USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Two > Part 4
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On the 6th, Timothy Matlack, Clerk of the House, was made Secretary of the Council, and John Morris, Clerk of the House. On the 13th a Board of War was appointed consisting of David Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, William Moore, Joseph Dean, Samuel Morris Sr., Samuel Cadwalader Morris, John Bayard, George Gray, and John Bull ; and a Navy Board was appointed consisting of Andrew Caldwell. Joseph Blewer, Joseph Marsh, Emmantiel Eyre, Robert Ritchie, Paul Cox, Samuel Massey, William Brad- ford, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Samuel Morris Jr., and Thomas Bar- clay. The Speaker of the House being too ill to attend, John Bay- ard was chosen Speaker on the 17th. On March 20, Joseph Reed was appointed Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, but he declined on account of military engagements, and the position was given on July 28 to Thomas Mckean, who as a member of Congress from Delaware had signed the Declaration of Independence. On April 5 the Council appointed as Brigadier-Generals John Armstrong, John Cadwalader, James Potter, and Samuel Meredith. Wash- ington believing that the British intended an attack upon Penn- sylvania, Mifflin came to Philadelphia again June 10, 1777, with
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
messages to Congress and the Assembly and there was intrusted to him and DeCoudray the arrangement of the defences of the River Delaware. The day after Mifflin had appeared before the Assembly to say that Philadelphia was in danger, a memorial from its citizens was presented complaining of the languor "in every department of the State" and explaining it as owing to "the general dislike of the people to the present constitution," and praying for a new convention to amend it. Similar and counter petitions came in, those counter having the greater number of signatures, so the Assembly provided that commissioners go to the residence or place of business of or take some other oppor- tunity of seeing every freeman entitled to vote for members of Assembly, and get his answer on paper, whether he desired a con- vention to be then called, the votes to be counted after the 10th of November. By the progress of military events this became impossible.
The Assembly of Virginia had authorized its delegates in Congress to propose a final accommodation of the boundary dis- pute as follows : a meridian line from the head of the Potomac should be extended from its intersection with Mason and Dixon's line due north until it should intersect the latitude of 40 degrees, and thence the southern boundary of Pennsylvania should be run on said 40th degree until the distance of five degrees of west longitude from Delaware river should be completed, and the west- ern boundary should be from that completion either at five degrees from every point of the river according to its meandering, or from points or angles on the river with straight lines between. The Assembly of Pennsylvania on June 17, 1777, admitted the pro- posal as to the western limits, but declared that it could see no reason to curtail the State by making its southern boundary line west of Maryland the 40th parallel, when west of Maryland it should be latitude 39 degrees. Therefore the Assembly proposed that the meridian line from the head of the Potomac be extended due south to latitude 39 and thence the southern boundary run
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Independence
along said parallel until five degrees from the Delaware be com- pleted, and from the point of completion the western boundary be run in lines between points at five degrees from points or angles of the Delaware. This would have given Pennsylvania the site of the present town of Weston in .Lewis county, West Virginia. The Assembly offered, if this were not accepted by Virginia, to leave the whole dispute to determination by the Continental Con- gress after hearing both sides by counsel.
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CHAPTER III.
THE REVOLUTIONARY CAMPAIGNS IN PENNSYLVANIA
O N June 13, 1777, the Assembly required all white male in- habitants over eighteen years of age except in Bedford, Northumberland, and Westmoreland counties to take an oath of allegiance before the Ist of July, and those in said counties before the Ist of August, excepting, however, delegates in Con- gress, prisoners of war, officers and soldiers in the Continental army, and merchants and mariners in port trading from foreign powers and not becoming residents. Any person refusing should be incapable of holding office, serving on juries, electing or being elected, or even bringing law suits, or buying or selling land, and, as was perfectly reasonable, should be disarmed.
