The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 6 E-Book

Benjamin Franklin

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 556

Beschreibung

It is easy to be persuaded that Mr. John Bigelow's edition of 'The Works of Benjamin Franklin' is likely to be the most complete, the most scholarly and acccurate, the 'Federal' edition. Mr. Bigelow was confessedly the foremost authority on Franklin. Beside the material now in print, carefully collated for the present purpose, so far as possible, with the original manuscripts, he has had free use of the supplementary Franklin MSS. purchased by the State Department in 1881, and not published before his work, and the autobiography has been printed for the first time in any collected edition of Franklin's Works, from the original manuscript, which was in Mr. BigeIow's possession. Mr. Bigelow promises upwards of 350 letters and documents which have never appeared in any previous collection, beside a thorough revision of the text throughout, and a new, chronological, arrangement of matter. The notes and other editorial additions are limited strictly to the illustration of the text. This is volume six out of twelve, covering the years 1772 through 1775.

Leseprobe

The Works of Benjamin Franklin Volume 6

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 6

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783849654030

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

CONTENTS:

CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS  1772 - 1775 

CCCCLXX: SETTLEMENT ON THE OHIO RIVER DR. FRANKLIN’S ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING REPORT (Continued.)

CCCCLXXX. TO HUMPHREY MARSHALL ON THE SPOTS IN THE SUN—DR. WILSON’S NEW HYPOTHESIS 

CCCCXC. TO M. DUBOURG..

D. TO MR. COOMBE..

DX. TO THOMAS CUSHING...

DXX. TO SAMUEL COOPER Ref. 023

DXXX. TO JOHN WINTHROP.

DXL. TO JOHN BASKERVILLE..

DL. TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY..

DLX. TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY..

DLXX. TO THOMAS CUSHING..

DLXXX. TO WILLIAM FRANKLIN..

DXC: AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRANSACTIONS RELATING TO GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON’S LETTERS 

DXCVIII: AN ACCOUNT OF NEGOTIATIONS IN LONDON FOR EFFECTING A RECONCILIATION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE AMERICAN COLONIES Ref. 085

ENDNOTES.

CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 1772 - 1775

CCCCLXX: SETTLEMENT ON THE OHIO RIVER DR. FRANKLIN’S ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING REPORT (Continued.)

 

From the foregoing detail of facts it is obvious—

1. That the country southward of the Great Kenhawa, at least as far as the Cherokee River, originally belonged to the Shawanese.

2. That the Six Nations, in virtue of their conquest of the Shawanese, became the lawful proprietors of that country.

3. That the king, in consequence of the grant from the Six Nations, made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix in 1768, is now vested with the undoubted right and property thereof.

4. That the Cherokees never resided nor hunted in that country, and have not any kind of right to it.

5. That the House of Burgesses of the colony of Virginia have, upon good grounds, asserted (such as properly arise from the nature of their stations and proximity to the Cherokee country) that the Cherokees had not any just pretensions to the territory southward of the Great Kenhawa.

And, lastly, that neither the Six Nations, the Shawanese, nor Delawares do now reside or hunt in that country.

From these considerations it is evident no possible injury can arise to his Majesty’s service, to the Six Nations and their confederacy, or to the Cherokees, by permitting us to settle the whole of the lands comprehended within our contract with the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. If, however, there has been any treaty held with the Six Nations, since the cession made to his Majesty at Fort Stanwix, whereby the faith of the crown is pledged both to the Six Nations and the Cherokees, that no settlements should be made beyond the line marked on their Lordships’ report; we say, if such an agreement has been made by the orders of government with these tribes (notwithstanding, as the Lords Commissioners have acknowledged, “the Six Nations had ceded the property in the lands to his Majesty”), we flatter ourselves that the objection of their Lordships in the second paragraph of their report will be entirely obviated, by a specific clause being inserted in the king’s grant to us, expressly prohibiting us from settling any part of the same, until such time as we shall have first obtained his Majesty’s allowance, and full consent of the Cherokees,  and the Six Nations and their confederates for that purpose.

III. In regard to the third paragraph of their Lordships’ report, that it was the principle of the Board of Trade, after the treaty of Paris, “to confine the western extent of settlements to such a distance from the sea-coast, as that these settlements should lie within the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom,” etc., we shall not presume to controvert it; but it may be observed that the settlement of the country over the Alleghany Mountains, and on the Ohio, was not understood, either before the treaty of Paris, nor intended to be so considered by his Majesty’s proclamation of October, 1763, “as without the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom,” etc.; for, in the year 1748, Mr. John Hanbury, and a number of other gentlemen, petitioned the king for a grant of five hundred thousand acres of land over the Alleghany Mountains, and on the river Ohio and its branches; and the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations were then pleased to report to the Lords committee of his Majesty’s most honorable Privy Council, “That the settlement of the country lying to the westward of the great mountains, as it was the centre of the British dominions, would be for his Majesty’s interest and the advantage and security of Virginia and the neighboring colonies.”

And on the 23d of February, 1748-9, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations again reported to the Lords of the committee of the Privy Council, that they had “fully set forth the great  utility and advantage of extending our settlements beyond the great mountains (‘which report has been approved of by your Lordships’); and as, by these new proposals, there is a great probability of having a much larger tract of the said country settled than under the former, we are of opinion that it will be greatly for his Majesty’s service, and the welfare and security of Virginia, to comply with the prayer of the petition.”

And on the 16th of March, 1748-9, an instruction was sent to the governor of Virginia to grant five hundred thousand acres of land over the Alleghany Mountains to the aforesaid Mr. Hanbury and his partners (who are now part of the company of Mr. Walpole and his associates); and that instruction sets forth that “such settlements will be for our interest, and the advantage and security of our said colony, as well as the advantage of the neighboring ones; inasmuch as our loving subjects will be thereby enabled to cultivate a friendship, and carry on a more extensive commerce, with the nations of Indians inhabiting those parts; and such examples may likewise induce the neighboring colonies to turn their thoughts towards designs of the same nature.” Hence, we apprehend, it is evident that a former Board of Trade, at which the late Lord Halifax presided, was of opinion that settlements over the Alleghany Mountains were not against the king’s interest, nor at such a distance from the sea-coast, as to be without “the reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom,” nor where its authority or jurisdiction could not be exercised. But the report under  consideration suggests that two capital objects of the proclamation of 1763 were, to confine future settlements to the “sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest” (or, in other words, to the eastern side of the Alleghany Mountains), and to the three new governments of Canada, East Florida, and West Florida; and to establish this fact, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations recite a part of that proclamation.

