Title: A Narrative of the Late Massacres, [30 January? 1764]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

News of the massacre of six Indians at Conestoga Manor by men from Paxton and Donegal, two communities on the Susquehanna, on December 14, 1763, reached Governor Penn on the 16th. He laid the account before his Council three days later and informed the Assembly on the 21st. The House was in recess when word came to Penn on the evening of December 28 that “upwards of a hundred men” had ridden into Lancaster the afternoon before and slaughtered the fourteen Conestoga Indians placed in the workhouse for their own protection. The governor informed the Council the next day and on its advice wrote General Gage to ask that British troops at Carlisle be placed under Penn’s orders “to support the Civil Authority in the execution of the Laws in case of need, and to give a check to these daring attacks on Government.” He also wrote Sir William Johnson begging him to “take the properest method” of telling the Six Nations the truth of the affair and of “removing any disadvantageous Impressions they may have received from an imperfect account of the matter.” After each of the attacks Penn issued a proclamation ordering all civil officers to use every possible means to identify the perpetrators. In the second proclamation he also offered a reward for the apprehension of the ringleaders.
By the time the Assembly convened again on January 2, the main facts of the attack on the Lancaster workhouse and the killing of the Indians there were common knowledge in Philadelphia. Not surprisingly, however, many conflicting reports of the details began to circulate both within and without the city:
The local officials in Lancaster, it was said, had done all they could to stop the attack; they had stood idly by, other rumors suggested, and it was even alleged that some officers had secretly abetted the rioters. There were British troops in Lancaster at the time, but their commander had refused to provide protection to the Indians; or, the troops were too scattered in billets around the town to be assembled in time to do anything before the rioters had galloped away; or, there were no British soldiers nearer than Carlisle, and they would have had no authority to interfere in any case. The Indians had been shot down quickly, they had been decently spared from the preliminary tortures red men usually inflicted on their white captives, and the bodies had been left untouched where they fell; or, the Indians had been hacked with knives and tomahawks and many of them scalped, and their bodies had been mutilated and then dragged into the street. For weeks after the affair at Lancaster these and other reports passed around, and many found their way into print in the pamphlets issued by sympathizers with the Paxton Boys or their opponents.
Public opinion soon became sharply divided. For once nearly all the proprietary officials, with the more substantial among their adherents, and the members of the “Quaker Party,” with their supporters both within and outside the Assembly, stood together in shocked and vigorous denunciation of the massacres. The ruthless slaughter of defenseless men, women, and children was both an attack on government, as Penn had called it when writing to General Gage, and an offense against all principles of justice and humanity, as the Quakers and many others maintained. Reports that the Indians sheltered on Province Island were to be the objects of similar annihilation led the advocates of peace and order to form a common front against the lawless men who threatened to alleviate the Indian menace by exterminating every tribesman within their possible reach.
On the other side stood many inhabitants of the western and northern counties and substantial numbers of the less well-to-do, and hence unenfranchised, residents of Philadelphia. More or less sympathetic, though not always so outspoken, were some adherents of religious bodies, notably Presbyterians and Lutherans, partly because of their long-standing denominational antagonism to the Quakers and Moravians, who had been known for years as the chief friends of the Indians. By no means all these people openly approved of the massacres, but many believed that the Paxton Boys had acted under great and perhaps ample provocation. They denounced the authorities for spending public funds to support and even coddle so-called “friendly,” but actually dangerous, Indians while doing little to protect the settlers of exposed areas or alleviate the hardships and sufferings of those whites who had fled in terror from their ravaged homes.
Throughout the month of January tensions continued to mount; more and more it became evident that if the men from Paxton and their allies should carry out their threats of coming to Philadelphia and, to use an expression of a later century, of “liquidating” the Indians sheltered there, they would find many sympathizers in the city, who certainly would do nothing to stop them and might even join them in their proposed attack.

In this situation Franklin came forward with an effort to influence public opinion against such violence as had already occurred and threatened to occur again. Just when his Narrative of the Late Massacres appeared from the press is not certain; it was not advertised in either of the Philadelphia newspapers. His reference, near the close, to General Gage’s orders to Captain Robertson to stay with the Moravian Indians and guard them until he was relieved by other British regulars, makes certain that Franklin did not finish the writing until after January 16, when Governor Penn laid Gage’s letter containing that information before the Council and Assembly. The pamphlet could hardly have been published much before the end of January because, as Franklin told Richard Jackson on February 11, they “had only time to circulate [it] in this City and Neighbourhood before we heard that the Insurgents were on their March from all Parts.” That news seems to have reached Penn by Thursday, February 2, when he appealed to the Assembly for the rapid passage of a riot act to deal with the impending situation. It would seem, therefore, that Monday, January 30, would be at least an approximate date for the publication.
In one respect this pamphlet differs considerably from most of Franklin’s efforts to influence the public with his pen. At this time of great excitement and emotional stress, he played much more directly than usual on the emotions of his readers, their religious principles, and their feelings of pride and superiority as Englishmen or as Christians. The tone of the pamphlet is quite different from that, for example, of Plain Truth of 1747, a call to arms and to self-defense, also addressed to his fellow Pennsylvanians, or from that of the Canada Pamphlet of 1760, addressed to Englishmen in support of a proposed course of governmental action. In comparison, those writings were cool and temperate proposals and arguments addressed to common sense and self-interest; the Narrative is a stirring evocation of humanitarian sentiments and impulses and of the principles of morality and justice. Seldom in his life did Franklin, the rationalist, appeal so little to the reader’s head and so strongly and so warmly to his heart.

A Narrative, &c. [January 30?, 1764]
These Indians were the Remains of a Tribe of the Six Nations, settled at Conestogoe, and thence called Conestogoe Indians. On the first Arrival of the English in Pennsylvania, Messengers from this Tribe came to welcome them, with Presents of Venison, Corn and Skins; and the whole Tribe entered into a Treaty of Friendship with the first Proprietor, William Penn, which was to last “as long as the Sun should shine, or the Waters run in the Rivers.”
This Treaty has been since frequently renewed, and the Chain brightened, as they express it, from time to time. It has never been violated, on their Part or ours, till now. As their Lands by Degrees were mostly purchased, and the Settlements of the White People began to surround them, the Proprietor assigned them Lands on the Manor of Conestogoe, which they might not part with; there they have lived many Years in Friendship with their White Neighbours, who loved them for their peaceable inoffensive Behaviour.
It has always been observed, that Indians, settled in the Neighbourhood of White People, do not increase, but diminish continually. This Tribe accordingly went on diminishing, till there remained in their Town on the Manor, but 20 Persons, viz. 7 Men, 5 Women, and 8 Children, Boys and Girls.
Of these, Shehaes was a very old Man, having assisted at the second Treaty held with them, by Mr. Penn, in 1701, and ever since continued a faithful and affectionate Friend to the English; he is said to have been an exceeding good Man, considering his Education, being naturally of a most kind benevolent Temper.
Peggy was Shehaes’s Daughter; she worked for her aged Father, continuing to live with him, though married, and attended him with filial Duty and Tenderness.
John was another good old Man; his Son Harry helped to support him.
George and Will Soc were two Brothers, both young Men.
John Smith, a valuable young Man, of the Cayuga Nation, who became acquainted with Peggy, Shehaes’s Daughter, some few Years since, married her, and settled in that Family. They had one Child, about three Years old.
Betty, a harmless old Woman; and her Son Peter, a likely young Lad.
Sally, whose Indian Name was Wyanjoy, a Woman much esteemed by all that knew her, for her prudent and good Behaviour in some very trying Situations of Life. She was a truly good and an amiable Woman, had no Children of her own, but a distant Relation dying, she had taken a Child of that Relation’s, to bring up as her own, and performed towards it all the Duties of an affectionate Parent.
The Reader will observe, that many of their Names are English. It is common with the Indians that have an Affection for the English, to give themselves, and their Children, the Names of such English Persons as they particularly esteem.

