USA > Virginia > Exiles in Virginia : with observations on the conduct of the Society of Friends during the revolutionary war ; comprising the official papers of the government relating to that period. 1777-1778 > Part 6
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design of enslaving this free country, and is now advancing toward this city, as a principal object of hostility, that such dangerous persons be accordingly secured, therefore, re- solved, that a suitable number of friends to the public cause, be authorized forthwith to seize and secure the persons of the said
*Joshua Fisher,
*Thomas Wharton, sen.,
*Henry Drinker,
*Joseph Fox,
John James,
*Samuel Shoemaker,
William Druit Smith.
Alexander Stedman,
Charles Stedman, jun.,
*Owen Jones, jun.,
*Charles Jervis,
*Samuel Pleasants,
*James Pemberton,
*John Pemberton,
*Israel Pemberton,
*Samuel Emlen, jun.,
*Hugh Roberts,
*William Smith, D. D.,
William Inlay,
*John Hunt,
*Jeremiah Warden,
*Samuel Murdock,
*Abel James,
Elijah Brown,
*Phineas Bond,
*Thomas Fisher, son of Joshua,
*Samuel Fisher, son of Joshua,
*Miers Fisher,
*Adam Kuhn, M. D.,
*George Roberts,
*Rev. Thomas Combe,
William Lennox,
*Caleb Emlen,
*Charles Eddy,
*Thomas Pike,
*Thomas Ashton, merchant,
*Samuel Jackson,
William Smith, broker,
*Thomas Gilpin,
*Edward Pennington,
*Thomas Affleck.
Resolved, That the following instructions be also given :
Early attention should be paid to John Hunt, who lives on the Germantown Road, about five miles from the city, and to John Pemberton, Samuel Emlen, and other leaders in the Society of Quakers, concerning books and papers; as to the rest, your own prudence will direct.
Congress recommends it, and we wish to treat men of repu-
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tation with as much tenderness as the security of their persons and papers will admit. We desire, therefore, that if the per- sons whose names in the list are marked with a cross thus x offer to you by promise in writing to remain in their dwellings ready to appear on demand of Council, and meanwhile to re- frain from doing any thing inimical to the United States of North America, by speaking, writing, or otherwise, and from giving intelligence to the Commander-in-chief of the British forces, or any other person whatever concerning public affairs, you dismiss them from further confinement of their persons. But if such engagement, or a promise equivalent thereto, can- not be obtained, we desire that in such case you confine the refusers, together with the others to whose names the said mark is not affixed, in some convenient place, under a guard, with which the town major, Colonel Nicola, will supply you. The Freemasons' Lodge may perhaps be procured. It would serve as well as any other place for the purpose. You may perceive that Council would not without necessity commit many of the persons to the common jail or even to the state prison.
Resolved, That the following be appointed and authorized to carry into execution the resolve of yesterday respecting the arresting such persons as are deemed inimical to the cause of American liberty, viz. :
William Bradford,
Lazarus Pine,
William Carson,
Sharpe Delany, William Heysham,
James Claypole, Captain Burney, William Graham,
John Downey, John Purviance,
James Kerr, William Hardy,
William Sharpe,
John Galloway, Joseph Blower, John Lisle,
Charles Wilson Peale, Captain M'Cullock,
Nathaniel Donnell,
Paul Coxe, James Loughead,
Robert Smith,
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Adam Kimmel, Thomas Bradford, Jacob Cannon,
together with such persons as they shall call to their assistance.
GEORGE BRYAN, Vice-President.
The power of search must necessarily extend to the opening of locks.
GEORGE BRYAN, Vice-President.
A true copy.
WILLIAM BRADFORD.
12 o'clock. John Hunt, Israel Pemberton, and Samuel Plea- sants, were brought to our apartment as fellow-prisoners. They informed us they had been arrested by virtue of the general warrant, but having refused to consider themselves prisoners, until a copy was granted them, they were suffered to continue at large until 11 o'clock to-day; that in the mean time they had prepared a remonstrance to the Council against their arbitrary proceedings, with which they, together with their counsel, attended at the State House, and after repeated messages passing between them and the Council, through Timothy Matlack, their Secretary, they were finally refused a hearing, either by themselves or their counsel, upon which they were arrested and conducted to us by Lewis Nicola. The copy of the Warrant with the Remonstrance is as follows, viz.