On July 23, Howe sailed with his army from New York to make a mighty effort to end the Revolution by capturing Phila- delphia. On July 31, the Continental Congress recommended to the government of Pennsylvania forthwith to make prisoners of such of the late Crown and Proprietary officers and such other persons in and near Philadelphia as were disaffected, or might be dangerous to the public liberty, and to send them back into the country, there to be confined or enlarged on parole as their char- acters and behavior might require. Accordingly, a warrant was made out for the apprehension of the former Governor, John Penn, and his Chief Justice, Benjamin Chew. Some of the City Troop made the arrest. Both Penn and Chew for some time re- fused to sign any parole; Penn was at his father-in-law's house,
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Revolutionary Campaigns
awaiting the disposition of his person by the Revolutionary au- thorities, Chew was a prisoner in his own house, when Congress ordered them to be sent to Fredericksburg, Va., under care of an officer and six of the troopers. On August 13, through the Rev. Dr. Ewing, Presbyterian minister, Chew expressed to the Supreme Executive Council a willingness to sign the parole of- fered and gave the explanation that he had refused previously, not from any want of respect for the Council, but from a desire to have the cause of arrest inserted in the warrant, so as to show that he was not charged with any crime against the States, but was arrested as an officer of the late government. Finally, how- ever, a parole was signed by both agreeing to repair to the Union Iron Works, partly owned by Chew's wife's uncle, and there re- main until otherwise ordered, and meanwhile give no aid or com- fort to the enemy. Penn and Chew resided at the works through- out the next ten months, although after the British had taken Philadelphia, a proposition was made to permit their return to the city. The danger from their being at liberty was over, and no overt act could be alleged against them to justify enforced exile from their homes, and that, moreover, in the season of winter. Finally, on May 15, 1778, Congress resolved that they be con- veyed without delay into the State of Pennsylvania, and there discharged from their parole.
Congress having heard a rumor that the British had already landed at the head of the Chesapeake, recommended on August 25 that the authorities of Pennsylvania and Delaware secure and disarm all persons notoriously disaffected within those States re- spectively, and that the Council of Pennsylvania take at an ap- praisement all firearms, swords, or bayonets which should be found after diligent search in the houses of all inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia who had not manifested attachment to the American cause. The attitude of the Quakers now received the attention of Congress. The Meeting for Sufferings had by sev- eral testimonies, signed by James or John Pemberton as clerk,
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expressed the opposition which individually the members felt to the Revolutionary movement. The party in power were suffi- ciently disliking and distrusting the wealthy aristocrats, we might call them, whose religion made them obstructionists, when it so happened that General Sullivan found in the baggage captured on Staten Island a paper signed "Spanktown Yearly Meeting," prob- ably a name taken by some Tory spies, as there was no such Yearly Meeting, asking questions as to the location of American troops, and stating that Howe had landed prior to August 19. A committee consisting of John Adams, Duer, and Richard Henry Lee, reporting upon this to Congress, said that the disaffected persons of considerable wealth who professed to belong to the society of people commonly called Quakers would have it in their power, and no doubt it would be their inclination, to communicate intelligence and in other ways injure America. Therefore, Con- gress on the 28th recommended to the Supreme Executive Coun- cil of Pennsylvania the apprehension of all persons who had by their general conduct and conversation shown a disposition inim- ical to the cause of America, to be confined and treated in accord- ance with their characters and the security of their persons, par- ticularizing Joshua Fisher, Abel James, James Pemberton (who was the assemblyman who resigned in 1756), Henry Drinker, Israel Pemberton (the old friend of Teedyuscung), John Pem- berton (who was brother of James and Israel), John James, Sam- uel Pleasants ( Israel Pemberton's son-in-law), Thomas Wharton Sr. (not father of Thomas Jr. ), Thomas Fisher, "son of Joshua" (and son-in-law of William Logan), and Samuel Fisher, "son of Joshua," all Philadelphia Quakers, also asking that the papers of the Meeting for Sufferings of the Society of Friends in the several States be examined and any of political character be sent to Con- gress. Accordingly the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsyl- vania ordered the arrest of not only the eleven Quakers, but about thirty other rich or otherwise prominent persons. Two fashion- able gentlemen named Stedman were sent to the State prison, but
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Joseph Priestley
Educator; author; preacher; scientist; discover- er of oxygen, 1774, and several other valuable chemical gases and combinations; settled in Northumberland County, 1794. Engraved es- pecially for this work from a painting in American Philosophical Society.