This little Society continued the Custom they had begun, when more numerous, of addressing every new Governor, and every Descendant of the first Proprietor, welcoming him to the Province, assuring him of their Fidelity, and praying a Continuance of that Favour and Protection they had hitherto experienced. They had accordingly sent up an Address of this Kind to our present Governor, on his Arrival; but the same was scarce delivered, when the unfortunate Catastrophe happened, which we are about to relate.
On Wednesday, the 14th of December, 1763, Fifty-seven Men, from some of our Frontier Townships, who had projected the Destruction of this little Common-wealth, came, all well-mounted, and armed with Firelocks, Hangers and Hatchets, having travelled through the Country in the Night, to Conestogoe Manor. There they surrounded the small Village of Indian Huts, and just at Break of Day broke into them all at once. Only three Men, two Women, and a young Boy, were found at home, the rest being out among the neighbouring White People, some to sell the Baskets, Brooms and Bowls they manufactured, and others on other Occasions. These poor defenceless Creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed and hatcheted to Death! The good Shehaes, among the rest, cut to Pieces in his Bed. All of them were scalped, and otherwise horribly mangled. Then their Huts were set on Fire, and most of them burnt down. When the Troop, pleased with their own Conduct and Bravery, but enraged that any of the poor Indians had escaped the Massacre, rode off, and in small Parties, by different Roads, went home.
The universal Concern of the neighbouring White People on hearing of this Event, and the Lamentations of the younger Indians, when they returned and saw the Desolation, and the butchered half-burnt Bodies of their murdered Parents, and other Relations, cannot well be expressed.
The Magistrates of Lancaster sent out to collect the remaining Indians, brought them into the Town for their better Security against any further Attempt, and it is said condoled with them on the Misfortune that had happened, took them by the Hand, comforted and promised them Protection. They were all put into the Workhouse, a strong Building, as the Place of greatest Safety.
When the shocking News arrived in Town, a Proclamation was issued by the Governor, in the following Terms, viz.
“Whereas I have received Information, That on Wednesday, the Fourteenth Day of this Month, a Number of People, armed, and mounted on Horseback, unlawfully assembled together, and went to the Indian Town in the Conestogoe Manor, in Lancaster County, and without the least Reason or Provocation, in cool Blood, barbarously killed six of the Indians settled there, and burnt and destroyed all their Houses and Effects: And whereas so cruel and inhuman an Act, committed in the Heart of this Province on the said Indians, who have lived peaceably and inoffensively among us, during all our late Troubles, and for many Years before, and were justly considered as under the Protection of this Government and its Laws, calls loudly for the vigorous Exertion of the civil Authority, to detect the Offenders, and bring them to condign Punishment; I have therefore, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Council, thought fit to issue this Proclamation, and do hereby strictly charge and enjoin all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, Constables, Officers Civil and Military, and all other His Majesty’s liege Subjects within this Province, to make diligent Search and Enquiry after the Authors and Perpetrators of the said Crime, their Abettors and Accomplices, and to use all possible Means to apprehend and secure them in some of the publick Goals of this Province, that they may be brought to their Trials, and be proceeded against according to Law.
“And whereas a Number of other Indians, who lately lived on or near the Frontiers of this Province, being willing and desirous to preserve and continue the ancient Friendship which heretofore subsisted between them and the good People of this Province, have, at their own earnest Request, been removed from their Habitations, and brought into the County of Philadelphia, and seated, for the present, for their better Security, on the Province-Island, and in other Places in the Neighbourhood of the City of Philadelphia, where Provision is made for them at the public Expence; I do therefore hereby strictly forbid all Persons whatsoever, to molest or injure any of the said Indians, as they will answer the contrary at their Peril.
“Given under my Hand, and the Great Seal of the said Province, at Philadelphia, the Twenty-second Day of December, Anno Domini One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-three, and in the Fourth Year of His Majesty’s Reign.
  John Penn.
“By His Honour’s Command, Joseph Shippen, jun. Secretary.
“God Save the King.”
Notwithstanding this Proclamation, those cruel Men again assembled themselves, and hearing that the remaining fourteen Indians were in the Work-house at Lancaster, they suddenly appeared in that Town, on the 27th of December. Fifty of them, armed as before, dismounting, went directly to the Work-house, and by Violence broke open the Door, and entered with the utmost Fury in their Countenances. When the poor Wretches saw they had no Protection nigh, nor could possibly escape, and being without the least Weapon for Defence, they divided into their little Families, the Children clinging to the Parents; they fell on their Knees, protested their Innocence, declared their Love to the English, and that, in their whole Lives, they had never done them Injury; and in this Posture they all received the Hatchet! Men, Women and little Children—were every one inhumanly murdered!—in cold Blood!

The barbarous Men who committed the atrocious Fact, in Defiance of Government, of all Laws human and divine, and to the eternal Disgrace of their Country and Colour, then mounted their Horses, huzza’d in Triumph, as if they had gained a Victory, and rode off—unmolested!
The Bodies of the Murdered were then brought out and exposed in the Street, till a Hole could be made in the Earth, to receive and cover them.
But the Wickedness cannot be covered, the Guilt will lie on the whole Land, till Justice is done on the Murderers. The Blood Of The Innocent Will Cry To Heaven For Vengeance.
It is said that Shehaes, being before told, that it was to be feared some English might come from the Frontier into the Country, and murder him and his People; he replied, “It is impossible: There are Indians, indeed, in the Woods, who would kill me and mine, if they could get at us, for my Friendship to the English; but the English will wrap me in their Matchcoat, and secure me from all Danger.” How unfortunately was he mistaken!
Another Proclamation has been issued, offering a great Reward for apprehending the Murderers, in the following Terms, viz.

“Whereas on the Twenty-second Day of December last, I issued a Proclamation for the apprehending and bringing to Justice, a Number of Persons, who, in Violation of the Public Faith; and in Defiance of all Law, had inhumanly killed six of the Indians, who had lived in Conestogoe Manor, for the Course of many Years, peaceably and inoffensively, under the Protection of this Government, on Lands assigned to them for their Habitation; notwithstanding which, I have received Information, that on the Twenty-seventh of the same Month, a large Party of armed Men again assembled and met together in a riotous and tumultuous Manner, in the County of Lancaster, and proceeded to the Town of Lancaster, where they violently broke open the Work-house, and butchered and put to Death fourteen of the said Conestogoe Indians, Men, Women and Children, who had been taken under the immediate Care and Protection of the Magistrates of the said County, and lodged for their better Security in the said Work-house, till they should be more effectually provided for by Order of the Government. And whereas common Justice loudly demands, and the Laws of the Land (upon the Preservation of which not only the Liberty and Security of every Individual, but the Being of the Government itself depend) require that the above Offenders should be brought to condign Punishment; I have therefore, by and with the Advice of the Council, published this Proclamation, and do hereby strictly charge and command all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, Constables, Officers Civil and Military, and all other His Majesty’s faithful and liege Subjects within this Province, to make diligent Search and Enquiry after the Authors and Perpetrators of the said last mentioned Offence, their Abettors and Accomplices, and that they use all possible Means to apprehend and secure them in some of the public Goals of this Province, to be dealt with according to Law.
“And I do hereby further promise and engage, that any Person or Persons, who shall apprehend and secure, or cause to be apprehended and secured, any Three of the Ringleaders of the said Party, and prosecute them to Conviction, shall have and receive for each, the public Reward of Two Hundred Pounds; and any Accomplice, not concerned in the immediate shedding the Blood of the said Indians, who shall make Discovery of any or either of the said Ringleaders, and apprehend and prosecute them to Conviction, shall, over and above the said Reward, have all the Weight and Influence of the Government, for obtaining His Majesty’s Pardon for his Offence.
“Given under my Hand, and the Great Seal of the said Province, at Philadelphia, the Second Day of January, in the Fourth Year of His Majesty’s Reign, and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-four.
  John Penn.
“By His Honour’s Command, Joseph Shippen, jun. Secretary.
“God Save the King.”
These Proclamations have as yet produced no Discovery; the Murderers having given out such Threatenings against those that disapprove their Proceedings, that the whole County seems to be in Terror, and no one durst speak what he knows; even the Letters from thence are unsigned, in which any Dislike is expressed of the Rioters.
There are some (I am ashamed to hear it) who would extenuate the enormous Wickedness of these Actions, by saying, “The Inhabitants of the Frontiers are exasperated with the Murder of their Relations, by the Enemy Indians, in the present War.” It is possible; but though this might justify their going out into the Woods, to seek for those Enemies, and avenge upon them those Murders; it can never justify their turning in to the Heart of the Country, to murder their Friends.
If an Indian injures me, does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians? It is well known that Indians are of different Tribes, Nations and Languages, as well as the White People. In Europe, if the French, who are White-People, should injure the Dutch, are they to revenge it on the English, because they too are White People? The only Crime of these poor Wretches seems to have been, that they had a reddish brown Skin, and black Hair; and some People of that Sort, it seems, had murdered some of our Relations. If it be right to kill Men for such a Reason, then, should any Man, with a freckled Face and red Hair, kill a Wife or Child of mine, it would be right for me to revenge it, by killing all the freckled red-haired Men, Women and Children, I could afterwards any where meet with.
But it seems these People think they have a better Justification; nothing less than the Word of God. With the Scriptures in their Hands and Mouths, they can set at nought that express Command, Thou shalt do no Murder; and justify their Wickedness, by the Command given Joshua to destroy the Heathen. Horrid Perversion of Scripture and of Religion! to father the worst of Crimes on the God of Peace and Love! Even the Jews, to whom that particular Commission was directed, spared the Gibeonites, on Account of their Faith once given. The Faith of this Government has been frequently given to those Indians; but that did not avail them with People who despise Government.
We pretend to be Christians, and, from the superior Light we enjoy, ought to exceed Heathens, Turks, Saracens, Moors, Negroes, and Indians, in the Knowledge and Practice of what is right. I will endeavour to show, by a few Examples from Books and History, the Sense those People have had of such Actions.
Homer wrote his Poem, called the Odyssey, some Hundred Years before the Birth of Christ. He frequently speaks of what he calls not only the Duties, but the sacred Rites of Hospitality, (exercised towards Strangers, while in our House or Territory) as including, besides all the common Circumstances of Entertainment, full Safety and Protection of Person, from all Danger of Life, from all Injuries, and even Insults. The Rites of Hospitality were called sacred, because the Stranger, the Poor and the Weak, when they applied for Protection and Relief, were, from the Religion of those Times, supposed to be sent by the Deity to try the Goodness of Men, and that he would avenge the Injuries they might receive, where they ought to have been protected. These Sentiments therefore influenced the Manners of all Ranks of People, even the meanest; for we find that when Ulysses came, as a poor Stranger, to the Hut of Eumaeus, the Swineherd, and his great Dogs ran out to tear the ragged Man, Eumaeus drave them away with Stones; and

Unhappy Stranger! (thus the faithful Swain
Began, with Accent gracious and humane)
What Sorrow had been mine, if at my Gate
Thy rev’rend Age had met a shameful Fate?
------ But enter this my homely Roof, and see
Our Woods not void of Hospitality.
He said, and seconding the kind Request,
With friendly Step precedes the unknown Guest.
A shaggy Goat’s soft Hide beneath him spread,
And with fresh Rushes heap’d an ample Bed.
Joy touch’d the Hero’s tender Soul, to find
So just Reception from a Heart so kind:
And oh, ye Gods! with all your Blessings grace
(He thus broke forth) this Friend of human Race!
The Swain reply’d. It never was our guise
To slight the Poor, or aught humane despise.
For Jove unfolds the hospitable Door,
Tis Jove that sends the Stranger and the Poor.

