USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 28
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The joint commissioners adjourned sine die Nov. 24, 1733, the Maryland commissioners adhering to their contention that the circle around New Castle must be twelve miles in circumference, instead of in radius. Baltimore went back to England, and on Aug. 8, 1734, while John Penn was on his way to America, peti- tioned the King for a confirmation of title to so much of the peninsula as was embraced in the bounds in Cecilius Calvert's pat- ent, notwithstanding the clause "hactenus inculta" in the pre- amble thereto. The Lords of Trade, to whom the petition was referred on its presentation, reported in the following January that the Lower Counties were included within the limits of Cal- vert's patent, and that the clause "hactenus inculta" did not ex- cept them from the grant. On May 16 the King, after a hear- ing of both sides by the Privy Council, ordered that the whole matter, including a counter petition from the Penns, should be postponed until Michaelmas Term, to enable either party to pro- ceed in a court of equity as to the agreement of 1732. The Penns filed a bill in chancery on June 21, for specific performance of the agreement, and the clearing of doubts about the circle and centre, offering to fix the centre in the middle of the town of New Castle. Baltimore's answer set up that the agreement was void from im- position upon him, and for want of consideration.
Samuel Blunston acted as the Proprietaries' agent on the west side of the Susquehanna, and, prior to the treaty of 1736, granted licenses to settlers in those parts, which in due time were deemed sufficient evidence of title. Some Germans went across, and were paying county levies to Lancaster county, when their neighbor, Thomas Cresap, holding under a Maryland title, induced them to acknowledge Lord Baltimore as landlord. The Germans find- ing the rents asked for, heavy, and being told that the land was not Baltimore's, sent a writing to the Governor of Maryland ex- plicitly renouncing the allegiance. The sheriff of Baltimore county, with 300 men on horseback, armed with carbines, pistols, and cutlasses, headed by trumpet and drum, commanded by
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Colonel Edward Hall, came up to Conejohela to dispossess the Germans: but the sheriff of Lancaster, gathering 150 inhabitants, although he had no arms or ammunition for them, demanded by what right the peace of his county was broken : and, indeed, John Hendricks's plantation, where some came, was upwards of 20 miles
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the project of about 50 persons of what Pennsylvania called the lower parts of Chester county, to remove to these lands, expected to be vacant through the ousting of the former occupiers, the Dep- uty Governor of Maryland issuing warrants for 200 acres to each adventurer, and Cresap taking arms and ammunition up the Chesapeake from Annapolis, and enlisting some men at 12l. per annum. But the Pennsylvania officials arrested some of the leaders. The Lancaster county people then determined that Cresap, who held a captain's commission from Maryland, must not remain at large. A warrant against him on the charge of murder, claimed by his friends to have been in self-defence, had been issued by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; so Samuel Smith, the sheriff of Lancaster, gathered a posse of 24, and on November 24 proceeded to the house of Cresap, where they found him ready for defence, with six men bound by oath to stand by him, and to shoot not only their assailants, but any one of them- selves who surrendered. One of the six escaped from the others by going up through the chimney. When Cresap refused to yield, the sheriff secured more assistance, and besieged the place, the inmates keeping up a fusillade until near sundown, when the sheriff set fire to the house, in which were also Cresap's wife and children. Cresap would not surrender, although offer was made to extinguish the flames. When the floor was about to fall in, those inside made a rush, and in the confusion one of the de- fenders was killed. The Pennsylvanians claimed that it was by the bullet of one of his companions, all five of whom were secured, and, except one left at Lancaster on a charge of rape, were taken to Philadelphia and put in its jail, Cresap on the previous charge of murder, the others on that of riot. The Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland sent Edward Jennings and Daniel Dulany to Phila- delphia to treat for the discharge of the prisoners, and the punish- ment of the sheriff and his men, but the only result was taking the irons off Cresap. The Council and Assembly of Pennsyl- vania united in a petition to the King, following one by the Ger-
