History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Wyoming County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The Queen died in 1714, and was succeeded by George the First. Among the early acts of Parliament in the reign of this King was one extending to the English colonies a previous act disqualifying Quakers from hold- ing office, serving on juries, or giving evidence in crimi- nal cases. Charles Gookin, who had been provincial governor since 1709, construed this act to be applicable to the proprietary government, and a disqualification of the Quakers in the province. This construction of the law of course called forth the indignation and opposition of the council, the Assembly, and the people, and led to the recall of Gookin in 1717, and the appointment of Sir William Keith in his stead. The latter was affable and courteous, cunning and crafty, and in all matters of

OUTLINE HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

difference between the crown or proprietary, on one side, and the people on the other, he espoused the popu- lar cause.

William Penn died at the age of seventy-four, in the summer of 1718. History will ever point to him as one who accomplished more for the cause of civil and relig- ious liberty than any other man of his time, and to the provincial government which he founded and adminis- tered as the first successful experiment in the broadest liberty of conscience which had then been conceived, and the nearest approach to a government of themselves by the people that had ever been attempted. He was the representative of a despised and proscribed sect; but by his wise and liberal administration of the government of his province, in accordance with the principles of that sect, he did more to bring it to the favorable . notice of the world than could otherwise have been done.

The American colonies at that time presented a curious spectacle. Maryland, a colony of Catholics, who were stigmatized as the most bigoted and intolerant sect in Christendom, had been established under a constitution the most liberal and tolerant of all that had been grant- ed by the government of Great Britain; and Pennsylva- nia, a province of Quakers, whose tenets were almost the reverse of the Catholics, had added to this almost uni- versal tolerance the largest civil liberty that had ever been enjoyed by a people; while the Puritans of the New England colonies, who professed to have fled from relig- ious persecution in England, and to have sought an asylum where each could worship God, the common Father of all, according to the dictates of his own con- science, in the language of Egle, "excluded from the benefits of their government all who were not members of their church, and piously flagellated or hanged those who were not convinced of its infallibility." Almost two centuries have passed since Penn established his colony in America, and-except in those governments that are purely secular, or nearly so, in their character-political science has developed little that is essential to the wel- fare and happiness of humanity that was not embodied in his system.

The estate of William Penn passed at his death to his family, who inherited both his property and his proprie- tary government. He had made a will, previous to his agreement with Queen Anne, for the sale of his province; and his agreement was decided to be void because of his mental incapacity to consummate it. The proprietary gov- ernment, therefore, devolved on his widow, as executrix of his will and trustee of his property during the minority of his children, and it has been said of her that she man- ifested much shrewdness in the appointment of governors and general management of colonial affairs. It is said by Day: "The affectionate patriarchal relation which had subsisted between Penn and his colony ceased with his death; the interest which his family took in the affairs of the province was more mercenary in its character, and looked less to the establishment of great and pure princi- ples of life and government."

The administration of Sir William Keith was quite suc- cessful. The favor with which he was regarded by the people enabled him to promote among theni that harmony which is so essential to prosperity; and the colony was prosperous. There was a large influx of population, the character of which was more cosmopolitan than in former times. The persecutions of the Quakers in England had relaxed somewhat, and fewer, relatively, of them sought homes here; while people from other regions, and nota- bly from Germany, came in great numbers. The popu- larity of Keith was such that he was able to accomplish two measures that had been looked on with great disfavor by the assembly-the establishment of a Court of Chan- cery, of which he was the chancellor; and the organiza- tion of a militia, of which he was the chief. On the other hand, by his good offices, "the Quakers, to their great joy, procured a renewal of the privilege of affirmation in place of an oath, and of the cherished privilege of wear- ing the hat whenever and wherever it suited them." IIe was deposed in 1726, through the influence of James Logan, the leader of the proprietary party. Franklin wrote of him: " If he sought popularity he promoted the public happiness, and his courage in resisting the de- mands of the family may be ascribed to a higher motive than private interest. The conduct of the Assembly to- ward him was neither honorable nor politic; for his sins against his principles were virtues to the people, with whom he was deservedly a favorite; and the House should have given him such substantial marks of their gratitude as would have tempted his successors to walk in his steps.'

