USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 30
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Morris' letters in Provincial Records.
1.
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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vectives, in the return of which the house were more suc- cessful, because they had the better cause. He was active in the performance of his executive duties, and supported the measures of general Braddock with energy and effect.
During his administration, no laws were enacted, which did not relate to the prosecution of the war, or defence of the province; the principal were the non-importation and embargo laws, and an act extending so much of the mutiny act as related to the quartering and billeting of soldiers, and payment of their quarters.
Governor Morris returned to East Jersey, where he held the office of chief justice for many years, and died in Janu- ary, 1764 .*
* Penn. Gazette.
£
CHAPTER XV.
Favourable reception of governor Denny ····· Communicates the proprietary instructions. ... Excise .... Resolutions of the assembly on the proprietary instructions ···· Franklin's re- port thereon .... Petitions to the king .... Hearing before the council ···· Militia law condemned ..... The conduct of the Quakers reproved· ·· · Their difficulties· ··· Embargo ···· Quar- tering of troops ···· Provincial forces .... Money bill .... Dis- putes ···· House resolve to send commissioners to England .... Franklin and Norris chosen ···· Instruction to commis- sioners ···· Military operations ···· Grant of money by parlia- ment to New England colonies ···· Troops raised in Pennsyl- vania ···· Council of governors convened by lord Loudon ···· Plan for the campaign .... Failure of the expedition against Louisburg .... Montcalm captures Ticonderoga and Crown Point .... New levy of troops by the province ..... Affair of William Moore .... Singular resolutions of the assembly .... Thomas Leech elected speaker ····· Financial estimate and revenue .... Apathy of the province ···· Spirit of Pitt .... Plan of campaign ····· Abercrombie repulsed from Ticonderoga .... Captures Frontignac ···· Treaty with the Indians ···· Pro- vincial forces ... Relaxation of the governor's opposition to tax the proprietary estates ... Altercation between the governor and provincial commissioners· ·· Progress of general Forbes .... Capture of fort Du Quesne ···· Provincial measures .... Indian treaty .... Plan of campaign .... Forts and fleet of the French on Champlain captured ····· Niagara taken ···· Siege of Quebec .... Rejoicings on its capture .... Proceedings and success of Mr. Franklin· ·· Re-appointment of James Hamil- ton deputy-governor.
THE arrival of governor Denny was hailed by the assem- bly with great joy .* With the change of governors, they
* August 20, 1756.
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flattered themselves there would be a change of measures; and resolved that whatever favourable disposition he might have towards them, should not be chilled by inattention on their part. They not only cordially accepted an invitation to a public entertainment prepared for him by the city cor- poration, but gave him a splendid fete at the state house, to which the former governor, the mayor and corporation, civil and military officers, clergy, and strangers were invited. They congratulated him upon his accession to the government, which they trusted would be as happy to the province as they had resolved to make it easy and comfortable to himself. And, in testimony of their sincerity, they, with this propi- tiatory address, presented him the sum of six hundred pounds.
But they were not long deceived by their hopes in their new governor. That they might not legislate in vain, on sub- jects connected with the proprietary interests, they frankly demanded a copy of his instructions in this particular, which he as frankly gave. From these it appeared, 1, That, to de- prive the assembly of the sole power to dispose of the pro- vincial funds, he was forbidden to assent to any bill, emitting, re-emitting, or continuing, the paper currency, or raising money by excise or otherwise, that did not provide for the special appropriation of the proceeds, or place them at the disposition of the governor and assembly jointly : 2, That he was forbidden to pass any bill increasing the paper currency more than forty thousand pounds, or to confirm the existing issues, unless provision were made for the payment of the proprietary rents in sterling money, or by an equivalent, si- milar to that given by the 12th of his majesty's reign : 3, That he was prohibited to assent to any act imposing a tax on real or personal estate, longer than one year, and whose tenor was not as near as possible to the annual tax laws of England ; and which did not assess the annual value only of the real, and the capital of the personal, estate, by a mode of assessment prescribed in the bill, exempting unoccupied and unimproved lands, and proprietary quit-rents, and not exceed- ing in amount four shillings per annum, on the yearly value
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of estates. Permission, however, was given to subject to taxation, the proprietary manors or lands actually leased for lives or years, provided the tax was made payable by the tenants, to be deducted from their rents only when above twenty shillings, and that it should in no case be a lien upon the land. In these instructions, the house beheld the most serious impediments to the necessary supplies, and earnestly entreated the governor to say, whether he would adhere to them, should the plans they might submit have the approba- tion of his own judgment. He replied, that he could not re- cede from them without risking his honour and fortune.
