USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 40
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1767 ]
HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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These well-timed measures soothed the minds of the In- dians; and a treaty made at fort Stanwix, in 1769, with the Six nations, the Delawares, and Shawanese, at which a gene- ral boundary was fixed along the middle provinces, and a purchase made by the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, of a large tract of country within that boundary, removed the causes of Indian complaint, and gave grateful assurances to the people of continued peace. About the same time, the management of the Indian trade, which was taken from sir William Johnson, devolved upon the assemblies of the pro- vinces concerned in that commerce. He was compelled to discharge the commissioners, interpreters, and smiths, at the several posts, and requested the assembly of Pennsylvania to appoint successors, for those stationed in their province. But the attention of the assembly was absorbed by subjects of deeper interest, or they deemed it not unwise to suffer the Indian trade to remain without regulation.
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CHAPTER XIX.
Disposition of the English nation towards America ···· Reve- nue act proposed and carried by Charles Townsend ···· Rea- sons for this measure ..... Proceedings of the assembly of Pennsylvania in relation to revenue act ···· Farmer's letters by Mr. Dickenson, effect of ···· Non-importation agreement resorted to .... Repeal of part of the duties .... Tax on tea re- tained ···· Modification of the non-importation law ···· Quies- cent state of the public mind ..... Protest of Pennsylvania against the modified duty ..... WYOMING CONTROVERSY ..... Want of precision in the early charters .... Extent of terri- tory granted .... Pretensions of the Connecticut colony to lands in Pennsylvania considered ···· Purchase by Connecti- cut adventurers of the Indians at Albany ..... Character of that purchase ..... Susquehannah company of Connecticut formed .... Attempt to obtain the sanction of the crown for their proceedings ···· Connecticut settlers on the Susquehan- nah ···· Their violent expulsion of settlers under Pennsylva- nia title ···· Outrages committed by Stewart and Butler .... Arrest and escape of Stewart .... Renewed intrusion of Stew- art and Butler ···· Their devastations ···· Inhabitants, under colonel Clayton, retire to a fort ···· Siege and surrender of the fort .... Proceedings of the government of Pennsylvania ... .Connecticut resolves to sustain the intrusion of their citizens ····· Remonstrance of the inhabitants ····· Incorpo- rates a township in Pennsylvania ···· Overtures to governor Penn rejected ····· Connecticut claimants endeavour to ex- tend their possessions ···· Interference of congress invoked by Pennsylvania ····· Recommendation of congress ····· Pro- ceedings of Pennsylvania ···· Attempt by the executive to repel the intruders from Wyoming .... Unsuccessful .... Con- clusion of the controversy ..... New alarms of Indian hos-
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1767]
tility ···· Atrocious plan charged on lord Dunmore .... Im- probable and unsupported ··· Attack on the Indians by Cresap and others .... Logan .... Proceeding of the governor of Penn- sylvania on the rumour of Indian war .... Fort at Pittsburg seized by Connolly at the command of lord Dunmore .... Dunmore claims jurisdiction of the country west of the Al- leghany, comprised in the Pennsylvania charter .... Seduces the settlers .... His proclamation ..... Conduct of governor Penn in relation to the Indians and Dunmore .... Assembly of Pennsylvania employ rangers .... Indian war in Virginia .... Battle of Kanhawa .... Peace with Indians .... Edward Bid- dle elected speaker of assembly ···· Judges appointed.
THE repeal of the stamp act, however grateful to the friends of liberty, to the colonists, and to the English merchants trading with them, was not popular with the nation at large. The supremacy of the parliament was maintained by the mass of the people ; the hope of revenue from America was too fas- cinating to be surrendered without further exertion ; and the king beheld with high indignation the resistance to his autho- rity, and the political principles, which his American subjects had displayed. Moved by these considerations, Mr. Charles Townsend invited the attention of parliament again to the sub- ject of American taxation. He boasted, " that he knew how to draw a revenue from the colonies, without giving them of- fence;" and, animated by the challenge of Mr. Grenville to make his vaunting true, he proposed and carried almost unani- mously, a bill imposing certain duties on tea, glass, paper, and painters' colours, imported into the colonies from Great Britain ; the proceeds of which were appropriated to the sup- port of government in America, so far as should be neces- sary, and the balance to be paid into the British treasury.