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mans interested. Charles Higginbotham, having obtained a captain's and justice's commission from the Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland, and led a small party up the Susquehanna, was guilty of a number of severities or outrages by which the Germans were reduced to a deplorable condition. However, on August 8, 1737, the King ordered both Governors to preserve peace on their respective borders, and to make no grants of any part of the lands in contest between the Proprietors or of any parts of the Lower Counties, and to permit no person to settle there until his Majesty's pleasure be further signified. On complaint by the Penns and the agent for the Province of Pennsylvania of further disorders by Marylanders, the Lords of Trade effected an agree- ment between the adverse Proprietaries that the former order stand except as to the Lower Counties ; that all lands possessed by or under either should remain in such possession and under such jurisdiction until final settlement of the boundaries; that as to vacant land outside of the Lower Counties, and not in possession as aforesaid, on the east side of the Susquehanna as far south as 1514miles south of the latitude of the southernmost point of Philadelphia, and on the west side as far south as 1434 miles south of the said latitude, the temporary jurisdiction should be in the Proprietors of Pennsylvania ; and as to the vacant lands south of such limits, the temporary jurisdiction should be in the Pro- prietor of Maryland ; and that within the limits of their jurisdic- tions respectively the Proprietors could grant lands on the usual terms, accounting to each other after the final determination. The King granted an order for carrying out this agreement, May 25, 1738; and the temporary line was run.
Logan, after the arrival of the new Lieutenant-Governor, and continuance for a year more as Chief Justice, retired from pub- lic affairs except occasional presence at Indian treaties, devoting himself to very extensive literary and scientific pursuits. Before his death in 1751 he gave his great collection of books for the use of the public. This, known as the Loganian Library, of which
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his heir-at-law was to be librarian, and for which he gave a lot of ground, is now, with some additions, at the Ridgway Library building, administered by the Library Company of Philadelphia.
George Thomas arrived on June 1, 1738. The Proprietaries instructed him not to assent to any law for making or continuing bills of credit unless it enacted that the quit rents and other rents due or to become due to the Proprietaries, be paid according to the rate of exchange between Philadelphia and London. The Assembly having presented to him an act for reprinting, etc., all the bills of credit outstanding, and for striking the further sum of II, IIOl. 5s. on loan, he pointed out, that, as the exchange be- tween Philadelphia and London was 70 per cent., while the dis- count on Proclamation money, according to the act of Parliament of 6 Annæ was only £33,6s., 8d. per £100, it was unjust to oblige persons to receive the paper money at the value of Proclamation money for debts contracted to be paid in English money, and he proposed to except all debts, rents, and quit rents to the Proprie- taries, and all debts due in Great Britain agreed to be paid in ster- ling. The Assembly rejected this, but proposed if the bill without such amendment be passed, to pay 1,200l. to the Proprie- taries as a compensation for their losses in the difference in ex- change on the quit rents already due, and 130l. annually for their losses on those falling due in the time named in the bill. Thomas Penn accepted this, as a necessary sacrifice for the public good. feeling that a failure to re-emit the current bills of credit would be injurious to the trade of the province. Lieutenant-Governor Thomas explained the extent of this sacrifice ; the arrearages were £11,000 sterling, so that to make up even 50 per cent., 1,833l., 6s., 6d. were required, and to make up 70 per cent., 4,033l., 6s. 8d.
