USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 36
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The colonel encamped on the battle ground, placing the convoy and the wounded in the middle, the troops disposed in a circle, encompassing the whole. In this manner the army passed a wakeful and anxious night, obliged to the strictest vigilance by the enterprising enemy surrounding them. The morning was awakened by the shouts and yells of the foe, who, at the distance of five hundred yards, encir- cled the camp, and endeavoured in this way to create terror by their numbers and ferocity. Boldly attacking the lines, they strove, under an incessant fire, to penetrate them; and,
* August 5th, 1763.
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though often repulsed, were never discouraged. The British troops, though continually victorious, were in continual danger; suffering under the fatigues of the long march and action of the preceding day, and by the total want of water, more intolerable than the enemy's fire. To change their po- sition was impracticable, without endangering the loss of their convoy and wounded. Many of the horses were lost, and the drivers of others, stupified by fear, were hidden in the bushes, incapable of hearing or obeying orders. Their situa- tion became extremely perplexing and critical; their most active efforts making no impression upon the enemy, who gave way when pressed, but resumed his position when the impulse was withdrawn. Besieged rather than engaged, at- tacked without interruption, and without decision, unable to advance or retreat, they had the dreadful apprehension of crumbling away by degrees, unhonoured and unavenged. They were saved from the fate of Braddock by the superior skill of their commander. Sensible that every thing depended upon bringing the savages to a close combat, which they might not discontinue at pleasure, he resolved to increase and to profit by their confidence, which had grown with their success. For this purpose he contrived the following strata- gem. The troops still remaining in the situation of the night, he ordered two companies, most advanced, to fall within the circle, and their places to be filled by opening the files to the right and left. A company of infantry, and one of grenadiers, were placed in ambush to support the two first, who moved on the feigned retreat, but were designed to begin the real attack. The Indians fell into the snare. Mistaking these movements for a retreat, they abandoned the woods which covered them, advancing intrepidly, but without order, pouring in a galling fire. But at the moment when they fan- cied themselves certain of success, and masters of the camp, the retreating companies suddenly turned upon them, from a part of the hill where they could not be observed, and fell furiously on their right flank. The Indians resolutely resist- ed, but on the second charge, unable to sustain themselves against disciplined numbers, they gave way, and fled, leaving
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many dead upon the ground. At this instant the troops in ambush gave them their full fire, and the four companies united in the pursuit, until the enemy was totally dispersed. The Indians, upon the other quarters, were kept in awe during the engagement by the rest of the troops, who were ready to fall upon them on the least motion. Having witnessed the defeat of their companions, without any effort to support them, they at length followed their example, and retired, leaving the road to fort Pitt unobstructed. But one of the main objects of the expedition was lost by the necessity of destroying a large portion of the provisions, in consequence of the number of horses killed during the engagement. The loss of the enemy in killed was about sixty; that of the Eng- lish, about fifty, together with sixty wounded. Four days after the battle the colonel, with the remainder of his convoy, reached fort Pitt, against which the savages no longer pro- secuted any designs, having retreated to their remote settle- ments.
The colonel, not having sufficient force to pursue the enemy beyond the Ohio, nor reason to expect a timely reinforce- ment, and having distributed his supplies of provision, am- munition, and stores, among the posts, secured his army against the approaching winter. He was rewarded for his conduct on this occasion, by the approbation of the king, pub- lished in general orders in New York, in the following Ja- nuary. 1.
This expedition of colonel Bouquet served in a great mea- sure to employ the Indians, and to protect, for some time, the frontiers of Pennsylvania from their devastations. And had the assembly been properly seconded, an effectual defence would have been provided. They voted eight hundred men, to serve until December, and passed a bill for raising twenty- five thousand pounds for their maintainance. But this bill being modelled after those which had already been rejected, met with a like fate. But the next assembly, urged by new outrages of the Indians, committed in Northampton county, appropriated twenty-four thousand pounds to the public de- fence; twelve thousand pounds from the parliamentary allot-
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ments in the hands of the trustees of the loan-office, seven thousand from the sum granted for fortifying the city, one thousand from the duties upon mulatto and negro slaves, and four thousand from the fund established for the Indian trade.