This measure was founded in the belief that the colonists objected rather to the mode than to the right of taxation. There had been some inaccuracies in expressing their views of the statutes regulating their trade. They had declared themselves satisfied with the exercise of parliamentary power on this subject; but their approbation extended only to such
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regulations as tended to the modification of commerce for the general benefit of the empire. To every measure designed to tax them without their consent, they were irreconcilable. The bill of Mr. Townsend had the unequivocal character of a revenue law, and as such was avowedly enacted ; nor were the colonists slow to mark their apprehension of its true cha- racter.
The assembly of Pennsylvania, on the twentieth of Fe- bruary, before the course of the other provinces was known, directed her agents in London " to co-operate with the agents of the other colonies in any decent and respectful application to parliament, in case such application should be made by them, for a repeal of the late acts imposing duties on the im- portation of paper, glass, &c. into the American provinces ; which act, they said, was looked upon as highly injurious to the rights of the people, and their commercial interest." The legislature of Massachusetts addressed remonstrances to the king, to parliament, and to the ministers, and a letter to the several colonies. The latter contained an exposition of the subject of their remonstrances, a recapitulation of the argu- ments urged against the stamp act, and declared the taxes lately imposed to be inequitable, because exacting a duty upon the importation into America on British manufactures, in ad- dition to that paid on exportation from England; and that the proposed disbursements of the revenue, in the payment of the salaries of the governors and judges appointed by the crown, had a tendency to subvert the principles of equity and to endanger the happiness and security of the subject.
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At their May sessions, the assembly directed a copy of this circular to be entered on their minutes. In. September fol- lowing the governor laid before them a letter from the earl of Hillsborough, lately appointed to the new office of secre- tary for the colonies, denouncing the circular, as of the most dangerous and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of the colonists, promote unwarrantable combinations, excite and encourage open opposition to, and denial of, the authority of parliament, and to subvert the true principles of the constitution. He was commanded "to use his utmost
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1768]
influence to defeat this flagitious attempt to disturb the public peace, by prevailing upon the assembly of his province to take no notice of it, thereby treating it with the contempt it deserved. The repeated proofs," continued the secretary, "which the assembly of Pennsylvania had given of their re- verence and respect for the constitution, left no doubt of their showing a proper resentment of this unjustifiable attempt to revive those distractions which have operated so fatally to the prejudice of the kingdom and colonies." But, should it be otherwise, and a disposition appear in the assembly to coun- tenance this seditious paper, the governor was further com- manded to prorogue or dissolve them. A command which could be executed by the abrogation of their charter only. Immediately after the letter had been read, Mr. Galloway, the speaker, laid before the house a circular, from the assem- bly of Virginia, recapitulating the grievances and arguments of Massachusetts, and recommending a union of the colonies, in opposition to measures having an immediate tendency to enslave them, by which means they anticipated the re-esta- blishment of the constitution upon its genuine principles.
This recommendation was adopted by the assembly; and a committee appointed to prepare petitions to the king, and upper and lower houses of parliament. And that no mistake might exist in regard to their sentiments on the letter of the earl of Hillsborough, they resolved, " that by their charter and laws, they had a right to sit on their own adjournments, and that the governor had no constitutional authority to pro- rogue or dissolve them; and that it was their undoubted right to correspond with the representatives of the freemen of any of his majesty's colonies in America, relative to grievances which might affect the general welfare of the colonies, in or- der to obtain, by decent petitions to his majesty and his par- liament, redress of such grievances."
