USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 37
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the assembly soon after his arrival, to obtain their aid in the extensive measures resolved upon for the reduction of the Indians. General Gage had determined to attack them on two sides, and to force them from the frontiers by carrying the war into the heart of their own country. One corps was destined, under colonel Bradstreet, to act against the Wiandots, Ottawas, Chippewas, and other nations, living upon or near the lakes; whilst another, under the com- mand of colonel Bonquet, should attack the Delawares, Shaw- anese, Mingoes, Mohiccans, and other nations between the Ohio and the lakes. These corps were to act in concert, and as that of colonel Bradstreet would be first ready, he was directed to proceed to Detroit, Michilimackinack, and other places, and on his return to encamp and remain at Sandusky, to awe from that position the numerous tribes of western In- dians, and prevent them from rendering aid to those on the Ohio, whilst colonel Bonquet should attack the latter in the midst of their settlements.
Part of the forty-second and sixtieth regiments were allot- ted to colonel Bonquet, to be joined with two hundred friend- ly Indians, and troops from Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Indians never came, and Virginia could spare but few men, having already organized seven hundred for the defence of her own frontier. The quota of Pennsylvania was one thou- sand.
The assembly, with great alacrity, resolved to raise this force; and to maintain it they voted fifty thousand pounds. Desirous to avoid the delay consequent upon a dispute with the governor on their supply bill, they did not propose that the bills to be issued under the act, should be a legal tender in payment of the proprietary rents. But this forbearance was in vain, for a new difficulty was raised by the governor. By the agree- ment of the provincial agents in 1757 with the proprietaries, before the privy council, the proprietaries' located uncul- tivated lands were not to be assessed higher than the lowest rate of assessment at which any located unculti- vated lands belonging to the inhabitants should be assessed. The governor now insisted that the proprietary lands,
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of whatever quality, should be rated at the lowest valuation of the worst lands of the tenants, and that a provision to that effect should be inserted in the supply bill. The assembly, with more reason, construed this agreement to mean, that the lands of the proprietaries should not be rated higher than the lowest rate of the lands of the inhabitants, due regard being had to quality; and they proposed that the lands of the pro- prietary, as those of the inhabitants, should be divided into two qualities, and be assessed accordingly. The demand of the proprietaries was selfish and unjust, and recalled to the minds of the people the narrow and sordid spirit which had long distinguished them. The house, in their resistance to this exaction, did not measure their terms, nor hesitate to advert to the deep interest the governor held in the preten- sions of his father and uncle. But the assembly could not persevere. The savage and relentless foe harassed the fron- tier; the people prayed for protection, which could not be rendered without money, and the house was compelled not only to admit this very objectionable feature into the bill, but to strike from it, a clause recognising the provisions of the act of supply passed in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty.
In the bill now passed the various kinds of property sub- jected to taxation were classed and arranged upon principles which have served as the basis for subsequent assessments for county and other taxes. We therefore give them somewhat at large. Improved marsh meadow, in the county of Philadel- phia, was rated, the best, situation considered, at ninety pounds the hundred acres, the worst, at thirty pounds; in the counties of Bucks and Chester, the best at sixty, and the worst at thirty pounds the hundred acres; and meadows of inter- mediate value at a comparative proportion; the marsh mea- dows not cleared, but embanked, the best at twenty, and the worst at ten pounds the hundred acres in all the counties. Cultivated lands and plantations, with buildings and improve- ments thereon, were rated at three-fifths of such yearly value as the assessors should judge they would rent for, allowing sufficient timber land for repairs and fuel; and cultivated
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lands, actually rented, at three-fifths of the rent reserved; the unimproved parts of such plantations to be rated as located unimproved lands; and the latter at fifteen pounds for the best, and five pounds for the worst, the hundred acres, regard being had to their situation; and lands of intermediate value at comparative proportions; houses and lots, in cities, boroughs, and towns, at three-fifths of their yearly rent, and grass lots in, or near them, at a like rate, and unimproved lots in and near them at the sums they did or might rent for; ground rents and quit-rents at their full value; lands appertaining to furnaces and forges, as other lands; and if the rents of the furnaces and forges did not ex- ceed such valuation, that was to be the rate of assessment ; but if the rent exceeded such valuation, half the difference was to be added to the estimate. Mills were to be valued at three-fifths of their annual rent, and the appurtenant lands as uncultivated. Trades, professions, and occupations, to be rated at the discretion of the assessors, upon an estimate of their annual profits; annual salaries, and lucrative posts, at four-fifths of their annual produce; ferries, at three-fifths of their product, and their appurtenant lands as uncultivated; horses were to be valued at thirteen and four pence per head; horned cattle, above three years old, at six shillings and eight pence, and sheep at one shilling per head; bought white ser- vants, from fifteen to fifty years of age, were taxed at thirty shillings; negroes and mulatto slaves, from twelve to fifty years of age, at four pounds per head; single men, resident in the pro- vince, at fifteen shillings per head. The assessors were invested with discretionary power to exempt from taxation, in part or in whole, for the space of two years, the inhabitants on the frontiers, who had sustained losses by Indian ravages.
