Beschreibung:

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR PENNSYLVANIA]. Manuscript document, "The Declaration of the Frontier Inhabitants of Pennsylvania and a Brief Sketch of Grievances under which the Province in general but Frontiers more especially labour under," n.p., 1 February 1764. 6 pages, folio, some browning, small tape repairs to several folds. THE DECLARATION OF THE "PAXTON BOYS" ON THE PENNSYLVANIA FRONTIER, IN THE WAKE OF THE CONESTOGA INDIAN MASSACRE A rare contemporary copy of an historic petition reflecting a most critical phase in Pennsylvania's early colonial history. In December 1763, just after the end of the French and Indian War, Scotch-Irish frontier settlers known collectively as the Paxton Boys, incensed over Indian depredations of outlying settlements, massacred a group of some 20 peaceable Conestoga Indians housed in a Lancaster jail for their own protection. When the Quaker-dominated government of Pennsylvania responded by seeking the arrest of the frontiersmen, the Paxton Boys marched upon Philadelphia. When they approached the city with a large band of supporters, Governor John Penn called out the militia to oppose them and enlisted Benjamin Franklin to meet with the angry mob. Franklin, with Israel Pemberton and Joseph Galloway, parlayed with the Paxton's and successfully convinced them to commit their grievances on paper. This strictly contemporary copy of the resultant petition, docketed "Copy of a Declaration of the Rioters, sent to the Assembly & Governor in order to cover their crime of murdering of the Indians at Lancaster under the protection of the Government," differs slightly from the version published within the official records of the Pennsylvania Assembly and may have been an on-the-spot copy from Franklin's meeting. It begins: "In as much as the killing those Indians at Lancaster has been & may be the subject of much conversation; and by insidious representation of it unquainted with the true state of affairs may be led to pass a severe censure...We think it therefore proper...to declare...the reasons of our conduct." Noting that they are loyal subjects of King George willing to "Offer our substance & lives in his cause," they label the Indians "murderers," who "by their better acquaintance of the situation and state of our frontiers were more capable of doing us mischief." They complain that recent treaties have ignored the "blood of our many murdered brethren" and lament that "our poor & unhappy captivated friends [have been] abandoned to slavery among the savages by concluding a friendship with the Indians." They charge that the "falsely pretended Indian friends" received supplies from the government (replacing those they claimed were destroyed during Colonel Bouquet's recent expedition), "while at this same time hundreds of poor distressed familys of his Majestys subjects" who were "obliged to abandon their habitations, and flee for their lives" were left "to starve neglected." They complain that their military service during the previous summer received no acknowledgement, but, they sarcastically note, when an Indian was wounded "a doctor was immediately employ'd...to take care of him." They complain that the Indians were protected despite "murders & most shocking barbarities committed...on his Majestys subjects" which were excused as "their method of making war." They charge the Quakers, particularly Israel Pemberton, with finding "means to enslave the government to Indians" and they proudly note that they are "rescuing a labouring land from a weight so oppressive & unjust." The contentious affair left the colony politically divided and contributed to the decline of Quaker power within the proprietary government. The Paxton Boys were never arrested for their actions and, in fact, obtained a government sanctioned bounty on Indian scalps.