USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 12
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But the troubles resulting from these encroachments were of small moment compared with those which were now threat. ening the entire line of English settlements from Nova Scotia to the Gulf. The treaty of peace which had been concluded between the London and the Paris governments was scarcely felt across the ocean. To the complaints made by the British ambassador at Versailles, that the French in America were encroaching upon the English Colonies, fair promises of
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amendment were made, and orders were issued in the most formal manner to the French authorities in Canada to desist ; but at the same time secret intimations were conveyed to them that it was not expected that these orders would be obeyed, that their aggressive policy was at heart well pleas- ing, and that transgressions of these orders would be winked at. Accordingly, the Canadians fearlessly continued their advance upon English territory, planning the establishment and fortifying of military posts at Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, Venango, and Du Quesne, and had buried pieces of copper along the line of the Ohio River with inscriptions laying claim to the soil. This state of affairs had been discovered through the sagacity and penetration of one to whom the country afterwards owed, in a large measure, its existence as a nation. A company of settlers had, previous to this time, under the authority of the Virginia Assembly, known as the Ohio Company, pushed out beyond the Alleghanies, and coming in contact with the French, had given the first intel- ligence of their presence south of the Great Lakes, and of their armed occupation of the territory. To ascertain offi- cially the fact of their presence and their future intentions, Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, determined to send an agent to confer with the French commander, who had his headquarters at Fort Le Bœuf. He selected for this difficult and dangerous duty Major George Washington, an officer of militia, a youth of less than twenty-two years, who had man- ifested spirit and ability. Leaving civilization on the 14th of November, 1753, with an escort of Indians and a faithful friend, and plunging into the forests, he followed Indian paths, crossing mountains and swollen streams, ascending the Alleghany to its confluence with the French Creek, and thence up that stream until he reached Fort Le Bœuf, the site of the present town of Waterford, Erie County, where he met Legardeau de St. Pierre, the French commandant; and having accomplished the object of his mission, returned by nearly the same route, having been absent nearly two
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months, and escaped harm from the lurking savage and the hardships of the journey at an inclement season. To the remonstrances of Washington, St. Pierre answered, that he occupied, and would hold, his position by order of the Mar- quis Du Quesne, governor of Canada, to whom all discussion of the rights of the two peoples was referred. From a cap- tain and interpreter, De La Joncaire, in the French service, Washington ascertained that the French claimed the country upon the Ohio and its tributaries by reason of its discovery by La Salle, sixty years before, and that their present activity in getting a foothold was to circumvent the Ohio Company, which was pushing settlements upon these lands.
Seeing that the Ohio Company was making what he deemed encroachments upon the territory under his juris- diction, the Marquis Du Quesne had already remonstrated with Clinton and Hamilton, governors of New York and Pennsylvania, against the wrong. ITis expostulation being disregarded, the French seized some English traders, and sent them prisoners to France. The chiefs of the Six Nations were informed of these proceedings, and ordered the French away from their lands; but the French cared little for the orders of the Indians, the gaudy presents with which they were always kept well supplied being relied on to effectually mollify the ill-will of the crafty savages; and when these failed, threats and intimidation produced the desired effect. Early in his administration, Governor Hamilton had urged upon the Assembly the necessity of organizing for defence, and establishing block-houses along the frontier; and the Proprietors had signified their willingness to contribute liber- ally for this purpose. But the Assembly persistently objected to assuming the responsibility for even defensive warfare, preferring to vote money freely to secure the friendship of the Indians by liberal gifts, and to the Crown of England from whom protection was claimed. To such an extent had this system of granting gratuities to the Indians been carried, that the aggregate for a single year amounted to eight thou- sand pounds; and yet the natives were not appeased. These
