Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 1, Chapter 1, 17-43

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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

                     PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 17


                                 MARTIAL DEEDS

                                       OF

                                  PENNSYLVANIA

                            PART I.  GENERAL HISTORY.

                                    CHAPTER I.

                         RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY.

THE inhabitants of mountainous regions, it is observed, have always manifested 
an ardent love of liberty, a quick perception of its peril, and nerve to strike 
in its defence.  Beneath the shadows of Israel, along the shores of the 
Adriatic, amid the rocks of Uri, and under the glaciers of Switzerland that 
spirit has prevailed.  It was exhibited in the late struggle for the Union and 
universal liberty, by the populations along the Allegheny range, extending 
through West Virginia, East Tennessee, even far into Georgia, where, amid the 
storms of a threatened revolution, sweeping and convulsive, an undying love for 
freedom was preserved, and, while hunted down like wild beasts, and subjected to 
tortures by their enemies, they maintained a faith unshaken.  Betaking 
themselves to their native fastnesses, the Refugees of this mountain district 
showed a heroism unsurpassed by the martyrs of old.
  The causes which operate to produce this inspiring influence have been traced 
by modern science to the rural occupations which such regions prescribe, to the 
grandeur of the scenery perpetually spread out to view, to the limpid waters of 
the streams, and more than all, to the purity and invigorating airs distilled 
upon the mountain tops. This influence is strikingly figured by

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 18

a writer in Harper's Magazine, just returned from a mountain tour: "There is no 
delight in travel so electrical as that of the Swiss mornings.  Their breath 
cleanses life.  They touch mind and heart with vigor.  They renew the loftiest 
faith.  They quicken the best hope.  Despondency and gloom roll away like the 
dark clouds which the Finster-Aarhorn and the Jungfrau spurn from their summits.  
Nowhere else is life such a conscious delight.  No elixir is so pure, no cordial 
so stimulating, as that Alpine air. . . . The Alpine purity and silence seem to 
penetrate the little commonwealth.  It is such a state as poets describe in 
Utopia, and Atlantis, and Oceana.  The traveller in Switzerland sees a country 
in which the citizen is plainly careful of the public welfare; and he is glad to 
believe that this spirit springs from freedom, and that freedom is born of the 
lofty inspiration of the mountain air, which dilates his lungs with health, and 
fills his soul with delight. Indeed the hardy and simple virtues are a mountain 
crop."
  In Pennsylvania, the Allegheny range spreads out to its grandest proportions, 
and towers to its loftiest heights; and it is a noticeable circumstance, that 
the troops gathered from its rugged mountain regions, and by the flashing 
streams of its forests, were among the most resolute and daring of any that 
served in the late war.  It may seem fanciful that the geographical features of 
a country, its soil, and climate should affect the character of its inhabitants; 
but if a population is allowed to remain long enough in a locality for these to 
have their legitimate influence, their impress will be found in the prevailing 
characteristics.
  Who are the people of Pennsylvania?  What the situation, extent, and physical 
features of the region they inhabit?  What the peculiarities of its soil in its 
varied parts, and its equally varied climate and productions?  What the 
treasures hidden beneath its surface, about which they dream, for which they 
delve, and which they transmute to cunning workmanship?  From what families and 
nations of men have they sprung?  How has been the growth of education, 
religion, civil polity?  What their attitude in the troublous times of other 
days?  And finally, what were their numbers, and the spirit which actuated them 
at the moment of entering the great civil strife?

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 19

  Pennsylvania is situated between latitude 39° 43' and 42° north, and between 
longitude 2° 17' east and 3° 31' west from Washington, giving it a mean length 
of 280.39, and a breadth of 158.05 miles.  Its form is that of a parallelogram, 
its sides being right lines, with the exception of its eastern boundary, which 
follows the course of the Delaware river, nearly the form of an elongated W, its 
top pointing westward, with a slight curtailment at the boundary of Delaware, 
and an enlargement in its northwestern corner where it meets the lake.  The 
Appalachian system of mountains, generally known as the Alleghenies, comprising 
several parallel ranges, trending from northeast to southwest, hold in their 
folds more than half the territory of the State.  The southeastern corner, known 
as the Atlantic coast plain, 125 miles wide in its greatest stretch, is gently 
rolling, has a mild climate, a fertile soil, impregnated with lime, kindly to 
grains and the vine, is kept under a high state of cultivation, and is filled 
with a dense population.  The valleys of the mountain region in the south are 
likewise fertile, and in characteristics and productions are similar to the 
coast plain; but to the north, where they were originally covered with forests 
of pine and hemlock, as they are cleared and brought under the hand of 
cultivation, are better adapted to grazing than to grain, where, the year 
through, copious streams are fed by fountains of living waters, and the 
population, more sparse, given to felling the forests and subduing a ruggeder 
clime, is itself more resolute and hardy.  The rolling table-lands of the 
northwest are not unlike the latter in soil, in climate, in productions, and in 
men.  Farther south, bordering upon West Virginia, the warm season is longer and 
more genial, the surface is rolling, flocks are upon the hills, and everywhere 
are orchards and green meadows.  No region is more picturesque than this; not 
the vine-covered hills of the Rhine or the Anio.
  The coast and mountain regions of the east and south are drained by two great 
river courses - the Delaware, whose principal tributaries are the Schuylkill and 
the Lehigh, and which finds its way to the ocean through Delaware bay, and the 
Susquehanna, fed by the East and West Branch, which unite at Northumberland, 
whose chief tributary is the Juniata, pouring into it a few miles above 
Harrisburg, and linked to the sea by the waters of the

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 20

Chesapeake.  Contrary to the law which almost universally governs the directions 
of rivers, these streams, instead of following the valleys, defy the most 
formidable barriers, cut through the mountain chains, and run at right angles to 
their courses.  These huge rents or gaps in the rock-ribbed sides of the mighty 
ridges, as though cleaved by the stroke of a giant, show, in their abutments 
close in upon the streams, their formation, and give an awe-inspiring aspect.
  Draining the western slopes are the Monongahela from the south, rising in West 
Virginia, with the Youghiogheny as a principal tributary, and the Allegheny from 
the north, fed by the Venango on its right, and the Clarion and the Conemaugh on 
its left which, uniting their floods at Pittsburg, form the Ohio.  Still further 
west is the Shenango, a tributary of the Beaver river, draining one of the most 
fertile and populous valleys of the State.  Upon the summit, along the water-
shed between the basin of the great lakes and that of the Mississippi, is a 
system of minor lakes and marshes, among which are the Conneautee and the 
Conneaut lakes, the latter, the largest in the State, and the Conneaut and 
Pymatuning swamps, these being but a part of a continuous line stretching 
through New York, embracing the Chatauqua, the Canandaigua, the Seneca, the 
Cayuga, and the Oneida, and westward through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; the 
Chicago river in the latter State connecting with Lake Michigan, and at the same 
time with the tributaries of the Gulf.
  Such is the configuration of the surface of Pennsylvania; but under that 
surface were hidden from the eye of the early explorer treasures of which he had 
little conception.  Beneath the hills and rocky ridges of the northeast, the 
central, and southern central, following the general course of the mountains, 
were buried, in ages far remote beyond the ken of the scientist, vast lakes of 
anthracite coal; and in the northern central, extending down far past its 
southwestern verge, were piled up Titanic masses of bituminous coal.  The 
latter, cropping out as it did from every hillside, easily mined, and burning 
freely like the resinous woods, was earliest used, both for fuel and in the 
arts.  Until the year 1820 the existence of the former was scarcely known, or if 
known, passed unregarded.  In all that region, where now a busy popula-

