USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 14
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But there was another subject at that time under con- sideration in the British Parliament, which, in its bearing upon the Colonies, overshadowed every other. It was that of taxing them. As early as 1739, Sir William Keith had proposed to realize funds for the support of troops to defend the frontiers by a duty to be laid by Parliament, in all the Colonies, on stamped paper. The revenue likely at that time to accrue from such a duty was too insignificant to merit serious consideration ; but the power and resources displayed
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by the Colonies in the late war had excited the attention of the Ministry, and, near the close of the year 1763, Mr. Grenville, the British minister, communicated to the agents of the Col- onies his intention of drawing revenue from them by means of stamp-duty. The Colonies, on being informed of this, remonstrated against it. Laying this plan aside for the time, Grenville imposed a tax on imports, and required that it should be paid in gold and silver. This proved onerous and especially destructive to commerce. In October, 1765, the Assembly of Rhode Island submitted a proposition to the sev- eral Assemblies, for obtaining the views held in all the Colo- nies upon the subject of Parliamentary taxation, with a view to uniting in a common petition to the British Government. This was favorably received and acted on by the Assembly of Pennsylvania. But not content with petition, the Assem- bly determined to send an agent familiar with the subject to represent its interests at Court. Franklin was selected for this duty, though his appointment was vigorously opposed by the friends of the Proprietors, on account of his advocacy of a transfer of the government of the Colony to the Crown.
On the 22d of March, 1765, the obnoxious Stamp Act - that infringement of prerogative which gave occasion to the American Revolution and the ultimate independence of the Colonies - was passed. It excited intense opposition, and, led by the persuasive eloquence of Patrick Henry, the Vir- ginia Assembly passed resolutions asserting the exclusive right of the Colony to levy taxes. The purposes expressed in these resolves were generally concurred in by all the other Colonies. In view of the threatening attitude of affairs, the Assembly of Massachusetts proposed a meeting of commit- tees from all the Colonial Assemblies in a general Congress at New York, on the second Tuesday of October, 1765. To represent Pennsylvania, Messrs. Fox, Dickinson, Bryan, and Morton were appointed, and resolutions for their guidance were passed, firmly but respectfully declaring that when his Majesty shall require aid from the Colony to be levied in a constitutional manner, it will be cheerfully given, and that
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taxation by any other power than that of the representatives of the people in assembly met is unconstitutional.
The Stamp Act was to go into operation on the 1st of No- vember. Agents for the sale of the stamps had been ap- pointed and stamps forwarded; but the people everywhere resolved not to use them. The newspapers on the last day of October were dressed in mourning, and on the following day their issue was suspended, their publishers resolving not to use the stamped paper required. The people determined to dress in none but cloth of their own manufacture, and, to increase the yield of wool, resolved not to eat lamb during the year. According to appointment, the Congress of the Colonies met on the second Tuesday of October, 1765, at New York, and a petition to the King and a memorial to Parliament were drawn, setting forth the grievances of the Colonies by reason of recent Parliamentary enactments, which were signed by the members and forwarded for presentation to the agents in Europe. The refusal of the people to use any but American goods bore grievously upon British man- ufacturers, and they soon became clamorous for the repeal of the odious Act. Franklin, before a committee of Par- liament, testified to the impossibility of collecting such a tax, and it was finally, on the 18th of March, 1766, repealed. The tidings of the repeal were received in Philadelphia with demonstrations of joy, the Assembly dining with the Gov- ernor, and joining in a fête, in honor of the event, on the banks of the Schuylkill.
