The Frontier Policy of Pennsylvania

Chapter I. Indian Policy

1682-1800.

William Penn's ideas of justice and humanity permitted but one Indian policy. His natural benevolence and the principles of his sect demanded a just and friendly treatment. Before leaving England he forwarded to those Indians dwelling in his province a letter expressing his friendly attitude toward them and his hope that he and they would always live together as neighbors and friends. He instructed his commissioners to be careful not to offend them, to court their good will, and let them know that the Christians had come to settle among them on terms of friendship. (1)

The Quaker's treatment of the Indians was always characterized by fairness and honor. In Pennsylvania alone could an Indian get satisfaction from a white man, for here only was the testimony of an Indian accepted against a white. In matters of trade the provincial government tried faithfully to guard the Indian against exploitation by the white man. In treaties, for the first fifty years at least, only open and honorable means were used to gain a point. And not only abstract justice, but friendly and kindly intercourse were encouraged. Penn learned their language in order that he might be able to converse with them more freely, and later sent his son to dwell among them that he might understand their language and customs. (2) The relationship between the Indians and the Quakers was, therefore, most cordial and friendly. Penn himself was a frequent visitor among them, partaking of their venison, hominy, and roasted acorns; and to their great delight, participating in their athletic exercises. The Indians responded at once to this treatment ; and the early settlers found them

(1) Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, II, Part I,

218, Perm's Instructions to his Commissioners to settle the Province: "Be tender of offending the Indians, and hearken by honest Spyes, if you can hear yt any body inveigles ye Indians not to sell, or to stand off, and raise the value upon you. You cannot want those yt will inform you, but to soften them to mee and the people, lett them know yt you are come to sit down Lovingly among them."

(2) Franklin, Benjamin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 97.

ever ready to provide food, assistance, or protection if it lay within their power. Former intercourse had taught them somewhat of the white man's injustice and insatiable desire for land, but they were still in a frame of mind to appreciate fair treatment and to return it in kind.

Penn attempted to carry his ideas of equality into the court room. The white man and the Indian were given the same legal standing and by written agreement between them were to be punished by the same laws.(l) If an Indian wronged a white man, the plaintiff was not allowed to take the law into his own hands. He must appeal to the nearest magistrate, who would then take up the affair with the chief of the Indian who had committed the wrong. If satisfaction was not obtained, proceedings were instituted against the Indian in the same manner as in the case of a white offender. If a white man wronged an Indian, he incurred the same penalty that was inflicted upon those who wronged a Christian. In such cases the Indian chief would complain to the governor. If investigation seemed to warrant it, the culprit was tried ; and if found guilty, punished.

An attempt was made to have cases which involved both races tried by juries of six whites and six Indians, (2) but this was found impracticable and soon abandoned. A case was tried in the county in which the crime was committed, but in 1744 it was provided that all Indians accused of capital crimes committed within the province in places distant from the inhabitants should thereafter be tried in the County of Philadelphia before the justices of the supreme court or of the courts of Oyer and Terminer, and the expenses to be paid by the province as a whole and not by any particular county. These plans on the whole worked very satisfactorily, but neither whites nor Indians were always scrupulous about observing them. They were often inclined to take the law into their own hands, thus causing complications during which border warfare sometimes seemed certain.

The Quakers also aimed, as far as possible, to preserve peace between the various tribes. About 1719 a disagreement occurred between the northern and southern Indians.

(1) Myers, A. C, Narratives of early Pennsylvania, 276, reprint-

ing Penn's Further Account: "If any of them break our laws they submit to be punished by them, and to this they have tyed themselves by an obligation under their hands."

(2) Ibid, 236, reprinting Penn's Letter to the Free Society of

Traders "We have agreed in all differences between us six of each side shall end the matter: Don't abuse them but let them have justice and you win them."

The governor, in order to prevent evil consequences, went to Virginia where he arranged terms of settlement with the governor of that colony. After he returned, he held a treaty with several Indian tribes and prevailed upon them to accept the compromise. The Pennsylvania Indians were not to hunt in the mountains south of the Potomac and the southern Indians were not to come north of that river. (1)

Many treaties were made with the Indians during the early period of Pennsylvania's history. Any one who glances through the Colonial Records will see what a great percentage of time must have been given up to Indian affairs. Penn himself is said to have made treaties personally with nineteen different tribes. The most of these were confirmations of friendship or treaties for the purchase of land. At times, however, they involved the regulation of trade and intercourse or even the question of frontier defense.