These Heathen People thought, that after a Breach of the Rites of Hospitality, a Curse from Heaven would attend them in every thing they did, and even their honest Industry in their Callings would fail of Success. Thus when Ulysses tells Eumaeus, who doubted the Truth of what he related, If I deceive you in this, I should deserve Death, and I consent that you should put me to Death; Eumaeus rejects the Proposal as what would be attended with both Infamy and Misfortune, saying ironically,

Doubtless, oh Guest! great Laud and Praise were mine,
If, after social Rites and Gifts bestow’d,
I stain’d my Hospitable Hearth with Blood.
How would the Gods my righteous Toils succeed,
And bless the Hand that made a Stranger bleed?
No more.——

Even an open Enemy, in the Heat of Battle, throwing down his Arms, submitting to his Foe, and asking Life and Protection, was supposed to acquire an immediate Right to that Protection. Thus one describes his being saved, when his Party was defeated.

We turn’d to Flight; the gath’ring Vengeance spread
On all Parts round, and Heaps on Heaps lie dead.
--- The radiant Helmet from my Brows unlac’d,
And lo on Earth my Shield and Jav’lin cast,
I meet the Monarch with a Suppliant’s Face,
Approach his Chariat, and his Knees embrace.
He heard, he sav’d he plac’d me at his Side;
My State he pity’d, and my Tears he dry’d;
Restrain’d the Rage the vengeful Foe express’d,
And turn’d the deadly Weapons from my Breast.
Pious to guard the Hospitable Rite,
And fearing Jove, whom Mercy’s Works delight.

The Suitors of Penelope are by the same ancient Poet described as a Sett of Lawless Men, who were regardless of the sacred Rites of Hospitality. And therefore when the Queen was informed they were slain, and that by Ulysses, she, not believing that Ulysses was returned, says,

Ah no! --- some God the Suitors Deaths decreed,
Some God descends, and by his Hand they bleed:
Blind, to contemn the Stranger’s righteous Cause,
And violate all hospitable Laws!
-----------------The Powers they defy’d;
But Heav’n is just, and by a God they dy’d.