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 21

tion, deep down in the caverns of the earth, hidden away from the light of the 
sun, toil industriously in mining, not a chamber had then been opened, and the 
echo of a pick was scarcely heard.  In that year the Lehigh Canal was completed, 
and 365 tons from the Lehigh mines were transported to market.  Ten years later 
the product was only 100,000 tons.  But since that period the means of 
production and transportation have multiplied, so that in 1870 nearly 16,000,000 
tons were produced and found a market, being distributed to the great furnaces, 
where, night and day, the smothered blast is kept raging, and to the frugal 
fires of the remotest hamlets.
  In close proximity to the coal, throughout nearly all the regions indicated, 
and spreading out in many parts far beyond, are found inexhaustible deposits of 
rich iron ore; and, stimulated by the demand for this metal in the multiplied 
and diversified uses to which it is put in the mechanic arts, and in the 
construction of railroads, its production has gone on increasing until from its 
eastern to its remotest western boundaries, along all its valleys and far up on 
its mountain heights, the fiery tongues of flame from innumerable craters are 
perpetually leaping.
  But what shall be said of that almost miraculous gushing forth of oil from the 
rock at the smiting of the hand of the explorer?  Years ago, even as early as 
the occupation of the northwest by the French, it was known that upon a little 
lake a few miles northwest of Titusville, shut in on all sides by towering hills 
shaded by the silent hemlock forest, a mysterious oil, exhibiting in the 
sunlight the most brilliant and variegated colors, was known to float.  Clean 
wool absorbed the oil and rejected the water, and in this way quantities were 
gathered upon the lake and the stream which flows therefrom, and being carefully 
bottled and labelled Seneca or rock oil, it was sold both in this country and in 
Europe, its remarkable curative properties in many diseases being widely 
heralded.  Cradles were dug along the swamps that border this stream, either by 
the French or the Indians, for collecting it. Of its origins none knew.  The 
Indians had a superstition that these were the tears of a departed chieftain 
mourning the loss of a favorite squaw who was murdered in the sombre shadows of 
the forest near the lakelet's margin.  In 1859, Mr. E. L. Drake, with a faith

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 22

and a perseverance akin to that of the greatest inventors and explorers, bored 
into the bowels of the earth, and lo! there gushed forth from the since famed 
third sand copious streams of this pungent, healing, mysterious fluid.  The 
current thus diverted has gone the world over.  It lights the ship upon the 
ocean, the cabin of the pioneer, and even the tent of the Arab.  It spangles the 
head-light of the engine, and lubricates the many spinning wheels of the 
lightning train.  It has well nigh restored a lost art in rivalling the far-
famed Tyrian dye.  Endless billows of this element seem to have accumulated 
beneath the hills and along the valleys of this now noted creek, and the lands 
fringing the Allegheny far down its stream.  The production in the year 1872 was 
estimated at 6,500,000 barrels.
  The territory of Pennsylvania, whose physical features and resources have been 
thus hastily touched, at the time it was first viewed by the eye of a European, 
was a wilderness, unbroken, save here and there by a precipitous rocky barren 
upon the mountain side, or where, fast by some crystal spring, the dusky son of 
the forest had erected his rude hut, and made an opening for the cultivation of 
a few vegetables and a little maize.  The Lenni Lenape, or the First People, 
called by the Europeans Delawares, held sway from the Hudson to the Potomac, and 
from the ocean to the Kittatinny hills.  The Shawnese, a ferocious tribe, 
occupied the southwest, and along the centre were the Tuscaroras, originally 
driven from North Carolina and Virginia, who became one of the Six Nations, or 
Iroquois, and had their chief habitation between Champlain and the great lakes.  
William Penn, who came to know them well, writing to the Society of Free Traders 
in England an account of the country, thus describes them: "In liberality they 
excel; nothing is too good for their friend.  Give them a fine gun, coat, or 
other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it sticks.  Light of heart, strong 
affections, but soon spent.  The most merry creatures that live; feast and dance 
perpetually.  They never have much, nor want much; wealth circulateth like the 
blood; all parts partake; and though none shall want what another hath, yet 
exact observers of property. . . . They care for little because they want but 
little; and the reason is, a little contents them.  In this they are 
sufficiently revenged on us.

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 23

If they are ignorant of our pleasures, they are also free from our pains.  They 
are not disquieted with bills of lading and exchange, nor perplexed with 
chancery suits and exchequer reckonings.  We sweat and toil to live; their 
pleasure feeds them; I mean their hunting, fishing and fowling, and this table 
is spread everywhere.  They eat twice a day, morning and evening.  Their seats 
and table are the ground."
  The earliest visitors and settlers upon the Delaware were not men who had been 
driven from home by persecution, and who were seeking an asylum and a habitation 
in the New World, but who were attracted thither in the hope of gain.  The whale 
fishery upon the coast, and the rich furs and skins which the Indians brought 
and parted with for a few worthless trinkets, first excited their cupidity.  
Delaware bay and river were discovered and entered on the 28th of August, 1609, 
by Hendrich Hudson.  By a general charter granted on the 27th of March, 1614, by 
the States General of Holland, the privileges of trade upon the Hudson and 
Delaware were given, and the merchants of Amsterdam and Hoorn fitted out several 
expeditions from which grew settlements at Albany, New York, and temporary ones 
- little more than trading posts for occasional visitation - upon the Delaware.  
On the 3d of June, 1621, the Dutch West India Company was incorporated, and 
under it settlement was strengthened upon the Hudson, but only trade upon the 
Delaware, the latter being as yet tributary to the former; one little colony 
planted there having been cut off and massacred in 1631.
  In the spring of 1638, a company of Swedes and Finns, under charter of a 
Swedish West India company, granted by the illustrious monarch of Sweden, 
Gustavus Adolphus, came in two small ships and settled on the south bank of the 
Delaware, the Dutch having for the most part occupied the north bank.  Others 
followed, and for a time the little colony prospered.  But the Dutch, who still 
held the northern bank, and kept a Vice-Governor there, finally undermined the 
Swedes in their trade with the natives, and compelled them, in 1655, by force of 
arms, to submit to Dutch rule.  The Swedish colonists, however, remained upon 
the lands they had subdued, which they had come to look upon as their homes, and 
contributed to the rising state an element of

