nary, and indispensable to any adjustment. The cold sarcasm of Jenkins in reply, as well as in a subsequent letter, will not fail to arrest attention.

Reply to the Commissioners, from the Committee of Settlers :

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GENTLEMEN,-It is with pleasure we observe in yours of the 19th, your readiness to attend to every piece of necessary information we shall be able to give in respect to our settlement in this place. How far the State can or will, by virtue of any ex-post facto law, undertake to deprive any of the citizens of this State of any part of their property legally obtained by any of the claimants under their different claims, we shall not undertake to say or determine, as we suppose, that in general, Common law is to determine in such cases. Yet we are happy to hear that this State is willing to do every thing in their power to promote the peace and happiness of her citizens.

"We take notice that if our peaceable demeanor and ready submission to Government, render us proper objects of clemency and generosity, we may probably expect to be made the happy partakers of such generous gratuities, as they in their abundant goodness shall be pleased to bestow; whilst our necessitous circumstances oblige us to wait the happy period, and if received will no doubt deserve our sincere and hearty thanks. As to our peaceable demeanor, and ready submission to Government, our petition now before the Honorable the Legislature of this State, suggests to them, that we are under their jurisdiction and protection, from which we have no disposition to recede. However, would request to have a tender regard paid to the new and extraordinary circumstances in which we stand with regard to law matters. We have made continuance of our actions commenced, with a view to have them taken up under the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, agreeable to our aforesaid petition, and have neglected to pay any attention to the appointment of representatives or government officers, under the Connecticut jurisdiction, which facts evidence our intentions better than protestations.

"With regard to the next requisition, the calamities of war have so put it out of our power to give you that concise account we could wish at present, as most of our papers and records were thereby destroyed. But the Susquehanna purchase was made in the year 1754, at the treaty at Albany, as set forth in their petition, by upwards of fourteen hundred adventurers, who were joint tenants in common, one with another; and in 1755, said proprietors proceeded to locate

and survey the Susquehanna river, taking the latitude, etc. That in the year 1762, one hundred and nineteen of the aforesaid proprietors were here to possess themselves of the said lands in behalf of themselves and fellows, of which number John Jenkins, William Buck, etc., are contained in a list herewith exhibited, marked No. 1. In October, 1763, we were dispossessed by the savages with the loss of many lives, and much property. In the beginning of the year 1769, we again resumed our possessions and improvements, which we had made before with great labour and expense, with the number of about four hundred, being partly of the aforesaid one hundred and nineteen, or their representatives, whose names, according to our best recollection, are herewith annexed, and marked No. 2. A line being in the meantime settled with the natives, we proceeded to lay out our lands agreeable to our former surveys, into a large number of towns, up and down the river Susquehanna, nearly across the whole latitude of forty-two, of five miles square, and proceeded to part them out to the inhabitants, according to the number of inhabitants each town or district was to contain; in lots of between three and four hundred acres to a man, since which, said lands have been divided and subdivided, according to the agreement of the settlers of each town or district, a particular detail of which we are not able to give, without having recourse to our records and papers, which we are at present deprived of, and from that until the year 1776, our numbers were increasing, at which time we were required by the State to number the inhabitants of this place, which, according to our best recollection, amounted to upwards of six thousand souls, so that at the time Independence was declared, we had got to be very numerous, and were still increasing until the fatal third day of July, 1778, when great numbers of our friends and most valuable inhabitants were slain by the savages and those of a more savage nature, and their whole country laid waste, our houses and buildings consumed by fire, our household goods and large stock of cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, with our farming and other utensils, destroyed and carried off by the enemy, and we in a most savage and inhuman manner drove out into the country, in a state of desperation and distress. A scene which must astonish all human nature to describe, and we are not able to paint it. Our old men, women, widows and children, were dispersed into all parts of the country, destitute of bread, clothing, or any thing to subsist on. But a large number of the yet remaining and living inhabitants being fired with a fervent zeal for the cause of their country, were determined, instead of throwing them

selves on the clemency of their friends and fellow-citizens of the world, to surmount all danger, collected themselves together, and on or about the fourth day of August then next, resolved with the assistance of the company of brave continental troops raised here, and then commanded by Captain Simon Spalding, came into this place, retook the country, drove off the savages, regained some trifling part of our effects and the possession of our lands, being our all; since which we have, by many hard and hazardous skirmishes, attended with the loss of many lives, and a considerable of the effects acquired by our industry, held the same to this time, which has afforded great comfort to the widow and fatherless children, the destitute and naked, not only to those at present improving here, but by the people who improve here paying rent for the lands that belong to the widow and fatherless, that are dispersed into the wide world, they are greatly relieved and comforted. The most, or all of this has been done at our expense and charge, and been a safeguard to the frontiers of our good neighbours and friends, with whom we wish to live in peace.

