CHAPTER IX.

1754-1760.

Governor Morris-Contest with the Assembly-Second War with France-Braddock's Campaign-Frontier Warfare-Parties-Taxing the Proprietaries-Militia Laws-Resignation of Quakers-Indian Treaties-Franklin sent to England-Governors Denny and Hamilton.

THE assembly in 1754 passed a bill for forty thousand pounds of paper money, half of which should go to the governor for the king's use. This liberal appropriation was vetoed because Morris had instructions to assent to no paper money bill which had not been previously submitted to the king, and which ran longer than five years. As this would have surrendered a precious privilege, the assembly again refused, and the contest became almost as bitter between governor and assembly as against the French. The representatives of the people, elected yearly, and therefore closely expressing the popular will, said that it was better to have some savages on the frontiers than sacrifice the essential principles of liberty. Each side blamed the other for the neglect to provide defence.

In 1755 war between France and England was again declared. In anticipation of this, armies had been sent by both parties to America, the British under Major-General Braddock. The legislative differences prevented any aid in money from Pennsylvania, but the assembly voted a post-road towards the Ohio, and provisions for the troops. Wagons and pack-horses were raised through the energy of Franklin, who was royal postmaster-general, so that, as Braddock admitted, Pennsylvania did as much for his expedition as Virginia. The assembly repeatedly voted large sums, but the governor refused the conditions attached. Finally, the house, on its own credit, issued fifteen thousand

pounds, ten thousand of which were to be used to provision troops.

The history of Braddock's campaign is well known. He had left word that he would either capture the garrison and equipment of Fort Du Quesne, or if, as he expected, the French should retreat and destroy the fort, he would rebuild and resupply it. Dragging his artillery over the Alleghany mountains and marching his troops with military precision, he made about three miles a day. His horses, without grass, weakened, and his men became sick as they trudged along through the endless forest.

The Indians hovered about, picking off stragglers and, for the first time in the history of the province, scalping the frontier settlers. Washington finally prevailed upon Braddock to leave his artillery and press forward with twelve hundred men.

It is probable that the current story of an intentional ambush by the French is not correct. Braddock pushed along in good discipline with scouts thrown out till he reached a ford of the Monongahela, seven miles from Fort Du Quesne. The French were alarmed and could hardly prevail on the Indians to go out to meet the English. Finally about nine hundred, mostly Indians, under the command of Beaujeau, met Braddock's army just after it had come out of the ford, a meeting hardly expected by either party. The British army in solid ranks went forward to the attack, and the Canadian French fled and were not seen again that day. The Indians, however, knew exactly what to do. They had the advantage of a high hill on one side, and each Indian, selecting a tree or a log for a cover, sent his deadly fire into the close ranks of the British. The discipline of these regulars kept them in place as they fell side by side sending ineffectual volleys at the unseen enemy. Braddock did not shirk his duty, but exposed himself bravely as he encouraged his men, finally meeting death with his troops. Washington and his provincials protected the remnants of the fine army by fighting Indian fashion, and were themselves at one time fired upon by the regulars,

who supposed them to be part of the enemy. Dunbar, who commanded the rear-guard, with the artillery and baggage, when the fugitives reached his camp, ingloriously took flight, destroyed his stores, and found safety in Philadelphia. The whole frontier was exposed to Indian attack.

Led by French officers the Indians wreaked a bloody vengeance on English settlers. From Maine to Carolina the massacres of quiet frontiersmen and their families, in the most cruel forms of Indian warfare, went on with a system which showed one guiding intelligence back of it, using savage instincts for its means. The hatred of the English, revenge for their aggressions, the hope of recovering territory, and the pure love of war and rapine, sent into the hostile camp the old friends of Penn, the Delawares and Shawnees. A few Christian Indians, converted by the Moravians, were faithful, and were massacred at Gnadenhutten. The Forks of the Delaware were revisited by the Minisinks, and payment in Indian fashion exacted for past abuses. The long years of peace had found the frontier totally without preparation, and the isolated settlements from Easton to the Maryland boundary were an easy prey to an enemy coming in the night, burning house and stable, and shooting the inmates as they escaped, or piercing the heart of the ploughman, or ravaging a school-house and scalping both master and children.

The people came crowding eastward as fast as their means would carry them, crying for aid from the authorities. Almost every meeting of the council told of new murders, and heart-rending appeals for succor. During the fall of 1755 conditions were at their worst.

The house immediately voted fifty thousand pounds for the king's use, and as their favorite remedy, issues of paper money, was denied them, they directed that a tax be levied on all estates, real and personal, throughout the province, the proprietary estates not excepted. This the governor refused to accept, alleging the propriety and legality of exempting the estates of the Penns, which were now of immense value. In reply, the assembly distinguished be

tween the official and private character of the proprietaries, and said that the private estates even of the king were taxed. They made an urgent plea to the governor for the sake of the common good to submit to this measure of justice. In their final address they say, "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 of our conduct a few days will give them an opportunity of changing us by a new election."

The question now went to the people in the midst of the public excitement caused by Indian massacres and the difference between the governor and assembly. Party lines were closely drawn. The proprietary party included the Episcopalians of the city of Philadelphia and the Presbyterians of the country. They demanded an unconditional appropriation by the house and a vigorous martial policy. In a general way their platform was the close limitation of paper money issues, the right of the proprietaries to tie up their governor by secret instructions, and the exemption of their estates from all taxation. The popular party included the Quakers, now no longer divided, and the Germans. In the present state of affairs their representatives were willing to appropriate money for defence, but did not consider the exigency so great that the important liberties of the province and the control over revenue bills should be sacrificed. Many of the Quakers were absolutely pacific, some going so far as to object to the measures already taken and to be taken for the defence of the province. The Germans were also pacific, and they had a wholesome fear, brought from their fatherland, of military proscription and taxes. They were quite willing the Quakers should hold the offices, but the utmost exertions of the governor and his friends could not induce them to desert their party. The Quaker representatives were elected by the largest majorities ever known, twenty-six of the thirty-six members being of that faith, and the remaining ten, including Franklin, in substantial sympathy with them in regard to most of the points at issue.

Thus strengthened by popular approval the assembly prepared a bill for granting sixty thousand pounds to the king's use in bills of credit, redeemable in four years by a tax on all estates. This embraced the proprietary domains, but enacted that should these be declared legally exempt the money was to be returned. Each party was afraid of some advantage for the other, and nothing was done till the proprietaries in England, to stifle a clamor against them on both sides of the sea, donated five thousand pounds for purposes of defence. The assembly then completed the bill, making it fifty-five thousand pounds and exempting proprietary estates.

This money was largely spent in erecting and garrisoning a chain of forts along the Kittatinny hills, extending from the Delaware River to the Maryland boundary.

So far the assembly had preserved their privileges; just elected by the people, they had grounds for saying, "We have taken every step in our power consistent with the just rights of the freemen of Pennsylvania for their (frontiersmen's) relief, and we have reason to believe that in the midst of their distresses they themselves do not wish us to go further. Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

They went further than any assembly before them had done, and enacted a militia law for those "willing and desirous" of bearing arms. It began with the declaration, "Whereas this province was settled (and the majority of the assembly have ever since been) of the people called Quakers, who though they do not as the world is now circumstanced condemn the use of arms in others yet are principled against bearing arms themselves," and then proceeded to lay down the rules for the organization.

In fact, the representatives went further than the stricter part of their constituency approved, and late in 1755 a petition came from the prominent Friends of Philadelphia expressing willingness to be taxed indefinitely for conciliating the Indians, or to relieve distress, or other benevolent