USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 24
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* C. W. Lett. 16th July, 1749.
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he gave money, and proffered an asylum on farms of his own; and to all he granted permission to establish themselves on a tract of two millions of acres, purchased from the Indians on the east side of the Susquehannah, in the preceding year, for the proprietaries. But, notwithstanding this evidence of the resolution of the government, and the determination of the Indians, new offence was given to the latter, by new encroach- ments, within a few months.
The treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, which in Europe was only a hollow truce, was scarce regarded by the French in Ame- rica. Eager to extend their territories, and to connect their northern possessions with Louisiana, they had projected a line of forts and military positions from the one to the other, along the Mississippi and Ohio, and had commenced their erection at either end. They explored and occupied the land upon the Ohio, buried in many places through the country metal plates, with inscriptions declaratory of their claims to the river Ohio, and the lands adjacent to it, and its tributary streams. (1) 'They continued their threats and caresses to- wards the Indians, scattering liberal presents among them, and making preparations to compel by force what their kind- ness might not effect.
The enterprise, industry, and perseverance, of the French, were strongly contrasted with the coldness and apathy of the English, in their Indian relations. After the close of the war, in 1748, the constituted authorities of New York dis- continued their attentions, even to those Indians they had prevailed on to take arms. They suffered the captives long to remain unransomed, and their families to pine in want, and utterly disregarded the children of the slain. Whilst the French, attentive to the vanity and interests of their allies, dressed them in finery, and loaded them with presents. Had they not endeavoured to convert them to the catholic faith, their influence would have been more efficient. For the Indians fancied that the religious ceremonies to which they were subjected, were arts to reduce them to slavery;
(1) See Note M 2, Appendix.
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and, though some professed to believe, whilst their teachers were present, they scoffed at the doctrine when returned to their own firesides .* The French had, by this policy, suc- ceeded in estranging the Indians on the Ohio, and in dividing the councils of the Six nations, drawing off the Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas. Their progress with these tribes was rendered still more dangerous, by the death of several chiefs who had been in the English interest.t
On being advised by governor Hamilton of the French efforts, the assembly of Pennsylvania resorted to their usual mode of negotiation. Presents of condolence were prepared for the Six nations, on the death of their chiefs, and a large donation was forwarded to the Twightees, Shawnees, Dela- wares, and Oundats.
But the preservation of peace with the Indians having be- come extremely burdensome to the provincial treasury, the assembly required that the proprietaries should contribute to the payment of Indian expenses, as they were deeply and spe- cially interested in keeping their back lands in the market, besides having a common interest in the general prosperity of the province. The refusal of the proprietaries to bear any portion of this burden must be ascribed to the most ab- solute selfishness. Almost every public treaty was followed by a bargain for lands; and, though the presents of the pro- vince were no part of the nominal price, yet it is easy to un- derstand that they made a part of the actual consideration. The public donations allured the Indians to the conference, and qualified the terms of the proprietary bargains, and they tended to preserve the quiet of the border, and to push the settlers safely forward.
Previous to the year 1722, the Indian expenses had been inconsiderable, being limited, by law, to fifty pounds per annum. In that year, the expenses of governor Keith, at Albany, were paid by the assembly. But, in 1727, they re- fused to pay more than half the amount of an account of Conrad Weiser. In 1728, under an extraordinary alarm, the assembly, for the first time, undertook to pay, without limi-
* MS. Journals of C. Weiser. + Votes.
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tation, the expenses of an Indian conference. Subsequently, similar charges were paid, sometimes in full, without objec- tion, at other times by the half only. The sum now ex- pended by the province exceeded eight thousand pounds, and the appetite for presents, which the Indians had acquired, was not easily to be satiated.
The proprietaries denied the justice of requiring from them any contribution towards the public expense, even though the people were taxed for the charges of government ; and, as not a shilling was levied, there was less reason to ask any thing from them. "They had charged themselves, gratuitously," they said, " with much more than was due to the public inter- preter, for his services in land treaties, and now maintained his son with a tutor in the Indian country, to learn their lan- guage and customs, for the service of the province, and they had expended much for the public service, both in Europe and America. All which being considered, and that they purchase lands from the Indians, and pay for them, and are under no greater obligation to contribute to the public charge than any other chief governor of a colony, they would have been pleased to have been saved the necessity of a dis- agreeable answer to an application on the subject." There is not much force in these arguments. If the people paid no tax for the support of government, it could not be pretended that the proprietary was at this charge. But the revenue was certainly derived from the people. The excise was a tax in form, and the interest upon the public loans was paid by the labours of the borrowers. Whatever may have been the sums paid by the proprietors to their interpreter, the pro- vince was not thereby relieved from similar charges. The attempt of the proprietors to assimilate themselves to other colonial governors, as an argument, was still more feeble. If other colonial chief governors had such interests as they pos- sessed in the soil of their colonies, if they derived a daily in- creasing revenue from the sale of unsettled lands, if they were proprietaries, they would have like duties to fulfil. But if they were simply political agents, there was no parallel in their situations. For these reasons, the assembly persisted
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in asserting their claim upon them for contribution towards Indian expenses.