Keith's successor was Patrick Gordon. His adminis -: tration continued during ten years, or until his death in 1736. Tranquillity prevailed in the province during this time; the population, which in 1727 was more than fifty thousand, received large accessions, especially from Ger- many; internal improvements were prosecuted, and for- eign commerce increased largely. Two of the proprie- taries, John and Thomas Penn, came to the province; the latter in 1732, the former in 1734. John returned to England in 1735 on account of the aggressions of the Marylanders under Lord Baltimore, but Thomas re-" mained in the country eight years longer. The demeanor of the latter was not such as to endear him to the people.

The first public library ever established in the province was projected in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, and was in- corporated in 1742. During the two years following the death of Mr. Gordon the president of the council, James Logan, was the executive officer of the province. The ceie- brated fraud known as the " Indian walk " took place in 1737. That an unscrupulous Indian trader should be guilty of thus swindling ignorant savages would be no matter of surprise; but that the province of Pennsylva- nia should be a party to such a transaction is almost in- credible. It is certain that it never would have received the sanction of William Penn, and it is equally certain that it was the foundation of an enmity that broke out in open hostility afterwards.

OPENING OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

CHAPTER IIL.

THE QUESTION OF TAXING THE PROPRIETARY ESTATES- WARS WITH THE FRENCH AND INDIANS.

HE proprietaries in 1738 appointed George Thomas governor, and the position was held by him till 1747. In the war between Great Britain and Spain which was declared in 1739 the Assembly did not take measures to fur- nish the men required, and the governor was com- pelled to raise the quota of the province by his own exertions. . In 1744 war broke out between France and England, and the aspect of Indian affairs in Penn- sylvania and on its borders became threatening; but the storm was averted by the good offices of the Iroquois, who held the Delawares in subjection.

An unhappy condition of affairs existed at that time, and during some years afterwards, in the province. The proprietaries had little sympathy with the people, but as they grew rich by the enhanced value which the activity and enterprise of these people gave to their estates, they preferred the pomp and luxury of aristocratic life, and regarded the people with a measure of contempt. Un- der such circumstances it was not a matter of wonder that the people, through their representatives, should not re- spond with alacrity to the demands of the governors ap- pointed by these proprietaries. Governor Thomas re- signed in 1747, and after an administration of two years by Anthony Palmer, president of the council, James Hamilton became lieutenant governor in 1749. The condition of things at that time cannot be better de- scribed than in the language of Sherman Day:

" An alarming crisis was at hand. The French, now hovering around the great lakes, sedulously applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawnees had already joined them; the Delawares waited only for an opportunity to revenge their wrongs, and of the Six Nations the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas were wavering. The French were fortifying the strong points on the Ohio. To keep the Indians in favor of the colony required much cunning diplomacy, and expensive presents. In this alarming juncture the old flame of civil dissension burst out with increased force. The presents to the Indians, with the erection of a line of forts along the frontier, and the maintenance of a military force, drew heavily on the provincial purse. The Assembly, the popular branch, urged that the proprietary estates should be taxed as well as those of humble individuals. The proprietors, through their deputies, refused, and pleaded prerogative, charter, and law. The Assembly in turn pleaded equity, common danger, and common benefit, requiring a com- mon expense. The proprietaries offered bounties in lands yet to be conquered from the Indians, and the privilege of issuing more paper money ; the Assembly wanted

something more tangible. The Assembly passed laws laying taxes and granting supplies, but annexing con- ditions. The governors opposed the conditions, but we're willing to aid the Assembly in taxing the people, but not the proprietaries. Here were the germs of revo- lution, not fully matured until twenty years later. Dr. Franklin was now a member and a leader in the Assem- bly. In the meantime the frontier were left exposed while these frivolous disputes continued. The pacific principles, too, of the Quakers and Dunkards and Men- nonists and Schwenckfelders came in to complicate the strife ; but as the danger increased they prudently kept aloof from public office, leaving the management of the war to sects less scrupulous."

