USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Two > Part 2
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
The last meeting of the Governor's Council appears to have been held on October 5, 1775, Logan, Chew, James Tilghman, and Edward Shippen Jr., who was afterwards Chief Justice of the Commonwealth, attending. The Governor made choice of
IO
The Last Hereditary Governors
the sheriff and coroner of various counties under the frame of government of 1701. Memoranda of his acts to December 9 in- clusive appear in the book. Congress on May 15, 1776, resolved, that, it being necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the British Crown should be totally suppressed, therefore the respective Assemblies and Conventions be recommended, where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs had been previously established, to adopt such government as should in the opinion of the representatives of the people best conduce to their happiness and safety. This was the death-blow to Proprietary authority. A public meeting sent a protest against the Assembly of the province undertaking to frame a new government, as it de- rived its power from a royal charter, and did not truly represent the people. The meeting called for a convention. Opposed to this was a remonstrance against amending the constitution except by the authority provided in the charter itself. Protests and counter protests went to Congress; but delegates were chosen to the Constitutional Convention, which declared all power and au- thority derived from the King of England at an end.
-
I I
CHAPTER II.
INDEPENDENCE
I N March, 1774, began British coercion of recalcitrant America. Boston, for its bold demonstrations culminating in the "Bos- ton Tea Party," was closed as a port against all commerce by an act of Parliament passed during that month. The news of its passage aroused the indignation of the friends of liberty; and resolutions for a suspension of trade with England and for a gen- eral congress came from the neighboring counties ; but in Penn- sylvania the majority were disinclined to action. That any was taken is owing to Thomson, Mifflin, and Reed, with whom Dick- inson united : and he only, trusted for his moderation, admired for his abilities, or considered for his wealth, could have induced the Quakers to consent to an expression of sympathy for Boston and the participation by Pennsylvania in another general congress. Galloway, the Speaker of the Assembly, had taken the American view of taxation without representation, but was by nature a royalist. According to his subsequent statement to the Commit- tee of the House of Commons he saw nothing tyrannical in the Boston Port Bill. What grievances the colonies had, he was will- ing for a congress of their chief men to talk over : as one of the Committee of Correspondence of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, he wrote in support of such a plan; he said the Assemblies were the proper bodies to name these representatives, and he agreed as Speaker to call a session of his House. Governor Penn had been asked to summon it, but refused; however, he was soon obliged
12
Independence
to do so by the danger of an Indian war. It met on July 18; be- fore which the wire-pullers among the Whigs bent their energies to turn public opinion so strongly in favor of union with the other colonies that the Assembly must comply. They arranged for a convention of county committees, which, meeting just before the House, adopted a long paper of "instructions," prepared by Dick- inson, and in a body presented it at the sitting. These desired the Assembly to appoint delegates to the Congress, with orders to exert themselves to obtain a renunciation by Great Britain of all powers under the statute of 35 Henry VIII for transporting per- sons to England for trial and all powers of internal legislation, imposing taxes or duties, or regulating trade except in certain cases; also a repeal of the acts for quartering troops in the col- onies, or imposing duties to be paid in the colonies passed within a certain time, or giving colonial courts of admiralty certain powers complained of, or shutting up the port of Boston, etc. : in exchange for which favors, the colonies should engage to obey the Acts of Navigation and other acts of Parliament, and settle an annual revenue on the King, and satisfy all damages done to the East India Company. The committees composing this conven- tion were: For Philadelphia city and county, Thomas Willing. John Dickinson, Peter Chevalier, Edward Penington, Thomas Wharton, John Cox, Joseph Reed, Thomas Wharton Jr., Samuel Erwin, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Dr. William Smith, Isaac Howell, Adam Hubley, George Schlosser, Samuel Miles, Thomas Mifflin, Christopher Ludwic, Joseph Moulder, Anthony Morris Jr., George Gray, John Nixon, Jacob Barge, Thomas Penrose, John M. Nes- bitt, Jonathan B. Smith, James Mease, Thomas Barclay, Benjamin Marshall, Samuel Howell, William Moulder, John Roberts, John Bayard, William Rush, and Charles Thomson; for Bucks county, John Kidd, Henry Wynkoop, Joseph Kirkbride, John Wilkinson, and James Wallace; for Chester county, Francis Richardson, Elisha Price, John Hart, Anthony Wayne, Hugh Lloyd, John Sell- ers, Francis Johnston, and Richard Reiley; for Lancaster county.
