commonwealth of his founding? And will not the day of its greatness be when the inhabitants throughout all its borders shall return to the peaceful and loving spirit of

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Penn? In the midst of a licentious court, and with every prospect of advance- ment in its sunshine and favor, inheriting a great name and an independent patrimony, he turned aside from this brilliant track to make common lot with a poor sect under the ban of Government; endured stripes and imprisonment and loss of property; banished himself to the wilds of the American continent that he might secure to his people those devotions which seemed to them re- quired by their Maker, and has won for himself a name by the simple deeds of love and humble obedience to Christian mandates which shall never perish. Many have won renown by deeds of blood, but fadeless glory has come to William Penn by charity.

CHAPTER IX.

SIR WILLIAM KEITH, 1717-26-PATRICK GORDON, 1726-36-JAMES LOGAN, 1736-38 -GEORGE THOMAS, 1738-47-ANTHONY PALMER, 1747-48-JAMES HAMILTON, 1748-54.

TN 1712, Penn had made a will, by which he devised to his only surviving son, William, by his first marriage, all his estates in England, amounting to sometwenty thousand pounds. By his first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, he had issue of three sons-William, Springett and William, and four daugh- ters-Gulielma, Margaret, Gulielma and Letitia; and by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, of four sons-John, Thomas, Richard and Dennis. To his wife Hannah, who survived him, and whom he made the sole executrix of his will, he gave, for the equal benefit of herself and her children, all his personal estate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, after paying all debts, and alloting ten thousand acres of land in the Province to his daughter Letitia, by bis first marriage, and each of the three children of his son William.

Doubts having arisen as to the force of the provisions of this will, it was finally determined to institute a suit in chancery for its determination. Before a decision was reached, in March, 1720, William Penn, Jr., died, and while still pending, his son Springett died also. During the long pendency of this litigation for nine years, Hannah Penn, as executrix of the will, assumed the proprietary powers, issued instructions to her Lieutenant Governors, heard complaints and settled difficulties with the skill and the assurance of a veteran diplomatist. In 1727, a decision was reached that, upon the death of William Penn, Jr., and his son Springett, the proprietary rights in Pennsylvania de- ecended to the three surviving sons-John, Thomas and Richard-issue by the second marriage; and that the proprietors bargain to sell his province to the crown for twelve thousand pounds, made in 1712, and on which one thousand pounds had been paid at the confirmation of the sale, was void. Whereupon the three sons became the joint proprietors.

A year before the death of Penn, the lunacy of Gov. Gookin having be- come troublesome, he was succeeded in the Government by Sir William Keith. a Scotchman who had served as Surveyor of Customs to the English Govern- ment, in which capacity he had visited Pennsylvania previously, and knew something of its condition. He was a man of dignified and commanding bearing, endowed with cunning, of an accommdating policy, full of faithful promises, and usually found upon the stronger side. Hence, upon his arrival in the colony, he did not summon the Assembly immediately,

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

assigning as a reason in his first message that he did not wish to inconvenience the country members by calling them in harvest time. The disposition thus manifested to favor the people, and his advocacy of popular rights on several occasions in opposition to the claims of the proprietor, gave great satisfaction to the popular branch of the Legislature which manifested its appreciation of his conduct by voting him liberal salaries, which had often been withheld from his less accommodating predecessors. By his artful and insinuating policy, he induced the Assembly to pass two acts which had previously met with un- compromising opposition-one to establish a Court of Equity, with himself as Chancellor, the want of which had been seriously felt; and another, for organ- izing the militia. Though the soil was fruitful and produce was plentiful, yet, for lack of good markets, and on account of the meagerness of the cir- culating medium, prices were very low, the toil and sweat of the husbandman being little rewarded, and the taxes and payments on land were met with great difficulty. Accordingly, arrangements were made for the appointment of in- spectors of provisions, who, from a conscientious discharge of duty, soon caused the Pennsylvania brands of best products to be much sought for, and to command ready sale at highest prices in the West Indies, whither most of the surplus produce was exported. A provision was also made for the issue of a limited amount of paper money, on the establishment of ample securities, which tended to raise the value of the products of the soil and of manufact- ures, and encourage industry.

