USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 25
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The committee, of which Franklin was chairman, took a comprehensive view of the effects of the paper currency. They demonstrated, that, by its aid, the commerce, popula- tion, and internal improvements of the country, had greatly increased; that, in 1723, the number of vessels cleared from the port of Philadelphia were but eighty-five; in 1730, they amounted to one hundred and seventy-one; in 1735, to two hundred and twelve; and that from 1749 to 1752, they ave- raged four hundred and three, per annum. That the popu- lation had nearly doubled itself in twenty years; and that the importation of the manufactures of the mother country, had increased proportionally with the shipping-list. The im- ports from England, exclusive of those from Scotland and Ireland, were, in
1723,
£15,992 19
4, sterling.
1730,
48,592 7
5
1737,
56,960 6
7
1742,
75,295 3
4
1747,
82,404 17 7
1749,
191,833 0 6
1750,
156,945 7 10
1751,1
129,503 17 1
The views of their internal prosperity was not less favourable.
C
* Votes. Hamilton MSS. Col. Penn. Hist. Soc.
+ The exports from Pennsylvania, of wheat, flour, bread, and flax-seed, were, in
1751, 1729, 1730, 1731,
£62,473 14 3
57,499 19 0
62,582 0 1
148,104 4 11
1749, 1750, 155,174 19 6
187,457 11 1
Thus, in twenty-three years, the surplus produce had been trebled; whilst
273
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1752]
The Indian trade had been extended far to the west, em- bracing many new and strange nations. Agricultural improve- ments were very rapidly made; the people being enabled to purchase lands by the aid of the loan-office-that happy con- trivance in the money laws, by which the yearly quotas were re-emitted to other borrowers, spread the benefits of the sys- tem more widely, and lessened the necessity of additional issues. "Yet, great as these benefits were," the committee continued, "they might have been much greater, had this easy method for the purchase and improvement of lands kept pace, as it ought to have done, with the growing numbers of the people. For, during many years, the borrowers were not only compelled to be content with small sums, but many, who could give ample security, were delayed and disappointed. Even at this time, though application, by failure of success, had been greatly discouraged, there were not less than one thou- sand on the list, waiting their turn to be supplied. It was true, one inconvenience had resulted from this state of things; the price of labour was kept up, by the labourers becoming employers; and, though thirty thousand labourers had been imported within twenty years, the price of labour had not diminished; yet this evil was more than balanced, by the in- creased value of lands, and the addition to the consumers of English manufactures."
the quantity consumed was fully doubled. In 1729, there were exported
35,438 barrels of flour, cost £00 21 0 per cask.
4,067 tierces of bread 2 0 9 per tierce.
5,459 barrels do. 00 14 0 per barrel.
264 quarter casks do. 00 5 0 per cask.
74,800 bushels of wheat 00 3
6 per bushel. In 1751,
108,695 barrels of flour, 769 tierces of bread, 2 2 2 per tierce.
27,054 barrels do.
0 14 6 per barrel.
7,826 quarter-casks do. 282 tons do.
0 5 1 per cask.
0 12 6 per cwt.
76,870 bushels of wheat,
0 3 10 per bushel.
9,895 hogsheads of flaxseed, 62 barrels do.
2 5 0 per hogshead, 1
2 6 per barrel.
35
1 2 9 per barrel.
274
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1753
Still the governor hesitated to sign any money bill; yet, early in 1753, he consented to pass a law, with a rider, sus- pending its operation until it received the royal approbation. This clause he added pursuant to the instructions from the king to governor Thomas in 1740, and with a belief that the house would reject it; nor was he disappointed. They pre- ferred to lose the bill rather than introduce a precedent in- jurious to their own and the proprietary rights under the charter. But the governor's refusal was followed by several long and angry messages between himself and the house, by. which the cordiality hitherto distinguishing his administra- tion was much endangered.
