The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX, Part 74

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 440

USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX > Part 74

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· 197. An act to provide for defraying certain con- tingent and other expenses in the offices of the Auditor General and Secretary of the Land Office.

* 198. An act to repeal the proviso of the act, en- titled an act supplementary to an act relative to the building of certain bridges over the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, opposite Pittsburg; passed the eighth day of March, Anno Domini, 1832.

· 199. A further supplement to an act, entitled an act to appoint commissioners to regulate the streets, lanes and alleys in the district of Southwark, and to lay out new streets, lanes and alleys, therein, for the ac- commodation of the inhabitants, and to lay out the walks therein mentioned, through the said district and parts of the townships of Moyamensing and Passyunk; passed the 29th day of September, one thousand seven hun- dred and eighty-seven.

. 200. An act to authorize the laying out state roads in Lancaster and Berks counties, and for other purposes.

. 201. An act regulating election districts.

. 202. An act entitled a further supplement to an act for taking lands in execution.

* 203. An act repealing certain acts concerning state roads.

. 204. An act authorizing the inhabitants of Passyunk township, to elect directors for the Girard school of Passyunk, to be erected and established, and for other purposes.

. 205. A supplement to the act, entitled an act rela- tive to the appointment of canal commissioners, passed the sixth day of April, eighteen hundred and thirty.

. 206. A further supplement to the act entitled an act to regulate fences, and to appoint appraisers in each township in the counties of Northumberland, West- moreland, Washington and Fayette, and to encourage the raising of swine, passed the twenty-seventh day of March, seventeen hundred and eighty-four.

* 207. An act to incorporate certain beneficial socie- ties.

. 208. An act to encourage the destruction of foxes in the counties of Allegheny, Cambria, York, Mercer, Union, Huntingdon, Luzerne and Schuylkill.

. 209. An act to incorporate the trustees of the pro- prietors of Salem township, in Luzerne county.

* 210. An act to confirm certain surveys of lands re- turned and excepted in the Land Office.

. 211. An act providing the mode of settling the ac- counts of county treasurers, and for other purposes.

* 212. An act to alter the mode of electing supervis- ors of the public highways, and township auditors, and for the election of town clerks within the county of Bradford, and for other purposes.

* 214. An act to incorporate the town of Liverpool in the county of Perry, into a borough.

* 215. A further supplement to the act entitled, an act for the regulation of the militia of this common- wealth.

* 217. An act relative to the Hanover turnpike road company, and for other purposes.

* 218. An act to promote the culture of silk.

· 219. An act relative to certain state roads, and de- claring certain creeks highways, and for other pur- poses.

. 220. An act to incorporate the Farmers' Fire Insu- rance company of Upper and Lower Saucon township, aud for other purposes.

RESOLUTIONS.

No. 2. Relative to the payment of salaries of the col- lectors of tolls and lock-keepers on the Pennsylvania canal.

3. Relative to the unexpended balance of the spe- cific appropriation to the Columbia and Philadelphia rail-road.

5. Relative to the Philadelphia and Columbia rail- road.

6. Relative to erecting a bridge over the Delaware river at Columbia Glass manufactory.

7. Respecting the tariff.

8. Relative to the United States Bank.

10. Relative to the Monongahela bridge.

11. Relative to the Susquehanna and Delaware rail- road company.

14. Relative to the claim of James Murry, for com- pensation for damages upon the western division of the Pennsylvania canal.

16. Relative to the schute in Snyder's mill dam, on Penn's creek.

17. To suspend the daily pay of the members and officers of the legislature during the adjournment.

18. To pay the reward to Steward and Hays for ap- prehending a fugitive from justice.

19. For the relief of Isaac Griffith, late deputy mar- shal of the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

20. Relative to the Robbstown bridge company.

21. To pay the reward to Willis H. Blaney, for ap- prehending a fugitive from justice.

22. Relative to the commissioners for revising the code of Pennsylvania.

t 23. Relative to the record of the appraisers of damages.

+ 24. Relative to the claim of Robert Beatty, late in- spector of the 2d brigade of the 15th division Pennsyl- vania militia, and of Peter Ehinger, late captain of the 5th company of the 120th Reg't. Penn. militia, and rela- tive to the trustee of Elizabeth Lyon.

+ 25. Relative to the use of the waters of the river Delaware.

* 26. Authorizing the payment of the funeral expen- ses of William Musgrave, late state librarian.