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 24

strength, intelligence, and virtue, as the best blood in Europe then flowed in 
the veins of the people who had been ruled by Gustavus.
  In 1664, settlements upon the Delaware having in the meantime been steadily 
growing; the English, who had always claimed the country upon the Hudson and all 
the intervening territory, took forcible possession, and appointed governors 
over both colonies, establishing rule in the interest of the British crown.  
Beyond the persons of the governors and the forms of procedure, there was but 
little change in the constitution of society.  In 1673, the Dutch rescued the 
government from the English, but only held it for a year; when it again passed, 
and now permanently, under the dominion of the latter.  In the meantime many 
English Quakers, who had suffered sore persecutions at home, had come hither and 
settled in the Jerseys and south of the Delaware, and in 1672, George Fox, the 
founder of the sect, visited them, preaching and strengthening their faith.  
West New Jersey had, by purchase from the British Government, fallen into the 
hands of a Quaker by the name of Byllinge, who becoming bankrupt, was obliged to 
make an assignment of his property, and William Penn became one of the three 
assignees.  Penn was a Quaker, and had suffered for his faith; but that faith 
was founded in the innermost recesses of his heart, and he quailed before 
neither principalities nor powers.  He was steadfast as the rock to the 
promptings of duty, but not fanatical or bigoted.  He had a clear insight of 
human nature - a man of great head and still greater heart.  Difficulties, which 
smaller minds would have made fruitless war against, he may for the time have 
bent before, but never yielded to, and in the end was always triumphant.  With 
such a man whatever responsibility might be assumed for another, it would be 
managed with the care of a personal matter.  Hence, in executing the trust for 
his unfortunate friend, he threw his whole soul into it, and drew for the 
government of Byllinge's province in the New World a constitution conceived in 
the utmost liberality and wisdom.
  Penn had another motive for regarding with interest the infant settlements.  
He knew by a bitter experience the trials to which the people of his faith were 
subjected; and he looked with a long-

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 25

ing eye for some better country, some more favored habitation, where each man 
should have perfect freedom in the manner of his worship.  His attention being 
thus called to settlements in America, he became possessed of an idea of 
founding a State on his own account, in new territory, hitherto unoccupied by 
civilized man.  Penn's father had been an Admiral in the British navy, and in an 
engagement upon the Dutch coast had rendered signal service, the victory there 
gained securing to the British Government the possession of New Netherland, the 
name by which all territory claimed by the Dutch beyond the Atlantic was known.  
Besides a deep debt of gratitude for his heroism, the Crown owed the Admiral 
sixteen thousand pounds in hard money.  Upon the death of the Admiral, the 
obligation passed to his son William, who now sought the payment of this claim 
in lands in the New World.  King Charles, who was upon the English throne, lent 
a ready ear to this application, and "after many waitings, watchings, 
solicitings and disputes in council," says Penn, "my country was confirmed to me 
under the great seal of England.  God will bless it and make it the seed of a 
nation.  I shall have a tender care of the government, that it be well laid at 
first."  By the terms of the charter, which was dated March 4th, 1681, it was to 
contain three degrees of latitude and five of longitude, west from the Delaware.  
On account of obscurity in the language in beginning the description of the 
boundaries, owing to ignorance of the geography of the country on the part of 
the royal secretary, a dispute arose about its southern limit, which lasted many 
years.  It was finally settled in the interest of Maryland, resulting in the 
serious curtailment of the grant.  The limit thus agreed upon was subsequently 
traced by two surveyors, Mason and Dixon, who unconsciously made for themselves 
wide notoriety, this ultimately marking the dividing line between freedom and 
slavery.
  Penn wished that the country should be called New Wales; but the king, 
desirous of commemorating the name of the father, was inflexible in his purpose 
of naming it Pennsylvania.  Penn also purchased from the Duke of York the 
counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, lying south of the Delaware; now the 
State of Delaware, which thus became a part of Pennsylvania, and con-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 26

tinued so till the year 1702, when a final separation took place.
  Penn meditated deeply respecting the government he should establish.  He knew 
by experience the evils of arbitrary power.  His aspirations were to make 
authority in the spirit of religion, of goodness, and love. "I purpose, for the 
matter of liberty, I purpose that which is extraordinary, to leave myself and 
successors no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder 
the good of a whole country."  In his advertisement for a Free Society of 
Traders, which was formed, he says: "It is a very unusual society, for it is an 
absolute free one, and in a free country.  Every one may be concerned that will, 
and yet have the same liberty of private traffique as though there were no 
society at all."
  Sending forward a deputy to assume and exercise authority over the colony, and 
commissioners who should treat for land and select a site for a great city, he 
made preparations to follow and take up his abode in the new State.  Upon their 
arrival, the commissioners, with the Governor and Surveyor-General, readily 
concluded a purchase of land from the Indians; but it was not so easy to find a 
suitable site for a city.  Penn had been particular in pointing out the needful 
conditions.  It must have ten thousand acres in a compact tract.  "Be sure," he 
says, "to make your choice where it is most navigable, high, dry, and healthy; 
that is, where ships may best ride, of deepest draught of water, if possible to 
load or unload at the bank or key's side, without boating or lightening of it.    
It would do well if the river coming into that creek be navigable, at least for 
boats, up into the country, and that the situation, be high, at least dry and 
sound, and not swampy, which is best known by digging up two or three earths and 
seeing the bottom."
  We can imagine the progress of these men as they moved up and down the 
Delaware, during the seven weeks in which we are told the search continued, 
digging to test the nature of the soil, travelling back and forth through the 
dense forest which reached down to the water's edge, save here and there where a 
trading post had been established, or the Swedes and Finns had made the 
beginning of a little burg.  Upland, in Delaware county, now the