The victory of the proprietaries over the people on the supply bill, produced sentiments so hostile to their govern- ment, that an earnest disposition was evinced to throw off their dominion. The assembly appointed Messrs. Galloway, Franklin, Rodman, Pearson, Douglass, Montgomery, and Tool, a committee to consider and report upon the present circumstances of the province, and the grievances of its
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inhabitants. They reported twenty-six resolutions, which were approved by the house, and form a manifest of their reasons for seeking the immediate protection and government of the crown. They asserted, that the proprietaries, having delegated their powers, were legally to be considered in no other light than as private owners of property, without any share in the power of legislation: That the obstruction and delays so fre- quent to the measures of the crown during the late war were owing entirely to the proprietary instructions, relative to their private interests : That all the mischiefs to the province, attri -. buted by the governor to the assembly, were occasioned by such obstructions, and chargeable wholly to the proprietaries: That it was high presumption in any subject to interfere be- tween the crown and the people, and by private instructions to a deputy-governor, enforced by penal bonds, to prevent the people from granting, and the crown from receiving the supplies necessary for his majesty's province. They declared that no injustice had been done to the proprietaries in the taxation of their estates, and that no cause had been given them to apprehend such injustice: That the assemblies had, for a long course of years, shown their regard for the proprietary family, having bestowed upon it and its deputies within the last forty years, near fourscore thousand pounds; in return for which the present proprietors had, ever since their accession, endeavoured to annihilate the pri- vileges granted by their father to encourage the settlement of the province : That from attachment to their interest, and to increase the revenues of their deputies, arising from licenses, the proprietaries had grossly abused the benevolence of the people which granted them, and public houses and dram shops had been increased to an enormous degree, to the great corruption of morals in the populace, and scandal of the go- vernment; and from the same causes reasonable bills for pre- venting this evil had been frequently refused by the proprie- tary governors: That the policy of the proprietaries in locating and surveying for themselves and their dependants, large tracts of land, immediately after their purchases from the In- dians, and reserving them for a future market, was the cause
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that the frontiers were sparsely settled; and the inhabitants, thereby less able to defend themselves, had become a more easy prey to small skulking parties of the enemy ; that, hold- ing a monopoly of the lands of the province, the proprietaries were enabled to keep up those that were vacant and unlocat- ed, at exorbitant prices, paying no quit-rents nor taxes, and being under no obligation to settle them within any limited time; that from this cause many thousand families had been driven from the province to Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, carrying with them much wealth, doubly weakening the colony by the loss of its defenders and its treasure: That whilst the avarice of the proprietaries thus en- feebled the state, it was the more unreasonable to oppose the taxation of their estates, and to put the province to great ex- pense in obtaining a judgment against them at home: That their present demand to have the best and the most valuable of their located uncultivated lands, rated and assessed at no higher rate than the worst and least valuable of the located uncultivated lands belonging to the inhabitants, was equally unreasonable and unjust, with any of their former claims ; and that the advantage which they took of the public calami- ties, and the enforcement of their claims, with the knives of the savages at the throats of the people, was unjust, tyranni- cal, and inhuman: That the appointment of judges during the pleasure of the proprietors, rendered the property and liberty of the subject precarious, and dependent on their will: That the unfavourable light in which the province was at present viewed by the king and his ministers, was the effect of pro- prietary calumny and misrepresentation: That the militia law proposed by the governor was inadmissible, because the fines for military offences were enormous, and calculated to enslave the people; and the power to appoint the officers, and to march the militia to any part of the province, and keep them in service for an unlimited time, was such as could not be safely trusted in the hands of a proprietary governor; and that courts martial, proposed by the governor, composed of officers of his own appointment, having power of life and death, were dangerous, and might be used as a destructive engine of