As the winter approached, and the dread of the regular forces subsided, the savages commenced and prosecuted their outrages on the northern and western frontier, and, occasion- ally, penetrated the interior counties. They seldom appeared in force, and when they did, were uniformly defeated and routed by the rangers, or parties of the inhabitants; but in small parties, stealing through the woods, they attacked the settlers in their houses in the dead of the night, or whilst engaged in their occupations in the fields; burning houses and barns, and slaughtering men, women, and children. Some- times these parties were discovered and pursued, and, when overtaken, shot or bayonetted without mercy. The road to fort Pitt was again interrupted. A supply of provisions, under the convoy of sixty men, was forwarded from Bedford to fort Pitt, but, on gaining the foot of the Allegheny mountains, was compelled to return, having learned that the passages were occupied by the savages. Some fragments of the Delaware and Six nation tribes remained at their settle- ments in the interior, refusing to join their brethren in arms, professing affection to the colonists, and avowing a deter- mination to continue neutral. But the neutrality of a part at least of these Indians was very doubtful. Many outrages were committed in consequence, as was generally believed, of the information and advice they gave to the invaders; and some murders were perpetrated, which the public voice ascribed to a party under the protection of the Moravian bre- thren. (1)
A conviction that these professed friends were secret ene- mies, aroused in some inhabitants of Lancaster county, where those murders were perpetrated, a spirit not less savage than that of the ruthless aborigines, and a determination to extir- pate them. In prosecution of this design, a number of armed and mounted men, principally from Donnegal and Paxtung or (1) See note 2 R, Appendix.
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Paxton townships, attacked an Indian village, occupied by the remains of a tribe of the Six nations, on the Conestoga manor, and barbarously massacred some women and children, and a few old men; amongst the latter, the chief, Shaheas, who had always been distinguished for his friendship to- wards the whites. * The majority of the Indian villagers were abroad at the time of the attack, and to protect them against the perpetrators of this inhuman action, were placed under the protection of the magistrates, in the workhouse, at Lancaster. But the fury of the people was not yet allayed. Assembling in greater numbers, they forced the prison, and butchered all the miserable wretches they found within its walls. Unarmed and unprotected, the Indians prostrated themselves with their children before their mur- derers, protesting their innocence and their love to the Eng- lish, and in this posture they all received the hatchet. It is not possible to exculpate the magistrates of the town from the charge of criminal negligence, since it was in their power to have prevented this assassination, or to have arrested the perpetrators. Captain Robinson, with a company of high- landers, on their way from Pittsburg, being then at Lancas- ter, put himself in the way to receive the commands of the civil authority, which made no effort to use the force thus offered it.t A proclamation was issued by the governor, after the first outrage, expressing the strongest disapproba- tion of the action, and offering a reward for the discovery of the perpetrators, but without effect: after the second massacre, another proclamation was issued, but no discovery was made.
Upon the news of these proceedings, the Moravian Indians were removed to the Province island, near the city. The insurgents threatening to march down, for the purpose of destroying them also, the assembly resolved to oppose force to force, and passed a vote of credit to cover any expense that might consequently be incurred. But the Indians, fright- ened at the fury of their enemies, petitioned the legislature to send them, a hundred and forty in number, with their two
* 14th December. t Votes. Min. of Council. MSS. of James Pemberton.