A treaty of this latter type was that made with the Susquehanna Indians in 1701. (2) According to its terms neither side was to do the other any wrong or injury. Indians who came into the neighborhood of the white settlements were to behave themselves regularly according to the laws of the Christians. The Indians were not to aid or abet the enemies of the whites or believe any evil rumors concerning them, but report the same to the governor. They were not to allow any strange Indians to settle on the west side of the Susquehanna or about the Potomac without the governor's permission. All traders were to be approved and licensed by the government. The Indians were to deal with Pennsylvania traders only.

Until 1722 Indian expenses were inconsiderable, being limited to fifty pounds a year. (3) Great caution was always exercised in allowing more. In this year, however, a bill for 230 pounds was allowed to defray the expenses of Governor Keith's journey to Albany and the cost of the presents made to the Indians at that time. (4) From 1722 to 1727 no Indian expenses were paid from the provincial treasury. But in this latter year the assembly contested a bill for seventy pounds, one half of which was finally paid by the public and the remainder by the proprietors. (5) In 1728 the assembly requested Governor Gordon to hold a treaty with the Indians, the costs of which they promised

(1) Proud. Robert, History of Pennsylvania, II, 198, 131.

(2) Pennsylvania Archives, 1st series, I, 144.

(3) Pennsylvania Statutes at Large, II, 230.

(4) Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the

Province of Pennsylvania, IV, 194.

S The Frontier Policy of Pennsylvania to pay. After this, expenses mounted rapidly higher and higher until in 1750 over one thousand pounds per year were being expended in this manner. (1)

As soon as Indian expenses became appreciable, a quarrel began between the assembly and the proprietors concerning their payment. The assembly argued that all former grants for this purpose had been considered as free gifts of the people and that they did not commit the government to a continuation of the policy. As long as treaties had been made primarily for the maintenance of friendly intercourse, no objections had been raised; but now it was becoming apparent that they were only the forerunners of land purchases, and for this reason the assembly maintained that the proprietors should bear a share of the expense. (2) The Penns objected on the grounds that they were already bearing their fair share of Indian expenses in other ways, such as paying interpreters and making purchases of land from which the inhabitants derived great benefit. They considered that they were no more obliged to contribute to the public treasury than the governors of other colonies. (3) The assembly, however, still argued that as the Penns were absolute proprietors of the soil, they should at least bear the expenses of treaties for the purchase of lands. Those for the maintenance of friendship might still be held at the expense of the public. But treaties of friendship and those of purchase were so inextricably bound together that it was found impossible to draw a dividing line between them. The assembly then resolved that the surest way out of the difficulty would be to request the proprietors to agree upon a certain proportion of all treaty expenses which would be assumed by them. (4) The contest had not yet been decided

(2) Franklin, Review, 82. "But when it appeared, as in Course of

Time was unavoidable, that a Treaty and a Purchase went on together; that the former was a Shoeing Horn for the latter, that the Governor only made the compliments, and the Assembly the Presents, & it couid not but appear also, that there must be somewhat unfair in a Procedure where one paid all the cost, and the other engrossed all the Profit: and that it was high Time to put some Stop to a Practice so injurious to their Understandings."

(4) Votes of Assembly, IV, 104. Resolve of Assembly: "That the

Proprietaries Interests are so constantly intermixt with those of the Province in all Treaties with our Indian Allies, that we apprehend the surest Way to prevent Dissatisfactions on all Sides, will be to request the Proprietaries — (to agree upon a proportionate part to be paid by them) — as in justice they ought to do."

when the outbreak of the French and Indian War brought it to a close.

The chief objective of the Quaker's Indian policy was the maintenance of friendship. To this end his energy and his money were freely expended; for as long as the good will of the Indians could be retained, the frontier difficulties which vexed the other colonies would be greatly lessened, if not entirely avoided. It was, in his estimation, much better to prevent than to cure. The attitude of the assembly is briefly stated in one of their arguments against the acceptance of the proprietary proposal to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio River. "We have," they say, "seriously considered the offer made by our proprietaries toward building such a House ; but as we have always found that sincere, upright Dealing with the Indians, a friendly Treatment of them on all occasions and particularly in relieving their necessities at proper Times by suitable Presents, have been the best means of securing their Friendship, we could wish our Proprietaries had rather though fit to join with us in the Expense of those presents, the Effects of which have at all Times so manifestly advanced their Interest with the security of our frontier Settlements." (1)

As is shown by this extract, the making of presents was the method in which the greatest faith was placed. It was this that caused the great increase in Indian expenses during the restless years from 1730 to 1750. As the Indians were found to be slipping away from the English interest, the number and value of the presents were gradually increased in a vain attempt to hold them true. It was for the purpose of carrying such a present that Conrad Weiser made his journey to the Ohio in 1748. In the following year George Croghan was sent with a small gift to the Twightwees, in company with Alexander Montour, the interpreter. On their way they met Christopher Gist who had been sent by the governor of Virginia to summon the Indians to meet at Logstown the next spring, to receive a present from the king. (2) This, then, was the customary method of bidding for the Indian's favor.