But if the whole of this proclamation is considered, it will be found to contain the nine following heads, viz.: Ref. 002

1. To declare to his Majesty’s subjects that he had erected four distinct and separate governments in America, viz., Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada.

2. To ascertain the respective boundaries of these four new governments.

3. To testify the royal sense and approbation of the conduct and bravery, both of the officers and soldiers of the king’s army, and of the reduced officers of the navy, who had served in North America, and to reward them by grants of land in Quebec, and in East and West Florida, without fee or reward.

4. To hinder the governors of Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida from granting warrants of survey, or passing patents for lands beyond the bounds of their respective governments.

5. To forbid the governors of any other colonies or plantations in America from granting warrants or  passing patents for lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest, or upon any lands whatever “which, not having been ceded to or purchased by the king, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them.”

6. To reserve, “for the present,” under the king’s sovereignty, protection, and dominion, “for the use of the said Indians,” all the lands not included within the limits of the said three new governments, or within the limits of the Hudson’s Bay Company; as also all the lands lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest, and forbidding the king’s subjects from making any purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of the lands so reserved, without his Majesty’s leave and license first obtained.

7. To require all persons who had made settlements on land not purchased by the king from the Indians, to remove from such settlements.

8. To regulate the future purchases of lands from the Indians, within such parts as his Majesty, by that proclamation, permitted settlements to be made upon.

9. To declare that the trade with the Indians should be free and open to all his Majesty’s subjects, and to prescribe the manner how it shall be carried on.

And, lastly, to require all military officers, and the superintendent of Indian affairs, to seize and appre hend all persons who stood charged with treasons,  murders, etc., and who had fled from justice and taken refuge in the reserved lands of the Indians, to send such persons to the colony where they stood accused.

From this proclamation, therefore, it is obvious that the sole design of it, independent of the establishment of the three new governments, ascertaining their respective boundaries, rewarding the officers and soldiers, regulating the Indian trade, and apprehending felons, was to convince the Indians “of his Majesty’s justice and determined resolution to remove all reasonable cause of discontent,” by interdicting all settlements on land not ceded to, or purchased by, his Majesty; and declaring it to be, as we have already mentioned, his royal will and pleasure, “for the present, to reserve, under his sovereignty, protection and dominion, for the use of the Indians, all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest.” Can any words express more decisively the royal intention? Do they not explicitly mention that the territory is, at present, reserved, under his Majesty’s protection, for the use of the Indians? And as the Indians had no use for those lands which are bounded westerly by the southeast side of the river Ohio, either for residence or hunting, they were willing to sell them; and accordingly did sell them to the king in November, 1768, the occasion of which sale will be fully explained in our observations on the succeeding paragraphs of the report. Of course, the proclamation, so far as it regarded the settlement of the lands included within  that purchase, has absolutely and undoubtedly ceased. The late Mr. Grenville, who was, at the time of issuing this proclamation, the minister of this kingdom, always admitted that the design of it was totally accomplished, so soon as the country was purchased from the natives.

IV. In this paragraph the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations mention two reasons for his Majesty’s entering into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary line than was settled by the proclamation of October, 1763, viz.:

First—Partly for want of precision in the one intended to be marked by the proclamation of 1763.

Secondly—And partly from a consideration of justice in regard to legal titles to lands.

We have, we presume, fully proved, in our observations on the third paragraph, that the design of the proclamation, so far as related to lands westward of the Alleghany Mountains, was for no other purpose than to reserve them, under his Majesty’s protection, for the present, for the use of the Indians; to which we shall only add that the line established by the proclamation, so far as it concerned the lands in question, could not possibly be fixed and described with more precision than the proclamation itself describes it; for it declares that “all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest,” should be reserved under his Majesty’s protection.

Neither, in our opinion, was his Majesty induced  to enter into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary, “partly from a consideration of justice, in regard to legal titles to lands,” for there were none such (as we shall prove) comprehended within the tract now under consideration.

But for a full comprehension of all the reasons for his Majesty’s “entering into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary line” than was settled by the royal proclamation of October, 1763, we shall take the liberty of stating the following facts. In the year 1764, the king’s ministers had it then in contemplation to obtain an act of Parliament for the proper regulation of the Indian commerce, and providing a fund, by laying a duty on the trade, for the support of superintendents, commissaries, interpreters, etc., at particular forts in the Indian country, where the trade was to be carried on; and as a part of this system it was thought proper, in order to avoid future complaints from the Indians, on account of encroachments on their hunting-grounds, to purchase a large tract of territory from them, and establish, with their consent, a respectable boundary line, beyond which his Majesty’s subjects should not be permitted to settle.

In consequence of this system, orders were transmitted to Sir William Johnson, in the year 1764, to call together the Six Nations, lay this proposition of the boundary before them, and take their opinion upon it. This, we apprehend, will appear evident from the following speech, made by Sir William to  the Six Nations, at a conference which he held with them at Johnson Hall, May the 2d, 1765.

“Brethren:

The last, but the most important affair I have at this time to mention is, with regard to the settling a boundary between you and the English. I sent a message to some of your nation some time ago, to acquaint you that I should confer with you at this meeting upon it. The king, whose generosity and forgiveness you have already experienced, being very desirous to put a final end to disputes between his people and you concerning lands, and to do you strict justice, has fallen upon the plan of a boundary between our provinces and the Indians, which no white man shall dare to invade, as the best and surest method of ending such like disputes, and securing your property to you beyond a possibility of disturbance. This will, I hope, appear to you so reasonable, so just on the part of the king, and so advantageous to you and your posterity, that I can have no doubt of your cheerfully joining with me in settling such a division line, as will be best for the advantage of both white men and Indians, and as shall best agree with the extent and increase of each province, and the governors, whom I shall consult upon that occasion, so soon as I am fully empowered; but in the meantime I am desirous to know in what manner you would choose to extend it, and what you will agree heartily to, and abide by, in general terms. At the same time I am to acquaint you that whenever the whole is settled, and that it shall appear you have  so far consulted the increasing state of our people as to make any convenient cessions of ground where it is most wanted, then you will receive a considerable present in return for your friendship.”

