USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 27
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over their minutes would be revised and printed as usual, when a fair copy should be furnished him; until then, they prayed he would excuse them, if they did not permit any person to inspect them, or a copy to be taken. This frivo- lous affair had no other effect than to alienate the minds of both parties, and to prejudice them on subjects of deeper im- portance.
In defence of the northern frontiers, governor Shirley was instructed to build a fort on Crown Point, at the entrance of lake Champlain, for which commissioners were sent from Mas- sachusetts to solicit aid from the other colonies. The applica- tion of Mr. Josiah Quincey, to the assembly of Pennsylvania, was warmly seconded by the governor, and favourably received by the house. A bill for raising twenty-five thousand pounds for the king's use, in bills of credit, redeemable by the excise in ten years, was immediately sent to the governor. This sum was appropriated, five thousand pounds to repay the sum bor- rowed at the last session, five thousand to the order of general Braddock, five thousand to Indian and incidental expenses, and ten thousand to the purchase of provisions for the Mas- sachusetts forces. But the governor refused to sanction the bill or return it to the house, alleging that it was of so extra- ordinary a nature that he must lay it before his majesty .*
But Mr. Quincey, perceiving the assembly to be sincerely desirous to promote the public service, and having laboured in vain to remove the governor's objections, he, by the advice and assistance of Franklin, addressed himself directly to the house. He stated, that the burden which Massachusetts ne- cessarily bore, from her vicinity to the French, would com- pel her to abandon her present enterprise, unless aided by her sister colonies; and congratulating the assembly on their im- munity from French visitation, he solicited their attention to the defence of the northern frontier, as the means of con- tinuing this blessing; and, though disappointed in the manner of their grant, he flattered himself they would yet find means to render it effectual.t
* Votes. + Votes. Frank. Mem.
A 0 p al Y
un
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On the next morning, the house voted fifteen thousand pounds to the king's use; five thousand to repay the loan of the last session, and ten thousand to purchase and transport provisions for the troops about to march to secure his ma- jesty's territories. This sum was raised by bills drawn by a committee, appointed by the house, on the treasurer and trus- tees of the loan-office, payable to bearer after twelve months, and bearing interest at five per cent. To give every facility to the circulation of these bills, they were made receivable as cash in payment of the excise, in the exchange of money at the treasury, and in discharge of debts to the loan-office. This vote affords satisfactory evidence of the disposition of the assembly, and shows how much might have been done through them, had they been properly treated. Mr. Quin- cey, elated with the success of his mission, returned them his warmest acknowledgments for their promptitude and libe- rality .*
As the French drew a considerable portion of their sup- plics from the English colonies, it became expedient to pro- hibit the export of provisions to French ports. This measure was adopted by the assembly of Pennsylvania with great cheerfulness.
A convention of the governors of New York, Massachu- setts, Maryland, and Virginia, convened at Annapolis, in Maryland, to settle with general Braddock a plan of military operations. ¡ Three expeditions were resolved on. The first, against fort Du Quesne, under the command of general Brad- dock in person, with the British troops, and such aid as he could draw from Maryland and Virginia; the second, against Niagara and fort Frontignac, under general Shirley, with his own and Peperell's regiments; and the third, originally pro- posed by Massachusetts, against Crown Point, to be executed altogether with colonial troops from New England and New York, under major-general William Johnson of New York,
Whilst these measures were in embryo, an expedition was undertaken against the French possessions in Nova Scotia.
Votes. t Ibid.
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The territorial claims of the English extended northward to the St. Lawrence ;* but the French endeavoured to restrict them to the peninsula of Acadié. Whilst the two crowns were fruitlessly discussing their several claims in Europe, the French occupied, and prepared to defend, the disputed territory. Though the enterprise against it was planned in Massachusetts, to be executed by the troops of that colony, in conjunction with the regiments of Shirley and Peperell, the command was given to lieutenant-colonel Monckton, a British officer. His second was lieutenant-colonel Winslow, a major-general of the provincial militia. The provincial troops, amounting to near three thousand men, embarked at Boston on the twentieth of May, and arrived in the basin · of Annapolis Royal, on the twenty-eighth of the same month. They were afterwards joined by three hundred British sol- diers with a small train of artillery. In little more than a month, with the loss of three men only, they obtained pos- session of the whole province of Nova Scotia, according to their own definition of its boundaries. This easy conquest elated the colonies, and produced sanguine anticipations from their future efforts.
