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could be imputed to no other cause than a desire to have a plausible excuse for not paying a proper regard to his majesty's commands; that even on account of the scruples urged, he had looked on governor Dinwiddie's requisition as a very lucky circumstance; seeing, that a requisition from himself would have et the province in the front of opposition; and a refusal from them, would have exposed it to the contempt and derision, as well of the French as our Indian allies; that as the French avow these hostilities, so the Indians, menaced by them, most earnestly besought us, to build places of refuge, to which their wives and children might repair for safety, and also to assist them against their enemies; that instead of being governed by the example of the neighbouring colonies, nothing remained but to give the necessary supplies, and thereby set the example to them, this province having been first invaded, and consequently in the most immediate danger; that without this, they could neither keep their treaties with the Indians, nor demonstrate their duty and loyalty to his majesty; that having now done his duty, whatever ill consequences might happen, were to be laid at their door; that with regard to the refusal of the proprietaries, to contribute any part of their Indian expenses, it was true, they had refused to do it in the manner expected, and they had given their reasons; but that the proposal made by him, the governor, by their order, in the years 1750 and 1751, in regard to the building a strong trading house near the place then invaded and possessed by the French, could not be forgot; which generous offer had the assembly thought fit to close with, it might, at a small expense, have prevented all the mischiefs impending, and secured a country to the English, which probably might not be recovered without a heavy charge, and the loss of many lives.

Whether the hostilities committed by the French were or were not committed within the bounds of Pennsylvania, became the great question. The assembly called for evidence; the governor imparted all he could collect; and, after a strict examination of the premises, the assembly chose only to glance at the inflammatories thrown in their way, and to profess their readiness to concur with the governor in whatever might preserve the harmony between the several branches of the legislature, so necessary at all times, and especially at a crisis so important, so far as the preservation of their rights and the duty they owed their constitutents would permit. Not departing, however, from their former sentiments, nor admitting any one of the articles laid against them; but, on the contrary, maintaining, that the secretary of the state's letter could be the only rule of their conduct; * See the assembly's answer to this charge hereafter,

in the time of governor Morris.

and tacitly upbraiding the governor for having suddenly altered the whole connexion between Pennsylvania and Virginia, in consequence of such supposed misconduct of theirs : and concluding their replication in these words: "as governor Dinwiddie had laid before his assembly the earl of Holdernesse's letter, sent, as we presume, in the same terms to all the colonies on the continent, we judged it most prudent to wait till the assembly of that government had enabled him to act in obedience to the royal commands, especially as they had that letter under their consideration from the first of November last, as appears by the journal of their house of burgesses now before us; but we are now called upon as principals, and the governor is pleased to inform us, that he has undoubted assurance that part of his majesty's dominions within the government is at this time invaded by the subjects of a foreign prince, who have erected forts within the same; and calls upon us, pursuant to his majesty's orders in the present emergency, to grant such supplies as may enable him to resist those hostile attempts, and repel force by force: but, as it appears to us that the governor is enjoined by the royal orders, not to act as a principal beyond the undoubted limits of his government; and as, by the papers and evidences sent down and referred to by the governor, those limits have not been clearly ascertained to our satisfaction; we fear the altering our connexions with his majesty's colony of Virginia, and the precipitate call upon us, as the province invaded, cannot answer any good purpose at this time, and therefore we are now inclined to make a short adjournment."

The adjournment they proposed was to the sixth of May; and, before they broke up, the governor again addressed them with another message, in which he also affected to wave several things personal to himself, which, at another time, he might have thought it incumbent on him to take notice of; and proceeded to tell them, that had they examined with their usual accuracy the gentleman, who by his appointment attended their house, and compared their testimony with the written papers at several times communicated to them, he thought it would have appeared so clear to them, that the French had lately erected one or more forts far within the limits of the province, that nothing less than an actual mensuration could have made it more evident; that even taking it for granted, however, the forementioned encroachments were not within the said limits, yet he, having been informed by the governor of Virginia, that hostile attempts had been made on part of his majesty's dominions, and called upon him for the assistance of this province, it was equally their duty, to grant such supplies as the present exigency of affairs required; and, that he

could not but be apprehensive, that so long an | voting affirmatively; and, on the contrary adjournment would frustrate his majesty's those who had hitherto voted affirmatively go just expectations from them.

