USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 26
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The attack on the party of Jumonville without summons or expostulation, has been deeply reprobated by the French. Whilst peace prevailed between the two nations, hostility, they
Marshal. Bradford's Journal. Review of military operations in North America. Lond. 1757.
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said, should not have been presumed. They have not hesi- tated to call the death of Jumonville an assassination, and have so termed it in the capitulation at Fort Necessity ;* the attack of which, they state, was in consequence of the outrage upon their advance party. These allegations are refuted by a review of the conduct of the French since the development of their designs upon the Ohio. The capture of the persons and property of the settlers at Logstown, and of the English traders, wherever found in the western country, afforded con- clusive evidence of their intention to try the disputed title by force, and they could not justly complain of the reply to their argument.+
Governor Hamilton, on the news of Washington's defeat, again convened the assembly. And though the public exigen- cies became hourly more urgent, and a body of Indians driven from their homes, demanded support and protection for their families whilst they should engage the enemy, and the frontier inhabitants prayed for arms and ammunition to protect themselves, the pertinacity of governor and assembly in relation to the money bill, rendered their labours nugatory ; and the former gladly referred the subject to his successor.
Mr. Hamilton's administration had continued six years, and was distinguished for its mildness, firmness and ability. His knowledge of the country, the interest which a large property gave him in its welfare, and his connexion with the principal inhabitants, were important pledges for his zeal and integrity. Obedience to the proprietary and royal instruc- tions, produced frequent and unpleasant altercations between him and the assembly, but he never forgot what was due to their character or his own. He foresaw that circumstances would necessarily bring the governor into bitter conflicts with the Quaker interest, still predominant in the province, and that public disputes might terminate in private animosi-
* Bradford's Journal. -
+ Colonel Washington, ignorant of the French language, was unable to read the articles of capitulation, and was compelled to rely on an interpre- ter, who translated the word "assassinat," into the English word " death" merely. Washington's letter.
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ties. To avoid these he, early in 1753, gave notice to the proprietaries, pursuant to a condition of his bond, that in twelve months from the date of the reception of the notice, he would resign his commission. His resignation was reluc- tantly accepted ; but the proprietaries earnestly requested his continuance until Mr. Thomas Penn should arrive in the pro- vince, for which he then contemplated to embark, with a design to take upon himself the government, in about fifteen months .* This design was never executed. Although greatly respected and esteemed, Mr. Hamilton did not escape the causticity which distinguished the assembly in their disputes with their governors; yet he would have suffered more had his temper been less moderate or less firm.
During his administration, the counties of York, Cumber- land, Berks, and Northampton, were established, and the following public acts were passed ; an act to correct abuses of masters of ships, in the importation of German and other pas- sengers; an act regulating domestic attachments; an act barring estates tail, by the confirmation of fines and recove- ries; and an act to prevent disputes about the dates of con- veyances. The last was occasioned by the act of parliament of 1751, reforming the calendar, and fixing the commence- ment of the year on the first of January. The scruples of the Quakers to call the months by their designated names, as a remnant of heathenism, had been protected by an act of assem- bly in the reign of Queen Anne, making valid all convey- ances and other instruments of writing dated as of the first, second, &c. months, the year then commencing on the twen- ty-fifth of March. The same protection was now given, com- mencing the year on the first day of January. The duty of the governor also required him to enforce, by proclamation, one of those many laws of Great Britain which were designed to mark and preserve the dependence of the colonies; an act of parliament, solicited by the proprietaries, having passed in 1750,t entitled " an act to encourage the importation of pig and bar iron from his majesty's colonies in America, and to
* Hamilton's MS.
t Letter of T. P'enn to governor Hamilton.
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prevent the erection of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating forge, to work with a tilt ham- mer, or any furnace for making steel in any of the said colo- nies." At the time of issuing this proclamation there were no tilt hammers in the province, but there was a slitting mill at work in Chester county, and a steel furnace in Philadel- phia. As the statute was not retrospective, these factories · were suffered to continue their operations .*
* Minutes of council.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Robert Hunter Morris governor .... Instructions from the mi- nistry .... Proceedings of the French and Indians .... Proceed- ings of assembly ···· Indians .... Arrival of general Braddock .... Claims the assistance of the province ···· Frivolous dis- pute excited by the governor ···· Application for assistance from Massachusetts ... . Conduct of assembly thereon. ... Non- intercourse law ···· Convention of governors at Annapolis in Maryland .... Plan of the campaign ..... Expedition against Nova Scotia .... Cruelty towards the neutrals ···· German re- demptioners ··· Braddock's expedition .... Proceeding of the assembly .... Propose to tax the proprietary estates. ... Visit from the Indians .... New disputes between the governor and assembly ···· Devastations on the frontiers .... General defec- tion of the Indians .... Causes of this defection .... Supply bill .... Petitions of the people ... Donation by the proprietors ... Measures of defence .... Plan of the campaign for 1756 .... Enlistment of servants ···· Dispute on the renewal of the ex- cise .... Proprietary instructions ..... Bill for regulating the soldiers ····· Declaration of war against the Shawanese and Delawares ···· Remonstrance of the Quakers ····· Indians .... Suspension of hostilities against them ···· Declaration of war in Europe .... Lord Loudon commander-in-chief .... Proposi- tion to continue the embargo .... Treaty at Easton with the Indians .... Removal of governor Morris.
ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, son of Lewis Morris, formerly governor of New Jersey, was commissioned by the proprie- taries on the fourteenth of May, approved by the king on the fourteenth of June, and arrived in Pennsylvania early in Oc- tober, 1754.
A new assembly had been elected about the time of his arrival, but did no business at their first session, held imme-
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diately after, in consequence of his visit to the territories. At their second session, in December, he laid before them a letter from sir Thomas Robinson, one of his majesty's prin- cipal secretaries of state, reprehending the silence of the pro- vince, in relation to the royal order for a concert with the other colonies, and commanding him not only to act vigo- rously in defence of his own government, but to aid the other colonies to repel every hostile attempt.
He endeavoured to enforce these commands, by alarming the assembly with details of the progress of the French. With great industry, they had completed fort Du Quesne, had garrisoned it with one thousand regulars, amply supplied with cannon, provisions, and other necessary munitions, and were preparing to occupy the country of the Twightees with numerous settlers. The Six nation Indians, now more nu- merous on the western waters, than in their ancient seats, cold to the English cause, and divided among themselves, barely maintained their neutrality. Some of them had re- moved to Canada, preferring the protection of the active and enterprising French commanders, to that of the slothful and unsuccessful English. The small body of English troops, collected on the frontiers, was weakened by desertion, and corrupted by insubordination. The Indians who still adhered to the province, and had retired before the French, were seated at Aughwick. They admired the courage of the ene- my, contemned the pacific temper of the assembly, and were scarcely kept in quiet by the liberality of the province to their families, and its forbearance towards the license of their chiefs.
The assembly prepared a bill for the issue of forty thousand pounds currency, appropriating twenty thousand pounds to the use of the king, redeemable by the excise in twelve years, and the balance to supply the torn and defaced bills of former issues. But the governor objected the royal instructions, so often urged by his predecessor, yet conceded, that, as he might dispense with the suspending clause in extraordinary cases, he would venture to sanction the bill, if the sum granted
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to the king were made redeemable within five years. This proposition was unhesitatingly rejected.
The government of Great Britain had at length determined to oppose energetically the growing power of the French in America. Two regiments of foot from Ireland, under the command of colonels Dunbar and Halkett, were ordered to Virginia, to be there reinforced; and governor Shirley and sir William Peperell were directed to raise two regiments of a thousand men each, to be officered from New England, and commanded by themselves. Pennsylvania was required to collect three thousand men for enlistment, to be placed at the disposal of a commander-in-chief of rank and capacity, who would be appointed to command all the king's forces in America: to supply the troops on their arrival with provi- sions, and to furnish all necessaries for the soldiers landed or raised within the province; to provide the officers with means for travelling, for impressing carriages, and quartering troops. And, as these were " local matters, arising entirely within her government, his majesty expected the charges thereof to be borne by his subjects within the province; whilst articles of more general concern would be charged upon a common fund, to be raised from all the colonies of North America." Toward this fund the governor was directed to urge the as- sembly to contribute liberally, until a union of the northern colonies for general defence could be effected.
In answer to a message of the governor, based on these re- quisitions, the house referred him to the money bill they had sent him; and, after a recapitulation of their arguments against his objections, they intimated an opinion, that his refusal to pass the bill was occasioned by the proprietary instructions, which they requested might be shown to them. He evaded a direct answer to this request, but assured them, that his in- structions were designed to promote the real happiness of the inhabitants, and contained nothing which his duty would not have required, had they never been given. And, though it was indecorous and unprecedented, for the house to demand their exhibition, still he would communicate them when ne- cessary for the public service: it was sufficient now, to say 37
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that he was instructed by the proprietaries earnestly to recom- mend to them the defence of the province, not only by the grant of money to the king, but by the establishment of a regular militia, the purchase of arms and military stores, and the erection of magazines. He would add, he said, to his former reasons for negativing their bill, the present state of the treasury, which did, or ought to, contain fifteen thousand pounds, and had an annual revenue of seven thousand per annum. With these resources, and a rich and numerous po- pulation, he deemed it unpardonable to disobey the royal in- structions.