The remonstrance of the assembly was sent to the pro- prietarios in August, 1751, but was not answered until May, 1753. The answer was feeble, but haughty, selfish, and dis- respectful. They affected to consider the address as founded in the wish of the assembly to obtain favour with the people, and charged the house with having published it with that view on the eve of the election. "It therefore became their duty," they said, " to inform the people, through their re- presentatives, that, as the consent of the proprietaries was necessary to their laws, the assembly would promote the welfare of their constituents by a due regard to the proprieta- ries, and their interests, for they should expect from the re- presentatives of the people the respect due to the rank the crown had given them in Pennsylvania." They regretted the necessity they were under to expose the state of the provin- cial revenue, since it would appear that six thousand pounds per annum were received, double the amount necessary for the expenses of the government, including the average sum paid for Indian expenses during the last twenty years. This sum could not be considered great, when compar- ed with the benefits accruing to Great Britain from the Indian alliance, nor was it more than their family had paid in duties and excise during that time for the support of his majesty's government." They remarked in answer " to the unadvised statement of the assembly, that the family estate in America was exempt from the burdens borne by their fel- low subjects in Great Britain, that it was impolitic to remind the people of England of that exemption; since it had already been proposed to tax North America; and the act of parlia- ment, which taxed the proprietary estates, would reach those of the members of assembly, and their constituents." They refused to pay any specific portion of the public expense, but averred, that on a fair estimate of such burthens, and of the estates of themselves, and the inhabitants, it would be dis-
* The address of the assembly was informal in its style, at which the pro- prietaries took offence. T. Penn's letter to governor Hamilton.
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covered that they had voluntarily paid more than their quota; in addition to which, Thomas Penn had sent four hundred pounds sterling in cannon for the defence of their city of Philadelphia. They declared that the assembly, if disposed, might relieve the people of one-half the excise, as the interest on the paper currency was sufficient to maintain the govern- ment, and that might now be increased by a new emission, required by the increased commerce; and for which they had given instructions to the governor. That, as the representa- tives were chosen annually, they might now be addressing other persons than those who had applied to them; but their answer was to the assembly. Those who had pressed this matter might have given place to others, more prudent; but at all events, they desired that the house, in any matter of the like nature, would be content with such answer as the gover- nor was instructed to give them.
The authors of the Modern Universal History have said, that this answer was so conclusive, that the assembly, unable to reply to it, had ordered it, with all the introductory papers, to be laid upon their table; but they did reply to it, and how well the reader may determine. They admitted that the people were able to pay, but denied this to be a reason why they should pay unjustly. The proprietaries also were able to pay, yet that ability did not induce them to contribute a just proportion of the expenses. They denied that their application had been made with an electioneering design ; such a measure was unnecessary, since, for many years, there had not been any contest between the proprietary and popular interests ; nor had the first any formidable share of the peo- ple's affection ; nor could the address of the assembly have been intended for the people, since it was not even now pub- lished, nor were the resolutions of the assembly relating to it published until after the election ; nor did a seat in the assem- bly offer any inducement for the exercise of artifice to obtain it. But their chief governors had intimated in plain terms their disposition to make advantage of their place, and to require from the people a pecuniary consideration for facilitating the passage of the colonial laws, though their deputy was, and 34
,
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ought to be, empowered to sanction all necessary bills. If such corruption existed, it must be discontinued, and they would rely upon the goodness of their sovereign for the final confirmation of their laws, and not go to market for them to a subject. The proprietaries' notice of matters relating to their interests was easily comprehended; but their reasons for reminding the people of their dignity were not so obvious. Had they been treated unsuitably to their rank ? The re- monstrance had been made to themselves, and was never published. It had been transmitted through the governor, and indicated the true interests of the proprietaries, which consisted in securing the affections of the people by just, equitable, and generous measures. The assembly too had a rank from the crown, which they held not by hereditary succession, but by the voluntary, unbribed, unsolicited choice of a free people. The regrets of the proprietaries in pro- claiming the state of the provincial treasury were needless, and strange, since for thirty years past, the public accounts had been annually settled, and published by the assembly, and since there could be no cause of concealment of the pro- vincial revenue, whatever reasons the proprietaries might have to conceal their own. The average of the Indian expenses on the last twenty years was unfair, since they were a grow- ing charge, and had, during the last four years, exceeded twelve hundred pounds per annum; but, had the sum been small, that did not affect the justice of the case, and the pro- prietary portion would have been less considerable. The people of Pennsylvania also paid duty and excise for the support of his majesty's government, and other taxes, which, in proportion to their means, were equal to those paid by the proprietary family, or any subject of England; paying as much as an infant colony could bear, they believed the jus- tice of an English parliament would never burthen them more. The exemption of the proprietary estate from colonial taxation had never been made public until now, and was used only as a private motive to themselves. If the proprietaries were, as they declared, ready to contribute to any public ex- pense proper to be charged upon them, and the sums they