In October, 1739, the prospect of a war with the yet mighty kingdom of Spain induced the Lieutenant-Governor with some eloquence to ask the Assembly to prepare for the defence of the province. It had been about thirty years, and there had been great progress since a similar request had been made. The
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Quakers being in the majority, the Assembly sent back the old answer ; nor could Thomas, by eloquence or argument, by cour- tesy or ill-suppressed indignation, move them to consent to a militia law, even when those conscientiously opposed to fighting were to be exempted from its provision. In the course of a series of messages between Thomas and the Assembly, Israel Pemberton Jr. said in conversation with several persons in Alex- ander Graydon's house, that it was known what the Governor was before he came over, and what there was to expect of him. It was his design to overturn the Constitution, and reduce this to a King's government, and it would be proved on him. Graydon, who was not a sympathizer with the Quakers, said that as prob- ably the dispute would be laid before their superiors, the latter would best judge of his behavior. Pemberton replied that he did not doubt the Governor would use all his friends to set the Assembly in the wrong, and would make an unjust representation of the matter. This conversation became the talk of the town. Pemberton went to Graydon the next day, but told him that he wanted no apology for his words being made public, for he was very glad that the Governor had heard truths which the syco- phants who kept company with the Governor would never tell him. Thomas, claiming the right as chief magistrate to issue a warrant to bring persons before him for examination on charges of a breach of the peace, issued one against Pemberton, returnable that afternoon. Neither Thomas Griffitts, the third justice of the Supreme Court, nor any other councillor, objected, but when they met in the afternoon, awaiting the sheriff and Pemberton, Griffitts, called out of the room for a few minutes, signed a writ of habeas corpus and admitted Pemberton to bail. Thomas told the sheriff that the habeas corpus was illegal, and the officer answerable for Pemberton not being in his custody. The Lieu- tenant-Governor issued a second warrant. For several days the sheriff made an unsuccessful and perhaps not very earnest at- tempt to take Pemberton. War with Spain was proclaimed at
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the Town House on April 14, 1740, with cries of "God Save the King," firing of cannon from Society Hill, drinking to the King's health, and opening of beer for the populace. Pressing the As- sembly to obey the royal instruction by providing victuals, trans- ports, and other necessaries for the troops to be raised in Pennsyl-
Brietenback Block House in 1895
East of Myerstown, Lebanon County; used as a rendezvous by the settlers, under Conrad Weiser, 1755. From a sketch made especially for this work
vania for the expedition against the West Indies, the clothes, tents, arms, ammunition, and pay being provided by the govern- ment of Great Britain, Thomas offered to the Assembly to appoint commissioners to assist in the application of any money it might vote, and to render a regular account. The non-Quaker popula- tion organized seven companies of soldiers, but in these a large number of indentured servants enlisted. " Many Quaker masters were thus injured. The Assembly took up the matter, and ad-
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dressed the Governor ; but the runaways had taken the oath, and a large portion had received the King's subsistence for several weeks, and the Governor declined to dismiss them, except as free men took their places. That the provision for the troops could be made in time, private citizens advanced the money. Thomas Penn sent word to the Assembly on Aug. 6 that, as he was very unwilling that any private interest of his family should make the House less capable of assisting his Majesty, he was content to wait for the payments due the Proprietaries until after provision for the forces. Finally, on the 9th of August, the Assembly yield- ed to the importunities for money, and voted 3,000l. to Thomas Griffitts, Edward Bradley, John Stamper, Isaac Norris, and Thomas Leech, "for the use of King George II.," provided, how- ever, that no warrant for said sum should issue from the Speaker until all the servants enlisted should be returned to their masters free of all charges. A remonstrance to the King was drawn up, and Richard Partridge was appointed agent for the province, so as to present this. At the next Assembly, a committee reported the number of servants thus eloigned as 262, and compensation was made to the masters.