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 27

old town of Chester, was one of these, and Penn had hoped that this might prove 
suitable for the purpose.  But it was discarded, perhaps unwisely, as well as 
the ground above Bristol, afterwards the site of Pennsburg Manor, and that upon 
the banks of Poquessing creek.  Finally, the present site of Philadelphia was 
adopted.  It had not ten thousand acres in a compact body; but it was between 
two rivers, the ground was high, and the river in front deep.  It was called by 
the Indians Coaquannock.  Two or three families of Swedes had gained a foothold 
there, but it was still covered by a forest of lofty pines.  The sites of great 
cities are generally governed by the necessities of trade and commerce, and 
their early growth has been without plan, streets taking the course of cow-
paths, as in the city of Boston.  It is recorded that Romulus, yoking a heifer 
with a bull, marked with a brazen plowshare the limits of his new city, making 
it comprise so much land as he could thus encircle between the rising and the 
setting of the sun. But with this exception, tradition preserves the record of 
no city having been so formally laid out.
  Penn arrived in the colony in October, 1682, and after resting at Upland, 
ascended the Delaware in a small open row-boat, and when four miles above the 
mouth of the Schuylkill, where it pours its waters into the Delaware, he was 
pulled up the rugged bank by the Swedish settlers, and welcomed to the 
hospitalities of a gloomy forest, in time to become the gathering place of a 
great people, and the chief city of the continent.  But when the site had once 
been determined, and had received the stamp of Penn's approval, its 
transformation was rapid.  "There is nothing," says Bancroft, "in the history of 
the human race like the confidence which the simple virtues and institutions of 
William Penn inspired.  In August, 1683, Philadelphia consisted of three or four 
little cottages!  The conies were yet undisturbed in their hereditary burrows; 
the deer fearlessly bounded past blazed trees, unconscious of foreboded streets; 
the stranger that wandered from the river bank was lost in the thickets of the 
interminable forest; and, two years afterward, the place contained about six 
hundred houses, and the schoolmaster and the printing-press had begun their 
work.  In three years from its foundation, Philadelphia gained more than New 
York had done in half a century."

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 28

  One of the first cares of Penn was to establish amicable relations with the 
Indians.  In his conferences and dealings with them he treated them as men, and 
they reciprocated his confidence.  He made a purchase of land of them.  It was 
known as the walking purchase.  He was to pay a stipulated price for as much 
territory as could be walked over in three days.  Penn was himself of the party, 
that no advantage should be taken by attempting a great walk.  Commencing at the 
mouth of the Neshaminy, they walked up the Delaware.  They proceeded leisurely, 
"after the Indian manner, sitting down sometimes to smoke their pipes, to eat 
biscuit and cheese, and drink a bottle of wine."  In a day and a half they 
reached a spruce tree near the mouth of Baker's creek, a distance of thirty 
miles.  Concluding that this would be all the land he would at present need, he 
proposed to stop there, and let the remaining portion be walked out at some 
future time.  This was not executed until September 20th, 1733, fifty years 
later, when the Governor then in office employed three of the most expert 
walkers, one of them, Edward Marshall, walking in a day and a half eighty-six 
miles, a procedure which the natives took very unkindly.
  One of the most interesting events in Pennsylvania history is the concluding 
of the Great Treaty of peace and friendship with the Indians, under the wide 
sweeping elm, known as the Treaty Tree, at Kensington, which has been made 
immortal by the painting of West.  There were no weapons of carnal warfare.  
Penn, in his plain garb and benignant countenance, and the noble chieftain, 
Taminend, were the central figures.  The chiefs of tribes, with their 
counsellors, aged and venerable men, were disposed to right and left.  In rear, 
in the form of a half moon, sat the young braves and some of the aged matrons; 
and farther back, in widening circles; were the youth.  When the council fire 
had been lighted, and all was in readiness to confer, Taminend, putting on his 
crown, which terminated in front in a small horn, announced to Penn, through an 
interpreter, that the nations were ready to hear him.  "The Great Spirit," says 
Penn, "who made me and you, who rules the heavens and the earth, and who knows 
the innermost thoughts of men, knows that I and my friends have a hearty desire 
to live in peace and friendship with you, and to

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 29

serve you to the uttermost of our power.  It is not our custom to use hostile 
weapons against our fellow creatures, for which reason we have come unarmed.  
Our object is not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but, to do 
good.  I will not call you children or brothers only; for parents are apt to 
whip their children too severely, and brothers sometimes will differ; neither 
will I compare the friendship between us to a chain, for the rain may rust it, 
or a tree may fall and break it; but I will consider you as the same flesh and 
blood as the Christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided 
into two parts."
  To the words of Penn the Indians did not make immediate reply, but deliberated 
apart.  When their answer was agreed to, their speaker, in the name of Taminend, 
who remained silent, taking Penn by the hand, pledged friendship, and said, with 
his expressive gesture, that the Indians and the English must live in peace and 
affection so long as the sun and the moon perform their courses.  This treaty, 
simple in form, but emanating from the best impulses of the heart, was held 
sacred by the natives, and they treasured the words of Penn by means of strings 
of beads, or amulets; and Heckewelder, the Indian missionary and historian, 
says: "They frequently assembled together in the woods, in some shady spot, as 
nearly as possible similar to those where they used to meet their brother Miquon 
(Penn), and there lay all his words and speeches, with those of his descendants, 
on a blanket or clean piece of bark, and with great satisfaction go successively 
over the whole."
  As we have already seen, the first settlers in the province were emigrants 
from Holland.  Then came the sturdy Swedes, and now the English Quakers.  The 
latter came in large numbers, many doubtless to better their fortunes, but more 
to escape oppression.  As an illustration of the extent to which religious 
persecution was carried, it was estimated that 15,000 families had been ruined 
for dissent since the Restoration, that 5000 had died in the loathsome prisons, 
and that in 1686, through the intercession of Penn with King James, 1200 Quakers 
"were liberated from the horrible dungeons and prisons where many of them had 
languished for years."  Of the character of the first element Bancroft says: 
"The emigrants from Holland were themselves