13
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
George Ross, James Webb, Joseph Ferree, Matthias Slough, Emanuel Carpenter, William Atlee, Alexander Lowry, and Moses Erwin; for York county, James Smith, Joseph Donaldson, and Thomas Hartley ; for Cumberland county, James Wilson, Robert Magaw, and William Irvine; for Berks county, Edward Biddle, Daniel Brodhead. Jonathan Potts, Thomas Dundas, and Chris- topher Shultz; for Northampton county, William Edmunds, Peter Kechlein, John Okeley, and Jacob Arndt; for Northumberland county, William Scull and Samuel Hunter; for Bedford county, George Woods; and for Westmoreland county, Robert Hanna and James Cavett. Willing was Chairman, and Charles Thom- son, Clerk. A contemporary writes: "Our Honorable House made but a scurvy appearance the day the memorial was presented to them by the Committees ; it was enough to make one sweat to see a parcel of countrymen sitting with their hats on, great coarse cloth coats, leather breeches and woolen stockings in the month of July; there was not a speech made the whole time, whether their silence proceeded from their modesty or from their inability to speak I know not." Over these men, Galloway, with his wealth, education, and political prestige, and with some claim on their gratitude as their advocate against the Proprietaries, was both presiding officer and presiding genius. A few were under the control of ex-Chief Justice Allen, member from Cumberland. Both Allen and Galloway being favorable to a General Congress, and a number of Assemblymen having been members of the Conven- tion, it was carried unanimously to send delegates. But in the choice of delegates, we see the influence of Galloway. Instead of accepting Dickinson and Wilson, whom the Convention favored, the Assembly decided to send from their own number, and put Galloway at the head of the delegation, the others being Samuel Rhodes, Thomas Mifflin, Charles Humphreys, John Morton, George Ross, and Edward Biddle. The non-appointment of Dickinson caused great chagrin. Galloway then wrote the in- structions for himself and colleagues. He tells this to the com-
14
Independence
mittee of the House of Commons, as also how he was at first unwilling to serve, but consented to do so if the instructions were to his mind. As the Congress assembled, Galloway did the honors. He offered them the State House, but they decided to meet in the Carpenters' Hall. Bancroft narrates his conduct in Congress, beginning with the statement that he "acted as a vol- unteer spy for the British government." He certainly went into the Congress to exert a control over it. "To the delegates from other colonies as they arrived, he insinuated that 'commissioners with full power should repair to the British Court, after the example of the Roman, Grecian, and Macedonian colonies on occasions of the like nature.' His colleagues spurned the thought of sending envoys to dangle at the heels of a minister, and un- dergo the scorn of Parliament." We are told that it was in secret concert with the Governor of New Jersey and Lieut .- Gov. Colden of New York that he proposed in Congress a government for America to consist of a President-General appointed by the King, and holding office during his pleasure, and a Grand Council chosen once in three years by the Assemblies of the various colonies. This celebrated scheme is given in full in the American Archives, Fourth Series, although Congress afterwards expunged it from the minutes. The number of members of the Grand Council was left blank, but the design was to proportion it to the population. The Council was to meet annually ; the British Parliament was to have the power of revising its acts ; and it was to have a negative upon British statutes relating to the Colonies. The idea was a British and American legislature for regulating the affairs of America. The President-General was to execute the decrees of the Grand Council. He also had the power of vetoing them. This arrangement for arbitration between America and the Mother Country, which has no little resemblance to the Consti- tution of the United States adopted thirteen years later, differing from it in leaving the choice of the President and the second branch of the legislature to the King and British nation, whom
15