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proprietary power: That the sole executive powers of govern- - ment being in the hands of the proprietaries, together with the extensive and growing influence arising from their vast and daily increasing estate, must, in future times, accord- ing to the natural course of human affairs, render them ab- solute, and become as dangerous to the prerogatives of the. crown as to the liberties of the people: That for these reasons it was the opinion of the house, that the powers of govern- ment ought, in all good policy, to be separated from the power attending that immense property, and lodged where only they could be properly and safely lodged, in the hands of the king.
Having unanimously adopted these resolutions, the assem- bly resolved to consult their constituents before they pro- ceeded further towards their contemplated change of govern- ment. For this purpose, they declared, that " as all hope of happiness under the proprietary government was at an end, they would adjourn, in order to consult the people, whether an humble address should be drawn up, and transmitted to his majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to take the people of this province under his immediate protec- tion and government, by completing the agreement heretofore made with the first proprietor, for the sale of the government to the crown, or otherwise, as to his goodness and wisdom should seem meet."
After an adjournment of fifty days, the house re-assembled on the fourteenth of May, encouraged to proceed in their measures to effect a change of the government. Petitions to the king for that purpose were presented, signed by three thousand five hundred of their constituents. The in- habitants who disapproved of the measure, seemed to have viewed the exertions of the members of the assembly with extraordinary apathy; for though, during the recess, meetings were held among the people for signing and circulating the petitions, no efforts were made against them, except in an obscure township in Lancaster county, whence a memorial with forty names, evidently signed by three hands only, was
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sent, opposing the change. The Quakers too, as a society, were active in supporting it. They also presented a petition to the assembly, addressed to the king, expressing their sor- row for " the continual disagreements and contests which for many years had subsisted between the proprietaries and as- semblies, to the great interruption of the peace and welfare of the province;" and their earnest request, that he " would . be graciously pleased to take the government of the province under his immediate care and direction; confiding in his royal clemency and favour for the continuance and confirmation to them and their posterity of those inestimable religious and civil liberties, which encouraged their forefathers, at their own expense, to settle and improve the colony."
The assembly resolved to transmit this petition to the king, accompanied by one from themselves. The latter, drawn by Dr. Franklin, was signed by him as speaker; but was not en- tered upon the minutes, nor published in the province; a copy of it was preserved among the doctor's papers. It stated, " that the government of the province by proprieta- ries had, by long experience, been found inconvenient, at -- tended with many difficulties and obstructions to his majesty's service, arising from the intervention of proprietary private interest in public affairs, and disputes concerning those inte- rests.
"That the government was weak, unable to support its own authority, and maintain the common internal peace of the province-great riots having lately arisen therein, armed mobs marching from place to place, and committing violent outrages and insults on the government with impunity, to the great terror of his majesty's subjects; that these evils were not likely to receive any remedy here, the continual disputes between the proprietaries and people, and their mutual jea- lousies and dislikes, preventing. They therefore prayed that / his majesty would be graciously pleased to resume the go- vernment of the province, making such compensation to the proprietaries as should be just and equitable, and permitting his dutiful subjects to enjoy, under his majesty's more imme-
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diate care and protection, privileges that have been granted to them by and under your royal predecessors."