While Croghan was at the Twightwee town delivering the present and the governor's message, several chiefs of the tribes living on the Wabash River appeared and asked to be admitted into the chain of friendship with the English and the Iroquois. Croghan, considering that such an alliance would be of great advantage to the colony and extend

(1) Colonial Records, V, 547.

(2) O'callaghan, E. B., New York Colonial Documents, VII. 628.

the English interest among the Indians, granted the request ; concluded treaties of friendship with them ; and made each a small present. But on his return the assembly, with their usual jealousy of any attempt to anticipate in any way their action in money matters, repudiated his action and condemned him for bringing an additional expense upon the government. They seemed to lack entirely any appreciation of the situation into which the province was rapidly plunging, for at this most critical point they refused to extend their interest by the very policy which they considered most effective in gaining and holding the Indian's friendship.

Presents were also made at times to console them for losses which they had suffered in the English interest, such as the death of several Twightwee warriors in defending some English traders against the French. Money was also raised sometimes to placate them when they had become incensed on account of injuries. This was done in 1768 after the murder of ten Indians by a frontier settler named Frederick Stump. (1)

Private satisfaction was made to them in the same way. In 1794 a young man named Robertson killed an Indian in Western Pennsylvania by striking him with a club. The father of the murderer sent an agent to deal with the Indians. When the latter appeared, all the Indians of the neighborhood collected about him. His offer of about one hundred dollars to pay for the man who had been killed was considered highly satisfactory, and some of the Indians even seemed disappointed that is was not their relative who had been killed, as they were missing a share of so large an indemnity. (2)

Considerable sums, too, were paid at various times to provide for the wants of friendly Indians, particularly when these wants had arisen on account of their attitude toward the English. In 1755, for example, five thousand pounds were voted by the assembly to be expended by seven commissioners for the relief and supplying of settlers and friendly Indians who had been driven from their homes by attacks upon the frontier. (3)

Assistance against their enemies was never held out as an enticement for the Indians to ally themselves with the provincial government. Such would have been inconsistent with the Quaker's principles. But during the French and Indian War it was found necessary to erect houses at Wy-

(1) Pa. Arch., 4th ser., Ill, 380.

oming for the reception and protection of the Indian allies of the province. (1)

Fair, open, and honest dealing was also considered an excellent means of holding the affection and adherence of the Indians; but the working of this policy was greatly hindered, or we may say almost entirely prevented, by the action of the white traders who refused to be bound by governmental regulations. (2) When once they had gone into the woods where supervision was practicably impossible, their dealing with the Indians was often far from fair and honest.

Agents who understood the Indians' character and whose personal influence was strong were sent to deal with them. The most prominent among these was Conrad Weiser, a German, who had migrated with his father to New York when he was fourteen years of age. Here they lived for four years on the Livingston Manor, then removed to Scholarie where Conrad became acquainted with the Mohawks, was adopted into their tribe, and lived among them for a number of years. In 1729 he joined a group of Germans who were migrating from New York to Pennsylvania by way of the Susquehanna River. (3) With his wife and five children he settled in what was then Lancaster County about a mile east of the present site of Womelsdorf, and soon became an important personage among his countrymen who had settled in this vicinity. He was first employed as an interpreter about two years after his arrival and allotted forty shillings for his services. He acted thereafter as official interpreter and the government's most trusted agent in Indian affairs.

Second to Weiser only, and not second even to him among the western Indians, was George Croghan. He was born in Ireland and educated at Dublin, but at an early age migrated to Pennsylvania and settled on the west bank of the Susquehanna, (4) nearly opposite Harris's Ferry, in the township of Pennsboro which was at that time upon the frontier of the province. His love of travel and adventure soon attracted him to the Indian trade in which he appeared as far west as Sandusky, Ohio, in 1746. (5) He gained great influence

(1) Pa. Arch., 4th ser., II, 929. Governor Denny to Assembly:

"Teedyuscung has renewed his Request to have the Houses finished at Wyoming, for which this Government stands engaged."