Robert H. Morris, the successor of James Hamilton, became governor in 1754, and his successor, William Denny, in 1756. The same want of harmony between the proprietaries and the people continued during their administrations, but finally, through the efforts of Frank- lin, the royal assent was given to a law taxing the estates of the proprietaries.

Settlements were made on lands to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, especially by the not over scrupulous Scotch Irish, and the result was a de- sultory Indian war, which kept up a very insecure feeling among the people of the province.

Such was the condition of the province at the breaking out of the French and Indian war a few years after the treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, which really was scarcely more than a temporary suspension of hostilities. It is well known to every one connected with American his- tory, that at this time the French attempted to connect their possessions in Canada and Louisiana by a chain of military posts extending from Presque Isle, now Erie, to the navigable waters of the Ohio, and along that river to the Mississippi. In furtherance of this design they sent, in 1754, 1,000 men to the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, where they built Fort Du Quesne, afterward called, in honor of the great English statesman, Fort Pitt ; now Pittsburg. Against this was sent the disastrous expedition of General Braddock, a minute account of which cannot, for want of space, be given here. It may briefly be said, that by reason of his self conceit and obstinacy General Braddock sustained the most overwhelming defeat that an European army had ever met in America, and that he was inor - tally wounded in this action. General-then Colonel- George Washington greatly distinguished himself in this battle.

The dispute between the proprietaries and the people continued, notwithstanding the country was suffering from the horrors of an Indian war. The proprietaries insisted on the exemption of their estates from taxation and the Assembly yielded when the public safety was in jeopardy. Several councils were held with the Indians, and efforts were made through the interposition of the Six Nations, whose aid the authorities of the province invoked, to secure peace, with only partial success. In 1756 three hundred men under Colonel Armstrong crossed

OUTLINE HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

the Alleghenies and destroyed the Indian town of Kittan- ing ; thus inflicting a severe blow on the savages, and driving them beyond the Allegheny river.

In 1758 a change in the ministry in England was made, and under William Pitt the war was prosecuted with great energy. An expedition consisting of about 9,000 men was organized and sent against Fort Du Quesne. On the approach of this army the French burnt the buildings, evacuated the fort, and blew up the magazine. It was rebuilt and named Fort Pitt. This terminated hostilities in the valley of the Ohio. A series of successes followed in 1759 and 1760 at the north and west, which terminated the war, though a feeble effort was made by the French to retrieve their losses in Canada. The result was the final extinction of the Frenchi dominion in the Canadian provinces, which was confirmed by the treaty of Fontain- bleau in 1762. The peace which followed was of short duration. The Kyasuta and Pontiac war, so called from the chiefs who planned it, broke out in 1763. Kyasuta was a Seneca, and Pontiac an Ottawa chief; and the scheme which they devised, for a war of quick extermin- ation against the colonists, would have been no discredit to the ability of educated military chieftains. The sava- ges had looked with approval on the construction by the French of a chain of forts from Presque Isle to the Ohio; for they saw in them a check upon the progress westward of the tide of settlement which threatened to dispossess them of their broad domains. When they saw these forts fall into the hands of the colonists, and thus cease to be a barrier against their aggressions, they became more alarmed for their own safety; and these wily chiefs con- ceived the project of attacking and overpowering the different defenses on the frontier simultaneously, and then rushing upon and exterminating the defenseless in- habitants in the settlements, and thus, by the terror which they inspired, preventing future encroachments. The time of harvest was chosen for this attack, and the ¡ lin was laid with such secrecy that the first intimation of it was the appalling war whoop with which it was com- menced. So nearly successful were the savages that eight of the eleven forts attacked on the western frontier were taken. Scalping parties overran the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, and the terror stricken inhabitants fled before them. Fort Pitt was in- vested, after the Indian fashion, during about three months, but was relieved by a force under Colonel Bo- quet. About thirty of the settlers in the Wyoming valley were killed by the Delawares, in revenge for the murder of Teedyuscung by a party of Iroquois, the latter having persuaded the Delawares that the murder was committed by the whites. Although there were, after the first erup- tion of hostilities, no large organized bands of hostile Indians, the frontier settlements were continually harassed by small parties, who came upon them stealthily and mur- dered the inhabitants without pity. The protection af- forded by the authorities in the province against these marauding parties was insufficient. The pacific disposi- tion of the Quakers, who controlled the government, was such as to call forth the remark that they were "more