On the consideration of this petition, the first serious op- position to the designs of the assembly displayed itself. The venerable Isaac Norris disapproved of it; and aware that, as speaker of the house, it would be his duty to sign it, obtained permission to enter his reasons for dissent upon the minutes: but, unwilling openly to array himself against his friends, and worn down by age, he preferred to retire for the present from the assembly, and the next day sent them his resignation as speaker. He was succeeded by Dr. Franklin.
John Dickenson, already distinguished for his learning, ta- lents, and success at the bar, was a member of the assembly, and hitherto had voted and acted with the majority; on this occasion, however, he eloquently and ably opposed them. But his speech, richly fraught with political wisdom, was powerless in the house. On the question for transcribing the address for a third reading, Messrs. Dickenson, Saunders, Montgomery, and Richardson, were the only persons who voted in the negative. The three first offered a protest, which was refused a place on the minutes, on the ground that such a course was out of order, and would form a mischievous pre- cedent.
Mr. Galloway replied to Mr. Dickenson in a short speech, afterwards amplified for the press. The address of Mr. Dick- enson having been published with a preface by Dr. Smith, Mr. Galloway's was also published, with a preface by Dr. Franklin. The latter also wrote and published a pamphlet on this subject, entitled "Cool thoughts on the present situa- tion of public affairs."
The publication of these, and other pamphlets, more re- markable for intemperance and scurrility, than for argument or wit, awakened the people to an earnest consideration of the proposed change of government. The presbyte- rians took up the subject with their customary zeal. Upon the last adjornment of the assembly, a circular letter had been written by Gilbert Tenant, Francis Allison, and John Ewing,
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presbyterian clergymen of Philadelphia, by order of the synod, to their church connexions in the province, against the peti- tion; and, as the riots of which the house complained, were alleged to have been promoted and defended by that people, they had a deep interest, independent of their political objec- tions, in opposing the prayer of the petition. These divines exerted themselves to render the Quakers unpopular in the province and in England, by charging them with having secretly supported the Indians, by holding treaties and cor- respondence with them during the war, and of having bestow- ed on them arms, and ammunition, and tomahawks, even when they were murdering the frontier inhabitants; with having neglected to redeem the captives taken by the In- dians; with having refused to contribute to the relief of the distressed frontier inhabitants, though during the late war they had expended five thousand pounds in presents to the Indians." And to remove the odium which had attached to their sect, by the Lancaster massacres, and the tumultuous march of the Paxton zealots against the Indians at Phila- delphia, they gave a perverted account of these transactions, which they published, together with their accusations, in the . newspapers of London .*
The elections for members of assembly, in 1764, turned upon the question of changing the government; and, such were the exertions of the friends of the proprietaries, and the hostility to change, in the city and county of Philadel- phia, that their active opponents were not re-elected. Tho- mas Willing and George Bryan were returned from the city, in the places of Dr. Franklin and Samuel Rhoads; and Galloway, Evans, and Fleeson, were rejected in the county of Philadelphia; in Cumberland county, Mr. John Montgo- mery was unanimously elected, because of his opposition to the proposed alteration; but in the other counties, no change was made inimical to the views of the preceding house. The majority, therefore, was great in favour of prosecuting the
* Votes. Pamphlets. A caricature published at this time represents Mr. Pemberton in the act of distributing tomahawks from a cask to the Indians.
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application to the crown, notwithstanding petitions with fif- teen thousand signatures had been procured against it.
An attempt was made in the house to recall the petitions which, though sent to the agent, had not been presented to the crown, but this was overruled by a vote of twenty-two to ten. It was then proposed to instruct the agent not to present them until he should receive further orders from the house ; this was negatived also by a large majority; and the only con- cession the house would consent to make to the fears and argu- ments of the minority, was the adoption of a resolution, instruct- ing their agent to proceed in the matter with the utmost caution, for securing to the inhabitants, under a royal government, all those privileges, civil and religious, which by their char- ters and laws they had a right to enjoy under the present constitution ; and if, upon the most careful inquiry, and ma- ture deliberation and advice, he should apprehend that in the proposed change there was danger to those privileges, he should withhold the petitions in his hands.