Though yielding for the time to the opposition of the Col- onies, the British Government by no means relinquished the idea of taxing America. Charles Townsend had boasted that he knew a way to draw a revenue from the Colonies without exciting opposition, and brought forward, in 1767, an act imposing a duty on tea, glass, paper, and painter's colors, which was triumphantly carried. On the 20th of Feb- ruary, 1768, the Assembly of Pennsylvania instructed its agent in London to urge the repeal of this Act, and at the session in May a circular letter, received from the Massachu-
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setts Assembly, setting forth the grounds of objection to the Act, was received and entered upon its minutes. This cir- cular gave great offence to the British ministry; and the sec- retary for foreign affairs, the Earl of Hillsborough, wrote to Governor Penn, to urge the Assembly to take no notice of it, but if that body was disposed to countenance and approve the sentiments it contained, to prorogue its sittings. This letter was laid before the Assembly and read, and immediately thereafter the speaker presented one from the Virginia As- sembly, recommending a union of the Colonies in opposition to the proposed measures of taxation. This recommendation was adopted, and a committee was appointed to prepare a petition to the King, and to both Houses of Parliament, ask- ing their repeal. In these documents complaint was particu- larly made against the provision which made the Colonial Judges and Governors dependent for their pay upon the Crown, instead of the Assemblies. The unanimity of feeling in the Assembly in opposition to these enactments was strengthened by a series of papers known as the Farmer's Letters, written by John Dickinson. They became very pop- ular, and were republished in all the Colonies. Apprehend- ing that it was the amount of tax, and not the principle, which was objected to, Parliament, in 1769, reduced it to one-sixth its original amount, and in 1770 abolished the tax altogether except three pence a pound on tea. But in this, Parliament entertained a mistaken view, for it was the prin- ciple that was obnoxious; and the Assembly of Pennsylvania instructed its agent in London to urge the entire repeal of the law, that it might not be a precedent for future op- pression.
The authorities of Connecticut, as has already been stated, maintained that, by the terms of its charter, the western boundary of its territory was the Pacific Ocean. This seem- ingly preposterous claim was borne out by the language of the original grant, which embraced the territory between the fortieth and forty-sixth degree of latitude, and from ocean to ocean ; and though the boundaries of Pennsylvania were now
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well defined, the grant to the Plymouth Colony ante-dated it. Under a vague apprehension that the rights conferred by the original charter could be maintained, emigrants from Con- necticut settled in the Wyoming Valley, and under a pur- chase made of these lands from the Indians, at the council held at Albany in 1754, a party of Connecticut people of some standing and influence, one of them an ex-Governor, formed a company, known as the Susquehanna Company, to settle them. But these lands had already been purchased of the Indians by the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, and in their name remonstrances were made, against the claims of the Susquehanna Company, to the Governor of Connecticut. The answer to the earliest of these remonstrances seemed to dis- own any responsibility on the part of the government of Con- necticut in maintaining these claims; but it subsequently appeared that a determination had been formed to support them. In 1768, the Proprietors of Pennsylvania purchased of the Indians all that tract of country on which the Susque- hanna Company had settled, and laid out the Wyoming ter- ritory into manors, upon which many families received per- mission to settle. The pioneers of the two States now began to come in conflict. Forts and block-houses were built, and a petty warfare maintained, which resulted in some loss of life. It was proposed by Butler, the leader of the Connecti- cut party, to settle the dispute by the personal combat of thirty picked men on each side; but this barbarous offer was declined. In the meantime, to bring the Territory more im- mediately under Pennsylvania jurisdiction, a new county was organized out of parts of the counties of Lancaster, Cumber- land, Berks, Northampton, and Bedford, covering the dis- puted ground, which was called Northumberland; but the sheriff, with the help of the militia, which he called to his aid, was unable to subdue the opposing party, which had a justice and civil officers of its own, and had also set up town and county organizations. To the protestations of Governor Penn, Governor Trumbull answered that the Susquehanna Company was acting in good faith under a Connecticut char-
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ter, based upon the original grant of the Crown to the Ply-/ mouth Colony, and that he was desirous of having the rights of the two Colonies under their respective grants tested by due course of law. Upon a statement made by the Connect- icut party to Counsellors in London, an opinion was obtained favorable to that Colony, and, encouraged by this advice, a new impulse was given to emigration to the Wyoming coun- try by Connecticut families. In September, 1775, the matter was laid before the Continental Congress, and a committee of that body, to whom it was referred, decided in favor of the Connecticut claimants, giving to that State a tract of land in Pennsylvania nearly as large as the entire limits of the for- mer. This decision was instantly rejected by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and it remained an open question until 1802, when the Congress of the United States decided in favor of Pennsylvania, and it was forever put to rest.