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Galloway looked upon as the source of power, instead of to the people of the United States, whom the framers of the Constitution recognized as sovereign, was the best possible suggestion from those who with sincerity professed the desire to remain under the King's government. "I am as much a friend to liberty as exists," said Galloway in presenting it, "and no man shall go further in
Deshler's Fort or Block house, built 1760
Lehigh county. From a sketch made especially for this work
point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you." The plan was favored by John Jay and James Duane of New York and by Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. It was rejected, says Charles Francis Adams in notes to John Adams's Writings, by the close vote of six colonies against five; says Bancroft, no colony but perhaps New York favored it. "With this defeat," says Bancroft, "Galloway lost his mischievous importance." On October 8th, Congress passed a resolution approving of the opposition made by the people of Massachusetts
16
Independence
to the Act of Parliament altering the government of that colony, adding that "if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, all America ought to support them in oppo- sition." Galloway thought this resolution treasonable. Duane and he asked to be allowed to enter their protest, but Congress refused, and they privately took each other's certificate that they had opposed it. Galloway then proposed to Duane to leave Con- gress; but, on consulting with his friends as to his personal safety if he did so, Galloway was advised to remain. He was re-elected to the Assembly in the fall of 1774, but changes fav- orable to the advanced Whigs had been made in the membership of the House. Edward Biddle was chosen Speaker. Galloway did not attend its meetings until after the report of the proceed- ings of Congress had been made by his colleagues, and the As- sembly had voted upon them, approving them unanimously. Dickinson had been almost unanimously elected a member of the Assembly, and, on the opening of the session, was added to the delegation. In Congress, his master hand was first employed in the Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec forwarded under date of October 26th. It was to explain the English Constitution, founded, as it said, on the principle that "to live by the will of one man or set of men is the production of misery to all men." Under that Constitution the first grand right is popular representation, lead- ing to the right of withholding supplies until grievances be redressed; the second grand right, trial by jury; the third, the writ of habeas corpus; the fourth, the holding of land by easy rents; and the last, freedom of the press. In place of these rights, a recent act of Parliament had given to the people of Quebec an absolute government dependent on the pleasure of a Ministry. Such being the case, the Address appealed to them to unite with the Colonies. Nature has joined their country to ours ; let the people join their political interests. They were not asked to commence acts of hostility against their sovereign, but to unite with the Colonies in one social compact. For this purpose, they
2-2
17
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
were desired to send delegates to the Congress which should meet the 10th of May following.
On November 2, 1774, twenty-eight citizens, who, it is said, had often met for fox-hunting, formed themselves into the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry. They were all men of sub- stantial means who needed not pay to keep them in the field. Some of them were representatives of the élite, and others after- wards attained such prominence in public affairs as shed lustre on the organization; but at that time Andrew Allen. Attorney- General of the Province, was the most distinguished man among them. The officers first chosen were: captain, Abraham Markoe (formerly of the Danish island of St. Croix) : first lieutenant, Andrew Allen ; second lieutenant, Samuel Morris (previously Sheriff of Philadelphia County ) ; cornet, James Mease, etc. The company, after serving at its own expense throughout the war which ensued has since maintained perpetual succesion, and is now commonly known as the First City Troop.
On December 15, 1774, the Assembly unanimously chose Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton and Ross to represent Pennsylvania in the next Congress, the other member of the former delegation, Rhoads, being Mayor of Phila- delphia and unable to attend. By reason of Biddle's illness, Morton became Speaker on March 15, 1775.