Thus much for the Sentiments of the ancient Heathens. As for the Turks, it is recorded in the Life of Mahomet, the Founder of their Religion, That Khaled, one of his Captains, having divided a Number of Prisoners between himself and those that were with him, he commanded the Hands of his own Prisoners to be tied behind them, and then, in a most cruel and brutal Manner, put them to the Sword; but he could not prevail on his Men to massacre their Captives, because in Fight they had laid down their Arms, submitted, and demanded Protection. Mahomet, when the Account was brought to him, applauded the Men for their Humanity; but said to Khaled, with great Indignation, Oh Khaled, thou Butcher, cease to molest me with thy Wickedness. If thou possessedst a Heap of Gold as large as Mount Obod, and shouldst expend it all in God’s Cause, thy Merit would not efface the Guilt incurred by the Murder of the meanest of those poor Captives.
Among the Arabs or Saracens, though it was lawful to put to Death a Prisoner taken in Battle, if he had made himself obnoxious by his former Wickedness, yet this could not be done after he had once eaten Bread, or drank Water, while in their Hands. Hence we read in the History of the Wars of the Holy Land, that when the Franks had suffered a great Defeat from Saladin, and among the Prisoners were the King of Jerusalem, and Arnold, a famous Christian Captain, who had been very cruel to the Saracens; these two being brought before the Soltan, he placed the King on his right Hand, and Arnold on his left; and then presented the King with a Cup of Water, who immediately drank to Arnold; but when Arnold was about to receive the Cup, the Soltan interrupted, saying, I will not suffer this wicked Man to drink, as that, according to the laudable and generous Custom of the Arabs, would secure him his Life.
That same laudable and generous Custom still prevails among the Mahometans, appears from the Account but last Year published of his Travels by Mr. Bell of Antermony, who accompanied the Czar Peter the Great, in his Journey to Derbent through Daggestan. “The Religion of the Daggestans, says he, is generally Mahometan, some following the Sect of Osman, others that of Haly. Their Language for the most Part is Turkish, or rather a Dialect of the Arabic, though many of them speak also the Persian Language. One Article I cannot omit concerning their Laws of Hospitality, which is, if their greatest Enemy comes under their Roof for Protection, the Landlord, of what Condition soever, is obliged to keep him safe, from all Manner of Harm or Violence, during his Abode with him, and even to conduct him safely through his Territories to a Place of Security.”
From the Saracens this same Custom obtained among the Moors of Africa; was by them brought into Spain, and there long sacredly observed. The Spanish Historians record with Applause one famous Instance of it. While the Moors governed there, and the Spaniards were mixed with them, a Spanish Cavalier, in a sudden Quarrel, slew a young Moorish Gentleman, and fled. His Pursuers soon lost Sight of him, for he had, unperceived, thrown himself over a Garden Wall. The Owner, a Moor, happening to be in his Garden, was addressed by the Spaniard on his Knees, who acquainted him with his Case, and implored Concealment. Eat this, said the Moor, giving him Half a Peach; you now know that you may confide in my Protection. He then locked him up in his Garden Apartment, telling him, that as soon as it was Night he would provide for his Escape to a Place of more Safety. The Moor then went into his House, where he had scarce seated himself, when a great Croud, with loud Lamentations, came to his Gate, bringing the Corps of his Son, that had just been killed by a Spaniard. When the first Shock of Surprize was a little over, he learnt, from the Description given, that the fatal Deed was done by the Person then in his Power. He mentioned this to no One; but as soon as it was dark, retired to his Garden Apartment, as if to grieve alone, giving Orders that none should follow him. There accosting the Spaniard, he said, Christian, the Person you have killed, is my Son: His Body is now in my House. You ought to suffer; but you have eaten with me, and I have given you my Faith, which must not be broken. Follow me. He then led the astonished Spaniard to his Stables, mounted him on one of his fleetest Horses, and said, Fly far while the Night can cover you. You will be safe in the Morning. You are indeed guilty of my Son’s Blood, but God is just and good, and I thank him that I am innocent of yours, and that my Faith given is preserved.
The Spaniards caught from the Moors this Punto of Honour, the Effects of which remain, in a great Degree, to this Day. So that when there is Fear of a War about to break out between England and Spain, an English Merchant there, who apprehends the Confiscation of his Goods as the Goods of an Enemy, thinks them safe, if he can get a Spaniard to take Charge of them; for the Spaniard secures them as his own, and faithfully redelivers them, or pays the Value, whenever the Englishman can safely demand it.
Justice to that Nation, though lately our Enemies, and hardly yet our cordial Friends, obliges me, on this Occasion, not to omit mentioning an Instance of Spanish Honour, which cannot but be still fresh in the Memory of many yet living. In 1746, when we were in hot War with Spain, the Elizabeth, of London, Captain William Edwards, coming through the Gulph from Jamaica, richly laden, met with a most violent Storm, in which the Ship sprung a Leak, that obliged them, for the Saving of their Lives, to run her into the Havannah. The Captain went on Shore, directly waited on the Governor, told the Occasion of his putting in, and that he surrendered his Ship as a Prize, and himself and his Men as Prisoners of War, only requesting good Quarter. No, Sir, replied the Spanish Governor, If we had taken you in fair War at Sea, or approaching our Coast with hostile Intentions, your Ship would then have been a Prize, and your People Prisoners. But when distressed by a Tempest, you come into our Ports for the Safety of your Lives, we, though Enemies, being Men, are bound as such, by the Laws of Humanity, to afford Relief to distressed Men, who ask it of us. We cannot, even against our Enemies, take Advantage of an Act of God. You have Leave therefore to unload your Ship, if that be necessary, to stop the Leak; you may refit here, and traffick so far as shall be necessary to pay the Charges; you may then depart, and I will give you a Pass, to be in Force till you are beyond Bermuda. If after that you are taken, you will then be a Prize, but now you are only a Stranger, and have a Stranger’s Right to Safety and Protection. The Ship accordingly departed, and arrived safe in London.
Will it be permitted me to adduce, on this Occasion, an Instance of the like Honour in a poor unenlightened African Negroe. I find it in Capt. Seagrave’s Account of his Voyage to Guinea. He relates that a New-England Sloop, trading there in 1752, left their second Mate, William Murray, sick on Shore, and sailed without him. Murray was at the House of a Black, named Cudjoe, with whom he had contracted an Acquaintance during their Trade. He recovered, and the Sloop being gone, he continued with his black Friend, till some other Opportunity should offer of his getting home. In the mean while, a Dutch Ship came into the Road, and some of the Blacks going on board her, were treacherously seized, and carried off as Slaves. Their Relations and Friends, transported with sudden Rage, ran to the House of Cudjoe to take Revenge, by killing Murray. Cudjoe stopt them at the Door, and demanded what they wanted? The White Men, said they, have carried away our Brothers and Sons, and we will kill all White Men; give us the White Man that you keep in your House, for we will kill him. Nay, said Cudjoe; the White Men that carried away your Brothers are bad Men, kill them when you can catch them; but this White Man is a good Man, and you must not kill him. But he is a White Man, they cried; the White Men are all bad; we will kill them all. Nay, says he, you must not kill a Man, that had done no Harm, only for being white. This Man is my Friend, my House is his Fort, and I am his Soldier. I must fight for him. You must kill me, before you can kill him. What good Man will ever come again under my Roof, if I let my Floor be stained with a good Man’s Blood! The Negroes seeing his Resolution, and being convinced by his Discourse that they were wrong, went away ashamed. In a few Days Murray ventured abroad again with Cudjoe, when several of them took him by the Hand, and told him they were glad they had not killed him; for as he was a good (meaning an innocent) Man, their God would have been angry, and would have spoiled their Fishing. I relate this, says Captain Seagrave, to show, that some among these dark People have a strong Sense of Justice and Honour, and that even the most brutal among them are capable of feeling the Force of Reason, and of being influenced by a Fear of God (if the Knowledge of the true God could be introduced among them) since even the Fear of a false God, when their Rage subsided, was not without its good Effect.
Now I am about to mention something of Indians, I beg that I may not be understood as framing Apologies for all Indians. I am far from desiring to lessen the laudable Spirit of Resentment in my Countrymen against those now at War with us, so far as it is justified by their Perfidy and Inhumanity. I would only observe that the Six Nations, as a Body, have kept Faith with the English ever since we knew them, now near an Hundred Years; and that the governing Part of those People have had Notions of Honour, whatever may be the Case with the Rum-debauched, Trader-corrupted Vagabonds and Thieves on Sasquehannah and the Ohio, at present in Arms against us. As a Proof of that Honour, I shall only mention one well-known recent Fact. When six Catawba Deputies, under the Care of Colonel Bull, of Charlestown, went by Permission into the Mohawks Country, to sue for and treat of Peace for their Nation, they soon found the Six Nations highly exasperated, and the Peace at that Time impracticable: They were therefore in Fear for their own Persons, and apprehended that they should be killed in their Way back to New-York; which being made known to the Mohawk Chiefs, by Colonel Bull, one of them, by Order of the Council, made this Speech to the Catawbas:
“Strangers and Enemies,
“While you are in this Country, blow away all Fear out of your Breasts; change the black Streak of Pain on your Cheek for a red One, and let your Faces shine with Bear’s-Grease: You are safer here than if you were at home. The Six Nations will not defile their own Land with the Blood of Men that come unarmed to ask for Peace. We shall send a Guard with you, to see you safe out of our Territories. So far you shall have Peace, but no farther. Get home to your own Country, and there take Care of yourselves, for there we intend to come and kill you.”
The Catawbas came away unhurt accordingly.
It is also well known, that just before the late War broke out, when our Traders first went among the Piankeshaw Indians, a Tribe of the Twightwees, they found the Principle of giving Protection to Strangers in full Force; for the French coming with their Indians to the Piankeshaw Town, and demanding that those Traders and their Goods should be delivered up; the Piankeshaws replied, the English were come there upon their Invitation, and they could not do so base a Thing. But the French insisting on it, the Piankeshaws took Arms in Defence of their Guests, and a Number of them, with their old Chief, lost their Lives in the Cause; the French at last prevailing by superior Force only.
I will not dissemble that numberless Stories have been raised and spread abroad, against not only the poor Wretches that are murdered, but also against the Hundred and Forty christianized Indians, still threatned to be murdered; all which Stories are well known, by those who know the Indians best, to be pure Inventions, contrived by bad People, either to excite each other to join in the Murder, or since it was committed, to justify it; and believed only by the Weak and Credulous. I call thus publickly on the Makers and Venders of these Accusations to produce their Evidence. Let them satisfy the Public that even Will Soc, the most obnoxious of all that Tribe, was really guilty of those Offences against us which they lay to his Charge. But if he was, ought he not to have been fairly tried? He lived under our Laws, and was subject to them; he was in our Hands, and might easily have been prosecuted; was it English Justice to condemn and execute him unheard? Conscious of his own Innocence, he did not endeavour to hide himself when the Door of the Work-house, his Sanctuary, was breaking open; I will meet them, says he, for they are my Brothers. These Brothers of his shot him down at the Door, while the Word Brothers was still between his Teeth! But if Will Soc was a bad Man, what had poor old Shehaes done? what could he or the other poor old Men and Women do? What had little Boys and Girls done; what could Children of a Year old, Babes at the Breast, what could they do, that they too must be shot and hatcheted? Horrid to relate! and in their Parents Arms! This is done by no civilized Nation in Europe. Do we come to America to learn and practise the Manners of Barbarians? But this, Barbarians as they are, they practise against their Enemies only, not against their Friends.
These poor People have been always our Friends. Their Fathers received ours, when Strangers here, with Kindness and Hospitality. Behold the Return we have made them! When we grew more numerous and powerful, they put themselves under our Protection. See, in the mangled Corpses of the last Remains of the Tribe, how effectually we have afforded it to them!
Unhappy People! to have lived in such Times, and by such Neighbours! We have seen, that they would have been safer among the ancient Heathens, with whom the Rites of Hospitality were sacred. They would have been considered as Guests of the Publick, and the Religion of the Country would have operated in their Favour. But our Frontier People call themselves Christians! They would have been safer, if they had submitted to the Turks; for ever since Mahomet’s Reproof to Khaled, even the cruel Turks, never kill Prisoners in cold Blood. These were not even Prisoners: But what is the Example of Turks to Scripture Christians? They would have been safer, though they had been taken in actual War against the Saracens, if they had once drank Water with them. These were not taken in War against us, and have drank with us, and we with them, for Fourscore Years. But shall we compare Saracens to Christians? They would have been safer among the Moors in Spain, though they had been Murderers of Sons; if Faith had once been pledged to them, and a Promise of Protection given. But these have had the Faith of the English given to them many Times by the Government, and, in Reliance on that Faith, they lived among us, and gave us the Opportunity of murdering them. However, what was honourable in Moors, may not be a Rule to us; for we are Christians! They would have been safer it seems among Popish Spaniards, even if Enemies, and delivered into their Hands by a Tempest. These were not Enemies; they were born among us, and yet we have killed them all. But shall we imitate idolatrous Papists, we that are enlightened Protestants? They would even have been safer among the Negroes of Africa, where at least one manly Soul would have been found, with Sense, Spirit and Humanity enough, to stand in their Defence: But shall Whitemen and Christians act like a Pagan Negroe? In short it appears, that they would have been safe in any Part of the known World, except in the Neighbourhood of the Christians White Savages of Peckstang and Donegall!
O ye unhappy Perpetrators of this horrid Wickedness! Reflect a Moment on the Mischief ye have done, the Disgrace ye have brought on your Country, on your Religion, and your Bible, on your Families and Children! Think on the Destruction of your captivated Country-folks (now among the wild Indians) which probably may follow, in Resentment of your Barbarity! Think on the Wrath of the United Five Nations, hitherto our Friends, but now provoked by your murdering one of their Tribes, in Danger of becoming our bitter Enemies. Think of the mild and good Government you have so audaciously insulted; the Laws of your King, your Country, and your God, that you have broken; the infamous Death that hangs over your Heads: For Justice, though slow, will come at last. All good People every where detest your Actions. You have imbrued your Hands in innocent Blood; how will you make them clean? The dying Shrieks and Groans of the Murdered, will often sound in your Ears: Their Spectres will sometimes attend you, and affright even your innocent Children! Fly where you will, your Consciences will go with you: Talking in your Sleep shall betray you, in the Delirium of a Fever you yourselves shall make your own Wickedness known.
One Hundred and Forty peaceable Indians yet remain in this Government. They have, by Christian Missionaries, been brought over to a Liking, at least, of our Religion; some of them lately left their Nation which is now at War with us, because they did not chuse to join with them in their Depredations; and to shew their Confidence in us, and to give us an equal Confidence in them, they have brought and put into our Hands their Wives and Children. Others have lived long among us in Northampton County, and most of their Children have been born there. These are all now trembling for their Lives. They have been hurried from Place to Place for Safety, now concealed in Corners, then sent out of the Province, refused a Passage through a neighbouring Colony, and returned, not unkindly perhaps, but disgracefully, on our Hands. O Pennsylvania! once renowned for Kindness to Strangers, shall the Clamours of a few mean Niggards about the Expence of this Publick Hospitality, an Expence that will not cost the noisy Wretches Sixpence a Piece (and what is the Expence of the poor Maintenance we afford them, compared to the Expence they might occasion if in Arms against us) shall so senseless a Clamour, I say, force you to turn out of your Doors these unhappy Guests, who have offended their own Country-folks by their Affection for you, who, confiding in your Goodness, have put themselves under your Protection? Those whom you have disarmed to satisfy groundless Suspicions, will you leave them exposed to the armed Madmen of your Country? Unmanly Men! who are not ashamed to come with Weapons against the Unarmed, to use the Sword against Women, and the Bayonet against young Children; and who have already given such bloody Proofs of their Inhumanity and Cruelty. Let us rouze ourselves, for Shame, and redeem the Honour of our Province from the Contempt of its Neighbours; let all good Men join heartily and unanimously in Support of the Laws, and in strengthening the Hands of Government; that Justice may be done, the Wicked punished, and the Innocent protected; otherwise we can, as a People, expect no Blessing from Heaven, there will be no Security for our Persons or Properties; Anarchy and Confusion will prevail over all, and Violence, without Judgment, dispose of every Thing.
When I mention the Baseness of the Murderers, in the Use they made of Arms, I cannot, I ought not to forget, the very different Behaviour of brave Men and true Soldiers, of which this melancholy Occasion has afforded us fresh Instances. The Royal Highlanders have, in the Course of this War, suffered as much as any other Corps, and have frequently had their Ranks thinn’d by an Indian Enemy; yet they did not for this retain a brutal undistinguishing Resentment against all Indians, Friends as well as Foes. But a Company of them happening to be here, when the 140 poor Indians above mentioned were thought in too much Danger to stay longer in the Province, chearfully undertook to protect and escort them to New-York, which they executed (as far as that Government would permit the Indians to come) with Fidelity and Honour; and their Captain Robinson, is justly applauded and honoured by all sensible and good People, for the Care, Tenderness and Humanity, with which he treated those unhappy Fugitives, during their March in this severe Season. General Gage, too, has approved of his Officer’s Conduct, and, as I hear, ordered him to remain with the Indians at Amboy, and continue his Protection to them, till another Body of the King’s Forces could be sent to relieve his Company, and escort their Charge back in Safety to Philadelphia, where his Excellency has had the Goodness to direct those Forces to remain for some Time, under the Orders of our Governor, for the Security of the Indians; the Troops of this Province being at present necessarily posted on the Frontier. Such just and generous Actions endear the Military to the Civil Power, and impress the Minds of all the Discerning with a still greater Respect for our national Government. I shall conclude with observing, that Cowards can handle Arms, can strike where they are sure to meet with no Return, can wound, mangle and murder; but it belongs to brave Men to spare, and to protect; for, as the Poet says,
Mercy still sways the Brave.