The petitions to the king and parliament, written probably by Mr. Allen, contain a clear and manly exposition of the unconstitutionality of the late revenue laws, and the probable consequence of their enforcement. " Our ancestors," say the petitioners in their address to the king, " near a century past,
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with a view of enjoying that liberty, both civil and religious, of which they were in a great measure deprived in their na- tive land, to extend the empire of the British dominions, to increase its commerce, and promote its wealth and power, before the accession of your majesty's illustrious house to the : British throne, removed from the mother country to the pro- vince of Pennsylvania, then a wilderness. The disadvantages, dangers, and distress necessarily attendant upon this separa- tion from their friends, relatives, and the land of their na- tivity, we trust, must appear to your majesty's wisdom too evident to need a repetition; and, yet, with inexpressible labour, toil, and expense, and without the least assistance from the parent state, they, and their descendants, by their prudence and strict economy, have peopled, planted, and improved that wilderness into an extensive, and heretofore flourishing, colony; and thereby greatly added to the com- merce and wealth of the nation, and to the power and dignity of your majesty's empire."
" While thus contributing to the welfare of the mother state, and struggling with innumerable difficulties to enlarge its dominions, we most humbly conceive, that your majesty's faithful subjects of this province, have, by no act whatever, surrendered up or forfeited those constitutional rights and liberties, which were inseparably annexed to their persons as natural born subjects of the British government; but, on the contrary, that those rights brought over by our ancestors to this distant land, are now vested in their descendants as an inheritance the most important and valuable, on the enjoy- ment whereof their future safety and happiness depend."
" Thus possessed of the rights of Englishmen, derived to them from the most excellent constitution, and under a firm persuasion that the enjoyment and full exercise thereof, would be continued down to your people of this colony, and their latest posterity, it is with inexpressible concern and anxiety that we find ourselves under the necessity of representing to your majesty, that certain duties and taxes for the sole pur- pose of raising a revenue have been imposed by parliament on your majesty's American subjects, although they have no
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1768]
representative or voice in that most respectable and august body. That, this taxation we most humbly apprehend, is destructive of those rights and that freedom, which they are by birth entitled to, as men and Englishmen, who cannot be legally taxed, either by the principles of equity or the consti- tution, but by themselves or legal representatives; and that, should this law remain unrepealed, and the commons of Great Britain exercise in future the power of granting the property of your majesty's American subjects without their consent, and without having any constitutional opportunity of being informed of their true circumstances and ability to bear such taxation, which their situation and distance from the mother country render impracticable, your faithful people of these colonies will possess nothing which they can call their own. All security of property will be lost."
" This right in the people of this province of being ex- empted from any taxations, save those imposed by their own representatives, has been recognised by long established usage and custom, ever since the settlement thereof, without one precedent to the contrary, until the passing of the late stamp act. Whenever your majesty, or your royal predecessors, have had occasion for aids to defend and secure the American colonies, requisitions have been constantly made of the as- semblies of this province, who, ever with the utmost cheer- fulness and loyalty, have granted them; and often so liberally, as to exceed the abilities and circumstances of the people, yet labouring under a heavy load of debt from that cause. The granting aids to the crown being the means of recommending themselves to your majesty's care and favour, it will be with the utmost distress that your faithful subjects of this colony shall see the commons of Great Britain, without their con- sent, disposing of their property, and thereby depriving them of a right which, in value and importance, they esteem above all others."
After professing their attachment to his majesty's person, and their readiness to demonstrate their duty to his govern- ment, they proceed, " But, most gracious sovereign, should the commons of Great Britain persist in depriving us of this
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most invaluable privilege, it will be with the deepest affliction that the people of these colonies must perceive so unfortunate a distinction established between your majesty's loyal British and American subjects; leaving the one in the full possession and exercise of all those rights which are necessary to the most perfect political liberty, and the other bereaved of that which alone constitutes the great security and foundation of all their other privileges; a distinction which, we fear, cannot fail of creating a disunion in sentiments and affections, jealousies and discords between them, to the great injury of the trade and commerce of the nation, and the prejudice of both coun- tries."