The assembly now turned themselves to the excise, as the only eligible mode of raising money. It had hitherto pro- duced annually three thousand pounds, and a future product of like amount was calculated upon, to redeem, in twenty years, an issue of bills of sixty thousand pounds, of which the house designed to appropriate ten thousand pounds to the general American fund; ten thousand to the payment of the · debts contracted for provisions for Braddock, and for the troops at Crown Point, and other services; and the residue to be disposed of for the king's use, under the direction of a committee of the house, with the consent and approbation of the governor. The control of the product of the excise, beyond three thousand pounds per annum, was reserved to the assembly alone. The governor objected to the length of the term, and to every appropriation in the bill, except that which was made to the commissioners and himself; and, after two conferences, he answered a long argumentative re- monstrance with the laconic declaration, " That he would not pass the bill; and, there being none to judge between him and them in the province, he would immediately transmit his reasons to his majesty."
On receipt of this message, the house resolved that the pro- prietary instructions were arbitrary, unjust, an infraction of their charter, and a violation of their rights as English subjects; that their excise bill was similar to former laws, approved by the king, and was not inconsistent with their duty to the crown, or with the rights of the proprietaries; that the right
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of the assembly to grant supplies under such conditions as they deemed proper for the public service, was an essential part of their constitution ; that the frivolous objections of the governor were intended to embarrass the representatives of the people, to prevent them from providing effectually for the defence of the country, and thereby to render them odious to their sovereign, and to their fellow subjects ; that the additional restrictions now imposed on the passage of money bills were tyrannical, cruel, and oppressive to the people, and injurious to the king's service; since, should the assembly adhere to their rights, the province must be thrown into confusion, abandoned to the enemy, and lost to the crown; therefore, reserving in full extent their rights on future occasions, and protesting against the proprietary in- structions and prohibitions, they, in duty to the king, and in compassion to their suffering fellow subjects, in humble, but full confidence of the justice of his majesty and the British parliament, waived their rights on the present occasion only, and prepared a new bill conformably with the proprietary instructions, granting a sum of money to the king's use. This bill provided for striking thirty thousand pounds in bills of credit, to be sunk by the excise within ten years, for the pay- ment of the debts contracted by the commissioners of the sixty thousand pounds act, and the application of the balance by a committee of the house, with the approbation of the governor. This act received the sanction of the governor.