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 11 February 1764
From: Pennsylvania Assembly
To: Penn, John

The plan of early January to send the Indians lodged on Province Island to Sir William Johnson for safety had failed because the New York authorities had refused to cooperate. Governor Penn received a letter on Saturday, January 21, from Capt. J. Schlosser of the Royal American Regiment saying that he had brought them back as far as Trenton, and Penn directed him to resume the march to Philadelphia on Monday. He informed the Council, and that body advised him to place the Indians in the barracks in the city, since the military guard would have good quarters and would be “better able to secure and protect them from any Insults there than in any other place.” They arrived on January 24.
News of the return of these Indians to Philadelphia spread rapidly, and it soon became apparent that the Paxton Boys and their sympathizers did not intend to leave them at peace in the city. On Saturday, January 28, Benjamin Kendall, a Philadelphia merchant, appeared before the Council and reported a conversation he had held with a Robert Fulton of Lancaster, whom he had met while returning from that town to Philadelphia two days before. Fulton had told him, he said, that in ten days “fifteen hundred Men would come down in order to kill the said Indians, and that if Fifteen hundred were not enough, five thousand were ready to join them.” Kendall tried to get Fulton to use his influence to stop the projected attack, but Fulton replied that “if Gabriel was to come down from Heaven” and tell them to stop they would not do so, “for they were of the same Spirit with the blood-ran, blood-thirsty Presbyterians, who cut off King Charles his Head.” Fulton denied the rumor that the marchers intended to kill the Quakers of the city, as well as the Indians, but assured Kendall that they would kill any one who opposed them.
The tempo of events now began to quicken. On Sunday, January 29, Penn wrote to Capt. William Murray, commander of the British troops at Carlisle, ordering him to move his forces to Lancaster. On the Council’s advice, he began to prepare instructions to Captain Schlosser at the Philadelphia barracks, directing him how to act in case of attack. On this matter Penn ran into legal technicalities, so on Thursday, February 2, he prepared a message to the Assembly asking for a “short Law” to extend the British Riot Act of 1715 to Pennsylvania. The Assembly received the message on the morning of the 3d, took it into immediate consideration, and appointed two men to draft the bill. They did so at once and the Assembly passed it through its three readings by special order and presented it to Penn by six o’clock of the same afternoon. Because of the speaker’s illness the Assembly was meeting at the house of his brother, Charles Norris. Penn immediately went there; the speaker   broke with precedent and invited him into the room where the assemblymen were gathered, and Penn formally enacted the measure.
On Saturday morning, February 4, the provincial commissioners told Penn and the Council that a letter from an assemblyman in Lancaster County had reported that “a very considerable number of the people living on the frontiers of that and other Counties, were actually assembling themselves” to march on Philadelphia and kill the Indians there, and that the next morning, Sunday, was “the time fixed on for the execution of their unlawful design.” The Council thereupon advised Penn to give Captain Schlosser written instructions to defend the Indians with his troops after the Riot Act had been “first read by a proper Civil Officer.”
On the Council’s advice Penn sent around notices of a general meeting of the inhabitants to take place at the State House at four o’clock that afternoon. The governor and Council, the members of the Assembly, the city magistrates, and a “Concourse” of inhabitants estimated at 3000 attended in spite of a pouring rain. Penn announced the impending approach of the frontiersmen, proclaimed the passage of the Riot Act, and called upon the citizens to take arms and join an Association for the defense of the city and the Indians. Some volunteers armed themselves at once and went to the barracks to support the regular troops; others, estimated at many hundreds, joined the Association and formed into six companies of foot and one of artillery and two troops of horse. According to Muhlenberg, many of the Germans in the city held back because of their sympathies with the frontiersmen, but others joined up, as did, surprisingly, a substantial number of Quakers in spite of the principles of their faith.
Also on Saturday the governor and Council sent spies “up the different roads to observe the motions of the Rioters, and to bring intelligence of their Approach.” The next morning the usual Sabbath calm was broken by the appearance at the barracks of a number of carpenters, hired by the governor, to build a “redoubt” and “several small fortresses or ramparts” under the direction of Captain Schlosser. Cannon were brought up and fixed in place and, so far as seemed possible, the barracks were placed in a posture of defense.
Late Sunday night—Muhlenberg said it was about two o’clock Monday morning—the bells began to ring an alarm signaling that the Paxton men were coming. It was apparently during this night that, as Franklin put it later, the governor “did me the Honour, on an Alarm, to run to my House at Midnight, with his Counsellors at his Heels, for Advice, and made it his Head Quarters for some time.” Orders had gone out to bring all the ferryboats on the Schuylkill to the Philadelphia side. Had this been done the marchers would have had difficulty getting over because the river was in freshet, but about eleven on Monday morning it was realized that the crossing at Swede’s Ford, some fifteen miles up from the city, had been forgotten. New orders came too late; the Paxton Boys, numbering perhaps 250 and saying that more were to follow, had already crossed the river and marched down through Chestnut Hill to Germantown. The governor and his advisers sent several clergymen to meet the insurgents and use what influence they might have to stop the approach. Among those who went were Gilbert Tennent, the evangelist and pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, two Anglicans, a Presbyterian “professor from the Academy” (probably Francis Alison), and Paul Daniel Brycelius, a Swedish Lutheran from Raritan, N.J., then temporarily in Philadelphia. They told the marchers that the city was preparing for defense, and that an attack would certainly lead to bloodshed. They underlined their warning to the astonished insurgents with the information that even many Quakers had taken up arms. The frontiersmen decided to pause at Germantown.
Early Tuesday morning, February 7, the governor and Council sent a delegation of prominent citizens to talk with the rioters. The group included Attorney General Benjamin Chew and William Logan of the Council, Franklin and Joseph Galloway of the Assembly, Mayor Thomas Willing, Daniel Roberdeau, a leading Anglican merchant and former assemblyman, and Dr. Carl Wrangel, pastor of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Lutheran Church. At Germantown they met the spokesmen of the insurgents, Matthew Smith and James Gibson. The conference lasted for several hours; the Paxton men stated their grievances at length, by no means all of which related to the Indians under guard at the barracks; the men from the city convinced Smith and Gibson that the government, the British troops, and the volunteer defenders meant business and that any attempt to use force would lead to a heavy loss of life. It was finally agreed that the Paxton men would disperse and return to their homes, leaving Smith and Gibson to come into the city and draw up a formal paper stating the grievances of the men for whom they were acting. The governor and Assembly would then give these matters just consideration.
When the official party returned to Philadelphia in the evening and reported to the governor, the volunteer “militiamen” were dismissed with a speech of thanks. The next morning, however, a fresh alarm took place when a small party of the Paxton men entered the city escorting their spokesmen, Smith and Gibson. Rumors quickly spread that the insurgents were advancing in force; shops were closed, and hundreds of defenders reassembled under arms. Fortunately, no violence followed, and some of the frontiersmen were allowed to look over the Indians at the barracks to see if they could recognize among them any reputed murderers or other enemies. They found none. Although charges and countercharges continued to fly back and forth for days, the city soon returned to its accustomed routine, if not to its theoretical condition of brotherly love.
On Saturday, February 4, the day on which the mass meeting at the State House had organized the Association of volunteer defenders, Governor Penn had prepared and the Council had approved a message to the Assembly pointing out the difficulties under which he labored because there was no act in force to provide an organized militia which could be called out in cases of emergency such as then existed. The situation was made especially precarious, he said, because the regular troops guarding the Indians would soon “be necessarily ordered on Duty elsewhere, and be employed against our open Enemies.” He therefore asked the Assembly “to frame a Militia Law, in a manner as little Burthensome to the Inhabitants as possible, as the only natural and effectual means of preserving the publick Tranquility, and enabling the civil power to enforce the Laws and vindicate the Honour of the Government.”
The Assembly had adjourned that Saturday morning before Penn’s message could be delivered; because of the activities and excitement resulting from the approach of the Paxton Boys, no quorum could be brought together until the following Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning, February 10, Secretary Richard Peters presented to the House the governor’s message of the 4th. Upon its consideration, the Assembly appointed a committee of seven, including Franklin, to draft a reply. They brought it in on Saturday morning; it was approved at once, and was ordered to be delivered to Governor Penn.

May it please your Honour,
February 11, 1764.
Your Honour’s Message of the Fourth Instant we received Yesterday, and as we are of Opinion that it contains Matters of the utmost Importance to the Welfare of this Province, we shall take the same into our most serious Consideration, and as soon as possible acquaint you with the Result; and notwithstanding the Rioters, upon their Approach near this City, and a Discovery of the spirited Resolutions of the Citizens to oppose their barbarous and illegal Designs, are dispersed, your Honour may be assured that nothing in our Power, consistent with the Trust reposed in us, shall be wanting for the Security of the Government, and the Protection of the Inhabitants, against the future Violences of such licentious People, who disturb the publick Tranquility, and trample on all Laws divine and human.
Signed by Order of the House,Isaac Norris, Speaker.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 11 February 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Jackson, Richard