In the following year the governor proposed to assent to an act for issuing forty thousand pounds in bills of credit, on condition that funds should be provided for their redemption within a reasonable time. The house sent him a bill for issuing thirty thousand pounds, redeemable by an extension of the excise for ten years. This term he considered too long, and in answer to a taunting and irritating message, mildly stated this and other objections. "He had been forced," he said," to abandon, with great reluctance, the clause suspending the operations of money bills until they received the king's approbation, by the approaching hostilities with the French, and the pertinacity of the house. The provincial treasury was now rich enough to furnish the sum of ten thousand pounds, the sum offered to his majesty in the bill, yet he con- sented to extend the excise law for six years, a period longer than was requisite to pay that sum. In the extension of this law, for ten years, he discovered a design in the legislature to become entirely independent of the governor, as by the laws in force the public money was solely at the disposition of the assembly. When the excise laws were passed for a short period, as for five years, the governor had it in his power to oblige the assembly in an essential manner, and thereby to render himself agreeable to them, and retain his influence over them; whilst a greater extension of these acts would render him unnecessary during their continuance. To this condition he determined not to reduce his successor."
275
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1753]
In answer, the house voted, that the excise did not, one year with another, produce more than was required for the public expenses; that the excise was more easily paid, and more, cheerfully borne, than the poll and pound rates; and that if its whole proceeds should be appropriated to the re- demption of the new issue of bills of credit, recourse must be had to these odious taxes. That if there was due to the trea- sury so large a sum as they had voted to the crown, which was very uncertain, its sudden collection would distress the public debtors ; that the right to judge not only of the sum necessary for the public service, but of the time and manner of raising it, and the term of payment, was solely in the re- presentatives of the people, and the governor had no right to interfere in any manner whatever therein ; that a just, pru- dent, and upright administration was the most effectual mode of obtaining and securing the affections of the people; and that it was neither necessary nor expedient to deny the pre- sent assembly the exercise of their just rights, that a future governor might have an opportunity of obliging a future as- sembly; that an act of parliament, made expressly to remedy disorders in the eastern governments, in which Pennsylvania was not embraced, could not by any construction bind her governors or assemblies; that in case of emergency the go- vernor was permitted to pass money bills without the sanc- tion of the crown, and that such was the present; and, therefore, if the governor were restricted by any instructions from giving his sanction to their bill, it was by such as he had not laid before the house, and not by such as he had himself effectually invalidated. *
The assembly had, with their usual sagacity, conjectured truly, that the governor was restricted by instructions he had not communicated to them. The proprietaries, in 1752, had prohibited him from passing any money bill which did not
* The years 1753 and 1754 are remarkable in the annals of Pennsylvania, for two attempts made by captain Swaine, in the schooner Argo, to discover a north-west passage, under the auspices of sundry merchants in Philadel- phia, who liberally subscribed for fitting out these expeditions. American Quarterly Review, 3 vol., Haz. Register, 1 vol. 381.
276
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. [1753
place the whole of the interest at the disposition of them- selves or deputies. The governor kept this instruction secret, and remonstrated with Thomas Penn on its impolicy, in con- sequence of which the instruction was revoked, and he per- mitted to pass bills, by which the interest should be appro- priated by the assembly from time to time as heretofore; but by subsequent letters he was discouraged from acting upon the last instructions, and finally forbidden to pass any money bill which did not place the interest at the disposal of the governor and assembly, and was informed that his assent to any bill for further issues of paper, without the permission of the crown, would be at his peril .*
Having adopted these resolutions, the house adjourned to the nineteenth of August, but was convened, by special summons, on the sixth of that month, in consequence of the defeat of col. Washington, on his march from Virginia to the frontiers. The dangers of the impending war produced new efforts on the part of the house to provide funds for the pub- lic service. A bill authorizing the issue of thirty-five thou- sand pounds paper, fifteen thousand of which to be appro- priated to the king's use, was sent up to the governor. But adhering to his former opinions, he refused to pass the bill without amendment, and referred the house to his successor, daily expected.