By the repeated notices of the Governors in their messages to the Legis- lature previous to this time, it is evident that Indian hostilities had for some- time been threatened. The Potomac was the dividing line between the Northern and Southern Indians. But the young men on either side, when out in pursuit of game, often crossed the line of the river into the territory of the other, when fierce altercations ensued. This trouble had become so violent in 1719 as to threaten a great Indian war, in which the pow- erful confederation, known as the Five Nations, would take a hand. To avert this danger, which it was foreseen would inevitably involve the defenseless familes upon the frontier, and perhaps the entire colony, Gov. Keith determined to use his best exertions. He accordingly made a toilsome journey in the spring of 1721 to confer with the Governor of Virginia and endeavor to employ by concert of action such means as would allay further cause of contention. His policy was well devised, and enlisted the favor of the Governor. Soon after his return, he summoned a council of Indian Chieftains to meet him at Conestoga, a point about seventy miles west of Philadelphia. He went in considerable pomp, attended by some seventy or eighty horsemen, gaily caparisoned, and many of them armed, arriving about noon, on the 4th of July, not then a day of more note than other days. He went immediately to Capt. Civility's cabin, where were assembled four deputies of the Five Nations and representatives of other tribes. The Gov- ernor said that he had come a long distance from home to see and speak to representatives of the Five Nations, who had never met the Governor of Penn- sylvania. They said in reply that they had heard much of the Governor, and would have come sooner to pay him their respects, but that the wild conduct of some of their young men had made them ashamed to show their faces. In the formal meeting in the morning, Ghesaont, chief of the Senecas, spoke for all the Five Nations. He said that they now felt that they were speaking to the same effect that they would were William Penn before them, that they had not forgotten Penn, nor the treaties made with him, and the good advice he gave them; that though they could not write as do the English, yet they could keep

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

all these transactions fresh in their memories. After laying down a belt of wampum upon the table as if by way of emphasis, he began again, declaring that "all their disorders arose from the use of rum and strong spirits, which took away their sense and memory, that they had no such liquors," and desired that no more be sent among them. Here he produced a bundle of dressed skins, by which he would say, "you see how much in earnest we are upon this matter of furnishing fiery liquors to us." Then he proceeds, declaring that the Five Nations remember all their ancient treaties, and they now desire that the chain of friendship may be made so strong that none of the links may ever be broken. This may have been a hint that they wanted high-piled and valuable presents; for the Quakers had made a reputation of brightening and strengthening the chain of friendship by valuable presents which had reached so far away as the Five Nations. He then produces a bundle of raw skins, and observes "that a chain may contract rust with laying and become weaker; wherefore, he desires it may now be so well cleaned as to remain brighter and stronger than ever it was before." Here he presents another par- cel of skins, and continues, "that as in the firmament, all clouds and dark- ness are removed from the face of the sun, so they desire that all misunder- standings may be fully done away, so that when they, who are now here, shall be dead and gone, their whole people, with their children and posterity, may en- joy the clear sunshine with us forever." Presenting another bundle of skine, he says, "that, looking upon the Governor as if William Penn were present, they desire, that, in case any disorders should hereafter happen between their young people and ours, we would not be too hasty in resenting any such acci- dent, until their Council and ours can have some opportunity to treat amicably upon it, and so to adjust all matters, as that the friendship between us may still be inviolably preserved." Here he produces a small parcel of dressed skins, and concludes by saying "that we may now be together as one people, treating one another's children kindly and affectionately, that they are fully empowered to speak for the Five Nations, and they look upon the Governor as the representative of the Great King of England, and therefore they expect that everything now stipulated will be made absolutely firm and good on both sides." And now he presents a different style of present and pulls out a bundle of bear skins, and proceeds to put in an item of complaint, that " they get too little for their skins and furs, so that they cannot live by hunting ; they desire us, therefore, to take compassion on them, and contrive some way to help them in that particular. Then producing a few furs, he speaks only for himself, "to acquaint the Governor, that the Five Nations having heard that the Governor of Virginia wanted to speak with them, he himself, with some of his company intended to proceed to Virginia, but do not know the way how to get eafe thither."

To this formal and adroitly conceived speech of the Seneca chief, Gov. Keith, after having brought in the present of stroud match coats, gunpowder, lead, biscuit, pipes and tobacco, adjourned the council till the following day, when, being assembled at Conestoga, he answered at length the items of the chieftain's speech. His most earnest appeal, however, was made in favor of peace. "I have persuaded all my [Indian] brethren, in these parts, to con- sider what is for their good, and not to go out any more to war ; but your young men [Five Nations] as they come this way, endeavor to force them ; and, because they incline to the counsels of peace, and the good advice of their true friends, your people use them ill, and often prevail with them to go out to their own destruction. Thus it was that their town of Conestoga lost their good king not long ago. Their young children are left without parents;

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their wives without husbands ; the old men, contrary to the course of nature, mourn the death of their young ; the people decay and grow weak ; we lose our dear friends and are afflicted. Surely you cannot propose to get either riches, or possessions, by going thus out to war ; for when you kill a deer, you have the flesh to eat, and the skin to sell ; but when you return from war, you bring nothing home, but the scalp of a dead man, who perhaps was husband to a kind wife, and father to tender children, who never wronged you, though, by losing him, you have robbed them of their help and protection, and at the same time got nothing by it. If I were not your friend, I would not take the trouble to say all these things to you." When the Governor had concluded his address, he called the Senaca chieftain (Ghesaont) to him, and presented a gold coronation medal of King George I, which he requested should be taken to the monarch of the Five Nations, "Kannygooah," to be laid up and kept as a token to our children's children, that an entire and lasting friendship is now established forever between the English. in this country and the great Five Nations." Upon the return of the Governor, he was met at the upper ferry of the Schuylkill, by the Mayor and Aldermen of the city, with about two hun- dred horse, and conducted through the streets after the manner of a conqueror of old returning from the scenes of his triumphs.