Dear Sir,
Philada. Feb. 11. 1764
I have just received your Favour by the extra Packet of Nov. 26. and am pleas’d to find a just Resentment so general in your House against Mr. W.’s seditious Conduct, and to hear that the present Administration is like to continue.
If Money must be raised from us to support 14 Batallions, as you mention, I think your Plan the most advantageous to both the Mother Country and Colonies of any I have seen. A moderate Duty on Foreign Mellasses maybe collected; when a high one could not. The same on foreign Wines; and a Duty not only on Tea, but on all East India Goods might perhaps not be amiss, as they are generally rather Luxuries than Necessaries; and many of your Manchester Manufactures might well supply their Places. The Duty on Negroes I could wish large enough to obstruct their Importation, as they every where prevent the Increase of Whites. But if you lay such Duties as may destroy our Trade with the Foreign Colonies, I think you will greatly hurt your own Interest as well as ours. I need not explain this to you, who will readily see it. The American Fishery, too, should be as little burthened as possible. It is to no purpose to enlarge on these Heads, as probably your Acts are pass’d before this can reach you.
In my last I mention’d to you the Rioting on our Frontiers, in which 20 peaceable Indians were kill’d, who had long liv’d quietly among us. The Spirit of killing all Indians, Friends and Foes, spread amazingly thro’ the whole Country: The Action was almost universally approved of by the common People; and the Rioters thence receiv’d such Encouragement, that they projected coming down to this City, 1000 in Number, arm’d, to destroy 140 Moravian and Quaker Indians, under Protection of the Government. To check this Spirit, and strengthen the Hands of the Government by changing the Sentiments of the Populace, I wrote the enclos’d Pamphlet, which we had only time to circulate in this City and Neighbourhood, before we heard that the Insurgents were on their March from all Parts. It would perhaps be Vanity in me to imagine so slight a thing could have any extraordinary Effect. But however that may be, there was a sudden and very remarkable Change; and above 1000 of our Citizens took Arms to support the Government in the Protection of those poor Wretches. Near 500 of the Rioters had rendezvous’d at Germantown, and many more were expected; but the Fighting Face we put on made them more willing to hear Reason, and the Gentlemen sent out by the Governor and Council to discourse with them, found it no very difficult Matter to persuade them to disperse and go home quietly. They came from all Parts of our Frontier, and were armed with Rifle Guns and Tomhawks. You may judge what Hurry and Confusion we have been in for this Week past. I was up two Nights running, all Night, with our Governor; and my Rest so broken by Alarms on the other Nights, that the whole Week seems one confus’d Space of Time, without any such Distinction of Days, as that I can readily and certainly say, on such a Day such a thing happened. At present we are pretty quiet, and I hope that Quiet will continue. A Militia Bill is ordered by the House to be brought in, our Want of such a Law appearing on this Occasion to every-body; but whether we shall be able to frame one that will pass, is a Question. The Jealousy of an Addition of Power to the Proprietary Government, which is universally dislik’d here, will prevail with the House not to leave the sole Appointment of the Militia Officers in the Hands of the Governor; and he, I suppose, will insist upon it, and so the Bill will probably fall through; which perhaps is no great Matter, as your 14 Battallions will make all Militias in America needless, as well as put them out of Countenance.
The Bearer, Mr. Mifflin, is a valuable young Man, Son of a Friend of mine, and one for whom I have a great Regard. I beg Leave to recommend him to your Civilities. With the sincerest Esteem, and Respect, I am, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
R. Jackson Esqr.

Endorsed: 11 Febry 1764 Benjn. Franklin Esqr


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Bernard, 13 February 1764
From: Bernard, Francis
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston Feb 13. 1764
I am favoured with yours of Jan 27. and have received one from my Son dated New York Feb 2 informing that being apprehensive of the badness of the Roads on the change of Weather, He had returned your Horse and intended to take his passage in the Newport packet boat with some other Gentlemen who were waiting for it. However He is not yet arrived.
I am extremely obliged to you for your Care in this business and shall be impatient till I have an opportunity to make some return. In regard to the charge, if it will be more convenient to you to have it paid at philadelphia, than to draw for it here, I shall soon have an opportunity of ordering it there. I shall wait your orders. I am
B Franklin Esq


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Greene, 15 February 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Greene, Catharine

Dear Friend,
Philada. Feb. 15. 1764
I have before me your most acceptable Favour of Dec. 24. Publick Business and our public Confusions have so taken up my Attention, that I suspect I did not answer it when I receiv’d it, but am really not certain; so to make sure, I write this Line to acknowledge the Receiving it, and to thank you for it.
I condole with you on the Death of the good old Lady your Mother. Separations of this kind from those we love, are grievous: But tis the Will of God that such should be the Nature of Things in this World; all that ever were born are either dead or must die. It becomes us to submit, and to comfort ourselves with the Hope of a better Life and more happy Meeting hereafter.
Sally kept to her Horse the greatest Part of the Journey, and was much pleas’d with the Tour. She often remembers with Pleasure and Gratitude the Kindnesses she met with and receiv’d from our Friends every where, and particularly at your House. She talks of writing by this Post; and my Dame sends her Love to you, and Thanks for the Care you took of her old Man, but having bad Spectacles, cannot write at present. Mr. Kent’s Compliment is a very extraordinary one, as he was oblig’d to kill himself and two others in order to make it: but being kill’d in Imagination only, they and he are all yet alive and Well, Thanks to God, and I hope will continue so as long as Dear Katy, Your affectionate Friend
B Franklin
My best Respects to Mr. Greene, and Love to the little dear Creatures.
I believe the Instructions relating to the Post Office have been sent to Mr. Rufus Greene.

Addressed: To / Mrs Catharine Greene / at / Warwick / Rhode-island Governmt / Free / B Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Francis Bernard, 21 February 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Bernard, Francis

Sir
Philada. Feb. 21. 1764
I ought sooner to have answered yours of the 23d past, but the dangerous Riots and Tumults we have lately had here, took up all our Attention.
I hope Mr. Bernard is well with you before this Time. As our Navigation was stopt by the Ice, and it was uncertain when our River would be open, and a good Vessel offer for Boston, I thought it might be best for him to proceed by Land, especially as he could have Col. Elliot’s Company so great a Part of the Journey. They parted, however, at New York, Mr. Bernard meeting there with Company going in the Packet to Rhodeisland.
I have no Receipts for Pickling either Sturgeon or Salmon, but will endeavour to procure you one for Sturgeon. In my Opinion a great deal depends on the kind of Salt to be used. For this I would refer you to Brownrigg’s Book where you may find what Salt the Dutch use for their Herrings. There is an alcaline corrosive Quality in common coarse Salt, which must be corrected by some Acid, in the Boiling or Refining of it. The Dutch use Buttermilk, I think, for that purpose. I am, with great Respect, Your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
P.S. I send the Account of my Disbursements, which if you please may be paid to Mr. Jonathan Williams, Mercht. Boston, for my Account.
Governor Bernard

Endorsed: Dr Franklin Feb. 1764


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, 24 February 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Williams, Jonathan

Loving Cousin
Philada. Feb. 24. 1764
I have taken the Liberty to trouble you with a Box put this Day on board the Sloop William Capt. Ephraim Jones, directed for you. In it is a Portmantle and Mail Pillon belonging to Mr. Bernard, your Governor’s Son, which please to send to the Governor’s as soon as it gets to hand: Also a Parcel for Sister Mecom; and some Books on Inoculation, which I should be glad you could conveniently distribute in your Country gratis.

Just before I left London, a Gentleman requested I would sit for a Picture to be drawn of me for him by a Painter of his choosing. I did so, and the Pourtrait was reckon’d a very fine one. Since I came away, the Painter has had a Print done from it, of which he has sent a Parcel here for Sale. I have taken a Dozen of them to send to Boston and it being the only way in which I am now likely ever to visit my Friends there, I hope a long Visit in this Shape will not be disagreable to them. Be so good then, to take the Trouble of distributing them among such of my Friends as think them worth Accepting.
The Box, with perhaps a little Alteration, may serve to send the 10 Folio Volumes of Bayle’s Dictionary in, of which I saw one or two at your House, the rest are at Cousin Hubbard’s I suppose. I should be glad to have them the first Opportunity.
My Wife and Sally join in Love to you and yours and your Children, with Your affectionate Uncle
B Franklin
P.S. Perhaps the Prints might be acceptable to some of the following Persons—viz.
Revd. Dr. Mayhew

Revd. Mr. Cooper
Revd. Mr. Byles
Mr. Bowdoin
Mr. Winthrop of Cambridge
Mr. B. Kent
Miss Betsey Hubbard
Cousin Rogers
Cousin Griffitts
Cousin Williams
And my Sister will possibly like to have one for herself, and one for her Doctor Perkins.

Addressed: To / Mr Jonathan Williams / Mercht / Boston / per the William / Capt. E. Jones. / With a Box
Endorsed: Feby 24 1764 F


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Francis Bernard, 1 March 1764
From: Bernard, Francis
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Boston Mar 1 1764
I am favoured with yours and shall immediately order the sum of £40 1s. 10d. (which I suppose is at 7s. 6d. per dollar) to be paid to Mr. Williams. There is still wanting the charge at Annapolis. I have heard that there has been a Dutch trading Ship seized at Anchor at Sandy hook. As the forfeiture arises from importing &c. Is it not worth consideration whether the Governor’s Share does not belong to the Governor of New Jersey? as Sandy hook is in that province and within the port of Amboy. I am &c.
See 15 Car 2
B Franklin Esq


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report, 6 March 1764
From: Pennsylvania Assembly Committee
To:

On Feb. 25, 1764, a petition was read before the Assembly from a “Number” of inhabitants of Philadelphia, praying that debates in the House be henceforth open to the public and asking the House to adopt “a standing Order, that the Freemen of the Province shall have free Access, at all seasonable Times in future, to inform themselves” about matters before the House, “as is the Custom of the Honourable House of Commons in Great Britain, and elsewhere in his Majesty’s Dominions.” The petition was laid on the table, but on February 29, a committee of eight, including Franklin, was appointed “to examine the Journals of the House of Commons, and the Usage and Practice thereof, in respect to the Privelege petitioned for by the said Inhabitants; and to enquire likewise what the Practice is in the other American Colonies.” After receiving this report on March 6 the Assembly dropped the matter.