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sums began to be felt as burdensome, and the Assembly demanded that the Proprietors should bear a share. The latter manifested a willingness to contribute a due proportion of the expenditures for defence,- the sons of Penn having long since renounced the Quaker faith, - but not for pur- chasing security, sending cannon to the value of four hun- dred pounds for the protection of the Delaware and the city of Philadelphia, and in various other ways assuming the payments of large sums. The answer to this manifesto of the Proprietors was drawn by Benjamin Franklin, who, since 1736, had been clerk of the Assembly, and was in 1750 elected a member. It was adroitly done, the weapons of argument being wielded with a master-hand, the rejoinder upon some indefensible points cutting like a Damascus blade. The Proprietors had, by implication, said that, as their consent was necessary to the validity of all laws for the Colony, it would be advisable for the Assembly to carefully regard the Proprietary interests. To this the Assembly answered, that " their chief Governors had intimated, in plain terms, their disposition to make advantage of their place, and to require from the people a pecuniary consideration for facilitating the passage of the colonial laws, though their deputy was, and ought to be, impowered to sanction all necessary bills. If such corruption existed, it must be discontinued; and they would rely upon the goodness of their sovereign for the final confirmation of their laws, and not go to market for them to a subject."* To the assertion of the Proprietors, that the Assembly should be content with the answer of the Deputy- Governor to their complaints, the reply was made : "To for- bid an appeal from the Deputy-Governor to his principal was unheard of. No king of England had ever taken upon him- self such state, as to reject the personal application of his meanest subject, when aggrieved by his officers. Even Sul- tans, Sophys, and other Eastern absolute monarchs, would , sometimes sit whole days to hear the complaints and petitions of their very slaves; and were the Proprietaries of Pennsyl-
* Gordon, page 265.
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vania become too great to be addressed by the representatives of the freemen of their Province ? If they must not be reasoned with, because they had given instructions ; nor their deputies, because they had received them; the deliberations of the Assembly were useless; they had only to learn and obey the will of the Proprietaries." In conclusion, they said: "If the Province must be at more than two thousand pounds expense per annum for a deputy governor, having no dis- cretion to pass laws, as was intimated in the Proprietaries' answer, and must obtain the assent of the chief Governor at more than three thousand miles distance, often ignorant or misinformed of its affairs, with ears peremptorily closed by having given instructions to their deputies, it would be better that the Colony should be under the immediate care of the Crown; and a sincere regard for the memory of the first Proprietary made them apprehend for his children, that, if they followed the advice of Rehoboam's counsellors, they would, like him, absolutely lose at least the affections of the people; a loss which, however they might affect to despise, they would find of more consequence than they now seemed to apprehend."
On the 25th of June, 1751, the Parliament of Great Brit- ain had passed a bill prohibiting the North American Colonies from issuing paper currency. Influenced by a statement of the needs of the Colony, and the great advan- tages to commerce, population, and internal improvements derived from that already issued, Pennsylvania was ex- empted from the provisions of this bill. Accordingly, at the next session, an Act was passed for a new issue. By the instructions of the Proprietors, the Deputy Governor was for- bidden to approve any money bill which did not place the whole of the interest at the disposal of themselves or depu- 'ties. Well knowing that such conditions would be exceed- . ingly odious, the Governor had kept them a secret, and, upon one pretext or another, refused his assent to the bill in every form presented, without disclosing the real reason of the veto. This refusal gave rise to a series of sharp and
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impassioned messages and remonstrances which greatly im- paired the harmony and usefulness of the Governor; indeed, it was the beginning of the end of his administration.
In February, 1753, John Penn, son of Richard Penn, ar- rived in the Colony, having been sent by the Proprietors to reside a few years among the people, and gain a knowledge of their character and wants, with the expectation of eventu- ally making him Deputy Governor. By unanimous vote of the Council he was made a member of that body, and its presiding officer, the place of the eldest councillor.