To this speech the sachems and warriors of the Six Nations, after conferring some time among themselves, gave an answer to Sir William Johnson, and agreed to the proposition of the boundary line; which answer, and the other transactions of this conference, Sir William transmitted to the office of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.

From a change of the administration, which formed the above system of obtaining an act of Parliament for regulating the Indian trade and establishing the boundary line, or from some other public cause, unknown to us, no measures were adopted, until the latter end of the year 1767, for completing the negotiations about this boundary line. But in the meantime, viz., between the years 1765 and 1768, the king’s subjects removed in great numbers from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and settled over the mountains; upon which account the Six Nations became so irritated that in the year 1766 they killed several persons, and denounced a general war against the middle colonies; and to appease them, and to avoid such a public calamity, a detachment from the forty-second regiment of foot was that year sent from the garrison of Fort Pitt, to remove such settlers as were seated at Red-Stone Creek, etc.; but the endeavors and threats of this detachment proved ineffectual, and they returned to the garrison  without being able to execute their orders. The complaints of the Six Nations, however, continuing and increasing, on account of the settling of their lands over the mountains, General Gage wrote to the governor of Pennsylvania on the 7th of December, 1767, and after mentioning these complaints, he observed:

“You are a witness how little attention has been paid to the several proclamations that have been published, and that even the removing those people from the lands in question, which was attempted this summer by the garrison at Fort Pitt, has been only a temporary expedient. We learn they are returned again to the same encroachments, on Red-Stone Creek and Cheat River, in greater numbers than ever.”

On the 5th of January, 1768, the governor of Pennsylvania sent a message to the General Assembly of the province, with the foregoing letter from General Gage; and on the 13th the Assembly, in the conclusion of a message to the governor on the subject of Indian complaints, observed:

“To obviate which cause of their discontent, and effectually to establish between them and his Majesty’s subjects a durable peace, we are of opinion that a speedy confirmation of the boundary, and a just satisfaction made to them for their lands on this side of it, are absolutely necessary. By this means all their present complaints of encroachments will be removed, and the people on our frontiers will have a sufficient country to settle or hunt in, without interfering with them.”

On the 19th of January, 1768, Mr. Galloway, the Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and the  committee of correspondence, wrote on the subject of the Indians’ disquietude, by order of the House, to their agents, Richard Jackson and Benjamin Franklin in London, and therein they said:

“That the delay of the confirmation of the boundary the natives have warmly complained of, and that, although they have received no consideration for the lands agreed to be ceded to the crown on our side of the boundary, yet that its subjects are daily settling and occupying those very lands.”

In April, 1768, the legislature of Pennsylvania finding that the expectations of an Indian war were hourly increasing, occasioned by the settlement of the lands over the mountains, not sold by the natives, and flattering themselves that orders would soon arrive from England for the perfection of the boundary line, they voted the sum of one thousand pounds, to be given as a present, in blankets, strouds, etc., to the Indians upon the Ohio, with a view of moderating their resentment until these orders should arrive. And the governor of Pennsylvania being informed that a treaty was soon to be held at Fort Pitt by George Croghan, deputy agent of Indian affairs, by order of General Gage and Sir William Johnson, he sent his secretary and another gentleman, as commissioners from the province, to deliver the above present to the Indians at Fort Pitt.

On the 2d of May, 1768, the Six Nations made the following speech at that conference:

“Brother:

It is not without grief that we see our country  settled by you, without our knowledge or consent and it is a long time since we complained to you of this grievance, which we find has not as yet been redressed; but settlements are still extending farther into our country; some of them are made directly on our war-path, leading into our enemies’ country, and we do not like it. Brother, you have laws among you to govern your people by; and it will be the strongest proof of the sincerity of your friendship, to let us see that you remove the people from our lands; as we look upon it, they will have time enough to settle them, when you have purchased them, and the country becomes yours.”

The Pennsylvania commissioners, in answer to this speech, informed the Six Nations that the governor of that province had sent four gentlemen with his proclamation and the act of assembly (making it felony of death without benefit of clergy, to continue on Indian lands) to such settlers over the mountains as were seated within the limits of Pennsylvania, requiring them to vacate their settlements, but all to no avail; that the governor of Virginia had likewise, to as little purpose, issued his proclamations and orders; and that General Gage had twice ineffectually sent parties of soldiers to remove the settlers from Red-Stone Creek and Monongahela.

As soon as Mr. Jackson and Dr. Franklin received the foregoing instructions from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, they waited upon the American minister, and urged the expediency and necessity of the boundary line being speedily concluded; and, in  consequences thereof, additional orders were immediately transmitted to Sir William Johnson for that purpose.

It is plain, therefore, that the proclamation of October, 1763, was not designed, as the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations have suggested, to signify the policy of this kingdom against settlements over the Alleghany Mountains, after the king had actually purchased the territory; and that the true reasons for purchasing the lands comprised within that boundary were to avoid an Indian rupture, and give an opportuntiy to the king’s subjects quietly and lawfully to settle thereon.

V. Whether the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations are well founded in their declarations, that the lands under consideration “are out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom,” shall be fully considered in our observations on the sixth paragraph; and, as to “the various propositions for erecting new colonies in the interior parts,” which, their Lordships say, “have been, in consequence of the extension of the boundary line, submitted to the consideration of government, particularly in that part of the country wherein are situated the lands now prayed for, and the dangers of complying with such proposals have been so obvious as to defeat every attempt for carrying them into execution,” we shall only observe on this paragraph, that, as we do not know what these propositions were, or upon what principle the proposers have been defeated, it is impossible for us to judge whether they are any ways applicable to our case.  Consistent, however, with our knowledge, no more than one proposition for the settlement of a part of the lands in question has been presented to government, and that was from Dr. Lee, thirty-two other Americans, and two Londoners, in the year 1768, praying that his Majesty would grant to them, without any purchase money two millions five hundred thousand acres of land, in one or more surveys, to be located between the thirty-eighth and forty-second degrees of latitude, over the Alleghany Mountains, and on condition of their possessing these lands twelve years without the payment of any quit-rent, (the same not to begin until the whole two millions five hundred thousand acres were surveyed,) and that they should be obliged to settle two hundred families in twelve years. Surely, the Lords Commissioners did not mean this proposition as one that was similar and would apply to the case now reported upon; and especially as Dr. Lee and his associates did not propose, as we do, either to purchase the lands, or pay the quit-rents to his Majesty, neat and clear of all deductions, or be at the whole expense of establishing and maintaining the civil government of the country.