March 6, 1764.
In Obedience to the Order of the House, we have examined the Journals of the House of Commons, and do find, that respecting the Practice and Usage mentioned in the Petition of divers Inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, the standing Orders of that House have, for some Years past, been as follow, viz.
Ordered,
“That the Sergeant at Arms attending this House do, from time to time, take into his Custody any Stranger or Strangers that he shall see, or be informed of to be, in the House or Gallery, while the House, or any Committee of the House, is sitting; and that no Person, so taken into Custody, be discharged out of Custody, without the special Order of the House.”
Ordered,
“That no Member of this House do presume to bring any Stranger or Strangers into the House, or Gallery thereof, while the House is sitting.”
And we are informed that, in Pursuance of these Orders, the Doors are kept, and no Stranger admitted, for whom Leave has not been expresly asked and given by the House.
With Regard to the Practice in the Colonies, we have not been able to obtain perfect Information concerning all of them; but we understand, that in the Provinces of Maryland and Virginia the Assembly Doors are left open, and Persons are permitted to stand without, so as to hear the Debates; but that in the neighbouring Provinces of New-Jersey and New-York the Practice is, as hitherto it has been in this Province, to keep the Doors shut, except at Hearings on contested Elections, or the like, which are usually public. Submitted to the House, by

John Hughes,
John Douglass,

Benjamin Franklin,
John Blackburn,

William Smith,
John Montgomery,

George Ashbridge,
John Tool.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 8 March 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Jackson, Richard

Dear Sir,
Philada. March 8. 1764
I hear our Money Bill is to come down this Day from the Governor with a Negative. It comply’d with four of the Stipulations made at the Council Board, viz. 1. The Proprietaries unappropriated Lands are explicitly exempted from Taxation. 2. Provincial Commissioners of Appeal are appointed. 3. The Paper Currency is made no legal Tender to the Proprietaries. 4. The Money is not to be dispos’d of without the Governor’s Consent. But the other Two, That the best of the Proprietor’s located uncultivated Lands should be taxed no higher than the worst of the People’s; and, That his Town Lots should be exempted from all Tax; these the House thought too unjust to be comply’d with. So the Bill will be damn’d, and the King’s Service depriv’d of £50,000, to save the Proprietaries a trifling Tax: unless the House should comply and alter their Bill, which is very uncertain.
Virginia has refus’d to comply in the least with the General’s Requisition; as you will see by the enclos’d Papers.
Chief Justice Morris is dead, and another of the Jersey Judges, Mr. Nevil, being disabled by a Palsey, there seem’d to be a Necessity of an immediate new Appointment. The Governor, by the Advice of his Council has accordingly appointed Charles Read, Esqr. (who was second Judge) to be Chief Justice, and Mr. Berrien to be Second in his Place. As these are Persons of good Character, and acquainted with the Law, I could wish to hear that the Appointment is confirm’d at home. A Word from you, properly plac’d, may do the Business.
Sometime last Spring I sent you a Catalogue of a large Collection of Ores, Minerals, and other Fossils of these Parts of America, which Collection is now in our Library; and I requested you would show it to our Friend Tissington. I never heard of your receiving it. I sent also Copies of sundry Schemes then on foot here for settling new Colonies.
I shall write farther by a Ship that sails for London next Sunday. This viâ Bristol, from, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
R. Jackson, Esqr

Endorsed: 8 Mar. 1764 Benjn Franklin Esq


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Canton, 14 March 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Canton, John

Dear Sir,
Philada. Mar. 14. 1764
When I left London, I promis’d myself the pleasure of a regular Correspondence with you and some others of the ingenious Gentlemen that compos’d our Club. But after so long an Absence from my Family and Affairs, I found, as you will easily conceive, so much Occupation, that philosophical Matters could not be attended to; and my last Summer was almost wholly taken up in long Journeys. I am now a little better settled, and take the Liberty of Beginning that Commerce of Letters with you, in which I am sure to be the Gainer.
I have little that is new at present to offer you. I have made no Experiments myself. Mr. Kinnersley has shewn me one, that I think is mention’d in a Letter of his to me, which I left in London, and it is a beautiful one to see. By a Stroke from his Case of Bottles pass’d thro’ a fine Iron Wire, the Wire appears first red hot, and then falls in Drops, which burn themselves into the Surface of the Table or Floor. The Drops cool round like very small Shot. I enclose some of them. This proves that the Fusion of Iron by a Stroke of Lightning may be a hot and not a cold Fusion as we formerly suppos’d, and is agreable to the Acct. publish’d some Years since in the Transactions, of the Effects of Lightning on a Bell Wire in Southwark.
Mr. Kinnersley told me of a much stranger Experiment, to wit, that when he had sometimes electrify’d the Air in his Room, he open’d the Windows and Doors, and suffer’d the Wind to blow through, which made no Alteration in the electric State of the Room, tho’ the whole Air must have been changed; That he had even try’d the same abroad in the open Air on a windy Day, and found the Electricity remain’d long after the Operation, tho’ the Air first electrify’d must have been all driven away. This surpris’d me, as it seem’d to indicate that some fix’d Medium subsisted between the Particles of Air, thro’ which Medium they might pass as Sand can thro’ Water; and that such fix’d Medium was capable of Electrisation. I went to see it, but had however my Doubts that there might be some Deception in the Experiment; and tho’ at first it seem’d to succeed astonishingly, I afterwards found what I thought might occasion the Deception. As your little Balls, which were us’d to discover the Electricity by their Separation, would be too much disturb’d by the Wind when it blow’d fresh, Mr. Kinnersley had put them into a Phial, suspended from the Bottom of the Cork. They were as easily affected there, by any Electricity in the outward Air as if they had not been enclos’d; but I suspect that the Glass receives some Degree of Electricity from the electris’d Air, and so kept the Balls separated after the electris’d Air was blown away. I think Mr. Kinnersley was not quite satisfy’d with that Solution of the Phenomenon. I wish you would try it when you have Leisure, and let me know the Result.
An ingenious Gentleman in Boston, who is a Friend of mine, desired me when there last Summer, to recommend a good Instrumentmaker to him, to make a Pedestal of a new Construction for his Reflecting Telescope. I accordingly recommended our Friend Nairne; but as it was a new Thing to Mr. Nairne, it might be well, for preventing Mistakes, to get some Gentleman accustomed to the Use of Telescopes in Astronomical Observations, to inspect the Execution; and I took the Liberty to mention you, as one who would be good enough to take that Trouble if he requested it. I find he has accordingly wrote to you, and sent his Telescope. If it may not be too much Trouble, I hope you will oblige him in it, and I shall take it as a Favour to me. I send you enclos’d a second Letter of his. The Charge of Postage that you pay, should be put into his Account. I have no Improvement to propose. The whole is submitted to you.
Please to present my respectful Compliments to Lord Charles Cavendish and Mr. Cavendish, when you see them, to whom I am much oblig’d for their Civilities to me when I was in England. Also to Mr. Price, Mr. Burgh, Mr. Rose, and the rest of that happy Company with whom I pass’d so many agreable Evenings, that I shall always think of with Pleasure. My best Respects to Mrs. Canton, and believe me, with sincere Regard, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B Franklin
Mr. Canton

Addressed: To / Mr John Canton / Spital Square / Bishopsgate Street / London


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Fothergill, 14 March 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Fothergill, John

Dear Doctor,
Philada. March 14. 1764.
I received your Favour of the 10th. of Decemr. It was a great deal for one to write, whose Time is so little his own. By the way, When do you intend to live? i.e. to enjoy Life. When will you retire to your Villa, give your self Repose, delight in Viewing the Operations of Nature in the vegetable Creation, assist her in her Works, get your ingenious Friends at times about you, make them happy with your Conversation, and enjoy theirs; or, if alone, amuse yourself with your Books and elegant Collections? To be hurried about perpetually from one sick Chamber to another, is not Living. Do you please yourself with the Fancy that you are doing Good? You are mistaken. Half the Lives you save are not worth saving, as being useless; and almost the other Half ought not to be sav’d, as being mischievous. Does your Conscience never hint to you the Impiety of being in constant Warfare against the Plans of Providence? Disease was intended as the Punishment of Intemperance, Sloth, and other Vices; and the Example of that Punishment was intended to promote and strengthen the opposite Virtues. But here you step in officiously with your Art, disappoint those wise Intentions of Nature, and make Men safe in their Excesses. Whereby you seem to me to be of just the same Service to Society as some favourite first Minister, who out of the great Benevolence of his Heart should procure Pardons for all Criminals that apply’d to him. Only think of the Consequences!
You tell me the Quakers are charged on your side the Water with being by their Aggressions the Cause of this War. Would you believe it, that they are charg’d here, not with offending the Indians, and thereby provoking the War, but with gaining their Friendship by Presents, supplying them privately with Arms and Ammunition, and engaging them to fall upon and murder the poor white People on the Frontiers? Would you think it possible that Thousands even here should be made to believe this, and many Hundreds of them be raised in Arms, not only to kill some converted Indians supposed to be under the Quakers Protection, but to punish the Quakers who were supposed to give that Protection? Would you think these People audacious enough to avow such Designs in a public Declaration sent to the Governor? Would you imagine that innocent Quakers, Men of Fortune and Character, should think it necessary to fly for Safety out of Philadelphia into the Jersies, fearing the Violence of such armed Mobs, and confiding little in the Power or Inclination of the Government to protect them? And would you imagine that strong Suspicions now prevail, that those Mobs, after committing 20 barbarous Murders, hitherto unpunish’d, are privately tamper’d with to be made Instruments of Government, to awe the Assembly into Proprietary Measures? And yet all this has happen’d within a few Weeks past!
More Wonders! You know I don’t love the Proprietary, and that he does not love me. Our totally different Tempers forbid it. You might therefore expect, that the late new Appointment of one of his Family, would find me ready for Opposition. And yet when his Nephew arriv’d our Governor, I consider’d Government as Government, paid him all Respect, gave him on all Occasions my best Advice, promoted in the Assembly a ready Compliance with everything he propos’d or recommended; and when those daring Rioters, encourag’d by the general Approbation of the Populace, treated his Proclamations with Contempt, I drew my Pen in the Cause, wrote a Pamphlet (that I have sent you) to render the Rioters unpopular; promoted an Association to support the Authority of the Government and defend the Governor by taking Arms, sign’d it first myself, and was followed by several Hundreds, who took Arms accordingly; the Governor offer’d me the Command of them, but I chose to carry a Musket, and strengthen his Authority by setting an Example of Obedience to his Orders. And, would you think it, this Proprietary Governor did me the Honour, on an Alarm, to run to my House at Midnight, with his Counsellors at his Heels, for Advice, and made it his Head Quarters for some time: And within four and twenty Hours, your old Friend was a common Soldier, a Counsellor, a kind of Dictator, an Ambassador to the Country Mob, and on their Returning home, Nobody, again. All this has happened in a few Weeks!
More Wonders! The Assembly receiv’d a Governor of the Proprietary Family with open Arms, address’d him with sincere Expressions of Kindness and Respect, open’d their Purses to him, and presented him with Six Hundred Pounds; made a Riot Act and prepar’d a Militia Bill immediately at his Instance; granted Supplies and did every thing that he requested, and promis’d themselves great Happiness under his Administration. But suddenly, his dropping all Enquiry after the Murderers, and his answering the Deputies of the Rioters privately and refusing the Presence of the Assembly who were equally concern’d in the Matters contain’d in their Remonstrance, brings him under Suspicion; his Insulting the Assembly without the least Provocation, by charging them with Disloyalty and with making an Infringement on the King’s Prerogatives, only because they had presumed to name in a Bill offered for his Assent, a trifling Officer (somewhat like one of your Toll-Gatherers at a Turn pike) without consulting him; and his refusing several of their Bills, or proposing Amendments needlessly disgusting; these Things bring him and his Government into sudden Contempt; all Regard for him in the Assembly is lost; all Hopes of Happiness under a Proprietary Government are at an End; it has now scarce Authority enough left to keep the common Peace; and was another Mob to come against him, I question whether, tho’ a Dozen Men were sufficient, one could find so many in Philadelphia, willing to rescue him or his Attorney-General, I won’t say from Hanging, but from any common Insult. All this, too, has happened in a few Weeks!
In fine, every thing seems in this Country, once the Land of Peace and Order, to be running fast into Anarchy and Confusion. Our only Hopes are, that the Crown will see the Necessity of taking the Government into its own Hands, without which we shall soon have no Government at all.
Your civil Dissensions at home give us here great Concern. But we hope there is Virtue enough in your great Nation to support a good Prince in the Execution of Good Government, and the Exercise of his just Prerogatives, against all the Attempts of Unreasonable Faction.
I have been already too long. Adieu, my dear Friend, and believe me ever Yours affectionately
B Franklin
Dr. Fothergill