It would have been well for humanity and the honour of the British name, had the victors enjoyed their triumph in mercy. But they disgraced their conquest by scenes of de- vastation and misery, scarce paralleled in modern history. The inhabitants of Nova Scotia were chiefly descendants of French parentage. By the treaty of Utrecht, (1713) they were per- mitted to retain their lands, taking the oath of allegiance to their new sovereign, with the qualification, that they should not be compelled to bear arms against their Indian neigh- bours, or their countrymen; and this immunity was, at sub- sequent periods, assured to their children. Such was the notoriety of this compact, that, for near half a century, they had borne the name, and, with few exceptions, maintained the character, of neutrals. But, at length, excited by their ancient love of France, their religious attachments, and.
* Marshall.
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their doubts of the English rights, some of these mild, frugal, industrious, and pious people, were seduced to take arms. Three hundred were found in Beau Sejour at its capture; but it was stipulated that they should be left in the same situation as when the army arrived, and should not be punished for any thing subsequently done. Yet a council was called by Lawrence, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, at which the admirals Boscawen and Moyston assisted, to determine the fate of these unfortunate people. Sound policy and military law demanded the punishment of the leaders of the insur- gents, but humanity forbade the extension of this punishment wider than the offence-the involvement of the innocent and the guilty. Of a population exceeding seven thousand, not more than three hundred had taken arms; and, of these, some were com- pelled to assume them by the enemy, from whom many had suf- fered much in consequence of their refusal to resist the English. The council required the elders of the people to take the oath of allegiance to the British monarch without the exemption which, during fifty years, had been granted to them and their fathers. Upon their refusal, it was resolved to cxpel them from their country, to confiscate their property, money and household goods excepted, to waste their estates, and burn their dwellings. Their public records and muniments of title were seized, and the elders treacherously made prisoners. In transporting them to their several destinations, the charities of blood and affinity were wantonly torn asunder; parents were separated from their children, and husbands from their wives: among many instances of this barbarity, was that of René La Blanc, who had been imprisoned four years by the French for his English attachments. The family of this venerable man, consist- ing of twenty children, and about one hundred and fifty grand- children, were scattered in different colonies, and himself with his wife and two children, only, were put on shore at New York. On ship-board, the prisoners were without the ne- cessarics of life, and so crowded, that all could not lic down at once; and many of the weak and aged ended their miseries with their lives; and such were the sufferings of others, that of five hundred allotted to Pennsylvania, as her portion
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of the burthen, more than one-half died soon after their ar- rival. So far as it was possible, they were relieved by the kindness of the Pennsylvanians.# They were landed at the lazaretto on Province island, and placed in the hospital, under the superintendence of Anthony Benezet, since well known by his humane and ardent efforts against the slave trade. Un- just and severe as these measures were to the neutrals, the consequences did not terminate in their sufferings. Gover- nor Lawrence, with great presumption, and a total disregard of the rights of the neighbouring provinces, imposed a heavy and durable burthen upon them, in the maintainance of this devoted race, for which they were never requited. In Phila- delphia " the neutrals" long remained a separate people. They petitioned the crown in vain for redress, refused for a long time to labour, but, finally, settled in low huts, in a quarter of the town, where a vestige continued until the year eighteen hun- dred.
The assembly endeavoured, though in vain, to re-model the law regulating the importation of German passengers.t The Germans now imported were of a more mixed cha- racter than heretofore, and gross abuses were practised by the importers. The passengers were crowded on board the ships without regard to cleanliness or health, and the whole were made responsible for the passage money of each, and were frequently, from this cause, reduced to one level of want and misery. The baggage of the passengers was put on board of other ships, with the design of securing to the merchants the property of those who died on the voyage. Contagious diseases were engendered, which spread widely on the arrival of the vessels by their evasion of the quarantine. The provisions introduced by the assembly to remedy these evils were stricken from the bill by the gover- nor's council, many of whom, as the house averred, profited by this shameful traffic.