This message was dated March 9, and April 2 we find them sitting by his special summons again: the occasion of which was the next day explained in the usual way by message, as follows: "I am now to acquaint you, gentlemen, that since your adjournment I have received from governor Dinwiddie the several papers herewith laid before you; by which it will appear, that he is taking all imaginable pains for the security of his majesty's dominions, so far as the provision made by his assembly will permit him to act; and he is very impatient to know the issue of your deliberations on this subject. I cannot therefore doubt but, that agreeable to the profession in your message of the twenty-seventh of February, of being ready and willing to demonstrate your duty and loyalty, by giving such sums of money to the king's use, upon all suitable occasions, as may consist with your circumstances, or can reasonably be expected from this province;' I say I cannot doubt but you will, with the greatest alacrity, lay hold on the present opportunity of evincing the sincerity of those professions, by granting such an aid to his majesty, as may comport with the circumstances of the province, and be suitable to the exigence of the service. And, in the doing of this, I hope you will be guided rather by the importance of the concern, than by the example of other colonies: it being found by experience to be a very ill-judged piece of economy to cramp an enterprise of this nature in the article of supplies; and that whatever is given on such occasions, short of being sufficient to accomplish the ends proposed, becomes, for the most part, a waste of so much treasure, without answering any of the purposes for which it was intended.

"I have at present only to add my request, that whatever you intend to do on this occasion, may receive all the despatch the nature of the thing will admit of; the season of the year for action advancing so fast, that unless our measures be speedily taken, they will, I fear, be rendered altogether unserviceable."

Upon the fifth, after many debates, it was resolved, by a small majority, that a sum of money should be given for the king's use; and what the sum should be, occasioned many debates more. Twenty thousand pounds being proposed on the ninth, it passed in the negative by a majority of twenty-five to eight; reduced to fifteen thousand pounds, it passed in the negative twenty-three to ten; reduced to ten thousand pounds, it passed in the negative twenty-two to eleven; and again reduced to five thousand pounds the next day, it again passed in the negative twenty-two to ten. Those who had hitherto led the house,

ing over to the remainder of the negatives.And this apparent perplexity was, in their re ply to the governor's message, thus accounter for: "And we now beg leave to inform the governor, that we have had that message un der our serious consideration ever since i came down to the house; but after all our de bates thereupon, we find that nearly one half of the members are, for various reasons, against granting any money to the king's use at this time; and those who are for granting, differ so widely in their sentiments concerning the sum, that there seems at present no possibility of their agreeing, except in such a sum, as, in the judgment of many of them, is quite disproportionate to the occasion: therefore, and that the members may have an opportunity of consulting their constituents on this important affair, we are now inclined to adjourn to the thirteenth of the next month."

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According to their adjournment, the house met again, May 6, and were informed by the governor of the arrival of a body of French forces, consisting of upwards of one thousand men, before the fort building by the Virginians on the Ohio, and the surrender thereof. He also laid before them the despatches he had severally received from governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, concerning the state of that province, and the succours he wanted and expected; and from governor Delancy of New York, concerning the interest of his majesty's colonies in general, as well as of Pennsylvania in particular; and said, hoped they would have their due weight with them in their deliberations and advice." The proposals made by the governors of Boston and New York for an union of the several colonies in Indian affairs, he then recommended to them earnestly, as agreeable to his own sentiments, and likely to be productive of more real benefit, at much less expense than the method hitherto in use of making frequent and distinct presents to the Indians, &c. And he desired to be enabled to instruct the commissioners to be sent from their province, to concur with those of the other colonies, in case a reasonable plan should be offered.

A joint bill for granting an aid to the king, and replacing torn and ragged bills of credit, was the result of their first day's debate; and after several divisions, the several sums were settled at ten thousand pounds for the king, and twenty thousand for the other purpose.

The commons of Great Britain will not suffer a money-bill to be amended: the lords may reject, his majesty may refuse his assent, but what they give, they give upon their own terms.