JAMES HAMILTON, President of the Council. - Early in 1771 Governor Penn was called to England by the death of his father, Richard Penn, leaving the government of the Colony in the hands of the Council, of which James Hamilton was president, who thus for a third time became in effect Governor. The Council was forbidden by the fundamental law to approve any act of Assembly, so that no legislation was had during the period that the Colony was without a lieutenant governor. James Hamilton was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1710. He was possessed of a large landed estate, which gave him a personal interest in advancing the material welfare of the Colony. But in the discharge of his duties, he scrupulously adhered to the instructions of the Proprietors, which brought him in conflict with the popular party. His several administrations were marked by ability and firmness, and his personal bearing was that of one who felt the dignity of his position, and duly appreciated the respect which was due to the office. He never married. He died in the city of New York on the 14th of August, 1783, aged seventy-three.
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CHAPTER VIII.
THOMAS AND JOHN PENN, PROPRIETORS, 1771-1776.
R ICHARD PENN, Lieutenant Governor, October, 1771, to August, 1773 .- On the 17th of October, 1771, Richard, the second son of the late Richard Penn, arrived in the Colony, bearing the commission of Lieutenant Governor. Early in his administration his attention was called to the encroachments of the Susquehanna Company, and he con- ducted the negotiations as already detailed with" singular moderation and judgment.
At a point about six miles above Wyoming, the Christian Indians had built up quite a populous village called Wyalu- sing. It had a good number of respectable log houses with shingled roofs and glazed windows; a church, and school- house ; besides numerous huts and cabins of less pretentious appearance. Large tracts of meadow and upland had been cleared and enclosed. The site was pleasant, and the soil excellent for cultivation. Governor Penn had promised that no settlements should be made within five miles of their lands, and they were looking forward to a period of prosper- ity and quiet. These, with the Moravian Indians, had, with great difficulty, been preserved from the frenzy of the "Pax- ton Boys," and the dangers from this source had scarcely passed, when the encroachments of the Connecticut adven- turers again excited alarm. The hostile demonstrations which followed so aroused their apprehensions, that, in 1773, they determined to move in a body to lands beyond the Ohio River, Abo, their representative before the Pennsylvania Assembly, saying, that, "Notwithstanding their sincere and unshaken attachment to the Government of the Province, as they were
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not expert at salving appearances, they could not but be afraid that their innocence and complexion would stand little chance against the suspicious insinuations that are, or may be conceived, and laid against them, from the indifferent neighborhood in which they lived. They thought it high time, therefore, that they should retire to some Indian country."
The administration of Richard Penn only extended to a period of a little less than two years. His intercourse with the Assembly was of a kind and conciliatory character, in marked contrast with the intemperate contests maintained with that body by some of his predecessors. Differences arose; but they were discussed in a mild and manly way, and mutual concessions brought harmony. He was especially attentive to the commercial interests of the Colony, and during his administration a degree of unexampled prosperity prevailed. . His commission was unexpectedly revoked in August, 1773, much to the regret of the people of the Colony and to himself.
