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hundred and fifty, engaged, equipt, and sent | present is now all arrived, and shall be

forward in a few days after the demand, and all at Wills's creek many days before the army was ready to march? with what face then of probability can the governor undertake to say, "That had we in time opened the proper roads, raised men, and provided carriages, and necessary provisions for the troops, we might now have been in peaceable possession of fort Du Quesne ?"

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equally divided to-morrow between sir Peter Halket's subalterns and mine, which I apprehend will be agreeable to the committee's intent. This I have made known to the officers of both regiments, who unamimously desire me to return their generous benefactors their most hearty thanks, to which be pleased to add mine,' &c. And sir Peter Halket, in his of the twenty-third of May, says, "The governor is pleased to doubt our 'The officers of my regiment are most senhaving such letters as we mentioned; we are sible of the favours conferred on the subaltherefore, in our own vindication, under a ne- terns by your assembly, who have made them cessity of quoting to him some parts of them; so well-timed, and so handsome a present. and will show him the originals whenever he At their request and desire I return their shall please to require it. The general's se- thanks, and to the acknowledgments of the cretary, in his letter of the 10th of May to one officers, beg leave to add mine, which you, I of our members (who, in pursuance of a re- hope, will do me the favour for the whole to solve of the house for the service of the army, offer to the assembly, and to assure them, that waited on the general at Frederic, and there we shall on every occasion do them the jusoccasionally undertook the furnishing of wa- tice due for so seasonable and well-judged an gons, which he performed with the assistance act of generosity.' There are more of the of some other members of the committee, and same kind, but these may suffice to show that for that, and other services to the troops, re- we had some hand in what was done,' and ceived the thanks of the house at his return) that we did not, as the governor supposes, desays, 'You have done us great service in the viate from the truth, when, in our just and neexecution of the business you have kindly un-cessary vindication against his groundless, crudertaken; and indeed without it, I don't see how the service could have been carried on, as the expectations from Maryland have come to nothing.' And again, in his letter of May the fourteenth, The general orders me to acquaint you that he is greatly obliged to you, for the great care and readiness with which you have executed the business you undertook for him. At your request he will with pleasure discharge the servants that may have enlisted in the forces under his command, or any others for whom you may desire a discharge; and desires that you would, for that purpose, send him their names.' And again, in his letter of May the twentieth, I have only time to thank you once more, in the name of the general and every body concerned, for the service you have done, which has been conducted throughout with the greatest prudence and most generous spirit for the public service.' The general's own letter, dated the twenty-ninth of May, mentions and acknowledges the provisions given by the Pennsylvania assembly [though the governor will allow us to have had no hand' in it,] and says, 'Your regard for his majesty's service, and assistance to the present expedition, deserve my sincerest thanks,' &c. Colonel Dunbar writes, in his letter of May the thirteenth, concerning the present of refreshments, and carriage horses sent up for the subalterns, I am desired by all the gentlemen, whom the committee have been so good as to think of in so genteel a manner, to return them their hearty thanks.' And again, on the twenty-first of May, 'Your kind

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el, and repeated charge, 'that we had refused the proper, necessary, and timely assistance to an army sent to protect the colonies,' we alleged, that we had supplied that army plentifully with all they asked of us, and more than all, and had letters from the late general, and other principal officers, acknowledging our care, and thanking us cordially for our services.' If the general ever wrote differently of us to the king's ministers, it must have been while he was under the first impressions given him by the governor to our disadvantage, and before he knew us; and we think with the governor, that if he had lived, he was too honest a man, not to have retracted those mistaken accounts of us, and done us ample justice."

What is still more unlucky for the governor, his secretary writing to the said commissioners with all the authority he could depute to him, April 25, 1755, makes use of these very words, "What sir John St. Clair says is so far true, that had the army been ready now, and retarded by delays in matters undertaken by this province, all the mischiefs thence arising would have been justly chargeable on this province; but I am much mistaken, if they can within a month from this date, get their artillery so far as your road.”