VI. In the sixth paragraph the Lords Commissioners observe that “every argument on the subject, respecting the settlement of the lands in that part of the country now prayed for, is collected together with great force and precision in a representation made to his Majesty by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in March, 1768.”

That it may be clearly understood, what was the  occasion of this representation, we shall take the liberty of mentioning that, on the 1st of October, 1767, and during the time that the Earl of Shelburne was Secretary of State for the southern department, an idea was entertained of forming, “at the expense of the crown,” three new governments in North America, viz.: one at Detroit, on the waters between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, one in the Illinois country, and one on the lower part of the river Ohio; and, in consequence of such idea, a reference was made by his Lordship to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, for their opinion upon these proposed new governments.

Having explained the cause of the representation, which is so very strongly and earnestly insisted upon by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, as containing “every argument on the subject of the lands which is at present before your Lordships,” we shall now give our reasons for apprehending that it is so far from applying against our case, that it actually declares a permission would be given to settle the very lands in question.

Three principal reasons are assigned in the representation, as conducive to “the great object of colonizing upon the continent of North America,” viz.:

First—Promoting the advantageous fishery carried on upon the northern coast.

Secondly—Encouraging the growth and culture of naval stores, and of raw materials, to be transported hither, in exchange for perfect manufactures and other merchandise.

Thirdly—Securing a supply of lumber, provisions,  and other necessaries, for the support of our establishments in the American islands.

On the first of these reasons, we apprehend, it is not necessary for us to make many observations; as the provinces of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and the colonies southward of them, have not, and from the nature of their situation and commerce will not, promote the fishery more, it is conceived, than the proposed Ohio colony. These provinces are, however, beneficial to this kingdom in culture and exportation of different articles; as it is humbly presumed the Ohio colony will likewise be, if the production of staple commodities is allowed to be within that description.

On the second and third general reasons of the representation, we shall observe that no part of his Majesty’s dominions in North America will require less encouragement “for the growth and culture of naval stores and raw materials, and for the supplying the islands with lumber, provisions,” etc., than the solicited colony on the Ohio; and for the following reasons:

First. The lands in question are excellent, the climate temperate; the native grapes, silk-worms, and mulberry-trees are everywhere; hemp grows spontaneously in the valleys and low lands; iron ore is plenty in the hills; and no soil is better adapted for the culture of tobacco, flax, and cotton, than that of the Ohio.

Secondly. The country is well watered by several navigable rivers, communicating with each other; and by which, and a short land carriage of only forty  miles, the produce of the lands of the Ohio can, even now, be sent cheaper to the seaport town of Alexandria, on the river Potomac (where General Braddock’s transports landed his troops), than any kind of merchandise is at this time sent from Northampton to London.

Thirdly. The river Ohio is, at all seasons of the year, navigable for large boats, like the west country barges, rowed only by four or five men; and, from January to the month of April, large ships may be built on the Ohio, and sent laden with hemp, iron, flax, silk, to this kingdom.

Fourthly. Flour, corn, beef, ship-plank, and other necessaries can be sent down the stream of Ohio to West Florida, and from thence to the islands, much cheaper, and in better order, than from New York or Philadelphia.

Fifthly. Hemp, tobacco, iron, and such bulky articles can also be sent down the stream of the Ohio to the sea, at least fifty per centum cheaper than these articles were ever carried by land carriage, of only sixty miles, in Pennsylvania; where wagonage is cheaper than in any other part of North America.

Sixthly. The expense of transporting British manufactures from the sea to the Ohio colony will not be so much as is now paid, and must ever be paid, to a great part of the counties of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.

From this state of facts, we apprehend, it is clear that the lands in question are altogether capable, and will advantageously admit, from their fertility,  situation, and the small expense attending the exporting the produce of them to this kingdom, of conducing to “the great object of colonizing upon the continent of North America”; but, that we may more particularly elucidate this important point, we shall take the freedom of observing that it is not disputed, but even acknowledged by the very report now under consideration, that the climate and the soil of the Ohio are as favorable as we have described them; and, as to the native silk-worms, it is a truth that above ten thousand weight of cocoons was, in August, 1771, sold at the public filature in Philadelphia; and that the silk produced from the native worm is of a good quality, and has been much approved of in this city.

As to hemp, we are ready to make it appear that it grows as we have represented, spontaneously, and of a good texture, on the Ohio. When, therefore, the increasing dependence of this kingdom upon Russia for this very article is considered, and that none has been exported from the sea-coast American colonies, as their soil will not easily produce it, this dependence must surely be admitted as a subject of great national consequence, and worthy of the serious attention of government. Nature has pointed out to us, where any quantity of hemp can be soon and easily raised; and by that means, not only a large amount of specie may be retained yearly in this kingdom, but our own subjects can be employed most advantageously, and paid in the manufactures of this kingdom. The state of the Russian trade is briefly thus:

From the year 1722 to 1731, two hundred and fifty ships were, on a medium, sent each year to St. Petersburg, Narva, Riga, and Archangel, for hemp

250 ships

And from the year 1762 to 1771, five hundred ships were also sent for that purpose

500

Increase in ten years

250 ships

Here, then, it is obvious that in the last ten years there was, on a medium, an increase of two hundred and fifty ships in the Russian trade. Can it be consistent with the wisdom and policy of the greatest naval and commercial nation in the world, to depend wholly on foreigners for the supply of an article, in which is included the very existence of her navy and commerce? Surely not; and especially when God has blessed us with a country yielding naturally the very commodity which draws our money from us, and renders us dependent on Russia for it. Ref. 003

As we have only hitherto generally stated the small expense of carriage between the waters of the Potomac and those of the Ohio, we shall now endeavor to show how very ill-founded the Lords of Trade and Plantations are, in the fifth paragraph of their report, viz., that the lands in question “are out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom.” In order, however, that a proper opinion may be formed on this important article, we shall take the liberty of stating the particular expense of carriage, even during the last French war, when there was no back carriage from Ohio to Alexandria; as it will be found, it was even then only about a halfpenny per pound, as will appear from the following account, the truth of which we shall fully ascertain, viz.:

From Alexandria to Fort Cumberland, by water, per hundred weight

1s.

