USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Two > Part 3
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Congress now resolved itself into a committee of the whole on the question of independence. John Adams advocated it with great warmth, and delegates from other colonies joined in the clamor. Livingston of New York, Rutledge of South Carolina, and Wilson of Pennsylvania joined with Dickinson in opposing it. Wilson avowed, that, notwithstanding the recall of the instruc-
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tions against independence by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, his own sentiments remained the same. Dickinson, who had pledged his word to the Assembly the day before that he and a majority of the delegates from the colony would continue to vote against independence, declared that two hundred years of happiness and present prosperity, resulting from English laws and the union with Great Britain, demonstrated that America could be wisely governed by the King and Parliament. It was not as independ- ent, but as subject states ; not as a republic, but as a monarchy, that the colonies had attained to power and greatness. The re-
La Durkee
Signature of Captain John Durkee
straining power of the King and Parliament was indispensable to protect the colonies from disunion and civil war. If the dread of English arms were removed, province would rise against prov- ince, city against city, and the weapons now assumed to combat the common enemy would be turned against themselves. Even when supported by the powerful hand of England, the colonists had abandoned themselves to discords and sometimes to violence, from the paltry motives of territorial limits and distant jurisdic- tions ; what then must they not expect now that minds were heated, ambitions roused, and arms in the hands of all? For the past twelve years the measures of the English government had savored of tyranny ; but was there any doubt that it already felt a secret repentance? The arms it prepared were not now designed to establish tyranny on our shores, but to compel us to accept terms of accommodation. The distance of the seat of government, the vast extent of intervening seas, the continual increase of our pop- ulation, our warlike spirit, our experience in arms, the lakes, the
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rivers, the forests, the defiles which abounded in our territory, were our pledges that England would always prefer to found her power upon moderation and liberty rather than upon rigor and oppression. As to the beneficence of founding an American re- public, Dickinson, according to Botta's History American War, re- minded Congress how in popular republics. "so necessary is mon- archy to cement human society," it had been found requisite to institute monarchial powers more or less extensive under the names of Archons, Consuls, Doges, Gonfaloniers, and Kings. The English nation had never found repose except in monarchy ; and the English constitution seemed to be the fruit of the expe- rience of all former time, monarchy being so tempered that the monarch himself is checked in his efforts to seize absolute power, and the authority of the people being so regulated that anarchy is not to be feared. When a counterpoise should no longer exist. the democratic power, it was to be apprehended, might carry all before it, and involve the state in confusion and ruin; and then an ambitious citizen arise, seize the reins of power, and annihilate liberty forever. The debate was adjourned to the Ist of July. When Congress again resolved itself into committee on the ques- tion, James Wilson had turned for independence. John Adams now made a stirring speech in favor of declaring it. Dickinson rose in reply. "I desire this illustrious assembly to witness the integrity, if not the policy of my conduct." He argued that the time had not come for such a step. "Without some prelusory trials of our strength, we ought not to commit our country upon an alternative where to recede would be infamy and to persist might be destruction." It would add nothing to their strength : it might unite the different parties in England against them : it might create disunion among themselves. He pointed out that foreign aid would not be obtained without success in battle. Be- fore the proposed step were taken, they should know the feelings of the great powers, which emissaries had been sent to sound, and as to which they would soon get a report. They ought at least
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to have agreed upon the terms of their own confederation, as had been begun, and it would have been well to have fixed the bounds of each colony, and declared the region not within the acknowl- edged boundaries to be appropriated for the common benefit to pay the expense of the war. To the intelligent reader, there is sagacity in all Dickinson's utterances on public affairs ; to the stu- dent of the history of that time, there was but common prudence in what he said on this occasion, successful as, after a long war, became the venture of declaring for independence at this juncture. The colonies were divided. Pennsylvania had been maintaining a border war with both Virginia and Connecticut, because of con- flicting or misunderstood boundaries. New York had a similar dispute with Connecticut