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now paid voluntarily were greater than their due proportion, it was a matter of surprise, that they should decline an ar- rangement, which would save them money, and preserve harmony between them and the people. They repelled in- dignantly the charge of having neglected to defend the pro- prietaries' city of Philadelphia; for, though their principles forbade them to provide cannon, they had appropriated large sums to his majesty's use; and though the defence of the city was more the interest, they would not say duty, of the pro- prietaries than of any one else, they had not only neglected, but had discouraged, the providing of cannon, and suffered the city and country to be put in a state of defence by the liberality of private individuals, and their boasted assistance of ordinance, like Venetian succours, came after the war was over. The reduction of the excise was proposed with the design charged upon the assembly, to amuse the weaker sort. of people ;* for if the proprietaries were disposed to favour the intemperate use of spirituous liquors, they might effect their object by abating half the license fees. The last para- graph of the proprietaries' answer was totally inconsistent with the expression of their wishes for harmony between themselves and the people. To forbid an appeal from the deputy-governor to his principals was unheard of. No king of England had ever taken upon himself such state, as to re- ject the personal application of his meanest subject, when aggrieved by his officers. Even sultans, sophys, and other eastern absolute monarchs, would sometimes sit whole days to hear the complaints and petitions of their very slaves; and were the proprietaries of Pennsylvania become too great to be addressed by the representatives of the freemen of their
* Rem acu tetigit .- By a letter from Thomas Penn to governor Hamilton, Oct. 26, 1752, the former, who principally managed the concerns of the family, says, " We have therefore drawn up this, (answer to assembly's remonstrance, ) to open their (the people's) eyes, to make them see what the house so violently pressed was only a matter of very small importance, and at the same time proposed a reduction of the excise, as a measure very agrecable to those that pay it, and which will, if the people insist they shall carry it into execution, lessen their power of opposition to the principal scheme.
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province? If they must not be reasoned with, because they had given instructions, nor their deputies, because they had received them, the deliberations of the assembly were useless, they had only to learn and obey the will of the proprietaries. In conclusion, they said, "if the province must be at more than two thousand pounds expense per annum for a deputy-go- vernor, having no discretion to pass laws, as was intimated in the proprietaries' answer, and must obtain the assent of the chief governor, at more than three thousand miles distance, often ignorant or misinformed of its affairs, with ears peremp- torily closed by having given instructions to their deputies, it would be better the colony should be under the immediate care of the crown; and a sincere regard for the memory of the first proprietary, made them apprehend for his children, that, if they followed the advice of Rehoboam's counsellors, they would, like him, absolutely lose-at least the affec- tions of the people; a loss which, however they might affect to despise, they would find of more consequence than they now seemed to apprehend."
This address of the assembly was prepared by Benjamin Franklin, who, on the death of William Clymer, was elected this year a member of the house from the city. He had been appointed, on his petition, clerk of the house, in 1736, in the place of Joseph Growden; had been annually re-appointed since, and held that office when elected a member of the house. His active, comprehensive, and discriminating mind qualified him at all times to lead in a popular body; but his knowledge of provincial affairs at once placed him at the head of the assembly, and caused him to be appointed upon every important committee .*
In the month of May, John Kinsey, speaker of the assem- bly, died at Burlington, New Jersey, of an apoplectic fit. He was an eminent lawyer: had been many years a member and speaker of the assembly of New Jersey. He removed to Philadelphia in 1730, and had been speaker of the Penn-
* He was succeeded in his office of clerk by his son, William, who re- signed it in 1757, to accompany his father to Europe. He was succeeded by Thomas Moore.
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sylvania assembly for the last ten, and chief justice for the last seven years of his life. He was distinguished, as a law- yer, for experience, ability, integrity, and success; and, as a member of the society of Quakers, for his kindness and social virtues. He has left some valuable notes on repealed statutes relating to descents, in Pennsylvania. Isaac Norris suc- ceeded him as speaker, and William Allen as chief justice.
In February, the assembly having failed to make a quorum on the day to which it stood adjourned, the governor, after the example of some of his predecessors, revived the ques- tion relative to the power of the members to adjourn. But the house, having searched their minutes, found so many in- stances in which it had been exercised, that he deemed it ex- pedient quietly to abandon his pretensions to control it, which he did, in a message, simply declaring the house to be re- stored to its privileges, and his readiness to proceed with them in the labours of legislation.