solicitous for the welfare of the bloodthirsty Indian than for the lives of the frontiersmen." Parkman says of them: " They seemed resolved that they would neither defend the people of the frontier nor allow them to defend them; selves; and vehemently inveighed against all expeditions to cut off the Indian marauders. Their security was owing to their local situation, being confined to the east- ern part of the province."

John Penn, a grandson of the founder of the province, came to Pennsylvania in 1763 in the capacity of lieuten- ant-governor. His father and his uncle were then the proprietors and resided in England. The Penn family had all ceased to be Quakers, and had no conscientious scruples against defensive or aggressive war. General Gage had become commander of the military forces of the province, and Governor Penn vigorously seconded . his efforts. He even, in 1764, offered by proclamation the following bounties for scalps, Indians, etc .: "For every male above the age of ten years captured, $150; scalped, being killed, $134; for every female Indian enemy, and every male under the age of ten years, cap- tured, $130; for every female above the age of ten years scalped, being killed, $50."

The apathy which was manifested by the Assembly in 1763, and the insecure condition of- the settlers toward the frontier, led to the formation of an independent or- ganization known as the Paxtang Boys or Paxtang Ran- gers; so named because they were mostly inhabitants of Paxtang, or Paxton, and Donnegal, in Lancaster county. Such was the feeling of insecurity in advanced settlements that men were compelled to keep their rifles at their sides while at work in their fields, and even while attending divine worship. These rangers, by their vigilance and activity, an'd by the severe punishments which they in- flicted on the savages, became in turn a terror to them. They were mostly composed of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, between whom and the Quakers no very friendly feeling existed. The latter strongly censured what they termed the barbarities of the rangers; and fierce dissensions arose between them. The Paxtang men finally fell upon a small tribe of Indians at Conestoga, in Lancaster county, and put many of them to death, because, as they alleged, they had discovered that these Indians, while professing friendliness, were secretly harboring their hostile breth- ren, and furnishing them with information and supplies of ammunition, etc. They also insisted that the Christian or Moravian Indians were guilty of the same treachery, and the latter were compelled to flee to Philadelphia to avoid their vengeance. These acts of the rangers called forth the still more vehement protests of the Quakers, and even at the present day historians are not agreed as to whether or not their action was justifiable. None of them were ever convicted in the courts of the province.

In 1764 General Gage instituted measures to drive the Indians from the frontiers by carrying the war into their country. He sent a corps under Colonel Bradstreet to act against the Wyandots, Chippewas and Ottawas, in the vicinity of the upper lakes; and another, under Colonel Boquet,to go to the Muskingum and attack the Delawares,

MASON AND DIXON'S LINE-CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION.

Shawnees, and other nations between the Ohio and the lakes. This vigorous action had the desired effect. Peace was established, and many of the captives who had been taken were restored.

CHAPTER IV.