Revolutionary Campaigns
most of those arrested, including all the eleven except John James, were offered the privilege of remaining in their dwellings on pa- role to appear on demand of the Council, and to refrain from in- jurious acts in speaking, writing, or otherwise, and from giving intelligence. A number refused and were placed in confinement at the Free Masons' Lodge. Israel Pemberton, Samuel Pleasants, and John Hunt demanded a hearing by the Council which was denied them. The twenty-two in the Lodge, learning of a resolu- tion to send them to Virginia, signed a protest to the Council, and an address to the public, while eight of the Quakers sent a remon- strance to Congress, which advised the Council to grant a hear- ing. The Council replied that it had not time. It had, on Sep- tember 5, offered to discharge such prisoners in the Lodge as would take an oath or affirmation of "allegiance to the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania as a free and independent State." This the twenty-two refused. On the following Sunday one of them. Rev. Thomas Coombe, a minister of the Church of England, and such as were Churchmen, gathered in one of the rooms for re- ligious service. An hour later the Friends held meeting ; some of the Churchmen at the end of their service came and sat with these. The final protest to the Council said that that body had determined matters against the prisoners which could have been disproved, and they had never communicated or held corre- spondence with any of the contending parties. On September 10, Rev. Thomas Coombe weakened, and gave his parole. Phineas Bond offered to give a parole of a certain kind : this not being al- lowed, he returned to go with his fellow prisoners into banish- ment, but, his name being then off the list, the guard would not take him. On the day of the battle of Brandywine, the twenty others, viz. : the three Pembertons. Henry Drinker, Samuel Pleas- ants, Thomas Wharton Sr., Thomas Fisher, Samuel Fisher, John Hunt, Edward Pennington, Thomas Afflick, Owen Jones Jr., Eli- jah Brown, Miers Fisher, Charles Jervis, William Drewet Smith, William Smith (broker), Charles Eddy, Thomas Gilpin, and
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Thomas Pike, who had a strange profession for this company, being a dancing and fencing master, were, in the name of liberty, which allowed them to be condemned unheard, protesting their innocence, forced into wagons, driven through the city and on the way to Staunton, Virginia, to reside far from home and their families as long as a majority of the executive board would see fit. Chief Justice McKean granted a write of habeas corpus, but an act of Assembly was passed on the 16th giving any two members of the Council the powers which had just been exercised, and indem- nifying all who might act under them, and prohibiting judges from allowing any writ to obstruct the proceedings. The Coun- cil thereupon ordered the lieutenant of Berks county, where the banished ones had arrived, to take their bodies into his custody, and convey them to Winchester, Virginia. This was doubtless intended as a fresh arrest under the powers in the act. At Win- chester, where the inhabitants were much exasperated against Tories and Quakers, these chiefs of the Friends of Philadelphia were in danger of their lives. With much difficulty the lieutenant of Frederick county could save them from violence, although their conduct after arrival was such as could give umbrage to no one. Two of them died in Virginia. Thomas Pike deserted the com- pany in February, 1778. In April the others were conveyed back to Pennsylvania, and from the seat of government, (then Lancas- ter ), were taken to Pottsgrove, then in Philadelphia county, and there discharged. From Pottsgrove they made their way to the city of Philadelphia.
Owing to obstructions in Delaware bay, Howe's fleet rounded Cape Charles, and, taking three weeks from New York to the head of the Chesapeake, on August 25 anchored in Elk river, Maryland, as Washington, after marching through Philadelphia, took up a position between Chester and Wilmington. The Brit- ish, after disembarking and making huts of corn stalks, were delayed by heavy rains. As they reached Elkton, the militia under Colonel Patterson and the Philadelphia light horse retired.