(3) Thwaites, Ruben Gold, Early Western Travels, I, 17.

with the western Indians and won to an English alliance many of the wavering French adherents. He soon attracted the attention of Conrad Weiser by whom he was recommended to the government. Thus he was introduced into the public service in which he continued for the remaining active years of his life.

Such was the Quaker plan for securing peace upon the frontier. For fifty years it was successful but not much longer. The question now arises as to why it failed. The various answers which have been given will be discussed later. But it may be well to observe at this point that had all these plans been followed ever so closely, the general policy was still doomed to ultimate failure. It was only while whites were few and land was plenty that it could succeed. When the Indian once saw that he was being gradually driven out of the province, no presents however extensive, no treatment however kind, no agent however adept could make him content. When once he saw how affairs were tending, he was bound to resist.

About 1735 a definite change took place in the Indian policy of the provincial government. More and more attention was thereafter given to the Six Nations because they were becoming a very important ally against the growing power of the French. The Delawares and Shawanese, who were now living upon the Ohio, were ignored. They were no longer welcome at Philadelphia and attempts were even made to stop their coming. (1) Their masters, the Six Nations, were called in to drive them from the lands claimed by virtue of the notorious Walking Purchase. Such treatment, so very different from that which they had formerly received, was a great blow to their pride, and they treasured it up in their memories as one more score to be avenged. The English and the Indians were thus drifting rapidly apart; friendship was being superceded by hatred.

The English were unlucky in the fact that at the point where contact was most frequent the worst characters among them appeared. (2) The trader who went among the Indians was not a fair representative of the white settlers.

(1) Hazard, Samuel, Register of Pennsylvania, IV, 205.

(2) Thompson, Charles, An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alien-

ation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest, 56. "It would be too shocking to describe the Conduct and Behavior of the Traders, when among: the Indians, and endless to enumerate the Abuses the Indians had received and born from them for a Series of Years. Suffice it to say, that several of the Tribes were at last weary of bearing."

He was inclined to be restless, shiftless, and dissolute. He cheated consistently, he sometimes murdered tha warriors and often debauched their wives. Yet it was from him that the Indian formed his estimate of the white man's character.

The conduct of the frontiersman, too, was often not above reproach. He was inclined to look upon the Indian as little more than an animal to be shot down with as little impunity as any other denizen of the forest. Many an innocent red man fell a victim of these white savacas. One of the most notorious cases was the murder by Frederick Stump of ten Indians in January, 1768. Six of these, four men and two women, came to his house drunk and disorderly on the tenth of the month. Fearing that they world do hin some harm he killed them all and concealed their bodies beneath the ice of the creek near the house. Then afraid that news might be carried to the other Indians, he went the next day to some cabins about fourteen miles from his home; killed the woman, two girls, and a child whom he found there ; put their bodies into the cabins; and set tLem afire. (1) The murderer with his servant, John Ironcutter, was detected, arrested, and confined in the jail at Carlisle. But on January 29, about two o'clock in the morning, a mob of seventy or eighty armed men broke into the jail and carried them away in triumph. (2)

Such was the frontiersman's viewpoint. (3) He painted Indian character in the blackest and most baleful shades in order the more easily to justify the wrongs that were commonly done them. It was always difficult to bring a defendant to justice on account of the difficulty of proving the crime as well as on account of the assistance that was invariably given him, whenever it was possible, by his friends and neighbors.

But while there was this negative power repelling the Indians from the English, there was also a positive power drawing them to the French. When the latter first appeared upon the American continent, they had gained the enmity of the Iroquois by espousing the cause of their enemies. The French tried in vain to subdue them. When the English appeared, the Five Nations were, therefore, their natural allies. The Indians invited them to aid in destroying the infant colony of Canada while it was a comparatively easy task, but the English turned to them a deaf ear. The French, finding at last that the Iroquois could not be subdued, changed their tactics and attempted to gain by kindness and favors what they had failed to win by force. In this they were more successful. (1) Able agents were employed whose zeal was so much superior to that of the English agents and commissioners that the latter were held in almost universal contempt. The Indians gradually withdrew from the English interest on account of the unfavorable view which they The French, too, seemed to be more able to attract and hold were beginning to form of English integrity and ability, their good will. They entered more easily into their manner of living, married squaws, and became veritable savages. The Indians looked upon them as more nearly akin to themselves, and put more trust in them than in any other Europeans. (2)

"The English," says a contemporary pamphleteer, "in order to get their lands, drive them as far from them as possible, nor seem to care what becomes of them, provided they can get them removed out of the way of their permanent Settlements ; whereas the French, considering that they can never want land in America, who enjoy the Friendship of the Indians, use all the Means in their Power to draw as many into their alliance as possible ; and, to secure their affection, invite as many as can to come and live near them, and to make their Towns as near the French settlements as they can." (3)