In the same letter he also says, "Surely the flour will be delivered in time; or great blame may be laid with truth, at the door of the commissioners." Not the province; and, indeed, the flour was actually delivered so soon and so fast, that the general had not even provided storehouses and shelters sufficient to

secure it against the weather, to which great quantities of it lay exposed in Maryland after the delivery of it there.

What spirit this gentleman (the governor) was possessed with, had been a question. The assembly would not allow him to have the spirit of government; he himself maintained, that if he had had enough of the spirit of submission, (terms generally held irreconcileable) his government would have been more agreeable to the province. But now it can be a ? question no longer.

you,

The last period of the governor's message was the very quintessence of invective. "In fine, gentlemen, said he, I must remind that in a former message you said you were a plain people that had no joy in disputation. But let your minutes be examined for fifteen years past, not to go higher, and in them will be found more artifice, more time and money spent in frivolous controversies, more unparalleled abuses of your governors, and more undutifulness to the crown, than in all the rest of his majesty's colonies put together. And while you continue in such a temper of mind, I have very little hopes of good, either for his majesty's service, or for the defence and protection of this unfortunate country."

ment of the service; not only without the concurrence of the governor, but in spite of his endeavours to render them odious by all the means of prevention his wit, his malice, or his power could help him to. In what manner, the following unanimous resolutions will specify.

"That when application is made to this house by the governor, for something to be done at the request of another government, the letters and papers that are to be the foundation of our proceedings on such application, ought to be, as they have been by all preceding governors, laid before the house for their

consideration.

"That a sight afforded to the speaker, or a few of the members, of papers remaining in the governor's hands, cannot be so satisfactory to the rest of the house, nor even to the speaker, and such members, as if those papers were laid before the house were they might receive several distinct readings, and be subject to repeated inspection and discussion till they were thoroughly understood; and all danger of mistakes and misconceptions through defect of attention, or of memory, in one or a few persons, effectually prevented.

“That though the governor may possibly have obtained orders not to lay the secretary of state's letters, in some cases, before the house, they humbly conceive and hope that letters from the neighbouring governments, in such cases as the present, cannot be included in those orders.

"That great inaccuracies and want of exAnd in the reply of the assembly his own actness have been frequently observed by the artillery was turned upon him as follows: house in the governor's manner of stating "The minutes are printed, and in many hands, matters, laid before them in his messages; who may judge, on examining them, whether and therefore they cannot think such mesany abuses of governors and undutifulness to sages, without the papers therein referred to, the crown are to be found in them. Contro- are a sufficient foundation for the house to versies indeed there are too many; but as our proceed upon, in an affair of moment, or that assemblies are yearly changing, while our it would be prudent or safe so to do, either for proprietaries, during that term, have remain-themselves or their constituents. ed the same, and have probably given their governors the same instructions, we must leave others to guess from what root it is most likely that those controversies should continually spring. As to frivolous controversies, we never had so many of them as since our present governor's administration, and all raised by himself; and we may venture to say, that during that one year, scarce yet expired, there have been more unparalleled abuses' of this people, and their representatives in assembly, than in all the years put together, since the settlement of the province. "We are now to take our leave of the governor; and indeed, since he hopes no good from us, nor we from him, 'tis time we should be parted. If our constituents disapprove our conduct, a few days will give them an opportunity of changing us by a new election; and could the governor be as soon and as easily changed, Pennsylvania would, we apprehend, deserve much less the character he gives it, of an unfortunate country."

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That, however, they might still continue to act on the same maxims, and continue to deserve the same confidence, they proceeded to contribute all they could to the advance

"That when an immediate assistance to neighbouring colonies is required of us; to interrupt or prevent our deliberations, by refusing us a sight of the request, is a proceeding extremely improper and unseasonable.

"But a member of this house producing a letter to himself from the honourable Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. a person of great distinction and weight in the government of Massachusetts-bay, and a member of the council of that province, mentioning the application to this government for provisions, and the necessity of an immediate supply; and it appearing by the resolution of the council of war, held at the carrying place, on the twenty-fourth past (an abstract of which is communicated to the speaker, by the honourable Thomas Pownal, Esq. lieutenant-governor of the Jerseys) that the army will be in want of blankets and other clothing, suitable to the approaching season;

and this house being willing to afford whatsoever, then, he thought, and not altogether assistance may be in their power, under their unjustly, their passions might be of service to present unhappy circumstances of an exhaust- him, though their reason could not; and the ed treasury, and a total refusal by the go- event will show, that, provided he might atvernor of their bills for raising money, re- tain his ends, he could be very indifferent solved, about the means.