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Not without skirmishes was the advance. On September 3, the militia and light horse with 720 Continentals under General Max- well, kept up an attack for some time, as two divisions of the Brit- ish under Cornwallis and Knyphausen respectively began to march to Philadelphia. On hearing of the actual invasion of the State, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania issued a procla- mation entreating all persons to march instantly to the assistance of General Washington to enable him to environ and demolish the only British army, it said, that remained formidable in America 'or in the world. Those addressed were asked to consider the wanton ravages, the rapes, the butcheries perpetrated in New Jer- sey and on the frontiers of New York and the prospect of Amer- icans being "like the wretched inhabitants of India, stripped of their freedom, robbed of their property, degraded beneath brutes, and left to starve amid plenty at the will of their lordly masters." Washington's army took position behind Red Clay Creek. When Howe brought his army to attack the right flank on the 9th, the Americans had slipped away, and crossed the Brandywine at Chadd's Ford in Chester county, where they awaited the enemy. Sullivan commanded the right, Armstrong the left. Stephen's and Lord Sterling's divisions were under Sullivan. The British reached Kennett Square on the 10th. The next morning half their army, led by Howe and Cornwallis, moved up the Valley road, to cross at the forks of the creek ; at 10 o'clock Knyphausen began a cannonade at Chadd's Ford. Sullivan was ordered to cross the creek above, while Washington with Greene's division was to attack Knyphausen; but Sullivan failed, Cornwallis ef- fected the crossing which he intended, and came down upon the Americans. Stirling and Stephen faced his attack southwest of the Birmingham meeting house. Sullivan should have taken his division to their right, and when, from far on the left, he started to change his position, he was put to flight, losing his artillery. Under a fierce bayonet charge, the other divisions began to break. Washington's rapid march of about four miles with Greene's and
2-4
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Muhlenberg's and Weedon's brigades prevented the army from being surrounded. Knyphausen crossed at Chadd's Ford in spite of Proctor's artillery and the force under Wayne, which fought tintil threatened in the rear, and then retired in good order. At nightfall the Americans retreated, having lost about 1,000 men killed and wounded, Lafayette among the latter. Howe's army did not pursue in the darkness, and Washington reached Chester. Thence it went to Germantown and collected provisions and am- munition, battalions of militia meeting it at the Falls of the Schuylkill and Darby, while the public money of Pennsylvania was sent to Easton and the liberty bell and church bells at Phila- delphia were sent to Bethlehem, the Market Street bridge re- moved ard the boats at the ferries of the Schuylkill brought to the City side.
On September 14. the Assembly elected to the Continental Congress Joseph Reed, William Clingan, and Dr. Samuel Duffield, vice Jonathan Bayard Smith, resigned, and Wilson and Clymer, super seded.
Washington advancing to the Lancaster road, and Howe and Cornwallis leaving the neighborhood of Chester and making for that road through what is now West Chester and by Goshen Meeting and the Sign of the Boot Inn, which Howe made his headquarters, the two armies on September 16, were drawn up in order of battle near the White Horse inn on the Lancaster road and the Sign of the Boot inn on the road from Chester to Down- ingtown. There was a fight between Count Donop the Hessian and "Mad Anthony" Wayne without much result. A violent and incessant rain storm prevented any general action. Our army sustained a heavy loss in ammunition, the cartouche boxes being wet through ; so it turned aside until a new supply could be ob- tained. The enemy advanced towards Philadelphia. Tom Paine tried to induce a defense of the city, suggesting a town meeting to be held on the 19th, and asked General Mifflin to take command, but he declined owing to the state of his health. At I o'clock in
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Revolutionary Campaigns
the morning of the 19th the alarm was given that the British had crossed the Schuylkill. Then all was in confusion. Everybody turned out of bed. The members of Congress fled to Bethlehem and thence by Reading to Lancaster. That day Washington passed the Schuylkill at Parker's Ford, leaving Wayne with 2,000 men on the west side to fall upon any detachment of the enemy or destroy his baggage. Cornwallis's column encamped within two miles of French creek at the Bull's Head and Mouth. After 10 o'clock that night Wayne at Paoli was surprised by a large force of British under Grey, using their bayonets only, killing and wounding about 400, taking 100 prisoners, losing 3 killed and 7 wounded. From this massacre, Wayne succeeded in saving his reputation by extricating his cannon and two-thirds of his troops. The British Light Infantry and Grenadiers crossed the Schuylkill at Fatland Ford in safety on the morning of the 22nd, but the main body did not cross until after midnight. On the 23d and 24th Howe's headquarters were at Norristown. Wash- ington's army had gone in the direction of Reading. Wharton and his fellow councillors now left Philadelphia and started on their way around to Lancaster. On the 25th the British began an encampment at Germantown, Howe making Stenton his head- quarters. On the 26th about 1,500 men under Cornwallis took possession of the city, amid cheers from a good portion of the populace, many women and children turning out to see them. An American flotilla held the river below, but by the rapid construc- tion of batteries was repulsed in an attack the next day, a frigate and a galley being driven ashore. On September 29, Wharton and his councillors arrived at Lancaster, and held their first meet- ing there. The same day, the members of the Continental Congress left for York, which became the capital for some time of the United States. The Americans on the river Delaware sent down fire rafts with the tide to burn the British men-of-war outside, but the tide turned before it was possible to accomplish their purpose.
