The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1934-06-29

lIIlIlllNIk@X Us
SQQUU W. they will honor the memory Of
those $50 immortals" who signed
the document in which they held certain truths
to be self-evdent," in which they did "solemnly
publish and declare that these united colonies
are, and of right ought to be, free and indie
pendent states" and in which "for the support of
this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence" they did "mu-
tually pledge to each other our lives, our for
tunes and our sacred honor"
We know the names of most of them-the men
who took the first decisive step toward winning
independence and forming a new nation But
how many Americans know the names of other
men who many years before, had sowed the
seeds Of that liberty and of that new nation?
How many of US know of Robert Livingston
who, early as 17O1, was proposing colonial
cooperation and a colonial union? And to how
many of us does the name of Teoniahagarawe,
King Hendrick chief of the Mohawk In
dams, have any significance in the struggle for
liberty? 1t is with these two men, but
particularly with King Hendrick and with the
events which foreshadowed the Declaration that
this article deals.
The germ of the idea of a union of the Amer
lean colonies goes back to the New England Con-
federation. formed in 1913 for the joint defense
of the colonies of Plymouth Massachusetts Bay,
Hartford and the Connecticut river towns. But
after enduring for Al years, the confederation
spit on the rockS OF local JealOuSleS.
Although the British Crown encouraged the
idea Of colonial union to aid in its struggle
with France for mastery of North America, the
colonies paid little heed to such an idea coming
from the Mother country and either disregarded
evaded directly her appeals to them to
tribute to the conduct of the wars. So 1t seemed
that the only possibility for cooperative effort
lay in voluntary action the part of the colo
MES. Sensing this fact, Robert Livingston, a
interested in opening up the rich resources Of
the back country came forward with a plan of
colonial union in 1701.
Livingston realized that the colony of New
York alone could not carry out his ambitious
scheme of development so in long letter. dated
May 13, 1701, he laid before the British Council
of Trade and Plantations his scheme for uniting
the colonies in lone form of government"
divided into three groups a southern, central
and a northern. Each year there was to be
raised from this government certain sum of
money which would be administered from Albany
by board of commissioners selected from eacn
of the groups
The Crown to send troops and equipment
and the three groups were to supply labor,
under a quota arrangement, for building and
garrisoning forts which were to be built in the
wilderness to protect settlers who were to be
encouraged to take up lands in the West. Every
out two hundred youths" as requirements for
200 of the soldiers who were to be mustered out
of service but who if they would remain in
the country, were to receive free land. In this
way Livingston believed that there might be
brought about extending of Christian Set
Elements and English forts into the Indian coun-
try for the Security of all his maj plantations
on this north Continent of America
1t was an excellent scheme and the British
Crown was quick to realize its advantages. But,
as usual lack of cooperation among the colo
MES prevailed and nothing came of Livingston's
plan For another half century they went their
separate ways. BY the middle of the Eighteenth
century the menace of French expansion in the
West and the tightening of their alliance with
the Indians began to alarm the colonies seri-
ously. In 1853 young George Washington, sent
by Virginia to the Ohio country to warn the
French away from this region claimed by the
British, returned with the fiat refusal of JON
caire-Chabert, commander at Venango, and St
Pierre, commander at Fort lie Boeuf.
Then Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent
Captain Trent and his backwoodsmen to build
a fort at the forks of the Monongahela but
before they could finish their work the French
swooped down on them, drove Trent and his
men away and began building Fort DuQuesne,
which later became Fort Pitt and the present
city of Pittsburgh.
On May 9, 1854, the Pennsylvania Gazette of
Philadelphia contained account of Trents
surrender of the fort and predicted that unless
something were done, the French would skill,
seize and imprison our Traders and coniscate
their Effects at Pleasure tas they have done for
several Years past, murder and scalp
Farmers with their Wives and Children, and
take an easy Possession of such parts of the
British Territory as they find most convenient
for them: which If they permitted to do,
must end in the Destruction of the British In
terest Trade and Plantations in America"
Along with this appeal for concerted action
there appeared in the Gazette the first real
cartoon, drawn by the publisher of the Gazette,
BENJAMIN Franklin. 1t showed disjointed snake,
each part labeled with the initials of one of the
colonies and beneath 1t was the motto "Jon, or
Die"