April 20, 1783.

Signed in behalf of the Committee,

JOSEPH MONTGOMERY, Chairman.

JOHN JENKINS, Chairman.

N. B. We herewith transmit a list of the names of part of the first settlers in 1762 and 63, as far as we can at present recollect. Also a list of the widows and orphans."

Letter from the State Commissioners to the Committee of Settlers.

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GENTLEMEN,-We herewith transmit you a copy of an address of the committee representing the landholders under this State, handed to us this morning, containing terms on which they declare themselves willing to compromise the dispute now unhappily subsisting between you and them, and which it is our duty to endeavour to have adjusted, and settled in an amicable manner.

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Therefore, we wish you, with all calmness and despatch, to consider of, and duly weigh the said proposals, and to furnish us with a clear and explicit answer to the same, which will enable us to transact the business committed to us by the General Assembly, with more precision, and to take such measures as may effectually answer the ends of our mission. We have only further to add, that should we be so happy as to find that these terms are agreed to, and ratified by the contending parties, we shall think it our duty to

recommend your distressed situation to the notice of the Legislature

of this State.

"We have the honour to be, Gentlemen,

Your most obedient and humble servants.
JOSEPH MONTGOMERY, Chairman.

The Committee representing the Settlers.

Wyoming, April 22nd, 1783.”

There would seem to be no question but the terms proposed met the entire approbation of the Commissioners.

"Address from the Committee of Pennsylvania Landholders, to the State Commissioners with their proposals of compromise.

“GENTLEMEN,—The committee are honored with your answer to their address. The assurance you are pleased to give them of attention to the rights of the citizens of this State calls for their grateful acknowledgments, and so perfectly harmonizes with the sentiments of the committee, that we are instructed to commit ourselves wholly to your direction in future, and in doing this we are confident that our rights are in the hands of those who will have a watchful eye over them.

We are sorry to observe so much of the old leaven remaining in the sentiments of the people of Connecticut, and expressed in their last conference before your honours. Their humanity would, it seems, permit us and our associates to go any where over the wide world, no matter where, provided they may enjoy our lands; they cannot conveniently spare us one foot for the support of our families. We think this an ungrateful return to the good people of the State, and far short of the expectations of the Legislature, whose humanity and pity alone proposed to consign to oblivion all past offences, by a law for that purpose, and where wisdom pointed out the only way of information to the House of Assembly, of the real disposition of the contending parties.

"We beg leave only to suggest to your honours that we have reason to think the obedience to laws of this State by many of those people, will not be durable, unless such pledges are taken by your honours, as cannot admit of any evasion or denial hereafter. If that assurance be once given, and the pretended claims under Connecticut relinquished in writing, publicly, plainly, and unequivocally, we wish afterwards to give them every indulgence that your honours may judge generous in us, and worthy the approbation of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and all the world.

"We propose to give leases with covenants of warranty for holding their possessions one year from the first day of April inst.; at the end of which they shall deliver up full possession of the whole, they shall have liberty to occupy half the lands, one half the meadows; dwell in the houses they now possess, and cultivate their present gardens, and if they have any opportunities of disposing of their hutts, barns, or other buildings, they shall have liberty to do it, and to remove them off at any time between the present day and the first day of April next, 1784, and the other moiety or half of the cleared lands and meadows to be possessed by us and our associates, and no impediment to have in our way to enjoy them. The Rev. Mr. Johnson to have the full use of all the grounds he formerly held, for two years, ending the first of April, 1785. The widows of all those whose husbands were killed by the savages, to have a further indulgence of a year after the first of April, 1784, for half their possessions, and a square in the town to be set apart for their use, to which they may remove their houses, and at the end of the term, sell them to the best advantage for their own use.

"We think a refusal of these terms hardly possible; But if stubbornness and disaffection to the laws of this State, are yet to continue, we trust your honours will be convinced that on our parts we have not in view merely our own private interests, but that our offers will appear just and equitable before God and men.

With every sentiment of respect,

Sir, your most obedient and humble servant,

Wyoming, April 22nd, 1783.

ALEXANDER PATTERSON, Chairman.

Signed in behalf of the Committee.

To the honourable Joseph Montgomery, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners."

A true Copy. Attested,-MOSES MCCLAIN, Clerk.” The conditions of compromise then, offered the Wyoming people, were these:

1st. Pledges to be given, such as could not admit of denial or cvasion, for their obedience.

2d. A disclaimer in writing, publicly, plainly, and unequivocally given, of all claims to their lands held under title from Connecticut. Then follow the merciful terms.

3d. The settler to take a lease of half his farm for about eleven months, giving up possession at once of the other half. On the first of April following to abandon claims, home, possession, to his adver

sary.