7d.

From Fort Cumberland to Red—Stone Creek, at fourteen dollars per wagon—load, each wagon carrying fifteen hundred weight

4

2

5s.

9d.

Note.—The distance was then seventy miles, but by a new wagon road, lately made, it is now but forty miles; a saving of course of above one half the 5s. 9d. is at present experienced.

If it is considered that this rate of carriage was in time of war, and when there were no inhabitants on the Ohio, we cannot doubt but every intelligent mind will be satisfied that it is now much less than is daily paid in London for the carriage of coarse woollens,  cutlery, iron-ware, etc., from several counties in England.

The following is the cost of carriage from Birmingham, etc., viz.:

From Birmingham to London, is

4s.

per cwt.

From Walsall in Staffordshire

5

per cwt.

From Sheffield

8

per cwt.

From Warrington

7

per cwt.

If the lands which are at present under consideration are, as the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations say, “out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom,” we are at a loss to conceive by what standard that board calculates the rate of “advantageous intercourse.” If the king’s subjects, settled over the Alleghany Mountains, and on the Ohio, within the new-erected county of Bedford, in the province of Pennsylvania, are altogether clothed with British manufactures, as is the case, is that county “out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom?” If merchants in London are now actually shipping British manufactures for the use of the very settlers on the lands in question, does that exportation come within the Lords Commissioners’ description of what is “out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom?” In short, the Lords Commissioners admit, upon their own principles, that it is a political and advantageous intercourse with this kingdom, when the settlements and settlers are confined to the eastern side of the Alleghany Mountains. Shall, then, the expense of carriage, even of the very coarsest and heaviest cloths, or other articles, from the  mountains to the Ohio, only about seventy miles, and which will not at most increase the price of carriage above a halfpenny a yard, convert the trade and connection with the settlers on the Ohio into a predicament “that shall be,” as the Lords Commissioners have said, “out of all advantageous intercourse with this kingdom”?

On the whole, “if the poor Indians in the remote parts of North America, are now able to pay for the linens, woollens, and iron-ware they are furnished with by English traders, though Indians have nothing but what they get by hunting, and the goods are loaded with all the impositions fraud and knavery can contrive to enhance their value, will not industrious English farmers,” employed in the culture of hemp, flax, silk, etc., “be able to pay for what shall be brought to them in the fair way of commerce”; and especially when it is remembered that there is no other allowable market for the sale of these articles, than in this kingdom? And if “the growths of the country find their way out of it, will not the manufactures of this kingdom, where the hemp, etc., must be sent to, find their way into it?”

Whether Nova Scotia, and East and West Florida have yielded advantages and returns equal to the enormous sums expended in founding and supporting them, or even advantages such as the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in their representation of 1768, seemed to expect, it is not our business to investigate; it is, we presume, sufficient for us to mention that those “many principal persons in Pennsylvania,” as is observed in the representation  “whose names and association lie before your Majesty in Council, for the purpose of making settlements in Nova Scotia,” have, several years since, been convinced of the impracticability of exciting settlers to move from the middle colonies and settle in that province; and even of those who were prevailed on to go to Nova Scotia, the greater part of them returned with great complaints against the severity and length of the winters.

As to East and West Florida, it is, we are persuaded, morally impossible to force the people of the middle provinces, between thirty-seven and forty degrees north latitude, (where there is plenty of vacant land in their own temperate climate,) to remove to the scorching, unwholesome heats of those provinces. Ref. 004 The inhabitants of Montpellier might as soon and easily be persuaded to remove to the northern parts of Russia, or to Senegal.

In short, it is contending with nature, and the experience of all ages, to attempt to compel a people born and living in a temperate climate, and in the neighborhood of a rich, healthful, and uncultivated country, to travel several hundred miles to a seaport in order to make a voyage to sea, and settle either in  extreme hot or cold latitudes. If the county of York was vacant and uncultivated, and the more southern inhabitants of this island were in want of land, would they suffer themselves to be driven to the north of Scotland? Would they not, in spite of all opposition, first possess themselves of that fertile county? Thus much we have thought necessary to remark, in respect to the general principles laid down in the representation of 1768; and we hope we have shown that the arguments therein made use of do not in any degree militate against the subject in question, but that they were intended and do solely apply to “new colonies proposed to be established,” as the representation says, “at an expense to this kingdom, at the distance of above fifteen hundred miles from the sea, which, from their inability to find returns wherewith to pay for the manufactures of Great Britain, will be probably led to manufacture for themselves, as they would,” continues the representation, “be separated from the old colonies by immense tracts of unpeopled desert.”

It now only remains for us to inquire whether it was the intention of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations in 1768, that the territory which would be included within the boundary line then negotiating with the Indians (and which was the one that was that year perfected) should continue a useless wilderness, or be settled and occupied by his Majesty’s subjects.

The very representation itself, which, the present Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations say, contains “every argument on the subject,” furnishes  us an ample and satisfactory solution to this important question. The Lords Commissioners in 1768, after pronouncing their opinion against the proposed three new governments, as above stated, declare “they ought to be carefully guarded against, by encouraging the settlement of that extensive tract of sea-coast hitherto unoccupied; which,” say their Lordships, “together with the liberty the inhabitants of the middle colonies will have (in consequence of the proposed boundary line with the Indians) of gradually extending themselves backwards, will more effectually and beneficially answer the object of encouraging population and consumption, than the erection of new governments; such gradual extension might, through the medium of a continual population, upon even the same extent of territory, preserve a communication of mutual commercial benefits between its extremest parts and Great Britain, impossible to exist in colonies separated by immense tracts of unpeopled desert.