The resolution of the assembly was strengthened by the report of their agent, made in May, 1766, authenticating the confirmation by the crown of the laws passed in 1705, con- taining the principal provisions of the proprietary charter. In October, 1766, the committee of correspondence, on the part of the assembly, instructed their agents, that the house concurred in opinion with the three last preceding assemblies on the necessity of changing the present government from proprietary to royal, and that therefore they should prosecute the petitions to an issue before his majesty in council; but that they should observe the instructions formerly given, re- lative to the preservation of their rights, and, in case their petitions should be finally rejected by the crown, that they should not petition parliament without the previous approba- tion of the assembly.
The house was unwilling to entrust a subject of such great magnitude to the care of an individual, and therefore resolved to appoint another agent to assist him.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
Cupidity of the British government excited by American prosperity ···· Mr. Grenville's proposition for taxation .... Considerations thereon ···· Convention of colonial agents .... Reception of the proposition in Pennsylvania, &c ..... Vexa- tious character of the proposed duties ···· Unpopular means of enforcing payment ···· Resolutions and proceedings of the Massachusetts colony ···· Of Pennsylvania .... Resolution of Pennsylvania to send an agent to England ···· Appointment of Dr. Franklin ···· Opposition to his appointment ···· Stamp act passed ···· Reception in America ···· Congress of repre- sentatives from the colonies proposed ···· Resolutions of the assembly of Pennsylvania on the stamp act ···· Western ex- pedition under colonel Bonquet ···· Submission of the Indians .... Treatment and restoration of prisoners by the Indians .Disposition of the army .... Rewards to colonel Bonquet ... Treaty with the Indians .... Rewards offered by the go- vernor of Pennsylvania for Indian scalps ···· Stamp officers appointed .... Mr. Hughes compelled to decline executing the office .... Reception of the stamps ···· Suspension of news- papers and law business ···· Resolution of the inhabitants to manufacture .... Congress at New York .... Efforts against the stamp act in Europe .... Change of ministry .... Repeal of the stamp act .... Moderation of the colonists on the repeal .... Rejoicings in Pennsylvania ···· Remonstrance against the act of parliament, concerning paper currency .... Obituary notice of Isaac Norris ..... Issue of notes by association of merchants ···· Theatre, remonstrance against it ···· Injuries to the Indians .... Apprehension of Indian hostility ···· Mea- sures to avert it ···· Indian trade.
THE power and wealth displayed by the colonies during the late war surprised the British ministry, and awakened in
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the mind of Mr. Grenville, first commissioner of the treasury, an ardent hope of creating for himself a character for finan- cial skill, and of relieving the parent state from a portion of her burdens, by the taxation of the provinces. Parliament had frequently imposed duties on the colonial trade, which were patiently borne, as a part of the general system for re- gulating the commerce of the empire; but no attempt had hitherto been made avowedly to raise a revenue from the colonies for the use of the British treasury .*
The right of parliament to legislate generally for the colo- nies, had not been questioned since the year 1692, when Massachusetts and New York denied it by acts of their legis- latures. These laws were annulled in England ; and in 1696 parliament declared that " all laws, by-laws, usages and cus- toms, which shall be in practice in any of the plantations re- pugnant to any law made, or to be made, in this kingdom, relative to the said plantations, shall be void and of none effect." By the charter of Charles II. to Penn, the right of parliament to lay duties on imports and exports, and to im- pose taxes or customs on the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, their lands, goods, and chattels, was clearly reserved. And in 1739 sir William Keith, in conjunction with some Ameri- can merchants, proposed to raise troops for the western fron- tiers, to be supported by a duty laid by parliament on stamped paper and parchment, in all the colonies. But the subject was at that time too inconsiderable to claim the attention of the government. When efforts were made to unite the colo- nies in 1754, a plan for colonial taxation was suggested, but the ministry finding the colonies averse to their views, did not venture to press it on the eve of a war, in which the cor- dial and undivided exertions of the whole nation were re- quired.t
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