Richard Penn was born in England, in 1734. He married Miss Polly Masters, of Philadelphia. In person, he was of portly and commanding presence, of genial temper, a good liver, and inclined to sociality. Of all the Deputy Governors he was best fitted by nature and by education to win the approval of the popular will. On being superseded as Governor, he became a member of the Council and Naval Officer of the Colony. He was intimate with the members of the Continental Congress, whose confidence and esteem he gained by his liberal views, and when, in 1775, he returned to England, he was intrusted, in connection with Arthur Lee, with the last petition from the Colonies ever presented to the King. He was examined respecting American affairs at the bar of the House of Lords, and gave testimony so favor- able to the Colonial cause, that he incurred the displeasure of the Peers, and drew forth a strong rebuke from the Min- isters, Lord Lyttleton declaring, " With all the caution with which Mr. Penn guarded his expressions, he nevertheless
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betrayed through the whole of his examination the indica- tion of the strongest prejudice." IIe died on the 27th of May, 1811, aged sixty-seven.
JOHN PENN, Deputy Governor, August, 1773 to 1776. Upon the return of John Penn to the Province, after an absence of two years, he superseded his brother Richard in the gubernatorial powers. His attention was early directed to the dangers of Indian hostilities on the Western border. Incited by a robbery said to have been committed by the savages, two daring frontiersmen, Cresap and Greathouse, had taken upon themselves to inflict punishment, and at the head of their clansmen had fallen upon hunting parties of the na- tives, striking down without mercy men, women, and children. Among these fell the family of Logan, a chief, renowned for his spirit and native eloquence. Governor Penn, on being apprised of these horrors, dispatched messengers to the tribes affected, disclaiming all responsibility for these lawless acts, and promising to bring the perpetrators to justice. This prompt action of the Governor had the effect to avert hostilities.
At about this time, Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, issued his proclamation laying claim to a large tract of territory west of the Alleghanies, in the name of the King, including Pittsburg and the Monongahela Valley. Many of the Virginia Colony had settled upon these lands, claiming the protection of the Governor of that Colony. Some time previous the British troops, occupying Fort Pitt, had been withdrawn, and now one Connolly had taken possession of it in the name of Dunmore. Governor Penn promptly called to his aid Sir William Johnson in quieting the Six Nations, and himself issued a counter-proclamation requiring settlers within the limits of Pennsylvania to preserve their allegiance to his rightful authority, and summarily arrested and imprisoned Connolly. He also sent two agents to Williamsburg to re- monstrate with the Virginia Government upon the unwar- rantable pretensions of the Governor. Dunmore refused to near them, and was preparing to assert his authority by
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force ; but his Council, better instructed than himself in the rights of the two Colonies, refused to give him money for raising and arming troops, and his ill advised scheme of conquest was abandoned.
The non-importation agreements of the Colonies seriously affected the interests of the great East India Tea Company, their expenditures having been great, and their profits now seriously impaired. Upon application to Parliament for re- lief, the export duty was removed, and the Company was en- couraged to ship freely to all the Colonies. News of this action created much excitement throughout America. Meet- ings were held in the capitals and chief towns, to oppose the sale of the tea, as the deliberate purpose of Parliament to es- tablish the principle of taxation was seen in this act. At a meeting held in Philadelphia on the 18th of October, 1773, spirited resolutions were passed, in which it was asserted, " That the disposal of their own property is the inherent right of freemen ; that there can be no property in that which another can, of right, take from us without our consent; that the claim of Parliament to tax America, is, in other words, a claim of right to levy contributions on us at pleasure .. That whoever shall directly or indirectly countenance this attempt, or in any wise aid and abet, in unloading, receiving, or vending the tea sent, or to be sent out, by the East India Company, while it remains subject to the payment of a duty here, is an enemy to his country." Of the ships dispatched, those destined for Philadelphia and New York, on approach- ing these ports and learning the temper of the people, wisely turned back, and returned to England. That sent to Char- leston was unladen, and the tea stored in a damp warehouse where it rotted; and the vessels sent to Boston were boarded by parties disguised as Indians, who opened over three hun- dred chests and poured the tea into the water, proclaiming " Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night." This unanimity of feel- ing and action was secured through committees of corre- spondence, appointed earlier in the year. The conduct of the Colonies exasperated the Ministry, and as the inhabitants of
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Boston had committed an overt act, its vengeance was directed against them. Their port was closed, the Colonial charter was in effect subverted, and persons guilty of capital offences could be transported to England for trial.