Can any opinion be more clear and conclusive in favor of the proposition which we have humbly submitted to his Majesty? For their Lordships positively say that the inhabitants of the middle colonies will have liberty of gradually extending themselves backwards. But is it not very extraordinary that after near two years’ deliberation the present Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations should make a report to the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council, and therein expressly refer to that opinion of 1768, in which they say “every argument on the subject is collected together with great force  and precision,” and yet that almost in the same breath their Lordships should contravene that very opinion, and advise his Majesty “to check the progress of these settlements,” and that “settlements in that distant part of the country ought to be discouraged as much as possible, and another proclamation should be issued declaratory of his Majesty’s resolution, not to allow for the present any new settlement beyond the line,” to wit, beyond the Alleghany Mountains? How strange and contradictory is this conduct! But we forbear any strictures upon it, and shall conclude our remarks on this head by stating the opinion at different times of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations on this subject.

In 1748 their Lordships expressed the strongest desire to promote settlements over the mountains and on the Ohio.

In 1768 the then Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations declared (in consequence of the boundary line at that time negotiating) that the inhabitants of the middle colonies would have liberty of gradually extending themselves backwards.

In 1770 the Earl of Hillsborough actually recommended the purchase of a tract of land over the mountains sufficient for a new colony, and then went down to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to know whether their Lordships would treat with Mr. Walpole and his associates for such purchase.

In 1772 the Earl of Hillsborough and the other Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations made a report on the petition of Mr. Walpole and his associates, and referred to the representation of the Board  of Trade in 1768 “as containing every argument on the subject, collected together with force and precision,” which representation declared, as we have shown, “that the inhabitants of the middle colonies will have liberty to extend backwards” on the identical lands in question, and yet, notwithstanding such reference, so strongly made from the present Board of Trade to the opinion of that board, the Earl of Hillsborough and the other Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations have now, in direct terms, reported against the absolute engagement and opinion of the board in 1768.

It may be asked, what was intended by the expressions in the representation of 1768 “of gradually extending themselves backwards”? It is answered, they were only in contradistinction to the proposal of erecting at that time three new governments at Detroit, etc., and “thereby exciting,” as the representation says, “the stream of population to various distant places.” In short, it was, we think, beyond all doubt, the “precise” opinion of the Lords Commissioners in 1768, that the territory within the boundary line then negotiating and since completed, would be sufficient at that time to answer the object of population and consumption, and that until that territory was fully occupied, it was not necessary to erect the proposed three new governments “at an expense to this kingdom,” in places, as their Lordships observed, “separated by immense tracts of unpeopled desert.”

To conclude our observations on the sixth paragraph, we would just remark that we presume we  have demonstrated that the inhabitants of the middle colonies cannot be compelled to exchange the soil and climate of these colonies, either for the severe colds of Nova Scotia and Canada, or the unwholesome heats of East and West Florida. Let us next inquire what would be the effect of confining these inhabitants, it if was practicable, within narrow bounds, and thereby preventing them from exercising their natural inclination of cultivating lands; and whether such restriction would not force them into manufactures, to rival the mother country. To these questions, the Lords Commissioners have with much candor replied, in their representation of 1768. “We admit,” said their Lordships, “as an undeniable principle of true policy, that, with a view to prevent manufactures, it is necessary and proper to open an extent of territory for colonization, proportioned to an increase of people, as a large number of inhabitants, cooped up in narrow limits, without a sufficiency of land for produce, would be compelled to convert their attention and industry to manufactures.” But their Lordships at the same time observe: “That the encouragement given to the settlement of the colonies upon the sea-coast, and the effect which such encouragement has had, has already effectually provided for this object.”

In what parts of North America this encouragement has thus provided for population, their Lordships have not mentioned. If the establishment of the government of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the island of St. John’s, or East and West Florida, was  intended by their Lordships as that effectual provision, we shall presume to deny the proposition, by asserting, as an undoubted truth, that, although there is at least a million of subjects in the middle colonies, none have emigrated from thence, and settled in these new provinces; and for that reason, and from the very nature of colonization itself, we affirm that none will ever be induced to exchange the healthy, temperate climate of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, for the extreme colds or heats of Canada and Nova Scotia, or East and West Florida.

In short, it is not in the power of government to give any encouragement, that can compensate for a desertion of friends and neighbors, dissolution of family connection, and abandoning a soil and climate infinitely superior to those of Canada, Nova Scotia, or the Floridas. Will not therefore the inhabitants of the middle provinces, whose population is great beyond example, Ref. 005 and who have already made some advances in manufactures, “by confining them to their present narrow limits,” be necessarily compelled to convert their whole attention to that object? How then shall this, in the nature of things, be prevented, except, as the Lords Commissioners have justly remarked, “by opening an extent of territory proportioned to their increase?” But where shall a  territory be found proper for “the colonization of the inhabitants of the middle colonies”? We answer, in the very country which the Lords Commissioners have said that the inhabitants of these colonies would have liberty to settle in; a country which his Majesty has purchased from the Six Nations; one where several thousands of his subjects are already settled; and one where, the Lords Commissioners have acknowledged, “a gradual extension might, through the medium of a continued population, upon even the same extent of territory, preserve a communication of mutual commercial benefits between its extremest parts and Great Britain.” Ref. 006

VII. This paragraph is introduced by referring to the extract of a letter from the commander-in-chief of his Majesty’s forces in North America, laid by the Earl of Hillsborough before the Lords Commissioners for Trades and Plantations. But, as their Lordships have not mentioned either the general’s name, or the time when the letter was written, or what occasioned his delivering his opinion upon the subject of colonization in general, in the “remote countries,” we can only conjecture that General Gage  was the writer of the letter, and that it was written about the year 1768, when the plan of the three new governments was under the consideration of the then Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, and before the lands on the Ohio were bought from, and the boundary line established with, the Six Nations.