As early in the spring of 1754 as troops could profitably move, the French, under command of Contrecœur, from Forts Le Bœuf and Venango, moved down the Alleghany River, and routing a small party of the Ohio Company who were engaged in erecting a fort at the confluence of the Alle- ghany and Monongahela rivers, took up the line of work upon the Fort where the English had left it, and, out of re- spect to the Governor-General of Canada, named it Du Quesne. The journal of Washington, and the report of his embassage, were promptly published throughout the Colonies and in England, and produced the conviction that the French were determined to make conquest of all the lands upon the tributaries of the Ohio. Accordingly, measures were taken to raise troops in the several Colonies to defend the imperilled rights of the Crown, and rescue territory which had been forcibly entered. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, was most forward in this work, inasmuch as the Ohio Company, acting under his charter, was meeting resistance. Washing- ton took the lead in recruiting. Governor Hamilton urged upon the Assembly the necessity of voting money; but al- though the Assembly readily complied by providing for the issue of paper currency, the impracticable provisions imposed by the Proprietors prevented any money from being realized. Early on the morning of the 28th of May, Washington, who had recruited a small force of militia, and was pushing for- ward to the aid of the Ohio Company, surprised and routed a party of the French under Jumonville, near the Great
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Meadows, capturing the entire party save one, and killing the leader. Washington had but a feeble force, to which the French in the neighborhood were vastly superior. Anxiously but vainly waiting for reinforcements, he was finally obliged to retire, without coming to a decisive engagement, to Fort Necessity, at the Great Meadows, which he labored to fortify. But on the 4th of July he was obliged, after nine hours of conflict with a greatly superior force, to yield to the French, who permitted him to march out with the honors of war.
Governor Hamilton convened the Assembly on the 6th of August in special session in consequence of Washington's defeat ; and money was freely voted as before, but with the same abortive result.
Though the French in America were greatly inferior in numbers to the English, yet they had the immediate advan- tage of being directed by one governing power, which ena- bled them to concentrate all their resources at any point de- sired. This advantage had been foreseen by the English Government, and already, with a view to a central power, had the Ministry recommended a uniform system of taxation, - which finally became the bone of contention between the mother country and her Colonies, -and had ordered a confer- ence of representatives of the Provinces with the chiefs of the Six Nations at Albany, to concert measures of defence. This council convened on the 19th of June, 1754, the first general Congress of the Colonies in America. Governor IIamilton, unable himself to attend, commissioned John Penn and Rich- ard Peters of the Council, and Isaac Norris and Benjamin Franklin of the Assembly. The Indians were lukewarm. Indeed, they had shown themselves a treacherous people, in- clined to the stronger side. A plan of government for the Colonies, prepared by Franklin - who had previously medi- tated the subject and had brought his notes with him - was, on the 10th of July, adopted substantially as submitted. It provided for a president-general to be appointed by the Crown, and a council of forty-eight members to be chosen by the Colonial Assemblies. It was provided that the first meeting
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should be held at Philadelphia, which place, it was believed, members from New Hampshire even might reach in ten or fifteen days. "The fate of this constitution," says the biog- rapher of Franklin, "was singular. It was disapproved of by the Ministry of Great Britain because it gave too much power to the representatives of the people; and it was re- jected by every Assembly as giving to the president-general, the representative of the Crown, an influence greater than appeared to them proper in a plan of government intended for freemen." *
Early in 1753 Governor Hamilton had given notice to the Proprietors that in twelve months from its reception he would resign his commission. He was led to this step by the dis- agreeable relations which the royal and Proprietary instruc- tions forced him to hold towards the Assembly. Induced to keep his instructions secret by the conviction that their divul- gence would tend to exasperate the people, he was obliged to assign various pretexts for refusing his assent to many necessary acts of legislation, which pretexts were recognized as frivolous and indefensible by the Assembly, well calculated to alienate that body, and to place the Governor before it in a false and damaging position.
ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, Deputy Governor, October, 1754, to August, 1756. - In October, 1754, Governor Hamilton was relieved by Robert Hunter Morris. The old dispute be- tween Governor and Assembly over the money bill was early renewed, his first official act being the rejection of one for forty thousand pounds. Great Britain had at this time determined to press resistance to the French energetically, and Pennsyl- vania was called on to furnish three thousand recruits, sub- sistence, camp equipage, and transportation. Unable to secure an appropriation of money, by reason of the Proprietary in- structions, the Assembly showed its desire to promptly second the purposes of the Crown by resolving to borrow five thou-
* Life of Franklin, p. 118.
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sand pounds on its own credit for the support of the troops.