In Pennsylvania a money-bill exacted from the province, by all the considerations which could affect generous minds, or intimidate

weak ones, the dread of an enemy at the gates, and of incurring both the royal displeasure and the public odium, for not making à seasonable provision against his approaches, could not be accepted without amend

ments.

Even this bill, at such a crisis offered, and for such a service, was returned by the governor, with amendments prefaced with a written message, of which the two following were the most material paragraphs: viz.

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Considering the royal instruction laid before the assembly last year, it must be apparent that I have, merely from a desire to oblige you, consented to raise the money intended for his majesty's use in a manner by you proposed. And have prolonged the currency of the bills of credit, to be issued in virtue of the bill now under consideration, as far as I think consistent with my own safety. And, as the fund to be established upon the foot of my proposed amendment will be more than sufficient to repay the sum granted by the bill, I can see no reason for extending the act of excise longer than four years beyond the date of its present limitation, or for burdening the people unnecessarily with a tax that possibly may not be wanted."

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And these proposed amendments restored unanimity to the house; for whereas they had been divided many ways in the course of the bill, they now acted with one will and one voice, in rejecting that concerning the excise, which manifestly took its rise from proprietary considerations only; and for the sake of which, either the service of the public was to be neglected, or the province to give up its understanding.-The latter exceeded the power of persuasion; and the former they left those to answer for, to whom it belonged.

Their reply to the governor on this occasion was as follows: "The house are not inclined to enter into any dispute with the governor on the subject of his proposed amendments to the money-bill; as the representatives of the people have an undoubted right to judge, and determine, not only of the sum to be raised for the use of the crown, but of the manner of raising it.

to strike the sum of ten thousand pounds, to give the same to the king's use, and to sink it by an extension of the excise act for a farther term of ten years. The governor will be pleased to consider, that his predecessor, to whom the mentioned instruction was given, did afterwards pass an act of the same kind, extending the excise act ten years (now near expired) for a grant of five thousand pounds only; and we never heard that he incurred the royal displeasure for so doing. As the sum we grant is double, we had no expectation that our proposing the same term would have been deemed extravagant. The governor thinks four years sufficient; but, as the representatives are best acquainted with the circumstances of the people, and must themselves, as a part of the people, bear a share of all burdens laid upon them, it seems not reasonable to suppose they will lay such burdens unnecessarily. They now offer ten thousand pounds to the crown, and propose a manner of raising it, that they judge most easy and convenient for the people they represent: and, if the governor thinks fit to refuse it, merely from an opinion that a shorter term for sinking the bills would be more easy for the people, we cannot but suppose, that, since the messages in which he so warmly recommended this affair to us, he has, on farther advices, or better consideration, changed his sentiments of the importance of the present occasion for supplies, and doth not now think the danger so imminent, or the emergency so great or so real, as he then apprehended it to be."

They also intimated at the same time, that, it being an inconvenient season for the members to be absent from their respective homes, they desired the governor to let them know his result as soon as possible.

And upon the next day but one this result came, and proved to be of a nature altogether extraordinary. Having charged the assembly with laying down a position in their last message, derogatory to the rights of government; in maintaining, that the representatives of the people have an undoubted right to judge and determine, not only of the sum to be rais"The governor, in his message of the nine- ed for the use of the crown but of the manner teenth of February, was pleased to tell us, of raising of it, he first acknowledges that 'That, if the house should be of opinion that right, and then whittles it away, by arguing, there will be a necessity to strike a farther it was not an exclusive right; one half of the sum in bills of credit, to defray the charges of legislative powers being vested in the goraising supplies for his majesty's service in vernor. After which he goes on to say, that this time of imminent danger, and would cre- he had neither objected to the sum, though ate a proper fund or funds, for sinking the he wished it had been larger and more seasame in a few years, he would concur with sonably granted, nor to the manner of raising us in passing a law for that purpose, think-it, though he could have also wished it had ing himself sufficiently warranted so to do in cases of real emergency.'