Indeed, we think it clear that the general had no other lands, at that time, under his consideration, than what he calls “remote countries,” such as the Detroit, Illinois, and the lower parts of the Ohio; for he speaks of “foreign countries,” from which it “would be too far to transport some kind of naval stores,” and for the same reason could not, he says, supply the sugar islands “with lumber and provisions.” He mentions, also, “planting colonies at so vast a distance that the very long transportation (of silk, wine, etc.) must probably make them too dear for any market,” and where “the inhabitants could not have any commodities to barter for manufactures, except skins and furs.” And what, in our opinion, fully evinces that the general was giving his sentiments upon settlements at Detroit, etc., and not on the territory in question, is, that he says, “It will be a question, likewise, whether colonization of this kind could be effected without an Indian war, and fighting for every inch of the ground.”

Why the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations should encumber their report with the opinion of General Gage on what he calls the settlement of a “foreign country,” that could not be effected without “fighting for every inch of ground,”  and how their Lordships could apply that case to the settlement of a territory purchased by his Majesty near four years ago, and now inhabited by several thousand British subjects, whom the Indians themselves living on the northern side of the Ohio (as shall be fully shown in the course of these observations) have earnestly requested may be immediately governed, we confess we are wholly at a loss to comprehend.

VIII. The eighth paragraph highly extols, not only the accuracy and precision of the foregoing representation of the Lords of Trade in 1768, (which, as has been before observed, expressed that the inhabitants of the middle colonies would have liberty to settle over the mountains and on the Ohio,) but also the above-mentioned letter from the commander-in-chief in America; and at the same time introduces the sentiments of Mr. Wright, governor of Georgia, “on the subject of large grants in the interior parts of America.”

When this letter was written; what was the occasion of the governor’s writing it; whether he was then, from his own knowledge, acquainted with the situation of the country over the mountains, with the disposition of the middle colonies, with the capability of the Ohio country, from its soil, climate, or communication with the river Potomac, etc., to supply this kingdom with silk, flax, hemp, etc.; and whether the principal part of Mr. Wright’s estate is on the sea-coast in Georgia, are facts which we wish had been stated, that it might be known whether Governor Wright’s “knowledge and experience in  the affairs of the colonies ought,” as the Lords of Trade mention, “to give great weight to his opinion,” on the present occasion.

The doctrine insisted upon by Governor Wright appears to us reducible to the following propositions, viz.:

1. That if a vast territory be granted to any set of gentlemen, who really mean to people it, and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number of people from Great Britain.

2. That they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people; who will set up for themselves, will soon have manufactures of their own, will neither take supplies from the mother country nor the provinces at the back of which they are settled; that, being at such a distance from the seat of government, from courts, magistrates, etc., and out of the control of law and government, they will become a receptacle for offenders, etc.

3. That the sea-coast should be thickly settled with inhabitants, and be well cultivated and improved, etc.

4. That his ideas are not chimerical; that he knows something of the situation and state of things in America; and, from some little occurrences that have happened, he can very easily figure to himself what may, and, in short, what will certainly happen, if not prevented in time.

On these propositions we shall take the liberty of making a few observations.

To the first we answer we shall, we are persuaded, satisfactorily prove that in the middle colonies, viz.:  New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, there is hardly any vacant land, except such as is monopolized by great landholders, for the purpose of selling at high prices; that the poor people of these colonies, with large families of children, cannot pay these prices; and that several thousand families, for that reason, have already settled upon the Ohio; that we do not wish for, and shall not encourage, one single family of his Majesty’s European subjects to settle there, (and this we have no objection to be prevented from doing,) but shall wholly rely on the voluntary superflux of the inhabitants of the middle provinces for settling and cultivating the lands in question.

On the second it is not, we presume, necessary for us to say more, than that all the conjectures and suppositions “of being a kind of separate and independent people,” etc., entirely lose their force, on the proposition of a government being established on the grant applied for, as the Lords of Trade themselves acknowledged.

On the third we would only briefly remark that we have fully answered this objection in the latter part of our answer to the sixth paragraph.

And as the fourth proposition is merely the governor’s declaration of his knowledge of something of the situation and state of things in America, and that from some little occurrences, that have already really happened, he can very easily figure to himself what may and certainly will happen if not prevented in time, we say that, as the governor has not mentioned what these little occurrences are, we cannot  pretend to judge whether what he figures to himself is in any ways relative to the object under consideration, or, indeed, what else it is relative to.

But, as the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations have thought proper to insert in their report the above-mentioned letters from General Gage and Governor Wright, it may not be improper for us to give the opinion of his Majesty’s House of Burgesses of the dominion of Virginia on the very point in question, as conveyed to his Majesty in their address of the 4th of August, 1767, and delivered the latter end of that year to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, by Mr. Montague, agent for the colony. The House of Burgesses say: “We humbly hope that we shall obtain your royal indulgence, when we give it as our opinion that it will be for your Majesty’s service, and the interest of your American dominions in general, to continue the encouragements” (which were a total exemption from any consideration-money whatsoever, and a remission of quit-rent for ten years, and of all kinds of taxes for fifteen years) “for settling those frontier lands.” By this means, the House observed, “new settlements will be made by people of property, obedient subjects to government; but if the present restriction should continue, we have the strongest reason to believe that country will become the resort of fugitives and vagabonds, defiers of law and order, and who in time may form a body dangerous to the peace and civil government of this colony.”

We come now to the consideration of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh paragraphs.

In the ninth, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations observe “that, admitting the settlers over the mountains and on the Ohio to be as numerous as report states them to be” (and which we shall, from undoubted testimony, prove to be not less than five thousand families, of at least six persons to a family, independent of some thousand families, which are also settled over the mountains, within the limits of the province of Pennsylvania), yet their Lordships say “it operates strongly in point of argument against what is proposed.” And their Lordships add: “If the foregoing reasoning has any weight, it ought certainly to induce the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council to advise his Majesty to take every method to check the progress of these settlements, and not to make such grants of the land as will have an immediate tendency to encourage them.”