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 30

of the most various lineage; for Holland had long been the gathering place of 
the unfortunate.  Could we trace the descent of the emigrants from the Low 
Countries to New Netherland, we should be carried not only to the banks of the 
Rhine and the borders of the German Sea, but to the Protestants who escaped from 
France after the massacre of Bartholomew's eve, and to those earlier inquirers 
who were swayed by the voice of Huss in the heart of Bohemia.  Its settlers were 
the relics of the first fruits of the Reformation, chosen from the Belgic 
provinces and England, from France and Bohemia, from Germany and Switzerland, 
from Piedmont and the Italian Alps.
  Penn remained in the colony but about two years, when he was called to England 
to settle, before the home Government, the southern boundary of his province 
with Lord Baltimore, and thus secure uninterrupted navigation of the Delaware, 
and to intercede with the king for his suffering brethren.  Though many Quakers 
had emigrated to the colony, and for a considerable period held ascendancy in 
the Legislature, yet they were far from forming a majority of the population, 
and some of the Governors appointed by Penn, and even his sons, were of the 
established Church of England.  Bitter contentions arose between the Quakers and 
the party hostile to them.  It was alleged that pirates, taking advantage of a 
Government unsupported by the sword, ran into the bay and made war, from this as 
a base, upon helpless shipping, and that a colony so ruled invited attack.  So 
loud was the clamor at Court, that in 1893, in the reign of William and Mary, 
the government was taken from Penn and his deputies, and lodged in the hands of 
Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York.  For two years it so remained; but at 
the end of that time, being convinced that the character of Penn and his 
followers was misrepresented, his province was restored to him.
  In 1899, he returned, apparently with the intention of spending the remnant of 
his days in the midst of his people.  But before two years had elapsed, he found 
that the Crown was again disposed to dispossess him and appoint royal Governors.  
He accordingly hastily departed to defend his rights at Court, and never 
returned, being afflicted in 1712 with a stroke of paralysis, of which he died 
in 1718, his entire stay in America having been

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 31

less than four years.  During his last residence here he spent the greater part 
of the time in perfecting a new constitution and frame of government, it being 
under discussion in the council and in his own meditations for eighteen months.  
This was completed before he left, and is a noble monument to his genius.  His 
presence in the colony was indeed short, but how vast has been his influence 
upon the subsequent growth and development of the Commonwealth!  How he moulded 
laws and customs, sentiment and opinion, and set upon them his impress!  How 
easy and resistless was his sway over the natives of the forest, who, under the 
name of savages, in other colonies were found so difficult to treat with or 
subdue!  His words were like those of the Saviour of mankind, and his great 
heart was moved by compassion and pity, tenderness and love, akin to His.  
Blessed be the name of William Penn!
  After his death his widow, Hannah Penn, a woman of great power of mind and 
strength of character, ruled in place of the Proprietor, as his executrix, 
selecting Governors and framing their instructions with the skill and foresight 
of a veteran diplomatist.  Under her rule Sir William Keith administered the 
government, and it was in his time that an unknown youth came to Philadelphia, 
who subsequently became a great power in the State, and the most honored for 
intelligence and virtue of any American of his day, Benjamin Franklin.  William 
Penn had issue by his first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, of three sons - 
William, Springett, and William, and four daughters - Gulielma, Margaret, 
Gulielma, and Letitia; and by the second, Hannah Callowhill, of one daughter, 
Margaret - and four sons - John, Thomas, Richard and Dennis.  In 1727, the 
British Court decreed, that after the death of William Penn, Jr., and his only 
son Springett, the Proprietor's interest in Pennsylvania passed by inheritance 
to the sons of the last wife, and they became joint proprietors.  With these 
three, and John Penn, son of Richard, who was for a time Governor, the 
proprietary interest remained until the fourth year of the Revolutionary war, 
November, 1779, when the Colonial Legislature passed an act vesting the titles 
to their interest in the province, in the Commonwealth.  The surviving 
proprietors returned to England, and the British Government, in considera-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 32

tion of being unable to defend and vindicate their vested rights, gave them an 
annual pension of four thousand pounds, which is paid to their descendants to 
this day.
  In the meantime the State was being rapidly improved.  The territory itself 
was luscious, tempting cupidity, and many were the designs to pluck it.  
Maryland, from the first, grasped for its southern borders, and succeeded in 
gaining a goodly belt.  Later, disputed jurisdiction occurred in the Cumberland 
Valley, wherein Maryland attempted to make still further gains, but was 
successfully repelled.  Still later, Virginia laid claim to the territory upon 
the Ohio, and was perfecting measures to assert authority, when it was 
discovered and foiled, but not until the Ohio Company had gained a considerable 
foothold upon the soil.  Finally, Connecticut came in upon the north, actually 
planted a colony in the Wyoming Valley, pointing to chartered rights for 
authority which antedated the grant of Penn, and calling upon the British 
Government to vindicate it.  Town government after the Connecticut manner was 
constituted, and hostile collisions to defend it occurred.  The claim was not 
settled until after the Revolution, when the Confederate Congress decided in 
favor of Pennsylvania.
  But though jealous in defending and preserving the integrity of its territory, 
no restriction was laid upon emigration, and population flowed in rapidly from 
every quarter.  The sturdy Scotch-Irish, descendants of the Roundheads of the 
English Revolution, settled in the delightful Cumberland Valley, and pushing 
across the Alleghenies, filled many of the rich intervals and fertile rolling 
grand lands of the west.  The well-schooled and industrious German Protestants 
sat down upon the limestone territory of the coast range, but many families 
wended their way into almost every nook and corner of the Commonwealth.  The 
Catholic element, both Irish and Continental, later in coming, for the most part 
found a habitation in the mining and manufacturing districts, and did not, 
consequently, acquire the rich farming lands.  From New England came the 
industrious, frugal sons of the Pilgrims, who chiefly chose the grazing lands of 
the north and the northwest. 
  There came also, near the close of the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth 
century, sects akin, in their principles of peace

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 33

and non-resistance, to the Quakers.  Chief among these were the Mennonists, or 
German Baptists.  They had been persecuted and driven about from one country to 
another in Europe on account of their religious opinions.  Finally, attracted by 
the reports of freedom and contentment among the colonists in Pennsylvania, they 
emigrated in large numbers, and found rest at last and full liberty of worship.  
The Dunkards also came, and subsequently founded houses at Ephrata bearing some 
resemblance to monasteries and convents.
  From all of these varied nationalities and diverse religious sects have come 
the present population of Pennsylvania, a people dissimilar in many respects 
from their progenitors, and yet preserving some of the family types.  One of the 
most potent influences in developing and giving direction to their character has 
been its system of education.  Penn had a clear idea of State device when be put 
in the organic law, that provision should be made for teaching the poor gratis, 
thus bringing it within the power of all to be educated.  Early in the history 
of the colony the Society of Friends established a public school in 
Philadelphia.  In 1731, inspired by Franklin, fifty persons subscribed forty 
shillings each for the establishment of a public library, who, in 1742, were 
incorporated as the Library Company of Philadelphia, now in possession of one of 
the great collections of the land, fortunate and prosperous.  In 1749, under the 
patronage and support of some of the leading men of the province, was 
established an Academy and Charity School, which, though humble and 
unpretentious, was the germ of the University of Pennsylvania.  In 1753, it was 
incorporated and endowed by the Proprietors, and two years later was authorized 
to confer degrees under the title of the "College, Academy and Charity School of 
Philadelphia."  From this time until the close of the century the energies of 
the people seem particularly to have been directed to founding and making some 
provision for the support of colleges; Dickinson College having been chartered 
in 1783, Franklin - since Franklin and Marshall - in 1787, and Jefferson in 
1802.  To preside over these men of great learning and erudition were tempted 
across the ocean.  Notable among them were William Smith, LL. D., President of 
the University, of Pennsylvania, and Charles Nisbet, LL.D., 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 34