"On this assurance, the house have prepared a bill, and presented it to the governor, VOL. II.... G

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not been by compelling him to depart from the letter of his majesty's instruction, but only to the extension of the fund, whereby the money is proposed to be repaid, to an unneces

adds, that he well knew the state of thei funds, and that the loan-office itself, were the money duly collected, was able to furnish a much larger sum than the sum granted upor this important occasion, independent of the interest hereafter to accrue, &c. That such being the favourable state of their finances in declining to do what his majesty so justly expected from them, merely because he, the governor, would not wholly depart from his instruction, they became more justly charge

commands, than he could possibly be with the lukewarmness imputed to him, which he had the greatest detestation of: and with a mixture of persuasion and menace, he came to a conclusion as follows, "let me therefore gentlemen, recommend to your serious atten tion, a review of your conduct upon the pre sent occasion, and if you shall find that you have been too precipitate in the resolution contained in your message, let me entrea you to rectify it before it be too late; for, as I must be obliged soon to lay this whole trans action before his majesty, it would give me the greatest pleasure that both you and might receive his gracious approbation of ou services. But if, contrary to my hopes, you should still persist in refusing to accept of my amendment, and the bill should by that mean be lost, I cannot but apprehend some unhappy consequences to the province from your ex traordinary behaviour."

sary length, by which a tax was to be laid and continued upon the people without the least apparent necessity: and that he was sorry to find, they were not satisfied with a fund by which the ten thousand pounds granted to his majesty would be repaid in the easiest manner in six years, and leave a surplus of several thousand pounds in their hands to be disposed of as they thought fit; and that, for the said ten thousand pounds so granted, they were desirous of obtaining more than three times the sum for themselves: that the ex-able with a wanton disregard of his majesty': ample of any former governor was not to be a rule for him: but that, however, if they would enlarge the sum given for his majesty's use, he would extend the time for repaying it in the same proportion already allowed in his amendment, which he should not otherwise recede from; that it was possible more might be concealed under this solicitude for so long an extension of the excise than they were willing should be discovered:-and here a paragraph occurs, which does indeed make a discovery, and which will be of singular use to the intelligent reader through the whole course of the controversy, viz. "It is well known, that by the laws now in force, the public money is solely in the disposal of the assembly, without the participation of the governor; nevertheless, while these acts, by which money was raised, were of short duration, the governor had now and then an opportunity of obliging the assembly in a very essential manner by a renewal of those acts, and thereby of making himself acceptable to them; but to extend them to such an unreasonable length of time as you now desire, might be to render him in a great measure unnecessary to them during the continuance of those acts, but upon terms very disagreeable to himself, as well as injurious to his constituents: to this condition, therefore, I will not be the means of reducing any successor of mine; and this circumstance is of no small additional weight with me to adhere to my amendment." He then desires them to observe, that the question between them, is not, which is best acquainted with the circumstances of the people? but whether it was reasonable to burden them with an unnecessary tax? assures them, they are exceedingly mistaken, if they really supposed he had either changed his sentiments with respect to the importance of the present occasion for supplies, or that he was less apprehensive of the dangers the province was then exposed to from the invasion of a foreign power than before; makes a merit of having gone farther in his condescensions to please them, than he was warranted to do, by the king's instruction, unless they made an addition to the supply, by extending their currency a year longer than the utmost term allowed to the eastern governments by the late act of parliament;

There is, one would think, a magical powe in government, capable not only of altering but even reversing the forms, colours, an essences of things; to common sense it seem evident, that the people give, and the governo refuses to accept; and that the said governor by avowing proprietary and deputy-govern ment-reasons for such his refusal, avows, tha the king's service and the people's safety ar but subordinate considerations—but our ow eyes are not to be trusted it seems-none o this is so-if the people do not do all that i required of them, and in the manner required they do nothing; and all the mischiefs tha ensue are to be laid at their door.

The assembly were not, however, to b amused by the waving of a government-wand but on the contrary, having bestowed as muc time upon the affair as was necessary for thorough discussion of it, came to a cours of spirited resolutions; of which the mos material and perspicuous are those whic follow, viz.