The petitions were sent to the provincial agents to be pre- sented. In them the assembly refrained from remarking upon the inexpediency of the revenue act, lest they should seem, for a moment, to admit its constitutionality. But, in their letter to their agents, they endeavoured to demonstrate, that the enforcement of the law would drive the colonies to manufacture the articles on which the duties were laid; or, that, as the duties were payable in coin, which could not be procured, importation of such articles would be impossible. They also condemned the use designed to be made of the revenue in the support of the executive and judicial officers; as making such officers independent of the people, where paid by the crown, or imposing on the provinces whose officers should not be so paid, the burden of contributing to the support of other colonies.
The promptitude and unanimity of the assembly of Penn- sylvania', and the union of the colonies generally, on this oc- casion, has been, with great justice, ascribed to the judicious and eloquent essays of Mr. John Dickenson, published as " Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania to the inhabitants of the British colonies." These papers, in which the rights of the colonists were ably maintained, were republished in every colony; and the people of Boston, in town meeting, voted a letter of thanks to their " patriotic, enlightened, and noble-spirited author."
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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In the controversy upon the stamp act, the most effectual weapon of the colonists was found in their non-importation agreements. Recourse was now had to them to enforce the repeal of the revenue act; and, notwithstanding both houses of parliament had concurred, by a joint address, in approval of the ministerial measures, and had besought the king to constitute a special commission within the realm of Great Britain, for the trial of treasons and misprisons of treason, alleged to have been committed in Massachusetts, the mass of English trading population, feeling severely the conse- quences of those agreements, strongly urged the abrogation of the new duties. The ministry, affected by the commercial distress, were desirous to give relief, but they were resolute to maintain the parliamentary right to tax the colonies.
With criminal weakness, they adopted a middle course, re- markable for the ignorance it displays of the state of the public mind, and the nature of the public character, in Ame- rica. The earnest remonstrances, and prompt and energetic resistance of the colonists, had failed to convince them, that the assertion of the right, and not the amount of duty levied, was the true source of complaint. The ministers persist- ed in believing that a reduction of the tax would restore tranquillity. Under this delusion, assurances were given, in 1769, that five-sixths of the taxes imposed in 1767 should be repealed; and in 1770 the whole were abolished, save three pence a pound on tea.
Adhering strictly to their principles, the colonists modi- fied their non-importation agreements to operate on tea alone. This they were better enabled to do, as that article could be obtained from continental Europe, by smuggling, in sufficient quantity, and at a less price than it could be regularly im- ported from Great Britain. The anticipation of revenue from continuing the act of parliament was, therefore, vain, and its preservation on the statute-book served but to keep the jealousies and fears of the provinces in constant activity, and to familiarize the minds of the people to means of op- posing a power which, like the sword of Damocles, threat- ened momentary destruction. In some of the colonies, the 58
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non-importation agreements were partially violated; but in the greater part they were sacredly observed. In Pennsyl- vania the duty was paid on a single chest of tea only.' By the revenue act, in its modified form, the rights so dearly prized by the colonists were exposed to violation, but it de- pended on themselves to preserve them uninjured, since, whilst no dutiable tea was purchased, no duty was paid; and whilst this commodity was otherwise cheaply procured, the people suffered no privation. Hence a state of political quiet ensued the repealing act of 1770. The ministry seemed dis- posed to avoid further aggression, and the Americans, gene- rally, ceased to remonstrate and complain, though they did not cease to watch with lynx-eyed vigilance every movement of the British government, nor to discuss in public and pri- vate the relations between the colonies and parent state.