. The Society of Friends, although numbering, it is said, only one-third of the population, was admirably organized for politics as well as religion and charity : the Yearly Meeting gathered the chief men together just before the elections for assembly- men, and it was but natural that they should compare notes, and consult on the political situation and agree upon candidates. Yet all who professed themselves Quakers were not unanimously of the attitude represented by the Assembly. The Proprietaries and those affiliated with them and some others, had laid hold of a distinction between a lawful and an unlawful war, and naturally made themselves believe that their King was prosecuting a lawful war. Logan apparently had never been a non-resistant, and in 174I wrote from his retirement at Stenton, a letter to the Meeting setting forth the defenceless state of the province and the ill con-
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sequences that might ensue upon men of their principles procuring themselves to be returned to the Assembly. The shrewder heads, anxious to ward off the influence of such an epistle-for they had cause to fear if once they withdrew from politics, their ascendency could never be regained-hit upon the expedient of appointing a committee, Robert Jordan, John Bringhurst, Ebenezer Large, John Dillwyn, and Robert Strettell, to peruse the letter, and re- port whether it contained matters proper to be communicated to the Meeting. The committee reported, that, as it contained mat- ters of a military and geographical nature, it was by no means proper to be read. Robert Strettell alone remarked, that, con- sidering the letter came from a man of abundant experience, an old member who had a sincere affection for the welfare of the So- ciety, he was apprehensive, should it be refused a reading, such a procedure would disgust not only him but the large body of Friends in England. This minority report was not expected, and John Bringhurst caught him by the coat, saying sharply, "Sit thee down, Robert Strettell, thee art single in that opinion." (Letter of Richard Peters.) The Assembly chosen in 1741 unani- mously voted 3,000l. "for the King's use" forwarded through the agent in London; so the general course of Quaker majorities in time of war had been pursued ; first an affirmance of conscientious scruples, and a denial of the province being in danger, and a firm although perhaps unspoken refusal to pass a militia law, then a plea of poverty, and, after many adjournments, until the oppor- tunity to use the money most efficiently had passed, a loud cry against grievances, for which there was a committee ready, just as Friends had a meeting for sufferings, and finally an appropria- tion, not very generous, specified euphomistically as "for the King's use," and justified as rendering "tribute to Cæsar." Isaac Norris, son of William Penn's friend of that name, and grandson of Thomas Lloyd, was a leader of the strict Friends in the Assem- bly, differing in politics from Logan, one of whose daughters he had married. The various disputes between the Governor and
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the Quakers, or "Norris party," brought about contests for office as bitter as in modern times. The re-election of Norris to the Assembly in 1741 could not be prevented ; and the Quakers had some vantage ground with Norris and his brother-in-law Grif- fitts and uncle Preston, as three of the aldermen of the city. But the corporation was too important a political factor to be allowed to feel his influence. The adverse party mustered a majority to elect four new aldermen and five new councilmen who would further the Governor's plans; and the prominence of the Lloyd connection and even the equal footing of the Quakers in that board was destroyed forever. It was not so easy to defeat Nor- ris at a popular election. In 1742, after a session in which he had been head of nearly every committee, and in which he had performed lasting services in superintending the completion of portions of the State House, and in purchasing a site and devising plans for a Lazaretto, the wealthy Recorder of the city, William Allen, contended for his seat in the House. The German settlers had invariably voted with the Quakers, and it was charged that the "Norris party" had been in possession of the polls, crowded out their opponents, and elected their candidate with the aid of unnaturalized voters. But if the Governor's friends cried "fraud." they were now guilty of "bulldozing." On election day of that year a party of sailors, strong enough in numbers to make havoc in the little city, marched up from the wharves, ap- plied their clubs, and, wounding several, drove the disciples of peace from the State House. In the hubbub that followed, Allen is reported to have said "They had as good a right to be there as the unnaturalized Dutchmen;" he took no steps to preserve the
peace, and his supposed complicity lost him many votes. Such violence brought a reaction in public feeling, and Norris was re- turned. A fresh controversy arose from this "Riot of 1742," the new Assembly desiring the Governor to bring the officers of the city corporation to trial before the Supreme Court, and the Gov- ernor refusing, after which a resolution was passed censuring the
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Generalissimo of all British soldiers in the Colonies, 1755; defeated by the Indians and French near the Monongahela river, 1755
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officers in question for neglect of duty. In time the Lieutenant- Governor and Assembly attempted an harmonious course. Cer- tain bills which had been insisted upon, he finally assented to, and the money-voting power granted him his means of subsistence.