The freedom and severity with which the assembly com- mented upon the rejection of the salutary clauses of this bill,
* Minot. Marshall. Mem. of the neutrals. Votes. + 1755, May 12. $ Votes.
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drew from the governor a violent reprehension of their general conduct. He accused them of a total disregard of the public welfare in refusing provisions and carriages for the troops ; of voting money on terms they knew to be inadmissible; of aiming at independence by illegally raising money on the mere vote of the house; and he marshalled in formidable array their sins of omission and commission against his administra- tion. The assembly made a conclusive defence by enume- rating the sums they had appropriated to the opening of roads, and to the purchase of provisions for the western and northern armies, from the funds over which the law gave them abso- lute control.
General Braddock removed his army to a post on Will's creek, since called fort Cumberland, where he awaited the wagons and other necessary supplies for his expedition. From this place, confident of success, he informed the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that, should he take Fort du Quesne in its present condition, he would, after some additions, garrison it, and leave there the guns, ammunition, and stores he should find in it. But, should the enemy aban- don and destroy the fortifications, as he apprehended, he would repair the fort, or construct another. In the latter case he required the necessary means of defence to be furnished by the colonies, and to be forwarded immediately, that he might not be delayed in his progress to forts Niagara and Frontignac: he also gave information of the enemy's inten- tion to attack the frontier settlements as soon as he should have marched beyond them.
Upon receipt of the general's letter, governor Morris con- vened the assembly, and urged their compliance with his request; but he irritated the house, and delayed this momen- tous business, by refusing to lay before them the letter without a formal pledge of secrecy, which the house refused to give, on the ground that their discretion was a sufficient safeguard against its improper use; and, finally, by refusing to depart from the royal and proprietary instructions, he rendered abortive every effort the assembly was disposed to make towards the supply of the necessary funds. His obstinacy
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was now more reprehensible, as the bill passed by governor Thomas contrary to the royal instructions, was at length re- turned approved by the king .* The house, despairing to prevail with him, adjourned until September, first re-enacting the law prohibiting the export of provisions to Cape Breton and other French possessions. t
General Braddock, at length amply furnished with all ne- cessaries, and reinforced by a considerable body of Americans and Indians, broke up his encampment on the twelfth of June. He passed the Allegheny mountains, at the head of two thousand two hundred men. On reaching the Little Meadows, five days' march from Fort du Quesne, he called a council of war to determine his future motions. Colonel Washington, who had entered his family as a volunteer aid- de-camp, and possessed a knowledge of the country, and the service to be performed, had urged the substitution of pack horses for wagons in the transportation of the baggage, now renewed his advice; and earnestly recommended, that the heavy artillery and stores should remain with the rear divi- sion, and follow by easy marches, whilst a chosen body of troops, with a few pieces of light cannon, and stores of abso- lute necessity, should press forward to Fort du Quesne. He enforced this counsel by the information he had received of the march of five hundred men to reinforce the French, who, though delayed by the low state of the waters, might be ac- celerated by rains, which, in ordinary course, might be imme- diate. His opinion prevailed. Twelve hundred men, and twelve pieces of cannon, were selected. These were commanded by general Braddock in person, accompanied by Sir Peter Halket, acting as brigadier; and lieutenant-colonels Gage and Burton, and major Spark. Thirty wagons only, including
* The sluggish progress of colonial business in the court of Great Britain is strikingly exemplified by the history of this, and other laws this year re- turned with his majesty's approbation. Of eleven acts thus returned, the first was passed in 1744, and the last in 1747. They were all confirmed at a privy council on the 28th of October, 1748; but official notice of their confirmation was not transmitted until April, 1755.
t Votes. Universal History.
1
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the ammunition wagons, followed their march. The residue of the army remained under the care of colonel Dunbar and major Chapman.