1
The assembly of Pennsylvania renewed their protest against the revenue act, after its modification, as a precedent for fu- ture oppression; and they instructed their agent, Dr. Frank- lin, to oppose whatever might affect the liberties of America, or the rights of the province ; and, more especially, any plan which might be proposed for an American representation in parliament .*
The attention of Pennsylvania was now turned from griev- ances, common to her and the other colonies, to the consi- deration of injuries exclusively affecting herself. The first grants of lands in America, by the kings of Great Britain, were made with a lavishness which can exist only where acquisitions are without cost, and their value unknown; and with a want of precision in boundary, which could re- sult only from entire ignorance of the country. The char- ters of the great northern and southern Virginia companies, and of the colonies of the Massachusetts bay and Connecti- cut, were of this liberal and uncertain character. The char- ter of the Plymouth company covered the expanse from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of northern latitude, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. That of
* Votes.
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Connecticut, derived from the Plymouth company, and con- firmed by the crown in 1662, also covered the country from sea to sea. The maintainance of this extravagant extent of soil does not appear to have been contemplated by the early settlers of that colony; but, from the records of the New England provinces, there was evidently a disposition to preserve a right to a western boundary much more remote than now limits those states. But this disposition was un- settled and varying. In July, 1649, as we have seen, the commissioners of the united colonies of New England re- fused to sanction an application of the New Haven colony to make a settlement on the Delaware .* But in 1651, on the petition of certain persons, who alleged that they had pur- chased lands on the Delaware from the Indians, and had been prevented from settling thereon by the Dutch, the commissioners asserted the right to the Delaware lands, under the Connecticut patent, and purchases made by indi- viduals. They protested against the conduct of the Dutch, and assured the petitioners, that, though the season was not meet for hostilities, yet if within twelve months, at their own charge, they should transport to the Delaware one hun- dred armed men, with vessels and ammunition approved by the magistrates of New Haven, and should be opposed by the Dutch, that they should be assisted by as many soldiers as the commissioners should judge meet; the lands and trade of the settlement being charged with the expense, and con- tinuing under the government of New Haven. t
Opposed to these vague assertions of right, are the esta- blishment of the western boundaries of Connecticut by treaty with the Dutch, and the final settlement of boundaries be- tween New England and New York, by commissioners under the crown, in 1664; and the charters of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, under which those colonies were severally peopled, without objection or complaint from any one of the New England governments.
* Records of United Colonies. Trumbull.
| 1 Col. N. V. Hist. Soc. Haz. Col.
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For these reasons, the claims of Connecticut to the country west of the Delaware were unnoticed for more than a cen- tury. But they were now seriously agitated under the fol- lowing circumstances. There was much vacant land on the Delaware and Susquehannah rivers of the first quality, which attracted occupants from various parts. Amongst others, the people of New England, who were becoming straitened for room at home, and began to display those migratory quali- ties for which they are now distinguished, grew covetous of a country flowing with milk and honey. Some of them who had set their faces westward in search of fortune, disre- garding the charter to Penn, alighted on these lands, and for a season remained undistinguished among other squatters. But they were soon possessed with the notion, that, under the cover of the Connecticut charter, they might claim these acquisitions, and avoid the payment of purchase-money and the burden of quit-rents. The Connecticut title was imme- diately asserted, and threats made to their neighbours, that a competent force should be sent from Connecticut to seize and settle the lands at Wyoming on the Susquehannah, and at Cushetunk on the Delaware, choice and valuable spots in this virgin country. *
The governor of Pennsylvania, apprized of these inten- tions, immediately addressed himself to governor Wolcott and lieutenant-governor Fitch of Connecticut, asserting the exclusive title of the proprietaries to all lands within the bounds of their charter, protesting against the intrusions already made, and proposing that such portion of the Con- necticut people as was disposed to settle in the west, should locate themselves on the western border of the province, under Pennsylvania rights, or should seek a home in the western parts of Virginia. But these were savage and almost unexplored wilds, and a plan for wresting from Pennsylvania a large portion of her richest soil had been deeply laid and widely extended. Governor Wolcott and several members of the general court were parties to this design. But to
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