"That the raising of money for support o government and other public uses, by an ex cise on spirituous liquors, hath been practise in this province, with very little intermission for more than thirty years past, and hath no been found, communibus annis, to produc more money than was necessary for those use

"That the raising money by such excis

has by experience been found less burdensome to the people, than the method of poll and pound rates; and hence the load of public expense hath been more cheerfully borne, government more liberally supported, those who serve the public better and more punctually paid, and greater sums given from time to time to the king's use, than could otherwise have well been raised.

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That if the excise act be extended but four years, and the sum of ten thousand pounds is to be sunk thereby in that term, yearly provincial taxes by poll and pound rates (always more grievous to the people) must probably in a short time become necessary, to defray the usual and contingent expenses of the government.

"That if there really were, which is very uncertain, so great a sum outstanding due to the public, as if collected, would be in the disposition of the house, and sufficient to answer the present emergency; yet, to enforce the collection suddenly, by seizing and selling the estates of the delinquent borrowers, in this time of scarcity of money, when so many plantations being offered at once to sale, could not probably find a sufficient number of good purchasers, and must consequently sell for much less than their real value, would be cruel, oppressive, and ruinous to the people.

"That the right of judging and determining, not only of the sum necessary to be raised for any public service, but of the time and manner of raising it, and term for paying it; is solely in the representatives of the people; and that the governors of this province have not, nor ever had, nor can have, any right to interfere therein, under pretence of rectifying mistakes, easing the people, or any other pretence whatever.

an opportunity of making himself acceptable, appears to this house to be sacrificing too much, to considerations of uncertain and small moment.

"That we have now offered the governor a bill for granting ten thousand pounds to the king's use, to be sunk by extending the excise for ten years, (a bill of the like tenor of that of 1746 [passed by governor Thomas] for granting the sum of five thousand pounds to the king's use, to be sunk by extending the excise for ten years) to which he has been pleased to refuse his assent.

"That as the governor [in his message of the 1st of March last] acknowledged the term of ten years for extending the excise to sink the five thousand pounds, was 6 a short space of time,' and that there was not the least probability of that act's producing any of the inconveniences complained of; the same term of ten years for extending the excise to sink ten thousand pounds, must, in consequence, be allowed a short space of time:' and, the bill he now refuses being of the same tenor, there cannot be the least probability of its producing the inconveniences complained of; the preventing of which for the future appears clearly [to the governor] to have been the sole end and purpose of the royal instruction.'

"That the governor having, as he hoped, [to use his own words] incontestably proved, that the true and real intention of the royal instruction could have been no other than to guard against the abuses enumerated in the body of it; and the act for granting five thousand pounds for the king's use, passed by the late governor, in 1746, being of a singular and quite different nature from acts passed upon ordinary occasions, could not be com"That a just, upright, and prudent admi-prehended within the meaning of the said innistration of government, will always be the best and most effectual means of obtaining and securing the affections of the people; and that it is neither necessary nor expedient to deny the present assembly the exercise of their just rights, that a future governor may have an opportunity of obliging a future as sembly by permitting it.

"That an act of parliament made expressly to remedy disorders in the eastern governments, and in which this province is neither named, nor intended, cannot by any construction be supposed binding on the governors or assemblies of Pennsylvania.

"That to refuse a grant of ten thousand pounds to the king's use at this critical juncture, when the service of the crown, and the welfare, present and future, of all the British colonies, seem to the governor so eminently to demand supplies, merely from an opinion in the governor, that he can judge better than the people's representatives what is most for their ease, or that a future governor may have

struction:' the bill now offered to the governor for granting ten thousand pounds for the king's use, being also of a singular and quite different nature from acts passed upon ordinary occasions, and of the same tenor with the act passed in 1746, cannot be comprehended, by the governor, (unless he has very lately altered his opinion) to be within the meaning of the royal instruction; and therefore,

"That it is our opinion, that if the governor is restricted by any instruction from passing this bill, it must be by some instruction which he has never been pleased to lay before this house, and not the royal instruction, the operation of which, against bills of this tenor, he hath so effectually invalidated.

"That this house will this day adjourn to the nineteenth day of the month called August, next."

Before they adjourned, however, and without any mention made of these resolutions, they addressed the governor by message; in which, having civilly and thankfully observed

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