Upon news of the battle of Lexington multitudes of men at the suggestion of the county committees of observation entered into an association for defence. The older portion of the colony being a peaceable community, the chief officers from it were with- out military experience who owed their positions to political ac- tivity, and sometimes their leadership in that to social prominence. Dickinson accepted the colonelcy of the first battalion. The colonels of the others raised in the city of Philadelphia were Dan- iel Roberdeau, a merchant and politician, John Cadwalader, a shopkeeper selling hides, son of one of the Governor's Council, Thomas Mckean, a lawyer lately Speaker of the Delaware As-
18
Independence
sembly, and Timothy Matlack, of whom the anecdote is told that James Pemberton, noticing him girded with a sword, said, "What is that thing at thy side for?" and Matlack replied, "That is to defend my property and my liberty;" to which Pemberton answered, "Why, Timothy, as for thy property, we know that thou hast none, and as for thy liberty thou owest that to me," he having relieved Matlack from imprisonment for debt. The col- onels of six battalions raised throughout Philadelphia county (then including the present Montgomery) were: William Hamilton, nephew of Lieutenant-Governor James; Robert Lewis, Thomas Potts, Samuel Miles, Hill Tench Francis, who was the son of a deceased Attorney-General of the province, and had brothers-in- law in a dozen families of the fashionable circle of the little cap- ital. The other colonels were: of Bucks county, Joseph Kirk- bride, Joseph Hart, Andrew Kachlein, and Arthur Erwin; of Chester county, James Moore, Thomas Hockley, Hugh Lloyd, William Montgomery, and Richard Thomas ; of Lancaster county, George Ross, Matthias Slough, Curtis Grubb, Thomas Porter, John Ferree, James Burd, the only veteran officer of high rank among the heads of volunteers, Peter Grubb, and Bartram Gal- braith; of York county, James Smith, Robert McPherson, Rich- ard McAllister, William Smith, and Matthew Dill; of Cumber- land county, Robert Callender, William Thompson, John Mont- gomery, and James Wilson; of Berks county, Edward Biddle, Mark Bird, Daniel Brodhead, Balzer Geehr, and Christian Louer ; of Northampton county, George Taylor, Henry Geiger, Yost Driesbach, and Jacob Stroud ; of Bedford county, Bernard Dough- erty and Samuel Davidson; of Northumberland county, Samuel Hunter, James Potter, and William Plunkett ; and of Westmore- land county, John Proctor and John Carnahan.
The Assembly was induced on June 30, to resolve that it ap- proved of the association, and would pay both officers and men in case it were necessary for those enlisted to go into active service. At the same time, it ordered 35,000/. in bills of credit to be struck
19
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
off, appointed Michael Hillegas as Treasurer, recommended the purchase by the County Commissioners and assessors of specified numbers of guns with bayonets, cartridge boxes with twenty-three rounds of cartridges and knapsacks, offered 20l. for every cwt. of salt petre manufactured in the province within the next three months, and entrusted the calling forth of the associators and the spending of the bills of credit to a Committee of Safety composed of John Dickinson, George Gray, Henry Wynkoop, Anthony Wayne, Benjamin Bartholomew, George Ross, Michael Swoope, John Montgomery, Edward Biddle, William Edmunds, Bernard Dougherty, Samuel Hunter, William Thompson, Thomas Will- ing, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Roberdeau, John Cadwalader, Andrew Allen, Owen Biddle, Francis Johnston, Richard Reiley, Samuel Morris Jr., Robert Morris, Thomas Wharton Jr., and Robert White. Franklin was chosen President of this committee at its first meeting, July 3, 1775.
When Washington was put in command of the army around Boston, Mifflin accompanied them thither, and was made his aid- de-camp, in which capacity, says Bancroft, "he charmed by his activity, spirit, and obliging behavior," and being more convivial than the General, succeeded to the duties of host when the latter would retire from the table. In August, 1775, Washington ap- pointed him Quartermaster-General, as he writes to Richard Henry Lee, "from a thorough persuasion of his integrity, my own ex- perience of his activity, and finally because he stands unconnected with either of these governments or with this, that, or the other man ; for between you and me there is more in this than you can easily imagine." In October, 1775, the City of Philadelphia again elected Mifflin to the Assembly, but he resigned. On May 19, 1776, he was made a Brigadier-General, and entered upon active duties in the field. In the dark days of the war, he was eminently useful as a recruiting officer. Joseph Reed, another of the most active Whigs in Philadelphia, was made Adjutant-General. Con- gress asking in October, 1775, for the raising of one battalion
20
Independence
from Pennsylvania, to take part in the expedition against Canada, John Bull was appointed its Colonel, but resigned owing to a threat of about half the officers to do so, if he continued in com- mand, so John Philip De Haas, evidently a descendant of a Dutch settler of that surname, was appointed. James Irvine was Lieu- tenant-Colonel, and Anthony James Morris, Major. Four more battalions were also raised that year, the colonels being Arthur St. Clair, the leading man of Westmoreland county, who had seen service in the British army under Amherst, John Shee, an Irish merchant who had married into the Lawrence family of Philadel- phia. Anthony Wayne, member of the Assembly, educated as a surveyor, who made himself by study and severe drilling of his men a general as well as a hero, and Robert Magaw.