President of Dickinson College.  The pupils of these men gave a great impulse to 
liberal education in the next generation, the Rev. Doctor Brown, a pupil of 
Nisbet, becoming President of Jefferson.
  But the colleges, while they gave a high degree of culture to a few of the 
favored, failed to reach directly the masses.  The population was as yet far too 
sparse to admit of a general system of common schools.  Hence, to meet the 
difficulty so far as practicable, County Academies were chartered, and direct 
appropriations of money varying from two to five thousand dollars for the 
erection of buildings at the county seats, and grants of lands for their 
support, were secured.  Academies in forty-one counties were established during 
the first thirty years of this century.  As the population increased, and spread 
over a wider area, it became necessary, in order to carry out the wise design of 
the founder, that more enlarged provision for instruction should be made.  The 
colleges and county academies answered well the purpose of their foundation; but 
that class which was most in need of instruction, and which if allowed to 
increase generation after generation without any facilities for learning would 
become dangerous to society, was still unprovided for.  Hence, in 1809, a law 
was enacted providing for the "education of the poor gratis."  The assessors in 
their annual valuations of property were required to enroll the names of 
indigent parents and the number of children.  The tuition of all such was paid 
out of the county treasury.  But this was only a partial remedy; for many 
parents, possessed of the natural pride and spirit of freemen, were unwilling to 
allow their names to be recorded among the most abject class.  Besides the 
adoption of even this system was not general, it being in many places entirely 
disregarded, and in others complied with only upon the application of societies 
or individuals.  Emigrants from the nationalities of Europe settled in colonies, 
and continuing to speak their native tongue, insisted on having their children 
taught in that language.  German newspapers were published, for this was the 
language most prevalent among continental emigrants; but there were few books, 
and in the midst of constant and harassing labor in clearing away the forests 
and establishing for themselves abiding places, education was attended with many 
difficulties.

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 35

The consequence was that the number of those who could neither read nor write 
rapidly increased.  A mental lethargy was sinking down upon the people which was 
alarming.  The generation which succeeded had far less culture than that which 
had emigrated from the old world.
  During the administration of George Wolf, that sturdy Governor, by the earnest 
appeals of his messages, aided by the efforts of broad-minded legislators, 
prominent among whom were Thaddeus Stevens, Samuel Breck, and Dr. George Smith, 
succeeded in arousing public sentiment, and in securing the passage of a law, in 
1834, providing for the establishment of a general system of common schools.  
This law was amended and vastly improved in 1836, under the administration of 
Governor Joseph Ritner, a man no less determined in his purpose, or warm in his 
support of the system than his predecessor.  He was greatly aided in this by the 
counsel of his eminent Secretary and ex-officio Superintendent of Common 
Schools, Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes; and from that period dates an era of general 
awakening upon the subject of popular education, which has not abated to this 
day.  At first the people were allowed to vote on the adoption or rejection of 
the law, that it might in reality be popular, and right win its way to favor by 
its intrinsic merits.  In the first year, of 907 districts, only 536 adopted it.  
But the number steadily increased, and in 1841, out of 1072 districts, it was in 
successful operation in 917.  It is at present universal, with 16,305 schools, 
and an aggregate of 834,020 scholars.
  About the year 1850, County Teachers' Institutes were commenced, and two years 
later the State Teachers' Association.  In 1854, the school law was revised, and 
the County Superintendency engrafted upon it.  An elaborate School Architecture 
was prepared and published at the expense of the State, and presented to each 
district.  The Pennsylvania School Journal was made the organ of the School 
Department, and sent at the expense of the State to each School Board.  In 1857, 
the office of State Superintendent, which had previously been exercised by the 
Secretary of the Commonwealth, was established, giving it far greater power and 
efficiency.  In 1859, a law providing for the foundation of twelve Normal 
schools, for the training of teachers, in as many

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 36

districts into which the State was divided, planned upon the most enlarged and 
liberal basis, was enacted.
  All these various agencies, for training and instructing the rising generation 
are in full play.  Not a nook nor a corner of this great Commonwealth now exists 
where these are not felt, and their humanizing and benignant influence is not 
exerted.  There is no excuse for a single child throughout its broad domain 
growing up to man's estate without being instructed in reading and writing, and 
all the common branches of education.
  The original frame of government, drawn by the hand of Penn, and discussed and 
amended in Council from time to time, was most liberal and just.  In his first 
communication to the colonists after receiving his charter, he had said: "You 
are now fixed at the mercy of no Governor who comes to make his fortune great.  
You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you 
will, a sober and industrious people.  I shall not usurp the right of any or 
oppress his person.  God has furnished me with a better resolution, and given me 
his grace to keep it." What Penn here promised, he faithfully kept; for it was 
not in the power of human nature to be more tender of his people, or more 
willing to listen to their advice in moulding and perfecting a form of 
government for their just guidance.
  That  Penn should be a feudal lord, and at the same time the executive of a 
democracy, seems incongruous.  It was a defect in the system, which resulted in 
no evil while he governed; for he always appeared in the character of the 
executive of a democracy, voluntarily, yielding all the claims of a feudal 
sovereign.  But when he was no more, it was the occasion of endless bickerings 
between the proprietary Governors and the Council, the popular legislative 
branch.
  On the 15th of July, 1776, the Provincial Convention which had been chosen to 
frame a new Constitution, met and elected Benjamin Franklin President.  It at 
once assumed the government of the colony, and vested it until the new 
Constitution should be completed, and power organized under it, in a Council of 
Safety, composed of twenty-five members, of whom Thomas Rittenhouse was 
chairman.  The American Revolution was in progress, and it was dangerous to 
attempt to stem the tide of