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ministers, to England. But this being impracticable, the governor furnished them an escort, to proceed throughig New Jersey and New York, to sir William Johnson, under whose protection they were desirous to place themselves. William Franklin, then governor of New Jersey, granted them a passport; but governor Colden of New York, by ad- vice of his council, refused to admit them within his province. The council of New York were offended by governor Penn sending so large a body of Indians into their colony without their consent ; and professed themselves more disposed to punish than to protect the Indians from the east side of the Susquehannah, whom they considered as their worst enemies, composed of the rogues, thieves, and runaways, from other Indian nations. They also condemned the policy which re- turned these men to strengthen their nation. The progress of the Indians being thus obstructed, general Gage, who had succeeded general Amherst in the chief command of the English forces in America, directed two companies of the royal Americans to re-escort them to Philadelphia, where they were secured in the barracks. Their return, however, reani- mated the ire of their enemies in Lancaster, who, assembling in large numbers, marched for the city .* The force of the insurgents was very considerable; since six companies of foot, one of artillery, and two troops of horse, were formed to op- pose them; and some thousands of the inhabitants, (including many Quakerst) who did not appear, were prepared to ren- der assistance, in case an attempt should be made upon the town. The barracks, also, where the Indians were lodged, under the protection of the regular troops, were fortified; se- veral works being thrown up about them, and eight pieces of cannon mounted. But the governor would not venture to command his forces to attack the insurgents, until he obtained indemnity for himself and them, by the extension to the pro- vince of the English riot act. The bill extending it was passed very hastily through the house.
* January. + Heckewelder's Narr. Franklin's Life. Penn. Gaz. 1764, No. 1833.
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The insurgents, finding the ferries over the Schuylkill guarded, proceeded to Germantown; where, learning the amount of the force raised to oppose them, they listened to The advice of some prudent persons who visited them, and to the remonstrances of the agents of the governor, and pro- mised to return peaceably to their habitations, leaving two only of their number to represent their views to the govern- ment. The alarm in the city was great. The governor fled to the house of Dr. Franklin for safety ;* and nothing but the spirited measures of the inhabitants of the city, saved it from the fury of an exasperated armed multitude, who would not have hesitated to extend their vengeance from the Indians to their protectors. t
These insurgents were not the ignorant and vulgar of the border counties; persons more likely to yield to their pas- sions, than to respect the laws of their country and of hu- manity. They were of such consideration, that whilst the public voice and the press execrated the cruelty and illegality of their conduct, they forbore to name the guilty individuals. Nor did the latter remain silent and shrink from reproach, without an attempt at self-defence. They urged the repeated murders perpetrated by the Indians, their convictions of the union of the neutral with the belligerent tribes; and, being pres- byterians, in their religious zeal, they found a justification for their slaughter of the Indians, in the command given to Joshua to destroy the heathen. This latter plea gave the Quakers, who were their most active opponents, an opportunity of ex- claiming against the uncharitableness of their creed, and their savage mode of maintaining it.
Matthew Smith, and James Gibson, were the persons se- lected by the insurgents to lay their grievances before the governor and assembly. This they did by a memorial in behalf of themselves and the inhabitants of the counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton, com-
* Franklin's Mem.
+ Heckewelder unhesitatingly charges the rioters with the design of sub- verting the government; but the opinion of a prejudiced judge must not be taken for fact. Heckewelder's Narrative.
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plaining that these counties were unequally represented in the assembly, sending collectively ten members only, whilst the three counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, sent twenty-six: that a bill had passed the assembly, directing the trial of persons charged with the murder of an Indian in Lancaster county, to be had in some one of the latter coun- ties : that, whilst more than a thousand families, reduced to extreme distress, during the last and present war, by the at- tacks of skulking parties of Indians upon the frontiers, were destitute, and were suffered by the public to depend on pri- vate charity, a hundred and twenty of the perpetrators of the most horrid barbarities were supported by the province, and protected from the fury of the brave relatives of the murdered: that the cruelties of the Indians were extenuated, and efforts improperly made to excite commiseration for them, on the plea that they were not parties to the war; " But, in what nation," said the memorialists, " was it ever the custom that, when a neighbouring nation took up arms, not an individual of that nation should be touched, but only the persons that offered hostilities ? who ever proclaimed war with part of a nation, and not with the whole? Had these Indians disap- proved of the perfidy of their tribe, and been willing to cul- tivate and preserve friendship with us, why did they not give notice of the war before it happened, as it is known to be the result of long deliberation and preconcerted combination? why did they not leave their tribe immediately, and come amongst us, before there was cause to suspect them, or war was actually waged? No, they staid amongst them, were privy to their murders and ravages, until we had destroyed their provisions, and when they could no longer subsist at home, they came-not as deserters, but-as friends, to be main- tained through the winter, that they might scalp and butcher us in the spring."