In this dispute the assembly was right in principle; but though satisfied of Mr. Hamilton's desire to oblige them, they sullied their cause by the rude and caustic manner in which they addressed him. They held properly and tena- ciously to the clause of the royal charter, empowering them to enact laws without the royal assent, and maintained their exclusive right to originate and limit all money bills. It is highly probable that the reasons assigned by the governor were not the only, perhaps not the true ones of his conduct. The royal and proprietary instructions were frequently incon- sistent with the public welfare. The assembly had entire control of the public treasury, and the interest on every new
* Hamilton MSS. Coll. Penn. Hist. Soc.
277
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
17541
loan increased their strength, and lessened their dependence upon the governor, the proprietary, and the crown. It was politic, therefore, on the part of the administration, to dis- burse the accumulations of the treasury, and to mortgage the revenues for the redemption of the paper issues. But the public exigencies prevented a rigid adherence to this plan, and an absolute negative upon every money bill ; yet, amend- ments proposed by the governor were designed to keep the assembly dependent upon the executive, for the continuance of the excise law.
Governor Dinwiddie having learned the intention of the French to proceed from Fort Vanango, on French creek, fur- ther southward, resolved to send a messenger to gain intelli- gence of their movements, and to remonstrate against their designs. For this purpose he selected Mr. George Washing- ton, then under twenty years of age. Mr. Washington left the frontiers on the fourteenth of November, 1753, perform- ing a journey over mountain and torrent, through morass and forest, braving the inclemency of winter, and the howling wilderness: he returned after an absence of two months, hav- ing escaped many dangers from Indian hostility, and the impracticability of the rivers, with the answer of Legardeau de St. Pierre, the French commandant upon the Ohio, dated at the fort on Le Beauf river. The Frenchman referred the discussion of the rights of the two countries to the Marquis du Quesne, governor-in-chief of Canada, by whose orders he had assumed, and meant to sustain his present position. From de la Joncaire, a captain in the French service, and Indian interpreter, Washington received full information of the French designs. They derived their claim to the Ohio river, and its appurtenances, from the discovery of La Salle, sixty years before, and their present measures for its defence had arisen from the attempts of the Ohio company to occupy its banks.
The English government, having learned the designs and operations of the French in the American continent, remon- strated with the court of Versailles. But, whilst public in- structions were given to the governor of Canada to refrain
278
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1754
from hostilities, to demolish the fortress erected at Niagara, to surrender the British prisoners in America, and to punish their captors, he was privately informed that strict obedience was not expected. Deceived and insulted, the English re- solved to oppose force with force; and the American go- vernors were instructed to repel the encroachments of any foreign prince or state.
The Anglo-American force was much greater than that of the French; but its division into many distinct sections, inde- pendent of each other, rendered combined efforts difficult and sluggish; whilst the French, directed by one will, had the advantages of union and promptitude; and drew the happiest hopes from the boldest enterprises. To resist them effectually, some confederacy of the colonies was necessary, and com- mon prudence required that the affections of the Indians to- wards the English should be assured. A conference with the Six nations, and the representatives of the colonies, was ordered by the ministry, at Albany, under the direction of governor de Lancey, of New York .* The assembly of Pennsylvania, though disapproving of a joint negotiation, at the instance of governor Hamilton, consented to send a deputation to the congress. The governor, unable to attend himself, commissioned Messrs. John Penn, t and Richard Peters, of the council, and Frank- lin and Norris, of the assembly. They carried with them five hundred pounds, the provincial present to the Indians.
The Six nations, although large presents were made them, were cold to the instances of the confederated council. Few of them attended, and it was evident, that the affection of all towards the English had decreased. They refused to form a treaty of coalition against the French, but consented to aid in driving them from the positions they had assumed upon
* Wash. Journ. Mod. Univ. Hist.
+ John Penn, the eldest son of Richard Penn, arrived in February, 1753. He was sent out by the proprietaries to reside a few years in the province, that he might obtain a knowledge of his affairs, which would qualify him for the place of deputy-governor. He was immediately made a counsellor, and, by unanimous vote of the board, placed at their head, and considered as the eldest counsellor. Hamilton MSS.