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 37

popular will.  The proprietary Government remonstrated against the action of the 
Convention, but submitted to what it had no power to control, and soon found its 
authority, which for nearly a century had borne sway, at an end.  The new 
organic law was completed in September, and on the 4th of March, 1777, the 
elections having been held in the meantime, was put in operation.  It provided 
for the election of an annual Assembly, and a Supreme Executive Council, to 
consist of twelve persons, the President of which was virtually Governor.  
Thomas Wharton, Jr., who had presided in the Council of Safety, was chosen first 
President, and was inaugurated with imposing ceremonies, amidst the ringing of 
bells and the booming of cannon. In 1790, a new Constitution was framed, which 
provided for the election of a Governor by the people, and two deliberative 
bodies - a House and Senate.  It was again revised in 1838, during the 
administration of Governor Ritner, and, while this is being written, another 
revision, made during the year 1873, is being promulgated for a popular vote in 
December.  To break up "omnibus legislation" was one of the chief objects in the 
revision of '38, and that now before the people is understood to be to prevent 
special legislation, curtail the power of great corporations, and to secure to 
the people of the Commonwealth immunity from unjust and exorbitant charges for 
transportation on railroads and canals.
  The founder of Pennsylvania was a Quaker, sincerely devoted to the cause of 
peace and amity among men and nations.  His mild and gentle manners, the 
benignity of his countenance, and sincere benevolence manifested towards the 
Indians, secured the infant colony from their savage attacks, fro, which other 
colonies suffered unutterable horrors.  During the early years of its history 
the peace element was predominant, though the great prosperity of the city of 
Philadelphia and the colony at large attracted men of all religious beliefs, 
many of whom cared little whether a peace or a war policy prevailed provided it 
insured safety to the State.  Hence the peace party had frequent struggles to 
maintain its ascendancy in later years, the Governor being against it.  Even 
during Penn's lifetime Governors were appointed who were opposed to the 
principles of the Quakers, and strange as it may seem, of all his sons and 
grandsons who, after his death, came

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 38

to  rule in the colony, not one preserved the religion of the founder.  In 
several instances the Governors attempted to coerce the Assembly into their 
policy; but the Quaker party, which controlled in it, had their revenge by 
refusing to vote money to carry on the government, or even for the Governor's 
salary.  Indeed, the withholding of appropriations became their favorite weapon.
  In 1744, war was declared between France and Great Britain, and the wave of 
hostilities soon reached the colonies of the two nations, planted side by side 
in the New World.  The Indians were nominally a neutral party between them, but 
generally inclined to the side which could show the highest and most valuable 
pile of presents, and ready at any time to take up the hatchet upon small 
provocation.  War had no sooner broken out, than like the wild beast, aroused by 
the taste of blood, the Indian became troublesome.  Governor Thomas, then in the 
gubernatorial chair, called out the militia, who came to the number of ten 
thousand men, of one regiment of whom Franklin was made Colonel.  They were 
obliged to arm themselves at their own expense.  The dominant party in the 
Legislature would vote no money except to the Crown of England, to which it 
looked for protection and safety.
  In October, 1748, peace was concluded by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
between France and England; but the peace there declared did not reach the New 
World, the French covertly striving to connect the Mississippi Valley with the 
Canadas, by a chain of forts stretching along the Ohio river, up the Allegheny 
and the Venango, to Le Boeuf, where the French commandant had taken post, and 
was secretly inciting the Indians to hostilities against the English.  The 
policy of Pennsylvania towards the Indians had always been one of conciliation.  
But the mild and peaceful sway of Penn had been gradually obliterated, and in 
place of it had come a system of subsidy, which in time grew to be burdensome.  
Other colonies spent money in large amounts to fight the savages; but 
Pennsylvania employed the means that would have been used in repelling hostile 
attacks in providing for their physical comfort, and the gratification of their 
taste for trinkets and showy apparel.  The Indians had early asked to

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 39

meet the agents of the Government to brighten the chain of friendship, which 
meant that presents would be acceptable to them.  Finding the Government willing 
in that way to purchase peace and amity, they found frequent occasions for 
brightening the chain.  Indeed, the links of that chain must have been composed 
of imperishable stuff, to have endured for the hundred years that it was wrought 
upon.  At a council held at Albany, in 1747, in which Maryland and Virginia were 
induced to join, Pennsylvania alone distributed goods to the amount of one 
thousand pounds.
  When it was finally discovered from the report of Washington, who had been 
sent in the fall of 1753, by Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to remonstrate 
with the French, at Fort Le Boeuf, near Lake Erie, for encroaching upon English 
territory, that the colonies and military forces of that nation were designing 
to take and hold the entire Valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, the 
British Ministry determined to resist.  Prevented now by the proprietary 
instructions from appropriating money, the Assembly resolved to borrow five 
thousand pounds on its own account, for the support of the troops, of whom three 
thousand had been called from Pennsylvania.  General Braddock was sent with two 
regiments of the line from Cork, Ireland, to Alexandria, Virginia, and having 
been joined by the colonial forces and a wagon train secured in Pennsylvania 
through the enterprise of Franklin, moved across the country early in March, 
1755, towards the present site of Pittsburg, where the French, under 
Contrecoeur, had fortified the year before, and were now in forcible possession.  
When arrived within seven miles of that place, Braddock was attacked by the 
French and Indians, who awaited their approach in ambush, and after a sanguinary 
struggle, in which Braddock was killed, and more than three-fourths of his 
officers and half his men were killed or wounded, his command was completely 
routed.  Washington, who accompanied Braddock as an aid, showed the greatest 
coolness and courage, having two horses killed under him, and four bullet holes 
through his coat, but himself escaped unharmed, and brought off the column.
  The frontier now lay all exposed, and the Indians, incited and supported by 
the French, pushed the work of devastation. A

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 40

chain of, forts and block houses was erected and manned along the line of the 
Kittatinny hills, under the direction of Franklin, in January, 1756.  Governor 
Morris, seeing his people powerless, and the work of slaughter going on, 
declared war against them, though in opposition to a vigorous protest from the 
Quakers in the Assembly, who, going among the savages, by mild and inoffensive 
modes, finally won their hearts and induced them to bury the hatchet.  But the 
quiet was only temporary, the English being determined to dispossess the French, 
and the Indians being easily drawn into the conflict.  So aggravating had their 
conduct become, and so sickening their butcheries, that Governor John Penn, son 
of Richard, and grandson of the founder, in July, 1764, was induced to offer the 
following rewards, far removed from the spirit of his revered grandfather, but 
the more excusable from the terrible exigences of the occasion: "For every male 
above the age of ten years, captured, $150; scalped, being killed, $134; for 
every female Indian enemy, and every male under the age of ten years, captured, 
$130; for every female above the age of ten years, scalped, being dead, $50."
  When the Revolution came, in 1775, the pacific influence of the Quakers, as 
well as that of the proprietors, was overborne.  Though some, in their religious 
zeal, adhered to the royalist cause, yet there was as stern. and just a 
patriotism in the breasts of certain members of that Society as of any other in 
the Province; and when the soldiers of Washington, half starved and 
indifferently clad in wintry weather, were shivering upon the plains of Trenton, 
or by the banks of Delaware, it was the hard money of the provident Quakers of 
Philadelphia that brought comfort to those heroic men.  General Mifflin, one of 
the foremost in the patriot army, was a Quaker.  Washington, having been driven 
from Long Island, from Harlem, and from White Plains, retired through New Jersey 
and across the Delaware.  Suddenly recrossing this stream, now at flood tide, 
and filled with floating ice, on the night of the 25th of December, 1776, he 
struck a heavy blow at Trenton, and followed it up at Princeton.  This boldness 
and vigor on the part of the American leader, caused Lord Howe to pursue a 
cautious policy, and put an end to his project of crossing the Delaware and 
occupying Philadelphia.  It also enabled