Early in March, General Braddock, with two regiments of the line, arrived from Cork, Ireland, at Alexandria, Virginia, whence he marched to Frederick, Maryland. Here the haughty General found that no means of transportation had been provided, nor could any be obtained. Franklin, who had been sent to Braddock by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, not in its own name, but to represent the Colonial cause as Postmaster-General -an office which he then held-indicated to him that the line of march should have been through Pennsylvania, where the supplies needed were abundant. Whereupon Braddock commissioned him on liberal terms to procure one hundred and fifty wagons and fifteen hundred pack-horses. Returning immediately to Pennsylvania, he circulated notices through the counties of Cumberland, York, and Lancaster as he went, offering good prices and immunity from impressment, which he represented as imminent, and in a few days had all the wagons he desired and a good num- ber of horses. His wants in this particular being supplied, Braddock commenced his advance, with entire confidence of complete success. After brushing aside the slight resistance which he might meet at Fort Du Quesne, and leaving a gar- rison there, he would move rapidly upon Forts Niagara and Frontignac, having no suspicion of the possibility of a re- pulse. Possessed of the ideas of soldiering in a long-settled country, with broad, solid highways on which to move his trains, he little realized the obstacles he was to meet in fight- ing savages in the wilderness. Finding only Indian trails, he stopped to cut away the forests, build bridges, and con- struct roads, treating with contempt the advice of Washing- ton to push rapidly forward with pack-horses. By the time he had reached the Monongahela, the French, who had been regularly advised of his movements, had had ample time to gather in reinforcements, and fire the spirits of the In- dians for the conflict. On the morning of July 9th, 1755, when within seven miles of Fort Du Quesne, and while
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marching confidently on, the front and left flank of the col- umn was suddenly assailed by an invisible foe. Momentary confusion ensued; but soon rallying, the troops moved in good order, the officers evincing admirable discipline and courage. But every tree concealed a foe, from which an un- erring fire was delivered with deadly effect. Sir Peter Hal- kett, the second in command, was killed, Braddock mortally wounded, and every mounted officer save Washington killed or wounded. Washington had two horses killed under him, and four bullets through his coat, but still kept his horse ; and after seeing sixty-four out of eighty-five of the officers, and half the privates, killed or wounded, withdrew with the remnant of the forces, losing artillery and stores, even to the private cabinet of the commander, which contained his in- structions.
The defeat of Braddock left the frontier unprotected, and struck the defenceless settlers with terror. The Assembly immediately voted fifty thousand pounds to the King's use for affording protection; but Governor Morris returned it without his approval, because it provided for taxing the property of the Proprietors, as other estates, and from this decision no argument could move him. In their remonstrance against his decision the Assembly said: "We entreat him to reflect with what reluctance a people born and bred in free- dom, and accustomed to equitable laws, must undergo the weight of this uncommon tax, and even expose their persons for the defence of his estate, who, by virtue of his power only, and without the color of right, should refuse to bear the least share of the burden, though to receive so great a bene- fit. With what spirit can they exert themselves in his cause, who will not pay the smallest part of their grievous expenses ? How odious must it be to a sensible, manly people to find him, who ought to be their father and protector, taking ad- vantage of public calamity and distress, and their tenderness for their bleeding country, to force down their throats laws of imposition abhorrent to common justice and common reason ! "
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Expeditions undertaken against the French in Nova Scotia, and at Crown Point, were more successful, and in a measure atoned for the failure of that under Braddock. To defray the expenses of these northern operations, the Assembly . voted fifteen thousand pounds in bills to be drawn on the trustees of the loan office. The Proprietors, having intelli- gence of the defeat of Braddock, also contributed five thou- sand pounds; and a money bill, with a provision for the organ- ization of a volunteer militia, was passed.