"That a voluntary subscription of any sum or sums, not exceeding ten thousand pounds, which shall be paid by any persons into the hands of Isaac Norris, Evan Morgan, Joseph Fox, John Mifflin, Reese Meredith, and Samuel Smith of the city of Philadelphia, gentlemen, within two weeks after this date, towards the furnishing of provisions and blankets, or other warm clothing, to the troops now at or near Crown-point, on the frontiers of New York, will be of service to the crown, and acceptable to the public, and the subscribers ought to be thankfully reimbursed (with interest) by future assemblies, to whom it is accordingly by this house earnestly recommended."

Factions he had found means to form, both in the city and the several counties; and tools and implements of all kinds, from the officious magistrate down to the prostitute writer, the whispering incendiary, and avowed desperado, he was surrounded with. The press he had made an outrageous use of; a cry he had raised; and in miniature the whole game of faction was here played by him with as little reserve, though not with as much success, as it is in greater affairs elsewhere.

The current of elections, however, still continued to set against him: those who had the most interest at stake remained firm to the interest of their country; and now nothing remained but the dint of artifice and clamour, And this may be called the finishing mea- to compel those to be subservient to his indisure of this every way public-spirited assem-rect purposes, if possible, whom he could not debly; the governor did not choose to be in the prive of their country's confidence and favour. way to receive their reply; and so the ses- This was the true state of Pennsylvania, sion and the controversy for this time ended when the new assembly, composed chiefly of together. the old members, took their seats.

Into the hands of what number of readers, or readers of what capacities, dispositions, or principles, this treatise shall fall, is out of calculation the first, and decision the last; but whatever the number may be, or however they may happen to be principled, disposed, or endowed, the majority will by this time, probably, exclaim, enough of this governor! or, enough of this author!

But whichever should happen to be the case, pardon is asked for the necessity of proceeding a few stages farther; and patience ought to be required, to induce the reader to hold out to the end of so disagreeable a jour

ney.

Though foiled, disgraced, and silenced this anti-Penn, this undertaker to subvert the building Penn had raised, was far from quitting the lists.

On the contrary, he lay in wait with impatience for a verification of his own predictions concerning the danger of the frontier, and the miseries the inhabitants were to sustain when the enemy should break in upon them. When such should actually become the case, when the fugitives should on all sides, be driven either by the enemy or their own fears, or both, towards the capital; when every week should furnish some new tragedy; and rumour so practised upon credulity, that every single fact should by the help of echoes and re-echoes be multiplied into twenty; when the panic should become general, and the very distractions of the herd, and their incapacity to operate for themselves, should render them obnoxious to any imposition what

On the 14th of October the house met of course, according to their constitution; but did not proceed to material, or at least extraordinary, business. The governor was not as yet sure of his crisis; and therefore, chose to feel their pulse first in manner following:-His secretary being in conversation with the speaker of the assembly (the same who had served in that office for many years past,) took occasion to communicate two letters to him concerning Indian affairs; and the speaker, asking, whether they were not to be laid before the house, the secretary replied, he had no such orders. The letters were of course returned; and the speaker made the house acquainted with this incident; adding, "that he thought the said letters contained matters of great importance to the welfare of the province; but as he could not presume to charge his memory with the particulars, so as to lay them before the house for the foundation of their conduct, he could only mention the fact, and recommend it to the consideration of the house." The house hereupon deputed two members to inform the governor, "that having gone through the usual business done at the first sitting of an assembly, they were inclined to adjourn, unless he had any thing to lay before them, particularly in regard to Indian affairs, that might require their longer stay." And the same members were farther directed to acquaint him with the time of their adjournment, in case the governor should in reply say, he had nothing to communicate. This concert upon one side, produced concert on the other. The governor replied, as had