When unprepared or unwilling to discuss the prominent parts of a governor's message, the house frequently selected from it some minor subject, which, treated excursively, enabled them to gain time, perplex the argument, and obtain the victory. They now seized on the governor's denial of a precedent to the call for proprietary instructions. They ad- verted to the right of parliament to ask from the crown such information as they deemed necessary, and thence inferred their own right to inspect his instructions, which they sup- ported by examples from the administrations of sir William Keith, and colonel Thomas. Then, assuming his instructions to be inconsistent with their views, they declined to proceed further in the public labours, until, by a knowledge of the pro- prietary designs, they might be enabled to labour successfully. The public service now required this; and, as they were about to address the king in support of their civil and religious liber- ties, the proprietary instructions, their force, and validity, would form the great burden of their petition, unless satisfied by the governor that remonstrance on that subject was unne- cessary. But this threat availed not. Mr. Morris denied their right, and persisted in his refusal.
The pertinacity of the governor produced from the house a long address; in which they reviewed all the objections that had been made to their money bills, and dwelt with much earnestness upon the injustice and tyranny of administering the government by proprietary instructions, kept secret from the people, instead of their constitution. "These instruc-
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tions," they said, "'as they have occasionally been made a part of the public records, have been judged, by go- vernor, council, and representatives, either, 1, Inconsistent with the legal prerogative of the crown, settled by act of par- liament; 2, or a positive breach of the charter of privileges to the people ; 3, or absurd in their conclusions, and, there- fore, impracticable; 4, or void in themselves: therefore, if, after exhibition of his instructions, the governor, finding them to be such as had heretofore been given, should find reason, notwithstanding the bonds he may have given to follow them, to disobey them, they would cheerfully grant such further sums for the king's use, as the circumstances of the country would bear, and in a manner least burdensome to the inhabitants."
But that no doubt might exist of their disposition to obey the orders of the crown in all things not forbidden by their consciences, the assembly unanimously resolved to borrow on the credit of the house the sum of five thousand pounds, to be expended in the purchase of fresh provisions, for the use of the king's troops on their arrival, and appointed a committee to negotiate the loan.
The dispute between the governor and assembly was now contracted to a single point. The public necessity, he admitted, would justify his disregard of the royal in- structions relative to a suspending clause, but no exigency could induce him to depart from the proprietary commands, nor to extend the excise act for more than five years. His · obstinate adherence to his instructions became a criminal dis- regard of the public welfare; and the conduct of the house subjected them in a degree to like censure, by their perseve- rance in maintaining and enlarging the grasp of the pub- lic revenue. A series of long and angry messages and replies, resulted in a determination on the part of the assembly to address the king, in testimony of their loyalty and affection, and to represent to him the difficulties produced by proprie- tary instructions.
The Indians at Aughwick having deputed their chief, Scar- royady, and two others, to attend a council of the Six nations
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at Onondago, they passed by Philadelphia to obtain necessa- ries. The son-in-law of Scarroyady, who accompanied him, was charged by the Ouendaets, his tribe, to inquire what their brethren, the English, designed in relation to the French encroachments. He received with joy the news of the pre- parations to restrain them, as the faith of the Indians in the courage and strength of the English had been greatly dimi- nished by the inactivity of the latter; and with the assent of the assembly he returned immediately to his nation to relate the cheerful tidings. On Scarroyady's return he again stopped at the city with several young men, whose services he repre- sented as important to the common cause; and who at least answered his present purpose of extracting a present from the assembly. But the house refused to supply means for a treaty with the western tribes, and recommended the re- moval of the Indians whom they had supported during the winter at Augwick, to their own grounds, where they might subsist by planting and hunting. In January, some chiefs of the Six nations visited Philadelphia, on business with the proprietaries; these also the governor recommended to the notice of the assembly, but as this notice was to assume the form of a present, and as these chiefs had partaken of the donation lately distributed at Albany, and their visit was solely on proprietary account, the house refused them all gratuity.