TO THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The remonstrance of Israel Pemberton, John Hunt, and Samuel Pleasants, sheweth :
That Lewis Nicola is about to deprive us of our liberty, by an order from you, of which the following is a copy.
" In Council, September 3d, 1777.
" Ordered, that Colonel Nicola, town major, do take a pro- per guard and seize Israel Pemberton, John Hunt, and Samuel
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Pleasants, and conduct them to the Freemasons' Lodge, and there confine them under guard till further orders."
We are advised, and from our own knowledge of our rights and privileges as freemen are assured, that your issuing this order is arbitrary, unjust, and illegal, and therefore we believe it is our duty, in clear and express terms, to remonstrate against it.
The order appears to be arbitrary, as you have assumed an authority not founded on law or reason, to deprive us, who are peaceable men, and have never borne arms, of our liberty, by a military force, when you might have directed a legal course of proceeding. Unjust, as we have not attempted, nor are charged with any act inconsistent with the character we have steadily maintained as good citizens, solicitous to promote the real interest of our country. And that it is illegal, is evident from the perusal and consideration of the constitution of the govern- ment from which you derive all your authority and power.
We therefore claim our undoubted right as freemen, having a just sense of the inestimable value of religious and civil liberty, to be heard, before we are confined in the manner di- rected by said order; and we have the more urgent cause for insisting on this our right, as several of our fellow-citizens have been some days, and now are confined by your order, and no opportunity is offered them to be heard ; and we have been informed that it is your purpose to send them and us into a dis- tant part of the country, even beyond the limit of the jurisdic- tion you claim, and where the recourse we are justly entitled to, of being heard or clearing ourselves from any charge or suspicions you may entertain against us will be impracticable.
We fervently desire you may be so wise as to attend to the dictates of truth and justice in your minds, and observe the precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you profess to believe in. " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do you even so to them," (see Matthew vii. 12,) and then we have no doubt you will comply with this just claim we
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make, which will be duly acknowledged by your real friends and well-wishers.
ISRAEL PEMBERTON, JOHN HUNT, SAMUEL PLEASANTS.
Philadelphia, 4th of 9th month, 1777.
The committee for that purpose appointed, reported an essay of a remonstrance to Council, which being read, and consi- dered, was agreed to, and a fair copy, signed by twenty of us, was delivered to James Craig, John Reynell, and Owen Jones, who undertook to present it. They returned some time after, and informed us they had met with the President (the Council being broke up), and delivered it to him ; that he read it, ap- peared to be somewhat affected with our situation, but blamed us for not accepting the terms of the parole and then remon- strating ; he promised, however, to lay it before the Council, and gave them expectation he would send us an answer by ten o'clock to-morrow.
Having received information from Isaac Melchoir, that he was ordered to procure wagons for our removal to Virginia, on seventh day next, we thought it prudent to acquaint our fellow-citizens with the hardships we were likely to suffer, and to publish in a handbill some copies of the remonstrance of our friends, John Hunt, Israel Pemberton, and Samuel Pleasants, which Robert Bell undertook to print.
Eight o'clock. Wm. Bradford laid before us a letter he received from Timothy Matlack, Secretary to the Council, in- forming us of our intended removal to Virginia, and the time proposed. This daring insult on our liberties, after refusing to hear us, we thought should not be concealed from the people. We therefore desired Robert Bell to add to it a short preface to the handbill containing the remonstrance above mentioned.
Considering the unprecedented strides Council was making in the total abolition of every species of liberty, and that if they were not checked in this outrageous attempt, they might
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proceed to the greatest extremities in the wanton exercise of their power, even to the evacuation and destruction of the city, and as no time was to be lost, we concluded to furnish Robert Bell with a copy of our remonstrances of this day, which he promised to print, so as to disperse a number of them through the town by to-morrow noon.
But, after the remonstrance was written, and previously to its being published, William Bradford came, and read us a let- ter to him, of which the following is a copy.