been foreseen," that if he had had any busi- I might have prevented the mischiefs that have ness to lay before the house he should have since happened." A dose of venom apparently done it before that time." And being then prepared and administered to poison the promade acquainted with the proposed time of vince; if the governor might have been their adjournment, which was till the first of De- saviour, and was not, for want of proper powcember, he said—It was very well. ers, the assembly accused of having withheld them, were to be considered as public enemies. To be treated as such could not but follow. The populace are never so ripe for mischief as in times of most danger. A provincial dictator he wanted to be constituted; he thought this would be the surest way of carrying his point; and if the Pennsylvanians had taken so frantic a turn, they would not have been the first, who like the flock in the fable, had, in a fit of despair, taken a wolf for their shepherd.

And then in order to

But to return: "That the Delaware and Shawanese Indians had been gained over by the French, under the ensnaring pretence of restoring them to their country," constituted his next inflammatory. magnify his own merits, he farther suggested "That he had sent the same intelligence, both to the king's ministers, together with a representation of the defenceless state of the province, and to the neighbouring governments, that the latter might be at once prepared to defend themselves and succour them; that the back inhabitants having, upon this occasion, behaved themselves with uncommon spirit and activity, he had given commissions to such as were willing to take them, and encouragement to all to defend themselves, till the government was enabled to protect them; but that they had complained much of want of order and discipline, as well as of arms and ammunition, and he was without power, money, or means to form them into such regular bodies, as the exigency required, &c.; that the designs of the enemy could only be conjectured from their motions and numbers; and that from those and the known circumstances of the province, it was reasonable to apprehend, they had something more in view, than barely cutting off and destroying some of the frontier settlements." And for a conclusion he summed up his lords the proprietaries' will and pleasure as follows:

The house, therefore, having first resolved to continue the supplies granted by the former assembly to the Indians on their frontier, adjourned accordingly, having sat but four days. Fifteen days of this adjournment were also suffered to elapse, as if all danger and apprehension were at an end. But then the governor being armed at all points, summoned them to meet him, with all the circumstances of alarm and terror his imagination could furnish. Intelligence (probably the same intelligence contained in the two letters communicated by his secretary to the speaker) that a party of French and Indians, to the number of fifteen hundred, as he was informed, had passed the Alleghany hills, and having penetrated as far as the Kittochtiny hills, within about eighty miles of Philadelphia, were encamped on the Susquehanna, was the business he had to impart to them: and from his manner of imparting it, he seemed more delighted than shocked with the recital. "This invasion," said he, "was what we had the greatest reason to believe would be the consequence of general Braddock's defeat, and the retreat of the regular troops." Why did they retreat then from the actual seat of war? was the wild country on the Ohio better worth defending than Pennsylvania? was any projected acquisition of more importance to the public than the preservation of such a country? did not this very governor talk of the plenty of the province and its defenceless state, from time to time, almost in the style of invitation, as if he meant to bespeak the very event he was now expatiating upon? and is not he more to be upbraided for suffering those troops to be recalled, if he did no more, without making the strongest remonstrances against it, than the assembly who besought their protection; and if it should appear from his whole conduct, that he desired nothing more ardently than that such an event should happen; and that his principal| "His majesty and the proprietaries having endeavour was, to improve it when it did hap- committed the people of this province to my pen to proprietary purposes, at the expense charge and care, I have done, and still shall of the fortunes, liberties, and lives of the in- very readily do, every thing in my power to habitants, with what abhorrence must we re- fulfil that important trust; and to that end, I flect on the pains taken in this speech, to ag- think it my duty to call upon you to grant gravate the calamitous state of the province, such supplies of money as his majesty's serand to place it to the account of those, who vice, at this important and dangerous crisis, had in a most signal manner deserved the may require, and to prepare a bill for establishthanks not only of the Pennsylvanians, but ing a regular militia, exempting such as are also of all the friends and lovers of liberty and conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, it virtue distributed through the British empire? being impossible, without such a law, though "Had my hands been sufficiently strength-large sums of money should be raised, to preened (so he proceeded) I should have put this vent confusion and disorder, or conduct matprovince into such a posture of defence, asters with any degree of regularity.