The French at Du Quesne expected that operations against them would be renewed. But no sooner did they find that the campaign had been abandoned, and that a long line of settlements lay all unprotected before them, inviting attack and easy conquest, than they lit the torch of devastation, and the whoop of the savage and the death-shriek of the power- less inhabitant was heard by mountain and stream along all the frontier. The most appalling outrages were committed, and the settlers were driven in until the enemy, advancing through Cumberland County, had reached the Susquehanna, where the main body established themselves, about thirty miles above Harris' Ferry, and whence wandering bands were sent out in all directions. Even the Shawanese and Delaware Indians, who from the first had been clamorous to take up arms on the side of the English, seeing the French victorious, and being encouraged by the latter to strike for the recovery of the lands which they had sold, following the inclination of their naturally blood-thirsty disposition, raised the hatchet against the English. In the beginning of the year 1755, it was estimated that there were three thousand men capable of bearing arms west of the Susquehanna. A twelvemonth later, and there were not a hundred.
To check these devastations, a chain of forts and block- houses was erected along the line of the Kittatinny Hills, from the Delaware river to the Maryland line, at an expense to the Province of eighty-five thousand pounds. To encourage the formation of volunteer militia companies, Franklin pub- lished and circulated a dialogue, answering the objections to
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a legalized militia, and, at the urgent solicitation of the Gov- ernor, was induced to take command on the northwestern frontier. Though in the dead of winter, he raised a respect- able force, and in the beginning of January, amid rain and frost, commenced the erection of forts, which he soon made sufficiently strong to withstand the attacks of an enemy wanting in artillery, and had them completely garrisoned. Recruits having been rapidly gathered in, and an adequate force formed, Franklin returned to Philadelphia to take his seat in the Assembly, and was succeeded by Colonel Clap- ham, an officer skilled in Indian warfare. The Governor now formally declared war against the hostile Indians, though a vigorous protest was made to it by the Quakers in the As- sembly, and finally, by the mild and persuasive methods in which they were skilled, they succeeded in inducing the Sha- wanese and Delawares, and other tribes, to bury the hatchet. The Assembly, which met in May, in answer to the demands for money from the Governor, prepared a bill, with the old provision for taxing the Proprietors, which was known would be rejected, and the two parties were sharpening their wits for another wrangle over it, when the Governor was relieved of his office.
Governor Morris was the son of Lewis Morris, Chief Jus- tice of New York and New Jersey, and Governor of New Jersey. The son was bred a lawyer and was for twenty-six years a Councillor of New Jersey, and for twenty years Chief Justice of that Province. His administration in Pennsyl- vania was anything but pleasant or profitable to himself or the Colony. Hampered by the instructions of the Proprie- tors, he was prevented from acting independently as his judg- ment or his feelings dictated, the record of his official acts being little more than a recital of profitless and oftentimes acrimonious quarrels with the Assembly. Upon his retire- ment he returned to New Jersey, where he died February 20th, 1764.
WILLIAM DENNY, Deputy Governor, August, 1756, to
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October, 1759 .- On the 20th of August, 1756, William Denny arrived in the Colony, bearing a commission of Deputy Gov- ernor, and immediately assumed the duties of his office. He was received by the authorities of the city and the Province with demonstrations of rejoicing, being escorted into the city by the regiments of Franklin and Duche, and enter- tained at a princely dinner given at the State House. ITis reception was in every way most cordial; but an exhibi- tion of his instructions from the Proprietors disclosed the fact that he was bound by honor and fortune to withhold his assent from every bill for the emission of money that did not place the proceeds at the joint disposition of the Assembly and the Governor; that he was forbidden to pass any bill in- creasing the paper currency above forty thousand pounds, or to confirm existing issues, unless Proprietary rents were paid in sterling money ; and that though Proprietary lands, actually leased, could be taxed out of the rents, yet the tax could in no case become a lien upon the land. To these instructions the Governor signified his determination to adhere, which at once renewed all the old subjects of discord, and all friendly feeling was at an end. A money bill was passed, to which he promptly objected, pleading his instructions, and the war of message and remonstrance began anew. In one of his messages, during his first year of office, occurs this passage : "Though moderation is most agreeable to me, there might have been a Governor who would have told you the whole tenor of your message was indecent, frivolous, and evasive." And in his message of September, 1757, occur these pas- sages : " If detraction and personal abuse of your Governor," -" but I have been so accustomed to this kind of treatment," -"I have the less reason to regret such usage, since it is obvious, from your conduct to those before me, you are not so much displeased with the person governing, as impatient of being governed at all."
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