Several cases of lunacy, in subjects unable from poverty to support themselves, gave rise to an association for esta- blishing a hospital for the reception of lunatics, and, sub- sequently, to the Pennsylvania hospital; a noble monument of the humanity and munificence of the province. Two thousand pounds were subscribed by individuals, and a like sum given by the assembly. The charity became popu- lar, and was aided by contributions in various ways, so that it was immediately and extensively useful; relief being granted to sixty-seven patients in the first year. The contributors were erected into a body corporate, and empowered to elect annually twelve managers, to whose care the institution was confided, subject to a supervision of a committee of the as- sembly, appointed at its discretion, and which for many years made an annual report of the proceedings and of the funds of the hospital. In 1754 the contributors purchased part of a city square of ground, upon which they erected the neces- sary buildings, on a plan that would admit of symmetrical additions; and, soon after, the proprietaries presented them with the remainder of the square.
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On the thirty-first of October of this year, died James Logan, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. He was born at Lurgan, in Ireland, and removed to Pennsylvania with William Penn, in the year 1699. In 1701 he was ap- pointed clerk of the council, and secretary of the province. He was, subsequently, commissioner of property, chief jus- tice, and president of the council. He possessed great learn- ing, and distinguished abilities; was conversant with the oriental tongues, familiar with the Greek, Latin, French, and Italian languages, and skilled in mathematics, and in natural and moral philosophy. He enjoyed, during life, the confi- dence of the proprietary family, which he repaid, by the most earnest endeavours to support their interests in the province, sacrificing to them, occasionally, the place in the affections of the people, which his excellent character and cultivated ta- lents must necessarily have procured for him. He professed the religious principles of the Quakers, but was free from enthusiasm or bigotry. The city of Philadelphia is indebted to his munificence for a very valuable and extensive classical library, which he had been fifty years in collecting, contain- ing the best editions of the best books, in various languages, arts, and sciences.
In their prosecution of their views of territorial acquisi- tion, and of disuniting the Indians from the English, the French attacked the Twightees, with intention to punish them for their adherence to the English, and their protection of English traders. Fourteen of this tribe were killed. The Ohio company having surveyed large tracts of land upon the Ohio, with a view to settlement, the governor of Canada re- monstrated with the governors of New York and Pennsyl- vania, upon what he considered an invasion of the French territories, and threatened to employ force, unless the English traders desisted from their intercourse with the Indians. This threat being disregarded, he captured some English traders, and sent them to France, whence they returned without re- dress. He also opened a communication from Presqu' isle, by French creek and the Alleghany river, to the Ohio. The design of his military preparations was communicated to the
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Six nations, who forbade him to occupy the Ohio lands, or to disturb the English traders; but the French contemned the present weakness of these tribes. To protect such traders as had not been captured, governor Hamilton despatched mes- sengers with tidings of the French movements; and, in ex- pectation that the Six nations and western Indians would require his aid, he earnestly exhorted the assembly to provide him with means to assist them effectually; and to prevent the consequences that must result from the neighbourhood of the French and Indians under their control.
The assembly, as usual, voted money freely, for presents to the Indians, but referred the consideration of all subjects arising out of the treaty of Great Britain with the Six na- tions to governor Clinton, of New York, to whom they more properly belonged; and refused, at the request of the In- dians, to build trading-houses or forts on the frontiers, al- though the proprietaries offered to contribute largely to this object; assigning, as a reason for this unwise policy, their conviction, that presents were the best means of securing the friendship of the Indians, and the safety of the province. *
The increased commerce of the colony requiring an ex- tension of the paper currency, a bill for this purpose was pre- pared in 1748, but was postponed, on account of an attempt made in parliament, to restrain all the American colonies from issuing bills as a circulating medium. An inquiry was instituted into the paper currency of the several colonies; and such was the effect of the statement prepared for Penn- sylvania, and the exertions of her agents and of the proprie- taries in London, that she was not included in the bill passed twenty-fifth of June, 1751, prohibiting the northern colonies, from creating or re-emitting bills of credit, except on extra- ordinary emergencies. Thus encouraged, the assembly, early in 1752, prepared a bill for striking forty thousand pounds. But the governor objecting to the amount, it was reduced to twenty thousand; yet he still refused his sanction, in ac- cordance with the instructions of the proprietaries, from a
* Votes. Letters of T. Penn to governor Hamilton. Penn's Hist. So- ciety's collection.
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fear, as he alleged, of offending the government at home, which had so lately disapproved of this species of paper. The bill being returned to the house, they appointed a com- mittee to consider and report upon their currency .*
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