The memorialists further remonstrated against the policy of suffering any Indians whatever to live within the inhabit- ed parts of the province, whilst it was engaged in an Indian war ; experience having taught that they were all perfidious, and that their claim to freedom and independence enabled
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them to act as spies, to entertain and give intelligence to our enemies, and to furnish them with provisions and warlike stores. To this fatal intercourse, between pretended friends and open enemies, they ascribed the greatest part of the ra- wages and murders that had been committed during the last and present wars. This grievance they prayed might be con- sidered and remedied.
They remonstrated against the neglect, by the province, of the frontier inhabitants, who had been wounded in its defence, and required that they should be relieved at the public cost. They expostulated against the policy of the government, in refraining to grant rewards for Indian scalps, " which damped the spirits of many brave men, who were willing to venture their lives against the enemy;" and they proposed that pub- lic rewards might be granted for these trophies, adequate to the danger of procuring them. They lamented that numbers of their nearest and dearest relatives were retained in cap- tivity among the savage heathen, to be trained up in their ignorance and barbarity, or be cruelly tortured to death for attempting their escape: and they prayed that no trade might be permitted with the Indians until their prisoners were re- turned.
They complained that the " Friendly Association," during the late war, and at several treaties held by the king's repre- sentatives, openly loaded the Indians with presents; and that Is- rael Pemberton, a leader of that association, in defiance of the government, not only abetted its Indian enemies, but kept up private intelligence with them, and publicly received from them a belt of wampum, as if he were the governor, or was authorized by the king to treat with his enemies; teaching the Indians to believe the inhabitants of the province to be a divided people; whence had arisen "many of the calamities under which they groaned."
The declaration and memorial were printed, and copies distributed throughout the province. These extenuated, if they did not justify, in the eyes of the partizans of the Pax- ton boys, their inhuman murders at Conestoga and Lancas- ter, and their traitorous expedition to Philadelphia. Their
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partizans were found chiefly among the presbyterians, now a numerous religious sect in the province; to whom, accord- ing to the belief of their opponents, the use of the sword in civil and religious warfare was not objectionable; and who believed it wiser to exterminate than to convert the heathen. They were totally opposed to the policy of the Quakers; who, confiding in the natural goodness of the unsophisticated tenants of the forests, would assign no cause for their hostility, other than the injuries they had received from the whites. Whilst, therefore, the one party was labouring to destroy by fire and sword a perfidious and ferocious enemy, the other was striving to conciliate an offended friend. That this conflicting policy encouraged the Indians, by inducing them to believe that the justice of their cause had friends amongst the aggressors, can- not be doubted; but there is every reason to infer, from the profound veneration the Indians entertained for the Quakers, and the attention they paid their messages, that had the Friends been permitted to follow out their plans of benevo- lence, the Indian war would never have existed, or would have been of short duration.
The memorial of Gibson and Smith was sustained by an- other, having fifteen hundred signatures. But the county of Berks, by its grand jury, protested against it. The assembly sent both memorial and protest to a committee, which re- commended a conference with the insurgents, in order to convince them and the people that their complaints were un- founded. The house invited the governor to participate in this conference, but he declined the measure, as incompatible with the dignity, and subversive of the order, of the govern- ment. He recommended them to investigate the merits of the petitions, and should any bill grow out of the investiga- tion, he promised to give it due attention. The assembly took no further steps. The bill directing persons charged with murdering an Indian in Lancaster county, to be tried in Philadelphia, Bucks, or Chester, became a law, but no con- viction for that offence was ever had, the number and power of the guilty protecting them from punishment,
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During the preceding year, the legislature encouraged the printing of another edition of the laws-subscribing for two hundred copies. In the present year, their labours were dis- tinguished by an attempt to limit the continuance of actions in the courts of law; and a bill for this purpose was sent to the governor, who refused his concurrence, alleging that every court of record has power to make rules, which have the force of laws on the suitors and gentlemen of the bar in such courts, to bring to a speedy termination all causes de- pending therein; and if any evils had arisen from the too long continuance of actions in the courts of the province, he deemed it safer to leave them to be remedied by the courts, than to compel the parties to try at a fixed time.