and New Hampshire, the latter contest- ing for the region which has since become the State of Vermont. Further trouble was to be expected as population advanced to- wards the interior of the continent, the older colonies claiming under their original charters as far as the Pacific ocean. It was imperative before these rival communities were freed from out- side control that such claims against each other should be arbi- trated. The various colonies differed in interests, sentiments, and somewhat in race. The Huguenot and the Knickerbocker naturally cared little for his neighbors of English descent. It was possible that the Quaker remembered New England perse- cution ; left to himself, he would keep the State he controlled iso- lated. It was not likely that a body of gentleman farmers formed into a State free to follow their own inclinations would keep up any alliance with a mercantile democracy. That alliance, then, should have been imposed as the condition of their political great- ness. Congress, however, was ordaining that South Carolina and Massachusetts and New York and Delaware, etc., etc., were each an independent nation absolved from allegiance to the British Crown, and under no regulations as to intercourse with one an- other! Perhaps if the great declaration had been postponed until after the articles of confederation were settled, and the colonies
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bound together more closely by common suffering, the immortal instrument would have declared the colonies "a free and inde- pendent nation," and spared posterity the conflict arising from "free and independent States." Nothing but the long war weld- ing together the opposite parts and peoples gave us a country. Dickinson in voting in committee of the whole against Lee's reso- lution declaring independence, was joined by Robert Morris, Thomas Willing, and Charles Humphreys, making with him a ma- jority of the Pennsylvania delegation ; but nearly every colony went the other way. With Franklin and Wilson, John Morton voted in the affirmative. On July 2, 1776, the resolution, being reported by the committe of the whole, came before the House. Dickinson and Morris made no further opposition, but by absenting them- selves allowed the Keystone State, which Pennsylvania's popula- tion and geographical position made her, to be put into the na- tional arch then being erected. John Morton, history has cred- ited with giving the casting vote. He felt the weightiness of his action, and the odium which he incurred in the locality where he lived, and breaking down in health and dying within a year, sent from his deathbed this protest to the friends who had turned from him: "Tell them they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge my signing of the Declaration of Independence to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my coun- try."
This great measure, although firing the enthusiasm of many, particularly the Scotch-Irish, tore the hearts of those who looked upon England as home, and shocked the moral sense of some who had joined in the resistance to Parliament as well as of the great mass of Quakers always opposed to the disquiet, the arbitrariness, and the cruelty of war. As Voltaire said of William Penn's treaty with the Indians, "never sworn to and never broken," so was the non-militant loyalty of his followers to "the powers that be." In comparing the number of Tories in Philadelphia and vicinity with those in other colonies, we must take into account that here as
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nowhere else was a large religious denomination active in public life, possessed of a great part of the wealth, and distinguished by succession from the founders of the colony, almost unanimous in disapproval of the overthrow of the King's authority. The heads of the Proprietary party shared the same sentiments, while John Penn's weakness of character, which indeed served him a good turn, his father-in-law Allen's old age, James Hamilton's age and broken health-he had a cancer-kept these to the same state of inaction as peace principles did their enemies the Quakers. The young Allens who, as their father in 1775 had given powder to the committee of safety, had joined revolutionary committees or accepted military command, now resigned, and in due time one of them turned his sword against the Americans. The members of Penn's Council, being mostly old men with some of their closest connections among those who took up arms, committed no overt act against the American cause, but apparently Cadwalader, who afterwards served as medical director of the army hospitals, was the only one who in any way aided it. The Episcopal clergy ex- cept William White, afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania, event- tually left their charges and retired to England. As we see, the majority of the substantial people, although not of the kind to raise a counter insurrection, were opposed to independence, and incensed at its promulgation. It was consummated by the more remote rural population. So much was this the case that officers of the enemy called the war a Scotch-Irish rebellion.
On July 4. 1776, delegates from the regiments of associators, two officers and two privates from each, met at Lancaster, and elected Daniel Roberdeau and James Ewing as Brigadier-Gen- erals.