Benjamin Franklin, from the committee to whom the pro- prietary instructions were submitted, made a report imme- diately after the passage of the excise law, in which the justice and policy of these instructions were examined with great acumen and force. The jealousy of the power reserved by the assembly over the public funds was ascribed to the desire of the proprietaries to convert the occasional presents made by the house to their lieutenants, into a permanent salary; because, the governors, having a control over the treasury, would make their own terms on the passage of a money bill. The demand of the proprietary rents at the cur- rent rate of exchange was declared extortionate, because a
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bill of exchange, besides the difference of exchange, included freight, commissions, and insurance, on the transport of its value, and was in fact a payment by the people of their rents in London. The large sums remitted to the proprietaries, without return, tended to raise the exchange, and enabled them to enhance or depress its rate at pleasure. The depre- ciation of money was a common calamity, and should be borne by the proprietaries in common with the people, and any exemption they had extorted as the purchase of a law could form no precedent for future legislation. The immunity from taxation, claimed by the proprietaries, was supported by a deceptive statement of facts, and sophistical argumentation. It was assumed that their unsettled lands produced no annual profit. This was true only of wild tracts; but their located tracts and manors were of choice quality, selected by the pro- prietary surveyors, before the land office was opened, and retained for a market until the surrounding lands were sold and settled. Their value was thus so prodigiously increased that they were now worth, on an average, three hundred pounds the hundred acres, though originally estimated only at fifteen pounds the hundred. The Conestoga manor was cited as an instance of this great and progressive increase of value. In 1726, lands in that vicinity, of the first quality, were sold at forty pounds the hundred. The manor contain- ing seventeen thousand acres was then laid out and reserved; and, though not even now cultivated, the lands were estimat- ed, and held at three hundred and fifty pounds the hundred, near eight hundred per cent. advance. " Can an estate," ex- claimed the committee, " thus producing twenty-five per cent. per annum on the prime cost, be called an estate yielding no annual profit?" " And yet," they continued, " the governor is bound to observe and enforce these unjust pretensions, and must see the king's province perish before his eyes rather than deviate from them a single tittle. This we have expe- rienced within a few days, when advantage being cruelly taken of our present unhappy situation, the prostrate condi- tion of our bleeding country, the knife of the savages at her throat, our soldiers ready to mutiny for want of pay and ne-
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cessaries, our people flying in despair from the frontier for want of protection, the assembly was compelled (like Solo- mon's true mother) to waive her right, to alter our money bills, abridge our free grant to the crown by one-half, and, in short, to receive and enact a law not agreeable to our judgments, but such as was made for us by proprietary in- structions, and the will and pleasure of the governor's council; whereby our constitution and the liberties of our country are wounded in the most essential part, and even violated and destroyed." The proprietaries had ventured to charge the assembly with the design to tax their estates disproportion- ately, and to relieve the people by laying upon them the greater portion of the burden. To this charge the committee returned the following retort courteous. " They had as lit- tle inclination as authority to wrong them. They have not, it seems, authority enough to oblige them to do justice. As to their inclination, they bear, every one of them, and main- tain the character of honest men. When the proprietaries shall be truly willing to bear an equitable part of the public bur- den; when they shall renounce their exorbitant demand of rent as the exchange shall then be; make restitution of the money which they have exacted from the assemblies of this province, and sincerely repent of their extortion, they may then, and not till then, have some claim to the same noble title."
Governor Morris had procured and forwarded to London a petition of sundry inhabitants of Pennsylvania, to the king, representing the defenceless state of the province, and pray- ing his interposition. The petitioners were heard before a committee of the privy council, by Mr. Paris, their agent, and Messrs. Yorke and Forrester, his counsel, and the assem- bly by Messrs. Sharp, Henly, and Pratt. The committee condemned the conduct of the assembly in relation to public defence since the year 1742, and declared, that their con- struction of their charter, by which they claimed exemption from military service, and imposed the duty of protecting the province solely upon the proprietaries, was altogether erro- neous; and that if such were the duty of the proprietaries, 43
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their power, however great in words, was inefficient, unless supported by compulsory militia laws, and proper and con- stitutional appropriations of money for military purposes. " It was true," they said, " the counsel of the assembly had in- sisted that proper aid had been given by a militia law, and by the provision of adequate funds. But the militia law was in every respect the most improper and inadequate that could have been framed, and was calculated rather to exempt per- sons from military services, than to promote and encourage them. It prescribed no penalty to compel the people to asso- ciate in defence of their country, or to oblige such as were conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, to procure sub- stitutes, or provide for the forces which the executive might organize. The officers were elective by ballot, and no means were adopted to enforce subordination. It forbade the enlistment of persons under the age of twenty-one years, the march of the men more than three days' journey from the inhabited parts of the province, and their detention in garri- son for more than three weeks. The preamble of the act tended to destroy what little was valuable in the law, by de- claring that the majority of the assembly was principled against bearing arms, and that a compulsory law for that pur- pose was unconstitutional, and a breach of the privileges of the people." "Money," they continued, " had been appro- priated, and placed in the hands of a committee of the house, for supplying friendly Indians, holding of treaties, relieving distressed settlers, who have been driven from their lands, and other purposes for the king's use; but not a word was said of military service. And, though it was contended that the words " other purposes" admitted of such construction, it was not to be presumed that the committee, who had the direction of the money, part of, and appointed by the assem- bly principled against military service, would so construe them.