The benefit of these prudent measures was lost by the fas- tidiousness and presumption of the commander-in-chief. In- stead of pushing on with vigour, regardless of a little rough road, he halted to level every mole hill, and to throw bridges over every brook, employing four days to reach the great crossings of the Yohogany, nineteen miles from the Little Meadows. On his march, he neglected the advantage his Indians afforded him of reconnoitering the woods and pas- sages on the front and flank, and even rejected the prudent suggestion of Sir Peter Halket on this subject with a sneer at his caution. *
This overweening confidence and reckless temerity were destined to a speedy and fatal reproof .; Having crossed the Monongahela river, within seven miles of Fort du Quesne, wrapt in security, and joyously anticipating the coming vic- tory, his progress was suddenly checked by a destructive fire on the front and left flank from an invisible enemy. The van was thrown into confusion, but the main body, forming three deep, instantly advanced. The commanding officer of the enemy having fallen, it was supposed from the suspen- sion of the attack that the assailants had dispersed. The delusion was momentary. The fire was renewed with great spirit and unerring aim; and the English, beholding their comrades drop around them, and, unable to see the foe, or tell whence their death arrived, broke and fled in utter dis- may. The general, astounded at this sudden and unexpected attack, lost his self-possession, and neither gave orders for a regular retreat, nor for his cannon to advance and scour the woods. He remained on the spot where he first halted, directing the troops to form in regular platoons against a foe dispersed through the forest, behind trees and bushes, whose every shot did execution. The officers behaved admirably, but distinguished by their dresses, and selected by the hidden
* Marshall. Wash. Lett.
+ July 9, 1755.
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marksmen, they suffered severely; every one on horseback, except Washington, was killed or wounded; he had two horses killed under him, and four balls through his coat. Sir Peter Halkett was killed on the spot, and the general himself having been five times dismounted, received a ball through the arms and lungs, and was carried from the field of battle. He survived only four days. On the first he was totally silent, and at night only said, " who would have thought it." He was again silent until a few minutes before his death, when he said, " we shall better know how to deal with them another time."
The defeat was total, the carnage unusually great. Sixty- four, out of eighty-five officers, and one-half the privates, were killed or wounded. Many fell by the arms of their fellow soldiers. An absolute alienation of mind seems to have fallen upon the regular troops. In despite of the orders of the officers, they gathered in squads of ten or twelve deep, and in their confusion fired and shot down the men before them; and the troops in line fired on the provincials where- ever they saw a smoke, or heard a shot from behind trees. Captain Waggoner, of the Virginia forces, who had taken an advantageous position on the flank, with eighty men, was driven from it by the British fire with the loss of fifty .* Fortunately the Indians were held from the pursuit by the desire of plunder. The artillery and military stores, even the private cabinet of the commander-in-chief, containing his instructions, fell into the hands of the enemy, whose whole force was computed at three hundred men.
The fugitives continuing their flight to Dunbar's division, so infected it with their terror, that, though the enemy did not advance, all the artillery and stores collected for the cam- paign, except those indispensable for immediate use, were destroyed, and the remnant of the army marched to fort Cum- berland. The loss in this engagement would have been still greater, but for the coolness and courage of the colonial troops. These, whom Braddock had contemptuously placed in his
* Penn. Records.
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rear, so far from yielding to the panic which disordered the regulars, offered to advance against the enemy, until the others could form and bring up the artillery; but the regulars could not again be brought to the charge, yet the provincials ac- tually formed and covered their retreat. The conduct of the Virginia troops merits the greatest praise. Of three compa- nies brought into the field, it is said, scarce thirty escaped uninjured. Captain Peyroney and all his officers, down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Polson's company shared al- most as hard a fate; the captain himself was killed, and one officer only escaped. Of the company of light-horse, com- manded by captain Stewart, twenty-five out of twenty-nine were slain .*
This misfortune is solely to be ascribed to the misconduct of the general. Presumptuous, arrogant, and ignorant, he had no quality save courage to insure success. Unacquainted with the country, and the Indian mode of warfare, he neglected the suggestions of the duke of Cumberland, whose instruc- tions seemed predicated on a prescience of his conduct, and the advice of his American officers, to employ his Indians in guarding against ambush and surprise. He neglected and disobliged the Virginians, and behaved with insupportable haughtiness to all around him. With a lethargy in all his senses, produced by his self-sufficiency, he led his troops to be defeated and slaughtered by a handful of men, who in- tended only to molest their march. t(1)
Dunbar proposed to return with his army, yet strong enough" to meet the enemy, to Philadelphia; but consented, on the remonstrance of the assembly of Pennsylvania, to keep the frontiers. He requested a conference with governor Morris at Shippensburg; but governor Shirley having succeeded to the chief command of the forces in America, though at first he directed Dunbar to renew the enterprise on fort du Quesne, and to draw upon the neighbouring provinces for men and munitions, changed his mind, and determined to employ his
* Penn. Gaz. + Mod. Univ. Hist. Marshall. Franklin. Richard Peters' report to council. W. Shirley's letter to governor Morris,
(1) See note N 2, Appendix.