A murmur for independence was becoming audible through the colonies, but, however general it may have been in Massachu- setts, had been quickly frowned down in Pennsylvania. It was with difficulty that the mass of our people had been roused at all. A moderate amount of fair treatment by Parliament would have satisfied them. By the Quakers, what was desired was not to be obtained by bloodshed. By the Proprietary officials, it was not worth risking deprivation of office. With the rest of the popu- lation, becoming more and more determined to battle for their rights, the influence of "the Farmer" was sufficient to keep them to the original purposes of resistance. In Congress, his labors were for reconciliation, and he wrote and carried through that body the Second Petition to the King, entreating his attention to a number of grievances, and asking but for Peace, Liberty, and Safety. It was penned, says Belsham in his Memoirs of George III, "with extraordinary force and animation, in many parts rising to a very high strain of eloquence." It is a great record for John Dickinson that nearly every address sent forth from the Continental Congress from this time to the Fourth of July, 1776, was written by him. This Petition was called "the olive-branch," and was looked upon as a forlorn hope by the majority, and by
2I
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
many acquiesced in as the last effort of the Conservatives; but Ramsey in his History says it produced more solid advantages to the Americans than preceding measures. It was taken to Eng- land by Richard Penn, lately Governor of Pennsylvania. He and Arthur Lee, Agent for Massachusetts in London, delivered it to the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the Ist of September. On November 7, 1775, its consideration being the order of the day in the House of Lords, the Duke of Rich- mond, observing Mr. Penn below the bar, moved that he be examined, to authenticate it. The Earls of Sandwich and Dart- mouth, fearing that this would lead to a disagreeable statement of American affairs, objected to an examination without previous notice as unprecedented. Other lords pleaded for some informa- tion as to the general state of America, and said that there could be no one better able to give it than Mr. Penn; and the Duke of Richmond promised that no question should be asked to which any peer should make objection. It being carried at last that Penn should be examined on the roth, he that day appeared at the bar, and was sworn. Among other answers, he said that when he left Pennsylvania the province had 20,000 men in arms, and 4,500 had been since raised; he supposed there were 60,000 fit to bear arms, and he believed all would willingly come forward, if neces- sary ; Pennsylvania raised more than enough corn to feed her peo- ple, and could manufacture certain munitions of war in good quantities.
In October, 1775, Dickinson was almost unanimously re- elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly-Bancroft sums up, "by patriots who still confided in his integrity, by loyalists who looked upon him as their last hope, by the Quakers who knew his regard for peace, by the Proprietary party whose cause he had always vindicated."
When the new Assembly met, it reappointed the Committee of Safety, leaving off William Edmunds, William Thompson, and Thomas Willing, and adding Samuel Miles, George Taylor, Jo-
22
Independence
seph Reed, Nicholas Fairlamb, George Clymer, Samuel Howell (merchant), Alexander Wilcocks, John Nixon, James Mease, and James Biddle. The committee re-elected Franklin President, and Robert Morris, Vice-President. In November, delegates were chosen to Congress ; Dickinson was returned, and Benjamin Frank- lin alone, out of the nine delegates, was in favor of separation : and they were instructed to reject any proposition looking to such a thing. Dickinson continued to be one of the most important members of Congress, was placed on the committee to correspond with foreign powers, and was entrusted with the framing of Ar- ticles of Confederation. The majority were now determined to destroy the authority of the British King, and although Dickinson held his delegation to his own views, the progress of events changed public feeling in Pennsylvania, where many who regretted the cruel necessity were now ready to give up the name of English- men. With Dickinson himself, it became a question of advisa- bility. At length the Assembly released the delegates from the former instructions, and left the matter to their own judgment. A committee, with the author of the Farmer's Letters at its head, reported : "The happiness of these colonies has during the whole course of this fatal controversy been our first wish ; their recon- ciliation with Great Britain our next. Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both. But if we must renounce the one or the other, we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governor of the universe that we shall not stand condemned be- fore His throne if our choice is determined by that overruling law of self-preservation which His Divine wisdom has thought proper to implant in the hearts of His creatures."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.