In July, 1742, about 200 Indians, among them deputies from all of the Six Nations except the Senecas, Canassatego the Onon- daga being speaker, came to Philadelphia to receive the goods in exchange for the land west of the Susquehanna, purchased in 1736. He explained the absence of the Senecas by their starving condition; a father had killed two of his children to preserve the lives of himself and the rest of his family. When the 45 guns, 60 kettles, 160 coats, 100 blankets, etc., had been counted, Canas- satego acknowledged compliance with the agreement, but said that he thought if the Proprietary himself had been present he would have given the Indians more, in consideration of their numbers and poverty. They knew the value of the lands, they knew, too, that land was everlasting, and the few goods were soon worn out and gone. Moreover, they complained that some whites had set- tled on the Juniata and at Mahanoy, beyond the land purchased and to the injury of the Delawares. The Lieutenant-Governor replied that the Proprietaries had taken the key of their chest with them, having in fact been more generous than the agreement called for. As to the increase in value, was it not owing to the industry of the whites? Had they not come, the land would have been of no use but to maintain the red men, and was there not enough left for that purpose? The Quaker government, how- ever, never grudged the Indians a present, and so goods worth 300l. were given. Then the Six Nations were requested to turn the Delawares from New Jersey off the lands at the forks of the Delaware, and accordingly the Six Nations censured these "women," as they called them, and obliged them to move to Wy- oming or Shamokin.
War with France was proclaimed in Pennsylvania on June 18, 1744, all the inhabitants capable of bearing arms being en-
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joined to provide themselves with firelock, bayonet, cartouch box, and powder and balls.
After a fight near the James River between a party of the Six Nations and some Virginians, in which several on both sides were killed, the Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania had offered mediation between that confederacy and the government of Vir- ginia, and so was brought about a treaty at Lancaster between deputies of the confederacy and commissioners from Maryland and Virginia in June and July, 1744, Thomas being present, at which the Indians released their claims to land in those provinces, and peace and friendship were confirmed. The Indians were informed of the victories of the English over the French. Canas- satego remarked that then they must have taken a good deal of rum from the French, and could better spare some to make the Indians rejoice with them; at which hint a dram for each was given in a small glass, which was called a "French glass." Canas- satego the next day related how in recognition of their engage- ments they had told the Governor of Canada that none of his peo- ple should go through their country to hurt the English, and how they had secured the neutrality of the "Praying Indians," i. e., those converted to Roman Catholicism. Then Canassatego re- marked that he had had a French glass; he now wanted a good- sized English glass; and the Governor told him that he was glad that he had such a dislike for what was French; "they cheat you in your glasses as well as in everything else." In the same year the Shawanees about Shamokin joined their brethren on the Ohio, and the Conoys moved from Conoytown to Shamokin. Peter Chartier, a trader partly of Shawanee blood, accepted a commission under the French, and at the head of a party of French and Shaw- anees, robbed and made prisoners of traders on the Ohio. On reports of a movement of French Indians against the colony, the Delawares at Shamokin were applied to to act as scouts, and harass any large body on the march, and join the frontiersmen in defence. There was some fear that the Six Nations, if they
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Showing old township road. Engraved espe- cially for this work from an old print in possession of Henry A. Breed
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found the French in danger of extinction, would join with them to preserve the balance of power. One old chief said to Conrad Weiser, who at this time was the provincial interpreter and mes- senger, that they knew their true interests ; they would be neutral until they must join with either side for their own preservation ; if one side drove the other out of America, the Six Nations would no longer receive consideration. The Commissioners of Indian Affairs at Albany proposed a meeting there with representatives of the confederacy, and, Lieutenant-Governor Thomas's health forbidding the journey, Thomas Lawrence and John Kinsey at- tended from Pennsylvania. They declined to join the commis- sioners from New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in asking the Six Nations to make war on the eastern Indians for killing some whites. While to that proposition an answer was promised after a demand for satisfaction should be made upon the French Indians, Lawrence and Kinsey in a separate interview secured a reiteration of the undertaking to keep the French from passing through their country on the way to attack the English. Lawrence and Kinsey secured also a promise to meet the Catawbas at Phila- delphia, to make peace with them.
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