"MASON AND DIXON'S LINE"-CAUSES OF THE REVOLU- TION-PATRIOTIC ACTION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

20 URING the ten years between 1765 and 1775 two questions of boundary were settled. One, that of the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, had long been in dispute, and several fruitless negotiations had been entered into for its settlement. In 1763 Thomas and Richard Penn and Frederick Lord Baltimore en- tered into an arrangement for the establishment of this line, and commissioned Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to survey and mark it. This work they completed in 1767, having surveyed and marked with milestones of oolite brought from England) the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, except about twenty-two miles at its western end, where they were prevented by the Indian propri- etors. Thus originated the celebrated "Mason and Dixon's line." The other boundary question was raised by Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, who claimed the territory that now includes the counties of Fayette, Greene and Washington, and even a portion of Allegheny. He en- couraged settlers to take from Virginia the titles to their lands there, and even sent an agent to take possession of Fort Pitt, when it was evacuated by General Gage. The settlers were a bad class of men; and by reason of the lawless acts of some of them, especially two named Cresap and Greathouse, a frontier Indian war occurred. The Virginia claim was promptly repelled.

At the conclusion of the Indian war of 1763 and 1764 the old controversy concerning the taxation of the pro- prietary estates was revived, and Dr. Franklin at once be- came the champion of the popular cause in the Assembly. That body became so indignant at the conduct of the governor that they resolved to petition the King to pur- chase the proprietary jurisdiction, and place the province in direct relation with the crown. " Here," says Day, " was a most important step toward the Revolution. To break down the feudal power, and bring the people and the crown in direct communication, is, in all countries, the first great step toward popular freedom, and prepares the way for the next step-the direct conflict between the crown and the people. It so happened. however, that in this case the avarice of the British ministry outran the anti-feudal propensities of the people, and brought the colonies at once to the last great struggle between the people and the crown." Dr. Franklin was sent by the province to London to urge before the ministry the meas-

ure of relief from the proprietary dominion; but on his arrival he found that the conflict was with the very power the protection of which he had come to invoke

The wars which had raged in the coloni's, and in which the home government had assisted, had called the attention of the ministry to the rapidly increasing wealth of those colonies. The plan was conceived of making that wealth available to the mother country, for the double pur- pose of replenishing her exhausted treasury and securing the exclusive control of the colonial trade. The accom- plishment of this double object involved the question o. taxation without consent and without representation in the legislative body imposing the tax. This was the point on which the American Revolution turned. Parliament in- sisted on its right to tax any part of the British domin- ions, and the colonies held that they were not safe if they might thus be despoiled of their property without their consent, and by a parliament in which they were not represented. In view of this momentous question the contentions with the proprietaries were forgotten. In 1764 an act was passed imposing duties on certain articles not produced in his majesty's dominions' This was followed the next year by the odious stamp act, which declared instruments of writing void if not written on stamped paper on which a duty was paid. This was resisted and the paper refused in the colonies, and the determination was formed by the colonies to establish manufactories, to the end that they might not be depend- ent on the mother country. By reason of the consequent clamors of English manufacturers, and the impossibility of executing the law without a resort to force, the stamp act was repealed; but the repeal was coupled with a declaration of the absolute power of parliament over the colonies.

The next offensive act was the imposition of duties on goods imported from Great Britain; but this was resisted by the colonists, who would accede to nothing which in- volved taxation without consent. A circular was ad- dressed by Massachusetts to her sister colonies recapitu- lating their grievances, and the arguments against the op- pressive acts. Governor Penn was ordered by the colonial secretary in London to urge upon the Assembly a disre- gard of this, and, in case this advice was not heeded, to prorogue it. The Assembly asserted, by resolution, its right to sit at its own pleasure, and to consult with the other colonies concerning matters pertaining to the wel- fare of all; and it gave a cordial assent to the recom- mendation by Virginia for a concert of action in order to peacefully obtain a redress of their grievances. The impost was reduced in 1769, and in 1770 abolished, ex- cept that on tea, which was continued at three pence per pound. The colonists, however, were opposed to the principle on which the tax was based, and not to its amount, and their resistance to the importation of taxed goods was concentrated on the tea tax. In Pennsylvania onc chest was imported and the duty paid; but generally the non-importation policy prevailed. Under these cir- stances the ideal right of taxation was asserted and no collision was provoked. In order to make a practical

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History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York Publication date: 1880 Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co. Number of Pages: 900

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900