The daily gazette., 1876-10-20

Is now offered by us, not douhting of
Your satisfactory answer in writing.
Signed by
James Couts. William Morton.
John Healy, Arthur Meston,
Roeloef De Haes, John Hill,
Isaac Gooding, William Bagwell,
William Rodney, Robert Burton,
John Brinkloe, Richard Painter.
Dated at Philadelphia, April 18th, ,17O.4
TO the Representatives of the .f.eemen of
the territories of the Province of PennsyI-
vaMtd: S.sA
We, the Representatives Of the free
men OF the said province in Assembly
met, this thirteenth day OF the month
called April, One Thousand Seven HIM.
dred and -Four, having received this day
a certain paper OF proposals from you,
return for answer:
That we are sorry you should in that
paper pretend you met here in expecta-
tlen OF joining with us in Assembly !;
whereas yourselves declared in the con-
ference we had with you yesterday that
you could not act in CONJUNCTION with us,
in regard you were called by the Gov
ernor's writ, and we by the charter
We cannot conceive how you now can
call the disunion pretended one, which
has been so often debated in Assembly,
and which the actions of your Represen-
tatives forced upon us by their refus-
ing to act with us on several occasions,
and particularly by your slight OF the
said charter, in neglecting to choose
Representatives to serve in Assembly in
October, One Thousand Seven Hundred
and Two. And notwithstanding the then
Lieutenant Governor was pleased to in
dulge you in issuing forth his writs, i'm
powering the counties you represent to
make new election, which they so far
complied withal, as to choose and send
up their delegates to meet those of the
Province upon the sixteenth of Novem-
ber then following, according to the ten
or OF said writ; get your Representa-
tives Whereas as aforesaid assembled
with them OF the province, after several
debates between them about acting con-
Jointly,) were pleased to express their
unwillinguess thereunto, and further
declare ed their dislike Of the said charter,
and refused to agree to join together
with us, to act by it in legislation all
which was more at large signified by the
Representatives Of the province under
their hands and seals. to the then Lieu
tenant Governor. whereunto they were
necessitated by direction of the charter,
after the opposition made to the said
uhtOn yOuE IbtUI6StuUhIlVtS. 30 CQaL
boing by virtue Of the said charter
our members settled accordingly, we
conceive it is not now In our power to
alter our said numbers, without viola
tion Of the charter and frost reposed in
| us by those We represent neither can
l we conceive any expedient proposed by
you (though desired by us in the confer
| euce yesterday to reconcile your request
Of an union with the said charter tour
present circumstances considered) which
we presume is a duty incumbent on you
at whose door the disunion is, since you
seem to desire re-uniting.
We need not inform you that by this
charter you still have the opportunity OF
| forming yourselves into distinct As
sembly, and enjoying the privileges
thereof as well as the province which
borhood towards each other, may pre-
vent the inconvenience and prejudice
you seem to doubt as the consequence of
our acting parately, and not prove pre-
judicial to the prosperity and safety OF
the government, undes the present ad-
ministration.
This being our plain and genuine an
swer, we hope it will prove satisfactory
to you, from your real friends and we'll
wishers.
Signed by order, and on behalf of the
House of Representatives. by
DAVID LLOYD, Speaker.
Thus ended finally, the union between
the province of Pennsylvania and the
three lower counties in Delaware.
Having thus become separate province
our fathers went Immediately into inde-
pendent legislation. Their first laws as is
natural in newly settled countries, related
principally to the mode of acquisition and
descent of lands.
| They also at once provided for the bull
ding of good mills, prefaciDg the act with
the "whereas it is greatly for the ease of
the people to be commodiously served
with good mills for grinding their corn"
| "Be it enacted, &C." They passed also
stringent laws in reference to weights and
measures, providing ''that true measure
or standard be taken from the brass half
bushel in the town of Philadelphia"
From this time however until the idea
of "self-government," or what we would
now call "Home Rule" began to be agi-
tated, they plodded along, quietly Ofcourse
to great extent an agricultural people;
Wilmington village-the others, of what
1
hamlets. In this peroid however there
was tried before the Lord Chancellor of
Enland law suit which excited no at
tention upon this side of the ocean, nor
in our colony, although the question
whether we did not belong to Maryland
and our separate existence as colony and
our very name, was in issue. 1t was the
now celebrated suit between Lord Balti-
more and the Penns as to the true boun-
daries of their respective grants. The sur
vey made under the order of the
Lord Chancellor to fix this boundary,
having been made by two Surveyors,
named respectively Mason and Dixon, the
line they established, which was our
Southern and Western and Pennsylvania's
Southern line, became the line which is
now so celebrated and notorious in our
political history as "Mason's and Dixons'
| line."
The revolution. however, was approach
ing. The 4th of July 1776 consummatedit,
and our small but patriotic colony cast her
lot in with the other twelve in DECLARING