SIR,
Council have resolved to send the prisoners now confined in the Freemasons' Lodge, to Staunton, in the county of Au- gusta, in the state of Virginia, there to be secured and treated in such manner as shall be consistent with their respective characters, and the security of their persons; which you are requested to communicate to them, and inform them that car- riages will be provided for their accommodation on the journey, unless they choose to provide themselves therewith. It is pro- posed they go off on Saturday morning next.
I am, with great respect, Your humble servant, TIMOTHY MATLACK,
For Col. Wm. Bradford. Secretary.
Thursday, Sept. 4th, 1777.
The above is a true copy of the letter I received this even- ing from Timothy Matlack.
WILLIAM BRADFORD.
TO THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The remonstrance of the subscribers, freemen and in- habitants of the city of Philadelphia, now confined in the Free- masons' Lodge, sheweth :
That the subscribers have been by virtue of a warrant signed in council, by Geo. Bryan, Vice-President, arrested in
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our houses, and on our lawful occasions, and conducted to this place, where we have been kept in close confinement, under a strong military guard, two or more days, and although divers of us demanded of the messengers who arrested us, and insisted on having copies of the said warrant, yet we were not able to procure the same until this morning, but have remained here unaccused and unheard.
We now take the earliest opportunity of laying our griev- ances before your body from whom we apprehend they pro- ceed, and of claiming to ourselves the liberties and privileges to which we are entitled, by the fundamental rules of justice, by our birthright and inheritance, by the laws of the land, and by the express provision of the present constitution, under which your board derives its power.
We apprehend that no man can be lawfully deprived of his liberty without a warrant from some persons having competent authority, specifying an offence against the laws of the land, supported by oath or affirmation of the accusers, and limiting the time of his imprisonment, until he is heard, or legally dis- charged, unless the party be found in the actual perpetration of a crime. Natural justice, equally with law, declares that the party accused should know what he is to answer to, and have an opportunity of showing his innocence. These prin- ciples are strongly enforced in the ninth and tenth sections of the Declaration of Rights, which form a fundamental and in- violable part of the Constitution from which you derive your power, wherein it is declared.
" IX .- That in all prosecutions for criminal offences, a man hath a right to be heard by himself and counsel, and to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses, to call for evidence in his favour, and a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the country, without the unanimous consent of which he cannot be found guilty, nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor can any man be justly deprived of his liberty except by the laws of the land, or the judgment of his peers.
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" X .- That the people have a just right to hold themselves, their houses and possessions, free from search or seizure, and therefore warrants without oath or affirmation first made, affording a sufficient foundation for them, and whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded or required to search suspicious places, or to seize any person or persons, his or their property, not particularly described, are contrary to that right, and ought not to be granted."
How far these principles have been adhered to in the course of this business, we shall go on to show.
Upon the examination of the said warrant, we find it is in all respects inadequate to these descriptions ; altogether un- precedented in this or any free country, both in its sub- stance and the latitude given to the messengers who were to execute it, and wholly subversive of the very constitution you profess to support. The only charge on which it is founded, is a recommendation of Congress to apprehend and secure all persons who in their general conduct and conversation have evidenced a disposition inimical to the cause of America, and particularly naming some of us ; but not suggesting the least offence to have been committed by us.
It authorizes the messengers to search all papers belonging to us, upon a bare possibility that something political may be found, but without the least ground for a suspicion of the kind.
It requires papers relative to the sufferings of the people called Quakers to be seized, without limiting the search to any house or number of houses, under colour of which every house in the city might be broken open.
To persons whom the Congress have thought proper to select, the warrant adds a number of the inhabitants of the city, of whom some of us are a part; without the least in- sinuation that they are within the description given by the Con- gress in their recommendation.