+ 27. Relative to costs of Thomas Ross, deputy es- cheater general, and to the escheated estate of Dinah Henderson.

+ 28. Relative to collectors and lock keepers on the Pennsylvania canal.

*29. Authorizing the canal commissioners to change

261

REPORT ON CANAL COMMISSIONERS.

1832.]

the location of the Philadelphia and Columbia rail-road, between the Little and Big Conestoga bridges,

* 30. Relative to the records of the appraisers of dam- ages.

· 51. Relative to certain turnpike road companies. Fifty-five private.

07° All marked thus (*) are not signed, in consequence of the indisposition of the Governor; those marked thus (t) are signed, but not formally returned.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

FRIDAY, MARCH 23.

Report of the Committee appointed to investigate the of- ficial conduct of the Canal Commissioners.

The Select committee, to whom was referred the pe- titions of sundry inhabitants of this commonwealth, praying for an investigation of the conduct of the canal commissioners, report :

That they have heard and examined all the evidence exhibited by the petitioners, in support of the two fol- lowing charges against said commissioners. It was al- leged: 1st, "That said commissioners had been guilty of gross negligence in not procuring the Shamokin dam to be repaired in the summer and autumn of 1831. 2d. That they exercised undue favoritism and partiality in awarding to Lee and Shriner, a contract for extending the schute of the Shamokin dam, on the 10th day of Au- gust last.

In support of these charges, the petitioners proved that the said dam was broken and materially injured by an ice flood, on or about the 6th of March, 1831; that two of the canal commissioners, Messrs. Stevenson and Mitchell, met at Northumberland on the 25th of June; and had the dam examined by Mr. Ferguson, one of their engineers; that soon after, they advertised that proposals for repairing said dam would be received at Wilkesbarre, a distance of sixty miles, until the 20th of July; that people went up to put in proposals, but there was no person there to make contracts. On the 5th of August, Mr. Mitchell came again to Northumberland, and on the 10th made a contract with Doctor Petrikin, which, after some little work was done, was abandoned on the 25th of September; and on the Ist of October a new contract was made with Saxton & Co. They prov- ed also, that between the 1st of June and the 1st of Au- gust, new work, in almost every part of the State, was put under contract.

To those unacquainted with all the facts, there might have been strong evidence of neglect on the part of the commissioners, but on examining the whole case, it is clear the petitioners upon this point have no just cause of complaint. The commissioners named in the petitions, James Clarke and John Mitchell, are zealous friends of internal improvement, and have exhi- bited evidence of uncommon industry and perseve- rance in the prosecution of their duties.

By the act of 21st March, 1831, the commissioners are directed "to complete the first twenty miles of the Philadelphia and Columbia rail-road, proceeding from Philadelphia westwardly, &c. with the least possible de- lay;" and by the same act, immense improvements in different parts of the state, and embracing the extreme ends of it, are directed to be immediately laid out, put under contract, and prosecuted with vigor. Uncom- mon labor and toil were required of them. A few facts only need be stated.

The commissioners found it necessary to allot certain days for the transaction of business in different parts of the state, allowing as little time for travelling as possi- ble. Accordingly, in April, they proceeded to the Del- aware division; on the 4th of May they met in Philadel- phia; on the 11th at Downingtown; on the 18th at Co- lumbia; on the 25th at Ebensburg, in Cambria county; on the 1st of June at Williamsburg, in Huntingdon

county; on the 13th of June, Messrs. Stevenson and Mitchell, (Mr. Clarke being sick) at Wilkesbarre; on the 25th at Northumberland; on the 29th at Williams- port; on the 11th of July at Franklin, in Venango; on . the 19th at Beaver; on the 27th at Pittsburg; and on the 30th at Holidaysburg, in Huntingdon county. It was here they heard that their letter of the IIth of July, directed to the engineer at Wilkesbarre, and his communications to them, had miscarried; and Mr. Mit- chell immediately hastened on to Northumberland. On the 5th of August he arrived, and on the 10th made a contract for the repair of part of the dam. It is unne- cessary to state the progress of this work. It was pressed on with all possible zeal, by Mr. Mitchell, as his letters and acts clearly prove; and in addition to numerous other difficulties, the waters were unusually high the whole season. Your committee are therefore satisfied that the charge of negligence is not supported.

" The 2d charge is that of partiality, in giving to Lee and Shriner a contract for extending the schute of the Shamokin dam.