A spirit for public improvement was at this time very prevalent, displaying itself in the erection of a light-house, churches, and other public buildings. The ordinary sources of public and private donation were inadequate to accom- plish all that was desired, and recourse was had to lotteries, which were granted with great liberality, and were fre- quently conducted with little care. Experience has taught us that public morals at least are not improved by this mode of raising money. In one year (1765) lotteries were granted to aid the following churches; the episcopalian churches at York, Reading, Carlisle, St. Peter's and St. Paul's at Phila- delphia, St. Paul's at Chester, St. John's in the township of Concord, Chester, St. Martin's at Marcus Hook; the Lu- theran church and a presbyterian meeting-house in Lancaster county; beside these, there was one for a light-house at Cape Henlopen, and one for a bridge over the Skippack creek. The interests of commerce were promoted by the purchase of the lower half of Reedy island, at the head of the Dela- ware bay, and the erection of piers for the convenience and security of vessels delayed from putting to sea by adverse winds.
In despite of the demand for labour, which had every where prevailed, and which had been increased by the re- sort of the people to domestic manufactures, the poor-sys- tem, so fruitful in creating the pauperism it was designed
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to remedy, became very opppressive. The poor-rates of the city alone now exceeded four thousand pounds per an- num. Impatient of this expenditure, the legislature, on the address of the grand jury, authorized the erection of an alms- house and house of employment, by a corporation which they created, consisting of the city, the districts of the Northern Liberties, and Southwark, and the townships of the Northern Liberties, Moyamensing, and Passyunk. At the opening of the alms-house, in October, 1767, there were admitted two hundred and eighty-four persons, and the number was in Ja- nuary following, three hundred and sixty eight.
CHAPTER XVII.
Arrival of John Penn .... He convenes the assembly .... Mea- sures proposed against the Indians .... Disputes between the governor and assembly on the tax bill .... The assembly pro- pose to petition for a royal government ···· Submit the pro- position to their constituents ···· Adopt petitions to the king for a change of government ···· Opposition to this measure in the province by the presbyterians .... Supported by the Quakers ···· Assembly determine to send an additional agent to Great Britain.
JOHN PENN, esq. * succeeded Mr. Hamilton as lieutenant- governor of Pennsylvania, in November, 1763. He convened
* On his arrival he received the congratulations of the mayor and com- monalty, the rectors, ministers, church wardens, and vestrymen of the united congregations of Christ church and St. Peter's, the missionaries of the church of England, the vice' provost, and professors of the college, the managers and trustees of the Pennsylvania hospital, the corpora- tion for the relief of the poor and distressed presbyterian ministers, the baptist church, the directors of the library company, the merchants and traders of Philadelphia, the ministers and elders of the presbyterian churches, of the monthly meeting of friends of Philadelphia, of the union library company of Philadelphia; and, subsequently, of the assembly at their meeting. It appears to have been an established custom for every association having a political or public character, to pay this compliment to every governor on his accession, as the phrase was. Mr. Penn arrived at Philadelphia on the thirtieth of October, 1763, on Sunday. This day is distinguished by a severe shock of an earthquake, accompanied with a loud roaring noise, which greatly alarmed the inhabitants of the city and vicini- ty. Most of the religious congregations were assembled at the time, and much confusion, though but little injury, happened from their efforts to escape from the buildings, which they feared would fall upon them. The sky was clear, and wind moderate, at south-west. MSS. by James Pem- berton.
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