The harsh measures adopted towards the Massachusetts Colony, and especially towards the town of Boston, excited deep sympathy in all the Colonies. A public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which an address to the sufferers by these severe measures was adopted, in which was recom- . mended the calling of a congress of deputies from all the Colonies, where means should be devised for restoring harmony, and promising, that " the people of Pennsylvania would continue firmly to adhere to the cause of American liberty."
On the 18th of June, 1774, the Governor having refused to convene the Assembly to consider this question, another public meeting was called, at which nearly eight thousand people were present, and John Dickinson and Thomas Will- ing presided. At this meeting it was declared by resolution, that it was expedient to convene a Continental Congress, and a committee of correspondence was appointed to open com- munication with similar committees in the several counties and in other colonies, and provision was made for the ap- pointment of deputies to the proposed Congress. This com- mittee of correspondence summoned delegates from all the counties to represent the Colony in a general conference which was held on the 15th of July, 1774, over which Thomas Willing presided, and Charles Thomson acted as Secretary. In this conference it was resolved, first of all, that their al- legiance was due to George III., that they desired the restitu- tion of the ancient harmony with the mother country, and that there was an absolute necessity for a Colonial Congress. The members of this conference, feeling that they were the last and immediate representatives of the people, issued in- structions to the Assembly, and recommended that suitable delegates should be appointed to the general Congress. These instructions were drawn by John Dickinson, and were con-
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ceived in a spirit of calm justice and reason. They were adopted by the Colonial Assembly, and Joseph Galloway, speaker, Samuel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, Charles Hum- phries, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and John Dickinson, in compliance with the recommendation of the conference, were appointed delegates.
On the 4th of September, 1774, the first Continental Con- gress - that body which became so famous, and whose de- liberations resulted in such far-reaching consequences - as- sembled at Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was elected president, and Charles Thomson secretary. The Acts of Parliament oppressive to the people of Massachu- setts and the town of Boston were condemned, and it was declared " that no obedience was due from that Province to such Acts, but that they should be rejected as the attempts of a wicked administration." It was also resolved that no more goods be imported from England, and that after the 10th of September, 1775, the Colonies cease to export the products of the soil unless a pacification be secured. The provisions of the resolutions thus adopted were as sacredly observed throughout the Colonies as would have been the most binding enactments. Committees of correspondence were appointed in every colony, through which the central power was administered. A declaration of rights, based upon the instructions of the Pennsylvania convention to the As- sembly, was adopted; also an address to the people of Great Britain, one to the people of British America, and another to the King, after which the Congress adjourned, having recom- mended that another session be held in Philadelphia on the 10th of the next May.
The recommendations of Congress were approved by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Humphries, Morton, and Ross were appointed dele- gates for a second meeting of that body, and, subsequently, upon the return of Franklin from London, he was added to the delegation, with James Wilson and Thomas Willing. Without manifesting partisan zeal, Governor Penn was
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believed to sympathize with the Colonies, though in his mes- sage to the Assembly at this time he mildly remonstrated against the system of Congressional rather than Colonial ac- tion. The King, on the receipt of the loyal address of Con- gress, was disposed to regard it as proper and kindly ; but the Ministry had resolved upon forcing submission, though remonstrated against by the merchants and business men of all the principal towns as ruinous to their interests.
A second Provincial convention was held in Philadelphia towards the close of January, of which Joseph Reed was President. The action of Congress was approved by this body also, and it was resolved that the county committees of superintendence should aid each other in every way possible; that the restoration of harmony was earnestly desired; that the commercial non-intercourse resolves should be scrupu- lously adhered to; but concluded, " that, should the humble and loyal petition of Congress to his Majesty be disregarded, and the British Ministry, instead of redressing their griev- ances, determine by force to effect submission to the late arbitrary acts of Parliament, they deemed it their indispen- sable duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America."
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