Endorsed: B Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, 14 March 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Jackson, Richard

Dear Sir,
Philada. March 14. 1764
I wrote to you on the 8th Instant, intending that Letter via Bristol, but it goes with this.
The Bill I mention’d is since come down with an absolute Refusal, as the Proprietary Instructions were not comply’d with, to have his Town Lots exempted, and his best located unimprov’d Lands rated no higher than the lowest of the People’s. The House, extreamly desirous to grant the Money to the Crown, as they approve highly of the General’s Plan, will break thro’ all their Rules, and send up a new Bill complying with every Demand, and making every Amendment; but as they esteem those I have mention’d to be contrary to common Justice and common Sense, tho’ supported by the old Order in Council, they are highly provok’d at the Governor’s insisting on them. I wish some good Angel would forever whisper in the Ears of your great Men, that Dominion is founded in Opinion, and that if you would preserve your Authority among us, you must preserve the Opinion we us’d to have of your Justice. That Decision was certainly unequal. A Lot the Proprietor lately sold to Mr. Stamper here, pays now, as they tell me, near £7 Tax, which in the Proprietor’s Hands would not (being to be rated as unimprov’d Land) pay more than 7 pence half penny. And this not owing to any Improvement, but merely the Change of Owner. Some other of the Amendments to that and the Militia Bill (which is likewise return’d) are very disgusting, appearing to be calculated for that purpose, and I foresee an immediate Breach; tho’ the House had a sincere Desire to continue on good Terms with the Governor, and have accordingly treated him with the utmost Respect ever since his Arrival, shewing on all Occasions the greatest Regard to every thing he recommended to them. But the Proprietary Aversion to the People here appears now to be hereditary and inveterate, and the People’s old Dislike to them and their Government will of course be revived. As yet nothing unkind has proceeded from the House; but yesterday another little Bill for collecting a small Tonnage to support a Lighthouse, came down refused, with a Message, that it was for no other Reason, than that the House had nam’d the Officer in the Bill, and thereby made an Infringement of his Majesty’s Prerogatives, which were intrusted to his the Governor’s Care. The House had put in the Name because it was not proper to send the Bill up with a Blank; and had the Governor by way of Amendment, propos’d another Officer, they would have made no Objection, having no particular Attachment to the Person, and the Office a Trifle; but they observe this first Occasion is readily snatch’d at, to charge them with Disloyalty, tho’ the King’s Prerogative of appointing a Toll-gatherer at a Turnpike was what they had never heard of before, and this is no more. Violent Suspicions, too, now begin to prevail, that the armed Mob in the Country, tho’ not at first promoted, has since been privately encourag’d by the Governor’s Party, to awe the Assembly, and compell them to make such a Militia Law as the Governors have long aim’d at. What increases that Suspicion is, that the Assembly’s Proposal of joining with the Governor in giving Answer to the Remonstrance presented by the Deputies of that Mob, was rejected, tho’ intended merely to add Weight to that Answer, by showing that the Government was unanimous. The Proposal was approved by the moderate Part of the Governor’s Council. He chose, however, to give his Answer separately, and what it was is a Secret; we only learn that they went home extreamly well satisfy’d with the Governor, and are soon expected down again. To encrease our Confusions, a bitter Enmity has arisen between the Presbyterians and Quakers; abusive Pamphlets are every Day coming out on both sides, and I think there is some Danger of Mischief between them. All Parties begin now to wish for a King’s Government. The Mobs strike a general Terror, and many talk of Removing into other Provinces, as thinking both their Persons and Properties insecure.
I receiv’d duly your Favours of Nov. 12. and 26. and of Decemr. 9. I have been so busy lately, that I could not attend to the Affair with Mr.Coxe, and have not talk’d with him as I intended on the Subject of his Proposal, but shall soon, in order to have it clear and explicit. The Assembly think themselves much misrepresented and very ill used by General Amherst, but will not give the Treasury any Trouble about the Inequality of Division, and have pass’d a Bill to refund the other Colonies. The rigorous Execution of the Sugar Act, occasions much Commotion among our Merchants in North America; and the Difficulty foreseen of making Returns to England for Goods, if the Trade is stopt with the Foreign Islands, begins to produce Schemes of Industry and greater Frugality among the People, which many suppose will be more advantageous to us than that Trade if it were quite open.
The Maryland People are no happier under their Proprietary Government than we are under ours. You will see this by a Pamphlet I send you that is lately publish’d there. The Gentlemen of that Country have no Agent or Patron in London, and have begg’d me to recommend them and their Affairs to your Protection. I think ’tis likely that at their next Session the Assembly will petition the Crown to take the Government, making the Proprietaries a Compensation. They have no Publick Money to defray the Charges of prosecuting such a Petition, but will raise a handsome Sum by Subscription. If you should think that Pamphlet can do them any Service, they send a Score of them, requesting you would cause them to be distributed so as to come into proper Hands, in which you need not appear, your Bookseller can send them.
There is a worthy Friend of mine, Mr. Joseph Chew, of New London, who writes me, that the Collectorship of the Customs there is vacant, and that he has apply’d to be appointed. I should be glad he might succeed, and could wish, if not inconvenient, that you would speak a good Word for him. I am, with the greatest Regard, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
P.S. Just as the London Ship was on the Point of Sailing, some Reasons occur’d against sending my Letters in her. This therefore goes viâ Bristol. But the Parcel of Pamphlets above mention’d are gone in the London Ship.
R. Jackson, Esqr.

Endorsed: 14th Mar 1764 Benjn. Franklin Esq


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 14 March 1764
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Hewson, Mary (Polly) Stevenson

Dear Polly
Philada. Mar. 14. 1764
I have received your kind Letters of Augt. 30. and Nov. 16. Please to return my Thanks with those of my Friend, to Mr. Stanley for his Favour in the Musick, which gives great Satisfaction. I am glad to hear of the Welfare of the Blunt Family, and the Additions it has lately received; and particularly that your Dolly’s Health is mended. Present my best Respects to them, and to the good Dr. and Mrs. Hawkesworth when you see them. I believe you were right in dissuading your good Mother from coming hither. The Proposal was a hasty Thought of mine, in which I consider’d only some Profit she might make by the Adventure, and the Pleasure to me and my Family from the Visit; but forgot poor Polly, and what her Feelings must be on the Occasion; and perhaps did not sufficiently reflect, that the Inconveniencies of such a Voyage to a Person of her Years and Sex, must be more than the Advantages could compensate.
I am sincerely concern’d to hear of Mrs. Rooke’s long continu’d Affliction with that cruel Gout. My best Wishes attend her, and good Mrs. Tickell. Let me hear from you as often as you can afford it: You can scarce conceive the Pleasure your Letters give me. Blessings on his Soul that first invented Writing, without which I should, at this Distance, be as effectually cut off from my Friends in England, as the Dead are from the Living. But I write so little, that I can have no Claim to much from you as Business, public and private, devours all my Time. I must return to England for Repose. With such Thoughts I flatter my-self, and need some kind Friend to put me often in mind that old Trees cannot safely be transplanted. Adieu, my amiable Friend, and believe me ever Yours most affectionately
B Franklin
Miss Stevenson

Endorsed: Phil Mar 14 64