It appears that James Lee and John Shriner, jr. put in two proposals, which are exhibited to the committee by the superintendent, in the following terms:

1st. For schute, per lineal foot, including all necessa- ry work, coffer dams and excavation, that may be ne- cessary, 59.

2d. For cribbing the schute, stoning and coffer dams alone, per lineal foot, $6 50.

M'Carty and Co, made a proposal in the following terms:

For the schute cribbing, stoning and coffer dam alone, $7 25 per lineal foot.

The contract was given to Lee and Shriner at $9 per foot, and is expressed in the body of the agreement in these words, to wit: " The said Lee and Shriner engage to furnish all the materials, which shall be in such quan- tity and of such quality as shall be approved by the en- gincer on said division, and perform all the labor neces- sary to construct, in the most substantial and workman- like manner, the continuation of the schute in the Shamokin dam, connecting with the walls of the pres- ent schute, and extending down as far as it may be deemed necessary and directed by the engineer in charge of said division, including flooring and all other items of work that may be found necessary to complete the same." Lord Butler, the superintendent, says: "Lee's bid of $9 a foot was considered best. It settled the whole amount of expense; he could have been called on to clean out gravel and blow out rock, and timber and gravel were removed by- Lee." He says: "The flooring was dispensed with," it being found "not ne- cessary." Your committee remark that the flooring, if required, would have cost a considerable sum, but they have no means of ascertaining the amount with any pre- cision. They suppose it might have been between 500 and $1000. The new part of the schute is 332 feet by 60, and would require about 20,000 feet of plank, beside several thousand feet of large timber. Lee and Shri- ner say, "they took aut a good deal of timber, stone, and graveh from the bottom of the schute. The stone were very convenient, and were used for filling the cribbing; the gravel was boated down to the deep wa- ter." The quantity was not stated. "Several boats were employed several days."

Mr. Ferguson, the engineer, stated that " Lee and Shriner's proposal at $6 50, was for the same work as M'Carty and Co's. at 7 25 per foot;"but that " M'Car- ty and Co's. proposals were accompanied with some matters not in accordance with the specifications, and he did not see how they could be received." He fur- ther stated that "the work done by Lee and Shriner was no more than proposed to be done by M'Carty and Ca. for $7 25 per foot:" that he was not conscious the word "flooring" was in the contract of Lee and Shri- ner, and he gave the following estimate without noticing that item:

262

THE INDIAN LANGUAGES, &c.

[APRIL

CANAL OFFICE, WILKESBARRE, December 20, 1831.

To ANDREW MCREYNOLDS, EsQ.

Supervisor of the Susquehanna Division of the Pennsylvania Canal.

SIR-I certify the following to be a correct return of the quantity of work done by James Lee and John Shri- ner, jr. contractors for repairing the schute at Shamo- kin; and that said repairs have been completed accord- ing to the contract, to wit: 664 lineal feet of schute, at $9 per foot, $5976

For excavating gravel at tail of schute, and for filling in part of old crib, (at estimate of en- gineer,) 125

$6101

From the foregoing facts it is evident the canal com- missioners, in the exercise of a sound discretion, were perfectly justified in giving the preference to Lee and Shriner. Their contract covered every thing that was contemplated, and left nothing for extra charges.

But although your committee readily acquit the com- missioners from all censure in relation to this charge, yet they are constrained to think there is some defect in the present mode of making contracts and carrying them into execution.

This contract with Lee and Shriner is very compre- hensive. It placed the contractors wholly in the pow- er of the officers. The latter could exact from the for- mer an amount of labor that would deprive them of all profit, or by dispensing with some expensive and per- haps useless items, could give them a lucrative job. If this be a specimen of contracts generally, it behoves contractors to be subservient to superintendents and en- gineers. A breath may make or ruin them.

By the act of 6th April, 1830, " the engineers are to make the estimates of work done for payment;" and by the 3d section of said act, "the superintendent is to set- tle and pay the accounts of contractors, and return their accounts to the Auditor General for settlement." The canal commissioners are not invested with power of supervision or correction; the estimate is exhibited to the superintendent, who settles his accounts with the Auditor General. If, then, any mistake has been com- mitted in this transaction, upon which the committee do not intend to express an opinion, the commissioners are not chargeable with it.

Your committee are satisfied that the petitioners have not sustained either of the charges submitted to their consideration, and therefore offer the following resolu- tion:

Resolved, That the committee be discharged from the further consideration of the subject.