279
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1754]
their lands, and to renew the former treaties with the Eng- lish .*
After the public negotiations, the Pennsylvania commis- sioners, in consideration of four hundred pounds, purchased of the confederated nations a great part of the land in the province, to which the Indian title was not extinct, compre- hending the lands on which the Shawanee and Ohio Indians dwelt, and the hunting-grounds of the Delawares, the Nanti- cokes, and Tuteloes. This sale proved highly dissatisfactory to these tribes, and was a great cause of their subsequent estrangement from the English.
In the convention, t several plans for a political union of the colonies were submitted; and that devised by Mr. Frank- lin was adopted on the fourth of July. The following were the outlines of the proposed constitution. The general go- vernment was to be administered by a president-general, to be appointed and supported by the crown: a grand council of forty-eight members was to be chosen for three years, by the colonial assemblies, to meet at Philadelphia for the first time, on the call of the president. After the first three years, the number of members was to be apportioned to the revenue paid into the public treasury by each colony : the grand coun- cil was to meet once a year, and might be called, in case of emergency, by the president: it had power to choose its speaker, and could not be dissolved, prorogued, nor kept to- gether longer than six weeks at one time, without its consent, or the special command of the crown : the assent of the presi- dent-general was requisite to all acts of the council, and it was made his duty to execute them: the council was to be empow- ered, with the president-general, to hold or direct all Indian treaties, in which the general interest of the colonies was concerned, and to make peace and declare war with Indian na- tions; to regulate Indian trade ; to purchase for the crown from the Indians, lands not within particular colonies; to make new settlements on such purchases, by granting lands in the king's name, reserving quit-rent to the crown for the use of the
* Mod. Univ. Hist.
+ 14th June,
280
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1754
general treasury ; to make laws regulating and governing such new settlements, until they were formed into particular go- vernments: to raise soldiers, build forts, and equip vessels of war; and, for these purposes, to make laws and levy taxes: to appoint a general treasurer, and a particular treasurer in each government: no monies to issue without an appropria- tion by law, or by joint order of the president and council: the general accounts to be settled yearly, and reported to the se- veral assemblies : twenty-five members to form a quorum of the council, there being present one or more from a majority of the colonies: the laws were to be as near as might be to the laws of England, and transmitted to the king in council, for approbation, as soon as might be after their enactment; and, if not disapproved within three years, to remain in force: on the death of the president-general, the speaker was to succeed him, and to hold the office until the king's pleasure was known: military or naval officers to act under this consti- tution, to be appointed by the president, and approved by the council; civil officers to be nominated by the council, and approved by the assembly : in case of vacancy in any office, civil or military, the governor of the province in which such. vacancy should happen was to have authority to appoint, until the pleasure of the president and council should be known.
This plan was submitted to the board of trade in England, and to the assemblies of the several provinces. "Frank- lin says its fate. was singular ;* the assemblies rejected it, as containing too much prerogative; whilst in England it was condemned as too democratic. In Pennsylvania it was nega- tived without discussion. As a substitute, the British mi- nistry proposed that the governors of the colonies, with one or more members of the respective councils, should resolve on the measures of defence, and draw on the British trea- sury for the sums of money required, to be refunded by a general tax, imposed by parliament on the colonies. But this proposition, being deemed inadmissible by the provinces, was abandoned .*
* Franklin's Memoirs.
281
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1754]
Governor Hamilton earnestly solicited the assembly to pro- vide him with funds to organize the militia, in aid of governor Dinwiddie's preparations against the French. They urged the delay of the adjoining provinces, and eagerly sheltered themselves under an objection they fancied they had disco- vered against the legality of the governor's demands. The instructions of the earl of Holdernesse, secretary of fo- reign affairs, required, should any foreign power encroach on his majesty's limits, to erect forts on his majesty's lands, or commit any other act of hostility, that the governor should represent to the invader the injustice of his proceedings, and demand the instant abandonment of his unlawful undertaking; and, on failure of this measure, he was to resort to arms, with special care that no military force should be used, except within the undoubted limits of his majesty's dominions. As the governor had not made the requisition in the words of the instruction, the assembly was too modest to presume to set bounds to his majesty's dominions, or to ascertain the limits of their own province; and, as they were not required to resist any hostile attempt on his majesty's dominions within the province, but to assist in sending forces to the Virginians on the Potomac, they deemed it incumbent on them to wait for their neighbours, especially as the house was chiefly com- posed of such as were conscientiously scrupulous against war.