From these views, the board were of opinion that " the le- gislature of Pennsylvania, as of every other country, was bound, by the original compact of government, to support such government and its subjects; that the measures intended
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by the assembly for that purpose were improper, inadequate, and ineffectual ; and that there was no cause to hope for other measures, whilst the majority of the assembly consisted of persons whose avowed principles were against military ser- vices ; who, though not a sixth part of the inhabitants of the province, were, contrary to the principles, the policy, and the practice of the mother country, admitted to hold offices of trust and profit, and to sit in the assembly without their allegiance being secured by the sanction of an oath." This report was adopted by the privy council, and a copy directed to be sent to the province.
The Quakers had been greatly exercised by their labours in the assembly. In declining to exert themselves to pro- cure an election, they were willing to think they had done all that was necessary to avoid a situation incompatible with their principles, and they suffered themselves to be returned, especially by the Germans, who sought in their religious scruples a protection against taxes and military labours. But, whatever their consciences might dictate, they saw that men and money were absolutely necessary to resist the enemy, and were, for a season, content to vote for money bills, un- equivocally intended to maintain the war, because the special object was not expressly designated, and to enact a militia law, permitting, but not compelling, the people to bear arms, though it was avowedly designed to render the military force of the country more effectual. But these things were not done without some wincing. The Quakers protested against the payment of war taxes, and some Friends, mem- bers of the house, entered their dissent on its journals against the money bills, and finally resigned their seats; some de- clined a re-election, while others still flattered themselves to reconcile their consciences with the measures of the assem- bly. But, when the opinions of the ministry,'on the conduct of the Quakers, were communicated to the house, a portion of these deemed it prudent to retire; and writs were issued for filling the places of Mahlon Kirkbride, William Hoge, Peter Dicks, and Nathaniel Pennock.
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At the instance of lord Loudon, pursuant to royal instruc- tions, governor Denny proposed to the assembly to lay a general embargo. But this measure was so strenuously opposed by the merchants, and by agents from the West Indies, that the house refused to adopt it, unless with such modifications as the governor deemed fatal to the object. But, by orders of the ministry, an embargo was laid on all vessels loaded with provisions, not bound to any other co- lony. Vessels thus destined were permitted to sail, on bond given to land the cargo at the port designated in the clearance. This restriction was continued for a long time, and was griev- ously complained of by the merchants, and protested against by the assembly, in vain. The stock of provisions was greatly accumulated, and the cargoes of forty vessels, loaded at the wharves, were perishing, whilst Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, were suffering for food. The assembly had provided by law for quartering troops upon the inn-keepers at fixed rates; but, some difficulties occurring in obtaining proper accommodation for all the soldiers, though the num- ber of inn-keepers in the city alone amounted to one hundred and seventeen, the governor billeted them upon the private houses. This measure gave great offence to the assembly, who remonstrated against it; and, with much difficulty, pro- cured the troops to be quartered according to law. The house prepared a new militia bill, by which all the male in- habitants were subjected to military duty, commutable for a fine, recoverable in the ordinary courts of justice. The offi-' cers, however, were still elective, for which reason the go- vernor objected to the bill. He also required that persons alleging conscientious scruples against bearing arms, should appear in open court, and declare to what society they be- longed; that they were truly and religiously opposed to war; and that a court-martial should be authorized to punish by death or otherwise, as was provided by the English mi- litia bill. But the house, unwilling to strengthen the hands of the executive, by giving him the appointment of the offi- cers, and to lodge such powers in courts-martial, refused to re-model their bill.