From " The Friend."

The Indian Languages and Pennsylvania History. (Concluded from page 251.)

To this neglect of common seminaries in the early periods of Pennsylvania, are we to ascribe the present immense difference in mental cultivation, between the indigent and laboring classes of this state, and those of New England. No sooner had the pilgrims landed up- on the rock at Plymouth, than they resolved to diffuse the blessings of literary instruction at the public ex- pense, with a liberality, and in a degree which might challenge comparison with any country in ancient or modern times. Indeed, the cause of education must ever flourish when sustained by legislative patronage, especially if offered in a way, and with a delicacy, which forbid rejection. It is far from our present pur- pose to discuss the question, or insist upon the proprie- ty of introducing a similar system into Pennsylvania.

Suffice it that the conditions and sentiments of the re- spective people are so widely different, that many ar- guments might be urged against its adoption. It is al- Inded to simply as an historical fact, to explain the ori- ginal cause of that intellectual poverty, which now un- happily distinguishes our labouring poor, and how this might have been prevented by an early compliance with the injunction contained in the " Frame of govern- ment."

But notwithstanding the inertness of the assembly, we shall presently see that an uncommon zeal for learn- ing was manifested in the establishment of private semi- naries; but partly from their situation in the city, and partly from the indigence or parsimony of the people, their benefits were partial, and their operation circum- scribed. Usefulness and industry were inculcated by the founder, as the primary duties of a citizen; and it was agreed upon in England, as fundamental law, that there should exist "a committee of manners, educa- tion, and arts, that all wicked and scandalous living may be prevented, and that youth may be successively trained up in virtue, and useful knowledge, and arts."

In 1683, the year of Penn's arrival, an elementary private school was established at Philadelphia, under the superintendence of one Enoch Flower. Proud has preserved in his history, a record of his charges, which were only £10 a year for boarding and tuition, a sum hardly exceeding the means of the poorest colonist. A seminary, the principal of those subsequently incorpora- ted, was opened in 1689,-only six years after the ar- rival of Penn,-for teaching the elementary branches of the mathematics, and something of English and Latin literature. The first teacher of this academy, was the celebrated George Keith, of schismatical and pamphlet-

eering memory. From a succession of excellent in- structors, this seminary preserves a respectable reputa- tion to the present day. As some evidence of the sci- entific skill, and literary dispositions of the first settlers of Pennsylvania, it may be mentioned that an almanac was calculated and published at Philadelphia, in 1687, four years after the landing of the founder." This, it seems, was the first production of the provincial press. It soon teemed with the fruits of Keith's fecundity, whose enthusiasm for religion in 1689, induced the com- position and publication of a tract, against the New Eng- land churches-a crusade against Cotton Mather-and, a vindication of the Quakers! Leeds, the calculator of the almanac, having warmly espoused the mutable prin- ciples of Keith, undertook his quarrel, and in a treatise published in 1699, soundly rated the unoffending body whose cause his master had once so ably defended. t Indeed, a large portion of the provincial literature of Pennsylvania was spent upon political disputes, and polemical theology, which, though not quite ranco- rous enough to produce the shedding of blood, were sufficiently angry to consume many bottles of ink. Some of the champions in the former arena were adroit and skilful gladiators. Those of the most celebrity, were Dr. Franklin, Joseph Galloway, John Dickinson, and Dr. Smith, who flourished before and during the revolution. It is, perhaps, to this fondness for political contention, that we are in a great measure to ascribe the early introduction of a newspaper, which was pub-

* This literary relic is announced in the title page as the production of Daniel Leeds, Student in Agricul- ture.

+ The contents of this treatise may be collected in part from the title page: " A Trumpet sounded out of the wilderness of America, which may serve as a warn- ing to the government and people of England, to be- ware of Quakerism; wherein is shown how in Penn- sylvania and there away, where they have the govern- ment in their own hands, they hire and encourage men to fight; and how they persecute, fine, and imprison, and take away goods for conscience sake: By Daniel Leeds."

1832.]

THE INDIAN LANGUAGES, &c.

263

lished at Philadelphia, under the auspicies of Dr. Frank- lin, in 1741. This is said to be the first literary journal ever published in the United States. Our readers will readily excuse our omitting even the names of those who acquired a reputation in the departments of divini- ty and politics; it is enough to say, that the concerns of church and state proved to be fruitful topics of ingenui- ty and learning, of acrimony and heat.