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Washington, who had moved on September 29 from Penny- packer's mill on the Perkiomen to Skippack, came five miles nearer Philadelphia on October 2, on which day the British captured the American fort at Billingsport. With a well matured plan for de- feating the British army, during the absence of the detachment sent against Billingsport, Washington with between 8,000 and 9,000 Continentals besides militia marched towards Germantown on the night of the 3d. Under the command of Sullivan, the divisions of Sullivan and Wayne and the brigade of Conway came by way of Chestnut Hill down what is now Germantown avenue; Armstrong with Pennsylvania militia, down Ridge avenue, to make an attack at the mouth of the Wissahickon; under command of Greene the divisions of Greene and Stephen with McDougall's brigade down the Limekiln Pike; and Smallwood and Forman, down the York Road. After sunrise next morning in a fog the advance party of Sullivan's force surprised the sentries, and at- tacked the picket at ex-Chief Justice Allen's house at Mt. Airy, but the cannon fired by the picket gave the alarm. Sullivan's division was fairly successful when Wayne's came up, and the light infantry under Münchausen were driven down, the soldiers of Wayne doing great havoc with their bayonets, and in retaliation for the Paoli massacre giving no quarter, in spite of their officers. The stand which Munchausen's Hessians were enabled to make by the accession of the 5th regiment of the 2d brigade was but temporary. Conway on the flank, and Washington with Nash's and Maxwell's brigades under Lord Stirling bore down after Sul- livan, and would have made the day fatal to the British, had not Musgrave, colonel of the 40th regiment, with six British com- panies, stationed himself in the stone dwelling house which had been the residence of Chief Justice Chew. Sullivan and Wayne separated one to the right, the other to the left of this fortress, which Washington called upon to surrender, and in a fruitless attempt to take which so much time was lost that Howe was en- abled to reform his lines. Armstrong. reaching the heights of the
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THECOMPANY
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1724.
CARPENTERS' HALL
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الحمين
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Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia
Building erected by the Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia. Work started on building, February 4, 1770; occupied in unfinished condition by the Company, January 21, 1771. Building com- pleted 1792. On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in this Hall
Revolutionary Campaigns
Wissahickon, attacked the Hessian Jaegers, but reinforcements enabled them to make a successful stand. General Greene had received two-thirds of the American troops to make the chief attack on the British right, which was under Grant and Matthews, and extended along Church Lane to the Limekiln Road. The first battalion of British light infantry had been advanced the night before to where the latter road is crossed by what is now called Washington Lane, so this battalion was encountered half or three-quarters of an hour after Greene's belated forces should have begun the attack on Church Lane. Greene formed his line too far off, and it was thrown into confusion by the character of the ground. In a dense fog Woodford's brigade went off to the right, led by the firing to the Chew house, which Maxwell was can- nonading from one side; and Woodford's artillery started to can- nonade it from the other. Most of Stephen's division coming towards Wayne's, Wayne's men fearing they were outflanked, fled. The rest of Greene's forces got out of range of battle or pushed on without support to the market house, resulting event- ually in the surrender of a whole regiment. West of the town, Sullivan's men, fearing like Wayne's that they were outflanked, broke and the British under Grey and Agnew swept up the main street, although Agnew was mortally wounded. Cornwallis brought troops from Philadelphia. Washington gave orders to retire, which the Americans did in good order, followed by the British for about nine miles. The British loss has been given as 13 officers and 58 men killed, and 55 officers and 395 men wounded, that of the Americans as 30 officers and 122 men killed, and 117 officers and 404 men wounded, and about 50 officers and 350 men taken prisoners. Armstrong's Pennsylvania militia went up the WVissahickon to Cresheim creek and thence engaged the enemy as the last on the ground. Greene and Wayne, the latter, at White Marsh, by turning cannon on columns of the British, stopped the further pursuit. The American army gathered at the back of Perkiomen creek with a part formed on a hill on the side of the
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