On the fourteenth of January, major-general Braddock, Sir John St. Clair, adjutant-general, and the regiments of Dunbar and Halkett sailed from Cork; and they arrived early in March at Alexandria, in Virginia, whence they marched to Frederickstown, in Maryland. The place of debarkation was selected with that ignorance and want of judgment which then distinguished the British ministry. The country could furnish neither provisions nor carriages for the army; whilst Pennsylvania, rich in grain, and well stocked with wagons, could readily supply food, and the means to transport the army to any point. The assembly, apprehending the general to be prejudiced against them, sent Mr. Franklin to unde- ceive him; with instructions, however, not to assume the
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character of their agent, but to present himself as post-master general, disposed to make his office subservient to the gene- ral's plans. Whilst Franklin was with the army, the return of the wagons obtainable was made; from which it appeared that there were not more than twenty-five, and not all of those serviceable. The general and his officers were sur- prised, declared the expedition at an end, and exclaimed against the ministers for having sent them into a country des- titute of the means of transportation. On Franklin expressing his regret that the army had not been landed in Pennsylva- nia, where such means abounded, Braddock seized eagerly on his words, and commissioned him, on liberal terms, to procure one hundred and fifty wagons, and fifteen hundred pack horses. Franklin, on his return, circulated advertise- ments through the counties of York, Lancaster, and Cumber- land, and by an artful address obtained, in two weeks, all the wagons, two hundred and fifty pack horses, and much popu- larity for himself .*
He stated in his address that he had found the general in- censed at the delay of the horses and carriages he had expect- ed from Philadelphia; and disposed to send an armed force to seize the carriages, horses, and drivers necessary for the service. But that he, apprehending the visit of British sol- diers, in their present temper, would be very inconvenient to the inhabitants, was desirous to try what might be done by fair and equitable means; and that an opportunity was now presented of obtaining thirty thousand pounds in silver and gold, which would supply the deficiency of the provincial currency. He expended eight hundred pounds received from the general, advanced two hundred himself, and gave his bonds for the payment of the value of such horses as should be lost in the service; the owners refusing to rely upon Brad- dock's promise, alleging that he was unknown to them. The claims made against him in consequence of this engagement amounted to twenty thousand pounds, and were not settled by the government until after much delay and trouble.t
* Franklin's Auto Biography.
+ Mr. Franklin's representations were strongly enforced by chief justice
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The adjutant-general, immediately on the arrival of the troops, required of governor Morris, that roads should be cut to facilitate their march, and the supply of provisions. Ge- neral Braddock demanded the establishment of a post between Philadelphia and Winchester, the Pennsylvania quota of men, and her portion of the general fund directed to be raised for the public service.
The assembly, specially summoned, met on the seventeenth of March, and immediately provided for the expense of a mail, and the opening of the roads: and though they gave no direct encouragement to the raising of troops, they applied themselves assiduously to establish the necessary funds.
The effects of this favourable disposition were procrasti- nated by the puerility of the governor., It was the practice of the house at the close of each session to print and publish their minutes. But, on the last day of the late session he demanded a copy to be delivered to him immediately. The assembly gave him no direct answer, but directed their minutes to be published with all convenient speed, and a copy to be furnished him when finished. This he did not receive until two months after the adjournment of the house, when he discovered that the letters of Sir Thomas Robinson, under secretary of state, were spread upon them at full length. He condemned this as a gross impropriety, and commanded the suppression of that part of the minutes which contained them, and declared his intention not to communicate other letters or papers relative to his majesty's service until he had proper assurances of the secrecy of the house; and required, that the clerk should attend him daily with the minutes, that he might keep his majesty's ministers advised of the proceed- ings of the legislature. A committee, of which Franklin was chairman, defended the entry of the letters upon the minutes, as they formed the basis of the proceedings of the house, and might be necessary for its justification. They considered the governor's complaint in the present instance ridiculous, as these letters were circulars addressed to all the colonies, Allen, then upon the circuit, and by the judges of the several county. courts.
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their contents published in the messages of the several gover- nors, and the letters had been printed in the London Gazette. " They knew not," they said, " what assurances of secrecy he might expect, but that when secrecy was necessary, proper measures would be taken to preserve it. It had been their constant practice to appoint a committee to revise their minutes after the rising of the house, and before publication. Until this was done no copies were ever delivered, unless of particular votes, on special occasions. The principal matters they contained were to be found in the governor's messages and the replies of the house, which, with the material votes, were immediately printed in the newspapers. The rest was matter of form, uninteresting even to the people of the pro- vince, and unworthy the attention of his majesty and his ministers; and as it was inconvenient and useless to the pub- lic to make up their minutes daily, so that a copy could be given him, and as they knew no right he possessed so pe- remptorily to demand it, they were not inclined to alter their ancient custom ; and when they reflected on the importance of the business before them, and the earnestness with which he had pressed unanimity and despatch, they could not but be surprised to receive a message which could only tend to produce division and delay. They, therefore, humbly en- treated him to suspend all irritating accusations and novel demands until a season of more leisure, and to permit them to proceed with the business on which he had been pleased to call them together, and the very important matters he had recommended to their consideration." The governor next turned himself upon the printers, Messrs. Franklin and Hall, and forbade them to publish the letters with the minutes of the house. But, on Franklin's application, the assembly resolved that the letters were properly placed on the minutes, that they were the sole judges of what should be inserted thereon, and that the publication should proceed. The go- vernor now informed the house that he had ordered his secretary to inspect their journals, and to take a copy of their minutes from the seventeenth to the twentieth of March in- clusive. But the house replied, that when the session was
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