About 1728, or possibly earlier, they began their attempts to dissuade the Delawares and Shawanese from their friendship for the English. The latter tried to frustrate the tempters by persuading the Shawanese to move eastward from the Ohio and by excluding French agents from western Pennsylvania. But all efforts were fruitless. A Frenchman came every spring to trade with the Allegheny Indians, and particularly with the Shawanese. The Governor of Canada sent a blacksmith to work for them free of charge, (4) which pleased them so highly that on his de-

(1) Parkman, Francis, Conspiracy of Pontiac, III, Appendix A2,

Cadwaliader Colden to the Earl of Halifax: "After the peace of Utrecht, the French changed their measures. They took every method in their power to gain the Friendship of the Five Nations, and succeeded so well with the Senecas, who are by far the most numerous, and at the greatest distance from us, that they were entirely brought over to the French interest. The French obtained the consent of the Senecas to the building of the Fort at Niagara, situated in their country."

(2) Zeisberger, David, History of the North American Indians, 122.

(3) Thompson, Causes of Alienation, 48.

parture they made him a present of skins to the value of ten pounds.

Before the French and Indian War many Indians were inclined to look upon the English as a counterpoise to the power of the French and therefore remained their steady friends. But after the reduction of Canada they began to look upon them in an entirely different light. (1) The English now held the forts which controlled the Great Lakes and the rivers communicating with them. The Indians looked with jealousy upon these for they imagined that they could see in every little garrison the germ of a future colony which foretold only too clearly the day of their own expulsion.

The most fundamental cause — the cause that would inevitably have brought on a struggle had all others been absent— was, therefore, the usurpation by the whites of the Indians' land. The assembly laid the whole blame at the door of the proprietors. "The Causes of the Present Indian Incursions on the Province/' they say in 1757, "have arisen, in a great Measure, from the exorbitant purchases made, or supposed to be made, of the Indians." (2) They were especially dissatisfied with the Albany Purchase of 1754. In fact it was considered fraudulent throughout, and was practically recognized as such by the proprietors in redeeding the tract to the Indians. The Walking Purchase, although of a date somewhat remote, doubtless still lingered in the Indian's mind and helped to swell the general impression of English rapacity. The vast grant of land by the king to the Ohio Company also fostered discontent as did the frequent settlement of squatters upon lands which had not yet been released. The real cause, however, cannot be found in any individual purchase or specific event, but only in the steady, irresistable progress of the whites. After all the lesser causes of irritation have been brushed aside, we must look upon the Indian wars as an inevitable struggle between an inferior race in possession of the soil and a superior race which was gradually usurping it.

Turning from the political and military aspects of the Indian policy, I shall now review the various attempts to

(1) N. Y. Col. Docs., VII, 603~ George Croghan to the Board of

Trade: "The Indians before the late war, or the conquest of Quebeck considered us in the light of a Counterpoise to the power of the French, their ancient Enemies, and were steady Friends to the English on that account; but since the reduction of Canada, they consider us in a very different and less favorable light — ."

convert them to the principles of civilization and Christianity. To do this was usually set forth as one of the chief objects of colonization ; but in most cases it was acted upon, if at all, in a very dilatory manner. In Pennsylvania, however, considerable effort was made, particularly by the Quakers and Moravians, to convert and civilize them.

The missionary was compelled to work under great difficulties. The Indians, as any other race, were closely attached to their own traditions and not inclined to embrace a new belief which they were unable to comprehend. (1) The white man, too, it was observed, did not live according to the teachings of his own doctrine. He was very willing to take advantage of the Indian in trade, and sometimes committed crimes of a more heinous nature. The missionary was also at times obliged to work through the unsatisfactory means of an interpreter. It was only he who spent a considerable time with the Indians who was able to gain a working knowledge of their language.

The Indian believed in a Supreme Being or Great Spirit who had created Earth, man, and all things about him. This belief had been handed down from generation to generation. Penn liked to assume that it could be traced back to the Lost Tribes of Israel from whom he conceived that they had descended. They did not presume to know the dwelling place of their god or attempt to solve his mysteries. But somewhere in the indefinite future, they held, lay the happy hunting ground where the warrior who had lived a virtuous life and refrained from theft, murder, and immorality would ultimately take up his abode; where game was plenty and the hunter never knew fatigue; where he would live a life of superfluity, joy, and dancing.