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 41

Congress which, in expectation of that event, had, on, the 20th of December, 
assembled at Baltimore, to return to Philadelphia.
  On the 11th of September, 1777, Lord Howe, who had gone in transports to the 
mouth of the Delaware with a large army, but who had entered the Chesapeake 
instead, and debarking, had commenced the march across the  country, was met 
upon the Brandywine by Washington, and after a severe battle, which lasted 
nearly the entire day, the Americans were defeated, the youthful Lafayette, who 
had just joined the army, receiving there his first wound.  Nine days after, on 
the 20th, a detachment of the British army, led by General Grey, under cover of 
profound darkness, stole noiselessly upon an encampment of The Americans, under 
General Anthony Wayne, near Paoli, Chester county, and having silenced the 
guards, put the soldiery to the sword.  This is known as the Paoli massacre. On 
the following morning fifty-three of the patriots were buried in one grave, over 
which a neat  marble monument was erected forty years later by the Republican 
Artillerists of Chester county.  Howe now occupied Philadelphia, Congress moving 
first to Lancaster, and subsequently to York, where it passed the winter.  
Washington attacked the enemy's forces at Germantown, on the 3d of October, but 
was too weak to effect his purpose, and withdrew.  Howe settled down in winter 
quarters in a luxurious city, while Washington, at Valley Forge, during a winter 
remarkable for the intensity of its cold, endured all the hardships and 
sufferings which privation in every form could entail.  The fortunate result to 
the American forces under Gates, in September and October, at Saratoga, whereby 
Burgoyne, with his whole army, was forced to lay down his arms and surrender, 
greatly strengthened the hope of the patriots, and induced the French to form an 
alliance with the colonies, which brought a powerful French fleet to American  
waters.  The English Government, discovering that its destination was the mouth 
of the Delaware, dispatched a fast sailing vessel, bearing orders for the 
British army to immediately evacuate Philadelphia, which was accomplished before 
the arrival of the French.
  On the day following the departure of the enemy, a regiment of veterans, under 
General Arnold, entered the city, and the

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 42

Population, who had ,.been driven out, soon returned to their homes. "The damage 
done by, the enemy," says Westcott, "had been as wanton as it was extensive.  
The royal troops found Philadelphia a cleanly and handsome city; they left it 
reeking with filth, ruinous, and desolate."  Congress now came back from York, 
and the State Legislature from Lancaster, where the session of 1777-8 was held, 
and occupied their old quarters in the city.
  Early in July, fiendish tories, with bands of Indians whose ferocity they had 
whetted, under the lead of one John Butler, entered the Wyoming Valley and 
commenced an indiscriminate slaughter.  Most of the young men and the strong 
were absent in the army of Washington; but a small force under Colonel Zebulon 
Butler, a Butler of other blood, composed of boys and aged men, with a few 
veteran soldiers, went out to meet them.  The Indians, under skilful leaders, 
were in superior numbers, and were triumphant, scattering the patriot band, 
which retired to Forty Fort, at Wilkes-Barre, where a stout resistance was made.  
Finally, they agreed to surrender on condition of being assured of safety, and 
at evening the entire company, men, women, and children, who had gathered in for 
miles, departed to their homes in fancied security.  But the shades of night had 
no sooner settled down upon that beautiful valley than the sound of the war-
whoop was heard, and the dusky savages were at their trade of blood.  The 
shrieks of women and children as they were mercilessly slaughtered pierced the 
midnight air, and the lurid flames of burning cottages told that the work of 
devastation was complete.  The few who escaped betook themselves to the 
mountains, and perished miserably of hunger and fatigue.
  After the close of the war, the Quaker element disappeared almost entirely 
from politics, being no longer known as a distinctive party either in the State 
or in the Legislature.  Even during the Revolution, Pennsylvania, with the 
exception of two States, furnished a greater number of men in proportion to its 
enrolled population than any other.  In the war of 1812, the volunteers from 
Pennsylvania swelled the ranks of the army, and were foremost in constructing 
and manning the little fleet upon Lake Erie,

RESUME OF PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY - 43

which, under the gallant Perry, won the most complete victory of the war, and 
enabled him to send forth the message which thrilled the heart of every American 
- "We have met the enemy, and they are ours!"  In the war with Mexico, the 
number of soldiers required of Pennsylvania was promptly supplied, and many who 
sought a place in the ranks of the departing regiments were denied. 
  Such has been the martial character and attitude of Pennsylvania, in the 
perilous days of the Republic; and yet no people are more ready, yea anxious, to 
return to peaceful pursuits, and the ordinary avocations of life.  The teachings 
of the founder have not been lost upon the men who have come to occupy the land 
he gave to freedom, the land he loved so well, thought and labored for so 
earnestly, and for which he so devoutly prayed.  They have at times been slow to 
move; but, like the giant, when aroused, making mighty strides.  Though the 
State is traversed by immense mountain chains, which, like the vast billows of 
the sea, seem interminable, and by rugged rolling lands reaching out beyond, 
apparently locking the east from the west by any system of artificial water or 
rail communication, yet by the skill of her engineers, the faith of her 
capitalists, and the patient toil of her denizens, the canal has ploughed its 
way to her remotest bounds, and the locomotive has scaled even the summits of 
the Alleghenies.  Trunk lines of railway, the equal if not the superior of any 
in the land, extend from east to west, from north to south.  For coal and iron 
the whole country is tributary to her, and the products of her soil are 
unsurpassed.  Nor are her energies confined to the development of her material 
resources.  Of her native born population of the present generation, few are 
unable to read or write, and her system of public instruction is universally 
acknowledged to possess unexampled vitality and power.  The erudition of her 
bench, the purity of her pulpit, the elegance and refinement of her cultivated 
classes, and the social relations of her people throughout all her border, will 
compare favorably with an equal population selected in any part of the civilized 
world.