The governor, after a sharp reproof for this evasion, as- sured the house, that a part of his majesty's dominions within the province was actually invaded by the subjects of a foreign prince, who had erected forts within the same, and that he called upon them, pursuant to his majesty's orders, to grant such supplies as might enable him to draw forth the armed force of the province, in order to resist these hostile attempts, and to repel force by force. Having made this formal state- ment, in mockery of the disingenuousness of the house, he continued his expostulation in a frank and manly manner. Loggstown, which the French had seized, they knew, he said, was north of Chanopin, which had been established to be within the province, when disputed, on a trial for murder before the supreme court, at Philadelphia. He had avoided, 36
282
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
[1754
hitherto, to make the requisition, pursuant to the secretary's letter, in tenderness to their religious opinions, as such a step would have placed them in the front of the war, and exposed them to the contempt of the enemy, and of their own Indian allies, should they refuse to provide the necessary means to repel the invaders. And, in this light, he considered it for- tunate that governor Dinwiddie had taken the lead, and pur- sued the secretary's instructions. The hostile answer of the French they had before them.
-
The assembly had too much confidence in their subterfuge to abandon it hastily. They demanded formal proof that the French had invaded the province, and referred the communi- cations of the governor on this subject to a committee, who reported that the fact rested upon the testimony of Indian traders, unskilled in mensuration. Upon this the house re- solved that it did not clearly appear that the subjects of a foreign prince had erected forts within the undoubted limits of the government; and they accused the governor of impru- dence in declaring the province to be invaded, thereby changing their relation with Virginia, and making them prin- cipals instead of auxiliaries; and as such measures could answer no good purpose, they said they resolved to adjourn. They were soon again convened by the governor, but no re- presentation could induce them to appropriate any useful sum to the king's service.
In the mean time Virginia had raised three hundred men, under the command of colonel Fry and lieutenant-colonel Washington; the latter of whom marched with two compa- nies in advance, to a position called the great meadows, in the Allegheny mountains. Here he learned that the French had dispersed a party of workmen, employed by the Ohio company, to erect a fort on the Monongahela river, and were themselves raising fortifications at the confluence of that river with the Allegheny, to which they gave the name of Fort du Quesne; and that a detachment from that place was on its march towards his camp. It was impossible to doubt of the hostile intentions of this party, and Washington resolved to anticipate them. Guided by his Indians, under the cover of
283
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1754]
a dark and rainy night, he marched upon, and surprised the French encampment, taking the whole party prisoners, save one, who escaped; and Jumonville, the commanding officer, who was killed. Soon after the whole regiment, the com- mand of which had devolved on Mr. Washington, by the death of Mr. Fry, was united at the great meadows, and re- inforced by two independent companies of regulars, the one from South Carolina, and the other from New York, making in the whole, an effective force of five hundred men. Having erected a stockade for the security of their provisions and horses, the troops marched to dislodge the French from Fort du Quesne. Their progress was arrested by information of the advance of twelve hundred French and Indians; and as the Americans had been six days without bread, and had but a small supply of meat remaining, and the enemy might cut them off from their stores, they determined to retreat to the stockade, at the great meadows, which they named Fort Necessity. Colonel Washington began a ditch around the stockade, but before he could complete it he was attacked by the French army, under Monsieur de Villier. His troops made an obstinate defence, fighting partly within the stockade, and partly in the ditch, half filled with mud and water, from ten o'clock in the morning until dark, when de Villiers de- manded a parley, and offered terms of capitulation. During the night articles were signed, by which the garrison were allowed the honours of war, to retain their arms and baggage, and to return home unmolested. The last clause was not strictly kept, the Indians harassing and plundering the Ame- ricans during their retreat. The courage and conduct of Washington were greatly applauded, and the assembly of Virginia voted their thanks to him and his officers. The French retired to their position on the Ohio .*
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