Gov. Keith gave diligent study to the subject of finance, regulating the currency in such a way that the planter should have it in his power to dis- charge promptly his indebtedness to the merchant, that their mutual interests might thus be subserved. He even proposed to establish a considerable settle- ment on his own account in the colony, in order to carry on manufactures, and thus consume the grain, of which there was at this time abundance, and no profitable market abroad.

In the spring of 1722, an Indian was barbarously murdered within the limits of the colony, which gave the Governor great concern. After having cautioned red men so etrongly about keeping the peace, he felt that the honor of himself and all his people was compromised by this vile act. He immedi- ately commissioned James Logan and John French to go to the scene of the murder above Conestoga, and inquire into the facts of the case, quickly appre- hended the supposed murderers, sent a fast Indian runner (Satcheecho), to acquaint the Five Nations with his sorrow for the act, and of his determination to bring the guilty parties to justice, and himself set out with three of his Council (Hill, Norris and Hamilton), for Albany, where he had been invited by the Indians for a conference with the Governors of all the colonies, and where he met the chiefs of the Five Nations, and treated with them upon the subject of the murder, besides making presents to the Indians. It was on this occasion that the grand sachem of this great confederacy made that noble, and generous, and touching response, so different from the spirit of revenge generally attributed to the Indian character. It is a notable example of love that begets love, and of the mild answer that turneth away wrath. He said : " The great king of the Five Nations is sorry for the death of the Indian that was killed, for he was of his own flesh and blood. He believes that the Governor is also sorry ; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it, and he desires that Cartlidge [the murderer] may not be put to death, nor that he should be spared for a time, and afterward executed ; one life is enough to be lost ; there should not two die. The King's heart is good to the Governor and all the English."

Though Gov. Keith, during the early part of his term, pursued a pacific policy, yet the interminable quarrels which had been kept up between the As- sembly and Council during previous administrations, at length broke out with

Dance Dobbins

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

more virulence than ever, and he who in the first flush of power had declared " That he should pass no laws, nor transact anything of moment relating to the public affairs without the advice and approbation of the Council," took it upon himself finally to act independently of the Council, and even went so far as to dismiss the able and trusted representative of the proprietary inter- ests, James Logan, President of the Council and Secretary of the Province, from the duties of his high office, and even refused the request of Hannah Penn, the real Governor of the province, to re-instate him. This unwarranta- ble conduct cost him his dismissal from office in July, 1726. Why he should have assumed so headstrong and unwarrantable a course, who had promised at the first so mild and considerate a policy, it is difficult to understand, unless it be the fact that he found that the Council was blocking, by its obstinacy, wholesome legislation, which he considered of vital importance to the pros- perity of the colony, and if, as he alleges, he found that the new constitution only gave the Council advisory and not a voice in executive power.

The administration of Gov. Keith was eminently successful, as he did not hesitate to grapple with important questions of judicature, finance, trade, commerce, and the many vexing relations with the native tribes, and right manfully, and judiciously did he effect their solution. It was at a time when the colony was filling up rapidly, and the laws and regulations which had been found ample for the management of a few hundred families struggling for a foothold in the forest, and when the only traffic was a few skins, were entirely inadequate for securing protection and prosperity to a seething and jostling population intent on trade and commerce, and the conflicting interests which required wise legislation and prudent management. No colony on the Ameri- can coast made such progress in numbers and improvement as did Pennsylvania during the nine years in which William Keith exercised the Gubernatorial office. Though not himself a Quaker, he had secured the passage of an act of Assembly, and its royal affirmation for allowing the members of the Quaker sect to wear their hats in court, and give testimony under affirmation instead of oath, which in the beginning of the reign of Queen Anne had been with- held from them. After the expiration of his term of office, he was immedi- ately elected a member of the Assembly, and was intent ou being elected Speaker, " and had his support out-doors in a cavalcade of eighty mounted horsemen and the resounding of many guns fired;" yet David Lloyd was elected with only three dissenting voices. the out-door business having perhaps been overdone.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 12

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280