It directs all these matters to be executed (though of the highest importance to the liberties of the people), at the dis- cretion of a set of men who are under no qualification for the
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due exercise of the office, and are unaccustomed to the forms of executing civil process, from whence, probably, have pro- ceeded the excesses and irregularities committed by some of them, in divers instances, by refusing to give copies of the process to the parties interested; by denying some of us a reasonable time to consider of answers, and prepare for con- finement. In the absence of others, by breaking our desks and other private repositories, and by ransacking and carrying off all domestic papers, printed books, and other matters not within the terms of the warrant. It limits no time for the duration of our imprisonment, nor points out any hearing, which is abso- lutely requisite to make a legal warrant, but confounds in one warrant the power to apprehend and the authority to commit, without interposing a judicial officer between the parties and the messenger.
Upon the whole, we consider this warrant and the proceed- ing thereon, to be far more dangerous in its tendency, and a more flagrant violation of every right which is dear to freemen, than any act which is to be found in the records of the English Constitution.
But, when we consider the use to which this general warrant has been applied, and the persons upon whom it has been executed, (who challenge the world to charge them with offence,) it becomes of too great magnitude to be considered the cause of the few. It is the cause of every inhabitant, and may, if permitted to pass into a precedent, establish a system of arbitrary power, unknown but in the Inquisition, or the despotic courts of the East.
What adds further to the alarming stretch of power is, that we are informed that the Vice-President of the Council has de- clared to one of the magistrates of the city, who called on him to inquire the cause of our confinement, that we were to be sent to Virginia unheard.
Scarcely could we believe such a declaration could have been made by a person who fills the second place in the govern- ment, till we were this day confirmed in the melancholy truth
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by three of the subscribers, whom you absolutely refused to hear in person or by counsel. We would remind you of com- plaints urged by numbers of yourselves against the Parliament of Great Britain, for condemning the town of Boston unheard, and we will call upon you to reconcile your present conduct with your then professions or repeated declarations in favour of general liberty.
In the name, therefore, of the whole body of the freemen of Pennsylvania, whose liberties are radically struck at, by this arbitrary imprisonment of us, their unoffending fellow-citizens, we demand an audience, that so our innocence may appear and persecution give place to justice.
.
But, if regardless of every sacred obligation by which men are bound to each other in society, and by that constitution by which you profess to govern, which you have so loudly magni- fied for the free spirit it breathes, you are still determined to proceed, be the appeal to the Righteous Judge of all the earth, for the integrity of our hearts and the unparalleled tyranny of your measures.
James Pemberton,
Thomas Affleck,
Thomas Wharton,
Charles Jervis,
Edward Pennington,
William Smith, (broker,)
Henry Drinker,
William Druit Smith,
Phineas Bond,
Thomas Fisher,
Thomas Gilpin,
Miers Fisher,
Charles Eddy,
Thomas Combe, John Pemberton,
Israel Pemberton,
Thomas Pike,
John Hunt,
Owen Jones, jun.,
Samuel Pleasants.
Masons' Lodge, Philadelphia, September 4, 1777.
The guards, for these two days past, have behaved with complaisance, admitting every person who called to see us- without distinction, which occasioned a great resort of com- pany of the most respectable fellow-citizens, who were per-
6
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mitted to go in and out of the house without attendants, and several of our company to their homes for a short time.
9th month, 5th .- This day, those who were named to make an address to Congress, took into consideration the propriety of remonstrating to them the demand to be heard ; and accord- ingly prepared a remonstrance, which they signed, and then laid it before us, giving us our choice to join with them therein, by adding a paragraph at the foot, adapted to our case, which we thought unnecessary ; whereupon, it was presented by John Reynell and Owen Jones; being as follows, viz. :
TO THE CONGRESS.
The remonstrance of the subscribers, citizens of Philadelphia, sheweth :
That we are confined now by a military guard, having been arrested and deprived of our liberty, by order of the President and Council of Pennsylvania, in consequence of a resolve made by you on the twenty-eighth day of last month, " Recommend- ing to the executive powers of the several States, to apprehend and secure all persons who have in their general conduct and conversation evinced a disposition inimical to the cause of America, and particularly naming the subscribers, together with all such papers in our possession as may be of a political nature." The copy of which resolve we could not obtain till yesterday afternoon.