Naturally the active men in the military organizations or the local committeemen were chosen in this time of excitement as delegate to the convention to frame a new constitution. It was to be expected that the old statesmen would be crowded out unless they were leaders in the revolutionary movement. Franklin
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Francis Hopkinson
Poet; author; librarian and secretary Philadel- phia Library, 1764-1765; member Continental Congress 1776; signer Declaration of Inde- pendence; judge of admiralty for Pennsylvania 1779-1789; United States district judge 1790- 1701. Reproduced from an old engraving es- pecially for this work.
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was such, and was sent by the city of Philadelphia, the rest of its delegation being Colonel Matlack, Frederick Kuhl, Owen Biddle, Prof. James Cannon, George Clymer, George Schlosser, and David Rittenhouse. The two greatest scientific men then living in Penn- sylvania, Franklin and Rittenhouse, were the only members of the entire body whose names were or have become illustrious. George Ross was the distinguished personage of the Lancaster county delegation. Franklin being unanimously chosen President, Ross was very justly unanimously awarded the position of Vice-Presi- dent. All the counties including Philadelphia outside of its city were equally represented by eight members. This was a reappor- tionment of the delegates of the people, simpler but not more in accordance with population than the old allowance of preponder- ance to Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester. This and the abolition of property qualification, and the allowance of the suffrage to foreigners, all followed in the Constitution adopted.
The meeting of this Convention July 15, 1776, marks the transference of power from the people whose ancestors had set- tled the province under William Penn. Almost the first action was to substitute for Dickinson, Allen, Humphreys, and Willing in the delegation to Congress, James Smith, George Taylor, George Ross, Dr. Benjamin Rush, and George Clymer, of whom only the last was of Quaker affiliation, and the last two born near Phila- delphia. Smith and Taylor were natives of Ireland, while of the older members which the convention allowed to remain, John Morton sprang from the old Swedish settlers, but James Wilson was a native of Scotland while the remaining two have enabled a wag to insinuate the mediocrity of Pennsylvanians by toasting "Pennsylvania's great men, Benjamin Franklin, a native of New England, and Robert Morris, a native of Old England." On July 24, the Convention established a Council of Safety to exer- cise the executive authority of the government until the new Con- stitution went into operation. At the head of this Council was Thomas Wharton Jr.
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The Constitution as finally adopted vested all legislative power in the General Assembly of the Representatives of the Freemen to be composed for three years of six persons annually chosen from the city of Philadelphia and six from each county of the State in- cluding Philadelphia outside the city, afterwards the representa- tion to be apportioned every seven years to the number of taxable inhabitants. Laws except in sudden necessity were not to be passed until the next session after proposal. The executive power was vested in a Supreme Executive Council of twelve elected mem- bers, one from the city of Philadelphia and one from each of the counties including Philadelphia, so chosen that one-third should go off every year and no member after serving three years should be eligible within four years. Of this body and from its members a President and Vice President were to be annually elected by joint ballot of the councillors and assemblymen. New counties were each to have a councillor. The President and the Council, five of whom were to make a quorum, were to appoint all judges, the attorney-general, etc., etc. The right to vote was given to all freemen over twenty-one years of age who had resided within the State a year before the election and paid taxes, but the sons twenty-one years old of freeholders were not required to pay taxes. The freemen and their sons should be trained and armed for de- fence of the State under regulations and with exceptions accord- ing to law, but with the right to choose their own colonels and officers under that rank. A debtor except for fraud should not be kept in prison after giving up his real and personal estate for the benefit of his creditors. A foreigner having taken the oath of allegiance could purchase and transfer real estate and after a year's residence have all the rights of a natural born subject, but be ineligible as a member of Assembly until after two years' resi- dence. A Council of Censors of two members chosen from each city and county every seven years beginning with 1783 should inquire into the violation of the constitution, and whether the legislative or executive branches of the government had exercised
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greater powers than they were entitled to, and could impeach, or by a vote of two-thirds of those elected call a convention to amend the constitution. This constitution was not submitted to a vote of the people; but was ordained by the Convention, after con- siderable opposition.