It thus appears that two schools and a printing press were established almost before the settlers had time to provide shelter from the inclemency of the weather, and'while on every side lay a howling and interminable wilderness. The colony of Pennsylvania being earlier than her sister provinces in the introduction of printing, she may be considered before them in the promotion of literature. In ; Massachusetts, eighteen years elapsed from the period of the first settlement, before she could boast of a press; seventy years passed in New York without witnessing this engine of refinement; and it was not till a later period, that it was introduced into other provinces. In some of the colonies, most strenuous'ef- forts were made by the agents of the parent country, to prevent the diffusion of knowledge, as injurious to her interests and authority. "I thank God," says Sir Wm. Berkely, in his twenty-third report upon Virginia, sixty- four years after the settlement of that province, "we have no free schools, nor printing; and I hope we shall not have these hundred years. For learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world; and printing has divulged them, and libels upon the govern- ment. God keep us from both."

The early writers of provincial Pennsylvania, poetic and prosaic, were numerous. Among them no one is entitled to a more distinguished niche in the temple of fame, than James Logan. He is said to have been a poet in other languages besides his own. A Greek ode has been ascribed to his elegent pen, and it is certain, that he composed playful epistles in Roman numbers. Not- withstanding the activity of his life, having successfully filled the offices of Secretary of the Province, Chief Justice and President of the Council, he found leisure to write several learned treatises in Latin, and to trans- late into beautiful English the De Senectute of Cicero. The memory of Logan must ever be held in the highest estimation for his extensive knowledge and uncommon virtues. His munificence to Philadelphia in giving to it the Loganian library, bas embalmed him in the affec- tions of all. To manners the most urbane and concilia- ting, he united an erudition extensive and profound; an English style purely classical; and a morality at once un- yielding and elevated. Latin poetry found a votary in Thomas Makin, the successor to Keith, as teacher in Friends' Academy. Ilis Encomium Pennsilvanic, which appeared in 1728, and his Descriptio Pennsilvania, pub- lished in the following year, describe pretty accurately, in no contemptible hexameters and pentameters, the institutions, productions, and scenery of the province. The names of Ralph, whom the caustic couplet of Pope has immortalized, of Beveridge, Godfrey the younger, Nathaniel Evans, and Elizabeth Ferguson, are all wor- thy of designation as prose or poetic writers, by no means destitute of merit. A reference to the papers of Wharton and Fisher will convince the most incredulous -not that the cacoethes scribendi prevailed to an alarm- ing extent in provincial Pennsylvania-but that it justly claims the merit of possessing a respectable share of taste, in the departments of general composition and fu- gitive poetry, besides producing the elder Godfrey and a Rittenhouse.

The Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylva- nia, are chiefly composed of original articles contribut- ed by the members. They therefore relate almost ex- clusively to some portion of our provincial or munici- pal history, which in the estimation of the writers, had a particular interest or special importance in a historical or biographical point of view. Little of its statistical and still less of its ancient customs and local peculiari-

ties, enter into the volumes published. These are to be found, and very fully, in the Register of Pennsylva- nia. The Editor seems to be a devoted antiquarian, and treasures up with fond and scrupulous care, every fact and every anecdote which conversation or reading can collect, illustrative of common and public life. His de- sign seems to embrace every thing, whether small or great, which is necessary to a complete development of the physical and intellectual, the natural and artificial history of Pennsylvania .. It is difficult to imagine or refer to any event relating to the transactions of Penn- sylvania upon which an accession of light has not been thrown. We cordially commend him for uncommon diligence in the accumulation of rare and curious know- ledge.

To this catalogue of productions upon the subject of our domestic annals, must be added the three formal histories by Proud, Gordon, and Ebeling. Of the first we shall say but little. Time has placed it where it properly belongs, to a class of works, the result of ho- nesty and perseverance, which the philosophic histori- an, the antiquarian, the searcher into minute and insu- lated events, rejoices to discover. It is excellent as a book of reference-without an intentional error-the reflections sound, though delivered in a style rather so- porific-the original documents accurately copied to the letter-the dates unexceptionable-in short, it fur- nishes a firm basis to a more elegant edifice.

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The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX, Part 74

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870 Publication date: 1828 Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ; Number of Pages: 440

Author: Hazard, Samuel, 1784-1870
Publication date: 1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : Printed by W.F. Geddes ;
Number of Pages: 440