The assembly received all with composure, and resolved to give all the satisfaction they could to all. To the points enforced by the governor they attended first; and to take off the panic which prevailed in the province, undertook to rectify the intelligence he had given, which could not but contribute greatly to the increase of it. In their reply to that part of his speech, for instance they told him,

"As the enemy are now laying waste the country, and slaughtering the inhabitants, there is no time to be lost; I therefore think it necessary upon this occasion to inform you, that I am ready and willing to consent to a law for emitting any sum in paper-money the present service may require, if funds are established for sinking the same in five years; but I cannot think it consistent either with the powers of my commission, or the duty I" they could not find by the letters and paowe the crown, to pass any bills of the same or a like tenor of those I have heretofore refused. And I hope you will not waste your time in offering me any such bills, as you must know from what has passed between me and the late assembly, and the information I now give you, it is not in my power to consent to; and I earnestly recommend it to you to afford in time that assistance which your bleeding country stands so much in need of." So that in case they would not wave their privileges in the manner prescribed, and protect the proprietary estate gratis, their country might bleed to death if it would; for they were not to be permitted to make use of their own money their own way, to save it.

pers, he had been pleased to lay before them, that any such number of French and Indians were encamped on any part of the river Susquehanna."-What they admitted was, "that the back settlers were greatly alarmed and terrified; that cruelties had been committed on the inhabitants by the Delaware and Shawanese Indians, principally within the lands purchased by the proprietaries at Albany but the year before; that, perhaps, there might be a few of the French Mohawks among them; but this was not very clear; and that these were to be followed, as several of the accounts said, by a large number of Indians and French from fort Du Quesne, with a design of dividing themselves into parties, in order to fall on the back settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia; and that the Indians still inclined to preserve their alliance with the province, seemed on the other hand, as much terrified, lest provoked with these hostilities, the English generally should revenge upon them the barbarities so committed by the invaders; that therefore great care and judgment was, in their opinion requisite, in conducting their Indian affairs at that critical conjuncture; that as the Six Nations were in

One act of parliament* there is, and one only, which not only admits, that governors and deputy-governors may abuse their power and oppress the subject, but also affects to provide for the punishment of such oppressors. But then the word oppression is left so vague and indefinite, that no subject ever did, or can derive any benefit from it. Of all the several species of oppression, that, now practised by this man upon a whole province, was surely the most grievous; and as it required no common share of firmness to withstand it, so it re-alliance with the crown of Great Britain, and quired an equal degree of prudence to temper that firmness, in such a manner as might obviate all the misconstructions and misrepresentations, the withstanders had good reason to be sure would be put upon it.

Petitions from various quarters, and many of them of such an opposite tendency that they were irreconcileable with each other, poured in upon them. Some of the petitioners declaring themselves highly sensible of the zeal and diligence the assembly had shown for the interest and welfare of their constituents, in contending for what ought in justice to be granted. Others pretending to pray, that the house would not keep up unnecessary disputes with the governor, nor by reason of their religious scruples longer neglect the defence of the province. Both requiring to have arms put into their hands. And others expressing their fervent desires that measures might be pursued consistent with their peaceable principles, and that they would continue humbly to confide in the protection of that Almighty Power, which had hitherto been as walls and bulwarks round about them.

* 11 & 12 of Will. III. cap. 12.

numbers of them then acting with great fidelity and bravery under general Johnson, it seemed absolutely necessary on their part to make it their request to the governor to be informed, whether he knew of any disgust or injury the Delawares or Shawanese had ever received from Pennsylvania, and by what means their affections could be so alienated, as, not only to take up the hatchet against the said province, in breach of their dependence on the Six Nations, by whom they had been so long since subdued, but also of the friendly interviews and treaties, which they (the Pennsylvanians) had so repeatedly and very lately held both with them and the Six united Nations, both before and after the defection of part of the Shawanese, for whom they had particularly interposed their good offices, in procuring the liberty and sending home a number of their people, as it was apprehended, much to their satisfaction? as also, whether he had any knowledge of the inclination of the said Six Nations, or what part they had taken in relation to this cruel incursion, of the Delaware and Shawanese? they farther desired him to lay before them the Indian

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