Having, we presume, clearly shown that the country southward of the Great Kenhawa, quite to the Cherokee River, belonged to the Six Nations, and not to the Cherokees; that now it belongs to the king, in virtue of his Majesty’s purchase from the Six Nations; that neither these tribes nor the Cherokees do hunt between the Great Kenhawa and the land opposite to the Scioto River; that, by the present boundary line, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations would sacrifice to the Cherokees an extent of country of at least eight hundred miles in length, which his Majesty has bought and  paid for; that the real limits of Virginia do not extend westward, beyond the Alleghany Mountains; that, since the purchase of the country from the Six Nations, his Majesty has not annexed it, nor any part of it, to the colony of Virginia; that there are no settlements made under legal titles, on any part of the lands we have agreed for, with the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; that, in the year 1748, the strongest marks of royal encouragement were given to settle the country over the mountains; that the suspension of this encouragement, by the proclamation of October, 1763, was merely temporary, until the lands were purchased from the natives; that the avidity to settle these lands was so great that large settlements were made thereon before they were purchased; that, although the settlers were daily exposed to the cruelties of the savages, neither a military force nor repeated proclamations could induce them to vacate these lands; that the soil of the country over the mountains is excellent, and capable of easily producing hemp, flax, silk, tobacco, iron, wine, etc.; that these articles can be cheaply conveyed to a seaport for exportation; that the charge of carriage is so very small, it cannot possibly operate to the prevention of the use of British manufactures; that the king’s purchasing the lands from the Indians, and fixing a boundary line with them, was for the very purpose of his subjects’ settling them; and that the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in 1768, declared that the inhabitants of the middle colonies would have liberty for that purpose.

And to this train of facts let us add that, at the congress held with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix in 1768, when his Majesty purchased the territory on the Ohio, Messrs. Penn also bought from these Nations a very extensive tract of country over the Alleghany Mountains and on that river, joining to the very lands in question; that in the spring of 1769 Messrs. Penn opened their land-office in Pennsylvania, for the settling the country which they had so bought at Fort Stanwix; and all such settlers as had seated themselves over the mountains, within the limits of Pennsylvania, before the lands were purchased from the natives, have since obtained titles for their plantations; that, in 1771, a petition was presented to the Assembly of the province of Pennsylvania, praying that a new county may be made over these mountains; that the legislature of that province, in consideration of the great number of families settled there, within the limits of that province, did that year enact a law for the erection of the lands over the mountains, into a new county, by the name of Bedford County; that, in consequence of such law, William Thompson was chosen to represent it in the General Assembly; that a sheriff, coroner, justices of the peace, constables, and other civil officers are appointed and do reside over the mountains; that all the king’s subjects, who are not less than five thousand families, who have made locations and settlements on the lands southward of, and adjoining to, the southern line of Pennsylvania, live there without any degree of order, law, or government; that, being in this lawless situation, continual  quarrels prevail among them; that they have already infringed the boundary line, killed several Indians, and encroached on the lands on the opposite side of the Ohio; and that disorders of the most dangerous nature, with respect to the Indians, the boundary line, and the old colonies, will soon take place among these settlers, if law and subordination are not immediately established among them. Can these facts be possibly perverted so as to operate, either in point of argument or policy, against the proposition of governing the king’s subjects on the lands in question?

It ought to be considered, also, that we have agreed to pay as much for a small part of the cession made at Fort Stanwix, as the whole cession cost the crown, and at the same time to be at the entire expense of establishing and supporting the proposed new colony. Ref. 007

The truth is, the inhabitants already settled on this tract of country are in so ungoverned and lawless a situation that the very Indians themselves complain of it; so that, if they are not soon governed, an Indian war will be the inevitable consequence. This, we presume, is evident, both from the correspondence of General Gage with the Earl of Hillsborough, and a speech of the chiefs of the Delawares, Munsies, and Mohickons, living on the Ohio, to the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, lately transmitted by the General to his Lordship.

In this speech these nations observed that, since the sale of the lands to the king on the Ohio—

“Great numbers more of your people have come over the great mountains and settled throughout the country; and we are sorry to tell you that several quarrels have happened between your people and ours, in which people have been killed on both sides; and that we now see the nations round us and your people ready to embroil in a quarrel, which gives our nations great concern, as we, on our parts, want to live in friendship with you. As you have always told us, you have laws to govern your people by, but we do not see that you have; therefore, brethren, unless you can fall upon some method of governing your people who live between the great mountains and the Ohio River, and who are very numerous, it will be out of the Indians’ power to govern their young men; for, we assure you, the black clouds begin to gather fast in this country, and, if something is not soon done, these clouds will deprive  us of seeing the sun. We desire you to give the greatest attention to what we now tell you, as it comes from our hearts, and a desire we have to live in peace and friendship with our brethren the English, and therefore it grieves us to see some of the nations about us and your people ready to strike each other. We find your people are very fond of our rich land; we see them quarrelling with each other every day about land, and burning one another’s houses, so that we do not know how soon they may come over the River Ohio, and drive us from our villages; nor do we see you, brothers, take any care to stop them.”

This speech, from tribes of such great influence and weight upon the Ohio, conveys much useful information: it establishes the fact of the settlers over the mountains being very numerous; it shows the entire approbation of the Indians in respect to a colony being established on the Ohio; it pathetically complains of the king’s subjects not being governed; and it confirms the assertion mentioned by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations in the eighth paragraph of their report, “that, if the settlers are suffered to continue in the lawless state of anarchy and confusion, they will commit such abuses as cannot fail of involving us in quarrels and disputes with the Indians, and thereby endanger the security of his Majesty’s colonies.”

The Lord Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, however, pay no regard to all these circumstances, but content themselves with observing: “We see nothing to hinder the government of Virginia  from extending the laws and constitution of that colony to such persons as may have already settled there under legal titles.” To this we repeat that there are no such persons as have settled under legal titles; and even admitting there were, as their Lordships say, in the eleventh paragraph, it appears to them, “some possessions derived from grants made by the governor and council of Virginia,” and allowing that the laws and constitution of Virginia did, as they unquestionably do not, extend to this territory, have the Lords Commissioners proposed any expedient for governing those many thousand families, who have not settled under legal titles, but only agreeably to the ancient usage of location? Certainly not. But, on the contrary, their Lordships have recommended that his Majesty should be advised to take every method to check the progress of their settlements; and thereby leave them in their present lawless situation, at the risk of involving the middle colonies in a war with the natives, pregnant with a loss of subjects, loss of commerce, and depopulation of their frontier counties.