The first Assembly under the new Constitution met in Phila- delphia on November 28, 1776, its most distinguished members being Dickinson, Clymer, Morris, and James Smith the Signer. John Jacobs of Chester county was chosen Speaker. These legis- lators of a new sovereign people had hardly begun their session when, retreating before Howe, Washington sent Mifflin to Phila- delphia to summon the associators to make the defense of the city at the falls of the Delaware. He himself with an army depleted by the expiration of terms of enlistment, crosed from Trenton into Pennsylvania on December 8. Mifflin brought up 1,500 men, over whom Colonel John Cadwalader was given command. For want of boats the British could not pass. Nothing else tempo- rarily saved Philadelphia, to which Putnam was sent to super- intend fortification, and from which Congress on the 12th removed to Baltimore. Mifflin had been sent on December 10 with four members of the Assembly, into the adjoining counties to rouse the people, to call them in an inclement season of the year to leave their firesides and undertake weary marches, and, more- over, to gather their own stores. They called meetings everywhere, Mifflin explaining the necessity of the hour from pulpits and from judges' benches. They succeeded in bringing out the militia of Lancaster county and the frontier region, al- though a large part of Eastern Pennsylvania remained supine or disaffected. Howe returned for winter quarters in New York, leaving Trenton and Burlington in the charge of Donop and a large body of Hessians. The Americans had brigades under Lord Stirling, Mercer, Stephen, and De Fermoy, at the various ferries from Coryell's (New Hope) to Yardley's ( Yardleyville) ; Ewing was further south with the Pennsylvania Flying Camp. Philemon
2-3
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Dickinson had some New Jersey troops opposite Bordentown, Cadwalader's militia were about Bristol, and Colonel Nixon with the 3rd Philadelphia battalion was at Dunk's Ferry. In this army as a lieutenant of artillery was James Monroe, afterwards President of the United States. Cadwalader and Miles, who was then a prisoner of war, were appointed by Pennsylvania Briga- dier-Generals of her militia on December 25. Davis's History of Bucks County gives a detailed account of the battle of Trenton. When Washington matured his plans to cross the River Delaware above the Falls at Trenton with his main army, the two smaller divisions under command of Generals Ewing and Cadwalader were ordered to cross at the same time at points lower down the shore; that under General Ewing, at the Ferry below Trenton, the other under Cadwalader, a few miles lower. In the instruc- tions of General Washington, on Christmas day, 1776, to the lat- ter, he said, "If you can do nothing real, at least create as big a diversion as possible." That night Cadwalader, stopped by the ice, finally crossed on the 27th from Bristol, and remained on the Jersey side, the troops from Burlington having retreated. Ewing's command crossed on the 28th and 29th, taking a position at Bor- dentown. General Washington made the crossing on the night after Christmas, and on the morning of the 26th took Trenton with over 900 prisoners. He thought it best to get back to the Pennsylvania side, but in a few days crossed again and joined the divisions of Cadwalader and Ewing. Mifflin brought to Borden- town 1,800 recruits. Marching from Trenton on the third of January, 1777, Washington made the attack upon Princeton, and afterwards, in his report to the President of Congress, alluded to General Cadwalader as "a man of ability, a good disciplinarian, a man of good principle and of intrepid bravery." Chief Justice Marshall, who was at that time an officer in the army, in a letter speaks of General Cadwalader's "activity, talents, and zeal." Gen- eral Joseph Reed, in a letter to the President of Pennsylvania, dated Morristown, January 24, 1777, said : "General Cadwalader
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has conducted his command with great honor to himself and the province, all the field officers supported their character, their ex- ample was followed by the inferior officers and men ; so they have returned with the thanks of every general officer of the army."