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troops elsewhere, leaving to the populous provinces of Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, the care of their own de- fence.
The consternation at Braddock's defeat was very great in Pennsylvania. The retreat of Dunbar left the whole fron- tier uncovered; whilst the inhabitants, unarmed and undisci- plined, were compelled hastily to seek the means of defence or of flight. In describing the exposed state of the province, and the miseries which threatened it, the governor had occa- sion to be entirely satisfied with his own eloquence; and had his resolution to defend it equalled the earnestness of his ap- peal to the assembly, the people might have been spared much suffering.
The assembly immediately voted fifty thousand pounds to the king's use, to be raised by a tax of twelve pence per pound, and twenty shillings per head, yearly, for two years, on all estates, real and personal, throughout the province, the proprietary estate not excepted. The governor returned this bill with a single amendment ;- striking out the word " not," by which the proprietary estate was wholly exempted from taxation. Nor could he be induced to depart from this amend- ment, supporting it by the following reasons: that his in- structions and his judgment were equally against the measure; that every governor, hereditary or otherwise, was exempt from the payment of taxes; that this exemption was con- firmed by positive law, declaring that the proper estates of the proprietaries should not be liable to rates and taxes; that the assessors were chosen, in consequence of such exemption, by the people, without the voice of the proprietaries, and should not be authorized to assess their estates ; and, lastly, that it was contrary to usage in all proprietary governments, to lay any tax upon the estates of the proprietaries exercising the government by themselves or lieutenants. After the first, it was, perhaps, altogether unnecessary to enumerate other reasons. We cannot do more justice to the assembly, than by extracting their view of this question from their reply to the governor, premising, that the productive property of the proprietaries at this time greatly exceeded a million sterling;
/
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and that their whole estate in the province, according to an estimate of Dr. Franklin, (an estimate, it is true, made for party purposes,) was ten millions sterling .*
Proprietary instructions, they said, which diminished or destroyed the power vested in the lieutenant-governor by the royal charter, were void, and had been so declared by the council of governor Evans, with the advice of William Penn, the younger, the learned judge Mompesson, and the secretary Logan, in considering restrictions imposed on his legislative power. They discriminated between the official and private character of the proprietaries; in the latter of which only they proposed to tax them. In such character, the king himself was not exempt from taxation; his tenants being authorized to deduct their land-tax from their rents: but this was not the first instance, by many, in which proprietaries and governors of petty colonies had assumed to themselves greater powers and prerogatives than were claimed by their royal master upon his imperial throne: and, though the law regulating county rates and levies exempted the proprietary estates from county taxes, the privilege depended upon the act which was in the power of the legislature, and could not be extended beyond its grant. "On the whole," they continued, "we beg the governor would again calmly and seriously consider our bill, to which end we once more send it up to him. We know, that without his assent the money cannot be raised, nor the good ends, so earnestly desired and expected from it, be obtained, and we fear his resolution to refuse it. But we entreat him to reflect with what reluctance a people born and bred in freedom, and accustomed to equitable laws, must un- dergo the weight of this uncommon tax, and even expose their persons for the defence of his estate, who, by virtue of his power, only, and without the colour of right, should re- fuse to bear the least share of the burden, though to receive so great a benefit. With what spirit can they exert them- selves in his cause, who will not pay the smallest part of their grievous expenses ? How odious must it be to a sensible,
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