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· HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The necessity of a militia law was, in a great measure, ob- viated, by the forces raised by the governor and provincial commissioners. They consisted of twenty-five companies, amounting to fourteen hundred men. Eight companies, un- der the command of major James Burd, called the Augusta regiment, were stationed at fort Augusta: eight companies on the west side of the Susquehannah, commanded by lieute- nant-colonel Armstrong, called the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, were thus divided-two companies at fort Lyttleton, on Aughwick creek, which empties into the Juniata river; two companies on Conococheague creek, which communicates with the Potomac; two companies at fort Morris, in Shippensburg, and two companies at Carlisle: nine companies, called the second battalion of the Pennsyl- vania regiment, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Conrad Weiser, were thus distributed-one company at fort Au- gusta ; one at Hunter's mill, seven miles above Harrisburg, on the Susquehannah ; one half company on the Swatara, at the foot of the North mountain; one company and a-half at fort Henry, close to the gap of the mountain, called the To- thea gap; one company at fort William, near the forks of the Schuylkill river, six miles beyond the mountain; one com- pany at fort Allen, at Gnadenhutten, on the Lehigh; the other three companies were scattered between the rivers Lehigh and Delaware, at the disposition of the captains, some at farm-houses, others at mills, from three to twenty in a place. These forces, however, were indifferently provided with arms and ammunition. At fort Augusta, there were eight cannon, but only one hundred and four round shot, and a small quan- tity of grape. The Augusta regiment, and Armstrong's. bat- talion, had once been supplied with arms, but they were much lessened by desertion, or injured by the falling of the men, in crossing the mountains, whilst ranging, and could not be repaired for want of armourers. Even flints were wanting; none of the troops having any that could be depended upon. In Weiser's battalion, there were one hundred and ninety good muskets, and one hundred and thirty-one out of order; the rest had been supplied by the men, on the promise of a
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half dollar per month for their use, who refused to employ them on that allowance being withdrawn. Burd's and Arm- strong's regiments were duly supplied with provisions by contractors ; but Weiser's battalion had as many victuallers as companies; their provisions were carelessly and irregularly delivered, and their posts constantly endangered by famine. The officers were chiefly German, without education or ex- perience, who injured the service, by disregard of discipline and subordination. The annual expense of this whole force was sixty-four thousand six hundred and fifty-five pounds, for pay and provisions, independent of incidental charges .* The assembly had endeavoured, through governor Morris, to pro- cure arms from England; but their supply was delayed, in consequence of the limited stock of the government. After considerable exertion on the part of the proprietaries, some brass and other cannon were obtained from the national arse- nals at stipulated prices, and a quantity of fusees and muskets were purchased from the manufacturers, and shipped for the province.t
Before governor Morris was superseded, he concerted with colonel Armstrong an expedition against the Indian town of Kittanning, on the Allegheny, about twenty-five miles above Pittsburg, the strong hold of captains Jacobs and Shingas, the most active Indian chiefs, and from whence they distributed their war parties along the frontier. On the arrival of go- vernor Denny, Morris communicated the plan of this enter- prise to him and his council.
Colonel Armstrong marched from fort Shirley on the thir-
s. d.
s. d.
* 3 lieutenant- colonels at 17 0 per day.
3 majors at 15 0
25 captains at 10 0
1 commissary of stores at 10 0
25 lieutenants at 5 6
1 commissary of musters and
25 ensigns at 4 0
„
50 sergeants at 2 0
50 corporals at 1 8
paymaster at 10 0 Provision for
25 drummers at 1 8
1400 men at 5 0 per week.
'1200 privates at 45 0 per month.
+ Letter of T. Penn.
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