Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1851-06-19
From Dixon's Life OF Penn.
PeHn's Conference and Treaty
with the Indian nS.

striking scenes IN history. ArtlStS nave
painted, poets have sung, philosophers have
applauded it: but it isnevertheless is clear that
IN words and colors it has been equally and
generally misrepresented, because painters,
poets, and historians have chosen to draw on
their imaginations for the features of scene,
every marking line of which they might have
recovered from authentic sources. The great
outlines of nature are easily obtained. There
the dense masses of cedar, pine, and chest
nut, stretching far away in the interior of the
land; here the noble river rolling its waters
down to the Atlantic ocean; along It's
surface rose the purple smoke of the set
tiers homestcads; on the opposite shores lay
the fertile and settled country of East New
Jersey.
Here stood the gigantic elm which was to
become immortal from that day forward-and
there lay the verdant council chamber formed
by nature on the surface of the soil. In the
centre stood William Penn; in costume I'M
distinguished from the surrounding group, save
by the silken SASH His costume was SIM
pie, but not pedantic or ungainly. An out
er coat, reached to the knees, and covered
with buttons, vest of other materials, but E.
oually ample; trousers extremely full, slashed
at the sides, and tied with strings or ribbons;
4 profusion of shirt sleeve and ruffies, with q
cavalier shape (wanting only the featner,)
from beneath the brim of which escaped the
curls of a new peruke-were its chief and not
ungraceful ingredients. At his right hand
was COL Markham, who had met the Indians
in council more than once on that idental
spot, and was regarded by them as firm and
faithful friend; on his left Pearson, the in
trepid companion of his voyage; and near his
person, but a little backward, band of his
most attached adherents.
When the Indians approached in their old
forest costume, their bright feathes sparkling
in the sun, and their bodies painted in the
most gorgeous manner, the governor received
them with the easy dignity ofone accustomed
to mix with European courts. As soon as the
reception was over, the sachems retired to
short distance, and after brief consultation
among themselves, Taminent, the chief sa-
chem or king, man whose virtues are still
remembered by the sons of the forest, ad-
vanced again few PAGES, and put upon his
own head chapiet, into which was twisted
a small horn; this chaplet was his symbol of
power; and in the customs of the Lenni Len
ape, whenever the chief placed it upon ms
brows, the spot become at once scared, and
the person of every one present inviolable.
The venerable Indian king then seated
himself on the ground, with the older sachems
on his right and left: the middle-aged war
riors ranged themselves in the form of cres-
cent, or half moon, round them; and the young
er men formed third and outer sem-circle.
} All being seated in this picturesque and strik-
ing order, the old monarch announced to the
governor the natives were prepared TO hear
, and consider his words. Penn then rose to
address them, his counterance beaming with
all the pride of manhood. He was at the
time thirty-eight years old; light and grace
fol in form; SO the handsomest, best-looking,
most likely gentleman" she had ever seen,
wrote lady who was an eyewitness of the
ceremony. He addressed them in their own
language; the topics were few and simple !;
and the beauty ofhis ideas would compensate
with such an audience for the minor errors of
diction.
The Great Spirit, he said, who ruled in the
heaven to which good men 20 after death,
who had made them and him out of nothing,
and who knew every secret thought that was
in the heart of white or red man, knew that
he and has children had strong desire to
live in peace, to be their friends, to do no
wrong, but to serve them in every way to the
extent of their power. As the Great Spirit
was the common Father of all, he wished them
to live together not merely as brothers, as
the children Of common parent, but as if
they were joined with one hand, one heart,
one body together; that if i'll was done to one
all would suffer; if good was done to any, all
would gain. He and his children, he went
on to say, never used the rife or trusted to
the sword; they met the red men on the broad
path of good faith and good will They in
tended to do no harm and they had no fear in
their hearts. They believed that their BROTH
ers of the red race were just, and they were
prepared to trust in their friendship. He
then unfolded the writing Of the treaty of
friendship, and explained its clauses one af-
ter the other. Itrecited that from that day
the children Of Onas ard the nations of the