A treaty with the Indians was held on January 27, at Easton, in the German church, the organ being played as those present drank rum to the health of Congress and the Six Nations and their allies. The commissioners of the United States were George Walton and George Taylor, members of Congress, attended by Colonels Lowry and Cunningham, appointed by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and Colonels Bull and Dean, appointed by her Council of Safety, and Thomas Paine, Secretary ; the Indian chiefs were Jarsquah, or King Charles, a Cayuga, Tawanah, or the Big Tree, a Seneca, Mytakawka and Kakuah, Munceys, Amatincka, a Nanticoke, and Wilakuko, a Conoy. Their speaker said that the first agreement with his white brethren after they came ashore was to settle the land as far as Standing Stone; that at the last purchase, that at Fort Stanwix in 1768, it was agreed that there should be no more land sold unless all the nations of the Indians agreed to it. The great council of the Six Nations sent messages of love in this quarrel, for which they were sorry and with which they had nothing to do: they would not suffer enemies to come through their land from Niagara. The Indians were in want, and they desired Colonel Bull to be agent for them, and a breach would take place if some of the white people who had long feet, and had stepped a great way over the line fixed by the treaty of 1768, were not called back. The commissioners told how the wicked King of England put out the council fire which his fathers and the fathers of the Americans had lit, and told the Americans there would be no other fire than gunpowder fire, and now the Americans had no other brothers than the Indians, of whom they asked only the good wishes. It was seen from a paper in the handwriting of Colonel Butler in the King's service at Niagara, that he was endeavoring to turn the Six Nations against the
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Americans. The Indians showing this paper were warned against such attempts.
Michael Hillegas, first Treasurer of Pennsylvania, ceasing to reside in the State, David Rittenhouse, the astronomer, became his successor.
On February 5, 1777, the Assembly chose as representatives in Congress, Morris, Franklin, William Moore, Jonathan Bayard Smith, and Daniel Roberdeau. Moore was the son of a native of the Isle of Man, and was a merchant who had married the sister-in-law of Thomas Wharton Jr. Moore, however, declined.
The election held on February 14, resulted in the choice of Colonel John Bull, Colonel John Moore. William Coates, and Rob- ert Lollar as assemblymen in place of Dickinson, George Gray, Isaac Hughes, and Thomas Potts, and in the choice of Wharton as a councillor. On the 21st, William Jackson and William Hol- lingshead were chosen in place of Robert Morris and Samuel Mor- ris Jr. and George Bryan as a councillor. On the same day Con- gress appointed John Cadwalader one of the ten Brigadier-Gen- erals, but he declined, preferring to remain in the service of his State. On the 22nd, Wilson and Clymer, previously members of Congress, were added to the Pennsylvania delegation.
On March 4, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council of Penn- sylvania met for the first time. present Thomas Wharton Jr., John Evans, Jonathan Hoge, George Taylor, John Lowdan, and John Proctor ; absent, George Bryan and John Hubley. On the next day George Bryan also attended, and in joint ballot the councillors and assemblymen elected Wharton as President, and Bryan as Vice-President of the Council. Says Miss Anne Hollingsworth Wharton : "Although Thomas Wharton has been spoken of as an ardent Constitutionalist, we find nothing to justify such a state- ment beyond the circumstance of his having acceptably filled the position of first Constitutional Governor of Pennsylvania, and are disposed to rank him among the moderate supporters of the new system. . His views on this subject seem fairly set forth
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Fergus Moorhead House, Indiana County
Sketch of the old stone house built by Fergus Moorhead, the first settler of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, about 1778, upon the site where he built his log cabin in 1772. The stone por- tion is the oldest, the frame portion is of later date. The house is located some miles from Indiana. Engraved especially for this work from a sketch by Dr. W. J. Holland
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in the following letter addressed to Arthur St. Clair soon after the adoption of the Constitution : 'True it is there are many faults which I hope one day to see removed: but it is true that if the government should at this time be overset, it would be attended with the worst consequences not only to the State, but to the whole Continent, in the opposition we are making to Great Britain. If a better frame of government should be adopted, such a one as would please a much greater majority than the present one, I should be very happy in seeing it brought about. '" It became Thomas Wharton's task to draw together the adverse ele- ments in his native State: and the people, we are told, met the announcement of his election with shouts of joy. His govern- ment during this period was in a very hard position, unceasingly besought to furnish men and money out of a devastated territory to fight for an almost hopeless cause.
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