Conscious of our innocence and that we have given no just occasion to have our characters thus traduced and injuriously treated, we have remonstrated to the said President and Coun- cil, against their arbitrary, unjust, and illegal proceeding against us, and demanded our undoubted right of being heard by them, knowing we can manifest the falsehood and injustice of any injurious charge or suspicion they or you may entertain concerning us; but we are denied the opportunity of such a hearing, and were last evening informed, by their order, that they have resolved to send us to Staunton, in the county of
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Augusta, in Virginia, and we are now told that place is ap- pointed by you for our confinement.
We, therefore, by our love to our country, whose true in- terest and prosperity we have steadily pursued through the course of our conduct and conversation, and in justice to our characters as freemen and Christians, with that freedom and resolution which influences men conscious of being void of just cause of offence, are bound to remonstrate against your arbitrary, unjust, and cruel treatment of us, our characters, and families, and against the course of proceedings you have chosen and prescribed, by which the liberty, property, and character, of every freeman in America, is or may be endangered.
Most of you are not personally known to us, nor are we to you. Few of you have had the opportunity of conversing with any of us, or of knowing any thing more of our conduct and conversation than what you have received from others; and thus we are subjected to the unjust suspicions you have enter- tained, from the uncertain reports of our adversaries, and are condemned unheard, to be deprived of our most endearing con- nexions and temporal enjoyments, when our personal care of them is most immediately necessary.
We are therefore engaged in the most solemn manner to call upon you, and entreat you to reconsider well upon the course of your proceedings respecting us, and either by yourselves, or the said President and Council, to give us the opportunity of a hearing, and answering every matter suggested to, and enter- tained by you or them against us; being assured we shall ap- pear to be true friends to, and to be anxiously solicitous for the prosperity of America, upon the principles of justice and liberty ; and though we are clearly convinced, from the precepts of Christ, the doctrines of his Apostles, and the example of his followers, in the primitive ages of Christianity, that all outward wars and fightings are unlawful, and therefore, cannot join therein for any cause whatever, we cannot but remind you that we are by the same principle restrained from pursuing any measures inconsistent with the Apostles' advice, " to live
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peaceably with all men," under whatever power it is our lot to live, which rule of conduct we are determined to observe what- ever you or any others may determine concerning us.
Your characters, in the conspicuous station you stand, and the due regard to the liberties, properties, and even lives, of those whoever may be afflicted by the course of your proceed- ings, so loudly proclaim the justice of our demands for a hear- ing, that if more time remained for it, we judge further reason- ing unnecessary, beseeching you to remember that we are all to appear before the tribunal of Divine Justice, there to render an account of our actions, and receive a reward according as our works have been, and we sincerely desire for you, as we do for ourselves, that we may all so direct our course, that we may at that tribunal receive the answer of " well done," and enjoy the reward of eternal peace and happiness.
Israel Pemberton, Henry Drinker,
James Pemberton, Thomas Fisher,
John Pemberton, Samuel Pleasants,
Thomas Wharton, Samuel R. Fisher.
Philadelphia, 5th day of 9th month, 1777.
At noon. Elijah Brown was brought here a prisoner by vir- tue of a general warrant.
On conferring together, it was thought necessary to lay a state of our case before the people, who are equally interested with us in the struggle. Thomas Wharton, Phineas Bond, and Miers Fisher, are appointed a committee to prepare an essay.
At seven o'clock, P. M., William Bradford delivered us the following letter he had received from Timothy Matlack, which being read was taken into consideration, and it appearing to be intended as an evasion of giving us a hearing by proposing tests, Thomas Wharton and Miers Fisher were appointed a committee to prepare an essay of another remonstrance to the President and Council on the subject.
The following letter of Timothy Matlack to William Brad-
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ford, we suppose to be an answer of Council to our second re- monstrance of September 4th, 1777.
Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1777.
SIR,
A remonstrance signed by the gentlemen confined in the Masons' Lodge, having been presented to Council and read, the Council took the same into consideration, and asked the advice of Congress thereupon, which being received, the Council thereupon passed the following resolve, which we beg the favour of you to communicate to the aforesaid gentlemen.
In Council, Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1777. Resolved, That such of the persons now confined in the Lodge, as shall take or subscribe the oath or affirmation required by law, in this . commonwealth; or that shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, to wit :
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